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Admit having / admit

Posted by R. Berg on August 13, 2003

In Reply to: Admit having / admit posted by ESC on August 13, 2003

: : I am teaching English in Japan.
: : A thing I do not understand is:

: : What is the difference between the two sentences
: :
: : (A) I admitted playing tennis with her.

: : (B) I admitted having played tennis with her.

: : Both A and B mean "In the past I played tennis with her"

: : Does (A) always mean "Sometime in the past a
: : I played tennis with her."?

: : Does (B) always mean "Continusly I have been playing tennis with her."?

: : Thanks in advance.

: My opinion is that the sentences mean the same thing. (I admitted that I played tennis with her.) I don't see an element of "continuously" in either. But please wait for comments from others who have a stronger grasp on sentence structure.

I agree that the two sentences are interchangeable in most situations. The following two sentences are not interchangeable:

"The driver, questioned at the time of the accident, admitted to being drunk."

"The driver, questioned at the time of the accident, admitted to having been drunk once or twice in the past year."

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