Past simple sentence

Question

I've just read the next sentences:

'I wanted to see her again', John said.

'And you did, you did see her again', Jennifer said.

Why not say "you saw her again"?

At times, we use these verbs to emphasize or highlight. It's just that case! — Maulik V, Nov 27 '15 at 06:39
Aside from emphasis, people have different writing styles, i.e., choice of words, structure, etc. (Writing style - the manner in which an author chooses to write to his or her readers.) — shin, Nov 27 '15 at 06:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 27 '15 at 06:58

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In this case the change is from an imperfect tense to a perfect tense - which emphasises that the seeing happened and was over. In context, it implies a greater degree of finality than (the grammatically correct) alternative, "you saw her again".

answered Nov 27 '15 at 06:58

Euan M

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Sorry, what is an imperfect tense in English? – Lucian Sava Nov 27 '15 at 07:01
It is just an *emphatic do* usage. – Nov 27 '15 at 07:12
There are several, the simplest is the past imperfect. more commonly known now as the past continuous now, apparently. (That change has snuck up me). – Euan M Nov 27 '15 at 08:49
Yes, indeed. The past continuous looks like the imperfect in my language and in the other Latin (Romance) languages. – Lucian Sava Nov 27 '15 at 10:07

Past simple sentence

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