I agree with Mike

> ----------
> From:         MIKE MEDLEY[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> Sent:         Friday, July 16, 1999 2:12 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: about "ago", "before" & "previously"
>
>         "Dick Veit, UNCW English Dept." wrote:
>
> > For example, if I were to say today, "In 1990, I met the
> > person who won the Nobel Prize twenty years ago," it means the person
> won
> > the
> > prize in 1979.  If I were to say "In 1990, I met the person who won the
> > Nobel Prize twenty years previously," it means the person won the prize
> > in
> > 1970.
>
> To make the latter sentence clearer, would it not be better to shift
> tense in the relative clause?  "...who had won the Nobel Prize
> twenty years previously."  Without the tense shift, I have a hard
> time distinguishing the difference in meaning between the two
> sentences.
>
> Note, however, that the original sentence in Dawei's query does
> not include an adverbial of time (like "In 1990") to give a frame of
> reference by which to measure the time mentioned in the relative
> clause, as your examples do.  In the original, without that additional
> time adverbial, "ago" seems like the most natural choice.
>
>
>
> **********************************************************************
> R. Michael Medley       VPH 211                Ph: (712) 737-7047
> Assistant Professor     Northwestern College
> Department of English   Orange City, IA  51041
> **********************************************************************
>