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Are the tenses in this sentence correct?

Oggi ho visto la mia amica Amanda che non vedevo da molto tempo.

Would this version be better?

Oggi ho visto la mia amica Amanda che non avevo visto da molto tempo.

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    The first sentence is ok. The second one sounds too English: a native wouldn't use it, but nonetheless everyone would understand you anyway. If the person you're talking to knows Amanda, or if s(he) knows that you have a friend called Amanda, it would be more natural to say "Oggi ho visto Amanda... non la vedevo da un sacco (di tempo)"
    – Bob
    Jul 10, 2022 at 12:56

1 Answer 1

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The first one is correct.

The second one is a little wrong and could be corrected to: “Oggi ho visto la mia amica Amanda che non ho visto per molto tempo”.

Hope this helps,

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    The correction is worse than the original. “...che non ho visto per molto tempo” sounds like a loan translation from analogous English expressions. In English you say “I have done XXX for a long time”; in Italian you don't say “ho fatto XXX per molto tempo”, you say “faccio XXX da molto tempo”.
    – DaG
    Jul 4, 2022 at 12:23

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