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This is a grammar question on jtest4you grammar exercise 26. The answer choices are

A. 見ないこと

B. 見なかったこと

C. 見ないもの

D. 見なかったもの

I chose A but the answer is B. Both sounded correct to me. I do not understand why A is not grammatical. After a short amount of unsuccessful searching for past or present tense + ことにしよう I threw the correct answer into Google Translate and got, “Let’s pretend we didn’t see what was inside the box,” while for answer A I got, “Let’s not look at the contents of the box.” What is the problem with answer A?

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    There's nothing wrong with A. It just means a different thing from B.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented May 28 at 2:41
  • Do you think both A and B are grammatical, then? I would like to understand why the answer key lists B (but not A).
    – satogaeru
    Commented May 28 at 2:56
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    Without context, there is no reason to think one is more correct than the other.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented May 28 at 3:04

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Assuming there is no further context, both A and B are completely correct, making this question inappropriate. Sentence A can be used before looking inside the box, and Sentence B is used after doing so.

(Well... I'm not saying this question is acceptable, but if I really needed to choose one option on a real exam, I would read the examiner's mind and choose B without hesitation. This is simply because B seems to be a more interesting grammar point that is likely to be asked on exams.)

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  • +1, I would also choose B if I had to.
    – Yosh
    Commented May 30 at 7:02

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