You see what I mean?
What do you mean?
Seems to me “mean” in this meaning is always used in the present tense even when talking about something that has happened. When do we use the past tense with mean except that a specific past time is given?
Thanks.
Seems to me NES use the verb “mean” that way regarding the fact that they think one can not change his meaning until some other one explains the reason for.
In addition, please a teacher correct my short passage from below.
P> Hey George, John asked me a question if you’d asked Siobhan out, last Saturday?
G> What do you, and John as well, mean by that?
P> I don’ t know for him but me, nothing. Actually, he might be interested in her too.
Thanks
I’m not sure what you mean. 
The past tense of ‘mean’ is ‘meant’. "I asked him what he meant.’
P> Hey George, John asked me whether you’d asked Siobhan out last Saturday?
G> What do you both mean by that?
P> I don’ t know about him but I don’t mean anything by it. Actually, he might be interested in her too.
“You see what I meant?” and “What did you mean?” are also possible. The present tense is often used when referring to recent events, when the action of “meaning” is assumed to continue into the present. The past tense is used when referring to events that are considered to lie wholly in the past.
You know Bev., as a non-native speaker, it’s hard for me to decide when to use the past and when to use the prsent; or rather, it’s tricky to decide when is past and when is still present, ha ha.
Native English speakers just go with the flow… there’s no prescriptive pattern in cases such as the type you mention.
Hi Ruifeng,
I can fully understand the difficulty about which tense to use - past or present.
Let me try to suggest a difference. In the course of a conversation you might not understand what someone says and you ask: What do you mean? Later in the conversation you could ask: When you were talking about X a few minutes ago, what did you mean when you mentioned his mean?
Hope that throws a little light.
Alan