| wouldとcould | |
November 12, 2018
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November 12, 2018に載せたTripをもとに解説してみます。 Trip On this day, he took a day off. He was going to a city that was bigger than his city. He went there on business sometimes before he changed his job. There was a bar in the city. When he went to the city, he often stopped by the bar. The owner was a middle-aged woman. She sometimes emailed him, even after he quit his former job. This time she emailed him, writing that the bar would have a 15 year anniversary party. He decided to go. It would be for the first time in several years. On the day of the trip, he got up early and started to search about rental bike services. He thought it was a good idea to use a bike, rather than buses or subway, in the city because riding in this size of a city seemed to be more convenient. He got information that the city had an electric assist bike rental service. There were more than 50 pools (the places where that the electric bikes were kept were called 'pools'), and at any pool you could start and stop your bike ride. It seemed attractive. ここでのwouldとcouldは、もともとwillとcanだったものが過去の話の中で使われているため「過去時点での」willやcanは、その過去形であるwouldと、couldが使われています。 ここでのwillは、未来に「するだろう」「なるだろう」「するつもり」などの意味です。また、canは、シンプルに「できる」「なりうる」という意味です。 この話には、wouldとcouldがたくさん使われていますが、この「時制の一致」の形で使われています。 一方、 Witches (Jun 4, 2018) On this day, he went to a hotel. He was a member of a volunteer guide group that would guide people around this provincial city's historical sites and cultural areas. This time, he was asked to guide people around to 'Kenji Miyazawa' related places. ここでのwouldは、「過去における習慣」を表します。日本語だと「したものだった」「していた」などのニュアンスになります。以下でも見てみます。 Swimming Style (May 3, 2018) He often would go to a gym. He had a membership. On this day he went to the gym and was swimming. He liked swimming. It was refreshing and he was able to relax while swimming. He always swam breaststroke. While swimming, he usually wouldn't think about anything, only swim. But on this day he felt bored and started to think about something at random: "I'm only swimming breaststroke because I can only swim this style. And my way of swimming is not good. I envy others to be able to swim the crawl, backstroke, and butterfly. But, to come to think of it, why do people only swim those? I've never seen any other swimming style. Why?" He started to think: "Maybe people started to swim a long long time ago, the Stone Age? Maybe the breaststroke was invented first." To him, the breaststroke seemed to be easier to start with because although he was not good at sports, but he could manage to swim this way even though he never learned how to swim from instructors. ここのwouldも「彼はよくジムに行っていた」「いつも何も考えていなかった」といったように、過去の習慣を表します。ここでのｼｮｰﾄｽﾄｰﾘｰではこのタイプのwouldがよく出てきます。難しいのは、「習慣と呼ぶほど行っていないようなケース」でもよく使われることです。下の、Music Fanでは、「時々寄る」ということで、wouldが使われていますが、このようにsometimesがないケースでも使われていますので、わかりにくいwouldが出てきたら、この用法を疑ってみてください。 couldの用法として、時制の一致のほかによく使われるのが「しようと思えばできた」と言う意味です。wouldにも同様の「しようと思えばする」という意味があるので、would likeは、「しようかなと思う」というような丁寧な印象を与えます。 上の文のcouldは、「なんとか泳ぐことができる、しようと思えば」という意味です。この分の最初の方で、was able toが出てきますが、代わりにcouldを使えば、「リラックスしようと思えばできた（だがしなかった）」と言う意味になってしまうため、「リラックスすることができた」と言う意味ではwas able toを使う必要があります。 このように単純に過去で「できた」と言いたいときは、be able toを使うことをお勧めします。なお、couldn'tの方は、「できなかった」という意味なので、子供の時泳げなかったはI couldn't swim when I was a child. とcouldn'tが使えます。英語ってややこしい面もありますね。 Music Fan (April 17, 2018) A couple of days later after purchasing the CD, a friend of mine, a classmate at junior high school, came to my house. My friend and I are both freelance workers and sometimes he would stop by my house when he was near by. He soon found the CD and said seeing the price seal on the jacket, "Wasting money again?" He added without waiting for my reply, "Haven't you seen her nude pictures? Her body was miserable, I was dissapoin…" He picked up his smartphone and started to search and showed it to me. It was a picture of her naked. He said, "Like this." |
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