Question
dorami_9000
21 January

  • Japanese
  • Simplified Chinese (China)
  • English (US)
  • French (France)
Question about English (US)

What is the difference between "I don't know how I could say it in English." and "I don't know how I can say it in English." ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.

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Phiona
21 January

  • English (US)
  • Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong) Near fluent

I think the most native way is to say "I don't know how to say it in English".

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SyLambert
21 January

  • English (US)
  • Italian Near fluent

To my ear, they mean the same thing. The second option is probably a little more common than the first. The best option, I think, is just "I don't know how to say it in English"--unless you specifically mean "it won't translate well"/"it doesn't translate well" (which is worth just saying outright).

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BlueJam
21 January

  • English (US)

"how i could" is more of a 'I don't know how I could possibly say this in English.' It emphasizes the possibility and also is the past tense. So it could imply "how I could have said it English."
"how I can" is the present tense. It's something you are asking right now and are trying to figure out how to say right now.
It's just a subtle nuance in how the tense changes the implication. "I could have" versus "I can"
Although I'd more likely hear "I'm not sure how to say this is English" (in regards to this specific thing) or I don't know how to say it in English" which is more general. The "can/could" isn't particularly necessary.

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dorami_9000
21 January

  • Japanese
@Phiona @SyLambert @BlueJam Thank you all for your wisdom. When I happened to see the first sentence, I thought it sounded like a line from a Hollywood movie, like the English phonetics professor from "My Fair Lady" comes to Japan, encounters Godzilla right in front of his eyes, and mutters, "I don't know how I could say it in English." If this story caught the attention of a Hollywood producer, and I wrote the script and inserted that line into the scene, would he be happy with it?

P.S. Someone help me！https://hinative.com/ja/questions/21045064
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BlueJam
21 January

  • English (US)

@dorami_9000 hmm the "I could/I can" still sounds a bit out of place. I think maybe it's the conflicted tenses. Maybe "I didn't know how I could say it in English." But that feels more like someone thinking of how they could ever say this thing.
If it were me, I'd add a different kind of stressor. "I'm still not sure how to say it in English." "I don't know how I could possibly say it/this in English." Adding the "possibly" clears up some confusion on the meaning of "I could" in the sentence. And adding "still not sure" implies a confusion rather than knowing which does help make the meaning more identifiable.
I think "I don't know how I could say it in English" is just not particularly clear on what you mean so adding a different word helps make it more clear.

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