Question
yukiyam
25 January

  • Japanese
  • English (US)
Question about English (US)

What is the difference between I wouldn’t go if you paid me. and I wouldn’t go even if you paid me. ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.

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SyLambert
25 January

  • English (US)
  • Italian Near fluent

There is no difference; the first sentence implies the "even".

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OwLeho
25 January

  • English (US)

I wouldn’t go if you paid me. -- technically this means "if you pay me, then I won't go". So paying them will prevent them from going. But I guess if you don't pay them, then they will do it for free? lol But it is rare to actually mean it that way. Because people usually meant to say the other phrase and just said it wrong.

I wouldn’t go even if you paid me. -- this means "even paying me won't make me go". So it is saying "I wouldn't go" and then doubling the emphasis by saying "I won't go, and even offering me money will not change my mind about this. I still will not go." So it is something that you refuse to do, it is not worth your time/effort to do and even being paid money will not make it worth doing.

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SyLambert
25 January

  • English (US)
  • Italian Near fluent

@OwLeho I'm obviously in agreement on the second point, but I think simplifying the first point down to an "if/then" statement is an oversight. I think asserting that the "then" is implied by the sentence structure is no different than asserting "even" is implied by the structure, which means they "just said it wrong" is a mistaken claim.

I think that what both our answers are missing is the tone used by the speaker which would stress whether it is "if/then" or "even", and that if it's written out (esp. in dialogue) there are other ways around this (like context).

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