Question
Updated on
4 Mar 2021
- Japanese
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English (US)
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Simplified Chinese (China)
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English (UK)
Question about English (US)
Can I say “what would it mean?” Or “what can it mean” instead of “what does it mean?” at times?
Can I say “what would it mean?” Or “what can it mean” instead of “what does it mean?” at times?
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- English (US)
"what would it mean" and "what does it mean" are somewhat interchangeable. except what would It mean implies future tense. "so what would it mean if this happened in the future"
I don't think "what would this word mean" makes complete sense. but if you said "what would this word mean if I said it like this" makes more sense because it implies a future action.
"what would it mean" is more of: something is going to happen, what does it mean when it happens.
what can it mean is something I'd expect from like a documentary about Egyptians hieroglyphics and the archaeologist says "WHAT CAN THIS MEAN" dramatically into the camera. I'd expect "what can this mean" more as an exclamation more than a question.
like if you were frustratedly trying to read an English sentence and you couldn't understand you might think to yourself. "what can this mean"
so short answer, no I wouldn't use then interchangeably, there are certainly some situations where you can use "what would" and "what does" freely but those are more of a natives intuition rather than hard grammar rules
- English (US)
@MooCat
“What does it mean” and “What could it mean” are much more common, but it all depends on the context of what you’re trying to say.
“What would it mean to you if you won 10000 dollars today?”
Highly-rated answerer
- Japanese
@Yatagurusu
Thank you for your answer!
I see how they work.
So “what would” make the sentence imply future tense.
“What can” make the sentence be more of an exclamation than a question.
Did I understand correctly?
Thank you for your answer!
I see how they work.
So “what would” make the sentence imply future tense.
“What can” make the sentence be more of an exclamation than a question.
Did I understand correctly?
- Japanese
- Japanese
@cyrustorz
Thank you for answering!
I see.
Did I use “what would ~” properly in the sentence below:
“Is A a word? If it is(was/were?), what would it mean?”
Thank you for answering!
I see.
Did I use “what would ~” properly in the sentence below:
“Is A a word? If it is(was/were?), what would it mean?”
- English (US)
@MooCat at least from my understanding, yes, perhaps there are other dialects with slightly different rules since this is such a fuzzy definition. but if you talk with me that's how I'll understand those phrases.
- Japanese
@Yatagurusu
Thank you for helping me!
I’m happy because I’m eager to know that kind of things like a native’s intuition rather than hard grammar rules.
Thank you for helping me!
I’m happy because I’m eager to know that kind of things like a native’s intuition rather than hard grammar rules.
- English (US)
@MooCat
“Is A a word? If it is, what does it mean?” 🙆♂️
難しいですが,この場合は、 ‘would’ does not belong inside“what does it mean”, because it not the actual hypothetical part of the sentence (it is a separate question).
The actual hypothetical part of the sentence is implied, not actually said: “If it is, then my next question WOULD be: What does it mean?” or “if it is, I WOULD like to ask you what it means.”
The “WOULD” is separate from your actual question in this case, (but it would be unnatural to actually say it like this)
Highly-rated answerer
- English (US)
@MooCat you Ask a lot of questions that make me think, it was hard to figure out for me how these were different even though I knew they were 😅
- English (US)
もし「ばまたふにらさざまは」は実際に日本語だとしたら、どういう意味だと思う？
in this case you could say “If bamatafunirasazamaha were a real word, what would it mean”? 🙆♂️
意味が通じますか。
Highly-rated answerer
- Japanese
- English (US)
- Japanese
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