你有冇諗過點解你會用past tense呢？因為你想講一啲過去發生左嘅事情？但係你用if-conditional同求人幫你做嘢嘅時候，你都可能會用到past tense㗎喎。🤔原來係因為過去式喺文法層面上可以形成距離感(remoteness)㗎。 - 舉個例子，當我地講Type II conditional嗰時，例如“if I were you, I would work harder”，兩句clauses都係用past tense, 係因為「我」永遠都唔會係「你」，呢件事喺現實上係100%唔會發生，同現實有極大嘅距離。題外話，future tense同past tense都係non-factual, 但future tense係non-remote, 所以type 1講high possibility就會用future tense。🤘🏼 - 另一個你會用到過去式嘅時間就係求人嘅時候，例如你同老師講“we wondered if the deadline could be extended”, 即使你明知係講緊將來嘅事，你都會用過去式。今次係因為你想禮貌上營造同老師之間嘅距離”social distance”, 其他好類似嘅例子有”could you” 而唔用 “can you” 同埋 “I would like to” 而唔用 “I want”.，全部都係因為”social distance”。🤭 // Have you ever thought about why you use past tense? Probably because you want to talk about something in the past. Yet, why do you also use past tense in Type-2 conditional or when you request someone for something? It’s actually because past tense is used to create sense of remoteness. - For example, in Type II conditional, we can say “if I were you, I would work harder”. We use past tense in both clauses because we know that “I” can never be “you”, which means that such condition is remote from reality. - Another case is making a request. When we say “we wondered if the deadline could be extended” to our teacher, even though we know that we want to extend the deadline which is in the future, we still use past tense. This is to distance ourselves from the teacher as it is common to have certain social distance if you want someone to do you a favour. Similar examples can be saying “could you” instead of “can you” and “I would like to” instead of “I want”. // // // 大大: 呢排掛住温基準試，希望之後出返多啲post，等我🙇🏻‍♂️ #Vocabno #English #DSE #18DSE #2018DSE #19DSE #2019DSE #20DSE #2020DSE #Reading #Writing #Speaking #Wordoftheday #Vocabulary #Expression #Phrase #HKDSE #LiberalStudies #通識 #LS #Dsetips #Linguistics #語言學 #Morphology #JUPAS