Re: The phrase 'I'd like...'
| From: | Doug Dee <amateurlinguist@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, January 11, 2004, 1:58 |
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In a message dated 1/10/2004 7:37:54 PM Eastern Standard Time,
treborjung@FREE.FR writes:
>Could someone explain this weird construction to me?
I guess this is an example of indirectness serving to indicate politeness.
Instead of saying bluntly "I want [you to give me] a cup of tea" we say
something that more literally means "Hypothetically speaking, if I had a cup of
tea, I would like it." Then the listener can infer he ought to give me one,
without my actually having to tell him so.
I seem to recall that the French equivalent is "Je voudrais . . ." literally
"I would want . . ." That strikes me as a slightly less indirect way of
getting the point across.
Doug
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