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Hypothetical Questions

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nalcomis
New in Town
Posts: 5
Joined: April 20th, 2009 12:09 am

Hypothetical Questions

Postby nalcomis » November 30th, 2010 6:02 am

Anyone know how to ask a hypothetical question in Japanese? Like, "What if we saw a movie?"

Or how about asking rhetorical questions?

Jessi
JapanesePod101.com Team Member
Posts: 822
Joined: November 25th, 2007 9:58 am

Postby Jessi » November 30th, 2010 8:58 am

Hypothetical questions, I find, are usually asked using the たら conditional.

一億円あったらどうしますか?(Ichioku-en attara, dou shimasu ka?)
If you had one hundred million yen, what would you do?

I'm a little confused about your example because it sounds like a suggestion...
You could say 映画を見たらどう(ですか)? (Eiga o mitara dou [desu ka]?) - How about watching a movie? What do you say we watch a movie?
Is that the meaning you were going for?
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nalcomis
New in Town
Posts: 5
Joined: April 20th, 2009 12:09 am

Postby nalcomis » November 30th, 2010 9:46 am

Oh, sweet. I understand completely. English is a little more vague, I think, while Japanese specifically says "if we did this, would it be OK?" (example)

Thank you very much! ありがとうございます!

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