Feb 9, 2011

I Like Tense in English

RRecently I enjoy writing in English on my weblog and Twitter. Although I've written it before, trying to express what I mean in English is fun like solving a puzzle.

It's fun to think work out which word best conveys what I mean and which expression is easy to understand, by looking in a dictionary and a thesaurus.

I especially like tense in English. Tense in English has more variations and is stricter than in Japanese. I can express myself simply by using tense well. Of course I can express the same thing in Japanese, but the meaning becomes diffuse.

For example I tweeted as follows.
I felt that spring was coming, but I now realize that spring has already come.
In Japanese I can say it as follows.
春が近づいていると思っていたら、もう春になっていたと気がついた。
I'm making sense in Japanese, but in English I can express what I mean more strictly and precisely. It's delightful that I can write such things.

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