그거 말고 이건 어때? : 해설

#. 그거 말고 이건 어때? : 해설

 

Awesome! How about tomorrow?

> Don't you think it'd be better if we waited until next week? It's supposed to rain all weekend.

 

So, in both of those examples, we heard someone suggest a new, different, and alternative idea by using the sentence pattern "don't you think it'd be better if we ~." I think the main point that I wanna talk about here with this expression is just to be careful when you use it. Because although it is a polite expression, it can be patronizing if you use the wrong tone. So if you take a bossy tone and have a bossy attitude when you use this expression, then it could really rub someone the wrong way. But if you use this sentence structure in a more open-minded way, when you're just politely suggesting to the person to take a second to rethink their plan and suggest an alternative plan, then it's fine.

 

Hmm, don't you think it'd be better if we took the afternoon flight? That's way we wouldn't have to wake up so early.

 

When it comes to the pronunciation of this structure, there's some interesting things happening. When we contract something in English, it makes it a bit more causal and a little bit more personable. And we do that a lot in English. We try to blend words together, link things quickly, and contract things or delete and reduce. So, in this case, we have "don't you think it'd be." "Think it'd be." instead of "think it would be." So we take away the "wou-" part and we make it "it'd"

 

I've been thinking, we should totally go on a picnic soon.

> Sure, that sounds fun.

 

So finally, I want to talk about the use. Who can we use this expression with, and when and where? I would use this to offer a better suggestion with someone I feel a close kinship with. So if it's a professor or a boss, I might use a different format completely. I would keep this for my friends and family. There's actually many ways in English that we can make a suggestion for an alternative idea. You could say, "or how about if we did this? Or how about if we tried this?" We could also say something like, "why don't we do that instead?" or "why don't we do this instead?" If you wanted a more formal suggestion, you might first affirm their idea. "Oh, that's a great idea, but another option could be this." So that could be used maybe to a professor or a boss or a more formal context.

 

• patronizing |peɪtrənaɪzɪŋ 잘난[윗사람인] 체하는 (=superior)  patronize |peɪtrənaɪz  가르치려 들다, 깔보는 듯한 태도로 대하다, 아랫사람 대하듯 하다

• bossy ˈbɔːsi 우두머리 행세를 하다  it could really rub someone the wrong way. 그것은 정말 누군가를 화나게 할 수 있다

• rethink ˌriːˈθɪŋk 다시 생각하다[재고하다]  When it comes to...… 라면, …에 대해서 [관해서]라면

• contract |kɒntrækt 줄어들다, 수축하다, 줄이다, 수축시키다 (↔expand)  kinship ˈkɪnʃɪp   친족 , 연대감, 동류의식 (=affinity)

• affirm əˈfɜːrm  단언하다 (=confirm)