He would have sat in that corner.
- Deborah Salle
- Apr 27
- 2 min read
Updated: May 11
As I am editing Tok Pisin translations today, I noticed grammatical errors in the translation of 'would have' sentences.
First, we have to understand what 'would+have' means.
"would have" is used to express a hypothetical or unrealized action in the past.
Next, we have to understand how Tok Pisin expresses hypothetical actions..
Tok Pisin uses "sapos " to express hypothetical actions but we have to be mindful of how it is used in sentences.
Now, let's observe two Tok Pisin translations containing 'sapos' and their meanings;
1) Em bin sapos long sindaun long dispela kona.
'He should have sat in that corner.'
2) Sapos em bin sindaun, em bai sindaun long dispela kona.
'If he had sat, he would have sat in that corner.'
Sentence # 2 gives us a Tok Pisin translation which is closer to the English meaning, but too wordy, in my opinion and also expresses more certainty.
Do we other words in Tok Pisin besides sapos that we use to express hypothetical ideas?
In Tok Pisin, the adverb 'ating' expresses likelihood or probability in a hypothetical situation.
Let's try using 'ating' with 'sapos' in sentence #2.
3) Sapos em i bin sindaun, ating em bai sindaun long dispela kona.
Literally: If he had sat, he probably would sit in this corner.
Sentence # 3 gives us a Tok Pisin translation which is closer to the English meaning, but expresses probability as opposed to certainty. Still too wordy.
Can we express that English sentence in a shorter Pisin sentence?
4) Ating em bin sindaun long dispela kona.
Meaning 'He probably sat in that corner'.
Sentence #4 expresses a hypothetical situation in the past tense with a higher likelihood. It is closer in meaning to the English meaning but uses and adverb 'ating' and the optional past tense marker 'bin' for clarity.
To summarise, the English sentence construction using 'would have' is used to refer to hypothetical or unrealized actions in the past.
'would have' is not natural or common sentence construction in PNG English.
We naturally express hypothetical scenarios with an adverb 'ating' in Tok Pisin.
Understanding what 'would have' means in English and that Tok Pisin uses words like 'sapos' and 'ating' to express hypothetical situations can help us to express equivalent ideas when translating from English into Tok Pisin.
Comments