Better with or without 会?

[anonymoose]

没想到（会）落到如今的结果

 

Is there a difference between including or not including 会 in this phrase, and if not, does it sound better with or without?

[陳德聰]

I have a tendency to add a 會 there, but I don't think it's necessary. Edit: I guess I'll just say that I think it sounds better with, but that it is probably a preference thing.

[XinRen]

They are the same. I cannot see or feel any difference

[anonymoose]

I would tend to put 会 there as well. Not sure if it's just my English subconscious affecting me, but I was surprised to see the original sentence which did not include a 会. Somehow I feel uncomfortable without it.

[wushucrab20]

@anonymoose  Thats an interesting observation. I feel the same way, feels a bit uncomfortable without the 会

[lips]

Either way it's fine. I suppose I'd include the 會 if I'm paying attention, like now, but I don't know what I'd actually say in a real-life conversation.

Didn't know it'd come to this

Didn't know it came to this

In English most would say the first one, but I wouldn't even notice if someone says the second one in a conversation.

If "this" is a hypothetical situation then the first is more appropriate. If "this" actually happened then the second is better, but the meaning is clear in context anyway.

[eddyf]

I dunno, in the English example those two sentences feel very different to me. The first sentence implies "earlier I didn't think this would happen" while the second implies "I just found out that this did happen". Is there a similar difference between the Chinese sentence with and without 会? Or is the Chinese like the first English sentence in both cases?

Put another way, how do you translate this sentence: "I didn't realize that it had come to this." And how do you translate this sentence: "I didn't realize that it would come to this."

[陳德聰]

I don't see a difference in meaning between the sentence with 會 and the sentence without, so I think the examples in #6 are a bit odd since they mean two totally different things. I think with the 會 it sounds more smooth, but that's just me.

As for the difference between not realizing that the situation is now this way (the not realizing happens after the situation becomes this way) and not realizing that the situation would become this way (the not realizing happens before the situation becoming this way), I would translate those two sentences differently.

I didn't realize that it had come to this. (At the time that I could have realized, it had already come to this)

沒想到「」都這樣了

I didn't realize that it would come to this. (Before it came to this, I could have realized it would, but I didn't)

沒想到「」會這樣 <- I find this acceptable, but would find 沒想到這樣 awkward and incorrect.

[yosondysh]

Is there a difference between

"I didn't foresee that would happen" and

"I didn't foresee that happening"?

In my understanding (from my limited English), these two sentences have quite similar meanings.

I guess the with/without 會 issue in this thread is pretty much the same. Maybe some kinds of verb would make 會 less important in a sentence, I dunno.

[Messidor]

If you're trying to narrate sth in the past objectively, I guess it'll be better to add 会.

 

会 is a mark of future tense

[Leah. X.]

In this case, there is no noticeable difference other than "one sentence is one character longer than the other".

However, Chinese is a subtle language that values succinctness in many occasions, so I would recommend you to go with the shorter one.  

[anonymoose]

XinRen and Leah, thanks a lot for your contributions. I don't know how I'm going to get out of the mindset that including 会 is better, but it's good to have confirmation from native speakers that there is no difference.

 

Didn't know it'd come to this
Didn't know it came to this

 

The meaning of these two sentences is comeplete different.