1

Here is the question I have; the following sentence is what is causing me grief. I might be overthinking it but I'm not getting anywhere.

チップの習慣があったほうが、サービスが良くなると思いますか。どうしてですか。

Now, based on my own understanding of this grammar, あったほうが = if you had.

I would translate this sentence as, do you think having a tipping culture results in better service?

Is this a correct translation of this sentence, or am I misunderstanding the question?

1 Answer 1

1

Your understanding looks good.

The 「た」 in 「~~[方]{ほう}が」 expresses a conditional state, not a past event.

It is just like how you say in English "If I had ~~", "If there were ~~", etc. You are not talking about past events when you use these conditionals.

Occasionally, though, you will encounter a situation where a native speaker might use the present tense with 「方が」, but again, that kind of thing would happen in any language.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .