One thing you start noticing when you’re learning a new language, after awhile, is that things you presumed had to be a certain way can be a completely different way, or things you thought were necessary were in fact not.
One example of this is the case of ‘when’ and ‘if’, which especially interests me as they happen to be programming language keywords as well (at least ‘if’, not so much ‘when’).
So, what is the difference between ‘when’ and ‘if’? Initially I thought they were inseparable but I realized they’re only subtly different. ‘When’ has an air of presuming that it’s not a matter of if, but when (…oh!) something is going to happen, or alternatively, it is used to apply attributes to a condition that happens occasionally.
“When it rains it pours.”
It’s not a matter of whether or not it rains, or whether it will rain, it’s a matter of it pouring when it does. That could be rewritten as the title of this post, but that of course sounds odd.
Subtly different are also things like “If you come here I’ll give you coffee” versus “When you come here I’ll give you coffee”. Both have about the same meaning but the former is expressing an uncertainty about whether the listener will actually come or not. The latter expresses a presumption that, well, it’s not if, it’s when.
In Japanese, ‘when’ and ‘if’ are the same. This sort of makes sense, though, because when you speak Japanese, you in a way describe a state and then you affirm or deny the existence of that state. So saying things like “Oh. A cat.” would literally be done by saying “Oh. A cat exists.[1]” A lot trickier to grasp for a non-native is that things like “I have never gone to Japan” becomes “The concept of having gone to Japan does not exist.[2]”
Thus, minor details such as when versus if become less important. Consider the following:
“If class ends, I’ll hurry back home.[3]”
It’s not really a matter of whether class will go on for infinity. We’re sure it won’t. So when it ends, my hurrying back home will happen. If and when are nearly synonymous when used in this manner. We’ve already covered the difference between “if you come I’ll give you coffee” versus “when …”. It’s a nuance difference, not a difference in meaning.
—
- 「あ。。猫がいる。」
- 「日本に行った事がない。」
- 「授業が終わったら、急いで帰る。」
For me, being a native English speaker, ‘when’ and ‘if’ hold two very different meanings instead of the subtle one that you speak of. ‘If’ relates to the possibility of something. ‘When’ relates to the time of something certain.
If I get a cookie… talking about the possibility of getting a cookie and how that relates to what follows in the sentence.
When I get a cookie… talks about the moment in time when the cookie is received and how that relates to what follows in the sentence.
Very interesting to hear your thoughts on it in relation to other languages.
It’s the same in Swedish with ‘när’ and ‘om’. What fascinates me is that they ARE so entirely different, but then there’s a language out there that uses them synonymously, and it works. The only loss is the nuance difference in the cases like the one you mentioned, and the one I mentioned about coffee.
But things like “If I come home I’ll do my homework” are pretty obvious that the speaker intends to return home.
Hi btw!