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Diego
Is this true?: “Open and open up is the same meaning , though in the context you give . You can tell a person can you open the door , but open up you would ask , could you open up the door . The only difference is that the can and could at the end are changed . My question is, can with open and could with open up? Thanks
2023년 2월 11일 오후 10:40
답변 · 8
You don’t normally ‘open up’ a door, a window, or a book. You could open up a shop, or a counter for business, in which case it means the same as just ‘open’.
‘Can’ and ‘could’ are independent of ‘open’, and in practice are often interchangeable :
‘Can you open the window’ and. ‘Could you open the window’ are equivalent, and neither is actually a question or refers to ability to do it ; they are simply requests to do it.
In other contexts ‘can’ and ‘could’ may refer to the possibility of an event, or ability to carry out a task, etc. ‘Can the door be opened ?’ asks if it is possible, and ‘Could the door have swung open ?’ asks if this could have happened.
Use of ‘can’ and ‘could’ in English is variable and understanding of how it is used has to be learned from experience.
2023년 2월 12일
Agree with Thomas in general with a caveat: as an English speaker (American), we say "open the door" but Ive never heard anyone say "open up the door." "open up" usually means conceptually something that could be taken apart: a box, a room, or even a person. A door just opens. But do other English speakers use it in this way?
2023년 2월 12일
No, either can or could goes with either one. The difference between can and could is just present tense versus conditional (puedes vs podrias). Open up just adds some emphasis to open. "Open the door" and "Open up the door" mean the same things but there is more urgency to the second phrase. Sometimes when a person shares personal information you could say, "he opened up" and you would not say, "He opened." But, generally the two are interchangeable. Hope that helps.
2023년 2월 12일
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