IF?

liangaorong
 August 22, 2011 at 04:58 AM posted in General Discussion

大家好！

I am pretty confused about the terms 要是 and 如果 and how they are different! And what about 如果。。。的话？Or even 的话 on the end of a sentence...非常困惑。

谢谢你们 

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jennyzhu
 August 22, 2011 at 05:38 AM

要是 and 如果 both create a hypothetical situation. You can see them as "if". They come in the beginning of a sentence.

They can both be paired with 的话, e.g 要是我有钱的话，我会买车。如果我有钱的话，我会买车。But 的话 is optional. Leaving it out doesn't change the meaning of the sentence. 

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bababardwan
 August 31, 2011 at 12:19 PM

So Jenny, they are totally interchangeable then? ...there is no difference in meaning or usage at all? I seem to have seen 如果 quite a deal more frequently.