English translation:
Whether ~ or not
Structure:
Verb1 + ても + Verb1[ない] + くても**
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I have a question about this sentence:
お金を持っていても持っていなくても、幸せになることは可能です。
The verbs in all the other example sentences are in the 〜て form: 勉強してもしなくても、言っても言わなくても、etc.
Why is 持つ in the above sentence in the 持っている form?
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Hey @lisaki8 !
The reason that 持つ is in the ている form is because お金を持っている is a phrase that means ‘to have money (to be in the state of possessing money)’. If 持つ were to be used here, it will change the nuance to, ‘to hold money (to physically hold money)’, and would make the whole sentence sound a bit unnatural.
We hope that this answers your question!
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Got it. Thank you so much! It’s really helpful to know the difference between ‘having money’ and ‘holding money.’
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Glad someone else had the same question, I was losing my mind trying to understand why my " ても なくても" conjugation of “持つ” wasn’t getting accepted as correct.
Perhaps it could be handy to have the verb in parentheses be “(持っている)” rather than “(持つ)” for those not aware of the phrase/difference.
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