ダニエルさんこんにちは。またよろしくお願いします。
日本人には無宗教の人が多いです。西洋人に、「子供の頃とかに、神様を信じなかった時期はありましたか？」と聞きたいのですが、「時期」にあたる単語が分かりません。

辞書を見たところ、対応するのは「time」のような気もしますが、教えてください。

Did you have a time you didn't believe in God in your childhood? のような表現をしますでしょうか？

よろしくお願いします。*\(^o^)/*

(doubt)

記事番号：24982

重要度：☆

>子供の頃とかに、神様を信じなかった時期はありましたか？」


Make that:

"Was there ever a time in your childhood when you didn't believe in God?"


Keep "time" and "in your childhood" together. You don't want it to read "God in your childhood"

記事番号：24983

重要度：☆

Thank you so much, Daniel-san.

I've got two questions after reading your reply.

The first one is whether the "when" in the sentence you gave is a relative adverb or a conjunction. It's probably a relative adverb and when clause would be describing "a time", but I'd like to make sure of it to be accurate.

The second question is whether I could drop the "when" when I don't use the phrase "in your childhood" in the sentence and when clause is placed right after "a time" which is modified by the clause, like "was there ever a time you didn't believe in God?" Or do I always have to use "when" in this kind of sentence structure?

I really do appreciate your help.

Hana. :)

記事番号：24984

重要度：☆

>The first one is whether the "when" in the sentence you gave is a relative adverb or a conjunction. It's probably a relative adverb and when clause would be describing "a time", but I'd like to make sure of it to be accurate.

It's definitely not a conjunction, so I guess it's the other one. (*_*)


>The second question is whether I could drop the "when" when I don't use the phrase "in your childhood" in the sentence and when clause is placed right after "a time" which is modified by the clause, like "was there ever a time you didn't believe in God?" Or do I always have to use "when" in this kind of sentence structure?

If you drop the "when", then you'd have:

"Was there ever a time you didn't believe in God?"

To make it sound right, you need the "when" in there.

記事番号：24985

重要度：☆

ダニエルさん
whenは必要なのですね。教えていただいてありがとうございました。

もう１個お願いしても大丈夫でしょうか？

動詞を「didn't believe」→「doubted」に変更した場合、文はどうなりますか？

「神様が存在することを疑った時期はありますか？」の英語は
Was there ever a time when you doubted God existed?" でいいでしょうか？

よろしくお願いします。＼(^o^)／

記事番号：24986

重要度：☆

I would say

"Was there ever a time when you doubted [the existence of] God?"

or

"Was there ever a time when you doubted [that God exists?]"

記事番号：24987

重要度：☆

ダニエルさん
使い方が良くわかりました。これで自分でも使いこなせそうです。
自分でもいつもGoogle検索などで用例を見てみるのですが、ネイティブの書いたものと非ネイティブの書いたものの見分けが付きづらいことも多いです。
ダニエルさんに教えてもらえると自信を持って教わった表現を使うことが出来ます。
ありがとうございました。＼(^o^)／

記事番号：24988

重要度：☆