2

What I intend to say,

Tell him the answer, or he will punish you.

Can we express the same meaning like the following?

Example 1

Tell him the answer before he punishes you.

Example 2

Tell him the answer before he can punish you.

Example 1 sounds like he will still punish the guy regardless of whether he has told the answer or not.

It seems that the example 2 is the right one to say?

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1
  • Example 1 is perfectly natural. Example 2 would require a very unusual context (not worth describing, frankly) to make sense.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 16 at 16:35

1 Answer 1

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In the proper context

Tell him the answer before he punishes you.

could have the practical meaning

He intends to punish you if you don't tell him the answer, so you'd better do it before it's too late.

In another context it could mean:

He is going to punish you no matter what. Tell him the answer prior to his punishing you.

Perhaps the punishment would be less severe?

Adding can (before he can punish you) would suggest that there are some impediments at the moment to his taking that action. At some time, probably soon, he will be able to punish you, so you had better seize your opportunity to tell him the answer.

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7
  • I think the can version is a bit more complicated than that. The best advice is probably just to say it's "invalid". If it did come from a native speaker, I'd probably assume the implication that "he" really wants to punish the addressee for some context-specific reason (he might therefore not even want to be told the answer, if this would prevent him from being able to indulge his sadistic inclinations).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 16 at 16:39
  • I try to explain the meaning entailed by the utterance. Here before he can means that at present he cannot, but at some point he will be able -- or so the speaker believes. I'm not sure OP understands can properly.
    – TimR
    Commented Apr 16 at 16:56
  • I think we can be pretty sure this OP knows the literal difference between will and can. He just isn't familiar with idiomatic Do X before Y [happens] meaning ...or else Y will happen.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 16 at 17:08
  • @FumbleFingers Telling him "it's natural" does not address OP's misunderstanding "Example 1 sounds like he will still punish the guy regardless of whether he has told the answer or not." which I did address. It can have that meaning but need not have that meaning.
    – TimR
    Commented Apr 16 at 18:31
  • 1
    You'd need an incredibly contrived context for Example 1 to mean He's gonna punish you anyway, but I suggest you tell him the answer before he does that. Again, scenarios that aren't really worth bothering with, here.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 16 at 18:40

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