نسل‌ها و تغییرGenerations and change

Comparing then and now, and revising your own belief

اینجا دو کارِ دستوری هست. اول، آن‌وقت در برابر حالا. used to + مصدر برای وضعیت یا عادتی که قطع شده: «we used to marry at twenty.» would + مصدر فقط برای کنشِ تکراریِ گذشته، هرگز برای وضعیت — «we would walk to school» درست است، «we would be poor» نه؛ وضعیت used to می‌گیرد. no longer / not any more برای منفی: «people no longer marry at twenty» رسمی‌تر از «people do not marry at twenty any more» است، و هر دو از «people do not marry at twenty now» بهترند که مبهم است. تفضیلیِ تغییر با بازهٔ زمانی: it has become harder، things are getting later، wages have not kept pace with prices — به حال کامل دقت کن، که انگلیسی برای تغییری که نتیجه‌اش وضعیت کنونی است به کارش می‌برد. دوم، و جالب‌تر: بازبینی باوری که داشته‌ای. «I had assumed it was a change in values» — گذشتهٔ کامل، فرض را پیش‌تر از آنچه تازه شنیده‌ای و اصلاح‌شده به‌دست آن نشان می‌دهد. کل این خانواده ارزش داشتن دارد: I had assumed / I had always thought / it had never occurred to me that / I had taken it for granted that. این‌طور امتیازدادن از «حق با توست» قوی‌تر است، چون دقیقاً نام می‌برد چه باور داشته‌ای و چرا حالا فرق کرده — که همان کاری است که مادربزرگ می‌کند و برای همین بحث خوب تمام می‌شود.

Two grammatical jobs here. FIRST, THEN VERSUS NOW. used to + infinitive for a discontinued state or habit: "we used to marry at twenty." would + infinitive for a repeated past ACTION only, never a state — "we would walk to school" is fine, "we would be poor" is not; states take used to. no longer / not any more for the negative: "people no longer marry at twenty" is more formal than "people do not marry at twenty any more", and both are better than "people do not marry at twenty now", which is ambiguous. THE COMPARATIVE OF CHANGE with a time frame: it has become harder, things are getting later, wages have not kept pace with prices — note the present perfect, which is what English uses for a change whose result is the present situation. SECOND, AND MORE INTERESTING: revising a belief you held. "I had assumed it was a change in values" — the past perfect marks the assumption as prior to, and corrected by, what you have just heard. The whole family is worth having: I had assumed / I had always thought / it had never occurred to me that / I had taken it for granted that. Conceding this way is stronger than "you are right", because it names exactly what you believed and why it is now different — which is what the grandmother does, and why the argument ends well.