0

興味のある内容で学習しましょう this is the title of original text where I pick up the sentence to give better understanding of what is said.

The sentence is:

興味のある事だと、あなたは一生懸命に理解しよう努めるでしょう。

I know that と can mean "and", "with", "when A happens B also happens". What do だと and と mean in this sentence?

naruto
  • 313,860
  • 13
  • 324
  • 625

1 Answers1

2

The first だと is actually two words, だ ("is", the copula) and a conditional-と. That is, ~だと means "if [something] is ~...". See Differences among -たら, なら, -と, -んだったら, -ば, etc and How Conditionals Work in Japanese: …と, …ば, …たら, and …なら.

The first half of the sentence can be broken down like this:

  • 興味がある
    to be interested (more literally, "you have an interest" or "there is an interest")
  • 興味のある
    something you are interested in
    (a relative clause with ga-no conversion)
  • 興味のある事
    (That) is something you are interested in.
  • 興味のある事だ、...
    If that is something you are interested in, ...

The second と is part of the ~ようと(する) construction, which means "to try to ~". See Volitional + と + Verb and What is the difference between "verb+て+みる" and "verb+(よ)う+とする"?. (と by itself is a marker for the content of an action, but you have to memorize -ようと as a set phrase first.) Thus the last half of the sentence means:

  • ...あなたは一生懸命に理解しようと努めるでしょう。
    ...you will strive hard trying to understand it.
    ...you will strive hard in order to understand it.
naruto
  • 313,860
  • 13
  • 324
  • 625