■出演
・ダイアン先生(ETCマンツーマン英会話)
■聞き手
・青樹洋文
◆関連リンク
レミーのおいしいレストラン

No, it can’t be.

I thought this is a part of a sentence.

Ah, you mean short form of a sentence? Hmm, basically maybe yes. For example, we say it can’t be true. It can’t be you. Yeah. Sometimes we have an object there. But it’s often used as a phrase showing surprise. We don’t need to put in the object. “It can’t be” is fine.

So I can use only this sentence.

Yeah, only this phrase. Yeah.

To show surprise, it shows you that you are very surprised, “it can’t be”.
In Japanese, it’s like “ありえない”, kind of thing.

Q: Is that similar to “it is impossible”? No?

No, impossible is a little different. When you say “it’s impossible”, that means it’s difficult to do something or I can not do it. It’s impossible. But when you say “it can’t be”, as I said, like “it can’t be true”, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It’s something that is not truth like a dream, something like that.

Yes, showing, it’s an expression of surprise. Sometimes we use this and the object is like “it can’t be you” “ it can’t be him”. We sometimes have a person there. But in that case, it’s like if I met a friend after a long time of absence, of course as we grow older, people change. But when I meet her, I say, and if she changed a lot, then I can say “it can’t be you”.

It means that she or he was changed.

Not, really that, not really changing. But it’s been a long absence. There is a little change. But I, it’s unbelievable for me to meet that person again.

I see.

It shows surprise. “It can’t be you” means “I can’t believe you are here now and I’m meeting you”.

◆使用楽曲 (BGM)
“Soft” of TON from jamendo