English Translation
Tom resisted the urge to scream.
Is the pronunciation こらえた (pronunciation) or こたえた (annotation) or たえた (as I’ve sometime seen elsewhere)?
Looking up 堪える with Yomichan, I get three identical definitions from JMDict, and three different pronunciations:
こらえる
こたえる
たえる
all using the same kanji. I am not sure they are really equivalent though, as often the JMDict entries are a bit simplistic, to be nice.
@ericaw @mike-lima
Here is my explanation of the difference between こたえる、こらえる and たえる for 堪える.
こたえる means “to try to endure something, but it’s hard to keep enduring anymore because it goes beyond my tolerance”. The topic is an unmanageable “external” environment, situation or hardship. The connotation is devastated or knocked out.
こらえる means 1) “to restrain oneself from (crying etc.)”; 2) “to protect oneself from (attacking etc.)”. The connotation of こらえる is be patient, hang in there.
たえる has two ways in Kanji: 1) 耐える and 2) 堪える. We usually prefer 耐える over 堪える if it means “to protect oneself from” or “be patient”. 堪える (たえる), however, has an extra meaning: “to have a capability of”.
Examples:
A: 今年の冬は寒さが身に堪える (こたえる) ね。= It’s too cold this winter. (Lit. = the coldness of this winter is a tough one, and I am so sick of it.)
B: トムは寒さを堪えて (こらえて) 外でメアリーを待ち続けた。= Tom bore the cold weather outside to keep waiting for Mary.
C: 今年の冬の寒さには耐えられない (たえられない).
D: トムは寒さに耐えながら (たえながら) 外でメアリーを待ち続けた。
E: ジョンはその映画を観て、堪えきれず(こらえきれず) 涙を流した。= Tom couldn’t help but cry by watching the movie.
F: そのテレビ番組は見るに堪えない (たえない)。= That TV program is a rubbish. (Lit. = I have no capability of keep watching such a terrible TV program like that.)
Example A is the situation in which you can NOT bear the cold weather anymore. Example B is CAN be managed by Tom. So こたえる and こらえる are not replaceable in these examples.
Example A with こたえる and Example C with たえられない mean exactly the same.
Example B with こらえる and Example D with たえる are the same.
Example E is about controlling one’s emotion. It’s not about “knocked out by someone”. So, you cannot replace こらえる with こたえる.
If you replace こらえる with たえる in Example E, the altered sentence/pronunciation implies that John regarded the movie an agony. But the original sentence with こらえる has the nuance of “sad but well-created, or very moving story”.
You cannot replace たえられない with こたえられない or こらえられない in Example F. As explained, こたえる is for “unmanageable situation”. But you can just turn off TV not to watch the terrible program. こらえる is for a situation of “be patient”. But you don’t have to patiently keep watching the TV program.
Now, are you more confident about which pronunciation is correct for トムは悲鳴をぐっと堪えた and a related sentence その光景は見るに堪えなかった? I refrain from giving my final answer.
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