摘要：coulda, shoulda, woulda，多表示对过去的深切懊悔或对"事后诸葛亮"式无用假设的否定，可译为"早知如此，何必当初"。这三个词的顺序可以替换。是英语中传递"追悔莫及"情绪的经典表达。如：

coulda, shoulda, woulda，多表示对过去的深切懊悔或对"事后诸葛亮"式无用假设的否定，可译为"早知如此，何必当初"。这三个词的顺序可以替换。是英语中传递"追悔莫及"情绪的经典表达。如：

I keep thinking coulda, shoulda, woulda—if I’d taken that job offer, I wouldn’t be struggling now.

我总在想“早知如此，何必当初”——要是当初接受了那份工作，现在就不会这么艰难了。

There’s no point in saying coulda, shoulda, woulda about our breakup—we can’t go back and change anything.

对着我们的分手说“早知如此，何必当初”毫无意义——我们回不去了，也改变不了任何事。

He spends hours dwelling on coulda, shoulda, woulda—regretting he didn’t propose when he had the chance.

他花好几个小时纠结“早知如此，何必当初”——懊悔当初有机会的时候没求婚。

Ugh, coulda, shoulda, woulda—if I hadn’t chickened out, I’d be dating her now.

Hypotheticals are a waste of brainpower. Either do it or don’t.

唉，真是早知如此，何必当初——要是我没临阵退缩，现在就和她约会了。

假设就是浪费脑力，要么做，要么不做。《生活大爆炸》

Coulda, shoulda, woulda—Monica, if you’d told him the truth earlier, you wouldn’t be so stressed now.

I know! But I was scared he’d leave me.

早知如此，何必当初呢，Monica——要是你早点告诉他真相，现在就不会这么焦虑了。

我知道！可我怕他会离开我。《老友记》

注意：这三个词还可以连在一起成为一个名词 woulda-coulda-shoulda，表达“后悔之事”，如：

I've just had too many woulda-coulda-shouldas in my life.

我一生中有太多后悔之事。

来源：翅膀英语一点号