Hello!
I came across a sentence in a book that I’m struggling with and was hoping you guys could help.
それを誰かに嗅ぎ付けられでもしたらと、二人はいまや戦々恐々だった。
I understand 嗅ぎ付けられ is the stem of the potential form or 嗅ぎ付ける and でもしたら indicates a conditional but I can’t figure out what the point of that と is that is placed after it. Can anyone explain it to me?
Greetings from Holland!
2 comments
と can act as an adverb. So I believe it’s “terrified *that* someone would sniff it out.”
と can often connect to verbs to show the state of mind that the person is doing the verb with. So the quote それを誰かに嗅ぎ付けられでもしたら is what they are thinking and the reason they are 戦々恐々. You can see this as adverbial, as an implied と思いながら/と思って, or something like that.