Hello! Please, consider the following context. A man is in bad trouble and he doesn't know how to pull himself together, how to endure it. He soliloquizes, "If only my father was alive, he could tell me how to cope with it." How can the phrase 'cope with it' be expressed in one word here? Can I say '... how to bear? How to stand? How to endure? (without 'it')? Or maybe some other variants?

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Answer

How could I bear it?! Yes.

How could I endure? ....has a slightly different meaning.

You would have to use 'it' in order to express what you mean.

How could I manage? is a whole lot softer in meaning. It just does not substitute well for the agony you describe.