"我昨天见了我的医生。"
Translation:I saw my doctor yesterday.
39 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
True 意见 (yujian) is a better verb for meet. In English, you can get away with either 'meet' or 'see' in many instances but I think we can assume here it was an appointment and not some random on the street meeting.. What harm is there besides to get it wrong so that you don't use 意见 (yujian) and 见 (jian) interchangeably? Somewhere down the line, meet and see converged in English the way Chinese 意见 and 见 never did.
391
The same sentence is used with different tasks, eg sometimes to assemble and sometimes to type the translation
In this context (assuming in an appointment), unless you mean you ran into the doctor, 见 is only appropriate.
In summary:
1) I saw my doctor yesterday (appointment) 我昨天见了我的医生
2) I saw my doctor yesterday (just saw [eg from a distance] and did not interact) 我昨天看见了我的医生 (Wo zuotian kanjian le wo de yisheng)
3) I saw/met my doctor yesterday (No appointment - met [eg on the street] and interacted) 我昨天 意见了我的医生 (wo zuotian yujian le wo de yisheng )
189
1) Is 了 optional for past tense when you use words like "昨天“? Sometimes I see 了 used and sometimes I don't ... so if I said "我昨天见我的医生" would this be ok?
2) If I were to say "I saw my doctor" without a specific time can I say "我见了我的医生."?
891
Re (1), it can be OK. But the use of 了 can imply the meeting was completed one, like a completed consultation.
Re (2), you can. It will be understood as you said.
1793
"le" isn't supposed to be used as a past tense marker. It's used to indicate the completion of a verb, or if used after an adjective and also sometimes after a verb, a change in state.
458
That´s ok, as long as you used a saw to cut him. Then, grammar aside, "I saw my doctor yesterday" works in a weird way.
294
我昨天见了我的医生。
In English I could translate as two results:
- I already met my doctor yesterday
- I saw my doctor yesterday.
These two results have difference situations. For this Chinese sentence, which is correct?
Thank you
294
I asked one of my Chinese teacher and I got his advise that the first translation is the correct one
458
Maybe both are correct, but depend on context. As it is so often the case with Chinese. The english "I saw my doctor yesterday" is not very precise either. "I saw my doctor yesterday from across the street. He waved." "I saw my doctor yesterday in his office and asked him to have a look at my bunions." Ironically in the second sentence the important thing is, that the doctor saw your bunions and not that you had seen him! ;-) And that is afaik what the english confusingly mostly mean, when they say "I saw my doctor": I went to my doctor so he could see how ill I am.
Funny thing, language.
458
that is if you use the app. On a pc it seems to work differently. Alas, this discussion board has to cover both kinds of usage.
536
I thought time was supposed to be in front of any sentence as a rule !
So it had to be this "昨天我见了我的医生
In conversation it wouldn't seem very long, its only 1 more syllable versus the English translation.
Maybe you could get away with "我昨天见了医生"? But if I, a novice, were to literate this, the original sentence really is short & sweet, covering any further question of when, and if it was your usual doctor. You still have holes of where, and who the doctor is, and possibly your reason for the appointment.
942
There are a few comments mentioning "met" and I would like to add "met with". Especially given 了, "met with" suggests you had a complete meeting and is the most natural English (reported).