"Your friend is handsome, can you introduce him to me?"
Translation:你的朋友很帅,可以给我介绍吗?
28 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
424
I was wondering about that -- would a second 你 sound too formal, or do people indeed talk that way sometimes?
会 is about ability and similar to "is able to". (Ex: "I can speak Mandarin." or "I can't swim.") 能 is about possibility and is similar to "is possible to". (Ex: "I'm feeling better, I can go out tonight." or "He can't make it back in time, he's too far.") 可以 is about permission and is similar to "is allowed to". (Ex: "I can park here." or "We can't stand in the VIP line.")
My answer marked incorrect: 你的朋友很帅,可以介绍他吗? The accepted answer: 你的朋友很帅,可以给我介绍吗?
I'm not seeing anything in these comments, or elsewhere online, as to why my translation would be incorrect. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be interested in hearing them.
This may be bias talking, but I think my translation is not only correct but superior since it specifies the gender of the friend while the accepted answer doesn't.
I'd translate the accepted answer as: Your friend is very handsome, can you introduce me?
I think 可以介绍他吗?translates to "Can you introduce him?", meaning to introduce him to a general audience, as perhaps a performer coming on stage next, or as a keynote speaker at a conference.
可以给我介绍吗?(maybe 可以给我介绍他吗? is correct too) is asking "Can you give me an introduction (of him)?" You're asking the person to do the introduction with you as the audience.
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I tried 你的朋友很帅,可以给我介绍一下吗? and it was rejected. The only difference is the 一下 at the end. Should this be allowed? I've heard that 一下 is a nice thing to add to a request to make it a little softer and less demanding. Does it make sense here?
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I think it's fine, but a bit redundant because 可以 already makes the tone softer, an alternative would be 给我介绍一下好吗.
Its the same reason that you can't really say stuff like “我高” to mean "I'm tall", I think. You need to say "我很高“. The reason I see is always something to do with natural phrasing and spacing. It's true that "高” can mean "..to be tall", but a chinese person will want something between 我 and 高, apparently, and the most common thing is 很. So while people would understand you and probably not care if you said “你的朋友帅” to mean "your friend is handsome", a native speaker would never say it this way, probably.
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I put can you introduce us, 可以给我们介绍吗 but apparently I should say 我 not 我们. Can someone explain please?
很 doesn't mean "very" here, but it's the alternative to 是 when describing someone using an adjective. Someone had a great example that you use 是 to say "He is my friend", since "my friend" is a noun; but you use 很 to say "He is handsome", since "handsome" is an adjective. I think you could use 是 though to say "He is a handsome man".