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- "他要鱼。"
"他要鱼。"
Translation:He wants fish.
30 Comments
要 just means want， need， sometimes means “is going to”， '他要走了'means ‘he is going to leave’
Isn't 鱼肉 a better way to say fish as in food you eat? Thats how I learned it previously.
1024
No. It has to do with how foods are normally served. Fish and chicken are usually served whole. If you use the terms 鱼肉, 鸡肉 you refer to a fillet or the minced meat.
that makes sense. So if I eat pieces of chicken (like fried chicken from KFC) would I then use 肉?
- 455
There are several variations, perhaps even enough to satisfy Conor MacSweeney (of the Young Offenders), such as:
- 鸡肉 = chicken meat
- 鸡块 = chicken nugget(s)
- 鸡米花 = chicken nugget(s) / popcorn chicken
- 柠檬鸡 = lemon chicken
- 炸鸡 = fried chicken
- 鸡丁 = diced chicken (meat)
- 烤鸡 = roast(ed) chicken
- 宫保鸡丁 = Kung Pao chicken (aka "spicy diced chicken")
- 醉鸡 = chicken in rice wine (aka "drunken chicken")
and so forth.
A funny one that offers insight into how the Chinese language works (how words are connected together to form other words or phrases) is 口水鸡 , which indicates "steamed chicken with chili sauce," but literally, 口水 means "saliva," being a compound of 口 , mouth, and 水 , water (i.e., saliva = mouth water); hence, "mouth water chicken," or "mouth watering chicken," or "saliva chicken," if you prefer to read it that way, refers to this dish made of chicken with chili sauce. Of course, "mouth watering chicken" is the most sensible of the literal translations in English.
Then there is this man, who often has a bucket of KFC on his mind (so to speak), and tells us the truth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyQJH615KwA
I answered 'She wants fish' and got it wrong. I thought 他 can be use for both gender?
- 128
The pronounciation tā is indeed used for both genders. Nevertheless, in writing, the characters are different. 他 = he; 她 = she. To remember this more easily, check out how the first half of the character 她 is 女, which is the character for woman.
Dear Duolingo creators of the Chinese course. I learned from a Chinese class that 要 means to consider. 想 or 想要 would be best for this case.
"要" can mean "want" or "need" without context. I think "想要" would be less ambiguous to express "want". But "他想魚" is not acceptable.
- 1024
I cannot think of a case that 要 means consider. Could you provide the text you have?
他想魚 is definitely not acceptable. 想 with a direct object only is acceptable when the direct object is a person. 我想你 means I miss you, I keep thinking about you.
I also learned Chinese from a (college) class; I can assure you that 要 means "want" and fits just fine in this sentence.
