"我想在超市买水果。"
Translation:I would like to buy fruit at the supermarket.
26 Comments
I'd like to know the reason here too. I don't see the need to use the conditional in English in that Chinese sentence.
In English, that's just a polite phrasing, and the conditional tense has no real meaning in this context. A more literal translation would be, "I want to buy fruit at the supermarket."
I think the use of 在 implies that it is currently happening or will happen in the future. Just saying "I like..." would be that sentence without the 在
I'm pretty sure in this sentence 在 is just the preposition "at". If 在 were beong used in the ongoing action "-ing" sense it would be directly before the action verb. I don't think 想 ever means "like". 喜欢 means "like". In this case 想 means "want" or "would like". "Would like" is just a polite way of saying "want" in English.
I agree. For me, the better phrasing would be, "Wo xiang qu chao shi mai sui guo. "
I think most Brits would say "Buy fruit at the supermarket" rather than "fruits".
I got the answer right, but I'm not sure why "想" is separated from "買".
That's because the "wanting" (想) refers to the whole situation of "在超市买水果“. Looking at it another way, "在超市“ must come directly before "买" because that location decribes the buying (买) not the wanting (想). If you said 我在超市想买水果 that would mean that while you are in the supernarket, you are suddenly overcome by a desire to buy fruit, which you didn't feel before you got to the supermarket, and stop feeling once you leave. It's somewhat nonsensical. Also, it sounds weird. If that were rrally the sentiment you were tryibg to convey, the English would be something like "When I am in the supermarket, I suddenly want to buy fruit."
I got it wrong just because I put "I want to shop" in stead of "buy", which was underlined in DL's feedback. But doesn't it mean the same??
It's a bit pedantic to insist on the difference between want to and would like to. In modern English, in most cases there really is not any difference; unless you want to be very polite and I cant imagine needing to be polite about going to the supermarket.
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Is "market" instead of "supermarket" not acceptable here? We never say "supermarket".
Generally, a market is an "open" market with stalls, while a supermarket is a solid building.
