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- "好久不见！"
"好久不见！"
Translation:Long time no see!
45 Comments
So "long time" is "好久" ? (literally = "good long"?)
Is that just in this particular expression? What if we needed to say something like: "Have you been waiting a long time?" or "It's been a long time since I've seen him."
When 好 is used as an adverb, it means "so".
So this is literally "so long no see".
i look up dictionary but i can't find that mean. according to dictionary as a adverb 好 means "well"
2115
Maybe it's better to think of 好 as "well", which can similarly be used as an intensifier in English.
e.g. you might cook your meat "well done" or something might be "well out of range" or a person might be "well-rounded". In modern times it's probably not used so much in this sense (I think it's more common in British English).
Just as an aside, since you've studied Spanish, "bien" can also be used as an intensifier like this.
So what are the tones on this? It's 3 3 4 4 but with the pronunciation rules does that change to 2 3 2 4? (since there's two 3s in a row and bu is followed by a 4)
This is my first time seeing this, thanks for sharing.
It flows more naturally to make these changes in this case; is it always true that a phrase with double 3 or double 4 will sound best if the first 3 or first 4 is changed to a 2?
Just trying to understand what the actual rule is. Thanks!
i do not know the rule of tones and what 12345 means can u please match each of à á ā ă a with the numbers above and teach me the rule ? Thanks in advance
- 426
1ā
2á
3ă
4à
Mandarin users know the numbers probably better than the diacritical markings ("accent" marks), so it would not hurt to learn them. I guess it is because the diacritical markings are more difficult to type on phones, etc. And people refer to "1st tone", "2nd tone" etc.
Thank u for the clarifiction, but i was asking why instead of 3344 it is 2324( i was asking for this rule)
And if there are other rules can u please teach them to me
And again thank you
- 381
If there are two third tones in a row, the first one changes to second tone. If 不 is followed by a fourth tone, it changes to second tone.
very/so long time no see. The fact that the English equivalent is grammatically incorrect (no nouns or pronouns) makes me think the phrase came from chinese or another language that frequently omits them.
Pretty sure it came from native americans' poor grammar and it was just picked up by native speakers.
It's a very common phrase in English. You say it when you haven't seen someone in a while, and you want to make note of that as a greeting. Usually used positively among friends.
- 1181
It's ungrammatical, but it is used often and came from Chinese originally, so it's a kind of in-joke.
"No see [for] long time" Sounds like cliché caveman-speak: "Long time, no see."
- 426
It's a Pidgin phrase that became part of English slang/colloquial speech. I grew up, a native English speaker, hearing it said all the time, and in Asia (not limited to China) I hear it said by native Asian language speakers when communicating in English.
Does 久 can be translated by "time" and 好 by "great"? It would be like "a great quantity of time" ?
No, 久 is literally "lasting", "for a long time". But 好 can be an adverb meaning "so", so it's more of an emphasis on 久.
So: 好= good, well, maybe also used as the English "great" which has a duble meaning: It can mean big or large, but can also mean good, fine, superb etc. So word by word this phrase could be 好= great (as in the meaning large?) 久= long 不=no 见= see. And the translation would be: It is a long time since we saw each other or simply: Long time no see...
it could also be 好久没有见, that would make more sense in terms of a sentence
I have never seen this syntaxe before "long time no see you" it should be " it has been (so long/a long time that) i did not see you. I think it is an american expression not british one.
Also is 见(jian) is pronounced as tian
Finally what is the difference between 见 and 見
- 426
见 is pronounced as jian4.
Sure, "Long time no see" might be more of an American expression. It possibly comes from Chinese (Cantonese) originally. I'm American and we say it a lot (loads :) ) The sentence you gave is of course a proper English full sentence, but it's not an "expression." In any case, what we are dealing with here is a Chinese expression, which happens to have a counterpart in American (?) English, but I guess maybe not in UK English...
Thank you for the information, But i am hearing "jiàn" as "tiàn", I am still hearing a "t" instead of "j" , this was my question from the begening.
What is the difference between "好久不见" and "好久不见了"? I've come across the latter and it seemed more "natural" to me but it is considered wrong here.
"Long time no see!" The grossest expression in the English language. It make sme want to throw up. I have never heard anyone say this phrase,. I have never used this phrase either and I will never say this phrase. The correct phrase is "I haven't seen you in a long time"
Actually "Long time no see" has been used for over a hundred years and hence has become part of the language even though it is technically grammatically incorrect. It originally appeared in some westerns in the mid 1800s. The phrase was most likely picked up from either Native Americans or Chinese railroad workers. It is grammatically correct in Chinese.
