"好久不见！"
Translation:Long time no see!
29 Comments
75
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"
- 1490
You can check the Oxford Chinese Dictionary. Does your dictionary contain such a phrase — 好 + adj. , like 好漂亮 (very/so beautiful)?
- 1633
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.
- 1490
Rather literally, “Have you been waiting a long time?” is “你等了很久吗？” or “你等很久了吗？” or “你等了很久了吗？”. You can also replace 很久 with 很长时间, e.g. 你等很长时间了吗？
- Or better: (抱歉，)让您久等了 (bào qièn, ) ràng nín jiú děng le — Sorry for having you wait this long.
- Note: 抱歉=sorry 等=wait 让=(let / make sb. do sth.) 了=(perfection/completion/state-change marker)
“It's been a long time since I've seen him.” could be:
- 我和他好久不见了 literally: I and he for a long time haven't met
- 我好久没见过他了 literally: I for a long time haven't met him (Use 没 “do not have” instead of 不. Just take it as “no evidence that … I saw him”)
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)
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.
- 710
It's ungrammatical, but it is used often and came from Chinese originally, so it's a kind of in-joke.
- 1490
It is a funny slang. I don't know if Duo accepts “I haven't seen you for ages / a long time.”
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.
- 1490
The latter is more of an (slight) exclamation, just like 太好了 (Great!) 太可爱了 (So cute!), which will be taught in another lesson.
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.
"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.
