"好久不见！"
Translation:Long time no see!
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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."
i look up dictionary but i can't find that mean. according to dictionary as a adverb 好 means "well"
2806
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.
- 1623
In English, "a good amount of time" also means "a long time." So thinking of 好久 in the same way shouldn't be too difficult.
"It's been a good amount of time since we last spoke."
"It's been a good length of time since I've last seen her .
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!
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.
- 1853
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."
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.
It's what's known as a calque, a phrase translated word for word, coming from this exact phrase.
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.
Yes, you're right. This phrase originated when Chinese immigrants came to California in the 19th and 20th century, and they would say long time no see to English speakers, and the English speakers started to use this phrase as well
