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- "Please speak more slowly!"
"Please speak more slowly!"
Translation:请说慢一点儿！
43 Comments
“请慢一点儿说” also works, I am a native speaker, I dunno why I am doing Chinese, but yeah....
Please tell me, 慢 is a verb adverb or adjective?
Plus if it is an adverb why you did not put 得 before it ?
Also i thought 一点儿 make the adjective comparative, am i right ? And if not please tell me what is the equivalent of 一点儿 in english, and tell me how to make a comparative
Thanks in advance
496
Let me have a crack at this since no-one has answered you in 8 months. I'm not a native speaker of Chinese. I just share your interest in the form of 慢so I decided to look into it.
Yandex confirms that 请慢一点儿说 is acceptable and seems common and I'm guessing it's not considered slang either https://translate.yandex.com/?lang=en-zh&text=Please%20speak%20more%20slowly
慢 can be all 3 forms in Chinese - in English slow can be an adj or verb (slowly as an adv). In 请说慢一点儿 the 慢 is likely an adverb like " a bit more slowly" rather than a comparative adjective (slower). I'll tell you why I think this:
I know 一点儿 can be used for comparisons but I think if you consider the descriptor an adj, you'd usually need the 比 (bi) or 更 (geng) once it is clearly established as one. Even though, Yandex will translate "Please speak slower" the same way as "Please speak more slowly" the moment you establish it clearly as a comparative adj, it adds bi. and eventually drops 一点儿 For example, if you said " This time, speak slower than before 这次说话比以前慢 the 比以 is added and the一点儿 is finally dropped. English is flexible in that you can say "Please speak (a bit) slower" and it is accepted because you assume 'slower than before' so it is acceptable. Of course, for communication purposes, it does not matter since 慢 serves as both without needing inflection
....but for 请慢一点儿说 I think there are three possible reasons it works as well:
1) 慢 could be a verb, while coupled with 说 something like "slow down a bit [as you] speak" (unlikely explanation I think but it's possible...)
2) 慢 is an adverb but a rare (for Chinese adverbs) position-flexible one that can be before the verb. In English, it is more common to have position-flexible adverbs, but there are other cases of Chinese adverbs positioning themselves before verbs and even subjects such as měitiān
3) 说 is a flexible verb that positions itself at the end in an imperative sentence. There are sentences like this with other verbs such as 'move' (xingdong) Please move quickly is 请快点行动 qing kwai dian xingdong
Communicatively there seems to be no difference, but one commentator in https://hinative.com/zh-CN/questions/1356775 says that 请慢一点儿说 may be more of a command, while 请说慢一点儿 is more a request but many others say there is no difference.
Hope this helps until a Chinese grammarian helps us out and clarifies.
I totally agree, I live with a Native speaker and he said that was acceptable. Come on Duo!
Im American and I do English lessons in Chinese to help practice Chinese in a different way
i know why you chose your native language, you are obsessed with winning and Duo makes this a game format with the leader board they however erroneously they may think that pitting different language learners against eachother with different rewards is fare.. bottom line you want to win something... Go TO BED you piss me off
It is teaching us to use 得 for adverbs in the grammar, and then in the first example it is not required. Bad sentence for this lesson I would say.
- 1020
慢 here means slow, modifying the verb 說/speak; So it is an adverb.
一点儿 means "a little" and is usually an adjective before nouns; 有一点儿 is an adverbial phrase for "a little" before adjectives and adverbs; It often implies "too" as well,
e.g. 这件衣服有一点儿旧
Lit. This piece of clothes is a little (too) old.
~一点儿 placing in arrears is actually a special form that changes an adjective or an adverb into comparative, while carrying the meaning of "a little" as magnitude.
So 慢一点儿 is "a little slower". 请说慢一点儿 is literally "Please speak a little slower."
Ohhhh!!! So 一点儿 makes an adjective a comparative, and makes the verb an adverb, and can be an adjective itself. And 慢 could be a verb adverb and adjective.
So 跑慢一点儿 can mean: Run slowly, a slower run
- 1020
It makes sense to me from the time I learned to read and write...
And how come would using a postposition not making sense with the word "please"?
How can 慢 modify 说 here without 得 between them? Isn't that rule that it must be 说得慢？
Why is it not "请说得慢一点儿"? I thought "说得" meant speak. If it isn't, what does it mean?
- 1020
Firstly, 请慢用 is an idiomic usage. You won't say it in other occasions and in an informal situation. (So it's not used often unless you are a waiter/waitress.)
Secondly, adverbial phrase placing before or after the verb have different implications.
请快一点说
means tell me/us quickly
The speed refer to the time lapsed before the action start.
请说快一点
means say it quickly
The speed refers to the speech itself.
Is there any difference between speak and say in Chinese? To me this seems like we're telling them to say the exact words "more slowly"
- 1020
There are several characters and words in Chinese about speaking, saying, telling, etc. and they don't perfectly match "speak" and "say". Therefore it is not possible to make a simple inference.
I used to speak with native speaker and i think we can says "qing man shuo yi dian r"
I thought "speak" is implicit in a sentence like this and omitted 说. Duolingo should be kind enough to accept it!
