"星期天她们一般去跑步或者爬山。"
Translation:They usually go running or hiking on Sundays.
18 Comments
In English there's a world of difference between hiking and mountain climbing. Is 远足 a common term in Chinese? Can I use it for "hiking"?
When Chinese say 爬山 99% of the time they mean hiking or just a walk with a small hill!
I can remember having a confused conversation (雞同鴨講） with an elderly Chinese woman once, who insisted she went "mountain climbing" every week. It turned out she meant a Sunday stroll in the park…文化不同常常會搞不太情趣 …
152
Not really, hiking is usually called 爬山. I've spent a good bit of time in China, even hiked a few times, and I've never heard 远足. I've heard 登山, but this is more a formal version of 爬山, and it too can refer to either hiking or mountaineering.
it's a little hard to find the exact counterpart of hiking in chinese. 远足 is a good word. I think 徒步旅行 or simply 徒步 is also okay.
- 1496
Yes, it is a bit confusing. In informal speaking 爬山 seems much more common. But we can definitely find 远足, 徒步旅行, 踏青, 郊游, 野游, etc. in literature.
In Taiwan, we never use 野遊. 遠足&郊遊 are not used often. 徒步旅行 means walking trip with backpacker.
It seems to me that a sentence with "go [verb]ing" is a little more accurate in a case such as this where you have "去+[verb]" in the Chinese sentence.
- 28
I like how this is translated. What kind of English (e.g. American, British, Australian) is this?
Indeed. With the simple present and an adverb such as "usually", there's no difference in meaning between "On Sundays..." and "On Sunday...".
- 780
How do we know that tā is 她 and not 他? Is there some kind of gendered verb agreement?
Don't worry, it doesn't matter. 他 & 她 are literal habit, depends on the subject if you know He or She. In speaking, "tā" is fine. In Chinese, the subjects don't focus on gender.
