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- "你知道吗?"
"你知道吗?"
Translation:Do you know?
37 Comments
Is there a difference between 知道 and just 知? Chinese dictionary.org says that 知 means "to know, to be aware", so I'm wondering if/how adding 道 changes the meaning...
1231
There is no difference in meaning, but I think 知 without being followed by 道 in Mandarin only exists in idioms (e.g. 不知好歹). In Cantonese both 知 and 知道 are allowed though.
Am I the only one who doesn't see how this makes sense in English? "Know" requires an object, "do you know?" is not something any native speaker would ever say. "Don't you know?" maybe as a phrase, but not "do you know?".
Instead we would say "do you know xyz thing/(how to) verb/person/place/etc". And I've looked at the meaning of 知道, yet it still doesn't make sense to me in English.
1231
That may not be a very good translation, yet the Chinese sentence is absolutely a viable one.
Examples:
你不应该欺负你弟弟的。你知道吗?
You should not bully your younger brother. Do you understand?.
你知道吗?约翰给开除了!
Have you heard about it? John has been fired!