"太好了！"
Translation:Very good!
29 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Couldn't this also mean, "So good!" I've been told that 太…了 means "So...!" For positive things and "Too...!" For negatives.
You have to remember that our words express actions, feelings, describe things, etc...This is especially true with Mandarin characters.
It can mean both, and it's not going to translate perfectly into English. What matters is that what you are expressing is understood. "Very good" and "so good" are basically interchangable from our English point of view.
The formula is "太 + adjective + 了" to say "too adjective". That's just how they do it.
Reminds of YouTube's "Food Ranger"! Check it out guys! It's about a 加拿大人 that 会说汉语 traveling through 中国 and trying all kinds of 太好吃的饭. He says "太好了" all the time.
783
For the dog sentence they translate it as "so" but for this sentence "very". Confusing.
It should be. It's ambiguous because there's no context, but since good (好) is almost always used as a positive, they probably want you to use it as such, but it could be a negative, like if you're complaining that a competitor in a game is "too good."
It shouldn't translate as "very good" though. 太 is pretty much exclusively used to mean something to an extreme degree. "Very" simply doesn't capture the meaning well.
In the tips, they give 太 as 'very', 'too', 'much'. I don't understand the 'very' translation like in 'it's very good but could get better still', but rather like an appreciative exclamation: 'Wow, very good!'
The answer
So good!
should also be accepted.
It should be noted that 太 + ... + 了 translates to both 'too' and 'so'. Usually, it translates to 'too' when '...' has a negative meaning and to 'so' when '...' has a positive meaning. As it is extensively illustrated here.
Reported.
Based on watching the food ranger (Trevor James) on youtube - this seems to be one of the most useful generic phrases to know!
Its like a sentence finisher so you don't sound awkward, is how I remembered learning in first grade
- 1136
What are the differences among: 太; 很 and 非常. As if we combined each them with 好, all are translated as very good. And when should we use each of them?
When does tài mean very, so, and too? it seems that sometimes only some of those are allowed and they all have different meanings in english
- 155
太 usually means "too" in most cases, but the exact meaning depends on the context. In this case, "太好了" would literally mean "(That) was too good!", but the actual English translation would be "Very good!" as an exclamation. Hence, in this one situation 太 would mean "very".
- 1117
I tried "Well done" but the owl didn't like it.... How would you say "Well done!" in Chinese?