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- "你有点儿高。"
"你有点儿高。"
Translation:You are a bit tall.
41 Comments
Google's reverse translation of 你有点八高 is "You are a little bit high", lol
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Many posts on the forum say 有点儿 means too much of something in a negative way. The natural English equivalent would be: "You are a bit too tall" or " you are a little too tall."
有点 is placed before an adjective, and while used for descriptions, it also expresses a tone of complaint by the speaker, or some other form of negative impression. It doesn't just mean "a bit," but rather "a bit too" (for the speaker's liking).
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Comparing_%22youdian%22_and_%22yidian%22
However, Duo marked "you are a bit too tall" as wrong.
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My initial feeling was for “You are quite tall”, which need not mean “very tall”. In British English I don’t think you would ever say “a bit tall” on its own, without a context. I’d not go so far as to say that “a bit tall” is wrong, but imo it’s not good English without a context. So, “Do you like driving that small car?” “No, I’m a bit tall”.
Just looking at someone and saying “ You’re a bit tall” might actually mean “You’re very tall!”!
"You are quite tall" gives the same meaning and should be accepted as well, right?
I dont think so. "Quite" feels like "very," whereas 有一点 is more like "slightly tall."
I think a British English speaker might say quite when they mean "a little" but to American English speakers it's not the same
Just to confuse things, when we say quite tall we mean a bit, but quite tall means a lot. And the answer I gave here was 'a bit tall', but honestly, if a British person says "you're a bit tall" we probably mean you're very tall as well!
Only in that 一点儿 and 一下 can mean "a little bit" of something. But 一下 is really more like "once"; 等一下 = wait a moment, 看一下 = "take a look", 休息一下 = "rest a bit".
Although the sentences are similar, a bit and quite are different words by themselves. Just like a bit and quite are different words in English, Chinese probably also has separate words for them, ig they even have a word for quite at all.
With adjectives you don't usualy use 是 unless you are stressing it out. It is discused above so you should know by now. 你很高 Here 有点儿 (somewhat) plays the same grammatical role as 很 (very).
I answered "...kind of tall." and of course was wrong. I would never say "a bit tall." and find it "a bit" strange as a native English speaker in the U.S.
If you looked at the Duolingo tips, you would know that 有点儿 means complaining politely
Why is it “很” as the connecting conjecture and not “是”？ I thought they taught US that “很” means very， and not to mean you are， which we were taught was “是”。
"a bit" is not something I say or hear many Americans say. I answered "...somewhat tall." and was marked wrong.
Why is 有 used here? I know it's right but to me it would translate to "You have a bit tall".
有点儿 is distinct from 一点 in that it signifies the adjective as undesirable, e.g. 有点儿冷 is, roughly, "it's a bit TOO cold." The meaning comes from the compound word - it doesn't arise directly from the literal translation of the component characters.
Thank you Captain Obvious. The original post says "I know it's right". Your reply is not very helpful.
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My point is, that “why” isn’t a helpful question. How does it work? OK - “You have the quality of tallness”.
None of your examples apply here. In all of them "have" refers to the noun, not the adjective as in the instant question. When you say "You have big feet", what you "have" are feet. You don't have "big"
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In British English it’s as normal to say “You have big feet” as “your feet are big”. So we have at least two ways of saying it.
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We just tend not to use the “you have” form for a whole body. I think we do when the type of body is qualified in some other way: “He had a tall, basketball player’s, body”.
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If you were talking to a boxer you might say something along the lines of “you have height, but you don’t have reach”.
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Even: “you have a bit of height, but you lack reach”. “That gunfighter – he’s got some cool!” (Can’t add new comment so added to most recent)
What does you are a bit tall even mean in English! Do they mean a bit too tall? Or quite tall, rather tall, very tall?
That's a different meaning. That's saying you're a bit taller (than someone, than before, etc.).
While 有点儿 means a bit TOO tall (in the negative way), like saying this is a bit too big, too small.
