"你昨天有什么事情？"
Translation:What happened to you yesterday?
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Is "what was the matter with you yesterday" really the answer? Cant shiqing mean business as well? Like what matters did you have yesterday or what "did u have to do" yesterday?
1713
"What was the matter with you yesterday?" sounds like questioning the misbehaviour of the listener yesterday. This translation is awful. "What matters did you have yesterday?" is miles better. "Did something happen to you yesterday?", another meaning, is also possible.
For questioning misbehavior, we can say
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昨天你幹嘛了(你)？
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昨天你怎麼了(你)？
- 1880
Thanks, Keith. Since this could be interpreted as 'What matters did you have yesterday,' am I right in thinking this is rather like 'what were you doing yesterday, or 'what kept you busy yesterday'?
I 100% agree. "What was the matter with you yesterday" sounds very harsh.
I entered "What did you need to do yesterday" and was marked wrong. I think it is OK, unless someone can explain why it's incorrect.
EDIT June 1, 2019: Default is now "What happened to you yesterday?"
Even with the "need to" the sentence is OK.
我有事情。= I have to do something. There is something the matter with me. I am busy with something. ... There are so many possible ways to translate that, and all right.
Sorry, Dave, but I find "What was wrong with you" just as harsh as the use of "What was the matter with you".
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I'm a native English speaker and to me it doesn't sound at all like questioning the misbehaviour of the listener.
I'm surprised by this. "What's the matter with you?" "What was the matter with you?" These sound clearly very accusatory to me.
I agree too. In the uk it would indicate you thought they were unwell more likely than they were misbehaving. You heard they called in sick, or they left a party really early or something. It's enquiring after their wellbeing not accusatory.
Agreed.
It most prominently connotes the questioning of someone's psychologic situation or acts that seemed unusual.
Yes.
商業／商业 refers to business, so be a bit more careful of how the sentence here expresses.
事情 refers to situation. It is not to be confused with 東西, which means "thing" (physical).
- 1713
Sorry but the explanation of 事情 and 東西 are not accurate.
"Business" in the sense of matters is usually just 事. "This is none of your business." would be "這不關你的事。" We don't say 事情 here.
東西 can also be intangible. e.g. 你在想甚麼東西? / Which things are you thinking about? (although 東西 can be skipped here.)
Yes, this is rather difficult to translate because 事情 (shìqíng) has a broad range of meaning; "thing, matter, business, affair". So depending on context this can mean "what'd you do", "what was wrong", "what happened to you".
i just got this wrong - fair enough - but the correction given, "What did you've to do yesterday?", makes absolutely no sense and is very wrong english
Same here, the suggested 'correct' answer was 'What did you have to do yesterday?', but then I look here in the discussion for some explanation and I find the expected phrase 'What was the matter with you yesterday?' which has a completely different meaning in English. This is just bewildering and hopelessly inadequate for teaching.
The translation in English has a negative connotation - regardless if you say "what was up with you", "what was the matter with you", these all mean that you are negatively questioning the other person. I don't think the Chinese phrase has that same connotation.
Yes. While not accusatory as some have commented the English phrases you used above all have a connotation of something wrong. I.e. "what negative situation caused the changes I observed in your usual pattern of behaviour yesterday ?" I don't find the Chinese sentence has such a negative connotation. It's more like "what did you do yesterday ?" which is a neutral question.
You're on the right track but for some reason, it does seem to only be used for negative happenings. The 事情 is a bit like an event often as a problem. If it were positive, you might alternatively say "zuotian fasheng le shenme"昨天发生了什么
Got given this: "What did you've to do yesterday" as a correction to my version of "What did you do yesterday". Now, I get that my answer can be improved on, and I'm very grateful for this course and really cheer for the awesome dudes who made it (thank you!) but "What did you've to do yesterday" is a fail.
- 1914
I put "What did you do yesterday?" I don't know if that is a correct translation, but Duo's correction was "What did you've to do yesterday?" It is not correct English.
- 1612
Seriously - it's saying that this is the correct response: "What did you've to do yesterday?". This is nonsense and not correct English.
I got the exact same thing. The answer I tried to enter for this was "what did you do yesterday". Supposedly the "correct" answer is something along the lines of "what was the matter with you yesterday?"
It's telling me the correct answer is "what did you've to do yesterday". That's complete gibberish. The answer I tried was "what did you do yesterday".
When I was in China I memorized "what happened = 发生了什么 Fāshēngle shénme" but ........ Strangely, I did find people using 你有什么事情？a lot in China instead of the above and it communicated the same thing so it may not be a literal translation but functionally it does the same "Yesterday you had what thing" The 'thing' is acting like wenti ( ie /issue/problem" ) or negative shijian (ie 'event')
Word by word be: You • yesterday • to have • what • thing/matter/business/issue/event/occurence/task/accident/job/something to do ... ?
I think it can mean that, depending on the situation; it can also mean other things, like "what was up with you yesterday" or "what happened to you yesterday (why did you stand me up)" or "what appointment did you have yesterday" or just "what were you doing yesterday" - we don't have an exact equivalent of this sentence in English; we say different things depending on the context.
I don't necessarily think this is a very accurate english translation.....
I hate this translation, its not intuitive at all and presents a judging tone (rather than more curious)
EVERYTHING ABOUT THING TRANSLATION IS WRONG!!!!!!!!!! CAPSLOCK RAGEEEEEEEE RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!
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I typed "What things happened to you yesterday" but it was marked as wrong. I reported it. Should this be accepted? I think it makes sense in English.
"What business/affair did you have yesterday?" If you think of it that way, the meaning still makes sense. Hope that helps someone.
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When I saw above "what did you've to do yesterday?" I was going to say that's bad English but now I see you're saying that that's duolingo's version. Really? Oh dear. 11 Jan 2022
"What did you have on yesterday?" sounds like you're asking what someone was wearing.
"What did you have on" usually does refer to clothing, but in some regions "what did you have on" (with the dialect meaning of an event or appointment or obligation) would be exactly correct.
This is a terrible translation. It seems like the sentence is really asking, "What matter/task did you have (to do) yesterday" or "what did you have to do yesterday" ... guess this is just one I have to memorize until it is either removed from the exercise or gets improved translations.
Shouldn't it be, What were you busy with yesterday? Or, What were you doing yesterday? or, What did you have going on yesterday? "What was the matter with you" means something like, "Why did you [behave badly unexpectedly] yesterday?" (example, why did you play football unusually badly yesterday when you are usually a good player, or, why did you make my mom mad yesterday when you are usually polite to her, or, why didn't you come to the party when you promised you would come, etc.)
I got as the correct answer: "What was up with you yesterday"- which is not good English and not at all clear.