"你们要不要点菜?"
Translation:Do you want to order?
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1590
In Mainland China it really depends upon the type of restaurant. Most of the Mom & Pop places are super informal and simply say 你们想吃什么?
The answer to your question is complex. I suggest you read this well-written article https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/xiang3-yao4-xiang3yao4-difference/
I don't think 要不要 insinuates "or not" at all! This is just a grammatical structure very common in Chinese! Adding "or not" in English strongly suggests a kind of mood (impatience maybe) that is definitely not present in the Chinese sentence!
I agree that creating this analogy is useful to understand the logic behind the sentence, but I think it should be avoided in the translation!
I do agree with you on the 们 part, though!
221
Why limit their order choice to simply food ? They may choose hot water or tea while they look at the menu.
What I learned is the following: Regardless of how many tones, every third tone but the last becomes a second tone. 3-3-3 -> 2-2-3 In theory, anyways, in reality a speaker's cadence might break up larger chains of third tones into multiple smaller pieces of everything-but-the-last-tone-is-a-second-one. 3-3-3-3-3-3 -> 2-2-3 [break] 2-2-3
932
This exercise cannot seem to make its mind up at to whether "want" or "wish" is the correct translation of the Chinese verb 'Yao'. Consecutive questions marked me wrong whichever one I used.