"手机被我的弟弟用坏了。"
Translation:The cellphone was broken by my younger brother.
38 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
坏 is an adjective, so a verb like 用 (to use) is needed. Personally, I would say 弄坏 (to make broken).
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How does 用 (a verb) attach to 坏 (an adjective) without using 得 ?
It doesn't show up as a verb on Yellowbridge or Google, so why doesn't it follow the grammar rule for 得 ?
用坏/弄坏 is a verb which means break something. They shouldn't be seen as separated
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Okay, I found it as a verb on MDBG. It makes me wonder if it is a newer verb or only used as one in certain places. I like how some English dictionaries show the time period for when a word first came into use.
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For 'to break/to ruin', 弄坏 (nong4 huai4) seems to be much more common. I could only find 用坏 in one dictionary, and even then its meaning is 'to wear out'
If they did this with a Mandarin dictionary I would be curious if they would know when the characters came into existance.
NikolaiYourin what you're saying worries me a bit. What kind of Chinese is Duolingo teaching us? I thought che contributors were all native Chinese speakers. Am I paying for a service run by learners just like me? What the...
坏 is a resultative complement of 用. It appears directly after the verb to show that this is the result of te verb. It is used with 得 to show ability for that outcome and 不 to show inability for that outcome.
Other examples of resultative compliments you may be familiar with are:
看清楚，看得清楚，看不清楚
听懂，听得懂，听不懂
The phone was broken by my brother.
Not many people say 'younger brother'. Not many people say 'cellphone'.
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"Little brother" is more common than the formal-sounding "younger brother". If you have a little brother and a big brother it's very common to use the "big" or "little" and not just "brother" on its own. Especially if you're talking to somebody who knows you and your brothers.
Americans say "cellphone" or just "cell". In Australia we say "mobile phone" or "mobile". But these days they're the most usual kind of telephone so lots of people just say "phone". All versions should be accepted.
If we mean something other than cell/mobile we say landline. The distinction in phone numbers (04 for mobile) also helps keep those clear for us. - Melbourne, Australia
What if the younger brother is bigger than the older one? Furthermore, "little brother" is used in the childhood, rather than for pensioners.
Physical size does not have a bearing on "little brother" and "big brother" in standard usage. Those terms only indicate the brothers' relative age.
Not really sure about just "broken" - but more precisely, the Chinese suggests "broken through use".
Theoretically yes, but first, it's just "broken" in English, and second, 用坏 aims to express the status that something was broken. When you really want to emphasize how it was broken, you should add a verb like smash, or hit etc.
No, broken means 破坏, i.e. simply destroy without the meaning of 'use'; 用坏 means broken after long use.
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"The cell phone is broken by my younger brother" was not accepted. :( Is/was it because of is/was?
Your sentence is grammatically correct, but there are not many instances when that phrasing (present tense, passive voice) would be used to describe this sort of incident. It could be used to caption a photograph or video of your brother breaking the phone.
I understand that it is using the word for younger brother, but this should also accept brother.
Shouldn't the translation be "my younger brother broke the cellphone" as to avoid passive voice.
The mobile phone was damaged by my younger brother. --> should be accepted.
"My little brother broke the phone" should've been accepted, but was rejected.
