"I am not a punctual person."
Translation:我不是一个准时的人。
11 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
准 (zhǔn) = to allow/to permit OR accurate/definitely
时 (shí) = o'clock/time/period
准时 (zhǔnshí) = on time/punctual
Is "一个" strictly necessary here? If not, is there a difference in nuance with it versus without?
1584
In oral Chinese, they almost certainly would leave out the 一 (我不是个准时的) but I think for the most part people are going to use the measure word.
That sounds right. I wonder if leaving out the measure word would make it mean something like "the punctual person", e.g. the punctual one in the group.
- 1584
Well, I'm not a native speaker so I may be wading way outside of my expertise, but I have lived in China for a long time and my oral Chinese is pretty fluent. I think the distinction would be similar to, "I am punctual" versus "I am a punctual person". For instance: 我是中国的 (I am Chinese) vs 我是个中国人 (I am a Chinese person).
Makes sense – thanks. (Perhaps a native speaker will weigh in at some point...)
Because "准时人" isn't a set phrase, which is where you would often get the adjective and noun pushed together and "的" pushed out. Instead we just have a normal adjective in front of a noun, with the two to be linked with "的" as is usual in the general case.
