"有没有风险的投资吗？"
Translation:Is there a risk free investment?
32 Comments
Wow this one is confusing. I thought the '有没有' in the sentence was used to indicate 'Is there or is there not' instead of having '没有‘ modifying the word '风险‘ to mean risk-free.
Would 'Is there a risky investment?' also be an acceptable translation? If not, why?
Is it the 吗 at the end of the sentence that indicates that 没有 modifies 风险 in this sentence?
I think you're right, but surely this would be a confusing sentence, even to Chinese ears, before you reach the last word.
524
A Chinese speaker would give a slight pause after the first 有 to indicate that it does not belong with 沒有, but with the 嗎 that will be coming at the end.
If you want the sentence to be less confusing you could insert a pause before 没有 when speaking, I think.
- 524
Yes, that's how people would normally speak. Duolingo should do the same here.
Wouldn't 无 in place of 没有 be less confusing and get the same meaning across just as well?
Which character conveys the "free" aspect of "risk free"? I would have expected this sentence to mean"Is there a risk to the investment?"
- 281
有投资吗？= Is there an investment? 有风险的投资= a risky investment 没有风险的投资= a risk-free investment (I think)
Can any native speaker comment on whether "有免风险的投资吗" would be a valid alternative? If so, maybe the Duolingo staff could make the change? (Copied Winston's suggestion, since it's being dragged down by its parent comment.)
- 30
No. However, Adam's suggestion 无 is valid. 免 isn't used this way (I don't really know how to explain how its used, sorry)
I think 免 means getting rid of or avoiding something actively. 无 or 低 seems to work better to mean risk free or low risk.
- 121
Native here. As others ponined out: 无 is better than 免。无 is closest in meaning as 没有。免 on the other hand, means a little different is used in a slightly different scenario. 无 means no in a "never existed" way. 免 also means no but in a "existed or could have existed, but is preventable, prevented or exampted". For example: 无罪 means not guilty, while 免罪 means crime exempted. 无风险 means no risk to begin with, while 免风险 could be something like, there could be huge risk but because you have "good connections", you are gonna end up being able to get away with it.
This is confusing, I mistook it as 'Is there a risky investment?'. Would '没有风险的投资有吗？' be a correct sentence? I do think it sounds a bit strange but at least the '有没有' is seperated.
- 249
这个句子太麻烦了! I admit, I also fell into this trap, not noticing that question particle at the end. It is a really good lesson: pay attention to the details. By the way, I tried it in Google translate: it also got it wrong! So, it is not ambiguous, just tricky. But if you make a statement out of this question, that's when ambiguity comes to the scene: 有没有风险的投资 would mean "there's a risk-free investment", but can it be also a question? Like, "Is there a risky investment?" I wonder, what would our respected native experts say. Alas, no dictionary I checked provides translation for "risk-free". "Risky"? Easy: 有风险. "Risk-free"? Sorry, no such thing. :D
This sentence is way too ambiguous. It could also be translated as "Is there a risky investment?"/"are there risky investments?"
No, it can't. That's what it would say if there were no 吗 at the end. The fact that there is a 吗 is the clue that 有没有 is not for a yes/no question, but something else.
At first, I thought so, too. Apparently there is no error here, although surely 有免风险的投资吗？would be less confusing.
The 有没有 isn't what you think it is. It uses the 有。。。吗 structure and is asking if a 没有风险的投资 exists
