Conditional sentences in Chinese: If I were... I would...

Translations to and from Chinese.
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Anatoli
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2005 3:53 pm

Conditional sentences in Chinese: If I were... I would...

Post by Anatoli »

Can someone give a few examples of sentences like:

If I were you I wouldn't do it.

I need not a real condition (If the weather IS fine) but unreal (If the weather WERE fine).
我是俄国人,可是我住在澳大利亚
Rhin
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:49 am

Post by Rhin »

Hi

If I were you I wouldn't do this.

如果我是你(的话), 我不会这样做.

The words in brackets are optional.

If = 如果
我 = I
是你 = were/am you
不会 = would not (in this context)
这样做 = do this

There are many Chinese equivalents of "if", like “如果“, ”倘若“, “要是”, and they basically mean the same thing.

In Chinese there is no distinction between (If the weather IS fine) and (If the weather WERE fine).

It is 如果天气好(的话) for either case.
Anatoli
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2005 3:53 pm

Post by Anatoli »

Rhin wrote:Hi

If I were you I wouldn't do this.

如果我是你(的话), 我不会这样做.

The words in brackets are optional.

If = 如果
我 = I
是你 = were/am you
不会 = would not (in this context)
这样做 = do this

There are many Chinese equivalents of "if", like “如果“, ”倘若“, “要是”, and they basically mean the same thing.

In Chinese there is no distinction between (If the weather IS fine) and (If the weather WERE fine).

It is 如果天气好(的话) for either case.
Thanks very much, Rhin.

If there is no distinction between a real and an unreal condition, how do you distinguish between, say - I WILL NOT do this and I WOULD NOT do this. I understand there are no grammatical moods in Chinese as in European languages. The reason I am asking is I have to explain the reverse - this usage of WERE and WOULD to my Chinese penpal and a similar construct in Russian.

Thanks in advance.

Anatoli
我是俄国人,可是我住在澳大利亚
Rhin
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:49 am

Post by Rhin »

Hi Anatoli

Distinguishing between "I WILL NOT do this" and "I WOULD NOT do this" is mainly based upon context.

For "will", since it's saying what you will do in the future, mavbe can add a "将" in front of the sentence. eg. 我(将)不会这么做。 But, it seems a little redundant...

Hope that's helpful.
Anatoli
Posts: 25
Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2005 3:53 pm

Post by Anatoli »

Rhin wrote:Hi Anatoli

Distinguishing between "I WILL NOT do this" and "I WOULD NOT do this" is mainly based upon context.

For "will", since it's saying what you will do in the future, mavbe can add a "将" in front of the sentence. eg. 我(将)不会这么做。 But, it seems a little redundant...

Hope that's helpful.
Thank you, Rhin Somehow, I don't get notifications from this forum and I didn't know you answered.
我是俄国人,可是我住在澳大利亚
cake
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:52 pm

Post by cake »

WELL...................it's a intricate question.
when a sentence ues will,,,,,,,yehh, it means it will be happen,but not already happen or is happenning,,,,,in chinese we use "将" instead of
"will",,,
whatsmore "将"in chinese usually can be understand us "将来"(future),
but ,,,,,,,,,,(it is very important),in chinese ,people ususlly dont use"将"to express sth will happen,,,,,,,(though it means so),,we will use other thing, e.g. the whole context,,or some pronoun of time ,like tomorrow ,,next year,,,
ok ,,,,,,,just take it easy,,,,,,,,u can understand it when u speaking,

i feel so luck that so many kindhearted people help me when i learn english, so now, if u wanna help of learning chinese, maybe i can help u

hope my english is not so poor for u to read,
good luck
心情不错~~~~~~~~~~`
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