| Change log entry 38802 | |
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| Processed by: | ycandau (2011-12-20 19:18:25 GMT) |
| Comment: |
<< review queue entry 37096 - submitted by 'richwarm' >> Albert submitted the "how about ...?" sense back in 2008. He wrote ~ NONE of the dictionaries I've check have "how about..." as a def, but I think it is. Besides the informant I got it from, here's some proof: http://www.nciku.com/search/all/examples/%E8%A6%81%E4% B8%8D I wonder what other editors think -- Is it just a construct? ("want to or not?") Here's an example sentence from the nciku reference ~ 我们要不去看电影，要不去咖啡厅，你说呢？ We can either go to see a film or go to a coffee shop – which would you prefer? In ABC, it seems that they give one definition of 要不 --- conj. otherwise; or else; or --- but when they give an example sentence, it seems to be illustrating *Albert's* sense of the word, rather than their own definition: 下雨了。要不我们今天不去游泳了吧。 It's raining. Let's not go swimming today. Anyway, the ABC example seems to show that the "how about?" sense need not be about multiple alternatives (e.g. film or coffee shop). It can be simply "How about not going swimming today?" Editor: in fact that sense (w/o multiple alternatives) is what you hear most often. "how about" is a clever translation, although in Chinese it's mostly not interrogative: 要不你自己去吧! (note it's not 你要不, it's not do you want or not) |
| Diff: |
- 要不 要不 [yao4 bu4] /otherwise/or/or else/how about...? (one choice or the other)/either this, or else.../ # + 要不 要不 [yao4 bu4] /otherwise/or/or else/how about...? (one choice or the other)/either this, or else.../ + 要不 要不 [yao4 bu4] /otherwise/or else/how about...?/either... (or...)/ |