It seems that Mandarin speakers use "yào" in both Future and present, but there seems to be no way of knowing weather it is SPECIFICALLY either present or future in a particular instance:
"Nǐ yào zài fànguǎn chī ma?"
This could mean:
A) "Do you WANT to eat at the restaurant (present tense)?"
or
B) "WILL you be eating at the restaurant (future tense)?"
Which is it?
To the native Mandarin speakers, Thank you for sharing your knowlege.
2007-08-04 04:02:01 · 6 answers · asked by American Dreamer 1 in Travel ➔ Asia Pacific ➔ China
If i was given the Chinese sentence, i would translate it into A. But i have to say B is also correct but sounds a little strange to me.
yào = want
but sometimes yào = will be
so both of the translations are correct. I have to make it clear that there is NO verb tense in Chinese. Since there is no indication of time in the original Chinese sentence, you have to judge the time according to context. But if you want to translate it into English, tense will be a problem. And I think the difference in language makes "translation" a subject in school.
You can try to think it this way. Why not forget about the tense? (Think in Chinese way since there is no verb tense in Chinese.)If he wants to eat at the restaurant. He will probably do so. you can see ommision in tense doesn't create much trouble to deliver the meaning. But yes, the meaning will be accurate with the help of tense. For this problem, I have no idea how to improve it because Chinese language is very casual about tense. It may create ambiguity when translated into another language.
2007-08-04 05:19:43 · answer #1 · answered by Jaspis 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i am not native but i live in an asian country. because of the tenses you mostly have to decide from the context of the situation. the question is if you want to eat at a restaurant. so present tense. yao means a million things and has tons of uses and contexts. the best way to master it is to hang out w/ chinese speakers. or travel to a foreign country.
2007-08-04 04:26:52 · answer #2 · answered by Becca 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great question. It is context driven. Without a context, A is the literal read on the sentence "Ni yao zai fanguan chi ma?"
In the case of B, yao can be said to mean "shall".
You can illustrate this by adding the time indicator jianglai ("future") for emphasis (but it isn't needed to make it a valid sentence):
"Ni jianglai yao zai fanguan chi ma?"
Shall you be eating at the restaurant in the future?
2007-08-04 08:54:34 · answer #3 · answered by snoopy l 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
tenses wuld be three whtever is the language, what has happened (past), what is happening (present) and what will happen (future) got it
2016-05-17 23:25:51 · answer #4 · answered by candida 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The correct answer is A ... present tense.
------------------------------
2007-08-04 07:06:49 · answer #5 · answered by winterlotus 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great question. I hope that you ask more like this.
2007-08-04 04:50:25 · answer #6 · answered by Texas Cowboy 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋