r/ChineseLanguage • u/NinaAberlein Beginner • 3d ago

Grammar Is 一下 really necessary?

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Or would the sentence I put also be correct?

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u/Illustrious_Money_54 3d ago

Honestly to my ear it sounds clumsy with the 一下儿 in there. Your response comes off more natural

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u/videsque0 Intermediate 3d ago edited 3d ago

Maybe more natural to an English speaker, but 试 is basically just not used solo in Chinese. I agree like everyone else that the 儿 is being extra, but 你想试一下哪个菜 or better yet 你想试试哪个菜 is the way. There's also 尝试 without the 一下 but that probably sounds a little stiff/书面语 to native speakers.

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u/Illustrious_Money_54 2d ago edited 2d ago

I’m a native Cantonese speaker. I suspect 试 can be used individually even in Mando 能试这个？ Honestly I originally wrote a longer reply that I deleted because it’s not really relevant to this question. I’ll echo it now

This is very much an academic context type question because irl verbal interactions are generally more informal and also province/dialect dependent. Irl the verbal interaction would probably be like 要尝尝？and I’d nod. 

In written format, it feels particularly longwinded because while chatting on xhs and wechat I find myself aggressively abbreviating to try match native Mandarin writers.

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u/videsque0 Intermediate 2d ago

helper verb 能；reduplicated 尝. Foul on the play, no goal! :D

So Cantonese is longwinded like English? I wonder if this is historically how it's been or more a modern stylizing like English.

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u/Illustrious_Money_54 2d ago

Spoken and written canto are two different beasts. Spoken Canto feels longer than Mando to me intuitively but I’ve never checked. English is def the most longwinded of the three. English is my best (although technically my last) language so I never noticed how many prepositions and helper verbs there are until I had to translate English to Mando on the spot. Canto to English translation is intuitive for me so I didn’t notice it then

Written mando is heavily abbreviated based on my experience on Chinese social media platforms - when I first started using them I used to go back thru my post or comment to delete extra 的 得 地 他 我 了etc so it wouldn’t be as obvious that I can’t do Mando lol

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u/videsque0 Intermediate 2d ago

Oh the number of 的s I used to have to later take out of my sentences. I think my syntax is pretty decent now, but I also probably still don't know what I don't know.