{"id":6106,"date":"2015-10-15T03:28:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T03:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/?p=6106"},"modified":"2022-05-03T02:45:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T02:45:39","slug":"secrets-of-saying-sorry-correct-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/secrets-of-saying-sorry-correct-use.html","title":{"rendered":"Secrets of Saying Sorry: \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\u201d\u2019s Correct Use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever learned even a little Chinese, you probably know the phrase \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d. In most textbooks, \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d is translated to mean \u201csorry,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d Other books might say it means \u201cExcuse me\u201d. I often hear my beginning students use this phrase. However, you may notice that Chinese people don\u2019t say it that often. Are all Chinese people being rude? Of course not! The difference is that \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d is not 100% the same as the English phrase \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d. In Chinese, \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d is only used when you <strong>did something<\/strong> <strong>wrong, and caused trouble<\/strong>. Today, we will look at this simple but often incorrectly used phrase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s common for an English speaker to say \u201csorry\u201d when he or she feels sorry for someone else\u2019s problem. For example, if I told you that I failed my TOEFL exam, you might expect to be able to reply \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d. However, instead of feeling comforted, most Chinese would feel confused by that reply. As we stated above, this phrase is only used when the person saying it did something wrong. It\u2019s not your fault the person failed the exam! An appropriate response for this bad news could be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u554a\uff1f\u592a\u7cdf\u4e86(a? t\u00e0i z\u0101o le)\u3002Ah? That\u2019s too bad.<\/li><li>\u522b\u96be\u8fc7(bi\u00e9 n\u00e1ngu\u00f2)\u3002Don\u2019t be sad.<\/li><li>\u600e\u4e48\u4f1a(z\u011bnme hu\u00ec)\uff1fHow come this happened?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The only case you could use \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d in response to bad news is if you mentioned something that made the other person sad or uncomfortable. For example,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"custom_example_style\">A\uff1a\u4f60\u7684\u72d7\u600e\u4e48\u6837(n\u01d0 de g\u01d2u z\u011bnmey\u00e0ng)\uff1fHow is your dog?<br>B\uff1a\u6211\u7684\u72d7\u6b7b\u4e86(w\u01d2 de g\u01d2u s\u01d0 le)\u3002My dog passed away.<br>A\uff1a\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\uff01I\u2019m sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case, it\u2019s your \u201cfault\u201d that you mentioned the sad thing, so it would make sense to use \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d to apologize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One other time it\u2019s appropriate to use \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d is when we might use the English phrase \u201cExcuse me\u201d. Again, if you\u2019re causing someone trouble or inconvenience, then you can use \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0).\u201d For example,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\uff0c\u8fd9\u662f\u6211\u7684\u5ea7\u4f4d(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0, zh\u00e8 sh\u00ec w\u01d2 de zu\u00f2w\u00e8i)\u3002= Excuse me, but this is my seat.<\/li><li>\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\uff0c\u8bf7\u8ba9\u6211\u8fc7\u53bb(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0, q\u01d0ng r\u00e0ng w\u01d2 gu\u00f2q\u00f9)\u3002= Excuse me, please let me pass.<\/li><li>\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\uff0c\u8bf7\u518d\u8bf4\u4e00\u904d(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0, q\u01d0ng z\u00e0i shu\u014d y\u00edbi\u00e0n)\u3002= Pardon me, please say it again.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Aside from \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0),\u201d there are always other phrases one might hear a lot in Chinese. One of these is \u201c\u4e0d\u597d\u610f\u601d(b\u00f9 h\u01ceo y\u00ec si),\u201d which also means \u201csorry,\u201d but is not as emotionally strong as \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0).\u201d In most cases, \u201c\u4e0d\u597d\u610f\u601d(b\u00f9 h\u01ceo y\u00ec si)\u201d is equal to \u201cexcuse me.\u201d For example, if you accidentally bump into someone, \u201c\u4e0d\u597d\u610f\u601d(b\u00f9 h\u01ceo y\u00ec si)\u201d is a good choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another often-used phrase is \u201c\u62b1\u6b49(b\u00e0o qi\u00e0n)\u201d. This one is quite formal, but is still used very frequently, especially in Taiwan. \u201c\u62b1\u6b49(b\u00e0o qi\u00e0n)\u201d is often preceeded by \u201c\u5f88(h\u011bn),\u201d which intensifies it. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u6211\u4eec\u6ca1\u6709\u5b8c\u6210\u5408\u540c\uff0c\u6211\u5f88\u62b1\u6b49(w\u01d2 men m\u00e9iy\u01d2u w\u00e1n ch\u00e9ng h\u00e9tong, w\u01d2 h\u011bn b\u00e0oqi\u00e0n)\u3002We didn\u2019t complete the contract. I feel sorry.<\/li><li>\u6211\u4e0d\u80fd\u53c2\u52a0\u8fd9\u6b21\u4f1a\u8bae\uff0c\u6211\u5f88\u62b1\u6b49(w\u01d2 b\u00f9 n\u00e9ng c\u0101nji\u0101 zh\u00e8 c\u00ec hu\u00ecy\u00ec, w\u01d2 h\u011bn b\u00e0oqi\u00e0n)\u3002I can\u2019t attend this meeting. I feel sorry.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of how formal this phrase is, it typically doesn\u2019t carry much emotional weight. As a native speaker, I usually won\u2019t use this phrase with my friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now you know the secrets of saying \u201csorry\u201d in Chinese. So, next time your Chinese friend tells you they failed their exam, don\u2019t say \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)!\u201d Unless, of course, you caused it to happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve ever learned even a little Chinese, you probably know the phrase \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d. In most textbooks, \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77(du\u00ec b\u00f9 q\u01d0)\u201d is translated to mean \u201csorry,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d Other books might say it means \u201cExcuse me\u201d. I often hear my beginning students use this phrase. However, you may notice that Chinese people don\u2019t&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":6109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,176],"tags":[122,93,80],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-6106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn-mandarin-online","category-usage","tag-chinese-culture","tag-how-to-use","tag-self-study","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Secrets of Saying Sorry: \u201c\u5bf9\u4e0d\u8d77\u201d\u2019s Correct Use<\/title>\n
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Her first teaching job was teaching high school Chinese in Philippines and realized how much she loved this job. In 2007, she came back Shanghai and spent 7 years in ChinesePod. During that, she also went to America to learn language learning knowledge and curriculum editing by teaching in a high school. Now she works in a start-up company and has developed a new Chinese learning app-HelloChinese. 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