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Why not!


adrianlondon

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How do you say "why not!". Note the exclamation mark. I want to respond to a question such as "why did you cycle all around the 3rd ring road?" with the rhetorical "why not!".

Is it something as simple as 为什么不要!

And yes, I did cycle around the 3rd ring road today; and no, there wasn't a real reason for doing so. Had I known before had that it was 50km a loop, I wouldn't have bothered :)

And while I'm asking this question, let's throw in another : How do I say "I'm not fussed" or "I've no real opinion on that".

If some asks me whether downloading films from the internet is a good thing or not, I want to reply with "couldn't give a damn, really". Something a bit more snappy than 对我没有意思 if, of course, that is correct in the first place.

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我无所谓 sounds perfect! Thanks. A nice stock phrase.

And 为什么不呢 looks the part, too.

I've got a few young (late teens, early 20s) Chinese guys that I sometimes chat with on MSN. I'll run these by them and see if they pass scrutiny :)

Unfortunately (or not), I quite like some of the youth-speak such as 挺cool的 and 比较ok啦!

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有何不可 definitely sounds more "snappy" - 为什么不呢 looks like a direct translation of the English (in fact I would put money on it). I wonder if there are equivalent phrases of the latter in other "dialects" besides Mandarin and Cantonese (i.e. those dialects that have had less English influence).

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Can I say 點解唔好?

No. You'd only say 點解唔好 when someone else said something is 唔好。

For why not? use:

唔得咩?(不行吗?)

唔畀呀?(不给【允许】吗?)belligerent

钟意啰。(喜欢呗。)

钟意ak。(我就喜欢,怎么样?)belligerent

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No. You'd only say 點解唔好 when someone else said something is 唔好。

For why not? use:

唔得咩?(不行吗?)

唔畀呀?(不给【允许】吗?)belligerent

钟意啰。(喜欢呗。)

钟意ak。(我就喜欢,怎么样?)belligerent

What's the differences in "why not". Every person I hear on the streets say "點解唔好".

So I guess my "english" definition of "why not" was incorrect. 唔得咩 being a statement used in situations of "願意"? while "點解唔好" is used as a question to determine the reason why the person doesn't [verb]?

Would that be right? Does this "why not" reflect "冇問題"?

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The original question was "why did you cycle all around the 3rd ring road?"

你点解要围住三环路嚟踩单车嘅?

You shouldn't use 点解唔好 in reply, because the questioner didn't say:

你唔好围住三环路嚟踩单车呀!

“点解唔好” 有少少答非所问。

Another good answer is: 有咩问题呀?

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The original question was "why did you cycle all around the 3rd ring road?"

你点解要围住三环路嚟踩单车嘅?

You shouldn't use 点解唔好 in reply, because the questioner didn't say:

你唔好围住三环路嚟踩单车呀!

“点解唔好” 有少少答非所问。

Another good answer is: 有咩问题呀?

對唔住,我冇睇過以前發表嘅文章.

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