Some Questions About 自己

[laser2302]

Hi everyone, hope all of you are fine and doin' great.

I was reading a Chinese article and I came across a phrase that I cannot completely understand. The phrase goes like this "失去了很多本来自己认为更加重要的东西。"

Please tell me if this sentence means:

"Lose many things that were originally thought to be more important to us"

OR

"Lose many things that were originally thought by us/ourselves to be more important"

If we break this sentence using a Chinese-Ordered English (COE), we come up with something like this

失去了 很多 本来 自己 认为 更加 重要 的 东西

Lost many originally oneself think more important things

By breaking this sentence using COE, it seems that the meaning of this sentence is the later one ("Lose many things that were originally thought by us/ourselves to be more important"), and if this is the wrong translation or if the meaning of this sentence is the former sentence, then how do you say the second sentence in Chinese.

Also please tell me what is the use of 自己 in this sentence "他自己认为这件事很重要". Can't we simply say "他认为这件事很重要". What's the difference?

[skylee]

The second translation is correct.

Also please tell me what is the use of 自己 in this sentence "他自己认为这件事很重要". Can't we simply say "他认为这件事很重要". What's the difference?

The use of 自己 here is to stress that other people may not think that the matter is important. He could be the only one who thinks that the matter is important. If you drop 自己 from the sentence, then this implication is gone.

Compare -

國家主席認爲這件事很重要。 with

國家主席自己認爲這件事很重要。

[lyndon_k]

I think this sentence means the second one.

[rootfool]

."失去了很多本来自己认为更加重要的东西。"

I felt a bit strange at first sight of this sentence

hmm,It many because the word "本来".It gave me an information:things he thought very important are not so important now.

but the word "失去" let me felt some regrets,implied things are still important now.

So,I searched it in baidu.And most results point to an article:

他们常常在劳累的过后思考自己生存的目的，思考自己拼命工作的缘由，思考自己工作和生活的苦恼。思考之后发现，似乎只是为了工作而工作，或者为了金钱而工作，失去了很多本来自己认为更加重要的东西。

in this article,the author means "after thinking about what they work for,people find they lost many things whick should be more important than money.

OK,I could understand it now.But it contains such this:1)He thought money is not so important some times.2)He still think this now.3)And there's a period in the middle he thought money is the most important thing .

it's a bit weird,isn't it?After a person thought about the relation between money and other things he believed money is not so important,and changed his mind just because hard work?(the word "更加" indicate that he had compared them seriously.)

I think "失去了很多更加重要的东西" is more proper here.

does anyone have the same feeling with me?

[YangJiao]

"Lose many things that were originally thought by us/ourselves to be more important"

i believe this one is right.