大家 and 人家

[Ari 桑]

I'm a little unclear as to the correct usage of 人家 and how it differs from 大家. Can 人家 refer to yourself? Or to some general concept of people?

My friend wrote me this: 中国有个歌手有首歌叫TMD我爱你 刚出来都以为是骂人呢 后来人家说是甜蜜的我爱你让人跌破眼镜

Does this mean "finally everybody realizes/says its a sweet I love you" or "finally you realize its a sweet I love you"

[skylee]

人家 can be used to refer to oneself and refer to a third person/other people (come to think of it, it is confusing to learners).

Exemple of 人家 referring to oneself -

A: 你幹嗎臉紅？

B: 人家害羞嘛。

Exemple of 人家 referring to a third person/other people -

A: 她幹嗎臉紅？

B: 人家害羞嘛。

ha ha ha. (looks like they don't help much)

Here is a more comprehensive explanation of 人家 -

27. 人家 [ren2jia1], n., (1) a dwelling house; (2) s.o. else's home; (3) a high-class family: 清白人家 a decent family; 富貴人家 a rich and politically influential family; (4) a family engaged in a certain occupation: 務農人家 a farm family; 作工的人家 an artisan’s (workingman's) family; (5) a wife: 娶個人家 get married; (6) (*[ren2jia0]) some one, one, used to denote (a) somebody else: 人家的事你不用管 don’t meddle with somebody else's business; [ren2jia0], (B) used to denote others：人家可不能像你那麼胡說 others, another, will not talk such nonsense as you do; © or to denote the speaker himself: 你成天拿人家開玩笑 you are making fun of me all the time; (d) to denote persons of a particular class: 男人家 the menfolk, 女人家 womenfolk; 婦道人家 ditto; 女孩人家 girls; [ren2jia1], (7) the husband's family before marriage: 給她找個人家 choose a prospective husband for her; 已經有人家兒了 she is already engaged.

In the sentence you quoted, it means "subsequently other people (or the singer/writer/producer) said that it meant 'sweet I love you' ".

Here is an explanation of 大家 -

45. 大家 [da4jia1], n., (1) all, all people: 大家唱 let's all sing together; (2) master of an art of craft; (3) 大家閨秀 woman from a cultured family.

[ydong]

the sentence that your friends given to you is not "通顺". i don't know how to say this in english. however, in a nut shell, you should forget about the sentence. you can trust me, cause i'm a chinese myself.

[skylee]

Ari 桑, do tell us if you trust ydong because s/he is Chinese.

Personally I think the sentence is OK, although obviously punctuation marks are missing.

[semantic nuance]

the sentence that your friends given to you is not "通顺".

I think the sentence is fine. As skylee indicated, maybe punctuation marks were missing, but that did not mean the sentence is not ok.

Hope it helps!

[rootfool]

Personally I think the sentence is OK

I think the sentence is fine.

我附议.:mrgreen:

[Ari 桑]

Its written from my friend in china, who is chinese too. Of course, lots of what we say isn't totally coherent (通顺 by the way), but I still want to understand the incoherence. Thats important.

[yeah.right]

大家 means everyone

人家 means others ,sometimes 人家 reffers to self.