uses of 坏

[mr.stinky]

坏 appeared in a vocab list, and we of course got the usual definitions of broken & spoiled.

dictionary also has the adjective evil (as in people or deeds), and the adverb badly.

what about:

1. spoiled rotten to describe children?

2. awful or naughty?

instructor says the two above are not correct, although i get #2 from the girlfriends. (a lot)

is this just local?

[muyongshi]

Your teacher is right on the first...just doesn't work.

But your girlfriend(s) are not wrong about their usage. Maybe your teacher just doesn't understand the context and/or the English word choice that you have chosen for that context.

[skylee]

1. spoiled rotten to describe children?

You can use 慣壞了 / 寵壞了 to describe a spoilt child. The terms 壞小孩 / 壞孩子 are also used but such kids could be worse than just being spoilt.

2. awful or naughty?

Consider 使壞.

[mr.stinky]

thanks for the responses;

for #1, i was thinking more like misbehaving or acting up - spoiled/spoiled rotten has a

very different flavor. so you could go with 坏女孩 / 坏男孩 for 'brat'?

i've been told that 坏女人 would indicate a woman of ill repute. is this correct?

and 坏孩子 is sorta slangy 'bad boy.'

for #2, teacher did understand the context, or at least i explained it to her. perhaps

she's never had a 坏男友?

[xiaojiang216]

淘气 works for naughty, too