I dont really understand this sentence

[Strawberries513]

"他们在潜意识里都不约而同地认为，中国话是世界上最难学的语言之一."

I have a general idea of what its supposed to mean, but the 在潜意识里都不约而同地认为 part is really confusing me (even though I know every one of those words). If someone could explain this to me I would really appreciate it. And if this is in the wrong forum I do apologize!!

谢谢

[yonglin]

hey strawberries,

not mean to sound rude or anything, but there are a lot of excellent dictionary services recommended in thousands and thousands of threads on these forums.

For instance, the Chinese-tools chengyu dictionary returns

不约而同 (bù yuē ér tóng)

take the same action or view without prior consultation / happen to coincide

as well as provides further explanation on usage and context.

My all-time favourite dict.cn returns

潜意识: [ qián yì shi ]

1. subconsciousness

2. subconscious

3. unconscious

4. unconsciousness

and provides two example sentences.

dict.cn is particularly good because it does fuzzy matches if you don't know what characters in a sentence form a particular word or expression.

Happy reading!

[Strawberries513]

uhhh... thanks but, thats not what I asked. I know what all those words mean. But I dont know the meaning of the entire sentence. Thats not something a dictionary can help.

[中国江苏唐勇]

it means they all have a common think. on one in the team have the reason to form this idea .but they have the common idea from the heart.no reason .they just think it is .

don 't need to argue .

my friend you can just think that .the sentence is the to tell you how this conclude come from .any time you don't need to translate the sentence .just tell the conclude only .chinese is the difficult language of the world .

[cipher]

他们在潜意识里都不约而同地认为=Coincidentally, they all took it for granted that ?

[rootfool]

OK.At first you can delete the word "不约而同地".So the sentence becomes : "They think 中国话是世界上最难学的语言之一 in subconcious." I think you can understand this,right?

Then we can change the deleted word:They think it without prior consultion.

在这里，“不约而同地” 和“潜意识里”都是用来修饰“认为”的。

So if you know the sentence:他们在潜意识里都认为，中国话是世界上最难学的语言之一." and 他们都不约而同地认为，中国话是世界上最难学的语言之一." I think it's easy to know the original sentence.

Hope it helps and it's just a personal opinion.

[studentyoung]

"他们在潜意识里都不约而同地认为，中国话是世界上最难学的语言之一."

Subconsciously, they all happen to coincide (all agree without previous discussion) that Chinese is one of the most difficult languages in the world.

Thanks!

[roddy]

I don't like the sentence. How can you 认为 something in your 潜意识?

[muyongshi]

I think it's subliminal messaging. We are all being told it's the hardest and so we treat it as the hardest. Don't you think if a Chinese person who had never been told this studied English that they would think English is the hardest. I am sick of hearing that Chinese is the HARDEST. Unprovable. Hard... definitely but when we compare to a Chinese person learning English would they not think it the other way around?????

[studentyoung]

"他们在潜意识里都不约而同地认为，中国话是世界上最难学的语言之一."

How can you 认为 something in your 潜意识?

The sentence doesn't mean“they think something in their subconsciousness”, but “in their subconsciousness, their idea is”.

Thanks!

[roddy]

Yeah, I guess it's fine. Just looked odd to me at first sight.

[makeboluo]

well, i don't like this chinese sentence. i just wonder why some chinese people like to make a simple sentence more complicated. it sucks.

""他们在潜意识里都不约而同地认为", here, it simply means "they have a common impression that Chinese is one of the most...

[lokki]

Original sentence: "他们在潜意识里都不约而同地认为，中国话是世界上最难学的语言之一."

This is a little too advance for me, but I have followed the discussion with interest, looked

up the words, and tried to understand how that sentence is put together.

There is still something about the "不约而同地认为, ..." part that I can't quite get my mind around, and I have the following questions:

1. I suppose the 地 is pronounced "de" here. Is this correct ?

2. Does it have to be 地 and why ? Would 的 be correct too ? or maybe 得 ?

3. Would "不约而同的认为是" be possible ? If not why?

4. Spontaneously (at my beginner level) it "feels" like there

should be a 是 there ( 认为是 ). Can someone explain to

me why it is not needed.

[makeboluo]

1. yes, 地 is pronounced "de" here.

2. yes, it has to be 地, not 的 or 得

if the following word is a noun, we use 的 before the noun; if the following word is a verb, we use 地; 得 is used after adjective or verb

3. and 4. better no 是 after 认为. i don't know how to explain it, but it's kind of difference as "they think" and "what they think IS"

[muyongshi]

是 would make absolutely no sense in that part of the sentence. Think: "they think chinese is..." verses "the think is chinese is the hardest...". Further along we already use it. If it feels weird you are thinking that in English there could be a that. They think that Chinese is...

Make sense?

[Quest]

4. Spontaneously (at my beginner level) it "feels" like there

should be a 是 there ( 认为是 ). Can someone explain to

me why it is not needed.

The 是 is there, after 中國話。

[lokki]

we use 的 before the noun; if the following word is a verb, we use 地; 得 is used after adjective or verb 3. and 4. better no 是 after 认为. i don't know how to explain it, but it's kind of difference as "they think" and "what they think IS"

Thanks makeboluo for this competent and clear explanation. That cleared up my doubts. What tripped me up was thinking of 认为 as a noun in this case, but seen as a verb it is very clear that there should not be a 是 there.