要 for will

[Ari 桑]

Is there any difference between the grammar for 要 and 打算 when you mean will. And how exactly do you distinguish between "want" and "will?"

How does one tell that 我明年要到中国去 means "next year I will go to china" and not "next year I want to go to china?" Context?

[rootfool]

How does one tell that 我明年要到中国去 means "next year I will go to china" and not "next year I want to go to china?" Context?

It's hard to distinguish the two meanings from this simple sentence.You can get the exact meaning from the context.

To me,if I want to say "i will",i will use "我明年会到中国去 or 明年我将去中国"

and for "i want",it's "我明年想要到中国去"

Hmm,it's just a personal opinion.

[cdn_in_bj]

Check out this thread:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/185-hsk-short-courses-in-december-where-to-go26

You can also use 想 to convey "want" or "desire to" where the use of 要 might be ambiguous.

[optical]

This is something I would really like to understand forwards and backwards, inside and out.

How can I clarify, or tell the difference between a 要 that means I want to, and I need to?

For example, a friend of mine on QQ said to me just now:

今天我要工作啊

So to my beginner eyes, I initially read this as "I want to work today", but given the context of my question (Will you go to such and such place today?) it is somewhat clear that this actually means "I have to work today[so I cannot go]".

Is there any kind of marker in the grammar that says this means "Have to" or is it entirely based on the context?

Lets look at this example dialog (full of errors I'm sure)

A: 下课以后你干什么？

B: 我要吃饭

Grammar errors aside, in this scenario is the person answering, "I want to eat" or "I have to eat"? Whichever one is true, what are you looking at to come to this conclusion?

[muyongshi]

There is not going to be a rule about this...you need to learn the Chinese 范围 for their uses or you will be confused for a long time. But I will give you a little quick thing about some of their major differences and hopefully that will help.

1) The meaning of 要 is more like our idea of "going to" rather than our want

2) The meaning of 想 is more like our idea of "want" rather than thinking about it.

I know that when we say in English "I am thinking of buying xxx" we are leaning towards actually buying it where as we say "I want to buy xxx" we are simply expressing a desire and there is not concrete plans.... In Chinese it's opposite. 我要买 is not I want to but that I am going to (of course with room for changing your mind) and 我想买 expresses more of just the desire rather than I am thinking of doing it (so in essence planning to).

Lets look at this example dialog (full of errors I'm sure)

A: 下课以后你干什么？

B: 我要吃饭

(By the way it would probably be said 你要干什么)

The 要 in this examples expresses I am going to eat food and there is no have to in any any example. In your first example there is a flavor of "I have to...." but it means I am going to be working at that time so I can't come...

If something still is confusing I can try to explain it a bit clearer....