what's the meaning of 些 here?

[Dani_man]

Hey guys,

I found the following sentence from my textbook a bit confusing:

你们都玩儿了些什么地方

(你們都玩兒了些甚麽地方)

What use has the 些 here?

I know it means "in which places did you travel"

so shouldn't it be:

你们都玩儿了在哪些地方?

in my text book it says that 些 actually means 一些

But still, I don't get it....

thanks for any help

[Dani_man]

The conversation is about someone asking someone else about his time in New York.

Is that change your translation? (in the mean that this sentence has a context and isn't coming out of the blue)

[Xleonardo]

Hi,

I could tell you that “你们都玩儿了些什么地方？”is no different with “你们都在哪些地方玩了？”. so you second sentence is not correct. of course the native speaker can understand it. never mind!

[fireball9261]

Yes. New York is big enough for using 些. I think if an area has enough of places that have different characteristics, you could probably use 些 for that area. For example, if I went to Forbidden City today, my friend could ask me, "你们去了哪些地方?" My friend is asking me which parts of the Forbidden City I have been to. Even a smaller place, like Huntington Library in Los Angeles, it has various sections of gardens and tea house and gift shop, so you could also use 些 there. When the area is getting smaller and the variety of scenes become limited, then you shouldn't use 些.

[xiaomawang]

些 is one way when you want to make the noun plural, or uncountable. Usually you know there are 'some' nouns, but not sure how many. It's quite like the usage of 'some' in English.

Try to think it in another way round. I assume you understand the statements, then look at the questions and try to find out a pattern.

我吃了些---面条饺子。

你吃了些---什么(东西)?

我看了些---外国小说。

你看了些---什么书？

今天我去了些---游览区。

今天你去了些---什么地方？

他们都是些---流氓地痞。

他们都是些---什么人？

高年级的哥哥姐姐表演了些---魔术。

高年级的哥哥姐姐表演了些---什么（项目/节目）？

[Quest]

It's a measure word like 个，只，片 etc, and can be used like one. It specifies plurality.