好容易 = with great difficulty?

[ABCinChina]

While I was breezing along in Level 2 of the HSK word list, I came across adverb 好容易. However, the two definitions given were, "with great difficulty" and "have a hard time". Ever since I was a kid, I always thought this word should be "very easy". Am I missing something here?

[HashiriKata]

the two definitions given were, "with great difficulty" and "have a hard time".

This is correct. Logically it should have been 好不容易 but sometimes you see 不 and sometimes you don't, without the meaning being affected.

[ABCinChina]

I often hear such phrases such as "我好容易得到..." But clearly by the context of what they're saying, I know they meant "I easily obtained..." So even native speakers think of this word the way I do.

[HashiriKata]

I often hear such phrases such as "我好容易得到..." But clearly by the context of what they're saying, I know they meant "I easily obtained..."

Could that be "我很容易得到..." ? If not, consider it a mystery of Chinese, intended to frustrate our effort in learning the language.

[jinhr]

ABCinChina, this is a funny part of Chinese:

好容易 = 好不容易 = eventually make sth with great effort.

Another example, which none Chinese people can explain:

You know 胜 = win a game/war, 败 = lose a game/war.

But funny thing in following 2 sentences:

中国队大胜日本队 = 中国队大败日本队 = Chinese Team won Japanese Team overwhelmingly. Both of same meaning!

[renzhe]

I think that should be 打败 and 打胜.

[jinhr]

I mean it: 大胜 and 大败

大 = overwhelmingly

[chenpv]

Reminds me of the English counterpart:

I could care less/ I couldn't care less.

[md1101]

Reminds me of the English counterpart:

I could care less/ I couldn't care less.

Yes.. but in this case..The CORRECT phrase (as far as I'm concerned) is 'I couldn't care less'.

'I could care less' is something I've only heard Americans say. Previously when I heard it I couldn't work out what the speaker was on about until I realised they just had the phrase WRONG.

I could care less --> means you care somewhat so its possible to care less.

I couldn't care less --> it's not possible to care less because you don't care at all.

dictionary.com:

Which is correct: I could care less or I couldn't care less?

The expression I could not care less originally meant 'it would be impossible for me to care less than I do because I do not care at all'. It was originally a British saying and came to the US in the 1950s. It is senseless to transform it into the now-common I could care less. If you could care less, that means you care at least a little. The original is quite sarcastic and the other form is clearly nonsense. The inverted form I could care less was coined in the US and is found only here, recorded in print by 1966. The question is, something caused the negative to vanish even while the original form of the expression was still very much in vogue and available for comparison - so what was it? There are other American English expressions that have a similar sarcastic inversion of an apparent sense, such as Tell me about it!, which usually means 'Don't tell me about it, because I know all about it already'. The Yiddish I should be so lucky!, in which the real sense is often 'I have no hope of being so lucky', has a similar stress pattern with the same sarcastic inversion of meaning as does I could care less.

so.. yeah that was a really good point chenpv..

actually my girlfriend once told me that hao rong yi really does mean easily. and haoburongyi means hard. and when i told her i'd learnt otherwise she seemed confused and thought back to some of her everyday conversations.. and said her friends use it how it sounds.

[vampire]

Another example, which none Chinese people can explain:

You know 胜 = win a game/war, 败 = lose a game/war.

But funny thing in following 2 sentences:

中国队大胜日本队 = 中国队大败日本队 = Chinese Team won Japanese Team overwhelmingly. Both of same meaning!

敗 can only mean 打敗 in this sentence since it's in active voice, what does this sentence mean is clear, but if you say 好容易 = with great difficulty most people will bend their brows and get confused

[greenmoon55]

好容易 = with great difficulty/ very easy

Interesting topic for me..

It has two meanings. You can judge it by the intonation.

[Artem]

好容易 should never be used to mean "very easy."

It only means 好不容易. There's no other meaning.

Very easy would be 很容易 or any variant of that.

I'm sure there are people that misuse it. Native or not, it's still wrong to say 好容易 as very easy. Native language speakers make mistakes too.

Just think about how many English words are misused in daily speech. It doesn't make them correct just because a native speaker says them. (For example, half of the USA doesn't understand and is unable to use the word "ironic")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frequently_misused_English_words

[skylee]

this discussion has reminded me of some older threads in which flammable/inflammable, boned/deboned were mentioned -

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/504-quote-%e6%87%92%e7%8c%aa%e6%95%99%e4%bd%a0%e5%b9%bf%e5%b7%9e%e8%af%9d3

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2-favourite-chinese-musician860

[ABCinChina]

Actually my girlfriend once told me that hao rong yi really does mean easily.

This is funny because I've asked my girlfriend the same thing and got the same answer. Then I pointed her to this forum thread and received the impatiently given response, "那些笨蛋不懂!". Apparantly, she is the 笨蛋, haha.