What does 免 mean?

[anonymoose]

What does 免 in the following sentence mean?

清单上有很多内容属于个人隐私，看就免了吧。

I guess this sentence means something along the lines of "The list contains lots of personal information, so you can't look at it", but I'd like to know more precisely (or maybe my interpretation is completely wrong).

The closest I could find on nciku.com is the sentence 这些手续就免了 which is translated as "We'll dispense with the formalities", but I don't think using the word "dispense" in the former sentence is appropriate.

[gato]

A typo of 吐？

[Guest Pipas]

no, it's not a typo.

I was told that 看就免了吧 is sort of a polite way to say "你不应该看" / "我不允许你"

Funny, I asked the same question to several people but I still don't get it.

[Guest Pipas]

gato!

[xiaocai]

免 is roughly the same as 不/不要. For example: 免费=不要钱, 免责=不负责, 闲人免入=没有关系的人不要进, etc.

[doraemon]

It's basically another way of saying "there is no need for something". When you're telling someone not to do something, it's considered much politer than simply saying "don't do this".

[xiaocai]

A typo of 吐？

Yes I believe there is a typo somewhere.

[gato]

My mistake. 兔 ≠ 免.

[Guest Pipas]

so, in the OP's sentence 看就免了吧

means "there's no need for you to look at it" like in for example

让你流口水的图片 （男人专看，女人就免了吧）

怎样做一个人见人爱的精致女孩！（女生必看，男生就免了吧~~）

And it doesn't mean "(依)我看就免了吧" - "I think there's no need for you to look at it"

This verb 看 is confusing me a little

[anita998710]

first, let me add punctuation marks to the sentence.

看, 就免看了吧!

(seeing it is not necessasy.)

second, let me re-arrange the sentence.

(你)就免看了吧!

(you don't need to see it.)

"看" is moved forward to the begining of the sentence to form a topic.

once you catch the sentence pattern, you get the meaning of "免"！

[skylee]

I don't understand #10.

[semantic nuance]

I don't understand #10.

Which part? Did I miss something?