让。。使 Pattern

[Chinadoog]

Hey guys. So in my textbook it says there's a pattern with 让 and 使(to cause someone or something to...), but the only example given is 让环境更干净，使舒服 which I'm not sure that I understand.

Can anyone explain this pattern and give me a couple more examples of its usage? Thanks

[flyingpig]

hi chinadoog, 让环境更干净，使舒服 means: make environment more clean , make (sb.)comfortable.

other patterns about how to use 让、使 are as follows: 让我走＝let me go,让杰克打扫房间＝put/make/let Jack clean the room,让世界充满爱＝make the world full of love;使开心＝make/to cause sb. happy,使伤心＝make/to cause sb. sad

there are more different explanations about 让and使，but i think i cant explain well, 让can also mean : avoid, give up to ....使can mean: use...

i hope i helped you

[everything is fine]

让。。。 or 使...., the sentence or phase follow them is the purpose of the act mentioned before. ur sentence 让环境更干净，that means the act mentioned before make the enviroment much more clean. 使舒服 means to make it feel comfortable.

give u two examples:

他的话让我明白了整件事情。His words help me to understand the whole thing.

今天的好天气使我的心情变得愉快。The fine weather today make me very happy .

[Etwood]

Interesting how no one has replied yet :huh: I want to know the answer too! I did a search myself, but couldn't find anything. I thought 让 and 使 had a similar meaning...So my guess is that the sentence means something like: "Making the environment more clean will cause more comfort." The English is very clumsy, but that's the idea I get from it.

By the way, what textbook are you using, Chinadoog?

[edelweis]

a google search gives examples such as:

职场人士，别让压力使你的生活失衡！

让惆怅远去，使心灵得一片宁静

女人，别让怨恨使你变丑

让出行更低碳，使生活更绿色

别让表扬使孩子产生负效应

让css使网页图片半透明

Perhaps someone can explain them...

EDIT: the common point seems to be that

making/letting (让) situation 1 happen, will have (使) situation 2 as a consequence.

[Chinadoog]

By the way, what textbook are you using, Chinadoog?

Chinese Made Easier. The 让。。使 pattern isn't really explained as an important grammar point(so far - half way through book 4), it's just mentioned in one of the vocab lists and in one of the passages.

Edelweis, how exactly do you use google to search for examples of sentence structures like this one?

[edelweis]

erm I merely typed both characters with a space in between, and then skimmed the results with the mouse-over dictionary, looking for not-too-long sentences that roughly make sense. The searched characters are highlighted in red, so if you don't see both close to each other in the text, just skip to the next entry.

I guess with more litterary or formal structures that are used in long wordy sentences, this "method" might not work so well. Also it is not practical when looking for structures that use extremely common words like "是 ... 的".

[creamyhorror]

职场人士，别让压力使你的生活失衡！

女人，别让怨恨使你变丑

别让表扬使孩子产生负效应

让css使网页图片半透明

These are just normal uses of 让 with 使 nested in the subclause: 让 A (使B[verb or adjective]). "To let A (cause B to be/do whatever)."

让出行更低碳，使生活更绿色

让惆怅远去，使心灵得一片宁静

These are parallel or consequential: 让A，使B. 让 and 使 are on the same structural level and mean basically the same thing. Your description works for these two:

the common point seems to be that making/letting (让) situation 1 happen, will have (使) situation 2 as a consequence.

I don't think there's any special 让。。使 grammatical pattern, but I'm not that well-educated in Chinese.

[edelweis]

ah thanks creamyhorror. Perhaps that book meant to say the 让... and 使... patterns and then mixed both in a single sentence...

[Zomac]

ah thanks creamyhorror. Perhaps that book meant to say the 让... and 使... patterns and then mixed both in a single sentence...

While 让 & 使 are not totally interchangeable idiomatically, they are synonyms in many cases.

It's absolutely okay to say:

让环境更干净，使孩子更健康. or:

使环境更干净，让孩子更健康. or:

使环境更干净, 使孩子更健康.

It's just a kind of rhetoric. "使...让..." (or 让.... 使) is a cliche frequently appeared in low cost advertising with an emotional and excited voice saying "使你人生更充实, 让你散发迷人色彩! 今天我们倾情推出火爆优惠, 原价 1000 元的唇膏, 现在只需 100 元!! 慢着! 不是 100 元, 是 1 元, 真的疯了! 你还需要犹疑吗? 马上致电 800 000 000, 立即订购!"

[Guo Guo]

We don't say "让环境更干净，使舒服". It is a wrong sentence.