Difference between 我要 and 我想

[Guest samantha]

i have another question. does anyone here know the differentiation of 我要 and 我想？that's a question my friend asked me one day. how to explain it in english?

[kangkai]

i have another question. does anyone here know the differentiation of 我要 and 我想？that's a question my friend asked me one day. how to explain it in english?

我要 best translates to 'I want' or 'I will' depending on the context. 我想 is more polite and closer to the English 'I'd like to'.

[smithsgj]

And also 我想要!

Kangkai is right. Note that futurity can also be expressed by 我會: can anyone explain the difference between that and 我要 ?

[Quest]

我要="I want" 我想="i think/i think of"

我想要="i think of wanting (something)"

我會="I will/I would"

[Quest]

just break up the words and think of what 要, 想, 會 mean individually.

[smithsgj]

Quest.

(1)

> 我想要="i think of wanting (something)

Not so sure about that analysis. Isn't it just a tautological thingy, like "pengyou"? (want-want compared to friend-friend)

Chinese just often prefers two-syllable expressions for reasons of, umm, rhythm or something.

(2)

> 我要="I want"

As Kangkai correctly says, "wo yao" can also mean I will (or I'm going to), as well.

[Guest Anonymous]

Chinese just often prefers two-syllable expressions for reasons of, umm, rhythm or something.

I don't know about rhythm but some Chinese words consists two characters with same or similiar meaning to stress the thought or idea. Like the example you provided, pengyou, and also meili. Although if you translate them literally character by character, they may sound silly like pengyou would probably be companionfriend and meili would probably be beautifulpretty, but overtime, these words just became a normal word. You can't really say ta shi wo de you instead of pengyou or ta hen li, although you can say ta hen mei.

[smithsgj]

Yes kl, but also just a (*general*) preference for two-character words, and I would put that down to rhythm, or prosody, or flow, something like that.

Assuming there is a reason for the existence of two forms, mei and meili: is there a slightly different nuance, in terms of meaning (apart from the fact that the first cannot be a noun)? Or is it simply something to do with the rhythm of the particular sentence?

Peng and you aren't words, correct. But haoyou and liangpeng are. Count the syllables :/

[Guest samantha]

being a native chinese speaker, i don't think we use "pengyou" or "meili" just because perfer two-syllable. we translate friend to pengyou and translate friend to meili. haoyou and liangpeng also from the pengyou.

[Guest samantha]

wrong word!! i mean we translate beautiful to meili!

[Guest samantha]

and we also use both mei and meili to describe the beautiful things. most time this two words have the same meaning. but we use mei to describe the feeling of the people. for example :ta xin li te mei.(he feel very happy)

[smithsgj]

samantha 不好意思我覺得妳誤會了。在中文中，兩個字的詞很常見，即 "朋友"，"美麗"，等等。這當然不是說並沒有一個字的詞， "他很美" 是可以的，但是不能說"他很麗"， "他是我的朋"，"他是我的友"。 這不是因為漢語的自然 rhythm 嗎？就這樣子而已，跟英文的翻譯比較沒有關系吧。

[smithsgj]

sorry samantha didn't see your last message. but do you agree that the preference for 2 character words is something to do with rhythm?

[Guest Anonymous]

The forming of words that are made up of two same/similiar meaning characters may be partially due to rhythm. However, in the Chinese language, meaning is very important. This contributes to why most, if not all, Chinese parents tend to spend a good amount of effort picking out a "good name" for their children.

[akdn]

我要="I want" 我想="i think/i think of"

我想要="i think of wanting (something)"

我會="I will/I would"

Don't 我要， 我想，and 我想要　express 'desire' for the future?

Whereas 会 expresses a more definite 'possibility' that something will happen (i.e. you have a good reason to believe that it will occur). But I usually use 会 to refer to other things e.g. 今天会下雨 (I know because I've just seen the weather forecast).

That's how I look at it, anyway...

Can anyone give a good example of 我会？？？

Does this work: '我明天下午会回家' ?

Or is 我明天下午打算回家 always better?

[Guest Anonymous]

Don't 我要， 我想，and 我想要　express 'desire' for the future?

Whereas 会 expresses a more definite 'possibility' that something will happen (i.e. you have a good reason to believe that it will occur). But I usually use 会 to refer to other things e.g. 今天会下雨 (I know because I've just seen the weather forecast).

Yes' date=' that's correct.

Does this work: '我明天下午会回家' ?

Or is 我明天下午打算回家 always better?

我明天下午会回家 = I WILL go home tomorrow afternoon.

我明天下午打算回家 = I plan to go home tomorrow afternoon.

Neither is better than the other because they have different meanings.

[Quest]

Does this work: '我明天下午会回家' ? (decided)

Or is 我明天下午打算回家 always better? (considering)

[akdn]

Does this work: '我明天下午会回家' ? (decided)

Or is 我明天下午打算回家 always better? (considering)

So, basically, if I have already bought my bus ticket I can use 会, but if I haven't made a final decision I should use 打算 ？

[Guest Anonymous]

So, basically, if I have already bought my bus ticket I can use 会, but if I haven't made a final decision I should use 打算 ？

對。 :-)

[smithsgj]

So, basically, if I have already bought my bus ticket I can use 会, but if I haven't made a final decision I could/should use 要?