Quick check on phrase 趙先生很高,趙太太不高

[xkfow]

I have no one else to ask at the moment, does the following translate as:

趙先生很高,趙太太不高

Would a native speaker hear "Mr Zhao is very tall..." or "Mr Zhao is tall…", ie does 很高 simply indicate tall, or unusually tall?

Also, would the tones for 不高 be "bu2gao1" or "bu4gao1"?

[xiaocai]

I think it just means "quite tall", but still within the normal range, because it sounds weird if you just say 赵先生高.

[anonymoose]

Would it still sound strange if you said 赵先生高，赵太太矮?

[semantic nuance]

@xkfow: 不高 , it is bu4 gao1.

@anonymoose: yes, it would be a bit strange to me. But if you put it in a sentence like "趙先生高，趙太太矮，真是絕配。",it would be ok.

mind you, an extra: 不高 is not necessarily equal to 矮 as in English 'not tall' is not nessarily equal to 'short'.

[Tiana]

I think it just means "quite tall", but still within the normal range, because it sounds weird if you just say 赵先生高.

That's right. But since your sentence did not stop there, you can have it without 很:

趙先生高,趙太太不高

(To put it another way: you don't need 很 when you compare one thing with another)

[xkfow]

Thanks guys, that seems to make a lot of sense, ie

You can't say 他高 but you could say 他很高 or 他高不高

[anonymoose]

You can't say 他高 but you could say 他很高 or 他高不高

That depends. If the question is 谁高？, then 他高 would be a legitimate answer.

[Tsang_415]

很高 does have a meaning of "very tall", but not unusually tall

挺高的 exactly means "quite tall"

If you want to compare the two people's height, I've the following suggestions:

趙先生的個子高, 但趙太太不高

趙先生 (的個子) 比趙太太高

Hope they are useful!

For the question about the tones, "bu2gao1" sounds more correct to me... But I'm not very sure. Because I'm a native Cantonese speaker but not Mandarin. I hope there are other people who can help you!