Reactions

[Jakegwood]

I am trying to figure out how to express a resultant emotion upon realizing something, for instance:

They are surprised that the boy drives the car well.

I would use the 就 construction:

孩子开车开得好就他们很惊喜。

But I as a learn more about 就‘s usage, I use it too much. Would 对 work? This is more of a guess:

对孩子开车开得好，他们很惊喜。

How about 让 or 被 constructions?

*Also I was originally going to write "They are impressed that the boy drives the car well." But there was really no word for it in both my dictionaries. Maybe there's some cultural reason about being humble, but still such a word would need to be used to describe less humble people. Anyone care to explain?

[anonymoose]

让 or 使 would be better.

[imron]

Also, I would go with 吃惊 over 惊喜 for surprised in this situation, e.g. 让……很吃惊.

[renshanrenhai]

When i was learning English and trying to work out semantic meaning of English words, I always tended to search out an equivalent in Chinese as a crutch for understanding, but it gradually came to my mind that not very word has an equivalent in another language, though you can find one very close to it in semantic meaning.

"They are impressed that the boy drives the car well."

This is a very good example to support what i state above.

Yes, “感到吃惊”is usually taken as a synonym to "They are impressed"， but not exactly. When "吃惊"is used, it implies that something is very unbelievable because it's beyond your common sense or knowledge and you don't come with it so much. Though"惊喜"is a bit closer to "I'm impressed" in meaning, it sounds odd to a native speaker's ear.

[jkhsu]

So what would you suggest?

[imron]

Yes, “感到吃惊”is usually taken as a synonym to "They are impressed"，

I don't think it's a good match for impressed. I mentioned 吃惊 above as a better translation of 'surprised' for this situation.

For impressed maybe you would rearrange the sentence completely to something like:

他们很佩服孩子的开车技术。

Although I'm sure kenny will be along before too long with a better suggestion

[Kenny同志]

孩子开车开得好就他们很惊喜。

对孩子开车开得好，他们很惊喜。

The first Chinese sentence is wrong. The second is passable but certainly not great. As a good rule, avoid 对 as a preposition wherever you can. Other words that should be avoided are 的, 一种,之一,当……的时候, etc..

You can simply say 孩子开车开得好，他们很惊喜。

or a better version using 吃惊:这孩子小小年纪车技就这么好，他们吃了一惊 which would match the English more closely.

How about 让 or 被 constructions?

让 or 使 would be better.

I agree. So the 让 or 使 structure would be 孩子开车开得好让他们很惊喜. But personally I prefer my own version because the length of words between puncutation is shorter.

Also, I would go with 吃惊 over 惊喜 for surprised in this situation, e.g. 让……很吃惊.

These two words both sound fine to me. As to which one to use, it mainly depends on the context, for example, I would go with 吃惊 if “they” are just onlookers and 惊喜 if “they” are parents of the kid.

I don't think it's a good match for impressed. I mentioned 吃惊 above as a better translation of 'surprised' for this situation.

吃惊 can either be surprised or shocked.

For impressed maybe you would rearrange the sentence completely to something like:

他们很佩服孩子的开车技术。

Good.

[glancky]

I will add two usable ones:

让他们吃惊的是，... What surprised them was ...

他们吃惊地发现... To their surprise, they found that ...

I always find it very helpful to google (English) language fragments to see how native speakers use them. In your case, you can google "他们很吃惊"(not omitting the quotes).

[imron]

他们吃惊的发现.

他们吃惊地发现.

[glancky]

Edited. My bad :unsure:

[renshanrenhai]

Quote

Yes, “感到吃惊”is usually taken as a synonym to "They are impressed"，

I don't think it's a good match for impressed. I mentioned 吃惊 above as a better translation of 'surprised' for this situation.

Although I'm sure kenny will be along before too long with a better suggestion

You have been going to an advanced level in Mandarin, I did't mean you had mistaken "感到吃惊" for "be impressed by". I should have made my point clear that the two were usually mismatched by someone else,and that's why i don't go with a literal translation.

For impressed maybe you would rearrange the sentence completely to something like:

他们很佩服孩子的开车技术。

You rearranged the sentence and that's really a good approach i always favor to decode both the semantic and pragmatic meaning.

So how will you think about this one "他们不禁感叹这孩子车技多棒啊。"

[Jakegwood]

Thanks!

Sorry to belabor 得的地 but looking at glancky's sentence what would be the difference between:

他们吃惊地发现

AND

他们发现得吃惊 - Does this really make sense?

So the 就 form I used has really no meaning? I originally thought of this example to get a better grasp of 就 but I guess not. I am trying to better understand its cause-effect use. Is there another sentence similar to this one that could demonstrate that?

[imron]

So the 就 form I used has really no meaning?

It does have a meaning but not the one you intended. I would understand 孩子开车开得好就他们很惊喜 as Only they were surprised that the boy drove well.

In more formal writing, 就 does take on the same meaning as 对, for example in fixed patterns like "就……来说“ or ”就我而言“, or when introducing the object or scope of an action.

If you really wanted to force 就 into the sentence, then maybe you could say something like 孩子开车开得好，就他们来说是一个惊喜, but it's not quite the same meaning as your original sentence, and it's probably not very good Chinese.

他们发现得吃惊 - Does this really make sense?

This is incorrect. What comes after the 得 will describe the process of the action. 开得好 - drives well, 跑得快 - runs fast, 发现得吃惊 - discovered surprised. You can see this doesn't really work because surprised isn't really something that can describe that particular action in that way. Rather it should be something describing the reaction of 他们.

他们吃惊地发现... They were suprised to discover....

[jbradfor]

So the 就 form I used has really no meaning?

It does, but not quite in the way you use it here.

就 can be use to show a sequence, e.g. "A就B" means "A happened then B happened". However, as I understand it, 就 is not used to show cause-and-effect, e.g. "A就B" does not mean "A happened and caused B to happen".

[creamyhorror]

孩子开车开得好就他们很惊喜。

If you want to use 就, then this needs to be something like

看到孩子开车开得那么好，他们就很惊喜。

Upon seeing how well the child drove, they were (then) very gratified.

The 就 has to come after the subject in the second part of the sentence. It corresponds roughly with "Upon" and "(then)" in the translation.

[WestTexas]

So what is the difference 惊讶 and 吃惊? How could I use 惊讶 here?