亏 and its meaning

[anonymoose]

I've just been watching Naked Wedding, and came across one sentence (at about 6:54 here):

您拿佳倩跟老张那儿媳妇比也亏你能比得了

I get the gist of this sentence, but I'm wondering about the use of 亏 here, as I couldn't find a corresponding entry in the dictionary. How would one translate it into English? What is the general pattern for this kind of sentence? Is it verb+也亏你能+verb得了, or is the pattern more general?

[hbuchtel]

I think it is more "您拿佳倩跟老张那儿媳妇比也亏！你能比得了？”

"If you compare Jiaqian with Old Zhang's daughter-in-law she loses as well. Can you compare [her to her]?"

“跟（谁）比 . . . 亏” here means something like 'compare poorly'.

The 了 in "比得了" should be pronounced liǎo.

EDIT: Oh, I missed that 佳倩 is a person - corrections made above. Also, FYI, I know a guy everybody calls 亏哥 apparently because he has a habit of losing lots of money in bad investments.

[skylee]

I think it is more " . . . 跟那儿媳妇比也亏！你能比得了？”

I think it is more like "拿佳倩跟老张那儿媳妇比? 也亏你能比得了!"

You might wish to take a look at the second explanation under adverb here -> http://humanum.arts....ory=wholerecord

(2) In mocking sense: 虧你 you, of all people: 虧你受教育的人，還說出這種話 shame on you, an educated person to say such a thing;

虧得他說得出口 he has the cheek to say it (other people would not).

[hbuchtel]

Cool, I think you're right!

[anonymoose]

I love this forum. You can get a green point just for asking a question.

I think it is more " . . . 跟那儿媳妇比也亏！你能比得了？”

I don't think so. Listen to the original clip in the link I provided.

But thanks anyway.

Edit: Skylee, I just noticed your reply. Thanks a lot! You're like superman - somehow always just happens to be around the corner when someone needs help!

[roddy]

I love this forum. You can get a green point just for asking a question.

I didn't give you one just for asking a question, I gave you one for not just asking "what does 亏 mean here?" Well-formed questions with a bit of background are much more interesting. There was even a link to a video, even if it wouldn't let me watch it.

[anonymoose]

Thanks to skylee's help （多亏skylee的帮助）, I've kind of figured out the use of 亏 in the original sentence. But I've been doing a bit of searching on Google and I still don't get it completely.

According to the link skylee provided, 亏你 can be translated as "you of all people", and the example given, "虧你受教育的人，還說出這種話" could be translated as "an educated person like you, of all people, could say such a thing". This seems like the person in question did something unexpected, contrary to their status.

However, I also found this example:

做个小活，也亏他能说得那么轻松了。

Maybe I've misunderstood something, but here it seems like rendering 亏 as "of all people" isn't quite suitable. Otherwise I would translate this sentence as "It was only a small job, and he of all people made it sound so easy". The problem is, if it is a small job, then surely saying it is easy is not an unexpected thing to do.

[jkhsu]

Off topic in terms of the question but I just finished watching Naked Wedding (裸婚时代) last month. Thought it was an interesting series highlighting differences between generations and classes in modern day China. I heard that 佳倩's mother is 大山's (Mark Rowswell's) wife? Is this true? Really enjoyed her acting in the series.

Roddy - video.baidu.com has the whole series without commercials in the middle if you are interested.

Edit: Just realized the youku link doesn't have commercials in the middle as well. I thought the white dots were supposed to be commercial breaks (like how it is in the USA).

[creamyhorror]

做个小活，也亏他能说得那么轻松了。

Maybe I've misunderstood something, but here it seems like rendering 亏 as "of all people" isn't quite suitable. Otherwise I would translate this sentence as "It was only a small job, and he of all people made it sound so easy". The problem is, if it is a small job, then surely saying it is easy is not an unexpected thing to do.

I'd guess it's probably more like "'Just a bit of work' - only he could make it sound so casual." (mockingly) She's tut-tutting him for making it sound like a piece of cake.

虧他說得出口 = how could he say such a thing? / only he would have the cheek to say such a thing

您拿佳倩跟老张那儿媳妇比也亏你能比得了 = only you would dare to compare the two = 只有你能比得了

I think the usage of kui1 in this sentence requires the "how could" translation:

虧你受教育的人，還說出這種話 = how could someone educated like you say such a thing?

(can be transformed into the next category of usage: 说出这种话，亏你还是受教育的人！)

Another different usage, requiring the translation "and you [still] claim"/"还算"/"还说":

跟孩子怄气，亏你还是长辈！ = Squabbling with a child, and you [still call yourself] an elder? / 你还算是长辈吗！

连王府井也不知道，亏你还去过北京 = You don't even know [about] Wangfujing, and you [still claim] to have been to Beijing?

(or "You don't even know Wangfujing and you've 'been to Beijing'?", or 你还算·说去过北京？)

Interesting particle, I've encountered it but never really investigated it till now.

[Hofmann]

Did anyone else think the OP was asking about 于? If Simplified Chinese didn't exist, I'd just say it's a 篆書楷化 version of 于.