As ___ as possible

[Jakegwood]

Quick question.

So I have been thinking a lot about how to translate things along the line as ASAP, As soon as possible, just with any adjective.

I really have no idea how to express the idea of the first “as."

Thanks

[Guoke]

as ... as possible = 越 ...... 越好

as soon as possible = 越快越好 or 尽快

[fanglu]

You can use 尽, as in 尽快

[Peter2010]

the first “as" could be translated as "一样、相同"，the second one means "和"

as ... as... = 和....一样....

as soon (一样时间短) as possible (和可能的)：时间和可能的一样短 （尽可能快地/时间尽可能短地）

[renzhe]

That's not a serious answer, Peter? :O

[tooironic]

My blog post on "as" structures in Chinese might also be of use.

[Peter2010]

@renzhe，I think the following two sentences share the same comparative degree. If I get something wrong, correct me please.

as....as.....：和....一样.....

1\He is as tall as you are. (他和你一样高)

2\He runs away as fast as possible. ( 他跑开了，速度和他能到达到的速度一样<快>. which means 他尽快地跑开了；see，it's interpretable. And I don't think 越快越好 is appropriate for "as fast as possible" here.)

[Guest realmayo]

Ah tooironic, so that's you. I like the blog, been following it for a while.

[daofeishi]

To say that the structure "as...as" in "he is as tall as you" can be translated the same way as in "as fast as possible" is a false parallelism. It is the same mistake as saying that since "cat and dog" is translated as "狗和猫", "big and strong" should be translated as "大和强壮.” Different grammatical contexts (as ADJ as NP vs. as ADJ as VP) usually call for different translations.

(Edit, revising this a bit in hindsight) In this context, 尽 will show up a lot. “As soon as possible" is usually translated as 尽快, e.g. 尽快与我联系，尽快处理家事，尽快执行协议，The word 尽可能 is often used as "as ADJ as possible", e.g. 尽可能地多/少，尽可能地简单，尽可能的快. The same goes for 尽量: 请尽量快一点，尽量吃有机食品，尽量把话说得得体.

It all depends on context.

Aside: tooironic, I did not know that that blog is run by you. I am also a regular reader.

[laopengyou]

Hi,

The commonest way to translate "as... as possible" in Chinese is 盡可能 (尽可能 if you prefer simplified characters). Examples : 盡可能開慢些 （尽可能开慢些） "Drive as slowly as possible" / 盡可能早點兒來 (尽可能早点儿来) "Come as early as possible"。

Best regards.

[Peter2010]

Yeah， we all know "as soon as possible" is typically translated as "尽快". But the question is how to interpret "as" in this phrase and I can't figure it out from "尽快".

[Jakegwood]

I realize a phrase like as - as possible doesn't translate very directly at all, so I wasn't looking for a word to represent as, just to get the idea across as it acts in conjunction with the other words.

Over all though I think 尽可能 is the answer I'm looking for, but thanks for everything. All good insight!

Thanks for the blog too!

[daofeishi]

But the question is how to interpret "as" in this phrase

That is a question that is so complex that it can't be answered by a simple translation. To make an analogous example, how do you interpret 就 in "他就 V..."?

"她想他，他就来了“，”他就是小偷！“，"一转眼他就走了。"，"你煮多少个饺子，他就吃多少。" "爱上一个人，他就不会死。"

[tooironic]

I suppose I better put a link to my blog in my signature now so everyone knows who I am. Haha.