Translation of Chinses double negation 不能没有事情做

[weisermann8]

What is the proper translation of 不能没有事情做 and 没有事情做受不了?

I'm confused because in the context it should read something like "there is no thing you can do". But previously I was under the impression that in Chinese double negatives resolve to positive.

Could anybody please explain. Thank you very much!!!

[skylee]

Consider "can't be idle without (or not having) anything to do" / "can't stand being idle without (or not having) anything to do"/ "can't stand having nothing to do".

[creamyhorror]

1. structure: 不能[state X] = "cannot be in a state of [X]"

= "do not want to be in a state of X" (possible implication, depending on context)

2. structure: 有[noun A][verb B] = "to have A to do action B to"

therefore 没有事情做 = "to not have things to do"

3. if state = 没有事情做 = "have nothing to do",

then 不能[没有事情做] = "cannot be in [a state of having nothing to do]"

= "can't bear to be idle" (depending on context)

4. structure: [state]受不了 = "being in [state], cannot stand it"

5. therefore [没有事情做]受不了 = "being in [a state of having nothing to do], cannot stand it"

= "having nothing to do, I cannot stand it"

= " had nothing to do and couldn't stand it"

NOTES

- i'd prefer to say 我没有事情做，实在受不了 though - it sounds more natural

- if you want to say "having nothing to do is unbearable", you should say 我受不了没有事情做 (subject-verb-object) instead. Notice the exact parallelism with English: "I cannot stand not having things to do." You can invert this to 没有事情做我(最/真)受不了 (topic-subject-verb), but in that case I feel it's better to include an emphasis marker like 真/最.

structural analysis is fun

[edit: corrected post and added clarifications]

[HusbandOfWuhan]

1. (We) Can't be without anything to do

2. It's unbearable to have nothing to do; having nothing to do is unbearable.