怎么会这么惨

[accspy]

What exactly does ""怎么会这么惨" mean? Probably easy for any advanced speaker, but I just can guess the meaning with my hsk2 knowledge. I have no problems with the words, but I'm not sure about the complete meaning.

Thanks in advance

[Confused Laowai]

I'll have a go at this: How can it be so cruel?

If you add a pronoun before it, like 你, you can say "How can you be so cruel?"

惨 seems to be have many multiple English translations. Like disastrous, miserable, inhuman. I think it's one of those Chinese words that it is hard to exactly translate into English, but I'm sure you get the idea if you become the concepts: it's bad and wrong, very heavily so.

[Kenny同志]

A little context would help.

惨 could mean miserable, tragic, wretched, cruel, greatly or severely.

[accspy]

@ Confused Laowai: thanks, this could probably be right

@ kenny2006woo: unfortunately, none such is given

[dwq]

惨 could mean cruel but usually only in a compound like 惨杀. By itself, I've never seen it used that way.

I would not translate 你怎么会这么惨？ into "How can you be so cruel?"

I would write "How did you end up being this miserable?" / "How did you end up in this tragic state?"

[外国赤佬]

惨 by itself is definitely 'miserable, tragic', very common in speech.

[陳德聰]

"Why is this so crappy? "

I would usually translate 惨 as "crappy" in this type of sentence. If a situation is really 惨 I would say it's really crappy. Miserable sounds like it's just sad, and doesn't emphasize how much it really sucks.

[OneEye]

I agree with "crappy". That captures the feel of the word, IMO, more than the dictionary definitions do.

[yangyang2036]

Unless context is given, you can have several traslations of this sentence that make sense:

1. It can't any worse.

2. How come it's so tragical / miserable / disastrous?

3. It's such a misery / misfortune / disaster / tragedy.

4. It sucks big time!

[accspy]

thanks everybody