accspy Posted August 23, 2012 at 01:29 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 at 01:29 PM 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confused Laowai Posted August 23, 2012 at 01:33 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 at 01:33 PM 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny同志 Posted August 23, 2012 at 01:46 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 at 01:46 PM A little context would help. 惨 could mean miserable, tragic, wretched, cruel, greatly or severely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accspy Posted August 23, 2012 at 02:10 PM Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 at 02:10 PM @ Confused Laowai: thanks, this could probably be right @ kenny2006woo: unfortunately, none such is given Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwq Posted August 23, 2012 at 03:28 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 at 03:28 PM 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?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
外国赤佬 Posted August 23, 2012 at 04:43 PM Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 at 04:43 PM 惨 by itself is definitely 'miserable, tragic', very common in speech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
陳德聰 Posted August 24, 2012 at 07:22 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2012 at 07:22 AM "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. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneEye Posted August 24, 2012 at 08:54 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2012 at 08:54 AM I agree with "crappy". That captures the feel of the word, IMO, more than the dictionary definitions do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yangyang2036 Posted August 24, 2012 at 11:44 AM Report Share Posted August 24, 2012 at 11:44 AM 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! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accspy Posted August 24, 2012 at 12:20 PM Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2012 at 12:20 PM thanks everybody Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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