Different words for "know"

[Pegasus]

Hello everyone,

I am hoping to get some advice on how the following sentence would be translated from English to Chinese.

"Sorry, I don't know much about Chinese literature."

I know that the word for "know" in English translates into different words into Chinese depending on the meaning and context.

For example: 知道， 认识， 会， 懂得 just to name a few.

What's the correct "know" for the sentence above? How would you translate the sentence?

Thank you very much for your help and advice. I really appreciate it.

[skylee]

I think 懂得 and 了解 are OK. 熟悉 (familiar with) is also ok.

[Pegasus]

Thank you skylee.

I just asked a friend of mine how she would translate "Sorry, I don't know much about Chinese literature."

She used "了解" in her first response of how to translate the sentence.

I admit, my idea of how I would translate the sentence was very different from what she came up with. (She is a native speaker of Chinese and not a native speaker of English.)

The sentence she came up with was, "不好意思。我對中國的文獻資料沒有了解很多。"

I was thinking something more like: " 對不起。我不太認識中國文學。"

Was I completely wrong? After hearing her sentence, I think 不好意思 would be better than 對不起 for what I want to say. And, after reading your response skylee, I am thinking 熟悉 might be better than 認識. However, both 熟悉 and 認識 mean "to be familiar with", right? Is my basic sentence pattern still wrong though? If my basic sentence pattern is not wrong, then, could I say, "不好意思。我不太熟悉中國文學"? On a final question, my friend came up with "中國的文獻資料“. Is "中國的文獻資料“ better than "中國文學" for what I want to say?

Thank you very much for your help, advice, and feedback. I appreciate it.

[count_zero]

I'd probably say "我对中国文学不太清楚" but that sentence doesn't come up on Baidu so maybe it's not ideal?

[Pegasus]

Thank you for your feedback count_zero. I really appreciate it. I didn't think about 清楚. Sigh. Languages and translations are so hard.

[Mindmaxd]

我不太 了解 中国文学。 认识means you know somebody and usually used with people,like 我不认识他,Here in your sentence is not correct,or you can say,不好意思，我不是 很懂 中国文学。

[skylee]

Here is what I think -

"不好意思。我對中國的文獻資料沒有了解很多。" Not good. Better -> "不好意思。我對中國的文獻資料沒有文學不太了解很多。" OR " "不好意思。我對不太了解中國的文學獻資料沒有了解很多。" (Your friend is not a native Chinese speaker, right? PS - Oh but you said she is. How weird.)

" 對不起。我不太認識中國文學。" OK. Can also be -> " 對不起。我不太認識/懂得/了解/熟悉中國文學。"

Both 不好意思 and 對不起 are OK.

"我对中国文学不太清楚" Not good. Better -> "我对中国文学不太清楚認識/懂得/了解/熟悉。"

[Pegasus]

Dear skylee,

Thank you for your very thorough and very clear response. I really appreciate it. You have helped a lot.

My friend is a native speaker of Chinese, but she is not a native speaker of English. Could it be that she misunderstood the original English sentence?

Again, thank you very much. 多謝 / 感謝 / 謝謝

[Pegasus]

Oh. I didn't see your response at first, Mindmaxd. Thank you as well for your feedback. I appreciate it.

[OneEye]

I'd put money on your friend being Taiwanese. 沒有 is used in strange and wonderful ways in Taiwan, and that's a very idiomatic usage of it. You could also say 「對不起，我對中國文學不是很了解」。

As far as "中國的文獻資料," I have to say that's pretty weird.

[dwq]

skylee, I think "我对中国文学不太清楚" is fine. 現代漢語辭典 says 清楚 can be 動詞 meaning 了解 and give example sentences

"我真不清楚他為甚麼要這樣做" / "這個問題你清楚不清楚？"。

[Pegasus]

OneEye, you're absolutely right. My friend is Taiwanese. I was communicating with her over mobile phone instant messenger. After her initial answer, I sent a message asking her how "中國的文獻資料" compares with "中國文學". After thinking about it, she later responded by saying that "文學" is for poems, novels, essays, etc., and "文獻" is for records and country history information. (English is not her first language and so I'm not sure what she meant exactly when she wrote "country history information", but I am guessing she meant something along the lines of official documents.)

Regardless, I agree that it was weird that she came up with "文獻". But, here is where I think my Taiwanese friend was coming from. I think she misunderstood the word "literature" in my original sentence. She works in mobile phone tech support. Working in an IT type industry, she has probably heard the English word "literature" used more frequently to mean generically "pieces of writing or printed information on a particular subject" (definition 2 of "literature" from the online Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary http://oald8.oxfordl...nary/literature). However, the "literature" that was intended in my original sentence meant, "pieces of writing that are valued as works of art..." (excerpt of definition 1 of "literature" from the online Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary).

In the case of definition 1 of "literature" (where we are talking about written works of art), it seems to me that "文學" is the word in Chinese to use. In the case of definition 2 of "literature" (where we are talking about pieces of writing or printed information about a particular subject), it seems to me that "文獻" might be the word in Chinese to use.

The online Mandarin-English dictionary at YellowBridge.com seems to support this idea. In that online dictionary, I looked up "文獻". Although the YellowBridge dictionary listed the definition of "文獻" as "document", the last two sample sentences it listed used "文獻" to mean "literature" in the same sense as definition 2 of "literature" from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Here are the two sample sentences in the YellowBridge dictionary that used "文獻" in that sense of "literature":

現有大量關於第一次世界大戰的文獻。There is now extensive literature dealing with the First World War.

我現在還不需要這些文獻，但我還是要感謝你。I don't need the literature at present. Thank you very much all the same.

(Both the Chinese examples and their English translations are from the Mandarin-English dictionary at YellowBridge.com)

I would be happy to hear other people's thoughts about this. Is my current understanding correct? Does anyone have anything to add?

----------------------------

Also, thank you OneEye on your input of another way I could say, "Sorry, I don't know much about Chinese literature." 「對不起，我對中國文學不是很了解」。

---------------------------

By the way, back on the topic of how to translate "know" from the sentence, "Sorry, I don't know much about Chinese literature." For some reason, my English language brain prefers that I use "to be familiar with/熟悉" instead of "to understand/了解". Maybe it is because I grew up in an English speaking culture, but it feels weird to me to say that I don't understand Chinese literature when I haven't even read much of it. Therefore, I feel like it would be better for me to say, "對不起，我對中國文學不是很熟悉" instead of "對不起，我對中國文學不是很了解". What do you think?

---------------------------

Thank you all for your time and feedback. I really appreciate it.

**This post was edited to fix a typographical error.

Edited December 4, 2012 at 06:18 AM by Pegasus

[skylee]

I have nothing to add about "literature". Your friend simply misunderstood.

I think "對不起，我對中國文學不是很熟悉" is ok.

[semantic nuance]

Perhaps you can distinguish 文學 (literature) from 文獻 (literature) this way:

文學: like 紅樓夢, 詩經, Light in August, etc.

文獻: pieces of writings written which focus on studying the original works of art. That is, 文獻 is the product of the former ones.