多好听

[gill]

Hi, thank you for reading this.

I'm new to this forum, and not sure if this is the right place to post this.

I'm currently studying for the HSK level 3 test, and read this sentence in a preparation book:

"她说话的声音多好听啊"

I'm not sure about the correct translation:

她说话的声音 = "Her pronunciation"? OR "the sound of her voice when she speaks"?

好听 = beautiful to hear

多 = ????

Can you please tell me what is the most appropriate translation?

Thank you in advance!

[chaiknees]

说话的声音 = her speaking voice (e.g. in contrast to her singing voice)

多好听: 多 is an intensifier here which means "very" and often has a 啊 at the end of the sentence (for example: 今天天气多好啊!) . The sound of her voice when she speaks is (very) good

[gill]

Thank you very much chaiknees!

Very easy to understand!

[Zhao Hanqing]

Her voice is very nice to hear, very pleasant to the ear, very sweet, it has nothing to do with pronunciation, and only has to with the physical qualities of her voice.

[doubdouber]

多 is a 'how' here, not used as a question. the translation should be: how beautiful is her (speaking) voice!

[tooironic]

多 here is short for 多么.

However "how" would be an old-fashioned way of translating 多. "So", "really", or even just "very" would conform more with modern English. (The structure "how...is..." is taught to all Chinese students learning English in China, but they're not told how quaint it sounds to native speakers.)