等 and 什么的 not interchangeable

[Iso]

Hi,

 

in one of my books I came across the sentence 北京还有很多有名的美食，像北京烤鸭，炸酱面，涮羊肉等都很好吃。 Out of curiosity I asked my teacher if I can swap 等 with 什么的 and she said it's not possible, but didn't provide any reasons. Can anybody shed some light on this or might she even be wrong about it?

 

And there's another sentence ……我对中国的了解真是太少了。 Is it common to use 了解 as a noun - all definitions that I saw pointed to verbs.

 

Thanks!

[Lu]

什么的 is more 口语 and also slightly negative, while 等 is neutral and more formal/书面语.

了解 as a noun is quite normal, to my knowledge.

[Iso]

Does this mean I can use both in the sentence?

[Demonic_Duck]

I also feel that “什么的” should only be used at the end of a sentence, though I could be wrong about that.

 

Out of curiosity I asked my teacher if I can swap 等 with 什么的 and she said it's not possible, but didn't provide any reasons.

Very helpful. Maybe some teachers simply don't realise that when their students ask why something is the way it is, what they really want is to know under which circumstances it holds true (in this case, under which circumstances they are interchangeable).

[SiMaKe]

FWIW Gui Fan Ci Dian states 什么的 is equal/equivalent（相当于）to 等等 (but the equivalence may not include register).

 

Several dictionaries list 了解 as a noun as well as a verb.

[Lu]

Does this mean I can use both in the sentence?

In this particular sentence, grammatically you can use them, but only if you're saying it, it's not really written language. It also sounds a little bit like you're not very enthousiastic about 北京的美食, but that also depends on tone of voice and your expression.

[Iso]

Thanks for all your replies, but I still don't know if both can be used in the sentence above - Demonic_Duck doesn't think so, but the dictionary that SiMaKe used seems to say they are both equal.

 

Oh, and I just checked mbdg and handedict for translation of 了解 - verbs only in the translation.

[Demonic_Duck]

I'm not sure about "negative", maybe a little bit dismissive/indifferent in some contexts. Maybe you could say “等” is like "et cetera", “什么的” is like "and stuff".

 

I was definitely wrong about the "end of sentences" thing, but I feel it's more commonly used at the end of clauses, at least. Possibly more of a collocation thing than a hard rule.

[SiMaKe]

@Iso

 

ABC, Pleco and Adsotrans all show 了解 as both verb and noun. Here is a sampe sentence from Pleco：

 

我对市场经历的了解很差。

My understanding of a market economy is very limited.

 

Search for "了解很“ and you'll see plenty of other examples of its use as a noun.

 

Interestingly, Gui Fan Ci Dian only shows 动词 (verb).

[陳德聰]

等 and 什么的 are only "interchangeable" if you believe "etc." and "and whatnot (and I don't really give much of a hoot about that whatnot)" are interchangeable.

[imron]

Oh, and I just checked mbdg and handedict for translation of 了解 - verbs only in the translation.

These dictionaries are useful as a quick reference, but they are no where near as accurate or authoritative as a good dictionary.

 

but the dictionary that SiMaKe used seems to say they are both equal.

Equivalent in basic meaning, but not necessarily in register and usage.  For example, you could say that 'gonna' is equal to 'going to' and while this is completely true you can't just replace every single instance of 'going to' and have something that feels correct.

[renzhe]

等 and 什么的 are only "interchangeable" if you believe "etc." and "and whatnot (and I don't really give much of a hoot about that whatnot)" are interchangeable.

This is spot on. "Whatnot" is a perfect translation for "什么的".

[Iso]

Thanks for all your helpful answers. I wasn't aware of the slightly different translations and their meaning.