三十大幾

[meatie]

If someone is "三十大幾", how is he?  Early 30s? Late 30s?

[Demonic_Duck]

Late thirties.

 

I don't think you can say 三十小几 for early thirties though (but I could be wrong).

[skylee]

I have never seen this expression before.  Is it common?  And wouldn't it simply mean "over 30" (ie same as 三十好幾/ 三十幾/ 三十多)?

[Demonic_Duck]

I don't think it's incredibly common, but I've seen it.

 

I think 三十大几 = 三十好几 (i.e. 36-39)

三十几 = 三十多 (i.e. 31-39)

[skylee]

I would think all of the expressions above simply mean over 30 (31-39).

[Demonic_Duck]

Definition for 好几 in 现代汉语规范词典：

1) [数] 用在量词、时间词前面表示多

2) [数] 用在整数后面表示还有一定的零数（偏指多）

 

 

Definition for 大几 in ibid.：

[数] <口> 用在二十、三十等整数后，尾数超过五

 

Emphases mine.

[skylee]

I see. That is nice to know.

[歐博思]

OP: skylee is a native speaker btw, so 三十大几 might just be more prevalent in dictionaries 

 

Maybe interesting: Baidu search for 三十大几 yields a 1700%+ increase in results over 二十大几

[Demonic_Duck]

Skylee's a native Cantonese speaker. (Due to previous misunderstandings, I should probably clarify that that's not a value judgement, and that her overal Mandarin level is plainly a good way above mine.)

[imron]

Is it common?

Quite common in the north.  Definitely more of a spoken thing than a dictionary thing and I would put skylee not being familiar with it down to differences in usage between north and south.

 

I also agree that it is over 35.  'Approaching 40' is probably a decent English gloss.

[renzhe]

Skylee's a native Cantonese speaker.

Yes, but she also reads and writes standard written Chinese natively (as do all HKers), so usually it does not matter.

However, as you and imron point out, this is a northern, spoken usage.

[Guest realmayo]

I would put skylee not being familiar with it down to differences in usage between north and south.

 

So do most HK people who speak Mandarin do so with a southern-mandarin-speaker bias? I mean in terms of vocabulary, rather than accent. 

And if so is that because Cantonese shares with southern-mandarin?

[skylee]

Although I did not know what 三十大幾 meant (as defined in 現代漢語規範詞典), it does not necessarily mean that other HKers or southerners don't know it.

[Phoenix.Yang]

I'm Chinese.

I think the expression of 三十大几 is come from the accent in the north of China, probably Beijing or Tianjing.

 

This expression normally used to describe the people is old enough to make his own judgement or should indepent from their parents.

Also shown that the speaker is not sure about the precise age.

[imron]

This expression normally used to describe the people is old enough to make his own judgement or should indepent from their parents.

Also commonly used by parents wanting their not-getting-any-younger child to get married and/or have a kid etc.