Meaning of 险些

[anonymoose]

The baidu meaning of 险些 is

 

差一点，几乎，将近，多用在不愿发生的事情上

 

and according the the Jinshan Ciba Chinese - English dictionary, the meaning is

 

narrowly; nearly

 

and several examples, all describing past events that nearly happened are given, for example:

 

我听说你在桥上险些出事。

 

他险些把我骗了。

 

他开车像个疯子，我们一路上险象环生，与好几辆车险些相撞。

 

This is all well and good so far. Then I found another example sentence:

 

Gordon Brown faces the grim prospect of probable defeat in a May election.

戈登·布朗在五月的选举中险些落马。

 

So my question is: when 险些 is used to describe a future situation, does it usually mean "probably will happen"? It seems pretty clearcut to me, but I just wanted to ask since the dictionary doesn't refer to this usage at all.

[semantic nuance]

 

 

戈登·布朗在五月的选举中险些落马。

 

 

可是這中文句子並沒有未來的意思。

首先，'險些落馬’ 代表差一點輸了。

如果選舉尚未發生，又怎麼會說是差一點輸了呢?

你確定中文的句子是英文原句的意思嗎?

 

 

 

Gordon Brown faces the grim prospect of probable defeat in a May election.

 

如果這個五月的選舉尚未產生，這個英文句子應該是指對於在五月舉行的選舉，Gordon Brown 可能要面臨慘敗。不代表他一定落馬。

[anonymoose]

謝謝你的回答。中文、英文句子都是從詞典里直接拷貝過來的，當然不能保證詞典的可靠性。不過那個句子當年應該是指將來的時候，因為後來布朗的確慘敗了選舉，那如果這已經是一個事實了，那麼寫那個句子就更不合理了。

 

那我再問，”險些“能不能用在將來的事情上？如果能，這種情況下有什麼意思？

[semantic nuance]

當某事件發生過後，其結果不是朝著預期不好的方向發生時，你會使用到 “險些”這個詞。 所以，我覺得應該不會用在未來式。其實，你可以朝 ‘a close call’ 這個英語習語的用法去想。當你們使用 a close call 的時候，應該也是在某事件發生過後，沒有造成預期心理不好的結果時，會使用對吧? A close call 應該在英文的使用上，也沒有出現在未來式吧?

[anonymoose]

可以說It will be a close call，就是”將會很玄"的意思。

[skylee]

我同意SN的看法。

中文原句寫得不好。（PS - 其實以“可能”或“極可能”取代“險些”即可。）

[anonymoose]

好，知道了。謝謝兩位。

[semantic nuance]

 

 

It will be a close call，就是”將會很玄"的意思。

 

Could you please give some sentences or contexts to put "It will be a close call", which denotes or connotes”將會很玄" in them?  Thanks in advance.

[anonymoose]

Manchester United will be facing Liverpool tonight. Manchester United needs this win to progress, but Liverpool have been looking strong recently, so it's going to be a close call tonight.

 

曼联今晚与利物浦交锋。曼联必须得胜才能晋升，但利物浦最近表现很威武，今晚将会很玄。

[semantic nuance]

Thanks, anonymoose. 'A close call' in your example sentence is different from 'a close call' or '險些' I mentioned earlier. A close call in your sentence is more like 勝負難分 or 勝負在伯仲之間 or 勢均力敵。

[anonymoose]

I edited my previous example. I'm not sure if your post above is in response to the original or the edited version.

 

Anyway, the original problem regarding 险些 has been cleared up now. Thank you.

[semantic nuance]

Still, I'm not quite sure of your '今晚將會很玄'. Does a close call here to indicate the competition will be very hard to tell who's gonna be the winner or mean that tonight will be very 玄? (Honestly, I have no idea of your 玄 )

 

Thank you.

[skylee]

I agree with SN's observation re 玄.

[anonymoose]

Well maybe I misunderstood the meaning of 玄. But what I was trying to say is the Manchester United's progression looks very uncertain.

 

So what does 玄 mean then?

[skylee]

思念是一種很玄的東西～

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?wdqb=%E7%8E%84

[Divato]

很悬(xuan)吧

[anonymoose]

Divato, yes! I knew there was something wrong. I don't know why I thought it was 玄.

[skylee]

But what does 懸 mean？ Does it mean 懸疑? Is it a slang?

[semantic nuance]

I second Skylee. What does 懸 mean here? I think the sentence anonymoose made means that both teams are likely to win, so it's hard to tell who's gonna win. That's the meaning of 'a close call' here, as I showed its Chinese translations above. If 懸 means 懸疑 here, it does not click at all. "it's going to be a close call tonight." generally means 今晚的賽事將精彩可期，(因為兩隊實力相當)。

[anonymoose]

I guess it means 悬乎. I don't remember where I learned this from, but maybe it is dialect. Anyway, it is listed on baidu:

 

悬xuán[形]：

 

⑸ [方]∶危险的，危难的或惊险的 [dangerous]。如：真悬

 

and

 

悬乎

xuánhu

⑴ [dangerous]∶危险的

⑵ [unsafe]∶不安全的

一个很悬乎的办法

 

I hope I'm right this time. Otherwise I'm just digging a deeper and deeper hole for myself.

 

EDIT: Here's another explanation I found:

 

够呛的意思，比如说 老师跟你说 ，XX 你这次很悬呀，将将及格，这里的意思就是 差一点就挂了的意思，要是换种说法 ，老师对你说 XX 这次考试你悬了。在这里的意思就是 你完了 要挂科了的意思。 这个要听全句才能翻译。你可以补充一下全句，我帮你分析 ，望采纳