Help with 多duō in this sentance

[Shelley]

I have this sentence in my text book, New Practical Chinese Reader from lesson 12 and I can't make sense of the 多 duō in it.

 

今天天气很冷，你要多穿点儿衣服

 

Today weather very cold, you must wear some clothes.

 

Any help would be appreciated, Thank you.

[Xiao Kui]

it means you should wear more clothes and/or thicker clothes than usual.  Chinese people say this all the time when the weather gets colder, to show care and concern, especially since many places they either don't have heat or want to save money by not turning the heat on :/

[pross]

“wear more”

[Shelley]

Ah yes that makes sense, the man is ill and his friend wants to take him to the hospital, but he is only wearing pyjamas or similar.

 

Thank you

[Flickserve]

"Wear a few more clothes"

[mackie1402]

Working in early education, I hear 多喝水 on a daily basis. Simply drink more water.

[Kenny同志]

I agree with Xiao Kui and Pross but it may be worth mentioning that 多 acts as an adverb here. This usage is pretty common, for example:

 

多喝水。

Drink more.

 

多運動。

Exercise more.

 

多努力。

Work harder.

 

多聯繫。

(can’t figure out a natural translation to reflect the grammar)

 

多包涵。

(can’t figure out a natural translation to reflect the grammar)

 

多讀書。

Read more.

 

PS: I wrote this reply more than an hour ago but didn't cut & pasted it from my Word file until now.

[Shelley]

Thank you for all your explanations.

 

@Kenny thanks for the examples and grammar point.

 

It is interesting how something like this is so commonly used in lots of things but I have not come across them till now. I will be well prepared now for encountering again.

[Hofmann]

多 and 少 are weird adverbs that go in front of the verb. There are probably others.

[Shelley]

多 and 少 are weird adverbs that go in front of the verb.

 

 

That probably explains why I couldn't make sense of it.

 

In English we can put the adverb either in front or after the verb, but it often subtly changes the meaning as:

 

a) He quickly ran down the road.

 

b) He ran quickly down the road.

 

a seems to me that he started to run down the road quickly but not necessarily continued that way.

b seems to suggest that he ran all the way down the road quickly.

 

Its a very subtle difference, can this sort of thing be expressed in Chinese?

 

This question was pointed out to me by the one person I know who I would say has a nearly complete mastery of the English language. My chinese is not up to this question but I said I would ask.

[stapler]

I still can't bring myself to say anything except 穿多衣服! Gunna take a lot a patience to scrub the English grammar.

[Shelley]

Gunna take a lot a patience to scrub the English grammar.

 

This is one reason I decided to preserve chinese word order when I translated in to English, I think it will help me think in chinese more. This is the topic about that  http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/50055-preserving-word-order/

 

 

[Flickserve]

I still can't bring myself to say anything except 穿多衣服! Gunna take a lot a patience to scrub the English grammar.

you got me thinking about this because this is quite normal in spoken Cantonese in Hong Kong. I also recall hearing the 多 preceding the verb in Cantonese. So asking some colleagues they said spoken Cantonese usually will put 多 after the verb. When at school learning formal Chinese, they need to put the 多 before the verb (otherwise they would be marked wrong ). In spoken Cantonese, it is OK to say 多 + verb and it is becoming more common to hear it. This comes from the increased communication with mainland.

[lips]

My understanding is that 多 in front of a verb, as an adverb, strictly means "more often". When it's in front of a noun 「多点兒衣服」, as an adjective, it means "more". However in most contexts, the implications are often the same: 多喝点儿水 and 喝多点儿水 imply the same meaning most of the time. In spoken putonghua the former is more common but, as pointed out above, the latter is the correct way in Cantonese. However in either case if you want to convey the specific meaning of "more often" or "more", they should not be used interchangeably.

"He quickly ran down the road" vs "He ran quickly down the road". To me, the former also conveys the meaning of "without delay". In Chinese it's used similarly: 「我很快就去了」means the overall time of getting there is short, i.e. "I started to go there with minimal delay and the action of getting there is not overly slow". In English "I quickly went there" carries exactly the same meaning.

[Guest realmayo]

多 and 少 are weird adverbs that go in front of the verb. There are probably others.

 

I genuinely didn't understand this reply! Presumably by "others" you mean other-weird-adverbs rather than other-adverbs-that-go-in-front-of-the-verb?

[lips]

多 can go after a verb. 多看 and 看多 are both valid but have very different meanings.

[Shelley]

This has been very enlightening both for the chinese explanations and I have learnt something about English grammar.

[Guest realmayo]

多 can go after a verb. 多看 and 看多 are both valid but have very different meanings.

 

 

So Hoffman meant "after" instead of "before?"

 

 

But, in 看多 is 多 actually an adverb? My guess is it's  not -- it's not modifying the verb 看 but the unstated objects of 看, meaning the 多 isn't and adverb but an adjective/stative verb.

 

How special is 多? It's a word that can function as an adverb or as an adjective/stative verb. 多吃。努力工作。快来。

 

Is there are rule that explains which words have this particular multi-function and which don't.

Part of me wants to say: the 快 in 来得很快 is an adjective/stative verb!

[Hofmann]

I guess it's not that weird. Got distracted by other languages.

[dwq]

I agree with lips. In Cantonese:

你應該多啲飲水 You should drink water more often.

你應該飲多啲水 You should drink more water.

你應該多啲讀書 You should read more often.

你應該讀多啲書 You should read more books.

啲 is similar to 點 and 飲 is similar to 喝.

I would add that 你應該多穿衣服 sounds weird to me as it seems to mean "You should wear clothes more often" which sounds like you often go without clothes.

你應該穿多點兒衣服 is clear. I'm not sure what to make of 你應該多穿點兒衣服 though. Perhaps the presence of 點 makes 多 associate with 點兒衣服 rather than 穿?