kavanin Posted April 11, 2016 at 07:37 AM Report Share Posted April 11, 2016 at 07:37 AM 雪水煮豆腐—好不冷淡 In this 歇后语, "不 " confuses me. If I take 冷淡 as a word, it seems to mean "not at all cold and indifferent", exact opposite of what the sentence actually mean. Should I take it as "好不冷而淡" not at all cold but tasteless/indifferent." Or could it be that saying something but implying the exact opposite? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted April 11, 2016 at 08:05 AM Report Share Posted April 11, 2016 at 08:05 AM In this 歇后语, "不 " confuses me. That's because you need to keep it together with 好. '好不' in this context means 'utterly/extremely'. When paired with 冷淡 it means extremely 冷淡 because 雪水 is 冷 and 豆腐 is 淡. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofmann Posted April 11, 2016 at 07:19 PM Report Share Posted April 11, 2016 at 07:19 PM Probably related to 毫不, which may help you make sense of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddyf Posted April 12, 2016 at 07:22 PM Report Share Posted April 12, 2016 at 07:22 PM According to Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian, paradoxically, 好不 + adjective always serves to intensify the adjective, rather than negate it. There is only one exception, 好不容易, which means 'not easy'. Further adding to the confusion, 好容易 sometimes means 'not easy' and sometimes means 'very easy' depending on the situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kavanin Posted April 13, 2016 at 11:46 AM Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 at 11:46 AM Your explanations help a lot. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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