不定 or 一定

[kavanin]

你想，两家用一个厨房、一个厕所，住着不定多别扭呢。

 

In this sentence, 不定 confuses me as why it is 不定 and not 一定. I understand the last part as "living (under these conditions) is certainly very uncomfortable/difficult/awkward." It seems something is wrong with my understanding. Can you enlighten me please?

[朱真明]

My understanding, 翻譯~ Think about it, two families using one kitchen and one bathroom, living together need not be that awkward.

The reason 不定/不一定 is used instead of 一定 is because of the first part 你想. Two families using the same facilities would normally be considered awkward, so there would be no need to say "think about it" if you were going to say 一定. Instead you would say, 實際上，兩家用一個廚房，一個廁所，住著一定多別扭啊！

[kavanin]

It was very helpful. Thank you.

[陳德聰]

I don't really agree with the interpretation in #2... Will return with some thoughts.

[dwq]

You can think of it having an omitted 才怪:

 

住着不定多别扭(才怪)呢。

It would be strange if living is not certainly very uncomfortable/difficult/awkward (under these conditions).

[kavanin]

Thank you folks for your kind help.

 

I want to explain how #2 was helpful for me for those who are also perplexed like me. Personally, I find the conditions given in the example sentence very uncomfortable, so without thinking much over what the sentence actually means, I understood the sentence as it was certainly very uncomfortable/difficult/awkward to live in such a situation, and I thought my problem was with 不定.

 

But as soon as I read the interpretation in #2, I suddenly realized that my problem wasn't with 不定 but with 多: here it didn't mean "very" or "much", but "how much." Then I saw the light: "it is uncertain/indefinite/hard to say/hard to imagine how much inconvenient to live (in such a situation)."

[陳德聰]

Yes, think of the sentence as being "你想想多彆扭呢！" Think about how AWKWARD that would be!, aka we don't know how awkward that would be, but we're assuming it would be quite awkward.

[Leah. X.]

My understanding, 翻譯~ Think about it, two families using one kitchen and one bathroom, living together need not be that awkward.

The reason 不定/不一定 is used instead of 一定 is because of the first part 你想. Two families using the same facilities would normally be considered awkward, so there would be no need to say "think about it" if you were going to say 一定. Instead you would say, 實際上，兩家用一個廚房，一個廁所，住著一定多別扭啊！ 

 

 

This translation is inaccurate. The sentence actually means: "Think about it: two families living with one kitchen and one bath, how awkward is that!" -- it indicates that the situation must be very awkward.

 

 

But as soon as I read the interpretation in #2, I suddenly realized that my problem wasn't with 不定 but with 多: here it didn't mean "very" or "much", but "how much." Then I saw the light: "it is uncertain/indefinite/hard to say/hard to imagine how much inconvenient to live (in such a situation)."

Here you kind of got it. Literally, it means "I don't know how bad that could be". However, the "uncertainty" should be interpreted this way: I know it is going to be really bad, so much so that we can't come up with a 'worst scenario' because there must be something (bad) beyond our expectation.