Suspicious translation: "It was fun" - 这很有趣

[Alice24]

For "it was fun", this is what I get in "reverso context":

这很有趣 (Zhè hěn yǒuqù)

but when I reverse the translation, it translates as: "it was funny" or "it was interesting"... hmm, quite a difference.

 

In google translate I get 好玩 (Hǎowán) which does mean fun, but it without the "it was"

So my actual guess for 'it was fun' would be"这好玩" ( Zhè hǎowán) or "这很好玩" (Zhè hěn hǎowán)...

 

If you want context:

"Did you enjoy playing basketball yesterday?"
"Yes, it was fun!"

[Lu]

Automatic dictionaries can be very useful. For example, if there is a newspaper article in a language you can't read, you can feed it into something like Google Translate and get a good idea of what it says. Or if you want to read a menu in a language you don't know, you can use an automatic translator and get a good guess at ordering something you actually want to eat.

 

But it doesn't work well for translating short sentences with little context into a language you don't know. First because often the translation is just wrong or off, and second because if you don't know the target language, you can't tell if the result is wrong or off.

 

In case of your little dialogue, I would translate the answer 'It was fun' as 挺好玩 or perhaps even 很开心. What do you need this translation for?

[Alice24]

Oh wow, thanks for the fast reply and the help! 

Oh I'm just studying Chinese and trying to form sentences, wanted to see if what I'm saying is correct and indeed am not always trusting the automatic tools that are out there when there are conflicting and weird results, it's nice to have a human feedback

[cncorrect]

On 3/26/2024 at 4:17 PM, Alice24 said:

For "it was fun", this is what I get in "reverso context":

这很有趣 (Zhè hěn yǒuqù)

but when I reverse the translation, it translates as: "it was funny" or "it was interesting"... hmm, quite a difference.

I believe the translation was carried out by a native Chinese speaker. This is because, as a native Chinese speaker and a second language learner of English, I initially struggled to tell the difference between 'It's fun' and 'It's funny'. That's a common mistake among English language learners in China.

[Alice24]

@cncorrectTruly fascinating insight! I will keep that in mind👍