Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Chinese term or phrase:
好事 vs 好的情事
English translation:
good thing (the former is often used in a negative sense)
Added to glossary by
Roddy Stegemann
Aug 14, 2006 13:37
17 yrs ago
Chinese term
United States
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Native in: English 
Works in: German to English, Japanese to English, French to English, and 3 more.
好事 vs 好的事 (1/2)
Non-PRO
Chinese to English
Social Sciences
Education / Pedagogy
Grammatikalische Analyse (Grammatical Analysis)
Sentence: 離婚不是好事，但是要是沒有了愛情，我看還是離婚好些。
1st Attempt: Divorces is not a good thing, but in the absence of love it appears to be the best solution?
Question One (1/2): 壞事 means "bad thing" when it is employed as a noun, but is its opposite truly 好事? It is my understanding that 好事 and 好的事 mean different things. Specifically, 好事 is only employed in an ironic context and means 壞事. In contrast, 好的事 means "a good thing" in any contex. What is going on?
Question Two (2/2): Does 我看Ａ in this context mean "in my opinion", "as I see it", "what I observe". Can I render it as "it appears" and still capture the same meaning?
You are welcome to comment on other parts of the sentence.
Reference: http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/contents.html#p...
Warning: In order to provide ProZ.com users with the best glossary entries possible, more than one question for the same entry will be asked from time to time. Please keep in mind when responding that you will be graded on your responses to ALL questions asked.
1st Attempt: Divorces is not a good thing, but in the absence of love it appears to be the best solution?
Question One (1/2): 壞事 means "bad thing" when it is employed as a noun, but is its opposite truly 好事? It is my understanding that 好事 and 好的事 mean different things. Specifically, 好事 is only employed in an ironic context and means 壞事. In contrast, 好的事 means "a good thing" in any contex. What is going on?
Question Two (2/2): Does 我看Ａ in this context mean "in my opinion", "as I see it", "what I observe". Can I render it as "it appears" and still capture the same meaning?
You are welcome to comment on other parts of the sentence.
Reference: http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/contents.html#p...
Warning: In order to provide ProZ.com users with the best glossary entries possible, more than one question for the same entry will be asked from time to time. Please keep in mind when responding that you will be graded on your responses to ALL questions asked.
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 | (not a) good vs good |
Wenjer Leuschel (X)
|
| 1 | good thing |
Yangzi
|
Proposed translations
8 hrs
Selected
(not a) good vs good
Divorces is not a good thing, but in the absence of love it seems to be the best solution, I would say.
To your question one:
The opposite of a bad thing is not always a good thing.
When things go bad, it is good enough to keep them from going too bad.
However, a good thing is not always a good thing.
不是好事 is surely a 不好的事, but 這種好事 is most probably very bad.
Example:
用一萬賺一億？這種好事八成有詐。我看你還是小心的好。
看你幹的這是什麼好事！
In short, good things are never good enough while bad things are good enough when they don't go too bad.
To your question one:
The opposite of a bad thing is not always a good thing.
When things go bad, it is good enough to keep them from going too bad.
However, a good thing is not always a good thing.
不是好事 is surely a 不好的事, but 這種好事 is most probably very bad.
Example:
用一萬賺一億？這種好事八成有詐。我看你還是小心的好。
看你幹的這是什麼好事！
In short, good things are never good enough while bad things are good enough when they don't go too bad.
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Final Rendering: Divorce is not a good thing, but in the absence of love it seems the best solution.
Acknowledgement: The lack of confidence among the respondents and the absence of confirmatory remarks was not encouraging. Perhaps this question should be upgraded to the PRO-level.
In any case, I incorporated the suggestions of both Wenjer and Yangzi into my Tsong Kit entry and believe to have come up with a reasonably good explanation. If I good split the points evenly I would. I chose Yangzi's response, because it provided relevant insight beyond the explanation for which I was looking.
Thanks to you both!
Discussion: Please see http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/part3/III-1b-g.html#s17 for further discussion regarding the context of this question.
My very best from the land of no mountains surrounded by sea on many sides."
18 hrs
good thing
'好事'也就是'好的事情', 两者说法一样。中文不说‘好的事’，事指事情。
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