Last Saturday, while negotiating a steep mountainous downhill on my bike, my front tire suddenly fell into a rut. Suddenly, I toppled over my bike and landed hard on my right arm, causing severe pains to my forearm, wrist, and elbow. The ensuing soreness-which a doctor reassuringly said was not a bone fracture- has severely limited use of my right arm and hand.
All of this likely isn’t interesting to you, but my little injury does present an opportunity to discuss the mysteries of the word “can” in Chinese, something that proves tricky to beginning students of the language.
Typically, there are three words in Chinese that express the English “can”. These are 会，能，and å¯ä»¥. When does one use each of these?
I myself am no expert, but here is an explanation that normally works for me. Those with better Chinese are free to gently correct me in the comments.
å¯ä»¥ means “may”, and in situations in which permission is sought and given. For example, at the university it is physically possible for one to sit on the grass, but it isn’t permitted. ä¸å¯ä»¥, in other words.
能 and 会 are a little less clear. Both loosely mean ability, though they mean ability in certain contexts. 能 typically refers to what is possible at a particular time. 会 means “general ability”.
My injury provides a perfect example of how the two are different. Due to my buggered wrist, I’m unable to write with a pen. 我ä¸èƒ½å†™å—, in Chinese. Yet I obviously know how to write, so the statement æˆ‘ä¼šå†™å— applies as well. In English, expressing this difference would require an additional phrase or two, such as “I normally can write, but not at the moment”. In Chinese, two different words handle this distinction quite nicely.
There is, of course, a fourth expression of ability in Chinese: 了. This one typically confuses me, though I mostly use it for things that are or are not working. For instance, “用ä¸äº†” means that something is useless. å¼€ä¸äº†é—¨ means that a door can’t be opened, etc.
Anyway- please excuse my pedantry. Yet if there’s one way to deal with upsetting situations in China, it is reflecting on how they provide better understanding of the language.
I’m sure the medical staff at the hospital in Kunming, for instance, appreciated learning my finely chosen English swear words as they dealt with my arm after my accident. At least I think that’s why they were smiling.
you are expert on these explanations
It’s funny how mastering these subtle differences is in fact much harder in a direct sense than sitting down and studying Characters or reading, etc. (It’s also pretty fun though) Really ‘getting’ the difference, I think, only comes from a lot of time and context and a well-honed è¯æ„Ÿ or, sense for the language.
Nice post. Sucks about your arm! Get well soon.
Best way to be taught by a Chinese writer.
I struggled with the difference between 能 and 会 for a long time… until I was locked out of my hotel room. Then my tutor explained that saying ä¸ä¼š made it sound like I was too dumb to know how to operate a hotel key card.
Matt, Great Post, very clear explanation, hope you are feeling somewhat better. Have you used any red flower oil 红花油 hónghuÄyóu on the wrist to help with the pain (to soothe it)?
Clark – lol
Ryan – Would be cool if the pinyin font inside the popup was bigger as the box kinda feels empty. Apart from that the fade in fade out effects are GREAT! Just noticed the tone mark from the first 了 le/liao (liÇŽo) is missing. Don’t mean to get all pedantic on you HAHA!
In my class, the teachers taught us these words separately, stressing the difference in meaning once they started appearing together and became an object of confusion.
Their definition for å¯ä»¥ was basically the same as yours.
能 was explained as a natural ability, while 会 was more a skill that necessarily had to be learned (like writing). Obviously, when some outer factor made you unable to perform a given action, you didn’t *forget* how to carry it out (we had an entertaining but fruitless discussion of how this pertained to stroke victims), you were just rendered unable to – ä¸èƒ½.
Great post.
About the pinyin tooltips though… looks like the popups don’t appear for pinyin in comments? This would be helpful to have as well.
@MattC: Cheers – will mess around with styles a bit more when I get some free time. Fixed the liÇŽo flub – cheers.
@Chris: This was how I was taught in class as well. For the 2.5 years prior to that though I had always wrestled with the difference.
@Brad: Unfortunately it’s not automated. It’s the responsibility of the post/commentator to add the HTML needed for it. As soon as I’m able, I’ll start working on a way to automate it – though I suspect I’ll not get far with it as the amount of time it would require is much greater than the potential/limited use.