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There are clear rules in English and Chinese. English is absolute so "yes" means I am. Chinese is an echo language so "是的" means you are correct that I am not.
by derekzhouzhen 4y ago
There are clear rules in English and Chinese. English is absolute so "yes" means I am. Chinese is an echo language so "是的" means you are correct that I am not.
However, I do see Chinese making mistakes in English and English speakers making mistakes in Chinese and I am not 100% free of the guilt.
In the question "你不是犹太人吧？" there is already a "是“ in it, so a native speaker would use "对“ or "没错“ instead of "是的". They all means "correct" but by avoiding using "是" again, the chance of misunderstanding is minimized.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoI guess I have to draw your attention to these two sentences: > There are clear rules in English and Chinese. > They all mean "correct" but by avoiding using "是" again, the chance of misunderstanding is minimized. If the rules were clear, there would be no misunderstanding.
- derekzhouzhen 4y agoI mean there are clear rules in both English and Chinese `officially`. However, Chinese is such a lax language and can convey very different meanings with just tone differences, you don't want to take the chance if there is a better way.