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信 = to believe. 得过 = ???

Is this construction a sentence, a phrase, a verbalphrase or maybe sth. different?

3 Answers 3

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信得过 means 'can be trusted/believed/depended upon'. I would actually classify it as a verbal phrase as there are usually more formal ways to express it in writing, such as 可靠 (dependable) or 可信 (believable).

I would say “他的话是信得过的!” if I wanted to say "His word could be trusted!"

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信得过 literally refers to "Trust-worthy ", where 信 = trust, 得过 is an adjective means "able to / worthy"

You can say "他很可信" (He can be trusted) which means the same as "他很信得过" (He is trustworthy)

For the form 信得过, we also say "買得过" (worth buying) and even "嫁得过" (worth marrying).

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    "買得过" (worth to buy) and "嫁得过" (worth to marry) sounds quite weird to me.
    – Bolu
    Oct 28, 2014 at 9:18
  • 買得过 and 嫁得过 are definitely ungrammatical and unheard of in Northern China. Can someone from Southern China confirm the usage?
    – NS.X.
    Oct 28, 2014 at 20:04
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    買得過, 嫁得過(的男人), 娶得過(的女人), 食得過(的食物), 睇得過(的電影) or even 選得過(的議員) .... all are common in Hong Kong.
    – Henry HO
    Oct 29, 2014 at 3:58
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So if i got it right, 信得过 is a complex verb, wherein 信 is the main verb and 得过 the auxiliary verb?

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