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The title mostly covers the question, but some elaboration might help. In English, there is a common construction of ideas whereby the speaker makes a statement about an action or event, and follows this sentence with a comment about how it isn't good, depending on the tense of the action or event being described. Some examples:

Past tense:

"Last year I didn't exercise at all."

might be followed by

"This didn't turn out well for me, the doctor said I was overweight."

"This didn't turn out well" is a mildly colloquial way of saying that the previous topic ended up being negative in some way, with the implication that this was at least somewhat surprising to the speaker.

Present tense:

"I'm really late to class."

followed by

"It's not good, my teacher will be very upset."

"It's not good" is a bit idiomatic, but refers to the previous statement negatively impacting the subject of the sentence, however doesn't portray any sense of surprise.

Future tense:

"Next year, I'm going to be working three jobs."

followed by

"We'll see how it turns out, but I don't think I'll be sleeping next year."

Here, "We'll see how it turns out" conveys that the speaker is unsure if the future action or event will be positive or negative, and the second half of that sentence clarifies that the speaker thinks it will turn out negatively.

All of these examples end up conveying the same general message, that the topic of the previous statement will negatively impact the speaker or subject. I'm looking for a Chinese phrase or fragment which conveys a similar meaning, as well as how to structure a sentence using it.

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  • I like the typical 啊呀啊啊啊啊! But it may be unrelated to the question. Lol
    – Mat
    Commented May 24, 2019 at 9:18

4 Answers 4

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In all these situations I would use one of these

  1. 这样不好
  2. 这样不太好
  3. 这样好象不好
  1. short, simple and broadly usable.
  2. adds a feeling of "not optimal".
  3. adds some level of uncertainty to the statement.
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I also like 真不好 and even the colloquial 糟糕 for some of the examples you wrote.

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listed

"I'm really late to class."

followed by

坏了!

糟糕!

坏事了!!

啊!!

这回可坏了!

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For your past tense example, you might consider using 可惜 - "pity" or "it's a pity that...".

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