How to translate "I wonder..."

Question

How can I translate something like the below sentence into Chinese:

I wonder how many people are going to the party?

Answer 1

Translation from English to Chinese is more a matter of capturing meaning than finding word for word equivalences. In this case, I think the best way to capture "wonder" is by saying "would like to know."

Thus, "I wonder..." becomes "我想知道..."

Translating to "I don't know" (as is suggested by Question Overflow) might be appropriate in some situations. It's not what I would use for your example sentence, but the decision is admittedly subjective.

In any event, here is a collection of example sentences in English/Chinese with the word "wonder."

Answer 2

"不晓得" would be quite an appropriate translation for the word "wonder":

不晓得会有多少人去舞会。

To elaborate, "I wonder" has two components to it:
1) I don't know; and
2) I am curious to find out.

While 不晓得 directly possesses the meaning of 不知道 or "don't know", depending on the tone of the speaker and the statement itself, it can also take on a "curiosity component". Example:

不晓得今天会不会下雨。
I wonder if it is going to rain today.

If 我 is added in front, then the whole flavour of the sentence can be changed to a plain "I don't know" kind of statement:

我不晓得会有多少人去舞会。
我不晓得今天会不会下雨。

As mentioned in the comments below, whether "不晓得" or "不知道" when used at the start of a sentence can be taken to mean "I wonder". A list of references:

不曉得
do not know; I wonder
source: cantonese.sheik.co.uk

I wonder how old he is.
不晓得他是几岁。
source: dictall.com

I wonder if he can.
不晓得他能不能。
source: ichacha.net

I wonder whether I might ask you a question.
不知道可不可以问你一个问题。
source: ichacha.net

When in doubt, please don't rely on a single source of references.

Answer 3

This is my first post, I hope the community isn't too harsh on me >_<.

I've come across some translations:

The other posts are certainly correct in that "I wonder" is probably best translated as

我想知道 。。。 ＝ I wonder ...

想知道（什么／为什么／如何） ＝ I wonder (what/why/how)

不知道是否 ＝ I wonder if/I wonder whether or not/I don't know if...

But there are some other ways to express this:

我奇怪他怎么不来

Here it means, "I wonder why he didn't come." If "wonder" has a direct translation, I would say "奇怪" would be it, at least according. Because of the use of "奇怪“ it emphasizes something strange/unusual could have occurred.

我寻思会不会下雨 = I wonder if it will rain or not

but "寻思" implies pondering, thinking over, which may be too dramatic when applied to weather.

Conclusion: At least colloquially, using 知道 is probably best, but there are many translations!

Answer 4

in your case: 想知道，好奇。

but if this is some information about it you got, 我纳闷儿/我嘀咕呢 ... it is very strange/can't accept estimated answer/or given by others, himself want to know the fact.

Answer 5

I always try to use the word I hear most in conversation given a context...

And if that's what you're looking for... I think "I wonder..." by itself can be best described as

我想

If you're trying to describe "I wonder" from a monologuing perspective... you can say:

我在想会有几个人去那个派对 (派对: popular Southern Chinese transliteration of "Party")

Or add some colloquial flavor by repeating the verb:

我在想想...