1

Yet another sentence where I know all the words but can't work out the correct meaning!

In one of my textbooks I have a series of phrases:

  1. 给我礼物
  2. 给谁的礼物
  3. 这是给谁的礼物?

Would I be correct in translating these into English as:

  1. Give me a present
  2. Give who a present
  3. Whose present is this?

I remember learning something last semester about sentences where the verb can come before the subject in order to emphasise the action and have a suspicion that this might be relevant but can't seem to use that idea to translate the phrases/sentences in a way which is convincing to me.

Thanks for your help in advance, Andrew

3 Answers 3

3

Literally, following Chinese syntax: This is give who(m) 的 present.

English: Who is this present for?

So I would say 1 and 2 are correct, but 3 might be better as above.

0

Sometimes it is not possible to just build an expression without changing the meaning of the rest of the sentence. I would translate these into English as:

  1. Give me (a/the) present (给我礼物)
  2. A/the present to give to who? (给谁的礼物)
  3. This is a present to give to who? (这是给谁的礼物)

If it was the expressions that you intended:

  1. Give me a present (给我礼物)
  2. Give who a present? (给谁礼物)
  3. Whose present is this? (这是谁的礼物)
0

I am Cindy, a native Chinese teacher from iChineseLearning. This would be the correct translation: 1. 给我礼物 - Give me (a) present. 2. 给谁的礼物 - Whom is (this) present for? 3. 这是给谁的礼物? The third sentence actually has the same meaning as the second one. It just put an emphasis on 这 (this).

If you have further questions, you can raise your question at here: http://www.ichineselearning.com/learn/ask-a-question.html

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