Can I just translate 犯 as often?

Question

I had this text: 我的性格比较好静，让我发言或接受采访我就犯晕。

First I thought 犯晕 is a word, but I can't find it as a word.
I see 犯 can mean 'recurrence of something bad'. I also found:

英雄犯大错误。 Great men (often) have great faults.

In this kind of context, can 犯 be 'often'??

Answer 1

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2546/

犯

/faan6/ /faan6*2 / ( jyutping)

/ fan4 / (pinyin)

[1] [v] offend; violate; go against

[2] [v] invade; attack; encroach on

[3] [n] criminal; convict; culprit

[4] [v] suffer recurrence of (illness, bad habit, etc)

In the context of :

「犯頭暈」，「犯作嘔」，「犯肚痛」「犯口癢」and 「犯儍」,「犯」means " suffer recurrence of "(see [4])

• 「犯頭暈」= "suffer recurrence of fainting"
• 「犯作嘔」= "suffer recurrence of vomiting "
• 「犯肚痛」= " suffer recurrence of stomachache"
• 「犯口癢」= " suffer recurrence of open my big mouth."
• 「犯儍」 = " suffer recurrence of stupidity."

The word "often " describe an event happens frequently, but not regularly; while "recurrence" means something happens repeatedly, regularly. Therefore, The answer to your question is: "No" - 「 犯」doesn't mean " often", it means: " repeatedly suffering"

*「犯暈」is short for 「犯頭暈」

Can I just translate 犯 as often?

You could translate 犯 as "repeatedly suffer"

"I repeatedly suffer fainting every time they ask me to make a speech or take an interview."

英雄犯大错误。

It simply means :" The hero made (committed) a big mistake."

Answer 2

http://www.16pic.com/photo/pic_456811.html

犯晕 doesn't mean fainting in the literal sense, rather it means getting a bit bewildered, drowsy or tired as a result of information overload.

Answer 3

犯, in the very beginning of it's creation means "dog hurts people", the left radical 犭 implies animals, in this case is a dog(taking 狗,狼,猪,猫... for examples and you can find that they all have a 犭)

Given this background, the original meaning can be summarised as "to offend, to violate" or so, generally, what will you get if you offend/violate something? I'd say you will suffer from some bad results in most situations.

so, if you 犯晕, you will suffer from dizziness(will, not really dizziness, it only a metaphor here which means if people want you to give a talk or have an interview with you, you'll become embarrassed and have no ideas what to do, just like dizziness).

in summary, you can use 犯 in two ways:

1. in an active way: to offend/to violate something(often rules, laws..). e.g. 犯罪 -> to commit a crime
2. in a passive way: to suffer from something(more like an extension in meaning, you violate something hence you suffer the result). e.g. 犯晕，犯迷糊，犯傻，犯难, in this way you can simply translate it as "to be"

Answer 4

"犯" is always used before a word, which is a noun represent something bad of people, to describe something bad are occurring.

eg. 犯病，犯坏，犯傻，犯晕，犯浑

In your text, "让我发言或接受采访我就犯晕。", means that " the bad situation "fainting" will occur when you are asked to make a speech. There is no meaning about "often", you also can say 『我今天犯晕』.

So I don't think it is necessary to translate "犯" explicitly in your first sentence. You can just translate it as "always feel faint".

"英雄犯大错误" , there isn't a idiom like this, and the "犯" has the same meaning as "犯晕", "大错误" is something bad of people same as "傻", "坏", "错".

Actually, there is an implicit "often" in this sentence, but not because of the "犯" and it's because of the logic of the sentence. It means that :

If some one is a big man, his mistakes will alway get great influence. so in Chinese, it's same as "英雄犯的错误一般都是大错误".

We have a proverb like this : "淹死会水的"，it also means："被淹死的人一般都是会游泳的"

Answer 5

您好！这个句子中的“犯”是“经常会”的意思。口语表达中常用，不用于规范的书面表达。

Answer 6

In these situations I think you can just translate "犯" as the word "make". "I'm quiet. Letting me speak in public or be interviewed will make me dizzy." "Great men will also make great faults." Or "Great men made great faults."