How to say tradeoff in Cantonese and Mandarin?

Question

The word tradeoff is not listed in Google nor in CantoDict.

Is it 折衷?

1. What's the Cantonese translation?

2. What's the Mandarin translation?

Answer 1

Trade-off https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trade-off

1 : a balancing of factors all of which are not attainable at the same time

2 : a giving up of one thing in return for another : exchange

Trade-off as a noun is 代價 in both Cantonese and Mandarin ('trade-off' basically means "in exchange" )

Example:

"Thicken the armor would provide better protection, but the trade-off is your speed would slow down."

"加厚护甲会提供更好的保护，但代價是你的速度会减慢。"

You can use "作為交換" (in exchange) instead of "代價是" e.g. "加厚护甲会提供更好的保护，但作為交換, 你的速度会减慢。"

Answer 2

I don't think you will find one Chinese equivalent for trade-off. In English you could also use disadvantage, downside, drawback, handicap, problem, weak point, trouble, nuisance, flaw.

I like 权衡 but I would not limit myself to that for a translation.