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I was wondering if the following sentence and translation match up with each other:

鱼的家是水。


The fish's home is the water。

The sentence seems quite crude to me even though the point might get across. Does the sentence sound juvenile or awkward to a Chinese speaker? And is "家“ understood to be home, or can it be mixed up with family?

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  • seems possible,also 水是鱼(类)的家 cf.iciba: The river is home to a fish and a crocodile. 河是鱼和鳄鱼的家
    – user6065
    Mar 20, 2018 at 23:41
  • 家 here refers to 'world' as in ; 'Human's home is Earth' (Earth is human's world)
    – Tang Ho
    Mar 21, 2018 at 3:18
  • Any context? Maybe I would prefer 鱼的家在水里 here.
    – tsh
    Mar 21, 2018 at 9:15

5 Answers 5

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yes, 鱼的家是水。is juvenile and awkward,

but still need associate specific context,

it's ok if in story of children,or just express thought,

in Chinese will say fish live in water

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from your question. Two possibles: (1) 如鱼得水; (2) 鱼水一家人。 Aforementioned answer are quite dufferent in Chinese context.

(1) Means someone come across the most advantaged situation which is favorite for his career、 personal objective or something like that. (2) Means someone has very good relationship with others. And their relationship are just like Chinese family member.

The precise translation needs the context.

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I suppose you are talking about 如鱼得水 ?

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  • I doubt that is the case based on the sentence from the original post, but you could elaborate what 如鱼得水 means in addition to the question
    – Alex
    Mar 27, 2018 at 19:19
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There are quite a few expressions which can match fairly closely, depending on what you want:

  1. 魚之依水 - Fish rely on the water; compare 鳥之依木 (birds rely on trees), 農之依田 (farmers rely on the field [for sustenance])
  2. 如魚得水 - Like a fish in the water; same meaning as English in [somebody's] element, implies some kind of advantage (rather than a lifeline like 1.)
  3. 魚以水爲天 - Same as (1)
  4. 魚以水為住處 - Literally, water is the residence of fish
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Just for your reference
鱼在水中生活
鱼生活在水中
鱼的家在水里
鱼水情

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