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How to properly translate 反常识的 to English in academic writing? I want to express a surprising and unusual phenomenon that shouldn't appear in an experiment, which is not expected and against the physical principle.

For example,

However, it is quite 反常识的 that the performance of A is .... blah...

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    How about counterintuitive ?
    – user4072
    Jul 2, 2019 at 13:40

3 Answers 3

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I think you mean "Counterintuitive".

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常识=common sense

反常识==incredible

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Google result for 反常识的 is "unconventional". It doesn't seem to fit the description in the context you described.

I think the word you are looking for is [ "inconceivable" (adj): beyond reason, belief ] - implies a finding seemingly defies the law of physic or conventional believes

"inconceivable" in Chinese is 不可思議; 無法想像

Side note:

If an experiment's result seemingly defies the law of physic, the most likely cause would be: 1. Mistakes were made during the experiment. 2. Someone forged the result 3. The previous notion was wrong.

Edit (add from my comment):

反" contains the meaning of 'to counter' . Therefore, someone think "Counter-intuitive" contains the word 'counter' must be the right answer and my answer suggested giving up the phrase "反常识的" and use "不可思議" or "無法想像" to describe "a surprising and unusual phenomenon" . Actually "counter-intuitive" is not much different from "unconventional"- meaning something that is not conventionally done or intuitively thought

For example: A green button instead of a red button activate self-destruct command is 'counter-intuitive' because we usually label dangerous function with the color red. I would translate 'counter-intuitive' as "違反直覺的" and "反常识的" as "against common sense"

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  • I don't understand why this answet is downvoted.
    – null
    Jul 3, 2019 at 8:55
  • @Nathan Explosion "反" contains the meaning of 'to counter' . Therefore, someone think "Counter-intuitive" contains the word 'counter' must be the right answer and my answer suggested giving up the phrase "反常识的" and use "不可思議" or "無法想像" to describe "a surprising and unusual phenomenon" . Actually "counter-intuitive" is the same as "unconventional"- meaning something that is not conventionally done or intuitively thought
    – Tang Ho
    Jul 3, 2019 at 9:07
  • Now I added "against common sense" as the translation of "反常识的" , Since 反 also contain the meaning of "against". I hope that satisfies someone's need for literal translation
    – Tang Ho
    Jul 3, 2019 at 9:35

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