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In Dune, the Simplified Chinese edition translates the following sentence from chapter 3:
She asks me to tell her about the waters.
as
她让我给她讲水的故事
Here "ask" is translated as "让", but I always thought "让" is "let" or "allow" or "permit". In the context "she" is not at a superior position to "me", but instead they are at the same level of position (and are like lovers).
Can "让" be translated as "ask"? I personally feel "请" is more accurate.
让 is accurate in this case. 请 sounds too polite for interpreting 'ask'. Colloquially, 叫 is also suitable. E.g. 她叫我给她讲水的故事.
So, in normal and casual speech, we can always say 我让某人做某事 to mean "I ask someone to do something" in English.
You are right. 讓 is let. When A 讓 B do something, it often implies that the position of A is above B. I'd never say 我讓老闆做..... In the case you cite above, I think 要 or 要求 is a better translation.
That's an older usage. Taiwanese Chinese no longer uses it, but it is still in heavy use in Simplified Chinese.
Quote:- "I personally feel "请" is more accurate"
Both 请 & 让 in a certain context have the meaning of "to invite"
So, in the context of the sentence in question, it becomes "She invites me to tell her about the waters"
A bit stilted, but not inaccurate.
让 means "to have somebody [do something]" e.g. He had me wash his dog.
她让我给她讲水的故事 = "She had me tell her about the waters."
