{"id":3308,"date":"2019-11-10T18:04:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T18:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-grammar\/chinese-grammar-expressing-quot-almost-quot-using-quot-chadian-quot\/"},"modified":"2019-11-10T18:04:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-10T18:04:28","slug":"chinese-grammar-expressing-quot-almost-quot-using-quot-chadian-quot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/fr\/chinese-grammar-expressing-quot-almost-quot-using-quot-chadian-quot\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese grammar:Expressing "almost" using "chadian""},"content":{"rendered":"
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To say that something bad almost happened (but didn’t), you can add the word \u5dee\u70b9 (chàdi\u01cen) before the verb. You will also hear \u5dee\u70b9\u513f (chàdi\u01cenr) in northern China. There is no difference in meaning between \u5dee\u70b9 and \u5dee\u70b9\u513f in Chinese grammar.<\/p>\n

Literal Meaning<\/strong>
It might help to understand the literal meaning of the structure. The word \u5dee (chà) has a lot of meanings. In this case, it means "to lack," or "to be short." So in Chinese, the way to say "almost" is to say, "lacking that little bit." If that "little bit" hadn’t been lacking, it would have happened. But it was lacking, so it didn’t happen… it almost happened.<\/p>\n

Structure <\/span><\/strong>
subject+\u5dee\u70b9\uff08\u513f\uff09+[verb phrase]+\u4e86
Note that the "Verb Phrase" part of the structure is usually something bad, and that it didn’t happen.<\/p>\n

Examples <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

W\u01d2 men duì chà dián ér sh\u016b le.
\u6211\u4eec \u961f \u5dee\u70b9\u513f \u8f93\u4e86\u3002<\/div>\n
(the team didn’t lose)Our team almost lost.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n