Foreigners often make some strange mistakes in Chinese when they study the most difficult language— —Chinese. We try to analyze typical sentences to correct these errors.
Wǒ wèn tā qù kàn diànyǐnɡ, tā lìkè jiù dāyìnɡ le.
False: 我问他去看电影,他立刻就答应了。
Wǒ qǐnɡ tā qù kàn diànyǐnɡ, tā lìkè jiù dāyìnɡ le.
True: 我请他去看电影,他立刻就答应了。
汉语“问”一般译作ask,而ask在英语中既可以表示询问(如,ask a question),也可以表示请求(如May I ask a favor of you?)在汉语中中,“问”没有请求的意思,句中“问”,也不是请人解答问题,而是邀请,可以改“问”为“请”。
The English equivalent for 问 in Chinese is "ask", which expresses as inquiry(as in "ask a question")as well as request(as in "May I ask a favor of you?"). However 问 in Chinese never means request. The above sentence is not a request or an answer; it is an invitation. Thus 问 ought to be replaced by 请.