posted by murrayjames on April 19, 2013 | 5 comments
试想， 没有金钱与荣誉，地位。其他的岂不是空谈。I think I understand the gist of this sentence:(Think about it: Without money, honor or status, everything else is idle chatter.)...but I'm confused by 岂不. Maybe the double negative is tripping me up. What does 岂不 mean here, and what is the best way to translate it?
@murrayjames,岂不 means isn't it. It makes the sentence a rhetorical question: isn't everything else idle chatter?--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
岂 basically introduces a rhetorical question: "how could _____?" As Echo says, it turns up a lot next to 不 -- "岂不是_____" does mean "isn't it," but the implication is that answering "no" to the question would be ridiculous. It also turns up in phrases like "岂有此理," which is something along the lines of "you must be joking" or "surely you can't be serious."
paulmccarthy79 on April 22, 2013 | reply
@Brendan, so is 岂有此理 "you can't be serious" in a John McEnroe sense (ie in anger) or is it more lighthearted?
If you translate 岂有此理 into simpler Mandarin, it will be 怎么会有这样的道理呢（你太不讲理了）. That's a way to express your anger.--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
paulmccarthy79 on April 25, 2013 | reply
@Echo. Thanks. I look forward to practising that on Beijing taxi drivers in a few weeks!