Do you understand?

rickardlindberg
 December 05, 2008, 10:28 PM posted in General Discussion

Hi there,

I am wondering if there is a phrase to ask if someone understands what I am saying to them. I was told that "明白了吗" is only used by senior to junior as in teacher to student. But if I am talking to a frined in Chinese and want to ask if he understands me, is there a particular phrase that I can use? "对不对"? "好不好"?

I guess this also depends a bit on the context, but any suggestions are welcome.

--Rickard

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calkins
 December 06, 2008, 01:10 AM

There are probably many ways, but I always say

（你）懂吗？
（nǐ）dǒng ma？
Do you understand?

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bababardwan
 December 06, 2008, 01:29 AM

Calkins,

I was thinking something along those lines,but I was also conscious of not saying :

Ni3 dong3 shen2me?

which I've heard a couple of times now ,including the sandwich lesson,meaning "what would you know?".I've got that phrase currently stuck in my head 'cos it made me laugh.So I'd wanna be careful not to come out with it instead of "ni3 dong3 ma?"

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calkins
 December 06, 2008, 02:02 AM

"What do you know?"   Good one, I'll have to remember that.

Here's a good list of 懂 sentences from the glossary.

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Virginia~^________________________^
 December 07, 2008, 04:18 AM

你能明白我的意思吗？can you understand what i mean?^^

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JasonSch
 December 25, 2008, 08:34 AM

I'd say the most commonly thrown in phrase to ask understading is:

(你) 懂了吧？

It's more like 'Did you get that?' than directly asking if someone understands. 

 

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purpleann
 December 26, 2008, 03:35 PM

"对不对"mainly to ask for admition from people, the  subtext is :"blabla....there you go, am i right?". mostly used when you are  reasoning with someone.it bascially not use to ask whether a person have understood you, besides, it also kind of "used by senior to junior as in teacher to student".

eg:----I always can't understand what my teacher said in the class,what should I do?我上课总是听不懂老师在讲什么，怎么办啊?

------So why not go and ask your teacher?you have to take some move to understand what you are learning,RIGHT?干嘛不直接去问老师呢？对于自己学习的东西，总得弄清楚啊，对不对？

"好不好"is totally another thing, it always use to require identity from other people on your ideas.

--------Any ideas for this afternoon?下午我们做些什么呢？

-------um,Iwant to go to the park,OK/HOW DO YOU THINK  ?嗯，去公园吧，好不好？

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dunderklumpen
 March 26, 2009, 09:58 PM

The chinese guy in the restaurant I sometimes visit usually says: Blablablabla.....    (pause)   -ni3 dong3 ma?