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[Dec. 2nd, 2016|07:20 pm]
Jason
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Mandarin curiosity of the day: I came across the sentence
| 我 | 能 | 去 | 你 | 家 | 玩 | 吗 |
| wo3 | neng2 | qu4 | ni3 | jia1 | wan2 | ma? |
| I | can | go | you | house | ??? | [yes/no question] |
in an anki flashcard deck meant to teach to the HSK Level 1. Google translate says this is "can I go to your house?", and this mostly makes sense to me, except for that 玩 which by itself is "play with, joke, enjoy". Best I can guess is that the more idiomatic translation of the sentence is more like "can I visit your house?", as in, making a enjoyable social call, not just literally am. I. permitted. to. enter. your. dwelling. This thought based on I think seeing somewhere (but can't find it anymore) someone translating "I'm going to visit Beijing" as
| 我 | 会 | 去 | 北 | 京 | 玩 |
| wo3 | hui4 | qu4 | bei3 | jing1 | wan2 |
| I | will/can | go | bei | jing | ??? |
So I guess the pattern "去 + destination + 玩" is something like "to go to destination for the purpose of enjoyment, not just literally going there"? |
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