第二年第二百七十天

[nnozomi]

语法
V + 得起/不起, "can/can't afford to X" (part 3)
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Advanced_potential_complements

词汇
让, "give way" (why is it glossed like that? "make/let" seems appropriate) (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-2-word-list/

Guardian:
这个责任你负得起吗, can you (afford to) take this responsibility?
可我赌不起, but I can't afford to bet
放心，有老师在，不会让你有事的, don't worry, I'm here, I won't let anything happen to you

Me:
我等不起结果，一定要马上去。
让我看看报纸。

Comments

[trobadora]

Most dictionaries don't even have an entry for either one

Yeah, that tripped me up too! But Wiktionary says this is the same use as in 对不起, which hopefully means I'll be able to remember it now!

[grayswandir]

But Wiktionary says this is the same use as in 对不起

Oh no, this just confuses me more. XD I would have expected 对不起 to be more directional, like "I can't (bear to/am not worthy to) lift up (my head to) face you," rather than "I can't afford to face you." I just don't see where "affording" comes into it. Maybe some connection between "affording" and "worth," where because you've done something wrong, you lack the personal worth/value to "afford" to look at someone? Even if so, it seems so different from how "afford" is used in English that I feel like there's got to be some other translation that would clarify what it means better...

Kind of digressing here, but the particular usage that's been driving me nuts is in a (Hong Kong) show where two characters have a conversation that's essentially like:

A: "Ah, so that's why you killed my father. I understand now."
B: "You mean you don't want to get revenge against me?"
A: [sincere, or at least faking it very convincingly] "I did before, but now that you've explained it, I don't."
B: [genuine praise] "You're a very understanding young man."
A: [declining the praise in a polite/friendly way] "No, it's just that I 得罪不起你."

If this is the same usage, then it means "I just can't afford to offend you," but... that seems like totally the wrong meaning when he's trying to convey that sincerely doesn't want revenge anymore, not that he still wants revenge but just can't afford to get on the other guy's bad side, or lose their social connection by admitting he's still angry or whatever. I feel like either "afford" means something rather different from the English usage here, or there's some other meaning of 不起 that I'm missing. (But what? I can't think of any other translation that seems to fit the context, either! :P)

[trobadora]

It made intuitive sense to me with 对不起 when I saw it on wiktionary, but then I read your comment and got all confused again, LOL.

In your example, I totally agree that "can't afford to" in English would have a very different vibe from what you're describing and what the scene conveys!

Thinking about it, yeah, I think it's a figurative sense of "afford", like you suggested in the exchange with nnozomi above. Maybe something like "can't bear the consequences of" and from there to "can't bear to", which as you say does fit 对不起? Does that make any sense to you?

[grayswandir]

It made intuitive sense to me with 对不起 when I saw it on wiktionary, but then I read your comment and got all confused again, LOL.

Sorry! XD

Maybe something like "can't bear the consequences of" and from there to "can't bear to", which as you say does fit 对不起? Does that make any sense to you?

Hmm, maybe? It makes more sense than anything I've come up with so far! And I could imagine that as a natural progression of meaning, with the end result having sort of lost the part about consequences. I'll keep that in mind and see if it fits the next time I run into a 不起.