第三年第一百七十五天

[nnozomi]

语法
Future tenses: (快)(就)要...了
https://mandarinbean.com/yao-le/
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22about_to_happen%22_with_%22le%22

词汇
等待, to wait for (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
那个四眼的眼神你注意到了吗，有几次我感觉都快要刺进我身体里了, did you see the way that four-eyes looked at us? I thought a few times it was going to pierce right into my body
我再找不到，我这个月的奖金就要被扣光了, if I don't find it, my bonus for this month will be cut
黑袍大人已经控制住了局面，就在殿里等待两位, the Lord Envoy has already gotten the situation under control and awaits the two of you at the palace

Me:
外面这么闷热，我快要疯了啊。
你等待，明天会更好。

Comments

[grayswandir]

I was going to try to come up with some sentences today, but then I got distracted by being kind of surprised that 等待 is an HSK3 word, since I think of it as sort of formal/literary and maybe kind of rare! But maybe it's used in Mandarin more than I realize? Does it come up in casual conversation?

I just ran a search through the first ten chapters of Jin Yong's The Deer and the Cauldron to see if I could find some examples, but 等待 didn't come up even once, even though the chapters all have anywhere from 10-50 instances of 等. I did find some examples in the Cantonese webnovel 西营盘, so I think rather than trying to come up with my own sentences I'm just going to try to translate one of those into Mandarin:

Cantonese: 等待报站广播结束之后，我决定开声问： 「我可唔可以先问下，你哋而家车头系咩情况？」
Translation: 等待报站广播结束以后，我决定开声问： 「我能不能先问一下，你们现在车头是什么情况？」

(Not sure if I actually needed to change 之后 to 以后, I feel like I hear 以后 more in Mandarin? Maybe both are okay? Also not sure if I needed to change 可以 to 能, or if I missed anything else...)

And also "我们要等，等待一个合适的时机才主动出击" (barely a translation since I just swapped out 哋/们 and 嘅/的) [ETA: also belatedly changed 先 to 才!]. And "等待另一个时机," which I think works fine in Mandarin already.

[nnozomi]

being kind of surprised that 等待 is an HSK3 word, since I think of it as sort of formal/literary and maybe kind of rare!
I will never understand how the HSK makes its decisions about vocabulary!

Thank you for the Cantonese --> Mandarin! That's fascinating. As you say I think I hear 以后 more than 之后, but both are definitely standard Mandarin (and if there's a difference in nuance I haven't grasped it; wait a second, let me look this up--okay, I knew there was a page! https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Comparing_%22yihou%22_and_%22zhihou%22

and yeah, 等待另一个时机 sounds like Mandarin to me.

[grayswandir]

Ah, thank you for the link! Seems I probably could have just left 之后, since it sounds like in Mandarin the words are interchangeable in that context. Though, yeah, there might be some subtle nuance of difference that the Wiki is trying not to burden us with. XD

[nnozomi]

there might be some subtle nuance of difference that the Wiki is trying not to burden us with. XD
Part of my experience teaching English is finding that I _know_ two given phrases have a difference in nuance, but I can't for the life of me _explain_ it, it's all vibes ;) I suspect the same applies to all languages...