第两百六十三天

[nnozomi]

语法
最好 + V etc., "had better/best to~" (top of page)
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22had_better%22_with_%22zuihao%22

词汇
说, 说话, speak/talk 说 shuō, 说话 shuōhuà, speak/talk
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-1-word-list/

Introductory grammar, day 48

Guardian:
你们最好告诉我，否则... you had better tell me. Otherwise...
你最好记住今天说的话, you'd better remember what I said today.
猫说话了，the cat spoke!

Me:
汤还非常烫了，最好等一会儿就吃. (or 喝?)
我跟你说，你最好快点辞职吧。

Comments

[presumenothing]

I think the constructions are effectively the same? Unless there's something I'm not thinking of. But yeah I'd say it's mainly an extent difference, somewhere along suggestion/advice vs strongly recommend (and possibly even all-but-imperative, if it's something like 你最好向她道歉 by context).

[elenothar]

Ok, that makes sense. And also, as I look at this sentence, my brain is going 'how the hell am I this far into vocab learning and the verb apologise has never turned up???'. So that's doubly useful

[presumenothing]

how the hell am I this far into vocab learning and the verb apologise has never turned up???

Heh, I guess 对不起 is the too-obvious tick for the "sorry" box…?

In a similar vein of various directions you get:

• 致歉 when you're 道歉ing but more formally
• 抱歉 as in (recorded phone voice) “很抱歉，您拨打的用户暂时无法接通…”
• Also, similar constructions: 道别, 道谢…

[elenothar]

In my head 对不起 isn't a verb (it's what you say when you're sorry, but it's not to be sorry?), but I frankly admit that the whole word form jumble in this language makes my head hurt so I might be wrong about that 😅

These similar vein ones are really helpful, thank you!

[nnozomi]

somewhere along suggestion/advice vs strongly recommend
好用，谢谢啊。