2 questions

dagah
 May 04, 2012 at 11:37 AM posted in General Discussion

Hey everyone,

I have 2 questions, hope someone can answer ^^

1. What's the meaning of "什么时候才是个头啊"? I have a clue, but I'm not sure. Is it the same as "What time would this end"?

2. How to say dramatic, in for example "dont be so dramatic"

Thanks

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lujiaojie
 May 07, 2012 at 03:17 AM

 "dont be so dramatic"可以说：别这么夸张！

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dagah
 May 06, 2012 at 06:34 PM

Hey Darkstar

Cool, thanks alot for the reply. "至于吗" would express the same as "何必嘛", right? For the second question I also asked a chinese person today, but I didn't got any exact translation. But I guess in most cases saying 你别太过分了, or 你别太夸张了 would do it.

I just saw the word "小题大做" on baidu, anyone know if this word is commonly used (?).

Dag

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darkstar94
 May 07, 2012 at 12:50 AM

To be honest, I've never heard of 何必嘛, but google search is usually a good way to find out. I typed in 何必 什么意思 in google search and I found http://zh-cn.oldict.com/%E4%BD%95%E5%BF%85/

In terms of 小题大做, I don't whether it's commonly used, but once again google is very reliable for a translation. Seeing it is a 成语, I would guess that it wouldn't be too common, but let's wait for a native speaker to come to our rescue :)

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darkstar94
 May 06, 2012 at 09:39 AM

I asked a Chinese person and they said

"一般形容不好的事儿什么时候结束"

"Usually describes when will a bad situation end"

In terms of the second question, you need to think about what you really want to express in English.  "Don't be so dramatic" is kind of another way to say that someone is being over the top, right?  So in case I would say ”你别太过分了“ or something like that.  Or I might even use ”至于吗“ which kind of means "does it deserve that reaction" (a very unnatural sounding translation I know).