does anyone know how to say郁闷in English?

Wei1xiao4

Yes, you are right!

一直下雨，（我们）都见不到太阳。 I leave out “我们”in that sentence. It will be clearly understand if i added 我们in that sentence before. I m sorry. But i think“一直下雨，都见不到太阳”is more oral and more natural. Anyway, both of them make sense.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Casie

Thanks Casie and Auntie68. So maybe in Casie's original sentence 直下雨，都见不到太阳 what I was missing was that "wo3men" was understood as in 我们都见不到太阳. The subject of the sentence was understood(obviously not by me) and that is why the dou1 was used. Could that be?

Hi wei1xiao4 and auntie68"

"I didn't like this movie at all" =我一点都不喜欢这部电影。

it will be better if you add“一点”yi1dian3 in the sentence, which can emphasize you don't like the movie at all.

As for movie, the measure word should be “这部” zhe4bu4.

Anyway, wei1xiao4 your sentence is more close to it! good job and keep trying your best!

Auntie68, I am glad to hear your opinions here. Btw, i just finished a writing homework.

Wish you a good weekend and a good night

Hello wei1xiao4. I think the two phrases mean "couldn't/ can't even see the sun" (都见不到太阳) and "I don't even like this show" (我都不喜欢这个电影). But final word is with casie, of course. Happy weekend!

Thanks, Cassie and Auntie68. So let me see if I have this straight. In Cassie's sentence 都见不到太阳 the dou1 means "at all". I am familiar with dou1 being used in the other examples that Cassie gave me. It was just this one the threw me. Could I say， 我都不喜欢这个电影。 Trying to say, "I didn't like this movie at all." Is that how I can use it?

Oops, my Mandarin/ hanyu pinyin really is awful; that should have been:

你去上海的时候有没有机会见到 Ken Carroll 吗 ?

Ni3 qu4 Shang4hai3de shi2hou4 you3mei2you3 ji1hui4 jian4dao Ken Carroll ma?" (or something like that!!!!)

Did you get to meet/ see Ken Carroll when you went to Shanghai ?

And the correct hanyu pinyin for the word 医生 is yi1sheng1. No neutral tone (phew!).

casie, is it okay if I try to jump in on 见 vs 看 ？

I sometimes think that the subtle difference between them is that 见 (jian4) includes the notion of "meeting" somebody as well. Or at least, some kind of human contact.

Hence 见面 (jian4 mian4) = "to meet somebody'/ "to make somebody's acquaintance"

And if -- hypothetically speaking -- your child's school principal were to request a meeting with you (yikes!), you would say that 我明天要见小明的校长 （wo3 ming2tian1 yao4 jian4 Xiao3Ming2de xiao4zhang3； "Tomorrow I have to see Xiaoming's principal... "

So casie's example sentence could be said to mean, "didn't get to meet the sun at all", which makes reasonable sense to me (a lousy "heritage speaker"!), in addition to the notion of not glimpsing any sunlight.

A Chinese people would ask, "Ni3 qu4 Shang4Hai3de shi2hou4 you3mei2you3 ji1hui4 jian4dao4 Ken Carroll a?" 你去上海的时候有没有机会见到 Ken Carroll 啊 ?

ie. Did you get to see/ meet Ken Carroll when you went to Shanghai?

One exception to this use of 见 is the set expression 看医生 (kan4 yi1sheng; to consult a doctor), and the related 看病 (kan4bing4; "to treat a patient"). Please don't ask me why!

And if your kids were bugging you for some kind of green light to do something that you weren't 100% convinced about, you could try to head them off with "要看情形吧" (yao4 kan4 qing2xing2 ba; "Must see circumstances" or "Let's see...".

casie, I really hope that was okay... happy weekend, all!

Wei1Xiao4,

You are right. 看不到太阳=见不到太阳， both 看and见mean "see" here.

And let me give you some more examples about this word都。 都dou1=all, at all

我的朋友都叫我甜芳。wo3 de1 peng2you3 dou1 jiao4 wo3 tian2fang1.

All my friends call me 甜芳。

我们全家都在看电视。wo2men1 quan2jia1 dou1 zai4 kan4 dian4shi4.

All my families are watching Tv.

我一点都不喜欢数学和物理。wo3 yi1dian3 dou1 bu4 xi3huan1 shu4xue2 he wu4li3.

I don't like math and physics at all.

Hope they will make sense.

Cassie

Cassie, I learn so much form you! You use the phrase 一直下雨，都见不到太阳. Can you explain to me why you use 都 in that sentence? Could you also say 看不到太阳? If so, why did you choose 见 instead of 看？ I'm sorry if these sound like stupid questions. Thanks.

auntie68

Thank you for your detail examples and "bummer" "drag""pits""suck""frustrated" do sounds like 郁闷。I am going to make a note.

That's pretty cool that you and your little student learn chinese together. I guess she is kind of naughty sometimes, but i don't worry about that, you are so kindhearted and you have a good patient.^_^

casie, sorry to post three times in a row, but do you think that maybe the English word "frustrating/ frustrated" can describe 郁闷 ?

Btw, everybody, 诸葛亮 's (Zhu1ge3 Liang4) name is a famous example of a 复姓 (fu4 xing4), or "compound surname". Yes, these do exist in Chinese.

So 诸葛亮 's surname was 诸葛, and his given name was 亮 . Yup, in the year 2008 he would be a Mr Zhuge, not a Mr Zhu. Another famous 复姓 is 司马光 (Si1ma3 Guang1), whose family name is 司马, not 司.

A single-character surname -- much more common in the Chinese world -- is a 单姓 (dan1 xing4), or "unitary surname").

So sorry to inflict this kind of trivia on everybody, but I only just learned this from -- of all people! -- my 12-year-old Italo-Japanese student whom I tutor in English and Science, but who likes to ask me to go through her Chinese lessons with her too. She and I are both learning together!

hello casie. Let me try, okay? I imagine that a young person -- speaking in an informal situation, not to his parents or his teacher or boss! -- might say:

"Oh no, is that rain? We've just put all the beach stuff in the car! What a drag!" (*alternatively: "Bummer!")

"I failed the exam, so it's back to the mines for me during the summer holiday. That's really the pits" (** as if you are in a gloomy hole; "the pits" is an English expression for referring to mining pits, which are associated with the notion of grinding hard labour far from the sun... here the person is saying that now he'll be spending the summer vacation studying instead of having fun")

"I love being a mother, but anybody who tells you that it isn't a drag waking up three times a night to feed the baby has never been a mother!"

"Office parties are great fun, but it's a real drag having to do karaoke with the the boss after he's had too many beers, and then carry him home afterwards every time."

"Nothing sucks more than posting a supposedly "brilliant" comment in a forum and finding that nobody has noticed it."

casie, does any of that sound like 郁闷 to you? Good luck! My English may be a bit "stiff", so I'll leave it up to the native speakers to bring it up to date (gently, please!).

Here is another example of using 郁闷

帖子不红，真郁闷！

tie3zi1 bu4 hong2, zhen1 yu4men4.

By the way, we call a post in a forum帖子。

红hong2=hot / popular

RJ，

Thanks. For me, i will translate "Two heads are better than one" or "Many heads are better than one" into三个臭皮匠，顶个诸葛亮。san ge chou pi jiang, ding ge zhu ge liang.

i think you guys know about诸葛亮Chuko Liang , one of the greatest strategists of post-Han China, as well as a statesman, engineer and scholar.

Casie,

my interpretation of 三人行，必有我师焉！ is - take any 3 people walking down the street and at least one of them can be my teacher. True but I dont think we have a similar saying in english. Two heads are better than one is common but it means that two people will have more ideas than just one so you should ask opinion of others or that it is better to work on projects with a coworker and co-thinker than to do it alone. I guess it does relate but not directly the same thing. I like the Chinese version.

-RJ

三人行，必有我师焉！

1.Two heads are always better then one

2.(an expression to show one's open-mindedness) there is always someone to learn from

Do you guys have any other good expressions about this classical Confucius's saying?

RJ，

谢谢你的赞美！xie xie ni de zan mei !=Thank you for your praise!

Bazza,

Have you ever heard about 泡吧(pao4ba1)which means hit the bars.

For me, i m really enjoy myself every time when i surfing in the chinesepod. I did learn new things everyday! I think i will miss Cpod after my back to school in ten days. I will be busy preparing for my 毕业论文答辩（presentation of my graduation thesis) and looking for a job, whatever...both are big deal !

Rich,

If you have any other questions about chinese, especially something practical or something daily, tell me please, i will try my best to help you!

At the end, i m going to use a classical chinese sentence by Confucius.

三人行，必有我师焉！san ren xing, bi you wo shi yan!

There are many version of this sentence, i don't know which is the best one. Can you guys tell me the version that you used so far?

Casie, thanks for this discussion. I have seen 郁闷 before in my studies, but didn't know how to use it (or didn't see examples anyway)

casie, can 泡 mean to access something then?

Thanks Casie, I got it. Cal is right, you are a bright spot in a dark world.

Calkins,

Thanks^_^

又能泡CPod了，我也很高兴！

Casie, you are priceless:) Thanks for your posts and all of your questions!

I too was 郁闷 when the website was down. But now I am 高兴 !

Hi,little chihuahua,

别郁闷了， i will give you all my good wishes and you will recover soon!

anyway, little chihuahua is very cute!

i feel like little chihuahua today so i am 郁闷

:)

- 亚当

Hi henning,

does Google hit means google谷歌 点击率？

Hi guys,

i think the word that Lostinasia's university students tried to say is郁闷

Once i was trying to say this word and what i can find in the dictionary is "depression" , i don't think that would make sense.

Bazza, i think the word "melancholy" means忧郁in chinese. Just a little kind of same,but i prefer to use

"suck" so far.

RJ, here comes the chinese examples

数学题目都做不来，真郁闷！

一直下雨，都见不到太阳，郁闷！

我的手机被人偷了，郁闷！

这日子太无聊了，郁闷！

"觉得郁闷"

gets 5070 Google hits.

As a classical adjective results become more convincing:

""郁闷的" has 199,000 hits.

How would you use it in a sentence? 我觉得郁闷。 ?

My university students in Taiwan are always giving me sentences like "I've had melancholia recently"--technically correct, I suppose, but it sure doesn't sound natural. It seems to be one of those issues that exists across dictionaries; the dictionaries only give them "depression" in the context of weather or economics (which is another issue, since they keep telling me how America is now going through a depression... no, not exactly...).

Could 郁闷 (yu4 men4) be the word they're trying to translate?

(MDBG translates it as gloomy or depressed)

Thats a good word to know. I didnt think the Chinese people got depressed:-). Cassie, can you use it in a couple short Chinese sentences so we can get a better idea of how it works? Or does the word stand alone? Thanks.

RJ

Cpod dictionary says "melancholy", but you probably wouldn't use that in daily conversation unless you wanted to sound posh. "One is feeling rather melancholy". ;)

Seems to translate as gloomy or depressing, so you could probably say "it sucks".