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Translation of Chinese double negation 不能没有事情做 What is the proper translation of 不能没有事情做 and 没有事情做受不了? I'm confused because in the context it should read something like "there is no thing you can do". But previously I was under the impression that in Chinese double negatives resolve to positive. Could anybody please explain. Thank you very much!!!

Answers · 4

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Never would I have myself do nothing.
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It's true that "double negatives resolve to positive". You can try to understand such sentences by changing each negative into positive one by one: 不能->能 没有->有 不能没有事做=一定要有事做( so you can see, 不能没有 is actually quite a definitive tone so i use 一定here to replace it) So you can translate it into "there has to be something to do". 没有->有 受不了->受得了 没有事情做受不了->有事情做受得了 which means "I cannot tolerate it if there's nothing to do." Both sentences have the same meaning, but just put in different ways. Maybe you can understand if i give you following examples: a. People must have someone to love. If you want to say it in the way "不能没有事做”,then you can say "People cannot have no someone to love", however, i guess nobody say it like this, so we can conclude that in this situation, you cannot directly translate it into English; instead you have to express it with a definitive word "must" to replace "cannot...no" b. People cannot live without loving someone. This is similar to the sentence “没有事做受不了”
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不能没有事情做 and 没有事情做受不了mean the same thing. As you understand, they are both double negatives, which result in Positive. so we can also say"我必须得有事儿做" the following sentences would be the proper translation, I always have to be doing something. I can't stand having nothing to do. Even a Sunday would never be an empty day, I can't stand being bored and having nothing to do. I have to have something to do to keep me alive .... There are many ways to say it :D
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you can`t live with noting doing everything can be done .

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