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For example, if I want to say "I wish I learned Chinese when I was little", is it ok to say "我希望我小的时候学中文"?

If not, is there another word I could use instead? Possibly "我最好小的时候学中文"?

Or do I need to entirely rephrase and say something like "我小的时候学中文更好"

williamlue929
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    jukuu may help: 9. I wish I had brought my gun. 我真希望我把枪带了出来。11. 'I wish I had finished this work, ' she said with a sigh. 我希望我完成了这项工作，她叹口气说。36. I wish I had not told you." 我真希望我没有告诉过你。” – user6065 Dec 11 '16 at 00:59
  • Hey Dong Wei, you may write your own answers if you wish， there is plenty of room. I'd rather you did not edit my answer and make it a long mess. I checked it with 朱教授 before I posted， she approved. – Gangosa Dec 11 '16 at 09:48

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As a 老外 saying this, maybe: 我希望从小就开始学中文了。 Using 希望 is good.

Gangosa
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  • 这个句子的话，【就】和【过】表示一样的意思吗？可以说【我希望我小的时候就学过中文】吗？ – williamlue929 Dec 11 '16 at 02:24
  • Is it not true that "就” also means that something happens at an earlier time? For example, "他早上四点就起床" or "这个消息，我早就听到了”. Why doesn't it make sense here? – williamlue929 Dec 11 '16 at 02:48
  • “就” doesn't mean "time". Here's “就” to be used to emphasis that It's at 4 o'clock A.M that he got up. You can remove 就 here. – xqMogvKW Dec 11 '16 at 03:03
  • 我知道 ”就“ 可以做那个加强肯定的意思，不过我查过的词典都是说 ”就“ 也可以做早已的意思。可能是因为你是母语者，所以你不发现这两个 “就” 的定义是各别的吗？ – williamlue929 Dec 11 '16 at 03:43
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    我们看看这一个句子吧：【他的爸爸昨天晚上八点回家】如果他的爸爸通常五点回家，那你就可以说【他的爸爸昨天晚上八点才回家】。如果他的爸爸通常十二点回家，你就可以说【他的爸爸昨天晚上八点就回家】是不是？ – williamlue929 Dec 11 '16 at 03:50
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    “我希望我小的时候就学过中文” is not ungrammatical, but sounds incomplete. Your understanding for 就 is accurate, but normally when people use 就 in a sentence like this, there will follow an explanation on why (you wish you had learnt Chinese in that early age). – NS.X. Dec 11 '16 at 04:01
  • Yes, +1。@williamlue929，but there's a limitation：You MUST combine it with a past time as an adverb. Like your example：昨晚八点. And your example is that 希望，When 希望 used for a past thing, this usually means you are regretting doing something (That you shouldn't/should have done that). – xqMogvKW Dec 11 '16 at 04:12
  • @DongWei Is “我小的时候” not a past time? – williamlue929 Dec 11 '16 at 04:17
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    OK I understand what you mean：Yes,……This is a past time. But it's ambigous：if 就 is combined with 小时候. (=already）. Yours is quite right (And in fact this statement is right). But to be honest, most of us will take this as “Emphysis” for the 1st time because of the word's frenquency in Emphrasis. So you'd better remove 就. In fact, I see that you can use syntax to make sentences. However sometimes Chinese's meaning is different from pure syntax according to cultures, behaviors or tendency This is a difficulty thing……ect. I've changed my post above. – xqMogvKW Dec 11 '16 at 04:23
  • @DongWei So, does the ambiguity mainly come from the redundancy of using both 就 and 过 together? If I rephrased it as 我希望我小时候就学中文了, then is my meaning more clear? – williamlue929 Dec 11 '16 at 04:42
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    @williamlue929：Nice question! It doesn't conflict if you use both 就 and 过. Because 过 is a complete word to mean that your period of Chinese learning is over when you are young (You'd already had this period of time for chinese leanring). And 就 just means already（that's the easy explaination for you and fact this just emphrasis that I already really learnt Chinese when young.） So if you say 我希望我小时候就学过……This is right. But the meaning is just the OPPOSITE against what it really was：我小时候没有学过。So I just wanna tell you that sometimes Syntax is different from meaning in Chinese. – xqMogvKW Dec 11 '16 at 04:47
  • @DongWei Ok, so if I say "我希望我小时候就学过中文", the meaning would be "I wish I had already learned Chinese when I was little (我早已学完)"? And if I want to imply that I'm still studying, then I could say “我希望我小时候就开始学中文”? – williamlue929 Dec 11 '16 at 05:07
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – xqMogvKW Dec 11 '16 at 05:08
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我真希望我小时候学过中文。or 要是我小时候学过中文就好了。

Grace Ye
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The subjunctive mood of “wish” sentence could be literally translated as “希望”。 but in actual use 希望carries a connotation for the future. So the sentence “I wish I had learned Chinese when I was a child.” in reality would be

要是（如果）我小时候学过中文就好了。要是（如果）我从小就开始学中文 那该多好啊/就好了。

我希望我小时候学过中文…….我希望我从小就开始学中文 sounds like a translation from English.

我真希望我小时候学过中文…….我真希望我从小就开始学中文 sounds better but still there’s a tinge of future connotation, therefore a slight feel it’s not authentic Chinese.

Geoffrey Chang
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