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I'm now chatting with someone from China, and she said the following:

A: 你在北京工作吗？我三月去那里。

I: 没有。我去北京市旅游的。我三月在意大利。

A: 你在上海时间多一些吧。

What does the final sentence mean? I understand "if/when you are in Shanghai", but what does 多一些 mean?

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Blaszard
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5 Answers5

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  • 多 = many/ much/ a lot

  • 多些 = more

  • 一些 = some; a little

  • 多一些 (more by some/ more by a little) = "little more " in English

Her full sentence without any omission would be:

"你在上海(的)时间(比你在意大利的时间)多一些吧?" "Your time in Shanghai (compare to your time in Italy) is little more, right?"

It can translates to : "your time in Shanghai is little more (than your time in Italy), right?"

If she wrote 你在上海时间多些吧? Then the translation would be simply: "your time in Shanghai is more (than your time in Italy), right?

*吧 here is a final particle for softening the tone of a speech or indicating uncertainty. Without 吧 at the end, the sentence would sound like a hard fact statement. With 吧, the sentence sounds softer, more like a conversation, and leaves room for you to confirm or invalidate.

Example:

  • "你在上海时间多一些。" -- "your time in Shanghai is little more"(plain statement)

  • 你在上海时间多一些吧?" -- "your time in Shanghai is little more, right?" ( softer tone, not presumptive, conversation like)

If you don't use 'right', you could use 'heh?'

She mistakenly used a period instead of a question mark. Even it is a rhetorical question, it still needs the question mark.

Since it is not a real question, people sometimes omit the question mark. It may lead to confusion if there's not enough context to indicate it is rhetorical.

你在上海时间多一些吧。 would be a suggestion or a command.

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Tang Ho
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adj. + "一些" means "more adj." here. More examples are as follows:

"好一些"  better
"差一些"  worse
"在家待久一些"  stay home longer
Rong Luo
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‘你在上海的时间多一些.’

means‘You have more time in Shanghai’

一般把‘吧’作为语气词或助词使用，用在句末.

‘吧’在不同情况下可以表示‘赞同，推测、命令、请求’等不同语气；用在句中表示停顿。

在这里，‘吧’表示推测（询问）。

月亮岛腐竹
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I think person A is Chinese.

A:你在北京工作吗？我三月去那里。 A: Are you work on Beijing? I have been to Beijing on March!

I: 没有。我去北京市旅游的。我三月在意大利。 I: No!I went to Beijing to travel!I am in Italy in March!

OK!The problem is come!

Because person A is only listening "I went to Beijing to travel!" in his mind!

A: 你在上海时间多一些吧。(。->?)(PS:他根本是個問句) The total word is A: If you travel to Beijing,you spend the time in the Shanghai is more then Beijing!Is right?

Jacky Lu
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From reading it, I believe it means: "(Please, I beg you to) Be in Shanghai (just, for only) some more time!" It's a command.

Toad22222
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