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I never understood the usage of 弄 for example in this sentence 婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪弄了一双耳环 why is there a 弄了? The sentence makes sense without it.

Becky 李蓓
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rabbid
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    弄 means 做 here. Is the dictionary not helping you or do you have a more specific problem with this word? – 杨以轩 Nov 13 '13 at 01:49
  • Just an FYI, I've edited your question as we discourage the use of greetings or adding thanks in questions to improve readability. – going Nov 13 '13 at 03:35
  • @QuestionOverflow thanks. I did not get that from my C-E dictionary. It says nong = play with; fool with; do; manage; handle; get into a specified condition. How does 给雪弄了一双耳环 and 给雪一双耳环 differ in English? – rabbid Nov 13 '13 at 03:50
  • 玩弄 = play, 弄好 = done, 弄了一双耳环 = make a pair of earrings, 给雪 (雪人?) = for snow (snowman?) – Casper Nov 15 '13 at 07:35

2 Answers2

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I assume the object in your question is actually a snowman 雪人 not just 雪. So I think it should be "婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪人弄了一双耳环".

So we have in English: "Shen Shen found some leaves and made a pair of earrings for the snowman."

If you check the dictionary meaning of 弄 you will see it is quite similar to the English make. In the Chinese sentence you have 弄了 so that changes "make" into "made".

Without this, if the sentence was "婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪人一双耳环" the sentence would be: "Shen Shen found some leaves and gave them to the snowman." Now this could technically still be correct based on the context of what's going on, maybe it's a magical snowman who is getting earrings as a gift, but you should be able to see how removing 弄了 changes the meaning of the sentence completely.

"婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪人*弄了*一双耳环"

"Shen Shen found some leaves and made a pair of earrings for the snowman."

going
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  • 3rd paragraph very clear. I can't believe I didn't realize that. Thank you very much! – rabbid Nov 13 '13 at 04:17
  • I think 弄 means 'get; manage'. The meaning of 'make' is actually implied from the context. Without the first phrase, '我给雪人弄了一对耳环' only means 'I got a pair of earrings for the snowman' and doesn't have connotation of 'I made them' at all. – NS.X. Nov 13 '13 at 06:40
  • @NS.X., I think that is quite arguable without 来 behind 弄. – 杨以轩 Nov 13 '13 at 08:23
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    雪 is likely to be a person's name in the example above. – 杨以轩 Nov 13 '13 at 08:26
  • @NS.X. - You are correct, that is worth mentioning, but in this case 弄了 doesn't just mean made, but "made into" so he made the leaves into earings. So in this case it doesn't mean get or manage. – going Nov 13 '13 at 08:54
  • @QuestionOverflow - Maybe you are right, but it sounds odd to me, can't say I've ever heard someone just called by their last name e.g. "给王一双耳环". My assumption given that we are talking about taking leaves to make earrings is this is likely from a fairy tail or children's story. I also can't say I've met anyone with the last name 雪. – going Nov 13 '13 at 08:58
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    @xiaohouzi79 雪 could be someone's first name. If it's a young girl then it's not odd to use one-character first name to call her. Thinking of replacing 雪 in this sentence with some girl's first name that couldn't be otherwise a typo, such as 静 or 瑶, the sentence reads just fine. – NS.X. Nov 13 '13 at 18:34
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弄 means “ to do， to make”. In this sentence if you omit “ 弄”， it will change to another meaning: 给雪了一双耳环。（ Gave Xue a pair of earings.)

Wordoor
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