我先走了

[kakalee]

As we could consider the case in english grammar, if you get into the detail word by word, always there are something can't make sense.

I suggest that you can consider "我先走了" as "我走了" or "*先*" as "**" if you really can't understand the difference.

When we say "somebody 先 do something", it will always be followed by another phrase like "then blablabla after my action", even sometimes this phrase may be implicit.

[tooironic]

I wouldnt say 我先走了 is a fixed phrase but rather a very common expression in which 先 is used, the meaning of which is indeed "first". The only reason it might sound weird to some Westerners is because we don't happen to share this particular "mode" of polite expression. Some Chinese, when speaking English, will instinctively utter "I will go first" without realising the difference of expression in English-speaking countries.

[bakhtinjali]

I was talking to my instructor about this today and was told that the 先 just refers to leaving a head of time or first from other people. So essentially you are leaving first, but it needs to have reference to ahead of other people or some set time. Time of course is the important factor.

[fengyixiao]

加个"先"字在动词前，要表达的意思更“礼貌、体贴、委婉”。

我走了。

我先走了。（I beg your parden or I'm sorry,I will leave.）

[Lu]

I obviously don't have the intuition of a native speaker, and what you all are saying might be correct, but to me, the phrase "我先走了", these particular four characters, mean "I'm leaving. Right now." and don't imply much else.

Considering the phrase 请先上米饭, which to the best of my knowledge means 'Please serve the rice now' (to me, there is any implication of 'before the rest of the 菜’, it's really just 'now'), I have to agree with Renzhe, although of course this doesn't explain how this usage came about.

[rob07]

The phrase above is something that I often hear when people are in the middle of an activity and have to excuse themselves, and the use of 先 has confounded me for a while since 先 in any other context I've seen means "first". Whenever one says "I first have to [do X]" in English, there is usually an implicit "before I can [do Y]".

I don't think 先 is ordinal in the sense that first or 第一 are. First/第一 imply the existence of at least a second/第二 (the [do Y] in daofeishi's example) and possibly also third/第三 fourth/第四 fifth/第五 etc, but I don't think 先 necessarily implies that anything specific comes after it. So when you say "I 先 have to [do X]" this can just mean, "before I do anything else" rather than "before I can [do Y]", or to put it another way, "I 先 [do X]" can just mean "I [do X] right now". Of course, when you use 先, the context may indicate that you do have a specific following action in mind, but I don't think 先 of itself necessarily implies this.

I suppose 我先走 is a set phrase in that people use it a lot (and my input method seems to think it is a single word), but I wouldn't say that any of the characters in the phrase don't bear their ordinary meaning.

[Shi Tong]

I'm not sure I understand the problem.

As renzhe said, if you just say it- you're just leaving "那我先走咯！" (I'm leaving first).

It IS more polite that just saying "我走" and DOES soften edges.

Quite often is works as an interruption of a group structure. (那你們兩個逛街， 我先走， OK 嗎？)

Sometimes it works as a half finished sentence, which hangs off the end. (那你先寫功課................... (再來做別的事))

You can even say things like 先吃飯哦！, which almost means "Food is ready now, so whatever else you're doing eat first", but it's also almost like a fixed structure like "come eat" 吃飯.

It can mean that you're going to do something else later, but not necessarily.

[creamyhorror]

Considering the phrase 请先上米饭' date=' which to the best of my knowledge means 'Please serve the rice now' (to me, there is any implication of 'before the rest of the 菜’, it's really just 'now')[/quote']

Is there really a difference? You're waiting for food, and you ask for the rice to be served first - naturally this means you're asking for it to be served as soon as possible. Also, rice is traditionally served at the end of a formal Chinese meal, so in some situations it's arguable they're actually asking for the rice to be served earlier instead of later.

Anyway, as has been confirmed by fengyixiao, renzhe's understanding is probably incorrect and 我先走了 in particular has a connotation of politeness and consideration (“礼貌、体贴、委婉”).

[renzhe]

Oh, I do think that using it adds politeness, and makes the phrase sound softer! It also adds a sense of immediacy.

I was just wondering whether 先 in the phrase 我先走了 should be translated as "first". I'd agree with rob07, that the word "first" doesn't translate 先 completely, and I don't think that "我先走了" implies anything about what the other person is going to do. You can say it even if you are pretty sure that the other person is not going anywhere.

[Glenn]

I didn't think this thread was about translation, though. After all, understanding the function of 先 (or anything, for that matter) in these situations and being able to translate it well are two completely different things. I'd say obviously it shouldn't be translated that way all the time, but, as I'm sure you're aware, that doesn't mean it doesn't still function that way.

[erhanisguzar]

Did you just hear it or saw it written? Because Chinese people i had conversation with sometimes use 现在 just saying 现. 2 days ago one of my Chinese friends did the same again... Maybe it is not 我先 走了 but 我现走了 which means ' i leave now' or ' i must go now' ..... Is that possible?

[muyongshi]

Nope it's 先. Otherwise all of the above people would have brought that up, especially the native speakers or renzhe cause renzhe is awesome and smart.

[creamyhorror]

I was just wondering whether 先 in the phrase 我先走了 should be translated as "first". I'd agree with rob07, that the word "first" doesn't translate 先 completely, and I don't think that "我先走了" implies anything about what the other person is going to do. You can say it even if you are pretty sure that the other person is not going anywhere.

Ultimately 先走了 means leaving before the 'proper' time to leave. It needn't be translated "first", but there's definitely am implication that you're leaving early/earlier.

If you're at a gathering at someone's house and you want to leave, you can say 我先走了 to the host to indicate you're leaving early, or earlier than other guests. By acknowledging you're early, you're being polite (even apologetic). If you stay all the way to the end and are the last guest to leave, you probably wouldn't say it.

If you're at work, you say 我先走了 to your coworkers when you leave, because you're acknowledging you're leaving before them. The 'early' implication of the phrase is very clear to my mind in this example.

[andruca]

It's simple 我先走了 "I first go", is a fixed frase to use when you are leaving a conversation, a place, friends etc. You are about to go, so you excuse your self and say, "Ok, I'm going"!

Never think to translate chinese word by word, find the context, and translate it. If you need a word by word translation that's it "I'm leaving."

I'm an italian translator living in China.

[Shi Tong]

Creamy totally agree with you there.

Plus, everyone is kind of right here. It does mean "first", I'm leaving FIRST, the actual definition on mdbg says:

先: xiān: early / prior / former / in advance / first.

So it's very open to interpretation.. but you could say "I'm going early" was just as "legitimate" a translation as first.

It really doesn't matter that much- point is, it means you're leaving before other people, or you're leaving now. As I mentioned before it can mean you're breaking away from a group (from your friends and you're leaving first), but it can also mean "sorry, I've got to go first/ now". Renzhe is also right in that it DOES give a hint of more politeness.