for

[rockytriton]

Is there any translation for the word "for"? In such sentences as:

Thanks for the tea.

and

Sorry for speaking poorly.

Or is it just something like:

谢谢茶

和

对不起说的不好

[loon]

You have to be careful here and try to practise being objective about language in general, and your own in particular.

The fact the the morpheme "for" is used in both constructions - or even that it is used at all - in no way guarantees that it carries with it an identical semantic significance in both cases, or even that it has any semantic significance at all. In fact it it does not really carry much semantic significance at all (ie it doesn't mean much if anything when used like this).

Compare your two "for"s to each other and then to the "for" of "I did it for you" (我为了你这样做), which is a semantically significant (and thus translatable) element.

You could express "sorry for speaking poorly" just as (or even more clearly) by saying "sorry! I don't speak Chinese well" (sorry if this is not what you mean) and for this we can produce a few fairly direct translational equivalents

eg 不好意思， 我说中文说得不好

( ...I don't think you'd really want to use 对不起here because it's not like you've actually done/ are doing something that you need to be excused for in Chinese...that's my feeling anyway - shoot me down if I'm wrong)

As for "thanks for the tea" - you are talking about culturally specific behaviour. Under what social circumstances would you be wanting to say that in China? if someone was handing you the tea, then a simple 谢谢is going to be enough at the time, and in Chinese there would be no requirement to thank them for it again as you're walking out the door an hour later. It would sound silly or even incongruous to do so in Chinese, even though it is a common sociolinguistic construct in English.

If you're going for politeness, you can always make comments about how good the tea is, how nice the house is etc at the appropriate juncture; if you walk out the door and thank them specifically for the tea, you might leave them wondering about the subtext (ie. yeah...thanks for the tea...too bad about the boring conversation; the place is a dump; we accompished nothing socially!)

Really, in English "thanks for the tea" has little or nothing to do with tea or the giving or receiving of it. A trendy word here is "implicature", which refers to the concept that the meanings implied when something is said may bear little or no relationship to any direct dictionary-based interpretation of the language used. "Thank's for the tea" would normally really mean "I feel socially obliged to make a standardised polite comment because I want to appear friendly to you as you have treated me well and our relationship is good" (depending on the tone of voice of course!).

You could try the following expressions to thank people for their help/ consideration/ attendance/ hospitality/ kind generosity for example...

谢谢你( 的)帮助/ 关心/ 参与/ 款待/ 宽宏大量

...but for their tea?

Your best bet is to try to find out what type of language is used in particular social situations in Chinese rather than to try to extrapolate from your own personal and highly culturally specific experience...

...oh, and sorry for being pedantic...

[xiaoxiajenny]

Thanks for the tea and Sorry for speaking poorly.

I think just say this way should be ok:

谢谢你的茶/你请我喝茶, (不好意思)我中文说的不好.

[rockytriton]

Ok I understand what your saying. I just wanted to make sure I'm not offending anyone. Also, if I say when I'm done chatting with someone on QQ, "Thanks for chatting with me". Would I just say "谢谢聊天“? Some things are a little hard for me to get used to. In english it would be like saying thanks and then calling the person "chat". I especially don't want to tick someone off, for instance if I said "thanks for the turkey" and it would be something like "thanks turkey", in english it you would be saying thanks and then calling the person a turkey, which is insulting. But I understand your reasoning that you generally would say just thanks and later you wouldn't mention the turkey specifically.

[in_lab]

Interesting post loon. I hope you post more often. According to what you wrote, I probably thank people too often, and should give compliments better than just a token hen hao chi.

[loon]

Rocky,

I think you'll only offend anyone in Chinese if you specifically set out to do so - I find the Chinese to be marvelously tolerant in matters relating to what we in English perceive as social niceties. It might have something to do with the fact that there is such a huge variation in cultural norms in Chinese society from place to place, so they are used to making allowances for socially naive outsiders. As long as you're not trying deliberately to be impolite or arrogant, no one will focus on your faux-pas, and will generally be very gracious.

Usually in Chinese, rather than "thanking" someone to let them know that you enjoy/ have enjoyed their company, you could just say how happy you are to have met them (认识你，我很高兴 ren shi ni, wo hen gao xing- probably only good for a first time meeting) or to have seen them (见你的面， 我很高兴 jian ni de mian, wo hen gao xing； 我们又会面, 我很高兴 wo men you hui hui mian, wo hen gao xing； 碰到你， 我很高兴 peng dao ni wo hen gao xing, and so on) and although I'm sure other posters have much more valuable and correct contributions and to make here, the central theme - "我很高兴" (wo hen gao xing - I'm happy) I think is what you are looking for. So whether you have been in receipt of turkey, tea, or whatever, I think of primary importance is just to let them no how “高兴" you are with the relationship in general; that really has the social role carried by a lot of the "thanking" that we do in English.

in_lab

yeah I know what you mean. You, me and many others have or have had the same problem - that nagging feeling that you must in Chinese produce an equivalent for the rather meaningless English "thanks" even when someone does something for which they have been paid and really deserve no gratitude - ie to taxi drivers, shop assistants and so on. In fact an equivalent doesn't exist in Chinese, it's just that native English speakers are socially very uncomfortable with a silence that precedes a parting of ways, no matter what the circumstances, and "thanks" fills this void. In Chinese one should have no such qualms in such situations. No one gets offended if nothing is said after an purely utilitarian social encounter, but if you can't resist the temptation you could always try 再见 zaijian or 好了hao le (or even 那是这样 ha ha) as your parting shot.

As you get used to it, too much 谢谢ing starts to sound a bit incongruous or even insincere in Chinese, but no one is going to hold it against you while you're learning.

thanks for your replies.

[Quest]

"Thanks for chatting with me". Would I just say "谢谢聊天“?

谢谢你跟我聊天。

for instance if I said "thanks for the turkey" and it would be something like "thanks turkey"

谢谢你的火鸡。

[daydreamer]

well, I feel we don't usually say " 谢谢你和我聊天“， even in English, after chatting with somebody, you wouldn't usually say " thank you for chatting with me." do you?

Besides, about the "thank you for the tea." I think it's okay when you finish visiting somebody and say so. but it's better to add some , like "谢谢你的茶，很好喝。”I feel it's okay to say so, the host will feel good. But if you only say " 谢谢你的茶“ people may would misunderstand, just like loon said.

[Zingaro]

Of course, if someone pours you a cup of tea, you can always just tap two fingers (index and middle finger, bent) twice on the table and say nothing verbally.