Chinese Lesson: Expressing „a little too…“ with 有点

Sometimes you may want to express in a polite way that you dislike something. For example when you are getting lunch with a friend at a restaurant, you might say “it is a little to expensive” to suggest to go somewhere else. In a case like this you can use 有点 (yǒudiǎn). In northern China it’s usually pronounced 有点儿 (yǒudiǎnr).

 

Structure:

Subj. + 有点 + Adj.

 

Examples:

我有点饿。= I’m a little hungry.

这个菜有点辣。= This dish is a little too spicy.

今天有点热。= Today it’s a little too hot.

今天我有点累。= Today I’m a bit too tired.

最近公司有点忙。= Recently the company is a bit busy.

他今天有点不舒服。= Today he feels a bit uncomfortable.

 

Note that for the speaker, the adjective after 有点 expresses an unpleasant or undesirable meaning, so you won’t hear things like 有点高兴 (yǒudiǎn gāoxìng), 有点舒服 (yǒudiǎn shūfu), 有点好玩儿(yǒudiǎn hǎowán), etc., because “happy,” “comfortable,” and “fun” are all adjectives with positive connotations.


Post time: Jan-17-2020