# It's not possible to go to bed and sleep before 10 pm.



## stelingo

Could somebody check this sentence from a grammar exercise on Topic comment sentences? Thanks.

It's not possible to go to bed and sleep before 10 pm.

晚上十点睡觉前不可能


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## kareno999

stelingo said:


> Could somebody check this sentence from a grammar exercise on Topic comment sentences? Thanks.
> 
> It's not possible to go to bed and sleep before 10 pm.
> 
> 晚上十点睡觉前不可能


晚上十点前睡觉不可能
PS I'm not helping you cheating with your HW or something, right?


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## xiaolijie

kareno999 said:


> PS I'm not helping you cheating with your HW or something, right?


I hope stelingo is not doing that. But here is another thing for stelingo to note:

The forum is strictly not for *proofreading *(See Rule 5), so please avoiding posting threads of this nature in the future. We of course will be happy to help if you can *focus on a particular point* that help is required in the sentence.


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## stelingo

I study by myself, and one of the books I use doesn't have an answerkey. I thought these forums were here to help people who are studying a language by themseleves. i wasn't expecting a telling off.


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## xiaolijie

It wasn't a telling off, stelingo. It's a rule that we alll agreed to when we registered and I was only pointing it out for you. If you want to know more about it, you can PM me since it's also against the rules to discuss them on the forum.


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## bubokribuck

晚上十点前睡觉不可能 seems really awkward. I would say either 要在晚上十點前就上床睡覺是不可能的 or 不可能在晚上十點前就上床睡覺.

Note that _is_ in Chinese is _是_, therefore _is impossible_ should be translated as _是不可能的._​


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## kareno999

bubokribuck said:


> 晚上十点前睡觉不可能 seems really awkward.


 Perfectly fine. Not awkward at all.


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## BODYholic

bubokribuck said:


> 晚上十点前睡觉不可能 seems really awkward. I would say either 要在晚上十點前就上床睡覺是不可能的 or 不可能在晚上十點前就上床睡覺.
> 
> Note that _is_ in Chinese is _是_, therefore _is impossible_ should be translated as _是不可能的._



My sentiment too. The former sounds broken to my ears. I think it is more of a colloquial usage. Then again, I would still inject a pause in between. "晚上十点前睡觉!?  .... 不可能!".


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## xiaolijie

I would also go along with bubokribuck's point about the use of 是不可能的. To simplify the sentence a bit, I would have:
晚上十点前睡觉是不可能的. 
(or 晚上十点前睡觉我是做不了的.)


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## SuperXW

I would say, 晚上十点前睡觉是不可能的 is more grammatical, especially as a stand-alone statement, however, 晚上十点前睡觉不可能 is colloquially correct and totally acceptable in daily conversations.


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## 南島君

Agree with SuperXW that "晚上十点前睡觉不可能 is colloquially correct and totally acceptable in daily conversations", and I must say it is also 100% grammatical in written or spoken mandarin.  

Since the original poster already suggested this is a topic-comment sentence exercise, I can understand the intention of the text book designer to give a sentence without copula.


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## Showfom

这句句子没主语，口语化的翻译：



> 不太可能在晚上10点前睡觉。



翻译成 “晚上十点前睡觉不可能” 的话，太口语化，不适合书面语言。


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## SuperXW

Showfom said:


> 这句句子没主语，口语化的翻译：
> 
> 
> 
> 翻译成 “晚上十点前睡觉不可能” 的话，太口语化，不适合书面语言。



那句英文本身也未必是书面语言，“晚上10点前睡觉不可能”一看也不是一个完整的逻辑判断，干嘛非要翻译成书面语？
我觉得口语和书面，两种都列举出来比较好。


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## Season2

其实如果严格的说起语法的话， 这句：“晚上十点前睡觉不可能”， 确实有点口语化， 因为没有主语也就是人称， 比如说 我、她、 你 在晚上十点前睡觉是不可能的。这样一来就相对会完整一点的。


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## linlon

要是我來表達的話, 我會這樣說:

[我沒辦法晚上10點前就上床睡覺](如果主詞是"我") 


"沒辦法" means "impossible" here.

or

[要我晚上10點前睡覺我做不到.]

These are also very common in daily conversation.


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## Kevin70s

Why has nobody cared to ask for the context of the sentence? It's difficult to find equivalence between two languages, especially one between English and Chinese. You almost always have to add or drop certain things during the translation; therefore, you need context (among other reasons).


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## stelingo

It was taken from a grammar exercise, there was no context.


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## watashidesu

Would 晚上十点前睡不到 work?


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## linlon

watashidesu said:


> Would 晚上十点前睡不到 work?


I don't think so. Therefore, don't say that.


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## SuperXW

watashidesu said:


> Would 晚上十点前睡不到 work?



Nop. Won't make sense at all.


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## xiaolijie

> 晚上十点前睡不到


Let's try a slight modification:
 晚上十点前睡不了
Is this better ? 
(Of course, it can be made even better but that would involve changing too much of the original.)


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## Kevin70s

Well, without any context and as an answer to an exam question, I would think 晚上十点前上床睡觉是不可能的 is probably the most truthful translation one can come up with.


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