# 通俗点说



## licinio

*通俗点说*就是 "什么什么"
How can I analyse the part  in bold? Is 点 a modifier (like in 好一点) or a noun?
Thanks.


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## Lucia_zwl

通俗点说--说得通俗一点--to make it/something easier to understand
I think here 点 is used the same as in 好一点. It's not a noun.


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## xiaolijie

Just as Lucia's explained, 通俗点说 means "put it plainly, make it a bit easier to understand."
Here the phrase "通俗点" modifies the verb "说".


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## licinio

I see. 
Could it also mean: the way we usually refer to this situation is by using (this idiom)?


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## BODYholic

licinio said:


> *通俗点说*就是 "什么什么"
> How can I analyse the part  in bold? Is 点 a modifier (like in 好一点) or a noun?
> Thanks.



*通俗点说 --> *说得比较通俗点。 
点 is definitely not a noun, it is a softener that lightens the tone of your phrase.

You may, by all means, omit "点" in your sentence.
通俗的说就是 ....


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## xiaolijie

licinio said:


> I see.
> Could it also mean: the way we usually refer to this situation is by using (this idiom)?


Yes, it could, but we need the context to be sure. 
A word can be used in various ways to mean various things, so to know precisely what it means in a particular instance, you should give us the context where you find it. What is the original sentence? And the sentence before it?


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## licinio

去食堂吃饭通俗点说 就是: "下馆子"


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## Youngfun

licinio said:


> 去食堂吃饭通俗点说 就是: "下馆子"


Non proprio...
In genere 食堂 indica una mensa per studenti o per dipendenti (_canteen_). 馆子 indica un vero e proprio ristorante (_restaurant_) dove ci si siede e si ordina da mangiare al cameriere.

But this is a typical usage of 通俗点说。
I would say something like this for example:

进餐通俗点说就是：“吃饭”


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## Lucia_zwl

licinio said:


> 去食堂吃饭通俗点说 就是: "下馆子"


去食堂吃饭(to eat at the canteen) and 下馆子(to eat in the restaurant) are different things...

Youngfun's example is fine, or you can say 改善伙食(to improve the meal/food)通俗点说就是“下馆子”。


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## licinio

Sorry, I must have mislead the two last forum members with an insufficient explanation. But firstly I'd like to make clear that, as the thread title stated, my question was about the expression 通俗点说 and not about how to refer to restaurants or canteens in Chinese! 
Having said that, I'll clarify the context a bit more: it appears that 下馆子 is student jargon (at least at the college with which I was in touch) for going down to the canteen. Therefore I completed the sentence originally given with the 去食堂吃饭. but only in order to let you answer to my question #4 above.
So, can 通俗点说 mean "the way we usually (通俗) say "go down to the canteen" is 下馆子"?


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## Lucia_zwl

licinio said:


> it appears that 下馆子 is student jargon (at least at the college with which I was in touch) for going down to the canteen.


No, as I said, “下馆子” means “to eat in the restaurant”, at least in my region (northeast). This is why I corrected your sentence. 
But the way you use 通俗点说 is correct: something A(formal)通俗点说就是something A*(informal/colloquial)


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## xiaolijie

licinio said:


> Therefore I completed the sentence originally given with the [/COLOR]去食堂吃饭. but only in order to let you answer to my question #4 above.
> So, can 通俗点说 mean "the way we usually (通俗) say "go down to the canteen" is 下馆子"?


Yes, so just for the sake of an illustration: 
去食堂吃饭通俗点说 就是"下馆子" =  "下馆子" is how we usually say instead of 去食堂吃饭.


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## licinio

Thanks, xiaolije, you understood my point! And thanks to Lucia, too.


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## zhg

Are you looking for the phrase 通常说来?And have you noticed that there is a difference between 通俗and 通常. Though the structure of your sentence regarding"下馆子 "is correct ,we would not use"下馆子" to refer to 去食堂吃饭. Unless the 食堂 is a fancy restaurant , which is unlikely to be true in most of the Chinese Universities. 
What I am trying to say is that the phrase is not used appropriately here.As explained before by Luzia 通俗点说 is to explain an idea that is previously explained in a way that somehow fails to be understood by the listener therefore has to be explained again using a less complicate language.


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## BODYholic

zhg said:


> What I am trying to say is that the phrase is not used appropriately here.As explained before by Luzia 通俗点说 is to explain an idea that is previously explained in a way that somehow fails to be understood by the listener therefore has to be explained again using a less complicate language.



"In layman's terms".


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## Wesley To

The 'a bit' in 'to make it a bit easier to understand'.


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