# 喝西北风



## swim4life

I'm wondering if there is a cool way to translate "喝西北风" into English. For example:

你赚这点钱怎么养活我？ 难道让我喝西北风？


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## viajero_canjeado

swim4life said:


> 你赚这点钱怎么养活我？ 难道让我喝西北风？



嗨泳兄，給你一句相當貼切的片語參考：“to live like a pauper” = How do you plan to take care of me on _that_ salary? You don't expect me to live like a pauper, do you?
祝安心～


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## xiaolijie

你赚这点钱怎么养活我？ 难道让我喝西北风？ 
With your wages, how can you feed me? Do you expect me to live on air?!


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## 道为尊

live on air 会不会有“人活着需要呼吸空气”的意思？


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## Green3apple

xiaolijie said:


> 你赚这点钱怎么养活我？ 难道让我喝西北风？
> With your wages, how can you feed me? Do you expect me to live on air?!






道为尊 said:


> live on air 会不会有“人活着需要呼吸空气”的意思？



依我看“live on air" 来说 就是直播的意思


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## xiaolijie

> live on air 会不会有“人活着需要呼吸空气”的意思？


不是！


> 依我看“live on air" 来说 就是直播的意思


也不是！

在这里的语境， "to live on air" 就是靠吃空气活着的意思 

*Edit*: If anyone still has problems with understanding _"With your wages, how can you feed me? Do you expect me to live on air?!"_, then I suggest replacing "to live on air" with "to live on an empty stomach":

_With your wages, how can you feed me? Do you expect me to live on an empty stomach?!_


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## Green3apple

xiaolijie said:


> 不是！
> 也不是！
> 
> 在这里的语境， "to live on air" 就是靠吃空气活着的意思



对鄙人 live on air = 直播

可能 live by just air 比较适合 / live on only air


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## xiaolijie

Green3apple said:
			
		

> 对鄙人 live on air = 直播


 "live" here is an adjective (= to be live on air), but "to live on air" in my translation above is a verb. Why do you insist on teaching an English speaker to speak English??


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## Green3apple

xiaolijie said:


> "live" here is an adjective (= to be live on air), but "to live on air" in my translation above is a verb. Why do you insist on teaching an English speaker to speak English??



because you are only english speaker not english teacher. hehe. 
just kidding.
i dont know, but from what i know live on air is only a broadcast used term. And if we force it to another comprehension, it seems weird. that's all.
even i'm wrong i just shared my perspective. 没关系


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## Youngfun

另外发音也不一样吧！

live on air（靠吃空气活着）里的live发 /liv/ 就像xiaolijie说过，是动词

live on air（直播）发 /laiv/ 是形容词

中文有多音字，英文也有多音单词！（常常意思也不一样）

回到主题，可不可以说： Do you expect me to live with hunger?


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## Green3apple

Youngfun said:


> 另外发音也不一样吧！
> 
> live on air（靠吃空气活着）里的live发 /liv/ 就像xiaolijie说过，是动词
> 
> live on air（直播）发 /laiv/ 是形容词
> 
> 中文有多音字，英文也有多音单词！（常常意思也不一样）
> 
> 回到主题，可不可以说： Do you expect me to live with hunger?



still,

live on air (动词) = fly like superman 不是靠吃空气活着的意思

"live by just air" 可以


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## Youngfun

But in the context of xiaolijie's sentence:


xiaolijie said:


> With your wages, how can you feed me? Do you expect me to live on air?!



I think "live on air" means 靠吃空气活着的 because is talking about lackness of money.
For me the context is clear enough to understand the meaning.
And xiaolijie is a native English speaker, so I trust him/her (sorry I don't know if you are male or female )


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## Green3apple

Youngfun said:


> But in the context of xiaolijie's sentence:
> 
> 
> I think "live on air" means 靠吃空气活着的 because is talking about lackness of money.
> For me the context is clear enough to understand the meaning.
> And xiaolijie is a native English speaker, so I trust him/her (sorry I don't know if you are male or female )



what context? hey, the question comes first before xiaolijie answers.
the context exist because the 喝西北风 is asked as a question  by swim4life, then xiaolijie answered with that term, so there is the context. that's the topic of this thread. you are just connecting it as if they are true.
besides, with or without context "live on air" still means "fly like superman". it even not an idiom.
喝西北风 is an idiom, "live on air" is a plain sentence to me.
"live by just air" fine.


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## Youngfun

Of course, xiaolijie's context is the same as the context of swim4life's question.
IMHO the context of the above sentence should let you understand what the speaker intended to say.

Though I agree that "live by just air" is fine.

IMHO, "fly like superman" should be "live in the air".

I don't know if you are a translator or not, but not necessarily an idiom must be translated as another idiom in another language.
Some idioms that exist in a language, don't have a related one in another language, so they must be translated in another way, with an expression that could be not an idiom.

Also, the thread starter didn't ask for an idiom, but simply for a "cool way".


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## Green3apple

Youngfun said:


> not necessarily an idiom must be translated as another idiom in another language.
> 
> Also, the thread starter didn't ask for an idiom, but simply for a "cool way".



and if you don't comprehend as if it is an idiom, or cool way as thread setter asked, the meaning still wouldn't be 靠吃空气活着的 as you think. you comprehend it that way just because the thread setter gave you context _*喝西北风. D*_ont reverse the idea.
if it is not an idiom then the meaning must be absolute. not hot, not cool either.
and cool way doesn't mean wrong way. 

But whatever, maybe i'm wrong. But i'm finished.


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## Youngfun

So you are saying that "live on air" is wrong, cause it doesn't have the meaning 喝西北风, but "live by just air" yes?

I have been taught that "live on" is an *idiom *that means 靠……活。
Also in your above post you by yourself have proposed "live on only air". You just added "only" but preserved the preposition "on".


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## xiaolijie

Green3apple, through your replies in recent threads, I know that you're still in an early stage of learning English and therefore I recommend that you please refrain from judging people's writing in public when you don't need to and don't even know yet what they mean and what kind of structure you're looking at. What is the purpose of all this? This forum is not for aimless chatting and more importantly, do you think that just because you don't know something then you must declare that that something is wrong?!

For non-native spkeakers who're interested in English, let me repeat that "to live on air / to live on an empty stomach" are idiomatic expressions in English, when the contexts warrant their use. "To live on (something)" is a phrasal verb commonly used to mean _only eat a particular type of food_:

_I more or less live on pasta.
Without much money, he used to live on porridge.
The fish lives on the plankton._

From the concrete meanings above, we can go further and speak more metaphorically:
_He seems to live on cigarettes. 
Do you expect her to live on an empty stomach?
Do you expect me to live on air? _


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## Green3apple

xiaolijie said:


> For non-native spkeakers who're interested in English, let me repeat that "to live on air / to live on an empty stomach" are idiomatic expressions in English, when the contexts warrant their use. "To live on (something)" is a phrasal verb commonly used to mean _only eat a particular type of food_:
> 
> _I more or less live on pasta.
> Without much money, he used to live on porridge.
> The fish lives on the plankton._
> 
> From the concrete meanings above, we can go further and speak more metaphorically:
> _He seems to live on cigarettes.
> Do you expect her to live on an empty stomach?
> Do you expect me to live on air? _



yes xiaolijie, i'll keep it in mind. it's my mistakes afterall. thanks for responding.


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## lixiaohejssz

live on air ”依靠空气生活“吧？也就是无法生活之意。


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