# 滩/摊上大事



## Ouyang

Can't see that in any dictionary. Met it in some humorous scene on CCTV 1 just few minutes ago. Please help to understand. It seems that I didn't mistake when wrote this phrase but there is a small chance that I wrote it mistakenly.


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## xiaolijie

Unless we have more information relating to the phrase, all help will just be guesswork. 
Assuming that your typing is correct, 滩上大事 simply means "big event(s) on the beach". As you watched to TV show, I hope you can make some sense out of the translation.


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## Ouyang

May be I really recalled it wrong. But it was definitely not "beach" meaning. Also was using as 动宾 construction 滩事。Looks like I mistakenly used 滩 instead of some other verb. The whole situation was about some quarreling on the street.


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## tarlou

It's 摊. 摊 means to arrange something around, e.g. 摊煎饼 (指制作煎饼的过程,因为需要把面摊成薄饼), 摊派(arrange).

摊上 means "get something or somebody". Imagine everything is arranged to everyone in a mysterious way, you happen to get one thing, that is 摊上.

事 means trouble here.

摊上事了 means you'll get some troubles.

摊上大事了 means you'll have some big troubles.


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## Lucia_zwl

If I'm not mistaken...are you watching 春节联欢晚会?  I guess the sentence you mentioned is from a 小品, and the original sentence should be “你摊上事儿了！*摊上大事儿了*！” It means “You're in trouble! *You're in big trouble!*”


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## xiaolijie

Ouyang said:
			
		

> Looks like I mistakenly used 滩 instead of some other verb.


Yes, the "摊" in the above posts is a different character altogether


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## Ouyang

Thank you guys!

And yes, Lucia, I was thinking that there is a chance of somebody seeing on CCTV the same 小品。That is quite cool coincidence .



tarlou said:


> It's 摊. 摊 means to arrange something around, e.g. 摊煎饼 (指制作煎饼的过程,因为需要把面摊成薄饼), 摊派(arrange).
> 
> 摊上 means "get something or somebody". Imagine everything is arranged to everyone in a mysterious way, you happen to get one thing, that is 摊上.



Why in mysterious? I thought in this case it is just "to get". Just as something that is being distributed between others.


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## tarlou

Ouyang said:


> Why in mysterious? I thought in this case it is just "to get". Just as something that is being distributed between others.



I wanted to say "in some way". Sorry for being confusing.

I was just trying to relate "get" with "arrange". There are some subtle differences here. Probably you have noticed the tense in the sentence, 你摊上大事了. Literally it means "you have been arranged some troubles" or "you've gotten troubles to come", but the troubles are in the future. So 摊上 is about the action "arrange" instead of "get" (at least in this specific case). Anyway forget about it if you can understand the sentence.


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## Ouyang

Thank you. Your comments were very useful. I like to be able to understand nuances.


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## xiaolijie

> I like to be able to understand nuances.


" 摊" does not simply mean "get". It's normally used for something unpleasant/ undesirable that you *bump into*, or when it *happens to* you.


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## Ouyang

Got it. Thanks.


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## Skatinginbc

I believe 摊, which was not attested until the Yuan Dynasty, is a loanword from 满文 Tungus-Manchu _tān_ "stretch" or 蒙文 Mongolian _tenī_ "stretch".  All its Chinese meanings derive from "stretch, spread", for instance, 分摊 "spread and divide" (= share), 摊牌 "spread the cards" (= lay cards down, showdown), 摊开 "spread open", etc.  When one *stretches* his luck too far, he will inevitably bump into trouble  or trouble will come sneaking up on him (*摊上*大事, *摊到*麻煩).


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## xiaolijie

Skatinginbc said:


> I believe 摊, which was not attested until the Yuan Dynasty, is a loanword from 满文 Tungus-Manchu _tān_ "stretch" or 蒙文 Mongolian _tenī_ "stretch".  All its Chinese meanings derive from "stretch, spread", for instance,  "spread and divide" (= share), "spread the cards" (= lay cards down, showdown), "spread open", etc.  When one *stretches* his luck too far, he will inevitably bump into trouble  or trouble will come sneaking up on him (*摊上*大事, *摊到*麻煩).




This is quite a stretch and I wouldn't go that far, Skatinginbc!


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## Skatinginbc

xiaolijie said:


> This is quite a *stretch* and I wouldn't go that far, Skatinginbc!


Did I "stretch" upon *摊上 *or "stretch" into *摊到* trouble?


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## Lamb67

If you dish it out you will have been able to take it 😄. Just leave a South China accent word of chao 1上 as its opposite meaning. It means something positive have happened.
chao xi | Definition | Mandarin Chinese Pinyin English Dictionary | Yabla Chinese
For a possible writing of chao1.( Guesswork)


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## Skatinginbc

字典說「攤」是「遇到、碰上」的意思，但我有所執疑.  我覺得:

攤上他  (i.e., 跟他涉入關係, 跟他有所瓜葛, getting involved with him) 就會走霉運.
攤上他 ≠ 碰上 (遇到 、 撞見; bump into, run into, encounter or meet someone by chance) 他

「算你家吉星高照，差點沒攤了人命。」==>「攤了人命」是涉入命案 (牽扯進命案).
攤上麻煩 (牽扯進麻煩) ≠ 碰上 (遇到 、 遭遇 、面臨; bump into, run into, unexpectedly experience or be faced with something difficult or hostile) 麻煩

如「涉入、牽扯上、牽連到」, 「攤上」是描述狀態 (state), 不必定有 "意外" (unexpectedly) 的 connotation.

我可沒說「我對, 字典錯了」。我只說我的概念與字典的不同。提出來，想聽聽大家的意見。


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