# 给你+verb



## Staarkali

Hello all,

starting with sentences like,
我读这个报告*给你听*
把这个东西*给我看*

to translate that sentence
I just tell you so you know (= FYI)
I'd like to come up with a similar pattern 我就是说这个消息*给你知道*

is it acceptable? I wonder because I never heard of it.

Thanks to confirm or to correct it!


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## Ghabi

Staarkali said:


> 我读这个报告*给你听*
> 把拿这个东西*给我看*
> 
> to translate that sentence
> I just tell you so you know (= FYI)
> I'd like to come up with a similar pattern 我就是说这个消息*给你知道*



I think we need a context here. Let me make up one:

A: Hey, your ex- is going to get married!
B: What have I got to do with that woman?
A: Well, I just tell you so you know.

甲：你以前的爱人要结婚了！
乙：那女人的事，与我何干？
甲：没甚么，说一声，  好让你知道。

I can't think of any rules. I guess it's just a matter of collocation.


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## BODYholic

Staarkali said:


> I'd like to come up with a similar pattern 我就是说这个消息*给你*知道


No, I am afraid this doesn't work. I have also problem understanding "就是" in the sentence.

If I guess your intention correctly, the typical way of saying is "我只是想告诉你这个消息。" 

But if you insist on the "*给你*" format, then it should be "我有个消息要说给你听。" (I have news to break.)


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## Geysere

给你听/看/吃/玩 etc. are ok, but 给你知道 doesn't sound natural(although I can accept it and I've heard it before in Hong Kong. I think it has something to do with the Cantonese expression "话...俾你知"?). As Ghabi suggested, 让你知道 is better. I guess it's just that the verb 知道 is different from the others, but I don't know how exactly...


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## Johnlan

Staarkali said:


> Hello all,
> 
> starting with sentences like,
> 我读这个报告*给你听*
> 把这个东西*给我看*
> 
> to translate that sentence
> I just tell you so you know (= FYI)
> I'd like to come up with a similar pattern 我就是说这个消息*给你知道*
> 
> is it acceptable? I wonder because I never heard of it.
> 
> Thanks to confirm or to correct it!


 
我读这个报告*给你听——*i read this report for you
把这个东西*给我看——*show me this stuff
我就是说这个消息*给你知道*(actually，people say:"我就是想告诉你这个消息")——i just want to tell you this news (or i just told this for you).
sometimes 让 is better than 给，for example，我就是说这个消息*让*你知道，it sounds more like native speaker. : )


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## Johnlan

Ghabi said:


> I think we need a context here. Let me make up one:
> 
> A: Hey, your ex- is going to get married!
> B: What have I got to do with that woman?
> A: Well, I just tell you so you know.
> 
> 甲：你以前的爱人要结婚了！
> 乙：那女人的事，与我何干？
> 甲：没甚么，说一声， 好让你知道。
> 
> I can't think of any rules. I guess it's just a matter of collocation.


 
yes, i couldn't agree more. sometimes the context is very important.
 i think "没甚么，就是说一声", that's enough, it's spoken language, "好让你知道" seems a little redundantly.


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## Johnlan

BODYholic said:


> No, I am afraid this doesn't work. I have also problem understanding "就是" in the sentence.
> 
> If I guess your intention correctly, the typical way of saying is "我只是想告诉你这个消息。"
> 
> But if you insist on the "*给你*" format, then it should be "我有个消息要说给你听。" (I have news to break.)


 "就是" in the sentence is always for emphasising something，"我就是(+ 想)说这个消息给你知道(or 听)"is also a typical way of saying, but it's different from "我有个消息要说给你听。". the first——after news or before, the second——just before news.


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## Johnlan

Geysere said:


> 给你听/看/吃/玩 etc. are ok, but 给你知道 doesn't sound natural(although I can accept it and I've heard it before in Hong Kong. I think it has something to do with the Cantonese expression "话...俾你知"?). As Ghabi suggested, 让你知道 is better. I guess it's just that the verb 知道 is different from the others, but I don't know how exactly...


 yes, 让 is better than 给 in this situation.
"俾你知", it's really interesting, i don't know too much about Cantonese, but i know that 俾 is archaic word, and it equated with 让. So "俾你知" means“让你知道——let you know”（i'm not sure）.
the problem is "知道" but "给", you know "喜欢"(like)is verb, but it can't be used after "给你", right? as for why it can't be, i don't know neither. it seems like we use "give you know" in stead of "let you know"....wow, it is really unnatural.....


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## samanthalee

Johnlan said:


> it seems like we use "give you know" in stead of "let you know"....wow, it is really unnatural.....


I think in "给你知道", the "给你" means "allow you". For example "朋友拉着我聊了一整夜，就是不给我睡觉。"; it means "didn't allow me to sleep", not "didn't give me sleep".


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## Ghabi

给......知道 is possible, but the meaning would be completely different: 

 他女友跟那个混蛋跑了，给他知道，不知会生出什么事来！

God knows what's gonna happen if he finds out his girlfriend has run away with that jerk!


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## Ghabi

Geysere said:


> I think it has something to do with the Cantonese expression "话...俾你知"?). As Ghabi suggested, 让你知道 is better. I guess it's just that the verb 知道 is different from the others, but I don't know how exactly...



Yes, we'd use 俾 for all the three examples in Cantonese:

读给你听-->读俾你听
拿给我看-->攞俾我睇
没甚么，说一声， 让你知道-->无乜嘢，话声俾你知啫


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## AVim

samanthalee said:


> For example 朋友拉着我聊了一整夜,就是不给我睡觉。



Sounds weird to me, maybe it's regional?

I would say: 朋友拉着我聊了一整夜,就是不*让*我睡觉。

给我睡觉 means to go to sleep for me.

In this context, 不给我睡觉 means your friend disregarded your advice that he should go to sleep.


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## Geysere

AVim said:


> In this context, 不给我睡觉 means your friend disregarded your advice that he should go to sleep.


I think I know what you mean, I just realized that 给我 in this sentence can have two meanings! The one you suggested is usually used for blaming, complaining, or ordering sb. to do sth.
Other examples:
Mother to child: 还不快给我把汤喝了, 都凉啦! (Finish your soup now! It's almost cold!)
Teacher to naughty student: 你就是不给我好好听课,嗯? (So you refuse to listen to my lecture, huh?)
I guess in this case, the context is very important to avoid confusion


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## BODYholic

AVim said:


> Sounds weird to me, maybe it's regional?.


That expression is colloquial and it is, indeed, readily understood by any Singaporeans. Taking the cue from Ghabi, I have reasons to believe it could be a direct translation from Cantonese (给你 vs 俾你).

Perhaps not in 青岛, the colloquial expression is understood by people in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and, I suppose, 广州.


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## BODYholic

Geysere said:


> I think I know what you mean, I just realized that 给我 in this sentence can have two meanings! The one you suggested is usually used for blaming, complaining, or ordering sb. to do sth.
> Other examples:
> Mother to child: 还不快给我把汤喝了, 都凉啦! (Finish your soup now! It's almost cold!)
> Teacher to naughty student: 你就是不给我好好听课,嗯? (So you refuse to listen to my lecture, huh?)
> I guess in this case, the context is very important to avoid confusion



That is called the 'imperative form' which I believe not what the thread starter is looking for.

e.g. 给我站住, 给我去死, 给我闭嘴


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## Geysere

BODYholic said:


> That is called the 'imperative form' which I believe not what the thread starter is looking for.


Yeah, we are off topic again...  But Chinese is so rich a language that you always find more than you're looking for


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## 我说汉语

So many replies！
Well, personally, I think the first two examples you gave sounds like HK or Taiwan Mandarin. I'm not sure about the exact way that HK & TW people speak mandarin, but I just got the feeling that they tend to speak that way.
In the northen part of china, when people use the structure "Main Sentence + 给你 + V", they often introduce another clause, usaully a "reason" or a "Purpuse". For instance:
我读这个报告*给你听，是想让你了解我为什么这样做。*
把这个报告*给我看看，我帮你改改。*
Otherwise, we tend to say：
我给你读一下这个报告“I'll read the report for you/ Let me read the report for you”
给我看看这个报告：“Let me have a look at the report”

The third sentense, acorrding to my understanding, want to express an purpose "给你知道"，there for, if you want use the "给你V" patter, it should appear in the following clause: 我跟你说这个消息，就是想让你知道问题有多严重。（usually, the purpose should be more detailed than "let you know" which sounds imcomplete）
or if you want express "I just want you know this news", you can simply say "我就是想让你知道这个消息".

Well, if you want to say it the HK way or the TW way, then I'll say that I don't know.


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## Staarkali

thanks all to such a participation, I've just been starting reading (job busy busy recently..), thanks again!


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