# it's difficult to answer this question



## Seeda

大家好，

I'm in trouble... I can't seem to find how to render this structure.
My sentence is: "I'm afraid it's difficult to answer this question".
I came up with: 我恐怕回答这问题很难。
(OK, this attempt is really perfunctory...)

Can you help me please?


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## Ghabi

Hello Seeda. Welcome to the Chinese Forum. You need to swap the words a bit: 我恐怕这个问题很难回答 or 这个问题,我恐怕很难回答.


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## Seeda

Ghabi said:


> Hello Seeda. Welcome to the Chinese Forum. You need to swap the words a bit: 我恐怕这個问题很难回答 or 这個问题,我恐怕很难回答.


 
Hi Ghabi, thanks for the warm welcome, and above all, thank you very much for this very fast and clear response 
I'll be posting here more often^^


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## BODYholic

Seeda said:


> 大家好，
> 
> I'm in trouble... I can't seem to find how to render this structure.
> My sentence is: "I'm afraid it's difficult to answer this question".
> I came up with: 我恐怕回答这问题很难。
> (OK, this attempt is really perfunctory...)
> 
> Can you help me please?


All you need is a transposition of the green and blue texts.
我恐怕(我)很难回答(你)这问题。


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## Seeda

BODYholic said:


> All you need is a transposition of the green and blue texts.
> 我恐怕(我)很难回答(你)这问题。


 
Thank you for your reply, Bodyholic. But I can't understand the red part. Lit. "I'm difficult..." ?


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## viajero_canjeado

I'm afraid it's very hard (for me) to answer this question.


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## Seeda

Thank you viajero! 
Wow, I guess I'm at the point where Chinese gets more complicated...


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## Ghabi

I think the focus is a bit different, as hinted by Viajero:

-这个问题很难回答 "It's hard to answer this question"
e.g. 这世界有神吗? 嗯,这个问题很难回答  "Is there a God?" "Erm ... this is a tough one."

-我很难回答你这个问题 " it's hard for me to answer this question"
e.g. 我们明年会加薪吗? 我不是老板,所以很难回答你这个问题 "Are we going to get a raise next year?" "You think I'm boss? How am I supposed to know?"


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## Seeda

Ghabi said:


> 我很难回答你这个问题 "it's hard for me to answer this question"
> e.g. 我们明年会加薪吗? 我不是老板,所以很难回答你这个问题
> "Are we going to get a raise next year?" "You think I'm boss? How am I supposed to know?"


To be honest, I'm completely lost with this last example.
I would just like to know, is the 我 I colored in blue considered as the subject of the sentence or does it have another grammatical function?


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## Ghabi

Seeda said:


> I would just like to know, is the 我 I colored in blue considered as the subject of the sentence or does it have another grammatical function?


Call me shallow, my dear friend, but I don't know squat about grammar, and I'd only suggest you memorise "我很难..." as "it's hard for me to. .." You'd hear this structure often enough, and I think it's worth your while to memorise it.


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## BODYholic

Hi Seeda,
After going through all your questions, I found a commonality. You seem to have difficulty translating the dummy 'it' in to Chinese. There is an easy trick here. You don't!

Examples,
It's raining now = 在下雨，下着雨 & etc
It's cold = 很冷, 好冷
It's difficult = 很难

Hence, in "I'm afraid it's difficult to answer this question", the " it's " is not translated in Chinese.

If you rephrase your sentence such that "I'm afraid i find it difficult to answer this question", then in Chinese, it would be 我恐怕 我很难 回答这问题。 But the 我 is really redundant if the context is clear.  In post #4, I wrote "我恐怕(我)很难回答(你)这问题。", my intention of those words in brackets was to aid you in your understanding. 



Seeda said:


> I'm in trouble... I can't seem to find how to render this structure.
> My sentence is: "I'm afraid it's difficult to answer this question".
> I came up with: 我恐怕回答这问题很难





BODYholic said:


> All you need is a transposition of the green and blue texts.
> 我恐怕(我)很难回答(你)这问题。





Ghabi said:


> -我很难回答你这个问题 " it's hard for me to answer this question"
> e.g. 我们明年会加薪吗? 我不是老板,所以很难回答你这个问题 "Are we going to get a raise next year?" "You think I'm boss? How am I supposed to know?"





Seeda said:


> To be honest, I'm completely lost with this last example.
> I would just like to know, is the 我 I colored in blue considered as the subject of the sentence or does it have another grammatical function?


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## GamblingCamel

BODYholic said:


> In post #4, I wrote "我恐怕(我)很难回答(你)这问题。", my intention of those words in brackets was to aid you in your understanding.


That helped (me) a lot when I read the thread earlier today. Thanks.


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## Seeda

I understand better, thank you guys.


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## bamboobanga

you could also say 这问题我恐怕很难回答。 i guess it depends on which part of the sentence you put the emphasis on.


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