r/ChineseLanguage • u/Blanketfort_rainyday • Jul 10 '26
Grammar 多 = a little?(?!)
I know there are nuences to language and what not, but I'm not understanding the reasoning behind why 多 is used in the context of talking about "a little" after 1o'clock.
I initially thought it would have been something along the lines of 我们可以一点几然后吃饭。
I'm getting to the point in my journey where the sentences seem to have seemingly extra words and word order is starting to go beyond SVO. I know that means I'm progressing along my journey though, so that's the bright side haha.
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u/bobzxr Beginner Jul 10 '26
It's not "eat a little after 1", but "a little after 1, eat".
[number] + 点 + 多
"a little past [number] o'clock"
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u/SilicaViolet Heritage speaker Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I think 一点多 can be translated to "past one o'clock" or "around one o'clock" in this context. It's like one o'clock plus a little more (that's where 多 comes in). I understand 一点多 to be like saying "one-something" in reference to the time.
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u/Blanketfort_rainyday Jul 10 '26
Thank you. Yeah Im still trying to get out of the habit of taking things so literally when translating hah.
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u/Zagrycha Jul 11 '26
its normal part of language learning process, the more vocab and grammar we learn the less we try to interpret things literally because the more confident we are in what we know, aka we will immediately recognize its a meaning etc we haven't seen before vs us misunderstanding something we have already learned.
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u/emotionalflotsam Jul 10 '26
This. When used after 点, the comparable English would be "-ish". In this instance, eat at 1 ish. That's how my family always uses it.
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u/palatis Jul 10 '26
一點多 cannot be translated to around 1 o'clock.
around 1 o'clock does not dismiss times before 1 o'clock (like 12:55), but 一點多 only permits time passed 1 o'clock.
around 1 o'clock would be 一點左右 or 一點附近.
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u/SilicaViolet Heritage speaker Jul 10 '26
Well it's not a direct mathematical translation like you said but I thought the connotation would be similar. There isn't a common English saying for "just after 1 o'clock" so people (at least where I live) would say "let's meet around 1" with the assumption that you're not going to show up earlier than 1.
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u/palatis Jul 11 '26
well 一點左右 does implicitly mean both before or after, depends on context.
like if you're being asked like "at what time did john leave the office?" by a police investigator, "around 1 o'clock" does imply times like 12:55.
on the other hand, "lets meet around 1" does assume we'll both show up after 1.
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u/joyz0109 Native Jul 10 '26
多after 1 o’clock is basically any time after 1PM and before maybe 1:45PM which is when we say 快两点（close to 2PM)
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u/Mercy--Main Beginner Jul 10 '26
its kinda the opposite of 快. Where 快 is "almost", 多 is "and something".
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u/Awkward-Injury-4341 Native Jul 10 '26
多 is used in the context of talking about a little "after" 1o'clock.
一点几 is almost special grammar in some area (like in some kind of dialects", not in standard putonghua. Usually it's 一点多.
So, right, English could be "We can eat after one o'clock." Without "a little". I am not sure why "a little" here.
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u/hexoral333 Intermediate Jul 10 '26
The problem here is the English translation that's ambiguous, because you can group the words together either as "eat a little" or "a little after 1 o'clock", but in Chinese "eat" is separate from "a little after 1 o'clock".
Basically, if you take out 多, the sentence just means "eat at 1PM"
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u/FlashyPost0928 Native Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
【多】as the 【Numeral】(数词 )
● [ Used after a quantifier ] Indicates a remainder or fraction less than a whole number.
Of course, how much 多 exactly? 5 minutes, 10 minutes... half an hour? or 1:59 ? 😄
Therefore, 一奌多 usually refers to a little bit of time after one o'clock = 一奌多一奌 !
e.g. " You said you'd be here a little afer1:00, and it's already 1:30 ! 😠
PS you can also find 多吃一奌 = Eat a little more
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u/Legal-Intention-6361 Jul 10 '26
Translator got confused ，一点 means one o’clock and it also means a little bit
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u/InspectionThink4290 Jul 10 '26
I live in Shanghai and we say 一点 means a little bit and I say sometimes to friends to be cute like if I want a cookie 好一点点 - It‘s like saying Ok， just a little bit. 多一点 means a little more. I like need more milk for my coffee. 给我多一点。
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u/GarantKh27 Jul 10 '26
Was the intended meaning "If you're not hungry, we can eat a little more"?
If so, then to make it valid in Chinese , you just need to swap 多 and 一点 and say "如果你不饿，我们可以多一点吃"
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u/Blanketfort_rainyday Jul 11 '26
It's supposed to read as"we can eat later (after 1 o'clock) if you aren't hungry (now).
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u/GarantKh27 Jul 11 '26
Why not just go with 一点以后 then? 如果你不饿，我们可以一点以后吃饭
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u/Blanketfort_rainyday Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I think what's making this a bit confusing is the translation is referring to a specific time-1 o'clock（一点) which just so happens to also mean "a little”（一点）, but it looks like they used 多to imply " a little” after the specified time previously mentioned（1'oclock/一点）.
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u/ResidentAping Jul 11 '26
In Chinese, we often use this sentence when someone isn't hungry yet, meaning they don't need to eat lunch now and can wait a while, maybe until around 1–2 PM. “多” in this , is for time “一点多”.
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u/sickofthisshit Intermediate Jul 11 '26
In 一点多, 多 is not trying to capture "much" but more like "something."
It's some amount of time after 1 p.m., i.e., definitely not earlier than 1, not sure how much later, but not exactly 1. In English you might say "at 1-something".
Personally, I would translate this as "some time after 1" and not "a little after 1".
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u/Extension-Art-7098 Jul 12 '26
一點多其實是形容1:00-2:00那段時間, 所以翻譯成after1:00並沒有錯, 但這個講法非常不夠accurate, 所以有些比較謹慎的聽者(包含我們母語人士)會回說: 所以是一點幾分吃飯?
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u/miao-myb Native Jul 31 '26
（number）点 多 means a while after （that number） o'clock. here 点 means “o'clock”
Additionally, 一点多can also means “a little bit more” here 点 means little bit
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u/Qlxwynm Jul 11 '26
personally i interpret it as “around 1 o clock” instead, it kinda depends on the context sometimes but basically the same thing as others said
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u/deoxyribonucleic123 Jul 10 '26
一點多/一点多 means "after 1"
I'm not sure where "a little" came from.
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u/palatis Jul 10 '26
usually for n 點多 we mean within ~15min.
if 多 like 59min we will not consider it as 一點多.
the a little comes from the confusion of machine translation.
一點 does mean both 1 o'clock and a little / a bit.
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u/Bekqifyre Jul 10 '26
The 多 here doesn't mean 'many', it's basically the other sense where it means 'plus' or 'extra'.
我这里多了三个人: I have three extra people over here.
给我多一点: Give me a bit more.
So a little after 1 o'clock is the same thing - 1 o'clock plus a bit extra more.