How do you say "You mean ...?" to respond to what you don't understand enough?

Question

In English, it is common to ask "You mean XXX...?" when a person does not understand enough what the conversation opponent said. I'm now in China, and to express the same thing I usually say the following:

X: 和啊你呢啊哈你哈看明日开幕韩人口日民哦那人口仍然要卖烤肉日日易容让粑粑你和那会让扣扣密码全牛皮光荣日光浴热卖款日日
I: 你的意思是XXX？

Or

I: 你意味着XXX？

However, I feel this is quite awkward and just a silly translation from the equivalent English. In fact I have never seen any Chinese to say in the same way, although I should have rarely seen any Chinese are in these situations, so actually I'm not sure if my impression is correct or not.
So how can I express "You mean ...?" in Mandarin, to ask what they mean?

Angus Macrae · Answer

You can say "你是这个意思吗"

For example:

不想我结婚，你是这个意思吗？ You mean you don't want me to get married?

Pedroski · Answer

你的意思是...
You mean...
你是在说... 
You're trying to say...
我不是很懂你的意思。 
I don't really get what you mean.
你想表达什么？
What are you trying to say?

Tang Ho · Answer

So how can I express "You mean ...?" in Mandarin, to ask what they mean?

"你的意思是XXX？" means you are making a guess, and asking for a confirmation

If you don't understand a person's single statement, the simplest way to ask for clarification is "你的意思是...?" (you meant....?) and let that person explain. or you can say "这是什么意思？" (what does it mean?)

If you don't understand a person's speech, you can just say "我不知道你在说什么" (I don't know what are you saying)  , "我不明白你在说什么" or 我听不懂你在说什么" (I don't understand what you are saying)

It is the perfect response to the speech in your example

Come back to "你的意思是XXX？" (you meant XXX?)

The usage are the same in Chinese and English

Example:

A: "我讨厌生鱼!" (I hate raw fish!)

B: "你的意思是你讨厌吃鱼生?" (you meant you hate eating Sashimi?)

It can't be you hate living fish, right?

"你的意思是XXX?" can be replaced with  "你是指XXX" (are you referring to XXX?)

How do you say "You mean ...?" to respond to what you don't understand enough?

3 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question