How to say "I don't care" in Chinese
Posted by Jonah Lopin on Sun, May 16, 2010 @ 10:36 AM
I am a fan of two ways of saying "I don't care" in Chinese.
You can say 我无所谓 = wo3 wu2 suo3 wei4 = "I don't care" or "I am indifferent" or "whatev".
The words are:
- 我 [wo3], which obviously means I. That one is easy.
- 无 [wu2], which means "without" or "to lack" or "don't have".
- 所 [suo3], which means "actually". (This word also means "place", as in 厕所= ce4 suo3 = "toilet place" = bathroom.)
- 谓 [wei4], which means "speak of".
So, 我无所谓 = "I lack actually speak of" = whatevs.
Another great way to say "whatever" / "I don't care either way" is to say 随便 = sui2 bian4:
- 随 [sui2] means "to follow", "to comply with", or "to allow". (It is also a common last name, but let's ignore that for now.)
- 便 [bian4] means "convenient", "handy", or "easy". (Of course just to make things complicated, this word also means "ordinary", "plain", "then", "so", "thus", and "to relieve oneself" - as in 大便 = da4 bian4 = "big"+ "relive oneself" = do a #2. To make things even more difficult to remember, the character 便 is also pronounced pian2 and means "advantageous" or "cheap", as in 便宜 = pian2 yi4 = inexpensive.)
So, 随便 means "whatever is cool", and it feels like sure, I'll "comply with easy", or I'll "follow convenient".
So, which one is better 随便 or 我无所谓?
Whatever.