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Posts: 4935

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Q: No why? What does it mean?

I was watching a movie with my wife the other day, and the subtitles basically went like this:

 

Guy: 为什么? (Why?)

Girl: 没为什么 (No why)

 

Based on the body language and everything, it seemed like she didn't want to tell him why. I've also seen it done when people don't know the answer to the question.

 

In fact, during my tenure as an illegal, unqualified and unskilled teacher slash wumao, this is what I illegally taught my vict—sorry, I mean students: "If you don't know the answer to a question, you cannot say 'No why,' instead just say 'I don't know.'"

 

So, why does this happen? (oh dear...) Any other reasons why they say "No why"?

10 years 34 weeks ago in  Culture - Beijing

 
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In the West, we have variants of that answer to "Why?"

 

From parents:   "Because I said so!"

From girlfriends" "Well, if you dont know, I certainly am not going to tell you!"

From guys: "Because!!!!" Note, this is usually repeated each time the victim ask "but why?" or "because what?" Only "explanation" forthcoming is  the emphasis changing and the volume increasing.... 

Hulk:

Very well said.

 

No why.

10 years 34 weeks ago
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10 years 34 weeks ago
 
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I guess it depends on what kind of questions you ask.

 

If you ask something they don't want to tell you.They will say "no why" which means "sorry but I don't wanna talk about it with you".

 

On other occasions,if you ask them simple and easy questions,like "why GulinRaf always replies before me","no why" means this is just the way it works.There is no reason.

 

Also,the movie lines you mentioned above may be"不为什么" instead of “没为什么”?

Hulk:

Nope, it was 没为什么.

10 years 34 weeks ago
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10 years 34 weeks ago
 
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I always found it a bit funny at how hard it is to get an answer from a Chinese person, I get the answer ''no why''. Often when I talk about someone I get ''who?'' and if I keep talking about that person, I still get ''who?''. I find it annoying, like they have no attention span.

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we use it here just to piss off silva surprise.                                                               speaking of pissing of people  have you been to Sex in China on a 30 Day Visa? I know djangolee (sparky 4.0 ) has. thanks for the view an please come back soonwink

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