看见 in Context

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看见

Usage 1 - "to lay eyes on, to see": 

Sentence：

我看见前面有一个商场。

English:

I see there's a shopping center up ahead.

Top-Down Words:

前面 qiánmiàn - in front, before one’s eyes
商场 shāngchǎng - mall, shopping mall

Sentence：

我看见了一只狗。

English:

I saw a dog. 

Top-Down Words:

*Sentence:

我看见你能用中文和中国人聊天儿。

English:

I saw that you can talk to Chinese people in Chinese.

Top-Down Words:

聊天儿 liáotiānr - chat

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Member Comments from 2019-mid-2020

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Gary

Why is the last sentence translated as "I saw ..." instead of "I see..."?

Mandarin Blueprint

It's a tricky translation. My initial reaction is to say that "see" or "saw" are both potentially OK, but you would need more context to be sure. 见 and 能 are the aspects that make it open to interpretation and in need of further contextual detail.

看到 and 看见 are both "Verb + result." "To Look + Succeed in seeing." You can, however, also say 看 by itself. 我看(了)你用中文和中国人聊天. In that sentence, "see" and "saw" depends on whether or not 了 is present. However, once you introduce 能, the comment shifts to being about the person's *ability* to chat with Chinese people in Chinese. Whether or not "see" or "saw" is correct would depend a bit more on the surrounding context.

Ultimately, I wouldn't worry about that type of detail too much. There are aspects to translation between English and Chinese that have incredible room for flexibility and interpretation, and ultimately, they aren't all that relevant to successfully communicating in Mandarin. To be clear, unlike some of your other comments where you've noticed glaring mistakes, this is one where the two languages don't fully correspond.