Could someone help me with this sentence? "有什么好怕的"
Hello all,

I am trying to learn mandarin and am having trouble with why the sentence "有什么好怕的" translates to "there is nothing to fear" (assuming that that is the right translation). It seems to literally mean "there is (有) something (什么) good (好) to fear of (怕的)". Could someone enlighten me?

谢谢,
Michael King

Question

Could someone help me with this sentence? "有什么好怕的"
Hello all,

I am trying to learn mandarin and am having trouble with why the sentence "有什么好怕的" translates to "there is nothing to fear" (assuming that that is the right translation). It seems to literally mean "there is (有) something (什么) good (好) to fear of (怕的)". Could someone enlighten me?

谢谢,
Michael King

Answer

Hello, Michael. First of all, I think in some cases, you cannot really translate Chinese into English word by word literally, which will make any sense and you will be lost in translation. 有什么好怕的 is used when you try to express the feeling to others that there is nothing to be afraid of. So that's what it means in Chinese.

Answer

Acutally this is a rhetorical question which literally means "Is there anything worth fearing of?" to state "There is nothing worth fearing of". The question or the exclamation mark is omitted here. “好” is used as the meaning "worth" or "easy".

Answer

有什么好怕的，means不可怕,almost we say 有什么好玩的？that means 没意思， boring,uninteresting  有什么  means no  or nothing

Answer

好 has many different meanings besides "good", here are some examples:
1. 有什么好怕的/有什么好担心的. (something makes you fear / worry)
好 can be replaced by 可 here.
most of the time, they are rhetorical questions, equal to  没什么好怕的，没什么好担心的
2. 我好怕/我好担心. (I'm VERY terrified/worried.)

Answer

Is(有) there anything（什么） you（你） should（好） fear（怕）?
you forgot the question mark“？”
“is there”   not  “there is”