Breakdown of wǒ nǎinai shuō, tā niánqīng de shíhou jiāotōng bù fādá, qù yí cì shìzhōngxīn huòxǔ yào yì tiān.
Questions & Answers about wǒ nǎinai shuō, tā niánqīng de shíhou jiāotōng bù fādá, qù yí cì shìzhōngxīn huòxǔ yào yì tiān.
Chinese usually doesn’t use a separate word like English “that” to introduce reported speech.
- 我奶奶说，她年轻的时候交通不发达
literally: My grandma said, when she was young transportation was not developed.
The comma after 说 already shows that what follows is the content of what she said. You can also drop the comma in writing and just say:
- 我奶奶说她年轻的时候交通不发达。
Both are natural; there’s simply no need for a “that” word in Chinese in this kind of sentence.
奶奶 specifically means paternal grandmother (your father’s mother).
- 奶奶 = dad’s mom
- 外婆 / 姥姥 (regional) = mom’s mom
If you just say “my grandma” in English, in Chinese you usually have to pick the side:
- 我奶奶 = my grandma on my dad’s side
- 我外婆 / 我姥姥 = my grandma on my mom’s side
In casual speech people sometimes still understand it generally as “grandma” from context, but its core meaning is paternal grandmother.
The 的 here is doing a nominalizing job: it turns the descriptive phrase 年轻 (“young”) into something like a noun phrase, so it can be followed by 时候 (“time/when”).
- 年轻的时候 ≈ “the time when (she was) young”
You can say 年轻时候, and people understand you, but:
- 年轻的时候 is more standard and natural in most situations.
- 年轻时候 sounds a bit more compressed, slightly more literary or casual depending on tone and region.
In everyday spoken Mandarin, 年轻的时候 is the safest choice.
Roughly:
时候 = “when / (a) time / moment” → often used with a clause
- 我年轻的时候 = when I was young
- 你来的时候告诉我。 = When you come, tell me.
时间 = “time” as a measurable resource/quantity
- 没有时间。 = (I) don’t have time.
- 需要很多时间。 = It takes a lot of time.
In this sentence we’re talking about a period of life (“when she was young”), so 时候 is the right choice: 她年轻的时候.
Chinese doesn’t rely on verb endings to mark past vs present. Instead, time words / context do the job.
- 她年轻的时候交通不发达
Literally: “When she was young, transportation not developed.”
The phrase 她年轻的时候 clearly sets a past time frame, so everything in that clause is interpreted as past, even though the grammar form looks “present” to an English speaker.
We also don’t.use 了 because we’re describing a state that was true over a period, not a completed event (“became developed” etc.).
交通不发达 = transportation is not developed; it was underdeveloped / the infrastructure was poor.
Neutral description; just says “not developed”.交通很不发达 = transportation is very underdeveloped.
This sounds stronger, more emphatic.交通不太发达 = transportation is not very developed.
Softer; suggests it’s somewhat underdeveloped but not terrible.
In your sentence, 交通不发达 is a straightforward way to say “back then the transportation network was underdeveloped” without adding extra emotional coloring.
Here 发达 functions as an adjective, meaning “developed, advanced, well-developed”:
- 交通很发达 = the transportation is very developed.
- 经济发达的国家 = economically developed country.
There is a related verb sense “to develop / to become developed” in some contexts (especially in older or more formal language), but in modern everyday usage you mostly treat 发达 as an adjective describing a state.
一次 (“one time, once”) is the measure word + number for the verb 去:
- Pattern: V + (number + 次)
- (place/object)
e.g. 去一次北京, 见一次他
- (place/object)
Both orders 去一次市中心 and 去市中心一次 are grammatically possible, but:
- 去一次市中心 is more natural and common.
- 去市中心一次 can sound slightly more formal or marked; you’d be more likely to see it in written style or for emphasis.
So the default spoken pattern is: 去 + 次数 + 地方 → 去一次市中心.
This is due to tone sandhi rules for 一 (yī):
Before a 4th-tone syllable, 一 becomes 2nd tone (yí)
- 次 is 4th tone → 一次 = yí cì
- 半 (bàn) is 4th tone → 一半 = yí bàn
Before a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-tone syllable, 一 becomes 4th tone (yì)
- 天 is 1st tone → 一天 = yì tiān
- 年 is 2nd tone → 一年 = yì nián
When said in isolation or for emphasis, it stays yī.
So the pinyin in the sentence 一(yí)次 and 一(yì)天 follows these standard rules.
All three express possibility, like “maybe / perhaps”, but with some nuance:
或许:
- Slightly formal / literary feel.
- Common in written Chinese and also in slightly more careful speech.
- Fits well in narrative sentences like this one.
也许:
- Very common in spoken Chinese.
- Feels neutral, like “maybe / perhaps”.
- You could easily say:
去一次市中心也许要一天。
可能:
- Literally “possible / possibly”.
- Can be stronger / more objective than 或许 / 也许, and is extremely common:
去一次市中心可能要一天。 - Sounds like a realistic estimate: “It might well take a day.”
In this sentence, 或许要一天 ≈ “might take a day / perhaps would take a day”, with a slightly narrative tone.
Yes, 或许 is flexible in position. All of these are possible:
去一次市中心或许要一天。
(In your sentence.)
Literally: “Go once to the city center perhaps needs one day.”或许去一次市中心要一天。
“Perhaps going to the city center once would take a day.”
Here 或许 is at the start, modifying the whole statement.去一次市中心要或许一天。
This is not natural. You don’t usually put 或许 directly before the time duration like that.
The most natural options are (1) and (2). Position (1) is very common in written narrative.
In this context, 要一天 means “(it) takes one day / needs one whole day”.
- 要 + time is a common way to say how long something takes:
- 开车要三个小时。 = It takes 3 hours by car.
- 修好要两天。 = It takes 2 days to fix.
You can often replace it with:
花一天: literally “spend one day (time/money)”
- 去一次市中心或许花一天。 (okay, but slightly less natural without context, more natural with an object like 时间: 花一天的时间)
用一天: literally “use one day”
- 去一次市中心或许要用一天。 (understandable, but 要一天 is simpler and more idiomatic here)
The most natural colloquial way in this sentence is exactly what you have: 或许要一天.
You can say:
- 我奶奶说，年轻的时候交通不发达…
and people will understand it as “when (she) was young…”, because context suggests it refers to 奶奶.
However, using 她:
- 我奶奶说，她年轻的时候…
makes the subject reference explicit. This is helpful when:
- There might be more than one female person in context.
- You want to be very clear that “when she was young” refers specifically to 奶奶, not to the speaker or someone else.
So both are grammatically fine; including 她 just removes any possible ambiguity and is very natural.
Yes. Both of these are grammatical:
她年轻的时候交通不发达。
(Time phrase at the start of the clause.)交通在她年轻的时候不发达。
(Subject first, then time phrase with 在.)
Both mean essentially the same: “When she was young, transportation was not developed.”
Nuance:
- Pattern 1 (她年轻的时候…) is more natural in storytelling because it foregrounds her life stage as the setting.
- Pattern 2 (交通在她年轻的时候…) emphasizes 交通 first, then limits it to that time period. You might see this in more careful or expository writing.
For everyday narrative, pattern 1 is the most common.
In Chinese, within the verb phrase:
- The usual internal order is: Verb + (frequency/“times”) + place
→ 去一次市中心 = go once to the city center.
The overall sentence-level order here is:
- [Speaker] 我奶奶
- [Speech verb] 说
- [Time background] 她年轻的时候
- [Statement] 交通不发达，去一次市中心或许要一天。
Inside 去一次市中心或许要一天:
- Verb: 去
- “Once”: 一次
- Place: 市中心
- Modal: 或许
- Duration: 要一天
So yes, putting 市中心 after 去一次 is the normal, natural order.
These words differ slightly:
市中心 = city center / downtown
Literally “urban center” – specifically the central, most developed part of the city.市区 = the urban area (as opposed to suburbs or countryside).
Broader than just the very center.城里 = “in town / in the city” (colloquial).
Often contrasts with 乡下 (“the countryside”).
In this sentence, 市中心 emphasizes that going to the central part of the city (downtown) was a big trip that might take a whole day, which fits the idea of underdeveloped transportation. Using 市区 or 城里 would slightly change the nuance to “the city area” or just “town” more generally.
Yes, 去一趟市中心 is also natural, and in some contexts even more idiomatic.
次 (cì): general measure word for occurrences of an action.
- 去一次市中心 = go once to the city center (focus on how many times).
趟 (tàng): measure word for trips / journeys, especially round trips or complete outings.
- 去一趟市中心 = make one trip to the city center (focus on the idea of a whole trip).
Given the context (“back then, making a trip to downtown could take a day”), 一趟 actually fits very well, because the emphasis is on how big of a trip it was, not just the count of occurrences. Both are correct; 一趟 is a bit more vivid in this travel context.