很穷 穷得要去要饭的份上
“He was so poor that he had to beg for money.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
他是一个苦出身
“came from a poor background.”
很穷 穷得要去 要饭的 份上
“He was so poor that he had to beg for money.”
他太太早年呢 是开饭店的
“His wife ran a restaurant back then.”
Direct spoken expression in this communicative setting.
Highlighting extreme early poverty is a common storytelling trope in Chinese culture to underscore how drastically someone's fortune or character developed over time.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to the point of / to such an extent that
A common structural chunk used to express an extreme, often undesirable degree of a situation.
to beg for food / to be a beggar
A blunt, informal term for begging that emphasizes utter destitution.
