这本来都跟人家约好了
“We've made an appointment,”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
吃饭吧
“Let's eat.”
这 本来 都跟 人家 约好了
“We've made an appointment,”
“but Haichao backed out suddenly.”
“Everything was already set up and agreed, so backing out now is really putting me on the spot.”
In Chinese social interaction, breaking a prior arrangement with someone (人家) damages interpersonal reliability and threatens the face of the intermediary who coordinated the plan.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
originally already / had been planned all along
Used to emphasize that an existing plan or state was established before an unexpected change occurred.
made an appointment/agreement with someone
A common spoken structure where 人家 refers to a third party or the other side of an arrangement.
Marks the completion and settled status of the prior arrangement.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“I've already made plans with him.”
“I already made plans with someone. Give me the tickets...”
“but there's a stipulation:”
“I had a client meeting scheduled,”
“We promised each other”