你是不是很难过？

“Are… Are you sad?”

《Veil of Shadows》 S1·E24

TIMECODE: 31:15 · 1080P MASTER AUDIO

THE DIALOGUE REEL

1+1+1 SPOKEN CONTINUITY

[-1] PREVIOUS TURN nǐ zěn me tīng qǐ lái xiàng shì kū le ？

你怎么听起来像是哭了？ →

“Why do you sound like you're crying?”

nǐ shì bú shì hěn nán guò ？ CURRENT FOCUS

你是不是很难过？

“Are… Are you sad?”

[+1] FOLLOW-UP TURN wǒ bù zhī dào shì nán guò

我不知道是难过

“I don't know whether I'm sad”

Subtitles synced to millisecond timecode Browse Show Clips →

Scene: Daily Life

Function: COMFORTING

Tone: GENTLE

Emotion: SYMPATHY

WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN (PRAGMATIC SUBTEXT)

“You sound like you are crying; please let me comfort you and do not hide your pain.”

💡 Cultural Insight: Empathetic Inquiry

Rather than directly demanding someone tell their problems, Chinese speakers often use affirmative-negative tags like '是不是' to delicately verify emotional distress without cornering the listener.

INTENT TAGS: #expressing_concern #empathy #emotional_check_in

🧩

LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES

1 CHUNKS · 0 PARTICLES

是不是 SPOKEN CHUNK

is it true that / aren't you

Commonly placed before adjectives or verbs to soften an inquiry while checking whether an assumption is accurate.

🏮

VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS

2 EXPR · 1 GRAMMAR

COLLOQUIAL EXPRESSIONS:

是不是 shì bú shì 很难过 hěn nán guò

GRAMMAR BLUEPRINTS:

不是...是 →

CROSS-CINEMA CORPUS BOARD · PARALLEL SCENES

Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)