好几年啊
“That long?”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
得好几年
“get several years.”
好几年 啊
“That long?”
那
“Then...”
“That takes way too long!”
In spoken Chinese, repeating the key phrase of an interlocutor's statement with a final particle is a common strategy to register surprise without direct contradiction.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
several years; quite a few years
Used in colloquial speech to emphasize that a duration of several years is notably lengthy.
Softens the question while projecting a tone of mild astonishment and seeking confirmation.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“hasn't it?”
“for quite some time.”
“Sometimes, it's a few years; sometimes, it's over a decade.”
“it's been 20 years, right?”
“for many years already.”
“It's been years. Stop wasting your effort.”