在厨房切了好多年菜
“but I've been helping in the kitchen for years.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
你说我好好的刑警
“I was a perfectly good detective,”
在厨房切 了 好多年 菜
“but I've been helping in the kitchen for years.”
现在连握枪的手都改拿菜刀了
“(Now my hand that used to hold a gun holds a kitchen knife.)”
“My talents as a detective have been completely wasted on mundane chores for years.”
Phrases like 'chop vegetables' function as a single concept, but grammatically split apart in Chinese so time durations can be wedged inside to emphasize how long the drudgery lasted.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
for many years; quite a few years
Very common in spoken Chinese to emphasize a long duration of time, often carrying a subjective feeling that the time felt long.
to chop vegetables; to prep food
A separable verb-object phrase; duration or aspect markers like '了好多年' are inserted right between the verb and the object.
Placed directly after the verb to indicate the completion and ongoing accumulation of the action over a period of time.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“there are many chefs like me.”
“if the cook isn't skilled enough,”
“You know how fast I chop vegetables, right?”
“The thing is, that dish was really delicious.”
“Let's go to the kitchen and see”
“I don't think it's an issue with the cook's skills.”