因为我当时也不知道怎么回事嘛
“Because I didn't know what was going on back then.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
你什么时候见的
“When did you see it?”
因为 我当时也 不知道怎么 回事 嘛
“Because I didn't know what was going on back then.”
“Do you think it might be the alien?”
“Don't blame me for not reacting properly; I was completely in the dark just like anyone else would be.”
Using 'ma' at the end of an excuse frames the speaker's confusion as something completely natural and inevitable, subtly nudging the listener to forgive them.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
what's going on / what happened
Extremely frequent colloquial question used to ask about unexplained situations.
at that time / back then
Standard temporal anchor for situating past states of mind or occurrences.
Indicates that the reason provided should be obvious, natural, and understandable to the listener, appealing for empathy.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“Why didn't we know this before?”
“But I don't know why”
“I don't know why,”
“I just don't understand.”
“I really don't know.”
“No idea what was going on today.”
“I don't know when it was,”
“I don't know what came over me.”
“I suffer gastrointestinal disorders, right?”
“But I don't know the details. I just overheard them chatting on WeChat.”
“Honestly, neither did I.”
“But I don't know what's going on.”
“when he was abroad? I have no idea at all.”
“Then I don't know what happened.”
“I really don't know what happened.”