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I'd like to say the above sentence.

I can't think anything but the following sentence, but it just doesn't sit right with me somehow:


While the subject "what's best" in english seems ok without any tangible object associated with it, in Chinese it sounds a little unfinished.

Can anyone think of the correct, most chinese way of saying this?

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5 Answers 5

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what about this one "我们要给孩子最好的东西"?

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Thanks but my meaning is more general than actually giving them objects, which is what your sentence seems to imply. –  jaffa Apr 28 '12 at 22:10
IMHO, "我们要给孩子（们）最好的。" is better. –  Mengdi Gao Apr 29 '12 at 10:20
I think I prefer the above sentence as it sounds Chinese and seems to stick closer to my original meaning. So the added 的 seems to finish the sentence off, where it is referring to anything in general that is the best... –  jaffa Apr 29 '12 at 15:30
@jaffa: did you see my reply? (我们要把最好的给我们的孩子) :-) "我们要给孩子（们）最好的。" of course is also fine. –  BertR Apr 29 '12 at 17:15
@jaffa Would you mind looking at my answer below? I think that might be what you were trying to say. –  gonnastop May 1 '12 at 19:52


I think most Chinese parents would rather use this expression: 我们望子成龙

望子成龙 has this meaning: lit. to hope one's son becomes a dragon (idiom); fig. to long for one' s child to succeed in life; to have great hopes for one's offspring; to give one's child the best education as a career investment

It has more emphasis on succeeding in life, while "the best" is more open, and can also refer to happiness. This because most Chinese people have different values and aspirations for there children than most westerners (I'm generalizing here).

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We as parents all want the best for our kids.


I was reading a book and just realized that this was what my mom always said to me!

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Although this translation is not very literal, I hear sentences like this (...为了孩子...) very often, while I have never heard 我们要给孩子最好的东西, which sounds like you're spoiling your kids. –  Stumpy Joe Pete Jun 21 '12 at 12:52

我们 想要 对孩子最好的东西.

However, I can only think of very few situations where you may want to use this sentence. One example is when you are facing a few options and you are not able to make an educated choice. So you use this sentence to declare your over all goal and relay on the listener (usually a professional) making "the best" choice for you. If that's the case, I would suggest you to tell the listener something like this:我们不懂这个领域;请您帮助我们做一个选择。The possible outcomes are:

  1. The listener is more aware of you are relaying on him or her to make a serious choice;
  2. The listener may provide more information to educate you.
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i'm a native chinese,according to the english grammer,the meaning of "we want what is best for our kids" is "give(for) our kids the best thing that we want".just like the first line.
By the way, i have learnt english grammer for nearly 8 years.

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You're parsing "what's best for our kids" wrong. Look at this: "Only you can decide what's best for you." = "只有你自己才能决定什么对你最好。" So... literally, "what's best for our kids" = "什么对我们孩子最好". You are not giving anyone anything. –  Stumpy Joe Pete Jun 21 '12 at 12:50

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