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In Chinese, there is a word (verb) called "管" (pronounced "guan"), which, when translated to English in a dictionary, means "control", "care", or when paired with another word (理), means "management".

However, in English, those above mentioned words mean, and are used, in the following ways:

"Control" - to have the power or say over something eg the police have the power to arrest criminals
"Care" - to be concerned for someone's wellbeing eg like "I care about you because you are my friend" or how nurses care for their patients, but also "Why do you care, what does it have to do with you?"

In Chinese though, "管" is not "care" in the sense that you are concerned about someone's wellbeing, it is closer to the use of the word "care" in the context of last example in bold above, or what a person is doing when they are NOT "mind[ing] your own business". It can mean "control" but you wouldn't always use the English word "control".

"Care" as used in the bold example is the closest thing to the word "管", but when used, it can give the wrong impression that the person is caring, when it does not mean this at all (see very end of this question for 2 examples).

So I am looking for a different word in English if one exists. Here are some examples in which the word "管" could be used in bold:

  1. "Mind your own business". In this case, although the English word "care" is not used, "管" is used in the Chinese equivalent, and the English word I am looking for, is what a person is doing when they are NOT minding their own business.
  2. "Are you telling me what to do?" Same as above - when a person is bossing another person around and telling them what to do, you say they are "管" (the English equivalent here should be a present participle, and used like "guan-ing") the other person.
  3. "The government doesn't care what colour your car is, as long as you have car insurance."
  4. "If there is an issue with the website, you should tell the IT department and not us in the Sales department; we don't care about this, the IT department looks after this." OR "Why did you report the broken URL to Sales, they don't care about this, you should report it to IT.". Note: You would not use "control" either, because in English, that sort of implies someone has formal authority over something, eg controlling what content goes on the website, when it is more about whose responsibility it is to look after this.
  5. "This is not something you should "concern yourself with"/"control/管"."

The following examples are situations where I have not thought of a suitable word, and "care" would obviously not be appropriate:
(angrily): "You always [care] about me!" ie "you always boss me around and tell me what to do".
(malignant, telling people who micro-manage, are bossy, not minding their own business, or are too strict a parent): "You [care] too much." and not the benevolent "You are too kind and care about people too much, which is why you get hurt all the time."

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    I don't think there is a single word which covers all these contexts, which is why the dictionary finds it difficult to translate. Commented Oct 20 at 8:35
  • I agree with Kate. Care as used in 1 and 2 isn't used in the same way as in 3 and 4.
    – user405662
    Commented Oct 20 at 8:37
  • @KateBunting As I said in another comment, it doesn't have to be a single word that encapsulates the entire meaning. I specifically want a word that means the malignant form of "care" with a negative connotation like examples 1, 2 and 5. Commented Oct 20 at 11:33
  • The common analogy is from mother, where don't mother me or simply you're not my mom &etc. Mother and nanny can both be used as verbs. See the idiomatic phrase nanny state which I guess might mean the government has too much 管. Maybe.
    – stevesliva
    Commented Oct 20 at 17:14
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    You've used a relevant word several times yourself: Don't concern yourself (Don't let it bother you). Keep out of this debate - it's not your concern / it doesn't concern you (it's not relevant to you AND/OR you're not relevant to it, whatever "it" may be). But don't assume that just because there happens to be a Chinese word with a range of meanings, there should be an English word covering much the same range. Commented Oct 20 at 17:22

1 Answer 1

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It is impossible to find a single word in English that encapsulates all the possible meanings and uses of a character that has many different possible meanings in Chinese. It's a bit like asking for a single character in Chinese that encapsulates all the possible meanings of make in English - 25 just for the transitive uses according to Merriam-Webster.

Zdic has a good list of possible substitutes in English:

administer, subject sb.to discipline, restrain, control, be in charge of, concern oneself with, bother about, participate in sth., guarantee, provide, entertain, etc.

Google translate gets pretty close to the right meaning most of the time with a little context.

别管我 Leave me alone

你管得着吗?Is it your business?

他们不管车的颜色 They don't care about the color of the car.

我们不管修理工作 We don't do repair work

The idiomatic translation will come out differently depending on the situation, so it's best to remember how to translate particular uses correctly and forget about a single substitute.

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  • It doesn't have to be a single word that encapsulates the entire meaning. Perhaps I should have worded the question differently. I specifically wanted a word that means malignant "care" with a negative connotation like in my examples. Commented Oct 20 at 11:28
  • And about the idiomatic translations: I don't want an idiomatic translation, because occasionally I come across a situation where the idiomatic translation of the sentence is not what I want in that instance, but rather it is the word that I want. Commented Oct 20 at 11:31
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    @Ihavemanyquestions In Chinese one character covers this specific group of meanings, but there's no equivalent in English; the best you'll get using a single word is an awkward translation that will leave native speakers confused - like using 'care' in all those situations. I understand you want the exact Chinese meaning in a single word in English, but unfortunately there's no 1:1 between languages, at least not in this case.
    – DW256
    Commented Oct 20 at 12:16

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