看/要看/得看grammar point · tier 1 · 看/要看/得看 — it depends on (the outcome hinges on a deciding factor)
· kàn / yào kàn / děi kàn
Withholds an answer until a named factor decides it: the outcome depends on X. 要/得 add that you have to consult that factor first.
字源 FORM what the parts do
看 is a hand (手) raised flat over an eye (目), shading the sun to see far. 要 lays the obligation on the looking; 得 (děi) makes that looking the thing it still hangs on. The undecided outcome stands before the frame; the factor it hangs on stands after 看.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
The answer is not in yet, so a hand goes up over the eye and the gaze swings to the one thing down the road that will settle it. Whatever the look turns up is the answer.
字源自撰記憶法
框 · Frame
[undecided outcome] (要/得) 看 [deciding factor]
觸 · Trigger
Someone wants the answer, but it is not yours to give until a deciding factor is consulted.
序 · The move
1State the outcome that is not settled yet, often a 能不能/會不會 question or a 'how it turns out' clause.Is the answer genuinely open, waiting on something?
2Add 要 or 得 (děi) to mark that the factor has to be looked at first; plain 看 alone also works.Is this a requirement to consult, not a literal act of looking with the eyes?
3Put the deciding factor after 看 — a noun (天氣) or an embedded question (用什麼態度).Does the factor named after 看 actually settle the outcome?
例 · Examples
1明天tomorrow能不能去野餐whether we can go on a picnic (the undecided outcome)還still得看depends on (děi kàn — has to be looked at)天氣the weather (the deciding factor)才能決定only then can it be decided。
Whether we can go on the picnic tomorrow still depends on the weather before it can be decided.
Literal 看 takes a thing you watch with the eyes (看電視). Depend-on 看 takes the factor an undecided outcome hangs on (看天氣) — nobody is watching the weather, the weather decides the matter.
如果…就… names one condition and the result that follows it. 看/要看/得看 hands the decision over to a factor without yet naming which way it goes — the answer is whatever the factor turns out to be.
要看 here is 要 + 看 as a unit meaning 'depends on,' not 要 laying an obligation on a verb. The factor after 看 is what decides, not a duty the subject must perform.
✗ 去不去看你 → ✓ 去不去看你的決定 (the factor after 看 must be the deciding thing, not a stranded object)
✗ 我看天氣決定 (I look at the weather and decide) → ✓ 去不去要看天氣 (let the weather decide, not 'I watch the weather')
✗ 能不能去如果看天氣 → ✓ 能不能去要看天氣 (the deciding factor rides 要看/得看, not a condition word)
English 'it depends on' is a fixed phrase with no verb of looking; learners reach for 依靠/依賴 (rely on) or build 'depend' + on, missing that Mandarin routes 'depends on' through 看 with optional 要/得 in front.