他让我<先>留在这儿

[alexonline]

Hello!

As far as know 先 means ‘before,earlier’,so what is its meaning in the following:

A guy on a business trip in a town,finished his task,bought a ticket to go back home and was waiting on a platform,when he got an sms from his boss saying that 他让我先留在这儿，还有事儿要做

My version: 'His boss wants him to stay there longer,...'.


Thank you.

 

[Diana SUN]

yes, your translation is corret, indeed his boss wants him to stay there longer.

here 先 is refered to the action 'get on train and go back home', means that this action "留在这儿" is before “go back home”.

so the boss wants him to first stay in there.

 

[alexonline]

谢谢你，我明白了！

 

[Diana SUN]

不客气

 

[ElGarcia]

Sometimes 先 can be interpreted as "temporarily, for now, for a while", or "don't... just yet" in negative sentences:
先别走 don't leave just yet/stay for a little longer
先等会儿 wait for a moment
我先把包放这儿，你帮我看一会儿 please look after my bag for a while
我得先走了/挂了/下线了 often said during face-to-face/telephone/online conversations when a person needs to left. Although 先 may indicate "Sorry I need to leave first" here, I personally prefer to interpret it as "Bye for now", as it doesn't have to be said by the person who leaves first. I can imagine a situation where A and B are coworkers and chatting after work, when A suddenly says, 哎呀都六点半了，我得接孩子去了！Then B might say: 好吧，那我也先回家了。Here 先 cannot mean "leaving before A", though, of course, it may be understood as "going home before coming back to work tomorrow"...

These uses are likely all derived from the original meaning of 先 as "before, first", but sometimes the indicated later event can be ambiguous. For example, when someone says 先别慌 (don't panic just yet), it is not meant to tell the person to start panicking later. The meaning could be "calm down before you make any decision or take any action", but a straightforward translation will be as simple as, "don't panic".

 

[alexonline]

Thanks,ElGarcia,very useful info!