Expressing "it depends" with "kan"

Although there are a number of ways to express "it depends" in Chinese, the most common ones all involve the verb 看 (kàn). Some common expressions include:

• 要看 (yào kàn)
• 那要看 (nà yào kàn)
• 得看 (děi kàn)
• 那得看 (nà děi kàn)

得看（děikàn）or 要看（yàokàn)means "depend on" while literally 得看 means "have to see" and 要看 means need to see。Both of them are 很口语。比”得看“和”要看“更正式的说法是“取决于”。

Structure

Verb./Adj.+不+Verb./Adj.+得看/要看+a related situation(the sentence often goes with a question word)

Question word+得看+Verb./Adj.+不（没）+Verb./Adj.

Examples

• 今晚能不能回家吃饭要看公司加不加班。Whether I can go home for dinner tonight depends on whether we needs to work some extra time or not.
• 大学毕业后怎么办得看我接下来找工作的情况。What I'm going to do depends on how the job hunting goes.
• 这个周末去不去黄山要看 天气怎么样。Whether we're going to Yellow Mountain or not depends on how the weather is gonna be.
• 今年公司发不发奖金得看 我们的业绩和利润。Whether our boss is giving bonus or not depends on our performance.
• 去哪儿度蜜月要看我老公有多少银行存款。Where we're going to spend our honeymoon depends on how much money my husband's got in his bank account.
• 谁能当选总统得看 那个候选人的综合实力。Who will win the presidential election depends on the candidate's comprehensive strength.
• 老板参加不参加这个月例会要看 下个星期忙不忙。Whether the boss will be able to attend this monthly meeting depends on whether he's busy or not next week.
• 你最终能不能得到这份工作还得看你的面试顺利不顺利。Whether you can get the job eventually still depends on how the job interview goes.
• 苹果的产品会不会一直这么受欢迎要看他们能不能满足未来用户的需求。Whether Apple products will be able to be popular all the time or not depends on whether they'll be able to satisfy their user's needs or not.
• 中日关系会不会得到进一步的改善得看两国政府的态度。Whether the relationship between China and Japan would get further improved depends on their attitude of both sides.