HSK 7
说到/想到哪儿去了
shuō dào / xiǎng dào nǎr qù le
说到/想到哪儿去了
Explanation
说到/想到哪儿去了 (shuō dào / xiǎng dào nǎr qù le) is a fixed colloquial pattern (口语格式 - a template used in speech), meaning 'where have you gone off to with that talk/thought!', used to gently reproach or refute the other person for misunderstanding, guessing wrong, or straying off topic.
(你/您) + 说到 / 想到 + 哪儿 (nǎr - where) + 去了 (qù le); it usually stands alone as an exclamation before the correct meaning is restated.
in intimate conversation; 说到哪儿去了 is used when the other person strays off the main point, while 想到哪儿去了 is used when wanting to refute the other person's inference or suspicion.
说到哪儿去了 leans toward 'straying off topic', whereas 想到哪儿去了 leans toward 'thinking wrong, reading too far into things'; the same template but used differently for 'talk' and 'thought'.
interpreting it literally as asking 'where did (something) go' (it is actually a reproaching/refuting idiomatic expression); and dropping the character 了 at the end, which loses the familiar exclamatory nuance.
Examples
Look at you, where are you going with that? I'm talking about the matter of buying a cake.
Where has your mind wandered off to! I will definitely not tell anyone else.
Practice
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Learn “说到/想到哪儿去了” effectively
The grammar point “说到/想到哪儿去了” (说到/想到哪儿去了) is one of the key structures at HSK 7. To use it fluently, you need to understand the contexts where it's used and practice regularly.
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