Tip or Not?

tamutom
 September 13, 2010, 06:44 PM posted in General Discussion

Helen,

Is 给小费 a lí hé cí离和辤 (are these the right characters?) or just a verb and a two character noun? I ask because of the way they get separated in 要给多少小费？

-Tom

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helencao_counselor
 September 13, 2010, 11:33 PM

Ah, it's 离合词 li2he2ci2.

给小费 is actually a phrase, not a 离合词。It is a 动宾短语 (dong4bin1 duan3yu3 = "verb +object" phrase)

For example,

买衣服 ： 我昨天买了两件衣服。

吃苹果 ：我想再吃一个苹果。

Hope that helps.