Keth- Journal Feb 2011

今天晚上我太太做了鱼吃。很好吃。明天我要去伦敦开会。

Finally

我们在公园飞快的到处跑

“but only because it is english written with chinese characters.” Haha You’re probably correct but that’s the stage I am at!

下次一起去公园 Simpler really . I just wanted to say “Next we went (together)to the park.” But I didn’t want to use 然后。

You are right I did mean 春天花？but I just didn’t check carefully enough what I had written.

Funny thing is I wrote this first 宝地图but then I decided to check on nciku and that’s where I found 宝图

What I really want to know is how to say “ We ran quickly all over the place ( in the park).” This was the best I could do 我们跑得快都覆盖地方.

当天气的时候晴朗我 总是感觉很好

I'm pretty sure that you don't really use 当 like this. I read this as "when the weather is fine and sunny I always feel good" but only because it is english written with chinese characters.

my take would be --- 天气好，那我也感觉很好

下次一起去公园 - I assumed here you meant after you had picked him up. I thought it might be something like 接下来我们一起去公园玩儿

I think you meant 春天花？ Also 宝图 seems not right (anyone?) I think maybe 宝地图?

我的朋友告诉我 ,我因该写了 这首音乐由是卡拉第创作了。。This music was composed by Scarlatti.

奏鸣曲101 由是卡拉第作曲了。 Sonata 101 composed by Scarlatti.

也 说的 Saxophone 独奏 Saxophone solo

What is the difference between saying Saxophone的听的出来一只鸡。And Saxophone 听起来鸡的像音？

刚才听了Plans for Children的课。 那么我可以说 Saxophone 的听的出来一只鸡。 The Saxophones sounds like a chicken.

I think this is another of those reverse ones like the writing of the book

i.e. Mozart写的opera etc.....

I can't work out how to say " composed by " or "the composer is ... ".Also I got stuck on Mandarin for Alto Saxophone solo.

谢谢Connie

Question: 你有没有碰到堵车？

Answer: 碰到了。

因为最近下大雨，所以路上坑坑洼洼特别多。

我们这里的坑坑洼洼是由霜冻造成的。Here the holes are made by frost damage.

"碰的， 这做我的旅游很慢。Is this use of peng de correct way of say "yes" to your question?"

I don't know. It reminds me of 是的 so perhaps it's ok. Makes sense to me anyway. I guess another possibility would have been 碰到了

Also in that sentence I would have been more inclined to use 让 than 做, but it might be fine as is. Hopefully someone will clarify these points.

哈哈，卢克天行者的车是一个很好的主意

我讨厌坑洼！我觉得我们要luke skywalker的车。。。

被 sentences (and 把 sentences) need something else following the verb indicating the result of the action- often it's a 了, indicating completion。

So, here I think you'd say 这里的坑洼被霜冻做了。

在这里坑洼被霜冻做。 Here the holes are made by frost damage. Is that correct use of bei ?

碰的， 这做我的旅游很慢。Is this use of peng de correct way of say "yes" to your question?

你碰不碰到堵车？

最近在这里坑洼很多因为下雨很大

wretched potholes!

没有 我不会说的日本语。

你看电影用日本语吗

在南方天气没冷，但是下雨。不好天气咯

你对夏天准备了吗

我不喜欢听过你的小儿子没有工作。　英国的现代不太好。。。　

希望他找到新工作。

I bumped in to this one before and did roughly what you did (only without the 被）。

被 is for passive voice and has a similar construction to 把 sentences

So Active would be "A thief stole my wallet" whereas Passive would be “My wallet was stolen by a thief"

in chinese

active 小偷把我的钱包偷走了

passive 我的钱包被小偷偷走了

thus its "by" in the sense of "my wallet was stolen by a thief" rather than the book is by...

hope that makes sense.

watyamacallit thanks that' s very helpful. I understand I was using bei in totally the wrong way.

So I re wrote the sentence and came up with this

这本书叫Admonitions on Governing The People 是Chong Yagyong (1762-1836)写的

Now I can see Trevorb' s version is better than mine ( I feel it is more Chinese ) but I dont understand how Trevorb arrived at the sentence order.

一本Chong Yagyong写的书叫《Admonitions on Governing The People》

Here:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/passive-verbs-and-%E8%A2%AB

I need to see if there is a Qing Wen on the use of 被

Admonitions on Governing The People 写了被 Chong Yagyong (1762-1836)

Ah one I know you don't use 被 like this you need to do it the other way around.

一本Chong Yagyong写的书叫《Admonitions on Governing The People》

You are so active, you have to be retired ;-) 加油，你的日记比我的兴趣。

Yeah I find myself looking at something thinking do I really understand or have I effectively written in English using Chinese characters! It's only if someone chooses to butt in that I know one way or the other....

You are probable correct but I suppose the test is can native Mandarin speakers understand it or not. One of the main aims is to be able to communicate.

I think I understood this but I'm not sure if it is at all correct. It feels like it should be different but I don't think I can say where. My suspicion is that because we are both english and learning we may be understanding a level of chinglish.

I hope someone else can chip in and help us with this....

Yes you are correct. I wanted to say " Although the car looks good now we are worried if in the future it might develop an unexpected fault and break down". It is strange how much information is implied in English . I'll have another go at this sentence.

一两新车 ：-）you got me I was wondering why you needed two new cars! then I remembered 辆 is the measure word for vehicles.

什么时候回家了又兴奋又担心

I think 什么时候 is only for asking about time, you can't use it like we would in English to indicate a point in time. I think you use 当 instead but I also seem to remember being told this is bookish i.e. not used in speech. Can't remember what the colloquial equivalent is though...

虽然车看起来很好经常以后车坏了。

is this the new car you bought or the old one. I'm not too sure I'm understanding this . I think you may have meant "although the car looks good it regularly breaks down" if so I think there may be too much in the sentence.

Hi Keth,

It's a good question. According to nciku, accoustic is 非电传音的, which seems more like a description of the English meaning than a word. I don't think it would be commonly used in the way we say, for example, acoustic guitar in English. With piano, I think 钢琴 would be generally regarded as the acoustic instrument (as opposed to 电钢琴 or 电子钢琴 or 电子琴). For guitar I've come across 木吉他 (wooden guitar), when making this distinction. 原声吉他 (original sound guitar) is also used.

Thanks I was looking for the word for acoustic really. 我不拉吉他 但是我以前吹小号。

I think Guitar is 吉他 this is obviously a transliteration. Do you play the guitar too....

or were you looking more for acoustic, no clue what that would be :-)

I just thought that when people used 比 they were really using an abbreviation of 比较。I didn’t realise they could be used separately.

对，但是电子钢琴又便宜又难声音.

还是 说 电子钢琴又便宜又丑声音。

Anybody know how to say acoustic ..piano, guitar etc?

我觉得acoustic钢琴比较电子钢琴最好

No need for the 较 here 比较 as I understand it means comparatively or compare but is used on its own rather than in this format.

我得汽车比较大。 something like that?

啊哟，这么贵。 电子钢琴又小又便宜。

肯定春天快到了

你是一个很忙的人！ 做音乐，跳舞 真厉害。

Thanks tingyun, and don't be too rigid with the worrying about the analysis of the grammar, these seperable verbs are a bit of a bane for me so having one or two pointed out may help :-)

很有用 谢谢

Hi trevorb,

Yep, your instinct is correct on 裁员 - one way to explain why it wouldn't fit here, is that 裁 is indicating the action, the laying off, and 员 is indicating the object, the people being laid off, workers 职员 or 员工. So since in the above sentence you want 'her husband' to be the object, then its not good to use a Verb-object word like 裁员.

If you wanted verb meaning 'laid off' rather than 'fired', 解雇jie3gu4 is a good choice here (though I think its ambiguous as to whether it was performance based or just because the company needed to remove some people, whereas the english 'laid off' I feel leans more to the latter). There's also 辞退ci2tui4 and 解聘jie3pin4 which have roughly the same meaning of being dismissed from employment as 解雇, and are all verbs rather than verb-objects, but there might be some subtle change of tone that I'm not sensing. They are more formal than the word you chose 炒鱿鱼, but I think that is similar to the english, in that the more drastic meaning acquires the vivid colloquial term 'firing'.

Hmm, though now I'm thinking of how 1 post above I was advocating putting aside analysis of the grammar, and here I am talking about verb-objects. Sigh, 出尔反尔chu1er3fan3er3 (I'll let my actions be the definition) ;)

这个下午我见面了一个老朋友

I think it needs the了 in here

她告诉我 她的老公最近被裁员

Did something go missing in the passive part of the sentence? I know I sometimes type stuff then find the 汉字 never appear. I ask because I think the prepreposition needs a thing (not a grammar term!)

I, probably mistakenly, think about it in English as "x by y was v"

So in this case I would go for

她告诉我最近她的老公被公司裁员了

Just not sure about whether 裁员 can be used in this way so may be used in this way as I've never encountered it before. An alternative might be

她告诉我最近她的老公被公司炒鱿鱼了

Although that may be more fired than laid off. Either way I'm sorry for him, these times are not good.

欢迎Keth ：-）

好的我改变我的名字。

ta tingyun。

Thats really helpful. the idea behind these journals was to do just what you suggest keep using the language for day to day things, that often repeat so that eventually the sense of how to use the language might sink in.... It is really useful when that is enhanced by a help passing person.

I'm finding trying to mutually help user11695 (you really should change your name) is also helping me to have to really think about how to use the language and there are so many places I just can't find the right thing to write! I just jump in and hope someone like yourself will put me right....

在 and 着 are not necessarily mutually exclusive - 正在忙着， 正在苦恼着 , all no problem. And 着 can definitely go with driving, but in the form 开着车 (rather than putting it after 车). But you are right that putting them together here is not the best choice.

I think collecting a sense of when to use what through examples is probably more useful than trying to find any rule between the two of them (just like the examples you provided, all very good). Besides, each probably has like 4-5 slightly different grammatical uses - too much to keep straight. Sort of like how 了 finds its way after 杀 for emphasis even when one is talking in the future tense (我会杀了他！).

我在开车着很怕死了但是回家到安全

在 and 着 are I believe mutually exclusive. You use 在 to indicate you are doing something active and 着 to indicate that you are doing something quite passive.

在吃完饭

等着

站着

跟着 （though following seems quite active to me!)

Maybe something using 出事。

我去了修理厂，他们把我的汽车修了的时候我回家，等一会儿修完回来带车回家

still not right by a long way. Can't think of how to say I left my car there and went away until they finished when I returned......

I went to the garage 修理厂 and after a little time when they had finished I went back ( to collect my car).

我去了修理厂和一点时间什么时候他们成完回来了

I am not too sure what you were trying to say with this one. I think I get the sense of it ....

我的小儿子来到了那么大家去餐厅和吃饭了。

我的小儿子来到了，大家一起吃饭。

然后我们回家了和聊天。

not sure of the context of this but

然后我们回家了，最后聊天一会儿。

Sadly not a name I'm familiar with so I'm proving high school orchestra is not great for a grounding in piano eh! I envy your ability to play, I did try to learn once but alas never found the time to dedicate to it.....

史卡拉第 means Scarlatti

”史卡拉第“是什么意思 is it a composer? if so which one?

那么我是海盗；我们写了一张藏宝图然后看看金。

not sure about this sentence though I understand it I think it may be because its a direct english translation. All I can say for sure is it's probably best to use 找金子 on the end.

然后去Manchester 我们订票了听过 Uri Caine 的音乐会

this feels wrong because it seems to english

后来我们去Manchester来了用买了几个星期前近来Uri Caine Concert听音乐。

thats my bash at it which, doesn't sound much better methinks so hopefully someone with more experience can comment....

:-) yeah could be, seem to remember something about 红 being used in that sort of context but....... well you know!

So I was trying to say ,now (that I have refreshed learning the steps ),I am once again a "hot " salsa dancer! You cant be " hot" if you cant remember the steps! I thought if I used 热 it would give the impression I was now hot and sweaty! Haha.

Hi trevorb abd user 116595,

I'm not very skilled in either Chinese or dance, but I think 步 is probably OK here.

舞步 = a dance step; a dance move

昨天晚上我们去了莎莎舞课。

莎莎舞是我的最喜欢的舞蹈，但是我有时候忘了一些步。

I'm not sure if 步 is used like this or not hopefully someone more skilled than me will comment.

那么我跟老师复习了。

现在我再辣的.

not sure what you were after here? I read "currently I am spicy again" .

BTW I often get pulled up on the use of 再 though. I think it should be used for future instances of a repeating thing otherwise I tend to be told to use 又。

I had a thought about the waiting for your wife. It should probably be a 等着 phrase.

So I can drop the 的 in there, wasn't at all sure but it seemed to be reflecting of the north or of the south so I plumped for it in the end.

Thanks for the hint on 离 I'm probably corrupted by practicing the

一个离Place Distance的地方 pattern! I will practice this A 离 B 远/近 now too....

Hi trevorb,

I've never heard 北方的人. Chinese people usually just say 北方人 and 南方人. It's a commonly heard expression - It seems the north-south divide is even more pronounced here in China than in the UK:) - I guess because there's a whopping great river dividing the two. 我也是英国北方人.

Also, your 离 sentences don't sound natural to me.

As a rule, you can use: A 离 B 远/近

So, for example your question would be: 你的家离 Manchester远不远?

我住在近Manchester. - Maybe 我住在Manchester附近 is better.

你是北方的人， 我是南方的人。离这里到那里远，但是我们都是英国人。

是的。 我住在近Manchester.

Hi Trevorb. I also did think I might need a MW for massage shop. Also where to put the "practice " in the last sentence is a puzzle for me ,but I can see your suggestion reads better than mine.Thanks.

你也是英国人吧，离你的家到Manchester远不远。

Again at risk of the blind leading the blind...

我有等到太太完成购物那么我找到地方哪儿我可以有中文按摩

我太太购物的时候我就等了等，然后我们找到一个中国的按摩店。

then possibly

我能又练说的汉语又收到按摩很好。

我觉得我又中文说得练习又按摩 or something like that.....

Sonata - 奏鸣曲 (zou4ming2chu3)

Scarlatti - 史卡拉第 (Shi3ka3la1di4)