Guess what! I am learning Chinese!!

Wow, that was a lot of info! That could have been a whole CPod lesson!

Bazza, u are right :)

Thanks a lot everyone. That was very helpful!

谢谢你大家！

你去香港去了多久？

How long have you been in Hong Kong?

你去香港去了多久了？

How long were you in Hong Kong for?

when u asked someone the first question, generally speaking, it hinted that he or she has already came back from Hong Kong.

when u asked someone the second question, that is to say, he or she still stay at Hong Kong. :)

It seems you have to re-register under myspace.cn to be able to have characters on your profile. Badly coded I think.

aaroninwisconsin, it's www.myspace.cn/bazzabairui

.com if you prefer the English site. :)

Ah so 零 doesn't really represent 0 in this context then? Like 01, 08 etc ? Is it more of a separator?

Bazza,in my opinion, u'd better say 一年零十一个月:)

Bazza: "I might add that to my new bilingual myspace page. :)"

Oh my god, there are 582 "Bazzas" on myspace! Can you tell me your URL, or just add me if you want myspace.com/beirenbo. Thanks!

Lantian,

been there, done that: ;)

Correct is: 一个多月

The 多 wants to follow the qualifier.

My guesses:

你去香港去多久？

When you go to Hong Kong how long will you stay?

你去香港去了多久？

When you went to Hong Kong how long did you stay?

你去香港去了多久了？

How long were you in Hong Kong?

Hi italia,

I think the easiest (and very correct) response to a question of "How long have you been studying Chinese?" is to just reply,

"一个月" a month

"一个月多" more than a month

I may be wrong but I think it's the following:

你去香港去多久？

How long are you going to Hong Kong for?

你去香港去了多久？

How long have you been in Hong Kong?

你去香港去了多久了？

How long were you in Hong Kong for?

Oops. Thanks. You are right about the ge. Never knew about the ling. Interesting.

Maybe you can help clarify this for me. My first Chinese book contained no English and I forget what the teacher told us. Can you translate these sentences.

你去香港去多久？

你去香港去了多久？

你去香港去了多久了？

Double qu's and double le's 我有怕！

零 would only be used if the month is 九 or less though right? If was 十一个月 it would be 一年十一个月？

BTW italiana, it's worth noting that 一月 without the 个 is actually 'January'. :)

thx，u know chinese never say sentence like"一年三个月／一年四个月．．．＂．They would like to say"一年零三个月／一年零四个月．．．"．That is to say, "ling" is necessary.　This is standard chinese:)

Hi italiana,

just go with

谢谢大家。

(thank you all)

谢谢你，人们！

When I said 人们，I was trying to say "people"

人们 as in "ren men". I'm not sure if thats correct though....some [more] help please?

italiana, I think ivyzhang's one is probably the best to go with, so for you it would be:

我学中文已经一个月了

wǒ xué zhōngwén yǐjīng yīgè yuè le

已经 = already, and 月 does require the measure word 个

"yi yue" 一月 meaning "one month"? 月 = yue = month, correct?

So "Wo xue le Zhongwen yi yue le"， （ “我学了中文一月了。” ） would be okay here?

当然 :)

sooo... you prefer to speak the fluent one (Iguess that´s what we all want: being fluent) :-)

I'll go with "我学中文已经一年零八个月了" I think then. :)

so both is correct?

:) johnb, 有了＂零＂，句子就通顺流畅了很多（the sentence become more fluent after added that word"ling".) But i agree with what u said.

Maybe it should be, "Wo3 xue2 le Zhong1wen2 yi1 yue4 le." Did someone say that already?

@Bazza, this is a cheat, but I would probably just say 快两年了 or 二十个月了. I've never felt comfortable with the year + month combos. @ivyzhang, 你真的需要那个”零“吗？

How about 我汉语已经学了一个月了？That double 了 seems to indicate past action that is continuing into the future (I don't really know the rule, but I've got a sort of feel for how it's used).

我学中文已经一年零八个月了．:)

How would you fit 一年八个月 into that?

Sorry, I was all wrong again! Argh!

Here comes a native speaker's correction:

我学中文已经一个多月了。 ...or...

我已经学了一个多月的中文了。

Please appreciate the bizarre word order.

Speaking of learning progress...

Hello italiana

Oxford uni, has some great examples of 了 to imply a completed action

http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Lang%20work/Aspect%20notes.htm

I might add that to my new bilingual myspace page. :)

我已经学中文一年八个月多了。

Hi italiana,

it is always the easiest stuff I struggle most with... ;)

But I would say

我已经学中文一个月多了。

wǒ yǐjīng xué zhōngwén yīgè yuè duō le.

I already studied Chinese a month more than (+ 了 as an indication of continuation) = I have already studied Chinese for more than a month.

Note that 月 needs a 个-classifier:

一个月

While in a year you would say

一年

because 年 is a classifier on its own.

If you said

我已经学了中文一个月多。

and put the 了 after the 学 that would make it past (I studied Chinese for a month).

Hope that was all correct.

Welcome to chinese-grammar wonderland. (:

1 month= yi ge yue=一个月　　：）

*"1 month"