北京的咖啡

typo, sorry 'bout that. It's the latter.

@ lantian

Are you sure it's 真么卖, or did you mean 怎么卖?

Hi ningmeng,

Experimentation is the easiest way to learn!

FYI: Be aware also of the fourth tone mai4, which means to sell, and the phrase, 真么卖, which means, how is this sold? This is REALLY common.

http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese/how-is-this-sold

Using the Cpod dictionary, http://labs.chinesepod.com/dictionary, here's some samples of 怎么 and how it is used with other words.

http://labs.chinesepod.com/?q=node%2F4&search=%E6%80%8E%E4%B9%88

Why not try out "怎么买“ vs "怎么卖" out in the rough and tumble world and report back to us!

Here our little warm and fuzzy cult (like) community is just too nice! :)

haha, no worries. I had a mildly sarcastic laugh at myself when I wrote it because I knew that 怎么走 wouldn't float. I was not aware that 怎么买 was something I could really use.

For clarification, Is 怎么买 a phrase that is ever used by Chinese people?

"It's incorrect however because of the subsitution of "怎么走” instead of "怎么买“... and this is what makes it sound funny. " That's what I mean. You are very analytical, lantian.

Hi Azer,

I don't see anything wrong with the sentence structure, actually I think it is very natural sounding. IMO

It's incorrect however because of the subsitution of "怎么走” instead of "怎么买“... and this is what makes it sound funny. Or am I not understanding something?

What I see in her sentence is actually very promising for her Chinese, it is an inversion of subject and question marking that is opposite from English, and reflects that she has a nice Chinese interlanguage building.

For example, if her mind had been ‘translating' from English or English was having a more pronounced effect on her Chinese, she would have more likely written something like:

Where can I buy a coffee pot?

在哪里可以买一个咖啡碰？

怎么买一个咖啡碰。

While both of the above sentences are grammatically and structurally correct, they are not really in the order of typical colloquial Chinese.

Instead, what her mind was doing was pulling bits and pieces of language that she knows and placing it in a Chinese-like order, which is great! Of course, a learner's lexicon often falls short and sometimes not the most accurate of phrases are plugged in to get one by.

Yah?

ningming

I hope you know that I am not picking on you : ) I hope, rather, that this is helpful, not just for you, but for others who read this thread.

"买一个咖啡壶怎么走？"

Just to clarify for education purposes, what I mean is that this sentence structure is very unnatural sounding. "买一个咖啡壶" is fine; "怎么走？" is fine, but not fine together. Lantian suggested a couple of phrases to replace "怎么走？" that are accurate in this context. Man2toe's explanation of the meaning and usage of 怎么走？is correct. Hope this helps : )

Hi Azer and M2T...and Ningmen,

I think using "zenme zou 怎么走“ is slightly off, but it's not ungrammatical. Ningmen probably picked it up as it's such a common phrase when asking, how shall we go.

A more specific and accurate way to say it would be "怎么买”或者“去哪里买”。

Carrefour is a european supermarket, too bad there's no Target in China yet. Why not try Ikea. Ikea 怎么样，在北京应该有。

"I would not use it in asking how to go about buying a coffee pot in Beijing." What I mean by this is that 怎麼走 is commonly used in asking directions on how to get somewhere, not use for the process of buying directly. So, how to get somewhere in Beijing to buy a coffee pot.......

Hope that helps. A humble bow out and my apologies if it doesn't.

To my understanding, one could use 怎麼走 as to inquire on how to get somewhere.

I would not use it in asking how to go about buying a coffee pot in Beijing.

Unfortunately, tiring to use the Cpod grammar guide on this issue presents itself as; frustrating:(

Hi, Man2Toe

Really? It sounds so odd, so ungrammatical to me. It must be an idiomatic phrase I'm unfamiliar with.

Doc,

It can also indicate how do you get there, or in this sentence, its more like how do you go about buying a coffee pot.

"怎么走？ " This means "how to walk" "zen3 me zou3" Is this what you mean to say?

It was just a guess. I live in Harbin, so I'm not sure if the Beijing Carrefour would have coffee pots. I just know that ours up here does. =)

What Carrefour?

Walmart or Carrefour?

oh yea, 我需要一个便宜的咖啡壶。