User Comments - Constance Fang

Posted on: How to Say 'Probably' in Chinese

都行！

不過，第一個句子，可以只說「幫我」，不用說「幫幫我」。:D

Posted on: How to Say 'Probably' in Chinese

The first two sentences are great.

The last one should get rid of the first "我" because the sentence here is "我的朋友不能帮我“ and you add the adverb "大概" to show that the friend 'most likely' won't help you.

In this case, the main verb is "帮" and the person who will do this is “我的朋友".  The correct sentence would be "我的朋友大概不能帮我".

We don't need to mention "我" here because the person who made this assumption is the speaker, which is "我".  If you want to quote someone's words, here are some examples.

哥哥说他大概不跟我们去了。

gēge shuō tā dàgài bùgēn wǒmen qù le.

老师觉得这次考试大概没有人能通过。

lǎoshī juéde zhècì kǎoshì dàgài méiyǒu rén néng tōngguò.

她男朋友告诉他，他们大概明年就可以结婚了。

tā nánpéngyǒu gàosù tā, tāmen dàgài míngnián jiù kěyǐ jiéhūn le.

I hope it helps you. :)

Posted on: Correct Erhu Posture

Perfect pitch is the best translation; "the ability to recognize the pitch of a note or produce any given note; a sense of absolute pitch."

Posted on: Correct Erhu Posture

During my Erhu lessons, the "tip of the bow" is called the 弓尾（bow tail) and the one closest to your hand is called the 弓头 （bow head).

Posted on: How to Really Exaggerate Your Chinese

Yes, it working with two character verbs/adjectives too.  For example,

"买了两个特价名牌包，真是开心到一个不行！“

mǎile liǎngge tèjià míngpáibāo, zhēnshì kāixīn dào yīge bùxíng!

“这玩意儿啊，危险得要命，你别碰。"

zhè wányìr a, wēixiǎn de yàomìng, nǐ bié pèng.

Posted on: 民族之光

其实这样用是比较“轻松”的感觉，有时候在句子里面加上这个好像没有真正用途的“今天”，是说话的人要让听的人更注意他要强调的事，在课文里，这个老师要强调“你师母特别开心”这件事。

In the following example sentences, "今天" is not necessarilly mean "today".

“你看不起我，我今天就要让你看看我的厉害！” --> speaker places strss on "让你看看我的厉害“

nǐ kànbùqǐ wǒ, wǒ jīntiān jiùyào ràng nǐ kànkan wǒde lìhài.

“今天你不把事情办好，你就完蛋了！” --> speaker places strss on “你不把事情办好”

jīntiān nǐ bù bǎ shìqìng bàn hǎo, nǐ jiù wándàn le!

“你今天不给我一个满意的答案，我就不走。”  --> speaker places strss on “不给我一个满意的答复”

nǐ jīntiān bù gěi wǒ yīge mǎnyìde dáàn, wǒ jiù bù zǒu.

Hope this is helpful.  :)

Posted on: World Gourmand: A Foodie's Paradise

Yes, second tone is the original tone of 来.  There's nothing wrong if you pronounced it in the second tone.

However, the last character of a word or a phrase often pronounced as a neutural tone in spoken language.  It sound's more natural.

Posted on: Play this Game to Learn Chinese Word Order

Hi YongHeDouJiangDaWang,

Yes, there are some verbs tend to be in front of "在" phrase.  Those verb usually indicate a stable or long-term action.  住 and 坐 are typical ones.  Here are some other examples:

站：哥哥站在门外。

zhàn: gēge zhàn zài ménwài.

停：不要把车子停在路边。

tíng: bùyào bǎ chēzi tíng zài lùbiān.

睡：猫咪睡在沙发上。

shuì: māomī shuì zài shāfāshàng.

走：路上车子很多，走在路上要小心。

zǒu: lùshàng chēzi hěnduō, zǒu zài lùshàng yào xiǎoxīn.

However, the "V.+在phrase" is different type of sentence.  What in the video is the basic / typical sentence order of simple sentence.

Hope you find the above information helpful. :)

Posted on: What Did We Eat Again?

Yes, you can say "wo gang xiang qilai" to express "I recall it just now".

However, only "cai" can express the meaning of "I can't recall it until now".  This is why the person say "wo cai xiang qilai" in the last sentence of the dialogue.

Posted on: How Far?

Using 恐怕 is grammatically correct but the meaning is slightly different.

“晚了怕没位子” shows your concern and worry.

“晚了恐怕没位子” shows that the undesirable result "没位子” is most likely to happen if they leave for the restaurant late. 

We actually have a Qing Wen coming out in a few weeks all about 恐怕 可能 大概. I think you might find it interesting.