User Comments - John

John

Posted on: Love Tangle 6: The Pregnant Wife

March 31, 2010 at 2:28 AM

I've heard from a friend that 蜗居 (Wōjū) is entertaining. I'm pretty sure this basic plotline wasn't invented for that show, though... :)

Posted on: Beards Are for Old Men

March 31, 2010 at 2:21 AM

Skritter maintains its own data for traditional characters, and updates it periodically. Since Skritter is a third party add-on, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for Skritter to update it, or contact them about it.

Posted on: Have you bought your Shanghai Expo ticket?

March 31, 2010 at 2:12 AM

ceichacker,

你吃饭了吗？ (Nǐ chīfàn le ma?) is much more often used as a greeting between friends and acquaintances rather than as a tactic to get you into a restaurant.

If you go into a cafe or bar that serves food, and it's not quite clear if you're there to eat or not, the host is likely to just ask you, 吃饭吗？ (chīfàn ma?).

Anyway, the simplest way to answer the 你吃饭了吗？ (Nǐ chīfàn le ma?) question is just:

吃了 (chī le) - answering in the affirmative

没吃 (méi chī) - answering in the negative

(Notice that I dropped the 饭 (fàn). This is frequently done for convenience.)

You don't use 了 (le) when talking about what you haven't done.

I hope that clears things up!