User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Leaky Pipes and Faucets
February 10, 2010 at 6:36 AMHow about this:
5) If there's a little wastebasket filled with scraps of dirty toilet paper right next to the toilet, do not flush paper down the toilet.
Posted on: Leaky Pipes and Faucets
February 10, 2010 at 1:45 AMYes, a 保险丝 (bǎoxiǎnsī) is a fuse. [photos]
Posted on: Leaky Pipes and Faucets
February 9, 2010 at 5:52 AMThe verb that means "flush" is 冲 (chōng), or, more specifically, 冲水 (chōngshuǐ).
If you need to say specifically, "flush the toilet," you can use either 冲厕所 (chōng cèsuǒ) or 冲马桶 (chōng mǎtǒng).
Posted on: Hold the MSG
February 9, 2010 at 3:15 AMyingxiong,
I'm not sure what you mean... text or audio? I can't find either missing in the dialogue tab, the audio, or the PDF.
Posted on: Designing the New Apartment
February 8, 2010 at 9:29 AM反 (fǎn) tends to be a more abstract "turnover," such as 反过来 (fǎnguòlai), which would ordinarily be translated as something like "conversely," whereas physical "turning over" is often 翻 (fān), which Jiaojie's examples illustrate well.
Posted on: 《易经》的本意
February 8, 2010 at 2:30 AMchanli,
Yes, there are always alternative translations. Our audience is mainly American, though, and our translators are also American. So naturally we use American speech patterns in our translations.
I understand that the translations of those words may sound like "cheesy American English" to you, but they sound totally natural to me. Because the Chinese is informal, it's impossible to translate the "ah" and "ng" words without use of dialect, and American English is the dialect we use.
Posted on: Designing the New Apartment
February 5, 2010 at 3:19 AMMatthiask,
Are you referring to the second to last line in the dialogue and the use of "we"?
For subjectless sentences like this, both "I" and "we" often work, and the speakers themselves may not have a crystal-clear notion of exactly which subject ("I" or "we") they were referring to.
Posted on: Canceling Dinner Plans
February 5, 2010 at 2:42 AMIt depends on my mood... sometimes I evade the question, while other times I just make up a number.
Posted on: No Spring, No Wedding?
February 4, 2010 at 6:08 AMAre there significantly fewer weddings in April every year just because it's 4月?
Posted on: Return to the Hometown
February 11, 2010 at 3:00 AMWikipeda explains it pretty well.