User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Valentine's Day
February 15, 2008 at 9:38 AMClay, Ha! Definitely not a first! (Clay is still the new guy...) I wear pants AND underpants! (but not underoos... anymore)
Posted on: Even you can use the (连...都...) pattern
February 15, 2008 at 9:31 AMOK, sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long! I like Xiaohu's #1 answer. (Although if I can be a bit picky, 连 (lián) is the preposition, while 都 (dōu) is an adverb.) I think Xiaohu's #2 answer is on the right track, but I would change it to say that 连……都 (lián... dōu) usually sandwiches a noun or noun phrase, whereas甚至 (shènzhì) tends to precede a whole clause. (Check the sample sentences again.) I don't really agree with Xiaohu's #3 answer. My #3 would be that 甚至 (shènzhì) is more formal than 连……都 (lián... dōu). The latter is much more common in spoken Mandarin than the former. These 3 differences correspond to (1) grammatical classification, (2) structural function, and (3) pragmatics (social context). I hope that answer satisfies you, Henning! :)
Posted on: Study Abroad
February 13, 2008 at 3:44 PMI concur with both channa's and auntie68's explanations. It's probably simpler to use channa's general rule of thumb, though. :) [1-char adj] + [1-char noun] ("de" not needed) [1-char adj] + de + [2-char noun] ("de" sometimes not needed) [2-char adj] + de + [2-char noun] ("de" needed) I prefer to think of it this way, though... Really high frequency adjectives and high frequency nouns tend to be one-syllable, although there are a few exceptions like 朋友 (péngyou). So when you join the highest frequency words, "de" gets in the way; it's almost like a set phrase. That's why you say 新车 (xīn chē) but also 好朋友 (hǎo péngyou). Really, though, this topic is the stuff that PhD linguistics theses are made of... Try not to obsess over it. :) Just pay attention to patterns and it will come naturally with time. I also concur that grits are delicious.
Posted on: Chinese New Year Plans
February 10, 2008 at 4:14 AMauntie68, Thanks for sharing! I am vaguely reminded of a Halloween experience when I was 8 or 9. After a long night of trick-or-treating, I went to sleep, dreaming of all the candy I had earned. I woke up the next day to learn that my mom had thrown it all out, "to protect my teeth." I felt so betrayed.
Posted on: Chinese New Year Plans
February 10, 2008 at 4:11 AMbillzorn, That's a good idea. We'll put something together!
Posted on: Finding a Seat
February 9, 2008 at 6:47 AMcalkins, Right you are (on there/where). We will fix that ASAP. The differences between the words you mentioned are related to dialect and preference. In northern China, you hear mainly 哪儿 (nǎr) and 那儿 (nàr), whereas in southern China (including Taiwan), you hear mainly 哪里 (nǎli) and 那里 (nàli). You definitely need to know both, though, because you will hear both. Whichever you want to use is up to you! (I actually use both.)
Posted on: Chinese New Year Plans
February 8, 2008 at 5:29 PMI'm having a nice CNY vacation... just got a new puppy! 新年快乐, everyone!
Posted on: Whatever...
February 5, 2008 at 5:58 PMbirfday, You're right. Jenny meant to say "fourth and third tone." We'll have to fix that after Chinese New Year.
Posted on: Even you can use the (连...都...) pattern
February 5, 2008 at 4:11 AMxiaohu, Since you love reading Chinese so much, I'm going to give you the two words' dictionary entries from the 现代汉语词典 (Dictionary of Modern Chinese). Then you can tell me what you think the answer is to your own question. (This is cognitive learning!) 连 （介词）：表示强调某一词或某一词组（下文多有“也、都”等跟它呼应），含有“甚而至于”的意思： ～爷爷都笑了 | 她臊得～脖子都红了 | 你怎么～他也不认识？ | ～下棋也不会 | ～一天都没休息。 甚至 （连词）：强调突出的事例（有更进一层的意思）：参加晚会的人很多，～不少老年人也来了。 I can think of at least three differences between the two, but let's see what you can come up with. To everyone else: don't worry if you can't read the above; it's certainly not essential to understanding the content of this podcast, nor is its mastery terribly relevant to becoming conversational in Chinese!
Posted on: Valentine's Day
February 15, 2008 at 9:40 AMmyworld, If it's a wedding anniversary, you can say 结婚周年快乐 (jiéhūn zhōunián kuàilè).