User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
June 27, 2007 at 3:16 AMoceanhai, Sorry, there's one other thing I forgot to comment on. You wrote that the three uses of 了 (le) are: 1. Completion (e.g. 他一經吃完了.) 2. Change in situation (e.g. 他長高了) 3. Imperative (e.g. 你去洗手了!) I agree with #1 and #2; these are the aspectual uses of 了 I refer to. Your #3 has me and all the Chinese teachers here baffled, though. The imperative is not one of 了's uses, and our teachers found your sample sentence a bit strange. The third use of 了 would be to alter the tone of the sentence.
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
June 27, 2007 at 3:08 AMoceanhai and franch, Oceanhai, 了 (le) is very versatile in Chinese. It can be a modal particle (carrying a certain tone or feeling) as well as an aspectual particle (carrying grammatical meaning). I don't think knowing this is essential to understanding 啦 (la) though. Thanks, franch, for the support.
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
June 26, 2007 at 5:33 AMOh, and as for a shorter version of 一路平安 (yī lù píng'ān), there isn't any that we know of. There are other ways to say it, but they're all 4 characters as well.
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
June 26, 2007 at 5:31 AMfranch, This (Chinese) map of China is quite clear and detailed.
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
June 26, 2007 at 4:16 AMtucsonmichael, Thanks for catching that. It's being fixed right now. 到 (dào) can mean "to," acting like a preposition, but it can also act like a verb meaning "to go to" or "to arrive in". So 到北京 (dào Běijīng) could mean "to Beijing" but it could also mean "to arrive in Beijing" or "to go to Beijing." It all depends on context. So when 到 (dào) means "to," you can also add a 去 after the destination, making 到北京去 (dào Běijīng qù), or "to go to Beijing."
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
June 26, 2007 at 4:05 AMandrea, 啦 (la) = 了 (le) + 啊 (a) Does that make it clear enough? Also, lesson request noted. In the meantime, you might try the Intermediate lesson, A Trip to the Dry Cleaner's.
Posted on: She's Easy
June 26, 2007 at 2:16 AMtriplelatte, Are you sure you're thinking of 随便 (suíbiàn) and not 随和 (suíhe)? 随和 (suíhe) means easy-going.
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
June 26, 2007 at 1:55 AMExtra Credit: What Elementary student can read the three Chinese cities on the calendar in the graphic? (Reading handwritten Chinese can be quite a challenge!)
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 16: It's Over
June 22, 2007 at 3:25 PMkitty, Amber and I also have a lot of say in how the plot turns out. So figure that one out... :P
Posted on: #5
June 27, 2007 at 6:51 AMFrank, Glad to hear it! If you know the movie, the sound effects provide really valuable clues, right?