User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Checking out at a Hotel
March 29, 2011 at 1:27 AMI'd guess the price of the beer was roughly doubled. Not significant?
Posted on: Checking out at a Hotel
March 28, 2011 at 6:15 AMDon't worry! As pretzellogic says, the staff will likely be sleeping right by the desk, ready to (groggily) assist you in 退房ing, even at 4:30am.
Posted on: Cold Cucumbers in Sauce
March 25, 2011 at 6:27 AM冷死了。
Posted on: Rice First
March 24, 2011 at 2:55 AMYes, you're right. What they'll usually say is:
你还需要其他的吗？ (Nǐ hái xūyào qítā de ma?)
In this context, 来 (lái) is more common, but you might hear 拿 (ná), especially for requests like "can you bring us some more napkins?"
Posted on: Car Crash
March 24, 2011 at 2:52 AMNo, 撞倒 and 撞到 are a little different. Both 倒 and 到 are resultative complements. In this case, 撞倒 means "hit and knock down" whereas 撞到 means "hit (and fully make contact)."
Posted on: Rice First
March 24, 2011 at 2:48 AMYou're right that 差不多 can mean "approximately" (like 左右), but because of the "差" it more frequently is "less than" rather than "more than." Hence "almost" works pretty well.
Posted on: Mexico City
March 24, 2011 at 2:45 AM鸟语 isn't complimentary, so it's usually used as a joke. It's not dirty, though.
I think someone overreacted a bit.
Posted on: Hide and Seek
March 22, 2011 at 9:27 AMNo problem!
Posted on: A Late Knock
March 22, 2011 at 2:31 AMcjmdjy's answer above is good.
会 (huì)⋯⋯的 (de) is usually used to express certainty in future events.
要 (yào)⋯⋯了 (le) is used to express that something is going to happen soon.
Posted on: Help at the ATM
March 29, 2011 at 1:48 AMChris,
You don't usually have to use 着 (or 呢) after the verb when you use 在 before it, but sometimes both occur in the same sentence, as in the expansion sentence you refer to:
你继续说，我在听着呢！
This doesn't really relate to the specific action being performed, or the amount of effort going into the action; it's just the full version of a grammar pattern, which makes even more explicit that that action is in progress.
We talk about this in more detail in this Qing Wen:
Qing Wen - The 着 (zhe) Chronicles: Actions in Progress
Your other sentence would be most natural this way:
我在看着呢。
(But it works fine, regardless of what content you're reading.)