User Comments - John

Posted on: Which Subway Exit

Hi, not sure I understand your question... "The action of going out" like 出去 (chūqù)? You're wondering how to use it to refer to the past, present, and future?

Posted on: Going to the Toy Store

You'll hear this kind of thing.

When we make use of stereotypes, we do it consciously because it's useful (i.e. it reflects that types of things you will hear real people say).

Posted on: Going to the Toy Store

That's right. The old-fashioned kind.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

I don't have time to get into this in-depth now, but I can tell you from experience that this grammatical classification is a useful one. Focusing on it will make your Chinese much more natural.

There are verbs that can take multiple objects: 我要告诉他这件事.

The verbs in the separable verb category cannot take multiple objects, and frequently translate (often into intransitive verbs in English) in such a way as to be easily confused with regular two-character verbs. Separable also have a strong tendency to take their objects rather than operate alone (hence the not-entirely-accurate "obligatory object" moniker).

You can learn Chinese (or any language) without studying any grammar at all. But it's useful for most of us.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

"Obligatory object" is not my term; it's one of the ones floating out there in the world of Mandarin pedagogy.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Glad you guys liked it! This one has been in the works for a long time, but it required a lot more planning than most Qing Wens...

Posted on: Automated Phone Recordings

Two answers:

1. 无 (wú) is a more formal way of saying 没有 (méiyǒu) or 没 (méi). You'll see it a lot in classical Chinese. So in both examples, the usage with 无 (wú) is a bit more formal.

2. 音 (yīn) and 声 (shēng) both mean "sound," but they are not exactly "used by themselves." They are actually tacked onto another noun to mean "the sound of... [something]." So we have 拨电话声 (bō diànhuà shēng), meaning "the sound of dialing a telephone" and "提示音" (tíshì yīn), meaning "prompting tone." These cases illustrate a trend: 声 (shēng) more often refers to a general (possibly complex) sound, whereas 音 (yīn) is more likely to refer to a specific tone or defined sound.

声音 (shēngyīn) means "sound" in general, and can be used totally by itself.

响 (xiǎng) can be a verb when used by itself, meaning "to make a sound," but it can also be used similarly to 音 (yīn) and 声 (shēng), when tacked onto other words.

As for which "sound" character gets tacked onto which word, a lot of it is just convention, and you just have to pick up the collocations over time.

Posted on: Transportation

mo_han,

No, you cannot put 怎么 at the end of a sentence. For most questions, it needs to come before a verb.

Examples:

怎么说 (zěnme shuō)

怎么走 (zěnme zǒu)

怎么办 (zěnme bàn)

怎么知道 (zěnme zhīdao)

怎么认识 (zěnme rènshi)

etc.

Posted on: City Series: Bali

落地 (luòdì) is an intransitive verb meaning "to land." So 落地签正 is just the Chinese way of saying what we call "visa on arrival."

落地 (luòdì) is used for aircraft, not usually for birds or other flying things.

Posted on: Smelly Cheese

Christof!

Wow, it's no good to see you! Did your acute French sense of smell pick up the scent of smelly cheese in our podcast? :)