User Comments - Mingmao

Posted on: Making Dumplings

Thank you!

Posted on: Making Dumplings

I have a question about a supplementary sentence for this lesson:

你看，我捏死了一只虫子。

In the sentence does the speaker have to have squished the bug between thumb and forefinger? Could it have been squashed in some other way? Such as smashed agains another surface with the whole hand, or caught in the air between one's palms?

Thanks.

Posted on: Cold Noodles

I have a question about 捞.

Does it only apply to fishing something out of water vertically? What if someone is drowning and a lifeguard dives in to rescue the person and drags them to shore. Is that 捞?

What about picking out all the cilantro from a bowl of soup because you don't like it? Is that 捞?

What about picking all the raisins out of your porridge because you don't like them? Is that 捞?

Posted on: Antiperspirant in China

Thank you!

Posted on: Fruit Basket of Cause-Effect

I have a question about a sentence from this podcast:

"昨天我逛了一天,结果什么都没买。"

I have often heard "逛街" translated as window shopping, and presented as something to do recreationally. I want to know, does this sentence mean that a person went out shopping just for fun, to see what was around, but didn't see anything that caught their attention? Could it also mean that a person needed something specific, and went looking for it all day, but couldn't find it?

Thanks.

Posted on: Antiperspirant in China

The first line of the dialogue:

"你在喷香水啊？"

Is translated as:

"Are you wearing cologne?"

I had thought that "喷" meant "to spray." This line also occurs during the sound effect of spraying the deodorant. So I would have expected the English to be more like, "Are you putting on cologne" or "Are you spritzing yourself with cologne." I would have expected "wearing cologne" to have a "着" in it somewhere, as it is a continuous state. 

So my question is, does this "喷" actually represent a continuous state? Could it mean the person had taken the action of applying the cologne many hours ago? Or does the sentence in fact indicate an action in progress?

Thank you.

Posted on: Lucky Day

In the dialogue there is a line:

"晚上,我新认识的女孩告诉我,她喜欢我,而且 刚和她的前男友分手。"

Forgive me if I am forgetting some elementary rule, here. But could you explain why there is no "了" at the end of this sentence? I'm not sure why, but I feel like there could/should be.

Thanks.

Posted on: Lucky Day

In the second line of the dialogue:

"昨晚的打鼓练习很顺利,睡得也很好"

The use of "也" here was not discussed. Is there another lesson where using "也" in this type of construction is discussed?

Thanks.

Posted on: Unlucky Day

The dialogue line:

"因为没睡好,所以早上心情很不好,而且路上掉 了两百块钱。"

is translated as:

"Because I didn’t sleep well, I was in a bad mood the next morning and lost 200 kuai on the road."

The English sentence implies that the reason the narrator lost the 200 kuai is because he was in a bad mood (which, perhaps, made him careless).

If I understand "而且," however, I think it means something more like, "and also," or "furthermore." So the Chinese sentence, I think, would not imply a causal connection between the bad mood and the losing of the money. Rather, they are two unconnected unlucky things.

Could you please clear this up for me? What is the precise meaning of the Chinese sentence?

Thanks.

Posted on: The Complement 不下

Thank you Calkins, that is very thorough. Especially with the different-coloured text. I had thought that the middle 了 would indicate a continuing action, but then thought that would be impossible since the ending states that continuing to eat is impossible. But maybe Chinese is able to separate the time of the first part of the sentence from the time of the end of the sentence.