User Comments - SF_Rachel
SF_Rachel
Posted on: The Typhoon
September 8, 2012 at 1:06 AM我只是一只鸡，就还行了。任何鸡需要的是唯一好奇心和维基百科
Posted on: The Typhoon
September 7, 2012 at 11:52 PMDilu, thanks for the interesting story of the origin of the word 台风！I looked into this a little and there's also a theory that the word entered Cantonese via Hindi-Urdu, which in turn borrowed the word from Persian or Arabic طوفان (Tufân), and may actually have originated in ancient Greece. In Greek mythology Τυφῶν (pronounced roughly Tu fon) was "the father of monsters" and was occassionally associated with deadly storms due to one myth where he stole the thunder god's lightning and wrecked the earth with storms.
That this whole chain of etymology may have originated in Greece before getting to Cantonese is just a theory and is inconclusive, but it's terribly interesting. I like the idea of an idea crossing back and forth (and back and forth again!) between East and West since ancient times.
Posted on: A Detained Package
September 4, 2012 at 11:42 PM这场笑话可能有点太模糊。我以前不明白因为没有人叫我“SF”。我以为也许这是在深夜而 baba 可能非常累或者有太多喝，就输入错字了。
哼！反正大家都知道我不是一件家具。 这里没有家具，这里没有人，
Posted on: An Athlete's Strengths and Weaknesses
August 31, 2012 at 2:11 AMI have a couple of grammar books, one of which I'm confident is decently comprehensive, but they were of no help to me in this case. The wiki was much more helpful. You strike me as very fluent, and anyway at least a much more advanced student than I am, so I'm curious that you've gotten by without a grammar reference and yet intend to get one at some point in the future.
My dad was a reference librarian and I grew up loving reference books (as soon as I could read he always gifted me with an age-appropriate reference book on my birthday and on Christmas). This probably explains why, under stress, I tend to hit the books the way the Corleones went to the mattresses. I still love them, but nowadays I feel guilty -- like I'm buying shoes -- when I shop for them. Sensible (and slightly skeptical) use of Internet tools beats reference books these days, hands down.
Posted on: An Athlete's Strengths and Weaknesses
August 30, 2012 at 9:24 PMThank you toianw! This also inspired me to finally check into John's (AllSet Learning's) grammar wiki , which is awesomely helpful.
Verb complements (generally)
Location complements (including specifically 在）
This might have been a weird example, but it was very helpful in helping better drill some fundamentals about complements and even basic word order into my head.
Posted on: An Athlete's Strengths and Weaknesses
August 30, 2012 at 5:54 AMThank you very much for this explanation! It makes perfect sense.
I don't think I've ever encountered 在 as a verb complement before. Does anybody have any clever search tips so I can find and study more examples of 在specifically as a complement?
Posted on: An Athlete's Strengths and Weaknesses
August 30, 2012 at 12:13 AMI have a question about the usage of 了in one of the expansion sentences, though I'm already afraid the answer will go over my head.
我们都以为小狗走丢了，可是过了几天，它却奇迹般地出现在了家门口。
The placement of the 了 immediately after the 在 is kind of blowing my mind. Does it have to go there or could it also go somewhere like right after 出现? Is the reason something to do with the 却earlier in the phrase? What if that phrase were a complete sentence -- would the 了go in the same place, like this:
小狗奇迹般地出现在了家门口。
Posted on: Dreaming of You
August 29, 2012 at 6:18 AM非常有趣的。 谢谢你的答复。
Posted on: Dreaming of You
August 29, 2012 at 4:29 AM在英文 "bad dream" and "nightmare" 意思差不多一样。但是，在中文噩梦和坏梦，我猜测意思有点不同吗？噩梦就是很恐怖的，不过坏梦可能只是不吉利的？
Posted on: Whether or Not to Use "If"
September 8, 2012 at 1:22 AM“我不确定你开不开玩笑”。可不可以说？