User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: What Type of Man do You Like?

@shenyajin

啊，明白了。 我记得那个句子‘山上种着树‘。 多谢。

可以说：

树上种着花？植物上种着花？(there are flowers on the trees/ growing on the plant)

土地上种草？(there is grass on the ground) 

菜园里种着菜？(there are veteables in the garden)  

Posted on: What Type of Man do You Like?

@shenyajin

种" means to "sow", 播种，bōzhòng

Thanks for that; I can see how it can't be used in reference to 'rate of growth'. But are you saying that 种 can only be used collocated with 播?  I can remember using it on its own，in reference to trees, and not being corrected before.  Do you mean that it can only be used in reference to seeds?  I'll be more specific: are you saying that it cannot be used in a translation of 'there are trees growing on the hills'?

Posted on: What Type of Man do You Like?

Thanks Pete. That reminds me of the other verb to grow, 种 zhong4 - can 种 be substituted for 长 in the above sentence? 

庄稼种得快和庄稼长得快，都可以说吗？ 

The two sentences meaning 'The crops are growing quickly' - are both sentences correct?

Posted on: What Type of Man do You Like?

whoops Pete, you beat me - glad to see you are on the ball. 

Posted on: What Type of Man do You Like?

@luolina27

I think the meaning here is more along the lines of 'grow', in the sense of 'grown' to be like... It is a commonly used verb when describing how people appear.  Note that this is zhang, not chang - it is one of those characters with tow pronunciations.

There are many more competent people to answer your question than me but I don't like seeing a question going ananswered; perhaps someone will come to our aid if I have it wrong?

Posted on: What Type of Man do You Like?

Is it really the case that 帅 cannot be used in relation to women in China? .. 帅女？？ (Okay, I am making that up.)  I thought that with the discussion of trends to adrogeny above this might be acceptable now. 

The term 'handsome woman' has long been acceptable in the West; I remember when I was a boy the term was common. I am not sure if this term 'handsome woman' came in with the adrogenous look, or if it is much older.  In the West the adrogenous look was around in the 1930s for example, and possibly earlier periods of history. 

Posted on: Dinosaurs

The term 出没 seems problematic here - the vocab list, John's commentary and the dialogue don't gel, perhaps because the meaning includes conflicting ideas, both (i) coming and going, and (ii) hanging around. 

But could someone explain whether 常出没于 has the idea of 'hanging around' (the sense implied in the dialogue) or whether it too has the sense of coming and going?   Is 出没 exactly the same as 常出没于? 

Posted on: 把 Humbug

@connie and xiaophil

thanks for this structure； I'm about to negotiate when I work. 我想星期一上班，不想从星期二到星期五上班。 wo xiang xingqiyi shangban, wo bu xiang cong xingqier dao xingqiwu shangban.  :-)

Posted on: Slow Dinosaurs

Happy Birthday, Hennning.  Just lap up the attention..

I was about to tell everyone how my Internet goes so much faster here than what I put up with in Sydney (here it is on average 10 times faster than the unwired service I use there.) I look forward to even faster speeds when the cables are repaired.

Posted on: Excited About Traveling

@shenyajin, xiaophil

Thanks for your comments and answers - that is interesting about 保重 dating from ancient times.  This kind of unusual coincidence of English and Chinese reminds me that (in my move to China) I located one of my favourite guides to Chinese language 'on the smell of an oily rag' by Ouyang Yu.  It was in my book case all along.  A draw back is that he only uses pinyin (maybe his publisher made this decision).  The description 'poison pen' comes to mind (- 中文怎么说？) but it is wonderful stuff - I will share some from time to time, such as: a Chinese proverb goes: 一百遮十丑 yi bai zhe shi chou (one white covers up ten uglinesses.) He juxtaposes this with an equally dodgy Australian saying: two Wongs do not make a white, which he re-transates into Chinese as 两个黄和一个白不一样。 

（I am aware that this is now off-topic; I will move it to a new discussion post.)