User Comments - calkins

Posted on: What does she look like?

Xiaophil, absolutely! I was referring to the future with:

我先买(了)点东西，再回家去。

Meaning "I'll first (at some future point, determined by context) buy some things, then head home.

Posted on: What does she look like?

I think you could do that a number of different ways.

One would be to use 先....再：

我先买(了)点东西，再回家去。

I'll (first) buy some things, then head home.

You could also just add 要 or 会 (for "want" or "will") in front of the verb：

我要买点东西然后回家去。

I want (will) buy some things, then head home.

There are other ways too, but I gotta go to bed :)

Posted on: What does she look like?

You're right, that sentence could have two meanings, depending on the context of the conversation.

1. 过去的 (past)：

我买了点东西就回家去。

As soon as I bought some things, I went home.

2. 将来的 (future)：

我买了点东西就回家去。

I'll by some stuff and then head home.

If you wanted to be absolutely clear that it was something that happened in the past, you would have to add another 了 to the end of the sentence:

我买了点东西就回家去了。

As soon as I bought some things, I went home.

I hope someone can answer the original questions, I'm also curious about that.

Posted on: Clearing the Table

Hmmm, I'm confused as to where I was talking about zhege :)

Posted on: Hide and Seek

Woaicreampie (ha ha!), you're right, you would use 衣櫃 for closet. I think anything that was built for hanging clothes is an 衣櫃. A 櫃子 is usually used for anything else and is usually smaller and what we'd call a cabinet (but I'm not 100% certain about this last part).

Posted on: Clearing the Table

Bertson, it seems to me again that all of the above cpod translations are okay. Keep in mind that context is king - I believe that many of the expansion sentences are taken from other lesson dialogues. Without knowing what the person said before, the context may not be clear and what might seem like a bad translation is actually okay. Just thought I'd point that out in case you didn't know. I won't bug you anymore :)

Posted on: April Fool's

Actually, Cpod's translation "I'm so thirsty I'm going to die" is okay.

Again, not sure if you're a native English speaker, but it'd be a little strange to say "I'm almost dying of thirst." You're right that the 快 means "almost" or "about to", but Cpod's English translation is probably the best way to say it. Or maybe "I'm going to die of thirst" or "I'm about to die of thirst."

If you said 我吃得太多，快要吐了, you wouldn't translate it as "I ate too much, I'm almost throwing up." You would translate it as "I ate too much, I'm going to throw up" or "I ate to much, I'm about to throw up."

Posted on: Expired!

Cpod's translation:

我不會坐車，一坐車就想吐。

I can't take a bus. As soon as I get on, I feel nauseous.

As far as the 想吐 goes, I don't think you can take it too literally.

想吐

want to throw up

Not many people want to throw up. There are some people out there who are into that kind of thing, but most people aren't! So I think 想吐 could be accurately translated as "to feel nauseous".

As far as the 一坐車 goes, I think you're right, "As soon as I take a bus..." is probably a little more accurate.

I guess that "As soon as I get on" would be better translated as 一上車. But again, translations are loosy goosy....as long as the overall meaning is clear, I think a bit of translation leeway is okay.

Posted on: Expired!

Actually, the translation "Talking about this while eating is really disgusting" is accurate.

I'm not sure if you're a native English speaker, but you can't translate Chinese to English word by word. Nouns, verbs, time when words, place words, etc. are not in the same places that they are in an English sentence - Chinese sentence structure is much different.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Yunnan

Actually, the translation "You're so fat. Eat a bit less chocolate." is accurate.

"Don't eat too much chocolate." would be better said:

不要吃太多巧克力。or 別吃太多巧克力。

But again, translations can be loosy goosy sometimes.