User Comments - chenggwo
chenggwo
Posted on: Are You Tired?
April 1, 2008 at 5:43 PMIt probably sounds that way to me because in Mandarin adverbs + the noun or verb it modifies are pronounced as one word. I mean that is the phrasing, you never have a pause between them; they run together.
Posted on: Are You Tired?
April 1, 2008 at 5:40 PMAs I hear it, the n at the end of hen is not pronounced if the next word begins with l, m, or n. It sounds like helei ma and hemung. In other contexts, the word for 'very' sounds more like hen or hung.
Posted on: Art Museum
April 1, 2008 at 4:30 PM>>Incidentally, admission free used as an adjective is fine, but I think it's missing a hyphen: admission-free>> I believe that just as 'yellow' is a noun in the sentence: The balloon is yellow. 'admission free' is treated as a noun, not an adjective in: The museum is admission free. English is more flexible and easy to use that this pickyness over whether 'admission free' is correct, which it is, implies. This leaves the wrong impression concerning what is proper English usage. Concerning Hyphens, Fowler recommends: "This is that the hyphen is not an ornament, but an aid to being understood, and should be employed only when it is needed for that purpose." In other words, use it to clear up an ambiguity, there being none in this case, don't use it. The only question was whether admission can refer to the fee of admission which it does. Case solved. Under noun adjectives in Fowler's Modern English Usage, the question was whether one can use a noun phrase such as 'admission free' as an adjective, as in the phrase 'admission free museum'. This is not recommended. It is better to say 'The museum is admission free.' I don't think it is ambiguous though. The example in Fowler's: "that if a large vehicle fleet were translated into either a large fleet of vehicles or a fleet of large vehicles an ambiguity would be removed", If there are no two ways to translate 'admission free museum' then it is not ambiguous, although it is an ugly phrase that is not recommended. However, 'admission free' is a highly recommended example of proper English usage.
Posted on: April Fool's
April 1, 2008 at 2:48 PMWow, great vocab for a newbie. And it is so refreshing to hear laughter. It can get really old listening to countless renditions of 'correct' Mandarin spoken in a neutral tone of voice. Not that they are really bad about that, but it rarely sounds this relaxed.
Posted on: Art Museum
March 31, 2008 at 9:24 PMA Museum has free admission when a Museum is admission free. Each one is a different part of speech grammatically, therefore they belong in a different part of the sentence. As mentioned earlier 'admission free' is a noun, the other cannot be treated as a noun. Yes, admission can refer directly to the fee for admission. Which make this a proper use of the word. I don't see what the noun-adjective discussion in Fowler has to do with this and I don't see any reference to British versus American usage in the noun-adjectives article. And I don't see any ambiguity in the sentence. You must put the phrase after the verb 'to be' as in 'Something is admission free', and that is what she did. So there you go.
Posted on: Black or Green Tea
March 20, 2008 at 4:13 AMI always get exactly what I want, which is a loose translation that conveys the meaning of the sentences followed by a literal translation that allows me to analyse the grammatical structure of the sentences and understanding some of the implications not conveyed in the translation. The loose translation tells me what the sentence means, but the analysis allows me to construct my own sentences and also to know which word to emphasise if I want to speak the language as if I know what I am saying.
Posted on: All in the Family
March 13, 2008 at 3:23 PMOOP!, I was refering to Where Ya Headed.
Posted on: All in the Family
March 13, 2008 at 3:15 PMNice chance to learn numbers!
Posted on: What's tomorrow?
March 12, 2008 at 11:54 PMThat description of having a ChinesePod marathon is very much true of me. Except that I am downloading each PodCast one at a time. Targeting topics I think will be most helpful and necessary. Time is definitely one of them. By the way, my name is meant to sound very cantonese of mandarin. Hopefully, it means something good!
Posted on: Art Museum
April 2, 2008 at 7:37 PMKen is much easier for me to imitate, but that is because we both speak English. I don't think it is good for me to emphasize correct pronunciation this early. It slows me down too much. I have to assume that Ken speaks well enough to be understood and with enough vocabulary to carry on a conversation. That's more than I can say for myself.