User Comments - dangrayson

Posted on: City: Mumbai

Raygo, change 嗯，而且你可以去看现场看。 to 嗯，而且你可以去现场看。

Posted on: City: Mumbai

Did I correctly hear Jenny pronounce 我们要 (in 今天我们要去印度啊) as wo3 miao4 instead of wo3 men5 yao4?  If so, is it common?

Posted on: City: Mumbai

thanks for the transcript, raygo

Posted on: Tone Rule: Two Third Tones

I'd like to propose a few more rules that could help deduce which tones in a long sequence of third-tone syllables, such as 我想找你, become third tones. 

They are:

1) Sentences are separated into groups (rhythmic "feet"): each group begins with a stressed syllable and is followed by one or two unstressed syllables.  Exceptions: the last group may consist of a single stressed syllable; the first group may include an extra unstressed syllable at the beginning.  Particles, measure words, and 了 过 在 (when used as aspect marker) are always unstressed.  [This comes from chapter 26 of the book by Yip and Rimmington.]

2) Two third-tone syllables are not considered adjacent (for the purpose of changing the tone of the first one to 2) unless they are in the same group. [This is my proposal.  Since the groups are separated by slight pauses in speech, it makes some sense.]

If we accept those two rules and think about which syllables in 我想找你 are appropriate to stress (or  emphasize), then we might draw some conclusions.  For example, if we stress 我 and 找, then 我2想3 找2你3 would be appropriate.  On the other hand, if we want to emphasize 你 more than 找, i.e., to emphasize that it is *you* I am searching for, rather than someone else, we might guess that 我2想2找3 你3 would be appropriate.  If native speakers would come forward and say that 我2想2找3 你3 would never be appropriate, even if we are emphasizing 你, then my proposal won't fly (as is), but perhaps some modification would.

Posted on: Public Speaking Tips

Thanks, Amber.  I think I must stop looking for nouns after every 的.

I find that one of my grammar books calls things like 最重要的 "pronominals", they are noun phrases, and they have antecedents.  In this case, I guess the antecedent is the noun 工作, from the previous clause: 我们有很多具体的工作.  If that is right, the "completed" phrase 但是最重要的工作是各位同事一起努力 would mean the same thing and sound okay.  (It doesn't sound so great in English.)  Let me know if this guess is right.

Posted on: Public Speaking Tips

In the phrase 最重要的是 I was expecting the last word to be a noun, such as 事 or 工作.  Or perhaps 最重要的 is a noun phrase on its own?

Posted on: Recovering a Cell Phone Number

Amber wrote:

> The tone rule change to second tone isn't reflected

> in written Pinyin, as a rule.

It might be helpful to reflect tone changes in the pdf files anyway, for the benefit of the students.

Posted on: Recovering a Cell Phone Number

It seems that the tones indicated in the pdf transcripts are not always correct.  For example, instead of

  bu4 jı4 de le.

in today's lesson should it be

  bu2 jı4 de le.

?

Posted on: Upset

tela, Thank you for the clarification.

Posted on: Upset

The Oxford Chinese dictionary says "don't cry" is 你怎么啦, rather than 你怎么了.