User Comments - dunderklumpen

Posted on: Is it far?

Hi light,

there are some more examples in these lessons: elementary - a table for three, newbie - how long.

Posted on: What would you like to drink?

Thanks Jason!

http://www.yourdictionary.com/idioms/what-have-you

What remains and need not be mentioned; and the like. For example, The display room is full of stereos, TV's, and what have you. Although first recorded in 1920, this expression uses an archaic form of putting a question (using have you instead of do you have) as a noun clause, and what in the sense of “anything that.” The synonym who knows what is much older, dating from about 1700; for example, When we cleaned out the tool shed we found old grass seed, fertilizer, and who knows what other junk.

Posted on: What would you like to drink?

@cpod

Is there a mistake in the translation of this expansion sentence or is my english too bad? I can't figure out what "Read and what have you" means.

王先生周末通常干什么？看书什么的。
What does Mr. Wang usually do on weekends? Read and what have you. 1 (What does Mr. Wang usually do on weekends? Read and what have you.)

Posted on: What would you like to drink?

Thanks Jiaojie.

Posted on: What would you like to drink?

It's the first time I see the word 仍 so I don't have any ideas about that.

I'm not sure but I actually think the second example is pretty much the same as the current lesson. As you said, "So it's used in conclusion to compare something favourably to the previous statement." I think the previous statement or alternative is to fix the broken microwave oven, and the favourobly alternative is to buy a new one, thus 还是什么什么。At least it makes sense if we expand the second sentence to "You should buy a new one, instead of fixing the old one."

I think 应该 can be used without an alternative or a certain context, e.g. You should do more exercise 你应该多运动。In that case I think 还是多运动 is a bit strange. On the other hand if there is a context, say, someone says "I think I should do less exercise", then I guess we can reply 还是多运吧 or 还是多运动好。

Now, do take my speculations with a grain of salt :-)

Posted on: What would you like to drink?

@xiao_liang

还是 can be used to mean "still" or "nevertheless" too: http://chinesepod.com/lessons

A 啊哟，累死了。没有好看的，就别买了。

B 不行。过年一定要穿新衣服。

A 可是没有好的。But there is nothing good here.

B 我还是要买，是新年。I still want to buy something. It's the new year.

There is another example similar to this lesson's too: http://chinesepod.com/lessons/new-clothes

A 哦哟，太老了，还是买个新的吧。Wow, that's old. You should buy a new one.

Posted on: I can't find my glasses!

谢谢Jiaojie.

go_manly, here is some more about 着呢: http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E7%9D%80%E5%91%A2/54470

着呢 [zhene]

1. 1. [Spoken] (used as an intensive at the end of a sentence, after adjectives or verbs that admit of differences of degree) very (much); quite; awfully

Posted on: I can't find my glasses!

Great question go_manly :-) I hope to read the answer when I get up tomorrow. 晚安!

Posted on: You Sing Terribly!

Througout history swedish has been influenced by french and german but nowadays there is a strong influence from english. The direct use of english words sounds rather funny at times since people don't know if they should inflect the words according to english or swedish rules.

So how about the amount of loan words into the english language in the last ten or so years?

Posted on: You Sing Terribly!

Is there a lot of loan words in english?