User Comments - franch
franch
Posted on: Returning an Item
June 6, 2007 at 6:20 AMJenny, would you be so kind as to tell me how to say "I don't want no trouble" in the context of a dark street? Or should I sing low-key, "strangers in the night" and get mugged?
Posted on: Returning an Item
June 6, 2007 at 3:48 AMI'm uneasy about the order of the 分句 above. I just wanted to ask how you might say "I don't want no trouble" in Mandarin. That's all, folks
Posted on: Returning an Item
June 6, 2007 at 3:44 AMHi there! 在上海,日用品就是要完蛋的一天以内吗? Sinosplice put this idea deep into my head that technology in China is almost organic, producing items as quickly as they might fall in pieces... which made me wonder if I could get anything but laughing if I barged into a store claiming for a sum of money wasted in a sh*t circuit, given that it cost me less than the bus fare. So is 退货 just equivalent to 退换 tuì huàn (getting a *new* item)? I know you're streetwise ladies and gentlemen, eating con-men for breakfast when there are no 小笼包... Cpod, ...thanks.
Posted on: Requesting a Napkin
June 6, 2007 at 12:12 AMexcuter, I know you're sleeping but fur means the comfortable and soft coat on a cat/wolf/expensive lady. Perhaps you dream of a fur towel ;-)
Posted on: Translation Issues
June 5, 2007 at 7:52 PMConnie, 在书面语中的则这个词难以理解，但依照你的注释有教育意义! 谢谢! My explanation looks like a jumble. I should at least have put quotation marks to equivalents...
Posted on: Vegetarian Eating
June 5, 2007 at 7:14 PMBe careful, Italiana, 之 zhī does not mean "and" (perhaps it appears so in some translations but these are misleading). It is the classical Chinese equivalent of 的 de, but even as such you can't use it on its own, only as part of locatives (之前 zhī qián: before, 之后 zhī hòu: after, etc), conjunctions (客人 之一 kè rén zhī yī: among the guests, 反之 fǎn zhī: on the contrary...), and many other uses where 之's original nature is a personal pronoun. But Don't Use It On Its Own. You'll see that you have to learn set phrases, let alone set words of course, to grasp the structure of mandarin, THE analytic language par excellence... "And" can have many equivalents, depending on context again. The basic coordinating "and" is 和 hé (我和我的朋友 wǒ hé wǒde péngyou: me and my friends). STOP!-? Again it depends... "To come to a halt" would be 停 tíng (停车 tíng chē: to park). 止步 zhǐ bù means to stop doing sth, and many words with the idea of cessation include 住 : 住手 zhù shǒu : to stop working, 站住 zhàn zhu (here it's neutral toned): to stay where you stand. Hope it helps - 加油 jiā yóu! Courage! :)
Posted on: Requesting a Napkin
June 5, 2007 at 3:28 AMDo people in Australia put the stress on the second syllable, as in "pronounce"? Just curious :) Pronunciation is accented on the -a-, but you've got a right to your own pronunciation :)
Posted on: Lesson
June 5, 2007 at 12:45 AMHi there :) 吗 ma is a mere question marker (but you must nevertheless use a ? mark) that once put at the end of a declarative sentence turns it into a question. Therefore it must NOT be used if the sentence has already a question marker, like the pronouns 什么 shénme (What?), 怎么 zěnme (How?), 哪 nǎ (Which one?), 谁 shéi (Who?), or the [是不是 / 有没有] forms which exclude 吗. 了 has two different functions which you can tell from its position in the sentence: - If it is directly following a verb it marks the past tense for an action which is still "effective" when you speak: 你喝了什么? 我喝了糖水 (hē le táng shuǐ) What did you drink? I have drunk syrup (would one say "syrup"?) - The second use is hard to explain in a few words. You always see it at the END of a sentence, and put simply it indicates that what you're saying has happened, that's why you say it... It's an "eventual" marker, it consignifies an event, a change. You'll have plenty of occasions to figure out how it's used, it's not that hard :)
Posted on: Cold Beer
June 5, 2007 at 12:24 AMAbsolutely :) The way it is in China is that the customer (whatever the service) always says 你 to the employee, and the employee always use the polite 您... Not much like in Europe. You'll find good expressions to call workers with the right consideration in many lessons. (For instance, 师傅 shī fu is a title for most public employees, etc.)
Posted on: Returning an Item
June 6, 2007 at 6:41 AM喔, 我现在才发觉问题的语气太凶的. 不好意思.