User Comments - franch
franch
Posted on: I can't buy my size
June 4, 2007 at 8:47 PMdigchinese; Thanks alot, I have indeed come across your clarification...a bit too late :)
Posted on: Cold Beer
June 4, 2007 at 6:49 PMWhat would you like to drink: qǐng wèn nín xiǎng hē shen me? 请问您想喝什么? Waiters (服务员 fú wù yuán) always use 您, but you'd better use 你 nǐ with friends :)
Posted on: Requesting a Napkin
June 4, 2007 at 11:22 AMUser24519, you make me feel like a jail warder. 难道你会记不忘那个这么伤脑筋的别名吗? nán dào nǐ huì jì bú zhù nà ge zhè me shāng nǎo jīn de bié míng ma? Of course I'm toying with your affections, because I can't make heads or tails (is that the real phrase now) of your comment on Lapinot. I know Trondheim, but I can't put my finger on what you're referring to. Please User24519, don't wear me down, I'm warning you!!
Posted on: Requesting a Napkin
June 4, 2007 at 2:29 AM餐 is the most delightful hanzi according to my belly. I wanted to ask whether it is common to say [祝你] 胃口好 (zhù nǐ) wèi kǒu hǎo! I know it is less and less natural to wish sby a good meal, even here in 法国 fǎ guó. Bon ap' anyway :)
Posted on: Cold Beer
June 4, 2007 at 1:03 AMAndrew - 橘子 jú zi is (more) mandarin (on my terms). I have learned once that whatever the fruit processed the juice would be jú zi zhī. But... 橙汁 chéng zhī seems to be used for orange juice, which makes common sense, chéng zi being an orange. Juicy vocab.
Posted on: I can't buy my size
June 3, 2007 at 4:23 PMErratum; tā xiě de wén zhāng =(
Posted on: I can't buy my size
June 3, 2007 at 4:20 PMPiers, you are right, and I don't say this to placate you. I'm really a nuisance when I'm frustrated by a point that I cannot pretend to grasp. Thanks for setting it straight. The distinction (区分 qū fēn) between 的, 地, and 得 is indeed crucial, because these are the cement of syntax, whatever the mood, voice, etc. I just blurted out (随口 suí kǒu) that thoughtless "rule", it was a sorry night flight of fancy. At the bottom of it, so, I had set to utter a mere advice, which was not to take grammatical formulae for granted, however comprehensive they seem, and I ended up appaling. You often hear that 的 indicates a relation of belonging/possession, not unlike the "saxon" genitive (that is 's, do you actually call it that?), but this is not the key to its use. Its only the most common use. Then you may add that it links the thema (after 的), that is what you talk about, to the rhema (before 的), what is said about the thema. This accounts for [verbal clause] + 的 + [nominal clause]. But then you have more intricate uses, e.g. emphasis in the construction V+的+O : 他写的文章 tā xiě de én zhāng: It was him who wrote the article. This corresponds to a cleft sentence, and it illustrates how the shift in emphasis based on what piece of information is deemed important can alter the whole syntaxic structure. In such cases we see that, as you rightly said, there are rules to account even for the apparent flaws in a rule, because only formulae are flawed. But be careful always to get the right meaning of the speaker, structures behave predictably, expression doesn't. I hope you see what I mean and excuse me for an unguarded assault. You've been much helpful to me :)
Posted on: I can't buy my size
June 3, 2007 at 12:29 AMWalter, and loveit, thanks for cooling down the discussion. Loveit, your explanation I just loveit. Walter, the use of 是 in that sentence is not mandatory, but it means here that the SECOND floor (don't forget the idiosyncratic stuff ;)) is devoted, so to speak, to sports brands (i.e. it means "the second floor is (that of) athletic brands). Still, 有 would be used if there were sports brands among other luxuries. Sorry to speak as a Cpod staff member, as if I had any authority. I was wondering why Digchinese had translated 运动品牌 by "Nike". Is that a shortcut for him alone or is it common? Would be monopolistic, imo. The sway of the swoosh, sorta. As for that 有的卖, why some just wouldn't take it as it is? As you said, Walter, English has also a lot of part of speech that might change function in some circumstances (and not only syntactic). Nominalization is common enough in English (e.g. a weekly, a drink, a smoke :) so just learn this idiom along with the clear rule John provided as early as one could wish. Langue lives through parole, if you'll pardon my French. So while it is possible (and beneficial) to try and find the root structure allowing such a construction (for instance S+的+V, or V+的+O, depending on what function perform the neighbouring slots actually and not only theoretically). As loveit put it icy-clear, if you need a 的 in a circumvoluted sentence which can't be 地 or 得 it's 的, period. I didn't mean to sound aggressive, a little annoyed maybe.
Posted on: Lesson
June 2, 2007 at 2:46 PM对了，这个对话听起来像一个小妖精在聊天的相声。 就是说，声带重新加速得太快了啊! Do the old podcasts always go mad with old age?
Posted on: Do you have a menu?
June 4, 2007 at 10:02 PMWhy on earth would you like to put 瓦 wǎ? Maybe requesting a hi-voltage beverage (瓦就是 "volt" 的意思 - wǎ means "volt" :) I assume you mean 吗 ma, 对吗? Kidding aside, 饮料 yǐn liào means "drinks" in a general sense. 请问有饮料 would mean "Do you serve drinks here", then you should ask: 请给我...-whatever you'd like to drink- (吧 ba!)