User Comments - jennyzhu
jennyzhu
Posted on: Addressing People Revisited
September 10, 2011 at 1:07 PMYou can call them 爷爷/yéye, 奶奶/nǎinai, which mean (paternal) grandpa and grandma, but also an endearing way to address the elderly. I'm sure your host family will be delighted to hear these terms. Enjoy your time in Beijing!
Posted on: Hospitality Series 1: Welcome to the Hilton!
September 8, 2011 at 3:32 PMOne function of 的 is to make a noun phrase if the noun can be infered from the context or understood by speakers. 冷的还是热的 means "cold one or hot one". You could turn 红茶还是绿茶 into the same pattern by using 红的还是绿的 if the speakers are aware of the topic of discussion being tea.
Posted on: Sportswear Brands
September 8, 2011 at 8:55 AMYou can say 你不是刚吃饭了吗？too. But 刚 is often used with verb+过 to emphasize an action has just taken place.
Posted on: Checking into a Hotel
September 8, 2011 at 8:16 AMYes, 您贵姓？is a more polite way to ask one's surname. They are both used in spoken language. I'd suggest defaulting to 您贵姓 when you meet a new person in China.
Posted on: Hospitality Series 1: Welcome to the Hilton!
September 8, 2011 at 6:01 AMMy parents took me on a trip to Thailand many years ago. None of us spoke any English back then. The entire trip was pretty stressful.
Posted on: How Old Are You?
September 8, 2011 at 4:02 AMGreat explanation of "了" (le). You can omit 了, it's still correct and pretty natural.
Posted on: Detective Li 7: Final Mission (Part 1)
September 8, 2011 at 3:59 AMIt's actually a happy coincidence. The grammar sample sentences are mostly pulled from existing expansion sentences, which featured different speakers from the past 5 years. We usually have one person doing all the expansion sentences recording all at once.
Posted on: Detective Li 7: Final Mission (Part 1)
September 8, 2011 at 3:57 AMThank you for letting us know!
Posted on: How Old Are You?
September 7, 2011 at 2:10 PMI am very sorry about the issue. It sounds like an access rights bug. We will fix it tomorrow morning. Thank you!
Posted on: Manly Men and Womanly Women
September 10, 2011 at 3:05 PMWe called them 大男子主义/dà nánzǐ zhǔyì, which is used as an adjective, e.g. 他很大男子主义。