User Comments - jennyzhu
jennyzhu
Posted on: Weekend Activities
July 29, 2011 at 6:47 AMBoth are correct. If you don't feel like saying 4 syllables, then use 今晚.
Posted on: 早教
July 29, 2011 at 6:06 AMI just bought a picture book for my son. It contains Pinyin rules, simple characters, radicals and pictures. I had been rather dubious about adults using Chinese children's books to learn Chinese. But I might be wrong... That book is amazing!
Posted on: Meeting in Real Life
July 29, 2011 at 5:19 AMI believe it's quite popular for young people to meet through the internet in China too socially and romantically. And there is never a shortage of US clone sites in China, from our version of Facebook, Craigslist to Twitter.
Posted on: Tone Rule: Changes for 'bu'
July 29, 2011 at 2:40 AMAndrea,
I'd expand on cinnamonfern's answer by saying that there are many words in Chinese which share the same pronunciation. So to see them in a sentence without characters or clear breakup of Pinyin into distinct words is very confusing and not conducive to learning. But I agree that it will be very helpful to have Pinyin displayed at the sentence level on the site too. This is something we have planned for. But the best way to approach Pinyin is it needs to be seen in the context of the individual word.
Posted on: Chinese Folk Medicine
July 28, 2011 at 9:06 AMWow, you are a 中医! Is Chinese almost a prerequisite for learning Chinese Medicine?
Posted on: Workout Frequency at the Gym
July 28, 2011 at 9:04 AMYour writing is all correct. You can use 男孩 in this context as it means a youngish man (from teens to late 20's). 男生 has a similar meaning but it's used more prominently in Taiwan. If you want to cover a wider age group, you can use 男人/nánren/men.
Posted on: Strong
July 28, 2011 at 6:50 AMDo you mean strong in the sense of effective? We'd use 药很有效／yào hěn yǒuxiào to describe that.
Posted on: Strong
July 28, 2011 at 6:49 AMWe use "油“ /yóu and 清淡/qīngdàn to describe heavy and light food。菜很油/cài hěnyóu/the food is very heavy; 菜很清淡/cài hěnqīngdàn/food is very light.
Light accent is 有一点儿口音/yǒu yīdiǎnr kǒuyīn.
Light rain is 小雨/xiǎoyǔ。
Posted on: Workout Frequency at the Gym
July 28, 2011 at 5:39 AMThese expressions usually indicate a rough range rather than a precise number. So 四五次 and 三五次 mean anywhere between 2 to 7 times. I'd say it usually indicates a 20-30% range give or take.
Posted on: Weekend Activities
July 29, 2011 at 6:59 AMYou can omit "一起/yīqǐ/together" in sentences that have" 一起+verb" structure, e.g. "我喜欢和朋友出去/wǒ xǐhuan hé péngyou chūqù" has the same meaning as "我喜欢和朋友一起出去/"wǒ xǐhuan hé péngyou yīqǐ chūqù". By adding "一起/yīqǐ", you are highlighting the camaraderie. But in sentences that don't follow this structure where 一起 is not followed by a verb, e.g. "我们在一起"/Wǒmen zàiyīqǐ/We are together (dating, or just being at the same palce)", you can't omit "一起/yīqǐ/". Hope it's clear.