User Comments - joeborn
joeborn
Posted on: Hot Pot Chitchat
December 3, 2009 at 10:55 AMchangye,
Thanks a lot. That Yellow Bridge site is great!
Posted on: Hot Pot Chitchat
December 3, 2009 at 1:34 AMchangye,
Thank you once again; you're informative as always.
Is there a site I could have referred to in order to obtain that information on my own without imposing on this community?
Posted on: Hot Pot Chitchat
December 2, 2009 at 4:58 PMI'm not certain this is the right forum for the question, but does anyone know whether there's a character that consists only of 锅's final seven strokes, i.e., that omits its first five? If 锅 were a traditional character, zhongwen.com would be a good source for the answer, but I don't know of a comparable resource for simplified characters.
Posted on: Hang Up and Ride!
December 2, 2009 at 2:30 PMI take it that 马上就到 (ma3shang4 jiu4 dao4) is functionally indistinguishable from 马上就到了 (ma3shang4 jiu4 dao4 le)? But perhaps the former places more emphasis on the action of arriving, while the latter emphasizes a change to the state of having arrived?
Posted on: Finding a Seat at the Movies
November 19, 2009 at 1:13 PMJasonSch and changye,
Thanks so much for your (characteristically) helpful responses.
Posted on: Finding a Seat at the Movies
November 19, 2009 at 11:02 AMDoes anyone know whether 双号 and 单号 have the same range of application as 偶数 and 奇数? A wild guess on my part is that the former are used in the context of names (Seat No. 7, Building No. 5, etc.), whereas the latter have a more-mathematical connotation. Am I remotely close?
Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company
November 17, 2009 at 1:59 PMJasonSch,
Thanks for the response regarding 大概.
JasonSch and changye,
Your interchange regarding 休息 is another example of how beneficial the Discussion section is. I don't think any translation could have been free of pedagogical shortcomings in that case, but your colloquy filled in the blanks. Thank you both.
Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company
November 16, 2009 at 4:26 PMI had guessed that the expansion sentence 那个女孩儿大概是他的女朋友 meant "That gal is probably his girl friend," whereas the translation was "pretty much his girlfriend." That is, I thought the 大概 was there to indicate uncertainty on the speaker's part, whereas the translation rendered it as directed to where the couple stands in the relationship continuum. Does the Chinese actually admit of both meanings, or would a native speaker see no ambiguity?
Posted on: Thank You Note
November 15, 2009 at 9:09 PMJasonSch,
Many thanks for the response. Although I now recall that I had encountered the "for me" (as opposed to "help me") meaning of 帮我, I had forgotten it.
As for 计划, I think I'll have to restrict myself to using it as a noun; I don't have a good sense of its scope of use as a verb.
Posted on: Hot Pot Chitchat
December 3, 2009 at 11:08 AMCan anyone explain the 一 (yi1) in 辣的一边先开 (la4 de yi1 bian1 xian1 kai1)? That is, can you say 辣的边先开, and would it mean the same thing?
In similar constructions, I have often wondered whether the 一 lends something of an indefinite-article effect, but that clearly isn't true here; the sentence clearly means that the spicy side boils first, not that a spicy side boils first.