User Comments - light487

Posted on: Back to Basics: Making People Plural with 们 (men)

Really? I thought it was 姐妹 and 哥儿..?

Posted on: Back to Basics: Making People Plural with 们 (men)

Can I use the following sentence:

你是我最喜欢看的东西

Basically to say: You are my favourite thing(person) to look at.

Posted on: Back to Basics: Making People Plural with 们 (men)

咱们 really doesn't get used a heck of a lot.. I brought the topic up with a friend last time I was in China and after a brief discussion over the slightly different meaning of the word, she agreed that this would be the best way to explain it but it's not something that people really use a lot.

咱们 tends to act like a "distance shortening" word.. that is, shortening the figurative/sensed/relational distance between the speaker and the listener(s). It's much easier to explain with hand gestures.. hehe.. however, let's use the example of 2 groups of 3 people.

Group A has the speaker and two listeners standing with them; the other; Group B has three listeners. By using 我们, the speaker of Group A is referring to him/herself and the two people with him/herself. By using 咱们, the speaker is referring to all 6 people.

Of course, the 咱们 word is more to bring people closer together, so whether they are talking about jump Group A only or Group A and B combined is not really as important as the implied relational shortening. It's a little like using 您 instead of 你, where 您 sets a formal tone, thus distancing yourself from the person; and 你 sets more of an informal tone, thus reducing the distance (relationally) from the person.

I hope that makes sense..

Posted on: Beards Are for Old Men

"事物的本质重于外在" :)

Posted on: Is it far?

Ahh right.. I knew there had to be an easy/quick way to say it :)

你们等待多久吗？

nǐmen děngdài duōjiǔma?

How long have you (all) been waiting for?

Does this make sense?

Posted on: Is it far?

Ahh yes.. I found out, later today that 离开 líkāi is only used when you are talking about yourself. :) I couldn't find anything else, so I used that.. hehe.. :) 起飞。。 起飞。。 起飞。。 I will need to remember that one but it's one of those words that you don't often use, so I will probably forget it pretty quickly. :)

Definitely a tricky combination of concepts to get my head around in one go. Thanks for the answer! :)

Posted on: Is it far?

Thanks for the replies! I have trouble reading even the pinyin at work (which sucks) because they have an antiquated version of Internet Explorer but I will make sure to check when I get home. :)

Posted on: Is it far?

Oh man.. I just wrote out a really long reply but the system ate it up and threw it all away... What I was basically asking was:

Surely there is a simple way, like with "shenme shihou" (what time) that I can say "how long". I acknoledge that I can ask how many hours, most likely with "duoshao xiaoshi cong zhe'r dao na'r ma?" (How many hours from here to there?).. and I could probably get away with it whether it is correct or not.. but that implies that it is going to take more than 1 hour.. or the same in minutes using the "fenzhong" (minute/s) term. However, I would have thought there is a word for "how long"..

Then again, there is no word for "at" when referencing a time "at which" something will occur. For example, "wo feiji cong Sydney dao Shanghai likai [at] shangwu 9 dian 25 fenzhong" (my felight from Sydney to Shanghai will depart at 9:25am).. there is just no word in there for at.. and that is a very important word in English.. :) Anyway.. I always get confused when working with time in Chinese. :)

Posted on: Is it far?

I think there is an important distinction to make here. There is the "is it far? / how far is it?" in terms of distance and then there is the "is it far? / how far is it?" in terms of time.

If I am asking about distance, I assume I am going to be using the "cong2 (A) dao4 (B) yuan3" pattern but what about when asking about how far in terms of "how long will it take to get there?" I always have difficulty with time and "how much" in Chinese.. I know the basic duo1shao3 多少 for how much but I'm never sure if this is universal to everything..

Posted on: Is it far?

hehe.. either that or 你是漂亮的姑娘 if you want to use "是" because 是 is used for nouns not adjectives.. I admit that is a VERY simplistic way of describing the rule but it's the way I remember it.

Another interesting thing I have learned to think is:

我 means "me" or "I".. but it also means "I'm" in many contexts. For example, 我很累 "I'm" very tired. By using the contraction "I'm" instead of "I am", you are keeping the same amount of syllables as the Chinese form ‘我“ and this helps to memorise the concept.

This can then also be applied to 你:

你很漂亮 meaning "You're" very pretty.. when you say 你是漂亮的姑娘 you don't think of it as a contraction, instead you think of it as "You" "are" a pretty young woman. This allows you to keep the "你” and “是” separate in your English mind. :)