User Comments - light487
light487
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Xinjiang
May 24, 2008 at 9:41 PMI like big-plate-of-chicken.. it's a funny name. :)
Posted on: When will he return?
May 24, 2008 at 9:39 PMhaha.. but I still need to learn the grammar too by the look of that sentence.. woops.. :)
Posted on: When will he return?
May 24, 2008 at 9:37 PMI didn't start "trying" to make up proper sentences until I started to write Hanzi.. I would definitely ask questions about the lesson and all that but my learning didn't really get off the ground until I started to put some work in to making my own sentences and trying to think in Chinese. Pinyin is required to know how to write the Hanzi on the computer, it just takes it one step further. For example, both of these characters are the same in pinyin: 是 shì 市 shì ...but of course, they mean completely different things. The first one, that many people would be used to seeing by now is 是 which roughly means "to be" (are, am, is) in many contexts but also can mean "that" and "this". The other character, which has the same 4th tone accent in pinyin, 市 means "market", "city" or "town", and "trade" depending on the context. Pinyin can only help so much.. more with the pronunciation than anything else. You still will need to know the characters, even to make up basic sentences.. otherwise you could end up making sentences that make no sense because even though the tones and sounds are the same, the characters are very wrong... 我们大吉有的中勾荚
Posted on: When will he return?
May 24, 2008 at 1:35 PMNo one is minding the store until Monday..
Posted on: When will he return?
May 24, 2008 at 12:16 PMI thought it was a bit strange to release two newbie lessons in a row. May be it was meant to be an Upper Intermediate release in the first place and that's why the audio is for Upper Intermediate.. Oh well it will be fixed on Monday.
Posted on: Gifts Chinese People Like and 'Chinatomy' Premiere!
May 23, 2008 at 12:21 PMFor gifts.. what about local wines?
Posted on: I don't want it!
May 22, 2008 at 11:04 AMHrmm.. yes.. good point.. I would have put at least a "ma" there.. but more likely a "wèi shénme" (why) in there to make it into a question. At the moment it's an emphatic statement... at least that's my understanding of the phrase. Possibly a mistake in the expansion text that no one has mentioned before now..
Posted on: More than 50 kuai!
May 22, 2008 at 8:00 AMWhat I meant was that I would like to know why the way you said it was written like that. I understand that the way I said it was incorrect but I don't understand why it is incorrect because I need more information about the reasons you used the "de" particles in the sentence and the "shou" word at the end, and anything else relevant to the way that sentence was formed. Does this kind of grammar question go beyond the scope of cPOD learning?
Posted on: Good Morning!
May 21, 2008 at 8:08 PMI would have thought your chubby dog would be waking you up before day break for her first snack of the day! :)
Posted on: KTV
May 25, 2008 at 3:38 AMA couple of notes here that I can see that is different to Newbie level stuff: 晚上去唱歌吧 wǎnshang qù chànggē bā There's no subject used in this sentence.. I assume it is one of the many implied things.. since the two people are obviously together and are engaged in some kind of social activity already there is no need for it..? Could this be said if there was, for example, more people or people who weren't actively in a conversation already? -> 晚上咱们走唱歌吧 Wǎnshang zánmen zǒu chànggē bā Here's my silly English/Westerner mind playing tricks on my grammar again, the line: 我不会唱 wǒ bùhuì chàng Is it really said like that? or would it be better to say: 但是，我不会唱。。 dànshì, wǒ bùhuì chàng.. Now.. the mysterious "de" particle appears. This particle has me so confused at this stage of my learning.. I never really know how and when to use it. I know its purpose and I have read a lot about it but I just can't seem to ever use it correctly... 我唱的特难听 wǒ chàng de té nántīng [my singing] de [extraordinarily unpleasant sounding] I can see what it is doing.. I can see that in this context the best English translation of the "de" particle is the word "is".. but I am still confused on how I would place the "de" in my own sentences. Would it be correct that the [unpleasant sound] is-possessed-by/belongs-to [my singing]? Or is it that the [unpleasant sound] comes-from/comes-out-of [my singing]? If I think of [my singing] as a box or container that contains the [unpleasant sound] inside it.. and when I open the box (ie. open my mouth and sing), the [unpleasant sound] comes out? I probably just confused the matter even further..... Also.. I'd love for you all to go to a Karaoke bar and take lots of video and show us all your singing skills! :)