User Comments - rich

rich

Posted on: Can You Help Me Move?

March 29, 2013 at 5:32 AM

That's nothing...I moved into a 7th floor apartment from a 3rd floor apartment, a block away from each other in Tianjin...I spent two days moving everything myself, in completely packed suitcases that I took back and forth. This was in 2004 when foreigners were barely just allowed to pick wherever they wanted to live...so I got not just a lot of stares, but the simple gate guards and even police men following me as I went back and forth, huffing and puffing.

Posted on: Important Visitor

March 29, 2013 at 2:44 AM

Sorry didn't explain better. 事 mean "matter" as in "I have a matter to deal with" (not physical matter). It is also pronounced shì (4th tone) just like 是 "to be".

So yes, for "Who is it?" it is 是, saying 是谁 means "is who?". You can also say "你是谁" = you are who? (always keeping the question in the same form as the answer, just replacing the answer you want with the question word).

So we have:

shì 是 a verb, to be

shì 事 a noun, matter

"Matter" in this form is often is said as a two character word, 事情 shìqing, but not always. It has a measure word, which is 件jiàn, such as: 我有两件事情... wǒ yǒu liǎng jiàn shìqing... "I have two matters...(to deal with, to discuss)". But a common phrase to say when you want to know "What is it?" you just say "什么事？" 什么事情 sounds weird.

Posted on: Important Visitor

March 28, 2013 at 3:42 AM

Ah, the problem you're having is that there are so many shi's in Chinese. This is the character 事 you are hearing. 什么事. This goes to show you need context and to think about where each sound/word you hear is in what grammatical position... like we know a noun comes after 什么, thus we must think "What noun is this 'shì'"? And soon you won't have to think, it will come naturally in such phrases.

Anyway, 什么事 means "What is it?" "What's the matter?"

Posted on: The Life of a Programmer 1: Staying Up Late?

March 7, 2013 at 5:30 AM

Things will probably change again... have to wear aluminum foil suits or something....haha.

Posted on: Snake on a Plane

March 6, 2013 at 8:22 AM

舱 is a compartment, where 架 is just a rack. I would assume a 行李架 could be inside a 行李舱 but not necessary. The latter should be a room or something that is close-able.