User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: Train to Beijing
September 9, 2011 at 4:59 PMI don't think you could get “Why don't you eat and then come over?" from 你怎么吃了饭再来？; I've never seen 你怎么+V？ used to suggest that someone do something.
May we please have a confirmation/clarification from a teacher on the meaning of this sentence? I too find it hard to grasp. Standing alone without context "Why did you eat and then come over?" does sound in English like a strange thing to say to someone, but if that is indeed what is being said here in Mandarin, perhaps this sentence was given purposely to show us how this 再+V is used also when talking about something that has already happened.
Posted on: The Working Hours Policy
September 2, 2011 at 9:03 AMNo problem. No one's come up to correct me so hopefully that means I haven't led you astray.
Posted on: 猜字谜
September 2, 2011 at 8:57 AMhehe, 严重剧透 comes across to me like “material spoiler“--like a material breach, not just any old breach, in a contract.
Obviously these 剧透 terms would be seen in any online community I think, where people are discussing movies or TV shows they've seen.
If anyone is interested, to indicate *SPOILERS* in Japanese you write ネタバレ (neta-bare).
Posted on: 猜字谜
August 30, 2011 at 5:06 AMI've seen them in titles of user reviews on this website (a search for 剧透 will bring them up). I started going there to get info about Chinese films but find it really interesting to see how much Japanese stuff they constantly cover as well as Hollywood.
http://www.mtime.com/
Posted on: 猜字谜
August 30, 2011 at 2:44 AMHi John I see （剧透） used when people want to warn others of spoilers--（微剧透） （严重剧透） （剧透慎入） and such.
Posted on: The Working Hours Policy
August 28, 2011 at 8:16 AM我平时经常晚睡，3AM这个时刻我看做深夜。不过，先睡几个小时再起来（有时候，在欧洲举行很重要的球赛，那要看直播吧）的话，3AM当然不会说“深夜”，我也会说“凌晨3点”。
Posted on: The Working Hours Policy
August 27, 2011 at 1:40 PM对我来说 2AM 是“深夜2点”。好像也有人说“凌晨2点”。3AM 我还说“深夜”。4AM 才算是“凌晨”。 But that‘s just my interpretation of these terms as well as a reflection of my lifestyle, not an authoritative answer.
Posted on: Transportation
August 22, 2011 at 2:51 PMHi, I see they have 打的 as "by a taxi" in the supplementary vocab, and 出租车 as "taxi". I would have said 打的, a verb (-object compound), is "take/grab/hail a cab", just as 坐出租車 is "take a cab". Taxis are 的士 in Hong Kong (the Cantonese pronunciation of these chars is like dik si I guess. In Japanese you could read them as teki-shi). And 打 is "get". I don't know since when mainlanders started saying 打的 but it's been around for a while.
So actually, the lady last night suggested that you 打的, not "get a 打的", to go home. Someone else would have to come up and tell us which if either is more common/formal or any other differences between 打的 and 坐出租車, because I don't know.
Posted on: Hospitality Series 2: China Union Pay
September 26, 2011 at 3:56 PMHi I have no problem with the translation for 你们这里能刷卡吗？ It‘s good for English-speaking learners to know that in Chinese we say 你们这里 / 我们这里 and it seems to me this sentence+translation serves this purpose. I prefer natural English translations myself; going word-for-word so often takes us off course instead of closer to the original.
As for the first question you brought up though, while it is good for Newbie and Ele learners to have in mind that there can be this vagueness (in real life, you might ask a few more questions if you want to be absolutely sure what's being said) explained by Greg, you do need to add the second 了 at the end to make 我在上海住了九个月 “I've lived in Shanghai for nine months (and am still living in Shanghai)”. This Expansion sentence doesn't have the second 了 yet is a complete, good sentence as is. For this reason I think it needs to be translated as "I lived in Shanghai for nine months (in the past; currently am not)". Stand-alone example sentences are always hard to translate because there's no context. But this is a pretty important grammar point for learners at this level. I think at this level at least, the translations should stick to "the meaning you get without any further background or information".