User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: How do you fix a boring Chinese course?

噢，我用的日中词典里有“自卖自夸”这个成语，但是它没提到这就是歇后语的后半。 * 啊，找到了“老王卖瓜”。

自卖自夸哪里都没有不好的。只要夸不是夸海口，就可以了！夸海口的话，用户早晚会要求退费用吧。特别是那些比较容易打官司的（欧美）朋友们，嘻嘻。

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

Ah thank you again Jiaojie! I'd always felt something was missing, with "从来不" for "would never ~". I'll probably stick to 永远不会 from now on.

* Oh I just saw your addition. So I would translate 我从来不抽烟 as "I don't smoke" (I never smoke), and 我从来不喝酒 as "I don't take alcohol / I don't drink" (I never drink alcohol).

So really, I think we should say that 从来不 doesn't express would never. (that'll teach me to go against my gut and start trying to reason my way to language fluency!)

And shame on me, I'm sure I knew all this before. 现在都记住了。

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

Hi neddanison, note I said to Huami I prefer to express "I would never ~" as 我从来不会 ~. With the 会.

As you say, "I would never" is equivalent to "I am not willing" (which is why I also wondered aloud if I could express that somewhat emphatically as 纹身我可不愿意！--but haven't received feedback on that). To know whether to use 不 or 没 in negating, a simple rule that helps me is, 不 is used when talking about intent and 没 is used when talking about result (something didn't happen). Therefore 我从来不 would be talking about one's intent. I would never. But like I say, I prefer to add the 会 there; the meaning seems clearer to me that way.

And for "I have never ~", we would say 我从来没（有）~ 过.

Hope I'm not adding to any confusion, and if I am, hope to be set straight soon.

Posted on: How do you fix a boring Chinese course?

嗯，让我想起日语中的「自画自賛」 ji-ga ji-san 这句成语（好像汉语中的“自画自题”不那么常用的，是吗）。 我也不在乎哦~

Posted on: You've been everywhere!

Hey I'm no expert on this, but how finding the picture made you feel is probably the kernel of your dream. It's intriguing. Be careful though; you might be revealing an awful lot more than you realize!

(apologies for going very off-topic to the lesson.)

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

Thank you Jiaojie. My dictionary tells me the use of 文 in this sense of "get a tattoo" is archaic, but so I guess it's still commonly used?

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

I appreciate your concern Bodawei! And can see why you could worry that I may have assumed Huami to be a native English speaker and not Chinese. I should have asked her, since I don't understand it either, why 文纹身. But either way, I prefer to express "I would never ~" as 我从来不会.

And I may not always say so, but with me, corrections where I'm wrong are always welcome.

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

Hi huami, for "I would never get a tattoo" I would be more likely to say 我从来不会纹身.

Actually I might be most likely to say (a bit emotionally, because I don't like unnecessary pain) something like 纹身我可不愿意！ which strictly speaking is not "I would never ~", but I think it could work in this case ...

Yes? No? Maybe so?

Posted on: Speaking with 跟 (gen) and 对 (dui)

they are too small to explain it to me ...

（＾ｖ＾）

Posted on: The Double 了 (le) phenomenon

Sorry if I seemed to discourage you from asking questions here. I don't want to do that. We do try though, to keep our discussions related to the lesson content as much as possible. We can always start our own post with questions, or if there is a related lesson out there we can go and ask there too.

Also Jiaojie has so many grammar questions to respond to, and we all really need and appreciate her help with those. It's a lot of work to explain grammar to learners through these text comments and it only seems fair for us to try and consult dictionaries first, for words we want to know how to say.

FYI nciku is back up and running now. This is one of the pages retrieved through a search I ran for "depend". I think it might help:

http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E4%BE%9D%E8%B5%96/1317952