我老家
OleBrug
June 04, 2011, 08:15 AM posted in General DiscussionHi everyone, I'm supposed to work on a small text with this "theme", I hope I didn't make too many mistakes, can you have a look and point those out please? Thx!
我老家在法国南部，意大利旁边。这儿是我小时候的城市。我家北边有很多山，所以我以前每冬天滑过雪。并且，我家在海边，所以我每夏天常常游泳。我老家的天气很舒服：夏天很热，冬天比较凉快，春天和秋天很暖和。从我家到学校不远：我每天走过路去那儿，就需要一刻钟。我老家仍然是一个好地方，可是今天买的东西比以前贵多了。
(not great litterature, please bear with me, I'm trying to use the words I know! ;-)
OleBrug
June 05, 2011, 07:48 AM非常感谢Jenny!
OleBrug
June 05, 2011, 07:53 AMWhen writing 我每天走路去那儿, how can people understand that I'm actually writing in the past? I was trying to include the 过 somewhere but apparently I got it wrong. ;)
xiaophil
I think you could say 我当时每天走路去那儿 if you want to emphasize this happened in the past.
OleBrug
Noted and thanks! ;)
zhenlijiang
Hi OleBrug, when we're writing in Chinese, once we've established that we're giving an account of the past (your childhood), there's no need to express tense in the subsequent sentences. You will be assumed to be continuing in the past until you indicate otherwise (which is what happens with the sentence 我老家还是一个好地方，可是现在买东西比以前贵多了。). In fact we not only don't need to express past tense, I believe it's more natural not to.
OleBrug
That's interesting. So it means that as soon as I have said "我在那儿长大", people understand that the following sentences are about my childhood. That is until I mention something with 今天 or 现在.
Thanks!
xiaophil
Zhen, I'm wondering if this kind of sentence ever needs a 了. The reason I say this is that this is a general statement--no specific action was completed, which is what 了 is supposed to indicate.
zhenlijiang
OleBrug was trying to fit a 过 into his sentence, not a 了. I'd say you're right of course about the generalness. I neglected to say that part of the point is that he was describing things that he did regularly in the past, not just one time.
But first I think it's important to clarify that in Chinese when giving an account of the past we don't usually keep saying "I used to ..." or "I went ...", which is what it seemed to me OleBrug thought he had to do.
jennyzhu
June 04, 2011, 02:00 PMYou did an excellent job! Just few minor changes:
这儿是我小时候的城市>我在那儿长大。
并且，我家在海边，所以我每夏天常常游泳。> 而且，我家在海边，所以我夏天常常游泳。
我每天走过路去那儿，就需要一刻钟。我老家仍然是一个好地方，可是今天买的东西比以前贵多了。> 我每天走路去那儿，只需要一刻钟。我老家还是一个好地方，可是现在买东西比以前贵多了。