shao and xiao
shadow22
November 22, 2011, 07:23 PM posted in I Have a QuestionI am having trouble with sorting out between the use of shao and xiao, they seem to be somewhat interchangable? xie xie,thank you
Cody
shadow22
Is it xiao that is used in front of a name sometimes? If so why? Xie xie ni
toianw
That's right. You can use xiao3 (the same character as small) followed by a person's family name. It's used to address someone younger than you (though usually only once you have a reasonably close freindship/relationship with them).
shadow22
我明白 wo mingbai
westend
November 22, 2011, 08:50 PMPeople use "shao" to count number. For example, if a class has few students, you can say "zhe ge jiao shi de xue sheng hen shao." People use "xiao" to count a material is big or small. You can say this is a small room (zhe ge fang jian hen xiao).