writing a speech (pinyin)

1: 首先,我想对您说非常感谢,因为您教我说汉语. [shou3xian1, wo3 xiang3 dui4 nin2 shuo1 fei1chang2 gan3xie4, yin1wei2 nin2 jiao4 wo3 shuo1 han4yu3.] "Literally, firstly, I want to you say very much thanks, because you teach I speak Chinese." This is the most natural way of conveying your intended meaning. A direct translation would be awkward. 2: I need you to provide a bit more context here. If you haven't discovered yet, Chinese is an exceptionally contextual language. Provide a full sentence to translate as opposed to just fragments. 3: The Chinese, when refering to someone's age would generally say, 他今年十八岁. [ta1 jin1nian2 shi2ba1 sui4] Literally, "He this year eighteen years." This would be a bit more natural. Otherwise, you could say 他今年九月十一号十八.岁. [ta1 jin1nian2 jiu3 yue4 shi2yi1 hao4 shi2ba1 sui4]. Literally, he this year nine month eleven day eighteen years.

Just caught something...Kyle's Chinese sentence says "Firstly, I'd like to thank you..." but you wanted "thank my teacher" right? In that case, go with Jenny's or beianqingfeng's translations, which say "thank my teacher..."

You'd probably want to go with: 我开始学汉语以前,说的很少. 比如说,"不要, 太贵了,等等." [wo3 kai1shi3 xue2 han4yu3 yi3qian2, shuo1 de hen3 shao3. bi3ru2shuo1, bu2 yao4, tai4 gui4 le, deng3 deng3] Literally: "I begin study Chinese before, speak very little. For example, 'I don't want,' 'too expensive', etc." The word order is a bit cumbersome to pick up at first, but as you learn more it becomes automatic. So, don't worry. You'll get it eventually. =) Also, I might have the characters for "etc." wrong, but it is 3rd tone.

Another way; 因为在中国购物的时候我只学那些汉语句子。 (yin1 wei4 zai4 zhong1 guo2 gou4 wu4 de shi2 hou4 wo3 zhi3 xue2 na4 xie1han4 yu3 ju4 zi) because in china shopping while, I only learn these chinese phrases. Kyle: 等等 是对

Penelope, and Kyle, I'm quite sure that 岁 suì is only used for ages under ten (十岁以下), put simply for children. I don't know for teenagers, but definitely you should say 十八年纪 shí bā nián jì, the word for adults. Otherwise, good job Kyle and 火猫 :)

Sorry Franch; 岁is used for all ages. Common ways to ask age; 你几岁了？ 你记年纪？ 你多大了？ You might be thinking of objects where you have to ask "这个地方有多少年历史？“ How much history does this place have.

Hi LadyPenelope, Kyle has given marvellous translations, here is my additional 2 cents: "First, I would like to thank my teacher for teaching me to speak Chinese." "首先，我要感谢我的老师教我说中文。” "because these were the only phrases I learnt, when I was shopping in China" “因为这是我在中国买东西的时候唯一学会的句子。” and "He will be 18 years old on the 11th of September." “他九月十一号就十八岁了。”

Wipes egg off face! 我还差得远呢!

Wow, Kyle - xiexie ni. As you can tell, my understanding of chinese is very limited. I look forward to learning more in the future. What I'm trying to say with the second bit is "Before I learnt Chinese, I could only say a few things - "bu yao, tai gui le...". I learnt these things/words/phrases when I went shopping in China." It's amazing, I can see quite clearly how you constructed the sentences above, but am nowhere near proficient enough to make the right constructions. I can see the 'blocks' I might need to say that (wo xue zhongwhen yiqian... mai dongxi... Zhongguo et) just can't put them together properly yet. I'd love to extend myself, to have a slightly more 'interesting' speech than simply reorganising the phrases we've memorised!

I mean 用岁就不当...grr

First, I would like to thank my teacher for teaching me to speak Chinese."： 首先，我想感谢教我说汉语的老师。 He will be 18 years old on the 11th of September."： 到9月11日的时候，他就18岁了。 In chinese, we usually use "将" to express things would happen in the future. for example " 我将于下个月去北京” that means : I will go to Beijing in a month.

Yes, “岁”对大人用不恰当。 但是在中国，对于18岁的人来讲，用“岁”是很正常的。 并且，当你和另外一个人交流或用于自称时，用岁也是可以的。

Wow - thanks all for the suggestions everyone! unfortunately, as I have only been studying spoken mandarin for approximately 2 months, I have only learnt written pinyin so far...no chinese characters!! I have taken the characters that you have so generously provided, and put them into an online translator - but who knows how accurate that is... would this translate (without tones at this stage) properly for ""because these were the only phrases I learnt, when I was shopping in China"? Yinwei zhei shi wo zai zhongguo mai dongxi de shi hou wei yi xue hui de. I think the rest is under control, and I am excited about sharing this with my teacher!

yīnwèi zhè shì wǒ zài Zhōngguó mǎi dōngxi de shíhou wéi yī xué huì de jùzi - Seems right, unh? Zhei sounds more informal, zhe is standard.

Hi,ladypenelope,franch is right. In Chinese, there`s not word whose pinyin is"zhei " ,"zhe" should be used in the sentence.

嗯，那么我老师为什么告诉我们对大人用不当? sigh