Please give grammar help!!!

Chinesepod help!

I have no idea why there is all that html garbage in the first part.  Can someone go in and delete that html code?  leave the rest.  Thanks.

Hi rjberki

Thanks for the article. I'm afraid that scientists are always happy to discourage adults from learning a new language, hehe. As a Japanese, I feel very honored to see the "R and L" pronunciation problem of Japanese people in the article, which seems to be a well-known example, thankfully. I'm willing to admit that's a fact, and furthermore Japanese people are very bad at distinguishing "n" from "ng". In my case, the "n/ng" problem is more serious than "L/R" one.

Hi zhenlijiang

I have a feeling the conclusive word is going to come from an English-native expert of Mandarin.

You might be right. So I just hope that our Chinesepod teacher team, which consists of both English and Chinese native speakers, will give us answers soon. This is one of the best threads I ever seen here in Chinesepod forum.

Guys, don't miss it!

Hi xiaophil, let me help you explain the question of "没" and "了" combining.

Sub+a certain period of time+没+Verb 了

means up to now, it has been a certain period of time you havn't done something.

For example,

我 两天 没 睡觉 了。

It has been two days since last time I slept.

I havn't slept for two days.

我两年没看见xiaophil 了。

It has been two years since I saw xiaophil last time.

I havn't seen xiaophil  for two years.

Remember, the basic use of 了 is to declare or report a news that something has been completed.

In this case, 了 shows "two years" has been completed, it has been two years.

Hopefully it will be helpful.

Practice:

Some of them need "了" and some of them don't, try to speak them in Chinese:

1 Last month he didn’t work for a week.

2 He hasn’t been to the company for a week till now.

3 He hadn’t had meal for more than 2 days when he was in the mountain.

4 We haven’t had a meal for 2 days since we came here.

5 It has been five years since I last saw him.

@xiaophil, no worries! It's a great post! I updated it, it's now OK!

Hi diwaien

我试试

1. 我上个月一个星期也没上班.

2. 他一个星期没来公司上班了.

3. 他在山上的时候,两天以上没吃饭.

4. 我们两天以前以来在这里一顿也没吃了.

5. 我五年没看见他了.

谢谢

I have a feeling there are many mistakes.

小phil，你中文不错，知道不少:) 加油啊！

1. 我上个月一个星期也没上班. （一个星期也没means didn’t go to work even a week）

他上个月一个星期没上班。

2. 他一个星期没来公司上班了.（写得好！）

3. 他在山上的时候,两天以上没吃饭.（remember the use of 多）

两天多没吃饭。

4. 我们两天以前以来在这里一顿也没吃了.（不说“来在这里”，可以说“来到这里”，或者“来这儿”；and pay attention to the standard structure Topic + a certain period of time + 没 + Verb 了）

我们来这儿以后，两天没吃饭了。

5. 我五年没看见他了.（嗯，对！）

很不错！记住，中文是topic + description的语言，这个能帮助你更有感觉，如果还有问题，请问。

diwaien老师，我明白您的解释，多感谢您！

Wow, great exercise

Xiaophil - you did better than I.

diwaien - Your meaning was perfectly clear, and the sentences near perfect, but in the spirit of two way learning I offer the following changes in your english sentences (I got the easy job): 

2 "He hasn’t been to the company for a week till now".

(you dont need the "till" - using until implies he has showed up now but was missing the entire previous week. Without the until it means he has been missing for a week, and is still missing.)

He hasn’t been to the company for a week now.

3 "He hadn’t had meal for more than 2 days when he was in the mountain."

"on" the mountain is correct, dont forget the "a"

He hadn't had a meal for more than two days while on the mountain.

or to avoid the "hadnt had" we more likely would say

He hadn't eaten for more than two days while on the mountain.

Great stuff, language is such a complex and subtle thing. It is depressing to note that I will never learn a second language nearly as good as the first. Here is an interesting article that touches on why:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_med_healthbeat_bilingual_tots

oh, and diwaien, thanks so much for helping.

diwaien

我上次有点急，所以忘了提你有如何的英文问题，请问我。顺便提一下，您是个老师还是个对外语有兴趣的人？

rjberki

That article is very interesting, and yes, a little depressing because I would like to think someday Mandarin will flow off my tongue as easily as English.  Well, we can just forge ahead and see what happens.

Hi xiaophil

This is just a great post. I also very much look forward to seeing replies preferably from native Chinese speakers who are proficient in English.

P/S. Maybe you wrote this post using WORD, didn't you? If so, pls use the "Paste from Word" button in the toolbar.

加油 sebire, but the babies have got something that we grownups haven't. Moms and dads! ;)

Well many of us do in fact have moms and dads, but maybe not teaching us Mandarin.

I went and got a Chinese wife, but I should have just got a Chinese mom! Ah well, least my little chip off the old block should have a good chance of winning this game!

Interesting article RJ. :)

4. 我们两天以前以来在这里一顿也没吃了 ithink this sentence have some mistakes~ “以前”and“以来”is different from the mean。One is previous，another is since.we can't put them togther.在这里 also have mistake，来这里is more better。I think you want express ：We have come here without foods for two days。right？so i think the “我们来到这儿有两天没吃饭了”is better~hope it can help you~~嘻嘻

Thanks to all who have commented so far.  There have been some good pointers and insights.  (And zoekoo, you are right about my grammar mistake.)

Perhaps someone can take a look at my original translations given in the post?  Pretty please.  (I know--so pathetically demanding.)

Thanks a lot rjberki，your explanation is as perfect as mine, haha. I'll read that article some time later.

I have a problem of distinguishing till and until.

小phil，也谢谢你。

再纠正你两个错误：多感谢您（应该说：多谢，或者“谢谢你”。大家都是年轻人，就别说“您”了，哈哈。）

你有如何的英文问题，请问我。（应该说：你有什么英语问题，请问我。“如何”是“怎么样”的意思，是一个古汉语，ancient Chinese，用在正式formal或者幽默humorous的地方。）

我是中文老师，北京人。很高兴认识大家。除了中文老师和科学家，没有人懂中文语法。哈哈

Seconding (thirding? fourthing?) xiaophil's request for comments on the sentences in his original post. I'd also very much like to know once and for all about these things.

(But these questions are also about very tricky English grammar points that we take for granted--I mean, can you imagine trying to get a grip on the Future Perfect and all these different tenses as a learner of English? I have a feeling the conclusive word is going to come from an English-native expert of Mandarin.)

Sebire I like your attitude. While we may fall short of our wildest delusions, we are also likely to make better progress by stopping less to bemoan our current (lack of) ability, right?

不管怎样，我们加油吧！

zhenlijiang, I think good progress is just generally ensured by being competitive and stubborn and believing in your ultimate superiority over the vexed problem. I refuse to be beaten by the following: babies, computers, Chinese and maths. Babies can't even feed themselves, computers can only count to 1, a billion people can speak Chinese and maths is mainly letters. Clearly, none of these things are hard! Delusion gets you far :D

xiaophil, my grammar book seems to agree with you for all sentences that do not contain a 着. I don't get 着, so you may well be right.

@zhenlijiang

I agree with you and I believe we all are able (and very capable) to learn a second language, you just have to work at it.

@raygo

I always love reading your  comments on cpod and thanks for all the great help you provide to all of us,   I thought your comment about getting a chinese mom was funny, I have heard and read that chinese wives/girlfriends dont necessarily make the best tutors and besides its better that you dont suggest that men learning chinese go out and get a chinese wife like you did, What if they already have a non chinese wife ? she could get pretty upset about that?

xiaophil, doesn't 我明天会看着书 mean "I'm going to stare at a book tomorrow" rather than read?

I did some Googling, and found the following example:

要是你明天十二点去他家，他一定正在吃饭。

If you go to his house at 12 pm tomorrow, he'll definitely be having his lunch.

It then goes on to say that the future progressive aspect needs to have an adverb (in this case 一定).

My attempt:

如果他给我打电话问我明天晚上有没有空，就说我一定在洗我的头发。

(Corrections very welcome - inspired by this week's ellie lesson!)

I decided to forget about English grammar (not that I knew anything in the first place) when I read this:

"While inflectional languages like English are concerned with marking the time of the action in relation to the time of the remark in which it is brought up, Chinese is more concerned with the developmental stage of an action. A time expression alone or even the context itself is sufficient to show time, such as the past, the present or the future. Therefore, inflection is not at all necessary and is non-existent in Chinese. In a given time frame, in Chinese an action is viewed with an emphasis on a particular phase along the course of its progress, which can be its beginning, its continuation, or its completion. “Each of these stages is referred to as an ‘aspect.’ A past action has all these aspects, so does a present action and a future action. Therefore, in English, the ‘perfective,’ or the ‘completive,’ may appear in the present tense, the past tense or the future tense."

Lots of examples:

http://chinese.rutgers.edu/class_content_simplified_chinese/level1/class30-to-39/class35/aux2_cs.htm

RJ, xiaophil, self-delusion is the way forward. I refuse to believe my adult brain cannot cope with something a baby can do. I am totally not being beaten by a baby!!!