tone marks for phrase "nali you"

meir
May 02, 2010, 10:08 PM posted in General Discussion

When asking about where something is (directions), my book , which never uses tone marks has it as 那里 有.
When I looked up 那里 on nciku it lists it as both
nǎli and nàli. Which tones for nali would be the correct ones in this case (3rd tone or 4th tone)? Is 有 3rd tone (yǒu) like the normal case of the verb to have?

the same goes for saying "over there" listed as
在 那里. I don't know what tones to use for "nali" in that case either : ((

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elizaeggie
May 02, 2010, 10:28 PM

From my understanding (also being a newbie), nǎ, third tone, is the question word "where", and nà, fourth tone, means "over there". And I believe yǒu will still be third tone.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable can confirm. :)

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suansuanru

yes,but nǎ lǐ(哪里) will change to ná lí if followed by "yǒu"(yǒu need not to change.)

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changye
May 03, 2010, 04:37 AM

Hi mer6

Both are correct, but in modern Chinese only "那" (na4) is used. “那” (na3) was used instead of “哪” (na3) in classical Chinese in the past.

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matthewrudy
May 03, 2010, 10:31 AM

And lots of people seem to say 《那》 as "nei".

Recently I always seem to say "nei ge", "zhei ge" and "na ge" for 《那个》,《这个》 and 《哪个》

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suansuanru

i guess you live in the North China.

Beijing hua speaks"nei ge"and "zhei ge".

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changye

I hear that “那个” (nei4ge) is short for “那一个” (na4 yi2 ge). The same is true for “这个” (zhei4ge) and “哪个” (nei3ge).

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suansuanru

ah,changye,你说的有道理!

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changye

When a Chinese character has a few readings, colloquial one tend to have double vowels, for example, “色” (se4, shai3), 得 (de2, dei3) and “薄” (bo2, bao2). I guess there might be a similar logic behind “那” (na4, nei4). In other words, double vowels are easier to recognize and pronounce (= 顺口) in conversation. Just a thought.

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suansuanru

>When a Chinese character has a few readings, colloquial one tend to have double vowels

Interesting!

and i think 色shai3 is a 方言词. The people who live in south china only say it in色子.

and when speak of薄,this character 很麻烦,I am sure even chinese people feel hard to decide how to read it correctly in different context.

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suansuanru
May 03, 2010, 11:32 AM

i guess you live in the North China.

Beijing hua speaks"nei ge"and "zhei ge".

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suansuanru
May 03, 2010, 11:40 AM

yes,but nǎ lǐ(哪里) will change to ná lí if followed by "yǒu"(yǒu need not to change.)

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changye
May 03, 2010, 12:13 PM

I hear that “那个” (nei4ge) is short for “那一个” (na4 yi2 ge). The same is true for “这个” (zhei4ge) and “哪个” (nei3ge).

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sovannra
May 03, 2010, 01:15 PM

Oh, really

As normally, I still use 那 and 哪。

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meir
May 10, 2010, 01:17 PM

From what I have been able to gather, Eliza's answer seems to be on the mark. Thanks, Eliza and everyone else for answering!

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sallyim
May 11, 2010, 02:41 PM

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