question? structure
guest
May 09, 2010 at 01:59 PM posted in General Discussioni'm ele level and have not learn characters yet. so i would appreciate reply/examples in pinyin and translation.
[ni hai keyi yici fuqing bu] my translation is > can you pay all at once (or in full)
my WB does not understand this sentence structure. why is 'ma' not used?
if . 'bu' is used in present tense is 'le mei ' used in past tense. is this way to ask a question necessary to learn at my level? and can someone give me simple example sentences?
paulinurus
May 11, 2010 at 02:08 AM
The "bu" is equivalent to "ma". I've seen some sentences of this structure before. It goes something like this:
"Can you pay all at once, no?"
nǐ hái kěyǐ yīcì fù jīn bù?
你还可以一次付金不?
As for chinese characters, my experience is that it is best to get familiar with them as early as possible. Using pinyin alone can at times lead to lack of clarity or misunderstanding. With Chinese characters, one can definitively use a dictionary to check for the meaning of a word and the correct pinyin spelling.
paulinurus
May 13, 2010 at 12:28 AM
Correction:
Characters should read
nǐ hái kěyǐ yīcì fùqīng bù?
你还可以一次付清不?
付清 [pay+clear] is a phrase meaning "pay in full"
wenrui
May 12, 2010 at 05:04 AMI really wonder if this type of structure is necessary to learn at your level. IMHP you are fine with the ma form at your level.
It's fine to use the pinyin but I agree that you learning the characters will solidify your learning. Just start small- one character at a time would be fine. That said I learned to speak and understand Chinese first and it has only been recently that I have been learning how to read and write.