One of each...

xuexiansheng
December 03, 2009, 05:06 AM posted in General Discussion

In chinese class today, we were talking about to characters in a scene.  The questions was: 这两个人是美国人还是中国人?  一个是美国的,一个是中国的。

is there a simpler way to say "one of each" rather than saying "one was option A, and one was option B"?

I was thinking of a situation like this:  

甲: You can have three pieces of fruit. We have apples, oranges and pears.

乙:I'll have two apples and a pear.

丙:I'll have one of each!

 

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gloria_counselor
December 03, 2009, 06:23 AM

Actually, there are different ways to say "one of each"in different context.

For example,这两个人是美国人还是中国人?  一个是美国的,一个是中国的。Here we must say " "one was option A, and one was option B".

But in your second example, "I'll have one of each "we would say"每种一个"。Of course we also say "an apple ,an orange and a pear."

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simonpettersson
December 03, 2009, 07:07 AM

xuexiansheng, mad props for using the celestial stems to represent the speakers. That is awesome.

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xuexiansheng
December 03, 2009, 07:09 AM

Ok, so we have to repeat.  谢谢明白了!

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xuexiansheng
December 03, 2009, 07:19 AM

I love the celestial stems, I find them much more clear.  For instance, when we were learning about comparing things with 比 I found it easier to understand examples like 甲比乙高一点儿,rather than  A 比 B 高一点儿。  When when my teacher said the two 'bi' sounds I thought I had to repeat 比. (A 比比 高一点儿  ?)

Go stems or go home! I say!

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changye
December 03, 2009, 07:21 AM

is there a simpler way to say "one of each" rather than saying "one was option A, and one was option B"?

Honestly, I don't understand what this means. Would you mind rephrasing the question?

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zhenlijiang
December 03, 2009, 09:44 AM

Changye I think xuexiansheng's question is
How to say 「それぞれ一つずつ」, which is simpler than having to list each item out like 「りんご1つ、みかん1つに梨1つ」?

Ah I did not know about celestial stems. To me this is stuff we come across in Japanese contracts.
Learning something new every day.

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changye
December 03, 2009, 11:36 AM

Hi zhenlijiang

Thanks, now I got it. Probably the phrase "各个 ~都有一个~" can also be used to say that, just like 各个国家都有一个人. Incidentally, "Influenza A H1N1" is translated as "甲型H1N1流感" in Chinese.