Really good Chinese food

mattuk

March 05, 2010, 10:04 PM posted in I Have a Question

Hi everyone, this is my first post, I hope Im not repeating anything or not looking hard enough through the Cpod lessons but, figured this was the right place to ask!!

I would like to know how to say/write something on the lines of... 'I would like to go to several restaurants to eat really good Chinese food'... (while Im in China)
I looked at the lesson 'Discussing Eating' and came up with this... 我想到许多餐厅去吃很好中餐...

Im a complete newbie so Pinyin too please ;-)
Any help is welcome, and please explain discuss any grammar points/problems because I find that interesting; Im thinking of my use of word 许多 !!. Ha.

Thanks. Matt.

xiao_liang

March 05, 2010, 10:33 PM

Here is my butchered attempt:

我在中国想去许多饭店吃很好的美食

wǒ zài zhōng guó xiǎng qù hǔ duō fàn diàn chī hěn hǎo de měi shí

Note: my chinese is awful and will need correction :p

xiao_liang

March 08, 2010, 09:01 PM

waah. comments not showing up again :(

Anyway, I just said I use google translate all the time too :)

bodawei

March 06, 2010, 03:43 AM

中餐 is more the abstract idea of Chinese cuisine, so Changye's version 中国菜 (dishes) is more appropriate in this context.

mattuk

March 07, 2010, 05:22 PM

Thanks for the help.

xiao_liang, haha, its much better than my attempt - and it makes perfect sense to me!! cheers.

However, not knowing much about the grammar, when I translated the phrase 我在中国期间想去几家餐馆吃好吃的中国菜 I came up with:

'I want to go to several restaurants in China during the eating delicious Chinese food'

Obviously to an English speaker this doesn't work so I am assuming it is the correct sentence pattern being used? Making the sentence read something like:

' I want to eat delicious Chinese food in several restaurants during my time in China.'

Correct? Any chance of an explanation as to why this works? (Probably a huge question and no doubt I will learn this as I go on).

Understood about 中国菜, certainly makes more sense.

Thanks.

xiao_liang

"However, not knowing much about the grammar, when I translated the phrase 我在中国期间想去几家餐馆吃好吃的中国菜 I came up with:

'I want to go to several restaurants in China during the eating delicious Chinese food'"

That's google translate doing the best it can. Looking at this bit by bit:

我在中国期间想去几家餐馆吃好吃的中国菜

I while in China (period of time 期间), would like to go (想去) to several restaurants (several几 restaurants家餐馆) to eat (吃) delicious (好吃的) chinese food (中国菜)

A good site for showing the pinyin is this one:

http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html

go_manly

March 07, 2010, 08:15 PM

Can háishì (还是) be used as an implied threat, as in "you had better not ...".

For example, in the classroom, can you say to a kid who is talking:

你还是闭嘴. (nǐ háishì bìzuǐ) ?

Whether you can or can't, is there a better way of saying "you had better (not) ..." ?

changye

March 06, 2010, 02:08 AM

我在中国期间想去几家餐馆吃好吃的(or 地道的)中国菜。

xiao_liang

March 07, 2010, 08:33 PM

Waaah! Where is my huge comment I just posted?!

xiao_liang

March 07, 2010, 08:41 PM

Sigh. I posted this already! 2nd try (totally giving up if it doesn't work this time)

"However, not knowing much about the grammar, when I translated the phrase 我在中国期间想去几家餐馆吃好吃的中国菜 I came up with:

'I want to go to several restaurants in China during the eating delicious Chinese food'"

Ok, so what you have there is the google translate answer, doing the best job it can. Transliterating the phrase gets:

我在中国期间想去几家餐馆吃好吃的中国菜

I, while in China (lit: I (我 wǒ) located China (在中国 zàizhōngguó) period of time (期间qījiān)) would like to go to (想去xiǎngqù) lots of restaurants (几jī(some) 家餐馆 jiācānguǎn(restaurants)) to eat (吃chī) delicious (好吃的hǎochīde) chinese food (中国菜zhōngguócài).

mattuk

March 08, 2010, 06:58 PM

Excellent stuff, thanks, I've got it now. Just not sure where to begin to place characters in the correct order in sentence patterns yet but will pick it up as I go on hopefully.

Ha, yea the Google translator was the fastest way for me to try to get an idea of the sentence, I try to use this as little as possible but was kinda stuck without the Pinyin to boot.

"Sigh. I posted this already! 2nd try (totally giving up if it doesn't work this time)" Ha, cheers for your efforts xioa_liang, appreciated.

'I want to go to several restaurants in China during the eating delicious Chinese food'"

That's google translate doing the best it can. Looking at this bit by bit:

我在中国期间想去几家餐馆吃好吃的中国菜

I while in China (period of time 期间), would like to go (想去) to several restaurants (several几 restaurants家餐馆) to eat (吃) delicious (好吃的) chinese food (中国菜)

A good site for showing the pinyin is this one:

http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html