儿 and its confusion

osyrisdc
July 06, 2010, 10:05 PM posted in General Discussion

Ok so I have run into the character "儿" many many times. It seems like it is used almost as a comma at times? But it is also used as a real word as well..... 

Is it assumed that the reader will interpret the usage depending on the context and usage? I also noticed that it is not pronounced when used as a comma.

Can anyone enlighten me a bit more?

 

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bababardwan
July 06, 2010, 10:13 PM

osyrisdc,

I'm not sure if I can help or not,but generally find it easier to help if there are some examples to work with. Do you have any examples? To tell the truth, I don't know that I've ever noticed it being used as a comma and am intrigued to look into this.

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go_manly
July 06, 2010, 10:21 PM

It is not a comma. It is a common suffix for nouns.

And it is pronounced, although only the 'r' part is pronounced when used as a suffix. So it doesn't add a syllable to the word, just an 'r' sound. So 那儿 (nàr) is only 1 syllable, but it is definitely pronounced differently to 那 (nà).

And yes, it is spoken as a full syllable in the words 儿子 (érzi) - son, and 女儿 (nǚér) - daughter, amongst others. I doubt it is ever used by itself, but I could be wrong there.

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bababardwan

go_manly,

Good explanation mate. Yeah, that pretty much sums up my understanding of 儿 ,but I thought I must have somehow missed this comma thing. I'd be interested to see examples where it had given this impression.

ps I guess it is also worth noting that 儿 is used as a suffix a lot more in northern parts of China near Beijing. ...and when it is used in that way it is called erhua 儿化...nonsyllabic final r

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osyrisdc

Got it!

I wasn't familiar enough with characters or words to discern the alteration in pronunciation it was making. My ears were expecting a separate syllable which is why I thought it was a pause or comma because when my eyes got to this character it was already pronounced in conjunction with the previous character.

Now it makes complete sense.

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bababardwan

oh,thanks osyrisdc for clarifying that. Good explanation of why you got that impression.