User Comments - BillJefferys

Posted on: 见面三分情

The podcast version is still not downloading on iTunes. Message says "stopped (err=404)".

Posted on: How Old Are You?

I had always used ‘你多大’ (nǐ duō dà) without the ‘了’ (le). I can see that the ‘了’ here has the function of \"attained the age of\" (i.e., completion of something).

So the question is, is the ‘了’ obligatory? Or is it natural to omit it as I have been taught, and if so, under what circumstances?

Posted on: The Complement 不了

John, mala_counselor,

These are very useful comments. I think I was thinking of the meaning of 说不出口 when I asked (this is a phraseology I had not heard before), and 他说不了话 works when it is physically impossible to speak.

Thanks to you both!

Posted on: The Complement 不了

How about '说不了’? I was just thinking about this lesson, and wondered, (A) is this something one would say? and (B) if so, would it mean "It is impossible for me to say it", or "It is impermissible for me to say it"?

Compare "我不能说”, for example. I would think that this means more like "impermissible" than "impossible."

This is a fine line, I think.

Posted on: Old China Hand

"Would it be wrong to add a 的 after 你, in the second line of the dialogue? It would be “你的中文说的很好”， instead of “你中文说得很好”"

I'll defer to any native Chinese speakers on this, but it doesn't seem right. Your substitution seems to be objectifying 中文 as we often do in English, "Your Chinese is very good." But the sentence in the dialog is "You - Chinese - speak very well." (It's a "Topic-Comment" construction.) I don't know if you can transport the English "Your Chinese" into Chinese.

Maybe one can say “你的中文很好”, but this seems awkward to me.

Does anyone really know?

Posted on: Old China Hand

Another way to assert modesty in the face of praise is to say ‘哪里，哪里。’ (nǎlǐ, nǎlǐ.)

My Chinese teacher many years ago advised against using ‘谢谢’ (xièxiè) at all in such a situation. Even trying to take it back (as in the dialog) by adding a disclaimer is kind of awkward, and as the dialog suggests, probably a native speaker wouldn't start out saying ‘谢谢’.

Posted on: Adjectives with 是 (shi)

The late John de Francis pointed out in his important textbooks that in Chinese, words that we would normally think of as "adjectives", and which in fact function as adjectives in English, words such as 'red', 'cute', etc., (in Chinese '红', '可爱', etc.) function grammatically somewhat differently in Chinese than in English. In particular, they do not require something analogous to the English verb 'is'; that is implied by the word itself. He called such words "stative verbs". So in a phrase like "东方红", "the East is red", the '红' carries not only the "redness" aspect but also the "is" (verb-like) aspect. Thus, when someone says "东方是红", she is emphasizing the "is" part of the sentence, "the East IS red". That is clearly illustrated by the examples in this lesson.

Posted on: Practicing Kung Fu

Trying again...

Bodawei, my blurb says that I visited China twice, not that I have lived there for several years. My total time in China is about three months, during which time I was of course very busy teaching, sightseeing and trying to improve my Chinese. But not several years!

And the last time I was there was over 20 years ago!

Posted on: Practicing Kung Fu

Bodawei, my blurb says that I visited China twice, not that I have lived there for several years. My total time in China is about three months, during which time I was of course very busy teaching, sightseeing and trying to improve my Chinese. But not several years!

And the last time I was there was over 20 years ago!

Posted on: Practicing Kung Fu

Thanks for your comments, but I guess you are not a native Chinese speaker (as I am not). I'm really looking for the opinions of the real experts, those that speak Chinese natively.