User Comments - JasonSch
JasonSch
Posted on: Speaking and Writing
March 27, 2010 at 12:12 PMHi, yoavs
When zài (在) comes before a verb, it acts like '-ing' does after a verb in English and creates something like the progressive tense.
So, wǒ zài xué zhōngwén (我在学中文) translates as 'I'm studying Chinese'.
Hope that helps!
Posted on: Talking about Talking in Chinese
March 27, 2010 at 11:50 AMHi, zhong_bide
告诉 means 'to tell', or 'to inform', whereas 讲 on the other hand, means 'to speak', and also sometimes 'to explain'.
我跟你讲 is translated as 'I'm telling you', given the way the phrase is used, but a direct translation would be, 'I'm saying to you'.
Posted on: Talking about Talking in Chinese
March 27, 2010 at 11:35 AMHi, AnQiang
聊 is from 聊天, which means to 'chat', but can also be translated as talk. For example, your sentence above could be, 'What are you guys talking about?', or 'What are you guys chatting about?'.
Posted on: 我的创业梦想
March 27, 2010 at 10:26 AMHi, Christine,
Good questions!
1) 固定下来 doesn't directly have any connection to going 合法, but is more about being 稳定 and 'stable'. I went with 'go legit' because I felt that in the context, stable/regular and legal were implied. You could also say, 'Something more stable'.
2) I think of 也是 as simply being agreement with the previous speaker, 可不是 as like 'exactly!', or 'ain't that the truth!' and 是啊 as just 'yeah' (so, similar to 也是) But, I'm not a native speaker! Maybe a Chinese teacher could provide some input on more subtle differences.
Posted on: What would you like to drink?
March 25, 2010 at 12:44 PMHi dunderklumpen,
'What have you' is an expression meaning 'and other such things' or 'and things like that'.
Posted on: Warcraft in China
March 23, 2010 at 8:56 AMYeah, I have a 360 and I quite like it. We often have mild flame wars in the office about which system is better. :)
植物大战僵尸 is pretty fun by the way. I have the app version.
Posted on: Warcraft in China
March 23, 2010 at 8:34 AMAnd within minutes of each other. ha! I'll head over to the post.
Posted on: Love Tangle 2: A Lover Returns
March 21, 2010 at 2:25 PMHi, ptsteadman
I've heard 假 used to convey this sense of corny, unrealistic and/or poorly-acted and written.
Posted on: Late Getting Back
March 21, 2010 at 9:11 AMNope! Haha, but that's all right. I don't mind at all. If I'm not busy and am able to answer, I'll do my best.
There are 3 'de's. 的, 得, and 地.
The first one you likely know. The second is after verbs, like 你说得很好. And 地 is after two-character adjectives (which would make them adverbs, I think...) like in the example above. Or, 好好地去做.
So, when speaking, they're all pronounced the same and you may just think they're all 的, but in fact, they are 3 separate characters with different grammatical functions.
Posted on: Talking about Talking in Chinese
March 28, 2010 at 2:17 AMNo problem! Btw, and you can also say 我告诉你, which means essentially the same thing. ('Let me tell you', 'I'm telling you').