User Comments - akalovid

Posted on: Thanking a Hospitable Friend

I would like to say simple thinks like

"thanks for the soup", or

"thanks for the cake". I searched the dictionary and it gives examples like

"xièxie nínde xìn" (Thanks for your letter)

I suppose I can't say

"xièxie nǐde táng", "xièxie nǐde dàngāo". How should I say? I suspect I don't have to construct something like "Thanks for sneaking soup and cake into my office yesterday" :-)

Sorry, guys, for troubling you, but I found 3 lessons on thanking and none seemed to have the structure "thanks for + noun". Therefore I thought it would be a useful to ask.

Posted on: Where in Shanghai

Thank you for revealing to us the most glamourous parts of Shanghai. That was very funny ;-)

Posted on: Chinese Names

Hello, David, sorry for posting a reply, but the iPod won't post otherwise and you are the name expert, it appears ;)

My Last name implies that my ancestor was good at something. Since it's relatively old we do not know what.

My nickname is Ludi, which I always expected one could make a Chinese name from easily. None of my Chinese friends ever did, although I've been wanting one since long time. My teacher also tried to transliterate. Perhaps it sounds like something bad?

I' ve started searching combinations by myself(麓杕, 龍鏑, 隆迪), but am certain a Chinese can do much better.

My official name is Angelos. If it helps your inspiration: I am a Cosmologist/Astrophysicist. But it doesn't need to be related.

Posted on: Can I Eat With You?

Could we perhaps say it is the difference between "welcome" and "Beijing welcomes you"?

This would seem intuitive to me, because in English when you say "welcome" you mean "I welcome you", but you never say it this way. On the other hand when you say "London welcomes you", you put subject and object explicitly.

Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners

I apologize for my previous comment being in such huge font. It was not intentional :-)

Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners

I absolutely love Qǐngwèn. As a very new learner of Greek nationality I often find the subtleties of Chinese grammar very difficult.

I was very surprised to hear you need more questions. Here are the first ones coming to my mind. They may not be as good as those of more skilled learners, but I'm at your disposal as a source of infinite ignorance to be lifted :-)

I recently suggested a QǐngWèn on the different usages of 就. Despite the existence of several good lessons on the topic, I think that one summarizing the different cases of occurence might help. Whenever I make the brave attempt to write Chinese diary. My teacher adorns it with many different jiù's. And she's very fond of what the ChinesePod team once said: "without it the sentence doesn't sound round" :-)

Then perhaps 到. We have a QingWen on 到底 but I see different dào's swirrling around. Sometimes like mǎidào,tīngdào it seems to have past or completion connotations. Sometimes not, like kàndào.

And perhaps 每 although there is already a lesson. Sometimes I see it alone like in

"Wǒ měitiān zhǎoshang liù diǎn bàn qǐ chuáng". Then again I see it with dōu. When I have to put the dōu and when not I still don't really know.

Posted on: When are you Coming to Hong Kong?

Thank you!

Perhaps it would make an interesting 请问 to comment on different sentences like the above and their exact meaning. I also noticed my Chinese friends in letters often use 过 to indicate past...

Posted on: When are you Coming to Hong Kong?

Thank you! That is what I meant. Doing it just once and not getting into the habit! Interestingly my mother tongue (Greek) greatly distinguishes between those cases in all tempi (past, present and future) :-)

Posted on: What'll it be?

I seem to remember three words meaning approximately "to want"

要（yào），想（xiǎng），喜欢 （xǐhuan).

Do they carry different nuances?

Sorry for commenting in a reply, but the site won't let me post a comment from the iPod.

Posted on: When are you Coming to Hong Kong?

Thank you very much for your quick reply!

Thank you for pointing out that hai2zi was unnecessary. I'm always impressed by the wonderful efficiency of chinese. I meant to say that I did it once! Do I need to state that explicitly? In my dictionary I found the words 曾 and 曾经。Should I say:

我小的时候我曾吃四个苹果。

？