User Comments - amber
amber
Posted on: Death by Ninja
September 12, 2007 at 6:57 AMhi dmartind, Here is a mini-newbie lesson just for you, about wrapping up a phone conversation in a nice way: A - 你还有事吗？ (Nǐ háiyǒu shì ma?) B - 没了。 (Méi le.) A - 那就这样吧。我先挂了。(Nà jiù zhèyàng ba. Wǒ xiān guà le.)
Posted on: All About 所有 (suǒyǒu) and 都 (dōu)
September 12, 2007 at 6:47 AMhi nicolas, In Chinese "我不会喝酒. (Wǒ bù huì hē jiǔ.)" can mean both that "I can't drink alcohol (ability)" and "I don't drink alcohol". It depends on the context.
Posted on: All About 所有 (suǒyǒu) and 都 (dōu)
September 12, 2007 at 6:45 AMHi wildyaks, Your sentence is right, in that example you could use 所有 (suǒyǒu) and 一切 (yīqiè) pretty much interchangeably. Their differences are very subtle. It can be further explained in that 所有 (suǒyǒu) emphasizes and entire amount, quantity, 一切 (yīqiè) stresses all the types, every variety. In the following two sentences, the meaning is that all the problems were solved. However: 所有问题都解决了。(Suǒyǒu wèntí dōu jiějué le.) is more general, all the problems were solved. 一切问题都解决了。(Yīqiè wèntí dōu jiějué le.) further implies there were a variety of types of problems that were all solved.
Posted on: Death by Ninja
September 12, 2007 at 3:59 AMHi Art, No, no, don't worry... I extracted the word 'eh' from my vocabulary repertoire when I left Canada. It sounds so hick... even to my Canadian ears.
Posted on: Identifying Family Members
September 12, 2007 at 2:43 AMhi hariko, There isn't a special meaning, the left side is the character for woman, the right side is the phonetic aspect of the character.
Posted on: More or less? 多 (duō) and 少 (shǎo)
September 10, 2007 at 1:05 PMHi Jeff, Sorry, its a leetle bug right now since the changeover to the new homepage. It will be fixed asap......sorry for the inconvenience...!
Posted on: In-Laws and Drinking
September 10, 2007 at 6:19 AMHi Art, Yenta/female matchmaker, in Chinese is: 媒婆 (méipó) :)
Posted on: More or less? 多 (duō) and 少 (shǎo)
September 10, 2007 at 4:10 AMHi everybody, Here are the example sentences used in today's Qing Wen: 多吃一点。Duō chī yīdiǎn. 多花一点时间学习中文。Duō huā yīdiǎn shíjiān xuéxí Zhōngwén. 多交一些中国朋友。Duō jiāo yīxiē Zhōngguó péngyou. 多吃中国菜。Duō chī Zhōngguócài. 多穿旗袍。Duō chuān qípáo. 多穿一点衣服。Duō chuān yīdiǎn yīfu. 多去KTV,多唱中文歌。Duō qù KTV, duō chàng Zhōngwén gē. 多去酒吧。多认识一些朋友。Duō qù jiǔbā. Duō rènshi yīxiē péngyou. 少吃一点。 Shǎo chī yīdiǎn 少说英文。Shǎo shuō Yīngwén 少花一点时间玩。Shào huā yīdiǎn shíjiān wán. 少吃西餐。Shǎo chī xīcān. 少见说英文的朋友。Shǎo jiàn shuō Yīngwén de péngyou. 少用英文思考。Shǎo yòng Yīngwén sīkǎo. 请少说英文,多说中文. 因为我想学习中文。Qǐng shǎo shuō Yīngwén, duō shuō Zhòngwén. Yīnwèi wǒ xiǎng xuéxí Zhōngwén. 少关心结果,多享受过程。Shǎo guānxīn jiéguǒ, duō xiǎngshòu guòchéng.
Posted on: Asking for English Books
September 10, 2007 at 3:41 AMhi cab027, 看书 (kànshū) is used generally to mean 'to read' 读书 (dúshū) is more often used to mean 'to study' or 'to attend school'
Posted on: All About 所有 (suǒyǒu) and 都 (dōu)
September 12, 2007 at 7:01 AMHi LostinAsia, Yes, in this case, you could also use 所有 (suǒyǒu): 父母把所有希望都寄托在他身上了。 Fùmǔ bǎ suǒyǒu xīwàng dōu jìtuō zài tā shēnshang le。