User Comments - boran
boran
Posted on: Not on purpose
May 12, 2008 at 7:16 PMchenggwo: Another similar situation like bù (不) is yī (一). That is, 一 is fourth tone when in front of a word that is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tone like yìqǐ (一起). 一 becomes 2nd tone when in front of a 4th tone word like yíqiè (一切). 一 can also be 1st tone too when it refers to the actual number like yīyuè (一月). There are a couple of podcasts about tone rules: Tone-Rule: Two Third Tones Tone-Rule: Changes for 'bu'
Posted on: Souvenirs and Strange Statues
May 9, 2008 at 1:15 PMClay, you are a cool uncle! As a kid, I went down to my local Chinatown and bought my share of nunchucks (shuāng jié gùn 雙節棍) and throwing stars (shǒu lì jiàn 手裏剣). And I'm still in one piece. Is Optimus Prime pointing to the nearest xǐshǒujiān (洗手间)?
Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 5, 2008 at 4:26 AMConnie's meow - yet another reason to adore her! By the way, how do you write "meow" in Chinese? Jenny, big head = big brain, you can't wear màozi (帽子） because you are tài cōngmíng le (太聪明了)！
Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 5, 2008 at 4:14 AMSince this had the positional element lǐ (里), I like to request some more lessons on describing the position of things (example: when an object is on top of, beneath, nearby, across from etc.). I always get confused on these - not so much the vocabulary but on using the correct word order. I tried to see if there were any more lessons that described an object's position by searching the archives using the "location" tag but that didn't seem to return what I was looking for.
Posted on: #44
May 4, 2008 at 2:26 AMHenning, Great. I can't wait for Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! They should get around to that one around the year 8100.
Posted on: Formal Introduction
May 2, 2008 at 6:07 AMMichaellim, You can output pinyin with tone marks using an online tool like this one. Also, if you are familiar with using an IME to enter Chinese characters, there is one here(only works with Windows) that outputs pinyin with tone marks instead.
Posted on: Months
May 2, 2008 at 12:13 AMOne of the first head-scratching moments in learning Chinese is finding out there is no one word translation for "yes" or "no". In answering a "yes or no" question, you tend to repeat the main verb or negate the main verb to indicate "yes" or "no". However, I have also seen the use of "shì (是)" and bù shì (不是)" as in this dialog as a type of generic "yes" or "no". I was wondering if there are any guidelines for this usage.
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 啊 & 呀 (a & ya)
May 1, 2008 at 1:12 PMlight, I think that would work if you were a Chinese pirate - avast ye matey.
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 啊 & 呀 (a & ya)
May 1, 2008 at 12:27 PMAre there equivalent particles to sound more manly? Maybe some kind of grunting. All of my Chinese teachers have been women so I'm pretty convinced I already sound like a girl when speaking Chinese. bù hǎo a (不好啊）! For the record, I have used "breakdanced" AND "brokedance" as the past tense of "breakdance". Both are perfectly acceptable to me.
Posted on: Lo and La （咯 & 啦）
May 13, 2008 at 10:05 AMThe Canadian "eh" is similar to 吗 (ma) in that in can turn a declarative sentence into a yes/no question. For example: They did not have Qing Wen last week, eh? It is also similar to 呢 (ne) in that it can soften an existing question.