User Comments - changye

changye

Posted on: Dinner Guest

July 23, 2009 at 11:49 AM

Hi desluo919

(a) 我不希望你去北京。
(b) 我希望你不去北京。

The two examples besically have the same meaning, but example (a) is more straightfoward than (b) and has a strong connotation. Perhaps the same holds for "I don't hope you will ～" and "I hope you won't ～" in English. Am I right?

The 了 in "(我们是)老朋友了" is an interjection, which can be placed after a noun. I can't think of a good translation of this sentence, but probably it should be "You know, we've been friends for a long time" or something like that.

Posted on: Bringing it All Back Home With 回去 and 回来

July 23, 2009 at 5:17 AM

Hi jicutler

You can say “来中国” (come to China), but not “回来中国”. Why? Actually, I also often (mistakenly) say “下个月我要回去日本” or something like that.

The 来 in "回来中国" is grammatically different from that in in “来中国”. The former 来 is a kind of complement that indicates a direction. The latter one is a verb "come". You can place an object directly after the verb 来, but not after the complement 来.

By the same token, you can't say “进来房间” or “进去房间”. The correct ones are “进房间来” and “进房间去”. The 去 in “进房间去” is also a complement that indicates a direction.

Posted on: Cold from Biking

July 22, 2009 at 7:42 AM

Hi desluo919

That translation is not necessarily incorrect. Maybe it's not "literal", hehe. I guess that the 玩 in the example sentence might be a little difficult to translate into proper English, although I'm not sure.

Posted on: Drinking Game

July 22, 2009 at 3:54 AM

Hi xiaophil

I agree with you! To tell you the truth, I couldn't explain that in English, hehe.

Posted on: Cold from Biking

July 22, 2009 at 3:20 AM

Hi desluo919

You are right. 去海南玩 means "go to Hainan to play" , or a more literal translation should be "go to Hainan and play there". Here are some similar examples,

我去中国学汉语。 I go to China to study Chinese.
我去书店买词典。 I go to a book store to buy a dictionary.