User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: All the Things You Can Hit: 打 (dǎ)
January 4, 2009 at 2:28 AMHi connie,
Aren't your forgetting an important word? That said, nowadays foreign guys, or even local people (especially in urban area), here in China have less opportunity to go get water by themselves.
打水 (da3 shui3) go get water
Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song
January 3, 2009 at 9:09 AMHi wchan,
There are some other Chinese words that can be used for "office politics". 办公室斗争 (ban4 gong1 shi4 dou4 zheng1) and "办公室权术" (quan2 shu4), although I feel they connote more negatively than 办公室政治. (zheng4 zhi4).
Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song
January 3, 2009 at 5:42 AMHi inland,
榜样 is basically used for people, and also aften used figuratively for things, such as companies，organizations and some art/literary works. But I'm not sure if 榜样 is used for a car..... I don't feel it's so natural. Incidentally, 典范 (dian3 fan4) also has the meaning similar to that of 榜样. I would appreciate other guys' advice.
Posted on: 山寨
January 3, 2009 at 2:09 AMHi user36165,
Pete often translates Chinese words in the Vocaburary section relatively freely (意译) perhaps because of the limited space there. If you would like to know more literal meanings, I recommend you get a small paper dictionary or refer to an online dictionary.
Posted on: Don't push that button
January 2, 2009 at 1:14 PMHi rjberki,
then they are "contractions"
Yes, this is just what the dictionary says, but I don't know if it's an accepted theory in Chinese linguistics.
Posted on: The Powerless Phones
January 2, 2009 at 1:05 PMHi kanjihanzi,
They are also blissfully ignorant re: pinyin, aren't they in general?
It's not blissfully ignorant. Native speakers just don't need to know such rules because they are native speakers. I'm a native Japanese speaker and can speak Japanese very fluently, but I know almost nothing about phonetic and grammatical rules in my native tongue. Maybe foreign learners of Japanese, like John, know much more about them than I do. Such is a language, isnt't it?
Posted on: Don't push that button
January 2, 2009 at 12:55 PMHi aipeili,
纽 is used for "纽扣" (niu3 kou4, clothing buttons), and 钮 is for switch buttons, just like "电钮" (dian4 niu3).
Posted on: 山寨
January 2, 2009 at 12:39 PMHi miantiao,
In China, the pharmaceutical industry is rather different from the dairy industry. The latter is mainly dominated by a few giant dairy companies such as 蒙牛 and 伊利, and therefore it's relatively easy (I still doubt it, hehe!) for the authorities to controll the industry. On the other hand, the Chinese pharmaceutical industry is full of small drug companies, which automatically means that it's an extremely tough job to make them behave themselves.
Posted on: Don't push that button
January 2, 2009 at 12:25 PMThe pinyin "- uan" is rather tricky. It's usually pronounced as "- wan", but is pronounced as something like "- wen" when it appears in "xuan, quan, juan, yuan". In short, these "u" (= yi) is different from other "u" (= u) in, for example, "tuan" or "duan". I would appreciate other guys' insights.
Posted on: All the Things You Can Hit: 打 (dǎ)
January 4, 2009 at 3:50 AMLooks like Chinese people really love "beating" something! One of my Chinese dictionaries spares seven pages for explaning/showing 打-related words!