User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Ticket Scalper
July 15, 2008 at 8:47 AM牛黄 (niu2 huang2) is a kind of Chinese medicine. You can see a lot of 牛黄解毒片 (detoxicating tablet) sold at a pharamacy here in China. Be careful not to buy them from 黄牛.
Posted on: Wait!
July 15, 2008 at 12:06 AMHi wolson,
Besides “A跟B，怎么不一样?” version, you have other options, but don’t ask me about “their slight differences in nuance”. I have no way to answer them. I can only say that the lower, the less commonly used (or more formal), .....perhaps.
A跟B (gen1)
A和B (he2)
A同B (tong2)
A与B (yu3)
有什么不一样？you3 shen2 me bu4 yi2 yang4
有什么区别？qu1 bie2
有什么不同？bu4 tong2
有什么差别？cha1 bie2
有什么差异？cha1 yi4
Posted on: Finding a Taxi
July 14, 2008 at 10:38 PMHi rjberki,
Both 飞机场 and 机场 are OK. As far as Mandarin is concerned, the shorter, the better. But the longer one might more easily get through to natives than the shorter one does when you are unsure about your pronunciation.
Posted on: Finding a Taxi
July 14, 2008 at 12:47 PMHi rjberki,
No more worry about calling a taxi. Just saying "出租车，我要去机场" would be enough. No matter how politely you ask, you cannot expect a polite response anyway at a shubby hotel in a small city at 4 am, China local time. Good luck.
Posted on: Finding a Taxi
July 14, 2008 at 10:11 AMHi rjberki,
You don't need to ask the concierge to call a taxi, cause in general there are always a lot of taxi waiting for you in front of a hotel. All you have to say is "机场!".
By the way, in China even water is often beaten "打". You sometimes hear the phrase 打水 (da3 shui3) in the sense that someone goes to draw water.
P/S. Just in case Shanghai has a few airports......,
Posted on: Finding a Taxi
July 14, 2008 at 9:00 AMDoes anyone know the etymology of 差头？ What kind of reasoning is there behind it? It's just a mystery.
Posted on: Finding a Taxi
July 14, 2008 at 8:43 AMHi cassie,
Aiyo, I miswrote it, thank you! By the way, do both 租用汽车 and 租赁汽车 make any sense in Chinese (as a rental car)? Or is there any other "authentic" translation?
Posted on: Finding a Taxi
July 14, 2008 at 7:17 AMI don't think that 出租车 is a good Chinese translation. At first, I thought it would be a rental car. I guess that 出租车 might be a literal translation of "a hired car" or something like that. On the other hand, 计程车 is an exact (and nice) translation of "a car with a taximeter". By the way, how do you say "a rantal car" or "rent-a-car" in Chinese? 租用(zu1 yong4)汽车？ 出赁 (lin4)汽车？
Posted on: Golf
July 14, 2008 at 1:16 AMHi auntie68,
Probably 一根(gen1)木杆 or 一根铁干 should be more commonly used. For the record, my chubby dog has 一条尾巴 (yi4 tiao2 wei3 ba, a tail).
Posted on: Ticket Scalper
July 15, 2008 at 1:22 PM票贩子 (piao4 fan4 zi) = 黄牛 (huang2 niu2)