User Comments - chris
chris
Posted on: 为 and 为了
June 18, 2011 at 1:49 PMWould definitely sound strange to me if any kid older than about 10-11 still used the term "mommy" (or mummy for us Brits). Usually around that age or sooner it has changed to a simple "mom/mum" based on my experience.
Posted on: The Complement 不下
June 18, 2011 at 1:20 PMBrilliant Calkins. That's exactly how I understood the three, but you explained it much more succinctly and clearly than I ever could!
Posted on: The Complement 不了
June 18, 2011 at 7:34 AMAs ever, I suspect that 'context will be king' but to really labour the point, perhaps we could say "I don't know how to translate it into Chinese", something along lines of:
我不知道怎么把这个句子翻译变成中文
Probably a bit clunky (do I need the 变成??)!
Posted on: The Complement 不了
June 18, 2011 at 6:49 AMHow would you convey that "I am not able to say that in Chinese". Perhaps:
我在中文不会说; or
我在中文不知道怎么说
I guess the important point is that you would need to make clear it is the ability to say something in Chinese that you are unable to do, rather than more generally not being able to say it in any language.
Posted on: When Opposites Collide (1)
June 18, 2011 at 6:07 AMThe 好坏 in the quality of sleep sentence strikes me as redundant. Surely we can just say:
睡眠的质量会影响宝宝的高矮
The concept of good or bad sleep is implicit in the word "quality", surely?
Posted on: Text Messages
June 4, 2011 at 7:53 AMYes, that comment from John made me smile too. Summed up so many of my own Chinese-studying thoughts with the tone he used to deliver that one word!
Posted on: Snoring Again
June 4, 2011 at 6:21 AMGood cultural point Zhen. Also, having now actually looked up 影响 and 打扰 in a dictionary, they are clearly not generally interchangeable! I agree on the brother's studies point, i.e. in English we'd just say you'll disturb your brother, we wouldn't go further and say his studies. I guess this is a rare example of the Chinese being more long-winded than the English :-)
Posted on: Help with the Baby
June 4, 2011 at 5:54 AMI have a question regarding the following line from the dialogue:
宝宝跟她睡一个房间
I got a little confused during the discussion on the omitted 在 in the above sentence. I think Jenny was saying that the omitted 在 would appear here:-
宝宝跟她睡在一个房间
However, grammatically I always thought the location part of the sentence had to come before the verb, i.e. surely the sentence would only be grammatically correct as follows:-
宝宝跟她在一个房间睡
The sentence immediately above feels more "Chinese" to me, where as the earlier sentence feels a bit "Chinglish" to me, in that it is trying to copy the English grammatical structure of "...sleeps in the same room" as opposed to the more Chinese grammar of "...in the same bedroom sleeps".
Any thoughts?
Posted on: Help with the Baby
June 4, 2011 at 5:47 AMWow, this lesson has really made me realise how tuned-in I am to Jenny's Chinese! With absolutely no offence to Dilu at all, since she is also a great Intermediate host, I found that listening to Jenny again I didn't even have to think about translating in my head - I just understood her as she was talking. With anyone else, including the dialogue actors, I always find I have to really carefully listen and translate to English in my head in real time, often having to rewind and listen again. Has anyone else experienced this?!
Posted on: Ordering Fancy Coffee
June 19, 2011 at 10:07 AMI'm confused by a measure word point in the final sentence of the dialogue - when summarising the order the waitress says "一杯大杯的每日咖啡，一杯超大杯的香草拿铁。。。"
Now, I would have said the following: "一大杯的每日咖啡，一超大杯的香草拿铁"
I don't think the waitress's first "杯" each time is necessary since the measure word already follows the size classifier. Would my version also be grammatically correct (my own coffee each day at SB is a large Americano and I have always said 一大杯美式 and nobody has ever corrected me - so please do let me know if I should be saying 一杯大杯美式 instead!).
Thanks, Chris