User Comments - chris
chris
Posted on: April Fool's Day Car
July 3, 2010 at 9:17 AMI'm pretty sure I read in another lesson that the 起来 helps to clarify that the speaker is referring to the smile rather than the laugh, since 起来 literally means an "upward movement" and that is what one's mouth does when smiling.
Posted on: Asking for the WiFi password
July 2, 2010 at 5:27 AMI always try the four possibilities: 8888888888, 0 to 9, 1 to 0 or the name of the establishment followed by sequential numbers to bring it up to 10 characters in total, before bothering to ask the 服务员 (fu2wu4yuan2). Surprising (or perhaps not) how many times one of those three options is successful!
Posted on: Slippery Ground
June 26, 2010 at 3:14 PMThanks xiaophil. Yep, you're absolutely right, it was my ears that were wrong rather than the wife! How I misheard luo4 as mo4, I don't know! I also went back to nckiu - I had drawn the bottom half of the character as 没 which was why the website wasn't identifying it. Must be over-tired!
Posted on: Saying Goodbye at the Airport
June 26, 2010 at 3:09 PMI'm often away on business trips and am always saying to my other half that I'll give her a call when I arrive at my destination. I've always used: "wǒ dào le de shíhou, gěi nǐ dǎdiànhuà".
This lesson has got me thinking, is my "...de shíhou" completely redundant? If so, is it actually incorrect to say it at all, or is my sentence still gramatically ok?
Thanks, Chris
PS - I have to say that I do like the female actor's voice in these recent Ele lessons. Reminds me of that famous actress (I forget her name) but think she starred in that 'Painted Skin' movie from a couple of years ago (together with the actor who played Ye Wen in the recent movies of the same name).
Posted on: Slippery Ground
June 26, 2010 at 2:38 PMI can't find that third character in either MDBG Dictionary website or NCIKU. I asked my wife and she said it is pronounced "mò". Does anyone know why it wouldn't be in these popular dictionaries?
Posted on: Pay Verbs
June 26, 2010 at 7:50 AMusing the lingoes roll-over, I'd assume it means "misplaced my cheque". Whether it means the person whose cheque it is put it down somewhere and now can't remember where it is, or the bank has credited it to the incorrect account, I don't know.
Posted on: Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
June 26, 2010 at 7:20 AMConnie, do you need the 却 (què) in the final sentence? Or is 但是 (dànshì) sufficient on its own? I've not come across this "què" before.
Posted on: Cold Weather Is Coming
June 19, 2010 at 4:31 PMSome interesting points on tones here. I'm similar to Catherine above, in that when I overly worry about getting the tones right then I become less comfortable speaking, at least at a decent pace. I know I'll probably get shouted at for suggesting this, but over last year or so I've given up worrying about tones when speaking Chinese and will only worry if the person I'm talking to doesn't understand me. Surprisingly, and pleasingly, this happens very rarely. Now this is either because my tones are actually pretty good, or, more likely, that context is far more important than tones, to a native speaker and the people I'm talking to are using context to compensate for my shoddy tones. Regardless, if I'm understood then I'm happy!
Chris
Posted on: Beards Are for Old Men
July 3, 2010 at 10:09 AM起来 (qi3 lai5) again...(I was just studying the lesson when this structure was used with 笑 (xiao4)). In this lesson, the supplementary vocab has 看上去 (kan4 shang4qu4) translated as "to look as if". I always thought 看起来 (kan4qi3lai) had this meaning. Do they both have the same meaning and are they totally interchangeable? All these qi3lai's, shang4qu4's, chu1lai2's, hui2qu4's, etc, etc drive me crazy!