User Comments - frances
frances
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 啊 & 呀 (a & ya)
April 30, 2008 at 7:01 PMThis is a slightly different question about 啊. In the "Dublin" elementary lesson, one of the speakers asks: 这是哪里啊？ zhè shì nălĭ a? Jenny explained that the 啊 in this case "makes the question". I'm pretty sure that it would have been a question regardless. Would it have sounded incomplete without it? Are there situations where the particle is a more strongly indicated?
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 啊 & 呀 (a & ya)
April 30, 2008 at 4:17 PMI was going through some recent lessons and found another example of a male speaker using 啊. In the Elementary lesson "Event Times": A: 白天有比賽嗎 ？ báitiān yŏu bĭsài ma? B: 有啊。 yŏu a. This one didn't sound feminine, either. I you'd only sound feminine if you say the 啊 too cutely, or too often.
Posted on: Paris
April 30, 2008 at 3:52 AMuser30796 - Darn. If I need to convince Parisians that I'm not American or British (which is not the truth) I'll have to speak French well enough that I can avoid the subject. (I really hate lying, and as a result tend to turn colors when I try.) Maybe if I become a devoted disciple of the upcoming FrenchPOD.com, I can travel to Paris with enough fluency that my Americanism will be forgiven (or, more likely, just not come up on conversation).
Posted on: Paris
April 29, 2008 at 9:57 PMSysko, yeah, I think that since Dubya became president, many Americans have found fewer friends while traveling. This is unfortunate for us, and I didn't mean to suggest that the French were particularly unkind, though I was not at all happy with how my cousin was treated in the town where she stayed. I have heard many times that foreigners who attempt to speak French will be much more welcome in Paris.
Posted on: Paris
April 29, 2008 at 7:16 PMA young cousin of mine went to France last year as an exchange student. She had studied French for years in school and could speak fairly well, but she encountered a great deal of prejudice against her by people who didn't like Americans. Some of the parents of other students at her high school did not allow their children to associate with her. She was unhappy and lonely for most of her visit. This was not in Paris, but my cousin's experience might make me hesitate to visit even if I do ever learn French. I enjoyed this lesson, and even if I never see Paris, I can be somewhat more prepared to understand a conversation about it.
Posted on: Country Standings
April 23, 2008 at 11:31 AMThanks, Amber (x4)!
Posted on: Regional Accents Part I
April 22, 2008 at 1:33 AMThis is great. Hearing them all right after each other really helps. Do a lot people in Shanghai really talk like that last guy? He sounded to me like he had a mouth full of Novocain. Is there anywhere we could find more examples? I think I might need quite a few to "train my ears to be a little more flexible", as John suggests.
Posted on: Going to the Pharmacy
April 21, 2008 at 9:37 PM@lunetta - I think you hit it right on. I checked a couple of dictionaries which agreed that 感冒 (gănmào) can be either a noun, "the common cold" or a verb, "catch a cold". In this case it's being used a as a verb. The noun form would probably require a "有一个“ and be more awkward.
Posted on: Country Standings
April 21, 2008 at 8:57 PMThe word I've heard for Russia was 俄国 (Égúo). What's the difference between this and 俄罗斯 (Élúosī)? Are they interchangeable? Is one more current?
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 啊 & 呀 (a & ya)
May 1, 2008 at 5:36 PMI was watching some of "Laughing in the Wind" last night, and the hero was using 啊 a whole heck of a lot. I noticed it more because of this conversation. It didn't make him seem any less manly and heroic.