User Comments - jen_not_jenny
jen_not_jenny
Posted on: Four Uses of the Complement 起来 (qilai)
October 12, 2010 at 5:59 AMduly noted...
Posted on: There Is No Try
September 20, 2010 at 7:23 AMI'd submit "No existe el intentar; sólo el actuar" but yes, we must defer to the Master...
Posted on: Speaking with 跟 (gen) and 对 (dui)
September 15, 2010 at 6:31 AMMy pleasure....and what stupidity? No such thing! You've known about reported speech as long as you've been speaking. We just never have need to put a name to these things until we start learning languages as adults!
Posted on: Speaking with 跟 (gen) and 对 (dui)
September 14, 2010 at 2:24 AMOh, the grammar freak in me got so excited at the prospect of answering your question! As Mildred Gusset so aptly demonstrated, reported speech is what we use to tell a third party what another person has said. There are two types:
An example of direct reported speech would be: My mother always said, "Chew with your mouth closed!"
An example of indirect reported speech would be: My mother always told me to chew with my mouth closed.
So...in Chinese, that'd be:
Direct: 我妈妈每次都对我说："你不要张嘴吃饭。"
Indirect: 我妈妈每次都让我不要张嘴吃饭。
Posted on: Speaking with 跟 (gen) and 对 (dui)
September 13, 2010 at 9:35 AMHi A-Bin,
In your examples, you use the composite verb 说话 shuōhuà. I would argue that since we're using the preposition 跟 gēn, it doesn't much matter whether 我 is the subject or the object. That is, "the person with whom I am speaking" and "the person who is speaking with me" have just about the same meaning. I would translate them both as 跟我说话的人.
跟 is a sharing sort of a preposition, and 对 is more directional. Whereas in English we do have the idea of talking TO someone, in Chinese we use 对 mostly with reported speech, as was mentioned in the podcast.
Posted on: Speaking with 跟 (gen) and 对 (dui)
September 13, 2010 at 5:18 AMThanks for the warm welcom, vitruvianman and yianli. I'm from the States, from Seattle, Washington orginally, yianli.
Posted on: Transportation Card
September 7, 2010 at 2:11 AMIn Hong Kong, the Octopus card is...marvelous. You can recharge it in subway stations and at 7-11s, as well as several other places. You can use it for buses, ferries, the metro, taxis, to buy stuff at 7-11, even at Krispy Kreme.
Posted on: Zombies: Deader than Ever
September 6, 2010 at 9:18 AMThat's hilarious. Are these friends Chinese? I suppose not everyone is in touch with what Mandarin language learners REALLY want to be able to talk about...
Posted on: Negotiating a Deadline
August 17, 2010 at 3:09 AMWhat a great lesson!
我特别喜欢这些字词：
别啊了！That could come in handy in several situations.
就是。。。也 construction. 我从来没听过这个说法。I looked up 就是in the glossary and couldn't find any examples with...也, so I offer the following:
你就是百万富翁我也不会跟你结婚！
I'm so excited to learn a way to express the third conditional in Chinese!
Posted on: An Introduction to Chengyu
October 16, 2010 at 4:57 AMWhaaaaaaaat??????? Never seen it??? Please, tal, download it and watch it as soon as possible. Extreme cheese, but extremely tasty cheese...