User Comments - mandomikey
mandomikey
Posted on: Mother's Birthday
January 6, 2008 at 12:05 AMHello... Denis' post at the very top of the page refers to 买好 and something about the "resultative" form of the verb. I'm confused as to why 买好了 is the construction used when asking the question "have you bought?" but 买了 minus the 好 is how to answer "I bought". I'm hoping someone can explain the "when/when-not-to use 好" to me without putting forth too much time or effort. 谢谢
Posted on: Trip to the Chinese Doctor and a Special Guest
January 4, 2008 at 4:23 PMHA! I picked up "Mr. China" at the airport a few days back and tore through it in 3 days. Fabulous book...highly insightful and surprisingly humorous. Thanks Rebecca and Orlando for sharing your expereinces in this episode... I really wish Dear Amber was a daily feature. :u)
Posted on: Night Cat
January 4, 2008 at 6:21 AMMillar: I think the 是。。。的. structure is used when either asking or answering a "wh" (who/what/were/when/why) question pertaining to the past. ie - 你是什么时候吃饭的？ If just making a statement or anwering a yes/no question about a past even (你吃了吗？), there's your chance to use 了。It would be helpful if someone can confirm this just to solidify my own understanding of this tricky point...
Posted on: New York City
December 31, 2007 at 1:34 AMrsmith: I'll try tacking this one... Hen3duo1 in this context is essentially a compound whose closest English translation I percieve to be "a lot" or "many". Hen3 on it's own can simply mean "very", but oftentimes it is placed before an adjective (in this case duo1) to indicate it's relative aspect. Another example being "Jin1tian1 hen3 leng3" (It's cold today) ... to say "jin1tian1leng3" somehow is lacking grammatically. Maybe the use of hen3 in this fashion can be explained further in a QingWen, or maybe it's even been covered there already?
Posted on: The Dice Game
December 28, 2007 at 1:01 AMClay - thanks for that link explaining the rules. Fascinating, but where are the dice rolled so the "thrower" can see them but the other players cannot?
Posted on: Consoling the Bereaved
December 23, 2007 at 12:05 AMThe expansion exercises were nice and plentiful in this one. Thanks. Question: is there a way to play the audiofiles in the expansion while hiding the translation to the left? I can listen to them now with my hand covering the screen allowing me to work out the translation myself, but wondered if there was another way...
Posted on: Night Cat
December 19, 2007 at 10:43 PMHi DarylK... On the discussion of owls and cultural attitudes, I can confirm that there is a very strong aversion towards them amongst the Navajo(Dine) Indians in the southwestern U.S. It is taboo to even talk about them by name. Coincidientally (or not), there are strong language links between their own and other Sino-Tibetan tongues.
Posted on: A Taxi for Tired Feet
December 17, 2007 at 2:51 AMSounds like his 走 is like a "c'mon, don't be a wimp".
Posted on: New York City
December 15, 2007 at 5:57 PMCould anyone help with the pinyin/characters that would refer to "upstate" New York?? Most of the world connotes New York with the city, however the rolling farmland and industrial centers that are found inland provide a vastly different (and less glamorous) perception of New York as a state.
Posted on: Mother's Birthday
January 6, 2008 at 12:32 AMFollowing up on my post above... seems in the expansion exercises that the use of 好了and 了seem to both be used interchangeably following a verb to connotate the past... I'm led to believe the use of 好 is by user's discretion and doesn't really change the meaning ?????