User Comments - marc__d
marc__d
Posted on: Clarifying how to use "every" 每（měi）
July 21, 2008 at 3:44 PMAmber & Clay,
French has "vous" vs. "tu", Chinese has 你们 vs. 你, so why not "y'all" vs. "you"? I never thought I'd say y'all either, but now I prefer it as an unambiguously plural form.
Posted on: Pollution and Hot Drinks
July 5, 2008 at 6:56 AMWhat ice cream flavors do the CPod staff prefer? In U.S., I can find some very Chinese flavors like red bean, green tea, lychee, and even durian.
BTW, I enjoyed hearing from Vera. 她是我的太好老师。她忍受我的不好普通话。
Posted on: Phone Call for the Boss
June 14, 2008 at 12:51 AMWould it be appropriate, under any circumstance, to call my wife 大老板 (da4 lao3 ban3)? I will try it anyway and let you know how it goes.
Posted on: I'm Married
June 1, 2008 at 2:22 AMMy 中文老师 refers to her husband affectionately as her 老公 (lao3gong1). Is this common?
Posted on: Please Speak Chinese
May 30, 2008 at 7:33 PMI'm looking for comments on differences between 要 (yao4) and 想 (xiang3). In this lesson:
我想学习中文。
Why not:
我要学习中文。
Thanks in advance!
Posted on: Aren't you.... （不是.... 吗）
May 29, 2008 at 2:32 PM@wildyaks: OK, so the difference is more subtle than I realized, and perhaps reflects more basic differences between Chinese and English. For example, if I said, in English,
"You didn't go to Beijing?" (你没去北京吗)
it could easily imply "Weren't you supposed to... aren't you expected to ...", especially depending on the speaker's intonation and the pitch of individual syllables.
Posted on: Aren't you.... （不是.... 吗）
May 29, 2008 at 2:00 PMI'm confused a bit by this QW since it seems like you're putting 2 verbs together. For example:
你不是去北京了吗？
Nǐ bù shì qù Běijīng le ma? You have 不是, but the actual verb in the sentence is 去. Why the 是? I would have thought it more natural to say:
你不去北京了吗？
Nǐ bù qù Běijīng le ma? By comparison, the following sounds totally natural since 是 is the actual verb:
你不是中国人吗？
Nǐ bù shì Zhōngguórén ma? Also, is this related at all to the 是不是 structure that I learned in my Chinese class?:
你是不是中国人吗？
Thanks for the help!
Posted on: How do you say...?
May 29, 2008 at 2:08 AMHas this lesson been deleted? I can't access any of the content.
Posted on: Asking for a Phone Number
May 28, 2008 at 11:46 AM@pecha, CP should record a cover of "Jenny" (the 867-5309 song) in Mandarin. I will try it myself in hokey karaoke:
Jenny 知道你的号码 ／ 八六七五三〇九
There's just 1 extra syllable for 你的 instead of "your" that is easily absorbed into the beat.
Posted on: Addressing People
August 3, 2008 at 3:40 PMWhat about "gong gong" for paternal grandpa? That's what my wife's family uses. Is that 公公? And what's the grandma name using the same convention?