User Comments - rods
rods
Posted on: Dare to Use 敢
October 10, 2009 at 2:50 PM@ JasonSch: This 胆 is gall bladder! I guess courage comes from the gall bladder.
I find that fascinating! In English we might say, "You've got a lot of gall,.. telling your teacher off like that." Gall meaning bold or impudent behavior. My Chinese dictionary says 胆 dǎn can also mean audacity.
Posted on: Fruit Basket of Cause-Effect
September 26, 2009 at 4:38 PMI didn't notice any drop in quality (downloaded CD quality / played back through Quicktime).
So, do the Chinese confuse 效果 (xiàoguǒ) and 波及 (bōjí) the way English speakers confuse effect and affect?
Posted on: Looking for Someone Else
September 11, 2009 at 11:36 PM@light487
Thanks. I see this little word really gets around.
My dictionary cites a few uses for 的 de:
Part of a subordination: Wǒ mǎi de shū -- "the book I bought," (which I think would cover sydcarten's example too).
Noun forming, like -er in English.
Construction, action emphasizing X (Qing Wen 58)
Conjunction, equivalent to "by" as in Zhèjiān wūzi shì wǔmǐ de liùmǐ -- "this room is 5 by 6 metres," or, in other contexts, equivalent to the English "plus."
Unfortunately, it didn't cover this particular case... but it's just a little dictionary... Thanks again everyone. This is a very knowledgeable and helpful community. Sorry all if this was a bit off-topic.
Posted on: Looking for Someone Else
September 11, 2009 at 7:50 PMThanks Connie!
That's exactly what I wanted to know.
Posted on: Looking for Someone Else
September 11, 2009 at 12:19 AMOkay, I see. I just looked in the glossary and found a few other examples too.
Thanks sydcarten.
Posted on: Looking for Someone Else
September 10, 2009 at 10:35 PMHi, sorry noob question: What's the significance of the "de" in "bie2 de" (.pdf supplementary)? Someone else's possessive? Makes it a noun?
Posted on: It's cold, wear more clothes!
October 28, 2009 at 6:26 PM@pretzellogic
Sorry, a bit off topic, but thanks for mentioning the F1 lesson. Unfortunately, it's a couple levels above me. But hey, that's incentive. I never would have thought to look for that here!
@bodawei
We're (Canadians) a little short on jacket/coat terminology in English. (I'd never heard the term "jumper" used to describe a jacket--a jumper is a type of dress here.) In the fall, we (again, Canadians) are usually stuck with a sweater under our summer jackets, or a perspiration soaked t-shirt under our winter coats.