User Comments - rsmith91
rsmith91
Posted on: A Taxi for Tired Feet
December 18, 2007 at 10:35 AMI really loved all the cultural background things in this lesson, espiecially the bit about the Cantonese origins of da3di1 (taxi). Thanks Jenny and Ken! I love that pop-out player too - great idea.
Posted on: Man or Woman?
December 4, 2007 at 5:10 PMThis dialog uses you3dian3 to say 'a bit' / 'a little'. I've also heard yi1dian3 and you3dianr3 - is there any difference, or do they all mean the same? Perhaps one is more formal and one more informal - I seem to remember Jenny saying in one lesson a while back that yi1dian3dian3 is a cool way to say 'a bit'. Of course I would always expect to hear the cool way to say things with Ken and Jenny, the King and Queen of Cool! :)
Posted on: Identifying Family Members
December 4, 2007 at 11:21 AMWhy do you miss out the 'de' when talking about members of your family? Example: wo3 ma1ma0. Shouldn't it be wo3 de0 ma1ma0? Are any other words like this?
Posted on: That's enough tea
November 27, 2007 at 5:36 PMIn the last sentence, 'gou4 le', what is the meaning of gou4? Is it something like 'to fill', and when 'le' is added it becomes full - i.e. the sentence becomes 'I'm full'? Or is the 'le' just there to make the sentence flow more, and 'gou4' on its own means 'enough'?
Posted on: Thanksgiving
November 27, 2007 at 5:28 PMOops, I've just realized that xiaodai has done an excellent explanation above. Am I right in thinking that the shi4 isn't the end of the phrase 'the most important thing IS', but is actually meaning 'FOR ONE TO BE and family to be together', or something along those lines, in the next phrase?
Posted on: Thanksgiving
November 27, 2007 at 5:17 PMHope you enjoyed that huo3ji1 [turkey] Jenny! Could someone please explain this sentence: zui4 zhong4yao4 de shi4 he2 jia1ren2 zai4 yi1qi3 What is the purpose of the he2? I thought that meant 'and', but that doesn't make sense here.
Posted on: Forget It
November 26, 2007 at 9:58 PMSorry, forget what I said about the le and ba not having a specific meaning - I get what you mean now. However, it is true that I learn phrases rather than individual words and particles (I'm quite new to Mandarin), which is really what I meant in my last comment. Thanks for helping me to understand! That makes much more sense now.
Posted on: Forget It
November 26, 2007 at 8:23 PMThanks everyone - so basically the le and ba are just part of the phrase, and don't have a specific meaning.
Posted on: Forget It
November 24, 2007 at 7:14 PMCould someone please explain the meaning of 'le' and 'ba' in the last sentence: Suan le ba I understand that sometimes these words are just used to make the sentence flow more, but isn't it a bit excessive having two? :)
Posted on: New York City
December 30, 2007 at 5:05 PMCould someone please explain the phrase: hen3 duo1 ren2 shuo1 It means 'many people say', but I'm a bit puzzled about what each word means. Hen3 means 'lots of/many', and I always thought duo1 meant 'too much'. But 'many too much people' makes no sense. Is it just a construction that means something like 'a very large number of people'? By the way, this is an excellent lesson idea. great to see you've just done another one, this time on Hawaii. Keep them going!