User Comments - southernsteve

Posted on: Shampoo and Cut

OK - I've been thinking this over, so maybe I can take a stab at answering my own questions.

"shénmeyàng de" refers to "what type of" something - referring back to lǐfà from the previous sentence. Is that right?

I'd say that "xǐhuan de lǐfàshī" is short for "nǐ xǐhuan de lǐfàshī" - the hair stylist that you like. "yǒu" would be "there is", with "ma" transforming it to "is there". Am I getting there?

Posted on: Shampoo and Cut

What is the purpose of 'de' in the two phrases "shénmeyàng de" and "xǐhuan de lǐfàshī"?

Posted on: Wrong Number

I have two questions from the dialog:

(i) Why does Lao3 come before Li3? For other titles, such as Xian1sheng, the title follows the name, right?

(ii) Since the caller is unknown, wouldn't it be more polite for the answerer to use nin2 and not ni3?

Thanks for your help.

Posted on: How do you say...?

I have a question about something on the Expansion page. The Chinese characters used for shuo1de hen3hao3 are 说得很好. In other places, I've seen 说的很好. Which is the correct character for 'de'? Thanks.

Posted on: Thank You and Sorry

The pinyin is written as fourth tone no matter what tone is spoken. In this case, the spoken tone is second but the written tone is fourth. The same is true with bùcuò, for example.

Wow. I must be making progress. This is the first time I've ever attempted to answer a question. I just hope I'm right!

Posted on: Asking the Time

In this lesson, I see and hear 'xiànzài qī diǎn'. Elsewhere, I've seen and heard 'xiànzài shì qī diǎn'. Are both correct, or is one preferred over the other?

Posted on: Really Good Food

Then it must be a quirk of my computer! From what I've learned, zhe rhymes with de and not ye, right?

Posted on: Really Good Food

In the pronunciation guide (which is great, by the way), zhe rhymes with de. In the dialog for this lesson, zhe appears to rhyme with ye. Why the difference?