User Comments - svik

Posted on: Of Kings, Emperors, and Presidents

hi baba,

This is where we need Changye. But I found in a book that king ( 王) is the one (|) who connects (三) the 3, heaven earth and man。So I would guess that 王 is the older term for king, and the others are more recent, just a couple thousand years old, the emperors on a larger scale.

Posted on: Toothache

hi kiriwai,

I think generally there is no great difference in usage for 疼 and 痛 .

Here is an old comment from jenny on a special usage:

jenny zhu

Just a thought. There is an expression in Chinese, 心疼/xin1teng2, which means you feel for someone or something to the point that it pains your heart. It indicates that you like or cherish someone or something tremendously. Some common examples are 我心疼你/wo3xin1 teng2 ni3/I like you soooo much (that it pains my heart) or it can mean your heart aches when you see your loved ones suffer. 心疼 is also frequently used with money. 心疼钱/xin1teng2 qian2 indicates you value money (probably too much, to the point of being stingy). There is also the expression 心痛/xin1tong4, which is more severe than 心疼. It almost means 'hear breaking'. For example, my pet passed away. 我很心痛/wo3hen3 xin1 tong4/my heart breaks or when a trusted friend has let you down, you could also use this expression.

Posted on: What does she look like?

Hi dropped_chopstick,

I once asked about the placement of 了 in this sentence:

我最近碰到了一件麻烦事儿。

Jiaojie answered that with a measure word, the 了 was normally placed here, but with a noun (and no measure word) it was normal to place it at the end.

Like this one: 昨天在路上碰到我大学同学了。

Her comment:

名词前面有量词的话，通常”了“放在动词后面，而不是句子末尾。

比如：我昨天在路上碰到了一个大学同学。

That was in the "Let's Just Be Friends" lesson.

Posted on: Hospital Visits and Prescription Medication

Oh, sorry to hear about your bad luck in Hangzhou. It always seems a little dangerous to run in China, but I wouldn't know, since my running days were over by the time I got to China.

Posted on: Cats Are Cool

We have taken care of 5 cats in the past 10 years. We have 3 now, including one that is diabetic, and needs 2 shots of insulin every day. He doesn't mind, it just goes into the loose skin. He is a great cat. You never know what you're getting into with a pet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/svik7/sets/72157625153137392/

(sorry, I no longer know how to insert an image)

Diabetes might be an interesting lesson topic.

Posted on: National Day Holiday

Thanks! (but has it really been a year?)

Posted on: 麻烦你 (Máfan Nǐ) to Say Please

I just listened to this old Qing Wen, with Amber, Pete and Connie.  That was a nice team.

Connie gave this example:

可不可以麻烦你帮我拿一下？
Kěbùkěyǐ máfan nǐ bāng wǒ ná yīxià?

I am thinking that a proper use of 可不可以 always implies (我)可不可以  and not (你)可不可以.  In other words, the latter is awkward.

对不对？

Posted on: Reinstalling Windows

Related Lesson:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/computer-problems-and-tech-support

Also Intermediate level

Posted on: Separable Verbs

It's good to see such a vigorous and informative discussion of Chinese language!

Posted on: Check Your Spam

迟到 chídào to arrive late, (or literally, late arrive)