User Comments - tallmike

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tallmike

Posted on: Can I Sit Here?
June 18, 2012 at 5:04 AM

Ok. Thanks John!

Posted on: Can I Sit Here?
June 14, 2012 at 4:48 AM

Great stuff in this lesson! For 怎么办, I think it makes sense to think of 办 as "deal", like, "how to deal with this?"

I can't really figure out what the difference is between 那里/哪儿 and 那边 though. Can anyone explain?

Posted on: Where is the Supermarket?
April 15, 2011 at 6:20 PM

Hmmm... the vocab section writes it as nǎli though. And if you play the audio sample it doesn't sound like the tones in nǐhǎo. (or even wǒmen) :/

If you type 'nali' in the dictionary search box at mdbg.net, it gives nǎ​lǐ for 哪里. But 那里 = "nà​li"​.

This also happens with other words like 早上 = "zǎo​shang​", even though the first intro lesson (with its ridiculously precise pronunciation) is very explicit about 上 sounding like shàng.

Do characters change their tones depending on what words they're a part of? Does pinyin drop tones on some syllables if it's unambiguous?

(btw, this is my first post here. I'm loving ChinesePod. You guys rock!)