User Comments - xiaophil

Posted on: Drinking Game

那个“了”的解释真及时。我昨天晚上临睡觉的时候想了这个“present perfect”的话题。

I have a question or two.

My first question is, I notice that the dialog's example, “已经多少年没见了”, uses 没.  I know that 了 and 没 usually don't combine.  I also know there are exceptions.  Is this exception always applicable to the 'present perfect'?

Now the hard question(s).  Does anybody know if Chinese tenses can generally be correlated to English tenses, i.e past perfect, simple past, present continuos and so on?  The reason I ask is that I get the gist of simple Chinese grammar, but sometimes I get confused with more subtle situations.  My problem is that none of my textbooks compare Chinese grammar to English.  They just try to explain it in a Chinese way, which sometimes works; sometimes doesn't.  The internet websites that I have seen only attempt to explain elementary Chinese tenses.  If I could know such-and-such Chinese sentence structure follows such-and-such English tense, that would be helpful.  Maybe someone knows a good textbook or website?

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi

kimiik

我只是好奇，你怎么知道这么多成语？你记住了这些还是用特别的搜寻引擎？

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi

kimiik

多感谢你，真可惜是我的问题有可能没有合适的回答，不过，我挺喜欢那个自讨苦吃的成语。

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi

Hi changye

Thanks for the help.  This idiom is useful.  However, I think it isn't exactly the one.  "You get what you ask for" is the idiom you gave (aka "You reap what you sow").  "May you get what you ask for" is a clever way of pointing out that the things we most want might actually bring us misery.  So to say this to someone you despise, is actually to wish him or her pain.  That said, I am doubting it truly is an ancient curse because a google and ask.com search yielded nothing. Maybe I heard it in a movie somewhere and just believed them when they said that it is an ancient curse.

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi

shenyajin

谢谢你的解释。

"May you get what you ask for"在英文里面有咒骂的意思，这个“祝你心想事成”的句子也有这样的意思吗？

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi

Got a question or two.

Did Jenny say "一幅图片胜过一千句话"?  I always thought this saying came from Chinese, but I can't even find it in my dictionary.

While on this note, there is a saying I have heard before that says, "May you get what you ask for."  I thought this is Chinese, but I have asked Chinese people about it, and they have no idea what I am speaking off.

Posted on: I'm Not Here

Got a question.

That opening line where the boss says, "过来一下" reminded me of something.  I'm never quite sure how to say politely and naturally in Chinese, "Please move over," i.e. I want to sit down here.

I've seen before 让开些 and 挪挪窝儿行吗？ However, I don't know if these are normal or polite.

PS: Good episode.

Posted on: Pinyin Section 4: R

Mystic

rjberki is right.  I actually remember quite specifically a Chinese friend saying she chatted with her niece on msn using pinyin because she was too young to remember characters well.

Posted on: Bringing it All Back Home With 回去 and 回来

henning

Thanks for the useful information.  It seems that within the framework of this podcast, I am probably wrong.  But that part about complex compliments is new to me.  I think some other poddies might find that useful.

zhenlijiang

You are right.  I read that sentence the way I wanted to read it, but another interpretation is possible, or I should say, more than likely.

PS: Now that I think about it, I might have been mixed up with 回到, which takes a location after it.

Posted on: Bringing it All Back Home With 回去 and 回来

I could use some clarification.

I'm fairly certain you don't always have to sandwich the object between 回 and 去.   I immediately found this example on an online dictionary:

脱岗是要扣工资的，还不赶快回去工作。

Are you guys teaching a 'rule' or a 'rule of thumb'? 

I'm not trying to be picky, it's just that I seem to recall my Mandarin teacher (in China) tell me there was a difference in meaning between putting the object in the middle and putting it at the end.  Maybe I just got it wrong, though.  (I couldn't always understand her.  Haha.)