第二十六天

[nnozomi]

今早醒来的时候，有了非常多评论，好惊讶好开心。。。我现在忙坏了，以后肯定会回复！

以前，before (a given time) (opposite of 以后）
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Before_a_specific_time_with_%22yiqian%22

Like 以后 this one seems to be used on its own more often than not.
Guardian:
谁知道呢，也许以前真的见过吧。(You've met him before, Shen Wei, but he hasn't met you yet.)
以前的事情我也不是很清楚。(以前 as an adjective, I guess?)
特调处跟以前不一样了. (The SID is no longer the same as it was before.)

My practice:
我以前每天都吃了巧克力，现在在禁巧克力中 (I know this is absolutely not real Chinese)
交货期两个小时以前才提出了工作。

Comments

[trobadora]

SHL quote of the day:

老温，我以前觉得你是装疯卖傻。 没想到你是真疯！ 温客行，你开心吗？

(前 is one of those characters that absolutely does not want to stick in my head for some reason. Anyone have any suggestions for getting it to stick?)

[grayswandir]

Practice:

「你和他是不是朋友？」「以前是。」
他以前不是那样。

And a try at an adjectival use:

以前的人没有电器。

[scytale]

Oh my goodness, the practice dialogue is so sad. ;_; No, what happened to their friendship?

[scytale]

I don't know if this will help, but:

- the top part looks like a timeline to me, with two segments, for before and after. Or the antenna on the Android logo, if you prefer!
- On the bottom-left is the moon, which is very time-related, and on the right is a knife

Okay, so my brain immediately goes, "draw the timeline first, and then prepare to CUT AND EAT THE MOON!", and every time I write it, I get a little hungry (since I am pretty sure the moon tastes delicious). Possibly our android friend eats moon rocks, if the moon-devouring works for you but the timeline doesn't?

It might work better to think that if you cut a unit of time, you get a 前 and a 后. And a timeline like you have at the top.

There's also a real history/story that might work for you: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%89%8D#Glyph_origin and https://kanjiportraits.wordpress.com/tag/the-kanji-%E5%89%8D/ (it's the number 6). The top is a foot, the left is a shoe or a boat. The right... it doesn't say, but I guess you can still fit a knife as a symbol of division in there.

[trobadora]

Thank you, those are some awesome suggestions! I especially like the timeline association, because that sounds like I might actually be able to remember it, LOL.

And I really appreciate the links about the history - that is all fascinating!

CUT AND EAT THE MOON!

*giggles* That is hilarious. Thank you! :D :D :D

[scytale]

You're welcome! And thank you for posing the question, because I realized I've been writing 前 wrong all this time. For some reason I thought it was a three dots on top of the line at the top! So now I know.

The history was new to me as well, and I didn't except the boat/shoe! I found the breakdown really poetic and satisfying; I love it, actually.

[grayswandir]

So many options! My first thought is that it's one of those "they were friends, and then they were tricked into becoming mortal enemies, but later they'll resolve things and affirm their friendship again, probably right before one of them sacrifices himself to give the other one more time to defeat the true villain" situations, but I'm not sure whether I've ever actually seen this exact plot or am just combining all the most melodramatic tropes I know into one thing...

[grayswandir]

I'm enjoying your mnemonics. :) The idea of cutting slices of moon (crescent, quarter, half?) as a time-measuring-method actually seems very logical to me!

[scytale]

OH I LOVE IT. :D I would read that fic!

(And I ship it. All I ask is that the sacrificed one turns out to be alive after all! Cinematic epilogue in which he comes back.)

[scytale]

I'm enjoying making them! It's making me realize that I'm maybe very visual/image-based in terms of how I learn things too, actually.

[presumenothing]

CUT AND EAT THE MOON!

I saw this before the surrounding context and still refuse to believe we're not discussing mooncakes. In fact I nearly typed mooncakes instead of context there. Mooncakes!

[scytale]

Mooncakes are the context!

(We can discuss mooncakes if you want, and they are delicious, but I just want to nibble a cartoon moon! For the glory if nothing else.)

[presumenothing]

New-and-obviously-true 嫦娥 story to combine both: obviously she flew up there to assert dominance and chomp the moon, which is why we have mooncakes.

(my ancestors are gonna come after me for this post)

[scytale]

And why there are shadows in the moon!

(I'm sure she gave the bunny a piece, too.)

[trobadora]

♥ ♥ ♥

[nnozomi]

This whole discussion is an excellent mnemonic! <3 <3 <3 🌛🐰🥮

[nnozomi]

“以前是朋友。以后也会是”！ for a happy ending ;)