第六十一天

[nnozomi]

还 to make good things just okay
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Moderating_positive_adjectives_with_%22hai%22

Guardian:
怎么样，还不错吧 (what do you think? not bad, eh?)
兄弟做得可还好？ (did I do okay?)

My practice:
你怎么样？-还好。(Xiaoge and Wu Xie meet again in LTR)
这个菜还不错，但有点咸。

Thanks for various responses to my question yesterday about what tack to take with ongoing grammar points, etc.! (Opinions still welcome any time) I am thinking about doing a grammar point and a vocabulary word per day, so that people can choose either or both to play with; it shouldn't be hard to pull up vocabulary from one of the HSK lists etc. Also maybe a biweekly or monthly review day/masterpost to catch up, as also suggested. (In the meantime, the tags should enable some amount of searching, though not ideal.) Let me know as needed how that sounds.

Comments

[presumenothing]

每天一词一句… 只要你们觉得信息量还行的话，我本身当然OK～

In the meantime, to 借一借 a line from Mao Buyi's absolutely tearjerking song 一荤一素:

听到这儿你就别担心
其实我过得还可以

[scytale]

OH this is making me realize that 还可以 is very relevant to my fictional interest in extremely understated angst.

I'm running off into the sunset now, imagining all the sad stoic iron woobies saying 还可以 and 不用为我担心.

[presumenothing]

Frankly you could even ramp it up to 我没事 or 我很好 for the max angst understatement levels XD

[scytale]

I was thinking sad stoic woobies who can't completely hide it, but I guess that's what acting is for! :D I do like max angst potential.

[nnozomi]

每天一词一句… 只要你们觉得信息量还行的话
确实信息量会比较增加。。。

Mao Buyi's absolutely tearjerking song 一荤一素:
I was just listening to that. Tearjerking indeed. (请给眼泪？日语直译）
Interesting musically too, it's basically western/diatonic harmonies but the 还可以 line in particular always sounds to me very pentatonic/Chinese scale... (not properly analyzed...).

[presumenothing]

The closest I can think of is probably 催泪? Which is quite literally similar, now that I'm looking at it.

[nnozomi]

Tear-inducing! 谢谢, works for me.

[scytale]

Ha, I find this one gets crossed in my head with 还 for "still" ("还没问题“ has the same meh :P).

今天天气还可以。

[nnozomi]

I find this one gets crossed in my head with 还 for "still"
Oh yeah, I know what you mean! I always want to translate 还好 as "so far so good."

[grayswandir]

I'm glad you posted this grammar point, because the equivalent word in Cantonese doesn't stop meaning "still" when you put it with a word like 好. Instead it turns 好 into a comparative, as in "still better" or "even better." I had no idea that 还好 in Mandarin was completely different (and basically the opposite)!

[nnozomi]

because the equivalent word in Cantonese doesn't stop meaning "still" when you put it with a word like 好. Instead it turns 好 into a comparative, as in "still better" or "even better."
oh gosh, just to make life even more complicated! (Sort of like 更 then?) That's fascinating. Why are languages so deceptive, I wonder. (well, it's more fun that way, but still. As it were.)

[tinny]

(In the meantime, the tags should enable some amount of searching

I love tags, and I love filtering by them. Would you mind tagging with the pinyin as well, and with the type of post - grammar or vocab (or both), or is 一天一橘 already supposed to cover that?

I could volunteer to add/rename those tags, too, if you don't think it gets too crowded then.

[nnozomi]

the type of post - grammar or vocab (or both), or is 一天一橘 already supposed to cover that?
Basically yes, I think it covers that type of post (I've added a "useful grammar" tag to posts addressing grammar points that aren't my one-post-a-day, not that that's very helpful now that I think about it).

Probably pinyin tags, definitely a more searchable/filterable thing of some kind would be good. Give me a little while to think about efficient ways to do it and I'll gratefully enlist your help (if I don't say something soon, poke me again...). Many thanks!

[tinny]

I see that all the vocab now has pinyin tags, I think this looks good! (I still need a popup dictionary to figure out all the umbrella tags, like "other grammar", but that may be just me.)

If you're still considering making the umbrella tags bilingual, I know that those tags often get a prefix so they show up at the top. like !challenge, !faq ... etcetc.

[nnozomi]

you're right, the umbrella tags should be on my list also ;) The prefix idea is great! Will see what I can do.