第七十天

[nnozomi]

Review day! Below are the points covered this week, for catching up if you missed a day or want to practice a bit more or have extra questions or...

语法
差不多, chàbuduō, about/roughly
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Approximations_with_%22chabuduo%22
都， dōu， for quantity
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Emphasizing_quantity_with_%22dou%22
在，zài， + verb for -ing
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_actions_in_progress_with_%22zai%22
一直, yīzhí，constantly, all along
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22all_along%22_with_%22yizhi%22
已经, yǐjing， already
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22already%22_with_%22yijing%22

词汇
爱好, ài hào, hobby
白, bái, white （白天 bái tiān，明白 míngbai）
半, bàn , half （半天 bàn tiān，半年 bàn nián，一半 yí bàn）
帮, bāng, help （帮忙 bāng máng）
包, bāo，bag/package （包子 bāo zi，面包 miànbāo，钱包 qián bāo，书包 shū bāo）
杯， bēi, cup (杯子bēi zi)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-1-word-list/

Also it's still 第七天, so if you want to throw grammar to the winds and post something to relax with, that also works.

Guardian, in brief:
啊，幸运你给我喝了一杯咖啡，要不然我可真的要睡过去了... in hopes that the sleepy among us will have less dangerous coffee...

Also, as a 已经 example, have Zhu Yilong singing 后会无期。 Not to end the week on a sad note or anything, oh dear.

Comments

[presumenothing]

For no reason other than "here is a thing I thought of":

A non-exhaustive list of 口-attached markers (whatever their proper names are), as things Zhao Yunlan has hypothetically said to/about Shen Wei. Might expand to a proper post sometime when I'm not texting on the way to work, idk.

啊: I think is is traditionally taught as "for exclamations" (你看我们家沈教授多棒啊！) but 感叹 really also covers more general expressions of feeling (沈巍啊……).

(Note: strictly speaking, there are rules about replacing 啊 with 哪/哇/呀 depending on the ending sound of the previous word, but in practice, eh, whatever XD also I feel like listening to ZYL's canon dialogue will give a half-decent idea of the ways 啊 gets helpfully mangled in speech anyway LOL)

吗: Questions, both direct (是沈巍吗? upon hearing a knock on the door when he isn't expecting anyone in particular to stop by) or double negative (你难道还不知道我会心疼你吗？). But NOT with single negative 是不是, 有没有 etc.

吧: Questions, but when you already have an answer in your head and aren't really asking (是沈巍吧? when he already knows it's probably him anyway). Also, "let's" constructions (让我帮你吧。)

呢: …also questions, but only a specific subset thereof. (我下个星期请假，你呢？) (沈巍呢? upon not seeing Shen Wei like he'd been expecting to) Also used in statements (我这才刚到办公室呢。怎么，已经想我了吗？says gremlin Zhao Yunlan upon picking up his gremlin phone like the gremlin he is)

[yaaurens]

我这才刚到办公室呢。怎么，已经想我了吗？
I surprised myself by actually being able to read and understand this entire pair of sentences. Wahoo!

I didn't know there were rules regarding 啊 and 呀 etc! Thanks for that link, which I will slowly work my way through.

[presumenothing]

I surprised myself by actually being able to read and understand this entire pair of sentences. Wahoo!

Nice!!

I didn't know there were rules regarding 啊 and 呀 etc!

And yep, though some of these are imo really just formalisations of how you'd naturally slur sounds together when speaking (i.e. it's much more troublesome to say 天啊 as "a" and not "na")

[yaaurens]

I suppose I figured you slurred the sounds, but still wrote the same way character rather than using an entirely different one! So many things to learn, so little time.

[grayswandir]

Might expand to a proper post sometime

I'd be very interested to see a post about these! I didn't know all the usages of the ones you listed here (e.g. I knew 吧 for suggestions, but didn't know it was also used for questions).

On a side note, I think final particles are actually the single hardest thing about learning Cantonese, even more so than the tones. I don't know how many there are in Mandarin, but in Canto there are at least 31 of them that are common (and "It's purported that Cantonese may have up to a hundred of these particles." DDD: ) Does Hokkien have many final particles?

[trobadora]

Thank you for this! I'd love a longer post if you feel like it; it would be super useful. :D

[nnozomi]

太感谢了！ 你的说明总是又清楚又有趣。If you do feel like making a proper post at some point that would be great (没压力）. Just rambling below, 别在乎 (?).
I feel like about half Zhao Yunlan's lines end in 啊! Very hard to translate effectively but it's such a flavor of his speech.

double negative (你难道还不知道我会心疼你吗？). But NOT with single negative 是不是, 有没有 etc.
Huh, I organize these into my head into "negative statement made into a question by adding 吗" and "negative-or-positive phrase already constituting a question word so 吗 isn't needed." 有几条negative。。。(also, 你难道还不知道我会心疼你吗, I continue to be impressed with how much straight-up romance they got away with...)

呢 in questions makes sense to me ("what about...?", and 沈巍呢？ is memorable enough, *sniff*). I have more trouble getting a sense of its use in statements. here's some information I'm presenting to you?

(Also now I finally understand that 叹 is 嘆, wow. Should have been obvious when thinking of 汉字 etc. but I hadn't made the connection)

[elenothar]

Oooh, this is great! Would love a whole post, but I'm also very happy with this overview <3

[yaaurens]

I heard this silly but also wonderful song by a British band that has moved to / lived in China for some time now. They have some other relatively easy to understand songs covering such topics as cultural misunderstandings in gift-giving to romantic partners (don't give shoes! or umbrellas!).

[grayswandir]

silly but also wonderful song

Hah, this is cute. :) And I like that it's simple enough that I can actually understand some of it!

don't give shoes! or umbrellas!

I did not know this! And actually, I'm watching a show right now where someone gave his wife a new pair of shoes, and then their house was burned down shortly afterward. I guess Chinese viewers would have suspected something bad was going to happen as soon as they saw shoes being given as a gift!

The only gift-giving superstitions I knew about before were clocks, pears, and things in sets of four. I hadn't heard about umbrellas or shoes, so I just went to look up other things not to give as gifts, and wow, it seems like there are a lot. :/ Mirrors, antiques, old gems, cloth dolls, knives or sharp objects, handkerchiefs, yellow chrysanthemums, anything black or white, candles, wind chimes...

(I can now see that the Hong Kong mystery/horror series I watched a little while back had a lot more superstition references than I realized. Yellow chrysanthemums were given as gifts multiple times, and there was a creepy cloth doll gift and an antique coin gift. I wonder how many other not-so-subtle references I'm missing.)

[yaaurens]

So. Many. Superstitions! It's always interesting to me to see what cultures view as good or bad luck, and when similar things overlap in many cultures. Also, I suppose with so many more homophones in Chinese, you get a lot more of items being associated with bad or unlucky things.

[nnozomi]

lol, that is hilarious (also 痛感, oh dear).
cultural misunderstandings in gift-giving to romantic partners (don't give shoes! or umbrellas!).
This cracked me up, because I have received an umbrella (it's pretty!) in the not-distant past from my husband, and he has been actively saying "Let me buy you some new shoes for your birthday," omigod. I'll have to tell him this wouldn't fly in China.

[yaaurens]

I have on more than one occasion been given shoes for my birthday, but that's usually because I've asked for them!