第四年第六十五天

[nnozomi]

语法
"only" words: 罢了 vs 而已
https://mandarinbean.com/ba-le-vs-eryi/
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22that%27s_all%22_with_%22eryi%22

词汇
千万, must (often + negative) (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
上两次也纯属巧合罢了, the last two times were no more than pure coincidence
但终究只是一束花而已, but in the end it's just a bouquet of flowers
你千万要小心一点, you must be a little more careful

Me:
戒指能想象而已🎵
千万不要进去那个房间。

Comments

[trobadora]

Somehow 罢了 managed to completely pass me by, I don't know how! But I don't have a feel for this one at all.

[nnozomi]

Me neither! I don't think the Chinese Grammar Wiki touches on it...

[trobadora]

I'm glad it's not just me!

Yeah, I just searched the wiki and didn't find it there either ...

[grayswandir]

Glad it's not just me, too! I also have no memory of having ever heard of 而已 before, but I'm guessing that one is probably common in Mandarin and I've just never noticed it...

[trobadora]

Yeah, I've heard 而已 plenty, it's immediately in my ear when I read it. (Which made the MandarinBean "it's more a written thing" explanation extra confusing to me!) This one is not a thing in Cantonese, then?

[grayswandir]

This one is not a thing in Cantonese, then?

Nope, they'd use a final particle for a downplaying "only/merely" sort of mood. But it sounds like I've probably heard 而已 in Mandarin and just didn't know what it was! I probably assumed the 而 was erhua on the previous syllable, and might have not really noticed the final 已 or just heard it all as blended together. >_> I'll have to listen for it now that I know it's a thing...

[trobadora]

Oh, that's a good point about mishearing, now I wonder if I just misheard 罢 as 吧 ...

[nnozomi]

it's always so interesting to hear the differences from Cantonese!

[nnozomi]

I definitely don't buy the "written thing" either! (you'll note that my 而已 practice sentence is song lyrics, from a very silly song which is far from 文言). And yeah, it absolutely comes up in conversation.