第一百一十三天

[nnozomi]

语法
刻 for quarter hours
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Structure_of_times_(advanced) (middle of page)
(for some reason I find this usage both efficient and delightful)

词汇
饭, rice/meal (also 吃饭, to eat a meal, 饭店, a restaurant, 米饭, (cooked) rice, 早饭, breakfast, 午饭, lunch, 晚饭, dinner) 饭 fàn, rice/meal (also 吃饭 chī fàn, to eat a meal, 饭店 fàndiàn, a restaurant, 米饭 mǐfàn, (cooked) rice, 早饭 zǎo fàn, breakfast, 午饭 wǔ fàn, lunch, 晚饭 wǎn fàn, dinner)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-1-word-list/

Guardian:
我相信到了那一刻你就有答案了, I believe that at that time you will have an answer. (No 刻=15 minutes in Guardian that I can find, so this is just 一刻 as "a given time“)
我去看看还有什么饭菜, I'll go see what's left to eat.
等这个案子结了，我请你吃饭, when this case is over, I'll invite you out to eat.

Me:
火车在十一点一刻出发。
我老公他喜欢吃火锅和乌龙面 (really? oolong noodles? udon? 我是不是谷歌错了吧？），但是我更喜欢米饭。
我今天午饭会吃非常辣的泰国咖喱，好期待。

Comments

[trobadora]

The quarter hours are fun; they work exactly the opposite of my regional German (which plenty of other Germans don't understandr). Chinese is counting away from the full hour - a quarter past, half past, three quarters past; we count up to the next full hour - a quarter of the way there, halfway there, three quarters of the way there. *g*

[laireshi]

We count both ways! A quarter past, but halfway there, and then a quarter to xD

[trobadora]

Yep, that's how they do it in other parts of Germany as well, which is why they're always confused by our way (and vice versa). *g*

[nnozomi]

exactly the opposite of my regional German (which plenty of other Germans don't understand
oh, like the confusion in English about whether "half seven" means 6:30 or 7:30！ Regionalisms are so much fun (as long as you're not catching a train based on the wrong time expression ;) )

[trobadora]

like the confusion in English about whether "half seven" means 6:30 or 7:30

Huh, fascinating, where is it 6:30 in English? I know know it as 7:30, short for "half past seven". (The exact opposite of how it works in German - and on that point, the regional variations seem to agree. *g*)

[grayswandir]

You know, I've actually never known what "half seven" meant, as nobody I know uses that expression, but if I'd had to guess I would have guessed 6:30, because "half seven" sounds like "half of seven" to me -- like, not actually seven, just halfway there -- and I'd have figured if it was after seven, you'd say "half past seven." I mean, if someone tried to schedule "half seven" with me I'd definitely ask what they meant, because I wouldn't be sure! But my first assumption would be that it probably meant 6:30.

[trobadora]

Haha, I agree with you on what it sounds like, but I always thought that was just because I was used to that meaning from German. Funny that it sounds like it should mean that 6:30 to you too!

I think "half seven" is a British thing - I learned it in London myself; it was a common expression.

[grayswandir]

I think "half seven" is a British thing

Ah, that makes sense. I've heard the expression before, but I guess I never registered what the context was. I just asked my sister and her husband about it, and they both said they'd never heard it before.

[laireshi]

That grammar link doesn't seem to work for me?

[nnozomi]

Sorry! I think it should be fixed now. For some reason the last ) was rejected? 谢谢你告诉我～

[laireshi]

Works now! Thank you ❤

[reshiel]

Fun rice/meal wordplay: There was once a commercial where a famously stingy boss told his subordinates he would 请他们吃饭 (they had just finished a big project), and they excitedly arrived at the fancy restaurant only to be served... plates and plates of white rice.

udon 好像是‘乌冬面’！（看棋魂剧版学的）ETA: Apparently it is regional - 乌冬面 is Mainland Chinese/HK, 乌龙面 is Taiwanese

[nnozomi]

only to be served... plates and plates of white rice.
哈哈 oh no. (At least they got white rice and not 玄米?)

udon 好像是‘乌冬面’！（看棋魂剧版学的）ETA: Apparently it is regional - 乌冬面 is Mainland Chinese/HK, 乌龙面 is Taiwanese
谢谢！ I amused myself by checking with friends, and sure enough the Mainland native said 乌冬面 and the Taiwanese person said 乌龙面. Who knew? (Also we were mutually surprised by 馄饨, which is used for "udon" in Japanese and of course does not mean the same thing at all in Chinese...)

[presumenothing]

刻 is an efficient one, I simply… have never used it IRL at all LOL. Over here you hear 字 a lot more often (5-minute unit, e.g. 一点四个字=1:20) but that's apparently a Fujian/Guangdong etc regional usage according to this convenient table of time units on Wikipedia, which also lists such cnovel-handy terms as 时辰 (2 hours), 旬 (10 days), 载 and various synonyms for 年. Plus the scientific units for millisecond down to attosecond, which I'm noting here simply because 阿秒 and 飞秒 sound adorable, and also I am a nerd.

I feel like 饭 and related terms have a considerable amount of variation, maybe because of how "daily life" they are 😂 饭店 is more likely to be hotel than restaurant to me, and I use 早/午/晚餐 rather than 饭. There's 饭桶 as an immensely image-inducing slang for someone who has a bottomless stomach for rice (and/or food in general), and also because rice is life and 民以食为天, a disambiguation between raw rice 米 vs cooked rice 饭. Thus the idiom 生米煮成熟饭, i.e. "it's too late". Aaaand… yeah, the list goes on. Rice, the central pillar of existence!!1!

This is also the first time I'm seeing udon as 乌龙 – it's usually 乌冬 for me as rekishi pointed out below. Ah, regional differences…

[grayswandir]

Thanks for explaining all this! I was wondering about 字, since that's the one I've heard (rather than 刻), but I wasn't sure if maybe it was just a Canto thing. Same for 早/午/晚餐, actually. The time-table link is great -- I hadn't heard of 旬 at all before now, or a few of the other words on the list (I'm kind of confused about 纪 now, which I thought meant a century, but the chart says 12 years?) and I think I've only heard 载 as a time marker once, in "千载," which I'd just taken as a set phrase. I didn't actually get that 载 was a word for years in general.

I also didn't realize 饭桶 could be used... uh, literally-ish? I've heard it a few times, but I think always metaphorically as an insult for someone useless and incompetent. (I feel like when I hear it it's always some kind of authority figure like a police chief or a mob boss berating his subordinates for failing at their jobs, but that probably just reflects the kind of media I'm watching. XD)

I also hadn't heard 生米煮成熟饭, which sounds useful to know! My first thought was that it reminded me of a Cantonese phrase I know for "too late," which I find hilarious: 蚊都瞓, "even the mosquitos would be asleep (by then)." But that one is more like "too late" in the general sense of 太迟, and it looks like the rice-cooking one is more specific, like "too late (to undo what's been done)." Makes sense -- you can't uncook the rice!

[presumenothing]

Century is specifically 世纪, which is probably what you're thinking of, and I don't think I've ever seen 纪 by itself either tbh.

载 really is only used in set phrases at this point as far as I'm concerned (see also 一年半载 and 千载难逢) so your impression is fully understandable haha. I think I only know this one from looking it up at some point?

Also the mosquitoes one LOL

[nnozomi]

蚊都瞓, "even the mosquitos would be asleep (by then)."
oh that's wonderful! The Cantonese version of "I'm coming" "So's Christmas"? ;)

[elenothar]

Don't mind me, I'm just over here laughing about 饭桶 😂

[trobadora]

Thank you for all this, and the rice-related indioms! So useful. :D

[nnozomi]

Over here you hear 字 a lot more often (5-minute unit, e.g. 一点四个字=1:20)
Neat! wow, 字 does a lot of work. The only non-汉字/罗马字-type usage I know of is 字 and 大字 (aza, oaza) marking address levels in very rural areas in Japan. Place, time...

Coming back to look at the time unit table when I have more time, 谢谢你. I know 旬 from 上旬，中旬，下旬... .

Plus the scientific units for millisecond down to attosecond, which I'm noting here simply because 阿秒 and 飞秒 sound adorable, and also I am a nerd.
阿秒！ Cat time!

饭店 is more likely to be hotel than restaurant to me
I am now totally and completely confused over 饭店，饭馆，宾馆，酒店...my end state is "anything can be a hotel if you want it to be?".

Thus the idiom 生米煮成熟饭, i.e. "it's too late".
不是 The die is cast 而是 The rice is cooked?

[presumenothing]

I've always wondered if this time-usage of 字 is literally because the 5 minute-bits are marked on the clock, in which case it's still word related?

"anything can be a hotel if you want it to be?" Also my own opinion of these words XD compounded by the fact that locally most people are equally likely to just say "hotel" anyway…

(you know it's Serious™ when the rice is cooked)

[trobadora]

I've always wondered if this time-usage of 字 is literally because the 5 minute-bits are marked on the clock, in which case it's still word related?

No lie, that was what I thought when I first heard it! No idea if it's true, but it makes sense to me.

[petrea_mitchell]

Duolingo has been drilling me on 饭馆 for "restaurant".

Also 做饭 "to cook".

[nnozomi]

Duolingo has been drilling me on 饭馆 for "restaurant".
Yes! I'm now totally confused among all the words for "restaurant" and "hotel," but 饭馆 sounds right.

Also 做饭 "to cook".
A super useful one! Also 煮饭, I think, although I'm not sure if it has a narrower usage. So many words!