第一百二十五天

[nnozomi]

语法
verb + 了 + object for completed aspect
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_completion_with_%22le%22
(middle of page)

词汇
哥 (哥哥), older brother (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-1-word-list/

Guardian:
哥哥，你睁开眼睛，你看看我，看看你自己. big brother, open your eyes and look at me, look at yourself.
黑袍哥哥慢走～, 人家等你哟～ (I couldn't leave this one out, and there continues to be no decent English translation)
我只是去了水边, I just went to the waterside

Me:
我们早饭吃了草莓。
他为他老婆买了一个有魔法的项链。

Comments

[nnozomi]

Probably because my grammar is wrong lol :) I was thinking “a necklace which has magic," 有魔法的项链, instead of "a magic necklace," 魔法的项链, but I suspect this is Japanese carrying over and getting my Chinese wrong. sorry...

[yaaurens]

See, I don't know enough to know that it doesn't work that way in Chinese! That's kind of what I was thinking it must mean, but wasn't sure, hence asking!

[nnozomi]

Definitely do ask! I mean, sometimes I actually have an answer I'm sure of, and sometimes it's just "well, I guessed at that but it's probably wrong," so it may not be very helpful for you, but it's good to discuss. (I have taught way too many ESL classes to be concerned about getting anything wrong in public...) <3

[grayswandir]

I've been hesitating to comment on this because I don't actually know the answer, but to me the 有 does seem to make sense, as you said, to mean "a necklace which has magic." I tried googling just "魔法的项链," and five of the results on the first page have 有 at the beginning. That's only about a third of the results, though, and the rest of them don't have 有, so it looks to me like the 有 is correct but not necessary? Or maybe there's a bit of a different nuance to "necklace with magic" versus "magical necklace"?

Incidentally, the first Google result (which includes the 有, "这是一只有魔法的项链") is from Baidu, and is a page about a romance novel series (I guess?) that is titled "Magic Necklace"... but the Chinese title of the romance novel is simply 魔法项链, with neither 有 nor 的!

So, magic necklace, magical necklace, necklace with magic... Seems like they're all possible!

ETA: On a side note, I'm also confused about the classifier. XD In the sentence from Baidu, it seems to be 只, which surprised me because the Cantonese word for necklace (颈链) takes the classifier 条, and I just assumed 项链 would take 条 as well. I checked MDBG, which says it's 条. Google gives over 900,000 results for "一条项链," so presumably that's right... [further ETA: also over 500,000 results for "一个项链"]... but it also gives me 15,000 results for "一只项链."

...And one of the image results that shows up at the top of the first page for "一只项链" is this:

[trobadora]

Thank you for googling and commenting, because I thought the 有 made sense too, and it's great to have it confirmed! I'd guess they're all slightly different nuances, yeah.

(And regarding your ETA, huh, that's weird about the classifier!)

[grayswandir]

Does the image show up for you?

[trobadora]

Yes, it's showing.

[presumenothing]

Both versions sound fine to me – I suppose the with-有 version feels like it puts a bit more emphasis on the "has magic!!1!" part of it? And of course dropping words is always an option (see 魔法地毯、魔镜…)

I'd also say 条 for necklaces; the others do work generically but don't sound as precise imo.

[nnozomi]

I'd also say 条 for necklaces; the others do work generically but don't sound as precise imo.
Good to know!

[grayswandir]

(see 魔法地毯、魔镜…)

Oh, cool. These are both new to me!

[nnozomi]

Thank you for checking this out! That's very clear.
(With regard to the counter, I still associate 只 with "counter for animals," so I thought, well, 一只项链 must be reserved for magical necklaces, which are sort of alive, as opposed to ordinary mundane ones which get counted with 一条 ;) )

(And yes the image is showing up. OH IS IT EVER. <3 )