第两百六十三天

[nnozomi]

语法
最好 + V etc., "had better/best to~" (top of page)
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_%22had_better%22_with_%22zuihao%22

词汇
说, 说话, speak/talk 说 shuō, 说话 shuōhuà, speak/talk
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-1-word-list/

Introductory grammar, day 48

Guardian:
你们最好告诉我，否则... you had better tell me. Otherwise...
你最好记住今天说的话, you'd better remember what I said today.
猫说话了，the cat spoke!

Me:
汤还非常烫了，最好等一会儿就吃. (or 喝?)
我跟你说，你最好快点辞职吧。

Comments

[grayswandir]

你最好记住今天说的话

Huh! This is my first time realizing that the 住 in 记住 is not the progressive-aspect suffix 住 that Cantonese uses in place of Mandarin 着 for ongoing/continuous verbs (as in 听住, 向住). I didn't know you could say 记住 in Mandarin! I assume this usage of 住 is "a suffix indicating firmness"?

In context I'm having some trouble seeing how that's different from progressive aspect. >_> Does anybody have any other examples of 住 as a verb suffix in Mandarin? Like, does it work with verbs other than 记?

[sakana17]

I've only encountered 记住 and 居住 but Wiktionary has an example sentence with 买住.

[grayswandir]

Oh, huh. I've heard 居住 but I assumed that was the basic use of 住 for "dwell/reside" rather than as a verb suffix.

I hadn't heard 买住. In the Wiktionary example (契丹分明是被金帛买住了) where they translate it as "buy off," the meaning of "firmly/securely" does seem to make the most sense, so that's helpful.

I just checked Baidu, and there are a couple of examples there that they say mean "firmly/securely," with 带住 and 抱住:

1) 众人向前，一个带住婆子，三四个带住唐牛儿，把他横拖倒拽，直推进 郓城县里来。——《水浒全传》

2) 贾政还欲打时，早被 王夫人抱住板子。——《红楼梦》

I've definitely heard 抱住 before (usually for someone holding a baby), but I always assumed that one was progressive aspect as well, since the holding is continuous rather than just a hug. Wiktionary tells me 抱住 is a word in Mandarin and means "to hug," though, and Google is giving me plenty of hits if I try to make 抱住 progressive by adding 着 (e.g. 紧抱住着她). So I guess "firmly" is the meaning there, too. I still feel like it's progressive aspect in Canto but I should probably ask a native speaker about it!

[sakana17]

I've heard 居住 but I assumed that was the basic use of 住 for "dwell/reside" rather than as a verb suffix.

Yeah, that makes sense.

[nnozomi]

Really interesting, thank you! The ones that come to mind immediately for me are 记住 as above and 站住, stand still, which seems to come up a lot in dramas; I think of 住 there as "well fixed in place"? (抱住 is too cute.) Let us know what Cantonese has to say about it when you find out more.

[grayswandir]

Ah, 站住 is new to me too. Hopefully with enough examples I'll start getting a sense of where 住 works in Mandarin and where it doesn't!

(I did get the chance to ask a native speaker about 記住, and their answer was that in Cantonese it can have either the Mandarin meaning of 記住 as its own complete verb or the Canto meaning of 記+住 as a suffix. They added: "I think it's confusing because almost every instance of [記+住] can be interpreted as using [記住] and the difference is mostly minimal." XD I guess at least I know now!)

[trobadora]

I assume this usage of 住 is "a suffix indicating firmness"?

Huh, learned something new again!

Though 记住 confuses me because according to the dictionary the 住 is neutral tone here. I wondered if it was a pronunciation difference between semantic 住 and 住 as a suffix, but that doesn't seem to be the case.