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[Eclectic Asian]

Actually no. I used to think they were moons too, but they're really 冉 (ran3) transformed.

And no, you don't write "na" like moon. The way you write "na" is about how you're writing moon now, you write the right then the strokes then left last (at least that's how I have been doing it).

damn, see i told you some of the characters almost look the same. now i have to re-educate myself whenever i write "moon" or peng2you because i've been doing it the wrong way for a long time now....

damn!....

EDIT: btw french, that ran3 you mentioned....is that the same kind as in zai4???

thanks!!

This post has been edited by Eclectic Asian: Sep 27 2005, 08:48 PM

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

Actually no. I used to think they were moons too, but they're really 冉 (ran3) transformed.

And no, you don't write "na" like moon. The way you write "na" is about how you're writing moon now, you write the right then the strokes then left last (at least that's how I have been doing it).

damn, see i told you some of the characters almost look the same. now i have to re-educate myself whenever i write "moon" or peng2you because i've been doing it the wrong way for a long time now....

damn!....

EDIT: btw french, that ran3 you mentioned....is that the same kind as in zai4???

thanks!!

再 zai is basically 冉 ran with a cap on 一.

[Eclectic Asian]

ok sorry i have more questions. is yang2 (sheep) a part of the character mei3??

and the yu4 part of guo3, does it have two meanings? jade and king right?

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

ok sorry i have more questions. is yang2 (sheep) a part of the character mei3??

and the yu4 part of guo3, does it have two meanings? jade and king right?

1. Yes, in fact yang 羊 is part of mei 美. 美 is actually sheep 羊 who is nice and big 大 (see it).

2. Simplified guo2 uses 玉, yes (国). But king 王 (wang2) is different from jade 玉 (yu4) by one stroke (can you see it?).

[Eclectic Asian]

thanks for you help french!! you have helped me in many ways!! unfortunately, i have more questions!!
i'm worrying right now because i have a test on monday!!! and i can't sleep unless i master some ambiguous aspects of this language

there's some characters that i need some clarification on:

i need the meaning/definition of these:
1)ping2
2)ka1 (from ka1fei1)
3)fei1 (from ka1fei1) when taken a part, do they have individual meaning?
4)lin2
5)yin1yang1 (there's so many different meanings for this, what's the main meanings?)
6)yu3 (is it rain?)

also, the radical yu3...does it always have the umlaut (the 2 dots) no matter what? because in my book it didn't have it but my teacher said it needs umlauts.

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i don't understand why the teacher gives us the meaning of the radicals but does not give the pinyin for it.....i need pinyin for these radicals!

i have the meanings of the radicals here but i have no pinyin for them!
1)enclosure (the big kou3 that covers jade yu4 to make guo2)
2)speech
3)axe (from ba4ba)
4)shaman (from yi1sheng1 doctor traditional)
5)walking (from zhe4)
6)human, person (like from ni3)
7)vertical heart (from mang2)
8)right ear (city, town)
9)left ear (mountain, for Chen2 surname)
10)water (as from bo1 - wave)
11)grass (like from cha2 - tea)

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damn, i wish ocrat was up because dr. xie's site doesn't have all the characters stroke orders so for some characters on my flashcards i can only read and recognize it but not write it!! and i don't wanna guess because bad habits die hard!!

thanks in advance!!!

p.s. i just got the tapes that accompany my textbook, hopefully it will help with pronounciation. (for some reason this one handout says that pinyin "x" is just a regular english "s" pronouncation but when the teacher says words the "x" sounds like an english "sh". i'm so confused because "sh" is already a pinyin consonant.
also, "r" is supposed to be pronounced like the s in television right? but whenever i hear ren2 (people,person) it sounds like a regular english r to me.

and not to mention "y". it's as if it's silent and people are saying ing1guo2 instead of the correct pinyin ying1guo2

so confused!!! but i will keep studying...

...just hopefully not the wrong ways

This post has been edited by Eclectic Asian: Sep 29 2005, 09:52 PM

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

i need the meaning/definition of these:
1)ping2
I'm guessing you mean this ping2 平, which means "flat" or "balanced".


2)ka1 (from ka1fei1)
咖 It's just a phonetic

3)fei1 (from ka1fei1) when taken a part, do they have individual meaning?
啡 It kind of carries the meaning of "brown".

4)lin2
I guess you mean this lin2 林, which is "forest"

5)yin1yang1 (there's so many different meanings for this, what's the main meanings?)
阴阳 Yin1 yang2 is actually "negative and positive", but together I think you could say "balanced" for "yin1 yang2"

6)yu3 (is it rain?)
"Rain" yu3 is 雨, but if it's "language" yu3 then it's 语

also, the radical yu3...does it always have the umlaut (the 2 dots) no matter what? because in my book it didn't have it but my teacher said it needs umlauts.

I'm not sure which radical you mean... ...you mean the pinyin? If you're talking about pinyin, it doesn't matter as long you say it right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i don't understand why the teacher gives us the meaning of the radicals but does not give the pinyin for it.....i need pinyin for these radicals!

i have the meanings of the radicals here but i have no pinyin for them!
1)enclosure (the big kou3 that covers jade yu4 to make guo2)
囗 wei4

2)speech
言 yan2

3)axe
斤 jin1

4)shaman (from yi1sheng1 doctor traditional)
I'm not sure....do you mean qiu2 酋?

5)walking
It's the radical that 逛, 逃 and 逗 have in common..

6)human, person (like from ni3)
人 ren2 inverted (like in 他, 优, 儒)

7)vertical heart (from mang2)
心 xin1 changed (like in 情, 惜, 懊)

8)right ear (city, town)
邑 yi4 changed (like in 都, 那, 邵)

9)left ear (mountain, for Chen2 surname)
阜 fu4 changed (like in 附, 陈, 阵)

10)water (as from bo1 - wave)
水 shui3 changed (like in 汽, 凉, 涉)

11)grass (like from cha2 - tea)
艹 cao3

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p.s. i just got the tapes that accompany my textbook, hopefully it will help with pronounciation. (for some reason this one handout says that pinyin "x" is just a regular english "s" pronouncation but when the teacher says words the "x" sounds like an english "sh". i'm so confused because "sh" is already a pinyin consonant.
also, "r" is supposed to be pronounced like the s in television right? but whenever i hear ren2 (people,person) it sounds like a regular english r to me.

and not to mention "y". it's as if it's silent and people are saying ing1guo2 instead of the correct pinyin ying1guo2

In China, "X" can sound like "S", but the standard is a soft "Shee" sound, not like pinyin "Sh" which is rough (by the way, it can also sound like "s"). It sounds confusing, but don't worry about it. Stick to standard pronunciation.
X = Sh(ee)
Sh = Shhh (rough, thick sh)

And Y before i or u generally doesn't get pronounced.

[Eclectic Asian]

1)enclosure (the big kou3 that covers jade yu4 to make guo2)
囗 wei4

i don't understand. i thought wei4 looked like a li4 (strength) with 2 more strokes on it

4)shaman (from yi1sheng1 doctor traditional)
I'm not sure....do you mean qiu2 酋?

argh i can't type chinese yet but it looks like two ren2's that are separated by a wall and one horizontal stroke above (shorter) and one horizontal stroke below (longer). haha sorry if you get confused.

7)vertical heart (from mang2)
心 xin1 changed (like in 情, 惜, 懊)

is it still considered xin1

-----------------------------------------------------------------

thanks for your help. i just updated my flashcards. thanks for the pronounciation help also (i always suspected things sounded the way i heard them! )

one more thing before i call it a night, what's the meaning of ci2?

haha ok thanks

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

1. You're thinking of the wrong wei. I meant "wei2" 囗 as a radical, which looks like this 围 as a regular character.

2. You mean wu1 巫?

3. As far as I know it's still a "xin1"

[Eclectic Asian]

argh, i wish there was a simpler and easier way to decipher mandarin grammar.

i thought it was close to english syntax (???) and i found two examples in my book:

"All our teachers are Chinese"
Wo3men lao3shi1 dou1 shi4 mei3guo1ren2

"Please to meet you"
ren4shi ni3, hen3 gao1xing4


i know you're supposed to think in chinese and pretend you know no other language (in my case, English) so that you don't try to incorporate english syntax in your attempts to learn mandarin. however, it's hard when you don't have any idea what you're saying (like i know the meaning of the individual words, but it's hard to make out as a sentence sometimes )

[Jasel]

How strict is measure word use? I mean if maybe you use the wrong one in a particular instance. And are you going to go over measure words at all by any chance

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

How strict is measure word use? I mean if maybe you use the wrong one in a particular instance. And are you going to go over measure words at all by any chance

Well it's like in English, even we have measure words even though we don't think about it much (like a sack of books, a clump of food, a bunch of flowers)

The thing is it depends on how you're using it. When you're measuring people, you absolutely have to be considerate about which measure words you're using. The casual word for counting people is "ge4", which is somewhat like the word "individual" (yi ge ren = an (individual) person). When you are in a polite situation, you should use "wei4" in place of "ge4", or else it seems like you're being kind of rude. Like any guests are "wei4" instead of "ge4".
Lastly, NEVER confuse "zhi1" (measure word for animals) with "ge4" when counting people. The only way people use "zhi1" for people is if they really dislike a person and would be willing to fight.

If you're counting something like books or horses or something, the measure words aren't as strict as if you mess up with human measure words.

I want to go over that...but I still need to finish the first grammar thing.

[Eclectic Asian]

wow, i found another cool site that helps with stroke order!
http://www.usc.edu/dept/ealc/chinese/character/

it's a great complementary to Dr. Xie's site because Xie's site doesn't have all the characters. and this site has both simplified and traditional!!! wowzers!

btw french, you said in the other thread to use windows IME, twinbridge, or NJstar to type chinese. however, i'm not sure which files to download and how to go about the installation process

but damn, i got another 100% on my 2nd test. studying and endless flashcard repetition really does pay off! 2

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

Yay! Good to hear about your good grade.

Well, what system of Windows do you use, if you use Windows?

[Eclectic Asian]

yea, i use windows XP home edition

sorry response was late !

btw, i think the only reason i got an easy 100 was because it just tested my reading/writing skills. i would have been killed if verbal (listening) was involved. also, the grammar wasn't that hard this time around because we're only on the fifth chapter as of now. i can only fear right now of what is about to come....

This post has been edited by Eclectic Asian: Oct 5 2005, 08:43 PM

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

^In the software, there should be Chinese included on the CD.

[Eclectic Asian]

谢谢！

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

呵呵! 不客气.

[Eclectic Asian]

谢谢！

wow, i had to resize that because it's hard to see the strokes! (how can you guys read it so small?)

also, am i supposed to use Chinese (PRC)?? there were other kinds. what if i wanted to type traditional???

also, on the language toolbar for Chinese(PRC), what are those tabs supposed to do? one of them is the Chinese tab with zhong1 and there's a full shape/ half shape, and punctuation, and context menu. btw, what is double pinyin??

oh yea, how do i choose what tone i want when typing chinese?

sorry, this is all new to me! 对不吃!!!! (argh, is that last one qi3? i need simplified! )

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

You're typing simplified right now.

PRC means you're using simplified. Traditional is likely under Taiwan or HK.

I forgot the difference between full and half shape, I think it has to do with spaces. I forgot what double pinyin is too.

To choose the tone, you put 1,2,3 or 4 after the word.

[Eclectic Asian]

You're typing simplified right now.

PRC means you're using simplified. Traditional is likely under Taiwan or HK.

I forgot the difference between full and half shape, I think it has to do with spaces. I forgot what double pinyin is too.

To choose the tone, you put 1,2,3 or 4 after the word.

lol, what is your configuration then??

i need to get used to pressing space twice now...