Hot answers tagged grammar
19
The usage of “的” is in possessive or adjectival context. E.g., (posessive) “我的狗”, or (adjectival) “真正的生意人”. Generally a noun is modified, so a noun follows it, unless it doesn't, such as “有点儿不足是难免的”, (some insufficiency is unavoidable) which is still an adjectival modifier (unavoidable), even though it modifies the noun (insufficiency) in front of it.
“地” ...
15
Very good question.
还是 is usually used in asking questions. For example:
你想去北京还是上海呢? = Did you want to go to Beijing or Shanghai?
这是橙子还是橘子? = Is this orange or mandarin?
或者 is usually used in declarative sentence. For example:
我想去北京或者上海. = I wanted to go to Beijing or Shanghai.
你可以叫我小王或者老王. = You can call me Xiao Wang or Lao Wang.
13
Usually 了 is used to indicate past tense (or the completion of). Such as:
我吃了
了 is added to the end of the sentence that change the statement to past tense. You can add 过 before 了 to add emphasis.
E.g., 我吃了 (I ate) vs. 我吃过了 (I have (already) eaten.)
but 了 may be used for different reasons, some of which have nothing to do with past tense.
...
13
The first expression is usually used when the speaker has a feeling that the other person had done something, so he's making a guess, while the second could be either a simple question or suggestion.
In the first case,
你是不是吃蛋糕了？
can be used when the speaker noticed a cream stain on the other person's shirt or something like that. The speaker is ...
12
Yes.
中 can be used to express that something happened of didn't happen within a certain scope or range or just within something (《现代汉语词典》: 范围内；内部). The range doesn't need to be a time range, but it can be. Furthermore, it can also refer to the future.
So you can say:
他预言战争将在下几年中爆发: He predicted that war would break out in the next few years.
年中
在最近若干年中: In ...
10
There are a few differences between those three words:
"以及" can only connect phrases,not words.
The phrases after "以及" is commonly considered to secondary.
"与" and "和" are used to express the relationship.
"与" is more elegant than "和". such as "老人与海".
"和" is mostly used in oral form.
In some cases,"和" and "与" are somewhat interchangeable, such as ...
10
"的" in this case means "certainly", "really", "I am sure that..." as the conclusion says in your question.
For me, such sentences are the same.
我会去看他的。
我一定会去看他。
You can say "我一定会去看他的". The mood sounds stronger (I think it's not much stronger), but I can't tell you how strong it is (this is a natural language, not math). I would use this when I want ...
8
There's no negative connotation, at all.
条 and 只 are used interchangeably in today's Chinese, not just specific to a region. Long ago, 头（頭）were used as a quantifier for dogs or other farm animals. I suspect "head" was dropped because dogs do not have stocky builds as other animals(pigs, donkeys, bulls etc). Also "头" tends to associate "dumb animals" and ...
8
被 + verb = passive form
根除 = eradicate
被根除 = be eradicated
Some verbs have active form with passive meaning. 根除 is one of them. So it's fine to remove 被 from this sentence.
(These verbs are very similar to ergative verbs in English but mainstream Chinese grammar doesn't interpret them as ergative verbs.)
8
I'm not sure if you are familiar with 的时候 but this translates approximately to 'while'.
So the sentence reads:
While I was eating I read a book.
You can see the English use "I" twice, so it may make more sense to you if you read it like this:
我吃饭的时候(我)看了一本书
8
Overall both translations are fine and fluent, with some small issues below:
Grammatical/Syntactic issues:
I think there is only one issue, in (2) 我们想酒保因为要省钱的. Either use 要省钱 as verb (i.e. remove 的), or use 要省钱的 as adjective (i.e. add 是 before 要).
Semantic issues:
In (1), margarita mix is translated into 玛格丽特混合物. In Chinese, people don't refer food/drink ...
7
可以 means I can do it, but may I? For example
我可以开车吗?
May I drive? (Have the implication of I want to drive)
我可以开车
I can drive (have the implication of I can, but I don't want to (unwilling to do so))
会 means I am able to, or I know how to do it For example
你会开车吗?
Can you drive? (Are you able to drive? Do you know how to drive? Or even Do ...
7
This is a classic example of a topic-comment construction that is prevalent in Chinese. In this case, 面熟 is not serving as an adjective to the noun, but rather as a comment on the topic.
常常看着一个人 ("often seeing a person") is the topic
面熟却叫不出名字来 ("[he's] familiar, yet [I] can't come up with [his] name") is the comment.
All adjectives in Chinese can ...
6
You can use 完 and 了 together or separately.
了 is usually used to indicate the completion of an action. E.g. 你买了好多东西 (You purchased a lot of stuff). See the question "Tense and use of 了" to learn more.
完 is used to indicate the action of completing/finishing something. E.g. "說話沒完的人" (a motormouth, someone who talks to no end). Usually it's verb + 完.
完了 ...
6
There is a web demo system called ICTCLAS (Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Lexical Analysis System). It was developed by the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Science.
There is also a web demo system from THULAS (Tsinghua University - Lexical Analyzer for Chinese), which was developed by the Nature Language Processing Group, ...
6
You can also use 好 to emphasize many:
我有好几个朋友 Wǒ yǒu hǎojǐ gè péngyǒu - I have lots of friends
好多人来看我 Hǎoduō rén lái kàn wǒ - Many people came to see me
In this case the 好 is strongly emphasized.
好几个 = Lots
好多 = Very many
To suggest some or a few:
我有几个朋友来看我 Wǒ yǒu jǐ gè péngyǒu lái kàn wǒ - I have some friends coming to see me
...
6
There is no strict rule, it's more like a convention. English uses similar measure words too. For example, you say "A bow of rice" = 一 碗 米, or "A pair of glasses" = 一 副 眼镜.
Here is a very useful Wikipedia article that outlines the measure words in Chinese.
You can use 个 in most case, but it would be a bit weird in some cases. For example, you would say 一 杯 ...
6
什麼都 can be used in both positive and negative statements while 什麼也 is usually used in negative statements. So, instead of focusing on the usage of 也 here, 什麼都 and 什麼也 can be regarded as phrases which are sometimes used interchangeably.
For example:
我們以為什麼都知道，而實際上什麼也不知道。/ 我们以为什么都知道，而实际上什么也不知道。
One possible translation:
We thought we knew/know ...
6
可以 refers to PERMISSION or "social capacity." Am I allowed (permitted) to do such and such? Or at least can I "get away" with it?
会 refers to "know how." Do I know HOW to do such and such.
能 refers to physical capacity: size, strength, dexterity. I may 会 (know how) to move a large piece of furniture or change a tire (having done so before), but no longer ...
6
If you find these kinds of things puzzling, I suggest you try and download 现代汉语八百词. It gives meanings and uses of a lot of these constructions. As Huang says, these constructions mean just what they mean.
On page 594 of 现代汉语八百词 it says (the page number will depend on the edition you download):
要是 yào.shi
［连］表示假设；如果。
a) 用于前一小句。
～看见《汉英词典》，替我买一本 | ...
6
A small class of verbs (including 杀，喝，吃，扔，忘) can take 了 as a resultative complement meaning 掉. These verbs can use 了 in places where it might otherwise sound odd. In this case, 杀了 is not expressing completed action; rather, it expresses the result of the verb.
Some other examples:
我不会忘了。 I won't forget.
把它吃了！ Eat it!
他把旧的衣服都扔了。He threw out all the ...
6
There are many use-cases of 吧. In these 吧 should be placed at the end of the sentence.
First the 吧 is used when making polite suggestions, requests or orders. Its presence will soften the tone of such a request or suggestion.
Some examples:
走吧 (zou3 ba): let's go
帮帮他吧! (bang1 bang1 ta1 ba): help him!
我们赶快去医院看她吧 (wo3 men gan3 kuai4 qu4 yi1 yuan4 kan4 ta1 ...
6
俩 means 两个and is typically more colloquial. 俩 is often used for people, but doesn't need to be. Some examples:
买俩馒头: to buy two steamed rolls
兄弟俩
他们俩。
Alternatively you can use "咱俩" in oral language, "咱" means "我". The difference between 我们 and 咱们, is that 咱们 includes the listener. So 我们两个, 我们俩, 咱们俩 and 咱俩 all mean "the two of us".
A side remark: when a ...
6
Your wife asks "你是不是到外面泡妞啦".
Your brothers ask "你到外面泡妞了没有".
In case you missed the point: "你是不是到外面泡妞啦" means your wife does not know whether you were flirting with other women, but she strongly thinks you were. This is because most women in love are paranoia. "你到外面泡妞了没有", on the other hand, is a neutral question without any guesses. Your brothers ask in ...
6
So who came up with those common name translations at first place?
Those common name translations are known as 音译 or transcription.
In Chinese, transcription is known as yīnyì (simplified Chinese: 音译; traditional Chinese: 音譯) or yìmíng (simplified Chinese: 译名; traditional Chinese: 譯名). While it is common to see foreign names left in their original forms ...
6
Regarding arabic numerals: I think modern usage sees arabic numbers to be generally acceptable. However the context of the material, or even the region, may influence whether they're commonly used or not. For example, in metropolitan areas you might commonly see phone numbers or prices expressed in digits, whereas in more traditional material you probably ...
6
In Mandarin, especially Northern China dialects, measure words can be omitted when
It is following a demonstrative pronoun, AND
The numeral is 1 (one), AND
It is not a collective measure word such as 些, 群, etc.
The grammatical role of the phrase does not change. E.g.
这一件毛衣 = 这件毛衣 = 这毛衣
这一些毛衣 = 这些毛衣 collective measure word 些 cannot be omitted.
...
6
UPDATE: I noticed that different sources disagree on whether to call the 到 in the context you used it a complement of result. For example according to the Chinese Grammar Wiki it is not a complement of result (and it's also my feeling). The most common definition is that a complement of result implies that an action has attained the expected aim or result. ...
6
This is indeed a complex matter. From the way you ask, I guess you're interested in the grammatical aspect, which is what this answer is focusing on.
Because Chinese language uses serial verb construction, the simile is expressed as a V-O (verb-object) clause with simile connective as verb and vehicle noun phrase as object.
[simile clause] = [connective ...
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