Stumpy Joe Pete

1,745 reputation

315

bio	website	peterthenelson.com
	location	United States
	age	25
visits	member for	11 months
	seen	yesterday
stats	profile views	33

I lived in China for a couple years. My Chinese isn't too bad, but I'm always trying to get better. Special interests in:

Etymology
Historical phonology
Winning arguments in other languages

	1,745 reputation	bio	website	peterthenelson.com	visits	member for	11 months
315 badges		location	United States		seen	yesterday

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247 Comments

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Apr 28	comment	Why do you say 我没有错 instead of 我不错 to say “I'm not wrong”? When should I use 没有? I wouldn't say completely idiomatic. 错 is usually a verb meaning "to make an error" (so naturally you negate past with 没有), but it's acting as an adjective in 不错 (so naturally uses 不). The idiomatic thing is that 错 has limited use as an adjective. You can say 这是错的 or 很不错, but it's rare to see 很错.
Apr 27	comment	Proper use of “closet” Excellent answer!
Apr 26	comment	Which dialect(s) to study before visiting Shenzhen? Short answer: Mandarin. Cantonese is very common as well, but Mandarin is pretty universal throughout the country.
Apr 26	comment	Proper use of “closet” No. Here is a picture of a closet. It's a small room for storing clothes in.
Apr 23	comment	How would you translate the word '面子'? Exactly: It's just "face". It's a direct translation from Chinese, but the usage is widely understood and long standing (since at least the late 1800's).
Apr 19	comment	How do I type the lü for Character Romanization? @fmz See my very first comment: When using a pinyin IME for Chinese characters, type `v` instead of `ü`. Many of the answers people are giving are how to actually type a `ü` (not to type characters)
Apr 18	comment	What are the characters on this image, and what do they translate to? Hint: You might start looking at the 36 Stratagems
Apr 18	comment	What are the characters on this image, and what do they translate to? That picture hurts my brain. The characters are: `隔岸觀火`. Now that you have the characters, do some research (e.g., look them up in a dictionary), edit your question, and then people may be more interested in answering your question.
Apr 17	comment	How do I type the lü for Character Romanization? @deutschZuid He's asking about entering it in a pinyin IME. If you actually want to type a `ü` on a mac, you just hold down `u` really long until a menu comes up with various `u`'s with accents.
Apr 17	comment	How do I type the lü for Character Romanization? Type "v" instead of "u".
Apr 15	comment	How to (hand) write Chinese character faster @Derek Used in context, I don't think the merged characters in simplified are ever confusing (no one ever thinks "OMG, I'm swimming while playing!"). From the systematic perspective, it's kind of dumb/ugly that they merged characters, but I don't think it leads to miscommunications in practice.
Apr 10	comment	Dissimilation of bilabial finals following Middle Chinese (法, 品, 凡) Wish I could give this another upvote...
Apr 4	comment	Is this a translation of 逍遥游？ Thanks! Great explanation!
Apr 3	comment	Is this a translation of 逍遥游？ Curious... what does 故 mean in this context? I'm having trouble parsing the sentence.
Apr 2	comment	Japanese 気分転換 in Cantonese? Japanese `気分転換` does not mean "change moods". Look at the example usage in the OP's link.
Mar 31	comment	Japanese 気分転換 in Cantonese? I don't know about Cantonese specifically, but you might take a look at 耳目一新 and 面目一新
Mar 31	comment	Why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese? Just saying that it's more like diglossia than multiple dialects sharing the same writing.
Mar 31	comment	Why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese? The formal writing in HK and Taiwan is heavily influenced by Mandarin though. If they just wrote down what they would say in their dialect, it would not necessarily be easily understood (e.g.,`侬今朝下半天有辰光伐？`)
Mar 30	comment	Pronouncing pinyin “c” in Shanxi dialect Many dialects merge zh with z, ch with c, and sh with s. Usually the preference is for the z-c-s series, but it's possible to go the other way too.
Mar 29	comment	Why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese? Also, what does "Cantonese is anti-foreign" mean? PS, outside of China, many countries speak more than one language (e.g., Swiss people speak German, Italian, French, and Romanche; Belgians speak Flemish and French).