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A software package on Github called chinese-sentence-miner seemed like it would be useful, until I looked at its example sentences:

  1. 我看你不应该。 (I don't think you ought to.)
  2. 我喜欢约翰,他是我非常要好的朋友。 (I like John, a very good friend of mine.)
  3. 我喜欢夏天吃莴苣,我的兔子也喜欢。 (I like to eat lettuce in summer, and so does my rabbit.)
  4. 请帮我喂我的猫好吗? (Will you feed my cat for me?)
  5. 我喜欢唱歌,更不用说听音乐了。 (I enjoy singing, much more than listening to music.)
  6. 我没有注意到他已经走了。 (I failed to note that he had left.)
  7. 妈妈准备了好吃的东西给我。 (Mother has something delicious in store for me.)
  8. 我觉得这是我的义务。 (I feel it is my duty.)
  9. 我有一辆红色的自行车。 (I have a red bike.)
  10. 我可以用信用卡付款吗? (May I pay by credit card.)

chinese-sentence-miner (source of these examples)

I think 2, 4, and 6-10 are fine. My impression is that 1 is wrong. In 3, 莴苣 seems like a obscure choice of word for "lettuce" which I would normally call 生菜. I'm not sure what 更不用说 means in 5, but it seems backwards: they like music more than singing. Maybe others can offer more insight.

Question: What is the quality of these 10 example sentences obtained through sentence mining?

1 Answer 1

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(1) Q: 我應該去嗎? A: 我看你不应该。

(3) 莴苣 means (from dictionary) lettuce, cos lettuce, romaine, and asparagus lettuce. Note that 生菜 refers to the uncooked fresh vegetables that are not limited to lettuce.

(10) 我喜欢唱歌,更不用说听音乐了。My translation - I like singing, it goes without saying I like to listen to the music.

I wouldn't comment on the quality of these sentences, but I don't quite support the way that many teaching material only provide a phrase (片語), though grammatically correct, which does not provide a complete picture to promote understanding.

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  • Interestingly, in Cantonese, 生菜 refers to lettuce exclusively. All vegetables are presumed uncooked in the market and cooked in dishes except for lettuce. We have 生嘅生菜 (uncooked lettuce) and 熟嘅生菜 (cooked lettuce)
    – Tang Ho
    Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 21:01
  • @TangHo I've no comment on "Cantonese" terms.
    – r13
    Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 21:15

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