6
votes
How to express "I'm reading about (something)" in oral speech/informal contexts?
“I’m reading about Malaysian language.”
In Chinese, I’d say something like this:
我在看一点有关马来语的书。
5
votes
Accepted
How do natives pronounce the 2nd tone in regular conversation? (Pitch levels: 35, 33, or 434?)
A tone may, upon certain instances, take on a pitch different from its classic pitch. That is to say, while a pitch is absolute (in sound frequency), a tone is not.
中餐 may change from the classic ...
3
votes
Accepted
How appropriate is "拜拜"?
拜拜 is not casualness and/or childishness,it is a more friendly way to express goodbye ,and majority use between people who have good relation,or see somebody for the first time and build a friendship ...
3
votes
Informal way of saying hello?
You can say ‘嗨’, which is equivalent to ‘hi’ in English or ‘哈咯’ which translates to ‘hello’ or even ‘哟‘ like another user had mentioned in the comments.
3
votes
Accepted
How to express "I'm reading about (something)" in oral speech/informal contexts?
I'm reading about the Malaysian language.
Like you said, “我在阅读有关马来西亚语言的信息。” sounds formal and not conversational.
I think a better way to express it would be
我在看马来西亚语方面的东西。
“方面” can be used to ...
2
votes
How to express "I'm reading about (something)" in oral speech/informal contexts?
我在读亚瑟王的传奇故事。
I'm reading about the legend of King Arthur.
我在阅读有关埃及古老金字塔的文章。
I'm reading about the ancient pyramids of Egypt.
(Not really, I'm too busy trying to get my PHP to work!!)
2
votes
Accepted
How to politely ask “What do you really mean?”
There are many ways to say it. The 6 pairs below arranged from polite with respect --> polite --> demanding w/patience --> demanding w/impatience.
1a - 我不太瞭解您的意思, 可以請您解釋解釋嗎?
1b - 我不太瞭解您所說的, ...
2
votes
How do natives pronounce the 2nd tone in regular conversation? (Pitch levels: 35, 33, or 434?)
Aside from @L Parker's excellent answer, I can provide some empirical evidence.
In my experience, the second tone is pronounced with a clear 35 tone when the word is:
a single-character word, where a ...
2
votes
Accepted
What to reply to "祝你好运" (I wish you good luck)?
“祝你好运” means “Good luck!”
“谢谢”Just be appropriate.
2
votes
How appropriate is "拜拜"?
拜拜 is not considered childish, but is more casual than other forms of good-bye. It can be use on children / friends / even seniors, but should not be use for Clients / business partner / etc.
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Related Tags
informal × 8translation × 2
politeness × 2
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cantonese × 1
tones × 1
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phrase-request × 1
loanwords × 1
greetings × 1
formal × 1