"It says that Chinese people really care about family," Larry Page leafed through the consulting report. For the last few months, impassioned youth from all over the country had been flooding the Internet with impassioned pleas filled with references to their grandmothers. From its headquarters tracking online sentiment, Google was sure somewhat strange was happening in the country, but what exactly?Learning Chinese? This lesson is for Absolute Beginners to the Chinese language. Even if you don't know any mandarin this lesson should be simple enough to get you started. So join us as we cover two essentials: how to ask questions about time, and when and where to invoke the names of close friends and relatives. We thrive on your comments and suggestions, so if you have any, please feel free to leave a comment in the discussion space below or send us an email at service@popupchinese.com.
richard
said on May 18, 2011
@Echo, is tamade more rude than nainaide? to strangers if i feel the need to use a medium swear word say one i could use
as in: damn it! i missed my bus.
@David, i just come back from a bike ride along the rideau canal and around dow's lake , if can remember > the ducks are back so i heard plenty of chinese duck talk (a's)
@Echo, as in your intro 'Even if you don't know any mandarin this lesson should be simple enough to get you started' what is the common word for "even if" and do i always need to include 'ye'
jjanina
said on May 18, 2011
I am confused with the Hanzi worksheets produced for the students to practice character writing. Why some are simplified, some traditional on the same worksheet? Much better solution would be to publish two separate worksheets, one with simplified, one with traditional characters only. Lijing
trevelyan
said on May 18, 2011
@jjanina,
The character worksheets should default to your character setting. So simplified by default, and traditional if you've switched your display preferences to traditional on your settings page:
http://popupchinese.com/account/customize
If you're getting a strange mixture of the two please let me know. It is working for me here.
--david
Echo
said on May 18, 2011
@richard,
Yes, ta1ma1de5 is way more rude. You can use nai3nai5de5 in your sample sentence. No problem. If you are not saying "your" nai3nai5de5 to anyone, it's not rude at all actually.
The word for "even if" is ji2shi3, and yes, you need "ye3"there, because it's a set phrase.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
jjanina
said on May 19, 2011
thanks David
it worked- now I'm getting the simplified versions.
pefferie
said on May 19, 2011
What is "Engima"?
trevelyan
said on May 19, 2011
@pefferie,In this context, it means I'm an idiot. Thanks for the correction. :)--dave
pefferie
said on May 19, 2011
@dave - laughing out loud!You guys are the best.
wytcheking
said on May 22, 2011
I was under the impression that 奶奶的 was short for 去你奶奶的。。。。well I'll leave that last word to your imagination.
Echo
said on May 22, 2011
@wytcheking,
Yes, exactly! However, 奶奶的 is way less rude. It doesn't sound like a swear word.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
nobulljive
said on August 15, 2015
Can you use tia1n ne and na3inai de as positive exclamations? Kind of like someone saying, "Oh my god!" when they get a pleasant surprise?
oldgabe
said on August 16, 2015
tian ne can be positive, nainai de however is generally negative.
trevelyan
said on August 17, 2015
Depends on the context, right? Inflection can spin meaning into almost anything. That said, you'll need to sound fluent before listeners will even realize that you're playing around. And many people won't even realize it in that situation.
