Our office has recently been abuzz with the news that Marlin, one of our voice actors, has picked up a girlfriend of dubious provenance. Dubious here not meaning skeptical or suspicious, just highlighting the fact that no-one seems clear where exactly she's from, least of all Marlin himself. Echo's best guess was Lithuania. We'll report back with the specifics when we figure them out.
jim.veseley
said on July 20, 2010
Nice podcast as usual. Just to confirm, the proper word order is: 连 + object + 都 + verb? And the subject is optional and goes at the front? 他连他女朋友的名字都不知道? He doesn't even know his girlfriend's name?
Brendan
said on July 20, 2010
@jim.veseley - That's right. In other cases, you can also have the subject in between 连 and 都 -- "连我都不知道," "Even I don't know."
jim.veseley
said on July 21, 2010
Thank you Brendan. It's interesting that the language lets you do that. i can't think of a similar non-trivial example in English where you can drop the subject and the sentence rearranges itself with the object as the new subject. Chinese is an interesting language.
valluckett
said on July 22, 2010
I noticed gànmá is written as 干嘛 in "你干嘛看这个?" (What are you doing reading this?). But I have also seen gànmá written as 干吗. Both can be found in different online dictionaries - I have even seen the example "你在这儿干吗?" in one dictionary and "你在这儿干嘛?" in another.
Are the two ways of writing the word interchangeable? Or are there different meanings between the two words?
Brendan
said on July 22, 2010
@valluckett - The two are completely interchangeable. My own preference would be for 嘛, as it can mean "what" on its own in some contexts and some dialects of Mandarin, and it also helps to reduce any possible confusion (unlikely though it would be) in writing.
Echo
said on July 22, 2010
哈哈，我觉得这课的图片换成中国医生开的处方更合适——完全读不了...
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
nurflight9
said on November 19, 2010
I noticed that in the transcript, in the first line, yi xia was written yi1 xia4, whereas in the last line it was written yi2 xia4. Which one is it? I think logically "yi" would be first tone, but I think I tend to say it with the second tone.
Elementary
said on November 19, 2010
Nice catch susan. The formal pronunciation is first tone, but tone sandhi changes 一 into a second tone when it precedes a fourth tone word like 下. 不 also changes this way and (depending on where you are in China) you may also hear people change 七 and 八 this way as well.
We don't mark tone sandhi changes in our popups, in order to avoid confusing people. So the proper written form is "yi1 xia4", although you will hear most people say "yi2 xia4" in speech. I've just updated the transcript - thanks for pointing this out.
--dave
pefferie
said on June 2, 2011
In the last line - isn't it supposed to be zhi3shi4 and not zhi1shi4?
Elementary
said on June 3, 2011
@pefferie,Yes - fixed with thanks.
mike_underhill
said on February 21, 2013
Hi,Is it OK to use 连 with 没 instead of 不？ For example:下这么大雨，但是他连没带来雨伞！ "It's raining like this, but he didn't even bring an umbrella"Mike
Echo
said on February 21, 2013
@mike,Yes, you can use both 没 and 不, it only depends on the meaning of the sentence.However, your sentence needs to be changed slightly: 下这么大雨，但是他连雨伞都/也没带。--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
mike_underhill
said on February 22, 2013
Echo,Thanks, yes, as you said earlier, must have subject in between 连 and 都。
