是为量词吗？

[Pedroski]

现在，中国网民总数已经超过美国人口总数，但美国网购人数占其全部人口的75%，中国则只有25%左右，而且，中国网购消费者年均消费额仅为美国消费者的1/5。于刚认为，这是差距， 更是中国电子商务的潜力。

 

Is '是‘ in 这是差距 working as a 量词？Or should I read 'this is a disparity'?

[imron]

Is '是‘ in 这是差距 working as a 量词？

No.

 

这是差距， 更是中国电子商务的潜力。

 

These two 是s are the same 是。

[Demonic_Duck]

Where do you get some of these weird ideas from? You might want to try re-reading a sentence two or three times before making a thread about it.

[陳德聰]

I'm more confused about why one would bother reading such difficult texts when things like the meaning of 是 are still not mastered.

[Altair]

What is 于刚认为?  I am not familiar either with using 于 with verbs or using it as a sentence connector at the beginning of a sentence.

 

 

Is '是‘ in 这是差距 working as a 量词？Or should I read 'this is a disparity'?

Why did you not simply settle for the normal meaning of "is"?  Was there some other part of the sentence that then did not seem to make sense?

[Tiana]

What is 于刚认为?  I am not familiar either with using 于 with verbs or using it as a sentence connector at the beginning of a sentence.

 

于刚 here seems to be a name.

(Yes, just found out that it is indeed a personal name )

[Pedroski]

Why did the author not write '这是一个差距‘，or whatever the correct 量词 is, given the Chinese love of 量词？Just a style thing? Or would you regard '差距’ here as '差距的‘？

 

于刚认为，这是差距， 更是中国电子商务的潜力。

 

Yu gang believes this disparity is also China's e-commerce potential. (2 是 become one, is that what you meant Imron?)

[陳德聰]

No he meant that the sense of the two 是 is the same.

 

It's not a style thing. 这是____ means "this is ____". Are you familiar with the difference between "este" and "éste" in Spanish?

 

Edit: I should also point out that Chinese loves measure words when counting things, but that doesn't somehow translate into every noun ever needing to be counted...

 

It's interesting that in English, it feels quite awkward to say "this is disparity" instead of "this is a disparity" whereas in Chinese, it's just easier to leave out 一个 since... well it's not like it could be 三个 or  四个差距, right?

[tooironic]

In English, the noun "disparity" is both countable and countable, though IMO it sounds more natural as a countable noun. In Chinese however 差距 is not usually counted.

 

The Chinese do not always count things the way English speakers do. It is important to be careful not to be influenced by your first language when learning a second. Keep an open mind. You claim the Chinese have a love for 量词, but I would say the opposite is true; especially in formal writing, the Chinese often omit counters.

 

By the way, I wrote about the phenomenon of countable/uncountable nouns in Chinese and English recently on my blog, you may find it useful to have a read.

[Pedroski]

Thanks, both of you!

 

Interesting blog.

 

Keep an open mind: I'll try, it's not easy when you are a mysogynist racist bigot! (笑话啊）

 

I don't think anyone English would ever say 'This is disparity'! Strange that it is ok in Chinese. 'These disparities', should there be more than one, on the other hand is fine.

 

I'm afraid I am not at all familiar with éste. I do know esté.

 

(Looked it up in RAE dictionary: ORTOGR. En este último caso escr. con acento cuando existe riesgo de anfibología. They don't list éste)

[realmayo]

I don't think anyone English would ever say 'This is disparity'! Strange that it is ok in Chinese.

 

Pedroski, perhaps you should no longer be surprised that Chinese sometimes functions differently to English. Otherwise you'll always find it a 'strange' language.

[Tiana]

Pedroski, this should be your first rule to remember in learning Chinese: English has its own rules and Chinese also has its own rules. The two sets of rules can be very different from each other.

[roddy]

Pedroski, your attitudes towards Chinese are going to prevent you learning it as quickly or as well as you otherwise could. Put up a new topic introducing yourself. Tell us who you are, where you're from, where you live, why you're learning Chinese, how you're learning Chinese, and anything else that seems relevant. You'll get plenty of good advice. 

[imron]

Which he can then continue ignore   (笑话啊）

[roddy]

You never know. Remember when you first signed up and we had to persuade you to throw away your copy of Chineasy and Rosetta Stone?

[realmayo]

 Remember when you first signed up and we had to persuade you to throw away your copy of Chineasy and Rosetta Stone?

 

.... says the guy who didn't think it's worth bothering with tones!     

[roddy]

English manages fine without them 

[imron]

Remember when you first signed up and we had to persuade you to throw away your copy of Chineasy and Rosetta Stone?

You must have me confused with some other imron.  If I recall, when I first signed up I was correcting mistakes in your HSK database   

[realmayo]

some other imron

Given the sword in the photo, surely there can be only one?

[imron]

Now, yes, but 2004 was 10 years ago ;-)