How do you tell another person how to say a word or expression?

[Pegasus]

Hello Everyone, 

 

How do you tell another person how to say a word or expression in another language using that language?

 

Take these very simple example sentences:

 

English Sentence 1: "Last year in Mandarin is 去年." 

English Sentence 2: "Last year in Cantonese is 舊年." 

 

What would be some natural ways to say Sentence 1 using Mandarin? Which would you say is the most natural way?

What would be some natural ways to say Sentence 2 using Cantonese? Which would you say is the most natural way?

 

For what it's worth, I have my guesses, but since I am not a native speaker of either language, I don't feel confident that my guesses would be natural.

Here are my guesses:

Guess for Sentence 1 in Mandarin: "普通話的 Last year 是去年."

Guess for Sentence 2 in Cantonese: "廣東話嘅Last year 係舊年."

 

Do my guesses sound natural or do they sound strange? 

 

Thank you!

 

~Pegasus

 

Update: After reading some of the reply posts, I know now that my guesses don't make much sense. Thanks for that feedback.

Update: Also, to minimize potential confusion about what I'm asking, I would like to add this example scenario: (excerpted from what I wrote in post #5 in this thread): Let's say that my friend and I are both learning Chinese. English is our native language, but we are in the middle of practicing Chinese. My friend wants to say that he went to China last year, but he doesn't know how to say "last year" in Chinese. So maybe he says that part in English, "我 last year 去中國。" Or, maybe is tries to make up a word for last year based on his knowledge of how to say "last month" in Chinese ("上個月"). So he might say something like, "我上個年去中國。" In this example, I know that last year in Chinese is "去年" and I want to tell my friend how to say last year in Chinese. I want to say something like my Example Sentence 1 from my original post, "Last year in Mandarin is 去年."  However, I want to say that sentence in mostly Chinese, not English, because we are practicing Chinese speaking. 

 

Again, thank you!

[somethingfunny]

While I think most people would understand what you were getting at, I don't think your suggestion is the best way of putting it (fair play for having a crack at it yourself though).  The problem is that 的 is usually possessive, so it's like you're saying "The 普通話 of Last year is 去年", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

I'm not sure if there is one 100% accepted way of expressing the English language meaning you're getting at here, by which I mean a sentence where you name the target language.  I'd always just say "去年是Last year的意思" with the implication being that I'm talking about 普通话 as that's the language I'm currently speaking.  If you absolutely have to include the phrase '普通话' then I'm a little more uncertain, but would probably say something like "Last year 拿／用 普通话 来说 是 去年", but this doesn't sound very natural to me.

[Shelley]

I am trying to make sense of what you are trying to get across.

 

Are you trying to tell English people what Last Year in chinese is? or chinese people?

 

I don't know why you would need to tell a chinese person what Last Year is in chinese.

 

If you telling an English person you would just say Last Year in chinese is qu nian.

 

Unless you are trying to tell Mandarin speakers what Last Year is in Cantonese or vice versa.

 

I think somethingfunny has got the best from what I can see but I just wanted to clarify things in case there is a better way to say it

 

 

[eddyf]

The problem is that 的 is usually possessive, so it's like you're saying "The 普通話 of Last year is 去年", which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

You have it a bit mixed up, the example in the first post would actually be more like "The Last year of 普通話 is 去年". 的 is like "of" with the left and right switched.

 

I'm not really that confident how to say it either. It's kind of a weird sentence to say in Mandarin in the first place, since it's like the person already knows what "last year" means and you are explaining to them how to say it in Mandarin, but you're using Mandarin to explain it. And that is not a very common situation. It would only happen in a beginner Mandarin class conducted in Mandarin. My guess would be to say it the other way around: "Last year"的普通话是“去年”。Or if you say "Last year是去年的意思" then it sounds like a different situation, where you're explaining to a Mandarin speaker what "last year" means.

[Pegasus]

@somethingfunny (post#2): Thank you for your feedback. That is helpful. 

 

@Shelley (post#3): Thank you for asking those questions. Those are great questions.

 

"Are you trying to tell English people what Last Year in chinese is? or chinese people?" 

Short Answer: I am telling a native English speaker how to say "last year" in Chinese, but I want to speak the sentence mostly in Chinese. 

 

Longer Answer: Here is an example scenario: Let's say that my friend and I are both learning Chinese. English is our native language, but we are in the middle of practicing Chinese. My friend wants to say that he went to China last year, but he doesn't know how to say "last year" in Chinese. So maybe he says that part in English, "我 last year 去中國。" Or, maybe is tries to make up a word for last year based on his knowledge of how to say "last month" in Chinese ("上個月"). So he might say something like, "我上個年去中國。" In this example, I know that last year in Chinese is "去年" and I want to tell my friend how to say last year in Chinese. I want to say something like my Example Sentence 1 from my original post, "Last year in Mandarin is '去年'." However, I want to say that sentence in mostly Chinese, not English, because we are practicing Chinese speaking. 

 

@eddyf (post #4): Yes, you're absolutely right. I am imagining this situation in the context of learning Chinese like in a Mandarin class conducted in Mandarin.  Or, in the case of my Example Sentence#2, it would be in a Cantonese class conducted in Cantonese. 

 

 

Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate it. 

 

~Pegasus 

[刘慧婷]

I think teaching in context would help so give them an example sentence of how you'd use it and then have them practice their prediction skills to guess what it means rather than telling them in a straightforward way. It might help them remember it better

 

e.g. rather than 去年的意思是last year。
      it becomes 去年我去过北京。

 

You can probably come up with something more creative than that and use some pictures/photos to give them hints to differentiate between verbs and time phrases (you can have photos that compare to this year 今年 and next year 明年)

[Shelley]

Ah, ok I understand.

 

I would do something along the lines of;

 

he says 我 last year 去中國

 

I would then say 你去年去中國. I would maybe point at him to emphasise that I was repeating what he said but with the chinese. I might say it again so he works out I have used the correct chinese word in place of his English one.

 

This is how one of my teachers corrected our mistakes, saying the correct thing and then afterwards explaining it in English if she felt we needed it.

[Pegasus]

@刘慧婷 (post #6): Thank you for your feedback. 
 
@Shelley (post #7): Thank you for your feedback too. 
 

I would then say 你去年去中國. I would maybe point at him to emphasise that I was repeating what he said but with the chinese. I might say it again so he works out I have used the correct chinese word in place of his English one.
 
This is how one of my teachers corrected our mistakes, saying the correct thing and then afterwards explaining it in English if she felt we needed it.

 

I understand that we learn best in context, but if I were actually in the example scenario, the context would already be established. And, I understand that I could restate my friend's statement back to him using the correct word for "last year" and substituting 我 with 你 as Shelley suggested in post #7 (I could say "你去年去中國。" and point at him to emphasize that I was restating what he said.) And that would be great, however, after that, I would still find it helpful to explain it. However, I am hoping to learn how to use Chinese to explain it, instead of using English to explain it. I am hoping to learn how to say something like "The Mandarin word for 'last year' is 去年." I am hoping to learn how to say that in Chinese. And then, after that explanation, my practice partner and I could continue practicing by repeating the original sentence and/or devising follow-up sentences. 

 

Thank you everyone!

 

~Pegasus

[歐博思]

Last year（的）中文是“去年”。

Last year用中文讲是“去年”。

 

Maybe you could use one of these.

[realmayo]

Use 意思：

Last year 的意思是去年

 

Edit: Agree with #2

[somethingfunny]

 

 

You have it a bit mixed up, the example in the first post would actually be more like "The Last year of 普通話 is 去年". 的 is like "of" with the left and right switched.

 

You're right, I did have that mixed up.

[abcdefg]

"Last year in Mandarin is 去年." = 用普通话说 last year 是去年 = 用中文说 last year 是去年。

[Michaelyus]

Your guesses are fine. The 用...说是... is your standard structure.

But in most colloquial settings personally I'd prefer using the verbs 讲 or 说 as the main verb (rather than 是) and putting the phrase as the topic in a topic-comment structure: 

 

"Last year" 普通话讲"去年"。

“去年”广东话讲“旧年”(gau6 nin4*2)，就是"旧"年。

[Conversation in Mandarin] 广东话的“旧年”(gau6 nin4*2)闽南话也是讲"旧年"(kū-nî)的。[bonus 是...的 for contrastive emphasis here] 

 

All of these could be recast slightly in the longer structures listed above:

“去年”用广东话是“旧年”(gau6 nin4*2)，就是"旧"年。

广东话的“旧年”(gau6 nin4*2)用闽南话讲也是"旧年"(kū-nî)。

[Pegasus]

@歐博思, @realmayo, @abcdefg, and @Michaelyus: Thank you everyone for your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback. 

 

I like the most recent suggestions from abcdefg and Michaelyus: 

"用中文說 last year 是 去年。"  and 

"Last year 中文講 去年。" 

and rephrasing Michaelyus' last example using a longer structure, I think I can say something like: 

"英文的 last year 用中文講，是 去年。"

 

What do you guys think? 您們覺得呢？ 

 

Rephrasing one of the examples that Michaelyus provided in post#13, how does this sound?

[Conversation in Cantonese] "廣東話嘅 舊年，用中國國語講 係去年 (qùnián)。"

And, rephrasing another one of the examples that Machaelyus gave in post #13, how does this sound? 

[Conversation in Cantonese] "廣東話嘅 舊年，閩南話都係 舊年(kū-nî) 嘅。"

 

Thank you for all of your help I really appreciate it. 

 

~Pegasus