Pronunciation: "Chang2 de" or "zhang3 de" ?

[HashiriKata]

In reading I came across this sentence:

时间长得似乎无穷无尽 (It seemed to last for an eternity).

Now, which pronunciation for 长 in this sentence? Both chang2 and zhang3 sound reasonable to me but probably only one is correct if you are native speakers or have heard it from native speakers.

Thanks,

Edited November 30, 2008 at 09:06 PM by HashiriKata

[renzhe]

AFAIK, 长 can be pronounced as cháng or zhǎng, I can't find zháng in any dictionaries.

In this case, it should be cháng, as it refers to length. If 长得 is pronounced zhǎng de, it refers to a (person's) looks.

(non-native speaker disclaimer)

[HashiriKata]

Thanks Renzhe! You're right, my original question contained typos, now corrected. And like you, I think it should be pronounced as "chang2" but I hope someone will correct me if that is wrong.

(Incidentally, nciku.com reads it as "zhang3 de", but since it's machine-read, it can't be relied on in cases like these.)

[Hofmann]

長chang2 is an adjective "long" (or a verb "to be long"). 長zhang3 is a verb "grow."

[studentyoung]

In reading I came across this sentence:

时间长得似乎无穷无尽 (It seemed to last for an eternity).

Now, which pronunciation for 长 in this sentence? Both chang2 and zhang3 sound reasonable to me but probably only one is correct if you are native speakers or have heard it from native speakers.

It should be chang2 de, because we don’t say “时间 zhang3 de / time lasts” in our daily life. “时间zhang3 de / time lasts” makes sense in English, but it makes no sense in Chinese.

时间长得似乎无穷无尽

For Chinese people, we take the sentence above as “time is so long that it seems endless”.

Cheers!

[Guoke]

definitely 'chang2'

[semantic nuance]

时间长得似乎无穷无尽

長 chang 2

Besides, I think the sentence should be 时间长的似乎无穷无尽, because it is used to describe the time. I think it's better to use adjective 'long' (長的) instead of 長得. Perhaps that's the reason that baffled you--V +得 .

Hope it helps!

[xianu]

it is chang2 - this is a descriptive complement sentence, where the stuff after the de describes how the stuff before the de happened. in this case, "The time was so long that it seemed to have no ends or boundaries"

[xianu]

sorry - a less literal translation - "time seemed to go on without end"

[HashiriKata]

Thank you all for replying.

The wrong reading of the sentence (as "zhang3 de") by the great nciku.com caused me to doubt myself but it's great to see human confirmations

[Yang Rui]

I think the sentence should be 时间长的似乎无穷无尽, because it is used to describe the time. I think it's better to use adjective 'long' (長的) instead of 長得. Perhaps that's the reason that baffled you--V +得 .

I think 得 is the correct one. We are describing the extent of something here. Time is long to the extent that it seems endless. This is a very common construction eg 天氣冷得我都不敢出門

[skylee]

I agree with Yang Rui's #11.

[Luobot]

I think 得 is the correct one.

Is this 得

得 de5

or

得 de2

?

[imron]

得 de (neutral tone).

[Luobot]

得 de (neutral tone).

Thanks. There's a concurring definition for the neutral pronunciation used at quizlet.com:

长得 / chang2de / to grow to be

What confused me is that the ChinesePera-kun popup translator has a similar translation but with the second tone:

长得 / chang2de2 / to become

I guess the consensus indicates that the second tone in 得 for 长得 is not a standard pronunciation.

These two characters are pretty tricky.

[renzhe]

得 when pronounced de2 is a verb meaning "to obtain". E.g. in 得到 or 不得.

When pronounced de5, it is a grammatical particle.

Here, it is a gramatical particle used to describe the adjective 长, so it has the neutral tone.

[HashiriKata]

It's time for me to pay back my debt :

I guess the consensus indicates that the second tone in 得 for 长得 is not a standard pronunciation.

That's right, should be in the neutral tone. However, since this is a development from de2, when people want to emphasize it (Try listening to it in singing), they could pronounce it as de2, even if it sounds a bit unusual.

[Lu]

Thanks. There's a concurring definition for the neutral pronunciation used at quizlet.com:

长得 / chang2de / to grow to be

What confused me is that the ChinesePera-kun popup translator has a similar translation but with the second tone:

长得 / chang2de2 / to become

I think in these examples 长 should read zhang3, 'to grow, to grow up as'. Chang2 would mean 'long'. (And so in the example in the OP it should read chang2, because time is long, time doesn't grow.)

[semantic nuance]

I think 得 is the correct one. We are describing the extent of something here.

I stand corrected. After checking the reference book, it said;

When a verb or an adjective takes 得 followed by a complement, it shows the result o degree of te action... 好得很 高興得跳起來

(Quoted from 簡明漢語語法 p.77)

Here is another link to the usage of 的 and 得

Sorry for the mistake!

[HashiriKata]

Sorry for the mistake!

Don't worry SN, Sage HK says that occasional mistakes keep us human