Meaning of 地 & 以

[calibre2001]

Would appreciate if someone could provide the english equivalents of what 地 & 以 mean in the contexts used below. Thanks!

Sample 1

當我們覺得某人很吃力地用外語完成一個句子時，我們也該想想自己是否能純粹以母 語串成一個完整的句子

Sample 2

她淡定地說：「不會，孩子至少打好了語文的基礎。以他的英文程度來說，他懂得的英文詞彙可能比不上同齡的新加坡小孩，但他講英語時發音正確。更重要的是，他不會在遇到沒辦法用英語來做表達時，就很方便地在句子中夾雜一、兩個中文單字。」

Sample 3

之所以說她的答覆讓筆者汗顏，是因為要不是派駐到上海，我平時說話時也不假思索地夾雜另一個語言的單字或句子。這種「雜碎式」的說話方法，說得正面一點 兒，是「語碼轉換」（code switch），即自覺或不自覺地借用另一個語文的詞和句以達到交流的目的，在某個程度上增加對話的趣味，也更為親切。

[roddy]

It's a bit like asking what the Chinese equivalent of 'to' is in 'I like to swim' - there isn't one, and even if there is there's going to be so many ifs and buts you're better off figuring out what the Chinese means and accepting it. A decent dictionary will explain both of those uses, as will this and perhaps this.

Sorry if that seems unhelpful, but it's a bit of a strange question for someone who's been studying for any length of time.

Of course, now someone will come along with the exact English equivalents and I'll look daft

[remigio24]

The 地 in your first two quotes does convert the preceding characters (normally an adjective) into an adverb. You could consider it as an equivalent of the English suffix -ly.

[skylee]

You could consider the "以" in sample 3 something like "in order to".

[jiangping]

In sample one, the 地 is called "adverbial de" and it turns the proceeding adjective into an adverb. So 很吃力地用外語完成一個句子 would literally mean something like "strugglingly with foreign language finish a sentence" -> Struggling to finish a sentence in a foreign language. (*I'm positive on the grammatical usage here, though I'm not sure whether I've got the actual translation right! Someone feel free to correct me:))

The 以 here is the same as 用.

In sample two, the usage of 地 is the same as the first.

In sample three, the 以 means "in order to". This character comes up quite a lot in literary texts, and you just gotta tell from context what it means.

[muyongshi]

Of course, now someone will come along with the exact English equivalents and I'll look daft

It does amaze me how people do try and do that.

Honestly, jiangping your best bet at understanding Chinese is not through the framework of English (ie don't ask about English equivalents- unless your speciality is to be translation) but first seek to understand it through the framework of....Russian...no just kidding...Chinese.

[jiangping]

Well, the poster did specifically ask for "English equivalents", though I suspect you're just confusing our names .

I agree that it is a bit silly to try and understand Chinese purely in terms of English, but it'd be equally silly to try and learn Chinese without knowing any definitions in English (or another language you're already familiar with). Though it does get slightly harder with grammatical makers like 地.

[muyongshi]

Sorry about that....must have mixed it up as I scrolled up to look!

I'm not saying anything about definitions but even a definition is not all inclusive. The 范围 of one word can be drastically different in number of meanings and usage. One must understand it in the context of it's own language (ie Chinese).