"Dont Shout"

[Menino80]

I'd like to know the common usage of "to yell" as in "to yell at people". Here's what I have: 别对老外们叫喊着说：“HELLO!哈哈哈“ How's the grammar here?

[马盖云]

I don't think you need the 们, and I can't see why you need the 着 either. And I also question the word order. Do you want to break up the 别叫喊 with the prepositional phrase like that? I don't know enough to comment on the applicability of the verb you used, though. (although, I see a citation in NWP dictionary using the hanzheshuo - which does in fact seem like a continuous state)

[jbradfor]

I would vote for

别叫喊：“HELLO!哈哈哈“

Reasons, similar to 马盖云s'

• I don't think 着 is appropriate here, as it indicates continuing action, e.g. "shouting".
  
• 对老外们 feels too wordy to me for a command.
  
• Not sure why, but 叫喊 seems better than 喊叫. I might be totally off here.
  

[Archie.]

As a native speaker.

If you use plural form, I don't think using "们" is a grammatical mistake in the sentence above. We often speak "老师们"， “同学们”, as for me the difference between them is negligible, though "们" sounds a little unnecessary.

But I think “叫喊着说” is not very good. It's better to say "吼着说", "嚷着说". Because I think "叫喊" which means cry is a verb and “说” is another verb. While you "叫喊" you can't “说”. You want an adverb to describe "说"，you'd better use "嚷" or "吼" which means "angrily". So your sentence can be rewritten as 别对老外们嚷着说：“HELLO!哈哈哈“

As the use "to yell at people", I think it is not necessary to use adverb + "着" ＋ “说”. "喊" is definitely means yell

[马盖云]

Since the OP has not returned to join the discussion, I will ask Archie (native speaker) this question... :rolleyes:

I don't think there was any sense of "angrily" in the original poster's sentence. He means the supposed practice of people yelling "Hello" to foriegners to get their attention, or to start a conversation. So in this sense, "yell" really just means to talk loudly to get someone's attention. How about just saying:

大声地说 or 大声地叫?

Thanks!

edit: I would also like to clarify the 们 thing a little. We both agree it sounds a little unnecessary to have the 们 there, but my understanding was that it could be used for a distinct group of people, but not for a generic 'class' of unspecified people. In other words, if you were addressing a group of teachers, or schoolmates, you could use the 老师们 同学们 form of plural, but not to say "All teachers are strict" or "Doctors make a lot of money" for example. Here, he is using 老外to mean the general class of foriegners, I think. 同意，马？

Edited September 1, 2010 at 03:38 PM by 马盖云

[Archie.]

Your understanding about "们" is definitely right. That's just what I want to say, but I didn't give you that detail to keep it simple. I apologize for underestimating your Chinese level.

In my opinion “大声地说”and "大声地叫" are a little diffrent. We usually use "叫+ personal pronouns/name" but not "叫 + content of speech". “大声地说”is OK.

For example：

有人在叫你。

他是小偷，你快叫警察来。

我叫他明天来上课。

And I think “大声地叫” can be used in another situation, where it means "make noise with one's vocal cord with no sense". It's used as a intransitive verb. For example, "这个小孩在大声地叫". In fact, this usage is more common in southern China when "叫" appears in a sentence.

I made a mistake in my original English sentence “ you'd better use "嚷" or "吼" which means "angrily". ”

My real intension is to say : you'd better use "嚷" which means "loudly" or "吼" which is grammatically correct but means "angrily ".

I am sorry for my poor English, but I'll try my best to make less mistake.

But the way, could you help me to express "make noise with one's vocal cord with no sense" more naturally?

[Kenny同志]

I'd like to know the common usage of "to yell" as in "to yell at people". Here's what I have: 别对老外们叫喊着说：“HELLO!哈哈哈“ How's the grammar here?

To yell: 大喊大叫、嚷嚷、喊……

Don’t yell at me.

别对我大喊大叫。

Or

别对我嚷嚷。

The sentence,"Don't yell "hello" to foreigners" can be probably translated as:

别冲着老外喊“hello”。

[skylee]

别对我嚷嚷。

I think this is good.

[doraemon]

别对我嚷嚷。

I think this is a very apt way to put it as well, but I guess you could always look at it from a different angle and say 小点声 or something of the like. Telling someone 别对我嚷嚷/别对我大喊大叫 seems to be suffused with tones of frustration and sounds like something you would shout to somebody (LOL, note the irony) rather than just say.