exercises from TY Chinese

[Pravit]

I have some questions about some of the answers to these exercises.

In one of them, we're supposed to translate "That British girl studying Chinese at Beijing University is a fantastic cook." The answer given translates "girl" as "nü háizi." I think this is a bit strange. Doesn't that term refer to girls as in children, not young women?

The other one is "Many Chinese people speak English well." The answer was "hěn duō zhōngguó rén shuō yīngyǔ, shuō de hěn hǎo", which is similar to the way you'd say it in English. Isn't there another way to say it though, using "de"? Something like you'd put a long term in the front and at the end you'd say "hěn duō"? My attempt was "shuō yīngyǔ hěn hǎo de zhōngguó rén hěn duō."

Thanks for any help!

[skylee]

nü hái (zi/er) just means girl, and the age range has been expanding.

Isn't there another way to say it though, using "de"? Something like you'd put a long term in the front and at the end you'd say "hěn duō"?

I think you can. I would say, "yīngyǔ shuō dě hěn hǎo de zhōngguó rén hěn duō.", with the first dě being 得.

[Pravit]

Thanks, skylee! About the second question, which form is more common? The one given in the book or the one that you showed me?

[skylee]

I really can't say. But if you are to translate "Many Chinese people speak English well", then the word order of the textbook version matches the English version better.

[ced1zh]

I'd like to say 很多中国人说英语很好(hen duo zhong guo ren shuo ying yu hen hao)， straightforward translation, isn't it?

[beirne]

I found Skylee's version with the two de's harder to understand because I had to un-nest the de's. Whenever I see a sentence with several de's I have to do a lot of work to parse it and figure out where the subordinate clauses begin and end and which ones belong to which. Is this less of a problem for people who really speak Chinese?

[skylee]

Whenever I see a sentence with several de's I have to do a lot of work to parse it and figure out where the subordinate clauses begin and end and which ones belong to which. Is this less of a problem for people who really speak Chinese?

I can only speak for myself. It is not a problem at all, especially when they are actually two different characters 得 and 的.

I'd like to say 很多中国人说英语很好(hen duo zhong guo ren shuo ying yu hen hao)， straightforward translation, isn't it?

I don't think so. The meaning is different ->

很多中國人說英語說得很好 -> Many Chinese people speak English well.

很多中國人說英語很好 -> Many Chinese people say (that) English is (very) good.

[Pravit]

It doesn't seem so difficult to me - "Good English-speaking Chinese are numerous" vs. "There are many Chinese that speak English well." I think one of my books mentioned that the first variant is more common usage, but perhaps it depends on what you're saying.

BTW: When you're using a verb that doesn't have an object paired with it(e.g. 过 as in "passing"), you don't repeat the verb, right? Can you say something like "时间过得很快"?

[trevelyan]

How about:

很多中国人会流利地说英语 (Many Chinese can speak English fluently).

I put the 女孩子 thing down to the cultural infantilization of Asian women.

[Pravit]

I put the 女孩子 thing down to the cultural infantilization of Asian women.

But this was a British girl Just kidding.

[HashiriKata]

When you're using a verb that doesn't have an object paired with it(e.g. 过 as in "passing"), you don't repeat the verb, right? Can you say something like "时间过得很快"?

Yes, that's right.

Take: 很多中國人說英語說得很好

In this sentence, you have to repeat 說 just because you don't want 英語 (the object) gets in the way between the verb 說 and the complement 得很好. There is no object in 时间过得很快.

How about:

很多中国人会流利地说英语 (Many Chinese can speak English fluently).

This sentence is slightly different and as you can see, 得 is not involved. 流利地 is an adverb, modifying the verb 说.

[Quest]

很多中国人会流利地说英语 (Many Chinese can speak English fluently).

It doesn't sound right, avoid this construction.

Use: 很多中国人会说流利的英语。

[Pravit]

Quest, in your variant, 流利 is an adjective modifying 英语? Or is there something else going on? The 的 threw me off.

I have another question:

In one of the narratives there's the phrase

姐姐的房间比我们兄弟俩的那间还小

I'm a bit confused by the usage of "那间". It seems 姐姐的房间比我们兄弟俩的 would be clear enough, so why throw on the extra "that room", esp. when the narrator has already been discussing his room?

I also noted

三个房间

along with

三间房

Are these just two ways of saying the same thing? In the second case, 间 is the measure word for "room" and the second part is left out?

One more: When entering Chinese characters into this text box, they seem disproportionately small compared to the English letters. Or is it just because I'm not used to them yet?

谢谢你们的很有帮助解答！

[Pravit]

Any takers? Sorry to be impatient.

[HashiriKata]

I wanted to help earlier but thought that you wanted Quest specifically

Quest, in your variant, 流利 is an adjective modifying 英语? Or is there something else going on? The 的 threw me off.

Yes, you're right, but 的 there is not to throw you off but to link the two together.

In one of the narratives there's the phrase

姐姐的房间比我们兄弟俩的那间还小

I'm a bit confused by the usage of "那间". It seems 姐姐的房间比我们兄弟俩的 would be clear enough, so why throw on the extra "that room", esp. when the narrator has already been discussing his room?

You're right again but in speech, people sometimes want to make it more clear than just clear enough.

I also noted

三个房间

along with

三间房

Are these just two ways of saying the same thing?

You're right again (That's probably why you didn't get a reply!).

One more: When entering Chinese characters into this text box, they seem disproportionately small compared to the English letters. Or is it just because I'm not used to them yet?

Just because you are not used to them yet (I've got a pair of glasses, so I suppose I'm used to them ).

[Pravit]

Thanks much for your reply, HashiriKata! And I'm willing to take any answers from someone who has them

[ala]

Pravit's line was much better:

shuō yīngyǔ hěn hǎo de zhōngguó rén hěn duō.

yīngyǔ shuō dě hěn hǎo de zhōngguó rén hěn duō

This one with 得 has too many de's, and sounds unnecessarily wordy.

Also, I think it is more common to use Verb-Object (rather than Object-Verb) constructions for the modifying clause (which is shuō yīngyǔ hěn hǎo de).

[skylee]

shuō yīngyǔ hěn hǎo de zhōngguó rén hěn duō

Could someone tell me if it means "說英語很好的中國人很多" in Chinese and what its English translation is? Thanks in advance.

[Quest]

Could someone tell me if it means "說英語很好的中國人很多" in Chinese and what its English translation is? Thanks in advance.

There are many Chinese who say English is very good.

[ala]

haha. no way! the two translations are easily disambiguated by context and common sense. And if you use 讲 it's even less ambiguous. I would never relate 說英語很好的中國人很多 with "There are many Chinese who say English is very good" unless I have other contextual hints suggesting so. Besides, the sentence doesn't even make flowing sense in English.

The ambiguity results from quoting vs. modifying; but I hear 他说英语很好 (as according to the structure: 她吃饭很快) all the time, not once do I think that person is complimenting English.