Please forgive me, but I have 15 questions...

[Teza]

Yes! 15 doubts!First let me explain BRIEFLY.

These are the accumulated doubts of studying all by myself for a month. I haven't been able to find the answers and don't have a teacher to help me. So I depend 100% on people such as yourself!

If you don't want to answer all 15, you can choose one or two, just specify which one you're answering with the corresponding question number please

I can't read the characters yet, so it would be very much appreciated if any answers were written in Pinyin. Here's a site where you can type the explanations in Pinyin! All you have to do is type the syllable and the number corresponding to the tone and the site will add the correct tone mark automatically ( e.g. zhi3):

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/pinyin-editor.html

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1) How do you say:

"How long does it take to?"

in Mandarin?

Like:

How long does it take to learn chinese?

How long does it take to get to the University?

2) How do you say "how long have you been…" in mandarin?

Like:

How long have you been studying Mandarin?

How long have you been working out?

3) What's the difference between "chóng" and "zài" as a translation for "again" in Mandarin Chinese?

4) What's the difference between "rúguǒ" and "yàoshì" and can you give me some examples?

5) What's the difference between these two sentences:

Wǒ hé tā yíyàng gāo.

Wǒ yǒu tā nàme gāo.

6) Can you give me a list of verbs that are commonly used with "dào" and "jinn"? Like: tīng, kàn, xiǎng.

7) How can I say "everything" in Mandarin? I ask because I've seen "shénme dōngxi", "shénme dōu", "jiàn jian shì" and I don't know when to use which or if there's a difference.

Can anyone explain how to use "bù liǎo" and "de liǎo" at the end of a sentence?

I saw this sentence somewhere "tā chīfàn chī bù liǎo". Can't I just say "tā chīfàn chī bù wán"? Don't they both mean "not be able to"?

9) What's the difference between "mǎn" and "quán" and can you give me examples?

10) When I put the object before the verb, is it mandatory to add "bǎ" or can I leave it out? Furthermore, does 'bǎ" change the meaning somehow? I added an example below:

Tā bǎ bàozhǐ kàn le kàn, jiù zǒu le.

I've also seen this sentence without the "bǎ":

"tā chīfàn chī bù liǎo"

11)What's the difference between "sǒuyǒu de" and "měi" as a translation for "every"?

12) What's the difference between "nǎ yǒu nàme" and "zěnme nàme"? Like in these sentences:

Tāmen nǎ yǒu nàme wǎn?

Tāmen zěnme nàme wǎn?

13) How do I say: "when he gets home I will have already left." and "when you wake up I will have already eaten" in mandarin Chinese?

14) How do you say "in", as in: "in a certain period of time". Like in these sentences:

I will go to Beijing in one week.

The store will open in two hours.

15) How do you say "ago", like:

I meet my husband three years ago.

I started studying Chinese a month ago.

Thank you so very very very much! If anyone actually answers this I will send you all the positive energy, love and good vibes from way down in Brazil straight to your heart!!!

[anonymoose]

1) How do you say:

"How long does it take to?"

in Mandarin?

Like:

How long does it take to learn chinese?

How long does it take to get to the University?

...要多久/...要多长时间

How long does it take to learn chinese? 学好中文要多久？

How long does it take to get to the University? 到学校要多长时间？

2) How do you say "how long have you been…" in mandarin?

Like:

How long have you been studying Mandarin?

How long have you been working out?

verb了多久了

How long have you been studying Mandarin? 你学中文学了多久了？

How long have you been working out? 你锻炼了多长时间了？

3) What's the difference between "chóng" and "zài" as a translation for "again" in Mandarin Chinese?

重 re-

重建 rebuild

再 again

请再说一遍 Please say (it) again

4) What's the difference between "rúguǒ" and "yàoshì" and can you give me some examples?

Same, but 如果 is more formal than 要是.

5) What's the difference between these two sentences:

Wǒ hé tā yíyàng gāo.

Wǒ yǒu tā nàme gāo.

I think essentially they are the same, but the first sentence sounds more like a statement of fact, whereas the second sounds like you are trying to convince someone that you are not shorter than the other person. However, it depends on context.

6) Can you give me a list of verbs that are commonly used with "dào" and "jinn"? Like: tīng, kàn, xiǎng.

There are many verbs that can be used with both 到 and 进, especially 到. Just learn them as you come across them.

7) How can I say "everything" in Mandarin? I ask because I've seen "shénme dōngxi", "shénme dōu", "jiàn jian shì" and I don't know when to use which or if there's a difference.

"shénme dōngxi" on its own means "what thing", not "everything". In certain sentences, if it is followed by 都, it could mean "everything", in the same way as "shénme dōu".

他什么（东西）都爱吃。 He loves to eat everything.

件件事 means "all things" rather than "everything"

Can anyone explain how to use "bù liǎo" and "de liǎo" at the end of a sentence?

I saw this sentence somewhere "tā chīfàn chī bù liǎo". Can't I just say "tā chīfàn chī bù wán"? Don't they both mean "not be able to"?

了 implies the successful completion of the action. Many verbs can be followed by 不了 to imply that the action couldn't be completed (for whatever reason), and 得了 implies that the action could be completed successfully.

"tā chīfàn chī bù liǎo" means he cannot eat (because maybe he's ill, or already full up).

"tā chīfàn chī bù wán": 完 specifically means "finish", so 吃不完 means cannot eat until (it's) finished, ie. He couldn't finish (all) the food.

9) What's the difference between "mǎn" and "quán" and can you give me examples?

满 means full. 箱子已经装满了。

全 means all. 书本全都放在了箱子里。

10) When I put the object before the verb, is it mandatory to add "bǎ" or can I leave it out? Furthermore, does 'bǎ" change the meaning somehow? I added an example below:

Tā bǎ bàozhǐ kàn le kàn, jiù zǒu le.

I've also seen this sentence without the "bǎ":

"tā chīfàn chī bù liǎo"

把 introduces an object when the emphasis is on how the object is disposed of (in other words, what happens to the object). In this case, the object is placed before the verb. If 把 is not used, the object usually comes after the verb.

I'm not a native speaker, so I'll leave it to somebody else to confirm or otherwise, but your example "Tā bǎ bàozhǐ kàn le kàn, jiù zǒu le" sounds strange to me.

11)What's the difference between "sǒuyǒu de" and "měi" as a translation for "every"?

所有的 all

每 each/every

[rezaf]

I should go to bed now so I can just answer a few of your questions but wait for a native speaker as my Chinese is not very advanced: For the first two you can use 多久 or 多长时间

1－学中文要多久才能学成？

到学校（or ...大学）要多久？

2－你学习中文多长时间了？

你锻炼了多长时间了？

3－重＋verb=再＋verb—》请你重说一遍＝请你再说一遍so as 副词they are similar but 重can also be a verb. Also 再 can have other applications that are slightly different for example indicating delaying something: 现在没时间，明天再说！ Or indicating “more” like 再难也不能放弃！etc.

4－very similar but 如果 is more formal. They can be used before or after the subject. Also you should usually use 那么，就 in the next clause: 如果／要是你去（的话），那么我就不去了！

Edit: Use one of those pop-up dictionaries and you'll be able to see the pinyin and the meaning of the characters easily.

[马盖云]

12. These translate (literally) to:

They where have so much late? and They how so late?

meaning " How is it that they are so late?

I have not heard the "nǎ yǒu" construction, but the "zěnme nàme" pattern is pretty commonly used for the How so? questions.

13. Good question! I don't know either! I often wonder how to render these complex English future conditional tenses.

Maybe try this? "when he gets home I will have already left." 他回家的时候，我已经走了。 I am not sure if that has enough future aspect to get the meaning across, but basically it translates to: "At the time he returns home, I already left" (ta hui jia de shihou, wo yijing zou le)

14. and 15. These just need to use the 以后 (Yi hou) and 以前 (yi qian) meaning "after" and "before" respectively.

You just need to set up a time phrase in your sentence including the adverb yihou or yiqian before the main verb.

一个星期以后，我要去北京。 三年以前，我见面我老公。

yige xingqi yihou, wo yao qu beijing. san nian yiqian, wo jianmian wo laogong.

one week (later) I will go to Beijing three years ago, I met my husband.

You should check out these grammar links at this website by Oxford university...

your question #5 is addressed in the section on comparatives and superlatives.

There is a lot of good information about 'le"

Your question #6, dao and jin are used in this case as "Complements", meaning something added to a verb to show completion, degree, or direction, for example. The verbs you gave as an example can be referred to as "verbs of perception", meaning using a human sense. So dao changes ting from "listen", to "hear". kan = look, kandao = see (sucessful perception)

I dont think jin is used in this way, but as a directional complement, to convert a verb of motion to a direction. Like qu chu (go out) or qu jin (go in)

http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Grammar%20exercises.htm

http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Lang%20work/Grammar%20database/Grammar_database_content.htm

[imron]

Here's a site where you can type the explanations in Pinyin! All you have to do is type the syllable and the number corresponding to the tone and the site will add the correct tone mark automatically ( e.g. zhi3):

Off-topic, but somewhat relevant, you might also consider looking into something like Pinyinput.

[skylee]

三年以前，我见面我老公。

san nian yiqian, wo jianmian wo laogong.

three years ago, I met my husband.

This is not quite right. Better say 三年以前，我遇到 / 遇見我老公 / 丈夫。

[马盖云]

This is not quite right. Better say 三年以前，我遇到 / 遇見我老公 / 丈夫。

Yeah, thanks! :-) The OP said meet, not met, so I sort of went with the more ephemeral version, but I remember thinking it would be odd to report on such an event 3 years later, so the OP probably misspelled met as meet.

遇到 always reminds me of <遇见>, the Stefanie Sun song!

Luckily, the OP does not read characters, so I hope they at least got the yihou/yiqian out of my answer.

[rezaf]

13. Good question! I don't know either! I often wonder how to render these complex English future conditional tenses.

Maybe try this? "when he gets home I will have already left." 他回家的时候，我已经走了。 I am not sure if that has enough future aspect to get the meaning across, but basically it translates to: "At the time he returns home, I already left" (ta hui jia de shihou, wo yijing zou le)

I would also use a 就 to make it sound more future but you also need an adverb or context as there is no tense in Chinese verbs for example： （明天）他到家的时候我就已经走了。

[jkhsu]

I can't read the characters yet, so it would be very much appreciated if any answers were written in Pinyin.

I've seen this request come up among beginners (sometimes advanced beginners) who have come on to these forums to ask questions. The site that you recommended, chinese-tools.com has a pretty good chinese annotation tool that you can use to derive pinyin from Chinese sentences.

http://www.chinese-t...annotation.html

You should also familiarize yourself with a Chinese dictionary such as MDBG

http://www.mdbg.net/...ct/chindict.php

While I understand some prefer to learn pinyin for a while before diving into characters, it is essential for any learner to familiarize themselves with these tools as most people, who are gracious enough to answer your questions, won't take the extra time to use these tools themselves just to get you the pinyin outputs. As a Chinese learner, this is really your responsibility.

[Areckx]

I second that. I'm a beginner and I can't count on others to take the time to give pinin. Plus, the characters actually are more concise in the meaning because any given pinyij could mean up to 20 different things without context.

pinyin is designed to help you learn the readings, not a replacement for 漢字. the fact that there is a dedicated input system for pinyin is fascinating and makes it easier to write textbooks but really you should get in the habit of learning the characters starting with the ones you most frequrntly encounter.

I commend you. You know a lot more in a month than I can construct in 2 months. If you continue this pace and don't give up you'll become fluent in no time.

Just let it soak in.