learning mandarin - can someone translate

[zenwizard]

hello, i do not understand how to translate:

yi1 zhi2 wang3 qian2 zou3

The CD says this is supposed to mean "go straight ahead".

I looked the words up: zhi2 means "straight"; wang3 means "toward" (i think); qian2 means "advance/go forward" and zou3 means "go"

So, i am asking, what is the "yi1" in this sentence for? And what is the difference between the above sentence and "yi4 zhi2 xiang4 qian2 zou3", which I found on another site?

thank you

[skylee]

It is 一直往前走 in Chinese.

"yi1 zhi2" ~ continuously / always / from the beginning of ... up to ... / all along

"wang3" ~ to go (in a direction)

"qian2" ~ before / in front / ago / former / previous / earlier / front

"zou3" ~ to walk / to go / to move

And what is the difference between the above sentence and "yi4 zhi2 xiang4 qian2 zou3", which I found on another site?

no difference.

Also note the tone changes for yi -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/15-cctv-learn-chinese89

and point 11 of this page -> http://www.pinyin.info/readings/zyg/rules.html#x4.11

[Leylen]

in chinese, if you split a divide a a sentence up into single words and translate them individually, it'll most likely wont make sence ;)

for instance 一直 is a common phrase and needs to be translated as a 词

i suggest you buy a 词语字典

[Quest]

i suggest you buy a 词语字典

詞典/辭典

..............

[Leylen]

詞典/辭典

..............

oops didnt notice, my NJS keeps doing 联想 of some sort

[zenwizard]

thank you all for your help

[mlomker]

yi4 zhi2 wang3 qian2 zou3 = Continue walking forward.

yi4 zhi2 xiang4 qian2 zou3 = Continue walking in the same direction.

The meaning is the same, but said a bit differently. I never appreciated how many ways things could be said in English until I started delving in to Mandarin.