How do I say "don't work too late" in Mandarin?

[Tsunku]

I fact, I don't think I've heard 工作 used as a verb, although I know it can be.

Here's an example lifted straight from an e-mail I got yesterday from a friend. :

你明年会在中国工作吗

I've got nothing to contribute to the debate otherwise, I'm sure you'd be understood saying it either way.

[Guest Anonymous]

although the new rule says u can use 的 for 的地得.

Where did you hear that rule from? My girlfriend and a couple other friends of mine who are taking Chinese classes at my university right now are still learning all the different "de's". My cousins in Taiwan are also still learning all three "de's" as well. The last time I visited mainland China (winter 2002), all three "de's" were still in used as well.

[Quest]

I think i've mentioned that in another post. When I was in elementary school in China, we did this worksheet to convert all three "de" into 的。

[Quest]

In cantonese 的地得 are pronounced "dick", "day", "duck" if that would be some help to people struggling with the differences of the three words. "dick" 的 is used only after adjectives to describe nouns. "day"地 is used after adjectives to form adverbs to describe actions. "duck" 得 is used after adjective/adverb/verb to describe the pronoun or the subject of a sentence.

[Guest jochuan]

All

Thanks for the lively debate and answers. But I actually cannot read Chinese. Could you please also answer in romanized character or in PINYIN? Thanks so much.

[roddy]

It's just not natural to say "不要工作得太完了，快回家吧”

Of course it's not natural because you added the 得. So far no one has added 得 to the sentence' date=' why do you decide to do it now?[/quote']

I'm curious about this. So

不要工作得太晚了 doesn't sound natural but

不要工作太晚了 does sound natural?

Is there a reason for this?

Thinking about it, I'd say that 工作 is more often used as a noun than a verb, and when it is a verb it tends to be a bit more formal / written. I've heard 你做什么 / 你做什么工作 plenty of times, but never the same question with 工作 as a verb. I'm not even sure how you could say it? - 你工作什么? Sounds wrong to me.

In the original situation, making a comment to a colleague as you leave work, there's no need to be formal and the work context is pretty well-established, I would certainly use 做. Unless I was the boss, then I'd let the wage-slave stay there as long as he liked.

Roddy

[roddy]

Thanks for the lively debate and answers. But I actually cannot read Chinese. Could you please also answer in romanized character or in PINYIN? Thanks so much.

Whoops.

I'd say bie zuo de tai wan 别做得太晚

Quest and skylee and smithsgj (and pazu, but with a de before tai wan: bu yao zuo tai wan 不要做太晚了

Kulong: bu yao gongzuo tai wan le 不要工作太晚了

I'm not comfortable with missing out the de, maybe just me.

Could you try them all out and see which one is best recieved?

Roddy

[Quest]

I'm curious about this. So

不要工作得太晚了 doesn't sound natural but

不要工作太晚了 does sound natural?

it's 工作 that makes them unnatural. Whether you pronounce 得 or not, it's up to you.

[roddy]

it's 工作 that makes them unnatural. Whether you pronounce 得 or not' date=' it's up to you.[/quote']

Ok. I still don't feel comfortable missing the 得 though - probably because I spent so much time learning when to use it, I'm loath to miss it out . . .

Roddy

[Quest]

it's 工作 that makes them unnatural. Whether you pronounce 得 or not' date=' it's up to you.[/quote']

Ok. I still don't feel comfortable missing the 得 though - probably because I spent so much time learning when to use it, I'm loath to miss it out . . .

Roddy

Yes, as I said I would really say 不要工作'r太完了, but I doubt you could hear the difference, so leaving 得out shouldn't be a problem.

[Haizi]

it's 工作 that makes them unnatural. Whether you pronounce 得 or not' date=' it's up to you.[/quote']

Ok. I still don't feel comfortable missing the 得 though - probably because I spent so much time learning when to use it, I'm loath to miss it out . . .

Roddy

Yes, as I said I would really say 不要工作'r太完了, but I doubt you could hear the difference, so leaving 得out shouldn't be a problem.

We are entering a language twilight zone here. You do hear both versions (the one with de5 and the one without de5) in use in the real world, although I think it's "more correct" (I cannot say "more correct", can I? ;-) ) to include de5.

In the danger of being "illogical" and "unclear," I propose another commonly-in-use alternative: Bie2 tai4 wan3 le5, zao3 dian3r5 hui2 jia1 ba5.

Also, gong1zuo4 is often used as a verb. Here come a few examples?

Ni3 ming2tian1 gong1zuo4 ma5?

Bie2 tai4 wan3 le5, ming2tian1 hai2 yao4 gong1zuo4 ne5.

Ta1 gong1zuo4 de5 shi2hou4, jin4 liao2tian1r5.

Wo3 yi3jing1 lian2xu4 gong1zuo4 le5 36 ge4 xiao3shi2 le5.

Hen3 duo1 qing1nian2 ren2 dou1 xi3huan1 yi1 bian1 gong1zuo4 yi1 bian1 ting1 yin1yue4.

These are my 2 cents here.

[smithsgj]

> We are entering a language twilight zone here.

No kidding.

[niubi]

you might also think about saying zuo gong. the problem is that it might have a more manual labor kind of connotation for some people. its a bit old school and more likely to be used in taiwan rather than the mainland.

[roddy]

I think the mainland equivalent would be 干活, ganhuo - used for oxen, horses and manual labourers, as far as I can tell.

Roddy

[Guest 了了了了]

if he works at home better to say: 不要熬夜 bu yao ao2 ye4, 早点休息

if he works at office: 不要干得太晚，早点回家吧