Help with two sentences

[Tony24]

Hello everyone!

I’m actually learning Chinese at my university, but sometimes when I study I get stuck on some sentences that I’m not able yet to translate, that’s why I need some help with them :)

here are the two phrases that keep puzzling me :

1 什么时候才能下点儿雨呢？

2 像这么热常常要有三十天的时间。

any help would be very appreciated :)

[somethingfunny]

What have you got so far?

[Tony24]

Literally no idea, I think they are a bit confusing.

as far as the first sentence is concerned, I suppose it should be something like : when is it possible for it to rain?

才，下 and 呢 make it hard for me to understand the whole phrase.

as far as the second sentence is concerned, I think it is: it seems that such heat often needs 30 days of time.

I’m very confused ? 

[somethingfunny]

下 goes with 下雨, so I wouldn't get hung up on that.  Your translation is basically right, except for the 'tone' of the sentence.  Asking: 什么时候 - 才能 - verb - 呢？would be more like asking "When is it going to rain?" when it hasn't rained for a long time.  So, something like "When will it (finally/bloody) rain?"

 

The second sentence you seem to be fairly close as well, although I find the Chinese a little strange.  I guess the meaning they're trying to convey is "When it is this hot, it usually lasts for thirty days."  But I could be wrong.

[Tony24]

Thank you for your replies!

just one last question about the second sentence.

why is 要 next to 有?

[Shelley]

Together they mean - need, require, must have.

 

As is the way with Chinese characters 2 similar meaning characters reinforce each other and subtly add weight to the meaning or just clarify the meaning.

 

If I remember correctly you haven't been studying too long, how long is it. How many hours a week do spend learning including homework. What materials are you using ie textbook, podcast, apps etc?

 

I ask because I wonder if by now you should have been taught about characters usually appearing in 2s, 3s or even 4s. I think you may have had problems with these 2 sentences because you weren't sure how to parse the sentence ie where the gaps between words are and what goes with what.

 

[Tony24]

thank you shelley! I’m a beginner and I spend 2-3 hours a day studying Chinese, i’d like to understand the word order of Chinese sentences better, because I think that it puzzles me a lot. 

[Tony24]

By the way, right after those sentences.

I’ve found another phrase that sounds strange to me. It is : 李红，你下课啦？刚才有你一个电话。

I think it should be : li hong, have you finished your lesson ? And than nothing because the construction 有你一个电话 Really puzzles me 

[Shelley]

Ok what I think you need to do is translate these sentences without changing the order of the words. So the first part of your sentence is "Lihong you finish class?" the character 啦 is a combination of 了and 啊 joining the meaning of finished action with exclamation. So maybe expressing surprise that Lihong has finished class.

 

Your second sentence is "Just now have you one phone call" What might this mean?

 

If you preserve the word order and don't translate it into a correct English sentence you will start thinking in Chinese, unless you want to be a translator you don't need to change the order. I started a topic here and there are some helpful contributions from people. It is here https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/50055-preserving-word-order/?tab=comments#comment-383691

[Publius]

I agree with Shelly. Don't translate everything if you just want to learn the language.

 

有 is an existential verb.

The existence of something is expressed differently in different languages.

In English, it's "there is/are", in which "there" is a dummy subject that has no semantic meaning.

In German, it's "es gibt", literally "it gives", and the thing that exists is in the accusative.

In Latin, it's just a "be" without a subject.

The Chinese, 有 also doesn't need a subject. It just means "exist".

It's tempting to think that in the sentence 我有一个妹妹, 我 is the subject.

But an alternative analysis could be "As for me, exists a little sister." -- which is exactly how it is phrased in Japanese.

 

刚才　　　有　　你　一个　电话。

Just now   exist   you   one     phone call.

I think it's quite easy to work out what it means even if you don't know any grammar.

Spoiler

There was a phone call for you a moment ago.

 

[Tony24]

Thank you guys! I’ll definitely take your advice!