Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar Flashcards
You can’t do better than this.
(這)真是再好不過了。
Mọi người ngồi được rồi.
大家都坐好了。
It’s so late. Is he really coming or not?
這麼晚了。他到底來不來了？
Please finish off the remaining wine.
請把剩下的酒喝(掉)了！
MANDARIN is spoken in its various sub-dialect forms by almost three-quarters of the Hans across the NORTHERN, CENTRAL, and WESTERN region of the country… The other dialects are Wu (spoken in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, including Shanghai), Xiang (in Hunan), Cantonese (in Guangdong), Min (in Fujian), Hakka (in northeast Guangdong and other southern provinces) and Gan (in Jiangxi).
Introduction xvii-xviii
一些 and 幾 can be used with any common nouns, 一點occurs only with material nouns
p. 3
一些水 some water
幾桶水 mấy thùng nước
一點水
not *一點書
這個盒子是塑料 的。Zhège hézi shì sùliào de.
p. 3-4
的 after a material noun indicates composition (made of plastic) rather than possession
collective nouns formed by tagging a measure to a noun, p. 4
車輛，花朵，書本，紙張 cars, flowers, books, paper
Chēliàng, huāduǒ, shū běn, zhǐzhāng
In a sentence with an ACTION verb, whether transitive or intransitive, all PRE-VERBAL unmarked nouns (being given information) are of DEFINITE reference whereas all POST-VERBAL unmarked nouns (new information) are generally of INDEFINITE reference. p. 7
With an expository verb like 是, the pre-verbal position may also feature new information and acquire indefinite or generic reference, depending on the context.
With the help of demonstratives and measure words, a definite-referenced noun may also be used post-verbally. p. 8
However, an indefinite-referenced noun, despite the fact that it has been specified by a ‘numeral + measure word’ phrase, cannot normally be featured in a pre-action-verb position.
As a general rule, the shift of an indefinite-referenced noun to a pre-action-verb position will entail the use of the verb 有.
In some contexts, however, a post-verbal unmarked noun may be part of given information and therefore be of definite reference:
書已經還了。Shū yǐjīng huan2le. The book/books has/have already been returned.
我去借書。Wǒ qù jiè shū. I am going/went to borrow a book/some books.
書是知識與文化的侍者。tri thức; sứ giả
Shū shì zhīshì yǔ wénhuà de shìzhě.
我看過這本書。
*一本書放在桌子上。
有(一)本書放在桌子上。
The numeral 一 is often omitted for reasons of speech rhythms.
她去照顧孩子。Tā qù zhàogù háizi. She went to look after the children.
exception of ordinals without 第
Ordinals represented by cardinals
written Chinese: nouns + cardinals 圖四 hình 4
spoken Chinese: cardinals + nouns 四圖 (?)
p. 19-20
approximation p. 22
a) 大約 khoảng 40 ngày trở lại (?)； khoảng hơn 70 tuổi
b) 左右
c) by adding 來 to numbers rounded to ten after 十，百，and 千, etc.
d) by adding 把 to 個，百，千, and 万
一百多；一千多；十多，not *一十多
八十多個人；三百多張紙
with SINGLE DIGIT up to ten 多 comes after standard measures and before nouns if there are ones
大約四十來天
大約七十多歲
十來天；二十來歲；三百來人
個把星期 around a week; 百把人；千把塊錢
六英里多(路）over six miles; 五年多(時間); 兩點多(鐘) shortly pass 2 o’clock; 三個多月
the difference b/w 對 and 雙 seems to be that the former emphasises complementarity while the latter indicates functioning together
p. 30
場 chang2 for a period or spell of a natural event or condition; chang3 for social events or recreational or sporting activities p. 38
一場大雪；一場大病 a (period) of serious illness
一場電影 a film show; 一場球賽 a ball game
for garments worn on the upper part of the body or on the whole body, 件jian4 is the measure word; for garments worn on the lower part of the body, 條tiao2 is normally used
p. 39
numeral + measure word + adjectival attributive + headword p. 42
verbal attributes either go b/w the ‘numeral+mw’ phrase and the noun or precede the whole phrase altogether
那個漂亮的姑娘gu4niang
八家買衣服的商店 or 買衣服的八家商店
每個不會用電腦的學生 or 不會用電腦的每個學生
In fact, the longer the attributive, the more likely it is for the ‘numeral+mw’ phrase to go closer to its headword.
