The use of "zi"

[gummylick]

I'm just beginning to learn Chinese and "zi" is on my vocabulary list this week. I don't understand it's usage... is it used like "a" or "an" in English?

[smithsgj]

You mean 子? No it's nothing to do with a or an. Literally it means child and usually it's just a meaningless suffix that sometimes has some sort of diminutive connotation. It's a part of words like table 桌子 and 椅子 chair.

Or maybe you mean 自? You could be meaning anything really.

[xuechengfeng]

yeah, use it in a sentence to see what you're referring to.

[kentsuarez]

Please add tones when you type pinyin references to characters (like zi3 or zi4). Also, remember that for most syllables, there are many characters with that pronunciation, so look it up in a small dictionary and give the most basic definition, like zi3 'son', or zi4 'self; from', or zi5 (5 explicitly identifies the neutral tone for this purpose; if you don't type it we have to assume that it could be any tone and you just didn't type it). If you follow these basic rules, it will make it far easier for us to help you. Better yet, install the MS language pack for Chinese, and learn how to type the real character!

[shibo77]

There is no "a,an" (indefinite article) equivalent in Chinese, nor is there a "the" (definite article) equivalent. Just simply say what you want to say, no articles involved, no gender, no singular, plural, no subjective, objective.

桌 zhuo1 could mean "table", "a table", "the table", "tables", "the tables"

桌子 zhuo1 zi5 (table, but fondness/diminuation is expressed here)

I hope this helped!

- Shibo

[ever00t]

My friend, The pinyin 'zi' in Chinese can have a very large of variable after translating it into Chinese character.

er2zi -->儿子-->Son; zi4fu2-->字符 -->Character ; zi1ya2lie3zui3 -->龇牙咧嘴--> grimace in pain or show one's teeth ... ...

Do you notice those examples ? see, 'zi' in those examples can be different Chiense characters in the pure Chinese phrases,making different senses as well.

[gummylick]

I'm sorry, I added no tone markings to zi because it has none, it is neutral. I'll be more clear next time and specify zi5.

Shibo77, I think you answered my question with this:

桌 zhuo1 could mean "table", "a table", "the table", "tables", "the tables"

桌子 zhuo1 zi5 (table, but fondness/diminuation is expressed here)

Thanks!

[Quest]

see, that's where pinyin fails

Chinese will have a hard time distinguishing individual characters if there is no context.

[ever00t]

Chinese will have a hard time distinguishing individual characters if there is no context

Quest,you are right,for example 'erzi',if we don't specify tones for it,it can be either the phrase ->

儿子 or 耳子

The first one marked as 'er2zi' means 'son'.the last one marked as 'er3zi' means 'agaric' and it's obviously a dialect. But in case if Chinese have to use pinyin to communication i don't think they will add tones because it's going to be a lot of trouble reading on them.Just pinyin is fine.

[smithsgj]

Shibo, I didn't realize that in Beijing 桌 is the usual word for table, and that adding 子 implies that you are fond of it!

[roddy]

I didn't realize that in Beijing 桌 is the usual word for table, and that adding 子 implies that you are fond of it!

Agreed - with nouns like 桌子，椅子， 杯子，筷子，surely it's just there to add an extra syllable.

Roddy

[handbus]

Dear all, don't forget there is five tones of chinese,there is a tone called "slight-tone 轻声qing1 sheng1" except the common 4 tones.

when we say "爸爸 ba4ba"(dad), the 2nd 爸 will be pronounced slightly almost without any tones.

also when the character of "子" is used as a tail of a word, such as "桌子zhuo1 zi"(table), "鞋子 xie2 zi"(shoe), it will be pronounced in a slight-tone.