SeyzCN Posted December 25, 2008 at 11:26 PM Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 at 11:26 PM Wo xi huan shang hai 我喜欢上海 I am having trouble with the whole usage of XI and HUAN. I thought XI was like and I was not sure what HUAN was. But then I heard that HUAN can also mean like. Can anyone clear up this grammatical problem for me? Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted December 26, 2008 at 02:32 AM Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 at 02:32 AM The problem is that you are treating individual characters as words which is not really how things work in modern Chinese. Individually 喜 means happy, and 欢 means joyous; merry. When put together though, they mean 'like'. Rather than going character by character, it's probably better to go by words, e.g. Wǒ xǐhuan Shànghǎi 我 喜欢 上海 我 - I 喜欢 - like 上海 - Shanghai. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msittig Posted December 26, 2008 at 05:09 AM Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 at 05:09 AM I remember waaaay back when an early Chinese teacher of mine told me that "the Chinese like characters in pairs". It stuck with me even through today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashiriKata Posted December 26, 2008 at 10:11 AM Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 at 10:11 AM an early Chinese teacher of mine told me that "the Chinese like characters in pairs"It's a nice way to put it but it's not just a matter of "like", it's in fact a necessity to have as many of them in pair as possible to reduce the chance of mishearing and misunderstanding: xi-huan will tell clearly what is meant; but if just xi alone or huan alone, there will be occasions one needs to ask what xi or what huan is meant. This is not just Chinese but in all languages and in different ways, there's always a large amount of redundency built in to aid communication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msittig Posted December 26, 2008 at 10:47 AM Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 at 10:47 AM But why pairs and not triples? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashiriKata Posted December 26, 2008 at 11:22 AM Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 at 11:22 AM Then it'd become greed and no longer a necessity . Actually, another principle is also at work in languages: the principle of economy (= don't over do it! ) (Now, Are you going to ask then why there are so many 4-character phrases in Chinese ? ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msittig Posted December 26, 2008 at 11:31 AM Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 at 11:31 AM (Now, Are you going to ask then why there are so many 4-character phrases in Chinese ? ) You are one step ahead of me! Actually four is understandable, 2² = 4. Why no 8-character (2³) phrases? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashiriKata Posted December 26, 2008 at 01:08 PM Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 at 01:08 PM Why no 8-character (2³) phrases? If you look up a 习语 （成语，谚语，俗语） dictionary, you may find a few of them, but on the whole a fixed long string of word is not practical to remember and to use, so they are normally regarded as spices, and not the everyday necessary ingredients for normal language use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottledpoetry Posted December 27, 2008 at 09:29 AM Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 at 09:29 AM interesting. I never thought about that. That "characters like to sit in pairs" explanation is a neat way to look at it:mrgreen:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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