Need help with 之馀...

[Shadowdh]

Hi there, could someone please explain this grammar point to me... Its given as an example in the sentence 我利用工作之馀,学习中国话 Now I think this sentence is I study Chinese after work... or something similar... is this right and if so (and also if not) what and why is 之馀 used? 多谢大家帮助我！

[Wendy Doble]

Hi,Shadowdh

Let me try to explain to you.

我利用工作之余，学习中国话。in English it means: I spend some of my sparetime after work in learning Chinese.

let's look at this sentence seperately:

工作之余 actually can be said: 工作后的空余时间

之 in acient Chinese means " 。。。的"， in English, means "....of "

by the way, normally we Chinese people say this language ”中文“，it is more native than "中国话"。

希望我所解释的可以帮助到你理解这个句子！！！

[skylee]

工作之餘 = 工餘 = spare time after work

Take a look ->

http://dict.cn/big5/search/?q=%A4u%BEl

http://www.nciku.cn/search/all/%E5%B7%A5%E4%BD%99

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/cgi-bin/agrep-lindict?query=%be%6c&category=wholerecord

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?cond=%BEl&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&ukey=-1918926311&serial=1&recNo=108&op=f&imgFont=1

(3) Leftover time: 研討之餘 the time left after studies;

業餘 after office hours, hobby,

And 課餘 = spare time after school

[Shadowdh]

Thanks Skylee that is clearer...