Pinyin to characters

[Yezze]

Another set of pinyin to character translations for homework...

Would anyone mind checking them and showing me what mistakes i made?

Thanks in advance.

*-all the spacings are as they were in the assignment

chūn jié wǒ ɡěi mā mɑ dǎ diàn huà

xiǎo mìnɡ qǐnɡ nǐ ɡěi tā dǎdiàn huà

qǐnɡ rànɡ yí xià

mā mɑ bā diǎn shànɡ bān ， xià wǔ wǔ diǎn xiàbān

春节我给妈妈打电话

小明请你给他打电话

请让一下

妈妈八点上班，下无误点下班

[anonymoose]

mā mɑ bā diǎn shànɡ bān ， xià wǔ wǔ diǎn xiàbān

妈妈八点上班，下午五点下班

[Daan]

chūn jié wǒ ɡěi mā mɑ dǎ diàn huà

春节我给妈妈打电话

OK.

xiǎo mìnɡ qǐnɡ nǐ ɡěi tā dǎdiàn huà

小明请你给他打电话

xiǎo mìnɡ is not 小明, because 明 is míng. I don't know any names that would be pronounced as mìng, though, so I'm assuming your characters are actually right.

qǐnɡ rànɡ yí xià

请让一下

OK.

mā mɑ bā diǎn shànɡ bān ， xià wǔ wǔ diǎn xiàbān

妈妈八点上班，下无误点下班

误点 is wùdiǎn and also means something different. You're looking for the numeral wǔ.

Also, I suppose you already know this since you commented on it in your message, but the Pinyin spacing isn't exactly as it's supposed to be.

[Yezze]

Thanks for the help!

The xiao ming or 小明, was provided for me. The wu dian was something that i wasn't 100% sure about, but now i know.

As people on this site have told me before, i should separate each character with spaces, when in pinyin, and normally it is like that. I just wasn't sure since she put them together, if she was hinting at have the two form into 1 meaning.

Thanks again.

[Daan]

That's not entirely accurate, I'm afraid. See this site, which explains the rules of Hànyǔ Pīnyīn orthography.

[imron]

As people on this site have told me before, i should separate each character with spaces, when in pinyin, and normally it is like that.

And then other people on this site corrected that for being wrong. Words in pinyin are written without spaces.

[Kenny同志]

Pinyin is hard to decipher in many cases. it is like translating from English 音标 into words.

Edited February 27, 2010 at 12:50 PM by kenny2006woo

[Daan]

Would it surprise you, kenny, that it's not that hard for learners of Chinese to decipher orthographically correct Hànyǔ pīnyīn, even if you omit the tone marks? I still prefer reading Chinese in characters, though

[Kenny同志]

Would it surprise you, kenny, that it's not that hard for learners of Chinese to decipher orthographically correct Hànyǔ pīnyīn, even if you omit the tone marks?

呵呵，no, not at all. But it kills me to read pinyin instead of characters if the text is long. After all, pinyin is intended to help people learn to pronounce, and that's all. It is not like characters which are instantly understandable.

Edited February 27, 2010 at 01:20 PM by kenny2006woo

[anonymoose]

But it is killing me to read pinyin instead of characters if the text is long.

应该说But it kills me to read pinyin instead of characters if the text is long.是一般现在式，而不是现在进行式。

[Kenny同志]

多谢Anonymoose指正

English grammar is too complicated!

[jbradfor]

It is not like characters which are instantly understandable.

Sigh. I SOOO wish that were true for me.... Still a lot to learn....

[chrix]

If it's any consolation, have a look at WM.C. Hannas' "Asia's orthographic dilemma", he quite profoundly disagrees with the statement that characters are instantly understandable. Just playing devil's advocate here

[Kenny同志]

After all, pinyin is intended to help people learn to pronounce, and that's all. It is not like characters which are instantly understandable.

I need to rephrase my post. Whether characters are instantly understandable denpends on the context and wording and the learning of the reader. In contrast, pinyin have to be translated into characters, mentally or in written form, before it can be understood. In some cases, it is very hard to decipher pinyin because Chinese has so many 多音字.

[imron]

In contrast, pinyin have to be translated into characters, mentally or in written form, before it can be understood. In some cases, it is very hard to decipher pinyin because Chinese has so many 多音字.

What would happen if someone read that pinyin out loud to you? Would you have to mentally translate it into characters, and would you have difficulty deciphering it because of all the 多音字?

[trien27]

Sorry. I didn't see that anonymoose had made the corrections.

[Kenny同志]

I might have trouble figuring it out if someone reads from pinyin out loud to me. It is not like reading from characters because in this case, the reading is more smooth and has more noticable pauses.

[imron]

But this is nothing to do with pinyin. You can have the same effect when reading pinyin if one is practiced enough.

Anyway, what if there was no pinyin or characters, but someone just spoke a sentence to you. When you hear that, do you need to translate the words mentally into characters before you can understand it and do you have trouble understanding because Chinese has so many 多音字？

[Kenny同志]

Ok, what if there was no pinyin or characters, but someone just spoke a sentence to you.

It is like reading from characters. I don't think I have any problem understanding what is said except rare cases. There's no need to mentally translated it into characters either.

do you have trouble understanding because Chinese has so many 多音字？

in rare cases

[imron]

I don't think I have any problem understanding what is said except rare cases. There's no need to mentally translated it into characters either.

Ok, so this raises the interesting question, considering that pinyin is just a phonetic representation of Chinese words, and given that you have little/no problem with a phonetic representation when you hear it being spoken, is the problem really with pinyin or is it with the fact that you've just had significantly more practice with characters compared to pinyin, and therefore find characters easier?