Have X for X days/months/...

[Kai13]

Hey there.

I'm doing an essay and I might have a few doubts, but I can only remember one now.

I want to say that "I have her (a cat) for a month", but I don't now how to.

Thanks.

Edited March 29, 2010 at 03:26 PM by Kai13
just because

[natra]

That sentence is not very clear. Do you mean to say her cat has been at your apartment for a month, or that the amount of time you will have the cat will be for a month? The latter would imply that you had just gotten the cat.

[Kai13]

This is 银子, her hair is long and grey. I have her for a month.

She was an abandoned cat and about a month ago she became non homeless.

Thanks ;)

[Shi Tong]

Hello, I'm also not entirely sure what you're trying to say, but I'm guessing it's something along these lines:

我在养一只流浪猫, 牠会住我(们)家一个月.

Literal translation for this is "I at looking after one zhi1 homeless cat, (s)he will live my(our) house one month".

"I'm looking after a homeless cat, he/ she will be staying with me in my home for a month"

You could also say "牠会跟我(们)住在一起一个月"

"(s)he will with me/us live together (for) one (ge) month"

"(s)he will live together with us for one month"

Not sure my grammar is too hot on this one.. anyone else?!

[Kai13]

Oh sorry! I just noticed, my english is not correct, I'm so sorry.

I want to say that she appeared a month ago and we kept her (forever)

I also want to say that "I also have a few more cats"

Maybe...我还有一些猫，可是，我没有它们的照片。

谢谢你！

[Shi Tong]

Ooooh.. ok.. that's totally different!

我一个月前(I think this is the right word!!!), 找到了一只流浪猫,牠现在跟我(们)住在一起

I'm not sure that 前 is the right word for this, this qian2 means "front", and the one I'm looking for means "before", though it is most probably the same word.

(I one month ago found le one zhi homeless cat, s(he) now with me(us) lives together.)

(One month ago I found a homeless cat, we now (all) live together)

You could also go with 我上个月 (a month on top, or last month).

I would also say:

我还有几只猫，可是，我没有它们的照片

(I also have ji zhi cats).

ji3 is like an indeterminate number (could be 4 or 10), so this would mean you have a "few more" cats. I assume you also want to say you dont have their protographs, which you have correct! Though, the 它 you want would be 牠 (the him/ her/ it word for a creature)

一些 means a few, but it can also be used for a meaning like a part of (for instance you would say I have 一些 money), 几只 feels more whole to me, so you have a few whole cats!

[Kai13]

Thank you so much!

I don't have thei pic, because they don't live inside my house, they llive in my yard?

因为它们不住在我家里，它们住在我的？？？？？，　

Please ;)

[Shi Tong]

Hello

花园 is the most common kind of back yard name I've heard of, but I think this is more like garden. (flower garden)

I've had a look on an online dictionary, and it tells me that back yard (which I've not heard before) should be 后院. This is "Ho4", which means behind or back and Yuan4 which means courtyard, or institution (it's the same 院 as in hospital).

Hope this helps!

[Lu]

后 is in pinyin hou4. Shi Tong, it's great that you checked a dictionary, but perhaps you could also use it to check if your pinyin is correct.

[Shi Tong]

:lol:Absolutely.

Maybe I should ignore putting in pinyin explaintions all together, since no matter how well I think I've spelled it, it always seems to go wrong!!

At least the Chinese is right?

[Lu]

Maybe I should ignore putting in pinyin explanations all together, since no matter how well I think I've spelled it, it always seems to go wrong!!

What exactly is going wrong then? You go to an online dictionary and just ignore the pinyin there, or you forget it during the time it takes to get from the dictionary back to here, or what? Yes, perhaps it might be good for you to just stick to characters.

I'm not familiar with the word 後院, could be correct but I don't know it.

[Shi Tong]

Hello Lu,

What exactly is going wrong then?

Well, I've never officially learned pinyin at a college or school, but since I'm learning more characters now, I'm using pinyin to write down the pronunciations, so I get more used to it.

In Taiwan, I was taught exclusively with zhuyin, but the main exphasis for me has always been on the characters themselves and the spoken pronunciation instead of how it's written in pinyin.

Unfortunately, I think I sometimes look and assume I "know" how to pinyinize something, so sometimes I wont really look closely at the pinyin, so I make some mistakes sometimes.

I'm not familiar with the word 後院, could be correct but I don't know it.

It was the only thing which I wasn't too sure about myself. 後院 came from a dictionary online, I put in "back yard", because that was what was asked for.

My instant reaction to back yard, was, however, hua1yuan2 (花园), and it's probably what I would use, but I thought that 花园 is definately a garden, and maybe not an actual 後院 back yard.

[Kai13]

I have no chinese enabled on this computer, therefore I cannot write chinese for my doubs, but I'll post in pinyin.

"wo hen xi huan ta men (dou??)"

Should I use "dou" in that case?

Thanks so much for the previous answers.

[Shi Tong]

You mean you like all of them? 都?

This is a bit more difficult for me, but I'll try:

我对牠们全都很喜欢

That's how I would put it, which.. directly translated.. let me try:

"I to them, all all very like". For some reason, and please anyone who wants to correct me, please do, sometimes you have to use 全 and 都 to get the common way of saying "all", the same thing with 全部, which also means all. Dont know why! hehehe

[skylee]

no need for dou.

[Kai13]

Thanks!

And how do I say fur? cat's fur.

In "ta men (dou??) shi hei se de" (they are black). Does it need "dou", since they're only 2?

I never understood the use of "dui", but the post of shi tong enlighted me. Thanks a lot! Doyou know any good place that explains it online? I have an integrated approach to IC, but I have no time to go throught it, my tests are basically dictations and I have other subjectsto study that I end up with no time at all to study it. Literally.

Edited March 29, 2010 at 04:09 PM by Kai13

[Shi Tong]

猫毛 means cats fur,

If you wanted to say you have two black cats I would say;

我有两只黑色的猫.

You can also say (if you realllly want to use 猫(的)毛) you can say 我有两只猫,牠们的毛是黑色的.

In terms of the word 对 when you're talking about people or things or events, it means that you have something to do with them.

The most simple example, and probably the key to it all is this phrase:

他对我很好

This simply means that he is good to you/ nice to you/ loyal to you.

You can also subsititute the 好 for other good or bad things.

Then you can stipulate further from that, using things like 他对中文什么都不懂; a breakdown of this is as follows:

He dui chinese what all no understand. I think of this as:

He, to Chinese does not understand a thing.

So you can think of 对 as "to", IMO if you're considering it in these cases.

Oh, and Skylee, thanks for that.. you're right, you dont need dou in these cases!!