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Posted

May I ask some questions about "了"?

For example,

我忘了 (le).

我忘不了(liao).

I don't know when I should pronounce 'le' or 'liao'. Could anyone explian to me please?

Posted

When I started to learn chinese, I used to confuse the character '乐' when I saw in '快乐' and '音乐'. The other one is '行'. Now I understand how to distinguish their prononciation, but the others I don't know.

I like to know how many chinese characters have their own pronunciation more than one? And how to know their correct pronunciations?

Posted
I like to know how many chinese characters have their own pronunciation more than one?

There are plenty. In fact there are a lot. For example, 差 can be pronounced as cha1, cha4, chai1, chai4, and ci1, depending on the context. And 長 can be pronounced as chang2 or zhang3; 朝 as zhao1 or chao2; 處 as chu3 or chu4; 着 as zhe, zhao1, zhao2 or zhuo2. These are all everyday words and their different pronunciations are as common as the 音樂/快樂 pair.

And how to know their correct pronunciations?

em... learn them, from dictionaries, in classes, whatever. But the words are pronounced differently depending on the context. So when you see 處長, it can only be chu4 zhang3. And when you see 長處, it can only be chang2 chu.

Posted

BTW, did you know that 樂 is also a surname? No, in fact 樂 (Yue4) and 樂 (Le4) are two different surnames. Quite confusing. 8)

Posted
我忘了 (le).

我忘不了(liao).

I don't know when I should pronounce 'le' or 'liao'. Could anyone explian to me please?

According to 現代漢語辭典, it is pronounced as liao3 when it is put after a verb+得/不 to indicate ability or inability. For example, 忘不了 (unable to forget) and 受不了 (insufferable). And as le, you know it usually means the completion of an action/a state.

Posted
BTW, did you know that 樂 is also a surname? No, in fact 樂 (Yue4) and 樂 (Le4) are two different surnames. Quite confusing.

:mrgreen: 了不起! (liao3 bu4 qi3)

hehe, i'm so impulsive....

Posted

What I find a real stinker is characters like 当 which have a different tone according to context.

Someone corrects your tone so you think 'Ok, this character must be first tone'. Then later you say another sentence with it first tone and you get corrected again!

Tonal mistakes are very common in dictionaries (anyone seen the Lonely Planet phrasebook?) It's easy to remember the wrong tone and, of course, it's easy to pronounce the tone wrong, then you have characters like this with tones that change and a Chinese person might not even be aware that this is what's happening! :wall

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