Help understanding a sentence

[Tony24]

Hi guys!

I need you help again

I know that the meaning of this sentence : ‘ 你最好早一点人报名，宿舍的事情也要早一点人联系 ‘ is : you had better sign up first, and then you can get in touch for the dormitory affair. ‘

As you can see, the whole menanig is quite clear to me but I still can’t understand why 早一点人 appears twice... is it a pattern that I have never met before?

help me guys! 

[Publius]

That doesn't sound right.

Either remove 人 or add another character before 人.

 

Aha, I see! It's not 人. It's 儿.

You know 儿化 right? 一点儿 yīdiǎnr = 一点 = a little, a bit

[Momo220]

Should be "你最好早一点(儿)报名，宿舍的事情也要早一点(儿)联系". As opposed to English, Chinese likes to repeat. If we translate this into English, it would be 

 

" You'd better sign up/enroll as early as possible, same with accommodation." without repeating the "as early as possible".

[歐博思]

It's not typical for northerners to write with 兒化 outside of textbooks, right?

[Momo220]

For spoken Chinese: I would say it is still typically northerners who use 兒 in the sentences, but you will hear southerners say that too, just not as common.

 

For written Chinese: 兒 is not frequently used or is usually avoided (even for northerners) in formal documents. For example: 我們不知道到哪裡是探索的終點。instead of saying 我們不知道哪兒是探索的終點。Both are correct, while the second one doesn't sound as formal. 

[歐博思]

Would it be weird to write it as "我們不知道哪是探索的終點”，neither 哪裏 nor with 兒？

[Momo220]

A little.. yeah