Question about adding 儿 to the end of a word.

[Kong Junrui]

Hi. I just signed up for this site and have a question. I'm in my second year of learning Chinese at my high school, and am curious as to how a word sounds when you add a 儿 ® sound to a word, as in 点儿 (dianr), 人儿 (rer) or 女儿 (nver). As far as I can tell, you take off the last constanant sound (if it's the last sound) and replace it with an r sound. If the last sound is a vowel sound, you just add the r. Is this correct? Any thing else?

Also, I have a computer problem that deals with this, so I might as well post it here as well. I'm using the Microsoft Pinyin IME (3.0 I think, or whatever the latest one is), and for certain words like 一点儿 I can't type as a single word, I have to type 一点 and 儿 seperatly. I thought the term was not in the dictionary, so I added it to the user-defined dictionary, however, apparently it is in the dictionary, but it won't come out... suggestions?

Thanks.

[gougou]

点儿 (dianr), 人儿 (rer) or 女儿

Watch out with nv er, that one is different from the others; er is pronounced as a separate syllable (as in 儿子, er2zi).

一点儿 I can't type as a single word

As far as I know, the 儿化 is not supported by the IME, you will always have to input it as ‘er', nor 'r'. If you adhere to official pinyin regulations then and input yidian'er, it gives you 一点儿 right away.

EDIT

Whoa, forgot to answer the original question. I think what happens to pronounciation is that you curl your tongue backwards, making the last vowel retroflex. I'm not sure whether the last consonant is supposed to be left out, but that's what I hear as well.

[Kong Junrui]

Yeah, I kinda forgot about 女儿 until after I posted it. Thanks for the answer.

[atitarev]

女儿 (nver)

Offtopic but important, just in case Kong Junrui doesn't know.

nǚ'ér is the correct pinyin for the word, although most word processors use "v" letter for the "ü" sound (missing in Mandarin) to enter the sound (another possible option is "uu" - NJStar).

Wenlin understands when I type in yidianr and hit "/" to convert it to 一点儿 (simpl.) or 一點兒 (trad.). With other IME's you need to type in ER to get the suffix.

[Kong Junrui]

Offtopic but important' date=' just in case Kong Junrui doesn't know.

nǚ'ér is the correct pinyin for the word, although most word processors use "v" letter for the "ü" sound (missing in Mandarin) to enter the sound (another possible option is "uu" - NJStar).[/quote']

Yeah, I know, but I just don't know how to get the u with the two dots over it, or any tone over any letter for that matter. I just used the nv cause it would be he only way to differentiate between that and a regular u in nu.

[Song You Shen]

....way off subject....

wow, I had a classmate who's chinese name was kong junrui.

....back on subject...

Youshen