My first post in Chinese....

[Mike]

Does this make any sense - any corrections appreciated

Q1: 你喜欢吃英国饭吗?

A1: 対.我很喜欢吃英国和中國饭

Q2: 你喝茶和咖啡吗?

A2: 都不喝.我只喝可口可乐

我昨天看电視和二个朋友

我明天跟二个朋友看电影

Q3: 他喝茶和咖啡吗?

A3: 喝他也喝可乐

Q4: 你有不有电視?

A4: 有

Q4: 你昨天看電視吗?

A4: 昨天我没有看电視

Q5: 你看报纸吗?

A5: 看

Q5: 你看什么报纸?

A5: 你看报纸 … (How do I say something like China Daily?)

他喜欢喝啤酒

我们爱喝啤酒,吃鱼星期五

我明天早喝三杯咖啡

我今天吃了饭就看书了

我仅仅吃中國饭

[xiaoxiajenny]

Q1: 你喜欢吃英国饭吗?

A1: 対.我很喜欢吃英国饭,还有中國饭。

Q2: 你喝茶和咖啡吗?

A2: 都不喝.我只喝可口可乐。

我昨天和二个朋友一起看电视。

我明天跟二个朋友去看电影。

Q3: 他喝茶和咖啡吗?

A3: 喝，他也/还喝可乐。

Q4: 你有没有电視?

A4: 有。

Q4: 你昨天看電視了吗?

A4: 昨天没看。

Q5: 你看报纸吗?

A5: 看。

Q5: 你看什么报纸?

A5: 中国日报。

他喜欢喝啤酒。

我们爱喝啤酒,爱在星期五吃鱼。

我明/每？天早上喝三杯咖啡。

我今天吃了饭以后就看书了。

我只吃中國饭。

[gougou]

我昨天和二个朋友一起看电视。

Shouldn't that be 两个朋友？

[chenpv]

Q1: 你喜欢吃英国饭吗?

A1: 对.我很喜欢吃英国菜和中国饭

This sentence is grammatically correct. but we usually use '菜' .

我昨天看电視和二个朋友

well, the english sentence could be 'I watched TV with two friends yesterday.' but In chinese, the 'two friends' is also part of subject. Give you a tip: when you want to express similiar meaning, think of this pattern in english: 'Two friends and I ........'

Q4: 你有不有电視?

A4: 有。

I can give you another tip: translate 'have or not' 'there be or not' into chinese with '没'，and 'is or not ' 'will or not' with '不'.

eg: Do you have pencils or not?---------->有没有铅笔？

Is there a book or not?------------>有没有书？

Has he come or not?------------>他来没来？

Will he come or not? ------------>他来不来？

Is he a docter or not?------------->他是不是医生？

吃鱼星期五

Time/Place adverbs come before verbs, but either before or after the subject. If you can't decide where to put this stuff, you will never mess up a sentence by putting them at the beginning.

我明天早喝三杯咖啡

明早=明天早上, you can choose either way.(Another tip: you are most likely to be right, if the phrases you are using are even-numbered.)

我今天吃了饭就看书了

The usage of '了', well this is a tough one. '了' shows that 'something has been done/has occurred'. Obviously, the sentence wants to express the consecutive occurrence of two actions----- in other words, you have finished something and you will do another thing. so the second '了' is not necessary.

我仅仅吃中國饭

'仅仅' is used to emphasize the 'extremely' unlikeliness/likeliness of something.

Thank you very much for the corrections, Mike.

[gougou]

Obviously, the sentence wants to express the consecutive occurrence of two actions----- in other words, you have finished something and you will do another thing. so the second '了' is not necessary.

So what if he ate something around noon and then read a book afterwards?

[chenpv]

So what if he ate something around noon and then read a book afterwards?

gougou, thats a good question. One thing you should make clear, the key character of the sentence is '就', equivalent to 'Once.......' IN MEANING(NOTE:not in sentence structure). So, there cant be such a long interval between the two actions.

According to your postulation, the expression can be : 我中午先吃饭，再看书。

PS: you were right in your first post of this thread.

Oh, MIKE, I really really ADMIRE your courage to post in characters rather than pinyin.

[Mike]

I understand the construction of 我昨天和二个朋友一起看电视 – thanks – but don’t understand 一起 (qi3) before 看?

Q4: 你昨天看電視了吗? - of course I missed 了

A4: 昨天没看 – My teacher also said ‘don’t waste words in Chinese’

I keep missing this 在 (zai4) – not sure why I need 在 yet

The correction by xiaoxiajenny works for me ‘我今天吃了饭以后就看书了’ – what I want to say is that I did, and finished, both one after the other. Is this okay?

[Desmond]

You have to say "两个朋友" because you can't use 二 before a measure word (like 个).

You often put 一起 (together) before a verb to make it a more stong indication that you're going with the person. I sounds kinda redundant in English to use together, but it's more common in Chinese. It's one of those things where you just have to slowly hear how often it's used, and when, and get a feel for when to use it yourself. Takes time and patience

If you mean 再 that you're confused about, then see the example above. If you mean 在 then, most simply, it's a location word. 我喝咖啡 (I drink coffee), 我在家喝咖啡 I drink coffee at home.

There are many other uses for 在 that you'll learn, and a thread about it right now on here. Check out this website if you'd like: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/cgi-bin/agrep-lindict?query=%A6b&category=wholerecord&boo=or&order=all

One odd question for you... when you posted, I noticed that sometimes you wrote in traditional, and sometimes in simplified (even in the same sentence, you switched). Was that an accident or were you just having fun? It was just odd, that's all!

[Mike]

Thanks Desmond, I remember about 两 now.

‘You often put 一起 (together) before a verb…’ I get it. At first I thought you meant you often put ‘一’ and ‘起’ together

‘If you mean 在’ – Yes, like xiaoxiajenny’s post above ‘我们爱喝啤酒,爱在星期五吃鱼。’ ‘在’ looks a bit tricky - 7th most used character and a kind of ‘Swiss army knife’ of uses :-) I’ll keep working on it!

‘One odd question for you... when you posted, I noticed that sometimes you wrote in traditional, and sometimes in simplified (even in the same sentence, you switched). Was that an accident or were you just having fun? It was just odd, that's all! ’ Actually I had no idea. I intended only to use Simplified, in line with roddy’s advice and the hierarchy of preference roddy mentioned above. Right now looking at Chinese characters is like looking at the initial state of the game ‘Pick up Sticks’. I hope it gets easier

[Desmond]

Oh yeah, it gets easier!

What level are you at right now? (I guess I mean, how long have you been studying for?)

I've been studying for a year, and although I'm still totally a beginner, characters aren't at all like picking up sticks. Example: for myself (and probably most others on here), it didn't matter that the basic characters you wrote were in simplified and traditional, cause I recognize both easily. It's just in the less common characters that I only know simplified, and have troubles with traditional.

在 isn't the only swiss army knife of characters. There are a lot more, and some which people do their PhD thesis on... so no worries, just keep asking questions!

[Desmond]

I meant it's not like picking up sticks, anymore. Sorry!

This forum... I don't know how to quote previous text.... and I don't know how to edit something I already wrote. Could someone help me with that?

Thanks!

[skylee]

To edit your post, click on the edit icon -> at the lower right corner of that post (well it should be there).

To quote a previous text, copy it to clipboard by hightlighting it and then right-clicking, then paste it to the message you are writing, and wrap it with the

tags by clicking the dialogue icon -> , which should be there above your message box.

[Desmond]

Thanks Skylee, I understand the quotes, but I have no "Reply" button by my quote, just a small green circle (whereas other people's posts have small blue ones). Perhaps it's just a fault in my membership somehow..? Oh well, not a super big deal!

[Glenn]

The small green circle is actually like a light that says you're online. The blue version is when the light is off, and it means that the person is offline.

"Post Reply" is at the bottom of the thread, underneath the last poster's online/offline light and the "report bad post" button.

[Mike]

Desmond, if you want to quote text then swipe the target text first, then hit 'Post Reply' at the bottom of the thread, paste into the reply box and with the text highlighted click on the little icon skylee mentioned. Alternatively, you can do this, but replacing Z for Q (I've replaced control characters below so I can show in the post what the construction is):

[Zuote=Mike]A target quote...[/Zuote]

A target quote...

What level are you at right now? (I guess I mean, how long have you been studying for?

I've had 4 two hour evening classes, one a week: although I missed one because of a work commitment, and I've been studying a bit in the evening: always wanting to do more but never having enough time!!!

==================

Some more stuff:

If you do this, but replace the v with a u [vrl=bbc.co.uk]The BBC website[/vrl] you get this link:

The BBC website

Replace k for c in [kolor=red]An example of red text[/kolor] to get An example of red text

Replace v for u - [v]An example of underlined text[/v] - An example of underlined text

Replace d for b [d]Bold text[/d] - Bold text

How about replace 1 for i in [s1ze=14]Font 14 text[/s1ze] to get Font 14 text.

Control character i gives you italic.

I can see where all this is going to take us

[Desmond]

I've had 4 two hour evening classes, one a week: although I missed one because of a work commitment, and I've been studying a bit in the evening: always wanting to do more but never having enough time!!!

Well, for only 4 classes (well 3, if you've skipped) then you've been doing a great job at learning Mandarin so far! Keep up the good work!