Are these sentences correct?

[novemberfog]

I study Chinese by myself, so I never know if my work is correct. Most of the time I am pretty sure it is wrong. Anyways, I study from a book called "Taiwan Today". There is an exercise where you are given part of a sentence (which I indicate below using [] ), and you have to fill in the rest. It seemed fun, so I gave it a try. If anyone any free time, would you mind looking at them and pointing out any mistakes?

a) 他们已经订婚了，所以不用送给他们东西。

[tamen yijing ding hun le, suoyi] bu yong songei tamen dongxi.

[Then already concluded the wedding, so] there is no need to send them anything.

B) 李小姐三十五岁了还没结婚，大概因为她太很难。

[li xiaojie sanshiwu suile hai mei jiehun] dagai yinwei ta tai hen nan.

[Ms. Li is 35 years old but not married,] probably because she is so difficult.

c) 现在的中国社会里，你能买真的冷啤酒。

[xianzai de zhongguo shehui li] ni neng mai zhen de leng pijiu.

[in modern Chinese society,] you can buy real cold beer.

d) 王小姐说她结婚的时候,《顺便，我和你未婚夫一起睡觉》。

[wang xiaojie shuo ta jiehun de shihou], <>.

[Ms. Wang said to her during when she wed], “By the way, I slept with your fiance”.

e) 张先生是旧式社会的读书人，所以他学习中国的古文。

[zhang laoshi shi jiushi shehui de dushuren,] suoyi ta xuexi zhongguo de guwen.

[Teacher Zhang is a reader of traditional society,] and thus he studies classical Chinese literature.

f) 我父亲不能接受我想住在德国。

[wo fuqin bu neng jieshou] wo xiang zhu zai deguo.

[My parents cannot accept] that I want to live in Germany.

h) 谈恋爱是总是不容易的事物。

[tan lian’ai shi] zongzhi bu rongyi de shiwu.

[To talk about love is] not always an easy thing.

i) 他们打算用最简单的婚礼方式，所以决定只家庭请求。

[tamen dasuan yong zui jiandande hunli fangshi, suoyi jueding] zhi jiating qingqie.

[They plan to have a very simple wedding ceremony, so it was decided] only family would be invited.

j) 老吴一直不要相亲所以他从未给他们联络。

[lao wu yizhi bu yao xiangqin] suoyi ta congwei gei tamen lianluo.

[Old wu has always not needed his parents], so he never contacts them.

k) 因为缺少的工人，工程不能集合年末要求。

[yinwei queshao] de gongren, gongcheng bu neng jihe nianmo yaoqie.

[because of the shortage] of workers, the factory was not able to meet the year-end demand.

[lefuzzbox]

well done,i didnt see any mistake in it.but i have a question,who wrote those chinese sentences?some of them totally make no sense,some of them have serious grammar faults...

eg. B) 李小姐三十五岁了还没结婚，大概因为她太很难。

"she is so difficult" means shes diffcult to get along with?then it should be "她不容易相处"

c) 现在的中国社会里，你能买真的冷啤酒。 -- what is that supposed to mean?O_o

d) 王小姐说她结婚的时候,《顺便，我和你未婚夫一起睡觉》。totally make no sense.

e) 张先生是旧式社会的读书人，所以他学习中国的古文。

this one is okay,but if you ask a chinese to say it,it would be like this:"张先生是旧社会的读书人，(所以)他学习（懂得）中国古文."

h) 谈恋爱是总是不容易的事物。

"谈恋不容易。" 或 "谈恋爱不是件容易的事。"

i) 他们打算用最简单的婚礼方式，所以决定只家庭请求。

the perfect way to express it is "他们打算婚礼从简，所以决定只请家里人。"

k) 因为缺少的工人，工程不能集合年末要求。

"因为缺少工人，工程不能达到年底竣工要求"

[novemberfog]

Now I am very embarrassed. I wrote the Chinese. Only parts of the sentences were given, and the task was to complete the sentences. So I translated the parts given to me in English, and then I finish the sentence in English. Finally I finished the sentence in Chinese to the best of my ability. I know there are many mistakes, so thank you for taking the time to correct them. I will try harder next time.

what is that supposed to mean?O_o

==> Well, I was told by the Chinese teacher at my company that in the past there was no way to get cold beer in China. Everyone just drank warm bottles of beer. But since China has changed...in modern times... Okay I know, bad choice, but I really couldn't think of much at the time.

totally make no sense.

==> I am sure it was wrong, but I am curious how I would say it...

[lefuzzbox]

ah dude,im terriblely sorry,i hope i didnt offende you.

i totally misunderstood the whole point, i thought you were supposed to get the exercise done by filling in "pinyin" behind those "[]"....silly me. : (

well,your chinese is fine actually,considering you are learning it all by yourself,and for most of the chinese sentences,i can understand them completely.good job,hehe

[lefuzzbox]

==> Well, I was told by the Chinese teacher at my company that in the past there was no way to get cold beer in China. Everyone just drank warm bottles of beer. But since China has changed...in modern times... Okay I know, bad choice, but I really couldn't think of much at the time.

oh,you meant to say "chinese wine"?we used to warm it before drinking,and i think few people still drink it that way today.

==> I am sure it was wrong, but I am curious how I would say it...

王小姐说她结婚的时候,《顺便，我和你未婚夫一起睡觉》

王女士在她结婚的时候对她说：“顺便，我和你的未婚夫睡觉了。”

and this the best way to say it,"王女士在她结婚的时候对她说：“还有，我和你的未婚夫上床了。”"

[novemberfog]

No no, not offended. Actually, my English was probably very vague. I so rarely use English these days... I should have put the () around the Chinese too, but I found it more difficult to read that way so I took them out. Sorry about that. Thank you for your corrections and help, I really do appreciate it. It is really hard to try to study grammar on your own, especially when most books don't come with the answers.

About the beer, I think the conversation was that in the past, there was no draft beer in China. My teacher came from Beijing to Tokyo about 15 years ago, so I am sure it has changed. She said that back then, you could not order cold draft beer except at the bars for foreigners. Instead, if you wanted beer, you ordered some bottles, and then put ice in your beer. Can you imagine the shock on all the Japanese businessmen's faces? Warm Asahi Super-Dry with ice, they could not imagine it. Perhaps my teacher is not really from Beijing, but some place nearby where the beer was served warm? Anyway, I will try to make a better sentence in the future.

Thanks again for your help!!!

[lefuzzbox]

yea,China has changed a lot during the last two decades,and shes still developing like crazy.im young but im pretty sure you can get cool beer 15 years ago in big cities like beijing and shanghai,maybe your chinese teacher came from rural areas of beijing,or maybe its bcuz your teacher is a woman,so she might have no idea where she should go to grab some cool beer back then,besides most chinese ppl tended to drink chinese white wine instead of beer decades ago,i think that explains why you could only get cool beer at bars for foreigners,after all beer was still considered as some sort of "western drink" back then in china...

today its quite different though,you can grab cool draft beer almost everywhere at anytime here,lol ...

[對話的喧囂]

B) 李小姐三十五岁了还没结婚，大概因为她太很难。

she's so difficult---you can express it colloquially 她太難搞.

h) 谈恋爱是总是不容易的事物。

[tan lian’ai shi] zongzhi bu rongyi de shiwu.

[To talk about love is] not always an easy thing.

Here are some questions. If part of chinese sentence is given, and you'll have to make the half of the sentence, then 談戀愛 in english should be fall in love or be in love. So, the english equivalent can be to fall in love/ to be in love is not always an easy thing. If the english sentence is the original clue, then to talk about love should be translated as 談論愛情.

[Mugi]

Re the beer, I'd have to agree with the above. Maybe it's because your teacher is a woman, maybe because she doesn't actually come from Beijing per se (in my experience, Chinese often claim to come from the nearest metropolis to where they actually come from, even if it's 400km away).

Instead, if you wanted beer, you ordered some bottles, and then put ice in your beer. Can you imagine the shock on all the Japanese businessmen's faces? Warm Asahi Super-Dry with ice, they could not imagine it.

I had this experience about 6 months ago in Taipei - not very appealing. But I've also frequently come across this practice in Japan too, especially in the inaka.

[Mugi]

I think you've misinterpreted some of the supplied Chinese sentence beginnings, which will probably affect how you decide to finish them - to set you on the right track, you might like to note the following:

a) 他们已经订婚了 = They are already engaged

d) 王小姐说她结婚的时候 = Ms Wang said that when she got married ...

e) 张先生是旧式社会的读书人 = Mr. Zhang was an academic in the old (pre-revolution) society (note that the 式 is usually not used in Chinese (or Japanese for that matter); also, 先生 is Mr.)

h) 谈恋爱是总是 = (Being in) love is always... (even though Chinese uses 谈, it doesn't actually mean "to talk" here)

j) 老吴一直不要相亲 = Old Wu has never wanted formal introductions (相亲 = お見合い omiai in Japanese)

The rest of your English translations are pretty much on the spot.

[lefuzzbox]

you can complete the chinese sentence with anything,as long as its correct,right?...so how about we just change it with some new ones,the clause you wrote there wasnt very pleasant to read,besides it has no logic...

here are some easy examples:

[王小姐说她结婚的时候],她的好朋友都来了。

[Ms Wang said when she got married],all her good friends attended the wedding.

[王小姐说她结婚的时候],场面非常盛大。

[Ms Wang said when she got married],it was a big wedding.

[王小姐说她结婚的时候],感到非常幸福。

[Ms Wang said when she got married],she felt very happy.