At Popup Chinese, we're keenly aware of our responsibility for upholding community standards. And we're animal lovers too. Which is why if you're an intermediate student learning Chinese you can't go wrong by listening to this podcast. In it, we cover some essential vocabulary for extracting things from your pets, along with a more advanced adverb that you can use to add a sense of righteousness to the entire endeavor.
MoNigeria
said on November 3, 2010
总不能让他这样堕落下去
一切总会好起来的，别太难过了
领导过生日我总得表示点儿什么
不管怎么样你总不该偷别人的东西
Xiao Hu
said on November 4, 2010
@何毖老师 (Brendan),
你觉得把“总什么什么”翻译成英文的,"As a rule..." 合适不合适？
Brendan
said on November 5, 2010
@Xiao Hu --
That would be one way of understanding 总, but in general when I'm translating from the Chinese, I tend to feel that there are some words that should disappear in translation and be expressed in some other way, and I think 总 is one of these words. "As a rule" also seems a bit strong to me -- that would be something a bit more like 一律 in Chinese, I think. 总 feels to me as if it's making a generalization, rather than a more hard-line assertion, that something tends to be the case. Then again, I'm not a native speaker, so I could be way off on that one.
Xiao Hu
said on November 24, 2010
@Brendan (何毖老师)，
As I've expressed elsewhere in the forums, I believe that for language learners, it greatly increases comprehension to have a kind of default translation or set phrase that they can use to help them wrap their heads around a new word. Without this, some language learners find it hard to make the necessary calculations for the jump to light speed, so to speak.
It seems that 总 may just be one of those words that is just impossible to translate directly and must be interpreted according to context. Am I reading that correctly?
palafx
said on December 6, 2010
What's the construction for statements like English "that is why". Like, if the dialogue contained "That is why the kitchen etc."
ckw4y
said on December 6, 2010
@palafx you can say "那就是为什么。。。的原因". I think you may also be able to omit the 的原因 part sometimes too.
For example:
那就是为什么厨房里一直很脏的原因 - That is why the kitchen is always dirty
Echo
said on December 6, 2010
@palafx&ckw4y,
没错儿！
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
palafx
said on December 7, 2010
@ckw4yExcellent, thanks. I was originally thinking it might be something like 为那个... But this makes much more sense.Couldn't you potentially leave out the 为什么 part as well? Like: 那就是厨房里一直很脏的原因 ("That is the kitchen-is-always-dirty reason"?) Or do people not say this?
etbaccata
said on June 21, 2012
比人拉的还多shouldn't it be: 比人拉得还多, as complement of degree?
Echo
said on June 21, 2012
@etbaccata,Nope. It's an omission of object 比人拉的（屎）还多 :)--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
