zhe ge gu shi bu shi zai jiu jing san.

[QUESTION - why didn't I need to write "li" at the end of the sentence?  Isn't that required ?]

Zhe ge gu shi shi:

Patrick he wo men de shi ge shuai ge shi zai zhe ge gu shi li, dan shizhe ge gu shi bu shi zhen de.  Zhe ge gu shi shi ta men zai da xue deshi hou.

Zhe ge bu shi yi ge ai qing de gu shi.  Wo he xyz bu shi zai zhe ge gu shi li.

1) Not sure if i can answer your qn well, but "Li" is like "in". So "in the story" translates to become zai zhe gu gu shi li. "But this story is not AT San Francisco" ("At" the location and not "In" SF in chinese?)

2) Remember to separate the "shizhe" and "deshi" they are 2 separate words...

3a) Qn1 of story: Ta men zai da xue li shi wan yin yue de ma? They play music (band) in Uni?

b) Qn2 of story: Hai shi ta men xi huan zai da xue de shi hou pai ying pian? Or they like to do video shooting when in Uni?

[ Last edited by  Cloudz7 at 2007-6-15 04:33 AM ]

Okay - about "li" - then what I have written is correct?   

About your questions - what is Uni?  I can answer when I know this.

About words - do I know "wan yin yue" "huan pai ying plan"?  I'm not recognizing them.


"ma" I remember as being a question.  Should all of these yes/no questions be ending with ma?

some of the problems with this forum is that when i type, there arespaces between words but then when it's posted, the spaces get deleted.i'm not sure what that's all about.  patrick! mark! someone! geton that!  

li does mean inside.  so while you would say zai\ jia- li\/ (jia-means house, so at home - where the house is a physical thing you canbe inside) or zai\ cheng/ li\/ (cheng/ means city, so within theconfines of a city), i think because a city or other proper noun ismore of a destination, you leave the li\/ off.  so zai\ jiu\ jin-san- (at san francisco), or zai\ jia- zhou- (jia-zhou- meanscalifornia, so at california) zai\ mei\/ guo/ (at the united states)without the li\/.  is that helpful?

so, an easy question, then:

patrick he/ wo\/ men- shi\ ge\ shuai\ ge- shi\ bu\/ shi\ zai\ jia- zhou-?

Are patrick and the four good looking guys in California?
Patrick and our four goodlooking guys are not are at california?

Zhe\ ge\ gu\ shi\ shi\ bu\/ shi\ mei/ you\/ qi/ ta- de\ ren/?

new words:
qi/ ta- de\ = chee tah duh = other
mei/ = may = not
you\/ = yoh =have

does this story have any other people?
this story is not is not having other people?

ok.. you've inflated my question marks...   me curious... but I don't want to get killed for it...

Yep, correct Mark about the "li".

Uni= short form for University spoken in Singapore sorry. Or Da Xue in chinese.

Wan yin yue = play music (band in this context i meant)

huan does not belong here. Xi Huan = like.
Anyway i didnt type huan, i typed "de shi hou"=during.
"zai da xue de shi hou" = during university days (no days chinese word, it's understood in this context"

Pai ying pian = do video shootings

xi huan pai yin pian = like to do video shootings.

Typically, yeps qns end with a "ma". But my 2nd qn, i should have ended with a "ne"? Also a word attached to a qn. K it's really complicated to explain when u use "Ma" or "Ne" at the end of a qn. Someone pls help to explain hehe.

Im going for my EE camp soon!!!! (See my blog for details) and here i am typing chinese lessons for Mark haha....

[ Last edited by  Cloudz7 at 2007-6-15 10:13 AM ]

Ta men shi zai jia zhou.

Zhe ge gu shi shi you qi ta de ren.

Zhe ge gu shi shi:

Patrick he wo men de shi ge shuai ge he qi ta de ren shi zi zhe ge gu shi li, dan shi zhe ge gu shi bu shi zhen de.  Zhe ge gu shi shi ta men za de xue de shi hou.

Zhe ge bu shi yi ge ai qing de gu shi.  Wo he xyz bu shi zai zhe gee gu shi li.

Zhen de. Ta men zi da xue li shi wan yin yue he xi huan pai yin pian.

Zhe ge gu shi shi:

Patrick he wo men de shi ge shuai ge he qi ta de ren shi zai zhe ge gu shi li, dan shi zhe ge gu shi bu shi zhen de. Zhe ge gu shi shi ta men za de xue de shi hou. Ta men zi da xue li shi wan yin yue he xi huan pai yin pian.

Zhe ge bu shi yi ge ai qing de gu shi. Wo he xyz bu shi zai zhe gee gu shi li.

[ Last edited by  MarkAllen at 2007-6-19 02:41 AM ]

Okay something to think about with storytelling.

Often writers will spend a great deal of time in the realm of figuring out the world they are in.  It makes sense, we like to know where we are.  However, as a story teller, once you know the story is about something or someone, you want to find out what they do or what they want or what they need.  Yes, you have to come up with possibilities.... and, yes, it's okay to begin general and work more specific.  Like "does the dog need to go outside?"  yes
"does the dog need to find a bone?"  no
"does the dog need to find his friend?" yes.

Then... you will want to find out why....

Cloudz7 did get at two things which they do - but these are the things we sort of know they do anyway... so the story begins when something different happens usually.


It's interesting playing this game like this - I've done it online before - it takes a while.  However, in person it takes about five to ten minutes.  

xyz,

zhe ge gu shi shi bu bi.  

I've only just started learning Mandarin but I have a good tip forlearning the tones. Imagine this conversation between two boys.

Jeremy has climbed on a garbage can to peep through the back window of a pet shop, closed on Sunday morning.
"What do you see?" asks his friend Aaron.
"Dogs," answers Jeremy
"Dogs?" asks Aaron, his voice rising in query.
"Not dogs!"  He is unable to believe his ears.
"That's all I see" says Jeremy.
"Dogs," sighs Aaron, who was hoping to catch a glimpse of a snake.

Read the four "dogs" as they would be said outloud.  Those are the four tones.  

[ Last edited by  SonWukong at 2007-8-22 02:47 AM ]

That's great!  Always good to learn with and from people who are learning - they know where the troubles are....  hopefully you join the visual mandarin thread!

woah...great example u've got here sonwukong!! very impressive~

Haha, just noticed got a forums here, can I start the question? I can phonetic spelling the word in chinese to you, but maybe it might not correct on original phonetic alphabet in chinese, I will write the similar sound alike, instead of a story, or I ask about something about yourself, maybe can be more memorable on the words, ok, are you ready? ha

START
moonchess (Eng.) : Why you like cat?
moonchess (Chi.) : wei shen mo ni xi huan mau?

*wei shen mo ---> why
*ni ---> you
*xi huang ---> like
*mau ---> cat

mark (Eng) : a) because it's cute
mark (Eng) : b) because she will care about me, when I'm sick, she will come and giving me her kiss
mark (Eng) : c) beacause I don't like dog -_-''' (ha, i know this answer is silly :p)

mark (Chi.) : a) ying wei ta ke ai
mark (Chi) : b) ying wei ta hui guan xin wo, wo sheng bing de shi hou, ta hui lai qing wo.
mark (Chi) : c) ying wei wo bu xin huang gou -_-'''

set (a)
*ying wei ---> because
*ta ---> he, she, it, all in same pronounce, just different writting in chinese word
*ke ai ---> cute

set (b)
*hui -à will, or know to do something…
*guan xin -à care
*wo -à me
*dang -à when
*sheng bing -à sick
*de -à the usage is same like English of, ex: book of mine -à wo de shu (shu is book)
*shi hou -à when the time i… we put it in the back of the sentence.
*qing -à kiss

set (c)
*bu -à don’t, no
*gou -à dog

oh phew~~ haha, so what’s your answer? >=)

I guess I'm learning mandarin again!

moonchess:  wei shen mo ni xi huan mau
moochess:  Corrected English - Why do you like cats?

(so, add "do" and "s" on cat because you'd need to say "the" "a" or "that" before "cat" to make it a specific cat... but you mean cats in general.)

mark:  (a) ying wei ta ke ai.  (because they're cute or because it's cute?)
mark (b) ying wei ta hui guan xin wo, wo sheng bing de shi hou, ta hui lai qing wo.  (I don't really want to rephrease your sentence because it's so ke ai!... but I will... sigh...    "Because she will care for me and when I'm sick she'll come give me a kiss." or you might have meant "because when I'm sick, she will care for me and give me a kiss.")  ("...come and giving me her kiss"... is for some reason such an endearing thing to say despite being incorrect.)

mark:  ying wei wo bu xin huang gou.  (because I don't like dogs.... the plural is needed again, the "s")

Okay the real answer is A & B!    This was a great exercise for me to learn "ying wei"

By the way - Mushu (the dog) would be very very upset about that third option... unless I said I only like Mushu and bu xin huang OTHER gou.  

i'm gonna mess you up for a bit here (lol!) but the fact is, it works and applies in everyday mandarin as well.

"ni wei shen mo hen xi huan mau?" (why do you like cats?)
你為什麼很喜歡貓﹖

grammatically, this also works by reversing the "you" and "why".
just a quick little tip.  why do native mandarin speakers do it?  i don't know.  maybe they need to get hooked on phonics or something.

they seldom use plural forms in Chinese.
I think I can only find one exception ,
they use "men"
for example : 1ni men ( you ,plural form)
                         2 wo men ( we
                         3 ta men (they
The Enlgish speakers use plural forms or a/an = noun to say things in general ,
in Chinese you just write the noun is ok
English : I like reading books
Chinese: wo xi huan du shu
shu ( book)

a\an\the +noun ,
slip of pen

so it is easier to talk very often
and watch tv , like cctv,
you can learn faster