A比B…得多

Our first grammatical post from 華語常用句型與結構330 or “Common Chinese Patterns 330” in English. Most of you reading this will probably already know this structure, but it is a very common one and extremely useful. Enjoy^^ 解釋 Explanation Use to indicate a big difference between two observations. An adjective is often used before 得 as the predicate. 表示同類事物或情況相比較時,相差很大。A比B程度高。「得」前多用形容詞詞做謂語。 例句 Examples 我家比他家遠得多。 My home is much farther than his.

線上遊戲

I thought this might be good for some of our gamers out there. I have also seen the majority of these words from playing video games in Chinese and from signing up to websites. On a side note, I absolutely love the word 魅力. I learned it while playing Final Fantasy XI Online in Japanese. The character 魅 is very aesthetically pleasing and together with 力 it completes my little OCD heart.

電腦作業系統

Some basic computer vocabulary for you. I have my own system in Chinese (zh_TW) and I have seen all of these words except for Microsoft, Mac, and CPU, just from using my computer. Those three words are usually just written in English. An add-on word for you that wasn’t in this book is 應用程式, which means an app or application, such as those on your smart phone. 核心字彙 微軟 – Microsoft 麥金塔 – Mac 系統 – System 視窗作業系統 – Windows 處理器 – Processor 記憶體 – Memory (RAM) 位元 – Bit 版本 – Version 硬體 – Hardware 軟體 – Software 程式 – Program 驅動程式 – Driver 使用者 – User 磁碟 – Disk 中央處理器 – CPU (Central Processing Unit) 輸入 – Input 輸出 – Output 檔案 – File 界面 – Interface 安裝 – Install

西式早餐

So we have some Western-style breakfast foods vocabulary. I thought this might be useful for being able to talk about what you’ve had for breakfast. I used a lot of these words when I was in Taiwan ordering 蛋糕 🙂 核心字彙 培根 (péigēn) – Bacon 奶油 (nǎiyóu) – Butter 鼓片 (gǔpiàn) – Cereal 咖啡 (kāfēi) – Coffee 玉米片 (yùmǐ piàn) – Cornflakes 糖霜玉米片 (tángshuāng yùmǐ piàn) – Frosted cornflakes (雞)蛋 (jīdàn) – Egg 法式土司 (fàshì tǔsī) – French toast 燕麥捲 (yànmài juǎn) – Granola 火腿 (huǒ tuǐ) – Ham 果醬 (guǒjiàng) – Jam 貝果 (bèiguǒ) – Bagel 美奶滋 (měinǎizī) – Mayonnaise 英式鬆餅 (yīngshì sōngbǐng) – English muffin 鬆餅 (sōngbǐng) – Waffle 煎餅 (jiānbǐng) – Pancake 蛋包 (dànbāo) – Omelet 燕麥片 (yànmàipiàn) – Oatmeal 薯餅 (shǔbǐng) – Hash browns 烤土司 (kǎo tǔsī) – Toast

New learning materials!

During my trip to Taiwan, I picked up a bunch of books and haven’t really touched them since I got back. I thought it would be a good idea to pick some of the books and use them as topics for posts on here. I’ll be using the following books: I’ll start with my posts soon. If any of you have any requests for things that you want to see, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to take it into consideration.

Anki flashcards

I’ve been studying languages for many years and one of the most common learning tools is flashcards. A very popular learning method and tool is known as SRS, or spaced repetition software. One such software is Anki. I have avoided Anki for many years thinking that it would be too boring for me, however I have recently begun using it and I have to say that it is quite effective. It is open-source and available on Windows, Mac, Linux/BSD, iOS, Android, and can even be used from a browser.

The inconsistency of the 又 simplification

We have seen some inconsistencies in the simplification process in previous posts. Today we are going to look at characters whose parts were simplified to 又. 又(you4) is a character that already exists in the traditional script. In addition to this, 又 is already used as a character component, e.g., 友. Here is an incomplete list of such simplifications. 堇 was simplified to 又. 雚 was simplified to 又.

Learning from your phone, pt. 2

So here’s another screenshot that we can use to grab some simple vocabulary. This image was taken from the “Attach” button when sending an SMS message on my Android phone. Here’s our breakdown: 附加: Attach/Additional 附 here means “to attach” and 加 means “to add”. The noun that you will probably see with this is 附件 “attachment”. 圖片: Picture Pronounced tu2 pian4. 圖 is a “picture” or “diagram”.

Learning from your phone, pt. 1

Learning another language doesn’t have to be all about books and studying. You can learn by having fun or just doing day-to-day activities. Something that most of us use constantly everyday is our phone. If you have a smart phone, you can easily learn very useful vocabulary from it. Here I’ve got my Android phone’s settings page in both in Mandarin(Taiwan) and in English. For the Mainland Chinese version, see the bottom of the post.

牆壁

ㄑㄧㄤˊ ㄅㄧˋ qiángbì a wall Quite simple, this one. It means wall. You will also see 牆 used by itself or with other 漢字 where its meaning is still “wall”, e.g., 防火牆 (firewall). 例子 「我的房間牆壁發霉了表面沒有裂痕沒有剝落﹍」 “The wall in my room has become moldy. There are no cracks and it is not peeling…” ↓簡體↓