Confusing Chinese, part 3

Jun 12, 2016 18:58

Some words are so easy to leave out. In hindsight, it is obvious they should be there, but when I write I just forget about them. This often happens with these words showing the structure of the sentence. Usually people understand me just fine, but the sentence is not correct. I'll explain through an recent example ( Read more... )

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noodlefan June 15 2016, 08:56:08 UTC
How cool that you can watch Chinese drama, and understand so much of it!
And yes it's really interesting to get different corrections on your sentences.

On which site / forum / group do you post the above entries, and get help / corrections?
I'm trying to decipher song lyrics, and could also use some help...

YES, you can leave out pronouns in Chinese (and Indonesian). They are officially (?) called ProDrop languages: Pronoun Dropping languages...
You have to figure out from the context if the speaker means I or you (He is usually not left out, I think). And sometimes this also leads to confusing, and the question: "Who, you?" or "Who, me?"

BTW, what I've always been wondering about, is: where does the 1918 in your username come from?
(Does it have) something to do with WorldWar One?

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moa1918 June 15 2016, 19:55:19 UTC
www.lang-8.com

You write in the language you learn, and correct people who learn your language.

Interesting that there is a name for this ProDrop phenomena! It's quite confusing, sometimes. And yes, sometimes you also leave out she/he/it, at least in Mandarin Chinese. Something about not being too repetitive, I think.

About 1918, yes, it's the end of world war one. We had read about it in school and it stuck. Quite silly, actually, haha!

/Moa

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