This article emphasizes on few of the common errors made by beginners who are seeking to learn Chinese language. Read more to know.
Put more commas
It becomes really frustrating when the Chinese tutors have to read 30 or more characters with zero commas. This frustration is caused because if the Chinese tutor is not natively Chinese, and speaks English, he will notice that there are no spaces between the words in the Chinese language. So, please have some mercy on the reader and use as many commas as needed.
Know that ‘’And” & “和” don’t mean the same
And is used a lot in English language. Many newbies believe that and refers to 和, so, they always use 和 when it comes to using and. But, the usage of 和 is more restrictive than and. 和 is only used when it comes to linking nouns or pronouns.
For instance:
Correct: 你和我一起去。(nĭ hé wŏ yī qĭ qù 。)
Meaning: You and me go together.
Correct: 我买了书、铅笔和纸。(ŏ măi le shū 、 qiān bĭ hé zhĭ)
Meaning: I bought books, pencils, and paper.
Sometimes, and is dropped and an English sentence is translated into chinese due to clauses. For instance:
Correct: 我站起来走了出去。(wŏ zhàn qĭ lai zŏu le chū qù)
Meaning: I stood up and walked out.
Correct: 她很高很瘦。(tā hĕn gāo hĕn shòu 。)
Meaning: She is tall and thin.
And even if you wish to emphasize on the ‘and’ in English, here is what you can do in Chinese:
- 我站起来并走了出去。(Wǒ zhàn qǐlái bìng zǒule chūqù)
- 她很高也很瘦。(Tā hěn gāo yě hěn shòu.)
Avoid redundancy
Have a look at the following example.
It would sound weird: 我叫Adam，我是英国人，我学中文一年了。
This is how you should say: 我叫Adam，是英国人，学中文一年了。 (shì yīng guó rén ， xué zhōng wén yī nián le 。)
Meaning: My name is Adam, I’m British, I studied Chinese for a year.
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