Archive for the ‘Tones’ Category

Better Mandarin Tones Diagram

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

True Story from Yesterday (names changed to protect my ego) Me: So, are you and Jenny...you know...an "item" now? Tommy: Oh yeah. You didn't know that? Me: I just heard from Edgar. How long has that been going on? Tommy: Hmm...I guess since about May. The moral of the story (of my life) is: I'm always ...

Why Is Nǎlǐ 哪里 Written Wrong?

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

First of all, let's just hear what nǎlǐ 哪里 is supposed to sound like when said by a native speaker (excerpt from Chinese 24/7 audio files): (hopefully Firefox users won't have trouble with these) qù nǎlǐ 去哪里? = Where are you going? [audio:qu-nali.mp3] Now by itself: nǎlǐ 哪里 [audio:nali.mp3] It's clearly a 3-3 combo, just like ...

Parrot People Help My Tones

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Similar to my astonishment at the previously-discussed Chinese proclivity for stating the obvious, I've often been struck by how much of what I say in Chinese gets repeated right back at me.  At first I was a little annoyed, and then I realized "Hey, I can use that!" I'm convinced the ...