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Q: In Chinese, are the particles all toneless, and are the particles the only thing that are toneless?
As far as I can tell, in standard Mandarin the particles are toneless, although that may not be the case in other dialects. Sometimes the second half of a word is also "toneless," such as in the word "shenme (什么)," where the tone for "me" is not emphasized.
HugAPanda:
Thanks Jnus... none of the things I am studying have come out and said that, instead saying all words in Mandarin have a tone. Except when they use a particle, there is no tone, so far. So I, of course, was confused.
Jnusb416:
I think what they are trying to say is that every character has a tone. However, that tone may or may not be used. I think it depends on the dialect. I may be wrong, but I think in Cantonese, you use tones for every character, including particles.
How you doin with the lingo Panda ? The tones , can't wait to learn more..sarcasm. I think we sound naselly and flat. I spent like half an hour with someone one day trying to learn one word.. don't think I nailed it either.
mennuoo
HugAPanda:
Considering I am all by my self in my quest at the moment, I think I'm doing ok. I'm having problems with pronunciations of some syllables and stuff... I can't seem to get Zh to save my life. The tones - I'm getting decent at picking them out when I listen to a speaker, as long as it's slow. And I have to think about them when I speak. I actually think I'm doing better with Chinese than I did learning Spanish and French, but I have the desire to learn Chinese, where I was taking the others for credit. And since I don't use either regularly, I'm VERY rusty. I did find a chinese school in my area for kids, but they have an adult language class on Saturdays, so I'm considering that just so I have someone to practice with. I'm also "writing" characters on flashcards with the pinyin on the front, and the english on the back. Woody supplied a link for this dude who does short 12 minute lessons (they are 15 min videos, but after you get through the intro and the breaks and his performance at the end, it's about 12 mins of actual lesson). He's been pretty helpful too. AND he taught me the most important word ever.... COFFEE!! kafei! :)
Jnusb416:
The "zh" sound is like the j in "bonjour." I hope that helps.
HugAPanda:
holy cow. Thank you. I couldn't put it with anything familiar except somewhere between j and g. Thank you very much!
TedDBayer:
mennuooo,, sounds like menu,, means pretty girl
I thought coffee really sucked in China, so I had beer.it was watered down.
learn to say beer !
Jnusb416:
Ted, what you're trying to say is 美女 (měinǚ). If you're pronouncing it like menu, it's not right. The first syllable sounds like "may," the second one...you purse your lips like you're going to say "oo" but instead you say more of an "ee" sound. And don't forget the tones. Two third tones together means the first one sounds more like a second (rising) tone. Of course, that's textbook Mandarin, normal people probably pronounce it a bit differently.
HugAPanda:
I'm bringing coffee with me. And one of my best friends is coming to stay for 10 days, so I'm going to beg him to bring some too.That's one thing I'm not willing to risk.
TedDBayer:
I remember a GF coming home from Morocco and inhailing peanut butter when she got home,, for me it was tea,,i don't drink much coffee,, had tea when my plane landed,, stopped for tea on my drive home,, had 6 pig mugs ( custom made beer steins used for coffee/tea ) when I got home before I was partial satisfied.,,,,now on the topic of sex.......
