Viki S 2 years ago
Counting, Names and You

Hello Everyone, After finishing the 1st level, which was amazing by the way, and I'm already able to read some sentences from series on Netflix. Which is a pretty good feeling. However when I checked the Chinese caption and listened to the dialogues, I had some questions, which I hope some of you maybe can answer for me. 1, Counting - In one of the series, one of the lead actor counted her steps when she walked home, and she counted like this: 九五, 九六,九七,九八,九九,一百。 (I have to make a note, it was a Taiwanese series, so it might be something specific to traditional Chinese). So the question is: Is it possible to count like I mentioned before by omitting the 十, when you are in an informal setting, or is it something specific to Taiwan. 2, The second question is about names, How do you distinguish when you read, that which character represent a name, and which ones are the meaning of that character? Are there any rule that names are going to the front or the back of the sentence? Or are they usually separated with a comma from the rest of the sentence? 3, The 3rd question is about the 你character. Is this one can change the 1st standing person part to a woman (女) character if you are talking to a woman? Or this is also only happens in traditional Chinese? I'm in the begging on my Chinese learning journey, so my questions may not be the best ones. Many thanks for taking your time and trying to answer my questions.

Domino Gavin 2 years ago

Hi Viki,

  1. Yes. Only on informal occasions. It's a very common way to count without the 十, which is cacuminal.(yep even native speakers hate cacuminal, we are just being lazy 😂), also, it's much faster than counting with the 十(we are just being lazy)

  2. It all depends on where is the character at in the sentence. For example, Chen Yong Bu Zai.(Chen Yong Bu Zai) , the subject is Chen Yong, and its a very typical Chinese name. There's no such thing called Chen Yong other than a name. And names are not separated with a comma, usually.

  3. It's mostly used in Traditional Chinese when referring a woman. The one people often see on TV, especially HK and Taiwan TV shows, it's"妳". In ancient times, it looks like this - "㚷", which is a simplified form of "嬭", a synonyms for "奶"(milk), pronounced the same as well.

The words like "妳" and "她" that often refer to a woman were invented during the Five Four Youth Movement, an anti-imperialism, anti-colonism and anti-feudal cultural movement. One of the ideas was to emancipating women(also men, its all about individualism), and rebuild the society and Chinese culture, as in ancient times, women were in low-status and restricted from participating in social life. Five Four Movement is also known as New Youth Movement.

Thanks for commenting. Love your enthusiasm. 加油!

Domino Gavin 2 years ago

sorry a lil typo.

Chen Yong Bu Zai.(Chen Yong is not here)

Viki S 2 years ago

Thanks for the explanation Gavin! :)

Domino Gavin 2 years ago

You are welcome 😁

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