question

Nicole-J

Nicole-J

August 5, 2011

If I want to say " My spoken Chinese is slow", would this be correct? Wo shuo Hanyu man
Nicole-J

Nicole-J

August 5, 2011

or should I use wode instead of wo?
Oggiedoggy

Oggiedoggy

August 5, 2011

Yours means that you speak slower. It suggests you are comparing to some other person. To just tell your Chinese friends that "I speak slowly (because I'm just learning!) then I think you could say this sentence::: wo hanyu shuo de you diar man 我汉语说得有点慢 OR wo shuo hanyu shuo de you diar man 我说汉语说得有点慢 The topic-comment structure in #1 is more common I think. And you can use wo or wo de both are correct!
Nicole-J

Nicole-J

August 5, 2011

Awesome! Thanks.
Jaime_Andres

Jaime_Andres

August 7, 2011

thanks oggie, how about this one, is it correct too?: 我的汉语是慢。
Oggiedoggy

Oggiedoggy

August 7, 2011

Typically Chinese doesn't use the copula 'to be' or '是‘ in the same way as English does with adjectives. In order to describe this Chinese will typically use the "Verb - 得 - complement" form where complement says the outcome of speaking. 1)我踢足球踢得很好 wo ti zu qiu ti de hen hao I play soccer very well 2)我做饭做得很好 wo zuo fan zuo de hen hao I cook food very well In number one I moved the object - soccer - to a topic position at the beginning of the sentence. This is to reduce redundancy seen in number 2 where we have to repeat the verb. We have to repeat the verb in number two because the 得 de particle must come immediately after the verb it is describing. 3) 我跑得很慢 wo pao de hen man I run very slow In my regular English I would say "I am slow" for number 3 using just a "to be" verb and no action (to run) but in Chinese one typically should say the action they are describing. Everybody feel free to ask more questions on points that aren't clear - this forum has many people willing to help you. -oggie
Lin-Ping

Lin-Ping

August 7, 2011

Thanks Oggie, you are doing a WONDERFUL JOB!!!

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