Is there a difference between the following:
liang ge duo yue
liang ge yue duo
Thanks,
Geng
I’m not native, but as far as I understand it (and I’m pretty sure this is how it is…):
liang ge duo yue 2 or more months
liang ge yue duo over 2 months (ie, 2 months and 5 days, 10 weeks, etc…)
No difference.
Asked a Taiwanese colleague today, he says there’s no difference, but that liang ge duo yue is more commonly used.
no different, liang ge duo yue V.S. liang ge yue du, just like liang ge duo xiao shi V.S. liang ge xiao shi duo.
Both liang ge duo yue and liang ge yue duo means over 2 months but less than 3 months
I am a Taiwanese…
Ok that’s a conscencious.
Checked again with my Chinese teacher…Liang ge duo yue is correct as more than 2 months, less than 3. Liang ge yue duo is technically wrong, but will be understood(!), bi liang ge yue duo is the correct usage and means more than 2 months, ie three, four months and so on.
Maybe it is wrong in grammar (Sorry I am pretty bad in Chinese grammar), but everyone says that in Taiwan(even in news). So, I think it is not wrong anymore
Forgive me my poor English…
I was taught that liang ge duo yue was “more” grammatically correct.
Seems like another difference in the language that should unite the great empire: IIRC, the explanation LittleIron gave is the same given in Mainland textbooks. So when a Taiwanese (Chiao) says he/she (?) has a slightly different understanding of those phrases…
I run into this problem a fair amount.
For example, 等 vs. 等等 after listing items. I learned that if you say apples, shoes, razorblades 等, that means there are ONLY three items (of whatever you’re listing). But if you say apples, shoes, razorblades 等等, that means there are MORE than the items you listed (just like the English ‘etc.’).
The problem is I asked a LOT of people (including many of my Taiwanese translator colleagues), and got about a billion different answers. Many say its the exact same, some say it’s as I learned it, some say its the other way around…
I think the way I learned it is the ‘correct,’ ‘traditional’ way, but that they just don’t teach this point in Taiwan (or at least don’t teach it much), so people now use them completely interchangably.
Anyways, I have a feeling this phenomenon could be found quite a bit in modern Chinese, especially in Taiwan.
check the book “Visual Chinese I”, it says “both” of liang ge duo yue and liang ge yue duo are right. The only different is “different people use to say the different sentence”, we couldn’t say which one is wrong, but just sometimes, people don’t say the language which the grammar might be right. I think the same problems happens on different languages, doesn’t it?