Here’s an email I sent to my colleagues about a recent trip to 金門.
[quote]大家好,
上個禮拜我和太太跟他的同事們去金門三天。我們吃貢糖,很喜歡,買四分。我們和高粱可是不喜歡。最好意思我們看金門的刀,火砲作的。(not sure of the grammar about how to say something is made from something else)
金門是很安靜的地方。很少車子,很少人。在那裏很好看。我拍了很多照片 (三百六十張照片)。這裡有我的金門照片,這裡有我的金門刀的照片。我希望你們享用。
白炯涵。[/quote]
A few of my colleagues helpfully sent it back with corrections, but they didn’t actually explain the corrections. Here’s one:
[quote]大家好,
上個禮拜我和太太跟他的同事們去金門三天。我們吃貢糖,很喜歡,買四分color=red[/color]。我們和高粱可是不喜歡color=red[/color]。最好意思我們看金門的刀color=red[/color],火砲作的color=red[/color]。(not sure of the grammar about how to say something is made from something else)
金門是很安靜的地方。很少車子,很少人。在那裏很好看。我拍了很多照片(三百六十張照片)[/color]。這裡有我的金門照片,這裡有我的金門刀的照片。我希望你們享用。
白炯涵。[/quote]
Here’s another (slightly different):
[quote]大家好,
上個禮拜我和太太跟他的同事們去金門三天。我們吃貢糖,很喜歡,買四分。[color=red]可是我們不喜歡高粱[/color]。最[color=red]有[/color]意思[color=red]是[/color]我們看[color=red]到[/color]金門的刀[color=red]是用[/color]火砲作的。(not sure of the grammar about how to say something is made from something else)
金門是很安靜的地方。很少車子,很少人。[color=red]那裏很美[/color]。我拍了很多照片 (三百六十張照片)。這裡有我的金門照片,這裡有我的金門刀的照片。我希望你們享用。
白炯涵。[/quote]
Here’s a third:
[quote]大家好,
上個禮拜我和太太[color=red]還有[/color]跟他的同事們去金門三天。我們吃貢糖,很喜歡,買四分[color=red] (包?)[/color]。我們[color=red]有喝[/color]高粱可是不喜歡。最[color=red]有[/color]意思[color=red]的是[/color]看金門的刀,火砲作的。(not sure of the grammar about how to say something is made from something else)
金門是很安靜的地方。很少車子,很少人。那裏很好看。我拍了很多照片 (三百六十張照片)。這裡有我的金門照片,這裡有我的金門刀的照片。我希望你們[color=red]喜歡[/color]。
白炯涵。[/quote]
I understand some of the corrections (like 包 instead of 分 when you’re talking about buying packets of candy), and one of my colleagues explained the ‘something is made from something’ grammar point like this (I should have remembered 用):
[quote]If you would like to say something is made from something in Chinese, please refer to the following sentences:
這張桌子是用白樺樹做的。(This table is made from silver birch.)
這把刀是用不鏽鋼做的。(This knife is made from stainless steel.)
貢糖是用花生和麥芽糖做的。(The貢糖 is made from powder peanuts and malt sugar.)[/quote]
But I’m not sure of the other corrections, especially since they aren’t all the same. Obviously there are different ways to say some of the things I was trying to get across, but I’m not sure what they are and why they’re used.