Correcting an email I sent

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.

I’m not a native speaker, so I might be completely talking out of my ass. :rainbow: But here goes:

You used 和 instead of 喝. To me this is clearly a typo (he2 vs. he1). The first three proofreaders might not have caught it as a typo, especially since 和 is often read “han4” in Taiwan. The fourth proofreader caught it. But he/she then chose to add 有 as a past tense marker before 喝. This is a very Taiwanese usage and is not necessary; it was just the proofreader’s opinion.

You also typed 好意思 instead of 有意思 (interesting): this caused rewrites.

The prescriptive grammar of “X is made of Y” is “X是用Y作的”; but the 用 is often dropped. “金門的刀,火砲作的” is strange (almost the grammar of Classical Chinese!). “金門的刀是(用)火砲作的” works.

看到 (“see” or “notice”) is better than 看 (“watch” or “visit”): “We noticed/saw that Kinmen knives are made of artillery shells”. It’s also more euphonic because of the added syllable.

The rest are just different opinions on how to express it more naturally and idiomatically. Everyone will have a different opinion on what sounds best.

[quote=“Chris”]I’m not a native speaker, so I might be completely talking out of my ass. :rainbow: But here goes:

You used 和 instead of 喝. To me this is clearly a typo (he2 vs. he1). The first three proofreaders might not have caught it as a typo, especially since 和 is often read “han4” in Taiwan. The fourth proofreader caught it. But he/she then chose to add 有 as a past tense marker before 喝. This is a very Taiwanese usage and is not necessary; it was just the proofreader’s opinion.[/quote]

Ok, that makes sense, but I did actually mean to say ‘han4’, and I thought that 和 was used for ‘han4’. Is this one of those ‘Taiwanese’ as opposed to ‘Chinese’ things?

This one I’m confused over. In common conversation I hear 很好意思 with the meaning ‘interesting’, so that’s what I was aiming for. I haven’t heard 有意思.

Great, that makes sense thanks. I was interested that one of my colleagues didn’t correct 火砲作的. I wasn’t aware I was writing anything like classical Chinese. :bow:

Very good, I do keep forgetting the function of 到 with 看. I keep thinking of it as meaning ‘look at’, but that’s just L1 interference.

This helps a lot, thanks.

This one I’m confused over. In common conversation I hear 很好意思 with the meaning ‘interesting’, so that’s what I was aiming for. I haven’t heard 有意思.[/quote]
I hear 很有趣 or 很有意思 a lot, but not 很好意思. :idunno: Perhaps you’re mishearing the 有 as 好 because it fits your assumption about what the characters are in that idiom. I do that from time to time with different characters - eventually to find out I’ve been assuming the wrong character for years.

Ok, that makes sense, but I did actually mean to say ‘han4’, and I thought that 和 was used for ‘han4’.[/quote]

和 means “and” or “with”. 喝 means “drink”.

我們和高粱可是不喜歡 would mean “We and kaoliang but didn’t like it”. This makes no sense.

我們喝高粱可是不喜歡 means “We drank kaoliang but didn’t like it”. This makes sense.

Yes. In China, the pronunciation “han” is practically unknown for 和.

This one I’m confused over. In common conversation I hear 很好意思 with the meaning ‘interesting’, so that’s what I was aiming for. I haven’t heard 有意思.[/quote]
I hear 很有趣 or 很有意思 a lot, but not 很好意思. :idunno: Perhaps you’re mishearing the 有 as 好 because it fits your assumption about what the characters are in that idiom. I do that from time to time with different characters - eventually to find out I’ve been assuming the wrong character for years.[/quote]

Well I’ll listen a bit more carefully and see where I’m going wrong.

Ok, that makes sense, but I did actually mean to say ‘han4’, and I thought that 和 was used for ‘han4’.[/quote]

和 means “and” or “with”. 喝 means “drink”.

我們和高粱可是不喜歡 would mean “We and kaoliang but didn’t like it”. This makes no sense.

我們喝高粱可是不喜歡 means “We drank kaoliang but didn’t like it”. This makes sense.[/quote]

Ah, now I understand. I was looking at the first instance of 和, in the sentence which starts ‘上個禮拜我[color=red]和[/color]太太’. I thought that was the 和 to which you were referring. Now I realise you were talking about the one I overlooked, the 和 in the sentence about 高粱. Gotcha.