Today's Chinese sentence

That would be more like you are male and want to stress that this girl is just a friend. Just say “wo3 de5 peng2you3” if you are a non-lesbian female talking about a female friend.

And yes, people may think you are lesbian if you say n

Before going on lunch-break I was just confused about the Mandarin part of this thread… I come back, and suddenly I’m confused about my gender and my sexuality…

I’m having so much fun! :bouncy:

Nin de qiu lan hongse de ma?

Can you repost this with tone numbers and with english translation. Thanks

Something about going red from the look of it. Should it have face in there if it is?

[quote=“Ironman”]
Wait on the people who have answers. I only started this because I still want to learn but I assume you could leave the gender out completely or use the male nan2[/quote]

I thought male was “nin2” not “nan2”?

[quote=“Frost”][quote=“Ironman”]
Wait on the people who have answers. I only started this because I still want to learn but I assume you could leave the gender out completely or use the male nan2[/quote]

I thought male was “nin2” not “nan2”?[/quote]

Only in Frost world apparently.

When I answer threads like this, I usually lean over to the native speaker colleague in the next cubicle at work and double check my answer before posting it (just in case – call me anal :smiley: ). Or I’ll fly it by my girlfriend or an LE partner, a native speaker. So my answers should generally be reliable.

Everyone, pls add tone numerals, or the Chinese char’s when you write stuff like this. This is unintelligible as it is. And it would be nice for non-advanced learners if you could add the English too. Something to keep in mind any time you post in this section.

Can you repost this with tone numbers and with English translation. Thanks[/quote]

Are your balls blue and orange?

Dunno the tones, sorry.

[quote=“bob”]Are your balls blue and orange?
[/quote]

ER, no bob, sorry. Try again.

lu se?

Oh, bob, they’re not called qiu2!!! :laughing: Nor is “blue and orange” “lan hongse”. And yes, mine are blue and orange, I’m Fighting Illini!

[color=orange]Friday July 29th 7:20am[/color]

[color=green]Mandarin Mainland China.[/color]

Invite/ follow convenience/ sit.

Please make yourself comfortable.

Same sentence Mandarin more local Taiwan style according to one source of this information.

Invite/ sit.

Please sit. (Please have a seat)

Note: My source says the Mainland version is just not used and would sound strange. More opinions?

Formal Chinese from Elizabeth Scurfield. Taiwan version from a local.

[color=red]Can anyone else volunteer for Saturday?[/color]

Is this for lesbians again? Or can anyone use it?

[quote=“tash”][quote=“Ironman”]
[color=orange]Friday July 29th 7:20am[/color]

[color=green]Mandarin Mainland China.[/color]

Note: My source says the Mainland version is just not used and would sound strange. More opinions?
[/quote]

Is this for lesbians again? Or can anyone use it?[/quote]

I might have mentioned elsewhere that I tried

Qing3 Ni3 zou4 zai2 wo3de lian3 shang
Invite/you/sit/location/my/face/on

Apparently that sounds very much like please punch my face so users should be careful. I was questioned first if I really wanted to be punched.

That was apparently the preferred option as well after I explained.
:blush:

Maybe this would be “Is your ball blue-orange?”

Zou4 a!

Taiwanese tend not to say ng so much so Qing3 in Taiwan sounds like Qin3.

Maybe this would be “Is your ball blue-orange?”[/quote]

Or, is your blue ball orange?

Zuo4

I think you might be spending too much time with your “formal Chinese” book. You’re also making the mistake of trying to recognize distinctions between Mandarin spoken in Taiwan and Mandarin spoken on the mainland when there is no distinction to make. The main differences between Taiwanese and mainland Mandarin are in accent and content words. You are comparing formal Chinese with non-formal Chinese and trying to equate formal with the mainland and informal with Taiwan. That just isn’t how it works.