{"id":2563,"date":"2010-09-27T16:07:15","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T16:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=2563"},"modified":"2010-09-27T16:23:34","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T16:23:34","slug":"two-very-important-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/two-very-important-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Very Important Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u5927\u5bb6\u597d,<\/p>\n

While I was hoping to bring you an exciting new video today, computer problems have made that impossible.\u00a0 Apparently, I have overworked my Mac Book over the last two years, and as such it is currently being repaired.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that leaves me without my beloved Final Cut Pro for the time being, which means I’m not able to get videos up.\u00a0 Have patience <\/strong>(\u8010\u5fc3 – n\u00e0i x\u012bn), though, as I do have some great videos in the works.\u00a0 For now, I’m going to discuss two very important<\/strong> (\u91cd\u8981\u7684 – zh\u00f2ng y\u00e0o de), very useful<\/strong> (\u6709\u7528 – y\u01d2u y\u00f2ng) characters when learning Chinese – \u4e0a (sh\u00e0ng) and \u4e0b (xi\u00e0).<\/p>\n

In Chinese, you will encounter these two characters very, very often, as they both have many meanings.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at some of the many uses of these characters:<\/p>\n

LOCATION –<\/p>\n

To begin with, you can use \u4e0a and \u4e0b to describe the location of something.\u00a0 Here are two examples:<\/p>\n

\u4e66\u5728\u684c\u5b50\u4e0a (sh\u016b z\u00e0i zhu\u014d zi sh\u00e0ng) – This translates to, “The book is on top of the table.”\u00a0 In this case, \u4e0a is used to show that something is on top of something else.\u00a0 It can also be used to describe something that is above something else.<\/p>\n

\u4e66\u5728\u684c\u5b50\u4e0b (sh\u016b z\u00e0i zhu\u014d zi xi\u00e0) – More often than not, these two characters serve as opposites, so in this case we have, “The book is under the table.”\u00a0 As I’m sure you can guess, \u4e0b is used to show that something is below, or under something.<\/p>\n

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know about a little city called \u4e0a\u6d77 (Sh\u00e0ng h\u01cei).\u00a0 The business center of China, the name of this modern metropolis actually translates to “on the sea.”\u00a0 As Shanghai is split by the Huang Pu River<\/strong> (\u9ec4\u6d66\u6c5f – Hu\u00e1ng p\u01d4 ji\u0101ng), it is clear why this city has the name that it does.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u4e0a\u6d77 - On the Sea<\/p><\/div>\n

TIME –<\/p>\n

You can also use the characters \u4e0a and \u4e0b to describe the time (past or future).\u00a0 These characters are used when talking about weeks and months:<\/p>\n

\u4e0a\u4e2a\u661f\u671f (sh\u00e0ng g\u00e8 x\u012bng q\u00ed) means “last week” and \u4e0b\u4e2a\u661f\u671f (xi\u00e0 g\u00e8 x\u012bng q\u00ed) means “next week.”<\/p>\n

As you may have guessed by now, \u4e0a\u4e2a\u6708 (sh\u00e0ng g\u00e8 yu\u00e8) means “last month” and \u4e0b\u4e2a\u6708 (xi\u00e0 g\u00e8 yu\u00e8) means “next month.”<\/p>\n

You also see these characters when talking about the time of day:<\/p>\n

\u65e9\u4e0a (z\u01ceo sh\u00e0ng) – early morning (literally “early on”)<\/p>\n

\u4e0a\u5348 (sh\u00e0ng w\u01d4) – late morning (before noon)<\/p>\n

\u4e0b\u5348 (xi\u00e0 w\u01d4) – afternoon<\/p>\n

\u665a\u4e0a (w\u01cen sh\u00e0ng) – evening (literally “late on”)<\/p>\n

RESPONSIBILITIES –<\/p>\n

We all have to either go to class or work at some point in the day, and we can use \u4e0a and \u4e0b to talk about both class and work:<\/p>\n

\u4e0a\u73ed (sh\u00e0ng b\u0101n) – go to work\/begin work<\/p>\n

\u4e0b\u73ed (xi\u00e0 b\u0101n) – finish work<\/p>\n

\u4e0a\u8bfe (sh\u00e0ng k\u00e8) – have class\/begin class<\/p>\n

\u4e0b\u8bfe (xi\u00e0 k\u00e8) – finish class<\/p>\n

OTHER USES –<\/p>\n

While both \u4e0a and \u4e0b are very common characters in Chinese, you will probably hear and use \u4e0b on a more regular basis.<\/p>\n

One very common example is, “…. \u4e00\u4e0b,” which means to do something for a short time.\u00a0 Here are a few phrases you might hear or say a lot in Chinese:<\/p>\n

\u4f11\u606f\u4e00\u4e0b (xi\u016b x\u00ed y\u012b xi\u00e0) – rest for a short while<\/p>\n

\u7b49\u4e00\u4e0b (d\u011bng y\u012b xi\u00e0) – wait for a short while<\/p>\n

\u770b\u4e00\u4e0b (k\u00e0n y\u012b xi\u00e0) – have a quick look<\/p>\n

Basically, you can use the formula (Verb + \u4e00\u4e0b) to show that you will do something casually, or for a short time.<\/p>\n

Now that you understand a bit more about these two very useful characters, keep an eye (and an ear) out for them when studying Chinese; you will surely find that you see them on a daily basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

\u5927\u5bb6\u597d, While I was hoping to bring you an exciting new video today, computer problems have made that impossible.\u00a0 Apparently, I have overworked my Mac Book over the last two years, and as such it is currently being repaired.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that leaves me without my beloved Final Cut Pro for the time being, which means…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":2564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[11132,8677,11576,11577],"class_list":["post-2563","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-chinese-vocabulary","tag-shanghai","tag-11576","tag-11577"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2568,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions\/2568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}