<Chinese Learning>Say Goodbye

<Chinese Learning>Say Goodbye
Apr 2, 2007 22:46
MAY001 Points: Join Date: Sep 28, 2005 Status: offline	Usually, we say 再见(Zai 4 Jian 4) which means 'See You' literally. 再means 'Once Again', 'One More Time' here, and 见 means 'See', 'Meet' literally. So 再见 actually means '(Will/Wish to) see you again'. We can also say 明天见 (Ming 2 Tian 1 Jian 4) which means 'See You Tomorrow'. For example, when I want to say goodbye to my colleagues, I can say 明天见. Beijing people may say 明儿见 (Ming 2 Er Jian 4) instead of 明天见. But 明儿 is never clearly said due to the Beijing dialect's retroflex final.

Apr 2, 2007 22:46

MAY001
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Usually, we say 再见(Zai 4 Jian 4) which means 'See You' literally. 再means 'Once Again', 'One More Time' here, and 见 means 'See', 'Meet' literally. So 再见 actually means '(Will/Wish to) see you again'.

We can also say 明天见 (Ming 2 Tian 1 Jian 4) which means 'See You Tomorrow'. For example, when I want to say goodbye to my colleagues, I can say 明天见. Beijing people may say 明儿见 (Ming 2 Er Jian 4) instead of 明天见. But 明儿 is never clearly said due to the Beijing dialect's retroflex final.

Apr 2, 2007 22:47	#1
MAY001 Points: Join Date: Sep 28, 2005 Status: Offline	Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow = 昨天(Zuo 2 Tian 1), 今天 (Jin 1 Tian 1), 明天 (Ming 2 Tian 1) = 昨日(Zuo 2 Ri 4), 今日(Jin 1 Ri 4), 明日(Ming 2 Ri 4): The latter ones (昨日, 今日, 明日)are more formal, generally used in writting. The middle ones (昨天, 今天, 明天)are quite common, used in everyday life.

Apr 2, 2007 22:48	#2
MAY001 Points: Join Date: Sep 28, 2005 Status: Offline	If you can read Chinese novels,especially those Martial Arts novels and legend novels, you must be familiar with these sentence: 青山不改，绿水长流，咱们后会有期！What does these sentence mean??

Apr 2, 2007 22:49

MAY001
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青山不改(Qing 1 Shan 1 Bu 4 Gai 3) means "The blue mountain will not change" and 绿水长流(Lv 4 Shui 3 Chang 2 Liu 2) meas "The green water is always running". These two phrase are used to indicate a long term of relationship. 咱们(Zan 2 Men 1) means "We" here and 后会有期(Hou 4 Hui 4 You 3 Qi 1) means "have chance to see you again" literally. 咱们后会有期 equals to "We will meet again".

e.g.:
A and B are friends, and they are going to say goodbye:
A：青山不改，绿水长流。咱们后会有期！
B：保重！(Bao 3 Zhong 4, means "Take Care")

Apr 2, 2007 22:50

MAY001
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There is also another meaning of this sentence. For example, A is a thief and B is a swordman. B destroyed A's crime and A fled while saying: 哼(Heng 4, humph to show one's contempt)！青山不改，绿水长流，咱们后会有期！Here, the sentence indicate "Don't happy, I will come back again and retaliate you".

Chinese seldom use this sentence in everyday life now. We are more accustomed to say 再见 and Bye-bye now...

Apr 3, 2007 06:30	#5
KENXI Points: Join Date: Mar 27, 2007 Status: Offline	I appreciate your practical language examples! I hope you have the time to continue. Good work! Thank you.

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