Originally posted by G-A-R-Y at 19-4-2009 04:54
The phrase you should learn in Mandarin is, "wo bu jidau" which means, "I don't understand".
This breaks down to:
wo = Ibu = notjidau (pronounces almost like, gee+dow) = understan ...
The correct pinyin for it is "wo3 bu4 zhi1 dao4"
1 is a steady high tone
2 is a mid-rising tone (not applicable in above example)
3 is a low falling then rising tone
4 is a falling tone
5 is a neutral tone
For someone who doesn't know standard pinyin then i guess the "zhi" should be pronounced more like "jrr" as opposed to "grr". So "wo boo jrr dow" with tones 3-4-1-4
However, "understand" really should be "ming2 bai5". "zhi dao" means "know" but not really "understand". So for someone who doesn't know pinyin it's something like "wo boo ming buy" with tones 3-4-2-5
Edit: Just wanted to add that tones are of paramount importance when speaking putonghua (or any Chinese dialects for that matter) unlike western languages.
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Last edited by ultratoad at 22-4-2009 01:20 ]
