Ni shi nali ren?

as a quarantine hobby i started learning chinese, cause why not.

But there are some confusing things in the language, for example

"ni shi nali ren" is translated as "where are you from", but when i look up the individual words "ren" is translated as "people, man".

So is the translation something like "from which people are you?" and did that become "where are you from"?

I put ren in my mind as people so now i have to work at it to make it a figurative "from", sort of "people location".

Am i missing something?

Feel free to laugh or assist, either way should pass the time i guess.

Peace,

-Boem-

Also whats up with the word "ma" that is translated as "horse".

Is that a sort of figurative speach where it implys an action?

Can't seem to pin down this "ma" translation very accurately.

Peace,

-Boem-

You have to keep in mind that Chinese is a "tonal" language. "ma" has a number of different meanings when spoken, depending on the tone used. More often than not, it's just a question word. It also means mother, scold/swear, and in Taiwan is sometimes used to refer to marijuana (though I think it technically just means hemp by itself).

Of course, it all looks the same when typed in simple Roman characters. Pinyin can help a lot as far as learning goes. If you are just trying to learn standard Mandarin, the tones and their accompanying Pinyin aren't too hard to pick up on as there are only 5. Cantonese is pretty beastly though.

If you're using online resources to learn and just see "ma" unaccented, it's generally safe to assume it's being used as a question word. Particularly so if it's at the end of a sentence... :)

It means something closer to "you're a person from which location?"

人 is added to the end because an adjective such as "Chinese", which can stand in for a noun in the English language, isn't used that way in Chinese. So you always have the specific noun to clarify, e.g. 中国人 (Chinese person) or 中国菜 (Chinese food).

When you're asking which location something is from, the 中国 bit becomes 哪国 (năguó, which nationality) or 哪里 (nălĭ, which location) instead.

"ma" （吗）is a question particle, added to the end of a sentence to change it from a statement into a question. "mă" (马） is a different tone, and is the one that means horse.

Bless you both good sirs, they make more sense now :D

I sort of think i should have figured the "ma" out myself because now it seems obvious, but to be fair i dont wanna put it in my mind before im relatively certain and i was checking so many words against one another that missing the "?" isn't that bad an error.

cheers, take some good karma both of you \o/

Peace,

-Boem-

Boem! That's too cool.

我就是从美国来的 (wǒ jiù shì cóng měiguó láide)

你也是住在美国吧? (Nǐ yěshì zhù zài měiguó ba?)

I studied Chinese at University. Really enjoyed it. Learning the 字汉 was fun for that compulsive itch.

"

Bk老虎 wrote:

It means something closer to "you're a person from which location?"

Wellll... It's more like, "You're a what-place person?"

不过什么人在乎? 除了在学习汉语的人以外,大多大概不在乎了...

"

Bk老虎 wrote:

It means something closer to "you're a person from which location?"

人 is added to the end because an adjective such as "Chinese", which can stand in for a noun in the English language, isn't used that way in Chinese. So you always have the specific noun to clarify, e.g. 中国人 (Chinese person) or 中国菜 (Chinese food).

When you're asking which location something is from, the 中国 bit becomes 哪国 (năguó, which nationality) or 哪里 (nălĭ, which location) instead.

"ma" （吗）is a question particle, added to the end of a sentence to change it from a statement into a question. "mă" (马） is a different tone, and is the one that means horse.

It isn't adjectival. It (中国) is a noun that means "China." Technically 中国人 is better translated as "China man" or "China person."

^I'm waiting with the kanji stuff, im teaching it myself from the internet so im first aiming for just comprehension and easy sentence building, then i might move to writting once i grasp the meanings without having to actively contemplate them.

I'm looking at this like a two year project or so, just randomly studying each day for like 30 min/60 min and sometimes more if my focus has that itch.

I'm currently using the "spoonfedchinese" anki deck with 2500 cards so i have some time to go before i run out i reckon.

It has the english writing, kanji and audio file for prononciation so i can bassicaly finish it just on comprehension and then restart the deck for the kanji's and bassicaly do a full turn-over on it for comprehension.

Peace,

-Boem-

Nice! GL.

Btw... if you want to get proficient with it, studying Chinese alone only does so much (trust me, I know)... You really need at least one fluent person to practice with if you want to be any good.

Maybe trade English-language practice for practicing Chinese? I've been thinking of doing this myself -- there are a couple local Chinese churches where maybe there's someone who would be up for it.