Wo bu shuo Hanyu hen hao

[black rabbit]

It's been awhile since I took Chinese. Anybody know the word for "comrade," in the revolutionary sense? As in, "Comrade Wang is in need of re-education for his counterrrevolutionary activities." My dictionary says "ke3kao4de huo3ban4" and "zhong1shi2de peng2you," but neither of those are ringing a bell.

[ElvisL1ves]

Tongzhi. There's a rising tone on the o and a falling on on the i.

I've been told by a PRC native that in Taiwan, it's a slang term for "homosexual".

[black rabbit]

Xiexie.

[Yue Han]

Your title should be, I think

"Wo Hanyu shuo de bu hen hao."

--John

[black rabbit]

But don't you mean:

Wo de Hanyu bu shi hen hao.

I thought shuo is a verb.

In the subject, I was trying to say "I don't speak Chinese very well," not "My Chinese is not very good." Of course, I don't speak Chinese very well.

[ElvisL1ves]

I think Black455 is right. Doesn't the possessive particle "de" always go immediately after the noun?

[MrSCOTT]

“¯Žu

[Yue Han]

ElvisL1ves I think Black455 is right. Doesn't the possessive particle "de" always go immediately after the noun?

Wo de Hanyu bu shi hen hao.

This shouldn't have shi on it, because adjectives carry an unexpressed 'to be' all the time. Aside from that, it does say, 'My Chinese is not very good.' using the possesive particle de.

To say, 'I don't speak Chinese very well', I'm fairly sure you need a different particle, also prounced 'de' The character looks like this:
http://www.ocrat.com/chargif/GB/horiz/b5c3.html

That kind of 'de' goes between a verb and an adjective being used as an adverb to modify the verb. The verb can be repeated after an object, or the object can be preposed, which is what I did, but de must go immediately between the verb and the modifier.

--John

[Yue Han]

ElvisL1ves I think Black455 is right. Doesn't the possessive particle "de" always go immediately after the noun?

Should not have appeared in my post. It got picked up in a C&P error.

--John