Easy Hebrew: Four question words in Hebrew and One in Chinese

 

An advertisement for a Hebrew course offered to teach four words in Hebrew. It worked very well.

I learned two of the four words. The first word I noticed was ma? That means what. 

The Chinese question word, MA, goes on the end of a sentence and turns a statement into a question. Ma in Chinese could be translated into Eglish as really, or is that so.

The Hebrew wrod matai sound like what time, ma - tie. Matai in Hebrew is when.

The two words I had more trouble with were the words for why, lama, and how, eich. 

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

https://lp.rosenhebrewschool.com/lp-rosen-modern-hebrew-ask-in-hebrew-22-en.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Hebrew_origin

Help Beginning Chinese or Japanese or Korean

 
Flag of Singapore.
Flag of China.
Chinese is handy in China and Singapore.
Where else would Chinese be useful?


From Wikipedia Japanese flag.
Toshihiro Oimatsu from Tokyo, Japan - The sun and the moon Uploaded by Smooth_O

Asian Grammar Summary
Chinese and Japanese picture symbols are the same, like the symbol for no smoking in Europe is a cigarette with a line through it; although the British would read it aloud as NO SMOKING whilst the French and German speaking people would say it in their language.

Duolingo Forums

I am deleting items from my email inbox when I hesitate over a question about something symbolic, Korean or Japanese. I am tempted to just delete it. After all, I cannot read it. However, just in case it is something useful, I must check, so I click on it. I am rewarded with an interesting discussion on question words in Chinese.

Chinese Question Words
Ma (the Chinese word) appears to be the equivalent of which, used in Chinese (Mandarin) when asking a yes / question.

Na appears to be the equivalent of what.

English Questions
What's more, this provokes a discussion about the English translation of which and what which arises further down the forum. What is the difference between which and what is a frequent question, a frequent confusion.

 I am a teacher of English, a home tutor, a trainer, and I do Language Evaluation, sometimes called Grammarian, on the agenda of Toastmasters International speakers' meetings which I attend about six or seven times a week.

Which and What - When Do You Use Them?
The English word which is asking the listener to select from two or more choices, a finite list. For example, 'which country are you from' is correct, because you are often presented with a finite list. There are about 150 countries in the world, offered in click boxes when you fill in your address online.

The word what means the possibilities are endless, and the person asking the question often has no idea of the answer. For example, a restaurant server or event organizer might offer you a set meal and tell you that the main dish choices are meat or fish. She or he asks, which do you want?

If, however, the server asks 'what do you want?', that is an open ended question. You might reply, 'The dish with the fewest calories'.

A questioner might ask, 'what are you doing?' The options are endless. The questioner has no idea of the answer.

So, you now know what to do, which to choose.

But the delights continue.


Symbols For America
The most delightful and surprising discovering is the Asian words for America.
The Korean word for America is 미국 (Mi-guk) which means land of beautiful people.
So, by simply saying that the listener is American, the Korean is paying a compliment!

Translations
Google Translate shows the Chinese pinyin in small text underneath the Chinese characters when translating.

PERSON
人 means person

QUESTION
ma (no tone), is used only for yes/no questions.

TRANSLATIONS INTO PINYIN
Google Translate shows the Chinese pinyin in small text underneath the Chinese characters when translating.

The moral of the story is this, read the forums. They offer fascinating insights into other languages, other cultures, and your own language, and the English language.

Useful Websites
duolingo.com
https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Quirks of the Chinese language - questions, what and which

Singapore Flag

Chinese is useful in China and Singapore.

I am inundated with incoming emails, countries of the world, cities, airlines, chocolate makers, travel clothes. When I was looking for important information, today, it was lost in the ocean or 'urgent' messages from people who wanted to sell me something. So I started deleting.

However, one message was from Duolingo from a discussion. I was about to delete it, but could not resist a quick look. My curiosity was rewarded with interesting information on Chinese language.

One person said that ma is not just a question word, as I had thought, but ends a question requiring a yes no answer. binary. One of two. So, you would end a question, do you want coffee or tea, with ma?
Coffee or tea - ma? Drink - na?

However, asking a 'what' question, what would you like to eat, which has infinite possibilities, would be shown by ending the sentence 'Na'.

Ma is similar to, 'Choose which one', or, 'Which of these alternatives do you prefer?'. Na is similar to, 'What kind would you like?' or an open-ended question.


English Questions

I started thinking about that distinction. It could help me explain to people learning English why you don't ask what when the question should be which.

In English, we use what for uncountable items, multiple choices, open ended questions. 'What are you doing?'

But which is for choices. Which bus? Five buses could be on the sign.

To correct your grammar as well as your spelling, use Grammarly.

You could go on for hours discussing ma and na and which and what.

Chinese Questions
The important thing for me as a beginner learningChinese is that I have learned to use ma and na to end questions. At very least, if I hear a Chinese speaker asking me about coffee, or tea, (in Asian languages cha or chai) using a sentence ending ma or na, it is a question.

if I and you learn one new word a day of Chinese, and by the end of the year we would know 365.

Another way to look at learning, is that if I read about ten words, although I might not remember them today, after reading all ten for ten days I would know ten words.

Useful Websites
Duolingo for free internet learning (with advertisements) on Chinese, Korean and several languages
duolingo.com
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/25238350$

chineasy.com

A great look inside kindle version is on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ChineasyTM-Everyday-World-Chinese-Characters/dp/0500292264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549652685&sr=8-1&keywords=chineasy

Sometimes you really need to know what a sign means. The Malaysian word - here is bahaya for danger - are easier than the Chinese, even though the Malay is three syllables.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. i have many more posts on languages.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Next post:

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/02/harrow-on-hill-station-is-being.html

German Pronunciation Simplified

Problem
How do you pronounce German words?

Answers

AU is OW as HOW NOW BROWN COW
I had a friend whose surname was Blau (rhyming with now) meaning blue.
frau - woman - think of a frowning woman with brows in a brown dress , pronounced f r o w,

IE
i e pronounce the second letter W i e n e r - p r o n u n c e d v e e n e r

V and W
W is v as in the German word for sausage: w u r s h t (pronounced v e r sh t).
So now you can recognize it when a German speaker talks about a sausage from Vienna.
You can also recognize what sounds like v e e n e r schnitzel.

Frequent use of W pronounced as V
was - (vas or vuss) what
wie - what
German wir - we pronounced veer

German - English
was - what (vuss as in fuss)
wir - we (veer)
wie - how (vee)
wieviel - how many (vee feel)
w i e v i e l u h r ist es (what time is it - v e e like the letter vee, feel, i s t e s s as in yes)

German J is Y
jung - young pronounced y o o n g , the vowel as in cook


English - German
we - wir (pronounced veer)
where

Finally, when writing, go back and check you have capital letters for all the words describing things. In English we save a capital lesson for a specific name of a person, Mr Blue, but in German the word man it would be Mann.

Tips
I suggest you get a notebook or diary and write down a key to the ones which puzzle you on one page with a key word in English for the pronunciation.
Left column for the sound as it is written in German, second column for the word in English.
I shall do this and take a photo and add it later.

Websites
Wikipedia give a complete guide, letter by letter, including variations for Switzerland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Standard_German
It is so long and complicated that it's hard to find the sounds you need and remember them.

For more tips on pronunciation:
http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/how-to-pronounce-german-words/
Long and chatty. The opposite of Wikipedia.

duolingo.com
The first page of any of their dozen or so languages gives you a guide to grammar and pronunciation of the language you have chosen to learn. Even if you are not learning, or have finished the course and want a reminder, it's worthwhile going to their page one. Notes are at the bottom of the screen and easily missed so if you are on a small screen scroll down for them.

You might like to look at my other posts on German, French, Romanian, Italian and other languages. I also have travel articles in this blog on my trips to Italy (a press trip, covering Umbria and Francis of Assisi) and Cambodia (Ankor Wat temple). I also have several posts on Singapore and restaurants in London, Central London and Hatch End and Harrow. Other blogs cover etiquette, humorous poetry and my books. I am also you YouTube, linkedIn, Facebook, Lulu.com books and Amazon. If you meet me at a meeting of Toastmasters International clubs (UK, USA and Singapore) I am a chatty person. I am always delighted to talk about travel and culture and please to meet a fan and if you want to buy a coy of one of my books I'll sign it and write you a personalised message, motivation quote or a couplet based on your name. Happy reading.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phgotarpheer, author and speaker. Please share posts.Enable GingerCannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection
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Learning Russian: using letters as links

Even my 'easy' website for learning Russian is posing me challenges. My latest lesson is using sentences about knowing, or living.

First I'm having trouble with the short words.

I have worked out

Ya is I

 on = him (like one)
oni = them (add an extra letter for the plural: extra letter, add i in Russian, add t in English)

ee = her (ee! not he but her)

ty = you singular and personal and friendly like tu in French, with the y as in you in English

vy = you plural or formal / polite like v o u s in French and You Very respectful

Ikh - they/their (like the French plural for their  i l s - in French the singular he is the two letter word i l, like the two letters of he, but the plural adds a letter in french, three letters for the plural, starting with the letter i, plus tall letter following, like a crowd of people - they)

ego = his (his ego)

g d e = where  (g d E = wherE, "Good day, Where ... "

v = in

g o r o d e = grand town, like grad as in Stalingrad which was the town named after Stalin and Volgograd, town named after the Volga river

c h t o = what (I am thinking what sounds like wot/whot; reverse o and t to get  w h t o ; drop the w
the word does not mean who which also has the letters t and o because it is a four letter word

POSSESSIVES
m e n y a = my MenYa = MY  - think 'My men, ya'; ya is German for yes

NOUNS
m a m y - mother or mum like the American songs by Al Jolson about Mammy
rebenka - child or kid (r-b-n-k notice the B K - think baby becomes a kid  r-n for children)
k n i g u - book Knigu - booK; KNigu - Knowledge from a Guru (GU) from a BOOK boo book

z d e s  - here (four letter word with an e in  z d E s and in hErE) maybe think of down here

VERBS
zneate - zNeate = (you plural) kNow N in Know
think) zneaTe = Think - zNeate - thiNk - you think you know, but really you kNow NoThing you just just think N T is reverse of T..N.
d u m a e t - thinks Think=dmaeT Does Mind Think ? D M T ; or what does the Dummy Think DuMaeT

ty znaesh = do you (singular, familiar) know?

zhivesh  (ty zhivesh) =  (you live = have a home)
zhivut = (they)  (Ya zhivut) live (I think zHivut - H for Home I / My home
z v e t e (

PLACE RELATIVE TO
v o z l e - near / in the vicinity (v-icinit-y voZle - Zone)
d a l e k o - D for Distant - far away - da-far rhymes, do re me fa - dalek wandered far, l e k o - mother let me go, far away, K O for kilometers  ;L K Long treK

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and language teacher.
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