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Pinyin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4634 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 18 01 February 2012 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just wondering, When I come across a sentence or phrase in Pinyin that doesnt have characters or a translation to it, how can I find out what it means?
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| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5315 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 18 01 February 2012 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||
By looking it up in a dictionary? If you mean that the same pronunciation can refer to various characters, well you have to rely on context, just like you would when listening. The same problem comes up in English if I write a word like "tear". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4634 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 18 01 February 2012 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry I meant is there anywhere I can basically copy and paste it, or even write it into somewhere and It translates It for me? The whole sentence rather than looking up each word by itself.
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| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5349 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 4 of 18 01 February 2012 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Or, alternatively, you can try asking the good folks on HTLAL...
Unfortunately, that contextual-recognition technology isn't even anywhere close to existing yet. It'd be like trying to translate this sentence from English: If you will it, when we view that he waves, I will, without spite, tear the bow from the bow of the ship and, with a tear, ship it on an arrow via a bow to you while you bow, and it should miss your head, should you head down quickly enough, in spite of missing the view of the waves. An accurate translation would be something like this: If you want, when we see him signaling, I will, not angrily, rip the ribbon from the front of the boat and, with sadness, send it on an arrow via a projectile weapon to you while you bend at the waist, and it should avoid your skull, if you go down quickly enough, despite not being able to enjoy the scenery of the ocean. Of course, with a language as syntactically different as Mandarin, it would probably come out like this: When do we see him waving, if you will, I will, despite, cry the bend from the ribbon of the send and, with ripping, boat it on arrow with curtsey to you while you projectile weapon, and it should be nostalgic for your head, you should skull down quickly enough, with anger avoiding to see of hand signal. The style of the above sentence ought to be familiar to anyone used to inputting entire paragraphs from Mandarin into Google Translate. In fact, when use Google Translate to translate the original sentence into Mandarin and back into English, this is the outcome: If you will it, we think, he waves, I will, though not from the bow, the bow tear, a tear, through the ship's bow to your arrow when you bow, it should miss your head, you should head down fast enough, despite the missing waves. This is when inputting directly from the original Chinese characters. Now imagine how much more nonsensical it would be were it to try to guess the meanings of the imprecise pinyin, each of which has dozens of homophones. Edited by nway on 01 February 2012 at 7:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4634 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 18 01 February 2012 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is what is on Rosetta Stone. I would like to understand the words aswel. I will have to write them down the next time I am on it. Thanks
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| LaughingChimp Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4633 days ago 346 posts - 594 votes Speaks: Czech* | Message 6 of 18 02 February 2012 at 12:08am | IP Logged | ||
I don't think it's necessarily true, there are much fewer homophonous words than homophonous characters. Characters could be more difficult to translate than pinyin, as you also have to parse characters into words. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5349 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 18 02 February 2012 at 7:56am | IP Logged | ||
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^ Erm, what? How can a character even be homophonous? Characters don't have any intrinsic sounds...
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| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6484 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 18 02 February 2012 at 11:13am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with LaughingChimp. If there are spaces between the words, cutting and pasting them into a dictionary
would narrow down your choices significantly more than single characters. Still waiting to hear about a better method for the op though.
You lost me. Characters have readings, right? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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