了 question As I said in my previous notepad entry I watch desperate housewives on a chinese website. I read a sentence and try to recreate it on google translate. I wrote this sentence: 但我告诉了他们 But the subtitles actually say this: 但我告诉他们了 I thought the 了 modal particle comes after a verb in this case 告诉, but in the subtitles as you can see 了 comes after the subject. Are the rules very defined for its use or are both examples correct in their use of 了?

吧 and how to use it? Hi I had to put my chinese on hold for a while as it was quite stressful at school the last couple of months. However with all the free time I have in my vacation It was itching to get back to what I love most, learning chinese. I was watching 绝望的主妇 on a chinese website, its the perfect medium to learn. It has english and chinese subtitles and I just pause the video each time and analyse a sentence to the best of my abilities. Now the character 吧 has been popping up for some time and my dictionary app has this to say about it: "Modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise". So my guess is its usually used in sentences like: - Will you get out of my house? - Are you done eating? Is it only used in unsure instances or can it be used in more ways? For instance, in the series I was watching a guy asks another guy wether he is crazy? The other guy responds with 有点吧. Is the use of this character in this sentence simply a fluke of bad translation or can it actually be used like this and why? There is no uncertainty in that sentence or is there? Thanks in advance for any response, hope life for you guys is going well, take care.

Chinese confusion, the Hanzi army The first step has been set on the ground of the chinese land, I look around and except for the astounishing view there are no threats in sight. I confidently walk the path and smell the air, I shall come to know this land, this shall be my ultimate goal. As each adventure story goes there is the innitial phase of exitement and curiousity. Where moral is high and courage is strong. This was the first week of my journey on the mandarin path. However at this point the Hanzi army is beating me, was it zhu3, zhu1 or zhe2? With hundreds at a time they are flooding the mind in a clouded confusion. How will I ever master the nuances and puny yet important differences this language encapsulates? A question I do not want answered, I shall close my eyes and walk where my feet can carry me, I shall defeat the HANZI army!! Wish me luck.

My first list of words Bang (to help) 帮 Bù (negative) 不 Bàn (half) 半 Mi (rice) 米 Mén (door) 门 Mama (mom) 妈妈 Feng (wind) 风 Fá (to punish) 罚 Faxiàn (discover, find) 发现 Dà (big, large, huge, wide) 大 Dài (to bring) 带 Danche (bicycle) 单车 Tian (sky, day) 天 Rì (sun, day) 日 Tiaò (jump, hop, leap) 跳 Tui (to push) 推 Ni (you) 你 Nán (difficult) 难 Niao (bird) 鸟 Numbers: 0 ling 零 1 yi 一 2 èr 二 3 san 三 4 sì 四 5 wu 五 6 liù 六 7 qi 七 8 ba 八 9 jiu 九 10 shí 十 12 shí èr 55 wuwu