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- "叫我张明。"
"叫我张明。"
Translation:Call me Zhang Ming.
148 Comments
Wo Jian=I am called Jian Wo=Call me Same meaning you get when you flip the words in English. English just has a lot more fluff inbetween the words that needs to be changed for it to make sense.
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In Chinese, the last name (also called "family name") appears before the first name. So in English, we have to flip the order. 张明 ＝ Ming Zhang
It's slightly confusing because we intentionally call them "first" and "last" names because that's how they appear in English. But for languages that don't follow this convention, it becomes a misnomer.
No, Zhang Ming is the person's name. A family name is something like "Lee" or "Tan".
Because in China surnames come first, Zhang Ming would be the person's full name, with Zhang being their surname and Ming being their first name. Lee and Tan are also Chinese surnames, and if one of them were used instead it would be the same difference: Lee Ming, Tan Ming, Zhang Ming... It's just a bit different from more Western languages since traditionally, family and which one you were from was the most important part about you.
张 is also a Chinese surname. Chinese people usually have two character given names nowadays, but centuries ago single character given names were also common. So, a Chinese person's full name is usually 3 characters, but two characters is also possible.
um..... no. Because duolingo isn't consistent with last name first (which is the correct grammar) and vice versa, I can't tell what they are meaning to be the last name. But assuming they are being grammatically correct this time, their last name is Zhang, and their first name is Ming. Their full name is Zhang Ming.
jiao means, "call". wo means, "me/i/my". put jiao in front of wo is, call me. (no pun intended)
no, because you jiao means call and wo means me so it wouldn't work. But if you wanted to say that then it would be wo-de-ming-zi-jiao-zhang-ming
- 1108
Actually, it'd be either wo-de-ming-zi-shi-zhang-ming or wo-jiao-zhang-ming, not both. What you suggested would be translated as, in English, "My name is called Ming Zhang".
It doesn't. I know it from school as well. If you are looking for a class that actually explains these kind of things, take one where you can attend in person. If you live in Utah, Belmont Classical Academy has an EXCELLENT Chinese teacher, so check that out. If you are looking for actual explaining of these things (which it is frankly very important to learn these differences), don't choose duolingo. If you're planning a trip to China and need to learn just enough to get your way around the city, duolingo is fine. but if you're a language nerd like me, duolingo will not meet your expectations in the least.
No, "my name is Zhang Ming" would be translated as "我的名字是张明" or "wo de ming zi shi zhang ming". 我的 (wo de) = my, 名字 (ming zi) = name, 是 (shi) = is, 张明 = Zhang Ming.
Meanwhile, "叫我张明" can be broken down as 叫 (jiao) = call, 我 (wo) = me, 张明 = Zhang Ming.
Technically, no. If you are literally saying "My name is Zhang Ming" you would say 我的名字是张明。
Despite the correct answer being marked as Name / Surname, if someone tells you this sentence, should you call him/her ming Zhang or Zhang ming?
Last names go before first names in Chinese = Zhang (surname) ming (first name). The translation should be the english arrangement in which the first name comes before last name.
- 2112
I think in real life the original order is occasionally retained in English, but it's probably very context/speaker/target-dependent? A Chinese person might feel much more comfortable hearing their full (Chinese) name in Chinese order - English order might sound weird and unfamiliar. Of course there's a decent chance they just use an English name in English-speaking contexts, in which case English order seems obvious.
Some insight into the matter from a Chinese person would be nice.
Duo accepts both orders, for what it's worth.
My friends and I usually have three names or a Christian/English name, so we use that or the other two (non-family) names. For those with two, we use the "Chinese" arrangement, so here you would call him Zhang Ming.
that's not true They might do that when they pronounce names at school for roll call but I could be wrong
- 1108
If, by call, you mean say aloud, then call the person Zhang Ming. Although if this hypothetical situation was taking place outside of China (or even within, if you looked like a foreigner), the person wouldn't fault you for saying the first name first. Generally speaking, for Chinese names, when both the first name and the surname are one character, call the person by his/her full name, in the surname/first name order. When the first name has two characters, then it's fine to call the person by only his/her first name.
Although Zhang is the surname and written first, call him/her Ming as that is his/her NAME.
我 = I or me
叫 = Call; called; to call
張 = Zhang (a surname) or sheets
明 = Ming (first name) or brightness
我叫張明 = I (am) called Zhang Ming.
叫我張明 = Call me Zhang Ming
I transkated it - i am zhang ming - and it said I'm wrong, i think it's a mistake
Last names go before first names in Chinese = Zhang (surname) ming (first name). The translation should be the english arrangement in which the first name comes before last name.
I think it needs to be literal translation bcs your answer can be translated to a different sentence, wo jiao zhang ming = call me zhang ming
In what situations does "jiao" come before "wo"? Can they be used interchangeably?
As in English, putting the verb first makes the sentence a command (with the understood subject "you" left out, just as it is in English).
Is there a difference between wo jiao and jiao wo? Does it imply a different meaning?
So are these written characters' meanings pronounced the same as these names? For example, Duolingo tells me that "张" means Zhang as well as "Sheets". So does that mean the word for sheets is pronounced Zhang? Are all Chinese names common words? What do they do with western names?
Yes, the surname 张 and the measure word for flat objects 张 (e.g., "一张纸" / yì zhāng zhǐ / one sheet of paper) are both pronounced with the first tone: "zhāng".
Many other common Chinese surnames also share their characters with common words: 马 (mǎ - "horse"), 李 (lǐ - "plum"), 林 (lín - "forest"), and so on. You can generally tell from context whether these characters refer to surnames or one of their other meanings in sentences.
Westerners may have their names transliterated, striving to make their Chinese names as phonetically similar to their original names as possible. These names are often recognizable because they tend to be longer than usual, as well as retain Western first-last name order.
Alternatively, others may adopt (often with the guidance of a native speaker) a name consisting of a common Chinese surname followed by a one- to two-character given name, often selected based on the meaning of the character(s).
"Z" would have the "Dz" sound. "Zh" has a hard "J" sound but you put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth while you say it. I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H6p-AkRWiE very helpful in differentiating between the "hard sounds".
I dont understand the use of Roman characters if they're pronounced differently? The voiceover is definitely saying "chang ling" i can't hear any Zh, or M sounds in the name
Pinyin is the standard way to Romanize Chinese. It was developed by the People's Republic of China with help from Russia, so maybe it's more intuitive if you speak Russian, I wouldn't know. The good news is that pinyin is phonetic and very straightforward--you just need to learn the rules. Not all of the letters behave the way they do in English. Chinese has sounds that we don't have, and vice versa. I hope that someday Duo will include pinyin instruction for people who haven't learned it elsewhere. I recommend searching the internet for a resource to teach you pinyin. Or, put in a lot of time listening to the recordings here on Duo until you get the hang of it!
The sound stop working, in the middle of the exercice, much more dificult without
I put "Refer to me as Zhang Ming", incorrect even though it's nearly the same
It is pronounced as "Tsz"
Start with a "t" sound and blend it into a Z sound. Tongue should start touching the top teeth.
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I got the lessons 你叫张明, 我叫张明 and 叫我张明 in a row and I'm getting the impression that 张明 and his friend think I'm a bit dim.
people, don't be salty and "dislike" people's comments because they only said one word that wasn't helpful to you.
Hii , my age is 13 and i am from INDIA and i am trying to learn chinese !!
I'm really confused about this "names" thing, are they writen in one order but pronounced other way or something like it?
- 2726
English and Mandarin Chinese have different name orders. They are switched between translations because of that cultural context. Without it, one of the translations will appear unusual.
Then you need to go back and Practise more. I heard it perfectly fine and ive been practsing for 2 days.
If I'm just speaking casually with the person, do I call him/her just Ming? Or should I always say the full name?
Its must supposed to translate like : Jiao wo Zhang Ming Call me Zhang Ming. Is it, right? What do you think, guys?
It's very very simple so that it became hard I think it's just as easy as you train yourself speaking it
Was a little hard for me because personally, I love the Chinese language but it seems very difficult.
- 962
Frankly, I prefer that for Chinese names, keep them exactly as they are ordered in Chinese. Flipping the first and last names like this can be very confusing.
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Would people tend to be offended if, in my blundering ignorance mixed the names around? Cultures can be such difficult things.
What about the characters' order: 我叫 or 叫我 do they have the same meaning?
Out of curiousity is 叫我 a command form, and do verbs generally function as commands like this? E.G. 看我 (look at me?), 去! (go!). Do pronouns function differently like if you we're going to say "let's go!", would you say 我们去！or is there a particle or difference in construction? 非常谢谢!
Yes for commands, but "let's" is a different constru tion with the 吧 particle.
This is pretty difficult to start off with. I had to write down the translations and stare at it for 5 minutes and still got the wrong answer!
What is the formality of this sentence? It's surely less formal then "wo jiao zhang ming", right?
If you say wo Jiao ......are you only giving what in English would be your first name or given name and if you say wo xing ......are you only giving your family name? Operative word in my question is "only". Thanks.
I don't know anything about Chinese language... So this is a beat problematic for me... How would I learn it
I would like an option to hear slower audio for these phrases. It's spoken a little too fast for me. I'm still a beginner
This is totally incorrect. They are just throwing around the characters, like the order doesn't matter when it ABSOLUTELY DOES.
Based on my text book, the word order is incorrect. It should be Subject + Verb + Object, but in this case, they've put the verb before the subject.
It should be "Wô jiào..." rather than "Jiào wo..."
So, the infamous line from Doctor Who, "Everyone calls me Ace" would be ”大家叫我隗斯“? I never expected it to be such a simple sentence, lol, but I had no idea you could switch “我叫” to “叫我” and change the meaning!
It must be Zhang Ming. To reverse it to be Ming Zhang sounds ridiculous. Calling a chinese name is not like that
Certain people think differently. Though I certainly agree with you, I still think that you shouldn't phrase it that way.
Specially when you're talking about a Chinese person in English to an English audience. If that's the case and you say the person you're talking about is called "Zhang Ming", people who aren't familiar with the Chinese name order would not actually understand the person's name and you would have to explain the order.
Calling the person "Ming Zhang" would be correct in the context, in an anglo-centered environment.
