Do you think German is more difficult than Chinese?

I never said so. Out of curiosity, I did read a Chinese grammar about this subject. With my smattering of Chinese grammar, then I understood what it means when I write a complete sentence even without a verb. Very often, in the sentences I mentioned, the predicate already implies the verb (if allowed).

For this reason, "content verbs" won't be hid because they have content and you can't skip them. However, 是 (very often a function verb) may be.

花朵很美麗
no "verb" needed. The predicate (the predicative adjective) already describes the subject. No "to be" is necessary. Adding "to be" is actually "wrong". I never write this, do you?

花朵似乎很美麗
depending on what you think, I don't see "to seem" either. The verb is at least not obvious here.

Xie Thu Jan 15, 2009 2:43 pm GMT
I never said so. Out of curiosity, I did read a Chinese grammar about this subject. With my smattering of Chinese grammar, then I understood what it means when I write a complete sentence even without a verb. Very often, in the sentences I mentioned, the predicate already implies the verb (if allowed).

For this reason, "content verbs" won't be hid because they have content and you can't skip them. However, 是 (very often a function verb) may be.

花朵很美麗
no "verb" needed. The predicate (the predicative adjective) already describes the subject. No "to be" is necessary. Adding "to be" is actually "wrong". I never write this, do you?

花朵似乎很美麗
depending on what you think, I don't see "to seem" either. The verb is at least not obvious here.
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Any foreign learner really needs to have a language feel in order to master Chinese.

> Leonora, it might just depend on what you consider more difficult, a tonal system or declension, noun genders and a complex word worder.

The tonal system of Sino-Tibetan languages is base on four tones mostly. But the Mandarin is three tones only, not have the "clipped tone". So the tonal system of Mandarin may be easier than other Chinese languages.

The tonal system of other Chinese languages.
1. level tone
2. rising tone
3. falling tone
4. clipped tone

The tonal system of Mandarin.
1. level tone
2. rising tone
3. falling tone

Yes, German is much more difficult than Chinese.
Well, to me a native Chinese speaker. :)

Can someone tell me the meaning of the following:

Bitte, denken Sie einmal darüber nach.
Bitte, denk einmal darüber nach.

Even if I understand every word, I don't understand its meaning. :(

Sorry if I post it on the wrong forum. I don't know which one should be used.

This is the meaning in English:

Think it over, please.
or
Reconsider it, please.

<<Bitte, denken Sie einmal darüber nach.
Bitte, denk einmal darüber nach.
>>

They both mean the same thing: Please, think once about it.

The first is polite/formal, where the second is casual/familiar form

«Even if I understand every word, I don't understand its meaning. :(

Sorry if I post it on the wrong forum. I don't know which one should be used. »

Bitte, denk einmal darüber nach.
-Think about it please.

Bitte, denken Sie einmal darüber nach.
Sie is very formal, English doesn't have this and it's hard to translate, because 'you' has a lot of meanings in English. Sie is like the French vous and the Dutch u.
-You should think about it please.

The main difference is:
Bitte, denk einmal darüber nach. - You use this if you speak to a friend, to family or whatever. It's informal. However, to make it even more informal you can leave the 'bitte' out of it.

Bitte, denken Sie einmal darüber nach. - You use this if you speak to people you don't know or your superior in a company. Doctors use this to their patients etc.

Dutch has the same:
(We don't use bitte or please in such sentences.)
Denk er maar eens over na. - informal
Denkt u er maar eens over na. - formal
English doesn't have such formal things anymore, that's why it's hard to translate..

I'm sorry Leasnam, when I started to type my reply, your reply wasn't there yet :( While yours is much easier to understand.

"Denk er maar eens over na. - informal"

12345, what exactly does "er" in this sentence mean? Is there a German equivalent?

'Er' is in this case the subject you spoke about to the other person.

Like if you were a parent whose child stole something in a store.
After this you speak to him/her and tell about the consequences.

Than in this case 'er' represents the consequences.

'Er' and 'daar' can be used both. It has the same meaning in these sentences.

So:
Denk daar eens over na == Denk er eens over na.
Denk da einmal über nach

In the sentence 'Denk daar maar eens over na' the meaning isn't different, just the word 'maar' gives it a more 'important' meaning. Like it's needed to think about it.

I am a nativ speaker of certain slavic language that is tonal. My language should probably be harder to learn than either Ch. or Ger.
It has seven cases and four tonal accents.
I personally still haven't learned eather Chinese or German in any formal way. I am just interested in languages.
By just observing the German cases I can tel you all that they aren't that complex at all. The case function is usually governed just by the article in front of the noun. So once you learn declensional patterns for articles you should learn pattern for umlauting of vowels and you are on a half of a way.
The most difficult thing about German aren't the cases but, by my opinion, unpredictible gender of nouns. It is simmilar case with the Duch and Scandinavian languages wich do not have cases but do have two genders.
Regarding the Chinese language I can say that it has cetrain variety of different sounds that sound like music.

I am a nativ speaker of certain slavic language that is tonal

This language must be Croatian? In my view Croatian and Serbian have the easiest pronunciation amongst the slavic languages.. Ok the grammar is quite complex but you don't have articles when you speak Western European languages you aren't able to use them properly