IMPERATIVE MOOD
- Eat, chuh (吃), chuh meh tse (吃末哉).
PARTICIPLES
- Present, Eating, chuh (吃), Past, Having eaten, chuh-°ts (吃仔).
A few words of explanation are necessary. The use of leh-°li and leh-la° are a little difficult to understand at first. As stated °ngoo leh-°li chuh (我拉裏吃) means, “I am eating.” If, however, a third person asked your servant Sien-sang van° chuh meh? (先生飯吃 末), “Has the Teacher eaten his rice?”, the servant would answer, if you were still eating, yi leh-la° chuh (伊拉拉吃) meaning “he is eating.” If you yourself said °ngoo leh-la° chuh, it would mean, “I was eating.” In the Perfect Tense the word koo° (過) means literally ”to pass over.” In the Past Perfect the words °i-kyung (已經) mean “already.”
The real force of leh-°li (拉裏) is “here,” and the real force of leh-la° (拉拉) is “there.”
There are a great many ways of expressing completed action in Chinese. These will be explained later. In this lesson one of the most common will be explained. It is by the use of the adjective °hau after the verb. Thus chuh °hau tse (吃好哉) means, “I have finished eating.” Dok °hau tse (讀好哉) means, “I have finished reading.”
°Hau (好), “good,” is also used before the verb to qualify it. Thus we have the expressions °hau chuh kuh (好吃個) meaning “good to eat.” °Hau dok kuh (好讀個), “Easy to read.” °Hau tsoo° kuh (好做個), “Easy to do,” etc.
VOCABULARY
- To arrive, tau° 到.
- To give by hand, peh 撥.
- To buy, °ma 買.
- To speak, wo° 話.
- To burn or cook, sau 燒.
- To learn, ‘auh 學.
- A table boy, ih kuh si°-tse° 一個細崽.
- A horse boy or coachman, ih kuh °mo-foo 一個馬夫.
- A pear, ih tsak sang-li 一隻生梨.
- A peach, ih tsak dau-°ts 一隻桃子.
- A tailor, ih kuh ze-voong 一個裁縫.
- China or Chinese, Tsoong-kok (中國), Lit. Middle Kingdom.
- Shanghai, °Zaung-°he 上海.