An American In Taiwan

Here’s the next installment of things worth learning how to say that are more beneficial than learning how to talk about Bejing Opera or birthday cake.

我本來要看電視, 但我後來決定讀一本書

wǒ běnlái yào kàn diànshì, dàn wǒ hòu lái jué dìng dú yī běn shū

I was going to watch television, but instead decided to read a book.

You can use this sentence structure whenever you had planned on doing one thing, but changed your mind.

• 本來.. is essentially “originally” or “at first” but can also mean “of course” or “it goes without saying”
• 但.. you’ve probably seen before in 但是, but here is used alone. They both mean “but” though 但是 has a more of a “however” meaning, while 但 is closer to “nevertheless”.
• 後.. “after” or “later” is how 後 is being used here, though it can also mean “rear” or “behind”
• 決定.. is to decide or make up one’s mind
• 讀..means “read” but should not be confused with 念

For another simple example of how this is used, you could say, 我本來要喝茶,但我後來決定喝牛奶.

Tags: Chinese Language, phrasebook, pinyin, 中文

This entry was posted by 美國人 on Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at 7:53 and is filed under Chinese Language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.