Mandarin sentence – How to say ” I am going to stay up all night to celebrate the arrival of the New Year of 2012″ in Chinese: 我将要通宵达旦来庆祝2012年新年的到来。Wo3 jiang1 yao4 tong1 xiao1 da2 dan4 lai2 qing4 zhu4 er2 ling2 yi1 er2 nian2 xin1 nian2 de5 dao4 lai2. Wo3 (我 pronoun, I) jiang1 (将 adverb, about to, going to) yao4 (要 verb, want) tong1 xiao1 da2 dan4 (通宵达旦 in this phrase, 通 tong1 means through (verb), 宵 xiao1 is a classic word for night (noun), 达 da2 means till (verb), 旦 dan4 means dawn (noun); tong1 xiao1 da2 dan4 together means through the night till the dawn or stay up all night till the dawn) lai2 (来 coverb, which originally means come, but, here it functions as a preposition – to) qing4 zhu4 (庆祝 verb, celebrate) er2 ling2 yi1 er2 (number, 2012) nian2 (年 noun, year) xin1 nian2 (新年 noun, New Year) de5 (的 connecting particle to connect attribute and the noun) dao4 lai2 (到 dao4 means arrive and 来 lai2 is a directional complement which usually habitually follows certain verbs; 到来 dao4 lai2 mean arrive (here)).
Bill Vaughan said “Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.” So, if you are young 年青 nian2 qing1, then probably you will have a better chance of staying up late for the dawn of this coming New Year. If you are past middle age zhong1 nian2 中年， you probably will stay up late while doze on the rocking chair.
What are you going to do to celebrate the New Year? The great writer, Mark Twain mentioned that “New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.” So, something essential for staying up during the New Year Even is to get drunk? It would be a justified excuse jie4 kou2 借口 to get drunk 喝醉 he1 zui, and it only happens once a year. Maybe it also will be a trick night to make prank call 打恶作剧电话 da3 e4 zuo4 ju4 dian4 hua4 to your friends? Also the time to come up with long duration resolution 决心 jue2 xin1. Hope it will not go as Joey Adams’ wish “May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions!” No matter what you are going to do, please remember be safe and have fun. Also, please don’t drink if you are under age 21. As for making prank call, I could not find the minimum legal making prank call age around the world. Better not to do that for your own safety and reputation, I think you know there is a thing called caller ID right?
Now back to more serious matter — Chinese grammar
Lai2 来 and qu4 去 as directional complement.
Verbs of motion such as shang4 上, xia4下, jin4 进, chu4 出, hui2 回, guo4过, and qi3 起 often use lai2 来 and qu4 去 as complements.
We add 来and qù去 after the verbs of motion, so, they are like suffixes. The function of attaching lai2 or qu4 is to show whether the movement is moving toward the speaker’s location or away from the speaker’s location. In English, the direction of an action is expressed by come and go, which are represented respectively by the verbs lai2 来 and qu4 去 in Chinese.
For example:
You are in the room of the second floor and you are telling someone at first floor to come up to you. You should say:
请上来。
Qing3 shang4 lai2.
Please come up.
If the person at first floor is pretty busy and he doesn’t want to go up to you, and instead he wants you to come down to him. He will say:
我很忙请你下来好吗？
Wo3 hen3 mang2, qing3 ni3 xia4 lai2 hao3 ma5?
I am very busy; can you please come down?
If the person at second floor doesn’t want to go down to the first floor, then she or he can say this to the person at the first floor.
我也很忙，我不能下去。
Wo3 ye3 hen3 mang2, wo3 bu4 neng2 xia4 qu4.
I am very busy too; I can’t go down.
Let’s end today’s post with a Happy New Year song
ABBA Happy New Year 2011 & Lyrics