(1) Why don’t you pay it? (2) Why do you do this? (3) When will you do it? (4) I don’t want it now. (5) When did you go? (6) I do not want to go now, but I will go to-morrow. (7) Does the teacher teach well? (8) Does the pupil write well? (9) Why do you not look for my fan? Because I have already found it. (10) This carpenter can make a dining table. (11) Go, see if the doctor has come. (12) They themselves said they wished to build a new house. (13) I told the table boy to go to the city and buy me four chairs, a trunk, a bed, and an office desk. (14) When the teacher comes, ask him please to be seated and to take some tea. (15) If one does not study he is unable to know characters. (16) My office desk has three drawers. (17) This unmarried girl also wishes to study. (18) Have you bought the apples? They cannot be obtained. (19) Do you know whether the guest has already arrived? I do not know. (20) Can you obtain these? They are unobtainable.
(一) 儂爲啥勿付個? (二) 第個儂爲啥做個? (三) 儂幾時要做個? (四) 現在勿要. (五) 儂幾時去個? (六) 現在勿要去, 明朝要去. (七) 先生教來好否? (八) 學生子寫來好否? (九) 儂爲啥佬勿尋我個扇子? 因爲已經尋着哉. (十) 第個木匠可以做一隻吃飯檯. (十一) 去看看醫生來末. (十二) 伊拉自家話, 伊拉要造新個房子. (十三) 我叫細崽到城裏去, 買四把椅子, 一隻箱子, 一隻牀佬一隻寫字檯. (十四) 先生來仔末請伊坐坐佬吃茶. (十五) 若然一個人勿讀書, 伊勿會識字. (十六) 我個寫字檯有三隻柚屜. (十七) 第個小姐也要讀書. (十八) 苹果買好末? 買勿着. (十九) 客人已經到儂曉得否? 我勿曉得. (二十) 第個儂可以得着否? 得勿着.
(1) In the seventh sentence of the first exercise notice the { khoen°} after the reduplicated verb { zing}. This gives the force of try to look for it. “Look, look, see.” { Khoen°} is used after many verbs in this way. Thus: { Tsoo° tsoo° khoen°} 做做看 means “try to do it.” { °Sia °sia khoen°} 寫寫看 means “try to write it.” { Wo° wo° khoen°} 話話看 means, “try to say it.” { S° S° khoen°} 試試看 means “try to do it.”
(2) In the tenth and eleventh sentences of the first exercise we have two ways of asking a person to drink tea. The second is the polite form. Literally it means that you ask a person “to use tea.”
(3) In the nineteenth sentence of the first exercise, notice the use of { meh} for euphony after { sien-sang}, and so also in the twentieth after { doong-dien}.
(4) In the eighteenth sentence of the first exercise, notice the way in which { ’veh} comes between the { zing} and the { dzak}. This means “seek not find” or “it can not be found.” So also in the second exercise in the eighteenth sentence “They cannot be obtained” should be translated { °ma-’veh dzak?} and in the twentieth sentence “They are unobtainable” should be { tuh-’veh-dzak}.