# I can only eat fish that have fins and scales



## iyavor

Hi everyone.

This probably seems like a bizarre request- but bare with me.

Wo shi youtairen, wo ye xin youtaijiao. 
That being the case- I can only eat fish that have fins and scales (for those who are unfamiliar- see "The Bible", in the Book of Leviticus).

This is my lousy attempt to say- I would love to eat fish- however I may eat only fish with both fins and scales. Here goes:

Wo hen xihuan chi yu, buguo wo zhi keyi chi you chi you lin de yu. 

Please help me say this legibly! It may very well save me from starvation as I venture into the inner depths of the Chinese mainland. 

Xie xie dajia!


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## univerio

Your translation is basically good, but I'd change it to this:
我可以吃鱼，但是我只能吃有翅膀和鳞的鱼。
wo keyi chi yu, danshi wo zhineng chi you chibang he lin de yu.

Your original translation means that you love to eat fish, and not you would love to eat fish.


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## Kwunlam

univerio said:


> Your translation is basically good, but I'd change it to this:
> 我可以吃鱼，但是我只能吃有翅膀和鳞的鱼。
> wo keyi chi yu, danshi wo zhineng chi you chibang he lin de yu.
> 
> Your original translation means that you love to eat fish, and not you would love to eat fish.



Would 魚鰭 [yu2qi2] be better than 翅膀 [chi4bang3]? 翅膀 [chi4bang3] makes me think of the wings of birds. 

A website for reference: 
http://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw/~fishdmp/fhNormal/page02-a3i/f02a3i.htm


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## Kwunlam

iyavor said:


> Hi everyone.
> 
> This probably seems like a bizarre request- but bare with me.
> 
> Wo shi youtairen, wo ye xin youtaijiao.
> That being the case- I can only eat fish that have fins and scales (for those who are unfamiliar- see "The Bible", in the Book of Leviticus).



The relevant Bible verse in Leviticus. 

 利11:9   水中可吃的乃是这些：凡在水里、海里、河里、有翅有鳞的，都可以吃。
   利11:10 凡在海里、河里，并一切水里游动的活物，无翅无鳞的，你们都当以为可憎。

利 11:9   水中可吃的乃是這些：凡在水裏、海裏、河裏、有翅有鱗的，都可以吃。
利 11:10 凡在海裏、河裏，並一切水裏游動的活物，無翅無鱗的，你們都當以為可憎。


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## kareno999

univerio said:


> Your translation is basically good, but I'd change it to this:
> 我可以吃鱼，但是我只能吃有翅膀和鳞的鱼。
> wo keyi chi yu, danshi wo zhineng chi you chibang he lin de yu.
> 
> Your original translation means that you love to eat fish, and not you would love to eat fish.


Your try sounds much less native than the original version...


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## iyavor

kwunlam:

请你用拼音页。。。我还不能看汉子。
谢谢你！
一览​


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## Kwunlam

Oh sorry. I was suggesting that 翅膀 Chi4bang3 makes me think of birds. 

翅 chi4, by its own, can however refer to fins. So, what you write is correct. In fact, the Chinese Bible (1919 Union Version) also uses the expression "you chi you lin". 

Another way of saying the same thing is 魚鰭 [yu2qi2].  But we cannot say 魚翅 [yu2chi4], because this word is reserved for shark's fins.

翅 [chi4], fins
有翅的 [you3 chi4 de] with fins
魚鰭 [yu2qi2], fish fins.
魚翅 [yu2chi4], shark's fins.


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## Zulis

Kwunlam said:


> Oh sorry. I was suggesting that 翅膀 Chi4bang3 makes me think of birds.
> 
> 翅 chi4, by its own, can however refer to fins. So, what you write is correct. In fact, the Chinese Bible (1919 Union Version) also uses the expression "you chi you lin".
> 
> Another way of saying the same thing is 魚鰭 [yu2qi2].  But we cannot say 魚翅 [yu2chi4], because this word is reserved for shark's fins.
> 
> 翅 [chi4], fins
> 有翅的 [you3 chi4 de] with fins
> 魚鰭 [yu2qi2], fish fins.
> 魚翅 [yu2chi4], shark's fins.


What he said 

and to add something, I think 魚鰭 [yu2qi2] is the only word for the part that fish uses to swim (fins)
Even 鰭 will do, it already implies "fish's" fins.

翅 [chi4], for me, it always refers to wings (of birds), and the only exception I can think of is 魚翅 [yu2chi4].


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## kareno999

iyavor said:


> kwunlam:
> 
> 请你用拼音页。。。我还不能看汉子字。
> 谢谢你！
> 
> 一览what do you mean?​


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## iyavor

Zulis said:


> What he said
> 
> and to add something, I think 魚鰭 [yu2qi2] is the only word for the part that fish uses to swim (fins)
> Even 鰭 will do, it already implies "fish's" fins.
> 
> 翅 [chi4], for me, it always refers to wings (of birds), and the only exception I can think of is 魚翅 [yu2chi4].


 
My goal is to say, in Chinese that practically anyone would understand, that the fish needs to have any kind of fins. Whether he actually uses those fins to swim with, or keep his balance- well that's already the fish's business . Would I need to say, then, 魚鰭还是魚翅 in order to be properly understood! 

The Jews of China must have had a hell of a time finding Kosher fish when they lived there ..!


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## Zulis

iyavor said:


> My goal is to say, in Chinese that practically anyone would understand, that the fish needs to have any kind of fins. Whether he actually uses those fins to swim with, or keep his balance- well that's already the fish's business . Would I need to say, then, 魚鰭还是魚翅 in order to be properly understood!
> 
> The Jews of China must have had a hell of a time finding Kosher fish when they lived there ..!


 I can only eat fish *that have fins and scales
*That's 有鰭有鱗 (Mod please edit to add pinyin, I don't know about it)

You cannot say魚翅 because it refers to shark fin, and shark fin soup is a Chinese delicacy.
I don't think people in the Bible actually had shark fins soup..... Luxury!


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## samanthalee

Zulis said:


> That's 有鰭有鱗 (Mod please edit to add pinyin, I don't know about it)



The full translation will be

wo2 zhi3 ke2 yi3 chi1 you3 qi2 you3 lin2 de yu2.

我只可以吃有鳍有鳞的鱼



iyavor said:


> My goal is to say, in Chinese that practically anyone would understand



Hi iyavor,
The thing about Mandarin is, it is a great written language, but a terrible spoken language. It has serious homophone problems. We understand what is being said based on context.
As you have noted in your first post, this is a "bizarre" request. Without understanding about Jewish practices, this is a bizarre sentence, and hence the context of the sentence may not be immediately apparent to your listener. I would expect practically nobody will understand you when you say this for the first time. If you want everyone to understand you immediately, you'll have to elaborate. Perhaps you can say:

The fish that I eat must be born with fish fins and fish scales, else I can't eat it.

wo3 chi1 de yu2 yi2 ding4 yao4 zhang2 you3 yu2 qi2 he2 yu2 lin2, bu4 ran2 wo3 bu4 neng2 chi1.
我吃的鱼一定要长有鱼鳍和鱼鳞，不然我不能吃。


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## Kwunlam

samanthalee said:


> The thing about Mandarin is, it is a great written language, but a terrible spoken language. It has serious homophone problems. We understand what is being said based on context.



Well, using two-character-word (鱼鳍 yu2qi2) rather than single-character-word (鳍 [qi2] /  翅 [chi4]) would greatly reduce the homophone problem. So, after all, the serious problem is not that serious. 


In Cantonese, we have more pitches (people says there are 9 pitches, but in fact the pitch 1=7, pitch 2=8, pitch 3=9 are really the same. The difference between pitch 1 and pitch 7 lies only in pitch 7 is used to label the words ending with -t, -p, -k.,  that is 入聲詞) . So in Cantonese the homophone problem is less serious, and in comparison to Mandarin more single-character-word can be used.


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