Hello all, I'm currently studying lesson 1.3 Meeting For Coffee and I'm just very confused regarding the second line of the script:
Pinyin: Jīntiān shíyuè shísìhào xīngqīèr。Zhège xīngqī nǐ mángma?
Chinese: 今天是十月十四号星期二。这个星期你忙吗?
If you notice, right before 十月 there's 是, which it makes sense if you read the script word by word. But if you notice in the pinyin version (and the audio as well), that shi (是) is not there! They dont write it, neither do they say it.
I'm confused... :( Are you supposed to write it and not say it? Someone help please... Lin Ping... ? :(
Saying dates...

Jaime_Andres
July 27, 2011

Jaime_Andres
August 1, 2011
Anyone?
请。。。。

Sigma46
August 2, 2011
According to "Chinese, a Compressive Grammer" by Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington, if the predicative is an item which indicates time, date, age, height, weight etc, shi (是) is often omitted, e.g. jingtian (shi) shi yue er hao. So it looks like the pinyin and chinese versions are both acceptable.

Jaime_Andres
August 2, 2011
谢谢 Sigma46!

Lin-Ping
August 7, 2011
" shi " should be there. It is a TYPO. Sorry for the confusion. Sigma 46 is right too in pointing out that sometimes we do omit "shi".

Jaime_Andres
August 7, 2011
I'm still confused, do you mean that 是 should be in the audio and Pinying? Or do you mean that it should NOT be in the chinese script?

Lin-Ping
August 15, 2011
Pinyin: Jīntiān shi shiyuè shísìhào xīngqīèr。Zhège xīngqī nǐ mángma?
Chinese: 今天是十月十四号星期二。这个星期你忙吗?
This one is the right one. Sorry for the confusion. How to add tones to pinyin, sorry I do not know. HELP!

Oggiedoggy
August 16, 2011
淋: 参一下此链接: http://members.rocketlanguages.com/your-community/conversation-in-chinese/lets-talk-in-chinese-together