~族(zú) and ~迷(mí) made a lot of new nous. Then 粉(fěn)~ and ~丝(sī) are coming. Originally 粉丝 is one word, which is vermicelli made from bean starch. But the new 粉丝 is definitely different from vermicelli. 粉丝 comes from the transliteration of English fans.
The funny thing is that 粉丝 was separated to make new nouns respectively. Such word were very popular in the internet. After a little while, it will disappear from internet too.
玉米 李宇春的粉丝团
盒饭 何洁的粉丝团
纲丝 “非著名相声演员”郭德纲的粉丝团
藕丝 芙蓉姐姐的粉丝团
纯粉 某人的铁杆粉丝
散粉 这个也喜欢，那个也爱的粉丝
藕粉 芙蓉姐姐的粉丝团
“凉粉”、“职粉”、“粉丝团”等。
Maybe many times you tried to input pinyin with tones, like
ā á ǎ à
Maybe you racked your brains to do that, but still did not find the right way.
I had the same problem before when I was a student in Hiroshima University. Always we had to use some special programs.
One time I tried the 金山词霸, after I downloaded that one, all my system got messed up. It was so heavy, and it also changed all the set up to 金山词霸’s default set up.
I used Chinese Writer for a little while, which was based on the 中日,日中词典(小学馆).
There was a good function in that. You can turn on the input bar, so you can find the different ways of inputting. Inputting Pinyin(拼音) with tones(声调) is there too.
族(zú) is originally referred to a group that had a common attribute.
For example, 家族,民族
In internet society, it got a new meaning : a group of persons who have some joint characteristic , interest or hobby.
You can think that the Japanese word 暴走族 had influence on the new nouns with ~族(zú) in Chinese.
For example,
狼族(lángzú): to express the group of persons that love women but not bother them so much.
月光族(yuèguāngzú):moonlight, to express the persons who spend all of the salary that they earned every month.
乐活族(lèhuózú): comes from “LOHAS” (Life styles of Health and Sustainability)
奔奔族(bēnbenzú)： Rushing clan, to express the person who were born1975~1985 in China and has a lot of pressure in their life
房贷族(fángdàizú)
鸟人族（niǎorénzú）Bird people
布波族/波波族（bùyīzú/bōbozú）Bo-bos
拼一族（pīnyīzú） The pooling clan
飘一族（piāoyīzú）Drifting generation
飞特族（fēitèzú）Freeters
追星族(zhuīxīngzú)
哈日族(hārìzú)
Also you can use 有车一族(yǒuchēyīzú) to express the persons who have their own cars
Auxiliary word 啊(ā) is put in the end of the sentence to express surprise or admiration mood. The sound would change according to the front phonemes.
1, if the front phoneme is i, 啊(ā) sounds like 呀(yā)
笔啊–>笔呀
2, if the front phoneme is u (ɑo iɑo), 啊(ā) sounds like 哇(wā)
好啊–>好哇
3, if the front phoneme is n, it sounds like 哪(nǎ)
天啊–>天哪
For foreign students, it is boring to remember all of the rules. I think, once you practise that and form a habit , it comes natural to you.
Not only languages but also other skills, after you practice a lot, it will make perfect .
There are normally two ways to deny in Chinese.
bù(不) and méi(没)
bù(不) (From nciku)
* 1. ( used before verbs , adjectives , and other adverbs ; never before 有) not ; won’t ; not want to
* 2. ( used before certain nouns to form an adjective ) un- ; in- ;
* 3. ( used by itself or with a particle in responses ) not so; no
méi(没) (From nciku)
* 1. not have ; there is not ; be without
* 2. be not so. .. as
* 3. less than ; not more than
* 4. have not or did not
For example,
我不做。(I do not want to do it)
我没做。(I did not do it)
I was thinking what grammar is. Of course, first we have languages, then we have grammar. Grammar is just something to describe the language. For native speaker, we learn how to speak the language before we know the grammar. For foreign speaker, first we learn the grammar, then we speak rightly.
Recently I found that AA form makes a lot of new nouns.
I thought when you use AA form to make new nouns, they sound cute and you can pronounce that fluently. Normally that is thing you like. eg
福娃 (From 北京奥运吉祥物揭晓 福娃”北京欢迎你”亮相)
每个娃娃都有一个琅琅上口的名字:“贝贝”、“晶晶”、“欢欢”、“迎迎”和“妮妮”，在中国，叠音名字是对孩子表达喜爱的一种传统方式。当把五个娃娃的名字连在一起，你会读出北京对世界的盛情邀请“北京欢迎您”。
“贝贝bèibei”、“晶晶jīngjing”、“欢欢huānhuan”、“迎迎yíngying”和“妮妮níni”.
But I found recently AA form was used to some minus things. Of course, people do not like that. eg,
某些人讲道理？如同向西方媒体讲公正，向癞癞、突突、轮轮、运运、独独、弯弯讲和平。是不可能实现滴！
That was a new phenomenon.
when it comes to lan and nan, the same problem happens to the people of the south China.
难色nánsè a reluctant or embarrassed expression
蓝色lánsè blue
From above, you can know,
n is Nasal Alveolar
and l is Lateral approximant Alveolar.
When you heard some body say 那Nà or 辣Là, if could not get the meaning from what they pronounce, you’d better think about that probably they are pronouncing the other one.
For the people who were born in the south of China, specially in Hunan province, not so many people pay attention to the difference between the pronunciations of fu and hu.
For example, when the south people pronounce 湖南(húnán), it sounds like funan or wunan. If you pay attention to the difference, it is easy to pronounce correctly.
F, your top teeth bite your bottom lip lightly.
H, Fricative Velar
W, Co-articulated Approximant,
Native Chinese always make the mistake. For it is easy for foreign people instead. For example, not so many native English speaker would mess up fire, hire and wire.
In China, if you can understand the saying of “十里不同音”, you could imagine how abundant that the spoken languages are.
十 里 不 同 音
shí lǐ bù tóng yīn
English:Every 10 li people speak in different way.
There are 56 nationalities in China. Every nationality has their own languages, not dialects. It is said that totally there are 80 kinds of languages spoken in China. Do not think the differences between the languages in China same as the differences between British English and American English. The differences between British English and American English belong to the range of dialect. The differences between the languages in China belong to language.
Everybody knows there are tones in Chinese. Every time when I taught Chinese to foreign students, they would say it was difficult to tell all the tones.
Tones (From Pinyin wikipedia)
Even though I taught Chinese, I still did not figure out how to explain the difference among them using worlds. Every time I just try to demonstrate the difference in front of everybody.
Maybe that is way to learn that. First you listen to the right one, and then remember that and then practise.