Silicon Valley Mandarin Learner

Here are the distance and times from 16809 Cory Drive to some common neighborhood amenities in Morgan Hill: 0.6 miles (3 minutes drive, 13 min walk) to the main shopping plaza along E. Dunn Ave which includes: Safeway Trader Joe's  17035 Laurel Rd, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 Home Depot,  The Home Depot 860 E Dunne Ave, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 Kelly-Moore Paints Starbucks Burger King 1.0 mile (4 minutes) to Morgan Hill Caltrain Station 17300 Depot St., Morgan Hill 95037  (Main access and parking is off Butterfield Blvd.) Here's the weekday timetable:  http://www.caltrain.com/schedules/weekdaytimetable.html 1.3 miles (5 minutes) to  Morgan Hill Community Park 171 W Edmundson Ave, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 1.4 miles (5 minutes) to  Morgan Hill Outdoor Sports Center 16500 Condit Rd, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 1.8 miles (5 minutes) to Morgan Hill Aquatics Center 16200 Condit Rd, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 1.8 miles (6 m...

Wǒ  chī  le           我     吃    了    I ate. vs. ( 是)    wǒ  chī  de.   ( Shì )     我    吃    的.   (It was)    I (who) ate.  What's the difference between past tense form " le " and " de "? The first sentence  我吃 了 （wǒ chī le ）is the simple past tense form meaning the action is complete . The second sentence 我吃 的 （wǒ chī de ）is the modifying form emphasizing another part of speech in the sentence. In this case, it means  " I ate."  The emphasis is on " I " to mean " I am the person who ate it. "  Actually, to be more clear about what is being emphasized, you should put  是 ( shì) just before the part of the sentence that you want to emphasize .  There's a good Mandarin Grammar Wiki explaining this  classic "shi... de" construction . I'm repeating it here for convenience: Usi...