English/Chinese comparison again
(The first lines would be English, second lines are Chinese version. The third lines in [] would be explanations for translation.)
A list of things I did today
Remove the bandage (on my foot)
拆绷带
[拆 has the meaning of "tear apart" or "tear open" here. I can't very well use it here though, it'll be wolfish. But if you are itching to get the bandage off, "tear" it "apart" as you wish. Just don't use 撕 with bandages, it sounds like torture. PS. Aside from bandages, 拆 mainly means "take apart". You can 拆 your 收音机 if you want to take apart your radio (and see for yourself what make it work, whatever LOL).]
购物
Shopping
[Word by word, 购物 means "buy things". But it has a formal air which make it a part of written language. If you went shopping and somebody ask what you've done, you'd say 买东西 (buy things) or 逛街 (wander on street), 购物 only appears on papers.]
把微波炉搬进卧室
Move the microwave oven into my bedroom
[Ah, the infamous 把字句. If translate the English into Chinese word by word, it'll be 搬微波炉进我的卧室. People can understand you if you say it like that, but they'd label you "Foreigner" or "Taiwanese", in one word, not local. And it sounds somehow awkward. So you move the verb behind the object and add a 把 at where the verb has been, and voila, it's done. Last thing, I use "move" here for 搬. As I see it, "move" has a larger meaning, while 搬 indicate somebody lift something up and walk to somewhere with it in arms, if said people had said something on his shoulder, you use 扛, if said something is on said somebody's back, you use 背...]