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Christmas is around the corner – How to say “As soon as Thanksgiving went away, she started Christmas shopping right away” in Chinese:感恩节一过，她就开始圣诞节大采购。Gan3 en1 jie2 yi2 guo4, ta1 jiu4 kai1 shi3 sheng4 dan4 jie2 da4 cai3 gou4。 Gan3 en1 jie2 (感恩节 Gan3 en1 thanks for the favor or mercy, jie2 holiday; together gan3 en1 jie2 means thanksgiving) yi2 (一 adverb, just) guo4 (过verb, passed), ta1 (他 pronoun, he) jiu4 (就 adverb, then) kai1 shi3 (开始 verb, start) sheng4 dan4 jie2 (圣诞节 sheng4 means saint -noun-, dan4 means was born -verb- jie2 holiday -noun; together these three characters mean Christmas) da4 (大adjective, big) cai3 gou4 (采购 noun, shopping)。
Let’s learn the yi2 + verb +jiu4 + verb — as soon as V then V
This structure connects two actions. It can be used to combine two actions in two different types of situations:habitual situations or one-time only situations.
1. Habitual situations -Whenever the first action occurs, the second action follows right away.
For example,
小李一游泳就呛水。
Xiao3 Li3 yi4 you2 yong3 jiu4 qiang4 shui3.
Whenever little Li swims, he gets choked with water.
2. In a one-time situation, the second action takes place as soon as the first is completed.
For example,
他一出门就跌倒了。
Ta1 yi4 chu1 men2, jiu4 die2 dao3 le5.
As soon as he got out of the door, he fell on the ground.
圣诞节 Christmas, 圣 sheng4 means the saint (Jesus), and 诞 dan4 means was born; so literally, it means the holiday that the saint was born. Also
圣诞节 Christmas can be called as ye2 dan4 jie2 耶诞节; for ye2 means Jesus, in Chinese this holy name is translated as 耶苏。 So, for the following phrases, you can also replace the 圣 sheng3 with 耶 ye2, the meanings remain the same. Let’s learn Christmas phrases: 圣诞树 （sheng4 dan4 shu4 Christmas tree）, 圣诞老公公 （sheng4 dan4 lao3 gong1 gong5 Santa Claus）, 雪橇 （xue3 qiao1 sled）, 驯鹿（xun2 lu4 reindeer）, 圣诞卡片 sheng4 dan4 ka3 pian4 Christmas cards and 圣诞礼物 （sheng4 dan4 li3 wu4）。 What’s on your wish list this year? Hope your wish will come true 愿望成真 yuan4 wang4 (wish) cheng2 (become) zhen1 (true). Merry Christmas 圣诞快乐 sheng4 dan4 kuai4 le5.
Chinese version Christmas song