Guessing Game

Okay, let’s have a little fun.  This is for those readers who are not literate in Chinese.  See if you can guess what these two sentences mean.  They’re a very famous line from a movie.

Note that the two sentences are exactly the same except for one character.

Okay, this took me a little bit but if I’m right, it’s the exclamation point that gives it away:

“The first rule of Fight Club is - you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is - you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!”

Bingo!  We have a winnah!

Yeah, I figured that the fact it was a famous movie line, the sentences being almost identical except for a number (which can be logically inferred as one and two), the punctuation, and the bold text at the end of the second sentence, would be enough to let someone figure it out.

Congrats!  You win the grand prize, which is… absolutely nothing! 

搏击 - Fight (with hands)
俱乐部 - Club
的 - (in possession of)
第一 个 - First (a quantity of one)
规则 - Rule
是 - To be
您 - You
不许 - Not allow
谈论 - Discuss/talk about
搏击 - Fight (with hands)
俱乐部 - Club

I actually just watched Fight Club because of this post. You wield much power and influence.

Cool!  My pimp hand is strong. 

If you were to rephrase the words to comply with the Chinese word order it would be “Fight Club’s first rule is you are not allowed to talk about Fight Club.”

The word 的, or de, implies possession of something, it modifies the thing that comes before it to imply that it possesses something.  Wo means “me”, wo de means “mine”—literally “me (possess)”.  So, in Chinese word order, you have to first state the name of the person or entity, then imply possession, then state what they are possessing.  In this case the owner is Fight Club, and what they possess is a set of rules, about which you are not permitted to speak.

That’s one of the hardest things about learning Chinese, learning the word order.

I just saw this post now, and of course someone already got the answer.