fly train fly!

I have a few years head start on Mandarin over my daughter but lately we are both learning the same way: by hearing children's songs.

We both like trains, and now we have an appropriate song to sing: 火車快飛 (Fly Train, Fly!)

Actually, here's another word that could go into Kaitlyn's post a few days ago about word origins. 火車 literally translated is "fire car." Even though there are hardly any steam engines, the word still evokes images of a coal-fired boiler powering freight down the valley.

But, back to the song:

火車快飛

火車快飛　火車快飛
穿過高山　飛過小溪
不知跑了幾百里
搭到家裏　搭到家裏
媽媽看見真歡喜

Even for a kids song there are some intermediate grammar points here. 過 (guò)is a tough concept for me. Like 會 (huì), it doesn't really have an exact translation to english, but in this case 穿過高山 (chuān'guò gāo shān) means to pass through a tall mountain, and 飛過小溪 (fēi guò xiǎo xī) means to speed past a creek.

The textbooks say 過 means the action happened in the past but has bearing on the present. I guess the train has to traverse these features (the mountain, the creek) in order to finally take the passengers home.