thimbronion: gregorynyssa: I recently encountered 猜测. Is this digraph more often used than just 猜alone?
thimbronion: Also is 猜测 a proper verb?
gregorynyssa: Yes, it is a proper verb.
gregorynyssa: Many monographic verbs have a digraphic version, because there are instances where
gregorynyssa: the monographic version would not parse correctly if placed into a given sentence.
gregorynyssa: For instance, if you wanted to say "His plan was to guess quickly."
gregorynyssa: In Chinese this would be "ta de yuanlai de jihua, shi lai xunsu caice."
gregorynyssa: You cannot use "cai" in this case, because monographic verbs generally cannot be used
gregorynyssa: with adverbs, and "quickly" is an adverb.
gregorynyssa: In this example that I have given, you see the usage of "lai" again to mark an infinitive.
gregorynyssa: "His plan was (to guess quickly)." The parenthetical segment is a verbal noun (infinitive).
gregorynyssa: If you were to say "ta de yuanlai de jihua, shi lai xunsu cai" or
gregorynyssa: "ta de yuanlai de jihua, shi xunsu cai"
gregorynyssa: That just sounds wrong. The sentence doesn't parse in either case.