To express the idea of “about to do a thing” in Chinese you can use
the words \{tsiang-iau°}/ (將要). \{Tsiang-iau°-chi°}/ (將要去) means
“about to go.” \{Tsiang-iau° °si}/ (將要死) means “about to die.”
Another way of expressing the same idea is by adding \{kwha° tse}/
after the verb. \{Kwha°}/ means “fast.” \{Chi° kwha° tse}/ (去快哉)
means “I will go fast,” that is, in a moment. \{Le kwha° tse}/ (來快哉)
means “will come fast,” that is, in a few minutes. \{Thih-°tsung}/ is
often used, meaning “just on the point of doing a thing.” Thus
\{°Ngoo thih-°tsung iau° chi°}/ (我貼準要去) means “I was just going.”
The expression “According to,” or “as it seems to me,” is expressed
in Chinese by the words \{tsau° °ngoo khoen°}/ (照我看). \{Tsau°
°ngoo}/ (照我) used alone would mean “Follow me,” “Follow my example.”
The Ordinals are formed from the Numerals in a very simple way. The
word \{deu}/ (頭) is prefixed before the first numeral and \{di°}/ (第)
before all the others. Thus “the first” is \{deu ih}/ (頭一), the
second is \{di° nyi°}/ (第二), the third is \{di° san}/ (第三), and so
on. When first is used with the verb in the sense of the action being
prior to some other action the word \{sien}/ (先) is used. Thus we
have \{Noong° veh zung tsheh chi° kuh zien-deu °ngoo sien iau°
kau°-soo° noong° ih tsaung z°-°thi}/ (儂勿曾出去個前頭我先要告訴儂一莊事體),
meaning, “Before you go I first want to tell you something.” Again
\{Sien-tsoo° di° yang° nan-meh tsoo° i-yang°}/ (先做第樣難末做伊樣)
means “First do this and then do that.” Again we have for the same
expression \{Sien tsoo° di° kuh, man° tsoo° i-kuh}/ (先做第個慢做
伊個), “First do this, slowly do that.”