Difference between 生气 and 愤怒 I can't find the difference between 生气 and 愤怒.

Oxford Dictionary says angry means 生气, but I found 愤怒 in the online dictionary. Both have more than 20 million hits on Google, both have pictures of angry people, and nowhere am I able to find if they have a different meaning or if using one or the other is preferred.

In terms of degree of anger, 憤怒 is higher 生气.
In terms of context, 生气 is usually used in colloquial context, whereas 憤怒 is usually used in formal context.
Another term you may be interested in is 抓狂, which is a colloquial term with degree of anger higher than 憤怒
Here is an interesting joke that can hopefully help you understand better.
I have quoted below the key phrases that denote the difference (forgive the offensive language used):
生气

「X的，神經病。你去死好了！」
"F***ing psycho, go to hell!"

憤怒

「你欠扁是不是？妈的，要是再打来，给我试试看！」
"You want some beef? F***, I dare you call again!"

抓狂

「他妈的！去你老母！你娘卡好！」
"F*** your mom!" (three variations with the same meaning)


How to translate "something separates me from other people" in Chinese? I'm trying to translate a song lyric that reads "something separates me from other people".
My translation is " 我从别人点儿什么分开“.
Is this correct? Thanks in advance for your help!

Nice try, but not that correct.
Let’s disassemble this sentence.
The subject is: something / (1)什么东西
The verb is: separates / 分离，(2)将 ... 分离
The object is: me / (3)我
And the adverbial is: from other people / (4)从 其他人
So to re-assemble it in the Chinese way should be like:
(1)什么东西 (2)将 (3)我 (4)从 其他人 (2)分离
To clarify it: 什么东西将我从其他人分离。


Can anyone suggest glyph origin of 施? Does anyone has a good model of the origin of 施?
As far as I know the common ground in deciphering this character is:

On the left - flag pole.
On top  - flag cloth.
On the right-bottom - snake or, in unconventional reading, character representing "being low on the ground".

The problem with this decoding is that it does not explain all the usage of 施.
If the "Flag spreading on the ground like a snake" can explain

"to spread" a life form or plant, 施于中谷

"to last" (in time or space). 鳥獸安施
but the same etymology model can't explain

"to donate" - 冬天施粥, 夏天施茶

"to give" - 施綿衣

"to use" - 無計可施

"to teach" - 施之為孫

or, my favorite: 殺而施之 - "to execute and to show a body of a criminal to the public" (makes you doubt the correctness of the whole "flag+snake" model.

well, according to 說文解字, 施(u+65bd)﹒从㫃﹒也聲, it should be "chopped" into 㫃(u+3ac3) & 也(u+4e5f).

㫃 is a main component of oracle bone script.

so, 施 is a 形聲字 (Phono-semantic compound character), to decipher the meaning, i would suggest starting from 㫃, which is 旗在竿上飄游之形 (roughly, a flag flying on a pole).

amongst usages listed, my opinions:

殺而施之, 施 is "exhibit the corpse".

施之為孫, well, this one, do you mean the verse of 禮記﹒學記 "不陵節而施之謂孫".

if yes, 施 is "carry out" teaching, or make it simpler, "teach".

have fun :)

ps: may i ask why & how do you choose these usages of 施?


In what cases must I use 了 and in what cases not? When saying something in the past tense, in what cases must I use le 了 and in what cases not?

I'm studying this right now in my Chinese class and it is a complete mindfuck. I don't know in what cases its use is compulsory, in what cases you must not use it (despite talking about past actions) and use instead some time adverbs or some other structure or just not using anything, and in what cases it is optional. It is very confusing when in every single sentence, according to a thousand factors, have to (or have not to) use le 了.

I would really appreciate if someone could list me detailed, foolproof rules of the use of le 了. I see it as something really ambiguous and diffuse and my teacher says each Chinese person uses it as they please.

Thank you so much in advance for your help!

In what cases must I use 了 and in what cases not?

You use 了 when you must indicate the verb is 'completed'
you don't need 了 when you don't need to indicate the verb is completed

From my answer to another post

  The verb particle 了 denotes the "completion" aspect of the verb

  经历風浪 = [going through crisis] (In this sentence, the verb 经历 (to experience) may or may not had been completed
  经历 (了) 風浪 indicates [the verb 经历 in "experience crisis" is completed]

One more example:

吃水餃 = eat dumplings (we don't know you are going to eat dumplings, in the process of eating dumplings or done eating dumplings )

The proof is 吃水餃 can be the answer for any of the following questions:

Q1: "你現在要幹什麼?" (What are you going to do now?)

A1: "吃水餃" (or 我現在要吃水餃)

Q2: "你在幹什麼?" (what are you doing?)

A2: "吃水餃" (or 我在吃水餃)

Q3: "你幹了什麼?" (What have you done?)

A3: "吃水餃" (or 我吃了水餃)

吃了水餃 = has eaten dumplings (we know the verb 吃 is completed, you have done eating)

It can only be an answer to Q3, but not Q1 or Q2

Even more example:

If you only say "做菜請客", it doesn't matter if you are in the middle of cooking or the cooking is done, the sentence would be correct; If you say "做了菜請客", it can only mean the cooking is done and the dishes are ready

This answer focus on the relationship between verb and the verb particle了.

了 as a final particle has other functions. It denotes a sentence has ended; indicating change of situation,  ; serve to soften the tone of a sentence; express different emotions in speech depend on pitch and tone


How do we choose the correct characters for a westerner name? Since there are many characters that share a common pronunciation and sometimes also the same tone, how do we properly choose which character best represents our name? Is it totally arbitrary or are there some rules?

For example, my name is Alessandro. Do I simply choose the characters that resemble the most my name's syllables or the characters that represent things I like? I mean, choosing something that means "victory" over "building"1?

Edit: Note that this question is not about my name, I just took it as an example, and I'm certainly not asking you to make my name.

I'm asking if, when making a Chinese name for non-Chinese people, we can choose what we want according to the reading or if we need to follow certain rules, and if so, what are these rules.

1: The character for victory might differ from the one from building, it was just a banal example to make the point. :)

It's your name and you can arbitrarily pick characters to be your name.

We Chinese generally select characters with positive meanings (of course, I think characters with negative meanings would not be the choice for most people) and avoid possible bad meanings from the words with the same or similar pronunciation with the name.

For example, it's common to see characters like 刚（rigid), 强 (strong), 杰（excellent), 明 (bright), 阳（sun), 洋 (ocean) in a man's name, and 艳 (beautiful, brilliant), 卉 (flowers), 丽 (beautiful), 芳 (fragrance), 静 (quiet) in a woman's name.

Also, some people, will name their offspring after related characters. A good example is the name of the famous poet and politician in Song dynasty, 苏轼; his brother's name is 苏辙. "轼" is the rail on a wagon and "辙" is the track a wagon leaves on the road.

Some people will also select words from classic Chinese books to be the name. trideceth12 shows the name "云龙"; I am not sure whether he takes this word occasionally or not, but this word really comes from the book of "Yì Jīng"(易经),"云从龙，风从虎".


What are the differences between 锻炼 and 运动 for "exercise", "work out", "train", etc? When I want to say "working out", "exercising", or "training" in Chinese, I come across these two words:

锻炼
运动

What are the similarities and differences between these two words and their English counterparts?

运动 means "to exercise" or "to work out" . It is basically a method of strengthening one's muscles through body movements, to gain power and  or improve endurance in sport.  It can also just for keeping one's body healthy and fit.

锻炼 means "to train" or "to practice" . It refers to "improve skill and ability through training and practicing" It can apply to any thing that require skill and physical ability. For example, you can 锻炼 your language skill, chess playing skill or  your eye sight.  运动 is one of a methods for someone to 锻炼 his physical ability.

运动 as a verb can be used without object. e.g. "you need to exercise more" (你需要多运动)
锻炼 as a verb usually be used with object. e.g. "you need to train your hand eye coordination more (你需要多锻炼你的手眼协调)


What's the meaning of 缘分 in English? I asked a similar question on English Language & Usage site, but no one seems to come up with a good answer for me. I have decided to give our Chinese site a try.

Bonus: how will you describe the idiom 有缘无分?

Wikipedia has a very good explanation of the concept of 缘分:

  Yuan (simplified Chinese: 缘; traditional Chinese: 緣) or Yuanfen
  (simplified Chinese: 缘分; traditional Chinese: 緣分; pinyin: yuánfèn;
  Vietnamese: duyên phận) is a Buddhist-related Chinese concept that
  means the predetermined principle that dictates a person's
  relationships and encounters such as the affinity among friends or
  lovers. In common usage the term can be defined as the "binding force"
  that links two persons together in any relationship. The concept of
  synchronicity from the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung can be seen as
  similar to yuánfèn,[citation needed] which Chinese people also believe
  to be a universal force governing the happening of things to some
  people at some places. Yuánfèn belongs to the family of concepts known
  in theology as determinism.

  Some believe that the driving forces and causes behind yuánfèn are the
  actions done in the previous rebirths. Therefore, it can be understood
  as the relational- as opposed to the physical- aspect of karma in
  Buddhism. However, while karma often refers to the consequences of an
  individual's actions on him- or herself, yuán is always used in
  conjunction with two persons.

and 有缘无分:

  The proverb yǒu yuán wú fèn (有緣無份), "Have fate without destiny," is
  sometimes used to describe couples who meet, but who do not for
  whatever reason stay together.

Other than the above, I would like to add my own interpretation as follows:

In modern day practice, 缘分 is used more seriously to describe a relationship between lovers, whereas 缘 is used more casually to describe the chanced encounter between friends. For example:

  我俩的缘分已尽，还是分手吧。(This is the end of our relationship, let's split up.)

  我跟你真的很有缘，走到哪里都可以碰面。(The two of us are so fated together that wherever
  we go, we tend to meet up.)

The character "分" is originally written as "份" and is still very much in use today. "份" has the meaning of a share or a portion, e.g. "股份", "名份", "福份". Therefore, 有缘无分 (expanded as 有缘相爱，无份相守) can be taken to mean two persons having the fate (inevitable turn of events) to meet and become lovers, but not having the destiny (destination, the end result) to share the rest of their lives together as husband and wife.


What is the difference between 入 and 进? Both seems to mean "to enter".   I had a feeling that the  入 is more "to put into" while the 进 is "to enter" ? But I also saw the "entrence" using 入.

入 (to put into/ to enter into)
进 (to advance/ to advance and enter)

进入 (advance into/ to enter) is a compound word

进(advance) is the main verb

入(into) is the resultative/ directional verb particle


What is the difference between 嘱咐 and 吩咐? Both of them seem to be able to be used to mean instruct. Am I right in saying that you can 嘱咐 and 吩咐 someone to study hard? If so, what is the difference in meaning between these two terms?

On the most basic level they both mean "to tell", but they are not exactly the same - there is some nuanced differences.

吩咐 is closer to English "to instruct". It is often used to describe a superior, or elder, telling their juniors to do something. Thus, it carries the connotation of a verbal command, almost ordering someone to do something. But it is less forceful outright than 命令, "to command".
嘱咐 in contrast is more even, and thus closer to English "to ask" or "to urge". It is also used to convey concern, although it doesn't necessary carry any connotations of concern by itself.

Despite these nuances, for the most part the meanings are similar enough that they can be used interchangeably. That's why you'll also find them listed as synonyms.

Examples:

他爸媽吩咐他要照顧好妹妹 : His parents told him to take good care of his sister. Alternatively: "instructed him", or "ordered him".
他爸媽嘱咐他要照顧好妹妹 : His parents bade him take good care of his sister. Alternatively: "asked him", or "urged him".

Note that apart from the meaning of "to tell", 嘱咐 has a second meaning "to entrust", or "to charge".


Is 创业者 the best translation of entrepreneur as somebody who is trying to run a startup? I have looked for that word. The most common translation seems to be 企业家. However, I think 企业家 can be confused with big businessman. I want to say 我是企业家, but I'm not a big businessman. I'm just trying to run a startup, so I think I should say 我是一个创业者. Am I right?

企業家 (T) or 企业家 (S) is the correct translation for "entrepreneur"
it doesn't indicate the size of  the business that person is running, ,

For that, we have 大企業家 (T) or 大企业家 (S) meaning large profile entrepreneur)，and 小企業家 (T) or 小企业家 (S) meaning small profile entrepreneur.

For a start up business owner, the term is 新進企業家 (T) or 新进企业家 (S) meaning start up entrepreneur

創業 (T) or 创业 (S) means "to start a business"

創業者 (T) or 创业者 (S) means " one who starts his or her own business"

T: Traditional Chinese

S: Simplified Chinese


Meaning of this sentence: 我几个月后再来 I just want to know the exact meaning of this sentence:

  我几个月后再来

I have some options:

A few months later I come again
Next month I come again
Other meaning

Thanks

I will come again after a few months:
"I" "a few months" "after" "again come."


What readers are available at the 1,000 word level? I want to improve my reading and grammar skills by finding interesting things to read. What graded readers, basic textbooks, magazines, and other reading materials are available for adult students who can recognize the first 1,000 words from the HSK? I would prefer material which includes a CD or MP3 files, but without is okay too.

You can try 读者 which is like Reader's Digest. I don't know if one with 1000 words can understand every article in it, but I think you can find some interesting essays.


Is Cantonese a better choice in looking for characters in rime dictionary (韻書)? I ask this question, and provide my opinion as an answer, to reply to the comment of another tread in stack exchange:

Pronunciation of Tang Dynasty Poetry

The rationale is that it is difficult to write long answers ib the comments area, and, I've several arguments to express. Also it is too long to make it in the answer. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Now, I ask again, to use a rime dictionary, e.g. 切韻, 廣韻, is Cantonese better than Mandarin?

Though I emphasize Cantonese here, any southern dialect / language that still have entering tone (入聲); e.G. Hakka and Min, would have a similar scenario.

The oldest rime dictionary (韻書) I found, is 鉅宋廣韻, printed in 1169; that the national archives of Japan has a downloadable copy:

https://www.Digital.Archives.Go.Jp/das/pickup/view/category/categoryarchives/0500000000/0511000000/00

To look for a character in rime dictionary, you just need to know how to pronounce it, in Cantonese.

Let's try to find 入 (u+5165)

I know it's pronounced as sound file; which is straight & short (直而促). A clear, significant sign that 入 (u+5165) is in entering tone (入聲).
Meanwhile, if I try to write it's romanisation( I used sydney lay scheme, you may use others), it would be "yap". It ends with -p, another significant sign that 入 (u+5165) is in entering tone (入聲).
Pick up volume 5 of 鉅宋廣韻 {volume I & II is for level tone (平聲), volume III for rising tone (上聲), volume IV for departing tone (去聲); and volume V for entering tone (入聲)}.

https://www.Digital.Archives.Go.Jp/das/pickup/view/detail/detailarchives/0511000000/0000000873/00

Turn to the index page of volume 5, read from right to left, top to bottom; try to find any character that has a similar pronunciation with "入".

Voilà, 緝第二十六; the character 緝 has a similar pronunciation, and, the "七入" above 緝 is used for 反切, which has "入" :)
Lastly, turn to 緝第二十六. Well, no page number in ancient Chinese books. You guess roughly, and turn the page :( read again from right to left, then top to bottom. Voilà, it's there:

Ok, 緝第二十六 is page 34, 入 is page 35:

It was written: 入﹒得也﹒ 内也﹒納也﹒人執切

By the way, 内 (u+5185) is not 內 (u+5167); anyone see the difference?

Now, this comment is quoted from the above mentioned thread:

  Point 3 is straight factually incorrect that people can use 韻書 (rime dictionaries) with Cantonese but not Mandarin. It is just factually wrong and unlike point 1, there even is no dispute about this. Rime dictionaries do not apply as much to Cantonese as they do not to Mandarin. – rethliopuks

Now, may I ask, how can anyone searches for the character 入 (u+5165), using Mandarin?

According to Mandarin, 入 is pronounced as rù (去聲). So, anyone picking volume IV of 鉅宋廣韻 would be trapped, it's not in this volume.

I used 入 as the only example to show the uselessness of Mandarin in looking for characters in rime dictionaries. If anyone have time and effort, and wants to verify this context, try two more entering tone (入聲) characters:

哲 (u+54f2)

福 (u+798f)

Have fun

This answer is already quite long, I would say that most, or, all entering tone (入聲) characters would have the same scenario.

Last, I would conclude that, to look for character in rime dictionaries (韻書), Cantonese, or other dialects / languages that have entering tone (入聲); are a better choice than Mandarin.

Or, a direct, maybe provoking statement would be:

Since Mandarin lost the entering tone (入聲), it's useless in looking up characters in rime dictionaries (韻書).

Stay tuned, there'll be another thread about entering tone (入聲) and old Chinese; Cantonese is again better.


Which one of these two ISO 639-2 code refers to Traditional Chinese, chi or zho? On a database file, the designer uses chi and zho to tell simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. It's hard to tell whether chi means the simplified one or traditional.

Seemingly, chi is derived from the first three characters of "Chinese", zho from the first three of "Zhōngwén".

The wiki page of Chinese language, as well as the following two links from ISO 639 documentation, chi and zho, all tell us that chi is ISO 639-2/B, where the B stands for bibliographic, zho being ISO 639-2/T, T for terminological. The explanation of the B and T codes does not shed any light on traditional-or-simplified information the either.

But there is nowhere that I can refer to showing which one representing the traditional Chinese.

chi and zho stands for the Chinese language, but not one of its writing forms.

Specific codes for traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese widely in use being zh-Hant and zh-Hans respectively, specified by IETF and also RFC 5646.

The use of improvised codes "tc" and "sc", which abbreviate "Traditional Chinese" and "Simplified Chinese", are often observed too in Chinese websites.

So, just as @TactMayers said in the comment, I also think that the designer chose them deliberately, or simply due to misunderstanding.

By the way, here may not be a right place for this question; Stack Overflow is more suitable.


Characters for ben1 ben1 meaning 围巾 or 围嘴? There is a word in Southern Mandarin dialects pronounced ben1 ben1 meaning 围巾 or 围嘴.

Dictionary entries usually just give a:

  □ □

meaning that there is no known character for writing this word.

It is more than possible that there does, though, exist characters that could be used to write this word.

Any ideas what it might be?

It is just a guess:
围巾 is a scarf; 围嘴 is a bib, also known as 圍兜.
围巾 and 围嘴/圍兜 are two different things.
But the pronunciation /ben1/ gave us a clue. You are probably thinking of 'bib'
Bib  ( 圍兜 )
'Bib' sounded like 'ben1' in Mandarin. What you are looking for is probably a loaned word for 'bib'
If it is a loaned word, the character itself might have nothing to do with the actual item.
The only character that is pronounced as/ben1/  in Mandarin is 奔 /ben1/; /ben4/
It is just my guess, but to indicated  this loaned word  奔 is related to 'cloth' a 巾 radical might be added to 奔 and make it looked like this:

or this:

user3306356 wrote:

衯衯 could also be a possibility.

Yes, most loaned words are just sounded like the original foreign words. It could be some other similar sounding words in this case.
More importantly, I have no proof that it is actually a loaned word. We need someone who know the history of this item to give a definite answer.
Edit:

In Cantonese, 'bib' is called 口水肩--  often shortened to just '肩' /gin1/ , which is the only single character that can mean 'bib' in Chinese (Cantonese).
'肩肩' would be a baby talk.
However, it is pronounced /jian1/ in Mandarin


What does '来' means when it is used to describe age? For example:  someone who is '二十来岁'

Does it mean:

Someone in his twenties (20-29)
Someone in his early twenties (20-23 or 25)
Someone who is about twenty years old (might be 19, 20, 21 etc.)

(sorry for not putting any research, can't find any)

Base on the two different answers from user6065 and steveLangsford, my conclusion is, "the dictionary definition of 来 really should be a '概数' (approximate number) synonym to '上下' or '左右'. Which mean 二十來岁 = 二十岁左右 (approximately twenty)

But in practice, most people see 来 as a synonym of 几 and eventually became accepted fact that "二十来岁" means "二十几岁 (twenty something)"


Is this the way to say 'afford'? 'afford' in its meaning of 'can pay for' is not so easy to locate in Chinese. There doesn't seem to be one word. 'can't afford' is fairly easy: '买不起‘。

I have this in my text:

..., 既满足了自己买车的愿望，又能承受得起燃油费用。

承受得起 = afford ?? This 得 is its use as a particle?

Your text (承受得起) is fine. And also could use 负担得起 for can afford.

As you said, it's easy to say can't afford as ~不起, and the opposites in Chinese is ~得起, and then you could use this form for more verbs according to the context.


How to write your original (non-Chinese) and Chinese name, jointly What is the most appropriate way to write both your non-Chinese, as well as your Chinese name, in one text line combined, e.g. at the bottom or top of a document.

Clarification: by this, I mean that the document (e.g. a letter, a resume, or a report) is written by the person signing or 'heading' that document.

I am looking for the most appropriate answer, with regards to the "Chinese"-language context, disregarding that the document itself might not be Chinese.

Is it one of the following options, and if so; which one please:

"FIRST NAME" "LAST NAME" ‧ "CHINESE LAST NAME" "CHINESE FIRST NAME"

"FIRST NAME" "LAST NAME" · "CHINESE LAST NAME" "CHINESE FIRST NAME"

"FIRST NAME" "LAST NAME" • "CHINESE LAST NAME" "CHINESE FIRST NAME"

"FIRST NAME" "LAST NAME" ∙ "CHINESE LAST NAME" "CHINESE FIRST NAME"

The inter-punctuation characters used in the options above are:

‧ hyphenation point (HTML-code: &#8231;),

· interpunct (HTML-codes: &#183; or &middot;),

• bullet (HTML-codes: &#8226; or &bull;) and

∙ bullet operator (HTML-code: &#8729;)

respectively ... even though this Stack Exchange website doesn't seem to format the bullet operator in a very standard way/font-size.

Or is there any other punctuation which is more standardized? Perhaps even using simple brackets () (or is that not the "Chinese" way)? Or should one simply use the Chinese point: 。?

Also: should the punctuation marks or names receive a different font-size?

Your best source is 百度 百科 here's some examples of how they do it:

基努·里维斯（Keanu Reeves）
布兰妮·斯皮尔斯（Britney Spears）
奥兰多·布鲁姆（Orlando Bloom）

So the format here is: transliterated first name + · (interpunct code point U+00B7 · MIDDLE DOT) + transliterated surname + （ (General purpose
(fullwidth East-Asian) / U+FF08 Fullwidth left parenthesis) + ） (General purpose
(fullwidth East-Asian) / U+FF09 Fullwidth right parenthesis)
Also, you can see there is no space after the Chinese name and the left parenthesis.
Your name then would look something like this:
文森特·费尔海恩（Vincent Verheyen）
the reverse would also work for said purpose
Vincent Verheyen（文森特·费尔海恩）

Out of curiosity, here's also an example of a famous westerner with a Chinese name - with his Chinese name and then western-name on a "single line"
大山（本名马克·亨利·罗斯韦尔，Mark Henry Rowswell）


Expressing "Fair enough" The English expression "fair enough" can be used to concede a point in an argument, or acknowledge the other person's position, without expressing complete agreement. To take an example from UrbanDictionary (surprisingly the best example I could fine):

Bro A: Dude, why didn't you take that job? The benefits were killer!
Bro B: Maybe, but it was so far out, I'd have spent more on gas than what they were willing to pay me.
Bro A: Fair enough.

Bro A does not necessarily agree with Bro B's decision, but he acknowledges his position and does not want to try and talk him out of it.
A similar situation is one in which one person is critical of another, but is rebuffed by a counter-criticism:

Bill: You really shouldn't drink so much. It's bad for your liver.
Jill: Don't you smoke a pack of cigarettes every day?
Bill: Fair enough.

In this case, Bill is acknowledging he's not in a position to be criticizing Jill's behavior.
In Chinese, what might be used to express the same idea as "fair enough" does in these conversations. I doubt it has to do with 公平.
Edit:
Another similar English expression is "You have a point", which expresses "You have a good argument, even though I might not agree with your conclusions".

Essentially it's form of concession, either through a counterargument or the acquiesence of a mutually agreed upon opinion.

There are different ways to express concession in Chinese. Here are some possible translations that I can think of based on your examples. This is far from exhaustive and some of them might be preferred over others depending on the situation and context:

Bro A: 兄弟, 你为啥没要那工作? 有这么多的员工津贴!
Bro B: 是啊，但这种工资水平还不够贴补我汽油费用的.
Bro A: 嗯，　有道理．

Bill: 你真不该喝这么多，　太伤肝脏了.
Jill: 你不也每天吸一包烟吗？
Bill: (你)说得对.

Here are some others: 合乎情理，　说得通,　说得过去，　(我)认了.

In the first example, Bro A has taken into account the additional information supplied by Bro B and has modified his previous conclusion. In this case, he's cooperating with Bro B so any reply that states 'your reasoning is sound' is suitable. This includes 有道理, 合乎情理, 说得通, 说得过去 and possibly 可能是吧 (which shows more doubts than the previous examples).

In the second example, Bill makes concession, due to his argument being countered by Jill. In this case, he's not cooperating with Jill, but acknowledging Jill's point/his defeat. So 说得对 is probably the best answer out of the list. 好吧 is appropriate, but it only serves as a precursor to what follows. One possible reply is 好吧, 我认输了. This particular reply is probably more appropriate after a long-winded argument with a lot of toing and froing.


How can I translate "非语言表达方式"? This is an example sentence from my textbook:

  除了学习用语言表达自己的思想感情以外，还要学习用非语言表达方式。

Here "非" has the meaning "not" or "non-".

I would translate it to something like:

  Aside from studying using language to express your deep philosophical thoughts and emotions, you also must study non-language methods of expression.

I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around what is meant by "non-language methods of expression".

At first, I thought this might be referring to gestures, but gestures are also a kind of language, namely body language or "肢体语言".

What is meant by a non-language method of expression?

Your understanding is right.

"非语言表达方式" means expressing things without using language, here the word "language" means just spoken and written language, gestures are not considered as "language" here although they can be refereed to as "肢体语言".

The reason is that you need to understand the word "language" here by context. The word "language" from the first half of the sentence means spoken and written language, e.g. Chinese here, so it still means that in the second half of the sentence.

Actually, the reason we Chinese sometimes call gestures "肢体语言" is that it serves the purpose of expressing thoughts and emotions, just like what we can do with the "real language".

There are other similar phrases like "艺术语言", which means the way of expressing by practice of art.

Hope this helps :)


Can 去 be used as a 介词(Preposition)? I don't think 去 in the example below is necessary since 走 already implies, "go",
unless the 去 in used as a 介词(preposition).

去故宫(我)怎么走？
How should I go to 故宫？

I also do not think that that sentence is verb-serialized(去+走).

Should it be just something like this?

故宫我怎么去？

Thanks in adavance.

You're right that it's not verb serialization, but 去 is still a verb in this sentence. Instead, 怎么走 is the interrogative adverbial phrase that modifies the V+O 去故宫. Consider the sentence structure of a possible answer to the question:

我 骑车     去 故宫。
S  Adv.     V  O

The structure needs no explanation. Now replacing the adverbial phrase with an interrogative one, the sentence becomes an interrogative sentence:

我怎么走去故宫？

Invert the sentence for emphasis:

去 故宫 我 怎么走？
V  O   |S  Adv.

In the case of 故宫我怎么去, it's the inversion of 我怎么去故宫, where the interrogative adverbial phrase is simply 怎么 without a verb.

我 怎么 去 故宫？
S  Adv. V  O

故宫 我 怎么 去？
O   |S  Adv. V


What is 装 and 连 doing in this paragraph about a newt in a glass from Matilda? E.g. 她再看那装着蝾螈的玻璃杯 This is from the Chinese version of Matilda (p.182):

  那蝾螈仍旧在那个高玻璃杯装的水里扭来扭去，看起来让人极不舒服。杯子对它来说太小了。玛帝尔达看着特朗奇布尔，她多么恨她呀。她再看那装着蝾螈的玻璃杯，恨不得跑过去把它拿起来连蝾螈带水泼在特朗奇布尔的头上。她想到她真这样做了的话特朗奇布尔会怎样对待她，不禁发起抖来。

The original English is:

  The newt was still squirming in the tall glass of water.  It looked horribly uncomfortable.  The glass was not big enough for it.  Matilda glared at the Trunchbull.  How she hated her.  She glared at the glass with the newt in it.  She longed to march up and grab the glass and tip the contents, newt and all, over the Trunchbull's head.  She trembled to think what the Trunchbull would do to her if she did that.

I understand it mostly, but don't understand the function of 装 and 连.

Question: What is 装 and 连 doing in this paragraph?

装 means contain, therefore 她再看那装着蝾螈的玻璃杯 means

  She glared at the glass with the newt (contained) in it.

Here 连 means together with, therefore 恨不得跑过去把它拿起来连蝾螈带水泼在特朗奇布尔的头上 means

  She longed to march up and grab the glass and tip the contents, (with) newt and all, over the Trunchbull's head


In the grammar structure 又 [adjective] 又 [adjective], is there anything wrong with combining a negative adjective with a positive one? Question: In the grammar structure 又 [adjective] 又 [adjective], is there anything wrong with combining a negative adjective with a positive one?
It seems like it would make a confusing sentence to mix both positivity and negativity.  Such sentences might be better off being written using the grammar structure 虽然 ... 但是 ...  But perhaps they're perfectly okay.
Some examples I made up:

我的女儿又漂亮又淘气
My daugther is both beautiful and naughty
Wǒ de nǚ'ér yòu piàoliang yòu táoqì
这辆车又快又旧
This car is both fast and old
Zhè liàng chē yòu kuài yòu jiù
我的作业又难又有兴趣
My homework is both difficult and interesting
Wǒ de zuòyè yòu nán yòu yǒuxìngqù

The examples I've read never seem to mix negative adjectives with positive ones.  Some examples I "borrowed" from jukuu.com:

他有点成问题，又懒、又邋遢、又不讲卫生
Tā yǒudiǎn chéng wèntí, yòu lǎn, yòu lātà, yòu bù jiǎng wèishēng
他又高又瘦，穿得很差
Tā yòu gāo yòu shòu, chuān dé hěn chà.
这就是为什么糖块是又快又好的能量来源
Zhè jiùshì wèishéme táng kuài shì yòu kuài yòu hǎo de néngliàng láiyuán
她听说白兰德家族又有钱又有地位
Tā tīngshuō báilándé jiāzú yòu yǒuqián yòu yǒudìwèi

Question: In the grammar structure 又 [adjective] 又 [adjective], is there anything wrong with combining a negative adjective with a positive one

Yes, there's something wrong with combining a negative adjective with a positive one in the [又 [adjective A] 又 [adjective B] structure.

The problem is -- You can't do that!

All the examples you made up are wrong. [又(A) 又 (B)] is equal to [(A) and (B)] in English.

  (A) and (B) have to be both positive or both negative

Example:

(both positive)

[又(迅速)又(准确)] = [(fast) and (accurate)]

We don't say  "his punch is fast but accurate" in English ; We only say "his punch is fast and accurate"

~

(both negative)

[又(贪心)又(愚蠢)] = [(greedy) and (stupid)]

We don't say "this man is greedy but stupid" in English; We only say "this man is greedy and stupid"

~

(one positive, one negative)

[(迅速)但(不准确)] = [(fast) but (inaccurate)]

We don't say "his punch is fast and inaccurate" in English. For the same reason, we don't say "他的拳头又快速又不准确" in Chinese

[(贪心)但(守法)]= [(greedy) but (law abiding)]

We don't say "he is greedy and law abiding" in English. For the same reason, we don't say "他又贪心又守法" in Chinese


Where can I find a full list of combinations of sounds and tones used in Chinese? I heard that there are roughly 400 sounds in Mandarin plus four tones. Are all combinations of those used in Chinese vocabulary, making it 1600 possibilities per single-sound word? If not, how many such combinations are actually used in any piece of a word?

I use this one. But it show all combinations, including ones that aren't words.
http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/

ETA: It has tones, if you want to hear how they sound.


What does "整块的时间" mean? I have a sentence in my textbook I've mostly translated, but I can't piece this part together.

"交通不是很便利不说，还需要整块的时间"

Google translate spits out:

"Traffic is not very convenient, you also need the entire time"

...which doesn't make much sense to me.

Pleco (my dictionary) doesn't list "整块" as one word, but separates this part into:

整: whole, complete, full, entire; in good order, neat, tidy; put in order, rectify; repair, mend, renovate; make sb suffer, punish

块: piece, lump, chunk; MW for a piece or lump

A whole lump of time?

Is this literally just 很长时间？

Can I share my thoughts after the OP has chosen the best answer?

I disagree with everyone here: 整块的时间 is correct, and I hear people say it all the time.

If you Google the phrase "整块时间" (commonly used without 的), you see a lot of test prep  websites suggesting that students use an entire block/period studying for one subject as opposed to spending ten minutes on history when you wait for the bus and another ten before they go to bed (i.e. 用整块时间学习). The opposite is 零碎时间, which means "fragments of time" (five minutes today, five minutes tomorrow).

For example,

  你今天得把文章写完！You have to finish your article today!

  根本不可能！我五分钟之后要开会，会结束之后十分钟又要参加开幕式！It's impossible! I have a meeting in five minutes and only a ten-minute break before the opening ceremony starts! (Here, if you combine the speaker's five- and ten-minute breaks, he could probably finish the article. But unfortunately he does not have 整块的时间 - only 零碎的时间.)

Similarly, 爬山 takes up 整块的时间 (can't be done during those five-minute breaks) because it's exhausting, not to mention the traffic and the mountain's location. The book is trying to illustrate that "一年中能悠闲地爬那么一两回，已经算是十分的心满意足了", as 爬山 usually takes a day or two.

P.S. Is there an English equivalent of 整块的时间? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

EDIT: Aelephant suggests "a relatively long period of uninterrupted time" - perfect!


Object before the verb 每次地理考试我都不及格 In the sentence:

  每次地理考试我都不及格.

Is 考试 a verb? If it is a verb why is the object before it? If it is a noun could not 有 be missing before 地理?

Your question is very interesting.
考試 here is not an object. It belongs to 每次 phrase.
We can simply treat it like this pattern.

每次 + conditional phrase + consequence phrase (usually with 都 or more archaic with 皆 indicating that it is always like that).

This is a common pattern for expressing recurring consequence under certain conditions.
With this pattern, we can break it into two parts.

每次地理考試　我都不及格

More examples

每次大雨　我都繞路 (Heavy rain -> I go for indirect route)
每次地震　我都不在 (Earthquake -> I am not there)
每次閃燈　都是紅色 (Light flashes -> (it is) red in colour)
每次你去澳門　都忘記帶禮物 (You go to Macau -> (you) forget to bring some presents)
每次外婆看醫生　母親都會陪同 (Grandmother visits doctor -> Mother go with her)
每次出戰　皆勝 ((someone) has -> (someone) wins)

Sure you can add 有 in the 每次 phrase.

每次有地理考試　我都不及格

The meaning is the same but there are some subtle grammatical changes.
The interesting thing happens here. Chinese languages do not explicitly show the part of speech like English. Most Chinese speakers cannot tell what the grammatical properties of words is unless it is very simple.  There would be a spectrum of answers because most Chinese grammar books imitates Western grammar books.
Actually there are two layers of grammar of words. First is the natural layer. Some words bear clear property naturally, for example, 踢 (kick) is verb, 紅 (red) is adjective, 葉 (leaf) is noun. But many more words are vague and ambiguous. In order to make sentence comprehensible, second layer let the placement of words in sentence to decide the grammatical properties of in usage. For example, 踢 in 一踢 is a noun because it follows 一  like 一杯, 一場. This overrides its natural property in usage.
每次 is like 每個. There is a noun following 每次. We can find phrase like 每次大雨 and 每次火災. We can conclude that 地理考試 in 每次地理考試 works as noun here. For 每次你去澳門, 你去澳門 is  a phrase functioning as noun as well. So do 每次有地理考試. 有地理考試 functions as noun here.

地理考試 is a noun in 每次地理考試
有地理考試 is a sentence dressing itself as a noun in 每次有地理考試.

Phrase and sentence patterns is very important in Chinese languages. In general, word order dictates the meaning of words and their parts of speech.


What's the Mandarin equivalent of "定係"? I'm writing up something in Chinese, and want to write the following (irrelevant information redacted):

  Do I need to bring XXX? [...] Or I can just bring a photocopy of it?

I'm not completely sure what the correct form of "or" is here. It's clear that if this were Cantonese, I would use "定係", but this isn't a word in Mandarin, and at least intuitively speaking, I wouldn't use "或者" (at least not without a lot of rephrasing).

Would using "还是" be appropriate (in conveying the same meaning) here?

Translation, with what I believe to be correct.

  我需要带 XXX 吗？[...] 还是只要带影印本吗？

But using "还是" at the beginning of the sentence feels slightly awkward, if only since the examples I'd been taught in school involved use of it to express a different option within the same sentence, instead of breaking the options up.

Split it up to questions, omit the second modal particle "吗"

  我需要带 XXX 吗？[...] 还是只要带影印本？

or, combine into one sentence, omit the second verb "带"

  我需要带XXX, [...] 还是只要影印本？


Is "谐仿" an actual word in Chinese? The English Wiktionary lists "谐仿" (xiéfǎng) as a translation for the English word "parody".

But my other dictionaries don't list it and also my friends here in China say they don't know it, not even as a seldom-used technical word.

(Wiktionary also lists "戏仿" xìfǎng, which is definitely a word so not asking about that.)

So could it be a bogus entry in Wiktionary, is it out-dated or just used in a non-Mandarin language or dialect? What's the story?

百度：谐仿是指对原作品的嘲弄，

baidu: 谐仿 is at original work make fun of,

parody is pretty good!


What does 头 mean in 时常一待就几个钟头? In the following sentence:

  除了数学方面的书，我也喜欢看历史、文学等方面的书，时常一待就几个钟头。

The sentence mean something like the following:

  Except math books, I also like books about history and literature. When I have time, I often keep reading for several hours.

The sentence likely have the following missing structure, if I understand it correctly:

  我时常一会儿等待的时候，我几个钟头。

But then I don't understand how 头 works here. It is clear (for me) that it means "read", or at least work as a verb, but according to my dictionary 头 does not work as a verb.

So how does 头 work here? And is my understanding correct here?

As the comments have pointed out, 鐘頭 is a colloquial word which means hour, used in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Wu (e.g. Shanghainese). Other topolects may have their own colloquialisms, the most prominent being 點鐘 (used in Hakka, Min Dong and Min Nan). Mandarin also uses the word 點鐘, but more commonly for the meaning o'clock rather than hour.

The word 鐘頭 comes from an old word for hour, 鐘點 [1], where 點 refers to the hourly divisions in a day. 點 was replaced with 頭, which is a diminutive suffix. For reference, similar words which use this suffix:

木頭
老頭

The word 鐘頭 was likely popularised by modern Chinese literature, e.g. in the work 《日出》 by 曹禺, which was written in the 1930s.

  曹禺　《日出ㆍ第四幕》： “那就看您這幾個鐘頭的本事吧。 我福升實在不能再替你擋這門賬了。”

李六如　《六十年的變遷ㆍ第二卷ㆍ第九章》： “‘錢就少啦。 ’ 方維夏 把中學待遇略微講一點。 ‘也是按鐘點計算。 公立的一塊錢一點鐘， 私立的八角。 ’”


What does the phrase "足矣" mean? I saw this phrase recently in a post online. The whole sentence is 人生得一知己足矣. I think 人生得一知己 means "getting a BFF(?) in one's life". (The only meaning of the word 知己 that I know of is BFF, but please correct me if I am wrong!) What does 足矣 mean? Is it a phrase or is it two separate words that just happened to be together in this example?

By the way, is this a phrase used in classical Chinese? The sentence structure looks different from modern Chinese.

足矣 means (lucky) enough.

So the whole sentence means:

knowing a person who understand you (soul mate? I think) in one's life is enough.

Implicit meaning: many people won't have even one soul mate all his/her life. When you have one, you are lucky enough. So please appreciate it and don't ask for more.


Can you still use "Number + MW + 多" when the Number can be more than one MW larger? I have a doubt related to these questions: Does 多 always come after the measure word？, How to correctly use "多" to say "more than"?
In the answers, they explain you can give an approximate quantity of a noun with the following structure:

Number + Measure Word (MW) + 多 (+ Noun)
The quantity of the noun is more than the Number of MW (but less than the Number plus one unit of MW).

An example:

我们走了两个多小时。
We walked for more than two hours (but less than three hours).

Could you still express with the same structure an approximation that can be more than one MW larger? (And maybe less than some other larger MW value). In the example, this approximation could be: We walked for more than two hours (but less than four hours). If that is not possible, how could you express this situation? Maybe using 几? (They mentioned in some of the other posts' answers that 几 could used for larger approximations when you don't know its limits).

How could you express the case when your approximation can be more than one MW larger? In the example, it could be: We walked for more than two hours.

我们走了[至少]兩个小时。 = We walked for [at least] two hours
我们走了[超過]兩个小时。 = We walked for [over] two hours
我们走了[不止]兩个小时。= We walked for [more than] two hours
All three above can refer to the amount of time beyond one MW larger.

Can you still use “Number + MW + 多” when the Number can be more than one MW larger?

多 in "我们走了[超過/不止]兩个[多]小时 would be redundant, because "超(over) and "不止" (more than) already indicated it is more than two hours
"至少" in "我们走了至少兩个小时" also implied 'could be more'
Edit:
Dan wrote:

More than two hours but less than four hours could be roughly 两三个小时

It works only when it is between two and three hours. Doesn't work beyond three hours
我们走了兩三个小时 means "We walked two, three hours
(it also implies, not more than two hours by just a little; it has to be something between two and a half hours and three hours)


Which is correct, 经验非常丰富or 非常经验丰富？ I heard a TV host said in his comment that 他是一个非常经验丰富的队员, but which sounds weird, perhaps he wanted to say 他是一个经验非常丰富的队员? Which is correct or accpetable?

I think you are correct. In grammar，经验非常丰富 means （拥有）非常丰富(的)经验. We usually use a Noun+Adjective to express [Noun] is [Adjective].

The TV host is wrong in fact. We should say 他是一个非常有经验的队员/他是一个经验丰富的队员, but can not say 一个非常经验丰富的队员. Howerver, chinese would understand his informal expression casuse we just take it as an error in speak. May be he wanted to say 非常有经验, and suddenly associated 经验丰富, so...


Is this a Chinese symbol? Cufflinks that belonged to my uncle This pair of cufflinks belonged to my uncle who worked in California. I recently was given the cufflinks and to date have not been able to figure out what they represent. I have included a picture, but I'm not sure if it is upside down or not. Any help would be appreciated.

Nope, it's just five squares, which there's no character for in Chinese.


How is "biang" as in "biáng biáng miàn" pronounced in other dialects? To my understanding, "biáng" is not a sound that exists in Mandarin, though there's some argument on the hypothetical phonological possibility of such here. One might assume therefore that it is a character either unique to or else created within Shaanxi dialect (given the alleged origins of the word). If such a character is read by a speaker of another dialect, how would it be pronounced? How might, say, a Cantonese-speaker or Hokkien-speaker read it?

I don't think this is the answer you want but it's the answer you're getting, at least from me.
明末洪帮图符研究 on the Wikipedia page for Biángbiáng面 notes:

流传于四川盆地的两个妇孺皆知的复杂汉字“”和“”，其内部结构与“缺字图片”字十分类似。类似结构的汉字流传于10多个省市，300多年来均有出现，却仅限民间相传，从无传统典籍收录。
重庆一带的“”字和四川一带的“”字，均念为“ zuí ”，即当地方言中的“贼”，意指强盗。为了方便记忆，它们同样也有歌谣对应[注 8][注 9][注 10]，在当地乡村中人人均能背诵。[14][13]

According to:

余云华. 怪字“”、“”、“”考. 民俗研究. 2002, (02).

and

王纯五. 洪门·青帮·袍哥——中国旧时民间黑社会习俗. 四川: 四川人民出版社. 1993: 71. ISBN 7-220-02058-9.

The biáng character is used for the pronunciation zuí in Sichuanese and Chongqingese.
The characters, though, have slight variations:
Here's the Chongqing variation

重庆一带zuí字

and the Sichuanese variation:

四川一带zuí字[13]

According to the materials they mean the same as 贼 or thief.
Sichuanese/Chongqingese words like:

贼呵呵
贼脚摸手
贼脚摸爪
贼眉贼眼
贼娃子
贼货

Could, in theory, be written with biáng instead of 贼.

Funnily enough, though,《广安方言与民俗词典》from Sichuan has also recorded an entry for:

biáng

which they have defined as:

普通话中无“b-i-ang”发音，属于群众自创方音。象声词，本义指用力扯面中面条击打案板之声。生活中常作为口语化的象声词，如巴掌打在脸上的声音、面积较大的东西摔在地上的声音等。为了方便记忆，民间还有此字歌谣：“一点一横长，二字下来口字方，两边丝绕绕，中间马大王，你也长，我也长，心字底，月字旁，打把金钩挂衣裳。”

The rhyme matches the footnote on Wikipedia for:

重庆一带“”字歌谣为：“一点一横长，二字下来口字方；两边丝绕绕，拉根板凳来坐倒；你也长，我也长，中间夹个马儿郎；心字来打底，月字来包墙，打个金钩银钩挂衣裳。”

perfectly.

So, in Sichuan/Chongqing, is it zuí or biáng?
I guess it depends on the context.

Lastly, according to 辞书收录 on the Wikipedia page for Biángbiáng面:

《都市方言辞典（陕西卷）》[16]收录此词条，并详细介绍了相关饮食文化：
 biáng[piaŋ24]     ①“儿面”的biáng。
②指人死掉，含庆幸语气：狗日的这回才～了。
面 biángbiangmiàn[piaŋ24piaŋ24-31miã55] 详见下边词条
儿面 biángbiangrmiàn[piaŋ24.piẽr miã55] 陕西最爱吃的面食之一……

It would go to show that the majority of dialects would follow the rising tone of [piaŋ24] because after all it is a 陕西 thing.


Dissimilation of bilabial finals following Middle Chinese (法, 品, 凡) Middle Chinese syllables with the shape CVP where C is a bilabial stop and P is a bilabial underwent dissimilation to CVF, where F = P[-labial]. For instance, Baxter's reconstruction of 法 is *pjop, 品 is *phim, and 凡 is *bjom.

Why did this dissimilation only happen to syllables with bilabial initials and codas, and not syllables with coronal or velar initials and codas?

My pet theory is that they disappeared because they sound inherently funny. (Only kidding.)

It's not just Cantonese. In Taiwanese Minnan (which does also preserve the labial final -m, usually), the finals of 法、凡、品 have also become alveolar. Also, most Hakka varieties have made the final of 品 alveolar too.

This phenomenon is examined in p.258 under "Long-distance C..C effects", in the chapter on "Consonant-vowel interaction in Cantonese" by Moira Yip, part of collection of papers published in Studies in Chinese Phonology (1997) ed. Wang Jialing. There, it is argued that it is evidence of consonant-vowel segregation.

Labial dissimilation is among the features of Cantonese investigated in part 6 "Cantonese syllabary" of chapter 3 "Cantonese syllables and words" of Modern Cantonese Phonology (1997) by Bauer & Benedict.

This labial dissimilation in Cantonese affects vowels and labialised velar consonants (e.g. /w/, /kʷ/) too: the front rounded vowels /yː/, /œː/, /ɵy/ are disallowed after labial or labialised consonants as well as before final labial consonants; /ɔː/ and /uː/ also tend to be disallowed before final labial consonants.

Why is it labial dissimilation, and not coronal or dorsal dissimilation? There is acutally some indication that coronal dissimilation is happening between the vowel and final consonant in loanwords into Hong Kong Cantonese, e.g. with /ɔːn/ and /ɔːt/ becoming /ɔːŋ/ and /ɔːk/ respectively. There is already an exclusion of front non-high vowel (/ei/, /ɛː/, /œː/) and of mid /ou/ pairing with a labial or coronal coda consonant; this points to an emerging injunction of mid vowels in general being paired with coronal consonants, i.e. coronal dissimilation. The injunction of high vowels with dorsal consonants isn't quite what one would see as dorsal dissimilation though. See this paper for further details from these English-based loanwords.

Still, labial dissimilation far outweighs coronal and dorsal. This paper argues, based mainly on data from Taiwanese Minnan, that it is not principally markedness that motivates the rime phonotactics, but the phonetics of having unreleased final stops. The difference between vowels in their vowel-consonant transition is the reason why some need not dissimilate; they may diphthongise (adding an excrescent schwa in Taiwanese Minnan), change vowel quality, or even neutralise.

That explanation of course raises the following question: Why in Middle Chinese do all those syllables with labial initials and labial finals also have front vowels or front medials?


Do people say 一下 as a very colloquial "just a sec"? Usually my Chinese is a good enough to recognize people saying new phrases I haven't learned yet.

Just now in a convenience store in Chiayi I'm sure the busy server just told me 一下 and I thought that must mean "wait a sec" but I assume it's very colloquial to use just 一下 without a verb or no longer sentence.

Is my hunch right or did I hear wrong?

My thought is:

  He probably said '等一下' but you didn't hear the word '等' due to the noisy  environment, or the speaker's volume was too low when he spoke

The only reason to use only '一下' (a sec') instead of the complete phrase '等一下' (wait a sec') is he knew you were waiting, and your expression told him that you were asking "How long do I have to wait?" in your mind, so he just gave you a short answer instead of a whole sentence, based on the presumption that you knew what '一下' was referring to. (referring to the length of time you have to wait-- a question that wasn't actually asked but implied in your manner)

Imagine a dog owner was eating and his dog looked at the food intensely, the dog owner might simply say "不" instead of a full sentence "狗不能吃人类的食物, 所以不能给你"  because he presumed the dog would understand what the word "不" referring to. ( he imagined the dog was asking "can I have some?" - answer was "不" )

People give short answers all the time in conversation with the presumption of both of you knew what it meant


What purpose did "道搿" serve? I was flipping through The Hanyu Da Cidian when I came across an entry for the word:

  道搿
  dàogé

the definition is as follows:

  英语dog的音译。谓狗。

and they provide the reference:

  《文明小史》第三五回
  ﹝毓生﹞却回到屋裏, 拍桌大駡道：‘ 中國 的官這般没信實, 還不如外國的道搿哩。’一個夥計嘴快, 搶着説道：‘掌櫃的, 這話錯了。難道你認得外國的道搿麽？’

Chinese obviously has a word for dog & it's clearly written in Hanyu Da Cidian's definition above: 狗. 道搿 doesn't seem to add anything to the word that isn't already there. The fact that 道搿 exists at all though does show that there must have been some sort of need for a word as such.

What purpose did "道搿" serve?

The fact that it is a transliteration of English "dog" points to its possible use and appearance. Perhaps, it was used for those foreign breeds of dogs that looked different from the breeds that Chinese people were accustomed to at that time (end of Qing dynasty).

But also note that this particular word (道搿) does not seem to appear in any other text than the mentioned novel (文明小史). So it might have been simply the novelist's invention, that the authors of Hanyu Da Cidian still felt they needed to explain. (Mind you that this dictionary was compiled before widespread use of corpus linguistics, so the authors wouldn't really know if this word is just a one-time appearance across all of the Chinese literature, or if it got some traction and started to be used by others.)


Is the "to" in "Let's meet from 4 _to_ five", 到？ A simple question, trying to say, let's have a lesson from 4 to 5 -- want to make sure that "to" is indeed 到.

到 is OK. You could also use 至. 到 is more colloquial. In many cases they are interchangeable, for example: 从古到今/从古至今（from ancient times to the present）, 直到此刻/直至此刻（up to now）. But you could only say 自始至终（from the beginning to the end），从这到那（from here to there） because 自始至终 and 从这到那 are kinda like set phrases.


How to say "Avoid" as in "Avoid going to a place" I've always struggled with the proper translation of "Avoid". Is there a way to best say "avoid going to a place". For example, if  I wanted to say that " I believe that if I want to embrace chinese culture, I should avoid going to Mcdonalds in China" How would that be said?

Could it be

"我应该好好避免去那儿“

"我相信，如果我想要信奉中国文化，我应该避免在中国去麦当劳"

You are correct but "好好" is not necessary in the sentence.  "我应该避免去那儿".


How do I translate a definition for inheritance (computer science)? I'm trying to say this in Chinese:

  Inheritance allows for reuse of code where common behavior is defined
  once for a number of related classes and unique behavior is
  implemented only in classes where the behavior is different.

but this seems not very accurate:

  继承允许代码的重用，一些相关联的类中共同的行为只被定义一次，具有唯一性的行为只在类之间的行为不同的地方实现。

this is a single English sentence, but it difficult to translate to Chinese
anybody can help?

继承实现了代码的重用，即相关的类的相同行为被实现一次，不同的行为被单独实现。


What were the tools that Chinese teachers could use in China before the introduction of Zhuyin and Pinyn I am interested in any answer to that question. I already found a few elements in the older question How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?
I have already found some information on the web, and it looks like kids were learning using "expressions dictionaries" to fix grammar points, use of function words as " 之 平 者 也 “ and there was no use of any grammar books.
I would be very happy to find links for any of these "expressions dictionaries" available on internet.

If you can read traditional Chinese characters, I recommend the book "釧影樓回憶錄" by 包天笑 (PDF file).
It is in written vernacular Chinese, an easy read, with numerous "gems". The author talks about his own experience of learning, and attending examinations at about 1883. related chapter: p43~p54, p72~p78, p83~p114.
Briefly, when children had a teacher, or went to a private school (私塾), they were given a book (without punctuations); the teacher would pronounce a verse, students recited what the teacher said; again and again, until they can recall from memory.
While reciting the teacher's words, the students look at the characters, so they could gradually connect each character wiht its pronunciation.
Also, at the same time, students marked the pause and stop (句讀) with dots & circles.
Such activities were repeated daily, weekly, and monthly.
They started from the trimetrical classic (三字經), thousand character writing (千字文) or other "books for children learning" (童蒙讀物). afterwards, the "proper" reading materials are four books and five classic (四書五經).
Back to your question: in the past, no one cared about unifying the pronunciation; each learned in his/her dialect.
About the tools needed: just books, brush pens and black ink, red ink. Possibly a  "夏楚" (a stick?) as a punishment instrument.


Should 118 be read as 一百一十八 or 一百十八? Should the number 118 be read as 一百一十八 or 一百十八?

A related question: How to read 2018年?

两千零一十八年?
二千零一十八年?
二零一八年?
两千零十八年?
二千零十八年?

The year number is always read digit by digit, so 2018年 is read as 二〇一八年.

118 should be read as 一百一十八 in Standard Mandarin Chinese according to the mathematics textbooks in primary school, but the non-standard 一百十八 is also common.

Similarly, the number 2018 (without 年) should be read as 二千零一十八 in Standard Mandarin Chinese.


How do I say "they discount so much I can't help but buy" using 打折? Also how do you say "unlike" in Mandarin? I want to say a sentence such as:

They discount so much I can't help but buy!

I went as far as 这家商店打折那么多， but need help with finding a Chinese expression that has the same impression as "can't help but..." in English.
Also, how do you say unlike in Mandarin?

Unlike the Chinese, the British add sugar to their tea.
不像中国人， 英国人把糖放进茶里 （or 英国人在茶里加糖）

I came up with the above sentence and added some variety for the sake of it. Would also like some help on this.

"They discount so much I can't help but buy!"

Direct translation : “他们打了那么多折，我不买不行呀！”

But for the part "I can't help but buy!" can translate into many option, i just pick out one that i think is the suitable ones.

small info : the discount compare to china is a different phrase. If is 25% discount in mandarin we would say 七五折, which is 75% of the original price.

For Unlike, 不像 i think is acceptable.


Usage of 感动 (active/passive?) According to mdbg.net 感动 means both 'to move (emotionally)' and 'moving'.
But from what I understand from some texts I have '邻居们都很感动' implying a more passive meaning for 感动.

Can someone shed some light on this ?

感动 can both be passive and active. For completeness' sake this is the first meaning: "受外界事物影响而引起内心激动" and this is the second "使感动" in 现代汉语规范词典. The meaning will typically be clear from the context.

Some examples:

他的话感动了在座的人: His speech touched the people who where present. (here it is active)
他很容易被感动: He's very easily moved. (here 感动 is made passive by adding the 被)
看了电影《上甘岭》，我感动得流下了眼泪: after seeing the movie 上甘岭, he was so touched that he cried. (here is it passive, but without 被, 受 or another verb to make it passive)

Although  not mentioned in most dictionaries, it can also be used as an adjective. Actually in your example (using the modifier 很) it is used as an adjective (according to Chinese grammar, in the translation it can be translation using a verb instead). As an adjective in also be in both directions (used when you move somebody else, or when you are moved by something or somebody. For example:

这部很感动的电影是去年拍的: this very touching movie was filmed last year
听了你的话，我很感动: I'm very touched by what he said.


For 實, what semantic notions underlie wealth and fullness of heart, with trueness? I can't read Chinese, but if Google Translate is correct, CUHK blazons  2 etymologies for 實:

Synopsis  : 金文「實」字會屋內充滿貝、玉等寶物之意，本義是富實、富足。

[1.] Elaboration: 西周散氏盤銘文「實」字從「宀」從「周」從「貝」，「周」為「琱」的象形，指琱琢之玉，會屋內充滿貨貝、玉等寶物之意，本義是富實。小篆從「宀」從「貫」，「貫」是古錢幣的單位，用繩子穿起稱為一「貫」，意謂滿屋錢財。本義是殷實、富足。引申為充實。

㝬簋與散氏盤時代相約，唯所從「周」字已訛，國差「周」字訛作「田」形。楚簡或訛「周」作「目」，秦簡及小篆則訛從「毌」，與「貝」組成「貫」字。《說文》：「實，富也。从宀从貫。貫，貨貝也。」許慎的字形分析即從小篆而來。

「實」字由財寶滿屋引申為充實，滿足之義。金文「實」可用作充實、充滿，如㝬簋：「肆實朕多御(禦)。」《小爾雅．廣誥》：「實，滿也。」全句指盡力陳列、充實我眾多的禦祭(陳劍)。又如國差：「用實旨酉(酒)」，指用以裝滿美酒。

"Rich People More Likely to Lie, Cheat, Study Suggests". So how does affluence semantically shift to mean veracity?

[2.] 「實」亦從充實引申有心裏充滿真誠的意思，指確切真實。金文如散氏盤：「實余有散氏心賊，則鞭千罰千。」這裏「實」字為假設之辭，意謂倘若屬實，猶典籍「誠」字之用，全句指倘若我真的對散氏有加害之心，則受鞭打千次、責罰千次。《左傳．宣公十二年》：「樂伯善哉！實其言，必長晉國。」

How can the heart  get "full" of sincerity? And how does fullness of sincerity in the heart  semantically shift to veridicality, veraciousness?

I'm fascinated that the English 'real' and French réel purportedly shares this same semantic shift from the Latin res.

The character 實 depicts "money in a house", originally meant 'rich'
Now imagine two houses, One is a rich house full of valuable items and the other is a poor house that has nothing, is empty.
Now replace the two houses with two wine bottles. One is filled with wine, and the other is empty. The one with wine is honest, trustworthy because it has content, the empty bottle on the other hand, is simply empty.
Now imagine two person's words. One's words are filled with substance and the other's words are empty --  The one that is filled with substance is considered honest, and the empty one is considered the opposite
That's how 實 acquired the meaning of veracity -- there are contents inside


How to say "for" in Chinese? I'm trying to say "the park is great for playing" but I can only think about saying 公園很好玩的地方。Is there a way where I can describe the park as being a good or the best place for playing? thanks

"The park is (for) playing" = 這公園(是用於)遊樂(的)
or 這公園是遊樂(用的)

~

"The park is great (for) playing" = 這公園是很適合(用於)遊樂(的)
or 這公園是很適合(於)遊樂(用的)

Other example:
"Handgun is (for) killing people" = "手槍是(用於)殺人(的)" or "手槍是殺人(用的)"
"Handgun is good (for) killing people" = "手槍是很適合(用於)殺人(的)" or "手槍是很適合(於)殺人(用的)"

用於 is a more literary term. The colloquial term is 用来


How many different dialect known to exist in the Chinese language and what are they? From what I know there is
Mandarin,
Hokkien,
Cantonese
But are there other minority dialect?
I've heard one spoken outside the mainlands, can anyone confirm?

There are 7 kinds of dialects mainly: 官话(Mandarin-Similar Dialect)、吴方言(Wu[South Jiangsu, North Zhejiang and a part of Anhui]Dialect、赣方言(Jiangxi Dialect)、湘方言(Hunan Dialect)、闽方言(Fujian Dialect/Hokkien)、粤方言(Guangdong Dialect/Cantonese)、客家方言(Ke Dialect). Here is a easy picture for you:

But they cannot describe all the dialects. For example, Mandarin-Similar Dialect includes 东北话(Northeastern Dialect), 陕西话(Shaanxi Dialect), 云南话(Yunnan Dialect). They are quite different in Chinese people's opinion. So these 7 kinds have many smaller kinds of dialects, such as 吴方言, has 6 dialects, including 太湖(Lake Tai)/台州(Taizhou)/金衢(Jinhua-Quzhou)/上丽(Shanghai-Lishui)/瓯江(Oujiang)/宣州(Xuanzhou) 片. So, in fact nobody can confirm the exact number of Chinese dialects.
There were no Mandarin Chinese speaker several hundred years ago in some areas, even now, some people in Tibet cannot speak Mandarin well. So there's no dialect in Tibet, Xinjiang and Qinghai.


How to set normal Chinese font in MS Power Point 2016? In Ecxel I can set Calibri font and enter Chinese characters, which look straight. In PowerPoint I have Chinese characters set font as STXinwei (Body) and they look very "stylish":

I can't get "straight" font in PowerPoint and can't change font to Calibri (it turns back to STXinwei (Body).

How to fix?

Calibri does not contain Chinese characters. When you set your font to Calibri, Microsoft Office automatically choose a Chinese font for Chinese you’ve entered.

In your case, it seems that Excel automatically chose Microsoft Yahei (微软雅黑), while Powerpoint automatically chose STXinwei (华文新魏).

They are both correct behaviors. In Excel, people expect to see more general fonts in sheets, while, in PowerPoint, people expect to see more stylish fonts in presentations.

Though what PowerPoint did is correct, if you do want to change the font in PowerPoint, you have to keep in mind that Calibri does not contain Chinese characters. Therefore, you have to choose another Chinese font for it so that the appearance would change.

I personally recommend Microsoft Yahei (the font Excel uses) and STZhongsong (a very bold serif font suitable for presentation titles).


遮 versus 捂 versus 盖 in terms of usage Let's say I want to cover my ears. Is it 捂住耳朵, 遮住耳朵 or 盖住耳朵? And then if I want to say cover up a situation, is it 遮住事情 or 遮盖事情?

捂: cover small things almost entirely by a hand or hands
遮: cover large things partially or entirely by things like a sheet or a piece of paper
盖: cover something entirely by things like a lid or a cap
捂住耳朵 is better than 遮住耳朵 or 盖住耳朵 obviously.The latter two are also acceptable and understandable.cover up a situation: 掩盖/遮盖/遮掩/隐藏事实/事情, 掩盖 is the most frequently used word.


Zhuyin IME and tone 0/5 syllables I'm teaching myself bopomofo/zhuyin keyboard while I'm in Taiwan. My Chinese level is raw beginner too.

I just came across the word for tofu:

Hanzi: 豆腐
Pinyin: dòufu
Zhuyin: ㄉㄡˋㄈㄨ· (or ㄉㄡˋㄈㄨ˙)

We can see that the second syllable is tone 0 a.k.a. tone 5

But if I try to enter it using Microsoft Chinese Traditional New Phonetic IME this way the computer beeps and will not accept the final syllable.

When I look up just the last syllable on its own, it's actually tone 3:

Hanzi 腐
Pinyin fǔ
Zhuyin: ㄈㄨˇ

If I type the whole word as ㄉㄡˋㄈㄨˇ in the IME then indeed it does work.

So what's the explanation for this? Is it due to tone sandhi? Or is it a quirk of the IME? Or is it related to some other property of two syllable words and tone 0/5? Is there a name for this and where can I read more about it?

The English Wiktionary and Google Translate both list 豆腐 as having tone 4 + no tone. But I can't be sure whether they are listing pre- or post- tone sandhi rules.

But Baidu dictionary and the book "Chinese for Everyday Scenarios" I've found here in Taiwan lists 豆腐 as having tone 4 + tone 3.

Yes, you're right. The phenomenon of 豆腐 dòufu is the result of tone sandhi (连续变调 liánxù biàndiào). IME does not support tone sandhi, so you're unable to search for it as a neutral tone. The only accepted tone entry for 腐 is 3rd tone fǔ.


How to say incoming president (国家主席)? Strangely the Wikipedia article for president 中华人民共和国主席 doesn't mention 习近平 anywhere.

I also asked my mother in law just now if she spotted any articles where it mentions him as the incoming president 国家主席 but neither of us could spot one, although there are a many English papers making the claim today.

Now this could be something to do with politics that I am not aware with, but even if that is the case it may explain why there isn't a word for incoming president (possibly)? Or maybe nobody has gotten round to update the wikipedia article.

So can someone explain why I am not seeing many articles in Chinese using 国家主席 to describe 习近平? Is there a Chinese equivelant of incoming president, if so is it typically applied in Chinese politics or is it not used out of respect until the previous person has gone?

即将就任 is the term used to describe incoming. Example 即将就任的国家主席. Normally, the Chinese word for president is 总统 and 主席 is usually used to describe chairman or chairperson. I note that China has changed the title of 国家主席 from Chairman to President from 1983 onwards.

The appointment 国家主席 is rather symbolic in nature as the real power lies with other political appointments (中国共产党中央委员会总书记 and 中国共产党中央军事委员会主席) that usually precedes it. As of current, 习近平 has yet been appointed 国家主席, but he already held the two most important appointments.


Is 二千〇二十 - 八月 - 二十九 correct? I’ve got this but I don't know if it’s set out right or even if it’s the correct translation.

二千〇二十 - 八月 -  二十九

Could anyone help please?

I am sorry to tell you. No, the Year is in the wrong format.
In Chinese, Years are read in the formate of 4-digits. It should be 二零二零年 八月 二十九日.
The only exceptions are 2000"两千年", 2001"两千零一年" ~ 2009"两千零九年". These are not as official as "二零零零年", "二零零一年" ~ "二零零九年". The 4-digits format is always preferred.
"日" can be omitted, but usually not. But "年" is rarely omitted.
二〇二〇年 is also correct but 〇 is semi-Chinese. I mean it is officially correct, but not appealing. 二零二零年 is more often used.
Finally, the suggested translation is:
二零二零年 八月 二十九日


"May you live in interesting times" I have often heard (and probably repeated) that there is a Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."  Is there really such a saying in Chinese? I can't think of one, and can't even think how I would translate it.

The phrase sounds appealingly enigmatic and understated, and perhaps expresses a preference for stability that might be a Chinese characteristic. You can see why it would resonate with us Brits, particularly in these very 'interesting times' - not just the phrase itself, but that we would think of it as a curse rather than a good wish.

Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/12/18/live/ may be helpful here in terms of background. It could not find an earlier citation than a "March 1936 newspaper report in “The Yorkshire Post”:

Sir Austen Chamberlain....said: “It is not so long ago that a member of the Diplomatic Body in London, who had spent some years of his service in China, told me that there was a Chinese curse which took the form of saying, ‘May you live in interesting times.’ There is no doubt that the curse has fallen on us. We move from one crisis to another. We suffer one disturbance and shock after another.


Refreshing or Rude: addressing an older woman as 小姐 太太，奶奶，大姐，阿姨，女士，and many other variations are commonly used to address older women. 小姐 is used to address young women. Would it be a complement or an insult to address a middle aged or elderly woman as "小姐"? I'm in Taiwan here, so we don't have to worry about people thinking we're calling them prostitutes.

Use 女士 with her family name is always safest. e.g. 李女士


What is meant by 废钱？ I can't understand the reference here. Is there such a thing as 'waste money， 废钱' in China? Or is it 'abandoned， discarded money'? Who threw the money there '我们‘ or 其他人？？ Is he alluding to some story or 成语？

那还能不同意？ 这就好比我们家后院扔着一堆废钱，你要拿它给我换一辆汽车。 我不光同意，甚至还有点儿不敢相信呢！

这就好比我们家后院扔着一堆废钱，你要拿它给我换一辆汽车。

I translate:
That's like someone threw a pile of money in our backyard and then you come along and offer to give me a car in exchange for it.

(Seems a weird idea, because first you need to know how much money it is. Could be more than the value of a car.)

PS: if you have any waste money, you can throw it my way!

Your reference is very likely comes from this Japanese Chinese teaching book 1, and the character "钱" actually is a typo of "铁", this is a very common mistake when people type Chinese in Wubi Input Method (or 五笔字型输入法".

废铁 is scrap metal (for recycling), it perfectly fits the surroundings (后院 backyard), put it in the context this sentence's meaning:
If you can trade this this not valuable thing (废铁) to a way much more valuable thing (汽车) for me, I'll be not only happy to agree but also surprised.

You can see in the linked book, the conversation is the girl (maybe a producer) asks Mr. Wang, will he agree to let them adapt his Internet novel to a TV show, so Mr. Wang made a humble and humorous metaphor. (The context is Mr. Wang wrote more than 30 novels, only two of them got published)


What is the original Chinese text to "liquid jade"? The Wikipedia article on the history of tea mentions that Laozi described tea as "the froth of the liquid jade." What is the original text in Chinese? If the original text cannot be found, could I request a translation?

My attempt at a literal translation is: yè (liquid) yù (jade). I'm only a second-year Chinese student, so I don't know if this rendition is literary, as the English translation implies, or if it sounds right to the ears.

It should be '玉液'. But it often used together with another word '琼浆'.

琼浆玉液 is often used to describe extremely delicious things to drink, like wine or tea...


Are there any readability measurement tools for Chinese? For English (and some other languages), it's quite easy to find online tools that give a readability index of a specific text. Naturally, this doesn't necessarily match actual experience of reading the text, but it does seem to be reasonably accurate. Here's an example of such a tool.

My question is: Are there any similar tools for Chinese?

If not, are there any other practical ways of automatically estimating the difficulty of a Chinese text? I have tried crude methods such as using an annotator that can show vocabulary at different HSK levels, which gives a clue to the difficult of the words in the text at least, but that's not really what I'm after. However, if anyone knows of partial solutions to the question, that would be interesting anyway.

I'm not sure if this is what you are after:

http://pub.mtholyoke.edu/journal/lrc/entry/chinese_readability_analysis


Is there a literal meaning of 对不起? 对不起 is one of the first phrases any student learns.

We learn it as a set phrase, and don't question why it has this meaning.

But we also learn the phrases;

  听得懂 - "hear and understand"

  听不懂 - "hear but don't understand"

So is there a literal meaning to 对不起?

And is there an opposite to it - 对得起?

The compound 不起 is not just limited to this particular construction. It's a bit like a suffix that succeeds a verb, meaning 'not within one's power' or 'can't afford to due to the possibility of dire consequences'.

Some examples of compounds that use 不起 include:

吃不起 (Can't afford to eat - either due to financial constraint or social constraint)
住不起 (Can't afford to live in - in a similar vein to the previous example)
受不起 (Dare not accept - probably in fear of its consequences)
伤不起 (Can't afford to suffer injury).

对 here means to face or to confront. So combining the two, you have 对不起, which literally means 'not having the capacity to face or confront'. The verb usage of 对不起 can also be explained in a similar fashion, which can be translated into 'to wrong' or 'to let down'. 对得起 would be a perfect antonym for the verb definition.

Reference: See definition 6 here.


Why does 鱼 come before 做 in this sentence? I'm reading the book "301 Conversational Chinese Sentences".

At Lesson 20, this sentence appears: "这个鱼做得真好吃".

鱼 should be the object, and 做 should be the verb, right? "Fish" cannot do the cooking itself.

Could you tell me why the verb 做 comes after 鱼?

Edit:

I found an article on this:
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Degree_complement
Degree Complements with Objects

Exactly what I am looking for.

There is the "topic-comment structure" in Chinese:

  In a topic-comment sentence, the usual word order is rearranged a bit, in order to emphasize a certain part of a sentence. The part that is to be emphasized becomes the topic and moves to the beginning of the sentence, with the comment on the topic coming after the topic has been stated.

So here the topic is "这个鱼", which is the object of the verb. And the subject (who cooked the fish) is just omitted from the sentence.


Why is 都 placed after a verb in "什么时候还都可以"? I found this example:

你拿着用吧，什么时候还都可以。
Nǐ ná zheyòng ba, shénme shíhòu huán dōu kěyǐ.
You can have it as long as you want.

I am confused about the grammar structure behind 什么时候还都可以 (literally: any time you return it is ok). How is it possible 都 occurs after the verb 还 (to return)? Until now, I always saw 都 before any verb.

In the sentence 什么时候还都可以

the subject is 什么时候还 (the topic in topic-comment theory)
the predicate is 都可以

可以 is 中心词 (key word or main verb), 都 is an adverb that modifies 可以.


How to differentiate MacBook Air from MacBook Pro in Chinese? In Chinese, Macintosh is described as 苹果的电脑, and MacBook series are described as 苹果的笔记本电脑. However, I don't know how to differentiate MacBook Air from MacBook Pro.

Apple's Chinese page doesn't describe it, either; it's just spelled as MacBook Pro.

Also, even if you can spell it in Chinese, such as 苹果的笔记本电脑空 (just the illustration purpose's only), should I spell it just as MacBook Air? In Japanese, when you type it in Japanese instead of MacBook Air, you give an impression that you're a dumb, and hence the most people just describe it as what Apple does.

So which one should I take in Chinese?

It is okay to say Macbook Air in between Chinese, or you can say 苹果的Air电脑 or 苹果的Air系列电脑 if you must. More info:

It seems that mainland Chinese are adapting 电脑, but I want to point out both 電腦(traditional Chinese) and 计算机(simplified Chinese) means "computer". 電腦 is used everywhere while 计算机 is only for formal use in mainland China. (計算機/计算机 can mean "calculator" in other scenario, so 电子计算机/电脑 is used to differentiate.) (referecne)
Macintosh = 麦金塔电脑 or simply 麦金塔 in Mainland China. In HK, we called it Mac機. (reference) 苹果的电脑 only means computer from Apple.
Japanese have Katakana , but Chinese don't.
As you may know, in Chinese we say a laptop/notebook computer 筆記本電腦/笔记本电脑 but we do not translate the Air into 空
I don't know any nicknames for Macbook Air yet like iphone 爱疯 though.


Confusion between "planet" and "star" in Cantonese? It seems that the formal terms for "planet" (行星) and "star" (like the Sun) (恆星) are pronounced identically in Cantonese (both Jyutping: hang4 sing1). Given that these terms are often discussed together, and it is important that they not be confused, I was wonder how do Cantonese speakers manage to differentiate the two terms when speaking in an astronomical context.

we may assumed the listener know what the utterance means, according to the context.

another approach is to pronounce 恆星 as
hang1　sing1

meanwhile, deliberately pronounce 行星 as haang4　sing1

this one is what i learned in primary school, a long time ago.

actually, in cantonese, we pronounce 行 as haang4 in 行街, 行船.


Are authors of Chinese fantasy novels able to create names for fictional creatures/races? Like Dr. Seuss' Wickershams and Wockets; Final Fantasy's Bandersnatches and Moogles; or Dr. Who's Daleks and Chronovores, English works of fiction (most commonly fantasy) often contain fictitious creatures and races with creative names that aren't found in the average dictionary. However, while authors describing their new worlds in English are able to throw together new words quite freely, Chinese authors can't exactly draw up new Chinese characters and expect anyone else to be able to read and understand it.

As seen in many translated works, many of these created names can be represented in Chinese phonetically ('Dalek' becomes '戴立克'), and sometimes the Chinese name of the new creature is created from its description (Harry Potter's 'basilisks' become '蛇怪', literally calling it a snake monster). This allows for the words to be represented in Chinese writing, but is there any way for a Chinese author to create an original word that isn't literal or spelt out the same way as foreign words?

It is true that, compared to Chinese, English (and related languages) have an advantage in its alphabet and rules of pronunciation, such that you can easily make up new words by creatively arranging letters. Certain letters and syllables can evoke different feelings or cultures, which gives authors tremendous creative flexibility, and is exploited by great conlangers. The Chinese analogy is usually not possible, as readers can't figure out how to pronounce it, plus it would be a huge hassle for typesetting, which explains why you almost never see made-up Chinese characters.

Not that it never happens though; as Stan mentioned it used to be done for mythical creatures, for example the characters in the famous 麒麟 (a sort of chimeral-unicorn-deer creature) are almost never used for other words. More recently, some netizens created a character for the Jackie Chan / Duang thing, but since it's impossible to type it, who knows whether that will stick.

Instead, what Chinese authors can do is creatively combine known characters to create new words. Although this is a far cry from the flexibility afforded to made-up English words, the fact that Chinese is disyllabic means most characters typically have many meanings, which makes the meaning of fictional words ambiguous, and it is this special ambiguity that can add flavour to those words. For example, the fictional sword "倚天剑" has multiple translations and meanings, without it being clear which one is right. 倚 could mean rely or close to, 天 usually means heaven but could also be a metaphor for royalty. Therefore, you could variously translate the sword as "Heavenly Sword", "Heaven Reliant Sword", or "Royal Sword", "Sky-scraping Sword"...


How to ask the flight attendant for more airplane meals if there are still leftovers? Can anyone help me? I want to emphasize the word "leftover" so I do not sound so greedy. I also felt that it would be a waste since most of the meals needed to be thrown away if it is not consumed after they were heated.

Good:
你好，请问飞机餐还有多余的吗，我可以再要一份吗，谢谢。
Bad:
喂，再来一份，我没吃饱。
In my opinion, as long as you use "请", "可以..吗", "谢谢" as the way in English,
and ask a flight attendant after their regular meal service with smile,
it is definitely a reasonable request.
A normal anwser would be: "好的，我帮您看下，请稍等".


translation of simple excel formula hi does anyone know of any websites that lists simple excel formula in chinese?

e.g.
“=sum” --> 把所有选项加起来
“=CONCATENATE” --> 把所有选项融为一体

i'm trying to teach my china colleagues some simple excel formula to make them more efficient in their work.

thanks!!

The Microsoft official website has those information.

https://support.office.com/zh-cn/excel

Click 常用函数 to show the list of popular Excel functions.


Pronunciation of unstressed vowels In San Duanmu's Standard Chinese phonology it goes over unstressed vowels and mentions that they change in unstressed syllables. e.g.

a, e, (a, ɤ) > ə  [报上 pau ʂaŋ > pau ʐəŋ]
ou > o [木头 muthou > muto]
ai > ɛ [脑袋 nau tai > nau dɛ]
ao (au) > ɔ [知道 ʈ͡ʂɻ tau >  ʈ͡ʂɻ dɔ or ʈ͡ʂɻ ɔ]

However, there wasn't much detail on when which unstressed syllables these occur and I have seen some other changes not mentioned or different to those above:

ei > i
ao > ɑ [多少 two ʂau > two ʂɑ or two ɑ ]

Are there any definitive guides on how these should be pronounced in colloquial speech? I'm sure it varies by region though so are there any patterns in Beijing dialect?

I would say this is actually a feature of Beijing mandarin. Vowel unstressing occurs when the syllable is 轻声 tone.
In the pronunciation of "model pronouncers" like news commentators, this phenomenon, along with even 轻声, is minimized.


What's the difference between 因为什么 and 为什么? Usually when first learning Chinese we learn that 为什么 means "why".  However, I recently encountered 因为什么, and I'm wondering if it's different.

  你因为什么给关进去?
  Why were you put in?
  (玛帝尔达 (Matilda), page 114; English version pdf page 101)

It directly combines 因为 = "because" with 什么 = "what", so it looks like it means "for what reason" or "why", i.e., it's the same as 为什么.  I'm not sure if there's any distinction though.

Question: What's the difference between 因为什么 and 为什么?

I would say you could opt to translate them these two different ways:

为什么 = why?
因为什么 = how come?

Which matches to English fairly well.

因为什么, though, is usually part of a larger sentence structure like [...]是因为什么原因[...].


What are the repeatedly used structures in 4-character expressions (e.g. chengyu) and what do they mean? In today's reading, I encountered the expression 敬而远之.  However, I noticed this x而y之 structure is repeated in many other 4-character expressions (Pleco search ?而?之):
敬而远之
大而化之
等而下之
分而治之
换而言之
久而久之
取而代之
堂而皇之

Thus, it seems I should study how such structures work and thereby learn whole families of 4-character expressions at a time.
Question: What are the repeatedly used structures in 4-character expressions (e.g. chengyu) and what do they mean?
I'm seeking a kind of overview of major structures (those that occur in multiple 4-character expressions, like x而y之 above) for 4-character expressions, and a brief explanation as to how to interpret them.  It looks like x而y之 is an adjective that combines x and y.
Note that x而y之 is just one example, and there are others like 千x万y (see also Chengyu with two numbers).
(Whenever I look up chengyu on the web, I find pages like this and this which give a handful of common but disparate examples, making them very difficult to actually remember.)

It seems that there are two types of 成语 represented by the same “structure”.

A而B之 could mean “action + action, done to something (third person pronoun)”.

取而代之 means “to take and replace 之 (something that was previously mentioned)”. Compare this to 取代, which simply means “replace”. You could consider 取而代之 a literary form of 取代; using it adds elegance to an otherwise common word. Other examples include 换而言之、敬而远之 and 分而治之.

A而B之 could also mean “adjective + adjective, used to describe something (third person pronoun)”.

堂而皇之 means that something (之) is “wide like a hall and grand like imperial edifices”. Similarly, this can be considered a literary form of 堂皇. I would say 久而久之 has similar characteristics, but note that the 久 is describing a long period of time, instead of the appearance or a quality of an object.


Which IMEs (input method editors) are actually most used in each of PRC, ROC, and Hong Kong? Because there are many kinds of input method and many implementations of each kind of input method, it's not really practical to learn many.

PRC, mainland China uses simplified Chinese characters, as does Singapore. I assume most people in these places would use a Pinyin IME. But it would be good to know which Pinyin IME is most used currently. If I choose to learn the most popular one I will have the best chance of finding somebody who can help me when I have questions about it.

Hong Kong and Taiwan both use traditional Chinese characters.

Here in Taiwan most people do not use a Pinyin based IME, there are several IMEs based on bopomofo and others based on character shapes. Do we know which type is most used? And do we know which specific ones of the main types are used?

I don't think Hong Kong uses bopomofo and with their changing demographics from Cantonese where pinyin wouldn't work to Mandarin, I'd be very interested to know which kind of IME is most used there, and which actual implementation.

Best answers will be able to refer to some official website or statistics. For people who haven't travelled to these countries and who are just trying to learn Chinese, the IMEs from Chinese and Taiwanese companies and ones that can be downloaded from websites that don't have any English are probably not well known. People learning Chinese with a western language background are probably most likely to use IMEs that come with their computer or OS.

But it would be very good for us to know which ones actual Chinese speakers really use.

One issue though might be lack of English menus, dialogs, settings, and help for the IMEs that don't come with your OS. Learners are not proficient enough to use those in Chinese.

Many people in Hong Kong use Quick aka 速成 or Simplified Cangjie.
There is a wiki link for this input method:Simplified Cangjie

There is a build-in Quick IME in Windows and Mac. Most of the Quick users use it.

Quick users type Chinese using Quick on smartphone too, as the build-in IME of smartphone that selling in Hong Kong usually support Quick.

However, some people prefer to type using 5-stroke input method(5筆畫輸入法) on phone. There is a wiki link for this input method:Wubihua method. This is a very simple input method. It is based on the stroke order of a Chinese character so as long as you write Chinese, you will know how to type.


In online gaming, how would you exhort a Chinese teammate to die gloriously? I once played an online multiplayer game called Boom Beach, which involved some team play. I was in a multinational group, and we did have two mainland Chinese folks in the group. One was reasonably good in English and the other was pretty fluent, and because the group was multinational, we defaulted to English in chat anyway.

That said, it was my preference to exhort my teammates before they went on their missions, in their native language if possible. My catchphrase was, "die gloriously!"

Some additional context: Each player got one attack per mission. Usually, you lost all your troops in each attack, but you then go and re-train your troops for the next day's mission. Basically, you died repeatedly in this game.

I'm pretty sure that I just Google translated my catchphrase at the time. The current translation is "光荣地死!" (guang1 rong2 de si3). This didn't sound quite right to me, so I would say "死地光荣!"

Is there a better translation? Are there any appropriate colloquialisms that I don't know?

Note: I grew up in Singapore to an English-speaking family; I can pronounce and write Chinese, and I could probably order something at a restaurant, but my Chinese is pretty bad. My Chinese teammates never suggested any alternatives at the time, but I thought I'd check.

Chinese have many phrases for "good death" like 犧牲, 捐軀, 就義, 成仁, 捨身, 捨生...

Examples:

"去壯烈犧牲吧!" (Go, go heroically sacrifice yourself!)

"去英勇捐軀吧!" (Go, go bravely give up your life!)

"去光榮戰死吧!" (Go, go gloriously die in battle!)

"去慷慨就義吧!" (Go, go gracefully meet your doom for your allegiance!)

"去捨身報國吧!" (Go, go give up your life for your country!)

"去殺身成仁吧!" (Go, go give up your life for honor!)

My choice:

"去捨生一戰吧!" (Go, disregard your life; forget about death and fight this one battle!)

捨生忘死 disregard life; forget death


Expressions that have no meaning (什么/来着） I know that these two expression, in certain circumstances, have no meaning and are optional. I'm trying to figure out how to use them, even though they have no meaning.

什么

This has a meaning, (negation):

  大家都是朋友，你客气什么呢。

On the other hand, this use of 什么 means nothing:

  我没什么说的了。

来着

This has a meaning (forgetting something you should remember):

  怎么写这个字来着？

This use of 来着 has no meaning:

  你的女朋友到底是谁来着呢？

Just to clarify, I understand the situations where these expressions have a defined meaning. I just can't get my head around the usage when the expression is optional. I can leave it out, and I'm content with that. But for some reason my teacher in Beijing felt the need to show this to me, maybe to make me sound less 'academic' when I talk?

I am a native speaker, and I'm no expert. But I do think you have some misunderstanding towards "什么" and "来着" in these examples.

  大家都是朋友，你客气什么呢。

In this sentence, "什么" means "what ... for". The whole sentence means something like: "(Considering) we are friends, (I have to ask) what are you being 客气 for?" You can say it helped in expressing negation. (sorry I can't translate 客气 accurate enough)

But in the second example

  我没什么说的了。

"什么" doesn't mean "nothing". On the contrary, it means "anything". And "没什么" as a whole, means "nothing". The whole sentence means "I don't have anything to say."

As for "来着", I think it means exactly the same (forgetting something you should remember) in both of your examples. And I can't think of any cases in which this word means anything else or has no meaning at all.

So to sum up, I don't think there is any cases in which these words has no meaning at all, at least not in your cases.

btw. "你的女朋友到底是谁来着呢？" should really be "你的女朋友到底是谁来着？" (No "呢" at the end)


Meaning of text on poster For many years ago I went to China and bought a poster. Now i really wonder what the charcters mean. I tried downloading some programs, but I couldn't translate the text.

I understand this is not a translation service. Anyway I'll have to give it a shot. Or else I'm never going to find out what it means.

竹报平安 (zhúbào-píng’ān) = send a letter home saying that all is well

丁亥年 (dīnghài nián) = 2007 (or 1947, 1887, …)


Glyph origin or any mnemonic for 蕴? I failed to remember the meaning for the word 蕴含 yùnhán. Is any mnemonic or story or etymological hints to remember 蕴?

蕴 means accumulate.
蕴 is merely a phonetic-semantic character comprising plants 艸 and 缊 which provides sound. 缊 is an obsolete character that means "tangled strings". 缊 itself is silk and sound component  meaning kindness (giving a bowl 皿 of food to a prisoner 囚). None of these characters contribute any meaning to the definition of 蕴.
If you want a sort of mnemonic, I'd use 蕰 instead. 蕰 is one of a variant forms for 蕴. Mnemonics are more difficult to think of if the sound component 缊 isn't a common character. But with 温 (warm) being a more common character, you can think of it as gathering/accumulating vegetables 艸 to keep them warm before eating. Just remember that the standard form is 蕴 and not 蕰.
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E8%95%B4


Mandarin equivalent of 同 when the meaning is "for, on behalf of" As the dictionary entry below lists, 同 in Cantonese means for, on behalf of.

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/215/

In Cantonese, you might say something like this (slightly aggressive tone): 你同我企喺到! ("You stand right there!")

1) Would 和, 跟, or 给 be the right Mandarin substitute in this case?

2) What's the right substitute for 你同我畀錢! ("You pay for me!")

1) Would 和, 跟, or 给 be the right Mandarin substitute in this case?

给 in Mandarin can replace 同 in Cantonese when 同 (for me) denotes it is an order or demand

"你(同)我企喺度!"  = "你(給)我站著！" = "stand there (for me)!" (an order)

"你(同)我企喺度" = "你(和)我站著" means "you (and) I stand there"

"你(同)我企喺度"= "你(跟)我站著" means "you (with) I stand there"

'跟/ 替' in Mandarin can replace '同' in Cantonese when '同'  means 'to, for or on behalf of'

Example:

Mandarin: "你跟我解釋一下" = "explain it to me!"

Mandarin: "你替我解釋一下" = "explain it for me!"

Cantonese: "你同我解釋一下" = "explain it to/for me!"

  2) What's the right substitute for 你同我畀錢! ("You pay for me!")

See examples above:

你同我畀錢 ("you pay for me") = "你替我付錢"

  If you meant "you pay!"(an order)  then you should use '給' and wrote  "你给我付錢!"


够 or 夠 - Two characters, one meaning? 够 or 夠 both mean be enough according to my electronic dictionaries.  I was surprised to find one character in my text "Reading & Writing Chinese," (McNaughton & Li, 1999)

A different character was in my electronic dictionary (夠).

My first thought was:

Does this happen with other characters or is this an error?

Then I tried typing gou into a different program on the same computer and came up with the second character (having the same meaning).

Which is right? Are there other characters with this behavior?

够 or 夠 shared the same meaning and same pronunciation. We called this situation as 異體字(Variant character). In Taiwan or Hong Kong, we use 夠 more frequently than 够. In Mainland China, they use the opposite one more frequent. All of us can understand both words.

For more about variant character in Chinese, you may refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variant_Chinese_character


Have I understood the joke 男：我一直就很爱你啊！ 女：那不直的时候呢？ correctly? I found this joke on bliubliu.com:

那不直的时候呢 (爱情笑话）
Nà bù zhí de shíhòu ne (àiqíng xiàohuà)
男：我一直就很爱你啊！
Nán: Wǒ yīzhí jiù hěn ài nǐ a!
女：那不直的时候呢？
Nǚ: Nà bù zhí de shíhòu ne?

I want to make sure I've understood the joke correctly.
The man says 我一直就很爱你 meaning I have always loved you (I think).
However, the woman thinks the man is using the 一。。。就。。。 grammar construction, and consequently thinks that the man means that when 直 occurs, his love follows.  This is why she asks about when 直 is not happening.
As far as I can tell, it doesn't make sense to talk about 直 happening or not happening, and the woman's question is nonsense.  But maybe I'm missing something.
Question: Have I understood this joke correctly?

直 could mean heterosexual(informal).

This comes directly from "straight" in English.


Is the Filipino word "buwisit" really from Hokkien? I've read a couple of times the word being attributed to Hokkien. This wiktionary entry claims the same. I'm not convinced though.

《闽南方言大词典》has the following entry on page 127:

  [无围翼] <漳> bo2-6 ui2-6 sit8 倒霉：盖～，佫拄着停电(真倒霉，又碰上停电) | ～甲伊做翁仔姐仔(跟他做夫妻很倒霉)。

So, this is attributed as 漳泉話 -or- Quanzhang Minnan, which is Hokkien - bo ui sit does sound quite similar to buwisit and the meaning (倒霉) does fit as well.

無衣食 does seem to be the more appropriate spelling of bo ui sit.

衣食 means:

  好運天賜食穿無缺。


What is the function of 同 in 我哋使唔使同佢準備個生日蛋糕？ 我哋使唔使同佢準備個生日蛋糕？
The official translation is: “should we prepare a birthday cake for him?”

I was wondering why the preposition “for” is used instead of “with”, given that 同 is used.

My thought is: should we prepare a birthday cake WITH him? (He prepares the cake together with us)

Depend on the context, "同" as a preposition, can mean "with" or "for"

"我哋使唔使[同]佢準備個生日蛋糕" -- Do we need to prepare a birthday cake [for] him

"我哋使唔使[同]佢(一齊)準備個生日蛋糕" -- Do we need to prepare a birthday cake [with] him (together)

"同" strongly implies "for" in your example sentence. Birthday boy usually doesn't prepare the cake himself
More examples:
"[同]我打電話叫警察" = "make a phone call to the police [for] me"  (You don't need two people to make one phone call)
"同我去釣魚" is ambiguous, it can mean "go fishing with me " or "go fishing for me". To eliminate the ambiguity, you can say "同我一齊去釣魚 (go fishing with me together) or "幫我去釣魚" (go fishing for me).
Again with the context: If it is a friend saying to you: "同我去釣魚好唔好?", it would clearly be an invitation to you to go fishing [with] him; If you are a slave and your master say to you:"快啲同我去釣魚!" , then it would clearly be an order to you to go fishing [for] him.
As you can see, when "同" means "for" you can replace it with "幫" (help/ for) e.g. "[幫]佢準備個生日蛋糕", "[幫]我打電話叫警察",


How to say "After +Verb" in Chinese? How to say "After +Verb" in daily conversation?

For example:

"After eating my candy, I will go there".

"After he saw you were coming, he left".

"After she found the book, she called me".

etc.

So the focus here is the "After" word. I know 后 is usually used for this case. But I wonder whether there are other alternatives?

'After' can be expressed with 以后 placed after the clause:

吃完糖果以后，我去那里。

The second sentence can be translated using an 'after', e.g.:

他看到你来以后，他离开了。But it would sound 'more natural' if you dropped it:

他看到你来，就离开了。


Are idioms like 亡羊补牢 commonly used by native Mandarin speakers? I've been learning about idioms and one that I came across was 亡羊补牢 (wang yang bu lao), which means to mend the fold after the sheep are gone. However, when I've used it in conversation, native speakers have told me it's not commonly used. Was that just because of local tendencies and idioms are commonly used elsewhere in China?

Some Chinese idioms are special, it depends on the sentences context and the say you express it.

This is the complete idioms

  亡羊而补牢，未为迟也。(if is never too late if you fix the fence immediate after the first few sheep escape. )

When one say 亡羊补牢, it can either mean :

  i. To comfort or remind someone that it is not too late to fix the mistake, or

  ii. Somebody mess up in the first place, now they are fixing it.

  iii. A hint that somebody make a mistake that must be fixed.

This is why Chinese don't simply throw out the idiom 亡羊补牢 unless you are pretty sure what you mean.