Is 公安 an informal expression when used in the title? 公安 should be the shortened form of 公共安全 and English language media outlets of China give the official translation as Ministry of Public Security for 中国公安部. But the original Chinese is not so formal which should be 中国公共安全部 because there are counterparts 国家安全部，安全生产监督总局, which are not presented in shortened forms.

Unlike cases of 发改委,工信部 that are informal and have their full-length official title,  公安部 is a formal title which is a little awkward.

We don't call "公安" short for "公共安全".
In life, "公安" always means the police.


What does 冒了出来 mean here? 通过网络写作，很多年轻的写手冒了出来，然后重新回归到传统的出版方式出书，这是好事。

Many young writers emerge on the internet and later turn to more traditional forms of book publishing, which is a good thing.

I think 冒了出来 means 'emerge', but later it says '重新回归到传统的出版方式‘ If they emerged on the internet, they can't return to traditional book publishing, because they were never there.

If 冒出来 is 'emerge', I'd have to set 回归 not as 'return， regress' but 'turn to'， so maybe there is some other meaning for '冒出来‘ here？？

1 冒出来 literally means to pop up, to suddenly appear. In this context, it means to become popular. For example：最近几年冒出来了很多互联网公司，他们的增长速度让人吃惊。

2 回归  here it  means come back to former situation. For example: 他们的心情最终会回归平静的。


Benefeciary ： 受益者 vs 获得者 What is the accurate word for Beneficiary (Eg. A beneficiary of a bank account) in Mandarin Chinese ? What is the difference in usage of 受益者 and 获得者 ?

Beneficiary is translated as 受益人 and 获益者 in Google Translate

In life insurance lingo, '受益人' is the standard legal term for 'the beneficiary'. When the 受保人 (the insured) dies, the 保險賠償 (insurance claim) goes to the  受益人 (beneficiary)

~

受益者, 获益者, 获利者  all mean "people who are benefited" in general sense
Example: '美國今次減稅的受益者衹有大企業及億萬富豪' (the only beneficiaries to the US tax cuts this time are the big companies and billionaires)
you can replace 受益者 with 获益者 or 获利者 in this sentence

~

获得者 literally means "the one who obtain or receive.

Example:'奖金获得者' 或 '奖牌获得者' 都可以简称为 '获奖者' ('people who received a cash prize' or 'people who received a medal' can both be simply called 'winner' )


Translation of characters on antique metal During my last visit in Shanghai I bought this old pice of metal, it might be silver. What are the characters on it? I am having trouble reading them. Also, what do they mean?

It looks identical to this (you are looking at it up side down).

https://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21737114069034

It says 大明宣德年裸銀寶至上.

I don't know how exactly to translate this (someone can help me out here), but if I have to...

大明 refers to the Ming dynasty.

宣德年 means the era of Xuande, about AD 1425 - 1435.

裸銀寶 means raw silver sycee.

至上 PERHAPS means your highness (this is probably a wild guess).


What are the most difficult things to learn for a westerner? What aspects of the Chinese language are the most difficult to learn for a westerner? In particular I'm interested in thoughts on:

What do you find are the main difficulties?
Are there any aspects of Chinese that you find easier than expected?
Do you find the grammar more or less complex than that of Latin/Romance languages?

I think the difficulties include:

The tones, while almost all western languages don't have such a conception.
Remember how to write a character. There are many characters that you have to learn and remember.

but the grammar is easier. In Chinese, you don't have to take care of gender, inflection,conjugation, number and particles.


What is Mandarin's conversational equivalent of English's "How interesting!" or "That's cool" In the course of a conversation in (American) English, I often respond to casual observations and statements using a neutral phrase such as "Oh, interesting" "Oh, I see"  or "That's cool." I've realized that I have never been able to translate this and I often find myself using variations of 真的吗？是吗？to acknowledge what is being said.

"Hey, I saw Mary at the store yesterday." 诶, 我昨天在超市见了Mary!

"Oh, cool. How was she?" Umm...Uhh...真的吗? 他怎么样？

I'm basically looking for a phrase to respond to mundane things like "I started taking guitar lessons" or "I saw that movie yesterday" because at least for me, the rhythm of the conversation feels awkward without it.

Does just saying 真的吗？是吗? work for this? Because I feel like saying this over and over again makes me look a super skeptical person, disbelieving that somebody could possibly buy eggs at the grocery store or see that guy at the bank. Because I don't feel like 是吗 and 真的 translates feel of English phrase "oh really?" does it? Is there a colloquialism that is just as versatile as the English saying "Oh, that's interesting."

But I would want to translate "cool" as a way of expressing that I have some fleeting interest in the conversation. Somebody has translated the slang word "lame" as “没趣" for me... so does it follow that cool is "有趣"? I've seen 趣 in th 对 + Object + 感兴趣 structure, but can you colloquially describe somebody as 有趣 or an activity as 有趣 as well? And could I say it in this way in the situation above?

As for things like
”I started taking guitar lessons" or "I saw that movie yesterday" you can say 嗯，感觉怎么样？（Oh， how do you like it?) to show your interest in the conversion.
Then they may say,不错（well）、一般（average）、糟（bad）,and now you are taking control of the conversion. You can comment on their response with few words and talk on something else.

对...object...感兴趣=be interested in ...
If the object is somebody then it's a different matter:you have the tendency to love him/her.
有趣 seems not so native， people often say 有意思 instead. This show that they feel something is interesting. Besides, they say 搞笑 instead of 滑稽 or 有趣 when something is funny. They also say 太扯了 to say something is so ridiculous or amusing.
Some short expressions in English are widely accepted, such as good,what,cool,okay.

cool can be translated into many Chinese，but it rarely has connection with 有趣. More often it's 帅 or 牛。

You can use 有趣 to describe an activity as well a person.But here is one point：if you use it on somebody,you have to make it clear that you are saying he or she is humours rather than ridiculous.

Do not repeat one sentence over and over again, that just implies your mind has gone miles away from the topic.


Why is “economics” translated to "經濟"? I know that 經濟 is a translation from Japanese, but I do not know why it became this. Could someone explain it in detail?

You can find an explanation here in Chinese.
Pasting verbatim (but let me know if you can't read/understand this):

“经济”一词的来历
　　“经济”这一词来源于希腊语，其意思为“管理一个家庭的人”。唯物主义代表色诺芬在他的《经济法》中将“家庭”及“管理”两词的结合理解为经济。严复曾将经济一词翻为“生计”。日本人将其正式翻为经济，后由孙中山先生从日将这一说法引入中国。
　　1、“经济”一词最初在《周易》一书中出现。“经”解释为“径”，即指阡陌（纵横的田地）。“济”字从水旁，解释为“渡”，即指渡水。
　　2、公元4世纪初东晋时代已正式使用“经济”一词。“经济”在中华传统文化中的本来意思都是“经世济民”、“经国济物”，也就是治国平天下之意。
　　3、古时有副对联：“文章西汉双司马，经济南阳一卧龙”，是夸奖司马迁的文章写得好，赞赏诸葛亮具有治理天下的卓越才能。这里面的经济就是经邦济世的意义。（因此有议论：“经济”这个词语在古代所代表的是知识分子的责任之一，而且是非常有深度、广度、高度的一个词语。能做到“经济”二字的人必须文能安邦兴业，武能御侮却敌。古代知识分子，特别是儒家学派的众人，会按照《大学》中“三纲八目”的要求去做学问、做人，而三纲八目最高的要求就是做到“治国平天下”，这个就是古代“经济”一词的最外向的表示。）
　　4、19世纪下半叶开始，一些日本学者在译英语Economy时，借用了古汉语“经济”一词，从而使它的含义发生根本变化，变成了专指社会物质生产活动的用词。辛亥革命后，在孙中山先生的建议下，逐渐统一沿用日本学者的译法，从而使“经济”一词以新词的面貌在中国流传至今。
　　5、古时人们对衣食住行、国家财政等方面的内容，是用什么词来表达呢？最初是用“食货”来表示。《汉书·食货志》对食货作了解释：“食”指农业生产；“货”指农家副业布帛的生产以及货币。此外，还出现了理财、富民、货殖等词。)


How do I handwrite 小心翼翼 well? My handwriting (of 他小心翼翼地把邮票揭下来):

The 小心翼翼 looks horribly imbalanced: there's two sparse characters 小心 followed by two dense characters 翼翼. I'm wondering what I can do to make it look better.
Question: How do I handwrite 小心翼翼 well?
Note: I'm not asking for generic handwriting tips.  Answers should answer the specific question How do I handwrite 小心翼翼 well?  One possible way of answering this question would be to include your own (properly) handwritten 小心翼翼 and explain how it differs from the one I supplied.

First, you should write hanzi "横平竖直" and "有棱有角".
Second, you can correct the structure of the word "心". Usually, we don't handwrite it like that.

Third, you can zoom out the word "翼".
Hope these are useful to you.


How does 馬 resemble a horse? Please see my 3 questions inscribed in the screenshot from Wiktionary:

the character 馬 existed in oracle bone script, there're numerous versions of it. then, the info quoted has some errors.

let's start:

first, rotate left 90°

now, you've a side view of a horse: head at the left, tail pointing right, 3 strokes upward represent the mane, the circles are horseshoe, the line (leg) connected it to the body.

it emphasised the big eye of a horse, the mane on its' back, and the "hairy" of a horsetail.

considering it's created several thousand years ago, with the "writing tech" of bones & stone knife, forgive the abstractness :)

have fun :)


In which pitches do I pronounce several first tones in a sequence? For a while now I've been noticing and trying to figure out how to correctly pronounce several first tone characters in a row. Examples:

機車 jīchē
公車 gōngchē

The speech synthesis of Quizlet pronounces 機車:

High pitch
4 ji
3    che
2
1
Low pitch

That is, the first syllable is pronounced at a higher pitch than the second. But in school, when my teacher speaks slowly I notice she pronounces:

High pitch
4 ji che
3
2
1
Low pitch

At which pitches should I pronounce several first tones in a sequence?

According to some researches there is a declination effect (pitch lowering) in Mandarin Chinese. Fundamental frequency (F0) of a speach is decreasing as a speach goes on, with greater downsteps of pitch at the beginning of phrase.

In sequence of first tones, e.g. "老王蒸冬瓜" (...zhēng dōngguā) the first syllable [zhēng] has higher pitch then the last one [guā] in native speakers' speach.

Here are some examples:

From "Declination in Mandarin" (Chilin Shih)Bell Labs – Lucent Technologies, 1997

This study shows overall lowering of pitch from start of the sentence to its ending. The sentence that was used (in some variations) is "老王蒸冬瓜" [Lǎo Wáng zhēng dōngguā] (so you can see here several first tones in a sequence)

There were four speakers: two females and two males, two from northern China and two from Taiwan). And all fourspeakers show a clear decline in tone 1 pitch values.

This figure shows F0 (tone 1) declination for different speakers (B, C, D) on different sentences (solid and dotted lines):

From "Downstep and Pitch Range of High-Low Tones in Chinese" (Maolin Wang and Wei Xiong)International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 2015

This study uses only sequences of HL tones (High and Low tones, only tone 1 and tone 3 used), the patterns are HLHL, HLHLHL, ... And the authors also come to the result that there is a prominent gradual lowering of H tones strongly resembling downstep throughout the utterances.

To answer your question

When you (or children in China) study Chinese, intonation is supposed to be perfect (but the world in not perfect). So you study "how it should be" (5555555* - tone 1 pitch level) and later it is turning to "speak as everybody does" (5443333...** - tone 1 pitch level)

* five-bar scale of pitches is used here, going from lowest (1), to highest (5)

** scale is not correct, just to show declination of the first tone!!! Five-bar scale is not enough to show correct declination, see pics for correct scale


what are the different and usage between 已 and 己 I notice these two words come out frequently, but the meaning seems like be different. Who can tell me what is the difference.

If possible give me some examples too.

These are two totally different words in Chinese. Be careful about the writing of them, then you will know the difference between them, just like the English words "pee" and "pea".


Not sure what I should use for "when"? Could I say

  当我回家的时

for "when I was coming home"?

If you use the adjectival '的', then it has to be '当我回家的时候' (at the time I come home) - 时候(time/ moment) is a noun

If you don't use the adjectival '的' then you can write '当我回家时' (when I come home) - 时 (when) is an adverb

当我回家的时候 = at the time I come home

当我回家时 = when I come home

当我正在回家的时候 = during the time I was coming home

当我正在回家时 = when I was coming home


What are the translations of these IT-related terms: app, service, consulting? What are the right translations of these IT-related terms into (simplified) Chinese:

app (as in iOS apps)
service (as in application service)
consulting (as in IT consulting)

Is there a reliable dictionary that includes such specialized contemporary terminology?

What are the right translations of these IT-related terms into (simplified) Chinese:

app --> 应用
service --> 服务
consulting --> 咨询

Is there a reliable dictionary that includes such specialized contemporary terminology?

The CKJ Dictionary
Dict.cn -- an online Chinese/English dictionary
[Others]


Any easy way to convert traditional Chinese to simplified Chinese on Mac? I am using OS X 10.9.2, is there any easy way to transfer traditional Chinese to simplified Chinese? Like some apps? I don't really like using website to do this.

First, paste the traditional Chinese texts into Textedit, select those texts. Then Right-click the texts in Textedit, choose Services/Convert text to simplified Chinese.


"How's that sound?" in Mandarin What would be an appropriate way to end a sentence after making a suggestion/offering an opinion in anticipation of the response? For instance, while talking to a friend, I share something with them followed by "how's that sound to you?" or "what do you think?" in order to elicit some sort of reply pertaining to my previous statement.

Examples for clarity:

1) We should try bubble tea sometime. Thoughts?

2) Rabbits are much cuter than cats. What do you think?

3) I will pick up your medication at 6:00. How's that?

4) (Random sentence in Mandarin + unsure how it sounds in context). How was that? Was it okay for this situation?

I am aware of 好吗，对吗，是不是。Yet these seem to be used primarily for the purpose of affirmation. I also know 怎么样 is appropriate for asking "how was it/how have you been". Might 吧 fit in here at all (possibly in the form of a question)?

The most common sentence is "怎么样？“ in Chinese, which is "what do you think?". It can be added after any suggestion sentence.


How To *Write* The Northeastern ‘ber lou’? A long time ago a Northeastern friend of mine showed me how to write ‘ber lou’ using 汉字.

‘ber lou’ being the northeastern equivalent of 额头.

I have since forgotten how ‘ber lou’ was indeed written.

How is the Chinese Northeastern word for 额头: ‘ber lou’ written in 汉字?

Was it this?????

十日九不见，入山见大虫

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2559827202
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/759607485


How to ask girl for number? In my Chinese class we haven't really discussed how to ask people for their number, only business cards "Zhao pian" what would be the proper way to ask a girl for a number? I am thinking "wo keyi you shu" with the vocabulary that I do know.

I assume you want ask number for dating purpose.

I don't think this is a Chinese language problem. The difficulty is not how to ask but when to ask.

"number" should be translated into "号" but not "数" here.

You may say "我能留一下你的手机号吗？"(May I take down your phone number?). However, the more popular way in China is to ask their to add your WeChat(http://www.wechat.com/en/).


What is the usage of 蔑 as a negation word in classical chinese? I read someone mentioning 蔑 as a negation word in classical Chinese, but unfortunately without explaining how it works or an example sentence. So I looked it up in my dictionary and it only showed me the meaning as a verb for denouncing s.o.

Here's a good English definition and explanation with an example sentence to get you started:
A Students Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese

2 negative particle of the perfective: had not, have not, will have not; similar to 末 mò and often accompanied by perfective-final 矣 yǐ; mostly found in Zuozhuan 左傳 and Guoyu 國語, later mainly for archaic effect; e.g. 寧事齊楚, 有亡而已, 蔑從晉矣 níngshì Qí Chǔ, yǒu wáng éryǐ, miècóng Jìn yǐ, Better to serve Qi and Qi, lest we simply perish, and [better] not to have followed Jin.
3 not to have, lack; there are no…

Next you can have a look at these dictionary samples to get a better grip of how it works (some of the definitions are the same, but they use different sources):
MoE

◆ <副> 無、沒有。
如：「蔑以復加」、「蔑不有成」。

Liang'An

2 〈書〉無；沒有。
例：～以復加∣～不有成。

Hanyu Da Cidian

4 无；没有。
《诗·大雅·板》
喪亂蔑資, 曾莫惠我師。
毛 传
蔑, 無。資, 財也。
《史记·孔子世家》
夫子循循然善誘人, 雖欲從之, 蔑由也已。
《新唐书·突厥传赞》
自《詩》《書》以來, 伐暴取亂, 蔑如帝神且速也。
明 胡应麟 《少室山房笔丛·华阳博议上》
即小學一端, 門逕十數, 古今博洽, 蔑能相兼。

Longmans

❷ 沒有﹐無：蔑以復加（沒有甚麼能再增加的了）。

Gu Hanyu Cidian

④无。《左传•僖公十年》:“蔑不济矣。”


What's the difference between 表明 (biǎomíng) and 清楚地表明 (qīngchǔ dì biǎomíng)? A Jukuu.com example sentence:

  图14．34清楚地表明了这一点。
   Figure 14.34 illustrates this point rather nicely.
  Tú 14.34 qīngchǔ dì biǎomíngle zhè yīdiǎn.

Breaking this apart:

图14．34 (tú 14.34) = Figure 14.34
清楚 (qīngchǔ) = clear
地 (dì) = -ly (turning "clear" into the adverb "clearly")
表明 (biǎomíng) = to make clear
了 (le) = (past tense marker)
这 (zhè) = this
一点 (yīdiǎn) = a little

So maybe my translation would be "Figure 14.34 clearly makes clear this a little."  However, the repetition of "clear" in 清楚地表明 seems strange.

Question: What's the difference between 表明 and 清楚地表明?

清楚地 (adv) = clearly

表明 (v) = show/ demonstrate/ indicate

  Question: What's the difference between 表明 and 清楚地表明?

图14．34 表明了这一点。= Figure 14. 34 indicated this point

图14．34 清楚地表明这一点 = Figure 14. 34 clearly indicated this point


How to cope with classical references? It seems like references to classical literature are unavoidable in virtually all materials enjoyed by native speakers - I was watching an episode of 蚁族的奋斗 where a group of young men are talking informally around the dinner table, and one of them casually spouts off "“实在不行了我回沂蒙山陪我妈种树去，当地主，娶个村姑，养条狗，这叫“门墩、胖狗、肥丫头，农夫山泉，它有点甜”。, after which they all laugh heartily. Now, I'm sure that there is some type of historical or literary context behind what he said, but I have been unable to find any indication as to a) which text this quotation was drawn from or b) how I ought to interpret it. More than the hanzi or the tones, it seems to me that cultural references pose the greatest challenge to learners of Chinese as a second language. Can anyone shed some light on this quotation, or point me towards a resource where its historical background is discussed?

I have not watched this drama so my interpret may not be accurate. From what is said, this line is self-mockery and ironic, but in a humorous and relaxed tone.

门墩、胖狗、肥丫头 concludes the modest values of Chinese countrymen with a ragged verse. It doesn't look like from any specific reference, at least I am not aware of. However, in modern Chinese literature about country life (especially rural reform), there were some well known lines that were in the form of 3 words in parallel, such as “篱笆、女人和狗”. A similar construct may hint/recall similar subject or value statements.
农夫山泉有点甜 is taken a famous TV commercial for 农夫山泉 (mineral water brand). This line is purely self-mockery. The subtext is "Even if I fail to struggle in the city, I become a peasant (against my own wish), at least I have sweet water to drink."
沂蒙山 is national wide known for its poverty. Even the speaker does have aspirations for what he said, the "happily ever after" tone in his words is unlikely to realize. This context confirmed that his intent of these words is purely being self-mockery and humorous.
To summarize, what he really means is "There is no other option but to struggle in the city no matter how hard it is."

When his friends heard this and laughed, it means they shared the same feeling and the subtext could be "cheers to you, Mr. Brightside!"

Again these are just guesses without having watched the drama. Having heard of it from many friends, I'll probably watch it some time...


Is the halfwidth ideographic comma (､) (U+FF64) ever used in Chinese punctuation? My digital version of《现代汉语规范词典》seems to be using halfwidth ideographic commas, ､ (U+FF64).

Here's their definition for 巾:

  名 用来擦､包或盖东西的小块织物

It looks like a poor attempt at a fullwidth ideographic comma (顿号) and seems to be missing any sort of space what-so-ever after the punctuation mark.

Is there ever usage of the halfwidth ideographic comma in Chinese punctuation? (Add your own spaces?)

Mainstream pinyin input methods mainly use full-width '、' character.  And under most formal situations, full-width '、' is required to keep consistency with other full-width punctuation markers (for example: '。', '，', '！').


Why the change in tones of the words in some phrases? I am a native Cantonese speaker. I found that we have to change the tones of some words, when used in particular phrases. But I don't know why. It seems that it doesn't follow any "rules of changing tone" like those in Mandarin.

An example is 蘭, which is pronounced as "lan4". But in 荷蘭(Holland), it's pronounced as "lan1". And similarly for 欄 in 果欄, 士 in 的士.

Can anyone give some more examples and explain why?

Edit: Another example, 鞋 usually pronounced as "hai4". But in 拖鞋 it is pronounced as "hai2". However, in 皮鞋, it becomes "hai4" again.

Edit: Another example, 壺 usually pronounced as "wu4". But "wu2" in 水壺，茶壺 etc. Yet "wu4" again when you say 一壺茶.

Edit: 下 ha6, but ha2 in 鄉下．

粵語的聲調變化分成連續變調與變音 (morpho-phonemic change)。主要發生在複詞或疊字詞，一般來讀低音域（主要是低降調）的第二音節會轉為高昇調。

1) 連續變調：不發生語意或文法上的改變:

家人稱呼，如：爸爸（baa4 baa1）、媽媽（maa4 maa1）、弟弟（dai4 dai2）、太太（taai3 taai2）

2) 變音：會發生語意或文法上的改變:

i) AAB型疊字詞，如：立立亂（laap6 laap2 lyun6，雜亂的)
  ii)名詞作為容器量詞使用時保持原來的聲調，如：一盒朱古力（jat1 hap3 zyu1 gu1 lik1，一盒巧克力）vs 呢個盒（ni1 go3 hap2，這個盒子）

It seems like what you mentioned is explained in the last example.

Here's the origin:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B2%A4%E8%AF%AD


How are blanks indicated for placeholders in Chinese (like ???) In English, in the middle of a sentence if data is being left blank (such as an unknown date, or a name to be filled in at a later time), commonly you see ???, ___ (underscore(s)), or -- to mark this. You can see examples in books such as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, where the year is always indicated as 18--, hiding the last two digits. In Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal (although not the most formal example of language), your rival was called ??? until you named him.

In Japanese and Korean, 〇〇 (or simply 〇 at times, though this is easy to confuse with 0 in Japanese) is used to mark "something" in that place.

In Chinese, what is/are the most common ways to suggest that data is missing or incomplete?

Generally putting XX is fine unless formal. People use that a lot orally. X is usually pronounced as 叉, but can vary based on region.

Formally and also very commonly for missing name is using 某.

王某 (someone with surname 王 and one-character given name)

王某某 (someone with surname 王 and two-character given name)

某某/某某某 (very general, someone with unknown name, no implication on length of name)

For dates, if exact year is unknown or of no importance, you say 19世纪 (19th century), 19世纪80年代 (1880s)


What does 别间 in 别间大学的男生都土里土气的 mean? I've been sentence mining from Meteor Garden (2001) and I came across the sentence

别间大学的男生都土里土气的。

Can someone help me figure out what does '别间' mean in that sentence?
Thanks!

别 means "not this", in other words, it means "other"
间 is a quantifier for 大学
You need to add a quantifier between 别 and 大学 because you need a quantifier when you count an object
You can also use
别的大学, 别所大学
to express similar meaning


What is the original text to the quotation of “The Burbank of Humanity”? The book Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves by Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford has a section speaking of John R. Brinkley that says:

  The China Press hailed the goateed physician as “The Burbank of Humanity.”

Any source on the original text of this quote?

I've dug a bit on the internet. There's a couple other books with this phrase, though it really sounds like a hearsay or a funny anecdote rather than an actual quote.
The book "Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam" mentions "the Burbank of Humanity" three times:
In the first one, the quote isn't attributed:

"the Burbank of Humanity, the Chinese called him"

In the second one, it refers to an unspecified Chinese Press (italics also in the original text):

it was here the Chinese Press hailed their new visitor as "the Burbank of Humanity"

The third one is just echoing that nickname, but in a different context.

Another book, "The Roguish World of Doctor Brinkley" also mentions the "Burbank of humanity" but without reference to Chinese sources. In the following excerpt it seems it's talking about an american journalist:

The early 1920’s marked the beginning in the United States of the new craft of public relations counsel. Brinkley with his Ballous, Flowers and others, was quick to avail himself of the services of various gifted members of the new profession; and who else, but a press agent, would have had the thought, or the nerve, to call Doctor the “Burbank of humanity”?

Baidu is also of no help. First, the name of Luther Burbank seems to be rendered inconsistently in Chinese. I can find at least three versions: 路德·貝本, 卢瑟·伯班克 and 路德·伯班克. Then, we have the problem of whether "Burbank of Humanity" is a direct translation of a Chinese phrase, or the liberal interpretation of some other periphrasis. I have a hard time believing it could be the former, since this kind of noun juxtaposition (e.g. the "poor man's lobster") is not typical of Chinese.
Anyway, even assuming the quote "Burbank of Humanity" is a direct translation, what would it look like in Chinese? Maybe “人类之伯班克” or “人们之伯班克”? Neither these two, nor several other variants, yield meaningful results on Google or Baidu.
Moreover, I doubt that the Chinese press (whatever it may be) would ideate such a monicker at the time Brinkley was said to be in Asia (mid 20's), as for it to appear in press, it would require Chinese readers to understand it in the first place. So this raises the question of whether Luther Burbank, an american botanist, was so renowned in China at that time to warrant calling someone else (a huckster), the "Burbank of Humanity".

In conclusion, I'm led to believe that the quote is anecdotal at best, if not an editorial embellishment altogether.


Radical choice for 安全 A simple question, why does the lower half of 安全 (safe), have the female character: 女 ？

Is it implying that safety pertains only to females being secure? Or is there no such implication?

I'd like to know why 女 was chosen

Splitting the character 安, we get 宀 + 女.

In oracle bone script, 宀 stands for house, and 女 means bride. The whole caracter means "bride in new house" (i.e. marriage).

In traditional Chinese culture, marrying a girl is a huge settlement in a man's life, so 安 means 安定 (settled), 安心 (relieved).

Reference is in full Chinese (so it's a bit hard for learners to read).


What is the translation of 托业考试必备 ? I ve looked up the words:

托 = to entrust (only one possible meaning, i do not know which one makes   sense)
业 = enterprise
考试 = test
必备 = essential

I can make no sense of this sentence, i even can not analyze its parts of speeches.

Could you explain the contained in this sentence?

I do not agree with S.Rhee. It seems like here it is a name of a book or some TOEIC test preparation reference. Thus, the better translation in English would be:

Essential for TOEIC


What is the difference between 突然 and 忽然? They both have the meaning sudden, but what is a subtle difference between 突然 and 忽然?

They are identical when used as an Adverb.

  天空突然/忽然下起了大雨。

But 突然 can also be used as a complement of a verb.

  这雨下得太突然了。

Where you can only use 突然。


simple translation of simple text and question about 个 and 自己 please translate the text below

他有见兔正给山羊来送白菜
我自己种的。只有自己种，才有吃不完的菜。
青菜萝卜吃个饱

i have a little confusion in these sentences and about 自己 exact translation in second sentence

and the 个 in sentence 3

This old rabbit/goat story is an allusion to North Korean politics， right?

1。他有见兔正给山羊来送白菜。

He saw the rabbit give the goat a cabbage.

2。我自己种的。只有自己种，才有吃不完的菜。

I planted them myself. If you grow your own veggies then you will always have enough to eat.

Edit 2。 '我自己种的‘ could be written '这棵白菜是我自己种的‘，Chinese likes to shorten sentences. I'm not paranoid, I know they do it just to confuse poor me!

我自己种 = I myself plant = I planted (them) myself.

自己 = self, myself, yourself, themselves, depending on context.

3。青菜萝卜吃个饱

I'm full up with chop-choi and carrots. (this must be Kim Jong Un, the 胖子)

吃个包 = eat a fill = eat until you are full


What's the meaning of 厨 in internet slang? I was in a Chinese forum for manga fans and I saw a user who introduced himself saying this sentence:

一个普通的《X》厨

Going by the context, I understand 厨 here means something like "fan of X",  but I would like further information about the way Chinese people use this word and what it means to them. The dictionary only has "kitchen" and "cupboard" as meanings in English.

厨二病
Japanese
Etymology
Derived by replacing the 中 (chū, “middle [school]”) with 厨 (chū, “freak; nerd”).
厨二病 (hiragana ちゅうにびょう, rōmaji chūnibyō)
Alternative spelling of 中二病

This usage of 厨 here came from Japanese 'ちゅう' (kanji: 厨 ). Which means "freak or nerd"
"XX 厨" = "XX nerd"  or "XX freak". Anime and manga fans would be familiar with this term
Other Japanese terms imported to Chinese via manga (mostly circulated among manga readers in written form)

醬(ちゃん).

"XX 醬" = "XX 小妹妹" (Dear little XX)

宅(taku)  came from Otaku (a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills..)

"XX 宅" = "XX obsessed" e.g. "軍事宅" means "a person obsessed with military"


Which is the correct translation for "I went to the bathroom twice": 去了厕所两次 or 去厕所两次了? Which one is correct please?
If I try to translate:
I went to the bathroom twice.

去了厕所两次
去厕所两次了

The verb particle '了' after '去' in "去了厕所两次" indicates the verb '去' is completed, so "去了(went to) 厕所两次 (the bathroom twice)"  is the correct translation
The final particle '了' after '去厕所两次'  emphasizes 两次 --> "两次了" = "twice already"
But '了' here can also function as a verb particle that indicates the verb phrase 去厕所两次 as a completed action --> "[去]厕所两次[了]" = "[went to] the bathroom twice"
Both translations are valid, but the first one is more literal (word for word translation)


Help with expanding on a Chinese character's name (in headcanon) (To clarify: I'm a white American, trying to make fanlore for a canonically Chinese character from a Korean game. There's several different levels of possible lost-in-translation here. If you need any background information, stuff from the original Korean text or its Mandarin localization, etc., or if this is an insensitive request, please tell me.)
I'm a big fan of a video game called Library of Ruina. To explain the plot would be off-topic and take way too long; the relevant details are that it takes place in a giant futuristic city with multiple different real-life cultures represented, including (Han) Chinese. Three characters have Chinese names, including my personal favorite, a woman named Xiao. She has a Mandarin wiki page at https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%82%B5/55498596, but she doesn't have an English one because the English wiki for Library of Ruina is very bare-bones as yet; if that changes, I'll update this post. Xiao is a fighter-for-hire by trade, with notable character traits being bravery, caring for those around her, a "cold" veneer that takes some time and effort to break through, and strength both of will and of love for her husband. In terms of character design, she has aspects both of fire and of a Chinese dragon, though those didn't exist when she was a baby and might not factor into her name at all.
It doesn't take much research to know that Xiao probably isn't her only name, if we're going the authentic Chinese route, which I intend to. With some cursory research using Google, a Chinese dictionary, and my sister who's learning Mandarin in school, I guessed that Xiao likely referred to the surname Xiāo (萧). I then came up with the given name Fáng (房) and courtesy name Liánhuā (莲花), but now I'm thinking I didn't do my homework well enough. There's nothing given in canon about Xiao's home life or what her family might have been thinking about when they named her, but even if that information did exist, I wouldn't trust my own non-Mandarin-speaking self to use it effectively.
What are some things I should take into account while attempting to make a headcanon name(s) for a Chinese character, besides literal meanings of the characters and avoiding any similarly literal bad associations? Does anybody have any possible suggestions? (I've seen a couple other posts from Chinese people suggesting that the latter might be a service people pay for - if that's the case, I'm absolutely not requiring anyone to do it for free. I'd accept suggestions of people to hire such a service from as well.)
TL;DR: I need help coming up with additional headcanon names for a Han Chinese video game character whose only name given in canon is Xiao. I came up with a couple options, but it's become clear that I didn't do enough research and they probably don't make sense. Can anyone help me figure out how to do this, or point me to someone who can, potentially as a paid service?

Update: I wrote this entire long thing, didn't post it, and then went and looked up some cutscene videos in the Mandarin localization. I discovered that the character they use for Xiao's name is actually 邵, i.e. Shào - I suspect that's because both the English and Mandarin localization teams were transliterating directly from Korean and they interpreted the same syllable in slightly different ways, but I don't know for sure! Just another complicated piece to add to the puzzle...
Update 2: Thanks to Mou某 for finding her Mandarin wiki page!

I actually think some sinologist have the most literate chinese names, such as 费正清，高居翰. These names use characters that often appear in Chinese people's names. Many of these words are related to Confucius virtues. But these names are not suitable for games as I think they are a bit too serious. Chinese video games characters use names adapting from modern fantasy novels which often take inspiration from historical works such as Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (聊斋志异), In Search of the Supernatural (搜神记). The names in these work are more interesting. They can refer to locations, times, storyline themselves, cosmology, etc. They generally come from a daoist canon.


Is there any authoritative works related to measure words? I know that the Chinese ministry of education did release a lot of authoritative books on how characters should be simplified, how their stroke orders should be, and other similar stuff.
But it doesn't seem like the ministry released anything related to measure words.

So is there any authoritative work that gives for a word what measure words can be applied to it and what meaning does it imply? And also the reverse, a list of all measure words and with what kinds of words they should be use with? In English or in Chinese?

For instance, take the word 专辑:

一张专辑, an actual album object (e.g. as a CD album)
一种专辑, an album title
一部专辑, an album taken as a piece of art

Then the measure word 款: used to design a software as a piece of work, comparable to 部 when used to single out pieces of art.

It depends on your definition of 'authoritative'.

If you are looking for formal dictionaries as opposed to crowd-sourcing efforts, dedicated to measure words, there are 《量词词典》, 《现代汉语量词用法词典》, 《现代汉语量词规范词典》, etc. You can find them by searching '量词+词典' on Amazon, Douban or other book sources.

If you are looking for 'the source' that's used by all the schools as standard reference, there is none. At least in Mainland China, the only dictionaries that are used as standards are 《新华字典》 and 《现代汉语词典》. Both of them cover measure words but are not 'measure word dictionary' i.e. they do not provide reverse look up from a noun to corresponding measure words; they do not contain an extensive list of usages for each measure word; etc.


Pls help translate a short sentence I am looking into getting a Chinese tattoo saying “Just go with the flow” down my spine but I don’t want to trust Google translate and would much rather get the answers through here.

顺其自然 is the phrase you're looking for.

Even when you put it into Google:

they want to show you results for:

  Go With The Flow (Song by Tiger Huang)


What role does 成 (chéng) play in the sentence 我把十块美元换成人民币? A jukuu.com example sentence for 人民币 is:

  我把十块美元换成人民币
   I change ten dollars into Renminbi
  (Wǒ bǎ shí kuài měiyuán huàn chéng rénmínbì)

Question: What role does 成 play in the sentence 我把十块美元换成人民币?

Everything else seems to translate naturally:

我 (wǒ) = I
把 (bǎ) = take
十 (shí) = ten
块 (kuài) = pieces of
美元 (měiyuán) = US dollars
换 (huàn) = exchange
成 (chéng) = ???
人民币 (rénmínbì) = a formal way of saying Chinese yuan (Chinese money).

Dict.cn translates 成 to "succeed", etc., so it could mean something along the lines of how 了 is used.  I'm not clear on this.

成 (into) is the result complement of the verb 换(change)

换 = change
换成 = change into
兑换 = exchange
兑换成 = exchange into

兑换 mostly refers to 'currency exchange'

换 can refer to exchange between anything.

In "我把十块美元换成人民币" (I exchanged $10 USD into RMB), '换' is obviously short for '兑换'. You can even replace '换' with '兑' (convert) and write: "我把十块美元兑成人民币" (I converted $10 USD into RMB)and the meaning would still be the same.


Translation of 大日如来寺? I have gotten interested in an esoteric Buddhist school originating from China and I was wondering what "dari rulai" meant.

I have sort of figured out part of it: "dari" is probably great-day or great-sun. But I cannot figure out "rulai" at all.

大日如來

Mahāvaircana, the Buddha who is the central teacher and object of veneration in Vajrayāna Buddhism (密宗).

"The Great Sun Buddha, is the transcendent and cosmocratic apotheosis of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni (釋迦牟尼).
Under the earlier designation Vairocana ("the luminous one"), he represents Buddhism's most profound speculation on the emptiness and interpenetration of all elements in the universe (dharmadhātu, 法界).
As Mahāvairocana he is concretely envisaged as the all-encompassing lord of the cosmos and is the object of worship for a form of Tantric Buddhism (密宗) that spread from India to Sumatra, China, Japan, and Tibet."
(Encyclopedia of Religion, Orzech)

Originally the name referred to the light of the sun, but later on took on connotations of the buddha as fundamental principle of the universe.

He is one of the five buddhas 五佛 depicted in the maṇḍalas of the vajradhātu (金剛界) and garbhadhātu (胎藏界).

The name is transcribed into Chinese as 摩訶毗盧遮那 and 毗盧遮那佛, and is translated variously as 最高顯廣眼藏, 遍照王如來, 光明遍照, 大日遍照, 遍一切處, 遍照尊.

Source: 《 English-Chinese-English Dictionary of Buddhist Terms 》

大日如來

梵名 Mahāvairocana 。為密教供奉之本尊與最上根本佛。音譯作摩訶毗盧遮那。又作毗盧遮那佛、最高顯廣眼藏、遍照王如來、光明遍照、大日遍照、遍一切處、遍照尊。

其名有三義，即：
(一)除暗遍明義，謂如來智慧日光遍一切處，作大照明，無有內外、晝夜之別。
(二)眾務成辦義，謂如來日光遍照法界，能平等開發無量眾生之善根，乃至成就世、出世間種種殊勝事業。
(三)光無生滅義，謂佛心之日雖為無明所覆障，而無所減；究竟如法實相三昧圓明，而無所增。
以如此諸種原因，故世間之日不可為喻，但取其少分相似處，故加以‘大’字。

大日如來係密宗將宇宙實相佛格化之根本佛，亦為一切諸佛菩薩所出之本原及所歸之果體；其身口意業遍虛空，演說如來之三密門金剛一乘甚深教。《大日經疏》卷一謂，大日如來分本地法身與加持受用身兩種，其中，本地法身指如來之自證極位，加持受用身指說法之教主；彼以平等之身口意秘密加持為所入之門（即以身平等之密印、語平等之真言、心平等之妙觀為方便），故知加持受用之身即是毗盧遮那遍一切身，此二身畢竟無二無別。故密宗以大日如來為最高之佛格與根本總德。以其與諸法遍在，故密號遍照金剛。

又因大日如來為金、胎兩部曼荼羅之主尊，故非常被重視，其智德以金剛界大日如來表示之，其理德則以胎藏界大日如來表示；理、智雖然二分，實際亦不相離。金剛界大日為金剛界九會中，除理趣會以外之中尊，位於五佛中央，現菩薩形，身呈白色，戴五智寶冠，結智拳印，結跏趺坐於七獅子座，此即智法身。胎藏界大日則為位於中台八葉院中央之理法身，亦現菩薩形，身呈黃金色，頭戴五佛寶冠，結法界定印，坐於八葉蓮華台上。

Source: 《佛光大辭典》

如來 Tathāgata (तथागत), 多陀阿伽陀.

Tathāgata (怛他揭多) defined as he who comes as do all other Buddhas; or as he who took the 真如 zhenru or absolute way of cause and effect, and attained to perfect wisdom; or as the absolute come; one of the highest titles of a Buddha.

It is the Buddha in his nirmāṇakāya (निर्माणकाय), i. e. his 'transformation' or corporeal manifestation descended on earth. The two kinds of Tathāgata are (1) 在纏 the Tathāgata in bonds, i. e. limited and subject to the delusions and sufferings of life, and (2) 出纏 unlimited and free from them.

There are numerous sutras and śāstras bearing this title of 如來 (rulai).

Source: 《 Soothill-Hodous Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms 》


Usage of 万 (wàn): ten thousands or just a great number? I noticed that very often the word 万 (wàn) occurs in poetry (e.g. poetry of the Tang dynasty). My dictionary reports its meaning as "ten thousands", but it looks like it's used in place of a generic "great number". A sentence I notice very frequently is "万里" (wàn lǐ): I feel like this is just a way to mean "a very long distance".

So, what is the proper meaning and usage of "万"? Is it correct to use it for "great", "enormous"? On the other side, to mean "huge", "great", is it correct to use "万", 10000, and not something else (maybe even numerically bigger), like, "one million", "one billion"?

You are correct, 万, 千 and 百 literally mean 10000, 1000 and 100. These words are often used as a figurative number for 'great', 'huge' or 'immense'

For example:

万人空巷 doesn't literally mean ten thousand people spilling out to the streets. 万人 means 'great number of people'

万水千山 doesn't literally mean ten thousand bodies of water and one thousand mountains.  万水千山 means many, many mountains and bodies of water = "immense distance"

千锤百炼 doesn't literally mean hammer one thousand times and temper one hundred times. 千锤百炼 means "extendedly forged"

Other numbers like 六, 九, 十 are often used metaphorically for 'all, entire, ultimate' too.

For example:

六軍(whole army)，九阴九阳(extreme/ ultimate yin and extreme/ ultimate yang), 十全十美 (perfect)

万, 千 and 百 are not figurative number, when they are with actual numbers.  一万, 二千 and  三百 can only mean 10000, 2000 and 300


Difference between 曾经 and 已经 In this question I was asking about 曾经 and one answer says it means 'already'.

What's the difference between 曾经 and 已经?
Do the two sentences below have the same meaning?

他曾经在北京学过两年汉语。
他已经在北京学过两年汉语。

I think it could be close to the fact to say "曾经(once)“ is used in the past tense, while "已经(already)" is used in the perfect(past, present, or future, it doesn't matter) tense, that's why ”了" is often used with it..
So when you are using the present perfect tense or future perfect tense, only 已经 can be used. For example(where 曾经 can't be used):

明年他就已经结婚5年了。 He will have been married for 5 years next year. Future Perfect Tense
他现在已经是这个公司的CEO了。 He has been the CEO of this company now. Present Perfect Tense

How about the past(past perfect) tense?
As you may have learned in English. the past perfect tense implies that the fact the sentence is talking about is related to or affect the status quo, and the past tense just states a fact. That's true to "已经“ and "曾经". ALso, 曾经 could implies that the fact doesn't last till now(see my answer to a related question "What's the role of 曾经 in this sentence?") .For your examples:

他曾经在北京学过两年汉语。 State the fact that he studied Chinese in Beijing for 2 years and implies he is not studing Chinese in Beijing now.
他已经在北京学过两年汉语。Emphasize the fact that his experience in studing Chinese. This fact will affect the status quo, depending on the context.For example, when a company wants to hire a man who can speak Chinese and you go to the interview, you would prefer to say"我已经在北京学过两年汉语". Here, you want the listener to understand that you can speak Chinese well.

Some other examples.

两年前他曾经是副经理。 He was(used to be) the deputy manager two years ago. Here, the sentence implies he is not the deputy manager now. So what's his title now? The speaker doesn't have any idea about this. The speaker just stated a fact.
两年前他已经是副经理了。 He had been the deputy manager two years ago Here, the sentence implies that he may get promoted now(perhaps he is the general manager now,in this case, you want to say he is talented), or he is still the deputy manger(in this case, you may want to say he should get promoted). All the implications depend on the context.

Let me show a conversation here. A policeman is investigating a case, and he is looking for a witness. He finds you and asks you some quesstions. You say,

You: 那天晚上我曾经在这儿看到他。 I saw him(the suspect) here on that night.
The policeman: 是吗？不过已经有人给我们报告过了。 Really? But someone else has informed us of this.(he is disappointed that you can't say something new).
You: 他曾经欠了A(the victim)一大笔钱，不过最近他好像突然有钱了。 He once owed a big sum of money to A, but it seems that he is rich now.
The policeman: 我们还不知道这个，我想我已经能确定他的作案动机了。We don't know this. Now I can say I have confirmed his motive to kill A


Don't both 關心 and 在意 mean the same thing? I recently learned a sentence: 大家都和關心也很在意這件事
However, don't both 關心 and 在意 mean the same thing -- to care about? Is there a difference?

It should be "大家都很關心也很在意這件事"
When two different words have a shared definition, they can be used interchangeably in some context. See my answer to this question:  Are there any two chinese words which can be used interchangeably?

關 = relate; 心 = heart

關心 : to be concerned; to worry about; care about

~

在 = in/at/on; 意 = mind

在意 : take notice of; care about; take to heart

If they can be used interchangeably, then you can also use them concurrently, to make them reinforce each other as synonyms
Example:
"大家都很關心也很在意這件事" "Everyone cares about and take notice of this"
The subtle difference:

關心子女安危 (concern about the safety of one's children) expresses a more serious manner than  在意子女安危 (care about the safety one's of children)

我不在意浣熊在我後園出沒。 (I don't care about raccoons coming and going in my backyard.) expresses a more casual manner than 我不關心浣熊在我後園出沒。 (I am not concerned about raccoons coming and going in my backyard.)


What's the Least Awkward Way To Say "I am Not A Native Chinese Speaker" In Chinese? Usually I end up saying

  我并非/不是以中文为母语的人,(...so please forgive my mistakes).

Is there any way to avoid the awkward-seeming "以中文为母语" construction here but still get this point across, without saying something totally different like "I'm a foreigner" - there are other situations where I really do need to be referring to the specific level of Chinese language capability.  It's obvious that I'm not, but I still feel the need to say something along these lines for politeness' sake, from time to time.


Could you please correct my sentences? Could you please correct my text ?

虽然我会说一口流利的法语，但是我想说一口流利的汉语。

我的职业 是律师。

律师 的责任很大，因为他必须解决严重得实情。然后压力大。

可是在巴黎 律师逐渐增加。 因此招聘越来越少。

The a versions are acceptable I'm told. 2 needed no changes.

虽然我会说一口流利的法语，但是我想说一口流利的汉语。(illogical 虽然。。。但是。。。)
1a. 我已经会说一口流利的法语，我希望我的汉语能像我的法语一样流利。
我的职业是律师。
律师的责任很大，因为他必须解决严重得实情。然后压力大。
3a. 作为律师，我的压力很大，责任很重，因为律师总得解决严重的事情。
可是在巴黎 律师逐渐增加。 因此招聘越来越少。
4a. 在巴黎律师的数量越来越多，因此工作机会越来越少。


Part-of-speech problems about adjectives or adverbs preceding 地 In "高兴/地/说", is 高兴 an adjective or an adverb?

The following link is a document on "Part-Of-Speech Tagging Guidelines for the
Penn Chinese Treebank (3.0)"

https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=ircs_reports

The Chinese Treebank 8.0 data can be downloaded from
https://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/bitstream/handle/10339/39379/LDC2013T21.tgz?sequence=1

I am building a Chinese part-of-speech tagger model using the Ontonotes corpus, which contains Penn Chinese Treebank data. After reviewing many of the annotated sentences, I fail to understand the annotation of many 'VA' adjectives that precede (的/地(DEV) verb(VV)). I processed the annotated sentences into a file, and by regular expression I found that words in this case are twice more likely to be annotated as VA than to be annotated as AD.

In my impression, regarding "XXX 地 verb", XXX is always an adverb. But in the corpus, hundreds of cases like this are annotated as an adjective, like "可以/VV/O 轻易/VA/O 地/DEV/O 改变/VV/O", ..., etc.

See page 14 of the document. 高兴 seems to be an adverb (AD) instead of an adjective (VA).

Why are the words like this annotated as VA instead of AD? How to tell whether words of this case should be annotated as VA, JJ, or AD ? Or are the part-of-speech tags of the words really correctly annotated in the Chinese Treebank data?

Adjective is placed before noun and Adverb is placed before verb
So in your Context "高兴/地/说", since 说 is a verb, 高兴地 will be an adverb.
高兴 itself can be a noun, adjective or adverb depending on the context and any preposition character following it.
的 is used before nouns , e.g. 灿烂的笑容 charming smile, it served as a possessive particle too
地 is used before verbs , e.g. 用力地踢 kick it hardly, 仔细地观察 observe carefully
得 is used before adjectives, the words before 得 are usually verbs. e.g. 扫得很干净 Sweep very clean, 做得很好 nicely done
more examples:
通过仔细的观察，我们可以知道一个人的喜好 By observing carefully, we can know a person's preferences  (观察 is a noun here)
他仔细地观察，不错过任何蛛丝马迹 He observes carefully and does not miss any clues (观察 is a verb here)
需要观察得很仔细，才能够分辨出两者有何不同 Need to observe carefully to be able to tell the difference between the two
Note: in contemporary and unofficial writing nowadays, you may find out more people to use 的 instead of 地 or 得 in those specific situations. e.g. 做的好！/ 悄悄的离开了 / 悄悄的来到我身边 which are however grammatically inaccurate but somehow accepted by the public. If you google it, tons of people are actually using it with lots of examples that you can find it online and therefore it has become a norm nowadays.
more reference for 的/地/得 usage here


What semantic notions underlie 'hem, margin; reason, cause; karma, fate' for 緣? p 1194, ABC Chinese–English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003). I can't access the "slightly revised through July 2005" ed.

Sset 3 originates from the semantic radical 糸. How did Set 3 (the original meanings of 'hem, margin') semantically shift to Sets 1, 2, 4, 5?
Yellowbridge divides 緣 into 3 sets with its 2 semicolons.

Did 3 semantically shift to 6-7 by the semantic notion of climbing up or going up along an edge or fridge?

First, you seemed to have asked a lot of questions about etymology and you are always quoting Yellowbridge. Yellowbridge may have its merits, but it does not seem to provide enough information in this area. If you consulted a good dictionary, you would not need to ask so many questions and could save yourself a lot of time.
For instance, this site as suggested by other users is good enough. The result for 緣 is this. (I have consulted other dictionaries and they are more or less the same.)
As we can see from the link, its basic original meaning is "edge of clothes", which is why it has the semantic radical 糸.
Hence the meaning "edge" in general.
Hence the meaning "go around or along" (as in "go around or along the edge"), and "climb up" (go along the edge upward).
Hence the meaning "follow" (follow this path) and "depend on, utilize" (use this way to achieve your goal).
Hence the meaning "reason, cause, or link between two things" (go from one point to another point following this path -- this path is the link, or the reason).
Hence the meaning "fate" (the link that links two people and make them meet). "Karma" is put here also for this reason, but note that the English word "fate" is already not a very accurate translation, and "karma" is even more prone to misunderstanding. In English "karma" has two senses: one is "destiny, fate", and the other is more like "law of consequences", which is irrelevant here. In Chinese, 緣 does not mean things are predetermined, as fate or destiny, but rather that things or people have links or connections, their lives are intertwined.


Is there a list of characters that have multiple sounds? I wonder there is a comprehensive list of characters  that have more than 1 pronunciation. For example, 了 has le or liao, and 长 has zhang or chang.

Is there such list? I wonder how many characters belong to such classes...

According to CC-CEDICT ( https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=cc-cedict ) out of the 10710 simplified characters they have listed there are 777 simplified characters with different pronunciations (I'm counting pronunciation with different tones as a different pronunciation).  You could bump it up a bit by also counting the ones that are described with alternate pronunciations in the definition instead of getting a separate row in the data output (i.e. some are described in the definitions of having an alternative Taiwanese pronunciation).:

啊、挨、唉、嗳、熬、把、吧、罢、伯、膀、背、呗、奔、绷、蚌、比、贲、萹、边、摽、别、浜、屏、剥、柏、薄、捭、簸、啵、卜、哺、钸、采、操、草、嚓、叉、差、杈、衩、孱、场、沉、噌、爯、称、裎、秤、尺、冲、处、揣、创、绰、刺、囱、瘥、答、打、歺、大、待、逮、疸、担、瘅、铛、挡、档、当、倒、帱、㝵、得、澄、的、镝、坻、底、氐、地、酊、钉、斗、都、读、肚、度、垛、阿、恶、诶、嗯、发、蕃、坊、菲、分、埄、缝、夫、佛、怫、払、拂、砩、芾、服、杆、干、杠、膏、搁、葛、盖、艮、更、供、枸、勾、毂、估、莞、冠、观、桄、过、蛤、哈、厂、汗、豻、夯、好、号、镐、呵、合、纥、閤、和、喝、荷、哏、桁、横、厷、哄、汞、吽、鹄、糊、哗、华、划、化、还、晃、虺、混、豁、几、给、纪、夹、嘏、贾、假、渐、监、閒、间、将、浆、剿、矫、徼、教、筊、偈、节、结、芥、藉、解、觧、价、尽、禁、丼、劲、炅、居、车、桔、锔、柜、据、句、锯、卷、圈、悁、嶡、脚、覐、觉、角、蹶、菌、隽、楷、槛、看、扛、峇、咳、颏、轲、可、磕、克、吭、倥、焢、爌、空、佝、楛、絓、会、窾、丱、卝、傀、匮、喇、剌、啦、灠、阆、唠、落、勒、累、擂、楞、樆、离、悝、蠡、豊、鬲、丽、哩、唎、歛、敛、倞、凉、踉、量、靓、撩、了、燎、咧、淋、令、馏、咯、隆、笼、搂、喽、碌、膔、蓼、陆、露、抡、论、络、啰、偻、捋、呒、呣、蚂、吗、么、埋、蔓、谩、茆、旄、坆、闷、氓、蒙、眯、糜、谜、靡、秘、眄、缪、忞、暋、摸、抹、没、磨、脉、貉、模、姥、牟、那、呐、哪、囝、难、馕、呢、袮、伲、泥、鸟、溺、恁、拧、宁、杻、拗、弄、呶、娜、哦、嚄、熰、沤、扒、杷、耙、钯、扳、番、湴、般、板、尨、胖、刨、炮、麃、跑、泡、喷、搒、裨、劈、匹、否、辟、扁、便、匾、片、猵、漂、莩、嘌、乀、撇、拚、苹、冯、泊、酦、陂、朴、掊、仆、脯、埔、堡、瀑、铺、缉、丌、奇、荠、跂、骑、檵、稽、岂、亟、妻、卡、浅、嵌、强、抢、镪、呛、跄、蹡、蕉、悄、翘、谯、茄、切、慊、趄、厪、廑、顷、亲、嬛、璚、仇、区、焌、渠、瞿、曲、弮、犮、炔、礐、阙、雀、儿、喏、厹、女、爇、撒、塞、散、潵、丧、缲、扫、臊、刹、嗄、帹、煞、色、掺、单、扇、禅、上、杓、芍、少、稍、奓、阇、舍、参、沈、甚、乘、晟、盛、什、拾、石、莳、适、掱、橾、丨、数、刷、衰、卛、率、泷、瞤、说、厶、伺、似、俟、厕、食、圱、尿、莎、沓、踏、苔、忕、啴、弹、澹、覃、汤、樘、倘、荡、趟、叨、绦、㲈、忒、弟、鬄、佃、钿、苕、调、挑、帖、町、铤、听、侗、峒、硐、同、通、斢、头、宊、吐、囤、褪、驮、媠、拓、凹、搲、哇、呙、歪、娩、万、王、崴、硙、亹、唯、委、媁、隗、喂、为、玟、免、揾、絻、涡、薶、喔、庑、芴、巂、腊、茜、裼、纚、系、咥、扢、郄、虾、吓、厦、纤、䕭、鲜、铣、见、夅、降、相、蛸、謏、校、肖、滊、猲、劦、挟、絜、颉、莘、镡、芯、行、省、兴、宿、臭、圩、欻、砉、畜、吅、旋、削、踅、丷、亽、卪、煆、哑、压、轧、阏、埏、剡、奄、傿、咽、燕、氜、飬、铫、疟、要、耶、掖、叶、荑、尾、迆、迤、仡、佚、艾、衣、谥、殷、洇、湮、唫、龈、窨、隐、饮、巆、应、唷、哟、涌、甬、佣、繇、於、菸、俞、畲、禺、予、与、吁、忬、蔚、语、雨、圜、媛、远、约、哕、楽、乐、趯、伝、芸、晕、熨、缊、载、咱、攒、脏、藏、咋、曾、缯、喳、扎、查、楂、皻、吒、炸、侧、翟、祭、呫、粘、鳣、崭、占、长、鞝、涨、嘲、朝、着、召、折、乇、乙、蜇、辙、褶、瑱、酖、怔、挣、正、症、氏、只、乿、擿、识、鉄、中、种、重、粥、轴、朮、竺、术、属、褚、拽、转、传、篹、奘、僮、幢、戆、獞、椎、追、缀、屯、棹、蝃、濯、蓔、仔、吱、呲、訾、子、综、熜、从、卒、崒、足、赚、钻、觜、俊、嘬、琢、撮、作、酢

If you don't count pronunciation with different tones as a different pronunciation but count only those with pronunciations with either a different initial and/or final then the list drops down to 490 characters:

伯、呗、蚌、贲、浜、剥、柏、薄、捭、卜、嚓、差、孱、噌、爯、称、尺、绰、囱、瘥、歺、大、疸、铛、帱、㝵、得、澄、的、坻、底、地、都、读、度、阿、蕃、埄、佛、怫、払、拂、砩、芾、盖、蛤、厂、豻、夯、镐、呵、合、纥、閤、哏、桁、厷、汞、吽、和、鹄、还、豁、给、嘏、贾、剿、偈、芥、藉、价、丼、劲、炅、居、车、桔、枸、柜、句、嶡、脚、覐、觉、角、隽、楷、槛、扛、峇、咳、克、吭、焢、爌、佝、楛、絓、会、窾、丱、卝、傀、匮、落、勒、樆、离、悝、豊、鬲、歛、倞、靓、了、咯、碌、膔、蓼、陆、露、络、偻、捋、呒、埋、么、坆、氓、糜、谜、秘、缪、抹、没、脉、貉、模、姥、牟、囝、哪、呢、袮、鸟、溺、恁、杻、拗、弄、呶、娜、那、哦、嚄、扒、杷、耙、钯、扳、番、湴、般、板、膀、尨、胖、刨、炮、麃、搒、裨、否、辟、扁、便、匾、猵、莩、乀、拚、屏、苹、冯、泊、酦、陂、朴、脯、埔、堡、瀑、缉、丌、奇、荠、跂、骑、檵、稽、岂、亟、卡、浅、嵌、将、强、蕉、茄、慊、趄、厪、廑、亲、嬛、璚、仇、区、焌、渠、瞿、圈、弮、犮、炔、礐、雀、儿、喏、厹、女、爇、潵、缲、塞、刹、嗄、帹、色、掺、单、禅、杓、芍、奓、阇、参、沈、乘、晟、盛、什、拾、石、适、掱、橾、丨、衰、卛、率、泷、瞤、说、数、厶、伺、似、俟、厕、食、圱、尿、莎、沓、忕、啴、弹、澹、覃、汤、樘、倘、荡、叨、绦、㲈、忒、弟、鬄、佃、钿、苕、调、町、铤、侗、峒、硐、斢、宊、囤、褪、驮、媠、拓、凹、呙、娩、莞、万、崴、硙、亹、隗、玟、忞、免、絻、涡、薶、喔、恶、芴、巂、腊、茜、裼、诶、纚、系、咥、扢、郄、虾、吓、厦、纤、䕭、铣、见、夅、降、蛸、謏、校、滊、猲、劦、挟、絜、颉、解、觧、莘、镡、行、省、宿、臭、圩、欻、砉、畜、吅、削、踅、丷、亽、卪、煆、轧、阏、埏、剡、氜、飬、铫、疟、咽、叶、荑、尾、仡、佚、艾、谥、殷、洇、湮、唫、龈、听、窨、巆、涌、甬、繇、於、菸、俞、畲、禺、吁、忬、蔚、圜、约、哕、楽、乐、趯、伝、芸、熨、咱、攒、藏、咋、曾、喳、扎、查、楂、皻、侧、翟、祭、呫、粘、鳣、崭、长、鞝、嘲、朝、召、折、乇、乙、辙、褶、着、瑱、酖、氏、乿、擿、识、鉄、重、粥、朮、竺、术、属、褚、拽、转、传、篹、奘、僮、幢、戆、獞、椎、追、缀、屯、棹、蝃、濯、蓔、仔、吱、呲、综、熜、从、卒、崒、足、赚、觜、俊、嘬、琢、撮、酢


How do I interpret 铁饭碗 concisely? How am I supposed to put "铁饭碗" in simple words, and not a paragraph worth of explanation? I can't seem to find suitable adjectives or nouns to concisely interpret the implication of "铁饭碗" (Suppose to refer to jobs that "won't get laid off")。

I think translating 铁饭碗 as "guaranteed lifetime employment" gets the point across quite well. There's also a phrase, "cradle-to-grave socialism" -- it's a little more political than guaranteed lifetime employment, but it accurately reflects the use of the word in Chinese history.

Neither phrase has the English resonance of the Chinese original, but I think both are acceptable choices if you are seeking a short explanation.


Would 怎麼知道 or 怎麼知 be the right Mandarin equivalent to the Cantonese phrase 點知? Would 怎麼知道 or 怎麼知 be the right Mandarin equivalent to the Cantonese phrase 點知?

If not, what would be the right equivalent?

點 in Cantonese can mean 'how'. It is equivalent to 怎 / 怎麼 /如何 in Mandarin

(點)辦 = (怎)辦

噉(點)得 = 這(怎麼)行

(點)算好 = (如何)是好

(點)知 = (怎)知


What does 尔 really mean? That character is the right part of 你 nu, which means you.

According to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%B0%94 it means you. It reads er

According to http://zhongwen.com/bushou.htm I saw this

So the meaning is "breath"?

Or you?

There are many resources which "decompose characters", but most of them do not give any insight as to how Chinese characters actually work in relation to the language, and looking at these resources is very counterproductive. The answer accepted here on the character decomposition of 「你」 is from one of the few resources which do give a correct idea of how characters work.
Someone can tell you "what 「尔」 really means" through its decomposition (in this case, decomposition produces only one component, as 「尔」 isn't made up from anything apart from itself),

 商甲前7.36.1合集3298西周金史墻盤集成10175戰國・晉金中山王鼎集成2840篆八部說文解字隸定　今楷

 「尔」 is a structural abbreviation of 「爾」.

 「爾」 depicts a spiked weapon (similar to what is now written as 刺) adorned with decorative feathers. Some variants of the character left out the adornments, leading to the character 「尔」.
 The meaning you for the character 「尔」 is a phonetic loan (rebus borrowing).

but, before there is an understanding of how Chinese characters work in relation to the language, any kind of character decomposition is not going to help at all, so it pays to understand the relationship between characters and the Chinese language first, before indulging in any kind of character decomposition.

What does a Chinese character represent?
Chinese characters represent morphosyllables: that is, they represent

morphemes, the smallest meaningful units in any language, but whose sound is consistently organised as

syllables.

In colloquial terms, this means a Chinese character simultaneously represents meaning and sound, and the sound is (almost) always one syllable.
It pays to thoroughly understand what a morpheme is, so I'll paste Wikipedia's English examples of morphemes below:

Every morpheme can be classified as either free or bound. Since the categories are mutually exclusive, a given morpheme will belong to exactly one of them.

Free morphemes can function independently as words (e.g. town, dog) and can appear within lexemes (e.g. town hall, doghouse).
Bound morphemes appear only as parts of words, always in conjunction with a root and sometimes with other bound morphemes. For example, un- appears only accompanied by other morphemes to form a word. Most bound morphemes in English are affixes, particularly prefixes and suffixes. Examples of suffixes are -tion, -sion, -tive, -ation, -ible, and -ing.

Please note that morphemes are not, in general words; free morphemes can function as words, while bound morphemes cannot. English is a word-based orthography; the writing is divided by spaces into words. Chinese is a morpheme-based orthography; the writing is composed from characters, with each character representing a morpheme.

How do Chinese characters work?
Each Chinese character is composed of one or more components. Since we know that each Chinese character represents a morphosyllable, that is, a morpheme having simultaneously meaning and a one-syllable sound, then the only things that these one or more components do is throw hints at what the morphosyllable represented by the character is.
How do character components hint at a morphosyllable? For each of the one or more components, they can hint at the morphosyllable in one of several ways. The three major ones are:

The component can hint at the meaning of the morphosyllable
The component can hint at the sound of the morphosyllable
The component can simultaneously hint at the meaning and sound of the morphosyllable.

Components which employ the above morphosyllable hint methods are characters in their own right. However, it is generally not a good idea to further decompose character components into their own constituents; that is, perform recursive decomposition, because these further decomposed components either only peripherally hint at the morphosyllable, or do not hint at the moprhosyllable at all.
Correct and not-so-correct ways of decomposing characters can be shown through an example:

 Worked example: Character decomposition of 「鴻」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[ɡ]ˤoŋ/, Mandarin: hóng, a type of swan)
 「鴻」 is comprised of the following morphosyllable hints:

   Morphosyllable hint type 2 - Sound hint: 「江」 (/*kˤroŋ/, Mandarin: jiāng)

    The meaning of 「江」, river, is not relevant to morphosyllable represented by 「鴻」.

   Morphosyllable hint type 1 - Meaning hint: 「鳥」 (bird)

    The sound of 「鳥」, /*tˤiwʔ/, Mandarin: niǎo, is not relevant to the morphosyllable represented by 「鴻」.

 Even though the character 「鴻」 is written in the following stroke sequence,

 presenting the "decomposition" of 「鴻」 as the character's strokes, ㇔㇔㇀㇐㇑㇀㇒㇑㇕㇐㇐㇐㇆㇒㇔㇔㇔, does not tell you anything about the morphosyllable represented by 「鴻」, and asking whether any of these strokes have meaning is not productive.

 Strokes, and the other commonly misunderstood radicals, do not have anything to do with the Chinese language. Chinese characters are not made up of strokes or radicals; they are made up of morphosyllable hints and (almost) nothing else.

In this context, 「尔」 is a character with one component, and good references will not break it down any further. Incorrect decompositions, like the one you've posted in the question*, will suggest very random things that have nothing to do with the meaning or sound of 「尔」, leading people down a time-wasting and misleading journey, and giving a very incorrect idea of what 「尔」 is and how characters work in general. Hopefully, by this stage it is better understood why the following questions and statements are not correct questions to ask and statements to make:
*This particular decomposition comes from the ancient dictionary Shuowen Jiezi.

What does 亅 mean?

「亅」 is a stroke in 「尔」, not a character component of 「尔」 (which only has one component). The meaning of 「亅」, if it has one, is not relevant to 「尔」.

What's the meaning of the hat like character on top of 尔

「尔」 only has one component, which is itself. It does not contain a hat-like character on top.

The er consist of character dao and xiao.

「尔」 only has one component, which is itself. It is not comprised of 「刀」 and 「小」.

The character xiao consist of number 8 pa with vertical hook.

This decomposition is not correct. 「小」 only has one component (which is itself); it is not comprised of 「八」 and 「亅」. Also, since 「尔」 only has one component (which is itself), it does not contain 「小」; 「小」 has nothing to do with 「尔」.

If the concepts above are understood, then one might start to guess at what a proper description of 「尔」 should or shouldn't look like,

 「尔」 contains one component, which is a morphosyllable hint of type 2: Sound hint (see the top of this answer for the glyph origins and explanation)

, and what role it plays in the character 「你」.

 「你」 is cognate to 「尔」, and they once represented the same word long ago.
 「你」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*nɯʔ/, Mandarin: nǐ, you [second person pronoun]) is comprised of

  Morphosyllable hint type 1 - Meaning hint: 「亻」 (person);
  Morphosyllable hint type 3 - Simultaneous sound and meaning hint: 「尔」 (/*njelʔ/, Mandarin: ěr, you).


How do I tell the difference between "ing" and "in"? I grew in a family that speaks Wu Chinese, so I cannot differentiate between the "ing" sound and the "in" sound. Are there any ways to tell them apart or pronounce them differently? They sound the same to me. (Hanyupinyin)

The difference between "in" and "ing" is in the ending sound. Say "in", hold it for a second or two, and feel the position of your tongue. Your tongue should be in the front, touching the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth. Then say "ing", and do the same. Your tongue should be at the back of your mouth. Try to hear the difference in sound when you do this exercise. Differentiating the sound will come with practice. Hope this helps.


磨洋工 Why 洋(?)工? Lazy Foreigners? KEY defines 磨洋工 as

  slack off on the job, goof off

My question is why?

洋 is often associated with foreign things, especially Euro-American (欧美).

Are foreigners lazy in the eyes of Chinese?

I think the answers so far are from people who have never done construction work.  I have.  I take the same story from Baidu as cited by Drunken Master and kxxoling.

The process of smoothing (磨) the bricks does not only take a lot of time.  More importantly, it is easy for workers to relax and stretch out the time by simply not pushing very hard as they do it. That way they all get paid more for doing easier work.

The boss whether foreign or Chinese can immediately see how many bricks someone is carrying, or how many they lay.  And he knows what to expect for such routine work.  He cannot as well see how hard people are trying as they grind bricks smooth -- or tell how quickly a given wall should be ground smooth.  Especially a foreign contractor or top boss will not know what to expect for this novel process.

The story concerns workers on a well-funded foreign construction project (洋工), in Beijing, and the funders were willing to spend lots of money to get it "一丝不苟" perfect, as http://ybkk.blog.sohu.com/301356259.html expresses it. That blog has pictures and adds other details of the building.

I take the point to be that "polishing bricks on the foreign building" became proverbial for taking it easy on the job.


Could you repeat that? I sometimes need to say the equivalent of Sorry, could you repeat that? I have found one comfortable phrase (for me) to handle this situation but would like to learn other phrases to use in this case.

When speaking Cantonese I might say something like:

  nei gong matyeh, ting m doh (你講乜嘢, 聽唔到 lit: what did you say, I didn't hear everything)

I'm sure that Mandarin and maybe even Cantonese speakers would not say this phrase. But people get my gist as a non-Asian. I'd be grateful for any wisdom shared so that I can communicate this concept better.

There's no real special phrase for this situation, unlike English's "I beg your pardon". Therefore, anything conveying the sense of "please repeat" or "I didn't hear" works. For instance, as is increasingly the case in English as well, normally you could just say "what?", 什麼?.

To be a little more preciser, as well as polite / less familiar, you could say 對不起, 我沒聽清楚, "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that." And then you can ask them 可以再說一遍嗎?, "Could you repeat that?"

Really, just about any translation of what you'd say in English would work. Since there's no specific phrase, as long as the sentence is grammatically sound and makes sense, you'll be understood just fine.


How do I say "as 引导倒装句" in English? I want to search it in English.
I have tried google translation which translated it to "As Guided Inverted Sentences". I think it isn't right.

The word is "as 引导倒装句":

They go to concerts frequently, as do I.
She’s unusually tall, as are both her parents.


Chinese Idiom puzzle 16 (中文填字遊戲) A new puzzle for March 2021

Steal the bell while covering your ears (deceiving yourself that you are deceiving the others)

Revenge one's personal vengeance in the name of official business

Opportunistic

Eating it means 'you are fired' (Cantonese custom)

Having the same aspirations and ideals

Superb craftsmanship

Received help but not return the favor

Match two parties together; act as a go-between

The castle gate is on fire (殃及池魚 上句)

If the water is too clean, there will be no fish (人至察則無徒  上句)

At old age that one's life is like a burning candle in the wind

Miserable wind and cold rain

Located at a high place looking down.(metaphorically in an advantageous position)

Like willow leaves swaying in the wind

No light is on  (a common phrase in Cantonese)

Arrogant; conceited

Stir things up; create chaos

there's always someone better

Very old and will die soon

Die alone at old age

Know right from wrong

People have different ideal and goal cannot work together

To act recklessly regardless of right and wrong.

A. The power of a united people's will is as strong as a castle.
B. Bully around
C. Find a better job elsewhere
D. There's honor among thieves
E. Fire spread by riding the wind
F. Building, constructing in large scale
G. Surrender
H. Turbulent, extremely unstable situation
I. Prime minister
J. Coincidence
K. No wind and the water is calm (a metaphor for everything is calm and normal)
L. Take by defrauding or seize by force. Mostly used to describe the unscrupulous seizure of property or power, etc.
M. cruel
N. Heaven doesn't give him more years (die too soon)
O. Oustanding
P. Social worker
Q. Ip Man's birthplace 南方武術之鄉
R. When the water rises, so do the boats (a metaphor for people or things rise in value or status due to change of situations)
S. Damn old fool (Common term in Cantonese)
T. Secretly give and receive in private
U. Metaphors of corrupted people have the same characteristics everywhere in the world.
V. Voice your objection when there's injustice
W. Know the fact but not reporting it to the authorities
X.  The night is dark and the wind is high
Y. Like fish in the water
Z. Confused; not knowing the truth

掩耳盗铃
公报私仇
投机取巧
无情鸡
志同道合
巧夺天工
受恩不报
撮合
城门失火
水至清则无鱼
风烛残年
凄风冷雨
居高临下
摇风摆柳
乌灯黑火
自高自大
兴风作浪
一山更比一山高
行将就木
孤独终老
黑白分明
道不同，不相为谋
不分青红皂白

A. 众志成城
B. 横行霸道
C. 另谋高就
D. 盗亦有道
E. 火借风势
F. 大兴土木
G. 投降
H. 风雨飘摇
I. 丞相
J. 巧合
K. 风平浪静
L. 巧取豪夺
M. 残忍
N. 天不假年
O. 一枝独秀
P. 义工
Q. 佛山
R. 水涨船高
S. 老而不
T. 私相授受
U. 天下乌鸦一般黑
V. 不平则鸣
W. 知情不报
X. 月黑风高
Y. 如鱼得水
Z. 不明不白


'一三一四五二零' I need someone to confirm the meaning of this number sentence 1314520 (一三一四五二零) is a thing that my mother used to say to me. I asked her what those numbers meant and she told me to read them out loud. I think it means 'Love you forever' but I need someone to confirm this.

一三一四五二零 yì sān yí sì wǔ èr líng

in Mandarin sounds close to

一生一世我愛你 yì shēng yí shì wǒ ài nǐ

which means 'I love you for the whole of my life'.


Does a Chinese character almost-always represent a word? My guess is that (at least) 99.9% of Chinese characters represent words.
The possible exceptions are 的 and 吗 -- as in:

的  in  "my car" (wǒ de chē)   我的车
吗  in  你好吗?  or   "Ni Hai Hao Ma?" (你还好吗?)

的 and 吗 may not be words, more like suffixes or (sentence) particles. Are there many more exceptions like these? Thank you.

The concept of a [Chinese word] is not too tricky. See:

Are there large discrepancies between what Chinese consider to be words?

What percentage of Chinese words are 1-character ? ... 2-character?

Also related:
Why do native speakers often say a character has "no meaning"?

的 is foremost a particle, but also a word in its own right. As de, it can mean plus, as in 七个的六个一共十三. As dī, it can mean cab. As dì it can mean target.

吗 is in ma and má likewise mostly a particle, but in some instances an isolated character without meaning of its own. As mǎ in 吗啡, it means morphine.

There are a number of such isolated characters, such as 蝴, which can only be used in conjunction with 蝴蝶, 蝶 in itself meaning butterfly.

蝴 is thus not a word, since it cannot stand on its own and doesn't convey any useful information. One could still infer the meaning from its written form, but likely not from speech (perhaps a child trying to say hú but not completing with dié, then).

This is true for a handful of such isolated characters. For instance 蚂 can be part of 蚂蚁 mǎyǐ, 蚂螂 mālang and 蚂蚱 màzha, but is not a word in itself. The same is true of 螂 and 蚱, which can be combined in words but not carry individual meaning. 蚁 can stand alone, as the family of ant-like insects.

Particles, on the other hand, can mostly be regarded as words, as they carry linguistic meaning in their own right. 哦 and other interjections are of this nature.


I would like to learn common greetings in Chinese I would like to learn common greetings in Chinese. I haven't taken any classes or used any textbooks. I would like to learn, very much! So I would be able to carry on simple conversation with Chinese friends :)

thank you

believe or not, they may say hello.
If it's some good friend, maybe their nick name.


Why does 節 mean both "festival" and "to save, to control"? why does a "bamboo joint" (as etymology suggests) mean:

"control / to restrict / to curtail / to economize"

and at the same time

"festival / holiday"?

I'll post partial a answer from the link given below in the comments section:

Around the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), dictionaries began listing a second definition for 節, "bamboo cord," thanks to the resemblance between bamboo ridges and knotted up bits of twine.
Here's where the semantic gods of Association begin to run wild. Because twine was used as a restraint, 節 gave birth to 節制 (jiézhì), which means "restrict" or "moderate."

Simply because it can be used both as noun and verb. As a noun, it can mean "festival". As a verb, it can mean "to save, to control". You have to remember it in the context for every single word can have dozens of meaning according to the context.

Oh. Thanks to comments, now I add some explanations for WHY

From left to right, from ancient time to the present, it shows how "节" derives.
The rightest one is mostly  used in Chinese mainland and “節” is mostly used in Taiwan.

Its original meaning is something made by bamboo and used as a bowl and a instrument sometimes.

Moreover, you can figure out how its meanings expand from the original one from the pic below.

// The circle is the original one.

I guess you guys can understand those words in the pic so I don't translate them.

The website is here : http://www.vividict.com/WordInfo.aspx?id=2654

====================== sth awful below ===================================

================== are you sure you want to take a look ? ======================

Here is some meanings of “节” from Chinese Dict.

〈名〉

（1） 形声。从竹，即声。本义：竹节。

（2） 同本义。泛指草木枝干间坚实结节的部分。
节，竹约也。——《说文》
苞笋抽节。——左思《吴都赋》
譬如破竹，数节之后，皆迎刃而解。——《晋书·杜预传》
其于木也，为坚多节。——《易·说卦》

（3） 又如：节根（草木的节与根）；节旄（竹节上所缀牦牛尾饰物）；节粉（竹节旁附着的白色粉末）；节槎（树木上歧出的节）；节次（依次，陆续；或程序，规程）。

........

FORGET ABOUT IT

As a Chinese I can not recall all of it either. A lot of sentences above are from ancient Chinese. It is even OK for some Chinese to not understand those sentences. Just remind that learn words from context. XD

// Hope I don't scare you.

// Thank you guys who edited my answer and made it more readable.


What is the difference between 种类，类型 and 品种? See title. What's the difference between these terms? Thanks in advance!

They can all be translated into English as variety or type. Their differences are:

種類

Has a slight emphasis on the differences between compared things, and it is slightly more often used to construct categories to sort different objects into.
Also occasionally used as a synonym for 種族 (race or ethnicity) in older texts (pre-Qing).
Example from Pleco: 不同種類的刀具 (different kinds of knives)

類型

Has a slight emphasis on the similarities between compared things, and it is slightly more often used to group things which share similar properties into the same category.
Sometimes used as a word to categorise tropes, imagery, or genres in the field of literature.
Is a term imported from Wasei-kango.
Example sentence: 魯迅 《偽自由書ㆍ前記》： “然而我的壞處， 是在論時事不留面子， 砭錮弊常取類型， 而後者尤與時宜不合。” (Lu Xun: "My problem is that I don't spare any sensibilities when discussing current affairs, and often use literary tropes when criticising harmful traditions; the latter may be extremely inappropriate in contemporary society.")

品種

Very often used in the field of biology for the meaning animal breed, species, bacterial strain.
Otherwise used to describe the assortment variety of products e.g. in a shop.


How to say "A Person's Strength" Is there a good translation for "strengths" in Chinese? I am trying to say strengths as in 'We should try to improve our strengths, not our weaknesses'.
I know that 强项 is one phrase that has a similar meaning - is this used? Or is there a better way to translate "strengths and weaknesses"

强项 can definitely be used for strengths - where weaknesses would be 弱项.

There is also:

优点和缺点

yōudiǎn hé quēdiǎn

merits and demerits; virtues and defects; strong and weak point

Also: 长处和短处

See which you like...


How to say catcall in Chinese? “Catcall” 怎么翻译？ I'm trying to say "catcall" or "catcalling" in Chinese (as in, for example, a woman walking in a city street, a man yells something at her, typically degrading and commenting on her looks, etc), but all dictionaries I've found use "catcall" as meaning to hiss or yell, which isn't quite the meaning I'm going for here. The translations I've found include: 不满之声,嘘声,口哨聲, and some others, but none of those really seem right from translating them into English. How would I translate that?

It's going to be some form of 挑逗.

For instance, wolf-whistle, which is one of the most common forms of catcalling that I can think of, is rendered as:

(挑逗地)吹口哨

or

朝…吹口哨挑逗

【超模中槍】Catcall是性騷擾？受害者：像背後解開比堅尼般羞辱 defines catcalling as:

「Catcalling」街頭挑逗

although it does also mention

「Catcalling」，要是翻譯為「街頭挑逗」，其實也不夠傳神。

勇于向街头骚扰说“不” writes it as:

布鲁克林（Brooklyn）的一个禁止“挑逗搭讪”（catcalling）的标牌。


How do we distinguish a bopomofo symbol from a similar character? For example, 丫 is a character while ㄚ is a bopomofo symbol. I find it very difficult to tell the difference (especially if they are hand-written), unless from the context.

Other examples:

幺andㄠ; 又andㄡ，一andㄧ；彳andㄔ；ㄙand厶, etc.

They are so similar that I failed to see how one could distinguish them visually, especially in handwritting.

You are right, but in which context you have the need to distinguish them? In most places, Zhuyin is clearly marked to be so. In case sinograms and Zhuyin are mixed, they usually follow a pattern: according to the writing direction, Zhuyin can be written above sinograms or on the right side.

In my opinion, there is practically no occasion to guess whether a single handwritten character is a Zhuyin or a sinogram. Otherwise, please give details of such a situation!


Chinese words with non-Chinese letters / characters? Some Chinese words mix Roman letters and Chinese characters. For example:

AA制, meaning to split the bill evenly (or "go dutch" as that's often called in English).
N次方根, meaning "nth root" (i.e., including square roots, cube roots, etc. as special cases).

Are there other examples of Chinese words that mix scripts like this? Some guidance on answering this question:

I'm not particularly interested in words that include arabic numerals alongside Chinese characters. I'm assuming there are a lot of these (and also that they could be written in all Chinese characters if desired).
Slang and technical vocabulary are both fine. If a word has a dictionary entry, an encyclopedia (or subject-specific encyclopedia) page, or if you're pretty sure it has wide usage, I'm perfectly happy upvoting it.
I would be thrilled if anyone found examples that included something other than the Roman letters as used in English (i.e., A-Z). On the other hand, I doubt there are such cases.

There are lots of them, here's what I can recall:

T恤衫，T-shirt

X光片，X ray image

卡拉OK，karaoke

K线图，Candlestick chart

A型血，Blood Type A

P图(v.)，Photoshop an image

维生素C，Vitamin C

O型腿，Blount's diseas

TCP协议，Transmission Control Protocol

RSS源，RSS feed

UI设计，User Interface design

All of the words are widely used, most of them combine the English letter and Chinese so the word is easier to understand. Basically everyone knows the 26 English letters, so only the words are translated to keep things simple.


What is the difference between 原则 and 原理？ See title. Both of these translate as "principle" and I'm struggling to see how they are different. Thanks in advance.

原则 is principle of personal conduct

Example:

做人要有(原则) = A man has to have (principle)

工作至上是我的(原则) = My (principle) is works always come first

  原理 is principle of physics

Example:

利用槓桿(原理) = Using the (principle) of leverage

利用虹吸(原理) = Using the (principle) of siphon

"I know the 原理 of something" means I know the reason why something works
"I know someone's 原则" means I know what someone would or would not do base on his principle (personal believe and conviction)

The 原则 (principle) of insurance companies is "to try their hardest to avoid paying their customers" (that's what they do as an unwritten rule)


Help translating instructions since English website has been shut down Can someone help me in translating these instructions. The English website has been shut down.  I'm trying to find out how to do a hard reset on this device.

The products English website was Onn-w7 website

Two options:

Press the power button for more than three seconds. This is what instruction says: 电源开关长按3秒以上开机.
According to this Belorussian guy, you can take a needle and press the reset button inside the round hole near the SD card slot. (This method is not on the manual.)

These methods might not do an actual hardware reset, though. No guarantees here.


The use of 会 in 我们每次谈都会吵架 In the next sentence what is the meaning of 会.

  我们每次谈都会吵架。

What is the meaning and difference if you drop out 会.

我们每次谈都会吵架 meaning is:

我们每次谈都吵架 meaning is:

They are same.

我们每次谈都会吵架=We quarrel every time we talk
我们每次谈都吵架=We quarrel every time we talk

If you just want to say they are different you can see

我们每次谈都会吵架as every time we talk will lead to quarrel .

會has an emphasis mean.


Does 妇人 mean wife or simply woman？ I've been trying to figure out a translation for "妇人“ from the story 《丈夫》 by 沈从文. He used 妇人to refer to women， but I'm not sure if  it is ironic that it also means "married women" an accident, or if at the time of writing 1933 妇人 just mean woman.

Ex sentence.

于是这妇人就毁了

It usually means a female who is older than 30（I mean not a girl or a young woman） and married.


What do 肯定 and 一定 do in 这些行动是积极的，值得肯定，对于减少烟毒有一定的意义? The sentence I'm having trouble figuring out is

  这些行动是积极的，值得肯定，对于减少烟毒有一定的意义。

Regarding 值得肯定 does it mean it's worth acknowledging as a positive action ?

As for 一定的意 does it mean has some significance？

If it helps to provide more context for the sentence, the following sentence is

  但要看到，要减少烟毒，光靠社会的力量是不够的。

The whole sentence is : 这些行动是积极的(These actions are positive), 值得肯定(worthy of recognition),对于减少烟毒有一定的意义。(have certain significance to reduce the smoke toxicity).

Here 肯定 means recognition by people or society.比如 他的事迹得到了社会的肯定。
There is no 一定的意 in Chinese
一定的意义 means certain significance.比如 你的建议对我有一定的价值，我会好好想想。(Your suggestions has some certain value for me, and I will think over it.)


What does 来 mean in 他想一切办法来验证这个理论 and 我们设了个陷阱来抓狐狸? I have come across two sentences independently which seem to use 来 in a similar fashion, but one I am not sure I can identify:

他想一切办法来验证这个理论

我们设了个陷阱来抓狐狸

Is this somewhat similar to 起来, as in describing a resultative state?

Using "lai" to connect two verb phrases

  The word 来 (lái) can be used to connect two verb phrases, relating the actions to each other. It can be translated as "in order to" or "so that," and it can help in explaining reasoning.


What 蛋 is referring to in "完蛋了" 完蛋了 means: Done for; ruined; finished; goose is cooked. It is the Mandarin counterpart of a Cantonese term "玩完" (game over)

I am curious about what 蛋 is referring to. Without any reference, I can only speculate

蛋 is a nickname for 'testicle'; 完蛋 simply means "f~king finished"
When a chicken stop laying egg, it is doomed and will be slaughtered soon
When an egg (蛋) is finished (完),  meaning an egg is broken, it is ruined beyond repair

Which is the correct answer? If none of the above is correct, what is the correct explanation of 蛋 in 完蛋了

I think #3 makes more sense (finish like an egg is broken)

The following text was copied from 重編國語辭典修訂本 website (http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000002040), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Taiwan, with the attribution to the Ministry of Education, R.O.C.

蛋

  [名]

[noun]

  1 鳥類和爬蟲類所生帶有硬殼的卵，受精之後可孵出小動物。如：「雞蛋」、「蛇蛋」、「下蛋」。

The hard-shell oval from birds or reptiles, which can produce small animals after fertilization. e.g. 雞蛋 (chicken egg), 蛇蛋 (snake egg), 下蛋 (to lay eggs).

  2 形狀像蛋的東西。如：「臉蛋兒」、「山藥蛋」。

An egg-shaped thing. e.g. 臉蛋兒 (face), 山藥蛋 (potato).

  3 斥責或罵人的話。用以比喻人或動作。如：「渾蛋」、「笨蛋」、「壞蛋」、「滾蛋」、「完蛋」、「糊塗蛋」。

A word to insult people, used as a metaphor for the action of humans. e.g. 渾蛋 (fucking asshole), 笨蛋 (stupid asshole), 壞蛋 (scoundrel asshole), 滾蛋 (Go fucking away!), 完蛋 (to be fucking finished), 糊塗蛋 (confused asshole).

  4 中國南方沿海少數民族之一。同「蜑」。如：「胡夷蛋蠻」。《宋史．卷三一．高宗本紀八》：「閏月丙午，罷廉州貢珠，縱蛋丁自便。」

A minor ethnicity in coastal South China, also written as 蜑. e.g. 胡夷蛋蠻.

蛋 in 完蛋 is definitely the third meaning: a word to insult people, used as a metaphor for the action of humans. This meaning is similar to ‘balls’ in English, the slang term of ‘testicles’.


Why is Little Lin's nose bleeding? 还不习惯北方的气候，估计是天气太干。 This snippet is from 标准教程HSK4上 chapter 7 (my translation):

小李：你的鼻子怎么流血了？快用纸擦擦。
Little Li: Your nose is [how] bleeding? Quickly get a tissue and wipe [it].
小林：我还不习惯北方的气候，估计是天气太干。今天天气不是很冷，你怎么穿这么多？
Little Lin: I am still not accustomed to the north's climate, [my] estimate is the weather is too dry.  Today the weather is not very cold, how come you wear so much?

I don't understand what caused 小林's nose to bleed.  The logic seems to be something like this:

小林 is now in the north [of China].
小林 is not accustomed to the north's climate.
小林 estimated the weather is "too dry" [估计是天气太干], but this was incorrect.
???
小林's nose is bleeding.

I'm going wrong somewhere here.
Question: Why is 小林's nose bleeding?
It seems like 小林 has predicted the north's weather is drier than it actually is.  But I would expect an underestimation of the dryness to lead to 小林's nose bleeding, not an overestimation.

The weather caused the problem of his nose. Specifically, he suspected it's too dry.

It seems that you misunderstand the word 估计 in the context. It's not an estimation actually. It's his suspection instead. I'd interpret 估计 as reckon, suspect, feel, and etc in this context.

So,

  我还不习惯北方的气候，估计是天气太干 // I am still not accustomed to the north's climate, I reckon (it's because) the weather is too dry.


How can complement of degree apply at: 他喝酒喝得睡着了。 弟弟高兴得跳了起来。 When introduced 得 to my student, I followed the grammar book 100%: It's "complement of degree".  But when we bumped into these two sentences, should I still insist "complement of degree"? What kind of degree is 睡着了 and 跳了起来 ?  How to best explain to my students?

Refering to Chinese dictionary,when "得" is used after a verb or an adjective word, the complement can not only discribe the degree,but also mean the result.\

得（de）：用在动词或形容词后面，连接表示结果或程度的补语。————《现代汉语词典》 （第六版）

(Used behind a verb or an adjective word, connect to the complement that shows the result or degree._____from.Morden Chinese Dictionary 6th edition)
Some example:
"我跑得喘不过气。" ==>"I run out of breath."
"Out of breath" is the result of "run".


What does 一起 imply about a romantic relationship? In stories I see 一起 used to describe a romantic couple being "together", but I would like to understand what it implies.

For example: “……要是我能和她在一起该多好啊！” in this context the boy has just seen a very pretty girl. Does he want to meet her? Date her? Live with her? Marry her? Have sex with her?

Later: “再说，他们俩已经在一起了……怕是不会再嫁给别人了。” in this context, they have been sleeping together, and the speaker clearly means to imply the girl can't be married to anyone else now.

I understand context is always a factor, but I want to understand the more open-ended cases like the first one where characters wish to be or talk about being "在一起" and what sort of relationship is implied.

在一起 (be together) is a subtle way to say "做情侶" (be lovers/ a couple)

be boyfriend and girlfriend, common law partners or husband and wife

just like 喜歡 (like) is a more subtle way to say 愛 (love)

Most Chinese are quite reserved, words like 做情侶 (be lovers) or 愛(love) are rarely used directly


What is the grammar behind "上去“ in 听上去不错? An English translation of  "听上去不错" is "sounds good".

I understand ”不错“ as "not bad", i.e. "good" (the literal expression "not bad" is quite common in Britain and has the same meaning).

But I don't understand why and how "上去" function in this saying. Can someone please explain?

In more detail, I understand the individual meaning of these characters but not why together, with 听, they equate to "sound" in the phrase "sound good".

上去 here functions as preposition (to),  in this case, the object 'words' is omitted

听 (listen) + 上去 (to)

(听上去)不错 = "It is not bad (listen to it)."

Example of other [verb +上去] phrases

看上去 (look at it)
摸上去 (touch on it)

You can use 起来 instead of 上去 in this sentence
- (听起来)不错 = "It is not bad (listening to) it. "


the word "menu" in the context of gaming The word for a food menu is 菜单 Càidān, sensibly translating as "food list."

But what would you call a game menu? I could only think of 选项 Xuǎnxiàng, but this "options", which may be a sub item in the game's menu.

菜单 in Mainland China, 选单 in HK/Taiwan are the standard translations for menu in Computer Software, no matter it's in a game, a line-of-business application or a utility.

Main menu is translated into 主菜单 in Mainland China and 主选单 in HK/Taiwan.

And you're right about 选项 is referring to options or settings menu, which is usually a sub item in the main menu.

Searching Google for '游戏主菜单' or '游戏主选单' you'll get plenty of examples.


Interesting "bullet points" For some reason WPS Office, when I clicked "bullet point", gave me this character:

Does anyone know what this character is? When I try handwriting recognition, it can't seem to find it. Same thing when I search by radical. It's like the character doesn't exist.

EDIT: This character appears when I copy & paste a list with bullets in it:

EDIT 2: I am on Ubuntu Kylin 16.04 if that makes a difference

EDIT 3: Apparently there are more... I get these characters when selecting different bullet types:

Every other function works perfectly fine. There is no issue other than the fact that I can't use bullet points

I tested in WPS, added several bullets, saved the file in UTF-8 text, then opened the pure text document in Word, and with the "Atl-X" shortcut I found the Unicode code point for these bullets: F0D8, F06E, F075, F06C, etc ...

They are in the PUA (Private Use Area, E000–F8FF). Characters there are not assigned by Unicode, but deliberately left unassigned. Different companies, organizations can use them in different ways. This then raises a possibility that there can be a conflict with two parties using them in different ways. Here the conflict would probably be your problem.

As what the characters actually are, I found  (201E4) through zdic, as you can easily look it up by radical. And in the Unicode Chart around it, I found another of them, like (201D5) (This first pic in your post). There are also similar characters to some others of your pictures. The characters found are in CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B.

On zdic, there is absolutely no explanation of the characters. They are ancient character or character variations that are not used today.

BTW: I don't know if you can see the characters in the post. The linked pages in zdic use pictures.


References for Tibetan? What good digital references exist for Tibetan?

There's a list here on lexilogos, but some of the links are dead and the rest are archive.org pages with pdfs.

For instance:

I have this proverb in《中国谚语集成 四川卷》on p. 88:

  公鸡不叫天也明，
  依查拉不叫天也黑｡②

where the footnote says:

  ②依查拉：藏语，猫头鹰。

The Tibetan & Himalayan Library doesn't support Chinese and doesn't return anything for an English word search for owl.

(འུག་པ། doesn't seem to fit either).

What choices do I have to look up: 依查拉, owl, 猫头鹰?

You can use PanLex (translate.panlex.org) for languages with little to no resources otherwise widely available.

The standard Tibetan word for owl is འུག་པ ('ug pa)

If we try translating from "鷹", we get closer matches like

ཁྲ་གླག (khra glag)
གླག (glag)

How about eagle?

བྱ་གླག (bya glag)

I think khra glag might be a close match for 查拉, but I don't know anything about Tibetan.

PanLex works through association though, so if a lexical collection doesn't contain a direct translation it will try to match from different languages with a translation available. You will very likely end up getting incorrect translations if the number of node points in series is too high (parallel node points in contrast increase the confidence in a given translation).


What is the meaning of 去不去的 as in 去不去的问题? I encountered at an online database for Chinese example Sentences:

  在去不去的问题上徘徊不定

So far, I understand the elements of the sentences as follows:

徘徊不定 is the predicate of the sentence, made up of the verb 徘徊 (to hesitate) and its complement 不定 ("not determined"), therefore it should mean sth. like "to hesitate without comming to a conclusion".

在去不去的问题上  is the adverbial of the sentence, made up of the preposition 在...上.

My problem within the sentence is the part: 去不去的 问题, the characters used are very common ones, but nevertheless i do not know what meaning is beeing conveyed by their construction. When I try to translate it verbatimally, i get stuck with: "go-or-not-go-problem", what is the meaning of this?

Your instinct is right: it literally means to go or not to go. So the guy couldn't make up his mind to go (somewhere, need context) or not.


Why is 月 used when speaking about anatomy? One thing I've been curious about while learning Chinese is the use of 月 in many 汉字 representing anatomical features (for example, 脸， 腰， or 腿).

What is the etymology of the use of 月 as a radical?

The 月字旁 was originally '肉' & not '月' - 肉 has the meaning of 肉体 meaning 'flesh' or having to do with the 'human body' so it's often seen with body parts.
Wikipedia:
肉字旁：臺灣標準中，凡肉字旁的字，都寫作「提肉旁」即，使其不會與「月字旁」相混。《字形表》中，肉字旁只在字的左旁時才寫作「提肉旁」，在字的右旁時採用首筆豎的方式與「月字旁」區分（「月字旁」在右方時，首筆為撇）。但在下方時，則「肉」與「月」首筆都作豎，兩者會相混。


what is the of exact original/source text of "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated" I was browsing http://www.brainyquote.com/ website and found that the top one quote on hot topic "life" is an quote from Confucius(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_life.html):

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated"

I do read part of The Analects of Confucius however I doesn't remember any quote with similar meaning. what is the exact original/source text of quote above? How should I translate it to Chinese? I have tried google translation but only get Vernacular Chinese sentence which of course could not be the original one.

On the wikipedia page for Confucius, in the "Misattributed" section, you can find this quote:

  Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

  Attributed on the internet but not found in print prior to an attribution in Aero Digest, 1949, p. 115


Translating the two meanings of 好自为之 My dictionary gives the meaning of 好自为之 as "look out for yourself". This is a positive thing you might say out of genuine concern for another person, and I think this was also the case with the original meaning for 好自为之.

However, when investigating this, I discovered that many people (mis)use it to mean something negative. Under this usage (I think), you would say it to someone whose actions you disagree with and it conveys an unwillingness to take their side or take responsibility for their (bad) decisions.

Am I understanding this right? If so, what would be an idiomatic English translation of this negative meaning?

(Note: I'm not asking which meaning is proper or correct. I'm also not asking about which meaning is more common in your personal experience, but that is also useful information.)

Here are some links in Chinese discussing 好自为之.

好自為之: look out for oneself; conduct oneself well; do one's best

There's a discussion about 好自為之
I wrote:

it is more like a warning / advice
好自為之 = "better act appropriately"

C Chiu wrote:

好自為之 could be used as a warning/advice. But it is definitely not rude or bad language.
From what I’ve learned, it is mostly used to encourage or inspire people to do better or make improvement. “我幫唔到你幾多﹐你好自為之啦” (There's not much I can help. You just have to do your best) is a typical way of using the idiom in a sentence, with the meaning of "look out for oneself".

The term '好自為之' is  just like "you better watch out" or "you better look out for yourself" in English. It can be used as a friendly advice, but it can also be used ironically as a subtle threat.
For example:

A congressman's friend said to him: "Since you went against your own party and voted 'No' on the bill, you need to watch out for yourself (要好自為之.)" is clearly a genuine advice or a friendly warning.

However, if a fellow party member in the congress, who voted 'Yes', said to him: "Since you went against your own party and voted 'No' on the bill, you better lookout for yourself (好自為之吧!)."--  would be a subtle threat.