Tradtional Chinese fonts for website anyone know common usage of Tradtional Chinese fonts for website?

I have come up with this list after a bit of Googling, but not sure.

微軟正黑體, Microsoft JhengHei

新細明體, PMingLiU

細明體, MingLiU

I have checked a few random news sites from HK and Taiwan, here are some examples of defining the font or font-family property:

  font-family: PMingLiu, mingliu, "細明體_HKSCS-ExtB", "Ming(for
  ISO10646)ExtB", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

  font: 18px/1.7 "Microsoft
  YaHei", "Verdana", "Arial", "PMingLiU", "sans-serif";

  font: 15px/24px Simsun;

  font-family: "宋体";

  font-family: "Microsoft YaHei","微软雅黑","黑体","宋体";

  font: 12px/1 Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,"宋体",sans-serif;

  font-family: "Microsoft yahei";

A couple of notes:

As you can see, most sites (at least news sites) rely on system fonts. The key here is that the visitors of these websites come from HK or Taiwan, etc. and the web designer can "safely" assume that the visitor will have support for at least one of the fonts (installed on their system). If not, Chinese language OS-s (whether Windows, OSX or Linux) will typically have at least one font that supports CJK glyphs, so their browser has a fallback font in case none of the listed font-family values can be mapped to a system font. On Linux, even if your system is not in Chinese, you most likely have a fallback font that support CJK characters, on my Ubuntu in Firefox it's Droid Sans Fallback that the browser uses, as my computer currently has almost no CJK fonts installed.
If you plan to design a website that uses Chinese text, you should prefer sans-serif fonts over serif fonts, as the latter ones do not look nice when the font-size is small. Most Chinese websites actually do so.
If you are planning to use English (Latin character text) and Chinese, make sure that you put the English (Latin character) font to the front of you font stack, otherwise you will end up with those fonts not displaying at all. The reason is that most Chinese fonts have support for Latin characters, but those Latin glyphs usually do not look very nice. So if you want your English text to be set in Roboto and your Chinese in PMingLiu use:

font-family: Roboto, PMingLiu;
Here is an article in English on this topic, it is worth at least skimming, to see if there is something you could use.
There are some Chinese web fonts (similar to Google Fonts), but this is still experimental and not so wide spread.
To be on the safe side, define a variety of fonts in your stack, with listing the ones you prefer before the other ones. You shouldn't be afraid of listing 6-7 different fonts, your CSS line is just a few bytes, so this will not bloat your code by modern standards. Also, you can see from the above examples that some font names are typed out in Chinese, which might trick you, if the font is saved under a pinyin name, so you can type out both the Chinese and the pinyin spelled name as separate declarations to be fully covered, e.g. font-family: ..., "黑体", "HeiTi", ...

If a font cannot be found, your browser will just move on to the next one in the stack, it's not gonna break.

UPDATE:

You should never use Windows fonts only, not everyone is on a Windows computer, infact most people now browse the internet on a smartphone or tablet, which are typically running an OS other than Windows. These devices are unlikely to have Windows fonts installed (mostly because of copyright issues). Android devices usually have Droid Sans Fallback to display Chinese characters.
You can not just assume that "OS takes care for everything". Probably you have a preference for a certain font, which makes your site look good, but that is not necessarily the font your browser will pick by default. There are many odd looking Chinese fonts that you want to avoid, so look around on a few websites, use the Developer Tools module of your browser and check what fonts are being used, how font stacks are defined.

Example: Viewing what fonts are used for a certain piece of text in Firefox (Rules tab):

... and what fonts actually display (in my case I don't have any of those fonts installed; Fonts tab):

You can also check a number of websites about what Chinese fonts are installed by default on certain operating system, e.g. OSX, Windows and Android.


Why in some contexts does 走 mean "walk", but in others "go"? I was practicing the usage of prepositions and made the sentence 我走通过城市。 This sentence was intended to translate back to "I walk through the city.", which it did. However, adding the word 怕 with the intention to say "I am afraid to walk through the city", apparently now the word 走 has the context of "go" in the sentence 我怕走通过城市。, so now it translates to "I am afraid to go through the city."
Why does the word 走 change in this sentence?
NOTE: I do know that the words 'go' and 'walk' generally have similar meanings in English, I'm just wondering why it is changed.

There are really three words you need to figure out here: 走，去，離開。  去 usually means to go 'toward' a particular place, which is not my current location, or not the location of the topic of the sentence. This is NOT the same as English.

As an example of the difference, in English, we say 'Go away' when we want someone to leave our immediate vicinity. In Chinese we cannot use 去 (unless you say 去你的, which is very rude, close to **** off); instead we must use 走(開). 離開 is more like 'depart', but has some overlap with 'leave' as well. It means to remove oneself from a specific place.  This sometimes overlaps with 走, but never with 去 (I think).

走 means 'walk' in the sense that one's movement is on foot.  In sharp contrast with 去, there is no destination, so when one says 他走過市場, it means he walked by or through the market; what is his his destination? unknown; perhaps there is none.

On the other hand if you say 他去過市場, it is quite different: "He once went to the market" Notice that 過 here is the aspectual particle, not the locative word 'through'.  This means 'He has been to (gone to) the market' His destination was the market, and this often has the sense that his purpose was to visit it; it is not unusual to see '去' translated as 'visit' because it means you went to a place for a purpose, perhaps just of being there.

走's overlap with 離開 and 'go' is often quite confusing.  For example, 他離開了 simply means 'he left some place', but 他走了, in addition to leaving some place, can also mean "He died."  In English, of course, we would say, "He's gone."  Yikes!


What's the meaning of 聊起 in 马小姐正在和她的好朋友李太太聊起这个男人的事情 I found a sentence from a story which goes:

这不，马小姐正在和她的好朋友李太太聊起这个男人的事情。

The word that I don't fully understand is “聊起”。
I know that 聊 means to talk and 起 means to rise, but that just doesn't make sense together. Can anyone help me out? Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you!

It means "to start talking/chatting".
起来 can be used as a direction complement to express that the action has started.
As it's common in direction complements, when there is an object, the second direction verb 去 / 来 can be moved after it, and it can even be omitted1.
For example:

咱们动起来吧 = Let's move！
我刚看起这本书来，就觉得无聊 = I just started reading this book, and I'm already bored

Additional examples can be found here.

1: in the linked question, 起来 was used in its more literal meaning of "rise up". In your example and in this answer, "to begin" is figurative. The AllSetLearning link explains these two usages as well.


difference between two words for balance of account I want to pay off the remainder of my credit card bill.

Can someone help me differentiate between 余额 and 尾数?

余额 means credit balance, the amount of money remaining in your credit card account.

For 尾数, it usually means when you buy something which is not available yet, the shop may require you to pay some money first (deposit), when the goods available, you will need to pay the remaining amount of the price, that is 尾数.

So I think the 尾数 on your bill means the amount of money you not yet paid.


Why is 'The apple is 3 yuan' written '苹果三块' and not '苹果是三块' Why is 'The apple is 3 yuan' written '苹果三块' and not '苹果是三块', or are both acceptable?

Both acceptable:
'苹果三块' (apple, three yuans) --> short for:  '苹果(的价格是)三块（一个/一磅)'
'苹果是三块 (Apple is three yuans) --> short: for '苹果(的价格)是三块（一个/一磅)'
Both mean 'the price of the apple is three yuans (each/ a pound)
苹果是三块 is kind of wordy for a length reduced sentence, therefore, 苹果三块 is the preferred way to shorten 苹果的价格是三块一个 or 苹果賣三块一个
No one would interpret 苹果是三块 as 苹果 can be used as a currency for three yuans


What does the term "Chinese" mean? The Wikipedia article on Chinese says that many varieties of Chinese are mutually unintelligible. That is, I can't just learn "Chinese" and speak "Chinese" with anyone living in China or Taiwan.

What does the term "Chinese" mean? What makes a variety of Chinese count as Chinese, and what makes a non-Chinese language count as non-Chinese?

user3306356 provided a good answer for the language, but you need to know that written Chinese and oral Chinese can be quite different.

  A Mandarin speaker might say yī, a Cantonese jat1, and a Hokkien chit, but all three will understand the character 一 "one". -- from Wikipedia

Also I want to answer more on the Cultural aspect. For Chinese as in Chinese people, that's really complicated.

Historically, the Chinese culture influenced many others such as Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. so you may see Chinese characters, traditional clothing and buildings in their culture. The modern China split into different "areas" (I can't say country because it surely will stir up a political debate), mainly mainland China and Taiwan which ruled by 2 different political parties, the Communist Party from mainland calling itself the "People's Republic of China" and Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party) stayed in Taiwan calling themselves the "Republic of China". There are also Hong Kong and Macau, I recommend to watch "Are Hong Kong & Macau Countries" on YouTube for a better understanding. These four areas have different cultures while the core is the same. Most Chinese there use Mandarin while "dialects" are also used (some see those dialects as separate languages. Spoken Cantonese being one which used by people from Hong Kong, Macau and many from southern China.) There are also Tibet and other "minorities" which got their own dialects/languages.

For "some" ("many" depends on your view) people from Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, they think they are culturally different and should be called differently (e.g. Hongkonger, Taiwanese), so Chinese, AFAIK, are mainly refer to mainland Chinese while it can also refer to ethnic Chinese in some occasions.


What is the difference between `踢足球` and `踢球`? I've read the following two sentences today:

我以前在这里踢足球
现在我在踢球

However, what is the difference between the 踢足球 and 踢球? I think both means playing soccer, but is there any difference?

They have the same meaning on usual---playing football. For 踢球's 球 ,it is the football in general. If we must point out the difference,there is a tiny difference merely to 踢足球 is a specific(or definite) statement, that is to say, it is more concrete.
When you make sentence or want to express play football, both of them are ok.:)


Can anyone tell me what this means please? I think it is a proverb A friend left me this at work, I think it is a proverb but Google gave me different translations each time which confused me as none of it made sense.

From Tao Te Ching ("Canon of morality") attributed to Laozi. These words are excerpted from various parts. Various translation exists, and here I am just being literal.

上善若水。水善利萬物而不爭。(part 8)
The utmost goodness [or benevolence] is like the water. Water is good at being benevolent to everything, and does not compete with them.

守靜篤。(part 16)
It is concrete to hold stillness.
[or better, "Surely you must be calm."

靜爲躁君。(part 26)
Stillness is the monarch of the movement.
[Or better, "The waiting person rules the impatient person."]

清靜為天下正。(part 45)
Stilness is the right thing of the world.
[Or maybe "Inactivity is the principle of reigning."]

It seems your friend admires Lauzi very much ; )


What's the difference in pronunciation between "yo" and "you" in pinyin? I have no idea, for example, of what the difference in pronunciation between 唷 when pronounced with the first tone and 优.
If there's no difference, why are they written differently in pinyin?

There is a difference.

唷 (Toneless IPA: /jɔ/) rhymes with 波. The rhyme is the open-mid back rounded vowel, and is the ough in American English thought.
優 (/joʊ̯/) rhymes with 秋. The rhyme is the diphthong oʊ̯, and almost the same as ow in American English low.


What is the 統 in 傳統？ The 傳 in 傳統 is easy to understand. Tradition is transmitted. As the dictionary(MOE) says: 世代相傳.

But what about the 統？It has many meanings, including verbal ones.

One (絲的頭緒) refers to the main thread of silk. So is 傳統 the essential, important part of transmission?
Another says: 相繼不絕的體系、關係。如：「血統」. So is it the uninterrupted transmission?
A third one says: 綱要, the essentials, similar to my first guess.

A phrase you'll often hear is: "It's a tradition in our family."

Now extend family to 民族

The word tradition comes from: trans 过 + dare 送给 (Originally in the sense of Jewish instruction, Mosaic Law, it seems.)

传统: 传承血统 pass on bloodline

Whereby, 血统 does not just indicate the dna I think, but all the idiosyncrasies that come with it, the dances, the funny hats, the strange and wonderful delicacies, the social expressions of that bloodline.


How does 矢 look like an arrow? I find it hard to imagine how the character 矢 looks like an arrow (perhaps a "big" man with a spear on top of his head, I dunno).
Can someone please explain this in terms of oracle bone scripture character evolution, Unicode characters or something?
The character 丢失的失 also looks similar, and might be related. Not to speak about 矮子的矮 where arrows 矢 are shorter than spears (not sure what character you'd user for a spear), women 女 on average shorter than men, and grains 禾 smaller than X, can't remember what X is.

Chinese characters originally looks more different when written in older script, e.g. Oracle Script, as stokes get simplified more and more and curvy strokes are then converted to straight lines and boxy characters, eventually, different characters look alike.

According to http://www.chineseetymology.org,

矢 originally looks like this in Seal Script:

  Primitive pictograph 矢. An arrow. Meaning arrow.

失 originally looks like this in Seal Script:

  Augmented pictograph 失. Augmentation 丿(something lost) to hand 手 indicating dropping something. Meaning lose.

And for reference, hand 手 in Seal Script:


What's the difference between 开 and 举办 when used for the meaning "to hold an event"? What is the difference between 开 and 举办 in the following sentence?
They both mean "to hold". Can you use both for big events like 奥运会 or little events like 派对 or 聚会 ?

每年开两次运动会，一次是水上运动会，一次是田径运动会。除此以外，学校还举办圣诞和春节音乐会，和文化节等活动。

开 has other meanings beside; 'to hold' (events)
举办 is a specific term for 'hosting' and 'organizing'. If an organization 举办 something, you expect it to be well organized.
开 is less formal than举办. E.g. 在我家开派对 is less formal than 在我家举办派对.
在我家开派对 can mean you casually call a few friends over to your house. Not much preparation is required

We say 开班会, not 举办班会 because 班会 is a regular event, no additional organizing is needed

We say 举办学生会选举, not 开学生会选举 because 学生会选举 is a formal event that needed to be organized

In short, 开 (to hold) is more general and casual; 举办 (to hold) is more specific and formal (officially hold and organize)
开 itself carries the meaning of 'hold', it doesn't need to be short for anything
Depend on the context, 开 can be short for:

开办 (open and operate/ open and run) e.g. 开(办)学校

召开 (call for and open) e.g. (召)开会议


Can 奉 be attached to verbs I want to use? When 奉 is used as the sense of "politely", as the words 奉托, 奉告, which are usually used, can I attach 奉 to every verb that influences the other person? For example, what about 奉给 or 奉按摩?

It's quite ancient-style, we don't use 奉 as "politely" any more today, except for several remaining set phrases, as dan listed.


What title did Qing China use for US presidents? What title did Qing China use for the US president, given that US presidents are periodically "deposed"? Certainly not 王 as the office is not hereditary and could not be held for life.
I am looking for translations used by the Qing government, and also other translations used by writers of the era (in literature, newspapers, correspondence, etc).

Formally, the Chinese title was President - that is, the English word President was transliterated into Chinese as 伯理璽天德. From the Treaty of Wanghia (望廈條約):

以上關涉太平、和好、貿易、海面各款條約，應候各大臣奏明大清大皇帝批准，大合眾國大伯理璽天德既得各國選舉國會長公會大臣議定允肯批准...
The present Treaty of peace, amity, and commerce, shall be ratified and approved by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by the August Sovereign of the Ta Tsing Empire...


Resources listing polysyllabic Mandarin words with same pronunciation differing only by tones? I'm interested in finding any webpages or books that list words and phrases of more than one character that share the same pronunciation but not the same tones.
For instance, here are some terms I've discovered in EDICT with the syllables "li" and "ji" in different tones:

Lǐjì 禮記 礼记 "Classic of Rites"
lǐji 裡脊 里脊 "(tender)loin (of pork, beef etc)"
lìjī 利基 利基 "niche"
lìjí 立即 立即 "immediately"
lìjǐ 利己 利己 "personal profit / to benefit oneself"
lìji 痢疾 痢疾 "dysentery"

I'm looking for something like this but with lots more words and phrases so that I can listen to the differences in tones in words and phrases, not just isolated syllables/characters, and without the distraction of also having varying pronunciation.
Resources including audio would be amazing, but just lists of words is quite good enough so that I can get a Mandarin-speaking helper to pronounce them for me.

Please do not paste a list or partial list as an answer

I suggest you use an online dictionary similar to this site: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=shishi

The linked site above allows you to hear the pronunciation (click on the arrows), however I suggest you copy and paste two characters into Google translate which has the audio and it pronounces it as a set phrase rather than separately as the first site does e.g. https://translate.google.com.au/?hl=en&tab=wT#zh-CN/en/%E6%97%B6%E4%BA%8B


How to say "trash talking"? I was watching a Chinese student play pool against an American, and the American was getting destroyed, but ended up winning in the end by default (Chinese student scratched on the 8 ball).

So the American jokingly said "not even close".

And I was trying to explain to the Chinese student that it was just trash talking, but wasn't sure how to say that.

Bonus question, what would be an equivalent translation of "not even close", in a joking, trash-talking context?

In this case, what the American said was more a 風涼話 (the game was already over)

風涼話
sarcasm; cynical remarks (made after the fact)

As for trash talk:

trash talk
disparaging, taunting, or boastful comments especially between opponents trying to intimidate each other

It is similar to 吹牛皮 (boasting), 耍貧嘴 (babble with cynical words)  or 耍毒舌 (taunting with mean and provocative words)
牙斬斬 ; 狗噏 in Cantonese:

More importantly, the purpose of 'to trash talk' is 'to trash your adversary'
The most accurate translation of 'trash talking' should be: "自我吹擂，貶損對方 " (boast oneself and disparage the other)

A O wrote:

what would be an equivalent translation of "not even close", in a joking, trash-talking context?

It would be '差遠了'


Longjing tea in English In China there is a kind of tea called Longjing. But can we call it Dragon Well tea? Because I heard that in foreign countries a dragon does not have a positive image.

No, Longjing is a term of tea. It is a specific type of tea.

If you talk to people Dragon Well, they don't think you are talking about tea but a real well called Dragon.


What does 其 add to 尤其? 尤 and 尤其 both mean "particularly, especially", correct? Then isn't 其 redundant? What role does 其 serve?

Oxford Chinese Dictionary (2010) p 906.

No. As you can see in the dictionary, 尤 must be used with another word, or other words, to form a phrase that means something. For example, it has the meaning of "particular" when used in the phrase "對計算機尤感興趣歐". However, in the phrase "尤物", its meaning changed to "rare", "exceptional".
其, depending on the use, can be translated as "its", "such", "that". Similar to 尤, it must be used with other words to be meaningful. As shown in the dictionary, it means "especially" when in the phrase "尤其重要", and means "particular" in "尤其是綠茶".
Thus, the following phrases are false:

尤重要

其重要

尤是綠茶

其是綠茶


Is it possible to ask a question with just a single noun? In informal English, you can ask a question like, "Tea?" as a shorthand for "Would you like some (more) tea?"

I was wondering if the same can be achieved in (informal) Chinese? Something along the lines of 《茶吗？》

Sure it is, in oral Chinese, you can question someone if they care for tea like

  茶？

You do not need 吗 as the question marker.

When you use this expression, please make sure, first, both you and the person you are asking are in the same and easily understandable context, like, you holding a teapot and an empty cup in front of that person; second, the person you are asking had better be in a relatively equal standing with you, this is a very casual way of asking!


Polysyllabic adjectives with double 不 I have recently come across quite a few instances of polysyllabic adjectives being split up and preceded by 不s, e.g.

清楚 -> 不清不楚

高兴 -> 不高不兴

I guess this is simply a variation of not+adj. but does anyone know what the specific intention behind the construction is?
Many thanks,
Hashamyim

Oxford gives three usages for this construct:

  不...不...

  bù...bù...

  ① [used to make an emphatic negative form of two words identical or similar in meaning]

  不骄不躁
  not conceited or rash, free from arrogance and rashness

  不慌不忙
  unhurried, calm, leisurely

  不知不觉
  unawares

  ② [used with two words of opposite meanings to indicate an intermediate state]

  不大不小
  neither too big nor too small, just right

  不冷不热
  neither cold nor hot

  不死不活
  neither dead nor alive, half-dead

  ③ [the first 不 is the condition of the second 不]

  不见不散
  We won't leave until we meet

Collins also gives three, pretty identical, definitions:

  不 ... 不 ...

  (bù ... bù ... )

  1 (表示强式否定)

  " ⇒ 不知不觉" (bù zhī bù jué) "unwittingly"

  " ⇒ 不慌不忙" (bù huāng bù máng) "unhurriedly"

  " ⇒ 不折不扣" (bù zhé bù kòu) "one hundred percent"

  2(= 既不 ... 也不 ... ) "neither ... nor ... "

  " ⇒ 不亏不盈" (bù kuī bù yíng) "neither too little nor too much"

  " ⇒ 不大不小" (bù dà bù xiǎo) "just the right size"

  " ⇒ 不死不活" (bù sǐ bù huó) "half dead"

  3(= 如果不 ... 就不 ... ) "unless ... then not"

  " ⇒ 不破不立" (bù pò bù lì) "without destruction there can be no construction"

  " ⇒ 不见不散。" (Bù jiàn bù sàn.) "See you there."


How to pronounce words with double fourth tones? So I know for certain words, such as 不对, the fourth tone changes, but I believe 不 may be a special case.

Some words such as  部队 seem uncomfortable to pronounce if I strictly follow 4th and 4th tones, but saying words such as 汉字, don't feel as uncomfortable.

Is there a general rule (or at least a general rule with a few exceptions), for pronouncing double fourth tone words?

Yes, 不 is a special case. Other consecutive fourth tone morphemes are all pronounced (事件, 现在, 俱乐部), unless the word formed itself is a special case where the tone of the last morpheme is neutralized (看见, 用处, 味道).


Is the expression 学识渊博 usually used in a pejorative sense? For example, as a sarcastic remark in the sense of "pedantic" or "know-it-all"?

No. It's usually used as a commendatory term. But it can be also used in a pejorative sense (the rule is called 褒義貶用).

PS: This is not used in a conversation, or it's an irony.


Is there an ancient chinese name for Asia? The Chinese word for Asia is 亞細亞 (yaxiya).
The root of these words seems to be the greek word "Asia", derived from the Akkadian "asu" which means "to rise".
Thus, Asia is the land of the rising sun. But this only has meaning if Asia is seen from the West (historically from the region around the Aegean Sea).
The Chinese historical name of China is 中國 (zhongguo) and means "central region". From the perspective of a Chinese, it is natural to name his own land that way.
But what is the Chinese ancient name of the whole region/continent of Asia?

Ancient Chinese has no concept of the modern-called continents. Instead, they describe the world as a "China-Foreign" system, while China is the centre of the world, and other countries are scattered around China.
The name of Asia firstly appeared in China in 1582, on the map Kunyu Wanguo Quantu. The name was translated by Matteo Ricci, assisted by Chinese officials.


Reconstruction of Old Chinese "少" There are many characters that have the initial "m-" and contain "少" as a phonetic element at the same time, such as 妙, 秒, 眇, 竗, etc. I thought this was a good reason to judge that "少" used to have "m"(either voiced or voiceless) in Old Chinese. Then I looked up through B-S's reconstruction. They reconstructed it as /*[s.t]ewʔ/, but I couldn't find any explanation. What is a good reason to judge that "少" used to have "t" instead of "m"?

Baxter–Sagart's (2014:135) view on *s.t-:

Preinitial *s- had a range of effects on unaspirated stops and affricates . . . Old Chinese *s.t-, but not *s.tʕ-, evolves to MC sy- (plausibly [ɕ]), presumably through an intermediate stage [stɕ] that simplified to the Middle Chinese palatal fricative sy- under the influence of pre-initial *s: *s.t- > *stɕ- > *ɕ- = sy-.

For 少, B–S's MC reconstruction is syewX. The consensus of MC is ɕiᴇuX. This is supported by the fanqie 書沼切 of the third division in Guangyun. All MC reconstructors concur the 書-initial is /ɕ/.

I believe B–S is aware of the conflict between the above theory and the presence of the 妙-type phono-semantic compounds. In fact, B–S applied the square brackets (which indicates uncertain identity, not lack of evidence, in which case parentheses would be used) to not only *s.t for 少, but also *m for the 妙-type phono-semantic compounds:

眇/杪/渺 *[m]ewʔ
妙 *[m]ew(ʔ)-s

Reconstruction evidence from the Chinese script is important but needs to be used with caution (Baxter–Sagart, 2014:26):

As with rhymes, in using evidence from the script to reconstruct Old Chinese, it is important to take into account not only which words were written with the same phonetic element, but also which words were not written with the same phonetic element. Traditional Chinese philologists noticed cases where initial consonants that were very different in later pronunciation were apparently treated as interchangeable in the early script.

The example 喻四古歸定 was immediately given where initials y- and d- in MC were often interchanged in OC:

弋 yì < yik ‘shoot arrow with string attached’ is phonetic in
代 dài < dojH ‘replace’

余 yú < yo ‘I’ is phonetic in
涂 tú < du ‘path’

Edit

In constructing OC for 少, Zhengzhang (2003:154) caters both the agreement with MC sy- and phono-semantic diversity.

*hCj- 則生成書母字，如「勢」hŋjeds、「恕」 hnjas、「手」hnjɯw' (「手」與「杻」為同族詞，跟兄弟語「手指」泰文 niu'、緬文 hnjoɯh、基諾語 n̥u 同源)。「少」可諧「秒杪眇渺妙」應是 *hmhjew'，這樣才能與「鈔訬吵」 *smhreew 相諧，並跟「小」 *smew' 轉注（小少與「秒眇」等同根，但與「沙」只是異源同形）。

As for *hCj- (C: consonant), they make characters of the 書-initial (MC sy-), such as 勢 ('potential', shì, OC *hŋjeds), 恕 ('to forgive', shù, OC *hnjas), and 手 ('hand', shǒu, OC *hnjɯw'). 手 and 杻 ('ancient instruments of torture', chǒu) are family characters, and is etymologically the same as 'finger' in Thai (niu'), Burmese (hnjoɯh), and Jino (n̥u). 少 concurs with 秒杪眇渺妙 and should be reconstructed as *hmhjew'. This is also to reflect *smhreew in 鈔訬吵 and to be derived cognates with 小 (*smew'). Note 小/少 and the 秒/眇-type phonosemantograms are of the same origin, but not with 沙.

Zhengzhang (2003:141) also considers the preinitial *s- to usually precede nasal consonants (which is not what B–S thinks, see obstruents in point 1.):

戌 *smid, 烕 *hmed, 滅 *med
小 *smewʔ, 少 *hmjewʔ, 渺/秒 mewʔ
需 *snjo, 儒/襦/孺/濡 *njo

Moreover, unlike B–S, Zhengzhang does not attribute any morphological function to the preinitial. It merely serves to apparently explain phono-semantic compounds and phonetic loans.

In defence of B–S's OC construction: what is different in B–S than previous reconstructions is that it is heavily inspired by Vietic, Hmong-Mien, and Kra-Dai because they received early loan words from Chinese. I looked up Hán Nôm readings of 少; none of them began with /s/ but th (/tʰ/) instead:

thiểu, thẹo, thểu, thỉu, thiếu, thẻo

There is also morphological reason why a preinitial *s- is added before the Vietic *t: it either increases the valency of a verb (of a character other than 少), or creates an oblique deverbal noun (from said unknown character) (Sagart and Baxter, 2012).

少 shǎo < syewX < *[s.t]ewʔ ('few')
少 shào < syewH < *[s-t]ewʔ-s (adj. 'young'; n. 'the youth')

Notice in 少 shào (but not 少 shǎo, your character of inquiry), B–S is confident there is a morpheme boundary between *s and *t (denoted by a hyphen but not a period). This is because *s is likely to be a nominalising agent, creating the sense n. 'the youth', as seen in e.g.:

群賢畢至，少長咸集。（晉·王羲之《蘭亭集序》）
All the literati, the young and the old, have congregated. (Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion, tr. Wikisource)

While your hypothesis that 弋–代 is analogous to the 少–妙 situation is possible, you need to find more pairs as evidence. B–S obviously does not adopt this in their reconstruction because it is useless in face of Vietic evidence. Whereas this may work in Zhengzhang's system. B–S also did not reconstruct 吵 in OC, which has both “s-/t-” and “m-” readings in Guangyun (and so in Japanese [Go-on: みょう・しょう, Kan-on: びょう・そう] and Korean [묘, 초]). I have yet to find any B–S theory for the concurrence.

Personally, I think Zhengzhang synthesises existing evidence well. But B–S has a more analytical and innovative touch in their reconstruction. Evidence regarding 少 and whatever that it associates with are frequently conflicting, so there is yet a fixed answer.

References

Baxter, William H., and Sagart, Laurent. Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. Oxford University Press, 2014.

Zhengzhang, Shangfang. Old Chinese Phonology. Shanghai Educational Publishing House, 2003.

Sagart, Laurent, and Baxter, William H. "Reconstructing the *s- Prefix in Old Chinese". Language and Linguistics, vol. 13, no. 1, 2012, pp. 29-59.


Stroke order of 力 vs 九 I'm curious as to why the stroke order of 力 is different to the stroke order of 九.

One page I found (力 and 九 stroke order) theorises that the reason is because 力 has "touching" strokes and there is a hook that "points" to the second stroke, so it could not itself be the second stroke.

This seems to be a decent theory, though I'd like to know if anybody has a concrete source proving (or disproving) this rule. It does note that it only applies for cases where the strokes touch, so it does not count in cases like 刂.

Any insights?

About this question, you can consult Guobao Wang's summary:

  1.只有横折钩类与撇相遇：先写横折钩，例刀、力、万 、方、乃、杨。

  2.其他横折类与撇相遇：都先写撇，例如及（横折折撇 ），几（横折弯），九（横斜钩）、匕（竖折弯）。

translate into English:

1.Only when uppermost and rightmost lines with a left hook cross with right-to-left diagonals(ノ): uppermost and rightmost lines with a left hook is written first. For example: "刀", "力", "万", "方", "乃", "杨".

2.In other situation uppermost and rightmost lines cross with right-to-left diagonals(ノ): right-to-left diagonals is written first. For example: "及", "几", "九", "匕".

Anyway, maybe the following links will offer you more information about stroke order rules.

1.现代汉语通用字笔顺规范(official version);

2.现代汉语通用字笔顺规范.pdf;

3.现代汉语通用字笔顺规范;

4.《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》电子版;

5."火"的笔顺.

Besides, the website 汉典 is perhaps useful to you.


Is this translation correct? "一人说一句." 一人说一句。
Does this mean, "Each person say one sentence"?
Is this correct?
Thanks so much!

its by situations,

first, your translate is right when request some feedback
(e.g. 你們一人說一句, 給我點回應)
sometimes it means too much responses
(e.g. 你們一人說一句, 我怎麼聽得懂!)


What is the difference between the two characters of 自己? What is the difference between the two characters of 自己? They both seem to mean self, or one/one's self?  I don't know where the distinction is, but, I do know that to know self is 知己, is one more the person and the other a different feature like a soul?

自 self (adv)

Examples:

自動(self move/ automatic)
自尊(self respect)
自助(self help)

動(to move), 尊(to respect) 助(to help) are all verbs, therefore 自 has to be an adverb

  己 [1] [pron] oneself; one's own; personal

視天下事為己任 (see the world's affair as one's own responsibility)
視為己出 (treat as one's own child)
己所不欲勿施於人 (do not impose on others what oneself do not wish to be imposed upon)

己 is a pronoun in all three examples above.

  自己 oneself; self (i.e. 我自己 = myself)

~

  but I do know that to know self is 知己, is one more the person and the other a different feature like a soul?

知己 (to know oneself)

知己者 (the one who know me/ confidant) often shortened to 知己

A famous quote from 《戰國策‧趙策一》: 士為知己者死  (A dignified man would die for the one who truly know him)

'know' here means 'truly understand'


Why is (是) shi4 dropped in this sentence："我很好"? I''m a Chinese learner for quite a while, I've been wondering why (是) shi4 is dropped in sentences like this："我很好" Isn't there supposed to be a verb in every sentences? like 我（是）很好.

Simply put, adjectives in Chinese can function as verbs.

More specifically, they can form predicates without the use of a copula verb such as 是. For this reason, adjectives in Chinese are sometimes considered to be a class of verbs called "stative verbs".

You can refer to the answers of this previous question for more details: Stative verbs in Chinese: only for adjectives?


Why would Antimony (Sb) and Aluminum (Al) be confused? I'm going through some Chinese language materials and finding some interesting discoveries across multiple dialects.

In Chinese 锑[銻] is Antimony (Sb) & 铝(鋁) is Aluminum (Al).

In Cantonese there are words like:

銻煲 which is literally Antimony + pot, but it is defined as an aluminum cooking pot.
銻盆 is also literally Antimony + basin but it is also defined as an aluminum tub.
銻罉 Antimony + pan, but is actually an aluminum pan.

ABC Canto even goes as far as defining 锑 as:

  aluminum

Sichuanese also has the same thing going on:

锑锅 - again is literally Antimony + pot, but is also defined as aluminum pot.

Why would Antimony (Sb) and Aluminum (Al) be confused like this?

This 贴吧 suggests:

  锑、锡、铝长得太像，早期没分清楚，乱来，然后沿用下来了。比如锡矿山，其实不产锡，而是锑。

Which I believe is quite plausible.

Yes, they are chemically fairly similar in their natural state, as well as tin; all very light coloured metals, less dense than iron. China is still (as of 2017) the world's largest producer of antimony, accounting for over 75% of global annual production.

There is another dimension to this, which is that antimony has been known since antiquity, way before aluminium, in the West and in the East. However, in ancient China it was generally considered to be the same as tin. One of the largest antimony mines is Xikuangshan (錫礦山, lit. Tin Mine Mountain), in Lengshuijiang (冷水江), central Hunan, and was thought to have been discovered in 1521.

Antimony was given its modern Chinese name in the 1870s. Straying into speculation, I think that it would have been enough time for 銻 to have diffused into common use (and move away from 錫) in the southern topolects, maybe under the influence of this mine in Hunan. So I'd expect 銻 or something like it to be common words in Xiang, Sichuanese, Gan, maybe Hakka and Cantonese. Again, just a guess, but something to check!

It would be very difficult to trace the production and nomenclature of aluminium goods in the post-war of modern Chinese history, but not impossible if you were in the local community. You would have to ask the 单位 which was responsible for either manufacture or transport of such goods, or some HK vendors from that time.


Is there a name for a "phantom" stroke handwritten by mistake? When handwriting the Chinese
休
it might be mistakenly written as
体
Afterwards, it has an additional "phantom" stroke which only exists because it's written incorrectly.  There's a number of "phantom" strokes when handwriting, e.g. the characters associated with:

miswriting 冖 as 宀,
miswriting 厂 as 广,
miswriting 斤 as 斥,
miswriting 礻 as 衤, and
miswriting 戈 as 戋.

I'm wondering if there is a name for this "phantom" stroke, either in English or Chinese, and either in linguistics or in informal usage.
Question: Is there a name for a "phantom" stroke handwritten by mistake?

It is called or 笔误 or 误笔 (handwriting mistake) or more colloquially "写错笔划" (write a wrong stroke)
写多笔划或是写少笔划都是笔误
俗语: "误将冯京作马凉" 就是典型的笔误引来的误会
Although 笔误 and 误笔 are interchangeable, there's also a term 口误 (slip of the tongue). Therefore, I prefer 笔误 over 误笔


Where can I find a digital copy of 黄继忠's translation of 论语? I'm looking for a digital copy of Chichung Huang (黄继忠)'s translation of The Analects of Confucius (论语).
Amazon's blurb mentions what they believe are the advantages of the translation:

Far more literal than any English version still in circulation, this brilliant new rendition of The Analects helps the reader not only to acquire and accurate and lucid understanding of the original text, but also to appreciate the imagery, imagery, parallelism, and concision of its classical style. The translator Chichung Huang, a Chinese scholar born in a family of Confucian teachers and schooled in one of the last village Confucian schools in South China, brings to this treasure of world literature a sure voice that captures the power and subtleties of the original. Vivid, simple, and eminently readable, this illuminating work makes the golden teachings of the sage of the East readily available to anyone in search of them.

Where can I find a digital copy? There aren't any on sale on Amazon. Any djvu, pdf, etc. would be a big help. Ideas?

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-6253.1998.tb00513.x
Please have a try with this link. It seems that we can download the pdf by logging in with an institutional account.


快 vs 快点, what's the point of "点" in this case? 快 is one of the HSK level 2 vocabulary words which means "quick". Issue is this: I know online translators are unreliable but each translator I've used translates "快点去开门" as "Go and get the door" while completely missing the "quickly" aspect. When I instead type "快点去开门" the translators understand it to mean "Hurry up and get the door." (as it should).

So is this a problem with the online translators or is the "点" required? I know a few different ways "点" is used but I can't tell what its purpose in "快点" is. If the "点" is necessary to get the point across (no pun intended) why does every HSK vocabulary list I look up list "快" rather than "快点"?

点 (or 点儿 in Northern-speak) is short for 一点 (一点儿) / "one bit", so 快(一)点(儿) means "quick by a bit" = a bit more quickly (than the speed at the point of speaking).

I love the pun in your "What's the point of 点..."; one of the definitions of 点 is "point / dot" (as in decimal point; 5.3 = 五点三).


What is the history of the character “耻”? The meaning of the word is “shame”. I often encounter the version which is written with a 止, but sometimes I confuse it with 恥. It seems that the meanings of 耻 and 恥 are both the same, just that one is a simplified character and the other, traditional.

How did two versions of the same word come about, and why would one be considered “simplified”, given that the number of strokes are similar?

戰國・楚簡緇衣.28郭店楚簡篆心部說文解字東漢隸樊敏碑　今楷

「恥」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*n̥rəʔ/, humiliation/shame) is comprised of semantic 「心」 (heart, mind) and phonetic 「耳」 (/*C.nəʔ/).

During times when clerical script was in active use, the 「心」 portion of the character was sometimes corrupted into an additional sound hint 「止」 (/*təʔ/). This produces the variant 「耻」, which is the target of PRC's standardisation scheme.

東漢隸樊敏碑　東漢隸孔宙碑　東漢隸池陽令　今楷


Is 我去广州见朋友 or 我去广州看朋友 better for saying "I go to Guangzhou to see a friend"? In class, the teacher asked us to say:

  I go to Guangzhou to see a friend

in Chinese.  I thought we should say:

  我去广州见朋友
  Wǒ qù Guǎngzhōu jiàn péngyǒu

but the (substitute) teacher proposed：

  我去广州看朋友
  Wǒ qù Guǎngzhōu kàn péngyǒu

I think 见 is more appropriate since it means "to see" in the sense of "to meet", whereas 看 means "to look at", e.g., 看花 (kànhuā) = to look at flowers.

I was corrected on this in the past: I went to an office and said 我想看[她的名字], and I was told that's weird to say, that it sounds like she's a celebrity, and I should say 我想见[她的名字].

However, in addition to the teacher's sentence, the top answer to When to use 看 and 见？ says 见 is inappropriate (you probably will not use 见 as a verb), although it also says it is appropriate (见 can be used as a verb when it means to see/meet someone), so now I'm totally confused, and unsure which is best for this particular context.

Question: Is 我去广州见朋友 or 我去广州看朋友 better for saying "I go to Guangzhou to see a friend"?

In this case, I think 我去广州看朋友 is the suitable translation for "I go to Guangzhou to see a friend"? 我去广州看朋友 usually means you want to see your friend there to see how everything is going with him.

Well, 我去广州见朋友 sounds that you want to meet a friend in Guangzhou, usually for some purposes(like business, talking about something, etc.)


Sichuanese: When Is First Tone 55 Vs. 45? 55 and 45 are 调值 or tone values.

The Sichuanese first tone is sometimes 55, like mandarin (high & flat), and sometimes a rising 45.

Sichuanese: When Is First Tone 55 Vs. 45?

When you are talking about 成都话, the first tone (阴平) follows the following rules:

1) The regular case for the first tone is 45. When you are reading a single character, you should use 45.

2) When the character is part of a phrase or a sentence, it may change. Specifically, when a first tone character A is preceded by another first tone character B, A is changed to 55. For example, 区分 is pronounced qu(45) fen(55).

In addition, the default tone values for the second tone (阳平), the third tone (上声) and the fourth tone (去声) are 21, 42 and 13, respectively. These are used when you read a single character. When they are combined with other characters, the following rules are followed:

3) If a second-stone character is followed by any other characters, its tone value is changed to 22 (from 21). For example, 可以 should be pronounced ke(22)yi(42). Still, when you hear recordings, you may not hear the flattening. So I feel this rule is not strict.

4) If a third-tone character is followed by any other characters, its tone value is changed to 44 (from 42). For example, 口音 should be read as kou(44)yin(55) by this rule. However, when listening to recordings, again I hear something like kou(43)yin(55). The falling tone is reduced but is still discernible. Further, the first tone of 音 is also read as 55 here.

You can find the above pronunciation yourself in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtauJBczNwA

In summary, I think there are two forms of tone values. One is the standard form, and another is a reduced form used in compound words. It should just come naturally.

The origin Chinese reference for this is:

成都话中，阴平、阳平、上声、去声的调值分别为45, 21, 42, 13。在单读一个字时，音调遵循以上所列。但在词汇与语句中连读时，会有一定规律的变调。

一个阴平字之前一个字读阴平时，本字变调为55。

一个阳平字之后有任何字时，本字变调为22。

一个上声字之后有任何字时，本字变调为44。

Reference: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%88%90%E9%83%BD%E8%AF%9D


Classical Chinese grammar help: 蓋將自其變者而觀之，則天地曾不能以一瞬 The second clause is translated as some version of: "If you look at it from the point of Change, then heaven and earth never stay the same for even a moment".

Here's what I think I know:

不 negates a verb
能 indicates that something is possible, and functions as an auxiliary to another verb
不能(verb) therefore means "cannot (verb)", "does not (verb)"
以 has a variety of meanings, but the only one that fits here is to indicate a period of time: 一瞬 ("a moment", "the blink of an eye").

My question is this: what verb is 不能 modifying? What in the verse conveys "to stay the same"? Is there an implied verb somewhere meaning "to be unchanged"? How is the above interpretation derived, exactly?

Many thanks to anyone who can explain this to me.

I should mention also that I first encountered this in its literary Japanese form, where the full gloss is: 蓋し将た其の変ずる者よりして之を観れば、則ち天地も曾て以て一瞬なる能はず, if that helps anyone to understand the issue. There is no verb explicitly indicating "existence", "stopping", or "lack of change" in the Japanese interpretation either.

First, I'm very surprised that a foreigner is even reading the classical article 前赤壁賦.

For your question, I think the answer is related to omission,  a common grammatical phenomenon in classical Chinese.

Here, 以 doesn't mean "to stop". When it means to stop, 以 is just an alias of 已 (another common phenomenon, called 通假, where characters with similar pronunciations or shapes are used  interchangeably) , which means to stop. If 以 really means to stop here, what  is the role of 一瞬?

To stop a moment doesn't make sense.  From the context, the author 苏轼 wants to express that "the universe is always changing. Changes never stop".  If it means to stop within a moment,  the meaning sounds weird: "the universe CAN'T STOP within a moment". So does  it takes some time for the universe to stop?

I think the sentence omits the complement: 则天地曾不能以一瞬 观之/度 (duo 2nd tone, to consider, to think of)之. Then the universe can't be even  observed / considered in (the unit of) one moment, since it changes so fast. Even in one moment (very short period), it has changed a lot, and you can notice no details or nothing meaningful.

Why is there such an omission? Well, the pattern of this article is 赋, and it requires the writer to use a lot of 对仗 ( coupling sentences. Two groups of sentences written in the similar pattern. For example, same numbers of characters, similar sentence structure).  You can notice a lot of coupling sentences in this article, can't you? The next sentence is coupled with the sentence in the questions, so the number of characters is restricted here. Also, the verb in the complement repeats 观之 in the previous clause.

PS: I'm not a linguist, so please correct me if I use incorrect terms in the answer. I'll appreciate that.


What does 防海固圉 mean? Taken from the title of an article published in a Taiwanese governmental journal, related to Penghu County:

防海固圉

Presumed pronunciation (without further background knowledge):

ㄈㄤˊㄏㄞˇㄍㄨˋㄩˇ = fɑŋ2 xaɪ̯3 ku4 ɥu3 = fáng hǎi gù yǔ

防 ~ defence

海 ~ sea

固 ~ strong

圉 ~ prison in ancient time

roughly, "nautical defence (防海) with a strong (固) fort (圉)"

another possible translation is:

the usage of (omitted) strong (固) fort (圉) in maritime (海) defence (防).

i guess it's a summering phrase in the article "防海固圉：論明代澎湖和臺灣兵防角色之差異性"

have fun :)


Using 滿喜由 as a male name in Mainland China I am a foreigner with a difficult name. Could I use 滿喜由 as a full male name in Mainland China without causing too much hassle in communication?

How does 滿喜由 sound to native chinese speakers?

I guess 喜由 is some kind of transcription of Dio in Dionisio. As pointed out by @TangHo, this transcription very unfortunately sounds like a sex drug.

The standard transcription of Greek (and derived Latin) Dio- is「狄奧」:

Dio of Alexandria: 亞歷山卓的狄奧
Cassius Dio: 卡西烏斯・狄奧

Dionysus has the alternative 狄俄倪索斯.

This transcription matches the Greek, Latin, and Spanish ways of pronouncing Dio-. The (alternative) English way of pronouncing Dio- sounds something like Dye-oh, which should be rendered as 戴歐.

In modern transcription practice,「狄」tends to be avoided in favour of「迪」, because「狄」is more commonly associated with barbarians occupying the northern borders in Ancient China. I would render your name as 迪奧 or 迪歐.


Is 我携带我的猫 grammaticaly correct? I've been writing Chinese sentences just to get myself used to the language, and I tried writing the sentence I carry my cat. I translated this to 我携带我的猫 (Pinyin: wǒ xié dài wǒ de māo). It sounds odd to have another instance of wǒ in the same sentence.
Is this sentence correct?

As a sign, it is common to see "不可攜帶寵物", "請勿攜犬入內".

However, we seldom use "攜" or "攜帶" in ordinary text; simply "帶" is okay.


Commas, which one is proper? I've seen both the western comma "," and the eastern comma "、“ used in Chinese before, although the "eastern comma" seems to be used more frequently (correct me if I'm wrong). Which is more proper to use in general?

In proper use of the Chinese language, you're talking about the difference between the true comma 逗號 「，」 and the enumeration comma 頓號 「、」.

The difference between the two can be illustrated in a sentence from the Chinese Wikipedia article on 頓號:

  分隔同類的並列的事，通常是單字、詞語或短句，當中的停頓較逗號短。

  (Enumeration commas are) used when separating similar items consecutively, such as single characters, words, or short sentences/phrases, where the pause is shorter than that given by the True Comma.

The list begins with the word 單字, continues on with 詞語, then finishes with 短句, after which the true comma is used to create a pause between the previous part of the sentence and the next part.

Note: Very rarely will you see enumeration commas everywhere and true commas not used at all. In this case, you're most likely looking at a Japanese rendition of a Classical Chinese text, because in the Japanese language they use 「、」 for everything.


What's the difference between 也 (yě) & 和 （hé)? Difference between 而, 但 and 和 contrasts 和 with two others, but doesn't mention 也.

"And" vs. "also" … ?

也 means "also" whereas 和 means "and."  Adverb vs. conjunction.

So for example, to say "I am also a student" you could write

我也是学生。

But you cannot write

我和是学生。

Additionally, 也 cannot function as 和。To say "My friend and I are watching a movie" you could write

我和我的朋友在看电影。

But you cannot write

我也我的朋友在看电影。

Here are some links you might want to check out (both on ChineseGrammarWiki):

The "also" adverb "ye"
Expressing "and" with "he"


Difference between 硕士英语A班 and 工程硕士英语 What is the difference between 硕士英语A班 and 工程硕士英语?

I just want to know their exact meaning as Google Translate gives me the same result for both but these words seems to have different meaning.

What I am supposing is that 硕士英语A班 is masters English class and 工程硕士英语 is not a class but a whole department or whatever. So I just need to know clear meanings of these two words

硕士 means the college degree in modern Chinese, nothing else, unlike the English word Master.

工程硕士 is Master of Engineering.

硕士英语 is the English course for a student who is pursuing a master's degree.

班 is an assembly in which people study and take exams together, usually consisting of 30 or more people.

So to conclude:

工程硕士英语 is the English course in a college aimed at Chinese M.Eng students who usually have no more than 5000 English words in command. After the course you'll gain an additional 1000 vocabularies as well as a few reading, writing, and translating skills. It's a class focused on basic English skill, not necessarily related to engineering.

硕士英语A班 is an assembly of M.Eng students taking an English course, this group is labelled as A. There might be B, C, D, etc., but A usually doesn't mean it's better or prioritized; These are just labels.


A better translation of 假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。 In the Chinese classic 红楼梦 ("Dream of Red Mansions"), there is a famous couplet:

假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。

Pinyin:

jiǎ zuò zhēn shí zhēn yì jiǎ, wú wéi yǒu chù yǒu huán wú.

This has been translated into English as:

Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true;
Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real.

Another common translation:

When false is taken for true, true becomes false;
If non-being turns into being, being becomes non-being.

I find these translations at best stilted, and at worst nonsensical, and feel they lack the impact of the original. I'd like to propose an alternative translation, but as a non-native speaker I'm not sure how much of the original meaning I've lost.

My attempt:

When pretense receives credence, even honesty is faked;
Where vanity is given significance, significance becomes meaningless.

Is this a fair translation? Is there some shade of meaning in the original that this fails to convey which either of the two previous translations are able to capture? I would especially love to hear an answer from someone who considers themselves an expert on the novel (红学家).

Edit: I tweaked my translation of the first half and changed my translation of the last half:

When pretense receives credence, even honesty is mistrusted;
Where we pretend to have, what we have is lost.

Not sure if it's any better though.

One of the quotes you give is from David Hawkes, published, translation. It goes as follows:

  Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true;
  Real becomes not-real where the unreal’s real.

You can also consider H. Bencraft Joly's, older, published, translation of the sentence looks like this:

  When falsehood stands for truth, truth likewise becomes false,
  Where naught be made to aught, aught changes into naught.

Gladys Yang and Yang Xianyi's translation:

  When false is taken for true, true becomes false;
  If non-being turn into being, being becomes non-being.


I have been learning traditional characters but my professors don't accept it. What do I do? I am a 20-year-old guy studying Chinese Translation at college here in Turkey. Currently I am taking preparatory Chinese classes to pass to actual ones (just started).
I have been studying Chinese for quite some time, and I loved traditional characters so chose to start with the traditional set. I learned a lot of traditional characters, and now all my professors are from PRC and no matter what they don't accept traditional characters (I must write by hand). She told me with a kinda angry voice 寫現在的字. Others say they won't accept it either.
Obviously this will affect my grades etc. and I don't want to change it. What should I do ? I thought of learning both together, writing simplified to materials they use and writing traditional to my own individual studying materials. This preparatory classes will take 1 year, 3 exams, some little tests. If I can't pass the barage they set I must get HSK 4.
We will be learning 1500-1600 words. Here they see China as only PRC, meaning my university only has connections with mainland universities so I will be going there early on until I can finish it or do something else. What should I do?

Young man drop everything to follow his heart.

Others drop his personal to do his responsibility.

Few do both.


Words referring to the shape of Chinese characters Some words in English use (capital) letters to describe the shape of the object to which they refer:

A-frame, C-clamp, I-beam, O-ring, T-shirt, T-intersection, T-bone, U-turn, V-neck

Chinese seems to have a few words like this (except they make reference to the shape of characters). There are a couple using 十 that are very common:

红十字 -- the Red Cross
十字路口 -- a street intersection

I've also come across one with 丁 and one with 回:

丁骨牛排 -- a T-bone steak
回形针 -- a paperclip

Are there any other words like this?

金-shaped

金字塔 Pyramid (Because the shape of a pyramid looks like 金)

田-shaped

田字格 grids with the arrangement like 田

工-shaped

工字梁 I-beam
工字柱 I-column

米-shaped

米字旗 the national flag of UK

之-shaped

之江 another name of Qiantang River, because its course looks like the shape of 之

井-shaped

井形格床 two-way grillage
井号 hash sign

人-shaped

人字队 in V formation (for example for birds)
人字鞋 flip-flops (the sandals)

一-shaped

一字队 in line formation (for example for birds)

丁-shaped

丁字路口 T-junction

十-shaped

十字路口 crossroads; intersection

八-shaped

八字脚 splayed feet(normally when a man walks, the two soles are approximately parallel; however, someone would splay his feet when walking, so the two soles looks like a trumpet, the 八 shape)
八字眉 eyebrow arranged in the shape like 八(imagine the eyebrow of the Angry Birds)

国字脸, means a face looks like square
日-shaped

马走日 knight (in both Chess and Xiangqi) goes L, that is, two steps in one direction plus one additional step perpendicularly. In Xiangqi where pieces go along lines instead of squares, the starting and stopping position of a 马 (knight) forms a 日.

大-shaped

大字形躺在床上 lying in bed with arms and legs open (that person must be very tired)

品-shaped

品字结构的汉字 other Chinese characters whose structure is similar to 品, with three identical parts arranged in a triangle. e.g. 晶， 众， 鑫， 森 ...
品字形布局 a triangular arrangement. This may refer to anything, like three buildings, three wells and so on.

弓-shaped

弓着身子 hump his/her back

卐 or 卍-shaped

卐字旗 the flag of the Nazi Party

回-shaped

回字形建筑 a building with a large courtyard in the center.

川 shaped

川字腹肌 six-pack abs


Meaning of "建一个国内的飞机场，也能翻回去" and "美国不会对标建墙的" I'm confused by the statement "建一个国内的飞机场，也能翻回去" and "美国不会对标建墙的" in this short blog post from https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/fs2zbK1kGUJ1xirpDaEFNA. My translation would be "if you construct a domestic airport, it can be reverted" and "The United States will not build a wall against standards", which doesn't really make any more sense in the context of the whole blog post, which I've reproduced here:

Tiktok还有被买走的机会。WeChat没没有人能接手的。
所以45天后，微信可能会停止对北美地区的服务。
后面怎么办？
国内和国外的朋友如何沟通？

Skype熟悉一下，这个好像中美之间都没有封掉。

还有可以试试apple 的 FaceTime。这个也可以的的。这个在苹果手机上可以使用。

还可以使用支付宝。现在支付宝还没有上单子，和国内沟通可以通过支付宝。没想到支付宝的社交梦想居然就这么实现了。
其实工具很多，比如钉钉也可以的。

微信，QQ这些可能都会从 app store下掉。但是按照法规说法：只是下架，海外那边可以用安装包的方式装微信和qq，问题不会很大。 美国不会对标建墙的。

可以通过翻墙的办法。建一个国内的飞机场，也能翻回去。

如果有可能一家人在一起。
我一大半读者都是海外华人，如果真的禁止了，那么针对海外华人的公号基本上废了。所以得考虑其他的渠道。

My translation is as follows:

TikTok still has a chance to be bought. No one can take over WeChat.
So after 45 days, WeChat may stop serving North America.
What to do later?
How do friends in China and abroad communicate?

Get familiar with Skype. It seems that [communication] between China and the United States [using Skype] has not been sealed off.
You can also try Apple's FaceTime. This is also possible. This can be used on Apple phones.
You can also use Alipay. Now Alipay has not been added to the list, and communication with China can be through Alipay. I wouldn't have expected Alipay's social dreams to be realized in this way.
In fact, there are many tools, such as DingTalk, which can also be used.
WeChat and QQ may all be dropped from the app stores. However, according to the regulations: Just take it off the shelves, and install WeChat and QQ overseas by means of installation packages. The problem will not be big. The United States will not build a wall against standards.
You can circumvent the Great Firewall [or is this about circumventing American restrictions?]. If you build a domestic airport, you can turn it back.
If possible, be together as a family.
Most of my readers are overseas Chinese. If it is really banned, then the official account for overseas Chinese will basically be abandoned. So you have to consider other channels.

"墙" isn't a real wall here, but a "Internet wall". It made by governments, its target is forbiding the citizens explore some special sites on Internet. Chinese government has one, it forbids the people in China Mainland to connect to Google Search, Facebook, Twitter and some other sites. Some sites in this list are erotic, or about gambling, or Chinese government doesn't like it because there are always some anti-China things on those sites. The author of this article wants to say that the US government won't build a wall like what China has. If the US build it, the people in the US can't download WeChat or QQ or some other Chinese applications that forbid by the ban of the US government, and can only use some special ways to "climb over" it, such as using VPN.
"飞机场" is an argot, it means hosts in other areas. The people who use VPN connect to it to "climb over" the "Internet wall". So this sentence means "build a host in China to climb over the ban to get some special things on the Internet from China".


Please translate 他听到我们这边有水瓶掉下去 砰地一声 （正好是停车场出口 万一有车就很危险）他马上和保安指出来 小朋友好乖哦 他听到我们这边有水瓶掉下去 砰地一声
（正好是停车场出口 万一有车就很危险）他马上和保安指出来 小朋友好乖哦

He heard bottle fell down ( ;$##? (I can't trans it)
He and bodyguard pointed out??

I'm not going to do a word-to-word translation. The original text seems like a piece of transcripts of someone talking.

In the parenthesis, where you can't translate, it is to describe where the accident happened - it is right at the exit of the parking garage. It can be very dangerous if there is a car drive by

他马上和保安指出来 is "he immediately told(or point it out to) the security guard". 和 is not "and" here, but "to".

小朋友好乖哦 tells me that in the previous description, 他 is a 小朋友. This sentence is opinion from the person who told this story.


What's wrong with the four highlighted parts of this foreign-written Chinese passage about campus bells? My friend on WeChat sent a funny example of foreigners writing Chinese (here).  Here's one image from that site (click for larger image):

I transcribe the passage below (I tried to make sure I copied it correctly), and I offer my translation (which might not be accurate).  I presume there's something wrong with the underlined phrases.  I'm not fully clear on this though; I add my comments below.
Question: What is wrong with the four underlined phrases, and what should it say instead?

一个提案
Yīgè tí'àn
A Proposal
星期日
Xīngqírì
Sunday
本班同学凑集款子买一具钟，作为毕业纪念品案。
Běn bān tóngxué còují kuǎn zi mǎi yī jù zhōng, zuòwéi bìyèjìniànpǐn àn
This class's classmates gather money together to buy a bell, as a graduation momento.

Google Translate suggests 筹集 (chóují; collect money) instead of 凑集 (còují).

是前两班的同学修的，校园里的茅亭是去年毕业的一班同学造的。
Shì qián liǎng bān de tóngxué xiūde, xiàoyuán lǐ de máotíng shì qùnián bìyè de yī bān tóngxué zào de.
This is what the students in the first two classes made; the campus's pavilion was made by the students who graduated last year.

Here 前两班 is a bit confusing, e.g., maybe it means "two classes prior" instead.  I don't know what's wrong with 茅亭 (máotíng) = pavilion.

这些都表示毕业生对于母校的依恋，现在轮到我们毕业了，我们当然也要留一件纪念品。
Zhèxiē dōu biǎoshì bìyè shēng duìyú mǔxiào de yīliàn, xiànzài lún dào wǒmen bìyèle, wǒmen dāngrán yě yào liú yī jiàn jìniànpǐn.
These both indicate the graduates' attachment to their almamater, and now that it's our turn to graduate, we, of course, also want to leave a momento.

I'm not sure what's wrong with "这些都表示" simply meaning "these both express".

我们学校里上课下课都摇铃，我们的意思是买一具钟来代替铃。
Wǒmen xuéxiào lǐ shàngkè xiàkè dōu yáo líng, wǒmen de yìsi shì mǎi yī jù zhōng lái dàitì líng.
We ring a bell at the start and end of class on our campus, we mean to buy a bell instead.

It looks like 具 is the wrong measure word for 钟 = bell.

钟
Zhōng
Bell

Google Translate suggests 筹集 (chóují; collect money) instead of 凑集 (còují).

凑集 means a 'group of people footing the bill together'

筹集 means 'raise funds'

  Here 前两班 is a bit confusing

From the context, '前两班' in "是前两班的同学修的" seems to refer to "previous two school years of the same class"   It should write " 是前两屆畢業的本班同学修的 (built by the graduated students of this class from the previous two school years)

  I don't know what's wrong with 茅亭 (máotíng) = pavilion.

'茅亭' is a pavilion with a thatch roof. There's nothing wrong with using '茅亭' here.

  I'm not sure what's wrong with "这些都表示" simply meaning "these both express".

'都' here means 'all'. The sentence "这些都表示" means "All these indicate"

  It looks like 具 is the wrong measure word for 钟 = bell.

摇铃 is small handheld or hanging bell
钟 (or 吊钟) is a bigger bell that you ring it by hitting it with a mallet.  usually sit on a table or hanging in a frame, but not handheld

Classifier for 钟 like this should be '口' as in "一口钟",


What is a polite way to ask "may I ask who is speaking?" A man I don't know calls me and starts talking to me in Chinese. All is fine, except I don't know who he is. I sense I'm not the person he's looking for. How do I ask who he is without being too blunt: "你是誰?"

There are several ways to say it:

Polite:

请问，你是哪位?

Qǐng wèn (May I ask), nǐ shì (you are) nǎ (which) wèi (identifier for people/position)

May I ask, who is this?

您好， 您找谁？

Nín hǎo (hello), nín (polite form of you) zhǎo (looking) sheí (who)?

Hello, whom are you looking for?

喂，请问您是谁？

Wei ("hi"- typical way people answer the phone), qǐng wèn nín shì sheí?

Hi, who is this please (..., 请问 is "please". 请问 ,... is "excuse me") ?

Impolite:

喂？ 哪位？

Wèi nǎ wèi

Hi, who is this...?

找谁呀？

Zhǎo sheí ya ("ya" is a participle equivalent to 啊 "ah" expressing surprise or doubt)?

Who are you lookin' for?

These are the ones I typically hear... although there are more.


What's the meaning of 登假 in old daoist scriptures like Zhuang Zi? In the old daoist text Zhuang Zi, we see 登假 at least twice in the Inner Chapters (5.1 and 6.2).

In the first part, it gives the meaning of departure and "going up" (to isolation in the mountains? To the heavens above?). In the second part, it gives the meaning of ascension, of reaching a higher goal (grasp the Dao).

I also saw some references to the death of an emperor or king.

I know 登 means ascend, climb, but 假 means fake, suppose or vacation. What's the contribution of 假 to the meaning observed in the Zhuang Zi translations, or even to the death of a king?

《康熙字典》
又《集韻》《正韻》與格同，至也。《易·萃卦》王假有廟。

from Kangxi Dicitionary: the 13th meaning of 假

It pronounces as 格, means 'arrive'. Example sentence from Yi Cuigua: The King arrives at the ancestral temple.

^ref


How to say something "gets old fast"? Describing something as 'getting old fast' is a very common phrase in English to describe something that as tedious, but it has the nuance that the thing may not be boring initially. Is there a natural equivalent in Chinese?

There is an equivalent in another perspective, and that is

三分钟热度

which refers to a person who has a passion that quickly dies off, like

他对学二胡就是三分钟热度


Explanation usage of 得 and 地 Can someone explain me exactly when I have to use these two words?
They are both pronunced "de", but I found some difficulties understanding why should I use 得 (or shouldn‘t) in some senteceses.

地 , to me, seems more like a word used to make another become an adverb, but I‘m not totally sure.

Chinese Grammar Info provides an excellent write up on the three distinct de particles. See the site for the full article.

The main points are:

(的) de as the possessor or causing the possessive function:

  我的书

  wǒ de shū

  my book

  这是你的书。

  Zhè shì nǐ de shū.

  This is your book.

(地) de/di as the ly suffix

  慢慢地

  mànmande

  slowly

  他很快地吃饭。

  Tā hěn kuài de chīfàn.

  He eats quickly.

(得) de as a potential complement

  做得到

  zuò de dào

  can do

  我只有戴眼镜的话才看得清楚。

  Wǒ zhǐyǒu dài yǎnjìng dehuà cái kàn de qīngchu.

  I can only see clearly if I wear my glasses.

UPDATES (per request in comments):

More on 得. The article further states that this version of de relates to two types of complements: potential complements (which indicate that the attached verb has potential to have the action happen) and degree complements (speaks to the degree/amount that a potential verb may happen).

Potential complement

  听得懂

  tīng de dǒng

  can understand (from listening)

(and conversely)

  听不懂

  tīng bu dǒng

  can’t understand (from listening)

Degree Complement

Note the basic structure where the verb is followed by a description that includes the degree complements; very well, badly, very tall.

(basic structure)

  [verb] 得 [description]

(a few more samples)

  你说得非常好。

  Nǐ shuō de fēicháng hǎo.

  You said it very well.

  他做得不好。

  Tā zuò dé bu hǎo.

  He did it badly.

  她长得很高。

  Tā zhǎng de hěn gāo.

  She has grown very tall.

Beyond it's use as a particle, the article states:

  得 as dé When 得 is pronounced dé in second tone, it’s a verb meaning
  “to get” or “to acquire”.

  得 as děi When 得 is pronounced děi in third tone, it’s a modal verb
  meaning “must” or “have to”.


What's up with this mixed simplifed and traditional album cover? The cover of 李剑鸿 (Li Jianhong)'s latest album has mixed simplified and traditional character scripts:

The extracted text:

  李剑鸿
  望海崗

It's weird. Usually on his album covers his name is written in traditional characters.

For example, here are some of his previous album covers:

Everything is in traditional.

Is there any reason a graphic designer would chose a mixture of simplified and traditional for this project?

There is no Simplified Chinese in the first image.

The PRC straightened the strokes of some cursive characters and defined them as new characters. This kind of definition is nonsense; a Latin-alphabet equivalent would be to make up a new character which straightens the curvature of

and call it a "different character" from F.

The proper transcription of that text is

李劍鴻
望海崗

where we recognise that the writing is in Traditional Chinese semi-cursive or cursive:

The extraction you've provided in the question is not a consistent transcription, but actually just finding the closest Ming typeface character encoded in Unicode with character forms restricted to Chinese-language fonts. If we don't restrict ourselves to Chinese-language fonts, for example, your transcription of 「海」 would look like

which is the Japanese shape instead. Even though 「海」 highly resembles the Japanese standard, we're not claiming that the artist is using Shinjitai, right? These are just semi-cursive handwriting forms.


Why is 弄 (nòng) in 他终于弄明白了? I found the following sentence in a grade three 语文 school book in China (transcript).

  他终于弄明白了，这块大石头是从遥远的秦岭被冰川带到这里来的。
  [My translation] He finally understood, this big rock is from the distant Qinling glacier and lead here.

Question：Why is 弄 (nòng) in 他终于弄明白了?

As I see it, 他终于明白了 (without 弄) would have exactly the same meaning.

弄 = "to make/ to get"
e.g.
干净= clean
弄干净 = make/ get (it) clean
错 = wrong
弄错 = get (it) wrong
清楚 = clear
弄清楚 = make (it) clear

他终于明白了 - he finally understands
明白 (understand) is a verb here

~

他终于弄明白了 - he finally figured out
弄明白 = make (himself) understand = figures out


Can the 的 particle ever function without "nominalizing"? From my answer in What is the meaning of 的 in “有一天你会明白的”? and according to Charles N. Li, Sandra A. Thompson - Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar, I believed the function of the particle 的 from a grammar perspective is always that of the nominalization particle, i.e, it allows that a verb, a verb phrase, a sentence or a part of a sentence to function as a noun phrase.
In the other answers it was argued that when 的 occurs as a final particle, it denotes affirmation or intensifies the tone and that 的 does not actually nominalize anything. However, it seems to me this meaning might still be compatible with a nominalization function from a grammar perspective (even though it might not be completely straightforward to realize). The same situation occurs for example with the 是...的 construction, when its meaning is to emphasize details in the past but from a grammar point of view (according to the book I referenced) it is still a nominalization.
Question: From a grammar perspective, does the particle 的 function in this (or any other) situation without nominalizing?
In order to justify your reasonings, please provide some (technical) references.

You can find the answer in 百度百科 using the key word 语气词 in Baidu search.  Here is the quote relevant to your question:

普通话里最基本的语气词实际上只有六个：的、了、呢、吧、吗、啊。其他一些，有的用得较少，有的是因为语气词连用而产生连读合音的结果，例如“啦”是“了啊”的合音。这六个语气词根据在句子里出现的先后次序可以分为三组，

It has a table listed all the usages of those 语气词.  I can't copy the table from my mobile device. But it has this example 我不会忘记你们的。to illustrate the usage of the 语气词 的.
It's written in Chinese though.  You can try to understand it using a translation tool.


How to translate "黑科技" into English？ As titled, how to translate "黑科技" in to english?

Is there any translation better than "fictional technology"?

"Black Technology"

It is a role of Japanese light novels Full Metal Panic! .

  黑科技（Black Technology）——是指倾听者所拥有，但是非人类自力研发；凌驾于人类现有的科技之上的知识。

Black Technology is obtained from the Whispered who is another role of Full Metal Panic! . It is so knowledgeable that it overtops the existing technology of human being.

Nowadays, "黑科技" is often used to describe the companies which have unbelievable technology, such as Sony.


What are the tones for 不 and 一 in the expression 不一定? 不 and 一 both have the property of changing tone to suit the tone of the following character.

This phenomenon is called the tonal sandhi.

What would the correct/standard tone combination for this expression be?

My thoughts are: the 4th tone on ding causes the yi to take a 2nd tone, which causes bu to take a 4th tone.

4-2-4

Is this correct?

For some reason 2-2-4 sounds ok to me too.
Are there other variations on this?

Yes, 4-2-4 is correct. According to the sandhi rule of 一

  在四声前边要读二声

i.e. 一 should be pronounced in the 2nd tone before the 4th tone.

And the sandhi rule of 不

  “不”在一二三声前面不变调，读四声

i.e. 不 doesn't change the tone (the 4th tone) before the 1st/2nd/3rd tone.

BTW: 2-2-4 sounds weird to me.

Reference: 一字与不字的变调问题


連連 Trying to understand the double word (叠词 or 叠字) usage In another answer someone helped me understand the meaning of:

今年一定是好事連連

At that time, I was having trouble getting the context of 連連. But then I saw both 好事連連 (good fortune) and 好运连连 (Good Luck).

When I saw these at first I thought of idioms. When double words are put together, is there always a special meaning? Are there any rules to using double words?

When I saw these at first I thought of idioms. When double words are put together, is there always a special meaning? Are there any rules to using double words?

As a complementary to @user3306356 's answer,
there are some variations of 叠词 (I couldn't cover all of them, but I will list out some for your reference :) )

1. Verb

The syntax would be AA(n.), for example:

吃吃東西 : Eat something

畫畫圖畫 : Draw something

2. Adjective （BAA）

Usually in a form of (n.)aa or (adj.)aa

Let's consider 紅彤彤 and 白雪雪

紅 has the meaning of RED, however 彤 in 紅彤彤 refers to 丹砂 (a red-color ink), which decorates the adjective 紅(RED) itself.

For 白雪雪, 雪 means snow, which gives 白雪雪 a meaning of "Snowy white".

There are more than one way to describe a single colour in different context, such as 白茫茫,白皙晢,白花花,白蒼蒼,白皚皚 etc.

3. Adjective/Adverb （AA / AABB）

We can consider words in form of AA / AABB as 疊詞 as well,

For example, 重重疊疊 (Piles over piles) and 彎彎曲曲 (Curvy, in twist and turns)

4. Adjective/Adverb （ABAB / ABAC）

In Chinese language, we also consider the form ABAB and ABAC as 疊詞.

Such as 百發百中, 自由自在, however most of them are idioms. We often use double words to emphasize the story itself.

5. Onomatopoeia

Sometimes, 疊詞 are just used as onomatopoeia (word that phonetically imitates the sound itself)

潺潺, pronounced as 'san san', which imitates the sound of flowing water.
淙淙, reads 'cong cong' also refers to the sound of water

Extra

There is a famous poem《聲聲慢》by 李清照(Li Qingzhao), a poet from Song dynasty which starts with 14 words of 疊詞, is a masterpeice of double words.

  尋尋覓覓， 冷冷清清， 淒淒慘慘戚戚

Some people tried to translate the lines into English:

  尋尋覓覓， I seek in vain, I search in vain;

  冷冷清清， Chilled to the bone, all alone;

  淒淒慘慘戚戚。 In pain, in tears, unconsolable.

Finally, my answer

So, where does 好事連連 fall?

好事 means "Good things",

連連 means "Again and again" or simply "repeatedly"

It's in a (n.)AA format, which means literally "Good things happens repeatedly" (It's really a good fortune).


Why is it written LIU in Pinyin, when there's clearly an O sound? Does anybody know why this decision was made in pinyin, about not writing any hint of the sound /o/ in liu, instead of writing something like liou or liow ?
The first reaction of any newcomer to Chinese, and also, non-Chinese speakers, is to say lee-oo instead of lee-ow.
Edit: some arbitrary decision seems to have been made by choosing you instead of yu, but with other initials, the choice was: liu, niu, jiu, etc. when the phoneme /ou/ in all cases is the same and one could reasonably expect them to be written the same, or at least to be a good reason as to why it isn't the case.
Edit2:
Happens something similar to the final -ui which is pronounced -uei

The same happens with other characters with the same "finals":

就 - Jiù
扭 - Niǔ
etc...

From this page of Chinesepod.com:

  Mandarin's iu sound can confuse you because what is written is actually an abbreviated form of "iou," a straightforward combination of the vowel sounds i and ou. Thus the iu syllable sounds similar to the "yo" of the English word "yo-yo," with a bit more "oo" sound on the end. It is written as you when it stands alone, and as iu when it is preceded by a consonant (for example, diu, niu, liu).

Emphasis and bold are mine.

Edit: I think that the reason why we have "you" and "liu" is due to some important facts:

Chinese syllables are all made of initials + finals. Unlike other languages, not all sounds in Chinese can be both initials and finals. For example the [s] sound never occurs at the end of a syllable in Chinese, but it does at the beginning, etc.

For this reason, we cannot have a stand-alone final1. Finals that stand by themselves need an initial anyway, and, apart from "iou-you", this happens to other finals as well:

iou —> you
uen —> wen
iao —> yao
u —> wu
etc...

At this point we could write "liou", but like it has been mentioned, this could have been done for a reason of "economizing/saving space". This doesn't happen symmetrically to all syllables, but considering Pinyin is an "artificial" system for romanizations, many choices could be just arbitrary. In any case, if I find some other claim that explains more in depth, I'll make sure to add it.

1: This is not true for all the finals. Check the link for "finals" to see which ones can stand by themselves, under the column Final-only form.


Can 宁和 be used as a real name I'm creating a half Japanese half Chinese character and I'm trying to figure out whether or not 宁和 can be used as a name. I'm also wondering if it means to aspire to peace and is read a "ninghe".

宁和 can be used as a real Chinese name. 宁 is a common family name and 和 is totally ok for a given name.

When used as a family name, 宁 pronounced as ning4. With such pronunciation, it also can mean "rather", like 宁死不屈(rather die than surrender).

When pronounced as ning2, it means quiet/peace.

To be clear, people will say ning4和 but won't understand the name as "rather peace". Usually, this name will be considered as "quiet and peace". It is a valid name but won't have the "aspire" to peace.

All the above is for Chinese name, not quite sure if it is allowed to only have 2 characters in Japanese name.


What is the usage with these names? The TV movies 流星花園 made in 2001 and 2008 have characters named 道明寺,  花澤類, and  藤堂靜, who are usually called 寺, 類, and 靜.  I think those are just the second syllables of the two-syllable given names.  Am I wrong about that?

I believe I know what is happening.  These are families that continue using part of names. So 道明寺 has an older sister 道明莊 and mother 道明楓.  So I guess people call 道明寺 just 寺 because that is the unique part of his name in the family.  But, is that right?

I guess it is sort of like generation names (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_name).  But in these families the names are not just for one generation, and girls and boys both get them.  Am I wrong?  Or is that what they are doing?

道明寺, 花澤類, and 藤堂靜

All Japanese names:

道明 (Michiaki) is family name, 寺(ji/ Tera) is first name

花澤 (Hanazawa) is family name, 類(Rui) is first name

類 sound strange in Chinese name, but it might have been Japanese 平假名 "るい" translated to 漢字. When a Japanese name contains 平假名 instead of Kanji, The Chinese translator would choose a Kanji with that pronunciation, and they usually have more than one choice.
Take るい (Rui) for example, it can be one of the following Kanji: 塁 涙 累 類 泪 壘 羸 縲 瘰 誄

累 and 泪 are female names; 壘 and 類 can be male names

藤堂(Todo) is family name, 靜 (Shizuka) is first name

  I think those are just the second syllables of the two-syllable given names.

If a Chinese name is made up of a one character last name and a two characters first name, you can use the entire first name or just the last character to address that person.

Example:

You can address "劉志雄" as "志雄"

It is not wrong to address "劉志雄" as "雄", but it is very informal. (use only to people who are very close to you)

In most cases, when addressing someone with his first name , we would add name prefix 阿，(as in 阿雄)


tones when singing a chinese song? if tones are so important in chinese as to even distinguish shades of meaning, how can a chinese sing a song? in music every syllable has its own note/tone, so when we sing a song, we must disregard the appropriate tone and apply the musical note to that chinese character... for example we must say "zai"(in...at...) with a falling pitch, but what if the note in the song necessitates us to pronounce "zai" with rising pitch????...

Simple answer:

Sinosplice

Tones In Chinese Songs

  I’ve been asked a number of times: if Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, what happens when you sing in Mandarin? Well, the answer is the melody takes over and the tones are ignored. Pretty simple.

A graphic representation of tones spoken vs. sung in Mandarin [also from Sinosplice]:

Sometimes, though I think, if you listen closely a lot of people are included to sing the tone even though they don't need to.


Modern Standard Mandarin equivalent of the 倒...不... and 半...不... constructs? I've seen this mostly as dialect usage, but I'm wondering if there's a Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) equivalent.
倒...不... - (seemingly) neither A nor B

倒男不女
倒文不武
倒明不白

半...不... - (seemingly) half A not B

半死不活
半大不小
半生不熟

Do similar constructs exist in MSM?

I only know [不...不...]  and [半...不] , never heard of [ 倒...不...]

Example:

不男不女 (not a man nor a woman)

半男不女 (not fully a man, not quite a woman)


Meaning of the name Didi Chuxing/滴滴出行？ Apparently the successful taxi app 滴滴出行 was originally called 嘀嘀打车. What is the meaning of 嘀嘀 here and why was it considered acceptable to change 嘀嘀 to 滴滴?

why was it considered acceptable to change 嘀嘀 to 滴滴?

This news (嘀嘀打车改名了! 正式更名为滴滴打车) has an explanation about it.

  更名是公司长远战略发展的需要，“滴滴”较“嘀嘀”更具有文化内涵及寓意。【滴】是水滴下落的清脆声，有着滴水成河的凝聚意义。

According to its official 微博, the name was changed for the needs of long-term strategic development, 滴滴 has more cultural connotation and moral than 嘀嘀. 滴 means the clear and melodious sound of water dropping, has the cohesion meaning of "many drops of water make a river".

This news (嘀嘀打车改名为“滴滴”) has another explanation about it.

  依据小桔科技官方的解读，更名为“滴滴打车”，一是取与象声词“嘀嘀”的谐音，二是取“滴水之恩当涌泉相报”之意。

According to the official story, the name was changed because (1) 滴滴 has the same pronunciation with the onomatopoeia 嘀嘀; (2) takes the meaning from 滴水之恩当涌泉相报 (drop the boon of the water, be to flow out spring to report mutually).

  业内分析认为，滴滴改名也是出于商标侵权避嫌考虑。

According to the industry analysis, the name was changed to avoid trademark infringement trouble.

(BTW: 滴滴打车 still had trademark infringement trouble even after changed the name. See 改了名字也侵权 滴滴打车再次成为被告.)

  What is the meaning of 嘀嘀 here

As the above statement mentioned, 嘀嘀 is 象声词(onomatopoeia), I guess it came from the voice of car horns.


Is this a rare/variant character (combining 米 and 団), or not really a Chinese character? This character is on the label of a riceball sold at 7-11 in Taipei. I believe this kind of riceball is originally Japanese.

It seems to be some kind of variant of 糰 / 团 but is actually composed of 米 on the left plus 団 on the right. But I can't find it anywhere on the Internet or in Unicode so far.

Is it a known variant, or is it possibly normally considered a Japanese character? On Wiktionary, 団 is listed only as a Japanese shinjitai character. (Shinjitai is a simplified character made in Japan.)

Or maybe it's some kind of fake character made up by 7-11, like a trademark?

糰 is 米 + 團. 團 simplified is 团. 团 has a variant character 団.

Thus 米 + 団 = 糰.

団 itself is a variant chacter of 糰.

On the other hand it could just be a clever way of writing 米團 = 米团 = rice ball.

Edit: It is written 御飯團 in all instances I can find regarding the ad. It is a private/funny simplification that has no formal recognition.


how would you translate 在我找到工作之前 ? What is the function of 在 here? I don't understand what 在 means here?

[.....] 之前 = before [.....]
[我找到工作] 之前 = before [I found a job]
~
在 [.....] 之前 = at before [.....]
[在 (我找到工作) 之前] = [at (the time) before (我找到工作) ]
在我找到工作之前 = At the time before I found a job


Why is the 多 in 每个月150个多小时 misplaced? I have a new teacher, and we've been communicating on WeChat.  I wrote this:

我大部分时间在自学。目前我每一天花5个多小时在学习，包括周末（每个月150个多小时），不过……

She says that 每个月150个多小时 is incorrect and it should be 每个月150多个小时.  Googling “100多个小时” (2+ million hits 101 hits) and “100个多小时” (16 hits) indicates this is indeed an error of some kind.
Question: Why is the 多 in 每个月150个多小时 misplaced?
I searched multiple questions on this topic: 1. Does 多 always come after the measure word？ 2. How to correctly use "多" to say "more than"? 3. Can you still use "Number + MW + 多" when the Number can be more than one MW larger?  I didn't find the answer, and sometimes putting the 多 after the measure word seems correct (e.g. 四块多美金 in this answer).  I don't get it.

I made a plot using Baidu search hits (e.g. “150多个小时” and “150个多小时”) comparing n多个小时 vs. n个多小时 (note the non-linear x-axis):

This is perhaps why I'm so confused about this.
I'm starting to feel like the logic here is that 多 represents an unspecified least significant digit.  So something like 三块五 becomes 三块多, whereas 三十五块 becomes 三十多块.  I'm not sure if this is correct.

Think of 多 after a measure word as "adding some more to the previous number, without making it to the next number".
5个多小时 = 5 hours plus some, but not quite 6 hours = between 5 and 6 hours
Note that 多 follows MW 个. It means between 五個小時 and 六個小時
150多个小时 = 150 hours plus some, but not quite 160 hours = between 150 and 160 hours
Here note that 多 follows MW 十 in 一百五十. It means between 一百五十個小時 and 一百六十個小時.
四块多美金 = between 4 and 5 USD
四十多块美金 = between 40 and 50 USD


How do I translate 黄金鸡柳咖喱饭 (huángjīn jīliǔ gālí fàn), which means something like "gold chicken willow curry with rice"? I'm trying to translate the menu from one of the cafeterias on campus to help international students.  I'm stuck on this one:

  黄金鸡柳咖喱饭
  huángjīn jīliǔ gālí fàn

Assuming I've transcribed it correctly, it says:

黄金 (huángjīn) = gold
鸡 (jī) = chicken (used as an abbreviation for the meat 鸡肉)
柳 (liǔ) = willow (translation at YouDao)
咖喱 (gālí) = curry
饭 (fàn) = rice

So I literally translate it to:

  gold chicken willow curry with rice

I don't think this is great.  Two things make no sense to me: (a) "gold" and (b) "willow".

Question: How do I translate 黄金鸡柳咖喱饭?

Edit: I ordered this dish.  Here's a photo of it:

My Chinese friend said that the chicken rings in the back are not really 鸡柳.

黄金 (huáng jīn) = golden (refers to the color)

鸡柳  (jī liǔ) = chicken fillet (柳 could mean finger size pieces or a steak of chicken,

牛柳 ='beef fillet'

咖喱 (gālí) = curry

饭 (fàn) = rice

  黄金 鸡柳 咖喱饭

"golden chicken fillet on curry rice" (if the golden color refer to the fried or baked chicken)
"golden curry with chicken fillet on rice" (if the golden color refer to the curry)

I have to see the picture of the dish to decide which it is.

Since there are  different color of curry , e.g. yellow curry and green curry, 'golden curry' is just another word for "黄咖喱" (yellow curry)

To make golden brown colored chicken, the chicken has to be fried/ baked with skin on or breaded)


Best translation for “confused”: 迷惑，困惑，弄混，搞亂，搞混？ This page lists multiple entries for confused:

https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php

What's the best translation for confused in these contexts:

1) English: "What you just said confused me."

2) English: "I was confused by what she did."

3) Are there general differences among  迷惑，困惑，弄混，搞亂，搞混 (e.g., some are more formal, some are for specific contexts)?

4) For the preceding answers, are there any differences between Mandarin and Cantonese?

迷惑 and 困惑 can both be verb or adjective

迷 (deceive)
惑 (confuse)
迷惑 = to confuse (deceive someone and make him confused)

~

困 (trap)
惑(confuse)
困惑 = to confuse (trap someone in a confusion)

We use 迷惑 for "to confuse" to emphasize the deception part
Example: 用妖言迷惑群眾 (妖言惑眾) - use lies and rumors to deceive and confuse the public
We use 困惑 for "to confuse"  to emphasize the trapping part
Example: 各人不同的口供困惑了調查人員 - Everyone’s different stories confused investigators (trapped them into a confusion with different stories- but there may or may not be deceptions)

弄混，搞亂，搞混 are just different versions of shortened form of "弄/搞 (make-v) 混亂  (confusing-adj)"
e.g. 搞亂局面 = 使局面混亂 (make situation confusing)

~

1) English: "What you just said confused me."

她剛才說的話(搞得)我(混亂了)
~

2) English: "I was confused by what she did."

我被她剛才說的話(搞得混亂了)
~

4) For the preceding answers, are there any differences between Mandarin and Cantonese?

The grammar are the same, the terms may be different.
"你剛才說的話搞得我混亂了" (M)
"你頭先講嘅嘢搞到我好混亂" (C)
"我被你剛才說的話搞得混亂了" (M)
"我被你頭先講嘅嘢搞到好混亂" (C)


All this for the low price of I want to list several features of a product and then at the end I want to finish with:

all this just for the minimum price or all this for the minimum price

My best attempt was 获得这一切只需要最低的价格.

Which is kind of similar to something like:

all this for just $29.99

or

all this for only $29.99

or equally

all this just for the minimum price of $29.99

I use the term 'minimum price' in my sentence because it makes sense in it's context.

I'd be interested in the Chinese version of the first sentence most importantly, but versions of all the others would be interesting as well.

I guess the title for this could also be all this for just/just for..

EDIT: If all this just for the minimum price seems weird then simply add the price on the end all this just for the minimum price of $2.99.

获得这一切只需要最低的价格 sounds very unnatural. you can simply say 只要$29.99 or 只需$29.99) which contains the meaning of minimum price without mentioning it. To be clear about "all this", I think you can use 以上(all above) or 以下 (all below) or 全部(all)

If your Chinese version referring to Chinese currency, the dollar sign is ¥.


What is the role of 方 in 貽笑大方？ Consulting a dictionary on the meaning of 貽 makes the meaning of the expression rather clear. I would say “give (others cause for) great laughter”, “become laughingstock”. Yet I have trouble understanding 方。 The only function I can guess is that of a classifier. But there are two problems.

Firstly, it occurs in somewhat literary Chinese, which, I am given to understand, does not use classifiers.

  清·李汝珍《鏡花緣》第17回：“才女才說學士大夫論及反切尚切瞠目無語，何況我們不過略知皮毛，豈敢亂談，貽笑大方！

On the other hand the use of 我 perhaps shows it is not really classical, but a hybrid literary Chinese?

A lesser problem is that none of my Pleco dictionaries （PLC, TL, CC, UNI) list 方 as a classifier for 笑。 Google search of 一方笑 doesn’t remotely support it as a classifier.

the 國語辭典 listed: 貽笑大方 is derived from 見笑大方

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000093396

then 見笑大方 is derived from 莊子﹒秋水

http://ctext.org/zhuangzi/floods-of-autumn/zh

  吾長見笑於大方之家

it's a comment made by 河伯 (uncle river), when he reached the sea.

again, the 國語辭典 explained "大方之家" as "懂得大道理的人" (~ experts)

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000040658

and "大方" as "有名的大家"

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000040654

"方" is not a classifier in this usage. as i "google", some remarks of "方" in literatures of yore were "道" (tao, the proper way).


Need a last character I have this character who is a triplet but I am having a hard time figuring out what the last character of her name should be.
So far her other triplet sisters are named 任子婷 and 任子婧, and I wanted her last character to have a similar meaning to their's.
(Some of her personality traits, if it helps>>She's smart, respectful and is very leader like.)

congratulation
“婷” & “婧” are both 女部英韻, so, the third one, i would suggest:
婛 (u+5a5b)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=婛
娙 (u+5a19)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=娙
婈 (u+5a48)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=婈
姈 (u+59c8)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=姈
娉 (u+5a09)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=娉
have fun :)


Why is 很早 after the verb in 我起床很早? I came across the following sentence:

今天我起床很早。
Jīntiān wǒ qǐchuáng hěn zǎo.
Today I wake up very early.

I am confused about 很早 appearing after the verb. I think here 很早 (very early) indicates the time of the action, so I would expect to follow the structure Time + Subject + Verb:

今天很早我起床。

Otherwise, I could also understand 很早 as a degree complement, and follow the following the structure Subj + Verb + Object + Verb + 得 + Complement:

今天我起床起得很早。

Why sentence 1. is correct?

I'd take 今天我起床很早 as the shorthand of 今天我起床起得很早.
To me, 今天我起床很早 isn't my favourite sentence.  The succinct version doesn't necessarily mean "more idiomatic". Some grammar pedants might even frown at 今天我起床很早 because they might take issue with the omission.
Personally, I usually say: 我今天起得很早，我今天很早就起床了 or 我今天一大早就起床了.


What's the correct word order and why? Should it be 红中国茶 or 中国红茶？ So, since 红 is a verb, it should precede any other attributive.
Still, if I Google both phrases, it seems that the latter form is prevalent.

红茶, like 绿茶, (green tea), are particular varieties of tea.
The "red" and "green" do not standalone as verbs describing color but must be compounded with "tea" to indicate a particular variety of tea.
Thus red and green are not verbs but must be read together with "tea" forming compound nouns.
There is therefore only 中国红茶, (Chinese red tea), i.e. a variety of tea popularly known as 红茶, (which is actually black, but who would drink a tea called 黑茶, "black tea"?, which figuratively could mean something "bad" in the tea)
There is no such thing as 红中国茶, meaning "red Chinese tea", which in this case, the 红 would be a verb. You could call it that if you could find a type of tea from China that is actually red in color. But then it would not be "红茶" anymore.


新华字典 as CSV download available? Here I can download the CC-CEDICT database, which backs the MDBG project's web site, as an CSV file. Personally, I am a fan of the great work of the MDBG project.

Now, I am evaluating dictionaries for a project which creates statistics for 普通话 texts like counting frequencies of words, characters, radicals, etc. The MDBG database maps characters to the 214 Kangxi radicals similar to the Kangxi dictionary, while the 新华字典 defines only 189 radicals. So, as input for the tool I'd prefer a database with specific 新华字典 contents or else the algorithm will count hits for radicals that don't exist in the 新华字典.

Does anybody know whether there is a legal resource available for download for the 新华字典 and/or the 现代汉语大词典, similar to the CC-CEDICT database?

Any hint would be highly appreciated.

First, there is no legal source to download both of them.
More specific, they're content of copyright. The Commercial Press has made great effort to ban online version to protect its interest. So you can hardly find the website which is providing PDF or other format.

However, there's another way, but you'd pay a little money(~$2). Visit the greatest online market in China, Taobao(Taobao.com), search for the sellers who provide the  electronic version book finding service. You can ask them on Ali Wangwang.

As far as I know, there are no latest version(6) available and most of downloadable are in PDF format. Some claim they're, but actually not. You may try this, it contains a mdb database which is 100MB, it's easy to convert it into CSV. I haven't tested whether it is the content of 现代汉语词典, because I'm using Linux OS.
For 新华字典, there are too many apps named as the name. You can search for some android app, unpack apk installer, often you should find a large file in it, and often it's in SQLite 3 format.

All the methods I mentioned above are not tested, you'd better carefully try them.
I also tried to find such files but I gave up because it's hard to deal with, both in legal and technology.
I finally selected an alternative, HanDian. They provided a series of contents and tools for free. Part of them can be found here. Though it's chm format, but to organize the content just a matter of extract and regexp, no any OCR or any other things involved.


How do you say "we don't have any common interests"? I was trying to say this to someone and it came out "我跟你们没兴趣", which I can tell isn't right.

To clarify, common interests here refer to personal interests or interests in activities, rather than shared goals in the context of business partnership or political alliances.

"interest" has multiple related meanings and that's why Ghost's answer struggles. OP does provide some context but not enough.

Under the context of personal interest, common interest will be 共同的兴趣爱好 something we both like.

Under the context eg "The common interest between US and China" that will indeed be 共同的利益.

(In a constructed case, "my bank doesn't have common interests with his bank" this can even mean 一样的利息)