了解, 理解, 讲解 usage in the same sentence This is from a native speaker:  完整讲解请至官网收看.
Would 了解 and 理解 be suitable to be used in place of 讲解?  for example:
完整了解请至官网收看
完整理解请至官网收看

No, neither 了解 nor 理解 fit the bill. Can't really think of a good substitute.
完整讲解视频请至官网收看。
complete lecture video please to official website watch
Please go to the/our official website to watch the complete video.


Why 天 is chosen for counting days instead of 日 in Mandarin? In Classical Chinese, the proper word for counting days is 日. In Southern Chinese languages, 日 is more prevalent in counting days. Why 天 is chosen for counting days in Mandarin instead of 日?

Edit

More, in Mandarin it is quite usual to replace 日 with 天 for some words related to day. For example:

星期日 禮拜日 (Sunday) to 星期天 禮拜天
明日 (Tomorrow) to 明天
改日 (another day) to 改天
日日 (Everyday) to 天天
當日 (At that day) to 當天

Interesting question. Is there a preference when it comes to using 天 for 日?

In my opinion, there are no such a strict rules when it comes 天vs日.(I was born and raised in southern China, lived in the North for several years. I speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka)

Basically, 周天and周日, 星期日and星期天,明日and明天, 改日and改天 are all equivalent. But why people prefer one to another?

There're some reasons:

In some south-western dialects, 日and一 have similar pronunciation. So people prefer use 周天than周日。
Speaking in rhyme. 天tian1, 日ri4. So in some cases, it sounds weird to use天, but in another case, it sounds weird to use 日。That's depends.


Using 反切 to determine readings of characters in modern varieties of Chinese From my understanding, 反切 is presented in the format XY 切, where a pronunciation of a character is determined from the inital of X and the rime of Y. However, there are still some points that are unclear to me I hope others can help clarify.

It seems that sometimes, the tone from Y does not seem to match with the end product. For instance, 東 has the 反切 of 德紅切, but based on the above principal, I would expect the reading to be dong2. However, the actual reading is dong1. Why does this happen? I'm assuming it has something to do with what the tones of these characters were in Middle Chinese, and that they shifted in modern varieties of Chinese. If that is the case, is there straightforward or general mapping of tones in Middle Chinese to tones in Modern Chinese?
There are also some instances where the initial of X and the rime of Y don't create valid syllables. 浹, 子協切, would produce some sound like zie2, even though that isn't a valid syllable in Mandarin. What happens in cases like these? Wiktionary also states that the expected sound is jie (no tone listed), when the character is pronounced jia1 (PRC) or jia2 (ROC). Is there an explanation for cases like these where the expected sound is different from the current pronunciation?
Do the answers from the above two points also apply to other varieties of Chinese?

Sound shift, although an important factor, is not the primary reason that Fanqie doesn't fully work for determining the sound of characters in modern varieties of Chinese. In actuality, Fanqie never fully worked for any variety of Chinese, modern or ancient. This is because the phonology recorded in rime dictionaries wasn't for any particular language, but at the very outset was a compromise between Northern and Southern varieties - that is, Middle Chinese was itself artificial, never being a natural language.

　　昔開皇初，有儀同劉臻等八人，同詣法言門宿。夜永酒闌，論及音韻，以今聲調既自有別，諸家取捨亦復不同。吳楚則時傷輕淺，燕趙則多傷重濁；秦隴則去聲為入，梁益則平聲似去。又支、脂、魚、虞共為一韻；先、仙、尤、侯俱論是切。欲廣文路，自可清濁皆通，若賞知音，即須輕重有異。
　　呂靜《韻集》、夏侯該《韻略》、陽休之《韻略》、周思言《音韻》、李季節《音譜》、杜臺卿《韻略》等各有乖互。江東取韻，與河北復殊，因論南北是非，古今通塞，欲更捃選精切，除削疏緩；蕭顏多所決定。魏著作謂法言曰：「向來論難，疑處悉盡，何不隨口記之。我輩數人，定則定矣。」法言即燭下握筆，略記綱紀，博問英辯，殆得精華。
　　於是更涉餘學，兼從薄宦，十數年閒，不遑修集。今返初服，私訓弟子，凡有文藻，即須明聲韻。屏居山野，交遊阻絕，疑惑之所，質問無從。亡者則生死路殊，空懷可作之歎。存者則貴賤禮隔，以報絕交之旨。遂取諸家音韻、古今字書，以前所記者，定為《切韻》五卷。剖析豪氂，分別黍累，何煩泣玉，未得縣金，藏之名山。昔怪馬遷之言大，持以蓋醬，今歎楊雄之口吃。非是小子專輒，乃述群賢遺意，寧敢施行人世，直欲不出戶庭。于時歲次辛酉，大隋仁壽元年。
—— 陸法言《切韻・序》

Some time ago, during the first year of the 開皇 era, I was host to 劉臻 and seven other ministers (蕭該, 顏之推, 盧思道, 李若, 辛德源, 薛道衡, and 魏彥淵). After an evening of joyous drinking and feasting, the discussion turned to the subject of phonology.
The sounds of previous eras and the other geographical regions are different, and the subject had different schools of discipline: the 吳楚 (southern) topolects were light and gentle; the 燕趙 (northern) topolects were heavy and thick; the 秦隴 topolects (now around Shaanxi and Gansu) read the departing tone as the checked tone; the 梁益 topolects (now around Sichuan) read the level tone as the departing tone. Some schools treat「支」and「脂」,「魚」and「虞」with the same rhyme; some treat「先」and「仙」,「尤」and「侯」with the same initial. If one wished to indulge in a wide variety of literature, then one can personally interchange light and heavy sounds; however, if one wished to understand phonology, then one must clearly differentiate them.
The subject matter given in 呂靜《韻集》, 夏侯該《韻略》, 陽休之《韻略》, 周思言《音韻》, 李季節《音譜》, 杜臺卿《韻略》 and others were all different to the point of being contradictory. The phonology of 江東 (Jiangnan) is completely different to that of 河北 (northern regions). Thus, we discussed differences between the northern and southern topolects and between past and present, leading on to the choice of a precise and refined phonology standard, freed from clumsy and inelegant representations of sound, with many of the choices made by 蕭該 and 顏之推. 魏彥淵 later wrote to me: "That was a challenging discussion, but the most difficult of problems have been solved. Why don't you record the results of our conference? We'll treat the points that we have agreed upon as the established rules [of phonology]." Holding a brush under the candlelight, I proceeded to summarise the phonological rules decided, the studious questions asked, and their incisive responses of that evening, attempting to capture their quintessence.
Over the next ten to twenty years, the knowledge established that evening underwent ceaseless additions from knowledgeable scholars and officials. Today, I've regressed to my roots, and have taken on students; as long as they compose works, they must understand the rules of phonology. I'm living among the mountains; ceasing to travel on far journeys for academic pursuits, the questions that I harbour have no place to be discussed. As for the old friends and colleagues of mine: those who have long since passed away, I impossibly wish for their resurrection; and those who are still alive have gone down different paths in their lives, and I wish to sever ties with them. From the phonological studies taken from the different schools and literature on the subject matter from the past to present, the body of knowledge amassed is composed into the five volumes of Qieyun. Minute differences are stressed and fine details are emphasised, whilst not being obstinate and conceited [in its opinions]. It is truly an illustrious composition, worthy as a treasured legacy for many generations. I previously criticised Sima Qian for the veneration of his own work, but now I'm fond of teasing those who gaze on, open-mouthed in awe [at such grand creations]. However, I don't dare to presume the work's propensity towards widespread popularity, and only wish  for it to be used within the households.
Preface to Qieyun, by 陸法言
辛酉 year, 仁壽 era of the Sui Dynasty


Meaning of "不了" in "忘不了/喝不了/..." I know that 了 after a verb means a completion or termination of a certain action, such as:

  吃飽了
  (I am) full.
  開始了
  (It) has started.
  不動了
  (It) is not moving anymore.

But what about 了 in 忘不了 and 喝不了? Is 不了 an expression, or does each character have a specific meaning in this context? How would 忘不了 and 喝不了 be translated? (I suppose it would not be I have not forgotten yet and I have not drunk yet...)

Thanks in advance!

了 here is read liǎo which means:

  to finish / to achieve / variant of 瞭｜了 / to understand clearly   -CC-CEDICT

thus

不了

  unable to / without end -CC-CEDICT

忘不了 = can't forget / unforgettable

喝不了 = can't drink / undrinkable


What does '所至‘ mean? What's the best way to think of the phrase in English?   It seems to be a very formal sort of expression.

For example, "多数是工作时数超长疲劳所至."

Thanks,
Rachel

(Edit:  Thank you.  I didn't realize it was a typo for a different phrase.)

As @user6065 has pointed out, we can find the example sentence in many online dictionaries:

在这些安全事件中，多数是工作时数超长疲劳[所至］。( Typo Warning! )
Many of these incidences have been attributed to fatigue due to long working hours.

However, in that sentence, the only correct word should be 所致, i.e. it should have been

在这些安全事件中，多数是工作时数超长疲劳所致。( Correct! )

所致 can be considered as a short form for "所导致", so it means "be caused by", "be the result of". It is sharply distinguished from 所至, whose 至 means 到达 (reach, arrive at). 所至 is not commonly used, except in this idiom:

精诚所至，金石为开
Literally this idiom means "At the place where the true faith reaches, even rigid stone can be cracked." That is to say, "Faith can move mountains."


hao de pengyou vs huai de pengyou Could somebody please explain what the following statement means, if possible paraphrasing and adding examples?

"hao de pengyou" is grammatical when used contrasting hao to huai
in "huai de pengyou" ‘bad friends’ that is perhaps not lexicalized.
pag. 375 of the Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics

The author is contrasting the grammatical hen hao de pengyou vs *hao de pengyou. In a different article, the author alternatively proposes for hao de pengyou the meaning such as 'a friend of good influence', but I do not quite get this second one either, could sb. please elaborate on 'a friend of good influence'?

很好的朋友（henhao de pengyou）basically means a 'good friend', that is, someone who is close to you, who you can share your feelings with etc.

eg  “他是我很好的朋友。”（ta shi wo henhao de pengyou）means 'He's a good friend of mine.'

好的朋友（hao de pengyou）on the other hand, mostly means someone who has good qualities, is kind, generous, faithful etc. And it is mostly used to contrast with 坏的朋友(huai de pengyou), who is the opposite of those good qualities.

eg. “好的朋友能让你受益匪浅，坏的朋友也可能让你误入歧途。” basically means 'a hao de pengyou will have a good influence on you, while a huai de pengyou may make you go astray (have a bad influence on you.)'

By the way, there's a Chinese saying which means almost the same. “近朱者赤，近墨者黑。” （jin zhu zhe chi jin mo zhe hei）means you'll get a good influence being around a hao de pengyou（朱）and a bad one being around a huai de pengyou (墨).

But note that the distinction between the two is not always so clear. As is “他会是个很好的朋友。”（ta hui shi ge henhao de pengyou）, which means that the person is a person of good qualities, and therefore you can trust them to become a good friend of yours.


If Confucius came back to life today and scribbled a message, could most modern Chinese people understand it? For example (and I am not sure if this is a good example), if presented the following stone inscription (石鼓文, source, c. 374 B.C.), could most modern Chinese people understand it (even vaguely)?

(This question inspired by this Skeptics.SE question.)

No.

The biggest obstacle is the script; although simple characters are still understandable, the evolution of scripts from seal script (the closest script to modern ones during Confucius's time) involved drastic changes in the appearance of characters. Those unfamiliar with the changes would have a lot of trouble recognising the characters. The shift to simplified characters also adds to the difficulty.

What if we shifted the goalposts and assume Confucius wrote in modern script (but using 文言文)?

Probably not.

This is because the education systems (PRC, Taiwan, HK, SG) do not seriously touch classical Chinese (文言文) until high school, and most Chinese have a middle school education or lower.

Having said that, it's not that 文言文 is completely incomprehensible to Chinese. Many people, even if they have not formally studied it, will have encountered limited examples of it through examples such as poetry, chengyu, and even in extra-curricular media (古装剧 - Chinese period dramas - are extremely popular). These often feature 文言文 or at least use some grammatical rules of 文言文. Therefore, most Chinese will be able to recognise the meanings of most phrases in 文言文, although whether that means they can fully understand an unfamiliar passage written in 文言文 is questionable.


What's the difference between 一下子，一刹那，and 一时 I know the usage of 一下子 but I don't really understand about 一刹那 and 一时

一下子 = all of a sudden. e.g.  一下子不見了  gone all of a sudden
刹那 is a Buddhism term for a time unit. In one flick of a finger, 60 刹那 would pass
一刹那 = a very brief moment. e.g. 在一刹那間 (in the blink of an eye) = almost instantly
一时 = at the moment/ at the time. e.g. 一时找不到人选 (Can't find a candidate at the moment/ at the time)
一瞬間 (in the time of one glance), 一息間 (in the time of one breath) and 瞬息間 are the terms similar to 刹那間 (in the time of a 刹那). They can all be translated as "in the blink of an eye"


How to express "tend to ~" in Chinese? According to a dictionary, tend to ~ is translated into the following words:

倾向
易於
走向
有～的倾向

But I think all of them are not used as often while reading, and thus is very awkward if I use them in writing. So there should be other expressions that mean tend to ~ in Chinese, for example in the following examples:

The developed countries tend to have less children.
Women tend to take jobs related to education, childcare, and health.

But in these cases, I think the words above are a bit awkward; I have never seen 易於 or 走向 are used while reading. So what words or expressions should I use to express tend to ~ in Chinese?

We actually often use 倾向于 but not 易于 or 走向.


What does // mean in Pleco's description of pronunciation? Consider the following picture:

What does // mean here? I couldn't see it for example in shou4dao4, so it's not always there.

//

Is pinyin notation for separable verbs and usually more specifically: verb-object phrases.

This is not just Pleco notation. Here's an except from the editorial notes of《四川方言词典》:

And the extracted text:

多音节条目按词连写。无论词或词组，凡中间可插入其他成分的，动宾结构用“=”隔开，动补结构用“//”隔开。如“胎包袱 tai1 = bao1 fu2”、“捡顺 jian3//sun4”.

Here's an example of an entry that uses “//” from inside the same book:

And its extracted text:

归顺
gui1//sun4
（动）收拾妥贴：房间里的床铺已叠整齐，桌上的杂物书籍全～，摆好。(现84·12·51)

《四川方言词典》uses "//" for verb-compliment constructions and "=" for V.O. constructions but these usages may have merged later.

I believe this notation has already been removed from Pleco though as it caused too much confusion for learners unfamiliar with this usage.


Parsing grammar of 我想不出还会有谁 我想不出还会有谁。

I don’t understand how to parse this. Is it [i][cant think of][still can][there is who]? How does that translate to “i can’t think of of anyone else”? I just see a string of verbs that don’t really logically lead to the English translation.

In English, we might say something quite similar:

  I can't think of who else [we] will have.

The context might be someone organizing a party.  (Note, the "we" here is grammatically required in English, but not part of the Chinese.)

So maybe it's easier to understand if it were broken down in the following way:

  我想不出还会有谁。
  I [我] can’t think [想不出] of who [谁] else [还] [we] will [会] have [有].
  I can't think of who else [we] will have.

And (depending on context) it might be more natural to translate it to something simple:

  I can’t think of anyone else.

There are other ways to translate "I can’t think of anyone else" into Chinese (e.g. 我想不出其他人), and which is appropriate depends on context.


Could someone help me to identify these characters on the screen walls Today I visited a garden of one of my friends and there were several screen walls with a character on each one. (The owner was absent and neither could his housekeeper read these characters.)

These walls shield the cloister.

The last wall shields the gate.

But still I could guess out most of them (as a native speaker). The first four are 天 地 同 和 (point out if I am wrong). By no means can I identify the last one. Hope someone can help X:D

(I recognize 酋 and 廾 up to down in the last character, but they don't look like any character I know.)

The character is 「尊」.

商甲前5.4.7合集6903隸定
「尊」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[ts]ˤu[n]/) was originally a combination of a wine vessel 「酉」 and two hands 「廾」, indicating the meaning (to conduct) a wine ceremony or ceremonial wine vessel. From Etiquette and Ceremonial:

《儀禮ㆍ士冠禮》

......側尊一甒醴在服北......

Etiquette and Ceremonial: Coming of age capping rites

...A jar of ceremonial wine proper at the Northern gown arrangement...

「酉」 was later replaced with the derivative 「酋」 (also wine vessel).
西周金三年壺集成9727隸定
Eventually, 「廾」 was replaced with 「寸」 (/*[tsʰ]ˤu[n]-s/, picture of hand pulse location > hand actions), gaining a sound hint in addition to its semantic function.
秦簡日甲67背睡虎地秦簡今楷

References:

黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》
小學堂
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》

In case the other characters are hard to recognise, 「地」 and 「和」 are written with variants「坨」and「龢」, respectively.


Is 我五分钟后就回来 ambiguous out of context? My newsletter says this sentence

  我五分钟后就回来。

is translated as "I'll be back in 5 minutes".

I am curious to know whether this sentence could be translated as "I came back 5 minutes ago", or does it need to be changed? If so, how and why?

"I'll be back in 5 minutes" is the only correct translation for this sentence.

"I came back 5 minutes ago" is

  我5分钟前就回来了。


“你我未来，由此展开。” Is this a real Chinese expression? Is this an authentic Chinese expression? If it is, then why is the only place I see it in use on the Chinese-language version of the US Census website?

“你我未来，由此展开"
"The future of us start here"

It is a slogan (口号).
A slogan is:

a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising.

a motto associated with a political party or movement or other group.

Slogans come and go, the more memorable ones may be adapted by the public and become part of the daily vocabulary. The one you see here isn't one
为人民服务 is an example of a great slogan became a common phrase.


国家 vs. 国, when can 国 be used alone? In the Chinese book for beginners by Bellassen, it is stated that 国 cannot be used alone: it doesn't have a meaning on its own, and thus the word country/fatherland is 国家 and not 国.

However... I am surprised by the question 你是哪国人? (still in Bellassen's book). Would it be possible to ask 你是哪国家人吗? Are there other uses where 国 can be used alone, while still meaning country?

edit:  the word country/fatherland is indeed 国家 as stated in the answer below, and not 家国 as I first wrote.

You probably mean 国家 instead of 家国. 家国 doesn't exist.

你是哪国家人吗  is not correct (nor is 你是哪国家人), but you can say 你是哪国家的人 or 你是哪国家的 (meaning: from which country are you).

In 你是哪国人, 国 is not really  on its own. You can treat 哪国人 as a unit (which is a short form for 哪国家的人).

In oral Chinese 国 is seldomly used on its own (but every character however has a meaning, and 国 on its own also means country), but is used in for example 国内 (inside this country, typically used to mean within China, 内 means inside) or 国旗 (national flag, 旗 means flag). The list of such examples is long.


Is 级 necessary in 优先级 From the dictionary I gather that 优先 by itself means "priority" and so 优先级 means "level of priority".

In a phrase such as 高优先级，or 最高优先级，is the 级 necessary to sound correct, or is it an optional "stylistic" element, as in English where "highest priority" is the same as "highest level of priority"?

Unlike English, （简）优先／（繁）優先 is an adjective while （简）优先级／（繁）優先級 is a noun.

1. （简）这个项目优先级最高。
   （繁）這個項目優先級最高。

If you want to use an adjective then the expression will be like

2. （简）这个项目是最高优先的。（所以……）
   （繁）這個項目是最高優先的。（所以……）

You may notice a small difference in meaning, the first one is often used as response or a single sentence. The second is NOT very usually used as only a single sentence, but you can still use it as a single when the 所以 is obvious.


Can you say someone is a ”非常熟的人“？ I know that you can say something like "我跟她很熟“。 But can you make someone into a very 熟的人。
ex。
他们是我在大学最熟的人

Yes you can. This is 100% correct.

他们是我在大学最熟的人
他们是我在大学最亲的人
他们是我在大学最爱的人
他们是我在大学最恨的人
他们是我在大学最怕的人


How many 虾 are 三只半虾？ I was reading about 《三只半虾》 齐白石， 以画虾享誉画坛。
三只虾：3 prawns
半虾：half a prawn
一半只虾： half a prawn
三只半虾：3 and 1 half prawns?? or 3 half prawns = 1 and 1 half prawns??
*三半只虾？？？= ？

三只虾：3 prawns

good

半虾：half a prawn

Wrong. It should be 半只虾

一半只虾： half a prawn

Wrong. See above.

三只半虾：3 and 1 half prawns?? or 3 half prawns = 1 and 1 half prawns??

Three and a half prawns.
Chinese grammar wiki has a page about Expressing half with ban.
The structure "Number + Measure Word + 半 + Noun" means "Number and a half nouns"


Meaning and function of "以" in "子路，人告之以有过，则喜"? What is the meaning and function of 以 in the following?

子路，人告之以有过，则喜。

According to an online dictionary, 以 as a preposition has the following senses:
[介]

1 因為、由於。《論語．衛靈公》：「君子不以言舉人，不以人廢言。」《韓非子．喻老》：「千丈之隄，以蟻螻之穴潰。」
2 按、依。《孟子．梁惠王上》：「斧斤以時入山林，材木不可勝用也。」《商君書．更法》：「禮法以時而定，制令各順其宜。」
3 在、於。《左傳．桓公二年》：「其弟以千畝之戰生，命之曰成師。」唐．柳宗元〈斷刑論〉：「賞以春夏而刑以秋冬。」
4 加在前、後、左、右、上、下、往、來、東、西、南、北等字之前，表時空和方位的界限。如：「自古以來」、「長安東路以西」、「價格在一千元以上」。
5 連及。《易經．小畜．九五》：「有孚攣如，富以其鄰。」《論語．堯曰》：「朕躬有罪，無以萬方。」

None seems relevant.

以 functions as 'with' here

子路 (a student of Confucius)

人告之 - people inform him

以 - with (the information of)

有过 - (he had) made mistake，

则喜 - be happy (when they do)

When people pointed out 子路's mistakes, he would feel happy (we can presume he was happy to hear about his mistake so that he can make amends)

"闻过则喜" (happy when hear one's own mistake) is a sign of a wise and moral man

In real life, most people would 闻过则怒 (get angry when he was told he made mistake)


Wrong or merely redundant use of 们? There appear to be some rare examples of suffix 们 after 许多、很多、各位。According to some sources this is acceptable。Examples: 许多:  "许多思想家们认为"(   http://chinese.irib.ir/2010-07-31-13-14-51/2010-07-31-13-16-24/item/47176-%E8%A5%BF%E6%96%B9%E9%81%93%E5%BE%B7%E8%A7%82%E5%BF%B5%E7%BC%BA%E5%A4%B1)  "许多 蜜蜂们" (http://www.ruiwen.com/news/54481.htm) (already questioned at this and other sites)
很多："吸引很多玩家们的参与" (http://www.ezu88.com/4578.html) 各位："这样子 你通知各位兄弟们"(功勋03 ３２：５1,
http://www.le.com/ptv/vplay/25045964.html#vid=25045964)

I agree it's redundant. When there's a quantifier following with a noun, never use 们.

们【助】
用在代词或指人的名词后面,表示复数。如:孩子们

注意：名词前有数量词时，后面不加“们”，例如不说“三个孩子们”
(http://xuexi.123cha.com/zd/11586.html)


Is Siri good for practicing Chinese pronunciation? Is Siri really that good for Chinese pronunciation? I mean, there will be nothing like a native speaker.

For example, when I say "Ní haô" or "Wò qù", it still says the expected characters.

If Siri is not that good, is there something better perhaps?

The bast way to practice Chinese is talking to native Chinese speaker, but if you don’t have the opportunity, you can try to watch Chinese TV shows.
And Siri is not a good choice.


Do you use 和 when listing adjectives the same way you do in english? As in, when listing adjectives, for example a 愉快, 安全, and 环保 summer vacation, do you say 愉快, 安全, 和 环保 的 暑假 do you need the he at the end of the list? Is this how you would list adjectives in the first place?

You can use it but it is not necessary.

Unlike English grammar, its elusive Chinese counterpart does not have a rule of prefixing conjunction to the last element of a string of parallel elements. In fact, Chinese tend to utter a really long string of nouns or phrases without using any conjunction, like 我曾经去过英国、法国、德国、意大利、比利时。

But it is now accepted by Chinese people to use the conjunction in an anglicized way, like 我曾经去过英国、法国、德国、意大利和比利时. However, some language purists disprove this usage. My college professor of EN to CN translation concurred with these views and explicitly demanded that we drop 和 when translating.


How come 東/东 has a second meaning 'owner/master' or 'host'? Examples include 房东 or 财东 and 东道, respectively. What is the etymology behind this additional meaning?

東: 主人。由於古時主位在東，客位在西，所以稱主人為「
　　東」。如：「房東」、「店東」。

Translation: In ancient times, the host was seated to the east and the guest to the west, so the host was called "East".

reference:
http://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/yitia/fra/fra01875.htm

Personally I have also heard it is because the Sun rises from the east, thus east is seen as the 'emic', or the 'theme'


Not only, but also (in cantonese) 佢唔單只感冒，仲發燒添。
  Not only does he have a cold, but he also has a fever.

What is the function of 添？ I feel rather awkward saying it. I searched the dictionary and doesn’t look like it has added any meaning.

You might be interested in these notes from ABC Cantonese on the word 添:

  1 more

  畀多我一百蚊
  bei2 do1 ngo5 jat1 baat3 man1 tim1
  Give me one hundred dollars more

  食多啲
  sik6 do1 di1 tim1
  Eat some more

  Notes: occurs at end of sentence to indicate action is expected to be repeated; usually pronunciation with high falling tone; also written as 㖭 tim1, 添 tim1

  2 as well, also, more, again

  佢撞到人唔道歉,仲鬧人
  keoi5 zong6 dou2 jan4 m4 dou6 hip3, zung6 naau6 jan4 tim1
  After bumping into somebody, he didn't apologize, and even scolded that person as well

  噉做法仲弊
  gam2 zou6 faat3 zung6 bai6 tim1
  Doing it this way is also even worse

  Notes: follows 仲 zung6 to emphasize something additional is involved


Difference between 给 and 跟 (e.g. in 我给你讲 and 我跟你讲)? What is the difference between 我给你讲 and 我跟你讲? These two phrases both seem to translate to I told you. But when would one be preferable to another?

給 = Give/Let, 跟 = With/Together. When used with another verb together, "給" designate the "transceiver" / "receiver" of the verb, while with "跟", both party are the subjects.

The examples you chose is a indistinguishable case (there are probably a lot of them). Let me elaborate with something else:

我給你吃飯 = I let you eat
我跟你吃飯 = I eat with you
你給我吃飯 = You let me eat
你跟我吃飯 = You eat with me / You and I eat together
我給你休息十分鐘 = I give you 10 minutes to rest
我跟你休息十分鐘 = I rest for 10 minutes with you
你跟我休息十分鐘 = You rest 10 minutes with me / You and I rest for 10 minutes together
我給你看看 = I'll show you this / (I give you a look of this)
我跟你看看 = Let's see this / (I look at this with you)

As for your examples, I guess we can distinguish them literally with:

我給你講 = I give you a speech
我跟你講 = I speak with you

However, the physical actions of these two are probably not distinguishable from each other.


What effective methods exist for visual learners to get Chinese grammar? I want to learn Chinese grammar (e.g. sentence structure), however, I am a highly visual person and feel a visual learning process would help me the most.

I have already taken a beginner Chinese Mandarin class in school but somehow feel it could've been taught visually and I might have learned better. I feel the way my teacher has gone about it with reading textbooks full of text is hurting me.

Anyway, wondering if similar visual thinkers have found ways they've used to understand the grammar faster and better.

Full Disclosure: I haven't tried this for studying Chinese but in English it seems to work quite well. I haven't a Doctorate in Educational Sciences or the like but have been teaching grammar to all ages and many nationalities of close to 10 years.
The method is based on Cuisenaire rods(coloured rods of differing lengths, the smallest being 1cm long(white) and the longest being 10cm(orange) the intermediate rods increasing in length one cm at a time.) While originally these rods were used to explain complicated mathematical concepts visually, Caleb Gattegno brought this concept initially to teaching literacy, and then to learning foreign languages. It came to be part of a teaching system called the Silent Way(since then has largely fallen out of favour.)
OK, done with history. Gattegno used these rods to replace parts of speech(or syllables for sentence stress) and then would drill the students on proper placement. With my students, and a handful of different colour pens, we would construct sentences based on colour. The learning curve was steeper than many educationalists had claimed and I finally found it worked for extremely visual learners, and those with ADD(in my experience two boys 13 and 15 years old).
As an example take the sentence:

我想买几个方形的扣子

Since we already would have established the parts of speech as having corresponding colours, for the sake of the example.

我 is blue
想买 is green
几个 is orange
方形 is orange
扣子 is red

So when you see this sentence your mind should automatically associate the part of speech/colour with that position and by imagining other words of the same colour inhabiting those regions reinforces the structure(drills).
Perhaps these structures will help to the explanation:

他把他的报纸给我
他给我他的报纸

把has no colour as a participle.(In English, I left the prepositions, articles and conjunctions, etc. black(vid. no special colour)) Because I am familiar with these colours I can easily see the grammatical difference. My tutor can explain the difference semantically.
I don't believe I can add colour here and I haven't found an organization online that is using the same methodology. I am currently training my Chinese tutor in this method because I find I know it very well and it works for me. Also, I have helped many adults pass government exams on grammar and writing using this method. As you said, I feel textbooks hinder rather than help and have slowly been building my own "textbook" according to this and other methods I like for myself.


慢慢来 is the same as 慢慢地来？ 慢慢来。
Take your time.

It consists of an adjective and verb.

Since 慢慢 is an adjective but used in an adverbal way, I assume that this one below should be the original form of 慢慢来.

慢慢 + 地 + 来。

I tried googling with that, and found it used many times. (not as many though)

So are 慢慢来 and 慢慢地来 the same?

Syntactically they are the same. 地 following adverb can be omitted in spoken language and in many cases, written language too. In ordinary cases, the omission does not change the meaning or the tone of the phrase.

In your example, however, the meanings are different. As the other answer suggested, 慢慢地来 is just an ordinary phrase meaning come slowly; proceed slowly, mostly used in narratives, e.g.

  他慢慢地来了。He came slowly.

Note the above example sounds lack a point. In real life usage, it is more natural to specify the action verb, e.g.

  老人扶着拐杖，慢慢(地)走过来了。Supporting himself with a cane, the old man was slowly coming over.

On the other hand, 慢慢来 is always used for its metaphorical meaning take your time; take it easy. It's mostly used as an imperative instead of narrative:

  没关系，慢慢来。Don't worry, take your time.

  慢慢来，小心点。Take it slowly and be careful! (as when someone is moving an antique for you)

There is a situation where 慢慢来 is used in a narrative sentence and interchangeable with 慢慢地来. They are used as adjective or adverbial phrase as opposed to predicative phrase. Note how the following examples are narratives from 3rd person view, although you can use them to make suggestions to the listener just like using imperative sentences.

  感情的事要慢慢(地)来。Love cannot be forced.

  这种类型的工作要慢慢(地)来。This kind of job takes time and patience.


How old is the usage of the word 上帝？ The word 上帝 is associated by many with western religions. My question is, is there any occurrence of this word in ancient chinese writings or inscriptions?

Sure. The sequence「上帝」can be seen in Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions, e.g. 《甲骨文合集》10166:

Here are some other samples in oracle bone inscriptions.

「上帝」originally meant highest ruler「帝」residing in heaven「上」(above). Other than this meaning,「上帝」doesn't bear much resemblance to the Christian's God, having nothing to do with universe creation or morality.


(Well-known) poem request: the wonder/beauty of nature/world/universe I'm looking for any well-known poem that talks about the beauty or wonder of nature, the world or the universe.

The beginning of《醉翁亭记》isn't a bad place to start.

  环滁皆山也。其西南诸峰，林壑尤美，望之蔚然而深秀者，琅琊也。山行六七里，渐闻水声潺潺而泻出于两峰之间者，酿泉也。峰回路转，有亭翼然临于泉上者，醉翁亭也。作亭者谁？

I just fear that the whole 醉翁 part will detract from the allure of the natural world.

Any suggestions would be helpful, certainly as I don't have much of a grasp of what or wouldn't be "well-known."

Just an FYI, this is more of a diary of traveling rather than a poem. The poem follows certain rhyme. You can try "唐诗三百首" if you would like to learn the poem. Below would be a good example

唐诗三百首

江雪

唐代：柳宗元

千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭。
孤舟蓑笠翁，独钓寒江雪


How can I ask "which one is your favorite/do you like more"? I want to ask "which one is your favorite?", like between A and B, which one do you like more.
Can I say "哪一个你最喜欢?" or "哪个你更喜欢?"? Is there a better way to ask? At this point I feel like I'm just throwing words together trying to make sense.

Just like in English:
Say "哪一个你最喜欢?/ 你最喜欢哪一个?" (which one you like the most) when you are choosing between three or more items
or
Say "哪一个你更喜欢?/ 你更喜欢哪一个" (which one you like better). when you are choosing between two items


Artistic characters? Came across characters which appear to be written on parchment. Any idea why it’d be framed or the meaning of it? All I can tell is that it seems to be a [poetic] story. (The characters in red are a signature and appear on other paintings as well.)

(I realize the image is horizontal, but if I were have rotate it some of the characters get cut off.)

the main text is 洛神賦

https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/洛神賦

the inscription is the last line (above the seal)

  同治戊辰閏夏臨于何氏之還讀我書齋

同治戊辰閏夏 is 22nd may - 19th june, in the year of 1868

臨于何氏之還讀我書齋 means copied (臨摹) at mr. ho (何氏) 's (之) premise that named "還讀我書齋"

well, the seal is unrecognised in this resolution. do you have a higher quality one?

have fun :)


How to say "calendar" in Chinese? In English, calendar can refer to several things. I would like the Chinese word that would mean calender in the sense of a planner, like how a teacher might calender her future lesson plans or you might calendar your meetings tomorrow. 谢谢！

Mainland China: 日程表 (literally day schedule table)

ROC (Taiwan): 行事曆 (literally matter attendance calendar)

These are both nouns, of course. It is impossible to use these as verbs like the examples specified in the question. In Chinese, you would properly say the equivalent of recording (some event X) in the calendar:

  把Ｘ［記錄・加入・添］在［日程表・行事曆］中


Descriptive / generative grammar of Mandarin? Does anyone know where I can find a descriptive grammar and a generative grammar of Mandarin, in English or French?

The best I know of is Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Comprehensive Grammars) by Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington.


What is the difference between 听到、听过 and 听说? There are 3 听 (hear or listen to). What is the difference between 听到, 听过, and 听说?

听到 means : you are listening to something right now.
听过 means: you have heard about it.
听说 means: you heard someone's something from anther people, and you are talking to this people about this thing.


How does this sentence 如果你要是查出是谁的话 mean exactly? The full sentence is 如果你要是查出是谁的话, 一定告诉我. It means If you find out who it is, make sure to tell me.
I do know 如果, 如果...的话, 要是 and 你要是...的话 they all mean if.
I more would like to understand how Chinese speaking goes. Because in many Asian languages extra words are added to make the sentence sound complete. By "How Chinese speaking goes", I mean for example:
给我看看 means let me see. But literally translation in English is Give me look look which sounds so weird but it is a way of speaking in Chinese language.
The same as 你说出来 means that you can speak it out. But literally translation in English is You speak out come and again it sounds so weird but it is a way of speaking in Chinese language.
so 如果你要是查出是谁的话 is literally more like if you, if find out is who, a way of speaking in Chinese language which sounds normal and not weird at all when saying that?

This sentence is an awful mistake, in rhetoric, logic and grammar sense:
如果 and 要是 mean exactly same thing: if.  You use one, not both in a sentence.  Your suspicion is justified.  Majority Chinese speakers won't do this, if any, children maybe, as they like to exaggerate.  BTW, 要是 does not necessarily require 的话 as connector.  要是明天下雨(的话)，我就不去了。


How are new Chinese characters created? What is the process for introducing a new Chinese character with custom meaning? What are the rules, what is not allowed, what is allowed? Who is allowed to create one? How do you associate a sound with it too? Is it free to create your own?

In ancient time Chinese people were creating new characters. Now they don't. Only new chemical elements create new character.

  What are the rules, what is not allowed, what is allowed?

六書造字原則 is one of the rules.

  Who is allowed to create one? How do you associate a sound with it too? Is it free to create your own?

As far as I know, empirer and his government was allowed to create. 武則天 created 曌 for her own name. There were government officers who controlled the writing system. They might work on characters.


Number of unique characters in the X most common words? I assume this would be wouldn't be too hard to calculate with a proper database, but does anyone know the number of unique characters/morphemes used in the 5000, 10000, 30000, etc. most common words?

For example, I heard that 6000 characters covers over 99% of words in modern usage, and assuming that a native's passive vocabulary is around 30000, I conclude that there are approximately 6000 unique characters used in the 30000 most common words (this could be way off).

I am curious about these statistics. Preferably, someone has a nice plot showing the relationship between the two, but a few data points would also be appreciated.

I write a simple script to compute the plot from an old phrase frequency data.

If you're interested, here is the raw data.

These data are for Taiwan's traditional Chinese,
but the statistics should be very similar to simplified Chinese.


Common (and good) ways to ask for hand in marriage The popular song goes, "今天你要嫁给我好吗" but I feel something like "你愿意嫁给我吗" sounds more like a question, rather than just adding "好吗" at the end of a statement. Does anybody have any critiques or suggestions for a nice proposal?

I can't find a Chinese song named '今天你要嫁给我好吗'.

Is it "今天你要嫁給我" by 陶喆 ?

Considered about the sentence "今天你要嫁给我好吗", I think  "今天你要嫁给我吗" or "今天嫁给我好吗" are better. "你願意嫁給我嗎?"is smooth and clear too. However, adding "今天" is more pressing.

In fact, in the song '今天你要嫁給我', it used '今天嫁給我好嗎' as a question.


大大大！ 重大 vs 严重， 广大 vs 大型 vs 巨大 So, having had a look into the HSK5 vocab which involves the character 大, I have come across a few instances where I am not sure what is used in which circumstance.

重大 vs 严重 - these both mean important/critical in an objective sense (rather than 重要, which is subjective). But, when you choose 重大 over 严重? You seem to be able to say 重大事件 and 严重事件 - does anyone know what the difference between these two critical situations is? I think you would call 911 in both circumstances, right?
广大 vs 大型 vs 巨大 - these all mean 'massive/humongous'.  There likewise doesn't seem to be much difference between them. Maybe 广大 is more related to surface area (horizontal) while 大型 and 巨大 are more vertical in scope? Not sure...

Any input would be much appreciated!

Hashamyim

重大 = huge; important
Example: 重大发现 (huge/important discovery),  重大发明 (huge/important invention) . You cannot say 严重发现 or 严重发明

~

严重 = serious; seriously
Example: 严重罪行 (serious crime) 严重缺乏 (seriously lack). You can also say 重大罪行 (huge crime) but not 重大缺乏 (both are adjective). Meanwhile 重大缺点(huge fault) is valid because 重大 is an adjective and 缺点 is a noun

广大 = "vast" (area) e.g. 广大区域 (vast area)
大型 = "big/ large" (scale/ size) e.g. 大型机器(big/ large machine) , 大型计划 (big/ large plan)
巨大 = "huge" (size) e.g. 巨大发现 (huge discovery), 巨大发展 (huge development)


Meaning and etymology of the expression “棒棒的！” Someone wrote to me "两个月就写这么好，棒棒的！"

I get the first part (though I don't think it's true - 哪里哪里 ；-））, but what exactly does that "appendix" stand for? I interpreted it as a kind of "clapping one's hands in approval", as Google Translate just spits out "Bang Bang!", but that may well be too far-fetched!

Any input on this?

棒 means 'great; awesome'.

棒棒 the repetition basically makes it sound rhythmical and cute.

的 after a repeated adjective in spoken language is a very subtle thing - it slightly changes the meaning from 'awesome' (praising your writing) to 'keep being awesome' (encouraging you).

Overall, the difference between (真)棒 and 棒棒的 is like that between '(very) cool' and 'cool beans' in English.


Four-character idioms that contain an allusive pair I am interested in finding some examples of four-character idioms that contain exactly a pair of allusions, different in source but similar in nature, that were often compiled by a specific literary author. Consider the following:

Idiom
Allusive pair
Source

成仁取義
孔曰成仁，孟曰取義
文天祥《自贊》

泣歧悲染
楊朱泣歧路，墨子悲染絲
阮籍《詠懷》

環肥燕瘦
短長肥瘦各有態，玉環飛燕誰敢憎
蘇東坡《孫莘老求墨妙亭詩》

沈魚落雁
毛嬙、麗姬，人之所美也，魚見之深入，鳥見之高飛
《莊子·齊物論》

顏筋柳骨
曼卿之筆，顏筋柳骨
范仲淹《祭石學士文》

Some have separate sources:

Idiom
Allusion 1
Allusion 2

懸樑刺股
（蘇秦）讀書欲睡，引錐自刺其股，血流至足（劉向《戰國策·秦策一》）
（孫敬）及至眠睡疲寢，以繩系頭懸屋梁（班固《漢書》）

閉月羞花
彷彿兮若輕雲之蔽月（曹植《洛神賦》）
秀色掩今古，荷花羞玉顏（李白《西施》）

斷袖分桃
不欲動賢，乃斷袖而起（《漢書·佞幸傳》）
食桃而甘，不盡，以其半啖君（韓非子《說難》）

結草銜環
顆見老人結草以亢杜回（《左氏傳·宣公》）
以白環四枚與寶（吳均《續齊諧記》）

Examples of what I do not consider as four-character idioms that contain an allusive pair:

撲朔迷離: the two are not distinct in terms of their source, as there is no further allusion in the《木蘭辭》couplet 雄兔腳撲朔，雌兔眼迷離.
南陽諸葛廬，西蜀子雲亭: the two are indeed two separate individuals in 劉禹錫《陋室銘》, but the expression is not idiomatic enough, let alone reducible into a four-character idiom.

I am sure there are more idioms like so, but I cannot think of a specific repertoire for this purpose (nor any more illustrative examples!) at the moment.

“文过饰非”： 《论语·子张》：“小人之过也，必文。”《庄子·盗跖》：“辩足以饰非。”


What is the most complex simplifed character? I'm interested in simplified only for this question - which simplified character retains the most complexity, defined by having the highest number of strokes?

To clarify: I'm after the most complicated character in use on the mainland - i.e. the most complicated character that remains in common use amongst the literate mainland population.

龖 (dá) from lol.wen's answer has 32 strokes, but I can better that by a bit ;)

齉 (nàng) has 36 strokes, and my favourite dictionary, YellowBridge, defines it as:

  stoppage of the nose; to speak with a nasal twang; to snuffle (as in nose with a cold); snuffling

I should however add that, like 龖, this character is the same in both simplified and traditional script.

Some other ones that appear in Jun Da's character frequency list, taken from a corpus of modern Chinese, include 鱄 (Zhuān, 22 strokes), 襽 (lán, 23 strokes), and 鑪 (lú, 24 strokes).


How to interpret 家居家装 in ...在服装配饰、护理美容、消费电子及家居家装这四大领域的产品上? 从商品类别来看，网购用户指出主要集中在服装配饰、护理美容、消费电子及家居家装这四大领域的产品上。

How to interpret '家居家装'? What does it actually mean or include?

居 means to live, 装 means to decorate. 家居家装 in this sentence means the commodities or services related to furnitures, home-use devices, interior design and domestic decoration, that is, things you have to spend money on before you move into your new house.


Do you add "在“ before saying "___年“？ I'm trying to remember what is the proper way to use time. Do we ever add 在 before a year when writing? Or do we generally not add it? Here's an example sentence that I wrote. Would you add 在？

  在2006年， 当刘强东正在寻求资金时， 中国的物流系统非常糟糕。

You sentence is correct with or without the 在. Using 在 will put a bit more emphasis on the year, while leaving off 在 will put a bit more emphasis on the action. Also, if you're listing years, you would not use 在:

2006年，中国的物流系统非常糟糕。2008年，仍然糟糕


Difference between 常常 and 往往 I'm fairly certain I understand how to use 常常，but I don't know if 往往 is used any differently (they both have the same translations). Are there any differences in usage I should be aware of?

Basically they have the same meanings. Now let's focus on the difference, but first wrap your head in duct tapes in case it explodes.
往往 is usually used with conditions supplied. Without any condition it is usually wrong:

我常常加班。 -- Good.
我往往加班。 -- Wrong.
北京常常下雪。-- Good.
北京往往下雪。 -- Wrong.
北京往往在冬天下雪。-- Good. Notice the constraint.
努力的人常常会成功。-- Good.
努力的人往往会成功。-- Good, maybe better.

However, 往往 can only live in the result, not in the condition:

如果你常常努力，你就会成功。-- 往往 is wrong.
如果你努力，那你往往会成功。-- Good. 常常 is also OK.

往往 focuses on the experience of previous observations, 常常 focuses on existing phenomena. This may not matter much depending on the context:

猫往往会把猎物带给主人。 -- It's an observation, a summary, and maybe also a prediction.
猫常常会把猎物带给主人。 -- It's just an observation, but really, no big difference.

When 往往 is used, there is often a slight enhancement of emotion or stress:

我常常加班到深夜。-- A general statement.
我往往加班到深夜。-- Notice the sense of disapproval.
我常常一加班就头疼。-- A general statement, but...
我往往一加班就头疼。-- The negative sense of 头疼 eludes the difference of 常常 and 往往.
小明常常在班里考第一名。-- A general statement.
小明往往在班里考第一名。-- Good. Though not negative, it sounds more emotional.
小明往往在班里考倒数第一名。-- Good. Negative and emotional.
北京常常在冬天下雪。-- A general statement.
北京在冬天常常下雪。-- Notice although 常常 appeared at different places, it's more of a decorator of the whole sentence.
北京往往在冬天下雪。-- Notice the slight stress. Winter, not spring.
北京在冬天往往下雪。-- Snows, not rains.

常常 can be used in the subjunctive mood. 往往 can't:

你要常常来找我玩哦。-- 往往 is wrong.
我建议你常常复习一下。-- 往往 is wrong.

常常 can be used in the imperative mood. 往往 can't:

常常来找我玩哦！-- 往往 is wrong.
常常复习一下！-- 往往 is wrong.
如果有时间，就常常复习一下！-- 往往 wrong, even with conditions supplied.

Also the negative form:

我不常常吹牛。-- 不常常 is good.
我常常不吹牛。-- 常常不 sounds weird because 吹牛 is an explicit action.
我常常不在家。-- 常常不 sounds OK because 在家 is a status.
懒散的人往往不会成功。-- 往往不 is good. It's the only form of negation.
懒散的人不往往会成功。-- 不往往 is absolutely wrong.


When/where is cancer [癌] pronunced yán? MDBG's definition of 癌 says:

  cancer / carcinoma / also pr. [yan2]

MoE put their main pronunciation of 癌 as:

  yán

Which might make it look like a TW thing but 兩岸's entry just reads:

  ái

When and/or where is 癌 pronounced yán?

From 神農氏

中國傳統醫學對癌症的描述. 癌，系由古代巖、岩、嵒等字轉化而來。因癌瘤之形如岩石，累累堅硬，高突不平，故取其音義而名。

In Chinese traditional medicine, cancer is described as like rock (岩), so it is pronounced as [yan2].
From Wiktionary,

In Mandarin, this character used to be pronounced identically as 岩 (yán). Its pronunciation was changed to ái in December 1962 to avoid the homophony between 癌 (“cancer”) and 炎 (yán, “inflammation”) (compare 肺炎 (fèiyán, “pneumonia”) and 肺癌 (fèi'ái, “lung cancer”)). The new pronunciation ái stems from dialectal pronunciations of 岩 (“rock; cliff”) /ŋai/, influenced by 崖 (yá, yái, “cliff”).

More info in Traditional Chinese

癌，在不同的地方有不同的讀音。在廣州話地區，它的粵音讀如“岩”，取“喦”之讀音；在內地，它的普通話讀如“皚”(ai)，即“埃”的第二聲；在台灣，它的國語讀音即讀如“岩”(yán)。
為甚麼“癌”字的讀音會有這些差異呢? “癌”字的最早注音，見於《中華大字典》：“癌讀若嵒。”一九一五年版的《辭源》，也注為“讀如喦”。喦，即岩的異體字。粵音據此一直至今都讀如“岩”。國語也曾一度據此讀如“岩”音。一九二一年，由民國政府的“國語統一籌備會”(魯迅也是該會會員)所訂正的《校改國音字典》，依然將“癌”的國音訂為“碞”。“碞”也是“岩”的異體字。直至今日，台灣也是按照這種讀音，沒有改變。
那麼，內地的普通話為甚麼又要把“癌”字改讀為“皚”音呢? 它又是甚麼時候改讀此音的呢? 原來，內地一直到一九六一年，都是把“癌”讀如“岩”的。當年, 新華字典大修，編者考慮到普通話中的“癌症”和“炎症”讀音完全一樣，容易造成混淆，故參考某些方言的“岩”字讀如“崖”音，於是便推薦“癌”讀“皚”音。一九六二年修訂的直排本《新華字典》，便將“癌”的國音注為ái，並用括號說明“舊讀yán”。一九六五年和一九七三年兩次印行的《現代漢語詞典》試用本，也都把“癌”字的注音改成“ái，(舊讀yán)”。
當時採用的這種注音方式，有兩個用意：一是表示ái，這個音不是印錯了，而是有意推荐的跟舊讀不同的音；二是表明，如果你不贊同ái的音，也可以讀舊音yán(岩)。
林語堂主編的台灣一九七二年版《當代漢英詞典》，一方面堅持“癌”的舊讀yán，另一方面則注明有人主張讀ái，用來跟“炎症”的“炎”區別。態度十分客觀。
到了一九八五年十二月，國家語言文字工作委員會、國家教育委員會、廣播電視部聯合頒佈了《普通話異讀詞審音表》，進一步取消了“癌”字的舊讀yán，統讀為ái。
至於粵音，由於“癌”與“炎”的讀音不同，不會混淆，所以毋需改讀，仍照舊讀如“岩”。


May I ask for help deciphering this seal? I am new to Chinese and this seal fascinates me and makes me want to learn more about this complex language.  I have looked all over the internet with not much luck! I would be very grateful for some direction. Would buying a Seal Dictionary be of help? Thank you in advance for any help, suggestions and comments

Right-hand-side seal

「取諸懷抱」
Indulge in one's deepest thoughts, a line from the preface of the poem anthology Lántíng Xù.

Left-hand-side seal: I believe this is

屮　亾（亡）
　艸
二　中

I cannot make sense of this. Maybe 「二屮」 refers to 「艸」 in the middle. This might be a puzzle, or might be nonsense.


How to interpret the oracle poem (諸葛武侯乩文)? Again, referring to another thread, I made this question, and provided info as an answer.

Have fun destruct character (拆字), or extrasensory perception (觸機)

Here's a version of the oracle poem in wiki:

https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/諸葛武侯乩文

So, how to interpret it?

in the year 1933, a taoist style planchette writing (扶乩) was done at 蓬瀛仙館, in hong kong; for the purpose of asking divine revelation.

the poem contained two parts, part i:

天數茫茫不可知．鸞台暫說各生知

世界干戈終爆發．鼠尾牛頭發現時

此次戰禍非小可．鳶飛魚躍也愁眉

天下生靈西復東．可憐遍地是哀鴻

刀填溝壑無人拾．血染山川滿地紅

天下重武不重文．那怪環球亂紛紛

人我太陽爭北土．美人東渡海波生

十四一心人發奮．水去西方啟戰爭

晉有出頭寧坐視．中央生草不堪耘

切齒仇讎今始復．堅固金城一旦傾

除非攜手馬先生．馬騰四海似蘇秦

遊說辯才世罕有．掉他三寸舌風生

得與聯軍說事因．東人首肯易調停

青天白日由西落．五色旗幟向東生

二蔣雙爭一蔣傷．兩陳相遇一陳亡

東土不知西土樂．五羊風雨見悲傷

水巷仍須是樂邦．諸生不用走忙忙

錢財散去猶小事．性命安全謝上蒼

今宵略說言和語．留與明宵說短長

it was published on the newspaper: 香港工商日報, 15th december 1939

here's part ii:

紅日落完白日落．五星燦爛文明國

中山傾頹草木殃．豺狼虎豹同一鑊

兩重火土甚光明．士農工商皆有作

木子楊花真武興．小小天罡何足論

強反弱兮弱反強．王氣金陵黯然盡

故都陜地聚英華．文物衣冠頭尚白

氣運南方出豪傑．克定中原謀統一

佳人絕色自西來．弄權竊國氣驕逸

狐兔成群功狗烹．倒亂君臣誰與匹

太陽沉去霧雲收．萬國低頭拜彌勒

治亂循環有定時．根樹生枝惟四七

老人星出現南方．紀念化為公正堂

西南獨立曇花現．飛虎潛龍勢莫當

聯軍東指成一氣．劍仙俠士有奇秘

水能剋火火無功．炮火飛機何處避

此是陰陽造化機．土意發明成絕技

稱雄東土日己終．物歸原主非奇事

此時國恥一齊消．四海昇平多吉兆

異術殺人不用刀．偃武修文日月高

三教聖人同住世．群魔妖怪豈能逃

可嘆草頭燒不盡．野外春風吹又生

宮門拔劍除奸佞．白頭變作赤頭人

田間再出華盛頓．造福人群是真命

此人原是紫微星．定國安民功德盛

執中守一正乾坤．巍巍蕩蕩希堯舜

百年世事不勝悲．誠恐諸君不及見

好脩功果待來生．將相公侯前世善

或是星辰下界來．或是神仙搖一變

或是前生因果大．當然轉世功名顯

山人復對諸生談．續上前文同一線

千年萬載事悠悠．縱使神仙難預算

略將一二說君知．酬答諸生還了願

山人告別返西川．來年再會諸生面

諸君各自顧前程．好向靈山勤修煉

indeed, there're files of this oracle poem on the internet, like:

if you compare part i, you can find that some characters are different.

my opinion: verses are in sequence in part i, predicting events of 1930s - 1940s

then, verses are not in sequence in part ii, at least the first half. predicting events from 1949 to 2033?

again, just my ideas, have fun :)


What is the difference between 必须, 得, 必需, and 需要? I know that all of them mean "to have to" in some form or another, but are they interchangeable?

First let's clarify the definitions of 須 and 需
須： Adverb/verb, meaning should, must; 《必須，必定，須要》

你（必須）參加這次會議
You must participate in this meeting.

需: Compound, meaning need, require; example compounds: 《需要(require)，需求(demand)，必需(need)，急需(urgent need)》

植物生長（必需）陽光和雨露
Plants require sunlight and raindrops to grow

It is very easy to mix up 必須 and 必需, even for native speakers, as they have the same pronunciation (cantonese and mandarin) and very similar meanings. In english, both can be represented by "need". "You need to participate in this meeting" and "Plants need sunlight and raindrops to grow".
The easiest way to distinguish the two is to see whether it is a noun or a verb that comes after it. If it is a noun, use 必需， 需要; if it is a verb, use 必須.
得 is quite interesting because it can be used to replace both 必須 or 必需

有錯誤就得批評;做得好就得表揚
Wrong doing needs to be critiqued, good work needs to be complimented
這公工程得三個月才能完成
It takes 3 months to finish this construction

Note that 需要 can be used as a noun as "need(s)"


What’s the characters on this seal of the vase? (Characters identified: 景德鎮製) Found this vase at home.
There is a seal with some characters on it.
Is anybody able to read the words?
Thanks!


How to say "politically correct" or "political correctness" in Chinese? A lot posts online use 政治正确 to mean "politically correct" or "political correctness" in English and I can say it is wrong. A few posts use 政治委婉语, but it doesn't sound good to me either, because 政治 in Chinese only means a small part of "political" in English.

The best translation I can get is: 交际婉语 for "political correctness", and 交际用语委婉 for "politically correct".

Any thought on a better translation?

Assuming Wikipedia is a reliable source, 政治正确 is correct.

There is a simpler explanation of it on Zhidao Baidu as well:

  这要看你是说汉语 “政治正确” 还是英语 “politically correct” 。
  这个词语对英语有比较广泛的意思，即不仅是指涉及政治敏感的语言。 英语 “politically (in)correct”
  形容任何不属于社会规范的语言，比如美国和加拿大忌用一些词语

It's a very literal translation, but that is the proper word, even if a bit misleading.


Comparative Sentences (比较句：A没有B) - Is the grammar of the following combined sentence correct? This question is about Comparative Sentences (比较句：A没有B)
So we have the following two sentences:

爸爸的手机2000 块。
哥哥的手机6000 块。

The assignment is to make these into one sentence using the A没有B structure and the character 贵.
Is the following answer correct? Or is there something wrong with this sentence please:
爸爸的手机没有哥哥贵。
Or should you repeat 的 at least? ->
爸爸的手机没有哥哥的贵。
Or should you always repeat the structure from the first half completely? ->
爸爸的手机没有哥哥的手机贵。
?

The comparison is between [the father's cell phone] and [the brother's cell phone]
爸爸的手机没有哥哥贵 would mean "my father's cell phone is not as expensive as my brother"
Either "爸爸的手机没有哥哥的手机贵" or "爸爸的手机没有哥哥的贵" would be correct


Mandarin Equivalent of 啥子树子招啥虫? Heard 啥子树子招啥虫 used in the same sense as "不是一家人，不进一家门" - I was wondering if there is a similar phrased expression in Mandarin for the first, mentioned, expression.

Note that 啥子树子招啥虫 emphasizes more on similarity of couples of marriage.

龙生龙，凤生凤，老鼠儿子会打洞。

Dragon's son must be a dragon, phoenix's son must be a phoenix, and that of a mouse must can dig holes.

Meaning:

A great man teaches out great sons, a noble man cultivates noble sons. Normal people have only normal posterities.

Sometimes we neglect the second half of the phrase, i.e. just 龙生龙，凤生凤.


Differences between 记得 and 记住 Google obviously doesn't help, both recorded as remember / recall except 记得 as bring to mind and 记住 as bear in mind.
Found a blog post that is confusing with some claiming 记得 is more about having done the act of remembering.
I found another one with the opposite view here, but I recall learning 记得 early on and its meanings included the act of remembering, including a bit of confusion due to some overlap with 想起来 (outside of scope here).
I'd love outside confirmation and possibly a few example sentences using both 记得 and 记住.

The biggest help to clarify the difference is that 记住 has the result complement 住, which is used to express halt (e.g. 站住 stand still), and, by extension, firmness of the action (e.g. 忍住 withstand).
So 记住 literally means "remember firmly", therefore "bear in mind", with also the additional nuance of making an active attempt to remember.
Examples:

他刚说的话很重要，你一定要记住 = What he just said is very important, you must remember it.
中文语法例外太多，我记不住 = Chinese grammar has too many exceptions, I can't remember them.

记得 instead means simply "to remember", "to recall", without an active effort to remember firmly.
Examples:

我昨天晚饭吃了什么，我已经不记得了 = I already don't remember what I had for dinner yesterday
明天记得把垃圾扔掉吧 = remember to take out the trash tomorrow
你去超市记得给我买一些水果 = remember to buy me some fruit when you go to the market


Saying "I have to go" in chat Today I was chatting online with a Chinese person. I wanted to say "I have to go" to end the conversation and disconnect, so I wrote this:

  我得走了

but I don't know if there is a better sentence. Or that sentence is just fine?

This is just fine, and it's a very native usage. :)

「得」 has the meaning of 'must' when read as 'dei3' in pinyin or 'ㄉㄟ ˇ' in zhuyin.

For expressing this, you could also say:

  我不得(note: 'de2', not 'dei3')不走了。
  我必須走了。

But '我得走了' is better in speaking and the above two are more used in writing.


Why does 你可以再用一点遮瑕的东西 use 东西? There’s this sentence in one of DuChinese’s readings :

  首先，我们要涂粉底液。如果你的黑眼圈很严重，你可以再用一点遮瑕的东西。

It makes me confused why the writer doesn’t add “的东西” when they mentioned “粉底” in the first sentence but added it when they mentioned “遮瑕”...
Why didn’t they add “液” behind “遮瑕” just like what they did to “粉底”?

Why not use 东西？Well, in English you also would probably not say, 'apply the foundation creme thingy.' 'apply the foundation creme' suffices. The writer knew it was a liquid,液.

"再用一点遮瑕的东西。" The writer is not sure what exactly this is: creme, powder, liquid, emulsion, so he/she said 'thingy, 东西'

Concealing blemishes is a science. What is best is a quandry:

  BLEMISH-HIDING TIP #3: PICK YOUR FLESH-TONED CONCEALER WISELY

  When it comes to disguising imperfections such as blemishes on your
  face, a creamy concealer is always a good idea. A powder can actually
  give your skin a cakey look and draw more attention to the thing you
  wanted to hide in the first place. No thanks! After applying your
  color correcting or highlighting concealer, try the L’Oréal Paris
  Infallible Total Cover Concealing and Contour Kit, which comes with
  four flesh-toned shades. Apply the closest match to your skin tone
  with your makeup blender so that you can cover your pimple from angles
  that you wouldn’t be able to reach with your finger. And don’t rub the
  concealer on—be gentle by lightly dabbing and rolling the makeup
  blender over your skin.

首先，我们要涂粉底液。
First of all, we have to apply the foundation creme.

如果你的黑眼圈很严重，你可以再用一点遮瑕的东西。
If you have very dark rings under your eyes,

你可以再用一点遮瑕的东西。
you can use a little blemish mask to cover them up.

Actually, I think the blemish mask should come first! It's hard to look beeootiiful!


How to say 反常识的 in English? How to properly translate 反常识的 to English in academic writing? I want to express a surprising and unusual phenomenon that shouldn't appear in an experiment, which is not expected and against the physical principle.

For example,

  However, it is quite 反常识的 that the performance of A is .... blah...


Is it known to which bird species 雎鸠 refers? 关关雎鸠，在河之洲。is a very well known line.

When I look up 雎鸠 in Baidu, I see pictures of ospreys, cormorants，herons, seagulls and other species.

Is it known to which bird species 雎鸠 refers?

According to this site, Pandion haliaetus is not found in China.

So I'm still wondering what 雎鸠 might be.

雎鸠 https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%9B%8E%E9%B8%A0
今江东呼之为鹗 (is called 鹗 in Jiangdong today)
好在江渚山边食鱼。(like to hunt fish in river and mountainside)
《毛诗·传》日：鸟鹫而有别 (similar to eagle but different, and we know hawk and osprey look similar but smaller than eagle)

From Google Translate:

鹗: osprey
osprey: 鱼鹰; 鹗; 雎

Based on the search results, 雎鸠 or 雎 is "osprey" ("fish hawk" seems like it's nickname) . Since zoology is a recent thing, what the author described, might be some kind of small sized raptor bird that hunted nearby river, very likely been osprey or fish hawk (if they are not the same thing)


Confusion of “首相” and "总理" “首相” looks like the prime minister of a royal country, while “总理” is the premier of a republic, but in China's history, there is no official post of ”首相“,but of "丞相“or "宰相", and in the case of countries like Thailand and Malaysia, both of which are kingdoms with king or sultan as the head of state, but the heads of government are named in Chinese (mainland China) as "总理",but not as "首相" like in the UK, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.

By the way, if you have seen pictures of prime minister of Japan, the official name in Kanji of Japanese is "内阁总理大臣", so it should be "总理" but not "首相".

It is very confusing.

In the constitutional monarchy, 首相 is the the head of the cabinet, with the highest executive power.

首, in ancient Chinese, means the first or top. 相, short for 丞相, are the officials(usually with great power, just below the emperor) of the emperor. Therefore, 首相 is the top official of a central government.

In the republican state, there is no prime minister, and 总理 run the central government.

Countries have 首相: Japan, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium...

Countries have 总理: China, Germany, India...
Most countries have a 总理, while USA has neither a 总理 nor a 首相, it has a 国务卿(Secretary of State).
States with 总理 usually have a 总统(president) or a 主席(chairman).


图片 and 照片: are they interchangeable? I see both words used on modern websites.  Do 图片 and 照片 mean the same thing?  Are there cases where they are not interchangeable?

No, they are not interchangeable.

照片 is only the ones taken with a camera. 图片 can be any picture.


make/become friends. 成为朋友，交朋友。 Since we were friends I wanted to write in chinese. Since we were friends.... or ever since we made friends....

In my essay. I wrote 自从我们是朋友。And the teacher correct it, you cannot use the verb 是. She wrote 自从我们交上了朋友，。。  but i cannot find many sentences with 交上 in the internet. What i found was 自从我们成为了朋友，。。。

Are both right? have the same meaning?

"Since" can mean "既然" (as) or "自从" (from the time)

"Since we are friends" is not translated as "自从我们是朋友". It is translated as "既然我们是朋友" (as we are friends).

"Since the time we were friends" is translated as "自从我们是朋友那時候起"

Your teacher is correct, "自从我们(是)朋友" is problematic because the verb "是" (is) doesn't has the meaning of "become"

"Since we'd became friends" should be translated as "自从我们交上了朋友" or "自从我们成为了朋友" (Since the time we'd became friends)


Omitted 了 for multiple verbs in sequence I am analysing the sentence below in order to gain an understanding of when 了 is omitted, in sentences which have several verbs in sequence within a given time context:

有一天，她在图书馆看书，一个男生从她身边走过，看到她的手套掉在地上，那位男生就很有礼貌地帮她捡了起来。

I know 了 indicates the termination (i.e. completion) of a verb within a given time context. From this, I am interpreting every action without a 了 as still in progress in the given time context. It seems to me that each verb without a 了 merely makes the time context more specific, as in my translation below:

"One day, while the girl was reading a book in the library, a boy was walking past her, and he was seeing her glove, which was falling to the ground, after which that boy, while very politely helping her, picked it up."

You will notice I've avoided any sense of termination for every verb except 捡, since 了 has only indicated termination of that action.

My specific questions are:

For verbs which have 了 omitted in sentences such as the example given, can termination of these actions be implied without 了?

Does 了 following the final verb of a sentence imply termination of previous verbs in the sentence?

You should use "了" when you are implying an event has happened in reality.

"了" is not about past. It's a marker, rendering verb's result to reality realm. Verbs can be in imaginary state, you know...

ex: "I would have done that..."

Ask your self:

"What chinese bare verb mean? How to translate 她在图书馆看书?
Is she reading right now? was reading? will read? The correct answer is : it's all at once!"

The best translation will be using some kind of indefinite forms (maximum ambiguity). Imagine that a freind of yours tells you about a girl:

"So I walk in and she is like.. reading in the library"

Ask a question about this picture: "Did it take place or will it take place? Are you telling me about factual past or telling me about probable future? Have you walked in and saw her or will you walk in and see her"

Now, about your sentence:
有一天，她在图书馆看书，一个男生从她身边走过，看到她的手套掉在地上，那位男生很有礼貌地帮她捡起来 (no 了, no 就)

The translation should be indefinite in some sence:

"There is a day once, and a girl reads in a library and the other guy passes her by. He sees that she drops a glove, he picks it up."

Do you see the mood here? It looks like a fairy tale of some sort, it's not real.

Now, if you add 了 at the end, it comes with 就 (since it's a stiff structure here). i.e. 了 is linked with 就 and not with the rest of the sentence, and thus addition of THIS 了 will not render the whole sentence from a fairy tale realm to this world.

有一天，她在图书馆看书，一个男生从她身边走过，看到她的手套掉在地上，那位男生就很有礼貌地帮她捡了起来.

Now translation changes a bit: the first part stays the same and we can't tell if it's an imaginive or real situation (took place in the past), but the last part translates like this:

"He sees that she drops a glove and then就 he picks了(for real) it up. (He will do it if situation is\was\will be real"

Now, unless you add 了 to  the first part of the sentence 有一天，她在图书馆看书，一个男生从她身边走过，看到她的手套掉在地上 you can't tell that situation took place or will take place.
You know 有一天 makes you think that a fairy tale is about to start, so lack of 了 reality makers makes sence! The last 了 is not a marker for the whole sentece but for 就_了 part, there it just stresses logical consequence of the actions (real or imaginary), but it never answers to the question: "Is the WHOLE story a reality or are you imagining things?"


Is "我爱辣" (Wǒ ài là) a correct/understandable/idiomatic way of saying I like my food spicy? When I'm buying food in China, especially in the street but sometimes also in restaurants, people often ask me if it want "là".

I know that means "spicy" and I really enjoy spicy food. As there's not really a word for "yes" in Chinese I often answer "我爱辣" (Wǒ ài là).

Everybody understands me but I'm not sure if it's pidgin Chinese or actually a perfectly valid expression.

For instance I've learned that "辣" means spicy, but maybe it also means "spiciness". Anyway I do know that equivalent Chinese and English sentences are usually not word-for-word literal translations.

This happens when the food can be cooked with (little or much) or without spicy. People ask how should the food cook for you, 我爱辣 (a weird expression) answers this question indirectly -- I like spicy so please put a lot of it in the food. The direct answers could be:

不要 (bùyào) / 不要辣 (bùyào là) / 不放辣椒 (bù fàng làjiāo) "cook without spicy"
微辣 (wēi là) / 少放点 (shǎo fàng diǎn) / 一点点 (yī diǎndiǎn) "cook with a little spicy"
要 (yào) / 多放点 (duō fàng diǎn) "cook with a lot of spicy"

要 (yào) should mean default spiciness and be enough for most people. 多放点 (duō fàng diǎn) is for those who really enjoy spicy.


What is the use of 的是? I have this sentence: "我觉得奇怪的是", which translates to "I feel weird". But wouldn't "我觉得奇怪" suffice?

What is "的是" supposed to do in this sentence? From my research, the best conclusion I came up with was that it turns "奇怪" into a noun and therefore makes the sentence follow the subject + verb + object paradigm.

EDIT

My bad for not posting the complete sentence

  我想学习普通话，因为我觉得奇怪的是，即使我是中国人，但当我去中国旅行时，我却无法与人沟通。

"I wanted to learn Mandarin because I find it odd that I cannot communicate with people when I travel to China even though I'm Chinese."

I thought since it was sectioned with the commas it would have been fine and could act on its own.

It should also be noted this was extracted from a conversation, so I don't know if this would be officially grammatically correct or not. With this new info in mind, does the sentence sound right in a conversation, and, again, what is "的是" doing?

的 (refer to definition 2 in this dictionary)

  代替所指的人或物：唱歌～。

我觉得奇怪的 here refers to things I feel weird.

So, 我觉得奇怪的是 could be interpreted as "things I feel weird are:" or "What I feel weird are:".


Why does "these aren't the droids you're looking for" translate to 这些不是你要找的机器人? 这些不是你要找的机器人
  These aren't the droids you're looking for.
  Chinese Class 101

Question: Why does "these aren't the droids you're looking for" translate to 这些不是你要找的机器人?

I have two particular points of confusion here:

这些 = "these" refers to 2 droids (R2-D2 and C3PO).  Is it okay for 这些 to refer to only 2 things?
机器人 = "robot" combines 机器 = "machine" and 人 = "person", yet R2-D2 is not at all humanoid in shape.  Is this okay too?

"这些" (these) is the correct pronoun for objects in plural number including two

Droid is short for android (a mobile robot usually with a human form)

"Robot" is translated as "机械人/机器人" in Chinese, despite the fact that not all robots look like human (a car assembling machine with only one arm attached to a box is also qualified as robot in English, but to Chinese, that is just a machine - 机械/机器) .

Android is designed to look and act like human, it should be more specifically classified as "人型机械人"(humanoid robot). But to most Chinese, "人型机械人" and "机械人" belong to the same group (they are all machines) therefore translate both "droid" and "robot" as  "机械人/机器人" is acceptable in Chinese

You are right, by its look, R2-D2 should not be classified as an android. Using 'droid' in the English subtitles is technically wrong. But it is a fictional story in a fictional world. It is possible for characters in this world treat robot and droid as the same thing (Storm troopers might not be all well trained in linguistics). Or the term "droid" to them generally means "a machine capable of human like behavior" -- in human form or not


連接 or 連結 for people connecting sector 人與人連結行業

It's 連結 in the picture, but 連接 in the subtitles. Which is correct?

連結 and 連接 are basically the same when it comes to the meaning of 'connect/ link'.
The only difference is 結 is specifically refer to as 'bonded connection' while the connection in 接 can be a firm bond or an unbonded contact.
Also, 連結 can be a noun or a verb, but 連接 is used as a verb only

連 - link; connect

結 - to tie; to bond

連結 = link (n); to link; to connect (v)

~

連 - link; connect

接 - connect; touch

連接 = too connect; to link

Example:
連接兩條電綫 can mean put two wires together to complete an electrical circuit or bond two electric wires together, while 連結兩條電綫 can only mean the two wires are bonded


Requesting something to be done for me in cantonese How do you request something to be done for myself in cantonese?

For example: can you ask him (to get playing cards) for me?

First you say "would you please", which is "唔該"(please/ excuse me- more colloquial) or "請你" (would you please- more literary); you can even say "唔該" and "請你" together and say "唔該請你" (excuse me, would you please)
then you say "help me/ for me", which is "幫我" or "同我"
then you state your request.

For example: "打開度門" (open the door)

The whole sentence would be:

"唔該幫我打開度門" or  "請你同我打開度門"

You can substitute "打開度門" with any request

To be extra polite you can replace "請你" with "麻煩你/ 勞煩你" (trouble yourself)

If it was a command, you can just state your request directly. e,g. "打開度門!" or simply "開門!"

Cantonese use final particle much more often than Mandarin. The most native way to say it, is "唔該幫我打開度門吖" -- using final particle '吖' to soften the tone and make it sound less demanding


What is the meaning and proper usage of 凭什么？ I was watching a TV show and heard them using the expression 凭什么 to say 'why' - I hadn't heard this with this exact meaning before, so I'm wondering what the proper meaning is in English, and what the proper meaning is in Mandarin?

"凭什么” is something similar to "who do you think you are to say i can't do it?" or "you're not qualified to judge me"


''Standing Order'' in Chinese? What is the best way to say a standing order ?
Just to be clear I am referring to a bank standing order where I set it up such that my rent is paid by bank transfer on a monthly basis.

The most literal translation is 常行指示 ('standing instruction'). It is seen used in HSBC and Standard Charted documents. BOC uses 常設指示, which is similar.
定期/按期 (regular; periodical) + 付款/支付 (payment) are also possible, perhaps more idiomatic, translations of standing order in banking (see here), but they are not literal. They also do not specify if the regular payment is pre-instructed by a bank account holder.


What is the English translation for 劲爆? I saw this word in a news headline. It isn't found in any of 4 dictionaries I checked (PLC, CC, ADS for Pleco; YellowBridge.com).

劲 jin4 means strength, energy, or enthusiasm

爆 bao4 means explode or burst

Put them together & you get an enthusiasm explosion? Thanks to anyone who can give me a better understanding. Examples are welcome!

I am native Cantonese speaker. 劲爆 comes from Cantonese.

劲 means strong/unyielding/tough/power. Similar to 厉害 in Mandarin.
爆 is a adverb, originally means "explosion", but here it means "very extremely", other example: 潮爆, 爽爆.


When using 是...的, what should I do when there is both a direct and an indirect object (e.g. 这样话是我告诉他的) or a separable verb (e.g. 这本书是我读书的)? I'm having difficulty around the position of two kinds of objects in the 是...的 structure.
First, what should I do when there is both a direct and an indirect object? Would "这样话是我告诉他的" be correct?
Secondly, what should I do when there is a separable verb? Would "这本书是我读书的" be correct?

A 是 B C 的
“A 是 B C 的” is an emphasized version of "B C A".

A: object
B: subject
C: verb

The emphasis is on B, that subject B is responsible for action C. It very likely that action C is complete and has some visible effect. A can be omitted sometimes if not important.
It can usually be translated into "It is B that Ced A."
这饭是我做的.
It is I that cooked the meal. (not Tom, not Jerry.)

A: 这是谁干的?
A: WHO did this?
B: 是我干的。
B: It is I did it. (I take full responsibility.)

In your example, "这样话是我告诉他的", is correct in structure, but “这样” should be “这”
这话是我告诉他的。
It is I who told him so. (there are no other people that told him this)

"这本书是我读书的" is not correct. First. It should be "读" instead of "读书". Because if you put it back into original (not emphasized) order, it will be "我读书这本书", where "书" is repeated.
However, you cannot say "这本书是我读的" because the effect is not directly visible, and there is no point to emphasis.

A 是 B D C 的
"A 是 B D C 的" can be translated into "It is D that B Ced A"

A: object
B: subject
C: verb
D: adverb

"这本书是我最近读的" is a correct sentence. The decoration gives some additional information, so there is something to emphasize: the emphasis is on "最近". It can be translated as It is recently that I read the book. (not a long time ago)
"这话是我昨天告诉他的。
It is yesterday that I told him this information. (not today, not the day before yesterday.)


How to say "If you would like to know any updates , you can always call or message me" According to my understanding, “update” is translated to “更新” . But this seems to be in the context of Software。 Eg. Software update, OS update ,etc.
But how would you convey update in the following scenario : There is a customer who wants to do online trading.
He has submitted some documents which need to be checked,translated and verified before he starts trading. The whole process may take up to 4 days.
The customer needs to be told that if there's an update , he will be informed by mail. Also, if he wants an update as to where the process has reached,
he can send a text or a mail. In this scenario, how do we accurately convey the message with or without using the translation for "Update" ?

One way I thought could be using 流程有事的话我会通知您。您有问题的话也您通过微信或邮件跟我联系. Any suggestions or alternatives ?

如果您想要了解后续进展的话，可以随时电话或邮件联系我。

Toosky Hierot's comment ”欲获知后续进展如何“ sounds a bit too literary to me. I think "如果您想要了解后续进展的话" is a more common way to say it, though I agree 进展 or 后续进展 is the right word choice here


Subjunctives in Chinese I'm trying to render a song in Chinese from Spanish, precisely this one – lyrics here –, but I'm not sure how to translate the subjunctives at the start. The beginning reads:

May the infinite become starless,
And the immense sea lose its vastness,
But the black of your eyes, may it not die,
And the aroma of your skin, may it stay the same.

I thought of something like:

无边无际可能变成没有星星，
广大的海洋也来失去广漠
但希望你眼睛的黑色不死去
而你皮肤的香气也留一样

Any advice? PS I'm also trying to keep the tune, i.e. keep the translation fitted in the tune, so if you could help me with that and with keeping the rhymes (optional) it would be great.

I disagree with the translation into English of this use of the subjunctive.

The structure
May + [SUBJECT] + [VERB in infinitive form] in English generally implies a type of volitive subjunctive in the Romance languages, where
the speaker has the authority to wish (or even to will) that something happen.

Here though, I would see the original language construction is as a potential subjunctive, which in English would have [SUBJECT] + may + [VERB in infinitive form], which would result in:

  The infinite may become starless

In this case, though could precede the subject and introduce the condition.

  Though the infinite may become starless

If there is a hint of any volitive or optative subjunctive however, we could replace though with the construction rather that before the subject, and keep the subjunctive:

  Rather that the infinite become starless

In Chinese, which lacks the distinction of indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods in its verbs, additional indicators of the grammatical mood are required. But they need not be attached to each verb that has the subjunctive in Spanish or to each occurrence of the word may in English.

If we establish that this is a potential subjunctive, then the use 可 as a monosyllabic verb before the main verb is an adequate literary device; depending on the rhythm, we may want use the diysllabic 可以 or 可能 which is a little more common in daily speech and thus a little less elevated.

  无穷苍昊可逝星

  无穷的穹苍里的星星可能消逝

I've translated the other vocabulary items differently depending on the style, and have translated become starless with an equivalent of lose stars or the stars disappear .

Using 虽 or 虽然 in the first clause can reinforce this sense of potentiality if necessary.

  虽无穷苍昊逝星 / 虽无尽天可逝星

  虽然无穷的穹苍里的星星可能消逝

But if we do want to add a sense of the emotional dependency, much as English can add Rather that instead of Though at the beginning before the subject, the disyllabic word 宁愿 can begin the sentence, or the similar 宁 (in an elevated classically-influenced style) or 宁可 (in more common speech) can precede the main verb; these are often followed by 也 with a negative verb or a verb of regret or non-volition in the volitional clause (like in Italian and Spanish, but different to English's main clause with than after a clause beginning rather that). Such mutually dependent clauses are often a characteristic of Chinese sentences.

  宁愿无穷苍逝星 / 无穷苍昊宁逝星 ...

  也惜你瞳乌死去 / 但愿你瞳也不亡

  宁愿无穷的穹苍里的星星消逝 / 无穷的穹苍里的星星宁可消逝 ...

  也愿你眼孔乌黑不至面对死亡 / 你眼中瞳仁的黑孔也不要死去

I hope that gives you a few more tools to use in your translation.


What is 佈施? I found it on a bilingual blog I have already looked this word up in mdbg, and have found nothing.

I guess you might want to tag it as religion (or move it to religion section in SE) as this is a question more related to buddhism than chinese language.  From this link:

布施

指把自身所擁有或所知道的施予他人。除了財物的布施 (財布施) 外，還包括佛法的傳揚 (法布施) 和信心的給予 (無畏布施)。

I'll try giving a simple explanation:

It means to give / donate all you have / all you knows (your knowledges) to others.  Other than giving out all your wealth, it includes spreading of buddhism and giving others confident.


How did the word "ketchup" come into the English language? Apparently, there are three primary theories regarding its introduction into the English language from Chinese.
The former is from the Cantonese "keh jap" or equivalently 茄汁, literally translating as tomato juice.
The latter attributes its origin to two words in the Hokkien dialect in South Fujian province. The theory is that ketchup deviates from the word 'koê chiap' or equivalently 'kê chiap'. This, on the other hand, translates as fish sauce, or for in a more specific context, brine of pickled fish or shellfish.
Intriguingly, the Mandarin translation of ketchup today is
番茄酱. It differs from the original 茄汁 or 鮭汁, of potential interest to linguists.

Would anyone have any information as to where exactly the word "ketchup" originated from in China? Or possibly shed some light on the matter?

As a ketchup lover, and a fan of Lea & Perrins Worcester Sauce, I can see the Chinese, fishy-brine, vinegar-based connection.

Have a look here. Especially 3、

One of these words may be the Daddy of the word ketchup: 茄汁”、“鮭汁”、“醢汁


Are there Escher sentences in Chinese? [kinda technical] I'm a linguist with an extremely superficial knowledge of Chinese, so I'd like to query some native speakers about a grammatical phenomenon I've been thinking about for some time.
In Indoeuropean languages (at the very least) there are sentences that speakers claim are both grammatical and meaningful, but, when pressed to explain what they mean, they suddenly realize such sentences make no sense whatsoever. They are sometimes called Escher sentences.

(1) More people have been to Russia than I have

(1), for example, sounds grammatical to native English speakers; however, it doesn't appear to have any precise, truth-conditional meaning (in particular, it is not clear what types of things are being compared cardinality-wise).
Does Chinese have anything remotely similar to (1)? Google Translate offers the following translations:

(2) 去俄罗斯的人数比我多
(3) 去俄罗斯的人比我要多。
(4) 去俄罗斯的人比我更多。

Are (2)-(4) grammatical and/or meaningful? Is this phenomenon ever attested in Chinese?
Thanks in advance for your help!

"More people have been to Russia than I have" doesn't make sense in English, therefore, it wouldn't make sense in Chinese neither.
(2)-(4) would not be considered grammatical by native Chinese speakers at all.
"Many people have been to Russia more than I have"  (有很多去俄羅斯比我去得多的人 ) does make sense.
As for 病句 (ill sentences), some people do say things ungrammatically, mainly due to mistaken word type (e.g. mistaken adjective as adverb) or wrongly omit things that shouldn't be omitted
Example:

他很有勇氣 (he has courage) --> 他很有勇敢 (he has brave)
勇敢 is mainly an adjective or adverb, using it as a noun require a classifier, e.g. 這份勇敢 (this bravery)

~

無法無天的行動 (lawless act) --> 無法行動 (can't take action)
reduce 無法無天 (lawless) to 無法 (cannot) and omit the adjective marker "的" change the meaning completely

However 驚天動地的行動 (earth-shattering action) can be reduced to 驚天行動 and the meaning of the sentence would not be changed because 驚天 is clearly referring to 驚天動地


What is the meaning of the passage ”天下失道，而後仁義生焉……“? I came across this passage:

天下失道，而後仁義生焉。國家不治，而後孝子生焉。民爭不分，而後慈惠生焉。道逆時反，而
後權謀生焉。

To translate, I think it would be "When all have lost their way, benevolence shall follow thereof. When the kingdom no longer governs, filial sons shall follow thereof. When the people unified strive, compassion shall follow thereof. When the Dao is lead astray and times are reversed, strategy (scheme?) shall follow thereof."
Does it mean that when the Way is lost, certain virtues will return regardless, or does it mean that only when the Way is lost can these mentioned virtues be attained? It seems that the first is more plausible, but the ”民争不分，而后慈惠生焉“ part seems to go against that, because ”民争不分“ generally seems like a positive notion and so does the following cluase, in contrast to the other pairs where the first clause has a negative connotation.

民爭不分 doesn't mean 'people unified strive', it means 'people fight each other and not fulfill their duty
民爭 = 人民互相爭奪/人民互相爭執 (People fighting each other/ People quarrel with each other)
不分 = 不安分/ 不守本分 (not stay within one's bounds)
My understanding of this passage is when the social moral decay, individual benevolence will show itself -- it is not noticeable before because when everyone was moral, being moral was nothing special.
The following statements followed the same logic. When all people were decent, individual kindness was just a norm


凭, 按, 根据, 依据, 依照, and 按照 how to use these words correctly? All of these words mean "According to", but I'm wondering are there any different in use. For example, some of them might only be used as adj. or adv.; some of them might have other meanings.

There are actually two ways to answer your question. I'm not sure which would be more helpful to you:

1) an etymological answer: why are these particular words being used in this particular way;

2) a grammatical answer: what syntactic differences exist between the words; what different kinds of sentences are they used in.

For me, I often find the etymological answer is more useful, in that I get more of a sense of what the speaker is thinking. Grammar often does not help that much in illuminating what someone is thinking, though it is essential for using the word correctly yourself.

I'll try the etymological approach here, and look at what 按, 照, 依, 憑, 根, and 據 are doing here.

按 = to press with the finger; imagine the judge running a finger down a list of rules.
依 = to lean on; to rely on something to hold you in a set position.
照 = to illuminate; in fact, this is a key word: you could take it to mean 'according to' all by itself, with modifications indicated by what's in front: 依照,  按照 are variations of 照; they both rely on light to some degree

憑 seems to be 'rely on' in a mental sense; it is closer to 靠 in meaning than 依. Of all the words here, 憑 is the furthest removed from the central meaning of 'according to'.

根 means root; in a more fig. or adverbial sense, it means to take something as a base, what something is built on
據 is another key word; it originally meant to support oneself with a staff. Light is not necessary for this. If one's staff is touching the ground (rooted, 根據) one knows one has a solid basis for action. One can also lean on one's staff 依據, and avoid slipping.

So basically there are two ideas here:
照 is to follow something that illuminates one's way.  This is often realized as following someone's rules, methods, or example.
據 is to have a fixed point that allows one to act without mishap. This often suggests the idea of a basis for one's actions or beliefs

These two basic ideas can be modified by appropriate forms. 依 works with both 照 and 據; on the other hand 按 doesn't work with 據 (why press on a staff with one finger?) and 根 doesn't work with 照 (what is the basis of a lamp?)

This is what I see as the semantics involved; for grammar, the comment under your answer has perhaps more useful guidance.


Which (if any) of these name ideas sound native? Which sound foreign? At work I've gained the nickname "Oreo Boy" because everyone's twice my age or older (hence the "boy") and I've got a noticeable habit of stuffing my face with junk from the vending machine (hence the "Oreo"). After some thought I decided my Chinese nickname and internet handle would be 小奥利奥 because it takes my IRL nickname into consideration but it's also a double entendre because of my mixed heritage.

I'm currently deciding on what I'd like my actual 名字 to be and I'd like to pick somebody's mind about my current selection (my IRL name is Justin):

竭心 - jié xīn - "To do one's utmost." From what I understand, Chinese parents often pick positive and/or masculine words for their son's name and this one seems to fit that niche.
居心 - jū xīn - Acording to Yabla this can mean both "a tranquil heart or mind" and "to harbor (evil) intentions", the former sounds like a proper name while the latter sounds chuuni (and yet I like it).
嘉鑫 - jiā xīn - Doesn't seem to translate to any specific phrase, just conveys the two ideas, "excellence" and "prosperity". From a brief search I found that this is a legitimate name being used but I'm not really fond of it.
酒神 - jiǔ shén - The Wine God of Roman mythology, Bacchus. Can't say anyone would ever take me seriously if I picked a name like that.

Just to clarify so that my question isn't marked as "opinion based" or "too broad", I am asking if any of the names I've listed could pass as an actual name in China, or if you heard these names would instantly be able to tell that it was a foreigner?

None of them is good enough.

竭心 is weird.

竭 means to exhaust as in 尽心竭力.

BUT while you can say 尽力, you cannot say 竭心, because you cannot exhaust your heart, while 尽 means to do most/to do to the greatest extent, so uou can say 尽心.

居心 is originally constructed the same as 属意, “to place your heart/mind at”

it cannot stand alone to mean anything:

居心叵测（hard to know where one's heart is placed—— harbouring unfathomable motives）

汝居心正，吾知免矣（《三国志》）（You place your heart upright, (so) I know (I) do not (have to worry about you)—— You are a upright man, ...）

居心 do not mean a tranquil heart or mind Yabla is not always reliable.

When emphasized, 居心 is always a derogatory word:

其人有居心（The man is certainly placing his heart at something—— He is ill intended）

嘉鑫 a mediocre, common name.

酒神 a overly specific name of a foreign deity.

The three bold aspects should all be avoided in a Chinese name.

For example, the name 公明 is good, but no one of surname 赵 will use it as a name.（赵公明 is a deity）


Asking Someone How Their Chinese Studies Are Going I have a friend who has started learning Mandarin, and I want to ask them how their Mandarin studies are going. The first phrase that comes to mind is this:

你中文学习得怎么样？

I'm not sure, however, if 怎么样 is correct. I don't actually know its exact meaning, but I've always thought of it as "how's it going?", such as in “你过得怎么样？”. Therefore, in this case, "it" would be the person's Chinese studies.

Is this correct? If not, what would be a better way to ask this question?

It's correct. It sounds native enough.
"怎么样" in this sentence is used for asking how the things are. i.e. Are they good or bad? It's the same in "你过得怎么样" (literally "How are you getting along (these days)? ")
Your friend could answer "还行" ("not so bad") "很好" ("very well") or "不怎么顺利" ("not so well"), as a few examples.


What is the difference between 喝 and 饮? Both 喝 and 饮 seem to mean 'to drink', but is there nuance beyond this?

饮 is more of a classical term which mostly exists in established words and phrases:

As verb: 饮酒, 饮水思源，饮鸩止渴, 饮泣, 饮恨, etc.
As (part of) noun: 饮品, 饮料, 饮片, 饮具, 冷饮, 饮食, 饮用水, etc.

Use 喝 in everywhere else.

Usually you don't create words and phrases with 饮. I tried a few and they all sound funny:

饮可乐, 饮咖啡, 饮西北风, 饮汤 -- DON'T EVER USE THESE.


Whats the most well known 圣谕书? 四川方言词典 defines 圣谕书 as:

  (名)旧时民间流传的劝人行善，宣扬因果报应的故事书，本为*讲圣谕用的底本，所以称～：屋主人时常惯用小竹片撑开眼睑，坐在下面看～。(祖61)

圣谕书 sounds like an interesting version of "Chinese fables".

I'm curious as to what the most well known 圣谕书 is?

The Sacred Edict 《聖諭》was first published by order of the Kangxi Emperor in 1670 (there were earlier works, but this was the first with this title). It was published in a revised and expanded version in 1724 by the Yongzheng Emperor called 《聖諭廣訓》There is an article on this in the Chinese Wikipedia.  There is also an article in the English Wikipedia under Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor.

The Sacred Edict was a 'hortatory' work, meaning it 'urged people to do good' (勸善). There was a whole category of such books called 善書; you can still pick these up at Buddhist or Taoist temples in Taiwan.  I wouldn't call these books of fables, though.


Difference between 的 and 个 Does it make sense to say 我个心? I suppose its meant to be 我的心. I still cannot distinguish when to use it. Maybe it to do with the fact that I am a Cantonese speaker?

我个心 does not make sense. I guess you're confusing 个 with 嘅.

我嘅广东话讲得好唔好 => 我的广东话说得好不好

—————————————————————————

个(quantifier) pattern：number + 个 + noun

examples：一个人，六个核桃

when used without a number it normally just mean one：

我有个朋友 => 我有一个朋友

—————————————————————————

的(particle) pattern：noun/pronoun + 的 + noun

examples: 我的心，我喜欢的人，聪明的孩子


How does 他对我的... work? From a news article I found through Baidu, we have:

  他对Victoria的爱，所有人都看在眼里。
  (Tā duì Victoria de ài, suǒyǒu rén dōu kàn zài yǎn lǐ.)

I'm not sure how to translate this; maybe something like "everyone can see his love for Victoria in his eyes", but I'm just guessing.  I've seen this style of sentence before (jukuu.com):

  她对我的热情已经冷起来了
   Her passion for me has cooled down.
  (Tā duì wǒ de rèqíng yǐjīng lěng qǐláile.)

Both have the style of beginning [someone]对[someone else]的[something]...  I'm confused as to how this works. In particular, it seems the 的 particle in the second example above applies not to 我 but to 她.

Question: How does 他对我的... work?

I'm hoping to get a basic explanation and some simple illustrative examples.

I'm familiar with e.g. 他对我不公平 (tā duì wǒ bù gōngpíng) = "he is unfair to me", but it seems different with the particle 的.

This is a language phenomenon called “topic and comment” (or: “theme and rheme”) that exists in many (if not all?) languages, but is realized differently from language to language.

In both of your examples, the first part (他对Victoria的爱 and 他对我的热情) is introduced as the topic and then commented upon in the second part.

To make it look more correct, you can imagine an omitted 至于 (“As to...”) in the beginning of the sentence:

  (至于)他对Victoria的爱，所有人都看在眼里。

  As to his love for Victoria, everyone could see it in his eyes.

  (至于)她对我的热情已经冷起来了

  As to her warmth for me, they had already cooled down

Since your second example does not end in a period, one could expect it to continue. For example:

  (至于)她对我的热情已经冷起来了[我干什么也没办法。]

  As to her warmth for me having already cooled down [there is nothing I can do about it.]

This structure does not necessarily follow the typical SVO structure of Chinese grammar, but there are many very typical Chinese patterns which do not follow SVO.

On the other hand, your second example could be read as a simple sentence:
她对我的热情 is the (extended) subject, 已经冷起来了 is the predicate (with adverbial).

  Her warmth for me has already cooled down


How is 得 used in 只有懂得节制欲望的人...？ I have always known 得 as an adverb. For example 跑得很快 ，run quickly or run very fast. The following sentence

  只有懂得节制欲望的人，才能享受到人生的真正乐趣

means "Only a person that understands (how to) control his desires can achieve true happiness." However, I don't understand the use of 得 here. I think I would have written it without the 得. Or is 懂得 a special phrase?

In 懂得, 得 is pronounced dé and means "gain" or "obtain", as in the first definition:

  　1. 获取，接受：～到。～失。～益。～空（kòng）。～便。～力。～济。心～。

That is, 懂得 means "to obtain understanding".

The meaning you were referring to is a different use of the same character, and is pronounced de (neutral tone):

  　2. 用在动词或形容词后的连接补语，表示效果或程度：跑～快。香～很。

It is true that in your example, the 得 can be omitted without loss of meaning, but it is used to improve the rhythm of the sentence, as the emphasis is on the "懂得".


What is the meaning of 刚 in 变形金刚? I came across the word 变形金刚 in a short children's story that I read and Pleco dictionary states that it refers to either shape-shifting warriors protecting the Buddha, or Transformers (which Google displays almost exclusively if you search the term).  Obviously the connection between the 2 meanings is clear.

But I'm unsure what is the meaning of 刚 in this phrase.  I asked my wife but she even believed the character is 钢 so didn't have a suitable answer.

Is there a historic meaning of 刚, or a historical transformation (!) from another character to this current one, which would enlighten me as to why this character is used in this phrase?

「剛」originally meant unyielding/stubborn/strong. 金剛 is a traditional phrase which is also used to translate a Buddhist word from Sanskrit (वज्र, vajra).

Vajra (PIE root: *weǵ-, English descendants: watch, wake, vigor, vigil) is seen by Buddhists as variously a thunderbolt or diamond, symbolising extreme hardness/power/indestructibility, and by semantic extension a kind of symbol or weapon, and further extension a guardian (spirit) which holds this weapon.

As you’ve already seen, 變形金剛 is a reference to Buddhist temple guardian statues (see 四大金剛) which each hold a kind of vajra (the weapon).


Meaning of 上 as Result Complement I look up in youdao and it says meanings of 上 as below :

(1) from the high position looking down: 登上山顶, 爬上河堤

(2) presents the result of the action: 穿上外衣, 没吃上饭

(3) presents the beginning and continuation of the action: 她爱上了草原。or 他拿起一把铲就干上了。

So, How can I know when to use 上 after a verb?

Because after reading the definition, I am still confused: to express 1st meaning, used verbs must show the upward direction of action? is 2nd meaning the same as "完"?

from the high position looking down

When the verb denotes upward action or direction, and the object denotes 'comparatively high position', '上' means 'up to (successfully)'

Example:

登山顶 - reach the mountain top (登 shows you are attempting to reach the mountain top, but doesn't clearly indicate you have done so successfully)

登(上)山顶 - reach (up to) the mountain top (登上 indicates you not only attempted, but also successfully reached up to the mountain top)

爬河堤 - Climb the river embankment (爬 shows you are attempting to climb an embankment)

爬(上)河堤 - Climb (up to) the river embankment (爬上 indicates you not only attempted, but also successfully climbed up to the embankment)

presents the result of the action:

When the verb denotes 'applying',  '上' denotes 'onto successfully'

Example:

穿外衣 - wear jacket (the action 穿 must be applied to a body)

穿(上)外衣 - wear jacket onto (上 shows the verb 穿 is successfully applied onto a body)

寫四個字 - write four words (the action 寫 must be applied to a surface)

寫(上)四個字 - write four words onto (上 shows the verb 寫 is successfully applied on to a surface)

presents the beginning and continuation of the action:

when the verb implies it is an ongoing action

Example:

她爱草原 - she loves grassland (the action love is a continuous action. )

她爱上了草原 - she fell in love with grassland (上 show the beginning of the verb 爱, and the verb 爱 itself is a continuous action)

吃上饭 is not an example for 'verb that indicates successfully apply'. It is an example for 'verb that indicate successfully acquire'

吃饭 - eat meal

吃(上)饭 - (successfully) eat (acquired) meal


What is the difference between 他, 它, and 她 What is the difference between 他, 她, and 它?

I want to know when you use one and when not to. It seems pretty basic language because I hear 他, 她, and 它 everywhere in Chinese language.

Anything else would be appreciated.

Disclaimer: I am a native speaker, but I am neither a professional linguist, nor have I received any sufficient grammar training beyond high school Chinese, so please take a grain of salt.

“他” would be “he” in English， “她” would be “she” and “它” would be “it". We use it exactly like that in English.

a mnemonic device: the left component of "她” is “女字旁”， which is an indication that the word is related to female.


Is there an online program that can type pinyin for traditional Chinese? I studied pinyin so I naturally type simplified Chinese but now I want to type traditional Chinese. Is there a program available where I can type traditional Chinese using Pinyin method? Thanks

I use Sogou input, there's a preference setting for it. And I believe many Chinese input have it too.