How does 文科生活组团 mean "humanities life block" and is there a better translation? At Nankai University, we have this sign:

It says:

文科生活组团
wénkē shēnghuó zǔtuán
humanities life block (the translation on the sign)

It breaks into 文科 (liberal arts) and 生活 (life) and 组团 (form a team) using the dict.cn translations.  However, it's not clear to me how these pieces fit together to form "humanities life block".  Nor is it clear to me what the actual meaning is.
Question: How does 文科生活组团 mean "humanities life block" and is there a better translation?

If this translation is not made deliberately, it is an apparent mistake.
A more proper translation will be:
Living Complex for Liberal Arts Students
where "生活" is "live", “组团” is "complex", and "文科" is "liberal arts".
I visited Nankai University's website, and found that it is a complex area with dormitories and other facilities for student's daily life.


What does 虚怀若谷 mean? What does 虚怀若谷 mean? I'm learning some Chinese idioms and the translation that I was given was long and confusing, especially since my Mandarin isn't good. Can someone help me translate it?

虚 = empty

怀 = chest (metaphorically represents the storage place for beliefs and ideas in a man )

若 = like

谷 = valley ( a valley is vast and empty-- metaphor for one's mind not filled with preconceived notions )

  虚怀若谷 means: 'one's ability to accept (new idea or different opinion) is as vast as a valley.'

In short, a man who is 虚怀若谷, is a humble and open minded man


Unable to find matching script for this artifact inscription I need help getting this translated. I think it's a lesser seal or even Hong Shan era. Attempts to translate by myself have failed to match the script.

turn it upside down:

the middle one is 㞢 (u+37a2), which means “have, exist”
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=㞢
the lower one is 屮 (u+5c6e), which is the original of “草” (grass); in context, it means grass or wood
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=屮
the top one is not yet identified, most likely is a location related character.
have fun :)


Is 你看看自己 correct for daily common speaking in Mandarin language? Is 你看看自己 correct for daily common speaking in Mandarin language?
or people can understand it but they don't say it that way and better say 你看看你?

Both are correct, and both have similar meaning. These two phrases could be used to blame on someone for something.
E.g.
你看看自己這副無精打采還病懨懨的樣子, 誰看了都討厭。
你看看你, 跟你說不要亂碰你還碰, 結果現在果然受傷了吧。


How much more is '翻一番‘ I think this means 'double the sales volume', but 翻 can mean 'turnover' as in 'sales volume' or 'double'. '一番‘ seems to mean 'twofold'. I'm a bit confused.

。。。在未来十年内实现销售额翻一番， 。。。maybe = ...double the turnover in the next ten years ...

Which word is 'double'??

Here 翻 means multiply, 番 means time;fold.

And
翻番/翻一番 -> *2(double)
翻两番 -> *4
翻三番 -> *8
... ...


I Want to Switch Baidu to Pinyin from Simplified I am a new student to learning Chinese and am having quite the problem using the internet. I am learning pinyin first and am wondering how I can change my Baidu account to pinyin from simplified.

Cheers,
Matt

After reading around I realized my error. There are some browser addons that display the Pinyin but I had assumed wrong. Pinying is mostly used for pronunciation and typing but Chinese sites like Baidu normally display in simplified and there is no way to switch them. Simplified is for reading.

Hopes this helps anyone from feeling as dumb as me.


Is pronunciation as important as it used to be? Recent "puns" are showing a big change in pronunciation:

神马 [play on 什么 | me -> mǎ]
妹纸 [play on 妹子 | zi -> zhǐ]
歪果 [play on 外国 | wài -> wāi && guó -> guǒ]
肿么 [play on 怎么 | zěn -> zhǒng]

We have (quite big!) changes in tones and changes in actual 'sound' pronunciation (pinyin, if you will).

Does pronunciation matter that much any more?
Is it easier to be understood these days with poor pronunciation?
Are people more accustomed to "accents" and variants in pronunciation?

My observation is that there is a trend in the internet that some people, especially the youths, intentionally alter the "Han Zi" expression of some frequently used words. It is a way they make fun of their text and want to be more attractive.

The reason is not because the tone in the language is less important or has any change. It is simply a technical issue. Most of the PinYin input systems in computers and smart phones do not request a tone input. Instead, the screen may display a list of homophones to choose. This provides a chance for the youths to play with different characters.

While most of the "experiments" are wrong, a few of them indeed makes sense. For example, "什么都是浮云" （什么金银财宝对于人生来讲，都是过眼烟云，不值一提）was changed to "神马都是浮云". It has an apparent meaning that the shape of a horse in the sky is actually cloud. But the readers still are able to connect it to its original meaning.


How to read these vowel diagrams? I've come across a couple of vowel diagrams. Here one:

Here's another:

I'm not really sure how to interpenetrate these charts. Any ideas?

In pronouncing any given vowel, the recorded frequency spectrum will show distinct amplitude peaks (of the frequency spectrum). These peaks are called formants, and it is commonly accepted that the two lowest frequency formants taken together are enough to characterise the vowel.
The first formant F1 is the lowest frequency formant, and the second formant F2 is the second lowest frequency formant, etc.

Spectrogram of American English vowels [i, u, ɑ] showing the formants F1 and F2. The darkness of the band corresponds to the height of the amplitude/frequency plot; darkest areas show local peaks. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formant#/media/File:Spectrogram_-iua-.png

The F1 frequency (range) corresponds to the perceived openness/height of the vowel, and the F2 frequency (range) corresponds to the perceived backness of the vowel.

Wikipedia IPA vowel chart

To demonstrate the effect of the F1 and F2 components on vowels, you can use artificial vowel generators which take these parameters to produce audible vowels, e.g. http://auditoryneuroscience.com/vocalizations-speech/two-formants.

As an example, consider the

Chengdu /o/ sound, which the graph says is at F1 ≈ 440, F2 ≈ 600 Hz

Pengzhou /o/ sound, which the graph says is at F1 ≈ 550, F2 ≈ 875 Hz

The corresponding artificial vowels are (unmute the audio in the imgur image)

Chengdu

Pengzhou

Produced from auditoryneuroscience.com with a fundamental frequency of 110 Hz


Why is 我很要... an invalid statment Why is it that to say I very much or really want something I have to say 我很想要... and not just 我很要...

So if I wanted a cup of coffee I would say

  我要一杯咖啡

But if I want to say I really want coffee I have to add 很想 and not just add 很

  我很想要一杯咖啡

Why is this the case? or is my understanding of this incorrect?

I'm a native Chinese speaker.

If you want a cup of coffee, it is okay to say:

  我要一杯咖啡

but actually, in most cases, you should say:

  我想要一杯咖啡

This is because "想要" is more polite, although "want" means both "想要" and "要" if we directly translate it.

Regarding your question, if you want to tell people that you really want something (or to do something), you should say it in a polite way. So you should say

  我很想要一杯咖啡

By the way, if you feel this complicated, you can simply forget the expression of "我要 + something", and just say "我想要 + something" everywhere.


先进个人奖, what is this? I'm not really sure this is the correct website to ask for this, I'm sorry if it is not. Anyway, I'm trying to understand what this honour/award is (in English I often see it translated as "outstanding individual" or "advanced individual" award) and I'm trying to figure out mainly two things:

In which cases are you awarded with this honour/award?
Who can award it?

I'm an Italian guy and the closest I found for my country is this (see knight grade), is it really similar to it? According to Wikipedia the latter is awarded to

reward merits acquired toward the Nation in the field of literature, arts, economy and the commitment in public offices and activities carried out for social, philanthropic and humanitarian purposes, as well as for prolonged and distinguished services in civil and milirary career

Thanks!

China's Advanced Individual Award is for a person who exceeds expectations working in education, government, military, environmental operations or any other social organization. Usually this person must be the highest contributor of work or innovation within their peers.
As Shaw already said, it can be issued by whatever authority the individual is working in.
Why this exists:
At the beginning of the the People's Republic of China, all private enterprise was being to being taken over by the communist party. China actually prospered relatively well at the beginning but there was a high demand to redistribute food to the workers in the city and it became apparent that China's agricultural system was severely outdated and lacked modern farming equipment. The issue grew when Mao Zedong started the Great Leap Forward (大跃进) which emphasized stamping out "slack labor" all while the government was still punishing class enemies. So there was a dilemma  to award workers for their achievements without making them class enemies. Deng Xiaoping, advocated for some type of award for high achieving workers, which eventually he got after he became Mao's successor. The Advanced Individual Award (though its name has changed depending on the context) was an extension of Xiaoping's effort to award high achieving workers.
(Note that I am brushing over a lot of dense history here so forgive some of the over simplifications)


Where is 肉 pronunced "you"? I have heard 肉 pronounced you (not sure of the tone, 4th probably, as in: yòu) on multiple occasions. It seems to be a northern Chinese thing - as opposed to a southern thing - but I'm not sure on specifics.

In which locales is 肉 pronounced you?

Edit: I'm getting a lot of responses with Cantonese examples, which is interesting, but I'm fairly certain that this is a northern Chinese thing as I mentioned in my question.

People from northen east provinces（Dongbei，which includs：黑龙江Heilongjiang, 吉林Jilin，辽宁Liaoning）with accents pronounce 肉 as you4.


What is the grammatical reason for 的 at the end of short responses such as 好的, 是的 and 會的? I've always been curious about this: What is the grammatical reason for 的 at the end of these short responses?

Q: 這樣好嗎？
A: 好的。

Q: 你是美國人嗎？
A: 是的。

Q: 你會彈鋼琴嗎？
A: 會的。

Can someone shed some light on it for me?

的: positive response? Not exactly!
The function of 的 is well stated in 漢典:

4 . 助词，用在句末， 表示肯定的语气 ，常与“是”相应：这句话是很对～。
At the end of a sentence, 的 is an auxiliary word, indicating a response with emphasized confidence. It is often used in the "是……的" structure.

I think it's not proper to literally translate 表示肯定的语气 into "indicating a positive response". That's because, although the example sentence

这句话是很对的。 This sentence is quite right.

is a positive response, a negative response in the 是...的 structure perfectly make sense too!

这句话是不对的。 This sentence is not right.

The 是...的 structure has been well studied in this question. See golddc and 孤影萍踪's answer.
的 in a short answer
Come back to OP's question. Indeed, when 的 is used in a short answer, it's generally a positive answer.

Q: 你會彈鋼琴嗎？ A: 會的。
Q: Can you play piano? A: (Yes), I can.

But I would rather say, this effect is related to psychology. Most of the time, we tend to be confident to give a positive response; however on the contrary, a negative response is seldom stated with confidence.

Q: 你會彈鋼琴嗎？ A: 不會的。

The grammar is perfect in this sentence, but it would sound like:

Q: Can you play piano? A: Of course I can't.

You would feel such an answer sounds cynic.
For a neutral question (I mean, whether a "yes" or a "no" answer won't be specially expected), a negative response with confidence is commonly used too.

Q:他會來嗎？ A：不會的。
Q: Will he come? A: I'm sure he won't.
Q:你是黨員嗎？ A:不是的。
Q: Are you a party member? A: Of course not.

It is grammatically perfect and sounds right.
Conclusion
In Chinese, 肯定的语气 is a little ambiguous. It can mean either "positive mood" or "confident mood". In this auxiliary word 的 case, 肯定的语气 is better to be considered as the confident mood.


HSK6 Standard Course: Does the sentence 她的脾气不好，经常不知道为什么突然就生气了 violate the textbook's own grammar rule regarding inconsistent subjects? The HSK6 textbook has this example of the inappropriate use of a subject.

(✗) 他向国家捐献出了一张祖传的字画，具有极高的研究、保存价值。

主语残缺。前一分句的主语是“他”，后一分句的主语是“字画”，暗中更换了主语，致使后一句缺少了主语，应改为“这张字画具有极高的研究、保存价值”。
HSK标准教程6级上，51页。

It argues that it's incorrect because the sentence begins with the subject 他, and switches to another subject (i.e., 字画) without declaring it.
I'm interested in applying this grammatical logic to the following sentence from the same textbook (it's intended to be a grammatically correct sentence):

她的脾气不好，经常不知道为什么突然就生气了。
HSK标准教程6级上，90页。

In particular, the subject in the first part of the sentence is 她的脾气 ("her temperament").  If I were to apply the above logic to the second part of the sentence, the subject of the second part remains 她的脾气, so it should be translated as:

Her temperament is not good, [and] [her temperament] often doesn't know why [it] suddenly gets angry.

There might be some reason why the above grammar rule doesn't apply here, but I don't see why.  To me, it looks like it violates its own grammar rule, but it'd be nice to check this.
Question: Does the sentence 她的脾气不好，经常不知道为什么突然就生气了 violate the textbook's own grammar rule regarding inconsistent subjects?

她的脾气不好， (她)经常不知道为什么突然就生气了

The above are two independent sentences in a comment
sentence 1: [她的脾气]不好 (她的脾气 is the subject)
sentence 2: [她]经常不知道为什么突然就生气了 (她 is the omitted subject)
The subject 她 in sentence 2 is omitted because both sentences are the comment of an implied topic '她' (both sentences describe '她')
topic: 她 (implied)
comment 1: 她的脾气不好
comment 2: (她)经常不知道为什么突然就生气了 - 她 is omitted because it is the same subject in the implied topic 她
To unite the two sentences, we can make '她' the only subject

她脾气不好，经常不知道为什么突然就生气了

'她' is the subject of both 脾气不好 and 经常不知道为什么突然就生气了 therefore no need to repeat it
Edit:
她脾气不好 and 她经常不知道为什么突然就生气了 are closely related in logic, therefore, we can presume they are comments on the same topic/subject.
If the two comments are not closely related, we might not be allowed to omit the subject 她 in the second sentence, even both sentences are comments on the implied topic 她
Example:
她的兒子今年三歲，她在中學教書
If you omit 她 in the second sentence and wrote "她的兒子今年三歲，在中學教書" It would mean her three years old son is teaching at middle school


Why is there no 地 in 不小心踢到椅子 ("carelessly kicked the chair")? A bunch of examples:

  (1) 脚不小心踢到椅子上面[src]
  (2) 在上课，后面的人不小心踢到我椅子了[src]
  (3) 孩子不小心踢到椅子[src]
  (4) 贾玲跳舞,不小心踢到椅子,椅子腿断了,陈赫非常关心![src]
  (5) 脚肿了，是不小心踢到椅子脚上，小脚趾肿了[src]

I don't understand why there's no 地 here, i.e., 不小心地踢, as per

  Adj. + 地 + Verb
  地 (de) Before Verbs and Turning adjectives into adverbs, Chinese Grammar Wiki

Maybe there's an exception here.

Question: Why is there no 地 in 不小心踢到椅子?

Strictly speaking, your translation is incorrect and that is what is tripping you up.

不小心 has many interpretations here, and the one employed in all these examples is along the lines of "wasn't paying attention" or "was not being careful" -- this implies it is NOT actually playing the role of an adverb in the sentence. As such, 地 is not required. In essence, it is two subsequent actions.

for example:

  他不小心摔倒了 -- He wasn't paying attention, and fell down.

compared to

  他不小心地摔倒了 -- He carelessly fell down.

The spirit of the sentences is basically the same, but your question appears to be more about the nitty gritty details of what role 不小心 is playing in the sentence. If you wish to translate it as an adverb, then you are right, there should be a 地 there, but that's not the only way to translate 不小心. According to youdao, it can play a noun, adjective and adverb.


Do "声优" and "配音演员" mean the same thing? Google Translate gives "voice actors" for "声优" and "配音演员" for "voice actors". Do "声优" and "配音演员" mean the same thing? Who is the most famous Chinese 声优?

声优 is a loanword from Japanese. 配音演员 is Chinese original. They mean the same thing: voice cast. So usually 声优 refers to Japanese voice actors of Japanese animations. Chinese voice actors are rarely mentioned as 声优. But you can call a 声优 as (日本动漫)配音演员. So the usage of 配音演员 is more general, while 声优 is almost always  Japanese related.
Who is famous is opinion based and out of the range of this forum.


Why can some words such as 安宁 be either a noun or a adjective? This is just one of the many examples where I noticed this, but with these words, does that mean I can say something like:
我找到我心里的安宁 or something along those lines and treat it as if it were a noun, but at the same time can say something such as :
他很安宁 and treat it as an adjective? Or should I just use a different word altogether?
Thanks for the help

Many words are used as different word type for convenience
For example, when the noun 鑽 (drill) was coined, it was convenient to use it as a verb for 'to drill' as well; when we have the existing adjective 哀傷 as in 哀傷往事(sad past), it is convenient to use it as a noun as in 這份哀傷 (this sadness)
The adjectival marker 的 can turn a noun or a whole phrase into an adjective. Also, many nouns can be turned into adjectives by adding other particles. For example 攻擊(n): attack --> 攻擊性 (offensive) | 戲劇 (n): drama --> 戲劇性 (dramatic). And standard nouns can be used as adjectival nouns as long as it makes sense (it is still a noun, but functions as an adjective for another noun). See How to use nouns as adjectives?


Origin of 英国 (England) I understand that 英国 has a phonetic origin, Yīng guó is rather close to England. However I would like to know if it is possible to find out who coined that translation, and if there is more to it than phonetic similitude.

In the article 论国名与国号 it is mentioned that 英国 stems from 英格兰.

On Wikipedia they mention that it comes from 英吉利 (English) and 英格兰 (England):

  The written form of Yīngguó in Chinese is made up of two characters: 英国. The first 英 (yīng) as an adjective means "outstanding" and "fine", and as a noun means "flower"; the second is 国 (guó) which means "country", "state" or "kingdom". Originally the adjective word was written as 英吉利 Yīngjílì as an approximation of the adjective word English, and is still used to mean English in the Chinese word for the English Channel 英吉利海峡 Yīng jí lì hǎi xiá. The noun word was written as 英格兰 Ying ge lan for the noun England, also 苏格兰 Su ge lan for Scotland, 爱尔兰 Ai er lan for Ireland and 威尔士 Wei er shi for Wales. Also in history books Great Britain is written 大不列颠 da bu lie dian, from 大 (Great) and the sounds of the words 不列颠 similar to the sound interpretation.

I couldn't find any older (and better) references explaining the origin of 英.


How can I answer the question "你什么时候开始学中文的?" How can I answer the question "你什么时候开始学中文的?"
I cannot answer the "什么时候" questions. Can anybody help me please?

'什么时候' = 'what time' = 'when'
You can answer with one of the following:

[Since the time of ]. E.g. "Started since 2016" (從 2016 年開始)

[from a length of time ago]. E.g. "Started from five years ago" (五年前开始)

Q: "你什么时候开始学中文的?"

A: "我是從2016年開始学中文的"/ "我是五年前开始学中文的" (long version)

A: "從2016年開始"/ "五年前开始" (short version)

A: "2016"/ "五年前" (shortest version, just state a year or a length of time ago)

More example of '什么时候' question:
Q: 你什么时候吃晚飯的?
A: 晚上七時 (a time) If the question is about what is the regular time you have dinner'
A: 三小時前 (a length of time ago) If the question is about what specific time you ate your dinner tonight


What does 一 + verb/noun + 一 + verb/noun mean? I’m reading 活着 and I’m seeing it all the time. It’s driving me nuts!

“他才挠着头一步一步往回走。”

In this particular example 一步一步 basically means "step by step"; it emphasizes how it's gradual and slow.  More generally it means "little by little", and the repeated character indicates what is occurring gradually.

  Aside from just meaning "one by one," when 一 (yī) is used with a measure word that is a unit of time like "day" or "year," the meaning changes to "little by little" ("day by day," "year by year") or "gradually."
  Expressing "one by one" with "yi": Used as "Little by Little", Chinese Grammar Wiki

I found the relevant passage from 活着 and it's:

  凤霞走后，有庆不干了。起先凤霞被人领走时，有庆瞪着眼睛还不知道出了什么事，直到凤霞走远了，他才挠着头一步一步往回走。我看到他朝我这里张望几下，就是不过来问我。他还在家珍肚子里时我就打过他，他看到我怕。

Here's my rough, somewhat literal translation:

  After Feng Xia left, Youqing stopped.  At first, when Feng Xia was taken away, Youqing's open eyes didn't know what happened, and when Feng Xia was far away, only then he scratched his head and step-by-step walked back.  I saw him face me here peering for a bit, but did not come over and ask me.  When he was still in Jiazhen's tummy I beat him, and he saw my fear.

And a professional translation:

  After Fengxia left, Youqing stopped listening to us.  When Fengxia was taken away, Youqing just watched, not knowing what was going on.  Only after Fengxia had gotten far away did Youqing scratch his head and slowly make his way home.  I saw him looking over at me a few times, but he didn't come over to ask what was going on.  When he was still in Jiazhen's stomach I had hit him, so he was scared of me.
  To Live: A Novel, Yu Hua, translated by Michael Berry


Words that have confusing meanings in a diplomatic notice Here is a sentence excerpted from a notice posted at the official website of the Consulate-General of China in Toronto on Nov 1, 2017 as follows "中国驻多伦多总领馆再次郑重提醒广大华侨华人和中国留学生注意防范电信诈骗。"

How do we differentiate 华侨 and 华人 and 中国留学生？Doesn't 华人 include 华侨 and 中国留学生？If 华人 means Canadians of Chinese blood, then is it the proper and legal business of the diplomatic office of China to handle matters in their connection?

华侨； Chinese people who live in other countries but are still citizens of China.

华人（广义）: people of Chinese blood

华人（狭义）：Chinese people who become citizens of other countries

(e.g.  美籍华人)


Is the term 有色人种 ("colored races") normally used by Chinese people? 和奥巴马一起帮民主党候选人拉票的还有佐治亚州前州长候选人艾布拉姆斯。拜登能在此次大选中让佐治亚州“翻蓝”，艾布拉姆斯功不可没。她在2018年的州长选举中惜败，之后一直在佐治亚州多个地方组织动员新选民，特别是鼓励有色人种选民投票。此外，拜登表示他将参与佐治亚州参议员的竞选活动，但没有指明具体时间。
美两党为控制参议院再战佐治亚，2020年12月07日

I was reading the newspaper (above) about the upcoming Georgia (USA) election and encountered the term:

有色人种 (yǒusèrénzhǒng)
CC-CEDICT: colored races

It talks about how it's important to attract votes from people of color.
I'm guessing this term is a "forced" translation from English ("people of color") to ensure the meaning is translated accurately, and wouldn't naturally arise during native Chinese conversation, except about race-related topics in the USA (or western countries).  I want to check if my impressions are accurate.
Question: Is the term 有色人种 ("colored races") normally used by Chinese people?

As the comments say, 有色人种 is not commonly used by Chinese people.
There is online Chinese corpus BCC汉语语料库 hosted by BLCU. In the corpus we can search for "有色人种" in a few different types of material. You can get some result form 文学 and 报刊, but absolutely nothing form 对话. And when you check the texts return with the search, almost all of them are talking about things out of China.
Some example results form 文学

能这样的。我刚到东部那会儿总不断提醒自己：你可别忘了他们是"有色人种"而不是黑鬼，要不是我碰巧和那么多黑孩子打过交道，我就得花好多
共同点，特意说了好几个悲惨的故事，每个故事都是关于布朗克斯区有色人种、波多黎各人残忍而凶狠的侵犯，还刻意描绘，令人不寒而栗。但没过
次，我想亚拉巴马州的图斯康比亚大约有三千人，其中约有一半属于有色人种。再次，我在波士顿的朋友中只有很少几个人知道图书馆的事。我不想

And 报刊

帝国主义”，“打倒种族主义”。数以百计的示威者——其中许多是有色人种——拿着旗帜和标语牌，上面写着：“美国黑人，你们的斗争就是我们
在菲律宾，侵略者更成千成万地屠杀着和平人民——他们所歧视的“有色人种”。“华沙一条街”照出了战犯们的一色的脸谱，不管他是新的还是旧
》，把种族类别分成“白种人”和“有色人种”，印第安人被定为“有色人种”。对印第安部落而言，只有得到了政府的承认，才能取得对内部)

Note that instead of full sentences, a cerntain number of characters around the search term is displayed.


Why can't I repeat the verb with degree complement in “昨晚我的朋友表达得很明确”? I thought I have finally been able to wrap my head around this structure, but it seems no, not really.

So I have seen this sentence:

昨晚我的朋友_表达_得很明确。

But according to my native speaker friend, you cannot say:

昨晚我的朋友_表达表_得很明确。

However, he also said you can make the following sentence:

昨晚我的朋友_表达_意思_表达_得很明确。

My thinking was that verb repeating kicks in when there is an object, but then he made this sentence:

昨晚我的朋友_讲话讲_得很明确。

Hence my questions:

Does this mismatch come from the fact that 表达 is just a verb, while 讲话 is technically a verb + object, just like 游泳，吃饭，放假 etc.?
Can I just say _表达_意思_表 without repeating the 达 part, as in 他_讲课讲_得好, 每年冬天我们_放假放_三个星期 etc.?

Yes. 表达 isn't a VO, it can't be split like you're trying to split it.
No. 表 isn't used by itself as a verb like that.

Also you could just opt for something much simpler like: 已经说得很清楚, rather than the mouthful that your current sentence would become.


How did 爽 (an elephant holding 2 weapons under each armpit), semantically shift to mean aglow, gleaming; "frank"? p 865, ABC Chinese–English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003). I can't access the "slightly revised through July 2005" ed.

I Google-translated CUHK's etymology, but what semantic notions underlie the  elephant quoted below and definitions 1 and 2 above?

Synopsis  : 甲金文從「大」從二◎，在「大」(人形)的左右腋下分別加◎，◎變化多端，或為火形，或與豆形近，或為圓形，或為交叉之斜畫。季旭昇謂象人腋下挾二器，以會左右相配之意，本義是相配，引申表示配偶、輔相。

Elaboration: 甲金文從「大」從二◎，在「大」(人形)的左右腋下分別加◎，◎變化多端，或為火形，或與豆形近，或為圓形，或為交叉之斜畫。季旭昇謂象人腋下挾二器，以會左右相配之意，本義是相配，引申表示配偶、輔相。
　　甲金文表示配偶，《合集》36186「示壬爽妣庚」，即示壬及其配偶妣庚。二祀其卣：「遘于匕(妣)丙肜日大乙爽」，表示適逢大乙的配偶妣丙肜日之祭。金文還表示輔相、輔助，夨令方尊：「今我隹令(命)女(汝)二人亢眔夨爽左右于乃寮以(與)乃友事。」表示我命令亢和夨兩人輔助你們的同僚和友官。又表示差錯，散氏盤：「余又(有)爽[宀䜌]，鞭千罰千。」
　　此外，典籍「昧爽」(天將亮而尚暗之時)之「爽」，金文寫作從「喪」從「日」，「喪」標聲，「日」是義符，從不寫作「爽」，典籍作「爽」應是假借字。
　　《說文》：「爽，明也。从㸚从大。，篆文爽。」段玉裁注：「爽本訓明。明之至而差生焉，故引伸訓差也。朝旦之時，半昧半明，故謂之早昧爽。」

Yellowbridge purports a different etymology, but I don't quote it for CUHK's trustworthier.

I have no idea where did you get elephant from?
This is clearly a guy holding his hand out to a fire in a cold winter.
so 爽 means feeling sweet/great


How did 东西 come to mean "something" in the expression "吃东西"? I was chatting with a Chinese penpal recently and when I asked "what are you doing?", I received the following answer:

  吃东西，你呢？

Now, "东西" means "east and west" and so "吃东西" literally means "eat/eating east and west".

After I asked for explanations, I got this reply "I am eating something". The explanation included the fact that this depends on context.

So, how did 东西 come to mean "something"? And in what contexts can it be found with what meanings?

If the list is long, include only the most famous cases (5, 10 cases).

This is a good question about etymology of Chinese word. Most native speakers are not interested in etymology as they can speak out of habit while non-native speakers are more curious on how the sense of words evolves. Back to your question, there are nice articles on both Wikipedia and Baidu Baike that explains the etymology of "东西". Since there are acutally quite a few explanations for this one, so I cannot translate them all here. But I can help you if you have trouble to understand particular sentences.


What is an appropriate translations of "That's so Raven!"? The phrase in the title comes from a Disney show, That's so Raven. But in my house, we have been confused on the proper way of translating this.

now we are saying "这是大Raven!" with extra emphasis on dà.  This is of course a very simplified translation. My wife says "那真Raven!". Is this show even known in China?

I don't think this show is particularly popular in China.

A quick search on Baidu gave me results like 天才魔女 (genius girl with magic), 超能力黑少女 (raven girl with superhuman abilities), and the literal 如此瑞文.

If you are just translating the phrase "that's so _," it would be 这太 __ or 这也太 __.

For example,

  That's so cool!

  这太酷了吧！ or 这也太酷了吧！

If a name follows "so",

  That's so Josh!

  一看就是Josh做的！ or 典型的Josh作风！


Is "戀"/"恋" a word by itself? As titled. I saw this lyrics with the sentence,

  為什麼全世界的戀我都失一遍？

Based on the structure, it looks like the word itself is a noun.
If it is, what does it mean?
I only know the word 戀愛/恋爱.

Thanks in advance!

First, it is not a standard way. Apparently, it is a complain.

失~lose, 戀~love。失戀~fall out of love. The word itself has a vt+noun structure.

Try to understand it from the basic form:

為什麼我失戀了？Why I fell out of love?

One can definitely add adj to a noun(戀). (just for explanation.)

為什麼我失(全世界的)戀？

Now add adv to vt(失). (just for explanation.)

為什麼我(都失一遍)全世界的戀？

Then change order:

為什麼全世界的戀我都失一遍？ Why I fell out of each love all over the world? The singer wants to deliver a strong discourage for being a loser in love in this song.


The origins of "AA制" Every since I learned the expression AA制*, I have been curious as to its origins. The morphology seems clear enough:

AA + 制(定) = "to draw up (the bill) in an AA way".

What is not clear is how AA acquired the meaning of "evenly" or something like that. The use of roman letters implies it's borrowed from another language (possibly English). Some Chinese netizens have suggested exactly that. However, I can't take seriously their suggestion that AA is an abbreviation for "Acting Appointment" or "All Apart". I know that I personally have never heard either of those expressions uttered by an English speaker.

So, any ideas where AA制 came from?

* For those of you who don't know, AA制 means to split the bill evenly when eating out. Or as we say in English, "go Dutch" (apologies to the Dutch).

When I lived in Guangzhou I was told the expression came from Hong Kong and stood for "Algebraic Average".

That also doesn't sound like something a native English speaker would come up with, however I don't think that's a reason to discount it (or even the other suggestions) if it came from Hong Kong where non-native English speakers come up with all sorts of part-English phrases that sound awkward to us but still become popular, like "他真没有sense" to mean "he has no taste" being one I heard recently.

Then again I can't be sure if "Algebraic Average" is the true etymology either, just offering my two cents.


Is google translate wrong about 上海外国语大学? Google Translate says 上海外国语大学 means Shanghai International Studies University. Shouldn't it mean Shanghai Foreign Languages University?

The official site of 上海外国语大学 has its English name as “Shanghai International Studies University”
Translation of proper names does not always follow normal translation rules.


Techniques for learning and retaining characters For many of us, memorizing characters is a difficult thing. In Chinese, just because you can speak the word doesn't mean you can read it. Just because you can read it doesn't mean you can write it. At least for me, I find myself constantly forgetting characters I used to know, especially when it comes to writing.

Do you guys have any tips or trick to avoid this? Aside from just constant writing?

EDIT: I'm getting a lot of answers on learning based on the radicals, which is valid and works for quite a lot of characters. But it doesn't always work. There are many cases where there are no such obvious correlations, especially in simplified characters, where many things are removed and sometimes loses the meaning the traditional character. Also, the below characters have obvious hints of pronunciation or meaning.

限制
矛盾
度

You can use a SRS (Spaced Repetition System) software, I personally use Anki to create a deck of study cards and I review them on my mobile phone.

I also recommend Memrise.

2014 update:

I still use Anki, but combined with Google Images Search and Forvo: When I make new flashcards, I'll add the writing (hanzi & pinyin), its pronunciation (from Forvo) and a picture of the character's meaning (from Google Images), that way all the card's content is in Chinese, and I avoid relying on translation. By the way, Anki now allows to synchronize media files (audio/images) between devices.

I've started using this new method few months ago, and it has worked very well for me (especially with nouns). Credits of this method goes to the "Fluent Forever" book.


How to display CJK Extension G? Wikipedia has a page entitled CJK Unified Ideographs Extension G.

I've installed BabelStone's BabelHan but coverage isn't 100%:

Unicode Block  | Total Coverage Characters | Percentage    | G-Source Coverage Characters  | Percentage
CJK Unified Ideographs Extension G | 2,447 / 4,939 | 49.5% | 569 / 2,082   | 27.3%

天珩全字库 doesn't look like it's been updated for ext. G.

Hanazono, likewise, hasn't been updated yet.

How to display CJK Extension G?

http://zhs.glyphwiki.org/wiki/Group:sim-ch_n5100
Here, download the font, cover 100% Ext-G


来不及爱你 Too late to love you why the phrase 来不及 is translated into too late?
why not use 太迟？ 太迟爱你.
what is the different between them?

and why does 来不及 mean too late in the first place?

来=come
不=no
及=？？

Makes little sense to me.

The break down:

「來」(come )
「及」implies 「及時」 (in time) here.
「得」or 「不」 are the two potential particles that indicate " "able , or "unable"

*You either able or unable to come in time.  That's why they are called potential particles.

In summary:

「來」 (come) 「不」(unable to) 「及」 (in time )

「來不及」= unable to come in time = too late

「來不及愛你」= unable to come to love you in time = too late to love you.


Difference between 一点也不and 一点都不 Is there any rule in the phrase "一点也/都不..." when you should use 都 instead of 也 or can you simply use them interchangeably?

As a native speaker, they seem no difference to me.
You can simply use them interchangeably when you want to say "xxx not at all".
e.g.

我一点都不记得。
我一点也不记得。
I don't remember at all.


What 意思 means in below? In this situation, B gave A (B's leader) some bonus money.

A：“你这是什么意思？” 　　'what do you mean?'
B：“没什么意思，意思意思。”'nothing. just .?.'
A：“你这人真有意思。” 　　  ?
B：“其实也没有别的意思。” 　?
A：“那我就不好意思了。” 　　?
B：“是我不好意思。”        ?

A: What do you mean? or What do you intend to?
B: Nothing, just a little bit of thank you gift.
A: You are bit of an interesting guy.
B: Do not take it seriously, I have no favour to ask for.
A: Alright, I might better keep this.
B: It is my pleasure.

In Chinese, those words could actually mean

甲：你这（给我钱）是什么意思？
乙：没什么意思，就是表示一下（感谢）。
甲：你这人还挺懂事的。
乙：我真的没别的意思，还望您笑纳。
甲：那我就腆着脸收下了。
乙：嗨，这是我应该的。


What percentage of Chinese words are 1-character ? ... 2-character? Within an average Chinese person's vocabulary ...

      (which may be ~ 30,000 (?) words,  but this number isn't important)

could you guess
 what percentage of the words are 1-character, and
 what percentage of the words are 2-characters?

My guess would be:

1-character words ... maybe 45%  (水  石  木  好 我 爱 你 ...)
2-character words ... maybe 20%  (人民,   君子,   小人,  水滴, ...)

   ( both numbers may be a bit higher,  like 50% and 25% )

(How about for common nouns?)      Thank you.  HH

an unscientific approach: the 國語辭典
, of taiwan, has about 164489 entries, using grep + wildcards, one may find:

12540⋯7.62% are 1 character entry (^.$) e.g. 八, 扒
87516⋯53.20% are 2 characters entry (^..$) e.g. 八伯, 八拜
21836⋯13.28% are 3 characters entry (^...$) e.g. 八拜交, 八敗命
35781⋯21.75% are 4 characters entry (^....$) e.g. 八百羅漢, 八百壯士
2562⋯1.56% are 5 characters entry (^.....$) e.g. 八分休止符, 八風吹不倒

how to define / interpret "word" in the finding, well, it's beyond my knowledge :(


Is there an official translation for oleogustus, yet? io9

  There are five acknowledged tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and (slightly more controversially) umami. For awhile now, researchers have suggested the existence of a sixth taste: fat. Now, a new study has researchers saying they may have finally isolated it—and they’ve given it a name: oleogustus.

oleogustus in Chinese news media is usually written in English with a parenthetically explanation something along the lines of:

  oleogustus(在拉丁语中意思是脂肪味)

is there an official translation yet?

Although I'm only expecting it to be something like 脂味.

I think it's translated as:

脂肪味

Sources:

http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2015/7/323886.shtm
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2015/0729/c70731-27376218.html

Baike has an article on it too, but that seems to be related to an earlier US finding related to the gene CD36.
Interestingly, your suggestion of 脂味 appears to be the preferred Japanese translation.


How to express a date in Chinese (lunar) calendar? Many traditional festivals are observed on a given date on the Chinese (lunar) calendar(Actually, the Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar). For example, the Spring Festival falls on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar.  Besides, some people celebrate their birthdays based on this calendar.
So, how can one express a date from the Chinese calendar? An answer with multiple examples and details would be helpful.

You add "农历" (means old/lunar calendar) add the beginning, and the first month is called "正(zhēng)月". The last month is called "腊(là)月". Leap month (a whole month is added) is prefixed with "闰(rùn)". Other months are read just as in the calender used now. The 1st to the 10th day is prefixed with "初". Other date is read out just as you read out a number. "号" "日" or any other characters is never added after the date. When "正月" "初" is used, "农历" can be omitted.

  E.g.: The Spring Festival is on (农历)正月初一

  1.10 : (农历)正月初十

  8.15 : 农历八月十五

  For leap month: 闰四月初六

The last day of a year can be called "大年三十" or "年三十" (or sometimes simply "三十". This can be used no matter the month has 30 days or not). The first day of the year can be called "大年初一".

I'm not quite sure what will be used when a leap month is added after the first month. I would prefer "闰一月" instead of "闰正月", but not sure about the common practice. Also, it is unknown to me how to read the leap month added after the 12th month. It is rare, and the we don't often used the lunar calender now.


A question about Google Translate Yes, I do know this isn't about Chinese language as such, but I'm not sure where else to ask - and I hope people will find it a little bit amusing and forgive my transgression. So, this is my question - can anybody guess why Google Translate always seems to tranlate "仔仔" as "Aberdeen"? It's my grandson's name, and we laugh about it, but I'm curious as well.

The answer is Google makes mistake all the time.

香港仔 = Aberdeen, Hong Kong (a place's name)

仔仔  /zai2*4 zai2*1/ is a colloquial Cantonese term for "boy"

Mistaken '仔仔' as '香港仔', because both are Cantonese term that has the character '仔' in it, is quite a big flaw


Placement of object with adverbial phrase I am wondering about the placement of "这件事" in these two sentences:

1) 这件事你做得越快越好。
2) 你做得越快越好这件事。

In English: "The faster you do this, the better."

#2 makes more sense to me since the object comes after the verb, but I assume that both are ok. Which feels more natural to a native Mandarin speaker?

What if we remove the adverb phrase?

3) 这件事你做。
4) 你做这件事。

or 事情你做。vs 你做事情。

Would 你做这件事" and "你做事情" be more natural?

Does the adverb phrase cause the object to need to be placed differently, or am I missing some other rule?

1) is natural. 2) sound unnatural without context. In certain contexts, 2) can be used.

1) is an example of a topic-prominent sentence.

"这件事" is the topic. Everything that follows the topic describes it. i.e. "你做得越快越好". When there is a topic, you can usually translate it literally to English in the form of "As for [topic], [things following the topic]". So here, 这件事你做得越快越好。 can be translated as "As for this thing, the faster you do it, the better".

Other examples of topic-prominent sentences include

  我头疼。

  lit. As for me, head hurts. (This is different from 我的头疼 where 我的头 is the subject and 疼 is the verb. In 我头疼, 头 is technically the subject)

  笔借我一下。

  lit. As for the pen, lend it to me.

I will probably use 2) where I want to emphasize that you should really do it ASAP. That's why I tell you to do it fast first, then the thing that you need to do, just to be clear.

  Would "你做这件事" and "你做事情" be more natural?

你做这件事 sounds like I am telling you to do this thing, instead of some other things. 你做事情 sounds unnatural.

3) is another topic prominent sentence, it translates to:

  As for this thing, you do it.

I would say that 3) puts more emphasis on "you" while 4) puts more emphasis on "this thing".


Traditional 綫 vs. 線? I noticed that《汉语大词典》opts for 風景綫 over what most other reference works write as 風景線.

KEY does mention that 綫 is a:

  1 (variant of the more commonly used xìan 線) line, thread, wire, string

zisea also seems so say that 线 is:

  【綫】的简体字。拼音xian4

zisea on the other hand only says that 線:

  ①同【线】。

線 is treated more like a variant than the actual traditional character for 线. But this all seems quite contrary to my understanding for this character.

Is there a viable reason why 綫 would be picked over 線?

My understanding is that when characters were being simplified in Mainland China, they first had to standardize traditional characters (i.e. What should these new characters be simplified from?). 「綫」 was chosen as the traditional standard, thus in the PRC's Table of General Standard Chinese Characters (通用規範漢字表), you can see that 「线」 is considered to be simplified from 「綫」, while 「線」 is listed as a variant of 「綫」 (「缐」 also exists, but is only used as a surname).

Understandably, if the dictionaries you are using are Mainland Chinese, 「綫」 will be treated as the standard character rather than 「線」.

In contrast, every other region in the Sinosphere that has some standard for Chinese characters (i.e. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea) list 「線」 as the standard form, which might explain why 「線」 is much more prominent outside of simplified Chinese.

However, as mentioned in the other answer, 「綫」 is quite common in Hong Kong, despite 「線」 being the standard character in Hong Kong's List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters (常用字字形表). This is likely because the standardized character shapes are used as general guidelines for education, rather than used as a strict set of rules to follow.

The smaller character here indicates a variant form.

Both these forms have existed as variants of each other for quite some time before the modern era, so aside from regional standards and popularity, one isn't necessarily more correct than the other. I'm not sure about Japan and Korea, but in Chinese-speaking regions, both forms should be equally well-understood. In the end, it boils down to personal preference.


How can I distinguish different yet similar sounds when listening? I have learned reading only so my reading and listening levels are drastically different. I finally started to learn speaking and listening five weeks ago but I have been quite struggling with distinguishing the different yet similar sounds while hearing.

Example:

shen
xiang
xian
sheng
shan
shang

Or

zhang
zhen
zheng
zhan

Or

chuang
chuan
chang

Or

chen
chan
cheng
chang

Or

shi
xi

Not only these sounds, but Chinese also have 4 different sounds on each syllable, which is practically impossible for me to locate which sound points to which character and word.

Honestly, even when I hear them many times all of these sounds sound the same, and it feels practically impossible to differentiate these sounds correctly.

My question:

Can Chinese people distinguish these sounds correctly? For example if a person says xiàng, do Chinese correctly locate its word and accent?
Do foreigners who are fluent in Chinese understand these sounds correctly? Or do they solely rely on context to differentiate which sounds they are?
Being non-natives, how can I improve myself to differentiate them properly?

This is a very good question, which I also run into while I was learning English.

My approach to this is to learn 最小的语言单位 (I defined it as a Minimum Language Unit, MLU). I invented that term here, lol. MLU is a minimum language unit that can express something in practice. For example, the single character 向 xiang 4 doesn't mean anything and it's only valid in the phrase like 方向. Put it in a sentence: 我找不到方向. Here I treat 我, 找不到，方向 as MLUs, because each denotes the minimum meaning of the language.

When you read/listen, try not to focus on each single character, but on MLUs, because a single character might be meaningless for comprehension.

This is also the way I do for English. For example, I'll catch you later, make sure you won't be ripped off, where I'll, catch you later, make sure, you won't be, ripped off are all considered as my MLUs. In this way, my reading level and my listening level are almost the same and they are much better than my writing. When I listen, I try to catch those MLUs instead of word for word. This also helps the speed for comprehension. When you hear something spoken out in your second language, usually you might have to take some time to digest internally. The shorter time you consume, the better listening you will have.

Another point, which is also very important, is the cadence. When you hear a native speaker speaks, he/she  always follows some kind of rhythm and along with some tone emphasis(I am not sure how to describe it correctly, but hopefully it'll be clear). You should learn to capture that cadence as well. It would take you some time, but it wouldn't be very hard I think.

I personally had been very successful with this approach. My foreign colleagues, who are American native speakers, feel that they are free to communicate with me and easy to get their thoughts come through when we discuss technical issues. They don't have to slow down when they talk to me. I hope this approach could help you as well!

Good luck!


Why the popular name for Pandas 熊猫 consists of its words in inverse order 猫熊? According to Pleco dictionary the popular name for Pandas is 熊猫, while the "original" name is 猫熊.

Its characters meaning order change from:

popular: bear cat
original: cat bear

Popular perspective : “猫熊”变“熊猫”

  抗日战争期间，在重庆举办了一次动物标本展览，正式对公众展出了“猫熊”这种动物的标本。当时人们写汉字的顺序还是从右到左，可是写“猫熊”时，却依了英文的书写顺序，从左到右了。结果，“猫熊”让观众念成了“熊猫”。这次展览，是熊猫首次在大众面前亮相，影响很大，“熊猫”之名也传播开了。

[ In 1940s, at an exhibition of panda specimen, the name of panda is written from left to right as 猫熊 in accordance with the English name. But at that time people were used to reading from right to left, so it was read as 熊猫, and became popular little by little. ]

Another perspective : 談“熊貓”和“貓熊”

  “熊貓”語源上可能還是出自“小熊貓”
  大熊貓太像熊了 (熊頭、熊身、短尾), 小熊貓太像貓了 (貓頭、窄身、長尾)。因此小熊貓應該稱“熊貓”, 大熊貓應該稱“貓熊”才是！而早期熊貓、貓熊的混淆, 其源頭可能就是在於小熊貓！

[ 熊猫 might come from (be confused with) 小熊猫 (lesser panda/red panda). ]


Difference between 各 and 每? I'm used to using 每 for every. However, 各 came up one day and appears to me to have the exactly same meaning. Is there a contextual difference between the two that I am missing or can they be swapped for each other? When should someone use 各 instead of 每?

各 is more like "each". It is more frequently used when the intention is to describe some sort of individuality of some group. It is more common to see this character in describing the difference in each item in a group. Example: 各种不同的花 (many different kinds of flower).

每 is more like "every". It is used more when the intention is to describe a group's collective property that all members share, and consequently seen more often when describing the sameness of items in a group. Example: 每种花都一样 (all the flowers are of the same kind).

The confusion is that they are both used when describing some property of the individual in a group, but with different intentions. You can see them as two kinds of "every" with different connotations.


What is the order of different prepositional phrases? Chinese Syntax is: S V O
there are different prepositional phrases, for instance:
p.p. that express a place, time, objective, mean ...

How do i know the proper order of the different prepositional phrases?

Someone may guide you to a comprehensive source, but if you want to do prepositioning or left branching, all you need to care about is to make them appear in a logical sense. This basic sense is the same for most languages.

You put time first, then the location

  A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

You put more prominent attributes first

  There's a big bad wolf. (big is more obvious than bad)

You put what you want to emphasize first

  If you give them a quick, short, sharp, shock, they won't do it again...

You prioritize common noun phrases and stick them close

  Python is a good object-oriented programming language.

I'm not giving you Chinese examples because in Chinese they are exactly the same. There may be situations I'm missing out. Anyway, you do what you feel right.

However there are several situations where "right" is different in English and Chinese.

Addresses

  我来自中国上海。(I'm not, but you don't know any other city names do you?)

In English you say I'm from New York, New York.

Date and time

  牛顿生于1643年1月4日。

In English you mess up. Is it 1-4-1643 or 4-1-1643?


What is 猫舅 in the following sentence? I assume this is a cultural thing that I am not aware of, but a friend just updated their status to say:

  希望猫舅变成天使守护全家

Xīwàng māo jiù biàn chéng tiānshǐ shǒuhù quán jiā

Who or what is 猫舅?

猫舅 in this sentence just means cat. It's become slang to say 猫舅 when one just means cat.

Also the following might be helpful too:

猪爹 (pig dad) - means pig
猫舅 (cat uncle) - cat
狗老爷 (dog grandpa) - dog


are these words commonly used？：很好 、极好 、非常好 、相当好 、特别好 、十分好、极其好 I am wondering what the differences are between these and how they could be used (example sentences would be awesome!). Thank you!

Let's forget about '好', you can replace it with any other adjective. Your question is about the difference between superlatives
很 = is; very
极 = very; extremely
非常 = very; extraordinarily
相当 = quite; very
特別 = very; especially
十分 = very (fully)
极其, 极之 (more colloquial) are the same as 極 (more literary)
Examples:
她的成绩很好 = her grade is good/ her grade is very good
她的成绩极好 = her grade is very good/ her grade is extremely good
她的成绩相当好 = her grade is quite good/ her grade is very good
她的成绩特别好 = her grade is very good/ her grade is especially good
她的成绩十分好 = her grade is very good
More examples:
他跑得很快 = he runs fast/ he runs very fast
他跑得极快 = he runs very fast/ he runs extremely fast
他跑得相当快 = he runs quite fast/ he runs very fast
他跑得特别快 = he runs very fast/ he runs especially fast
他跑得十分快 = he runs very fast


Dictionary meaning required On my Chinese dictionary, there are a few characters that I don't know what it means. It says: 商务印书馆. I want to know what it means.

A quick Google search told me this:

商务印书馆 is the first modern publishing organization in China.

Your dictionary is probably published by 商务印书馆.


What is the difference between "博览会", "交易会" and "展销会"? I know there are 3 phrases used to describe exhibition/fair, namely "博览会", "交易会" and "展销会". Can those phrases be used interchangeably or is there any difference for each specific phrase?

博览会, 交易会 and 展销会 can be used interchangeablely. All of them mean "exhibition". They are synonyms, different only in literal meanings.

The literal meanings are:

  博览会 broad viewing party

  交易会 trade party

  展销会 display and sales party


What is the meaning of 機歪? I was listening to a Chinese song the other day. The song name is 謝謝妳愛我, sung by R.chord(謝和弦). In the second line of the first chorus, which goes "脾氣壞 固執任性機歪 還有點變態 ", I don't understand the word Ji Wai(機歪) here.

I have looked this word up in many dictionaries but still no luck. However, I have seen someone translating it as "bitchy". Is it correct?

And also, both 固執 and 任性 mean stubborn/headstrong right? Then why use two words with the same meaning?

Here is the link for song lyrics - https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/%E8%AC%9D%E5%92%8C%E5%BC%A6/%E8%AC%9D%E8%AC%9D%E5%A6%B3%E6%84%9B%E6%88%91/translation/english

機車 and 機歪 are indecent words. As time changes, the meanings are already different. The following is one of them.

The 機歪 refers to the female genitalia - 膣屄 (cunt). The Hokkien pronunciation is tsi-bai.

Because it is too indecent to directly write 膣屄, it has been written as "機掰, 機歪, GY" and so on. Later, some people thought that they were still indecent, so 機車 came out.

The original meaning is lack of being fucked. Because 幹 has the meaning of to beat, it also means lack of being beaten.

However, recently they usually mean very annoying, very picky, not straightforward, indecisive, or doing stupid things depending on the situation.

For instance,

你很機車
can represent
You are very annoying.
You are a real pain in the butt!

Do not say these words to anyone.

固執: adamancy; bigotry; obstinate; stubborn; pigheaded; stick to one's guns and refuse to change

任性: willful; wayward; caprice; self-indulgence; self-will; unruliness

「機車」和「機歪」是屬於不雅的詞。隨著時間的改變，它的意思已經不太一樣了。底下是其中一種說法。

「機歪」是指女性生殖器——膣屄。閩南語的發音是 tsi-bai。

因為直接寫「膣屄」很不雅，所以被寫成「機掰、機歪、GY」等。後來有人覺得還是不雅，就再演變成「機車」。

原意是「欠幹」。又因為「幹」有「打、揍」的意思，所以也有「欠打、欠揍」的意思。

但是現在這些詞依不同的情況大多表示「很討厭」、「很挑剔」、「不乾脆」、「猶豫不決」、「做了蠢事」。

例如：

你很機車。
可以表示
你很討厭。

不要對任何人說這些話。

「固執」是「堅持己見，不肯變通」的意思。

「任性」是「放縱性情，恣意而為」的意思。


When should 了 be after the verb and when should it be at the end of the sentence? In a sentence such as "因为我去面试了，所以我刮了胡子", in one case, 了 is after the sentence, while in the other case it's after the verb, even though in both cases, 了 is used to express the past tense.

So how to know where to put 了?

Are there any rules to follow?

In my opinion, you can use "了" right after the verb or at the end of the sentence when "了" is used to show the past tense. However, in your case, that's another thing that I want to clarify.

I think, "去面试" should be treated as one phrasal verb, something like the phrasal verb "go fishing", "go shopping" in English.Here "面试" (interview) is a noun which has a verbal meaning, and thus I will treat "去面试“ as one verb, rather than treat “面试” as the object of the verb "去".If you say "我去了北京", it's different because here "北京" is the object of "去“. Treating the two words as one verb, of course you should not insert “了” inside it.

I would say :

  因为我去面试了，所以我刮了胡子. or 因为我去面试了，所以我刮胡子了.

I would also say:

  因为我去参加(参加=participate in)了面试，所以我刮了胡子.

Here, “去参加” is treated as one verb and “面试" is its object.

or

  因为我去参加面试了，所以我刮了胡子.


Are there Chinese language-learning karaoke videos at a basic conversation level? I noticed that watching karaoke videos accelerates learning Chinese characters, even though you might not understand the characters fully. Is there a list of Mandarin and Cantonese karaoke videos for kids to learn characters?

Karaoke is more like combining the MV and lyrics together, most of them afford the instrumental version, which means that you can find them in Music Company. Of course, there is a faster way, if you know a karaoke store owner, he/she know how to get you a list of karaoke.

FYI -
Most karaoke videos are properties of music companies, but due to some reasons lots of people have access to the pirate. So you might need to be cautious to avoid the legal issue.


Asking where something is I have heard people use 不好意思，请问厕所在哪里？for 'excuse me, where is the toilet?', and also 对不起 for 不好意思, although I think 不好意思 sounds more natural.

My question is (and notice the pun): what is the role of puting 请问 before 厕所在哪里? My thought is that 厕所在哪里? probably sounds too 'direct' and 'demanding', and we add the extra 请问 to soften the question. So for instance, if a teacher is angrily demanding where a student's homework is, they would just say 你的作业在哪里?
And if a naughty child has hidden the car keys, his mother may say 车钥匙在哪里?

Yeah you've pretty much got it.

请问 is just a good, polite, way of giving the other person a heads up that you want to get some information out of them.

It's not necessarily demanding to drop the 请问, it all depends on your tone of voice.

If you're looking for more demanding way just drop the 在哪里 altogether and add a 呢 on the end while being overbearing. 呢 can also be fine by itself but again, it mostly depends on your tone of voice.


Excuse me, Can I post your photo on facebook in mandarin Can someone help me translate that sentence.
I can use 不好意思 or 对不起 in that situation, right?

Normally, when you ask for permission, you can just ask it straight in a question form. In your case, you wanted to ask "Can I post your photo on Facebook?" would become "我可以在Facebook上发布你的照片吗？"

To be polite and show humbleness, adding a simple 請問 (may I ask) is enough -- "請問我可以在Facebook上发布你的照片吗？" (may I ask, if I can post your photo on Facebook?)

To show more humbleness, add 不好意思 or 对不起 is appropriate. You are apologizing for intruding that person's space and taking up that person's time; for even request that person to pay attention to your request.
"不好意思 請問 我可以在Facebook上发布你的照片吗？" (excuse me, may I ask, if I can post your photo on Facebook?)


Passage in Seal Script - 18th C Japanese Book of Chinese Poems (Poem identified: 唐・賈至《西亭春望》) I recently got an old Japanese Orihon (folding book) which has a lengthy passage in seal script - my assumption was that Japanese seal script would be the same as Chinese seal script, but if I'm wrong about that please correct me!
I managed to translate one title (not pictured) within the book as '將進酒', so given that the book contains a Li Bai poem I'm assuming it may be a collection of Chinese poems.

I know that these things are very hard to translate, so if anyone is able to do it I am very thankful in advance. I don't necessarily need the whole thing translated into English too; just if someone could let me know roughly what it is (e.g a poem, a story, a description etc.).

Thanks,
Thomas.

In modern script:

唐　賈至　《西亭春望》
日長風暖柳青青　北雁歸飛人窅冥
岳陽城上聞吹笛　能使春心滿洞庭

With the character variants inserted in their place:


How do you say "immersion" as in "full immersion language program"? How do you say "immersion" as in "full immersion language program" or "I am moving to China so I can get some immersion in the language"?

Although in a 洗禮(baptism), a person may be immersed in water for a brief moment, but the purpose of baptism is mostly for symbolizing purification or regeneration. For example: 經過戰火的洗禮 (After the baptism of war). It is not a very good translation for "immersion" in this case.

沉浸 is the correct translation for "immersion"

"Full immersion language program" in Chinese should be 全浸式語言課程

Another suggestion :

單語環境學習課程 (single language environment study course)


Can 只有 be used in this context? My Chinese teacher recently introduced us to the character 只. Specifically, using it to mean "only".

However, all of the examples that she gave were things, like:

A:你有没有X和Y？

B:没有Y，我只有X。

As in, to use 只 to specify only one out of a list of different things. However, I was curious, could you use 只 to indicate a smaller number of something? For example, could you say something like:

A:你有三件旗袍。对不对？

B:不对。我只有两件旗袍。

Thank you.

“只” means “by no means more than”，“only”.
If you add this word, this means you have no more than ……, at most I have……

Compare:

1) I have no more than 2 dresses（我**只有**2件衣服）

2) I have 2 dresses（我有2件衣服，可能还有，但是未提及）


A verb negated with 没 / 没有 cannot be suffixed with 了. Is this true? For example:

I didn't eat breakfast today.

我今天没吃早饭。
我今天没有吃早饭。
我今天没吃早饭了。
我今天没吃饭了。(I didn't eat today.)

This rule implies that 1 and 2 are correct but 3 and 4 are incorrect.

Are 3 and 4 incorrect ?

I feel 4 might be ok when a non-specific object is attached to the verb (i.e. 我没写字了，我没说话了，我没睡觉了)

I feel 3 is a bit awkward when a specific object is attached to the verb (i.e. 我没写了一本书，我没写一本书了，我没说那句话了，我没说了那句话，我没睡了一个晚上，我没睡一个晚上了)

TL;DR: Yes and no.  The most relevant grammar structures are:

没 + [verb] (with no 了), e.g. 我今天没吃饭 (I haven't eaten today);
[duration] + 没 + [verb] + 了, e.g., 我一天没吃饭了 (I didn't eat for one day);

along with:

没 + [noun] + 了, e.g., 我没有米饭了 (I don't have rice [anymore]);
不 + [verb] + 了, e.g., 我今天不吃饭了 (I won't eat today [anymore]).

These last two use the change-of-state 了.
(I'm a learner, so there may be exceptions I'm unaware of.  In writing this answer, I tried to cross-check as much as reasonably possible.)

1. Negating past actions
The most relevant grammar structure is the following.

Subj. + 没有 / 没 + Verb
Negation of past actions with "meiyou"

This should be thought of as the default:

我今天没吃早饭
I haven't eaten breakfast today

There's no semantic distinction between 没 and 没有 here: pick whichever is most suitable in the given context.
Adding in a change-of-state 了 here, if it isn't plain ungrammatical (i.e. no state is being changed), is probably going to sound weird.  This was emphasized in dan's answer.  As another data point, this Zhihu article (although not a reliable source for grammar) talks about how they feel 我还没吃饭了 (I still haven't eaten) is a regional dialect, with one author writing ...这个语法很奇怪 (this grammar is very strange).  However, this doesn't stop it being used: see Baidu "我还没吃饭了".  As an aside, we can use the modal particle 呢 here: 我还没吃饭呢.
2. Duration of inaction
Using 没...了 with a verb ordinarily (always?) implies we are using the construct:

Subj. + (已经 +) Duration + 没 + Verb + 了
Expressing duration of inaction

(I'll ignore 已经 for simplicity.)  In the running example, 今天 is not a duration.  So here's another example:

我超过二十个小时没吃东西了
I, [for] more than twenty hours, have not eaten anything

If we wanted to use this grammar structure with 今天, we could say:

我今天一天没吃饭了
Today, I haven't eaten all day

3. Change of state (noun)
If you're anything like me, there might be confusion with

没(有) + [Noun Phrase] + 了
Expressing "not anymore" with "le"

It's the change-of-state 了, for when we no longer have something.  For example:

2050年就没有巧克力了 (source)
in 2050, [there] will be no chocolate [future change of state]

4. Change of state (verb)
If we want to highlight a change of state for a verb, the appropriate grammar structure is:

Subj. + 不 + Verb + 了
Change of Situation in the Negative

In this case, there's some variety, such as:

我明天不吃饭了
I won't eat tomorrow [change of decision]
从今以后,我不吃肉了 (source)
From today on, I won't eat meat [current change of state]
我好几年不吃猪肉了 (source)
I, for many years, have not eaten pork [past change of state]

Above we have a change of state, but (for contrast) below we don't (so no 了):

回族不吃猪肉
Hui Muslims don't eat pork [no change of state]


Does 劳驾、做你有那个时？ sound natural? ("Excuse me, do you have the time?") I'm self translating common phrases in English, and I tried to translate "Excuse me, do you have the time?" And I came up with:

  劳驾、做你有那个时？

Is this a natural sounding sentence and is it correct?

Unfortunately it's not correct. You could say:

打扰一下，你知道现在几点吗？

or

对不起，现在几点了？


word meaning of 回也其庶乎 in Classical Chinese Could someone explain the meaning of every character after "也" in "回也其庶乎"?
I'd appreciate your help.

This comes from Confucius's 论语 (Analects).
For the sake of other readers, let's break down the entire sentence:

回 refers to Yanhui 颜回, a character in the Analects
也 is a final particle in classical Chinese, which here separates the topic from the comment
其 in classical Chinese means "his/hers/its" or simply "it" referring to something already mentioned before. Here it's likely to be the former.
庶 （shu4) stands for 庶几 "almost", "maybe", used in a similar way as 差不多 "almost done"
乎 in classical Chinese is (among others) a final particle used in a similar way to 呢 (and I would say also 嘛)

So putting it all together, it becomes close to:

Yanhui, his [something mentioned before] is almost done.

Source: Analects 11-19 commentary (in Chinese)


Writing direction on seals I am experimenting with an online seal generator, the text I have entered is 一千五百 and I have noticed that the characters go first from top right to bottom right, then from bottom left to top left. Is this correct?

The general principle is from top to bottom, from right to left, but the format can be very flexible. For a four-character seal, there are 6 ways to arrange the characters (see picture). Seal calligraphers normally pick the arrangement that is most aesthetically pleasing, depending on how the character is written & number of strokes per character, etc. The only exception I'm aware of is for 4-character seal, the 2nd format in the picture breaks the right-left rule but that particular one has a particular name called 回文布排 ie "anti-clockwise" that is for 4-character seal only.

picture taken from http://www.shufazidian.com/shuji/article.php?acid=21&arid=41


We say 上个星期, 上个月 and 去年 why not 上个年? And the same with 下个年? Ok 明年 has some logic in in because of 明天, but 去年 is off for me.

We sometimes use 上一年 which means the same with 去年.And we say 上个星期，上个月，also means 上一个星期，上一个月，and we ignore 一 for easy expressions. At the same time，we ignore the 个 in 上一个年 for the same reason. With time passing by, we use them for regulations. As for 去年，昨日，in the ancient time, we use 去，昨 mean past or 过去的，nowadays we remain those words. In my memory, we alse use 去月 means past month.


Asking close friends what they like as souvenirs/gifts I want to ask close friends (both in Cantonese and Mandarin) what they'd like for souvenirs.

“What/do you like anything from (Japan)?”

How do I say this in both languages?

Thanks

Edit:

user3306356 wrote

  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure 手信 doesn't work globally in Mandarin.

You are correct, 手信 is a Cantonese term, Don't think all Mandarin speakers know this term.

Edit 2:

紀念品 (Souvenirs) or 土特產 (native products) from other place that you give to your friends as gift is known as  "手信" in Cantonese
Since there's no equivalent in Mandarin, we can only use either 紀念品 or 土特產 in Mandarin sentences

Edit 3:

chouhy suggested '伴手禮' is the equivalent of '手信', although 手信 must came from far away place, and '伴手禮' can be locally bought, I do agree "美國帶回來的手信" in Cantonese could be translated as "美國帶回來的伴手禮" in Mandarin, because the sentence indicated the gift is from 美國, not from a local store .

~

  What/do you like anything from (Japan)?

Mandarin:

"想要什麼紀念品/ 土特產?" - "what souvenirs/ native products gift you want?"

"想要一些(日本的)紀念品/ 土特產嗎?" - "Do you want some souvenirs/ native products gift (from Japan)?"

Cantonese:

"想要乜嘢手信?"

"想唔想要啲(日本嘅)手信?"

Beside "紀念品" (souvenirs) 手信 are mostly "土特產" (native products/ local  products)

If you visit Toronto, the 手信 (gift) you take home for friends would be either a Maple Lefts Hockey team T-shirt (souvenirs); or a bottle of maple syrup (native products)

手信 can also be souvenirs/ native products from your home town. For example, if you are from Toronto and you are visiting Hong Kong, the gifts you give to your Hong Kong friends would also be (多倫多的)手信


How to say "she short changed me" (without negative conotation)? For example, if I went to the bank to withdraw money from my account and my account showed I took out $50, but the bank teller only gave me $40. I don't want to imply the bank teller was trying to cheat me or had bad intentions, I just want to say that she "shorted" or "short-changed" me by $10.

You can say:

你少给了我10块钱。

Pinyin: nǐ shǎo gěi le wǒ shí kuài qián

Be sure to show the bank teller the money he/she gave you.


Why are some characters more preferred in some areas? Why are some characters preferred in some areas more than others? I am referring to 綫 vs 線 in Hong Kong. They mean the same thing right?
I was also reading some articles related to the Dragon Boat Festival, why is 粽 preferred, but I also see the character 糭 in some (but really rare occasions).
Would you have other examples?

This is called 异体字 and I don't know this concept in English. In the old days, there are often multiple characters for a single 字, if you know some japanese kanji, you would even find more 异体字, some even different from those in China.


Where should I place the comma in large numbers? If writing for an exclusively Chinese audience, would the number 五萬  be written as 5,0000 or 50,000?

To flesh out the question, we could consider:

五千      5000  or 5,000
五萬     5,0000 or 50,000
五十萬   50,0000 or 500,000
五百萬  500,0000  or 5,000,000

Am curious, about both text and software which is published with only a native Chinese speaking audience in mind.

It's 50 000 or 50,000, the same as international standard.

Reference: 出版物上数字用法的规定 (General rules for writing numerals in publications)

  8    多位整数与小数: 8 Multidigit integers and decimals:

  8.1  阿拉伯数字书写的多位整数和小数的分节 8.1 Segmentations for multidigit integers and decimals written in Arabic numerals

  8.1.1  专业性科技出版物的分节法：从小数点起，向左和向右每三位数字一组，组间空四分之一个汉字(二分之一个阿拉伯数字)的位置。  8.1.1 Segmentation rules for professional scientific publications: from the decimal point, towards the left and the right, make every three digits a group; the width of the gap between two adjacent groups should be 1/4 of a Chinese character width (or 1/2 of an Arabic numeral width).

示例：2 748 456      3.141 592 65

  8.1.2  非专业性科技出版物如排版留四分空有困难，可仍采用传统的以千分撇“,”分节的办法。小数部分不分节。四位以内的整数也可以不分节。  8.1.2 For non-"professional scientific publications", if it is difficult to use "quarter space", the traditional segment comma "," is acceptable. Decimal part should not be segmented. Integers less than 4 digits can be either segmented or not segmented.

示例：2,748,456    3.14159265    8703

Edit by Stan:

If following 8.1.1, then the 四分空(quarter space) should be used according to the standard. Unfortunately, the standard hasn't exactly defined which space should be used. The list of spaces can be found in wiki. And practically, when rendering NOT by a monospaced font, I suggest using

U+2005 Four-Per-Em Space, or
U+202F Narrow No-Break Space

for the "quarter space". Specially, the "Narrow No-Break Space" is for the intention of not breaking a digit number.

Rendering results with mixed font 宋体+Calibri via Microsoft Word are as follows:

and for the line-breaking case (text aligning setting: 两端对齐 Justify)

*Note that in the "Narrow No-Break Space" case, no matter how you edit the content, the number won't be break into two lines.

BTW, you can use the Alt and the numeric keypad to input the special space, like Alt+8197 or Alt+8239.


Is it polite to answer a question asked by a senior by starting with "回...的話"? For example:

老師: 你多大了?

學生: 回先生的話, 學生今年八歲。

Or
學生: 回老師的話, 學生今年八歲。

It sounds very polite to me but I do not hear it often, even in the Chinese culture, where teachers are generally respected.

starting a reply with 回 is too subservient in modern Chinese conversation.

You only hear people use "回 + title" in period drama nowadays

In olden time, people would use  "回 + title" to replay to authority

e.g.  回皇上, 回大人

They didn't even normally talk like that to their father or teacher (they are in higher status and position, but they are also close to you, therefore, no need for subservient phrase like that)

回先生的話, 學生今年八歲 imply the student himself acknowledges he is not allowed to speak in front of the authority (in this case, the teacher) unless spoken to or with permission to speak. It is not the society generally think in modern time.


What does 乐群 (lèqún) mean? Among the many banners for new students at Nankai Uni is this one:

It says:

  爱国 敬业 创新 乐群
  Àiguó jìngyè chuàngxīn lèqún

The first three I can translate:

爱国 (àiguó） = patriotism (literally "love country")
敬业 (jìngyè) = dedication to one's job
创新 (chuàngxīn） = innovation

But the fourth one doesn't appear on dict.cn.  (And I think I've managed to identify the hanzi characters here.)

Question: What does 乐群 (lèqún) mean?

If we break it down:

乐 (lè) = happy
群 (qún) = group

So I guess it means something like "happy group", which sounds a bit strange.

乐 here means 喜欢, like, enjoy

群 means group

乐群 means enjoy group-living, willing to go well with others, and that kind of idea.


是……的 construction without 的? I don't fully understand the grammatical structure of the following sentence:

  我来是要了解这一地区的市场情况。

Specifically I'm confused about the 是 in this sentence. It reminds me of the 是……的 construction, but there's no corresponding 的.

Is there some kind of pattern in this sentence that I'm missing?

Rephrase it a bit and you can get the 是……的 construction.

我來(的)是要瞭解這一個區的市場情況。
我是要瞭解這一個區的市場情況來的。

I wouldn't phrase this sentence using the 是……的 construction though, the detail 要瞭解這一個區的市場情況 is a bit long, plus it contains another 的 inside the detail, making it more easily misunderstood.


Which is more common in Mandarin: 四處 or 周圍? Which is more common to express the notion of "everywhere": 四處 or 周圍?

Example: The house will have your books everywhere.

四處 is better than 周圍 in this case. However, I think you can consider 到處.

The house will have your books everywhere.
這房子將到處都有你的書。

From Google Translate:

  everywhere 副詞
      到處
      everywhere, throughout, in all places
      隨處
      everywhere, anywhere
      遍
      all over, everywhere
      隨地
      anywhere, everywhere
      普
      everywhere
      廣泛地
      abroad, diffusely, everywhere, large, at large, proverbially
      在在
      everywhere


How do I write in Chinese, you look well today, as in good colour in face? I visited an auntie in hospital, I want to text her to say she looked well today, how do I write this?

你今天气色很好！
(Nǐ jīntiān qìsè hěn hǎo!)
You looked well today.

加油，早日康复！
(Jiāyóu, zǎorì kāngfù!)
Keep it up, get well soon!


"以" in "敗義以求生， 豈荀巨伯所行邪" Does "以" have the same meaning in the following sentences?

  敗義以求生， 豈荀巨伯所行邪

  志士仁人 無求生以害仁

in "敗義[以]求生， 豈荀巨伯所行邪",  '以' functions as  "to" in English
commit immoral act [to] survive, isn't something I (荀巨伯) would do
it makes no sense to interpret  it as "commit immoral act with attempt of surviving"

~

in "志士仁人 無求生[以]害仁", '以' functions as "with" or "by" in English
principled and kind person, would not try to survive with immoral act
principled and kind person, would not try to survive by committing immoral act
it makes no sense to interpret  it as "trying to survive to commit immoral act"


Reduplication of Adverb + Adjective in 很细很细 My textbook has this sentence:

是一种很细很细的针。

(1) What is the purpose of "很细很细"?

(2) In what kind of situations can this phrase be used?

Wayne Cheah wrote :

  What is the purpose of "很细很细" -- same as "very, very small..."

And that should be the answer. I would give more examples to support it

很细的针 a very small needle

很细很细的针 a very very small needle / a small small needle

很遠的地方 a far away place/ a place far away

很遠很遠的地方 a very very far away place/ a place far far away

很大的手 Very large hand (a big one)

很大很大的手 very very large hand (a huge one)


What is the meaning of 声 in ...车市降价声已经是此起彼伏? What is the meaning of '声‘ in this sentence?

近2/3的进口车也大幅降价;而2004年、2005年和2006年，车市降价声已经是此起彼伏。

"声(Sound)" is metaphorical in this sentence, "车市降价(Automobile market price drop)" cannot actually produce a sound, so it implies that there are potential of market price drop, because we are hearing "此起彼伏(Wave after wave)" of the "sound" that automobile market price is going to drop.

Also to mention, "此起彼伏(Wave after wave)" usually describes something that produce waves/has up and downs, so "声" is required or it doesn't make sense.


What is the meaning of 心兴? What is the meaning of 心兴 in the picture below (towards bottom left in image)? I am guessing it means to think, but doesn't 想 mean to think?

That character is not「兴」(to rise > excited, happy), it is「头」(head).

「心头」(literally heart + head) means mind - the picture is saying that you use your mind to think/reason.


What's the difference between 咁 (gam3) and 噉 (gam2)? What does "gam" mean in these two contexts, and why is a different character used in each?
Note 咁 used in this sentence

我睇見你坐喺梳化椅處， 唔停咁同張太太，何太太，王小姐佢哋傾偈。
(ngo5 tai2 gin3 nei5 co5 hai2 so1 faa2 ji2 syu3, m4 ting4 gam2 tung4 zoeng1 taai3 taai2, ho6 taai3 taai2, wong4 siu2 ze2 keoi5 dei6 king1 gai2)

My attempted translation is "I saw you sitting around the sofa, chatting non-stop with Mrs. Cheung, Mrs. Ho, and Ms. Wang."
In the book, this character was transliterated with the second tone, which is a rising tone.  When I looked it up in Cantodict, it shows up as a third tone, which is flat.
Now, look at 噉 used in this sentence

我係被迫要唔停噉大聲傾偈啫，實在我唔想gaa3。
(ngo5 hai6 bei6 bik1 jiu3 m4 ting4 gam2 daai6 seng1 king1 gai2 ze1, sat6 zoi6 ngo5 m4 soeng2 gaa3)

My translation is "I was forced to talk in a loud voice non-stop, but I really didn't want to."

If you happen to be familiar with Mandarin or Standard Written Chinese, the Cantonese character 咁 (gam3) corresponds to 這麼 or 那麼 and 噉 (gam2) corresponds to 這樣 or 那樣.  As jogloran mentioned, 咁 is a prefix modifier whereas 噉 is postfix or a standalone pronoun.

You'll often see 咁 written where gam2 is intended, which is likely the reason why 咁 appears in your first example instead of 噉.  This is due to the fact that written Cantonese is not standardized, so some people are not necessarily aware of which character to use.  For consistency sake though, I always use 咁 for gam3 and 噉 for gam2.


Pronunciation difference between 绿, and 陆。 你们怎么样 ？
I cannot find the right pronunciation for words like 绿. The pronunciation of 绿 in my mind is too similar to words like, 陆 。
Help me differenciate between the two and study more about that particular 绿 entonation, please.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT: I`m sorry if this is a duplicate question, i could not find something similar enough.

The initial in 綠 (lü) and 陸 (lu) are the same. You are essentially asking how to pronounce the pinyin ü and u.

Silently, round your lips tightly into a small circle (but don't close it completely). Within the oral cavity, place the tip of your tongue at the very front. Now make some sound from your vocal cords. You are now pronouncing the close front rounded vowel /y/, or the pinyin ü.

Continue to make sound, but now slowly move the tip of your tongue backwards, until you hear the familiar /u/, or the pinyin u. This is the close back rounded vowel.

You may draw reference from other languages that you are familiar with when learning how to pronounce a certain vowel in a new language. (More examples of /y/ and /u/ from Wikipedia)

/y/, ü
/u/, u

English
few [fjyː] (multicultural London)
boot [bu̟ːt]

German
über [ˈyːbɐ] 'over'
Fuß [fuːs] 'foot'

French
tu [t̪y] 'you'
où [u] 'where'

I think the difference in German (ü vs u) is best understood. It is even reflected in its spelling.


Are Chinese characters always in a perfect square shape, or are there fonts with rectangular characters? Are all Chinese characters in all fonts placed in a perfect square grid, or are there fonts which make characters slightly rectangular such as 5:6 aspect ratio or 8:9 aspect ratio, etc. E.g. you find stuff like this all over the place, but I haven't seen any rectangle versions.

From what I know all fonts put the character in a 'perfect' square.
Handwritten, Chinese/Japanese people do not put them in a perfet square of course.


Why do the names of some Chinese companies consist of "repeated" words? I'm referring to the repetition of names such as "Dangdang" and "Renren." Why is this the case?

If you compare Chinese with English, you will find a lot differences and similarities. Similarities may help you learn Chinese a little bit easily, while differences are the things you need to keep in mind and to get used to.

Here are the ways how English/Chinese sentences are constructed.

English:  Letters ----------------- Words ---- Sentences

Chinese:  -------- Characters ---Words ---- Sentences

You may have noticed that I located Chinese characters somewhere between English letters and words. Each Chinese character has its own meanings, and we combine characters to make words (a lot words contain only one character though, like 我,你,他, etc.). Most of Chinese words (more than 80% maybe) have meanings related to the meaning of each character used in that word. For the rest words, their meanings have NOTHING to do with the meaning of each character in the word. Most of the words in this category are those translated from foreign languages by pronunciation, like 马达（motor），基因（gene）. There are a lot such words in English as well, like lychee （荔枝），ping-pong（乒乓）.

One important feature of Chinese is that most Chinese words are two-syllable words. I guess two-syllable words sound more rhythmic than single-syllable words.

In your example, "Dangdang" 当当 (probably from the website name 当当网) is just a two-syllable name. 当当 is also used as the mimetic word for bells.

"Renren" is 人人。人 means man/people/person/mankind etc. 人人 means everybody. Other same pattern words are: 天天（everyday）， 月月（every month），年年（every year），处处（everywhere），个个（each and every one）， etc.

Repeating characters in the SAME WORD emphasize the meaning of that character, and also sound more rhythmic. Same idea behind all the 4-character words in the patter of AABB, like 时时刻刻，日日夜夜，分分秒秒，吹吹打打，来来去去，年年岁岁，熙熙攘攘，热热闹闹，高高兴兴，干干净净，整整齐齐，恭恭敬敬，花花草草，战战兢兢，形形色色，从从容容，利利索索 and a lot others.

However, the above explanation doesn't apply to the repeating characters NOT IN THE SAME WORD. For example, 银行行长。银行 is a word, meaning bank. 行长 is another word, meaning the head of the bank.

Another example: 小明明天去上学。小明 is a name （probably a boy）. 明天 is a word, meaning tomorrow. While in 明明天天去上学, 明明 is a name （probably a boy）. 天天 is a word, meaning everyday.

It is very common in Chinese that repeating characters are used in the same word. Here are some cases where repeating characters appear.

in person's names (usually children's): 明明,亮亮,云云,圆圆,皮皮, etc.
in the words for simulating sounds made by things: 当当,轰轰,呜呜,呼呼,啪啪, etc.
in the words for simulating sounds made by animals:汪汪,喵喵,咩咩,哞哞, etc.
in the form of address: 姥姥,爷爷,奶奶,伯伯,叔叔,爸爸,妈妈,哥哥,姐姐,弟弟,妹妹,姑姑,舅舅, etc.
in the words in v+obj pattern: 尿尿 (小刚去厕所尿尿)
in the words in v+adv pattern: 开开 (请把门开开)
in actions: 看看,听听,瞧瞧,打打,写写,说说,读读,练练,弹弹, etc.
in words meaning "every X": 天天,处处,个个,年年, etc.
in ancient Chinese: 雨雨,将将,君君臣臣父父子子, etc. In this case, AA is a word, and usually the 1st A is a verb, and the 2nd A is a noun.

Sometimes, you have to use the words consisted of repeating characters, and it can't be replaced by the word containing only one character, for exmaple:

这是我的奶奶. Here 奶奶 is grandmother (Dad's mom).

这是我的奶. This sentence is totally different from the previous one. Depending on the context, this sentence can mean " this is my milk" when the speaker is having his/her breakfast, or it can mean "this is the milk from my breasts" when a mom breastfeeding her baby is talking to another mom.

If you regard Chinese characters as something similar to English words, you will be surprised to see repeating characters. However if you think characters as something similar to English syllables, then you will feel a lot comfortable.

Here are some English words that have repeating syllables:
mama,papa,yoyo,banana,Kijiji,Honolulu,Mississippi,Lady Gaga,Paganini,poopoo, etc.


When does 可 before a verb mean “willing to”, and when does it mean “can”? In a sentence like this,
他遇到了一个好朋友, 可带他去很多酒吧
does the 可 mean the new friend “can” bring him to the bar, or that he is “willing to”?
I’ve always thought of 可 as just “can” or “able to”, but I saw on Pleco that it could be used as an auxiliary to mean “be willing to; be ready to”.
The examples given include 可干 and 可虚心接受意见.
Maybe it always means “willing to” in front of a verb, and you’d use 可以 when you want to say “can”?

可虚心接受意见 literally mean "can/ able to humbly accept suggestions"
If you can accept suggestions, it also implies you are willing to accept suggestions (most people can't accept suggestions = unwilling to accept suggestions)
可带他去很多酒吧 should be translated as 'able to take him to many bars'
For 可 to suggest 'willing', the sentence must state something the subject might be unwilling to do
Example:
這孩子可刻苦練功 (This child can practice hard) meaning 這孩子肯 (willing to) 刻苦練功   (most people can't practice hard = unwilling to practice hard)
it is better to replace 可 (can/ able/ willing to) with the more specific 肯 for "willing"


What does 藝蘭軒備 mean? So my Chinese at the moment is pretty limited, and I can't seem to figure out the meaning of this four character mark on a bowl that I bought: 藝蘭軒備.

I tried translating the characters individually, and that leads me to believe it might mean that the bowl was made for a specific room in a house, but I'm really not sure.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

兿蘭軒 seems to be the company's name (House of artful orchid)

備 can mean "prepare" , "equip" or "reserve"

When I search 兿蘭軒 I found a place called 藝軒蘭園 and it is a flower shop. Does your bowl looked like it can be a vast or pot for plants? If it is a vest, then 兿蘭軒備 would mean this vast is prepared for this flower shop's 盆栽 (potted plant)

If the bowl is an actual dinnerware, then 兿蘭軒 might be a restaurant (which I can't find on line), and 兿蘭軒備 could mean "equipment (dinnerware) of House of artful orchid restaurant".

Edit:

If 兿蘭軒 was the name of a house/ institution, then 兿蘭軒備 would mean this was a decoration item used (equipped for display) by the House of Artful Orchid


Why is "纸“ used in "肚纸饿”? 为什么说肚纸饿，不肚子饿? I was online recently and saw an image saying "肚纸饿“ (although I cannot presently locate it). I know "肚子饿” means "I'm hungry", but the character 纸 used in the image means paper. Was it used instead of the normal 子 because it sounds similar?

＊对不起，我的中文真不好；这是我自己的翻译，我知道不是很简单看懂！＊
我上网的时候看了一个照片说“肚纸好饿”。（不好意思，现在不会找到它。）我知道“肚子饿的意思“，可是没听过了”肚纸“。是一样的吗？为什么有剪纸的纸跟肚子？就是应为听的是很像的吗？谢谢！

It is of course not the right way to write it if it meant to say "肚子饿". It could be a fashion trend to use "肚纸饿" to replace "肚子饿" because they sound similar. It is like when English people use french and made it official later on. For example, french people use soudier to mean mercenary and English people used it to create the word soldier. I don't know the fashion trend but that could be a reason.


Using 是 properly in sentences This page describes how to use 是 properly in sentences:

  是 (shì) is only used to link two nouns. It cannot be used to link a
  noun and an adjective. This is a very common mistake for people just
  beginning to learn Chinese. For that kind of sentence, you'll want to
  use a different structure with the linking word 很 (hěn).

It makes sense, but one pattern is not clear.

Take for example: "All her clothes are black."

Would you say， 她什麼衣服都很黑色，since you cannot say， 她什麼衣服都是黑色？

It seems strange to say 很黑色 in this context, so confirmation would be most appreciated.

The confusion here lies with the fact that「黑」(black) is an adjective, but「黑色」(black colour) is a noun. So, the correct way to say your example meaning is one of these:

她什麼衣服都很黑 (not 黑色)
她什麼衣服都是黑色的 (not 黑)

「的」should be appended on the end of the second example to make it a nominalised adjective, and「色」is optional:

  她什麼衣服都是黑的

This syntax equates the following two:

黑色的衣服
衣服是黑色的


An unknown, calligraphic Traditional Chinese character (Character identified: 常) I'm a Vietnamese preparing to celebrate the Lunar New Year and have found this piece of decoration. I think the Chinese character on that is a Traditional one, pretty calligraphic and notably containing the 龸 part (I guess). I've tried looking up this character in our most reliable Han dictionary (from Traditional Chinese characters to Vietnamese), but failed. Moreover, I've searched it on the LINE dictionary (Chinese to English), and the best result I've got is 常.

Now I'm here to seek help. What is this character? Thanks in advance.

What you posted is 常 (pinyin: chang2).

It means always or often, and with New Year decorations, can appear in combination for example in well-wishing phrases about happiness, fortunes, health, etc.

Recognition might be difficult because this is not the regular script typically seen in print text, but is instead written in semi-cursive script, also known as running script (pinyin: xing2 shu, t: 行書, s: 行书, Vietnamese: Hành thư)

The bottom part of 常 is composed of 口 (mouth, pinyin: kou3) and 巾 (pinyin: jin), and normally these shapes are clearly discernible when looking at the regular script version
but in your posted example it is condensed: the box-like 口 is reduced to a mere triangle and merged with the 巾
the top half's strokes are still recognizable though, not drastically altered compared to regular script
it shows condensed strokes typical of cursive script, yet has not been completely condensed, so it should be semi-cursive not cursive

Another example, listed as semi-cursive:

(source: supfree.net)

notice the similar condensed shapes and strokes at the bottom

Source: http://shufa.supfree.net/raky.asp?zi=%B3%A3

As for the Simplified vs. Traditional aspect, not every Traditional Chinese character has been changed to make Simplified Chinese, for example: character for the number one 一 (pinyin: yi). 常 is also an example of a character that the authors of Simplified Chinese did not simplify, so under Simplified Chinese it remains unchanged from Traditional Chinese.

Hope this helped,

Happy Lunar New Year!


Did the name "白俄罗斯" exist in Chinese before 1991? Did the name "白俄罗斯" for Belarus exist in Chinese language before 1991 or was it created only when Belarus became an independent state in 1991?

the internet archive has the book 瀛環志畧, in volume 4, "白峩" was used to translate belarus:

https://archive.org/stream/02087085.cn#page/n43/mode/1up

this book was published in 1849.

the 峩 (u+5ce9) was a variant of 峨 (u+5ce8), both of them share the same pronunciation with the character 俄 (u+4fc4), that is used in modern days translation.

then, the internet archive has another book 海國圖志, in volume 54, "白峩羅斯" was used in lieu of belarus:

https://archive.org/stream/02087117.cn#page/n50/mode/1up

this book was published in 1843, maybe the first geographic / atlas type of book in imperial china.

btw, minsk was translated as "閔士其" :)

have fun :)


What is 剋 doing in the Cantonese translation of the movie title “Widows”? The Cantonese translation of the film Widows seems to be translated:

《剋·寡婦》

What is 剋 doing here?
The only reference I can find to it in dictionaries is in Words.HK which says:

動詞
帶嚟衰運；令人事事都唔如意
to work against; to counteract
剋夫
hak1 fu1
(of women) to bring extremely bad luck to the husband; or more specifically, have one's husband destined to die soon after marriage
佢一出世就剋死咗佢阿媽。
keoi5 jat1 ceot1 sai3 zau6 hak1 sei2 zo2 keoi5 aa3 maa1.
As soon as he was born, he has destined to mourn his mother's death.

But that doesn’t seem to fit the film translation title, unless they’re insinuating that the women caused their own widowedhood, which contracts the synopsis:

their criminal husbands are killed on a botched job

Any ideas?

剋 and 黑 are pronounced the same in Cantonese

剋·寡婦 is a wordplay of a common term 黑寡婦 (Black widow: 1. A woman who murders her husband(s) 2. a kind of spider) And as the title implied, it is about a widow who has 剋夫命 (Be accused of bringing bad luck that cause her husband to die)

Chinese rarely translate foreign movies titles word for word. More often than not, the Chinese writer would totally ignore the original title, and make a new one in Chinese to attract Chinese viewers.

Some good example:

Meet the Fockers --> 非常外父智擒霍老爺 (sounds funny)

Wedding Crashers --> 冒牌伴郎智擒姊妹團 (sounds funny)

Mackenna's Gold --> 神龍猛虎闖金關 (sounds heroic)

Sound of Music --> 仙樂飄處處聞 (sounds poetic)

The Longest Day --> 碧血長天 (sounds epic)

The Greatest Show On Earth --> 馬戲千秋 (sounds epic)


Can 之间 be equivalent to 之内 in some contexts? I am struggling with a sentence that I am trying to translate:

很多的发展过去是在一个行业之间的，我们觉得互联网金融的时代更多机会是在跨业的。

How would you translate the opposition between 一个行业之间 and 在跨业 in this context? It would seem obvious to me that the meaning is something like (please excuse me if what follows is bad english, I am not a native) "In the past economic development took place within a given industry/market segment" which is then contrasted with something as "cross-sectoral development opportunities". Yet, this feels wrong because, as far as I understand, 之间 means between - then again, what's the meaning of between supposed to be when there's only one thing mentioned in the sentence before, i.e. 一个行业 : "between one industry" ?  And how would that be different from "跨业"? Thanks in advance to shed some light on this!

之间 = between (more than one object)

Example:

兩人之间 (between the two persons)

球員之间 (between the players)

教練與球員之间 (Between coach and players)

~

之内 = within (a single object)

Example:

球队之内 (within the football team)

组织之内 (within the organization)

公司之內 (within the company)

~

More graphic examples:

两眼之间的距离 (distance between two eyes)

人体之内的器官 (organs within the human body)

  很多的发展过去是在一个行业之间的，我们觉得互联网金融的时代更多机会是在跨业的。

In this context, it should be

很多的发展过去是在一个行业之内的，我们觉得互联网金融的时代更多机会是在跨业的。
(Many developments existed within an industry in the past. We feel that in the era of internet finance, more opportunities are existing between industries)

一个行业 is a single object

过去的发展是在[一个行业之内]的 = the past developments were of [within an industry]
互联网金融的时代的机会是在[行业之间]的 =  internet era's financial opportunities are of [between industries]


Why is 喂 used over 你好 when answering the phone? The use of 拜拜 over 再见 at the end of a phone conversation is obvious as you haven't seen them so how could you see them again but I don't understand why 喂 is used as a greeting when answering the phone.

It also seems the other dialect in Chinese use a different greeting for phone calls as compared to face to face interaction eg. Cantonese 喂 wái | Hakka 噯 oi

So my question is why was a different greeting needed for answering the phone?

Most languages use an alternate greeting for telephone calls; the English "hello", although originating from before the telephone, was popularised by it, so much so that it has become a common greeting outside the telephone:

hello
1883, alt. of hallo (1840), itself an alt. of holla, hollo, a shout to attract attention, first recorded 1588. Perhaps from holla! "stop, cease." Popularity as a greeting coincides with use of the telephone, where it won out over Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion, ahoy. Central telephone exchange operators
were known as hello-girls (1889).

So the mandarin 喂 is not an exception, only that unlike "hello", people do not use it outside telephone calls.
The reason for telephone greetings is that it was a medium where reception may be bad and you are unsure who you are talking to. Thus a short greeting meant to solicit response (i.e. "can you hear me") is used.


How to parse 没得 + Verb constructions I've heard phrases of the form 没得V, where V is a verb. Sometimes, the 没得 appears to function like 没, e.g.,

  我没得选: I don't have a choice.

Sometimes, it appears to function like a softer, colloquial form of 不得 (i.e., as something like "needn't"), e.g.,

  往事，是没得介意的: Don't worry about it, it's water under the bridge.

I also think I've heard it to mean something like "can't", e.g.,

  周六咱俩打羽毛球，好不？: Let's play badminton on Saturday, ok?
  不行，周末没得打。: No, we can't play on weekends. (I.e., the court is not available, maybe?)

I have three questions:

What is the grammatical structure of these 没得V phrases? Is 得 acting like a full verb with V as its object? Is V a complement of some sort?
Is 得 properly pronounced as full second tone (dé) here? (I assume so.)
What are the most common uses of this structure? With what verbs does it most commonly appear?

I think you've got the idea what this phrase means. In terms of the grammatical structure, you can think about "没法" or “没办法” analogous to "没得". They have similar meanings except that “没法” or “没办法” are more formal than "没得". 得 is mostly acting like a full verb with V (you can interpret 得 as the same meaning as the 得 in 得到), though it's also sensible to consider it as a compliment.
Suggestion: Don't bother with this grammatical structure. "没得" is mostly used in informal speaking.
Yes, it's pronounced as second full tone here, as you said, PROPERLY. However, it's not strictly followed. It depends on the context and your emotions, like, some people may pronounce as first full tone when they say the sentence quickly.
The most common uses for this structure are 没得＋比 \ 没得＋看 \ 没得＋选 \ 没得＋用 \ 没得＋上 \ 没得 ＋ 玩. But actually, the structure is pretty flexible, feel free to change!

Hope it would help!