Reliability of HSK practice tests I am curious as to how reliable HSK tests downloaded from the internet are. I've downloaded them from the sites listed in this post. And have also use the android app here.

I can pass the HSK 1 & 2 tests on both the app and pdf. I certainly did not understand all the written or spoken text and maybe made lucky educated guesses on a maximum of 3-4 questions.

Is the difficulty level of these tests and the scores given accurate? I know that one may not be able to answer this definitively here, but can anyone who has relevant knowledge/experience comment?

I apologize if this question is inappropriate for the forum here, feel free to close it or otherwise suggest another forum. 谢谢!

I have done HSK3 and am preparing for HSK4. I used some HSK3 practice tests to see whether I was ready for that test. When the practice tests are identified as past test papers, they should be a good rough guide to your readiness for the real test. I treat them only as a rough indicator because there are no exact descriptions of what you need to know for HSK tests (except for character lists, which are only marginally helpful).

You can also find HSK preparation books. The practice tests in those books are sometimes somewhat harder than the real HSK test.


What is the purpose of verb reduplication? In English, we can say:

I sneezed a big sneeze.
She sleeps a long sleep.
"Waiting for a king to apologize, one can wait rather a long wait." (from the film The Kings Speech)

and many more such examples.

Just one chapter of  西游记 has these five reduplications with  了 between.

Do you think the word after 了 is a noun or a verb? What is the purpose of the reduplication?

猪八戒抬手指了指天，
孙悟空看了看猪八戒的大肚子，无奈地笑了笑说，
拿着金箍棒晃了晃，对准马屁股作势要打。
，强盗头目眼珠子转了转，
一边说还一边向着猪八戒挥了挥手里的金箍棒。

For comparison， 了 followed by a noun:

你要真的抢了我的东西，
，如果这辈子做了坏事
强盗头目得到了满意的答案，

The examples you gave are not verb reduplication
phrases like 笑笑，看看，走走 or 吃吃 are verb reduplication, it serves to indicate the verb is in a slight degree or a casual manner

I sneezed a big sneeze
She sleeps a long sleep

These are just a same word as verb, and then as noun (object) in a same sentence

the first sneeze is a verb; the second sneeze is a noun

the first sleep is a verb; the second sleep is a noun

了 is not a verb, it is a 'verb particle' that indicate 'completion of the action' or 'change of situation.
In your 西游记 examples

指 = point

指了= pointed (the pointing action is completed)

笑了笑 - the first 笑 is a verb; the second 笑 is a 'verb classifier' for counting how many times the subject smiled (since there is only one smile, the action is in a slight degree or casual manner)

晃了晃 - the first 晃 is a verb; the second 晃 is a 'verb classifier' for counting how many times 金箍棒 was swung (since there is only one swing, the action is in a slight degree or casual manner)

转了转 - the first 转 is a verb; the second 转 is a 'verb classifier' for counting how many times 眼珠子 was turned (since there is only one turn, the action is in a slight degree or casual manner)

Since the second 笑, 晃 and 转 are verb classifiers, they work with counting words: 笑了(一)笑, 晃了(三)晃, 转了(八)转

抢了我的东西 (seized my stuffs) - '抢了' is a completed action; 我的东西 is the object
抢我的东西 - (seize my stuffs) - '抢' is a verb; 我的东西 is the object (no indication of either the action is completed or not)

~

'做了坏事' (have done bad thing) - '做了' is a completed action; '坏事' is the object
'做坏事' (do bad thing) - '做' is a verb ; '坏事' is the object (no indication of either the action is completed or not)

~

'得到了满意的答案' (have got a satisfied answer) - 得到了 is a completed action; 满意的答案 is the object
'得到满意的答案' (get a satisfied answer) - 得到 is verb; 满意的答案 is the object (no indication of either the action is completed or not)


meaning of "然後三個三個分成小組" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n38D7DCDtbk

http://southworks.com/blog/2009/06/21/the-cookie-experiment/

So,when Liu Anting refers to "然後三個三個分成小組" does she mean something along the lines of "And then into three small groups of three?"

曾經做過這樣的一個實驗 - 他們將一大群大學生招集起來之後 - 然後三個三個分成小組

They once performed this sort of experiment - [After] they formed a large group of university students - then they divided them into three groups of three".

Is my understanding of 分成 correct? Thanks!

X 个 X 个分成小组 means to divide something into groups of X. So 三个三个分成小组 means to divide these students into groups of 3. But the number of groups is not necessarily 3.
The expression "X 个 X 个" is something like giving an example of arrangement, or the manner to process a bunch of things, such as:

把这些苹果两个两个放在一起。    # two apples together
把这些苹果一个一个洗干净。    # wash the apples one by one


A Complex Chinese Character I randomly saw this character on the blog a while ago and saved a image of it as shown below.

Is this even a character? If so, what does it mean? When is it used? What was the origin of it? How do you pronounce it?

I apologize for throwing lots of questions. Any help is appreciated!

This is actually not one character, but a stylistic conglomeration of the characters in the phrase 招財進寶, meaning "ushering in wealth and prosperity".

The characters 財 and 寶 end up being represented with the same 貝 component in this "character". While the left side of 招 (扌) and the right side of 財 (才) are technically not the same component, they look similar enough to be represented with the same component here as well.


How to say "I wouldn't go so far as to say..." in Mandarin I'm searching for a common way to say "I wouldn't go so far as to say that" in Mandarin. The only translation of this expression, that I found in a dictionary, is :

It's good, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's great.
挺好的，但是我不會極端到說棒極了。

However, since I have not found any other translation of "極端到" that expresses the idea of "go so far as to", I wonder if is this is a common way to say it.

It is more natural to say

还没有……到……地步

For example, 挺好的，但还没有好到那个地步。
Or

it tastes fine, but I would not go so far as to say that it is delicious

can be

味道还行，但还没有好吃到十分美味的地步

Well, if you were in a more oral conversation, you would normally say

但也没有很/特别……
但也不是很/特别……

For example

I went to the national park, which was a good trip, but I would not go so far as to say that it is wonderful

could be

我去了国家公园，感觉还行，但也不是特别好玩


Is the grammar of this correct? I am writing a short 1 minute speech for my school, but I am not sure if the grammar of this is correct.

Can somebody please tell me if it is correct.

  我的家
  大家好！我叫Ian。我今年十四岁。我的家在Greenlane。我的家有四口人，爸爸，妈妈，一个姐姐和我。
  我的家有三个卧室，三个卫生间，一个厨房，客厅和一个饭厅。我也有一个小花园。我的花园很漂亮。
  我的客厅不大也不小。客厅里有三个沙发，一个棕色的桌子，椅子和一个电视。我不喜欢我的客厅一点儿。因为，在晚上，客厅很冷。
  我喜欢我的卧室因为卧室很暖和。还有，我的卧室比我姐姐的我是很大。我的房间里有床，两个白色的书架，一个书桌和两个椅子。书架上有英文书，韩文书和中文书。
  我最喜欢我的家。

我的家

I Assume this is the title. If it is, perfectly fine.

  我叫Ian。我今年十四岁。

Too many subjects. Sound redundant. Better to be: 我叫Ian，今年十四岁。

  我的家在Greenlane。我的家有四口人，爸爸，妈妈，一个姐姐和我。

Redundancy problem again. Suggest to change to 我的家在Greenlane，家里有四口人——爸爸、妈妈、姐姐和我。（Note the correct usage of punctuation.）

I changed your second "我的家" into "家里" because

Although in Chinese, 家 can refer to either family or the house, please avoid refer to both in the same context, which leads to confusion.
We usually do not say "我的家有四口人". Instead, we say "我家有四口人" or "我家里有四口人"。In the second form, 我 can be omitted if your last sentence already uses 我 as subject.

  我的家有三个卧室，三个卫生间，一个厨房，客厅和一个饭厅。

This sentence does not have big problem in grammar. Maybe changing 我的家 into 我家 can may it more oral-like. Another thing to pay attention to is, you remove the quantity of 客厅 only, but keep all other ones with 一个. How about: 我家有客厅、饭厅、厨房、三个卧室和三个卫生间。. I also changed the order to make sure there's no ambiguity.

  我也有一个小花园。

也 is improper, since it implies other people also have a garden. If it's the only garden in your house, you should say 我还有一个花园. Another problem is, the garden does not belong to you only (in my point of view, it should belong to you family), so a better way to state is 我家还有一个花园. However, this would make the subject repeated. Therefore, you can change to another way around, saying 屋子外面还有一个花园.

  我的花园很漂亮。

我的 can be removed.

  我的客厅不大也不小。

Changing 我的 to 我家的, or simply removing it, would be better.

  客厅里有三个沙发，一个棕色的桌子，椅子和一个电视。

If you choose to remove 我的 in your last sentence, you can also remove 客厅 in this sentence and change 里 into 里面。Joining together the two sentences: 客厅不大也不小，里面有三个沙发、一个棕色的桌子、?把椅子和一个电视。（There's no reason to omit the quality of chair. If you omit it, some people may think there's only one chair. If you don't want to mention the number, you can also say 几把椅子.）

  我不喜欢我的客厅一点儿。

This one is too English. I assume you want to say: I dislike my living room a little bit. If this is the case, you should change into 我有点儿不喜欢我家的客厅.

  因为，在晚上，客厅很冷。

Everything fine.

  我喜欢我的卧室因为卧室很暖和。

Fine. But feel a little bit rigid/unnatural when moving from the last sentence. You can add some preposition, such as 相比之下。So the sentence becomes: 相比之下，我更喜欢我的卧室，因为卧室很暖和。. The second 卧室 can be swapped into 它 to remove repeating.

  还有，我的卧室比我姐姐的我是很大。

Typo? 我是 --> 卧室. Again, the second 卧室 can be removed. Another problem, 很大 can not be used to describe comparison. You can say 大很多 instead. The full sentence: 还有，我的卧室比我姐姐的大很多。.

  我的房间里有床，两个白色的书架，一个书桌和两个椅子。

Please don't change subject from 卧室 to 房间. This may makes the audience misleaded. Just say "卧室里有床、两个白色的书架、一个书桌和两把椅子。".

  书架上有英文书，韩文书和中文书。

Fine.

  我最喜欢我的家。

Better to be: 我最喜欢我的家了。 or 我非常喜欢我的家。. Because 最 makes people think you are making comparison.Either you like your home more than somebody else, or you like your home more than something else. Changing to "非常" would make it only mean the degree of your affection. 我最喜欢我的家了。 is another way of saying it with more emotion, instead of plainly state the fact.


Can a Good Listener Help Me Translate? I am translating a paragraph from English into Chinese, going by a recording a native speaker made. I am trying to use the same characters that they are using in their spoken translation, but am having difficulty with one passage. The passage's English source material is the following:

"A major goal of language learning is to acquire the ability to communicate in that language."

I've attached a link to the speaker's recording. The passage above begins at about 54 seconds in, with the passage I'm having trouble with beginning at about 57 seconds (at "就是...") and ends at about 1:05 (at "为了..."

https://vocaroo.com/i/s1egf4TlxINm

I can't seem to find the exact characters the speaker uses.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

就是掌握用那种语言去交流的能力

The speaker's pronunciation is not perfect. The pronunciation of "那" (the intended pronunciation should be nei4 here) is not good.

那 is often pronounced as nei4 in speech.


What does `想要` emphasize exactly? So far I know 想 means want to e.g I want to know or I want to have.
要 is more like must or need e.g. I need to go or I must go.
Is 想要 more like 想得到 / 想有, that you want to get something, you want to have it, even you don't need it? Like you want to have a car on your own but you will never leave your room. That's the meaning to want to get or want to have to me.
or
Is 想要 more like 需要, that you need it even you don't want it? Like you need a pen to be able to write, but you don't really want it. If you don't need to write you will never buy a pen, you prefer buying a car. That's the meaning of need to me.

想要 + n: want to get/own something
想要 + verb: want to do


Written Japanese and Chinese speakers' understanding I'd like to know in general how (in which measure) written Japanese is intelligible to Chinese speakers (when kana syllabaries are not used).
For example a few days ago when Yoshihide Suga was chosen a banner in the hotel hall where people were meeting read the following
自由民主党総裁選挙
Other example here:
https://japantoday-asset.scdn3.secure.raxcdn.com/img/store/e8/64/9c25e64373159715e69fc4c8d3bc01971057/debate/_w850.jpg
Can Chinese speakers (native or not) understand what it's about here ? Can more complex texts using kanjis only be fairly well understood also ?
Thanks.

With some exceptions (discussed below), Japanese kanji is mostly intelligible to people who can read Traditional and Simplified Chinese. One helpful contributing factor is the compositionality of many Chinese/Sino-Japanese expressions, which you could intuit the meaning of by identifying what the individual characters mean. A person who is unaware of a specific Japanese usage might still be able to guess the meaning this way. At the text level, context also helps.
The banner text in all three orthographies as follows:
Japanese: 自由民主党青年局 女性局主催 総裁選挙 公開討論会
Traditional Chinese: 自由民主黨青年局 女性局主催 總裁選舉 公開討論會
Simplified Chinese: 自由民主党青年局 女性局主催 总裁选举 公开讨论会
Simplified Chinese reduces some characters further than Japanese, but there's still broad agreement.
In the banner text, the only phrase that might be unfamiliar to Chinese readers is 主催, which is somewhat archaic. However, context and compositionality should allow a reader to infer the meaning.
So a Chinese reader would understand the text, word by word, as the following, resorting to compositionality if the phrase is unfamiliar:
[free/liberty] [democracy] [political party] [youth] [bureau] [female] [bureau]
[main/to be in charge + to urge] [chairperson/president/CEO] [election] [open to public] [discussion] [meeting/association].
From there, most would guess that it says something like 'Liberal Democratic Party Youth Bureau / Women's Bureau sponsoring Chairperson Election Open Forum'.
The modern equivalent of 主催 is 主辦/主办. 女性局 is more likely to be phrased as something like 婦女局/妇女局. Aside from those two differences, it's fairly idiomatic Chinese.
The exceptions listed in the beginning usually involve phrases that have gone through significant semantic drift in either language, some wasei-kango, and ateji. These include some very common words, so being unfamiliar with them could lead to serious misunderstanding. Examples include 勉強 ('study' in Japanese, 'reluctant/to do with difficulty/to force someone to do something' in Chinese), 私 ('I' in Japanese, 'self/private' in Chinese), 大丈夫 ('alright' in Japanese, 'real man' in Chinese), and so on.
However, these are also unlikely to occur in kanji-only environment outside of 伪中国语. Thanks to pop culture, some Chinese readers with no knowledge of Japanese may still be aware of the more common false friends. 大丈夫 and 大変 (大變/大变), for instance, are occasionally used with the Japanese meanings in Internet slang.


Why does the MacOS Keyboard with Predictive Completion produce 心情舒暢? I recently read a post here on CSE regarding the use of multiple input methods. I use MacOSX 10.9 so I began experimenting with an interesting aspect of the operating system called predictive completion. I added a Cangjie input source to my system and typed the letter P and selected the first option (心), the OS then offered (情) as the next first option, followed by 舒暢.
Can someone please explain the framework used by MacOSX to produce predictive Chinese grammar?
I am more interested in whether choosing the top choices along any given thread will produce reliable grammatical structures rather than the technology behind it. Although, if known, I would appreciate an understanding of the logic behind this option as well (on initial inspection, the completions do not appear to come from the dictionary).
Please let me know if I need to clarify this further.

(System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources)

This has very little to do with grammar. It is more likely making logical word associations. I have no idea what Cangjie is or how it works － but if you take out an iPhone or iPad or any iDevice and type in xin you can repeat the process that you just did in MacOS, i.e.: 心-->情-->舒暢 (these being the top recommended choices).
Wikipedia talks about this here:

Word prediction
Word prediction (simplified Chinese: 联想; traditional Chinese: 聯想;
pinyin: liánxiǎng; literally "association") is a feature of an input
method that attempts to guess the next series of characters that the
user is attempting to enter. This feature is often used to refer to
two different mechanisms that have similar functions.
One of these mechanisms is akin to an auto-complete function for user
input. While the user is typing the appropriate pinyin, the input
method would take the input and look up all possible word phrases that
might match the user input even though the input is incomplete. For
example, when the user enters "shang", the input method would show
"上海" (Shanghai) as a word candidate under this feature.
The second possible mechanism is the prediction of the user's next
input after the user completes entering a set of words. For example,
in the above example, after user selects "上海" (Shanghai) from the word
candidate list, the input method's pinyin buffer would be empty. Under
this mechanism, the input method would display a list of words that
often follows the word Shanghai, such as "人" (people), "市" (city), "的"
(an auxiliary word).

edit: this kind of 'word prediction' is a key feature of all Chinese IMEs.


Translation: Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss I'm reading the book Born for Love at the moment and came across the following passage:

  In all great religions, for example, there’s an equivalent of the Golden Rule, a summary of moral teachings that suggests that considering how you would want to be treated in the same situation is a good guide to doing the right thing. From the biblical “Love thy neighbor as thyself” to the Taoist “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss,” to the Islamic “None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself,” and the Talmudic “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man.

Taoism is obviously has Chinese roots, so I was trying to find this maxim, if you will, in Chinese. To no avail.

Everything I have found just seems to be English references back to the same (mis?)translated quote.

Is there a proper original quote of:

  “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss”

in Chinese? And what is it?

Edit:
Supposedly it's from: 太上感应篇....

見人之得，如己之得；見人之失，如己之失。

Original text is here:

http://book.bfnn.org/books/0477.htm


Are Chinese native speakers more sensitive to tones or phonemes? It seems like people are more sensitive to tones instead of phonemes. People may not notice some vowels/consonants are wrong but will immediately find that  tones are weird. Does this apply for all tonal languages?

Yes. It is not unusual for native Chinese to have difficulties distinguishing between nasal vs non-nasal or alveolars vs retroflexed, but I have never met someone who has difficulties distinguishing between the 4 tones in Mandarin. Though I am learning Cantonese right now and for me, a native Mandarin-speaking Chinese the 6 tones of Cantonese is a little bit tricky. I can't answer if this is true with regards to all tone languages, just my observation. Hope it helps


Distinction between 水果 and 果? On a certain website, the translation for fruit is 水果, but later on it tells me that it is also 果.
What is the distinction?

果 is the abstraction of all kinds of "production of flower". It could be fruit, or nut.

水果 means "juicy fruit" literally, but it could be any "production of flowers" which tastes delicious, e.g banana. But usually, people don't call nuts 水果, but 坚果 instead.


Why can't we use 什么的 ("and so on") with lists of people, and what can we use instead? My Chinese text book says this about using 什么的 ("and so on"):

I transcribe and translate this below (ignoring the first line; it's an example of using 什么的 continuing from the previous page):

  注意：”什么的“只能用于物，不能用于人。例如，不能说：“我们班有韩国人，美国人，日本人什么的。”
  Attention: "什么的" can only be used with things, not with people.  For example, we cannot say "our class has Korean people, American people, Japanese people, and so on."
  Zhùyì: ”Shénme de“ zhǐnéng yòng yú wù, bùnéng yòng yú rén. Lìrú, bùnéng shuō: “Wǒmen bān yǒu Hánguórén, Měiguórén, Rìběnrén shénme de.”

Question: Why can't we use 什么的 with lists of people, and what can we use instead?

The book doesn't discuss why we can't say this, only that we can't.  I guess it's because it's impolite to say this, but I'm just guessing.

I also don't know what we can use as an alternative (e.g. 等等 instead of 什么的), since whatever reason we should not use 什么的 might also apply to the alternative.

It can't be used for people because 什么的 means "things like"

写写信、打打球、洗洗衣服什么的 =  "Things like writing letter, playing basketball, washing clothes"

Also;

To list specific individuals, we can use '等人'
Example:  陈博士，李教授，王法官等人 (Dr. Chen, Professor Li, Judge Wang and others like them)

~

To list different kinds of people or things, we can use '之類'
Example:
'医生，律师 和警察之類 ' (people like doctor, lawyer and police)
'足球，篮球 和网球之類' (things like football, basketball and tennis)

~

'and so on' = "等等"
Example:
'足球，篮球, 网球等等' (football, basketball, tennis and so on)
'医生，律师, 警察等等' (doctor, lawyer, police and so on)

~

To list different kinds of dishonorable people, we can use '之流'

Example: "小偷, 騙子和走私客之流" (the like of thief, con man and  smuggler)


How would you translate 魔都 in English? I know it is referring to Shanghai, and Baidu has a handy explanation of its origins here, but how would you translate it? "The Mystic Capital"? "The Devilish Capital"?
In the theme of 帝都 to describe Beijing as the "The Imperial capital" etc.

You can use Demon City.

魔都 (used for 上海) came from the novel 魔都 written by 村松梢風 in 1924, and according to wikipedia, the novel's name is translated as Demon City.

Note that you don't have to translate 都 into capital, because it means big city too.

  ● 都
  　1. 大都市：～市。～会。通～大邑。


Mandarin version of 剩翻 (left over)? In Cantonese 剩翻 often means left over or surplus, as in 剩翻好少錢 （only a little money remains) or 剩翻好多飯 （lots of rice/food left over). What's the Mandarin equivalent of 剩翻? Would it be 留下？

CantoDict page: http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/48306/

剩翻 can also be written as 剩番
广州话方言词典

剩下；只剩
剩番兩個
剩番地理未考完。
只剩地理還沒考完。

《广州话-普通话》

留下；剩下
剩番佢兩個喺度值班
留下他兩個值班
份稿剩番幾頁未抄。
稿子剩下幾頁沒有抄完

Here we have 剩下, 留下 and 只剩 all used in different translations of 剩番 or 剩翻.


What order does the country name sort by in Chinese? I'm quite confused to see how the country name is sorted in Chinese.

The pictures below are names of countries that show at the first and last of the total list. Ignore China and its administrative regions since it automatically puts them at the top of the list from my country settings.

Sort by radical.

不 belongs to 一 radical (#1) therefore listed first

黑 belongs to 黑 radical: (#203) therefore listed last

If the first characters are the same, the radicals of the second characters will be ranked


For 佩, what semantic notions underlie "to wear" and "to admire"? I Googled-translated CUHK, but I don't think they or Yellowbridge expounds the semantic shift to "admire" or "respect"?  I read Any direct English equivalent for "佩服"?.
I know that even in 2020, belts can be expensive, but this doesn't explain the semantic shift for the wearer is the Agent, not the Experiencer. The wearer doesn't admire or respect himself, but causes admiration and respiration in others.

Synopsis  : 金文從「人」從「巾」從「凡」，象人佩巾形。本義是佩戴。
27 Characters
Elaboration: 「佩」在古代又指大帶，是古人服飾之一。學者多以「凡」為聲符，按「凡」、「佩」聲母相同，但韻母遠隔，姑備一說。
　　金文表示大帶，簋：「易(賜)佩」。又表示佩繫，頌鼎：「頌拜稽首，受令(命)冊，佩以出。」
　　《說文》：「佩，大帶佩也。从人从凡从巾。佩必有巾，巾謂之飾。」

According to 辞源 (see pictures below): wear something --> keep something on one's body --> remember something by heart --> respect and admire something
It turns out that 佩 and 服 are actually very similar. Both mean both "wear" and "admire".
Also, I just noticed that originally the object of 佩/佩服 is a thing, not a person. So you 佩/佩服 a person's courage, virtue, etc.
The example sentences in 《现代汉语词典》《现代汉语规范词典》 are still used in that way:
这种精神可敬可佩。
我真佩服他那种锲而不舍的精神。

But of course, nowadays you can also just 佩服 a person.
这姑娘真能干，我不禁暗暗地佩服她。


Is there any proof that learning ones own dialect will improve ability in Mandarin? There were many topolectical surveys done and data collected in the 70’s and 80’s under the reasoning that a person more familiar with their own dialect would be readily more proficient at Mandarin.

The reasoning is logical: many don’t even know how their mothertongue works and find it even more difficult to learn MSM.

Is there any proof to this claim?

What data is there to back up this thinking?

Even the statement that learning ones own dialect improves ability in Mandarin may be true, it doesn't necessarily apply to those who study Chinese as a second language.

If you're looking for ways to make learning Mandarin easier, my personal opinion is: don't torture yourself. I speak Shanghainese (a kind of Wu dialect) as my native dialect. While I am talking (in this dialect), my work mate who comes from Northern China doesn't understand what I am talking about at all. You can see the huge distinction between Chinese dialects!


The difference between 陪 and 跟 The meaning of both 陪 and 跟 is "go with", so are there any differences between them?

我陪你去医院。
我跟你去医院。

TL;DR: The given sentences are almost identical because ...跟你去... (go with you) and ...陪你去... (accompany you) are similar in meaning.  However, 跟 has many uses beyond this, which 陪 does not.
In general, there are distinctions between 陪 (which means "to accompany", sometimes with the implication of offering assistance) and 跟 which means a bunch of things (in the given sentence it means "with").  As for the example sentences:

我陪你去医院。
I accompany you to the hospital.
我跟你去医院。
I go with you to the hospital.

These two sentences are indeed very similar, and could mean the same thing.  The reason is ...跟你去... (go with you) and ...陪你去... (accompany you) are similar in meaning.
If 我 is not sick, and is assisting 你, then the first sentence would be more appropriate.  If both 我 and 你 are sick, then the second sentence would be more appropriate.
More generally, we're using the grammar structure:

Subj. + 跟 + Person + Verb + Obj.
Expressing "with" with "gen"

If we use this grammar structure with a verb other than 去, we can't just replace 跟 with 陪:

我跟你说汉语。
I speak Chinese with you.
我跟你结婚。
I am married with you.

In fact, I don't think the above sentences would even make sense if we replaced 跟 with 陪.
And in arbitrary sentences, we can't use 跟 and replace it with 陪:

我跟你不一样。
I and you are unalike.
孩子跟着妈妈。
The child follows their mother.
她穿着高跟鞋。
She wears high heels.


What are the differences between 效果 and 效应? Which of the following sentences is correct, or are both correct? Why?

虽然学校采取了一些措施，但是没有什么效果.

虽然学校采取了一些措施，但是没有什么效应.

效果: result; effect

效应: effect

  1.虽然学校采取了一些措施，但是没有什么效果. 2.虽然学校采取了一些措施，但是没有什么效应.

Both 没有效果 and 没有效应 are correct if you want to say "no effect"

When you want to say "result" then you must say "效果"

Example:

"US tax reform has not achieved the expected results" = "美国税改并未达到预期的效果"

"US tax reform has not created the expected effect" = "美国税改并未产生预期的效应"

Since 效果 has meaning other than 'effect' We usually translate 'effect' as 效应

As user 3306356's answer stated:   'the butterfly effect' is translated as 蝴蝶效应 (the butterfly effect) instead of 蝴蝶效果(the butterfly effect/result)


Questions about "本" as Pronoun One time, I watched a film and noticed a different use of "本". As I know, "本" is generally used as classifiers. But this time, I learned that "本" here used as pronoun. Here's the example I took from the film.

  请于本月八日上午九时，准时前来本公司录音部试音.

From the sentence above, after "本", "月" and "公司" is added as noun. I have done some research and I found some resource at Chinese Grammar Wiki, but I don't clearly understand. Question from me:

What kind of noun can be used after "本"? Will any kinds of noun be fit after followed by "本"?
On what case should we use "本" as pronoun?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

As a pronoun 本 has two meanings, here’s oxfords definitions and example sentences

 PRONOUN
1 自己方面的 one's own
本单位
one's own department
本校
our school
▶ 本地, 本国, 本人
2 这 this
本案被告
defendant in this case
本合同
the present contract
本星期

In the second meaning you can see it means the same as 这 - so to answer question number one: yeah pretty much any noun can come after it but this is markedly more formal than 这 or 这个 - might sound very 官腔 if you were to use it in casual speech.
To answer question number two, when should we normally use 本 as a pronoun there are quite a few instances:
本周 if you’re a Starbucks guy this is a big one - this is their terminology for brewed coffee as opposed to espresso based drinks. If you’re preparing public speaking addresses 本周 is okay for this week as well but a bit stuffy for my liking.
本人 is good for addressing others personally like:

你本人怎么想呢？

本地 is another common one used often in conversation.


What are the arguments of 结合？ I have this sentence:

某酒类品牌的成功，在于它紧紧抓住都市文化的特点，将产品创新同城市文化、都市人怀旧心态紧密结合，大大提升了酒的档次，创造了酒的新概念。

Sometimes, no often, I get confused with Chinese, especially when sentences use 将 or 把。I rewrote the part I am not sure of. Did I catch the meaning properly?

将产品创新同城市文化、都市人怀旧心态紧密结合

Change to

产品创新紧密结合了城市文化和都市人的怀旧态度，

I would explain the usage of 将 like this:
将 + Object + AdverbialPart.
AdverbialPart = InfiniteVerb + ResultOfAction
The AdverbialPart is often in the form of sort of a perfect aspect of the verb.
For example: eaten = 吃掉, where 吃 is the basic form of the verb, and 掉 means the action has finished, i.e. perfect aspect. And most basic way to construct it is adding 了 behind the action. Which will give us 把/将XX吃掉/了.
However, some words themselves can be used to express perfect aspect or you can say their perfect forms are the same as their original forms. 结合 is one of those. So you can say Subject + 把/将 + Object1 + 和 + Object2 + [相] + 结合
Regarding your change to the sentence, I think it's alright, but there might be some subtle difference that I will try to illustrate with following translations in English

将产品创新同城市文化、都市人怀旧心态紧密结合
...combined product innovation tightly with urban culture and metropolis dwellers' nostalgic mentality.
产品创新紧密结合了城市文化和都市人的怀旧态度
Product innovation combined urban culture and metropolis dwellers' nostalgic mentality.

So you see, the subject and object have changed during the transform. Product innovation was one of the object, or I'd say the primary object of the combination action. And in the transformed sentence, it became the subject. It became "combinor", but not necessarily "combined".
And the arguments of 结合 is a list of objects which can be separated by "、" and other parallel conjunction such as 和、与、以及.
结合<Object1>、<Object2>、 ... 和<ObjectN>。

把<Object1>、<Object2>、...和<ObjectN>结合。

Also same as in English, 结合 could be either active or passive action.


How to ask someone to take a photo? Recently on vacation I wanted to ask a Chinese tourist if they would mind taking a photo of my wife and I - but I didn't know how, so just asked 你可以吗? (nǐ kěyǐ ma?) while pointing to my camera.

How should I ask this in future?

There are many ways to ask this. Some examples:

您能给我们俩照一张相吗?
nín néng gĕi wǒ men liă zhào yì zhāng xiàng ma?
您能帮我们拍个照吗?
nín néng bāng wǒ men pāi ge zhào ma?
您可以给我们照张相吗？
nín kĕ yĭ gĕi wǒ men zhào zhāng xiàng ma?
请问，您可以帮我们照张相吗？
qĭng wèn, nín kĕ yĭ bāng wǒ men zhào zhāng xiàng ma?
麻烦您给我们照张相
má fan nín gĕi wǒ men zhào zhāng xiàng
麻烦你，帮我们照张相，好吗？
má fan nǐ， bāng wǒ men zhào zhāng xiàng，hǎo ma?

照张相 means to take a picture, so does 拍照（片）。 You can both use 能 and 可以. 帮（助） means to help. 我们俩 means the two of us. 给 is here a proposition.


What does 管 mean as in "他管我借钱."? And how do you translate

  他管我借钱，但我没借给他

?

"他(問/求/向)我借钱，但我没借给他" would make more sense,

'管' has many meanings and it is a shorthand for many terms including  管理(to manage) ,  监管 (to supervise),  管制 (to restrict),  掌管 (to control) and 包管(guarantee) etc..

In '他管我借钱，但我没借给他' the most logical meaning for '管' is 'to manage' which implies 'to count on' or 'to rely on'

  管 = to manage --> put responsibility on --> counting on --> depend/ rely on

So the translation of '他管我借钱，但我没借给他' should be "He was counting on me to lend him money, but I didn't lend him any"

other example of 管 as different shorthand:

在這處住我管你一日三餐 = 在這處住我(包)管你一日三餐 (you live here and I'll guarantee you three meals a day)

香煙的銷售管得很嚴 = 香煙的銷售(监)管得很嚴 (The sales of cigarettes is supervised very strictly)

我管你去死 = 我(哪)管(得)你去死 (I don't care if you die)


Difference between 偏見，偏私，and 偏心？ 偏見，偏私，and 偏心 all seem to mean biased in some form or another.

Is there a difference among the three, or are they interchangeable?

偏见 is bias of opinion or concept on different groups, like race groups or religion groups.

偏心 is bias of love on different persons, like children.

偏私 is more used in ancient Chinese and it means bias on people or group to which the subject belongs.


What's the difference between ，and 、 What's the difference between ，and 、 as they appear in some texts, like in this passage of the Zhuang Zi (end of the second part):

是萬物之化也，禹、舜之所紐也，伏戲、几蘧之所行終，而況散焉者乎！

Is it like comma and semicolon? Or one is used for enumerations, or what?

Q： The difference between ，and 、

，(逗号， Dou4 Hao4) is similar to what it is for in English.

、(顿号，Dun4 Hao4) is to give a list of same type of things.

For example:
我喜欢吃苹果、香蕉、橘子、等等。

If in English, it would be also a comma.


How common are three-character or five-character words/terms in Standard Mandarin? People often regard Chinese, including Standard Mandarin, as a monosyllabic language.

Classical Chinese apparently was a monosyllabic language, where words consisted of a single syllable (a single character also equals a single syllable).

Modern Standard Mandarin still has quite a few single-syllable words/terms, but more common are two-syllable (two-character) terms, to the point where many common words have an "empty" second syllable 子 literally meaning "child". This turns old single-syllable words into two syllable words, and it's a bit like a diminutive in western languages.

There are also very many 4-syllable words and terms. Some seem to be made up of two 2-syllable words and others seem to be made up of four single-syllable words.

But are there also three-syllable and five-syllable words? How common/rare are they?

I don't have any specific frequency data for you, but three and five syllable words certainly do exist.  Three syllable words are certainly less common than two syllable words but they do compose a decent amount of anyone's basic vocabulary (consider 毕业生), and five syllable words are fairly rare and restricted to certain proper nouns and the occasional fixed expression.

Of course, as words get longer, it is less and less clear what counts as a single word.  ABC has 应届毕业生 as one word, but is it really one word or is it a stock expression composed of two words?


Which period in Chinese history produced the most chengyu? There are tens of thousands of chengyu, many of them are historical in nature, whilst others are loaned from foreign sources such as Buddhism. Which period or dynasty in Chinese history produced the most though?

I suspect the earlier ones such as Warring States or Spring and Autumn periods to be the most productive but I have no sources to back that up.

I'll answer based on the article provided by @Stan. From what I can tell, it is a transcription from a 1999 article that appeared in 《语文建设》, the raw data of which came from 汉语成语考释词典 by 刘洁修, 1989.

Period                           | Number | Percent
---------------------------------+--------+--------
春秋以前 Before Spring and Autumn |     88 |    1.21
春秋 Spring and Autumn           |    320 |    4.41
战国 Warring States              |    232 |    3.19
秦 Qin                           |      1 |    0.01
两汉 Han                         |    479 |    6.59
三国 Three Kingdoms              |     96 |    1.32
两晋 Jin                         |    198 |    2.73
南朝 Southern Dynasties          |    270 |    3.72
北朝 Northern Dynasties          |     71 |    0.98
隋 Sui                           |     16 |    0.22
唐 Tang                          |    711 |    9.79
五代 Five Dynasties              |     75 |    1.03
两宋 Song                        |   1251 |   17.22
金 Jin (Jurchen)                 |     36 |    0.50
元 Yuan                          |    401 |    5.52
明 Ming                          |    854 |   11.76
清 Qing                          |   1494 |   20.57
Modern/Unknown                   |    671 |    9.24

But these numbers aren't all directly comparable; some dynasties such as Qin only existed very briefly, others such as North/South dynasties co-existed. I've therefore combined some and produced a graph showing number of chengyu per year:

Caveats

For the number of years "before Qin", I started counting from the Zhou dynasty.
It's probably unfair to show the "Modern/Unknown" category as-is; strictly speaking, the source material only categorises up to Qing dynasty, but according to the source, "most" of those in this category are probably modern.

On determining the source of a chengyu

It's not easy determining the source of a chengyu, since like the rest of the language, it evolves and even changes meaning over time. The method used in these statistics is the first record of a chengyu in its modern form. This would necessarily bias the data towards more recent ages, even though those chengyu either had different forms earlier, or were modern chengyu based on older origins.

To use an example from the article, the chengyu 镜花水月 is recorded as appearing in Ming, however it had appearances earlier:

In Jin, there is the passage "如镜中像、水中月，见如有色，而无触等，则非色也"
In Tang/Song, there is "水月镜像"; at this stage it is not quite chengyu as its form has not yet stabilised

However, even in Ming, this chengyu had a different meaning to its modern meaning. Its modern meaning only appeared in Qing.

Therefore, the results may differ quite a lot depending on how you determine the origin of a chengyu.


Why is the word "canal" called 运河 in Chinese? My question is in the title. Does it mean, if the canal is for boats or ships (transportation), it is called "运河"? If the canal is for watering the land, is it called "渠"? I am confused.

You got the point.

"运河" must refer the human-made channels in a large scale, for water conveyance/transportion. That's what "运" emphasize. Usually, it connects big lake/river/ocean or through the peninsula or isthmus.

In the meantime, "渠" just refer all human-made channels. "渠" is more like a superset of "运河";

But why we don't just call all channel to 渠? Same reason like the water is a superset of the ocean, but you would never call "the Pacific Ocean" to "the Pacific Water".

Now you can tell the difference between "运河" and "渠".


How does 高出一大截 break apart in 交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番，残次品率高出一大截? I'm reading an April article which predicts Trump wins the 2020 US election based on trends in manufacturing of Trump-branded merchandise in the Chinese city of Yiwu (known for its commodities):

先说一句，特朗普会把他帽子的生产线搬回美国么？当然不会。交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番，残次品率高出一大截，做一辈子生意了，这点子帐还不会算……义乌生产商也是两耳不闻窗外事，从网络到白宫草坪的骂战，都不耽误赚钱，机器轰鸣，日夜加班只为特朗普……
义乌再次判定：特朗普连任，2020年04月30日

I'm struggling with the sentence in bold (and, in fact, the whole article is quite challenging).

[My translation:] First, [let me] say a sentence.  Will Trump take his cap's production line and move it to the USA?  Of course not.  Delivery time will increase a few times over, unit price will increase multiple times, [and] the defective product rate will increase by a big margin.  After a lifetime of business, this thin (?) veil will not work…… Yiwu production merchants also pay no attention to external affairs, from the Internet to the White House lawn's war of words, it won't delay profit, machine noises, day-and-night overtime only for Trump……

While I can infer its meaning, I don't understand how 残次品率高出一大截 breaks apart.  残次品+率 = "defective goods rate", but the rest is not clear to me.  E.g. 高出 = "increase"?  It looks like 一大截 should be considered a word in itself, meaning "significant difference" (although it's not in CC-CEDICT).
Question: How does 高出一大截 break apart in 交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番，残次品率高出一大截?

Base on the context, the sentence should be interpreted as

残次品率 = Defective rate

高出 = higher than

一大截 = by a great distance (by a great degree)

残次品率高出一大截 = The defective rate (in American made goods) (will be) higher than (the defective rate in China-made goods) by a great degree
截 refer to measurement of 'length' --> 'distance' --> 'degree'
The comparison between American made goods and China-made goods also apply to 交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番
(美国制造的商品与中国制造的商品相比:)交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番  = (American made goods compare to China-made goods:) The delivery time will be extended several times and the unit price will be doubled a few times


Similarities between connectives 就 and 而? 而 - is a connective like "and" in some situations. Etymologically this meaning comes from how hair in someone's beard are close together.
就 - is a connective in other situations. Etymology information is lost to us.

Can we say that sometimes they are equal in their meaning and function? In what circumstances are they equal?

Actually, these two words are very different, and it's the difference - not the similarity - you need to grasp.

Both of these words indicate a rhetorical "following from," but 就 means "to follow from" in the broadest, simplest sense, rather like an English "then":

When it's used as a 'verb', it's intended to show that one thing follows as a consequence of another. An excellent example of how this usage can be precisely mapped in English is below:

"若這樣就那樣“ - "If this, then that."
"他吃了整之火雞，那他就飽了。“ - "He ate the whole turkey, so he, then, [is] full!"

As you can see, "就“ as a "verb" is easily understandable as an English "then", as well.

Now consider this:

"我渴死了“  - "I'm thirsty!"
”那，你就去喝水吧!“ - "So go drink, then...."

The many instances this phrase can be used - whether humorously, as a reprimand, as an exclamation, as an acquiescence, as mockery - all pretty much depend on "就" being the simplest, most common-sense idea anyone could have. 若一就二 - like that.

“而” is more like an "and" than a "then" - however, it is more specific and narrow because it further indicates transcendence, or moving beyond the expectations of discourse. In that sense, it's much more like "moreover" - so whether one uses it as "and," "also," "but," "however," or any other sense, it always has that meaning of saying "moreover" behind it -

"我吃飽了，而吃太飽雅。。。“ -
"I ate, moreover {but/also/however}, i ate too much."

男： “昨晚我們去看弟弟演一出布萊希特戲..."
女： "而他演的好好看啦！“

Guy:  "Last night we went to see my little brother act in one of Brecht's plays."
Gal:  "Moreover {And/But/Also} he really acted so well in it!"

In that exchange above, "而“　can be used to indicate a "but" -

Guy: "We went to see my brother act [implied: and i expected him to be awful]...."
Gal:  "But he really looked great up there!"

Or an "and" that draws attention to the importance of what comes after, in contrast to what came before:

Guy: "We saw my brother..."
Gal: "And it was amazing!"

Generally, in modern Chinese it's going to indicate a "moreover" of some sort - but depending on the rhetorical context, it can be translated into other languages in any of many ways.


Can you help me to read this seal Can you help me to read this seal.
Is this phrase part of a poetic or philosophical text ?

Many thanks for your translation and your findings.
My seal is a bronze round seal , diameter 55 mm, high 42 mm
This roughly match the infos you have found.

Could it be the seal of a library called "Wei zhai" ?

This is probably a Japanese artefact. The characters are

緯齋（學）書

From a brief Google search, the only record which came up is from a Japanese website (http://www.ezimport.co.jp/product.php?id=t533042480) which no longer is active. The residual archive text in that link says

美しい円形の古銅印です。書鎮にもぴったり！！「緯斎学書」でしょうか。 語句も美しい。サイズ印面径56ミリ、高さ45ミリ。
This is a beautiful circular bronze seal, perfect for calligraphy. The writing says 「緯斎（齋）学（學）書」, doesn't it - beautiful words indeed. The seal's surface diameter is 56 mm, and height is 45 mm.

If your measurements match this, then you've found a residual internet comment talking about your aftefact.


Is pinyin an accurate pronunciation guide? Pinyin seems to be an EXACT pronunciation guide to Chinese words, but is it exact? I am not a Chinese speaker so don't know for sure. I would like to take the Pinyin transcription of Chinese words and convert it to a pronunciation guide using my own techniques, but I am not sure if I can properly do that because for all I know Pinyin might not accurately match real pronunciations in the real world. Are there cases where Pinyin doesn't accurately reflect the pronunciation of words in Chinese? What are some examples if that is the case? If it does accurately reflect pronunciation, that's great then and that answers the question.
By EXACT I mean, Pinyin at least has a seemingly 1-to-1 mapping of sounds to spellings, but perhaps one spelling might have multiple pronunciations in the real world. I am not talking about dialects really, assume I am talking about some hand-wavy notion of a "standard" pronunciation of a Chinese word. I am talking about one word say "zang" (just making this up) might be pronounced "zayng" but "zhang" might be pronunced "zhung", so the "-ang" is pronounced "-ay" in one case but "uh" in another, sort of thing.

Hanyu Pinyin does not have a 1:1 mapping between written symbols (letters) and pronunciation, and so can't be said to be accurate in the sense that IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) is meant to be accurate.
It is of course perfectly functional as a way of writing down Mandarin pronunciation, but only if you know how to pronounce the language first or learn the system properly.
However, you can not rely on letters representing the same sounds, or that the same sounds are written with the same letters! This is particularly true for vowels, while the consonants are more straightforward.
There are cases where many sounds are mapped to one single written symbol. Here are a few examples (the examples are from this article, that has both more examples and audio for some of them):
The letter i represents some very different sounds in Mandarin:

It’s a front close vowel [i] and occurs in: mi, bi, ti etc.
i represents the empty rhyme following z, c and s (this sound can be described in many ways, but it’s fairly close to English [z], but with more air allowed to pass).
It also represents the sound following zh, ch and sh. This is the same as the previous sound, but pronounced close to the retroflex position (i.e., the tongue is retracted and raised as when producing the zh, ch, sh and r sounds, just not as close).

Other examples include many different sounds represented by the letters e and a.See the linked article above for more examples of these.
There are also cases where the opposite is true, i.e. that one sound is written in many different ways.
The example that best shows why you need to already speak the language for the system to make perfect sense is how [y] is treated. It has dots, written ü, when there is ambiguity, as in lü and nü, because we also have lu and nu, which are different sounds (which any native speaker knows intuitively, but beginner students don't). But there are no dots when there's no ambiguity, so even if it's actually pronounced jü, qü and xü, it's spelt ju, qu and xu. Same with jüe (jue) jün (jun), etc.. There is no syllable that start with j and ends with the u in e.g. lu: *[t͡ɕu]
Then we also have sounds that are there but simply left out, such as -ui actually being pronounced -uei (水, 对, 贵) and -iu actually being pronounced -iou (六，休，牛).
As Dan mentioned in a comment, tone changes can also be opaque unless you are familiar with the language. There's no written indication that nǐhǎo is pronounced with a rising tone on the first syllable, or that the third tone is a low tone in front of all other tones except the third tone (e.g. měiguó, xiǎngyào etc.), or that 不 and 一 change tone depending on the following syllable.
So no, Pinyin is not exact in the way you imagine it to be. And if I may ask, if you're working on a guide for how Mandarin is pronounced, wouldn't it make more sense to just use IPA, which is designed specifically to describe how languages are pronounced?
Then you can rely on the works of countless other people who have tried to make similar guides and descriptions, and you can use what you've learnt to learn about pronunciation in other languages too! Maybe start with the Standard Chinese Phonology article on Wikipedia. For reading in English, I also recommend:

Lin, Y. H. (2007). The Sounds of Chinese. Cambridge University Press.
Duanmu, S. (2007). The phonology of standard Chinese. Oxford University Press.


Position of 提供 in 这椅子是专为老年人提供的 这椅子是专为老年人提供的. This chair is provided for the old man.

I don't understand why 提供 is at the end of sentence. I thought 提供 could be placed before 专为.

It is all because of that 为

Basically the following two sentences have the same meaning:

这椅子是专门提供给老人的

这椅子是专(门)为老人提供的

English translation will be:

We provided this chair specifically for the elders

It is actually quite common to use the 为 to move the verb after the subject to emphasize the "for"

For example,

My heart only beats for you

我的心只为你跳动


Informed sources for videos of Chinese movies I have gotten two videos of Chinese movies at Amazon and in fact both had Mandarin soundtracks with a choice of Chinese (simplified or traditional) or English subtitles.  That is what I wanted.  But in both cases I was buying blind.  It seems impossible to get reliable information on the languages of a video either at Amazon or on IMDB (internet movie data base).

Can anyone recommend a source that does provide such information?

You see, I want to hear actual Chinese spoken at normal speed for the length of a movie or tv show. So 学说中国话 is run to hear but not really what I want.

Oh, it seems that you can find more and more Chinese news played in CCTV4 (Chinese International Channel), this is now standard Chinese news for you to listen to:
http://cctv4asia.cntv.cn/

And what's more, you can watch FREE Chinese movie here：http://list.iqiyi.com/www/2/15------------5-1-1----.html


Chinese Seal on silk painting - what does it mean? I have inherited  a beautiful Chinese silk artwork.  I would like to know what age it is and what the script and seal mean.  Much appreciated if anyone can help

The Title is 江南春曉 pronounced Jiang Nan Chun Xiao

江 mean river, most used for Changjiang River in China: Asia longest and the world third longest river
南 mean south or southern
春 mean spring
曉 mean morning or dawn

So 江南春曉 mean A Spring Morning in Southern China

The script beside the title is 己亥永秋逸之

己亥 is a kind of Chinese calendar to name the year, it cycle every 60 years, so it can mean 1059，1119，1179，1239，1299，1359，1419，1479，1539，1599，1659，1719，1779，1839，1899，1959，2019, if the painting is created in Qing dynasty (AD 1644–1911) it can mean any of the following year 1659，1719，1779，1839，1899  Click for More info

永 mean forever
秋 mean autumn
永秋 I am not sure but it can be the name of the painter.

逸之 is like Best Regards in English letter.

For the seal it contain two characters, on the left side it has 山 which mean mountain, I can't identify the character on the right.


In Chinese typesetting, is there a version of Lorem Ipsum? I know relatively little about typography but I know that Lorem Ipsum or other similar bodies of text appear a lot in the world of typesetting. Because Chinese characters are pretty much square, is there a need for a Chinese Lorem Ipsum? If so, what texts or series are used?

There is no standard text, but there is sometimes the need for something equivalent (i.e. a body of text to see how typesetting looks).  Sometimes this is referred to as 乱数假文.  Your exact question has been asked and answered in Chinese here: http://www.zhihu.com/question/19708165 , if you want to read more.  You can also find a tool for generating such texts here: http://www.richyli.com/tool/loremipsum/


How to translate 债权 and 债权转让 into English? How to translate the Chinese 债权 and 债权转让 into English?

I guess 债权 has a meaning opposite to the word 'liability'. For example,
money deposited with a bank becomes a liability of the bank. But for the depositor, it has the right(债权) to gain the interests.

the 國家教育研究院 (of taiwan, in traditional chinese) maintains a bilingual academic terms database.

http://terms.naer.edu.tw/download/

in 會計學, you may download the zipped excel file,

http://terms.naer.edu.tw/download/101/Term_101.zip/

that you may find:

債權移轉　subrogation
債權，求償，索賠　claim

have fun :)


Can someone please clarify the different sentence structures I can use "下去" in? I thought that 下去 was generally used in a V+下去 format. For example: 活下去

But I'm seeing it used before a verb in this sentence?  "父亲接下去说:..."    And in this sentence: "你这样下去会累垮的。”

Why am I so confused? Help. Please.

p.s. I just realized I may actually be confused by 接 in this sentence... Possibly could someone explain it to me? :/

have a look of the 國語辭典, "下去" has 4 meanings:

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000105631

1　自上而下 - from top to bottom

2　用在動詞後﹒強調由上向下之意 - used after a verb, emphasise the action from top to bottom

3　用在動詞後﹒表示事情繼續進行 - used after a verb, showing the continuous state of the action

4　用在形容詞後﹒表示程度漸漸增加 - used after adjective, indicate the degree is increasing

in the example, "接下去说" is equal to "接著说", #3

then, "你這樣下去會累垮的" is also #3


How to use 一般 and examples 一般 is both an adjective and adverb that means "same". I haven't found any thorough explanations of its usage. How is it generally used and in what kind of situations?

Thank you so much!

adj

他與計算機一般，算術都很快。He is just like a computer and he calculates so quickly.

他 He

與 and

計算機 computer

一般 same、like (equal)

算數 calculate

都 both

很 so、very

快 fast quick

adv (X I am not sure. I have not heard)


Resources for learning classical Chinese I have a very strong interest in classical Chinese (文言文), but I am unable to find any ressources for learning it that don't assume Chinese is your mother language. Can anybody give me some pointers?

These two books have been recommended from another site (I haven't read these myself):

An Introduction to Literary Chinese: Revised Edition (Harvard East Asian Monographs) by Michael Anthony Fuller (2004)

A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese (Harvard East Asian Monographs) by Paul F. Rouzer (2007)

Aside from learning yourself, another option is to find a Chinese person who did well in this subject to teach you or do language exchange.


Is There A Way To Say "Fro" (as in afro/fro) In Traditional Chinese? Are there any kanji that could be used to say afro and/or fro in traditional Chinese? If not, what about simplified Chinese? What are the characters?

Simplified Chinese“爆炸头”
Traditional Chinese“阿福羅頭，爆炸頭”


Is it possible to shorten 你叫什么名字? to 你叫什么? Is it possible to shorten 你叫什么名字? to 你叫什么?

Will it still mean the same? Or it is possible to reply to 你叫什么? with something different, not just Surname+Name?

你叫什么? - 叫我‘你的噩夢’ :)

"你叫甚麼名字?" specifically asking someone's name, which mean you are treating the person you are asking as a human; "你叫甚麼" could mean "what is your name" but it can also mean "what are you called" ;the answer to "你叫甚麼?" could be "Peter" or "The Devil". And worse, "你叫甚麼?" can be literally interpreted as "what are you yelling about?" or "why are you yelling?"

If you think "你叫甚麼名字?" is too wordy, you can use "什稱呼?" (how may I address you?)

Example:

請問先生你叫什麼名字? (May I ask, Mister, what is your name called?) --> 先生什稱呼? (how may I address you, Mister)


Is "(t 某某, s 某某)" accepted notation for showing traditional and simplified characters together? I've never come across the notation "(t 某某, s 某某)" to indicate traditional and simplified Chinese characters together, so I was quite confused when I came across this on the Wikipedia page for Fuxi:

He was also known as Paoxi (t 庖犧, s 庖牺), also romanized as Pao-hsi.

At first I wasn't even sure what t and s stood for. Luckily there were links t linked to Wikipedia page for traditional chracters and s linked to the Wikipedia page for simplified characters.
Is this common notation? Is it accepted notation?

Never.
Although you may think such notation is convenient, Chinese people really dislike using Latin notations in Chinese books, especially for linguistics.
They use:

"动" instead of "v." for verbs
"名" instead of "n." for nouns
"繁" instead of your "t" for Traditional Chinese.


Strange pronunciation of 非常 I listen to podcasts from Taiwan for listening practice and I think I hear the word 非常 [fēichánɡ] often pronounced like 飛揚 [fēiyánɡ] in them. Am I hearing it right or am I confusing it with some other word? If the word is indeed pronounced that way sometimes (perhaps in casual speech?), is it a common phenomenon or a regional thing?

I like your use of 飛揚 here. While it is comical or cultural to use an otherwise unrelated word to signify an elision – e.g., consider 醬子 in place of 這樣子 in Taiwanese Mandarin internet slang – if you are looking for an answer of more academic rigour, IPA should be used, not Chinese characters or pinyin. (Because after elision, what you spell may not always be orthographic.)

In Taiwanese Mandarin, Chung (2006:77) notices function words (虛詞) tend to get deemphasised via elision. 非常 is an intensifier (somewhat functional), so the following elision can be observed:
非常 fēi cháng /feɪ˥˥ ʈʂʰɑŋ˧˥/ → [feɪ˥˥ ɑŋ˧˥] or [feɪ˥˥ hɑŋ˧˥]
Notice how usually the initial of the second syllable tends to get dropped in quick speech.
Your including a voiced palatal approximant [j] between the two syllables (i.e., [feɪ˥˥ jɑŋ˧˥], which just so happens to be the pronunciation of 飛揚 fēiyáng) is permissible, perhaps serving as a 'glide' between ɪ and ɑ.

The following is an example where there are no Chinese characters or pinyin that can properly describe the elision of 今天:
今天 jīn tiān /tɕɪn˥˥ tʰjɛn˥˥/ → [tɕɪ‿ɛn˥˥]
While there is 雞 jī /tɕi˥˥/, when pronouncing i in the pinyin ji, your mouth is more closed and your tongue is more front than when pronouncing i in jin. This subtlety can only be reflected using IPA. Whereas obviously there is no /ɛn/ as a syllable in Mandarin.

References
Chung, Karen Steffen. "Contraction and Backgrounding in Taiwan Mandarin." Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, vol. 32.1, 2006, pp. 69-88.


Phonetic clue of characters in languages or dialects other than Mandarin? Many characters are made up of a semantic and a phonetic part.

Is the phonetic part only valid with regards to Mandarin pronunciation?
Or not even for Mandarin in all cases?
Or does it work with for example Cantonese as well? That is, are Chinese dialects at least partially 'parallel'?

I suppose the phonetic clue does not help a Japanese or Korean learner. Am I right?

Generally yes. But I want to mention that Mandarin was also a dialect. So I'm not agree that the dialects are variations of Mandarin, I think that they are parallel. Most dialects are more ancient and closer to the ancient Chinese than Mandarin.


A good web font size for Chinese characters Wikipedia has a pretty small font size for Chinese characters like 書. I would prefer if it were a little larger. Wondering if there is a sort of reference or ideal size for Chinese characters, similar to how a good estimate/range for Latin-based fonts is around 14-16px.

Among others, Chinese Wikipedia has a font of 15px, Yahoo News has a font of 18 px, and the font of Sina News is also 18 px.


What are the rules for using commas and periods in Chinese? What are the rules for using commas （， 逗号） and periods （。 句号） in Chinese? In English I'm fairly confident of when to use commas and when to use periods. I learned in school what run-on sentences were and how to fix them with appropriate punctuation or conjunctions. The punctuation rules in Chinese are obviously different, though. Commas are used much more frequently. When I write in Chinese now, I also make liberal use of commas, but I don't know when a period would be more appropriate. Are there any objective punctuation rules to follow?

Similar (but different) questions:

Is the usage of European punctuation acceptable in Chinese writing?
When was punctuation introduced into Chinese?
What's the difference between ，and 、
When are "《" and " 》" and other brackets used?

I think using Chinese punctuation by following English punctuation rules is acceptable, but native Chinese readers may find it a little bit strange.

It is not necessary to use a period 。 to separate every pair of SVO sentences. When you want to put many related components/sentences together, you can just use commas ，.

When you are going to talk about another topic or another step, use a period to end the current sentence and start a new sentence.

In general, be brave in using commas.

For example:

使用中文标点符号时，简单地说，不要太过拘泥，只要将相关的句子成分放在一起，再用逗号隔开即可；对于无关的成分，采用句号隔开。

Translation: In general, be brave in using Chinese punctuation. If some blocks of a few sentences are related, use commas to connect them together. If some other blocks are not related to the former blocks you are talking about, use a period to separate these two topics.

虽然很多时候要同时表达时间、地点、人物、起因、经过、结果，句子会变得比较长，但是这些成分都是一起的，有联系的，所以仍然可以使用逗号。

Even though sometimes your sentence gets very long because you need to put when, where, who and how altogether, be brave to use commas because these components are, still, connected.

正确地使用逗号可以让句子的意思更加清晰并充满节奏感，正确地使用句号可以让段落更有层次感。

If you use commas correctly, your sentences will become clear and have rhythm. If you use periods correctly, the whole paragraph will be perfect in terms of grammatical structure.


Why is "连忙" wrong in the following sentence? My question is as the title. The sentence is: 如果她来了，请你连忙告诉我。

The correct sentence is "如果她来了，请你马上告诉我". Why?

连忙 and 赶忙 cannot be used in the imperative, although 立刻, 马上 (and also 赶快 and 赶紧) can.

Technically, 连忙, 赶忙 denote something that happens fast (now), while 立刻, 马上 denote something that is about to happen (soon).

See 连忙 as present tense, and 马上 as the future tense, if you will. Imperatives then belong to future actions.


How does 雜's 2021 meanings appertain to its semantic component 衣? I screenshot Yellowbridge. If I had to guess, is the etymology related to the fact that clothing can be mixed or piled up?

杂/雜 originally refers to assortment of colors, referring to clothes that are multi-colored. You could think of it as multiple cloths of different colors sewn together to create a multi-colored garment. Its meaning is closely related to 集 as well. From there, the definition evolved to mean 'mixed' and 'miscellaneous'.
集 is doubling up both being the phonetic as well as semantic component for 雜.
集 refers to a gathering/assembly of birds (originally 3 birds 雦). A tree is where birds often gather.
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E6%9D%82
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E9%9B%86


How to write "Oh" in Chinese （哦，噢，喔） In WeChat, QQ, text messages, and the like, it is common to see 哦, 噢, and 喔 used to express an acknoledgement that the other person has said something. They all seem fairly close equivalents to the English "Oh" to me. In my personal experience in Mainland China, I would say the frequency of use is in the order that I listed them.

I'd like to know, in common usage, are they interchangeable? Are there subtle differences between them? In a more strict grammatical sense, is one more correct than the others?

Note: I am not asking how these characters are used at the ends of sentences. I am asking about their meanings when used alone. This question is different than the previous question 啊，诶，喔，哦：compare and contrast.

i'm Chinese. these words are the same word, means exactly the same thing. It's just when we use QQ, some people use 噢 instead of 哦。kind of a personal preference. For example, I always use 哦, never 噢。in chinese, 其实没有什么区别，只不过是个人打字的习惯而已，呵呵。


In the novel 猫城记, why does 老舍 use 的 (instead of 地) for adverbs? From the first chapter of 猫城记 by 老舍, we see examples where 的 is used where I would expect to use 地 (to indicate an adverb):

我应当先去挖坑，但是我没有去挖，只呆呆的看着四外，从泪中看着四外。
动是我自己不能负责的，现在想来，这或者是最近情理的解释与自恕。
鸟儿下来一只。我拼命的喊了一声。

I'm not sure what's going on here.  I have some speculations (e.g., maybe it's a historical or geographical difference) but I'm just guessing.  I don't think it's a typographical error (I bought the book, and it's the same in the print version).
Question: In 猫城记, why does 老舍 use 的 (instead of 地) for adverbs?

Actually, you're right, this is a history question rather a grammar one.
Chinese people do NOT differentiate "的得地" intentionally before the 1960s (or even 1980s).
Here is a blog I found “的地得”的历史——《得的篇》（上）, saying 老舍 mended his "的地得" in his new publications after 1956.

1956年，教育部颁布了一个叫《暂拟汉语教学语法系统》的文件
里面规定：“结构助词包括: 的、地、得、所。它们是定语、状语、补语的标志……”
...
一个证据是，上面用“马马虎虎的铺好”的老舍先生，在1956年以后出版的作品修正了对的地得的用法。

Another one I found is "的地" could be the same from “的地得”并未通用, suggesting that "的地" could be written as "的" at that time.

1984年人民教育出版社中学语文室编印的《中学教学语法系统提要(试用)》提倡“的、地”合写为“的”

So why "老舍 use 的"?

猫城记 was published in 1933, when "的得地" are not clearly defined at that time.
Even if the book was re-edited and republished, "的、地" could be the same.

Well, those links are not official resources, but that could be "八九不离十".
In my opinion, do not bother grammar mistakes for those classic publications anyway.
Just like people don't learn English grammar by reading Shakespear.


Why would topolects get described in terms of Mandarin? (声母变异、韵母变异) [Perhaps this is a "which came first - the chicken or the egg?"-type question - but I'm left quite puzzled why anyone would describe things in this manner.]

Why would anyone (or any material for that matter) describe dialects/topolects in terms of Mandarin? Most topolects/dialects would certainly be much older than MSM (Modern Standard Mandarin) - as a, relatively, new 'invented' language.

e.g.: 广安方言与民俗词典 describes a bunch of 广安方言 in terms of:

  声母变异

and

  韵母变异

even going as far to describe some words as:

  自创音节

here's some examples:

声母变异: “敲” kao1 - “qiao1”的音变。指打，击。

韵母变异: “眉” mi2 - 眉“mei2”的音变。如“眉毛”、“峨眉豆”等。

自创音节: “□” pie4 - "指破烂，坏，不好。常写成“孬”。

I highly doubt that these are "变异" seeing as these pronunciations outdate the modern "standard" ones - so why would anyone go to the trouble of describing it this way? besides the fact that MSM is the, now, "standard"?

Yes or No.

In Chinese linguistic study, there are three rules of distinguishing dialects from languages:

Linguistically, mutual intelligibility
Historically, derivation
Politically, anything except the standard

Dialects are picked out mainly because MSM gets politically recognized as a standard in China Mainland.

In practice, a minor reason is that they do not have matured or accurate writing system.


What are the rules of writing a 对联 (chinese couplet)? I have looked at the Wikipedia article "Couplet (Chinese Poetry)", but I think it poses more questions than answers.
So a 对联 (duì lián) is a "Chinese couplet":

it is composed of two lines;
each line must have the same number of characters;
the characters on each line must have a correspondence with each other;
the characters on each line must have opposite "tone pattern" (平 vs 仄).

If a 平 tone is a "first tone", and all other tones are 仄, then the Wikipedia example doesn't make sense (qín wéi is 平?).
And I'm unclear as to whether each "character" must be related, or each "word"?
For example, 很贵 and 便宜 have opposite meanings as words, but not as characters.
As an example, is this a 对联?

猪扒便宜 Zhū pá piányi
鸡腿很贵 Jītuǐ hěn guì

平仄 can not be understood by a Chinese who only speaks Mandarin or some dialects, as I mentioned in my answer to the previous question "Different kinds of writing in Chinese". In mandarin, in many cases, 平 refers to the 1st and 2nd tone.
The pattern of 对联 derives from the classic poems, a word-match is enough.
Nowadays, we usually write a 对联 at a celebrating time, e.g. the spring festival, or on the day when you get married, etc., and paste it besides the gate of your house to celebrate the event. As it is written to celebrate something, the content usually refers to good things like "be fortunate, be lucky, be happy, be healthy, etc.", so I think your example would not be considered as a 对联. Of course, you can use it in a humorous way, but I think you won't paste it.


How would I go about saying: "I am not at liberty to say" or "I am not at liberty to discuss" It occurs to me that this would be an useful phrase to politely decline someone who is trying to pry.  I'm l a beginner, so it's hard for me know how to translate this.

“I am not at liberty to say” or “I am not at liberty to discuss”

(這個/ 這件事) 我不方便說 = (This/ on this topic,) I am not at liberty to talk

(這個/ 這件事) 我不方便討論 = (This/ on this topic,) I am not at liberty to discuss

'不方便' literally means 'not convenient'  (as an adverb, it means ‘cannot conveniently) - it implies 'cannot freely'. It is a polite way to refuse to make any comment


Translation: 机制 (better translations) 机制 is often translated, simply, as: mechanism(s), and often quite ridgidly so.
Especially if we look at definitions of a word like 应急机制
KEY

1 emergency response mechanism(s)
2 contingency mechanism(s)

Take for instance the following sentence:

中国驻俄罗斯大使馆闻讯后立即启动应急机制。

Emergency response mechanisms were started immediately by the Chinese Embassy in Russia after learning of what happened.
Weird.

What better ways are there of translating 机制?

This is more of a question about semantic fields in English than in Chinese.
From zdic.net

原指机器的构造和工作原理。生物学和医学通过类比借用此词，指生物机体结构组成部分的相互关系，以及其间发生的各种变化过程的物理、化学性质和相互关系。现已广泛应用于自然现象和社会现象，指其内部组织和运行变化的规律。
Originally referred to the structure and operational principles of machines. (The fields of) biology and medicine borrowed this word by analogy to refer to the inter-relationships between the structural components of living organisms, as well as to the various physical and chemical processes therein. It has now been extended in use to natural and social phenomena alike, referring to their laws of internal organisation and operational variation.

I believe that in more recent uses of bureaucratic Chinese, it has extended further to certain social "structures" that perform some kind of operation, something that can be created and implemented at will. This context is rarely one where the English word mechanism is used. Rather, the English language generally prefers to use the word procedure.

中国驻俄罗斯大使馆闻讯后立即启动应急机制。
On learning what had happened, the Chinese Embassy in Russia immediately set up emergency response procedures.


What's the difference between 一份工作 and 一家工作? I just encountered in the HSK4 book 一份工作 while I'm accustomed to 一家工作.  Judging from Baidu (一份工作; 一家工作), both are grammatically correct and widely used.

I am unsure if they're different or not.  My guess in this case is that they're the same, but sometimes the measure word changes the meaning.

Question: What's the difference between 一份工作 and 一家工作?

The correct measure word for 工作 is 份, so 一份工作 is correct.

一家工作 you linked in is shorthand for 一家公司工作. In spoken, you might hear one say 我在这一家工作了很久 == 我在这一家公司/单位工作了很久.


How to use 整 as in exactly I"m trying to figure out the grammar/syntax behind using "整". I know that it means "Exactly" when used at the end of numbers, but I'm wondering does it come before or after the noun described by the answer? Example
 1. 三百八整人
 2. 三百八人整

Thank for all of your help!

整 should be used after the measure word, so 三百八整人 is not correct.

However, 三百八人整 is weird too. 整 is usually used at the end of the phrase to prevent from adding new numbers to change the whole meaning, especially in financial affairs. Such as

三元 -> you can change it to 三元五角八分
三元整 -> you can't change it to 三元整五角八分, which is wrong expression.

Originally 三百八人 can't be changed to 三百八人零点五人 and so on, so need not to add 整 after that.

BTW1: It also can be written as 正 in financial affairs.
BTW2: As @user58955 said, 三百零八人 is more natural than 三百八人.


Chinese character decomposition I found that many (most?) Chinese characters look like they're composed of more primitive ones, like:
做　＝　亻十口夂
你　＝　亻尔
吃　＝　卩乙
and so on.
I this a real phenomenon or just my European imagination?
If it is not real then why? If it is real, then what is the name of this phenomenon? I know there are "radicals", but I'm not sure all components I see belong to the set of radicals.

recent studies called them components (部件). there're 1300+ basic component:

http://chardb.iis.sinica.edu.tw/system_intro.jsp


How can I say "I think the Eastern culture is much wiser than Western culture"? How can I say "I think the Eastern culture is much wiser than Western culture"?

I've tried "我想东文化比西文化很明智的", but Google is translating this as "I think the Eastern culture is very wise" (!!)

I'm in doubt if I should use a 是, or if I could drop the final 的. Like "我想东文化是比西文化很明智". If 的 is necessary, what's exactly its function in the sentence?

I think the Eastern culture is much wiser than Western culture

Translation：

"I think" can be translated as 我认为 我的想法是 我觉得 我的观点是 etc

“much wiser than” can be translated as 比XX更聪明 比XX更有智慧 比XX聪明的多 etc

In conclusion:

1、我认为东方文化比西方文化更高明。

2、我觉得东方文化比西方文化更有智慧。

3、我认为，相比西方文化，东方文化更有智慧。


What does 'duang' mean in 'online Chinese'? I see this word popping up on Weibo and Taobao. It's not written with any character, but spelled out in Pinyin. What does it mean?

EDIT:

For the annals:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/duang-how-jackie-chan-helped-780040

Citation, with explanation of the word in bold:

  Think that your hair is looking particularly good today? In Chinese
  popular culture, it's looking "duang."

  A Chinese phrase that came out of nowhere, "duang" has taken the
  Internet by storm, even though many don't really know its origins.

  We do know where "duang" started though. It was Hong Kong action star
  Jackie Chan, who in 2004 was featured in a shampoo infomercial, where
  he spread his hands and described how his sleek dark locks would
  simply "duang" after a scrub with Bawang organic shampoo. A useful
  way of translating the word is as "boing," in the sense of "bouncy and
  vibrant," or even "ta-da!"

  A parody video making fun of the old commercial recently hit the web,
  making the word a social media trend. It's been widely interpreted as
  "cool," and the word resurfaced again recently after Chan posted it on
  his Weibo page. It has become to Chinese slang what Kim Kardashian's
  rear end is to U.S. popular culture. It's breaking the Internet as
  Chinese pop stars are called "duang pretty" and the like.

  Although it's a long way from featuring in a dictionary, it's been
  used millions of times on the Chinese social network Weibo and has
  been looked up 1.5 million times on China's biggest search engine,
  Baidu.

  In case you're "duang confused," you just need to know that
  "everyone's "duang-ing" and it's great" or "This is so duang hot" are
  the kinds of comments you see on the Weibo social network these days.

  There have also been numerous mash-up videos, and apparently during
  the visit of Britain's Prince William to China last week, he was
  greeted by some people saying "duang, duang," because the English
  gentry look is seen as cool in China.


What is the difference between 能 vs. 会? What is the difference between 能 and 会？

Don’t they both mean “could”? What is the difference between them?

This has been covered on nearly every Chinese learning platform and is one of the first problems learners encounter. Without being too mean I do have to ask, what amount of prior research have you done?

会 means you have the knowledge necessary to do something

能 means you have the ability to do something (nothing preventing you from doing it)

lastly 可以 means you have permission to do something.

They all translate as "can" in English. There's some overlap between them but for a better comparison refer to this:

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Comparing_%22hui,%22_%22neng,%22_%22keyi%22


大风绝尘而去 in idiomatic English "大风绝尘而去" In a weather report document, such as http://news.163.com/14/0528/18/9TBR0KOI00014Q4P.html, does this phrase mean that the gale is going to 'stay away and leave' ? or 'A large storm will avoid the area'? What does 绝尘 mean in general? Thanks

绝尘

ABC：

move very fast

KEY：

1 run as if flying

2 be above mundane thoughts

A netizen on Baidu Zhidao defines 绝尘而去 as：脚不沾土,形容奔驰得飞快

Another explains it this way:
绝是消失不见
绝尘就是消失在扬起的尘土里
绝尘而去就是飞快的离去了，消失在马蹄扬起的尘烟里

I would translate 大风绝尘而去 as big winds (are going to/will) sweep through


Which adjective is the most suitable to express "rich" for a person? In Mandarin there are a variety of adjectives that express "rich" - 富，丰富，肥，充实，阔，丰盛，浓郁，富足，etc...
Some of them I believe don't fit in a person; 肥 is an equivalent to "fertile" in English, 浓郁 is "dense", etc...
But I can't decide which is the correct adjective among 富，丰富，富足，丰盛, etc...
The example:

年轻中国女人很___。
为什么华人那么___?

In these cases, which adjective is the most suitable to express "rich"?
Also, in these cases (irrespective of the term "rich"), how can I know which adjective is the most suitable in a context?

年轻中国女人很___。

  为什么华人那么___?

In your context, among those words you listed,  only 富 is appropriate. 富 means 富有；有钱；having lots of money.

肥 can also fit, but it will mean fat, which would be an insult.

阔 might be also ok, meaning "having lots of money or able to spend lots of money". But it's not that common as 富 or 有钱.

The rest 丰盛，浓郁，富足 are usually used to describe things, conditions and etc.


When is it proper to use 托您的福? I think it means that I succeeded in part because of your luck.

I've heard this used when I was in Beijing a few times.

It's quite common in chinese. The English equivalent of this phrase should be "thanks to you/your..".
托 means because of, a variant of this phrase can be 托您洪福, 托您的洪福..


Placement of characters in a simple question I am really struggling with knowing where to place words in a sentence. In particular, I was trying to formulate some sentences using 什么 and the sentence 'What do you want to eat for lunch?' popped into my head.

So I was trying to write this in Chinese, and am a bit stuck.

I initially wrote : 你午饭要吃什么？

But that seems wrong and unnatural to me. Either like there is something missing or I have the characters in the wrong place.

I thought maybe instead : 午饭你要吃什么？

But that is certainly wrong. I am pretty sure that 你要去哪里吃午饭？is correct (hopefully my intuition is correct!), but in the same vein I can't quite figure out what would be wrong with 吃午饭，你要去哪里？

I can also think of 你在哪个地方要吃午饭？

But obviously these all mean something different to the original- these talk of place and not 'what do you want to eat'. I am still stuck on the original sentence!

Also, I have seen this SE post, but I am still unsure with regards to my specific question.

Both你午饭要吃什么？and 午饭你要吃什么？are right

These two sentences all mean what do you want to eat

“你要去哪里吃午饭 ”is correct in grammer，but it means where do you want to have lunch，it does not means what do you want to eat

吃午饭，你要去哪里？Although we can understand what the sentence mean,we simply don't speak this way

你在哪个地方要吃午饭？should be: 你要在哪个地方吃午饭？


Where in Sichuan is 虾 pronunced ha1 (xa⁵⁵)? 《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》has two listings for 虾 one that says:

  xa⁵⁵ 又ɕia⁵⁵

xa⁵⁵ can pretty much be pinyinized as ha1 - for simplification here.

And there is of course a second entry that says:

  ɕia⁵⁵ 又xa⁵⁵

Now of course it looks like I've answered my own question - seeing as the name of the book is 成都话音档. But, ha1 is not a pronunciation I've heard before for 虾 in Sichuanese and most people don't believe that it even exists. I'm curious as to where this pronunciation is still maintained in Sichuan.

It's certainly part of the vestiges of 湖广填川.

It does not exist any more in Chengdu dialect (my mother's tongue), but I think if you regard Chongqing dialect as a part of Sichuanese, there must be somewhere.

The only usage of 'ha' in Chengdu dialect is in 蛤蟆 but it is ha2, and it does not seem to be a native word in Sichuanese but imported from Standard Chinese. We traditionally use 赖克宝 instead.

The dialects in some place in Chongqing sometimes pronounce 解决 as gai3 jio2. And I believe that this is because they mostly keep the original dialect inherited from Hubei/Hunan dialect. So 虾 must be pronounced as ha1 there.


Translation of message from Chinese to English Can you guys translate this message for me. I used a translator and it's inaccurate. And I want to know who slipped the message inside the book. The grandfather, the girl (who posted the message) or another stranger? Or is the grandfather the stranger? And who owns the book? The girl, the stranger or the grandfather? It's about a story.

Please also give me a clear translation of everything, thank you.

1⃣又体会到有同桌的喜悦感
2⃣来自一个陌生人的温暖 （本来将书放在门口老爷爷那里保管下 拿回来的时候老爷爷在书里夹了张祝福纸条  感动至极 ）❤

1
又体会到有同桌的喜悦感
I felt the joy of sitting at the same table again.
(maybe the boy she is crush on)

2
An old man probably sat by the door.
The girl asked him to keep (take care of) the book for her for a while.

The girl didn't know him before.
The stranger is the old man.

Two people. (I think 1 has nothing to do with 2.)

The old man left the message.

祝你學習進步
I wish you progress in your studies.

天天快樂
Happy every day.


How to decide which part is a subject and which a predicate? I just read the following sentence:

  我这两天住的很愉快。

The meaning is pretty clear. Since this is a letter from a guest to a host in AirBnB, the meaning should be something like "It was so good to live here for 2 days.".

However, I'm not sure how I can decide which part is a subject and which part is a predicate. If you understand it from the meaning, 我这两天住的 is a subject and 很愉快 is a predicate. But it is only after the meaning that I can understand its grammartical structure, and I wouldn't understand it without context. I also don't understand why 的 is used here, which seems to not in a list of use cases of 的.

But this is not the only example of when I don't decide the grammartical structure, specifically where a subject is and where a predicate is. How can I tell it apart better when I don't have enough context?

我 - I (subject)
这两天 - these two days (relative phrase- stating the duration of the event)
住 - stay (verb)
(得) - (verb particle, to indicate the result or degree )
很愉快 - very happy (resultive phrase, describe the result of the verb 住 )

"我" is the subject; "住得很愉快" is the predicate

~~~~

(的) - (adjectival suffix, indicate the phrase it followed is an description of the following noun)
"这两天住(的)" should be followed by a noun, e.g. 地方, as in 这两天住(的)地方 (the place I lived in these two days)

这两天住(的)很愉快 is grammatically incorrect. Either it misspoken 得 as 的, or mistakenly used an adjective instead of a noun after the adjectival suffix "的"

*Another possibility is, the noun and the verb in an relative clause are omitted. 这两天住的(地方)很(令人)愉快

Another example:

我|玩|得|很高興 - (I played and I was very happy)

我(subject)|玩(verb)|得(verb particle)|很高興(resultive phrase)


Is there any news website that shows English translation side-by-side? I'm looking for any news websites (or better, WeChat's 订阅号) that show English translation side-by-side. There is a Japanese version of 人民网, but I'm looking for such news agency that show the English translation side-by-side.

Is there any such website, or if not, is there any such website that focuses on the opposite (i.e. any English-based websites that show the Mandarin side-by-side for Chinese people learning English)?

I found that the resource curation post has a section on newspapers and it includes exactly the English-Chinese side-by-side websites.

Two websites are featured there, and both have WeChat 订阅号.

纽约时报 (NY Times) - example
FT中文网 (Financial Times for Chinese) - example

It looks like the 纽约时报 side-by-side is an amazing resource. FT looks like a bit limiting in terms of articles available for side-by-side lookup.


Is there a variant of 溏 without the 口 component that's used in Taiwan? On a sign outside a breakfast eatery in Taoyuan, Taiwan I saw a character I didn't know, that Google Translate with the phone camera didn't translate, and that I couldn't find in Pleco.

It looks like 溏 but without the "mouth" component in the lower right. It looks like it has a "person" component there instead, but maybe that is part of the strokes above it, I'm pretty rusty.

Is this a common variant of 溏? Semantically I thought it more likely to be a variant of "sugar" 糖, but that has more differences.

焿 is a character on its own.

ZDic：http://www.zdic.net/z/1d/js/713F.htm

  gēng
  〔～子寮湾〕地名。在中国台湾省东北海岸。

Wiktionary: https://zh.wiktionary.org/zh-hans/%E7%84%BF

  “焿”是“羹”的异体字，为台湾本地自创的形声俗字。

羹 means '(thick) soup, broth'.


When to use 想 versus 喜欢? Could someone please give we a hint when to use either of those?!

My take is that 想 is used for actions and 喜欢 for things!? Am I right?

In short, 想 means "think (of)" when followed by noun phrases or clauses, and "want to" when followed by verb phrases, while 喜欢 simply means "like / be fond of" in all cases.

Some details:

When followed by nouns/pronouns,

想 means "think of / consider" or "miss", for example:

  我在想你 = I am missing you; 我在想这个问题 = I am considering this question.

喜欢 means "like", for example:

  我喜欢你 = I like you

When followed by verb phrases,

想 means "want to (do)", for example:

  我想吃鱼 = I want to eat fish

喜欢 means "like to (do)" or "like (doing)", expressing non-momentary preference, hence not "would like to (do)", for example:

  我喜欢吃鱼 = I like eating fish

When followed by clauses,

想 means "think (that)", for example:

  我想他不会来了 = I think (that) he won't come.

Two relevant notes here:

a. When 想要 is followed by clauses, it doesn't mean "think (that)", but "want A to do", where A is the subject of the following clause, for example:

  我想要他唱 = I want him to sing.

BTW, a few native speakers may feel that 想要 in this usage is interchangeable with 想.

b. When 不想（要), in which "要" can be omitted, is followed by clauses, it doesn't mean "not think (that)", but "not want A to do", where A is the subject of the following clause, for example:

  我不想（要）你来 = I do not want you to come.

喜欢 means "like it that", for example:

  我喜欢你这样做 = I like it that you do it this way


Why is 进入 in 我们无法提供相关的API进入词库数据库? 非常抱歉 ， 我们无法提供相关的API进入词库数据库 ，这些是受到版权保护的 。

So basically they can't provide access to the database via API, but I'm wondering why they use 进入, as I thought it was related to physical entrance of a person into a place.

I have seen that usually the verb is 访问数据库, but I've never studied Chinese vocabulary related to the IT field.

first at all, the 进入 and 访问 are two concepts in IT field.

the (进入 == enter or entry) meaning : you can login into a command-line of db.
the (访问 == access) meaning: you can access some data via APIs and you can't control the db.

BTW, I am a developer and i am so glad to help you at next time if you want.

FYI, thanks.


Proper response to 不好意思 If someone make a mistake and say this:

  不好意思，非常不好意思！

What is the proper response?
Should 没事 or 没关系 be used to reply?

没事 and 没关系 are good responses to 不好意思. You can also use 不要紧 and 没什么.

On 搜狐问答 they say that in normal circumstances the difference between these words is really small, but there can be a difference in meaning:

没事 is rather used when there are no losses and no harm. 不要紧 is rather used when the losses or harm is small and 没关系 when the losses and harm is big, but you don't want to blame and the other person doesn't need to take responsibility.

On Nciku they say that 不要紧, 没关系, 没什么 and 没事儿 all mean "to be of no importance". They can also be used as a response to another person's apology. Furthermore 没事儿 can mean "nothing serious". If 不要紧 is used in a subordinate clause, there is harm involved and the harm is mentioned in the main clause. On Nciku you can find some examples.


Why was the rice component added to 气 to form 氣? 气 is an ancient character that has roots in an oracle bone pictogram, but according to this, the rice radical was added in the Tang dynasty to form 氣.

What were the reasons for this? What does 气, meaning gas, air or life force, have to do with rice?

Note: this question is not about traditional vs simplified.

說文解字 has both references for 氣 and 气.

Put simply, 气 and 氣 comes from different origin and somehow merge together into one stream later.

In detail: 米 is not added to 气 to get 氣 in Tang Dynasty. Long time ago, 氣 appears in the form of Bronze inscription, though different meaning as 气. 氣 is originally designed to mean the "air generated from digesting food". While 气 is originally designed to mean the physical gas. In the reference of 氣, "饋客芻米也" means "氣 is a verb, showing the action of giving guest fodder (芻, chu2) and rice (米) as gift." 饋 (kui4) is "to give someone gift". 氣 with this meaning later becomes 餼 to clarify the action relating to food.

So nowadays, in Taiwan, 氣為餼之異體 (氣 is another non-standard variant of 餼). Also, according the 教育部異體字字典 气為氣之異體 (气 is another non-standard variant of 氣). In China mainland, 氣 is replaced by 气 as standard.


What does 'twitter/facebook Town Hall' mean in Chinese? I watched the video ' Obama's Twitter Town Hall- Full Video ' in Youtube.But I knew the Town Hall means '市政厅',and what does it mean here?

A town hall meeting is known as 市民大会 or 市政厅会议. It has to be noted that this concept originates from America and may not be well received in other countries depending on the political system.

A Facebook or a Twitter town hall meeting can be generally termed as 网上市民大会. An example sourced from this news article reads:

  中新社旧金山4月20日电(记者
  刘丹)20日下午，美国总统奥巴马在加州帕洛阿图市的脸书(Facebook)总部举行“分担责任共享繁荣”网上市民大会时表示，希望更多有智慧有雄心的人留在美国，不希望看到下一个英特尔这样的企业在中国或法国创业。


Is Hakka spoken the same in Guangdong and Taiwan? In Taiwan Hakka is the 3rd most popular language, and the MRT in Taipei makes all announcements in 4 languages; Mandarin, Minnan, Hakka, and English.

It is also a minority language in Hong Kong and neighbouring Guangdong.

A Hong Kong Hakka friend of mine said they did not understand the MRT announcements.

Is the Hakka spoken in Taiwan the same as that in Hong Kong and Guangdong?

Although I don't speak Hakka (one of my PhD advisors studied a Hong Kong Hakka dialect, so I have a vague idea about it) I live surrounded by Hakka people, in Guangdong, and I go frequently to Taiwan for work. In Taiwan, I noticed that the HSR announcements in Hakka sounded very different from the "regular" Hakka I can hear in Guangdong.

There's a bunch of Hakka dialects, but you can (over)simplify by saying that Guangdong-based Hakka people speak 梅縣 Hakka (Moiyan Hakka: 梅州, 慧州, etc) while Taiwan-based Hakka people speak 海陸 Hakka or 四縣 Hakka, which present large phonetic differences.

Also, Hakka is influenced by the other main language of the region it's spoken in. In HK, and parts of Guangdong, Cantonese influences greatly the local Hakka dialects -- phonetics, vocabulary. In north-eastern Guangdong, 梅州 and around, where Hakka is the standard and the main language, it's probably less influenced by other languages -- rather the Cantonese spoken there sounds more Hakka-influenced.


What does "Fangcang [hospital]" mean? What does "Fangcang" literally mean in "Fangcang hospital" where China relocated those infected with Covid-19, but who had only mild (or no) symptoms?

Somewhat "close but no cigar", a Lancet paper explains

  The term Fangcang, which sounds similar to Noah's Ark in Chinese, was borrowed from military field hospitals [...]

But it's still not clear to me what the word actually means.

Edit:

After reading fefe's comment, I did more search and found this 方舱医院是什么

  方舱医院是以医疗方舱为载体，医疗与医技保障功能综合集成的可快速部署的成套野外移动医疗平台

So  "方舱" is obviously referring to those rectangular mobile units.

方舱医院 should be translated as "mobile cabins hospital"

As for the relationship between 方 and 方舟, may just be a coincidence

It is easy for people who never heard of 方舱 to link  方 with 方舟, due to the current crisis. If 方舱医院 didn't exist before this pandemic, my previous theory would be a fitting one

Previous theory:

"Noah's Ark" in Chinese is 「諾亞方舟」 or 「方舟」 (literally mean 'square ship')
「方艙」(Fangcang)  is made up of 「方舟」and 「艙」(cabin)
"Fangcang hospital" literally mean "Cabins of Noah's Ark hospital"
We all know what the term 'Noah's Ark' implies


What would be the English for 公示？ I have this definition for 公示：指政府机关或团体下达的指示、通告等。

and this sentence: 卡拉OK版权费征收标准的公示一出，老板和消费者对此都有不同的反应。

After the copyright-fee levy standard for Karaoke (bars) was 公示'published'(??), bosses and customers reacted differently.

Maybe 'enacted'， ‘enforced’??

公：public；示：notify
so, put these characters together, 公示means “to notify the public about some events or public decision” or "something that publicly notifies the population about some events" .

Thus, to your question, 公示 is a noun, "一出"is a verb means "release". And in your case, 公式was translated as "standard" which makes sense, because industry standard made by some public organization can be seen as "something that notify the public about some public decision".


How are postal notifications called in Chinese? When the postal worker arrives at your doorstep, but can't deliver your package - usually because you are not home and it is too big for your mailbox - you receive a notification asking you to retrieve your package at the post office. How is this notification called in Chinese?

They are called '邮件领取通知单' or '领取邮件通知单', and it also has other name.


Why is ７元/并 written instead of ７元/瓶? A photo from the campus shop:

  (large image)

I transcribe and translate this to:

  纯享促销　７元/并
  Purejoy promotion: 7 yuan/bottle

(Here, Purejoy (纯享 chúnxiǎng) is a brand of yogurt.)

I'm confused about ７元/并, and in particular why 并 (bìng) = "and" is written and not 瓶 (píng) = "bottle".

Question: Why is ７元/并 written instead of ７元/瓶?

Possible explanations:

并 is an abbreviation for 瓶 (which I think is the most likely case).
It's just incorrect.
A unit of this product is called a "并", which I haven't heard of before.

I'd say both you 1 and 2 apply here.

It is is an "abbreviation". A lot of characters can take a more simple form in handwriting, to make writing easier. It is not a correct form. It is not standardized.

Some of the character forms come from an abandoned simplification scheme in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_round_of_simplified_Chinese_characters, some of them are just made up in daily life.

I'd say I would treat this as incorrect. I do not have much difficulty recognizing the label, with the very specific context where it is used. But without the context, I'm not sure if I can recognize it as a simplification of "瓶".


Does 上不去 mean "can't get on" or "won't get on" In the context of getting onto an elevated highway, I've heard a misunderstanding between two native speakers about the phrase 我上不去.

For one of the speakers, the phrase meant an impossibility:  the subject had tried and failed to get on, or at least it was clearly impossible to get on the highway.

For the other, the phrase just meant that the subject would not get on, but didn't imply impossibility. The reason for not going might have been because it was impossible, or it might just have been that the subject didn't want to go.

Which is the correct meaning? Is there regional variation in this respect?

In this context, the first one is correct - "I can't get onto the highway"

  我上不去

我(subject: I)

上(verb: get)

不(potential particle: indicate 'unable')

去(result/ direction particle: onto)

  上去= get onto; 上得去=（can get onto); 上不去= (can't get onto)

see comment from user6065 explaining potential complements (there's only two: 得 and 不)

  For the other, the phrase just meant that the subject would not get on

For this interpretation to be correct, the phrase had to be "我不上去"

In other context, "上去" could mean "go up" or "advance"

Example:

"上(二樓)去" = "go up to (second floor)"

"上(前面)去" = "advance to (the front)"

"上(高速公路)去" = "get onto (the highway)"


Is 批判 or 批评 better in 别人总是批判我? I wrote this:

  现在我觉得伊斯兰规矩太多了，别人总是批判我。
  I currently feel like Islam has too many rules, other people are always criticizing me.

My teacher and I had a somewhat long discussion as to whether it should say 批判 (pīpàn) or 批评 (pīpíng) which both translate to "criticize".  We didn't come to a concrete conclusion; she seemed to indicate it depends on the situation.

Basically, I'm expressing my frustration at the large number of rules of Islam, or perhaps more precisely, the large number of rules people think are part of Islam (which may or may not actually be part of Islam).  Other Muslims, in an attempt to help me, criticize me in various ways (e.g., how I'm praying, how I'm eating) and this is what I'm referring to.

Question: Is 批判 or 批评 better in 别人总是批判我?

批判 is to criticize in a formal, comprehensive way. E.g. 对于传统文化我们要批判继承. (批评 isn't fit)

批评 is casual and specific. E.g. 老师总批评我上课不认真听课. (批判 isn't fit)

If those criticisms are casual, specific, and not that serious in your case, you should use 批评. I don't expect "how I'm praying, how I'm eating" deserves a comprehensive one. They might just criticize for your certain behavior and try to correct you. In this case, 批评(criticize)和指正(correct) are the words you could use.

If you find those criticisms annoying, you could use 指手画脚, 评头论足, and etc.

P.S. Colloquially, you can say for your situation: 现在我觉得伊斯兰规矩太多了，经常有人说我这不对那不对的。(烦死了！)


Must 怎么 be right after 你 in this sentence: 你怎么知道我的名字 When you ask someone his/her name, you can say: 你叫什么名字
什么 is not right after 你
but when you ask someone how he/she knows your name, you say: 你怎么知道我的名字
Must 怎么 be right after 你 in this sentence? Is 你知道怎么我的名字 also correct? So the structure of this sentence the same as 你叫什么名字

什么 is a modifier for 名字 in 你叫什么名字
怎么 is a modiifer for 知道 in 你怎么知道我的名字
You cannot move 怎么 in the sentence. And you can see that they are actually of different structure.


Selling it as soon as you've bought it — Chinese expression In college, I had just started a physics class in relativity and I was so excited that I began explaining everything I had learned to my Taiwanese roommate.  Perhaps my tone was a bit too arrogant or lecturing, because he became irritated and said, "Okay, okay!  I get it!  In Chinese, we have an expression, 'Selling it as soon as you've bought it...'."

In other words, you have just learned about this, and now you are explaining it all to me as if you are the master of it.

I have not been able to find this expression anywhere since then.  Perhaps it has been distorted by memory.  What is the original Chinese expression?

The most common way you would say is

  现学现卖 or 现炒现卖

However, the actual and original expression is

  旋炒旋卖

if you read ancient Chinese novels. The character 旋 means right after. This expression is more correct, I would say.

However, you would just say 现学现卖 or 现炒现卖 nowadays, if you were to use the original expression, most likely people would not understand.