The translation of "I never said she stole my money." Translation nightmare!

Is this an acceptable translation of the sentence "I never said she stole my money."?

If it is acceptable, is there any, even slight, trace of ambiguity in the Chinese sentence “我从来没说过她把我的钱偷走了。”?

She stole your money?
她偷了你的钱？
I never said she stole my money.
我从来没说过她把我的钱偷走了。

Edit: English is a stress-timed language, unlike Chinese. This 7 word sentence has 7 different meanings, depending on which word is stressed. That's why I want to know if the Chinese has more than 1 meaning!

You want 7 stresses? Well, one could (though one doesn't really need to) insert a few words into your sentence:

I never said (that it's) she (who) stole my money.

And get:
我 从没 说过 是她 偷了 我 的钱。
Viola!  Seven parts to stress.  See them in action:

我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。那是我朋友宣称的！
I never said she stole my money. My friend alleged that!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。我发誓！
I never said she stole my money. I swear!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。我仅仅暗示了而已！
I never said she stole my money. I only hinted!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。是她们，不是她一个人！
I never said she stole my money. They stole it, not just by her!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。她骗了我的钱！
I never said she stole my money. She swindled my money!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。她偷了我的朋友的钱！
I never said she stole my money. She stole my friend's money!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。她偷了我的电影票，而不是我的钱！
I never said she stole my money. She stole my movie ticket instead of my money!

In essence, your translation

我/从来没/说过/她把/我的/钱/偷走了。

is correct, contains seven parts to stress and they would give the same meaning when stressed as the example above, though you slightly changed the word order.

We return to the original dialog:

A: She stole your money?
B: I never said she stole my money.

Positive responses to A's question are more or less like "Yes, she stole my money."  Negative responses are like "No, she didn't."  Vague answers could be like "Maybe."  However, with

I never said she stole my money.

B only stated that they never said it, but this is not an answer at all because B did not answer the question positively, negatively or even vaguely.  Different stresses each carry their vague additional meaning, which can only be supplanted from context, but they don't invalidate B's statement.
Furthermore, note that the analysis above is independent of your language choice! Aren't languages wonderful?


Interpreting the Grammar of 用你給我的翅膀飛 In the music video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC_5uIQSYl0&t=42s is the lyric "用你給我的翅膀飛". If my understanding of that sentence is correct, it translates directly to "using" + "you-to-me's wings" + "fly" which seemingly has the same meaning as "Fly to me using your wings."

The word order guide at https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Word_order#Placement_of_target_in_a_sentence suggests the latter sentence should conventionally be written as "用(你的)翅膀" (instrument) + "給我" (target) + "飛" (verb).

Yet, based on the structure of "用你給我的翅膀飛", it seems that one can combine the "target" into the "instrument" by using the target as an adjective. Is this interpretation correct? Or am I missing some fundamental grammar point?

用 with
你給我 you gave me
翅膀 the wings
飛 fly

你給我的翅膀 the wings you gave me

fly with 你給我的翅膀

用你給我的翅膀飛
fly with the wings you gave me.

What you missed is the meaning of 用.
It is a preposition here and is equivalent to 以.

用...工具 ＝ 以...工具 ＝ with ... tools/instruments

You won't miss it if the sentence is 以你給我的翅膀飛 .


Should words like 一般 or 平时 be put before or after the time reference? So, for example, I want to ask — When do you usually do your homework?
Should it be 你什么时候（一般/平时）做作业 or 你（平时/一般）什么时候做作业
Crucially, I'd like to know why should it be done the way it should be.

Tl;dr: There is inherent adverbial order in Chinese (point 2.). Sentences with the same adverbs ordered differently can have different meanings (points 3. to 6.).

The correct order is 你平時/一般什麼時候做作業？.

We know for a fact that the 'natural' (perhaps even grammatical) ordering of adverbs depends heavily on the language. Consider the following pair of example:

Sentence
Adverbial order

I travelled to Japan last year.
adverb of place > adverb of time

我去年到日本遊玩。
adverb of time > adverb of place

平時/一般 is an adverb of frequency (not time). Usually we place it right after the subject and before adverbs of time in Chinese, because it is the most generalisable. But do consider the following:

Sentence
Adverbial order

我經常在週末到公園做運動。
adverb of frequency > adverb of time > adverb of place

我在週末經常到公園做運動。
adverb of time > adverb of frequency > adverb of place

*我經常到公園在週末做運動。
adverb of frequency > adverb of place > adverb of time

By point 2., only the first two sentences are grammatical. But think closely and their meanings differ. Considering the fact that 經常, 在週末, and 到公園 are all preceding adverbs (狀語), they modify ALL that follows (even the adverbs after them). In a way, whatever you say first limits the scope of the sentence most.
So in the first sentence, it seems that the speaker is commenting on their habit in general, which involves exercising in the park at weekends. But in the second sentence, it seems that the speaker is commenting exclusively on their habit at weekends, which is that they exercise in the park. (Implying the speaker's habit at weekdays may be different.)

Likewise, if you say 我平時/一般在晚上做作業。, you are commenting on your habit in general. If you say 我在晚上一般做作業。, you are commenting exclusively on your habit during nighttime. Perhaps you are deliberately contrasting this to others' nighttime habit, or what you routinely do during daytime.

In the above example, it seems particularly odd to place 平時, which already specified the generality of time, after a specific point of time in the day. 一般 is relatively weak in temporality, so it is permissible.

Back to your question: in *你什麼時候平時/一般做作業？, it is illogical to knowingly limit your scope of discussion to an uncertain period of time (i.e., 什麼時候) when in fact you are supposed to ask others' habit as a general inquiry.


What is a "Babu cream"? I am working in a Chinese pharmacy & have a product with the English name "Compound Methylsalicylate cataplasma". This is supposed to be a translation from the Chinese "复方水扬酸甲酯巴布膏".

As far as I know, "cataplasma" is not a word in the English language.

Google translate says "巴布膏" means "Babu cream", but that tells me next to nothing, while nciku.com has no results.

I am not an expert in this area but online search gave me:

Cataplasma is a Spanish word. It could be a typo here. The English version is Cataplasm, Wikipedia says:

  A poultice, also called cataplasm, is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is spread on cloth over the skin to treat an aching, inflamed, or painful part of the body. It can be used on wounds such as cuts.

巴布膏, according to Baidu Zhidao, means:

  巴布剂是一种外用贴膏剂，在日本有较久的应用历史，系药材提取物或化学药物与适宜的亲水性基质混合后，被涂布在背衬材料上制成的贴膏剂。

From what I read, the narrow meaning of cataplasm and 巴布膏 may not be exactly the same, but in your context they both mean medicated cloth patch applied on skin. I think the translation you've mentioned is accurate.


How to say "a bit more" in "Verb + Something + a bit more" I'm often stuck with how to use "a bit more" in Chinese in situations like :

Verb + something + a bit more

  I want to watch TV a bit more

  I want to eat spicy noodles a bit more

  I want to have a longer walk on the beach

  I plan on listening to more music

  Can you speak a bit slower ? (I know this one 漫说一点)

I know you can say, for instance :
多吃. (I'm not sure but I think I could also say 多吃一点)
But how would you say "Eat more of something" 多吃那个一点 ？

Nobody taught me this and the problem I have is not with 多/少 before the verb, it is about the grammatical order of the sentence and the words to use if there is something / a direct object complement after the verb.

What's the order ?
Should I only use 我把这个多吃 ？
Are they any other alternatives ?

I take the opportunity to ask as well how to say:

Doing + something + too much

Verb + something + 太多 /or/ Verb + 太多 + something ？

I want to watch TV = 我想看電視

  I want to watch TV (a bit more) = 我想 (多) 看 (一點) 電視

~

  I want to eat spicy noodles = 我想吃辣面

  I want to eat spicy noodles (a bit more) = 我想(多)吃(一點)辣面

~

I want to have a walk on the beach = 我想在沙滩上散步

I want to have a (longer) walk on the beach = 我想在沙滩上散(長一點的)步

~

  I plan on listening to music = 我打算听音乐

  I plan on listening to (more) music = 我打算听(更多的)音乐

  I plan on listening to (a bit more) music = 我打算(多)听(一點)音乐

~

  Can you speak slower ?  = 你能说慢一点吗？

  Can you speak (a bit) slower ? = 你能(稍微)说慢一点吗？


Address people using 生 (e.g. 唐生) Sometimes I hear people from Southern China address other people using 生, e.g. 唐生 for 张国荣's lover 唐鹤德. I looked it up in the dictionaries and searched online but didn't found any explanation on the usages. Here are my questions:

What does it mean? Is it short for/related to 先生 or 小生?
What gender/age/profession do you use it for? Is it exclusively used for young male?
Is it regional? (Personally I have never heard of it in Northern China.)
Is it formal or colloquial?

In Cantonese, 先生 can be shortened to 生 when attached to a family name. It is used for adult male, all ages and is used orally, not written.


Proper translation for "active table"? For "Maximum number of active tables per W/W: 4", is "每位服务生接待已就座餐桌的最大数目：4" correct?

Does "acitve table" mean "the seat is taken"?

I think this is a good example of terrible sentences craft in mandarin, translate to English, later attempt to translate the terrible sentences back to mandarin.

It has nothing to do with taken seat or seat served, but serving.

It is pretty clear to say this in English :

Each waiters/waitress served : 4 tables max
服务生能接待的数目 ：最多4桌/台客人

Each waiters/waitress should only served 4 tables
服务生最多只能接待四桌/台客人

Just be careful when you read some "weird" mandarin and strange English translation. It is quite common as some restaurant owner refuse to consult people(not even amateur) to proofread their menu.


Does 到了现在我才清楚了解当时的情况 imply that the situation is completely clear, or just that it's clearer than before? This question is related to Writing critique request: Zhou Ziwang's father takes her to the "doctor".  In particular:

  English version: These days I have a clearer understanding of the situation, ...
  My version: 现在我对那情况了解得更清楚 ...
  Tang Ho's version: 到了现在我才清楚了解当时的情况 ...

(I got rid of the brackets.)

The message I want to get across is that the situation is clearer than before, but this doesn't imply the situation is completely clear [there's still things which are unexplained].  It's why I chose to use 更清楚 which I intended to mean "more clear".

I'm unsure, but I think Tang Ho's version implies it's "completely clear".

Question: Does 到了现在我才清楚了解当时的情况 imply that the situation is completely clear, or just that it's clearer than before?

"到了现在我才清楚了解当时的情况" means "the situation is completely clear for me now"

For "Now I understand more clearly about the situation back then" It should be "到了现在我才(更)清楚了解当时的情况"

It implies you had some understanding back then, but now this understanding is more clear.

I did not read your English translation. My editing is totally based on the impression I got from your Chinese writing.


Meaning of 狂牛 in this context? 你在說什麼？
你是又被變種狂牛攻擊喔了喔？

I'm what the second sentence means. It translates literally to something like

Have you been attacked by a mutant mad cow again?

But I'm sure that's not the actual meaning. I was thinking it might have something to do with mad cow disease, but that doesn't seem quite right either....

In the context "你是又被變種狂牛攻擊喔了喔？", it is basically just a metaphor for "are you out of your mind?", not that a mad cow really exists.


difference between 为难 and 矛盾？ Recently, I ran into the word "为难“  which means roughly that someone is in a dilemma／is having difficulty deciding . The sentences that was used as an example was
离开还是留下， 他很为难。
Could some explain the difference between the usage of 为难 and 矛盾？ they seem to have relatively similar meanings in this context.

There's a nuanced difference:

为难 means to be troubled over a difficult issue, indicating that the speaker isn't sure what to do and/or cannot make a decision easily. For example, 美称对台渔民遇害案感到为难 - "Regarding the (Philippine's) killing of Taiwanese fisherman, the United States (as a friend of both) says it is caught between a rock and a hard place."
矛盾 means something is self-contradictory, indicating that the speaker is experiencing opposite desires/emotions/feeling/etc. For example, 愛情令人感到矛盾 - "Love makes people feel conflicted (between fairytale-romance and reality)".


What is the name of the artist on this piece? Could someone type the name of the artist in Chinese so I can begin research on this piece? I purchased a translation application that works well but it will not pick up words that have been written by hand.

"馬海德", most likely was "shafick george Hatem" and his wife "周蘇菲".

于延安 is roughly at (于) the communist headquarters (延安)


What does 融 in 融资 mean? 融 means melting, right?

So 融资 means melting capital? Some Chinese friends told me that it was the ancient practice where gold ingots from different sources are melted to become the property of somebody for public good. Is that true or is there any other justification for that?

It is true that, generally speaking, 融 means to melt, but has other meanings too, especially in the economic context.

In this case, as 賈可 Jacky wrote, the character 融 can be translated as circulation or to circulate. In the online Chinese Dictionary zdic this character is defined as follows:

  ● 融
  róng  ㄖㄨㄥˊ

   固体受热变软或化为流体：～化。～解。消～。
   调合，和谐：～合。～洽。～汇贯通。其乐～～。
   流通：～泄（飘动，浮动）。金～（货币的流通，即储蓄，信贷、汇兑、股票和证券交易等经济活动的总称）。
   长远、永久：～裔（形容声调悠长）。

The meaning we are interested in is #3, which says:

  [...]3. Circulation [流通]: like in the words fluctuation [融泄] (floating, drifting) and finance [金融] (circulation of money, namely savings, credit, remittances, buying and selling of stocks, and other economic activities of this kind)[...]

So, this character 融 has to do with circulation (流通) of capital (资本), and that's why the meaning of 融资 is in fact financing or funding.

This particular meaning of 融 can also be found in the 《汉语大字典》 and in the 《辞源》. Both dictionaries explain this character by saying that its meaning is basically 流通 (to circulate).

I couldn't find any reference to the ancient tradition your friend mentioned. Anyway, it seems to me that the word 融资 is quite a modern coinage.

References:

融资 entry in Wiktionary (Traditional characters)
融 entry in Wiktionary
融 entry in zdic


What is the "ba" that 周恩来 used when speaking to Kissinger? Dr. Michael Pillsbury, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Chinese Strategy, testified before the US Senate (p. 9) on Nixon's visit to China:

But there were glimpses even then that the Chinese saw the United States not as an ally but as an obstacle. Referring to the United States, Zhou offered a hint of how the Chinese really felt about their new prospective friend. “America is the ba,” Zhou told Kissinger’s interpreter, Ambassador Ji Zhaozhu of China’s Foreign Ministry, repeating a term that would be frequently used by Chairman Mao and his successor, Deng Xiaoping.
[...] Kissinger’s translator told Kissinger that Zhou’s statement meant, “America is the leader.” This seemed to be an innocuous remark, and when taken in the context of the Cold War even a compliment. But that is not what the word ba means in Mandarin — at least that is not its full context.

How would that statement have been constructed in Chinese, and to which "ba" was being referred to?

I guess it was 霸 /ba4/ : tyrant; bully; overlord

Short for '霸主' (dominant leader among rulers)  or '霸權' (dominant power)

It was not a friendly word toward America, because it implied America was a bully, (try to dominate other countries of the world with it's strength)

In ancient time, the difference between 霸主 (leader among rulers) and 天下共主 (common leader of the lords) is a 霸主 didn't have the loyalty of the other rulers. They submitted to him out of fear.

Since Zhou said "America is the ba" I presume he meant "美國是全世界的霸主" (America is the world's most dominant power)

美國是全世界的霸主

If Zhou said "America is a ba", then would mean "美國是一個霸權" (America is a hegemony)

Side note:

春秋五霸 (Five Hegemons) were five rulers who earned the title of 霸主 during the Spring and Autumn Period.


给 with inanimate objects I'd like to ask "Can I take a picture of the menu?" at a small Chinese restaurant. Normally,　I've seen "take picture of X" translated as 给X拍照, but I'm reluctant to use this translation in this context because I almost always see 给 used with animate objects.

Are there any issues with expressions like 给公司打电话 or 给菜单拍照？ If so, what's the preferred expression?

给 has a few meanings

The basic meaning of 给 is "to give" e.g. "(给)我錢" = "(give) me money"

It can also mean "for" e.g. "(给)我把風" = "look out (for) me" which can be replaced with "替" as in "(替)我把風"

给 can also function as an 'target object marker'

in "给X拍照" , 'X' is the targeted object of the verb 拍照(take photo)

in "给公司打电话". '公司' is the targeted object of the verb 打电话 (make phone call to)

"给菜单拍照" is acceptable -- '给' marks '菜单' as the targeted object of the verb '拍照'

Since 菜单 is an inanimate object, '给' in "给菜单拍照" cannot mean "take photo for the menu" (menu can't want you to take photo in its stead)

And 拍照 is a verb, therefore '给' in"给菜单拍照" can't mean 'give' neither (first, menu can't accept anything; second, 拍照 is a verb, not an object to give)


Why is 开 written within a 门 in this sign (without being written 開)? This sign is in the hallway near our lab.

I believe it says:

  南开大学：现代光学研究所
  Nánkāi dàxué: Xiàndài guāngxué yánjiū suǒ

But the 开 is written inside a 门.  I thought it would be a traditional character, however, that is 開, which is not what is written.  It's like a semi-simplified character.  (研 is written strangely too.)

Question: Why is 开 written within a 门 in this sign?

Update: here's two more examples I've seen around campus:

In these examples, 学 seems to be written as the traditional 學.

BabelStone wrote a Proposal to Encode Obsolete Simplified Chinese Characters which also contains a lot of history and other important information.
Under the heading 2.2 we find:

Table of First Batch Simplified Characters
The table below lists all 324 first batch simplified characters in the order that they occur in the published table of simplifications. The reference number is prefixed “DJ” for Dìyīpī Jiǎntǐzì. Mappings to the corresponding standard simplified and traditional character forms are given in the columns marked “Simp.” and “Trad.” respectively. Characters that are proposed for encoding are given a Unicode number of U+XXXXX and printed in red. Unicode points marked with an asterisk are for CJK-D characters, and as of writing are still provisional.

Here we find:

DJ‑89  U+2B52D*      开   開   kāi

Background about these simplifications also on the BabelStone proposal explain under 2.1

First Batch Simplified Characters (1935)
Background
In January 1934 at the 29th meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the National Language (Guóyǔ Tǒngyī Chóubèi Wěiyuánhuì 國語統一籌備委員會) of the Ministry of Education, Qián Xuántóng 錢玄同 (1887–1939) submitted a draft table of simplified characters (Sōucǎi gùyǒu ér jiào shìyòng de jiǎntǐzì àn 搜採固有而較適用的簡體字案). These were approved by the committee, and Qián Xuántóng was delegated to edit a table of simplified characters for publication. In August 1935 the Ministry of Eductaion published a first batch of 324 simplified characters (see Appendices A and F), with the intention of publishing a series of further batches of simplified characters. However, in February 1936 the Ministry of Education issued a directive halting the simplification program, and no further batches of simplified characters were issued. Although this first batch of simplified characters was not widely used, it was historically very important as it represented the first centralized attempt to promote the use of simplified characters in China, and was a precursor to the simplification movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the People’s Republic of China.
Fig.1 Jīngběn Tōngsú Xiǎoshuō 11:2a

DJ‑228:  (錢)
The simplifications in this table were based on commonly used vulgar form characters (e.g. 宝 for 寶), ancient forms of characters (e.g. 无 for 無) and cursive form characters (e.g. 为 for 為). Most of the 324 first batch simplifications are identical to modern standard simplified characters or Japanese simplified characters, but some are different to a greater or lesser extent; and those characters that are not currently encoded need to be encoded in order for scholars to discuss this pioneering episode in the history of Chinese character simplification. Moreover, some of the currently unencoded “first batch” characters are commonly found in early printed texts (see Fig.1), so it would also be useful to encode these characters for scholars of such texts.

Most likely the building was founded during Aug '35 - Feb '36 by some forward thinking intellectuals who were keeping up with the times.
As in your picture we can see that 學 is also simplified but 現 is not.
We can find 學 as the 38th character on BabelStone's First Batch Simplified Characters table:

DJ‑38  U+05B66     学   学   學   xué

So it stands to fit in our timeline here.
Funnily enough the same character can also be found in the BabelStone proposal under 3.2

Table of Singapore Simplifications
The table below lists only those 77 characters in the 1969 table of 502 simplified characters that differ from standard PRC simplifications (see Appendix D). The reference number is prefixed “SJ” for “Singapore jiǎntǐzì”). Characters that are proposed for encoding are given a Unicode number of U+XXXXX and printed in red. Unicode points marked with an asterisk are for CJK-D characters, and as of writing are still provisional.

SJ‑26  U+2B52D*      开   開   kāi     Also DJ‑89

This, in all likely-hood, has nothing to do with Nankai - a university established 1919 in Tianjin.

Slightly unrelated: Another funny thing is that these "aborted" characters can sometimes also be seen from the Second Round of Simplified Chinese Characters .
There's this fun blog post from Sinoglot called Park that simplification - but it seems that it hasn't been maintained very well since it was posted in '10 seeing that the original image is now missing, which mentions:

I stumbled across this No Parking sign*…
IMAGE_300 [can't load]

here's probably what it looked like:

… 禁止仃车 (jìnzhǐ tíng chē), in which the third character is 仃 instead of the proper 停, I immediately assumed it was an uneducated mistake propagated by one of society’s fringe characters.
But it turns out to be a fringe character of a different sort.
I asked Sinoglot’s Kellen Parker if he’d run across 仃 used this way. where is my ip ask edd Not only had he run across it, he had the Wikipedia reference! According to that article (which has some fascinating-looking references — I just expanded my Amazon wishlist) 仃 was used for a few years as a completely legitimate simplification of 停 in the so-called “second round” of character simplifications. The simplifications didn’t stick and were repealed in 1986, but it’s possible, if our No Parking writer was educated between 1977 and the mid-80s, that 仃 was simply how they learned to write it.

There is this image in one of the comments though:

with the comment:

I snapped this down the street from where I live. One second-round character (亍 for 街) and one non-standard simplification (柚 for 楼). The community across the street has attractive building signs with the inside of 源 written as 元, which you’d think would be a second-round character, except that the standard was in no way systematic: 原 became [厂+元], but 源 was overloaded on 沅.
I think I first became aware of the characters when I noticed a simplified version of 部 (卩 whose top stroke extends further to the left) cast into some of the iron benches in Jilin’s Longtanshan Park. Or maybe when a friend wrote 量 as 旦 over 力. Fun stuff.

another comment wrote:

The ones I’ve seen most commonly in the wild are 歺 (on hand-lettered breakfast stall signs) and 伩 (in a handwritten note from someone who teaches at Beida). I’d be curious to know how many of these existed previously as folk simplifications: I have no problem believing in 伩 and 歺 (餐 really is a pain in the ass to write by hand when you’re hungry and all you want is some cheap and cheerful 歺); 亍 existed previously as part of 彳亍. 旦 over 力 is just weird.

and another interesting one:

Great post. I am actually doing research on “Second Round Simplifications”. My favorite is 氿. Even as a Mandarin learner rather than a native speaker, this character (meaning of course good old 酒) looks just absurd to me.

A second Sinoglot post Wut if ur kid’s skool thot this wuz fine spelling? attacks this in more detail - but the pics are missing (again!). Shame.
Wikipedia's page of Second Round of Simplified Chinese Characters has quite a bit of explanation too, of how it began:

In 1975, a second round of simplifications, the Second Scheme, was submitted by the Script Reform Committee of China to the State Council for approval. Like the First Scheme, it contained two lists, one (comprising 248 characters) for immediate use and another (comprising 605 characters) for evaluation and discussion.9 Of these, 21 from the first list and 40 from the second also served as components of other characters, which caused the Second Scheme to modify some 4,500 characters.10 On 20 December 1977, major newspapers such as the People's Daily and the Guangming Daily published the second-round simplifications along with editorials and articles strongly endorsing the changes. Both newspapers began to use the characters from the first list on the following day.10

and ended:

The Second Scheme was received extremely poorly, and as early as mid-1978, the Ministry of Education and the Central Propaganda Department were asking publishers of textbooks, newspapers and other works to stop using the second-round simplifications. Second-round simplifications were taught inconsistently in the education system, and people used characters at various stages of official or unofficial simplification. Confusion and disagreement ensued.[11]
The Second Scheme was officially retracted by the State Council on 24 June 1986. The State Council's retraction also emphasized that Chinese character reform should henceforth proceed with caution, and that the forms of Chinese characters should be kept stable.[12] Later that year, a final version of the 1964 list was published with minor changes, and no further changes have been made since.6

Sometimes these things caught in "time warps" are easy to come out.


Position of 了in 发生了什么事 vs 发生什么事了 Compare the position of 了 in the following sentences:

发生了什么事？
What happened?

我想知道他发生什么事了。
I wonder what has happened to her.

Can you explain what the difference is in the positions of the 了?

发生了什么事 VS 发生什么事了

There isn't essential difference between them. They mean the same and are interchangeable.


Is this correct: "一个游戏有四个季度" I wanted to find out how to say a sports game has four quarters and the translation I received from Google was: "一个游戏有四个季度"

Certain sports games are split into 4 quarters rather than 2 halves and I want to express this, but I was interested in seeing "季度" used to mean quarter.

When I check Wiktionary there is no entry for 季度 but 季 says it is used to mean a quarter of a year or season.

Can 季度 also be used for other things that come in quarters?

No.

A quarter in a sports game is usually translated as 节. For example, fourth quarter is 第四节. The first and second quarters are collectively referred to as 上半场 and similarly, the third and fourth quarters are referred to as 下半场. A sports season is usually translated as 赛季．

季度, when tranlated into English, only refers to a quarter of a year, as you have noted.


Differences: 干，办，做，搞，弄 What's the difference between all these five words? They mean all "to do", they're driving me crazy!
I write some example sentences with some of them (hoping that's the right one), just to understand if in some cases they are interchangeable:
我还有几件事要办，得先走了。
他是搞计算机的，有问题可以问他。
我的手机让弟弟给弄坏了。

Thanks for your help, I'd be so grateful.

我还有几件事要（办/做）are basically carry the same meaning, which is official

我还有几件事要（干）I would say this is less formal that the top one, but you can use it in most of the occasions.

他是搞计算机的 here this 搞 = 从事于（engaged in）computer business or industry

but sometimes 搞 can express negative meanings like 他把工作搞得一团糟 he screwed his work, we usually use this as a fixed collocation: 搞得一团糟

弄 usually means casual and sometimes carries bad meanings, for example：

他马上就要弄好了，不要急。casual

弄坏了 you can see this phrase as a fixed collocation, means broke something


Translating the last verse of “Si maritau Rosa” into Chinese Background

I am making a Chinese singable version of a Sicilian song called "Si maritau Rosa" (Rosa has gotten married). I have three questions about how to best render the last verse. Here are the lyrics of said verse:

  Siđđu n'atturna pòrtunu | If people bring an atturna*
  Nta lu quartèri miu, | In my quarter,
  M'affaccia 'nu disiu, | A desire is born in me,
  Nun pozzu cchiù durmì. | I can no longer sleep.
  Alleggiu alleggiu apru | I quietly open
  'A porta a vvaniđđuzza, | The door, making a little slit,
  Vidu ca è p' Annuzza | I see it's for Annuzza
  E ttornu a llacrimà. | And go back to crying.

The asterisk is on a part that will be explained in one of the questions.

Here is my current translation:

  如果在我四等分
  有人来唱小夜曲,
  心里长大了愿望
  就不再能睡觉.
  悄悄地将我的门
  来打开得裂缝啊,
  看是为了小婷婷
  就回到流眼泪.

Question 1: 四等分 | quarter

I found 四等分 via Google, I guess, and have just noticed it's under "verb", so how do I translate "quarter" in the sense of "part of a city" (sense 2.1 here)?

Question 2: atturna

One version of the song is the above, another one reads «Siddu a nutturna portunu», other versions have «Quannu» for «Siddu». I prefer "siddu" (if) to "quannu" (when), but that is just me. As for "a nutturna" vs. "n'atturna", I choose the latter because it uses an indefinite article (n') vs. the definite "a" of the former. Both seem to be a reference to the Siracusan festival of Our Lady the Immaculate Conception, which starts with the band going around the roads playing cheerfully and waking everyone up. I thus interpret this "to bring an atturna" as a group of people with instruments going up and down a road playing love songs for someone living in that road. This needs confirmation, but it's going to be hard to find it.

Admitting the above interpretation is the correct one, what is the best way to render this in Chinese? Is there a similar Chinese custom I could refer to?

Question 3: vanidduzza

This word is a diminutive of "vanedda", which is found online to mean either "slit" or "country road". The latter interpretation is what gave my very first traslation 我就悄悄来打开 / 小路上的那扇门. I prefer the former, however, because:

I prefer the furtivity of the slit rather than the specification of where the door goes;
Another version of the song has «Tegnu la porta aperta / La mettu a padiduzza» which suggests this is the meaning of "apru / a porta a vanidduzza";
Sicilian Wiktionary has the expression "chiùdiri a vanedda", "close into a slit" (horrible translation but you get the picture), so if that exists, I'm betting that with "to close" it means the door is open and you almost-close it, only leaving a slit between it and the wall, whereas with "to open" (as in the song) the door is closed, and you open it a little.

With that, how do I render this "apru / a porta a vvanidduzza" into Chinese? Is my above attempt OK?

Extra

Full lyrics and translation here, if anyone's curious about this song. Any comments are welcome. It should be noted that you can find wildly varying lyrics online (the "padiduzza" quote above is from here and is an example of the "wildly varying" part.

sorry, don't have any ideas about the song. UR translation is very good, except “quarter”、“desire”.
1、Quarter may mean “角落”、“世界”、“地盘” in this song, so "In my quarter" means "在我的世界，我的地盘，我的心里".
2、Desire is a very strong, and true feeling at present，but“愿望” in Chinese is just a hope for future, and isn't strong as desire in English. so "desire" means "渴望、强烈的欲望，强烈的愿望"
3、my translation for your reference:
If people bring an atturna* In my quarter|他哼着小情歌闯入我的世界。
A desire is born in me|炽热的心开始按耐不住，
I can no longer sleep|（使我）不再入眠。
I quietly open The door, making a little slit|忐忑地打开一丝心扉。
I see it's for Annuzza，And go back to crying|而他，只是路过。


What's "ended in a disaster" in Chinese? I think it's 以灾难结局, and that people will understand that.  However, is there a more authentic term or is this it?

More native way is 災難收場.

～收場：

喜劇收場
悲劇收場
混亂收場

Another way is 大災難結局, for some big ending in drama and film.

大～結局 ：

大團圓結局

In writing, it could be 災難結尾.

～結尾：

歡喜結尾

You might use other words like 災難收尾, 災難而終.


What does the verb + 到 structure mean here? 他决定先躲到奶奶家...
What is the function of 到 here? Does it indicate successful completion, direction, or something else?

到 in [V + 到] can be a result complement

From https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/result_complement

Forming the result complement

Result complements form verbal compounds that behave exactly the same as normal verbs. The compound is formed by a verb plus another verb or an adjective:
Result complement examples

Verb:听

result complement:听到

(听 alone means 'to listen', but 听到 means 'to hear'.

Edit:
However, since it is followed by a location/ destination, the 到 in 躲到 is different from the 到 in 听到--  it is not a result compliment but the preposition 'to/ into'
Example:
'躲' = to hide. e.g. 快躲 (hurry and hide)
'躲到 + location' = hide into location/  destination. e.g. 躲到小红帽奶奶家(里) (hide into Little Red Riding Hood's grandma's home)
Summary:

到 here means 'into' because 小红帽奶奶家 is a location/ destination to hide into. If it was 躲到美国 then 到 would mean 'to' because 美国 is a location/ destination to get to

到 in 听到谣言 is a result complement that indicates the verb is completed  because 谣言 is an object to be heard

在 in 躲在小红帽奶奶家 (hide at Little Red Riding Hood's grandma's home) means 'at' which is also a preposition because 小红帽奶奶家 is a location to hide at


Chinese equivalent of "I'm stealing that joke" Is there a Chinese equivalent of I'm stealing that joke?

I just heard a hilarious joke, and I'd like to say "that's a great joke, I'm stealing it" (i.e. I will use it myself).

Is there a Chinese equivalent?

I suppose the idea of "stealing" a joke doesn't really fit into Chinese culture?

Right, the word "stealing" doesn't fit into Chinese culture that much. We would use "borrow" instead, although we are not give it back anyway. The words in Chinese are "借用一下"，literally means borrow and use for a little bit. (We use a little bit at the end to soften the sentence and be more polite)


How do I use a chengyu (idiom) to describe a "one extreme to the other" kind of transformation? In my story, 孔琳's behavior has changed from ultra-depressed to ultra-optimistic in a matter of moments (she has an unstable personality).  Her friends (陈叶 and 胡灵阳) are staring at her in amazement, and I want to write...

  现在陈叶和胡灵阳在一起站着，惊喜地盯着孔琳[chengyu]的变化。

I want to describe this change using a chengyu, but the closest I found was 以耳代目 and 以耳为目 which are variants.  It's not bad (it means something like "substitute ears for eyes"), but I don't think it works grammatically above.  I'm also unsure that the context works here; perhaps it refers to blind people.

Question: How do I use a chengyu (idiom) to describe a "one extreme to the other" kind of transformation?

English derived from above Chinese; only to be used "in case of emergency" (i.e., if the Chinese is incomprehensible):

   Now Chen Ye and Hu Lingyang [are] standing, surprisedly staring [at] Kong Lin's from-one-extreme-to-the-other change.

Depend on what the emphasis is, there are quite a few idioms you can use in this context.

Some suggestion:

判若兩人 (like a different person)

前後判若兩人 (like a different person from before)

大起大落 (up and down to the extreme/ high and low to the extreme)

峰迴路轉 (surprising, unexpected)

前後反覆 (change completely from before/ turn 180 degree)

一百八十度轉變 (turn 180 degree)

If you are looking for an idiom 前後判若兩人 fit in this context the best, but 一百八十度轉變 itself is a common phrase


Difference between using 被 and the object in the topic position? I just learned about the preposition 被 bèi to express passive voice. If we have a S-V-O sentence, we can reexpress it using the 被 structure as O-被-(S)-V. This introduces a passive voice into the sentence and shifts the emphasis from the "doer" of the action to the "one" affected by the action.
However, I also know we can use the topic-comment structure of Chinese language to rewrite the sentence as O-S-V. This also brings some emphasis into the object and I believed it has also a passive voice flavor.
What is the difference in usage between the 被 structure and a topic-comment structure with the object in the topic position?

An example might help:

S-V-O: 男孩吃了热狗 (The boy ate the hot dog).
O-被-(S)-V: 热狗被男孩吃了 (The hot dog was eaten by the boy).
O-S-V: 热狗男孩吃了 (Literally: The hot dog—the boy ate).

Let's answer the question by showcasing topic-comment, by defining 被 usage and then see if there is any overlap.
Re: topic-comment
Let's open with examples for topic-comment.

作业(我)做完了。 Done homework.

(你)饭吃完了吗？  Finishing eating (dinner)?

违法的事情(你)不要做。  Do not do illegal things.

这个信件，老板吩咐我亲手转交给你。 Boss instructed me to hand you this envelop in person.

The interesting thing about these sentences is that order reversal is possible for all four and the alternate ordering is probably just as likely in real life. See below.

(我)做完作业了。

(你)吃完饭了吗？

(你)不要做违法的事情。

老板吩咐我亲手转交这个信件给你。

In the alternate ordering, the sentences may put more emphasis on the earlier agent or action or descriptive quality in the sentence. (In example 4, the 2nd ordering highlights 亲手. Other examples are more obvious.) Nevertheless, re-ordered or not, they describe identical actions and are grammatical either way. Also, more alternative ordering may be possible.
Thus, one may find it efficient to identify topic and comment in these sentences and take advantage of the pattern that topic can either precede or follow comment. One may even define special topic-comment structure by this exact quality of having at least 2 possible grammatical ordering.
So, the examples above -- via virtue of allowing order reversal -- are indeed topic-comment.
That said, I really don't see an easy way to differentiate topic-comment sentences vs non topic-comment sentences. That calls into question whether topic-comment structure is truly universal. In any case, if your sentence contains a linking verb like 是. Order reversal probably cannot be done. Semantically, there is always topic and always comment. But you don't always have topic-comment structure.

Examples:
这辆车是他的。 This car is his.
平面三角形内角和为180度。Planar triangles' inner angles' sum is 180 degrees.
(Literal translation to show the Chinese structure.)

The reality does get more complicated than what is shown here. Not least because the linking verb may be omitted.
Definition of 被 structure
In the linking verb examples, you cannot use 被. So those are out of the picture.
In the topic-comment examples --- at least in my examples where the topic are noun phrase, you can always try inserting 被。A bunch of funny sentences are going to form. I want to use those strangeness to explore what 被 does.

作业被(我)做完了。

饭被(你)吃完了吗？

违法的事情不要被(你)做。

我被老板吩咐亲手转交这个信件给你。

If you have good familiarity with Chinese, you instantly recognize example 1)-3) are not sensible. Literally 100% never said. 4) is sensible but it does not have the same order as in topic-leading ordering.
So we have a conclusion: topic-comment reversal is not replicated by 被 related structure.
被 has a structure of its own and usages of its own. It is better considered as a helping word that in usage induces the following phrasal structure:
Noun phrase (optional) + 被 + noun (optional) +  verb phrase
and in meaning induces the connotations described by Li and Thompson. (All is well in their example except the word 气 is not used in a real way.)
被 signifies that the normal target of the verb phrase is not. A reflection happens. For example,

被人肉 got doxx'd
被自杀 got suicided (ie. murdered and displayed as seeming suicide)
我被辞职了 I got resigned (ie. I was fired but I totally had agency in the resigning.)

Note that the connotations here are in line with Li and Thompson's analysis.
The more flexible definition above is the more inclusive one. But for educational purpose, let's also do a more particular (limited) definition of 被:
Noun phrase (optional) + 被 + noun (optional) +  verb phrase
The leading noun phrase is the target of the verb phrase; the optional noun is only grammatical if it was the subject of the verb phrase otherwise.
If you use all components in "NP + 被 + noun + VP" such as in your example
热狗|被|男孩|吃了
no further order reversal is grammatical. (If you use 被 + VP only, there is nothing to reverse. But you can move this combo around freely and be gnarly with your sentences.) In other words, starting with a 被 sentence, there may not be corresponding topic-comment sentence.
Back to the earlier examples, why are they strange? They follow the same sentence structure as prescribed above and as 热狗被吃了, why are they strange while 热狗被吃了 is not strange? Those 被 examples 1-3 are not just not preferred. Their meaning appears to native-speakers self-contradictory and are never ever spoken.
Well, we really need more examples to tell here. But I have a theory for you to think about.
Without 被, the leading agent in example 1), the subject 作业 is already assumed to be passively performed by the 2nd agent. You can insert 被 in the sense that other sentences following this pattern can make sense. But semantically, this double passiveness is self-contradictory.
The same idea for 饭。 In other words, in Chinese, the words 作业, 饭, 事情 all have implicit passiveness when acted upon. 作业做 always means 作业 is the target of 做 regardless of ordering. (Topic prominence again.) Adding 被 contradicts with the inherent passiveness.
Note: 作业做 by itself is one of those things that cannot make sense with regular present tense. 作业做了 makes sense. 作业做 does not. When that happens, if you literally say 作业做, people give up on the presumed passiveness and try interpreting 作业 as the active agent or check for alternative meaning of 作业. Ofc in this case it still doesn't work.
What is the overlap between topic-comment and 被?
So far, we have not found any.
The only similarity between the two is that topic-comment structure allows for the reversal of topic and comment in a sentence, while 被 re-designates the target of a verb phrase, which in turn means that in order to produce an equivalent sentence, you need to reverse order.
Thus any similarity is coincidental.

Now we need to end with some necessary disclaimers:
One, topic-comment may not be a standalone, universal structure in Chinese. Sometimes order reversal is possible. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes multiple orderings are possible. In your example, 热狗男孩吃了 is potentially dubious by adopting a noun + noun + verb phrase structure for a verb that takes both subject and object. And I made a point about 是 sentences. Every sentence has a topic and comment. So it's difficult to differentiate what is a topic-comment structure vs what is not. I cannot conclude one way or the other whether topic-comment should be truly standalone and what its defining feature is without examining hundreds of more examples than this question. And we don't need to do that to make progress in discussing Chinese. Let's save that for the future and for over time.
Two, I used an "English way" to explain 被. But Englishness is ofc not the point. That is, I used phrasal structure conventions that are conventions in English and are successful in English. Phrasal structure is not a language-specific concept or tool. What I did is nevertheless not the convention in Chinese -- unless by coincidence that I am not aware of. What does that mean? It means just that: not convention; not consensus. But it may be useful and it may through coincidence become consensus when one is found and popularized.
Also curious along the same line, in English "helping word" really means "helping verb". Helping verbs are auxiliaries appear at the same places as verbs and potentially along side them. Is 被 a "helping preposition"?? That would be new.
Lastly, I believe the discussion above showcases the need for neutral examples. We use examples to support our theories. We also need examples to discover theories; and to validate theories. We need to support as well as validate. That's important. For that, we need lots of examples.
So if you have more examples that can showcase points included or not yet included in the discussion above. Please comment below.


How to say “pen and paper roleplay game”? Is it something at least some people know, or must I assume they will misunderstand “roleplay game” as something fishy with sexual connotations?

I mean something like Dungeons and Dragons and other pen and paper games. Wikipedia translates it as “桌上角色扮演遊戲”, but I get the impression nobody understands this or it is being misunderstood.

桌上角色扮演，or in jargon among players: 跑团。

P.S. It seems that other answerers don't know the term 跑团游戏, which amazes me.

Edit:

The etymology of 『跑团』is unknown to me, but I guess it's because "a group of people playing (running) in the virtual world".


What is the correct word order for words 跑步 and 轻快? What is the correct word order for words 跑步 and 轻快?

跑步轻快
跑步的轻快 (seems like this version is extremely incorrect, also because of wrong character de usage)
轻快的跑步

I see no issue with 轻快的跑步 when you consider 跑步 (as a whole) a noun word.

If you take 跑步 as a verb, then 轻快地跑步 is ok.

For example,

  轻快的跑步能让我们的身心得以放松。 // used as a noun.

  我们在操场上轻快地跑步。 // used as a verb

In fact, I'd rather say 跑步 is used as a noun more often than a verb. For example, 跑步是一项很好的运动.

The single character 跑 is often used when serves as a verb, instead of 跑步. For example, 他跑得很快。We wouldn't say 他跑步得很快. This is because we take 跑步 as a noun usually.

So, 轻快的跑步 does make some sense in some circumstances.

跑步轻快 is a possible usage too, because 跑步轻快 could be considered to be the short version of 跑步跑得轻快.

However, 跑步的轻快 is not valid in any case, because 轻快 is adj or adv. You could say 跑步跑得轻快， but 跑步得轻快 is wrong because (as mentioned above) 跑步 is often used as a noun word.


Transcribing native speakers using dictation tools - any suggestions to improve accuracy? I tried playing this to iOS 7's dictation feature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6jhgUWBlxQ

The accuracy was pretty poor at regular speed, I'd say 20%, at best. I tried slowing down the playback speed and it didn't help.

Has anyone used dictation apps/software to transcribe something like the above with better accuracy?

科大讯飞 makes the best Chinese dictation engine so far. The accuracy is far better than Siri according to reports. I've tried with their IME. If you speak clearly with a normal speed, the accuracy could reach 90% in many cases, but using it against fast conversations would surely be a frustration.


Is the meaning of 把人的牙笑掉 exactly the same as 'laugh your head off'? 香菱要学作诗，拜黛玉为师。然后和宝玉、探春、黛玉一起，探春说：“难道我们是认真作诗吗？我们的诗出了这原子，还不把人的牙笑掉！”

In English, if something was very funny, you might say:

"I nearly laughed my head off."

Is that exactly equivalent to: 把人的牙笑掉?

Is "laughing one's head off" the exact equivalent of 把人的牙笑掉? Of course not.

The original line from《紅樓夢》goes like this:

  探春黛玉都笑道：「誰不是玩？難道我們是認真做詩呢？要說我們真成了詩，出了這園子，把人的牙還笑掉了呢！」

David Hawkes, published, translation in The Story of The Stone Vol. II reads like this:

  ‘Good heavens! we only write for the fun of it ourselves,’ said Tan-chun. ‘You surely don’t imagine that what we write is good poetry? If we set ourselves up to be real poets, people outside this Garden who got to hear of it would laugh so loud that their teeth would drop out!’

H. Bencraft Joly's, published, translation in The Dream of the Red Chamber reads:

  Tanchun and Daiyu both smiled. “Who doesn’t go in for these things for fun?” they asked. “Is it likely that we improvise verses in real earnest? Why, if anyone treated our verses as genuine verses, and took them outside this garden, people would have such a hearty laugh at our expense that their very teeth would drop.”

Both of these, published, translations opt for "teeth dropping out" from laughter.

Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang's, published, translation in A Dream of Red Mansions writes:

  “Who's not doing it for fun?” countered Tan-chun and Tai-yu. “We don't write seriously either. If we really set up as poets, people outside the Garden would split their sides laughing.”

Here it is translated “split their sides laughing.”

Here are some other sample translations from 91dub:

  布兰丁斯城堡 第一季
  people will laugh.
  人们准会笑掉大牙

  天堂真的存在
  will get me laughed out of this town.
  只会让人们笑掉大牙

  摩登家庭 第七季
  sitting at their lawn chairs, laughing their asses off
  坐在躺椅上笑掉大牙

  绝望主妇 第八季
  Besides trying not to laugh my ass off?
  除了忍住不让自己笑掉大牙外吗

  暂告安全
  When we heard what Docheski did to you,I mean,I had to laugh.
  听说多切斯基干的事 我都要笑掉牙了

It seems it can also be interchanged with 下巴:

  达·芬奇的恶魔 第一季
  He'll laugh his arse off with the rest of them.
  他会跟其他人一样笑掉下巴

"Laugh your head off" is, though, a great translation, but it could be interpreted in a number of ways.


What is this written on several buildings in red paint? Walking down the street in Tianjin I see this:

My question is: what does it say, and what does it mean?

It's written in red paint on several buildings that I walk past.  The same thing is written maybe 4 or 5 times.

I tried to translate it using search by radical and handwriting recognition, and this is all I managed:

外?空裂
请勿停?
注意安全

It says something about mind your safety, and don't park here (?).  I'm not really sure.

外檐空裂

请勿停靠

注意安全

“ the outer eaves are missing and broken

please not park alongside

watch out for safety”


Why is the American TV Drama "Friends" translated into 《老友记》? If I was the translator, the title should be 《朋友们》or 《好朋友》or 《哥儿们姐儿们》. Why was it 《老友记》? And what does the word 记 mean in such a phrase? Could it mean a record/diary of old friends? Is it the same with a drama of China 《红灯记》?

The title "Friends/ 老友記" is most likely translated by Hong Kong Cantonese

老友 means 'old friend'
記 means 'brand'

老友/ 老友記  is a colloquial Cantonese term that means "old friends" or "good friends"

老友 can also be used as an adjective for "friendly" For example, "無端端同佢咁老友?" (Be so friendly with him for no reason?)

  Using 記 to form a nickname is very common in Hong Kong Cantonese,

The nickname for "香港廉政公署" (Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption) is "廉記" (the 'incorrupt' brand)

The nickname for "有組織罪案及三合會調查科" (Organized Crime and Triad Bureau) is "O 記" ( the 'O' brand)

If a person is named  "陳家強", his common nickname could be "小強" or "老陳" in Mandarin and "強記"  or "阿陳" in Hong Kong Cantonese

"Friends" is a comedy, and the colloquial term 老友記 carries an informal (casual ; relax) tone, which fits the series very well; On the other hand, the literal term "朋友們" sounds too formal,

Interpret 老友記  as "journal of good friends' would sound too formal for a sitcom


What is the difference between 做 and 作? 做 and 作 are both translated as "to do" or "to make."
How can I tell when I should use one or the other?

Some real life examples to help identify the differences:

In general, "做" is almost always a verb that has some real meanings. It is very close to English word "do" in its verb form and "make". E.g. "Do your job!" = "做好你的工作!", "do nothing"="什么也不做", "make love" = "做爱", "make some cakes" = "做些蛋糕", etc.

For the word "作", in my personal opinion for now, acts as a function word (虚词) more often than having some real meanings. E.g. "作为" = "as/act as", "装作" = "pretend as". In these examples, it is really close to "as".

One of the most common "real meaning" usages of "作" is "compose": "作曲" = "compose a music", "创作" = "compose/create/write".

Another very common exception of "作" is the word "作文". It is a noun means "essay" or generally the "writing assignments" for students. Without checking it up, I don't even know what exactly "作" in "作文" means.

All in all, "做" is much more widely used as it is really similar as English "make" and "do".


How to translate that a financial asset has "priced in" an event or news? I'd guess "計入", as in 事件已計入. 金融資產有已經計入事件.
What Is ‘Priced In’? - WSJ

What do investors mean when they use the phrase “It’s priced in”? They’re talking about the way investors’ expectations move financial markets.
“It’s Wall Street’s fancy way of saying ‘anticipated,’ ” says Adam Johnson, founder and author of the Bullseye Brief financial newsletter. He gives the hypothetical example of a 14-year-old taking the family car for a drive without permission. “If you take a joy ride in your parents’ car at that age you will anticipate, or price in, the disappointment from your parents when you walk back in the front door,” he says.
In financial markets, anticipation is a driving force. Investors look at likely future events to adjust how much they are willing to pay for stocks or other assets. “If you anticipate bad news next week, then you sell the stock this week,” Mr. Johnson says. And if investors anticipate good news, many buy.
In general, new information quickly gets reflected in financial-market prices, giving us a sense of what investors as a whole are thinking about the future for business and the economy. But of course that sentiment can reverse quickly as new information becomes available.
What does 'priced in' mean in stock trading? - Quora

Sofien Kaabar , Institutional FX Strategist | Trader | Cleared CFA level 3
Answered July 11, 2020 · Author has 882 answers and 911.6K answer views

Priced-in means that the current or upcoming news event / economic release is already reflected in the current prices. In other words, there will be no strong movement after the release of the new information because most market participants have adjusted their positions accordingly and thus the powers of supply and demand are relatively in equilibrium.

I embold "priced in" in one book. I'll add more examples if time permits.
Lasse Heje Pedersen. Efficiently Inefficient How Smart Money Invests and Market Prices Are Determined (2015). p 247.

What Yield Changes Are Already Priced In? Forward Rates

Fixed-income investors often have a sense of the direction of interest rates.
For instance, if the short-term interest rate is already at zero, chances are that
it will be rising. Does this mean that one should sell short on bonds? Not necessarily,
because bond yields already reflect this expectation, at least to some
extent. You should only sell short on bonds if you think that bond yields will
rise faster or further than what is priced in. How do you know what is priced
in, though?

Can't think of a catchy phrase, and am bereft of financial knowledge. Maybe this might help a bit:
The asset price anticipates upcoming financial market events.
这个资产价格已经预示了金融市场即将发生的改变。


What's the lyrics to Onra's "Like the Seasons"? Onra's "Like the Seasons" on 网易 has a few guesses to it's lyrics:

  风，在外面淫……

  你……在外面你……

I thought it sounds like 不在外面营, I did think it sounded like 淫 at first but I don't think it's a song for sex ed.

Any ideas?

Genius says it's just an:

  [Instrumental]

but there are obviously samples with speech on it.

YouTube comments:

  有人听出采样在唱什么吗？求采样

anyone know what the sample is singing?

  Anybody have a translation?

It's perhaps Shanghainese Mandarin. This song tries to create an old atmosphere from the early 20th century in Shanghai. Onra probably intentionally make it very blurred and unclear. But back then, people who do not live in Beijing their Mandarin accent is not accurately. They would mix their hometown local accent with the standard Mandarin accent.

After listening this song couple times. As a Shanghainese, it sounds like "我...在怀念你" (I'm missing you) to me.Some comments under 网易云 also mentioned this. In the song, "我" sounds like "吾", which is close to its Shanghainese pronunciation; and "怀念" also sounds close to Shanghainese. So it's a Shanghainese lady speaking Mandarin. However, I cannot give you a 100% sure answer.


What does 高举旗帜 mean? In the latest document of the 19th National Congress of CPC, 高举。。。旗帜 was translated as “hold high the banner of...", and the translated work was said to have been revised and finalized by experts who are native speakers of English.

But a banner is something one put on words to show their emotion and request, which is not the 旗帜 usually used by Chinese and if you watch mangas illustrating Romance of Three Kingdoms or other related warring topics in ancient China, you know that the family name of the head of the force in fight is marked on a flag （帅旗）, which is not a banner at all.

I think a little more context is necessary to answer this question.

  The theme of the Congress is: Remain true to our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind, hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics ... and work tirelessly to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

Ah. So it's not a literal flag we are talking about here, but rather a symbol of socialism.

If we take a look at definition 1.2 of the word "banner" given by OED, we will see that it means:

  Used in reference to support for a belief or principle.
  ‘the government is flying the free trade banner’

Using this definition, the term banner definitely seems appropriate in this context.

"But isn't there already a flag for socialism? Why complicate things by calling it a banner?

As others have pointed out, the phrase “高举 ～ 旗帜” can't be taken literally here. Xi is not asking everyone to physically wave a red flag around, but rather to carry high and proud a representation of one's beliefs. If we pull out the prescriptivist bible OED again, we can see that the english word "flag" is less commonly used to represent an ideology, but rather a physical landmass or position marker.

This isn't to say that the word "flag" doesn't make sense in this context. Sure, most people would understand the metaphor anyway. However, since the word "banner" has stronger connections to "symbol for one's beliefs/ideologies" than the word "flag", I believe that the word choice they have made is more suitable in a pragmatic, if not literal sense.


Function of 开了 in 我开车开了半天了 I am currently studying Basic Mandarin Chinese by Cornelius C. Kubler and encountered the following sentence in Unit 8 Part 4:

  我开车开了半天了，我们换个人开，行不行？

Without 开了 the first part of sentence makes sense to me - the person tells that he/she drove car for a long time. However, the function of 开了 is unclear. Does it describe the duration of driving 半天 or the action 开车 itself? Or maybe it is redundant but helps sentence sound more natural? Is there a kind of construction verb+object+verb+了 and if so, what are the other use cases?

Basic SVO form: "我开车" (I drive) = [我(s)+ 开(v) + 车(o)] or [我(s)+开车(v)]
Add description of the duration : [我开(半天)车] = [I drive (half a day)]
Add verb particle '了' to indicate the verb is completed : [我开(了)半天车] = [I (have driven) half a day]
repeat the verb 'drive'  to emphasize it : [(我)(开车)(开)(半天)] = [(I) (drive), (drive) (half a day)]
Add verb particle '了' to indicate the verb is completed: [我开车开(了)半天] = [I drive, (have driven) half a day]
Add particle '了'  at the end to indicate the duration has been completed : [我开车开了半天(了)] = [I drive, have driven half a day (already)]

  Is there a kind of construction verb+object+verb+了 and if so, what are the other use cases?

Yes:

The following Examples' structure are the same as above

游泳--> 游一小時泳--> 游了一小時泳--> 游泳游了一小時--> 游泳游了一小時了

打工--> 打一天工--> 打了一天工--> 打工打了一天--> 打工打了一天了

吃飯--> 吃飯十分鐘--> 吃了十分鐘飯--> 吃飯吃了十分鐘--> 吃飯吃了十分鐘了


Translation of "想要买什么东西吗？" According to tatoeba translation of "Is there anything you want to buy?" is "想要买什么东西吗？" Is there use of 什么 and 吗 in one sentence? If there is not how can I translate"Is there anything you want to buy?" better?

http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/search?query=%E6%83%B3%E8%A6%81%E4%B9%B0%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E4%B8%9C%E8%A5%BF%E5%90%97%EF%BC%9F&from=und&to=und

The 吗 is a modal to make the question more polite. Its also grammatically correct to say just 你要买什么? which directly translates as What do you want to buy? But it is a bit brusque.


Difference between 尊敬 and 尊重 So, I know that chinese has (at least) two common words for "Respect" - 尊敬 and 尊重 . Is there a clear way to divide the two ?

What if I wanted to say
"Respect a teacher"
or "Respect the law"

尊重 means respect; show due regard.

尊敬 means 尊重和敬仰 - respect and admire and is focusing on the 'admire' part.

In Chinese culture, people should 尊重 peers and younger generations; 尊敬 teachers and elder people.

As for the law, the most common word is 遵守 which means to observe; to obey; to follow (rules). You can also say 尊重 and there's the classical difference of 'respect vs. obedience'.


How to express sarcasm? As far as I know sarcasm is not commonly used in Chinese.

In English and many other languages, sarcasm is a matter of pragmatics and usually expressed by applying different intonation or stressing specific words. Sometimes intonation change is not even required and sarcasm is implied simply from the meaning.

How does that work in Chinese? I tried to think of different cases when you would use sarcasm. For example:

That movie was so interesting.  [but it actually wasn't]
I ordered a USB cable on Taobao and got nail polish as a gift.
That makes sense. [it really doesn't make any sense]
Yeah, right, I really wanna eat that slimy pasta from 4 days ago (here "Yeah, right" also takes part). [i don't want to eat old pasta]

Any idea how one would express those three examples in Chinese? Can intonation take part in Chinese as well? Are there certain words or some grammar particles that help to convey the subtext of sarcasm?

Thank you for your thoughts.

Intonation works, but particles and certain rhetorical phrases can also reveal mood:

哎，那部电影岂能没有意思呢。

果然 is often used sarcastically, to indicate an unexpected outcome:

在淘宝上订购了一条USB电缆，果然收到了指甲油为礼物。

Often the context is self-evident, just like in other languages:

对啦，真真想吃下那四天前做的谄媚的面条。


Difference between 新式 and 新型 I looked up a dictionary and

新式 and 新型 are all translated as "new type".

but when I look up a Chinese-to-Chinese dictionary it said that 新式 is 新的样式 and 新型 is 新的类型. and both seem to be different but I didn't quite get their nuances.

Anyone who can explain the difference well?

I believe they are almost interchangeable.

  新型建筑 新式建筑

  新型计算机 新式计算机

  新型设计 新式设计

  新型武器 新式武器

  新型手机 新式手机

A little concern is that 新型 is primarily for things that does have a 型/型号.

For example， most digital devices and most industrial products always have 型/型号. So 新型 and 新式 are both good for them.

On the other side, most art-related products have only aesthetic concerns and have no specific 型/型号. 新式 could be better here.

  新式服装 新型服装？

  新式婚礼 新型婚礼？

  新式歌曲 新型歌曲？

  新式糕点 新型糕点？

  新式化妆 新型化妆？

Still, I re-point out that, to a native speaker like me, they are almost the same and interchangeable.


What does this '这样真的容易累成胖子' means? 这样真的容易累成胖子

"Getting easily tired like this is (making me) turn fat?"

I don't really know how to understand this sentence, please help me. Thanks.

这样真的容易累成胖子

Getting tired like this (making me) turn fat easily.

这样真的容易... > ... like this really easily ...

累成胖子  > Getting tired makes fat.

verb + 成 + noun >  doing something (verb) then produces the result (noun)

BTW: What sort of tired thing making people fat other than thin?


Difference between 新 and 生? Until now, I thought 新 meant 'new' in all contexts. In class recently, our tutor showed a slide in which he used 生词 for 'new words'. My dictionary gives the meaning of 生 when used as an adjective as 'raw, uncooked, unripe'. Is there some other subtle meaning of 生 when used in this context to distinguish it from 新 - when would I choose one over the over?

I am a Chinese.

新 means new and 生 means unfamiliar.

In your daily study, a word you first see could be either 新词 (new word) or 生词 (unfamiliar word) to you.

However, in public articles, 新词 usually stand for newly made word (ABSOLUTELY NEW TO EVERYONE), and 生词 stand for unfamiliar word (RELATIVELY NEW TO SOMEONE).

Hope this helps.


Determine radicals for simplifed characters that lost their traditional form completely Having read this question: How can one determine the radical for a given character?,
it gave me another question.
Since many simplified characters lost their original form (compared to traditional ones), how do I actually look up their radicals? A classical example would be "leaf". In traditional form, it's 葉 whereas it's 叶 in simplified form. The traditional form preserved the 艹 (艸) radical (which means grass), but simplified form does not have it at all. Just by looking at 叶, you'd think it has 口 as radical, but 口 (mouth) has nothing to do with leaf...
If anyone can think of examples similar to this, please share.

The radical of many simplified characters has nothing to do with the character itself; the only reason for this is just to simplify characters. I have some examples (found on the web):

  1) Without the heart, how can one love

  2) Looking back at the hometown, the man has already left

  3) No morals, because it is none of my business

  4) The leader has lost his/her path

  5) Unable to see each other, how can the two be close(intimate)?


What does 且 mean by itself? I was watching Blur's new music video, which includes a recipe for ice cream with instructions in Chinese.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp1ks7PTzng)  At 3:03, the recipe says '将奶黄放入一个大，浅且可置于冷冻库的容器'.  I don't really understand how to translate this part.

Also, how would you translate ‘即可离火'?  This is in the recipe at 2:59.  Does it mean something like 'immediately take away from the heat?'

Many thanks.

将奶黄放入一个大，浅且可置于冷冻库的容器 means 'put the custard into a huge, shallow container (and) which can be put into a freezer'.

So here 且 means and(而且).

Another useage 且 means 'just', such as 且行且珍惜(just cherish what you have at the moment) here 且 means just.

即可(离火) means you can do something when something happen as soon as possbile.

Such as:
1. 当油热了，即可离火 (When the oil is hot, you can turn off fire right now[She suggest you do it right now]).
2. 开袋即食 (Open the bag, you can eat it)

即 has a meaning of you can do something with a hint do it now(as soon as possible).


What's the difference between 囚犯, 囚徒, 犯人 and 囚 and how does it affect a sentence? I was searching online and I found out that there are several meanings for the word "prisoner" and I couldn't find the differences or a reason for it, therefore I'd like some help for this.

囚犯, this word is the ancient Chinese language, and the usage scenario is usually in ancient China. This word is used to refer to those who have been caught and convicted

囚徒, the word is also an ancient Chinese language, used to refer to people who are caught and imprisoned. These people do not necessarily violate the law, but are imprisoned for certain reasons (for example, these people are suspected of committing crimes) If you are caught, you will become a 囚徒 if you are locked up

犯人, this word appears more in modern Chinese language. This term is used to refer to those who have violated the law and have been sentenced by the court to the penalty.

囚 can act as an action to express detention, detention, etc. For example, there is a word in Chinese that is "囚禁", which means that detention is held.
囚 can also be used as nouns to refer to places such as prisons with detention functions. For example, there is a word "囚牢" in Chinese, which means prison, which is a noun.
In addition, 囚 can also be used as adjectives to indicate a restricted state.


What is the origin of 甩锅 ("to pass the buck")? I've been hearing 甩锅 (shuǎiguō) used to describe how US president Trump often blames others (currently the WHO).  It means "to shift the blame" or "to pass the buck".  I'm interested in its etymology.

Baidu Baike and Baidu Zhidao both say it comes from a 局 (?) in the game League of Legends called 甩锅局.  I don't play this game so I don't really understand.

Question: What is the origin of 甩锅?

甩锅 means throw the pan literally. Before that we have a slang 背锅 / 背黑锅, means take the blame for others / be made a scapegoat; 锅 / 黑锅 connotes blame. Then 甩锅 is used for the meaning of throw one's blame to others, i.e. 推卸责任 (buck-passing).

Also see 背锅的由来.


What is this word (audio) https://youtu.be/i_BYzgl3yEo at 0:46 or at 0:59 a person in background screams out something like "lalatije." What is that word and how its written?

It's 来了，老弟儿！ It sounds like 老爹er in some way(due to the accent of the speaker). It means Here you come, buddy!.


"以来" - Chinese dictionary says noun. "Since" in English dictionary says preposition, conjunction. Distinction? A couple of Chinese dictionaries I used says for 以来, part of speech is 名 (noun).

Since in an English dictionary says preposition first.

Is it incorrect to assume a direct correlation between parts of speech between Chinese and English?

There has been an argument for this topic.

In this article, the author stated that "以来" is a "方位词". Which can be seen in reference 5 and 12, it is also refered to as "动态助词".

"方位词" is a type of noun in Chinese, which represents the location (of space / time).

"动态助词" is a type of Chinese particle, you can read it from the link.

Now let's get back to the disagreement. "以来" is defined as a "方位词" in《现代汉语八百词》by 吕叔湘 while is is again defined as a "动态助词" in《现代汉语虚词词典》by 侯学超.

However, "动态助词" also gets its formal definition in《现代汉语八百词》. So if you ask me, I prefer to believe it is a "方位词", which is noun.

As for the different part of speech of the word "since" appearing in English, I guess it is because that "since" is translated as "自……以来", not just "以来". "自……以来" IS a preposition.


How to type chinese using an English keyboard? I'm trying to learn the Chinese language using ChineseSkill for Android. There are some sections / steps within the lesson that ask me to translate the English sentence to Chinese, but I don't have a Chinese keyboard. When I input something so I can pass the step, it shows the expected answer and there it has shown how I should have typed the sentence in. For example nǚ is typed in with nv3. There is a Pinyin chart within the program but I couldn't figure out how to encode the symbol. I don't want to use websites or online tools because I don't want to leave the program as it also gives score based on time and it keeps running. Is there some sort of table or chart for this?

try to use "Sougou pinyin for Windows(exe)",

for Linux use "Sougou pinyin for 32bit Linux(deb)"

or "Sougou pinyin for 64bit Linux(deb)"

or "Sougou pinyin for Mac OS(dmg)"

or "Sougou pinyin for Android (apk)"


Are chinese historical dramas appropriate for learning Mandarin? Is the language used in Chinese historical dramas usually antiquated/extra formal, and does that make them a bad (or maybe just too advanced) resource for practicing one's Mandarin? (I've just closed off HSK3, for reference.) There are a number of dramas I'd like to watch (mainly "The Untamed / 陈情令" and "Oh My General / 将军在上"), but I'm wondering if they'll get me used to out-dated language and cause me to sound like I'm 500 years old :^)

You can just learn the pronunciation in historical drama.
There are no doubt that the language you learn from historical drama must be out-dated language.Such as “盘缠” means money, but we all use “钱” now.
If you want learn language from TV play, i think you can watch urban drama instead of historical dram.


How many words for I are there in Chinese? I wonder how many words and pronunciations for I exist/existed in Chinese.

I know of these:

我：wǒ， but I believe it is pronounced ngo in Cantonese.

There seems to be an n-root for I in Chinese. I know, in 江苏泰州话， I = n

吾: wú also yù

余：yú

俺：ǎn （孙悟空说的“俺老空”）

Can you contribute any more Is， please?

I would like to share an interesting “I”, 朕.

In modern day (or post-Qin Dynasty) usage, 朕 was a first person pronoun reserved solely for the Emperor to refer to himself in front of all his subjects.

However, before the Qin Dynasty, 朕 was a word used by all commoners to refer to themselves, among the large variety of words which conveyed the same meaning. (予、僕、吾、我）

屈原, who lived in the Warring States period of the Zhou dynasty, wrote a poem called 离骚. The first line says:

  帝高阳之苗裔兮，朕皇考曰伯庸。

“(I am) a descendant of 帝高阳, my (late) father’s name is 伯庸.”


血: xuè , xiě, what's the difference? Is there some sort of logical rule for when 血 is xuè and when it is xiě?

The standard Chinese dictionary (《现代汉语词典》) lists xuè (fourth, not third, tone) as the official pronunciation and xiě as a colloquial variant. As such, in most compounds and technical terms, xuè is preferred. The pronunciation xiě is acceptable when you just want to say "blood" in casual speech.

There are several exceptions: the two modifiers 血糊糊 (xiěhūhū, "covered in blood") and 血淋淋 (xiělínlín, "gushing blood") are never read with the xuè pronunciation. There is also a word "血晕" the meaning of which differs based on which pronunciation of 血 is used.

血晕 (xiěyùn): to bruise
血晕 (xuèyùn): a traditional Chinese medicine term for fainting after childbirth due to loss of blood.

Note that this is only what the dictionary says. I suspect many native speakers make different choices in their own speech.


Difference between 坏 and 破 Looking for some concrete answers on the difference between 坏 and 破

From what I have been able to understand:

坏

bad: as in 坏人 (bad person) or 鱼坏了 (rotten food)
broken: as in 手机坏了 (broken mobile phone,) or 腿坏了 (a broken leg)

破

ripped: as in 这张纸破了 (ripped piece of paper)
worn out: as in 鞋破了 (worn out shoes)
broken: as in 手机破了 (broken mobile phone,) but not a broken leg

My issue is the overlap, unless I'm wrong. It looks to me to be something like a venn diagram (http://maass.nyu.edu/images/venn.jpg) where broken is shared by both words, and there are other meanings that belong only to each word. Is this right?

“坏” is a very general word meaning something "useless", but what makes the thing "坏了" has many reasons, and “破了” is one of them, so when something's state is “破了”, you can also say something is “坏了”；However “破” means something is broken or has cracks. So when you describe something that is useless because of inner reasons such as quality, but it still looks nice in its aspect, “破了” is no longer used.

Try to compare the two sentences：

1）这热水袋破了（The warm-water bag is broken, maybe is of cracks by falling down onto the ground）.

2）这热水袋坏了（The phone is useless, maybe it doesn't keep warm anymore but NOT of cracks）.


How can I get a Mandarin teacher while living in a small town without Chinese schools/institutions? I've been learning Chinese for 2 months and I'm finding it too hard to learn by myself. So as I asked in the title, I'd like to get a tutor so that I can learn basic grammar and practice conversations. I hope someone can give advice! Thank you in advance.

There are a few options:

Finding an online tandem partner who speaks Chinese and is interested in learning a language that you can teach (your native language or another language in which you have a near-native proficiency). Mosalingua lists a few sites where you can find a tandem partner; there are several other ones, e.g. Polyglot club. See also How I found Chinese speaking friends online on ChineseForums.com.
Finding a paid tutor or teacher. The classifieds section on ChineseForums.com might be helpful here. Some of the sites that help you connect with tandem partners can also help you find paid tutors or teachers. The actual teaching may work through Skype lessons or through video conferencing functionality built into the site.


Does anyone recognize the characters written on this home shrine? So far I can read most of the characters on this picture, except 1 character.

The characters on the center is: 忠義 (zhong1yi4 - Tiong-gī), which
means: Loyalty and is related to the story of the three
brothers. (Thanks to Question Overflow)
The characters on the left is: 千秋羕 [x] 振乾坤.
The characters on the right is: 萬古桃園喜永存.

Does anyone can read the character mark as [x] on the left side? I tried to google like "萬古桃園喜永存", or "萬古桃園喜永存, 千秋羕 ..", but found nothing. Many thanks.

This is what I got: 万古XXX永存，千秋XX振乾坤。 A picture with higher resolution would be helpful for a complete answer.


Meaning of “帶看病做工!她的一家人還是餓看！“? Stumped on this intertitle for a silent movie. When a woman faints, two men come to her aid. The first one says to the second:

“帶看病做工!她的一家人還是餓看！“

I can't parse the parts into a coherent whole:

帶看病: "Bring see doctor" - is that a request for a doctor, or an explanation that she was on her way to see the doctor?

做工: "do work" - who works, doctor or woman? Or is she working to earn money to see doctor?

她的一家人: "Her entire family"

還是餓看: Don't get this at all, particularly 餓看. "prefer to go hungry than see a doctor", maybe? Or "still are hungry"?

Any ideas??

"看" in “帶看病做工!她的一家人還是餓看！“ is obviously a typo of "着"

  “帶着病做工, 她的一家人還是餓着“ would make all the sense

帶着病做工 = working with illness (working while she is sick)

還是餓着 = is still in hunger (餓= hungry; 餓着 = in a continuous state of hungry)


Generic word for a building In English, we have the generic word 'building': as in "That building across from the book store". Here the speaker does not know or does not care to state the kind of building it is.

Is there an equivalent generic noun in Taiwan Mandarin? I feel that people will say something like: "書店對面的那一棟/家/間".

Dictionary gives 建筑, but this seems uncommon to me.

In terms of meaning, 建筑 is the sweeping term for all kinds of buildings. But its tone is too formal or technical for daily usage.

In daily usage you could just use the counter word and omit the actual noun like your example in 那一棟/家/間. Or you can use 楼 for buildings more than one story of 房子 for one story buildings. But like I said those are as sweeping as you could get in Chinese if you insist using a noun here.


这 vs 这里, 我家 vs 我的家 to translate ”this is my home"? I am going through some flashcards and was asked to translate "This is my home" into Mandarin. I proposed "这里是我的家" but the answer was "这是我家". Is there anything incorrect about my translation? Namely is "这里" ok instead of "这" and is "我的家" ok instead of "我家"?

这里 (here) refers to the 'location of the home' (an address, a place)
这 (this) refers to the 'physical home' (a house, a cardboard box) 这 can also be short for 这里 (here) in this context

As for 我家 vs. 我的家, you can see my answer to this question: Why no 的 in this sentence?

  The possessive '的' after a subject is usually kept, if it is a 'true possessive'(something you actually own) For example: The possessive 的 in 我的車 cannot be omitted and make it "我車"

  On the other hand, if the '的' is a 'relative possessive'(something you don't actually own) can be omitted. For example: you can omit the '的' in '我的母亲' and write 我母亲.

  More example:

  The possessive 的 in 这是我的太太; 他是我的女儿; 你的国家; 你的公司 can be omitted. You can write 这是我太太; 他是我女儿; 你国家; 你公司 (if you actually own the country or the company, then the possessive 的 should be kept)

  我(的)妈妈的房子很高。 can be reduced to: 我妈妈的房子很高。

  我(的)牛(的)角很长。 cannot be reduced to: 我牛的角很长。 or 我的牛角很长。

  (you possess the cow and the cow possesses the horns, neither can be omitted.)

Basically your answer used "这里" (here) instead of  "这" (this) is not a literal translation of the English sentence "This is my home".

我家 can mean either "you live there and own the place" or "you live there but do not own the place (you could have rented it)
我的家 implies "you live there and own the place" or "you live there and you belongs to the family that own the place. In This case "我的家" implies "我(们)的家"

"这里是我的家" is not a wrong translation for "this is my home" if you are referring to a place you or your family owns but it can still be reduced to "这是我家"


problem with 要 - it seems to have several meanings 一看见这些楼房，他心里就想，自己一定要买上一套房子。

This is the sentence that I've come across.  I've translated it as:

Once he sees these houses, he thinks that he can definitely buy a house himself.

But I'm always confused by 要.  I seems to have several meanings... 'to want to', 'will' and I suspect, in different contexts it has some grammatical meaning.

In this context it seems to mean 'will', though I'd always learnt 要 as meaning 'want to'.

Any guidelines here?

I would translate 一定要 as "must":

Seeing those houses, he thought, "I must buy myself a house!"

要 indeed has several meanings. I'm not sure I'd call that a "problem", but it can be challenging for a learner. I think the most basic meanings are "want", "must", and occasionally "will". Just my 2 cents.


What does 我看 do in the sentence 我看我吃不了这么大一条鱼? A jukuu.com example sentence for 我吃不了 is:

  我看我吃不了这么大一条鱼。
   I don't think I can manage a huge fish like that.
  (wǒ kàn wǒ chībuliǎo zhèmedà yītiáoyú)

It makes sense to me to say 我吃不了这么大一条鱼 (which I translate to "I can't finish this big of a fish") without the initial 我看 (wǒkàn).  Judging from the translation, 我看 means "I think" in this context, but then I would expect 我想 (wǒxiǎng) or 我觉得, as 我看 ordinarily means "I see..." （e.g. 我看一下).

[NB. The English is non-literal, with "manage" instead of "eat".]

Question： What does 我看 do in the sentence 我看我吃不了这么大一条鱼?

From Collins, you can find this:

  (= 认为) think (pt, pp thought)
  ⇒ 看成 (kànchéng) consider
  ⇒ 你看这事儿怎么办？ (Nǐ kàn zhèshìr zěnme bàn?) What do you think we should do about this?

The structure of the second example is the same as your sentence.

It is a common usage of "看". But perhaps only used after "我", "你", "你们", "您". But not after "他", a name, a noun, etc.

Edit:
The comment reminds that when used in "怎么看", it can be used with "他" or others, like in "这事他怎么看" (How does he think of this)


difference between 人缘儿 and 谈得来 What is the difference between these two words, or are they the same?
人缘儿 and 谈得来
Am I supposed to use them at different times?

I would say '有人緣' is used to describe a person, like '他很有人緣' means 'he always gets along well with others'.
'談得來 'is used to describe a relationship, usually used when 'two people' are getting along well, like '我和他很談得來'.
But you could still use '他和大家都很談得來' 'he gets along well with everybody'.


What is the correct meaning of "孩子帶財"? Many people interpret the Chinese proverb, 孩子帶財 as that children can bring the wealth to the family and improve the family economy. Therefore, many people do not agree with it. Because, the economy might not get better, and the parents still have to spend a lot of money for children. As a result, it is deemed as only an excuse to persuade people to have children.

However, there is a Chinese saying, 兒孫自有兒孫福 (the descendants have their own fortune). It shows not only that children have their own fortune, but also the correctness of 孩子帶財.

If 孩子帶財 is not a phrase to persuade people to have children, people must have some reasons to say it. What are the reasons? How to interpret it in detail and then its correctness? Is it possible to explain it from the viewpoint of "cause and effect"?

許多人將「孩子帶財」這句俗語解釋為：「孩子能帶來財富，使家中經濟變好。」所以，很多人不同意這句話。因為，經濟狀況可能沒有變好，還要為孩子花很多錢。也因此，這句話就被當成是「勸人生子」的話而已。

但是，中國有一句古語：「兒孫自有兒孫福」。這句說明了古人即認為孩子有他們的福，也證明了「孩子帶財」是對的。

如果「孩子帶財」不是用來勸人生子，那此語的流傳必有其因。此因為何？要如何詳細解釋，並證明它的正確性？能用「因果」來解釋嗎？

種瓜得瓜，種豆得豆。
As one sows, so shall one reap.

依據佛法，我們前世都修了一些福，今生才能投胎做人。這些善行的果報會在一生當中不同的時段出現。年輕時期出現的這部分是要用來成長和受教育的。

On the basis of Buddhism, all of us have done some good deeds in our past lives so that we can be human beings in this life. The effects of these good deeds will show up in different periods during the lifetime. The part shown in youth is used for growth and education.

除了少數的特例以外，父母都會將孩子教養長大。這些教養的費用大多是孩子帶來的財。也就是說，父母為孩子花的錢大多是孩子帶來的財。這些是孩子前世行善的果報。

Besides a few exceptions, the parents will raise and educate the children. The upbringing expenses are mostly the wealth brought by the children. In other words, the money that parents spend for their children is mostly the wealth brought by the children. These are the children's fruits of karma due to their good deeds in the past lives.


How did 索性 get translated as "you might as well (do it)" I'm curious as to how 索性 came to be translated as "you might as well (do it)"

索性: 直截了当,干脆
索性：任性

索 apparently has English meanings of: large rope, cable; rules, laws; to demand, to exact; to search, inquire; isolated
:) You could translate 索性 as 'rope nature' :)
Which meaning of 索 is involved in 索性？
"might as well" is a subjunctive statement.
Is "might as well" an over-translation?
Where does 索性 come from?
Is 索性 actually a short version of something longer?

Here’s a highly unsatisfying answer.
《汉语大辞典》has a definition of 索 that defines it as:

索性；干脆。

And they give the example:

《警世通言·庄子休鼓盆成大道》
早知死後無情義, 索把生前恩愛勾。

《现代汉语大词典》also has an entry on 索 that defines it as:

干脆。如：索性；索兴。

Outlier gives the following meaning tree which maps out the development of word meanings and it seems to show that this meaning was originally of a different tone:

MEANINGS
Character meanings
suǒ
1 (orig.) two hands holding a rope made of plant stalks and leaves
2 → rope
3 ⇒ to search, follow a line
4  to ask, demand
suó
1 ⇒ strip, line
2  simply

It would seem that suó was later merged into suǒ.


Pronunciation of 和 in Taiwan This is something that I noticed in Taiwanese Mandarin TV series and films. It seems that they pronounce this character as hàn instead of the commonly accepted hé.

For example, 我和你 is pronounced wǒ hàn nǐ.

Normally you'd expect accent differences, but this seems to be way off.

Where did this pronunciation come from? Could it have been influenced by Taiwanese Hakka?

As recorded in Baidu, this unique pronunciation of “和” as "hàn" actually originates from the Old Beijing dialect. Extracted from the blog article titled 台湾人为嘛把“和”读作hàn?, it says the following:

  1945年10月台湾光复，日语的“国语”黯然退出，台胞急着要回复祖国的语文，要说国语，要认汉字。
  1946年4月2日台湾省国语推行委员会正式成立。台湾国语会的标志性贡献是编订《国音标准汇编》，作为推行标准国语的根据。1946年5月1日起，由“老北京”齐铁根先生每日在清晨7时，在电台担任“国语读音示范”，播讲民众国语读本、国语会话，国民学校国语、常识、历史、各种课本，供学国语的人收听，匡正语音。当时的学校教师现听现学现教，使广大的学生也能及时学到国语，学习标准的国音。这位齐铁根当时成了家喻户晓的大师级人物，直到现在上年纪的台湾人还能回忆起齐先生娓娓动听的“京片子”，连词“和”读hàn（“汗”）就此在台湾深入人心。

In short, a Mandarin Promotion Council was formally established in Taiwan after the end of WWII to restore the literacy level of the Chinese Language. Mr Ji, an old-timer from Beijing, was enlisted to do a daily national broadcast to demonstrate the standard pronunciation of Mandarin through a series of dialogue and reading sessions. The teachers learned as they listened and help spread their knowledge to the students. Mr Ji was widely regarded as a Mandarin guru at that time and he is still a familiar household name for many of the older Taiwanese today.


Difference between 是不是喝酒了? and 喝酒了没有？ What is the difference between
是不是吃了蛋糕？  and 吃蛋糕了没有？

or

是不是喝酒了?  and   喝酒了没有？

The first expression is usually used when the speaker has a feeling that the other person had done something, so he's making a guess, while the second could be either a simple question or suggestion.

In the first case,

  你是不是吃蛋糕了？

can be used when the speaker noticed a cream stain on the other person's shirt or something like that. The speaker is guessing if the other person has had a cake.

  你吃蛋糕了没有？

can be used when the speaker wants to suggest the other person to have a nice piece of cake or simply query whether he has had cake.


What are the characters in the image? I need to find the actual text characters in this image.

I tried an online OCR and this is what I got.

万正嬴体简体

万正赢体简体

万正搔体简体

万正粗们简体

MS P二儡彭、y′又

These are font names

方正康体简体 (Standard kang Simplified)

方正粗倩简体 (Standard Bold Qian Simplified)

ＭＳ Ｐゴシック (MS P Gothic)


What does the word pronounced as "ma" in cantonese chinese mean in English? What does the word pronounced as "ma" in Cantonese Chinese mean in English?  I understand that this syllable has five different meanings according to how it is inflected.  What are the five different meanings of this syllable?

Since ma in Jyutping isn't a valid syllable according to Cantonese phonotactics, I assume you mean Jyutping maa.

Modern Hong Kong Cantonese has six tones, of which five are indeed valid contours for the syllable maa. I'll use the Jyutping tone numbers below, giving an example word for each.

First tone (high level): maa1 媽 (mother), 孖 (twin)
Second tone: not possible
Third tone (mid level): maa3 嗎 (question particle)
Fourth tone (low falling): maa4 麻 (hemp)
Fifth tone (low rising): maa5 馬 (horse)
Sixth tone (low level): maa6 罵 (scold, abuse)


What does 让 mean in 我不但能够让外国人坐我的车，还能够让他包我的车? In the following sentence:

  我不但能够让外国人坐我的车，还能够让他包我的车。

This is from a Chinese reader.  The voice is of a Chinese taxi-driver.

The problem is the translation of 让...

He's talking about going to hotels and getting customers.

Does 让 here mean, I can get them to take a ride in my taxi and also I can get them to hire my taxi (as in for several hours).

Or does it mean 'offer' as that seems to be one of the meanings of 让 given in the dictionary.

Does 让 here mean, I can get them to take a ride in my taxi and also I
  can get them to hire my taxi (as in for several hours).

Yes, you are right. In this case, the taxi driver is boasting his ability to persuade foreigners to ride in his cab and to even hire it for exclusive use over a period of time.

According to 汉典, 让(ràng  ㄖㄤˋ) has the following meanings

　1. 不争，尽（jǐn）着旁人：～步。～位。谦～。 (yield, give up)

　2. 请：～茶。 (offer)

　3. 许，使：不～他来。 (make, get)

　4. 任凭：～他闹去。 (let, allow)

　5. 被：～雨淋了。 (indicates passive voice)

　6. 索取一定代价，把东西给人：出～。转（zhuǎn ）～。(trade)

　7. 闪避：～开。当仁不～。 (excuse)

　8. 责备，谴责：“二世使人～章邯”。

　9. 古同“攘”，侵夺。

From the context given, the taxi driver is certainly not boasting about offering a free ride to foreigners but his glib of tongue in getting (使, the third meaning) them to hire his service.


The question is regarding 成语－挟怨报复 I have a question:

成语－挟怨报复－可以用在下面情形吗？

  有一位前辈的报告写错了。
  我善意指正他。
  后来，我的报告他故意找问题。

下面这些可以吗？
一朝权在手 便把令来行
心胸狭窄 倚势挟权
倚老卖老
窃弄威权

哪一个最好？

“挾怨報復”：心懷怨恨而報仇（bear resentment against somebody and retaliate）。
這的確是很常用的詞語，但大部分詞典只有相同意思的“挾嫌報復”。
This is indeed a very common word. But most of the dictionaries list only "挾嫌報復" which has the same meaning.

如果前輩很喜歡“雞蛋裡挑骨頭”或刻意曲解你的報告，是可以用此詞。
If the predecessor is very picky or deliberately twists your reports, you do be able to use this term.

“一朝權在手，便把令來行”：一旦握有權勢，便下命令。(Once the ascendancy is held, the commands are given.)
這和你敘述的情形只有一點相關，就是：他因為是前輩，所以比較有權勢。
但這句不含“故意找麻煩（報仇）”的意思。
“便把令來行”不一定和報仇有關。
There is only one point related to the situation; i.e., because of being a senior, he is more powerful.
But this sentence doesn't mean "deliberately looking for trouble (revenge)".
"便把令來行" is not necessarily related to revenge.

“心胸狹窄，倚勢挾權”：此二詞連在一起是指“度量小的人濫用權勢”。
這和你敘述的情形有兩點相關：
其一，你指正他，但他不能包容，是和“心胸狹窄”有關。
其二，他用前輩的權勢。
這句有一點“報仇”的意思，但不太明顯。
"心胸狹窄，倚勢挾權": These two phrases together mean that "a narrow-minded person abuses the privilege".
There are two aspects related to the case.
1. You corrected his reports, but he couldn't tolerate. It's connected with "心胸狹窄".
2. He takes advantage of the power of a predecessor.
This sentence implies "revenge" a little, but less obvious.

“倚老賣老”：賣弄老資格 (to flaunt one's seniority)。
這和你敘述的情形只有一點相關，就是：他是前輩。
This is relevant only to that "he is a predecessor".

“竊弄威權”：暗地裡玩弄權勢 (to abuse authority secretly)。
這和你敘述的情形只有一點相關，就是：他用前輩的權勢。
This is related to that "he uses the power of a predecessor".

比較這幾個詞語，還是“挾怨報復／挾嫌報復”較適用。
Comparison of these words, "挾怨報復／挾嫌報復" is still more applicable.
Good choice!


What's the difference between 都 and 对? I've seen these two sentences on Duolingo:

我们都是老师。 (We are all teachers.)
他们对不是美国人。 (None of them are American.) (Not sure if this was exactly the one that I was supposed to translate...)

But the second one can also be written as

他们都不是美国人。

So what's the difference between 都 and 对?

I've been learning Chinese for 12 years and I don't think I've seen 对 used in that way before. However, the「对不是」 could be a typo of 「绝对不是」 "certainly not". So, maybe it could be this:

  我们都不是美国人。
  None of us are American.

  我们绝对不是美国人。
  We're definitely not American.

Hope that helps.


Curious about different ways of swearing in Mandarin I'm not sure if this is considered an appropriate conversation or question but I've had conversations with Cantonese speakers before who've mentioned that it's so easy to swear in Cantonese, but there aren't a lot of ways to do that in Mandarin. I was wondering if anyone knew of any resources I could use on different ways of swearing in Mandarin?

but there aren't a lot of ways to do that in Mandarin.

That is simply not true. I bet one can write a novel barely with swearing words in Chinese mandarin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese_profanity

Please don't use those words，very disgusting. but if you meet those words， you may want to know it， so it is not bad to check it out.

Those are in different levels, some of them are common words that could be used without any negative meanings.


How to express "the" in Chinese I'm trying to convey the sentence "我不会好好发音四个声调" But that more directly translates as "I cannot pronounce four tones well" which is a bit ambiguous... that begs the question, which four tones? I'm sure anyone I say this to would understand but it doesn't sit well with me. In English it is easy, I'd say "I cannot pronounce the four tones well" which implies the existence of exactly 4 tones, all of which I have trouble pronouncing. So far I have not seen a Chinese equivalent?

The definite article has no equivalence in Chinese. Its functions, however, can be found in Chinese.

Something previously mentioned or known

Compare:

He is a murderer. 他是个杀人犯。(杀人犯 is a murderer, a man that has commited murder. 个 is like the indefinite article.)

He is the murderer.

By using nouns inherently specific.

他就是凶手。(凶手 is the murderer , it cannot be used without context.
他是个凶手(incorrect))

By using demonstratives: 这/那/这些/那些/此/彼

他就是这个杀人犯。

Something unique or identified by the speaker, terminologies.

I cannot pronounce the four tones well.

我发不好四声。(平上去入(tradition)/阴阳上去(modern mandarin), as a whole isn't referred as 四个声调)

Particularly, these sets of similar things are usually referred without measure words.

四书/十三经/六艺/五行/四君子/十八罗汉/一百零八星宿......

Unique things, such as the sun, the moon... are referred exactly its name (Actually the definite article is unnecessary semantically)

As for "I want to go to a/the park", it's not hard to appreciate that 我想去公园。 already fully conveys the two possible interpretation, depending on the listener.


How to parse "就算世界与我为敌"? I'm looking at the phrase: "就算世界与我为敌"
and I understand that the gist of it is: "Even against the whole world"

But, I don't fully understand how to properly parse it. In particular, the words:

与 - and / with

为 - as / because of / for

I'm not sure how they're being used here.

与 here serves as a noun conjunction (you could replace it with 和), and links 世界 and 我 forming a composite subject. Its proper translation however depends on the verb that follows, which is 为.
为 oftentimes can be rendered just as "to be". It is after all a copular verb, especially in this sentence, therefore：

就算 / (世界 / 与 / 我) / (为 / 敌)

Even if it's me against the world

However, you should also consider that 与 can work as a preposition, thus it relates to the following 我 more strongly than "pure" conjunctions, so it's also acceptable to parse it as:
世界 / 与我
For this reason I would tend to give more prominence to 世界 semantically, therefore I think the best translation is:

Even if the world's against me


蘇 (Su) surname Generation Poem My name is John Su. I am came from an Indonesian speaking family, not a Chinese a speaking one. I need to know of an English or Malay or at least a mixed language website that tell exactly the Generation-Poem of the Su surname? Thank-you in advance for your kind help.

Generation poems are specific to a particular male line of a family, rather than everyone sharing a surname.  Unless one of your ancestors along the male line decided to choose a generation poem, you won't have one - but that is quite normal!

More information in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_name#Generation_poem


The tricky prepositions. . . "in my garden" I think prepositions are tricky in every language. The other day I was trying to figure out how to write correctly : In my garden there are many fruit-trees. The first sentence I thought of was:

在我花园里有很多果树

But I felt there was something wrong. So I put up some other alternatives:

我花园上有很多果树
Or maybe better to cancel "wo", although the meaning is changing a little.
花园里有很多果树

花园中有很多果树
在花园中。 。 。

Or should I use 上？
在我花园上有很多果树

Would it be better to cancel the "you"
Or even change it with "zhan"

花园里站很多果树？

So - a simple sentence turned into a riddle. I will appreciate suggestions and explanations why I should use whatever sentence you suggest is better.

在我花园里有很多果树 is the most accurate.

上 means on, on top of. If you use 上 people will think your garden has a roof, and those fruit trees are planted on the roof.

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/256231.htm

站 invokes the image of standing on one's feet in a stiff, rigid, upright manner. unless you want to emphasize the upright, honest and steadfast manner of some pine or poplar trees, most garden trees are everything but stiff.

Source : http://baike.baidu.com/view/259393.htm


How did 马马虎虎 come to mean so-so? Why does the above phrase (马马虎虎- lit. Horse horse tiger tiger） mean so-so or moderate?

Curious as to how animals can represent expressions

From  https://zh.wiktionary.org/zh-hant/%E9%A6%AC%E8%99%8E

  詞源
  出自滿語 lalahuhu。
      《滿語雜識》並無此詞，但愛新覺羅‧瀛生在《滿語和漢語中的互相影響》一文曾提及有 lahu 一詞，滿語本義為「打獵沒本領」，北京等地方言謂「行事不利」、「抓不緊」為 lahu。lahu 在北京話就是「喇忽」（而不是「馬虎」），「喇忽」是粗心、疏忽、漫不經心的意思。同樣，王惠樵的《河東方言語詞輯考》中亦謂「河東俗謂人凡事不經意，大大列列為『喇忽』」，而其疊詞亦可引申為對什麼都不在意，如老舍《全家福》第一幕：「林三嫂三十好幾了，還像個孩子，喇喇忽忽的。」，胡零《識時務者》：「沒什麼，因為我這個人喇喇忽忽的，有很多不好的地方」。後轉為「馬馬虎虎」

「馬馬虎虎」is sound-alike version of「喇喇忽忽」

It originated from 「喇忽」/「喇喇忽忽」in Beijing area dialect that meant  "careless; negligent; casual"

Eventually the reading of 「喇忽」/「喇喇忽忽」 evolved into「馬虎」/ 「馬馬虎虎」(easier to read and remember perhaps?)

The Manchu language expression 'lahu / lala huhu' which means "no skill in hunting"  was imported from this Beijing dialect phrase.

The Cantonese term 麻麻地 /maa4 maa4*2 dei6*2/ (so-so; not too good, not too bad) was in term, evolved from 馬馬虎虎