How does "migrating birds have lost the south" fit into this song? Some time ago, I bumped into this song called 有一种爱叫做放手. Full lyrics with translation below. Any comments are welcome. What I was wondering is: at a certain point near the start, after an if-clause and a question, we have the line:

  候鸟失去了南方 | Migrating birds have lost the south.

All I can tell about this sentence is that it means these migrating birds can no longer find their way on their migrations. How is this linked to the rest of the song? I mean, it starts off talking about how the girl has grown tired of the affair with the singer, then it goes on talking about that, and saying they should split up, and in the middle, this bird line. Sounds totally disconnected from the rest of the song to me… is it really? Also, should I interpret it as a question despite the absence of the interrogative particle 吗?

如果两个人的天堂 | If the heaven of us two
像是温馨的墙 | Like a warm wall
囚禁你的梦想 | Is imprisoning your dreams,
幸福是否像是一扇铁窗 | Has happiness become like a barred window (i.e. a prison)?
候鸟失去了南方 | The migrating birds have lost the south.

如果你对天空向往 | If you long for the sky,
渴望一双翅膀 | Crave for a pair of wings
放手让你飞翔 | And splitting up would make you fly,
你的羽翼不该伴随玫瑰 | Your wings should not, like roses
听从凋谢的时光 | Follow a time of withering.

浪漫如果变成了牵绊 | If [our] romance has become a yoke,
我愿为你选择回到孤单 | I will choose to go back to solitude for you.
缠绵如果变成了锁链 | If your bond has become a chain,
抛开诺言 | [I will choose to] break my promise.

有一种爱叫做放手 | A kind of love is called splitting up,
为爱放弃天长地久 | Leaving eternity for love.
我们相守若让你付出所有 | If our protecting each other makes you lose everything,
让真爱带我走 | Let true love take me away.
有一种爱叫做放手 | A kind of love is called splitting up,
为爱结束天长地久 | Ending eternity for love.
我的离去若让你拥有所有 | If my leaving makes you have everything,
让真爱带我走 说分手 | Let true love take me away    [and make me] say we split up.

如果两个人的天堂 | If the heaven of us two
像是温馨的墙 | Like a warm wall
囚禁你的梦想 | Is imprisoning your dreams,
幸福是否像是一扇铁窗 | Has happiness become like a barred window (i.e. a prison)?
候鸟失去了南方 | The migrating birds have lost the south.

如果你对天空向往 | If you long for the sky,
渴望一双翅膀 | Crave for a pair of wings
放手让你飞翔 | And splitting up would make you fly,
你的羽翼不该伴随玫瑰 | Your wings should not, like roses
听从凋谢的时光 | Follow a time of withering.

浪漫如果变成了牵绊 | If [our] romance has become a yoke,
我愿为你选择回到孤单 | I will choose to go back to solitude for you.
缠绵如果变成了锁链 | If your bond has become a chain,
抛开诺言 | [I will choose to] break my promise.

有一种爱叫做放手 | A kind of love is called splitting up,
为爱放弃天长地久 | Leaving eternity for love.
我们相守若让你付出所有 | If our protecting each other makes you lose everything,
让真爱带我走 | Let true love take me away.
有一种爱叫做放手 | A kind of love is called splitting up,
为爱结束天长地久 | Ending eternity for love.
我的离去若让你拥有所有 | If my leaving makes you have everything,
让真爱带我走 | Let true love take me away.

为了你失去你 | Losing you for you,
狠心扮演伤害你 | Heartlessly pretending to hurt you.
为了你离开你 | Leaving you for you,
永远不分的离去 | A breakup that we will never undo.

有一种爱叫做放手 | A kind of love is called splitting up,
为爱放弃天长地久 | Leaving eternity for love.
我们相守若让你付出所有 | If our protecting each other makes you lose everything,
让真爱带我走 | Let true love take me away.
有一种爱叫做放手 | A kind of love is called splitting up,
为爱结束天长地久 | Ending eternity for love.
我的离去若让你拥有所有 | If my leaving makes you have everything,
让真爱带我走 说分手 | Let true love take me away    [and make me] say we split up.

Note: the title is 有一种爱叫做放手 | Yôu yī zhông ài jiàozuò fàngshôu | A kind of love is called splitting up.

well as you can see at 如果两个人的天堂, the lyric tell us that there are a couple, 像是温馨的墙  tell us that the man/girl feel that their love like just like a wall, 囚禁你的梦想 imprison the his girlfriend / her boyfriend dream, 幸福是否像是一扇铁窗 then he begin to think, is this happiness has become a barred window that imprison the dream, 候鸟失去了南方 just like group of bird need/want to migrate to south, but they can't.

It's a very interesting metaphore, bird are usually migrate to the south when north become cold, it is something they need to do. In this song the writer illustrate that dream is something that as important as bird need to migrate. But when we has somebody that we love, somehow that love is stronger than the dream that we need to pursue. So the writer say this love just like prison that imprison us from pursue our dream.

Hope that explain your question, this is a very good song, I heard it once years ago, and what a surprise i can hear it again when i open your question.


Meaning of 五 in A: 放肆！B: 你爹放五! I'm reading a short story and I wondered what 五 means here but I guess it's 'slang'.

A: 放肆！

B retorted back: 你爹放五!

(Sorry for not putting any research result, can't find any, I only know that 五 is sometimes used to replaced 我 or 无).

It's a funny one!

As 5 (五) is bigger than 4 (肆)， it could imply B is one higher generation than A. That's why B said 你爹（your father, 放五）， implying "I am your father"(as you are "放肆" and I am "放五"！). This is like saying "我是你爹，放五！"

I really love this joke! Couldn't help laughing...

PS： better put a comma in the middle "你爹，放五！"


Glyph origin of 「凉」 and its relation with 「涼」 「涼」 and 「凉」 are thought to have different origins, and are different characters altogether. From 《洪武正韻牋》:

本有凉涼二字，从冫者寒凉之凉，从氵涼德涼踽之涼。

Both these characters can be used for the meaning cold, but that was not the original meaning of 「涼」. 「涼」 was originally a type of light wine, and this usage can be seen in historical texts. From 《周禮‧天官‧漿人》：

掌共王之六飲：水、漿、醴、涼、醫、酏。

I had some more difficulty finding the origin of 「凉」. Websites like 小學堂 and 漢語多功能字庫 did not have entries for it either. According to this blog post, 「凉」 was a place name.

「凉」字則是地名，即是漢代十三刺史部的凉州，在今日甘肅省及寧夏全境、青海東北部、新疆東南部及內蒙古阿拉善盟一帶。「凉」字从仌的原因，相信是因為當地天氣比較寒冷，所謂兩點水的仌，即冰之本字，寒凉之凉為引伸義。

But when searching for 「凉州」, sources in Traditional Chinese tend to render it as 「涼州」, which leads me to question the claim that 「凉」 was originally a place name.

What is the glyph origin of 「凉」?
How did 「涼」 gain overlapping meanings with 「凉」?
Do 「淒」 and 「凄」 share a similar relation to 「涼」 and 「凉」?

李学勤《字源》 says:

谷衍奎《汉字源流字典》 says:

According to them, 涼 was the standard form and 凉 was the vernacular form with the same meanings. The People's Republic of China prescribed that 凉 should be the standard form and 涼 should be the obsolete variation form (异体字).
In Taiwan, 涼 is still the standard form and 凉 is 异体字. See 重編國語辭典修訂本: 凉 涼
According to the same sources, 凄 has a similar story but is a little more complicated, because PRC prescribed that 凄 should be the standard form for both 淒 and 悽. This also did not happen in Taiwan (you can't even find 凄 in 重編國語辭典修訂本).


Usage: Spaces in Chinese I asked a similar question about Japanese here.

Chinese names are sometimes stylized last name + space + first name.

Here the author's name 马骥 is stylized, last name + space + first name:

  马 骥

Hanyu Da Cidian likes to throw spaces around proper nouns.

Here's a screenshot from Pleco

First and second spaces can been seen:

  清 李光庭

(the second space is after 庭 and before《)

Third and fourth spaces:

  唐 李益 詩

Are there any rules as to the usage of spaces in Chinese?

No space is needed when writing Chinese names.

Sometimes, spaces are added for better alignment only. To align 2-character and 3-character names, space may be added in between 2-character names. Example:

  李　白
  杜　甫
  白居易
  李　賀
  陳子昂
  王　勃
  賀知章
  王昌齡


An unknown Traditional Chinese character on a decorative piece for Lunar New Year I'm a East Asian preparing to celebrate the Lunar New Year and have found this piece of decoration. The Chinese character on it is, I'm pretty sure, a Traditional one, literally full of strokes and pretty calligraphic. I've tried looking up this character in our most reliable Han dictionary (from Traditional Chinese characters to our language), but failed (partly because it's a Han dictionary). Particularly, I've researched (groups of) radicals of 辵 (辶) and 宀 in the dictionary (and failed, as mentioned).

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

It's not likely you'll find this in any dictionary because it's a conglomeration of four characters: 招財進寶 "attracting money and treasure". See if you can find them. Hint: there is one part that is shared by two of the characters.


What are these unusual characters alone in seals? What are these unusual characters ?
They are alone on each seal.

I think the first one is 夻 and the 3rd one is 䨜
I don't think those are so much unusual characters as an atypical font face.  Characters drawn for a seal tend to be drawn idiosyncratically like that.


What is the difference between 变 and 变得? What is the difference between 变 and 变得?
Is 变得 a word in its own right, or is 得 some sort of complement word?
For example, 眼睛变得亮晶晶。

得 is some sort of complement word here. It tends to be some sort of comment or description of the action in the verb.
The basic structure is:
[verb] 得 [description]

From your example

眼睛变得亮晶晶

变 is verb, 亮晶晶 is description of the eye.


What is the meaning of "比一比" in 一件件新衣向身上比一比? Continuing from my previous question, here's another sentence I picked from a song.

  一件件新衣向身上比一比。

I tried to search through Pinpin Dictionary, it means:

To make a comparison
To engage in a contest
To compare a little

which is rather odd and not making any sense to the sentence.

I also think that "比一比" is a reduplication of "比", which could have the same meaning as "比比". I found one in Wiktionary, it means:

Everywhere; All over
All the time; Again and again

which has a better translation.

To sum up, what does "比一比" mean in this sentence? Could it mean "everywhere; all over"? Or do you have any other translation? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

比 in most context means "to compare" e.g. 比大小 (compare the size)

But in the sentence, "一件件新衣向身上比一比" , '比' means 'to cling to or 'lie next to' (in order to compare or match)'

It is very common for a person to pick up a new clothes and  'cling' it to his body to check if the size and the style is for him

You can see it more clearly without reduplication of '比'

"把那件新衣往身上比一下, 看看大小是否适合"


Why does the romanization Mahjong have a final H after ma? What romanization system of what language or dialect is this from?
I've seen no other romanization of Mandarin or other Chinese languages or dialects use a final H.

Or may it be just common english-speaking use to avoid being pronounced may-jong?

Refer to Mahjong In The West

I think it is just a translation problem.

In the old times, romanisation in Chinese Language like Cantonese Romanisation is not really common, like in this case, Mahjong might be translated from the Wu Dialect or Northern Chinese Language, I'm not sure about that.

You might also refer to this The Mahjong Origin

I hope I did answer your question. :)


Can 人 be used without a measure word? I have seen sentences like 我们学校有500人。

Why doesn't it have a measure word?

Can 人 appear without a measure word like the words 年 and 天?

Yes, in many cases, the measure word 个 is omitted.

Examples:

  我校有五百人，其中三人是转校生。
  这起事故造成两人死亡，四人重伤，七人失踪。
  这个活动吸引了近万人参加。
  七十人投了票，二十人弃权。

However, the omission of 个 usually means formality. That means we omit it when we talk in a formal way, eg. report news. But when we talk casually with friends, we tend to add 个:

  我们学校有五百个人，三个是转来的。
  这个车祸，死了两个人，四个人受伤，还有七个人失踪了。
  差不多有一万个人参加了这个活动。
  七十个人投票了，还有二十个弃权了。


Where can I find a list of existing Chinese surnames? According to this wikipedia article (reference 5), there are about 3,100 chinese surnames that are in current use.
Is there a downloadable resource that include those?

This Wiki page listed around 1,000 surnames. Origins and history of some of the surnames were provided as well.

Here is another list I find with 3257 surnames.


Question with "什么颜色" or "什么颜色的" I read many examples asking about the color of something. So, about the color, should "什么颜色" or "什么颜色的" be used?

你的眼睛是什么颜色？What color are your eyes?

橙子是什么颜色的？ What color are oranges?

我分辨不出这是什么颜色。 I can't tell what colour it is.

...什么颜色 or ...什么颜色的 may both be used. However, their constructed sentence have different analytical structures in the grammatical sense.

In your other question, you may have already seen an example of Chinese grammar, that some words are implied.

The two complete sentences are as follows:

你的眼睛是什麼顏色？ What color are your eyes? 什麼顏色 acts as a noun

你的眼睛是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？ What color(ed eyes) are your eyes? 什麼顏色 acts as an adjective

Here I analyze them using grammatical concepts.

Step 1:

/-Subject-\/-Predicate-\         <--- Step 1
  你的眼睛    是什麼顏色？

/-Subject-\/--Predicate---\      <--- Step 1
  你的眼睛  是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？

Step 2 & 3:

/--Subject--\/-Predicate-\            <--- Step 1
/-M-\   /-H-\/-P-\ /--O--\            <--- Step 2
  你  的 眼睛   是   什麼顏色？

/--Subject--\/-----Predicate------\   <--- Step 1
/-M-\   /-H-\/-P-\ /------O-------\   <--- Step 2
|   |   |   ||   | /--M--\    /-H-\   <--- Step 3
  你  的 眼睛   是   什麼顏色 的 (眼睛)？

M: Modifier
H: Head
P: Predicator
O: Object

Here we see a pattern: (Modifier)的(Head). Modifier is a fragment that describes the Head. For example:

(你)的(眼睛). Eyes -> whose eyes? -> your eyes
(什麼顏色)的(眼睛). Eyes -> how are the eyes? -> What colored eyes

As you can see, the two questions are asking for different answers.

你的眼睛是什麼顏色？asks for the color
你的眼睛是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？ asks for the eyes in what color

And so, the conversation should be as follows:

Q: 你的眼睛是什麼顏色？ What color are your eyes?
A: 黑色。 Black.

Q: 你的眼睛是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？ What color(ed eyes) are your eyes?
A: 黑色的(眼睛)。 Black color(ed eyes). 的 is necessary

Side note, you may also reverse the order of the question:

Q: 你的眼睛是什麼顏色? -> 你(的)眼睛的顏色是什麼? (We take out all but the last 的 in common situations, but the modifier behavior is still here.)
A: 黑色。

These two sentences are pretty much the same. Analytically, both are still asking for the color quality of "your eyes".


Chinese writings on this movie plane I'm trying to figure what characters and what meaning is in the Chinese writing on this plane. This image comes from the first Indiana Jones movie, so it may be possible that there are mistakes in it, but I would love to know what characters are being used.

I tried to guess, using Google Translate, and so far, without being sure, all I have is "东東西東-".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

It literally means "East Asia West Asia Airlines":

东亚西亚航 - Simplified
東亞西亞航 - Traditional

However, the character for Asia is written the way it is in Japanese: 亜. As far as I know, there's no deep meaning behind the choice of 亜 (or for the bizarre name). It's from an Indiana Jones movie and the airline is fictional. In answering this question, I found the Wikia entry for it!


Spoken Cantonese | using '緊', and difference between continuous and progressive aspects I'm told that 緊 serves the general purpose of '-ing' (according to HK native speaker, who also uses '梗' to represent this idea in text).

This is supported by what I've found online, except with a distinction between continuous (住) and progressive (緊) aspects:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_and_progressive_aspects#Cantonese

The same native speaker says there isn't really a difference between continuous and progressive.

Do we use 緊 and 住 to distinguish between continuous and progressive, or is 緊 sufficient to cover all the bases?

In Cantonese grammar, 緊 indicates a ‘progressive’ aspect while 住 indicates a ‘durative’ aspect. Both aspects are part of the ‘continuous’ aspect of English grammar.

佢著緊件外套 (she is putting on an overcoat) describes a dynamic ongoing action of wearing the overcoat.
佢著住件外套 (she has on her body an overcoat) describes a static persistent state of already having the overcoat on her body.

佢拖緊兩個細路過馬路 (he is taking two kids across the road) denotes that “taking two kids” is the main action while crossing the road.
佢拖住兩個細路過馬路 (he is crossing the road with two kids tagging along) denotes that “taking two kids” is merely a subsidiary action of crossing the road.


What are the connotations of the word 拳拳? I chose 拳拳 as my own Chinese name, having the meaning of my name in mind. I got it from an online dictionary, so I would like to know what native speakers "get" from it, as in what are the connotations that a native speaker gets by such a name, since the dictionary cannot tell me that.

Some info might be useful: My name is Ernesto from old english Earnest which means honest, sincere, among other things.

So I translated Earnest in various online dictionaries, and from the resulting meanings I chose 拳拳 mainly because I liked it from an aesthetic standpoint and also because the character 拳 is part of the name Tae Kwon Do in Korean (跆拳道), a discipline I practice.

Is it reasonable to think that the word 拳拳 is related to the concept of "honesty, sincerity"?

When I first saw it, I thought it meant fist fist. By the way, I think the same word appearing twice in name usually is only appropriate in girls' names; it makes the name cute. If you are a guy, you probably don't want that.

But there is a 成语（4 word idiom with well known meanings) that says 拳拳之心 (heart of 拳拳) which is an adjective that means forever remembering in heart.


How can I distinguish between Western style spirits and Chinese style spirits (liquor)? I have tried to have this conversation a few times in China. The problem is when trying to explain the difference between beer, wine and spirits.

People assume that spirits means something similar to 白酒. However many Western style spirits don't have the same alcohol proof as most 白酒 (to my knowledge).

I don't particularly want to discuss the alcohol proof, I am hoping there is already a collective word for Western style spirits (gin, whisky, brandy) without going into the routine of explaining that we have a range of liquors which aren't as strong as 白酒.

The point gets lost in translation if I can't get my meaning across quick enough. So is there a term for "Spirits" other than the Chinese 白酒?

烈酒 means hard liquor. 洋酒 means western liquor. Conceivably it could include wine and such, but it usually refers to western hard liquor (e.g., whiskey, vodka, rum).
Here's an example sentence for your benefit:

The city of Guangzhou consumes nearly 40% of the foreign hard liquor sold in China.
广州人所消费的烈酒，占了中国洋酒总量的近40%。


Sect vs School for "宗門" 宗門

In the context of ancient China times, and in a fantasy novel, where people collect disciples for martial arts and whatnot. Would xx sect be better or xx school? Or even xx faction instead of those two?

宗门 is a buddhist term, the more general word is 教派 or 宗派. If your setting is buddhist, as most martial art is, then you should most likely use buddhist concepts.

Otherwise people tend to use 家 to categorize different schools. Sect and faction are more narrow concepts, just as in English, and can have negative connotations.


How do you say "I will have (something) in Mandarin? Is it correct if i say: Wo jiang you (the o in you has the v tone)

Does that mean "I have" in future tense?

Yes, you can use 我將有.

For example,
我將有一週的假期。
I will have a week of vacation.
I will have a one-week holiday.


來鴻去燕 interpreting idioms So I am studying idioms and in many cases I come across one whose words I understand but whose meaning must apparently lie in a deeper story. The Wise Talk app gives:

來鴻去燕 (lai2 hong2 qu4 yan4)
[literally] the goose comes, the swallow goes; (always on the move)

In this case, I keep thinking there must be a larger story that would put the entire thing in context.
Any thoughts on the source of the idiomatic expression?
Any resource for etymology of idioms would be appreciated.

This was a bit of a challange.

All the information is pretty much the same as Stan commented above.

词语解释
比喻行踪漂泊不定的人。 清 黄景仁 《稚存从新安归作此寄之》诗：“来鸿去燕江干路，露宿风飞各朝暮。”

成语解释
解释
◎ 比喻行踪漂泊不定的人。
出处
◎ 清·黄景仁《稚存从新安归作此寄之》诗：“来鸿去燕江干路，露宿风飞各朝暮。”
语法
◎ 联合式；作宾语、定语；含贬义

None of this really answers the question though. Searches for 来鸿去燕 don't elaborate at all and that's just the problem - it's so easy to over-complicate Chinese; what originally was very simple is very easily complicated by our strange minds.

So let's look at this as simply as we can:

We have 来。。。去。。。a very simple + common construct "to come & to go"
鸿 & 燕
So let's look in the dictionary for 鸿燕:
汉语大辞典:
鸿雁和燕子。两者均为候鸟。于 长江 一带, 前者秋来春去, 后者秋去春来。
Swan goose & swallow. Two migratory birds. Along the Yangtze River the swan goose comes in the autumn and leaves in the spring, the swallow leaves in the autumn and comes in the spring.

清 方文 《芜阴送钱既白游太湖》诗
我方來爾邑, 爾復去吾鄉。交錯如鴻燕, 拼飛爲稻粱。

We can see the usage here:
交錯如鴻燕
Zigzagging like swans and swallows.

So you can get the feel of the "one comes" the "other leaves" concept.

So we can see 来鸿去燕 is kind of like zigzagging all over the place - leaving and going - coming and going.


Is there any difference between 制定, 制订 and 拟定? 制订 work (map) out; formulate; draw up; evolve

制定 lay down; draw up; formulate; draft; establish; enact; work out

拟定 to draw up; to draft; to formulate

Would it be correct to say that 制定 is when you make a more complete plan of something, while 制订 and 拟定 is when you make more of a draft of something?

制订 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/5836/

制定 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/5830/

拟定 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/20601/

  制 [1] [v] establish; institute; set up

  订 [2] revise; edit; amend; make corrections

  制订 means 'to work out; to formulate'

  Example: 'The law makers 制订 a bill'

  The bill is formulated (also edit, amend before finalize )

~

  制 [1] [v] establish; institute; set up

  定 [2] [v] decide; fix; set; settle

  制定 means 'to draw up; to formulate'

  Example: 'The law makers 制定 a bill'

  The bill is formulated and set'

~

  拟  [1] intend; plan; decide
  [2] draft; draw up; design

  定 [2] [v] decide; fix; set; settle

  拟定 means 'to draft; plan'

  Example: 'The law makers 拟定 a bill'

  The bill is drafted, planed


Can someone translate this for me? It's a family heirloom My grandfather found this during WWI, would love to know what it says

I agree with songyuanyao. But I want to add some more.

The right column is 天朗氣清. It should be the title of the paint. 天朗氣清 = clear(朗) sky(天) and fresh(清) air(氣).

The left column should be (I think) 五峰山樵. 五峰山 = a mountain in China. woodman = 樵. It is the pen name of the author. But I could be wrong since googling it gives nothing.


Correct word to use for a suburban fence? What should I be using to describe a suburban fence?

Here is an image of what I am trying to find the right word for:

Author: Greg O'Beirne -  source

I guess I might go with 篱笆 or 栏杆. Could I get the following:

What main word should I go for?
What other words could I use to convey the right meaning e.g 很高的一个木头栏杆?
Which measure word should I be going for?

On the Hudong Baike page of 篱笆,

  又叫栅栏、护栏，用来保护院子的一种设施，一般都是由棍子、竹子、芦苇、灌木或者石头构成，在我国北方农村很常见。

That means, 篱笆 is a kind of facility to protect private yards, which is usually made of wood sticks, bambooes, reeds, shrubs or stones. It is common in rural areas in Northern China.

So 篱笆 should be the most correct word to describe a fence.

And 栏杆,

  栏杆是建筑物的楼、台、廊、梯等边沿处的围护构件，具有防护功能，兼起装饰作用。

So it's related to buildings (although it can be in other places, like a path in a mountain).

Google Translate translates 栏杆 into railing, not fence.

Update:

The measure word, well, maybe 一排篱笆 will work. But as a Chinese I can't remember any measure word that is special for 篱笆...


What's the difference between 重覆 and 重复? I had thought 重复 means to repeat something over and over, and only today saw the word 重覆 used in a context where it seems to have the same meaning.

What's the difference between 重覆 and 重复?

重覆 is traditional whereas 重复 is simplified. There is no difference in pronunciation or meaning.


can you help translate this painting caligraphy ]2[]3I recently purchased this painting and it has great calligraphy, I would love to know more about the story behind the painting

I recently purchased this painting and it has great calligraphy, I would love to know more about the story behind the painting

the calligraphy is the poem "趙伯駒六馬圖歌" by emperor 乾隆 (1736-1795).
read top to bottom, right to left:

平川苜蓿豐且滋﹒清泉映帶沙岡披﹒戎人習馬知馬性
此䖏調馬實所宜﹒牽者樴者二皆駵﹒白駒黒鬛緤栁枝
昻蔵翹足驪其色﹒一戎跨背鞍不施﹒紫騮廻首嘶厥匹
有駓齕草意自怡﹒驥不稱力稱其徳﹒况復一一皆英竒
作者寓意應有在﹒夏官遺法誰深知﹒即今大宛致汗血
骨格皆合圖中姿﹒亦不渥洼詡作瑞﹒亦不交河資興師
迥立閶闔詄蕩蕩﹒欲起王孫走筆為

the last "column" stated the date as

辛巳首夏御題

the first month of summer of the year 1761.


How to interpret 主题先行？ This is 张东阁 speaking. I think to understand this, I need to understand the mentality of China in the 1970s, but still, "主题先行" puzzles me. "Themes go first"?? What themes?

我是在上世纪70年代开始剪纸创作。
I started doing paper-cutting last century in the 70s.
当时收到“主题先行”的创作思潮影响，
At that time I was influenced by the "big themes come first" creative tide of thought,
一味追求服务于时代，
I only wanted to serve our country at that time,
抓大题材，
take up the important themes,
抓时代气息，
grasp the Zeitgeist,
因此，
therefore,
在表现手法上大都抛弃了传统剪纸的影响。
in my expressive technique I mostly abandoned the influence of traditional paper-cutting.

主题先行, as you said, it literally means "Themes go first".

But, "70年代" is the Cultural Revolution period, I suppose it refers to the situation that before artistic creation, the central theme has been decided by political factors; people has to do the creation accord with that.

  “主题先行”指十年动乱期间，根据政治需要，先确定所谓的“主题”，然后再根据“主题”的要求填进“人物”和“情节”，使“主题”得以表现的一种文学创作方法。


What is the following label specification for M6? What is the following label specification for M6?

热电偶
Thermocouple

型号：BEM 螺钉 / BEM 探针 / BEM 铁氟龙 / 铠装口
Model: BEM screw / BEM probe / BEM Teflon / Armored

分度号
Type (Temperature range)

螺纹：M6 / M6英制 / M8 / M10 / M12
Screw thread: ISO Metric 6 mm (the nominal outer diameter) / British Standard Whitworth

长度：1米
Length: 1 meter

测温范围
Working temperature range


Does 愛 belong to 你 or to 我 in this sentence 你心裡明白 我對你的愛? So far I know the language:
你的愛 = your love
我的愛 = my love
Does this sentence 你心裡明白 我對你的愛 mean: In your heart understand me to your love or In your heart understand my love to you?

In 我对你的爱, it should be broke up into 我 [ (对你的) 爱 ].
So 你的爱 is not a sub phrase here.
对你的爱 means love for/to you.
The sentence can be tranlated as: In (your) heart you understand my love to you


Chinese Collage Pictures made with paper, bamboo & Feathers (Characters identified: 松楓 沈陽) We have a set of 3 collages bought from Hong Kongaround the 1970’s.  Do you know who the artist is please?

Just so that there's no confusion about the character shape in the seal, which is 「陽」 and not 「揚」. See the third shape below:

商甲前5.42.5合集14855西周金農卣集成5424西周金虢季子白盤集成10173秦簡法57睡虎地秦簡今楷

The left-hand-side component of the character is 「阜・阝」 rather than 「手・扌」. There is a fair amount of fading around the middle of the character.


What is the difference between 是 and 在? I don't really understand the difference. Someone said zai is location, but it is used also in the sentence "Mum and Dad are drinking tea."

是 is used when a piece of information always holds true for the subject.

我是美国人。
I am an American.

Even though the person’s nationality might change, at the time of speaking, he wants to say that his current nationality is American. Note that he also describes himself as “American”, which is a noun. Hence, A 是 B means A is B (noun).
在 is used to describe a continuous action.

爸爸妈妈在喝茶。
Dad and Mum are drinking tea.

It shows that Dad and Mum are doing the action of drinking tea. If you said 是, then “drinking tea” would become a noun that is synonymous to “Mum and Dad”, and that makes no sense. Here, A 在 B means A is B (continuous tense of an action).
A similar concept in Spanish is the difference between “ser” and “estar”. Here, the “ser” is 是, and the “estar” is 在.


could someone tell me if we can refer to a document with 他 I was wondering if we can refer to a document with 他? Or is it only for people? I hope someone knows.
Thank you in advance.

他 for a person, or more specifically, a male person
她 for a female person
牠 for an animal
它 for an inanimate object
祂 for a deity
A document is inanimate, so 它 is the appropriate pronoun to use. Having said that, it is not always necessary to translate the "it" in an English sentence. If you'd give us the context, we may be able to provide a better answer than a simple "A in Chinese equals B in English".


What classifier imply a volume? I know that you can use 盒 to suggest that there is a collection of the following noun, such as 一盒麻将牌 (a box of mahjong tiles) and I was wondering which other classifiers I can use for a similar effect, for instance a bouquet of flowers or something.

A few classifiers:

束 shù: bundle, bouquet; 一束花
袋 dài: bag
包 bāo: package; 一包烟
副 fù: set
套 tào: set
堆 duī: pile
坨 tuó: lump
群 qún: group
组 zǔ: group, set, lineage
碗 wǎn: bowl
罐 guàn: can, jug, bottle
壶 hú: pot
家 jiā: certain group of people
管 guǎn: tube
类 lèi: collection of objects
笔 bǐ: sum of money; 一笔钱
团 tuán: ball, spherical collection
股 gǔ: gaseous or liquid flow


What does this Chinese reporter say about APEC and Putin? https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iW4ZzxuSXbc

I can sort of follow along but there are some words/phrases I'm not clear on.  Here's what I can gather:

今天外场的演出分为...展室...和焰火三个部分, 而负责这场表演的团队呢，完全是2008年北京奥运会开幕式的导源的团队。  而在等待的过程当中，各个...的领导人在形势的交谈...看到葡京总统特...外套披在彭丽媛的身上。

If anybody could help, I'd surely appreciate it.

Cheers,
Rachel

光艺展示，巨型的视频网幕，和焰火三个部分。

光艺展示: Display of light effects

巨型的视频网幕: Giant video display,

各个经济体的领导人在饶有兴致地交谈，刚才我们看到普京总统特地地把一件外套披在了彭丽媛的身上。

经济体: Economic entity

饶有兴致: With quite some interest

特地：Specially, with the quality of caring and thoughtfulness.


Glyph origins and meaning of 敢 What is the meaning and etymology of the LEFT component of this character: 敢 ?

I have already checked Wiltionary and Chinese Text Project.

Thank you for the help.

商甲6.12.5殷虛書契前商甲2342殷虛卜辭

「敢」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[k]ˤamʔ/, to hunt and pursue > to eagerly advance and push forward > brave) was originally a picture of two hands 「廾」 fighting a wild pig 「豕」 with a hunting weapon that looked like 「干」 (/*[k]ˁar/) or 「單」 (/*Cə.tˤar/), which may have simultaneously hinted at the sound. One of the hands was sometimes removed to leave behind a single hand 「又」.

西周金大盂鼎集成2837

Later on, the weapon was corrupted into a sound hint 「甘」 (/*[k]ˤ[a]m/).

戰國・晉金中山王圓壺集成9734戰國・楚簡56.43江陵九店東漢隸史晨奏銘　今楷

Another weapon was added back to the hand to form 「攴・攵」, then the pig 「豕」 and the sound hint 「甘」 were corrupted and merged together, forming the left hand side of 「敢」.

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》

中華語文知識庫

漢字源流


Is 解决 a common euphemism for going to the bathroom? In the novel 《天机》, passengers on a bus become ill after eating an unfamiliar dish. They ask the driver to stop the bus, and the male passengers, including the protagonist 叶萧, descend:

  【他们】六七个男人都纷纷下车了。叶萧走在后面，他同样也感到腹痛难忍，虽然在露天解决十分不雅，但实在是忍受不了。男人们纷纷冲到小树林里，各自找了一小块空地解决。

A few lines later, the women join in:

  一个三十多岁的女人站起来说：“我们还是先下车解决掉吧。”

Later, there is another reference to the uncomfortable women, the “刚才露天解决的女士们。”

It seems clear to me that 解决 in the above excerpts is used as a euphemism for going to the bathroom (or, perhaps, for vomiting, but I suspect the former). The sense is clear enough, but I haven't heard this usage before.

Is 解决 a common euphemism for going to the bathroom, or is its use here justified solely by context?

The real meaning of the word is solving an issue/problem/conflict. The first context is going to the bathroom, second one sounds more like a solving a conflict, the word 解决 is not that common to use for going to bathroom, the word '方便' probably more common.


What is the difference between 于 and 以 to express "a certain time" or "a fixed date"? I learned that 以 can also function to mean "a certain time" or "a fixed date", for example:

我以三月一日返。

However, I also know that 于 can work in the same purpose, for example:

生于上海
来信于十五日收到。

All the example sentences are from Pleco.
I feel that in these usages, 以 is used only to express "time", and not "place". So 生以上海 is wrong.
However, if it means "a fixed date", is there any difference (and if it is what is it) between 以 and 于?
Also, is there any such prepositions that function for the same purpose?

As a preposition, 以(with)  and 于(at/ in) are very different.

我以三月一日返。(I take March the first come back)
It is plain wrong, the sentence make no sense.

The only way you can use 以 with a fixed date or period of time is:

In a [以 (A) 为 (B)] structure -- Example: "以三月一日为限期"  (take March the first as the deadline)

use '以' as preposition 'with' -- Example: "以三日时间完成这工作" (finish this job with three days time)

生于上海 (born in Shanghai) is correct
来信与十五日收到。There must be a typo. It should be "来信于十五日收到" (your letter arrived at the fifteen)

于 can be a preposition for date or location
Example:
"生于上海" (born in Shanghai) - location
"生于一九一二年" (born in 1912) - date
"于上午五点死亡" (died at 5:00 AM) - time


How to say "had a child" So, I know that 出生 means to birth or "To give birth"  - but what if I want to casually say that my friend (who is a male) recently had two kids.

Could I say
他最近生了两个小孩 。 Or does that imply that he physically gave birth to them?

That implies he physically gave birth. On the other hand the meaning is readily discernable, and in a casual environment people could understood it to be a small joke.

In any case, I've usually heard it phrased as something along the lines of 他的孩子剛出生 or 他老婆最近幫他生了兩個小孩.


Zhong Shan Suit Inner Shirt Cantonese Name I would like to ask the Cantonese speakers about the 中山裝.

As we know, 中山裝 is similar to the western suit, 西裝, it is designed with the jacket (外套) and the inner shirt (長袖衫). However, my friends told me that the "長袖衫" is called 底 (pronounced as 桶底 tung2 dai2) in Cantonese.

So, is it correct?

CantoDict doesn't contain a word like「底」, and given that the character「」is located in the CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B block, it's not a common use character. An appropriate reading and meaning for「」appears in the Kangxi Dictionary:

However, that definition says「衣短袖」, which is almost the exact opposite to「長袖衫」. If whoever you heard it from is not mistaken, then that will be a Cantonese dialect word, and not Standard Cantonese.

The closest entry in CantoDict which matches the meaning is「底衫」(dai2 saam1, undershirt). I'm going to note here that「長袖衫」doesn't actually mean inner shirt, it means long-sleeved shirt, and if this tailor that you're seeing designs inner shirts with short sleeves instead then「底」(or maybe「底衫」) sounds entirely appropriate.


Best Android keyboard for inserting pinyin, simplified, and traditional characters I am making a word list of Chinese words:

Column 1: simplified Chinese word
Column 2: traditional Chinese word
Column 3: word meaning
Column 4: pinyin pronunciation

So, I am looking for a keyboard for my Android 4.4.2 device which will allow me to insert all of this (in particular both simplified and traditional characters using the pinyin IME, and a third ASCII-like mode that will allow me to enter all four pinyin diacritics above the letters.

I would recommend Google Pinyin which I use everyday: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.pinyin


Can you say "好久不看“ in written conversation? 大家好,

I know the expression "好久不见". In written conversation (chatting to Chinese people I have never met in person but am regularly chatting with), is it possible to use "好久不看" (~"long time no read")? Or does "好久不见" also work in this situation?

I assume you want to use "read" because it's written conversation, but you want it to have the meaning of 好久不见, am I right? If it is so, then I think it would be better to say “好久没收到你的消息/来信” (It's been a while since your last message/letter) or “好久没联系你” (It's been a long time since we contacted each other).

“好久不看” is grammatical, but it seems to me that it would not be natural in the situation you described. Some certainly good use of “好久不看” would be (all the examples are courtesy of Google):

  好久不看球了 I haven't watched a match for a long time

  10几年前一直看动漫，好久不看现在该去哪里？ 10 years ago I used to watch anime all the time, it's been a long time since I watched it, where should I start?

  好久不看这样的电影了 I haven't seen a movie like this for a long time

And so on, so on. At first glance it seems like “好久不看” is often used as "it's been a long time since I watched/saw" rather than "read".


How should one translate "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝" into English? On my birthday a friend wished me "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝". I can understand each of the individual words in this phrase, but the overall meaning is somewhat less clear to me (although I have some ideas about what it might mean). Searching around the web reveals many different translations into English, all with different nuances. :)

How would one translate this phrase into English, in such a way as to accurately preserve the meaning of the original idiom? Are there particular contexts in which one would use the expression? Is it used by (or for) people of a particular age group? Lastly, are there any other Chinese expressions that use a similar pattern?

Both "年年有今日" and "歲歲有今朝" have the meaning of "May you have today's glory forever."

Usually it's wished upon people on their birthdays. The contextual meaning is "Although you are getting older as years pass by, I wish that you'll always have today's glory. And let today's good memory always be with you."

It is not used by a particular group. Other similar expressions include "祝你青春永驻", which means "may you have your youth forever".


How do 陷, 阱 appertain to their semantic component  (阝 as left radical)? I can't find 阜 in the Oxford Chinese Dictionary. Wiktionary

1.† mound
2.† abundant

How do 陷 and 阱 (trap) relate to "mound" or "abundant"?
Yellowbridge for 陷. Yellowbridge for 阱.

阜 are mounts of earth stacked on each other. Any character with semantic component 阜 (left ear) are usually related to earth, ground, and cliffs. Abundance of soil/earth is a borrowed meaning.
臽 literally was a trap. It's a man (人) dropping into a pit (a hole which looks sort of like a bowl/mortar 臼). Later on this character 臽 developed a different meaning by itself (it's an obsolete character now), and there were various semantics added to maintain the original meaning of 'trap', like 埳, and 陷. The cliff/mounds semantic version is the one used until today.
井 had various meanings, such as 'well', 'square fields' (which is what this character is based off), and 'pit'. A well is sort of an open hole placed in the middle of the square fields (丼).
Later on 井 was specifically used for well, while additional semantic components were added to clarify the 'pit' meaning in 阱 or 㘫. Currently trap is written as 陷阱, while 埳㘫 would be a variant form.
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E9%99%B7
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E9%98%B1


How is the quality of Google's automatic "translation" for single words? In Google you can put in a word and it will give you the English on the right hand side with "translation" and explanation.
So let's take 半挂货车 for instance. It gives me back:

Semi-trailer truck
A semi-trailer truck is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a fifth wheel hitch, with much of its weight borne by the tractor. Wikipedia

If I put in 小型客车 I get:

Minibus
A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. Wikipedia

These all seem to be Wikipedia references, I would assume they would be of better quality than Google Translate itself but this is the first time I'm seeing this function.
Any ideas as to the quality of these pulls?

Do not use google translate to translate a single word.  The translation can be adjusted by users of that service (and make some translation wrong intentionally).  And I have seen many examples of wrong (and funny) translation made using Google translate service on Chinese social media.

An example of bad translation can be "物极必反" to "Extremely polar" (link to google translate).


What's the difference between 番茄 and 西红柿? There are 30m more hits on 番茄 in 百度. Search results are pretty much the same for both. Is one version used more in different regions than others?

They both mean tomato,

In mainland China, 西红柿 is used more often while in Taiwan 番茄 is more used.


What are the different words for "and" that can be used in a list and how do they differ? In a sentence with a list like:

我喜歡飯、電視和電影。

What are the different words for "and" that can be used, and how to they differ in usage?

I've seen at least 及 and 和 being used.

used to connect words: 和; 與; 跟; 及; 以及;

和 can be used everywhere.
跟 is used in oral cases mostly.
與, 及, 以及 are used mostly in writing.

used to connect clauses or sentences: 並且; 而且


What does 我在包里 mean? What does this phrase mean? 我在包里。 In English this is slang for being drunk, but I wonder what it means in Chinese. I was told this last night, by my girlfriend last night and I am wondering if it carries the same meaning.

我在包里

is a literal translation of

  I'm in the bag

which means "I'm drunk" in English. While the Chinese sentence does not have any relationship with 'drunk' at all.

Here are some phrases that mean I'm drunk in chinese:

我喝醉了

我喝多了

我断片了 (I'm so drunk that lost my memory)


Omitting repeated text with I remember when I was studying in China a teacher of mine said you could omit a word under the same word using the character/symbol . Coincidentally I bumped into it yesterday and remembered that. But I'm not sure if this is correct and if it's really this character. For example:

  中国 很 大。
   ....  很 漂亮。  (omitting 中国)
   ....  在 亚洲。  (omitting 中国)

Questions:
1 - Does  really have this function?
2 - Does  have a name?

Thanks

1) yes, it represent what is from the above!
But in formal writing, Like journals or school articles or official documents from the lawyers. we are not allow this kind of writing. But in private conversations, email or when professor write on the black board. People understand that this is used to denote the words in the sentence above it.
2) no


What does the sentence 多用心译 mean? I found this sentence in an essay written by a translator. I wonder if 多用心译 means 'translate a lot by heart', or 'translate diligently'? 心译 doesn't exist as a word, but could be created by the author as bisyllabic word because it is similar to 多改, 多试, 多想. '多用心译' can mean also 多用心翻译。in the two ways the sentence has a meaning. Which one of the two is correct?

Rosa

A whole sentence would clarify the meaning. Do you have the sentence?

In my opinion, '多用心译' just means 'be careful when translating'. I can definitely empathize!

People say that the German President Heinrich Lübke once said to Queen Elizabeth II, "Equals goes it loose." They were at a horse race, he wanted to say, "It will start in a moment." but his English was not good and he translated from German literally.


Is there an old way of pronouncing 牠? Is there an old way of pronouncing 牠? I remember learning to pronounce it as "tuo" when I was in primary school, which was more than 40 years ago. I know it is pronounced as "ta" now.

I think it's an old pronunciation. I remembered this pronunciation appeared in a classic poem composed approximately in Tang dynasty.

珠泪纷纷湿绮罗，少年公子负恩多。当初姊妹分明道，莫把真心过于他。仔细思量着，淡薄只闻不好么？

The note says the correct pronunciation is "tuo", which rhymes with "罗","多" and "么". According to the poem's pattern,"他" should rhyme here.
In modern usage, I don't sound "tuo" in any case. "ta" is the only correct pronunciation. In order to rhyme, I'll read some characters with old pronunciations when reading classic poems.
Such a phenomenon is called "古音异读" (lit. special ancient pronunciation), however, while the languages is evolving as time flies, some special pronunciations have been ignored by the public, and thus get lost.
Some other examples for "古音异读". The fomer pronunciation is "modern pronunciation", and the latter is the "special ancient pronunciation".

可汗 kě hàn vs kè hán
莫顿 mào dùn vs mò dú
斜 xié vs xiá
汤汤 tāngtāng vs shāngshāng
骑 qí vs jì

Sometimes I'm still confused when reading these characters. A typical one is "骑", when I learned it in a famous verse "一骑红尘妃子笑", I was taught the correct pronunciation was "jì" which means "a rider on a horse"; however, now in the dictionary, the pronunciation for this meaning is also qí.


Large List/DB of (Mandarin) Chinese Geographical Names and Entitites (for NER) Is there a freely available list of geographical entities, like cities, provinces (in China and abroad), names of rivers, mountains, etc.?

I am looking for something like GeoNames, but it doesn't have to be that feature rich.

I would like to use this for named-entity recognition.

After some research into this I found this website: http://docs.bosonnlp.com/ner.html. If you set up an account on their website, you can use their NER functionality (because you need an API Token. I tried their Python example

import json
import requests

NER_URL = 'http://api.bosonnlp.com/ner/analysis'

s = ['对于该小孩是不是郑尚金的孩子，目前已做亲子鉴定，结果还没出来，'
     '纪检部门仍在调查之中。成都商报记者 姚永忠']
data = json.dumps(s)
headers = {'X-Token': 'YOUR_API_TOKEN'}
resp = requests.post(NER_URL, headers=headers, data=data)

for item in resp.json():
    for entity in item['entity']:
        print(''.join(item['word'][entity[0]:entity[1]]), entity[2])

And got back:

郑尚金 person_name
成都商报 product_name
姚永忠 person_name

However, it seems they have a 500 daily request limit.

Doing some more research, they seem to have a publicly available list of names they use for their text comparison (The link is under 命名实体数据). That might be what you're looking for.


Can 吃的人 mean both a person who eats something and a person who someone eats? Can 吃的人 mean both a person who eats something and a person who someone eats?
If a subject or a object is omitted.

In the right context, '吃的人‘ can mean 'the person who we are eating'.

Reminds me of that old joke:

2 cannibals are eating a clown, one says to the other, "Does this clown taste funny to you?"

两个食人族正在吃一个小丑，其中一个问另一个：“我们吃的这个小丑，味道有趣吗？”

Very funny in English, not so sure in Chinese， humour does not translate well!


Comparing 我一个弟兄们 with 我的一个兄弟 《庭审现场》２０１５１２２６ 谁在说谎 http://news.cntv.cn/2015/12/26/VIDE1451136647389475.shtml. Civil case plaintiff 李付成, at time mark 01:42, says： 我一个弟兄们（有三间老房子）. Would 我的一个兄弟 (or at least 我的一个弟兄) not be more usual? Any comment on the first version?

我一个弟兄们 is grammatically incorrect: 一个 (=1) conflicts with 们 (>1).I watched the video in question. The interviewee actually said 我一个弟兄. It is the subtitle that added a 们 at the end.


會講國語 vs. 講國語: when to use one or the other? When explaining to someone if you can speak Mandarin, there are people who suggest saying 我會講國語 and others who suggest 我講國語.

Appparently, 會講 suggests a higher level of competence whereas 講 alone suggests only a basic level?

Can anyone shed more light on when to use 會講國語 vs. 講國語?

我會講國語 means you are able to speak Mandarin(probably be good at it), which is often used when explaining to someone if you can speak Mandarin. You might put 我可以講(一點)國語, in case that you might not be very good at it.

Compared with 我會講國語, 我講國語 doesn't imply whether you are good at it or not.

我講國語 is often used when asked what type of/how many languages you use or speak. For example,

A: 你講幾種語言 ?

B: 我講國語，英語，...

... ...

A: 你講什麼語言 ?

B: 我講國語

A side note: in mainland, we say 普通话 or 中文 for Mandarin. I heard TWN folks said 國語, and maybe HK folks as well.


How would you translate "He is somewhat tall?" I think my teacher said that to translate "He is somewhat/so-so/not really tall" we would say "他ping高." I was wondering if anyone could help me find the character for "ping" because I am not really sure.
I have tried to look for it but all the definitions I found for "ping" don't really sound like they mean "somewhat/so-so/not really. For example, I have tried 坪, 评,平,凭,瓶,冯,娉 because they all have pinyin "ping" but they don't seem to mean "somewhat/so-so/not really." Can anyone please help? I have tried Google Translate but it has not really worked out. It would be greatly appreciated.

挺 /tǐng/ = quite; rather
If a man is 170 cm tall, he is of above-average height for a Chinese male (164.8 cm), and we can describe him as 挺高. But it is not that rare. On the other hand, a Chinese male over 190 cm tall has to be considered 很高
We only describe 姚明 as 很高 (very tall), never 挺高 (quite tall), I mean, he is really tall.
More example:
85% mark is 挺高分數 (quite a high mark - high but not rare); 95% is 很高分數 (a very high mark)

How would you translate “He is somewhat tall?”

他人挺高的 (he is quite tall)


"Shakespere" Pronounced wrong upsets my teacher Apparently, when I pronounce the tones wrong on 莎士比亚 I've said something that my teacher refuses to explain to me. It should be Shāshìbǐyǎ. What am I doing wrong?

I think if you mispronounced 莎士比亚 (Shā shì bǐ yǎ) with a lighter tone, it could become something like 啥是逼呀 (Shà shì bī ya), where 逼 carries a meaning of female's genital which is quite rude. The whole sentence might turn out to be misheard as “啥是逼呀？” which means "What is a pxsxy(逼)?". Then it makes sense for your teacher not explaining that.


Is 做事 just Taiwanese, or does it have a different flavour than 工作？ My first book (1987 Edition from Taiwan) taught

  你在那裡做事？ 我在中國大學教書。
  (Throughout the book the 口radical in 哪 was omitted.)

Ever since, I have been looking out for 做事 in my textbooks from the PRC, but haven't once noticed it. Is it just uncommon in the PRC, or does it convey a humble tone, as - I am told - 教書 does?

I think you are right - "做事" is probably only used in some areas of China, especially some southern areas where ancient Chinese has an influence, and not as commonly as "工作" in this sense. I would say it is more colloquial than the latter, too - for example, I think an interviewer will more likely to ask "你之前在哪里工作？" than "你之前在哪里做事？"


What does 上纲上线 mean? I only know about 上网 or 上线, that is, to go online the Internet.
But 上纲上线 can be heard from time to time, but the speakers often cannot clearly define the meaning. Neither can I.

上纲上线 means raise common things (actions, opinions) at the level of big issues about nation, society, morals or politics.

A: 好啊, 你喜欢外国货是吗? 你怎么不买国货? 叛徒!

(A: Wow. You like foreign products? Why didn't you buy products made in our country? TRAITOR!)

B: 别上纲上线, 完全没道理.

(B:stop, that's nonsense.)

A: 我觉得不一定非要让座, 我也很累啊.

B: 你真没素质.

A: 你总是喜欢上纲上线, 让不让座跟素质有什么关系?


Is there a reason the 月 radical occurs many times in body part names? It's possible I'm reading too much into this, but there seems to be a lot of body parts which contain the 月 radical:

  腿 (tuǐ) = leg
  脚 (jiǎo) = foot
  腰 (yāo) = waist (also 腰部 (yāobù))
  脸 (liǎn) = face
  胸 (xiōng) = chest
  股 (gǔ) = thigh (also 大腿 (dàtuǐ))
  胳膊 (gēbó) = arm
  脂肪 (zhīfáng) = body fat
  肝脏 (gānzàng) = liver
  膀胱 (pángguāng) = bladder
  脖子 (bózi) = neck
  肚子 (dùzi) = abdomen
  脑子 (nǎozi) = brain
  腋下 (yèxià) = armpit
  膝盖 (xīgài) = knee
  肌肉 (jīròu) = muscle
  手腕 (shǒuwàn) = wrist
  肩膀 (jiānbǎng) = shoulder
  屁股 (pìgu) = bottom
  皮肤 (pífū) = skin
  手肘 (shǒuzhǒu) = elbow

Also: 脉, 胆, 肠, 腑, 脬, 腱.  You get the idea; there's lots.

Question: Is there a reason the 月 radical occurs many times in body part names?

There's others that don't have it, e.g., 头 (tóu) = head, 眼睛 (yǎnjing) = eyes, 耳朵 (ěrduo) = ear.  Nevertheless, 月 does seem surprisingly common among body parts.

Similar questions have been asked in both Chinese and Japanese StackExchange before. In summary, what appears as 月 in printed text is actually the graphical merger between ⺼ (simplified form of 肉 (meat; flesh)) and 月 (moon). Traditionally, you wouldn't handwrite characters with the ⺼ radical with two horizontal lines as the inner two strokes; they would be diagonal.

The similarity in appearance is normally not a source of confusion, as the vast majority of characters which contain a ⺼ component does not have ⺼ appearing on the right, and the vast majority of characters which have a proper 月 component appears on the right, with some rare exceptions (see this).

As a final note, if you wish to understand why characters are written a certain way, looking at the Simplified Chinese form is generally not helpful. 头 has undergone a very contrived simplification from the traditional 頭 (see this excellent answer on Zhihu), and like 頭, characters to do with 'head' may be written with the 頁 component instead of ⺼ (e.g. 頸, neck).


What does 出来 mean in 真看不出来你是外国人? What does 出来 mean in this sentence?

  真看不出来你是外国人

Doesn't 出来 mean "come out of ..."?

看出来 is idiom for "appear to"

so 看不出来 means "appear not to be"


Does 声 exist as a traditional character? I see that 声 has an entry in the Kangxi dictionary, but every site seems to define 声 as a simplification of 聲. Does 声 also exist as a traditional character? If not, then what's the glyph origin behind 殸?

Yes,「声」represented the word now written as「磬」(stone chimes).

「声」was originally part of「殸」(stone chimes), and this character later became「磬」. Later on, people began cutting off the components from「聲」(sound) to use「声」as a shorthand for「聲」(sound), but「磬」and「聲」represented different words.

  「聲」(sound) is comprised of「殸」(stone chimes being struck) and「耳」(ear).

商甲前7.42.1合集8613春秋金鎛　篆說文解字　今楷

「声」depicts stone chimes「石」suspended with threads/string. In「殸」, a hand holding a striking implement「殳」was added to emphasise that the instrument is meant to be struck. Finally, another semantic「石」(rock, stone) was added on to「殸」, as a further emphasis that the instrument was made of stone.

In the modern form, the threads used for suspending the chimes is written as「士」.

  商甲乙3212合集13505商甲乙1277合集376西周金己侯貉子簋集成3977東漢隸景北海碑陰　今楷

  「石」was originally a depiction of stone chimes, and its original meaning is stone, rock. A distinguishing symbol「口」was added later to mark the name of an ancient region called「石」, and is inherited in the modern form. The stone chimes component was later simplified into「厂」, then the strokes were further altered slightly into「丆」, resulting in the modern shape.

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》
小學堂
中華語文知識庫・漢字源流
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


Difference between 哥 and 哥哥 Is there any difference between 哥 and 哥哥? Both are defined as “elder/older brother” in various online dictionaries.

哥哥 is more likely to be used by kids. Similarly, in English, children call their parents Mummy and Daddy but when they grow up, they would call them Mum and Dad.

As an adult, you can still call your brother or male cousin 哥哥 and that is not a problem. In fact, many people use both 哥 and 哥哥. It just depends on which they feel like to use at the moment. Generally speaking, 哥 also shows that you are a little bit closer to each other.

Chinese people sometimes call their best friend 哥哥, 姐姐, 弟弟, or 妹妹; Each of them can be said only by one character, such as 哥 or 姐. Besides their cousins and siblings, people used to use them on their best friends only.

These days, 哥 and 姐 have been widely used. For example, sales people may call their potential customers 哥 or 姐。


Difference between 一顿饭 and 一碗饭 The measure word of 饭 is 顿 and 碗. But what is the difference between the two and how should I classify them?

At first I thought 一碗饭 means a plate of food, for example if you have rice and chicken, they are considered 两碗饭, while 一顿饭 is the entire meal, so no matter how many plates are on the table, it is considered 一顿饭.

But is my intuition correct or otherwise how can I differentiate them?

Your intuition is correct.「頓」and also「餐」are measure word for meals, while「碗」is a measure word for bowls (of rice).

Since「飯」refers to both meal and cooked rice, the statement of how much you ate is inferred from the measure word.

To add: I would suggest that「碗」does not really refer to plate of food, as Chinese does not present meals that way. The western notion of plates of food should be measured by「份」(a share; portion) or「盤」(tray; plate; dish). These two are also used to count Chinese dishes.


How did 秘 "bi" become "mi"? I came across this comment just now:

  “秘”声符是“必”没问题，但是并不是说“秘”和“必”一定同音，“秘”这个字是北京话读错了，其实应该读bi，“秘鲁”一词还残存bi的读音

Which got me thinking.

秘 is still read "bi" in:

surnames
transcriptions (e.g.: Peru)

Cantonese carries the pronunciation:

  bei3

Sichuanese also has 秘 as "bei" in certain instances:

  秘密 beimi 秘，读“背”。成都人通常称有所隐蔽，不让人知道的话及事情：～档案│～活动。又为“背密”。

Matthews' also has it listed under "bi":

Middle Chinese pronunciations also seem to be way close to "bi" than "mi."

So what gives? Where did "mi" come from?

edit: I'm thinking maybe 秘 sounded like 屄, and it was changed purposely because of taboos. (http://www.sohu.com/a/219931086_413427) "山东方言对女性的某个器官的发音为“比”，因此，为了避免与比字同音，凡是在读笔字时都要读成北，于是，便有了钢北，毛北，圆柱北。"

This is probably not the answer you're looking for, but both「秘」and「泌」underwent the same kinds of shifts (b > m) in certain topolects, so I would just treat it as a simple phonological shift within the labial consonant group (rather than something more "exciting"). I do not believe that the comments on it being a "Mandarin thing" are correct.

Although "time" seems like a cop-out, I would point to similar shifts over "time" like


Understanding the structure of 是谁打电话过来呢 I know that 是谁打电话过来呢 means "who is calling?" but I don't know how to parse it:

why is 是 at the beginning?
not sure about the meaning of 过来. Is 电话过来 a standard combination?
why 呢? I thought it is used for "what about...?" questions.

This sentence has an abbreviated 的 in 是誰打電話過來的呢. 是～的 is a very common construction that you must remember; it is used for emphasis. In your sentence, you would like to emphasise who called. Basically, 誰打電話過來 (who called) is the question without any emphasis.

打～過來 should be seen together, not 電話過來. For details please see my explanation on the auxiliary verb 來 here. In general, 來 may (1) indicate an observed movement caused by the main verb (打) towards the speaker; or (2) the start (or in a more abstract sense, consequence) of the action caused by the main verb. Here, it emphasises someone called as if the call approached the speaker. A more semantically accurate translation of 打～過來 is 'to call here'.

Your statement on 呢 is irrelevant in this situation. While 嗎 is a question particle for yes/no questions, 呢 is a question particle for 5W1H words, in this case 'who'. Therefore,

是誰打電話過來的嗎（✖）
是誰打電話過來的呢（✓）
Who is it that called?

是他打電話過來的呢（✖）
是他打電話過來的嗎（✓）
Is it he who called?


How to parse 单反穷三代, 摄影毁一生 in a humorous photo? I was told that the caption of this photo, "单反穷三代, 摄影毁一生..."

states how costly photography is as a hobby, but I am unsure how to parse it. Google Translate gave "SLR poor three generations, photography ruined a lifetime".  How should I parse this caption?

The origin of the expression "oo穷三代xx毁一生" is not tractable. The earliest well-known record is a public education slogan "赌博穷三代，吸毒毁一生". These slogans are mostly painted in gigantic red characters in public locations like on walls and bridges. It warns people to stay away from dangerous activates such as gambling and taking drugs. The common thing of these activates is it is highly addictive and costs a lot.
At days when games especially online games are considered as bad as "spiritual drugs", a university painted a slogan "DOTA 毁一生，网游穷三代" (MOBA games and online games). It is now considered funny because it is definitely an overstatement.
Nowadays, these slogans are less usual. But the expression appears on the internet to joke on some hobbies that cost too much time/money. Such as "耳机穷三代，功放毁一生" (headphones and headphone amplifiers), and this "单反穷三代，镜头毁一生"（DSLRs and lens）. I was told good lenses are even more expensive than DSLRs. The point of this joke is that the equipment for these hobbies are as costly as drugs: it might cost you everything. As is shown in this meme, at the end of your life you might end up with nothing but cameras, and then you can sell them by pounds.
The translation is difficult because of this background. You can take a well-known slogan against drugs and change it. Such as:

"Say yes to life. Say no to drugs!"

I am not sure how well-known the slogan is. I just found it on google. Then you can change it to:

Say yes to life. Say no to DSLR!

Reference:  萌娘百科 . More examples can be found there. This web site is more like Urban Dictionary for Chinese, very amusing to read.


Fridge and Freezer Beyond 冰箱 How do I say the words fridge and freezer while keeping the distinction?

There seem to be a lot of Chinese words for each, which is most accurate/natural?

I don't trust Google. But here is what I could find:

Google English to Chinese:

Fridge -> 冰箱，电冰箱
Refrigerator -> 冰箱，电冰箱
Freezer -> 冰箱，电冰箱

Google Chinese to English:

冰箱 -> Refrigerator
冰柜 -> Freezer
冷柜 -> Freezer
冷藏箱 -> Freezer
冷藏室 -> Refrigerated room
冷冻室 -> Freezer
冷冻机 -> Freezer
雪柜 -> Refrigerator
冰箱冷藏室 -> Refrigerator freezer
冰箱冷冻室 -> Refrigerator freezer

In mainland China, when people refer to 冰箱 or 电冰箱, it most likely means a fridge-freezer or a fridge/refrigerator. Freezer is formally referred to as 冰柜,冷柜, although it can also be orally referred to as 冰箱.

雪柜 is 冰箱 in Hong Kong.

To sum up:

冰箱，电冰箱，雪柜 -> fridge, refrigerator, fridge-freezer

冰箱，电冰箱，雪柜 -> freezer (oral)

冰柜，冷柜 -> freezer (formal)

冷藏箱， 冷藏包 -> ice storage, ice chest

(冰箱)冷藏室 -> fridge

(冰箱)冷冻室 -> freezer

冷冻机 -> refrigerating machine

A useful tip:

冷藏 something means refrigerate something.

冷冻 something means freeze something.

Although 冷冻机 violates the above rules but there is no such thing called 冷藏机.


What is the meaning of 有针对性地 The sentence is:

企业通过以上两张表格可以了解到目前员工最需要什么方面的培训，然后可以有针对性地给员工补充“能量”。

The use of '有针对性' with '地' here confused me. It seems to say '(have relevance)ly give', 'relevant' or 'relevantly give', either of which is awkward in English but obviously not in Chinese.
This bit is confusing me:

然后（企业）可以 有针对性地 给员工补充“能量”。
Afterwards company can (have relevance)ly for employee supplement (all?) “abilities”

My rewrite:

然后（企业）可以给员工有针对性的（培训），而这样补充他的“能量”。
Afterwards (the) company can give (the) employee relevant (training), and in this way supplement his “abilities”

Does my rewrite catch the Chinese meaning properly?

然后（企业）可以有针对性 地 给员工补充“能量”。

As you may have known, in Chinese adding double quotation mark to word indicates it(the word) means something beyond its literal meaning.

能量's literal meaning is energy.
In your case, 能量 means the skills or abilities that employees need.

然后（企业）可以有针对性 地 给员工补充“能量”。

Literal Meaning: Afterwards company can refill(补充) the energy(能量) for employees accordingly(有针对性地).

Employees are not machines so they don't actually need to refill energy to perform better. They need more skills or abilities. The way to give someone skills or abilities is to train them.

So the actual meaning of the sentence is： Afterwards/Then company can give training (补充“能量”) to its employees accordingly.

I hope this answer helps.


What is the difference between 词 and 汉字? Does 汉字 refer to the actual written character while 词 refers to the meaning conveyed by that character? Or can they be used interchangeably?

汉字 means character while 词 means word. A word can consists of a single character (which is very common in old literature), or more than one characters.


Chinese TV shows with northern Chinese accents I'd like to gain more exposure to northern Chinese accents. I feel their vocabulary, speed of talking, and even which idioms they use are very different from the rest of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. My friend recommended a popular TV show, but it has to do with ancient Chinese history. I can't recall the name of the TV show, but while it was definitely what wanted in terms of hearing more northern accents, learning words like 陛下 aren't quite useful to me as far as conversation, reading, business, etc.

Are there any TV series, dramas, shows, etc. that are very popular that can allow me to be exposed to more northern styled Chinese? It can be a 电视剧 or any sort of show as long as it can help me with modern northern Chinese language. Note: I really don't like 爸爸去哪儿.

Update:
I apologize as I don't mean to just categorize one group of people as "northerners". It's hard for me to specifically say which area, as I don't have much exposure to northern accents at all (hence the blunt question), but I suppose Beijing would be more of what I'm referring to, or, as NS.X said, anything with a slight northern accent. I suppose a romance / drama series may be best as well, since I find those to be most helpful with conversation.

Update history:

OCT27 2015: Write down the 1,2,3 parts

OCT28 2015: add the 4th part

OCT28 2015: add explanation to @tofu_bacon

NOV01 2015: Note which is TV.

explanation to @tofu_bacon

Shalom, my content is not just categorize them. I want to divide them more orderly. To answer your question more clearly, I add some romance/ city TV series and also I will note them with EMPHASIS to you.

I think the northern Chinese accents is a large range because in Northern China, there are many different accents. And the standard pronunciation (Pu tong hua) is also based on northern Chinese accents.

I will introduce these  types and the movies or TV with them:

1.Northwest Chinese:

Xinjiang Accent:

《无人区》 - Movie -   (It's a chinese road movie in which you can hear different type accents in Xinjiang and Qinghai, not only the Uygur language)

Shaanxi Accent:

《关中匪事》 - TV series -   (Especially the theme song of this TV, is created by a famous Shaanxi composer )

《武林外传》 - TV series -  http://www.iqiyi.com/a_19rrk2hct9.html (The lead role woman: Tong is an actually Shaanxi Accents)

《平凡的世界》 - TV series -    (in this TV, you may listen another type Shaanxi accent, because Shaanxi province have three geographical conditions so it has three different life style and accent, this TV from a famous book in China written by a north Shaanxi Author: Luyao)

2.Beijing Accents:

Beijing accent does not means the Putonghua, for many authentic Beijing director or screenwriter, they like to design some roles with pure Beijing accent instead of Putonghua.

《大宅门》 - TV series -  http://www.iqiyi.com/a_19rrk57msh.html (This TV adapted from a real story of a Family of Chinese Medicine, the actors nearly all use Beijing accent. What's more, the time in this TV is the end of Qing dynasty and the begin of the Republic of China so it show many conflicts and cultures in China, also have some Beijing opera decorated the atmosphere. I recommend this TV.)

《贫嘴张大民的幸福生活》 - TV series -  (This TV show the daily life of Beijing in 1990s, my parents really love this TV because its their great youth time)

《北京爱情故事》 - TV series -  (This is a love story in Beijing about some people, not only use Beijing accent, but also some other accent popular nowadays. It's a good TV to know the life and love for Beijing young people. link: http://www.iqiyi.com/v_19rrh59e04.html )

3.Northeast Accents:

At least four areas use this accent: Liaoning province, Jiling privince, Heilongjiang province and some cities in Inner Mongolia. Among these areas, people in Liaoning province use the Northeast accents more. Many outstanding actors, singers, and performers from this there.

《东北一家人》 - TV series -   (This is a situation comedy called A family in northeast China and first broadcast in 2001. It's really funny. And you can see many famous stars in this TV when they are young)

《乡村爱情》 - TV series -  (I will not give the links here because they have too many seasons. This TV directed by Zhao Benshan, a famous comedy actor and also is a heritage of 'Er ren zhuan' Show in China. This TV show the rural Life in northeast China)

Comedy Sketches acted by Zhao Benshan  all show the usage and pronunciation of Northeast accents. I just give a link here and you can search him in several video site. He nearly attended each Chinese New Year Gala, and he is honored as The king of comedy in China.

4.Tianjin Accents:

There is a city, Tianjin, close to Beijing, who has good development in economy, education, view sight, and traditional culture.

《杨光的快乐生活》 - TV series -  This is a life comedy. Two main actors are father and son and their relationship in this TV is also father and son. They use Tianjin accent in this TV and show the life in Tianjin city.

Another interesting thing I will recommend from Tianjin is 相声

相声 (Chinese Crosstalk comedy, Xiangsheng)  nowadays have many different factions, they usually divided by the area. The Tianjin Xiangsheng is the most famous one. This is a folk art. Some radio have this program http://qingting.fm/livechat/channels/1175, you can have a try but it may be difficult.

I will update here.

My expression in English may lead to confusion of you, I should say sorry. If you find out the wrong use of language, please point out and I will learn that.Thanks.


What is the meaning and origin of the word/phrase 奥利给? I think it means something along the lines of 给力, and I get the impression it is a relatively new word used on the web. Though I can't really understand the explanations online. Can anyone shed some light on this word ?

奥利给's translation is "awesome"，“给力”
The detailed meaning:
No matter what difficulties we encounter, don't be afraid. Face it with a smile. The best way to eliminate fear is to face fear. Perseverance is victory! Come on, 奥利给！
Origin:
有网友将这些口头禅汇集剪辑成了一首舞曲作品，魔性洗脑走红网络。后来经过一系列恶趣味短视频，被大多数人引申为其他意思。（baike (百科)).com
"Some netizens edited these catchphrases into a piece of dance music, and magic brainwashing became popular on the Internet. Later, after a series of short videos, it was extended to other meanings by most people."
Baidu translate
That's all I could find


Backwards translation: “It was you who taught me that peaceful protests are futile.”? This recent New York Times article entitled Hong Kong Has Nothing Left to Lose mentions, in the opening sentence, that:

  After breaking into Hong Kong’s legislature, protesters left a message for Carrie Lam, the city’s top government official, spray-painted on a pillar: “It was you who taught me that peaceful protests are futile.”

The link to the twitter pic has now been protected and is not publicly available.

Any idea what the original text to:

  It was you who taught me that peaceful protests are futile

Is?

I’m assuming it wasn’t English.

Found the image later:

It was you who - 是妳
taught me - 教我
peaceful protests - 和平示威
are futile - 是沒用的
Here is the Chinese version of that article

"It was you who taught me that peaceful protests are futile"
"是妳教(識)我和平示威是沒用(的)"

I cannot presume it wasn't originally in English because Hong Kong is an international city, a lot of protest slogans are written in English for foreign news media's view.
It is an open secret among Chinese that arguing with the CCP government is useless. The protesters have better chance at pulling support from the international community, and the international community would in turn apply pressure to the CCP.


GoldenDict Chinese-Chinese Dictionary? I have an intermediate grasp of mandarin and would like a Chinese-Chinese dictionary.  One where I input Chinese characters and it returns me a Chinese definition.
I am using GoldenDict and have tried to find one like it with no luck.  All I find is other language-Chinese or Chinese-other language dictionaries.
Thanks in advance!.

I have been using Lingoes for a long time, and I also use GoldenDict on my android cellphone.

The beauty of GoldenDict is that it supports a lot dictionary formats, and lingoes format is one of them.

You can download 高级汉语大词典 here, and add it to the GoldenDict folder.

http://www.lingoes.cn/download/dict/ld2/Advanced%20Chinese%20Big%20Dictionary.ld2


A question about 了 and a verb 挂 Below is a list of sentences. Some might be a bit strange, but I would like to hear a way to mend them using only 在着了 and other such particles (i.e. no time words and other adverbs).

Is my translation right?

墙上挂一幅画。-"Picture hangs on the wall" as a rule, usuall it does.
墙上在挂一幅画。- "Picture is being hang on the wall", the process of hanging is not yet over.
墙上挂着一幅画。- "Picture is hanging on the wall", as a result of being hanged in (3).
墙上挂了一幅画。- "Picture IS hanging", i.e. the picture is indeed as a fact reality is hanging there.
墙上挂着了一幅画。 - ??? i'm stuck here...

1.墙上挂一幅画

Just a neutral description and the meaning is context-dependent

  2.墙上在挂一幅画

Your translation is correct

  3.墙上挂着一幅画

  4.墙上挂了一幅画

I don't see any difference.Both means "A picture is hanging on the wall"

  5.墙上挂着了一幅画

This is gramatically incorrect and doesn't make any sense


Is there a Chinese equivalent of the Japanese Kanji Kentei? There is a test called Nihon Kanji Nōryoku Kentei or 日本漢字能力検定 , that tests Japanese kanji (characters that came from Chinese).

It was originally meant for native speakers of Japanese, and it measures the ability to correctly use kanji, their readings, meanings, stroke order, four-character idioms etc. Korea also has a quite similar test for their Hanja called 全國漢字能力檢定試驗.

These tests should not be confused with other certifications like JLPT (日本語能力試験) or TOPIK (韓國語能力試驗) that are indeed meant for foreigners and that are comparable, I guess, to the HSK.

Do we have any similar certifications in Chinese (that tests primarily Hanzi, their correct usage and pronunciation and were intended for native speakers)?

There is a similar test in mainland of China. But only targeting on people who looking for the specific job position.

It's called "汉字应用水平测试".
http://www.sppc.edu.cn/2e/8a/c66a11914/page.htm

And this is an official test. It's managed by ministry of education of the PRC.
http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A18/yys_left/moe_803/


Personal Pronouns and Complement of Duration I'm learning complements of duration (CoD) at the moment, and I've been taught the following structures:

S V + 了/过 + CoD*
S V Obj. V + 了/过 + CoD* (used for personal pronoun objects)
S V + 了/过 + CoD (的) Obj.*

However, I keep encountering sentences such as 我等了他半个小时, which contain personal pronoun objects but appear to fit into the structure below (which they have not taught in class):

S V + 了/过 + Pron. CoD*

Should I add the above structure to my repertoire for personal pronoun objects, or is it not always valid? Any explanation as to why we don't have to repeat the verb for such cases?

There is a structure  [S V O + V 了 + CoD*] (repeat the same verb)

For example: "我吃晚飯" (I eat dinner);  "我等我父親"(I wait for my father)

Put it in [S V O + V 了 + CoD*] structure

"我吃晚飯吃了一小時"

"我等我父親等了一小時"

Of course personal pronouns can be objects (e,g. 我等他等了一小時 ), but the structure is not limited to just personal pronouns-- It can use any noun or noun phrase

  The structure [S V 了/过 + CoD*] Can always followed by an object

Example:

我學了/过三年(的)英語 - 英語 is the object

我畫了/过一整天(的)街景 - 街景 is the object

'的' is optional


What is the difference between 目前 and 现在? Is there any difference between 目前 and 现在 in Mandarin? Especially regarding the use with the tense, such as "these days" vs "recently" in English?

I just found a sentence of the following:

  ”银座养蜂项目“始于2006年，目前在银座的三个大厦屋顶都没有养蜂场，各有20-30万只蜜蜂。

If I understand it correctly, the sentence means:

  "Ginza Bees Project* started in 2006. Now, the roof of the three buildings in Ginza don't have the place to cultivate bees; they only have 200 to 300 thousands of bees.

Can I replace it with 现在? Also, are these words different from other such words, such as 如今, 眼前, and 眼下?

UPDATE

I just found out that the original sentence was not 没有 but 设有. My English translation was based on my misunderstood presumption, and that's why it wrote "don't have".

First, 没有(without) in the sentence is a typo, It should be 设有 (with)
Both 目前 and 现在 can mean 'now','currently' or 'presently'.

目前 literally means "in front of eyes" which implies 'the current situation you can see'

"目前在银座的三个大厦屋顶都设有养蜂场" means "Currently, the roofs of the three buildings in Ginza are all set up with bee farms" (currently observable fact)

现在 literally means "in the present"  or "at present"
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/in-the-present-at-present.1576445/
"In the present" = as they are happening/now.
"At present" = at the moment/now.

现在在银座的三个大厦屋顶都设有养蜂场 means "Now, the roofs  of the three buildings in Ginza are all set up with bee farms" (in the present time)

如今(as of now) is similar to 现在

眼前 can replace 目前 for "now"; but 眼前 can also mean "in front of one's eyes" which cannot be replaced by 目前

眼下 has the same function as 眼前


Can't discern how a set of clauses function In the following sentence:

  外交部发言人耿爽14日就两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害答记者问时表示，中国驻日本使馆已要求日方全力破案，缉拿并严惩凶手，还受害者及家属公道。“我们对两名中国公民遇害表示沉痛哀悼，对其家属表示诚挚慰问，对凶犯的残暴行径予以强烈谴责。”耿爽说。

If I understand it correctly, the main clause in the first sentece is from 中国驻日本使馆已要求日方全力破案, and 外交部发言人耿爽14日就两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害答记者问时表示 is a subordinate clause. And the subordinate clause says something like:

  When the ministry of foreign spokesman 耿爽 answered to the question by the reporter on 14th,

However, how does 就两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害 function here? Is it the reporter that asks about the murder crime so the sentence should be like:

  When he answered to the reporter who asked about the murder crime,

or is it just added by the author of the post, so the sentence should be:

  When he answered to the reporter regarding the murder crime,

? If so why is it not expressed to use some regarding... adverbs such as 关于 or 于?

外交部发言人耿爽14日就两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害答记者问时……

It is not easy to understand a long sentence.
But, we can simplify it.

外交部发言人耿爽 (title + name) can be simplified as 他, he.

The date, 14日, is not important here, so we omit it for simplification.

两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害 is an event, so we use "the event", 该事件.

We use "the/his/her/their question", 其问, to represent 记者问.

The sentence then becomes

  他就该事件答其问时……

(Don't you think it is much easier to interpret it now?
I suggest you using this method next time, when you read a looooong sentence.)

  When he answered the question regarding the event, ......

As you mentioned, 就 means regarding, in regard to, with regard to, etc.

Can't we use to or for?
When he answered the question to the event, ......
When he answered the question for the event, ......

If we want to use another Chinese characters to replace 就, the most common one would be 对.

Consider the following two phrases/sentences.

就事论事。
对事不对人。

Here, 就 ＝ 对.

Because we are used to them, it is not good to swith them.
But, the meaning is the same, and we can accept it.

对事论事。
就事不就人。

  他 对 该事件答其问时……
  外交部发言人耿爽14日 对 两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害答记者问时……


How can I negate time and when to place 在 before time? I know we can negate place, manner, etc. by just placing a 不 before the verbs (prepositions) that introduce the clauses.

我不在中国工作。
他不坐车去工作。

But how can I negate time, since it doesn't have a verb/preposition before it?
For example: I wake up not at 8am, but at 9am.
Would I have to place a 在 before the time?

我不在8点起床，我(在?)9点起床。

Would this be the only mandatory 在 when we talk about time or are there other situations it's required?

Thank you for any help!

I am a bit confused by the 在 in your example sentence, since you don't need it there, 我不在8点起床，我(在?)9点起床。 Frankly, I wouldn't know what this sentence was supposed to mean, if you hadn't provided a translation. If you want to express that something occures at a certain time of the day, e.g. X o'clock, there is no need for 在, just use X点 or X点钟.
As for the proper way:
我不是8点起床，我9点起床。

不是 can be used for such cases, to negate a certain aspect and then to point out the correct aspect immediately afterwards. E.g.
我不是骑车上班，我坐出租车上班。 I do not ride the bicyle to work, I take a taxi.
EDIT:
I can still recall the first time I had learned this 不是 structure and I was confused by it since it sounded odd to me. To get an idea of the difference between 我8点不起床。 and 我不是8点起床。, you have to understand that the first sentence simplay negates the whole statment, while the latter sentence negates only the aspect that is immediately after 不是.
The given translation in this answer is an example of the "是...的" pattern for emphasizing a particular aspect of a phrase. It is not specific to time; for instance:

我不是跟朋友吃晚饭的，我是跟爸爸妈妈吃晚饭的.
I didn't eat with my friends, I ate with my parents.


How and when to consider 面子 when speaking Chinese? Avoid Losing Face ( 沒面子 )

As a student of Chinese I would like always maintain a respectful tone. It can be very easy when speaking a second language to make mistakes that offend others. I would like to avoid such experiences as much as possible.

Normally in class, students are taught the basics such as:

  qǐng wèn 請問 and nín  您

Having these two phrases only, does not appear adequate to someone who wants to begin speaking to Chinese people. I am hoping readers can share additional language experiences, structures, or words that would help me to avoid making the other party (or myself) lose face. Specific grammatical phrases that help soften or smooth over any mistakes would also be helpful (like 對不起, etc.).

A mistake I make often (but sometimes it's kind of fun) is connecting peoples names to bad things.

Like:

A: 我姓刁。

B: 哦，是刁难的刁，对吧？

People seem to be kind of offended by this kind of stuff. Try not to connect it to 'bad' or 'negative' 'non-positive' things.

edit: oh yeah - also don't use 以小人之心，度君子之腹 with people [that is including the person you are talking to into the saying] even if you think it's a perfect fit for the situation - people will just assume you are calling them a 小人...


What's the difference between 学 and 学习? I know both mean "to study" and I also know that while 学 (xué) is transitive, 学习 (xué xí) can be both intransitive and transitive, for example:

我学中文。 (I study «what?» Chinese) = transitive;
我在大学学习。 (I study at the university) = intransitive;
我学习中文。 (I study «what?» Chinese) = transitive.

But are there other differences? Also in usage and meaning? My grammar textbook was helpful enough but I'd like to hear something from the native speakers too. :)

Like many Chinese words, 学 and 学习 differ primarily not in meaning but in length; in many cases, 学习 is chosen over 学 because the sentence calls for a disyllabic verb for reasons of prosody.

Your example number 2 is a good one. We say 我在大学学习 not because 学习 can be used intransitively but 学 cannot be, but because the sentence *我在大学学 sounds "incomplete." (You may have already learned that many disyllabic verbs cannot be used with monosyllabic objects; this is just one example of how prosody often governs the formation of Chinese sentences.)

Many (most? all?) Chinese words come in "short" and "long" forms. Native speakers switch back and forth between these forms effortlessly as the situation requires. In many cases, fixed expressions can take one form but not the other. Just another thing we students of Chinese have to learn. :)

By the way, there is one "grammatical" difference between 学 and 学习 that I can think of off the top of my head. 学习 can be used as a noun to mean "studies" or "academic skill", e.g.

我学习很好. -> "I am good in my studies." or "I do well in school."

(I'm not sure if this is technically a noun. I think most people would gloss it as a nested topic-comment structure: 我//学习//很好.)

P.S. Most of my knowledge about this topic comes from the excellent "Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar" published by Routledge.


Mandarin pronunciation for  and Consider for example the words 很 (hěn) and 员 (yuán). I constantly hear each term pronounced in at least two distinct ways by native speakers. The issue is really the vowel sound in the finals.

Approximate to English, I hear 很 pronounced as either "mother hen" or "Attila the Hun", while 员 sounds like "innuendo" or "Are you honest?".

I've attempted to look up the "official" pronunciations through Wiktionary, IPA transcripts, Pleco dictionary, etc. but I keep running into discrepancies. So which pronunciations are standard and which are dialectal?

@DrunkenMaster's comment is right you will meet many accents of Mandarin. But there is a literally official standard of pronunciation in the PRC, tested by the 普通话水平测试. Set levels of performance are required for school teachers, local tv announcers, national tv announcers and so on. This is probably the most widely understood single accent -- even if no one in China speaks it perfectly!

This explains why the charts in Ringil's answer to When is a 方言 a language and not a dialect show people all across China understand Beijing dialect better than any other except for their own regional dialect -- and in many cases understand it significantly better than their own regional dialect.  The Beijing accent is closest to the official one that everyone on China hears on TV.

I know no good source for official phonetic information related to the  普通话水平测.  But I take it you still want some good reliable, single source, to take as your speech standard while you learn.  Anyway that is what I want, as I think it is important to aim for good mastery of one accent as base, and other local ones if you like on the side or later.  That one should be the most widely understood accent (and the best received in business and academic circles if that matters to you).

After trying many different sources, digital and print, I suggest Yen-Hwei Lin The Sounds of Chinese.  It gives very careful and clear explanations, and recorded examples.  It does discuss variants of many phonemes.  But obviously no book is exhaustive on those.  And anyway at this point, to learn one reasonably authoritative accent for your own speech, go with the dominant version Lin gives for each phoneme.

I will not repeat what Lin says about hěn, and yuán, but refer you to that book's full account.


Is 搏杀 used in jest in 今年剩下一个星期了，继续努力搏杀? In December, I read this in a social network post:

  今年剩下一个星期了，继续努力搏杀！

In English slang, one might say "killing it" to mean performing well. Is this use of 搏杀 figurative, literal, or humorous?

It should be figurative, means "working hard".


Is 賖 just a variant of 賒？ 賒 is clearly defined as “delaying payment for something” in Chinese dictionaries; it commonly appears in the phrase “賒帳”, which has a similar meaning.

賖 is a Chữ Nôm used to write “xa” in Vietnamese, which means “far”. To me, it seems like 賖 is a corruption of 賒, since 賒 is pronounced like “xa” as far as I know. On the other hand, there is no entry for “賖” in Chinese dictionaries, and might be a Vietnamese innovation. However, that would also be weird since its pronunciation is markedly different than other characters which also have the 余 component.

余- dư
餘- dư

Has 賖 ever been used in Chinese? Is it related to 賒?

EDIT: AFAIK, 賖 is also used for xơ, but this sound also doesn’t come close to the expected pronunciation.

賖 is listed in Hanyu Da Cidian and defined as:

  shē
  同“賒1”。

The entry for 賒 says:

  1 买物延期交款。

Zisea also just notes:

  同【赊】。

Not sure if their info is from 字海 or 汉语大字典 but there is no mention of Chữ Nôm in either of the references. It seems to just be treated as a variant in modern Chinese.

Wiktionary also gives the following references:

  参考
  - 大字源：1673页，第14字
  - 汉语大字典：第6卷，3643页，第2字
  - 宋本广韵：165页，第3字
  - 辞海：1275页，第5行，第4字
  - Unihan数据：U+8CD6

and only mentions:

  异体字
   赊


How can I convert Chinese characters sketched with my mouse, into computerised characters? Are there any websites or resources analogous to Detextify for maths?
Presently, I do not know (but desire to learn) how to type Chinese characters.

There are many online OCR input websites. For example:

http://www.yibizi.com/html5/ (neat and fast, without ads, but seems only working inside China)

I strongly suggest you install a client software rather than using a website because many websites are full of ads. And many of them are only working in some particular browsers, like infamous IE series.

Sougou Pinyin (wikipedia page) is the most used Input Method in China. I am also personally using this on my MacBook Pro. It has Windows/Mac version. You can get the software by clicking the links in the Wikipedia page.

With it, you can click "手写输入" to input by "drawing":


How old is the "你吃飽了嗎" greeting in Chinese? How old is the "你吃飽了嗎" greeting in Chinese? Has it been around for just about one century or does it go back thousands of years in history?

The quick answer to your question is: " No one knows exactly when."

As far as I know, asking someone: " 你吃了飯沒？"(Mandarin) or 你食咗飯未呀？" (Cantonese) is a very typical way to start a conversation nowadays.

It must be a very long time ago. My speculation is: "It started as far back as human communities first formed."

In ancient time, when living was difficult for most, having a reliable food source, able to feed regularly was a major achievement. That fact alone qualified someone's life as a fine one.

It is not hard to imagine, in ancient time, when someone saw his neighbor, the first words out of his mouth would be: "你好嗎?"(how are you) to indicate he was friendly (not a threat) to him. Then followed up with asking how was his life by saying " 你吃了飯沒?" (have you eaten dinner yet?). Since having meals was the most important thing for everyone, you wanted to make sure the other person had already eaten, before engaging him in any activity or conversation.

If the answer was " yes", then you knew his life was fine, and free to engage in activities or conversation with you.

If the answer was no, then it was a chance to invite him to have dinner with you, because it could show off your wealth and generosity. (see? I have food to spare!)

Also, gathering around the fire to have a meal together was an important form of socializing back in those days. If you were not really close to that person, you would just excuse yourself and leave him alone (so he can find food for himself).

We still do the same today. Eating dinner together, is still a major form of socializing.

By the way, the exact wording might be distinct from region to region, and it might have changed many times as time passed.


Polysemous disyllabic words I would like to know whether in chinese there are polysemous disyllabic words made up of disyllabic morphemes, that is a word made up of two characters and which when (at least one of) its syllables are pronounced differently, this not being due to sandhi effects, a different meaning is obtained.

I know there are polyphonic polysemous characters with different meanings when their pronunciation change, so in theory this should be possible.

Hope to hear news soon.
Thanks in advance.

How about 利害 and 结果 and 东西？

利害（都四声）,both 4th tone pros and cons
利（四声4th）害（轻声neutral tone） , terrible (and confusingly also great)
结果jie1guo3 bear fruit
结果jie2guo3 outcome
东西dong1xi1 east and west
东西dong1xi thing
精神jing1shen2 spirit mind (this word just came up in my text)
精神jing1shen vigour, vitality

Homonyms with the same meanings look here:

http://www.zybang.com/question/51d637d5aad5d84a6c3e45a3c746458a.html

This is about single characters:

http://www.zybang.com/question/655a87060b4ee9784787d4bf9231b3ba.html

Question: 字相同,读音不同,意思不同, Character the same, tone different, meaning not the same

Answer: 很多啊 和字 有五个读音 意思都有所不同 比如,我和他 he 是连词 麻将和了是动词 读hu 和面 读huo 是动词 等等

Translate for you,

很多啊
There are a lot
'和'字 有五个读音
the character '和' has 5 different pronunciations
意思都有所不同
each has its own different meaning
比如,我'和'他 'he' 是连词
for example, I 'and' he '和' is a conjunction read he
麻将'和'了是动词 读hu
Mahjong '和' is a verb read 'hu'
'和'面 读'huo' 是动词 等等
'和' bread, read 'huo' is a verb etc.

This link is for words with the same sound, but different characters.(I know, not what your asking for, thought it was interesting!)

http://www.zybang.com/question/51d637d5aad5d84a6c3e45a3c746458a.html

You can see, I don't have a lot to do this morning!

PS I think 'differentely' is spelt differently. Vive la difference!


How do you say or write love yourself in Chinese? I want to get a tattoo of the phrase “love yourself” in Chinese but I don’t want to just google and translate since it gets words and phrases wrong all the time. I want to know from someone who actually knows, because well, it’s a tattoo on my body and I don’t want it to be wrong. Thank you!

By the way, I actually did google and translate and it came out with ài zìjǐ. In Chinese letters it was 爱自己. Is that correct?

you can just use the common phrase '自爱' (love oneself)

"做人要自爱" means "be a person, you have to love yourself" (imply cherish, respect and not dishonor yourself)


What does 严防境外输入 mean? What does this mean? 严防境外输入

Seems it is common in social media at the moment.

Does it mean "avoid foreign influence" or "avoid foreigners immigrating or visiting"?

It should be interpreted in the context of the current coronavirus situation, and it means to take precautions [against the virus, or people infected with the virus,] from coming from outside the border (and infecting more people inside the border).


How to pronounce the word 月 (Yue) in English？ Could anybody help me to pronounce the Chinese word 月 (Yue)?

Is there any word in English whose pronunciation is similar to this?

Try yoo (yü) from 'yoohoo' and eh from 'Eh? What?'

yoo-eh

After j, q, x and y u is always ü, although it is not written as ü, which is easy for Germans, but not so easy for the English to say, it is like oo in 'shoo shoo'(go away), an Umlaut u = ü


How limited are Cantonese dictionaries? I've gone through these dictionaries:

ABC Cantonese
广州话方言词典
广州话-普通话词典
CCCanto
Words.HK

and they all seem to be very Yuehai (粵海).

How limited is it to only base a Cantonese dictionary on the Yuehai topolect?

The first question that comes to mind is pronunciation.

All of the above dictionaries seem to do a weak job of Yuehai pronunciation to being with. For instance 屋 is only listed with one pronunciation in each of the dictionaries: uk1 in ABC Cantonese and Words.HK && nguk1 in《广州话方言词典》and《广州话-普通话词典》.

A more comprehensive dictionary would, presumably, list both pronunciations perhaps differentiating between 老派 and 新派 pronunciations. But, this is all without getting into different pronunciations in different locales.

The second question that comes to mind is vocabulary.

There are many different branches of Cantonese:

Yong-Xun
Qin-Lian
Goulou
Siyi
Gao-Yang
Wu-Hua

While the majority of vocabulary might be very similar throughout the different branches of Cantonese, there would still be tons of words and phrases that would be neglected in a simple Yuehai-based Cantonese dictionary, no?

——

I’m not an expert, I do have an inkling, but I’d like to know what people more versed in the subject than I am think.

It depends on what you mean by "Cantonese". The practical definition is Yuehai Yue, from Guangzhou down to Hong Kong and Macau.

Any dictionary will be limited. From a purely practical point of view, the scope of the lexicographer's project must be in some way worth the resource put in. Hence dictionaries limit their scope quite significantly.

In practice for Cantonese then, most dictionaries [as pointed out above] specify not 廣東話 but specifically 廣州話 - the bias towards the Yuehai 粵海 region is made explicitly.

The Dominance of the Yuehai Prestige Dialect

This is (in essence) one of the definitions of a prestige dialect, and the Cantonese as spoken in Guangzhou 廣州 has always been the leading example of the Yue 粵語 branch of Chinese. The fact that people originating from Guangdong 廣東 and Guangxi 廣西 provinces were already using the speech of Guangzhou 廣州 as their lingua franca gave it a prestige (the province was divided into two in the late Song dynasty). This meant in the early Repulican period, a Teochew 潮州話 speaker, a Hakka 客家話 speaker and possibly a Hmong speaker would have used 廣州話 as their lingua franca, even if they were doing business in Nanning 南寧 in Guangxi. Across the Sinosphere of SE Asia, the older term 廣府話 became standard across both Yue and Min speakers.

The rising prestige of Hong Kong 香港 through the 20th century only reinforced the trend of Yuehai dominance. The Yue-speaking diaspora throughout the world had already adopted the speech of Guangzhou 廣州話 by the mid 20th century (the largest Yue-speaking group that didn't do so was the Taishan [Toisan/Hoisan] 台山 group in California), and with a greater influx from HK into the diaspora, the strength of the Yuehai group of Cantonese increased within the Cantonese community overseas, even as Mandarin made strong inroads in Cantonese speaking territories.

On the other Yue varieties

Hence, any interest in the other Yue varieties would be documented, not by mainstream dictionaries, but fairly specialised linguist's dictionaries and papers. The dialect of Bobai 博白, Guangxi Province, is well known for having one of the largest tone inventories in the world.

The divergence and diversity with Yue should not be underestimated. The perception as just a "rougher version" (lit.: 鄉音 village sound) of (Guangzhou / Yuehai) Cantonese is broadly untrue. Everything from tones, sound system, [synchronic] sound changes, even some grammatical constructions as well as vocbulary can be different. Hence you are right to say that a lot of words would not be found in a mainstream Cantonese dictionary. But we would need a few more dictionaries to made before this can be quantified.

One of the most salient and well documented examples is Toisanese, which maintains the Middle Chinese distinction between alveolar and palatal/retroflex sibilants, but recasts it as a /ɬ/ vs /s/ distinction, and has a toneme for making the plural pronouns (我 /ŋɔɪ˧/ for "I" to 哦 /ŋɔɪ˨˩/ for "we").

In the 現代漢語方言大詞典, only two Yue varieties are represented: Guangzhou (of course) and Dongguan. Wiktionary has some support for Toisanese.