Optional components in conditional statements I am aware of this thread. However, I was wondering if you can play with the components the same way with every of the IF-words I know (ordered from most to least formal):

假使……（的话），（就）……
假如……（的话），（就）……
如果……（的话），（就）……
要是……（的话），（就）……

Based on this lesson, it seems to be possible to generate all of those sentences with 如果:

如果有空的话，就来我家玩。
如果有空的话，来我家玩。
如果有空，就来我家玩。
有空的话，就来我家玩。
有空的话，来我家玩。
有空，就来我家玩。
有空，来我家玩。

The combinatorial aspect of Chinese is amazing. Can I do the same with the other three IF-words? Would that interfere with the level of their formality? Can 有空的话，就来我家玩 mean that 假使 or 要是 have been dropped, not just 如果?

作為「假使」(if)的句子，如果全部省略假使/假如/如果/要是和就，有的時候會不太容易瞭解，例如下面這個句子就不清楚：

As a IF sentence, if we omit not only 假使/假如/如果/要是 but also 就, sometimes it can become hard to be understood. For example (bad one):

  明天下雨，不去了。(If it rains tomorrow, we will not take the road.)

但是如果加上假使/假如/如果/要是或是就，意思就很明白。也就是說，句型1～6會比較好，而這四個都可以如此構句。

But if we add 假使/假如/如果/要是 or 就, it would sound perfectly clear. In other words, construction 1~6 would be better, and all these four IF-words can be used this way.
這四個假如沒有絕對哪個比較正式，省略的話，也跟正式與否無關。（如果硬要區分，要是比較口語一些）

All these four IF-words are actually not different in terms of formality. And if we omit them, it does not concern the formality, neither. (If we really want to distinguish between them, 要是 is more oral. )


德行：moral integrity or disgusting? The question is quite simple, how it is possible that 德行 means two completely opposite things?

And when facing this character, how can I know what it means?

The ROC (Taiwan) 教育部國語辭 is a very useful resource, and often has good examples. Here's what it says for 德行:

1) 仁慈的行為 humane behavior: Honglou Meng: 倘或日後咱們遇見了，那時我又怎麼報你的德行。 If we meet another day, How can I repay your kind deed?

2) 諷刺或鄙視讓人產生惡感的儀態或行止 used to mock or sneer at despicable behavior or deportment: 他那副爛醉的德行，令人討厭 His drunken hijinks were disgusting.

德性 is a little more complicated, but still similar. Skipping the first meaning, it has:

1 道德品性 moral character: from Rulin Waishi 這位小姐，德性溫良，才貌出眾 The young lady has a kind and gentle nature, and is both beautiful and talented.

2 (same as 德行 2):  瞧他那副猥猥瑣瑣的德性，就知道做不了什麼大事 One look at that nerdish face and you know he'll never amount to anything.

So both words have a 'straight' use and a 'sarcastic' use.  Context determines which is which.

Postscript:

A couple of other answers below note that there is another pronunciation. I've never heard this in Taiwan, but I have now found a reference in the Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary, which says:

déxing (xing=輕聲): <方> disgusting; shameful; 那個家伙真德行. That fellow is really disgusting.

So the PY Dictionary regards this as a dialectal usage.


Are there any pre-modern/non-romanization examples of attempts to alphabetize Chinese? Were there any attempts to alphabetize Chinese that did not involve writing systems existing in other languages already? This would be something like a Chinese analogue to the development of the Korean writing system.

Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, and Bopomofo were all developed in the modern period, and are all examples of romanization specifically, so I'm not considering these.

I would also be interested in learning more about phoneticization via the influence of non-romance languages too. For example, Wikipedia mentions that Chinese itself became more phonetic when Chinese linguists started to recognize "initial" and "final" sounds while transliterating Buddhist mantras originally written in Sanskrit.

Yes, there was such an attempt during the Yuan dynasty. The 'Phags-pa script was created for writing languages that were under control of Yuan, including Chinese:

  The 'Phags-pa script (Mongolian: дөрвөлжин үсэг "Square script") is an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor (later Imperial Preceptor) Drogön Chögyal Phagpa for Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty, as a unified script for the written languages within the Yuan. The actual use of this script was limited to about a hundred years during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and it fell out of use with the advent of the Ming dynasty. The documentation of its use provides clues about the changes in the varieties of Chinese, the Tibetic languages, Mongolian and other neighboring languages during the Yuan era.


What is the semantic relationship between the verbal phrases of a serial verb construction? The general syntax of a serial verb construction sentence type is:

S VP1 VP2 VP3...

wherein S stands for Subject and VP for verbal phrase.
As far as I know, the sequence of verbal phrases express an event in a detailed way.
But is the relationship between the verbal phrases just temporal, i.e. do the verbal phrases describe an event temporally in the sequence of their appearance?
For example:

我 看水果 切水果 愉快地吃水果 .
I see a watermelon,then cut it, then joyously eat it.

Is the temporal relationship the only one?

Is the temporal relationship the only one?

Most, but not all.

"我看水果"，"我切水果" and "我愉快地吃水果" are three separate SVO sentences. When we consolidate them into a single sentence, the temporal relationship between each verb phrase is there because these verb phrase must follow a logical timeline.

  我看(到)水果(就)切开它们(然后)愉快地吃 - Once I saw the fruit, I cut it and then happily ate it ,

I must see the fruit first, before I can cut it, and I must cut it first, before I can eat it.

Similarly:

  我大喝一聲, 我揮拳, 我打中他小腹 - I shout, I punch, I hit his lower abdomen

  我大喝一聲(便)揮拳打中他小腹 - I shouted and immediately punch and hit his lower abdomen

I shouted first, then I punch, and finally hit his abdomen

However, not all multiple verb phrase has a temporal relationship like the examples above. They can happen concurrently.

Example:

  我吃飯，我看電視，我大聲笑

  I have dinner, I watch TV., I laugh loudly

  我吃飯(的同時)(邊)看電視(邊)大聲笑

  I laugh loudly while I am watching TV. and having dinner.

I have dinner, watch TV and laugh loudly at the same time.


Chinese literature database 中文文学作品资料库 Suppose I have a phrase like 说得很好, and I want to know how this phrase is normally used (that is, what usually comes before or after, e.g. maybe it's most commonly used in conjunction with the phrase 说英文).
Books, or even better, TV or movie scripts, would be the best place to search. In English, Google books would be what I would search.
Is there anything equivalent to a Google books search in Chinese? Is there any large database of books and TV/movie scripts that I could search?
谢谢！
Edit: while it's true that dictionaries provide this service to some extent, in many cases I find the amount of material too small. Considering this, please limit answers to databases of literature or ways to search them.

The database of the Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU
It supports modern and ancient Chinese, context-view.
Pattern search examples:

    爱(V,=2)不(V) will get 爱执行不执行, 2 characters following 爱, then 不 and max 10(default) characters.

    爱(V,2-5)不(V), 2 to 5 characters following 爱,

    爱(V,<5)不(V)

    有(V,<8)没(V,>7) wrong, only support 1 condition

It has many other features, described in the documentation.


What is the difference between 汉语 and 普通话? I've seen them used interchangeably, but I was wondering if there is a significant difference.

“汉语” is a general scope of Chinese language, it is spoken in several countries including China. “普通话” is the modern name of “现代标准汉语”(Standard Chinese), it can be considered as the “official dialect” of “汉语”.

As you can see, the difference is the scope. Most Chinese speak “汉语”, but not all of them speak “普通话”.


How old is the expression “老百姓”？ I have searched on line text bases, especially for 三国志 since the 2010 television version of that is what made me wonder. But I do not seem to get reliable results that way. Perhaps if I understood the data bases better I could do better. But certainly my text base searches will not be a good as asking here.

I wail mention, though it is not important evidence, that the 2010 TV series often uses just 百姓 rather than 老百姓.

百姓:

  释义：战国之前是对贵族的统称，战国之后，楚对平民的通称。《诗经·雅·天保》“群黎百姓”郑玄笺：“百姓，官族姓也。”
  现今指平民，普通人。也称“老百姓”。

  Before the Warring States period, it was a general term for nobles. After the Warring States period, Chu's general name for civilians. Today it refers to civilians, ordinary people. Also known as "The people"

Also: 黎民百姓

百姓 was originally referring to the noble clans united under 黃帝 against the 九黎族 under 蚩尤. After defeating  黎族, 黎民 was taken as slaves by the 百姓. Eventually, 黎民 and 百姓 merged to become 黎民百姓, meaning: "common people"

The relationship between 百姓 and 黎民 was similar to Romans and their slaves


What is the difference between 麵粉 and 麪粉? I was reading a Chinese book when I came across the word 麪粉.

I didn't know how to read the first character,
so I performed a search on Google translate.
According to Google translate,
both 麵粉 miànfěn and 麪粉 miànfěn have the same pinyin,
and both mean flour.

My impression from living in Hong Kong
is that only the first word "麵" is encountered in everyday usage,
e.g., wonton noodles is written as 雲吞麵.

Are there any real differences between 麵粉 and 麪粉?

「麪」is a variant type of「麵」（「麪」is a more standard form in the old ages, and both are simplified to「面」now）and the meaing between them is not quite different.


Quality of BBC Chinese? I have been practising Chinese by trying to read some articles in the Chinese section of the BBC News site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/.  (I am making quite heavy use of Pleco Reader for this, I can only recognise about half the characters unaided.) The advantage of using the BBC is that after I have struggled through the Chinese I can compare my understanding with the original article, which of course is written in natural English.

For example, I looked at this report about the South African elections:

  在南非结束种族隔离20年之际，该国民众踊跃参加国民议会大选投票。
  民众在投票站外排起长队，特别是1994年南非结束白人少数统治后出生的年轻人投票选举的情绪很高。

  这也是南非第一位黑人总统曼德拉去世后的首次大选。

  虽然受到一些腐败的指控，预计执政的非国大将第5届连续赢得大选。 预计非国大将赢得60%的选票。 南非总统祖马也有望蝉联总统，再次执政5年。
  记者们说，反对党可能在这次大选中获得更多的支持，但不足以改变自1994年以来非国大主导南非政坛的格局。

Do people consider that this is written in natural, idiomatic Chinese?

I have noticed that the translated articles often seem to be phrased in a much more repetitive way than the original English.  Is this just standard style for Chinese news reports, or is it some kind of artifact of translation?

The example you have quoted is fairly standard "translated text". You can tell it by the usage of attributive clauses, e.g. "...1994年南非结束白人少数统治后出生的...". In natual Chinese, there's no such kind of clauses and hence sentences are usually short. However in translation you have to be faithful to the original context, therefore many English grammar got awkwardly translated into Chinese. Since Chinese has been heavyly affected by huge amount of translated text in last decades, people started to get used to these awkward grammar. Still, it is recommended to avoid it. I recall there's a term coined for it, "translationese".


Is there any sun 日 in 昌? I've been seeing conflicting explanations for this character 昌. Some sources say it comprised of two suns 日, some sources say it comprises of sun and speak 日 meaning flourish, though I don't really see what connection it has to the sun. And then I've seen explanations that it's two 日 speaking mouths, being the original character for sing 唱 and sun is not a component. Which of these is the correct?

時期字體
字形
參考資料

商甲

甲185合集19924

戰國・燕古幣

108古幣文編

戰國・晉璽印

959古璽彙編

秦簡

日甲119睡虎地秦簡

篆

日部說文解字

楷

「昌」 (early morning call, e.g. to the day's labour) is comprised of semantic 「日」 (sun) on top of semantic 「口」 (mouth). Such calls would likely be rhythmic or melodious, similar to bugle calls, making the interpretation of 「昌」 as the original form of 「唱」 (to sing).
Later on, 「口」 was slightly shape-corrupted into 「甘」 (mouth 「口」 with a mark inside) or 「曰」 (mouth 「口」 with a mark above). The modern shape inherits 「曰」.
Flourish does not appear to have a direct connection to morning call, and should be regarded as a phonetic loan.

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂字形演變
中國哲學書電子化計劃

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》

國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


In Cantonese, what does 多到 (do1 dou3) mean? In Cantonese, what does 多到 (do1 dou3) mean in this context?

你可以想像罪案多到幾咁嚴重嘞!
nei5 ho2-ji5 soeng2-zoeng6 zeoi6-on3 do1 dou3 gei2-gam3 jim4-zung6 laak3!

My guess is that the sentence translates to something like this:

You can imagine the criminal cases — many became quite serious!

But I'm really not sure.  This is the first time I've come across this pattern.

You can understand it as "so many that...":

  You can imagine the criminal cases are so many that the situation is serious.


How do I say "damn!" or "bloody hell" in Chinese? The phrase 他妈的 has been explained in this question. Since I'm a no-expletives guy, I don't feel comfortable so close to the f-word. :) I was wondering what would be the correct way to use some of the milder curse words I use daily like "damn", "bloody hell", "sh*t", "arse" etc.

I'm guessing most of these cannot be translated directly, so I guess what I'm asking is: What would be more-or-less socially acceptable way of cursing in Chinese when you stub your toe?

May I suggest checking out the ChinaSmack glossary? They have a huge array of colorful language, and there is sure to be something that meets your needs in terms of a curse word there.

Just to add, I always hear Chinese girls saying 讨厌 (taoyan) when they are annoyed or frustrated, but it's not exactly the most masculine of statements. 烦 (fan) also seems to be a common expression amongst both genders, although not exactly the meaning you are looking for.

Hope that helps.


What is the meaning of 教训 here？ A very good fisherman taught his 3 sons his technique but he did not teach them 教训。 What does this 教训  mean here?

Earlier, in the text, it says:

  可他三个儿子的捕鱼技术都很平庸。

  别人告诉他：“你只传授给儿子们捕鱼的技术，却没有传授给他们教训。 没有教训与没有经验一样，都不能使人成功！”

  教训：

  指从错误或挫折中得到的经验
  教育训练
  训导;训戒

I don't think this 教训 is 3. That leaves either 1 or 2.

The person said, "你只传授给儿子们捕鱼的技术", so the father taught them the technique. Maybe this 教训 here means 'training'? He taught them, but he did not train （训练） them?

Or 却没有传授给他们教训 means:

  but you did not teach them what you learned from your mistakes"

It's 1, you might feel awkward or unfamiliar because:

When we take the meaning as 1,
we seldom says that someone teach others "教訓".

A more often way to use this meaning is to learn by someone itself.

Ex: 我從上次的失敗吸取教訓了，下次不會再犯同樣的錯。

I'v learned my mistake from last failure, and I won't make it again.


Bad word that will curse a family Background

So my friend, who’s Chinese, cried a few weeks ago.

Apparently, a boy(let’s call him Bobby) in our class said a ‘bad word that will curse a family and their generation forever’. I asked what it was but all she said was...

  Do you want me to curse your family? sniff

And then broke down in tears.

If I was her, I would have just ignored it and laughed.

Question

What is the word/phrase that Bobby used? Is it really bad?

If it was Cantonese, it would obviously be 冚家剷 (entire family die)

Since it was Mandarin,  the only common phrases that curse someone's entire family I can think of are:

絕子絕孫 (no male descendants, the family line ends)
男盜女娼 (one's male descendants will be thieves and female descendants will be prostitutes)

Or it can be any cursing phrase with '你全家' before it. For example "你全家不得好死" (all of your family members will die a horrible death)


Chinese phrases akin to “back to the grindstone”? A colorful way to mention you’re going back to work, especially after a break is by saying:

  back to the grindstone

This is just usually plainly, and rather matter of factly, translated as:

  回去干活

Are there any phrases more figurative that are similar to “back to the grindstone”?

——

I’m not looking for any makeshift combination of words but something like 回去推磨 would be pretty fun as it calls 有钱能使鬼推磨 to mind.

One analog I can think of is

  回去搬砖了

This is a funny way of describing your job as less paid while you still have to work very hard on that.


Introduction. What's the difference between 介绍, 简介, 入门, 引导, 导语, 导论, 引子? I've seen 介绍, 简介 and 导语 in news pieces, which labels a one sentence synopsis of the article. Is there any difference between these three? 介绍, 简介 look to be interchangeable, and used commonly like 介绍 person/thing/concept.

What about 入门, 引导, 导论, 引子? Looking at Baidu hits, they all seem to be used similarly.

Baidu hits:

介绍 100m

简介 100m

导语 38m

入门 100m

引导 100m

导论 28m

引子 18m

简介 is actually a short form of 简单介绍, a brief introduction, while 介绍 is introduction.  In this way they are interchangable just as they are in english

导语 - 'lead', i.e. the few words you will see at the beginning of a novel.
入门 - 'getting started', i.e. Macbook for dummies = Macbook 入门
you get the idea for the rest:
引导/引子 - 'guide'
导论 - a more detailed introduction


Help translating 安排当无品牌申报出到英国 Can you help me out with the translation of the following sentence?

  少量的商品代理应该可以安排当无品牌申报出到英国

“Representative with a small amount of goods should be able to arrange customs declaration of the trademark in England.”
Thank you in advance.

I think you mean:

代理应该可以把少量商品当成无品牌商品申报，出口到英国。

The agent can declear a small part of the goods as no-brand merchandise and export them to England.


The difference between 你不知道吗？/你知道吗？/不知道吗？/知道吗？ 1.　明天会下雪，你不知道吗？

    2.　明天会下雪，你知道吗？

    3.　明天会下雪，不知道吗？

    4.　明天会下雪，知道吗？

What are the possible pragmatic/semantic differences between these four questions?

They mean similar. It depends how you use them and the tones you use.

Basically, 1 & 3 sound like you should know it. Well, 2 & 4 usually are generic questions for checking whether you know it.


transitive verb in Mandarin:外遇李小姐 Is 外遇 used correctly as a transitive verb in the following sentence?

王先生外遇李小姐。

When you use the word 外遇, it is a noun. It should be王先生有了外遇。外遇的对象是李小姐。
有了外遇 is the verb phrase for the noun 外遇. The 3rd person need to be mentioned in a separated sentence. In this way, you know who is the one betrayed the marriage and who is the 3rd person. And the 3rd person's marriage status is not mentioned, it can be anything.
Headlines sometimes tend to use super compact expressions, which are not common elsewhere. Like 或 means 可能， 拟 means 打算. Here I guess is the same thing, even though it is not common to say so, it saves space .


What is the meaning of 么? If you want to say "This dog," you'd say, "这只狗". If you want to say "This thing," you'd say, "这个东西". If you want to say, "This much," you'd say, "这么多".

I understand the reasons for the 只 and the 个, but what does the 么 really mean?

么 has lost most of its lexical meaning in modern usage, but it appears to have originally been derived from the word 物, meaning 'thing'. Chinese by Jerry Norman, pp. 119-20 makes mention of the etymology of various modern words featuring 么:

  In an insightful article, Zhāng Hùiyīng (1982) has shown that shénme 什么, the standard modern word for 'what', comes from shí wù 什物 (MC źjəp mjuət). This form (in a number of different phonological shapes) makes its first appearance in the Tang dynasty. Shí wù 什物 originally meant 'vessels, household utensils, things (of various sorts)'. The development of a interrogative meaning 'what' from a meaning 'thing' finds a parallel in modern Italian, where cosa 'thing' is also used to mean 'what'. ...

  ...

  [Regarding 'how'...] In the late Tang and Wudai periods, a different form begins to be found; it consists of the verb zuò 作 (MC tsuo-) plus one of several variants of the morpheme meaning 'thing, what' discussed in relation to the origins of modern shénme 什么 ... In the Wudai period, a fusion word zěn 怎 (from an earlier *zěm) based on these forms appears for the first time. It is this fusion form that is directly ancestral to the modern zěnme 怎么 'how'. Zhème 这么 'in this way' and nàme 那么 'in that way' were probably analogically based on this form.

Notes:

The article by Zhāng Hùiyīng 张惠英 referenced in that excerpt refers to an article entitled 释「什么」in《中国语文》1982年第4期, pp. 302-5. I wasn't easily able to obtain a copy of that article though.
MC in that excerpt refers to how the words were pronounced in Middle Chinese (ca. 600-1000 AD).

While it's interesting that 么 in these words was derived from a word meaning 'thing', it's essentially a bound morpheme that is no longer productive and can't be used on its own. In effect, its modern usage doesn't have any particular meaning in practice. In many ways, it could be considered a cranberry morpheme.


Transliterated Loanwords From Two Seperate Languages Of The Same Thing Request for (at least) 2 loanwords, transliterated, from separate languages meaning the same thing.

Horrible example:

埃默拉尔德 - English transliterated loanword for emerald
祖母绿 - Arabic transliterated loanword for emerald

What other examples exist?

For different translations:

cement: 水门汀、水泥

Internet: 因特网、互联网

vitamin: 维生素、维他命

Sacramento: 沙加缅度、三个馒头 :P

Bourgeoisie: 布尔乔亚、资产阶级

From different languages, actually, there are many, if you count Japanese and Cantonese.

Florence: 翡冷翠、佛罗伦萨 (Italian, English)

metaphysics：形而上学（日）、玄学（中）

evolution: 进化(日）、天演（中）

philosophy: 哲学（日）、理学（中）

bus: 巴士（粤）、公共汽车（汉）

However, Japanese translations won over most early Chinese translations in these words.


What is the difference between 店 and 馆? In class I remember my 老师 said there is a difference between 店 and 馆。
For example: 咖啡店 and 咖啡馆。In this context what is the difference?

There is difference between 店 and 馆. Actually, it is likely be the convention of Chinese expression.

茶馆: a place where you can drink tea.

茶店: a place where you can buy tea, usually called 茶叶店.

咖啡馆=咖啡店，旅馆=旅店，理发馆=理发店

but 饭馆≠饭店，酒馆≠酒店


Use of the word BOTH in Chinese. I've always been wondering how you would say, "I went to china both for travel and to study Chinese."

So if someone asked you, "你是去中国旅行的还是去学习汉语的?" (Did you go for travel or for study?), and you basically wanted to say "both reasons", would you use the 一边。。。一边。。。 structure?

Would this be correct? 我是去中国一边旅行一边学习汉语的。

Thanks in advance!

In fact 一边。。。一边。。。 means doing two things at the same time, like 我一边学习一边听音乐 means I listen to the music while studying.

Here, you can say 我去中国既旅行又学习汉语。

既。。又。。 is an appropriate phrase to express that.


The max number of characters that map to a single pronunciation So it seems that there is no way to map the Pinyin version of the pronunciation of Chinese words into Chinese characters directly:

If Pinyin (or Other Romanization) can be Translated Back into Chinese Characters

What must be done is, in addition to spelling out the sound of the word in Pinyin, you must select the appropriate character out of a list of characters that match that sound/spelling.

What I'm wondering is, the max number of items that would appear in that list (roughly). For example, say that there are 10 words/characters that are all called yī. Then there are just 10 characters in the list you'd have to select from when typing that in. Maybe there is only 1 matching character, I'm not sure.

Wondering what the rough estimate or scale is of how many character sets map to a single pronunciation. If it's like 5 or 10 max, or 100  or 1000 in some cases. That would be interesting to know.

The Phonology of Standard Chinese by San Duanmu (端木三) has a list of the 15 most common syllables, followed by the number of different characters pronounced that way, not including tones.
yi (106)，ji (93), yu (90),
fu (73),
zhi (72),
li (71),
qi (66),
yuan (64),
xi (64),
jian (61),
shi (58),
wu (55),
wei (53),
ju (51), pi (51）
Tones distribution should be roughly even for the most part  although the book does say that yi4 represents 63 different words.


What does this phrase mean in Chinese “珉，石之美玉者”? Seems to be a line of poetry from ancient times?

The sentence seems to be the explanation of 珉 in 说文解字.

  珉,石之美者。

It could be literally translated as 珉, the elegant one (the beauty) of the stones; 珉's original meaning is 似玉的美石 (jade-like stone).


Etymology of foreign names translated to Chinese I am looking for a resource that explains the translation of English names to Chinese. In this case i am trying to understand why Broadway is translated to 百老汇。
Anyone knows? Thanks in advance.

Most foreign names are transliterated, not translated into Chinese.

百老汇 /Bǎi lǎo huì/ is a transliteration of Broadway

Only a few English names of place are common enough to be translated by their actual meaning in Chinese

Example:

Buffalo city - 水牛城
Phoenix city - 鳳凰城

For people's name, even the simplest English names like "Stone" and "White" are transliterated as "史東" (Shǐ Dōng) and "韋特" (Wéi Tè) instead of translated as "石" (stone) and "白" (white)


How can I say someone is doing their work in a half-assed manner? The adjective half-assed means to finish something but often without regards to it being perfect.
I don’t think 半途而废 means this as it literally means go half-way and give up (and not finish).
I recently found a word called 敷衍, but I remember I learned that it meant “patronize”. Like 别敷衍我了.
So what is a good word to describe someone who does stuff without giving a 100 percent of their effort?

敷衍 as an adjective or adverb can be used to describe a perfunctory attitude; consider the phrase 敷衍了事 (lit. to skimp through so as to finish something), or the idiom 敷衍塞責. Synonyms include 馬虎 and 草率, which are slightly more colloquial. As in, for example, 做事馬虎, 辦事草率. Or even 馬馬虎虎, but seldom 草草率率, nor 敷敷衍衍. 搪塞 also works, but only as a verb. If you want to comment on the lack of quality of someone's work as a result of their attitude, you may want to use these.

全力以赴, 盡力而為, 出盡全力, 用盡全力 and the like all describe the opposite; you may accuse (or rather, encourage) someone for not making their utmost effort by negation, such as adding 沒有 before these phrases. Or even 付出100%的努力 (lit. to pay 100% of one's effort, as stated in your question) is perfectly understandable.


How to translate belief? I'm trying to write this in Chinese:

  "Knowledge is a subset of true beliefs."

But I can't find a proper word for "beliefs."

Notice that 信仰 is faith. Faith has religious connotations; belief is neutral.

I would say:

知識是一種信念, 但信念不必是知識.

I thus translate it because of the following reasons.

1) A belief is something that is not tested or proved.

2) Knowledge in natural sciences is something that passes lots of tests. But, it is still to a certain extent a belief; for there is no way to be sure that knowledge in natural sciences will not be disputed by new evidence.

Therefore, knowledge can be viewed as the collection of tested beliefs.


When should one use 报告 (bàogào) or 演讲 (yǎnjiǎng) when saying "to give a talk"? I'm trying to say "I went to Indonesia to give a talk at a conference."  My best attempt thus far is:

  我去了Indonesia参加会议做报告
  wǒ qùle Indonesia cānjiā huìyì zuò bàogào

It's a fairly literal translation from English ("I go[past tense] Indonesia attend conference give talk").  (I'm happy to say "Indonesia" in English, as the Chinese 印度尼西亚 sounds basically the same.)

I think it's okay to say this, but I'm not sure if I should use 报告 (bàogào) or 演讲 (yǎnjiǎng) (or even 讲演 (jiǎngyǎn)) which all basically mean "talk".

Question: When should one use 报告 or 演讲 when saying "to give a talk"?

I found some snippets online:

  谢谢你们听我的演讲,英语怎么说？ (ref.)
  Xièxiè nǐmen tīng wǒ de yǎnjiǎng, yīngyǔ zěnme shuō?

Which I think translates to "Thank you[plural] for listening to my talk; how do I say this in English?"

  谁上个星期听我的报告? (ref.)
  Shéi shàng gè xīngqí tīng wǒ de bàogào?

Which I think translates to "Who listened to my talk last week?"

This suggests that both can be used in certain circumstances.

报告 means "report"

演讲 means "speech"

It all depends on the content of your speech.

If you are reading a report to inform people about some facts, you should use  发表报告 (give a report)
If you are invited to educate people in the conference about some facts, then you can use  发表演讲 (give a speech/lecture)
If you are expressing your opinions in the conference,  then you should say  发表言论 (give my opinions/ comments)
In any case, 报告, 演讲 and 言论 are all spoken words, so all can be referred to  "talk" in English " e.g. "who listened to my talk in the conference?"


Extended use of the Complement of direction and 把。 I was under the impression that you cannot say:

  *我把他的名字想不起來。

Because our book says you cannot apply 把 to 可能補語。
But now my fellow students pointed out that 想不起來 is no 可能補語, but rather 趨向補語的引申用法。

Does the same rule apply, or is the sentence correct? My grammar book says that 趨向補語 frequently acts as 可能補語 (for example: 自行車壞了，我騎不回去了！). It seems only natural, that the same restrictions should apply.

When I have 想不起來 on its own without 把，can I even unambiguously say, whether it is the negative of 可能補語 or 趨向補語？

You cannot apply 把 to a verb phrase with potential particle because 把 is a dispositive marker. A dispositive marker marks an object to be disposited of by a verb. For example: in (把)他趕走. the object(他) is being disposited of by the verb 趕走 (chase away).

When a potential particles (得 or 不) is inserted between a verb and its resultive/ directional particle, that verb becomes a potential verb. For example:  趕走= chase away;  趕得走 = able to chase away.  It can no longer be applied to [dispositive marker + object] structure which requires an active verb at the end.

Example: in 我(趕走)他 , (趕走) is an action verb; in 我(趕得走)他, (趕得走)is a potential verb- You can, but you are not actively preforming the verb)

For the same reason, 我把他的名字(想起來- active verb) is correct, but  我把他的名字(想不/得起來- potential verb) is incorrect

To make '我把他的名字想起來' negative , you have to modify 把 with a negative marker like 沒 or 未 , for example: "我(沒)把他的名字想起來"

  When I have 想不起來 on its own without 把，can I even unambiguously say, whether it is the negative of 可能補語 or 趨向補語？

Without 把, there's no object to be disposited of,  '想起來' (active verb) or '想不起來/'想得起來 (potential verb) can be applied.

The sentence can be "我(想起)他的名字來" or, "我(想得起)他的名字來,  "我(想不起)他的名字來"- (you are not actively preforming the verb)


Why do we have to say 一百 一千 but not 一十? This has always stumped me as all other base 10 numbers (>10) in Chinese you declare 1 through 9 for the quantity [1] of these units but you only have to declare 2 through 9 for 十 as 1 is implied [2]

So is there reason behind this or just a quirk in the numerical system?

1:

  一百

  一千

  一万

2:

  十六

  二十六

Note:
As @congusbongus has pointed out this is only applicable when talking about 十 through 十九

It's just conventional. Even common Chinese don't know why.

You do can say 16, for example,  一十六 or 十六.  When we emphasizing something, we say 一十六. While in common usage, we say 十六, because it's tired to add a prefix 一. It's redundant.


'老了以后再去考虑吧' this sentence has apectual or modal 了? I'm a student of Chinese. I know the differences about modal and aspectual 了，but this sentence, 老了以后再去考虑吧 confuses me. I think is not modal, because modal should be at the end of the sentence, but a the same time 老 is not a verb, so I can't understand if it is aspectual or modal?

老 can be a verb for "to age/ to get old"

了 in 老了 is an aspect marker that indicates the verb/ action is completed, therefore , 老了 means "aged/ gotten old "

  [老了以后]再去考虑吧] --> [after you've gotten old], then think about it

Examples of 老 as a verb:

我老了 = I am getting old
看似老了幾年 = seem like aged a few years

Note: 了 only indicate completion of a verb, it doesn't indicate tense.


Idiomatic translation of "passive aggressive" The English term "passive aggressive" is generally used to describe non-overt displays of aggression, such as resistance, poor attitude, posting silly workplace notices or other behaviours that indirectly express hostility to the target.

However, I was unable to find an idiomatic translation. Google returns a few answer sites (1,2,3) which return examples that sound like machine translations, and which also sound partly like oxymorons due to their different connotations in Chinese. For example, 被动攻击 and 消极攻击 were all given as examples, but they do not appear to make sense, and sound like machine translations.

How would one idiomatically translate the phrase into Chinese?

To literally translate " passive aggressive" as 「被動攻擊」or 「消極攻擊」cannot capture the essence of this phrase. It is better to use interpretation that truly express the meaning of it.

My choice is " 陰損"

  http://tw.ichacha.net/hy/陰損.html

  ①陰險尖刻：說話～。


What semantic notions underlie 人 (person) and 僅 (solely)? CUHK and Yellowbridge don't expound the semantic shift. I'm especially addled by the shift in lexical categories too, from a noun to an adverb.

Synopsis  : 從「人」，「堇」聲，用作副詞，表示才、只。
Elaboration: 從「人」，「堇」聲，用作副詞，表示才、只。《說文》：「材能也。从人，堇聲。」《國語‧周語中》：「今天降災於周室，余一人僅能守府。」
　　「僅」也指數量少。《公羊傳‧恆公三年》：「此其曰有年何？僅有年也。彼其曰大有年何?大豐年也。」何休注：「僅，猶劣也，謂五穀多少皆有，不能大成熟。」

Outlier

1 (orig.) ability, talent
2 ○ only

Here the ○ icon is an indicator of a phonetic loan. So, basically it is just a:

character that is "borrowed" to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme


What are the criteria used on dictionaries to decide word classes? Mandarin is a complete MESS regarding word classes. I can't think of an example right now, but I'm completely sure there are some words that reach the point of being a noun, adjective, verb and adverb depending on how they are used on a sentence.

But sometimes I think Chinese lexicologists and learning books makers just make a random draw of what word class they're going to put there and that's it.

So here's the question: What are the criteria used on dictionaries and learning materials to decide word classes?

Thanks!

Before 2004, there's no word classes labels in Chinese dictionary. In 2004, 《现代汉语规范词典》add in this label, and in 2005,《现代汉语词典》add in this label.
But it really confused Chinese people because the conception of word classes comes from English, Chinese language do not have a strict gamma system from the start. You can refer to this Zhihu post for more detailed information: Zhihu Post (In Chinese)


What's the meaning of 道郡? I encountered this word '道郡' while reading a story set an China's ancient times. I tried Baidu and got some names such as  '怀道郡' and '狄道郡', so I think '道郡' may be an ancient counterpart to the modern word for 'county' (which is just 郡).

Can anyone give me an exact answer?

“道“ & “郡” were administrative division name.

in 秦 dynasty, the country is divided into 36 “郡“, each one is roughly the size of a province nowadays.

in 唐 dynasty, the country is divided into 15 “道“, each one is about the size of a province today.

county is an acceptable translation; however, i prefer “province”, or “state”.


Can all adjectives be transformed into adverbs with 地? In Mandarin if you use 地 to an adjective, it can change into an adverb. For example,

我真喜欢你健健康康地长大。
他舒服地躺在那里。

Now I wonder whether all adjectives can be transformed into adverbs in this rule. Is this assumption true? If not, how can I know if one adjective can be transformed into an adverb with 地?

Check out these dictionary entries for 地[de5]:
ABC

(adv.-forming, like English -ly)
很快地
hěn kuài de
very quickly

Oxford

AUXILIARY
[used with an adverb or adverbial phrase]
合理地安排和使用劳动力
dispose of available manpower rationally
应该历史地评价一个人。
We should judge a person from the historical point of view.

Oxford Pocket

<助> [used after an adjective, a noun or a phrase to form an adverbial adjunct before the verb]
狐狸偷偷地跑进果园
The fox sneaked into the orchard
他喝醉酒似地叫嚷
He shouted as if he were drunk

KEY

{grammar} (variant pronunciation of -dì) (forming an adverb from an adjectiv, e.g., gāoxìng 高興/高兴 "happy" + de 地 yields gāoxìngde 高興地/高兴地 "happily")

CC-CEDCIT

1 -ly
2 structural particle: used before a verb or adjective, linking it to preceding modifying adverbial adjunct

The simple answer to your question is: yes. The more complicated answer is that many things can be turned into an adverbial adjunct by adding 地[de5].


Is there a Chinese equivalent of the German "Mut zur Lücke"? In German, we have the expression "Mut zur Lücke", in English something like "courage to have a gap" - a knowledge gap. It is used between students, when they skip to learn something for an exam.

It's more the hope that this topic will be not part of the exam or test. So it is some kind of taking a calculated risk. The reasons can be diverse. Normally caused by the inability to understand or simply running out of time. Laziness or carelessness  also play a role.

When someone says this, they stop learning (of a certain topic) and accept the risk that it maybe be asked in a test. Then of course they "knows their limits", but this is secondary. They are brave / have nerve to have a knowledge gap.

Is there a similar expression in Chinese? I even could not found a translation for "knowledge gap" in Chinese.

google told me "Mut zur Lücke" means "dare to venture into the unknown", and I can't find a Chinese phrase that have the same meaning xD. But there is a expression, 碰运气, which means to "push your luck". So in your example about the exam, you can say 碰一碰运气吧，这部分我不复习了(Let me push my luck and skip this part).

P.S. In Chinese, 人品 means moral qualities. Chinese people sort of believe in karma, where people with good qualities(人品好) will do good deeds, good deeds will be rewarded with good luck. So you can replace 碰运气 with 拼人品(the collocation can't be changed, 碰人品 and 拼运气 are not proper expressions). But this expression "拼人品" is informal and is only used among young people.


Grammar behind “你的脑子进水了”。 What's the grammar behind the sentence 你的脑子进水了?
Because 你的脑子 here is the object into which 水 the subject entered, right?
Shouldnt it be the other way round then? I am a bit confused.
For example "I entered the room" would be 我进（入）房间了, right?
Thanks in advance!

At first sight this seems to be a sentence with S-P predicate of type ＂这个士兵胸部受伤了＂or ＂兔子尾巴短＂with 进水 in unusual order P-S (cf. 来了人，发生事故，etc.). A sentence of undoubtedly S-P as predicate type might be 你的脑子水分含量太大 (our brain water content high, i.e. your brain has high water content), a sentence with usual verb predicate might be 脑袋生锈了 (has become rusty，see web), a sentence with nominal predicate (a noun as predicate might be）脑袋一片空白 (mind goes blank).

On the other hand as stated in the other answer, 进水 is a compound verb, cf. bkrs: 进水 (here) to have water get in (one’s ear, shoes etc), to get flooded;
similarly, 进贼 be burglarized (of a house/etc.), example 我们家进贼了.

Note however the following examples with 进 being combined rather freely with other objects (and  了 between 进 and object, see jukuu):

我的鞋里进了沙子. I' ve got some grit / a piece of grit in my shoe.
我眼睛里弄进了一粒灰尘。I've got a speck of dust in my eye.
他的齿缝里嵌进了一小片食物。He had a morsel of food caught between one tooth and another.

Maybe the last two cases are irrelevant since the verbs now are 弄进，嵌进 i.e.弄,嵌 with complement of result 进.

Another compound using 进, 进货:  stock (a shop) with goods, 这星期没进货.
Also note (bkrs) 左边进人, 右边出人 apparently confirming the exceptional order P-S).

There are examples of both 进水了 and 进了水 e.g. 笔记本电脑进了少量水, same for 进贼  e。g。家里进了贼？

Note that compounds (复合词）are of the following 5 types:

并列 (coordinate; coordinating; juxtaposed),
偏正 (endocentric),
动补 (verb complement),
动宾 (verb-object),
主谓 （subject-predicate).

S in the case of 进水 only 4 or 5 could apply; in case of 4 水 would be object of verb 进, case 5 seems doubtful, since in 主谓 compounds the subject seems to always come first.


Difference between 生活 and 生命 Both 生活 and 生命 mean "life". Both can be modified by "好" (好生活/好生命). Like any language, I don't believe two words ever mean the exact identical thing. If anybody could point me to the subtle (or not so subtle) differences between the two words, I would be most grateful. Thanks!

生活 is life as in "family life/private life/sex life/working life".
生命 is life as in "Cats are supposed to have nine lives/He lost his life in an accident"


Is the character 攜 still used in modern Chinese? This character has in classical Chinese a very common meaning, namely "to take", like in the sentence:

攜妻子至海岸。

(To take wife and children and arrive at the sea shore).

I recognize many characters used in classical Chinese in modern Chinese, but I can not remember having seen this particular one.

That is a standard character, simplified 携, meaning carry, take along, hold in hand. A common word is 携带 (carry).


Keeping track of words learned I'm looking for a good online site to keep track of chinese words I've learned. I've looked at memrise.com, but found it lacking in features since its not linked to a dictionary and I have to manually enter character, pinyin and english. I've also looked at http://www.nciku.com/ which seems to has a nice vocabulary list which is integrated with their dictionary. Both of these sites also has the ability to generate "tests" for you to help you test and remember things you've learned in the past.

Are there any other options available out there? What are you guys using?

谢谢

Jaco

I think a close search of the SE site is what's called for here. Doing so I was able to find a link to Yellowbridge.com and it's memory game (an alternative to flash cards). http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/mtch-options.php?deck=ic-1-1. There are other websites like http://lingomi.com and http://zhongwen.com that may prove useful.  Chinesetools.com is another. A Google search will yield many more.


Character substitution in Microsoft Pinyin IME for typing 「」(直引号) recently my Windows 10 was updated and with came some changes with the input methods that I was using, namely Google Chinese Piyin 谷歌拼音. The problem is that I cannot access it now for no clear reason.
I could actually accept Microsoft Pinyin IME, as long as it could help me to one thing: change the default 【】 quotation marks, for 「」 that I have been using for years.
I have seen all the settings and did not find any function that could help me set up substitution characters as I was used in Google Pinyin IME.
Any ideas, guys?
Patrik

1, You can use the software "Auto-hot-key"
Create a script and add the following lines
[::「
]::」

Run the scripts.
When you type [ on the keyboard it will be 「. When you type ] it will be 」. This solution will work regardless of Input Methods. This is neat and the most recommended solution.
You can also use different hotkeys, with or without modifiers, as you like. such as
^[::「
^]::」

means when you type ctrl + [ on the keyboard it will be「.
And if you are using 「」 as a Chinses counterpart of " " you can use the following script
+'::
 {
   toggle := !toggle
   if (toggle)
    {
      sendinput, 「
    }
   else
    {
      sendinput, 」
    }
 }
return

When you type Shift + ', it will send 「 and 」alternatively, same as when you are using the double quotes in English.
Auto-hot-key download and document link: https://www.autohotkey.com/
2, Here is an easy walk around that allows you to type 「」
Open MS PinYin settings, and choose Lexicon and self-learning

Choose add or edit existing user-defined phrase

Add the following phrase

Then type

No additional software, but need some setup.
3, MS Pinyin Trick
When using MS Pinyin, type uubd, you will find the one you need. Maybe you need to press "+" a few times to find them though. This solution needs no setup.


Any hypothesis to remember 刑? Any easy way or background why
Well + knife is Punishment? Knife is related punishment, but after killing with knife any history to through them in the well?
wikitionary details about 刑:
Originally written as 㓝, phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *ɡeːŋ): phonetic 井 (OC *skeŋʔ) + semantic 刂. Later corrupted as ⿰幵刂, phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *ɡeːŋ): phonetic 幵 (OC *kŋeːn) + semantic 刂.

刑
根据说文解字，刑的左边在古代还真是个"井"，

井，法也。

注意此处的"井"并不是水井（well），而是"整齐、有秩序"
井

整齐，有秩序：～然。～～有条。

再查井的说文解字，会发现有

(丼)八家爲一丼

可能是古代比较早期的一种管理制度，看着像九宫格，中间空地不住人，看起来整整齐齐的样子。


What does the '欢' in '苟且偷欢' mean? I tried understanding 苟且偷欢 word by word.
However, I don't think 'improperly stealing happiness' is the correct answer, does the word '欢' have slang/idiomatic meanings except joyous or happy?

「偷」has a less negative meaning (than stealing) of finding time (to do something), which is the meaning in this context. For example,「偷暇」means to find a (fleeting) moment of leisure.

「苟且」, in this context, is more accurately translated as perfunctory (doing something to attain minimal standards, or doing something with minimal effort), so「苟且偷歡」is to be content with temporary happiness.

EDIT: Since the OP has posted the context of the phrase as

  王八妻子与单身雄蛇便苟且偷欢

  (My) bastard wife and that sneaky bachelor "苟且偷欢" whenever they can

then Tang Ho's point about illicit relations is the correct interpretation:

  (My) bastard wife and that sneaky bachelor jump into bed whenever they can


Help identifying a kanji Well, generic questions like these are found aplenty, so I apologise in advance. That being said, I've spent the last hour trying to find the kanji in the image below (sadly, to no avail).

Here is what I've tried so far, and my assumptions:

The first thing that occurred to me was to use a finder by radicals (like Jisho, for example). Based on my knowledge, I've tried using the radicals ⽊ and ⼧ but nothing came up that resembled the last part.

I've also tried to write it down (hard as it is on a pc), but nothing relevant came up either.

Finally, I've also tried looking at every 9-stroke kanji there is. Nothing came up.

At this point, I'm assuming that one of three things happened:

I misinterpreted one of the radicals

I don't know how to count anymore >.< (jokes aside, maybe I mistook a stroke for two or vice-versa)

The one I'm hoping it's most likely (for the sake of my pride and sanity), there is a digital variant of this kanji that looks quite different from this (possibly less common or handwritten) version.

It is bothering me quite much not being able to find this kanji, specially because it does not even seem to be that hard...

柠 is the Simplified Chinese version of 檸, the first character of 檸檬 (lemon). It is not used in Japanese.


Does saying 我今天26岁 imply it's my birthday today? I attempted to write a joke in Chinese that begins:

  我今天26岁
  I'm 26 today
  (Wǒ jīntiān 26 suì)

And after some confusion about it being my birthday, it continues:

  我昨天也是26岁的
  I was also 26 yesterday
  (Wǒ zuótiān yěshì 26 suì de)

The joke is that the first sentence implies it's my birthday, but it's still technically correct even if it's not my birthday.

(These are my sentences, so I can't be 100% sure the grammar is correct.)

However...

Question: Does saying 我今天26岁 imply it's my birthday today?

In English, if I say "I'm 26 today", it implies it's my birthday today, because otherwise I wouldn't say "today".  I'm wondering if it is the same in Chinese.

(P.S. I'm not 26, and today is not my birthday.)

'我今天26岁' seems very strange to me, but it does transmits the sense that today is the birthday.

If you would like to imply that it is your birthday today, a more proper expression could be '我今天26岁了', where '了' puts in a sense of completion or perfectness so that the sentence would imply 'I turned 26 today', thus revealing that today is the speaker's birthday.

If you simply want to tell your age, '我今年26岁' would seem more natural to native Chinese.


Can someone translate 一陪二十的赌注啊! for me? can someone translate this for me 一陪二十的赌注啊！
google says “Accompany the bet of twenty!” but im dubious. Please clarify folks!


Authoritative source for 一 changing to 4th tone before 1st, 2nd or 3rd In another users answer https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/2046/38 they said:

  一 is pronounced in the first tone when it stands alone. It is
  pronounced in the fourth tone when it precedes a first, second, or
  third tone. However, it is pronounced in the second tone when it
  precedes a fourth tone.

I was surprised to read this and didn't believe it. However, when searching the net I found several places where this is mentioned.

I checked Google translate and it gave me Yīzǎo for 一早 and Yī nián yǐhòu for 一年以后 which is what I always thought it was.

A search on Google for "yīnián" provides me with 106,000 results, but a search for "yìnián" only provides 6,330 results.

Obviously, the examples above only provide partial evidence of correctness. But, is there a reliable, authoritative resource which can confirm the claim that 一 should change to 4th tone?

These tone changes, known as tone sandhi, are not indicated according to Hanyu Pinyin rules:

  11.1 Only the original tones are indicated; tone sandhi is not indicated.

This is why your Google search for "yìnián" would not necessarily yield more results, because it's still supposed to be written as "yīnián" even when it's pronounced "yìnián".

EDIT: Here's more information on tone sandhi from The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey by Yip Po-Ching, p. 27:

  ...tone sandhi may also happen by convention in a specific set of words in the lexicon when they are followed by words of different tones. This set includes numericals: yī 'one', qī 'seven', bā 'eight', and the negator bù 'not'. For example:

  yī on its own or not followed by other tones

  yī → yí when followed by a fourth tone

  yī → yì when followed by other tones

  qī/bā on their own or followed by tones other than a fourth

  qī/bā → qí/bá when followed by a fourth tone

  bù on its own or followed by tones other than a fourth

  bù → bú when followed by a fourth tone

  ...

  All these tone sandhi applications are actually more or less rule-governed and will not generally be reflected in the pinyin or phonetic notations of the disyllabic words or expressions in question.


Chinese stroke order diagram styles resources I'm looking for a resource online that shows the stroke orders of a character in just one box for my Anki flashcards on my phone. The format should look something like this (unfortunately it's Kanji only which doesn't have characters like 员) or even better colored (from Fluent Forever's model decks)

But the resources I've found so far use animations (which might not even play on my phone, it'll also take quite a while to finish if it does especially for complex Hanzi) or the grid format which doesn't sit well with the aspect ratio of phones (the steps will look small to the eyes)

Does anyone know some Chinese resources with the stroke order diagrams I want?

This site is quite good. It doesn't contain any ancient Flash or Java components, and displays the character in complete stroke order in one single static image, or animation if you prefer.

https://strokeorder.com.tw/

Although the interface is in Chinese, it's easy to understand, you put a character in the text field and click the magnifying glass button to search.


The usage of 的 at the end of the sentence （那件衣服可不是我洗的）我洗衣服很干净的。

Can someone try to explain to me the function of 的 at The end the sentence "我洗衣服很干净的"?
Shouldn't it have been “我衣服洗得很干净”. Does “我洗衣服很干净的” follow any pattern/structure?
Thank you.

To perform the meaning in the given context below sentences would be useful:

  1.我衣服洗得很干净   (100% perfect correct, native chinese , popular sentence )

  2.我衣服洗得很干净 (的)/(滴)/(啦)/(哟)/(呐)/(呀)  etc...
  ( only to emphasize, no additional meaning. )

  3.我洗(过)(的)衣服很干净  (native, perfect,popular )

  4.我的衣服洗得很干净 (native,perfect,popular, 4 is the full sentence of 1)

  5.我洗衣服/很干净的  ( olny a bit weird but most ppl understand)

  6.我洗衣服(的过程)是很干净的 (native,perfect,popular, 6 is improvement of 5)

if you only want a shortcut, following the most popular way native speaker says will be more useful than researching on Chinese grammars stuff.


Are "gratitude" and "appreciation" suitable CC-CEDICT definitions for 感激之心? In my writing, my teacher suggested I use 感激之心.  I didn't find 感激之心 in CC-CEDICT, although there is

  感激 感激 [gan3 ji1] /to be grateful/to appreciate/thankful/

It seems reasonable to create a definition for it (there are comparable definitions for 恻隐之心 and 赤子之心), and 感激 is a verb whereas 感激之心 is a noun.  It means something like "gratitude" or "appreciation", but let's give this a peer review.

Proposed definition:

  感激之心 感激之心 [gan3 ji1 zhi1 xin1] /gratitude/appreciation/

Question: Is this a suitable CC-CEDICT definition for 感激之心?

CC-CEDICT definitions are high-quality: they are proofread and edited prior to being added; ideally we can minimize this editorial work.

They have the form

  [traditional Chinese] [simplified Chinese] [pinyin] [definitions, separated by '/']

"感激之心" literally is "the heart that is grateful/appreciated/thankful". And I think it should be kept that way, which is a phrase not a word. Its meaning can be derive from words in the phrase easily. I don't think it should have its own entry.

"恻隐之心" has its own entry, probably because "恻隐" is seldom used alone now. "恻隐之心" has become a set phrase, or a word.

"赤子之心" is different, it means "the heart of ...", and it has its own figurative meaning which is different from that of "赤子". So it got its own entry.


What is the function of 已 in 好像她已出去好几天了。 What is the purpose of 已 in the following sentence？

  好像她已出去好几天了。

The English translation given is:

  It looks as if she's gone away for a few days.

Or is this an incorrect-character, supposed to be something else?

Here 已 has the same meaning as 已经 and means already. When speaking one would normally use 已经, but in written documents 已 can be found.

I would translate 好像她已出去好几天了 as "It seems she's already been gone for some days".


What is the origin of '日' as a curse word? I read a bunch of answers on 百度知道 but they are all very vague, indecisive and unauthoritative.
1

为什么人们喜欢用那字，那是因为用的人多，人们大多都没有自己的想法，别人说什么，别人什么说地多，他觉得不用就是落伍了。就这样，时间一长就很多人在说了，而且觉得自己特牛，会用那字。恨不能见谁都说。这不是很幼稚吗。
就像“晕”字，现在人们聊天也老喜欢用，跟那是差不多的。只是骂人跟觉得别人不懂表达的区别。 一楼那人说这跟日本有关系。这应该有关系。
但是这肯定是没有什么可查的。谁都不知道是怎么用起来的。 如果真的是抵触日本情绪，那用这字来骂同胞，真让人搞不懂！

2

西北一带都用这个字骂人的，意思都是一样的，其实这个”日”字并不是正确的，真只表达这个意思的那个”日”是一个”尸”字头的字，至于到底怎么写就不记得了，曾经在红楼梦里见过的，康熙字典里应该能查的到的．．．．汉语里很多关于”性”方面的字都是”尸”字头的，只是现代汉语里已经不常见了
有一种解释为骂日/本/人

3

日是象形字，可分成“口”和“一”，口是女性性器官的象形意思，“一”就不用讲了，一插进口，你也懂了，就是操。

My guess was that it had to do with Chinese peoples hatred of Japanese people and thus becoming a curse word. So whats the deal? Where does this word come from?

日 sounds like 入 when stressing the vowels. Compare with the character 肏 for the literal meaning of 入 in this context.


How can one determine the radical for a given character? Many times, when reading Mandarin, I will happen across a character that I don't know. Usually, the radical along with some context will clue me into the meaning, but if I can't determine the radical, I'm stuck. Generally, I can spot many character's radicals, such as 氵, 辶 or 宀. However, there are characters who have one or more "radical-like" components to them, like 烋 or 想, and I'm unsure how to tell which is the true radical. Is there any general approaches which will at least more better than guessing? Are their certain radicals that generally take precedence over others when they both occur in the same character?

EDIT: My examples aren't the best, as both of those characters have radicals that are easy to pick out. A general strategy for when they aren't so easy is really what I'm after. For example, 能 seems to have two possible radicals, 厶 and 匕.

A rule of thumb is to look for the radical that seems to be more prominent. For those characters, it's pretty easy:

In 烋, notice how 灬 spans the entire character horizontally: it is the radical (火)
Same thing applies to 想 : 心 is the radical.
As a bonus, in 强 which you have in your name, 弓 is the radical: notice how it spans the entire character vertically

The next best strategy is to identify and memorize common radicals and where they are commonly positioned, eg:

In 很 the radical is 彳. This is a radical that mostly appears on the left.
In 责  the radical is 贝. This is a radical that mostly appears on the bottom
In 军  the radical is 冖. When in doubt, pick the one on top (and/or the one with the fewest strokes).
In 明 the radical is 日. When in doubt, pick the one on the left.

A lot of this will come with practice.

There are some tools that will allow you to look up word and it will give you the radical, like this:
http://mandarintools.com/


What does 遍 mean in 小编遍搜多名? In the following sentence:

  小编遍搜多名日本时尚博主的推文和美图，盘点了一下2017秋季日系时尚关键词，和爱美的盆友共享。

I understand the meaning, which is something like the following:

  (Our) bloggers search for recommendations and pictures posted by many popular Japanese bloggers, and compiled the crucial points on Japanese fasion on fall 2017. So here we share them with you.

However, I don't understand some grammatical points:

What is 遍? How does it function as a grammar here?
搜多名 is I think the abbreviation of 搜索很多有名, but is this correct? In that case, is it common to abbreviate the long words to such a compact one?
What does the 盆友 mean? My dictionary and MDBG doesn't have the entry, FYI.

遍 means allover;everywhere here. 遍搜 means search allover/everywhere. Basically it has the same meaning with 搜遍, but with the 遍 being put ahead OP wanted to emphasize the degree of how many bloggers he checked.
多名 is not the abbreviation of 很多有名, but just 很多名, i.e. many. 名 is just the measure word of the people, i.e. 博主.
盆友 is a net slang, means 朋友.


How to say “grammatical case” in Chinese? How do you call “grammatical case” in Chinese? I mean the property of grammar where nouns change based on their function in sentence, for instance like in Russian or to lesser extent in German.

I have found 语义格 and 格语法, the second one seems better. Are there better ways to say that?

Also: how to say “case ending”?

It is just 格, while the Wikipedia page also lists 语义格 as a possibility.

格语法 is not acceptable, as it would mean a grammar of some kind, but not "case".

"case ending" might be 格词尾.


Character Gaps On Comic Conversation : 4 I am learning Chinese by reading different texts. I have some problems recognizing some characters in this older copy of a book (the Chinese character is sometimes too dark to distinguish strokes and scanning doesn't help). Here is the work that I have done so far. Thank you for any help finding the missing characters (I do not need the translations, per se but just seeing a clear copy of the character would be helpful). In some cases if I have a question on context I have presented those issues. There are multiple questions because I want to show the work in context. I could break these up into smaller questions but that would not be helpful to other learners (learning conversation) and would unnecessarily clog the website.
Title: (missing context)

哆啦 A 梦 ( I think this is supposed to sound-out "Doraemon" but other than A 梦 referencing a dream I am lost of the implied double meaning. )

I need some help identifying the missing characters (I can find translations once I can see the characters clearly):
Pane 1
( ? ➜ missing character )

是我: I'm here
（？）了你一（？）吧 :
哇一: Sound(surprise); wa yi!

Pane 2
( ? ➜ missing character )

你是谁：Who are you
从哪里来的：Where did you come from?
想神什么: （？）not sure of meaning

Pane 3
( ? ➜ missing character )

为。。。。。为什么会从这裡（？）出来：
一（？）問这么多叫我（？）么回（？）：

Pane 4
( ? ➜ missing character )

（？）了！（？）而言之：
我是来（？）你（？）（？）苦（？）的：

UPDATE
Semaphore's answer so it's easier to find:
Title
哆啦A夢 is just a transcription of ドラえもん|Doraemon, there's no meaning to it.
Panel 1
是我: "It's me."
嚇了你一跳吧?: "Did I scare you?" (or more literally "I must have scared you, right?")
Missed characters are: 嚇, 跳
Panel 2
你是誰? 從哪裡來的?: your translations are fine here.
想幹什麼: "What do you want (to do)?"
Missed characters are: 幹
Panel 3
為... 為什麽會從這裡跑出來... "H-How did you come out of here..."
一次問我這麼多叫我怎麽回答?: "How do you expect me to answer so many questions in one go?"
Missed characters are: 跑, 次, 麽
Panel 4
算了! 總而言之, 我是來救你脫離苦海的: "Never mind (all that), basically I'm here to save you from your suffering."
Missed characters are: 算, 總, 救, 脫, 離, 海


Are "我在哪里可以买火车票" and "我哪里可以买火车票" both correct sentences? Are "我在哪里可以买火车票" and "我哪里可以买火车票" both correct sentences? If one isn't, why?

"我在哪里可以买到火车票?" is the correct way to ask where you can buy the ticket, but in oral language "我哪里可以买到火车票?" is used quite often.

Actually there are 2 ways how "我哪里可以买到火车票"  can be interpreted. The first one is a question asking where you can buy train tickets. The second one is a statement meaning there is no place where train tickets can be bought. In oral language people will know what you mean by the context, the tone of your voice and your expressions.


Can someone help me recognize these characters? (Characters identified: 通臂猿拳) I think the first one is 通? But I’m not sure about the rest. I’m not good with cursive hanzi.

通臂猿拳
Apparently it is a variant of saying 通臂拳, a kind of martial arts popular in the vicinity of Hebei. 通臂 (lit. through arm) refers to the fact that the qi or strength from the back of the practitioner can be delivered across the limbs.
This technique is also an imitation of the ape (猿), hence the name. The literature says the first traceable practitioner in history was Qi Xin 祁信 who lived in Hebei during the Qing Dynasty.
Reference


What does 聊斋志异 mean and what is its cultural significance? 聊斋志异 is the title of a famous collection of short stories dealing with the supernatural. What actually do the words the title is made of verbatim mean?  What is the cultural significance of those words and word-combinations so one could understand why the author (pu songling) used to choose them for the title?

According to Revised Chinese Dictionary of the Ministry of Education, ROC:

  聊齋為蒲松齡的書房，志異是說記錄一些怪異的事情，借鬼狐之事，抒發對現實政治、社會的不滿。

So 聊齋 (聊斋) is simply the name of Pu Songling's studio. 聊 could possibly mean "fun" or alternatively "to depend" or "to rely on". 齋 means a study (as in a room in which one pursues literary endeavours). 志異 (志异) simply means "records of strange happenings".


How do I express the notion of "drama" in Chinese? If you have housemates or a romantic partner, you might (unfortunately) encounter what we call "drama" (n.):

A way of relating to the world in which a person consistently overreacts to or greatly exaggerates the importance of benign events.  Typically "drama" is used by people who are chronically bored or those who seek attention.  People who engage in "drama" will usually attempt to drag other people into their dramatic state, as a way of gaining attention or making their own lives more exciting.

Examples:

Every day I come home to some drama.
I'm sick of all this drama.

I was discussing my situation with my teacher the other day, and I struggled to express the notion of "drama" in Chinese.  Since it's colloquial, it doesn't translate directly: 戏剧: drama / play / theater.  The closest I found online is 戏精 ("drama queen") and 加戏 ("add drama").  However, these feel translated, so I'm not sure if they're any good.
Question: How do I express the notion of "drama" in Chinese?
I'm looking for a way to express this in Chinese that's understandable to Chinese people.  I'm guessing if I use 加戏, whoever I'm talking to won't understand.

There are different kinds of drama, for example, 悬疑剧, 推理剧, 感情剧, 伦理剧. What you wanted to express is a specific kind of drama --

活剧 - Live drama

诙谐有趣而类似戏剧情节的真实事件 - humorous and interesting real events that resemble drama plots

~

闹剧 - Farce

一种喜剧; 2. 比喻滑稽夸张的事情 - 1. a comedy; 2. a metaphor of comically exaggerated event

Every day I come home to some drama. - 天天在家等着我的是一场又一场的活剧

I'm sick of all this drama. - 我再也受不了这些没完没了的闹剧

川普的整个总统任期就是一场活剧/闹剧- Trump’s entire presidency is a live drama/farce

Side note:
In Cantonese, there's a term 六國大封相 (an extravagant Chinese Opera title - a metaphor of chaotic, confrontational, or even violent scene). It may be a suitable choice in some contexts. Example: 成日六國大封相 (huge drama all day and every day)


Name underlining (whole word or just part of it?) This one question is similar, but doesn't quite answer what I am asking here.

If I have a name + title (as in 张老师) how would the underlining work? Would I have to underline the whole word ("张老师") or just the name part ("张"老师)?

What about compound words (like 中国画)?
I have a feeling that underlining compound words (even only the name) would make the text loaded of underlining info ("中国"画、"汉"语、"越"剧、"中"餐、"英"文、etc).

Thanks in advance!

For compound words, the whole word is the proper noun and should be marked as a whole.

Text full of underlining is proper but may look crowded, in which case there are typographical optimizations you can apply, such as increased line height and character padding, or use bold instead of underlining for the markup.


生抽 vs. 酱油- differences? I was looking at this recipe here: https://www.xinshipu.com/zuofa/9787, and noticed the word "生抽“. After inputting it in various online translators, they all said it meant soy sauce. However, the recipe calls for both 生抽 AND 酱油 as separate ingredients, and it wouldn't make sense to require soy sauce twice. Am I just misreading the recipe or are they different things? What better translation is there for 生抽？

生抽酱油 (light soy sauce) and 老抽酱油 (dark soy sauce) are two different types of 酱油 (soy sauce). 生抽 is the abbreviation of 生抽酱油 while 老抽 is the abbreviation of 老抽酱油, 酱 is the abbreviation of 酱油, 酱 also refer to a general name of all kinds of sauces.


How to pronounce 绿林? The 绿林 were an agrarian rebellion movement during the Xin dynasty. How is 绿林 pronounced?

Wikipedia claimsclaimed that it's Lǜlín
But in dictionaries it's lùlín

Which one is right?

It should be lùlín.

绿 is 多音字(polyphone) in Chinese, lǜ is usually used for color, lù is used for some 专有名词(proper noun).

绿林 is pronounced as lùlín, because it came from the name of the mountain 绿林山, which is pronounced as lùlínshān.

And 绿林 should be pronounced as lùlín, it has become a proper noun, in general it won't be used for the meaning of "green woods".

There are also other examples of 绿 pronounced as lù. Such as 鸭绿江, 绿营.


Colloquial equivalent of the English: “good for you” Advanced English Dictionary defines good for you as:

  An exclamation of encouragement or congratulation. "You got married? Good for you!"

It is usually used sarcastically.

ABC’s E-C dictionary translates the phrase as:

  干得好!

which doesn't really work because people don't necessarily have needed to done anything to get a nice "good for you."

A Chinese English Dictionary gives:

  有你的

KEY gives

  真有你的

and

  真有真的

I have been going with a sarcastic ** 恭喜你啊** but it doesn’t seem to accurately express this idea.

Any ideas?

牛逼 is the best to express good for you,it fits any situation you want to say good for you


What is a "亲传弟子" and how would you say it in English? 亲传弟子

I'm not sure how to say it words, but I believe that they are disciples that get things personally passed down by their master and they have a very close relationship with them. However, is there any specific word that can describe it in English?

EDIT: In terms of Chinese Wuxia novels.

How about "Direct Disciple", I remember that's how people used to describe my Wushu Master.


Can you help translate this Chinese scroll? Can you please translate this Chinese scroll for me?

(https://i.stack.imgur.com/FdilC.jpg)

Much appreciated!

生意興隆 - (A wish) for booming businesses

These are called "Fai Chun":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fai_chun


When do I use 儿 to modify a word? I've noticed that for words like 饭馆 (fànguǎn), 一点 (yīdiǎn)，and 玩 (wán) natives add 儿 (er) to the end while speaking.

A Wikipedia article about the character says that the phenomenon is called "r-coloring" and that it is dialectical for Beijing and other parts of Mainland China. My Mandarin teacher, who is a Beijing native, insists that we use it while speaking and writing.

Outside of Beijing (and my classroom), how commonly is it used? Should I use it in writing as well?

For the standard mandarin that is regulated by mainland China, the "r-coloring" is part of it. There is an official test for speaking mandarin, "r-coloring" is mentioned in its guideline(《普通话水平测试(PSC)大纲》) and must be tested:

  2·2 读双音节词语50个。
        目的：除考察应试人声母、韵母和声调的发音外，还要考察上声变调、儿化韵和轻声的读音。

  2.2 Read 50 two syllable words. Tone sandhi, "r-colored" final, and neutral tone should be tested, aside from testing how well one pronounces each initial, final, and tone.

About when should one read or write as "r-colored", let me quote something form 《现代汉语词典》, which is explaining the notations within the dictionary:

  6 书面上有时儿化有时不儿化，口语里必须儿化的词，自成条目，如：【今 儿 】、【小孩 儿】。书面上一般不儿化，但口语里一般儿化的，在释义前加‘（~ 儿）’，如【米粒】条。 ....

  When a word is sometimes written with "儿" and sometimes not, but must be spoken as "r-colored", it would have its one entry, e.g. 【今 儿 】、【小孩 儿】。When a word is usually not written with "儿", but usually spoken as "r-colored" in speech, ‘（~ 儿）’ will be appended to explanation, e.g. 【米粒】

(Note, the dictionary used a small font for the above italic 儿 in the quote. I don't know how to type it here)

The dictionary's notation may be irrelevant here, but we can see there are words in standard mandarin that written “儿” is optional, or usually not written with "儿", but should be spoken as "r-colored". Examples are given in the quote. The written form and the spoken form sometimes do not match.

About how it is applied in real life, you should remember that most people in China do not speak standard mandarin (very well). The application of "r-colored" tones is quite regional and may differ a lot from place to place. Some people do not use them at all, and some use a lot. I think you should follow your teacher as when to use "r-colored" tones in speech.

As when to use it in writing, though the dictionary listed a lot of words as "sometimes written with 儿 and sometimes not", there is, in fact, a small set of words that are usually written with "儿". You can drop all "儿" in writing with words outside the set. I cannot list all words in the set. The most common one that usually written with "儿" might be "一会儿". You can follow your reading materials as when to "儿" in written form.


If 莫過於 doesn't start sentence, how it means "nothing can surpass ..."? ABC Chinese–English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003), p 629.

Wiktionary also defines this "nothing can surpass ..." I thought 莫過於 must start sentence, because

...  is at end

definition has just one ellipsis ...

But consider Wiktionary's two example sentences. Like screenshot below, 莫過於 does NOT start. So isn't definition above wrong?

Shouldn't definition have another ellipsis? Like "no ...[first noun]... can surpass ... [second noun]"

How improve definition?

I screen-shot 5:16. I know 痛苦莫過於生存 means "nothing is more painful than existence".

The thing is, Chinese and English are so different that you would rarely see a sentence that can be translated word-by-word and in the original order, without sounding unnatural.
For example, Wiktionary defines 什么 as "what". But can we translate 你在做什么? (what are you doing?) without rearranging elements in the sentence? No, usually we can't. Does that change the fact that 什么 means what in this sentence?
I'd argue that the English translation actually has the ellipsis right. Think about it this way, ellipsis means something needs to go in there. And in English, you start the sentence with nothing is more, so there is no need for an ellipsis to appear before the phrase, because there is nothing before it in the final sentence.


differentiation of 交女朋友 vs 找女朋友 For some reason i have these two muddled in my head. Presumably cause they sound similar.

Is it possible to 找了女朋友？
or does it have to be 交了女朋友
can it be 找着了女朋友？

Can someone clear this up for me.

When is it appropriate to use 交 vs 找。

I am assuming

If a person was looking for a 女朋友 and he found one, both 交了 and 找到 would be appropriate

If a person wasn't looking then is only 交了 appropriate

Is this correct?

As a native speaker, I think in this case 交 and 找 is absolutely the same in this situation. :)

If you find it on dictionary, It may turns out that the verb 找 looks like more active than 交, but I am quite sure that in daily conversion or formal writing they have the same meaning in this phrase.


What are some good resources for 相声 and 小品? These two seem to involve lots of colloquial Chinese and I want to know where I can learn it.  I want to focus on the Beijing/Tianjin dialect.

You can get these on Youtube by searching the actor/actress's name.

For instance, search "赵丽蓉" "巩汉林" will give you a lot of good 小品, and search for "马三立" for 相声 with Tianjin dialect. If you want 相声 with Beijing dialect, you can search "郭德纲".


Can 尔 (er3) be used instead of 你 (ni3)? I got a letter from a new penfriend in Hong Kong, written in 普通话. I think their first language is Cantonese. Mostly the letter uses simplified characters, with the occasional traditional one. It starts by using 尔, e.g.

尔最近的工作忙吗？

then shifts to using 你. So I was wondering about the differences between the two. It looks like for this meaning 尔 is more formal, and the dictionaries I looked at say it’s a formal word when used for “you”. But I’d like to have some examples; the dictionaries don’t give much detail here.

尔 in traditional chinese is written in 爾. Although it also mean "you", I believe it's a typo. Because

尔 is widely used in old chinese. The situation is just like "Thou" and "you".
It's rarely use in nowadays daily life no matter in HK, mainland China nor Taiwan.
Instead of simplified Chinese, Hong Kong people usually write in traditional chinese. Sometimes people tried to write in simplified chinese quite some HK people would mix up some wordings. I would rather believed that is a typo if you said your pen friend is come from HK.

When will we use 尔?
One common example we will definitely use nowadays is 尔虞我诈(or in traditionally chinese is 爾虞我詐). Which is an idiom mean "People cheating and getting advantages of each others".


Use of 书 or 书籍 for 'books' I admit I was not familiar with the phrase 书籍, until I used Google translate now to translate 'I like reading all sorts of books' (of course, I take the Google translate translation with a pinch of salt!). But I was wondering why 书籍 was used as opposed to simply 书. I am familiar with the use of 籍 in 国籍 meaning 'country of citizenship' so have an idea of 籍 as meaning 'belonging to' or something of the sort (again, Google translate verifies this as 'membership'). So its use in the phrase 我喜欢读各种书籍 I assume to mean something like 'I like reading books belonging to various categories'.

Is this the general gist? In this case, is the 籍 omittable, or would I have to rephrase the sentence?

牛(cow) and 羊(goat) are both farm animal; The term '牛羊' is a general term for 'farm animal' including sheep, horse and all others farm animals.
刀(knife) and 剑(sword) are both cold weapon; The term '刀剑' is a general term for 'cold weapon' including axe, spear and all other cold weapons.
书(book) and 籍(record) are both bound written material; The term '书籍' is a general term for 'bound written material'.
To classify written materials more strictly, novel and textbook are 书,  not 籍; Accounting book and record book are 籍, not 书. The term '书籍' refers to everything in book form, including dictionary (典) and all other bound written materials.
In modern Chinese:

'书籍' is a general term for 'book'

'书刊' is a general terms for 'printed publication'

'书册' and '书本' are general terms for 'bound printed material'

Examples of when to use '书' and '书籍' in sentences:

这是一本园艺书 (this is a gardening book)

所有园艺书都在这里 (all the gardening books are here)

有关园艺的书籍都在这里 (all the books related to gardening is here)

In #1 and #2 you can use 书 or 书籍 interchangeably, but most of the time people would choose to use one less character and just say XX书 instead of XX书籍
In #3. you can also use 书 or 书籍 interchangeably, but the more general 书籍 is preferred because a reference book or a novel might also relate to gardening.


How to modify a two-character verb that has an object using 得? In the case of one-character verb, I know that you just duplicate the verb, once for the object and once for the complement: 吃饭吃得很快。

But in the case of a two-character verb do I do the same thing? For example, if I wanted to say: I guarded those secrets carefully.
Would I say: 我保守那些机密保守得很警惕

'吃饭'， (eat rice= having meal) is a compound word verb, and it is also an intransitive verb (verb that doesn't take object). To illustrate the difference between [single character verb + noun] and [two characters verb + noun], I would change the example to '吃水饺' (吃 + 水饺)

[(吃水饺)- (吃得)- 很快]
[(保守机密) -(保守得)- 很嚴]

As you can see, you can modify '保守' with '得' the same way as '吃'
Although  "保守机密保守得很嚴" is technically correct in grammar, it is too wordy. Native speakers would do the following instead

Shorten a compound word verb to a single character, in the case of '保守', the shortened form is '守'. Your sentence would become "守机密守得很嚴"

In many cases, the object noun can also be shortened -->"守密守得很嚴"

Only repeat the first character of the compound word verb. For example: "攻击敵方陣地攻击很如火如荼" --> "攻击敵方陣地攻很如火如荼" (omit 击)

The best way is to use a simpler structure [(adv) + (verb) + (noun)] --> [(如火如荼地)(攻击)(敵方陣地)]

For Intransitive Verbs (verb that cannot take noun), don't repeat the verb after 得 and directly go to the adverb

Example: 战斗 (to battle) is an 'intransitive verb'
Simply write "战斗得很激烈"
"战斗战斗得很激烈" . "战斗战得很激烈" or "战斗斗得很激烈" are all wrong
Another example: '伤风' (get a cold) is an 'intransitive verb'
Simply write "伤风得很严重"
"伤风伤风伤得很严重" or "伤风伤得很严重" is wrong


Wht is the right word order? 大家好！ I need these questions for one discussion in Chinese classes.

Could you please check, if I use the right word order in these questions? Thank you! :)

他和你用哪种语言谈话？

学习语言的时候有什么困难？

一个孩子每天多长时间应该练习语言？

一个儿童可以说几种语言？

你哪种语言应该学习？

你的父母会什么语言?

你未来想不想学习一种新的语言？

他和你用哪种语言谈话？

"他和你用哪种语言交谈？"

'交谈' is better than '谈话' because '交谈' means 'talk to each others; while '谈话' mainly means 'speak' or 'talk'.

You can speak or talk by yourself, but you cannot having a conversation on your own.

  学习语言的时候有什么困难？

No problem above

  一个孩子每天多长时间应该练习语言？

"一个孩子每天应该花多长时间练习语言?"

Better add an verb '花'(spend) here

  一个儿童可以说几种语言？

No problem above

  你哪种语言应该学习？

You are placing the [object] directly after the [subject ]

[你][哪种语言]

It is better to place the verb '学习'directly after the subject '你'

"哪种语言你应该学习?"
"你应该学习哪种语言?"

  你的父母会什么语言?

No problem here

  你未来想不想学习一种新的语言？

你将来想不想学习一种新的语言？

Should replace '未来' with '将来' for the meaning of: "in the future" because '未来' itself is a noun or an adjective for 'future'


How to distinguish PICTURE OF ME and PICTURE OF MINE in Chinese? This is a PICTURE OF ME.
This is a PICTURE OF MINE.

Both can be translated to

这是我的图片

这是我的照片 can be interpreted as "It is a photo of me" or "It is a photo that belong to me"

To avoid confusion, you can write:

这照片是我的 = "this photo is mine"
这照片中的人是我  = "the person in this photo is me"
这照片上的人是我  = "the person on this photo is me"

照片 = photo; picture

图片= graphic; picture


Why is "weight" = 体重 and why is "height" = 身高? Recently, I registered to a running tracker app. The app required me to fill some personal information and two of them were my 体重 (weight) and 身高 (height).
I wonder why one uses 体 while the other one uses 身. Both can mean "body" but I just wonder why it isn't 体高/身重.
Could somebody please explain?

身高 is short for 身體高度

體重 is short for 身體重量

身體 can be shortened to either 身 or 體

Therefore, 身重 and 體高 are also legitimate shortened forms of 'body weight' and 'body height'

Especially 體高-- it is the proper term for describing the height of non-human object.

For example: 體高 in "高達體高18米" (Gundam's height is 18M) is the correct term, because Gundam is a machine, not a person

We use 身高 and 體重 far more often than 身重 and 體高 when describing a human's height and weight, eventually, no one use 身重 and 體高 to describe a human's height and weight anymore.


When to answer a question with 沒有? I've just started learning Mandarin and I was curious as to when it is appropriate to answer a yes/no question negatively with 沒有.  Obviously, if the question involves 有 then it makes sense.  However, I understand that
你在做飯嗎？
could also be answered that way as well.
I also understand that questions about being, such as
你是老師嗎？
should be answered instead with 不是。
Is this a general rule?  That is, unless the question is about being or state, is it safe to assume that I can respond with 沒有?

The answer to 你在做飯嗎？is still 是 or 不是 . To answer 有 or 沒有, the question should be 你有做飯嗎？
Example:

You see your friend washing vegetable, and ask 你在做飯嗎？ (are you cooking dinner?) and his answer could be 是 (yes) or 不是 (no)

A wife came home and saw her husband eating pizza, so she asked 你有做飯嗎？(have you cooked dinner?) the answer could be 有 (I have) or 沒有 (I have not)

If the question is 你做飯嗎? (are you cooking (now)?/do you cook (regularly)? ) then you can answer according to the context.
If you mean 'I am not cooking now' then you would say '不是' (no)
If you mean 'I don't cook = 'I haven't been cooking regularly' then you can answer '沒有' (I have not)


Youth, young, youngster, teenager, youthfulness So, just having a look at the following words and definitions:

青少年 - n. teenager, youth
年轻人 - n. youngster
年轻 - adj. young
青春 - n. youth; adj. youthful

Am I right in thinking that a 年轻人 is maybe up to 13/14, and that a 青少年 is a teenager (so 14-17)?

And what is the difference, would you say, between 年轻 and 青春? Google images seems to bring up modern pictures of young people for 年轻 and then photos of young people from the 70s/80s with 青春. Not entirely sure why...

年轻人 refers to people younger than the speaker, usually people under 30.

少年 refers to people around 13-18.

青年 refers to people around 18-29.

青春 means the time period of or the experience of the age between 12-29. Often it is retrospective, as when you are in mid-age, you might say:回忆青春岁月/悔不该青春虚度, etc. Newspapers may write: 祖国今日之富强有赖于上一辈人挥洒青春. So perhaps it is the reason you get 80s photos


I can't find the equivalent for 撞衫, could you help? It looks like this phrase means two persons wear the same or similar outfit, which is very embarrasing. But the word "uniform" seems not to serve such purpose because uniform doesn't make the wearers embarrassing.

撞衫 often used to describe movie stars, celebrity's who just happen to wear the same outfit

'撞' in '撞衫' is the same one in '撞期' (scheduling conflict).

'撞期'(date clash) means two events scheduled at the same date, creating a scheduling conflict between them. It is "(two scheduled events) dates run into each other" in English.
'撞衫' (dress clash) means two people wearing identical outfits at the same event, creating a fashion faux pas for both. It is "(two people) dress the same" in English.

I suggest simply translate 撞衫 as "dress the same" or "identically dress"
For example:

"安和瑪麗在頒獎典禮上撞了衫" (Ann and Mary dressed the same at the award show);

"穿成衣可能導致與某人撞衫" (wear ready-to-wear dress many resulted in dressing the same with someone)


Critique request for my monologue: 我下课以后常常去我的实习。 我以后我的实习我有课一遍。…… Is anyone willing to help me edit this monologue for grammatical errors? If so, I would really appreciate it. I have chosen the most simple words I know to make performing it easier.

我下课以后常常去我的实习。 我以后我的实习我有课一遍。 我的最后课六时完毕某些天， 八时其他天。 然后我常常开始我的回家作业。
至少有一次每个星期我有Amnesty International会议. 这是一个人权组我跟我的男朋友开始。
如果我有会议，我得回家作业我开始后。 我的奖学金需求五个课，所以我有课每天。 周末，我也很多了学习。
如果我有时间，我星期五试试玩儿跟我的朋友们，和星期日吃饭跟我的妈妈。 有时我恐怕没有时候。 如实, 我很忙和不能等到休息。 但是，
我有这些机会是很祝福。

After class I often go to my internship. After my internship I have class again. My final classes end at 6pm on somedays, and 8pm on other days. After, I often start my homework. Every week at least once a week I have Amnesty International meetings. This is a human rights organization that I started with my boyfriend. After I have a meeting, I start my homework. My scholarship requires me to take five classes, so I have class every day. On the weekends, I study a lot. If I have time, I try to go out with my friends on fridays and eat dinner with my mom on sunday. Usually I don't have time. Honestly, I am extremely busy and I can't wait till break. Yet, I am very blessed to have these opportunities.

Hope this will help.

Correction

我下课以后常常去实习 （ i often go to intern-ship whenever the class is finish ).
实习以后我还有一堂课（After the inter-ship i still have a lesson).
我的最后一堂课有时会在六点钟结束，而其它天都会在八点钟结束。 (My last lesson will ended at 6 o'Clock sometimes,while others day will ended at 8 o'Clock) .
然后我就会开始做作业。（Then i will start to do my homework) .
每周至少有一天我都会有个Amnesty International会议. （At least one day a week i will have a meeting of Amnesty International.
这组/会议是由我和我男朋友举办/开始，它是关于人权。(This group/meeting is organized/started by me and my boyfriend, It's about human rights.
如果我有会议，我得回家作业我开始后。// im not sure what you're trying to express here ,perhaps you can translate it to English first and then i will help you to translate it back to Chinese/
奖学金的条件是必须拥有五个科目，所以我几乎每天都有课。(The requirements of scholarships is must have five subjects, therefore i almost have classes everyday.
周末，我也必须学习。 (Weekend, i have to learn also)
如果我有空闲的时间，我会尝试在星期五和朋友一起出去游玩及在星期日与妈妈一起共餐. (If i have free time, i will try to go out and play with friends on Friday, and having meals with mother on Sunday.
有时我担心我没时间。 (Sometimes I worry that I do not have time).
如实, 我很忙和不能等到休息。 // im not sure what you're trying to express here
但是, 我觉得这些机会是很庆幸的 。 （However, I feel that these opportunities are very fortunate)


What is the character for romantic love in classical Chinese? In Mandarin, 愛 means romantic love. However, New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese by Paul Rouzer has this to say about its use in literary Chinese:

  This character [愛] usually does not imply "romantic love" in literary
  Chinese, as it does in the modern East Asian languages.

So which character(s) are used for romantic love in classical Chinese?

This should be a clever question!

In classical Chinese
“爱” should be love to culture, nature, mess people or emperor(the culture emblem)
“恋” should be romantic love to another person, a butterfly loves a flower (蝶恋花)
“情” is a noun of “exist love/adore”, more clearly --“恋情”

For further,
“慕” should like “adore”, always use as “爱慕”, “倾慕”

In traditional/full Chinese writing these words are

  愛、戀、蝶戀花、情、慕、愛慕、傾慕


What's the difference between 注册 and 登记, both meaning "to register"? Typically I click 注册 = "register" to sign up for a new service on my phone.  However, 登记 also seems to mean "register" in a similar sense.  Searching on Jukuu.com:

法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.
小学入学注册明天开始。
Elementary school enrolment begins tomorrow.

They seem similar, but I don't think they're interchangeable.  I'm not clear on this.
Question: What's the difference between 注册 and 登记?
(Note: The relevant question What are the differences between 报名，登记，挂号？ doesn't cover 注册)

注册 (register) can also mean "licensed" as in  "注册医生" (licensed doctor),  "注册执业" (licensed to practice)

We don't say 登记医生 (registered doctor) or to 登记执业 (register to practice)

When you 注册 on a system, you are officially registered/ enrolled or licensed

When you 登记 on a system, you are either officially registered/ enrolled or submitted an application


What's the difference between 江 and 河? My daily newsletter contained the following sentence:

长江是中国最长的河。

According to the dictionary, 江 and 河 both mean "river", but they seem to be used differently.

Am I right in assuming that 长河是中国最长的江 is wrong (even if we assume that there is a river called 长河)? Is there a semantic difference?

江 is mostly used in the South; 河 is mostly used in the North. There are exceptions,  such as 黑龙江, 浏阳河.
Scale. 江 is exclusively for mighty rivers; 河 can be used for both large and small rivers.
All foreign rivers are named with 河.
There is no fundamental differences between 河 and 江.
江 is used for rivers whose banks are steep cliffs; 河 is used for rivers with beaches.
In some classic text, 江 refers to Yangtze river; 河 refers to Yellow River; the other rivers are named with 水, e.g. 渭水

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/20655/8126542.htm#2


Places where the use of 小姐 is inappropriate Wikitionary has a cool feature that shows a dialectal map with word differences across all Chinese dialects, as in this example.

The problem is that I was trying to see which places it was OK to use 小姐 with the meaning "miss" and not "prostitute" but the map didn't help at all.

Does anyone have reliable map about the usage of 小姐 across China or can at least elucidate where it's OK to use 小姐 without offend anyone?

EDIT:
The question here is where the word 小姐 by itself would imply the derogatory sense. Like when we call the attention of someone:

  小姐，饭馆在哪儿？

Thanks!

People say calling a woman 小姐 in Hong Kong and Taiwan is ok.  but not so good in Mainland China. I have to disagree with this presumption. It all depend on the context and the situation this term is used.

Generally 小姐 is a polite/ formal address for single woman in Chinese everywhere.

For example:

張小姐 (Miss Zhang)

我家小姐 (my daughter/ the daughter in the family I serve)

The term 小姐 can be interpreted as a nickname for prostitute because people in places where women provide various degrees of sexual service, would not use derogatory terms liked 舞女， 陪酒女郎 or even 妓女 to address the female sex workers directly, They just call them "小姐" (ladies) for politeness and subtlety.

For example: "我們店的小姐" (the ladies in our establishment) ; "去做小姐" (go work as a Miss) would clearly imply 小姐 is not an honorific but a code for female sex workers in the context

Even in Hong Kong, people often refer 舞女 or 妓女 as 小姐 like in mainland China.

It is not ok. even in Hong Kong to ask a woman "妳係邊間店嘅小姐呀？" (which place's lady you are?)

One thing is sure. It is perfectly fine to address a female stranger as 小姐 in Hong Kong or Taiwan, No one would think 小姐 be anything but an honorific.

Some people argued with me that 小姐 is ambiguous in Mainland and should be avoided. I thought those people just treated a specific nickname in a specific area as a general term

小姐 is mainly an honorific/ title in Chinese , 张 in 张小姐 is that person's identify and 小姐 is an honorific/ title . But the term 小姐 itself can also be used as a code for female sex workers in certain context. And Mainland Chinese seem to be more sensitive to this additional usage than Chinese in Hong Kong and Taiwan


Help with names for ancient Chinese novel characters I would like some help determining if these names are good/appropriate/authentic for male characters in an ancient Chinese story?

(从霜)

(千秋)

(兰韵)

(清绝)

(飞流)

(花箨)

(飞瑶)

(忘机)

I would also like to ask for some good sources to find authentic ancient Chinese names.

imo, none of these “terms” are suitable for male name.

  sources to find authentic ancient Chinese names

the proper way is, refer to the four-and-twenty histories (二十四史), in which, there’re biographies (列傳)

here’s the table of content of the 列傳, from the book 後漢書:

https://ctext.org/hou-han-shu/lie-zhuan/zh

you may grep some names from it, and, these are authentic names of 漢 dynasty :)

the second way is, read tales and notes (小說筆記). that, these books recorded numerous stories, and each story mentioned names of their characters.

here’s two excerpts “宋名臣言行錄” & “六科舊僚題名”, from the book 水東日記:

https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=755528

https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=491456

have fun :)


Why "校车来了“， not "校车来着" and "校车正来"? My question is as the title. The sentence "school bus is coming" is translated as "校车来了". I understand this translation because "了" here indicates a new situation. But why are "校车来着" or "校车正来" WRONG?

[Edited to discuss 正, 在, and 著]
There is a discussion of 在 and 著 in Li and Thompson's 1981 book Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. They don't have much to say about 正. My own feeling is that this is usually used with either 在 and 著; it seldom, if ever, appears by itself. Sentences such as 他正吃飯 are simply odd. I am not a native speaker, so I'm ready to be corrected on this.

Both 在 and 著 are durative markers, but they still differ in meaning. L&T's examples of the difference include:
他在穿皮鞋: He is putting on leather shoes
他穿著皮鞋: He is wearing leather shoes
Their explanation for the difference here is that 在 is used with persistent actions (actions that have some duration), while 著 is used with actions that result in a persistent state. 穿 can have either of these interpretations, so both sentences are good, but each has a different meaning. Again, I think 他正穿皮鞋 is just odd here, better to say 他正在穿皮鞋, or 他正穿著皮鞋. In neither case does this actually change the meaning, it simply emphasizes the durative nature of the action or result.

In the case of 來, I think the Chinese logic is that "come" is not a persistent action. Instead, it is what Quirk et al (1981) call a transitional action. Other examples they give are:
The train is arriving at the station
It looks like he is scoring a goal
According to Quirk, transitional actions do not have a durative meaning, and so for these cases English progressive has an anticipatory meaning, i.e. a period leading up to the transition. For these cases, Chinese doesn't use either 著 or 在 (since there is no persistent action or state). Instead it uses forms such as 快...了:
She is dying 她快死了.
She is coming 她快來了.

Since these are not durative sentences, many languages do not use progressive forms here. In this case it is English that is exceptional, rather than Chinese.


他游了一个小时的泳. What is the grammar rule for separating 游 and 泳 In duolingo chinese course I came across this sentence.
他游了一个小时的泳.
What is the grammar rule for separating 游 and 泳 ?
And why "的" in "一个小时的" ?

It's because grammatically 游泳 is 离合词, which means it's separatable.
Baidu also gives other examples there, such as 睡觉, 吃饭，etc.
So, we can say 睡一个小时觉，吃个便饭，etc.
的 is 助词(auxiliary word) used after an attributive phrase.  一个小时的 is an attributive phrase modifying the noun 泳.  的 is omissible in your example.
PS.  泳 intrinsically is a verb, and here it's used as a noun.


Is there any proof that the Taishanese language is related to Gan? Is it from a linguistic perspective? The Taishanese language is known to be a branch of Siyi (Sze Yup or Seiyap) which is part of the Yue subfamily branch of the Sino-Tibetan family, and related to Cantonese. This article that I was reading which was about the origin of the Seiyap language and culture presents the alternative theory that Taishanese is actually related to Gan. This would change everything people know about the Taishanese language. If it were in fact a relative of Gan, it would be more related to Hakka. Hakka is the closest relative to Gan amongst the Chinese "dialects". I would really appreciate some academic perspective on this theory, and whether it actually could hold water or is just an alternative with little to no proof.
Here is the link to the article that brings forth this theory: http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2018/01/ethnic-origin-of-seiyap.html

The Gan-Hakka hypothesis is most famously put forward by Sagart (2002), based on certain unique shared innovations in both Southern Gan varieties and Hakka:

屋下 as the usual word for "house", compared to Cantonese 屋企.
Use of 倈/孻 (beginning with /l/) as the usual word for "son".
Similar words for "here" and "there" between 梅縣 (Meixian) Hakka and 永修 (Yongxiu) Gan.
A word for "you" that begins with /h~x/, has a nucleus /e~ɛ~æ/, and ends in a nasal, instead of using those that are related to 爾 ~ 你.

However, one notices that these are primarily lexical in nature, plus these are restricted to various features of Gan quite far from Nanchang 南昌, the most studied variety. As far as I know, none of these "unique" shared innovations are common to 四邑 Siyi/Sze-yap/Seiyap varieties.
There are nonetheless plenty of 四邑 Siyi features that mean it is definitely very divergent from the other Yue varieties, as described on that blog post; this is acknowledged among those who do hold to classifying Siyi as part of Yue.
I would also cite the following tone merger:

the merger of Middle Chinese 陰平 (yīnpíng) and 陰去 (yīnqù) tones, which in Taishanese results in a mid-level tone (33).

However, this is very different to the Hakka pattern, where 陰上 and 陽上 merge with each other, and 陰去 陽去 merge with each other (although there is a good deal of 濁上歸去, as is true in Mandarin and Cantonese). Hence this is actually specific to specific parts of Siyi, and according to the seminal work on Taishanese phonology, Cheng (1973), it may be part of a proper tonal chain shift.
The way 濁上歸去 interacts with the above tone merger also creates effects which are very reminiscent of certain key defining features of Hakka, as well as a Southern Gan variety spoken in Nanxiong 南雄, Guangdong, for example in the pronunciations of 耳 and 兩.
The absence of vowel length in Siyi is an interesting one, as Siyi like all other Yue varieties underwent the 陰入聲 split, conditioned by the 內外轉 nèi-wài zhuǎn distinction of Middle Chinese. It is true that it does also manifest as vowel length as well as tone split in Yuehai/Guangfu Cantonese, whereas in Siyi Taishanese it only resulted in a tone split. But this is characteristic of a Yue variety; indeed, for some it is the defining characteristic, according to Huang (2009).
Siyi also has a 陽入聲 split as well. The condition for this 陽入聲 split was "unclear" in the 1973 study.
The consonant shifts, which are iconic traits of Siyi varieties for Cantonese speakers, are actually common to lots of varieties of Yue, Gan and Min. Though the blog post does identify a common cause for the /s/ > /ɬ/ shift, I'd want to see slightly more specific distribution maps first. Even for those who see Siyi / Ng-yap as being classified independently from all of Yue, Hakka and Gan (Orlandi (2019); also cf. Pinghua), the consonant shift is not diagnostic.
Also, one cannot ignore the considerable internal diversity of Siyi, summarised by Tan (2017). Its internal diversity, with very low mutual intelligibility across the counties comprising the Siyi region, just means that there is a lot more data now, and a lot more work to be done! Like much in the field of Sinitic linguistics, a lot of the classification done in the mid-late 20th century is being re-analysed in the 21st.