Translation of "fraction" in a sentence I'm having difficulty translating the following sentence into Chinese:

  A fraction q of the population is smart.

I was tempted to translate this as

  百分之 q 的人口是聪明的。

But strictly speaking this is not correct, because fraction as a mathematical terminology means 分数 in Chinese (as in a / b for some natural numbers a and b), which is not necessarily a percentage.

Using the literal Chinese translation of fraction doesn't read well:

  分数 q 的人口是聪明的。

I'm hoping to get help on a better translation of the sentence. Thank you!

EDIT

From the comments it's clear to me that the English sentence to be translated, taken on its own, may be open to multiple interpretations. I hope the following context will clarify its meaning.

The intended meaning of "A fraction q of the population is smart" is that

  The total number of smart people is q * N

given that the population size is N. To put this in full context, the original sentence I am to translate is related to calculating a conditional probability using Bayes' rule:

  Suppose p% of the population is educated, and a fraction q of the educated is smart. Suppose further that a fraction r of the uneducated is smart as well. What is the probability that a randomly selected educated person is smart?

Replacing the algebra notations with numbers, the above could have read:

  Suppose 73% of the population is educated, and 4/7 of the educated is smart. Suppose further that 2/3 of the uneducated is smart as well. What is the probability that a randomly selected educated person is smart?

Suppose 73% of the population is educated, and 4/7 of the educated is smart. Suppose further that 2/3 of the uneducated is smart as well. What is the probability that a randomly selected educated person is smart?
假设73%的人口受过教育，而受过教育的人当中4/7是聪明的。进一步假设2/3没受过教育的人也是聪明的。随机抽取一个受过教育的人是聪明的概率是多少？

"(Ratio q) + of + X" can be translated as

(在)X(当)中q. "(在)受过教育的人(当)中4/7是聪明的". And "其中4/7是聪明的" sounds more concise – though IMO it can't be applied to this example because it's a little ambiguous.
qX. "4/7受过教育的人是聪明的". Sometimes for the subtle fluency, when X doesn't contain "的", it would be better to say  "q的X" instead, such as "4/7的农民", "30%的学生".
X的q. It sounds a little colloquial and a little awkward for this example because there're two close "的"s: "受过教育的人的4/7是聪明的".

(Ratio q) above can be replaced by a percentage "p%" too. Either "(在)受过教育的人(当)中50%是聪明的" or
"(在)受过教育的人(当)中p%是聪明的" (p% as a variable) is fine.
However, if you have to use "ratio q" as a variable, it has to be "比例q" or "比率q", and a "有" would be necessary: "受过教育的人中有比率q是聪明的". Though maybe not everyone consider it clear enough - "比率q的X" and "X的比率q" patterns are even worse.
PS: I don't see the point of this math problem. If we just randomly select a person within the educated, i.e. P(smart|educated), then, isn't the answer a trivial 4/7? Have I missed anything? :/


Translation of "辨人禽界，立天地心" I am working on the translation of a Chinese text and I'm stuck with this expression: "辨人禽界，立天地心". I think it means something like "recognize the human (bird?) world, and establishing/building heaven and earth".

I often see 为天地立心，为生民立命， 为往圣继绝学，为万世开太平 as well. Thanks for telling me what this may mean too. I heard it was used by 张载 and wish to grasp its true meaning.

If someone has an idea of its precise meaning, please let me know. I wish I could make sure of it for me to deeply understand what this article is about and make the whole translation accurate.

I originally had this as a comment but it seems like it has become an answer.

Confucianism likes to talk about the separation of man (人) and beast (禽), so that would be the crux of the first sentence, i.e.: separating the human and animal worlds.

立天地心 should be talking about setting a standard or a principle for heaven and earth, there are many translations that put similar ideas as: ordaining a conscience for Heaven and Earth.

In relation to your edit:

There are a couple of well-known translations for 为天地立心，为生民立命， 为往圣继绝学，为万世开太平

  To ordain conscience for Heaven and Earth
    To secure life and fortune for the people
    To continue lost teachings for past sages
    To establish peace for all future generations

another would be:

  To ordain conscience for Heaven and Earth
    To secure life and fortune for the populace
    To carry on lost teachings of ancient sages
    To build peace for posterity


Why is 做 in the sentence 不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？ From a MandarinCorner.org video I Hate Getting My Period (audio and transcript link; video is also searchable on YouTube), we have the following sentence:

Bù zhīdào dàjiā juédé zuò nǚrén zuìdà de bēi'āi shì shénme?
不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？
I don't know what you think is the difficult thing about being a woman?

I'm confused as to why 做 is in this sentence; it seems to serve some kind of grammatical function I'm not aware of.  It looks like it could be omitted without problem.  I also feel a bit of a mismatch between both 做 and 是 in the sentence.
Question: Why is 做 in the sentence 不知道大家觉得做女人最大的悲哀是什么？
Looking up 做 using the PeraPera Chinese Popup Dictionary:

to do; to make; to produce; to write; to compose; to act as; to engage in; to hold (a party); to be; to become; to function (in some capacity); to serve as; to be used for; to form (a bond or relationship); to pretend; to feign; to act a part; to put on appearance

Among many definitions, there's "to be", "to act as", and "to produce" on the list, which seem closest in meaning.  The 做 in the given sentence functions something like "is" (approximately "is the greatest annoyance"), which is typically performed by 是 (and this also occurs in the sentence).  However, we obviously can't just interchange 是 and 做 throughout Chinese.
I'm more familiar with using 做 to form a verb (e.g. 做饭 "cook food" and 做工业 "do homework") rather than in this case 做悲哀 which seems along the lines of "give rise to annoyance".

做 here is a verb, according to Oxford, meaning:

  5 充当 be

they give three examples:

  做个好孩子
  be a good child

  做老实人
  be an honest person

  做秘书
  be a secretary

Pleco's PLC dictionary also has this verbal meaning:

  4 be; become

  做演员
  zuò yǎnyuán
  become an actor or actress; go on the stage

  后来她做保育员了。
  Hòulái tā zuò bǎoyùyuán le.
  Later she became a child-care worker.

  今天开会由你做主席。
  Jīntiān kāihuì yóu nǐ zuò zhǔxí.
  You’ll be the chairman at today’s meeting.

做女人 means, as the subtitles correctly translated above, to be a woman.


Why was Jutland transliterated as 日德兰? Background: Jutland is the peninsula which makes up part of Denmark, and it was the site of the WWI Battle of Jutland (which is one of the main reasons "Jutland" would be written about at all in other languages). In Danish, it's pronounced ˈjylanˀ, and in German, it's pronounced ˈjyːtlant. That is, it starts with a "y" sound, and in German (the language of one of the participants of the battle), it retains the "t" sound as well.

Choice of 日?: So if it starts with a "y" sound, why was 日 chosen to transliterate the first syllable? In Mandarin, this is a poor fit. However, in Cantonese, it is pronouned jat6 (where "j" is, like in German, a "y" sound). This doesn't fully resolve the mystery though--the 德 in Cantonese is dak1, which is a worse fit than the Manadarin.

When was Jutland first written as 日德兰? What dialect was being used to make this transliteration?*

日 in Jyutping (Cantonese pinyin) is  [jat6] which sounds similar to 'Ju' in "Jutland"

德 in Jyutping is  [dak1]  which sounds similar to 'tl'  in "Jutland"

and 兰 is the common transliteration in both Cantonese and Mandarin


How do I write "but if" in Chinese? How can I express that something happens if another condition is true? (Eng: "Subject ... but if ... subject ...")
Example:

I usually get up at six o'clock, but if I'm really tired, I sleep until eight.
我常起來六點，但是很累到八點睡覺。　（Can I write this?)

A literal translation to "但要是" is fine here.

  I usually get up at six o'clock, but if I'm really tired, I sleep until eight.

  我一般六点起床，但要是很累，我会睡到八点。


How to translate: 我发音得不太准 我发音得不太准.

Does it translate as "My pronunciation is the best/exact?"

What is the meaning of 准? Does it depends on the context?

准 has a lot of meanings according to the context. Usually it means accurate(准确) but in this case it's 标准, which means standard.

BTW, I think you may want to say 我发音发得不太准 / 我的发音不太准 rather than 我发音得不太准.


What is the difference between a 民國 and a 共和国? Both refer to a "republic" in English. The obvious comparison is the names of the PRC and Taiwan, but I'm assuming it's the same word for "republic" in other countries, e.g. how Singapore is known as Sin-ka-pho Kiōng-hô-kok ("Republic of Singapore"), while South Korea (Republic of Korea) is written in hanja as 大韓民國.

Is there a specific definition that defines a nation as a 民國 vis-a-vis a 共和国, or is it just preference at the time of naming?

The term 'Republic' originated from Latin 'res'(entity, concern) and 'publicus'(of the people, public)

'民國' and '共和國' both means 'republic'

'民國' emphasize on the meaning of 'people' (民)
'共和國' emphasize on the meaning of 'public' (共)

China for most of its history, was an empire.  All the power belongs to the imperial court. The people(民) had no power at all, therefore 'republic' was  translated as '共和國', emphasized on the word '共'(public)- '共和'(public together)- '共和國'(nation of public together)

When Sun Yat Se and his party 國民黨 defeated the Qing Dynasty, ended the imperial rule, they chose to name the new China '中華民國'(Chinese republic/ republic of China) to emphasize China was no longer an 帝國 (empire).

Another reason to choose the name '中華民國' was the word '民' can also represent '民族' as in '中華民族'

Nowadays, most republic in the world are translated as '共和國' in Chinese, because not all republic is made up of mostly one single 民族 like China(中華民族) and Korea (大韓民族).


How do I type  on a keyboard? I am using the Google Cantonese Input and Google Pinyin Input on my phone and cannot find a way to type .  Even when I switch to the handwriting method,  does not come up as an option and I get them separated as 門小 instead.

How would I type  with Pin Yin or Yale/Jyutping input?  For now, I'm just using 屌你 instead of 你.  Otherwise, I would have to copy and paste  and it gets annoying.

One could always argue that if you find it annoying to copy/paste , you're using it too much, and should clean up your vocabulary :-)
It all depends on the platform you're using. I'm on a Mac (laptop) and Android (phone/tablet). On my Mac, I have customized an old Jyutping IME by Dominic Yu, based on the LSHK table. I added  (and many other things) to the IME. You can get it here.
On my Android, I use MultiLing, which is good in most cases, but its fuzzy logic makes it very hard to input single-syllable words that are not common (at least in their idea of common). I usually resort, for such characters, to trying first pinyin, then Japanese, or, if everything fails, hand-writing.
EDIT
On MultiLing, typing diunei gives 屌你, which is the fastest way I found to type 屌 – if 你 isn't needed just erase it.


translate: Today I worked through 2 chapters of my grammar book How do I translate this?

  Today I completed 2 chapters of my grammar book

The grammar book being an instructional book on Chinese grammar with exercises.

My best guess

  今天我做两章完了语法的书


Difference between 部门 and 系 Does any difference exist between 部门 and 系?

These are the two different results I get from Google translate:

  I work in the university Chinese language department

  我的工作在大学中国语文系

  I work in the university IT department

  我在大学的IT部门工作

Besides the fact that Google has opted for different grammar for these two similar English sentences. Is there are good reason to use 部门 in one option and 系 in the other or are these two interchangeable.

系 means  college major and is exclusively used by the education system. 专业 is a synonym in this context.

For a student of the English major, he would say

  我读英语系。

or

  我读英语专业。

An institution, a faculty or a big department that hosts multiple majors is usually translated into 学院. In a college, there can be only one language department which teaches multiple languages as different majors.

So when you say

  我在英语系工作。

It means you work for the English department (if there is), or you work on stuffs related to English major for the language department. While

  我在语言学院工作。

Means you work for the department/school of language.

部门, or 部 for short, is usually connected with the roles from an (commercial) enterprise, such as HR Department (人力资源部门), Operations Department (运营部门), Sales Department (销售部门), IT Department (信息技术部门), etc.

Sometimes you can connect 部门 with the 'business subject'. It's not the best word choice but is acceptable, such as 洗衣机部门, 冰箱部门, if you are a manufacturer and have dedicated sector for each product.

Back to the education system, you should stick with 系, 专业 or 学院 mentioned above. '英语部门' sounds very weird to me. However you can say '语言学院的IT部门' meaning the 'IT office for the language department'.

As a recap, 系 and 部门 means different things and are not interchangeable in this context.

Update:

When I wrote this answer, I didn't realize there is a difference between Chinese college organizational model and the U.S. one.

To clarify, the education system in China used to follow the Russian model, that is, there are different offices for different majors in one department, and there are supporting staffs like administrators and operation personnel within the department, each of whom may be assigned to serve a specific major or all majors in the department.

Now they are gradually switching to the Western model, that is, each major is a department, and supporting services are run by the college.


How to say 治安不好 in English How would you say 治安不好 in English?
Someone told me it means "not safe", but I am not sure about it. It seems too broad. 治安 is the safety level of a place specifically relating to crimes, but being not safe may refer to avalanche or smog.

I guess "high-crime" makes more sense.

治安不好的小区
high-crime neighborhood


What does 也 mean in the dialogue: A: 他迟到了。B: 这也难怪。 今天地铁坏了。 A: 他迟到了。
B: 这也难怪。 今天地铁坏了。

As I understand it, 也 means also or too. I'm not sure how this fits in this sentence.

也 here is an adverbial particle that implies "understandably"

Without 也, the sentence would be:

  " 难怪他迟到, 今天地铁坏了。" - "Since the subway is out of order today, there's no surprise that he was late."

Adding 也 to emphasize it is "understandable" , the sentence would become:

  "这也难怪(他迟到), 今天地铁坏了。" - "Since the subway is out of order today,  it is understandably  no surprise (that he was late).

In the second example sentence, the topic "他迟到" is omitted, and "这" replaced it as a pronoun. it is the same as 也难怪他迟到, 今天地铁坏了。"*
也 means " too" or "also" - " this too is no surprise ". implies it is the same as other common events, so it is "understandable".


What does “作” mean in this context? I was listening and they said stuff like 大作 and 小作。

My friend thinks it's an adjective and it can be used as so:
一个很作的女孩子。

“作”, when as a verb in this context, means "to make trouble".

“作”, when as an adjective in this context, means "loving to make ridiculous troubles (being likely to be a trouble-maker)".

“大作” means to make big troubles, usually causing bad consequences.

“小作” means to make small troubles, normally not really harmful.

"她是个很作的女孩” means she is a trouble-making ridiculous girl.(For example: She wants gifts every month and will be very angry if not; she gets upset ridiculously when you contact some other young girls, etc..)

By the way, with this meaning, officially, it should be pronounced as "zuò" even though most normal native speakers pronounce it as "zuō".


What is the function of 便 here? And what does the sentence mean? This is a sample sentence for 八九不离十, from 现代汉语规范词典：

不猜便罢, 若猜便猜它个八九不离十。

It uses an interesting idiom 八九不离十 which I just learnt thanks to duchinese.net.

http://www.duchinese.net/lessons/E269-eight-and-nine-are-close-to-ten

这句话里面的便是不是相当于就？但是意思还不清楚，请解释。
I think 便 functions like 就 here. But I'm not clear about the meaning. Could it be this, in English?

If you don't guess then you stop; if you do guess then get it right.

不猜便罢, 若猜便猜它个八九不离十

Yes, 便 here means 就. The whole sentence means 要么就不猜，要是猜的话就会猜个八九不离十. In English, it could be like: Either they don't guess it, or they do - and they'll probably get it right.


Difference between 佈 and 布 Can anyone help me clarify the difference between 佈 and 布? If I'm not mistaken, this is only relevant for traditional characters since 佈 has been simplified to 布. A dictionary lookup for 佈 shows that it has the same meaning as 布:

(1) 遍及、散滿。通「布」。如：「佈滿」、「遍佈」、「散佈」。
(2) 宣布、宣告。通「布」。如：「公佈」、「頒佈」、「發佈」、「佈告欄」、「佈道大會」。
(3) 安排、設置。通「布」。如：「佈置」、「佈陣」、「佈防」、「佈地雷」。

When searching for pages in traditional Chinese on Google, it seems like "公佈" and "公布" are both commonly used, but in other cases, the difference is quite big; 布置 is much less common than 佈置.

So, what's the difference? Is it a matter of habit and common usage or is there a pattern I fail to see?

This doesn't exactly match the usage you observed, but《现代汉语词典》 differentiates between 布 and 佈 as follows:

  布: 1. 用棉、麻等织成的，可以做衣服或其他物件的材料, 2. 古代的一种钱币, 3. 姓
  佈: 1. 宣告；宣布, 2. 散布；分布, 3. 布置

This would lead me to believe that the traditional character 布 is only acceptable in cloth-related compounds and that 佈 is correct in both 公佈 and 佈置 (and all related verbs). This doesn't account for the prevalence of 公布; perhaps that's a simplification that's been in use so long that it's now commonly accepted.

(Of course, as you said, in situations where simplified characters are used, the distinction is irrelevant.)


What are the characters on this seal? (Characters identified: 李濟懋印) What are the characters on this seal?

Flipped image for easier reading:

As the other answer stated, the characters are 李濟懋印.

Approximate idea of character development - this may not be strictly how the characters evolved over the years.

李

  「李」(originally a kind of fruit > plum, Baxter-Sagart OC: /*C.rəʔ/) is comprised of

  「木」, a semantic component, reinterpreted from「來」(Baxter-Sagart OC: /*mə.rˤək/, /*mə.rˤək/), a phonetic component;
  「子」, a semantic component.

  「木」is relatively similar in appearance to its regular script counterpart.

  「子」originally depicted a baby or child, which is its original meaning.

  商甲甲2262合集22484

  This form directly leads on to its seal script shape. Compared with an adult human「大」, the child's head is emphasised and legs are de-emphasised.

  商甲甲387合集22421

濟

  「濟」(originally to cross a river) is comprised of

  「氵/水」, a semantic component, explanation given here;
  「齊」, a phonetic component.

  What「齊」exactly depicted is not universally agreed upon. However, most sources agree that it was originally comprised of three of some kind of plant:

  商甲前2.15.3合集36493

  The primary attested meanings are even, alike, level.

  Later on, decorative marks in the shape of「＝」were added on:

  戰國金陳侯因⿱次月敦集成4649

  The bottom two plants then had their stalks extended, leading on to the seal script shape:

  秦篆咸陽瓦

懋

  「懋」(diligent, hard-working; used as a name) is comprised of

  「楙」, a phonetic component;
  「心」, a semantic component.

  「楙」(quince; sometimes interchanged with「茂」flourishing) is comprised of

  「林」, a semantic component;
  「矛」, a phonetic component.

  An ancient variant of「懋」did not include「林」:

  商甲京都2062合集29004隷定

  The top component is often seen as the oldest form of「矛」. Later individual appearances of「矛」clearly depicts a long spear or pike with a curved handle:

  西周金⿹戈冬簋集成4322

  The head of the weapon and the handle was subject to shape corruption, e.g. into three「刀」:

  楚簡秦家嘴1.5

  Further stylising from similar shapes leads to

  秦簡睡ㆍ法85　篆說文解字

  the latter of which is the seal script form found in the photo.

  「心」depicts a heart:

  商甲甲3510合集6

  Later on, the chambers of the heart were exaggerated, and the shape became more stylised:

  西周金史墻盤集成10175楚簡包2.218　篆說文解字

  Unfortunately, the shape for「心」in the photo is exceedingly uncommon and difficult to recognise. All common forms of「心」have curves which open at the top, not closed like in the photo. This situation happens very frequently in deciphering characters in seals and calligraphy pieces, and at this point other methods will have to be used to determine the entire character. Two possible methods are:

  Use a handwriting recognition tool to write the known components (well) and an approximation of the unknown component, e.g. in Pleco:

  Use Ideographic Description Characters or similar decomposition methods in a search engine:

  The most viable candidates are「壄」(variant of「野」) and「懋」. Google search also reveals that "李濟懋" is an actual name, unlike "李濟壄", which should increase confidence that the character is「懋」.

  If the above process is not satisfactory, we can go further and look for variants of similar shapes in a comprehensive site like 教育部異體字字典.

印

  「印」depicts a hand「」pressing down on a kneeling person「卩」, which is also its composition.

  商甲乙112合集22148

  The relative proportions and positions of the hand and person have changed throughout history. A bronze script form which looks similar to the photo is:

  西周金毛公鼎
  集成2841


Seen multiple uses of 想 I've seen 想 mean 'thought' as well and wanted to know whether they're used interchangeably or not.

  我没想过这个问题。I've never thought about this question before.

And 想 is also used like this:

  你想不想我？Did you or did you not miss me?

So my book doesn't clarify WHY it's different. Why is 想 want, thought and miss? Some grammar to it? Are there more ways to use 想?

It's just very common for a word to have multiple meanings. An online dictionary gives the five interpretations:

思考, 动脑筋 to think, to consider

  让我想一想 = Let me think.

回忆 to remember

  我想不起来他昨天说了什么 = I can't remember what he said yesterday.

怀念, 惦记 to miss

  我想你 = I miss you.

希望, 打算 to hope/want to do something

  我想去旅游 = I want to travel.

预料, 推测 to anticipate, to predict

  我想这件事没表面上看起来那么简单 = I guess this is not as simple as it looks.


How do you translate "could have been" sentences? For example, how do you translate this: "All his wife wanted was a peaceful life. When he returned from the war, their lives could have been peaceful, but the government situation at that time prevented it."

I have no idea how to say these kinds of "could have/would have" hypotheticals in Chinese.

'could have been' basically means “本来可以” while 'would have been' means “本来会”. For example

He could have been there but there was an accident.
他本(来)可以到那里的，但是出了点意外。
He would have been a doctor if he wasn't hurt.
如果他没受伤，他本会成为一名医生。

Generally, hypotheses in Chinese include the character “本”, like “本来”, “本会”,“本能够”,“本应该”,“本可以”,“本可能”.
Well, there are several mistakes in Kevman's translation.

“妻子”

All his wife wanted was a peaceful life.

This should be

他的妻子只想要平静的生活。

'All his wife wanted' means “他的妻子只想要” rather than “他的妻子们”

“他们”

their lives could have been peaceful

This should be

他们本可以平静地生活着

'their' means “他们的”, because it refers to the man and his wife.
When it refers to people including male and female, it should be translated into “他们的”. Work the same for 'they', 'them' and 'themselves'.
The rest is just as Kevman said.
---------------divide-----------
For Kevman's translation is not shown, I will type the whole translation below.

All his wife wanted was a peaceful life. When he returned from the war, their lives could have been peaceful, but the government situation at that time prevented it.
他的妻子只希望过平静的生活。(但)在他从战场归来后，繁忙的政府公务没让他们过上本(来)该有的平静生活。

This translation is more natural but not formally same. That's why you see “本该有” rather than “本可以”。
One more thing, just as Jesse said, there is a precondition that if everything was like before.


Difference of 不可. 不要. and 别 In Chinese, 不可, 不要, and 别 can all mean "don't". I am wondering about the differences between them.

For example these sentences:
1. 不可吃。
2  别哭了。
3  你不要打扰！

不可, in the context of your question, is short for 不可以, which means "can't", not "don't".

不可吃 means "can't eat", perhaps it is inedible or passed expiry date.

不要 and 别 both mean "don't", but 不要 is stronger and more instructive than 别, example:

  公共场所，请不要喧哗 (please don't make loud noises in public spaces)

不要 can be placed at the end of a sentence to mean "don't want". It can also be placed before a noun. 别 requires a verb behind it. You can say:

  这东西我不要 (I don't want this thing)
  我不要这东西 (same as above)


Understanding 照相 and 照片 I am having some confusion about 照相 and 照片. In my Chinese lesson they introduced them:

照片
Zhào piàn
(noun) photo

照相
Zhào xiàng
(verb) to take a picture

They also showed this example:

我照了几百张照片。
I took several hundreds of photos.

Question:
Is the first 照 of the example the short of 照相? Though 照相照片 (take a picture picture) sounds redundant...
Or 照照片 is just another way to express 照相? This also seems strange to me as 照 is duplicated.

I tried to understand the words by the characters (from Yabla):

照: to illuminate, to reflect
片: slice, film
相: appearance, portrait, picture

This confuses me because both 片 and 相 have similar meanings.

I would say that 照相 is a noun, and should be interpreted as the action to take a picture: 我們去照相 （We go to take pictures.）In this context, you can use 拍照 in lieu of 照相。And it can be separated as a verb and a noun: 我拍了几张照 or 我照了几张相。
To summarize:

照片 = (noun) photo
照相、拍照 = (noun) the action to take pictures
我照了几张相、我拍了几张照

照、拍 = (verb) to take a picture
相、照 = (noun) photo

Furthermore, when the context is clear enough (i.e. talking about taking pictures), you can use independently 照/拍 as a verb:

你照/拍了嗎？ = 你拍照/照相了嗎？

Beware that 照/拍 alone have different meanings, that's why the context should be clear enough to use them alone.


Blessed bat pun: 蝙蝠→__福 I heard about this pun, but I don't know how to identify the one character.

I've tried a few tricks to search CEDICT but either it doesn't show up or there are too many hits to wade through.

The punch is 五蝠 →五福

A graphic of "five bats" (五蝠) symbolizes 五福臨門 (Five good fortunes come to the household)

Five good fortunes:
「壽(long life)、富(wealth)、貴(status)、安樂(peace)、子孫眾多(many children)。」


Which is the more polite way to ask for permission: 能 or 可以? According to this site, both 能 and 可以 can be used to politely ask for permission.

1) Which is considered more polite?

2) Which is more formal?

3) Is it the same for Cantonese?

For the 'asking for permission' function, 能 is similar to 'can' and  可以/可否 is similar to 'may' in English.

Strictly speaking, 'may' is the proper word to use and is considered more polite and formal, for example "May I ask you a question" but in casual day to day speech, more and more people think replacing 'may' with 'can' and say "can I ask you a question?" is acceptable. I would still suggest you use 'may' (可以/可否) instead of 'can' (能)

Cantonese do not use 能 or 能够 when ask for permission. We say "可以" as in "我可以問你一個問題嗎？" which is a polite way to ask. To be more polite, we would say "我可唔可以問你一個問題？"

In Mandarin, "我可不可以問你一個問題?" (more colloquial)  or "我可否問你一個問題?" (more literary) are the more polite form compare to "我能問你一個問題嗎？"


What is the textbook 发展汉语：高级口语（I) referring to about the etymology of 买单? From the textbook 发展汉语：高级口语（I) page 82 (image), we have the following:

据统计，现代汉语中每年大概要出现1000个左右新词新语。有的是随着新事物、新现象、新观念的出现而产生的，如“手机”“宽带”；有的是来自外语或汉语方言的，如“脱口秀”“买单”；有的是旧词语有了新的用法和含义，如“下课”“菜单”;还有的是词语衍生或缩略形成的，如由“白领”“蓝领”衍生的“金领”“粉领”、“个人演唱会”的缩略形成“个唱”。
菜单 (càidān)：指列有各种菜肴的清单。现在指电脑程序进行中出现在显示屏上的选顶列表。

I'm curious as to what it's referring to in regards to 买单.

买单 (mǎidān)
CC-CEDICT: to pay the restaurant bill

Question: What is the textbook referring to about the etymology of 买单?
Google indicates a relationship between 买单 and 埋单:

埋单 (máidān)
CC-CEDICT: to pay the bill (in a restaurant etc) (loanword from Cantonese) / (fig.) to bear responsibility

So maybe 买单 is a variant of 埋单 which is a loanword of something from Cantonese.  I don't really know.

In short, 買單 comes from 埋單 because Cantonese 埋 (tone 4, 陽平, contour 21 or 11) sounds very similar to Mandarin 買 (tone 3, 上聲, contour 214) where the ending rise isn't sounded when followed by 單.
Here Cantonese 埋 means to "settle", "finish off", or "draw near". E.g. 埋數 (finish off the numbers / do accounting), 埋位 (settle in to a seat), 埋口 (heal up an open wound).
The below are from references in Wikipedia 埋單, mentioned by @水巷孑蠻. Translations mine.
Lau Tin Chi (劉天賜)
Wen Wei Po 2003-02-08, "俗語趣談：埋單" (archived version)

解釋：結賬、算賬，也有俗解成死亡、完結。現在內地、台灣等地方漸受香港語言影響，亦以「埋單」表示結賬。但用錯了字，以為是「買單」，殊不知「埋」字是廣府話的神髓。

Explanation: to pay a bill, to settle a bill [or score]; also popularly interpreted as [causing] death, finishing off. Nowadays in Mainland, Taiwan, etc., being gradually influenced by Hong Kong language [usage], "埋單" is also used to express paying of a bill. But the wrong word is used, it is thought to be "買單", and hardly known that "埋" is quintessence of Cantonese.

Dr Lam Kin Ping (林建平博士)
Archived version of CUHK 普通話速遞 No. 48, "衣食住行AA制"

「買單」源自「埋單」
上文提到「買單」，原為粵方言詞，寫作「埋單」。「埋」是收攏、靠攏的意思，埋單就是把消費的帳單收攏在一起最後結帳。粵語的「埋單」和普通話的「買單」讀音相合：「埋」（mai），粵語是個低平調（陽平），一般認為調值是21；「買」（mai），普通話單唸是個降升調，但在「買單」一詞中，則讀作半三聲，調值211，與粵語的低平調非常脗合。因此，「埋單」進入普通話後，多寫作「買單」。可以說，普通話的「買單」，借用了粵語的音，然後另起爐灶，造了「買單」這個新詞。

"買單" sourced from "埋單"
"買單" mentioned in the text above is originally a Cantonese phrase, written "埋單". "埋" has the meaning of gathering, drawing close; 埋單 is to gather in the bills of expenses together for a final paying of the bill. Cantonese "埋單" and Mandarin "買單" have matching pronunciations: "埋" (mai) in Cantonese has lower level tone (light level) [i.e. tone 4], commonly held to have tone value 21; "買" (mai) read alone in Mandarin has falling-rising tone, but in the phrase "買單", is read in half-third-tone, tone value 211, quite a match with Cantonese lower level tone. Thus, "埋單" after entering Mandarin [usage], is mostly written "買單". One may say, Mandarin's "買單" has borrowed the pronunciation in Cantonese, then set up its own shop, creating the new phrase "買單".


Does "免费" mean "free" in terms of price? Does "免费" mean "free" when we are talking about price? Or is it like "freedom"?

"免费" is "free" in terms of price.

"免" means "exempt"; "费" means "costs" or "fees". "Exempt from costs" = "free".

"自由" is "free" as in freedom/liberty.


why 秋千? Where does the name come from? Had a look around in my dictionaries wondering if anyone has any input as to why a 秋千 is 秋＋千, what's the significance?

“秋千” in the acient times of China was written as "鞦韆"。——at that times, in order to pick up fruits from the high trees or patch up something higher, the old Chinese people usually binded themselves with ropes from animals'skins and it made themselves wave from one place to another. And now we use a common rope instead of skins, so “革” is removed.
For more please refer the Chinese version：荡秋千的来历


Which fonts show the stroke order of all characters? For academic purposes, I need to print out some pages of characters with stroke orders shown. Which computer fonts (e.g. TrueType or OpenType) are available which show the stroke order of each character (e.g. by showing numbers near the beginning of each stroke)?

No fonts do, just sites with pictures or animations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:-bw.png#file

Instructions: Past the address in your browser bar, then write a character between "File:" and "-bw", like this "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:你-bw.png#file". It will show you the character's stroke order, not animated, but very clear.
http://www.visualmandarin.com/tools/dictionary/

This shows the stroke order but not the stroke direction.


Origin of 天气 (weather)? What's the origin of 天气?

天, I'm willing to bet is 老天爷; with phrase like 天公不作美 (天公 = 老天爷) and even the government claiming that:

  老天爷为何这么给“面子” 专家细解阅兵前后降雨成因

It seems that the idea that 老天爷 is in charge of the weather would fit quite well here.

But 气? 气 could be a lot of things.

I have no proof here. Just stipulating.

气 is vapor, and so 天气 is the vapor of heaven, that is weather. 气候 is climate by analogy, referring to a timespan, or 地气, referring to the vapors of earth.

But 气 is also breath, attitude, atmosphere and similar derived meanings. Poetically, 天气 could mean the influence of the heavens, although it is likely that 天气 was applied to such settings rather than being derived from religion.

樂記 (战国):

地氣上齊，天氣下降，陰陽相摩，天地相蕩，鼓之以雷霆，奮之以風雨，動之以四時，暖之以日月，而百化興焉。如此則樂者天地之和也。

The breath (or influence) of earth ascends on high, and that of heaven descends below. These in their repressive and expansive powers come into mutual contact, and heaven and earth act on each other. (The susceptibilities of nature) are roused by the thunder, excited by the wind and rain, moved by the four seasons, and warmed by the sun and moon; and all the processes of change and growth vigorously proceed. Thus it was that music was framed to indicate the harmonious action of heaven and earth.


I want to understand if I can use 做 instead of 当？ 我一毕业就去上海“当”律师
This sentence is given to me in the book.
However, I wonder if I can write it like this instead of using another word:

我一毕业就去上海”做“律师？

I think the meaning is the same, but which is grammatically correct?

当 is grammarly correct, it means "to be"
当...（职业）is the correct expression. for example:
当老师，当医生，当科学家, and it cannot be replaced by 做.
做, means "do", is to ask someone's occupation. for example:
你是做什么的？what you do for a living? it cannot be replaced by 当.
so 我一毕业就去上海”做“律师？ is a strange way to say but we also understand.
BTW, I think most of the problems asked in this Chinese Language section is simply because you guys don't have the context or not familiar with the convention.


Where can I find a Chinese common phrase database? I'm looking for a Chinese common phrase database for my project, where can I find something like this?

阿姨
菠菜
大法
风格
动物
森林
窗口
打开
回复
重播

The Ministry of Education in Taiwan provides some statistics.

  表一：字頻總表
  Table 1: Character frequency

  表二：詞頻總表
  Table 2: Phrase frequency

  表三：本字彙部首出現情形說明表：依二一四部首序排列
  Table 3: Radicals, sorted by radical

  表四：本字彙部首出現情形說明表：依部首使用頻次高低序排列
  Table 4: Radicals, sorted by frequency

  表 五：本字彙表筆畫出現情形說明表：依筆畫多寡序排列
  Table 5: Strokes, sorted by the number of strokes

  表 六：本字彙表筆畫出現情形說明表：依各筆畫使用高低序排列
  Table 6: Strokes, sorted by frequency

  表 七：本字彙表音節統計表
  Table 7: Syllable statistics

  表 八：本字彙表聲母符號出現情形說明表
  Table 8: Consonant statistics

  表 九：本字彙表韻母符號出現情形說明表
  Table 9: Vowel statistics

  表 十：本字彙表聲調符號出現情形說明表
  Table 10: Tone statistics

  表十一：本字彙表聲、韻出現頻次次比對表：依出現頻次高低序排列
  Table 11: Consonants vs. vowels, sorted by frequency

  表十二：本字彙表聲母符號發聲方法出現頻次統計表
  Table 12: Pronunciation methods of the consonants

  表十三：本字彙表韻母符號發音方法出現頻次統計表
  Table 13: Pronunciation methods of the vowels

  表十四：本字彙表構詞率統計表：依詞頭出現頻次排列
  Table 14: The first character of a phrase, sorted by frequency

  表十五：本字彙表構詞率統計表：依詞尾出現頻次排列
  Table 15: The last word of a phrase, sorted by frequency

  表十六：本字彙表構詞率統計表：依總構詞率排列
  Table 16: The word frequency in a phrase

  表十七： 本字彙表與《常用國字標準字體表》比對表： 字頻表與常用字表共有之字
  Table 17: Characters shown in both Table 1 and the Common Character Table

  表十八：本字彙表與《常用國字標準字體表》比對表： 字頻表與常用字表未共有之字
  Table 18: Characters shown in Table 1, but not in the Common Character Table

  表十九：本字彙表與《常用國字標準字體表》比對表： 常用字表收字未見於本字彙表之字
  Table 19: Characters shown in the Common Character Table, but not in Table 1

What you are looking for is the Table 2.
You can download it by clicking the 下載 link.
It is a self-extracting .exe file.

There are 64326 phrases in the table, which are sorted by frequency in descending order.
For your convenience, I copy the first thousand phrases and convert them to the simplified Chinese.

These statistics were made by MOE in Taiwan long time ago, therefore
they are in traditional Chinese of course;
the encoding may be in BIG5;
the symbols of pronunciation are bopomofo, ㄅㄆㄇㄈ;
there are no recent phrases, especially the slang;
some phrases are different from those in Mainland; and
the syntax of the htm files is different.

If you want to read the Web pages,
save the pages first;
open with a text editor;
find the first "width";
remove the "%" in the values;
save the file; and
open with a Web browser.

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The MOE also had the statistics for the textbooks of the primary schools in Mainland.


What's the meaning of 預約拘捕(Arrest by Appointment)? What's the objective of Appointment?
Is it kind of Wanted poster?

It's not a poster.

根據官方香港電台「通識網」解釋，預約拘捕是指執法人員在有證據懷疑一個人違法或有拘捕令的情況下，預先通知及約定對方將會被捕的司法程序。
實際在執行過程中，警方會事先表明拘捕的理由及涉案人士觸犯的法律，在考慮對方不會潛逃或毀滅證據下，進行有秩序的預約拘捕，可讓對方有足夠的心理 (sic) 準備，減少因突然拘捕而出現衝突。

According to the description given by liberalstudies.hk, an "Arrest by Appointment" refers to the judicial procedure whereby a law-enforcement officer who, either [through having enough evidence to suspect the conduct of illegal activity] or [having an arrest warrant], gives prior notice to an individual and makes an appointment with them for their arrest.
In reality, the police will first give notice of the reason(s) for arrest and the legal case for the offence, and, under an operating assumption that the suspected individual will not attempt to destroy evidence or flee, they will conduct a lawful "Arrest by Appointment" procedure, allowing the suspected individual to prepare themselves for the arrest, minimising the potential shock of an otherwise sudden arrest.

(NB: This is not legal advice)


What is the correct pronunciation of 垃圾? The word 垃圾 is sometimes pronounced laji, but other times I've seen it pronounced as lese, which pronunciation is deemed to be more correct? Are they both interchangeable?

(As I very recently learned)
The standard pronunciation for 垃圾 is lājī in the PRC and lèsè in Taiwan
An obvious question to ask is Why? Although I could not find an authoritative source, I have seen a number of claims that are very similar to each other. I'll refer to the talk page for 垃圾 on Wikipedia:

标准普通话是读laji，以前的国语是读lese，因为垃圾本来是在方言中首先使用的，所以现在南方各地的方言里还是保留着当时的发音，后来普通话吸收了这个词，但是读音根据形声字的一般发音规则作了改变，所以读音改为laji，而台湾依然保留了lese的读音。--3dball 21:01 2006年1月13日 (UTC)
垃圾一词在宋朝就有, 见吴自牧的梦梁录. 本为lese, 是共产党有边读边念错变成laji --Bobbybuilder 2010年12月6日 (一) 18:36 (UTC)

An translation I've taken a few liberties with:

A: The reason that [on the mainland] it is read laji but [in Taiwan] it is read as lese is that the word was originally from a dialect. The word was borrowed into Mandarin, but the standard pronunciation eventually become laji based on a (mis)interpretation of the characters' phonetic components.
B: The characters do show up in Song dynasty texts (e.g., ...), but it was the CCP who mispronounced it.

Other important evidence:

The wiktionary page shows pronunciations in many dialects. If the characters are cognate, it's always an "s" for the second one.
The characters don't show up in Song dynasty 广韵 book of pronunciations (e.g., probably new characters), although they do show up in other Song dynasty texts.
The word was written with different characters in different texts; the standard was established rather late.
laji did not show up as the dictionary standard until PRC times.
In Cantonese, it's laap6 saap3
In Shanghainese: [lɒ²²ɕi⁴⁴], Suzhou dialect: [lɒ³¹⁻²²si⁴⁴]


Can someone help translate 不枉 lyrics to English? I have a general idea of the meaning of the song. And would love to read the translation.  Here is the lyric for 不枉.

===========

不枉

水滔滔 天蒼蒼

一借東風頃到燒光

樹靜雲淡也是虛罔

撓起弓箭為著射穿怯慌

對酒當歌醉飲星光

相看一刻哪需多講

讓情義竭盡釋放

在那盡頭地方

活著是 生不辜負厚望

又或是 死得轟烈跌盪

用沉著對付兇悍

用血肉成就絕地的曙光

患難是 一起經歷碰撞

在烽火中受仰望

淚流 被遍地花葬

身再傷不枉

不枉 Not wasted

水滔滔 天蒼蒼 vast water endless sky

一借東風頃刻燒光 everything burn in an instance once the East wind arrives

樹靜雲淡也是虛罔 trees still (no wind), clouds thin (no storm), is all an illusion (of peace)

挽起弓箭為著射穿怯慌 raise bow and arrow to shot through (break) my fear

對酒當歌醉飲星光 in front of wine and songs, drunk under the starry night

相看一刻哪需多講 No need for words, just a moment of eye contact said it all

讓情義竭盡釋放 Let our friendship and affection be boldly and completely  shown

在那盡頭地方 Even at the time and place we end

活著是 生不辜負厚望 'living' is to not disappoint great hope that's intrusted upon yourself

又或是 死得轟烈跌盪 or die heroically and honorably

用沉著對付兇悍 use calmness to deal with fierce (attack)

用血肉成就絕地的曙光 use our bodies to bring first light of dawn (hope)fore in deadly ground (hopeless situation)

患難是 一起經歷碰撞 'brotherhood (in arms)' is to endure fight and conflict together

在烽火中受仰望 be looked upon in battle

淚流 被遍地花葬 dropped tears buried by fallen flower (depict an open sky battle field in the wild)

身再傷不枉 Not matter how hurt my body becomes, it is not wasted


Better translation for "Grateful for everything life has given me" Is "感谢对一切生活给予我" or "感谢生活所给予我的一切" a better translation for the proverb "Grateful for everything life has given me". If both don't make sense what is the accurate translation?

The second sentence is exactly what you are looking for.

The first sentence doesn't make any sense.


Do people say 有能力  or 有  的能力 I've always been a bit confused about the order of using 有能力 and I'm hoping someone can clarify. Do people say "有能力 do something" or "有 do something 的能力"?

For example, could I say "他没有能力写代码？”

Both is correct. Yay!

Think "I'm ABLE to code." and "I HAVE THE ABILITY of coding."


What is the meaning of 十余年 here? I have:

娃哈哈连续十余年领跑中国饮料行业，

I keep seeing 余年 = one's remaining years, but I'm pretty sure 十余年 means 'for the last ten years', not the (10 remaining) years ahead.

It's not as if 娃哈哈 only has 10 years left, or is it??

十余年 means more than ten years but less than twenty years.

Oxford Chinese-English Dictionary
余 (2)
C. 数
over

20余人
  twenty-odd people

有百余人。
  There are over a hundred people.

Modern Chinese Dictionary
余 (2)
(5) [数] 表示整数之外的零头，相当于“多”。
二十余人

So basically, when 余 follows a number, it often indicates the remainder over the smallest unit (个、十、百、千、万...) of the round number it follows.
Examples:

十余 = 1十+余
the round number is 十(10)
∵ the unit of the round number is 十(10^1)
∴ 余 < 十(10)
∴ 10 < 十余 < 20

两百余 = 2百+余
the round number is 2百(200)
∵ the unit of the round number is 百(10^2)
∴ 余 < 百(10^2)
∴ 200 < 两百余 < 300

P.S:
The construction pattern: XXX (专注/引领) YYY ZZZ(余) 年 is a common usage among slogans and promotional materials. XXX is often the name of a company, YYY is the industry or business the company is in and zzz is the time it has been doing the business. This is generally to show that the company has a long history in the business and has a lot of experiences.
Example:

IBM专注商业计算200年


Meaning of 如何 as a single-word declarative sentence? In a 1933 silent movie, a guy is rejected by a girl who instead marries a rich guy. His friends tell him the marriage won't last long because rich guys have "easy come, easy go" lifestyles. Months later, when they learn that the marriage indeed broke up, they simply declare "如何.".

What is the meaning of 如何 in this context, and how does it relate to the dictionary definitions of 如何 as "how", "what", "why", "怎樣", "怎麼辦"? Is this an outdated usage, or still in use?

Thanks in advance for any help.

EDITS:
1. The original post stated: 'they simply declare "如何"'. The post was edited by zyy to 'they simply declare "如何?"' (appended question mark). It's not clear to me why this was changed to a question, given that the post's title states "a single-word declarative sentence". I just checked the video again and the actual intertitle is "如何.". (with period at end). See it at the 78:39 mark of https://www.bilibili.com/video/av30814356/

Added clarification: this is a silent movie, so the "如何." is written, not spoken.

You haven't provided much context for it. I'm guessing 如何 probably is used to mean "How was it". Usually, in this scenario, we say 你看怎么样，我说的对吧， and etc indicating that one should have taken their advice for doing something, given the negative consequence shown up.


Question to radical (部首)"辵" to my understanding a radical is the smallest character you can disassemble a word into (correct me if I`m wrong).

However the radical 辵 seems to be a combination out of two other radicals: 止 (in the form of 龰) and 彡.

Can someone explain?

Your idea is correct, at least most Chinese people agree with this.

But in this case, 辵 is acturally combined of 彳 and 止.

彳 means "walk slowly" or "the step with left foot".
止 means "stop" or "halt".
辵 means "walk one moment and stop the next“.

While 彡 means "plume", obviously having no connection with 辵.

By the way, only 止 is frequently used in daily life; 彳 may occur in some poetry; 辵 and 彡 is never used (unless you are studying the articals or books from thousand years ago).

Reference:

辵：http://www.zdic.net/z/25/js/8FB5.htm (Chinese)

Sorry, due to my low reputation, I am only ably to post 1 link. You may find explnation for other characters on that website.


Is this sentence correct? 打扫大客厅这么多累的啊 If not how would it be corrected using the exact same characters?

And what is the issue with the original sentence?

Struggling a bit with word order!

If the rule of the game is all characters must be used, I guess I can play it like this:
"打扫这么大的客厅多累啊!" (cleaning such a big living room, how tiring!)

what is the issue with the original sentence?
打扫大客厅这么多累的啊

"打扫大客厅"(cleaning the main living room) is the topic, followed by the comment/opinion "多累啊"
'这么' and '的' are not needed


Why does 空 have a fourth tone reading in 空格, but a first tone reading in 空调, 空气 etc And, more broadly, is there a pattern when words like 空 have the same pronunciation but different tones, depending on the word?

Generally, first tone means it is related to air/sky/vaccuum/or stressing its emptiness.

空调-air conditioner，空气-air,天空-sky 航空-aviation 真空-vaccuum，空虚-emptiness

Fourth tone usually means something related to blank/room or space/emptiness, and stressing that it can be used or filled

空格-space 空当-free time or space，填空-fill in the blank
空白-blank/空缺-vacancy/空隙-slot/空出时间
(may not be appropriate translation,sorry)

Another interesting example:

这个房间是空的。 This room is empty.(first tone)

哪个房间空出来？ Which room is available(so that I can use)?(fourth tone)


Which characters belong together in 区分开来？ Which characters belong together here?

我们一定要把写字和书法区分开来。
We must differentiate between writing and calligraphy.
We must draw a distinction between writing and calligraphy.
We must separate (区分开来） writing from calligraphy.

区分：differentiate, distinguish between, draw a distinction
分开：separate
区分开来：separate from??

In () may belong together. I think 3. is maybe the correct analysis.

1a. 我们一定要把（写字区）和（书法区）分开来。

1b. 我们一定要把写字和书法区（分开来）。

我们一定要把写字和书法（区分）开来。
我们一定要把写字和书法（区分开来）。

区分 is the verb, to differentiate.

开 is a resultant complementary, apart.

来 is another resultant complementary, henceforth.

开来 commonly appear together in phrases similar to this one, but they do not form a word. (There is a word 开来 as in 继往开来 which is different).

The affinity of characters is (((区分)开)来) where only 区分 is a word.


What is the taboo against "fox"? On the Wiki page for 自贡话民俗特色词汇列表 there's an entry that says:

  毛狗：狐狸(民间因犯忌讳而改称)。

What is the taboo against 狐狸 (fox) though?

Is there some relation to 狸 being a homophone with 利?

The taboo is just due to the general view that foxes are inauspicious/trickster/fierce animals.

Reference 1 (https://new.qq.com/omn/20171112/20171112A08Q1T.html):

  蜀话中的忌讳说凶恶动物，例如蛇在四川话中的讳称有“梭老二”、“梭梭”、“干黄鳝”、“长虫”等，老虎在四川话中的讳称有“猫猫”、“大猫”、“大头猫”、“扁担花”等，狐狸在四川话中的讳称为“毛狗”，老鼠在鼠话中的讳称有“耗子”、“老水子”、“高客”、“喜马”等。

Reference 2 (https://wenku.baidu.com/view/7890ddc05fbfc77da269b180.html):

  俗传狐狸成精后,会变成女人害人,故成都、重庆、南川、阆中、泸州、西充、綦江、金堂、仪陇、云阳等地改称为“毛 狗”。


Verbs to indicate animals walking? What are the various verbs that can be used to indicate walking for animals?

Saying something like 老虎开始走向巴士 or 小猫在街上走着 sounds odd to me.

Native Chinese speaker here.

No, we do not have many specific animal locomotion words in Chinese. You can very well say they 'walk'.
But, when we want to sound learned or create variation, we do have more descriptive vocabularies for movements. These words are applicable to the movements of animals, human, as well as objects sometimes. I can give you some examples.

dash - 冲 (横冲直撞 can describe a wild person or animal running around frantically);

measured steps - 踱着方步 or 踱步 (can be used to describe the canter of a horse);

cat walk - 猫步;

横行 - it is the walk a proud person or a crab;

limping- 跛足而行，跛行;

潜行 - moving stealthily under water or in the dark;

滑行 - gliding on land or in the air;

扑 - jump of a tiger, lion, etc. (any predator)

三步并作两步，连滚带爬，上蹿下跳 are more complicated modes of movement.


What does this sentence mean 我是男猪脚? I tried looking up online dictionary but cannot find the meaning of 男猪脚? Its literal meaning is "I am a male pig's foot" and it makes no sense.

This is internet slang: 猪脚 refers to 主角 (they have similar pronunciation), i.e. protagonist / leading role [character]. The original meaning of 猪脚 is pig feet; as @NS.X. commented, as internet slang it's usually used for playfulness, sarcasm or self-mockery.

我是男猪脚 means I am the leading man (main actor).

Related terms: 男猪 (男主角), 女猪 (女主角).


Why is the 車 in Chinese chess pronounced jū? The 車 in Chinese chess is pronounced jū. Why isn't it pronounced chē?

Is this pronunciation used outside of Chinese chess?

It is an ancient pronunciation of that Chinese character. Because Chinese chess has been created for more than 2000 years. During this period of time, pronunciations of many characters have changed, "車" is one of them. But because this game has been widely spread, this ancient pronunciation has been retained.

This pronunciation is only used in this game.


What is Alex and John Dent-Young's translation of this passage of the Water Margin? I have this passage from the Water Margin which is quoted in the Treasury of Laughs

  话说鲁智深剃度五台山，一日回到丛林选佛场中禅床上，扑倒头便睡。上下肩两个禅和子推他起来，说道：“使不得。既要出家，如何不学坐禅？”智深道：“洒家自睡，干你甚事？”禅和子道：“善哉！”智深裸袖道：“团鱼洒家也吃，甚么‘鳝哉’？”禅和子道：“却是苦也！”智深便道：“团鱼大腹，又肥甜了，好吃，哪得‘苦也’。”上下肩禅和子都不睬他，由他自睡了。（第四回）

I've already found two published translated versions.

This is the translation done by J.H. Jackson:

  Lu Da went to the monks’ dormitory, and lay down to sleep. On either side of him was a monk, and they both pushed him; saying, “Get up! This won’t do! As you have left home, why do you not sleep in a sitting position?”

  “I am going to sleep, and what is that to do with you?” answered Lu Da. A monk exclaimed, “What a calamity!”

  Lu Da shouted, “Even a tortoise I shall eat; what calamity will there be?”
  The monk replied, “Of course there will be a calamity.” Lu Da said, “A tortoise has a big belly, but the fat is sweet and nice to eat, so why should there be a calamity.”

  The monks took no more notice of him and let him sleep.

This is Sidney Shapiro's version:

  When Lu got back to the meditation room, he threw himself down on his bed and went to sleep. The monks meditating on either side shook him into wakefulness.

  “You can't do that,” they said. “Now that you're a monk, you're supposed to learn how to sit and meditate.”

  “If I want to sleep, what's it to you?” Lu demanded.
 “Evil!” exclaimed the monks.

“What's this talk about eels? It's turtles I like to eat.”

  “Oh, bitter!”

  “There's nothing bitter about them Turtle belly is fat and sweet. They make very good eating.” The monks gave up. They let him sleep.

Apparently there is a newer translation titled The Marshes Of Mount Liang, by Alex and John Dent-Young, that I cannot seem to find.

Does anyone have their translation of this passage? I believe it would be in the book entitled The Broken Seals: Part One of The Marshes of Mount Liang.

You Could find the book preview here The Broken Seals - Part One of The Marshes of Mount Liang

I am sure the passage you want is there. But it is hard for me find the exact page for you since I am a Chinese.


What is the difference between 紧迫 and 急迫？ 紧迫 urgent; pressing; imminent:

急迫 urgent； pressing； imperative

I have analyzed many words relating to urgency, but this is the only pair I was not able to distinguish

I have a Chinese thesaurus dictionary (现代汉语同义词词典) . It does not compare 紧迫 with 急迫 directly but compares 紧迫 with 紧急 and 急迫 with 急切.

To summarize

紧迫 is subjective and 急迫 objective.
紧迫：～感|任务～|形势十分～
急迫：情况～|～的任务

紧迫 is definitely much more widely used both in written and oral Chinese. It feels as if you can use 紧迫 to replace 急迫 and it is still fine but not vice versa.

About the comparison mentioned above, it is dauntingly long even for a native speaker. If you are interested, check it here https://pastebin.com/b8tGSeNF


Meaning of 来 as in 你来给我们评评理 你来给我们评评理

Three people are discussing something. One of them asks another to be judge on who's right.
What's the exact meaning of 来 here? Since three of them are already together, it shouldn't be "come here".

The "来", "come" here acts as a form of "invitation", inviting someone to give an opinion or judgement.
Like, "come, give us your view on this matter"


Translation of "we", pronoun in official company introduction material I am translating a document that looks like an official introduction of a company maybe to be placed on their website or marketing material.

In the document, the first sentence starts with the name of the company, then later on they refer to the company as "we", ex. We are a strong competitor in used equipment market.

I personally think "We" is not appropriate on official marketing material, so is the direct translation 我们 and would like to change to 本公司 or even just use the name of the company in place of the pronoun.  Or since they are using "we", means it's not really written that seriously, it's ok to just translate as 我们？

What is the correct thing to do in this case?

My answer would be yes, you can use 我们 because it's the most formal way of saying 'we'.


What does 一票 mean here? I have: '男儿有泪不轻弹' and later: ',理智的男子汉再悲伤也不轻易哭泣, 爱哭的男人走到哪儿都会被一票否决‘

否决： 对事物作否认的议决
一票： one ticket

So what does 一票否决 mean in this context? Seems to mean 'by everyone, completely rejected‘

一票否决 means "rejected just because of that thing alone", i.e. "rejected by one vote". It comes from the sense of vetoing, but more specifically the kind of vetoing power the UN security council members get; i.e. whenever a single reject vote is cast, the entire thing is rejected. It is usually only in this sense that Mandarin uses the expression 一票否决. The vetoing power of the US president, for example, is simply expressed with 否决, and 一票否决 in that context would strike as highly unusual.

So you see, in an imagined "holistic evaluation", many parts are considered. So if something has the 一票否决 power, then it means that as long as that one thing is unacceptable, then the entirety is rejected.

It does not mean "rejected by anyone". In this sentence, the sense of "anyone" is conveyed by

  走到哪儿都会

i.e. "no matter where he goes".


Finding the "second character"? A lot of words in Chinese have been shortened into single-syllable, and thus single-character, words. Often times though these single syllable words are not 'clear' enough in speech, in writing though this does not really pose an issue. A second syllable (character) can be added to make things clearer, for example:

已 — 已经

易 — 容易

I suppose we can call these single character words with double character words with same meaning equivalents.

How can we find a single-characters double-character equivalent?

已 — 已经
  易 — 容易

You can look up these word in a dictionary.

  Like 开 (for water) how can I know it's 烧开...I don't know that a dictionary will tell me that

开 is called a resultative complement (结果补语). Unfortunately, there is no easy way to know them.

Most adjectives can be used as resultative complements. e.g. you can say 水开了 and 烧水, so you say 水烧开了, too.

But most resultative complements are not adjectives. You have to learn them as collocations. e.g.

  看见/看到
  听见/听到
  but 闻到 and 想到. 闻见 and 想见 are relatively rare
  找到/找着

You may have to ask the teacher or use Google to find out which one is more common. e.g.

If you search "看不*东西" (including the quotation marks) in Google, you can only find 看不见, 看不清 and 看不到.

Technically, 到 in 看不到 is a potential complement (可能补语). But in most cases, resultative complements are the same as potential complements. The main difference is that you put 得 or 不 between the verb and the complement. This trick can help you eliminate many false positives.


Ranking of Likelihood/Probability Words There are several words in Chinese that express various degrees of probability/possibility/likelihood, such as 也许，说不定，可能，确定，etc.
Many of these words have overlapping definitions, but this may or may not mean that the different words convey a similar sense of probability.
What are the various "probability" words/phrases used in Chinese and how do their senses of probability compare with each other?
For example, in English and according to this native English speaker's sense (which will not be the same for all native English speakers), we have:
impossible < very unlikely < unlikely < potentially ~< maybe ~= possibly ~= perhaps < quite possible < likely < very likely < almost certain < definitely = certain
where I have ranked the words in order of their sense of likelihood (from least to greatest). I know I am missing words/phrases, but I hope this gets the idea across. I also know that I am mixing adverbs and adjectives; this is intentional as I am thinking about the core meanings and because the meaning can change between adjectival and adverbial forms (possibly vs possible, for example).
There is a related question, but I am looking for more words and a general sense of relative likelihood.

100% = 絕對，肯定，一定 (definitely)
80 - 90% = 應該 (most likely/ probably)
70 - 90% = 多數  (most likely)
60 - 90% = 大慨 (probably)
60 - 80% = 極可能，很可能 (very likely)
1 - 50% = 有可能 (possible)，或者，也许，說不定 (maybe)


Is this correct? 用实际行动来（回馈）父母的期待。 Is "用实际行动来（回馈）父母的期待" correct?

I think "回馈期待" is unnatural to me.

If it is wrong, would "回报" be correct?

What other words can be used here? Thank you!

馈 means "to gift"
报 means "to repay"
回馈 means "to give back (to shows your gratitude)
回报 means "to repay" (a grace or debt)

"用实际行动来（回馈）父母的期待"
实际行动 is not a gift
It would be correct to write: "用(成果)来（回馈）父母"
成果 is a gift; object of 回馈 is the parents, not their expectation

~

用实际行动来（回报）父母的期待"
期待 is not a grace or debt
It would be correct to write: "用实际行动来（回报）父母的(恩情)"
恩情 is a grace; the object of 回报 is 父母的恩情

~

回应 means "to respond"
Better change "用实际行动来（回馈）父母的期待" to "用实际行动来（回应）父母的期待"
"Use action to respond to his parent's expectation"

More example:

回馈社會 (give back to the society) the object of 回馈 is the society, not what the society has done for you

回报親恩 (repay the parents' grace)

回应訴求 (respond to appeal)


Translation: Self-Conscious In English we use 'self-conscious' to mean 'conscious (or worried) about oneself' like:

The cameras made her feel self-conscious about her weight.

Or

Don't mention his acne, he's really self-conscious about it.

Dictionaries have words like 害羞，难为情的，尴尬 but that doesn't seem to really fit...

Any ideas?

If I am to translate:

The cameras made her self-conscious about her weight:

拍照让他在意起自己的体重

Don't mention his acne, he's really self-conscious about it.

别提起他的暗疮，他很介意。

PS: I suppose you were right, we might not really have a definite word/phrase for its translation, but i'd say it is very close to 介意/在意


Apple Tablet Dictionary that Supports Drawing Input I am trying to find an Apple tablet dictionary that supports drawing input.

What I mean by that Is that you are able to draw the character you are looking for and then it suggests a number of characters this drawing of yours looks like.

I have noticed that android Pleco has this function but not for Iphone Pleco.

Can anyone point to another app that works for IOS?

This Youtube video shows how to enable iPad's builtin system chinese hand writing keyboards. Once you enable one of them, you can use it not only for Pleco but also for any apps.


English translation of The Odes of Confucius (詩經) Some time ago I read two Chinese poems and now I can't find the original Chinese version, only the English translation. Maybe you could help me with a link or a title!
The poems are from The Odes of Confucius:

http://theotherpages.org/poems/part2/confucius01.html

Sadness

The sun is ever full and bright,

The pale moon waneth night by night.

Why should this be?

My heart that once was full of light

Is but a dying moon to-night.

But when I dream of thee apart,

I would the dawn might lift my heart,

O sun, to thee.

2.Trysting Time

A pretty girl at time o’ gloaming

Hath whispered me to go and meet her

Without the city gate.

I love her, but she tarries coming.

Shall I return, or stay and greet her?

I burn, and wait.

Truly she charmeth all beholders,

’Tis she hath given me this jewel,

The jade of my delight;

But this red jewel-jade that smoulders,

To my desire doth add more fuel,

New charms to-night.

She has gathered with her lily fingers

A lily fair and rare to see.

Oh! sweeter still the fragrance lingers

From the warm hand that gave it me.

Fun fact: Western translators are really good at distorting classic Chinese poems.

I've read through several translation of Chinese poems by various western translators, some of them are quite good actually, but some of the distortions are just baffling.  There was a U.S. poet who didn't know any Chinese, but used the literal translation of some poems, and used her poetic sense to rewrite them. There was another guy who didn't know Chinese but knew some Japanese, then he used a Japanese translations of the Chinese poems to do his translation. Oh you guys are really wonderful.

I've sifted through all 305 poems and couldn't find the first one. Either because it is made up, or because of some serious alternation of the original meaning. Boy this one is hard.

The second one has the original title of 静女(Quiet Girl) from section 国风·邶风(folk songs from 邶). This also took me some time because the meaning is also distorted to a great degree.

  静女

  静女其姝，俟我于城隅。爱而不见，搔首踟蹰。

  静女其娈，贻我彤管。彤管有炜，说怿女美。

  自牧归荑，洵美且异。匪女之为美，美人之贻。

Update: Just found the book you've mentioned here.  Read some of my old favorites. Now my eyes are bleeding.

Update again:

My word-to-word translation with grammar stripped. Now you should feel my pain.

Quite girl so beautiful,
let-wait me at city corner.
Loving(-her) but not seeing(-her),
(I) scratch head wander hesitantly.

Quiet girl so pretty,
Give me red flute.
Red flute have glow,
(I) Enjoy love its beauty.

(She) from meadow fetch-back reed(-flower),
Indeed beautiful and special.
(I'm happy) Not(-because) of it being beautiful,
(but It's) beautiful girl's present.

As you see, the original translation got quite a few things wrong.


Is there a word for "kosher"? I'm looking for a translation of the word kosher in it's most strict sense: a food that is apt according to the jewish law.

Google translates kosher as 犹太, but if I'm not mistaken, that just means "jewish". And you can certainly make non-kosher jewish food.

Depending on the context, there are different strategies for translating this word. In the most strict sense, leaving nothing unsaid, it is （符）合犹太教规的 when it comes to food preparation. If reference to 犹太教 isn't essential to the context, it can simply be 合礼法的, because the notion of doing things according to 礼法 is prevalent in Chinese culture.


How can I translate "notable user" into Chinese? I have searched for the word notable. It means:

worthy of notice 值得提起
widely known and esteemed 被广泛所知或者受人尊敬的

and notable user in my context may be the second choice. But how can I translate it into a readable or short phrase.

I was trying the 著名用户, but it is a little bit strange. Is there a better way to translate this phrase.

Add more context:

### Notable users

- [GitLab](https://github.com/gitlabhq/)
- [Vim Markdown](https://github.com/plasticboy/vim-markdown/)

It seems that 知名用户 sounds natural, but I don't know in what context it is used, and what it really refers to.


Difference between 課 and 軌 I would like to learn the equivalent translation for course in Cantonese, as in "I am taking a course online". For this reason I entered this word in the dictionary CC-Canto and received both 課 and 軌 as results. What is the difference in meaning between these symbols and which is more accurate in my case?

This is a result of the polysemy of the word 'course' in English. 課 and 軌 are fairly distinct characters in Cantonese.

If you intend 'course' to mean 'A series of lectures or lessons in a particular subject, leading to an examination or qualification.', you use 課 (see a.), NEVER 軌. Sometimes, even if you use 'course' directly in Cantonese, it's understandable (see b.).

a. 我將會上網課。I will attend online lessons.

b. 我嚟緊有個網上嘅course。I have an online course soon.

If you intend 'course' to mean 'The way in which something progresses or develops.', you may use 軌, but not always. This to me is not an accurate translation, because 軌 means more like 'track; trajectory; locus'.

二戰嘅始末/過程 the course of WWII
鐵路軌道 rail track


What does the measure word 一片 mean? and how to use it? In the textbook, we learned that 一片 is the measure word for thin, flat objects such as leaves. But it seems to mean differently in 一片草地.

What does the measure word 一片 mean? and how to use it?

About 一片, there are some explanations:

Refers to flat and thin (eg: 一片肉)
Refer to the ground surface (eg: 一片空地)
Refer to flaky patches (eg: “黄河远上白云间，一片孤城万仞山。”---王之涣 《凉州词》)
Refer to diffuse scattered (eg: 一片红光)
Refer to gather together (eg: 响声连成一片)
Refer to mood, the mind (eg: 一片心意)
Refer to language (eg: 自做一片文字)
Refer to the whole piece (eg: 军民打成一片)

Hope that can help.


When 亏 is kuī ? when yú? The dictionary entry for 亏 is:
亏 kuī(or yú) lose, fail, damage, deficient
When will 亏 be pronounced as yú?

All of your definitions (e.g., 吃虧, 虧損, 虧蝕) appertain to the pronunciation kuī – for this reason, memorising kuī suffices. The pronunciation yú is far less important.

As for the pronunciation yú, it is likely to be a glyphic variant of 于 (a character you have asked before) (see below, from Baidu). From the viewpoint of glyph evolution, the character pronounced kuī was first written as 虧 in traditional script no later than Han dynasty, only simplified into 亏 in the 20th century. The rationale of simplification being, 亏 is a relatively obscure yet graphically related character. Now it has become the dominant meaning associated to 亏.

References:

Baidu Baike
Multi-function Chinese Character Database


In 有一只小鸟真可怜，它在树枝上冷得发抖 why is 有 at the start? So I am studying this children´s story, and I can´t find a proper grammar explanation.

有一只小鸟真可怜，它在树枝上冷得发抖。

So here I assume 有 indicates the bird´s existence, however in every explanation about 有 grammar I could find they would structure the sentence so that 有 would come after the place and before the subject. (Time/place) + 有 + (subject).
I couldn´t find any grammar that explained this particular kind of compound sentence, nor any other possible explanation. Any ideas?

So here I assume 有 indicates the bird‘s existence

Correct. 有 is frequently used as the equivalent of "there is" in English. The typical construction is

place + 有 + noun
Example: 我家里 (place) 有 (existence) 很多椅子 (subject) -> There's many chairs in my house

Then you can also omit the place to express just generic existence, as in your sentence:

有一只小鸟真可怜 (nowhere in particular) there's a little bird which is really pitiful

This construction can be productively used in story-telling, where the exact location of the subject is not very relevant. Same as in English.
If you add a time complement instead of a location, you get the classical story introduction:

很久以前有一只小鸡~ once upon a time (nowhere in particular) there was a small chicken...


How can I skip characters I can't read when reading aloud? As an example, I was at the cinema and I wanted to buy tickets for a film named

  北京遇上西雅图

However, I can't read all of the characters.

In English I'd say;

  Can I get a ticket for that film "北京*something*上西*something**something*", please?

Is there an equivalent way to do this in Chinese?

I would use 什么, or 什么什么 as the placeholder for the characters I can't read.

In your exmaple, I would say: 北京 什么 西 什么, or 北京 什么什么 西 什么什么, or 北京 什么 西 什么什么, or 北京 什么什么 西 什么.

什么 or 什么什么 can substitute any numbers of characters.

I am from Northern China, and I am not sure what words people in other regions in China would use for this purpose.


Which kanji is this: 氵+ 十? 氵and 十 are the left and right components and the kanji is shown in "Spirited away" but I can't find it in any dictionary.

Thank you in advance

汁 - Chinese zhi1, Japanese しる - in Chinese, it means juice, but in Japanese, it can mean juice, sap, or soup broth.


不知說謂, 不三不四 - Meaning In Context? I have heard 不三不四 pronounced (m sarm m sei) in Cantonese. I wonder if Mandarin speakers use this term and in what context? When I asked, someone they supposed that Mandarin speakers might prefer to use something like

  不知說謂

Which is correct and could anyone supply sample context? Is there a deeper meaning other than the literal sense?

Some one said the phrase is a bit degrading.

不三不四 is a perfectly acceptable term in Mandarin

Oxford

  IDIOM

  1 指人 shady

  交不三不四的朋友

  make friends with dubious characters

>

  2 指言词 neither one thing nor the other

  说些不三不四的话

  make frivolous remarks

I think you might be mistaking 不知说谓 for 不知所谓 which 汉语大辞典 defines as:

  不知道该怎么办, 犹言无计可施。

不三不四 is definitely better though!


What does 马大碗 (mǎdàwǎn) = "horse big bowl" mean in 马大碗拉面? This sign is on our campus's halal cafeteria:

It says:

马大碗拉面 各种面食
mǎdàwǎn lāmiàn   gèzhǒng miànshí

拉面 = "pulled noodles", famous noodles in China, often from Lanzhou (兰州)
各种 = every kind of
面食 = flour-based foodstuffs (noodles, in this case)

I'm not sure what 马大碗 means here.  It's possibly a name; I'm not sure because the given name (名字) would be "big bowl".

马 = horse
大碗 = big bowl

Question: What does 马大碗 (mǎdàwǎn) = "horse big bowl" mean?

马 means 马氏, the family name.

大碗 - big bowl; large quantity.

(马氏)(大碗拉面)

The company was established in 1993.
It registered the name 马师傅马大碗.


Is “卧草” a proper Chinese word? In football games, I heard people use "卧草" for time-wasting actions near the end of a game. Is "卧草" a proper Chinese word? I did not find it in dictionaries.

It's not.

However it does share the same pronunciation of 我操 or 我肏, basically the Chinese equivalent of WTF. Term 卧草 became more popular due to widely existing profanity filtering on different internet platforms which mostly will filter out the origin term, while it also feels slightly more polite (Think about shoot vs. shit).


Equivalent expression to: "I don't give a f***" Is there something in Mandarin like "I don't give a f***", something that expresses the same sense of "I don't care" but with more force.

No, but in the dialect spoken where I lived people say 没得屌事.


天干、地支、八卦和六十四卦 Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, 8 Trigrams and 64 Hexagrams When looking up individual characters in modern dictionaries, I often come across descriptions such as "one of the ten Heavenly Stems", "nth Earthly Branch", "one of the Eight Trigrams", etc.

Is it something relevant for modern Chinese?
Do people generally know that 甲 is the first heavenly stem, 丑 is the second earthly branch, and so on?
Are they used in modern expressions?

Edit: I can see that 天干, 地支 and 八卦 are still important and serious learners should know about them. One more question: how about the 64 hexagrams (易經六十四卦)? Are they also used for counting or enumeration, or in some fixed expressions?

Brief answer.

Yes. Some modern Chinese words are developed from these conceptions.

坤 in 八卦 represents the earth, female, Yin.

From these meanings, words like 乾坤 (the world. lit. Heaven and earth), 坤角 ( female characters in Beijing Opera, but not necessarily played by a woman) developed.

甲 is the first element in heavenly stems, and 子 is the first element in earthly branches. The heavenly stems and earthly branches were popular to record the year in ancient times.

we have a word 甲子 which means 60 years, because the cycling length of  combinations of heavenly stems and earthly branches is LCM(12, 10) =60.

Yes, all most Chinese know these characters, however, some (at least some people I know ) can not remember the order exactly. It would take them few seconds to think of, for example, what the next element after 未? Today, in Chinese calendar, we still use this system to record the year. For example, this year is the year of 丙申 ( 申 indicates it's the monkey year).

Yes. You can see them in some idioms (成语) .

寅吃卯粮 To consume resources prepared  for or available in the future. Not planned well. Not prepared well. Lit. In the year of tiger, consume food prepared for the year of rabbit.
you can also see them in list bullets in articles. In English, you use a, b, c, d …, while in Chinese, you use 甲乙丙丁
in organic chemistry, 甲乙丙丁 … are used to express the number of carbon atoms in the nomenclature of substance. We have 甲烷 CH4, 乙烷 C2H6, 丙烷 C3H8…


Correct translation of "I need some help with my homework." I'm a Chinese learner and I wanted to test my skills on Chinese. So I tried to translate this:

  I need some help with my homework.

I tried to translate it and came up with this:

  我需要一些帮助同我的作业。 (Wǒ xūyào yīxiē bāngzhù tóng wǒ de zuòyè.)

I tried to translate my translation to Google Translate and it returned:

  I need some help with my homework.

But when I switched languages (English to Chinese), Google Translate returned this:

  我的功课需要一些帮助。(Wǒ de gōngkè xūyào yīxiē bāngzhù.)

So I switched the languages again (Chinese to English), Google Translate returned this:

  My homework needs some help.

I laughed a bit at this, just sharing.

So my problem is, which is the correct translation? 我的功课需要一些帮助。 or 我需要一些帮助同我的作业。?

There are many ways to translate this sentence. The important element of translation is not translating word by word. As long as you can deliver correct message, you should be fine. One example for translating "I need some help with my homework." is 我需要人帮帮我的作业。


可以 altering time words order? In this site they say time words can only appear in two possible positions in a sentence, either before or after the subject:

Time + Subj. + Verb + Obj.
Subj. + Time + Verb + Obj.

But I came across the following sentence:

  明天天气好，我们可以明天去.

  Mínɡtiān tiānqì hǎo, wǒmen kěyǐ mínɡtiān qù.

  The weather is good tomorrow, we can go tomorrow.

Where the time word 明天 is after 可以. According to the previous rules, I thought it should be before 可以.

Question: Is this sentence wrong? Is 可以 an exception to the rule order? Or is it because it is a compound sentence (with two verbs) and the time word makes reference to the second verb 去?

Question: Is this sentence wrong? Is 可以 an exception to the rule order? Or is it because it is a compound sentence (with two verbs) and the time word makes reference to the second verb 去?

明天天气好 and 我们可以明天去 are two separate clauses (relative clause and main clause)

(如果)明天天气好 is the relative clause, 我们可以明天去 is the main clause

我们可以明天去 or 明天我们可以去  are both correct


Is it fine to use “锻炼” as in "good practice" or not? The sentence in question is "我觉得留学是一种很好锻炼" Can I use “锻炼” in this context?

If you want to express: I think studying aboard is a good practice, then your Chinese sentence "我觉得留学是一种很好锻炼" doesn't connote the same meaning in my opinion.

"我觉得留学是一种很好锻炼" means "I think studying aboard is a good way to train ourselves." The sentence doesn't specify the areas(willpower, ability to live alone and etc.) on which we can get trained.

Well, "studying aboard is a good practice" is like saying 出国留学是一种很好的实践 in Chinese.

Note that you should add a 的 in your sentence to make it more natural: 我觉得留学是一种很好的锻炼.


How do you say "cupcake"? What is the pinyin and simplified Chinese characters used for the word cupcake?

When looking it up there is no reliable answer. Some people seem to just call it by the chinese words for "cake" but others use the chinese words for "small cake," "cup cake," or "cake in a cup."

So I just wanted to ask for the word that actual Chinese people use most/recognize.

Thanks!

It's my honor to offer the first answer of the community for you ：）

I think you mean to 纸杯蛋糕  zhǐ bēi dàn gāo

Check out the imgs from baidu pics http://image.baidu.com/search/index?tn=baiduimage&ps=1&ct=201326592&lm=-1&cl=2&nc=1&ie=utf-8&word=%E7%BA%B8%E6%9D%AF%E8%9B%8B%E7%B3%95

Is it？If so, I guess right :)


What is the origin of the character "糬" seeminly only used in "麻糬" to translate a Japanese word which doesn't use either character? I was just given some mochi by a Taiwanese host in Kaohsiung.

So I decided to look up the local word and found "麻糬" máshǔ.

It's a transliteration of Japanese "mochi", which is written 餅 in that language. Not using either character in the Chinese version.

麻 is pretty common in transliterations but 糬 seems to be unique. I can't find any information on any other use it may have, or where it came from.

What is its origin?

Japanese is known to coin its own unique kanji: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kokuji/

働 = ｲ (person) + 動 (move) = "work"

込 = 辶 (road) + 入 (enter) = "crowded"

鰯 = 弱 (weak) + 魚 (fish) = "sardine"

However, 麻糬 (mochi) already had a kanji 「餅」, so we can eliminate the possibility of 糬 being an unique kanji of Japanese origin.

It is found in 汊語字典，新華字典 and 說文解字  without any definition;   康熙字典 doesn't even has this entry，so we can eliminate the possibility of 糬 being an archaic Chinese character, and must be a recent creation.

「糬」 is clearly a 形聲字  with 「米」being the substantial component and「署」being the phonic component, Consider the historical tie between Japan and Taiwan, 糬 is most likely a Taiwanese coined character.

Imagine the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule, and the locals saw mochi for the first time. We can presume not everyone on the island knew Japanese, therefore people had to borrow phonetically similar Chinese characters to describe it in writing, and decided 麻 and 署 were the two characters sounded like mochi the most. Since it is a food product made of rice, the 米 radical was added to 署 soon after, and that's how the term 「麻糬」 was coined.

Edit: remove 丼 as an example of Japanese unique Kanji

*One more speculation on when mochi was first introduced to China: Cantonese has a similar food called 糯米糍，if  Mochi was first introduced to Canton, I am sure Cantonese people of the time would had called it 東洋米糍,  or 米糍, since it was not made of 糯米


比 vs. 跟 for comparisons I've read a lot of answers to questions about 比 but I didn't see anything about 跟.

I recently had a class where the 老师, in three days, three hours a day, FLEW through enough material for two weeks if not more.  But he also gave me lots of printouts of what we would have gone through in his normal (one month) class.

We spent ten or fifteen minutes comparing things.  This is not a "state a grammar rule and then make sure they can apply it" class.  More of a "lots of input until it sinks in" class.  Which is actually a good method if you have time to give enough input.

ANYWAY, here are four things from the comparisons¹ paper.  I have put in the nouns and adjectives randomly where the paper had blanks to fill in.  Is there a different in connotation or denotation?

你的衬衫**比**我的衬衫好看。
你的手机**比**我的手机好用。
你的衣服**跟**我的衣服都便宜。
你的房子**跟**我的房子都贵。

I also notice on this site, examples of comparisons¹ are different and shorter than in these handouts, which had only these two formats.

¹As the answers reveal, it wasn’t actually a paper of only comparisons.

跟 in "你的衣服跟我的衣服都便宜"。 and "你的房子跟我的房子都贵"。is not 'compare to' but 'also/and'

In face, 跟 doesn't contain meaning of 'compare to' .

You thought so because in [X 跟 Y 比] ("X compare to Y" ) structure '跟' is always paired with '比'

  你的衬衫比我的衬衫好看。- 比 = compare to

  你的手机比我的手机好用。- 比 = compare to

  [(item A) 比 (item B) + (adjective)] = [ (item A) compare to (item B) is (adjective)]

~

  你的衣服跟我的衣服都便宜。- 跟 = and

  你的房子跟我的房子都贵。- 跟 = and

  [(item A) 跟 (item B) + 都 + (adjective)] = [ (item A) and (item B) are both (adjective)]

~

  also notice on this site, examples where the adjective is at the end. There were none like that in the handouts. All were in these two formats.

But the adjective is at the end in this two formats too. 好看, 好用, 便宜 and 贵 are all adjective

~

Add 跟 in a comparisons structure instead of using 比 alone:

  (你的衬衫)跟(我的衬衫)比, (你的衬衫好看得多)

  take (item A) and (item B), and compare, + (opinion/ statement)

Another way to use 比 in a comparisons structure is  "compare to A, Y is (opinion/ statement)":

  [(比起)(我的衬衫), (你的衬衫)(好看得多)]

  [(compare to) (A), (B) (opinion/ statement)]


Why does a search for the Hanja in the Korean word 순진(純眞)하다 yield pictures of Japanese Whetstones? The Korean word 순진하다 - to be naive, innocent, or pure - relates to the characters 純眞.

To get an understanding of how a word is used, sometimes I do an image search. In this case, searching for 純眞 yielded what (I think?) is pictures of Japanese whetstones:

Perhaps these whetstones are very pure, hence the link to 純眞. But is '純眞' really rarely used apart from when describing the purity of whetstones?

There's a couple of things going on here:

「眞」is not used as a character representing common vocabulary in Chinese and Japanese anymore, being totally replaced in those two languages with the 略字 (약자, abbreviated character) 「真」. In Japanese,「眞」retains some usage for proper nouns, while in Chinese「眞」is not used at all, unless quoting ancient texts.
Korean mixed Hanja-Hangul script is not really used anymore, so Google's search function will prioritise Chinese and Japanese search results when Chinese characters are used as a search term.
Based on (1) and (2),「純眞」will highly prioritise a Japanese proper noun, if it exists as a result. In this case,「純眞」happens to be part of the name of a product.
Based on (1), if you want to search for images relating to the meaning「純眞」, you need to use「真」if you're using a non-Korean search engine.


Best way to translate "apply my knowledge to solve real world problems" I am trying to translate this sentence I want to apply my knowledge to solve real world problems, and as far as I can think, I got this translation in my mind 我想用我的知識來解決現實世界的問題, but I don't know if the translation is weird or if there is a better translation. Asking you guys for help, thanks!

I think it can be translated as 学以致用.
学以致用 or 學以致用 is a Chinese idiom which means to study something in order to apply it. It probably comes from 《论语 子张》.
The original text is

百工居肆以成其事，君子学以致其道

by English

Workers toil and moil in the workshops to complete their job, while men of honor seek Tao by learning.

As for your sentence I want to apply my knowledge to solve real world problems, I can provide several translations for you to select from.

我想学以致用
我希望能（够）学以致用
我心怀学以致用的信念（梦想\理想）


Chinese Poem Crossword Puzzle Hiiiii
Here is a crossword puzzle about Poems!

1: Do you love me?
2: Mid-autumn barbecue
3: Ching Ming so many rain
4: Ghosts come from rain, Emperors come from clouds
5: I want to beat west
6: Eight thousand miles
7: Qin and Han
8: Pine trees. Moon?

An Idiom puzzle should looks like this

1.continuously non-stop like river

2.one column supports the sky

3.full of natural resources

4.forever young

5.gain without working for it

6.extremely trendy

一. a column that withstands strong river flow

二. having a skill

三. mature age

四. the end of time

五. needs from time to time

Answer below:

~

~

~

~

1.川流不息 (continuously non-stop like river)

2.一柱擎天 (one column supports the sky)

3.地大物博 (full of natural resources)

4.長春不老 (forever young)

5.不勞而獲 (gain without working for it)

6.盛極一時 (extremely trendy)

一.中流砥柱 (a column that withstands strong river flow )

二.一技之長 (having a skill)

三.春秋鼎盛 (mature age)

四.天荒地老 (the end of time)

五.不時之需 (needs from time to time)


Cantonese comedy cartoons I'd like to start watching either Cantonese series or western series dubbed in Cantonese to improve my language level. Do you have some suggestions? I like comedy cartoons like the Simpsons or Family Guy, but these don't seem to be dubbed in Cantonese.

Ohhh! Cartoons is my favorite. Let's me answer it!
I made a list for you first.

A.Comedy cartoons

1
我們這一家（My family）
MY childhood! Sooo adorable mum,a pretty body shape and humor to deal with any problems. A traditional Japanese family, nevertheless not too serious and rigid, and too much fun with them.

2
麥兜（McDull）
It's a original Hong Kong cartoon. About the dailylife of cute pig ! But honestly he speaks too little dialogue. And a lot of word about Hong Kong culture. I worry you canˊt understand so I put it no.2. It doesn't mean it is a bad cartoon. If you live in Hong Kong, you always find something similar with McDull.(maybe building, maybe food, maybemaybe activities )

3
多啦a夢（Doraemon）
It's a famous cartoon, no introduction.
However,
If you were to get a Doraemon, please wouldn't hesitate to share with me. I will appreciate it very much.

4
日式麵包王(Yakitate!! Japan）
That's funny story about a juvenile making amazing Japanese bread.
↓↓↓↓The first episode↓
:(

5
小倩（Xiaoqian）
Human and Ghost Love(don't know how to translate)
小倩
小倩

6 忍者亂太郎
Ninja's school daily

7 keroro軍曹
A frog wants to occupy the earth.

8
成語動畫廊
Awesome cartoon! Learn both  Chinese idioms and Chinese history.
I get lot of fun with it when I am primary school, becaue it means our Chinese teacher ask for leave and we can have a rest in a lesson.

成語動畫廊
成語動畫廊

B.Adventure cartoon
1龍珠(Dragon Ball)
It is difficult to find Cantonese version on Youtube. Maybe search on tudou.com or youku.com

C Horror animation

1
死亡筆記（Death Note）
Please don't write down your name.

2
HunterXHunter(全職獵人)
Father where are u! I am your son.
There are two version of it.
Old version is easy to find Cantonese.
↓
:(

HOPPING THE ANSWER WON'T BE LATE FOR HELPING U! HAVE A NICE STUDY TOUR!


What's the relationship between 暖, 爱 and 愛? I was curious when I noticed that 暖 contains the character 爱, so I thought that in the traditional form, it would have 愛, the traditional form of 爱. But it appears that 暖 has the same form in both simplified and traditional - as far as I'm aware.

So the question is, what is the relationship between these characters? Does 暖 contain the same character as in 爱, love, or is the simplified form of 愛 simply the same as the right part of 暖 by coincidence?

The right part of 暖(nuǎn) is 爰(yuán) and it's not 爱 or the traditional form 愛.

In ancient Chinese, 爰 is a kind of pronoun, like "where/which". And it also has other meanings, one is "to change". But if you saw "爰爰" in ancient articles it meant "leisurely".

Technically, there is few relationship between 暖（or 爰）/爱(愛). Or one can say by force, they have the same Chinese character component, the first four strokes on top of 爰/爱. It means 爪(tail), and in ancient Chinese it also means "hand". See? "to change" one should use his hand, and to love one might cook/make a gift by his hand.

You must distinguish 暖 and 暧(曖, ài). For 爰 there is no traditional form. 暖 means "warm/to warm", and 暧 means dim.

Ready for higher order? Try these!

㬊(huǎn) is not 暖(nuǎn) even one puts 日 over 爰, it is the opposite of 暧(dim), "bright".
暖(nuǎn) has another pronunciation, xuān. "暖姝" （xuān shū）means "have a high opinion of oneself". BUT "暧昧" (ài mèi) means "ambiguous/dubious/shady".
暧 also means "warmly", so it is 暖... (Of cause this is contentious!)


Using 到底, how could we naturally complete the sentence 虽然这是两棵不同的植物，...? 标准教程HSK4下 (p.79) has a "complete the sentence" exercise:

  虽然这是两棵不同的植物，...。（到底)
  Although these are two different plants, ...

Basically, the task is to complete the sentence using 到底 in a natural way.  (My attempt was a disaster, so there's probably no point in repeating it here; it'll distract more than help.)

Surprisingly, my teacher also seemed to struggle answering this question in a natural way.  The problem is that the sentence talks about plants, and 到底 is used for emphasis.  We thought that only botanists might be passionate enough about plants to use 到底.

Question: Using 到底, how could we naturally complete the sentence 虽然这是两棵不同的植物，...?

I still have no idea.

Try:

  虽然这是两棵不同的植物，但我们到底应该怎样来区分呢？// Though these are two different plants, how on earth should we distinguish them?


How to translate "it is what it is" ,etc.? How to translate:

"It is what it is"
"I am what I am"
"They are what they are"

Suppose phrase means "it" etc. are difficult to characterize or classify.

"It is what it is" (imply it can't be changed)

(事情)就是這樣

"I am what I am" (imply I can't be changed)

我就是這樣

"they are what they are"  (imply they can't be changed)

他們就是這樣


Whom did this happen to? 发生 and friends in sentence Beginning of an article on qiushibaike.com:

  这是一件发生在楼主身上的糗事，事情是这样的: ... (the story is explained)

My initial semi-literal translation:

  This embarrassing story happened to the OP (original poster) themselves. It was like this: ...

However, after reading into the first part more, I noticed the 是, which led me to think that it's one long noun phrase.

I would break it down like this:

  这。。。是。。。一件发生在楼主身上的。。。糗事。

Breaking down the noun modifying phrase further:

  一件。。。发生在楼主身上。。。的

And further yet:

  发生。。。在楼主身上

where 在楼主身上 is a location complement of 发生.

Therefore, a second attempt at literal translation is:

  This is an embarrassing story that happened to the original poster. It was like this: ...

Questions:

Is the second translation more accurate?
Does 发生 really take location complements? I only know of phrases like 发生了事故, where there is no location complement.
Is the following reasoning correct?

  在我公司发生了事故 is ambiguous as it can mean either "an accident has happened at my company" or "an accident that has happened at my company".
  The ambiguity is there because of a lack of a classifier 一件 or possessive particle 的.
  Clarity can be achieved by adding them, like so:

  在我公司发生了一件事故 - an accident has happened at my company
  一件在我公司发生了的事故 - an accident that has happened at my company

  的 in the second sentence is optional.

If (2) is true, can I move 在我公司 after 发生了 in (3) without changing the meaning?

Is the second translation more accurate?

Yes, it is.

Does 发生 really take location complements? I only know of phrases like 发生了事故, where there is no location complement.

The entire phrase: '发生在...的' is an adjectival phrase for the noun '事故'. '在' is the location complement. '的' is the adjectival suffix. (not possessive particle in this context)
(发生 is a verb, so it does take location complement 在)

Is the following reasoning correct?
在我公司发生了事故 is ambiguous as it can mean either "an accident has happened at my company" or "an accident that has happened at my company"

It can only mean "an accident has happened at my company"; to mean "an accident that has happened at my company" you need to write "在我公司发生的事故" (了 is optional)

The ambiguity is there because of a lack of a classifier 一件 or possessive particle 的.

There is no ambiguity, without adjectival suffix 的, "在我公司发生了事故" can only mean "an accident has happened at my company"

Clarity can be achieved by adding them, like so
在我公司发生了一件事故 - an accident has happened at my company
一件在我公司发生了的事故 - an accident that has happened at my company

It is correct

的 in the second sentence is optional.

In the second sentence, '的' cannot be omitted: only '了' is optional

If (2) is true, can I move 在我公司 after 发生了 in (3) without changing the meaning?

Yes, you can. The following are both correct as long as the adjectival suffix 的 is present at the end to indicate '[在我公司][发生]'or '[发生][在我公司]' is an adjectival phrase
一件在我公司发生的事故 = 一件发生在我公司的事故


Are antithetical couplets mostly untranslatable? For example,
四品青天褂
六味地黃丸
Or
公門桃李崢嶸日
法國荷蘭比利時
I am not sure if there exists any reasonable translation.

It is called 無情對, The sentences don't make sense even in Chinese, therefore, there is no way to translate them into English

無情對

It is a special couplet form, the upper and lower lines are not related to cohesion. But each single "character" in the upper couplet match each single "character" in the lower couplet

Example:
[公 vs. 法] (公 = fair; 法 = law) - both noun related to rule
[門 vs. 國] (門 = school; 國 = nation) - both noun related to gathered people
[桃 vs. 荷] (桃 = peach; 荷 = lotus) - both noun related to plant
[李 vs. 蘭] (李 = plum; 蘭 = lily) - both noun related to plant
[崢 vs. 比] (爭 = fight over; 比 = compete) both verb related to competition
[嶸 vs. 利] (榮 = glory; 利 = profit ) both noun related to success
[日 vs. 時] (日 = day; 時 = hour) both noun related to time
Most importantly, these couplets rhyme in Chinese but won't be in English. That's why you can never translate a 無情對 into any other language
A question asked by me related to 無情對
Of course, you can translate them word for word, but the end result will not be coherent sentences and certainly not a couplet anymore.

公門桃李崢嶸日 (The day the students of the honorable you shine)

法國荷蘭比利時 (France, Netherlands, Belgium)

As for normal couplets, you can translate them into complete sentences, but they will not rhyme and won't be couplets


Both is correct? 你认为如何 and 如何你认为 你认为如何 - More like a Chinese guy would talk like that.
如何你认为 - Feels like the English sentence. *Like the sentence start with "What", "Which" etc.
So both is correct?
Especially to express:

What do you think...

你认为如何
如何你认为

The first is correct but the second is wrong.
However, even with this said, you may hear the second sentence from native speakers in casual conversations. As I mentioned in this answer, some people tend to reverse orders while speaking. For example "山东人我是". But don't get me wrong: this sentence is not correct and you should not say the same. However, just don't be surprised if you hear some native speakers make the same mistake.


Is there any difference between 姨丈 and 姨夫？ My Chinese friends taught me to refer to the husband of my maternal aunt as 姨丈。My friends are perfectly familiar with my family and how we are related to each other. Specifically, the uncle in question is the husband of my mother's youngest sister.

Today my (university) teacher (who only speaks Chinese and therefore we can't easily communicate on nuances) corrected all occurrences of 姨丈 to 姨夫。The dictionary treats them as synonyms. Is there any difference?

My teacher is from Beijing. My friends are from 浙江。I believe that my friends from 江蘇 and 台灣 also use 姨丈，but I might be mistaken on that.

amongst "姨丈", "姨夫", "姨父" or "姨爹"; "姨丈" is the most common one.

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000150395

imo, your teacher is . . . :(


What is the difference between 阻拦, 阻止, 阻挡, and 阻碍? Title says it all; what's the difference between 阻拦, 阻止, 阻挡, and 阻碍?

As a native speaker, I personally use them or hear people using them interchangeably. More specific distinctions are as following:

阻拦 means to intercept, which can be used to stop someone from doing something or stop something from happening.

阻止 means to stop ... from ..., which is usually used to stop someone from doing something.

阻挡 means to block, which is usually used when someone or something is physically blocking in the way.

阻碍 means to obstruct, which is usually used when a difficulty or obstacle is posing a 阻碍.