Etymology of the Chinese number characters (一二三四五六七八九十百千) Main Question: What is the glyph origin of the Chinese number characters (一二三四五六七八九十百千)?

Related question: Why isn't 四 four lines? (the origin of 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九)

I decide to write a Q&A-style post to discuss this question. What motivates me to do this, is

In that brilliant question asked by @congusbongus, @congliu offers a good reference 象形字典(a literally translation would be Dictionary of Pictographs). The explanation of the question "where does a Chinese character come from" can be easily found on that site, so it is really convenient for those who are interested in the glyph origin of Chinese characters.

However, personally I cannot bear some subjective or illogical viewpoints on that site. It seems the administrator of 象形字典 (Dictionary of Pictographs) hasn't make much efforts on historical issues.

Thus, in this post, I will

provide the mainstream viewpoints on the glyph origins of the Chinese number characters 一二三四五六七八九十百千;

criticize the subjective or illogical viewpoints on 象形字典 (Dictionary of Pictographs);

post some rubbing pictures to prove my viewpoint.

Index

Summary: A brief answer

Glyph origins of 一 (one), 二 (two), and 三 (three)

Glyph origin of 四 (four)

Glyph origin of 五 (five)

Glyph origin of 六 (six)

Glyph origin of 七 (seven)

Glyph origin of 八 (eight)

Glyph origin of 九 (nine)

Glyph origins of 十 (ten), 廿(niàn, twenty), 卅(sà, thirty), 卌(xì, forty)

Glyph origin of 百 (hundred)

Glyph origin of 千 (thousand)

References

象形字典 (Dictionary of Pictographs).

《甲骨文字典》(Dictionary of Oracle Scripts) by 徐中舒. Published in 1990. It is a dictionary epitomizing fifty-five important references of oracle scripts. The viewpoints on this dictionary are considered to be the mainstream, because most of them are supported by material evidence.

先秦甲骨文金文簡牘詞彙資料庫 (Lexicon of Pre-Qin Oracle, Bronze Inscriptions and Bamboo Scripts). A useful online lexical search tool for Oracle, Bronze Inscriptions and Bamboo Scripts.

漢珍資訊:甲骨文全文影像資料庫. A very good database supporting textual search of oracle scripts on rubbings. A special software is needed to view the rubbing pictures. Unfortunately it is not free now.

《甲骨文合集》(Collections of Oracle Bones). Editor-in-Chief 郭沫若.

《甲骨文合集释文》(Textual Research on 'Collections of Oracle Bones'). Editor 胡厚宣.

《殷周金文集成》(Collections of Bronze Scripts in Shang Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty) by  Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Etymology of 一, 二, and 三

Explanation of 一/二/三 in 象形字典 (Dictionary of Pictographs)

  “一”是特殊指事字，抽象符号“一”既代表最为简单的起源，也代表最为丰富的浑沌整体。造字本义：最小原始单位，最小的正整数。古人认为“道立于一，一生二，二生三，三生万物”。就是说，混沌太初的存在整体是“一”；然后由太初混沌的“一”，分出天地“二”极；天地二极之间，又生出人这第“三”部分；天地人三者，衍化出宇宙万物。一 ，代替混沌太初的整体；二，上面的一横代表“天”，下面的一横代表“地”；三，上下两横代表“天地”，中间的一横代表“人”。

  一 is a special self-explanatory character. The abstract symbol 一 presents not only the simplest origin, but also the abundant chaos entirety. The original idea of character construction: the smallest basic unit, the smallest positive integer. Ancient Chinese people thought "Tao stands on 一(one), 一(one) bears 二(two), 二(two) bears 三(three), 三(three) bears everything". That is to say, the entity of original chaos is 一; then the chaos origin 一 differentiates into 二极(two extremes), the sky and the earth; and between the two extremes, there breed humans (the 三); And finally, everything in the universe are derived from the sky, the earth and the humans. In conclusion, 一 presents the whole of the chaos origin; 二, the top bar stands for the sky and the bottom bar stands for the earth; 三, the top and the bottom is respectively the sky and the earth, the middle represents humans.

  My Annotation: The statement "道立于一" (Tao stands on one) is a little different from "道生一" (Tao gives birth to one) in Tao Te Ching. This paper “道生一” “道始於一” “道立於一” 合解 offers a further discussion on this issue.

Explanation in 甲骨文字典 (Dictionary of Oracle Scripts)

一

  【解字】卜辭由一至四，字形作、、、，以積畫為數，當出於古之算籌。甲文金文均同。屬於指事字。從五至九，則利用假借字，其形作（或）、（或）、、、，至十則為豎形。

  [Character Forming] The glyphs of one to four in oracle inscriptions are respectively , , , and . The method of counting strokes is used for representing the number. It should originate from the ancient counting rods. Their glyphs in bronze scripts are the same to those in oracle scripts. And they belong to the self-explanatory characters. From five to nine, oracle script uses the loan characters:  (or ),  (or ), , , , and ten is a vertical shape.

  Ivory Counting Rods in Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. -- A.D. 8). Photographed by maverwolf in Shaanxi History Museum.

二

  [Character Forming] The glyphs of one to four in oracle inscriptions are respectively , , , and . The method of counting strokes is used for representing the number. It should originate from the ancient counting rods. Note that, the two strokes of 二 in oracle script should be of equal length. It is different from  (上) and  (下).

三

  [Character Forming] See explanation of 一 above.

Rubbings

No. 032013: 貞(divine to predict) ?? 來(come)，一(one) 羌(western shepherd) 一(one) 牛(ox)。

No. 034575: 庚午(year of 庚午) 貞(divine to predict) 餗(food in a cooking vessel)，餗 其(, a basket made by bamboo splits; it; its) 二(two) 牛(ox)。

No. 032110: 其 一(one) 羌(western shepherd) 三(three) 牛(oxen)

Criticism on "Explanation of 一/二/三 in 象形字典 (Dictionary of Pictographs)"

The explanations of 一/二/三 in Dictionary of Pictographs are some concepts from 《周易》(I Ching), 《道德經》(Tao Te Ching) and 《淮南子》(Huainanzi). And such a statement for 一 is similar to that in 《說文解字》(Shuowen):

惟初太始，道立于一，造分天地，化成萬物。

But let's consider these questions:

I Ching was one of the oldest Chinese classic text, written in Western Zhou Dynasty; Tao Te Ching was written in Warring States Period (newer than I Ching); And Huainanzi and Shuowen were even newer. So question 1: was it possible for ancient Chinese people to have such philosophical thinking, before the early period of Shang Dynasty when oracle scripts were invented?
As number characters are very important in communication, they must appear at the early stage of oracle scripts. So question 2: at that early stage, would ancient Chinese people create 一/二/三 by such abstract thinking rather than by concrete images?

Unfortunately these two questions are both based on conjectures. So there isn't a definite "yes" or "no" answer. For question 1, I would say the earliest evidence we have found today is I Ching, and personally I don't believe philosophical thinking like "道立于一" (Tao stands on one) can date from an earlier period before the creation of the writing system. For question 2, it was illogical to invent the "basic characters" utilizing very abstract concepts, or, it would very probably make the communication become more difficult.

Besides, 算籌 (counting rods) were used by ancient Chinese for more than two thousand years. It was possible to appear during or before the creation period of oracle scripts.

  So in conclusion, for the explanation of etymology of 一/二/三, opinions in Dictionary of Oracle Scripts are more reliable: they should originate from the ancient counting rods.


'To revise for an exam' idiom In English, its natural to say the following sentence:

'I will revise for my exam.'

In the above case, it could be argued that the word 'for' is being used as an idiom since you are revising for your own benefit and not the exam's benefit.

In Mandarin, I have heard the following phrase spoken:

我要替考试复习.

This sounds partly unnatural; I can't put my finger on it - maybe I'm wrong. My question is, is there a succinct  or better way to express doing X for Y as in the above case, maybe comparable to English? Is the use of 替 here wrong?

Edit:

I suppose it wouldn't be so unnatural to say something like 我要复习因为我有考试 however, this is rather long winded.

You can  say 我(正在)为考试而复习. Colloquially, we usually separate it into two pieces: 快考试了，我得复习了。；我得复习了，要考试了。

There are some other alternatives like 我要备考了，我正在备考，etc. , which means I'm preparing for my exam.


Is tree pluralized in Chinese? I am learning very basic Chinese as part of a software project. I randomly chose the word "tree" as my go-to noun. However, it appears tree is pluralized in Chinese, even though it is said Chinese doesn't use plurals.
树木 (shùmù) trees
树 (shù) tree

It seems that 木 mù means wood. I don't understand what is happening here.
I thought that if I were to pluralize tree, I would say some equivalent of "many tree" or "tree many" or something, but I don't see that when searching around.
What am I missing?
I am trying to translate these sentences:

I see trees
I see the trees
I see the big red trees
I see many trees
I see both trees
I ... trees

But it doesn't seem to be following the pattern in intro Chinese grammar texts.
How should I be thinking about this?

There is no plural form for the non-human Chinese nouns. 树 can be singular or plural. 树木 is a general term for trees (any tree; all trees)
To indicate tree  in the plural form, you need to add plural counting words like 'two, few, some', or a plural pronoun like 'these, those'
一棵樹 - a tree
那棵樹 - that tree
幾棵樹 - a few trees
那些樹 - those trees
樹木 is a general term for trees. It refers to all trees in general. e.g. 樹木的歷史大概有 4.2億年 - The history of trees is about 420 million years
Similarly:
一隻野獸 - a wild animal
那隻野獸 - that animal
那些野獸 - those animals
幾隻野獸 - a few wild animals
野獸 - wild animals in general

I see trees - 我看到樹/ 我看到樹木
I see the trees - 我看到那些樹 / 我看到那些樹木
I see the big red trees - 我看到那些大紅樹
I see many trees - 我看見很多樹/ 我看見很多樹木
I see both trees - 兩棵樹我都看到了

There is no plural form for the non-human Chinese nouns, but for a human noun, you can add 們, as in 人們，醫生們，士兵們 (people, doctors, soldiers)


how do you type a Chinese Character in computer? What software do most of you using for typing Chinese characters, and is it developed by someone Chinese? I am using Sougou.

In Windows, there are so many tools to help you to type Chinese characters. Such as google pinyin, Microsoft pinyin IME(if you know pinyin of the Chinese characters), and so on. If you use Ubuntu, there are also many options, type the command to install scim sudo apt-get install scim scim-pinyin, or you can try iBus(I use it in linux):

sudo apt-get install ibus ibus-clutter ibus-gtk ibus-gtk3 ibus-qt4
sudo apt-get install ibus-pinyin

after you install them, enable or disable them by hitting Control + Space by default then you can type Chinese characters by Pinyin.


the Master is stopped from investigation? it's Analects chapter 10
when the master comes to a country does he ask about the government? and then: 抑與之與?
the last 與 is probably the ending particle.
抑 means to restrain to restrict. The first 與 is preposition indicating passive tense?
is the Master stopped from asking?

To add some context:
「夫子至是邦也，必聞其政，求之與？抑與之與？」
this is where OP's quote coming from.

求之與？抑與之與？
求之與？ is basically saying "do you seek it yourself(perhaps doing some investigative work) to obtain the information"

抑與之與？
is saying "or you just hear(hear to believe) what other people are saying"


Would Like to learn Chinese Language I wants to know that what are the prerequisites to start Learning Chinese Language. I wants to Lear to write and to speak in Chinese.

Firstly, set a specific learning goal. For example, you want to learn daily Chinese or Business Chinese.

Secondly, choose the correct learning materials according to your learning goals.

Thirdly, you need to learn some Chinese pinyin first, because pinyin is the basic of learning Chinese. Once you master Chinese pinyin, you can learn how to speak Chinese easier.


translation for "melee" in Mandarin How do you translate "melee" (as in close  hand to hand combat)? I keep getting translations such as "collection of diamonds or diamond fragments", 碎钻.

I've also gotten  "乱斗", but this means attacking in disorderly fashion.


Is 未長未短 grammatically correct (in classical Chinese)? Is 未長未短 grammatically correct (in classical Chinese)?

The article

http://www.hainan-today.com/2012/201201/web/201201_28.htm

uses “未長未短”:

但与大门前的“翻天覆地”相比，作为景区主体之一的“雨林谷”变化却“含蓄”许多，景观还是两年前的样子，没多没少，游览路线也依旧如故，未长未短

but it's written in modern Chinese.
Thanks in advance.

(How about "如意金箍棒复得, 未长未短"? How about “路线依旧如故, 未长未短”? Are these grammatically correct?)

The short answer is yes, especially in written. It's kind of “文言文” so may hardly be seen in oral speaking.

  游览路线也依旧如故，未长未短

Here “未长未短” means "it is neither longer nor shorter than before", in other words, "its (the route's) length is not changed".

Let's read the whole sentence again and you will be clearer.

  但与大门前的“翻天覆地”相比，……，景观还是两年前的样子，没多没少，游览路线也依旧如故，未长未短

“未长未短” actually act the same role as “没多没少”, both of them means "things not changed". Conversely, “翻天覆地” means "things changed significantly".

  如意金箍棒复得, 未长未短

Great sentence if you want to say 金箍棒完好无损。


Are there published adaptations of the Analects in Modern Mandarin? Bilingual (English/Chinese) editions of the Analects seem to be set using standard, Modern Mandarin fonts.  And some of the analects are pretty easy to read with a Modern Mandarin background -- with a few corrections like knowing that 也 used to mark affirmation.  But the experts I read say the Analects as a whole, in the classical Chinese, are not readable in Modern Mandarin.  Are there published editions in the PRC adapted to Modern Mandarin?  Maybe for school children?
I am asking in order to understand modern China.  I do not want such an edition myself.
As to the character fonts, those issues are well,  but concisely, described at https://chinese.stackexchange.com/posts/9569/revisions

Yes. There are "vernacular translations" (白话译文)  putting the Analects themselves in modern Chinese language.  Several of these can be found by searching "论语" "译文".  I have not surveyed how many.


Can you say “回去 ____" （A location？） Quick question:  Can you 回去 a location? or can you only say 回去 by itself?

ex.

“回去 我家乡”

You should say 回___去. And usually you can omit 去.

e.g:

回家去。/回家。
回火星去。 /回火星。

There're only some subtle differences in tone and emotion depending on the context.

While some would suggest that 回去___ is grammarly correct, usually it is phonetically strange.

As a native speaker, I would prefer 回家去吃饭 over 回去家吃饭. The logic (if there are any) behind this is that both 回家 and 吃饭(or anything you go home to do) can be used standalone. Connecting them with a single 去 sounds smoother than split 回家 and insert a 去 in the middle.


Translating a quote about Zhuge Liang "淡泊名利才能显示出自己高尚的志趣，保持心态平和宁静才能在思想上达到高远的境界。这是诸葛亮表达自己作为一个读书人志趣清高的名言，被历来的读书人所推崇。尽管不少人汲汲于名利焦头烂额，但其照样可以请人将此言书写悬于客厅，以显示自己志趣的不同凡俗."

I've been trying to 'block' this according to its syntax units, but I keep getting stumped.

What does 志趣 mean here?  (nciku gives it as 'aspiration,' but that doesn't seem appropriate in this context.
"这是诸葛亮表达自己作为一个读书人志趣清高的名言" Does this mean that Zhuge Liang regards HIMSELF as a scholar?  Again, the 志趣 is confusing me.
What does 其 refer to here?
What would be a decent translation for these three sentences?  Everything I've attempted so far sounds terribly awkward.

Thank you for your time.
Rachel

志趣 can be understood as 志向（your goal/dream） 和 兴趣 (things you are interested in). Your goal/dream is often the things you are interested in. So, 志趣 conveys the sense, kind of combination of 'goal/thing you're interested in'.
这是诸葛亮表达自己作为一个读书人志趣清高的名言. The main body of the sentence is 这是名言. '诸葛亮表达自己作为一个读书人志趣清高的' is attributive to 名言。Well, "诸葛亮表达自己作为一个读书人志趣清高" itself is a sentence too and its main body is 诸葛亮(subject)表达(verb)志趣清高(object). 自己作为一个读书人(himself as a scholar/reader) is an adverbial phrase. As for 志趣， refer to '1'.
其 is a personal pronoun. Here means 他们 the substitute of 不少人, which is mentioned in '尽管不少人汲汲于名利焦头烂额'.
Someone already did the translation in the comment above.


Why has zuò//láo // in between? I am going through the word 坐牢 using the Pleco dictionary. Generally they will not keep // in between two characters. But I can see // for this.
zuò//láo
What does // mean? Can zuò and láo be used with some sentence in between? Or is there any other meaning?
The example given here is some sentence in between.
他坐过三年牢。
Tā zuòguò sān nián láo.
He was in prison for three years.

The // is the marker used by Pleco to indicate that the word is in a special class of intransitive verbs called separable verbs.
Other references call these V.O. (Verb Object) constructions. ABC dictionary gives a useful TL;DR summary:

V.O. (Verb-Object Construction, Dòng-Bīn Jiégòu 动宾结构). Many English
verbs get translated into natural Chinese as a verb plus an object
noun, e.g. chīfàn for 'eat', shuōhuà for 'speak', etc. It is important
for two reasons to know what is merely a verb in Chinese and what is
actually a verb-object construction. First, verb-object constructions
can never take a second object, i.e. chīfàn can never be followed
directly by something else to be eaten. Second, a verb and its object
can be separated from one another, thus allowing (i) aspect particles
to be placed directly after the verb, e.g. chīle fàn 'after finishing
eating'; (ii) modification of the object, e.g. chī Zhōngguófàn 'eat
Chinese food'; and (iii) quantification of the noun, e.g. chīle sān
wǎn fàn 'ate three bowls of rice'.

The notion of separable verbs can be a very useful thing to be aware of as a student. This introduction and this list of separable verbs from allsetlearning.com may be helpful references on this topic.


Asking someone's age There are several expressions to ask someone's age. That which I am most familiar with is “他几岁？”. However, I am informed that this can only be used for children (I think the problem is the 几， which implies a small number). How can I ask someone's age if they are an adult?  Or perhaps asking how old someone was when something happened?

For example:

How old is he (e.g. your father) now?
How old was she when the accident happened?
How old are you? (say, in the hospital, a nurse might ask a patient)

There are several ways to ask someone's age and they vary from neutral to very polite. "他几岁" implies that the answer is within 1-9 range, since 几 should not be used for numbers greater than 9.

As for other ways to ask the age question (all of them apply to adults):

你多大? - neutral
您多大年纪? - polite, usually used for eldery people
您贵庚？ - very polite and very formal


In “我给他打败了”, who defeated whom? Does "我给他打败了" mean "I defeated him" or "I was defeated by him"?

It seems that “我给他骗了” means "I was cheated by him", but "我给他送走了" means "I send him away". In general, if we say "我给他……（动词）了", how to determine which one is the objective, "我" or "他"？

Edit: Several people say we do not usually see "我给他送走了". How about this example:

我给他让座了 means “I gave my seat to him” and "I" is the subjective.

我给他打败了 usually means 我被他打败了， namely I was defeated by him. And 我给他骗了 follows the same pattern.

我给他送走了 doesn't sound quite right in my opinion. It should be 我把他送走了, meaning I sent him away.


What's wrong with this sentence 我终于快到中国了 It is from my correct-the-sentence exercise.
我终于快到中国了。

I asked a Chinese, he said that this sentence is understandable.
In my opinion, "终于" seems redundant. If not, the original sentence should be put in a particular context to be understood, e.g it expresses the eagerness of a person after a long time away from China.
Please tell me your opinion on this sentence, does it need to be corrected?

我快到中国了。 I will arrive in China soon (O)
我终于到中国了。 I finally arrived in China (O)
我终于快到中国了。I finally arrive in China soon (?)
'finally' refers to the present or past events (you cannot say 'I finally arrive tomorrow'), while 'soon' referring to the upcoming events (future). These two words are conflicting with each other
Some said 我终于快到中国了 is understandable. In that case, 终于 would act as an exclamation (not adverb) --  "我终于快到中国了" could be interpreted as "Finally, I will arrive in China soon!"

does it need to be corrected?

To avoid confusion, you should change it to '我快到中国了' or '我终于到中国了'
If you really want to use 终于 as an exclamation, you should say  '我终于， 快到中国了'
There's another reason I don't like this sentence. It is like counting chickens before they hatch. Imagine, someone saying "Finally, I am going to be promoted soon" before he actually got the promotion, and ended up didn't get it?


How do say "less" when modifying a noun? For example in Taiwan I want to ask the people making my latte to put less honey in.
So how would I translate:

Today, please put in less honey than yesterday.

My bad translation attempt (added afterwards)

你們今天比昨天請用蜂蜜得少

I know that's bad, please don't laugh! Help me :)

“请比昨天少放些蜂蜜” for equality translation, but it's a bit of writing style.

For more clear way:

  昨天的太甜，这次请少放点蜂蜜。


Is there any Simplified Chinese Thesaurus/Lexicon of cities. forenames and surnames, and commonwords? I am working on a research project. I'd like to know if there's any lexicon or thesaurus or maybe a dataset (as complete as possible) with cities, forenames, surnames,placeNames, common words, all written in hanzi and lemmatized or tagged.
Thanks for your help.

Here is a complete list of all administrative divisions in China (from province to village) from National Bureau of Statistics of China:

http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/tjbz/tjyqhdmhcxhfdm/2013/index.html

Unfortunately, I can't find official website about other alternative names of them, but there are several useful sites:

http://www.xzqh.org.cn/ (by Ministry of Civil Affairs)

http://www.xzqh.org/ (not official site, but informative)


To display a correct pinyin in a web page what font should i use I have the line
<link href="https:/   /fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Ma+Shan+Zheng&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
to display a nice font for Chinese characters, which looks like brushed hanzis, but i need to display also pinyin with tone.
Some accents are not available with this line in CSS : font-family: 'Ma Shan Zheng', cursive;

Pinyin-friendly sans serif faces at Google Fonts

As of January 9, 2018, Google Fonts had 848 font families, 134 of which are sans serif faces. Of those, 22 can handle Hanyu Pinyin with tone marks.


Is 外地人 a derogatory word? My Shanghainese friend frequently says 外地人 in slightly negative/hostile context. I understand the meaning of 外地人, which is people from different city/province.

However, is it a derogatory term? Or is it just a normal word in and of itself but sometimes used negatively depending on context (this is true in Japanese word).

And is it rude to say 外地人 to people from rural living in developed city (especially Shanghai but also Hangzhou, Beijing, etc...)? I only talk with 1980s and 1990s, FYI. And if it is not rude, is there any such word that is considered derogatory?

Like what they said, 外地人 is a neutral word. But I think the meaning has changed, especially in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou where the economic level is higher than other cities. The natives whose father or grandfather or great-grandfather lived there don't like people from other place. So if you are from other place, and you talk with someone who are from other places too, it is ok to say the word. But if you are from Shanghai, but the one you are talking to is not, it is better for you not to say the word.


What is the negative of 将会？ 将会 (Jiāng huì) means 'will' and for its opposite meaning ('won't') I have seen 不将会 and 将不会.

Is there any difference here? Is one preferable to the other?

negative of 将会 = 将不会 negative of 将。。。 = 将不。。。

  将在这里举行
  将不在这里举行

  将做详细说明 将不做详细说明


Translation of signature on family shadow box art (Characters identified: 賀壽圖 北海貝雕) Can someone provide a translation of the signature captured from a shadow box picture. My dad bought it for my mum on their anniversary about 30 years ago but they have both passed away. The family started out living in the china town area of Liverpool in the early 60’s and he purchased it from a grocer in that same area after some work to provide the grocer to sell it lol. I know they are often presented as gifts to new businesses.
Thank you
Wayne

There is no signature on the art.
Calligraphy:

賀壽圖
Art piece dedicated to the celebration of the birthday of the elderly

Seal:

北海貝雕
Shell-engraving-art from Beihai


What does 连句话也没人说 mean? In the following sentence:

  你不必下班后还忙着应酬，一身酒气回家，家人都睡了，连句话也没人说。

The sentence would mean something like the following:

  You don't need to cater to the drinking party after the work, which makes you go back home while your family is sleeping.

But I don't understand the last part. What does it mean and specifically how does 也 work in this case? Does it mean "too" or "also" in this case? And what does 连句话 here mean?

你不必下班后还忙着应酬，一身酒气回家，家人都睡了，我连句话也没人说。

  我连句话也没人说。

Means "I got nobody to talk with".


What’s the difference between 符合, 适合 and 适应? They are all vocabulary from HSK 4. They are all verbs, and they are translated as “adapt”, “fit”, “suit”.
Is there any difference in use or meaning between them?
Thank you so much!

符合 means "match". Example:

  他 符合 我们的 要求。

  He matches our requirement.

适合 means “fit” in a sense of "good fit". Example:

  他 很 适合 这个 职位。

  He is a good fit.

符合 and 适合 have similar meanings but are often paired with different nones. I would say 符合 is a more precise fit than 适合。

适应 mean something quite different. It means "get used to", it is the process of getting to 符合 and 适合.


Is the word "以后" in "回家以后" an adverb? My question is as titled. Per my understanding the "以后" in "回家以后", "从此以后", etc. is a preposition. So I am surprised the textbook says 以后 is an adverb here. Can anyone find a grammar book, dictionary, or any kind of documents to prove the textbook is correct?

I can't find a resource to cite from, but here's what I know.
In some grammar textbooks, whether Chinese or English, words like this are referred to as a Prepositional Adverb, or words that are very similar in its form to a preposition but functions as an adverb.

EDIT
I am not certain about this, but some say that 以後（后） is one of the post-positions, which corresponds to prepositions in English.

Consider 以後/after in the following sentences:

以後(after) as a preposition.

好了以後，記得打給我。
Call me after(when) you're done.

"After" as an adverb.

I will arrive soon after.
我馬上到。

以後 as an adverb. (?)

以後，我會再打給你。
In the future, I will call you again.


Why is 右助 (yòu zhù) in this Chinese translation of Qur'an 1:5: 我们只崇拜你，只求你右助? A Chinese translation of Qur'an 1:5 (link) says

  我们只崇拜你，只求你右助，
  Wǒmen zhǐ chóngbài nǐ, zhǐ qiú nǐ yòu zhù,

I'm unclear about 右助 which YouDao translates to "the right to help".  The sentence mostly makes sense directly, approximately translating to:

  We [我们] only [只] worship [崇拜] you [你]; only [只] beg [求] you [你] the right to help [右助].

However, the last bit doesn't quite make sense (I would expect it to say "only beg you for help").  It's also a bit odd that 右 ("right") here means "right" in the sense of "I have rights", instead of "right hand"; I haven't encountered that before.

Question: Why is 右助 in this Chinese translation of Qur'an 1:5?

The Arabic and one English translation is:

  إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ   (Qur'an 1:5)
  It is You we worship and You we ask for help.

It's similar in Qur'an 1:7: 你所右助者的路 ...

According to dictionaries like this one (definition 7), in ancient Chinese, 右 and 佑 in this usage are interchangeable.

  古同“佑”，帮助，偏袒。

In modern simplified Chinese system, we use 佑 for this usage.

But not sure if this is the case in other regions where traditional characters are still in use.


How do I say "I held my head in my hands" Recently, I was writing about my time at a funeral. I am trying to express the situation that I was overwhelmed by emotion so I put my head in my hands. (I.e. I rested my head on my hands). Is there a way to translate this into common spoken chinese?

If you are referring to "put my head in my hands and cried",
My suggestion would be「抱頭痛哭」

抱: Holding / 頭: Head /  痛哭: Cry badly

In case you don't stick with "Crying", you can still use it this way:

I hold my head in my hands as i read his article
在讀這篇文章的時候，我以手抱頭。


Cantonese 咁: adverb suffix? I know 咁 means "so", as in "so big" = "gam daai". However, I just found this sentence:

我仲未失望咁係度等
Ngo5 zung6-mei6 sat1-mong6 gam3 hai6 dou6 dang2

In which I think it ought to be interpreted as an adverbial suffix, like English -ly. Maybe it is just because I saw a Mandarin rendition of this which makes it a 地. So can this gam sometimes be used as Mandarin 地? Also, I translated this sentence to:

I haven't yet been disappointed of being here waiting

Before seeing the Mandarin version. Would that be a valid translation?

There is at least one possible error here (係 v.s. 喺), so I'll assume a nonzero possibility of characters being misassigned. In that case, I'll assume the pronunciation is correct except for the tone.

I have never heard gam3 (generally written as 咁) used (correctly) outside of a context where it comes before an adjective as a means of indicating the extent something is <adjective>.

Conversely, there is also gam2, which has the same pronunciation apart from the tone. (The dictionary gives as 噉.) Use of this gam2 alone (i.e. not in some sort of set phrase like 噉樣) indicates something like "in this case" (e.g. 今日落雨，噉我哋唔好出去啦---it is raining today, so let's not go out). (The dictionary also suggests 恁 as a particle with the romanisation gam with a meaning that could fit, but the use-case appears identical to 噉, so I cannot differentiate between them.)

It is worth noting that people seem to sometimes conflate the two---e.g. 咁樣 and 噉樣 both appear in the Google IME. In fact, 咁嘅 is a lot more common than 噉嘅, judging from Google search and IME suggestions, even though gam3 is definitely not the right tone. Thus, it looks like there's some variation in what the correct transcription for a character not used formally is. (I later found similar ambiguities when I tried checking the character for zung6.)

Regardless of what the correct character is, gam2 makes more sense, because I can group it with 係 in a way that makes sense to me. This means that the translation should be something like:

  I still haven't lost hope, so I'm waiting here.

For what it's worth, I'm having a lot of trouble catching any instance of gam in the audio of the song ("想你想得好孤寂") in question. If the particle were actually absent, though, the line would not feel complete. (I would interpret it as either I still haven't lost hope, waiting here or I still haven't lost hope that waiting here . . .)


How do I translate "舒服不如倒着，好吃不过饺子" in English? This phrase means

  There is nothing more comfortable than lying down. There is nothing more
  delicious than jiaozi.

I would rather find more local version. Thank you guys.

I love dumplings quite much. :)

As with most idioms, there's a couple ways to translate this non-literally.

If you want to go the old fashioned route, you can maybe quote from the Bible like:

  There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. (Ecclesiastes 2:24)

Or maybe the Spanish idiom:

  A full stomach makes a happy heart. (barriga llena, corazón contento)

You could of course modify those to be about dumpling specifically: i.e. A stomach full of dumplings makes a happy heart.

Or you can just try something from yourself:

  Life doesn't get better than relaxing in bed and eating delicious dumplings.


Do people use 刻苦 nowadays? I'm trying to figure out two things.

Is 刻苦 still commonly used in China? Is it colloquial? For example, could I say “他那一年刻苦的学西班牙文”
If it is used, are there any clear differences with “认真”? Or are they pretty close synonyms?

Yes 刻苦 is still commonly used in colloquial language.
“他那一年刻苦地学西班牙文” is grammatical. In spoken language it sounds more natural to say “他那一年学西班牙文学得很刻苦” .
刻苦 is 'hardworking' while 认真 is 'take seriously'. They are idiomatically used together ('认真刻苦'), but they are not synonyms. Actually you can say things like '他很认真，但是不够刻苦' meaning he is taking it seriously enough but he needs to devote more time.


Soapstone Seal Translation Can anyone give me any information about this old stamp?  possibly translate the symbols?  Very worn carved soapstone in tortoise shell case with red waxy ink.

Thanks for your help.

My interpretation:

肇　松
吉　原

The guess of「肇」is based on this variant of「肁」.

西周金耳尊集成6007隸定

Together, this makes a Japanese name 松原肇吉 (something like Matsubara Tadayoshi).
You should post this on https://japanese.stackexchange.com to doublecheck.


What Methods Are Used by Mandarin Learners Who Speak Japanese? I'm studying Mandarin via ChineseSkill for Android, and a problem has arisen. I understand a little Japanese, and so rather than listening to the spoken phrases that I'm supposed to translate, I find myself just "decoding" the text without reference to the spoken Chinese at all. As a consequence, while I can comprehend 我在看报纸 with no problem, but I can't pronounce 报纸 without looking it up. I'm also clueless when it comes to pronouncing personal names.

I can change the app to display only pinyin, but that wouldn't help with literacy. What do Japanese-speakers (or speakers of non-Mandarin languages) do to learn Chinese aurally/orally?

Unfortunately, the only good way to practice reading out loud. I would recommend using google translate for each word you don't know how to pronounce and use their pronunciation translator. (Their's is actually pretty accurate).

Luckily though, believe it or not the Chinese pronunciation is a higher learning curve but after that it's VERY simple. There's actually only a set number of sounds for example.

It's good that you know some Japanese so I'm assuming you know some Kanji but also take caution that a lot of Japanese words are not used the same way Chinese words are.

I don't have a computer that can type chinese right now so bare with me or if some one could edit this, I would appreciate it.

For example: The word 'watashi' in japanese is 'I' but the chinese translation of that Kanji is actually 'si'. Which actually means 'personal' or 'private' rather than 'I'.

**Editor's note: 私 is the kanji for watashi


Symbolism Of A Verse From A Chinese Poem I'm trying to translate a poem with the title "Plum In The Basket". The subject matter of most of the poem revolves around eating plums and plum wine, but the opening line, key to understanding the poem's overall theme, is this:
"闲而生懒，懒生肉"
Currently, I've translated this verse as "Leisure and the onset of sloth, the sloth of raw meat."
I feel like I'm missing a bit of symbolic nuance in the phrases "懒" and "生肉" that might be more obvious to experienced Chinese translators. Am I on the right track? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

闲 - idle
而 - therefore
生 - create/ grow
懒 - lazy
懒 - lazy
生 - grow /create
肉 - flesh/ meat

"闲而生懒，懒生肉" = "Idleness grows laziness, laziness
(makes you) grows flesh"

'grow flesh' is a polite way to say 'become fat'


What is the difference between 早 and 早晨? E.g. 早晨好 What is the difference between 早 and 早晨?  I hear people say 早晨好 sometimes.

Does it refer to a different time in the day?   They both say morning in my dictionary.

早 is not morning, it means "early" in general. 我早知道了！吃早饭。

早上 is morning in general. 早上好！

早晨 is also morning, but earlier, at daybreak, in the very early morning hours.

The day is divided into twelve 时辰, where 寅时 is before dawn, the 凌晨.

Then comes the 卯时 between 5 and 7, the 黎明, the dawn.

辰时 is the next two hour period between 7 and 9, the 早晨.

After 9 is 上午, but 早上 refers to the greater morning period in general.


Included or Not Included As In "以後" "以來", etc Check out the references below, we see that Japanese has the same problem as Chinese: Does "以X" include the word itself, eg. is 1 included in "1以上"?

As what I have seen, in old Chinese books, there are "以" and "已" expressing the same(?) as in 以上/已上 以下/已下. Even 史記 itself used both (according to its "tables", confusingly, the Chinese Wikipedia page used "以" instead).

Answers come from the references simply gave us the answer and didn't say why, that's the reason why I come here for an authoritative answer.

References:

https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/9671/is-%E4%BB%A5%E9%99%8D-inclusive
https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1765/do-%E4%BB%A5%E4%B8%8A-and-%E4%BB%A5%E4%B8%8B-include-the-number-preceding-them

In ancient Chinese, 以上 and 以下 are inclusive without a doubt. Why? Just because everyone use them in the same way and exceptions are few to none. Example:

三品以下用金宝，二品以上用玉宝。（元史•选举志三）
七月，定进马迁赏格，每甲马一匹或二匹以上，迁赏有差。（金史•列传
第五十七）

In modern Chinese, they are supposed to inherit the ancient usage, however sometimes people try to be accurate by adding explanatory words which actually diluted the original meaning. For example the following forms are quite common in modern Chinese:

目前，浙江省县及县以下考生占全省考生总数的 68%。
设立公司应有三个以上（含）发起人。

In law space, the usage is still clearly defined to be inclusive. Example:

本法所称以上、以下、以内，包括本数。（1997 年 3 月 14 日修订《中华
人民共和国刑法》第九十九条）

This reference has a lot of examples to demonstrate the ancient and modern usages. (The author considered modern new usages wrong.)