小姐 and similar terms before the cultural revolution I have listened to a lot of controversy about the modern usage of 小姐 and similar terms. Here I just want to know whether what I thought as a child reflected the usage prior to the cultural revolution. The suspicion that it may be so is based on (my inferior understanding of) 崑曲 and on movie adaptations of 金庸。 in particular, my incomplete recollection suggests that the maidservant in 崑曲 frequently called the noble miss 小姐， while the miss never used the term for the maidservant.

What I thought was:
姑娘 is the normal term and a girl might even use it talking about herself to people of equal status. 小姐 is the young miss from a noted family. 美女 is absolutely not a standard address and indicates intimate interest when used as one.

In case this does not reflect the usage prior to the cultural revolution, but merely its portrayal in later works - like 射雕英雄傳 - I am very interested in evidence.

Basically I think you are right, but it's a pretty complicated story. There is more than one use of 小姐, including title, term of address, and general noun. I think most of the discussion, including your comments, has been about the general noun, so I'll limit myself to that.

Historically, 小姐 could indeed mean 娼妓、歌女. This use goes back to at least the Song dynasty, according to the 教育部國語辭典  I have no idea if this use still exists. If it does, I'm willing to bet it's very limited.

As you say, 小姐 can also be a rich family's daughter. This goes back at least to the Ming dynasty (教育部國語辭典 again). It is still very common, I'm sure.

This obviously can have some negative connotations. I don't know how long ago this started, but it's not recent; for example, in 茅盾's 1926 novel  幻灭, there is this sentence:

她和王、赵二女士本是一月二日就到了汉口的。那时，她自觉满身是勇气，满眼是希望。她准备洗去娇养的小姐习惯，投身最革命的工作。

So here 女士 is the general noun, 小姐 is little miss rich, and 娇养 is of course not good. I'm sure 小姐 here is not a prostitute!!

You prefer 姑娘 as a general noun for a young woman, yes? But 姑娘 does not appear in 茅盾's book. Instead he uses 女士. My father-in-law was like you; he used 姑娘, and he was from 山東. It may be a northern thing.

A note about Taiwan, which other people seemed uncertain about. In Taiwan, 小姐 is the standard form of address to a woman, young or even middle-aged, when you don't know her name.  You talk to the waitress, the bank teller, the woman who answers the phone, anyone who you don't know her name or status, and this is the word; it is the female equivalent of 先生 in ordinary conversation. It is the only polite general noun I know of.

You said 美女 doesn't work for you. Same thing in Taiwan: 美女 is a beautiful woman; a looker, a knockout.  If you call a woman 美女, you'd better know her pretty well.


Difference between these words What's the difference between these pairs of words? My book doesn't give a clear distinction between them.

如果 - 要是

必须 - 要

报名 - 注册

查 - 检查

读书 - 看书

These are similar terms just as their english counterparts:

如果 - In case
要是 - If

必须 - Necessary
要 - Need / require

报名 - Sign up
注册 - Register

查 - Check / Search
检查 - inspection

读书 - Reading (in terms of Studying)
看书 - Read a book


我爷爷的全身很疼，他不能去游泳: Is this sentence grammatically correct? 他对我说：“我爷爷的全身很疼，他不能去游泳”

Is the entire sentence grammatically correct? I'm not sure about "的".
Should I remove it or just leave it?

他对我说：“我爷爷的全身很疼，他不能去游泳”

的 in 我爷爷的 (My grandpa's) is a possessive marker, therefore follow it with a noun '全身' is  grammatically correct. But 的 can be omitted here

我爷爷的全身 = 我爷爷全身

Native Chinese would write "我爷爷全身[都]很疼" [所以]他不能去游泳” (My grandpa's whole body is [all] in pain, [therefore], he can't go swimming)


How do you say "much better" in Mandarin? How does one translate the following sentence into Mandarin?

  "Why not Australia? It's so much better than America"

Can I use 好多了 to translate "so much better" ?

好多了 means " much better" Your sentence would be:

"Why not Australia? It's much better than America"
為什麼不是澳大利亞？ 它比美國好多了“

For " so much better" the translation would be "好太多了"

"Why not Australia? It's so much better than America"
為什麼不是澳大利亞？ 它比美國好太多了“

Another way to translate "so much better":

比美国好(better than America)
比美国好得多(much better than America)
比美国好得多了 (so much better than America)

*It uses the final particle "了" to increase the emphasis.  The 'so' in "so much better" functions the same way.


How to say this joke in Chinese Any Americans out there have probably heard this lame but funny joke where someone asks what time it is and the other person replies "time for you to get a watch". I've been looking for translations of this, but none of them sound funny or retain the comedic effect. How would I translate and keep the comedic effect?

You have to understand that every language is different.

In English, you ask for "What time is it now?" and you answer with "Time for you to get a watch.".

Now let's translate that to Mandarin, "现在几点了?" and you answer "现在是该你买表的时间了。"

???? What are you even on about ??????

In English, it's funny because you are asking for what time, and you answer with time for you

In Mandarin, there are several way to ask for time, the most common way is "几点了", the joke will be weird because you are asking for 几点了, and you answer with 时间, see how it doesn't make sense?

It would only be funny, if i ask "现在是什么时间？", which people rarely do, and i answer "该你买表的时间了".

So yea, unless people specifically ask for "什么时间" instead of "几点了", then you can answer with "买表的时间", which is still a

  lame but funny joke


What does 装卸 mean here? My sentence is:

未来商店的购物车把手上装有购物助手----一个可随意装卸的无线电脑工具。

装卸的意思是: load-unload, transfer, assemble-disassemble

Maybe here '装卸‘ just means the 购物助手 'can be mounted on the shopping trolley if you wish'.

Or does 随意装卸的无线电脑‘ mean here 'the wireless computer can be freely programmed'?

In that case 装卸 means 'program, upload any data, transfer data to'?

购物助手(shopping helper) is the topic
一个可随意装卸的无线电脑工具。'a wireless computer tool (device) that can be mounted and dismounted at will.'  is the comment on the topic. It explains what 购物助手 is.

Since 购物助手 is a device, 装卸(mount/dismount) here refers to the mounting and dismounting of the unit itself--  nothing to do with data upload and download.

By the way:

'Data upload and download' in Chinese would be '数据(data)上传(up load)和下载(down load)'.
Not '数据(data)装上(load up)和卸下(unload)'


Character difference between 'buy' and 'sell' The characters for 'buy' and 'sell',  seem to have a subtle difference in the character.

買/买 (buy)
賣/卖 (sell)

I want to know, what's the significance of the radial  on top of the sell? How does adding that change 'buy' into 'sell'?

The original form of the top part of 賣 is 出.
《說文》

作。出物貨也。从出从買。

出物貨也：
出：拿出 take out
物：物品 goods
貨：交易 to trade

買
《說文》

作，市也。

市：做買賣。to trade
「買」本指商品交易，兼有「買、賣」二義，後來專指交易中的買入。
買 refers to the commodity trading activities, both "to buy and to sell", and later refers specifically to purchase transactions.
source: 《康熙字典》《字源》


Can someone translate what these say? I bought a hooded shirt/short sleeve pullover from yesstyle. It looked cool but I also want to know what the front means and what the top text on the back means.

The first image says "公平，公正，公开" on the hoodie, firstly notice the bit of Japanese at the bottom. Chances are that isn't meant to be read in Chinese. Either way, the main three terms translate roughly as "impartial", "equitable", and "public" respectively. I guess the hoodie has something to do with freedom of speech or something similar.

The other central term is "裁判" which I had to look up, translations include: judgment, to referee, umpire, judge, and referee. Referee is also listed at the top of the hoodie in English. Honestly I have no clue what this hoodie is on about.

久夕ツフ スタッフ Are the Japanese characters at the bottom but I haven't found a translation

Edit: In hindsight it's probably meant to be worn by a referee, eheh


Technical English-Chinese Dictionary Do anyone know if it exists a professional English-Chinese and Chinese-English Technical Dictionary?

Based on your comment:

  Technical dictionaries are dictionaries with terminology in the fields of technology and science, in which you can find names that you do not find in "classical dictionaries", because they are very technical.

I would highly recommend the 21st Century English-Chinese Dictionary

blurb from Amazon:

  The English-Chinese dictionary collects more than 70,000 entries. It includes over 10,000 new words. The phonetic is referred to the new edition from U.K. & U. S. Appendix includes the information of five countries: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia & New Zealand; the military ranks of U.K. & U.S.; international famous companies; chemical elements; punctuation; the usage of numeral, date & time; comparison of metric system & metrology of U.K. & U.S.

entry-wise I'm not sure why Amazon only mentions 70,000 entries as Pleco calls it:

  the 280,000-entry 21st Century English-Chinese Dictionary


What is the meaning of 摸着石头过河 I have: 哪里呀，我也是没办法，摸着石头过河罢了！

Is 摸着石头过河 'tapping in the dark'?

No, I don't know how, I'm still tapping in the dark.

I don't know about the phrase "tapping in the dark" because my limited English.

But 摸着石头过河 basically means try to do something via trials and errors. So my translation would be:

No, I have no idea, I'm still learning while doing it/I'm just trying to do what I can.


Chinese phrase for a physician's "residency program"? I am looking for a phrase in Chinese which means the residency program that physicians go through after graduation from medical school. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residency_(medicine)

Google translates "residency" as "住院醫師" (doctor who live/stay in the hospital ) . I think 駐院醫師 (stationing doctor) is more accurate

住院 could mean 留醫 (hospitalized; hospitalization)

  "residency program" for physicians go through after graduation from medical school

The physicians in the program are basically 實習醫師 (intern doctors).

I would translate "residency" as "駐院醫師" and "residency program" as "實習醫師駐院計劃" (intern doctor hospital stationing program)


A noun version of "need" I'm trying to write a sentence with the phrase "eliminates the need to do sth..." and have gotten as far as “消除作sth..的————”, any suggestions? I don't think 需要or必须are very good choices because they are usually placed near the beginning of the sentence...

(1) A排除对B的需求 - A eliminates the need for B

(2) A消除对B的需要 - ditto

Don't forget to use 对 as 'preposition'.


另當別論 : 另, 別 superfluous? What does 當 add? ABC Chinese–English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003), p 561. I can't access the "slightly revised through July 2005" ed. I also quote Wiktionary.

Why both 另 and 別? Aren't they redundant? They both mean "other". If you had to pick one, which you pick?

What  does 當 contribute? What changes semantically, if we omit it?

另 (adv) 當 (v) 別 (adj) 論 (n)
另當別論 =  treat separately as a different issue = (it is an exception)
Example:
雖然只有工作人員可以進入後台，但有VIP通行證的客人另當別論 - Although only staff can enter the backstage, people with a VIP pass is an exception


Background guy in tik toks Often in chinese tik tok compilations, there is a guy in the background who says something sounding like "ayodema" or something like that... I'd like to ask you what he is actual saying and what it means

哎呦，我的妈
āi yōu wǒ de mā

This is what you heard. It is similar to "oh my goodness" in English, which generally means that things are beyond expectation.

哎呦 = Oh
我的 = my
妈 literally means "mother", but it could indicate someone or something you respect


Is my translation right? 执行总统或国家情报总监指出的其它与影响国家安全情报相关的职责

My translation is,

  "to carry out the other responsibilities that are related to the national safety intelligence that are indicated by the president or the Director of National Intelligence."

As @S.Rhee has pointed out, and IMHO, below are some issues with your translation:

影响 translates to "affect/influence".
安全 in this context translates to "security".
职责 translates better to "duties/obligations".
The second "that" modifying clause should modify 职责, not 国家安全情报.

A more accurate translation might be,

  "To carry out the other duties, as indicated by the President or the Director of National Intelligence, that are related to influencing the National Security Intelligence."


Why is "小小" pronounced as "xué xiǎo"? In the classic 相声《卖马》, near the beginning is a line that goes:

  在下王老好的便是，就在这潞州天堂县开了一个*小小*的店房

but in that line, "小小" was pronounced as "xué xiǎo". Here's a clip: http://youtu.be/cB391VthT4Q?t=1m11s

Why is this pronunciation used? Is it a specific dialect? And if so, what?

At first I thought perhaps it originated from Peking Opera, because the piece was adapted from the Peking Opera piece 《秦琼卖马》. However finding a clip online, the correct "xiao xiao" pronunciation was used: http://youtu.be/EUvd28rphTQ?t=2m48s
I don't think it was a mispronunciation, because there's a modern version by 郭德纲 of the same piece which also uses the "xué xiǎo" pronunciation: http://youtu.be/ixk1JoE3-Go?t=1m49s

This particular pronunciation is traditionally used in crosstalk, especially in the northern area of China. I think it's related to Tianjin dialect. Today Chinese only pronounce 小小 as 'xiaoxiao'.


Is this grammatically correct? 我对着红绿灯说着是否一切会好转 So, this weird sentence and a reply go as follows
我对着红绿灯说着是否一切会好转
它们说「我不知道」
I came across it and reckoned it was a mistranslation, but a friend pointed out it's actually Taylor Swift's song that goes:
I ask the traffic lights if it'll be all right
They say "I don't know"
Is this correct grammar-wise in such a case?

It only needs slight modifications. How about 我"問"红绿灯是否一切"都"会好转 它们说「我不知道」, or 我"問"红绿灯是否一切"都"沒問題 它们说「我不知道」.
I think the original is fine grammar-wise, but unlike to be spoken by the native tongue.


Is there a definitive list of countries that use traditional chinese and those that use simplified chinese? I have checked a number of websites, and although most agree about the main countries that use traditional and simplified Chinese, I am not sure about countries where there are mixed populations of Chinese speaking people. I would like to know which ones are definite and which ones are probably in the grey area.

From what I can gather:

Traditional: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau
Simplified: China, Singapore
Both or uncertain: Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia

Hate to be pedantic, but Hongkong and Macau are not countries, but administrative regions within China. Furthermore, Taiwan’s status is a bit blurred because of the one China principle.

As for your question, Chinese is not official language in Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia, so the issue boils down to actual usage, which is mixed and differs by generations. Same with Chinese communities in the West, where the complex script is more common, though. Japan also uses a simplified script.

Only China (minus Hongkong and Macau) and Singapore use simplified officially.


Metaphorical "opening" translation I'm writing about certain historical leaders of China, and I'd like to say something along the lines of "he opened China to foreign investment" or "he opened China to foreign influence", etc. I can translate it except for the "opened", part. I know 开 means to literally open something, like a door, and I've put my sentence into various online translators and gotten "开放" for "open" in context. Does that work or should I use something else?

Sounds right. Something along the line 对外资开放, which means give access to foreign investments.


In the film 流浪地球, why is a character nicknamed '户口'? The most common translation of '户口' seems to be 'household registration system'. The other meanings do not fit either:
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=%E6%88%B7%E5%8F%A3
What is it a reference to?

The main character's name is 刘启
Break his first name 「启」 apart, and you'll get 「戶口」. That's how his nickname came about.
The character 启 contains the meaning of "enlighten". It has nothing to do with 戶口 (household).
It only works in simplified Chinese, The Traditional characters for 刘启 are 劉啟


What's distinguishes a chengyu (Chinese idiom) from a 4-character expression? I read the first two pages of 狐狸的窗户 (Húlí de chuānghù) = The Fox's Window (douban.com) on my Kindle, and encountered several 4-character phrases:

异口同声 (yì kǒu tóng shēng) = all with one voice (Baidu Baike; Chinese Tools)
精神恍惚 (jīng shén huǎng hū) = absent-minded (Baidu Baike; Chinese Tools)
胡思乱想 (hú sī luàn xiǎng) = go off into wild flights of fancy (Baidu Baike; Chinese Tools)
亮得刺眼 (liàng dé cìyǎn) = shine glaringly
一片一眼 (yīpiàn yīyǎn) = a glance at
望而生畏 (wàng ér shēng wèi) = be terrified by the sight of sth. or sb. (Baidu Baike; Chinese Tools)
心旷神怡 (xīn kuàng shén yí) = relaxed and happy (Baidu Baike; Chinese Tools)
擦去汗水 (cā qù hànshuǐ) = wipe the sweat

Some of these should be considered chengyu (成语, chéngyǔ), but others look like they just happen to have four characters.  I'm wondering if there's a way of deciding which are chengyu and which are not.

Question: What's distinguishes a chengyu (Chinese idiom) from a 4-character expression?

It's possible this question is related to Are there any chengyu or xiehouyu that only mean their literal meaning?  Maybe if it has a figurative meaning, then it's a chengyu, and otherwise not.

From

成语 versus 俗语 versus 谚语, what is the difference?

  成語 (idiom) include "situation description" , "common sense", and "words of wisdom". Mostly came from known historical references, like poems, classical literature or famous quotes by historic figures .

4-character expressions are common phrases from unknown origin, just happen to have four characters, they are "idiomatic expressions" but they are not true idioms.


What is the role of 没 here? How can these sentences be translated into English? Are they questions or afirmative sentences?

1-洗没洗衣服

2-听没听音乐

3-复习没复习课文

They're all questions.

1-洗没洗衣服 = Have you washed the clothes or not?

2-听没听音乐 = Have you listened to music or not?

3-复习没复习课文 = Have you revised the text or not?

All three sentences have the same structure. If you break the first one apart, you get this:

洗 = wash(ed)

没洗 = not wash(ed)

衣服 = clothes


Why is 見 replaced with 见 from simplified to traditional Chinese? I'm trying to find out why certain (parts of) characters were replaced with others while developing the simplified Chinese writing system.

I want to know why 见 replaces 見? As in 问题，問題.

Many thanks.

According to the Wikipedia,
来自于行书与草书的楷书化.

[注 1] lists some examples, 许多偏旁如讠[訁]、饣[飠]、纟[糹]、钅[釒]、呙[咼]、见[見]、页[頁]、贝[貝]、车[車]、东[東]、门[門]、马[馬]等来自草书。

Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms (草书) embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. (from the English version of the Wikipedia page)

Therefore, 见 replaces 見 because 见 is the cursive form of 見.


What is the difference between 古怪 and 古里古怪? According to my book, there is a pattern for building further adjectives from adjectives.
If the original adjective is AB (two different characters), its derivation is A里AB.

Unfortunately, this pattern was only displayed as an example, but not explained.

This pattern, like you mentioned, seems to be referred to as "A里AB"式 in Chinese.
A quick search came up with the following list of words:
糊里糊涂hū lǐ hū tú
怪里怪气guài lǐ guài qì
流里流气liú lǐ liú qì
傻里傻气shǎ lǐ shǎ qì
土里土气tǔ lǐ tǔ qì
慌里慌张huāng lǐ huāng zhāng
妖里妖气yāo lǐ yāo qì
彻里彻外chè lǐ chè wài
胡里胡涂hú lǐ hú tú
没里没外méi lǐ méi wài
秀里秀气xiù lǐ xiù qì
歇里歇松xiē lǐ xiē sōng
小里小气xiǎo lǐ xiǎo qì
打里打外dǎ lǐ dǎ wài
蹀里蹀斜dié lǐ dié xié
疙里疙瘩gē lǐ gē dā
古里古怪gǔ lǐ gǔ guài
鬼里鬼气guǐ lǐ guǐ qì
火里火发huǒ lǐ huǒ fā
楞里楞气léng lǐ léng qì
啰里啰唆luō lǐ luō suō
蒙里蒙懂méng lǐ měng dǒng
噗里噗通pū lǐ pū tōng
痞里痞气pǐ lǐ pǐ qì

There also seems to be a couple of studies about this speech pattern:
浅谈“A里AB式”
现代汉语“A里AB”格式的研究
but that's all a bit pedantic for our needs...(although you can be sure it is a set pattern)
It seems like you have already explained it pretty clearly as well:

According to my book, there is a pattern for building further adjectives from adjectives. If the original adjective is AB (two different characters), its derivation is A里AB.

as for the meaning:

...意义并未改变。例如 ： 马虎， 意思为做事不认真 。变为
“ Ａ里 Ａ Ｂ式 ” 马里 马 虎 ， 思 同样 为 做 事 不 认 真....浅谈“A里AB式”

The meaning does not change. For example: 马虎 and 马里马虎 both mean 做事不认真.
AB and A里AB mean the same - with a stronger sound/meaning on the A里AB than the simple AB pattern.


Which one is more commonly used in Chinese speaking communities: 年轻 or 年青? One of the elective projects on the study of Chinese culture given in my high school is as follows:

探讨中国传统文化如何助当今年青人走出困局。

I thought this was a typo so I asked our teacher to correct it to 年轻. But she said that both words are acceptable in this context. So my questions are:

Are 年轻 and 年青 both commonly used in Chinese-speaking communities?

Are they always interchangeable? Or do they have any essential difference in meanings?

Both 年轻 and 年青 mean "young".

However, 年青 refers to adolescents. It's about the people at this stage.

年轻 means young; it means people who are between the ages of 10-20. but 年轻 can also be used to compare the ages; For example, person A aged 50 is younger than person B, who is at the age of 60. Even though people who are 50 and 60 are not young, but in comparison, 50 is younger than 60. You can only use 年轻 in this case.

If someone looks young, you also use 年轻 instead of 年青.


Please help with the meaning of seal calligraphy writing on the following clay board Please help with the meaning of seal calligraphy writing on the following clay board.

the top two characters are: “賞賜” (read from right to left), which means rewarded
reading from the right, top to bottom, my initial reading is:
茲甲申殿恩澤四方造
福百姓修之ｘｘｘｘ
賜甲申殿ｘｘ瓷器瓶
ｘ琖香爐尊洗等三百
六十九件ｘ甲申殿合
用以
示皇恩浩蕩
the last three characters are:
“甲申殿”
a funny clay board :)


Does anyone recognize the characters written here? (Characters identified: 天倫樂敘) Does anyone recognize the characters written here? I've tried to figure it out but still can't understand what is written there, since I've just recognized the rightmost character, 天. It's a carving in my grandfather's house.

UPDATE

The 1st character: 敘 | 叙 (xù)
The 2nd character: 樂 | 乐 (lè)
The 3rd character: 倫 | 伦 (lún)
The 4th character: 天 (tiān)

I've tried to show it to my 老师, who comes from the Guangdong province, and she said that the characters are read from right to left (since it is the old way of writing on carvings), and she has guessing the meaning of that sentence is (if I remember correctly): "All generations of this family will always be happy".

I'm quite sure it is 天伦乐叙. Search for 天伦乐叙、乐叙天伦、天伦叙乐 on google or baidu, there are many results. Like this.


Using "抱怨": I'm really skinny, but I'm not complaining Not sure how to use "抱怨."
Would it be correct to say: 我很瘦，但我不在抱怨。
Or if there is a better phrase to use in this case, please let me know!

it is appropriate to use "抱怨" here. Your translation is also correct. But I think a better translation is "我真的很瘦，但我不是在抱怨" which more accurately reflect the tone of the English sentence.

(BTW that was from Google Translate)


Where can I find a list of (acceptable) 连读 words? When I started learning Chinese I would often hear (mostly northers) 连读 a bunch of different words:

意思 yi si - became - yis

认识 ren shi - became - rensh

Perhaps this doesn't count as 连读 - but the separate syllables where definitely combined into one distinctive syllable.

Any ideas?

Some have been crystallized in the spelling:
- 别 < 不要 (when used as a negative imperative)
- 甭 < 不用 (it's even explicit in the character!)
- 啦 < 了啊
- 这/那 as zhei/nei < 这一/那一 (zhe yi / na yi)
There are probably others, plus all the Classical Chinese ones mentioned by Tang Ho.

When it comes to ones that have not been represented in writing:
- A very common one I can think of is 多少钱, in which 多少 easily becomes "duo'ao" (or more likely, "dwao").
- 这样子 is also commonly pronounced as "zhiangzi".
- 不要 is often "b'yao", which has a character 嫑 biao2 which I've absolutely never seen used

Some characters also suggest that the following contractions exist, although they seem to be dialectal and I've never seen/heard them used:
- 嘦 < 只要 jiao4
- 覅 < 勿要 fiao4
- 孬 < 不要 nao1


Is 导致 or 促使 better in 自负和冲动 [导致 / 促使] 了他的失败 ("arrogance and impulsion contributed to his failure")? If we are to translate "contributed to" in "someone's arrogance and impulsion contributed to his failure," should I use 导致 or 促使?

  张三的自负和冲动导致/促使了他的失败。

导 (lead) ; 致 (reach)

  导致 = (lead to) cause

促 (induce); 使 (make)

  促使 = (induce and make) to push

~

  "someone's arrogance and impulsion contributed to his failure"

'contributed' means 'helped' -- '导致 (lead to)' and "促使 (push)" are two different form of 'helping' something to happen, therefore, 导致 or 促使 are both acceptable in "张三的自负和冲动导致/促使了他的失败。"

If you want a strict word to word translation, you can use '作出贡献', but '贡献' in Chinese only denote contribution to 'positive result' For example: "对社会作出贡献" (contribute to society); but you cannot say "对失败作出贡献" (contribute to failure) unless this negative result is a good thing, for example: "對纳粹滅亡作出贡献" (contributed to the destruction of the Nazis)

导致 and 促使 doesn't have this problem, they can be used to describe contribution to 'positive or negative result'


Where did the word "panda" come from? If pandas are from China and in Chinese they are called 熊猫 ("bear cat"), where did the word "panda," as seen in most western languages, come from?

I think this article answers your question..

Why is the panda called so?
The origin of the name panda is the Nepalese word 'nigalya ponya', which means 'eater of bamboo'. As used in the West, it was originally applied to the red panda, to which the giant panda was thought to be related.
Until its relation to the red panda was discovered in 1901, the giant panda was known as the mottled bear (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or partly-coloured bear. In Chinese, the giant panda is called the 'large bear cat'.
— Mayank Lavania, recd via e-mail

FYI, below is the red panda. I didn't know until now.

For people interested in the origin of 熊貓, check this blog entry.


Difference between Verb + 不了 and Verb + 不动 My teacher gives me two examples to state the difference between 不了 and 不动 as follows.
（A）我的腿受伤了，所以我走不了。
（B）我累得走不动。
I also read in Chinese Grammar Wiki but I still get confused.
(1) My teacher said that (B) cannot use 走不了, so can anyone point out situations that can use 不了 and 不动?
(2) In this sentence, should 不了 or 不动be used：这个书架我们两个抱不。。。

This dictionary definition of 了 could help:

了 /liǎo/

动词

跟“得”或“不”组合用在动词后面，表示可能或不可能

干得了 / 去得了 / 这病好不了。

So, according to dictionaries, 不了 means something is impossible to achieve.  E.g. 结束不了 (can't be over/finished)
不动 simply means to not move.
With all that above in mind, let's review your examples one by one:

我的腿受伤了，所以我走不了。// this is obvious that it denotes the sense of impossible to walk/leave.

我累得走不动 // the word 累(tired) suggests lack of energy, so 不动(can't move) make more sense.

这个书架我们两个抱不___ // in this case, if we put 动, it means you two can not make the bookshelf move.  If we use 了, then it will implies that it's impossible for you two to hold the bookshelf and maybe you need more people to help.  So, both are possible answers.

In fact, as you can see, 不了 and 不动 are quite different words.  They just occasionally came across in some examples like yours.
Hope this could help.


Which is more common in Cantonese? Do more people pronounce 你  as leih or neih?
In most textbooks, and practice dialogues I seem to see it is 'neih'
For some reason, leih comes more naturally to me, and I am feeling like I heard it more publicly.

Does it have to do with region?

As Stumpy Joe says, N and L have merged. Even outside HK it is quite generalized now -- to the point that people below 40 have difficulties -- up to complete inability -- pronouncing initial N-. I don't know how many times I've heard "What is your lame?" or similar stuff...

I work in the wine business, and every time we have to translate a wine name in Chinese for the Chinese back label, if there's a syllable with an N or an L, it is a complete crapshoot. N- syllables sinicized as 利, L- syllables rendered as 呢, etc. When I point out the errors, my Guangdong clients, even the older loubaan, seem to completely miss the issue: 一樣㗎! Not quite, brother. On the other hand, wines imported in the north usually get named with Ns and Ls in their proper places.

For instance, the famous vineyard Pont-Canet is usually transcribed 朋特卡內 (it's imported by just about every company in China, so a Mandarin sinicization prevailed), whereas the excellent La Tour Carnet vineyard, whose wines arrived in China mostly via the south, was named 拉图嘉利. I tried to get that changed to 呢 or similar -- my clients couldn't see what I was talking about. For both 嘉利 and 嘉呢 my clients said gaa.Le(i).

On the other hand, some of my friends, who speak average to good English, are vaguely aware of the L/N issue, but can't control it 100%. N- appearing in L- words happen regularly. A friend of mine is very fond of saying nousy for lousy. I tried to tell him it's Lousy. He said, Yeah, nousy!. Hopeless...


Puzzling negation in a beginner's grammar book From Jimmy Du's Essential Chinese, p. 46:

I understand everything  you say. 你说的我都懂。
I don't understand all they say. 他们说的我不是都懂。

Why is 不是 there in the second example, and not simply 不? I have only seen 懂 used as a verb before. This does not resemble anything I have learned.

I understand everything they say. 他们说的我都懂。

I don't understand all they say. (I only understand some of what they say.)

他们说的我不都懂。or 他们说的我不是都懂。Here using 不 or 不是 makes no differences.

I don't understand anything they say.
他们说的我都不懂。

So 不都 means not all, ie maybe some, and 都不 means all not, ie none.


Is the phrase 南狩之志，乃大得也 ironically ? A random phrase from 周易 is 南狩之志，乃大得也. I tried to translate it using the following thoughts.

乃 is probably a conjunction and renders to "in fact, actually" to stress something not as expected.
大得 rendered to "big gain, big achievement"
志 rendered to "will, determination,intention"
狩   is somehow problematic, I found "to go for a hunt in the winter",
   but I am not sure, if it only is limited to "winterhunting".

So, my translation is:

The determination to hunt in the winter in the south is actually a big achievement.

I am not sure if I got the sentence verbatim right, but if it is so , is the sentence irony or sarcasm, because winter hunting in the south is considered paradoxically? like saying "gone fishing to the sahara"

狩 is to hunt, and has nothing to with the season.

The aspiration to hunt in the south brought success.

Then we may ask why, and the answer is that the south is lighter in the winter than the north. So the season is indirectly the reason.


Does anyone out there have an old textbook about learning Moiyen Hakka? I was born in Montreal and my parents are both Hakka from Calcutta.  They never taught me the language and now in my thirties, I'm realizing how important it is to me to go back to my roots.  I want to learn my mother tongue!

Would anyone out there have any good resources, recordings, textbooks, etc. that would help me learn the basics?  I have already seen Eric Chen's Youtube lessons, which are great, but unfortunately, quite limited.

There is a book entitled Dialect  and  Folkways  Handbook  in  Meizhou (梅州方言民俗图典) that you can purchase but it is probably more like a dictionary than anything else.

Resources for, specifically, Moiyen (梅州) Hakka are going to be far more scarce than for a broader topic like the Hakka language in general.

Searching for Meixian (梅縣) Hakka would even greatly increase the number of results you get.

现代汉语方言音库・梅县话音档
梅县客家方言志
梅县方言词典


In a 还是 question, do I need to repeat the verb? I'm learning Chinese from a book, and there are some examples regarding the use of 还是. In some cases, the verb is repeated, like in 你喝茶还是喝咖啡？ (note the two 喝 here). In other places, the second instance of the verb is omitted, like in 他学习日语还是英语？
Is this a question of preference, or there are some rules to omit the second verb?
Thanks!

There is no rule for this and is mostly based on preferences. If the verb for the two actions are the same, you can choose if you want to omit it. However, in China, often one way of expressing is more fluent and more widely used than the other. The exact rule is difficult to describe, but it is likely based on the rhythm and flow of the language.
For example:
Saying 你喝咖啡还是喝茶？and 你喝咖啡还是茶？are both valid ways of expression, but the former sounds more rhythmically like a question and therefore is more often preferred.
On the other hand, 他学习英语还是日语？and 他学习英语还是学习日语？are also both valid, but the latter often sounds unnecessarily wordly and is often avoided.
P.S. In China, you may also often here people adding another word within these expressions to clarify what exactly they are asking. For example, 你喝咖啡还是喝茶？is ambiguous since we cannot really identify if it means "Do you want to drink coffee or tea" or "Are you drinking coffee or tea". For the former meaning, we often clarify by saying 你要喝咖啡还是喝茶？. For the latter meaning, we clarify by saying 你在喝咖啡还是喝茶？.


Can anyone explain the pictograph representation of 巴拉斯 please? My understanding so far is that:

巴 means a huge snake.
拉 means like a crop (wheat) and barn (store house).
斯 - this one is hardest to understand as it’s quite ancient.

The word in its entirety means something on the lines of:

  The hope to draw/pull to heaven/present

I am no scholar and my knowledge of Mandarin or Cantonese is very poor.

巴 (u+5df4) originally means "legendary gigantic snake", when it eats an elephant, it looks 3 year to excrete the skeleton of the elephant.

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=巴

拉 (u+62c9) originally means "break", it does not mean "like a crops (wheat) and barn"

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=拉

斯 (u+65af) originally means "cleave with an ax"

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=斯

these these characters have difference meanings now, the above explanation would be correct only in the context of etymology.

well, "巴拉斯" together, sounds similar to your name "bharath"; at least in cantonese. interesting.

have fun :)


乒 and 乓 characters are together a pictographic group? 倪阔乐 pointed in his answer, 乒 and 乓 have onomatopoeic use and these characters were "chosen for the sound playing the game makes" and it's a Great explanation but....

When I see 乒乓 together I see the picture of "table" with their legs (丿丶) plus a "net" on it. Not you ?

They looks like pictographic characters but using not one but two characters instead!

Primarily I was asking the etymology and if they have they other uses ? (this part is filled, thanks!)

乒 and 乓 have onomatopoeic use for sudden noise from a gun or similar. Their resemblance with an actual pingpong table is coincidental, and the characters were chosen for the sound playing the game makes.

See https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/乒乓球 for the history.

Both characters are used individually, but do not form any other words than 乒乓 and related terms. They derive from 兵 (bīng, soldier).

Edit: Expanding a bit, because these characters are a bit of interest. They seem to appear during Ming in the 16th century, with the vernacular literature of the time. Some examples:

西游记 / Journey to the West (Ming, 1580): 如此二三日，又听得后宰门乒乓乒乓，砖瓦乱响。

封神演义 / Creation of the gods (Ming, 1560): 乒乒乓乓，如同阵前炮响；轰轰烈烈，却似锣鼓齐鸣。

儒林外史 / Rulin waishi / Unofficial world history (Qing, 1750): 忽然乒乓一声响，屋梁上掉下一件东西来；不左不右，不上不下，端端正正掉在燕窝碗里，将碗打翻。

Some sources tell that 乒 is a hand holding a pickax, but late characters are rarely if ever ideographic in nature. More likely, some creative author used 兵 to coin a new set of onomatopoetic characters. 乒乒乓乓 has so become a proverb from the Ming era romance literature.


Should I use 向前 or 向后？ (Sorry, @hinen. I use your answer as my question.)

当我比较 hinen 的答案时，我有一个疑问。

原来的内容是：

  這樣我們就知道要向前找。
  So, we know that we should look up forward.

他/她修改，只把 forward 改成 backward，没改中文。

他/她先在第170图，后来到第156图，是向书本页数较少的方向找。
英文用 backward，但中文用"向前"还是"向后"？

backward 在字典中的翻译是"向后方"。
但中文的"向后方"可以是向书本的后面，也就是向页数较多的方向。

所以，forward 和 backward 中文要如何说才清楚，用查字典做例子？

(It's my honor that somebody can use my answer.
It's also my bad that I didn't use good words.)

The following expressions may help.

look up forward
往尾查
往後頁查
查後面的頁數
向字典後面查
向多的頁數查
繼續向下查

look up backward
往頭查
往前頁查
查前面的頁數
向字典前面查
向少的頁數查
回頭往前查


Difference between 犹如 vs 有如 What is the difference between 犹如　　vs  有如?
They seem to mean the same thing, are they also the same meaning as 象　?
My Chinese is not good enough to understand dictionary translations.
Thank you :)

犹 carries the meaning of 'like'
如 also carries the meaning of 'like'
From my answer to another question:

Put two characters with similar meaning together and create a compound word can remove ambiguity. It is very common in coining Chinese words . For example: Both 刚 and 才 carry other meanings, (刚 also means 'hard'; 才 also means 'talent') but '刚才' can only mean 'just'.

'犹如' is a compound word of two characters that carry the meaning of 'like'; 'as if'

有
have/ possess
'有如'(possess the similar quality) = 'like' ; 'as if'

The two terms seem to be interchangeable, different only in etmology
Examples sentences:

犹如把錢扔進大海 (Like/ As if throw money into the sea)

有如把錢扔進大海 (Like/ As if throw money into the sea)


Does this letter to our adopted Grandmother make sense? I don't speak much Chinese at all and would like to write a letter to our adopted grandmother. Thank you for the help! Here is what I have:

曾祖母尊鉴;

我们想念你。
红红感冒。

我们会回来的，当时她是健康的。

我们爱你。

谨此

Here is what I am trying to say:

Dear Great Grandmother,

We miss you.
Hong Hong has a cold.

We'll be back, when she is healthy.

We love you.

Sincerely.

Any native Chinese speaker can edit and make your letter perfect and native sounding, however, that would not be your writing and won't help your learning. Instead, I would suggest some basic improvement.

  紅紅感冒

since Chinese grammar doesn't have tenses, you have to indicate  Hong Hong's is "currently" having a cold by putting "現在"(now/currently) in front of the verb.
If you treat 感冒 as a noun, "紅紅感冒" in English would be " Hong Hong flu" (subject+n) you need to add a verb between the two nouns, the simplest one is "有"(has); If you treat 感冒 as a verb, then you don't need to add another verb.

  我們會回來，當時她是健康的。

Unlike in English, Chinese sentences usually state the time first, therefore, this sentence should has been "當時她是健康的, 我們會回來。"  but "當時" is a common term for " at that time (in the past)". The correct structure is
 [ (當) + (relative phrase) + (時)] / [ (當)+(她健康) +(時)]

當她健康時 ( when she is healthy) would be grammatically correct.

我們會回來 means " we will be back" ,  you should add the reason " to see you"  and write " 我們會回來看你"

*You can further improve the writing by replace " 當她健康時" (when she s health) with " 等她康復後" (wait until she has recovered)

*Using terms like "尊鑒, 謹此" is too formal for someone close to you.  A casual " 親愛的" (dear) feels more intimate.

*To avoid the same subject 我們 appear twice in consecutive sentences, you can omit the second subject 我們.

親愛的曾祖母:

我們想念你 ，
現在紅紅(有)感冒，
等她康復後，我們會回來看你，

愛你!

*is she 祖母 (grandmother) or 曾祖母 (great grandmother?)


Why cangjie code of 誤 is YRRVK? Why cangjie code of 誤 is YRRVK in the dictionary instead of YRRMK? Although both worked on my ime. Thank you.

because in Traditional Chinese (the basis for cangjie) the 天 part is actually written like

|______
   |  /
___|___
  / \
 /   \

where the

|______
      /

parts give it the V (女) code


How do I decide whether to use 可以, 会 or 能? According to every dictionary I've seen so far, there is a big overlap in these:

可以　=  can, may, be able to
会　　=  can, be able to, able
能　　=  can, may, able, capable

How do I properly choose which one to use when I have a sentence with can / may / able? What are the differences in primary use of these characters?

可以 means I can do it, but may I? For example :

  我 可以 开车吗？

May I drive? (Have the implication of I want to drive)

  我 可以 开车。

I can drive (have the implication of I can, but I don't want to (unwilling to do so))

会 means I am able to, or I know how to do it For example :

  你 会 开车吗？

Can you drive? (Are you able to drive? Do you know how to drive? Or even Do you have a drivers license?)

  我 会 开车。

I can drive (I know how to drive)

能 is similar to can, in most cases they are interchangeable. It means capable of doing something or Would you...? For example :

  你 能 开车吗？

Would you drive?  (Would you mind driving?)

Other Meanings

Apart from the meaning of willingness, 可以 can also mean good/not bad.  For example :

  你的中文还 可以 。

Your Chinese is not bad.
能 can also mean power / energy For example 能量.


What does 的 mean in sentences like "我会死的"? What does the 的 mean/indicate/do in sentences like "我会死的"?

I hear things like this in the Chinese movies I'm watching for listening practice.

I would say something like "我会死亡" or just "我会死".

Another example I just heard is: "爸爸不做饭的".

It's a particle like 呢 or 了 etc. Obviously 的 also has several other uses and it can sometimes be difficult to tell them apart especially if you have no context to the sentence.

The way it's used here is as a MODAL particle. Meaning that it alters the mood of the sentence. It makes the sentence feel like a a confident prediction.


至多，最多，顶多 … what's the difference? Is there any difference in meaning? Usage or formailty or common colocations?

I know that 顶多 is more colloquial but I don't know if it's more common in normal speech and I don't know any other difference between these words. Same for 至少，最少，顶少。

Thanks in advance.

The difference is the occasion they were used.
“至多”is a formal expression.while“顶多”an oral expression.“最多”is something between them which can be used in different place，but not too formal or oral at the same time.


Words for 'escorting,' 'showing around': 带你出去 vs. 护送你出去 vs. 陪你去玩儿 带你出去...
护送你出去...
陪你去玩儿...

I am especially interested in the difference in meaning between the first and third. The third may not be correct because I may be recalling it poorly.
The first seems clear: "...to take you out" in the sense of escorting and showing around. But isn't there a similar meaning for "pei?" The second one is new to me and seems to have a similar meaning.

带 has a sense of lead/host, A带B去 can be used in the situation where B doesn't know the place but A does, so A takes B there and shows him around.

陪 means accompany, it does not have the sense of lead/host. B陪A may be used in a situation where A may feel strange or uncomfortable with acting alone and wants somebody else to accompany him.

护送 means precisely escort, where 护 means 保护 (protect).


How to determine the part of speech tags of words succeeding 不 like these? How to determine the part of speech tags of words succeeding 不 like these?

In standard Chinese word segmentation datasets, 趕不上 is segmented as 趕 不 上, and 找不到 is segmented as 找 不 到; 趕上 is segmented as 趕上 itself, and 找到 is segmented as 找到 itself.

Both POS tags of 趕上 and 找到 can be easily determined, which are almost always VV, but "上" and "到" in 趕不上 and 找不到 are difficult to determine their POS tags.

What are their POS tags according to
http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=ircs_reports
?

Basically:

趕不上 is a [(趕) verb + (不) potential particle + (上) directional  particle] structure.

找不到 is a [(找) verb + (不) potential particle + (到) attainment / achievement particle] structure.

In 趕上, 趕 is the verb "to rush", and 上 is a directional particle that indicates the direction of the verb apply to (forward)

趕 = to rush; 趕上 = to catch up

In 找到, 找 is the verb "to find", and 到 is a particle that indicates the success of the verb (attainment / achievement)

找= to find; 找到 = have found

I had explained the role of potential particle in other answers before:

「得」or 「不」 are the two potential particles that indicate " "able , or "unable"
*Potentially, you either able or unable to. That's why they are called potential particles.


What is the Old Chinese Pronunciation for the Character 兮? I recently bought the book ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese in an effort to get minimally smart about old phonology. But the #1 character I'm curious about, with regard to old poems, is 兮 - Mandarin xi1 - and it's missing from the dictionary! Which is weird, because the character is seen ALL the time in classical poetry, especially very old poetry from Jin all the way back (I believe) to 诗经, and appears to be used phonologically as an interjection like "oh!" or "ah!".

Does anyone know what the reconstructed Old Chinese pronunciation of this character is? Alternately, does it sound radically different (perhaps, at least subjectively, more like an exclamation "should" sound like) in dialects other than Mandarin?

There is already a good discussion going below the original question. I'll just strip the Wiktionary link and put it down here:

http://zh.wiktionary.org/zh/%E5%85%AE#.E6.B1.89.E8.AF.AD

字   Mandarin  MiddleChinese  OldChinese  Cantonese
兮   xī        hej            /*ɡˁe/      hai4

And also:

Japanese   Korean   Vietnamese
kei        hyey     hề

So the consonant is along the line of g and h, something down the throat, unlike xi which is in the mouth.

While I don't agree with Phil on "兮 is nothing but a punctuation" and "Dialects were totally unintelligible so people had to write to each other even if they met face-to-face", I agree with him that a standard classic Chinese dialect didn't really exist. There could be many ways to read 兮 in ancient times, especially the vowel, although it's thought to be e, I wouldn't be surprised if it was shifted to a, o or any strange diphthongs in a local dialect.


HSK 6 Writing: automatically saved? I took the computer-based HSK 6 Test today. For the writing part, I was typing the entire time and did not notice there was a "save" button on top of the typing field until time was up. I never clicked on that button. I am wondering if it will automatically save and submit everything I typed. I am actually extremely worried right now... I don't want it to submit an empty text field...

Not pressing the "save" button has nothing to do with your test results, because everything you wrote is auto-saved the moment you finish the test. I actually passed the same test without pressing that with a score of 196... so feel comfortable!


Translating Teapot lid This lid is from a 'Japanese' cast iron teapot lid. I was told the Japanese used Chinese Characters on cast iron teapots. Can anyone verify this? Could I also please get a translation.

The Japanese term 勤續 means "duty"

結婚勤續二十周年紀念 literally means "20th Anniversary of marry duty

It is better to translate it as  "20th Anniversary of Diligent Marriage"


Does any know what the translation is? I found this in my moms stuff that she gave me a long time ago, help?

勇

brave
bold
adventurous
daring
courageous
firm
undaunted


Tone 平仄 of the 5th character in a seven-character jueju 七絕 In writing regulated verses 近體詩, there's a saying "一三五不論，二四六分明。" (We don't care the tone 平仄 of the odd-numbered characters in each line, but we care about that of the even-numbered ones.)

However, Baidu's page about seven-character jueju 七絕 shows that the tone of the 5th character of each line is fixed.

I wonder if one has the freedom to choose the tone of the 5th character in a seven-character jueju.

Let's take a concrete example.  Is it ok to take a deflected 仄 tone at the 5th character at the first (out of four) verse?

  秋風拂澗泛桑葉，舉目棕巢掛禿枝。
  平平仄仄仄平仄，仄仄平平仄仄平。
  碧水浮鵝追舫艇，舟乘遠去土盧茲。[1]
  仄仄平平平仄仄，平平仄仄仄平平。

  [1]: 土盧茲 (Toulouse, capital of Occitane region in France)

Remarks:

In principle, I'm following Shiwen 詩韻 published by the Hong Kong Public Library (HKPL).  This is the standard for regulated verses in the HKPL's Chinese Poetry Writing Competition.  In practice, I'll first use my mother tongue cantonese to determine the tones 平仄, before verifying Pingshui Yun 平水韻 online.  Cantonese's accuracy rate is over 90% since it preserves 入聲 in medieval Chinese.  The rationale for sticking to an ancient phonetic standard for composing regulated verses nowadays is to maintain the universality of this genre of poems: if poets compose in their own dialect, the 平仄 tones won't be carried to other dialects.  This inhibits others from appreciating the poem, and this genre would loss its influence in the long run.
I know very well that the first verse has a problem of "isolated plane tone" 孤平 according to "the second school of thought" 乙派 in the linked Baidu 百度 page, but let's adopt the "first school of thought"'s 甲派 viewpoint on this issue.
From my user profile, I'm neither a writer nor a poet.  I've written some regulated verses simply to cultivate my character 陶冶性情.

It is actually a big topic on the tone of Chinese poetry, even in different dynasties the rule is slightly different. I recommand you read Wang Li's (王力) book named 《诗词格律》, which has a systematic description on it.


Add 很 or not in these cases Case 1

他的字写得好。（✕）
他的字写得很好。（〇）

Case 2

他的字写得好，是因為比別人勤勞練字的關係。（〇）
他的字写得很好，是因為比別人勤勞練字的關係。（✕）

Why is 很 compulsory in case one while it is redundant in case two?

Case one:

的 is optional, you can say 他字写得很好，歌唱得很好，琴也彈得很好

很 is also optional, you can simply say 他字写得好，歌唱得好，琴也彈得好

Case two:

的, and 是 are all optional, you can simply say 他字写得好，因為他比別人練得更勤力。

or, you can  say  他的字写這麼好，是因為他比別人練得更勤力。

You find 他的字写得很好，是因為比別人勤勞練字的關係。awkward, because the better adverb in this context is not 很(very) but 這麼 (this)

他字写得(這麼)好  ... = His penmanship is this good because... (這麼好 make the sentence sounds incomplete, therefore, point to the need of a cause)
他字写得(很)好是因為... = His penmanship is very good because... (很好 make the sentence sounds completed, therefore, doesn't point to the need of a cause as much)


Why can't I use 我的 in Classical Chinese? almost all words are stand alone in classical texts. Only modern Chinese tend to use multi characters to form a word.  Your examples would be 明身/明体， 明心. But  明我的心 is not a traditional way.

Why can't 心 be modified with a adjective in Classical Chinese??

Why can't 心 be modified with a adjective in Classical Chinese?

Of course it can. In your case, 明吾心、明吾之心、明我心、明我之心 are all correct.

"的" is not common in classical texts, you can use "之" instead or just omit it.


Why is 的 (de) sometimes pronounced "di" even though it is used as a possessive particle? I've noticed sometimes the word 的 is pronounced as "di" rather than "de".
I'm aware that there is a valid use of 的 with pronunciation "di", which means "really and trully".
However for the sentence: 你的錯 (your fault), I've heard it pronounced "nǐ di cuò" instead of "nǐ de cuò" from several sources, even though here 的 is definitely being used as a possessive particle (for 'your').
The last example I've heard is in the song "忘不了" (a.k.a. "不了情") sung by Lin Dai (林黛).

Is there some rule for this (and I assume other examples with other words)?

First, the de/di phenomenon is not 文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings).

The term "文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings)" have strict academic definition. Not every homograph is 文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings). Not every literary-colloquial distinction is 文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings).

Books on Chinese phonology do not list de/di as 文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings).

The differences between 文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings) are systematic in nature. For instance, there is an (u)o/ao relationship:

薄 bo bao

剥 bo bao

落 luo lao

烙 luo lao

凿 zuo zao

Such a systematic relationship is not a coincidence. This is so because 文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings) reflects the contact of two sound systems. It is systematic in nature.

But it is not the case with de/di. There is no systematic relationship with the e/i pair.

So what is it?

"De" is just a weak form of "di". In Chinese, words seldom have weak form. But "的" is so common (it is the most commonly used character in modern Mandarin, both oral and written), and its meaning is so not concrete (it has no real content meaning; it is a function word that serves a lot of grammatical functions), it has a weak form. It takes the schwa sound, just like the typical weak form of an English word, because the schwa sound is the most neutral, some would say the easist sound that a human mouth can make.

Its written form is stabilized only recently. In 1940s, some writers still use "底" (di).

Two other similar words are "着" and "了". Both take the schwa sound as the weak form: "zhe" and "le". Note that the "proper" pronunciations or strong forms of these words, "di", "zhuo" and "liao", have no similarity at all. Their common feature is in there grammatical function.

In older songs (songs in the 1980s for instance), you can still hear singers use "zhuo" and "liao" respectively. But as I have noticed, these two pronunciations are fading more quickly than "di". You can still hear "di" occasionally in new songs, but "zhuo" and "liao" can only be heard in really old songs.

Naturally, weak forms are commonly used in colloquial occasions, and strong forms are used in more formal and literary occasions and in emphasis. Songs, of course, are more formal, literary and emphatic. (Yes, there is also a literary-colloquial distinction here, but it is not 文白异读 (literary-colloquial distinct readings).)

And don't forget the influence of dialects. Speakers of non-Mandarin dialects often have difficulty learning 轻声 (the neutral/fifth/zeroth tone) and weak forms. They may just stick to the strong form "di".

The two forms are more or less in in free variation. That means both pronunciations are right. It is not wrong to say "some people just do it". If you say "di", people may think you are stilted or having an accent, but they won't think your pronunction is wrong.

My recommendation is to use "de" in daily speech and "di" in songs. That way, you talk naturally and sing with refinement. :)


Cantonese song 不可一世 - what is the spoken part at 2:02? In the song 不可一世 (bat ho yat see) by Hong Kong band Beyond, there is some spoken Cantonese at around 2 minutes which I can't make out. It's spoken in a deep voice, and some others (presumably the band members) shout a reply. What are they saying?

If it's not off topic I'm also curious about the context of the song. I understand that 不可一世 means extremely, insufferably arrogant. Who are they referring to that is so arrogant and why don't they need him anymore?

Youtube video

lyrics:

誰願壓抑心中怒憤衝動
咒罵這虛與偽與假

從沒信要屈膝面對生命　縱沒有別人幫
一生只靠我雙手　讓我放聲瘋狂叫嚷

*今天的他　呼風可改雨　不可一世太囂張
乜哥乜哥　多麼的討厭
We don't need you anymore ,
go to hell

誰願意將一生扮作英雄
去面對風雨共創傷

難道世間真的沒有公道　縱沒有別人可
高聲呼叫我不甘　獨我放聲瘋狂叫嚷
今天的他　呼風可改雨　不可一世太囂張
乜哥乜哥　多麼的討厭
We don't need you anymore ,
go to hell

今天的他　呼風可改雨　不可一世太囂張
乜哥乜哥　多麼的討厭
We don't need you anymore ,
今天的他　呼風可改雨　不可一世太囂張
乜哥乜哥　多麼的討厭
We don't need you anymore ,
go to hell
今天的他　呼風可改雨…

「點呀？又有邊個覺得唔滿意呀？」(in Mandarin: 什麼? 又有誰覺得不滿意了？) = "What? Who else feel dissatisfied?"
「我地呀！」(我們啊) = "We do!"
乜哥乜哥 (some big shot) is the one being arrogant
In Hong Kong, people often nickname a government department head 「一哥」, e.g. 「警隊一哥」 means Head of the police department.
Since this song is dated. I don't know who they were specifically referring to, Most likely someone in power at that time
Edit:

「不可一世」歌曲创作背景 (background of the creation of the song "Insufferably Arrogant")
Beyond在香港成名后前经理陈健添就更加变本加厉的密密麻麻安排商业娱乐性重的工作，陈健添还因经理人佣金和分红和Beyond起纠纷，Beyond早已厌倦陈健添这种为利是图处处算计的人压榨逼迫, 以及他安排下过的违背意愿的奉迎生活，他们写的《不可一世》是讽刺逼迫控制他们越紧的经理人陈健添，而不是陈健添口中所说的讽刺电视台高层。所以，Beyond就决定在1991年12月尾合约结束时就不再与陈健添续约。

So, The Beyond were dissatisfied with their manager 陈健添  who pushed them very hard toward the commercial and entertainment side of the business at the time (I suppose they felt they were more artists than showmen) . They wrote this song to satirize him, eventually they parted way with him after the end of their contract


Glyph origins of '進' Motivation

While writing my recent meta question, I've cited Dr. Gavin Chiu (趙善軒)'s article to explain the character '進' and its simplified character '井'.  However, a user points out that the linked article is not real academic material, and that such explanation is invalid.

Question

How do the glyphs '⻌' and '隹' come up together to bring the meaning of '進'?

My attempt

The bone script (甲骨文) for '進' reads .

In Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字), there's simply a one-line explanation.

  登也。从辵。閵省聲。

It's not hard to identify the left glyph in the ancient writing  in 說文解字 as '辵', but I can't understand the role of '登' in 說文解字's explanation for '進'.  The right glyph '隹' clearly represents a bird .

Source of images for ancient scripts: The Complete Collection of Ancient and Modern Characters (古今文字集成)

商甲京津4001合集32535隸定
「進」 was originally constructed from semantic 「隹」 (picture of a bird) and semantic 「止」 (picture of a foot > motion), indicating the flying motion of a bird, which infers the meaning forward, advance (birds cannot fly backwards). Later on, 「彳」 (left half of 「行」, picture of a road intersection > roads, movement, path) was added to form the equivalent semantic component 「辵・⻍」 (walking, motion).
西周金圜器集成10360戰國・楚簡・帛帛乙8.5長沙子彈庫東漢隸白石神君碑　楷

Note, 「辵」 is the full form of 「⻍」. As stated earlier, 「辵」 is made up from a merger between 「彳」 and 「止」, shown again via 「過」 below.
西周金過伯簋集成3907戰國・楚簡・帛語叢3 郭店楚簡秦簡效律9睡虎地秦簡東漢隸華山廟碑　楷

References:

何琳儀《戰國古文字典：戰國文字聲系》
小學堂
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


How do expressions like "二嫂" work in Mandarin? From what I've known from watching Chinese dramas, siblings or fellow disciples may refer to each other as:

"big brother/sister" (oldest/first)
"2nd/3rd brother/sister" (in-between)
"little brother/sister" (youngest/last)

But I came across a translation of Hometown (故鄉) by Lu Xun, in which there's a lady known only as 杨二嫂 (I Googled this Chinese form). I guess this means "wife of a guy who is the second sibling".
Could anyone here who's read this one tell me what it really means? If that woman is called "Second Older Aunt-in-Law Yang", would it make her husband "Second Older Uncle Yang"? (by the way, is "Yang" her name or her husband's name?)
Does this work the same way for women and their husbands? And does it work the same way with "younger uncles/aunts"?

嫂 means "sister-in-law"
杨二嫂  means "wife of the second son of the Yang family".
It doesn't matter if you are the elder son or third son in the Yang family, she is still 二嫂 (second sister-in-law) to you. The character 二 here doesn't indicate older or younger, it indicates the second born.
Outsiders would call her 杨二嫂 to indicate they are addressing the "Yang's second daughter-in-law.
"second aunt-in-law Yang" is 杨二嬸
"second uncle-in-law Yang" is 杨二叔


Why is the Proto-Sino-Tibetan word for "eight" reconstructed as "triat", when in nearly all Sino-Tibetan languages it begins with either 'p' or 'b'? Here the Proto-Sino-Tibetan for eight is reconstructed as *t-r'iat, but no explanation is given as to why.

There has never been an attempt in reconstructing Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST, Chin. 漢藏語) for eight. What is shown in the link is perhaps a mislabel for another reconstruction, or an unreferenced, dubious attempt in PST reconstruction.

There were only five referenced Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB, Chin. 藏緬語) reconstructions. PTB for eight is *b-r-gyat ⪤ *b-g-ryat. They are recognised as cognates.

The difference between PTB and PST is that Sinitic languages are excluded in the reconstruction of PTB. That does not mean, however, that there is no comparability between PTB and Chinese, as shown below.

From Wiktionary: 'This is a doubly prefixed root, justified mainly by Written Tibetan, Jingpho and Rgyalrong forms. As expected, this root was particularly prone to metathesis and preemption. The Chinese form, for example, shows preemption of the rest of the initial cluster by the labial prefix, resulting in a *pr- > p- initial.' (As in pˤret > peat from Old to Middle Chinese.)


For 得过且过, how the meaning was derived? 得过且过 déguòqiěguò without high ambitions, but getting by
I noted down the below meanings from context as below:
得 de obtain, get, gain, acquire
且 moreover
过 to go over
The components means over.. where as the meaning of 得过且过 is without high ambitions. can help explain correct usage?

The construction 得+V+且+V is a common observation in classical Chinese. In fact, consider another expression, 得饒人處且饒人 (meaning to be explained in point 4.).

We understand 過 generally as 'to pass'. But how should we understand 得⋯⋯且⋯⋯?
得 in classical Chinese can be a preceding modal verb that
expresses ability or possibility.
且 in classical Chinese is an adverb meaning 'for the time being; at least'. Usually it is used when the speaker faces an unwelcoming situation, but has to perform a certain action, perhaps unwillingly. Its modern Chinese equivalent is 姑且；暫且.
Combined, 得+V+且+V means 'whenever it is possible to v., v. for the time being'. Usually the action is something hard to achieve.

So, 得過且過 may mean something like 'whenever it is possible to muddle through / whenever it is passable, muddle through (for the time being)'. Which is rather an aimless way of living, isn't it? Gradually, it has evolved to become an adjectival phrase in modern Chinese, and means what you see in the dictionary entry.

Similarly, 得饒人處且饒人 means 'whenever it is possible to forgive others, forgive them (for the time being)'. It still retains its sentence-ness in modern Chinese, unlike 得過且過, where you can comment on someone as having an aimless attitude in life (得過且過的態度).


Why is 再 used in 家里的空调坏了，咱们另外再买一个吧? I found this sentence in a book:

家里的空调坏了，咱们另外再买一个吧。

I don't understand why I have to write 再 inside this sentence. What is the use of 再 in the sentence and what does it do to complete the meaning of the sentence?  Doesn't 再 mean "again"?  Why is there a 另外 in front of the 再, doesn't it mean "other than that then we will buy another one"

另外 - In addition; other (adv)
再 - again (adv)
买 - buy (v)
Both 另外 and 再 are adverbs for the verb 买 in this sentence
Why both?
Because the sentence 另外买一个 could mean either 'buy an additional one' (now you have two air conditioners) or 'buy another one' (to replace the broken one)
If you say 再买一个, it could mean either 'buy an additional one' (now you have two air conditioners) or 'buy one again' (to replace the broken one)
Since the sentence already stated 家里的空调坏了, there's no reason to think you will have two air conditioners, therefore 另外买一个吧 would be good enough. Adding 再(again) avoids confusion and confirms the fact that the new one is a replacement. (we bought one before and now we have to buy one again - not the same one, another one)
"家里的空调坏了，再买一个吧"? is grammatical, but it would sound like you replace air conditioner often


How do names translate between Mandarin and Cantonese? Firstly I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that there are always multiple ways to say a Chinese name because the pronunciation depends on the dialect being spoken. I'm curious about how this works.

If a Cantonese-only speaker mentions the name of a Mandarin-only speaker, do they say their name using Mandarin pronunciation or Cantonese pronunciation? What about if the speaker is talking about a very famous person?

If two speakers are both fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin, and code switch with each other in both languages, do they use both pronunciations of each others' names? Would they pick one pronunciation and go with that all the time? Maybe use the pronunciation that the other introduced themselves with? This might be more of a sociolinguistics question.

Firstly I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that there are always multiple ways to say a Chinese name because the pronunciation depends on the dialect being spoken.

Yup.

  If a Cantonese-only speaker mentions the name of a Mandarin-only speaker, do they say their name using Mandarin pronunciation or Cantonese pronunciation? What about if the speaker is talking about a very famous person?

The language of the name would, theoretically, be the same as the language being spoken. If the conversation was in Cantonese the name would be read in Cantonese; if the discussion was in Mandarin the name would, likewise, be read in Mandarin. (Although there are catches to this.)

  If two speakers are both fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin, and code switch with each other in both languages, do they use both pronunciations of each others' names? Would they pick one pronunciation and go with that all the time? Maybe use the pronunciation that the other introduced themselves with?

Personal names are seldom spoken between people. A common nickname would be more likely and unless it was in front of others who only spoke one of the languages that they speak it would likely be set in whichever language they are more comfortable in.

So, obviously there are going to be some exceptions.

Nick Cheung has become a joke because he can't pronounce his own name properly in Mandarin. In this commercial he, infamously, calls himself 渣渣辉 instead of 张家辉.

There was once an anecdote that talked about someone interpreting from Cantonese to Mandarin. The translator came across the name 印度 (India) and mistranslated it as something close to 阴道 (vagina) because dou in Cantonese often becomes dao in Mandarin - but in this case it should have been du.

Names and titles are somewhat ingrained in peoples brains and it is quite hard to switch between the different languages. You might hear people speaking Mandarin and reverting back to their own dialects when they're at a loss.


How would one say: "You should be ashamed of yourself." in Mandarin and Cantonese? I would like to know what Chinese people say in general when saying "you should be ashamed of yourself". In Google translate I get the following:

你应该为自己感到羞耻

In my opinion this is way too formal. Is there a slang / phrase that Chinese / Cantonese people use in general?

Mandarin:

你应该为自己感到羞耻 we still say it in general and it is much mild comparing to 你真不要脸

Cantonese:

In Cantonese we would say 你应该感到羞耻 but it is more formal, in slang/daily i usually say 我系你我會搵窿捐

Reference: I am a native speaker for both


How does this 不像 work? I’m struggling to understand how to parse the first part of the following sentence.
門口不像日本有隔出玄關範圍的高低差，但是通常會有打開門之後無法接看到裡面的屏風或隔間。
It is talking about houses in Taiwan.
I understood the first part as saying the entrance (門口), unlike in Japan (不像日本), has no step (高低差) that separates (隔出) the entryway area (玄關範圍).
However,  if 不像日本 is to be interpreted as an adverbial phrase like that, it would leave, according to my understanding, the verb 有 and its object 隔出玄關範圍的高低差. However, this contradicts what is supposed to be stated because it means the entrance (門口) does have the step (高低差). Shouldn’t it be 沒有?
Another possibility I tried was to understand 像日本有 as meaning “like (the kind) they have in Japan” and qualifying 高低差, along with 隔出玄關範圍的. However, that would leave only 不 between the subject (門口) and that long noun phrase, and it doesn’t seem to make sense.
Could anyone explain how this clause should be parsed?

門口不像日本有隔出玄關範圍的高低差

Some object is omitted

(這)[門口] [不像日本(的門口)(那樣)] [有] [隔出玄關範圍的][高低差]

(This)[door], [unlike Japan('s doors) (which)] [have] [that separate the entrance area ][height difference]

This door, unlike Japanese doors which have a height difference that separates the entrance area

It implies 這門口沒有高低差 (this door has no height difference)

Break down the sentence by topics and comments:

[這門口] [不像日本門口那樣有高低差]

[不像日本門口那樣有高低差] is the comment on the topic [這門口]

Modify the comment sentence 不像日本門口那樣有高低差:

不像日本門口那樣有高低差 --> 不像日本門口那樣有[隔出玄關範圍的]高低差

[隔出玄關範圍的] is an adjectival phrase that modifies the noun 高低差


Which of these words for "to carry" are actually used? I compiled a list of different words for what we in English generally would translate to "to carry". Now, the fact that I found them doesn't necessarily mean that they are actually in common usage today. So, which ones of these would you consider to be useful to memorize, and which ones are actually used colloquially? Would you consider the specifications below correct?

抱 - bao - to carry (in your arms)
扛 kang1 - to carry (on your sholder)
背 bei - to carry (on the back)
负 fu4 to carry (on one's back)
挑 tiao1 - to carry (on your shoulder with a pole)
带 dai4 - to carry
顶 ding3 - to carry (on the head)
提 ti2 - to carry (hanging down from the hand)
抬 tai2 - to carry (two or more persons)
挎 kua4 - to carry (slung over arm, shoulder or side)

Thanks!

扛kang2 not 1

the most commonly used is 带 (to carry, to bring, to take)
Sorry, I don't bring the document with me today.
抱歉，我今天没带这个文件。
Yesterday I forgot to take my homework to school.
昨天我忘把作业带到学校了。
He always carries an ipad to the meeting.
他总是带ipad去开会。
No one is allowed to carry a gun in this country
在这个国家，任何人不能携带枪支。
Mice carry diseases.
老鼠携带疾病。


Are 你美好的未来 and 你的美好未来 and 你迷人的眼神 and 你的迷人眼神 all correct? You can say 你 的 美好 未来 = Your bright future.
And you can say 你 迷人 的 眼神 = Your charming eyes
Is 你 美好 的 未来 also correct?
Is 你 的 迷人 眼神 also correct?

"你美好的未来" and "你的美好未来" are reducted differently from the same sentences "你的美好的未来" (wordy)

你的美好的未来 (wordy)

你美好的未来 -- omitted 的 from 你的 (emphasize 美好的)

你的美好未来 -- omitted 的 from 美好的(emphasize 你的)

~

你的迷人的眼神 (wordy)

你迷人的眼神 -- omitted 的 from 你的 (emphasize 迷人的)

你的迷人眼神 -- omitted 的 from 迷人的 (emphasize 你的)

Please read Why there is no 的 after 你 in 你国家的医院好吗?
and When does an adjective require 的 to describe a noun?


What is the characters for qilou, the sidewalks in Taiwan? In Taiwan, there are covered sidewalks called “qilou”. What are the characters for that, and is there a translation in English?

wouldn't it be "騎樓"?

there's wiki page:

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


What's the difference between 兵器 and 武器? According to the dictionary, 兵器 = weapons, weaponry while 武器 = weapons, arms. It sounds like they are synonyms to me so I was wondering if those two words are synonyms or do they have some difference in meaning? If they are different can you guys provide some sample sentences for illustration? Thanks!

兵 (military)
兵器 (tool for military) = weapons; weaponry

~

武 (force)
武器 (tool for force) = weapons; arms

Both 兵器 and 武器 means weapons. The difference is 兵器 is more specifically referring to weapon for warfare, while 武器 is a more general term for all weapons

冷兵器 (cold weapons) that are commonly used by soldiers like 刀、劍、長槍、弓箭 、狼牙棒 (Knife, sword, lance, bow and arrow, mace) can all be called 兵器 or 武器.

現代兵器 (modern weapons) like 衝鋒槍、坦克、導彈 (sub-machine gun, tank, guided missile) are all 兵器/ 武器 too

On the other hand, anything that can be used for attack can be qualified as 武器. For example, 剪刀、石塊、摺椅、菜刀 (scissors, stones, folding chairs, kitchen knives) can all be 武器, but no one would call them 兵器 because those items were not commonly used in war

The term 武器 can be used metaphorically, for example: 用言語作为武器 (use words as weapon), but we don't use 兵器 this way
Something that can be called 兵器 can also be called 武器; something that can be used as 武器 but isn't commonly used in war cannot be called 兵器


Could you help me explain the meaning of "顺其自然"? I don't know what does this phrase mean in English. Please explain it with some example sentences.

Well, I am a Chinese, so I think I can have a try.

"顺", means let it be, or just like the song from the movie Froze, let it go.

"其", means itself.

"自然", means what it means to be.

So, put it together, it means, just let it be what it should be, do not intervene. It usually used to comfort someone who just failed something.


What does this seal stamp on Chinese painting mean? Is this seal the name of an artist or poet? How can I find him?

[![enter image description here][1]][1]

Is this translation okay?

[![enter image description here][3]][3]

Thank you for every answer.

all some seal and looks like ,,Shi Qing´´?

The signature is 石青,
After googled the name, I found at least 3 painters named 石青 on the web, both mainly draw birds and flowers.

But compare the calligraphy, it does not look like same person.

All the 壬戌 year:

2年、62年、122年、182年、242年、302年、362年、422年、482年、542年、602年、662年、722年、782年、842年、902年、962年, 1022年、1082年、1142年、1202年、1262年、1322年、1382年、1442年、1502年、1562年、1622年、1682年、1742年、1802年、1862年、1922年、1982年。

Based on the style of the calligraphy and the poem, I think it is painted in 1982.


How does tone sandhi apply in people's names? Like the title says, the question is simple: what's the proper way to handle tone sandhi in names? Is there something like "pronounce the family name as-is, apply tone sandhi to given name"? Or is tone sandhi applied to the whole name in it's entirety?

For example, what's the proper way to pronounce 马友友? (but feel free to add more:))

The rule that applies to sentences also applies to names, that is for a sentence of sequential 3rd tone characters,

(Optionally) Split it to phrases by functional groups.
For each group, every other character is read as 2nd tone while keeping the last character 3rd tone.

2.1. If a group has even number of characters, the tones become 2,3,...,2,3,2,3.
2.2. If a group has odd number of characters, the tones become 2,3,...2,3,X,2,3. If the group has exactly 3 characters, it becomes X,2,3. In standard Mandarin, X=2. In spoken language you'll probably hear both X=2 and X=3.

Examples:

马友友:

223: ma2 you2 you3 (standard as you'll hear in CCTV news).
323：ma3 you2 you3 (colloquial).

similarly, 往北走:

223: wang2 bei2 zou3 (standard).
323: wang3 bei2 zou3 (colloquial).

领导很满意:

2323...: ling2 dao3 hen2 man3 yi4.

往北走也挺好. Both of the following are correct:

223 223: wang2 bei2 zou3 ye2 ting2 hao3 (rule is applied to 2 word groups respectively).
232323: wang2 bei3 zou2 ye3 ting2 hao3 (rule is applied to the complete sequence).

请你老叟往北走. (This is a well-known line in TV/movie industry for tone sandhi practice, similar to 八百标兵奔北坡 for stop consonant practice.)

2323223: qing2 ni3 lao2 sou3 wang2 bei2 zou3.


Are there any chengyu or xiehouyu that only mean their literal meaning? Most chengyu and xiehouyu have a literal meaning and a figurative meaning.

Take 鸡飞狗跳 for instance, it literally means [the] chicken[s] fly [and the] dog[s] jump, figuratively it stands for chaos and confusion.

Or 孔夫子搬家——净是书 literally means Confucius moves house —— there's nothing but books, but figuratively books sounds the same as loss or lose (输) giving the meaning of always losing.

With these xiehouyu and chengyu the emphasis is always placed on the figurative meaning and not the literal meaning.

Are there chengyu that only have a literal meaning with no figurative meaning at all?

Perhaps 泥菩萨过河 would count as one - it seems that its literal meaning already does the trick of conveying what it wants to say without any other necessary added meaning.

Are there others?

I think all chengyus should have their figurative meanings.

xiehouyu  usually has two kinds:

  逻辑推理式 // logical type, For example, 哑巴吃黄连, 有苦说不出.
  谐音 // homophony, For example, 外甥打灯笼, 照旧(舅)

泥菩萨过河 should fall into logical type. So, there are lots of that type if you go Baidu.

Couple of links for your reference:

  逻辑推理式

  谐音


How to translate these inspirational phrases correctly? I'm trying to make a label for my workbook but I'm not very sure how to write this phrase:

If you can dream it you can do it!.

Using google translate (traditional chinese) renders me this result:

如果你能做到夢想就可以做到！

The other phrase I want to translate is: (Again accompanied by google translate results)

Best of luck in Mathematics and Science!

祝你好運數學和科學！

Note: The meaning of this second sentence is referring to those different courses or subjects. Hence assistance is needed.

You're the number one student!

你是頭號學生

I'm not sure if these results are gramatically correct or if they do really mean what it was intended to say in english. Can somebody help me with a proper check and review of these?.

Edit:

I'd like to get some help with translating the second sentence as it was left unattended by one of the answers.

Thanks in advance.

If you can dream it you can do it!
  梦得到的都做得到！ (what can be dreamed of can be done!)

梦得到的 that which can be dreamed (the 的 changes 梦得到 "can be dreamed" to "that which can be dreamed")
都 all (adverb)
做得到 can be done

verb得到 means "able to successfully verb". The opposite is verb不到. This is called the "potential complement" and is a common grammar pattern.

  You're the number one student!
  你是最佳学生！

你
是 are
最佳学生 best student (最佳X is a commmon pattern meaning best X, often used for best player in a football team etc)

  Best of luck in Mathematics and Science!

This one's a bit trickier. Do you mean "best of luck in the Mathematics and Science exam"? (or are they two different courses?). Or do you mean good luck with the course in general, not specifically the exam?


Does anyone know the names for each relative in mandarin? I know in mandarin each relative has a specific name. I tried searching it up, but I can't find anything. Can someone provide me the resources, please?

This may help:  親屬稱謂

Notice:
爺爺 = 祖父
奶奶 = 祖母
外公 = 外祖父
外婆 = 外祖母
伯伯 = 伯父
叔叔 = 叔父
姑姑 = 姑母
嬸嬸 = 叔母
舅舅 = 舅父
舅媽 = 舅母
爸爸 = 父親
媽媽 = 母親
阿姨 = 姨母
堂哥 = 堂兄
表兄弟姊妹 from 姑姑's side are 姑表
表兄弟姊妹 from 姨母's side are 姨表
Husband and wife are 丈夫 and 妻子 (also:老公 and 老婆)
Great grandfather and Great grandmother are 曾祖父 and 曾祖母; 外曾祖父 and 外曾祖母
your 妻子's 哥哥 is your 大舅
your 妻子's 弟弟 is your 小舅
your 妻子's 姊姊 is your 大姨
your 妻子's 妹妹 is your 小姨
Your 丈夫's 哥哥 is your 大伯
Your 丈夫's 弟弟 is your 小叔
Your 丈夫's 姊姊 is your 大姑
Your 丈夫's 妹妹 is your 小姑


How Archaic is James Legge's Written Chinese in this Side by Side English/Chinese Book? I'm not sure if this is even an appropriate question for this venue, but here's hoping. I want to read the translated works of Zhuangzi on this site, but I'd like to know how archaic the original Chinese is. The characters are traditional, which is fine, and makes sense given that James Legge (the translator) was writing in the 19th century.

However, my Mandarin is nowhere near good enough to tell me if the grammar and word choice is simply quaint (e.g. circa 1850s modern Chinese), a faithful rendition of the Old Chinese that Zhuangzi was writing in, or something in between. In other words, is this an English translation of an translation (ancient to modern Chinese) or is it a translation directly from Old Chinese?

This is a hard question which even puzzles many advanced Chinese researchers, such as this piece of The Question of Authorship in Chuang Tzu

http://140.122.100.145/ntnuj/j29/j29-10.pdf

found here.

Put simply, it may be a little too hard for Chinese writing beginner to pick it up something like Chuang Tzu, being hard not only for the text classical grammar text, but its introduction to a world of idea.

Just because it's hard to learn doesn't mean it's not helpful. Chuang Tzu is a legendary that has been continuously influencing many people.

On the website you mentioned, that piece is quite classical formatted, though not necessarily the authentic one. It's really hard to tell how authentic a piece of writing like that can be, and that's the job of some specialists, such as historians.

Hope you learn Chinese well :D


'Simplification' of 夠 Why did 夠 get 'simplified' into 够?

I'd like to know whether these existed as orthographic variants before simplification (such that the first round simplifications just standardised on one variant) or if there was some other basis, perhaps ideological, for either choosing one of the two forms, or creating a new form with 多 on the RHS.

This is discussed extensively in this thread:
http://forum.reviewingthehanzi.com/viewtopic.php?id=7698

A quote

  Because the "simplified" version of this character was made PRC
  standard when the new character lists were published. Even though
  nothing was actually simplified. There was a committee in China tasked
  with simplifying and standardizing written Chinese, when they came
  across this character they noticed there were two common versions of
  the hanzi being used so they had to pick which one will be in the
  official government approved lists. 够 won out.


Translating a sentence "I'd rather be a dick than a swallower"

Pretty straightforward. I tried to solve it by using google translate and what little of Chinese language knowledge I've got but I'm still not sure about it. Do I use the "yǔqí-bùrú" structure, and is it ok to use verb + 者 for swallower?  Thanks in advance.

Uh...This sentence is not very polite.

Yes, you can use  the "yǔqí-bùrú"（与其-不如） structure when you use Chinese to state "A than B" at some time. But I think another similar structure is more widely used and maybe more correct for this sentence:"bǐqǐ-gèng"（比起-更）or "yǔqí-gèng"(与其-更).

English: I'd rather be a dick than a swallower

Chinese: "bǐqǐ" to be a swallower, I "gèng" would like to be a dick

It's ok to use verb + "者" for swallower, but since "dick" shows up after "swallower" in Chinese, you'd better describe "swallower" more clearly like "dick-swallow"+"者".

And since maybe you don't understand the culture difference between English and Chinese. I would like to give you another statements to help you translate this sentence better.

Compared with being a dick-swallower, I would rather to the one whose dick is swallowed by others.

or

Compared with being a man who swallow other's dick, I would rather to be a man who let others swallow his dick.


The difference between 路 and 道? I feel that a very important difference could possibly be highlighted here.  I am not entirely sure.

For one, I do see the difference between the two with a grand scale.
With that said, I also under stand the importance of 路, especially when with the word 露. Hailing from a City of Rain, I had the question come to light.

Does this word have a con notation strictly on the MDBG site?
It also includes the definition of betray, is that then in the eye of the be holder?

路  would seem to stem from foot, mouth and each/every .  Then does an implication exist that could be misused?

Is 路 then a step on the way to 道 through proper motions?

Edit:  The reason I came across this was because I was re minded of a girl with whom I played League with at a time. haha.  That was coupled with the fact that 露露 is also an almond milk, which I wrote along the line of yesterday.

The original question stemmed from the line following:  "锏是一种中国传统古代兵器之一。"  Intrigued with the usage of 之一，　I had wanted to build a sentence using both the Chinese almond milk, and this one.

Your usage of character formation may not be always correct. E.g., 露 used to have that meaning (well before the 12th century AD), but now it means "water drops (on/from plants)".
In general, 道 is a bit more abstract than 路, silimar to "path" and "road" in English. 路 often means the road you're going on, and 道 can have the meaning of "method/approach".

– 你从哪条路过来的？ Which road did you come from?
– 我从那条小道过来的。 I came from that small path.

Usually they are interchangeable, but sometimes...

条条大路通罗马。 (not 大道)
All roads lead to Rome. (not "path")
(road name) XX大道 (Blah Boulevard)
XX大路？ (Blah Big Road)

道 can also mean a social subject,

混白道，混黑道 (do business and run gangs)
白路/黑路 (white road and black road)


Meaning of 閒日 (cantonese) In the sentence 唔知佢點解，佢閒日唔會打電話嚟。

What is the meaning of 閒日？
The official translation given by my reference is “weekdays”, but when i searched this in the dictionary, the meaning given is “free time”.

Which is it? Is it a cultural difference?

Words.hk defines it as:

  名詞
  星期一至五, 唔屬於星期六日或公眾假期嘅日子（量詞：個）
  weekdays: Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday or Friday; usually with the restriction of a non-holiday

And they give the example:

  閒日飲茶有折喎！
  haan4 jat2 jam2 caa4 jau5 zit3 wo3!
  Discount for dim-sum on weekdays!

——

閒日 is literally made up of the characters for idle + day. Why weekdays are idle days could only be explained by slow business - because business is would, assumably, be good on the weekends and holidays. But you’d never hear this usage in Mandarin where it just simply means “off day,” i.e.: a day where one doesn’t work.

——

Guangzhouhua-Putonghua gives it a different Cantonese definition:

  背集；不逢集的日子。

“Non-market days.”

CCCanto’s definition is also similar:

  free time or off day


What is the difference between 演奏, 弹 and 奏? There are several words that seem to be related to playing musical instruments (specifically 演奏, 弹 and 奏), and I would appreciate an elaboration on the nuances between them.  Are some used in specific cases where others do not apply?

演奏  (yǎn zòu)
to play a musical instrument in a performance

弹 (tan1)
to play sth by hand, sometimes roughly equivalent to "pluck"

弹钢琴 (tan1 gang1qin2)
to play the piano

弹琵琶 (tan1 pi2pa)
to play the pi2pa

拉 (la1)
to pull; to play an instrument, usually with a bow

拉二胡 (la1 er4hu2)
to play the er4hu2

拉小提琴 (la1 xiao3ti2qin2)
to play the violin

吹  (chui1)
to play sth by mouth

吹小号 (chui1 xiao3hao4)
to play the trumpet

Unrelated but funny:

吹牛 (chui1 niu2)
lit. "to blow the cow"; to brag/boast/talk big

奏乐
play music for the padshah in ancient times，but not now

奏 a team（ or one） play a musical instrument in a performance On formal occasions


How do I translate "context"? 是不是可以说：

  在这上下文，这个生词不可以这样用。

还有，

  You've taken it entirely out of context.

或者比如有学生问老师个问题，可是问提不太清楚，老师会回答说：

  Can you give provide some context?

'Context' stands for the 'environment' / 'background' that an object or event lives in.

  It could be translated differently depending on context.
  它可以依照语境来作具体翻译.

..

  在这上下文，这个生词不可以这样用。
  / 在当前上下文，这个生词不可以像这样用。

Remarks: In modern Chinese '这' rarely appears alone instead of '这儿' '这里' '这样' '此'.

..

  You've taken it entirely out of context.
  你完全脱离了背景范畴. / 你过于断章取义了. /你过于片面了.

..

  Can you give provide some context?
  可以提供一些相关背景吗?


Tones of Mandarin words in military drills I notice from my observation  that the tones of words of mandarin in military drills are different from the normal ones given by dictionary, which is best illsutrated by a forum post of a local Chinese. What he said is true? Or is there any story or history behind this phenomenon?

The essential part for military drills is to sound loud and vibrant. It is hard to sound loudly when the drill is given in tones rising and falling, so all the characters in drills are pronounced in a level tone, only with the pitch varying. So those of higher pitch will seem like the #1 tone, and those lower pitch will seem like the #3 tone as compared.

向右转 443 -> 331 “想有——专——” or 131 “香有——专——”

齐步走 243 -> 331 “起补——邹——” or 131 “七补——邹——”


Good resource to learn scientific Chinese I'm searching for a good resource to learn Chinese with a focus on natural sciences and engineering. In particular, I would like the name of chemicals, machinery parts and environmental/ecological concepts.

I know of a couple resources for medicine and chemistry. These are technical dictionaries. You can start checking these out. I used to use them for work and never had problems so I guess the translations should be correct. Will post more as I come across them.

Medicine:
drdict.com

Chemistry:
cosdna.com

EDIT:
If you're looking for occasional term references, usually a good bet is to search Wikipedia and switch to the Chinese page.


Tourists in China but can not understand Chinese How about someone visiting China in the next few months, who does not understand their language? Is there a way to learn common words and sentences with the correct pronunciation quickly?

Thanks in advance.

It's difficult for westerners to master the four tones in a few days, but if you have a few months, you can try! It's also difficult to learn how to read Chinese characters, but you can memorize some common words in a few days, such as restaurant, hotel, supermarket, museum, park etc, so that you can know where to go (most places have English signs in Beijing & Shanghai). In Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, you don't need to worry about the language barrier because most young people there can talk with you in English.


What Cantonese verb was spoken on what boyfriends 港女 pick? Sounds like 打鍋? Context is Maria Cordero asking Lisa Tse Lisa's criteria for picking boyfriends.  At 29:26, young female reporter in all black strap dress says something like 打鍋. I don't think this is 鍋. What's second character?
Maria Cordero repeats 打鍋 at 29:30 and 29:44. She explains this describes 港女. Cordero says only 港女 aren't afraid say this in front cameras! Cordero makes this sound like bad word.

打鑊 (give a beating) came from a Cantonese slang 打鑊甘
打 here means 'to beat up' and  鑊 (wok) is a classifier for session/ time/ instance of beating (and other things too)
She said: 想打鑊佢 = 想打他一頓 (want to beat him up)
Other examples of 打鑊:
打你幾鑊 = 打你幾回 (beat you up a few times)
見一鑊打一鑊/ 見鑊打鑊 = 見一回打一回 (beat you up every time I see you)
俾人打鑊 = 被人打一頓 (beat up by someone)
I like explaining Cantonese slangs because they are fun to say. 想打佢 is not funny at all, unlike 想打鑊佢 (鑊 indicates a substantial amount).


Written Cantonese input? Although traditionally Cantonese speakers just use standard Chinese (mostly Traditional in my experience) for writing and reading, written Cantonese does exist as you can read about in this Wikipedia article.  I'm curious as to whether there exists any input system for this written Cantonese.  I specifically use Windows, but I'd be interested to know about systems for Mac and Linux as well.

If not, do most or all the characters used for written Cantonese exist in other Chinese input libraries?  I ask this realizing that many of the characters in written Cantonese are simply re-purposed, but I also know that many of them are other characters with the addition of a leading 口 character and I don't know whether those exist outside of written Cantonese or not.  Please enlighten me!

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe all Cantonese characters (theoretically) have pinyin representations. Examples:

冇 (have not) / Yale: mou5 / Pinyin: mao3
佢哋 (they) / Yale: keui5 dei6 / Pinyin: qu2 di4
咗 (similar to 了) / Yale: jo2 / Pinyin: zuo3
嘢 (thing) / Yale: ye5 / Pinyin: ye3

But in my experience, using a Standard Chinese Pinyin IME to enter Cantonese characters is just not natural. Sometimes characters are missing. Some commonly used characters are way down the list.

One solution is to use a Cantonese IME like this one. There are even online tools to input Cantonese.


How do you idiomatically transate 你这个人? I was typing something in Chinese to a friend including 你这人 (or 你这个人), when I realized that I didn't have a good interpretation of it in English. It just feels like the sort of thing you say to somebody when you're pointing out something criticizable of theirs, but I don't know how to put it in words.

Something like this: 你这人，怎么能说那个乱话呢？ (____, how can you say that messed-up stuff?)

You, how can you say that messed-up stuff?

or just omit that and say

How can you say that messed-up stuff?


The development of rhotic vowels in Mandarin Schuessler's reconstruction of the Old Chinese reading of 二 is *ńźi. It seems there is a correspondence between OC syllables beginning in *ń or *ńź and Mandarin syllables romanised as er.

However, I've always wondered at what the intervening steps in the sound change were. Cantonese has ji6, which maintains the nucleus. Similarly, the kan-on (漢音) borrowing of 二 into Japanese has the reading ni.

How did the rhotic syllabic vowel develop in Mandarin from *ńźi?

BTW, I have Schuessler's book, and the transcription shown in parentheses after the character indicates the Middle Chinese rather than Old Chinese pronunciation, so ńźi refers to MC rather than OC pronunciation.

Back to your question, it's important to note that initial ńź- is being used as a transcription rather than an indication of the actual pronunciation.  According to A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, p. 55, Karlgren chose ńź- to transcribe this sound in order to reflect the fact that it evolved into a voiced fricative in descendants such as Mandarin (pinyin r- is often analyzed as IPA /ʐ/, a voiced retroflex sibilant); however, the book notes that "for Early Middle Chinese, however, it is widely agreed that it was simply a palatal nasal (IPA: /ɲ/)."

As you noted, this Early Middle Chinese /ɲ/ became /j/ in Cantonese, and /n/ in Japanese.  Such phonological changes are not too hard to imagine occurring, though EMC /ɲ/ changing to Mandarin's retroflex /ʐ/ may be a little harder to imagine.  However, it is interesting to note that in Late Middle Chinese, all palatal sibilants merged into the retroflex sibilants (e.g., /tɕ/ -> /ʈʂ/, /dʑ/ -> /ɖʐ/, etc.).  At this time the palatal /ɲ/, while not a sibilant, also got carried along with this change and became retroflex in LMC.  After that, metathesis occurred which changed /ʐɨ/ to /ɨʐ/ (see 《北京音系解析》, p. 24), which is realized as [əɻ] (pinyin: er) in modern Mandarin.

As an interesting aside, phonological changes often have exceptions, so a few words continued to retain the initial nasal in their modern descendants, the best example being 爾/尔 (MC: ńźje, Mand.: ěr, Cant.: ji5), whose colloquial pronunciation retained the nasal initial and became modern 你 (Mand.: nǐ, Cant.: nei5).


What is the meaning of 絕 in 天不絕人? I am trying to translate this sentence  天不絕人. I tried translating the characters individually, and got:

天: heaven or sky
不: not
絕: end or to break off; to cut off; to sever, to use up, to consume, peerless, matchless
人: people

But,

When I tried to translate it on Google translator, I got "sky is endless". There was no "people" in the translation, so I assume that it was not right.
I tried translating on Bing, and I got "It's a world of people" (a totally different meaning).
I tried translating it on Yandex, and I got "There's no end to it" (also a different meaning).
I tried to translate it on Systran, and I got "heaven never seals off all exits" (again a totally new different meaning).

絕 here means 隔絕 (cut off) or 拒絕 (reject)
It is obviously a variant of a common expression 天無絕人之路 - "heaven doesn't have a road that would cut off (reject) people. --> There's always salvation: (preservation from destruction or failure
; deliverance from danger or difficulty)
天 = Heaven
不 = doesn't
絕 = cut off; reject
人 = people
天不絕人 = "Heaven doesn't cut off/ reject people".
This expression is saying: " there's always a way" (so don't despair)