Is it possible to use 比如 at the end of a list of examples? Here's a random example sentence which uses 比如 from Youdao.com (trimmed):

比如数学、物理和英语。
Such as mathematics, physics and English
bǐrú shùxué, wùlǐ hé yīngyǔ

In English, we can put "for example" at the end, so e.g. we could equally say the following:

For example, mathematics, physics and English.
Mathematics, physics and English, for example.

This is convenient when you forgot to say "for example" initially.  I'm wondering if this is possible in Chinese.
Question: Is it possible to use 比如 at the end of a list of examples?
I didn't find any examples on Youdao nor Jukuu, so I think it's not possible.

在文章中，我們通常不那麼用。
We usually don't write in that way.

但在口語上，這是可能的。
But, it is possible in speaking.

它的目的是用來補充句子。
Its purpose is to supplement the sentence.

因為一開始講太快，沒能把順序講對，所以，在最後補上。
When we speak too fast at the beginning, and the order is not right, we supplement it at the end.

For example:

原本想要問：
Originally, I want to ask:

你昨天到哪裡去了？

但因說得很急，講成：
But I put it in a hurry, and say:

你到哪裡去了？

突然發覺不完整，就再補上「昨天」，變成：
I suddenly notice incomplete, then make up "昨天", to become:

你到哪裡去了，昨天？

「比如」也是一樣。
It is the same for 比如.

列出一些項目，但發覺這些只是其中的一部分，所以在最後補上。
List some items, but find that these are just a few of them, so make a final supplement.

問：妳喜歡什麼？
Q: What's your favorite?

答：游泳、爬山、吃美食，比如（說）。
A: Swimming, hiking, eating fine food, for example.

We usually don't write in this way because the grammar is not correct.


What pronunciation is '骑‘ in 千里走单骑’的‘骑’是什么的骑？qi 或者 ji? Web page wants me to write some English.
“千里走单骑” 的“骑”是什么意思？

“几天时间里，单骑千里，过五关斩六将，威风八面，气概冲霄。”

关羽厉害的！

还有：‘威风八面 = 威风凛凛’了吗？

《普通话异读词审音表》规定，“骑”在现代汉语中“统读”qí。

According to the 《The Authorized Table of Mandarin Words with Variant Pronunciations》，the word “骑”  is always pronounced with qí in modern Chinese.

A famous and popular Chinese professor, 易中天 (Zhongtian Yi), who is famous for his lectures of 三国演义, pronounced "骑" in "千里走单骑" as qí. You may also search "千里走单骑" on youtube, and you may find that in many videos, it is pronounced as qí. For example, 0:38 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzLT9blEYdc


What is the difference between 拥堵 and 堵车? I found the following sentence:

  这次降雪给交通带来了严重影响，一些高速公路封闭，一些地段出现拥堵。

However, another word I already knew is 堵车, which I have seen more times.

So now I wonder whether there is any difference between these two words, and if there is, what is it?

The main difference between 堵车 and 拥堵 is that 堵车 is usually used as a verb, while 拥堵 is usually used as a noun.  For example,  前面堵车了 and 前面交通出现了拥堵; 防范交通拥堵, not 防范交通堵车;


Is there any connection between the choice of characters for 九 and 丸? I just learned the character 丸 and naturally noticed that it is similar to 九 with the additional 点.

Is there any interesting connection between these two characters or is it just a random coincidence ?

「九」 and 「丸」 are not related. As @user3306356 points out, 「丸」 is probably related to 「夗」.

商朝甲骨文菁2.1合集6057西周金文作冊夨令簋集成4300戰國・晉金文東周左壺集成9640小篆九部說文解字今楷書
「九」 depicts an arm showing the hand, a bent wrist, and elbow, indicating the original meaning elbow. This word is now written as 「肘」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*t-[k]<r>uʔ/).
The meaning nine (/*[k]uʔ/) for 「九」 is a phonetic loan.

「丸」 is derived from 「夗」.
「夗」 (/*[ʔ]o[r]ʔ/) was originally a picture of an animal or person curled up in a foetal position, extended to mean twisting and turning in bed and then crooked, winding (now written 「宛」).
「夗」 or its derivatives later started being used for different senses. 「丸」 (/*[ɢ]ʷˤar/) was corrupted from 「夗」 to specifically represent the sense curl up and roll > ball, round object.
The glyph evolution and corruption process is as follows:
商朝甲骨文1799殷虛文字乙楷書
西周金文能匋尊集成5984隸定文字
西周金文仲義父鼎集成2542隸定文字
小篆丸部說文解字
晉朝篆刻晉烏丸率善篆刻大字典
今楷書

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂
漢語多功能字庫
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》

中國哲學書電子化計劃

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》


Language Learning Software That Teaches Mechanics (Not Phrases) I've tried out various language learning software (Rosetta Stone, Tell Me More, Transparent), and I've been severely disappointed by the fact that not one of them actually teaches you the LANGUAGE, they teach phrases and basic communication, but it's all done through repetition and association, rather than actual cognition.
I'm looking for a piece of software that teaches a variety of languages (ideally Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Japanese, and German at least) by teaching you the mechanics of the language, rather than simply having me repeat phrases back at the screen and perform matching games.

For example, with Spanish, I'd like this software to teach me the language's pronunciation rules and letters, conjugation of verbs, give me categorized lists of common verbs, point out irregulars and what their irregularities are, separate the various tenses, and overall teach the structure of the language so I can get to the point where I could read and write the language given only a dictionary, and eventually understand it given enough memorized vocabulary.

If this software exists, I would be grateful to whoever could point me to it.

If you want all of those mechanics of the language, aren't you just looking for a standard Spanish textbook?

Any textbook for the languages you mentioned should cover the pronunciation rules, conjugation, common verbs with irregulars, etc. And it probably is accompanied by audio, as well.  Seems just as good as any software for presenting that information.

Here are some free packages that have text and audio, and will probably cover all of the mechanics you mention:
http://fsi-language-courses.org/


Chinese Year on a Postmark Another postmark question: I don't know which year it is (perhaps 1918, 1928?).

It's most probably written vertically, right to left:

七年八月十一 Year 7, Month 8, 11(th day). 1938/8/11 (Year 1 is 1932).

No idea what the 九/9 at the end stands for.

EDIT

As Wang Dingwei says, Henan wasn't part of Manchukuo. So year 7 is probably 1918. 紀元轉換


What does "死党" mean? My first impression to this word is something like "enemy" or "enemies", because the letter "死" is used and it means death.

But when I do some search, it means "sworn followers"?
I really doubt at it. Can anyone explain?

死 means 赴死 or 尽死力 ((worth) dying for / giving all one's strength).
党 means 朋党 (clique; cabal; faction).
死党 means "pursue private ends" at first,

[pursue private ends]∶ 为自己的朋党拼死竭力
案后将军朱博、 钜鹿太守 孙闳,故光禄大夫 陈咸( 王)立交通厚善,相与为腹心,有背心死党之信,欲相攀援,死而后已。——《汉书·瞿方进传》

And means "sworn followers; diehard followers" (with derogatory sence),

[sworn followers; diehard followers]∶效死的党羽
网罗死党

Nowadays it usually means "best friend".

比喻情誼深厚的朋友。

Reference: 文化漫谈：为什么好朋友又称为“死党”？有何典故由来？


How do I know when I am "fluent"? What in a common test for fluency in Chinese?

Is it when I can;

talk to a shopkeeper
converse meaningfully about a film
do business purely in Chinese
pass HSK6

When my friends ask I don't know what to say.

Here's my two cents.

Out of those four choices you provided us, I'd say that conversing meaningfully about a film (or a book or a painting) and conducting business strictly in Chinese are very close to fluency.

Also, being fluent in a language does not pinpoint at a clear-cut level. You can be "just" fluent and be fluent like a native speaker. There's usually a difference between the two. Moreover, different native speakers elicit different levels of fluency. Compare a five year-old child with a novelist. Both are fluent, but one of them has a greater command of the language and a greater ability to convey his ideas with clarity and succinctness.

In the end, it all comes down to what you're happy with and what your aspirations are. When things start clicking in real-time, you are almost there. But, even after you reach fluency, you may still have a long path to go.

Finally, your mother language plays an important role in how fast you can become fluent and continue to make progress after you have reached that level. I'm not talking about Chinese here, but about any language in general.


Does 多 always come after the measure word？ I've realized that I still don't fully understand the placement of "多“  a relatively common word. Can you never place 多 before a measure word?

A friend recently corrected my "四多快美金“ into 四块多美金” but does that apply for all measure word
比如， 三十多条蛇 should be "三十条多蛇？“ (that doesn't sound right either)

Any clarification would be super helpful!

多 is used for approximate number, which is one-tenth of the measure unit prior to 多.

四块多美金 means 4.0-4.9 dollars. 四多块美金 is not correct, 多 should be placed after the measure word 块 for unit digit.

三十多条蛇 means 30-39 snakes, and 三十条多蛇 is not correct, because the measure unit of 蛇 could not be decimal.


How to say "it was nice meeting you yesterday" I'm a newbie to Chinese. I'm learning it by myself. So I have some questions. Could you correct me if I'm wrong?

I want to say "It was nice meeting you yesterday" or "I was glad meeting you" etc.

I traslated it as 我昨天很高兴见到了你。Is it correct?  Can I say 我(昨天)很高兴见到了?
Do I need to use 了  here? Or 我昨天很高兴见到 and 我昨天很高兴见到 would also be correct?

Way to go! You have made a perfect first Chinese sentence "我昨天很高兴见到了你。"!

In 我昨天很高兴见到, you might have to put a target for the verb '见到', so it would be like “我昨天很高兴见到你。”, which has the same meaning as "我昨天很高兴见到了你。"

‘了’ in this case can be omitted.


Is there a distinction between 我们决定早动身 and 我们决定早些出发 which mean "we decided on an early start"? One jukuu.com example sentence:

  我们决定早动身
  We determined on an early start
  (Wǒmen juédìng zǎo dòngshēn)

This breaks up into: 我们 = we, 决定 = to decide, 早 = early, 动身 = to leave.

Another jukuu.com example sentence:

  我们决定早些出发
  We determined on an early start
  (Wǒmen juédìng zǎo xiē chūfā)

This breaks up into: 我们 = we, 决定 = to decide, 早 = early, 些 = a few, 出发 = start off.

In English, I think "we decided on an early start" sounds better.

Question: Is there a distinction between 我们决定早动身 and 我们决定早些出发?

In particular, I'm confused as to why 些 is used in the second example.  And I'm wondering if there's any difference between 动身 and 出发 in this context.

Both 出发 and 动身 means "depart/ move out"

出发 literally means 'launch out' . It is more colloquial
动身 literally means 'move oneself' . It is more literary

  动身 emphasizes on the action of 'moving oneself from his current location' (imply starting a journey to a destination)

Example:

动身去北京 (depart for the journey to Beijing)

  出发 emphasizes on the action of 'moving out' .  You can 出发 to a journey or 出发 to fulfill a mission

Example:

出发去北京 (depart for the journey to Beijing)
出发去打仗 (off to fight a war)
出发去打猎 (off to hunting)

  We don't say '动身去打仗' or '动身去打猎'

~

  我们决定早动身 and 我们决定早些出发 which mean “we decided on an early start”?

Both mean "we decided to depart early."  The difference between 动身 and 出发 is stated above.

If you meant "off to a hunting trip", "off to fight a battle" or " depart for a sight seeing tour" , you can only use '出发'. If you meant "depart for a journey",  then either would be suitable.


How to use RSUNICODE codes? I would like to know, on an Android smartphone or PC, how do I use the RSUNICODE floating point number to enter a character, and why would I use a RSUNICODE number to enter text in this way? Is this what RSUNICIDE codes are used for... to enter text?

Thanks..

as far as i know, the function of rsunicode is to find out the radical & stroke count from an input, the output is the radical index (1-214) & number of strokes, excluding the radical of the character.

it's not for inputting text.


Why is 秘书 (lit. "secret book") the Chinese word for "secretary"? For some reason 秘书 (mìshū) is the Chinese word for "secretary"; it breaks up into:

秘 (mì) = secret (long version: 秘密 (mìmì) = secret);
书 (shū) = book.

I feel like there's a etymological story here.

Question: Why is 秘书 (lit. "secret book") the Chinese word for "secretary"?

I didn't find the answer on Wiktionary nor Yellowbridge.

秘 = secret --> private

书 = 书记 = clerk; secretary

秘 has the meaning of 'secret' , and it extends to 'private'

书 in 秘书 doesn't mean book, it is short for 书記 (clerk; secretary), a job title.

In fact, another common translation of 'secretary' is "书记" as in  "党书记" ( Party secretary)

秘书 is literally a "private secretary"

书记 can be working for a department or for one person, to differentiate the two, we also have the term 私人书记 (personal clerk) = 秘书 (private  secretary)


Meaning of 祝愿 as wishing or congratulating I wrote 哇，祝愿碰运气，能碰上这个组啊. By this I meant I wish I can be lucky and end up in that group. I am worried it will be taken as congratulations on you being lucky ending up in that group (which sounds like "I think you are just lucky with no ability").

Does it sound like I mean the latter?

Who got in the group? You or I??

哇，祝愿碰运气，能碰上这个组啊

*I wish I can be lucky and end up in that group.

I hope that I will be lucky and end up in that group.

我希望我能有幸加入那个组。

Wow! You are lucky to end up in that group!

哇！你运气真好，加入到了那个组！

If you want to indicate the person's ability got him/her in that group:

You deserve to be in that group, you are very talented.

你非常有天赋，值得在那个组。

Congratulations! = 恭喜你！ 或者 祝贺您！


荷兰猪、天竺鼠、豚鼠 ——What's the deal? So these terms for Guinea Pig all seem to be fairly common and in use, at least as far as I know, but the question(s) are:

where do the different terms come from?

is there any actual difference between the terms?

are the terms regional or not?!

These are just nicknames.
There are no evidence about where these names come from, as I can see.
I found some explanations but I can't make sure they're true.

It is called 天竺鼠 because Indian businessmen brought them into China.
It is called 荷蘭豬 because it looks like a pig and its barking sounds like pigs' barking.
It is called 荷蘭豬 because it was eat by Dutch before.
It is called 豚鼠 because it is 鼠...

And user58955 also provided some explanations. I don't think any of them is true... Just don't be too serious with these nicknames...


What is the Chinese equivalent of English idiom "As if!"? The English idiom "as if!" is used to express the speakers rejection that something is possible:

  A: "In a few years I'll be driving a Ferrari."
  B: "As if you'll ever have a Ferrari!"

Here, B, does not believe it is possible that A will ever own the car.

Someone suggested 废话? What is the best equivalent?

The closest answer I can think of is "才怪".

A: "In a few years I'll be driving a Ferrari."
B: "As if you'll ever have a Ferrari!"

A: 过几年我就能够驾法拉利了。
B: 你能驾法拉利才怪!

怪 means incredible in English 惊异，感到奇怪

才 means having the ability (能力：～能。口～。这人很有～干)

This phrase 才怪 is evolved from the longer phrase "才奇怪" and the usage of which only becomes popular in recent times. If you are interested, you can read up this article which describes at length the historical development of the phrase.

Quoting from the article,

才怪逐渐演变出了一种新的意义：表否定。“否定”的意义是与“奇怪”义有紧密联系的，觉得某事奇怪，主观上本身就有不赞成之意。只有主观上认为与自己看法不相同才会觉得奇怪，出乎意料。所以，我们认为“才怪”现代常用表否定的意义是从“才奇怪”演化而来。

Translated to English:

才怪 slowly evolves to mean an expression of disagreement. The words "disagreement" and "incredible" are closely related. To think that something is incredible implies that the person does not agree that it will happen. Only when a person disagree with something would he find it strange or out of the norm. Therefore, we believe that the contemporary meaning of 才怪 is an expression of disagreement and evolves from the longer phrase 才奇怪.

In my own words, 才怪 has the same exact meaning as "as if it would happen".

Usage example:

A: I'm not going to smoke again, I promise.
我绝不会再抽烟了，我向你保证。
B: As if this is going to be your last cigarette.
这会是你的最后一根烟才怪！


How to pronounce 翁 in Mainland China and Taiwan? I ran into a book talking about the difference of pronouncing 翁 in Mainland China and Taiwan differently. But it is still confusing to me. My questions are:

What is the difference of pronouncing 翁 in Mainland China and Taiwan?

How to pronounce 翁 in Mainland China and Taiwan?

This concerns a mid-back vowel pair of [ɤ]/[o] (in IPA symbol), where [ɤ] is unrounded and [o] rounded. In today's mandarin in China, it's unrounded; in taiwan, it is sometimes rounded and sometimes unrounded, depending on the preceding consonant. If the preceding consonant is labial then pinyin o is the rounded [o], otherwise the unrounded [ɤ]. The Taiwanese pronunciation was also the older mandarin pronunciation and can still be heard in many regions' accents in China, but not in today's standard mandarin any more.


What does this symbol mean on my ring? Unknown symbol on my ring. Not sure if Chinese, but I've tried all written translations- and still no answer

壽 (shòu), longevity. Simplified: 寿

Common words: 长寿, long life; 寿司, sushi.


What character could be made with these radicals? Chinese Characters Decomposition

丿  piě slash
十  shí ten
一  yī one
丨  gǔn line

I think it's a 卉

  huì
  各种供观赏的草的总称
  花～|奇花异～。
  Which means general term for a variety of
  ornamental grasses.


how can I translate 翳红? 翳 means 'to cover'(?), does it mean veiled red in the compound word 翳红? I couldn't find any reference in dictionaries
thank you, rosa

楊牧 《十二月十日辭清水灣》

  我探首看崖下潮來潮去
  讓記憶擱淺在那裏。正午
  窗子裏空氣虛構一種寧靜
  花瓣無懈可擊，紛紛拋落針織
  刺繡上，暗微的香氣洴澼浮沉
  湧進我多風的心裏

  光影在石礁一帶遊戲。遙遠
  水鳥各自東西，隨我的意志
  翻飛，有些在夢的邊緣失落
  有些自動回歸。山勢略顯憂愁
  傾斜若時間之餘韻
  太陽在翳紅與蒼黃間忐忑滑行

  By the cliffs, I overlook a tide that comes and goes
  and leave my memory stranded there. At noon
  behind the window the air fabricates tranquillity
  the petals are impeccable, their delicate
  fragrance scattered over the stitching
  floating, rushing down to my goustrous heart

  Light and shadow play around the rocks. Further out
  seagulls break from each other, fluttering
  by my grit some are lost at the edge of dreams
  though others return. The ridge seems to dishearten
  it lies aslant like the rests in a temporal cadence
  with care the sun slides from crimson to straw

  利文祺 和 Colin Bramwell 合譯

翳紅 crimson

蒼黃 straw


How to better identify the location of these land forms? I've just posted the question What produces these amazing 3D structures in Tibet? in Earth Science SE with the screen shots below. I'm told that the area is called 札达土林 in Chinese, and that seems to be Zanda County in Tibet

Is it possible to know if that location information is accurate? Is there a better way to identify the location where these images were taken?

I'd like to search further in order to eventually get some GPS coordinate so I can add to the linked question; "Zanda County in Tibet" is too large of an area pin down.

Screen shots from the video 航拍西藏 2018

札达土林 is not Zanda County, but rather the Zhada Earth Forest National Geopark. Note that 札达 in Standard Mandarin pinyin is Zhádá, hence the English translation. The native Tibetan version, རྩ་མདའ, is transliterated with Wylie transliteration as rtsa mda', and the spelling "Zanda" is an approximation of the modern Tibetan pronunciation.

土林 literally does translate to "Earth (as in soil, dirt) Forest", but refers to any "forest of rock formations". Other examples include the one in Yuanmou, Yunnan.


Which one is correct? “犯賤” or “泛賤”? At 5:35, Louisa Mak (麥明詩) says

  女孩是_賤.

Is the blank 泛 or 犯?

泛 means "extensive"
犯 means "commit (crime/ mistake)"
The correct term is 犯賤

犯賤
masochistic; sucker; asking for pain and suffering

Here is a discussion on the topic


Is it okay to use multiple degree-intensifiers in a sentence? I found this example sentence in Pleco's dictionary entry for 厲害 :

  他的聲音真的很厲害。His voice is amazing.

Why isn't 真的 included in the translation to make it "His voice really/truly is amazing"?

More broadly, is it okay to double-up intensifiers (such as 真的 + 很)? If it is allowed, what effect does it have on a sentence's meaning?

E.g. 他的聲音【真的很】厲害   vs.    他的聲音【很】厲害

Is 真的  really an intensifier?
我真的不知道(O)... 我真的很不知道 (X)
真的 (really) is an adverb for adjective that doesn't describe 'degree' but 'trueness'.

~

我很强 (O)... 我强 (X)
"很强" can be translated as "strong" or "very strong" in English
"很厲害" can be translated as  "awesome" or "very awesome" in English
"他的聲音真的很厲害" should be translated as "His voice is really awesome"
If you translate it as "His voice is really very amazing" that would sound odd in English.
If the sentence was "他的聲音很厲害" then you can translate it as "His voice is very amazing" or "His voice is amazing"

~

Is it okay to use multiple degree-intensifiers in a sentence?

One intensifier at a time
他非常强壮 (O)
他極之强壮 (O)
他非常極之强壮 (x)
他非常强壮，極之聪明  (O)


How to Translate 江湖? I've always wondered how to translate the word "江湖" in a context such as that in Du Mu's poem:

  落魄江湖载酒行,
   楚腰纤细掌中轻。

This link clearly explains what 江湖 means, but "underworld" isn't particularly good English even in a 武侠小说 context (and in the quote above it makes it sound like Du Mu was carrying wine with him around in hell) : has anyone come up with a better way to get across this word in English, or is it just one of those concepts that defies easy (succinct) translation?  How do you suggest translating the word, in the above couplet for example?

Concerning the Rules of Engagement, I'm really not asking for someone to do my homework for me; rather curious to know whether anyone has a solution to a problem that's bugged me for a while now.

Took me a while to find a translation of the poem, by Witter Bynner:

With my wine-bottle, watching by river and lake
For a lady so tiny as to dance on my palm,
I awake, after dreaming ten years in Yangzhou,
Known as fickle, even in the Street of Blue Houses.

It looks as if the translator didn't really get it, but in this poem "rivers and lakes" should be appropriate. The poet was writing about his ten years in 扬州, where there were plenty of rivers and lakes. You could imagine him riding on a vessel, with a drinking vessel in his hand, watching girls dance and wasting himself away.

As for the extended meaning, oh boy that's hard. 金庸 has a book titled 笑傲江湖, when translated to English, it becomes "The Swordsman", "The Legendary Swordsman", "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer", and "Laughing in the Wind". It looks like everyone is spending their best effort to try to avoid translating 江湖.

I guess people doing this because they thought they are translating up to a more prestigious language. They try to avoid anything that's slightly less comprehensible to an English reader, lest he gets offended by a few unrecognizable loanwords and throws the book away.

That's hardly the problem. James Nicoll once said this:

  The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
  English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow
  words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways
  to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

English cares not a bit about its purity, so I would suggest that we defile it a little more by translating it as "Rivers and Lakes", or even "Jiang Hu".

江湖 is a world. It's a vastness of turbulence. It's a world where people obtain their loafs at the peril of their lives. It's the world where hermits bide, where wanderers ride, where swordsmen stride, where clans collide... It's like Dungeons and Dragons sans magic and monsters. Now, describe it with an existing English word.

You can't.


Why there is no 的 after 你 in 你国家的医院好吗? I got a translation of “Are hospitals in your country good?” from a native speaker of Mandarin as:

  你国家的医院好吗？

Why there is no 的 after 你? It is after a pronoun for instance in such a sentence:

  我的妈妈的房子很高。

This question is really about: " when can we omit the possessive 的 "
的 1.(adjective suffix):
For example:

强大勇敢 (strong and brave)

强大勇敢的人 (strong and brave man)

You cannot omit the adjective suffix 的 and write 强大勇敢人

高大 (tall and big)

高大的人 (tall and big man)

You cannot omit the adjective suffix 的 and write 高大人
Adjectives that do not need adjective suffix can directly apply to the object.

For example 好(good) in 好女儿(good daughter)

的 2.(possessive):
我(的)衣服的鈕扣的顏色是白色的。 can be reduced to: 我衣服鈕扣的顏色是白色的。
(The last 的 is not omitted because it is not a possessive 的 but an adjective suffix 的.)
The same with your example sentences:

你(的)国家的医院好吗？can be reduced to: 你国家的医院好吗?

我(的)妈妈的房子很高。can be reduced to: 我妈妈的房子很高。

From user3a's answer:

The “的” before the subject is usually kept.
Others can be omitted, if possible.

I say it is wrong. The possessive '的' after a subject is usually kept, if it is a 'true possessive'(something you actually own) For example:  The possessive 的 in 我的車 cannot be omitted and make it "我車"
On the other hand, if the '的' is a 'relative possessive'(something you don't actually own) can be omitted. For example: you can omit the '的' in '我的母亲' and write 我母亲.
More example:
The possessive 的 in 这是我的太太; 他是我的女儿; 你的国家; 你的公司 can be omitted. You can write 这是我太太; 他是我女儿; 你国家; 你公司 (if you actually own the country or the company, then the possessive 的 should be kept)
Again with your example sentence:

我(的)妈妈的房子很高。 can be reduced to: 我妈妈的房子很高。

我(的)牛(的)角很长。 cannot be reduced to: 我牛的角很长。 or 我的牛角很长。

(you possess the cow and the cow possesses the horns, neither can be omitted.)


Glossary Implementation I am implementing multilingual glossary where we have alphabets and glossary content having title and description. Currently it is in english and I want to add support for Chinese.
In English I have alphabets like A, B, C, D, etc. On click of any of the alphabets the corresponding title gets displayed.
How do we implement the same for Chinese?

Chinese can be sorted by Pinyin. This is also what is done in the dictionary. Basically, each character has a prononciation, and that prononciation can be latinized into Pinyin. You can look up Pinyin on Wiktionary. The first letter of Pinyin can be used to group the phrases in your glossary.

For example, word "苹果" has Pinyin "píng guǒ" according to here. You can sort the word on Pinyin just like English words, with an additional rule of the tone. If a letter in Pinyin has a tone, sort tone in the order of "ā, á, ǎ, à". And toned vowels come prior to the untoned.

Note that, one Chinese character may have multiple prononciations, so you should search for the entire phase to determine the Pinyin for the characters.

Other sort schemes also exist, such as the radical order, or total strokes. But these are now less commonly used than Pinyin. Also keep in mind that, Chinese has a lot of accents, so Pinyin sorting may not be ideal if your audience is old  Cantonese who does not speak Mandarin, for example. In that case, total strokes might be a better solution. Another side note, Taiwan is also using Pinyin as their official Latinization system. So Pinyin can be generally used for both Mainland and Taiwan audience.


What is the role of 曾经 in this sentence? 欧盟委员会曾经宣布，将暂时维持对中国皮鞋的反倾销税措施。

Can I write： ‘欧盟委员会宣布了‘ or ‘欧盟委员会宣布过‘，or even ‘欧盟委员会曾经宣布过‘instead？ I mean, is it a past tense marker here, or does it mean 'once'?

'曾经' means 'once' here. This word is used when you talk about some situation that has occurred or has been experience before. I don't find this case weird at all.

'宣布过' is similar to '曾经宣布', actually '曾经宣布过' is also good here.

'了' is different. It stresses on the fact that some action or behavior has been finished.

By the way, there's no 'tense' in Chinese. You may say that these words are related to the past, so the sentences that have them are usually translated into past tense.


Translating “很快就有人去了.” ? Confusing word order Can anyone help me translate this sentence properly?
很快就有人去了.
My attempt is “Very quickly and soon, some people left.” However I don’t really understand the 很快就 part. Like i thought if these were modifying the verb, why are they in the beginning of the sentence before the noun 有人 ？And is 快 modifying 就？And what would be the purpose of that given that 就 just means “then...”?

很快就有人去了

This uses a variation of the grammar structure:

快 + Verb + 了
When using 快 ⋯⋯了 (kuài... le) with verbs, it takes on a meaning similar to the English "just about to." Normally you can add 要 (yào) before the verb.
快⋯⋯了 (kuài... le) with Verbs, Chinese Grammar Wiki

In this case what's about to happen is 去 ("to go"), it's happening to 有人 ("someone"), and the 快 ⋯⋯了 (with the change of state 了) indicates it hasn't yet happened.  The 很 and 就 seem to add urgency to the sentence.  It can thus be translated to something like:

Someone will go very soon.

My impression is that it's better to put 有人 before the 快, such as in:

有人很快就学会了[src]
Some people will soon master [it].
喝啤酒时，为什么有人很快就上厕所[src]
When drinking beer, why [do] some people soon need to go to the toilet?

Other examples using this structure:

很快就有人发现了[src]
Someone soon discovered...
很快就有人可以取代你的位置[src]
Someone can take your place very soon.


Written Cantonese Pronunciation 2 this is a follow up question regarding Cantonese Pronunciation. Previous question here.

Does anyone know how people from Guangdong, who would speak Cantonese at home but be taught in Mandarin at school, read in Cantonese? Would they know that 给 is pronounced as KAP or would they just read it as BEI?

Well, 俾 is BEI, and 给 is KAP in Cantonese pronunciation. In fact, 俾 and 给 also can be pronounced in Mandarin: 俾 is something like BI, I guess, and of course 给 is GEI.

So, they won't get confused, because they would certainly be taught that both words contain the same meaning but with a different pronunciation. In fact, I think 俾 is sort of like an unofficial word, which people usually use in texts/chats, and 给 is the official one. If you noticed, songs usually use 给 instead of 俾 :)


Can 地 be used in place of 的 as a stylistic choice? Is the use of 地 in the following document correct (some specific samples included below)? I feel like there are many cases where 的 should have been used, but 地 is used instead. The number of such cases has me concerned that I am missing or misunderstanding something important about the language. If that usage is correct, could you please help me understand why?
Otherwise, would this just be a stylistic choice on the part of the author for some effect? Is this usage common, e.g. in some genres of literature, in a certain regional variant, etc?
https://www.luoxia.com/douluo/40631.htm
Some samples from that document:

现在地唐三已经快要六岁了。
村子里唯一地铁匠。
有一个直径一米左右地木牌
唐三地家住在圣魂村西侧。

Thank you!

I think the document has simply not been well proofread.  The usage of 地 is not consistent though.  We can see the examples like:

没错，唐三的父亲唐昊，就是一个铁匠。村子里唯一地铁匠。

So, I don't believe it's anything relevant to any dialects or stylistics.  Those are simply the errors that need to be corrected.


What is the origin of the word 鬻? The word 鬻 (yù) appears to originate as a joint pictogram from:

粥 depicting the rice and two whirls of steam on the sides
鬲 (pronounced lì?) a cooking vessel

Later 粥 alone came in use to express the original meaning (congee), and 鬻 became a loan for "to sell". The loan is reported in the Zhuangzi 庄子.
However I've always known that the actual meaning of this word is "to sell poetry for a living", which is basically the translation of the idiom 鬻文为生. This idiom is also the only sentence where I ever heard the character 鬻 (heard, yes, I actually heard someone uttering this). The dictionaries I checked report only 卖 as a synonym, and other usages consistent with "selling", but the offered examples all gravitate toward "selling art" as 鬻画, 鬻哥 where it looks like a separable verb.
Given the highly specific collocations, I wonder if there is a story behind the etymology of the word, e.g. the same way there is a story behind a chengyu like 画蛇添足。I couldn't find any so far.

You'd better refer to these links:
https://www.zhihu.com/question/20010669/answer/26173785
https://www.zhihu.com/question/22107477/answer/20311667
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%AC%BB#Etymology
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%A7%B6%A0#Chinese

The word {congee} was first denoted by  (here 毓 denotes its pronunciation and 䰜 stands for cooking utensils) and later the character developed into 鬻(鬻≠粥+鬲，鬻=米+䰜). Finally it was simplified to 粥.

Both 粥 and 鬻 could be used to denote the word {sell}. As dROOOze pointed out,
this use is nothing but a phonetic loan for .  stills exists as a phonetic complement in many characters like 續贖讀櫝 (its glyph form becomes resembling 賣mài but they are etymologically unrelated).

As the history developed the usage of 鬻 to mean {sell} was fixed and 粥 became only used to mean {congee}.

The use of 鬻 to mean {sell} is seen as traditional Chinese today and hence only appears in idiomatic uses.

Examples in ancient Chinese:
楚人有鬻楯與矛者。 There was a person in Chu state who was selling shields and lances.
我世世為洴澼絖，不過數金；今一朝而鬻技百金，請與之。We have been bleaching cocoon-silk for generations, and have only gained a little money. Now in one morning (=at once, immediately) we can sell [to this man] our art (the way to make a salve which kept the hands from getting chapped) for a hundred ounces - let me give (sell the art) to him(=let him have it).


What is the usage of 有 in 有比丘五下分結盡? Here is the phrase, it is from Buddhist scripture: 有比丘五下分結盡

I know 有 as "to be", "to have", and as often serving as a translation for the Sanskrit bhāva.

Is this usage something like "being monks, [etc]"?

有比丘五下分結盡。

有（些）比丘五下分結（已滅）盡。
有些比丘已滅盡五下分結。
Some bhiksus (Sanskrit: bhikṣu) have completely eliminated five lower-realm bonds.

此處之「下分」是指「欲界」。三界中，欲界處於最下層，低於色界、無色界，故稱之為下分。
下分 here means Realm of Sensuous Desire (Sanskrit: kāma-dhātu). It is the lowest level in the Three Realms, lower than the Realm of Form and the Realm of Formlessness. Thus, it is named 下分(界).

「結」是「繫縛」之義，亦即「煩惱」。此等煩惱繫縛眾生於三界，令吾等無止盡地輪迴，故名之為「結」。
結 (Sanskrit: saṃyojana; bandhana) here means the bond, whose alias is the affliction (Sanskrit: kleśa). The affliction fastens all beings in the Three Realms, and makes us transmigrate endlessly. Therefore, it is named 結.

五下分結 （Sanskrit: pañca-āvara-bhāgīya-saṃyojanāni, five lower-realm bonds）：
貪 (desire)
瞋 (anger; dislike)
身見：執著實我 (real self)
戒取：邪戒 (heretical precept or discipline)
疑 (doubt)


Is there a Chinese equivelant of the word stress I don't remember hearing anyone use an equivalent of "stress" or "stressed" in a conversation, what I usually here is something like 压力很大 which in English would translate roughly to "I have a lot of pressure (on me) at the moment".

Maybe 压力很大 is the only option, or maybe even the right option, when looking to express stress in Chinese. However, I'm wondering if others here think there is a better option or maybe there isn't options because the concept of being 'stressed out' is a somewhat recent mainstream concept in the West and maybe being stressed doesn't quite fit well with Chinese culture.

So my questions are:

What do you think about my suggestion of stress being somewhat new in the West so there isn't an immediate equivalent in Chinese?
How would you translate something like "I'm feeling very stressed" or "I'm stressed out right now".

I can't see how I can translate the full concept of these sentences just using 压力 because it's not just about feeling pressure, but there are a range of emotions involved.

I guess there is not a single Chinese word which can mean "stress/stressed/stressful" in all cases.
I would like to suggest the following translations.

I'm feeling very stressed. 我感到很大的压力。
A lot jobs are stressful. 很多工作都有压力。
She finds her new teaching job very stressful. 她觉得新的教学工作非常紧张。
Moving to a new house is a very stressful experience. 搬家是一件很令人焦虑的事情。
After a long hard day at work, she is stressed out. 在单位劳累了一整天后, 她已是筋疲力尽了。
How often do we arrive at work or school stressed out, tired and angry? 有多少次我们极度焦虑、疲惫、恼怒地来到单位或学校?
under the stress of poverty 为贫穷所迫
in times of stress 在困难时期


Asterisks in Jyutping Cantonese I have come across a couple of Cantonese words transliterated in Jyutping which had * in the tone number. For example, on CantoDict, the word 广东话 is transliterated as gwong2-dung1-waa6*2. What does that asterisk mean? Is it some form of sandhi?

It's not standard Jyutping, but CantoDict uses the asterisk to indicate a changed tone. In your example, waa6*2, the standard citation tone for 话 is 6, but when pronounced in the word, 广东话, its tone changes to a rising tone, so it is denoted with a *2. A note at the footer of the definition page indicates this convention:

  Also, CantoDict uses a unique "asterisk (*)" convention, to show readings such as jyu4*2. For more information please see CantoDict Tone Conventions.

Addendum: Since you mentioned sandhi, I just wanted to note that Cantonese changed tones is different from tone sandhi. This previous answer explains in further detail: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/9599/166


Are there poems in Chinese that rhyme? I've mostly read classical poems from guys such as 李白 and 杜甫, very nice in their own way, but it made me wonder if there is some form of poetry with rhymes in Chinese.

It would probably be more difficult to write such poems, due to the lack of available syllables, but possible.

Does anyone know of rhyming Chinese poetry?

This question really surprises me. Since you mentioned 李白 and 杜甫, clearly you were talking about classical Chinese poetry. Classical Chinese poetry is so into rhymes and rhythms that it is almost unhealthy. There are volumes of books written on rhymes and rhythms of classical Chinese poetry. Asking 'Are there poems in Chinese that rhyme?' is like asking 'Does Facebook have users?' or 'Does Bill Gates have money?'

Many ancient poems do not rhyme today because Chinese pronunciation has undergone many changes over time. They did all rhyme at the time written.

Here is an example of a poem in which every sentence rhymes. This kind of poem has a special name called 柏梁体. This poem I'm quoting rhyme at the end of every sentence even today:

曹丕《燕歌行》

秋风萧瑟天气凉，
草木摇落露为霜。
群燕辞归鹄南翔，
念君客游多思肠。
慊慊思归恋故乡，
君何淹留寄他方？
贱妾茕茕守空房，
忧来思君不敢忘，
不觉泪下沾衣裳。
援琴鸣弦发清商，
短歌微吟不能长。
明月皎皎照我床，
星汉西流夜未央。
牵牛织女遥相望，
尔独何辜限河梁。


或?是: What could the mysterious word be 然后让更多的德国人或者是欧洲人认识这个琵琶。
So I listened to a speech from a high performance 琵琶 player in Germany.  I think I pinned down this sentence completely except this 或者是.   In these three words, I am pretty sure about 或是.  But 者 is the one that I could not hear clearly.
What could that word be?

yes, it is 或者是.
From the meaning, 或 alone is alright here. 或者 and 或 means the same in Chinese.
Sometimes the choice between 或者 and 或 is related to the rhythm of sentence.

然後讓更多的德國人[pause here]或者是歐洲人[pause here]認識這個琵琶。

Both 更多的德國人 and 或者是歐洲人 are with six characters/syllables.
Another reason is a historical one. 或者 is commonly used in Classical Chinese as the start of a short sentence (complete or incomplete in English sense). 「或者是歐洲人」is treated as a short sentence.
If you want to dig a little bit deeper about 者, here is my explanation.
者 can accept anything before it, any word, any phrase. It is a marker referring to anything prepended to it.  You might perceive it as "one that". 或者 is "one that is alternative" or "alternative one" and it simply means "or".


What does this phrase mean: 请回复我结果? What does this phrase mean:

  请回复我结果

看起来提问者懂中文，那我就先中文答吧：这是在香港，台湾地区口语用的比较多的间接宾语后置用法，普通话一般没有这样的用法

this kind of usage is common in Cantonese, but not in mandarin(common usage in the  Mainkind China ). “请回复我结果” is the same as "请把结果告诉我", that is "please tell me the result" in English. I think it is a kind of postposition of indirect object in cantonese, Putonghua doesn't have this


Using measure words for "one [thing]" I came across this sentence:

一人说一句。
Yī rén shuō yī jù.
Each person say one sentence.

There are no measure words after either of the 一's. Is it a rule that you don't have to use measure words for singular items?

The full version is 一个人说一句话. 句 is a measure word here. 一人说一句 follows a speaking cadence. It can also be briefed as 一人一句 colloquially when context is clear(we know the intended action is - 说). The purpose of this omission is to make it follow a kind of speaking pattern '一人' 说 '一句'. Another example is 一日一字(a character, a day) which is the title of a TV program in the long past.

We don't usually omit 个 in a full sentence especially in writing. E.g. 一个人的日子不好过. You would probably only see 一人的日子不好过 in a poet or lyrics.

It's interesting to know that 一 xxx 一 xxx is a pattern to express an idea briefly. E.g. 一人一个，一人一句，一人一本，一日一练，一天一根，etc.

Hope this could help.


Is there any difference between 冰淇淋 and 冰激凌 In what contexts are both used to mean ice-cream? Is one used in more formal occasions?

冰激凌 is the translation in Mainland China.
冰淇淋 is used in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Hong Konger also call ice-cream as 雪糕.


What semantic field underlies 經? [ Wiktionary : ] 經  [...]

  classic works, scripture, canon
  pass through
  warp (as in "warp and weft")
  (Chinese medicine) energy channels of the body
  (geography) longitude
  manage, deal/engage in
  stand, bear, endure
  constant, regular
  a result or, through, after

I  tried to unite the 9 definitions above by similarity in meaning into as few sets as possible, but what underlying semantic field connects, conciliates, and unites the 4 different sets below?

Set I: 1.   classic works, scripture, canon

Set II: 2. pass through
3. warp (as in "warp and weft")       [because the weaver must PASS the weaving material
                                                          THROUGH the warp and weft]
4. (Chinese medicine) energy channels of the body
9. a result or, through, after

Set III: 5.    (geography) longitude

Set IV: 6. manage, deal/engage in
7. stand, bear, endure
8. constant, regular

The earliest documented meaning of 经 is "to weave". It does not mean that in modern Chinese, but it can still mean warp.
In weaving, warp is the name for the threads that are fixed into the weaving frame, where fabric is created by pushing the weft through horizontally.

From the meaning weave, it expanded towards the verbal meanings it has today:

To order or operate as in the modern words 经营 or 经理
To pass through or experience as in the modern words 经历 or 经过. From here it expanded to mean constant, regular as in 经常, and things that are constant like the 经书 (canonical scriptures).

From the meaning warp, 经 expanded to mean "vertical" lines along certain things, such as the "energy channels" in a human body or the longitudinal lines on planet earth.

The meaning "canonical scriptures" can also be derived from the warp meaning, because these are the books that span "vertically" through time, whereas later commentaries are woven through "horizontally".

So the underlying image is always that of a weaving frame. But some of the modern / later meanings have moved very far from that original meaning. I don't think there is one semantic field that comfortably contains all of 经's various meanings.


New idiom related to surveillance: People do things, the sky watches I'm trying to find information (including the original Chinese) on an idiom that seems to be gaining popularity recently, related to surveillance (unsure whether this is a traditional phrase or not). In English, it is translated roughly as "People do things, the sky watches".
My guess is that this is of the form 人[verb]天[verb] and that I just need to figure out one or the other and then will be able to search and find the full phrase.
I've tried a few guesses for the translation of "watch", including 见，视，观，to no avail (so, I'm searching for '"the sky watches" 天视' for instance, including both characters and English words).
If anyone happens to know the phrase I'm referring to, all I'm really looking for is a translation, but ideally also some background information.
Recommendations for sites that discuss Chinese slang are also very welcome (chinaSmack seems different from when I was last there several years ago).

It might be:

人在做天在看
the people do, the Sky (God?) watches

or a more fluent translation

the Sky watches what the people do

The usage I'm aware of, in colloquial speech, is to describe some sort of karma, or payback from destiny if you do bad things and hope to get away with it.
For example:

You steal your friend's money
They suspect of you but can't prove it
They confront you about that
You deny everything
They say 人在做天在看

It's like, "what goes around comes around" in English.


Why would 人 be used for names? I've seen 人 used as a character in multiple names.

李劼人 is an example of a fairly well known person with the character 人 in his name.

It seems slightly jarring that 人 - person would be a feature of a name, I'm guessing there is more to it - but I've not been able to find a convincing answer online yet.

Any ideas?

Having 人 in the name is not uncommon, especially the first character of the first name

  "人 (X) " = 人中之(X) "  = (X) among man

Examples:

苗人鳳 - phoenix among man

狄人傑 - elite among man

張人龍 - dragon among man

蒒人貴 - noble among man

聶人王 - king among man

It is less common to have 人 in the second character of a first name,  because 人 is pronounced the same as '仁', which is a far more popular second character in first name

Many people might not want their child to have to correct people all the time by telling them it is '人' not '仁' in his name

But it is not unreasonable to use 人 as the second character of a first name

  (X)人 = (X)之人 = 'a man who (X)'

Examples:

張學人 - a man who learns

陳正人 - a man who is just

陸敬人 - a man who is respectful

Of course, 張學人, 陳正人 and 陸敬人 might have to tell people all the time that their names are not 張學仁, 陳正仁 and 陸敬仁 (all legitimate names)


How do you translate the word 'flight' in the context of a golf ball? I am trying to describe that the design of a golf ball gives it a good flight (not necessarily the same as distance).

This is an article that describes the basics of ball flight in golf. It makes me think that flight might not be the word to describe this but maybe trajectory or something similiar. But I am not a golf player and I don't really know the terminology in Chinese

I guess a golf ball design that produces good flight means that it is less prone to producing bad flight or trajectory.

flight is not particular to golf. In your context you can use 飞行路线 (flight line) or simply 飞行 (flight). Some examples:

现在考虑球离手后的飞行 - Now consider the flight of the ball after it leaves the thrower's hand.
他可能是如此充满焦虑地处于击球手的位置，以致于无法挥动球棒，但是在球的飞行时刻，他被彻底地沉浸于那一刻。 - One could be at the batter's plate so filled with anxiety that one couldn't swing the bat, but usually in the moment of the ball's flight, one is wholly absorbed and present to the moment
你相对球的飞行路线的移动角度可以帮助你及时碰到球,第2步,使身体形成更强力的击球,第3步,帮助你以简单的方式获得力量,而不是你习惯的低效的方式,第4步. - The angle of your movement relative to the ball's flight line helps you reach the ball on time, Step2, structure the body for a strong hit, Step3, and helps you develop power in a simple manner and not in one you're used to that is counterproductive to success, Step4.


Using 老头 / 老头子 when speaking to others I'm trying to get some clarification on whether or not it is impolite to use 老头 / 老头子  when speaking outside a group of friends when referring to a third party.

From my understanding 老头 is quite casual and I am interested to know if using this to describe someone's elder when also talking to another person who is also my elder, it may sound condescending?

Maybe I am completely off the mark because I understand that something 老王 is fine when referring to an elder and the use of "老" here is not a problem.

If this is somewhat impolite, is there a better word I can use similar to 老太太 to describe an older male?

Example sentence:

我今天看到一个老头在喂鸽子

The counterpart of 老太太 could be 老先生. It has a sense of showing respect. You can also say 老奶奶 (female) and 老爷爷 (male), which is more neutral.

Personally I feel 老头 is impolite, especially when combined with "一个" as in "一个老头". I'd rather use 老人 to say 我今天看到一个老人在喂鸽子, of course, this doesn't imply the gender of the old person.

老头子 is more commonly found in how an old woman calls her husband... Depending on the context it could have positive or negative connotation.


What software can correct pronunciation? What software is available which can record my voice and warn me about problems with my pronunciation and tones?

Rossetta Stone has that feature standard. I've not used it, but I have friends who have with great success. Unless you get the tone correct, the software doesn't let you advance to the next word. It's pretty impressive.

Don't know of any free options, though.


How do I join more than one adjective together? I've seen "敦厚老实", where the two adjectives are simply put together, but I've also seen things like "x而x", "x又x" and "又x又x".

What do these mean, are there any other ways， and which are the most common?

Thanks

(1.) In [(X) 而 (Y)] , "而" = "and" in English

Examples:

(快)而(準) = (quick) and (accurate)

(強)而(有力)=(strong) and (forceful)

(簡)而(清)= (simple) and (clear)

(2.) The [又(X)又(Y)] structure functions like [(X) and (Y)] in English,

When (X) and (Y) are adjectives, the subject is being (X)and (Y) at the same time.

Examples:

又(快)又(準) = (fast) and (accurate)

又(強)又(有力)=(strong) and (forceful)

又(簡單)又(清楚)= (simple) and (clear)

When (X) and (Y) are verbs, the two actions could happen at the same time or one following the other.

Example:

又(哭)又(笑) = (crying) and (laughing)

又(打)又(鬧) = (punching) and (yelling)

(3.) [(X)又(Y)] is just [又(X)(又)(Y) ] omitted the first 又

In this form, (X) and (Y) are usually two characters words. Since [(X) 而 (Y)] is similar but much more popular, [(X)又(Y)] is kind of redundant,  not many people would use it.

  I've seen "敦厚老实", where the two adjectives are simply put together

In this form, both adjectives have to be two characters words.

Example:

快捷準確 (fast and accurate)

簡單清楚 (simple and clear)

強勁有力 (strong and forceful)

** You can use multiple four characters adjective clauses on one subject

Example:

他的演說 簡單清楚, 強勁有力 ( his speech is simple and clear, strong and forceful)


written characters: yuē vs rì I have some troubles in distinguishing written characters 曰 yuē (to speak) and 日 rì (sun). Although they singularly look different on computers (maybe yuē look a bit wider, while rì is taller), I find it almost impossible to distinguish them when they appear in composite characters, or even alone in handwritten texts. Is there some difference I cannot catch that I should pay attention to? Do their writing differ in stroke order?
Thanks!

As pointed out in some answers and comments, there are other sets of characters that look very similar. Among them: 口 kǒu (mouth) and 囗 wéi (enclosure); 人 rén (person) and 入 rù (to enter), 千 qiān (thousand) and 干 gān (stem), 已    yǐ (stop) and 己 jǐ (self)

I was secretly expecting this question. :)

In handwritten and calligraphic realization, these characters can be tough to distinguish, although the context will help you a lot.

In printed text, the middle 横 héng stroke in 曰 is not touching the right side of the character, in 日 the middle stroke is entirely through, at least in most fonts. If not, it is only the width of the character that can give you a clue and the context, of course.

Needless to say, 曰 is not very common today, it is mostly used in Confucian text, like 子曰, "The Master said...". So most of the time you see these characters in modern texts, chances are it is 日 and not 曰.

The stroke order is the same.


What's written on the pig? Hello! Could you please translate those writings on my pig.

It reads 相知永伴

相知 means knowing each other very well.

永伴 means always together.


Where to put 从头到尾 in a sentence? 我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍。

我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍。

Which of the two sentences above is more idiomatic?

1.我 [从头到尾] 把他的电影看了一遍。

2.我把他的电影 [从头到尾] 看了一遍。

Both are idiomatic.
[从头到尾] is an adverbial phrase that can be placed before or after the object [他的电影]. Just like the two sentences above.
In either case, the adverbial phrase must be placed before the verb phrase [看了一遍]
#1 place the adverbial phrase before the object. It emphasizes the adverbial phrase [从头到尾](from start to finish) -- What do you do from start to finish?
#2 place the object before the adverbial phrase. It emphasizes the object [他的电影] (his movies) -- What do you do to his movies?


How do you use translate “You can't miss this opportunity"? So, I'm trying to figure out how to encourage someone to take a risk/try something new in Chinese. In English we often use the phrase "miss an opportunity" as in "You can't miss this opportunity!". But how would that translate directly into chinese?

For example, could I say
"我不能错过这个机会哦！“

That would mean: I would not miss this opportunity.

Change the 我 to a 你, and remove the 哦.

This will result in: "你不能错过这个机会"


Missing someone (but not romantic) Say I have a friend that I like a lot and haven't seen in a while.

Is it possible to say "I miss you" without any risk of a romantic interpretation?

我想念你 or 我想你 ?

Maybe something more like "I hope we meet again" but still that might be interpreted the wrong way.

I would say you should be careful of using 我想念你 or 我想你 , especially to a opposite gender. Usually, we say 我想念你 or 我想你 jokingly to avoid the confusion, except saying it to your 'real honey'.

But if you put 我们都很想（念）你， meaning you are missed among all of our friends, that would get you out of the confusion.


Trying to find the meaning of this tattoo my friend got it years ago and is  supposed to be his initials in chinese.. can you tell me if this is correct

女 (Nǚ) means:
(noun) female; woman; girl; daughter; frail

手 (Shǒu) means:
(noun) hand; clutch
(verb) hold; have in one's hand
(adjective) handy

女手: female's hand; female's writing


Database of Chinese translations of given names? Is there a comprehensive/official list of Chinese transliterations of given names (i.e. first names)? I know that I can transliterate on my own, but such a database is useful because:

I can look up common transliterations
I can be aware of historical precedents (e.g. official transliteration of names of famous people)
I can see cases where there is more than one common way to transliterate (perhaps a way that I had not thought of before)

Is there a database of Chinese transliteration of names? The database of names should ideally cover common Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Indian, and European given names. The database should also be easily parsed by computer software.

e.g.

Abdullah 阿卜杜拉
Abraham 亞伯拉罕
Ada 阿達
Adelardo 阿德拉多
Aditya 阿蒂塔
Adolphe 阿道夫
Adrien 阿德里安
...

the national academy fro educational research (國家教育研究院) of taiwan, maintained the bilingual data, several of these database are name related, and all of them are free to download

學術名詞下載

entries started with “外國學者人名譯名” are your targets :) ranged from turkish, japanese, korean to italian and german.

if you want a shortcut, why foreign names was transliterated to particular chinese names, read the “?漢譯音參考表”, “?” is the original language. eg:

新1081017英漢譯音參考表20191017.pdf

德漢譯音參考表(170516修正).doc

have fun :)


Can 丢 refer to people? I'm looking for the right word to use in the situation where you are looking after a child and they wander off. In English I would say "I lost my child!"

Is 丢 the proper word? Google wants to say "我失去了我的孩子", but my dictionary indicates that 失去 means more like bereavement.  Zhongwen.com  has "迷路" for 'to be lost' but I think that is what the child would say.

丢

KEY

  6 {colloquial} (of a person, child, etc. that went missing) have disappeared, gotten lost

ex.:

我们的孩子丢了
发现孩子丢了，第一时间并不是去报警
公安刑侦局打拐办主任：孩子丢了要立刻报警
梦见孩子丢了，是什么意思？


What does 即 mean in ...Google在ICML文中描述的非常清晰，即在每次SGD时...? According to the top answer over 知乎 on the question 深度学习中 Batch Normalization为什么效果好？:

  顾名思义，batch normalization嘛，就是“批规范化”咯。Google在ICML文中描述的非常清晰，即在每次SGD时，通过mini-batch来对相应的activation做规范化操作，使得结果（输出信号各个维度）的均值为0，方差为1.

What does the 即 mean? Does this function as be? In this case, is it necessary to use 即, instead of 在每次SGD时, and also why is 即 preferred to other words that mean be, such as 是，为, etc...?

即 itself can mean "equal".  For example: '五人即一伍' (Five men equal one unit)

~ you can replace 即 (equal) with 為(be), For example:  '五人為一伍' (Five men is one unit)

But 即 can be short for 即是 (namely; that is to say; to be specific)

Example:

[1. 軍隊將士兵分伍] [2. 即] [3.每五人組成一個單位]

[1. Amy divides soldiers into 伍] [2. to be specific ] [3. Every five people become one unit]

[1. general statement] [2. to be specific] [3. detail description]


Correct pinyin and pronunciation for 太阳 What is the correct pinyin and pronunciation for 太阳?

Most dictionaries put it as: tai4 yang2, but I noticed cc-cedict uses tai4 yang5. There is also a discussion in the change log around colloquial and correct pronunciation. They reference another discussion here which also talks about this, though the references here aren't what I'd call necessarily respected.

So wondering what people's thoughts are here? In additon are there any respected sources for one way vs another for what is the correct pinyin and pronunciation? I'm talking "普通话" specifically.

太阳 Tàiyáng, Sun: pronounced "Tie Yang"

太 Tài：highest; greatest

阳　yáng：sun

You may find some reference yáng as 5th tone (轻声 qīngshēng) because it's easier to pronounce in spoken Chinese. The character 阳 yáng by itself is always 2nd tone.


How to deal with elasticity/flexibility in HSK vocabulary? I'll be concise for those knowledgeable, and refer to brief and basic bibliography for those who are not.

The Chinese elasticity/flexibility is a lexical property of Chinese terms, two sides of the same coin, which must be reflected in the very same entry for a certain lemma.

Therefore, for example the fifth version of the prestigious XDHYCD (Xiandai Hanyu Cidian) applies mutual annotations in the respective entries (however, this criterion is not enough for a comprehensive treatment), so that the entry for 煤 mei ‘coal’ reads "noun, … also called 煤炭 mei-tan ‘coal-charcoal’", and the entry for 煤炭 meitan ‘coal-charcoal’ is annotated as "noun, 煤 mei ‘coal’".

Furthermore, it would improve greatly studying resources to add the relationship between such "elasticity" and the surviving morphemes in truncated abbreviations and similar phenomena, such as what Prof. Ceccagno coined "metacompounds". For example, the apparent surviving morphemes that appear in 卫视 'satellite T.V.' are at least the bound short version of the disyllabic elastic words 卫星 'satellite' and 电视 'television'.

Please, before commenting, read the following brief article (and if necessary further references within it); if you still have any questions, I'll be glad to try and answer them.

Finally, elasticity from Xiandai Hanyu Cidian 2005 has been tabulated in the following open access thesis.

I hope an enriching discussion ensues for this critical lexicographical and pedagogic issue.

One of the difficulties for learners is becoming familiar with when to use the short and when to use the long form. In most cases, at least for beginner/intermediate levels, my impression is the rule “use the long form, not the short form” is generally a good heuristic. I think most students learn this by experience.

Let’s take a basic, concrete example: 学/学习.

Using the ABC English-Chinese Dictionary as reference we have the following for 学:

  Verb:

  1: study; learn;

  学文化 xue2wen2hua4 learn to read and write

  2: imitate;mimic

  Bound form:

  1: learning; knowledge in 学问

  2: subject of study; branch of learning in 学科

  3: school; college in 学校,大学

It probably would indeed be better if the above entry were completed by adding “Long form: 学习” to the “Verb: 1 Study…” section. But generally students are taught the long form, 学习, first and so learn the short form at the same time. So I don’t think it’s a critical issue for people learning the language, but perhaps it would be helpful for some students to have some explanation.

The only other usage I can think  of (I’m about B1/B2 level) for the short form is

学到老，学不了 / 活到老，学到老。

It’s not a vital thing to be able to say… But still, it’s good to be able to understand it.

So, my take on this is that it’s an interesting notion for linguists, but not a vital concept that has to be explained to all students of the language.


What can be included in between a separable verb? I only know that a verb, which is made up of a verb and object, can be separated and further structures can be put between.
For instance: 发愁 , wherein 发 is the verb and 愁 is the object, can be separated and filled with an aspect particle and/or measure word.
-发了愁 (aspect particle)
-发个愁 (general measure word)
-发过四次愁 (aspect particle and measure word for occurences)
What else may be placed in between?

Here is what AllSetLearning has to say about separable verbs:

  ...until you understand which verbs are separable verbs and how they
  work, you'll forever be making mistakes with these verbs, even in very
  basic sentences.

BTW I think it is a quite decent summary.

Besides 了, 着, 过, and measure words, you can put other things in between if the verb is not "rigid".

Some separable verbs are more rigid than others. For example: 发愁, 散步, 聊天, 分手, etc. Notice that the meaning only emerges when the two characters combined together. If you separate them as verb + object it just look weird.

Less rigid cases include 睡觉, 吃饭, 撒谎, etc. In these cases the verb and noun can be separately used with no problem, so you can say 我睡了一个美美的大觉, or 他撒了一个神仙来了都遮不住的谎.


What is the difference between 对不起, 请问, 不好意思, and 抱歉 to express "excuse me" or "sorry"? I always wonder whether there is any difference between these four terms to say "excuse me" or "sorry". The difference between 对不起 and 不好意思 is explained in this question, but I'm not sure about the differences when you add more similar words into the mix.

The situation I want to ask about is:

Saying "Excuse me" to ask a person on the street for a direction or call a waiter in cafe.
Saying "Sorry" when I want to apologize for something that I made a mistake on.

In these use cases, what is the main difference of these words? I know 请问 doesn't have the "sorry" meaning, though...

对不起 is the phrase for apologizing for anything, for generally saying sorry. This is what you would normally say in situation 2.

请问 means "may I ask...?"; it is used to introduce a question and not to apologize for anything. You can use this when asking for direction (situation 1). But note: because of what it means, it must be followed by a question (otherwise it sounds incomplete). Therefore you would not use it just to attract a waiter's attention – although once you have his attention you can use it to ask whether they have anything you particularly want.

不好意思 indicates that the speaker is humbly embarrassed about something; it is used e.g. to politely refuse a gift. Basically it's used when the speaker doesn't want to appear to be taking advantage of the other person's hospitality or goodwill.

抱歉 is less common than the others; it is like 对不起 but more formal.


Difference between 須要 vs 需要 and 嘗試 vs 試試看? 1) What's the difference between 須要 and 需要? Are they interchangeable?

2) This question illustrates the differences among 嘗試，試圖， and 企圖, but omits 試試看. Can someone explain how 試試看 differs from 嘗試?

'須要' (need to) applies to 'verb' e.g. '須要付錢' (need to pay)

'需要' (need) applies to 'noun' e.g. '需要金錢' (need money)

'試試看 means 'try and see' e.g. '試試看不付账单' (try not to pay the bill and see); '加些糖試試看' (try add some sugar and see)

If you remove 看 and write '試試' then it would become reduplication of '試' (try/ test) ; 試試 = 'slightly try/ test a little '

'嘗試' means  'to try (one's hand at)' As stated in the other question.


Difference between 喜乐 and 快乐？ Dictionaries lead me to understand 快乐 as happy. Whereas 喜乐 as delighted, happiness, joy. In English joy denotes a stronger, deeper emotion. Is the difference in meanings of 快乐 and 喜乐 great enough to express the same contrast?

I think what you mean is 喜悦 not 喜乐 though 乐 can also be pronounced as yuè . This is how I differentiate the two:

喜悦(xǐ yuè) is a passionate feeling of joy. This is usually
expressed in the form of a smile.
快乐(kuài lè) is a pleasant emotional response due to an external
stimuli. This is usually expressed in the form of laughter.

快乐 is more obvious than 喜悦.


Using SHI4 for noun and adjective, exceptional rules I have noted the confusion for using "SHI4" and too struggle to grasp the difference.

Common rule for learners is that Noun + Adjective is never linked with "SHI4". As in "He is tall" etc.

However, I have also read (though only in one resource) that for facts and undisputable truth, such as colors, we do need to use "SHI4".

In a comment on a related question here, the author mentiones that for comments about subject/topic, this is commonly used. But isnt it always a comment?

Which is the reason then for "Sky is blue" being translayed with "SHI4" instead of "HEN3". Could it the be translated that way?

It is much easier if you know how your own mother language works, instead of trying to understand "grammar logic" of foreign language with your own understanding.

Let's look at some example :

the sky [is] blue ：天空[是]蓝(色)的
the sky [is] crystal blue : 天空是透蓝的
The air [is] bad : 空气[很]差/坏
he [is] bad : 他[很]坏.  他[是]个坏人. 他[很]差劲
he [is] naughty : 他[很]顽皮
he [is] (a) bad guy : 他[是] (个) 坏蛋/坏人

If you think the confusion is cause by mandarin connector, it is half true.

I.e., the sentence The air is bad carry out (ambiguous) relative comparison . Mandarin use 很 to explicit brought out relative comparison attributes.

So He is tall , is relative. It carry out additional comparison message e.g. "He is tall, compare to his sibling".  他很高，和他兄弟姐妹比较的话。

是 used for affirmative, or agree

He is (a) USA citizen 他是(个)美国人
His lucky charm is a penguin 他的幸运物是只企鹅

Now ，I think you shouldn't have trouble differentiate this :

他的皮肤很黑

他的皮肤是黑色的

If you use both affirmative 是 and 很, it just emphasize 很, nothing conclusive, but just agree others about something.

最近生意是很差 （Recently, the business is really bad )
(well, the business is really bad, last time one used to make $1000 a day, now only take home $990 a day, really bad.)

So in a conversation :

Lee : The business is bad
李 ： 生意很差
Business partner : Yupe, the business is bad， but it is not doom
生意伙伴 ：生意是很差, 不过还没那么坏

In short, you use 是 if agree on another person relative statement.
X : he is tall    他很高
Y : yes, he is really tall compare to his sibling,  是呀， 他是很高, 和他家的兄弟姐妹比较的话。

However, sometime you will prefer to use really 真的 ， as agreement or emphasize your statement.

He is really tall , 他真的很高


Particle to express pride or accomplishment / 自豪感的助词 What is the way to emphasize personal pride or accomplishment in Chinese without sounding arrogant -- is there are a particle for this to put at the end of the sentence? For example:

I just had a child!
I just bought a house!

You could use 啦 with the exclamation mark at the end of a sentence.

For instance:

I just had a child!

  我有孩子啦！

or

  我的孩子出生啦！

I just bought a house!

  我买房子啦！


What exactly does 服侍我大脚 means? Chinese is my native language but this is the first time I heard about this term.  What does it means?  It's used in a sentence as follow:

我的三个小美人，不要怕，只要你们乖乖听话，用心服侍我大脚，有你们享得福

Does it actually means to take good cares of his feet (like literally)?

http://www.rongshuxia.com/chapter/bookid-5909417-chapterid-77641.html

In this context, it literally means that the speaker wants three cats to stroke his feet. Perhaps he is barefoot, and it would feel great to have smooth cat fur caressing the feet.


Are there any two chinese words which can be used interchangeably? I have been studying Chinese for a while, and what I find interesting is that no 2 words have exactly the same definitions.

For example, 表扬 and 称赞 have almost the same meaning, but there will always be some subtle differences in meaning, which means they cannot be used interchangeably.

Are there any two chinese words Non-Nouns with exactly the same meaning, such that they can be used interchangeably?

Many Chinese words contain multiple meanings, in certain context, two different words that share an overlap meaning can be used interchangeably
Example:

正確 : accurate; correct

凖確 : accurate; exact; precise; spot on

Interchangeable case:

正確答案 = correct answer; accurate answer
凖確答案 = accurate answer
(both mean the same)

non-interchangeable case:

凖確射擊 = accurate shooting (accurately hit the target)
正確射擊 = correct shooting (shooting in a correct form)

More example:

教 : 1. (v) teach; instruct; educate; 2.(v) [colloquial] cause; make

授 : 1. (v) confer; award; give; grant; 2. (v) teach; instruct; lecture

Interchangeable case:

教他武功 = teach him martial art
授他武功 = teach him martial art
(both mean the same)
Although they are interchangeable when meaning 'teach' , 教 is more colloquial, 授 is more literary

non-interchangeable case:

教人難受 = cause people to feel bad (cannot be changed to 授人難受)
授以重任 = give important task (cannot be changed to 教以重任)


How to correctly order the words 张先生 男朋友 卖 妹妹 书 那个人 的 是 的? This is a question from an exercise book that I'm currently working through, to rearrange the given words into the correct order. I believe the format is along the lines of "The person who was [doing a thing] is [a specific person]", but I'm not sure because I'm not too familiar with this construct.

The words are:

  张先生 男朋友 卖 妹妹 书 那个人 的 是 的

I believe the correct order should be:

  卖书的那个人是张先生妹妹的男朋友

Is this correct?

EDIT

So far two submissions, but no confirmation. Any native speakers like to weigh in?

I agree with your answer - it makes sense and reads well. I'm a native speaker, btw.

Although 张先生是卖书那个人的妹妹的男朋友 works too, I still prefer your order :)


Hakka song "kam-thung sim": character approximation and translation required for a part Background:

Searching for songs as exercises of translation from Chinese, I came across kam-thung sim, the Hakka version of 感动天感动地. Unfortunately, there were no characters (well, except for those that are the mandarin original placed with Karaoke lighting over the video of the Hakka song, most inappropriate), so I commented on the video (Mick Gorro is my name there) and Va Vang replied, posting the following characters:

  一開始偭到，
      愛情本等就恁容易
      所以冇真真想起
      恁樣放落心去
      結果［有］一斷心
      []看到汝搭撈佢
      正識到原來愛情
      毋系講愛就得矣

      感動天感動地
      做麽感動不到汝
      明明愛情就冇結果
      做麽呃死死等到老
      感動天感動地
      做麽感動不到汝
      希望自家想作一下
      結果騙徠儕

As you can see, I added a couple to match the song. I couldn't really understand this, so I understood what I could and let this go, up till I remembered about it after being added to the Facebook Hakka:Verse group. I posted on it, and we came to the following spelling:

  一開始涯緬著
      愛情本等就恁容易
      所以涯無真真想起
      恁樣放落心去
      結果涯有一斷心
      涯看著汝佮倒佢
      涯正識著原來愛情
      毋系講愛就得矣

      涯感動天感動地
      做麽感動毋著汝
      明明愛情就無結果
      做麽死死等到老
      涯感動天感動地
      做麽感動毋著汝
      希望自家曉做一下
      結時涯騙單儕

      涯所毋愛翻？去想汝
      試著雅？毋愛翻來同去
      ？？？單儕在阿里
      每日？？偏偏？毋著汝

Forget the last part for the moment. This translates to:

  At the start I thought
      Love is originally very easy
      So I don't really remember
      How [I] put [you] in [my] heart
      As a result I have a broken heart
      [And] I see you going back to him
      I've just found out love
      Is not like just saying I love you is fine

      I move heaven and move earth,
      Why can I not move you?
      It's clear that love [will] have no result
      Why (si-si ten to lo = sixintadi perhaps?)
      I move heaven and move earth,
      Why can I not move you?
      Hoping I would do something
      I ended up deceiving myself

I'm not too sure about the translation of 结时 as "in the end" (whence "I ended up deceiving"), and above all 死死等到老 is most uncertain, but this is all just for completeness. The question here is about the extra bit. Va Vang completely failed to provide characters, so I tried transcribing the sounds, getting:

  Ngai sho m ai fan sai hit shiong ngi
      Shi dao nga shi m oi fan lai tong hi
      Am ting e kan sat s toi a li
      Mui nyit mei shi pien pien vs tou n do ngi

Guessing that:

hit was actually hi;
sho and shiong were phonetic variants of so and siong;
ai was supposed to be oi;
shi dao was chi to, as o->ao or au is a common variation and t->d is an effect of singing, and shi might have been chi with me not hearing the initial plosive onset;
sat s toi was actually sa tshoi, with the tsh being misheard as t s t, and being the initial of choi, at, and sa being the end of tan-sa, alone;
vs tou n do ngi was a bad mishearing of ng co ng to nyi.

I reached the following characters:

  涯所毋愛翻？去想汝
      試著雅？毋愛翻來同去
      ？？？單儕在阿里
      每日？？偏偏(？毋著汝)->毋做毋到汝

I won't provide a translation as holes are abundant. I just observe that 涯＝我，毋＝不，爱＝要，翻＝再次，汝＝你，试着＝试到，单侪＝孤单，阿里＝这里，毋做毋到汝 is a very wild and potentially meaningless guess which would mean 不做不到你。

Question:

With all that, the question is the following: what does that part say? How do I spell it in characters? How do I pronounce it?

Any corrections on the translation of the rest is very welcome, and a full transliteration with tones is worth a +1 :).

Little extra:
Here's the facebook post:

  https://m.facebook.com/groups/158381100868371?view=permalink&id=854070744632733

結時涯騙單儕 mean 都是我騙自己 in Chinese. It can be translated like "just deceiving myself". 結時 is just Hakka tone for speak out, not really a word in this song. You can translate the Chinese word that sentence in the YouTube video. That Chinese sentence can translate nearly
But 做麽死死等到老 is correct, not 卻還死心塌地. 做麽死死等到老 means 就這麼死死等到老. It can be translated like "waiting you persist until the end"

That last part that Hakka pinyin is..
"老豆七嘎mu'ooei勾敻里
試懂呀西雅翻來同起
萬其一單色在阿里
每日惦惦敻刀里"

That song is sung like 粵語 (Cantonese) a little bit. Maybe it's different how they speak Hakka in different countries.


What is a "functional drink" 机能饮料? I spotted this at the 物美 supermarket on 四道口 in Beijing.

(Imgur version.)

Question: What is a "functional drink" 机能饮料?

The translation seems close to correct:

机能 = "function"
饮料 = "drink"

My best guess is that it's a drink suitable for a "function", e.g., a wedding banquet.  But I don't think 机能 has that meaning (it'd be 活动 = "activity").

More commonly known as 機能性飲料, these kinds of "fad" drinks are sold to convey a kind of health benefit, commonly advertised as increasing organ (heart, pancreas, eyes, ...) function. Think herbal or vitamin drinks.


What are the different parts of speech of 这么? 这么 is listed in the dictionary as a pronoun.
她这么漂亮！
今天这么热。
这张桌子原来就这么放的。
有些人不是这么想。
他们必须这么说。
Is 这么 in all these sentences a pronoun? Can 这么 be an adverb too?

No, it's not always a pronoun. "这么/那么" can be an adverb, and you already gave the examples.
她这么漂亮！she is SO beautiful! （adverb）
今天这么热。Today is SO hot. (adverb)
这张桌子原来就这么放的。The desk was put in this way (pronoun)
有些人不是这么想。Some people doesn't think about it this way (pronoun)
他们必须这么说。They have to say that (pronoun)


如果真的有 what does this mean? My friend who learns chinese sent me this. The google translator says that it means "if there".. Is this the right translation? Because to me, i think that five chinese characters should mean something more than just 'if there'

It depends on the context of your conversation, but by literal translation it means 'if there really is', 如果 meaning if, 真的 meaning real/really, 有 meaning is/has/exists. In general you can understand it as 'if it really happens/exists/does' or 'if it happens for real'.


When writing, do chinese people rotate the page to write more easily? I was taught to write in school (USA) by rotating the page about 15-30 degrees to get a more natural stroke. I actually find it difficult to write with the page completely square to my body.

I've been practicing Chinese characters off and on for years, and just today realized that I've been keep thing page square to myself, and that it's always felt a bit awkward, especially horizontal strokes. Today for the first time I decided to rotate the page slightly and it immediately felt more natural and efficient.

I was wondering if rotating the page is something that Chinese people do or are taught to do, or not.

I think I probably kept the page square because it helps me see the characters better. It was initially disorienting to rotate the page, but I'm going to experiment for a while to see if this can increase my comfort, and efficiency.

Thoughts?

I wasn't taught this in schools in China! I think in elementary school, the suggested practice is to keep everything square and sit with straight back for the sake of good eyesight and posture.

Turning paper is more of a personal habit I reckon.

Just out of curiousity do you turn your head a bit when you write on turned paper as well?


What does 最早将于 mean in 最早将于本周二提起联邦诉讼? I don't understand 最早将于 in the following snippet:

在很多业内人士看来，诉讼将是字节跳动创始人张一鸣的唯一选择。而媒体消息称，在这场封杀中，TikTok发起了首次反击，最早将于本周二提起联邦诉讼，挑战特朗普在美国封禁该视频共享服务的行政命令。
风暴中的张一鸣：外界骂他软弱 员工赞他理性, 11 August 2020.

Clearly 最早 means "earliest", but I don't understand 将于 at all.

[My translation:] According to many people in the industry, a lawsuit is ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming's only choice.  And media information states, under this shut-out, Tiktok launched the first counterattack: 最早将于 this Tuesday raised a federal lawsuit, challenging Trump's executive order, a USA-wide ban on the aforementioned video sharing service.

Question: What does 最早将于 mean in the above snippet?

(TikTok)最早将于本周二提起联邦诉讼.
(TikTok) will file a federal lawsuit as early as this Tuesday.

"File a federal lawsuit" means "提起联邦诉讼", so "最早将于本周二" means "will... as early as this Tuesday".
结构是: will do sth. as early as...
will: 将.
as early as... : 最早于, 后加时间.
do sth. : 即要做的那件事, 在本文中指提起联邦诉讼.


A wired idea: Are there any Chinese idioms dictionary which is specific to translate a English word? I wonder to enhance my rhetoric on my English. The Chinese classical idioms are elegance words to be a word to represent anything. To contrast, it is a word as adj. or adv. in English. Maybe there are some words hard to use one word to explain in all. But, I think it is not completely to translate every words in the idiom dictionary.(i.e. It is not possible to translate every words due to some words hard to be translate.) Anyway, I think it is good for Chinese-English communication. Because one word can represent anything that is simple and should be explicit. For an instance, the English word "serendipity", is meaning a lucky encounter on seeing a good things. In Chinese, I will translate to be "如獲至寶".

In the derivate on making a book, I think it should include the possibility  or frequency about these words, no matter English or Chinese. Otherwise, it should have the synonym and antonym for readers to get the more reference.

Are there any books such as my explaining? Please share its name. Thanks.

You can search the app store, like google play. There are loads of idiom dictionaries you can try.

And like other people commented I don't think your translation of '如獲至寶' is proper. Serendipity is valuable discoveries are made by accident or luck. But '如獲至寶' is finding something which is very valuable, it can be found this thing by accident, but this idiom's main idea is emphasis find something very important. Maybe 机缘巧合 is better.


Why 说的 and not only 说 in 你要按照我说的做并且要做好? I saw that phrase while I was studying and I don't understand.

你要按照我说的做并且要做好。

Why 说的 not only 说?
What does 的 mean in that phrase?

In Chinese, noun phrases in the form:

nominal modifier + 的 + noun

may drop the noun when:

it's clear enough from the context
it's a term very generic in meaning

Clear from the context
This is the case where a noun is dropped to avoid unnecessary repetition.

这本书很有意思，谁写的（书）
This book is very interesting, who wrote it? (Who wrote the book)

Very generic in meaning

你要按照我说的 (话）...

As in your case, the generic nature of the noun may be given by two factors:

it's actually a generic term, as 事情 (matter)，东西 (thing), sometimes 人 (person, guy). It can be translated in English as a relative pronoun, e.g. "what":

他建议的（事情 / 东西 / 意见），我不太了解
I don't really understand what he's suggesting

昨天我遇到的（人）就是陈杰最好的朋友
The person / Whom I met yesterday is actually Chen Jie's best friend

it's the object of a separable verb (because it has a generic unspecified meaning)

我每天吃的（饭）是我娘做的（东西）
The food / What I eat every day is what my mum prepares


Where can I find examples of how to use the new Chinese words I learn,like a website? I'm kind of a beginner here and I often have problem remembering the vocabulary I learn and was thinking if someone could help and tell me where to find those words actually being used, besides if you Know a dictionary that has examples in it pls tell me,thanks :)

http://chinesepod.com/dictionary/english-chinese/

Just enter the character you're interested and it'll list several sentences containing the character, I can't guarantee the quality though, I rarely use this service.

https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php

This is my go-to dictionary, for many characters it'll show you the stroke order and for many words it'll even show you example usage, though to be honest I've noticed that the example usage doesn't always align with the definition given.


Words for shopping for medicine for athlete's foot in mainland China? In my travels I sometimes get athlete's foot and my medicine for it is now running out while I'm in Guangzhou.

I see there are several Chinese terms for this condition. It's always difficult to know which is regional or old fashioned or too technical or has the wrong connotation.

Would I be OK using the wording "香港脚药"?

It's an attempt to say "athlete's foot medicine". But there might even be a more specific general term for such medicine or even some brand name?

It's usually called as 脚气 in spoken language, so you can say:

  有治脚气的药吗？

AFAIK, 达克宁 is a famous brand of 脚气霜, but I'm not sure whether it suits your case or not. So it's better to make a research before using it.


Which one has the correct "lian", 炼功夫 or 练功夫? The phrase means "to practice kung fu". Which one is correct?

炼功夫 (锻炼的炼)

or

练功夫 (练习的练)?

I've seen both versions floating about online but I've a feeling only one of them is correct and the other is just a common mistake, possibly even among native speakers.

According to Zhongwen Chinese Popup Dictionary, 炼 means "to refine, to smelt"; while 练 means "to practice, to train, to drill, to perfect (one's skills), exercise".

So obviously 练功夫 is more correct from a formal perspective, though both are possibly used informally.


Are there words in Mandarin written by characters for other words that mean the same thing? For example, in written Chinese 给 is used a ideograph for "to give" and is read with whatever the word for "to give" is in the various languages, even if the word is not cognate or in any way related to the etymology of 给. Are there words in Mandarin that are written with characters for words that are not etymologically related?

If it's just selecting a phonetic loan for a word that has never been written before, that is understandable because you have to start somewhere. I'm more curious about stuff where the pronunciation/etymology is completely unrelated but a character is used just because of its meaning.

A good example is numbers in Chinese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals#Standard_numbers


What is 吗 doing in 你有什么事吗？ In a Chinese lesson, I came across these sentences:

你有什么事吗？
Nǐ yǒu shénme shì mɑ?

你有什么事？
Nǐ yǒu shénme shì?

And both were translated as:

What's the matter?

I don't understand 1. Without 吗, I understand it literally as: You have what matter?. From Advanced yes-no questions in resources.allsetlearning, I know you can add 吗 to a sentence with another question word to convert it to a confirmation question. However, I don't see how 1. becomes a yes-no question. Which yes-no question that would be?

In Chinese grammar, words as 什么 are commonly known as interrogative substitutes, they substitute the word that should be found in the answer.
Therefore, they have inherent interrogative semantics, and don't require interrogative particles at the end of the sentence.
For example:

你在吃什么？What are you eating?
我在吃麻婆豆腐 I'm eating "mapo" tofu.

As you can see, the interrogative substitute and the noun phrase that answers the question are in the same place, and there's no 吗。
When you do place an interrogative particle at the end of the sentence, the interrogative substitute plays the role of an indefinite pronoun. We can summarize this in the following table:

什么，什么东西 -- what? -- anything -- (thing)
哪里，什么地方 -- where？-- anywhere -- (place)
谁，什么人 -- who? -- anyone -- (person)

A couple examples more:

你包里有什么东西？What's in your bag?
你包里有什么东西吗？Is there anything in your bag?

这个周末你准备去什么地方？Where do you plan to go this weekend?
这个周末你准备去什么地方吗? Do you plan to go anywhere this weekend?

谁认识他？Who knows him?
谁认识他吗？Does anyone know him?

So your sentence:

你有什么事吗 (interrogative + particle = indefinite) do you have anything? (= is there something wrong?)

你有什么事 (interrogative) what do you have? (= what's the matter)

At the end of the day, in this particular example both sentences can actually be translated as "what's the matter", since in Chinese 有事 has an idiomatic meaning, but in general:
interrogative substitute + 吗 = indefinite pronoun.


How to say "hope you'll have a great day"? I was writing a card to a friend and wanted to finish with "Hope you'll have a great day" but realised what I could think of wasn't quite the same meaning, or just sounded odd/weird.

What I wrote in the end was:

  希望你今天會很快樂

which, if I'm not mistaken is more so "Hope you'll be very happy today"

I tried Google translate which gave me:

  希望你有一個偉大的一天

which doesn't seem quite right to me (maybe I'm just not used to the phrases used?)

So was wondering what is the best way to say "Hope you'll have a great day" in Chinese?

The word "Great" has many meanings, both in English and Chinese. It seems that Google Translate picks "magnificent", "grand" as its translation in this case.

While "Hope you'll have a great day" is said time and time again in English conversation, it's less so in Chinese - but it does not mean people do not say it.

There are a few different ways to say it depending on the context.

When someone is having a day out, for example, visiting a place, going to a theme park, going shopping with friends and so on, you can say:

(Traditional/Simplified)
祝你(今天)玩得愉快/祝你(今天)玩得愉快 = Hope you'll have fun./Have fun!

"Today" is often omitted in speaking here as it's a "day out" that happens today.

When someone is organising an event, staging a gig, hosting a fair or similar stuff, you can say:

祝你今天順利/祝你今天顺利 = Hope it goes well today/Hope your gig goes well today.

"Today" is usually not omitted here in speaking as it emphasises the event is happening today.

When you say it to a business owner or someone running a shop, this can translate into:

祝你今天生意興隆/祝你今天生意兴隆 = Hope you'll have good business today.

Which according to Google Translate, it's "I wish you business is booming today."

I'm sure there are other occasions where you'd say "Hope you'll have a great day" and it is not the same Chinese expression. If anyone can think of any, please share with us :)


What is the average number of words necessary to read classical Chinese? I heard classical Chinese had a limited amount of vocabularies compared to modern Chinese.
How many words one has to learn in order to acquire average reading abilities, disregarding the grammar?

According to 二十五史的字数是多少？, most of the classics contain five to six thousand unique characters. 《辽史》(Liao history) contains as few as 4071; 《清史》(Qing history) contains as many as 8080.

《史记》93 BC contains 5122 unique characters;

《汉书》83 AD, 5833 unique characters;

《新唐书》1060 AD, 6346字;

《清史》1927 AD, 8080字.

According to this site, the first dictionary 《说文解字》which was finished in 121 AD contains 9353 characters; another one which was created in 1716 AD contains 47035 characters.

Han dynasty's《说文解字》 finished in 121 AD, contains 9353;

Song dynasty's《集韵》(1034AD) contains 53525;

Qing dynasty's《康熙字典》(1716 AD) contains 47035;

《中华字海》published in 1994 AD contains 85000.


Sample Mandarin Grammar (Sentences) First, thank you to everyone for taking the time to read this question. I am curious whether knowledgeable native speakers could assist me with the following grammar questions:

I am aware of the following rules that apply to Mandarin Chinese Grammar. I believe the sentence types below apply to both English and Mandarin Chinese languages:

NB - These English sentence types are samples pulled from the English Grammar Revolution website on sentence structure. They are not meant to be translated but to provide context so that my questions below are understood as they relate to grammar constructions.

Simple Sentence - A sentence having one independent clause: i.e. I drink tea. (我喝茶).

Compound Sentence - A sentence having at least two independent clauses (joined by either a coordinating conjunction [并列连词] or a semi-colon): i.e. Because he is Chinese so he really likes to eat Chinese food.  (my sample - 因为他是中国人所以他很喜欢吃中国菜)

NB - Coordinating conjunctions glue words, phrases, or clauses together.

Complex Sentence - A sentence containing a subordinate clause (a group of words that have subject and verb but does not express a complete thought) and an independent clause.

i.e. I washed the dishes after I ate breakfast. (this is just a sample English complex sentence, not a translation request)

Q1: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese complex sentence here?

Compound-Complex Sentence - A sentence that contains at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause.

i.e. I would have purchased the cheese that you like, but it was too expensive. (this is just a sample English Compound-Complex sentence, not a translation request)

Q2: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese compound-complex sentence here?

Q3: Have I missed any major Mandarin Chinese sentence types? I do understand that there are many other phrases (conjunctions that I could have displayed) but I am interested in determining the broader category of sentences available in Mandarin.

For example, the following conjunctions can be used to create more complex sentences. Please feel free to share an example or two using some of these in your answers.

不但。。。而且,
不过,
除了。。。以外,
但是,
跟,
还是,
和,
或者,
可是,
那,
虽然,
所以,
要是,
因为

UPDATE with answers:

Q0: example of a sample compound sentence

o. 她跳舞, 我歌唱.

Q1: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese complex sentence here?

a. 那是**我遇见她的**房子. (adjectival clause)
b. 我知道**答案是什么**. (noun clause)

Q2: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese compound-complex sentence here?

x. 她跳舞, 我知道**_她跳的_是什么舞**.

(this is partly using o and b)

Q3: Have I missed any major Mandarin Chinese sentence types?

No, I think the three types (simple, compound, complex) are the major ones.
Again, compound-complex / complex-compound is just built on compound and complex.

(note: I am not able to make the characters bold or italic in the above sentences)

I will start with your Q3:

I think simple, compound, and complex are the three types. You can count compound-complex / complex-compound as a fourth, but it's really building on compound and complex.

I am inclined to believe that compound sentence and (some of) complex sentence (*) in English tend to be the same thing in Mandarin.

(*) Adverbial_clause

Compare this example:

I ate breakfast before I washed the dishes. (A)

to this one:

I ate breakfast, and I washed the dishes. (B)

The distinction between before (adverb) and and (conjunction) is not so big in Mandarin.

The noun clause and adjectival clause are a different story though.

For noun clause (and an answer to your Q1), if we consider this as complex:

I know who said that.

then we have this complex Mandarin sentence:

我知道是谁说的.

(Note that the addition of 是 and the omission of that, which changes the sentence structure quite a bit. Due to that, I don't know if the Chinese sentence should be counted as complex.)

Similarly, when you think of adjectival clause:

That is the house where I met her.

can be translated to:

那是我遇见她的房子.

Probably that is what makes you think that

the sentence types below apply to both English and Mandarin Chinese languages

As a side note,
I think the classification of simple, compound and complex is more or less based on English, like this one.


Word pairs like 嫉妒/忌妒 with similar pronunciations and meanings - examples and discussion please I was thinking about how slight changes in pronunciation are reflected in writing.

As a case in point, here are two examples of words whose pronunciations are different, but similar, and whose meaning is the same. (Based on a few dictionaries like ABC and 现代汉语规范词典).

嫉妒 ji2du4 / 忌妒 ji4du5
Verb: be jealous of; hate

Is this a regional variation? Or is it the case that some people will sometimes use one pronunciation, and sometimes the other, depending on the context or on their mood?

嘟囔 du1nang5 / 嘟哝du1nong5
Verb: mutter/mumble to oneself
The entry in现代汉语规范词典 for 嘟哝 says现在一般写作“嘟囔”.

Does anyone really make a distinction between du1nang5 and du1nong5? Is there an audible difference? And, if the answer is yes, then how about answers to the questions I asked regarding the "jealous" pair?

This phenomenon could be called “synonyms that are nearly, but not quite, homophones”. I would be interested in other examples. Are there any other notable ones? I have a feeling there may well be around a dozen examples commonly used in 普通话. (Still, as an intermediate student I realise I may well be wrong.)

(A related phenomenon is two different pronunciations of the same character, where each pronunciation has the same or similar meaning. But to limit the scope of this question, I’m leaving out that topic here.)

Are there any articles/discussions about this sort of topic? Ideally they would be in English, and not be too scholarly. But maybe that's too much to hope for...!

I found a related question:
Two-character homonyms with same meaning which is about variant spellings (异形词).
This question is a little bit different I think. I'm interested in when the pair are considered to be two separate words, but whose meaning is the same (or almost the same).

Edit: I just came across another pair, 按 and 摁. They're not synonyms, but the meanings are still quite close.

Edit 2 (2018-04-03): This question is about pairs of words/terms (词) where the pronunciation is similar but different and the meaning is the same, or close. An attempt at saying it in Chinese: 同义或近义，音近但是不一样的词.

Here is another  example: 直爽—直率. Also, I found two other candidates but I'm not sure if they qualify, as the difference in meanings may be a bit too much:

扩大—夸大
挣钱—赚钱

Edit 3 (2018-04-05): Just noticed another example (贫困—贫苦). I think it may be helpful to keep this question up to date with lists of all the examples I'm aware of.

Synonyms / 同义词：嫉妒—忌妒，嘟囔—嘟哝，贫困—贫苦，堵塞—阻塞

Similar (but distinct) meanings / 近义词：按—摁，直爽—直率，挣钱—赚钱

First, as a native speaker I can tell you, the usage of these 异形词 is not dependent on regions or moods(at least to my observation), instead it is purely semantic or conventional.
Second, it is very unfortunate that, although some of the pairs are totally interchangeable, like the “嘟囔-嘟哝” pair you mentioned, but some are NOT. Some pairs of 异形词 DO have similar but different meanings, these differences usually lie in emotional tendencies, and some are used to describe different things, and in some pairs one word suggests different information than the other one does.
By the way, Chinese high school test paper makers like to use such pairs to baffle students, here’s a classic one:

煊赫(xuān hè) 烜赫(xuan3 hè) 显赫(xian3 hè)

They all say one is very famous, or one’s social status is very distinguished, the difference is the former two are somewhat disapproval, and the last one is neutral and most widely used.
You mentioned 直爽-直率,  they do have a similar meaning but they are used to describe different things. “直爽” is used to describe a kind of personality, “直率” is used to describe a style of speech (that is direct and frank). So you can say a “直率” way of speech is included in a “直爽的” personality. But yeah they can interchange.
Also, in some pairs, words carry different information. For example: 贫困-贫苦have a similar meaning, but the former one means only “poor”, the latter not only “poor” but also “live a bitter life”. 挣钱-赚钱 both mean “to earn money”, but the former one emphasizes “to earn money with labor, work and struggle”, the latter one means merely “to get money”. To this end, we say:

投资股票非常赚钱。Investing in stocks is very profitable.
我要努力挣钱。I must struggle to earn money.

In this kind of situation usually it’s OK to interchange but the result might look weird to a native speaker.
Some pairs mean very differently. In 不负(fù)众望-不孚(fú)众望, the former means “one did not fail people’s expectations”, but the latter means exactly the opposite: “one failed people’s expectations”.
Finally, there isn’t a set of rules to which one can decide whether a pair is interchangeable or not, but luckily in most cases people can understand you, and if you expose yourself enough to these ambiguities, slowly you can tell the differences.


Difference between 肯定 and 确定 Does anyone know the difference (if there is a difference) between 肯定 and 确定？

I seem to have trouble in knowing when to use each of them in certain contexts.

肯定 certain; sure; affirm;  (the outcome is virtually a fact)
确定 determine; confirm; finalize (the outcome is already a fact)

You can say, "Team China certainly (肯定) will lose to team Germany in the World Cup." The outcome has not been known yet.

You can say, "Team China beat team Japan and is confirmed (确定) to advance to the second round." The outcome is known.

But you cannot say, "Team China confirmed (确定) will lose to team Germany in the World Cup." They haven't played yet.

确定 (to finalize): finalize the team roster
肯定 (to affirm): affirm his earlier statement


Meanings behind "吹牛" and "拍马屁" I would like to find out more about the two sayings "吹牛" and "拍马屁".

How these sayings come about and get their current meanings?

吹牛 chuīniú meaning to brag

拍马屁 pāimǎpì meaning to excessively flatter someone

I found something in Baidu Encyclopedia.

For 吹牛

http://baike.baidu.com/view/3806.htm

  Originally 吹牛 comes from 吹牛皮 (blowing cow leather). In the old times,
  people who lived along the Yellow River used cow leather to make
  rafts, cuz the yellow river could easily destroy wood boats. However
  there was no bumpers at that time. So it was strong people who were
  responsible to blow air into the "leather bag" to make it a raft.
  However, even the strongest man could not make it by himeself. So if
  someone says "I can blow a raft by myself", he must be bragging. As a
  result, people use 吹牛皮 to refer to bragging.

The photo comes from: http://www.chinavalue.net/Wiki/%E7%89%9B%E7%9A%AE%E7%AD%8F.aspx

For 拍马屁

http://baike.baidu.com/view/26474.htm

  When it was Yuan dynasty in ancient China, the mongolians loved riding
  horses (cuz they conquered China and many other places with their
  cavalry force). At that time, when a mongolian met another mongolian,
  he would pat the other's horse, and say something like "nice horse".
  It was the best way to make generals and officers of the Yuan dynasty
  happy by saying "your horses are good". And when the mongolians ruled
  China, this custom also came to China.

  However, originally it was 拍马 (patting the horse), not 拍马屁.

Forgive my translate ^_^