How do I translate 自己已经将地级上品功法无相神功...? 自己已经将地级上品功法无相神功，以及无相步，无相指和无相剑法传授给了他，不知道他如今修炼的如何？

This is what Google says:

  He has already taught him the skills at the prefecture level, and there is no step by step, no point and no swordsmanship. He does not know how he is practicing now.

I know the author is talking about the name of a cultivation method. What would it be called? How would this passage be translated as?

Have a look here. "无相神功" comes from a novel about an insuperable form of Kungfu. This is not very serious literature.

将 = 把
I set 无相 = formless, but maybe there are better translations.

自己已经将地级上品功法无相神功，
I already （将） [taught him 传授给了他] the earth-level best kungfu method "formless miracle"
(无相神功 = a kind of kungfu, just a name, don't translate)"

以及无相步，
also the "formless step" = (a kind of kungfu, just a name, don't translate)

无相指和无相剑法 （go to 将）[传授给了他]，
the "formless finger" (just a name, don't translate)  and "formless sword" method"

不知道他如今修炼的如何？
don't know what his kungfu is like now.

不要打我哦！


inviting someone to dinner (in cantonese) I recently came across this statement to invite someone to dinner.
你介唔介意今晚同我食飯.
As this is my first time learning cantonese, I wanted to know what the nuance of 介意 is? Are there alternative statements in inviting someone to dinner?
In my mind, I would have said: 今晚不如同我食飯? Is this too aggressive and headstrong?
Thanks for your insights

介意 =  'mind' (v),
When you ask someone "你介唔介意 (do you mind) doing something", you are suggesting this something might inconvenience, trouble,  or displease him or her.
"你介唔介意今晚同我食飯?" = "Do you mind having dinner with me tonight?"
It sounds less asserted. Implies having dinner with you is doing you a favor.

"今晚不如同我食飯" = "It is better to have dinner with me tonight"

It is not a proper sentence structure for requesting
You can use a requesting phrase like "好唔好" as in "今晚同我食飯好唔好?" to make it a proper request
Another way to make "今晚不如同我食飯" a request is to use a final particle.
Different final particle expresses different tone, emotion or meaning
Example:
"今晚不如同我食飯吖" -- 吖 (suggesting/ casual/ inviting)
"今晚不如同我食飯啦" -- 啦 (casual/ suggesting/ asserted)
There are many other ways to make an invitation. For example, '今晚一齊食飯好唔好?' or  '今晚一齊食飯啦'


How do you write "Love Life" in mandarin? I am making a poster and looking to say "Love Life" in several different languages. I didn't want to use Google translate as it's not the most accurate translator. I just want to give people a positive message of Hope, you never know who out there might be in need and by doing it in various languages i can make sure lots of people get the message.

If you intend the meaning of “life” in “love life” as the one in “get a life”, your phrase could be translated into 热爱生活.
If “life” means the opposite of death, it could be translated into 珍惜生命.


Ways of negating statements in Chinese I'm looking at negation in Chinese. I know:

不：我不去。I don't want to go.  不多：他话不多。He doesn't talk much.

没：他没去美国。He didn't go to America.

未：未必：not necessarily

否：不管我们喜欢与否，Whether we like it or not,

无：无处不有 everywhere

非：非常 unusual 非法 illegal

Are there other ways of negating in Chinese?

A few more I can think of: 勿（勿忘我），莫（爱莫能助），毋（毋庸置疑），别 （别烦我）


What does 呢 do in 他在睡觉呢? I can't get my head around the 着 在 正在 呢 grammar.

I have a lot of questions regarding this grammar but I'll just focus on one here.

If anyone wants to expand then you are more than welcome.

他在睡觉呢。

他在睡觉。

Is there any difference between these two expressions ?

I can't seem to find a precise explanation anywhere.

他在睡觉 is to state the fact he is sleeping, which may not necessarily imply anything.

他在睡觉呢 adds a tone in the sentence, which often invokes some implications such as he is sleeping so he can't answer you now, he is supposed to do something else while he's still sleeping, and etc.  The implications are various based on the real context.

Sometimes, 呢 is just to add a bit emphasis without any implications.他在睡觉呢 might just mean he is sleeping(underlying meaning: we should not bother him).

Overall, context is essential for analyzing the underlying meaning or implications of the speakers.


when do I use 东西 instead of 件事 to express "something" From what I've seen 东西 is used when talking about food. Are there any other times where you use it instead of 件事？

Examples:

我想吃一点东西。

我告诉你一件事。

「東西」 means a "thing", a generic word for any object. 「那是甚麼東西？」 "What is that thing?" Food is obviously a subset of "things". There are many times you can refer to an object as 東西, like a toy, a pen... you name it.

「一件事」 is referring to an event (事件), or something that has happened.


Meaning of 的 in 我买了一些吃的。 I started preparing for HSK 3 and thought I review the grammar for HSK 2 (http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/schools/salc/centres/confucius/hsk/grammarlists/hsk-2-grammar-points-list.pdf). In section 8, it explains the usages of 的, most of which are clear. The one I don't understand is this:

  我买了一些吃的。

One of my guess is that 吃的 is a noun describing something that was eaten. Although, in that case the sentence would mean: I bought something that was eaten, which sounds weird :)

Having read through some of the answers here, I found that in the 是。。。的 construct, the 是 can sometimes be omitted. So the "complete" sentence would be 我是买了一些吃的。 In this case, though, 吃 would have to be a noun and I couldn't find that in the dictionary. Of course, the meaning of that would be obvious but still, I was expecting to see it defined as a noun: http://dictionary.pinpinchinese.com/definitions/s/%E5%90%83-chi

Is 的 here only to emphasise the whole sentence?

Thanks,
Norbert

You can think the "的" is implicitly to include the words - "Food" or something else for eat.

In Chinese, sometime we will skip the word in daily use.

For example:
我是买了一些吃的 =  我是买了一些吃的(東西)
It mean: I have buy something to eat, so that without (東西) also the same meaning as well, but actually it is not a formal grammar.

see one more example:
我做了一些好吃的 = 我做了一些好吃的(東西)
It mean: I have make something delicious, same as above, skipping the (東西) have the same meaning.

(東西) can be another words depend on what you refer to, it can be "飯/Rice", "蛋糕/Cake", "雪糕/ice-cream" etc.


What's the difference between 检测 and 检查? Google translate gives "discover" and "detect" for "检测" as well as "examination" and "checking" for "检查".
When talking about COVID-19, should I use 检测 or 检查?

In general, the difference between the two words is:

检测 means "to test"
检查 means "to inspect" or "to examine", but also "to test" works, in most contexts

When talking about viruses, the two terms are used a bit interchangeably. However you should use 检测 when referring to a diagnostic test:

阳性/阴性检测结果 positive/negative test results
检测冠状病毒的仪器 coronavirus testing devices
大部分患者尚未进行新冠病毒检测 most patients have not been tested for the coronavirus

You can use 检查 when you mean "to inspect" or "to test" more generically:

对外来人口进行检查 conduct tests/inspections (generic) on the foreign population
胸部CT检查发现异常 thoracic CT scan shows anomalies
进行食品安全检查 conduct food safety inspections


Is Southwestern Mandarin different from Mandarin? I'm moving in two years to Yunnan. I'm learning Mandarin. But I've read that in Yunnan the official language is "Southwestern Mandarin".

What's the difference? Will they be able to understand me?

Southwestern Mandarin，西南官话，实则是西南方言

Mandarin，普通话，全国通用

你在任何地方说普通话都可以交流

Southwestern Mandarin只在西南部分地区交流
当然只是语调的部分不同


What is the origin of 洋罪? 洋 often takes on the meaning of foreign as a noun prefix - think: 洋火、洋车、洋芋、洋碱.
I have just come across this:

《成都方言》
词语: 遭洋罪
发音: zao1 yang2 zui4
定义: 自找的难言之苦：出了钱不说，还～，简直划不着！

洋罪 strikes me as a very interesting combo.
Baidu Baike just gives it one simple definition:

yáng zuì ㄧㄤˊ ㄗㄨㄟˋ
洋罪
特别的痛苦。 欧阳山 《苦斗》五八：“死了倒也自在，免得受这洋罪。这样的鬼病，能治好的，万中都无一呢。”

Very similar to the meaning in《成都方言》as, roughly, extreme pain.
The definition on Baidu Baike also matches those of 汉语大词典 and 现代汉语词典 very closely - with the same quote, even.
HDC

特别的痛苦。
欧阳山 《苦斗》五八 死了倒也自在, 免得受这洋罪。这样的鬼病, 能治好的, 万中都无一呢。

XHD

特别的痛苦。
欧阳山《苦斗》 死了倒也自在, 免得受这洋罪。

MoE says:

特別的痛苦、難過。

Which, too is about the same.
Grand Ricci says:

Peine intense; souffrance insupportable.

Which roughly translates as intense pain and unbearable suffering.
Here comes the more interesting definitions:
CC-CEDICT

1 terrible pain
2 torture
3 (coll.) pain suffered at the hand of foreigners

The third definition here actually includes the whole foreign(ers) aspect.
KEY says:

mess up by seeking to imitate foreign ways (takes verb "shòu")

I really hope that KEY's definition is correct - as it is the most interesting of them all.
Is there an accurate origin of this word?
What was 洋罪 meant to mean originally?

This is really an interesting question, even as a native speaker I don't know the meaning it implies, so I did some bits of research and this answer came into my sight, which perfectly convinced me:

Original reference: [http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/18385575.html]

  所谓洋货,意思是从海洋上"漂"过来的货物,现在的话就是进口的,以前一般都是从海洋上来,所以叫洋货.

  洋罪主要是日本奴役统治中国部分地区的时候,对老百姓机器恶毒,劳动强度高,生活水平却极其低,就是遭罪,而且一般的罪没法比,那罪来源于洋人_日本人,所以叫洋罪.

The first one is talking about 洋货, of which I think you have perfectly grasped the meaning, i.e. things imported from outside China, since most goods need to be transported by the sea(洋), later people call it 洋货.

Now I will try to translate the second sentence:

洋罪 talks about the times when Japan ruled some parts of China, by those time the Japanese extremely maltreated the common people, there was a high labour intensity, meanwhile the people suffered a very poor and miserable life, but not any other misfortune can be made to compare with it because it came from 洋人(the foreigners), by so, it's called 洋罪.

Up to now, people still use this word, but the meaning of suffering from foreigners has faded out a lot, only to emphasise an unexpected feeling of sufferings.

So, in most cases if you suffer, you only say 遭罪, only in some unexpected cases, which you totally can't foresee it but you still suffer, you say 遭洋罪.

Examples:

今早上班地铁特别挤，我一直站了1个小时，真是遭罪啊。

This morning the subway is extremely crowded and I had to stand all along for an hour, I really suffered a lot!
今早上班地铁特别挤，我一直站了1个小时，中途地铁又坏了，我又换乘公交车，真是遭洋罪啊。

This morning the subway is extremely crowded and I had to stand all along for an hour, what's more, the subway broke down in the middle way so I had to take a bus instead, I could not suffer more!


Is there a reason why 午 and 年 look so similar? These words don't have meanings that are similar, but why do they look nearly identical? Is it just a coincidence?

Yes, this is a coincidence. Generally, if the modern shape is confusing, you need to go back further in time to look at characters' original shapes and purposes to make sense of what's going on. Also, the meaning noon for 「午」 is a phonetic loan; that is, the shape 「午」 represented a word that sounded similar to an unrelated existing word meaning noon, and the shape has nothing to do with the meaning noon.
「年」 originally depicted a person 「人」 carrying grain plants 「禾」 on their back, indicating the meaning harvest period > year; check out Is the character 年 (or its etymology) related to the mythical beast in Chinese mythology? for the glyph origins of 「年」.

Glyph origins of 「午」

時期字體
字形
參考資料

商甲

餘1.1合集13475

商甲

後2.38.8合集34621

西周金

作冊䰧卣集成5432

西周金

縣妀簋集成4269

戰國・齊金

子禾子釜集成10374

篆

午部說文解字

西漢隸

秦射42武威漢簡

楷

「午」 originally depicted a large wooden pestle used to pound or de-husk grainy foods such as rice. The word that 「午」 originally represented is now written as 「杵」, formed by adding semantic 「木」 (wood), and 「午」 forms or formed parts of other characters such as 「舂」 (picture of two hands 「廾」 using a pestle 「午」 and mortar 「臼」 > to pound, grind) and 「御」 (originally a picture of a kneeling person 「卩」 operating a pestle 「午」).
As mentioned earlier, 「午」 is a phonetically borrowed character for the word noon, as pestle does not have anything to do with noon.

There is a peculiar pattern across several older characters: blobs on a vertical line tend to expand outwards into horizontal lines, and this is a simplistic description of what happened to the shape of 「午」 as well. You may check out the following glyph evolution tables for comparison:

壬
十
土

References:

漢語多功能字庫
小學堂字形演變
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》

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》


"C'est la vie" (such is life) in Chinese On Wiktionary there are two ways listed for saying "such is life" / "c'est la vie" in Chinese. Both look like literal translations:

這就是生活, 这就是生活 (zhè jiùshì shēnghuó)
生活就是這樣, 生活就是这样 (shēnghuó jiùshì zhèyàng)

But when I get Google Translate to translate "c'est la vie" from English to Chinese it produces two more options:

(上)力威 (either with or without the "上")

I realize the phrase is originally French of course but it's very common in English. I'm curious to know whether this has any meaning at all in Chinese since I can't make sense of it.

"(上)力威" has no meaning in Chinese. "這就是生活/这就是生活/生活就是這樣/生活就是这样" is correct.


Is there a difference between "几点" (jǐdiǎn) and "什么时候" (shénmeshíhou)? Both "几点" and "什么时候" seem to mean "what time?".

Here are two examples that contain "几点" or "什么时候":

我们什么时候开会？ (My interpretation: "When is the meeting?")
现在几点? (My interpretation: "What time is it?")

Also, is there a way I could have found the answer to this question without asking someone? For example, maybe there is a website where I could search for instances of a word or phrase in a set of Mandarin sentences that have English explanations. I could see a pattern in usage by looking at enough examples.

Thank you.

Edit: I meant to ask, "Is there way I can find an answer to a question of this type without asking someone?", where the type of question is "Is there are difference between [Mandarin word/phrase 1] and [Mandarin word/phrase 2]?".

几点，as the 点 word implies, requires that your answer include a specific time, expressed in with reference to the clock, as in "five thirty pm" “ten minutes past six".

什么时候 is less specific, as 时候 means any time or period of time. Your answer can also be given just as if asked with 几点, but it can be anything else which bears sufficient information for answering your question, such as "tonight", "just now", "two hours later", "when my brother reaches home", "just before I sleep". Beyond the scope of 几点, 什么时候 extends beyond the limit of the day. Therefore, your answer can also be "two weeks ago", or "near the end of the year".

When asking questions, 什么时候 is a more flexible word, suitable for asking most questions, especially if your answer cannot be an exact time, e.g. "before I sleep" in the case that you don't sleep exactly the same time everyday. However, if you need the exact time, such as that of a meeting/event, 几点 would serve you better.


What's the difference between 确实, 的确, and 实在? They all seem to have the same meaning. What's the difference between them? Thank you.

I think the level are different.

他的确很帅 = He is very handsome, indeed.

他确实很帅 = He is very handsome, indeed.

他实在是帅 = How handsome he is!!!


What does "起" mean in "饮食起居" 饮食起居: 饮(drink), 食(food), 起(?), 居(house).

What does "起" mean?

百度百科:

  饮食起居，拼音是yǐn shí qǐ jū，出自《祭杜祁公文》，解释为指人的日常生活。

You should be aware of the contrasting pairs in this phrase.

飲 (to drink)
食 (to eat [not food])
起 (to rise up, get up > be active)
居 (to rest)

Like in English, when a pair of opposites in a category are stated, it sometimes means all things of that category.

The beautiful and the ugly
All folks, old and young


What is a snappy way to express e.g. "my brain has switched off" that is familiar to native Chinese ears? It's common in English to say e.g.:

I've done so much work today, my brain has switched off.
No, I can speak Chinese.  She doesn't understand me because she has switched her ears off and is not listening.

It metaphorically refers to a body part which is temporarily not functioning: in the first example above, the brain switches itself off (like a computer crashing), and in the second example, the person switches their own ears off (they could listen, but have switched their ears off).  So sometimes when I'm talking with my teacher, I attempt to say something similar.  Perhaps I'd say:

我的脑子关掉了。 ("My brain has switched off.")
她的听觉器官关闭了。 ("Her hearing organs have switched off.")

But I've never succeeded... I always have to provide a long explanation which defeats the point, and I don't feel my teacher has ever understood my explanations either.  I'm getting the feeling I'm trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
Question: What is a snappy way to express e.g. "my brain has switched off" that is familiar to native Chinese ears?

I'd probably say something like 我脑袋不转了(my brain doesn't rotate anymore). This is a common analogy for a brain: a gear.


Is the usage of European punctuation acceptable in Chinese writing? Chinese punctuation is a little bit different from European punctuation, for example:

The full stop (period) is "。" instead of "."
The ellipsis are six vertically centered dots (… …) instead of just three (…)
and others...

Is the usage of European punctuation acceptable in Chinese writing?

On the Internet and other informal environments, that's OK.

In official publications, the answer is no.

As far as I know, if you write a book and do not use Chinese punctuation, the government won't allow you to publish it.


总监，总统，总裁 and other similar words What's the difference between:
总
总监
总统
总裁
董事长
主任
领导
老板

They can all be translated as president,  chairman or boss.

I only know that 总统 is the president of a country, while 老板 is used in small firms and 领导 is a generic term for boss

They're really confused, and often changes meaning according to the context. Here're my opinions:

总统 is the most clear one here, as you said, means the president of a country.

董事长 means chairman of the board.

总裁 (president), according to my experience, usually used for the CEO of a large company, which has a number of subsidiaries. BTW, 总经理 is often used for CEO too, but usually for a small or one-tier company.

总监 is used for a chief officer of certain field, such as 技术总监 (CTO).

主任, and 主管, means director, usually used for the people who are primarily responsible for an organization or department. Such as 财务主管 (financial executive), 教务主任 (dean of students).

领导 is a generic salutation for your superior, immediate or non immediate.

老板 (boss) is a generic salutation too, usually used for the top of your company, such as 总经理 (CEO).


How to translate the parts of Chinese university How to distinguish "大学", "学院", "系". "专业"?

As myself, I'm in "中国海洋大学数学科学学院数学系信息与计算科学专业". How to translate it properly?

And another question: What is "国家保密学院"? Is "国家" describing "保密: or "学院"? I don't know it even as a native Mandarin speaker.

As discussed in this question, the university system in China is organized somewhat differently than the United States:
Chinese Universities (please offer corrections)

At the top level, there is a 大学, which is usually translated as University.

There are groupings of related departments called 学院. Because this is not always similar to US universities, the translations vary. In order to translate X学院 I've seen:

institute of X
X school (especially "Business School" and "Law School")
college of X

Individual departments (which may have one or more related majors) are 系.

Courses of study towards a degree are called 专业, translated as major.

US Universities and Colleges

At the top level you have either University or College (both show up as 大学). Universities are bigger than Colleges and have more administrative subdivisions..

Universities (but not colleges) may be subdivided into various schools or colleges.

Professional schools (business, law, medicine) are basically always a separate "school" from undergraduate programs. For instance, Harvard University includes the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Law School. Admissions for professional schools are always separate from admissions for undergraduate programs.

Undergraduate programs in a university might all be lumped into a single "college" (e.g., UT-Austin College of Undergraduate Studies), or there may be several "colleges" for related degrees. Generally, admission as an undergraduate into a University entitles you to take courses in any department or "school" that teaches undergraduates. For instance, you could start studying art and decide to study chemistry instead. If a student's major is part of some "college" or "school" within the university, they might not even know which one it is.

Sometimes graduate (Masters, PhD) programs are in their own "schools", and other times their part of the same "school" as related majors at the undergraduate level. For instance, UW-Madison has the College of Letters & Sciences which includes many undergraduate majors and graduate programs in humanitites, social sciences, and sciences. Admissions for graduate programs are separate from undergraduate programs.

Music programs are sometimes in a separate "school" within the university called a "conservatory". Admissions might be separate from general undergraduate studies or require auditions.

With a college or school, there are departments, which may offer one or more courses of study, generally called majors.

Second Question
国家保密学院 is a "School for the protection of state secrets". The Chinese government has a bureau dedicated to this.


How to translate 我知道大概是怎么回事？ 我知道大概是怎么回事，但是能不能有人给我详细解释一下？

I probably know what's going on, but can someone explain the details
to me?

感觉probably know what's going on不是很准确的翻译我知道大概是怎么回事,

我知道 - I know
大概是怎么回事 - roughly what happened
但是 but
能不能有人 can someone
给我详细解释一下？ detailedly explain it to me?

我知道大概是怎么回事，但是能不能有人给我详细解释一下？

I know roughly what happened, but can someone explain it in detail to me?


Meaning of 纷纷 (fēnfēn) referred to 雨 (yǔ) In the famous poem "清明" by the Tang dynasty poet 杜牧 (Du Mu), rain 雨 is "纷纷".

As reported by dictionaries, like https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php , 纷 (fēn) means "numerous; confused; disorderly", then 纷纷 (fēnfēn) is one after another; in succession; one by one; continuously; diverse; in profusion; numerous and confused; pell-mell.

Referred to rain, 纷纷 means that rain is "continuous and long-protracting, with not much water falling all at once, maybe not very windy, somehow boring and sad" (this would be my interpretation, according to the poem) or "copious, with lot of water and wind, stormy, somehow violent"?

Is "雨纷纷" an expression that could be used in everyday life, or only an aulic expression?

Baidu Baike's page on 清明 has a vernacular translation of the line:

  清明时节雨纷纷

which goes:

  江南清明时节细雨纷纷飘洒

Here 雨纷纷 has been rendered as 细雨纷纷.

细雨纷纷 is defined in ABC as:

  a steady fall of drizzling rain

while KEY defines it as:

  steady drizzle

雨纷纷 itself is very poetic, but it is well known enough that most people would be aware of its existence and usage. The entire first line of the poem, in fact, shares the same status. Sometimes you will see or hear it quoted.

Unless the situation calls for it, there is no real reason you would want to go around sounding like a bard and it would be quite off putting to most people listening to you.

For normal everyday conversations, 细雨纷纷 would do just fine.


Hong Kong Government Romanization Converter How to transliterate the Cantonese names of fictitious people and places in creative writing into Latin letters?
I found there is a Cantonese to Jyutping Converter, input character, output Jyuptping. Since Jyupting is used for pronunciation for language learner, the romanization method which Hong Kong Births and Deaths Register Office used is more common for transliteration. Shin Kataoka and Cream Lee regarded the method as C.C.C romanization.
Although Wikipedia provide a table, I wonder if there is a Cantonese to C.C.C romanization converter making it more convenient.
Kataoka, Shin, and Cream Lee. "A system without a system: Cantonese romanization used in Hong Kong place and personal names." Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics 11.1 (2008): 79-98. http://caes.hku.hk/hkjalonline/issues/download_the_file.php?f=2008_v11_1_kataoka__n__lee.pdf

as i “known” only ( might be wrong, and illogical):
sometime around 1980s, before that, romanisation of a chinese name is solely depends on the staffs of the registration office. after that, they rely on the c.c.c. (chinese commercial code)
some tidbits:
羅 (u+7f85), could be “lo”, “law”, “loh”, “luo” & “lowe”
蔡 (u+8521), the old one is “choi”, newer one is “tsoi” (aft-1980s). the tricky aspect is: if a mr choi bring his children for registration, they’re also “choi”.
only for new immigrants go for registration, they have a choice to keep their old one (macau, pinyin, hokkien) or they may have it in “tsoi”. so, nowadays, a mr/ms 蔡 could be “choi”, “tsoi” or “cai”
about the c.c.c, there’re mistakes. once, the character “趙” is recorded as “chu”, it took about 2 years to rectify this error  so that, a mr/ms 趙 could be “chiu”, “zhao” or “chu” (quite rare, comparatively)
further, the registration office respected one’s mother tongue. that, if one speak punti (the localized version of cantonese), the name is in cantonese. if they speak chiuchow, hakka, etc, or cantonese with accent, they would have a “non standard” cantonese romanisation.
most mr/ms 孔 (offsprings of confucius) i recognised is mr/ms “kung”, not “hung”
the romanisation scheme in macau  is slightly different from hong kong
there’re people originated from south asia (indian, pakistani, nepali), that, some of them have a chinese name, the romanisation of these name are not transliterated from their chinese name.
last, the best romanisation scheme one can find, to transliterate cantonese name is sydney lau scheme (劉錫祥粵音系統); most (not all) name in hong kong followed this scheme.
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/
the bottom option in the left pane.
have fun :)


Do you mind checking my grammar in a presentation about my family? I have to make a presentation about my family. Would you mind checking the grammar for me?

Zhè shì wo de jiā rén. Wo jiā you liu kou ren. You bàba, māma, gege, jiejie, didi he wo. Wo bàba he māma dou xianzai tuìxiū le. Rújīn tamen xihuan lüxíng. Wo gege he jie jie dou jiéhūn le. Wo jiali mei ge ren hen cong ming, women jiali you san wei yisheng.

original:
這是我的家人。
我家有六口人。
有爸爸、媽媽、哥哥、兩個姊姊、弟弟和我。
我爸爸和媽媽都現在退休了。
如今他們喜歡旅行。
我哥哥和兩個姊姊都結婚了。
他們不住在我們的家了。
我弟弟很聰。
他是醫生。
我愛我家人。
suggest:
我爸爸和媽媽都(現在)退休了。 remove 現在
他們(現在)不住在我家。 add 現在
我弟弟很聰(明)。 add 明
我愛我(的)家人。 add 的
pinyin:
這是我的家人。
(Zhè shì wǒ de jiā rén.)
我家有七個人。 有爸爸、媽媽、哥哥、兩個姊姊、弟弟和我。
(Wǒ jiā yǒu qī gè rén. Yǒu bàba, māmā, gēgē, liǎng gè jiě jie, dìdì hé/hàn wǒ.)
我爸爸和媽媽都退休了。 如今他們喜歡旅行。
(Wǒ bàba hé/hàn māmā dōu tuì xiū le. Rú jīn tā men xǐ huān lǚ xíng.)
我哥哥和兩個姊姊都結婚了。 他們現在不住在我家。
(Wǒ gēgē hé/hàn liǎng gè jiě jie dōu jié hūn le. Tā men xiàn zài bù zhù zài wǒ jiā.)
我弟弟很聰明。 他是醫生。
(Wǒ dìdì hěn cōng míng. Tā shì yī shēng.)
我愛我的家人。
(Wǒ ài wǒ de jiā rén.)


Entity types and names of China’s companies in Latin alphabet In China, there are two entity types of limited company:

有限责任公司 / 有限公司: 中国移动通信集团 有限公司 | China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd
股份有限公司 / 股份公司: 中国石油天然气 股份有限公司 | PetroChina Co Ltd

Questions:

Entity Types:

I wonder why they both end in Co Ltd, although they are different in Chinese.  How about use LLC/Inc? Just like France’s SARL (= société à responsabilité limitée), can China’s companies use YG (= Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī) and GYG (= Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī)?
How to reconcile company names with their Latin counterparts”. Legal experts are indeed more helpful here. In United States Federal Acquisition Circular 4.2101 (2), 海能达通信 股份有限公司 is referred as Hytera Communications Corp but 杭州海康威视数字技术 股份有限公司 is referred as Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Why they are different?

Besides, how does 中国石油天然气 become PetroChina? Where is “Natural Gas”? I know it is a brand name, but do they have such flexibility in writing registration name in Latin alphabet?

PS I found an Amazon seller called Shenzhen Shi Chengxinqi Keji Youxian Gongsi

There is a great deal of flexibility in the writing of registered company names.

Geely—浙江吉利控股集团有限公司
Sinopec—中国石油化工集团公司
Tencent—腾讯控股有限公司

As you can see, these famous companies do not just transliterate their Chinese names into Pinyin, but come up with a more English-sounding name instead.
Wikipedia has a page on the entity types for Chinese companies. It would be ambiguous to use abbreviations like YG and GYG, since there is no true distinction between words in Chinese. A lot of Chinese people like to abbreviate “word for word”, like YXGS and GFYXGS for the examples you have brought up.


How to translate "doesn't lift a finger" and "without lifting a finger"? I recently same across this stumbling block in conversation; in one case I wanted to say "doesn't lift a finger" and in another "without lifting a finger". These phrases mean that someone is extremely lazy or selfish and refuses to help with a task or to do something.

In English these have a certain emphasis and connotation and I want to find something similar in Chinese so I don't want to use "他什么都不做" or "你什么都不用做". I am guessing there would be an idiom that I could use here?

EDIT
OK,you mean somebody is lazy,there are many idioms to describe such people,such as

游手好闲：指人游荡懒散，不愿参加劳动。
好逸恶劳：逸：安逸；恶：讨厌、憎恨。贪图安逸，厌恶劳动。
坐享其成：享：享受；成：成果。自己不出力而享受别人取得的成果。
坐吃山空：只坐着吃，山也要空。指光是消费而不从事生产，即使有堆积如山的财富，也要耗尽。
不劳而获：获：获取，得到。自己不劳动却占有别人的劳动成果。
饱食终日：终日：整天。整天吃饱饭，不动脑筋，不干什么正经事。

In fact,it's too gentle to use these idioms to describe the lazy ones,using Xiehouyu(歇后语) is a good idea.for example:

懒驴子驾辕 - 不打不走
懒大嫂赶场 - 中间不急两头忙
懒婆娘坐轿 - 愿上不愿下
懒婆娘的针线筐 - 乱七八糟
懒鸡婆抱窝 - 守着摊几过
懒木匠的锯子 - 不错(链)
懒人的铺盖 - 不理
懒驴上磨 - 屎尿多(比喻懒惰的人一到干正事，便寻找借口逃避)
懒婆娘的裹脚 - 又长又臭(比喻文章篇幅长，内容空洞)
懒厨子做席 - 不想给你吵(炒)
倒了油瓶都不扶 - 懒到家了
吃死老公睡崩床 - 懒婆娘
鹰饱不抓兔，兔饱不出窝 - 懒对懒

As for me and my friends,we often use 倒了油瓶都不扶，in the past time,the oil is very precious for every Chinese family to use when they are cooking ,so how lazy someone is if he can allow the oil drain away.


Meaning of 别 in 别开生面? I am aware of the fact that 别 usually means "don't", but what about :/ the expression 别开生面。 Here, doors it mean "another"? What exactly does it mean in this context?

Thanks.

别开生面 is actually an idiom which means "to break a new path" or "break fresh ground". In this case, 别 is just part of the idiom.


In 则无迟重之虞所谓顶头悬也, does 顶头悬 translate to "Incoming Danger"? I stumbled across this word in an old Tai Ji Quan text, in the following context:
则无迟重之虞所谓顶头悬也。
I translated the main part of this sentence as "Don't be paralyzed by fear, which is referred to as..."
”顶头悬“ seems to be a metaphor that doesn't have an equivalent in English (although "Deer in the Headlights" might be close). Depending on the read, ”顶头悬“ could translate literally to "Incoming Danger" or "Hanging from the Top".  Are either of these translation close to the mark?

There is a detailed explanation of 顶头悬  here

就是要求习拳之人在打拳时，要将头部向上轻轻顶起，以使身姿挺拔，立身中正，意念集中，精神贯注。

it is required that the person practicing Tai Ji should gently lift his head upwards to make the posture straight, stand upright, focus on the mind, and concentrate.

顶头悬 describes "lift one's head" (make one's neck touch his collar, chin slightly pull inward)

顶 = top

头 = head

悬 = hang up / lift

顶头悬 can be called "lift head" or "straighten head ". It is the name of a 姿勢 (posture)

The idea is: when your head is straight, the rest of your body would also be in good form


How to say "Catch a plane" I'm interested to see if there is a translation for "catch a plane". I know that 赶不上飞机 is an expression - but could you say

"今天我有很多事。 最要紧的是赶上飞机“

赶飞机 is ok. you can also say 赶火车(train) or 赶车(car/bus) or 赶地铁(subway)

赶上飞机 is also correct, but it's long and a little bit strange in speaking.

you can say 今天我事情很多，还要赶飞机


What is 人 doing in 你现在人在哪里？ I got this sentence in my "daily exercise" newsletter, and I really don't understand what's 人 doing there? Doesn't it mean the same when 人 is removed? Could this simply be a typo?

Both sentences are correct. The word "人" is added to add emphasis to the physical location of the person.

You can take 你现在在哪里？ to mean "Where are you now?"

And 你现在人在哪里？ to mean "What is your current physical location?"

The former is normally used when the asker and the subject are within the same locality (e.g in a shopping mall). The latter is often used when the asker and the subject are far away from each other (e.g. in different countries).

A corresponding response to 你现在在哪里？ is 我现在在XX。

A corresponding response to 你现在人在哪里？ is 我现在人在XX。


What does "了" do in the sentence "呆在家里， 这样你就能接电话了"? In the sentence "呆在家里， 这样你就能接电话了", I can't see why "了" is used in this sentence.
I study Chinese these days, and I think that I can just say "这样你就能接电话", but in this example sentence, "了" is used. I know that "了" is often used as the meaning of "completion of action" or "change of action or state". Could you help me understand the sentence correctly?

Judging from this webpage, it's a translation from the English:

Stay home so you can answer the phone.
呆在家里，这样你就能接电话了。

In this context, they've added the change of state 了 to refer to a future change of state: it's being said to someone who will change from

State 1: not being at home and therefore not being able to answer the phone, to
State 2: being at home and therefore being able to answer the phone.

Dropping the 了 would be appropriate if there were no change of state involved (e.g., the person is already at home).


Can there be a danger of safety? I presume this is good Chinese, but I would appreciate your opinions, because it confuses me.

由于肥胖的形成原因很复杂，因此减肥药的研制困难重重，很多候选药物都存在严重的安全隐患。

It seems to say:

很多候选药物存在 many candidate drugs exist

but 存在 must mean 有 here. 有严重的。。。。 Is 存在 often used this way?

安全隐患 seems to say 'safe hidden dangers' which is somewhat paradoxical, 'safe dangers'. They might mean 'safety dangers, dangers to safety' but was there ever a 'safe danger'? The one excludes the other. They must of course mean potentially dangerous side effects.

I'm pretty sure I understand the sentence correctly, but is it good Chinese?

This is a frequent form of the verb 存在 which is used transitively (i.e. it accepts an accusative phrase).

You can break down the sentence as follows:

很多候选药物 -> (subject) many candidate drugs
都 -> (adverb) all
存在 -> (transitive verb) present
严重的 -> (noun modifier with 的, lax modification) serious
安全 -> (noun modifier without 的 = close modification) safety
隐患 -> (noun, object) hidden dangers, risks

It is worth noting the difference between 严重的 and 安全. Grammatically they have the same purpose, i.e. modifying the noun, but the first is a pure adjective 严重 and is therefore "applied" to the noun by interposing a 的. The second 安全 has a double value both as noun, as in 安全第一 (safety first), or as adjective, as in 这个区域很安全 (this area is [very] safe). Here 安全 is used as an adjective. It doesn't require 的 because:
安全 is inherently a noun, and
的 would be used to determine the strength of the specification. 安全的 poses more emphasis on 安全 (risks [of/for] the safety); no 的 poses more emphasis on the modified noun, thus forming a phrase with 隐患.

Finally you can translate the sentence as:
All candidate drugs present serious safety risks.


Are there concrete rules of conversion between "homophone" English and Chinese proper names? Recently, I have come across quiet a few English names which sound very similar in Chinese Mandarin. To quote a few examples :-

English : Chinese ( Pinyin )

Australia :  澳大利亚 ( Àodàlìyǎ )

John : 约翰 ( Yuēhàn )

Singapore : 新加坡 ( Xīnjiāpō )

Hong Kong : 香港 ( Xiānggǎng )

Peter : 彼得 ( Bǐdé )

I would like to know if there is some rules governing the conversion from English proper names such as these. eg  Australia is broken into some phonemes ( smallest units of speech ) which are converted to their Chinese counterparts and reassembled to form Àodàlìyǎ.

Please note that there are many proper names which sound completely different in English and Chinese. Some examples :-

Japan : 日本 ( Rìběn )

America : 美国 ( Měiguó )

Yes and no. It's a very broad subject as there are many different varieties of spoken Chinese, there are different methods of transliteration, and the rules themselves have been in flux at various times in history.

I'll just address your examples, but realise that there are many more cases and rules not covered.

  Australia : 澳大利亚 ( Àodàlìyǎ )

This name originated during a time when English -> Chinese transliteration was in its infancy and no hard rules existed. People just picked whatever characters sounded close and easy. For Australia in particular, the transliteration probably came from European missionaries, who preferred using phonetics rather than the usual Chinese preference for using single character + type, you know like 英国 or 欧洲. There's more details here: http://www.qinshuroads.org/Chinese_Australia/Oz_Name_dj.htm

  John : 约翰 ( Yuēhàn )

Again, missionaries most likely. "John" is pronounced "Yohann" or "Yohanna" in many languages.

  Singapore : 新加坡 ( Xīnjiāpō )

A bit more complex. Singapore is originally a Sanskrit name, so you're comparing two different transliterations. It's why its name resembles many Indian city names. By luck they are still similar, but it's not always the case as we'll see later...

  Hong Kong : 香港 ( Xiānggǎng )

These are not terribly similar, but that's because the English name is derived from Cantonese instead, which is pronounced Heong Gong.

  Peter : 彼得 ( Bǐdé )

Missionaries.

  Japan : 日本 ( Rìběn )

This is one of my favourites. They are the same name. Basically Portuguese got the name from Wu Chinese, for some reason, as Cipan. Meanwhile, the Dutch got the name but via Southern China, as Yatpun, which they wrote down as Ja-Pun because J sounds like Y in Dutch. Of course, neither of these routes involved Mandarin, which has its own somewhat different pronunciation.

  America : 美国 ( Měiguó )

Another interesting case. This name was settled on after a very long period of evolution, over a time where basically the Chinese had no idea how to properly transliterate European names. Note that the proper, full name for United States of America is 美利坚合众国, and 美国 is an abbreviation. But if you thought there were too many names for America, wait 'till you see how the Chinese tried to translate "President". The concept of a paramount leader that is periodically overthrown by non-nobles was really baffling. There were variants from "big leader", to complete phonetics (pu-rui-si-deng-te), to weird hybrids "伯里玺天地" (hey there, snuck in 玺 and 天地, both implying Emperor). Sinologist Jonathan Spence explores this subject in more detail.

All your examples are either complex cases or historical examples where no rules existed. That's different now, to prevent every new foreign word producing dozens of Chinese translations. Here are some related questions:

Why do Chinese translations of English names sound very inaccurate?
How do we know what characters correspond to Chinese names?
How does foreign word transliteration work in the context of Cantonese vs Mandarin?


Why is 看来 in the sentence 照他的年纪看来,他显得年轻？ I'm trying to dissect this sentence on jukuu.com:

  照他的年纪看来,他显得年轻。
  He looks young considering his age.
  (Zhào tāde niánjì kànlái, tā xiǎndé niánqīng.)

照 (zhào) I think is short for 比照 (bǐ zhào) = in contrast with
年纪 (niánjì) = age
看来 (kànlái) = seems
显得 (xiǎndé) = seems [again (!?)]
年轻 (niánqīng) = young.

I'm puzzled as to why "seems" appears twice here.  I think 他显得年轻 makes sense by itself ("he seems young"), so adding 看来 doesn't make sense to me.

Question: Why is 看来 in the sentence 照他的年纪看来,他显得年轻？

I'm thinking it might be used to indicate some suspicion of his age, e.g., if a child was buying alcohol with a fake ID.  Or maybe I'm reading too much into this.

Although this sentence seems good to me, I think it can be better phrased as:

照他的年纪来看,他显得年轻。

And 照 ... 来看 can be considered as a set phrase meaning “considering”


Input of Simplified Chinese on Windows What options are available for input of simplified Chinese on Windows computers?

Is it possible to draw characters using a mouse or stylus, or perhaps input using speech recognition?

It depends on the OS you're in. On answers.microsoft.com I searched chinese and you can see the solutions for each OS from Microsoft.

Just for completeness, let me add also a quick guide for the Mac OS X. You do the following:

Go to System Preferences (you can reach it in the menu by clicking on the apple symbol on the top-left side);
Click on "Language and Text" or something similar, it has a flag icon;
Click on the "Input source" tab;
Scroll down until you see "Chinese - Simplified" or "Chinese - Traditional";
Select the input type you desire;
You can select the language input by clicking on the Flag on the top bar, near the time and the battery level.

Now open a document. If you selected the "pinyin input" type, which is the most used (sometimes the only one available) and the easiest one, then you can type the "alphabetical" version of the characters, which is called pinyin, indeed.

For example, if you wanna write "你好", type "nihao". A menu will "open". To select one of the choices, click on the number that corresponds to the expression you wish to write and voilà. Below you'll see the menu I was talking about:

By clicking one, I choose to write the two characters that correspond to "nihao" which mean "hello".

On the Mac it is also possible to draw using the trackpad or an external graphic tablet:

This was done like the video showed in the Apple support page.


What is "Nordic hamstring curl" in Chinese? I've searched nordic hamstring curl and its synonyms glute ham raise and natural ham curl on Baidu. None of top Chinese articles had Chinese words for it, they just used the English words:

http://www.actrainer.com/bbs/detail_703
http://bbs.dabin69.com/thread-295004-1-1.html

诺迪克腘绳肌屈伸动作
Doesn't seem to be widely used but it is a translation used by 北京体育大学图书馆, but I am not sure if that means anything or not.
 国际体育科教资讯服务 【科技前沿】

采用新式腘绳肌测试仪可减少运动损伤发生概率
昆士兰科技大学9月29日报道，最近昆士兰科技大学（QUT）的研究人员研制出了一种具有突破性的仪器。该仪器可以帮助顶尖职业运动员评估并减少腘绳肌损伤风险。该仪器为目前全世界唯一一种可以在诺迪克腘绳肌屈伸动作（Nordic hamstring curl）中进行肌肉力量测量的便携式装置。 [国际体育科教资讯服务]

研究团队首次证明腘绳肌损伤风险是可以通过测量运动员进行诺迪克屈伸动作时腘绳肌的力量来进行量化的。腘绳肌力量提升10牛顿可以将腘绳肌损伤降低约9个百分点。澳大利亚的一些重量级俱乐部已经开始使用原型设备，而该研究团队也已经开始在橄榄球联盟、NRL、板球以及A-联赛（足球）俱乐部中开展相关初期测试。

Original information is from here:
[PDF] 国际体育科教资讯服务 - 北京体育大学图书馆

诺迪克腘绳肌屈伸动作（Nordic hamstring curl）

edit:
Beijing Sport University From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beijing Sport University (BSU) (Chinese: 北京体育大学) (formerly Beijing University of Physical Education), founded on November 1, 1953,3 has contributed greatly to the sustainable development of Chinese sport and physical education and has enjoyed the fame as one of the key sport universities in China.

I would imagine that they have good enough credit to trust the material they put out.


Distinguishing a verb from a substantive (执着) In the Lankavatara Sutra, it says: 能舍一切我见执着.
Red Pine translates: "who eliminate attachment to a self."
Suzuki translates: "to keep themselves properly away from ego centered notions."
These terms have Sanskrit equivalent:
我见 (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) is usually translated as the "view of transitory collection."
执着 (abhiniveśana) is clinging or attachment.
The grammar is not clear to me.
Should it read "eliminating attachment to the view of transitory collection" or rather "eliminating the view of transitory collection that clings"?
In other words, how do I tell whether clinging is a substantive or a verb?
The context is:

若能如是。即是如实修行者行。能摧他论能破恶见。能舍一切我见执着。能以妙慧转所依识。能修菩萨大乘之道。能入如来自证之地。汝应如是勤加修学。

Red Pine's translation is:

“This, Lord of Lanka, is the understanding of all great practitioners
, who thereby overcome false doctrines and refute mistaken
views, who eliminate attachment to a self
, and who make use of the subtlest wisdom to
transform their consciousness. This is the Mahayana
path that leads to the stage attained by buddhas. You should
therefore devote yourself to such an understanding
self-realization).

Observations on technical issues:
恶见 is a classical Buddhist term meaning evil view or mistaken view.
执着 is a classical Buddhist term meaning clinging.
我见 is a classical Buddhist term meaning view of transitory collection.
妙慧 is a classical Buddhist term meaning subtle wisdom.
之道 is a classical Buddhist term for marga (Sanskrit).
自证 is a classical Buddhist term meaning self-realization.
转所依, 所依, 所依识, 识 are also technical Buddhist term I don't know how to split. It seems Red Pine and Suzuki didn't either because they have very different translations. But that is the subject of another later question.

Below is a compilation of Sanskrit, Chinese (Bodhiruci, 菩譯), Chinese (Śikshānanda, 實譯), and English (Suzuki), which I found in Bibliotheca Polyglotta:

ātmadṛṣṭivyāvartanakuśalānāṃ
能轉一切見、我見過
能捨一切我見執著
to keep themselves properly away from ego-centered notions

I then looked up the Digital Corpus of Sanskrit (DCS) to understand how it was originally phrased in Sanskrit. DCS gave the parsing of Sanskrit into: ātma (compound for ātman 'self'), dṛṣṭi (compound for dṛṣṭi 'seeing; notion'), vyāvartana (compound for vyāvartana 'turning away'), and kuśalānāṃ (genitive plural masculine for kuśala 'proper').
The only verb-like morpheme here is 'turning away', which corresponds to 轉 or 捨 in Chinese. That is to say, I believe 執著 is not a verb but a substantive, perhaps a unique feature of Śikshānanda but not Bodhiruci. That is also to say, this is more of a question on translation, rather than Chinese grammar.

Compared to the historical Chinese translations, Suzuki adheres to the meaning of kuśalānāṃ ('proper') better. As a whole, it means something like 'proper turning-away from self-notions' as a phrase genitive to the nominative phrase 'realisation of the great Yogins' (abhisamayo mahāyoginā, 修行者行) seen at the beginning (note: the genitive case can be used generically in Sanskrit; I think it expounds on what the realisation / understanding of the great Yogins are, see Dhammajoti 2012:4). I also looked up a modern translation by Tam Shek-wing [談錫永] (2005:20) that incorporated the translation 'proper' (正) much like Suzuki (Tam used 離 for 'turning away'):

楞伽主，如是即為大瑜伽行人之修行，能摧外道論，能破諸惡見，能正離我見執著，由是能以妙慧於內心起轉依。

Huang Baosheng [黃寶生] (2011:22) used 善於 ('good at') for 'proper' and 摒棄 for 'turning away' instead. Both are more idiomatic in modern Chinese:

楞伽王啊，這是大瑜伽行者的認識。他們摧毀外道論說，破除惡見，善於摒棄我見，善於以妙慧轉變識。

I feel like the notion of 'properness' was skipped (more like understood) in the Śikshānanda translation.

Huang also defined 我見 (ātmadṛṣṭi) in one of his footnotes:

「我見」（ātmadṛṣṭi）指執著某種固定不變的實體，如靈魂。其中的 ātman，一般指靈魂或自我。
(translation) Ātmadṛṣṭi refers to the fixation on a certain kind of constant body, such as the soul. Ātman in the compound normally refers to the soul or self.

With this in mind, I am confident 執著 in the Śikshānanda tradition is a substantive, or an in-text explanation to the more jargonistic 我見.

Edit

I found a modern Japanese translation (Tokiwa, 1994:10) which also supports the substantive and idiosyncratic nature (i.e. presence in only Śikshānanda) of 執著. I translate the phrase in bold below as 'people who excel in removing the view of themselves'.

ランカーの主よ、これは、優れた修行者たちの悟りの内容である。他の流言を打ち砕いた人達、悪い見解を打ち破った人達、自我の見解を除くことに優れた人々、微細なところまで知覚の根拠の転換を果たすことに優れた人々、勝者の子たち、大乗を行ずる人々の「悟り内容」である如来の自内証の境地に悟入するために、汝は修行すべきである。

References

Dhammajoti KL. Reading Buddhist Sanskrit Texts: An Elementary Grammatical Guide. Buddha-dharma Centre of Hong Kong; 2015.

談錫永（2005）《入楞伽經梵本新譯》。臺北：全佛文化。

黃寶生（2011）《梵漢對勘入楞伽經》。北京：中國社會科學出版社。

常盤義伸（1994）『「ランカーに入る」：梵文入楞伽経の全訳と研究』Part 1. 京都：花園大学国際禅学研究所.


Where can I find a graded reader with pinyin alongside the simplified characters? Recently I started learning the Chinese language. So far I've been focusing on the spoken Mandarin, so there are many words for which I know pinyin but not the character. To build the associations I got a graded book that had both. However, to see the characters I needed to flip a page. It'd be more helpful for someone who already knows most of the characters, but when learning them from scratch, paging several times every line is too much.

Is there a book that has pinyin and characters on the same page or adjacent pages? Interspersed lines would be ideal.

If you don't mind, you might want Mandarin textbooks for lower grade elementary school used in China.
And some storybooks also have Pinyin on every character.
You might search jd.com or taobao.com to find some examples using keywords like "识字 拼音", "小学 课本".

If you want get pinyin when reading on screen, you might try Lingoes Translator (offical website) with Chinese Dictionary installed.  This software can pick up the character under your cursor and perform a query automatically (and you get pinyin)(this may require an option to be enabled).


兆 as (part of) a number CEDICT shows 兆 as "… / million / mega- / trillion / tera- / billion (old)".

Is it ever actually used numerically, or is it standard to use Arabic numbers (or M/T for prefixes) to eliminate ambiguity?

Speaking of ambiguity, an answer and a comment say it is more commonly used for million/mega, while another answer says trillion/tera is standard.

Outside the IT world, 1兆 is 10^12, or 1万 x 1亿. But you won't see this use very much now.

Inside the IT world, (when you talk about the size of hard disk, memory, etc ...) 1兆 is 1M, which is 1024k, approximately 10^6. The might be the more common use nowadays.

Edit:

When used in SI unit, 兆 mean 10^6 in mainland China and 10^12 in Taiwan. The use in IT world actually comes from this usage, with an altered value. It is actually part of the unit, not the number.


In Dao De Jing, 常 should be translated as "eternal" or as "common"? I'm doing a translation of the Dao De Jing, using some originals and some translations to english and portuguese. I've noticed that 常 chang is almost always translated as "eternal", "fixed", "immutable", etc. That seems to be a monotheistic preconception, far from the natural view of the world that seems prevailing in the book. So I'm using "common" or "usual" - another translation of the term, and one that seems to fit better in the overall meaning of the text. After all, not everything "common" is "unchangeable". Has anyone else thought about it? Which translation do you think is more adequate to the spirit of the original? Another question is: each chinese character should receive only one translation throughout the book? (Maybe that's a silly idea, maybe not.) Thanks in advance!

This article suggests that the original text was 道可道，非恒道. That is, 恒 not 常 (meaning 永恒 = eternal, unchanging).

This  dictionary definition for 常 also includes the meaning "长久，经久不变" (and gives the example 常量, with an alternate form 恒量).


Is this a correct way to use 呢？ So, I am trying to figure out whether I can only say 你 呢？or whether I can add to that and say 你 爸爸 和 妈妈 呢？If the second option works, it would be nice to know!

Depend on the context, [(noun) + 呢] could mean "how about (noun)?" or "where is (noun)"
"你" is a noun and "你爸爸和妈妈" is a noun phrase. Both can be turned into a shortened question by adding the final particle "呢". Therefore,  saying "你爸爸和妈妈呢?" to ask "how about your father and mother?" or "where are your father and mother?" is no difference from saying "你呢?" for "how about you?" in grammar structure (The question can't be "where are you", since I am talking to you, I know you are here with me)

呢 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1029/
[1][final particle] used mostly to make a shortened question by repeating only some element of a previous question

Example:

為什麼祇有你來了? 你爸爸和妈妈呢? (Why only you come here? Where is your father and mother?)

說什麼無親無故? 你爸爸和妈妈呢? (What are you talking about having no family or friends? How about your father and mother?)

怎會沒人幫他? 你呢? (How could no one helping him? How about you?)

怎會沒人幫他? 你爸爸和妈妈呢? (How could no one helping him? How about your father and mother?)

Actually, [(noun) + 呢] could be a shortened question by omitting the actual question, presuming people would understand what is being asked.
Example:
大家都同意了, 你呢? (Everyone agrees, how about you?) is the shortened form of "大家都同意了, 你呢? 你同不同意?" (Everyone agrees. How about you? Do you agree?)
Since 同意了 is mentioned in the sentence, we can presume asking 你呢? is asking 你(同不同意)?


What does 唯物史观 mean here? I can't quite see what the phrase 唯物史观 really means here. Could someone please reformulate it with other words or just longer?

任何一门学科，包括理科，都是知识体系和价值体系的结合统一。物理学科的科学精神、唯物史观，不都是思想教育的重要内容吗？ 所以，教育工作者要有整体的育人观念。

In the text 科学精神 and 唯物史观 are separated with a listing comma '、' for which I use 'and'.

唯物： materialistic ??
史观： historically speaking ?? historical??

Maybe:
物理学科的科学精神、唯物史观，
the scientific mind of physics and (、) historical materialism,
不都是思想教育的重要内容吗？
are they not both important parts of ideological education?

From the wikepedia page:

  历史唯物主义（英语：Historical Materialism）是马克思主义哲学的重要组成部分，也被称为唯物主义历史理论（materialist conception of history）或唯物史观。


我的个娘？ Does this really just mean 'my mother!' and why? I have been watching a TV program << 父母爱情 >> and a rather unsophisticated female character keeps repeating a phrase which I hear as '我的个娘' (I'm not sure if the '的' should be there or not?)

It's obviously a type of exclamation, presumably similar to 'Oh my God!'.  Does it actually just translate to 'my mother!' and why would that be an exclamation of surprise?

Also, is this a regional phrase?  The character is living in Shandong province but is a military wife so could presumably be meant to be from a different province.

Lastly, is this something a foreigner could use unironically without seeming ridiculous?

Yes, you are right. 我的个娘 is just like oh my God. Chinese people don't curse their Gods, but do with their mothers, for example, 干你娘，草你妈，while these two phrases mean xxx your mother, but they also can be used to empathize the following sentence. For example, 干你奶奶的，他真有钱。xxx your grandmother, he is very rich. Obviously, the speaker doesn't necessary want to xxx your grandmother. What he want to expect is that person is super-duper rich!!! Nothing to do with grandma or xxx here. You can think 我的个娘 as "damn it". This is not really regional because other region has the same phrase like that but in other words. For example, in GuangDong and HongKong, people use 你老母，different words, same meaning. Lastly, as a foreigner, you should just use OMG because your mother is not Chinese. It makes no sense to use 你的个娘 for exclamation!!


how do you say "Playlist" I've been trying to find a good translation for a playlist that you create for yourself (like on itunes or Youtube), but I haven't been able to find one.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

播放列表 and 歌单 are both okay.

It's been translated as 播放列表 for long because of the early version of Microsoft Windows Media Player and other old players. You can tell that 播放列表 is directly translated because “play“ means 播放 and “list“ means 列表。

In 歌单， 单 is equal to 列表， and 歌 means the music that you wanna listen to. While in Chinese, 歌 mostly refers to the music with lyrics and that might be too narrow in meaning for there mignt be classical music without lyrics in your playlist. That's why I prefer 播放列表 to 歌单. The former has the more exact meaning.

Nowadays the people who listen to the music without lyrics are much less than people who listen to 歌， so 歌单 is also widely accepted and used by the public and sometimes replaces 播放列表. What's more, the word 歌单 is much shorter than 播放列表. I guess that also makes it more popular.


How to say “On the phone” （手机里 vs. 手机上） Prepositions are always a fun part to learn of a language. Right now, I'm running into the difficulty of trying to describe "On My Phone". I've heard people say "手机上“ but, after Baiduing I also know that you can say stuff like "手机里的照片“。 Could anyone give their opinion on which is more commonly used and/or any differences in usage?

A similar question was asked Is it correct to say “在手机”？ here and the answer used “手机上”

 我正在手机上玩游戏

Could this have been switched to 手机里?

手机上 describes the act is observed by something from outside of the cellphone through the screen. I guess most of the humanity will do this way.

手机里, in contrast, suggests something is really inside the phone, e.g. in memory, storage etc.

So, 手机里的照片 "pictures (stored) on the phone" and 手机上的照片 "pictures (found) on the phone" may indicate the same thing. But if you'd say 我在手机里玩游戏, I must assume you're a relative of Siri.


What does 同父异母或同母异父的兄弟 mean? I think it means half-brother, but my book says it is step brother. I thought step brother is 继兄弟. What does 继 mean?

继兄弟 = stepbrothers.  Two unrelated people became brothers when their parents married each other
Stepbrothers are a result of a second marriage
同父异母兄弟 (同父兄弟/ 异母兄弟) = half brothers. When two brothers have the same father but different mothers (A man had a son with one woman and then had another son with a different woman.)
同母异父兄弟 (同母兄弟/ 异父兄弟) = half brothers. When two brothers have the same mother but different fathers (A woman had a son with one man and then had another son with a different man.)
Half brothers are mostly a result of a second marriage (but not always)

what does 继 mean?

继 = 继任 - to succeed (a position)
继父, 继母 = stepfather, stepmother (继父 succeeds the previous father, 继母 succeeds the previous mother)
继兄弟 doesn't mean a brother succeeds a previous brother. It means the brother's relationship is through a 继父, 继母's marriage


what does triple 有 mean (非汝佛有有有无也明矣) In Li Zhi's 焚书 there is a following sentence: "既目前无佛，他日又安得有佛也？若他日作佛时，佛方真有，则今日不作佛时，佛又何处去也？或有或无，自是识心分别，妄为有无，非汝佛有有有无也明矣"

I am confused aboout this triple 有 with 无 at the end. Should it be read like 有有，有无 ("there is what is and what is not") or something like that?

Basically you are right ☆
My interpretation:
有时候称有有时候称无，自然是本意去分开说，妄称有无，而不是那佛有有时有无时（一会儿存在一会儿又不存）的道理便很明显了。

The first and third 有 means "have the quality of", the second 有 is opposite to 无, and they mean "existent" and "nonexistent".

EDIT:

我方才看了整篇文章《焚书•答周西严》，这里做一些改正：

这是一篇驳论文。第一节立靶子，第二节道理论证，第三节类比论证。

驳论点为物物生而有佛性，区别在于自不自知，按今天的话讲，叫开窍不开窍。不开窍的，除了那些个土木瓦石无知觉，贤智愚不肖又太“专情俗世”，都是可以让他开窍的，按原文叫“以佛乘”。

  天下無一人不生知，無一物不生知，亦無一刻不生知者，但自不知耳，然又未嘗不可使之知也。惟是土木瓦石不可使知者，以其無情，難告語也；賢智愚不肖不可使知者，以其有情，難告語也。除是二種，則雖牛馬驢駝等，當其深愁痛苦之時，無不可告以生知，語以佛乘也。

作者说了，这不对啊！那人的观点，和自知的就是佛，不自知的就不是佛有什么区别呢？我不晓得那人啊，他前半生干的事情，是出于哪个的主张（意思应该是，所谓佛性是什么东西他知道么），那不就是天天在用而不知道吗？不知道就算了吧，还说目前不敢莽撞地修佛。那么他目前不是佛，来日就能是佛了？来日修佛的时候，要是发现是佛，今日他不修佛他的佛又去哪里了？有的是佛有的不是佛，自然是他存心去区别，随便称有称无，而不是你那佛有的人有有的人没有的道理便很明显了。

  據渠見處，恰似有人生知，又有人不生知。生知者便是佛，非生知者未便是佛。我不識渠半生以前所作所為，皆是誰主張乎？不幾於日用而不知乎？不知尚可，更自謂目前不敢冒認作佛。既目前無佛，他日又安得有佛也？若他日作佛時，佛方真有，則今日不作佛時，佛又何處去也？或有或無，自是識心分別，妄為有無，非汝佛有有有無也明矣。

他说自己恐怕还成不了佛，他有胆说自己这辈子成不了人么？我不知道……（一顿推论）……既然能成人，怎么就不能成佛了，还要等哪一天来！天下难道有不是人的佛，不是佛的人么？假如一定要为官成家之后才能去成佛，那就是说成佛要等闲着的时候才可以，那就是说成佛有碍于事业咯。既然这样那你们这些人要去成个什么佛？既然这些个事都能阻碍成佛，那看来，这佛也没什么用处，那不是更加笑死人了？我才稍稍一议，你们就万劫不复了，啧啧啧！

  且既自謂不能成佛矣，亦可自謂此生不能成人乎？吾不知何以自立於天地之間也。既無以自立，則無以自安。無以自安，則在家無以安家，在鄉無以安鄉，在朝廷無以安朝廷。吾又不知何以度日，何以面於人也。吾恐縱謙讓，決不肯自謂我不成人也審矣。既成人矣，又何佛不成，而更等待他日乎？天下寧有人外之佛，佛外之人乎？若必待仕宦婚嫁事畢然後學佛，則是成佛必待無事，是事有礙於佛也。有事未得作佛，是佛無益於事也。佛無益於事，成佛何為乎？事有礙於佛，佛亦不中用矣，豈不深可笑哉？才等待，便千萬億劫，可畏也夫！


What is the difference between 专家 and 达人? I saw 达人 on the title of the following Tawianese video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eru3weFzRnI (very amuzing!) and some other places, and got confused since I already knew 专家 . On the title it refers to an "expert at throwing business cards" (you've got to see it to understand).

专家 is the formal word for 'expert'.

达人 (literally 'achieved person') is first borrowed by Taiwanese from Japanese in no more than 30 years ago and gradually become known to mainland China. Some say the Japanese usage was derived from ancient Chinese, but I don't know if there is a definitive etymology for that. Anyways, it is not a formal word in Chinese (yet) and mostly used in entertainment topics.

Reference: http://baike.baidu.com/view/2453.htm


How to translate "顾方略何如耳，不至学古兵法“? In Chapter 111 of Records of the Grand Historian (史记), there is a famous quotation attributed to Qubing Huo:

  骠骑将军为人少言不泄，有气敢任。天子尝欲教之孙吴兵法，对曰：“顾方略何如耳，不至学古兵法。”

I checked the translation from many Chinese websites, but all of them seem to be unsatisfactory. Can anyone give me a word-by-word translation for this quotation?

as far as i search (ctext.org, 維基文庫 &
四庫全書薈要), the character "古" is missed in the question, which make great difference in translation. the relevant text ought to be:

驃騎將軍為人少言不泄﹒有氣敢任﹒天子嘗欲教之孫吳兵法﹒對曰﹒顧方略何如耳﹒不至學古兵法

therefore, i would suggest in clause 顧方略何如耳:

顧　考慮　considering
方　方法 --> 戰術　military tactics
略　策略 --> 戰略　military strategy
何如　如何　how to
耳 is a 虛字, served the purpose of ending a clause; and helping 句讀
靈活運用　to deploy flexibly

so, 顧方略何如耳 is roughly:

considering (顧) how to (何如) deploy military tactics (方) & strategy (略) flexibly (deploy and flexibly are inserted for easier comprehension)

in clause 不至學古兵法:

不至　不至於 or 不必　no need
學　學習　to learn
古　古代    ancient
兵法　the art of war / warfare

so, 不至學古兵法 is roughly:

there's no need (不至) to learn (學) the ancient (古) art of war (兵法)

the rationale of my attempted translation is:

at the time of 霍去病 (140 bc – 117 bc), 孫吳兵法 (5th century bc) is a few hundred years old. most likely, general 霍 had ideas that society, technology and enemy are changed, that, ancient books about the art of war were outdated. further he had talent in war, that, learning from these ancient rules of war is unnecessary for him.


You "(j)yu + ci or zi" my question I don't understand these two characters Luk Ho Ming speaks at 50:26. Just to clarify, he's speaking in background. He's not  lad seated next to Ceci Mak.

好好. 您我_ _嘅问题。

My translation — Good. You _ _ my question.

It is "好好，你預知咗我條问题呀。" (Good, good, you've anticipated my question)

預知 /jyu6 zi1/:  anticipate, foresee

咗 = 了 (indicates the verb is completed)


Taiwanese brand of computers called 嘉馬電腦 From what I can tell, 嘉馬電腦 means The Auspicious Horse Computer. Is this a reasonable translation? Is 嘉馬電腦 a normal-sounding brand name to Chinese-speakers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series#/media/File:Taiwanese_Apple_II_clone_Cosmo.jpg

Is 嘉馬電腦 a normal-sounding brand name to Chinese-speakers?

Yes, while I do not know this brand, it sounds like the kind of names a native would have made. You want your computer to run fast, like an auspicious horse, presumably.

  Is this a reasonable translation?

No, because it would be difficult to make out what is the original Chinese. For proper nouns, it is probably best to use a romanization (e.g. pinyin) along with original characters in Chinese.

I would translate it to "Jia Ma Computer (嘉馬電腦)", or if the meaning is important, "嘉馬電腦 (lit. The Auspicious Horse Computer)"


Is there an idiom for a "lose-lose" situation? Is there an idiom for a "lose-lose" situation, in which both sides receive a negative effect? In particular, if there is a 成语 that would be great!

EDIT: What about describing two decisions for a single person? Similar to the English:

  You're damned if you do. And you're damned if you don't"

For example,

1.两败俱伤

2.玉石俱焚

3.同归于尽

4.芝艾俱焚

5.鱼死网破

And I believe there are more.


What's the relationship between 炮 and 砲? 炮 and 砲 both mean "cannon", but it seems the former is much more common, and the latter only really seen in Xiangqi.

Is there a difference in meaning? For example, on wikipedia it is said that 砲 means "catapult", due to the stone radical.
Was 砲 a made-up variant used for Xiangqi? I know that for Xiangqi, different characters were chosen, which sometimes lead to arbitrary choices (e.g. 傌 which has nothing to do with horses)
Or were there deeper historical reasons? For instance, it's hard to believe that 炮 existed before gunpowder, so it's plausible that 砲 was used earlier, to mean "catapult".

Usually, people use 炮.

According to the dictionary [http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/] : 砲

  同「炮」。 (砲 is the same with 炮)

We can say 砲火連天/炮火連天, 砲響/炮響, 馬後砲/馬後炮, 弩砲/弩炮, 開砲/開炮. Boths are acceptable and interchangeable.

炮's meaning involves fire but 砲's meaning involves stone.

The early cannonballs (sling) were made by stone, so people use 砲 to describe it.
With the time past, fire was much counted so 炮 was derived from 砲 to describe gunpowder and the bullets. Therefore, 炮 appears and become more commonly used.
You can find some relevant sentences in the ancient chinese books:

【集韻】【韻會】【正韻】披敎切，拋去聲。俗作"砲"(name as 砲)。機石也(are just the stones of a slinging machine)。
 About the slinging machine :
【前漢·甘延壽傳】投石(sling)拔距絕於等倫。
【張晏曰】《范蠡兵法》:飛石(flying stone)重十二斤，爲機發(from a machine)，行二百步，礮蓋出此。
【後漢·袁紹傳】曹操(Cao cao)發石車(slinging machine)擊袁紹，軍中呼霹靂車。【註】卽今拋車。
【魏略曰】諸葛亮(Zhuge Liang)起衝車，郝昭以繩連石磨壓之，衝車折，卽礮事。
【唐書·李密傳】以機發石(sling a stone by a machine)，爲攻城械(is a machine for attacking)，號「將軍礮」。又通作「拋」(commonly used as "throw")。

明朝方以智《通雅》: 「象棋始於唐，周武之《象經》，非今之象戲也。」
.................: Xiangqi is from Tang Dynasty...............
From Wikipedia : 象棋 (chinese chess / Xiangqi)

Gunpowder is also from that time but slinging machines were still used in military aspect. Therefore, 砲 was used in Xiangqi until now.

In fact, not every Chinese can tell the difference between them. Nowadays, people are more familiar with 炮. So if you write 砲, some people may think it's not so proper.


How to write 7th month, 2nd day of year 4714 in lunar calendar? My grandpa’s death anniversary is August 4, 2016 and I looked it up to be the 7th month, 2nd day of year 4714  in the lunar calendar. Can someone translate this to the correct way of writing it in Chinese? I want to get it tattooed on but I want to make sure it is correct.

think carefully before you "tattoo".

4th august 2016 in lunar calendar is: 丙申歲七月初二

the 4714 is based on "黃帝紀元", a dubious "calendar system"; which used 2698 bc as the starting.

as i remembered, i never read any info about it in literatures of yore.

according to the wiki, it was created in 1903. how authentic, and acceptable is in doubt.

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/黄帝纪元

if you insist, the above mentioned date in this style is:

黃帝紀元四千七百一十四年七月初二


Can anyone make my Chinese-English translation sound better? I need to translate this passage in traditional Chinese into English:

教學年資：在本校升等時職級滿三年為50分，每增授課一學期加1分，最高分為70分。

Here is my own translation (Please bear in mind that I am still learning to how to translate):

Years of teaching: To apply for promotion, the teaching staff needs to have fulfilled 3 years of service to obtain 50 credits with one additional credit for every course taught over 1 semester. The maximum of credits shall not exceed 70.

Any thoughts?

在本校升等時，職級滿三年為50分，每增授課一學期加1分，最高分為70分
When applying for promotion at the University, those who have held their current rank for three years will receive 50 points, with an additional point for each semester of teaching beyond [the three years], up to a maximum of 70 points.

The word 申請 'apply for' is omitted at the beginning (在本校申請升等時) and there should be a comma after that. The word 'rank' 職級 is used oddly, I think 以原職級任教滿三年 or 服務滿三年 would make more sense. The intent is probably that one must hold each rank for a minimum of 3 years before applying for promotion (assistant to associate, associate to full), but this wording doesn't really make that clear. 每增 is also not very smooth.

The main problem with the translation is that 'credit' is not right here, this is a point system; also for every course taught over 1 semester is not right, the intent of the Chinese text is clearly to count semesters of teaching, not courses taught


我看了化验结果 vs 我看化验结果了 which one is correct? The book that I have studied said “我看了化验结果。” but I’m wondering if “我看化验结果了” make sense or not. If the second one can be used, what’s the difference?

了 in 我看了化验结果 is an aspect marker that indicates the verb 看 (read) is a completed action. You can add the final practice 了 to 我看了化验结果 and write 我看了化验结果了 (the final practice 了 indicates the sentence is finished, adds emphasis to the sentence and/or soften the tone of speech)

了 in 我看化验结果了 is in the position of final practice, but it can be treated as an aspect marker if you consider '看化验结果' as a verb phrase, meaning the act of 'reading the test result' is a completed act. But it is not the way people normally talk even you can argue that it is technically grammatical. It is more likely that people  would treat the 了 at the end as a final practice and interpret 我看化验结果了 as 'I'll read the test result now')

in 我看了化验结果了, the 了 after 看 is an aspect marker and the 了 at the end is a final particle


difference between 伴 and 配 I am reading a restaurant menu in Chinese and found the usage of 伴 and 配 perplexing. What is the rule? (Or is there?)
For example: 咖喱燒雞配印度薄餅及印度飯 and 蘋果批伴雲呢拿汁

伴 - accompany
配 - complement
XX 伴 YY means XX and YY are served together as a single dish. 蘋果批伴雲呢拿汁 means 蘋果批 and 雲呢拿汁 are to be eaten together
XX 配 YY (or more) means XX and YY (or more) are served together as a single set. 咖喱燒雞配印度薄餅及印度飯 has three items, 咖喱燒雞 is the main dish and 印度薄餅 and 印度飯 are the side dishes in the set.
The additional item  that is 配 to the main dish is considered a side dish
You can have 咖喱燒雞 配 土豆湯 或 雜菜湯, but you cannot have 咖喱燒雞 伴 土豆湯 或 雜菜湯 because they are not considered a single dish.


Different Ways to Say "Hometown" I have encountered both 老家 and 家乡 for referring to one's hometown.  What are the differences?  That is: When should each one be used?  When should one or the other be avoided?  When can they both be used interchangeably?

EDIT: The terms 故乡 and 祖籍 (or 籍贯), meaning home of my ancestors, have been introduced as additional ways to express the same idea. [ Question title updated. ]

To me, either of 老家, 家乡, or 故乡 gives similar meaning, any of one doesn't not necessarily mean the home that I'm living in currently, nor other implications. Context can determine the implied meaning. All of them can be used as written expression, and also can be heard often. 故乡 seems to be the most formal among these three.

Another one, 祖籍 (or 籍贯), is quite definite: home of my ancestor, usually being a different one from my current home.


Is it OK to use 只 (only) when it already uses 只 as a measure word? In the following sentence:

  ”银座养蜂项目“始于2006年，目前在银座的三个大厦屋顶都设有养蜂场，各有20-30万只蜜蜂。

The sentence means:

  "Ginza Bees Project" started in 2016. Now the roof of all three buildings in Ginza have the bees farms, and each has 200 to 300 thousands of bees.

In this sentence, the 只 is a measure word for 蜂蜜.

However, if you want to express it as "each has only 200 to 300 thousands of bees", can you still use 只? Or should you use a different word to express "only" in order to avoid the duplicate of 只 (or possibly the confusion as well)?

In this case, how should the whole sentence be if you add "only" in the sentence?

"只有20-30万只蜜蜂" is a valid sentence in simplified Chinese. You just have to read the two 只 differently, because they have different meanings.

The first "只" in the sentence means "only" in both simplified and traditional Chinese and it is read as /zhi3/.  (It can also be written as "祇" in traditional Chinese)
The second "只" in the sentence, is the simplified version of 隻 (classifier for certain animals) and it is read as /zhi1/

The sentence "只有20-30万只蜜蜂" is actually "祇有20-30萬隻蜜蜂" in traditional Chinese characters.


Difference between 换钱 and 挽钱 My take is that 挽钱 (wǎn qián ) would mean to withdraw money from an ATM and 换钱 (huàn qián) to change money
... or am I mistaken?a

No such saying as '挽钱'. It's not even a word.

'换钱' means exchanging money.

When you are going to withdraw money from an ATM, a Chinese usually says '取(qu3)钱'.


How to express gratitude as a house guest? How would the following sentence come across as a part of a thank you letter to a family receiving you as a guest in their home in Taiwan? The letter is to be sent before arriving as a "thank you in advance" gesture.

謝謝你們接待我當你們的家庭成員

an approach that's formal, more "literary chinese":

對府上之款待﹒先行拜謝

"先行拜謝" is, roughly "thank you in advance"

"府上" is the honourable term of "your home", you may change it to "貴府", "貴寓", or "尊府

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000038602

"款待" is, roughly "reception"

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000078380


了 vs 是...的 as "factuality markers" I'm a proponent of 了 as 'factuality marker' (that is it has nothing to do with 'perfectivity or completness of action'. See post: How exactly do time and "tense" work in Mandarin REALLY? for details about this theory.

Now, being what I'm, I've noticed second 'factuality marker' which acts almost exactly as 了. That marker is 是 in the 是...的 structure. There are couple of moments I would like to stress before the question:

Contrary to implicit 了, 是 explicitly (by nature of literal translation) states it's nature as "factuality marker".
As with 了, sentences with 是...的 tend to be translated in past tense.

The question: If 是...的 and 了 both render situation to facts, which in turn has correlation with being "in the past", what is the difference between them? Why have 2 'factualiy markers' (past tense markers by correlation).

Let's look at two senteces:

  我们是今天早上打网球的

  我们今天早上打网球了

What is the difference between them? Is there semantic difference? Can you give exaple when 是...的 can be used, but 了 can't?

(今天早上) (打网球)[了]

"打网球" is the fact; "今天早上" is the relative phrase that indicate what time it happened. Remove the relative phrase "今天早上" and write "我们打网球了", the sentence is still a complete sentence. (we still know you've played tennis, just don't know when)

[是] ([今天早上打网球) [的]

the entire phrase "今天早上打网球" is the fact
If you remove the relative phrase "今天早上" and write "我们是打网球的", the meaning would change completely. "我们是打网球的" means "we are people who play tennis"
The 'verb phrase' in  [是]+ (verb phrase )+[的] structure is a single item that cannot be broke apart
~

The (verb phrase)+ [了] structure can be in any tense
[是]+ (verb phrase )+[的] structure can only be in past tense

Example:

他(明天)要去美國(了)

"去美國" is the fact; 明天 is the relative phrase that indicate what time it will happen. Remove the relative phrase "明天" and write "他要去美國了", the sentence is still a complete sentence.  (we still know you will go to American, just don't know when)

他(是)明天要去美國(的)

It is grammatically incorrect, because 要去美國 is not a face yet, not until tomorrow.

他(原定)(是) 明天要去美國(的)

It is grammatically correct, because 原定(originally planed) is a fact, and it happened in the past.


verb. "to shoot" (weapon): difference between 射击，开枪， 击中， 射中 The verb shoot appears often in Chinese international news. But I am unclear about the different words for it.

射击 and 开枪 seem to be the firing of a gun and 击中，射中 hitting with a weapon, but could someone clarify the difference?

My dictionary says "hit with missile". Can any of these words be used for a rocket / missile attack too or are they only applicable to handguns and sporting guns?

I also wonder why the word 中 is part of these words in the context of shooting.

Thank you very much.

射击 is "shooting".
开枪 is "to pull the trigger (on a gun)".

So a shooting sport would be called 射击運動, and cover fire is called 掩護射击.

击中 means "hitting".
射中 means "hitting with a flying object".

It works with a self-propelled missile/artillery shell/arrows etc too.

The 中 is there to to contribute the meaning of a "hit" to the terms. 射 without 中 is only "shooting"; with 中 it becomes "shooting and hitting"


Difference between "believe" 认为 and 相信? This question is related to:
Is there any difference between 想, 觉得 and 以为?
What are the difference between e.g. 想, 觉得 and 认为 when expressing opinion?
In there, they mentioned both 认为 rènwèi and 相信 xiāngxìn mean to believe. I would like to know what differences they have in usage.

The key character in 相信 is 信 which means faith/trust. (相 is just there to turn 信 into a standard two-character word. It can be omitted in spoken language.)  I.e. there's some emotion involved. The object can also be a person or a belief (i.e. equivalent to "believe in").
For example, 我相信你 means "I trust you"/"I have faith in you/what you said".
认为... is literally "recognise ... as" and can be roughly translated as "have the opinion that". It involves no emotion, but a mere statement of thought. Also, it must be followed by a statement clause and not a simple subject.
Compare and contrast
相信 and 认为 are not interchangeable due to context:

我相信未来会更好 （Using 认为 will sound presumptuous)
科学家认为大爆炸是宇宙的起源 (相信 will make the belief sounds less scientific and more wishful thinking)

我相信我儿子是不会做坏事的
警方认为你儿子触犯了法律 (认为 is treated as stating a fact. When used with a character judgement, some kind of authority or evidence is required. Otherwise, it will sound libellous.)

They are not interchangeable due to grammatical structure:

我相信进化论 (= I believe in evolution.)
我认为进化论是真理 (= I believe that evolution is true.)


Table of Chinese characters taught in primary school, grouped by grade Is there a table like this for Chinese characters, that lists which Chinese characters are taught for each year of primary school?

(I'd like to learn Chinese, so this would be a great source of information about what characters to learn first.)

This list roughly groups the 5568 most common characters over the nine years of compulsory education in Taiwan. You didn't specify if you were looking for simplified or traditional, but since I only know of this one source and it's traditional, that's what I will recommend.
It should be noted that this isn't an official list of what pupils should learn, but rather the result of doing some statistics on textbooks and reading materials. I don't know what you want to use the list for, but as a learner of Chinese, the first seven levels are definitely useful and probably the eighth as well. The ninth level contains a lot of proper names and characters that aren't all that useful in my opinion.
Update March, 2020: The original web page is no longer reachable, so I have replaced the link to an archive copy over at Wayback Machine. This is the original link, which no longer works.


How does 儘 + 管 compound to mean "despite”? despite's "prepositional sense "notwithstanding" (early 15c.) is short for in despite of "in defiance or contempt of" (c. 1300), a loan-translation of Anglo-French en despit de "in contempt of."".
Cambridge English-Chinese Dictionary synonymizes "despite", before translating it". I understand how 管 means "influence".

without taking any notice of or being influenced by; not prevented by
不管；儘管；無論

Collins skips the intermediate step. p 317, ABC Chinese–English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003).  I can't access the "slightly revised through July 2005" ed.

p 451, op. cit.

But what  does 儘 signify here? What semantic notions underlie 儘 and "despite"?

One of the meanings of 儘 is no matter (任凭,纵使),

《左传·文十四年》：公子商人，尽其家贷於公。
《礼·曲礼》：虚坐尽后，食坐尽前。俗作尽。

So 儘 + 管 could be translated (literally) to no matter what the influence is

I'm just a native speaker, not a profession. I don't have an answer here, but I may share some of my thoughts that might be helpful.

In the second image, do notice it is 盡 not 儘 (however both characters simplify to 尽, making 尽 has 2 pronunciations(jǐn and jìn)
And in 儘管 it (only) pronounces jǐn
It shall be notice that compounding Chinese characters to words doesn't simplify compound their meanings.
Traditionally, I mean in Classical Chinese, 儘 already means despite. However the meaning of it twisted slightly (in most cases it means to the greatest extent  and always)
The same thing goes with 雖然 and 但是. If you split the characters and find out each of their meanings, you would find that 雖 and 但 literally mean the same.


Original phrase: You’ll earn less building rockets than you’ll earn selling eggs In Evan Osnos's book Age of Ambition he mentions that during the Cultural Revolution

  People took to saying, “You’ll earn less building rockets than you’ll earn selling eggs.”

What's the original Chinese phrase?

I've been 百度-ing for a bit now but to no avail.

It's 搞导弹的不如卖茶叶蛋的. It's usually used to describe 脑体倒挂, the special social phenomenon in 1980s and 1990s at Mainland China.

  脑体倒挂是指相同条件下脑力劳动者的报酬低于或等于体力劳动者取得的报酬数量。

[ 脑体倒挂 means under same condition, mental workers' income is less than blue-collar workers'. ]


What would a good gaming translation for 灵术 be? I found this online, and I'm not really sure how it can be translated to english.

灵 = spirit

术 = technique/surgery

So I think it would either be spirit technique, or spirit surgery, but neither makes sense in terms of games.

I doubt it is AP/Magic power, because that's 魔术 and not 灵术.

Without knowing the full context, my best guess is that 灵术 means spirit magic.

When translating, especially between unrelated languages like English and Chinese, there is often a lack of one-to-one correspondence between words. This is why when you look in a dictionary for the English definition of 术, you get multiple options like technique/surgery. However, when this character is paired with others, it can also take on the meaning of magic. This works the other way around too; when you try to translate magic to Chinese, you get multiple options as well, like 魔术 (magic as in magicians) or 魔法 (magic as in Harry Potter).

You probably won't find "灵术" in a dictionary. Since your context is video games, it's most likely that this is a constructed word for a specific type of magic, which usually have the "X术" form. To demonstrate, here are some other "X术" words that are specific types of magic:

妖术, lit. "supernatural magic", often translated as "sorcery"
巫术, lit. "witch magic", translated as "witchcraft" or "black magic"
通灵术, lit. "communicate with spirits magic", sometimes translated as "necromancy". Note that "ouija board" in Chinese is 通灵板.
仙术, lit. "divine magic", translated as "theurgy"

Interestingly, there are many "X术" words that have nothing to do with magic, such as 医术 (medicine) and 武术 (martial arts). This goes back to traditional Chinese culture, especially Taoism where there is no clear distinction between the natural and supernatural, and that many physical phenomena also have supernatural links, like the concept of qi.


(Cantonese) What's the right context in which to say, "三九唔識七"? What's the right context in which to say, "三九唔識七"? Would like to know how to properly use this phrase.

The phrase is used when you want to stress that some two people are complete strangers to each other. Examples:

我同佢三九唔識七，點敢叫佢幫忙呀？(I am a complete stranger to him. How can I bother him for help?)
阿仔，你同人三九唔識七，唔好咁易信佢呀！(My son, you know nothing about him. Don't trust him so easily.)

However, please note that the phrase is used essentially in spoken form but not in formal writings.


我给打过电话，但没有打通。 The use of 过 (not experienced) Hello I want to ask for the use of 过 in this sentence.

我给打过电话，但没有打通。
The translation of the book says,  I tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to phone her.
大卫的朋友最近打过电话给大卫吗?

What I understood is that 过 is to do with something if it has been experienced. For example 你看过这本书。  Have you (ever) read this book? But in the above example when it says 最近 it means that maybe they have telephoned before.

What is the difference in this sentences if you use 了?

Thanks in advance.

过 means: has done something
so 打过电话 means i have called him

in the mean time : 打了电话 means: i called him

the difference of the two chinese saying is: the first sentence is to emphasize that something is done by you, while "打了电话" or "打啦电话" is to telling a fact


Can I translate 哭拜 as mourn? Yesterday I was reading 孟母三迁。 (Your environment has a big effect on your development seems to be the underlying theme.)

’... ，孟子常常玩修筑坟墓或学别人哭拜的游戏。‘

I can't find 哭拜， so I suppose it is a contraction of something. Maybe 哭泣 + 膜拜，祭拜。 Together I presume it means 'mourn'.

Asking around I find, in China it is not unusual to pay someone to cry at a funeral. Are these people professional mourners? 哭拜者？ Is that what 孟子 was studying, professional mourners?

One quick translation I found on google books from Two Thousand Zhuang Proverbs from China with Annotations and Chinese and English Translation:

Daxnuengx bingzciengz yaek doxgyaez, ndei gvaq daengz seiz daejhenz moh.
姐妹平时相疼爱，胜过坟前相哭拜。
Dear love between sisters when alive is better than crying sadly in front of the grave.

It does go to show that 哭拜 is often associated with graves, like your sentence above.
I would doubt these are professional criers - especially with the Zhuang proverb talking about sisters mourning for one another.
edit: Here's another instance I found from Rocky English

When RuanJi was mourning for his mother, one day his friend PeiKai came to grieve for Ruan's mother. He saw that Ruan was in great silence and refused to stand up to grieve, just sitting aside without having his hair teased.
记得阮籍守丧期间，有一天朋友裴楷前去吊唁，在阮籍母亲的灵堂里哭拜，而阮籍却披散着头发坐着，既不起立也不哭拜，只是两眼发直，表情木然。

Here it gets translated as grieve.
Also there's a translation here on CSLPOD

不久，英台被迫出嫁，当花轿绕道至梁山伯坟前，英台执意下轿，哭拜亡灵，一时之间风雨大作、阴风惨惨，梁山伯的坟墓突然裂开，英台见状，奋不顾身地跳进去，坟墓马上合拢起来。
Soon, Yingtai was forced to get married. The bridal sedan chair made a detour to get to Liang Shanbo's grave. Yingtai insisted on getting off the sedan chair. All of a sudden, it became chilly and gloomy with wind and rain. Liang Shanbo's grave burst open. Yingtai fearlessly jumped in and suddenly the wind stopped and the rain too.

Here the translation is more just like to go to the grave.

So, 常常玩...学别人哭拜的游戏 just means that he often made a game of copying the mourners.

You might want to try and add it to MDBG. Here is the Add / change CC-CEDICT entry page.
You can fill out the submission form with your findings and comments.


Correct word for shiver 打颤 or 打战 Both 打颤 and 打战 mean shiver but I saw that in 兩岸詞典 they say that 打战 in the Mainland is not used “陸：今不用”. So which is the correct word to write for Mainland Mandarin?

打颤 is ok. Other translations include 颤抖, 哆嗦. I've never seen 打战 used in the Mainland, but 打寒战 (also 打寒颤) is ok (literally it means to shiver because of feeling cold, but it can also be used for someone shivering when experiencing a fright).

If you say 打战 in the Mainland probably it's gonna be interpreted as "go to war".


When to use "他的太太" and when "他太太"? I've read the two different sentences, of which one uses "他的太太" and the other uses "他太太". How can I tell the difference between the two?

For example, in the following sentence:

现在他想他的太太。
现在他想他太太。

Which is the correct sentence? And why?

When you want to express possessive relations concerning family members or relatives, you don't need 的.

我妈妈，你爸爸，她男朋友，我们家老大, etc.

I have done some searches with different expressions with and without 的, and I see that this rule is not applied consistently.

EDIT: There are ambiguous cases, e.g. 你们孩子 could mean "You children" or "Your children" (with plural you in both cases, of course). In such cases 你们的孩子 would make it clear what the speaker means.


Why “相同意思的词” is called “同义词” instead of “同意词”？ Why is the abbreviation of “相同意思的词” “同义词” instead of “同意词”？

同义词 = 相同 定义(definition) 的词

aka words with same definition.

As for why 同意词 isn't used, I cannot find any authoritative source, however I believe it's mainly to avoid conflict with the word 同意 (v. agree, n. agreement).


Verify/correct my sentence: 虽然 我喜欢去露营, 我不没时间去最近 还有我没有有人去跟。 I tested my simple translation skills and searched for an example English complex sentence on the internet...can someone judge my translation of this:

  Although I like to go camping, I haven't had time to go recently, and have nobody to go with.

to this:

  虽然 我喜欢去露营, 我不没时间去最近 还有我没有有人去跟。

Corrections (grammar, word order, word choice) very much appreciated.

When a sentence is started with a 虽然 (although), it is always followed by a "but" (但, 但是, 不过, 可是)

  虽然 我喜欢去露营 但

~

  Unlike in English, time is mentioned at the beginning of a clause,

  虽然 我喜欢去露营 但 最近...

~

  Most of the time, the subject 我 only need to be mentioned once in a sentence.

  虽然 我喜欢去露营 但 最近

~

  我不没时间去 - '不没' is a 'double negative'- delete '不'

  虽然 我喜欢去露营 但 最近 没时间去

~

  却  usually follows 但

  虽然 我喜欢去露营 但 最近 却没时间去,

~

  还有我没有有人跟。

  It is correct that 还有 means "also/ and" but in this case, use '也' make better connection between clauses in the sentence.
  omit 我
  跟 (with) should follow by the subject and verb [go with me]=[跟我去]

  也没有人跟我去。

Correct grammar:

  "虽然 我喜欢去露营 但 最近 却没时间去, 也没有人跟我去。"

Simplify: (You only need the verb '去' once)(没有 can reduced to 没)

  "虽然 我喜欢露营 但 最近 却没时间, 也没人跟我去。"


How to say "martlet" in Chinese? A martlet is:

  ... a heraldic charge depicting a stylized bird similar to a swift or
  a house martin, with stylized feet.

"Martlet" is not present in my Chinese dictionary, and Google Translate does not produce any results.

So how can I write "martlet" in Chinese?

Context: I am describing the appearance of a martlet in the coat of arms of a particular university.

martlet /märtlət/

If there's no official translation, you can always use transliteration.  For example 瑪勒鳥 (Mǎ Lēi bird)

Or you can call it '無足燕' , based on the description "swallow without feet"

Edit:

seems like user3306356 had found the official translation of martlet-- '无足鸟'(no feet bird) ; But I wonder, if it is a kind of swallow, why not call it '無足燕'(no feet swallow)?

学名岩燕 (scientific name:rock swallow), may be '岩燕' is a better choice?


What input method is easier to learn for a someone who can speak Chinese? I volunteer at a seniors' home in Canada, and am helping one (childfree, single) senior to buy a laptop. She speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, but no English. She needs a Chinese version of Windows, but doesn't know Pinyin or any Chinese keyboard input method. What will be easiest?

Writing characters with a stylus on an USB drawing pad plugged into the laptop?
Or  learning some input method, and typing Chinese?
Or some other solution?

Writing with a stylus would certainly be far easier than learning any input methods, especially for the aged, barring, of course, that they can’t already write. It is the same with smartphones and tablets at the moment. Many people in and above their fifties would rather write out the characters than type pinyin because of the unfamiliarity with Roman characters and pinyin in general.


Is Cantonese a better choice in studying classic of poetry (詩經)? Again, I ask this question, and provide my opinion as an answer, to reply to the comment of another thread in Stack Exchange:

Pronunciation of Tang Dynasty Poetry

Now, I ask again: in studying Classic of Poetry (詩經), is Cantonese better than Mandarin?

Any idea? Proof?

Cantonese might preserve more sound distinctions than Mandarin, but they're both derived (as are most, though not all, modern dialects) from Middle Chinese.

The current consensus, arrived at slowly over decades, appears to be that Old Chinese was toneless; this doesn't mean that predecessors of the entering "tone" didn't exist, but there were more endings than the -p, -t, -k that are currently retained by various dialects.  It had many more consonant distinctions, which over time were replaced by tone contour in Middle Chinese and all subsequent dialects (including the Min dialects, which are not derived directly from Middle Chinese).

It is certainly the case that if you read 詩經 in Mandarin, you will lose many of the rhymes and other phonetic consonances.  Probably, if you read it in Cantonese, you will lose fewer, though not all.  But in neither case will you hear it the way it was originally pronounced.  None of Old Chinese is directly attested, not even in the fanqie way that Middle Chinese was, so we don't even know for sure what the phonetic realizations were (although we have a generally good idea of what the phonemic distinctions were).  But it almost surely had initial and final consonant clusters that no modern dialect retains.

Some good references in this area are Axel Schuessler's ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, and William Baxter and Laurent Sagart's Old Chinese.  The latter even has a discussion of the effects of phonetic evolution on the pronunciation and rhymes of old poetry, and the authors are of course responsible for one of the prominent reconstructions of Old Chinese in recent memory.


Can you omit the 的 after 举办 in 北京奥运会是2008年举办的？ I know that this sentence is correct:

北京奥运会是2008年举办的。

But can you omit the “的” that is after the verb “举办”？

Like this:

北京奥运会是2008年举办[ ]。

I think, I have read some sentences that has omitted the “的” after a verb in the end of a sentence, but I'm not quite sure.

If you can, please provide me some examples.

北京奥运会是2008年举办的。

"北京奥运会是2008年举办的" is a [topic + comment/opinion] sentence

Topic: 北京奥运会 (Beijing Olympics)

Comment: 是 2008年 举办的 (is hosted by 2008)

(It is obviously wrong, it makes 2008年 the subject. I will state the correct sentence later in this post)
The '的' here is a [possessive marker]. It marks the omitted object to be possessed by [2008年]

2008年 举办的(项目)
2008年 is the subject; 项目 (or other noun refers to 北京奥运会) is the omitted object

The correct sentence should be:

"北京奥运会是在 2008年 举办的" (Beijing Olympics is hosted in 2008)
the subject '北京' is omitted, "北京奥运会是(北京)在 2008年 举办的"

In this sentence,  '的' is an [adjective marker]. It turns "在 2008年举办" into an adjective phrase "在 2008年 举办的"
This adjective phrase describes 北京奥运会 (Beijing Olympics that is hosted in 2008)
'的' cannot be omitted in this sentence.
To avoid using 的, you can change this [topic + comment/opinion] sentence into a [SVO] sentence and write "(北京)在 2008年 举办北京奥运会" - "(Beijing) held the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008"
Since we do not omit the subject '北京' here, we can omit the '北京' in '北京奥运会' instead -- "北京在 2008年 举办(北京)奥运会"


What is the difference between 看法 and 想法? Both can mean "view/idea/opinion".

For example, I can say:
对这个问题有两种不同的看法 (there are two different view on this question)

Would it be reasonable to replace "看法" with "想法"?

Think about a scenario: You and your group are asked to do a social survey, and you're going to pick up your topic by yourselves. So you called a meeting to discuss it. Everybody talked about their ideas(想法), and you vote for a topic.
Think about another scenario: At class, your professor played a piece of video about some hot news, and then he wanted you to talk about your own point of view(看法).
So, "想法" is usually used when there is some problem need to be discussed to solve. "看法" is usually used when people talked about their opinions about something happened or some social phenomenon.
"想" means you need to think and "看" means how you see this.
Yet in daily life, replace one with another won't make it a big deal, so people sometimes don't take the difference seriously, they just speak it out.
May this would help.


What is the difference between 怎么 and 如何？ Is it mostly a question of register?

Normally, 怎么 is more oral than 如何. 如何 can be read in much ancient literature, and it can also be used in formal documents, but that is too formal.

You may express "How about that?" saying:

  如何？

There is an idiom 如何是好, which expresses "What/How should I do?".


Example of stress or tone on a consonant Wondering if there is such thing as stress on a consonant, e.g. t́, ĺ, ḿ, ś, ʃ́... If so, what the example language would be. I haven't seen any on Wikipedia.

Same thing for tone, I haven't seen any tones specified for consonants, only vowels. So using pinyin, maybe like ť, š...

Taking the character 呣 for instance, we can have things like:

m̄

  叹词, 表示疑问。如：呣, 你说什么？(汉语大词典)

ḿ

  歎詞﹐用法同嗯﹐表示疑問﹑不以為然或出乎意外：呣﹐他去幹甚麼？(Longman’s)

m̀

  歎詞﹐用法同嗯﹐表示答應﹑應諾：呣﹐我這就去。(Longman’s)

There is also record of a neutral toned 呣:

m

  叹词, 表示应诺。如：呣, 我知道了。(汉语大词典)

——

嗯 similarly can give us things like:

ń
ň
ǹ


How do we extend 第二天 ("next day") to other days ("previous day", "same day", etc.)? 第二天: next day / the morrow

I find this a versatile and useful word, and wondering if it can be extended to "same day" and "previous day" versions.  There is this discussion at ChinesePod:

JP: 那么，今天是“第一天”，是吧？
JZ: 对。
JP: 第二天就是明天。
JZ: 没错。所以这个“第二天”形容的就是明天，啊。
(JP: John Pasden; JZ: Jenny Zhu)

However, I've never seen 第一天 used to mean "same day", it usually means "first day":

今天是我第一天上班。 "This is my first day at work."

So I'm not sure if 第一天 also means "same day".  I don't think 第三天, 第四天, etc., works, but maybe I'm wrong.
It seems 当天 is the suitable word for the "same day", and Google gives examples of 当天配送 = "same day delivery".  For "previous day", the CC-CEDICT dictionary gives 隔夜 = "overnight / of the previous day".  I'm not sure if this is the best choice, but I found the example 隔夜菜 = "overnight food" = "leftovers".  Maybe there is a better way of thinking about all this.
Question: How do we extend 第二天 ("next day") to other days ("previous day", "same day", etc.)?

You have to first understand what "第" means. It's used to point out the position of something from a sequence.
One, two, three, four, five, six: 一, 二, 三, 四, 五
First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth: 第一, 第二, 第三, 第四, 第五
So 第二天 isn't completely equal to "next day", but "the second day".
当天: same day (this is correct)
For "previous day", you're basically trying to refer to the "-1" day from today, so "第" cannot be used here...like there's no "negative first" in English.
Only phrase I can think of now is "前一天".
前: before, 一天: one day
so 前一天 = one day before = previous day
Example:
Today is his first day at work, but he started learning some related knowledge the previous day.
今天是他第一天上班, 但是他前一天就開始學習一些相關的知識。
Do keep in mind that 前天 means "the day before yesterday", so don't confuse it with 前一天
Edit:
To reply Wayne's comment.. 隔夜 is most often used as an adjective and pretty much equivalent to "overnight" in English.
You can also use "前一天的菜" to refer to 隔夜菜.

I usually like to prepare lunch the previous day, then bring to work
the next day. 我平常喜歡前一天把午餐準備好，然後隔天帶去公司吃。

My girlfriend wants to break up with my because I gave her my leftover
food from previous day(yesterday). She thinks overnight food is
disgusting. 我女朋友說要和我分手，因為我把我前一天(昨天)剩的飯給她吃。她覺得隔夜菜很噁心。

我平常喜歡隔夜把午餐做好 -> (X)  This doesn't sound natural


Definitions for 挒 and 掤 Saw these two characters in a Tai Ji DVD: 掤 and 挒, but I couldn't find them in my dictionaries.  Are these archaic, very specialized, or something else?
The English the definitions the Tai Ji teacher provided are:
掤 - expanding energy,
挒 - splitting energy.

This is the full list of "energies" that were discussed in the lesson. The definitions in the lecture seemed (to me) to be similar to the dictionary definition, except for the above two.
掤 - expanding
履 - roll back / redirect
擠 - squeezing
按 - pushing
採 - pulling (down)
挒 - splitting
肘 - elbow
靠 - body leaning

Let me know if 掤 and 挒 are very specialized words.

挒 is defined in Grand Ricci as:

  liè
  3 (Arts mart.) Se fendre; utiliser les deux forces opposées pour bloquer ou déséquilibrer l’adversaire.

Which Google translates as:

  3 (Arts mart.) Split; use the two opposing forces to block or unbalance the opponent.

Arts mart. should probably just be switched to martial arts.

掤 is defined in Grand Ricci as:

  bīng
  2 (Arts mart.) Mouvement des bras pr repousser l’adversaire ds la direction d’où il vient.

Which Google translates as:

  2 (Arts mart.) Movement of the arms to repel the opponent in the direction from which he has come.