What's the main difference between 为 and 是? It seems like both 为 and 是 mean "to be". In which cases is one used but not the other? Is it something like the difference between "estar" and "ser" in Spanish and Portuguese? (In the sense that one is constant in time while the other is transient). Thanks.

为 has a lot meanings, and so does 是. A common meaning between 为 and 是 is "to be" or other variations of "to be", like "being". 为 is used more for its other meanings than "to be", while 是 is used more for "to be" than its other meanings. When meaning "to be", in some cases, 为 and 是 are interchangeable. For example:

  我们今年的工作目标 为 ...
  我们今年的工作目标 是 ...

But there are some cases where 是 cannot be replaced by 为, for example:

  Yes: 我 是 一名学生.
  No: 我 为 一名学生(X).

为 has another meaning very close to "to be", which is "regard ... as ... " in the pattern of 以...为..., for example

  以 厂 为 家, 以 人 为 本, 民 以 食 为 天, 以 救国救民 为 己任, etc.

In this case, 为 cannot be replaced with 是. By the way, 为 and 是 can even be used together, like 自以为是. But here 为 means "believe", and 是 means "right", or "correct". 自以为是 means "consider oneself always right". 自以为是 is a derogatory term, used to show dislike, disagreement or disapproval.

Another example:

  是为序。

Here 是 means "this", 为 means "is", 序 is "preface", so the whole sentence means "this is the preface". It is sometimes used to end a preface.

One more example:

  何以为是，何以为非？无以为是，无以为非。

Here both 是 mean "true" or "truth", both 非 mean "false" or "falsehood". All the 4 为 mean "to be".

According to above-mentioned samples, 为 means that it is NOT xxx but very like xxx. In Chinese words, (可能它一定不是xx，但也可能它现在不是xx，将来可能是, 但)把它当作是xx。

Example: 以厂为家，厂 is not home，but someone treats it as home。

  今年的目标为xx，i.e. 我们把xx当作今年的目标。

为 implies that we assign a role to a thing actively/explicitly, but 是 implies that a thing does natively have the role.


What does it mean to be scratched or scraped? I tried to translate these sentences from a convo and got a weird translation.

淺藍不戰爭會被瓜分的.

Light blue will not be divided by war.

綠國刮分結束.

The green country scrapes the end.

再來是淺藍.

Again, light blue

Could someone tell me if the translation is correct and what does it mean?

淺藍(light blue)不(don't)戰爭(war)會(will)被瓜分(be divided)的

Translated it means: Light blue will be divided if it does not "war".

However, 戰爭 means war, whereas 戰鬥 is the word to fight. Based on the context it would seem like a typo here. So the corrected sentence would be 淺藍不戰鬥會被瓜分的.

  綠(green)國(country)刮分(divide)結束(finish/end)

Translated it means: Green is now divided.

I don't think theres this word 刮分. It's likely another typo since they both have the same pinyin guā. It should be the one above, 瓜分(divide).

  再(again)來(come)是(is)淺藍(light blue)

Translated it means: Next would be light blue.

再來是(literally, coming again is) when used together means "next up is". You can think if it as you are playing a series of chess games, the game master would say "再來是[Insert name here]" to announce that the person is coming up next.

再來是(next up is) is implying that something is happening and something else is next. Based on the context of the conversation, you can imply that what they are saying as:

"Green is now divided, light blue is next."


Meaning and origin of 小確幸 小確幸 is a newly popular word in Taiwan. It supposedly comes from a Japanese novel. Is this right? If so, who was the author, and what was the book? Does anyone have any suggestions for a translation? (I would like translations with some specific basis.) If you are from Taiwan, would you feel this word is appropriate to use? In what context? If you are from mainland China, are you familiar with this word? How widely known or used is it there?  Thanks.

小确幸 is borrowed from Japanese 小確幸, which is created by the Japanese novelist 村上春树 (Haruki Murakami) in his collection of essays ランゲルハンス島の午後 (兰格汉斯岛的午后, Afternoon in the Islets of Langerhans). In Japanese, it means 小さいけれども、確かな幸福, you can translate it as little but certain happiness same as here.

And according to here,

  村上春樹の造語「小確幸」（しょうかっこう）は本作品の原題 "A Small, Good Thing" に由来する。

and here (it seems to be a replay to a question from some reader by 村上春树)

  そうですね、レイモンド・カーヴァーのいうところの『ささやかだけれど、役にたつこと』を大事にしていきたいですね。僕流にいえば「小確幸」です。

  村上春樹拝

【是啊，Raymond Carver所说的这种"a small, good thing", 想要一直珍惜下去呢。用我的话来说就是"小确幸".】

It seems that 小確幸 derived from A Small, Good Thing, which is an award-winning story written by the American short story writer and poet Raymond Clevie Carver Jr., so might translate it as A small, good thing as well.

And according to here (it seems come from a conversation between 村上春树 and his fans), and here (the 2nd comment),

  （小確幸は）「しょうかっこう」です。英語ではsmall, solid happinessです。略してSMASOLIHAP「すまそりはっぷ」です。言いにくいですね。やはり日本語の「しょうかっこう」の方がいいな。
  【村上朝日堂「スメルジャコフ対織田信長家臣団」】

村上春树 translate it as small, solid happiness by himself, and SMASOLIHAP for short.

And here is a passage from 村上春树, it explains the sense of 小确幸, maybe could help you to understand how to use it:

  生活の中に個人的な「小確幸」（小さいけれども、確かな幸福）を見出すためには、多かれ少なかれ自己規制みたいなものが必要とされる。たとえば我慢して激しく運動した後に飲むきりきり冷えたビールみたいなもので、「うーん、そうだ、これだ」と一人で目を閉じて思わずつぶやいてしまうような感興、それがなんといっても「小確幸」の醍醐味である。そしてそういった「小確幸」のない人生なんて、かすかすの砂漠のようなものにすぎないと僕は思うのだけれど。

【要找出生活中自己的小确幸的话，多少需要一些类似自我约束的东西。比如自我忍耐激烈运动之后喝的清凉的冰镇啤酒，一个人闭上眼睛不知不觉地嘟囔出"嗯，对了，就是这个"的感觉，不管怎么说都是小确幸的精髓。而且没有这种小确幸的人生，我觉得不过就是干巴巴的沙漠罢了。】

Reference:
http://www.haruki-m.com/meigen/uzumaki.html
ささやかだけれど、役にたつこと
小确幸
小确幸 原文
村上的“小确幸”和我的“小确幸” / 林少华


What does 而将活活地被压死 mean? "而将活活地被压死" could you break down the meaning of that sentence?

“杞人憂天”新解

  從前在杞國，有一個膽子很小，而且有點神經質的人，他常會想到一些奇怪的問題，而讓人覺得莫名其妙。

  有一天，他吃過晚飯以後，拿了一把大蒲扇，坐在門前乘涼，並且自言自語的說：

  “假如有一天，天塌了下來，那該怎麼辦呢？我們豈不是無路可逃，而將活活地被壓死，這不就太冤枉了嗎？”

我們豈不是無路可逃，而將活活地被壓死。
We will have no way to run away, but will be crushed to death alive.

(而)(將)(活活地)(被壓死)
(but) (will) (be crushed to death) (alive)

而 but
將 will
活活地 alive
被壓死 be crushed to death


Is 看怎麼理解? a generalized expression for "it depends" in Mandarin? How about for Cantonese? A movie used the phrase 看怎麼理解 to mean, "it depends."

The context was character A asking character B if something is good or bad. Character B responded with 看怎麼理解.

1) Is 看怎麼理解 a generalized phrase for "it depends?" For instance, can you say 看怎麼理解 if someone asks if a restaurant is good, and you want to say, "it depends?"

2) If not, when can you use 看怎麼理解, and what's a generalized phrase for "it depends?"

3) Is it different for Cantonese?

This question is similar to another one, but not the same. This one is more to understand how 看怎麼理解 varies from other ways to say "it depends" and when 看怎麼理解 is applicable.

看怎么理解 is okay, but it wouldn’t be appropriate in all cases because 理解 is, in of itself, quite specific.

A more general phrase for 看怎么理解 would be:

  看你怎么看

(P.S.: adding a 你 in between sounds a lot more natural)


Any ideas on the origin of the 绍 character? Any ideas on the origin of the 绍 character? Studying for finals and I need a coherent way to associate the silk, knife, and mouth radicals. In the phrase 介绍.

The real way to describe characters should only utilise a surface level, not recursive, decomposition.

「紹」originally meant to continue. The meaning introduce is a semantic extension from to continue > to bring two things together > to introduce.
「紹」is made from semantic「糸」(silk threads) and phonetic「召」(zhào or shào).

「糸」as a semantic component, sometimes in an abbreviated form「幺」, appears in many characters to do with linking, continuation, such as「繼」(to continue),「續」(to join together),「系」(to tie, link > system, series), 「斷」(to break),「胤」(offspring).
「召」is comprised of phonetic「刀」(dāo) and semantic「口」(mouth), and originally meant to beckon, call, summon. There was originally no meaning connection between「召」and「紹」; any connection between to call and to introduce is coincidental, but you can utilise this connection as a mnemonic.
Other characters using「召」as a phonetic component include 招昭炤沼詔邵韶.「召」, like many other components used as a phonetic, may not contribute any semantic value to the whole character.


Why does 考 precede 中文 in 我下个星期要考中文? In my Chinese textbook, for a dialogue, one of the lines says "我下个星期要考中文". Why is 中文 after 考, shouldn't the sentence be "我下个星期要中文的考"?

考 is the verb.

  我 / 下个星期 / 要 / 考 / 中文
  I / next week / will / test / Chinese

If it helps, you could regard 考中文 here as a set construction meaning "to have a Chinese test". Same for 考数学 etc.


What is the difference between 目前 and 現在? In my research, 目前 and 現在 seem all mean now or present.

So native speakers or Chinese advanced learners, is there any difference between 目前 and 現在?

The pair of words "目前" and "現在" draws parallel to "for the time being" and "now" in English. In many circumstances you can use them interchangeably, but in some cases, "目前" has an additional implication that that the current conditions are subject to change shortly. If you want to use a stronger word than "目前" to stress that the situation is volatile, use "暫時" ("provisionally") instead.


What is a good resources to read easy Chinese texts? I started learning Chinese and want to find some short texts to practice my reading. I've found http://chinesereadingpractice.com/ where you can find some interesting posts, but even beginners text are very complex.
Is there any resources for very basic and elementary Chinese level?

LingQ has a huge library of texts that generally also include audio. You can read any of the texts you like without paying for a subscription, as long as you don't want to add unknown words to your wordlist (creating LingQs). I have not paid for a subscription and find it to be very useful.

If you do want to create a wordlist of the words you don't know for reviewing in Anki or another SRS program, the I would highly recommend LWT. I tend to import texts from LingQ so that I can take advantage of the huge library. The system is definitely not as polished as LingQ, but it certainly useful. There are a lot of very useful tutorials for how to use LWT to help with Language learning including:

Street Smart Language Learning;
Fluent In 3 Months: Introducing LWT;
The Mezzofanti Guild: How To Install Learning With Texts On Your Own Computer.

I have just started on my own reading challenge and this is how I am doing it, but obviously this is just how it works best for me.

Another good place to find reading resources is Hacking Chinese Resources and Olle's Reading Chinese Challenge and associated reading resource post.

I hope this helps :-)


What's the reverse version of the saying "既要做婊子，又要立牌坊"? The saying 既要做婊子，又要立牌坊 is used derogatorily to describe someone who does bad things but want to have good reputation. Does it have a reversed or non-derogatory version which is also a saying or idiom? For example, when you want to praise someone who tells truth about something, meanwhile hurting someone/some people's feelings.

“既要做婊子, 又要立牌坊” describes someone commits to do something without the resolution of facing its consequence. For example, someone sells snake oil but feel bad about taking money from poor people (if you really want to be a con man, you can't avoid being ruthless)

The opposite expression would be "吃得咸魚抵得渴" (since you committed to eat salted fish, being thirsty is expected)


What does this mean in English, please? [广州市]【广州国际中心】已出口直封 What does this mean in English? I am expecting a parcel to be delivered.

Guangzhou city, Guangzhou International Center, Already exported for direct delivery while sealed (meaning they won't open it again for inspections)


What exactly does 媽个八子 mean? Are those the correct characters? I understand it to be profanity but how bad is it? Worse than 你妈的 ? Any insight would be appreciated, just find this to be a funny expression that I haven't heard of before.

Well, I agree that @NS.X said.

First, it should be "妈了个巴子", not "妈个巴子".

Second, it is much worse than "他妈的".

Actually, if you are angry with something, you can say "他妈的", to express your dissatisfied emotion. But please do not use it to a person. However, please do not use "妈了个巴子" even if for a thing, since it is too coarse.

Anyway, it is not good to say these kind of word in China. Others may look down on you.


Mandarin equivalent of the English opening word 'since'? In English, we often use the word since in the context such as

'Since it's hot outside, we should stay inside' and introduce a cause and effect. I know there's the phrase 因为。。所以 and I could also say

外面太热， 我们应该不出门。

But I want to know if there's a word that gives something like 'since' in English.

Maybe you would like to know the word 既然 for since.
ABC English's entry for since says:

2 因为 yīnwèi; 既然 jìrán
Since you're so smart, you do it.
既然你这么聪明,你来做吧。
Jìrán nǐ zhème cōngming, nǐ lái zuò ba.

But, I think you've already grasped something more fundamentally important from the example sentence you wrote: you don't translate since into colloquial Chinese. You can just as simply put two sentences together and the context will be clear, while words like 既然 are seldom heard in spoken Chinese.


Translation; "出来混的，迟早要还的" What's a good translation for:

  出来混的, 迟早要还的

What comes around, goes around?

I would say your "What comes around, goes around." is a good translation. Another idiom you can use is "You reap what you sow." The only small drawback with both is that they don't necessarily imply suffering justice/reprisal for criminal activity, as the Chinese phrase does. I say small drawback however, because with context that shouldn't generally be a problem.

A non-idiomatic translation could be: "When you lead a life of crime, sooner or later you have to pay your debts."


Pronunciation differences between pinyin 'zh' and 'ch', and between 'qi' and 'xi' Although this question states that these sounds can be often mixed (though mainly in dialtects...)

Do you know where I could find a detailed description of position and movement of the tongue
for these consonants - so as to learn how to make it sound properly.

For example I have very much difficutly making a different sound between 中 zhong1 and chong2 虫... because I don't know how to make them sound different. I feel like the zh should be a little more stronger, exploding. But on several audio excerpts, the ch is also strong.

Idem, I would say that x is a little more windy, and q has a soft and really short 'k' at the beginning of the beginning of the sound... but that's not precise enough to make it sound right all the time.

The difference between zh and ch has nothing to do with the position of the tongue: these two are pronounced with the tongue in the same position; the difference is aspiration -- ch is aspirated while zh is not. Both are retroflex affricates.

x and q have less in common -- actually q and ch are much closer to an untrained ear, as they're both aspirated affricates -- the only difference being the position of the tongue, ch being a retroflex, and q an alveo-palatal. x on the other hand is not aspirated, and a fricative. Actually x is close to the German Ich-laut (except ch in Ich is a palatal rather than an alveo-palatal).


How do I negate a 要……了 structure? If someone says:

  要下雨了。

But I want to deny that statement, how would I do that? I thought about 不会下雨, but it seems as if I'm using another grammar. Is there a way closer to 要……了 that I can use to negate the sentence? Would 不要下雨了 be OK?

Thanks!

As matter of fact, in my opinion, 不会下雨 is very good choice.

I tried to "directly" negate "要下雨了", but didn't find any way that is natural. The best I got is "不是要下雨了", which may be used to answer the question "是要下雨了吗？". It is simply a statement that "要下雨了" is not true, which may be "it won't rain", or "it is already raining heavily now", or something else.

Another way of saying it is "下不了雨", which means "it won't rain/it is not possible to rain".


How do I say "least" in the superlative sense in Mandarin? I've seen "the least expensive" translated as 最便宜的. Does this inversion always have to happen, or is there a way to say "least"?

As suggested by some comments, it depends on the context, and what you would like to stress with this phrase.

Without any context, it sounds exactly the same with "the cheapest". In this way, 不贵 is 便宜, 最便宜的 is the translation.

However, if you are trying to say all these things are expensive, but this one is the least expensive one among them, then 最不贵的 is better. However, when you use this phrase, your audience should either have the knowledge that all these things are expensive, or you should explicitly stress mention that. Otherwise, it doesn't sound natural.


Is 我认为保护环境将为子孙后代保证未来 correct? Does it make sense? 我认为保护环境将为子孙后代保证未来

I am trying to say that saving the environment will guarantee a future for future generations. Does it actually mean that or have I made mistakes?

Yes, it's right. But, it's much better to say, 我认为保护环境就是保护子孙后代的未来.


How Did Third Eye Blind Get Translated As 心灵蒙蔽合唱团? I don't often see a lot of foreign bands names translated but came across this:
网易云音乐

心灵蒙蔽合唱团
Third Eye Blind

How Did Third Eye Blind Get Translated As 心灵蒙蔽合唱团?

合唱团 means chorus, does it not, they're certainly not a chorus either...

I would think it's a mistranslation.  合唱团 means chorus, where 乐队 means band.    As why it's called / translated as "心灵蒙蔽":

  心灵 - soul / spirit.  As eyes are called windows of the soul, 心灵 is
  used insteads of 眼.  Also see Ampersand's comment for connotations on
  third eye.

  蒙蔽 - clouded / covered.  Nothing's wrong here

As the direct translation - 第三只眼失明乐队 doesn't sounds quite right (I laughed reading it), 心灵蒙蔽乐队 might be a more valid translation

EDIT: thanks to leo4jc, "瞎心眼樂隊" is even more catchy


What does "大开大合" mean? I checked this out, but I couldn't really understand the meaning behind it.

  形容文思跌盪，放得開，收得攏。

Does it mean good introduction, and good conclusion or something similar?

It means that the usage of every word is in the person's control. Having an outstanding command of the language, the person knows where to conclude the article and how to put all of the inspirations in. In addition, the person also has a lot of ideas, making the person usually write a lot in a short period of time (also in good quality). As a native speaker, this is my interpretation.


How to use jyutping as an input method on windows 8.1 Is there a way to use Jyutping as the input method on Windows 8.1?

You can try the Cantonese Phonetic IME at http://cpime.hk/. I don't know about specific support for Windows 8.1, but it works on prior versions of Windows.


Mandarin: tongue placement when pronouncing ü words like 學 and 去 that begin with q, x, j? Many Mandarin pronunciation guides suggest pronouncing the ü vowel with a tense tongue in mid-mouth as when pronouncing the "yi" sound.

However, for words starting with q, j, x, many sites suggest placing the tongue so it grazes the back of your bottom teeth.

For ü words that start with q, j, and x, how do you reconcile these tips?

Should the tongue graze the back of your bottom teeth, or should the tongue hold the position of the "yi" sound?

Use this guidance, it is entirely correct. This guy (John Pasden) has been the resident "foreign learner" on ChinesePod podcasts nearly from the beginning, for many years, before opening his own company.

Or on his other site, even with tongue placement pictures.


How to express "until ~" in Chinese? Suppose that I want to express the following (sample) sentence:

There is still 3 hours until the departure of the flight.

If you use a dictionary, the matched entries for "until" would be something like the follows:

到飞机起飞还有三个小时。

However, I feel it is a bit awkward, and also feel that 到 is not the appropriate word here, at least I don't think Chinese people use it much often.
Another example:

X: 下次等到假期准备在那多玩几天
I: Then until you come here I should improve my speaking skills!

With my limited writing skills, I might write it like:

那到你下次来的时，我应该学多。

In these cases, is 到 the appropriate word or how should I express "until ~" better in Chinese?

I think the problem is, you cannot expect to translate Chinese to English (or English to Chinese) literally, word-by-word. The way that a sentence is constructed is way too different in these languages that translate word-by-word would lead to all kinds of awkward situations.

In your first example,

  There is still 3 hours until the departure of the flight.

I would consider the following expressions in spoken language:

   飞机              还有  3个小时               起飞。
The flight | (is) | still 3 hours | (from) | departure.

To emphasize 3 hours:

   飞机       还有  3个小时        才         起飞。
the flight | still 3 hours | only until | take off.
 还有  3个小时      飞机           才         起飞。
still 3 hours | the flight | only until | take off.
==> The plane will only take off until 3 hours later.

Note that "until" is left out or changed by reordering those elements in your original sentence.

Or if you want to make it feel like an announcement (more formal), change the word to 距离(also means "until" in some situation) will be more suitable:

 距离             飞机起飞                  还有         3个小时。
Until | the departure of the flight | there is still | 3 hours.

As for the second example, it also requires some reordering and changes to wording:

  Then until you come here I should improve my speaking skills!

 那           你下次来之前，        我  应该            多    练习。
Then | before you come next time | I should | (do) | more practice.
==> Then I should practice more before you come next time.

However, it doesn't mean that you have to left out "until" every time. Consider this example:

The company was in chaos until he became the manager.

Including "until" here or not makes the meaning quite different:

直到他成为经理之前，公司一片混乱。
　　他成为经理之前，公司一片混乱。

You can infer from the first sentence that he is the key to the change of company. But the latter sentence could simply be a statement of fact, not necessarily credit him for the change.

So, the expression for "until" depends very much on the context IMO.


Translation: ‘phone it in’ Is there a idiomatic translation for ‘phone it in’ in Chinese?
Bolded what I'm looking for above, I'm not looking for things like 敷衍了事, but something more idiomatic.
In case anyone is confused as to what phone it in means, the Advanced English Dictionary defines it as:

phone it in
(idiomatic) To fulfill a responsibility with a minimum effort rather than the appropriate level of effort.

“敷衍了事” is a right Chinese saying to describe your situation.

Besides,you can also say something like “搪塞”，“蒙混过关”…… related to this meaning.


How could've 叻 originated from 頔, 犖, , when they share no etymons? 2, 3, 4 and their etymons don't appear related to 口 + 力 morphologically.   I spot the "uncertain" below, so I'm not seeking anything certain or definite.

Glyph origin
Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 口 (“mouth; colloquial”) + phonetic 力 (OC *rɯɡ).
Etymology 1
Uncertain. Various theories exist:
[1.]   From 㔹 (MC lək̚, “having the talent and power of ten people”).
[2.]   From 頔 (MC dek̚, “good”).
[3.]   From 犖 (MC lˠʌk̚), as in 犖犖 (MC lˠʌk̚ lˠʌk̚, “clear; evident”), 卓犖 (MC ʈˠʌk̚ lˠʌk̚, “outstanding; extraordinary”).
[4.]   From  (MC lek̚), as in  (MC lek̚ luk̚, “to see clearly”).

https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-etymology.php?zi=%E9%A0%94#

https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-etymology.php?zi=%E7%8A%96#

https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-etymology.php?searchChinese=1&zi=%E5%9A%A6#

As stated in the comments by drOOOze, characters are not words themselves, but are representations of words or morphemes; thus the structure of 「叻」 likely has no relation to the etymology of the word /lɛːk̚⁵/ (Jyutping: lek1).
Most Sinitic topolects don't have a well-recorded written history, so sometimes it can be difficult to trace the origin of words. When the origin of a word can't be traced, people may choose to represent the word in writing by either creating a new character, or by borrowing an existing character for its sound. A common practice in Cantonese is to create a new character by taking an existing character which sounds similar to a word, and then adding semantic 「口」 to it to indicate that this new character represents some verncular word. This practice is why you have characters like 「嗰」, 「喺」, and 「啲」. In the case with lek1, meaning clever or capable, the character 「叻」 is often used to represent it, consisting of phonetic 「力」 (i.e. 「力」 sounds similar to lek1), and semantic 「口」. Also note that because written forms of modern Chinese languages outside of Standard Written Chinese are not standardized, so you may see the same word represented in a variety of ways.
Because the origin of the word lek1 is not clear, we can only theorize where the word came from until more convincing evidence is found. From the looks of the Wiktionary entry, all the theories suggest that lek1 came from a character that sounds like it (or sounds like the reading lek1 could be derived from that character's pronunciation); the theories are not suggesting, for instance, that the character 「叻」 is derived from characters like 「頔」 (because it isn't). Notice that the characters listed under the suggested theories share these common traits:

Their Middle Chinese reconstructions all have alveolar consonants as initials (/l-/ or /d-/).
Their Middle Chinese reconstructions all end in /-k/.
They all have meanings where clever or capable seem like possible semantic extensions.

As you can see, none of the above points relate to character structure. It is their sound and meaning which are important here.

As an aside, I'd like point out that if you want to accurately understand character structure as a way to help you learn characters, Yellowbridge does not seem like a reliable site for this. I'll point out a problem in one of the entries as an example:
In the first screenshot, 「由」 is broken down into 「丨」 and 「田」, but 「由」 functionally does not contain either of those. If you compare the evolutions of 「田」 and 「由」, you can clearly see that their origins are different, and the breakdown given in the screenshot is merely on a graphical level. Graphical breakdowns are not particularly helpful for learning, because they don't always inform you how the character hints at sound and/or meaning (i.e. connections to the spoken language).
If you would like an reliable source for character breakdowns, I'd suggest checking out Outlier's dictionary.


How to pronounce English words in Chinese Say you have a word in English like "stone" or "parabola". How do you write that in Chinese literally so that it is pronounced in Chinese like it is in English? That is, you can write the pinyin version perhaps of these words, so you get the sound right (stoan perhaps, and p'raboaluh I don't know haha). Then you convert that to Chinese characters.

How does this work?

I am not asking how to translate simple words from English to Chinese. Instead I am asking how to sort of transliterate English words (or any non-Chinese word) into Chinese.

Basically, in English you can take Chinese words like 到 and go to pinyin "dao" and to english "Tao". So we can write any Chinese word in English (Not perfectly accurately because of tones, but pretty close). But how do you do the reverse, and write an English word in Chinese?

The use case is I would like to create a brand such as "MyBrand" and then have it pronounced "My Brand" in Chinese as well, or as close to it as possible.

There are two directions you mentioned:

transliteration or romanisation using Wade-Giles (Tao for 道) or Pinyin (Dao for 道) to write/spell/pronounce chinese characters/words (see Taoism VS Daoism). This facilitates the usage of Chinese words in English language (e.g. Beijing).
loan words or using English words in Chinese language

You are asking for the latter.

How to choose characters?

For the selection of matching chinese characters  there is always the trade-off between phonetic (sound) as well as semantic (meaning) similarity.

Some are just resembling phonetic:
For example 打的 (dadi) means (to go by) taxi. It's colloquial although there are "original" chinese idioms for that, e.g. 出租车 (chuzuche) meaning taxi (or rental-car in Taiwanese).

Difficult to reflect both, sound and meaning:
Especially foreign businesses are smartly applying creativity to give there brands recognizable chinese names (easy to associate and remember).

That effort leads for example to IKEA translated to 宜家 (yijia) literally proper-home, or Cola to 可乐 (kele) literally amusing/entertaining.

Localised Foreign Brand Names

Since you are asking especially for the "translation" of brand names, there are further aspects for selecting the right characters/words:

cultural fit
socioeconomic and psychological associations
historical and traditional reflections

Above factors are essential for designing brands, not only for translating their names.

The difficulty in selecting a suitable chinese brand name may even include visual (stylish) aspects: aesthetic and beauty of the characters, since they should appeal visually to the target audience:

  The translation from English brand to Chinese brand involves issues of “translating a name from a letters -and- phonemes-based phonographic language (i.e. English) to a visual-character-based logographic language (i.e. Chinese)”  (Schmitt & Zhang, 2012, p.656).

Refer to examples where the name was selected to incorporate such aspects, although neither matching phonetically nor semantically:

Poison (a luxury fragrance) was retranslated to 百爱神 (Bai Ai Shen), which means everyone will love it. So that people would like to purchase it, rather than they would if it has a negative connotation like its original name and meaning.

Further Reading

Branding in China is covered by many Studies and Research Papers, published at Universities by sinologists and economists alike:

Shi, H. (2017). Translation Strategies from Target Culture Perspective: An Analysis of English and Chinese Brands Names.  International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 5 (1), 15-22.
Berende, B. (2012) : What’s in a Name?  A study on the success factors of brand naming in China. Master Thesis, Jönköping International Business School


了 in 我在这里两个星期了 / "I've been here for two weeks" What is the precise function of 了 in the sentence

我在这里两个星期了 / "I've been here for two weeks"

?

Is it a marker of completed action? Is it saying "already"? What does the sentence mean if 了 were omitted?

我在这里两个星期了

了 here denotes a completion. It could be rendered with the perfect tense in English. Staying here for two weeks is completed, namely I have been here for two weeks(already).


How can I say “there was already a lot of salt in the meat”? In a restaurant I asked for dry fried green beans (干煸豆角) with no salt.  The woman was very kind and asked if hot peppers are okay (yes) and when she told the cook I heard her say don’t add salt.  When they came though they had very much salt.  Delicious but I should not eat that.  She said they had not added salt, which was true in a way.  But of course the cook had made up the peppers-and-meat seasoning at the start of the day.  It had a lot of salt in it.

I fear I did not explain the problem very well to her, because that past-perfect construction was beyond me.  How can I say “there was already a lot of salt in the meat”?

The people were so kind I want to go back.  But I have to be able to explain this to them.

Henry HO and user6065 give good ideas of what I should have said yesterday in the first place.  And I will use those suggestions in the future at other restaurants.

But when it happened, the woman was very concerned to say "He did not add any salt."  And I tried to agree "Yes, I know he did not add any.  The meat was already salty."  She really wanted to help me and I wanted to explain that I appreciated that even though the result was too salty for me to eat.

I can easily say I know he did not add any.  The second part is harder for me.

我知道你们没有放盐，但是可能因为肉是腌过的，所以对我来说还是太咸了。这不是你们的错，我仍然非常感谢你们对我的照顾（帮助）。

This translates into:

  I know you did not add salt, but, possibly because the meat was pickled, it was still too salty for me. This is not your fault. I still thank you very much for the care you have shown me.

Hence, this is a polite and considerate way of addressing the issue.


Handwriting Certain Radicals I notice that some typefaces (especially ones used in old texts) have some radicals displayed differently than what I usually see. For example sometimes I see the 糹 (left-side) radical displayed like 糸 (compare bottom three strokes), the 示 (left-side) radical displayed like , the 食 (left-side) radical displayed like , and the 隹 radical (compare top dot) displayed like  . Would it be considered odd for people to actually hand write these radicals this way? Or is this more of a "old/computer typeface" kind of thing?

They are just different writing styles which we can tolerate.Because the governments in Chinese using regions have established standards on which is the right way (正體字, lit. correct form character) and which is the wrong way (異體字, lit. different form character), these typefaces are used less and less.

Please see:

中文字元資料頁：港標中文網 for the right and wrong ways to write in Hong Kong
You might want to check this one especially: 《〈常用字字形表〉異體字表》 (pdf檔)
, note that the left side is the standard form in Hong Kong and the right side is a wrong form.
標準國字研討 for the right and wrong ways to write in Taiwan and the rules on how to create a Traditional Chinese font for use in Taiwan

I'm not studying language, but as far as I know, the modern Chinese typeface is based on Seal Script and how it was evolved. Each component of a character in Seal Script corresponds to "the basic 8 strokes" and this is how the Ming/Song typeface is based on.

And so, because of this very fact, Hong Kong and Taiwan defines different characters as the "correct form", one example might be  (left: HK; right: TW)

And you mentioned "食":

from: http://www.zdic.net/z/28/zy/98FD.htm In the second row, you can see the correct form in different regions: (left to right) Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Old typeface. The third row are different forms of "飽" that means the same but not considered standards and I know none of them except "饱" which is used in Mainland China.

For comparison, this is the same character in Seal Script, so you can see how the curvy lines are adapted into straighter lines:

from http://www.chineseetymology.org


Do 看一看 and 瞧一瞧 have the same meaning? Is 看一看 equal to 瞧一瞧 in meaning?

Are they interchangeable?

In Northern China, 瞧 is the colloquial form of 看 and they are always interchangeable. I can't speak for Southern China though.

E.g.

瞧瞧 = 看看 = take a look
你瞧瞧 = 你看看 = [in blaming tone] look (what you've done)
瞧一瞧 = 看一看 = take a look (don't miss it)
瞧得起 = 看得起 = look up to
瞧得见 = 看得见 = can see
瞧一眼 = 看一眼 = cast a glance at


What is the order for 雖然 and 當…的時候 when used in the same sentence？ Example sentence: 雖然當我們在一起的時候有時候我不常常說話、而且我可能正顏厲色、我要讓妳知道我很開心。

Intended meaning: Although when we are together sometimes I don't talk very much, and also my face may be solemn, I want to let you know I am happy.

Is there a specific order? My second guess would be:

當我們在一起的時候雖然有時候我不常常說話、而且我可能正顏厲色、我要讓妳知道我很開心。

Is there a specific order for 雖然 and 當...的時候?

No, I do not think there is a specific order for 雖然 and 當...的時候

A way to see the reason is that , you can insert commas in the sentence and see that 當...的時候 is a adverb clause, and 雖然... is a conjunction word.

(1) 雖然, 當我們在一起的時候, 有時候我不常常說話, 而且我可能正顏厲色, 我要讓妳知道我很開心。

(2) 當我們在一起的時候, 雖然(,)有時候我不常常說話, 而且我可能正顏厲色, 我要讓妳知道我很開心。

(3) 當我們在一起的時候, 有時候我不常常說話, 而且我可能正顏厲色。 雖然這樣, 我要讓妳知道我很開心。

雖然這樣 is a way to connect a subordinate clause in Chinese.

There is a order for 雖然...但是...

雖然媽媽總是批評你，但是她還是很愛你的。


Classical Chinese question. 古文。 Meaning of 起予？ I'm translating a classical Chinese text into English and the phrase "起予“ 让我头痛。 Please, help.

This is the full classical text (from the Confucian analects) :

子夏問曰：「『巧笑倩兮， 美目盼兮， 素以為絢兮。』何謂也？ 子曰： 「繪事後素。」 曰： 「禮後乎？」 子曰： 「起予者商也，始可與言詩已矣。 」

The best I can try to translate 起予 is for it to mean something along the lines of... starts to give....

谢谢

起 means "inspire", and 予 means "me". Literally: It's you, Shang (Zixia's given name), who inspired me.


When radicals make words does Chinese convey two layers of meaning all the time? I can recognize and translate the 215 radicals. Now, I'm told radicals combine with each other and other characters to make words, and that some radicals denote sound for pronunciation of the word. And that identifying the radical(s) inside the words won't always helps you decode its meaning; it just helps you find the stroke category in a dictionary or something.

So is mandarin always conveying two meanings (or levels of meaning) at once-- from the radicals and also from the new words that the radicals make when joined? Does this notion disappear once you gain fluency? Do you automatically ignore the radicals' individual meanings like they just don't exist? And why is mandarin like this, etymologically speaking?

You can consider radicals as affix and suffix, and when you see a common english word, most time you will not consider what's the affix and suffix means, because you know the word meaning, only when you consider on the word's source, you will discuss with the affix and suffix, that's same to Chinese. And, when you encounter a word that you don't familiar or recognize, you may guess the meaning by affix and suffix, but you also know, your guess may be wrong if you don't find a real explanation in dictionaries. Same to Chinese, we may guess the meaning and pronoucation of an unfamiliar char by radicals or by itself, but that's may not be correct.


Why is 灸 pronounced jiu1? The pinyin of 灸 as in 针灸 (acupuncture) or 艾灸 (moxibustion) is clearly given as jiu3, as shown in, among others, MDGB and Zdic.
The single character doesn't even have alternate pronunciations, only jiu3 is listed.
However in speech I've always heard it pronounced jiu1 (example: https://youtu.be/RJFsJi7JvFI?t=10). In this other video though (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lJhs4vz4eI) it's pronounced as the dictionary suggests.
Is jiu1 a pronunciation of southern dialects? How did it come about?

This is not an answer but some references that might be helpful and are too long for the comments section.

This is clearly a phenomenon because the first note written on 灸 in《规范》says:

注意 ㊀不读jiū。

But, without much of an explanation it is hard to see why they mention it other than the obvious idea that it often gets mispronounced this way.

As for southern dialects《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》has the following entry:

灸
tɕiəu⁵⁵

The tone is noted as:

⁵⁵

Which is clearly 阴平, the same as jiu1.

Looking through the tones on: 灸 | Wiktionary we also have:
A high flat tone:

Hakka = /ki̯u⁵⁵/

and a middle flat tone:

Cantonese = /kɐu̯³³/


Translation: couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery, etc Looking for a colloquial Chinese translation of the English: Couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery
Wiktionary:

Presents an example of a minimally simple project that the person or group described is presumed unable to accomplish.
couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery
(UK, Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang, idiomatic) Is unable even to organise a project that requires no planning; is incompetent.  [quotations ▼]

Synonyms
couldn't organise a two-ticket raffle
couldn't organise an orgy in a brothel
couldn't organise a bun fight in a bakery
couldn't pour water out of a boot

What phrases are there in Chinese to express this kind of incompetence, i.e.: unable to organize something that doesn't involve any planning?

(Specifically talking about someones organization skills, of course.)

昏庸无能 is very close.
it means:
have no ability to do even a very simple project.
have no management skill to manage a team.


Are 乒 and 乓 used in classical chinese? 乒乓 is the modern word for ping pong, based around onomatopoeia (and similarity to 兵 for phonetic element) and, as some people claim, shape. I was wondering if this shape explanation is true, or little more than a folk etymology of the word.

That is to say, are 乒 and 乓 (or one of them) used in words (or on their own) other than in "乒乓"? The easiest way is to see if these were ever used in classical chinese.

If they are true historical characters, what did they mean before? Are there any words which still use them now other than in ping pong?

Quite a diverse question, but interesting to me.

The earliest texts with 乒乓 I can find is vernacular novels of Ming dynasty.

《西遊記》 Journey to the West as an example:

如此二三日，又聽得後宰門乒乓乒乓，磚瓦亂響。——Chapter 10

他掄槍舞劍，一擁前來，照行者劈頭亂砍，乒乒乓乓，砍有七八十下。——Chapter 14

乒乒乓乓，好便似殘年爆竹；潑潑喇喇，卻就如軍中炮聲。——Chapter 16

“乒” and “乓” are used together as onomatopoetic in history. :)


Can somebody please translate main 4 symbols and the 6 little ones for me? (Characters identified: 格物致知) Can somebody please translate main 4 symbols and the 6 little ones for me?

格物致知 - refers to study the principles of things to gain knowledge
丁酉 - 2017 (or 1957)
秋 - autumn
杜金恆 /Dù jīn héng/ - author's name
These are called 'Chinese characters', not 'symbols'


What's the difference between 对不起, 对不住 and 不好意思 When I was in China, I heard people using 不好意思 to apologize casually.
I also heard the expression 对不住 in TV series and movies. Is there any differences?

对不起(*): Sorry/Excuse me

对不住: Ditto (colloquial). I'd assume it is mainly used by northern Chinese

不好意思(*): Excuse me (colloquial)

* Other meanings exist in different contexts, e.g. 对不起=let somebody down, 不好意思=be embarrassed, etc.


Difference between 看完 and 看到 My homework requires to fill in this blank.

A: 你看完这本书了没有？
B: 我看。。。一半。

I have 2 options that means "I finish reading half the book".

我看完一半。

我看到一半。

I am a bit confused because I think 完 involves the entire book. So, both are correct?

Both are correct.

In 我看完一半, the object of 看完 is 一半, so it means I finished reading half of the book.

In 我看到一半, 一半 is used for the position where have been finished reading, so it means I reached half of the book in reading.


Number of Characters an Average Imperial Times Scholar Knew It is said that today a university educated Chinese person knows some 5000-6000 different characters. In imperial times when the official language was literary/classical Chinese how many characters did an average scholar (someone who passed the official examinations or a government official for instance) know?

(For reference only)

秦漢時代 古人如何識字？

  據了解，在沒有普及教育時，這批識字之人大多是世襲官員，在家裡受教育。
  他們在秦與西漢稱為「史」、「卜」及「祝」。
  按照職掌任務不同，基本上他們懂三千、五千或七千字，還能背誦文獻。

It is understood that, in the absence of universal education, most of these literate persons were hereditary officials who were educated at home.
They were called 史, 卜 and 祝 in the Qin (221–206 BC) and the Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD) Dynasty.
In accordance with the different tasks, basically they understood 3,000, 5,000 or 7,000 words, and recited the literature too.

However, 张德芳 said 当时要做“史”得识九千字, which roughly translates into:

  At the time, to be a 史，one needed to know 9000 characters.


What comprehensive grammar books are available? I have found many grammar books, but none that go beyond the low-intermediate level. Some textbook series contain lots of grammar, but this is spread out across many books and difficult to quickly cross-reference. Are there any books or volumes of books containing all Chinese grammar or all sentence patterns, similar in scope to Diane Larsen-Freeman's The Grammar Book?

Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar (Comprehensive Grammars)


Once a [noun], always a [noun] How do you say “Once a [noun], always a [noun]” in Chinese?

For example : “Once a loser, always a loser” or “Once a flirt, always a flirt”

I have tried to look for it online and found some patterns but I’m not sure if they are correct.

Here they are :

  …一次，…一世。

  一日…，终身…。

Update :
I found other patterns, but again, not sure whether they are correct :

  做一次...，一生都是...。

  一旦...， 就永无止境。

  做一次…，就永远是…。

  …始终是…。

Are these patterns correct? If not, how do Chinese people usually say it?

Thank you!

[Once an X, always an X] is the short form of [once (become) an X, (will) always (be) an X]

"X" in this structure is a stigma or branding that cannot be removed from you. For example: "once a murderer, always a murderer"

The label "murderer" cannot be removed from someone who committed murder. This label will be attached to him forever, because "murderer" is permanent label, you can never un-murder someone. The same goes to the label "liar". Once you are caught lying, the fact that you lied cannot be erased.

In Chinese, it is translated as "一旦成為殺人犯，一生也是殺人犯" (once someone became a murderer, the status of murderer can never be removed from him)

you can replace "一生" with "終生" or "永遠"

  [Once a Y, always a Y] is the short form of [once (become) a Y, (will) always (be) a Y]

"Y" in this structure is a nature or attributes that cannot be taken away from you. For example: "once a soldier, always a soldier"

Technically, when someone retired from the armed forces, he would no longed be considered a soldier, however, the attributes of a soldier will always be in him.  "Once a soldier, always a soldier" is not a literal but a figurative phrase (I am no longer a soldier, but the heart of a soldier is still in me).

In Chinese, it is translated as "一日身為士兵，一生也是士兵" (Even being a soldier for one day, the attributes of a soldier will never be taken away from me)

you can replace "一生" with "終生" or "永遠"


了 with two verbs: What's the difference between 我去厨房找了饮料喝 and 我去了厨房找饮料喝? In one of my stories I wrote:

  我去了厨房找饮料喝。

A student at Nankai changed this to:

  我去厨房找了饮料喝。

Question: What's the difference between 我去厨房找了饮料喝 and 我去了厨房找饮料喝?

I just want to say something like "I go to the kitchen and get a drink."

As usual, I'm perplexed as to what's going on with 了.  I understand they are both the completion 了, so I'd guess that 去了 would imply I've completed going to the kitchen, while 找了 implies my search for a drink is complete.  I'm uncertain, so hopefully I can get a clearer mental picture here.

The difference is what is "completed and what not"

(A)  我去厨房找了饮料喝 ==  I went to the kitchen and found a drink.

(B)  我去了厨房找饮料喝  ==  I had gone to the kitchen to find / look for a drink.

So,  "...找了饮料喝"  ==   "...found a drink"   (Completed)

  "...找饮料喝"    ==   "...to find / look for a drink"   (not completed)


Min 毋免: m̄-bián only, or possibly m̄-mián? This word is found in 爱拼才会赢, where I hear it as undoubtedly m̄-mián, yet when I look it up on 台湾闽南语常用词辞典 or on Wiktionary, I only find the pronunciation m̄-bián.

So I was wondering: is he getting it wrong, or is there really an alternate pronunciation m̄-mián which is unrecorded in either dictionary?

When pronouncing, both of them are okay since we can tell what (s)he says. But it is informal and incorrect to say mián. We know that /p/ in hokkien is same as b in chinese pinyin, and /b/ in hokkien sounds near /m/. Therefore, /b/ sometimes sounds like /m/. But it is wrong to pronounce or write /b/ as /m/. Pā-bián sounds like mián.


Is “事出必有因” the most accurate translation for "everything happens for a reason"? Is “事出必有因” the most accurate translation for "everything happens for a reason"?

If not, what is it?


Why people more frequently say "三四个", less frequently say "三五个" or "四五个" or "五六个", and even more less frequently say "四六个"？ Here are the numbers of my google searh result with inverted commas:

三五个：11,400,000
三四个：33,800,000
四五个：14,500,000
五六个：12,600,000
四六个：4,710,000

As can be observed, the frequency of "三四个" stands out among others and the frequency of "四六个" is significantly lower.

I understand that in China, saying "六四", especially online, can be risky. But what's wrong with "四六"？

1. About 三四个，四五个，五六个 and ballpark numbers
It's common to express ballpark quantities with adjacent numbers.
三四个 means about three or four. Same works for 四五个，五六个.
Thus you can infer the use and meaning of 一两个，两三个，六七个，七八个，etc.
Example: 鸡汤里放多少个八角？五六个就够了。
It's less common to use such expression for numbers bigger than ten, but you certainly can!
For number bigger than ten: 十一二个 or 十一十二个，十二三个，十三四个，etc.
Example: 聚会来了几个人？大概十五六个人吧。
The reason it's less common for numbers bigger than ten, is likely because people would prefer to ballpark it on the scale of tens, it's also less awkward-sounding.
To further explain, imagine about 27-30 people came to my party. If I try to say 大概二十七八个人吧。It's long and awkward-sounding, it's also confusing to just read it! Thus, people would just say 将近三十人吧。(Almost thirty people.)
2. About why 三五个 is more frequently used
I will explain my best guess. First of all, 三五 is a kind of a special combination just by itself, it's used in classical Chinese literature to describe date, days, age, decades, it's also used in expressions related to astronomy, fengshui. The only reason I could come up with why 三五个 is widely accepted is because of the idiom/chengyu 三五成群。It means a small group of people.
Example: 这辈子我就三五个挚友。
3. About why 四六个 is not an expression
As I explained earlier, Chinese use adjacent numbers to express ballpark. 四 and 六 are not adjacent. You can infer the same for 五七个，七九个，etc.
If you look closely at google search results, you would find out 四六个 is NOT used by itself. It's often separated by punctuation, like: “主题四：六个实战案例”，“四-六个月大的宝宝”，or used as part of a sentence “二四六个字押韵的诗词”.


洗发剂 and 洗发水 difference Even though my dictionary regards them both as a shampoo, I wonder if 洗发剂 is more a conditioner for the hair and 洗发水 more a regular watery shampoo?

Is there a difference? Thank you.

I have some more:

洗发水

洗发剂

洗发液

洗发露

洗发乳

洗头膏

洗发精

洗发液

洗发香波

They all mean shampoo. If there is any difference, that might be frequency or regional preferences. The last one is a loanword (香波)


Why is 长 never translated with 'look like'? I've found that 长 (zhang, as a verb) is always translated as 'to grow'. However There are cases where 长 is much better translated with 'to look like'. Here are two examples:

我长得像我爸爸. (I look like my father.)
他长什么样? (What does he look like?)

While the first sentence could be read as 'I grew into looking like my father', such an interpretation can not be made for the second sentence. 'What does he grow like?' seems too far fetched to be reasonable, especially because it is in present tense, so it can't be read as 'What did he grow up to look like today?'.

I checked multiple sources (namely: pleco, leo.org, mdbg.net, dict.naver.com, dictionary.writtenchinese.com) and they all translate it with 'to grow'.

It's true; a lot of sources don't mention looks. I'm not sure why. But, here is one that does:

Wiktionary

  (of a person) to look; to appear (e.g. beautiful)

Also if you have Pleco, you can check out Tuttle, their definition includes:

  grow to be, look

A lot of resources are more likely to put this definition under 长得.

MDBG

  to look (pretty, the same etc)

This is likely to be because you'd be hard-pressed to find 长 by itself talking about looks with a 得.


Preferred translation for "log out" or "sign out" (such as a web site): 注销, 登出, 退出? We're having trouble figuring out the preferred Simplified Chinese translation for "log out" or "sign out" for a web application we're translating.

Our third-party translator thinks it's 注销, and an American informant in China who knows the language and the industry well agrees. On the other hand, we have internal Chinese staff  who think it ought to be 登出. To complicate things, it appears that Google uses 退出 for its SC site.

Is this a matter of preference, or is one of these better, or are there nuances of meaning?

The term 注销 appeared before the existence of computers, which is the antonym of 注册 (register). As a result, 注销 means "unregister", i.e. cancel the account. This term is usually used in banks, such as 注销银行账号 (unregister the bank account).

However, after computers became popular, Microsoft uses 注销 as the official translation of "log off" in its Windows operating system. This usage is absolutely wrong, but this usage is well-known because of the popularity of Microsoft Windows, and becomes gradually accepted by native Chinese speakers, and therefore many people use this "wrong" term.

The term 退出 also appeared before the existence of computers, which means "exit" or "quit".

The term 登出 appeared after the popularity of computers, which is an modern made-up  term intentionally for the Chinese translation of "log out", because etymologically, 登出 is the antonym of 登入 (log in), although the "more correct" Chinese term for "log in" should be 登录.

In a word, the correct term of "log out" should be 退出 or 登出, which is often used in Google and Baidu. 退出 is used more often.


Why is there no 地 in 他读书很用功? In the sentence - 他读书很用功。 - why is there no 地, which should transform the 用功 from an adjective to an adverb?

I learned 地 changes an adjective to an adverb, so it should be something like:

  他读书很用功地。

Or

  他很用功地读书。

(Not sure which order is correct, though...)

他读书很用功。

In this sentence, 用功 is actually used to describe 他, instead of the action 读书. The main sentence is 他很用功, where 读书 can be regarded as a subject clause, so you need an adjective. You can also say 他读书很用功的, but it is kinda informal.

  他很用功地读书。

As you said, 用功 is transformed from an adjective to an adverb, in this sentence, in order to modifier the verb.

I'm not familiar with how to analyze the grammar, if I'm wrong, feel free to point out.


Placement of 了: difference between 吃飯了 and 吃了飯 Do 我吃早飯了 and 我吃了早飯 mean the same thing (I have eaten breakfast), slightly different things? Or is one of them wrong? Which is better?

(For context, the second option was marked incorrect by an app and I can't figure out if it's a problem with an app or something I don't understand.

From my answer to this question:

  Example cases with 了

  了: aspect marker, indicating completed action.
  了: final particle, indicating change of situation.
  了: final particle, indicating sentence has ended; emphasize sentence; soften tone

我吃了早飯:

了 is an aspect marker indicating completed action when it is following a verb but not at the end of a phrase, therefore, 我吃了早飯 can only mean "I've eaten breakfast" (the verb 吃 is completed)

我吃早飯了 :

If 了 is treated as a aspect marker, the sentence would mean "I have eaten breakfast" (the verb phrase 吃早飯 is completed)
If 了 is treated as a final particle (indicating change of situation), the sentence would mean "I (now) eat breakfast (from previously not eating breakfast to now eating breakfast)
or  more likely, 了 indicates 1. the sentence has ended,  2. adding emphasis or soften the tone of the sentence

"我吃早飯" sounds blunt and make the sentence sound incomplete

In "我吃了早飯了", the first 了 indicates the verb 吃 is a completed action and the second 了 indicates the sentence is finished (also emphasize the sentence / soften the tone)


How to translate "define , commit , and private beta"? In the area 51 SE, when sites are still in testing mode. How would one translate the words define, commit, and private beta?

This idea was originally brought up by another user who wanted to start an SE to appeal to the Chinese users.

I'm thinking
define can be translated as 定義 (definition)
commit I'm not so sure
Private beta as beta 測試 or maybe use execute (verb) like 執行階段

or maybe there is a better way to present these terms like 定義階段, commitment 階段, 測試階段/執行階段

What are good translations for "define , commit , and private beta" in the context of SE?

I agree define is 定義階段 and beta is 測試階段. And commit, I suggest that is translated as 推行階段 which means promote because the commit stage needs someone's promotion by commit.


Did 謠's phonetic component (䍃) semantically shift it away from 言? You can spot that (the left-hand side of) 謠 originates from 言. I screenshot Yellowbridge.

Did the phonetic component 䍃 spawn, or have anything to do with, the semantic narrowing from  言 to 謠?

If not, what beget 謠's  songful (#1, 2 below) and defamatory (#3) meanings that are more specific than 言?

For example, consider 謠言. Couldn't 謠言 have been originally compounded as 言謠?

謠

(alt. form 䚻, 繇, 猶‡) to sing without instruments
(alt. form 䚻, 繇) folk song; ballad
fake circulating words; fake rumour

Did the phonetic component 䍃 spawn, or have anything to do with, the semantic narrowing from 言 to 謠?

"䍃" is a common 声旁, 谣 is a pictophonetic character (形声字), its   pronunciation is from 䍃, 摇, 遥, 鹞 are pictophonetic characters from 䍃 too.

If not, what beget 謠's songful (#1, 2 below) and defamatory (#3) meanings that are more specific than 言?

What's 歌谣? Some words with tunes. What's 谣言? Fabricated words without facts. What's 言? Words. 言 is the meaningful part of pictophonetic character 谣.

For example, consider 謠言. Couldn't 謠言 have been originally compounded as 言謠?

"谣" is the "adjective" of "言". What type of words"言"? Uncertain or suspicious words. If it's 言谣, "言" and "谣" should be parallel.

Actually, I can't understand your exactly question because in fact, your question can be clearer.


What do these stamps mean? The first stamp could mean Jing Zhao, no?

Sorry for the last one, I can´t have a better picture.

Thanks a lot,

Simon

my guess:

the first seal is "臣景昭"

the second one is "x畫",

the last one,

ｅｃａ
ｆｄｂ

the picture shown top 3 (ｅ, ｃ, ａ) & half the lower 3 characters (ｆ, ｄ, ｂ).

ｅ: the left component is 人 (radical 9)

ａ: the left component is 止 (radical 77)

anyway, here's the enhanced picture:


Is the phrase order in this sentence correct? This is an extract from an interview:

女： 现代五项这个项目最早在哪个国家推广的？
男： 这个项目起源于欧洲，最早在瑞典推广的这个项目。

He did not say: 最早于欧洲起源的这个项目

So why did he say: 最早在瑞典推广的这个项目 ？？

The phrase order seems odd to me, 这个老外. Is it odd?

The best answer I have so far is: 'He is a sportsman, sportsmen are not necessarily good at talking. He would not write this way.'

Edit: The bit that confuses me is '的这个项目’ tacked on the end, seems strange to me, because he already said '这个项目起源于欧洲,'. I see no point or purpose in saying '这个项目' at the end.

I did a search for ’的这个‘。 I found 1, which I think is OK when I rearrange it as 2. From the others, I only like 7.

法国西南部的这个地区是干红葡萄酒的产地。
这个法国西南部的地区是干红葡萄酒的产地。
这个项目起源于欧洲，最早在瑞典推广的这个项目。
这个项目起源于欧洲，这个最早在瑞典推广的项目。
这个项目起源于欧洲，最早在瑞典这个推广的项目。
这个项目起源于欧洲，这个项目最早在瑞典推广的。
这个项目起源于欧洲，最早在瑞典推广的。

It is not odd.

项目 is the subject of 起源 (and cannot be used an object), but the object of 推广 (and probably cannot be used as subject).

We can say 项目推广, but this is used as noun phrase which means the "the promotion of the event". It is like a short form of 项目的推广, where 推广 is a noun.

"现代五项这个项目最早在哪个国家推广的？" This may be treated as implicit passive voice, "现代五项这个项目最早在哪个国家（被）推广的？"


How to parse this phrase? The radical 囗 is sometimes described as 圍字框. This phrase is a little bit ambigous to me. Does this mean

«the frame of the character 【圍】» (圍字的框子)
or «the frame that surrounds characters»? (包圍文字的框子)

The former interpretation is correct.
Chinese characters are composed of components (some radicals, some phonetics, some neither). For many of the components, there are standard or widely used ways to refer to them. A common pattern is {component}+字+{旁/头/盖/底/儿/框}. (The last part refers to which part of the character it is--e.g., side, top, bottom, "frame") For instance:

讠= 言字旁 e.g, 说、讲
⺮ = 竹字头 e.g., 管、篮
心 = 心字底 e.g., 忌、忍

Some of them break the pattern a bit:

刂 = 立刀旁; e.g., 刻、则
彳 = 双人旁; e.g., 很、彼
忄= 竖心旁; e.g., 快、慢
辶 = 走之底; e.g., 这、迅

Sometimes the situation is complicated because the component does not exist as a standalone character. In that case, it is often named by a common character with that component

宀 = 宝字盖/宝盖头; e.g., 宇、定
 = 春字头; e.g., 泰、秦
冂 = 同字框; e.g., 周、网

Keep in mind that there may be multiple names for a given component.
Here are some resources to look at.


How would one translate "full of life?" I would like to say, "She's so full of life". This is to mean she's energetic, she lively, exuberant, loves to live life.

I came across two idioms: 生气勃勃 and 生机盎然, but from the examples I've read, 生机盎然 seems to be used to describe nature more often than people. If neither of these are good translations, what would be more suitable?

You can use 活力 (vitality/energy), such as:

  充满活力
  活力四射


What's the difference between 互相 (hùxiāng) and 相互 (xiānghù), both meaning "mutual"? I learned my early Chinese from ChinesePod, and they talked about 互相 (hùxiāng), but I just learned that 相互 (xiānghù, reversing the characters) also has a similar meaning, namely "each other" or "mutual".

(See e.g. Expressing "each other" with "huxiang", from the Chinese Grammar Wiki, which has some ChinesePod influence, talk about 互相 and not 相互.)

One example from YouDao (who sourced it from here) is:

  我们应该相互帮助
  We should help each other.

I feel like I could simply change this to

  我们应该互相帮助

without changing the meaning.  The other examples I looked at are similar (i.e., 互相 and 相互 are interchangeable), so I can't see much of a difference.  But the fact that ChinesePod seems more focused on 互相 over 相互 seems to imply something.

Question: What's the difference between 互相 and 相互?

I'd say 相互 adds a bit emphasis on the mutual effect. It may be because the reversed order draws more attention. E.g. 我们应该增进相互了解. 尊重是相互的。

互相 is more casual. e.g.我们应该互相学习. If you say 我们应该相互学习， you express a bit stronger necessity of learning from each other.


Generalize consecutive third tones change rule 井井有条 (to be neat and tidy) we have a sequence of the third tones. Why is it pronounced as

jing2 jing2 you3 tiao2

and not

jing2 jing3 you3 tiao2

After all, the first half goes together, and the second half goes together.

How can we generalize the (3, 3) |-> (2, 3) tone change rule to words greater than two characters?

Could we have three or four tone changes in a line of characters?

Is the rule that if we have N third consecutive tones, then the first N-1 change to second tones?

The rule about the 3rd tone sandhi is:

When word with the 3rd tone is used alone, or used at the end of the expression, it's pronounced as the original tone, i.e. the 3rd tone. e.g. 雪, 滑雪.
When two words with the 3rd tone are used together, the 1st one is pronounced as the 2nd tone. e.g. 老虎, 海岛.
When word with the 3rd tone is used before other words with the 1st/2nd/4th tone, it's pronounced as the 半三声 (only the first half of the 3rd tone, without the rising tone part). e.g. 卡车, 草莓.
When three words with the 3rd tone are used together;

If the first two words are closely linked, i.e. 2+1 construction, then the first two words are pronounced as the 2nd tone. e.g. 草稿纸, 古典美.
If the last two words are closely linked, i.e. 1+2 construction, then the 1st word is pronounced as 半三声, the 2nd word is pronounced as the 2nd tone. e.g. 米老鼠, 老领导.

井井有条 matches the rule 4.1 and 3, so it should be pronounced as 2-2-(半三声)-2.

  Is the rule that if we have N third consecutive tones, then the first N-1 change to second tones?

It depends on how you seperate the words, to determine which rule should be applied.

Reference:
第三声变调教学教学
第三声（上声）的变调
现代汉语中三个三声连在一起,该怎么变调?


Construct: X都不X一下, Mandarin? I've come across the following construct recently:

X 都不 X 一下

Specifically what I heard was:

痒都不痒一下

(Bonus points to anyone who knows where that comes from...)

Is this a mandarin construct?

Can X be replaced with any verb?

Yes, that's fairly normal. In fact the actual construct here is merely ... 都不 ....

It is somewhat more commonly seen with the character 連 ("even") prefixed, i.e. 连痒都不痒一下. Similarly, the counter 一下 ("once") at the end is optional, i.e. 痒都不痒. All three forms express the same meaning of "not even once / not at all".

Taking all three into account: (optional: 連) [verb] 都不 [same verb] (optional: [single counter for action])

Note that the counter does NOT have to be 一下. So while any number of verbs can be used with this construct way, you should take note to use the appropriate counter for the action. Or alternatively, don't use any at all. Examples:

連吃都不吃一口: S/he/they wouldn't even take one bite (一口, lit. "one mouthful").
連看都不看一眼: S/he/they wouldn't even look once (一眼, "one look").
想都不想: Without thinking.


Difference between 事情 and 事件？ What's the difference between 事情 and 事件? They both seem to be generic terms that refer to "event, thing, affair".

事件：http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/4421/

事情：http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/4090/

1) Are they interchangeable?

2) Is there a difference between Cantonese and Mandarin?

The definitions of these two terms are quite different, clearly not interchangeable.
There is no difference between Cantonese and Mandarin for these terms

事件: event; occasion; happening

Example:
偷車事件 (car stealing occasion )
天安門事件 (Tiananmen Square event/ incident)
密室殺人事件 (the occasion/ happening of murder in a locked room )

事情: matter; affair; thing; business

Example:
事情就是這樣 (the  matters/ things are like this)
沒你的事情 (there are no business of yours)
這事情我管不了 (I can't deal with this affair)

事件 is something already completed
事情 can be something already happened or something that's on going.

Example:
事情到了這個地步 (things have got to this point)
我也不知事情再發展下去會什樣 (I don't know what will happen as the matter continue to develope)
You cannot say 事件到了這個地步 or 事件再發展下去, because a 事件 is something that had been completed.


Correct terms for a roadside gutter and gutter on a roof What is the correct terms for both a roadside gutter and a gutter on a roof?

For the sake of making me look bad, my guess would be 水沟 but I've seen that applied to a large canal so I'm not sure if it is the right choice.

I don't know this word, so I consult it on the online dictionary and I found 排水沟 for the gutter at the roadsides and 檐沟 or 天沟 for the gutter at the roof.

Actually,it's the first time for me to see 檐沟 or  天沟. After understanding what they mean,I think I would use 排水沟 for both cases.排水沟 means "a ditch to drain out the water".


What characters are on this ceramic jar? What characters are depicted on this old jar? My (art-)sources have all different opinions: "fu2 shou4 an1 kang1" or "fu2 lu4 shou4 xi3" or 4 x shou4 or "fu2 shou4 kang1 ning2" and all without telling which tree is what character.

It should be 福壽康寧 (fú shòu kāng níng; simplified: 福寿康宁).

福
康
壽
寧

I'm pretty certain about the first 3; 寧 is the only one that is hard to tell, but based on context, it should be 寧.

EDIT: And this is what it means: good fortune, long life, health and peace


What is the function of 了 in the sentence "她会杀了你的"? What is the function of 了 in the following sentence? Does it imply a sequence of actions?

  她会杀了你的。"She will kill you."

A small class of verbs (including 杀，喝，吃，扔，忘) can take 了 as a resultative complement meaning 掉. These verbs can use 了 in places where it might otherwise sound odd. In this case, 杀了 is not expressing completed action; rather, it expresses the result of the verb.

Some other examples:

  我不会忘了。 I won't forget.
  把它吃了！ Eat it!
  他把旧的衣服都扔了。He threw out all the old clothes.

Grammatically, 了 here functions as an indication of the verb's result. In the last case, it simultaneously expresses completed action (and, I suppose, new situation.)

EDIT:

Here is a more complete lists of verbs which can use 了 in this way (from the very useful 《现代汉语八百词》):

忘、丢、关、喝、吃、咽、吞、泼、洒、扔、放、涂、抹、擦、碰、砸、摔、磕、撞、踩、伤、杀、宰、切、冲、卖、还、毁


What is the meaning of 子 in words like 菓子(과자), 帽子(모자), or 獅子(사자)? I'm learning Sino-Korean vocabulary at the moment and have noticed that many words seem to end in a '子' that doesn't seem to add much semantically to the other character in the word.

What should I take '子' to signify in this case?

http://www.archchinese.com/chinese_english_dictionary.html?find=子 suggests that it can mean 'small thing', but a  獅子 is not a very small thing.

「子」originally meant child. By extension, through the following sequence, it was further used:

To emphasise the smallness of an object.
As a diminutive suffix, conveying a sense of intimacy/endearment.
As a nominal suffix, doubling as a way of transforming a monosyllabic noun to disyllabic.

In the diminutive aspect (Chinese: 指小詞, Korean: 指小辭・지소사), its function is very similar to the examples in the answer given by the question posted here.

In 菓子 and 帽子,「子」may play any one or a combination of the three uses above; the answer is not entirely clear, as the uses are related to one-another. In 獅子,  which is obviously not small,「子」is used in sense 3 above and should be seen as the same as —이 in Korean 虎狼이.

Note, non-Mandarin Chinese languages also use diminutives; Cantonese「仔」is cognate to Mandarin「子」.


Is there a Chinese-Chinese dictionary api or database available that I can use in my own app? Is there a Chinese-Chinese dictionary api or database available?

I want to include it in an app I am developing.

By "Chinese-Chinese" I mean that if you look up a word in Chinese you get a Chinese definition, not an English definition of a Chinese word.

I am looking for a word dictionary and/or a character dictionary.

I prefer a database or even a flat text file, but a web api might work.

I think you might get this kind of database from some publication press if you are lucky, but it seems to be not an easy way.

Also, I didn't find any database or flat text with Open Source License from the Internet.

But here is a website which is quite clean and neat. http://www.zdic.net/

I tried to look up a single Chinese character(字), and the request link seems quite tidy. I tried 好 and it showed http://www.zdic.net/z/17/js/597D.htm ,where 597D is exactly the UTF-8 code of 好. So you may use this as a breaking point to implement your dictionary function.

Also, if your app is for commercial purpose, please don't forget reading the license of this website before using it ;)

Have fun coding!


Whats the difference between 抛弃，放弃，舍弃, 丢弃？ I know they all mean to give up, or abandon but what would be the different meanings and context these words are used in?

I think 抛弃 and 丢弃 sometimes can substitute each other, and they are used for something that you dont want anymore.

抛弃 might have the sense that you abandon something but you might not be supposed to do so.
For example, a husband 抛弃 his wife because his wife has some diseases.

For 舍弃, it is used for something that you don't want to abandon but you have to.

For example, when you pack up your stuff to move to a new place, but your luggage is too heavy. So in order to lighten the burden, you may have to 舍弃 something that is not so important to you.

For 放弃, I think it is more used for giving up an abstract concept, such as your dream, your plan, your goal, etc, but not a physical object.


Why does "I go" also mean damn it? (我去) According to MDBG, 我去 is slang, meaning "shoot" or "dang." But obviously, it also means "I go."

Does anyone know the etymology of this? Did it arise from people angrily saying that they're so upset that they're leaving?

我去：When used to express strong emotions, it can be to yourself or others.
For example: annoyance, anger, loss, surprise, envy, etc., which is close to the meaning of "我靠".


Proper way to say "I don't know what the problem is." What is the proper way to say "I don't know what the problem is" in Mandarin?
Not sure if this is a “问题” or a "关系“ structure.

Paraphrase as 'Dunno where the problem lies, (but it won't start.)'

我（也）不知道问题出在哪里,（但是它启动不了。）


In which parts of Asia do they speak Hokkien Chinese? In which parts of China or Asia can you find Hokkien speakers? Also, where can you learn Hokkien Chinese?

Though Hokkien = 福建 or Fujian，a southeast coastal province facing Taiwan. Hokkien Chinese actually means 闽南语 which is originated from south part of 福建, and also commonly used in Taiwan Island, Southeast Asia and many other Chinese societies overseas.

In fact people living in north part of Fujian speak a totally different dialect, which is almost not understandable to Hokkien-speaking Chinese.


How do I pronounce romanised Chinese names which lack tone marks? In the West, Chinese names almost never seem to be written using pinyin tone marks or numbers. For example, the current president's name will simply be written as Xi Jinping. I had to Google to discover that it is Xí Jìnpíng, and even this top ranked Google search result gives what sounds to me like a very incorrect pronunciation.

I realise that it is assumed that the target audience will simply Westernise the pronunciation regardless, but what is the correct approach to pronouncing these names?

Options I see:

1. Use the correct sound and neutral tone.

2. Treat it like a Westernised version of the name, and pronounce it like an English speaking person would.

3. Acquire name pronunciation knowledge. Is this option even possible? Is there a 1 - 1 mapping between a pinyin-without-tones name and a character?

As a native speaker, this is what I do in such a case:

If my listener is not Chinese, does not know Chinese, or I am speaking in an event that doesn't require my listener(s) to know Chinese - I pronounce it in whatever tone I feel comfortable. Sometimes I mimic the listeners' pronunciation. (However, if I can guess the tones, I may tend to guess, because that makes me comfortable.)
If my listener is Chinese, I usually guess the tones, and add that I am not sure if the tones I used are correct.

Chinese people will understand that you cannot make the tones perfectly correct - when you are only given the Pinyin without tone marks - because there's missing information.

Here is my idea about your options:

Using neutral tone is creative :-) I have never heard anyone do that. It will make the pronunciation funny.
I believe this would be okay if both you and your audience are English speakers, corresponding to my first point above.
This is corresponding to my second point above. Guessing the tones require knowledge about common names and naming conventions. This is possible, but may not be accurate for all names. This would be the best you can do. In most cases, last names are easier because there are only tens of frequently used last names.

A few examples for guessing last names: Zhang (first tone: 张, 章), Li (third tone: 李), Liu (second tone, 刘）, Wang (second tone, 王 - but it might be first tone, 汪, which is less frequent).

First names are harder. For common names it is still possible, like Ming (second tone, 明), Hao (forth tone, 浩 or 昊). Names like Jinping would be difficult but I would guess it to be 金平 if it is not the president's name, because 金 is more common than 近.


Back to back tones for single character ˩˧ ˧˩? tian ˩˧ ˧˩

What do these back to back tones mean?

Tone sandhi?

book should be here: book

The reversed tone letter is apparently one of the Modifier Tone Letters which do indeed indicate tone sandhi. I haven't yet come up with a pdf, but hazarding a guess, perhaps ˩˧ (low rising) is the recitation form and the reversed form is the sandhi form (low falling).


Is this a Chinese Proverb? I found this proverb which I'm not sure about what is its origin:

  He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

Is this really a known chinese proverb?

If so, how do you write it in chinese, and what's the Pinyin?

I am a native speaker. I don't think it is originally a Chinese proverb.

A more idiomatic translation would be:

  敢问耻一时，不问耻一生。

or

  问则耻一时，不问终身羞。

I suspect it is Japanese in origin. When I searched it, a lot of Japanese results came up and many people asked how to translate the Japanese proverb "聞くは一時の恥 聞かぬは一生の恥". The Japanese sentence looks quite idiomatic to me, because "聞かぬ" is an archaic form. Modern Japanese would say "闻かないの".


Differences between words that tell time: 时间 vs. 时候, and 点 vs. 小时 What are the difference between 时间 and 时候. They both means time as far as I know

Also, what are the difference between 点 and 小时 which both means hour

And can you give some examples?

时间 and 时候 are both related to time, but their usage is a bit different.

时间 means the "physical time". For example 你在什么时间睡觉？ What time do you sleep?

时候 means "when". For example: 你什么时候睡觉？ When do you sleep?

点 and 小时 are used differently.
小时 is used when you actually calculate the time taken in terms of hour. For example, 我睡了一个小时。I slept for 1 hour.

点 is used to ask the precise time at the moment. For example, 现在几点了？ What time is it now?

In English, you don't ask "What hour is now", instead, you ask "What time is now". In mandarin, it's also the same. You don't ask "现在几小时了", instead you ask "现在几点了".

Hope this help :)


Does 慢一点 mean "be careful" even in a general context? I've been told by a native speaker that 慢一点 is functionally the same as 小心一点, which in english is essentially "be careful". Can someone else confirm?

I find it a little odd and would consider this a mistake if it was in english, especially if being slower doesn't help (e.g. you're already doing it slowly but carelessly, or you need to do something quickly but decisively)

I don't think that 慢一点 is the same as 小心一点.

I am from Manchuria, and as far as I know, sometimes when people are gonna leave each other, a person may say 慢走 or 慢点走 as an expression for "Goodbye". Maybe a personal bias, I don't think 慢走 is frequently used.

I also agree with you that, doing things slowly may not always help.


Why can't 了 be used to indicate a completed action that has yet to come? 了 is a particle that indicates the perfective--the verb has no interior composition. This is different from the perfect aspect in English which focuses on the result of an action in the past that may or may not have interior composition. So why is it that I cannot say "明年，我学了中文" to indicate that by next near I would have learned Chinese? In Russian, the perfective aspect can be used in a future tense.

i think it is because of that we use 了 to express that the status is really exist,mostly it is the status of something has done or over/ended/finished.as you can not make sure a thing has not happened definitely happen in the future,so you can not say 明年，我学了中文.that sentence also indicate that you have finished the learning of chinese.


Why is 在...里 in the front of 在大学里她学习了生物? It means "At university, she studied biology.", correct?

So far I've learned that location goes after the subject, but I've seen this construct twice now. The other time it was in a sentence that was translated (not by me) to "We are not allowed to eat inside the subway".

The "inside the subway" bit was again at the front of the sentence. It's not really any harder for me to read, but if I was asked write this sentence I'd probably forget and put the location after the subject.

Why does the 在...里 construct lead?

Assuming your question is about the placement of 她, either way is fine:

  她在大学学习了生物 (she studied biology at university)

  在大学她学习了生物 (at university, she studied biology)

The latter has somewhat more focus on it happening at university, but in this sentence it doesn't make much of a difference.

This basically goes for all kinds of situations, not just explicit 在, for example "我今天要去中学" and "今天我要去中学" are both equally valid, but the latter has more focus on the time at which the action will occur.


What do the stamp marks say on these three teapots? I'm not quite sure on the orientation of the stamps, I can flip them in a image editor if I need to let me know. The teapots have multiple stamps on each one so I grouped each of them into one picture for each pot. Thank you very much for any help you have as to what the names are.

惠　小（華）

宐（宜）（興）　煌

Suspected: （新）仁　座　座仁製
Confirmed: Ａ　Ｂ　ＢＡ製
I see:

Ｂ: 座（广 + 坐）
古文說文解字　今楷

Ａ: 仁


How does one best translate 老在 into english I couldn't  find any translation in my dictionaries. Though. In context it seems to mean 'always'?!
这孩子老在班上捣蛋。
Is this correct.

Cheers

老在 is not a word. It's an adverb followed by a preposition.

老 means always or constantly.

在 is just a preposition, here it would be 'on' to go with 班上(the class)

So it's: This kid always create troubles on the class.


What are the real obstacles of romanizing Chinese characters? Most people will say it is because there are too many homonyms in the Chinese language. But when I realize that homonyms do not bother people very much in oral communications, I begin to question this answer. As a matter of fact, Vietnamese writing system has been successfully romanized. They have a lot of homonyms too, but they are doing fine.

Ever since Sejong the Great invented the Korean alphabet in 1446, Korean vocabulary has become a superset of the Chinese vocabulary. In other words,  hangul has no problem with Chinese homonyms.

Nong si gangdu va?

Romanizing Chinese would effectively sever the cultural and historical continuity, and it would also be detriment to the many minority topolects that share the same script.

You would need to romanize not only Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, Min, Sichuanese and so on, but also the many dialects of these regional tongues.

Furthermore, you would completely lose the poetic charm that Chinese characters carry. Chinese culture and language would be much poorer without the characters, as they are a defining element of the culture.

There used to be a movement for abolishing the characters, since they were perceived as an obstacle to learning. This is no longer the case, and nobody would propose such a reform today.

Japan has long had not one but two alphabets, but still retains the characters, for the same reasons as stated above.


Relative strength of 很笨 and it's variants 很笨

I have heard my doctor refer to his employees on some occasion using the phrase hen ben (I assume he meant 很笨). When I first heard it I was a bit bothered. Should I be upset when this term is used or is this "light teasing"?

I've tried to evaluate this snippet a bit via research and came up with this discussion on Yahoo Answers. A wider variation appears on CantoDict (Cantonese/Mandarin). I guess there are varying degrees of insults and I'm simply curious to what extent this colloquialism applies.

You should be upset.

I'd be upset if my employer said I was "很笨".

很笨 pretty much means what you would think it means "very stupid". Teasing on the other hand would be something more along the lines of 傻瓜, etc — and depending on the tone you should be able to tell teasing from non-teasing.


what is the use of 前面 in this sentence That depends on what you're using the computers for. - 那得看你坐在电脑前面做什么
Why do we use 前面 in this sentence. I thought 前面 was infront, why is there a location in a sentence involving use of something? Could someone break this down for me :)

I'd translate "That depends on what you're using the computers for" to "那得看你用電腦來做什麼."
English: sit at a computer.
Chinese: sit in front of a computer.
When working with a computer, you don't sit behind a computer.


Weird Chinese Characters I was browsing through the Taiwanese version of apple.com. When I was checking out the iPad Air 2 section, one of the image showed the iPad keyboard with some characters that I have never seen before. Are they Chinese or Japanese? From what I have learned, they are not in hiragana and katakana scripts. And also, what is their meaning? Thanks.

They are Bopomofos (注音符号): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo

According to Wikipedia, Zhuyin fuhao, Zhuyin or Bopomofo is a system of phonetic notation for the transcription of spoken Chinese, particularly the Mandarin dialect.


Please show me example sentences with 如、若、像、似 How often are 如、若、像、似 used in Chinese?
Please show me example sentences with  如、若、像、似.

Tl;dr: As an individual word in modern Chinese, they behave differently (point 1). Example sentences are discussed in point 2. Point 3 discusses their use as part of compound words or idioms.

Limiting our discussion to similes (如 and 若 can also mean 'if'; this sense is not discussed below), 像 seems to be most frequently used alone in modern Chinese (spoken and written). 如 and 似 come in second, and may appear independently in more literary contexts. 若, given its classical nature, seems to only work when as part of idioms but never alone.

Consider the following:

a. 他像一個小孩。 He is like a child.
b. 記憶像鐵軌一樣長。 Memories are as endless as the railway tracks.

It is permissible to replace 像 in the above examples with 如 or 似, but not 若. 如 or 似, however, give a more literary (somewhat old-fashioned) nuance, and must be used with caution.
Sentence a. is 'simple', where the simile forms the predicate itself (italicised). But in sentence b., the core part of the predicate (italicised) is something else (i.e. 長, long).
In that case, you may consider adding a preceding adjective/adverb (定語) before the predicate besides 像/如/似. Usual choices include 一樣, (一)般, 似的 (adjective; precedes noun only, so this is the only option that does not apply in sentence b.), and 似地 (adverb; precedes verb or adjective). Coupling like these is also possible in the simple case (e.g. sentence a.), albeit somewhat redundant.

像, 如, 似, and 若 (especially the latter three) can appear in modern Chinese as part of compound words and/or idioms.

Compounds
Idioms

像
好像
三分像人，七分像鬼

如
如同、就如、彷如、有如
如泣如訴

似
似是
驕陽似火、似水流年

若

若隱若現

Note how the idioms usually are similes themselves. They have respectable etymologies and words within should not be easily replaced. E.g., it is wrong to say *驕陽像火.


Chinese proverb: If you want happiness for a lifetime, help the younger generation? Is the following indeed a Chinese proverb and if so, is the author known, is it still commonly used and how is it spelled in Chinese?

If you want happiness for a lifetime, help the younger generation.

Yes! there is a very close proverb. 养儿防老, it's not said by any known author, but just very commonly used in Chinese daily life.


Differences between 股份有限公司 and 有限公司 I am currently making a company database of different Chinese firms and as it is I have to give the English versions of the names translated from traditional Chinese. So I have been wondering about the precise translation of those two  股份有限公司 and 有限公司. As far as I see it any one of those two can be translated as Co. Ltd but if that's so where does 股份 goes? I know the meaning of all of the characters and yet I can't place it all too well. Can you give me some clarification on the matter?

The difference is legal.

有限公司 is a limited liability company (LLC), usually a smaller company.

股份有限公司 is a public limited company/private company limited by shares (PLC), usually larger companies whose shares (股份) are traded on the stock exchange.

PS. I am not quite sure what are the equivalent of these two forms in your country (Common law, I suppose). In the Roman law based German and Central European law the first would be GmbH, latter would be AG.


What are the six characters on this seal? (Characters identified: 漢高皇帝後裔) What are the characters on this seal? The middle two seem to be 皇帝, but I can't make out the other four.

edited, according to info provided by droooze.

the recognised character in sequence:

５３１
６４２

character ５：後 (u+5f8c)

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

character ６：裔 (u+88d4)

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E8%A3%94

character ３：皇 (u+7687)

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

character ４：帝 (u+5e1d)

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

character １, the left component is 水 (u+6c34), the left one, wait :)

edited. with help from droooze, this one should be 漢 (u+6f22)

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

character ２, this one would be 亙 (u+4e99)

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

so, it would be read as "漢亙皇帝後裔", roughly "the descendent of emperor '漢亙帝'"

have fun :)


Why is 道可道，非恆道 translated to "the Dao that can be told, is not the eternal Dao"? I am tinkering with learning Chinese and am messing around with the Tao Te Ching. The first sentence in Chinese is this:

  道可道，非恆道；

The way this is typically translated is this:

  The Dao that can be told, is not the eternal Dao;

If I were try to reflect the English version back into Chinese without knowing any Chinese yet, I would do something like this:

<dao><can be><told>,<not><the eternal><dao>

However, this is not the way the Chinese sentence is structured. It is structured more like this:

<dao><can><dao>, <not><permanent><dao>

Two questions. First, can you generically explain at a high level how they got the translation with all the words like "that" and "the". Second, how is <dao><can><dao> equal to "the dao that can be told". Is this some sort of convention in Chinese? Or how did they come up with this?

If I were to translate it given my zero knowledge of translation or Chinese, I would do:

  Dao permits Dao, negating a permanent Dao

Am I just way off, or is this part of the fun in translating?

The word 道 (dào) has several different meanings. One of these is "road/path/way"; another is "speak/utter". This is where Wikisource's translation comes from: the first 道 means "road", and the second means "speak".
Chinese also has much less verbal morphology than English does. Where English uses the whole verbal phrase "is able to be spoken", Chinese just uses two words, 可 ("able to") and 道 ("speak"). The time of the action isn't relevant (it's a "gnomic" sentence), and the voice of the verb is clear from context: it's not a road speaking, it's a road that's able to be spoken/explained. Similarly, Chinese doesn't generally use anything equivalent to English "a" or "the", but English requires them, so the translator adds them in.
A big part of translation is knowing what needs to be stated in each language. This translation…

Dao permits Dao, negating a permanent Dao

…isn't a very good one, in my opinion, because it's ignoring the context. Sure, 道可道 could mean "speaking permits a road". But contextually, that doesn't make much sense at all. Out of the hundreds of possible interpretations, adding tense and voice to the verb (because English requires that), "the path which is able to be spoken aloud" seems like the most reasonable one.
For some more examples, here are how some professional translators handled this first sentence.

The Dao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Dao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. (Legge)
The Reason that can be reasoned is not the eternal Reason. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. (Susuki)
The Dao that can be understood cannot be the primal, or cosmic, Dao, just as an idea that can be expressed in words cannot be the infinite idea. (Goddard)

Note that all of them supplied many, many words that don't correspond to anything in the Chinese sentence! English is a somewhat verbose language, in that it needs to use a lot more words, and specify a lot more details, than Chinese does. So the translator has to add those in to get good, understandable English.


The word for clean (verb) I usually see adjectives like 干净 and 清洁 for clean but I couldn't find a general verb for clean in Chinese. Let's say I want to say. "please clean your room before you leave". What's the right clean(verb) word to use in this sentence? And btw it will be really nice and helpful if you guys can provide some common "clean" verbs for different situations :D

清洁 can also be used as a verb "to clean", not just as an adjective
清理 is only really used as a verb "to clean" in general. It can also mean "to tidy up" (no water required), and even "to dispose of" (even euphemistically, like 处理).
洗 is used for "to wash", but where it overlaps with "to clean" is often in a construction with 给, e.g. 给X洗干净 "give X a (good/thorough) clean".
清洗 is a more literary version of the above.
清涤 and 洗涤 are even more literary versions of the above, used in certain newspaper articles, official notices, translations of the Bible etc.
打扫 is used for "to sweep", but often gives the impression of "tidying up" and especially of rooms / parts of the house that don't require water for cleaning.
整理 is to "tidy up" or "arrange", and is also especially common for tidying up one's room.


Why is there a 就 in 迁就? 迁就 (qiānjiù)
CC-CEDICT: to yield / to adapt to / to accommodate to (sth)

Breaking this apart, we have:

迁 (qiān)
CC-CEDICT: to move / to shift / to change (a position or location etc) / to promote
就 (jiù)
CC-CEDICT: at once / right away / only / just (emphasis) / as early as / already / as soon as / then / in that case / as many as / even if / to approach / to move towards / to undertake / to engage in / to suffer / subjected to / to accomplish / to take advantage of / to go with (of foods) / with regard to / concerning

Here, 迁 makes sense: something is indeed changing.  However, I don't understand what 就 is doing in this word.
Question: Why is there a 就 in 迁就?

就 has the sense of 依从 (to yield or accommodate oneself to) by itself as in 半推半就, 迁就.
Colloquially, we have a word 就手(儿) which denotes a similar sense. E. g.  我就手儿把这事办了。


Tone Sandhi: Sichuanese 四川话 Been trying to find the rules of tone sandhi in Sichuanese - but not having a lot of luck.
Wikipedia Talk:Sichuanese Mandarin

Tone Sandhi
Great improvements to the original article! Can we get some information on Sichuanese tone sandhi in here? It is quite different from Mandarin (3rd tone goes from 53 to 55, etc.) Also, I am pretty sure that the 1st tone is usually a rising 35 rather than a high 55. It changes to 55 in some words depending on the surrounding tones...
Yeah, Chao lists 1st as 45, but does not discuss sandhi. — kwami (talk) 02:28,
18 January 2011 (UTC)

Seems like there should be rules for first tone (55 - changing to 35? 45?) and two fourth tones together (213 + 213) since it's similar to MSM's third tone.
Any ideas?

From Chinese Wiki:

  连读变调现象在四川话口语中十分常见，但各地略有差异，以成渝片为例，大致来说四川话中的变调可以分为4类。
  一是重叠词中的变调，一般而言如果组成该重叠词的字声调为阳平或去声，则第二个字变调为阴平（例词：爸爸[pa2pa1]、婆婆[pʰo2pʰo1]、舅舅[tɕiəu4tɕiəu1]、帕帕[pʰa4pʰa1]）；同时，如果组成该重叠词的字声调为上声，第二个字变调为阳平（例词：姐姐[tɕiai3tɕiai2]、板板[pan3pan2]）。
  二是儿尾及儿化词中的变调，如果儿尾名词为阳平，儿尾变调为阴平（例词：娃儿[ua2ɚ1]、瓢儿[pʰiau2ɚ1]）；如果儿化词的最后一个字为阳平，该字变调为阴平（例词：葡萄儿[pʰu2tʰɚ1]、麻雀儿[ma2tɕʰyɚ1]）。
  三是特定字的变调，如“去”、“头”、“面”、“上”等虚词在多数情况下都变读为阴平（例词：下去[sic][saŋ4tɕʰe1]、屋头[vu2tʰəu1]、外面[uai4mian1]、身上[sen1saŋ1]）。
  四是二字词及三字词的第二个字在很多情况下变读为阴平（例词：姑娘[ku2niaŋ1]、经佑[tɕin1iəu1]、院坝[yuən4pa1]、龙门阵[noŋ2mən1tsən4]、明年子[min2nʲian1tsɿ3]）。

That is:

  The phenomenon of tones sandhi in Sichuan colloquial speech is very common, but every place has its own little differences, taking the Chengdu and Chongqing region as an example, Sichuanese tone sandhi can be approximately divided into 4 categories.
  One is the sandhi of overlapping1 words, generally speaking if the tone of the characters making up the word is a Yang Ping or a Qu, then the second one becomes a Yin Ping (examples: 爸爸 [pa2pa1]、婆婆 [pʰo2pʰo1]、舅舅 [tɕiəu4tɕiəu1]、帕帕 [pʰa4pʰa1]); at the same time, if the tone of those characters is a Shang, the second one becomes a Yang Ping (examples: 姐姐 [tɕiai3tɕiai2]、板板 [pan3pan2])
  The second category is the sandhi of words ending with 儿 and "erhua", if a noun ending in 儿 has a Yang Ping, the 儿 changes to a Yin Ping (examples: 娃儿 [ua2ɚ1]、瓢儿 [pʰiau2ɚ1]); if a word with erhua ends with a Yang Ping, that syllable changes to a Yin Ping (examples: 葡萄儿 [pʰu2tʰɚ1]、麻雀儿 [ma2tɕʰyɚ1]).
  The third category is the sandhi of specific characters, like “去”、“头”、“面”、“上” and other function words, which in many circumstances change to a Yin Ping (examples: 上去 [saŋ4tɕʰe1]、屋头 [vu2tʰəu1]、外面 [uai4mian1]、身上 [sen1saŋ1]).
  The fourth category is the second syllable of 2-character and 3-character words, which under many circumstances changes to a Yin Ping (examples: 姑娘 [ku2niaŋ1]、经佑 [tɕin1iəu1]、院坝 [yuən4pa1]、龙门阵 [noŋ2mən1tsən4]、明年子 [min2nʲian1tsɿ3]).

1This means words made with two identical characters.


Month-on-month and Quarter-on-Quarter I know that 同比 is “year over year”, while 環比 is “month over month”, but can also mean “quarter over quarter”. In reality, the latter is used to compare two different periods. Therefore, if one says 環比, one may not tell which two time blocks the author is saying. If I want to say “month over month” and “quarter over quarter”, what’s the proper way of saying each (both literal and contextual)?
For example, “stock prices jumped 5% month over month, and 3% quarter over quarter”

Don't use "环比" alone, "比" means comparison in the sentence and needs a baseline.

stock prices jumped 5% month over month and 3% quarter over quarter

股价本月环比上涨5%，本季度环比上涨3% (comparison base on the current month/quarter)
or
股价每月上涨5%，每季度上涨3% (intend to describe a long period of time)
And some alternative sentences could go like this:
(unlikely to see both "month" and "quarter" in one sentence, but need a baseline for comparison anyway):

2021年3月，股价环比上涨5%。
2021年第一季度，股价环比上涨3%。

Edited:
"同比" means the same period of time, while "环比" means the last period of time.
Not suggested to define them as "year over year / month over month" when using alone.
So usually needs a time block in the same sentence to avoid ambiguous.


What is the difference between 准时 and 按时? These both seem to mean "on time" or "on schedule" (compared to 及时, which I believe means "in good time", i.e. before the scheduled / agreed time).
Is there a difference between them?

准 = accurate; precise
准时 = on time/ on schedule (event or action take place at a precisely scheduled/ appointed time)

~

按 = according to; base on
按时 = on schedule/ on time (event or action take place strictly following a scheduled/ at an appointed time)
Also: 按时 (base on hourly schedule/ on schedule timely), 按年(base on an annual schedule ) 按月(base on a monthly schedule ), 按人头 (base on head count)
Example: 按时吃药, 按年交税, 按月付款, 按人头付款 ( Take medicine on schedule hourly/ timely, pay taxes base on an annual schedule , pay a sum base on a monthly schedule, pay a sum base on head count)

Note:
准时 can be adverb or adjective - you can say "he is always 准时" but not "he is always 按时" because 按时 is an adverb


How should a professor address a woman student? Several answers on this site suggest addressing a woman as  大姐 but that seems wrong for a professor speaking to a woman student.  To be clear, by professor here I mean a university professor speaking to a university student.  The term professor in English is more specific than 老師 in Chinese.

The situation would be speaking to a student in class, or in office hours, or when meeting them on campus, when it is not a student that I have worked closely with.  In the US I normally address students in this situation as Mr or Ms.

Would it be best to use the student's full name with no title?

On the difference between teacher and professor, in both US usage and UK, see

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/13187/whats-the-difference-between-teacher-and-professor

I almost left out any mention of not using 小姐.  It now well known that this is not good on the mainland.

I think called her full name or just 同学 is okay.