Words for "thing"? Different usages? 办法说“事情“或者”东西“？用的时候是一样的吗？ I know a few words for "thing“， including 东西 and 事情. I've looked online, and haven't found any other commonly used words, or indication of when to use which. Are they the same? Is one more formal than another? Is there a better, more formal word I should use? Or is the word "thing" just not used a lot in Chinese?

对不起，我的中文不好！这是我最好的翻译。

我知道一些办法说“东西”或者“事情”的意思。我查资料在网上的时候，不会找到了其他字（除了东西和事情以外），也没找到了什么时候应该用”东西“或者”事情“。是一样的吗？一个是比较正式的吗？还是中国人就不常用“事情”或者“东西”的意思？谢谢大家！

「事情」refers to an event or situation. I wouldn't translate it as thing; the only situation where thing is an acceptable translation is something like

他辦事情去了
He went to take care of something

But something could have easily been substituted with a situation.

I disagree with the other answers here; there are several things that are abstract but  which can be referred to as a「東西」.

感情是個很奇怪的東西
Emotions are a very strange thing

You cannot replace this with「感情是個奇怪的事情」, which doesn't make sense.


Does 差不多 (chàbùduō) imply "slightly less than" when comparing quantities? 差 implies a kind of deficiency, so I expect

  A比B差不多

to mean A is slightly "worse" than B in some way.  For example, I would expect

  我比你差不多高

to imply I am slightly shorter than you.  I'm not sure if this is correct, as 差不多 is also used to mean "about".

Question: Does 差不多 imply "slightly less than" when comparing quantities?

I could imagine a conversation along these lines (I made this up):

  A：你说那本书是50块，可是就是52块，你说错了。
  B：哎哟，差不多吧。

where A is grumpy that the book was 52 yuan, when B previously told A that it was 50 yuan, but B says it's 差不多 (much the same).  In this context, it seems like 差不多 means "about" and not "almost".  Here 52 is greater than 50, so this raises some doubt.

差 = 相差 (difference) ;差距 (gap)
不多 = not much

差不多 :
(adj) not much difference/ not much gap between
(adv): almost / about

Example of 差不多 as adjective:
味道差不多 (not much difference in taste) - could be slightly better or slightly worse
價格差不多 (not much difference in price) - could be slightly higher or slightly lower
Example of 差不多 as adverb:
差不多到了 means "we're almost there" (not quite there yet, but close to)
差不多死了  means "almost died" or "about to die" ( not dead yet but will be soon)
When A ask B how much is the book,  and B said: "差不多50块", it mean "it is almost 50 yuan" (= not quite 50 yuan)
When A found out the actual price is 52 yuan, he has every right to accuse B of lying.
And B's excuse: "52块, 50块 差不多吧?" (52 yuan and  50 yuan is not much a difference right?) is using 差不多 in a different way.

Does 差不多 (chàbùduō) imply “slightly less than” when comparing quantities?

When 差不多 is used  as an adverb (is almost) + quantities, it dose imply “slightly less than”, But when 差不多 is used as an adjective (not much difference), then it only mean the objects are similar in some form of comparison.

A 比 B 差不多

The correct form:
A 跟 B 差不多 = not much difference between A and B
A 比 B 差不了多少 = Compare to B, A is not much worse
A 比 B 差不多 is not grammatical


What abstract things can you 吸收？ So, I recently learned 吸收 can be used abstractly. Looking around example sentences we have

吸收知识
吸收A的思想
吸收B的信念
吸收A的经验

Two questions:
 1. How common are these collocations? How colloquial?
 2. Could these collocations be used in an active way? For example

我去台湾的原因是吸收知识。

or

这个暑假在脸书实习我计划尽量吸收这个公司的知识。

Thanks for the guidance guys!

Basically anything that can be absorbed as nutrients, literally or figuratively. Yours are just a few examples, we can have more!
A plant may absorb the essence of the nature, or 吸收日月精华, and become a genie.
A political party may want to attract and invite the best people to join. Mao Zedong wanted more learned people in CCP, so he wrote 《大量吸收知识分子》. Now CCP is still trying to 吸收入党积极分子 in colleges, companies, and danweis.
Search 吸收 for book titles and you get plenty:

有吸收力的心灵 A spongy heart?
清末民初民間儒教對主流儒學的吸收與轉化 Absorption of mainstream Confucianism
早期天台学对唯识古学的吸收与抉择 Absorption of certain academic topic
三十天吸收三十年專業能力 Absorption of certain abilities
人力资源吸收与选拔 Absorption of human resources
技术吸收型对外贸易战略研究 Absorption of technology
中国吸收外资30年 Absorption of capital investment
知识的吸收与创造 Absorption of knowledge

A company may completely buy off another and it's called 吸收合并, in which case the company being bought is likely to be dissolved and will no longer function as an entity.
There is a criminal offense called "非法吸收公众存款罪". You illegally collect people's money and do your secret stuff.

I don't think I'm finished, but let's just stop for a while. Your two examples are not colloquial because, well, you wouldn't say these in English, would you:

I come to Taiwan to absorb knowledge.
I joined Facebook as a summer intern to absorb their knowledge.

Same reason, if it's personal, and if it's casual talk, the word absorb or 吸收 will sound too fancy. You usually say to learn or to study in such occasions.
Contrary to @Alex's opinion on 思想. 思想 can also be 吸收-ed. 吸收 is an active activity1. You would need to provide the specific topic for 吸收 though, as in 吸收儒家思想. On the other hand, I can't think of any example in which 信念 is 吸收-ed.
These are just my opinions. Have I mentioned that opinions can also be absorbed? 也许吸收了我和别人的意见以后，你会形成一个更完整的看法。
1. Sorry, running out of vocabs.


Difference between 商店 and 店舖? Can someone explain the difference between 商店 and 店舖? The dictionary differences are not clear.

1) For instance, if you want to say, "My friend works at a store in the downtown area," which would you use?

2) Are there any key differences between 商店 and 店舖?

Thanks!

商店 refers to "store" that sell goods, for example, a book store where books were sold.

店舖 refers to "commercial establishment".  A restaurant, a DVD rental store (younger generation might not had seen one ), and of course, a book store,  are all 店舖


How to say: "screwed it up" How can I express that someone "screwed [something] up?"  For example:

"They really screwed up the code with the last changes they made"

"I gave him one little task and he still managed to screw it up"

"I can't believe I screwed that up."

I would like it to not be vulgar, and as in the English, it is a casual/informal expression that might be used between colleagues or friends.

"Screw up" is a slang for "to blunder"
搞砸 /gǎo zá/ : blunder
弄糟 /nòng zāo/ : blunder ; mess up

How can I express that someone "screwed [something] up?"

他把事情搞砸了
他把事情弄糟了

砸
: break; smash; shatter
: [slang] fail; fall through; flop


Why is 两 used for quantities of two rather than 二? I understand that 两 is used instead of 二 when dealing with quantities of two. However, my question is - why? What are the historical reasons behind this?

I looked at Wikitionary but it only had historical information for when 两 is used to mean the "tael" unit － not for its definition of "two."

The historical reason behind it is kind of surprising though. From a Chinese Characters Roots book:

  The earlier form [of the character] looked like a yoke and a pair of saddles of a two-horse carriage. The initial meaning was two or double. It was also a unit to count vehicles and written as 辆 later.

That is why we have:

  一辆车  ―  yī liàng chē  ―  a car (from Wiktionary)

Where you notice in 辆 that there is the 车 character, meaning car, at the left side of the 两 character.

I assume its usage became a practical one, since as in many languages (including English), you can be more specific when you are referring to a pair of objects by using 两, instead of two objects using 二.

Here's a particular example: 二炮 (Èr pào) refers to the Second Artillery and 两炮 (liǎng pào) means two guns. So, would you request two guns from your commander or a full regiment?


Which is a better translation for the sentence "Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real." which will be used as a slogan? If I wanna translate the following sentence:

  Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real. Let's
  all press "commit" button!

Which of the following is a better one?

  让我们一起创造一个网站，让遥感和摄影测量成为现实。大家一起按commit按钮。

  让我们一起创造一个网站，让遥感和摄影测量成为现实。让我们按下"Commit!"按钮。

  让我们一起创造一个关于遥感和摄影测量的网站。大家一起按commit按钮。

  让我们一起创造一个关于遥感和摄影测量的网站。让我们按下"Commit!"按钮。

Would you please consider the following facts in your answer.

About the meaning of the first sentence, it's not photogrammetry real. The explanation for meaning of the sentence is let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry come into existence. Or let's create a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry.
Also consider that I'm not searching for a word-by-word explanation.Just write down what you would say if you wanted to express the same idea naturally in Chinese?
I'm trying to create an international community for remote sensing and potogrammetry experts in StackExchange.There are some remote sensing and photogrammetry groups or pages in facebook, Twitter,Google+, LinkedIn,etc. that have strictly expressed to just post in their local language. And since Chinese is the most widely spoken languages in the world (due to high population) and Chinese people are so active in scientific affairs, the number of such pages in facebook, etc. is high and so I cannot promote the idea in those pages in English and I should post in Chinese. So please consider the fact that the translation will be used to post on social networks for promotional goals. And I need a natural translation which requests the reader respectfully with kind of informality and intimacy (since I'm posting on social networks and I'm not writing a formal letter or paper to organizations) and also I need my request do not sound like begging.

I would prefer this one

  让我们一起创造一个网站，让遥感和摄影测量成为现实。大家一起按commit按钮。

but slightly change to

  我们一起来创造一个网站。一个可以让遥感和摄影测量成为现实的网站。大家一起按commit按钮。

This would suit better with your english version.


Why does Mandarin differentiate 发[發/髮] fa1/fa4 when most topolects don't? 發 and 髮 have been simplified into one single character: 发.

发 contains the separate meanings of 發 and 髮 but differentiates by tone: fa1 (fā) and fa4 (fà).

Most topolects (西安，武汉，洛阳，乌鲁木齐，贵阳，济南，柳州，万荣，etc.) don't have a tonal differentiation and 发 only has one pronunciation.

What is the origin of the tonal differentiation in Mandarin?

We might never know the real reason. All those rime books indicate that 發 (out) and 髮 (hair) are always the same pronunciation, and both are entering tone (入聲). This means there is a terminal -t in pronunciation on 發 and 髮. We know that when -t was lost in Mandarin and the tones became unstable. In Chinese phonology it is named 派入三聲. The entering tone (入聲) was gone and all characters in entering tone go to the rest three tones, namely the flat tone (平聲), the rising tone (上聲) and the leaving tone (去聲). In this way, it is possible that 發 and 髮 develops different tones in Mandarin.


What does 不按套路出牌的脑回路 mean? "unconventional brain circuitry"? I'm reading a Chinese novel and I'm having trouble understanding something I feel is rather metaphorical.  张侃侃 is resisting being 追求ed by the flirtatious 谈晋.  张侃侃 tore her clothes and as she is changing, 谈晋 puts his clothes on 张侃侃's head.  张侃侃 says...

“你衣服好香。”张侃侃呆愣愣地说。
谈晋心里一惊，对于张侃侃不按套路出牌的脑回路，他甘拜下风，笑道：“不要随便说男生的台词。”
(喜欢你，我也是, p.10)

The part in bold literally means something like

not in accordance with [不按] routine [套路] majiang-playing [出牌] brain [脑] circuits [回路]

which is nonsense.  I think it's metaphorical.  Part of it seems answered here: 不按套路出牌 is something like "unconventional" (see also this Q.), so putting it together means something like "unconventional brain circuitry", but I'm not sure this is correct.
Question: What does 不按套路出牌的脑回路 mean?

Let's break it down:

不按套路

套路 usually indicates a frame of reference, a set of rules ("routine" may be correct for some sports, like martial arts, or weight-lifting exercises; or the "every day routine"), and the term is often associated to playing cards or games. So 不按套路 means literally "not according to the rules", but not in the sense of cheating; more in the sense of "out of the box" as in "thinking out of the box", "unconventional", "unexpected". As if when playing Monopoly (大富翁) you land on one of the expensive lots and even if you could, you don't purchase it, contrary to what other players would do in the same situation.

出牌

And as a matter of fact we have 出牌，so 不按套路出牌 is something like "playing unconventionally". It doesn't refer to a specific (card) game. It's just used metaphorically here.

的

Just the noun modifier.

脑回路

As you correctly note, 回路 means "circuitry", "circuit", as in 电回路。 The variant 脑回路 here is also a relatively common term to indicate, by extension, the "circuits in your brain"
Putting it all together:

不按套路出牌的脑回路

I like your translation "unconventional brain circuitry". The meaning is that Zhang Kankan 张侃侃 the woman, is kinda "unconventional" in her line of though.
As a matter of fact the woman says “你的衣服很香” to Tan Jin 谈晋，who is a male.
And Tan Jin is taken by surprise, he thinks that this sentence is unconventional, coming from her, because it's normally said by a male to a female, and not the other way around (he says 不要随便说男生的台词).
So he feels a little bit 无奈，or “我服了你了” toward Zhang Kankan unconventional approach, which is elegantly rendered as 甘拜下风, "whatever", "I raise white flag".


Why -ian instead of -ien and -üan instead of -üen? Why are words like 天、面、先、盐 romanized in pinyin as tian, mian, xian, and yan, even though the ending is pronounced [iɛn], and would be better represented as -ien? Likewise, why are words like 卷、全、选、元 romanized as juan, quan, xuan, and yuan, when the final is pronounced [yɛn] and would be better represented as -uen? (at least the way northern Chinese people pronounce it – it seems that southern Chinese people pronounce it as [yan])

Is it that those words actually were pronounced with a [ian] and [yan] final in the past? That doesn't seem like a complete explanation, as Wade-Giles uses -ien, and Wade-Giles is from 1892 (although it does use -üan and not -üen).

Although Wade–Giles uses -ien, Zhuyin (1910) uses ㄧㄢ -ian, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1926) has -ian for the basic form of first tone, Latinxua Sin Wenz (1931) has -ian, and Yale romanization (1943) uses -yan. Likewise, pinyin's usage of -üan instead of -üen for [yɛn] has precedence in Wade–Giles (1892) -üan, Zhuyin ㄩㄢ -üan, Latinxua Sin Wenz yan, and Yale ywan.
Yale romanization in particular was supposed to be designed to be intuitive for English speakers to pronounce, which suggests that its yan and ywan were not pronounced [iɛn] and [yɛn] at the time, but rather [ian] and [yan].
Alternatively, these could be a holdover from Zhuyin. In Zhuyin, pinyin -ian is represented as ㄧㄢ -ian, and couldn't be represented as ㄧㄣ -ien, because that's used for pinyin -in.
Pinyin also draws inspiration from Zhuyin in other ways, such as the tone accent marks and the spelling of bopomofo (rather than *buopuomoufuo).
Perhaps Zhuyin could have created a dedicated -ên symbol, but overall, Zhuyin is somewhat minimalist in its inventory of finals. For example, it could have made sense to have dedicated letters for -in and -ing, rather than representing those sounds with -ien ㄧㄣ and -ieng ㄧㄥ. In fact, the character ㄣ -en is derived from 乚 yǐn, even though yin and en are different syllables.


What did Eastern Han Chinese sound like? As I was improving an answer to this question in the History SE, I discovered that the prestige Luoyang dialect of the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms period didn't actually fall under Old Chinese but something called 'Eastern Han Chinese' which had already begun shifting consonants and vowels and dropping syllables' final consonants. As such, the Baxter-Sagart and Zhengzhang lists of reconstructed Old Chinese that you can easily find, eg, on Wiktionary don't actually describe what the language would have sounded like.
Does anyone here know a good source for trying to reconstruct what fairly accurate Three Kingdoms names and language would have sounded like? For instance, can any of y'all fill in the missing blanks here?

Modern: Cao Cao, Liu Bei, He (河), Jiang (江), Wu (吳)
Period: _______, _______, _______, _______, ________
Zheng.: Zlu Sau, Məru Brugs, Gal,   Krong,     Nga

The main go-to source is Schuessler's 2009 work Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese.

As this "Later Han Chinese" is of the 1st century CE, it falls directly in between the Zhou Dynasty's Classical Chinese and Qieyun 切韵 of the Sui dynasty. It is the pronunciation of the 说文解字, of the 释名, as well as early Buddhist literature with all their transcriptions of Pali and Sanskrit.

However, Schuessler states that:

  The conservative strain of LHan, which is provided in this manual, could perhaps also be called Mid-Han; it can be converted to that of Eastern Han mainstream literature using the following paradigms:

... and then proceeds to list six points, five of which are vowel changes, one of which is velar palatisation.

The relevant points under its general phonology section are:

No consonant clusters
Velar palatisation (notably of 支)
Tones emerge definitively
Final -s is preserved from Old Chinese
"Vowel bending" - a definite great vowel shift for Chinese in this period, intermediate between Old Chinese reconstructions and the system in Middle Chinese.


Is there really no word for individualism in Chinese? In his book Selfie Will Storr claims that:

  In Chinese, there isn’t a word for individualism (the nearest they have translates to ‘selfishness’.)

I’m pretty sure there is a, modern, word for individualism and it is:

个人主义

and I’m also pretty sure it doesn’t translate to selfishness.

His concept is a good one and I would love to buy into it, but I’m not really seeing it.

Any ideas?

In my opinion, the term 个人主义 might be a valid direct translation of the word individualism, but I don't think it always conveys the same meaning.

The suffix 主义 in Chinese hints to an actual ideology or ideological system. Whereas in English it can have a narrower application, as you can call an individualist someone who lives an independent life. So that would be 独立。

  西方人比中国人独立很多
  Westerners are more individualists than the Chinese.

Perhaps you can argue that 独立 here is used as an euphemism but what they mean is actually "individualist", which - also in English - means an independent person who doesn't need much support from others without being maliciously selfish.


What's the exact realization of Chinese glides (in medial position)? While in some transcriptions you might encounter the IPA [j], [ɥ], and [w] for the medial glides, there are also transcriptions with IPA [ʲ], [ʷ] and [ᶣ].
Glides can have many interpretations whichever notation you use. For example, in Russian, palatalized consonants can have an audible glide or not depending on the environment where the palatalized consonant is and the palatalized consonant itself. Now, that glide can also be very audible, like a true [j] or not that much, like a true [ʲ].
I'd like to know which of these or other interpretations is the correct for Mandarin Chinese. I've been listening to a little Chinese but from apps where they don't necessarily speak at conversational speed, so at least when they speak clearly or slower the glides are very audible to me, like [j], but sometimes it could be closer to [ʲ] I guess, I'm not sure.
However, I've found this statement from Duanmu: "A consonant-glide combination at the start of a syllable is articulated as a single sound – the glide is not in fact pronounced after the consonant, but is realized as palatalization [ʲ], labialization [ʷ], or both [ᶣ], of the consonant". So that can also have many interpretations since a palatalized consonant can have a following audible glide and I haven't found the book for more details.
What pronunciation is more accurate for Standard Mandarin Chinese, and/or more popular?

The distinction between [pʲu] пю and [pju] пью for a Russian speaker may be very salient, but for the majority of Mandarin learners of Russian, it is a very difficult one to pick up.
That is because the equivalent phonetic difference is not phonemic in Mandarin, and it does not matter much for comprehensible Mandarin. It is thus unsurprising that the glide is more audible in slow Mandarin than faster-paced Mandarin.
Nonetheless, acoustic analysis from several sources as well as psycholinguistic tests e.g. involving rhyming and game languages seem to all agree that in Modern Standard Mandarin, the glide is part of the onset.
Note that diachronically, the glides of Middle Chinese were firmly in the final, not the onset, and this is still the case for many other varieties in Chinese, e.g. in Taiwanese Hokkien.


What's the missing sentence to this rice-planting song："花花铺盖几朵云，刚刚盖到两个人，[.......]"? In this video the speaker mentions a rice-planting song that goes like this:

  花花铺盖几朵云哦
  刚刚盖到两个人咯

But he mentions that there's another sentence on the end that he won't mention because he's on TV.

This article also basically sites the video exactly:

  不只是当年陕北人民才爱这个调调。你看四川评书人李伯清爷爷说的：“花花铺盖几朵云，刚刚盖到两个人……”民歌经常是火辣直接的，天南地北都有这样的东西。

But again the last sentence is left off.

Any ideas?

One reason the first one is hard to find is because 朵 is also written 朶.

Tang Huaxian's (唐华先) book《寒冬》Chapter 8《汤龙轩作伥抓壮丁 地下党哄营解危难》mentions:

  这日夜雨初歇，清早起来，天气微凉，东边的山顶燃起桔红色的彩霞，正是挎田栽秧的天时，也是炎热似火的日子。趁着早晨凉快，钟嘴埫一湾一湾的水田里，刚刚开亮口就敲响了栽秧锣鼓。两名歌师，一个打鼓，一个敲锣，站在田埂上一人一段地唱：

  花花铺盖几朶云哟，
  刚刚盖到两个人呀。
  大汗淋淋的老公一脚蹬床下噻，
  光屁股婆娘心痛一槽捡不赢哪。

  一阵叮叮噹噹的过门锣鼓之后，另一位歌师接唱：

  二十岁的姑娘娶进门哟，
  十二岁的小老公还未长成人呀。
  半夜找婆娘要水喝噻，
  天亮起来铺盖尿得水淋淋哪。

This forum also mentions a rendition on this:

  一床铺盖四朵云
  刚刚盖到两个人
  今年两口子
  明年三个人

I don't know which one 李伯清 was talking of, but there you go.


Can you help me identify the name of the artist on my painting? (Characters identified: 雲茜) I inherited a painting which I think is on silk. I would like to know more about it. I think it was probably bought in the mid-twentieth century by my great aunt.
I would love to know the name of the artist in English. Thank you for any help you can give me about this painting.

I googled for a while, I think she doesn't have a famous English name. Her name in chineses is 云茜 or 雲茜 in traditional chinese. You could google this and some kind of this painting  will come out.


Can someone please translate this for me? I’ve had a piece of metal with this written on it for years but have no idea what it says! Can someone please translate this for me? I’ve had a piece of metal with this written on it for years but have no idea what it says!

The text that you’ve copied off the metal is「信義」, which means (good) faith, as in the phrase acting in good faith. Translating the characters individually, it is「信」(belief) and「義」(morality, principles).


Take a picture of me/for me (which preposition better translates)? As an experienced tourist in China, I know the sentence:你能不能给我（们）相的照吗？

Although it gives the desired result-- someone taking a picture of me, for me, with my own camera-- I am not sure of the exact corresponding English translation.

Does it mean:
A)     Can you take a picture for me?
    Or,
B)     Can you take a picture of me?

And how can I distinguish between the  two, or add a second object like "Can you take of picture of her for me?"

'给..照相' means 'take a picture of ..', so your sentence means 'can you take a picture of me'.

The verbatim translation for 'do [something] for [someone]' is '为..做..', but in your scenario (asking stranger for help), it is more common to say '帮..做..' (help [someone] do [something]), so 'can you take a picture of her for me' would be '你能帮我给她照相吗？'


Clarification on 师 meaning I am trying to learn some vocabulary thanks to memrise.com.

In the word list, 师 is mentionned two times, once meaning "teacher"(pinyin: shi1), the second one as an adjective meaning "handsome, smart" (pinyin shuai4).

I can't find the second meaning anywhere else online. Is this an error from the site, or something deprecated or unusual ?

Similar characters:
师 shi1

帅 shuai4

I would imagine someone mixed them up accidentally.


What exactly is an ancient Tang dynasty 壺? Note: I have now asked this question on the History Stack Exchange also.

There are at least 33 types of ancient sacrificial, wine, food and water ritual bronze vessels of ancient China, none of which are named 壺.

According to my research the ancient Tang 壺 was a wine vessel (12 types of wine vessels listed above). But seeing as there are so many very precise different kind of ancient vessels, I want to know exactly which one the ancient Tang 壺 is and what it looks like.

UPDATE:

For example, I came across this Pot titled 鎏金银嵌宝仿唐壶:

This imitation 唐壶 is very different from the ones posted in the answer below, and on the link I provided before I see that the long spout was a later addition to the pot that was not common previously. So I don't know the EXACT range of styles that the word 壺 encompasses in the Tang Dynasty era.

Also, whereas I want to know the full range of what a 壺 encompasses in the Tang era, I'm particularly interested in the finer 壺 made of jade or gold or etc.

UPDATE:

This is a picture of a late 11th century BC altar set of wine vessels (Western Zhou Dynasty, long before the Tang Dynasty, kept at "the Met"). The central vessel is a Zun (尊/樽/鐏), and there are many different kinds of wine vessels including the 斝 and 爵 here pictured. Would all these classify as “壺”, or would some of them only be 杯? I need to know which ones would classify under the “壺” category and which ones wouldn't. Certainly the Zun was still in use during the Tang Dynasty until at least the Song, but would it count as a “壺”?

doesn’t a google images search of “故宮” + “館藏” + “唐代” + “壺“ suit your need?

it would be something like these:

ok, these three are “執壺” (a 壺 with handle & spout)

update:

the photo provided in the update, is an “imitation” (仿), made in 20th century. imo, it’s “un-han-chinese”, and is more suitable to be classified as “container” (罐).

  want to know the full range of what a 壺 encompasses in the Tang era

well. “壺” is a category name, like “cat”, “cake”.

so, listing all cat breeds, or all different types of cakes, is an enormous task.

have fun :)


As verbs, what’s the difference between 经历 and 通过? I saw both of them translated as ‘go through’... But do they have any more specific use or meaning difference?

经历 (v): to experience; to go through.  e.g. 经历人生起伏 (experience life's up and downs)

通过 (v): to pass through ; to get past. e.g. 通过隧道 (pass through the tunnel)

通过 (v): to pass; to adopt.  e.g. 通过法案 (to pass/ to adopt a bill)

Edit:

  经历 translated as "go through" is referring to 'go through an experience'

Example:

广岛曾经历过核弹轰炸 - Hiroshima experienced (went through) nuclear bombing

人人都会经历人生起伏 - Everyone will experience  (go through) life's up and downs

  通过 translated as is referring to 'go through a physical path or go/ pass through an object'

Example:

火車通过隧道 - the train passes through a tunnel


What is the difference between putting 今天 before or after the subject? 我今天去电影院
今天我去电影院

I've also noticed that other words can be before or after the subject:

如果我是你
我如果是你

What is the difference in nuance of placing such words before or after the subject, if any?

It's really a matter of emphasis. The greater emphasis is on the word that goes first.

今天我去..., means, Today, I am going out...

On the other hand, with 我今天去...,

the emphasis is on the  我 or I.


What does 才 mean in 什么样的人才能做以下职业? 什 么 样 的人 才 能 做 以 下 职 业 ？

What is the meaning of 才 in this sentence. Or is the word 人才 or is the word 才能?  I think I understand the meaning of the sentence:

  What type of person can do this job?

But what is the meaning of 才？

I would not agree that this 才 is 'only', I'd plump for 'then', or better still ignore it in translation. And this use of 'then' really means 'in that case'.

什么样的人才能做以下职业？
What kind of person then can do the following job/jobs?

怎样才能算出我的税金？
How (then) can I figure out my taxes?

努力工作才能取得成功。
(If you) Work hard, then you will be successful.

夜里才能赞美今天晴朗的天气。
(Wait till) evening, then you can praise today's fair weather.
Praise a fair day at night.


What is the Chinese word for "home office"? What is the correct Chinese term for "home office"? 办公室 is an office in an office building, and would not be correct.

SOHO (small office/home office) is a new business concept that encompasses the idea of working and living, flexibility and connectivity using the limited space of a small office or home office. Depending on local regulation, real estate developments that are being marketed as SOHO may or may not be approved for both office and residential use.

The proper term to describe SOHO activity is 居家就业 or 家居办公. As for the translation of the term "home office", I would definitely go with 家居办公室.


What's the difference between 行为 and 现象? 从（软件运行的）现象上来看，这个问题不影响软件的正常使用。

According to the dictionary, 现象 is phenomenon. I think it should be behavior, but behavior means 行为.

Besides meaning 'a phenomenon', a more literal understanding of 現象 is 'the appearance of things'*. By character, 現 means 'to appear; to reveal'; 象 means 'resemblance; appearance'. May think of that as 表現之象.
This sentence may mean something like this:
'From the way the software runs, it appears that this problem does not affect the normal functioning of the software.'
In this context, 現象 is akin to 表徵, 表面.
行為 as a substitute of 現象 is grammatically plausible. But their meanings differ slightly; while 行為 is a neutral phrasing, 現象 seems to be a more conservative way of assessing the effect of the problem on the software - the speaker's judgement is only based on how the software appears to them, not necessarily how the software actually is under the influence of the problem.
* Reference: 譯典通英漢雙向字典


一起 vs 一块 - what's the difference? 一起 vs 一块, are these two expressions the same in Chinese, or is there a certain situation where one is more appropriate than the other? Can anyone explain what the difference might be?

For example: 我们一块去 and 我们一起去 - are both of these exactly the same, or is one better than the other?

For your example,

  我们一块去 or 我们一起去

they are of exactly the same meaning. One slightly difference could be that the latter one is more formal (used in written Chinese) while the former is rather oral. And in spoken Chinese, we usually add an "儿话音" to the end of “一块”:

  一块儿 (Note: the Pinyin is Yi Kuair, not Yi Kuai Er)

So when referring to together, you can either use 一起 and 一块儿, but I prefer to use 一块儿 in the daily life.

In other occasions, 一块 can be of other meanings. For example,

  一块钱 means "RMB One Yuan"
  一块蛋糕 means "a piece of cake"

一起 also has some other meanings:

  一起车祸 means "a case of car accident"

Here 块 and 起 are measure words.


How does 麦 connect 烧麦 (shāomài), a kind of dumpling, with 大麦 (dàmài), 小麦 (xiǎomài), and 燕麦 (yànmài), which are types of grains? This is 烧麦 (shāomài):

Which has the same character 麦 as in:

大麦 (dàmài = barley),
小麦 (xiǎomài = wheat), and
燕麦 (yànmài = oats).

These are types of grains, and seem unrelated to 烧麦.

Question: How does 麦 connect 烧麦 (shāomài), a kind of dumpling, with 大麦 (dàmài), 小麦 (xiǎomài), and 燕麦 (yànmài), types of grains?

It's nothing to do with 麦 (grains).

From wikipedia,

  烧卖，又称稍麦、烧麦、捎卖、稍美、干蒸、烧梅、肖米、鬼蓬头。

  烧卖及其他与之谐音的名称的来由有多种说法，没有定论。

It's explained a little in the English version.

  The name was given "捎卖", meaning the product was "sold as a sideline", with tea.

  The name was later transformed into modern forms like "烧麦", "稍美" and "烧卖", changing the characters while keeping the original pronunciation.


How you say... I feel good after finally getting closure I'm looking for an idiom that describes feeling better after getting closure/some explanation/clarity on a certain issue... whether breaking up with significant other and having a final face-to-face... getting explanation on death of a loved one.. etc.

Any thoughts?

I got 恍然大悟/善始善终/松了口气/释然/如释重负/大彻大悟/冰释前嫌/释然放怀，无复蔕芥/尘埃落定 etc. in mind. But they don't mean the same.


How to use 了 as a modal particle? I'm having a hard time understanding when to use 了 as a modal particle (instead of as an aspect particle).

For example, what is the difference between the following two sentences.

现在几点？
现在几点了？

What are a few other examples of this usage of 了?

谢谢

Usage of 了 (le)：

A. auxiliary word (助词)

A.1 used after verb or adj to indicate completion. This usage carries the same sense of "Perfect Tenses" in English.

  Example: 我已经问了老王 / 人老了，身体差了 / 头发白了 / 这双鞋太小了 / 他打开了窗子

A.2 used at the end of a sentence, or in the middle of sentence but right before a pause(usually a comma), to indicate current situation changed or new situation coming up.

  Example: 刮风了 / 下班了 / 开学了 / 天亮了 / 雨大了

B. modal word (语气词)

B.1 to indicate the mood of future certainty.

  Example: 明天又是星期六了 / 要过新年了

B.2 to indicate speeding up or stopping.

  Example: 快躲了! / 别吵了! / 闪开了!

B.3 to indicate interjection.

  Example: 好了! / 累死了! / 弄疼我了!

C. Language Sense (语感)

Each language has its own language sense. By language sense I mean something about language that you can feel if it is good or not. Language sense helps us to know the way how to speak a language in a smooth and natural way, as native speakers do.

For example, in Chinese, we can say:

  屋里有张桌子，桌子上有几本书。

But translated into English, it will become something like

  There is a table in the room, and on the table there are some books.

In this sentence, the 2nd "the" is needed. Why? Language sense. But in Chinese, there is no need of such article in front of the 2nd 桌子, and we all know that both the 1st and 2nd 桌子 refer to the same table.

Another example:

  After finishing his lunch, he started running out of the house, but tripped on the doorsill and broke his leg.

So why are the 2 "his's" needed? Language sense. Someone may argue that without the 2 "his's", we don't know whose lunch he ate, and whose leg he broke. True, but again why do we need those specifications in English? Language sense.

In Chinese we will say:

  吃过午饭后，他向屋外跑去，可却绊在门槛上摔断了腿。

See, here we don't say 吃过*他的*午饭, nor 摔断了*他的*腿, why? Language sense. If you say 吃过他的午饭后，他向屋外跑去，可却绊在门槛上摔断了他的腿, then it is not wrong, but it sounds very bad, as this is not the natural way native speakers speak.

Chinese is a contextual language, which means a lot info of sentences are hidden in the context. Chinese language also relies heavily on default info (缺省信息 or 默认信息). If no specific info expressed in sentences, then we just interpret them in the normal situation, by drawing info from the same sentence or from context.

So in some cases, need of 了 is just language sense. You need to get yourself used to it and familiar with it.


What is the difference in use between 以及, 和 and 与? I have a book with the following lesson titles:

中文以及中国
聚会和饮食
交通与环境

Why are these terms connected with 以及 / 和 / 与, why not always use 和 for example?

Are there any rules for proper use of these conjunctions? What are the differences?

There are a few differences between those three words:

"以及" can only connect phrases,not words.
The phrases after "以及" is commonly considered to secondary.
"与" and "和" are used to express the relationship.
"与" is more elegant than "和". such as "老人与海".
"和" is mostly used in oral form.
In some cases,"和" and "与" are somewhat interchangeable, such as "我和他做事方法不同" or "我与他做事方法不同".


在一篇关于墨尔本疫情的文章里，作家为什么先写“爆发”再写“暴发”？ 在下面的文章里，我们可以看到“爆发”和“暴发”，这两个近义词。这两个词都形容墨尔本里新冠病毒的新增确诊病例，迅速地上升。

据新西兰先驱报报道，据称，澳大利亚墨尔本新冠肺炎隔离酒店内负责观察守卫入境游客和归国人员的警卫，被指控与客人发生性关系，导致维多利亚州爆发新的疫情。
……
维多利亚州州长丹尼尔·安德鲁斯承认，酒店员工中有“少量”违规行为，他说这可能是导致疫情暴发的原因。
尴尬！墨尔本新疫情或因隔离酒店警卫与客人发生性行为所致，2020年07月02日

在这个网站我们可以知道：（1）“暴发”更贬义；（2）“爆发”的使用范围比较宽；（3）“暴发”多用于具体的事物，比如疫情；（4）“暴发”强调事物发生的突然性和猛烈性。可是我不知道为什么在上面的语境里，文章都有“爆发”和“暴发”。
问题：在上面的文章里，作家为什么先写“爆发”，再写“暴发”？
我猜是因为在上面的语境中“爆发”和“暴发”没有区别，可是那样的写法不一致。

如其他答案者指出，该文章的作者可能打错字了。
实际上，「暴发」和「爆发」两个写法基本上通用，意思为「突然发作」。不过，跟「疫情」搭配的话，则「暴发」更恰当。

暴发：指突然发作，多用于山洪、大水或疾病等具体事物

中文网站中能发现被多次引用的这篇解释：http://www.chinaqw.com/hwjy/2020/03-16/249584.shtml
MDGB 也提示，「暴发」与「传染病」尤其搭配： to break out (of disease etc)
Google 搜索结果也显示，在新华网文章中，「暴发」与「疫情」一起出现得多一点：

site:www.xinhuanet.com “疫情暴发” 7000多个结果
site:www.xinhuanet.com “疫情爆发” 1000多个结果

世界卫生组织 (WHO) 也采用「暴发」这个写法。


How similar do terms have to be to connect them with 與, 與其，及其？ I often want to make my sentences short in order to pass our classroom exercise of writing a 簡體 abstract from memory in under 5 minutes. The biggest problem seems to be that I use 與，及其，與其，in inadmissible places.

The info we were given says, 與 can be used to connect nominal, adjectival and verbal phrases, with the first ones being the norm.

“与”较多连接名词性词语，也可连接动词性、
 形容词性词语，多用于书面语，书名、标题中常见。

Some people accepted

  從該日起在此居住與唸書。

others wanted to replace 與 with 並。

The following was rejected explicitly on the grounds of the terms of 美國 and 美國的政治方法 being 不同類。

  2a.該研究美國與其政治方法。

Would it be better to use this?

  2b. 該研究美國及其政治方法。

On youdao there are sentences such as:

  2c. 我们很乐意为这所房子及其庭院拍照。

Which I would assume to be exactly the type of 2b, particularly regarding similarity of terms (which I perhaps misunderstand). What about this?

  3a. 辜鴻銘不認可胡適這位新文化的帶頭人與其課程。

What about replacing 與其 with 及其?

  3b. 辜鴻銘不認可胡適這位新文化的帶頭人及其課程。

與： 和，and;
與其： 和他的， and one's;
及其： 还有他的，and also one's;
Back to your examples:

從該日起在此居住與唸書。// fine

2a.該研究美國與其政治方法。// wrong as the reason you said
2b. 該研究美國及其政治方法。// fine, [research on America and its methodology of politics].
2c. 我们很乐意为这所房子及其庭院拍照。 // fine, [take pictures for this house and also its courtyard.]
3a. 辜鴻銘不認可胡適這位新文化的帶頭人與其課程。// wrong, the same reason as 2a
3b. 辜鴻銘不認可胡適這位新文化的帶頭人及其課程。// fine, [disagree/disapprove the leader of ... and also his courses.]


Why can a Chinese person have a nickname as 啊+surname? I watched a Chinese drama a few years ago and one character was called 啊金. Then I got to know that it wasn't his name, but 金 sure was his name. Is that some kind of nickname? My Chinese teacher told me sometimes they call each other 小+surname, 老+surname. I am very curious O.O

Not 啊, is 阿.

阿 + surname, or 阿 + given name can be a nickname. You can only attach one character to 阿.

e.g.  李白 ->  阿李, 阿白

e.g. 周树人 ->  阿周, 阿树, 阿人.  no 阿树人.

阿 + last given name used more.


Usage of 的: The first day of (or without of) a fast? Is correct to translate "The first day of a fast" (fast — in religious meaning) as: 第一天快? Or the better to use 的: 第一天的快?

When 'fast' refers to no food/drink/both/[sometimes sex] for a period of time by religion (Ramadan, for example), it's "斋戒."

When 'fast' refers to no food/drink/both for a period of time for political reasons (hunger strike), it's "绝食/绝食抗议."

When 'fast' refers to no food/drink/both for a period of time for medical purposes (blood test/surgery), it's "禁食 (verb)/空腹（adj.)."

"快" means "quick/fast/high speed" in adj.  "about to/nearly" in adv.

In you case, I would say "斋戒(的)第一天。"


part of speech - "微" 管仲，吾其被髮左衽矣。 What is the part of speech of 微 in the following? A dictionary says it's a verb while others say it's an adverb. Do these claims hold water?

  微管仲，吾其被髮左衽矣。

微 should be an adverb here. The sentence means "如果没有管仲的话, ..." (if there was no 管仲, then ...), and 微 is not an action here.

  微 wēi

  〈副>

  要没有,要不是 [but for;if it were not for]

  微斯人,吾谁与归。——宋· 范仲淹《岳阳楼记》


Spoken unsubtitled Min in a (now deleted) Youtube video: characters? Long ago, I ran into the song 媽媽歌星, and in particular I have a download of a video where there were two spoken parts in Min, without captions. It is rather unfortunate that the video in question is now no longer retriavable on Youtube, or at least I cannot find it. Anyways, yesterday I tried transcribing it (as I heard it) with Tai-lo, getting the following:

  Lin ho. Mama tui lang kong | li si gua e siau ting. | Li i-king | kam-kak tsin khi-kuai mo? | So si kong | tshiu mama tsip kuan | lun liong e lu-sing. | Tsit-si-lang | kan-na oo a kho tshiu gua. | Tu hui si i gua, | ia ko - sing li khau long - ho tsui le. Li ia so tsai-iann | mama tsi ai - sit lin pa-pa tsit e lang, | ki-lian bo lin pa-pa, | gua | tsi ho kho tsu-pi, | kho tshiu gua, | tshiu gua - tng lai ko - kua le. | Ui-tioh bo guan hoo gua beh si-bong. | In ho. | Mama an-ne - mua pian lang, | li siunn. | Tioh m tioh? | Tioh m tioh le? (Part 1)

And:

  Lin ho. | Mama iong hui, | iong en tsi, | am khan lioh bin - sion me liau kun, | tann ban tioh iau kiann wei mou i. | M gun pat-lang - an tsong sim. | Mama tsi hi-bang lin | siong sim guo. | Liau-kai gua: | li si mama e sinn-mia. | Li kam tsai-iann mama | fui ia mng lin pan | ti e din mang - tiong. | Li si tsit e - tsin phiau-phiat e sim-nong. | Li e sin-khu-pi | kiau ua tsit e - tsin sui, | tsin sui e sinn-mia. | Ah, | m tsai siann-mih si-tsun, | tsi kho-i nai tsit tsi | na jin tsiann nai kau. | M si | e ting nai ka | nai kau | mama m tsai beh luann - huann-hi le. | Li tsai-iann bo? (Part 2)

The |s and -s indicate pauses and slow-downs in speech speed respectively. Then I tried giving this sound transcription characters, and got this:

  林好。妈妈对人讲你是我的小^灯^。你已经感觉真奇^怪^无？鎖^匙^讲^就^妈妈 tsip kuan | lun liong 的女生。一世人干那 oo a kho tshiu gua. | Tu hui si i gua, | ia ko - sing li khau long 予碎^咧。你也所^知影，妈妈只爱识^林爸爸一个人。既然无林爸爸，我只好靠 tsu-pi, 靠 tshiu gua, | tshiu gua 转来 ko - kua 咧。为着无^愿^予我欲失望。林好。妈妈按呢 mua pian 人。你想。着毋着？着毋着咧？ (Part 1)

And:

  林好。妈妈 iong hui, | iong en tsi, | am khan lioh bin - sion me liau kun, 担 ban 着 iau 惊 wei mou i. 毋 gun 别人 an tsong sim. 妈妈只希望林 siong sim guo. 了解我：你是妈妈的生命。你敢知影妈妈 fui ia mng lin pan | ti e din mang - tiong. 你是一个真 phiau-phiat e sim-nong. 你的 sin-khu-pi 叫我一个真 sui, 真 sui 的生命。啊，毋知啥物时阵，只可^以^ nai tsit tsi | na jin tsiann nai kau. 毋是 e ting nai ka | nai kai 妈妈毋知欲 luann - 欢喜咧。你知影无？ (Part 2)

Technically the transcription above involves a few tweaks done while giving it characters. Characters followed by ^ are of uncertain choice. I suspect lun-liong is some kind of adjective. I also suspect tsip kuan might be 集權, sin-khu-pi might be 辛苦悲, mang - tiong might be a misheard 梦中, 真 sui, 真 sui might be 真媠，真媠, and khau long might have to end with 龙 Anyways, could you help me complete this character spelling and finish understanding this?

Update

It seems the video I have on my computer is still online or has been put back.

The full lyrics can be found on the Web.
(But, there are a few minor errors.)
A video with all subtitles can be found on the YouTube site.
(There are a few minor errors too.)
The lyrics are the words that a mother, who is a singer, tells her daughter whose name is 麗蘭, Lì-lán in Mandarin or Le-lán in Taiwanese Hokkien.
The following lyrics have been modified to Mandarin so that more people can understand the meanings easily.

媽媽歌星
含 口白 (narration; spoken parts)
note: (can be added) [can be omitted]
人若問 妳和我二人到底甚(麼)關係 (我都)介紹妳是我小妹 (而)不敢講坦白(話)
雖然(我)是一直(在)掩蓋 (其實)心內感覺真(得很)難過 因為我待在歌壇 最需要(的)是歌迷
人若知(道)我有女兒 歲數又這(麼)多 恐怕可比秋天的落花 名聲飄飄墜落地

【口白】
麗蘭，媽媽對人說，妳是我的小妹，妳一定感覺奇怪吧？
事實講，像媽媽這種軟弱的女性，一世人只能依靠著唱歌的女人，除了這以外，又還有什麼工作好做呢？
妳也[所]知道，媽媽只愛的是妳爸爸一個人。
既然沒你爸爸，我只好靠自己，靠唱歌。
唱歌總是要靠歌迷，為著不願給歌迷失望，
麗蘭，媽媽這樣瞞騙人，妳想對不對？對不對呢？

一切是環境來造成(這)無聊的命運 滿面的胭脂水粉 打扮(成正)當青春(的樣子)
上舞台表演歌唱 引人迷魂笑紋紋 因為我待在歌壇 靠藝術賺錢[銀]
母子[來]相依為命 勞苦無(可)議論 哪能怨嘆無情的郎君 (令人)每日心[肝]亂紛紛

【口白】
麗蘭，媽媽用粉用胭脂掩蓋[著]面上的皺紋，打扮著妖嬌的模樣，
不管別人怎麼想，媽媽只希望妳相信我，了解我。
妳是媽媽的性命，妳可知道，媽媽每晚都做夢；
在[眠]夢中，妳是ㄧ個很美很美的新娘，妳的身邊也有一個很瀟灑的新郎。
啊！不知何時，這種的場面會到？
若真正來到，……
不是，ㄧ定會到。
若到，媽媽不知有多歡喜咧，妳知道嗎？

(因)興趣[著]唱歌(以)來 一唱已經十多年 親手來[襁]養女兒 不願靠別人
薄情郎離開[了]後 將[著]愛情都全放(下) 因為我待在歌壇 有能力再活動
期待著美麗前程 相信有好夢 用心栽培女兒花清香 是我一生的願望


In which dialect of Mandarin can I see or hear 乳酪? In this website they write "乳酪 ru3 lao4" is a word which is used in Taiwan to describe cheese.
But my Taiwanese friend told me they don't use this word, they use "nai3 lao4" or "cheese".
Could you write me something about popularity of "ru3l lao4" in China and Taiwan, and also how often you hear people using each of these words to describe cheese in the country you're living in? In percentage, like "I hear "cheese" about 60% of times and "nai3 lao4" 40% of times".

Your Taiwanese friend said 奶酪 is more popular than 乳酪 in Taiwan, then it is probably true.
When I say '芝士' is the term Hong Kong Chinese most commonly use to describe 'cheese' you should believe me too.
I would say 乳酪 is more popular in written Chinese, because I rarely see  奶酪  appear in any text. On the other hand, I had came across the term 乳酪 many many times in menu, cook book, label etc.


Why is 面巾纸 different from 纸巾? If 纸巾 means "paper towel", I can understand how it was combined with "face" 面 to mean "tissue". But I'm curious as to why it's 面巾纸, not 面纸巾. I can't find any definition for 巾纸 on its own, so where did this word come from?

面巾 is also a kind of napkin. 面巾 is for face cleaning, 手巾 is for hand cleaning. So 面巾纸 is usually the small pack soft paper napkin you put in your pocket, used for cleaning face. you can think it is the same thing as 纸巾. Here are many things that have different names.

This case, it is a combination of 面巾 + 纸. 纸+面巾 is also used. Though 面+纸巾 and other combinations are also logical, but less people use them.


What is the right word order? I am prepairing to my Chinese exam and have a doubt in using of 有 in describing of things in loction. Could you please correct my word order and explain 有-Usage rules?
The task for me is to translate the answer, using 有.
The question:哪里有中国地图？
My variant is: 他哪里有中国地图。 Or is it possible to say: 那里他又中国地图。(There, with him there is the Chinese map.)

The same problem is by: 哪儿有市场？ And my variant of the answer is: 公园这儿有市场。(Here, with park there is a market/).

I would be glad to get your help! Thank you!
Best wishes, Oksana

Q: 哪里有中国地图？

A1: 他那里有中国地图。
A2: 他那儿有中国地图。

Normally, "哪里" is for question, we could use "那里" to answer the location of something.

那里他有中国地图： Incorrect order for "那里" and "他", "他那里" is fine.

有-Usage rules in your case is pretty straight forward, it normally put in-front of the object that you are mention. But for some cases, you could let your sentence starts with 有, for example, 有个中国地图在他那里 (There is a Chinese map with him.)


Does Chinese require more context to avoid ambiguities than English? After some time learning Chinese, I feel Chinese language is more ambiguous than English or Spanish, in the sense that a single sentence without some context can easily have multiple distinct meanings, for example, when there are characters with different meanings such as 想 with think/want/miss or 让 with let/ask (and the situation can be even worse in an oral conversation with homophone characters).
Question: I would like to hear what more advanced learners or Chinese natives think about this appreciation. In particular, is it true Chinese is in general more ambiguous than English? So for the same sentence in Chinese than in English, do you usually need to provide more context in order to transmit a message?

TL;DR I would say so, yes.
One type of ambiguity is given by the isolating nature of the language (i.e. absence of inflection) combined with a high frequency of homophones.
Which means if you hear me saying bei1 ju4, am I talking about a tragedy 悲剧 or glassware 杯具？This requires context to disambiguate.
You might think: "well that's easy to disambiguate". Okay, what about you hear me saying: 我的 ji4 yi4 很差! Is it 记忆 (memory) or 技艺 (skill)?!
As you can see, this ambiguity exists in speech only. In writing, you readily identify what I'm talking about by just looking at the actual characters.

Another type of ambiguity is given by the lack of verb tenses, which makes it harder to figure out if someone is talking about a past, present or future event. This usually requires time indicators (那时候，今天，明天，去年，当时), particles or auxiliaries (过，了，将，要), or a larger frame of reference, e.g. a previous sentence.
But it's possible to argue, and it's a valid argument in my opinion, that this kind of ambiguity practically exists only when you compare Chinese to a language with different grammatical features, and not in absolute. As your proficiency level increases, you simply get used to how the language flows.
And at that point the comparison with English is maybe a little moot: the two languages are just 不一样。

Edit:
As an additional note, English itself doesn't lack weird ambiguities, apparently known as garden-path sentences


Is this a valid riddle in Mandarin? I came up with this 看图猜謎 based on Cantonese jyutping. Is it a valid riddle in Mandarin?

猜一句詩 (guess a verse in a poem)
Answer:

美人如玉劍如虹

If he elaborates, the whole point of asking the question would be gone.
I suppose only Cantonese speakers would see the point as it is a play on  魚 and 如 which in Cantonese sounds exactly the same, but pronounced in Mandarin as 魚, (Yú), and 如, ( Rú)
The poem's correct title is 美人如玉劍如虹. The riddle is substituting 魚, for 如 as they sound exactly the same in Cantonese.
Will it work in Mandarin? A Mandarin speaker with no knowledge of Cantonese would not get it. I hope I got that right?


How to ask about chinese firstname? How to ask about chinese firstname?
E.g.

What is your name /fullname/? - 你叫什麽名字？- 我叫李燕 /lastname + firstname/。
Whan is your surname? - 你貴姓？ - 我姓李。
What is your name /firstname/? - [Chinese version of this question? / Or does this question have no sense in Chinese?]

But there are still short names in Chine, as I know you can call your friend 李燕 like 燕燕. So may be question about your firstname still make sence.

Please read my answer to this post Why is there such a difference between "first name" and "last name"?

Actually, 姓名 is almost interchangeable with 名字 in modern time
When someone ask "你的名字是什么?" It is more common to state your full name (全名) than just your given name

If you want to ask someone's last name, you can say: "請問你姓什麼?" or "請問貴姓?" (May I ask, what is your family name)

If you want to ask someone's full name, you can say: "請問你全名是什麼? or "請問你的姓名是什麼?" (May I ask, what is your full name?)

If you want to ask someone's first name, you can say: "請問你名字叫什麼?" (You are literally asking someone's given name and courtesy name. Since most people in modern time have no courtesy name, 名字 could only mean 'first name'. However, as I stated before,  姓名 and 名字 are interchangeable in modern time. people could answer with their full name or first name)

To specifically asking for someone's first name, you need to be specific and ask: "你父母給的取的名字是什麼?" (What is the name given to your by your parents?) Your family name is born with you, only your first name is given to you by your parents

More on Chinese name: What does this symbol mean?


Difference between 'unfortunately'： 不幸 可惜 遗憾 What is the difference between these three words to mean unfortunately?

Also, which one is the most appropriate for this sentence:

My distant relative: "what is your job?"

Me: "Unfortunately, my job is confidential."
可惜(的是)我的工作要保密
不幸(的是)我的工作要保密
遺憾(的是)我的工作要保密

可惜我的工作要保密: It express your willingnes can't be fulfilled because of irresistible or uncontrolable force, such as discipline,weather etc.

不幸我的工作要保密: 不幸 always relates to death, wounding or very bad things, its use is inappropriate in this context

遺憾我的工作要保密: It doesn't emphasize on your wilingness, but it express your sorrow on the consequnece it caused to other person. in this context, it depends on what may be caused by the confidentialily nature of your job

不幸的是，我的工作要保密: same as item 2


Usage of "│" (vertical bar) in Chinese? The Chinese wikipedia page for vertical bars only talks about:

Math
Physics
Computing

In the book《成都方言》I'm seeing this type of xiehouyu with a vertical bar in the middle of the "注":

  缸钵头的泥鳅儿——耍团转│滑不了

My best guess is that it meant either/or but then under the entry for 钵 it's written the same way:

  钵 bo 钵钵，钵儿，陶盆：鸡吃一撮，狗吃一～。歇后语：“缸～头的泥鳅儿——耍团转│滑不了。”

No indications of different usage that I can see here.

What does the vertical bar do here? What does it mean? Is it either/or?

You are right, it means either or.

缸～头的泥鳅儿——耍团转

缸～头的泥鳅儿——滑不了

equal to

缸～头的泥鳅儿——耍团转│滑不了


Is this how it feels to read Chinese? I cam across this post a while back, its a discussion regarding the ease (and/or speed) of reading text in Chinese vs text in English. To directly quote what another person had quoted:

  I feel English is a reading language, if you are reading an English book, you watch the word and make sound in your brain. But Chinese can be a watching language, take a Chinese book, I can watch over a paragraph and get the meaning of most part.

The entire thread is a nice read, though I sort of tossed it to the back of my mind after looking through it. But today I came across a neat post that has to do with our (English) brains work when reading, admittedly many of you may have seen this effect before but take a look regardless:

I've seen posts like this many times in the past but when I saw this today it made me recall the thread describing a native Chinese speaker's ability to  "watch over a paragraph and get the meaning of most part".

For native Chinese speakers, can you corroborate this claim, that you have the ability to skim a Chinese text and still form an understanding? If so, do you see this picture as an accurate analogy?

“汉字的序顺并不定一能影阅响读”

根剑据桥大的学研究，词汇中的字表母达的含并不义重要，重的只要是首末字母的位正置确与否。其字他母的位置可完以全混乱但你仍可通以顺地读出语句。这因是为人的意并识不是逐字阅母读，而逐是词阅读。

尽管剑大桥学从做未过这个实验，但这个段子确实让友外网海产生了不小兴趣。当它入传中国时，也就有了开头的那句话。

这也以可给一些网友一些发的挥空间，让他们利用这种自错动纠机制的洞漏来计设一些段子，以及用巧来妙回避某论些坛的关河键词蟹。

设注应计时意，最保好持每句两话首末个字不变，否效则果会大打折扣。另也外宜不过计设短语的句。

e.g. 小别致长得真东西。

source萌娘百科

btw，I can read the whole text in 3 seconds, partly because it expresses very simple ideas. It's true that reading Chinese text doesn't necessarily need you "voicing" in your mind. This is much different to alphabetic language for I know.


Difference between 好累 and 很累 我很累。
我好累。

What's the difference between those sentences? Both seems to mean "I'm tired".

好 is more describing the feeling of your heart.

  我做了那麼多，都沒用。我好累。

  I did so much. But nothing is useful. I feel really tired.

很 is just describing you're physically tired.

  我跑了10公里。我很累了。

  I've run for 10km. I'm very tired.

In most cases, 『好』 is more than 『很』. Just like the example above.


Strolling/pacing back and forth How do you express "strolling/pacing back and forth"? For example, if you are waiting for someone in front of a bus stop, you might walk back and forth a bit on a stretch of side walk.

I stumbled across 踱来踱去 duó lái duó qù "strolling/pacing back and forth" while doing some reading a while back. However, I'm not sure how common this expression is because it took some effort to type, and the example sentences I could find seem a bit literary.

Are there some more common ways to express this idea?

踱 is a bit formal. 走来走去 or 晃来晃去 will be more colloquial.


What does the classical construction X 何由 Y mean? I almost never see this construction in classical prose. (In fact, I'll venture I've never seen it.) However, it's in two of my favorite poems.

In this one, it's from the poem "晨詣超師院讀禪經" by 柳宗元:

  遺言冀可冥， 繕性何由熟？

The other one is from a poem, by Li Bai if I recall correctly:

  西飛精衛鳥，東海何由填

What does X何由Y mean?

in classic Chinese, 何由 is the inverse form of 由何, and it should be in the inverse form ,however, you can understand it by understanding 由何.

何 what
由 [preposition] 1. from  2.because of  3.by(method, means,way)

so 由何 could mean, from what, because of what, by what. I guess, you would less commonly(Ok, at least I would) say,"By what, did you arrive at this conclusion?", instead, you would say,"how did you arrive at this conclusion?" ;furthermore, when you say "how did you arrive at this conclusion?", you would probably mean "It's impossible to arrive at this conclusion. I don't believe it", depending on the context. This also happens to 何由.
In your examples,I think 何由 means "how could".
By the way, I think this word is not rarely used in classic Chinese, I can give you another example from a poem 《茅屋为秋风所破歌》 by the great poet 杜甫, which was picked into the textbook when I was a student.

长夜沾湿何由彻  How could I bear the bad situation(the house is broken and it rains heavily) in the long night , until the dawn comes.


校 - How did "leg-brace" come to mean "school"? When learning Chinese characters using radicals, this character 校 always seem to puzzle me. I've always known 校 to be school, but the "wood" radical never made any sense to me. What does wood or tree have to do with school? Why not use a radical that is related to buildings (广 or 宀) or even children (as in 学).
My research on shuowen says that the original meaning was some sort of beam where prisoners' legs were shackled to. This to me makes sense even with the phonetic 交 representing a prisoner shackled to a leg brace with his legs crossed. My question is when, and how did 校 suddenly come to mean "school"?

Outlier

xiào
○ school

Here the ○ icon is an indicator of a phonetic loan. So, basically it is just a:

character that is "borrowed" to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme

It seems that the earliest reading was jiào and not xiào; 校 was just borrowed for its close proximity in sound.


Adverbs of degree with reduplicated adjective phrases? Why is it not necessary to use 很 (or other adverbs of degree) to link nouns and adjectives when you reduplicate the adjective, and instead use a 的 after the adjective?
For example:

你的女朋友高高的。
她们漂漂亮亮的。

很 as an adverb (very) only applies to adjective, never noun

A reduplicated adjective emphasizes itself similar to adding "quite" (颇/相当)

A reduplicated adjective cannot also use "very" because a reduplicated adjective emphasizes itself, similar to adding the adverb "quite".
Example:

他很强壮 = He is (very strong)
强强壮壮的他 = He who is (quite strong)

We can describe a man "very strong" or "quite strong" but not at same time, because they are different degree of superlative. 很 (very) is stronger than 颇 (quite). Is he very strong or quite strong?
"他(很)(强强壮壮的)" translated into English would be "He is very quite strong", which is not grammatical.


How to say tradeoff in Cantonese and Mandarin? The word tradeoff is not listed in Google nor in CantoDict.

Is it 折衷?

What's the Cantonese translation?
What's the Mandarin translation?

Trade-off https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trade-off

  1 : a balancing of factors all of which are not attainable at the same time

  2 : a giving up of one thing in return for another : exchange

Trade-off as a noun is 代價 in both  Cantonese and Mandarin ('trade-off' basically means "in exchange" )

Example:

"Thicken the armor would provide better protection, but the trade-off is your speed would slow down."

"加厚护甲会提供更好的保护，但代價是你的速度会减慢。"

You can use "作為交換" (in exchange) instead of "代價是" e.g. "加厚护甲会提供更好的保护，但作為交換, 你的速度会减慢。"


Why is 他从商店出去了 correct but 他出商店去了 incorrect? 他出商店去了。
他从商店出去了。

Why is only the second sentence right? I knew that when we use a directional complement, we could put the object in the middle between the two verbs. So why do I have to use 从 in this sentence to make it grammatically correct?

出 and 去 are both verbs, you can't use both as separate entities. 出去 on the other hand is a resultative verb, you can't break it up.

从 (from) is here a preposition indicating direction.

A similar expression would be 他到哪儿去了, where 到 (where/to) is the corresponding preposition.


Why is 当然 the correct choice in 我学了10年汉语了，汉语水平 [一定 / 当然] 很高? I recently had to select the correct answer for a homework assignment:

  我学了10年汉语了，汉语水平 。。。 很高

I chose 一定，but the correct answer turned out to be 当然

Was my answer incorrect, why?

How do these two answers differ in meaning. I'm thinking perhaps that 当然 has a stronger connotation of certainty, as in yes my Chinese level is very high, where as 一定 implies that it should be high, but isn't necessarily... Is this correct?

一定 either introduces an INFERENCE, which is very likely to be true (as in the context of the given sentence), or shows a strong intention (in other contexts). On the other hand, 当然, equivalent to the English 'of course', indicates an inevitable consequence that the speaker KNOWS to be true.

In this sentence, since the speaker is talking about himself, he does not need to make an inference about him being good at Chinese; he knows he is good at Chinese. Therefore 当然 would make more sense here.

An easy way to differentiate the two is to translate the sentence into English with 一定 and 当然 replaced by 'must be' and 'of course', respectively, and you will be able to immediately see which one is better.


When to use "下一个" and when just "下一" to translate English "next"? When I looked up how to say "next" some time in the last couple of months I found "下一个".

So I was using that and seemed to be mostly understood. But then I started noticing that just "下一" was used by others.

I know that "个" is the generic counter/classifier, so is it actually part of the phrase/term for "next" or could it be just a kind of mistake from using Google Translate?

There are different ways to use "next" in English and I'm sure there must be in Chinese too. In my case I always needed to say things like "to the next city / town / petrol station / service area".

So what do I need to know about using "下一个" or just "下一"?

Noun phrases in many cases require classifiers (= measure words). 个 is the generic classifier, but you should use whichever classifier is appropriate. Note that 一 is usually elided from "下一个":

Next month = 下(一)个月
Next week = 下(一)个星期
The next book (e.g., imagine it's a series) = 下一本书
The next photo = 下一张照片

Some words are "their own measure word" in some sense. 天 is really the only one in this category that struck me as weird. The others are words that usually are measure words but occasionally stand on their own:

The next day = 下一天
The next (bus/train/subway) stop = 下一站
The next sheet = 下一张

One word I've encountered optionally takes a measure word: 小时. It's (normatively) correct to always use 个, but in some people's colloquial speech, it (like 天) acts "as its own measure word":

The next hour = 下个小时
Don't think I've heard "下小时", but I've definitely heard it sans-measure-word in other contexts, e.g., "还有三小时" (= Three hours to go!)


How do I call for a male waiter? For female waiters, my dad taught me to use the phrase "小姐 ".

But for male waiters, my dad doesn't know how to properly call them. I discussed the possibility of using "da ge", "小ge", "da di", "小 di", but they sound whimsical compared to the way one calls for a female waiter.

How should one appropriately call for a male waiter?

As far as I know, 小姐 (xiao3jie3) is not very appreciated anymore by waitresses, even in Beijing; they might even be offended because that is how girls who sell their bodies are addressed. That is how Chinese people explained it to me. Waiters, be it male or female, are addressed as 服务员 (fu2wu4yuan2) and it is safe to call them that.


臀部，屁股和腚： When to use these and other words for buttocks? There are a number of words for buttocks in mandarin (including those in the title). In which situations should they be used?  Which are medical terms, colloquial terms, etc.?

If you wanted to say to a doctor "my buttocks are hurting" which would you use?
If you wanted to say to a friend "that guy/gal has a sexy butt" which would you use?
If you wanted to say to a partner "the kids bum is smelling, change their nappy" which would you use?

Thanks!

Interesting question.

屁股: the most common way to say butt. Sometimes may be thought as rude or uneducated when using in public. If you are going to a doctor, this is the word to go.
臀部: (may be the only) elegant way of saying butt. The most formal way in written Chinese. When used in oral language in recent days, usually it's only used on woman, and sometimes people may think this word having sexual intimation.
腚: used in some Chinese accents.
尻: used in some Chinese accents and ancient literature.


About Confucius' Ta-Hio In many books about Confucius' Analects, 大學 is transliterated as Ta-Hio.

Why is this? 大學 is dàxué in Pinyin, da hsüeh in Wade-Giles, da sywe in Yale, and daai hok in Cantonese, so where does this transliteration come from?

It's Mandarin transliteration by Portuguese Jesuit Fr. Inácio da Costa (17th century).

Partial text:

“大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善”

Ta hio chi dao, cai min min te, cai cin min, cai chi yu chi xen


Does anyone know the meaning of this character ()? The only things I found about it is its vietnamese reading "khuôn" and that it is used in  (meaning "face").

The Nom Foundation has a lookup tool that might give a clue:

Although I don't understand which entry belongs to which character, or what the relationship among the characters is (Han Nom was less standardized than Chinese Hanzi, so some of the 4 shown here might even be distinct variants), my best guess based on the expressions is 'mold/mould' as in molding/moulding (or the derived meanings like 'shape/pattern'). The 木 radical might also support the meaning, since molds tended be made from wood in earlier times (additionally, the Mandarin Chinese equivalent for mold/mould is also based on the 木 radical: 模 [mó/mú]).

EDIT: If the two-character expression used in your description is transliterated as 'khuôn mặt' (literally "face shape"), I guess the character in the title means 'shape'.


Mandarin equivalent to 話事? In Cantonese, people often say 話事 to indicate someone is "the boss" (e.g., 你話事) or can decide some matter (e.g., what to eat, what to watch).

This page says the Mandarin equivalent is 作主, but 作主 feels a bit formal. Is 作主 really the right equivalent?

Haha, in China, at home, the woman is the absolute ruler, so try 老婆!

老板 is very commonly heard for boss.

现在我是老板！

To be polite, you may address someone as 师傅, which is a kind of boss

Every 单位 will have a 领导, leader, boss

'boss people around' 对某人呼来唤去


In 林业、农业、草原、海洋、资源、环境等行业, what industries does 草原 ("grassland") and 海洋 ("ocean") refer to, and why not use 农业 ("agriculture") and 渔业 ("fishing")? “一箭九星”包含B站视频星
记者了解到，本次发射的“吉林一号”高分03-1组卫星由长光卫星有限公司自主研发，包括3颗高分03C视频星和6颗高分03B推扫星，视频星中包括将用于科普的哔哩哔哩视频卫星。该组卫星将与在轨的“吉林一号”卫星组网，为林业、农业、草原、海洋、资源、环境等行业用户提供更加丰富的遥感数据和产品服务。
海上飞天！一箭九星！我国首次海上商业化应用发射成功！，2020年09月15日

I'm confused about the part in bold above, which lists industries: 林业 = forestry, 农业 = agriculture, 草原 = grassland, 海洋 = ocean, 资源 = natural resource, and 环境 = environment.
I don't understand what 草原……行业 ("grassland industry") and 海洋……行业 ("ocean industry") refer to, and why use these terms instead of 农业 and 渔业 ("fishing industry"), respectively, which (to me) seem more ordinary.
Question: In 林业、农业、草原、海洋、资源、环境等行业, what industries does 草原 and 海洋 refer to, and why not use 农业 and 渔业 instead?

草原 should mean animal agriculture(畜牧業) and any other nature resources related to grassland.
海洋 have similar concept of 草原.
You could use 農林漁牧業 to indicate agriculture,forestry,fishing and animal agriculture industries.


When and why is right to left writing used? I have encountered characters written horizontally right to left on signs (at the top of a gate) and on vehicles.

When is this used and why? Was this more common in the past?
Are the individuals characters ever mirrored (e.g. "b" versus "d")?
Is this change in direction confusing or disorienting to native speakers?

In the past Chinese characters were written from top to bottom and from right to left. Horizontal right to left is not that common even in ancient times. The top scroll in a couplet is one case which might be the one you see at the top of a gate. The one you see on vehicles may not be the case. I think it's just on the right side from head to tail of the vehicle which makes it right to left.
Of course not, or else it would confuse the reader.
Not for most adults, you just need to get used to it.

?right .either English in readers confuse won't it think I


忠美聖愛仁義利義好哀恕: How do I segment this proverb into separate words? I saw a single row of characters with no punctuation:

忠美聖愛仁義利義好哀恕

I believe this is a proverb relating to Confucian values, but I can't break it into separate words.
Zhongmei (忠美) might be loyalty.
Sheng-ai (聖愛) is probably love between humans and gods.
Ren-yi (仁義) is compassion.
Li (利) might be benefit.
I can't even figure out the boundaries of the words, much less the grammar.

I would attempt to break it up as follows:
忠美圣  爱  仁义  利义  好哀恕

And from there we have something like:
The honest and virtuous sage loves benevolence, righteousness, morality, and justice [and here is where I am somewhat uncertain because of the many possible readings of 好] and readily sympathizes with and forgives others.


Meaning of 甜-Z (Z is the upper-case English letter) This is apparently a jargon engineering term for something to do with frequency (Hz).

I'm guessing it might be something to do with resonance ("sweet spot"?) but I've not run into it, and neither have the two native Mandarin-speaking engineers I've asked.

甜Z is likely the result of imperfect OCR (optical character recognition) for "5Hz". The machine probably sees "5H" as "甜".

It's usually seen in Google's OCR for Chinese patents. If you need to search for original patent text for clarification, you can go to  http://epub.sipo.gov.cn/gjcx.jsp and search the title.


How to say "giving someone the benefit of the doubt" in Chinese? This expression connotes that one is willing to not insist on accusing someone of a mistake despite most evidence pointing to that someone as being responsible. As in a legal proceeding where the jury feel there is a reasonable doubt the defendant transgressed the law Or.More colloquially, when not understanding why someone took a certain action or made a decision that impacted others negatively, this expression means one doesn't impute bad motive on the someone.  For example, someone says something very insensitive to you that hurts you, it might be a delicate situation or something very personal. If you give them the benefit of the doubt you don't feel they had bad motive but were trying to help or encourage.

How can I express this in Chinese?

I think "寧縱勿枉" best fits the description.
It literally means not enforcing justice ("縱" as in "縱容") for fear of accusing someone wrongly ("枉" as in "冤枉"). The opposite phrase is "寧枉勿縱". Note that the sayer does not necessarily forgive the suspect here.

沒有實質證據證明銀包是小明偷的，寧縱勿枉，此事就算了吧。 (There's no direct evidence proving Ming stole the wallet, giving him the benefit of doubt, let's be done with this.)

I think "無心之失" is applicable for the second description.
It means one is not intended for the mistake made.

雖然他這樣做是不對，但我相信只是 無心之失，你不要責怪他吧。 (It's not right for him to have done that, but I beleive he doesn't mean it, don't blame him, okay?)

EDIT: added examples, sorry that the English translation may not be the best.
The OP also updated the question so I think the answer here is more appropriate.


The difference between 规范，规则，规章，规矩，规定，规律 After seeing in class these words (规定，规律，规范，规矩，规章）, I’m in trouble to recognize the difference between them. I’m aware that some are used for country law, some for rules in society etc but I need a clarification.

Can someone help me to deconstruct the word and explain why a certain word is used for this certain purpose?

规矩、规定，规则 are relatively close,cf."汉语同义词词典＂［同］ 名词。指共同遵守的行为规范和准则。可与＂有、是、遵守、违反、合乎＂等动词搭配。

［异］
［规矩 着重指某种行为标准或习惯。多是人们约定俗称或长期沿袭下来的，不成文的，还常与＂立、定、兴、懂、守＂等动词搭配。可构成＂循规蹈矩＂。多用于口语。例：（１）房东老太太的规矩是每到夜里十点半就关院门，一根大铁栓外加一把大铁锁，关得，牢牢实实。（陈玙＜夜幕下的哈尔滨＞）（２）我不坐。我们庄稼人有个规矩，不坐重载车。（李准＜黄河东流去＞）（３）人乡随俗。到哪儿听哪儿的，入了医院，就守医院的规矩。（谌容＜人到中年＞）（４）我家另一条规矩：无论大人孩子都得参加劳动（梁斌＜童年＞）（５）那时候，人们，尤其是青年，就都循规蹈矩，既不嚣张，也不浮动，一心向着＇正路＇前进了。（鲁迅＜一点比喻＞）

［规定］ 着重指所制定的关于事物的数量、质量标准，或处理事物的方式方法，可以成文的，也可以口头宣布的。使用范围比＂规矩＂宽。还常与＂实行、执行、符合＂等动词搭配。通用于口语和书面语。例（１）领事裁判和片面最惠国待遇的规定，破坏了中国的司法权，扩大了资本主义国家的侵略权益。（初级中学课本＜中国历史＞）（２）上级有过明确的规定，在新区不能随便吸收战士，防止敌人派遣的奸细混到队伍里来。（吴强＜李小虎投军＞）（３）可某些单位为了给某些人以方便，连职干部从师里便可直接调往外军区。这当然是违反规定的（李存葆＜高山下的花环＞）（４）乘交通车进城。每人收费一元二角，这是最近开始实行的新规定。。。（黄裳＜东单日记＞）

［规则］ 着重指制定出来的供大家共同遵守的制度、章程。一般是成文的，如＂比赛～、交通～、考试～、借书～、管理～＂等。还常与＂制定、执行＂等动词搭配。通用于口语和书面语。例（１）旧体诗、戏曲、大鼓书等都有规则，这些规则都与平仄有关。（老舍＜本固枝荣＞）（２）这时我才恍然大悟，回想起来，我们确实冒失，直接去找吴晗同志要书是违反秘密工作的规则的。（戴兔＜难忘的会见＞）（３）按比赛规则，在跳台上停留的时间过长，是要扣分的，所以他绝不允许队员养成这种不良习惯。（李铃修＜厄运＞）（４）汉字不是拼音，不是教会二三十个字母和一套拼写规则就能了事的。（吕叔湘＜关于语文教学的两点基本认识＞）

［附］＂规矩＂兼属形容词。形容人行为端正老实，或事物合乎标准或常理，如＂这个人老老实实，很规矩＂，＂说话很规矩＂。＂规定＂兼属动词。表示制定出关于事物的数量、质量标准，或处理事物的方式方法。（见［规定／限定］）＂规则＂兼属形容词。形容在形状、结构或分布上合乎一定的方式，整齐，如＂断壁上密布着一个个不规则的石孔＂。

规律 compared to 法则：［同］ 名词。指事物之间内在的必然联系。这种联系不断重复出现，在一定条件下经常起作用，并且决定着事物必然向着某种趋向发展。
［异］  ［法则] 多用于哲学和社会科学著述，如＂自然～、经济～、价值～＂等。用于书面语。科学语体，例：（１）想起来，这倒很合乎辩证法的由量变到质变的法则。（刘白羽＜灯火＞）（２）当然，没有人横加干涉或强迫命令，而自然规律和法则也没有人能够违抗或背道而驰。（吴晓铃＜漫话方言＞）（３）集中兵力的法则，正是战胜堡垒主义的工具。（毛泽东＜中国革命战争的战略问题＞）（４）但是，在作人上，我有一定的宗旨与基本的法则，什么事都可将就，而不能超过自己划好的界限。（老舍＜我的母亲＞）

［规律］ 使用频率比＂法则＂高，使用范围比＂法则＂宽，可用于学术性著述，也可用于一般事理的表达，如＂历史～、社会～、经济～、客观～、特殊～、发展～、必然～、普遍～、发现～、掌握～、符合～、违反～＂等。通用于口语和书面语，可构成＂规律性＂。例：（１）（李四光）从变形泥巴中找寻着构造形式的规律。（徐迟＜地质之光＞）（２）科学的任务是一方面发现事实，一方面在事实里边寻找秩序，发现规律。（吕叔湘＜语言和语言学＞）（３）普通话只有２１个声母，３８个韵母，４个声调，依声配合规律拼成４００多个音节，配以４声总共不超过１３００个音节。（申小龙＜中国文化语言学＞）（４）我国的江河，大小千百条，却有一个规律，都往东流，最终流入大海去___这叫做＂万河朝宗＂。（杨朔＜海市＞）（５）人的认识，主要地依赖于物质的生产活动，逐渐地了解自然的现象，自然的性质，自然的规律性、人和自然的关系；。。。（毛泽东＜实践论＞）

much more at bkrs (numbers are frequency numbers)：as nouns: 规定 II
[stipulation; prescription; formulation]∶预先制定的规则
关于奖金如何发放, 上级最近有新的规定 #423
规律:law; regular pattern:
客观规律 objective law
供求规律 the law of supply and demand
历史发展的规律 law of the development of history
自然规律 law of nature #2022
规范（约定俗成或明文规定的标准） standard; norm; specification; specs; canon; canonical; performance specification （设备的）#1647
规矩 [rule; established practice] 规则与礼法1) rule; custom
2) social etiquette; manners
这孩子真没规矩。 This child has no manners.#3739
规章 rules; regulations:
改革不合理的规章制度 reform irrational rules and regulations#8458


Specially formatted Xiehouyu: What are they? What others are there? I was going through the 四川方言词典 the other day and came across this:

...and my transcription...

  冲起屁——[股]   cong1 qi3 pi4——[gu3]    这是歇后语的一种特殊格式。这种歇后语的“引”和“注”合起来是一个完整的四字格词组, 运用时, 只说“引”, 不说“注”。但说话人的意思只在“注”上。“引”和“注”无意义联系, “引”仅起带出“注”来的作用。 ▷小弟冲起屁[屁股]上尘得有月照纱[“窗”, 谐“疮”]。

What is this specially formatted type of xiehouyu called?
What other examples of this type of xiehouyu are there?

It's called "缩脚语".

There are 2 different definitions of xiehouyu:

《辞海》：歇后语是熟语的一种。多为群众熟识的诙谐而形象的语句，运用时可以隐去后文，以前文示意，如只说“围棋盘里下象棋”，以示不对路子；也可以前后文并列，如“芝麻开花－－节节高”。

《中国语言文字大百科全书》
歇后语：指说话的时候把一段常用词语故意少说一个字或半句而构成的带有幽默性的话语。通常有两种。1.原始意义的歇后语，指把一句成语的末一个字省去不说，也叫“缩脚语”。如《金瓶梅》里来旺媳妇说“你家第五的‘秋胡戏’”，就是用来影射“妻”，因为“秋胡戏妻”是有名的故事、剧目。也有利用同音字的。如称“岳父”为“龙头拐”，影射“杖”字，这里代替“丈”。2.扩大意义的歇后语，在北京叫俏皮话，是指可以把一句话的后面一半省去不说。如“马尾拴豆腐”省去的是“提不起了”。有时候也利用同音字。如“外甥打灯笼－－照旧（舅）”。

The first definition of xiehouyu (like what you see in wikipedia) doesn't include "缩脚语".
The second one is broader and recognizes "缩脚语" as one type of xiehouyu（"原始意义的歇后语"）.Actually I'm not familiar with "缩脚语" because the first definition is widely acknowledged by common people. But by searching the Internet I found that "缩脚语" has a long history and not only exists in 四川方言, it can be found in many other dialects like 上海方言、吴越方言、山东方言、粤语. I'm a mandarin speaker so I don't know whether they are still in use today.

I found many examples on the Internet. Some examples I found are too long or complicated so I didn't paste them here. You can search "缩脚语" and look for them yourself.
古文：

“拿那雌雄宝（剑）插在我杨柳细（腰）边”（元-施惠《幽闺记》第九出）“君子之交淡如（水）”、“醉翁之意不在（酒）”（明-冯梦龙《古今谭概》）。“你权做个撮合山主亲的月下老（人），俺两个衔环……”（明-无名氏《女真观》第三折）“七大八（小）、七青八（黄）、七孔八（窍）、七张八（嘴）”（隐指“小黄窍嘴”，清-褚人获《坚瓠集》）。“一帖发丧药下去，这汗还止得住哩？不由的十生九（死）了。” （古人有时讳说“死”，西周生《醒世姻缘传》第二回）“号啕痛（哭）”（《醒世姻缘传》第二回、《金瓶梅》七十六回）“下马威（风）”（《醒世姻缘传》第二回）“踢天笼（井）”（"笼"谐音"弄"，即踢天弄井，《聊斋俚曲集·俊夜叉》。

粤语：

广东有一种著名饮料：茅根竹蔗水。而广东人又俗称“钱”为“水”，于是，当有人说“茅根竹”时，大家便意会这是“借水”（借钱也，因“蔗”与“借”同音）。

上海方言：

广东人骂别人呆笨时，会称人家做“猪头丙”，这“猪头丙”一词，是改自上海俗语“猪头三”的。上海俗语“猪头三”，也是一句缩脚语，全句是“猪头三牲”，即指被骂的人，是“牲”（畜生）也。（而“三牲”，本是敬神祭品的三色，即猪头、雄鸡和青鱼，统称为“猪头三牲”。）上海缩脚语还有如“七勿搭（八）”，“金卫陶（姜）”（谐音僵）、“敲钉转（脚）”、“天官赐（福）”、“坑三姑（娘）”、“么二三（四）”（谐音屎）、“甲乙丙（丁）”（谐音盯，意为盯梢尾随）

吴越方言：

苏州话“格（搿）块猪肉浪子丑寅弗少”，“子丑寅”隐指“毛”（“卯”的谐音。谑称。）最有意思的是南部吴语区温州的俗语雅说，他们把司空见惯的“水”，叫做“青山绿”；把“轻”（用于指责有人轻佻――轻薄、不庄重时）说成“云淡风”。


Difference between 必 and 一定 Both words kinda mean “must, necessarily, certainly”. Can someone explain the differences between the two?

Since you are not asking what is the difference between '必定' and '一定' or the difference between '必' and '定', I would just go ahead and state the  difference between '必'  and '一定'
From my answer to this question:

Meaning of 的 and 之 when both are used in the same sentence
之 is the classical Chinese counterpart of 的 in modern Chinese

必 is the classical Chinese counterpart of 一定/必定 in modern Chinese
Examples:

Classical Chinese style: "兵家(必)爭之地"
Modern Chinese: "軍事決策者(一定/ 必定)會去爭奪的地點"

~

Classical Chinese style: "中此毒者(必)死"
Modern Chinese: "中了這個毒的人(一定/必定)會死亡"

~

Classical Chinese style: "日軍稱三月內(必)亡中國"
Modern Chinese: "日本軍方宣稱三個月內(一定/必定)能覆亡中國"

'必' on its own has other meaning and usage, but the question only asked for the comparison between '必' and '一定'. The most obvious difference between the two is as this answer stated.
Notice: Actually, I should say '必' is more literary and '一定' is more colloquial because classical style wording appear mostly in writing


Chinese expression for "go out early and return early" I'm Looking for a Chinese expression that means something like "go out early and return early" or "the sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back". It expresses a wish for a person who is leaving the house (e.g. for work) to return in a timely manner.

I thought it was 早去早回來, but I can't find a reference for this. The only similar phrase I could find was 早出晚歸, which has a very different meaning.

早去早回 means exactly what you want as "go out early and return early" or "the sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back".
早出晚归 means "go out early and return late" which is always used to describe a person work hard and busy.


Useful resources for learning Taiwanese? My girlfriend is from Fujian and speaks 闽南语, so I am trying to learn so I can communicate with her family better.

The struggle is finding any useful resources (even in Chinese), so I'm wondering if anyone has any good suggestions for sites, books, or anything else to improve my skills?

There is an American guy (I think) who teaches people how to speak Taiwanese on Youtube. He even teaches the native Taiwanese people how to speak 闽南语. You can see the videos here.

EDIT:
Looks like the playlist is dead. This is the guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJo2OHi6hgs


Is Mandarin impossible for my goals? Since years ago I have been studying some languages with the major goal of being able to read texts, complex or not, written under them. My native is Portuguese (from Brazil) and nowadays I have no problem reading texts in English, Español, Français or Deutsch. After reading and hearing a lot, through years, my ears got used with the sounds of English and French and I believe that the same will occur, eventually, with German. Spanish is no problem, once this language is very kind of Portuguese and the sounds are very alike.

In another words, my real objective is only reading, but the skills to also hear and speak is kind of automatic. Nonetheless, this reality changed when I tried to do this same strategy to Mandarin Chinese (simplified). After months of struggling, I still cannot even get close to a simple text. Chinese is an entire riddle for me. One of the methods I like to learn a language is the massive use of a dictionary, however, how can I do that to Chinese? I cannot even split a sequence like "辣椒的品种有很多" in particular words. For me it's just a Chinese Wall, without beginning or end.

The only thing that works for me are those texts intertwined with Pinyin and pre-divided, so a poor mortal like me is able to differentiate one word from another. Nonetheless, these kinds of text are extremely rare to find online. Something that would help me a lot would be manhua (漫画) with pinyin, but reading forums some people said these virtually do not exist.

So, I'm in a deadlock. I like Chinese and I want to be someday able to read news, romances, scientific books and alike , but I can't find a proper way to study the language (focusing on reading) instead of methods extremely boring (for example, drawing mousehanded hanzi-to-hanzi and after that try to form words and find them in a dictionary, considering that I would be able to organize the characters properly) or then extremely scarce.

Is there some method that could help me?

It looks like you need to delve deeper into the Chinese writing system. It is nothing mystical or complex ordinary Western people cannot learn, it just takes time and some dedication.

I suppose you have a textbook or similar material that is divided into lessons with each lesson introducing a handful of characters and a number of expressions, if not you should get one. I know it is very boring in the beginning to read such sterile sentences like "This is my father./Here is a book.", etc., but that's the way it is, you need to lay the basics of vocabulary, characters and expressions and some grammar.

Chinese is unlike any Indo-European language (including those you listed) it has it's own peculiarities, but words are still words in any language, they need to be memorized and practiced. That requires time and patience.

While pinyin is a necessary help to all those who learn Chinese (and to Chinese themselves), it is not something you should rely to much on. Generally, you should avoid using textbooks that give pinyin transcription side-by-side to the Chinese script, because the more familiar Latin script will distract you rather than help you. Pinyin should be given in the vocabulary section of every lesson, but not in the lessons' reader part. I know people who would refuse reading a Chinese script only text, because after a few lessons they were relying so much on reading the pinyin transcripts, that they were simply unable to read the proper characters.

You need to build up some vocabulary, learn the words and their characters, their pronunciation and practice them. Reading something in Chinese simply requires you to be able to recognize the words, not only the characters, as you wrote in your question, you need to be able to "parse" a text to tell where each word begins and ends. Sometimes – with new expressions and terms popping up in the media everyday – it's not easy, even for advanced speakers.

It's a good thing to write characters by hand from the very beginning to memorize them. However, it's not necessary, if you find it a burden. If you think this requires too much effort, you can stick with reading only in the beginning and start writing what you have learnt later when you are more familiar with basic concepts.

Reading your last paragraph, I see that you are highly motivated to learn Chinese. But you should not start with reading to difficult texts, it's a waste of time looking up the vocab character by character and idling half an hour over a single sentence. I have done that, I admit, I thought I would be able to read Chinese comics after I figured out how to look up a character in a dictionary. I wasted hours and hours for this nonsense. Stick with your text book texts, do the exercises, memorize the vocab and you will make progress.


Chinese equivalent of "Oh Burn" As stated in the title, what would be the Chinese equivalent of the popularly-used term (for kids) "Oh BURN"?  I understand it should be used mostly after an insult.  I Googled and found nothing but pictures of burnt stuff...

EDIT: yes it is the retort after (or followed by) an insult.  One will normal see this instead: "Ohhhh Burn!!!!"

In the scenario that a third party witnessed an insult of others two, or someone try to lighthearted fight back a insult, maybe "雷死了"（lei2 si3 le) in Chinese can fit in. "雷" means Thunder.  "雷死了" means someone think it's somewhat funny unbelievable and be shocked.

A longer version is "雷得外焦里嫩" (Lei2 De Wai4 Jiao1 Li3 Nen4), which means someone got attached by thunder and lightning, and he got BURNed outside, but inside is still tender (think case of  overfired BBQ...) Maybe a picture can help to explain this situation better (found on internet)


Meaning of a text on a teapot (Characters identified: 石泉槐火) I have a teapot which has been in my family for about a century. Not knowing the Chinese language I tried to make something of the five characters text which is marked on it. With Google Translate I had not much success,apart from the last character which may mean (partly) spring. Altogether it should be a sentence but which one ?
Thanks for any help .

The characters are 「石泉槐火」, which refers to the passing of winter and coming of spring. Specifically,

「石泉」 means flowing of springwater (i.e. the melting of frozen rivers and streams)
「槐火」 refers to a fire ritual involving the burning of the Chinese Scholar Tree (Styphnolobium japonicum)

In Ancient China, it is said that the monarchs conducted fire rituals involving the burning of different types of trees during the year, to protect against seasonal diseases.

《周禮・夏官》

司爟：掌行火之政令，四時變國火以救時疾。

Rites of Zhou, Offices of Summer

Officers of the fire rituals are in charge of the royal court's decrees on conduct involving pyromancy, changing the Tree-burning Ritual throughout the year to mitigate the spread of seasonal illnesses.

Later commentaries of the Rites of Zhou specified the seasonal trees to be burned:

春取榆柳之火， 夏取棗杏之火， 季夏取桑柘之火， 秋取柞楢之火， 冬取槐檀之火
During springtime, elms and willows are burned; in the summertime, jujube and apricot trees are burned; towards the end of summer, mulberry trees are burned; during autumn, oaks are burned; in the winter, scholar trees and rosewoods* are burned.
*The specific type of tree referred to is uncertain.


Difference between 说话 and 话说? I previously already understood "说话" to mean "to speak" or something to that effect, but just recently I saw the term "话说" and was curious if it carried the same meaning (which is often the case I've noticed). I checked my go to dictionary (Yabla) and according to that the definitions are slightly different, with "说话" defined as "to speak/talk" and "话说" defined as "to discuss/recount". Is this how the two terms are actually used or is the dictionary teaching me wrong practices? Is it practical for me to even differentiate the two?

You need to differentiate them as "话说" carries a different meaning. It is used when people want to start a topic. It is very commonly used in ancient novels, where authors always speak as a storyteller and use "话说" to begin the story. In informal conversations someone may also use it now (actually I used to say it many times), a little like "by the way" in English.

My personal opinion is that, practically you'd better avoid using "话说" in your writing when you are not a high level Mandarin writer, because I think "话说" is related to a specific writing style. You may use "话说" in informal conversations.


Why is 台北 spelled Taipei, not Taibei? I just tried to type in taipei in iOS but it didn't return any correct prediction. After my investigation, I found that it is taibei, not taipei, to get the correct pinyin result.

However, now I wonder why it is called taipei. 台 is tai like 台风 and 北 is bei like 北美洲. So why is it called taipei? I think in traditional chiese it should also be typed in as taibei...

From wiki: the spelling "Taipei" derives from the Wade–Giles romanization T'ai-pei. "Taibei" is pinyin, which iOS supports as an input method.

Wade-Giles used to be the standard method of romanization so it shows up in a lot of older Chinese names like "Chiang Ching-kuo".

Pinyin has its own disadvantages, especially when spoken by English speakers. Consonants like "zh", "q", or syllables like "ri", "shi" sound very different from what an English speaker might expect.


Is there any record on this specific variant of the character 選? The below variant of the Traditional character 選 comes from an old book of 20th-century Vietnam. I personally cannot find any source that acknowledges this variant. I'm also pretty sure that Unicode doesn't have this glyph.

In addition, since this variant is likely Vietnamese-made, I hope to know about any source that records Vietnamese-varied Chinese characters.

Thanks in advance.

Apparently the Vietnamese used Chinese characters a long time ago, perhaps only in learned circles. They also created their own "Chinese" characters, which were not known in China.

I had a similar case of a character I could not find. I downloaded some fonts called HAN NOM A.ttf and HAN NOM B.ttf, then I could write the character, but I can't remember what it was now.

Maybe you can get some leads here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%E1%BB%AF_N%C3%B4m


Could somebody help fill in these blanks 这个汤_______么_______么酸啊？ 我可喝不_______？

There is no context for these fill in the blanks. I do have a few more, but this was the hardest question because my initial guess is that its the grammar pattern 要么。。。要么。。。, but the words are too close together.

这个汤怎么这么酸啊？我可喝不下。
But I'm wondering why there is a question mark in the end. This doesn't make sense


What does oh jongyi lay mean Need help finding what oh jongyi lay means.I don’t know what it is I searched it up and could find nothing on it.

I believe it is 我鐘意你 /ngoh5 jung1 yi3 nei5/ (I like/love you). Some people drop the initial /ng/ and it becomes /oh5 jung1 yi3 nei5/


How does 受 work in this context (on the first article)? I just read the following sentence on 人名网 mobile:

  三文鱼寿司是很受中国人欢迎的寿司种类，甚至有不少中国人到日本的回转寿司店也只点三文鱼。

But on web version, the expression is the following:

  在中国，三文鱼是中国很受欢迎的寿司种类，甚至有不少中国人到日本的回转寿司店只点三文鱼。

However, I don't understand how 受 works in the first article. If it is a verb and the whole sentence is a modifier to "寿司种类", then there should be a subject to a verb "很受".

At least on the second article, I understand that 中国 is a subject and 很受 is a verb, both of them modify 寿司种类 via 的. But on the first article, there is no subject on the "很受中国人欢迎的"... It might not be a verb to begin with, since if I remove 很受, it still seems to make sense (in this case 中国人 is a subject and 欢迎 is a verb...).

The main parts of the sentence is 三文鱼(subject) 是(verb) 寿司种类(object).很受中国人欢迎的 and 中国很受欢迎的 are the modifier of 寿司种类.

To me, the first sentence is better, because in the second sentence it repeats 中国 twice. 在中国，三文鱼是中国很受欢迎的寿司种类. It could be better to remove the second 中国. 在中国，三文鱼是很受欢迎的寿司种类.

受 is short for 受到， meaning 'to get or getting'.

The phrase 很受中国人欢迎的 means 'getting warmly welcomed by Chinese people'.

As a whole, 三文鱼寿司是很受中国人欢迎的寿司种类 can be translated to Salmon sushi is the type which is warmly beloved/welcomed by Chinese people.

The subject for 受 is 寿司种类. In fact, it's a passive voice here. That 寿司种类
is 受到中国人欢迎. This is the same as "寿司种类被中国人欢迎". Somehow, 受到 here is the nice way to express “被” I think.


Structure of phrase: 當為汝說無為法，及無為道跡。 The first section of this phrase, namely, 當為汝說無為法, more specifically 當為汝說, I know what it is supposed to mean something along the lines of "I speak to you [appositely]", but I am having some difficulty parsing the individual characters, how are we supposed to read 當為汝說 on a character-by-character basis?

Structure of 當為汝說無為法及無為道跡.

There is only one section in this sentence as follows.
當為汝說「無為法」及「無為道跡」。

（我）應當為你們說明「無為法」及「無為道跡」。

(I) should explain to you the 無為法 and 無為道跡.
or
(I) should show you the 無為法 and 無為道跡.

無為法（Asaṃskṛta dharma; Unconditioned dharma）：
離因緣造作之法。是無貪、瞋、癡、煩惱的境界。
Anything not subject to the principle of cause and effect (因果法), nor law of dependent origination (緣起法). It is the state or realm without any greed, anger, ignorance and affliction.

無為道跡 (The path to 無為法)：
八聖道 (The eightfold noble path) or 八正道 (The eight right or correct ways)
(1) right view 正見
(2) right thought 正思惟
(3) right speech 正語
(4) right action 正業
(5) right livelihood 正命
(6) right effort 正精進
(7) right remembrance or mindfulness 正念
(8) right concentration or meditation 正定


What kind of voice is "滄桑的聲音" describing? I believe that "滄桑" is "huge changes", but how can a voice be described as that?

With some googling, I am guessing (pure guessing) that "滄桑" means "aged/old", but how did "huge changes" turn into that?

To be exact, 沧桑 doesn't just mean aged/old.

沧桑 comes from the idiom 沧海桑田, as you understand, it means huge changes (in a long time). And 沧桑的声音 means a kind of voice, which can make you feel that he/she has experienced many things changed, e.g. many vicissitudes of life.


Written electronic communication speed in Simplified Chinese vs English I am wondering about communication and typing speed in common scenarios.

How fast can one communicate using Simplified Chinese on a phone or a computer?
How does it relate to speed of communication in English or other popular languages?
Is there any research on this topic?

Let us assume the computer in question is just a regular modern laptop without any advanced keyboard dedicated for Chinese.

Also, some multiword English ideas can be expressed by one character, but perhaps time needed to type it out varies on different devices. So even if one can read faster on all devices, writing time would depend on device in question.

Disclaimer: This answer is largely based on personal experience and anecdotes and written from the perspective of a Simplified Chinese user.
For English: wpm/cpm, including punctuation.  Conversion: 1 wpm = 5 cpm.
For Chinese: cpm, including punctuation.

It all depends on the text you're typing, the device you're using and the particular method of input you're using.  To understand typing speeds on mobile, you first have to understand...
Casual/Professional typing with physical US keyboard
English
Apart from the amount of training, the speed difference among various English typists come from the keyboard layout.  There's no "IME" so to speak, because whatever character you type will end up on your text-based editor.  Two common layouts are QWERTY and Dvorak simplified.
Chinese
Usually with QWERTY keyboard but with specialized input methods (IME), including but not limited to 拼音、双拼、郑码、二笔、五笔 that turn a sequence of keyboard inputs into one or more Chinese characters or symbols.  To make typing faster, modern IME often have native, on-the-fly or "cloud" dictionaries where common phrases are given an input sequence.
As I'm only familiar with 拼音 and 五笔, I'll use them in the following comparisons:

For text that are archaic or severely lacking in multiple-character phrases, 拼音 usually is the slowest due to the sheer amount of characters you have to choose for each pinyin—a phenomenon called 重码.  When using 五笔 to input characters one by one, the frequency of 重码, a.k.a. 重码率 is fairly low.  The effort to learn 拼音 without memorizing the selection in 重码 is way lower than learning 五笔 without memorizing the selection in 重码, but 拼音 users typically max out at 60 cpm, while 五笔 users average at 60 cpm.

For text that are rich in words and phrases, modern IME can make 拼音 users type at least faster than inputting single characters.  On the other hand, 五笔 users relying only on non-updating built-in dictionaries also get a speed boost. Both types of users can reach 120 cpm1.

Casual typing with touch-screen keyboard
This section could partly explain mobile phones with a physical keyboard.
This is where the world slows down.  To fully utilize the screen, one would think about using the 26-key layout on smart phones, but because the smart phones are small and one is only tempted to use a maximum of 2 fingers (as opposed to a large keyboard and a maximum of 10 fingers in use) mis-clicks occur more frequently.  To cope with this, layouts that lump multiple characters into one key are designed.  As long as you know one of the keyboard IMEs, one would type faster than writing using character recognition IME.  Modern mobile IME use dictionary and prediction technology as well, but well-trained physical keyboard users who haven't trained in touch-screen keyboards will experience a significant speed drop.
Professional typing with specialized keyboard
A.k.a. steno-typing.  These are not used in everyday scenarios so I'll make it short.
English
World record for Steno keyboard stands at 375 wpm.  Steno-typing typically works by parsing a sequence of simultaneous multi-key inputs into one or more words.
Chinese
Similarly, stenotyping systems such as 亚伟速录 exists, and a user using its specialized keyboard maxes out at 500 cpm.

1 Anecdotally, I know a 五笔 user who averages at 180 cpm on text that contain 1/6 archaic Chinese.


What should one pay attention to when translating "I will go to military-school [within the next week]" into Chinese? What advice for translation could you give in this context,
how would you translate the following sentences containing adverbials:

I will go to military-school soon.

I will go to military-school within the next week.

I will go to military-school once I have finished studying.

My attempt on translating (please feel free to correct my mistakes):

我 即将 去 军校。
我 下星期里 去 军校。
我 比及读完 去 军校

我即将去军校 is grammatically correct, but 即将 sounds too formal. Try this:

  我很快就要去军校了。 I soon will go-to  military-school le.

Notice that I used 了 which marks the end of what I am saying. Otherwise a listener may expect that you have something more to say. There are subtle uses of 了 that may take pages to explain.

If you want a formal form, 我即将去军校了 is perfectly fine.

我下星期里去军校 is understandable. Within is kind of a formal preposition word in English. In Chinese you may want to say:

  我要在下星期内去军校。 I will at next week within go-to military-school.

在...(以)内 is more idiomatic.

我比及读完去军校 -- 比及 is an archaic word that is no longer in use. study is 学习; It can be 读 sometimes, but the context is missing. Anyway:

  我一旦学习完就去军校。 I once study finish then go-to military-school.


How to say "productive" in Mandarin and Cantonese? Google Translate says 生產的 效率 means efficient, but what is the word for productive in Cantonese and Mandarin?

CantoDict does not have an entry, and Google lists 生產的 which feels wrong.

For instance, let's say you want to translate this sentence into Cantonese and Mandarin: "Don't procrastinate then you can be productive."

Mandarin: 你別拖延先可以。。。？

Cantonese: ?

If you want to say that someone is productive, as in your example, you are basically saying that they are very efficient, therefore 效率 is the best term.

  你效率很高 you are very productive (efficient)

In your example: 先别拖延，你就可以提高（你的）效率。

For inanimate objects, 生产力 (productive strength) is the way to go, only difference being in Chinese you are using it as a noun.

  中国的生产力很高 China is a very productive country


Chinese numerals or Arabic numerals? In formal writting in Chinese, should we write

  事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。

or

  事情已经过去了12345天。

or

  事情已经过去了12,345天。

Which one is considered more standard?

In formal writing in Chinese, should we write 事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。

Only when you are writing in vertical writing format -- from top to bottom, right to left in columns

As for horizontal writing format like English, when we see sentence like "My phone number is 001-2000-110" we would read it as "my phone number is zero zero one- two zero zero zero- one one zero" but we would never write it that way. The same is true in Chinese if you write horizontally