Is there a difference between 復習 and 複習? Both words have the same pronunciation, and cdict and some other dictionaries list them as variants of each other. I note that when I try to type it on Google Pinyin Chinese IME, 複習 comes up and 復習 isn't even an option, but 複習 is listed as the "variant" form. Relatedly, in Japanese, it's written 復習 and 複習 isn't accepted as a variant.

Is there any difference in nuance between 復習 and 複習, and what caused the variant forms to begin with? Why hasn't the character choice been standardized?

Short answer: The correct form is 複習. The following details the history regarding the two characters to explain why.

While 複 and 復 are pronounced exactly the same in modern Mandarin Chinese with the exact same tones (fù) and are both written as 复 in Simplified Chinese, they originally had different pronunciations.

複 was pronounced with an unvoiced initial consonant in Middle Chinese (ca. 600), /pjuk/, while
復 had a voiced initial consonant, /bjuk/. Because both words ended with the final consonant /k/, they belonged to a class of words having a checked tone (入聲) in Middle Chinese.

A few pronunciation shifts happened during the transition to Late Middle Chinese (ca. 1000):

Bilabial consonants /p/ and /b/ followed by the glide consonant /j/ became labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/.
A distinction in voicing of initial consonants lead to a phonemic split in Middle Chinese tone categories. Each tone category was split into "upper" 陰 and "lower" 陽 registers, with words having unvoiced initials in the former and those with voiced initials in the latter.
Later on, the voicing distinction ends up disappearing†, resulting in /f/ and /v/ merging into /f/, but the aforementioned tonal distinction remained.

By the end of Late Middle Chinese, this resulted in 複 having a pronunciation of /fuk/ with a 陰入 tone and 復 having a pronunciation of /fuk/ with a 陽入 tone. In fact, because modern Cantonese retains all the tones of Late Middle Chinese, it maintains this same distinction between these two words; compare 複 fuk1 vs. 復 fuk6.

The transition from Late Middle Chinese to modern Mandarin underwent a few more sound changes, the most significant of which was the loss of the final consonants that denoted checked tone words (such as the final /k/). Because of this, the checked tone as a category was completely lost, and many of its words ended up being redistributed into the other tones in an unpredictable manner. In modern Mandarin, both of these characters ended up with the Mandarin fourth tone, resulting in their modern pronunciation, fù.

The correct word should be 複習, and its evidenced by the way the word is pronounced in Cantonese, fuk1 zaap6. In fact if you instead say fuk6 zaap6 in Cantonese, you'd actually be referring to a different word, 復雜.

As for why their meanings are so similar, the ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese actually lists them under the same etymon. Old Chinese used to be more derivational, with affixes resulting in slight differences in meaning. In this case 複 is reconstructed with an Old Chinese pronunciation of *pruk while 復 is reconstructed with the *m- prefix: *mpruk. This prefix is believed to have originally indicated a causative or volitional meaning (複 'repeat' vs. 復 'cause to repeat', see Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction, pp. 54-5).

Although this process is no longer productive in modern Chinese, it often surfaces in pairs of words that have similar meanings but different tones or initial consonants. This previous Chinese StackExchange answer gives another example. In many cases, many of these words may have merged back together and ended up with the same pronunciation as is the case with 複 and 復 in modern Mandarin.

To summarize:

複 OC *pruk > EMC pjuk > LMC fuk > Mand. fù
復 OC *mpruk (*m- + 複) > EMC bjuk > LMC vuk > Mand. fù

If you're interested in reading more about how modern Chinese pronunciations developed, take a look at the Historical Chinese Phonology Wikipedia page.

† As an aside, the voicing distinction actually remains in the modern Wu varieties of Chinese (of which Shanghainese is one). I'm not very familiar with Wu Chinese, but I believe the pronunciation of 複 and 復 ends up being something like /foʔ/ and /voʔ/, respectively, in many of those dialects.


What does 你们已经干得够多了 mean? I read an opinion piece regarding the US response to the coronavirus: 哥伦比亚大学教授质问美国高官：用谎言攻击中国可能导致冲突，“你们没有羞耻感吗？” (7 May 2020).  I don't understand one part:

  特朗普先生、蓬佩奥先生，你们收到了很多警告。到目前为止，美国人民还没有完全认清你们的鲁莽。你们已经干得够多了。你们没有羞耻感吗？

My translation:

  Mr. Trump, Mr. Pompeo, you received many warnings.  Until now, the American people have still not completely recognized your recklessness.  You already 干得够多了 (?).  Do you have no sense of shame?

It seems to mean something like "done enough work", which doesn't make sense here.  I don't really understand.

Question: What does 你们已经干得够多了 mean?

You have done so many (trash) things
"你干的事" "他干的事" has irony meaning.
it means "awful things you have done" ,"Do bad things behind your back" not just "things" or "work".
"你瞧瞧你干的好事" look what you have done.(blame)


Looking for Pinyin standards I have noticed discrepancies in how native Mandarin speakers spell certain words in Pinyin reflecting differences in pronunciation, for instance, pángbiān vs. pángbian and zǎoshang vs. zǎoshàng. I've been told that these reflect differences across dialects. I even find these discrepancies across dictionaries, so I'm wondering if anyone knows of a source for standard Pinyin spellings.

Note that sometimes the transcription reflects the actual reading rather than the "single-character-pinyin".

For example, 你好 is sometimes transcribed as ní hăo, even if the "actual" transcription per-character would actually be nǐ hăo. This happens because when two third tones are next to each other, the first one becomes a second tone (when reading/pronouncing the characters, not when writing).

In other cases there is a totall loss of the tone, such as in 窗户 (window) transcribed — and read — as chuāng hu1, rather than chuāng hù.

1: The source is the CEDICT dictionary.


What does 之为 mean in 如果把人生比之为杠杆...? What does 之为 mean in the following sentence?

如果把人生比之为杠杆，信念则好像是它的“支点”，具备这个恰当的支点，才可能成为一个强有力的人。

In [人生][比之为][杠杆]

[人生] (life) is the main object.

[比] short for [比喻] (metaphorize). It is the verb.

[之] (it) functions as an objective pronoun. In this case, the object is '人生'

[为] (as being) is the auxiliary verb.

[杠杆] (lever) is the relative object, which is the 'metaphor' for ' '人生'

'之为' means 'it as being' here.
"把人生比之为杠杆" = "Take life and metaphorize it as being a lever."
*Depend on the object, '之' can represent any objective pronoun (that, him, her them, it)
More Example:
"把日本視之为敵人" = "Take Japan and see it as being an enemy"

*You can omit  the objective pronoun '之' in these sentence:
'把人生比为杠杆' ;  '把日本視为敵人'

~

*You can omit 'being' in these sentence:
'metaphorize life as a 'lever' ; 'see Japan as an enemy'


Difference between 打算, 安排 and 计划? So, I understand from other posts that 打算 is plan in the sense of ‘intend’, i.e. the details of the plan aren't yet finalised, while 计划 is more formalised such that the details of the plan are relatively fixed.

My question is therefore: how does 安排 fit into this?! Is this 'plan' more 打算, more 计划, or something completely different?

安排 means arrange or arrangement, a verb or a noun. For example, 安排你们住下 means arrange your lodging.

计划 and 打算 are as you said.


Example of grammar difference between Cantonese and Mandarin? This page lists the following sentence in Mandarin:

  现在 不要 给 我 打 电话

However, in Cantonese it feels like the grammar would be more like:

  [now do not]打電話被我

In other words, the "target" part of the sentence -- 被 for Cantonese, 给 for Mandarin -- comes at different parts: after the verb for Cantonese, and before the verb for Mandarin.

Is this a difference in grammar between Cantonese and Mandarin?

It is 畀我 (give me/ to me) not 被我 (by me)

畀我 is the Cantonese equivalent of 给我 in Mandarin

  Is this a difference in grammar between Cantonese and Mandarin?

Most grammar structure are the same in Cantonese and Mandarin

"而家 唔好 打電話 畀我"  (Cantonese) = "Don't make phone call to me now"

"现在 不要  打电话 给我"  (Mandarin) = "Don't make phone call to me now"

~

"现在 不要  给我 打电话 到警察局" (Mandarin) = " Don't make phone call to the police for me now"

"而家 唔好 同我 打電話 畀警察局" (Cantonese) = " Don't make phone call to the police for me now"

There are some exception:

'给我 打电话' in Mandarin can mean 'give me a phone call' or ' make phone call for me'
'同我 打電話' in Cantonese can only mean ' make phone call for me'

If you want to say 'give me phone call'  in Cantonese, you can either say '打電話 畀我' or ' 同我 通電話' (it is rarely used)

There are some unique Cantonese grammar structure that's not found in Mandarin (mostly involve final particles that do not exist in Mandarin) .

Example:

"而家 唔好 同我 打電話 畀警察局(住)" = " Now, don't make phone call to the police for me (yet)"

Since Mandarin doesn't use the final particle '住' for 'yet' , the same phrase in Mandarin would have to be "现在 (先) 不要  给我 打电话 到警察局"

Edit:

  In Cantonese, 俾 and 畀 are often regarded as variants of each other. However, some people suggest that 俾 means "by (passive voice)" whereas 畀 means "give".


Why 奇蹟 (and not 奇迹) In Simplified Texts I often run across the word 奇蹟 in simplified texts written just like that: 奇蹟.

For example:

Yes has an article entitled:

【上帝之子】全美票房创18亿台币奇蹟.

Here's an excerpt also with said writing (emphasis is mine):

  全台湾预售票票房告捷 各地要求映演声不断
  此生必看圣经电影【上帝之子】（Son of God）不但在美国上映至今已创下十八亿台币票房奇蹟，在台湾，藉着教会的支持，电影还未上映亦已有近两百万的包场及预售票票房成绩，更因观众的要求，陆续增加各地映演戏院，目前全台上映戏院包括台北信义威秀影城、欣欣秀泰影城、今日秀泰影城、板桥秀泰影城、新竹巨城威秀影城、台中Tiger City威秀影城、台南大远百威秀影城、高雄大远百威秀影城、花莲秀泰影城以及台东秀泰影城等十家。

China Times also has an article entitled: 飞机失事 女孩奇蹟逃脱残骸敲门求救

and excerpt:

  根据英国每日邮报报导，一架私家小飞机周五坠落在美国肯塔基州地区，机上5人中有4人丧生，但1名7岁女孩奇蹟生还，自行走出坠机现场，跑到陌生人家敲门求救。机上罹难者除了小女孩的父母，还有她的9岁姊姊与一名14岁表哥。

蹟 has been simplified to 迹.

The writing of 奇迹 is, still, far more common.

The question is then, why do some still insist on writing 奇蹟 in simplified texts?

迹 is not a simplification of 蹟. 迹 is a simplification of 跡, though.

蹟 is a variant character of both. It can be used in either script, as one pleases.


In this sentence "请问，哪里可以买到票？" is the character 到 necessary? And can I just say: "哪里买票？"? This is what I used when I was in China and everyone seemed to easily understand. Is this shorter sentence incorrect or non-native sounding? How do native speakers ask this kind of question?

买票: is all about the act of purchasing a ticket.
买到票: is about where a ticket can be successfully purchased.

But the two are often used interchangeably.


What is the meaning of 具 in 最具魅力的市区町村? In the following sentence:

  最具魅力的市区町村排行榜前三位依次为京都市，函馆市，札幌市。这是自2013年以来，京都市时隔4年第二次位居榜首。

MDBG dictionary shows the following meanings:

  tool / device / utensil / equipment / instrument / talent / ability / to possess / to have / to provide / to furnish / to state / classifier for devices, coffins, dead bodies

However, I don't understand what meaning 具 takes here. At first I thought it works as a measure word, but the classifiers on the dictionary are devices, coffins, dead bodies, so the word 市区町村 may not qualify for taking the classifier, I guess.

But otherwise, I don't understand what 具 works for here. So what does 具 work as here (e.g. noun, verb, adverb, adjective, measure word, etc...) and what is the meaning of it? And what is the difference between 最具魅力的 and 最魅力的?

具 is 具有; roughly to have, to possess

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000097022


What is the part without the radical called? For example, these characters have different radicals:

根 跟 恨 狠

But the part of the characters minus the radical is the same.
Does that part (艮 in this case) have a name?

On wiki, this part is defined as "phonetic". I am not familiar with these jargons in English, but I thinks this one is acceptable.

In your case,"艮"(gèn or gěn) is really a character.

Edit: Add Chinese names for this part

We call these characters “形声字”(in modern Chinese, many characters can be classified into this type). 形 means "form", referring to the radical, 声 means "sound", so I think "phonetic" is acceptable to call that part.

In Chinese, we call the "radical" 形旁 and the "phonetic" 声旁. Here, 旁(pang2) means a part.


Meaning of 一人付一半 in 车费我们俩一人付一半，怎么样？ In this sentence:

  车费我们俩一人付一半，怎么样？

I don't fully understand the meaning of 一人付一半.

I have found that 付一半 can mean "pay half", but 一人 confuses me (if it refers to one person, why is that form used instead of 一个人?).

一人 can be thought of as 'per person' or 'each person'.

This grammatical construction is extremely common in Chinese. I think it's called topical construction (correct me if I am wrong here). Essentially, you have the topic of the sentence (bus/taxi fare) at the start, followed by the subject, verb and the rest of the object.

So let's break it down:

Topic: 车费 (bus/taxi fare - need more context to determine the exact
nature)
Subject: 我们俩 (We [two])
Verb: 付 (to pay)
Object: 一半(车费) (half [of the fare])
Adverbial: 一(个)人 (each person, per person - alternative wording: 每(个)人)

Possible translations:

We split the fare by paying half of it each.
We both pay half the fare.
Each of us pays for half the fare.

I missed the last bit of your question the first time around. The measure word 个 is omitted. It means the same whether it's in there or not (in this case). However, 一人 in this sense is also used in some set phrases (such as 一人做事一人当 - one is responsible for one's own actions), and in those cases, you cannot use 一个人 in its stead. Fivesheep's answer has enough examples to give you a good idea how often it's used.


How to translate 谈情说爱 in English? The definition from Yabla (which is prettier in Ninchanese ):

to discuss passion and talk of love (idiom); to express love with terms of endearment
billing and cooing

And to translate the sentence:

你的水准能跟四爷谈情说爱。

The first part of the sentence without translating 谈情说爱 would be something like:

Based on your level, you can 谈情说爱 with fourth Lord.

In this context, how should 谈情说爱 be translated?

谈恋爱 = fall in love
谈情说爱 = romancing (what people who fell in love do)

'Romance
a. To court, woo, or try to arouse the romantic interest of.
b. To have a love affair with.

你的水准能跟四爷谈情说爱。
base on your level(quality), you can romance the fourth lord.


Etymology of 此 cǐ this, these? What is the etymology of cǐ ? How this character means those, these?

《說文》：「此，止也。从止从匕。匕，相比次也。凡此之屬皆从此。」

甲金文從「止」從「人」，左右結構與上下結構無別。象人所止步之處，即此處之意，與「彼」相對。

陳初生以為「以腳趾與一側身人形會腳步到此停止之意。」何琳儀以為會以足蹋人之意，「跐」之初文。姑備一說。

此 is a compound ideogram comprising 止 and 人 (匕 is a crouching man). One always infers the combined meaning of the two simpler, juxtaposed pictograms.
Multi-function Chinese Character Database adopts the explanation of the scholar Chen Chusheng: With 止 being a pictogram for 'foot' at first and later a phonetic loan for 'to stop', the explanation for the meaning of 此 is believed to be that a man (人) arrives 'here' when he stops (phonetic loan 止) his pace (pictogram 止). 'This' and 'these' are derived meanings of 'here', which is understandably figurative.
Shuowen Jiezi however argues 'to stop' comes from the character 匕. Being one of the two 'rotated' men in 比, a man stops to compare (meaning of 比) himself with another. This is in accordance to Duan Yucai's annotation 相比次而止也.


What is the correct saying? In Zhuang Zi 5.2 we read:

聞之曰：『鑑明則塵垢不止，止則不明也。久與賢人處，則無過。』

Lin Yutang translation: "Now I have heard that if a mirror is perfectly bright, dust will not collect on it, and that if it does, the mirror is no longer bright. He who associates for long with the wise should be without fault." (Notice in the link above how Yutang avoids the quotes.)

I wonder if the saying is both phrases,

『鑑明則塵垢不止，止則不明也。久與賢人處，則無過。』

or only the first one (being the end quote misplaced somewhere in the copy chain).

『鑑明則塵垢不止，止則不明也。』

Looks to me like both phrases make more sense in the context of this book. In some places it is referred in the shorter version, like here and here.

Honestly, it doesn't matter. The "quote" is mostly made up in such context to emphasize the 2nd phrase.


What are five most useful or common Chengyu phrases in the workplace? I know there are thousands of chengyu (成语) (4 character proverbs in Chinese) out there, so obviously I would not have time to learn them all.

Could I have 5 of these chengyu from you? (bonus marks if you could explain the meaning/context).

I appreciate it!

An example of a useful Chengyu phrase is one which forms basis of everyday applications: 四通八達 (extend equally in all directions)  for example, is sort of where the 八達通 (octopus card in Hong Kong) got its name from.

a newbie

  菜鳥應該自認 才疏學淺 孤陋寡聞 有如 井底之蛙 所知有限
  對公司的文化習慣更是 一無所知 一竅不通
  縱然是 三頭六臂 神通廣大 學富五車 才高八斗
  也不可 恃才傲物 妄自尊大 目中無人 不可一世
  更不可 自命不凡 自以為是 夜郎自大 剛愎自用
  應當 虛懷若谷 謙卑自牧 移樽就教 不恥下問
  同事 循循善誘 諄諄教誨 善意提醒 好心指點
  自當 聚精會神 洗耳恭聽 聞一知十 舉一反三
  不可 漫不經心 馬耳東風 囫圇吞棗 不求甚解

  做事應 按部就班 有條不紊 兢兢業業 任勞任怨
  若是想 出奇制勝 標新立異 好高騖遠 眼高手低
  常落得 班門弄斧 不自量力 布鼓雷門 貽笑大方
  真是 關公面前耍大刀 孔夫子門前賣文章
  倘若是 敷衍塞責 文過飾非 避重就輕 好逸惡勞
  終究是 水落石出 自取其辱 因小失大 得不償失

才疏學淺 to have little talent and less learning
孤陋寡聞 ignorant and ill-informed
井底之蛙 a person with a very limited outlook and experience
一無所知 to know nothing at all
一竅不通 to be utterly ignorant of
三頭六臂 three heads and six arms; superhuman powers
神通廣大 to have great magic power
學富五車 of great erudition and scholarship
才高八斗 to have profound learning; of great talent
恃才傲物 to be inordinately proud of one's ability
妄自尊大 to be overweening; be too big for one's boots
目中無人 supercilious; to consider everyone beneath one's notice
不可一世 to be insufferably arrogant
自命不凡 to consider oneself no ordinary; self-glorification
自以為是 self-righteous; bumptious
夜郎自大 extremely arrogant
剛愎自用 headstrong; opinionated
虛懷若谷 to be very modest
謙卑自牧 to keep modest so as to cultivate one's moral character
移樽就教 (to take one's wine cup to another person's table to seek his advice) to go to somebody for advice
不恥下問 not to feel ashamed to ask and learn from one's subordinates
循循善誘 to teach with patience and skill
諄諄教誨 belecture; inculcate
聚精會神 to concentrate one's attention
洗耳恭聽 to listen with respectful attention
聞一知十 to infer the whole matter after hearing but one point
舉一反三 to draw inferences about other cases from one instance
漫不經心 heedless; unmindful; inattentive
馬耳東風 to go in one ear and out the other; to pay no attention to what one said
囫圇吞棗 (to swallow dates whole) to lap up information without digesting it
不求甚解 not to seek to understand things thoroughly
按部就班 to follow the prescribed order
有條不紊 systematically; methodically; in an orderly way
兢兢業業 cautious and conscientious
任勞任怨 to bear hardship without complaining
出奇制勝 to win victory through unexpected moves
標新立異 to do something unconventional or unorthodox
好高騖遠 to reach for what is beyond one's grasp
眼高手低 to have grandiose aims but puny abilities
班門弄斧 to display one's slight skill before an expert
不自量力 to go beyond one's depth
布鼓雷門 to take things to a place where they already abound; to make a fool of oneself by foolish display
貽笑大方 to make a laughingstock of oneself before experts
避重就輕 to avoid the important and dwell on the trivial
好逸惡勞 (love to go ease and hate to work hard) to despise labor and love ease
敷衍塞責 to perform one's duty in a perfunctory manner
文過飾非 to cover up one's mistakes
水落石出 the whole things come to obvious
自取其辱 to bring disgrace on one's own head; to ask for an insult
因小失大 to try to save a little only to lose a lot; to spoil the ship for a halfpennyworth of tar
得不償失 the gains do not make up for the losses; to be not worth the candle

(tag line)
關公面前耍大刀 being a snob in front of a true expert; to teach one's grandmother how to suck eggs
孔夫子門前賣文章 to show off in the presence of an expert


Is the meaning of this symbol "longevity"? I'm trying to determine the meaning of a particular character. Sparing the boring details, I'm trying to figure out what the meaning of this character is:

As near as i can tell it might be a symbol for "longevity" but, the symbol for that "shou" looks more like that below?

Is the meaning of the top character correct? Is there a difference between these two versions of the character?

This is just a variant of 壽.

If you suspect a character is a variant you can always go to the wiktionary entry and refer to the Unihan data which will show common variants or use the service I linked above if it is something more obscure.


Poem for Calligraphy Art It maybe very dumb, stupid and unwise that I have an interest in learning to write Chinese calligraphy when I can't write more than hundred Chinese words, but still I always think Chinese calligraphy is very beautiful kind of art that I want to get into and master someday. In my quest to this ambitious journey, What is an ideal Chinese poem that has good strokes (笔画) to practice my Chinese calligraphy?  (Also want it to have good and beautiful meaning, and so a love poem is preferred.) I only want to focus on 4x7=28 unique words instead of chasing the goose, since unlike English where there are only 26 geese (A-Z), Chinese have thousands if not millions of strange alien-like geese that Chinese people probably have not seem very frequently in their daily life.

There are four basic types of calligraphy:
   1.Regular Script(楷书)
   2.Semi-cursive Scrip(行书)
   3.Clerical Script(隶书)
   4.Cursive Script(草书)

Normally I'll recommend start with Yan Zhenqing - Duobaota Bei. But I think Ouyang Xun - Thousand Character Text is better for you to try. It's covering lots of basic knowledge and widely used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children. Below is the link.

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AC%A7%E9%98%B3%E8%AF%A2#/media/File:%E6%AC%A7%E9%98%B3%E8%AF%A2%E8%A1%8C%E4%B9%A6%E3%80%8A%E5%8D%83%E5%AD%97%E6%96%87%E3%80%8B.jpg

So far I never see any Chinese calligraphy poem (ancient classic) is about love.


Why is Mainland China referred to as "大陸" (大陸)? Question is pretty straight-forward, but why do Hong Kongers (don't know if others too) refer to Mainland China as  daai6 luk6 ?

any historical reason for this or etymology?

It's due to the one-China policy (一中原則).

Both CPC (中國共產黨) and KMT (中國國民黨) think there is only one China.
Both refer their own places as countries, PRC and ROC, respectively.
Both treat the other side as an area or region, 台灣地區 and 大陸地區, respectively.
At the beginning, KMT called the other side as 淪陷區.
Because it is not a good term, KMT changed it to 大陸地區.
大陸 is a short form of 大陸地區.
Many people in HK also moved from 大陸 due to the civil war (國共內戰).
Therefore, these people tended to stand on KMT's side, and then used the KMT's term.

中國大陸，中文使用上常通稱 大陸或大陸地區 ，是對中華人民共和國的實際統治領土之稱呼，也是海峽兩岸關係的常見用語之一。 此詞的產生肇因於第二次國共內戰後 ，1949年中華人民共和國成立所導致的海峽兩岸政治分立。
English version


Why do the chinese count with 正? I have seen a couple of shop keepers (in small - mid sized shops) in Hong Kong counting some routine things with this character : "正". The actual tally would start off with the first stoke of that character and increase by 1 according to the stroke order of the character. So, one 正would effectively represent 5 people.

I believe the Western tally also counts to a maximum of 5 per tally.

I'd like to know why that particular character is used. (I have seen it used in stamps before too).

I'd like to know why that particular character is used. (I have seen it used in stamps before too).

because

正 is a common character
正 has five stokes
All five stokes are straight and no overlap, so it is easier to count each stoke.
The character neatly form a square shape, make counting multiple copies easier
The stoke order and stoke type are simple . It just repeat two different straight stokes:

Left to right horizontal straight line
Top to bottom vertical straight line

One can write 正 faster than most other five stokes characters


Pronunciation of 汎 in the Analects I am listening to a recording of the Analects in Mandarin recommended by several of my Chinese friends (so, good quality, I hope). In the 學而第一 there is the saying:

  子曰：「弟子入則孝，出則弟，謹而信，汎愛眾，而親仁

My inquiry concerns the pronunciation of 汎 here. The recording says fa4 but  Dictionary only contains fan4。 Unihan, as part of pleco, also lists fa2.

What pronunciation should I use when reciting the Analects in Mandarin?

I tried some research and, according to another dictionary (新华字典),

  汎
  拼音fàn 注音ㄈㄢˋ

and 说文解字,

  浮皃。从水凡聲。孚梵切

and another live audio,

I think it should be pronounced as fàn.


Does there exists an English word for 汉化 ？ 汉化  means becoming more assimilated to Han culture. (like Anglicise means being more assimilated to English culture)

Historically, this has happened many times, e.g. during Khitan Empire, Jurchen Empire

Does there exists an English word for this? I am guessining not.

There is Sinicization, just look at the English version of 汉化 on Wikipedia, you'll find out.


Difference between 要学习的东西 and 东西要学习 I learned that a verb phrase modifying a noun should precede the noun with 的 in between, like this:

  我还有很多要学习的东西。(I still have a lot to learn.)

However, I have seen some people speak like this:

  我还有很多东西要学习。

So I was wondering what kind of grammatical structure is the second sentence? And if the second sentence is the correct one, are there any differences between the two sentences? Thank you.

People like variations in word order. The word order is not fixed forever. I don't think a proscriptive approach to grammar is helpful. In the end, natural language will win.

Like Marko commented, "as in the things need to study, which is obviously not the intended meaning of the sentence"

The basic sentence is:
我有东西。
【】is then an adjective.
我有【（我）要学习】的东西。
I have things I want to/must study

This below works because we know 东西 don't study, people study.

我有很多东西（我）要学习。
I have many things (that) I want to study.

Put a noun like 学生 in there that can study and the student is no longer 我:

我还有很多学生要学习（这门课程）。
I still have many students (who) want to study this course.


What is the function and/or meaning of the 2 '以‘ in this phrase? I came across this phrase but I cannot really see the function or point of the 2 '以‘。 Must be old Chinese.

授人以鱼不如授人以渔。 (Translated maybe: "Knowledge is the best charity.")

What are the 2 '以‘ doing here please?

以 means "with" here

[授人(give people)] [以  (with)] [鱼 (fish)] [不如 (not as good as)] [授人 (teach people)] [以  (with) ] [渔 (lessons of fishing)]

授 can mean "to give" or " to teach"
鱼 is noun for "fish"
渔 is verb for "to fish"

授人以鱼不如授人以渔 = " It is better to teach someone to fish than give someone fish. "


消费 coupled with the MW: 个 I noticed that dictionaries cite 消费 as having the MW: 个 。  Is there a reason that this this particular noun has a measure word?  It doesn't seem as if it were to be a word that uses a measure word.

Can any one help clarify this for me ?

'消费' as a verb means 'to consume' and the measure word for this verb is 次, as in '消费一次'
'消费' as a noun means 'consumption; expenditure; expense' and the typical measure word for this noun is 項(item of), as in 一項消费, 多項消费

花一元买一杯咖啡也是一項消费 - Spend a dollar to buy a cup of coffee is still a (item of) consumption
花一元买一杯咖啡也是一种消费 - Spend a dollar to buy a cup of coffee is still a (kind of) consumption

Using 个 as the measure word for 消费 is less common, but it is not incorrect:

花一元买一杯咖啡也是一个消费 - Spend a dollar to buy a cup of coffee is still a (item of) consumption

If a considerable amount of money is involved, you can use 笔 (sum of)

一大笔消费 -  a huge (sum of) expenditure


How appropriate is "拜拜"? How appropriate, in terms of casualness and/or childishness, is "拜拜"? Is it as childish as "Bye-bye" would be in English, or is it more acceptable?

In case location matters, I'm mainly interested in how it's viewed in Taiwan.

拜拜 is not casualness and/or childishness,it is a more friendly way to express goodbye ,and majority use between people who have good relation,or see somebody for the first time and build a friendship each other.
So does it in Taiwan I think:)


san1 vs tai2 vs san1 tai2 I am doing martial arts and met some Cantonese people.

In "Punch me to the body!" what word would I use for body? san1 (身), tai2 (體) or both? I found them all in the dictionary and I'm not sure which to use when. They speak very little English, so I thought I'd ask here. Also it would be nice to know how to say "Punch me to the body" or "punch me to the face" or "punch me here".

Well, martial arts and Cantonese, you like Bruce Lee? Anyway, here's what you want:

打我心口 - punch (打) my (我) chest (心口)

打我個肚 - punch (打) my (我) abdomen (肚)

打我個頭 -  punch (打) my (我) head (頭)

打我呢度 -  punch (打) my (我) here (呢度) [supposed you pointed to somewhere by your finger, when you say it]

Sound files:

打　⋯　http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/daa2.Mp3

我　⋯　http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/ngo5.Mp3

心口　⋯　http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/sam1.Mp3 http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/hau2.Mp3

個肚　⋯　http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/go3.Mp3http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/tou5.Mp3

個頭　⋯　http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/go3.Mp3http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/tau4.Mp3

呢度　⋯　http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/nei1.Mp3http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/sound/dou6.Mp3

Furthermore, 打 (punch) is assumed using fists. If you need other types of attacks (fingers, palm, elbow, or kick), you need to state clearly to you companions :)

BTW, just curious, which martial arts are you learning?


How are 连A带B and A着B different 他连说带笑 / 他笑着说
他连唱带跳 / 他唱着跳

Do these sentences have the same meaning？
and if I change the position between the two verbs, do they still have the same meaning?

他连说带笑 / 他连笑带说
他笑着说 / 他说着笑

連A帶B is not equivalent to A着B.

A着B limits both A and B to verbs, but 連A帶B does not (they can be verbs, nouns, or adjectives).

Part of speech
Example sentence1
Translation

Verbs
眼下很多旅店為了拉客住宿都是連蒙帶騙。（1994年《人民日報》）
Many hostels nowadays (lit. 'blind' and) deceive customers for their stay.

Nouns
滅絕師太不除下劍鞘，連劍帶鞘，便向金花婆婆胸口點來。（金庸《倚天屠龍記》）
With the sword and its sheath intact, Madam Kill-All came for Golden Flower Granny's chest.

Adjectives
大夥也都連累帶餓快要頂不住勁兒了。（劉流《烈火金剛》）
Everyone was both tired and hungry and could not stand any longer.

連A帶B sometimes parts a compound verb (e.g., 連蒙帶騙–蒙騙, 連比帶劃–比劃, 連諷帶刺–諷刺), whereas parting them with 着 is nonsensical (i.e., it is wrong to say *蒙着騙, *比着劃, *諷着刺).

Swapping A and B in A着B is not always permissible.

There is 哭着說, but usually not *說着哭. We are modifying the main action (the second verb) with an adverb of manner (made from the first verb), so you can only say, 'He said something in the manner of crying', but he couldn't have cried in the manner of saying something. 說着笑 is not an appropriate example (by that, I mean the verbs in 笑着說 are not swappable, but 說着笑 does exist with a different meaning), because it can be the stative form of the compound verb 說笑 (to joke), which is something completely different and irrelevant to our discussion.

Swapping A and B in 連A帶B is not always permissible.

If there is no particular need for emphasis, no inherent logical order (邏輯順序), nor word order (e.g. existing compound words in point 2.), swapping is then permissible.

Example sentence1
Translation

母女倆用英文爭論，仁仁連手勢帶神色(=連神色帶手勢)都是美國式的。（嚴歌苓《花兒與少年》）
The mother and daughter argued in English; both Ren Ren's hand gesture and expression looked American.

Otherwise, swapping is not permissible.

Reason
Example sentence1
Translation

Emphasis on the first verb
「你沒走，這太好了，我都快急死了。」她連笑帶怨，發自內心的高興。（王朔《橡皮人》）
'Good, you didn't leave, you're driving me crazy!' She smiled with a tinge of complaint, her happiness from the bottom of her heart.

Logical order
某近視小姐，為同桌斟酒，竟連瓶帶蓋一起倒入杯中，⋯⋯（《市場報》1994 年）
A certain shortsighted lady was pouring wine for her table. She really poured into the cup all that was in the bottle, even the lid. (most of what was poured in was the wine in the bottle, not the lid)

Word order
所有的人聽到我叫喊都是連奔帶跑，只有羅非不肯動。（陸文夫《人之窩》）
All those who heard my shouting ran with all their might; only Luo Fei moved not an inch. (奔跑 is a set word; there is no 跑奔)

I think 連說帶笑 is more common than ?連笑帶說 for logical considerations: you first say something, and then laugh at what was said, not the other way round.

Reference:
1 肖奚強、余璐瑤（2017）〈“連/又/一邊A帶/又/一邊B”格式比較研究〉。南京師大學報(社會科學版)，6，137–146。


Cantonese Romanization schemes The Cantonese romanization scheme that I know is Yale Romanization, which to me makes the most sense and is the easiest to read of any that I've seen.  It seems to give a very good idea of how to pronounce things and is easier to read than, say, trying to remember which number goes with which tone.  I'm aware, however, that there are others out there.  Is Yale the most common and if not, what is?  What schemes do you all use?  Should I take the time to learn another?

The two most common systems are Yale and Jyutping, the latter was invented as late as 1993. I think both are included alongside pinyin in Unicode's table of Chinese characters.

Most native speakers don't use and are not even aware of these systems, especially in mainland China where Cantonese speakers never study their native language at school - it's hardly considered a "real language".
I have heard though that natives tend to use Jyutping, while Yale is used in nearly all English teaching material for Cantonese and is thus more popular among foreigners.

Then there is a third, obscure system with no tone information that nobody uses, except the HK government did when choosing all official, romanized place names, personal names, and so on. Oops. So neither system is good for reading romanized signs, maps et c!

I'd recommend learning and using Jyutping over Yale, for the following reaons:

It's recommended by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, who invented it. (Not a huge reason, but noteworthy.)
It is based on pinyin and uses the same letters for the same sounds. I think this is good for a Cantonese romanization system: many, many, many more people know pinyin, thus Cantonese becomes more accessible by being compatible with it and avoiding confusion.
Jyutping distinguishes more sounds and is more accurate.
Jyutping gets tones right, being straight-forward and consistent. It doesn't  mix tone information and "spelling", like Yale (which sometimes uses double a:s or h:s to mark tones). It doesn't ignore tones entirely like the "government system". And there are only 6 tones, unlike the 9-tone model responsible for the linguistic urban myth of "look Cantonese has 9 tones, it's sooo hard to learn".

Yes, it's takes a bit of work to get used to those 6 tones, but tones aren't optional. It's much more frustrating when you eventually speak the language somewhat well, you're trying to read signs with unfamiliar Chinese characters and the romanized text totally lacks tone data! What are you supposed to do, read all permutations and ask a native which one makes sense?

If you learn Jyutping you can use it to input characters especially in Linux-systems, but also in Windows and perhaps Mac OS X, I think, by using commercial software.


How many Chinese characters have multiple readings/pronunciations in Mandarin? I'm wondering how many Chinese characters have more than one pronunciation in Mandarin. I understand this could be a difference in tone, initial, final, or some combination of these.

Has anyone come across a list of these (or at least a list of the ones that are among the most common 2,000-3,000 characters)?

Thanks!

There are official lists for this. See the following pages in the Chinese Wikipedia:
普通话异读词审音表 for mainland China
國語一字多音審訂表 for the ROC (Taiwan)
Neither of the lists is complete; they are basically there to provide standard answers to test students on correct pronunciation.

How many characters have variant readings is actually quite hard to answer; one reason is the large number of 'literary' readings which are still often used when reading or reciting older literature.  Chinese opera of all varieties typically uses such readings.  This phenomenon (called 文白異讀) is quite extreme in some dialects; in the Minnan dialect for example, there are variant readings (sometimes multiple variants) for almost every character.

Note: Here is the official version of 普通话异读词审音表 from the 国家语言文字工作委员会 (State Language Commission). They don't seem to have a pdf version, but you can copy the text from places such as 百度百科 (here).

All those characters where the list says 统读 mean that those characters 'used to' have different readings in earlier versions of the list. Now through a wave of the SLC's magic wand, they have miraculously disappeared. Actually many (most) people continue to use them, but For your HSPK you may skip them.  This is one way to pick out the first ones to learn.

The ROC list is much longer than the PRC list, because it reflects more of the 文白 differences.  Be sure to keep the ROC and PRC readings separate! A number of the differences between the two standards are because the PRC simplification process has merged two different forms with two different readings into one form with (still) two different readings.


Disassemble address line Given the following address line

惠州市惠阳区秋长镇白石村朝鲲产业园三态速递

Which of it is the "street name", which the state and which the city?

I have to enter those fragments into a shipping address form. The available options for the state are as follows:

北京市
天津市
河北省
山西省
内蒙古自治区
辽宁省
吉林省
黑龙江省
上海市
江苏省
浙江省
安徽省
福建省
江西省
山东省
河南省
湖北省
湖南省
广东省
广西壮族自治区
海南省
重庆市
四川省
贵州省
云南省
西藏自治区
陕西省
甘肃省
青海省
宁夏回族自治区
新疆维吾尔自治区

惠州市惠阳区秋长镇白石村朝鲲产业园三态速递

There is no street name given.  Nor is there a province name given (although we can deduce the province is Guangdong).  What is given is:

  Huizhou
  惠州市
  Huìzhōu shì

The 市 here means "city".  We can deduce that Huizhou is in Guangdong Province (广东省, where 省 means "province").

  Huiyang District
  惠阳区
  Huìyáng qū

The 区 here means "district", and in this case it's the Huiyang District; cities in China are broken up into areas called 区.

  Qiuchang Town
  秋长镇
  Qiūzhǎng zhèn

The 镇 here refers to a town and the surrounding areas; or maybe it could be better called "subdistrict" or "residential district" (the Wikipedia page for Huiyang District calls it 秋长街道).

  Baishi Village (White Stone Village)
  白石村
  Báishí cūn

The next level is a "village" 村, but it's not a village as a native English speaker would understand, but rather a "gated community" or an apartment complex.

The closest point I found on Baidu Maps is this village: 白石村.

  Chaokun Industrial Park
  朝鲲产业园
  Cháokūn chǎnyè yuán

The above means what it sounds like.

  Santai Courier
  三态速递
  Sāntài sùdì

This is the company name: SFC.


simplified characters not derived from chart 1 and chart 2 of 简化字总表 I just came across 汹 which is the simplified version of 洶. I was quite surprised as 汹 is not mentioned in neither Chart 1 and Chart 2 of the structural simplification of characters. Another example is 蹤 which is derived in 踪 -, although not being part of chart 1- and despite the simplification from chart 2 從->从.
I thought learning all characters from both chart 1 and 2 would be sufficient to be able to find the simplified version of any traditional character.

How consistent is the method of simplification, why publish those lists if they are not used consistently, are there any other characters which have a simplified form not derived from chart 1 and 2?

The reason for why 汹 and 踪 being not listed in the 简化字总表 is:

  They have been already used in the old times as variant characters with the same meaning, so they were listed in 异体字整理表 (Chart of Variant Characters). Although they are usually considered as simplified characters (even by native speakers sometimes), they are actually traditional characters.

For example, you can find 汹 in 康熙字典

  【汹】《集韻》與洶同。 Jiyun: the same as 洶.

And you can find 踪 in 彙音寶鑑

  【踪】仝蹤，踪迹。 The same as 蹤, means 踪迹 (trace).

So for your question:

  "How consistent is the method of simplification, why publish those lists if they are not used consistently, are there any other characters which have a simplified form not derived from chart 1 and 2?"

I would say if you want to distinguish variant characters between mainland China and Taiwan / Hong Kong, it is better to learn 异体字整理表 (Chart of Variant Characters) as well.

BTW, good guess for 從->从 => 蹤->.

 is also a variant of 蹤, though it is not usually used today.


Is there an proverb or saying in English for '叶公好龙'? I do think that '叶公好龙’ is very image, and very vividly for describing someone who is faking passion, and is a very common word, are there any English one for '叶公好龙'?

葉公好龍 http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/3/11/2/n404356.htm
從這個故事演變的成語“葉公好龍”常用來比喻人說一套，做一套，口是心非

In English, it is similar to " talk the talk, but not walk the walk' meaning someone's words doesn't match his action' (說一套，做一套)


参加 vs 参与 - cānjiā vs cānyu So, these two both mean 'to participate in' and there doesn't seem to be any difference in the types of things one might participate in.
Are they therefore interchangeable?
Thanks!
Hashamyim

P.s. I am categorising my 'what are the difference' questions under 'vocabulary'. As they are all HSK 5 verbs, should I open a new HSK5 tag? What do you reckon?

additional information：＂汉语动词３８０例＂参加／参与 例 释 一、 参加 １. 这词运动会他参加了五个项目的比赛。动词＂参加＂的意思是加入某种组织或某种活动又例如：a。他要去参加下个星期在上海举行的学术会议。b。他参加了中国教育代表团，下个月去欧洲访问。c。关于这个城市的建设计划他参加过讨论。２。 是否组织旅行？你能参加点儿意见吗？＂参加＂在这儿的意思是对某事或某一问题提出意见。又例如：a。这个问题还得请大家多参加参加意见。b。我参加不了多少意见，还是听听大家的。＂参加＂表示这种意思的时候，可以重叠使用，但它通常不单独做谓语。二、参与１。 他曾参与过这个计划的讨论。动词＂参与＂的意思是进入到某事物的计划、讨论、处理等活动中去。又例如：a。跟你无关的事你别参与进去。b。我从没参与过他们的活动。＂参与＂跟＂参加＂在这儿意思是相同，可以相互替换，但＂参加＂的意思更广泛，＂参与＂不含加入某种组织的意思。

＂汉语同义词词典＂ 加入／参与／参加［同］动词。表示投身于其中。［异］［加入］ 着重于投身于某种组织，成为其中的成员。通用于口语和书面语。例：（１）当我发现了中国革命的正确道路时，我便加入了中国共产党。（朱德＜母亲的回忆＞）（２）我不久就加入了学生军。预备北伐！（田汉＜创作经验谈＞）（３）在县城里出售了茧后，他找着了他的战友，竟加入到战友的包工队里，一住就是两个月没有回来。（贸平凹＜鸡窝洼的人家＞）

［参与］ 又作＂参预＂。着重于投身于某种活动。用于书面语。文言语体。例：（１）在画栋雕梁的怀仁堂里，我参与一次代大会。（柯灵＜历史老人摊了牌＞）（２）左翼作家参预或亲历实际革命斗争，使创作面貌继续有所变化；。。。（严家谈＜＜中国现代各流派小说选＞前言）（３）家里人都看我不起，因为我是女的，又穷又小，大小事都不让我参预。（丁玲＜我怎样跟文学结下了＂缘分＂＞）（４）伯韩就这样在风雨中喘息，在喘息中写作。同时，所有的一切政治活动，他都参与其事。（张毕来＜悼念曹伯韩同志＞）

［参加］ 着重于投身于某种组织或某种活动。使用范围比＂加入＂、＂参与＂宽。通用于口语和书面语。例：（１）一九四四年，闻一多参加了中国民主同盟，担任了＜民主周刊＞的编委。（赵遐秋＜闻一多和他的＜最后一次的讲演＞）（２）我脱离了地方，带了一批同志，参加了大部队。（谌容＜永远是春天＞）（３）＂你到上海去找觉慧也好，横竖我们可以联络，你也可以问参加我们的工作，＂张惠如说。（巴金＜秋＞）（４）果然，回回两口参加了禾禾的婚礼，在鸡窝洼里落了个好名声。（贾平凹＜鸡窝洼的人家＞）（５）从这以后，赵满囤就参加了田间劳动。（马烽＜三年早知道＞）

［附］ ＂加入＂还表示加上；搀进去，如＂菜里边要加入少许糖＂。＂参加＂还表示提出，如＂请参加意见＂＞


Even though x still y sentence pattern I am aware of 雖然 being used as although, however, I am not sure if it is appropriate for the following example situations.

English examples:

Even though he wore a helmet, he still suffered a serious concussion.

Even though she got everything she wanted for her birthday, she still acted like a brat.

Even though we installed the best security system, the thieves still found a way inside.

Form:

Even though [condition x which would usually prevent result y], [subject] still [result y].

Can "雖然 x 但是 y" be used when the conditions are extreme like this?

If not, what form would you recommend?

(I'm a native Chinese speaker from Mainland China. People from other Chinese-speaking regions or countries may feel different from me.)

雖然 x 但是 y sounds fine to me for all your examples.

However, to me the turn embedded in 儘管 x 但是 y sounds a little bit stronger than that in 雖然 x 但是 y. That's why when the conditions are very extreme, 儘管 x 但是 y sounds more natural to me.

I think neither 即使 x 還是 y nor 即使 x 仍然 y is appropriate for your examples.

A critical difference between a. 儘管 x 但是 y, 雖然 x 但是 y and b. 即使 x 還是 y, 即使 x 仍然 y:

For group a, x is a statement that the speaker believes to be true, while for group b, x is only a supposition (usually an extreme one).

  e.g.

  儘管我們安裝了最好的安防系統，賊還是進來了。

  → The speaker believes that the system has been installed and some
  thief or thieves have found a way inside.

  即使我們安裝了最好的安防系統，賊還是會進來的。

  → The speaker makes a supposition that (EVEN IF) we installed the best
  security system, and he shows that he believes that still some thief
  or thieves will find a way inside.

Since for group b, x is only a supposition, the sentence below will sound weird:

  即使我們安裝了最好的安防系統，賊還是進來了。

  → The speaker makes a supposition that (EVEN IF) we installed the
  best security system, and he shows that he believes that some thief or
  thieves have already found a way inside.


Why Have Modern *duilian*'s become 成语+3 Random Characters? I keep seeing parts of modern duilian's made of one 成语 + three random characters.

Something like: 国泰民安 + 增财富

How did duilian evolve to this level?

This observation is merely coincidental. The first 4 characters need not come from classical Chinese idiom (成語), and the remaining 3 are by no means random.
Couplet (Duilian) has specific rules. The linked article has a list of requirements and its etymology.
For example, the cliché duilian

天增歲月人添壽
春滿乾坤福滿門

"天增歲月" is not a recognized chengyu, but means "As heaven attains greater age"; "人添壽" is not random but has to relate to it, meaning "people enjoy longer years".
Moreover, a line of 7 characters is common but it is not a requirement.
For example, the famous (but modern (19th century)) couplet in Temple of Zhuge Liang in Chengdu

能攻心則反側自消從古知兵非好戰
不審勢即寬嚴皆誤後來治蜀要深思

also meet the requirement.


Why is 劝ing so common -or- popular in Chinese? First off I'm not really sure what we would call 劝ing in English, it's not really exhorting or admonishing as dictionaries would lead people to believe - it's more like actively sticking your nose where it doesn't belong to tell people, who don't really care, what to do.

Moral propaganda encourages people to 劝一劝. Complete strangers will approach you on the street to 劝 you.

So what's the deal?

Why is 劝ing so common and popular?

At first it did mean exhorting or admonishing in classic Chinese, but gradually the meaning broadened. Now any advice of suggestion could be called 劝.

Your parents are having a fight? You 劝 them to stop.
A stranger smoking in public? You 劝 him to give up.
Your student can't form a proper sentence? You 劝 him to learn some grammar.

This is a process the linguists call semantic shift. Dog used to be a specific canine species, but gradually it becomes canine in general. Bird used to mean "young bird" then it becomes avian of all age.

Humans are fallible, whether as individuals or as a species.


Why is 砼 considered to be dated? I saw the word 商砼 written all over a large vehicle but Pleco Basic Chinese-English Dictionary defines 砼 as:

  NOUN
  DATED
  concrete

I'm curious as to why they say 砼 is dated, I couldn't find a lot of other information about this. The character seems very much in use.

Any ideas?

I do not think it is dated, I have been seeing this characters in company names as well.

The character 砼 is invented as a substitute for word 混凝土，which is often used but complicated to write. 砼 means 人工石，which is what concrete is.

You can look at 百度百科 and other resources to find information on it.


催 vs 促使 - cui vs cushi So, the difference between these two. Am I right in believing that 催 is to encourage/urge a third party to do something quicker/with more haste, whereas 促使 is to encourage/urge someone to do something at all?
圣诞快乐!
Hashamyim / 罗云

催: to urge; to harry (someone to do something)
促使: to motivate; to cause; to prompt (someone to do something or something to happen)

'催' has to be with intention. e.g.  in "我催他快點出門" ( I urge/ hurry him to go out sooner). 'I' have the intention of 'urging him to go out sooner'
'促使' has to be with a cause. e.g. in "前蘇聯的威脅促使北約成立" (The threat of the former Soviet Union prompted the establishment of NATO) '前蘇聯的威脅' is the cause of 'the establishment of NATO'
Note 1: '我' is the subject that applies the verb 'to hurry', it is not the cause of '他快點出門'. the subject must have an intention to apply the verb 催
Note 2: there is no intention in '前蘇聯的威脅' to cause NATO to form.


What is the difference between 变 (biàn) and 易 (yì)? I would say that both 变 (biàn) and  易 (yì) have the same (or very similar) meaning, dealing with "something that changes", like in "易经" (the Book of changes)  or "变温层" (troposphere).
Is this assumption correct?
What are differences and similarities? In which context one should be used in place of the other?

变 is mainly used as a verb for "change; alter; turn (e.g. turn into a dog)"

易 is mainly used as a verb component in a compound word. Mostly indicates 'transfer' (from one to another). 易 is not used as a verb on its own in day to day speech in modern Chinese

Look at the compound words contain these two characters
变化 - change
转变 - change; transform
易手 - change hand -- transfer ownership
交易 - exchange -- mutually transfer goods or money


What's the Mandarin equivalent of 埋 in Cantonese? For example (in Cantonese):

記住帶埋手套
走之前要閂埋房門
佢跟埋我哋一齊去

What character can be used as 埋 in Mandarin?

Thanks for any help.

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/946/

  埋

  /maai4 /  jyutping

  /mai2/ /man2/   pinyin

  [1] [v] bury; cover up; lay sth underground

  [2] [v] conceal; hide; lie low

  [3] [粵] [v] finish up; close out; settle (an account)

  [4] [粵] [v] move closer/nearer to; close in/up

  [5] [粵] [adv] closer together; nearer to

  [6] [粵] [adv] even; too; also; as well

In "記住帶埋手套", "埋" means "too"(see [6]) . In Mandarin, it is "也".
The sentence would become "記住也帶手套"
in "走之前要閂埋房門" , "埋" means "close in/up"(see [4]). In Mandarin, it is "上". The sentence would become "走之前要閂上房門"
"佢跟埋我哋一齊去", "埋" means "as well" (see [6]).  In Mandarin, it is "也". The sentence would become "他也跟我們一起去"

More examples:

When 埋 = finish up

Cantonese: 做埋啲功課先可以去玩。
Mandarin: 做完那些功課才可以去玩。

When 埋 = closer together

Cantonese: 你兩個企埋啲。
Mandarin: 你們兩個站近點。


Which marital verbs are used for same-sex marriages? In male-female marriage we use the two verbs;

嫁給 (jiàgěi)
娶 (qǔ)

But these are gender specific.

a woman can 嫁給 a man
a man will 娶 a woman

So how does this work in same-sex marriages?

I have a Chinese magazine article about the prime minister of Iceland from about 3 years ago and the title is 冰岛女总理娶同性女友. Based on that, perhaps 娶 for anyone (male or female) marrying a woman and 嫁给 for anyone marrying a man.


Does a dictionary exist that goes from full word -> abbreviation? Many only offer abbreviation -> full word My question is about 简称 ("abbreviations"). The question is simple: where can I find a dictionary that includes abbreviations in its definitions?

For example, the NDRC here in Beijing is technically 国家发展和改革委员会, but everyone here calls it 发改委. A CC-DICT or nciku search may direct me from the abbreviation to the full word (i.e., if I search for 发改委, it will tell me it is an abbreviation for 国家发展和改革委员会). But I want something that includes the abbreviation for a given entry (i.e., if I search for 国家发展和改革委员会, it will say 'hey by the way, you should know that it is commonly abbreviated as 发改委').

Consider, for example, looking up 家用电器 ('household appliances'). It would be helpful if the dictionary entry included the more common abbreviation 家电.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

The baidu baike (http://baike.baidu.com/) often has the abbreviation listed under the main entry. 中华人民共和国国家发展和改革委员会, for example, has 国家发改委.  中华人民共和国国务院办公厅 lists both 国务院办公厅 and 国办.  And yes, 家用电器 points to 家电 as the simpler form, although it is somewhat hidden in the entry.


The mysterious role of 占 in 对占人口绝大多数的民众来说，还是觉得有钱应该省着花 I know that 占 means "to occupy/to take up".

But in this following sentence, I can not figure out what it adds to the meaning as a whole:

  "对占人口绝大多数的民众来说，还是觉得有钱应该省着花"

If I take "zhan" away, would it make any difference? A Chinese friend told me it would, but was not able to explain it exactly.
Can you give me another example in an equivalent sentence-structure on how to use "zhan" in a similar structure?
The constellation of 省着花 is also a little strange to me; to save and spend money in the same construction? I suppose "hua" must have a different meaning here?

占人口绝大多数的 is a compound adjective for 民众. 人口 means population, noun. 绝大多数的 means most, adjective.

If you take away 占, you got to take away 人口 as well to keep it grammatically sound. If you remove 占 and leave 人口 there, it's like this English sentence, "For the people that most part of population, money should be spent wise." you feel a bit strange because something is missing in between "that" and "most".
That's easy, look at this:

  占全年国内消费水平很大比例的是节假日的消费 (Simplified)

  占全年國內消費水平很大比例的是節假日的消費 (Traditional)

  A very large portion of the national consumption is from that in holiday. (One possible English translation)

As for 省着花, 花 really mean to spend money. 省着, an adverb for 花, means "spend money for those necessary things only". The pattern of "verb + 着", also shown in another post, can be an adverb (as in 省着花) or indicating action in process as in 他正弹着吉他, tā zhèng tán zhe jí ta, "He's playing guitar now."

Need more help? Leave comment :D


Which meaning of 意见 in used in 他经常到客户不听取意见 and 如果有人愿意听取客户的意见? Talking about 王嘉廉， I have:

他经常到客户不听取意见，并受到了很大的启发。电脑界最大的弊端是仅靠技术为驱动力，科技人员从不聆听客户的需求。如果有人愿意听取客户的意见，必定会有很大的发展机会。

I‘m pretty sure that '意见' is 'complaints' here, but I suppose it could just as easily be 'ideas' or 'suggestions'.

Is there any way to be sure?

Here it means suggestions.

From 新汉英大辞典:

意见 [yì jian]
1.
（看法或想法） idea; view; opinion; suggestion:
a clash of opinions;
意见冲突
make suggestions for revision;
提出修改意见
2.
（反对或不满意） objection; differing opinion; complaint:
I have a lot of complaints about her.
我对她很有意见。
If there is no objection, the agenda is adopted.
如果没有意见， 议程就通过了。

BTW: 客户不 should be 客户部.


What is the meaning of 亲收获？ What is the meaning of

  亲收获？

Thank you in advance.

This sentence (亲收获) does not make any sense.

The closest thing I can think of is "亲，收货", which means "Hey there, pick up your package."

Note that "亲" originally mean "darling", but among contemporary Chinese Internet users, it has very weak emotion and only means "hey there", especially on Taobao, an eBay-like website.


What is the etymology of 氫? Because this is a relatively recent word, I can't find any etymological information in the sources I'm familiar with.

An old text that I found which uses this word is
《太平御覽·卷柏》:  氫鱍成性，終無自伸。
but I have no clue what this sentence has to do with hydrogen.

So my question is: why did people decide to pronounce hydrogen as qīng?

氫's pronunciation qīng comes from 輕.

According to this article, chemical elements were translated in more descriptive way in the 19th century, and hydrogen was named 轻气 (輕氣) "light gas". Later, the names were crippled to one character for each, so hydrogen became 轻 (輕). Finally, in 1919, every element was decided to be named systematically, where gases were unexceptionally covered by radical 气. Hence, hydrogen got its character 氫, and inherited 輕's pronunciation.

P.S.
Your quotation from 《太平御覽》 seems to be an digitalization bug. The original text reads: 屈巻成性終無自伸 "curled up by its nature, and never grows straightly". I doubt there's any occurrence of 氫 outside chemical literature.


Translation: “世界上，治疗心脏病最好的方式就是不要开刀。” Looking for another retrograde translation.

Here's the excerpt:

  美国有一个心脏病之父，他一生开过，开胸开一万多人。他，美国的心脏科医生都知道，尊称他为心脏病之父。他死掉以后呢，在他的墓碑上面，刻了......了一句话在上面：“世界上，治疗心脏病最好的方式就是不要开刀。”

This obviously comes from English.

What's the original English quote of: “世界上，治疗心脏病最好的方式就是不要开刀。”?

The epitaph is probably

  "I would like to think that I've left the world of cardiovascular surgery better than when I found it. That would be a suitable epitaph." — C. Walton Lillehei, 1995.

materials

C. Walton Lillehei, the “Father of Open Heart Surgery”. This article proves Mr. Lillehei has the title "心脏病之父", and he is an American.
State of the Heart: The Practical Guide to Your Heart and Heart Surgery. This book quotes what he said as

However I cannot find that epitaph on his tombstone.

So, the statement "在他的墓碑上面，刻了..." seems not true.


If it is possible to figure out pronunciation of Chinese text I am new to Chinese and am wondering how it works to read texts. I read somewhere something like that Chinese characters can be pronounced multiple ways, or one pronunciation leads to multiple different characters (so when typing Chinese on a Latin keyboard, you have to select from a dropdown the character out of a list). Something like that...

This makes me wonder the following. If you have a Chinese text, i.e. just the characters and no Pinyin or anything, I'm wondering if it's possible to figure out the meaning of the text. This might be obvious but I'm a bit confused. I know you can't figure out the pronunciation from the characters alone, but maybe if you have a dictionary, you could look up the symbols to figure out their pronunciations. Wondering if that is possible, or if you instead need to have memorized the characters before trying to read a document.

Basically wondering if it's possible to reconstruct the Pinyin for the Chinese characters, just given the Chinese characters and a dictionary.

"If you have a Chinese text, i.e. just the characters and no Pinyin or anything, I'm wondering if it's possible to figure out the meaning of the text."

You would have some problem in there, because the translation of the characters alone aren't exactly the same as those when they appear together. A simple example:

  他姐妹是中国人。

If you just pick each character from a dictionary, you would get a translation like:

  He [elder sister] [younger sister] be middle country person.

What meaning could you extract from that? I don't think nothing much close from the original one, which should be:

  His sister is Chinese.

Since Chinese has no blank space in between words, it's hard to know when you are a beginer where the words start and finish. To start trying to understand the sentence above, you should first know that the words are:

  [他][姐妹][是][中国][人]。

Another problem is that many characters have more than one meaning. Taking my first example, if you didn't know that 中国 was a word itself and tried to find 中 alone, you could find 中 with the meanings "middle, to hit, China, etc.", making it more difficult to choose the correct one.

So, the answer to your question is: yes, it is possible, but you will have a hard time with it.


Why did she choose 姐姐? Parents in China routinely introduce me to their children as 爷爷.  Okay.  Adults usually do not use family terms with me.

There was one case that I wonder about.  In a fish restaurant where they had seen me before, I got my first squilla/虾蛄.  I was doing okay, but obviously not experienced with eating them.  The manager came over to my table and said 姐姐给你看  She did a very expert job, showing me at each step exactly how.  Of course I was pleased at her kindness.

But I would like to understand better: She was probably 10 or 15 years younger than me.  Did she use 姐姐 because that is normal when we are somehow close to the same generation?  Or out of politeness so she would not be calling me old?  I have to say Chinese people (not only children) are often quite frank at calling me old.  Could she have called herself 妹妹, or would that be very unlikely between strangers?  Or would it be because she was taking the lead to teach me a skill?  Could she have called me 叔叔 or would that be wrong somehow?

She identify herself as 姐姐 to show she is “powerful” or “knowledgeable” in doing whatever you don’t know how to do. Sometimes you call a female 姐姐 for showing respect. Even for people younger than you, they may still identify themselves as 姐姐, because 妹妹 is too flirtatious. However, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to call a female 姐姐 when you know she’s clearly younger than you (not in your situation, as she has called herself 姐姐). And, females don’t like to be called 阿姨 by strangers even though they’re much older than you, so 姐姐 is a safer bet.

Another popular term to call young females (even though they might be younger than you) is 小姐姐, which has a lot meanings than it used to be. So the use of it depends on context, but generally I treat it as a nickname for young beautiful females. Pls be careful using it though. A lot of materials online you can search about.


What does the sound "app" mean in Chinese? I noticed that Chinese sometimes prefer to say "ay pee pee" rather than just "app" when referring to a computer application. I infer there is a chance that "app" already had a meaning in a Chinese language other than application. Can anyone tell me what meaning it may have in Mandarin or Cantonese? Thanks.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't have any meaning in Mandarin itself, given that "words" in Mandarin end with either a vowel, "n", or "ng" (as per the pinyin romanization). It could be another word from English but I doubt it (given that I can't think of any other words with similar spelling/pronunciation in common usage). Moreover, in my experience, most people who speak Mandarin just use "app".

In my experience Cantonese speaking people seem more inclined to use "app" as well, even though there are a couple characters with slightly similar pronuncation (but as obvious, significantly different tones) in Cantonese, such as 鸭 (aap with the jyutping romanization system). That said, given the tonal nature of the words in Cantonese and the fact that there is still a different pronunciation, I don't think there's any risk of confusing "app" with any of those words.

(However, it's worth noting that my experiences have mainly been around Cantonese/Mandarin speakers who probably are inclined to code-switch with English words and phrases than average.)

To conclude, I'd say that while there might indeed be Chinese speakers who pronounce "app" as "A-P-P", I wouldn't attribute this to any words in Chinese with similar pronunciation and different meaning.


Mnemonic or technique to remember 咅 ,部, 陪 I want to remember 咅 pǒu and all the dependent words on 咅. Could you please let me know what is the correct way/ think process? What technique are you using to remember the meaning forever?
This is my flash card entry.
咅 pǒu to spit out, pooh, pah
部 bù part, section, ministry, department
陪 péi accompany

A good way to remember a character is to learn the compound words and phrases it is a part of. It is easier to find a building if you remember multiple landmarks around it instead of just remember how the building itself looks.
Example:
部: 部隊 (troops)，部分(parts)，部門(departments)，部署(deployment)
陪: 陪伴 (accompany)，陪審團 (jury)
賠: 賠償(compensation)，賠率 (odds)
倍: 加倍 (double)，倍增 (double)
剖: 解剖 (dissect)，剖析 (analyze)
咅 is an obscure character, rarely used in day-to-day life.


What does rain 雨 have to do with mold 霉 and bad luck? Almost all the other characters with the 雨 component have relation to rain, clouds, and weather. However, this character 霉 seems to be the exception. It means mold, but the rain semantic seems very confusing. What does 霉 have to do with rain? And where did the term 倒霉 (fallen + mold) come from which came to mean "unlucky"?

《說文・黑部》

黴，中久雨青黑。从黑，微省聲。
「黴」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*mrɯl/), blackening from being afflicted by prolonged rain. From semantic 「黑」 (black) and reduced phonetic 「微」 (/*mɯl/).

The character 「霉」 (mould, mildew) did not exist originally, with the word that it represents being originally written as 「黴」. From character definitions, 「黴」 originally referred to the dark mould spots on garments from prolonged exposure to moisture, such as when rain hits and causes an environment to be damp. This is the direct correspondence between mould and rain.

The correspondence between 「霉」 and unlucky is less certain, with the word being written variously throughout history as also 「倒楣」 and 「倒煤」. You can find folk etymology explanations, but the choice of the second character for this word is most likely just a phonetic loan.

References:

《王力古漢語字典》
中國哲學書電子化計劃

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》


What does 扔下 mean in 还有的人把车扔下不管? In the following sentence:

  据一位遭遇拥堵的人介绍说，隧道里一小时只能行进几百米，也去不了厕所，有的人下车走向紧急出口，还有的人把车扔下不管。

扔 means "throw" or "hurl", but "throwing a car away" doesn't make sense. From the context, I feel it means people get out of the car and push it from the back of the car.

My questions:

Is this assumption correct?
If that is true, why doesn't an author write a clearer way, such as:

  还有的人把车推下不管。

It is not. "扔" here means something like "discard" or "abandon". They are now suffering from a (terrible) traffic jam, not a faulty engine, so they don't need to push the car anyway.

It means that the people got so impatient that that left the car where they were and walked away.


How to type 辶 using 拼音 How does one type the radical 辶 using the standard method of entering 拼音 (as opposed to, for example, 五笔)?  (Typing "chuo" does not seem to bring this choice up on Windows using Microsoft Pinyin, though it does when I try this on Google Translate.)

In general, is there an easy way to type radicals which themselves do not exist as individual characters?

you need to identify the prototype of radicals.for your example，the prototype of辶is走，the ptototype of 扌is手，草for艹，水for氵，冰for冫......，then you just type the prototype and find the radical.


五笔字型 practicing Apps? I've recently gotten into the 五笔86 input method and I am wondering if there are any apps on the computer I can use to practice typing so I can get quick with it. I have a Mac and I've looked for a few weeks and failed to find any that are still around and working. Any and all help is appreciated!

The reason that you can't find is simple:  Wubi is not popular anymore.  It was created specially for a group of elders, your grandparents generation whereas they are good in writing but very bad in standard pronunciation be it Pinyin or 注音 (Zhuyin) and too old to memorize Cangjie (仓颉).  It totally disappeared when hand writing using touch screen came out.  I am 71 now.  I never used it.  With 双拼 and 模糊拼音 functions created, it is even less efficient in input.


What is the equivalent in English for 移步？ Literally, this means striding or walking, but it seems a polite term to urge people to move, e.g., 请移步到餐厅用膳, shall we say "Please walk to the dining room for your meal?" It sounds very awkward, because unless there is more than one mode of movement(as in an airport you can either walk or take a bus to get to the aeroplane), walk should not be mentioned or even stressed here.

In fact, by saying "移步", there is nothing implied here and it's just a polite term. It simply makes sense by removing 移步 from the sentence. 请到餐厅用膳。

Personally, I don't think it's a good usage of 移步 in the context. It's kind of redundant.


Adj. + 到 to express an extent I've just stumbled across this sentence:

"吃土" 表示自己没有钱了，很穷，穷到只能吃土的状态了

I'm interested in 穷到只能吃土的状态了. It means "so poor that they can only eat soil". But it seems that adjective + 到 + description is a structure to say "so ... that ...".

Is it in fact a structure to create such sentences?
只能吃土的状态了 - I don't even know if I should treat it as a sentence or as a noun. So: what should come after 到?
Is this sentence correct? 累到不会走路的状态
Is this sentence correct? 累到不会走路
What's the difference between 穷到只能吃土的状态了 and 穷得只能吃土?

Your understanding is mostly right
“A 到 B 了” means "become so A that have got into the condition of B"

A: adj, but used as a verb, which means "become A"
B: a condition

"只能吃土" is a 状态 (condition) so it is the same as "只能吃土的状态"。
"到~" means "getting into" a 状态.
"了" means finished. There might be no "了", depending on the tense.
Correct example:

我很穷，（已经）穷到只能吃土了
我很穷，（已经）穷到只能吃土的状态了
赌博会让你 穷到只能吃土
赌博会让你 穷到只能吃土的状态

Is it in fact a structure to create such sentences?

Yes

只能吃土的状态了 - I don't even know if I should treat it as a sentence or as a noun. So: what should come after 到?

As discussed above. 只能吃土的状态 is a 状态 which is a noun. 了 is following 到 indicating the tense.

Is this sentence correct? 累到不会走路的状态

Correct, but not a complete sentence. Missing subject and tense indicator.

Is this sentence correct? 累到不会走路

Correct. Same as above

What's the difference between 穷到只能吃土的状态了 and 穷得只能吃土?

In 穷到只能吃土的状态, 穷 is an adj. but used as a verb, followed by the extent of this verb.
In 穷得只能吃土, 穷 is just an adj. followed by an adverb.
Both are correct and mean the same.


What are the differences between 本 and 版 when it comes to edition I’ve found that 本 and 版 can be used to describe the edition of a published material, but do they have any differences between them? If they have, please give some examples

In general, there is no difference in the meaning, but the two characters are not interchangeable, since some publication use one over the other, it is up to the publisher or convention to decide whether to use 本 or 版. However, there are some general rules that apply:

The phrase 版本 means "edition" in general. It can refer to edition "without" specifications (i.e. 3rd. edition, international edition). For example:

我喜欢这个版本。(I like this edition.)(can be shortened to: 我喜欢这版)
我喜欢最新的版本。(I like the newest edition.)

It can refer to edition with numbering. However, this expression is usually used to refer to "drafts" or "versions", not "editions". For example:

我喜欢版本二。(I like the second draft.)(notice the number comes after the phrase.)
我喜欢第三个版本。(I like the third draft(version).)

Note one doesn't (or it's really strange to) say "第三版本". If you want to drop "个", you have to say "第三版", as demonstrated in 2..

版 is the most common character to refer to editions with specifications. It is used in daily conversation to refer to any kind of edition, not only publication. For example:

第一版 (First edition)
初版 (First edition)
国际版 (International edition)
珍藏版 (Collecter's edition)
复刻版 (Reprint)

If you want to refer to an edition but do not know whether the publisher uses 本 or 版, it's probably 版.

本 also refer to edition, but it only refers to publications and does not refer to "the number" of edition (with exceptions, shown in example). It is almost always limited to certain expression. Japanese publication use 本 to refer to edition more often. For example:

首发本 (First edition, Premier)(exception to no numbers rule)
第一本 (This expression is not valid)(This expression means "the first book" as in a stack of book, or something like that.)
通行本 (Normal edition)(This expression refers to the normal, non-special edition that is circulating in public.)
精裝本 (Hardcover edition)
单行本 (Standalone edition)(This phrase is from Japanese.)
文库本 (Small-format paperback edition)(This phrase is from Japanese.)

The list above is not exhaustive, but it covers the most common expressions. Note that apart from the two Japanese expression, 首发版, 通行版, and 精裝版 are all valid and common expressions, it is just a choice of style.

刷 is a common character related to "edition", it refers to "impression" or "print runs". For example:

初版一刷 (First edition, first impression)(the first print run of the first edition)

Obviously, this is for publications only.

Hope this helps.


What is the function of 的多 in 中国人爱喝茶的多? 中国人爱喝茶的多。

I assume the meaning is that "Chinese people love drinking tea a lot", or "...really love drinking tea." Does 的多 act as an adverbial structure here? In what other situations would it be appropriate to use it? Would it be possible to say something like this...?

  "要努力的多!"

... or would that sound awkward?

中国人 is the topic of the sentence, which explains its position at the beginning. So, "As for Chinese people, ...".

爱喝茶的 is a nominalisation of 爱喝茶 "love to drink tea": hence "people who love to drink tea".

Finally, 多 is just the stative verb "many".

So, "Among Chinese people there are many who love to drink tea."


Does ‘Exchange English to Chinese and learn both’ mean ‘把英文翻译成中文，可以同时学习两种语言’ in Chinese, properly translated? Is the following properly translated?

把英文翻译成中文，可以同时学习两种语言
Exchange English to Chinese and learn both

And if not, what would the proper translation be? Would you mind helping me?

I'm assuming that the Chinese is the original because it makes more sense and is much better formed than the English.
The sentence provided:

把英文翻译成中文，可以同时学习两种语言

My rough, direct, translation:
Take the English and translate it into Chinese, (that way) you can learn two languages at the same time.
The biggest problem with the English sentence you provided, apart from its ambiguity, is with the word exchange. It does not convey the idea of translating rather the idea of two people who speak two different languages communicating with one another while teacher their language to the other person.


Why is 挺 used as measure word for machine guns? I recently noticed that the word 挺 (which I know mainly as an intensifier) also is the measure word for 機槍, machine guns. Now machine guns are a fairly recent invention, so I am wondering: Is it known who chose this measure word for them and why?

挺，表数量，用于条状物。

As a measure word, 挺 refers to something that is long.

In《太平御览》卷八三五，it says 壶中大钱一千，以通九泉之路，蜡烛一挺，以照七尺之尸。

In modern Chinese, 一挺蜡烛 is no longer commonly used.


Categories in Chinese literature - Original terms I am reading Sabrina Knight, Chinese Literature, A very short introduction. The book mentions a fourth century division of literature into:

Classics
History
Daoist and Buddhist Masters, Masters of Strategy, etc.
Belles Lettres

What are the Chinese terms?

Below is the actual quote:

The rest is possibly off topic. I believe I can resolve it by web search, if I know the Chinese terms, but it is the reason for the question, so I include it as a side note:

I have trouble understanding the fourth category, since it seems not to include 小說。Would it be lyrics? Poetry? Say 樂府，輔鳥賦, non classic poetry like 楚辭？ The difference between Belles lettres and 小說 seems to be the conveying of the 道. While I understand the significance (at least a little) it is hard for me to tell what the category would include.

since your book is an introduction, i would suggest that the "four main categories" is 經﹒史﹒子﹒集; in sequence:

classics - 經

history - 史

masters - 子

collections of belle lettres - 集

the long explanation: in 漢 dynasty, texts were divided into 6 categories, according to the 七略 (~bc 5):

六藝略﹒諸子略﹒詩賦略﹒兵書略﹒數術略﹒方技略

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/七略

later, in 西晉 (265 - 316), 荀勖 changed the six categories to four, in sequence:

甲部 - 經書
乙部 - 子書 ( masters is the second category)
丙部 - 史書 ( history is the third category)
丁部 - 詩賦

afterward, in 東晉 (317 - 420), "~fourth century", 李充 rearranged the categories to

甲部 - 五經
乙部 - 史記 ( history is the second category)
丙部 - 諸子 ( masters is the third category)
丁部 - 詩賦

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/四部分類法

that, the sequence of 經﹒史﹒子﹒集 is unchanged, till today. next, imo, 詩賦 matched "belle lettres" more than 集, in the last category "collections of belle lettres"

you side note about the fourth category, you want to know the contents of it in which dynasty?

edited.

ok, the internet archive has the book 補晉書藝文志, which was compiled in 清 dynasty. in 卷四﹒丁部集錄 listed all texts / books / publications at that time (from ~p42 of pdf file). you may glimpse what was included in this "fourth category", in 晉 dynasty (265 - 420).

have fun :)

ps: just curious, may i ask, why you learn chinese literary, or it's history in english?


What etymology dictionaries are available? What dictionaries (online, software-based or in paper form) explain the origins of a word and its evolution over time? E.g. how the character was once written, how the usage – and the meaning – changed over time.

Wen Lin is an amazing piece of software that has all of the etymological features you are looking for. The central downside is that it is a bit pricey. Most universities have a copy, though, and there may be the opportunity to get some kind of student pricing discount. (Not sure if that applies to your case.)


Are there any Chinese phrases that have embarrassing meanings if their tones are mispronounced? For example:

"问(wèn) ask" and "吻(wěn) kiss"
我可以问你吗？ wǒ kěyǐ wèn nǐ ma? It means "Can I ask you?"
我可以吻你吗？ wǒ kěyǐ wěn nǐ ma? It means "Can I kiss you?"

Could you please give me more examples?

These below are not exactly embarassing, but nonetheless funny words that have different meanings when pronounced with different tones.

看書 (read book) kàn shū / 砍樹 (chuck wood) kǎn shù
湯水 (soup) tāng shuǐ / 糖水 (syrup/sweet soup) táng shuǐ
號碼 (number) hào mǎ / 好嗎 (okay?) hǎo ma
大人 (adult) dàrén / 打人 (beat somebody) dǎ rén
火車 (train) huǒchē / 貨車 (truck) huòchē
好帥 (handsome) hǎo shuài / 好衰 (mean) hǎo shuāi
美麗 (beautiful) měilì / 沒理 (unreasonable) méilǐ
妻子 (wife) qīzi / 棋子 (chest piece) qízi
梨子蛋糕 (pear cake) lí zi dàn gāo / 李子蛋糕 (plum cake) lĭ zi dàn gāo / 栗子蛋糕 (chestnut cake) lì zi dàn gāo
搭便車 (hitchhiking) dā biàn chē / 大便車 (stool vehicle) dà biàn chē / 打扁車 (flatten a car) dă biăn chē
杯子 (cup) bēi zi / 被子 (quilt) bèi zi
禿子 (bald guy) tū zi / 兔子 (rabbit) tù zĭ
消化 (digest) xiāo huà / 笑話 (joke) xiào hua
珠子 (bead) zhū zi / 柱子 (pillar) zhù zi
進攻 (attack) jìn gōng / 進貢 (tribute) jìn gòng
歌星 (singer) gē xīng / 個性 (personality) gè xìng
獅子 (lion) shī zi / 柿子 (persimmon)shì zi
大官 (high official) dà guān / 大罐 (big can or pot) dà guàn
司機 (chauffeur) sī jī / 四季 (four seasons) sì jì
相思 (lovesick) xiāng sī / 相似 (similar) xiāng sì
通信 (send letters) tōng xìn / 痛心 (broken-hearted) tòng xīn
包紙 (wrap) bāo zhĭ / 報紙 (newspaper) bào zhĭ
推銷 (sell) tuī xiāo / 退燒 (reduce fever) tuì shāo
搬家 (move home) bān jiā / 半價 (half price) bàn jià
兵士 (soldier) bīng shì / 病逝 (die with illness) bìng shì
徒弟 (apprentice) tú dì / 土地 (land) tŭ dì
留條 (leave a note) liú tiáo / 柳條 (wicker/willow) liŭ tiáo
研習 (learn) yán xí / 演習 (rehearsal/drill) yăn xí
涼台 (veranda) liáng tái / 兩台 (two sets) liăng tái
零錢 (change money) líng qián / 領錢 (receive money) lĭng qián
圖畫 (picture) tú huà / 土話 (dialect) tŭ huà
竹蓆 (bamboo mat) zhú xí / 主席 (chairman) zhŭ xí
完了 (finished) wán le / 晚了 (late) wăn le
毒氣 (poisonous gas) dú qì / 賭氣 (pique) dŭ qì
飛機 (aircraft) fēi jī / 肥雞 (fat chicken) féi jī / 匪機 (bandit plane) fěi jī
支援 (support) zhī yuán / 職員 (staff) zhí yuán / 只願 (only desire) zhĭ yuàn / 志願 (volunteer) zhì yuàn

A few more on the web:

http://www.hellouk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=90874

http://susanfat.mysinablog.com/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=4444909


"我被他当做(了)自己的儿子。" 干爹 gāndiē or 教父 jiàofù? Here is an issue that came up while I was discussing a grammar exercise with my Chinese language partner. My grammar book has an exercise where the solution is "我被他当做(了)自己的儿子。"  My language partner said that 他 in this sentence refers to the speaker's 干爹 gāndiē, which some dictionaries translate as "godfather". Some dictionaries translate both 干爹 gāndiē and 教父 jiàofù as "godfather". However, MDBG translates 干爹 as "adoptive father (traditional adoption, i.e. without legal ramifications)".

Is it correct that the person in the sentence "我被他当做(了)自己的儿子。" can only be someone's 干爹?

It is common to say "godfather" when referring to an elder man who is influential to someone's life and treated as the person's father, but in a non-Christian country like China, simply translating "godfather" to 教父(literally "religious father") is quite improper, if the person ("他" in the sentence) is not from a Christian country or is not a Christian believer. If this is the situation in the context, the elder person ("我") can only be the younger person's ("他") "干爹" instead of "教父".


City Name on a Postmark Can someone help me decipher the name of the post office (city name) on postmarks from 1953. I'm not sure if it's Nanking.

It is very vague, but looks like 满洲里 to  me:

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


How many people are learning Chinese as a second language today? I am currently trying to acquire statistics and studies regarding trends and historic data regarding the total number of people that are learning Chinese as a foreign language globally along with country level statistics.
I have read that it is estimated that up to 100 million people are studying Chinese as a second language by the year 2020. However, I have not yet stumbled upon the source study that can elaborate how this conclusion has been reached.
Anyone that could refer me to some recent or old studies on this subject?

Estimated by Ethnologue: 198.7 million as of 2021 (Mandarin Chinese only).
Note:

The data above is the total number of people who speak Mandarin Chinese (ISO 639-3: cmn) as their second language; it doesn't show differences between "learning Chinese" or "speaking Chinese".
If we define Chinese language as a macrolanguage (ISO 639-3: zho), the number is beyond my knowledge.
Using Chinese as second language doesn't necessarily mean he/she is not of Chinese nationality. There are millions of minorities in China who speak their native language (Uyghur, Tibetan, Yi, Korean, etc. ) but use Mandarin Chinese as second language.
People who learn Chinese outside China are estimated to be 25 million according to MoE PRC (although this may be an exaggerated number, and may also include ethnic Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore).


Building blocks of society What is the Chinese phrase that means 'building blocks of society'? 积木 literally means blocks but it sounds weird in context.

Building block
Oxford:

1 child's toy
积木
2 figurative
(basic element)
基础成分
the basic building blocks of matter
物质的构成要素

构成要素 seems to be the winner here.
Results for 社会 + 构成要素 on baidu give us a bunch of different sentences that use this pattern:

什么是社会?它的构成要素有那些?

第三章 社会及其构成要素

论社会的构成要素

...理解中国人的心理与行为_中国传统社会的构成要素(上)...


How can I express 'having' in an intimate sense? In English, given a conversation between P1 and P2, it's possible to say:

  P1: My wife died. Now I feel like I've got nothing. I'm so sad.
  P2: Don't say that. You've still got your son. You have your daughter.

So, it's possible to use the word 'have' in an intimate way. We 'have' the people who are close to us.

But how can I express that in Chinese? Obviously, I can't say "我有他們" the same way I can say

  P1: You're right. I have them. But my life is so sad now.

In Chinese, the literal meaning of those words just sounds non-sensical.

But, maybe there is a Chinese verb for this?

Or is it expressed a totally different way?

Saying 我有他们 or 还有他们 is perfectly acceptable. I've heard this plenty of times before in conversation before, and it's a very common expression.

I guess this wasn't quite the answer you were looking for, but hopefully it's of use knowing that it's both acceptable and appropriate.


Where can I find a Chinese corpus concordance? Compleat Lexical Tutor has a valuable tool here1 for searching for English words in a corpus and displaying them in sample sentences. This is useful for checking the usage of a word. Where can I find a similar tool for Chinese?

1. The links path to get to the page is the following: Compleat Lexical Tutor —> Concordances —> English.

Though it is much smaller than the corpus you linked to, JuKuu is an excellent resource for finding example sentences involving Chinese terms. Typing a Chinese word or phrase into the search bar usually yields enough sentences to get a good sense of a term's meaning and usage.


what is the verbatim (word for word if possible) translation of the phrase 揚子法言? it is the title of a some classic literature,
could you gloss the title itself and maybe give some comment of the meaning of the literature itself.

揚子 is simply the author's name (originally 揚雄, 子 being a respectful address form analogous to 孔子/孔丘, Confucius).

法言: 言 means speech or word or writings. 法 is a central concept of Confucianism. According to 《爾雅·釋詁》: 法，常也。 It derives from classical ceremonial practices and pertains to social norms and moral philosophy (a bit similar to the Hindu concept of dharma, which is translated as 法 in Chinese). The work itself is thus a disputation on Confucian philosophy.


What's the difference between 快 and 快要? I started to learn Chinese like one month ago and I'm facing a first misunderstanding.

In my book it says that 快 can be used to say "soon" but 快要 is also used to express the same thing. Is there a difference or I can use both in every situation?

There isn't really a difference in the two if you are using it to mean "soon", except that 快要 is more formal than 快.
For example:

他快死了。
他快要死了。

Both mean:

He is dying soon.

快 is just a shorten form of 快要 when used in such context and it is quite commonly used in speech.


What is the meaning of 老不死 exactly? I'd like to know in depth detail, what is the meaning of this expression?

How come there is only a few people saying it? Old and not died is a good thing in my mind.

老不死 == 老而不死 being old, but not die; It implies some old guy should die as soon as possible, rather than stay alive, wasting food and hurting others... etc.
It's used to curse some old people whom you hate and consider to be useless to others.

It doesn't mean Chinese think old is bad, instead Chinese people have a tradition to support old people.. Whereas, if there's someone who did nothing good when he was young, accomplished nothing when he was an adult, stays alive when old, and keeps hurting people around, his life then is considered useless and even harmful to others. You then can call him 老不死, to curse him to die early.

Also, there are some people who hate old people and think they are useless all over the word. For this kind of people, they might just use the word 老不死 to refer to any old people, in a derogatory way.

The original of the word was from Confucius. 子曰: 幼而不孙弟, 長而無述焉, 老而不死, 是為賊.


How to translate squire and page My teacher wants me to write about Game of thrones in Chinese. I am facing the problem of accurately translating medieval titles into Chinese. For “squire” I found the translation:

鄉紳: Country gentleman; squire

Since that is a Chinese title, I am unsure, if squire is meant in the sense I intend - that is someone who was a page and is waiting on a Knight.
Analogously, I found

小廝: young male servant, page
書童: page boy
小么兒: page boy

But I am unsure whether any of these can be applied in the context of knighthood, as opposed to hotels.

For this kind of thing you can check out 91dict.com.
The subtitle group 人人影视字幕组 have complied a dictionary from their subtitle translations.
For instance if you look up squire under 基本释义 we get:

n. 乡绅；侍从；大地主；地方法官
vt. 随侍；护卫
n. (Squire)人名；(英)斯夸尔

and under 场景例句 there are example sentences from Game of Thrones including:

来自《冰与火之歌：权力的游戏 第4季 第3集》
There has never lived a more loyal squire.
世上从无你这般忠心的侍从

and

He was a squire until a few months ago.
他之前一直是侍从 数月前才受封

Seems like they really like 侍从 for squire.

For page they give:

男侍者


Deeper meaning of 爲 (beyond one sentence definitions) I am a non-Chinese speaker looking into wú wéi(無爲) as part of my own philosophical searchings.  As part of stripping away my own English-centric understanding, I'm trying to look at the words as more than just "not doing," which is a typical English translation.  That means finding decent references on the meanings of the words in the context of the Chinese mindset.  That takes far more words than a mere phrase or sentence.

I can find plenty of documents which go on and on about the subtleties of 無 when it is used in philosophical discourse, but I can't seem to find anything which discusses the meaning of 爲 any deeper than Wikitionary is willing to give me.  Plenty of sites will provide meanings for 無爲 together, but the point of the exercise is to glean more information from understanding them apart.

Can anyone provide a reasonable reference which gives 爲 a more in-depth treatment which might provide more insight than a simple English translation to "doing?"

There are many meanings for 為.
「為」有非常多的意思。

The question is to ask the deeper meaning of 為 in 無為.
此問是問「無為」之「為」有何深義。

So，we should understand the meaning of 無為 first.
故需先了解「無為」之義。

The 無為 is mostly used in Taoism or Buddhism.
「無為」多為道家或佛家所用。

The following content is based on the Buddhist point of view.
以下所述乃基於佛教觀點。

The 無為 in the Dharma means 無因緣的造作.
佛法中的「無為」是指「無因緣的造作」。

It means not doing something for any reason, condition or circumstance.
意謂：非因任何理由、條件、環境而做某事。

Therefore, 為 refers to 造作, in particular 有因緣的造作.
是故「為」指「造作」，尤其是「有因緣的造作」。

That is to do something for some cause, condition or dependence.
也就是基於某些理由、條件、環境才做某事。

This 為 shows the phenomenon of creating, staying, changing and extinguishing.
這種「為」有生、住、異、滅的現象。

This means that it occurs when the karma is sufficient, then it maintains for a period of time, it starts to change when the karma begins to diminish, and it perishes when the karma is completely gone.
亦即：因緣具足時，開始產生，而後維持一段時間；當因緣開始減弱時，會產生變化；而當因緣完全消失時，就會滅亡。

In short, this 為 is impermanent.
簡言之，此「為」係無常的。

For example, the Great Wall.
譬若萬里長城。

For the sake of defense (因), a lot of people, materials and tools were gathered (緣), and then it's built. (生)
當初，為了防守（因），聚集眾多人民、材料、工具（緣）而建造了它。（生）

This is the 為.
這就是「為」。

It still exists. (住)
目前尙存。（住）

However, due to various reasons, it has been damaged. (異)
但因種種原因，已有損壞。（異）

Excuse me: Will it still exist 100 million years later? A trillion years later? (滅)
敢問：億年後仍在否？兆年呢？（滅）


How do form "You can borrow the book once [it's returned / C returns it]" in Chinese? A: Can I borrow your novel? (我可以借你的小说吗？)
B: Sorry, I have already lent it to C.  (对不起，我已经借给了C。)
B (option a): You can borrow the book once it's returned;
B (option b): You can borrow the book once C returns it to me.

Would you please help me translate point a) and b)?
Also, which structure is used more frequently in China? The active (option a) or passive (option b)? If both aren't used frequently, please tell me how Chinese people usually say it.

Interestingly, Chinese language don't use passive voice as explicitly as in English. Translating passive sentences to native Chinese has always been challenging.
One solution is to restore the omitted object, which means:

  I can lend the book to you once it is returned by C.
  只要C把书还给我，我就能借给你。

However, if the subject cannot be deduced from the context (like, if B doesn't know who borrowed his book), some techniques should be used to make a "passive-less" clause:

  (lit.) Once the book is returned, I can lend to you.
  只要书还回来，我就能借你。

Such passive-less sentences are difficult to compare with English, but they are common in Chinese language:

  砍了这棵树，路就能修成了。
  (lit.) Cut down the tree, and the road can complete.
  The road can be completed once the tree is cut down.

Note that "passive-less" means sentences without a passive "mark". In Modern Chinese, the passive mark is "被"(bei4).

P.S. I have found an article explaining the common form of translation from English to Chinese regarding passive sentences. Here are the synopsis:

Passive sentences in English have been widely used, far more than in Chinese. Therefore, their translations should vary depending on meanings:

Translate into "judgement" sentences using "是":

  手语是聋哑人使用的语言。
  Sign languages are (the languages that are) used by the deaf and dumb people.

Translate with active voice instead of passive voice. If subject is unable to identify, you may need to add some "logical" subjects like "有人"(lit. there are somebody) or "别人"(lit. others):

  要站着，等有人请你坐下才能坐下。
  (lit.)Need to stand, wait until someone invites you to sit can you sit down.
  Stand until you're invited to sit.

Translate into subject-less sentences, which are forbidden in English with a few exceptions, but quite common in Chinese:

  发现了错误就一定要改正。
  (lit.)(If)Discover errors, must correct (them).
  Errors must be corrected once discovered.

Translate into passive sentences, as what you're familiar with.


Sentence Structure for past tense If I want to say

"we were in(at) the shop on Saturday"

would the translation be

星期六我们在了店。(xingqiliu wo men zai le dian) ?

Same for this past tense,

If I want to say,

"we were happy"

would the translation be

"wo men shi le kuaile" ? because 'we were' would use the verb to be "shi"“是” and that would be in the past tense, add 'le'  '了‘?

This is one of the core conceptual mistakes that learners of Chinese make.
Let me try to shed some light on it:

了 does NOT express past tense, it expresses change.

Why not past tense?!

Because as 倪阔乐 has also stated, (1) there are no tenses in Chinese.
And because (2) 了 can express change in the past, present and future, too.

Let's just examine these two statements. The first one should not be that hard to realize, because in Chinese you do not conjugate verbs, in fact there is no such thing as conjugation in Chinese, so there is no exact corresponding term to express: 'was', 'wrote', 'had', etc. In Chinese, you express actions that took place in the past in a different way, most notably by adding temporal markers, like 昨天 (yesterday), 以前 (before, in the past), 当时 (in those times), etc. 了 may or may not be used in these sentences, it's entirely possible to construct sentences that recount past actions without using 了, e.g.

我年轻的时候家里没有电脑。 When I was young, we had (lit. there was) no computer at home.

If I said: 我年轻的时候家里没有电脑了。, that would be different. The latter expresses the idea that in the past we had a computer, but when I was young my family somehow lost or got deprived of that computer (i.e. there was a change from the "state" of having a computer at home to the "state" of not having one anymore).

Also, to further illustrate that 了 and the past tense do not go hand-in-hand, let's take a look at this sentence:

哦，啤酒就很快没了！ Oh, we'll soon run out of beer!

As you see, here we express something that is going to happen in the (near) future, yet still use 了 – to express the expected change of going from the situation of having beer to the situation of having no more beer. And to have an example where 了 can be used to refer to the present, regard the following example: You sit at your desk at your company and your colleagues are Chinese, at noon one of them will shout: 吃饭了！ Time to eat! So why do we use 了? Because it express the change of interrupting your work and taking a lunch break.

By now, I think, it should be clear that 了 and past tense are not connected. You use 了 when you want to express that there was, is or will be some change that you want to point out, regardless of the perceived tense (past, present, future) of the action or event.

We can now go back to your examples and work them out:

We were in(at) the shop on Saturday There is not really a change here, so suppose you are telling your friend what you did on Saturday: 星期六我们在商店。 However, this sentence may also express that Saturdays you are usually at the shop. So, you may want to add some extra elements to make it clear, like last Saturday: 上个星期六. The context (previous sentences or earlier information about your usual Saturday activities) may also help the listener to understand what you mean.

The proposed translation of the other sentence We were happy. has two major mistakes. First, 快乐 takes the place of the predicate by itself, there is no need for 是 (as a copula, unlike the English is) [This is something you need to lookup in your textbook, I won't go into it]. The other mistake is the use of 了. As you by now know that it does not express past tense per se, it's just not going to turn your sentence into past tense. You have to express past with some modifier, e.g., by introducing something that expresses the temporal aspect. You could use 当时 or 那天, or many other words entirely depending on how and when things happened. 当时我们很快乐。 In those times we were happy or 那天我们很快乐。 That day we were happy. What the that day refers to depends on the rest of your story, when you say something like We were happy., you probably have already established the time frame in an earlier sentence, so it should be clear, or choose another  more adequate temporal marker.

So this is quite a bit of an explanation, and do expect some people to add comments on it, so please also check those, and most importantly consult your textbook or teacher on this for more example and exercises.


Why use 有 in 只要前排的牙齿有脱落... about shark teeth? This text is talking about sharks.

很多鲨鱼口中都有成排的利齿。 只要前排的牙齿有脱落，后方的牙齿便会补上，而且新牙齿更大、更耐用。
脱落： 脱掉;落下

只要前排的牙齿有脱落， Why not just write '只要前排的牙齿脱落，'?
Is this supposed to be some kind of Chinese Past Perfect Tense 'have fallen out'? Has the author been reading too much English?
Edit: I hear that in Chinese people might say:
你去过上海吗？ 或者 你有去过上海吗？
你吃过苹果吗？ 或者 你有吃过苹果吗？
What is this use of 有？ Something else omitted? '的经验‘ maybe？？

"前排的牙齿脱落" means "the entire front row of teeth drops off"
前排的牙齿有脱落 is short for "前排的牙齿有脱落(的部分)" which
means "the front row of teeth has dropped off (parts)"

脱落 in the second sentence is in effect a noun for "脱落(的部分)" - "dropped off (parts)"

If you don't want "前排的牙齿" to imply it is "the entire front row of teeth "  it  has to be changed to "前排有牙齿" (the front row has some teeth)

Unlike in English, Chinese language doesn't use verb tenses. For example, both 'is' and 'was'  is written as '是' in Chinese.


Trinket translation problem Could you translate me this phrase or sentence please. No translating app is helping me and I have no one who knows Chinese.

It means "Certificate of Handsome Guy" or "Handsome Guy Certificate".


Duration of tones in Chinese? What are the durations of tones in Mandarin?

Do all tones have the same exact duration?

Other dialects can be noted as examples...

T1 = T4 < T2 < T3, which means that T2 and T3 are more complex tones.

https://naccl.osu.edu/sites/naccl.osu.edu/files/NACCL-23_1_06.pdf


Difference between 看作 and 看成 Recently， I've been listening to a chinese podcast and in the podcast I heard someone say "中国人常常把谦虚看作一种美德“。  I have also heard the term “叫作” within the podcast - I'm wondering, is there a clear difference between this and 看成／ 教程？

看作, 看成

be seen as

叫作

be said as

The explanation is only the literal interpretation. Despite of the difference described above, both of them carry similar underlying meanings:

be comprehended as
be classified as

We can dissect the sentence "中国人常常把谦虚看作一种美德" as follows:

中国人

Chinese people

常常

Usually (Always)

把

(This one will be discussed later)

谦虚

Humility

看作

Be seen as

一种

A kind of

美德

Virtue

Without reordering the phrases, you can come up with the following sentence:

Chinese people always (*) humility be seen as a kind of virtue.

I bet you know the meaning of this sentence. Though it sounds a bit weird.

Note

In short, the presence of "把" indicates the use of "passive voice" in the above sentence (Humility is always being comprehended as a virtue by Chinese people.).
If you are interested in the detailed explanation of the usage of "把", this page should give you a concrete understanding on this topic.

p.s. "教程" means course/tutorial.