How to write and structure a modern professional follow-up email like a native Chinese speaker? I'm interested in how the modern professional email structures differ between Chinese and English.

I'd like to create a go-to template/structure that can convert what native English speakers typically write to what a native Chinese speaker typically write.

I intentionally chose the phrase 'modern professional' as opposed to 'formal'. In the English speaking world, communication, especially emails, has been less formalised in my opinion. For example, addressing by first name instead of Mr./Ms.; using Kind regards instead of Yours faithfully; getting straight to the point faster instead of starting with I'm writing to enquire about...; etc.

As a native English speaker and a speaker of Chinese as a second language, in the example below I've written a follow-up email to a job application.:

  Subject: YYY branch ABC job application follow-up

  Dear XXX Firstly, I hope you're staying safe and healthy during these
  tough times ［Covid-19].

  Secondly， I'd like to follow－up on my recent application to YYY London
  branch. I've applied via ZZZ to the ABC position. However, I'm not
  sure if you've received my application. To that effect I've attached a
  copy of my CV and Cover letter.

  I'm very keen on joining YYY and I'm more than happy to discuss how I
  can be an asset to the team.

  Please get in touch if you have any questions. Thank you for your
  time. I hope to hear from you soon.

  Kind regards, John Smith

This is what I would write in Chinese but I've written it in an English way:

  Subject: YYY办公室ABC工作申请后续

  XXX您好

  首先：在这天困难的时间，希望您安全和身体好。

  第二：我想把我的最近伦敦办公室的工作申请后续一下。我通过ZZZ网站被ABC位置生情了。不过，我没有肯定贵公司收到我的工作申请。所以我把我的简历与求职信跟邮件附上了。

  我很喜欢加入贵公司与我很开心讨论我怎么能成为贵公司团的利基。

  有什么问题请取得联系我。谢谢您的时间。希望很早收到你的回复。

  Name 敬上

I'd like to write and structure just how a native Chinese speaker would write a modern professional email.

Any suggestions be it editing, advice or resources on how to do this are much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

主题：YYY分部ABC职位申请之跟进

  尊敬的XXX，

  您好！

  望您安度时艰，身体无恙！

  此函意在跟进本人近日申请伦敦分部职位一事。本人已经由ZZZ渠道递交对ABC职位之申请，以担忧贵方尚未收到之故，随函再附本人履历及求职信。效力于贵司之心愿迫切，所以确认再三，还望海涵！

  如有疑问，请与本人联系。感谢拨冗垂阅，敬盼回音！

  此致，

  祝好！

  署名

I don't think it is just about one or two phrase substitutes, but the cultural differences behind writings... We tend to use more literary and concise expressions in mail, and we have a system of 敬语/谦词/雅言...

e.g.

安(safely)度(go through)时(recent/present)艰(tough situations)

无恙(without any illness)

此函(this letter)

意在(aiming at)

跟进...一事(follow up the thing that)

经由(via)

渠道(channel/means)

递交(submit)

以...之故(for the reason that…)

海涵(forgive me for [anything, here it means that I impatiently send another letter to check for my application (In Chinese culture, ask repeatedly for the same thing is rude)])

拨冗(kindly spend the time [for my business])

垂阅(read [my letter])

敬盼(sincerely look forward to)

回音(reply)

These expressions I list are "advanced" forms of what we would use in oral language, which we are supposed to use in a proper letter.

And

I'm very keen on joining YYY and I'm more than happy to discuss how I can be an asset to the team.

seems irrelevent in a follow-up letter (at least in Chinese cultural), so I rephrase it and append it to the previous paragraph, making it a cause explaining why I follow up the application business.


Usage of the word 欠 and 了 in 那我一分钱也不欠你的了 I've been struggling to get my head around how to properly use the word 欠.

The dictionary has to lack, as a meaning, but I can't find any example sentences with it used that way, only owe.

  那我一分钱也不欠你的了

I assume this means, I don't even owe you a fen, is this correct?

Why does this sentence end with 了， what is it's usage here?
Is it necessary to accompany 欠?

Sometimes it is hard to guess without looking at the full context.  However, one of the possibility of having 了 is to represent "I owed but no longer is".  "了" in many cases give a hint of something happens just now, which is different from the past.

e.g.

我不愛你了 vs 我不愛你

我不愛你了 actually means I used to love you, but now I don't love you anymore.
我不愛你 simply means I do not love you.

Similarly

我敢吃榴槤了 vs 我敢吃榴槤

我敢吃榴槤了 means I was not dare to eat durian but now I am.
我敢吃榴槤 simply means I am dare to eat durian.


How to translate character How to translate character on image below?

The character 祿 has two meanings:

Good fortunes.
Government salary (in the imperial Chinese government).

Which one you'd want to translate it to depends on the context.


Differentiate 不错 and 没错 in these situations I have been having problems knowing when to use either 不错 or 没错. I think 不错 means 'great'; and 没错 means no mistake.

Which should be used to:

(a) praise somebody's work?
(b) indicate nothing wrong with the food/article/etc?
(c) approval or agreement with somebody's statement/idea?

You already got the idea. To answer the situational questions:
(a) praise somebody's work?
Use 不错. If you use 没错, it means the content of the work is right.

他文章写得不错。He writes good articles.
他文章写的没错。What is written in his article is right.

(b) indicate nothing wrong with the food/article/etc?
Neither. You can use 不错 to praise the taste or the quality of the food. 没错 doesn't make sense because 'the food' is unable to make mistakes. It can be 'mistaken' in a sense of improperly cooked, gone bad or poisoned. In that case you want to say the food 有问题 (has problems) or 没问题 (no problem).

这家饭馆的食物有问题。Something's wrong with the food from this restaurant.
这家饭馆的食物没问题。There's nothing wrong with the food from this restaurant.
这家饭馆的食物不错。This restaurant makes good food.
这家饭馆的食物没错。(Doesn't make sense) The food from this restaurant didn't act wrong.

(c) approval or agreement with somebody's statement/idea?
Both can be used.
没错 expresses concurrence/agreement (not praise) to ideas and yes/no factual questions.

(Idea) “我们应该先看说明书。”“没错。” 'We should read user's manual first.' 'Right.'
(Fact) “电影是不是9点开始？”“没错。” 'Is the movie starting at 9?' 'Yes.'

没错 is seldom used for deeds. It's only used in very specific circumstances as an indifferent or perfunctory chime. Again this usage is uncommon and may sound strange depending on the situation.

(Deed) “我把作业都写完了。”“没错。” 'I have finished my homework.' '(Indifferently) I know.'

不错 can be used to praise deeds as well as ideas.

“我把作业都写完了。”“不错！” 'I have finished my homework.' 'Great!'

不错 can also be used to express concurrence as an inherited usage from ancient Chinese. There's a subtle defensive and provocative tone in it though, as if the question or statement before this response is unexpected or offensive.

“你一口气吃了十个冰淇淋？”“没错。” 'You ate ten ice creams at once?' 'Yes.'
“你一口气吃了十个冰淇淋？”“不错。” 'You ate ten ice creams at once?' 'Yes. (You have a problem with that?)'


what is the grammar form where 找 is used twice in the sentence 林先生找工作找了多长时间? I'm learning Chinese by studying Zhongwen Red (中文 Red).
I've come across the following sentence: 林先生找工作找了多长时间?  This sentence is from http://www.zhongwenred.com/R67.html.
This webpage spaces out the words and translates it like the following:

林 先生 找 工作 找了 多长时间?
Lín xiānsheng zhǎo gōngzuò zhǎole duō cháng shíjiān?
For how long has Mr. Lin been looking for work?

I'm wondering what the grammatical construct 找 工作 找了 means.  Is the general format verb1 object verb2 了?
I have a couple questions about this:

What are some examples of sentences in this same format?
In verb1 object verb2 了, do both verb1 and verb2 have to be the same verb?  If not, could you give some example sentences where they are not the same verb?
Does this construct need to be followed some word like 多长时间?
Does this have any relation to reduplication of verbs?
Does this grammar form have any meaning without the 了 after verb2?

Though I don't believe it is necessary for the example sentence you gave, there are cases where you're required to repeat the verb. I'd just post this as a comment if I could but I think this image sums it up nicely:
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/degree_complement


Indicating degree with 比 and 不如 When using 比, you are able to add a classifying degree. For example,
一个苹果比一个香蕉贵一块元。

Can you do the same with 不如?

一个香蕉不如一个苹果贵一块元
??

Can you do the same with 不如?

No, you can't. 不如 means "not as"

"一根香蕉不如一个苹果贵(一元)"
"A banana is not as expensive as an apple (by a dollar)"
It is ungrammatical in either Chinese or English.
"A banana is not as expensive as an apple" doesn't matter it is ten cents less or one dollar less

It has to be "一根香蕉不如一个苹果贵" (A banana is not as expensive as an apple)
When we use [(A) not as (adj) as(B)]. e.g. [(a duck) is not as (heavy) as (a goose)], we cannot make it specific, because a goose can be heavier than a duck by wide range of degree
you cannot put a specific amount/number after "鴨不如鵝重" and say ""鴨不如鵝重30％" ; you can only say "鵝一般來說比鴨重30％" (a goose in general is 30% heavier than a duck)


Zhuyin (bopomofo) vs Pinyin I have learnt to use both zhuyin and pinyin for spelling out the pronunciation of a character. As far as I know, the two systems serve the same purpose and are interchangeable in terms of syllables.

As such, why would there be two standards? Does each have a specific context/setting in which they are used? Which one is more popular in general?

Thanks in advance!

Zhuyin is commonly encountered in Taiwan and Taiwan-centric overseas communities.  Not sure about its prevalence in other overseas communities a la Singapore, but I've found zhuyin easier to use with vertical text Chinese as is printed commonly in Taiwan and elsewhere, and suspect Zhuyin/bopomofo/bpmf would be more popular in those regions due to the better compatibility with vertical text.  If you want to use the many excellent classical chinese training materials printed in Taiwan you'll need to be able to read bpmf.

I also suspect you'd find that typing bpmf is slightly faster than Pinyin because it uses single symbols for sounds like "eng" that require multiple keystrokes in the Pinyin case. And I personally find Zhuyin aesthetically less disruptive ;)


Purpose of 要's location in 今天晚上老板要和我们一起加班。 今天晚上老板要和我们一起加班。

What purpose does 要 have here (in this specific location)?
I thought it would be;

  今天晚上老板和我们一起要加班。

I know 要 also means 'to do smth' so I get why it's needed, but why in that specific position? Because I thought 要 came before the verb.

When 要 is used to mean "do something", it usually means "will do sth" or "want to do sth", and also sometimes "need to do sth".
In your original sentence, 要 can mean both "will" or "want to" depending on the context. See the following examples.

今天事情比较多，所以今天晚上老板要和我们一起加班 (There is too much to do today, hence the boss will join us in working overtime tonight).
老板想知道我们加班时到底有没有认真干活，所以今天晚上老板要和我们一起加班 (The boss wants to know whether we are taking the overtime seriously and wants to join us tonight).

As for the position, I am not sure whether there is an explanation involving grammar. The second one does not sound natural while the first one does.
I can come up with an example where 要 is placed right before the verb, only with slight modification to your sentence:

今天晚上老板和我们一样要加班 (The boss has to work overtime tonight just like us).


What is the meaning of 冒 in 感冒？ I like to know how a word 'works' in a phrase. What did people think when they came up with the phrase 感冒？ A hat/cover on your feelings?? Maybe this 感 means something else?

感 means feel, perceive, emotion

冒 has these meanings, according to zdic.net:

向外透或往上升：～烟（❶烟往上升；❷发怒）。～汗。～尖。 emit

　2. 不顾（恶劣的环境或危险等），顶着：～雨。～险。～死。 rash, foolishly brave

　3. 不加小心，鲁莽，冲撞：～失。～昧。～进（不顾具体条件，急躁进行）。 impulsive, reckless

　4. 用假的充当真的，假托：～牌。～充。～名顶替。 fake, substitute

　5. 复盖：“先设一铁板，其上以松脂、蜡和纸灰之类～之”。 cover, hide,

　6. 贪污：“贪于饮食，～于货贿”。 corrupt, corruption

　7. 古同“帽”。 hat

　8. 古同“瑁”，玳瑁。 tortoiseshell

　9. 姓。 surname

如果我感冒的话， I feel ??? Which of 1 - 9 somehow achieves the meaning of 'catch a cold', with its concomitant symptoms?

According to 《汉语大词典》, 感冒 means:

  犹感受。
  一种传染病。多因气候变化，人体抵抗力减弱时为病毒感染所致。
  清代官员请假的托辞。

The entries 2 and 3 seem to be somewhat related.
Two entries imply two different stories.
水巷孑蠻 talks about the 2nd one.
songyuanyao talks about the 3rd one.

The question talks about disease, so I focus on this.

From 《汉语大词典》, the 18th meaning of 冒:

  中医病症名。病者神智不清。
  ●《素问•玉机真藏论》：「﹝春脉﹞太过则令人善怒，忽忽眩冒而巅疾。」
  ●《医宗金鉴•张仲景〈伤寒论·太阳病下〉》：「其人因致冒，冒家汗出自愈。」集注引程知曰：「冒者，神识不清，如有物为之冒蒙也。」

《汉语大词典》列出來源而未解釋，不易了解。
《汉语大词典》 lists the sources without explanation, so it's not easy to understand.

東漢 張仲景（公元 150－219 年）《傷寒論》的原文如下：
The original content in 《傷寒論》 is as follows.

  以此表裏俱虛，其人因致冒，冒家汗出自愈。

先看「冒」的意思。(The meaning of 冒.)

【一】《汉语大词典》引用 程知《傷寒經注》：
《汉语大词典》quotes from 程知《傷寒經注》：

  冒者，神识不清，如有物为之冒蒙也。

冒 means coma, like being covered by something.

此句有「冒蒙」一詞。
「冒」與「蒙」是同義字，都是「覆蓋」的意思。
程知 用「覆蓋」來形容病人的「昏迷」。
這表示「覆蓋」是「冒」的原義，而「昏迷」是其引申義。
There is a phrase 冒蒙 in the above sentence.
冒 and 蒙 are synonyms, which means "to cover".
程知 used "cover" to describe a patient's "coma".
It means that "cover" is the original meaning of 冒, and "coma" is its extended meaning.

【二】此外，王丙《傷寒論注》的解釋原文(第143條)如下：
In addition, 王丙《傷寒論注》explained it as follows.

  以此表裏俱虛，因虛其人致冒，理必然也。冒家者，謂凡因病而昏冒者也。然冒家或有汗出自愈，其所以然者，非表裏俱虛，乃邪正皆衰，表裏自和故也。

此注有「昏冒」一詞。
再查《汉语大词典》的昏冒。
This remark has the term, 昏冒.
《汉语大词典》explains it as follows.

  昏冒
  昏迷不醒。
  《医宗金鉴•杂病心法要诀·三化汤》：「三化气实风中府，昏冒闭满小承羌。」注：「昏冒，谓神昏不知人也。」
  《医宗金鉴•运气要诀·运气为病歌》「诸痛痒疮属心火」注：「心藏神，热乘于心，则神不明，故昏冒不省人事也。」

昏迷不醒 means "unconsciousness" or "to lose consciousness".

所以，到這裡，冒 ＝ 昏冒 ＝ 昏迷不醒。這是較嚴重的狀況。
So, up to here, 冒 ＝ 昏冒 ＝ unconsciousness. This is a more serious situation.

【三】我們來看 金代名醫 成無己 的解釋。
Let's take a look the explanation of a famous doctor 成無己 in the 金 dynasty.

  冒者鬰也。

查《汉语大词典》對鬰冒的解釋：
《汉语大词典》explains 鬰冒 as follows.

  中医指头晕目眩或昏迷的症状。

TCM refers to the symptom of dizziness or coma.

由此可知，「冒」也包括輕微的狀況，如：頭暈目眩。
According to this, 冒 also includes mild situations, such as dizziness.

【四】小結論

從以上的解釋，我們可以知道「冒」的原義是「覆蓋」，而其引申義是從輕微的頭暈到嚴重的昏迷。
From the explanations above, we can see that the original meaning of 冒 is "cover", and whose extended meanings range from the mild dizziness to the serious coma.

再看「致冒」的意思。(The meaning of 致冒.)

「致」是導致、引起、致使的意思，這應該沒有問題。
「冒」可以是「冒疾」或「冒癥」。
所以，「致冒」可以是「導致冒疾」或「引起冒癥」。
致 means "to lead, to arouse, to cause". There is no problem here, I think.
冒 may be a disease or symptoms.
Therefore, 致冒 may mean "to lead 冒, the disease" or "to arouse 冒, the symptoms".

《汉语大词典》說「冒」是「中医病症名」。
《汉语大词典》 states that 冒 is a name of 病症 in TCM。

問題就出在這「症」字。
若用正體字，「症」和「癥」分得很清楚，前者是「疾病」，後者是「病狀」。
但簡化後，變成同一字，就容易混淆了。
The problem lies in the word, 症.
If using the traditional characters, 症 and 癥 are clearly different.
症 means a disease, and 癥 the symptom.
However, they become the same word in simplified Chinese.
It is easy to confuse.

我猜，在大陸，「病症」大多是指「疾病」。
所以，「冒」會被解釋為「病名」。
I guess, in Mainland, 病症 mostly means disease.
Therefore, 冒 is interpreted as the name of a disease.

但是，解釋為「病癥」可能會更合適。
也就是說，「感冒」是「感得冒癥的病」。
而這「冒癥」包括從輕微的頭暈到嚴重的昏迷。
換句話說，「感冒」是借用「冒」的癥狀而得的病名。
感冒的時候，頭會有一種暈悶沈重的感覺。
這種現象就是輕微的「冒」。
But it may be more appropriate to interpret it as the name of symptoms here.
That is, 感冒 means to get the disease which has 冒, the symptoms.
The symptoms range from mild dizziness to serious coma.
In other words, 感冒 is the name of a disease that borrows 冒.
When we catch a cold, the head will have a dizzy and heavy feeling.
This phenomenon is exactly a slight 冒。

從字面上來看，「致冒」類似「感冒」，差在主動和被動。例如：
Literally, 致冒 is similar to 感冒, and the difference is in active or passive. For example,

（致冒）天冷導致冒疾/冒癥。
The cold weather leads to 冒疾/冒癥.

（感冒）某人因天冷感得冒疾/冒癥。
Someone gets 冒疾/冒癥 because of the cold weather.

當然，這裡的「冒」不單指「昏迷」。
Of course, 冒 here doesn't just mean coma.

另一個差別是：「感冒」現在已是一專有詞彙，而「致冒」不是。
Another difference is that 感冒 is a proper term now. 致冒 is not.

結論(Conclusion)

「感冒」是借用「冒」的癥狀而得的病名。
「冒」包括從輕微的頭暈到嚴重的昏迷。
感冒 is the name of a disease that borrows 冒, the symptoms.
The symptoms range from slight dizziness to serious coma.

So, the question: What is the meaning of 冒 in 感冒？
原問：「感冒」中的「冒」是什麼意思？

我認為：雖然「冒」的原義是「覆蓋」，但在這裡是指「感冒的一些癥狀」，這可以是頭暈甚或昏迷。
My answer is some symptoms of cold, which may be dizziness or even coma, although its original meaning is "to cover" or "covering".

P.S. 題外話：

「冒」有很多意思。
在 張仲景《傷寒論》中的「冒」也不只一個意思。譬如：

  其人叉手自冒心，心下悸，欲得按者。

病人心悸，覺得心跳得很快，直覺地用手蓋住左胸，也希望能有幫忙按壓的人。

這裡的「冒」是動詞，只有其原義「覆蓋」的意思，不能用上述的引申義來解釋。

冒 has many meanings.
The 冒 in 《傷寒論》 also has more than one meaning. For example,

  其人叉手自冒心，心下悸，欲得按者。

The patient gets palpitations, fells the heart beating quickly, instinctively covers the left chest with hands, and expects a person who can help press.

冒, a verb here, means "to cover", only the original meaning, and cannot be explained by the above-mentioned extended meaning.


What language is this tattoo? what does it mean? What does this tattoo mean? what language is this guys?

安琪儿 which doesn't mean anything except being a name. You can treat it as "Angel" since the pronunciation of 安琪儿 (ān qí ér / ān qí r) is similar to the English word "Angel"


The formal version of "謝謝", "對不起", especially in an email? In English, when writing a formal email, one would sometimes use appreciate/grateful and apologize in place of thank you and sorry, respectively. Is there any such alternate words/phrases in Chinese for 謝謝 and 對不起?
For instance, how can the following be rephrased in a formal tone?

對不起現在才回覆您。
謝謝您的幫助！

Thanks in advance!

Alter words:

谢谢：多谢，感谢，谢恩（古代臣子百姓对君王说的）

对不起：抱歉，有愧，歉仄

As your case,

對不起現在才回覆您。

謝謝你的幫助！

rephrase:

（非常）抱歉现在才回复您。

（十分）感谢您的帮助！


How to translate: have you finished doing the homework (which) our teacher gave us last week? I'm mostly confused about the sentence structure. Would this be correct?
你做完上个星期老师给我们的作业了吗

I'm Chinese.

The sentences:

你做完   上个星期  老师  给我们的作业  了吗?
你做完了 上个星期  老师  给我们的作业吗?

are both correct.

The word "了"，just emphasize whatever you want to emphasize.


What does 憋得通红 mean here? 老板生气了为了员工都总是在玩手机。 他指着我：你说说，看了什么？比我说话还有意思？

我脸憋得通红， 说： 。。。。

我觉得‘脸憋得通红’得意思就是： 'my face went red' or 'I blushed' 但是‘憋’的意思是‘choke, stifle, hold back'.
‘我’ 发不发红呢？

到底这里的‘憋’是什么意思？

*憋 means 'to hold back'--  most commonly: 'holding breath' (憋氣) or 'holding back urine' (憋尿)

In the case of '脸憋得通红', '憋' should be short for 憋氣 (holding breath), (too upset to breath)

脸(face)

憋(holding back)

得(to the point of)

通(completely)

红(red)

To translate this phrase literally would be  'face turns red from holding back' .

If you want to be precise, you can write 'face turns red from holding breath'. but it is not good English.

I think the best way to translate this phrase is to interpret the reason of holding breath directly, and write: "face turns red from embarrassment" (having difficulty to breath due to embarrassment)

Similarly, if the reason for the redden face was 'anger' the translation should be "face turns red from anger"


The Chinese of "Browse Teachers" : 访问老师？ I have a tutoring website with many teachers on it. On the front page, there is a button to browse the profiles of all the teachers.

Is 访问老师 the correct translation?

I think "师资介绍" is better. As a Chinese native speaker, It's very intertesting for me to got this site. :D hahaha


In the movie 北京遇上西雅图 (Finding Mr. Right), what does 文佳佳 mean when she yells “像话么，你”? In the movie 北京遇上西雅图 (~6m), the protagonist 文佳佳 yells at the driver for being late.  She rants:

我是花钱买服务的，我整整坐了12个小时的飞机，我需要休息。你知道吗？小心点，这箱子很贵啊！你赔不起，我告诉你。我告诉你 我要投诉你们，你看别人都拿着个牌子举着等人。早早地就来了，你倒好，恨不得。干脆这样吧。你给我地址，我拿着牌子去接你好了，像话么，你！你知道天儿有多冷吗？

She says it twice (~7m), actually, after she realizes the driver has pet mice in the back seat:

无菌什么呀，你把老鼠和孕妇关一块你像话么，你。你这车我坐不了。

I'm not clear on this, but since 像话 means "proper", this appears to be a kind of complaint phrased as a rhetorical question (something like 你太过分了), or perhaps it's a spoken Chinese or dialect matter.
Question: What does 文佳佳 mean when she yells “像话么，你”?

像话么，你? It is a rhetorical question, and it is not a dialect. Pretty much everyone use this.
You thoughts about 像话么，你 is correct. Let's look back to sentences before that

我是花钱买服务的，我整整坐了12个小时的飞机，我需要休息。你知道吗？小心点，这箱子很贵啊！你赔不起，我告诉你。我告诉你 我要投诉你们，你看别人都拿着个牌子举着等人。早早地就来了，你倒好，恨不得。干脆这样吧。你给我地址，我拿着牌子去接你好了，

All above is bunch of complain and sarcasm， and so she asked “don't you think this is improper?”
obviously she isn't expecting the the driver to answer the question.
For the second one:

无菌什么呀，你把老鼠和孕妇关一块。

Basically she complain about how can driver put a mice (driver seems to claim back seat is a clean environment) with pregnant woman.
So she there goes her second rhetorical question.
How do i know driver's claim:
'无菌什么呀' is a expression similar to when someone tells you my bedroom is so clean when you see tons of trash. Then you might reply "clean my ***"
To simply answer to your question:
She means "Don't you think this isn't proper?" or "How can you treat me / behave like this"


What's wrong to write g for 漢語拼音 pronunciation of 歌? This is a question asked on behalf of thousands of new beginner learning 漢語拼音.  When giving a 漢語拼音 dictation test (like spelling test in English) to my students, one very smart student write "g" for my pronunciation of 歌.  When I pointed out it's wrong, he argued: "you taught us HYPY "g" is pronounced as 歌/哥. So when I heard you pronounced 歌 and I wrote "g".  What's wrong with that?"  How can I reply?  Especially knowing it is the biggest flaw if 漢語拼音 teaching.

元音有韵，辅音无韵。is a fundamental phonetic concept.  Since HYPY barrowed English alphabets as its symbols, it should stick to the separation of the "names" of the letters and the pronunciation of the letters in spelling.  The name of letter "b" is "bee", but the pronunciation is very short bursting solid sound of both lips, without any "vowel" involved.  When teaching 辅音，all the material pronounced either with "e" or "o" rhyme.  Wrong!  Unless you remind your students that you are introducing the "names" of the symbols, followed by the right pronunciation in spelling, i.e. 辅音无韵。 Thus 歌 is rhymed, must be spelled "ge" as "e" contributes the rhyme.
Is it that the teaching method is so authoritative that no one ever pointed out its flaw? BTW, what's wrong with 声母 and 韵母 that they must be changed to 辅音 and 元音？


Would you say 当动词 or 是动词? I am back to the classic 当 vs。 是。 I've heard some people say “这个词也可以是动词” however could  I also say "这个词 也可以当动词“  － if so, which sounds more common/colloquial?

当 here means act as; be regarded as; be considered as.

是 is simply to be.

Both words are common and can be used colloquially. In formal/academic context, I'd replace 当 with 作 or 当做.

If the word is not verb but can be used as a verb, you should say 当, e.g.

  在古汉语里，很多形容词都可以当动词。

If the word is a verb, you should say 是, e.g.

  服务这个词既是名词，又是动词。


How do I translate 'do well on your test' into Chinese? How do I translate 'do well on your test' into Chinese?

My friend is taking a test tomorrow. Although he speaks English to me, I thought it would be nice to wish him success in chinese.

Is 祝你好运测试 correct (or adequate)?

I basically agree with what Itux just said. But I would prefer to say “祝你考试顺利” instead of “祝你测试顺利”.

In your context, “考试” would be the word you look for when you want to translate "test" or "exam". As for "quiz", it's usually “小测”. “测验” means test indeed but in a much more general way. People tend to just use “考试” when they talk something about school, especially in daily conversations.


认识 vs 知道 based on glyph origins I'm trying to understand what 识 means and why 认识 is different from 知道.

As far as I was able to gather the information on 戠 is a depiction of an armed group of people which, while in battle, should be recognized and diffirentiated from other groups by the general.

Now, 识 is 言+戠 and the explanation goes two ways:

The relevant oracle bone form of 戠 combines 弋 stake + an abbreviated form of 辛 needle/cutting tool → use a sharp implement to notch a stake, creating a marker. 戠# replaces 辛 with 音 sound → mark/pay attention to a sound. And to obtain knowledge by marking another person's words.
You can read more about this view here.
But the best explanation I've come across is this: 识 is to recognize and it has a connotation "to recognize (battle groups) by own eyes (what is needed of you on the battle field while operating your troops) or to see".

If 2-nd theory/model is right, then it should explain a series of characters below (I need some help filling this list, I don't know all the meanings and maybe you know more characters with 戠):

幟 - a cloth + conspicuous group = military standard which serves as a battle field marker.
嬂 - it's a woman's name and, I guess, being conspicuous or differentiable in the crowd is a plus for a female. In other words 戠 should posess some positive connotation in order to be incorporated in a name for a woman.
樴 - adding a stick to 戠 - group of people with stakes (battle group), or a single stake (chinese does not differentiate between plural or singular).
膱 - dried meat? Well, I'm at a loss here, can't explain, maybe it has something to do with strong/conspicuous flavor.
旘 - banner of a group of people (same as 幟) but here the banner is flapping on a wind.
熾 - bright/conspicuous fire so you can see it from afar.
職 - can't explain it.
蟙 - google shows a spider for this character. Maybe it has smth to do with with marks on some spider. Can't explain according to the model.
織 - to weave. I don't know how this fits in to the model.
軄 - I don't know what this character means.

Again, if 2nd theory is true, then 认识 can be easily explained as "admit seeing". This also explains why 认识 is used mostly for "I have met(seen) him" or "I know him (he is my friend i.e. I've seen him)"

Questions:

As a native, does 识(to know) and 认识 convey "sensual, seeing" connotation to You, while 知道 does not convey this, as being more abstract "to know"?
Can you help fill the gaps in the list?

P.S. Please, don't provide answers like "认识 is for people and 知道 is for facts because it's the way it is". I seek explanation, logic ect., not a "rule of thumb".

I stated in my comment that I don't think study the etymology help you understand a character as much as cross reference the roles of a character in different compound words.

For 認
[1] recognise; identify; make out
[2] admit; acknowledge; agree; accept
[3] enter into a certain relationship with
[4] offer/undertake to do sth

~

For 識
[1] [v] know; recognize; discern
[2] [n] knowledge; opinion; view

~

For 認識 = to know, to recognize.
The logic behind it came from the meaning 'to recognize' in 認 and "to know" in 識. You recognize something, to know it

Similarly:
見識: experience(v) = (see + know)
*'to see to know'
見識: experience(n)= (see + knowledge)
knowledge from what you had seen
學識: knowledge; acquirements (n) = (learn/study + know)
knowledge from what you had studied
常識: common sense; general knowledge(n) = (common + knowledge)
knowledge that is common
Back to 認識, you know 識 is a knowledge you gain by '認' and from all the meanings 認 contained, only "recognise / identify" make sense, thus we know 認識 means "knowledge gained by identify something" or " to identify something to know it."
As for 知道 (to know about something)

知
[1] [v] know; understand; be aware of
[2] [n] knowledge; learning
[3] [v] to inform; notify; tell

~

道
[7] [v] think; suppose; wonder

~

知道: to know about something

you 知 (know; understand; be aware of) and 道 (think) - "you know and think of/suppose something as~"
From the information above, we can discern the difference between 認識 and 知道 :

認識 = 1.(v) to recognize to know  2.(v)know (someone/ something you recognize/ identified before)
you have to meet someone, or come across something to recognize and know him or it.
知道= to know (be aware of someone/something)
You don't have to meet a person to know him, you can know or be aware of someone by reading about him or heard of him.


Why is 之 used in 忍耐是幸福之门的一把钥匙? Why is 之 used in this sentence?

  忍耐是幸福之门的一把钥匙.

Cant it just as easily be substituted with 的?

之 and 的 are essentially synonyms for different contexts.

之 is mostly used in set phrases, idioms, proverbs, poems, etc. (Also math with percents and such: 百分*之*百 100 points out of 100. )

的 is more fit for colloquial contexts.

Since 忍耐是幸福之门的一把钥匙 "Patience is the key to the door of happiness" is a phrase, it is fit to use 之.


What is the meaning of this 征 in this sentence please What is 征 here please? I guess it is either 征求 or 征集。Would either fit the bill? Maybe 征名 is a word？ I think it is really '征集名字‘。

The background is, 兰州的‘读者文摘’ had to change the name of their magazine, because the American '读者文摘‘ had already registered that name.

编辑部马上行动，在杂志上刊登了征名启事。征名启事刊出后，读者的来信如雪片般飞来。

The Editorial Department took swift action, they published an announcement in the magazine, calling for/soliciting (new) names for their publication.

Any chance 征 could be 征询 的‘征’？？

Your guess is right. It means 征求 or 征集。In English, it means "Call for", and here it is "call for names". The dictionary definitions are close.

For 征询, 征询 = 征求、询问. However, it is usually used to ask for opinions. The word 征 in 征询 is indeed the same though.


Simplified/Traditional Chinese characters commonalities with Japanese Kanji I noted that the simplified Chinese character for "doctor/medicine" 医 has the same aspect of the Japanese kanji for "doctor/medicine". So, in this case, the Japanese kanji and the simplified Chinese character are the same.
Instead, the traditional Chinese character seems more different: 醫
It seems also that the simplified Chinese character for "turtle" 龟 is very similar to the corresponding Japanese kanji 亀 (the kanji seems to just have one more smaller rectangle piece in the upper part). Instead, the traditional Chinese character is much more different: 龜
So, I wonder: is this a common pattern? i.e. Are simplified Chinese characters more similar to Japanese kanji than traditional Chinese characters?
(I've read somewhere that the traditional Chinese characters are more similar to Japanese kanji, but at least in these two cases, it doesn't seem the case.)

It's true to state that "traditional chinese characters are more similar to Japanese Kanji than simplified chinese."

In more example, you are going to find Japanese Kanji and traditional chinese characters are identical due to the fact that Japanese adopted Chinese Characters much earlier.
Chinese character simplification only started in 1956 (quite recent in comparison).

Japanese has also gone through a simplification process called "Shinjitai." And during the Japanese simplification, some characters went from identical to Traditional Chinese to identical to simplified Chinese. For example, 體   →体(tai). Please refer to this page for more example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjitai. So only after this, some Kanji resemble the simplified Chinese characters.


Interesting tongue-twisters like these? Is there any reduplicate tongue-twister like these?
1.

校長說：「衣服上除了校徽別別別的。」

(The principal said, "Don't(別) pin(別) other(別的) badge except the school badge.)
2.

雨天騎腳踏車，車輪打滑，還好我反應快，一把把把手穩住了！

It's rainy. My bike's wheel were slipping. Fortunately I stablized(把...穩住) the handler(把手) one moment in the time(一把).
3.

有床不睡睡睡袋

Why you don't sleep(不睡 on your bed), but sleep(睡) in your sleep bag(睡袋)?
4.

衣服嘛，
冬天的時候，能穿多少穿多少
夏天的時候，能穿多少穿多少

Clothes. Put on the more the better in winter, and put on the less the better in summer.
Original post on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookListen2017/posts/517919745305055

The second one you have, could even be

雨天骑自行车，车轮打滑，还好我反应快，一把把把把住了！

You have to be the champion to be honored this prize.

这个奖品，想获得得得到第一名。

According to Carbon Carbon bond energy, could we negate theorem one or theorem two?

根据碳碳键键能能否否定定理一或定理二？

I almost missed the shuttle to Shanghai if I were walking too slowly.

多亏跑了两步，差点没上上上上海的车。

If you poison a venomous snake with poison, would it be poisoned to death?

用毒毒毒蛇毒蛇会不会被毒毒死？

I got this one even better.

Ming Ming does know Bai Bai is wasting time having a crush on him, but he would not say.

明明明明明白白白白白喜欢他，但他就是不说。

A granny from Netherlands drinks six bottle of durian milk in Rio de Janeiro.

里约热内卢的荷兰老奶奶喝了六个榴莲牛奶。

You could find more from this link.
Ok, now get ready for this one, you have to be good in ancient Chinese to read the following

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始实食是十狮。食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。试释是事。

There are more of these here.


Is each 的 in 有的 and 好的，到时候会有人接机的 a modal particle? In next extract from a text while reserving a hotel room there are some final 的.

  1: 请问你们旅馆有没有免费接送服务?
  2: 有的。请问你们星期三几天到?
  1: 早上六点40分到达海南国际机场。
  2: 好的，到时候会有人接机的。先星期三见。

In the last ..example 到时候会有人接机的 II have seen in the next grammar point that is a modal particle used preferably with 会。

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Using_%22de%22_(modal_particle)。

But what about the simple 有的 and 好的. ¿what grammar refers to this two cases?. I cannot find any.

in 有的 and 好的, 的 is just a modal particle also.
It is Ok if you omit 的.

another example: 可以的=可以


How to phrase "If I had to choose..."? Often in English when we decide between options that all seem favorable, we'll say:

  "I like them all, but if I had to choose, I'd go with that one!"

What is the Chinese equivalent of "if I had to choose" ? It does not need to be a direct translation, just whatever you would use in that scenario.

“（如果）非要我选的话”

  这些我都喜欢，非要我选的话，我要那一个！


Why is 生地黃 called 地黃 [yellow earth]? Does anyone know the reason why 生地黃 is called 地黃 [yellow earth]? I don't know if 六味地黄丸 took the name from 生地黃 or viceversa, but either way I couldn't find neither the etymology of 六味地黄丸 in English (I still can't understand Chinese properly). Any idea for the reason of the presence of 地黄 in the two?

黃 is sometimes a plant name: 大黃 'rhubarb' (this used to be dai-huang, not da-huang), 麻黃 ephedra'; 地 sometimes means a tuber, seems that's not the case here. One source identifies 3 varieties: 天黃, 人黃, 地黃.  This is the 三合 system.


How to say "The general consensus is" or "In general, most people consider" The exact sentence I'd like to translate is

  The general consensus is that most people consider Southerners to be friendly

or

  One stereotype that Southerners have is that they are friendly.

I know you can use "总的来说“ to mean "Generally speaking", or "In general", but I really want to convey the stereotype aspect.

The general consensus is that most people consider Southerners to be friendly

人们普遍认为南方人很友好。


Hell yeah! - How to express great joy? I'm looking for some exclamations to be used in comics to express great joy and pride, such as:

"I'm a good boy!",
"Hell yeah!",
"I'm so great!"

or similar. Any suggestion?

It depends on what dialect you're writing in. For example, Cantonese (primarily used in Hong Kong) has slang versions that is different from Mandarin.

In Mandarin

I'm a good boy
乖仔 (this is in cantonese and is a slang). It means, "Good boy!"
我很聽話 (this is universal). It literally means, "I listen." But it in practice means, "I'm well behaved."

Hell yeah:
棒死了 (this means "fresh to death!")
The important word is "棒", which means "awesome."
Alternatively, some people use "酷" as a slang. This literally means "Cool" and sounds like "cool" in Chinese.

I so great
我好勁
The important word is "勁," which means "strength" or "great"
This is slang term. But if someone read this, they would laugh.


What does this mark mean? (Characters identified: 周桂珍制) Could someone please help me with the mark on this yixing teapot please?

珍　周
制　桂

Made by 周桂珍, craftswoman born in Yixing in 1943. You can Google image search the name to get more pictures of teapots.


How to express giving two people some privacy? Recently I noticed that a young girl waited for several hours, so as to be able to pass the break with my younger colleague. So my friend and I took a walk outside.

Though this is not something I expect to have to explain, I still wondered how to politely express it. Obviously I don’t mean they had anything improper in mind. But they could talk without everyone listening.

Would 尊重兩人隱私 sound improper? What are polite expressions?

"Give them some privacy" = "給他們一點私人空間吧"

私人空間 means "private space", To give a person some private space means to leave him alone for a while.


Do all syllables occur in all tones? For example, ne and nè are words.  But there are no  nē, né, or ně. I tried to Google this but I don't find any references to it.  It's obviously not by final, because kē, ké, and kě all exist.  Is there a rule?

There’s no rule as to what tones can be used with which pronunciations but there is a finite list of words & pronunciations in MSM (Modern Standard Mandarin).

When you start getting into Chinese dialects and topolects any pronunciation is possible.

——

Just as a side note né can be found in 哪吒 (Nézhā) the name of a deity.


A word that means "earn" without the "money" connotation? I'm trying to translate a phrase in English:

  Trust must be earned.

A direct translation would look like this:

  信任是要赚来的

However, the verb 赚 doesn't seem suitable in this context.

What may be a more suitable word? Specifically, a word that means "earn" but without the "work for money" connotation?

There are a few substitutes I can think of:

信任是要靠努力得来的 (trust is obtained through hard work)
信任是要争取的 (trust must be fought for)
信任是要赢得的 (trust must be won)
信任是要经营的 (trust needs to be maintained)
信任是要用时间去积累的 (trust is acquired over a period of time)

If you are looking for a word, I think 争取[zhēngqǔ] is a good replacement for 赚 because it means to put in effort to achieve a goal and has no monetary connotation in it:

  争夺；力求获得; 力求实现


Writing critique request: Zhou Ziwang and the revolutionary new technology Here's the start of a short story I'm writing:

首先，大多数人强烈反对它，说人一定不要“扮演上帝”。当时他们害怕极了，对于未来的效果有关心。人性会怎么改变？人有很多批评：使用它以后，人还是人吗？用这种技术就是根本不自然的。这些论点使世界政客也反对它，而且除了世界上最伟大的科学家，谁都不允许用这种技术。
其实这只是正式的说法，真实的故事也许我们再也并不确切知道。有人说各个政府认识这种技术太强大了，不想只让别国开发这项危险的技术，所以世界的政府都偷偷地进行研究。有人责备异常的科学家，就卖了这项技术然后跑去退休了。现在有一件肯定的事，这项技术是无处不在的，而它是惊人的。
我叫周子望。大约二十年以前科学家发明了一项是会改变世界的技术。那时候我就是个小朋友，并不知道科学家进行那么重要的研究。无论如何，这新种技术会对我一生中有巨大的影响。

I'm asking for a critique of my writing (analogous to what CodeReview.SE does for code).  Please describe how it can be improved.  Part of the motivation is to identify my weaknesses, and identify better writing styles.  The words in links are new for me.
I'm trying to build some mystery as to what this powerful new technology actually is, and what impact is has had on Zhou Ziwang's life.

Here's the basic idea in English:

At first, most people were strongly against it, saying we definitely don't want to play God.  At that time people were fearful, worried about future consequences.  How will mankind change?  People had many criticisms: After using it, will a person still be a person?  Using this technology is fundamentally unnatural.  These arguments caused world politicians to also oppose it, and further, except for the world's leading scientists, nobody was permitted to use this technology.
Actually, this is just the official explanation, the real story we'll perhaps never know for sure.  Some people say every government recognizes this kind of technology is powerful; they don't want to simply let other countries utilize this dangerous technology, so the world governments secretly conduct research.  Some people blame rogue scientists, selling the technology and then fleeing into retirement.  Now one thing is for sure, this technology is everywhere, and is astonishing.
I'm Zhou Ziwang.  About 20 years ago, scientists discovered a technology that would change the world.  That time, I was a little kid, and did not know scientists were conducting this kind of important research.  In any case, this new technology has had a profound impact on my life.

I include in case of "this makes absolutely no sense" sentences, but I'm not really concerned about the English.

I write my piece of paragraph based on your English excerpt without referring to your own try. And hopefully it will meet your aim to identify a better style.

起初，多数人强烈反对，称人决不能僭作神明。当时，对未来后果的忧惧笼罩着大众。人类将如何演变？对此批判四起：一旦施用，人还称得上人吗？这种技术本质有违自然。诸此论调，引起世界各国政要也加入反对阵营，结果，除领军科学家外，无人许可应用该项技术。

其实这不过是官方说辞，真相恐怕永不能为我们所确认。有传每个政府都清楚该技术之威力，但皆不愿让他国轻易利用，故只能隐秘开展研究。一些人谴责那些科学异端出卖科技后退休跑路，但无可否认，现在它已经随处可见，令人惊骇。

我是周子望。约二十年前，科学家就已经开发出这足以改变世界的技术，而此时还是小孩的我无从知晓如此重要的研究正进行着。不论如何，这项新技术给我的人生带来了深远的影响。

Comments:

In Chinese writing, you are supposed to drop, merge, and change the expression of subjects constantly, and compact several topic-related sentences into one using link words. After all, Chinese sentences are separated by topics, instead of grammatical clauses.

Concision is virtue. Avoid too many grammatical words such as 的/地/得.

Chinese lacks "tense" in the grammar aspect, but it doesn't mean you are supposed to pay no attention to time.

In any case, this new technology has had a profound impact on my life.
无论如何，这新种技术会对我一生中有巨大的影响。（x）


Is there any way to make a Chinese speech transcribed to written format? Here is my situation: I have learned Mandarin mostly from reading news articles and chatting with friends, as well as reading a grammar book and memorizing vocabulary. That makes only my reading and writing skills improved, while my speaking and listening skills are practically useless.

So these days my friends started to make a speech on WeChat, instead of writing a message. However, in almost all cases I don't understand what they say. That makes me wonder if there is any way to transcribe the speech my friend made for me.

Is there any app or software, or otherwise any ways, to make the speech transcribed?

We use WeChat, for your information.

WeChat could convert the voice accepted from others to text. By 长按 (touch and hold) on the voice, and select "转换为文字（仅普通话）" (for Android) or "转文字" (for iOS), you'll get the text showed under the voice.

Note that it works only for 普通话 (putonghua), and the language of WeChat (maybe the language of the system, depending on the settings of WeChat) needs to be set to 简体 (simplified Chinese).

Refer here for more screen captures.


How did 黃 (yellow) come to mean "pornographic"? In my dictionary it defines

黃 (Huáng)
- yellow
- pornographic
- to fall through
- surname Huang or Hwang

Imperial China and the robes of the emperor are commonly associated with the colour yellow.

We also have

黃河 - Huánghé   - the yellow river
黃山 - Huángshān - the yellow mountain
黃帝 - Huángdì   - the legendary Yellow Emperor

So how did the colour yellow come to be associated with pornography?

黃色電影 - Huángsè diànyǐng - pornographic movie
黃色書刊 - Huángsè shūkān   - pornographic book

According to this article, there are four possible explanations as to why yellow colour is associated with pornography. Below is a slightly modified translation of the article based on further references from the internet:

Orpiment (雌黃). Orpiment is a toxic orange-yellow mineral that is used as a
pigment by ancient people. Due to poor bleaching technology, paper
produced in the olden days was slightly yellow. When words on a
paper need to be corrected, orpiment can be used to smear onto the
written words, creating a layer of slightly opaque yellow close to
the paper's colour, enabling a rewrite. Soon, people describe
uttering nonsense as "信口雌黃". Subsequently, the yellow colour of
orpiment and its toxicity is later extended to mean poisoning of the
mind.
The Yellow Union. In 1887, in a city in France, a factory owner tried to prevent his
workers from going on strike by bribing the Yellow Union. The
workers discovered the betrayal and angrily smashed the windows of
the union clubhouse. The union then used yellow paper backings as a
replacement for the windows. Since then, the workers labelled these
union people as "见不得人的黃色工会”, meaning a union that cannot face the
public, similar to pornography.
The Yellow Book. In 1894, a British magazine
named "The Yellow Book", gathered in a group of conservative collection of authors
to produce quarterly literary periodicals that are thought to be scurrilous in content. Later, a
prestigious Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, was arrested on
homosexuality charges. At the time of his arrest, Oscar was
seen holding a yellow book (which turns out to be a French novel). People misidentified the material to be The Yellow Book and associated it with his personality. The next day people demonstrated in front of the publisher, and a furry of media reports soon cemented an association between yellow paperbacks and homosexual content.
The Yellow Kid. The end of the 19th century New
York, New York World and New York Journal competed for readers
intensely, posting vulgar comics content to which "The Yellow Kid"
is one of them and is the origin for the term "yellow journalism".
Since then, the colour yellow is associated with erotic and vulgar
things.


What does 一事 mean in 美国总统特朗普在被问及前顾问班农被捕一事时表示? I don't understand 一事 in the following snippet:

《纽约时报》白宫记者Michael D。 Shear 8月20日报道称，美国总统特朗普在被问及前顾问班农被捕一事时表示：“我感觉非常糟糕。我已经有很长一段时间没有和他打交道了。我根本没有和他打过交道，对这个项目一无所知。对班农先生来说，这是很悲伤的事情，也很意外。”
特朗普回应班农被捕：我对这个项目一无所知，2020年08月20日

Breaking apart the relevant part:

美国总统特朗普在被问及前顾问班农被捕一事时表示

美国总统特朗普 = "US President Trump"
在……时 = "when" (short for 在……的时候)
被问及 "asked to touch upon"; here I think 及 is short for 涉及 = "to touch upon".
前顾问班农被捕 = "former adviser Bannon's arrest"
一事 = "a matter" (???)
表示 here basically means "said" (but more formal)

Question: What does 一事 mean in 美国总统特朗普在被问及前顾问班农被捕一事时表示?
I feel there's something to this, since 一事 is used in other contexts:

他设法把话题从他离婚一事上引开。 [source: YouDao]
他辩称路上人多而把迟到一事推脱得一乾二净。 [source: Jukuu]

It reminds me of when we say something like “十”这个字.

一事 is short for 這一件事 (this thing; this event; this matter)
In your post, '前顾问班农被捕' is the event
"前顾问班农被捕(一事)" = "(the event of) 前顾问班农被捕"
Similarly:
他设法把话题从他离婚一事(這一件事)上引开
他辩称路上人多而把迟到一事(這一件事)推脱得一乾二净
一事 can also be used literally as "one thing" (mostly in classical Chinese)
e.g. 在下有一事相求 - There's one thing that I wanted your help


Where can I find a downloadable database of English to Chinese words? CC-CEDICT is a Chinese to English dictionary, available for use online or for download (as a data file here: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=cc-cedict). What similar projects provide an English to Chinese dictionary, with definitions of the English words explained in Chinese? I am looking for something with can be downloaded or purchased in a digital format (the data file, such as a commas-separated file or spreadsheet, not the front-end software used to view it).

Only other two freely available that I'm aware of are Adsotrans  and LDC wordlist.

Adsotrans is based on CC-CEDICT, but they also include (for non-commercial use) software for segmentation, hanzi2pinyin and apparently some sort of semantic analysis. I don't know whether dictionary itself differs from vanilla CC-CEDICT. Their download contains SQL instead of CSV. Also, if I remember correctly they used some sort sort of Latin-whatever encoding instead UTF-8.

If you're willing to pay then most popular option seems to licence ABC dictionary, but unfortunately University of Hawaii  has granted Wenlin exclusive license so you'd have to sublicence it from them. See UH and Wenling respective pages here:
www.otted.hawaii.edu/technology/00294/abc-chinese-language-database-dictionary and www.wenlin.com/abc.htm

If you find another free or free-ish/cheap database I'd be interested too.


What's the difference between 舅舅 and 叔叔? My favorite short story in modern Mandarin, 2015 by 王小波, is basically a long, humorous digression about the author's 舅舅:

  我舅舅是个无照画家，和别人不同的是，他总在忙些正事。有时他在作画；有时他卖画，并且因此蹲在派出所里。他作画时把房门锁上，再戴上个防震耳罩，别人来敲门听不见，打电话也不接，独自一人面对画架，如痴如狂。因为他住在十四层楼上，谁也不能趴窗户往里看，所以没人见过他作画，除了一个贼。

This word is translated as 'uncle.'

But why isn't the man a 叔叔? What's the difference in usage?

Uncles of mother's side are called 舅舅, while uncles of father's side if he's older than your father you have to call him 伯, and 叔 for younger ones. If you have more than one 舅 or 叔 or 伯. You need to add some prefix to specified them, like 大舅 for the oldest brother of you mother, the following are 二舅, 三舅... For 叔叔 伯伯 they apply the same, except there is no 大叔, and the 叔's numbering should inherit from 伯s(e.g., 大伯，二伯，Your Father，then 三叔,四叔).  There also have a word 大叔, but it's just a term to refer to some random older man...

For 叔叔, 伯伯 they can also refer to your parents' friends of their generation or your friends parents who are of same generation of your parents. Usually you won't use the term 舅舅 for this kind of acquaintances, but it happens when the guy is your mother's distance relatives, they might come from a same village with a same family name.

EDIT: 叔叔 is also used as a term of address for men (unrelated to you) who are roughly your father's age.


Translate identification mark on a Chinese bowl (Characters identified: 景德鎮製) I am trying to translate the identification mark on a bottom of a Chinese bowl. I am almost positive the right two characters translate to "Jingde" but I can't seem to be able to figure out the left two characters.

景德鎮製: Made in Jingdezhen, the ancient porcelain-making center.

Note the traditional writing order, from top to bottom and then from right to left.


Proper grammar: 生活 中 不是 缺少 美 ，而是 缺少 发现的? This grammar page lists the following example:

  生活 中 不是 缺少 美 ，而是 缺少 发现 美 的 眼睛 。

  Shēnghuó zhōng bù shì quēshǎo měi, ér shì quēshǎo fāxiàn měi de
  yǎnjing.

Would it be correct grammar to omit the 美 and 眼睛? In other words, would the grammar be correct, and the meaning preserved, with this statement:

  生活 中 不是 缺少 美 ，而是 缺少 发现的

Basically, you can't omit 美 and 眼睛, because they are the essential parts for understanding. Without them, the sentence becomes ungrammatical and incomprehensible. Original sentence is saying: we are not short of things with beauty, but the eye that can discover them.


Chinese grammar: type of word that is not a part of syntax analysis I remember my teacher giving an official name for words that are not a part of syntax analysis or not being considered in syntax analysis.

For example:
如果把义放在后而把利摆在前 "If you put justice last and put profit first"

In a syntax analysis what would you call 如果?

如果 is a conjunction meaning "in the event of", the same as if in English.


Why is Higher Brothers pronouncing 你 as "nie"? In Higher Brothers' (海尔兄弟) recent song Gong Xi Fa Cai (恭喜发财), there's a line that says:

  恭喜你 恭喜你发财

I'm pretty sure they're pronouncing 你 as nie, and I've never heard it pronounced that way before. Looking through the Wiktionary page for 你, I don't see any dialects, Chengdu included, that pronounce it as anything like nie.

In their other song 你，我 they're pronouncing 你 as ni as I'd expect, though it might be a different singer (can't really tell).

Is this a pronunciation that other people actually use? Or are they just doing it for the musical effect?

You've got the right direction searching through Chengdu pronunciations.

The pronunciation here is definitely not nie, but just a Sichuanese pronunciation of 你.

《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》lists 你 as:

  ȵi⁵³

Perhaps is the combination of a /ȵ/ initial with a falling tone on the /i/ that gives it a bit of a "-eh" sound at the end.

The wiktionary page you mention above does hint at this as well:

  (Chengdu, SP): nyi3

The yi combo would give you that sound you're hearing there.


What is the most appropriate English word to describe '面' in phrase like '看在A的面上, B...' I think the form is the same with '份' in '看在A的份上, B...' which had been asked before.

However, I'm not sure 'for one's sake', which is the preferable answer for '份', is the appropriate word to describe '面'.

For example: '看在你妈妈的面上，我就不为难你'. In this case, I assumed the speaker has a kind of grateful feeling towards the mother and thus wouldn't make things difficult for the child.

Is there any english word to describe it more precisely than 'for one's sake'?

'看在A的面上, B...' is better be translated as " Out of respect to A, B..."

  Example: "看在你妈妈的面上，我就不为难你" - " Out of respect to your mother, I'll let you off the hook'

~

  As for '看在A的份上, B...', I would translate it as

  "For A's sake, B..."

  or

  "With consideration for A, B..."

  Examples:

  "看在你妈妈的份上，我就不为难你" - "For your mother's sake, I'll let you off the hook"

  or

  "看在你妈妈的份上，我就不为难你" - "With consideration for your mother, I'll let you off the hook"


What is the meaning of 貪人之有者殘? 貪人之有者殘 is a phrase from 素書. I am not able to understand the grammatical structure of this sentence.

For instance:

貪: does it mean greedy or make s.o. greedy, or consider s.o. greedy , or greed (noun)
貪人: is it just "greedy person" or is 人 not immediately connected with 貪
之: is it here an object pronoun or genitive-particle or the word "go"
有: does it mean "have" or "exist" or "come into existence"
者: is this the particle that makes the whole part infront of it a noun-phrase ?
殘: is it "to injure" or an adjective "being in state of being injured" ?

Could you explain to me the grammatical structure of this sentence and its meaning in English ?

The structure is <贪[人之有]者> <残>.
"贪 人之有 者" can be translated as "he who is lust for other people's possessions".
But I am sorry I don't know the exact meaning of 残 here. Maybe it means "harm", "impair" or "to be bad".


Why does 息 mean news? Why does 息 mean news?

The chraracter's etymology suggest it means "rest" -
"From nose indicating breath and also phonetic 自 and heart or chest 心. Meaning to rest."

Source: http://chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?submitButton1=Etymology&characterInput=%E6%81%AF

So I guess, it is something to do with nose + heart as a metaphor for "interest". It might be understood as "What is dear(heart) to me(nose)"

Over its long history of usage, the meaning of 息 has evolved.

Yes, 息 has the connotation of message.

  (5) 消息 [message]
  (6) 又如:信息(音信;消息);息耗(消息,信息)

Its original meaning is to breathe;pant.

  (会意兼形声。从心,从自,自亦声。自,鼻子。古人以为气是从心里通过鼻子呼吸的。本义:喘气;呼吸)

And then the meaning was extended,

  人之氣急曰喘。舒曰息。引伸爲休息之偁。又引伸爲生長之偁。引伸之義行而鼻息之義廢矣。

[ Breathing slowly was called 息, and it extended again to mean rest, and extended again to mean grow. ]

And then it became to be used with its antonym 消 (get rid of;eliminate) as 消息 from pre-Qin period (先秦), means 增减;盛衰 (growth and decline), and then extended to mean 变化 (change).

Then 消息 began to be used to mean 情况 (circumstances;situation;condition).

  到了魏晋时期,“消息”的涵义则多为“情况”了.
  任何事物都会有从生长到死灭、从兴盛到衰败的发展变化过程,这种变化过程是一种“情况”.所以“消息”从“消长(生死盛衰)”的涵义演变为“情况”的涵义。

[ By the Northern and Southern Dynasties, 消息's primary meaning was situation. The process of evolution is a kind of situation, so 消息's meaning was extended from changing to situation. ]

  到了南北朝后期,“消息”便又发展出“音信”、“音讯”的涵义,而且从此就成为“消息”最主要的意思.

[ By the later stages of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, 消息's meaning was further extended to mean 音信 (mail;message;news) and 音讯.  And that became its primary meaning.]

Reference:
释息
“消息”的词义演变历程探析
从消息到信息──词义的变迁与汉语教学隅例


Is the 了 in 你几岁了？ a change-of-state 了? There's a simple question we ask kids:

你几岁了？
How old are you?

It's possible to ask it without the 了, i.e., 你几岁？.  This makes me think this 了 is a change-of-state 了.  It may just be a kind of "decorative" 了: something like 啦.
If this 了 is a change-of-state 了, then (to my understanding) this question can only be asked on the kid's birthday, as per this question.
Question: Is the 了 in 你几岁了？ a change-of-state 了?

Yes, you can understand 了 in 你几岁了？ as a change-of-state 了, and it's a more natural way to ask for age than 你几岁？
Explanation:  你几岁了？ can be understood as aging is a process and this is asking which 'extend' has this process been for you, in this context, how old. And 你几岁？ would be simply asking for a property.
A bit similar to:
你几岁了？ -> How old have you become, over all these years?
你几岁？ -> How many ages are you, at this moment?


《庄子》人间世篇名读音及其解释讨论(Zhuangzi discussion) 《庄子》内七篇，曰：逍遥游、齐物论、养生主、人间世、德充符、大宗师、应帝王。

吾见今主流皆解人间世篇名作人间社会，而亦有异见作人处社会解，甚以为然。

庄子善寓言、重言、卮言。人间世多假人口而述己，略可剖为：颜回请行孔子，叶公子高使齐语孔子，颜阖傅太子而问蘧伯玉，匠石不顾栎社，南伯子綦异大木，孔子适楚遇接舆 等章。

纵观南华，庄子喻人以处己，而非论世以砭弊，故也人间世作人处世，读去声，明矣。

提问（Question）：

就此话题而言，少有资料论述。但求有关文献或途说，体裁不限。谢谢大家╰(´︶`)╯

百度 庄子·内篇·人间世

《人间世》是一篇《庄子》内篇中的文章。本书的中心是讨论处世之道，既表述了庄子所主张的处人与自处的人生态度，也揭示出庄子处世的哲学观点。

根据百度对该文章的介绍「间」解作动词「居于」似乎十分合理，另一方面， 将「人间世」解作名词即 ，「人类社会」也不算违背文章的内容。硏究人类社会，就是硏究人与人的互动与交流，而叙述人在世间也是叙述人与人的互动与交流
可能庄子将该篇定名为「人间世」本来就知道这篇题含有双重意，平常说话也常见有语带相关言词，玩文字游戏时就更加普遍。


How to pronounce 學 "shwehh", "shoo-ehh", or "xüüehh"? According to pinyin pronunciation guides, 學 should be pronounced  x + ü + e with a rising tone. This should verbally sound something like

  1) a shh- with tip of tongue close to your bottom teeth and gums;

  2) an umlaut-sounding uuu as in the French/German 'tu' which is "xu" in pinyin;

  3) an -ehh sound e.g. in 'better' or 'jet'.

Basically, 學 is "x" + "üe". In this post, I label this standard pronunciation as "xüüehh" (with a 2nd tone).

However, I've noticed that occasionally in regular speech:

The umlaut is glided over to the point that "xüüehh" sometimes sounds like "shwehh" (which is similar to the "shwehh" sound in the soda brand "Schweppes").
The -ü sound sometimes becomes a regular pinyin -u (not umlaut-ed) which consequently sounds like "shoo-ehh". This is particularly the case in common words such as 學生，學習，學校，大學 ，等等

Are these differences in pronunciation negligible? That is to say, do the differences in sound among "xüüehh", "shwehh", and "shoo-ehh" really matter in day-to-day speech? I hear the differences with a few native speakers but also fall victim myself to pronouncing 學 in these (improper?) ways, which partly motivated this post.

Is this somewhat similar to English-speakers saying "where ya goin" instead of fully enunciating each syllable as in "where are you going"?

I must say that the differences are not negligible to Chinese people, because they won't have a "sh" followed by "w", and that's not the same problem as "where ya goin".
To your first problem, I think it's because you're still not skilled enough to pronounce "x" (because this consonant is absent in English, French, and many European languages, and people often use "sh" to replace it). If you really feel hard to go this way, choose "sy" or "xi" instead of "sh", like "sy-ü-ehh", and slowly progress towards the correct "xue" (note that in Pinyin orthography, the umlaut is omitted).
EDIT: I answered this question based almost on instinct at that time. I'll explain more about it now.
Modern Mandarin pronunciation was finally set during early 1910s with one last big change: the "merge" of jianyin (lit. "sharp consonant") and tuanyin (lit. "round consonant"). Since then, consonant /z/, /c/ and /s/ cannot be followed by /i/ or /ü/, only their counterpart /j/, /q/ and /x/ can (e.g. /sing/ and /xing/ were different before this change, but then they merged into /xing/. Note that this merge does not apply to some topolects). Therefore, it is much easier for learners to imitate /xi/ or /xü/ from /sy/ or /sü/ instead of /shy/ and /shü/. You just need to lift the middle of your tongue to the upper gum from /s/ to pronounce it.


Question about the use of "零" in money If I spent 100.50, would I have to say, "一百块零五毛" if yes, why do I have to put the "ling" after the "kuai" since "yibaikuai" already establishes the number 100?

We say "one hundred dollars and fifty cents" in English. 零 functions the same as 'and' , of course you can say "one hundred dollars fifty cents" or "一百块五毛" but that would make it sound like the phrase is broken into two parts –

If it is "一百五十五块五毛"  ($155.50) , we don't put  零 between "块" and "毛"  ; we only add 零 when the previous digit is zero

Examples:

"一百五十块零五毛" ($150.50)- last digit of 'dollar' is zero, therefore 零 is added before '五毛'

"一百五十五块五毛" ($155.50)- last digit of 'dollar' is not zero, therefore 零 is not added before '五毛'

"一百万零五千元" (One million and five thousand dollars) - need 零 between 一百万 and 五千元 because the last digit of million is a zero

"一百二十五万四千三百二十一元 ($1,254,321)- no 零 needed

"Five hundred and five dollars" ($505)  = 五百零五元

"Five hundred fifty five dollars" ($555) =五百五十五元


Proverbs and saying for not achieving a specific situation (or objective)? I am looking for a set of Chinese 成语 and 俗语 describing ways in which a desired situation may not be achieved.

For instance, like the following two:

欲速则不达

东施效颦

Any others?

Where can I find a complete list?

Thanks.

I think there are too many 俗語, 諺語 to list.
Here are few similar 成語 for you

揠苗助長 = 欲速則不達
適得其反 to the end, get opposite effect
事與願違 nothing comes out as planned


What is the difference between 升, 陞 and 昇? There are some characters in Chinese which give me severe headaches, especially those that have the same pronunciation and mean more or less the same thing.

I have learnt three characters which are all pronounced shēng: 升, 陞 and 昇. Is there any significant difference between these characters in modern usage? I'm talking about traditional Chinese here, I don't think 陞 and 昇 are used at all in simplified Chinese.

The answer to this one turned out to be fairly straightforward (assuming the website I found is accurate). The following is quoted from this website:

  升 ① 容積的法定單位（市升與之相同），1升等於1000毫升。
  ② 量糧食的器具，容量爲斗的十分之一。 ③ 向上，高起：升旗。 ④
  提高：升級。
  昇 同「升」③④。
  陞 同「升」④。 （《新華字典》第436頁左列「升」字）

  說明：「升」「昇」「陞」三字在「登」的意義上相通，以「升」為正體。「昇」本義為太陽上升，例如「旭日東昇」，用「旭日東升」也正確，需要注意的是，「歌舞昇平」似用「昇」更正式。在一些人名上，如淸代寫《長生殿》的洪昇，宋代發明活字印刷術的畢昇。「陞」，古代「升」的寫法，可用於當今書法。
  舉例： 昇──昇華，昇天，歌舞昇平，高昇。 升──毫升，升高，升堂，升班，直升機，回升，調升，提升。 陞──步步高陞，指日高陞。

So, in short, it's safe to use 升 in most cases (except in some names and fixed expressions).


Help me translate stamps on bowls and paintings? (Ancient Chinese, Japanese & Cantonese) Im looking for help identifying 7 pieces of art (5 paintings and two bowls). I was advised sby a friends grandmother that some is ancient Chinese, Japanese and Cantonese but have had no luck deciphering or asking in forums. I've even tried matching pictures to other sites like wikipedia but I have zero intellect in reading Chinese.
Is anyone able to read the following?

This was brought back from Japan from WW2, and is a painting on silk.
https://imgur.com/Y89xmQc
https://imgur.com/OKl0gub

Bought at second hand store.
https://imgur.com/WGfm7a3
https://i.imgur.com/DaDUmlk

Someone mentioned it was Cantonese and not a smiley face.
https://imgur.com/LmVYAXl
https://imgur.com/S9j1eIs

Bowl stamped China and other markings underneath.This was passed down from my grandmother.
https://imgur.com/XrWkNkN

Bowl stamped China underneath. Does anyone know this scene or is there any writing? This was passed down from my grandmother.
https://imgur.com/6sgPj2f

& 7. left out due to restrictions.

For #4, rotate it clockwise 90 degree, in the centre, the text are:
“大明宣德年製”, roughly “made in the 5th reign of the Ming dynasty” (AD 1426-1435)
For #5, rotate anti-clockwise about 45 degree, in the middle is a big character “福” (good fortune, happiness); which is surrounded by a pattern of “二龍戲珠” (two dragons [Chinese style, not Jurassic] play/strive for pearl)
If #4 & #5 are photo of the same bowl, I guess it’s a valuable curiosity.
Try contact Christie’s, or Sotheby’s Hong Kong office, they’ve experts to identify it.
For #3:
I suspected the calligraphy is “梅 x 秀色”, but I'm not 100% sure.
Have fun :)


What is the meaning of 江山入画 Please, can you explain me the exact meaning of 江山入画? It is a name of a novel. However I am not sure of exact meanging. I know that 江山 means country, 画 is painting. Please what it mean all together ?

入 means to enter, 江山入画 literally means 'the country enters the painting'.
The title 江山入画 (The country in paintings) is very straight forward. you can also interpret 江山 literally  as 'rivers and mountains', and 江山入画 can describe 'rivers and mountains in paintings'  if 山水畫 (landscape painting) is what the main character does
There is an idiom '江山如画',  it means the country is as beautiful as a painting (so beautiful it seems unreal)


Yale tone marks and low-level 'h' for vowel-less syllables For tone-marked Yale, the tone mark goes over the first vowel and then (for tones 4,5,6) an 'h' is placed after the last vowel.

But what about the syllables without any vowels: hm, hng, m, ng ?

I'm guessing place the tone mark over the n and m?

But how about the low-level 'h'? For 'm' there is only one place. But for the others, should it go after the 'n' or after the 'g'?  After the 'g' certainly looks better.

Alternatively, maybe because those four syllables only seem to ever exist in tones 4,5 and 6, that we don't need the 'h' at all (because it can be implied).

Yale romanization analyzes Cantonese syllables in terms of an optional initial and an obligatory final (e.g., cheung = ch + eung). The tone mark is always placed over the first letter of the final (e.g., chèung). As you mentioned, h is used after the vowel (more accurately the syllable nucleus) in syllables to denote tones 4, 5, and 6 (e.g., chèuhng).

While m and ng in most other cases are considered syllable initials, in these specific cases, m and ng are analyzed as syllable finals; they are also the nuclei of these finals. Following the convention with placing the tone mark over the first letter of the final, the marks would thus be placed over the m and n, respectively. In the case of hng, h is considered the initial and ng is the final, so the tone mark would also occur over the n in this case.

You noted that syllables with m and ng seem to always exist in tones 4, 5, and 6, so the nuclear h may seem redundant, but it is still specified in proper Yale romanization. There are a few cases where such syllables can occur with tone 2 (e.g., 呣 and 嗯), so in these cases, the h can make a useful distinction (ḿ and ńg vs. ḿh and ńgh, where the latter two are possible pronunciations of 五).


Function of 吧 in 循环吧代码 In this page for learning loops in JavaScript by Mozilla Developer Network the title "Looping code" is translated as 循环吧代码. What is the meaning/function of 吧 here?

This is an exclamatory sentence. (It lakes exclamation mark 循环吧！代码 )

It means "代码，循环吧！"

It seems like that:

滚蛋吧！肿瘤君

翻滚吧！阿信


What does 就 mean in 你怎么就睡在这里了呀？ 你怎么就睡在这里了呀？

Searching 就 up on the Chinese Grammar Wiki gives a pretty long list of usages, and I have no idea what (if any) is most applicable.

The sentence still makes sense, even if you remove 就.

  你怎么睡在这里了呀？

Therefore, 就 is an adverb here, and emphasizes the verb, "sleep".

A few more examples are from 现代汉语词典:

  表示加强肯定

    我就知道他会来的，今天他果然来了
    我就不信我学不会
    那就是他的家
    幼儿园就在这个胡同里。

  现代汉语词典, page 697


The relationship of 我 and 咱们 In a current commercial ad of bird's nest aired by China's National Radio, two women identified as former classmates had the following conversation:

甲：我妈快70岁了，我要买礼物回去过中秋。

乙：是呀，好久都没见到咱妈了。。。。

It is clearly the two speakers are not sisters or daughters of the same woman which they both call mother, but 我 and 咱 are both first person nouns, what is the relation of the two words? Does one of the speaker try to endear herself to the other?

The meaning of 咱 is different in northern China and the rest.

In east-north China, 咱 is the same as 我. People there say 咱 to refer
to him/herself. And it depends whether the speaker is endearing
him/herself. This usage is actually a little bit weird for Chinese
from southern areas.
In the rest provinces of China, 咱 is different from 我。咱 refers to the
both sides of a conversation, and is often used to show closer
relationship or endearment. 咱 is much less frequently used than 我们
there.

So in your example, I think this conversation happens in east-north China since 咱妈 is rare in southern area and it simply refers to 我的妈妈.


What does this tattoo say and where can I find the symbols online? (Characters identified: 寵命力) I saw this tattoo and I really want to know what it says. I'm not sure if it's Chinese or Japanese. What does it say and where can I find the symbols online?

The three characters from the picture look like "寵", "命" and "力“. The followings are the common usage of the words.

寵：(verb) Love, favor, spoil, dote; (noun) things or person that is loved/favored (eg. 新寵，寵物)

命：(verb) command, admonish, appoint (eg.命令); (noun) life, lifespan, fate (eg.命運)

力：(noun) Strength, ability, power; (adv) doing something with the best effort (eg.力爭上游）

The term "寵命力" does not look like anything meaningful to me.


German-Chinese online dictionary Is there any online dictionary German-Chinese and vice versa that allows user participation?

I know of

handedict.de, dormant since 2011, forums down, but allows downloading a wordfile
dict.leo.org, working, but crummy participation: must ask in forum to have a word added, does not allow downloading a wordfile
wiktionary, working, but inconvenient lookup, may compile wordfile from dump inconviently

No user participation in

chinesisch-lernen.org
chinalink.de

This is not exactly a dictionary, but if you have individual words you need to find the meaning of quickly, you may want to try this:

http://translate.reference.com/

I have used Chinese-English, and occasionally other languages as well. As with many digital translation devices, the result isn't always ideal, but you can probably use this as an additional reference.

A word of caution: it does not do idioms well.


Usage of 就 after a noun and before a verb So this is actually the third question I've asked regarding 就... It's quite difficult for me to grasp. I've gained a lot of insight from the past two question (Usage of 就 in these two examples and What's the usage/meaning of 就 in this case?) but I came across an example sentence that has thrown me off.

I took a look at this online Cantonese dictionary that a previous answerer was kind enough to provide me with, but I'm finding it difficult to fit this use case into the grammatical rules and examples given. The specific sentence is:

  你一大早就出門趕飛機，現在很累吧。

The context is when a friend is greeting another friend at the airport after a flight. The meaning of the sentence is not hard to grasp (my rough translation is "You came out to catch the early morning flight, are you tired right now?").

What would the meaning be here?

This sentence is expressing in a colloquial way, and can be interpreted as:

  你一大早（起床）就出门赶飞机，现在很累吧。

So 起床（getting up）is omitted，就 means the later thing happens right after the former one.

Or:

  你（在）一大早就出门赶飞机，现在很累吧。

在 is omitted，就 at here means the mentioned thing happened at an earlier time（eg. 我们很早以前就认识）


When referring to a previously mentioned object, such as a computer 一台电脑, do you say 这个/那个 or 这台/那台? When referring to a previously mentioned object, such as a computer (一台电脑）, do you say 这个/那个 or 这台/那台?

i.e. does the measure word used in 这个/那个 depend on the object, or is it always the generic 个?

个 is a generic identifier for all objects. 这 and 那, as you know, are just specifiers for this or that.

Now, if you know the specific measure word for the object you're trying to describe, you should use it. It makes you sound more fluent/mature... you'll often hear kids in China use 个 for everything...

Like, 这条鱼 (Zhè tiáo yú) sounds much better than 这个鱼 (Zhège yú)... people will understand you regardless, but it's just how you want to come off.

Just like in English, you could a bunch to describe everything...

A bunch of fish
A bunch of birds
A bunch of books

But we learn how to refine how we talk:

A school of fish
A flock of birds
A stack of books


Confusion about bian 邊 and miàn 面 I'm having a little trouble with learning directions and positions. It seems that most often the word bian is being used to indicate a position: front side 前邊, back side 後邊, etc.

But then I see stuff that uses mian for position: 外面有人吗?

So I'm a little confused as to when I should use bian and when I should use mian. Can you help me come to an understanding of the two?

To understand the differences properly, you need to know what is 面 and what is 边. 面 is a face whereas 边 is an edge. An edge is like a line guiding you the direction. A face is what is facing you giving you a sense of position.

前/后面 is used to describe the position of something within your visual range. Whereas, 前/后边 is more appropriately used to describe
something beyond visual range when giving directions.

  镜子前面 (in front of the mirror) vs 车站前边 (beyond that bus stop in front)

外/里面 is used to describe location of an object in relation to another object. 外/里边 is used strictly
for giving directions.

  书包里面 (inside the school bag) vs 巷子里边 (in that alley)

左/右面 is used mainly to point to the left or right face of an
object. 左/右边 is used to describe left or right side directions.

  墙的左面 (on the left face of that wall) vs 车道左边 (left side of the
  roadway)

In summary, when you are giving directions, use 边; when you are describing positions, use 面.


Why is the result complement wrong? I was trying to describe the encounter between 郭靖，黄蓉 and 洪七公 in 射雕英雄傳。 There, Huang Rong proposes a game, which purpose is to guess the names of dishes she has prepared. That always proves impossible due to the way her father named the dishes, making lots of allusions to literature.

The sentence I wrote was:

  遊戲的目的是猜到黄蓉煮的美食的名字。

I realise this sounds bad due to the double 的。 What I don’t understand is, why the 到 was stricken out!

Edit: 1 perhaps I misunderstood my teacher‘s corrections. I post a picture:

Edit 2: this is really depressing. Opinions of native speakers on 猜 and 猜到 (on my campus) show no pattern. At least 猜出 seems a clear favourite.

Use 到 as the result complement of 猜 is not wrong

猜 = to guess

猜到 = to guess successfully/ correctly

The goal of the game is to successfully guess the names of the dish. (not just making guesses)

Neither 的 in "[黄蓉煮的][美食的名字]"  can be omitted

黄蓉煮的 is the adjective phrase for 美食
黄蓉煮的美食的 is the adjective phrase for 名字

"[黄蓉煮美食][的名字]" or "[黄蓉煮的美食][名字]" are both incomplete

Edit:

After seeing the picture, I think your teacher's correction was very sloppy.

If you wrote "遊戲的(内容)是猜(到)黄蓉煮的美食的名字", then 到 would be a mistake, you should write "遊戲的(内容)是(去)猜黄蓉煮的美食的名字
"目的 (the goal)" is "猜到" (to guess right)" ; "内容/玩法 (the way to play)" is "去猜 (to guess)"

'目标' (the goal of winning) would be better than '目的'

'去猜出' (figure out) would be better than '猜到'

(遊戲的目标是去猜出)

得 in 闻得出来了 is not wrong. Actually, the final particle 了 should be omitted because the sentence doesn't end there.
Also he didn't correct 名子 back to, 名字 or 蓉儿 back to 黄蓉

蓉儿 is a nickname only her loved one could use to address her. For us readers, she is always 黄蓉


Chinese literature vocabulary I'm looking for synonyms of everyday words, and I realized many of these "complicated words" are used in Chinese literature. Is there a name for this group of words? For example, we sometimes read 蓦然 in books which is actually just 猛然

One way is: 书面语 . See http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%A6%E9%9D%A2%E8%AF%AD for more information


Mnemonic for differentiating 买 and 卖 I always mix up their tones and/or meaning. Do you know a good mnemonic to differentiate the two?

Maybe there are compound words which contain either character which could help me?
I found 买卖 which I get right tone wise (mai3mai5) and meaning wise (buy and sell) mostly. So I can connect tone and meaning using that. But when writing I still don't know where the 十 goes.

Here's an image shows the evolution of 賣/卖.

Pay attention to the picture (B), it appeared at the Qin dynasty, and take the 買/买 as its phonogram part, so 賣/卖 has the same pronunciation with 買/买, and take the word 出(out) at the top of the word, which means sell out sth to get money. And at Han dynasty, 出 became 士 (picture (C)), and then at Tang dynasty's cursive script(picture (E)), it was simplified as 卖 further, and at last 卖 is adopted as the simplified Chinese word of 賣.

Hope it can help you to remember the difference between 买 and 卖.

Source: [字源谈趣] Author: 陈政


How would you translate a name consisting of dictionary words? Just out of curiosity, if your name consisted of words which exist in an English dictionary, would you translate it as you would those words?  Or would you translate it letter-by-letter?

For example, I used to work with someone called Lance Fox, would that be 矛狐狸?  I know a Matt Brown, would that be 亚光褐色?

The norm is to make it:

a) similar in sound
b) follow Chinese naming conventions

and optionally also choose characters with a relevant or good meaning.

But just as authors can choose pen names such as 矛盾 and 莫言, a westerner can pick a name by your criteria. 矛狐狸 is rather elegant in this perspective, but would be considered a nickname, since 矛 is not a family name.


What does 缀 mean in 浆果密密地缀在灌木丛中 (from "Fog Magic" 穿越魔雾)? From the children's novel 穿越魔雾 ("Fog Magic", page 18), I don't understand the part in bold below:

”我刚刚应该是见到了西米恩老人，而且知道了他住在哪儿。这场大雾可真是有魔法呢。“她一边哼着小曲，一边穿过开阔的牧场。浆果密密地缀在灌木丛中，格丽塔停下脚步采了一会儿。等她走到这片空地另一头时，已经摘了三分之一桶的浆果。

I get the overall idea that 格丽塔 (Greta?) is contemplating the magic fog, and filling her bucket with berries.  But I don't know how to understand this one part:

浆果密密地缀在灌木丛中
berries [浆果] are densely [密密地] [verb] [缀] in the [在……中] shrubbery [灌木丛].

In particular, I don't understand what 缀 means here.  I'm guessing it's pronounced zhuì (and not chuò), and thus has one of the following meanings:

缀 (zhuì)
CC-CEDICT: to sew / to stitch together / to combine / to link / to connect / to put words together / to compose / to embellish

So something like "string together", I'm not sure this is how berries grow on bushes.
Question: What does 缀 mean in 浆果密密地缀在灌木丛中?

浆果密密地缀在灌木丛中

缀(zhuì) here means 点缀, to decorate or to interperse.
Compare to this example below:

embellish a dress with lace and ribbons; // 用花边和丝带点缀衣装.


Is this Chinese and what is the meaning: 阿ㄘㄟˊ I was listening to a pop song by the Chinese singer 那英.  The song is called 天生不完美.  I was curious to read the lyrics and so checked them at the following address: https://mojim.com/twy100287x13x7.htm

The lyrics of the song show the string of characters in the question title: 阿ㄘㄟˊ

那英 sings these lyrics although apart from the first character I'm unsure as to what sounds she's actually singing or even if the characters each represent a syllable.

I searched the characters online and can see that this question has also been asked by Mandarin speakers on other Q&A sites but because my reading ability is not advanced enough I don't understand the answers. An example site: https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1510115037626460660.html

So I was hoping somebody could enlighten me as to whether this phrase is Chinese (from a minority language or written in an alternative script) or if it's imported from another language (Japanese?) and what it actually means.

The theme of the song it appears in seems to be: 'you're searching for perfection but it's human nature to be imperfect'.

Thanks for any help!

It is Amis／Pangcah (阿美族語), the language of one of the Taiwanese aborigines (台灣原住民).

阿ㄘㄟˊ ( ā céi ) means "ridiculous; crazy; unreasonable; nonsense; goofy; outrageous; nuts".

阿ㄘㄟˊ: You are nuts!

Similar phrases include 瘋了, 笨蛋, 不可理喻, 無理取鬧, 無稽之談, 胡說八道......


Bù kèqi or Bú kèqi: In PinYin, do I write the fourth or second tone with 不客气? When writing 不客气 in (PinYin):

不 = Bù

不客气 = Bù kèqi

Because of the fourth tone of kè the pronunciation is Bú kèqi.
But do i write it down as Bù kèqi or Bú kèqi?

That depends on why you are writing it. The standard, normal way of writing it is to disregard the changed tone and write the original tone, i.e.  bù kèqi. The same goes for tone changes of 一 (yī). Not showing the tone change is not a problem in this context, because the rules governing how to change the tones are quite simple. Since most Pinyin is written for native speakers, there's no need to include something which is obvious to the reader.
However, if your goal is to highlight this tone change, such as when teaching someone the language (someone for whom the tone changes are not obvious), it can sometimes make sense to write the actual tone for 不 and 一, so bú kèqi in your case, and yí yàng for 一样 or yì qǐ for 一起.
The third tone is (almost) always written as a third tone, though, as it would otherwise be impossible to know if a second tone is actually a second tone or a third tone that has changed. The only place where níhǎo would be acceptable for 你好 is in a discussion about third tone changes.
The problem of lost information does not apply to 不 and 一, so in teaching materials, changing the tone is usually a good idea (nothing lost; something gained). So, which one you choose depends on why you are writing it: If it's to teach someone pronunciation, then change the tones; if it's for something else, then leave the original tone!


Do 男人 and 女人 have an unfavourable connotation? I've sometimes earned laughter when I used 一个女人 or 一个男人. Does it have a derogative connotation?

Is it better to use 女的/男的 or 女生/男生? Are there regional differences in the usage?

男人 and 女人 are used when talking about the relationship between women and men or when talking about specific characteristics of 男人 or 女人. Without knowing your detailed context, my best guess would be that you use them to indicate a serious situation where the generic gender terms should be used, which are 男的 and 女的, or just 男 and 女.


Is there a nuance 今天早晨 conveys that 今天早上 does not? I have a feeling that one might mean slightly earlier. Is this right?

As pointed out by xiaohouzi79, 晨 actually carries the meaning of sunrise, hence implying early morning. However this indication is weak, especially when you contrast 早晨 and 早上。

However 早上 would cover the entire morning, say, from 6am to 11:59am. Therefore in a way, it is less specific.

If we want to refer to extremely early morning, before dawn, say 3am to 6am. We sometimes use the word 清晨 and if we are talking about "morning" as in "after midnight" (00:01 to 3am for example) we usually use the word 凌晨 .

So after sunrise, we usually just say 早上 , since that time period is not close to 晨 (sunrise) anymore.


Help understanding this passage 首次在天空中被人目击不到两年之后，中国新型“空警”-500预警机已经加入现役。“空警”-500预警机可以同时对470公里范围内的60多架飞机进行跟踪。“空警”-500“空中预警与控制系统”(AWACS)看起来更像是美国的空中预警机(其上部有圆形雷达穹顶)，但体积小一些，由运-9四引擎涡轮螺旋桨飞机(类似于美国的C-130)搭载。

I know what the first sentence means, but what I am getting from this passage is that the AWACS is slightly smaller than the 空中预警机 and needs transporting by another vehicle, but a search on google images shows that it is an independent jet.  This is from sina.com

Hope I didn't make too many mistakes! Makes a change from my text book!

首次在天空中被人目击不到两年之后，

For the first time in the air in 2 years,

中国新型“空警”-500预警机已经加入现役。

China's new type of 'sky patrol' early warning aircraft has joined active service.

“空警”-500预警机可以同时对470公里范围内的60多架飞机进行 跟踪。

This 'sky patrol'-500 early warning aircraft can simultaneously track more than 60 aircraft within a radius of 470 Kilometers.

“空警”-500“空中预警与控制系统”(AWACS)

'Sky patrol'-500 airborne early warning and control system (AWACS)

看起来更像是美国的空中预警机，

resembles the American airborne early warning system

(其上部有圆形雷达穹顶)

(whose upper section is a circular radar dome)

但体积小一些，

however, the dome is somewhat smaller,

由运-9四引擎涡轮 螺旋桨飞机

The aeroplane is powered by 4 Yun-9 turboprop engines

(类似于美国的C-130)搭载。

(similar to the American C-130) transporter aircraft.


How to speak more naturally / like a native Chinese speaker Some of you will have noticed that I post a lot of questions regarding translations.  In general, I believe this is a good exercise, but I've come to realize that in many cases, Chinese people don't speak like how I speak Chinese.

When I speak Chinese, particularly with more complex subjects or simply subjects I haven't been exposed to, I often have to rely on a "translation box" in my head. I have to think of how I would say it in English, then translate it. With simpler and more everyday speak, I've learned to mimic what native speakers say, and so in that sense, I've picked up a more natural way of speaking.

However, I'm beginning to grow quite weary of this strict translation. Part of this is my vocabulary, but I would like to speak more naturally. The issue is, if I don't rely on a strict translation, I don't know how else to express myself.

What are some ways I can learn to speak more naturally like a native speaker?

This question equals to How could a Chinese speak more naturally / like a native English speaker. When I was learning English, someone gave me two hints. Now I'd like to translate them to you:

About the grammar. Forget your mother language, do not try to every English sentence directly into Chinese. Think as Chinese people do, then you'll speak in the way they do.
About the accent. Watch Chinese movies, talk with native speakers. Just mimic the way they speak.


How to say "newbie" or "noob" in Chinese? What would be the most accurate term for newbie or noob, namely one that also conveys a dash of sarcasm and a bit of a condescending tone? I guess it should also be slang.

新来的 or 新手 are pretty neutral, 外行 simply means layman.

Well, while I was researching the question I may have found the answer.

Pleco says its 菜鸟, as well as the Chinese version of Newbie on Wikipedia.

One of the other interpretations in Pleco is idiot which may be too harsh，and another is beginner which is neutral and descriptive. But one of the definitions is indeed newbie.

I'm pretty much sure the answer would be 菜鸟, but what the heck, let's post anyway and see if something better comes up.


Which 相呼应 should I use in 只要? 只要 means "only if ~" or "as long as ~", and is usually used with 相呼应, such as 就 or 便 in the main clause. At least it is different from 只有, which is used with 才 or 方. But I don't understand which 相呼应 to use for 只要.

So my questions are:

Are there any other 相呼应 for 只要 other than 就 and 便?
How should I choose which 相呼应 to use?

只要 indicates a sufficient condition, i.e. "只要A就B" means "A => B", "The fact A guarantees the fact B". 就 or 便 usually gives a sense that something is simpler than one expects, so such adverbs match with 只要.

只要你努力，你就会成功。
You will (simply) succeed as long as you work hard.

只有 indicates a necessary condition, i.e. "只有A才B" means "A <= B",
"Condition A is mandatory for B to be present". 方 or 才 usually gives a sense that something is more difficult than expected, or some scenario requires more conditions than expected to achieve, so these adverbs match with 只有.

你只有努力，才会成功。
You can only succeed if you work hard.

In other usages of 就 and 才, they play similar roles, i.e. giving optimistic/pessimistic senses.

我老公昨天三点就回来了。
It was only 3 p.m. that my husband came home yesterday. (I didn't expect him to come home so early, but he did).

我老公昨天九点才回来。
It was not until 9 p.m. that my husband came home yesterday. (I expected him to come home earlier, but he just kept me waiting).

In English it doesn't require an adverb to complete a sentence with a conditional clause; but in Chinese, without an appropriate adverb like 才 or 就, the sentence will sound incomplete. Since these words are required to form a sentense, your grammar book may suggest they are conjunctions/连词, but I think in fact they are adverbs/副词.
Among them, 才 and 就 are more common in everyday use, while 便 and 方 may sound too formal. Other possibilities are rare as far as I can think of. I would suggest that you only memorize these two patterns: "只要……就……" and "只有……才……", for these two appear in our primary school textbooks as well.


The grammar of 实事求是的石 I actually want a tongue twister for practice.  But I want one that could be a Chinese sentence. Is the following at all acceptable as way to say "This is the 'seek truth through facts' rock"?

这就是实事求是的石.

By that I mean the rock on the Renmin University campus with the motto 实事求是.

On line I find nearly this, but always with 石额 or some other noun complement to 石.  Can I possibly do without that, or is 石 too much of a bound morpheme to allow that?

It's okay grammatically, but not very challenging.

粗俗書生私下心想，「石上書寫『實事求是』四字似是敘寫世上數億心上思想，實屬喜事!」


How to say "meeting" in Chinese? I would like to create a chat meeting for CL&U and so I thought, why not make the title in Chinese? I was thinking of using the term "meeting" or a similar one.

On my dictionary, for meeting, it lists the word 会议. Is this correct, or are there better terms?

会议 is used to refer to meetings generally, which is perfectly fine in this case.

If you want to stress on a particular type of meeting, for example in your case, you could say 讨论会, which is an interative meeting where people expression their opinion and communicate their thoughts with others freely.


Reference: 'hou' in Sichuanese meaning 'to eat' Looking for a reference.

Apparently 'hou' (pronunciation roughly similar to '候') means eat in Sichuanese, at least in some dialects.

For instance:

hou饭
出去hou
hou东西
hou()
hou酒

I've gone through about nine different dictionaries to just find a simple reference for this word, but with no luck.

A wild guess is it would be this character: 餱 but I have no way to prove that.

I don't have a reference handy. But as other commenters have stated, it's probably a regional form the word that means "to drink" in Mandarin and is written 喝. Words for "to eat" and "to drink" tend to cross over a certain amount between those exact senses.

As for the sound that reminds you of hou, the open final -e in Mandarin is a rather rare sound in Chinese — it's a diphthong whose phonetics are roughly [ɯɘ] or [ɯə] in Standard Mandarin — and regional equivalents are typically forms of [o].

This meaning "to consume [food]" is a fairly recent association for the character 喝 — with the modern pronunciation hè, it's attested in the meanings "to frighten" and "to berate", and is seen in those meanings in old texts. There's another reading yè for meanings connected with choking or sounds of choking, but these uses are only found in pre-modern writing.

Though neither the word nor the character is likely to be related to hè 嚇 'to frighten" or hē 訶 "to berate".

We still use 喝 in the pronunciation hè to mean "to cry out", as in yāohe 吆喝 "to shout one's wares (said of peddlers)" and hècǎi 喝彩 "to cheer (as at a sports event)". The character is attested in this sense by the Sòng.


What are the types of 剧 (theatrical work, opera, drama) in modern China? When studying Chinese, the Chinese learner journal had a section to talk about the various kinds of 剧 (theatrical work, opera, drama), for example 北京剧, etc.
It almost seems to me like every city had its own kind of 剧. Is this so? If not, what are the main types of 剧 and how do they distinguish themselves from each other?
From what I have heard, their style varies deeply from one part of China to the other.

中国戏曲 (Chinese Opera) has been a popular form of entertainment throughout China's history. The major difference between regional Chinese operas is each region uses its own local dialect. There are also cultural differences, for example, Cao Cao has white face paint (indicate villain role) in most regional operas, but not in the opera in his home town region. The other differences are minor ones, like the choice of musical instruments, details in costumes, etc.
The most famous Chinese Opera is Beijing opera (京剧) due to Mandarin being the standard Chinese language.  Cantonese opera (粤剧) is also world famous because many oversea Chinese were from Canton.

Here is a long list of opera at Wiki:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_opera

Northern
Beijing opera (Peking Opera) (京剧)
Yu opera (豫剧)
Errenzhuan/Bangzixi/Benbeng opera (二人转) (Northeast China)
Hebei bangzi (河北梆子) (Hebei)
Jiju (吉剧) (Jilin)
Lüju (吕剧) (Shandong)
Maoqiang (茂腔) (Shandong)
Pingju (评剧) (Hebei)
Puju (蒲剧) (Shanxi)
Qinqiang/Qin dynasty opera (秦腔) (Shaanxi)
Zaju (雜劇)
Jinju (晋剧) (Shanxi)

Southern
Cantonese opera (粤剧) (Guangdong)
Gaojia opera (Quanzhou)
Huaguxi (花鼓戏) (Hubei/Hunan)
Huangmei opera (Anhui)
Shanghai opera (沪剧)(Shanghai)
Kunqu (昆曲)
Liyuan opera
Teochew opera (潮剧)
Hakka opera (汉剧)
Min opera (闽剧) (Fuzhou)
Puxian opera (Putian, 莆仙戏)
Nanxi (Wenzhou)
Ouju (Wenzhou)
Shaoxing opera/Yueju (Zhejiang)
Taiwanese opera (歌仔戏)
Wuju (Jinhua)
Sichuan opera (川剧)(Sichuan)

歌仔戲 ( Taiwanese opera) https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%8C%E4%BB%94%E6%88%B2


Differences between 访问，面试 and 采访 All 3 words seem to mean to interview, interview but what are the differences between them?

面试, literally 'in-person test', refers to interview or admission test for a job or school application.

采访, literally 'pick and reach out', refers to journalist interviewing a random or specific person on the scene.

访问, literally 'reach out and inquire', refers to someone paying some specific person or place a visit with in-depth conversations, e.g. a journalist interviewing a domain expert, or a president visiting another country.


Difference between 合适 and 适合 Both 合适 and 适合 mean to fit/to suit.

I know the grammatical form needed for each one is different:

在这个情况下，你在穿的衣服就不合适。

我在找一个适合我的女孩子。

Aside of that, I have been told they cannot be used interchangeably but depending on the context either only one or the other may be used. Is that correct? How to know when to use each one?

My question refers only to the semantic context each of them is used in, not to the grammar itself.

The biggest differences between the two are:

合适 is an adjective while 适合 is a verb.
合适 can be used as an attributive modifier. E.g., 合适的机会

适合 cannot. I.e., you cannot say 适合的工作


How to translate 'hyper-','super-' and 'ultra-' exactly? The prefixes hyper-, super-, and ultra- seems all has meaning 'transcend' or 'upper class' and can all be translated to '超'. But they have a bit difference, e.g. hypergiant is larger than supergiant; hypersonic is faster than supersonic; superhigh frequency is higher than ultrahigh frequency.

So my question is what is the precise translation of them?

In colloquial English, these words all mean pretty much the same thing (though hyper- is used rather infrequently) so using 超 interchangeably shouldn't be much of a concern.

With regard to academic terminology, your best bet is to look up the specific term in question. One easy way to do this is to find the corresponding wikipage in English, and then click 中文 on the sidebar.

For example, in the case of hypergiant vs supergiant, hyper- is translated as 特超, while super- is translated as 超.

Similarly, for sonic we have hyper- as 超高 and super- as 超.

Finally, for high frequency, we have super- becoming 超高, and ultra- becoming 特高.

All of the above translations were found using the aforementioned wikipage method. From just these few examples, though, we quickly conclude that there is no single translation of the three prefixes at hand.

In fact, hypersonic and super high frequency both use the same prefix (超高) as do hypergiant and ultra high frequency (特高).

Thus, unfortunately, a precise translation must be done on a case by case basis.


A more direct translation for "I [verb] [x] more than [y]" I don't know how to directly translate a sentence like this:

  I [verb] [x] more than [y]

I would usually translate it like this:

  [x] 比 [y] 更 [some adjective that captures the same meaning as the verb]

For example, "I love you more than my phone" would become "你比我的手机更亲爱".

Is there a more direct translation?

There is a very direct translation.

If "more than" means higher degree/level of the [verb], then I [verb] [x] more than [y] can be translated to 我 [verb] [x] 甚于 [verb] [y].

I [verb] [x] more than [y]. 我 [verb] [x] 甚于 [verb] [y].
I love you more than my phone. 我 爱 你 甚于 爱 我的手机.

甚于 means "surpass, exceed", indicating the degree/level of the [verb].

If "more than" means a larger number/amount, then 甚于 should be replaced with 多于.

I play basketball more than football. 我 玩(打) 篮球 多于 玩(踢) 足球.

You may notice that the verb appeared twice in the Chinese translation. The second verb is there to avoid ambiguity. There is no case(grammar) in Chinese. A pronoun is always in the same form whether it's accusative case or nominative case. If you say

我爱你甚于他

then I don't know whether you mean

I love you more than he does. 我比他更爱你

or

I love you more than him. 我爱你甚于爱他.

If you are sure no ambiguity will be introduced, then you can leave out the second verb. As in

我爱你甚于我的手机.

There is only one reasonable interpretation, that is

I love you more than my phone.

No one will interpret it as

I love you more than my phone does. 我比我的手机更爱你.

In this case, the second verb can, but doesn't have to, be left out. It's always OK to specify the second verb.


What is the difference between 碰，触，碰触 and 触碰 difference between 碰，触，碰触 and 触碰？The dictionary differences are not clear.
Thanks!

觸 is very rarely used alone in modern Chinese. 碰 however, is, and in fact frequently so. You see it in 別碰！ (Do not touch!), for example.

觸碰 is far more common than 碰觸 albeit meaning exactly the same.

觸碰 is more written than 碰. So you see signs written like 請勿觸碰 ('Please do not touch'), but never *請勿碰.

碰 is also polysemous, so if you intend the meaning 'to come across sb.', as in 我碰到他 (where I intend to mean 'I came across him' here; it also can mean 'I touched him'), you should not write it as 我觸碰到他, which can only literally mean 'I touched him' (also more written).


How to translate "this person is salty or this person is feeling salty" For example, I had a flu shot but a week later I got the flu. I feel salty that I went through the trouble of getting the shot and still ended up sick.

Another example, I stood in line for the new iPhone for hours but it just became sold out when I am almost next in line.

Both 吃亏了，or 气死了。does not feel like it captured its meaning.

I tend to consider it as you were feeling 沮丧.


Are there any Mandarin dialects with three tones? 有只有三个声调的官话方言吗？东干语有四个音素的声调，但是在没有变调的上下文只有三个不同的声调, 例如在短语的末尾。有没有在每个上下文都用三个声调的方言？
Are there any Mandarin dialects with three tones? Standard Dungan has four phonemic tones, but only has three in contexts where tone sandhi doesn't apply, such as phrase-finally. Are there any with three tones in all contexts?
Excerpt from Wikipedia article on Dungan

There are two main dialects, one with 4 tones and the other, considered standard, with 3 tones in the final position in phonetic words and 4 tones in the nonfinal position.

Lanyin Mandarin

特征
兰银官话古入声清音声母和次浊声母字今读去声，全浊声母今读阳平。其中永登、皋兰、古浪、天祝四个地点平声不分阴阳，只有平声、上声、去声三个调；其余地点阳平与上声同调，只有阴平、上声、去声三个调。

Ürümqi Mandarin (Included in the above Lanyin topolect)

乌鲁木齐话有3个单字调：
阴平 ˦˦ 44
阳平 ˥˩ 51
去声 ˨˩˧ 213

The following might not strictly be Mandarin, but are interesting nonetheless.
Tianshui Topolect (Gansu)

There are only 3 citation tones in Tianshui dialect.

Xunhua Topolect (Qinghai):

循化话有3个单字调，湟中话有2个单字调。

(The Huangzhong topolect only has two tones.)
Nanjiang Topolect

兰银官话北疆片、中原官话南疆片基本上都是3个单字调，但调类不同。


Are there any online dictionaries that supply IPA transcriptions for Cantonese? I know little about Cantonese (for now), but please advise me if I erred in conjecturing that IPA is more precise and helpful than Yale or Jyutping Romanisations.

You might try the 漢語多功能字庫, with traditional Chinese, English interface.

On the top right corner, you can choose the scheme: IPA (number) & IPA(letter).

Have fun. :)