What Does Unicode 8.0 Mean For Chinese? Was reading Unicode 8.0 Brings 7,716 New Characters Including 36 New Emoji and 5 Skin Modifiers on iClarified, the article also mentioned:

  5,771 new ideographs for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

What Does Unicode 8.0 Mean For Chinese?

So, I think I just wrap this up in a proper answer instead of some comments with links.

Basically, there are two major changes:

9 new characters were added to the  CJK Unified Ideographs block.
A new block called 'CJK Unified Ideographs Extension E' with 5762 ideographs was added to Unicode. You can find these here (.pdf file).

Characters from the first page of the file:

According to Wikipedia, in the early stages of the new standard version,
CJK-E was originally intended to include another 16,000+ characters not present in CJK-C. However, in May 2007 the Republic of China (Taiwan) withdrew 6,545 personal name usage characters deemed no longer in use,in May 2013 China withdrew 6 characters, and many others were later withdrawn or moved to CJK-F (projected), so the current version includes 5,762 new characters. CJK-E including 5,762 Han characters will be new in Unicode 8.0.

Here's a Wikipedia article that will document these, but most browsers fail to display the characters yet.

UPDATE: Hanazono supports CJK Ext. E. Download the font from here.


"Actually" as a sentence-starter of speech filler When casually speaking English I use the word "actually" a lot at the beginning of a sentance, or as part of the flow of my speech. e.g.

  Actually, next semester doesn't start for a month.

  Actually, I don't have any siblings.

I would like to be able to continue this speech habit in Mandarin Chinese, I have been using 事实上 (shìshíshàng), but from my listeners' reactions I am not sure if this is really the same.

What is the closest equivalent expression?

"其实" or "其实呢" is more similar to what you wanted, casually. E.g.

  其实我没有兄弟姐妹.

"事实上" is not wrong, but it is literally "in fact" or "as a matter of fact".


Can one learn to comprehend Chinese texts while being unable to read aloud? I've been enjoying the book Chineasy and it make me wonder if it would be possible to read Chinese without knowing how to speak it phonetically.

Technically it might not be "reading Chinese" because you can't read the words out loud.

But the question is if you could learn the meaning of most characters and understand them well enough to comprehend Chinese texts?

Well, this is what Japanese speakers do when they look at a Chinese text – they have some understanding of it since they recognize the characters.
One fundamental problem, though, is that in modern Chinese, the majority of words are made up of two characters.  There are two types of dictionary for Chinese, one that gives character meanings (字典) and one that gives word meanings (詞/辭典).  For reading, you need the latter type.  Knowing the meaning of the characters is not enough to comprehend texts.
One reason for this is that characters have multiple meanings.  For example, the character 節 can mean something like (A) ‘joint, section’, or (B) ‘season, holiday’, or as a verb (C) ‘to restrain, control’.  There are numerous two-syllable words containing the character, and if you’re not familiar with the word, you can’t tell at a glance which meaning applies.  The character can also appear in either position.

環節 ‘link’ (meaning A)
節奏 ‘rhythm’ A
情節 ‘plot’ A
情人節 ‘Valentine’s day’ (meaning B)
節日  ‘festival, holiday’ B
過節 ‘to celebrate a holiday’ B
節省 ‘to save, economize’ (meaning C)
節儉 ‘thrifty’ C
節育 ‘birth control’ C
[Source:  zhongwen.com]

(Note the different parts of speech of the last three – having 節 in first position tells you nothing in this respect.)
This is why most people who learn Chinese as a second language spend quite a while building up their active (spoken) knowledge and getting the most common words down before they tackle texts.  Looking at real Chinese texts, it requires substantial background knowledge to even sort the characters into words.  Trying to learn to read first would quickly become overwhelming, unless you have a very unusual mind!


份, 个, 本, 两: How do they function in these sentences? I've been working with Rosetta Stone for about 2 weeks now, and due to the immersion (from the start, the entire program is entirely Chinese—no English anywhere), they don't do any explaining of grammatical concepts, they just demonstrate them.

I've come across four phrases that appear to be demonstrating some grammatical concept that I don't understand.

Here they are:

  一辆车
  一个鸡蛋
  五本书
  五份报纸

So I understand these to mean

  a car
  an egg
  five books
  five newspapers

Let's take #3. 五本书. I get that 五 is 5 and 书 is book. How does 本 function here? Is it a plural marker? Is there something with number words? Because it also seems like you can say 一匹马. So is 匹 here a plural marker? If these are plural markers, why are there so many?

To distill my question down, what is the word that often comes between a number and a noun? Are these phrases actually different, but they seem similar? It almost seems like every word has its own plural marker (if that's what these are). Are there more that I don't know about?

As others have mentioned, these are measure words (also known as classifiers*). To give a basis of comparison, in English measure words generally occur for uncountable nouns. For instance, because "bread" is uncountable, you cannot say "*three breads"; you must say "three loaves of bread" or "three slices of bread" ("loaves" and "slices" are the measure words in these examples).

In Chinese, all nouns are considered uncountable, and thus must have a measure word. Many nouns have a particular measure word associated with them (e.g., vehicles are typically measured by 辆; objects with a stick-like shape by 支; objects with handles by 把, etc.), and you simply have to remember which measure word is typically used with which noun. In many cases, the generic measure word 个 is acceptable.

Some measure words themselves can be treated as nouns, in which case they can have their own measure word too when you use them this way. For instance, "three bowls of rice" would be 三碗饭, but when you use 碗 as a noun, you would say 三个碗 which refers to "three bowls (of nothing in particular)". If you simply said 三碗, it would imply a measure of a noun that was already understood in context (for instance, of rice if the conversation was already about rice).

* Some make a distinction between the terms "measure word" and "classifier", but many people use them interchangeably. See the linked Wiki articles for more details.


Difference of 了 and 過's usage What among these sentences are correct, acceptable, or wrong?
The marks in the parentheses are my intuition.

(1)我看這本小說了。(?)

(2)我看了這本小說。(✓)

(3)我看這本小說過。(✘)

(4)我看過這本小說。(✓)

(5)我看了這本小說過。(✘)

(6)我看過這本小說了。(✓)

(7)我有看這本小說了。(✘)

(8)我有看了這本小說。(✘)

(9)我有看這本小說過。(✘)

(10)我有看過這本小說。(✓)

(11)我有看了這本小說過。(✘)

(12)我有看過這本小說了。(✘)

(1) does seem weird to me, but I am not certain.
(2) and (4) shows that 過 and 了 can both mark the completeness of action only if they appear immediately after the verb, while 了 can appear in the very end of sentence. Such construction even works in (6) "過...了".
(10) seems to suggest "有...過" is the only correct pattern for stressing the sentence.

But why? I am native speaker from Taiwan, but I would like to know whether you share the same intuition with me, and the underlying principles.
(I would most appreciate your answer if you can provide some reference!)

I agree with you for most of them. I have some comments below:

(1) would sound more natural when adding a '过'. 我看过这本小说了。which is the same as (6).

(7), I did hear it was said by the folks from Taiwan.

(12) sounds ok to me.

Just one observation of mine. In the register of the mainland, we don't usually use 有 in this kind of sentences because it's kinda redundant. Like (10), 我有看过这本小说。== 我看过这本小说。 I've heard Taiwan folks typically used 有 in this kind of sentences.


What function does the「」-shaped component have in characters like「」and「傷」? 戰國文字有從「人」和「昜」而成的「傷」字，但現代標準楷體的「傷」字與其結構有所不同；它含有一個「」形的部件。「傷」被釋爲從「人」，「」省聲的字（與說文解字的解釋一樣）：

  《說文》：「創也。从人，省聲。」

煕康字典卻有以下的條目：

  《康熙字典》：【說文】同。

若「」與「」有異體關係，那「」在「」、「傷」、「殤」、「觴」等字當中有何職能？

Chu bamboo texts show 「偒」, but it's not certain if it has anything direct to do with 「傷」 (they might have represented the same word, but their formation is not the same).

The phonetic component of 「傷」 and 「」 (basically, their right hand side) is reduced from the right hand side of the character 「⿸㫃昜」 (see last three entries here).

「㫃」 depicts a flagpole with an attached flag, and this has now been corrupted into what looks like 「方」 (remnant of the flagpole) and 「」 (remnant of the flag) as a component, in characters like 「旌」, 「旗」, 「旋」, etc. 「」 in 「傷」 and 「」 is from the top right of 「⿸㫃昜」.

References:

裘錫圭《文字學概要》


A good price to offer - Chinese Numerical Significance I am trying to buy from an older Chinese couple and am trying to come up with an enticing offer. The listing price is 388K but I am looking to pay around 350K.

Someone pointed out that 388 is a good or lucky number so I am looking for a number near 350K that is good and why it is a good number.

Anything with 8 or double 8 is best. 68 is or 28 may also be considered favourably. Avoid the use of anything with a 4 as this is associated with the same phonetic sound as death...

I think that covers them all.


When describing an idiot, "一根弦的傻子"? 一根弦的傻子

From what I see, "An idiot with one root/string?"

I don't really understand where the meaning would be taken from. Would an English equivalent be something like "An idiot with only one brain cell"?

As Pedroski has explained, 一根弦的傻子 or 脑子一根弦 refers to those who clings to one idea. 一根弦 can be interpreted as "single-minded". But note that it is not necessarily a derogatory term.
For example, in the following sentence,

一根弦的傻子，也能熬出头。
A single-minded fool can eventually survive from the nights and succeed as well.

一根弦 implies that the "fool" is determined and strong-willed and will not give up on what he/she has been pursuing for.


What is the difference between 晚上 and 夜里? when I was looking the definition of both of these words. It showed that they both meant night. Does both of these words mean night?

As a native speaker, these two word actually mean very different things to me:
晚上 refers to in the evening, the period of time between sunset and going to bed.
夜里 refers to in the night, anytime after people have gone to bed.
There should be very few cases where these are interchangeable, just like you can’t always swap “evening” for “night”

晚上一起吃饭吧？
Wanna eat out tonight(aka this evening)?

夜里一起吃饭吧？【误】
Wanna eat out tonight(aka at night)? [wrong]

Note how in English we are actually accustomed to use tonight for both meanings and I think that’s where the confusion kicked in.


Hong Kong Cantonese: Derogatory Terms For Mainlanders What derogatory terms are there for mainlanders in Hong Kong Cantonese?

I know there are a lot of terms that start with 北 but I'm not sure of specific ones.

The one with 北 could be 北姑 or 北佬.

There are many other derogatory terms for Mainlanders, including:

阿燦
表叔, 表姐
强国人
皇虫, 蝗虫

Refer to this, this and this.


To add: which should I use 新增, 添加or增添? I mostly hear 增添 in most contexts, but lately have come across 新增 and 添加. What are the differences in tone and register?

These words are very similar in meaning. There are some more variants like 添加，加添，添增……

新增 is generally used in the sense of "add a new feature", often in the context of software. However, it can also substitute for other variants of "add". It puts more emphasis on the fact that something has changed, rather than what has been added.
新增 is often used as an adjective.

增加 tends to be used with things that can be expressed in numbers, like money, weight and so on. 增添 is more commonly used for more abstract things like content or effort. However, it's not wrong to switch them around.

添加 seems a bit more formal, more likely to appear in written language. It's often used for sentences like

牙膏中添加少量的氟化物
some fluoride is added to toothpaste

... and other food-related expressions.


Which country is 岛国? and now for a weibo post

  咱们四川流行的“头上开小花”发卡已经火到国外了，还在岛国推特排行榜登上了第一，分分钟过万转……十一区网友有的表示“灰常萌应该引入动漫里”，还有的表示“大叔带上格外喜感想嫁”，当然最多的回复是“看来我已不懂时尚”[笑cry]

I'm told 岛国 is either TW or HK, but how can I know which it is?

what is 岛国 referencing?

岛国 is used for Japan in most cases (especially on net), usually as a satirical usage (especially on net again). e.g.

  我们叫日本岛国叫韩国棒子，那外国人叫我们什么？

Why? I believe it's because among many geographical island countries, Japan is the nearest and biggest one, and having the most close relationship with China. Whether the relationship is good or bad, and how it changed and changes, Japan is the one China and Chinease most care about.

Here is a Japanese's introduction about this alias:

  中国人は確かに日本のことを「島国」と言ったりします。そして日本を「島国」と呼ぶときは、多くの場合において侮蔑的な意味合いを持ちます

中国人确实有时候将日本称为"岛国"。而且大多数时候带有侮辱的含义。
(Chinese people do call Japan as岛国sometimes, and contains insult meaning in most cases.)

Here're some other (more formal) names for Japan: 倭国, 东洋, 东瀛, 扶桑.


Decipher particular short cursive inscription (is it really 习近平's signature?) During his visit in the Czech Republic, the president of PRC Xi Jinping (习近平) has made a record in the castle of Lany guestbook. Its photo was posted publicly.

The second line 二〇一六年三月廿八日 is obviously the date 2016-03-28,
but what are the main three characters above? They don't look like the name signature much.

That's 習近平 (Xi Jinping)'s signature. Just written in Traditional Chinese characters.

EDIT:

This is Xi's signature on his dissertation (Doctor of Laws):


What does 都是套路 mean? I had a friend type it out, but Google translate said it meant "Routine", and she insisted that's not what it means.

Apparently it's slang?

Has anybody heard this before, and know what it translates into?

Literally, "it's all routine", which is now used online to mean "act according to scripts, not from heart". That is, you mindlessly follow what a book or someone else tells you to do, step by step, without any thinking from yourself.

I believe it originated from the routines to date girls. (I made this up) 1. get her out, 2. pick a restaurant that is quiet and posh, 3. "carelessly" drop something on the ground so you can touch her hand, etc, which eventually leads to get her to bed. So guys follow this routine mindlessly and girls recognise his behaviour "is all routine (to get me to bed)", not to start a serious relation.


What is this book called? 汉说文 I am beginning Chinese speaker, but I watch this documentary on Chinese characters and they talk about origins of the characters from ideograms.  They refer to a book called "Roots of Characters" but I cannot find it.  Instead using Chinese Characters 汉说文 I find a website with some information: http://shuowen.xpcha.com/03ch6de8uu4.html Here is the entry for:  水 (shui : water)

What is the English name of this book?  Is there a reliable online resource?

The book is "说文解字", shorten as "说文".
汉 here means the time when it was written, the Han Dynasty; but not Chinese(汉语/汉文). People may refer it to "汉·说文" or just "说文".
You can get details here: Wikipedia/Shuowen_Jiezi


Some characters look different handwritten and on the computer - how to learn the differences? I've mainly been learning to read/write Chinese using computer based software as opposed to going to lessons etc.

However, I've realised that there is a small handfull of characters that look different handwritten and on the computer (and sometime there seems to be variations between fonts as well)

For example: 聚

I've seen it written once, and the bottom looks very different (so much so that I didn't recognise the character!)

Is there a rule of thumb for variations between handwritten/computer fonts? Also, is it acceptable if I hand write characters in "computer form"?

Thanks!

edit: adding picture...

From: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=chardict&cdcanoce=0&cdqchi=%E8%81%9A.

As you can see, those two characters (both 聚) seem quite different. If I remember correctly, the large black one is more similar to the handwritten one I saw (whereas the blue one is the one I usually see on the computer/mobile).

Note: I'm fairly sure this isn't a case of simplified vs traditional.

Ok, this is similar to another question about why certain people refer to 土豆 as peanuts and some as potato and some other people as something else.

Prior to the official process of simplification of characters there has already been different ways in which people were simplifying writing different characters, it didn't just happen overnight. So for certain characters and certain parts of characters there was already different ways of writing these.

And as per the language example above these traveled and certain simplifications were set in certain parts of the country so that there were regional differences. This in turn created sets of written characters used in different regions.

You can switch the character set your browser is using, but most pages now are served in Unicode.

I assume whatever encoding your browser has is not a standard Chinese font or Unicode. My Firefox browser detects the page as Unicode and it displays as follows:

UPDATE:

In answer to your question in the comments above as to which one is the right one for you to use?

Your best bet in answering a question like this is checking a dictionary. That way you can be sure you have the right one. The other resource you can use for this is wiktionary http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%81%9A

You can also see variants of characters at this site, including yours here: http://chardb.iis.sinica.edu.tw/variants.jsp?cid=19626 but this doesn't provide information if or where this is being used.


Is there any difference between 汤 and 羹? Are 汤 and 羹 used to refer to different kinds of soup or is 羹 merely a part of the full word for soup (汤羹)? For example, is one used to refer to light soups while the other is reserved for heavy broths?

In my opinion, 汤 is a more common to be seen. When it refers to "soup", the "soup" is thin. I mean, most ingredient is water, and you can find other things such as meat, vegetables,etc. inside the water.

羹 is a thick soup. Generally, we will add some 芡粉(qiàn fĕn)(most composition is the starch) to the soup(We call this action "勾芡(gōu  qiàn)"). The starch will absord the water, so it makes the soup "thick".


Descriptors for moody teenagers? There are few common ways to describe moody teenagers, albeit not overly precise:

  (很)叛逆(期)

or

  青春(期)

I'm wondering if there is anything more colorful to describe these cranky kids?

Some suggestions:

多愁善感 is a common phrase for describing moody

Moody teenagers would be 多愁善感的少年 or simply 多愁少年

林黛玉 in 紅樓夢 is a classic example of 多愁善感的少女 (多愁少女)

~

憤青 short for 憤怒青年 (angry teenager)

~

抑鬱少年 (depress teenager)

~

情緒化 means 'emotional'

情緒化的少年 means 'emotional teenager'


Can I type pinyin in Debian Linux? I'm working on Debian Wheezy Linux. I've seen some posts using pinyin tone marks.

I was wondering if I can do that in Linux (Debian Wheezy).
How can I configure it?

You can install ibus and ibus-pinyin (there's also google pinyin but I personally prefer ibus-pinyin) or scim. Scim is more the historical software, but ibus is definitely better.

You will probably have to restart (!), but then there's about no configuration: at most, you learn the shortcuts to switch between input methods.


Where, when and what is the word 圆舞 used for? I've heard people call Waltz (music) either 华尔兹 or 圆舞曲, but I've only heard people call Waltz (dance) 华尔兹, never 圆舞.

According to Baidu, 圆舞 does have a meaning of Waltz (dance). It has another meaning of some country/ceremonial dance, seems to suggest this word had been existed before Waltz was imported.

I see this word used as 亦舒's book title, but having not read that book, I don't know if the usage is captured from real life experience or rather fictitious.

Since I've never heard this word used in my daily life, not even from the elders, I am wondering if this word is still used at all. If yes, in which Chinese-speaking region is it used and which meaning of the two does it refer to? If no, was this word ever a common word (when?) and which meaning was it used for?

My guess, and I think this is a reasonable good guess is that 华尔兹 = "waltz" and 圆舞 = "round dance" and in English a waltz is a type of round dance.

So you don't hear people calling "华尔兹" "圆舞" because "华尔兹" is a type of "圆舞" but 圆舞曲 can be used for any kind of "圆舞" not just for waltzes.

If you use Google to search for the definition of round dance you get the following:

  round dance

  Noun

  A folk dance in which the dancers form one large circle.
  A ballroom dance such as a waltz or polka in which couples move in circles around the
  ballroom.

Also from the wikipedia article on Round dance:

  Modern social round dancing is choreographed and cued ballroom dancing
  that progresses in a circular pattern, counter-clockwise around the
  dance floor. The two major categories of ballroom rhythm found in
  round dancing are the smooth or international rhythms, such as foxtrot
  and waltz, and the Latin rhythms, such as cha-cha and rumba.


Is there a difference between 愿意 and 肯? Is there a difference between 愿意 and 肯 in the following sentence?

"Are you willing to go to China for work?" being translated to one of the two?

你愿不愿意去中国工作？
你肯不肯去中国工作？

In general they're about the same. They are actually used to define each other in some dictionaries. Colloquial usages might differ, but in most cases you can safely use 肯 in place of 願意, especially when spoken.

There is a little difference though. While both words mean agreement/acceptance, with 肯 its acceptance regardless of whether you are happy/willing. In contrast 願意 indicates that its what you want, i.e. there is no unwillingness. So for instance, when exchanging marriage vows, we say 我願意 and not 我肯. The latter would carry an undertone of reluctance.


Isn't it confusing to have Japanese words just next to Chinese words? I can't read Chinese but sometimes access the film database of Douban. I've noticed that they always place the original titles just next to the Chinese title - separated by a simple space, with no parentheses or anything.

They do this even when the title is in Japanese and starts with the same ideogram used by Chinese, as in this example with 千与千寻 千と千尋の神隠し:

Isn't it confusing to place Japanese kanji just next to a Chinese word? This example includes の and maybe other obviously Japanese kanji, which may help a little, but the space between 寻 and 千 is barely noticeable, and they do it with titles in kanji-only too.

The person who designed the website must assumed that the majority of the Douban users are Chinese. As native speakers, we can identify Chinese letters without any effort, and this design doesn’t bother us at all (although I think its a bad design).


What is the function of 而 and 為咗 in 我哋為咗決定去邊度度蜜月而閙交 in Cantonese? 我哋為咗決定去邊度度蜜月而閙交.

In this sentence, I understand that the meaning is “we got into an argument when deciding where to go for a honeymoon.”

What is the function of 而 and 為咗？

[為咗 A 而 B] = [ to B for A]. It is a two parts function word for  "for "

[(為咗) cause (而) verb]  =  [verb (for) cause]

Example :

"(為咗)钱(而)工作" =  "work (for) money"

  [我哋(為咗)決定去邊度度蜜月(而)閙交] =  [we (to) quarrel (for) deciding where to go to have honeymoon]

In English, we have to omit "to" before the verb if there's a subject in the sentence , e.g. "to work for money" -->  "I work for money". but we don't omit "而" in "我為咗钱而工作" in Chinese, because [為咗 cause 而 verb] is a set structure.


six months or in June 去以六月息者也。

Hello it's Zhuangzi Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease, first chapter.

My question:
Does he rest for six months or in June. Is Chinese the same in both cases? Does 者 mean he who goes for rest for six months?

In Chinese, although both a phrase like "six months" and the word "June" contain the characters 六 and 月, there will often be a measure word if we are talking about a specific quantity of months (i.e. in the "six months" case), the same way there will be a measure word for something like "six cats" ("六只猫") or "six books" ("六本书").

Thus, it should be generally possible to distinguish between "June" ("六月") and "six months" ("六个月"). (月 uses the word 个.) However, in this case, given the 去以, "six months" reads better ("the past six months" instead of "the past June"), at least to me as someone who does not know the context.

So I can only give you the "general" case of whether one can distinguish between what is essentially "the Xth month" and "X months" in Chinese (i.e. yes). vermillon's answer resolves the question of why I'd still presume "six months" here -- it's simply a classical Chinese thing I wasn't aware of (and it does read better).

Your assessment of 者 (as something to the effect of "he who") appears to be correct. As seen in these dictionary examples (note: the dictionary definitions itself are sometimes very unhelpful or downright probably wrong, but the examples should be fine), 者 can be appended to some sort of descriptor (whether one that takes the purpose of an adjective or a verb) to mean "the individual(s) who" or the such. For instance, 受害者 means "the individual(s) who were harmed", and 第三者 is "[those of a] third party", and the webpage gives the example "他猛击进攻者。"

I am not sure about the exact translation given the 也 which I'm having difficulty accounting for, but things otherwise sound fine.


What does this 鼎力 mean here? 关键是减少烟民数量，要实现这个目标，光靠医生的劝导是不幸的，还需要国家采取措施鼎力支持。

When I look up 鼎力 I get 'your kind help' or 'thanks for your help'.

In the above sentence, I think it just means 'help', or are there other connotations? Could I change it for '帮助‘？

Edit after reading wpt's answer:

还需要国家采取措施鼎力支持。= also the state needs to adopt strongly supportive measures.

鼎力 here 'strongly' is that about right??

Acc. to the 教育部國語辭典, a 鼎 ding was originally a cooking pot with three feet (there were also 方鼎 with four feet), and in the Minnan dialect the word ding is still used for cooking pot. Later, however, ding came to describe the massive cauldrons used in ritual ceremonies during the Zhou dynasty.

The word ding has many connotations derived from this sense, such as 傳國的寶器 a precious vessel passed on as a symbol of royal authority, or 比喻三公、宰相、重臣等高位 a metaphor for the highest authorities of the state.

鼎力 is a very formal literary phrase that means 'with strong support', and is used in idioms like 鼎力相助, 鼎力玉成. It doesn't have to be 'state', support but it does imply that the support comes from powerful or influential persons, and is thus a flowery sort of compliment in the idioms above.


Using 變音 when reading Classical Chinese poetry in Cantonese The poem 《登鸛雀樓》 (Climbing Stork Tower) has the final line 更上一層樓.

If I were to read this in Cantonese, would I pronounce the final character as lau4 (without 變音), or lau2 (with 變音)?

My guess would be without, because of the classical context.

It should be read in the original lau4 (陽平) tone, but not only because it's "classical", but primarily because the poem follows the tone pattern of a five-syllable regulated verse (五絕).

Tones in Middle Chinese were classified into 平 (level), 上 (rising), 去 (departing), and 入 (entering), the latter three of which were classified as 仄 (oblique) for the purposes of tone classification in a regulated verse.  平 tones correspond to modern Cantonese tones 1 and 4 in the 9-tone system where entering tones are numbered separately, and 仄 correspond to the rest.

A typical four-line five-syllable regulated verse that starts with a 仄 tone syllable (of which 《登鸛雀樓》 is one) has the following tone pattern:

  仄 仄 平 平 仄

  平 平 仄 仄 平

  平 平 平 仄 仄

  仄 仄 仄 平 平

  Notes:

  The syllables marked in bold are those that can be substituted with their "opposite" tone (i.e., 仄 instead of 平 or vice versa).
  The first line may also be 仄 仄 仄 平 平.
  All 平 syllables at the end of each line must rhyme.

The line that you cite, 更上一層樓, is the last line in the poem. The Cantonese tones of the first four characters in this line is 3-5-7-4; you can see that the tone of the last character must also be 4 in order for it to match the tone pattern 仄 仄 仄 平 平.

EDIT: I found a YouTube video as well where you can clearly hear it pronounced as lau4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YakQ1ACaf0


Do native speakers learn about 4 tones in school or do they naturally pick them up without formal education? Do native speakers explicitly learn about 4 tones in school or do they naturally pick them up without formal education? If so how does the school test it? By having students write appropriate tone marks on words? Or do they have oral tests?

I think there are two different ways to read the first part of your question:

1. Do children learn how to say words with the appropriate tones prior to going to school?

2. Are children explicitly aware of the tones they're using. (e.g., When they say 中国, do they know or could they explain that 中 is zhong1 and 国 is guo2)?

The answer to #1 is (obviously!) yes.  It's their native language, so of course they pronounce it (more or less) correctly, and that includes the tones.  The answer to #2 is mostly no, and instruction in school builds that explicit knowledge.

To make an analogy to English speakers, consider stressed and unstressed syllables.  Children who are native speakers of English correctly stress different syllables of multi-syllable words.  In "computer" they will stress the 2nd syllable, and in "telephone" they will stress the 1st.  But if I were to ask my 4-year-old son "Which syllable is stressed in the word 'computer'?" he wouldn't be able to tell me. When he gets older and begins to understand syllables and patterns of stress in English, he will gain that explicit knowledge. (Though as Gangosa notes in his/her answer, you can speak English just fine without it.)

One additional point: As EmmaXL states in her answer: "Pinyin is to assist students to learn Chinese." More specifically on the mainland, explicit knowledge of pinyin helps students' Chinese move closer to standard Putonghua. With such major differences between dialects of Chinese, this explicit instruction is necessary to get everybody speaking (mostly) the same language.


Reading of 匙 meaning “key” (as in 钥匙) Essentially the same as this question, but the solutions there don't seem applicable here. Both isolated and in compounds, I can only find 匙 as either shi⁰ or chi² “spoon”.

Can this character in this context have a specific tone, and if so in what resource can it be found? Or is looking at tone alone misleading; is/was it possible to read 钥匙 as yao⁴chi²? (Where?)

匙 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/371/
[粵] ci4 | [國] chi2 : spoon
[粵] si4 | [國] shi5 : key

When '匙' means 'spoon', it is read as /chi2/ in Mandarin
When '匙' means 'key', it is read as /shi5/ in Mandarin
It doesn't matter it is by itself or in a compound word
There are other examples of single character that have more than one meaning and pronounced differently for each meaning.  樂 is one of them. When 樂 means 'joy' it is read as /le4/; When 樂 means 'music' it is read as /yue4/


What is the correct orientation of "ㄧ" in zhuyin fuhao? In zhuyin fuhao (bopomofo), "ㄧ" is equal to "i" or "yi" in Hanyu pinyin. I have noticed, when displayed on my computer, even with very complete fonts, I see a vertical line (similar to "|"), but when I see a picture of this symbol (e.g. see here: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/zhuyin.htm), I see a horizontal line (similar to "一").

Does this symbol have two forms? When are they used?
What is the correct direction for this when writing horizontal text? Vertical or horizontal?
Is my computer turning it the wrong direction if I see a "|" (vertical line) when typing horizontal text?
If horizontal is correct, how do I type it horizontal?

Sorry for my misunderstanding of your question. Actually, because 注音符号 is abandoned in the mainland(it still remains in the dictionary), and is mainly popular in Taiwan, so I am not familiar with that system.

I searched 注音符号 on the Wikipedia, and I found the answer.

  依照中华民国教育部规定，注音符号的“ㄧ(yi)”在直写时要写成“—”、而横写时写成“丨”。台湾国语教育一般使用直写，故在台湾一般人并没学过“丨”，在横写时亦写成“—”。中国大陆由于废除中文直写，故字典等采用的注音符号字型，都固定造成“丨”的形状。下为瓶子两字的排列方法：

It says, the Ministry of Education of R.o.C specified that "|" was used when the characters were aligned horizontally, and "一" was used when the characters were aligned vertically. However, in the practice of education in Taiwan, usually only "一" is used and thus Taiwanese doesn't know the "|" form. In the mainland, only "|" is used.


插,刺,捅,扎 what are the differences? I looked up a dictionary and

插,刺,捅,扎 are all translated as "sting".

Any difference between them? For example some are more casual while others are not...

cha,
usually use it as, fork, you stick fork into food. you stick your finger into your mouth, etc. its usually not aggressive.

ci,
the second one, basically as, needle, eg: the fish bone hurt my finger... when you are having a shot from doctor, etc.

tong,
I feel this is like, you use weapon firmly stick into something, a bit aggressive. for example, the knife sticked into your body...etc

zha,
this one is like an accident, you accidentally hurt your finger, by a very small, sharp thing, for example: the glass hurt me, you can use "zha", also "zha" usually is not deep, its like hurt you on the surface...

just a brief explain.


About a line in 爱拼才会赢 Here are the full lyrics of the song in the title as found here, where a video is also found:

  一时失志不免怨叹
  一时落魄不免胆寒
  那通失去希望
  每日醉茫茫
  无魂有体亲像稻草人

  人生可比是海上的波浪
  有时起  有时落
  好运 歹运 总嘛要照起工来行
  三分天注定 七分靠打拼
  爱拼才会赢

And here is my translation attempt:

  If you're disappointed for a moment, don't grumble and grudge
  If you're panick-stricken for a moment, don't stay struck with terror
  [Na-thang] lose hope
  Be drunk every day
  Have a body but not a soul, like a scarecrow

  Life is like the waves of the sea:
  Sometimes it raises,    sometimes it falls
  Good luck   bad luck    will all pass as destined
  3 parts are decided by heaven    7 parts rely on [your] fighting
  [You] should fight, only then will you win

Actually, I have two questions:

What does that "na-thang" mean and how should it be spelt? The translation in the link, "Going through times without hope, we may drown our sorrow in liquor" doesn't convince me, because it seems to suggest 通 means "go through", which is not documented in my Min reference, and it has a "may" that is nowhere to be found in the following line; one suggestion it gives is to write "na" with 若, and take it as "if"; on that lead, I would guess 若通 is a word for "if", like 若準 | nā-tsún, but this is not recorded in my reference; another track might be to interpret 通 as a classifier of occasions or time, something like 次 or 时, and read this as «In such times you lose hope, etc», or interpret 失去希望 as what the classifier is classifying, and read this as «In those times of losing hope / You get drunk every day / …»; which of the three guesses is correct? Or is it none of them? And in this case, what is the correct interpretation and spelling of the line?
I am guessing 醉茫茫 is just a way to intensify 醉, something like "dead drunk" or "drunk-ass" in English; is this correct?

UPDATE

From my source, entry on 茫:

  形容人神智不清的狀態。例：袂曉啉酒閣啉並濟的，這馬咧茫矣乎？Bē-hiáu lim-tsiú koh lim phīng tsē--ê, tsit-má teh bâng--ah--honnh? (不會喝酒還喝那麼多，這下子可喝醉了吧？)；醉茫茫　tsuì-bâng-bâng(醉得神智不清)。

So 茫 is essentially a synonym of 醉, and 醉茫茫 means exactly what I thought (醉得神智不清: drunk to the point that the mind isn't well-functioning, lit. "clear").

So question 2 is solved, and only question 1 remains.

I am from Taiwan, and 閩南語 is one of my mother language.
I think "na tang"(那通) is simplified from "na e dang"(怎麼可以).
The translation of“那通失去希望 每日醉茫茫” should be
"How can you get drunk all the day after losing a hope."
I found a blog which explains this song clearly, though it was written in Chinese.
http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_4e97365d0100b7c1.html

I am curious why you don't ask the translation of 照起工來行...
It is so strange.
Give you a reference: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/iongji/pdf/annesia311pdf.pdf&gws_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=3ZLSWbfqI4TO0gS9jquQAg


What is the proper usage of 而已 in Chinese? I always hear Chinese people making sentences using 而已 - but I've never quite, 100%, understood how to use this in sentences myself. What is the correct way to apply it, and what is the English equivalent?

“而已” is always used at the end of a sentence and with words like “仅仅”,"只","不过". A similar word in Chinese is "罢了"(actually, this word comes from 满语). You use the structure "......(part A),不过......(part B)而已" to emphasize the expression that A is just limited within B. You could only use "不过", also, and "而已“ weakens your mood and sometimes expresses that you don't have help to (or don't take care of) B.

For example:

Your girlfriend and you are watching a magic performance. The magician is going to stab a sword into the assistant's body and your girlfriend gets scared. You would say:"别紧张，这不过是魔术表演而已。"(Don't worry, this is just a magic performance[so you don't have to get worried about it])
The famous writer in modern times, 鲁迅(lu3 xun4) has a novel collection called 《而已集》.In the preface, he wrote:"连‘杂感’也被‘放进了应该去的地方’时，我于是只有‘而已’而已" (while my "random thoughts“ are put into the place where it is supposed to go(meaning, he is not allowed to publicize his thoughts, criticisms), I could only say "而已")to show his helpless and sadness.

The equivalent for the structure "不过......而已" would be "only","just".


Nouns where the negative demands a different verb We learned

  我對什麼什麼很感興趣

But when I wrote

  xx我對明星一點興趣都不感

It was corrected to

  我對明星一點興趣都沒有

What are some other nouns that take a different verb in the negative?

我對明星一點興趣都不感

Your problem is not that verb itself, but the word order.
The correct order is: 我對明星一點 都不感興趣.

Hope this could help you.


How to say I studied for 3 months (not continuous) I want to say that I studied mandarin for 3 months last summer (and have not studied since then) but am confused about about sentence order and 了 placement
Is 下个暑假我学了三个月汉语 correct?
If I wanted to add in that I studied in Shanghai would 在上海 go before 学了 (下个暑假我在上海学了三个月汉语)?
Thank you!!

"下个暑假我学了三个月汉语" has two problems.
First, "下个暑假" is next summer, not last. If it's next summer, "了" , as a resultative verb suffix, should not be there, since the action cannot have been completed yet. The correct time is "上个暑假" or better still, "去年夏天". since you never indicated that it's during the summer vacation, so I would simply say "夏天", summer.
Second, "我学了三个月汉语" tells me you learned Chinese for three months. And most people would understand it to be a continuous three months, unless you specify that it's off and on, just like you would in an English sentence. I would add an adverb of manner "斷續" before the verb to indicate it is off and on.
去年夏天我斷續学了三个月汉语。
If you want to add an adverb of place, then it will come before the verb.
去年夏天我在上海斷續学了三个月汉语。


Meaning of 的 and 之 when both are used in the same sentence I’m reading a text in which 的 and 之 are sometimes used in the same sentence, in seemingly equivalent or exchangeable function and position.
But I’m sure the author had good reasons to choose the respective characters.

The Text is by 黃冠閔 Huang Kuan-min, the quotes within the text are by 牟宗三 Mou Zongsan.
This is an example:

  在春光中的混沌情感,是「傷春」的來源(但非「悲秋」),牟宗三在自述中回顧地指出「對於混沌而迷離的昏沉之感之事後的說明」,他分析傷春的情感如何對應於混沌的生命狀態:「滿盈無著是春情,虛無怖慄是『覺情』(覺悟向道之情)」。

Strictly speaking, this sentence contains text from two different authors, but I’m specifically curious about the part in quotes, where I emphasized all occurrences of 的 and 之.

Why is this particular sequence (的…之…之…的) chosen?
Could the order be turned around (之…的…的…之) or randomised (之…之…之…之 / 的…的…之…的 etc.)?

之 is the classical Chinese counterpart of 的 in modern Chinese

In classical Chinese, writers rarely use compound words if single character words with the same meaning is available.

  的(昏沉)

  之(感)

  之(事)

  的(說明)

Notice 的 apply to two characters compound words and 之 apply to single character words.

If you switch  the single character words 感 and 事 into compound words 感覺 and 事情, you should also change the classical 之 to the contemporary 的

  的(感覺)

  的(事情)

Using 之 with compound words like "之感覺" or "之事情" is not considered grammatically wrong, just sound awkward. It is all about style

Changing '之事' to '的事' is fine, because '事' can replace '事情' in modern Chinese. e.g. "今天的(事情)" can be reduced to "今天的(事)"

However, changing '之感' to '的感' is considered a grammar mistake because we don't use '感' to replace '感覺' in modern Chinese. e.g. "痛苦的(感覺)" cannot be changed to "痛苦的(感)"

  「對於混沌而迷離(1. 的昏沉)(2. 之感)(3. 之事)後(4. 的說明)」

#1 and 4 are common modern Chinese; #2 and 3 are classical style Chinese.

Yes, we do routinely mix classical style into modern Chinese in our writing and daily conversation. It is all about style, four 的 in a row "...的昏沉的感覺的事情後的說明" make the sentence sounds confusing  -  a bad run on sentence

"...的昏沉之感之事後的說明"  is also a run on sentence
, but at least it is not that bad with different styles mixing in.

Even "...的昏沉之感覺之事情後的說明" is better than "...的昏沉的感覺的事情後的說明"


Use of 十年中 to express duration Does 十年中 mean "in ten years"? I found it in this sentence from tatoeba.org:

他十年中第一次回家。
He returned home for the first time in ten years.

It seems like I could use the same pattern to say, "I haven't had a drink in five years." 我五年中没有喝酒。 Does that work?

Yes.
中 can be used to express that something happened of didn't happen within a certain scope or range or just within something (《现代汉语词典》: 范围内；内部). The range doesn't need to be a time range, but it can be. Furthermore, it can also refer to the future.
So you can say:

他预言战争将在下几年中爆发: He predicted that war would break out in the next few years.
年中
在最近若干年中: In recent years
在过去一百二十年中，人口已膨胀了十倍: In the past 120 years the population has increased tenfold.
过去几年中，许多工人对美术发生了兴趣: Many workers have taken to the arts in the past few years.
随后的四十年中，债务人受州法律的保护: For the next 40 years debtors were subject to state laws.

As already mentioned it can also refer to other things than a time range. Some examples:
家中， 水中， 山中， 心中， 队伍中


The function of 这么 in this line If someone says to me

  您打算这么干吗？

I would assume they were asking me "what are you planning to do" but the 这么 is throwing me off, would it be more accurate to assume they were asking me "in what way are you planning to do it?"

A bit more context would be helpful, but you could be right, 这么 can be translated as 'so, this way, like that'

您打算这么干吗？
Did you mean to do that?
Did you mean to do it like that?
Do you intend to do this?
Are you going to do this?

你应该这么做.
This is how you do it.
That's what you should do.


Shorter name for PRC than 中华人民共和国 Is there a shorter term for the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国)? Seven syllables is quite a mouthful. There's 中国 and 大陆 but they aren't quite the same.

中国 (China) can include the Taiwan, the Republic of China's territory, under a One China principle
大陆 (mainland) doesn't include Hong Kong and Macau

Following are the internationally recognized terms used. They should be very clear for you to find out the English equivalent:

中(华人民共和)国 — () usually omitted unless very formal
[中国]大陆 — [] not often omitted
台湾{地区} / {中国}台湾 — {} showing political preference
{中国}香港 — {} showing political preference
{中国}澳门 — {} showing political preference


What does 幾分 means in 我愛你有幾分? The lyric of a popular song "月亮代表我的心" (YouTube video) contains the phrase "我愛你有幾分".
This is my interpretation:

我 means I, me
愛 means love, care
你 means you
有 means to have or to have something you shouldn't have
幾 means few
分 means separation, divide

So I think it should be translated to "I love something you have with few division."
Can't figure where I am wrong.

我 = I

愛你 = love you

有幾分? (in what degree) = how deep? --> how much?

我愛你有幾分? = how deep I love you

分(degree) here is a classifier for depth
Example:
沒半分愛意 (don't have a tiny bit of love) 半分 --> very little/ very lightly
有幾分愛意 (have some degree of love) 幾分 --> mildly
十分愛你 (love you very much); 十分 --> fully


What's a good place to look up the etymology of certain Chinese words that aren't immediately obvious? Many Chinese words make a lot of sense when you consider the meanings of individual characters. However, others aren't quite as obvious at first glance.

For example, Why does 有机 as in 有机食品 mean organic? answers the question of why 有机 means "organic" (as in food).

My question is:  Is there a good resource for looking up this kind of information, like a book, website, etc?

I'm not talking so much about glyph origin here, although that might be related--I'm talking more about the meanings of compound words or 成语 that don't quite seem (at first) to line up with the meanings of the individual characters.

More examples of the kind of information I'm hoping for this resource to contain:

Why does 取缔 mean "to ban" when 取 means "to get" and 缔 is "close
connection"?
Why does 干脆 mean "straightforward/clear-cut"?
Why does 马脚 mean "let the cat out of the bag"?

BTW I totally understand that some of these words may just be the way the are without a clear reason (there are tons of English words that just don't make a lot of sense), but some words, like 马脚 I'm sure have some interesting story behind them. I'd love to have some resources to be able to look these up besides Googling, which tends to be rather hit or miss.

Try this: Hong Kong, Arts Faculty at "cuhk.edu.hk" such as https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E9%98%9C
Regards.


When to use 一倍 vs 两倍 I would like to have a clarification on this: I know that 倍 means "-times, -fold", but I don't understand why 一倍 seems to mean "twice as (fast)" in the following sentence:

开车最少比骑自行车快一倍。

while we have to use 两倍 in the following sentences:

8是4的两倍。
X贵两倍。

I don't know how to tag this question so feel free to change it.

If some words that mean "is" (e.g 是/相当于 ) are used, then it's literal times.

你的速度 是 我的两倍。

Your speed is twice as mine.

Normally you will not say "one times" in this scenario. 你的速度是我的一倍 (Your speed is one times as mine) sounds strange in both English and Chinese. You can just say "你的速度和我的一样快"/ “我们俩一样快" (You are as fast as me).

If other "comparing" words that means "more than"(e.g. A 比 B 大/高/快/etc.) show, then it's literal times + 1. Followed one has the same meaning of previous one.

你的速度 比 我快一倍。

You are one time faster than me.


Does reading books with pronunciation written above the characters develop one's skills? I've got some books in Chinese, written both in characters and pinyin. Can reading such a book develop anything when it comes to my Chinese? I started reading it by hiding the pronunciation with a purposefully prepared piece of paper but it's so uncomfortable that I want to give it up. I wanted to read books in order to enhance my character recognition. But if I don't hide anything, I can see everything and it's not possible to pretend that it's not there. I can read even characters that I'd never seen. So it seems to me that such a book can be treated as a light entertainment more than a study resource.

I'm asking about answers based on scientific research or your experience. Thank you!

I'm asking about answers based on scientific research or your
  experience.

I choose experience to answer.

In Taiwan, Students of lower grades of elementary school have a subject called 國語(in English: an official language used by our country).

In Taiwan, people use Zhuyin to denote pronunciation. So textbook of 國語 have article written in Traditional Chinese and Zhuyin on the right side of characters. You can see it if you google to search image with 小學國語課本 in search bar. Some of the pictures show that there are Zhuyin on the right side of characters.

After we grew, we became higher grade students of elementary school. The Zhuyin part were not be given.


Why is 不 sometimes put between the syllables of a 2-syllable word? For example,

看见 - 看不见
离开 - 离不开

but

喜欢 - 不喜欢
知道 - 不知道

Why is this done and how do I know if I should or shouldn't do it when negating? Couldn't find anything on the Internet.

There are only two potential particles, and they are 得 and 不
When a potential particle is inserted between a verb and its result complement, it turn that verb from an active verb into a potential verb
Examples:

看見 = See
看得見 = can see
看不見 = can’t see

~

聽到 = hear
聽得到 = can hear
聽不到 = can‘t hear

When an adverb 不 or 沒 is placed before a verb, it funcutions as  ‘not’ and ‘have not’ respectively.
Examples:

看 = to see
不看 = not to see

~

有看 = have seen
沒看 = have not seen


How to say "fail" in Mandarin? (as in "epic fail" in internet memes) The term fail is pretty popular on the internet these days, and one I'm quite fond of.
Looking in my Chinese dictionary I can't find a great equivalent - is there a good way to say this? What would be the best word to use?

Direct translation of fail would be 失败

However, in internet context, I think 糗(qiǔ) is more suitable.

糗 means embarrassing, usually as a result of you failed something...

When used as verb, you would say 出糗, means you did something embarrassing. For example:

  我出糗了


What character might ler1 be for "不渗汤的面条"? 《四川方言词典》contains the following entry:

干□儿
gan1 ler1
(名) 不渗汤的面条(川西南) ▷我不要汤，我要一碗～。

《成都方言》has a similar entry:

干溜
gan1 liu1
不加汤：肝片儿还是～好吃。亦作“干熘”。

Where "□" [ler] from above could be 溜儿 or even 熘儿。
I'm leaning towards 溜 since 熘 seems to be quite specific in MSM (一种烹调法，跟炒相似，作料里搀淀粉).
Any ideas?

Both of the words are correct. 干溜儿/干熘儿 is a kind of noodle in Chongqing. It's "real" name is 干溜面/干熘面, as you can see in this recipe. It seems that the locals like to call it 干溜儿/干熘儿, as you can see from this page or this page.

A search for both terms returned the same kind of noodles.


所有, 所都, 全都 variation in the same sentence Do these three sentences mean the same?
I guessed all wrong.  Or Everything I guessed was wrong.
我所有猜错了。
我所都猜错了。
我全都猜错了。
Edited:  Any other choices besides 所有, 所都, 全都?

我所有猜错了。try: 我猜错了所有的。

我所都猜错了。try：我把所有的都猜错了。

我全都猜错了。：Good!


What does this seal stamps on chinese painting mean? Thanks a lot for your help,

Simon

芳草有情，夕陽無語，雁橫南浦，人倚西樓。

This sentence is a part of 宋詞 (a form of classical Chinese poetry
)《風流子·木葉亭皋下》 written by 張耒.

張耒（1054年－1114年），字文潛，號柯山，生於楚州淮陰（今江蘇淮安市），祖籍亳州譙縣（今安徽亳縣）。北宋詩人。

The whole article is shown below.

  木葉亭皋下，重陽近，又是搗衣秋。
  奈 愁入庾腸，老侵潘鬢，謾簪黃菊，花也應羞。
  楚天晚，白蘋煙盡處，紅蓼水邊頭。* 芳草有情，夕陽無語，雁橫南浦，人倚西樓。*

  玉容知安否？香箋共錦字，兩處悠悠。
  空恨碧雲離合，青鳥沉浮。向風前懊惱，芳心一點，寸眉兩葉，禁甚閑愁？
  情到不堪言處，分付東流。

This poem describes the feeling of yearning for his wife.

However, the maker of the seal has changed one word, i.e., 橫 to 飛。

雁橫南浦 --> 雁飛南浦

The meaning is the same.


What does 琴酒相壽 mean? This Chinese phrase 琴酒相壽 occurs in some calligraphy given to a colleague.
What does this mean in English?
I've tried basic Google searches and Google translator. I see other examples of the calligraphy but no explanation.

This is the same as 弹琴敬酒 为你祝寿, which means something like "playing the qin and drinking wine, to celebrate a loyal friend's birthday". Note that playing the qin is considered a very high-class and cultured activity in ancient China, as well as being one of the four main skills any learned person must acquire---“琴棋书画”, i.e. playing the qin, playing qi (Chinese chess), calligraphy, and painting. So the phrase 琴酒相寿 has a certain poetic or picturesque feeling to it beyond the meaning of the words themselves.


What are the different ways to say "Chapter" in Chinese? So, I've been trying to figure out the proper way to say "chapter" for a long time in Chinese.
Is this something that depends on a case by case basis? (i.e. a chapter in a novel would be different in a textbook.) Or is there one word that cover all of the different uses? (Or are there multiple?).

There are a quite few ways to denote a chapter in Chinese. Some of the most commonly seen are:

章, 卷, 回, 篇.

If you wish, you can easily find examples of their usages here: "www.shuku.net". For your convenience, here are some links.

章:
http://www.shuku.net:8080/novels/classic/zhongyong.html

卷:
http://www.shuku.net:8080/novels/history/csdsgz/sgz.html

Because I need at least 10 reputation points to post more than 2 links, I cannot link examples of others.


Is this sentence grammatically correct? 中国的建设开始的时候，人人是不以为过环境污染的。 I'm trying to write:

  While construction began in China, people hadn't thought of the pollution.

Is this an accurate use of the grammar: shi4 ... de

When construction began in China, people didn't think about pollution.

当工业在中国兴起时，人们并没有想到污染的问题。


Do Chinese speaking different languages use written Chinese to communicate? My understanding is that there are multiple languages in China, for example, Hokkien, Cantonese and Mandarin, and they are not mutually intelligible. However, all three use more or less the same writing system. So, I was wondering if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate in everyday situations.

For example, if a Chinese tourist from one province is in a different one, do they write their questions down on a piece of paper when they need help from someone who does not speak their language?

However, all three use more or less the same writing system. So, I was wondering if Chinese who speak different languages use writing to communicate.

I'll start off by quoting a Wikipedia section on Vulgar Latin:

  By its nature, Vulgar Latin varied greatly by region and by time period, though several major divisions can be seen. Vulgar Latin dialects began to significantly diverge from Classical Latin by the third century during the classical period of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, throughout the sixth century, the most widely spoken dialects were still similar to and mostly mutually intelligible with Classical Latin. In terms of regional differences for the whole Latin period, "we can only glimpse a tiny amount of divergence with the actual written data. In texts of all kinds, literary, technical, and all others, the written Latin of the first five or six centuries A.D. looks as if it were territorially homogeneous, even in its 'vulgar' register. It is only in the later texts, of the seventh and eighth centuries, that we are able to see in the texts geographical differences that seem to be the precursors of similar differences in the subsequent Romance languages."

If you imagine an alternate universe where speakers of French, Spanish, Italian, etc. never wrote their own languages up until even now, but all wrote in Latin instead, then suddenly Italian culture became dominant in a politically unified Europe, subsequently basing a modern written standard on Italian, this provides a kind of analogy to China of today.

Yes, Chinese languages are traditionally written with the same writing system. However, the de-facto written standard was not in the different languages' vernacular; prior to the May Fourth Movement, written communication was done in Classical Chinese, while afterwards the national standard, called Standard Chinese, became based on a bunch of Mandarin languages.

To be clear, people who speak Hokkien, Cantonese, and Mandarin all write in the national standard as a Chinese lingua franca. Communication is not done by speakers of different languages writing in their own vernaculars such as Written Cantonese, Written Wu (Wikipedia site here), Written Gan (Wikipedia site here), etc, although in principle these vernaculars are highly readable with a minimal amount of training by non-speakers.


What is the difference between 覺得 and 想？ I have hard time making clear distinction between 覺得 and 想.

According to the dictionary:.
- 想：to think / to believe / to suppose / to wish / to want / to miss (feel wistful about the absence of sb or sth).
- 覺得：to think / to feel.

What confuses me is the meaning of "to think".  It is often overused to express many things: personal opinion, judgement, feelings...

Note:.
I understand  the use of 想 to express missing something or someone, ex: 我很想媽媽。

As you learned from dictionaries, 想 and 覺得 have meanings that are not overlapped.

When it comes to the overlapped meaning 'think', the different between 想 and 覺得 are as below:

"我[想]机会不是很大" - "I [think] the chance is not great" (thinking mainly base on imagination/ judgment; mostly a prediction)

"我[覺得]机会不是很大" - "I [think] the chance is not great" (thinking mainly base on feeling; mostly a hint/ feeling)

Both '想' and  '覺得' describe 'expressing opinion' , but with different base. If you what  to emphasize the opinion is base on judgment after some consideration, you should use '想'; If you what  to emphasize the opinion is base on a hint or some feeling, you should use '覺得'

More example:

我(想)德國隊會赢 - in your judgment, team Germany will win (base on the past record and the skill level gap between the two teams)

我(覺得)德國隊會赢 - you personally feel Germany will win (just a hint, because they seem like a winner)


Where does the 4th tone go on wan3shang (evening)? I see the character for evening are wan3 and shang4, but when the word is written in pinyin, the fourth tone disappears from shang and it becomes neutral. I've read the rules of tone change but I don't see anything about this. I see similar things happening on many words. What's going on?

There is no simple rule for dropping a final tone, so you would have to learn all those cases by route. Half of them end in 子 (zi), as a diminutive.

The further north you go, the more common it is to drop tones. Nevertheless, there are many words that always end in a neutral tone in all variants of Mandarin.

Consider 东西, which is pronounced dong1xi, meaning things or stuff. If you pronounce it dong1xi1 it means east-west.

Likewise, 上, 里, 边 and similar postpositions are often softened by a tone drop, as in 晚上 (wan3shang), 东边 (dong1bian), or 哪里 (na2li, with additional tone change).

Another category is reduplicated words, like 妹妹 (mei4mei), 姐姐 (jie3jie) and 爸爸 (ba4ba). A word like 小姐 (xiao2jie, tone change) is also softened, although 大姐 (da4jie3) isn't.

Although you could stress the final tone in words like 喜欢, 时候 and 晚上, people would consider it rural or foreign.


How can we translate 不是……胜似 into English? I just saw a friend's profile saying: Not a geek, but like a geek.

Somehow I immediately translated it as 不是geek胜似geek. But it seems not right since

I feel that 不是geek胜似geek is much semantically richer than the original English version.

Thus, I wonder how to translate 不是geek胜似geek into English so that it makes more sense.

I prefer "Not a geek, but more than a geek"

Example, This man has profound knowledge of ancient China. he is not a professor, but I think he is more than a professor.


Meaning/Translation: 熟肉 [TV Series] I've seen the word 熟肉 associated with TV Series'.

For example:

What does it mean?
What's a good English translation?

This appears to be file sharing jargon.

熟肉 means the video has Chinese subtitles. This is in contrast to 生肉 (raw meat), which means the video has no Chinese subtitles, that it is in its original format. I guess the meanings allude to the fact that meat is usually consumed cooked, and that if it is raw (has no subtitles), it cannot be consumed easily. Why use this specific analogy I have no idea; jargon can often have strange origins.

Likewise, for jargon it is hard to find good references for them. There is a blog post here which defines the term in a footnote:

https://catalyst.uw.edu/gopost/conversation/swelland/334740

And a Baidu Zhidao (similar to Yahoo Answers) question here:

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/203271518.html


How did 外国人 become 老外? From Baidu:

  老外，是中国人对国外人的一种俗称，类似与老张、老王、老李之类的称呼。称呼中加“老”显得亲热，比如“老乡”“老表”，称呼你老外，就像称呼老张老李那样，大大咧咧，随便亲切。过去中国人对外国人的称呼都是用在第三人称上，只有“老外”可以用于第二人称。

To translate, it says laowai is a colloquial term for foreigners, similar to nicknames such as laozhang and laowang. The word lao is added to sound friendly. In the past, Chinese used terms that address foreigners as third persons, the term laowai can be used on a second person.

From Wikipedia:

  Laowai is a commonly used Chinese mandarin word. It is the shortened,
  informal version close to wàiguórén 外国人 ("foreigner"), a better
  translation of Laowai would be "alien"... So Laowai 老外 is more of a
  neutral term which can be used as: "an obvious foreigner", "very
  exotic", or "adventive", "alien".

Based on the above, there are two lines of thought: one saying that 老 is added as an indication of friendliness to foreigners; another saying that 老 is added to indicate that a foreigner is "always" an outsider.

Does anyone know the exact origin of this term?

As Wikipedia mentioned, “老” is an empty prefix. Laowai is neither positive nor negative.

Actually, the word is often used to refer to a variety of races like Caucasians, Indians, Africans and Middle Easterners, who look drastically different from Asians. You will rarely hear a Chinese person call Japanese, Koreans and Filipinos 老外. That's why you hear some Chinese use this term even in the United States and Canada.

The word emerged in Beijing and became popular there. In southern China it is used less.

What's the reason you hear this word used frequently in China? Because westerners attract more attention in the public as they look different. The quickest way to refer them is with 老外. Saying 外国人 is too formal.

The word might become less popular when more foreigners start living in/visiting China. It'd be less strange to see them in the public.

The word is also used less among those who are better educated. He has a name, why call him 老外? Regardless of whether the word is negative or not, saying such is not really polite.


phrase request: complexity of interpersonal relationships This has been harder to find than I imagined.

I'm looking for any sort of phrase or quote that talks about how, very, complex interpersonal relationships are.

The best I've found so far is something like:

人情似纸张张薄，世事如棋局局新

which is okay, but I was wondering if there was anything better.

A common phrase for 'complex' is 錯綜複雜
It can be used to describe:

Relational complexity

Example: 人際關係錯綜複雜 (interpersonal relationships are complex)
Example: 兩人的關係錯綜複雜 (the relationship between the two men are complicated)

Logical complexity

Example: 案情錯綜複雜 (the case is complicated)

Physical complexity

Example: 江南河道錯綜複雜 (Jiangnan's River system is complicated)

Another common phrase for 'complex' is '千絲萬縷' (tangled/complicated)

Example: 兩人的關係千絲萬縷 (the relationship between the two men are complicatedly tangled)

One more phrase related to the question: '人心隔肚皮 '
It means everyone has their own agenda. No one really knows exactly what other people are thinking.
Chinese sayings like '满肚密圈', '心知肚明' suggested people keep their intentions and plans in their '肚' (belly) which is always inside a person and hidden from views.


Difference between 晚安， 晚安安，安安, and 晚安啦 I have some friends in China and I started to learn Chinese. Nothing serious but a few phrases here and there. Due to the time difference the conversation usually ends in one of us saying good night to the other. Rather than just always saying 晚安 all the time, I started to copy some of the things friends have said to me as a means of saying good night.

However I'm thinking there might be some nuance between these phrases that is lost on me. One time I said 安安 to a male friend and he seemed slightly offended and told me don't talk like a girl.

Could someone explain to me if there is a difference between these and if so what the connotation of each one is?

晚安 is the standard phrase for "good night"

晚安安 is an incorrect usage of reduplication. Please don't use it.

安安 is also an incorrect usage of reduplication. Not to mention it sounds like a 'baby take' (omitted 晚 and reduplicate 安) Please don't use it to any adult.

晚安啦 is just 晚安 adding a final particle after it.  Depend on the tone and pitch, it adds casual or affectionate feeling to the phrase


What is the role of 给 in this 把 ... 给 V construction? I came across the following sentence in EP340 of the 故事FM podcast:

把一个垃圾桶的盖子给返过来，把小孩放在上面换了尿布。

My question is about the role 给 in the first part, before the comma. Without the 给 it would make perfect sense as a simple 把 + Obj + V + Result construction, just as seen in the part after the comma. With 被 I am familiar with the 被 + Actor + 给 + V passive construction, as in 我就被警察给带走了。

But what's going on here with 把 ... 给 V?

I checked in the online Chinese Grammar Wiki, and in Yip Po-Ching's Grammar, but no joy. Any explanations and pointers are welcome :)

There are two kinds of usage of 给。Let's use the three sentences A, B and C as example:

风把门给吹开了。(A)
门被风给吹开了。(B)
门给风吹开了。(C)

In the sentence C, 给 means "passive", 门给风吹开了 = 门被风吹开了。

For the two sentences A and B, 给 is used to highlight some emotion a little. If you remove the 给 in the two sentences, they are still correct but they will become the same thing with the sentence A.

For example, your mom told you to close the door, you did but the door was opened because of the wind. When your mom asked you: why didn't you close the door, you can say: 风把门给吹开了。With this sentence, you are telling your mom that it's not your fault.

Another example. Your friend is passing you some paper outside while the wind is blowing, he may say: 小心点，别让风把纸给吹跑了。It means that your friend is trying to warn you: be careful when you hold the paper, because the wind may blow it away.

As mentioned, 给 can highlight some emotion but just a little bit. So normally it's still fine if you remove it: 小心点，别让风把纸吹跑了。--- Totally correct.


Why is the pinyin of these two character is so weird? 話's pinyin is hua instead of wua.

化's pinyin is hua instead of fua.

We see that these two character pronounce differently when we speaks in mandarin.

Why is the pinyin of these two character is so weird?

I think you're reading Mandarin pinyin but expecting Cantonese pinyin.

Cantonese pinyin is like this:

化 Jyutping: faa3 / Yale: fa3

话 Jyutping: waa6 / Yale: wa6

and actually it seems to fit what you were expecting!


Differences between 喜欢, 要, and 想? Could someone explain to explain me the difference between the three verbs
喜欢 (xihuan), 要 (yao), and 想 (xiang)?

我喜欢喝一杯啤酒。 (wo xihuan he yi bei pi jiu)
我要喝一杯啤酒。 (wo yao he yi bei pi jiu)
我想喝一杯啤酒。 (wo xiang he yi bei pi jiu)

When do I have to use it?

喜欢(xi3 huan1) means to like

要(yao4) tends to realize the action

想(xiang3) means to want, but you don't have to realize it. Sometimes it is just an expression of your desire.


Use of written Chinese in spoken context I have often found in Hong Kong that the written version of words are used in spoken context (while speaking Cantonese).

Being aware of the fact that Cantonese and written Chinese are pronounced differently, I am curious as to why the above happens and in what situations it does.

For example, in some popular Cantonese songs, such as '喜歡你' by Beyond, he literally says 喜歡你 (hei2 fun1 nei5 - I like you). However, the proper way in Cantonese to say I like you is (ngo5 oi3 nei5).

So, why does Beyond, among many popular cantopop singers, borrow from traditional Chinese in certain contexts?

Hong Kong officially uses Standard Written Chinese as the written language, but in reality all shades of writing fall on the Saam kap dai spectrum, which combines Classical Chinese, Standard Written Chinese, and Written Cantonese into one piece of writing.

The relative proportions of those styles are changed depending on the tone the author wishes to set. Increased use of Classical expressions variously give off a literary/archaic/learned impression, increased use of Standard Written Chinese give off a proper/stiff/formal/serious impression, and increased use of Written Cantonese give off a casual/informal/relaxed impression. For example,

News items may largely use Standard Written Chinese but occasionally inject a few Cantonese expressions;
Gossip magazines will largely use Written Cantonese but occasionally inject expressions from Standard Written Chinese and/or Literary Chinese

Song lyrics are written first then sung exactly how they are written, not spoken on-the-fly, so it is probably worth looking at it from a saam kap dai spectrum point of view.


How would I translate the two morphemes 基腐 together? I am trying to translate this in the context of 基腐头条, I understand the meaning - the 基 is referring to gay (men) and 腐 is a shortened version of 腐女, 'rotten girls' or 'females interested in gay culture.' It is just hard to find a succinct translation that provides all of this cultural context... Suggestions?

I don't believe an established, succinct English translation exists yet. I would try to translate as 'BL & Fandom' or 'BL & Fans'.

For 基, I would prefer to use words like Boy Love/Yaoi over gay/homosexual to convey the romantic and fantasized view of male homosexual in 腐 culture. I also couldn't find any better translation for 腐女 than BL fans. Hence 基腐 can be shorted to 'BL & Fans'.


Chinese word for X chair in a musical group when it isn't 1st or 2nd chair In English, in an orchestra one might say that one's chair position is 2nd Violin, 5th chair. The 2nd Violin part is easy to say: 第二小提琴. But the 5th chair part is troubling. My question is the Chinese way to say X chair where X is larger than 2?

I've asked a number of native Chinese speakers but they were also stymied. I'm aware that 1st chair and 2nd chair are 首席 and 副首席.

EDIT: What I mean by chair is a ranking of skill within the section. It is not very related to the row. An example

  (1st row contains 1violin-1stchair, 2v-1c, 1v-2c, and 2v-2c)

can be found here: http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=6444

You can just use 第X席. E.g.2nd violin 5th chair 第二小提琴手第5席.

You rarely saw it probably because if the x>2, they probably do not feel that proud. And no matter 第3席 or 第9席, even the 副首席 does not mean too much to the non-expert audiences (in China)--the spotlight is only on the 首席第一小提琴手.


Pronunciation of "因为" 因为 is usually pronounced as yīn wèi, but sometimes I hear it pronounced as yīn wéi which really brings out the meaning as reason (yīn) being (wéi).

Which pronunciation came about first? Do regional differences account for this phenomenon? Are the two completely interchangeable in meaning?

I wouldn't have believed you unless I checked it myself, but it appears these are both interchangeable with one source claiming:

http://www.askbennychinese.com/questions/detail/3713

  In fact, in the south of China, people says “yīn wèi”, while in the
  north people say “yīn wéi”. The only difference lies in the
  pronunciation. Basically, they are exactly the same.

My wife and most of my friends are from the South which is maybe why I have always heard it as yīn wèi.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%9B%A0%E4%B8%BA says:

  因为 (simplified, Pinyin yīnwèi or yīnwéi, traditional 因為)


what's the term for “tone contour”? I would like a translation in putonghua for “tone contour” as in “the tone contour of 普通话 is 314”

I found two terms:

声调轮廓 from CC-CEDICT
音调曲线 from ABC dictionary

Are either (or both?) of these what I'm looking for?

Only the first one is correct (聲調輪廓), as a jargon used in linguistics. The second one is a (bad) word-for-word translation of tone (音調) + contour (曲綫).


A few lines from 明日你是誰 Long ago, I stumbled upon Wang Jie's 明日你是誰 (video here). Recently, I casually sung it, and a friend asked me for a translation, and I was in trouble with a few lines. Let's see the start:

  離別也許是簡單的一句
  每次說出偏要灑眼淚
  就像在放下也在擔起一片空虛
  每一個夢也伴隨

The last two lines are a bit puzzling: I know (I think) the meanings of the single words, but I can't piece together a convincing translation from them. Here is an attempt:

  "To part may be a simple.word,
  [But] every time I say it, I always cry,
  As if I were laying down [what?] and carrying a void,
  And each [of my] dreams followed [what?]

Could someone shed light on this?

就像在放下也在擔起一片空虛

就像 (it is like) 在放下 (putting down,)  也在擔起 (also like picking up) 一片空虛 (an emptiness)

"Trying to let go of an emptiness, but this empty feeling always come back ."

每一個夢也伴隨

每一個夢(in every dream) 也伴隨 (it always follows me )

"This emptiness follows me, in all of my dreams."


Is there any printed or handwritten precursor to this 门 (door, gate) glyph? I recently started seeing this odd rendering of the 门 character, may be it's only in the font that my browser defaults to. Here's an image (2nd character in the title):

Does anyone know if this glyph is a valid variant or some modern "invention" of a font designer?

There is such handwriting in calligraphy works of Tang Yin (唐寅, also well known as 唐伯虎, Tang Bohu, 1470-1524, Ming Dynasty).

I found some pictures of his writing, 《落花诗册》.  I marked the related characters with a mark to the right. The genuine writing is now in Suzhou Museum, Jiangsu Province.


家: why is a home a place for pigs? The character 家 is a bit of a joke: it describes a dwelling (宀) for pigs (豕). Why is this strange construction used? Were pigs somehow important for homes in the past?

说文解字 describes 家 as 从宀，豭省聲 - that is, it uses 豭 (jiā) as phonetic. But then this raises the question: why use 豭 instead of the much simpler 叚 (jiǎ)?

  何以不云叚聲。而紆回至此耶。

Therefore the author suspects that the character did indeed originally mean "a dwelling for pigs":

  竊謂此篆本義乃豕之凥也。

But this raises another question: why did a dwelling for pigs come to mean home? By contrast, 牢 (a dwelling for oxen) has come to mean "jail". Was the choice of animal therefore arbitrary, or were pigs somehow more important in the past - did people keep pigs in the house? - or did having pigs in the house signify something home-like?

Speculations as to why pigs rather than cows form part of the character meaning home comes from some misunderstandings about the characters. Specifically,

「家」 contains 「豕」 as a corrupted phonetic component rather than a semantic component;
「牢」 did not originally contain 「宀」, which is a corruption of a drawing of an animal pen.

Shuōwén's explanation of 「家」 is very close, and it traced the source of the phonetic hint of the character correctly.

商甲甲207合集20268

「家」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*kˤra/, home/dwelling) was originally comprised of semantic 「宀」 (building) and phonetic 「」 (also /*kˤra/). In the character 「家」, 「」 was very early on corrupted into 「豕」, leading on to the modern form.

商甲乙1047合集13584西周金毛公鼎集成2841秦簡法106睡虎地秦簡今楷

「」 (male pig) was originally a picture of a pig 「豕」 with an emphasised reproductive organ, and this word is now written as 「豭」. The glyph evolution compared with 「豕」 is as follows:

商甲京津1048合集15346西周金頌鼎集成2829篆彑部說文解字隸定

商甲佚43合集20723西周金圅皇父簋集成4141篆豕部說文解字今楷

Yes, Shuōwén is a source of some egregious graphical corruptions, and it simultaneously remains as one of the most important sources of modern character standardisation. It is a good starting point for character analysis that shouldn't at all be relied on.

Shuōwén's explanation,

  “家，居也。从宀，豭省聲。”

  「家」 means dwelling, and is comprised from semantic 「宀」 and abbreviated phonetic 「豭」.

correctly determined the vocabulary source of the phonetic hint, but did not correctly determine the actual character representing the vocabulary source.

The other explanations which interpret 「豕」 as a semantic hint are (in my opinion) rather far-fetched, although these explanations will pop up everywhere in more conservative accounts of the character. At the very least, the non-association of characters for non-pig animals with the character for the meaning home/dwelling strongly suggests the importance of the phonetic role of 「」.

Finally, 「牢」 did not originally contain 「宀」.

商甲摭續90合集33631

The original character was a picture of an animal pen, and sometimes, 「羊」 (sheep), 「馬」 (horse), or 「牛」 (cow) was added to the character:

商甲乙1983合集903商甲1.522寧滬新獲甲商甲甲392合集33314

The form with cow is the shape which has survived ...

西周金貉子卣集成5409

... and the animal pen component was later corrupted into 「宀」 (building).

戰國・楚簡2.77包山楚簡秦簡日甲65背睡虎地秦簡今楷

References:

黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》
季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》

中國哲學書電子化計劃

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》


What semantic notions underlie 'wet, moist' and 'profit'? I chanced upon two Chinese characters that signify both water with profit, but how can they possibly relate to each other semantically? Have the Chinese traditionally privatized or invested in water? If so, average lay Americans aren't that apprised of water privatization or investment.

I quote 潤 - Wiktionary and Yellowbridge.

wet; moist
sleek
to moisten; to wet
to polish (a piece of writing, etc.); to touch up
profit (excess of revenue over cost)

I see that 益 - Wiktionary
doesn't mean water in 2020 Chinese, but its etymon does according to Yellowbridge.

We have to use some linear thinking to see the extended meanings of many Chinese words.

wet → moist → sleek (things that get wet become moist, a moist surface become sleek)

to make sleek → to polish → touch up (one way to make something sleek is to polish it. A polished item is touched up)

wet → profit (imagine a plant that's drying up. When you water it, it absorbs the water and it is enriched. Which means 'profited'.  And that is how 潤 acquired the meaning of 'profit'

Now to answer your question: "how can they possibly relate to each other semantically?"
They acquired the same meaning independently, like a convergent evolution of birds and bats developed wings independently.
I have explained how the character 潤 acquired the meaning of 'profit'.
The character 益 (overflowing) also acquired the meaning of 'profit' by extending its basic meaning. The character 益 depicts water overflow from a vessel. It means there is excess water. And 'excess' means 'more than required'.
Imagine you put a certain amount of money into a business, it requires an equal amount of money in return for the business to break even. To make a profit, the money in return must exceed the amount that is needed for it to break even. That is how 益 acquired the meaning of 'profit'.


Are there some differences between 信 and 讯？ Are there some differences between 信 and 讯？
such as
新华社讯（why not 信？）
通风报信（why not 讯？）
It seems they are always the same. Are there some cases where we need to use 信 and 讯 selectively?

The difference between 信 and 讯 is explained here Differences: 信息 vs 讯息?

讯: message; a specific piece of information

信: letter (contains information in general)

通风报信（why not 讯？）

Type in 通风报 in the search engine, the first page will be filled with 通风报讯 entries. Obviously, some people use 信 and 讯 interchangeably and made 通风报信 a somewhat accepted variant of 通风报讯 which is the standard one
通风报讯 (Whistleblowing) is more appropriate than 通风报信 because the act of 通风报讯 is more like sending a message than giving a report

新华社讯（why not 信？）

讯 in 新华社讯 implies there are specific pieces of information (news items).
新华社信 implies 'a letter from 新华社' -- like an editorial
More examples:
通信 = exchange letters (互通书信)
发信 = send a letter (发出书信)
通讯 = exchange message (互通讯息)
发讯 = send a message (发出讯息)
发讯号 = send a signal (发出讯号)


How to say a negative number in Mandarin? There are plenty of posts for rules on numbers, but I can't seem to figure out how one would say, for example, -5 (negative five). I know that negative number is 负数, so would it just be 负五？

Negative numbers are simply read 负xxx, for example:

-5 负五
-1234.5 负一千二百三十四点五
(-3) x 5 = -15 负三乘以五等于负十五
2^(-3) 二的负三次方

When applied to certain domain, there might be domain specific way to read it. For example for temperature, it's more common to read it as 零下 (literally 'below zero'):

-10°C 零下十（摄氏）度

Reading as 负十度 is also correct, just less common.
Reference:
人教版小学四年级数学 第七单元 生活中的负数


Meaning of 这么说 in the conversation A:她未婚夫不愿意让她工作了。
  B:这么说，结婚以后她就不工作了。
  A:对。

My questions are

(1) What is the meaning of 这么说 in this conversation?

(2) In addition, does 这么说 have any other meanings? Can you give me some examples?

(1) What is the meaning of 这么说 in this conversation?

'这么'  means 'so/ this way/ like this'

'这么说' means 'saying so' = "according to so" (with this reason) in this context.

You can simply use 'accordingly' , 'consequently', 'therefore' or 'so' instead

E.g. "So, after she got married, she stopped working"

  (2) In addition, does 这么说 have any other meanings? Can you give me some examples?

这么说 literally means "say /said /saying so" and you can use it literally. e.g. "他这么说" (he said so); 人們是這麼說的 (people are saying so)


What does 低喝了一声 mean? 低喝了一声

I could not see how 喝 here means drink, so I tried to look further in my dictionary and it says:

  The same as 嗬, which is an onomatopoeia

Which kind of makes sense since I also found a similar expression: 哼了一声.

However the dictionary seems to give it a tone of surprise, but in that case what does it mean together with 低? Maybe I could translate the sentence as:

  he made a small oh

低喝 here may be a shout but not aloud. 喝 is not only drink, but also shout. 低 here is about the voice


Characters for foreign names / places Non-Chinese names and places are usually transliterated by using similar sounding characters.
Assuming that no established Chinese transliteration exists for a certain family or place name, and assuming that the transliteration should be purely phonetic, not drawing on the meaning of the word:

How should I choose from the many characters of the same pronunciation?
Is there a predefined (maybe even official) list of characters to choose from?

I'm asking because certain characters will definitely look odd in a place or family name.


What are good resources for Chinese calligraphy? Pen writing and brush writing is also welcome.
If possible, I hope you can give your evaluate for these resourses.
I have heard 灵飞经 is a good copybook. Are there something close to that?

The best resource is a good teacher who would teach you right and good calligraphy. A book may be convenient, but it would not tell you where you're wrong.


Is there a website/service that corrects Chinese essays? Recently, I've gotten into the habit of writing in a Chinese diary each night. However, I'd be disappointed if I kept on making mistakes and instead of correcting them, reinforcing them through the diary. Does anyone know of any services that correct Chinese essays?

Stephen.
I am a Chinese and interested in your Chinese essays..
Could you POST them or one to me , if i can do anything for help , i will repeat to you .
you can just post it below , or this is my email : hunter.v.wang@gmail.com

Looking forward to your essays..

[You must have 50 reputation to comment]

so , i leave the comment in answer ,sorry;


Can 岁数, 年纪 and 年龄 be used interchangeably? I have learnt several words that can be used to talk about a person's age, namely 岁数, 年纪 and 年龄.

I have found phrases and example sentences such as the following:

随便问别人的年龄是不礼貌的。
你父亲多大年纪了？
您多大岁数了？
退休年龄
上岁 (get on in years)

Except for expressions such as 退休年龄 and 上岁, can these three nouns be used interchangeably?

年龄 is more formal and literary term for 'age'
In all written forms, it is always 年龄 on the list,  (never seen 年纪 on any form)
年龄 is described as 高 or 低. As in 高年龄/高龄; 低年龄/低龄

~

年纪 is more colloquial term for 'age'
年纪 is described as 老, 大, 轻 or 少. As in 年纪老, 年纪大, 年纪轻 and 年纪少

~

岁数 is a more specific term for 'age' (years old)
When you ask someone's 岁数, you expect a specific number in the answer
岁数 is described as 高, 低 or  大, 少

岁数 is also the more suitable term when describe animal's age
Example:
比赛的马匹是按马的岁数分组的 (use 年龄 or 年纪 humanize the horse too much)


他上个星期在家里看电视看了二十个小时: Why is 看 written before 电视? Basically I do self-studying and I have a question regarding this sentence:

  他上个星期在家里看电视看了二十个小时.

Question: Why is the verb 看 written before 电视? Isn't 电视看了 enough to tell that TV indeed was watched? What am I missing?

The most straight forward way to form this sentence is a simple SVO structure

[他] [看了] [电视] --> [他] (上个星期在家里) [看了] (二十个小时) [电视]
[S] [V] [O] --> [S] (relative phrase) [V] (relative phrase) [O]
"他看了二十个小时电视" = "he watched 20 hours of TV."

Another common Chinese sentence structure is [topic + comment] structure

他看电视 is the [topic]
看了二十个小时 is the [comment]
"他看电视看了二十个小时" = "he watches TV., has watched for 20 hours"

(repeat the verb in the comment emphasize the verb)
~
"他电视看了二十个小时" place the object before the verb to emphasize it.


What's the difference between 看起来 and 看上去? I see them both used in the same way and both seem to get equal hits in Baidu.
Here are some sample sentences containing each.

http://www.dictall.com/st/60/37/60372038C00.htm

http://www.dictall.com/dictall/result_sentence.jsp?cd=UTF-8&keyword=%E7%9C%8B%E8%B5%B7%E6%9D%A5

Dictionary definitions are similar...

看起来

①动看来。 看起来得你亲自出马。 ②动从表面上看。 看起来老实，实际上未必。

看上去

动从外观上估计（多在句子中充当插入成分）。 老人看上去有70岁。

I am not a linguist, and thus can only give you my perspective as a native speaker.

Yes, they are quite similar. So I would only talk about their subtle differences here.

看起来： More often, 看起来 is used when you make a guess by FEELing but not necessarily really physically seeing.

e.g. Today you did not come to school because of a bad fever.
I may call you and say:"今天怎么没来上学啊？看起来你上病了啊！"
Note here that I did NOT see you at all before I make the guess that you are sick.

看上去： 看上去 is used usually when you express your feeling by really seeing something.

e.g. The moment I see my girlfriend in a beautiful dress. I may go like:"亲爱的，你今天看上去真漂亮！". Note here I can also use 看起来.

To summarize:

You may use 看起来 no matter you really see it or not, but when you see something, I recommend you 看上去. But Please note that it may largely depend on personal preferences.


Which characters are used to write 'a cha', a slang word for South Asians? In the UK some Chinese use a word pronounced like 'a cha' (my guess in pinyin) to describe South Asian people (generally regarded as people of Indian heritage but could include Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, etc.).  I have heard this word used by both Chinese immigrants of Hong Kong origin and by newer mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants from the mainland but have been told that this word has a Cantonese language origin.

The word seems to have a vulgar connotation.  I have been told a vague etymology that the word relates to the perceived eating habits of South Asians, that they use their hands to eat rather than forks, but I've no idea if this is true.

Can anyone clarify the origin of this word and give a written form (if existing)?

嚤囉差 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/41792/

嚤囉差 /mo1 lo1 caa1/(jyuping): indian person (It is a Cantonese only term)

嚤囉差 or simply 阿差 was a nickname for South Asians people who lived in Hong Kong during the British Hong kong (colonial) period.

摩羅 came from the word 婆羅多, Hong Kong transliterated it to 嚤囉
差人 means cop
阿 [n] prefix to a name or term of address.

To make a nickname for 嚤囉差, people shorten it to just '差' and add '阿' before it to indicate 差 is a name (Indian).

Reference:

  摩羅差 https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%91%A9%E7%BE%85%E5%B7%AE

  摩羅差是為印度半島籍貫香港差人的俗稱。大英帝國時期，英國從印度招募不少當地人投入軍隊服務，後來這些印度軍人被調派至香港，轉而投入警隊服務，是故印度及巴基斯坦籍貫差役被俗稱為摩羅差。此詞毫無種族歧視或者任何眨意成份，惟衙差一詞出於印度口音時，廣東人容易誤聽為「阿叉」，因而後來才被外籍人士和年輕一輩誤以為是蔑称。1舊時，廣東人的家中長輩或以「夜叉來了」（或是黑白無常）的來臨，來嚇令不服從的孩子。為免誤會延續，阿叉一詞在香港社會已經逐漸少用。

  摩羅一詞源自古代對中東來華的伊斯蘭商旅 Morramen 或中世紀從北非攻佔歐洲西南部的北非人 Mouro 的譯音[2][3][4]。古時，印度人自稱婆羅多，故此廣東人譯音此稱謂為摩羅，其後香港人普遍以此稱呼在香港的印度人；差則為差人之意思。

阿差 http://baike.baidu.com/view/14993813.htm


Synonym of 这么 with pronunciation zen4me In the dialogs of the FSI course, there are quite a few places where zen4me (with a falling tone) is used in the sense of zhe4me (这么).
For example: Nǐ zěnme zènme wǎn [lái le]?
I haven't been able to find this form in any online dictionary either searching for zen4 or 怎么.
Nor is it to be found as an alternate pronunciation of 这么.
Because they don't use sinographs in FSI, it is a bit of a mystery to me. This form manifestly occurs, but what sign does zen4 in zen4me correspond to?
I'd like to point out it is not a phonetic question. I mean the speakers clearly distinguish z/zh in other words.

It could well be an alternative, dialectal pronunciation of 这么. See this answer:
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/19261/2508


What kind of resources should a beginner look for to help with similarly pronounced words? Serveral chinese characters sound extremely similarly to me, not only because of their vowel's tone, but, often, also because of their starting consonants.
For example, I find it's very difficult to notice the difference among 彡, 山, 摻, 芟, 惉, 沾, 傹, 治安, etc.
I found several tables where characters are sorted by number of strokes (chinese dictionaries), piyin (chinese dictionaries for foreigners), by frequency (resources for beginnerds), by category (books for beginners), etc.
What I cannot find is a table where words are sorted by sound similarity (piyin is a kind of), so that beginners can be warned about similarity traps.

What shall I look for?

Note that I'm not asking for resources, but for tips on what kind of resources a beginner should look for.

Attempt to improve my question, after Aurus Huang's answer.
It's noticeable that, for example, Spanish have difficulties in distinguishing the sound (vowels) of "jeep", "cheap", "ship". In the same way, usually English speakers cannot distinguish Italian's double consonants (think of English's "regatta", from Italian's "regata", or "benvenuTTo" instead of "benvenuto"), or Russian's "ы", "й", "и". This kind of errors arize mostly because some sounds do not exist in their mother language.

So, back to the question, I'm looking for something that says: "Warning: be careful, the following Chinese words have quite similar sound: don't make confusion!". This may be quite specific according to the learner's mother language.

Have you had problems noticing the difference between "sheer" and "cheer", or "jeep" and "cheap"? If not, then your problem is solved. For European people, it is strongly recommended that they read articles with Pinyin (literally "Spelled Pronunciation").
Why characters are not relevant to their pronunciations? Chinese has so LONG a history that pronunciations have been changed for dozens (if not hundreds) of times. Even a Chinese can't figure out why 工(gong, "work") represents the pronunciation of 江(jiang, "river"). Logically it should be, but it is not! Then Pinyin was invented to represent the pronunciation of characters. We only need to accept the fact and remember it. Leave the questions to linguists.
One more thing: You can find quite a lot of texts with Pinyin in children's books. Chinese textbooks of Grade 1 or 2 in primary schools also help. (Confucius said, you should not feel ashamed to learn from people inferior to you. ;-))
EDIT:  I mean the difference of consonants, not vowels. Vowels in Mandarin Chinese is quite easy to distinguish.


What is the equivalent phrase of the figurative 'red meat' in Chinese? 'Red meat' literally means 紅肉 (e.g. beef, lamb) in Chinese, but it is typically used in a figurative sense in political commentaries. For Example: "His outrageous statements are red meat for his supporters"

  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/red+meat

  red meat

  n.

  Meat, such as beef or lamb, that is dark red before being cooked.
  Language or discourse intended to stir the emotions of a given group, especially by appealing to or reinforcing partisan sentiments.

I do not believe that Chinese speakers use '紅肉' figuratively like English speakers use 'red meat' in English.

'投其所好的言論' would be my translation of the figurative 'red meat', but I wonder is there a Chinese counterpart of this term.

I believe the verb 「挑動」, 「煽動」 or 「蛊惑（人心）」 might match the definition "to stir the emotions" in your dictionary, if you need derogatory terms.

「投其所好」 and 「奉承」 are about flattering someone.


Why is 德国 the “virtue country”? Here is what I think and how it is named: In Google translate it says it means "virtue country".

My guess is probably wrong but here it is:

China is an alliy of America, and America boosted up the nuke technology and sped up the surrender of the Japanese by Germany. Is it correct, if it is not truth, then how come it was named the virtuous country?

德 is phonetic transcription of Deutsche.

Similarly 法 in 法国 is phonetic transcription of France, not "the country of law".


弟弟 denoting cousin (of younger age)? Can 弟弟 denote a cousin (of younger age)? I was a little surprised by the following excerpts from 那个不为人知的故事 describing 杨锦天 both as 杨昭's 弟弟 and as the son of her 姑姑/paternal aunt (same surname（usually): 堂弟，paternal aunt：表弟，see comment #4 below):

  来电话的是杨昭的弟弟杨锦天，。。。  其实这是个可怜的孩子。
  三年前的一场事故，让他失去了双亲，杨昭的父母将杨锦天领回自己家抚养。杨昭也是那年回到了这座城市。
  她在外很久，久得让她对姑姑一家的惨剧甚至不能感到痛苦。她难过，但是还不到痛苦的程度。至于这个弟弟，杨昭大他七岁，她与他的关系谈不上亲密。

It depends on writer story description, you cannot simply read it out of context.

  来电话的是杨昭的弟弟杨锦天 : denote sibling

  杨昭的父母将杨锦天领回自己家抚养 ：indicate he is not sibling, but cousins, but now adopted by 杨昭 parent.

  至于这个弟弟 : denote 杨锦天 is treated as sibling instead of cousin.

This is not uncommon practice in other culture. Due to various unfortunate incidents(war, famine,natural disaster), it is quite common for human society to adapt sibling children as own children.

It is the adopting parent who decide whether to retain the relative title or not.

In such case,  杨昭 parent choose to make 杨锦天 as their own child. As in all cultures, family ties is very important.  These small little details does matters.


Is the pronoun 大家 (everybody) a subject only? In a Cantonese forums, someone posted a question:  " how to say 'each other?' or 'one another' in Chinese"
One of the suggestion was:

I  thought the simplest way is just to say 大家？
They don't like each other - 佢哋唔中意大家

And my reply to this answer was:

No, 大家 means "everybody "
In "大家都唔鍾意佢哋" ( everybody dislike them)
大家 is the subject, and 佢哋 is the object
If the subject and object switch places in the above sentence, you have to replace 大家 with " 所有人" or " 全部人" and place the object before the subject.
"所有人佢哋都唔鍾意" / "全部人佢哋都唔鍾意"
*you cannot write 大家佢哋都唔鍾意
*佢哋唔鍾意所有人 or 佢哋唔鍾意全部人 sound awkward.
More examples:
大家一齊停手 ( everybody stop at once)
大家都有好處 ( everybody would benefit)

I don't think I have done a good job explaining why 大家 (everybody) cannot be the object for the subject 佢哋. It is a pronoun, and pronouns should be able to become subjects or objects. Would that be because 佢哋 is also a pronoun?
I also know 佢哋唔鍾意所有人 or 佢哋唔鍾意全部人 sound awkward, but can't explain why.

While 大家 means 'everyone', it refers to 'everyone' in a group of people that is implied in the sentence, or everyone in close proximity

佢哋唔鍾意大家

大家 in this case implies everyone within the group of '佢哋', which is essentially 'each other'. Also this sentence sounds perfectly natural, I hear this a lot when people are referring to couples who don't actually like each other

大家好

大家 here refers to everyone that you are speaking to, basically 'hey everyone'

大家都唔鍾意佢哋

There is an implicit subgroup '大家' where everyone in that group or everyone here dislikes 佢哋, 'everyone (here) dislikes them'

大家咁話啦

'You too', 'same'

大家 can definitely be used for 'each other', however it is not the only usage, and there is not a direct one to one translation for 大家 in english.

In other special cases, for 'each other' / 'one another' you could use:

'彼此'相愛

to love each other

'互相'鼓勵

to encourage each other

'自相'殘殺

to hurt and fight each other


"Like I said..." in Chinese How do I say "Like I said...", or "As I said", in Chinese. For example:

  A: I've never been to China.

  B: What do you think of Chinese culture?

  A: Like I said, I've never been to China.

Here is a full translation of your conversation.

  A: 我从没去过中国。
  B: 你对中国文化有什么看法
  A: 正如我说过的，我从没去过中国。

As you can see, "like I said" is "正如我说过的" in Chinese. A word-to-word translation would be

  "like"  ⟶ "正如/就如/就像"
   I      ⟶ "我"
  "said"  ⟶ "说过的".


does 并未 have to go with a pairing of words? So, I recently learned that 并未 is a formal way of saying 并没有. However, whenever I see it in writing it is always paired with  a two word set. (i.e. 并未解决， 并未提出， 等。 ） Is this a hard and fast rule? I've noted that when pairs of two words are put together it indicates that it is relatively formal. Is 并未 too formal for spoken or common written language?

Your observation is correct. 并未 is formal and sounds natural only when it's followed by a two-character word (to clarify, these are not two-word sets).

It does sound too formal to use in spoken language and common/casual writing. You may want to use 并没有 in your diary or blog.

As for why it doesn't sound natural to pair 并未 with 1-character or 3-character words, I don't believe there is a simple grammatical rule. Linguists tend to explain that using either word formation or prosody rules. Common folks would attribute that to idioms and language sense.


Learning resources for Minjiang dialect (岷江话)? 岷江话

  岷江话，又称为岷江小片，是四川话的一个分支，主要分布于四川盆地西南部岷江流域及长江两岸，同时在盆地中部分布有一个由西充、盐亭、射洪三县组成的方言岛。岷江话的主要特征是入声保留，独立成调，拥有一套仅用于入声字的紧元音韵母，在部分地区还保留有喉塞音韵尾，因而并不符合“入声归阳平”这一《中国语言地图集》中划定西南官话的标准。在《中国语言地图集》中，部分学者因其除入声外的声调调值与成渝片相近而仍将其划入西南官话1。但也有学者认为，岷江小片是由中上古巴蜀语直接发展而成，与主要源自移民的西南官话拥有截然不同的起源2。

Minjiang dialect

  Minjiang dialect (simplified Chinese: 岷江话; traditional Chinese: 岷江話, local pronunciation: [min˨˩tɕiaŋ˥xa˨˨˦]; pinyin: Mínjiānghuà), is a branch of Sichuanese, spoken mainly in the Min River (Mínjiāng) valley or along the Yangtze in the southern and western parts of the Sichuan Basin. There is also a language island of Minjiang dialect located in the center of the Sichuan Basin covering three counties: Xichong, Yanting, and Shehong Counties.

There are resources listed on both wikipedia pages, but they are mostly just classification materials & not learning-based.

Are there any learning resources for Minjiang dialect (岷江话)?

The only things I know of are quite specific:

乐山方言

遵义方言语法研究

遵义方言诠注

四川邛崃油榨方言记

There are some audio resources you can find online.

Four recital audios in 乐山方言 by a native speaker, which maybe useful for audition.
A community of 岷江话：there are some resources

This is my first answer in the community, if my answer is not appropriate, please let me know. Thank you.


What are the surnames and given names of these fictional people of the Three Kingdoms? 金環三結,董荼那,阿會喃,忙牙長

What are their surnames and given names. For example, is 董 the surname of 董荼那?

In 《三國演義》 孟獲 (Meng Huo) was  described as 蠻王 (king of the Barbarian). The fictional characters in his army were supposed to be barbarians. Their names were supposed to be transliteration from barbarian's language. There's no point of trying to find out their surnames.

The funny thing about transliterated name is --  the meaning of the Chinese characters in it are irrelevant. For example, the name '約翰遜' (Johnson) has nothing to do with  約 (approximately) 翰 (writing brush) or 遜 (inferior).

約翰遜's last name is certainly not 約; 約翰遜 is a last name


Difference between 岸 vs 畔? What's the difference between 河岸 vs 河畔?  Don't they both mean river bank?

河岸 = river bank.

畔 means "beside something / near something", not just rivers, e.g. 耳畔、桥畔.

You can take 河畔 as a literary version of 河边.