The amount you can adjust a Chinese characters look without it changing meaning I'm wondering how much freedom a designer has of a Chinese character, if they must make every stroke exactly in the correct position and thickness and direction and shape and everything, or if they can have some freedom in where it's placed, its orientation, emphasis/focusability in the context of the whole character, etc.

I would like to know how much creative freedom you have in designing a custom look and feel for a Chinese character.

I'm looking at for example the variation in styles here, but other than thickness of the character strokes they all look pretty similar. You don't see highly custom designs like you do with the Latin alphabet, which is the reason for the question. Even this modern sans-serif font looks similar to the others. This was helpful.

Actually there is a lot of styles when it comes to handwriting.  You can check out this page https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E4%B9%A6%E6%B3%95. It can be quite hard to understand sometimes. like this one https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8D%89%E4%B9%A6 .


What's the difference between 招来 and 引起? 招来 (zhāolái)
CC-EDICT definition: to attract / to incur

她的行动招来上司的批评。
Her actions drew criticism from her superior.
如果你在这件事上失败了，就会招来别人的非议。
You will bring the blame of others upon yourself if you fail in this.

引起 (yǐnqǐ)
CC-EDICT definition: to give rise to / to lead to / to cause / to arouse

这消息在德国引起很大恐慌。
The news aroused much fear in Germany.
他的话引起了她心中极大的愤怒。
His words roused a great rage inside her.

It looks like, in the above examples, 招来 and 引起 can be swapped without changing the meaning.  I don't see a meaningful distinction.  I encountered 引起 first in my studies, so I expect it's more common.
Question: What's the difference between 招来 and 引起?

招来 = attract/ incur (cause something to come to the subject, or happen to the subject)
Example:
愚蠢政策招来批评 - Stupid policies attract criticism (the target of criticism is the stupid policies or the people who made the stupid policies)
醜態招来目光 - Foolishness attracts glances (the target of the glances is the foolishness or the one who displays foolishness)
美貌招来狂蜂浪蝶 - Beauty attracts suitors (the target of the suitors is the beauty or the one who possess beauty)

~

引起 = cause (cause something to happen)
Example:
流言引起恐慌 - Rumors cause panic  (panic happens because of rumors)
因利益分配問題引起爭執 - Dispute due to distribution of interests (Dispute happens because of problems with interests distribution)
亂扔煙頭引起大火 - Carelessly throwing cigarette butts cause fire (fire happens because of someone throwing cigarette butts)


How do you say 'home is where the heart is' in traditional Chinese characters? How do you say 'home is where the heart is' in traditional Chinese characters?
Is this correct?: 家是哪裡的心臟是

There's a few different ways to do this.

Aurus Huang already suggested

  心在哪裡，家就在哪裡。

above.

Baidu gives us:

  心之所在即為家

This Baidu Zhidao question also gives a lot of examples:

  心中向往的地方就是你的家

  家是心之所在

  心所在的地方是家。

but my absolute favorite, and honestly the best translation of this phrase has got to go to:

  心所向，家所在。


I really need to know the Chinese characters preferably handwritten to the phrase “pursuit of happiness” I really need this translation into handwritin characters for a tattoo. It’s really hard to find an accurate website for “pursuit of happiness”

It’s really hard to find an accurate website for “pursuit of happiness”

Google Translate's result 追求幸福 is accurate
As for Chinese Handwriting fonts, you can look for them on the web
I selected a few fonts on my computer as examples of what you can expect


Better translation for "underdog"? Underdog has a lot of mediocre translations

ABC English-Chinese gives:

  处于劣势的一方

Oxford has:

  弱者

which is okay and:

  失败者
  失败的一方

which don't really match the meaning of underdog to begin with.

New Century English gives:

  居于下风者

Except for 弱者, the rest are quite wordy. While 弱者 itself is alright it's a bit ambiguous without the proper context.

Are there no better colloquial translations of underdog?

Mined from an opinion post (http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-39731-510338.html):

劣勢者
弱勢者
新[入/行/進]者
後來者

I personally prefer the first one as the best translation; 弱勢 is a bit broader in meaning as it can mean weak in general rather than in comparison to something. The other ones just mean newcomer, so the disadvantage of being an underdog is only implied rather than explicitly stated.

You may also want to check out 弱旅 (opposite: 勁旅).


What's the meaning of lai2 in this sentence? 中国观众在看京剧的时候，看得高兴时，就用喝彩，鼓掌的方式来表示自己高兴的心情，他们也用这种方式来赞扬京剧演员

What's the meaning of lai2 in this sentence? Is it a common meaning of this? What are other examples in which I can use it with this meaning? Is "fang1 shi4 lai2" a fixed expression? What does it mean?

It seems to me that it's [description of method] + fang1 shi4 lai2 + [verb] and it means "to do [verb] in a [description] way".

It is a common structure

[用 (object) 来 (verb)] = [use (object) to (Verb)]
[用 (这种方式) 来 (赞扬京剧演员)] = [use (this method) to (praise) Peking Opera actors]
方式 is the object; 赞扬 is the verb; 京剧演员 is the indirect object

Example:
[用(水) 来 (灭)火] = [use (water) to (put out) fire]
水 is the object; 灭 is the verb; 火 is the indirect object
"用这种方式赞扬京剧演员"  and "用水灭火" mean the same as "用这种方式来赞扬京剧演员"  and "用水来灭火". The difference is adding 来 strengthen the connection between the noun phrase and the verb phrase.
The connection between noun and verb in "use water put out fire" is not as strong as "use water to put out fire"
More example:
"用枪杀敌" (use gun kill enemy)  might be broken into two unrelated phrases if you say it like "用枪， 杀敌" (use gun, kill enemy). While "用枪来杀敌" (use gun to kill enemy) cannot be broken into two unrelated phrase no matter how you say it


Where can I find a list of commonly mistaken characters? I want to quickly identify potential mistakes created by OCR software. Where can I find a list of all Chinese characters that visually look very similar and might often be confused?

A friend and I have started to collect a list of characters easy to misread by language learners: http://code.google.com/p/eclectus/source/browse/trunk/libeclectus/data/similarcharacters.csv


What's the difference between 不停 and 不斷？ What's the difference between 不停 and 不斷 (不断) ? Both mean incessant or unceasing. According to what I know, 不停 is an adverb, while 不斷 (不断) can be an adverb or adjective.

However, this sentence seems to mean the same with both words:

She kept working (she didn't stop working).

  她*不停*地工作.  她*不断*地工作.

You can understand it by each character in the words. 停 means stop while 断 means no more. Thus, 不停 means keep on going while 不断 means it is not the end. You can also compare with 不息 and 不止，there is a saying that 生命不息，奋斗不止 which means I will struggle till the end of my life. 止 has the same meaning as 停 sometimes, for example, 停止. 息 also has the same meaning as 停 here.


Differentiating Between Dove And Pigeon In Chinese 鸽子 is used interchangeably for both dove and pigeon.

How to differentiate between the both of them in Chinese?

Even 白鸽 which I would totally imagine would mean dove, both ABC and KEY just define it as:

  pigeon

Any ideas?

I think most people distingish them these way:

Pigeon - 鸽子 - larger in size and not necessary white

Dove - 白鸽 - smaller in size and mostly white

Although some may disagree as these 2 terms are interchangable in most situation / definition.


Is 摆有 a word in MSM? 桌上摆有一卷书

(source: example sentence in a publicly available flashcard deck - no other context provided).
None of the 40+ dictionaries I consulted carry this lemma, and google offers precious little too.
I would have used 摆着 (or 放着) in that context; is 有 a typo for 着 or is 摆有 (and perhaps 放有) a legitimate word? If so, is it dialectal? Can you think of any other such -有 constructions, aside from normal dictionary words like 拥有, 持有, etc. ?
Thank you.

Edit:
According to 現代漢語八百詞 (p.630), 有 (which means “possess”) is a verb that can follow a monosyllabic verb to form a tightly-bound term. In linguistic terms, it is called a serial verb compound.
桌上有一卷书 (there is a book on the table)
桌上摆有一卷书 (there is a book placed on the table) - 摆 explains how the book is situated on the table -- it laid/ sits there
More example:
庭中有几棵树 (There are several trees in the courtyard)
庭中种有几棵树 (There are several trees planted in the courtyard) - 種 explains how the trees are situated in the courtyard -- they grow there
車上有四人 (There are four people in the car)
車上坐有四人 (There are four people sitting in the car)
屋中有一百袋大米 (There are a hundred bags of rice in the house)
屋中堆有一百袋大米 (There are a hundred bags of rice piled up in the house)
手中有一把七尺長刀 (Have a seven-foot-long knife in hand)
手中持有一把七尺長刀 (Have a seven-foot-long knife holding in hand)
Different verbs can work with 有 in the above sentences. e.g. 庭中横放有几棵树, 车上躺有四人, 屋中藏有一百袋大米; 手中握有一把七尺长刀


Does 周末那两天 means both Sunday and Saturday? The original sentence is：

  周末那两天他看电视。

周末那两天 means both Sunday and Saturday?

Looks like this:

周末 Weekend
那 that/those
两天 2 days
他看电视 he watches telly.


How to write "BiángBiáng麵" using pinyin? Alternatively, can you write the character by strokes (that the pinyin input recognizes it and that the character can be found among all the other stored characters)?

Phonetic Substitution

Although the character cannot currently be typed into a computer, wikipedia notes that one may use a phonetic substitution. I doubt that most people would recognise this 58 stroke original character in any case but at least this may be a usable substitute.

  The Chinese character for "biáng" cannot be entered into computers.
  Therefore phonetic substitutes like Chinese: 彪彪面; pinyin: biāobiāo
  miàn) or Chinese: 冰冰面; pinyin: bīngbīng miàn) are often used.

(Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biángbiáng_noodles#Mnemonics)


Which edition of《杜骗新书》contains modern parallels? I was listening to the latest Sinica podcast, "All sorts of swindles in the late Ming society, with Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk."

At about 33:55 Christopher Rea talks about an edition of《杜骗新书》or《江湖奇闻杜骗新书》with 白话 and modern day parallels.

I found a version on weipan it seems to contain 白话 translations but I'm not seeing any modern day parallels.

Any idea which version he's talking about?

《江湖奇闻杜骗新书》(lit. Weird Things in the World: New Collection of Frauds) is written in a mixture of Classical and Vulgar Chinese. The Vulgar Chinese lately evolved into Modern Chinese in early 1920s (as the Government of ROC abolished all Classical Chinese textbooks in schools in 1922). Therefore, for a Chinese speaker above high school level, it is not a challenge reading this book. I guess that you can't find a Modern Chinese version because the book is written in a language that most Chinese people can loosely understand, if not completely, thus translation into Modern Chinese is not needed.


Is the 个 required here? A: 我老师是个中国人

B: 我老师是中国人

I feel that A says ''My teacher is a Chinese person.'', and that B says ''My teacher is Chinese.''

But I feel that A carries an impolite nuance for some reason.

Am I interpreting this incorrectly or what do you think of phrase A ?

There is no big difference between these two sentences. 个can be deleted.


How many characters do I need to learn? How many Chinese characters would I generally need to learn to be able to handle most text in typical every day circumstances?

How many would be required to be considered fluent?

Are there any good resources for learning the most commonly used characters?

Depending on how 'in touch' with the language (in terms of understanding grammatical constructions and context clues) you may be considered fairly fluent with 80% or so character recognition

Think about your vocabulary in English.  If you pick up a book with many words you don't know, you may still be able to comprehend it based on the context of the words that you might not know.  Same applies for Chinese.

If you are interested in numbers and facts, here are the results of some studies:

Cumulative Character Frequency for the Top N Characters based on two studies (Huang 1994 and Da 2004)

Top 250 characters: 64.4% / 57.1%

Top 500 characters: 79.2 / 72.1%

Top 1000 characters: 91.1 / 86.2%

Top 1500 characters: 95.7 / 92.4%

Top 2000 characters: 97.9 / 95.6%

Top 3000 characters: 99.4 / 98.3%

The above table tells us that the top 1000 characters account for between 86% and 91% of the characters occurring in the real world. Assuming, with great hope, that there is a good correlation between the top 1000 characters found in these studies and the 1000 characters that most second year college students are supposed to master, we can conclude that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, while we wouldn't advocate studying characters solely based on their high frequency, we believe that studying such lists is a reasonable supplement to conventional study programs. Such lists also provide a sense of just where one is on the path to full Chinese literacy.

The results from the above studies have been used to generate two different sets of flashcards.

The Top 1000 Traditional Characters is based on C .H. Tsai's combined 1993–1994 data.
The Top 1000 Simplified Characters is based on Jun Da's combined classical and modern Chinese data, which has the advantage of being based on more recent data as well as more formal publications.

Source: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/topchars.php


Translation of artist signature Can someone translate this artists name please?  Thank you in advance.
(https://i.stack.imgur.com/h3mLF.jpg)

Handwriting: 青兹
Seal: 兹

青 has a lot of meanings. For example, blue, young, east, or grass.

兹, 玆 and 茲 are variants.
兹 may mean black or dirty.
茲 means this, now or year.


What's the meaning of 虚化 in Chinese linguistics? I was reading a research paper in linguistics and came across this definition 虚化结果补语。
I'm not sure what the proper English translation would be.
There are a couple introductory sentences that illustrate the usage of the term. (Rough) translations are mine:

本文采用体现这类补语语法演变过程的术语虚化结果补语
This paper uses the term "XXX result complement" to reflect the grammatical evolution of this category of complements.

主要表示动作事件“完成”的意义,与前项动词V有比较广泛的搭配,具有很强的能产性,称为虚化结果补语
[...] mainly expresses that an action event is "complete", has rather broad collocations with the preceding verb V, and has strong productivity: that is called "XXX result complement".

Google translates this as "blurred result complement". This doesn't sound correct. In fact, a quick cross-reference check returns no results.
The character 虚 itself has several different meanings. The ones that may be applicable here are "void" and "virtual". So together with the suffix 化 "-ize", I can come up with "virtualized result complement" but that also yields no results.
What's the correct translation of 虚化 in English?
Edit: the paper also claims that this category of complements is also called 动相补语 (phase complement) by other authors.
Edit 2: a longer sentence with the word 虚化 used in different positions:

虚化结果补语是结果补语的一项重要类别,能够发生虚化的结果补语谓词数量不多,内部虚化过程各异,但存在一定共性

Edit 3: I'm going to conclude that the answer lies somewhere in between Tang Ho and Pedroski / KK_tse's answers (thank you!)
The term appears to indicate verbs that lose their concrete meaning when they assume the role of a result complement. Thus, "virtual result complement", and "grammaticalized result complement" make sense to me. The former highlights the difference with "actual result complements" (see Tang Ho's answer). The latter highlights the process of abstracting away the inherent meaning of the verb in favor of its grammatical role (see Pedroski / KK_tse's answers).

結果補語的「虛」與「實」

漢語動結式（又稱黏合式述補結構）中有一類的補語被稱為「虛化結果補語」，包括「完、好、掉、住、成、著、了、過等」

根據過去的研究，虛化結果補語區別實義結果補語的特點是：皆由實義動詞虛化而來、本身詞匯意義不明顯、語義指向述語、不是動結式的語義中心、主要表示動作事件「完結、結束」等。但是，這些區別特點主要都體現語義層面上，而句法上，無論是對前項動詞的選擇、還是與賓語的搭配，虛化補語與實義補語並無明顯差異

We are familiar with the aspect markers below:
吃(eat) --> 吃了 (eat is a completed action)
吃(eat) --> 吃過 (eat is an experience action)
They are on the list of 虛化結果補語. And the article stated 虛化補語 is mainly used for indicating the verb is 'completed/ finished' and 實義補語 mainly used for indicating the result of the verb. e.g. 斬斷 (chop-apart); 切掉 (cut-away). 斷 is the result complement of the verb 斬; 掉 is the result complement of the verb 切. They indicate the 'actual result' of the verb
From the same article:

而句法上，無論是對前項動詞的選擇、還是與賓語的搭配，虛化補語與實義補語並無明顯差異

實義结果補語 (actual result complements) and 虛化结果補語 (virtual result complements) are practically identical in syntactic.

My knowledge in linguistics terms is based mostly on Hong Kong Standard Written Chinese (SWC). It is likely different from linguistics terms used by Mandarin speakers in the mainland. But I hope my input would help you find the most accurate translation of the term in question
I was taught '斷' and '掉' in '斬斷' and '切掉' are "verb particles"; '了' and '過' in '吃了' and '吃過' are "aspect markers"


Frequency of hanzi by use in Chinese words I can easily find a lot of lists with the most frequently used hanzi. But I think the frequency is linked to the use in sentences, independently of words.

I need the frequency of used hanzi linked to the construction of Chinese words. I mean the frequency for 的 will be very different. If someone has an idea for the frequency of use of radicals in the construction of hanzi, I am also interested.
Thank you.

You would need to do some database manipulation. First extract a bigram frequency list (http://lingua.mtsu.edu/chinese-computing/) or a more general word frequency list (as provided by Wenlin, for example), and then decompose the individual morphemes to obtain the most used characters for words.


When is it necessary to say “_色的” when telling the color of something? I'm learning Mandarin primarily using Lingodeer and when colors were first introduced I was taught to say “_色的” such as in “月亮是白色的”. Now in Lingodeer I am learning of how to put emphasis on certain words and the example they gave was as follows, “妈妈的头发黑黑的”. Evidently “_色的” is not needed in this situation. Is it simply that “黑” or any other color is an adjective rather than a noun and the purpose of “_色的” is to turn a color into a noun? That's the only thing that comes to mind because I had always interpreted sentences such as “月亮是白色的” to mean "The moon is the color white ('s belonging)".

Ah..I'm not an expert in Chinese language but a native speaker, so the answer is just according to my experience.

Very likely the character "色" could be omitted if you're about to use a
word which its most usage is to state a color: white, red, yellow, etc. So the following are both grammatically good:

1. 月亮是白色的 (the moon is of white color)
2. 月亮是白的 (the moon is white)

But when you want to be more accurate, the absence of "色" could cause ambiguity:

1. 剑是青铜色的 (sword is of bronze color)
2. 剑是青铜的 (sword is made of bronze)

What really cannot be omitted is "的". It is "的" that turn a noun into an adjective. We often use "X 是 Y 的" to tell "X is of the property of Y".

I could list some characters that in most cases their usage is to state a color:

红 red
黄 yellow
蓝 blue
黑 black
灰 gray
白 white (also has the meaning in vain, but it's an adverb then)
紫 purple
绿 green


What is the implied meaning of 社会人 So I know that 社会 is society, so I'd assume that 社会人 means people that contribute to society

However, for some reason for the past few weeks I've actually heard it used a few times in different situations, I'm assuming that it's picking up popularity in slang / meme potential

I first heard it in this phrase,
小猪佩奇身上纹
掌声送给社会人

And the person who taught me that told me that 社会人 meant common-man, and in this case, it was used facetiously as a sort of insult.  But I was also assured that this wasn't an insult

Earlier this week, I heard it again, I forgot the full context, but I was assured that it was an insult

Does anybody have some extra light they can shed on the implied meaning behind 社会人？

I believe "社会人" means gangsters or scoundrels. We have 黑社会(black society) for crime organizations, so basically 社会人 means someone in such a organization. I think at first it is only in the northeastern China that the phrase 社会人is used. But now everyone seems to know what it means. Yet the meaning of 社会人 has also changed in the sense that it is usually used in an ironic sense. Jobless youngsters who behave like gangsters (though in many cases they are not criminals and they do not belong to any organization) are often described as 社会人 as well. As for the popularity of the word, I guess it is mainly because there is some kind of funny irony in the word. There is something ridiculously fuuny when a jobless young man living in the lower class aspires to be successful not by working hard but by becoming a 社会人. Yet I guess this phrase will soon be forgotten just like any memes on the Internet.(except the +1s one which will never be forgotten as long as the Chinese language is still alive. Long live the Toad!)


Pinyin "h" sound, pronunciation I notice that the pinyin "h" is in many books just the same as in English.
But when I listen to people, some people stress the "h" and there is a tiny gggg, and some gurgling sometimes (hope this is the right word, my native tongue is not English).
My question is, is this how it should sound, a pretty pronounced H sound or is it a dialect that I shouldn't pick up and should my H be really clean?

In standard Mandarin, the pinyin h is pronounced as [x] in IPA, like ch in Scottish English loch -- yes, you're right that there's a tiny g, because [x] is a velar consonant. However, in south China, many simply say [h], although some natural assimilation may happen. For instance, for those speakers, pinyin ha is [ha] while pinyin he becomes [xɤ] (if you get [ɤ] right, then [hɤ] simply doesn't work, you would do [xɤ] unconsciously). Therefore [h] and [x] are allophones in this sense, so don't worry about your pronunciation.


Hi! What is the difference between 忙得过来 and 忙不过来 Are they opposite, or do they mean the same thing?
My teacher gave me an example like...
A: “工作这么多，你忙得过来吗？”
B: “我可能忙不过来.”
but I am still having trouble understanding this.

Put simply, they have opposite meanings.
1. Translations

你忙得過來嗎？ Can you manage your work?
我忙得過來。 I can manage my work.
我忙不過來。 I have more work than can manage.

2. The construction Vmain +得/不+ Vaux
得 indicates ability in the positive sense (Vmain +得+ Vaux), and 不 in the negative sense (Vmain +不+ Vaux).
Let's consider a simpler example where 得 and 不 are placed within another compound verb, 吃完 (to finish eating). 吃 (to eat) is the main verb, and 完 (to finish) is a verb that is at most auxiliary in nature. Here it helps indicate the extent of completion of the main verb.

我吃完飯。 I finished my meal.
我吃得完飯。 I can/could finish the meal.
我吃不完飯。 I cannot/could not finish the meal.

3. 忙過來
This compound verb is seldom (dare I say never) used without 得/不 inserted in between, but still one appreciates the invariable structure where the main verb 忙 (to be busy) is followed by the auxiliary verbs 過 and 來 (note nothing is advancing towards the speaker; it is merely a figurative way of saying someone has finished or done being busy. See more explanation of 來 as an auxiliary verb here.)
An example of Vmain +得/不+ 過 is 說得/不過去; if you say something is 說得過去, you mean that it is justifiable, passable (as if you could complete a justification for something).
4. Other Vmain +得/不+ Vaux examples

跟上 (to catch up) 跟得上 跟不上
他跟得上節奏。lit. He can catch up with the rhythm.
寫下 (lit. to write down) 寫得下 寫不下
這裡空間太小了，寫不下。 There is too little space here for me to write.

上, 下, 完, 過去, and 過來 are common auxiliaries.
5. What about 你忙不過來嗎？
The teacher could also have asked in the negative, but in it also lies the assumption or presupposition of the speaker that the student could not finish their work. Asking in the affirmative (which also includes 你忙得過來不？ where 不 acts as a question tag) is in general more polite.


How does Wikipedia's simplified to traditional converter work? The relationship between simplified and traditional characters can be a headache for organizations using both orthographies.

  "A number of surveys, such as [Xiandai 1986], have demonstrated that
  the 2000 most frequent SC characters account for approximately 97% of
  all characters occurring in contemporary SC corpora. Of these, 238
  simplified forms, or almost 12%, are polygraphic; that is, they map to
  two or more traditional forms."

Nevertheless, it's a task that can one day be done relatively perfectly by a computer. Google Translate can do it for you more or less. But if you are converting a short story or a novel, the task is a little more difficult. That's why I actually prefer to use the Mediawiki converter.

Nevertheless, I don't really know how it works. I have a feeling the SCIM pinyin input tables are used somehow, and the tediously underdocumented non-bijective-mappings between the two orthographies coded for manually. Is that right?

The Mediawiki converter uses a combination of automatic information from the Unicode standard, SCIM tables, and other sources plus manual tweaks to build a set of translation tables.  When going from Traditional to Simplified, some characters have been condensed into one.  Translating back from Simplified to Traditional requires context that a computer is not likely to understand unless you implement a full translation engine, not just a text replacement engine. This is where the manual enhancements come into play.

Mediawiki has a build system which automatically combines the automatic and manual information into a PHP source file of translations between many different types of Chinese.  It appears to cover dialectical differences for mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. The information is then changed out with PHP's strtr() function which replaces all occurrences of items in a given array with matches in the supplied string, longest matches first.  This longest matching is the key when switching out characters because you have more context from the source to make a better replacement.

Source:
Code which uses mediawiki's conversion functions:
https://github.com/tszming/mediawiki-zhconverter/blob/master/mediawiki-zhconverter.inc.php

Build file to combine automatic conversion tables with manual tweaks:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/MW/browse/master/maintenance/language/zhtable/Makefile.py

Compiled translation tables (large file, 17k lines):
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/MW/browse/master/includes/ZhConversion.php

Conversion tool to load tables for different conversions (used by first source link)
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/MW/browse/master/languages/classes/LanguageZh.php


What is the textbook used to learn Chinese in Havard and MIT? I know that Havard has an excellent East Culture Research center but what about the teaching of Chinese there?

I'm assuming you're asking about introductory level stuff.

MIT: For complete beginners: Integrated Chinese

Sources: http://web.mit.edu/gsl/syllabi/21G.101-Syllabus.pdf (Fall 2013)

For people who have some level of speaking ability: Learning Chinese: A Foundation Course in Mandarin (a book made by MIT instructors) and A Primer for Advanced Beginners of Chinese, Simplified Characters

Source: http://web.mit.edu/gsl/syllabi/21G.107-Syllabus.pdf (Fall 2015)
Harvard: Complete beginners: Also Integrated Chinese

Couldn't find any info on heritage learner's textbook.

Source: http://harvardcoopbooks.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TBWizardView?storeId=52084 and searching for Fall2015 Chin E 1 01


When should I use 多少 or 几? Is the difference between 多少 and 几 simply "how much" vs "how many"?

I've read different sources with varying perspectives: some emphasize expected number (1-10 for 多少 vs 10+ for 几), others talk about money (多少) vs. non-money items (几). Is there a more definitive answer on usage?

In English, we use "how many" for countable nouns and "how much" for uncountable nouns. But in Chinese, there's no difference between countable and uncountable when it comes to measure or describe the quantity of something.
We say "how many men" and "how much money" ; both "how many" and "how much" in Chinese is「多少」. "How many men" = 「多少人」; "How much money" = 「多少錢」

「幾」 (adj): a few ;  several - Example: 幾個人一齊做 ( a few people do it together)

「幾」 (adv):  quite; considerably - Example: 「幾好」( quite good)，「幾快」 ( quite fast)

「幾」 (adv): how; how many / how much ; what

Examples:
「幾多?」(how many? / how much?)
「幾時?」(what time? = when?)
「(有)幾好?」(how good?)
「(有)幾快?」 (how fast?)

「多少」(how many) is a phrase used to ask or talk about an amount ;「幾」 is mainly an adverb (how / what).  For example: 「幾」(how)+「多」(many) = 「幾多」(how many) ; 「幾」(what)+ 「時」(time) = 「幾時」(what time / when)
「多少?」and 「幾多?」only mean " how many?" but 「幾」has other usages.

When should I use 多少 or 几?

When asking [how many of something] or [how much of something] you can use  either[多少+(something)]or [幾多+(something)], for example: 多少人 or 幾多人
You can omit 多 in 幾多 in some cases when you want to use a more classical style of speech. Which means you can use: "幾人? " instead of "幾多人?"
Is the difference 多少 and 几 simply "how much" versus "how many"?

The different usages of 多少 and 几 have been explained in the body of this post


Can I use 告诉 to quote what someone has said? Please help! I'm wondering whether the use of the word 告诉 is restricted to certain places in a sentence.

I'm wondering whether this sentence would be correct:

今年初，我的朋友告诉我他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。Is 告诉 allowed to be used to quote what someone has said?

Thanks very much in advance.

今年初，我的朋友告诉我他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。
It is correct. You can use 告诉 in this way.

You can add a comma to make it clearer.
今年初，我的朋友告诉我，他这个学期每个星期要打工三十个小时。

BTW, the sentence can be simplified as follows.
今年初，朋友告诉我，他这个学期每周要打工三十个小时。
今年初，我朋友说，他这个学期每周要打工三十个小时。


How to create word/character sequence in Chinese that sounds the same as a word in English (or any other language) Say I have a word in English "fooboo". What if I want it to be pronounced in Chinese as "fooboo" as well? My first attempt is to search in pinyin for "fu" and "bu". Fu gives results like 副 and 付. Bu gives results like 不 and 部. So could I just make it be 付不 or 副部? Or does sound get assigned to characters independent of any character building blocks? That is, how do I associate sounds with some characters? Maybe instead of searching for the pinyin sound, I find two characters, and then say this is "fooboo". Is that acceptable? For example, maybe 事变 is "fooboo", even though the components are shì and biàn.

Quote:- "Maybe instead of searching for the pinyin sound, I find two characters, and then say this is "fooboo". Is that acceptable? For example, maybe 事变 is "fooboo", even though the components are shì and biàn"

Yes, if you are a, say, Martian, landed (randomly), in China and wish to use the Chinese characters to depict the sounds of the Martian language, and completely disregard the original Chinese meanings of the words chosen.

I am being serious here because this was what happened in Japan when the Japanese took the Chinese characters, pronounced them in Japanese sounds, and in some cases even the meanings changed.

So, perhaps in Martian, "fooboo" means "I come in Peace", and chose the Chinese characters 事变, and give it the pronunciation of fooboo.


Am I so predictable? When I go to my favorite restaurant, I often order the same thing. I order in Chinese and apparently I've become predictable. How can I ask an equivalent (not necessarily equal) phrase of "am I so predictable?"

Google translate gives a literal translation that may sound awkward (I'm not sure).

難道我的預測？

Is there a set-phrase that is often used to express this idea?

The other answers covered the translation part. I am going to give my two cents on the culture side.

  Is there a set-phrase that is often used to express this idea?

I don't think so, because traditionally Chinese don't really respond that way. If someone is 'predicting' your order, he's really saying 'I know what you like' as a gesture of intimacy, friendliness or at least, care. A positive response is usually along the line with 'exactly', 'you really know me', 'it's a pleasant surprise that you remembered', etc. I am not quite sure what subtext does 'am I so predictable' convey in English speaking culture, but a verbatim translation in Chinese doesn't sound very positive when used as a response to that 'predicting' conversation. Considering how uniformity, agreement and tacit understanding were valued in traditional Chinese culture, 'am I so predictable' might sound fun or sexy to some listeners, but it might be perceived as rejection, a perverse personality or a bad mood to some other listeners, depending on their social role and culture belief. I am not saying you shouldn't respond that way, just a reminder of how it could be received differently from your intention.

Some simple, low-key positive acknowledgements:

没错 (exactly)
你猜对了 (your guess is right)
你都记住了 (you remembered!)


What do the 可 mean in 可现在想起来可真是记忆犹新呀 and 我可要出点丑了? I have this sentence:

  同学们，我的新家安电话的时侯还是几年前，可现在想起来可真是记忆犹新呀！不信？那我就讲给你听听，我可要出点丑了！

Could you please explain?

1 可现在想起来可真是记忆犹新呀！why is there a second 可 here?

2。我可要出点丑了！what is the meaning of 可 here and what does 出点丑 mean?

可现在想起来可真是记忆犹新呀！

The first 可 is the abbreviated form of 可是, meaning "however":

The phone was intalled a few years ago, however, I still remember it as clearly as if it's yesterday.

The second 可 is used to emphasize 真是. This 可 can be omitted.

我可要出点丑了！

Here 可要 is used to draw more attention from, or to give heads-ups, warnings, or threats to the listeners. 可要 can be reduced to 要.

出丑 means to reveal something shameful or private about oneself to others. 出点丑 simply reduces the amount/intensity of the 'shame' being revealed.


The meaning of 牛气 and 很牛 I have seen one of my language partners use 牛气 and 很牛, but he couldn't explain it to me. The context suggested it meant something like "bullshit" or "you are kidding me", a sign or disbelief, but the dictionaries I tried only suggested literal cattle-related translations. Do they have another meaning?

As a slang, 牛 could be used for expressing awesome.

  在中国口语中的“牛”，已经被引申为一个形容词，意思为“厉害、有本事”，例如“你太牛了！”（标准：你太厉害了！）。这个词通常为褒义词，通常用于赞扬、形容某人很厉害，很有本事，很有胆量。也通常用于口语中的调侃。

So 很牛 means very awesome. 牛气 means arrogant ; self-important and also awesome.


What qualities does Hong Kong Mandarin have? With Mandarin making more and more in-roads into Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, I'm wondering what characteristics set it apart from Standard Mandarin or other regional Mandarin dialects and/or accents.

I'm not asking so much about native Mandarin speakers that have relocated to Hong Kong. But about Hong Kongers whose first language is Cantonese but also speak fluent Mandarin.

When a Mandarin speaker visits Hong Kong what stands out most?

Other areas where Mandarin is spoken with identifiable regional differences have Wikipedia articles, but Hong Kong does not. Compare the articles on Mandarin in Singapore and Taiwan for instance.

(If it is felt that this question would fit in better at linguistics.SE I am not opposed to migrating it there.)

I am hardly an expert on this topic. I know basically nothing about Cantonese-influenced Mandarin per se, but I'll offer an answer of the variety that I think hippietrail is looking for. Hopefully other people will be like "I now understand what a good answer to this question is supposed to look like, and furthermore, I know more than that idiot Stumpy Joe Pete! I'll answer it!".
As I mentioned in an answer to a similar question, most southern Mandarin has the characteristic of merging zh ch sh into the z c s series (e.g., "zhi" pronounced as "zi"). Cantonese does this, so I expect HK Mandarin accents to do so.
In Cantonese (among the many many other differences in pronunciation) the g and k are preserved in places where, in Mandarin, they have been palatalized into j and q. For example, 北京 is pronounced "bak1 ging1". (Aside: this helps to explain the outdated Western spellings of "Beijing" as "Peking" and "Chongqing" as "Chungking"--the qs and js were originally velar! As for the p/b k/g thing... blame the Europeans.) Sometimes this shows through in people's Mandarin. For instance, some HK classmates of mine mistakenly guessed the pronunciation of 季节 as "gui4jie2" (instead of "ji4jie2").
It's not only ks and gs that became j and q. There were also fricatives and affricates that palatalized in similar circumstances (before [i]/[j]). See here and look for the /tɕ/ /tɕʰ/ /ɕ/ parts.
Possibly related to that: I once had a very young student with a rather hilarious Mandarin accent (I don't know if she was a Canto speaker). In at least some circumstances, zhi would become ji, chi would become qi, and shi would become xi. This culminated in her yelling about a spider:

老师，老师，有蜘蛛啊！
Standard: lao3shi1, lao3shi1, you3 zhi1zhu1 a!
Her: lao3xi1, lao3xi1, you3 ji1zhu1 a!

I say that it's possibly related, because in Cantonese, 师 = si1 and 蜘 = zi1 (where the i's are actual [i]s! Not like Mandarin!). By analogy to Cantonese words pronounced sik and zik, you would expect the Mandarin to be xi and ji. So, like I said, possibly related.


How to use 凭 as a preposition I understand 凭 as a verb to mean rely. But I often read it and the seemingly related 凭着 in familiar contexts but still do not know what function it serves. Seeing example sentences doesn't make it any clearer.
In what cases is it most used?

You are close. 凭着 expresses the idea of based on, according to or relying on, and when translating into English, prepositions such as on or by can often be used to convey this. You should be able to use it in situations where this concept needs to be expressed. As you suspected, its part of speech is best thought of as prepositional. 凭, when used in this sense, is equivalent to 凭着.

Some examples:

她在沙漠里走了一个星期, 就凭(着)太阳的方位来认路. (She walked in the desert for a week,
using only the sun's position for directions.)
我们的猫凭(着)它的本能, 走了十五公里的路, 回到了我们以前住的房子. (Our cat went back to
our previous house having walked fiften kilometres by instinct. )
你是凭(着)什么文凭来应聘这个职位的? (What certifications make you eligible for this
job? / You are applying for this job based on what certifications?)

Keep in mind that translation is an art and you do not need to stick with the words that I used. Be flexible.


What is the exact meaning of 吃豆腐, and where does the expression come from? I'm not talking about eating tofu, but the expression that means something more like taking advantage of someone. What exactly does 吃豆腐 mean, and where does this expression come from?

I've only heard it used in describing sexual situations, and wiktionary.org describes its usage as follows:

  This idiom usually only refers to a man taking advantage of a woman in a sexual situation.

A typical example would be some creepy guy pinching the flight attendant's backside as she walks past.

There's also a good discussion at wordreference.com.

  不要吃我豆腐 is telling someone not to take advantage of me, but specifically in a sexual way, as in inappropriate touches etc. However, the accusation is not very serious in Chinese, and sometimes said in a joking manner. I would translate it as "Don't harasse me!", "Get your hands off me!" etc., but understand that the Chinese expression is softer.

I found an origin story on chinese-forums.com, but I'm not sure how reliable it is.

  It’s said that tofu shops usually were run by wife and husband in the old days. Female boss in a tofu shop took tofu as their daily food, which made their skin tender and smooth. On one hand their fine skin helped attract more customers, on the other hand it showed some kind of coquetry to them. Men liked to take “to eat tofu” as an excuse to go to a tofu shop and flirt with the female boss there, verbally or even physically. Therefore, wives, feeling jealous, scolded their husbands, “Today, you went to eat tofu again?!” Now, “eating tofu” has become a word to describe man flirts with woman.


How to say throw away: 扔掉? CantoDict lists 扔掉 as the translation for "throw away" as in "throw away the can," but I often hear people use 扔 by itself or 掉 by itself.

Is 扔掉 the formal way of saying "throw away"?
Is there a difference between using 扔 or 掉?

1) Is 扔掉 the formal way of saying "throw away"?

Yes, it is.

'掉' in  '扔掉' is a result complement, not a verb itself.

  2) Is there a difference between using 扔 or 掉?

扔 mainly mean 'throw'
掉 mainly mean 'drop'

you can 扔 forward, backward, upward or downward; But you can only  掉 downward


How did 舆论 come to represent Public Opinion? How did the word 舆论 come to represent the concept of Public Opinion? I know the meanings of the individual characters but I just don't quite see how the combination of these two meanings leads to the concept of Public Opinion.

  舆 （Yú） : Palanquin

  论 （lùn）: To discuss; theory

Interesting question!

When I was a student, I was wondering why until I read a 词(Cí, a type of poery) by famous writer 辛弃疾(I really like reading his works). In that Ci, I read a sentence "百炼都成绕指，万事直须称好，人世几舆台", I got stuck with the word "舆台". The note said, "舆台“ meant "people at a lower rank". In ancient times, people were classified into 10 classes. The sixth class is 舆 and the tenth class is 台. So where does this word come from?

In the famous historical book 《左传》, in its section 《昭公七年》, it records a talk between two men, one says,

  天有十日，人有十等，下所以事上，上所以共神也。故王臣公，公臣大夫，大夫臣士，士臣皂，皂臣舆，舆臣隶，隶臣僚，僚臣仆，仆臣台，马有圉，牛有牧，以待百事。

This text shows the 10 classes are: 王(king), 公(duke),大夫，士，皂,舆,隶,僚,仆,台.

So 舆 could mean people who is at a lower rank, a member of grass-root. That's why “舆论" means “public opinion".


Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa? For those who speak both Chinese and Japanese, would first learning Chinese make it easier to learn Japanese?

Knowing that Japanese Kanji are derived from Chinese characters, how hard is it to do the opposite? Learning Mandarin after learning Japanese?

I think it would be easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese rather than vice-versa, because too many Chinese characters are used in Japanese. I would like to talk about this from three points.

Pronunciations

Usually, in Japanese, one character has 2 types of pronunciations, "音読 おんどく ondoku or 音読み おんよみ onyomi" and "訓読 くんどく kundoku or 訓読み くんよみ kunyomi". The 音読 (in Chinese, 音读) is similar to the pronunciation of the character in Chinese, because both modern Chinese and 音読 come from ancient Chinese (漢字を字音で読むこと。). 訓読 is the Japanese way of rendering the characters pronunciation, choosing the similar Japanese vocabulary in meaning to substitute (訓読は、漢字を、その意味にあたる日本語の読み方で読むこと。). This could be an advantage when you learn one of these two languages after you learnt one another.It can help you to remember the pronunciations.  But it could be an obstacle in some cases, since the pronunciations of characters in Chinese also changed in the long history.
Example: Character 人. In Japanese, its 音読 includes ニン nin (呉) as in 人間の歴史 にんげんのれきし　and　ジン jin (漢) as in 登場人物　とうじょうじんぶつ. These two variants, ニン and ジン, come from different times of ancient China; one of its 訓読 is ひと. In modern Mandarin, the pronunciation is "rén ㄖㄣˊ", however, I know in "吳語", the pronunciation is "nin", which proofs the ニン nin (呉). Anyway, this could also help you to remember the 音読. If you know "Nin" and "Jin" for "人", you may guess "nin" or "jin" for "仁" (actually, it's right!), because both "人" and "仁" have the similar sound in ancient/modern Chinese.

Writing Characters

Since Japanese uses a lot of Chinese Characters, it's an advantage for you to write down the characters if you have learnt one language. However, you still have to take care of some characters. Because both Japan and China conducted several reforms (i.e. simplification for better literacy, though in China some political motivation too, which is a controversial action) on traditional characters, and of course, they didn't negotiate with each other (though in fact, Chinese government did treat Japanese version as reference, e.g. 國 simplified to 国), so some characters are different after the simplification. One thing is for sure, simplified characters done in China is much more than those in Japan or Republic of Korea.
Example: Character "对" in simplified Chinese while "対" in Japanese, the traditional being "對".

Meanings of Characters

In most cases, the meanings of a character in Japanese and Chinese are the same or almost the same. This is a big advantage. However, Japanese generally keeps meanings of a  character in Classic Chinese, while in modern Chinese meanings of some characters have changed. In this case, the learner should pay extra attention to these characters, compared to a learner who doesn't know one another language, because his experience will lead him to a mistake.
Examples: Japanese verb "走る はしる hashiru", which means "to run". In modern Chinese, we use "走" to mean "to walk" and use "跑" to mean "to run", however, in classic Chinese, "走" really can mean "to run", as in 戰国策·楚策·江乙對荆宣王:
荊宣王問羣臣曰 吾聞北方之畏昭奚恤也 果誠何如 群臣莫對 江乙對曰 虎求百獸而食之 得狐 狐曰 子無敢食我也 天帝使我長百獸 今子食我 是逆天帝命也 子以我為不信 吾為子先行 子隨我後 觀百獸之見我而敢不走乎 虎以為然 故遂與之行 獸見之皆走 虎不知獸畏己而走也 以為畏狐也 今王之地方五千里 帶甲百萬 而專屬之昭奚恤 故北方之畏奚恤也 其實畏王之甲兵也 猶百獸之畏虎也
Compared with the advantages and disadvantages, I believe it could be easier to learn one language of these two after you have learnt one another.


How would you translate 佛系 into English? Wikipedia (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/佛系) says:

佛系是中文網路新生的流行語，約在2018年左右開始比較頻繁的在中文網路跟媒體出現，在中文的語境裡大致意思是指怎麼都行、看淡一切、無欲無求的一種生活態度。[1]該詞據考證來源於2014年日本的《non-no》[2]，提出所謂的「佛男子」（日语：仏男子）的概念，是指专注于自己的兴趣或工作，不愿花时间与异性交往的男子。[3]

Google Translation:

Buddhism is a buzzword for Chinese Internet new students. It appeared more frequently in Chinese Internet and media around 2018. In the Chinese context, it roughly means anything that can do anything, look down on everything, and have no desires. Attitude to life. [1] The term is based on research from Japan’s "non-no" [2] in 2014. It puts forward the concept of the so-called "Buddha Man" (Japanese: 仏男), which means to focus on one's own interests or work, and not willing to Men who spend time with the opposite sex. [3]

How would you translate 佛系 into English?

"Buddha-like youngsters/youth" is a loyal translation which has found widespread use in the news. "Buddhist youth" is also found, but without context people may take it literally as youths of the Buddhist religion, which is unideal. I believe you may want to consider the above if translating 佛系青年 as a set phrase.

You may consider adjectives such as "unambitious", "reclusive", or "indoorsy" (informal) if translating 佛系 alone. Personally, I find "que-será-será" (or "whatever-will-be-will-be"; hyphenation is required, see here) captures the nuance of 佛系 best. However, unlike "Buddha-like", these adjectives are only explanatory and thus heavily context-dependent.

Some proposed adjectives such as "tranquil" or "geeky" are in my opinion inaccurate.

References:

http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/1214/c90000-9304484.html
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2166781/are-chinas-affluent-buddha-youth-turning-their-backs
https://www.cityu.edu.hk/edge/grant/tdg/projects/projects_abstract/6000696.pdf
https://kknews.cc/essay/meplla9.html


"同儕" vs "同僚" vs "同事" I know that 同事 means colleague, but I have seen 同儕 and 同僚 used in similar context. Below are random examples of each I found on google:

在同儕關係中彼此地位平等、較能相互學習。
由於他過度地自負，同僚們不喜歡他。

Are these words interchangeable? If not, how do their meaning differ? In what context is each word used?
Thanks in advance!

同事 is the most common, plain one. it simply means people you work with or people in the same company as you do. It could be used no matter it is a everyday conversation, a quite formal business meeting or a HR policy notice.

同儕（同侪） means peers or fellows. Strictly it should be used to refer people in the same generation of you, i.e. siblings or cousins. Nowadays, it is often used in the workplace or other contexts when a sense of fraternity is preferable.

同僚 also means colleague. But it's more often used in politic settings in the old times. Nowadays, it can be used in the workplace in general but I feel such usage is more common in Taiwan or Hong Kong than the mainland. Personally, it feels it's more appropriate for two managers call each other that than two interns do. Or you can say this one is more fancy than 同事.

Additionally, there is another word 同仁 which equals to 同人 also means colleague.  They mean to refer the people who share something in common with you professionally. E.g. works in the same company or occupation. And it is a respectful term with a sense of fraternity. But it more often to be used as a collective term for a group of people rather than a specific person. So 一个同仁 is not very common.


Is the pinyin of 「操」in「情操」and「步操」the same in Mandarin？ Originally posted at http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/read.php?4,130404

  由細到大，自己同身邊嘅人都將「劉備」個「備」字讀成與(比)字同音
  而「曹操」個「操」字就讀成與(粗)字同音

  但最近睇港版，『三國 』(2013)
  「劉備」個「備」字讀成「預備」個「備」
  而「曹操」個「操」字就讀成「情操」個「操」即係與(噪)字同音。

  可能【三國演義】讀者群廣大，而農工人仕佔總人口之中嘅大部分，佢地一見個「操」字就唸起「步操」，「操作」等較常見嘅詞句，文縐縐嘅名詞句如「情操」同「操守」就唔會立即聯想到。

I asked this question because 「操」 in 「情操」/ cing4 cho3/ and 「步操」/bou6 cho1/ are pronounced differently in Cantonese. However, when I check 「操」  in Mandarin, there is only one reading /cao1/ for 「操」,

Question:

Did Mainland Chinese merge the two different readings of 「操」 in Mandarin or the two different readings of 操 were from ancient Chinese and only Cantonese inherited the practice?

Modern Mandarin Chinese has been very different from Medieval Chinese, while Cantonese has preserved much legacy from the latter.
Although I don't speak Cantonese, I think it's plausible that 操 in Medieval Chinese and in Cantonese has more than one pronunciation.
However, even in Modern Chinese, pronunciations do change over time, especially when a commonly-used word sounds like... fuck. (You can also see many people online using 操 instead of the original fuck character to express that meaning, but they do this just because they don't know which is the original character, or they need to avoid censorship...).
OK. Time for a sip of knowledge. I said pronunciations change over time in Modern Chinese. It happens mostly in characters that are commonly used, but have different pronunciations only when used as a surname:

盖(formerly ge3 like 舸, now mostly gai4)
纪(formerly ji3 like 己, now commonly ji4)

But this doesn't happen to all such characters:

解(always xie4 like 谢 if used as surname, rather than jie3)
仇(always qiu2 like 球 if used as surname, rather than chou2)

As far as I know, the only character other than surnames that has a changed pronunciation is:

帧("frame", formerly zheng4 like 正, now zhen1 like 真)


帅哥/美女 to get attention of someone who isn't handsome/beautiful In China (at least in mainland), it is common that people say 帅哥/美女 to someone to get his/her attention. Example cases:

If a person wants to use an iPhone charger but someone blocks the outlet and needs attention
If a person asks a location to a stranger
If a waiter at cafes wants to get attention from a customer

In these cases it is common to use 帅哥/美女, but I wonder if it is common even if the target is clearly not handsome or beautiful.

I feel that there is little or no connotation of "handsome" or "beautiful" when it comes to using these words as such, but in these cases is it common to use these words even to ugly people? Or is it simply that Chinese definiton of "handsome" or "beautiful" is extremely low?

It is just flattering talk. Most people like being flattered.

Personally, I think this kind of talk only suitable for actual handsome people or people with ordinary faces.

If a person is truly ugly, calling him "handsome" might sound like you are mocking him.

A similar example :

You can call anyone "kind Sir" either he is really kind or just a regular folk who doesn't break the law. However, if you call an amoral person who rips babies away from their mother  "kind Sir" , you are clearly mocking him.


How offensive is 他妈的? How offensive is the expression 他妈的? What is an English expression with a similar degree of offensiveness? In what situations is this expression appropriate / not appropriate?

It is very common and, in my personal experience, has similar offensiveness as the f word in English.

It can be offensive and quite rude: e.g. in a business negotiation, when the deal is finally broken and one side says:

  你他妈的给我滚出去 = "Get your fucking ass out of my office"

It may be used in irony among close friends which is not offensive then:
E.g. when two close friends meet after a long time, one may say:

  你最近死哪去了? 他妈的都忘了哥了! similar as "Where have you been lately? I fucking miss you!"

Hope this help to get the points.


Why doesn't 虛 contradict 謙虛? Definition D for 虛 lists "vainly". Unquestionably, "vainly" is the opposite of "modesty".
And "modesty" implies that you possess something valuable, like knowledge or wealth, but you keep it to yourself. A modest person isn't "empty" or "vain"! I don't understand how 虛 fits 謙虛.

Above is Oxford Chinese Dictionary (2010) p 577. Below is op. cit. p 845.

虛 = empty, the opposite of 虛(empty) is 實 (solid)
虛 in 謙虛 refers to 虛心 (empty heart = open mind)
A cup full of water cannot take in new water
A mind full of preconceptions cannot take in new ideas
謙虛 = modest, humble, and open-minded (willing to listen and learn)
Also, look at my answer to this question
What does 虚怀若谷 mean?


Different terms for 'family' and 'family member' When I was being taught Mandarin Chinese- quite a few years ago- we were only taught 家人 as meaning family or family member. However Google translate returns 家庭 as the best option for 'family' and 家庭成员 for 'family member'. What is the distinction between these? Are they used in different contexts?

'家人' is a specific term for 'one's family'

For example: '我的家人在香港' (my family is in Hong Kong)

家人 can also refer to: 'individual(s) of one's family'. For example: '他是陳先生的家人' (He is Mr.Chan's family)

  '家庭成员' is a specific term for 'member(s) of a family'/ family member(s)

We do not say: " My family members are in Hong Kong." in English; therefore, we don't say: "我的家庭成员在香港." in Chinese neither.

Similarly, we do not say: "He is Mr. Chan's family member" in English; therefore, we don't say: "他是陳先生的家庭成员" in Chinese neither.

  We use the term '家庭成员' the same as 'family member(s) ' in English.

For example:

"Family members of the Chan family includes:  Mr. and Mrs. Chan and their two daughters" (陳家的家庭成員包括：陳先生及夫人及其兩個女兒)

If you say: "Mr. Chan's family, are his wife and two daughters" then the translation would be: "陳先生的家人是他的妻子和兩個女兒”"

If you say: " Mr. Chan's family include he himself, his wife and two daughters" then the translation would be: “陳先生的家庭包括他自己，他的妻子和兩個女兒”

  家庭 is a specific term for "Family"


Could a translation error lead to squares to not be considered as rectangles? (Mandarin) I'm reading a certain set of kindergarten/lower primary maths textbooks that is written by North American authors for an Asian company.
Whenever students are asked to identify the number of rectangles in a given picture, the answer booklet gives the number of oblongs instead of the number of rectangles.
While the topic may be too advanced for kindergarten students, the maths textbooks indeed explicitly say at the bottom of the first page of a textbook at the very first level to tell students that squares are special types of rectangles, where levels 1-4 are for kindergarten students.
Additionally, the accompany guide for teachers devotes a whole page of discussion as to how to teach that squares are special types of rectangles. There's even a paragraph about teaching to kindergarten students. The authors/some of the co-authors of the teacher guides are also authors/co-authors of the textbooks. They have also said that if students are taught that squares are not rectangles, then they will have misconceptions later.
Perhaps, the ones who wrote the answer booklets were not fluent in English while the ones who wrote the textbooks were.
For example

[picture with 4 circles, 2 triangles, 3 square rectangles, 2 oblong rectangles for a total of 5 rectangles]
Circle ___
Triangle ___
Square ___
Rectangle ___

The answer key would give only the numbers:

4
2
3
2

So, the last line is wrong since it should be 5.
Could this happen in Chinese? Or a Chinese dialect? I mean, is there something specific about the translations of any of the following words 'rectangle, square, oblong, quadrilateral, quadrangle, parallelogram, trapezoid/trapezium, rhombus' that would cause such confusion? I guess the translator/s thought that when English speakers say 'rectangle', it means 'oblong in their language/dialect, but I don't see that as specifically a problem for this particular language.
By the way, are squares considered rectangles in China? Apparently, these things can vary by state, curricula, culture, time, etc. Please provide a document from the education department of your government or something.
Related:
In Korea, are squares considered rectangles?
Are kindergartners supposed to be steered from squares being rectangles?
In what curricula are “rectangles” defined so as to exclude squares?
Why do we have circles for ellipses, squares for rectangles but nothing for triangles?
What are/should kids (be) taught about the colour of the sun?

My guess is it depends if rectangle is translated as:

  Oblong
  Quadrilateral

Could be the case that the teaching is for young children, where the word / concept of rectangle vs Oblong vs Quadrilateral might be difficult to understand, but it is essential for them to differentiate between square and Oblong

Others (parallelogram, trapezoid/trapezium, rhombus) does have a specific name and are not confused with rectangle.


What is "skate ramp" in Chinese? What is "skate ramp" in Chinese? I can't seem to find this in any dictionaries, and most skate parks in Taiwan are called "Extreme Sports Training Park" or simply "Sports Park", so I don't really know where to start.

If there isn't an established name for a skate ramp in Chinese, how can I say it in Chinese in a way that is understandable?

Do you mean half-pipe?
That'd be 半管.

Vert ramp?
U型池.

English is equally acceptable though, not a lot of Chinese terms.

The broadest term you'll get is (滑板, etc.)道具, or if you want to be slightly more specific you can say 木制道具.


Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Tradition), which language is used as Most popular language in China? I have an iOS app. I want to do localization of the app in Chinese language. But, in language settings, there are two options Simplified and Tradition. I' m not able to figure out which is the best one.

Please any one could tell me, which language, shall i use for Localization of my App ?

Thanks in Advance.

Simplified Chinese is used throughout mainland China, though pretty much everyone can read the Traditional also. Traditional Chinese tends to still be used in places like Malaysia, Singapore, etc.

If you're marketing to mainland China then you probably want Simplified.

Alternatively, do both.


Which Mandarin learning textbooks have the largest amount of practical exercises? I recently bought "Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1" (Traditional Characters version) after some recommendations on a few language blogs and have worked through a few chapters.

I feel that it's very slow-paced and lacking grammar exercises. After reading further online reviews (Amazon, Goodreads, etc.), others seem to share the sentiment that it's a good textbook for university/teacher-assisted learning but not so much for self-study, and that the rest of the series is indeed quite poor in exercises (and even lacks a proper Answer Key!).

Considering the textbook series is also quite expensive, what are the most comprehensive options for intensive practical exercises?

My only major requirement is that it's in Traditional Characters as I'm moving to Taiwan.

You can find some bookstores near the Elementary Schools (小學).
If you see some signs like 國小參考書, go to find 參考書 (references) or 評量題 (examinations) for the first or second grade (一、二年級). 參考書 include the teachings in the textbooks and some Q&A. 評量題 have only Q&A.

You should know that all of them are totally in Chinese, no English.

(Ask your Taiwanese friends to go with you.)

You can find many Q&A on 全國中小學題庫網.


When is f not pronounced? I've seen that in Beijing Mandarin f can be pronounced as something of a final consonant when in an unstressed syllable, e.g. 豆腐 dòu fǔ = dòuff.

However, in other cases it disappears in unstressed syllables. One example is that in Beijing dialect 王府井 is pronounced as " 王五井", Wáng wǔjǐng becomes wángfǔ jǐng ( http://www.360doc.com/content/18/0123/07/1260016_724326694.shtml ).

Is this because of some kind of tone rules? Both of the "fu"s are third tones in these examples. Are there cases where both the f and the final of that syllable are pronounced in colloquial speech?

This is a typical example of slurred speech in colloquial Chinese. Just like we say "I'm" instead of "I am", "kill'em" instead of "kill them"; "kinda" instead of "kind of", "gonna" instead of "going to" in English.
While we usually represent these verbal shorthand by way of contractions (as demonstrated above in the first 2 examples) in English (and also in French), there is no conventional way to do so in Chinese, because morphemes are mostly monosyllabic - which means, you risk losing meaning by blurring out the sound when spoken and/or obliterating the character when written (Abbreviations are another matter) - which makes representing slurred speech on paper difficult.
Curiously, there are certain characters that are meant to be contractions and pronounced that way. For example, 甭 béng = 不用 bú yòng in Peking speak；and 諸 zhū = 之乎 zhī hū in Classical Chinese. These would be the true formal contractions that can be written down as-is. But such cases are scarce.
This makes it especially hard for new learners to grasp the nuances in the slurred verbal expressions because they are not familiar with the standard, formal way of pronouncing that term or phrase, and there is no proper way of representing that kind of speech in writing.
I would see the example cited by the OP above as part of a wide range of verbal corruptions that happen frequently in day-to-day speech. Other examples would include:

"大家" dà jiā pronounced as dà-ā (very common in Taiwan); or
麵包 miàn bāo pronounced as miàM-bāo, in which the interdental n consonant is pushed forward (i.e. corrupted) by the bilabial b that
immediately follows to give a m.

These should be differentiated from the formal rules that dictate pronunciation and tone in speech.


Help with translating old signs I recently bought an old wooden item that shows 5 traditional (?) Chinese characters. I tried my very best to translate them by researching all kind of pages, but cannot find some parts I need. Can someone help me translate? And now that I learned a little bit about how signs work I would also be very curious about the meaning of the single parts of them.

Here are the pictures (I believe the signs are mirrored, as with stamps for cookies.)

The left two should be 壽富, from top to down. The right ones, from top to down again, are likely to be 富貴X. I am sure about the last character, 屋?


In what situations can one use 帥哥? I do hear people say that a lot to me in China and I am always surprised by the timings and situations in which people just, kind of bluntly I feel, say this. I wonder what all those situations would be where someone could say that to you and why it's been said so often, it seems prioritized to saying some other, more proper things (I believe) sometimes (as if appearance is the most important thing "to talk about and mention", giving it a lot of priority.)

In my experience, 帥哥 is more addressed to refer to young people. It's like "Hey young man" in English. No matter what, being young is a beauty. People call the young generation 帥哥 in memory of their own long passed golden youth years.


Usage of word 到 in 我很高兴见到你 Why do one need to write a word 到 in statement 我很高兴见到你? Can we omit it?
It's like being complete without that word for me. Why do we need to use it?
I found this phrase in this book.

Verbs like 见、买、吃、看、听 are all just express an action, when you want to express the result of the verb, you have to add “到”.  You will understand it better from the following  examples:

A blind man can do the action “ 看”, but he will never 看到 anything.
People can go to the train station 买 train tickets during Chinese new year, but it’s very hard to 买到 a ticket.
In this sentence “我很高兴见到你” , there is a result of the action 见， the result is 你, so you can’t omit 到.


List of all traditional Chinese characters I'm looking for a repository or database containing all traditional Chinese characters. Where can I find this?

Download CJSYS-20110919.zip.
Find /CJSYS-20110919/cjsys/yong/mb/cj5-13053.txt
Copy the [DATA] section (from line 9 to 14136) into a spreadsheet.
Remove whatever you don't need.
Sort.
Remove duplicates.

source: 倉頡平台2012

By the way,

cj5-8300.txt has the simplified characters. (8300餘個簡體漢字)

cj5-20902.txt includes both of them. (國際標準碼20902個簡繁漢字)

cj5-70000.txt includes the rare-used characters. (國際標準碼75000個簡繁中日韓越漢字)

cj5-ftzk.txt is a table of the traditional phrases. (繁體詞庫)

cj5-jtzk.txt is a table of the simplified phrases. (簡體詞庫)


What’s the difference between 起来 and 上? Both 起来 and 上 after a verb should indicate the beginning and continuation of an action or a state. Are there differences in usage? If yes when should I use one instead of the other?

Examples with 上：

  1912 年中华民国成立，孙中山先生当上了临时大总统。
  难道他喜欢上音乐了？
  小王可能爱上了丽丽，可又不好意思说。
  老同学一见面又开始聊上以前的事了。

Examples with 起来：

  想到老板的动作，我们都笑了起来。
  两位母亲聊了起来。

[action verb + 起来] does indicate beginning of an action, e.g. 动起来 = start to move; 打起来 = start to fight

[verb + 上] doesn't indicate beginning of an action, it indicates 'action toward an object' e.g. 爱上他 = fall in love with him; 算上他 = counting him; 走上絕路 = walk toward an dead end

[起来] could mean [upon]. e.g. 看起来 = upon looking (seems); 聽起来 = upon hearing (sounds); 说起来 = upon mentioning (by the way)


What words exist that come from deconstructed characters? Page 178 of《成都话方言词典》has the following entry:

  丘八儿 qiū bér
  [tɕ‘iəu⁵⁵ pər²¹] 丘八, 旧时称军人。因“丘”加“八”为“兵”而得名(含贬义)。

丘八 is a deconstruction of the character 兵.

What words exist that come from deconstructed characters?

look for "拆字" (roughly destruct character), particularly fortune telling story.

水巷 --> 港

卯金刀 --> 劉

several verses from a famous oracle poem in hong kong, 1933:

"人我太陽爭北土"

人我　--> 俄羅斯 (russia)

"十四一心人發奮．水去西方啟戰爭"

十四一心人 --> 德國 (third reich, at that era)

水去

"晉有出頭寧坐視．中央生草不堪耘"

晉有出頭

中央生草

guess these five characters?

edited.

another word to look for is "離合", there're many examples in literary of yore. e.g. the wiki had 古今譚槩, in volume 29, "談資部":

  「取上一字，下拆兩字，字義相協。」倡云：「山上有明光，不知是日光、月光。」文云：「堂上掛珠簾，不知是王家的、朱家的。」陳云：「有客到舘驛，不知是舍人、官人。」王云：「半夜生孩兒，不知是子時、亥時。」各賞大觥。

in which the condition is choose one character (取上一字), break it into two (下拆兩字), and then the character, its meaning is in accord (字義相協).

four persons done it :)

山上有明光，不知是日光、月光 (明 --> 日, 月)

堂上掛珠簾，不知是王家的、朱家的 (珠 --> 王, 朱)

有客到舘驛，不知是舍人、官人 (舘 --> 舍, 官)

半夜生孩兒，不知是子時、亥時 (孩 --> 子, 亥)

it might be too difficult for elementary learners, or simplified chinese users. but, it's the funny, witty aspect of the traditional culture.


How do I translate the first two lines of Befriending the Learned? 入國而不存其士，見賢而不急 It's Mozi, first two lines of Befriending the Learned:

  入國而不存其士，
  見賢而不急，

I would translate it:

  if one enters the country and doesn't have his soldiers(?), meets the valuable and doesn't have to worry.

It doesn't make sense? I agree, on ctext.org there is a different translation, Can someone explain me, possibly word by word?

The original text is:

  入國而不存其士，則亡國矣。見賢而不急，則緩其君矣。

could be translated word by word as:

If one governs the country but doesn't preserve his able and virtuous persons,
the country will perish.
If one sees (discovers) the able and virtuous persons but doesn't hurry up (to appoint them),
they will neglect their monarch.

  治国而不优待贤士，国家就会灭亡。见到贤士而不急于任用，他们就会怠慢君主。


What is the Chinese term for "StackOverflow"？ What is the Chinese term for "Stack Overflow" website and how do I pronounce it?

Stack Overflow == 堆栈溢出

堆栈 == stack

溢出 == overflow

This is a very technical term. Only people who work in programming and other related fields would be able to understand this.


Information about the Nantong dialect I want to learn the dialect spoken in Nantong. Are there any resources to help me?

Here are some documents about Nantong dialect, but it's still difficult for Chinese in other areas.

http://wapwenku.baidu.com/view/09e3c92aaaea998fcc220e42.html?ssid=0&from=1099b&uid=0&pu=usm@3,sz@1320_2001,ta@iphone_1_9.2_3_601&bd_page_type=1&baiduid=2B26F0FC87EAF856CC6D8FCB7EA56F60&tj=wenku_3_0_10_title#2


Help with correct translation I am trying to translate the following sentence in to Mandarin:

  I am playing tennis in a red jacket.

Would it be correct to translate it like this?

  我打网球，用红色的外套。

Or are there any other solutions that might be better?

"I" (我) is the subject. It always go first
[I am playing tennis] is the main clause. You translated it as [我打网球], but it should be [我正在打网球] (you wrote "playing", not "play")
[in a red jacket] is the relative phrase. (giving additional information on how you are playing tennis) You translated it as [用红色的外套] is incorrect.

[用红色的外套] should be [穿着一件红色外套]

的 in 红色的 can be omitted

"a red jacket" is "一件红色的外套"

Put it together we get:

[我正在打网球]  [穿着一件红色外套]
[main clause] [relative phrase]

Unlike in English, relative phrase usually precede main clause in Chinese grammar.
The correct translation of "I am playing tennis in a red jacket." should be:

" 我正(穿着一件红色外套)打网球"
在 in 正在 can be omitted

It would be simpler if you wrote in present tense
"I play tennis in a red jacket" -->" 我 (穿着一件红色外套)打网球"
Edit:
Vegar Reitan wrote:

How do I know where to put the relative sentence?

You have to decide which verb phrase in a sentence is the main phrase- If you wrote:" I eat apple at home", You can see [eat apple] is the main action, [at home] is added info
The English sentence [ I eat apple (at home) ] would become [ I (at home) eat apple] [我(在家)吃苹果] in Chinese grammar
Vegar Reitan also wrote:

And how do you know that "的 in 红色的 can be omitted"?

One of the functions of '的' is being an adjectival particle that mark a phrase or clause before as an adjectival phrase or clause

The adjectival particle '的' in '红色的' can be omitted when it is followed by an object, because 红 or 红色 itself is an adjective, it doesn't require the adjectival particle '的' to function as an adjective.

Example: (红色的)外套 can be omitted to (红色)外套 or (红)外套

The adjectival particle '的' in '红色的' cannot be omitted when it is preceded by an object

Example: 这外套是(红色的) cannot be reducted to 这外套是(红色) or  这外套是(红)--  That would mean "This Jacket is red(n)"


只 zhǐ appropriate use in context? I am studying 常用漢字 and I ran across the following meanings:

只得
只好
只有

All of which were translated with the same English meaning "can do nothing." What was not given is the context in which one would use one or the other of these phrases. Could someone explain when it is good to use one versus the other?

只得, [be obliged to;have to;have no alternative but to] 别无选择，不得不

我们只得照要求的做了。
Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/4174590.htm

只好 [be forced to;have to;the only alternative is to] 只有;只能. It is a little less formal than 只得.
河上没有桥,我们只好涉水过去

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/163453.htm

只有: only. 邮局离这儿只有几步路。

only when (when followed by 才), to indicate a necessary condition.
只有依靠群众,才能做好普查工作.
Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/199454.htm


Do Southern Chinese speakers have any greater propensity towards using 啦 than Northern Chinese speakers? I'll provide some context that leads me to suspect this. I am the American born son of Overseas Chinese who were born and raised in Myanmar. The dominant household language ended up being a mixture of the Taishanese variant of Cantonese and Burmese, but I still have limited exposure and understanding of standard Cantonese. I took Mandarin in college and spent a year living in China and I'm not sure what kind of accent I accquired when speaking Mandarin, but it isn't quite American and it isn't quite the stereotypical image of an Hong Konger speaking Mandarin.

Anyways, I heard 啦 in Taishanese A LOT growing up and I don't know if this is element is also common in standard Cantonese, but I have heard Malaysians speaking English and inserting 啦 to the end of things. One of my habits when speaking Mandarin is to insert "southernisms." I think I subconciously gain a sense (maybe a false one) of comfort and fluency when I say "哪里" instead of "哪儿" and I even will say ridiculous things like “马马虎虎" because it vaguely reminds me of the sing-song in Cantonese. There's been moments too where I had to refrain from saying stuff like 冇 or 喺唔喺? to people who CLEARLY spoke Mandarin.

So do southerners actually say 啦 with any greater frequency? I've never heard Singaporean Mandarin, but does that include a lot of 啦? Is this a real thing where southerners take something that sounds equivalent in their native dialects and sprinkle it into their 普通话 or am I an odd one? My real, personal question then sounds something like -- is it viable for me to add 啦 to the end of many sentences? I understand 啦 to be a bit of a suggestion, sort of like 吧 except I never heard people on the Mainland say 啦 with the frequency they say 吧. BUT if I were to do this, would I sound extremely strange to say things like “我们去吃饭啦” or “你说啦”？

So do southerners actually say 啦 with any greater frequency?

Yes. Cantonese people and their excessive usage of 啦 is already a widely known stereotype.

  I've never heard Singaporean Mandarin, but does that include a lot of 啦?

The standard dialect used in news broadcasters are quite similar to Mandarin in China. 啦' s usage in daily speech may vary, depending on your background.

  Is this a real thing where southerners take something that sounds equivalent in their native dialects and sprinkle it into their 普通话 or am I an odd one?

It's a real thing. Not just southerners, everyone in the world has a natural tendency to do so.

  Is it viable for me to add 啦 to the end of many sentences?

Excessive usage of 啦 in Mandarin is like excessive usage of "You know" in, you know, English, It's, you know, kinda annoying. While I applaud the usage of dialectical phrases in Mandarin, using 啦 excessively is only an indication that your Mandarin needs improvement.

  Would I sound extremely strange to say things like “我们去吃饭啦” or “你说啦”？

Not really strange because most people know too well how a southerner would speak. Still, it's better to use "我们去吃饭了", "我们去吃饭吧", and "你说呢".


Origin of double phonetic component 静 静 is another character that has confused me. 青 (green/blue) doesn't seem to be related to quietness or stillness, unless the colors are supposed to represent quietness?
争 (fight) certainly is not quiet at all! However both 青 and 争 seem to fit as a phonetic component. Wondering how did this character come about? Is this another phonetic loan character?

Indeed, 「靜」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*zleŋʔ/, calm/quiet) is a phonetic loan character, and both its components 「青」 (/*sʰleːŋ/) and 「爭」 (/*ʔsreːŋ/) are phonetic components.

Unfortunately, the inscription record is rather scarce and by itself may not actually represent the language that well. Based on the usage of 「靜」, the meaning calm/quiet may have been a semantic extension from the meaning pacify (/*zleŋʔ/, now written 「靖」)*. From Guǐ vessel of Máo Bān [毛班] (班簋,《殷周金文集成》4341):
*Note how 「靖」 actually has the same reconstructed sound as 「靜」, indicating that there is a strong possibility that they're the same word.

。。。。。。王令毛公㠯（以）邦（冢）君，土（徒），（馭），⿰⿱口十戈（戜）人伐東或（國、域）㾶（滑）戎。咸。王令吳白（伯）曰：“㠯乃（師）⿸口（左）比毛父。”王令呂白曰：“㠯乃（右）比毛父。”⿻夭遣（遣）令曰：”㠯乃族從父征。“⿰彳⿱止口（城）衛父身，三秂（年） 靜 東或，亾（無）不成⿱白尤（尤），天（畏 > 威），否（丕）⿱甶大（畀）屯（純）陟。。。。。。
...The King (King Mù of Zhōu) ordered Máo Bān to command the vassals and their infantry, chariots, and auxiliaries to attack the tribes of the eastern regions in armed rebellion. Thus it is so. The King ordered the Vassal of Wú: "Lead your troops in assistance of Elder General Máo (Máo Bān's father) from the left side." The King ordered the Vassal of Lǚ: "Lead your troops in assistance of Elder General Máo from the right side." Duke Chéng (虢城公遣) ordered Máo Bān: "Lead your clansmen to closely follow the expedition of Elder General Máo." Thus, I (Máo Bān, caster of this vessel) firmly guarded my father in this expedition. In three years, the eastern regions were pacified, and not once have I committed a military blunder. By the might and grace of Heaven, who has bestowed me these rewards, I have risen to this great position...

Since the usage speaks of military pacification, one might analyse 「靜」 (/*zleŋʔ/, to pacify) to be comprised of simultaneously semantic and phonetic 「爭」 (/*ʔsreːŋ/, to fight, contend) and phonetic 「青」 (/*sʰleːŋ/). Military pacification was later extended to mean peace, calm, quiet.

References:

中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》
季旭昇《說文新證》
劉翔・陳抗・陳初生・董琨　編　李學勤　審訂《商周古文字讀本》


Mystery Character (Components: 禾日日皿) I have a mystery character that I cannot seem to find the usual way: OCR, radical search, stroke search, nor drawing in any IME pad.

It appears to have 18 strokes in total and composed of 禾日日皿. The middle two components can be tricky, as they may be 曰 also.

The character in question:

The character in question came from this particular page: http://wu-chinese.com/minidict/search.php?searchkey=馚&searchlang=zaonhe

馧（yun1）means aroma.
馚馧(fen1 yun1) has the similar meaning.


What does 垃海 mean in Shanghainese? I found this sentence on Tatoeba:

  我会得垃海九点钟回来.
  I will be back by nine.

What does ‘垃海’ mean in this sentence? My guess is ‘by [nine]’, but the phrase doesn’t show up on Wiktionary.

Here is the entry for 辣海 in《上海方言词典》on p. 311:

The extracted text:

  〖辣海〗la?˩˧꜖ he˥꜖꜔ =〖辣辣〗la?˩˧꜖
  la˩˧꜖꜔（或la˩˧꜖꜔）❶表示人或事物的位
  置：小王辣～？ ❷後接表示活動的
  動詞，表示動作、事件正在進行之中：
  大家儕～休息，儂吵 | 伊～想心事
  ❸前接動詞、形容詞或動詞短語，表示
  狀態的持續與北京話不同的是，“辣
  海"和“辣辣"可前接動結式短語，後面
  可加相當於“了"的語氣詞或“仔"：花
  蠻紅～ | 我物事多～崍 | 坐～，能立
  ～嗅 | 肉切好～睞，儂來燒好勒 ❹介
  詞，表示時間、地點、範圍等，多置於謂
  語動詞之前，但現在也有置於謂語動
  詞之後的：～上海工作1坐一臺子高頭
  卩“辣海"目前使用很普遍“海"有人
  説成[ke]“辣海"説成[le ke]

There is also this paper 上海话"辣海"的语源及虚化特征的比较研究, in which the abstract says:

The extracted text:

  "辣海"是上海话中一个重要的体标记词,本文通过跟邻近的江淮泰如片方言之间的比较研究,考察其来源及作为体标记的虚化过程."辣海"的"辣"本字不是"在",也不是"来",而是南方汉语方言的一个自源词;"海"的本字为"许",存在着不同的读音层次,"辣海"作为体标记在吴语中分别表示动作的进行和状态的持续,在泰如片方言主要表示状态的持续."在下"是"辣海"在泰如方言进一步虚化的产物,具有半虚化的体标记特征.

Wikipedia also has this entry on their section for Shanghainese tones:

  to exist, here, present    [lɐʔ.hɛ]    徕許, 勒許


Should tone sandhi be written in pinyin? Tone sandhi is a phonological change occurring in tonal languages, in
  which the tones assigned to individual words or morphemes change based
  on the pronunciation of adjacent words or morphemes.

For example 不是:

the original tone for each character is: bù shì (4 4)
After tone sandhi: bú shì (2 4)

Some say that it can be confusing to write it as if it is written, it would be confusing to know what the original tone is supposed to be.

Is there an standard practice to address this?

Tone Sandi rule should merely apply to spoken. In written, you should always put original tones in any forms of exams except that those exams are testing the rule itself.

In fact, I doubt most of natives are aware of the existence of Tone Sandi indeed. But they do apply the rule naturally in practice. I suggest you study by phrase, not by character. That way you will know how each character will be used and the way to pronounce in practice.


Was the word 男朋友 borrowed from English (or maybe the opposite)? 男朋友 and 女朋友 have the same thought process as their English counterparts, as in both words are compounded of (the gender) + ("friend"), even though they're actually used to refer to a romantic partner of said gender. Are there any linguistic reasons for that? Did English and Chinese-speaking nations have any contact in the past or have these 2 isolated and totally different nations had the same logic for this word specifically?

Yes.

The English words boyfriend/girlfriend are modern; their usage to refer to romantic, unmarried relations dates to around 1922. This is also where other terms like "dating" arose.

Similarly, in Chinese, 男朋友/女朋友 do not exist in pre-modern times. Other terms like 佳人 would be used.

The Republican Era saw big changes in Chinese culture and adoption of Western culture and language. It would be easy to conclude, therefore, that the words 男朋友/女朋友 were borrowed from English during this time.


Are too many 的s for multiple adjectives a problem? This is from my talk slides (which I'm revising):

每一个PLR(r,s,n;m)是具有m个顶点的n着色的Kr□Ks的诱导子图，例如：...

(I have some students here helping me debug this.)
I'm concerned about the three 的s being excessive here.  They all seem required, so I don't know if this is actually a problem (and maybe it should just be left alone); perhaps it's a matter of inelegance.  But maybe there's a grammatical way of reducing the 的s.
Question: Are too many 的s for multiple adjectives a problem?
I'm interested in the answer in general (as this comes up a lot), as well as for my specific sentence above.

There's a related question here What are the rules in Chinese for adjective order when multiple adjectives describe a noun, but it doesn't address the "large number of 的s" problem.

Considering its mathematical context, I recommend this one:

  一个PLR(r,s,n;m)是一个具有m个顶点，n着色的Kr□Ks的诱导子图，例如：...

the first remaining 的 cannot be omitted because 具有m个顶点，n着色 modifies the properties of Kr□Ks and the second 的 constructs 是……的诱导子图.

However, our teacher may put it as

  记PLR(r,s,n;m)为一m顶点，n着色Kr□Ks的诱导子图，如：...

(The briefer the better for mathematicians lol)

EDIT:

Sorry I made unforgivable mistakes.
So, there's ambiguity, which is which concept m顶点，n着色 modifies.
However, it is not really ambiguous because Kr□Ks is a graph of r×s nodes and we usually don't care its chromatic number so we can infer that It's the induced subgraph that has m nodes and is n-colorable, but still we should try to put it in a clear way.
Now it should be

  记PLR(r,s,n;m)为Kr□Ks的一m顶点，n着色的诱导子图，如：...

But still

  一个PLR(r,s,n;m)是一个具有m个顶点，n着色的Kr□Ks的诱导子图，例如：...

is okay but ambiguous grammarly.


How do you say "She was generous with her time"? How do you translate this sentence into Chinese:

  She was generous with her time.

My attempt is:

她花了很多時間陪我們。

Is there a better, more idiomatic way of saying this?

She was generous with her time.

If you translate this phrase literally, it would be "對(花)時間她是慷慨的" (She was generous with her time). But we Chinese usually do not use the term '慷慨(generous) ' to describe the manner of spending time. We usually use  '慷慨' to describe the manner of disbursing money.

Translate the phrase like this clearly shows it's a straight translation of an English sentence. In this instance, it is better to use the verb phrase '不計較(do not care) ' instead of the adjective '慷慨'

  她不計較花時間 (she did not care spending her time)

Depend on context, you can also interpret the phrase in different ways:

If she's always this way:

  "她對付出時間這一方面十分慷慨"

  (In regard of disbursing her time, she is very generous)

If you are referring how she acted in one instance:

  "她慷慨地付出她的時間"
  (She generously disbursed her time)

  "她不吝惜撥出自己的時間"
  (she was not stingy about allocating her time)


What is the role of chengyu (成语) in a sentence? I've learned some chengyu (idiomatic expression), and I see many are used in different position in the sentence.
For example:

adjective -> 那个人看来有点不三不四
noun -> 我集市看到人山人海
adverb or verb? -> 我开门见山就跟你说 (some other sentence is needed)
verb -> 你不要画蛇添足

From syntax point of view, how do you know when the chengyu can be adverb or adjective or some thing else? Is it all idiomatic, so no rule? (The translation in english can give some idea about it, but I think it's not correct to base yourself on the translation. A good translation in the other language maybe is different than dictionary translation to keep a good effect).
Can you also make an example of chengyu that can be used in different role/position?

From syntax point of view, how do you know when the chengyu can be adverb or adjective or some thing else?

For starters, even individual words in Mandarin often can't be confined to a single part of speech. Take for instance the word 教. This word can be considered both a verb and a noun (the action "to teach" and the noun "teachings" respectively). We also know that adjectives in many cases can quite liberally function as adverbs, some through the use of 地 and some without.
So if individual words can take the role of several different parts of speech then I think its not farfetched to make the same assumption of 成语. The exact role being employed depends in the context, which seems to be universally true in Mandarin and not just true for 成语.
It might be easier for you to understand if you start treating 成语 as individual words. If words themselves are concepts, why can't 成语 (wich are themselves also concepts) be considered words? The phrase 小题大做 can be thought of as a direct equivalent of the English expression, "make a mountain out of a mole hill". But why limit it to the role of an expression? It could just as easily be defined as a verb, "to treat an issue as though it is larger than it actually is".
你小题大做想骂我。
And here's the fun part:
被太太小题大做地抱怨怎么办？
小题大做地 here can be interpreted as "fussingly".

To summarize, there is no innate syntax that can be used to determine the part of speech appropriate for a 成语. The only way of knowing is to know the concept carried by that 成语, and the only way of knowing that is to see it in usage.


How many distinct characters are there in a typical Chinese book? This post gives some great statistics on Chinese character frequency, but I'm curious about the total number of distinct characters that appear in a "typical" book. By "typical" I mean something like a popular modern novel: say, "The Three-Body Problem," or the translation of the first Harry Potter.

I'm guessing the number will be disturbingly high, much greater than 3000, which I think I've heard quoted as a good benchmark for reading fluently. If, as suggested in the first link, the top 3000 characters cover at most 99.4% of characters that appear in random text, that's depressingly low. It means if you know 3000 characters, then on every page (I just counted around 1000 characters/page in Harry Potter) there's a rough average of six characters you need to either look up or accept not knowing how to pronounce!

Counting distinct characters/words in chinese books is really easy, but what exactly does "typical" means?

You can solve it by python.
Then every time you meet a "typical" book(txt,mobi,azw format etc), you can count it by yourself.

input

The txt file of The Three-Body Problem I:Remembrance of Earth's Past
The txt file of The Three-Body Problem II:The Dark Forest
The txt file of The Three-Body Problem III:Death's End

program

import sys
import string
from collections import defaultdict
file_loc="tb3.txt"
try:
    f = open(file_loc,"r",encoding='gbk')
    allstr=f.read()
except UnicodeDecodeError:
    f = open(file_loc,"r",encoding='utf-8')
    allstr=f.read()

#dict to count chars, default to zero
d=defaultdict(int)
for i in allstr:
    d[i]+=1

#count how many dinstinct words
#import jieba
#for i in jieba.cut(allstr):
#    d[i]+=1

# one pass filter, you can just use this filter
for c in string.printable:
    d.pop(c,0)

# select chinese characters directly
unicode_ranges = [0x3007,0x3007],[0x3400,0x4DBF],[0x4E00,0x9FEF],[0x20000,0x2EBFF]
for i,key in list(enumerate(d)):
    if not any(map(lambda x:x[0]<=ord(key)<=x[1],unicode_ranges)):
        del d[key]
print(len(d))

# map word_count to list of chars
d2=defaultdict(list)
for key,val in d.items():
    d2[val].append(key)

#sort by val
for key,val in sorted(d2.items(),key=lambda x:x[0],reverse=True):
    print(key,val)

chinese character reference

conclusion

three body problem 1: 2854
three body problem 2: 2986
three body problem 3: 3034

(welcome to add your count results of other books here)

3000 characters cover 100%!,

You can use sum(d.values()) to count the total #chinese-characters
in three body problem 1, you will find 2109 characters covers 99.393256%
2370 chars(delete char that occurs only once) covers 99.7%,
In addition,

You said

  there's a rough average of six characters you need to either look up or accept not knowing how to pronounce!

That's false in the 99.4% version, you can learn a meaning of character in this way. You are likely to meet the same char again in this book if you only know 2109 characters.

If you are insterested in details, see all the resultshere


Fast dictionary lookups while reading text I am looking for a program for google drive (or for a PC, perhaps a word plugin or something like grammarly), so that I can highlight chinese text and have a bubble show up with a dictionary translation. This would be great for Chinese learning, and I'm not even sure if such a plugin for an android app with dictionary plugin exists. Thanks.

Try converting the document to HTML, load it in Firefox or Chrome and use PeraPera Chinese (for Firefox, for Chrome). I haven't used Word for a long time, but I do remember it has an option to quick review a .doc or .docx as HTML, or similar. If not, just export it as HTML, and you can use Perapera in your browser displaying the document.


How To Interpret 患难见真情 患难见真情

A google search from sites shows:

"A friend in need is a friend indeed" (is in here meaning during or requiring?).

A literal translation reveals "adversity" while another shows "adversity truth."

Are these the correct translations?  I understand a connection between "adversity truth" and "a friend during need is a friend indeed" in that "adversity shows truth", but I don't see how "adversity" can mean "a friend during need is a friend indeed."

I would interpret "患难见真情" as: " true heart (friendship) shows itself in difficult time"

When life is good, everything is fine, you may have a lot of fair weather friends; only in difficult time, you can see whose friendship with you are real.

Similar phrases:

家贫出孝子, 国难见忠臣 (when family is poor, you can see who is a good son; when country is in peril, you can see who are loyal subjects)

路遥知马力, 日久见人心 (long road test the true strength of a horse; long time test the true heart of a person)


How to ask for a given choice of options? In English one way to ask which option is the right one is by using whether:

Could you tell me, whether you are a student, teacher or visitor?

How would this be realized in Chinese?

请问，您是学生，老师，还是来参观的？

请问 = May I ask


What is the 成语 for "face like buddha, heart like scorpion"? I was watching Raise the Red Lantern (which is an excellent movie by the way) and saw this phrase come up on the subtitles, but wasn't able to catch what the actual Mandarin behind it was. Does anyone know what it translates to?

I didn't see this film, so I am not sure if this is the original one used in the film.
From your description, I guess the idiom is "人面兽心", which literally means "a human's face and a beast's heart", actually is used to describe a man who looks kind, but really is vicious, evil or wicked.
By the way, I think you can show us the time point or the scene when this line appears so we can easily catch it for you.
Update:
The original word in the film is "菩萨脸,蝎子心". I don't think it's an idiom. I'll treat it as an analogy, a figure of speech. Actually, "菩萨" isn't Buddha, but Bodhisattva, an image in Buddhism. The subtitle translated the meaning well and I think it's easy for you to understand.


地位 sounds like tek-ui or te-kui: singer's mistake or lyrics should be different? In the Hokkien song 男人的汗 (Min title 查埔人的汗, lyrics here, there is the following line:

  人生行到遮 地位亲像山

It should sound:

  Lin-sing kiann kau tsia    te-ui tshin-tshiunn suann

Instead, in the video, both at 00:31-00:38 and at 2:04-2:10, it sounds:

  Lin-sing kiann kau tsia    tek-ui/te-kui tshin-tshiunn suann

First thing that comes to mind is to fix it as 地塊, but that would be te-khuai, and no a is heard, nor any aspiration. So I tried browsing my reference for characters read kui, and found the following:

關 | kuinn
刮 | kuih
規 | kui
歸 | kui
胿 | kui
龜 | kui
機 | kui
圭 | kui
鬼 | kúi
癸 | kúi
幾 | kúi
軌 | kúi
詭 | kúi
貴 | kuì
癸 | kuí
季 | kuì
挂 | kuì
劌 | ku`
瑰 | kuì
桂 | kuì
季 | kuì
膭 | kuī
櫃 | kuī
跪 | kuī
饋 | kuī
葵 | kuî

Could any of these be the right character here? If so, which? Otherwise, how can I explain this tek-ui/te-kui which should be te-ui?

The [q]/[k] sound came from the glottal stop [ʔ] which must be placed between「地」and「位」when speaking the word. Contrary to its conventional phonetic notation,「位」actually has a glottal plosive consonant before the vowel. So 'te-ui' is actually read as [te11ʔui22] rather than [te11ui22] without separation between the two letters. The difference is similar to that between "come in" [khamʔin] and "comin'" [khamin]. Because this guy is singing, it is easy for the glottal stop to corrupt into an uvular [q] or a velar [k] plosive. (Having a full glottal stop in the middle of a phrase will spoil the legato. )


What is the difference between 折磨 and 煎熬? the meaning are almost the same，but
她折磨我✔
她煎熬我✘
我的内心很折磨✘
我的内心很煎熬✔
我被受中文折磨✅ 煎熬✅
中文让我感到十分煎熬✅ 十分折磨❓ is a bit strange
为什么会这样？

折 - break

磨 - grind

折磨 - torture; torment; suffering

~

煎 - fry in oil or cook in water

熬 - slow cook with water

煎熬 - torture; torment; suffering

Both 折磨 and 煎熬 means 'torture'
折磨 emphasize the application of torture (apply force to cause pain). That's why we use 折磨 instead of 煎熬 for the verb 'to torture' e.g. 折磨他一晚 (torture him a whole night) not 煎熬他一晚
煎熬 emphasize the effect of torture (feel the pain of being boiled). 內心煎熬 (suffer inside) actually mean 內心受煎熬 (feel tortured inside)
Similarly, 內心折磨 (suffer inside) actually mean 內心受折磨 (feel tortured inside)

她折磨我✔ 她煎熬我✘ 我的内心很折磨✘ 我的内心很煎熬✔

她折磨我✔ - the verb 折磨 (to torture) is correctly placed between the subject and object

她煎熬我✘ - 煎熬 is not used as a verb for to 'torture'

我的内心很折磨✘  - 我的内心很受折磨✔ - 折磨 is an action while 受折磨 can be a feeling

我的内心很煎熬✔ - In this context, 煎熬 strongly imply 受煎熬 (a feeling)

我被受中文折磨✅

我被受中文煎熬✅

我備受中文煎熬 is correct because it is [備受(v)]~[煎熬(n)]
中文折磨我✔ (grammatically correct, but the subject 中文 and the verb don't quite match. How does 中文 折磨 someone?)
中文煎熬我✘

'被受' should be '備受' (receive)


Complement of result:完 or 好 I‘m currently learning how to form the complement of result and what are the translations of some common compound verbs. My book makes this examples:
• 看完=to finish watching
• 写好=to finish writing
• 吃好=to finish eating(with satisfaction)
• 学好=to finish studying

My question is: why does it use 完 just in the first example and 好 in all the others if the meaning it‘s always "to finish doing smth"?

完 is a verb complement, while 好 is a completion suffix. They are not identical, and  cannot be used interchangeably.

Trivially, 看好 means either look after (kānhǎo), or looking forward to something better (kànhǎo). Here it would be unwise to use 好 as a completion marker, so we always use 看完.

Likewise, 学好 means learn well rather than finish learning (do you ever finish learning, or is it a continuous process throughout life?). 读完 would be more appropriate here.

完 is a more unambiguous particle for expressing completion, while 好 is much more versatile. 完 is also more formal, while 好 is more common in vernacular speech.


What is 女斗士 and when can I use this? 女斗士 was used to pertain to a courageous female based on what I read,  but I wanted to know how am I able to use this word and when?

女— female/woman
斗士— fighter
So 女斗士 literally means “female warrior”. You would use this term the same way you use 斗士, since “female” is just an additional detail.
Example:

冠状病毒疫情在全球肆虐，各国护士为了保障人民的安全，都如女斗士般在前线努力奋斗着。
The coronavirus situation is globally rampant; nurses all over the world are fighting in the frontlines, just like female warriors, to ensure the safety of the people.

(I made the assumption that the vast majority of nurses are female)


What is the Chinese equivalent of "Encl." used in formal letters? What is the Chinese equivalent of "Encl." used in formal, written correspondences to alert the recipient of the presence of enclosed documents?

随信附上 or 附件

Here is a webpage of baidu(an chinese website) zhidao (pinyin, which means know) which explains Encl. in chinese and english.
http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/40359245.html
Hope it is helpful. :)


If I go to a store and the cashier asks "有會買嗎?" what does that mean? For example, if a cashier rings me up and says "這樣一共是五百元, 有會買嗎?" What does the "有會買嗎" mean and how would I respond? Thank you.

Are you sure it's not "有會員嗎"(員 vs. 買)? It certainly sounds like it, the cashier is asking if you have a membership at the store.