因为 two or more reasons. and difference with 是因为 I was going to write the following sentence and have two doubts:

他去看医生，因为他自己觉得身体很弱，学习时思想不能集中。

I wanted to say: "He went to the doctor because she was feeling weak and could not concentrate when studying". Is it correct to put only one 因为 or do i have to put one for feeling weak and another for the other clause for not concentrating in his studies?
Could I use the clause 是因为 instead of 因为? Are them both correct? Is there any difference? When is it better to use each one?

他去看医生，是因为他自己觉得身体很弱，学习时思想不能集中。

do i have to put one for feeling weak and another for the other clause for not concentrating in his studies?.

No, I think a coordinating conjunction is fine enough, same as you did in your English translation:

因为他自己觉得身体很弱，（并且 / 而且 / 且 / 还有）学习时思想不能集中

  Could I use the clause 是因为 instead of 因为? are both correct? is there any difference? When is it better to use each one?

Yes you could use 是因为 here, and it would be correct, and yes there would be a difference, not in meaning but in what part of the sentence you are stressing.

By saying 他去看医生，是因为 you are implying that the focus of the sentence is going to the doctor, and that this requires an explanation. Compare with English: "Why does he go to the doctor? It's because he feels weak".

Whereas by saying 因为 you are implying that the focus of the sentence is the cause itself, which results in going to the doctor. Compare with English: "He feels weak, so he goes see the doctor".

As an additional remark, according to Chinese topic-comment grammar rules, this latter case where you put emphasis on the cause would require to invert the sentences:

  因为他自己觉得身体很弱，（所以）他去看医生


"keep it real" - chinese translation I was looking at some lyrics just now with the phrase "keep it real" - which was translated as:

  忠于本色（？）

I really like this attempt - slang turned, slightly, formal.

Are there any proper translations of this phrase?

The dictionary definition of "keep it real" is "be yourself" ; "don't be fake"

"忠於(loyal to) 本色 (real color)"  means " be true to one's own nature"

I do think "be yourself " could substitutes  "be true to your nature"
These two phrases are somewhat comparable, so I would say it is not wrong to translate "keep it real" as "忠於本色"

However, 忠於本色 sounds quite awkward. It is not a common phrase, because 本色 means 'characteristic' . we generally see it in phrases that depict some unique characters.  For example 英雄本色，強人本色，奸雄本色. Placing a verb 忠於(loyal to) before 本色 just not sounds right in my ears.

Since it is a lyric, you can interpret more freely. For example:

"忠于自我" (be true to yourself),
"保持真我" (keep your true self)
"別装假" (don't fake)


Why "保重" means "take care"? As far as I have learnt, for each Chinese word with more than one character, its meaning is formed from that of each character which it comprises. However, I cannot understand how the meaning of 保重 is formed this way. I thought that:

保 = to protect
重 = important

what would 保 and 重 mean for this word? How does it go from "to protect the important one" to "take care"?

Thanks in advance!

It is true that this word originally comes from 《晋书·夏侯湛传》：“方将保重啬神，独善其身。”
But we use it in situation of farewell. 珍重 is heavier than 保重。 珍重包含了珍惜cherish.

保 是保住，保持，守 。 keep， reserve probably.

重 has two tones:

zhòng 是分量较大，与“轻”相反。 large amount or heavy. opposite with light. 很重，举重。
chóng means again. doubled. 重复，重播。

In the phrase 保重 is zhòng. In my appoint: strong power. strength.

Does it make sense? (Reference.)


Chinese school group stereotypes? In the west there are a lot of different groups in school. For instance this list of High school stereotypes mentions preps, jocks, geeks, etc.

Of course, even translating these groups directly wouldn't mean much to the average Chinese person who has little to zero knowledge of western school life.

For Chinese school groups, I don't know much other than 学霸 and 学渣. Maybe, it is just that limited? I would assume 00后 vocab would be more plentiful though.

Haha, that is an interesting question, I am going to try to list all the stereotypes I know.
First I will list some common ones regarding academic performance

学霸，very good student with hard working
学神，excellent student with little effort put in, also doing very well in nearly all other aspects you can think of, like sport clubs, video games and so on
学痞，academically excellent, little effort put in, difference with 学神 is, 学神 is more “仙” while 学痞 is more of an ordinary guy
学渣，not doing academically well because of no hard working
学酥，looking good when no exam is going on, will be found out to be 学渣 once exam comes, that is why they are called 酥，once being touched, they become “渣”
学屌，talented but not hard working students, performance varies with the effort they put in, but they do not care
学婊，always pretend to fail the tests but always end up with better grades than most of others, not a welcomed type

Then some regarding appearance

高富帅 or 高帅富，as the name suggests, tall, rich and handsome guy
白富美，again, as the name suggests, girl who is rich, beautiful and with fair skin
（男）屌丝，it is not a good word and is ONLY used for self reference, it means someone who is poor and ugly
女屌（丝），the female version of （男）屌丝，the rule is the same, ONLY self reference

And some others

宅男，guys who love comics and or video games, seldom appear publicly
宅女，female version of 宅男
逗逼/逗比，a funny guy, but use with care as it might sometimes be derogatory

I will keep this answer updated if I could think of any others.


Understanding different Chinese writing styles Aside from the standard printing style of Chinese (what is referred to in this wikipedia article as regular script), what are the main styles that are in modern use?

When looking at different styles of handwriting it appears to someone like myself (without much writing experience) that there is a large range of styles, so how do people approach individual writing styles in China? Are they taught a few different styles and they take some on board or do they usually pick on main style and stick to it?

Short answer to question one:
While you can still see them there, all of them are in use now, in different situations.

Short answer to question two:
In school, teachers give the one that they like, based on local policy or their textbook. Usually, one style is enough. 楷書 or 行書, neither is easy to learn, so different people work it around in their own style, a bit mixed of several styles, or new styles. Simple is good, when people write characters.

I'll edit this post with more detail if you want.


我最近没打过羽毛球 "I haven't played badminton recently": is the 过 necessary? 我最近没打过羽毛球

Just wondering if the 过 in this sentence can be omitted? Or does the sentence have a slightly different meaning if I remove it?

Your 过 is not necessary, but:

我最近没打过羽毛球。and 我最近没打羽毛球。

are equivalent, as far as people I asked are concerned.

For the question: 'Have you played badminton recently?' people immediately used ‘打过’， but I did not consult all of China!

你最近打过羽毛球吗?

Apparently, ‘打了’ conjures up the idea of hitting someone, so would tend to be avoided in this situation.

I've never played badminton.
我从来没打过羽毛球。

I would like to ask 水巷孑蠻先生 (and other experts here), whether this use of 过 is found in Old Chinese and Middle Chinese texts, or whether might be a concession to Western ideas of tense and especially past tense.

Any situation where a time in the past is mentioned: 'Yesterday .., Last night .., Recently ..' we know for certain the event mentioned is in the past. Past Tense is actually redundant. English sometimes uses what is quaintly called the 'Historical Present':

"Last night, I'm sitting alone, watching TV, when, all of a sudden ....." Nobody will say, 'You used 'I am', therefore this is a Present Tense sentence.'


Is the 健 in 健忘 ("forgetful") ironic? The word 健忘 looks like a contradictio in adiecto: "healthy" + "forget". Am I missing something?

健 in this word means to be good at, to be skilled at.

健忘 means to be good at forgetting > forgetful.


Regional pronunciations of standard Mandarin When I first came to China, I was quite disappointed to find out that, in so many places, the colloquial pronunciation was so greatly different from the one I've studied so far. The phonological material, which is already rather limited in Mandarin (especially to my foreigner's semi-tone-deaf ears), seemed further reduced: I could no more distinguish shi from si, zhi from zi, chi from ci, and so on. More disturbing, many speakers appear to be totally unaware of any difference, and could pronounce 老师 as laoshi or laosi in the same breath. The problem started in Jinan (Shandong), only to get worse in Wuhan (Hubei) and Nanjing (Jiangsu), not to mention Chengdu (Sichuan).

I recently decided to try to overcome this difficulty by training my ear with a student of mine who comes from Xiangyang (Hubei). For our first course, I asked him to record several chosen stock sentences. I transcribe some of them below, with the standard pronunciation, followed by what I can hear (both in pinyin, which may be not precise enough for a die-hard linguist, sorry!).

你是什么时候到中国的？

Nǐ shì shénme shíhou dào zhōngguó de?
Nǐ sì sénme síhou dào zōngguó de?

我真诚感谢你的一切帮助。

Wǒ zhēnchéng gǎnxiè nǐ de yīqiè bāngzhù.
Wǒ zēncéng gǎnxiè nǐ de yīqiè bāngzù.

请仔细看看。

Qǐng zǐxì kàn kàn.
Xǐng zǐxì kàn kàn.

老师叫学生保持安静。

Lǎoshī jiào xuéshēng bǎochí ānjìng.
Lǎoshī jiào xuésēng bǎocí ānjìng.

(In the latter, please note the discrepancy in the pronunciation of sh.)

Now for my question. Do you know any resource (list, table), which clearly summarizes the main variations in the pronunciation of standard Mandarin (I'm not speaking of locale languages or dialects) in one or several given regions?

Update. I'm perfectly aware that most chinese people use both their local dialect and Mandarin depending on the situation. I'm not interested in learning or understanding their dialect. But I need to understand them when they think they speak a perfectly standard Mandarin. The fact is that their pronunciation has usually several non-standard aspects. I've given some examples, and Stumpy Joe Pete has kindly began to provide a list of general patterns, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

By the way, the very fact that Zhang Yao and Aw Qirui Guo, apparently both native speakers, thought my question was about local dialects, tells a lot about one of the greatest difficulties a foreigner encounters in such a situation: people don't realize that their pronunciation is non-standard, or consider that the differences are negligible and uninteresting. This explains probably why it's so difficult to find a simple list of correspondences like the one of Stumpy Joe Pete!

I can't think of any tables I've seen, but I can share some of the patterns I've encountered:

zh ch sh merge with z c s (or distinguished at random):

Almost everywhere in the south, at least among most speakers

n merges with l (conditioned on following vowel):

Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Nanjing, ...

h merges with f (conditioned on following vowel):

Some Sichuan?, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing

final n merges with final ng

Jiangsu, Shanghai

r merges with l

Jiangxi? I've met several people like this, and 2 were from Jiangxi.

Something about mixing up j q x versus the z c s and the g k:

Guangdong, HK


What are some good dictionaries about Mathematics? I have found a dictionary about Mathematics; however, it goes from Chinese to English.  I have tried different bookstores in my city, but they don't have an English to Chinese dictionary.

I have looked on 淘宝, but I'd like to find something of good/great quality, as I don't really trust the reviews that I have seen on there.

What you have is 汉英数学词典 and what you are looking for is 英汉数学词典. If you google 英汉数学词典, you can find a few sources for downloading. You can also search book-selling websites, and you will get a few choices.


Correct grammar: 沒有把你照顧好 vs 沒有好好照顧你? Someone said the following in Mandarin to express not taking good care of you: 沒有把你照顧好.

In Cantonese, it seems more natural to drop 把 and say something like 沒有好好照顧你.

What's the correct grammar?
Are Cantonese and Mandarin grammar different for this phrase?

Both are correct and natural in Mandarin, but have slightly different meanings.

沒有把你照顾好 is equivalent to 没有照顾好你, which means "the result is not good", while 没有好好照顾你 means "the effort is not enough".


Are there text-based online roleplaying games which can be used for practicing Chinese writing? Many years ago I played Cantr II.  It's a text-based role playing game, but it's different to most: the aim of the game is not to "level up" or kill monsters.  In fact there's no specified "goal".  What you do is develop an interesting character, and an interesting storyline.

Cantr II basically forces characters to cooperate with each other: you need teamwork to do anything significant.  It's also very slow paced, e.g., walking from one town to another could take around 4 real-life days.

Cantr II has multiple spawn points, with different spawn points having different languages.  Many people use it for language learning (Cantr II webzine)---the slow-paced nature gives you time to write properly in a foreign language.  They used to have a Chinese spawn point, but it wasn't sufficiently popular, and was subsequently removed (link).

I'd be interested to know if there's anything else available.  I can't find anything else in English, but it's hard for me to search in Chinese.

Question: Are there text-based online roleplaying games which can be used for practicing Chinese writing?

What computer games provide practice? gives another example "Enter Zon", but it seems to no longer be available.

Update regarding Cantr II:

I asked a related question on LanguageLearning.SE: Is the online role-playing game Cantr II much use for language learning?.  I just got an answer from the author of the Cantr Webzine:

  I don't see Chinese, but if even one other person can be found (to have someone else to speak with) that may be enough to open the language again, as well as others.

(Emphasis mine.)

(Posting this is a little bit "adverty", so I'd like to declare I'm not affiliated with Cantr II in any way.)

I have been interested in table-top role-playing games since I was ten and ever since I started teaching Chinese, i've been interested in finding ways of combining the two. While my answer does not fully satisfy your wishes, I believe it might be as close as you are likely to get.

Together with Kevin Bullaughey, I have created a series of text games over at WordSwing, specifically aimed at students of Chinese. They work on the simple basis of presenting text describing setting, actions and dialogue, followed by a number of choices you can make as a player. This would qualify as a role-playing game since you assume the role of the main character in the story. It's akin to choose-your-own-adventure games, but since it's custom-built, there are lots of things we can do that can't be done in a standard interface (such as built in resource handling, options that are hidden, change or appear depending on other things happening in the game). We also provide recorded audio synced with the text (you can even play in audio-only mode, but I know you asked about writing).

These are several ways these can be said to be for students. First, the text is deliberately kept at a certain level, avoiding difficult language and keeping to common words and easy grammar. Second, choices are meant to actively probe your reading ability. You can't just click on random options and expect to make it to the end, because many choices are outright stupid if you read and understand what's going on.

This is focused on reading, not writing, which is why it doesn't fully answer your question. We did discuss having typed input similar to old-school DOS adventure games such as King's Quest, but we decided this was too hard to implement well and that clever multiple-choice implementation would be more practical and maybe also better.

The first game we created, 逃出去 (Escape) can be played in its entirety for free, so it's easy to check it out and see what you think. You can play in your browser or download the WordSwing app for Android or iOS.

Disclosure: As I said in the second paragraph, I'm recommending my own product here, although 逃出去 (Escape) is available for free. There might be other games out there that come closer to answering the question at hand, but if so, I haven't seen them.


How to enter 女人 with QQ pinyin? I have installed QQ pinyin from here http://qq.pinyin.cn/

and now I am trying to enter 女人.

I am switching to CN then starting to type: "nur..."

but then I press "...e..." and input changes to

and after I enter "...n" it turns to

Nothing similar to 女人 visible.

What I am doing wrong?

nvren
'v' replaces 'ü' in Chinese input.


What is the meaning of 凝聚人心？ This text discusses 众筹， especially relating to a group of people buying houses.

用发起人的话说，众筹不是在筹房子，而是在凝聚人心。

2 questions really:

In 众筹不是在筹房子, the second ‘筹’, on its own, '筹' means what? Planning? Collecting? Finding?
‘凝聚人心’的意思是什么？ ‘bringing people together'?

众筹 --

众 means many people; crowd;

筹 means plan and prepare;

众筹 in the context means plan and gathering money from many people to buy a house.

‘凝聚人心’的意思是什么？ Bring the people's hearts together, so they can act as one unit and contribute together.

发起人initiator is trying to emphasize that more important thing than gathering money to buy a house is to bring the people's hearts together by doing so.


What does 早待不住了 mean in 要在往常，我一定早待不住了……? 要在往常，我一定早待不住了，惦记着某某侦探的案件是不是有了突破，……
Google Translate:  As usual, I must have been unable to stay any longer, wondering if there was a breakthrough in the case of Detective XX,...
标准教程HSK6上，87页

I don't understand what the part in bold above means.  Maybe it's something along the lines of "As usual, I was definitely prematurely restless, ...".  It's not clear at all to me.
Question: What does 早待不住了 mean in 要在往常，我一定早待不住了……?

要是 signifies a hypothetical construction. 往常 does not only mean ‘as usual’ (which only corresponds to 常, as in 通常, 正常, 常規); 往 here specifies the past, as in 往日, 往事, 往昔. Together they mean ‘normally in the past’.

早 is an adverb meaning ‘already’. Think of that as saying, something happened well in the past (early in the timeline).

他早(就)離開了。 He left already.

待 is a verb meaning ‘to stay’. 不住 is an add-on to it, literally meaning ‘not to a still’. Figuratively, 待不住 means you can’t contain yourself, or you’ve got itchy feet. Perhaps you're excited or anxious about something.

The whole sentence means ‘I’ in the past would’ve not been able to control myself in coming up with the many racing thoughts in my head (unsolved cases, scientific breakthroughs, lottery etc.). My mind is so irritable that these thoughts would have occurred very easily and very soon (hence the use of 早). But now my mind is completely at peace, so they are nowhere to be found.


Further information on calligraphy piece? (Characters identified: 斿于⿰坴丮) I have a work of calligraphy that I am trying to get as much information as possible on.  The story behind it is that back in college, I took a Chinese calligraphy summer session course (was maybe 4 weeks long) taught by a visiting artist from Hangzhou. He was a very kind, gentle guy, and I really enjoyed it.  At the end of the course, I decided to ask him if he would write a passage for me from one of the practice books we were using to copy our characters from, as a small souvenir.  He said that those passages would be kind of childish, like a nursery rhyme, and he would do something different for me.  He had taught us the different writing styles, and asked me which I liked best.  I chose Li Shu style - it was the one I most enjoyed doing (I've since read that Li Shu is generally regarded as the easiest for beginners to learn), and I thought it looked the coolest.  So several days later, the last day of class, he surprised me with this.  I didn't expect he would actually produce a work of art for me, with his seals and everything; it was incredibly nice of him.

So from what was explained to me at the time, and from other research, I know that 寿而康 means "Longevity and Health", and comes from ‘饮且食兮寿而康，无不足兮奚所望‘ in a Tang Dynasty work by Han Yu.  And I know that 庚午夏日 in the upper right means "Summer Day, 1990", which is when this was done.  And I know that the lower left writing 王重為書 means a work by Wang Zhongwei, his name.
For the seals, I know that the lower left is his name seal.  But I cannot make out the characters in the upper right seal.  3 characters, correct?  Is that a date seal, mimicking the written date 庚午?  I can almost see those as the first two characters, but the bottom character is a mystery.  Or maybe it is not a date seal, and something else altogether?

Lastly, does anyone know anything about Wang Zhongwei?  Like I said, he was from Hangzhou, and was apparently a locally well regarded/decorated artist, but of course I wouldn't know if that were true or not.  He was maybe in his late 20s/early 30s at the time, so would expect him to be around 60 now.
Any and all comments on this much appreciated!

The characters are 「斿于」, or using ideographic description sequences: 「斿于⿰坴丮」. These are stand-ins for what we would now write as 「游于藝」; 「斿」 is the right hand side of 「游」, and 「」 is a seal script form of 「埶」, forming the middle part of 「藝」.
The phrase referred to is a line from The Analects: Transmission of Learning:

《論語・述而》
子曰：「志於道，據於德，依於仁，游於藝。」
The Master said, "Let the will be set on the path of duty. Let every attainment in what is good be firmly grasped. Let perfect virtue be accorded with. Let relaxation and enjoyment be found in the polite arts."
Translation by James Legge. See Chinese Text Project.


Can someone identify the characters in this Seal Script? (Characters identified: 江上清風　山間明月) I would love some help identifying the characters written on this stamp. I see that the 5th and 6th characters are 山 and 間, but I cannot identify the others!
This stamp is the underside of a netsuke connected to an inro, which could be Japanese or Chinese.
The image has been flipped.
Thank you in advance!

山 江
间 上
明 清
月 风

“江上清风， 山间明月” from 《赤壁赋》 by 苏轼.
it means：
Breeze over the river and moon between the mountains.

江: river, especially Changjiang river.
上: above, over
清: refreshing
风: wind, breeze
山: mountains
间: among, between
明: bright
月: moon

惟 江上 之 清风，与 山间 之 明月，耳得之而为声，目遇之而成色，取之无禁，用之不竭。

Translation:
(When talking about all the things in the universe), only the breeze over the river and moon between the mountains (are unlimited resources), because when you listen you will hear (the wind), and when you look you will see (the moon). The amount of sound and light are always infinite: they can never be taken away or used up. (They are always there for you to admire.)


How do I say 'excuse me'? So, I just found myself in a spot of bother. I decided to go to learn how to make some Chinese knots, but everything there was Chinese, so I had to speak Chinese. I understood the instructions that the teacher was telling me, etc. and it was all going well...

But then I realised that I had no idea how to ask for a random person's help.

In England, we usually say. "Excuse me", and then the thing that you need to say. I didn't know how to do it, sadly. So, I said 对不起, and then the sentence.

Was it wrong for me to have said 对不起?

How do they say 'excuse me' in China?

对不起 is not wrong. According to the scenario, it's fine if you intent to use it for the meaning of I'm sorry (for bothering or disturbing).

You can also use 不好意思 or 打扰一下 instead, if you won't bother the random people much.


How many of the definitions in dictionaries generally are really used? Every dictionary like wiktionary has about 20 different definitions for each pictograph and about ten different meanings(combining reworded synonyms). Are they all recognizably used when or just a few?

Wiktionary seems pretty good about marking their definitions.

Take the character 士 for example.

Entries 1-4 are marked with the footnote:

  Obsolete sense in Modern Standard Chinese - may be preserved in fossilised compounds and expressions or other varieties of Chinese.

Entry 5-7 are marked:

  (historical)

Entry 8 has no markings.
Entry 9 is marked both with an:

  (honorific)

tag, and the same footnote from entries 1-4.

Entry 10 is marked:

  (Chinese chess).

Entry 11 also shares the footnote from the first four.
Entry 12 is mark-free.

That basically only leaves entries 8 and 12, as possible meanings in Modern Standard Mandarin. While, entry 12 is, itself, a surname - just leaving entry number eight as the only meaning you need to really remember. Other compounds and expressions with the character can just be treated as single entities without needing to worry about a specific characters meaning.


the meaning and translation of 悲亡 in a poem by Bei Dao What does the word '悲亡' mean? I found it in a verse by 北岛 : 大海为生者悲亡，the ocean suffers for the living beings.

北岛 （中国当代诗人、香港中文大学教授）

He's relaxing, forgetting life's worries for a while.

过冬
Pass the winter

醒来：北方的松林——
(I'm) Awake: (to this) Northern Pine Forest
大地紧迫的鼓声
(I hear) Earth's urgent drumbeat,
树干中阳光的烈酒
Tree trunks in the sunshine intoxicate (me),
激荡黑暗之冰
surging dark and cold
而心与狼群对喊
and (my) heart howls back to the wolves

风偷走的是风  (not too sure about this)
(what) the wind steals is (just) wind
冬天因大雪的债务
the lack of winter snow
大于它的隐喻
is like a metaphor for
乡愁如亡国之君
a homesick forgotten country's ruler
寻找的是永远的迷失
the sought after is eternally lost

大海为生者悲亡
(the tide of) the ocean of life's sadness is away
星星轮流照亮爱情——
the stars take turn to light up love
谁是全景证人
who bears witness to the scene
引领号角的河流
lead the way loud river
果园的暴动
(to the) orchard of rebellion

听见了吗？我的爱人
can you hear? My lover
让我们手挽手老去
let us hand in hand forever go
和词语一起冬眠
with words together hibernate
重织的时光留下死结
reweave time, leave behind problems
或未完成的诗
or unfinished verse


What does 撒回 mean in 部分领导人撒回祝贺，一些领导人则保持沉默? I was reading a newspaper article about the US election, and in the context of Trump's early claim of his election success, it describes the time Bush Jr's election was called early:

In particular I'm confused about:

部分领导人撒回祝贺，一些领导人则保持沉默。
美国大选计票出现“过山车”，环球时报，2020年11月5日

I'm unclear on what 撒回 means here; it seems something like "retract", in the sense of: leaders retract their (premature) congratulations.  But I'm not sure.
Question: What does 撒回 mean in 部分领导人撒回祝贺，一些领导人则保持沉默?

Yes, 撤退 = retreat; 撤回 = redraw / retract
撤回前言 (retract the previous words)
撤回祝贺 (retract the congratulations)
撤回 is a formal term for retracting a formal statement


Is "Have never seen" translated as 没看到 Is this a correct translation? Emphasis on being colloquial - the tone similar to Eminem's "Y'all act like you never seen a white person before"

What, you look like you've never seen a Chinese girl speak English before! 您真的没看到中国女孩说英语吗？

您真的没看到中国女孩说英语吗？
What, you look like you've never seen a Chinese girl speak English before!

It needs a 过
As dan and Tang Ho indicate, it's missing a 过.  See Expressing experiences with "guo":

The aspect particle 过 (guo) is used to indicate that an action has been experienced in the past.

Compare:

他没看到我。  He doesn't see me. [perhaps present tense, e.g., 他 could refer to a taxi driver who doesn't see you]
他没看到过我。  He has never seen me. [past tense = 过去式 in Chinese]

See Result complement for more about 没看到.  There's also a related question here: What is the difference between 看到 and 看过?
Other issues:
After adding in the 过, the Chinese and the given English translation don't match:

您真的没看到过中国女孩说英语吗？
You really have never seen [a] Chinese girl speak English?

In particular:

The given Chinese sentence does not imply "you look like".  To this end, we need some combination of 看起来 = "appear" and 好像 = "as if" or 就像 (there's other possibilities like 似乎).  But this seems wordy in both Chinese and English.

I feel like there's a mismatch between 您 (nín), the polite form of "you" and the informal tone of the rhetorical question.  Indeed, by using 您 it sounds like you're asking a serious question.

There's no equivalent to "never" in the Chinese.  It could be included with 从来没 or 从未.  I think 从来 is first encountered when learning Chinese, however.

In this context, I don't see a big distinction between 没看过 and 没看到过 here, or even 没看见过.  (There's some websites which discuss 看 vs. 看到 and 看 vs. 看见, which seems to indicate all three are okay.)

There is no "What" in the translation.  Literally it's 什么, but I'd instead suggest 嗯 as a grunt of surprise.

The Chinese is a question, whereas the English is not.

Rhetorical questions using 难道
A nice way to phrase rhetorical questions is with 难道 which means something like "don't tell me that ...", which takes a bit of getting used to.  See Rhetorical questions with "nandao".

嗯，你难道从来没看过中国女孩说英语吗？
Oh!  Have you never seen [a] Chinese girl speak English?

I think this captures the spirit of the question well, i.e., expressing surprise and disbelief.


Connotations of different "to give" Can natives and other knowledgeable people share their ideas on how to differentiate between many "to give" verbs?

The list is not complete. Anyone is welcome to add their "gives" in it.

施 - Glyph origin: a depiction of a "waving banner" + "to be low" = so Connotation: "to spread" as a flag in a wind.
给 - Glyph origin:? connotation:neutral.
予 - Glyph origin: depiction of a shuttle in a loom machine. Connotation:?
赏 - Glyph origin:? connotation:?

给 is the most common one and the equivalent to give in modern Chinese.

And we do not use the single character 施. It is usually in words like 施舍， 施予 etc.
Don't know where you see it meaning "waving banner" or "to spread". It just means normal to give in some words. However, this character have several means other than "give", which can be only identified by the word or context.

Also 予 is not used alone. "a looming shuttle" ??? I've no idea about this. Common words including 予: ～以 赐～ 赋～ 给～ . Note: sometimes its meaning is an abstraction of "give", and can be translated as "grant".

Last one, 赏, when it is a verb, the most precise translation maybe award, meaning grant someone his/her reward, and usually given by his/her superiors. For example, giving some gold to a war hero from his monarch.


Is Putonghua Mandarin Chinese or is it standard Mandarin Chinese? This is driving me crazy.

I've always thought that Mandarin was the common language of China and Putonghua was the term use to express this language spoken with standard pronunciation.

I've often heard speakers of Mandarin tell me that they can't really speak Putonghua. So they tell me in Mandarin that they can't speak Putonghua. So Putonghua is one version of Mandarin right. If this is so then Mandarin is not 普通话 in Chinese. What is Mandarin Chinese in Chinese.

It would clarify a lot if the following could be translated into Chinese.

Chinese is not a language as such but a family of languages.
Mandarin and Cantonese are two of the many Chinese languages.
Standard Mandarin is called Putonghua.

I've seen explanations online for Chinese, Mandarin, Putonghua but there always seems to be overlap.

TL;DR - linguistically Mandarin is equivalent to 官话, but be careful when using the concept with Chinese people. 北方话 is more widely understood, but even then... caveats abound. "Standard Chinese" is equivalent to the standards embodied by 普通话／国语／华语, and "Standard Mandarin" is an alternative name for this in the West, but this term has no cognate or calque in the Sinosphere (note that non-Chinese Eastern persepectives are different again).

There are several issues here:

language vs 语言 vs dialect vs 方言 / topolect
Mandarin vs Standard Mandarin vs 普通话／国语／华语 vs 官话 vs 北方话
approach to speech varieties: labelling by social construct (Mandarin, 官话 and 普通话／国语) vs by locality (北方话) vs by classification through linguistic features (also "Mandarin", but also "Yue" 粤语).

I would recommend doing some research into each of these separately, and to see how popular perceptions are in China and outside, and how linguistic research uses terms carefully to describe each of these aspects. A good bit of research into the history of Standard Chinese would be of use to you.

The level of linguistic knowledge required by someone working in northeastern Fujian to know that the topolect of Fuqing 福清话 and that of Fuzhou 福州话 are closely related won't require that person to be aware that this is classified into the Min Dong 闽东话 family. Similarly with the situation in the north; a Northeasterner 东北人 from Shenyang 沈阳 might have had to adopt speech patterns and listening skills to work in Jinan 济南, Shandong, but knowledge that these two are separate branches of sensu stricto "Mandarin" 官话 would not be necessary. That person would acknowledge that both were 北方话, though.

These linguistic branches are "not really a thing" in the popular culture of China, whereas "Standard Mandarin" is in the (intellectual) life of the West, as it is taught as such in Western classes of standard Chinese. It is similar to the 字 vs 词 issue: these labels do not map to the same linguistic reality as letter vs word.


Why is 于 needed after 不屑 (but sometimes not)? In the following sentence:

  也有一些“小资女人”的领军人物开始不屑于说英文了，偶尔来句日文或法文才能彰显自己的不同。

This sentence uses 不屑于, not 不屑, but the meaning would be something like:

  Also, some leaders of “小资女人” started to look down on speaking English, and they sometimes think that to speak Japanese or French makes it clear that they are different from others.

The translation might be a bit awkward so feel free to edit it.

I feel that the 于 here takes an object (说英文) after that. But in other usages, 不屑 just takes an object directly, without any preposition.

Or if you relate it to English, it looks like 不屑 here works as an intransitive verb, and 于 is a preposition. But in other uses I have seen, it works as if a transitive verb.

However, why does 不屑 need to take 于 here, even though in other cases it does not need?

note:https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%8D%E5%B1%91/3178

不屑于 is a set phrase.
Check out《现代汉语规范词典》's distinctions:

不屑
1 动 不值得
不屑一切 | 不屑与之争辩
2 形 形容轻视的样子
一副不屑的神情。

and

不屑于
动 认为不值得做或不值得理睬
他很自负, 好像不屑于做这种具体工作。

《规范》defines the two slightly differently while treating 不屑于 as a separate independent word and not a construct.


When should I use the 是...的 construction? I've been told that 是...的 is used to put emphasis on something, but I'm not sure when or why I should use it.

The answer is a modified citation of this awesome article: The 是 … 的 construction in Mandarin, credit of original article goes to Hugh Grigg (eastasiastudent.net). There are more links around this subject at the bottom of the original article.

That article and this answer are published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Note not everything with 是 and 的 is a '是 … 的 construction'. This answer speaks specifically to '是 … 的 construction' as that's what the question is about.

The 是 … 的 construction in Mandarin grammar is very useful to know. It’s used to emphasize a particular detail in a sentence.

The 是 … 的 construction picks out one of the following kinds of information:

time
manner
place

The structure is common and pretty easy to use and understand.

Forming a 是 … 的 sentence

是 is placed right before the piece of information you want to draw attention to, and 的 comes at the end of the sentence. Whatever comes immediately after 是 is emphasized. This is equivalent to saying “It was … that …” in English (although English often just uses tone of voice to emphasis).

Examples:

  她是昨天去的。Tā shì zuótiān qù de. It was yesterday that she went.

  我是跟我朋友出去的。Wǒ shì gēn wǒ péngyǒu chūqù de. It was my friends who I went out with.

  我是在北京学习中文的。Wǒ shì zài běijīng xuéxí zhōngwén de. It was in Beijing where I studied Chinese.

Emphasizing different parts of the sentence

是 can be placed at any one of three points in a sentence to draw attention to what comes after it. In the following sentence, for example,

  我上个星期五跟我女朋友在饭馆吃饭。Wǒ shàng gè xīngqíwǔ gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu zài fànguǎn chīfàn. Last Friday I ate dinner with my girlfriend in a restaurant.

Time, manner or place could be picked out with 是 … 的.

  我是上个星期五跟我女朋友在饭馆吃饭的。

  Wǒ shì shàng gè xīngqíwǔ gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu zài fànguǎn chīfàn de.

  It was last Friday that I ate dinner with my girlfriend in a restaurant.

  我上个星期五是跟我女朋友在饭馆吃饭的。

  Wǒ shàng gè xīngqí wǔ shì gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu zài fànguǎn chīfàn de.

  It was with my girlfriend that I ate dinner in a restaurant last Friday.

  我上个星期五跟我女朋友是在饭馆吃饭的。

  Wǒ shàng gè xīngqí wǔ gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu shì zài fànguǎn chīfàn de.

  It was in a restaurant that I ate dinner last Friday with my girlfriend.

Note how in English this involves rearranging all the elements of the sentence, but in Chinese their position is fixed. All that’s needed is to place 是 in front of the part to be emphasized, and 的 at the end of the sentence.

What you can emphasize with 是 … 的

Broadly speaking, the 是 … 的 construction emphasizes time, manner or place. This covers a lot of uses though. Here are some examples:

  我今天是开车上班的。
  Wǒ jīntiān shì kāichē shàngbān de.
  Today I came to work by car.

  我是用法文写这封信的。
  Wǒ shì yòng fǎwén xiě zhè fēng xìn de.
  I wrote this letter in French.

  他是在网上发现这个信息的。
  Tā shì zài wǎngshàng fāxiàn zhège xìnxī de.
  He found out this information online.

  那个故事是我爷爷告诉我的。
  Nàgè gùshì shì wǒ yéye gàosu wǒ de.
  It was my grandfather that told me that story.

  他是对我感兴趣的。
  Tā shì duì wǒ gǎn xìngqù de.
  He was interested in me.

You can draw attention to pretty much any information in the sentence using 是 … 的.

Forming questions with 是 … 的

You can also form questions with the 是 … 的 construction. This is done in the usual ways to form questions:

With 吗
With a question word
With verb / negative inversion

Examples:

  你那天是去伦敦的吗？
  Nǐ nèitiān shì qù lúndūn de ma?
  Did you go to London that day?

  他是给谁打电话的？
  Tā shì gěi shéi dǎ diànhuà de?
  Who was it that he phoned?

  我是不是五月出生的？
  Wǒ shì bù shì wǔ yuè chūshēng de?
  Was it in May that I was born?

Note that with the 吗 question, 吗 comes at the end of the sentence as usual, with 的 just before it (this is probably what you were expecting anyway).

The negative form of 是 … 的

是 … 的 is negated as you would expect, with 不. This is used to draw attention to the fact that something is not the case.

Examples:

  我们不是在巴黎认识的。
  Wǒmen búshì zài bālí rènshi de.
  It wasn’t in Paris that we met.

  我的钱包不是被他偷走的。
  Wǒ de qiánbāo búshì bèi tā tōu zǒu de.
  My wallet wasn’t stolen by him.

是 … 的 implies completion

Because 是 … 的 emphasizes the details around an action, there is an implication that the action has been completed (so that we can know the details). However, this is just an implication, and not the main function of this construction. 是 … 的 is used to draw attention to extra details of an action, not to indicate its completion. 了 should be used to mark completion.

Moving 的

Normally, 的 is placed at the end of the sentence in a 是 … 的 construction, and this is fine most of the time. However, it can also be placed before the object. The only time this is necessary is when the 是 … 的 construction would result in a sentence with another meaning to the one intended. For example:

  我是在网上卖衣服的。 Wǒ shì zài wǎngshàng mài yīfu de. I sell clothing online.

Rather than emphasizing that the clothes are sold online, this sentence ends up saying that the speaker is some sort of online clothing merchant. To avoid this misinterpretation, 的 can be placed before the object:

  我是在网上卖的衣服。 Wǒ shì zài wǎngshàng mài de yīfú. It was online that I sold
  the clothes.

Now the sentence has the intended meaning (that the speaker sold some clothes on Taobao or something). The sentence above about studying in Beijing is actually ambiguous for this reason:

  我是在北京学习中文的。 Wǒ shì zài běijīng xuéxí zhōngwén de. I studied Chinese in Beijing.

This could just as well be translated as “I am a Chinese learner in Beijing”, with no emphasis, in which case 的 functions as a particle that converts verb phrase (study Chinese) into attributive (Chinese studying (person)). To avoid this, 的 can be placed in front of the object:

  我是在北京学习的中文。 Wǒ shì zài běijīng xuéxí de zhōngwén. It was in Beijing
  that I studied Chinese.

Now the emphasis is clear.

This situation only comes up occasionally though, so most of the time it's fine to put 的 at the end of the sentence (although you often see it placed before the object anyway).

Omitting 是

One final thing to note is that sometimes 是 can actually be omitted and the structure is still valid. This can't happen all the time, though. If the subject is a demonstrative pronoun (这 or 那), you have to include 是. If the sentence is negative, you also need 是 (it would sound pretty strange without it). Otherwise, 是 can generally be omitted and the sentence is still valid.

If the sentence is complicated with many parts (e.g. time, manner and place) then 是 will need to be inserted to clarify what’s being emphasized.

Not everything with 是 and 的 is a 是 … 的 construction!

Remember that just because a sentence uses 是 and 的 doesn’t mean it’s emphasizing something. Far from it, in fact. 是 and 的 are a very common way to attach attributes to things. For example:

  这辆车是红色的。 Zhè liàng chē shì hóngsè de. This car is red.

The sentence above is not a 是 … 的 construction as described in this article. It's just a bog-standard descriptive sentence. The 是 … 的 construction emphasizes additional information about an action rather than just modifying things.

Summary

是 is placed before the part of the sentence you want to emphasize.
的 is nearly always placed at the end of the sentence. Sometimes it appears before the object.
All the usual question formations can be applied to 是 … 的 sentences.
是 … 的 is negated with 不.
是 … 的 implies completion of the action, but shouldn't be used to express this specifically.
是 can be omitted in some circumstances.


霹雳与雷霆有什么分别？(What's the difference between 霹雳 and 雷霆?) except for their other uses, such as 霹雳舞(breakdance) and their respective 成语, are they considered synonyms? they're both translated as
霹雳: thunderbolt
雷霆: thunderbolt

空中雷霆一响，就把孩子吓哭了 = The thunderbolt came from the sky, and frightened
the child into crying.

我听到了一声霹雳，随后天空突然开始下起了雨 = I heard a clap of thunder, and then it
suddenly began to rain

According to 汉典:
霹雳 (pīlì) mainly means thunderbolt as the atmospherical phenomenon.

又急又响的雷，是云与地面之间发生的强烈雷电现象
sudden and loud thunder, it's the strong lightning bolt occurring between the clouds and earth

雷霆 (léitíng) mainly means thunderclap, as the booming sound of the thunderbolt, and it's also used figuratively. In English that would be thunderous.

洪大而急发的雷声
booming and sudden thunder clap

比喻声威或怒气
describes metaphorically prestige or rage (thunderous, roaring)

In your examples, the two words look similar because of context:

空中雷霆一响

Here it's definitely thunderclap, reinforced by the presence of 响, denoting a sound. (The usage of “一 yī” follows the "一 (yī) ～ 就 (jiù)" structure, events in quick sequence). "A thunderclap from the sky, ...".
Translating as "The thunderbolt" is not wrong, but that seems poetic license on the translator's part, which is fine, since the sentence can't be nicely translated word-for-word.

我听到了一声霹雳

Here 霹雳 is preceded by 一声, which works as a classifier / measure word, and results in "one sound of thunderbolt". Therefore "I heard a clap of thunder."


Pinyin tones pronunciation cheat sheet I've just started taking Chinese lessons, and I've been trying to find a "cheat sheet" for pinyin pronunciation. All the sites I've found is either incomplete (only having some tones), only having the pronunciation as a description or comparison to English.

What I'm looking for is basically a table that looks like this:

ā ē ī ō ū ǖ
á é í ó ú ǘ
ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ
à è ì ò ù ǜ
a e i o u ü

Where I would be able to click on any one of them and hear the pronunciation. Sounds so simple, but I've just not been able to find one...

Here are my two favorite browser-based pinyin cheat-sheets:

https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php
http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/pinyintable_vertical.php

Whereas the site linked to in the currently top-ranked answer (lost-theory.org - a nice, new find for me, BTW) uses big, lossless .wav files (which also unfortunately seem to include a great deal of background noise), the sites I link to above use compressed mp3s, so I think you'll have a vastly easier time using them on a slow connection. Enjoy!


and 難 glyph origins. Did 难/難 used to be a bird? Apologies if my question is too similar to the one in
Why is the radical of 难 > 隹 and not 又?
The link in there is broken unfortunately and I am unable to find the source.
This character for difficult, 难/難 is traditionally comprising of phonetic /堇, and the 隹 semantic which is a bird. However, it seems like there is also semantic explanation for the /堇 component, which closely resembles 黃, being a man with difficulty breathing/hyperinflated lungs in the middle part and a wheezing mouth being the top part that looks like 廿. This also makes sense for other “difficult” related words with /堇 phonetic, like 嘆 and 艱, which coincidentally all have been simplified to 又.
Thus, my question is: did 难/難 use to be a type of bird? What kind of bird was it, and when did it start replacing  as loan?

I'm going to give a simple answer first - I'm sure better more complete answers will come to follow.
Outlier

FORM
難 nán (also nàn) is composed of 堇 jiān and 隹 “bird,” which hints at the original meaning “type of bird.” 堇 gives the sound.
COMPONENTS
堇
In 難 nán (also nàn), 堇 jiān is a sound component, though this is not obvious in modern Mandarin.
隹
In 難, 隹 “bird” is a meaning component, hinting at the original meaning “type of bird.”
MEANINGS
nán
1 (orig.) name of a type of bird
2 ○ difficult
3 → trouble; adversity
nàn
1 (orig.) name of a type of bird
2 ○ difficult
3 → disaster; catastrophe

There's also a variant character:  (⿰鳥, if it doesn't display with you) which quite explicitly shows it's avian connection.
Outlier's reference comes from p. 307 & 308 of 季旭昇's《說文新證》- this is where we will see the connection between the variant  and 難:

Here the ○ icon in Outlier's definition is an indicator of a phonetic loan. So, basically it is just a:

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

and this is confirmed by《說文新證》's:

假借

explanation.

隹 replaces ---> 鳥

堇 was seemingly always there giving the character its sound

"⿰x" being replaced by "⿰又x" is a separate question but it's not totally uncommon, think: 艱 → 艰.


你好啊？ or 你好吗？ Which is more common? I have recently come across the phrase 你好啊 and I was curious about its usage. It was in the FSI Chinese course with a meaning of 'How are you?', but I have only heard 你好吗 on other courses and when talking to Chinese speakers on Skype. Is this because 你好啊 is not really used very much in everyday life, or is it because Chinese speakers tend to tailor the way they say things to suit the level of the other person and 你好吗 is more common in text books?

Usually people just say 你好 because, well, it's just the common way. I don't think there are any reasons.

你好啊 sounds like talking to babies, or if you are greeting someone who is some distance away and you want yourself to be heard. 你——好——啊——

你好吗 is a direct translation of "How are you?" It is only used by Chinese when one really wants to know what is going on with the other, or it may be used with English speakers to make them feel less culturally alienated.


could you explain all the grammar which is included in the sentence: 君子務本，本立而道生? i would like to understand how one could with respect to grammar analyse this phrase, for instance by a syntax tree or naming the unique features of wenyan grammar included in this example.

S: 君子務本

NP: 君子; VP: 務本

N: 君子; V: 務; N:本

S: 本立而道生

NP: 本; VP: 立; CONJ/AP: 而; NP: 道; VP: 生

N: 本; V: 立; and/adverb: 而 (and then); N: 道; V: 生

Alternative:

S: 本立而道生

If: (omit); NP: 本; VP: 立; AP: 而; NP: 道; VP: 生


Chinese: Old Wives Tales A long time ago I heard someone say:

"玩火会尿床"

Which I instantly recognized is very similar to some 'old wives tales' in English. In English there are things like:

from Wikipedia:

  Cracking knuckles gives arthritis.

  Don't go outside with wet hair or you will catch a cold.

  Don't swallow gum or it will stay in your stomach for seven years.

  Don't make silly faces or it will make the silly face permanent.

"Don't play with fire or you will wet the bed," seems pretty similar, no?

Questions:

What are Old Wives Tales called in Chinese?

Where can I find a list of similar Chinese old wives tales?

Or

What are some common Chinese old wives tales?

I'm not sure we have a saying for "old wives tales".
For the ones that works we call them 偏方 (Folk prescription), others are considered as 流言, 谣言 (rumor), 伪科学 (pseudoscience).

One of such saying is that you cannot wash your hair during menstrual period.
Another is that you cannot eat certain food (e.g., orange and seafood) together, otherwise they'll become toxic.

You can find many of them here. Though it includes not only Chinese stories.


When is it appropriate to use 先生? I'm trying to figure out when the title 先生 is used. Is it used for Mr., husband, honorary person, or something else? 谢谢

Generally speaking, it is always appropriate to use “先生” as it is a title used to show your respect for others, especially those elder than you. Because the title “先生” can be understood as "born before you", which implys that they deserve your respect.

E.g.

  Mr. Green 格林先生

  Mr. Tom 汤姆先生

  Mr. Tom Green 格林·汤姆先生

  Hello, mister. 您好，先生。

--- In this case, any male adult can be called “先生”, a child is seldom called that. The title can be used alone. Or you can add either his family name or given name before “先生”, or even his full name.

  Your husband is handsome! 您先生可真帅气！

--- In this case, the husband of one's own or someone else's can be called “先生”, but instead of the meaning "born before you", it is simply a title for "husband". Usually it is used in dialogs and cannot be used alone. In other words, a person will not directly called her husband “先生”.

  Miss He Xiangning 何香凝先生

  Miss Song Qingling 宋庆龄先生

--- In this case, for those honorary persons, even female can be called “先生”, but this kind of expression can rarely be seen nowadays.

  算命先生

  风水先生

  教书先生

  看病先生

  账房先生

--- These are idiomatic usage


What does 勾过来 (gōu guòlái) mean in 你就直接勾过来，我觉得欠妥? A Mandarin Corner YouTube video describes "3 Things Chinese Like about Foreigners" (actually it does the opposite).  One snippet from this dialogue is the following:

I transcribe the conversation as follows (and I'm asking about the part in bold):

  比如说我跟你还不熟，然后你是一个外国小伙子，我是一个中国小女孩，你就直接勾过来，我觉得欠妥。
  Bǐrú shuō wǒ gēn nǐ hái bù shú, ránhòu nǐ shì yīgè wàiguó xiǎohuǒzi, wǒ shì yīgè zhōngguó xiǎo nǚhái, nǐ jiù zhíjiē gōu guòlái, wǒ juédé qiàntuǒ.

Which I think (fairly directly) translates to

  For example me and you are not familiar, then you are a foreign young lad and I'm a Chinese girl; you just "hook up"; I feel is inappropriate.

I'm uncertain about "hook up"; my best guess is based on the definitions:

勾 (gōu) = hook; and
过来 (guòlái) = come over.

However,  it appears the two (hypothetical) people are unfamiliar with one another, so they're wouldn't hook up so easily.  It could mean something else like "come over with the intention of hooking up" or maybe 勾 doesn't have any special meaning.

Question: What does 勾过来 mean in this sentence?

勾过来 is colloquial. It can be considered as the short version of 勾引过来.  勾引 means entice, seduce, or tempt. 过来 here is a  complement.

Your interpretation come over with the intention of hooking up for 勾 is fine too.


Why does 了 change in 突然父亲嘘(了)一口气? The sentence is

  (1) 突然父亲嘘了一口气

and

  (2) 突然父亲嘘一口气

I would have understand them if it's not the for the "突然" part.

My take:

(1) "Suddenly father exhaled (once)" (like "ooooh" and then maybe
died).
(2) "Suddenly father started to perform an exhale." (and after he
performed it maybe he died).

P.S. Sentence (2) As far as I see doesn't have niether of those readings:

Conteractual. "If something happens/ed, then he has/would exhaled.
Suprise. He can exhale?!
Probable. Well, he can exhale.
Future. He might exhale.
Deductive. He exhale. (I can say that based on some reasoning)
Abilitive. He can exhale.

that 突然 eliminate all those readings and I'm lost a bit.

Previous answer for ref:
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/18061/13501

If you look at my previous answer, I explained:

For the first and second, both mentioned that 了 is used to denote the completion of an action.

For the fourth one, I mentioned that 了 is used only to soften the tone.

In the example above,

(1)突然父亲嘘了一口气

(2)突然父亲嘘一口气

The first sentence is denoting the completion of the action "exhale", because indeed you are talking about things in the past and father has done and ended exhaling.

However, most Chinese native speakers use it, not to express this meaning, but the fourth meaning actually, which is, only to soften the tone.

Despite the fact mentioned, please note that you cannot use 了 after any verb if the ACTION is NOT completed.

One more point to notice:
The first and second meaning of 了 are only applicable to action verbs. For position verbs(有，坐，死...), they should follow the adjective rule, which is, when confronting these verbs, th meaning should be "become (verb status)".
Example: 我有了。 or  他死了。


What are simplified characters and traditional characters? Which should I learn first? In which sequence should I learn Chinese. What are simplified characters and important traditional characters which should I learn first and why those are necessary to learn first?

only if, you're interested in history, culture; or, you need to read materials dated before 1949; learn traditional chinese.

otherwise, learn simplified chinese first. particularly for anyone who learn "chinese" for bread-and-butter.

it's "easier" to read & write; for foreigners; compare to traditional chinese.

to be fair, well, there's a chinese proverb "物以罕為貴"; it's roughly "when a thing is scarce, it is precious".

have fun :)


The word order of co-existing adverbs in a sentence I am wondering whether there is a commonly accepted rule about the word order of co-existing adverbs in a sentence.

For example, in the following sentences, 果然，昨天，直接，从学校 are adverbs. Which of the following 3 sentences is(are) correct?
1. 他果然昨天直接从学校去了图书馆
2. 他昨天果然从学校直接去了图书馆。
3. 他昨天果然直接从学校去了图书馆。

For a more complete discussion of adverbial order, see ＂实用现代汉语语法＂, page 524：

２。除了大部分副词以外，限制性的状语按下列顺序排列：

（１）表示时间的状语；

（２）表示语气以及在分句之间起关联作用的状语；

（３）表示目的、依据、关涉、协同的状语；

（４）表示处所、空间、方向、路线的状语；

（５）表示对象的状语。

果然 belongs to （２），thus it should come second after（１）time adverbial， more examples of（２）, adverbials （in fact adverbs） expressing mood （语气）：难道、岂、究竟、偏偏、索性、简直、大概、莫非、到底、原来

直接 may be counted among the majority of adverbs （大部分副词）not included above which should be immediately in front of the verb （or adjective predicate）。

For a more complete discussion see the quoted grammar.

Regarding the relative position of (1) and (2), according to Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar p.148, adverbials indicating mood or tone are interchangeable in position with time expressions, thus confirming some of the comments above.


What does "你吃了吗?" mean? I've been looking at some questions and I found in some of the answers that 你吃了吗 was identified as slang. I would have translated it as "have you eaten?", but I'm not sure since it's slang. I'm learning Mandarin without being in China, so I haven't been able to pick up much slang. What does 你吃了吗？mean? What other slang words are there?

What does 你吃了吗？mean?

「你吃了嗎？」
此句的原義是確認“吃的行為”。譬如：
「吃藥時間過了。你吃了嗎？」
「這個蛋糕很好吃。你吃了嗎？」
"Have you eaten?"
The original meaning of this sentence is to confirm the action of eating. For example,
"The time to take medicine has passed. Have you taken it?"
"This cake is very delicious. Did you eat it?"

不知道什麼時候開始，它變成「打招呼」用語。原因可能就像一般人推測的那樣：民以食為天。維持生命最重要的東西就是食物。
Nobody knows when it became a greeting. The reason may be something as most people speculate: hunger breeds discontentment. (Foodstuff is all-important to the people.) The most important thing to sustain life is food.

所以，這句話常見的意思大概就上面這兩種。
Therefore, the common meanings of this sentence are probably the two above.

What other slang words are there?

一、和「你吃了嗎？」同義的「打招呼」用語：
Ⅰ. The synonymous greetings of 你吃了嗎？:

　　吃了嗎？
　　吃飽了嗎？
　　吃飯了嗎？
　　吃過了嗎？

　　⒈ 可以不加「你」，因為這句話的主詞很明顯。
　　⒉ 「嗎」可以改用「沒（有）」。
　　⒊ 這些似乎不是俚語，只是一般用語。
　　⒈ We can leave out 你 because the subject of this sentence is obvious.
　　⒉ We can use 沒（有）instead of 嗎.
　　⒊ These do not seem to be slang, but common words.

二、 其他的「打招呼」用語：
Ⅱ. Other greetings:

除了「您好」、「嗨」、「哈囉」之類的以外，常見的還有以下這些。
In addition to 您好, 嗨, 哈囉 and the like, some common greetings are listed below.

　　⒈ 和時間相關的：
　　⒈ Time-related:

　　　　早！
　　　　早安！
　　　　早上好！
　　　　這麼早啊？
　　　　午安！
　　　　中午好！
　　　　下午好！
　　　　晚上好！
　　　　晚安！

　　　　「晚安」用在睡覺前，當然不算是見面的「打招呼」用語。
　　　　晚安 before bed is not a greeting phrase, of course, when we see somebody.

　　⒉ 和對方動作或外觀相關的：
　　⒉ Relating to their action or appearance:

　　　　˙ 早上（Morning）

　　　　　　˙ 對孩童（To children）

　　　　　　　　˙ 去學校啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ （去）上學啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going to school?

　　　　　　˙ 對上班族（To (office) workers）

　　　　　　　　˙ 去工作啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ （去）上班啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going to work?

　　　　　　˙ 對主婦（To housewives）

　　　　　　　　˙ 去市場啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going to the market?
　　　　　　　　˙ （去）買菜啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going food shopping?

　　　　˙ 回家時段 (Late afternoon)

　　　　　　˙ 放學了啊？
　　　　　　˙ Are classes over?
　　　　　　˙ Coming back from school?
　　　　　　˙ 下班了啊？
　　　　　　˙ Getting off work?
　　　　　　˙ 回來了啊？
　　　　　　˙ Coming back?
　　　　　　˙ 累不累啊？
　　　　　　˙ Tired?
　　　　　　˙ Are you tired?

　　　　˙ 晚餐後 (Evening)

　　　　　　˙ 去散步啊？
　　　　　　˙ Taking a walk?
　　　　　　˙ 去逛夜市啊？
　　　　　　˙ Going to the night market?

　　　　˙ 過年時 (Chinese New Year)

　　　　　　˙ 恭喜！恭喜！
　　　　　　˙ Gōng Xĭ! Gōng Xĭ!
　　　　　　˙ Congratulations!
　　　　　　˙ 去拜年啊？
　　　　　　˙ Going to pay New Year's call?

　　　　˙ 穿著運動服 (Wearing sportswear)

　　　　　　˙ （要）去運動啊？
　　　　　　˙ Going to exercise?

　　　　˙ 牽著狗 (Walking with a dog)

　　　　　　˙ 遛狗啊？
　　　　　　˙ Walking the dog?

　　　　諸如此類的，非常地多。
　　　　There are many greetings like these.

三、其他俚語：
Ⅲ. Other slang words:

　　這就太廣泛了，無法回答。
　　It's too broad to answer.

有兩句話必需特別說明。
Two sentences must be specified.

⒈ 你吃飽了嗎？

　　在台灣，這是很常聽到的一句話。也就是字面的意思引申為「打招呼」用語。
　　This is a very common sentence in Taiwan. That is, the literal meaning is extended to be a greeting.

　　但是在大陸，則暗示「很笨」的意思。從字面上看不出來有這個意思。我猜是因為這兩句的英文發音非常相似的緣故。
　　But, it implies "stupid" in mainland China. It does not show this meaning literally. I guess it is because the pronunciations of these two sentences in English are extremely similar.

　　你吃飽了嗎？Are you full?
　　你很愚蠢嗎？Are you fool?

　　所以在大陸不要隨便說這句話。
　　So, do not casually say this in mainland China.

⒉ 吃飽了嗎？

　　此句的發音接近韓文中一句很不雅用來罵人的話。
　　The pronunciation of this sentence is close to a very indecent Korean curse.

　　吃飽了嗎 chī bǎo le ma
　　○○○○ xi paer nao ma

　　所以，不要對韓國人說這句話。
　　Thus, do not say this to the Koreans.


At what age one stops calling a person 孩子？ I've seen a text where 20-year-old woman was called 女孩子, is it usual in China?

The text I'm referring to:

  我大哥认识一个女孩子，她的名字叫李明英。李小姐今年二十岁，是大学生

Why do you think these sentences are related? I think they are 2 different, unrelated sentences.

我大哥认识一个男孩子，他个名字叫李明英。
My big brother knows a boy whose name is Li Mingying
李小姐今年二十岁，是大学生。
Miss Li will be 20 years old this year, she is a student at university.

小姐 = Miss
男孩子 = boy


Modern vocab. "selfie", "troll" and "spam" Do the following modern English words have Chinese equivelants that are understood by most young people:

selfie
troll / trolled
spam
phishing scam

selfie n. (also selfy, pl. selfies)

  自拍 n./vi. (adj. 自拍的. Also specifically 自拍照片 (selfie photo) or 自拍视频 (selfie video))

    n. 这是他的自拍。
    vi. 他正在自拍。

troll n.

  (Mainland China) 喷子 n.

  (Taiwan) 白目 / 白爛 / 小白 n.

Note: As the Internet slang is widespread, 喷子/白目/白爛/小白 are all acceptable in Chinese regions. However, the term 小白 in mainland China now can mean 菜鸟 (newbie, green hand), for example

新来的小白，请大侠指教。

Then it's an almost neutral word.

spam n.

  垃圾 + 邮件/短信/信息 n.

The spam in English includes unsolicited bulk messages in all kinds of media. However in Chinese it's more specifically said 垃圾邮件 (and something else like that).

phishing scam n.

  钓鱼骗局 n.

I checked some websites and found 钓鱼骗局 is used both in mainland and Taiwan for "phishing scam". However personally I don't meet the word 钓鱼骗局 much. More specific words like 钓鱼网站, 网络钓鱼 (Taiwanese 網路釣魚) appear more common. Anyway, the core word is phishing (钓鱼), the derivatives are based on it.


Can someone please translate this note to a friend? (Characters identified: 你是我的嘘声) Someone wrote this to a friend of mine.  Can someone please translate it?

It means :

  You are my hiss.

The characters on the strip of paper don't look like a native speaker's work. Normally even foreigners will attain some ease in pencilling out frequent characters like 我。 I therefore  assume a foreigner with very little practice wrote this and possibly confused some characters.


How do I say "It's alright"? How does one say "it's okay" or "it's alright" along the lines of "it's fine, don't lose hope". It could be a consolation or someone brushing something off going "Oh, it's still okay".

Could someone include the pinyin?

没事

méishì

MDBG

  it's not important / it's nothing / never mind / to have nothing to do / to be free / to be all right (out of danger or trouble)

没关系

méiguānxi

MDBG

  it doesn't matter


Chinese name of a dish containing both chicken and egg? I was just talking about how the old Paul Simon song Mother and Child Reunion was inspired by the name of a menu item he saw in a Chinese restaurant.
I wanted to know what the dish is and what its name is. Specifically I wanted to know if the Chinese name of the dish used a word/character for "reunion" or if that was just made up by whoever made the English translation of the menu.
I did some investigation and found the actual story explained on Snopes:

Know where the words came from on that? You would never have guessed. I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called "Mother and Child Reunion." It's chicken and eggs. And I said, "Oh, I love that title. I gotta use that one."

Simon wasn't pulling his interviewer's leg: chicken-and-egg dishes
known as "mother and child reunion" or "mother-daughter reunion" are not uncommon menu items at Chinese restaurants. According to the "New York Rock-N-Roll Trivia Map," the specific eatery where Simon made this fortuitous culinary discovery was Say Eng Look Restaurant in New York City's Chinatown district.

Annoyingly, when I try to search further and find the actual Chinese name of the dish, I run into the typical western ignorance confusing all things Chinese and Japanese and can only find the Japanese dish Oyakodon mentioned.
So what is the Chinese name for the chicken and egg dish? Does it have the character for "reunion"? Is it even a famous/typical dish or just something invented by that one restaurant? Or is it a Chinese version of the Japanese dish? Or is the Japanese dish a version of the Chinese dish.
Anyway I'd like to know the Chinese word for this, if it is indeed a typical Chinese dish.

Only after asking this question did I find out that the Japanese dish's name literally contains the characters for "parent and child": 親子. There could even be the possibility that the restaurant Paul Simon ate in served both Chinese and Japanese food?

I think it's just invented by that one restaurant (or some restaurant else before). It's something like paronomasia, and may be seen at some Chinese restaurant, but it's not a famous/typical dish in Chinese dishes.

親子丼 has nothing to do with the Paul Simon song. And 親子丼 is a famous/typical dish at Japan.

BTW: "Mother and Child Reunion" can be translated as "母子重逢".


What is the original of "Sold Out" by poet Mo Mo? I was suddenly reminded of this poem today:

Mo Mo
SOLD OUT
I sell dreams, cheap
following my inclinations like a dog who sold his master
I sell epochs,
my body crosshatched with scars
I sell time, diarrhetic
penniless as fresh air
I sell country, motherland disappears
I sell space, earth vanishes
I hold the universe in my hand and write you a love letter
I sell holidays, together with loneliness
in ignorance of the world
I sell everything:
life, breath, death
But tonight you must listen
I'm going to kiss you seriously
and turn over like a sunken boat
You're the ocean
the only thing I have left
translated by Wang Ping and Lewis Warsh

I believe that Wang Ping is: 王屏 but I'm not totally sure. I don't know who Mo Mo is or could be. Some other details on the source material:

Avant-Garde Chinese Poetry
1982-1992: 6 Poets
Translated by Wang Ping

But I think it was actually published in:

New Generation: Poems from China Today, 1999

Any ideas? Who is Mo Mo? What was the original of "Sold Out"?

From a quick search, 默默 is the pen name for the poet 朱伟国 of the 撒娇派, a certain school of modern Chinese poetry:

Poetry International Archives
iFeng Culture

I wasn't able to find a list of his oeuvre though.


What does this sticker say? (Characters identified: 萬事如意) I bought these stickers at a reuse store and I'm not sure what it says, and if the words seem fitting, I was going to put it on my binder I will use for my Mandarin classes.

萬事如意 /wan4 shi4 ru2 yi4/ (May everything be as you wish)

This is one of those auspicious sayings people use around Chinese New Year. People often say this to one another, and/or write the four characters on red paper to use as wall decoration around Chinese New Year.

You can certainly use them to decorate your binder. Happy learning!


What is the meaning of 磨练? When researching online, finding an exact definition was hard.

Does it mean to make oneself hard? Or like to harden yourself?

Could you give me a few examples?

磨练： temper oneself hard

在身为罗马奴隶的艰苦磨练中，宾汉变得更强壮、更有耐力。

Ben-Hur's years of enduring hardship as a Roman slave strengthened him and increased his endurance.

唯有艰苦磨练才能强化心灵

only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened

Sometimes, you might see 磨炼(smelt) instead of 磨练(exercise/training). There are some disputation on which one is correct. But main idea is that 磨炼 is sort of wrong words, but you may understand it as a synonym.


What is the difference between 变成、变化、变得、改变、转变? There are five 变 here, so what is the difference between 变成、变化、变得、改变、转变?

I think I really need more context to tell the differences. Sometimes they are  interchangeable.
变成 -> Become / Turn into
五年过去了，我从一个学生变成了一名老师 - I was a student. After 5 years I am a teacher now.
变化 -> Difference / Change (mostly used as noun)
五年过去了，这里还是没有什么变化 - After 5 years there's nothing changed.
变得 -> It's like 变成 but it should be used before a adjective/adverb.
五年过去了，我变得越来越谨慎了 - After 5 years I'm getting more and more careful
改变 -> Change (verb/noun)
她想改变自己的生活 - She wants to change her life (she wants to have a new lifestyle)
转变 -> Seldom used. Sometimes A more formal version of 改变
专家建议毕业生们转变就业观念 - Experts advice graduates to change their thoughts on getting a job.


Correct use of 惹人心烦: is 然而我不要惹人心烦 a suitable way to say you don't want to be a pain in the neck? I am not sure if I used the idiom 惹人心烦 correctly. This is the sentence I used:

  好啊，然而我不要惹人心烦。

Would that be a good use of it or is there a better way of saying you don't want to be a pain in the neck for someone?

Looks fine to me.  But you could say 不好意思麻烦你 = sorry for bothering you.  To me 麻烦你 sounds like a more colloquial way of talking about bothering someone or being a trouble for someone.


Yinwei or Yinvei? 因为 I hear some people say 因为 as “yinwei”, but also some say it sound like “yinvei”. I’m not sure why there is a difference in pronunciation.

/v/ is not an initial found in MSM.

The initial /v/, though, is often found in Northern Mandarin and its branches. In fact, it can still be found, even, in distant branches like Sichuanese.
If you ever saw the 马蜂窝 commercial that aired, ever single night, during the World Cup, you'd certainly notice that 唐僧's "为" is very /v/'d.
You can also refer to the paper The geographic distribution rules and reasons of zero initial “w” pronounced as “v” in Mandarin  by Wang Fan. The abstract for the paper goes into some detail in English:

Abstract:
It  is  universal  to  pronounce  zero  initial  “w”  as  “v”  in Mandarin. Researches  show  that  38%  of  the  people with northern dialect do so with 10% in other dialect districts. When analyzing its features and reasons, we find that the dental fricative sound “v” is indeed a variant of the semi-vowel “w”. Its coming into being is affected by the variation of the  mouth  in  different  phonemes.  It  is  also  related  to  individual  pronunciation  habits  and  the  instability  of  the  pronunciation.  The  universal  “v”  pronunciation  in  northern  dialect  district  is  caused  by  the  stronger  movement  of  the mouth and the face in pronouncing than that in other dialect districts.

The 为 in 因为 should be pronounced wei if you're going for "standard" Mandarin. But, if you want to make yourself sound more Northernized you can also opt for the v.


Mandarin Equivalent: 屙尿都屙不伸? As the title says, what's the Mandarin equivalent of the phrase 屙尿都屙不伸?

The phrase describes someone who can't do anything, and is pretty much useless.

An English equivalent might be something like couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery - and such phrases like that.

吃啥啥不剩; 干啥啥不行.

Whatever (he) eats, (he) leaves over nothing; whatever (he) builds, (he) bungles everything. Used mostly on bureaucrats. When a hierarchical organization grows tall enough, it selects almost exclusively characters like this.


“Big Fish & Begonia” 大鱼海棠 I just saw the movie, and I can’t understand why it has this title.

First of all, A whale is not a fish!  Is the word translated as “fish” used for all swimming animals?  Even if that’s the case, any idea why the movie producers would use a patently incorrect translation?

And a begonia is a small herbaceous plant, that in no way resembles a big tree.  I think the big flowering tree is what the title is supposed to refer to, as one of the items on the Blu-Ray (a supplemental feature or a song; I don’t recall) gave it as Big Fish and Chinese Blooming Crabapple.  I’ve tentatively identified it as Malus spectabilis.  So, what’s all the talk about begonias?

lost in translation lah :(

according to wiki: the main actress is a fairy in charge of begonia (掌管海棠花)

the main actor, he change into "鯤" a legendary big marine creature, its body is more than several thousand chinese miles long (鯤之大・不知其幾千里也).

"big fish" is a good enough name for such marine creature.

anyway, it's an anime for children, need to have a simple, easy to comprehend name, for both the local & foreign kids.

have fun :)


How to use 都 and 也 together？ How can I use 都 and 也 together？

For example if I want to say;

  Both of us also think that you like her.

How will I go about it?
I know you can say (colloquially) 俩 but you still need 都 afterwords. Not to mention 都 also goes infront of 大家， 每天 etc.

Can I just go with;

  我们俩都也觉得你喜欢她。

I have a feeling it's incorrect but just throwing my thought process out there

I'm aware that there is a grammar rule to use both of these words but this is for similarities between multiple statements. I want to know how (if it's possible) to use them in a single statement like the one abovementioned.

More sentences:

A: I think you should leave.

B: The both of us also think you should leave.

And,

A: I hate him.

B: Everyone hates him too.

How will I say these sentences (and more like these) if I were person B?

It's not a good practice to put 也 and 都 together.

我们俩也都觉得你喜欢她 might be ok, but 我们俩也觉得你喜欢她 or 我们俩都觉得你喜欢她 sounds more natural.

我们俩也觉得你喜欢她 and 我们俩都觉得你喜欢她 have slightly different meanings. 我们俩也觉得你喜欢她 implies that there are someone else already thinking you like her and we also think so. 我们俩都觉得你喜欢她 just means both of us think you like her.


Say hallo to many people: 你好 or 你们好? If a meet you (singular), I say "你好".

If I meet you (plural), shall I say "你们好", instead?

You may also use: 诸位好！or 各位好!

There may be more, Chinese has a lot of ways to express things!


confused about the character 就 Here is a sentence: 有時我唔開心會喊。之後我就心情好啲。
I don't understand the function of the word 就. In my mind, it is supposed to be 嘅, for possessive, considering the context and that 心情 (feelings) would be a noun. Why is 就 used here?

有時我唔開心會喊，之後我就心情好啲。

You think there is something wrong with this sentence because 我嘅心情 (my mood) is a noun; 好啲 (better) is an adjective. A verb is seemingly missing in this sentence
It would be easier to rewrite the sentence as '有時我唔開心會喊，之後我嘅心情就會好啲。' (Sometimes I cry when I am unhappy. Afterward, my mood would become better) or '有時我唔開心會喊，之後我就會開心番' (Sometimes I cry when I am unhappy. Afterward, I would become happy again)
However, if you must use 之後我就, you have to treat 心情好啲 as a verb phrase
Example:
'有時我唔開心會喊，之後我就(會變得)心情好啲。' --> Sometimes I cry when I am unhappy. Afterward, I (would become) in a better mood


What is the difference between 台 and 臺？ What is the difference between 台 and 臺？

台 is both "simplified" and "alternative", 臺 is "traditional".

臺 seems to be the "correct" traditional form for Taiwan, but I've never seen it in reference to Taishan (台山) in Guangdong, even in all references pre-1949, etc.

How is it determined in "traditional" usage when to use the one or the other?

(In simplified usage 台 is just used all the time, correct?)

In simplified Chinese, both would be 台, easy peasy. Otherwise, things get a little complicated. Sometimes 台 is just an alternative form for 臺, which is the case for Taiwan: you can write 臺灣 or 台灣, both are acceptable, though the former is considered more formal. In the case of 台山, that is the correct name already, so you can't write 臺山 because 臺 is not an alternative form of 台. Also, for place names like 台州 and 天台山, the pronunciation of 台 is a little different from normal, all the more reason that you can't always choose to substitute 台 with 臺.

Don't be fooled by the Traditional and Simplified Chinese bisection. Only very little Simplified Chinese characters were invented to replace the old ones. Most Simplified Chinese characters were either the archaic but "correct" forms or were simpler variants of the "correct" characters. In fact, many "traditional Chinese" characters are actually much simpler (having fewer strokes) than some of the variants, so 繁體字 is a misnomer, and as for 正體字, what is the "correct" way to write a certain character? Is there a "correct" way to write those characters? Defined by whom? It is not just black and white.

Chinese is hard, and I think the more I learn about Chinese, the harder it gets. I think the best way to learn when to use 臺 and not 台 and vice versa is to just remember each instance and go by the ones most people use even if that usage is not correct semantically. Occasionally, you may want to consult a reference such as the Dictionary of Variants published by the MOE of Taiwan, in which you'll find that 台 and 臺 are originally two different words with similar pronunciation, but 台 has been borrowed as a substitute for 臺 and has therefore acquired the pronunciation and meaning of 臺. One definition of 臺 is "stage", and of 台 is (originally) "delight", interchangeable with 怡. Keep in mind though, that it is just ONE reference, the fact that it's "official" doesn't mean it's always correct or reflects what most people use, even in Taiwan.


How do I type in a Chinese character that I don't know how to pronounce? I often want to be able to type a character that I don't know how to pronounce.

I've read online that most input systems let me type a "u" and then be able to type a radical in. This has had little success for me, as it seems my mac input methods and my android phone input methods behave differently.

In addition I often don't know how to pronounce the radicals. What is the easiest way to do this?

I imagine that I would have to do it stroke by stroke, and maybe the order is important?

There is a stroke option on my mac input but I can't figure out how to use it:

With stroke method, you need to know the characters very well, which means you know how to write the character in correct order. It's hard for a non-native speaker in my opinion.

I would suggest you use the "Trackpad Handwriting" instead.

Well, well... I tried "Trackpad Handwriting" which provided by Mac, it's SO BADLY DESIGNED. I can't even believe it's product of Apple!

Thanks for @Ming 's reminder, Trackpad Handwriting has special setting to enable features like "two fingers tap clear". Then, the UE design might not that bad. But considering it's not default options, it's still bad! Not that bad, but bad!

Alternative:

Here are some online handwriting input method for Chinese, which are more effective and convenient than Trackpad Handwriting.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-input-tools/mclkkofklkfljcocdinagocijmpgbhab

http://hanzi.unihan.com.cn/Qpen

http://www.yibizi.com/html5/

If you are using Chrome, then the extension provided by Google may be the best choice for you.


What do 总 and 不时 mean here together? 他说，当公司总经理从他身旁经过时，总会不时地赞美他“你扫的地真干净“。

It seems I have 总 ‘always‘ and 不时 ‘occasionally' or 'often' together.

Does the 总经理 always or occasionally laud said sweeper? Or is it 'on all occasions'??

You need to consider 总会 together:
ABC

be bound to; be inevitable; be sure to happen

总会 + 不时 = be sure to + often = he is bound to frequently.../he is sure to often...
ABC calls 总会, here, a:
Verb Phrase

Dòngcí Cízǔ 动词词组
This includes
(i) descriptive predicates that do not behave as stative verbs, e.g., ǎirán ‘amicable; amiable’, as well as
(ii) phrases and longer chunks containing a verb that are not fixed expressions, e.g., bǎiláibǎiqù ‘sway; waver’, áidào tiānhēi ‘bear up until nightfall’.


What's the usage/meaning of 就 in this case? I've asked a question regarding 就 before here and the answer helped a lot. But I'm a bit confused regarding another example sentence that I came across. The sentence is:

  大的行李托运了，这个小的行李就随身带着。

The context is that there are two friends, A and B, and they are at the airport. A asked B what he/she did with the luggage, and B replies by saying the above sentence.

I understand that it means "The big baggage I checked, and this small one I'm going to carry with me."

My understanding of 就 is that it's something equivalent to "then," but I'm having trouble connecting that to this specific sentence.

What would it mean in this case?

Thank you.

Given the context,

大的行李托運了，這個小的行李就隨身帶着。
The big baggage I checked, and this small one (I'm going to) carry with me.

you can rewrite I'm going to to will then be.

The big baggage I checked, and this small one will then be carried with me.

The translation of「就」to then should be clearer in this way of phrasing.


Parsing "他是…" in this short sentence I wonder if someone could help me correctly parse the following and explain why it should be parsed that way:

  虽然我觉得他是想象不出来的就是了

Is the speaker saying:

  Though, I think he can't imagine (that)/I think it's unimaginable for him

Or is it more accurate to say;

  Though, I think I can't imagine him (like that/doing that etc)

This sentence is quite oral,
虽然我觉得他是想象不出来的就是了 == 虽然我觉得他想象不出来
That is:

  Though, I think he can't imagine (it)

As for Though, I think it is unimaginable for him, you should say:

  虽然我觉得这对他来说是不可想象的

And Though, I think I can't imagine him (like that/doing that etc) should be:

  虽然我觉得我无法想象他（是那样的/做了那件事）


How do you translate "hover over"? I would like to say something like:

Please use your mouse to hover over the attribute icon

but I do not know the Chinese equivalent for "hover over", as used in technology / software.
Would 停留 be understood, or is there a better way to say it?

It's called (鼠标)悬停 in mainland China.

Please use your mouse to hover over the attribute icon
请将鼠标悬停在属性图标上。

If you search this phrase on the internet you'll see more examples how it's used, e.g.

鼠标悬停效果是网页制作的常用特效之一。
'Mouse over' is one of the most used special effect in web design.

You should note that many Computer related words are translated very differently in mainland China ('zh-cn' in locale terms) and other Chinese speaking regions, especially in Taiwan where there is a complete different set of words. You may want to update your question to clarify your user locale. If it's different from 'zh-cn' you may want to wait for another answer.


What is the structure of 我吃饭的时候看了一本书? The sentence 我吃饭的时候看了一本书。 apparently has two verbs (吃 and 看), but I can’t see how the two actions are correlated. Could anyone explain that?

I'm not sure if you are familiar with 的时候 but this translates approximately to 'while'.

So the sentence reads:

While I was eating I read a book.

You can see the English use "I" twice, so it may make more sense to you if you read it like this:

我吃饭的时候(我)看了一本书


Confusions about 虽然 and 即使 I'm a Chinese native, but even though I can't figure out the differences between 虽然 and 即使 clearly.
Here're definitions of these two words in 现代汉语词典 (Modern Chinese Dictionary) (Edition VI).

【虽然】suīrán
连词. 用在上半句，下半句往往有“可是、但是”与它呼应，表示承认甲事为事实，但乙事不因为甲事而成立。
Conj. Used in the first half of the sentence, the second half of the sentence often has "but" to correspond it, expressing the recognition that matter A is a fact, but matter B is not established by matter A.

【即使】jíshǐ
连词. 表示假设的让步。注意“即使”所表示的条件，可以是尚未实现的事情，也可以是与既成事实相反的事情。
Conj. Represents a concession of assumptions. Note The condition of "即使" can be something that has not yet been realized, or it can be the opposite of a fact.

However, I was writing a composition for school and came across the following expression:

作为学生，我们每日坐在教室里学习，但即使这样，“劳动”离我们也并不遥远。
As students, we study in the classrooms every day. (but) Even though, "labour" isn't far from us.

I am suspecious about whether I used 即使 correctly. 每日坐在教室里学习 (study in the classrooms every day) is a fact, so according to dictionary definition, I ought to use 虽然, but 即使 is widely spoken and I feel it's right, judging from the feeling for language (语感, I'm not sure if I got the right translation). So what exactly should I use in this sentence?

作为学生，我们每日坐在教室里学习，但即使这样，“劳动”离我们也并不遥远。

Colloquially, your sentence is ok.  However it's not a good writing.  即使 is usually used when the condition is opposite to the fact.  E. g.  即使他在，我也会这么说。(it implies he is actually not here) If he is truly there, we would say: 虽然他在场，但我还是这么说了。
So your sentence can be improved like this:

作为学生，虽然我们每日坐在教室里学习，但“劳动”离我们并不遥远。

Compare this two sentences:

即使我付出了真心，他也不在乎。// imply I didn't 付出了真心.

虽然我付出了真心，但他也不在乎。// imply I did 付出了真心.

Hope this could help.


How to refer to 'depression' in Chinese? Depression is a word used to describe a 人 who feels a sadness that is buried deeply in heart and mind.

What word is used to refer to this kind of depression?

If you can think of any idioms or sayings that relates to the word 'depression' in Chinese, I would appreciate your sharing of it in the comments too.

The common term would be 抑郁。
There is a type of mental disorder in that name, called major depressive disorder.
However, if you are not referring to the disease, you would say

我觉得有些沮丧
我觉得有点压抑


The translation of "Karma" I want to know the colloquial chinese translation of "Karma".

The conversation example:

Bob: She had financial problem for 30 years and never got a decent job besides labor.
Me: I guess it's karma. <== I need translation of karma in this context.

Note: the karma here refers to fruit/result of her past karma in buddhism.

UPDATE:

Second case:

One day, my dad just lost $5 in his pocket when walking home. My mom heard that and she said "I remember once you took $5 on the street, so I guess it's karma".

I guess it's karma！
我想这就是报应吧！

Karma = 因果报应


What's this new Chinese character which looks like 座? I keep seeing this new Chinese character on social media:

What is this?

Technically it isn't a new Chinese character but a Japanese character.
Eileen Chow posted about this on Twitter saying:

Winner of 2020’s new kanji contest in Japan: the character 座 (seat), ingeniously redesigned as a neologism for “social distance.”
Note the two 人 (person) radicals in the original 座 are now positioned farther away from one another!

You can find a whole list of competition candidates on the official Sousaku Kanji website.

On her twitter thread Eileen Chow also shows off some other characters with explanations. Here's another interesting one for the times:

I like this one because it is a bilingual visual pun - a 76yo entrant transformed the bottom half of the character 会 (meeting) into a “Z” to make...you guessed it, “web conferencing via Zoom”.

Seeing as they are all 漢字 - they could be easily adoptable into Chinese.


Headline: "YouTube创始人从雅虎手中收购Delicious". What is the purpose of "手中" If you take out 手中, isn't the translation, YouTube founder buys Delicious from Yahoo, still conveyed? What does 手中 add?

http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2011-04-28/09065460713.shtml

手中 actually indicates somebody possess something.
For example B从A手中拿走C means A used to possess C and B take it from A, the sentence is to emphasize the action "take".


Idiomatic use of 距 and 離 As I try to read Chinese articles, I begin to encounter 距. Some examples are:

该列车用的是世界最先进的100%低地板技术，车辆地板距轨道面仅35cm (TCB).
飛機於距地面一千米處爆炸 (Pleco).
天津距北京約有一百二十公里 (Pleco)

Is 距 preferred in written Chinese? Is it preferred for vertical distances?
I also found an example that might suggest the two are absolutely interchangeable.

距市中心不远的地方就是可以独自滑雪或漫步的林地区域。(Youdao)

距, 离 and 距离, these three can be replaced with each other and would Not change the meaning.
But 距 is slightly more formal, but only slightly. In speaking, 离 and 距离 is used more commonly.

However, they are used when expressing distances, doesn’t matter whether vertical or horizontal, you can use either of these three words


Usage of 在 in Place complement, Time Complement In Chinese sentence, I know Place and Time complement needs to follow these orders:

(1) Subject + Time + Place + How + Do sth

(2) Time + Subject + Place + How + Do sth

I notice that Time Complement can omit 在, for example：

（在）下课之后，玛丽去足球场。

Besides, Place Complement always starts with 在：

在包里，他拿了一本书。

So, how can I know when to use and omit 在 in Place complement, Time Complement?

when to use and omit 在 in Place complement, Time Complement?

when a sentence need to let other person fully understand or the subject is important or
 in a sentence.

(在)包里，他拿了一本书。 在 can also omit.

It can express as

他拿了一本(在)包里的书。

Place

我在家。

Here 在 is a important word to tell other information about where you are.


Expressing "Both A .. and B" I came across the following sentence:

我既是一个语言的从教者，也是一个语言学习的爱好者。

I understand that "既 A , 也 B" is a sentence structure for expressing "both .. and ..".

I was wondering about what effect 既 has on the meaning? Consider the same sentence above with 既 omitted:

我是一个语言的从教者，也是一个语言学习的爱好者。

Has the meaning or feeling of the sentence changed? Is either preferred in some contexts?

我是一个语言的从教者，也是一个语言学习的爱好者。

This sentence reminds us of the fact that I'm also a language hobbyist(assuming I'm well known as a 语言的从教者).

  我既是一个语言的从教者，也是一个语言学习的爱好者。

With 既, it parallels the two roles (语言的从教者 and 语言学习的爱好者), which share the same level of importance.


To what area does 江南 refer? 早期的江南地区主要是古越族人的居住地，他们使用的古越语与古汉语相差很远。后来，北方汉人几次大规模的南迁使得北方古汉语被带到了江南各地，于是逐步形成了现在的各个方言。
My geography is not good.
Is 江南 everything south of 长江, or just the Southeast corner of China?

Wikipedia describes Jiangnan as:

Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (Chinese: 江南; pinyin: Jiāngnán; formerly romanized Kiang-nan, literally "South of the River" meaning "South of the Yangtze") is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta. The region encompasses the city of Shanghai, the southern part of Jiangsu Province, the southeastern part of Anhui Province, the northern part of Jiangxi Province and the northern part of Zhejiang Province. The most important cities in the area include Anqing, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Wenzhou, and Zhenjiang.


What are the different colloquial terms for Chinese mafia positions? I am creating a Chinese game where you are working with the Triads. I am looking for a list of Chinese equivalent names for the 黑社会 (triads).

Like (source: http://mafia.wikia.com/wiki/Ranks,_Titles_and_Positions_In_The_Mafia)

Boss
Consigliere
Soldier

Etc...

I found this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(underground_society)

But I want to keep the names as colloquial as possible... such that I can reference someone who is superior to someone else

Like, one dialog section would be:

"Go talk to 李大哥, tell him I sent you."

Some more context:

So let's say my game is already in the context of the triads. And, everyone in the community is affiliated with the triads. And let's say a pawn is asked to go talk to someone, sent by one of the senior triad members. How can I reference that senior member?
Thanks!

A problem I think you're going to run into: mafia groups usually have their own terminology that normal people don't know - and normally wouldn't be used outside of the group.

Anyhow I found this on Wikipedia:

Triad structure

and I found this comment online that should help you out a lot - I'm assuming your Chinese is good enough to understand:

  香港三合会部有一定的组织结构和清代三合会的内八堂和外八堂类似。传统的组织结构可分为四个职级八个职位：（1）第一职级是山主（大路元帅），其数字代码为“489”。这三个数字之和为对，暗喻“洪”字，洪为“三八甘一”，其手势为左手的拇指、中指、尾指出，掌心向身。（2）第二职级为副山主（二路元帅）。该职级还包括先锋、香主等职位。其数字代码为“438”，这三个数字之和为15，暗喻纪念三合会前、中、后五祖。其手势为左手拇指和尾指伸直，掌心向身。（3）第三职级包括白纸扇、红根和草鞋三个职位。白纸扇一般充当军师之职。其数字代码是“415”，源于“4
  x 15＋4”，合八卦之数，暗喻足智多谋。其手势是屈左手食指，其余指伸直，掌心向身。红棍负责执行“家法”，其数字代码是“426”，源于“4
  x 26＋4”，合108之数，暗喻梁山泊好汉。其手势是拇指、食指和中指伸直，掌心向身。“草鞋”负责联络事宜，数字代码为“432”，源于“4
  x
  12＋4”，合132之数。暗喻西鲁故事少林寺替清朝打西域的寺僧。第四职级是普通会员，包括正式入会的四九仔和尚未参加入伙仪式的蓝灯笼。现时的三合会组织结构略有变化，出现了增数和坐馆之名号，“先锋”和“香主”之名号则很少使用。一般来讲，现时三合会组织大多实行“坐馆制”，坐馆表面上是中层领导，但由于是行动层和执行层的头目，总理帮中一切口激性事务，掌握着帮中的实际权力。坐馆之职一般必须具有“红根”资格才能担任。擅数是协调坐馆管理帮中财务等重大事宜的主要头目，一般多由具有白纸扇资格的职员充当。
  　　香港三合会组织内部流传着三合会诗句和暗语等，一般现时很少使用，三合会诗句包括风诗、流诗、宝诗、印诗和表露所属之三合会堂的招牌诗。香港黑社会的暗语主要是从内地三合会沿袭下来，经过一百多年的演变，这些暗语经过香港三合会的修改，再加上广州话、潮州话等的音韵，已形成具有香港特色的黑帮语言。各个黑社会组织都有自己的暗语。例如老歪指和字系，尖顶指全字系，无下巴指同字系，条四指14K等。暗语使用范围涉及生活中的不同层面。就连十个数字也有自己的称谓。它们分别念作：1（流、朱），2（月、雷），3（汪、旺），4（则、线），5（中、乍），6（晨、龙），7（星、吉），8（张、爆），9（崖、湾）和10（足、寸）。
  　　澳门黑社会组织的开山鼻祖是成立于十九世纪的“友谊馆”、“友乐馆”和“利卢馆”等社团。对鸦片走私和非法“苦力”贸易的插手与操纵，是澳门黑社会产生的罪恶根源。“友谊馆”相传是华籍工头林阿发等人创立。主要是为了防止华工内部纷争和外部欺侮。规定凡加入“友谊馆”将受到保护，同时将工资收入的十分之一缴交会费，否则予以解雇。不久，另一由洋人撑腰的华人工头陈光仿效“友谊馆”建立“友乐馆”。“友谊馆”和“友乐馆”各自不断扩充势力，从事各种非法活动，沦为地道的黑社会组织。至民国建立前夕，澳门相继出现了“利卢”、“同义”、“家义”、“友和”、“消义堂”、“含义”、“联英社”等黑社会组织。
  　　北洋军阀的连年混战，日本帝国主义的入侵和国民党发动的内战，造成国内老百姓流离失所，在一定程度上为澳门黑社会的发展提供了可乘之机。至五十年代初期，澳门黑社会组织比较活跃的有“崇肇”、“友联”、“联义”、“罗梁”、“词义”、“黄馆”等，人口超过1．5万。1956年香港黑帮“双十暴动”后许多香港黑社会头面人物被递解到澳门。其中14K、水房及“和胜义”等香港黑社会成员不久便在澳门成立组织。日后经过血腥的搏杀后成为现时澳门黑社会的重要帮派。六十年代中期，澳门相继出现了一些新的堂口，例如在大三巴一带出现的“三巴堂”、新桥附近出现的“新义”等。七十年代，由于澳门经济支柱的赌业的繁荣，使得黑社会犯罪猖撅泛滥。1978年初，葡澳政府颁布《管制黑社会法》，加强对黑社会的打击。到了八十年代，澳门黑社会“过江龙”（外来）和“陀地友”（本地）不断拼杀；特别是“文革”期间来自大陆的大圈仔充当了狠角，手段残忍。据保守的统计，八十年代中期，澳门黑社会组织成员约有1．4万人。其中14K约有4千人，水房约有3千人，和胜义约有2千人。进入九十年代，前期黑社会组织活动相对平缓，从1996年下半年开始，澳门黑帮的均势被打破，黑社会势力围绕赌场利益的争夺不断。由1996年澳门黑帮“14K”、“水房”、“和胜义”和“大圈帮”组成四联公司与香港黑帮‘“和胜和”、“联公乐”等为争夺赌场利益开始，逐渐演变为近年来澳门本地两大黑帮“14K”与“水房”之间的及“14K”与吴伟势力之间的厮杀。
  　　目前，澳门主要的黑帮有14K、水房、和胜义、大圈帮、福建帮和吴伟势力。现时“14K”势力受到沉重打击，坐馆尹国驹和一批14K人员于1998年5月被捕。1999年11月尹国驹被澳门高等法院判处15年监禁，同时被判刑的还有黄达豪、陈成良、黄蕴华、林王燕p
  14K骨干。同月，陈月波、叶锦添、吕伟雄3名14K骨干被判监禁。14K许多骨干成员被判被抓或在逃，使得14K处于群龙无首的状态。水房是近几年黑帮争斗中最大的受益者。现任坐馆是吴X根，实权由赖X生（水房赖）控制。以吴X根为首的水房成员近1000人，主要集中于青洲、筷子基、新桥区，对澳门北区也有较大的控制权。经济来源主要是走私、搬迁、物业管理以及在赌场“叠码”，放高利贷等。以赖X生为首的水房成员约2（X人，掌握着“水房”大部分赌场利益，经营有多家公司，经济实力雄厚。“水房”与“14K”的矛盾冲突，实际上是赖X生势力与“14K”的矛盾冲突。大圈帮是澳门黑帮最好勇斗狠的帮派。1998年底，在葡澳政府的打击下，头目谭X活和骨干马X那、张X谷、陈X华等纷纷外逃。1999年5月，其行动组组长叶成坚在内地被抓。目前大圈帮人马分成三胜势力：一是原行动组骨干黄X雄（马刀）一伙投靠了“湖南帮”头目梁X（盲忠）旗下；二是在地产商吕X光赌厅从事“看场”的原谭X活手下；三是形成以谭X活胞弟谭X良为首的势力。‘’和胜义”一向和14K关系较好，在1998年反黑行动中受到较大打击，其头目江X良（石歧良）于1999年7月被澳葡法院判处6年监禁。吴伟是具有香港14K背景的澳门赌场经营人，其拥有的人马在澳门是一支不可忽视的势力，总部设在新。纪酒店。1997年8月，吴伟为了赌场利益，邀请了香港的14K、新义安、和合图及公乐等成员对付澳门14K。在
  1998年江湖大战中，吴伟势力曾陷于空前的困境，不但在澳门被
  14K夺去多间赌厅，而且在内地的投资也很不理想，例如在国内投资的“芙蓉花园”因资金不足而“烂尾”，在江西投资的伯爵香烟销路一般。1999年下半年后生意转好，致力扩展赌场生意。福建帮一直是很令澳门警方头痛的帮会，和台湾帮关系较好。福建帮通过开办企业，参与赌场生意，建立了一定的经济基础。在警方的打击下，福建帮近年活动趋于平静，一些活跃骨干王X勇（福建勇）、吴X林（福建林）、吴X峰（肥仔峰）等纷纷潜回内地。
  　　澳门黑社会组织根据组织内部的紧松程度可以分为三种类型：（1）紧密型。它们大都依据洪门的组织形式创立而成，有严格等级及相关制度。是一种以犯罪为常业的具有破坏力、规模较大、存续时间较长的稳定组织。例如：14K、水房、和胜义。（2）半紧密型。指以公开、半公开或合法的体育团体等形式出现，内部有的也仿效洪门的组织结构成立的黑社会组织。例如，成立于
  1937年的“联义”（体育会）、成立于
  1932年的“罗梁”（体育会）、成立于1950年的“利庐”（体育会）。（3）松散型。指黑社会组织内部没有严格的组织结构，大都是以血缘或籍缘为联络纽带。例如，福建帮、湖南帮等。澳门主要的黑社会组织内部组织结构和香港三合会基本相同，也可以分为山主、副山主、红根、白纸扇、草鞋、普通会员等职级。除上述职级外，尚有“亚公”、“大哥、大佬、顶爷”之称谓。所谓“亚公”是指高一辈份的大哥，而“大哥、大佬、顶爷”是指无特别指明职务的领导人。澳门黑社会成员除了从事贩毒、走私、操纵淫业等犯罪勾当外，围绕澳门的博彩业，从事由博彩业衍生的叠码、放数、看场、收保护费等行业是其主要营生手段。此外，黑社会组织极力向警界、市政、立法机关甚至内地的政府机关渗透，寻求支持和保护，物色代言人，澳门不少有势力的人士和黑社会组织有着紧密的关系。这是澳门黑社会组织猖撅的根本因素。
  　　四 　　港澳黑社会组织对大陆的渗透开始于八十年代初期。从渗透主体来看，香港黑社会组织是最早潜入大陆的黑帮之一。早在
  1981年，深b；l就发现有香港的“14K”、“水房”、“和胜和”、“新义安”和“老东”等组织的成员进入该市活动。在珠海，1982年在拱北口岸发巩有澳门黑社会组织渗透活动，之后逐步扩大至香洲、湾仔、前山、南屏、唐家和斗门等地。八十年代，港澳黑社会组织对内地的渗透无论是从成员数量上，还是从渗透地域上都是小规模的，一开始基本上是组织成员的个人行为，而且成员大都是普通会员，很少有大哥级的人物入境。从渗透的区域上看，港澳黑社会由于地缘、亲缘的关系各有侧重，港澳黑社会组织大都向珠江三角洲渗透，一般香港黑社会成员主要向深圳、惠州、广州、佛山等地渗透，而澳门黑社会成员主要潜入珠海、江门、中山一带活动，台湾黑社会则主要向闽南三角地带和上海等地输出。一般是以旅游观光、探亲访友、投资办厂等名义进入内地，大都是企图建立据点发展组织，也有部分成员是直接入境进行暴力犯罪。进入九十年代，港澳黑社会基本熟悉了内地市场。开始了有计划、有组织的罪恶输出，不少黑社会组织都把内地视为“新大陆”，纷纷建立固定的据点，许多大哥级人物也忙着考察内地市场，而且被渗透区域也开始变得多元化。不断向南北发展势力，极力向内地城市渗透，海南的海口、三亚，浙江的宁波、温州，山东的青岛，辽宁的大连等沿海城市都先后成为黑社会组织渗透的重点。同时，长沙、南昌等大批内陆城市也成为其垂涎之地。
  　　港澳黑社会对大陆的渗透具有很强的暴力性和侵财性，或勾结内地不法分子和不法势力。或自设炉灶，形成一股罪恶的地下势力，对渗透地的社会秩序，人民生命财产安全有着极大的危害。从形式上看，其涉嫌的违法和犯罪行为可归纳为以下12种：（1）看场、强索保护费；（2）走私；（3）贩毒；（4）经营赌业、地下钱庄、放债收数；（5）绑架勒索；（6）有组织的诈骗；（7）组织偷（私）渡；（8）有组织的盗窃、抢劫犯罪；（9）组织、强迫、教唆他人吸毒；（1）雇佣他人从事杀人。伤害犯罪；（
  11）非法经营色情业、讨债业；
  （1）为争夺地盘而进行火并等。值得注意的是港澳台黑社会组织在大陆除了从事不法勾当外，有的已在内地投资经营，并有一定的经济实力，其投资一般都是资金周转快、利润高的行业，例如，娱乐业、餐饮业、房地产业等。现仅以深8；1为例说明，目前港澳黑社会组织在该市投资的基本情况是，香港方面：（1）“新义安”头目向X波等人经营罗湖区新豪江新胜会酒吧；（2）“新义安”红根刘X参股经营罗湖区“2000”的士高；（3）“新义安”、“和胜和”成员参与经营“大富豪夜总会”；（4）“新义安”成员“赛仔雄”、“和胜和”成员周X、“14K”成员“肥仔余”等人以“灯头”方式参与经营福田区新水晶宫的士高；（5）“和胜和”头目“阿泽”等参与经营福田区CIXb的土高；（6）“新义安”成员忻X明等参与经营福田区天域的土高；（7）“14K”成员“高佬强”等参与经营福田区“哥斯拉”的士高；（8）“14K”成员陈X华经营龙岗区平湖卡拉OK；（9）“14K”成员马X川在罗湖投资经营18区卡拉OK；（1）“新义安”头目向x强在南山区开设永盛音像公司；门回）“福义兴”成员陈x在罗湖区经营海州大酒店。澳门方面：“14K”成员“老玩顺”等人以“灯头”方式参与经营福田区新水晶的士高。
  孔萍萍


How to say "can't distinguish"? About a year and a half ago, I remember learning a Mandarin phrase for "can't distinguish between", but I don't remember what it was and I no longer have my textbook. In my mind, I'm getting it mixed up with phrases 分别 and 看不清楚. What is the best way to say "can't distinguish between" or "can't tell the difference"?

分不清

I think that's the mix of 分别 and 看不清楚 that you're looking for.


Why does 拉倒 mean "forget about it"? 拉倒 is a word that can mean "forget about it". For example:

  鲁迅 《华盖集续编·马上支日记》：“现在这书既然借不到，只好拉倒了。”

This seems strange though, because 拉倒 literally means "to pull over". What is the etymology of this word? What was being "pulled over" that signified forgetting about something?

拉倒

In a mandarian Chinese, this really means "pull down". However the words are constructing a certain dialect's pronunciations, so you cannot split words from words to understand its meaning. In ShangHai dialect, this means "give up because of no choices or no other ways", "Have to do something narrowly"：

【e.g】既然你不肯给我东西，那就*拉倒*了。（=那就算了）
Since you won't lend me what I want, that's all for that.


is there a difference between 電視上vs電視裡? 兩個說法對吧？有沒有差別？
I believe we can add both after the word TV in chinese but there must be a slight difference in usage or meaning  no? like shang would be more the object and li may be referring to the program. thx in adavnce for your help

Depends how you look at it but you could equate them to the following English:

電視上 = on the tv
電視裡 = in the (tv) show

In the second one I'm inclined to treat 電視 as a noun meaning "TV show," whereas in the first one it's more likely to just be "TV" on its own.