When should I use 地 with an adjective and when should I not use it with an adverb (and why do some adverbs require 地)? I got quite confused these days with the grammar rule that adds 地 to an adjective to make it work as an adverb. My basic understanding is that you must add 地 to make an adjective work as an adverb, while you do NOT need to add it to an adverb, since adverbs can work without any such suffix.
But in the following sentence:

他一个劲儿地问，我只好告诉她了。
邻居在装修房子，从早到晚都在一个劲儿地敲。

It seems that the word 一个劲儿 is usually used with 地, even if it is adverb (according to Pleco and 现代汉语词典).
Again, my understanding is that an adverb can be used alone while an adjective must be used with 地, in order to work as an adverb. But the rule is invalidated in the sample above.
Another sentence I came across:

王羲之从小刻苦学习书法，他的书法艺术吸收前任书法名家的长处，又有自己的发挥和创造，达到了书法艺术的高峰。

According to Pleco, 刻苦 is adjective, not adverb, so you must use 地 in order to use it as an adverb and modify 学习. But this sentence does not use 地.
So what is the rule of 地 on the adjective and adverb?

Is it common to omit 地 with an adjective, even if the adjective works as an adverb?

Does it depend on each adjective whether it is OK to omit 地? In other words, you can omit 地 on some adjectives but cannot on others?

Is it common to use 地 with adverbs as well? If that is the case, why do adverbs need 地 in the first place?

Likewise, does it depend on each adverb if it requires 地?

一个劲儿地 is not a standard adverb, It is an adverbial phrase
一个劲儿 (constant effort) is a noun. Adding 地 make it an adverbial phrase 一个劲儿地 (with constant effort)
刻苦 is not only an adjective, it can also be an adverb or noun

Is it common to omit 地 on an adjective, even if the adjective works as an adverb?

強烈反對 could mean 'strong objection [強烈 (adj) 反對 (n)] or 'strongly object' [強烈 (adv ) 反對 (v)] .

強烈地反對 could only mean 'strongly object'. Without another context, you cannot omit 地 when you meant to use it as an adverb

You can only omit 地 when the context clearly indicated 強烈 is an adverb, not an adjective. For example, 他強烈地反對 (he strongly objects) can be reduced to 他強烈反對

猛烈攻擊 could mean 'fierce (adj) attack (n)' or 'fiercely (adv) attack (v)'

猛烈地攻擊 could only mean 'fiercely attack'. Without another context, you cannot omit 地 when you meant to use it as an adverb

You can only omit 地 when the context clearly indicated 猛烈 is an adverb, not an adjective. For example: '對他猛烈地攻擊' (fiercely attack him) can be reduced to '對他猛烈攻擊'

Does it depends on each adjective that it is OK to omit 地? In other words, you can omit 地 on some adjectives but cannot on others?

See the examples above. Notice, an adjective that is exclusively for nouns cannot be turned into an adverb by adding 地. For example 強大，細小，好，壞

Is it common to use 地 on adverbs as well? If that is the case, why do adverbs need 地 in the first place?

Adverb with 地 emphasizes 'the manner' of the action. For example '大力地打'

Adverb without 地 focus on the verb itself, with the adverb as an equal-weighted complement. For example '大力打'

Single character adverbs usually don't use 地. For example '痛打'，'狠批' (never '痛地打'，'狠地批')

Likewise does it depend on each adverb if it requires 地?

Yes, usually adverb for verb can be used with or without 地. (see example above).  Adverb for adjective does not need 地, E.g. 局部成功,  絶頂聰明 (never 局部地成功, 絶頂地聰明)


What is a one-character translation of the English word "Freedom"? I've been trying to find a single-character translation of the word "freedom," but I can't seem to find one anywhere.

The best translation I can find is, of course, 自由, which seems to be a fairly modern thing.

My question has now become this: Is there an ancient word for "freedom"? Is there a 文言文 word? If not, why not?

Question: 古文中哪个字有自由不受约束的意思啊？ (Gǔwén zhōng nǎge zì yǒu zìyóu bu shòu yuēshù de yìsi a) - Which word in Ancient Chinese means Free and/or Unfettered?

Source: Bai Du

It appears there aren't single words, in modern and ancient Chinese, that have a denotative meaning of "Freedom". There are however, connotative words that can mean "free" or "to set free" in context.

放 (Fàng) - Put, Release, Free, Lay

  放出 (Fàngchū) - Release, Set Free

  放心 (Fàngxīn) - Free your heart, don't worry

  放松 (Fàngsōng) - Set loose, relax

More ancient words for "free":

  恣 (Zì) - Do as one pleases, free (From: 恣肆 (Zìsì) - Unrestrained)

  逍 (Xiāo) - Leisurely (From: 逍遥 (Xiāoyáo) - Free and unfettered)

  逸 (Yì) - Free, Leisurely (Common in names)


Translation of 这里开了家医院 I found a translation of 这里开了家医院 to "There is a hospital here" but this translation seems to ignore the word 开了。

Does the word 开了 add addition meaning to the sentence which the translation does not include or is it a perfectly valid translation?

这里 开了 家 医院。
Here opened a hospital.

They opened up a hospital here.

Translating is also a task of creation. Translators can change a bit the original meaning so the sentence sounds better in the target language.


一会 vs 一下 vs 一时 vs 一时半会 vs 片刻 I wanted to say "I'm going to take a nap for a while" and looked for the phrase "(for) a while" in Chinese and came across these 5 :
一会，一下，一时，一时半会，片刻。
Could you please tell me the difference between those five?
Will there be any difference if I say :

我要去小睡一会
我要去小睡一下
我要去小睡一时
我要去小睡一时半会
我要去小睡片刻

???
And last, does adding "儿" to 一会/一下 change the meaning?
Thank you in advance!!!
(Ps : I'm a beginner in Chinese. I'm sorry if my question sounds silly or something. Also, it'd be very helpful if you could provide some examples while explaining things so I can understand better).

You would say

我要去小睡片刻 or 我要去小睡一会儿

Other expressions you have are not normally used.
You could also say

我要稍微睡一会儿

All the phrases you have can refer to a short interval of time in certain context, but they can have different meanings, 一下

一下，a short interval of time, for example, 灯一下又亮了
一下，once, for example, 你过去打他一下
一下，sudden, for example, 天一下就黑了

一时 has the following meanings

一时，a short interval of time, for example, 你别一时想不开
一时，a period of time, for example, 此一时彼一时
一时，at the same time, for example, 一时间，箭、弩都发射出去

And the others

一会，a short interval of time, for example, 我要出去一会
一时半会（儿），a short interval of time, for example, 他们一时半会儿还回不来
片刻，a short interval of time, for example, 请稍等片刻

I am only listing the common meanings and although they could have same meaning, the way you use them could be different and that is why I included the examples.

Adding 儿 after 一会 would not change its meaning, it just sounds more natural and is highly recommended. However, there is no such use of adding 儿 after 一下。


How to talk about identity politics in mandarin? Talking about topics related to contemporary sexual identity and identity politics has been tricky in Mandarin... obviously a lot of this is specific to the American cultural milieu, and I haven't been able to find good translations. Any advice?

Some words that stick out:

heteronormative

heteronormativity

patriarchy

But I'm also curious if there are words specific to the Chinese context when discussing these topics?

Sexual orientation = Sexual identity = 性取向 or 性向

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Identity politic

  identity politics

  Definitions of identity politics

  noun

  a tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics.

Google translates "identity politics" as "身份政治" which is not a satisfactory translation to me.

With "政黨政治"(party politics), people can easily understand it means "people making political choices or decisions base on their political party's direction"

However, it is hard to connect "身份政治" with "people making political choices or decisions base on their particular religion, race or social background"

It would be much more accurate to translate it as "群分政治".

When people see this term, the idiom "物以類聚，人以群分" (things gather by type, people divide into groups) would come to their mind. They can easily put the two terms together and grasp the concept of "群分政治" means "people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances...."

My other choice for "identity politics" is "社群政治" (society groups politics)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Google's translations of [heteronormativity] as [異性戀] and [patriarchy] as [父權制] are acceptable.


How do I make V-not-V questions with prepositions? If I have sentences with prepositions like:

  他从北京回来。
  我把水喝了。
  我往上海开车。
  学校离我的家不远。

How would I turn them into V-not-V sentences? Is it right to say:

  他从不从北京回来？
  你把没把水喝？
  你往不往上海开车？
  学校离不离你的家远？

Thanks!

I assume the V in 'V-not-V' means 'verb'. However, in the second group of the sentences you gave, you are repeating the prepositions (从把往离), not the verbs. Of course, it's also possible to ask questions about prepositions, but if you are trying to practice the 'V-not-V' structure, the 'V-not-V' structure should be used, shouldn't it?

That be said, for some of the sentences, the 'V-not-V' structure are not the best way to form questions. And some of the first group's sentences themselves are not natural to my ears. Here is the most natural way (in my opinion, not necessarily the only right way) to say them and ask questions about them:

  他从北京回来。

  他是不是从北京回来？

  我把水喝了。  (Usually is 喝水. 把水喝了 has a special nuance. )

  你是不是把水喝了？

  我开车去上海。

  你是不是开车去上海？

  学校离我的家不远。

  学校离你的家远不远？  (This is perhaps the best example in these sentences where V-not-V structure is most suitable. However, 远 is a adjective, not a verb... )

By the way, some of the sentences in @fefe's answer are not natural to my ears. I don't know if they are from a different part of China or something.

Basically the part you repeat is the part you want to ask about. So, if you repeat the preposition, you ask about the preposition (usually about place, time, direction, etc). If you repeat the verb, you ask about the action.

If you want to ask about the whole statement without emphasis on either preposition or action, a generic question uses 是不是, like I said above: 你是不是在中国工作？ Or use 吗: 你在中国工作吗？


Does "尚" mean studying or learning? 在中国大陆, 有一些非学历教育机构的名称都用了"尚"字.
例如: 尚学堂, 尚硅谷 (前两者都是Java编程培训机构); 尚德 (成人学历提升)

"尚"字在汉语里有类似教育, 学习之类的意思吗? 为什么这些教育机构会想到这种字起名呢?

当然, 在百度汉语中有:

  加上, 往…上补充东西
  尚之以琼华乎而. --诗·齐风·著

  又如: 尚絅 (穿锦衣时加上罩袍, 以使华美不显耀于外)

这些培训机构起名是根据这条释义以"提升"为考量的吗? 还是说"尚"字也有学习的含义?

尚 means: esteem; value; uphold

尚 can be short for 崇尚  (to advocate; uphold)

"尚学" can be interpreted as "崇尚学問" (advocating knowledge)

"尚德" can be interpreted as "崇尚美德" (advocating virtue)

"尚武" can be interpreted as "崇尚武學" (advocating martial arts)


How to politely ask someone to please be quiet There are particularly loud Chinese fellows working together in the university study room I'm working in. How do I politely ask them to quiet down?

I found a literal translation on Google Translate (能否请你安静), but I don't know if it has a rude connotation.

Well, avoid the exclamation mark.

  請保持安靜!
  Please keep quiet!
  安靜!
  Quiet!
  小聲點!
  Lower your voice!
  請小聲點!
  Please lower your voice!

These from the above are a little commanding in tone, especially the second and third. You may change the tone by switching to a request rather than a command.

能否請你安靜 is relatively better. I usually go with this:

  請問可以小聲點嗎? 謝謝。


Why did 人艰不拆 get banned? 人艰不拆 百度百科

  人艰不拆（读音rén jiān bù chāi），网络语，意思是“人生已经如此的艰难，有些事情就不要拆穿”。该词语出自林宥嘉歌曲《说谎》，“别说我说谎 人生已经如此的艰难，有些事情就不要拆穿”后常被网友在回帖中引用，楼主直接说出了一个事情的真相，只是让人一时无法直接面对的意思。“人艰不拆”已经在国家新闻出版广电总局今2014年11月27日发出的通知中被明令禁止使用。

Why did 人艰不拆 get banned?

Chengyu (or idiom) is a cultural thing.

"Getting banned" is an administrative(political) thing.

Another thing is that your quoted message is not accurate. The original order was from 《关于规范广播电视节目用语推广普及普通话的通知》（广发【2013】96号）, which was to clarify the usage in broadcasting programmes for popularizing Putonghua.

Now why? Because Putonghua has an official standard, the official channels should keep their standard.


While learning Korean, is it a good idea to start learning Chinese in parallel? I started learning Korean last year, and by now I'm pretty confident with the basic rules of the game; I'm also pretty interested in Chinese, and I've heard that many Korean words can be split up in terms of Chinese characters: for example, 도서관 ("doseogwan") means library, and "doseo" should be associated to a Chinese word for book. The suffix "-관" is present at the end of words which denote a place, I don't know if this has a Chinese origin as well.

So I would naïvely think that starting Chinese in parallel could help me building up and memorizing a larger dictionary, and that already knowing the Korean phonetics could make my Chinese life easier. I should also mention that a similar question has already been asked here for Japanese-Chinese: I think in that case the learner would be more likely to get confused, because of Chinese characters being present (maybe altered in writing or pronunciation?) in the Japanese alphabet(s).

But: I admittedly know very little about both Chinese and Japanese, so I have no idea how sound these opinions could be. I welcome any feedback!

Based on your experience: could it be a good idea to start learning Chinese in parallel, right now? Would that be just confusing, ending up in a mix of both? Maybe somebody here tried and succeeded, or tried and failed - or know somebody who did.

I speak Chinese, Korean and Japanese and it's not the grammar but the vocabulary which is similar. I learnt Chinese first so expected Korean to be very alike due to reading that 60% of all Korean vocab comes from Chinese. I was shocked when I found Korean so alien but in truth it is similar - to Classical Chinese and not Mandarin. I started learning Cantonese recently and indeed the vocab is far more similar to that than Mandarin. E.g. 학 / 学 which is pronounced xué in Mando but hak in both Korean and Canto.  大 is dà in Mando but dae in both Korean and Canto so University is daehak in Korean and Canto but daxue 大学 in Mando. Learning Canto made Korean make more sense to me.

The other issue that I faced was the characters. Korean uses the traditional script so upon visiting Korea I was faced with not only Korean script but a multitude of shop names which they think look cool in the traditional Chinese script. So I was struggling with two scripts!

In general though, I've enjoyed learning them side by side as they do inevitably compliment each other, yet are different enough to not confuse you. I got to the stage of learning a new word in Mando and then looking up the word in Korean to see how similar it was. I learnt that all Chinese words in Korean work with 하다 to make them a verb so essentially all 하다 verbs are Chinese, e.g. To regret = 후회하다 / 后悔 hòu huî. It becomes quite fun!

Hope this helps!
Gareth


What board games would facilitate speaking practice? Table top (board games) games provide good opportunities for authentic and simulated communication with a group. I think such an activity would be ideal for language practice, if one had opportunities to play with native speakers or other students. Are there any board games or card games which might give good practice speaking Chinese?

Dixit is a great choice for practicing Chinese. In this game, one person describes a card (without show it), and then everyone including him/her take out one card. At last, everyone else guess which card is his/her. If everyone or no one get the right answer, he/she get no score. So, he/she should describe it in a suitable way in order to make someone right and some wrong. Everyone has change to speak and listen which is good for language learning.


The difference between 比～更 and 比～多了 In Mandarin, there seems to be two forms of comparison statements. The first is 比～更, and the second is 比～多了 (or other variants such as 很多 and 得多).
Example:

他打篮球比我更好。
他打篮球比我厉害多了。

坐高铁比坐飞机更方便。
坐高铁比坐飞机方便很多。

I understand that 更 must precede the adjective while 很多 must be put after the adjective. However, except it what kind of differences between these two forms of comparison statement?
By the way, should 了 be put after 更好 and 更方便 as well...?

UPDATE
Let me clarify the point here. My question is about the difference between 比～更 and 比～多了, regarding the degree of the strength. So for example, suppose the following sentence:

他打篮球比我好。
他打篮球比我更好。
他打篮球比我厉害多了。

How should you order them by the degree of the strength? I know the first sentence is the weakest, and just means "better" But the second and third sentences both mean "much better", and I don't understand which looks stronger regarding the degree, and also I would like to know any differences, if any (e.g. nuances, etc...).

Simply,

  比～更: even (more)；

  比～多了：much (more)；

他打篮球比我更好。： he plays basket ball even better than me.

他打篮球比我厉害多了。: he plays basket ball much better than me.

坐高铁比坐飞机更方便。: Taking high-speed railway is even more convenient than taking a flight.

坐高铁比坐飞机方便很多。: Taking high-speed railway is much more convenient than taking a flight.

Updated according to the updates from OP:

Compared these three sentences:

  他打篮球比我好。
  他打篮球比我更好。
  他打篮球比我厉害多了。

2 and 3 are stronger than 1. 2 and 3 are hard to compare, because they are used for different purposes.


In “一网打尽” what does 尽 mean? 一网打尽 yīwǎngdǎjìn lit. to catch everything in the one net.
In this sentence what does 尽 means? how to easily remember the meaning by seeing the character without wild guess and imagining etymological correct guess? Thanks

Usage

When you see V+盡, it means to complete the action to full extent. (i.e. 盡 is adverbial)

吃盡珍饈百味 To have eaten all kinds of delicacies
費盡心思 To rack one's brains (lit. to have spent thoughts completely)
把賊人一網打盡 To have caught the thieves at one fell swoop

The objects are 珍饈百味, 心思, and 賊人 (fronted).

In classical Chinese, 盡 can act as a verb meaning 'to deplete' or 'to be depleted'. You may find this in modern Chinese through idioms or common collocations (in that case, it would be 盡+N):

一飲而盡 To drain the cup
盡心盡力 To devote one's heart and energy

As an adverb, it is sometimes possible to see 盡+V (its preceding the verb) because classical Chinese does not make the distinction between V+盡 and 盡+V.1

盡如人意 To have something entirely as someone wishes
盡信書不如無書 (lit. Believing everything in books is worse than having no books at all.)

Glyph origin

盡 depicts a right hand brushing an emptied vessel (皿) (see bronze script below), which symbolises the end of eating (of course there is semantic generalisation).

尽 (the simplified character) is the cursive script of 盡 in printed form (see Wen Zhengming's cursive below, and appreciate how the cursive resembles both 盡 and 尽 at the same time). We call this phenomenon 草書楷化. It is one of the methods of character simplification (see the second entry of the Wikipedia section here).

Character

盡

尽

1 蔣紹愚（2004）從“盡 V——V 盡”和“誤 V/錯 V——V 錯” 看述補結構的形成。語言暨語言學，5(3)，559–581。http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/Files/LL/Docments/Journals/j2004_3_02_0638.pdf


What’s the difference between 制定 and 制订? I see both terms being used quite often, and both seem to mean “to formulate/create/come up (with a plan)”.

People often say 制定计划, but many others say 制订计划 too. Both look sound to me. What is the difference?

After some research I have found that there isn’t much practical difference between the two terms.

However, 制订 refers more to the actual thinking and creative aspect of a plan, as in its 创造性, while 制定 refers more to the confirmative and definitive aspect of a plan being put in place, or its 权威性.


Chinese for 'row' & 'column' in spreadsheets/tables I need to talk about a spreadsheet remotely with a colleague of mine. In order to do that I need some good terms for

column
row

row is henghang I believe (not sure about the characters though but I can't really find something convincing for 'column'. It must also be some sort of 'hang' as well.

row: 行(hang2)
column: 列(lie4)

I don't know what is henghang(横行?) . Chinese don't use this word.


Recovery; difference between 恢复 and 康复 When referring to a human being recovering from some illness/condition, does 恢复 or 康复 imply that the person is still in the process of recovery?  Does 恢复 or 康复 imply that the person has fully recovered?

When referring to non-human recovery--e.g. reclaiming land by reforestation, island reclamation, recovering a lost item from a lost & found--is 恢复 or 康复 more appropriate?  Is there another word that is even more appropriate?

恢复 usually means recovering from a state to the original state, almost always implies getting back to the normal and good state. It can be used abstract as well, such as people's mood or a certain feeling. Thus it is not necessary for describing physical things or conditions.

康复 is much more specific. It's always related to health since 康 can mean health in Chinese, meaning completely recovering from an illness. And it can be used to animals, but not plants(but if you are a writer and you're using personification, that's fine to use the word). Keep in mind that people don't really say 康复 from just a flu or a tooth pain which is not severe. People tend to use it more often on serious conditions like a surgery, especially that last long and require you to rest in bed. Although it makes perfect sense to say this word, it is pretty much in formal conversations or letters that I would be more likely to use it. When in a casual context that people know you're talking about the sickness, just say '好了' to mean 'recovered' and '好了吗？' to ask about if someone is recovered.


Why is it possible to replace 都 with 也 in 什么都没有? I know 也 only as "also", but I see it now and then used in ways difficult to understand, especially in some negative statements. Why is this so? Does 也 also have some meaning not mentioned in dictionaries which is used in these cases?

什麼都 can be used in both positive and negative statements while 什麼也 is usually used in negative statements. So, instead of focusing on the usage of 也 here, 什麼都 and 什麼也 can be regarded as phrases which are sometimes used interchangeably.

For example:

  我們以為什麼都知道，而實際上什麼也不知道。/ 我们以为什么都知道，而实际上什么也不知道。

One possible translation:

  We thought we knew/know everything but, in fact, we knew/know nothing at all.

So, it's ok to say (although the above example would read better):

  我們以為什麼都知道，而實際上*什麼都*不知道。/ 我们以为什么都知道，而实际上*什么都*不知道。

but odd to say:

  我們以為*什麼也*知道，而實際上什麼也不知道。/ 我们以为*什么也*知道，而实际上什么也不知道。


Online resources for meanings and examples of radicals in simplified Chinese I've done a brief search through CSE, but found nothing too helpful. Are there any online resources that explain the meaning of the radicals followed by some examples in simplified Chinese?

I recommend mdbg.net's radical section. The first charachter on each individual radical's page is always the character the radical comes from followed by the radical itself (if they're different), followed by anywhere from a couple to several hundred charachters with that radical in simplified and traditional. Clicking on a charachter on any of the radical page takes you to the dictionary which shows the character in both simplified and traditional.

Hope this was helpful!


Is it possible that "那裏是吾家" was intended to be "哪裏是吾家?"? The following is my translation of the song "那裏是吾家":

"那裏是吾家"
作詞：許冠傑/黎彼得
作曲：許冠傑
足跡遍天下，看透異國繁華， (My footprints are all over the world, I've seen every  flourishing foreign countries
桃源仙境似夢也，始終找不到吾家。 (utopia is but a dream, I've never found my home)
安居似虛話，遠處密罩雲霞， (live in peace is like a lie, faraway places are thickly covered by clouds and mist)
何時一朝見霧化，子孫歡笑艷陽下。 (When will be a day when we see the mist dissipate, and my children laughing under the bright sun)
啊！萬千燈火透廣廈， 啊！那裏是吾家。 (Ah! million lights shine out of great buildings, Ah! There is my home.

Base on the lyrics,  The singer has been looking for his home, and at the end he found it, but did he?
萬千燈火透廣廈 is where his home at seem strange, because great city skylines are all over the world, not just in Hong Kong.
Is it possible that Sam Hui like many Chinese use 那 and 哪 interchangeably? I was one of the guilt one, I always wrote "那裏?" instead of "哪裏?"
Is it possible that "那裏是吾家"(there is my home) was intended to be "哪裏是吾家?" (where is my home?)?
Of course, Sam Hui himself would be the best person to answer this question. Since there's no possible way for me to ask him, I wonder did anyone heard him clarify it in some media?
Or more realistically, an official English translation of this song exists, that can answer my question definitely.
Edit:
Presume 那裏是吾家 did mean "There is my home" we have to interpret the lyrics as the following:
安居似虛話， he was living somewhere he didn't true feel home.
遠處密罩雲霞， his true home is some faraway place he couldn't locate.
何時一朝見霧化，he is hoping the location of his real home would be revealed
子孫歡笑艷陽下。 he and his children will then happily live there
啊！萬千燈火透廣廈， is the description of that heart warming place (Hong Kong)
啊！那裏是吾家。where million lights shine out of great buildings (Hong Kong) is his true home.

My take from the context of the overall lyrics is that 那 is correct.

The starting line sets the basic premise for the song 足跡遍天下, (an itinerant traveler, not a sojourner)

Then you have 始終找不到吾家, (still unable to find my or rather a home for himself; the operative word here is 始終; he didn't have a home, he was searching for one)

Finally, 啊！萬千燈火透廣廈, 啊！那裏是吾家, (Ah!, the bright lights of HK?; Ah!, that's my home) The clue here is the joyful 啊! It is indicative that he has at long last, after all the wanderings, searching and longing found or "adopted" HK as his home or rather, poignantly in such cases, his final resting place.

Perhaps the idea that it may have been intended to be 哪 came about because the first part of the song does indicate asking for "where" But the ending of the song finally resolves the hitherto ambiguous issue by saying, 啊！萬千燈火透廣廈, 啊！那裏是吾家, (Ah!, where the bright lights are, that's my home)

Finally, listen to him sing. There isn't any rising inquisitive tone when vocalizing 那 which would be the case if it is actually a question, a 哪.


How to express: I wish... 大家好！

I had a question that I have often asked my native-Chinese speaking friends, but I have not been satisfied with the answer.  In English, I find myself often saying, "I wish..."  For example:

I wish I could go to the movies tonight, but I have too much work to do.

I wish that I would have thought of that earlier.

I wish I had bought this book at the beginning of the semester.

I wish I did not have to go to work every day.

My friends have often given me the translation 希望, but I feel like this is hope.  But I feel like this may not be appropriate for things that cannot come true.  In all the examples above, "I hope" is not accurate.  And if I said, say, "我希望每天不要上班” I feel like I am saying, "I hope I do not have to go to work every day."

How can I express this "wishful" thinking?

There are several options that clearly state that it cannot come true:

I wish I could go to the movies tonight, but I have too much work to do.

我 本想（本来想要）今晚去看电影，但要做的事情太多了。

我 倒想（倒是想要）今晚去看电影，但要做的事情太多了。

I wish that I would have thought of that earlier.

我 真希望 我之前能想到，（现在说什么都晚了。）

I wish I had bought this book at the beginning of the semester.

我 真希望 我一开学就买了这本书，（但当时钱不够啊。）

我 本想 我一开学就买了这本书，（但后来忘记了。）

I wish I did not have to go to work every day.

我 真希望 不用天天上班。

我 倒想 不用天天上班。


In how many ways can we say "go straight ahead"? I have heard 一直走(Yīzhí) and 往前(wǎng qián)走, but it seems the online translators prefer 一直往前走(Yīzhí wǎng qián zǒu) or 一直向(xiàng)前走 (if we're going forward)...

From the above which are the most commonly used and in which contexts? And how many other ways can we get the same meaning (even replacing 走 by other verb)?

一直走 / 往前走 / 一直往前走 / 一直向前走

Q1) From the above which are the most commonly used and in which contexts?

一直走 = keep walking

往前走 = walk straight

一直往前走 = keep walking straight

一直向前走 = keep walking straight

Any of the above is understandable if your context is to help people with direction. Note that 一直走 / 往前走 are a bit short and lack a bit of politeness.

Q2) how many other ways can we get the same meaning (even replacing 走 by other verb)?

直走

向前走

In case of car, replace 走 by 开 (short hand for 开车 [Driving]）

一直开

往前开

一直往前开

一直向前开

In case of bicycle, replace 走 by 骑 （short hand for 骑车）

一直骑

往前骑

一直往前骑

一直向前骑


Why can't I write the character 台 in my pinyin input method? I'm on Linux and using Sunpinyin and Linpinyin input methods. In both, when I input "tai" I never get any suggestion of the character that I somethimes want: 台. I must be doing something wrong, but what? How do I write 台?

When I try to input it I get all other characters "tai" but not 台. I'm on Xubuntu 16.04 and using a libpinyin based input method in fcitx.

I changed to iBus input method with "Intelligent pinyin" and there everything works as expected with "tai". Seems like it might be a bug in the version of Fcitx that's in the Debian repository.

I have Ubuntu 17.10, and using the Sunpinyin, it comes up right away as number 1 or 2:

What is your particular Linux version?


What does 迫不及待 开始倒计 mean? This line came from 深呼吸 by Yu Quan 羽泉。
迫不及待 - anxious to wait
开始倒计 - begin counting down
Would it just be translate as 'anxious to wait, I begin to count down'?

迫不及待 - cannot wait anymore
开始倒计 - begin counting down (which means the thing you are waiting for will start soon)


How to type Chinese vertically from the right to the left? Is there an easy way in Word or Text or other software to type Chinese vertically from the right to the left, such as the following?

In MS Word select Text Direction and change it to vertical.

Word needs to have East Asian language features enabled to do this.

Word for Mac looks slightly different:


Why 意大利 and not e.g., 意国 I always wondered why all main European countries are spelled in chinese with a Hanzi that identifies them or some about their origins more the 国 morpheme,

Italy has a uncontested importance in European history, nevertheless its name has been just transliterated to 意大利, which IMHO reveals less participation in its codification.

Is it a matter of when the name was transposed to Chinese language? Maybe it's just the minor influence of the country in that period? I tried to search some information but I couldn't find anything (furthermore, my chinese level reading is extremely low).

UPDATE

The information and the page  suggested by @user2619 unfolded my research on the topic:

Seems like all the country names were just transliterated at first. The former name of the well know *什么*国 countries was, e.g.,:

美利坚 --> 美国
法兰西 --> 法国
日耳曼 --> 德国
不列颠 --> 英国
[...]

Later, above for all countries with more strict relations with China, these names were translated to a form more similar to 中国 possibly as a form of bigger respect.

I was teached at a chinese course that the particular 汉字 characherizing the country was somewhat chosen because of some historical reason. For example 法 for the country which invented the constitution. But chinese people I asked say this is not true and has to do with nothing but phonetic reasons. Then as seen in [1] in some case like 希腊， the sound is taken from the endonym rather than exonym.

It's just historical stuff. European countries that have commerce with China prior to the Ching dynasty and also modern countries after WWII, in general have fancier names.

希腊 for Greece
意大利 for Italy
瑞典 for Sweden
法国 for France
美国 for US
葡萄牙 for Portugal
马来西亚 for Malaysia
日本 for Japan

etc.

You just have to accept them as it is. It's hard to find a pattern why.

Edit: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countrynames_chinese.htm

There's very few countries which have 国 in their names, it's more of a short form, like 英格兰 for 英国, 美利堅合眾國 for 美国. Others which have 共和国 in their names are People's Republic, like China, whose official name is People's Republic of China.


Is 得了 the opposite of 不了？ This is from the story 草船借箭 in 三国演义。

诸葛亮：”三天，要十万支箭，你得帮帮我。“
鲁肃：”你不要为难我，我怎么帮得了你？“

In English we can say, "How can I help you?" which may have 2 meanings, depending on how we say it.

Meaning 1. In what way can I be of service to you?

If we put strong emphasis on 'I' and 'you',
Meaning 2. 'I really don't think I am able to help you."

鲁肃的意思是什么？

Meaning 2 is right.
It is a rhetorical question to express negation.


Ti Pronunciation of "Di Renjie" The famous character Judge Dee is based on the historical magistrate Di Renjie, according to Wikipaedia. But I have seen this name spelled as Ti Jentsjié in Dutch, pronounced roughly like /ti/ /jen.tsji.eː/. Now I am curious what it should sound like in Chinese. I don't know what the Chinese character are (or were, during the Tang).

I'm interesting in the pronunciation in modern Chinese, in 18th-century Chinese, and in Tang Chinese, in as much as the pronunciation has changed over the past centuries.

P.S. I see it spelled Ti Jen-Chieh on this page, but without an explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poets_and_Murder

This character is 狄仁傑, the original Chinese novel about his cases is 狄公案.

Different spellings are caused by different romanisation schemes, and which languages is used (from & to).

In the 唐 dynasty, it was Middle Chinese; nowadays Cantonese is still highly related to it. The pronunciation of this name is:

狄 dik6; sound file

仁 yan4; sound file

傑 git6, sound file

You may change the scheme used at the top right corner of the page, to IPA :)

Have fun :)


What's the meaning of "刀不长眼"? Is it proverb or something like that? I was watching the movie "fearless (2006)" starring Jet Li and the character said to his friend "After all these years of friend ship, you still don't know me?" and then he goes with this phrase : "刀不长眼".

here's the Chinese conversation:

劲荪： 你走吧！
       就算我们这么多年朋友白交一场!

霍元甲： 你轰我走？这么多年的朋友，你不认我了？。。
        [A moment of silence and then he says]
        刀不长眼。
        所有人都退下。[shouting]

I don't understand the meaning of "刀不长眼" in this situation. because as long as I know 刀 means "knife" or a measure word for knife and 眼's translation is related to "eye".

What's the meaning of "刀不长眼"?

It means the knife doesn't have eyes, it could hurt people easily.
In the sentence, it means if things lose control, some people will get hurt, so better it's better to calm down.


How to say "to give"? I've been doing research on how to translate the verb "to give". I'm trying to find a common way to say it as in sentances like "I gave my friend one apple" or "My friend gave me one apple".

I haven't really seen anything different than 给, but from what I'm reading, that translates more on the lines of "for" or "for the purpose of", almost like 为.

I'm asking which verbs are commonly used to signify that something was granted to you, or that you granted something to someone else and in what sentence structure these words would be used to fit into the example sentances above (the apple situation).

给 is one of these verbs that can also be a preposition (which is quite confusing when you are not used to it). When there is no other verb near to it, it means to give.
Some examples:

给我勇气: give me courage
把钥匙给我: give me the key
叔叔给他一支笔: uncle gave/gives him a pen
杭州给我的印象很好: Literally: Hangzhou gave me a good impression, a better sentence: I was impressed by Hangzhou
我们给敌人一个沉重的打击: We gave the enemy a serious blow

Together with another verb it often becomes a preposition (with implicit meaning of giving something to somebody). Some examples:

我给妻子做早餐: I made breakfast for my wife (= I gave my wife breakfast)
给他看看照片: Let him see the photos
留给他: leave it to him
递给我: pass it to me
送给他: to give him (as a present)
他给我们当翻译: he will be our translator
有事给我打电话: if there is a problem, give me a phone call

There are some other verbs (I already used them in the examples meaning to give). For example

送 (typically used when you give a present)
递 (to hand over)
提供 (to give, to provide + opportunity，surprise，shock，job)

These can be used together with 给in two ways: 送给他礼物 or 给他送礼物, but you can also say 送他礼物.

For your apple example, often depending on the context an extra verb will be added, but you can also say it without. So you can say:

我 给 朋友苹果 (in many contexts this sentence will sound as it is not finished).
我 送给 朋友苹果
我 给 朋友 送 苹果
我 递给 朋友苹果
我 给 朋友 递 苹果
...


What are the Chinese characters for Cantonese 'tìm ge la wo'? Source: What Language Is (2011), p. 127 Bottom

What are the Chinese characters for the four bolded particles beneath? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8C

I didn't transcribe the quote, as StackExchange's formatting can't let me replicate the spacing.

Well, it's

keuih: 佢

lo-jo: 攞咗

daih: 第

yat: 一

mihng: 名

tim: 添 (u+6dfb)

ge: 㗎 (u+67b6)

la: 啦 (u+5566)

wo: 喎 (u+558e)

Next, I disagree with the author that these four particles would be used together, in colloquial speech.

Most likely, a Cantonese speaker would say:

佢攞咗第一名添

佢攞咗第一名架

佢攞咗第一名架啦

佢攞咗第一名架啦喎

佢攞咗第一名啦

佢攞咗第一名喎

Just not all four together.


What is the difference between colloquial and literary readings of characters? This CantoDict page for 熟 says：

  Pinyin shu2 is literary reading; shou2 is colloquial.

What does this mean? More importantly, how are you supposed to pronounce 熟 in Mandarin? :)

The wikipedia page for Literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters  gives us a simple overview:

Differing literary and colloquial readings for certain Chinese characters are a common feature of many Chinese varieties, and the reading distinctions for these linguistic doublets often typify a dialect group. Literary readings (文讀; wéndú) are usually used in formal loan words or names, when reading aloud, and in formal settings, while colloquial readings (白讀; báidú) are usually used in everyday vernacular speech.
For example, in Mandarin the character for the word "white" (白) is generally pronounced bái ([pǎi]), but as a name or in certain formal or historical settings it can be pronounced bó ([pwǒ]); this example is particularly well-known due to its effect on the modern pronunciation of the names of the Tang dynasty (618–907) poets Bai Juyi and Li Bai (alternatively, "Bo Juyi" and "Li Bo").

The section for Mandarin also goes into more details, saying:

Unlike most varieties of Chinese, literary readings in the national language are usually more conservative than colloquial readings. This is because they reflect readings from before Beijing was the capital,2 e.g. from the Ming Dynasty. Most instances where there are different literary and colloquial readings occur with characters that have entering tones. Among those are primarily literary readings that have not been adopted into the Beijing dialect before the Yuan Dynasty.2 Colloquial readings of other regions have also been adopted into the Beijing dialect, a major difference being that literary readings are usually adopted with the colloquial readings. Some differences between the Taiwanese Guoyu and mainland Chinese Putonghua are due to one standard[which?] adopting a colloquial reading for a character while another standard adopts a literary reading.[citation needed]

It also includes:

Examples of literary readings adopted into the Beijing dialect:

which contains:

Chinese character  | Middle Chinese1   | Literary reading  | Colloquial reading
熟  | ʑǐuk入     | ʂu˧˥  | ʂɤʊ˧˥

So it seems that shu2 was once the literary reading while shuo2 used to be the colloquial reading.
Nowadays you'd be more likely to hear shu2 than shuo2 though.
MDBG defines 熟 as:

shú
cooked (of food) / ripe (of fruit) / mature (of seeds) / familiar / skilled / done / also pr. [shou2]

Here shou2 is just a footnote.
The entry for 熟 shu2 in 规范词典 says:

注意 shú是文读, shóu是白读, 一般通用的词语均可用这两种读音。

It does mention that shu2 is the literary reading and shou2 is the colloquial reading and most words can interchange the readings.
The entry for 熟 shou2 in 规范词典 says:

义同“熟(shú)”, 用于口语。

Same meaning as shu2 just used colloquially.


一片空地 and 一片草原 - what's the difference/relation Can anyone explain what the difference or relation between 一片空地 and 一片草原 might be?

Are these two expressions the same?

“一片草原” - obviously there must be grass growing there;

“一片空地” - just open space/ground without any building or trees, so you can put something there or build something there, or even play baseball there.


What do you call these cold pickled cucumber skewers in Chinese? Is it correct or understood if I call these cold and pickled cucumber skewers "冰泡黄瓜"?

冰鎮 =  chill with ice

pickled cucumber = 腌黄瓜

The item in the picture could be called 冰鎮腌黄瓜 or simply 冰鎮黄瓜

Of course the seller can name it whatever he wants, for example '冰脆黄瓜串'


Mandarin: difference between 還好 and 還可以? Some people seem to use 還好 and 還可以 interchangeably, but another said 還好 is more negative than 還可以. She said 還好 is more like "so-so" whereas 還可以 is more like "pretty good".

Could someone explain the proper usage of 還好 and 還可以?

'還好' here is short for '還(算)好' - 'still (considered) fine/ good'
'還可以' here is short for '還(算)可以' - 'still (considered) acceptable/ okay'
If someone asked you "How is your college life?" you can reply: "還好" or '還可以' (life in college for me is fine / life in college for me is okay). The two terms are interchangeable in this sense
If someone told you: "The cost of replacing the door is $500" and you replied: "還可以". That meant you considered this charge is fair and within the limit of your acceptability; If you replied: "還好".  Then it would mean you're feeling lucky that it is only $500.
"還好" carries a tone of 'feeling lucky' ('still fine' means 'not bad yet'.  "還可以" doesn't carry this tone.)

還好 is more negative than 還可以.

'Negative' only in the case of the alternates. If it is not "還好" (still fine) then it is 'already bad'; If it is not "還可以" (still okay) then it is 'already unacceptable'.

I have to mention '還好' is short for '還(算)好' and '還可以' is short for '還(算)可以' here in your question,  because '還好' in different context could mean "luckily" and '還可以' in different context could mean " can also"
For Example:
1. 還好你沒有去上班，有人把辦公室燒了。 (fortunately you didn't go to work-- Someone set the office in fire.)
2. 不僅是日本，去韓國也還可以。(Not only Japan, you can also go to South Korea.)


What are some backgrounds and references to obsolete simplified Chinese characters? During the 20th century, two Chinese simplifications succeeded: the one in China, and the one in Japanese. There were also many abandoned attempts to simplify Chinese , including:

First Batch Simplified Characters (教育部公布 第一批简体字表), not to be confused with the standard simplified Chinese currently used in China;
Singapore Simplified Characters (新加坡简体字); and
Second Stage Simplified Characters (第二次汉字简化方案).

Explain their backgrounds and provide a reference.

(This will be self-answered)

(Warning: long answer)
This Proposal to Encode Obsolete Simplified Chinese Characters is an excellent reference to the different obsolete Chinese simplification standards, although the encoding is yet to be seen :) This answer is a synopsis of the backgrounds provided.
First Batch Simplified Characters (1935) (教育部公布 第一批简体字表)
(From Page 3 of the Proposal)

In January 1934 at the 29th meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the National Language (Guóyǔ Tǒngyī Chóubèi Wěiyuánhuì 國語統一籌備委員會) of the Ministry of Education, Qián Xuántóng 錢玄同 (1887–1939) submitted a draft table of simplified characters (Sōucǎi gùyǒu ér jiào shìyòng de jiǎntǐzì àn 搜採固有而較適用的簡體字 案). These were approved by the committee, and Qián Xuántóng was delegated to edit a table of simplified characters for publication. In August 1935 the Ministry of Eductaion published a first batch of 324 simplified characters (see Appendices A and F), with the intention of publishing a series of further batches of simplified characters. However, in February 1936 the Ministry of Education issued a directive halting the simplification program, and no further batches of simplified characters were issued. Although this first batch of simplified characters was not widely used, it was historically very important as it represented the first centralized attempt to promote the use of simplified characters in China, and was a precursor to the simplification movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the People’s Republic of China.
The simplifications in this table were based on commonly used vulgar form characters (e.g. 宝 for 寶), ancient forms of characters (e.g. 无 for 無) and cursive form characters (e.g. 为 for 為). Most of the 324 first batch simplifications are identical to modern standard simplified characters or Japanese simplified characters, but some are different to a greater or lesser extent; and those characters that are not currently encoded need to be encoded in order for scholars to discuss this pioneering episode in the history of Chinese character simplification. Moreover, some of the currently unencoded “first batch” characters are commonly found in early printed texts (see Fig. 1), so it would also be useful to encode these characters for scholars of such texts.

Singapore Simplified Characters (1969) (新加坡简体字)
(From Page 17 of the Proposal)

In 1969 the Ministry of Education of Singapore issued a table of 502 simplified Chinese characters* for use in Singapore. Most of these characters were identical to the standard simplified characters used at that time in the People’s Republic of China, but 77 simplifications were different. Many of the different simplifications are the same as the earlier “first batch” simplified characters, and a few are the same as simplifications given in the later “second stage” simplification tables, but 23 simplifications are unique and unencoded.
In 1974 an expanded list of 2,248 simplified characters was issued, of which only 10 characters still differed from PRC simplified characters. Finally, in May 1976 a revised list of simplified characters was issued that omitted the 10 Singapore-only simplifications, and was now identical to the list of simplified characters used in the PRC.

* This is why this one is also referred to as 《502》.
Second Stage Simplified Characters (1977) (第二次汉字简化方案)
(From Page 21 of the Proposal)

Following on from the formal introduction of simplified Chinese characters in the 1950s and 1960s, an attempt to promote a second stage of further simplifications was made in the late 1970s. In May 1975 the Chinese Writing Reform Committee (Zhōngguó Wénzì Gǎigé Wěiyuánhuì 中国文字改革委员会) produced a first draft of Second Stage simplified characters for review by the State Council, and eventually on 20th December 1977 the final draft (entitled Dì'èrcì Hànzì Jiǎnhuà Fāng'àn (cǎo'àn) 《第二次汉字简化方案（草案）》) was published in the People's Daily (Rénmín Rìbào 人民日报), the Guangming Daily (Guāngmíng Rìbào 光明日报) and other newspapers (see Figs. 2-3 and Appendix C).

The draft comprised two tables, Table 1 with 172 individual simplifications and 21 generic simplifications, for immediate use; and Table 2 with a much larger number of simplifications for future use if the Table 1 simplifications proved successful. Table 1 only was added as an appendix to a new edition of the General Table of Simplified Characters (Jiǎnhuàzì Zǒngbiǎo 简化字总表) that was published in December 1977 (see Appendix B).
On 21st December 1977, the day after the draft was published, the People's Daily started to use the simplified characters listed in Table 1 only, and continued to do so until July 1978 (see Figs. 4-5).

Postage stamps issued between June and November 1978 also made use of the new simplified characters from Table 1 (see Figs. 6-10).

During 1978 the new simplified characters from Table 1 were widely used in newspapers, books, and publications of all kinds, but the experiment was judged to have been a failure, and in July 1978 a directive to stop using the new simplified characters was issued. Although the new simplifications were not used in official publications after the end of 1978, they were not officially withdrawn until 24th June 1986 (see Appendix H). Nevertheless, the new simplifications did not entirely die out, and were occasionally used in printed contexts during the 1980s. Even today simplified characters from Table 1 are frequently met with in informal contexts such as shop signage and personal correspondence.

There is a pressing need to encode the Table 1 simplifications, both in order to discuss the history of Chinese character simplification, and also in order to accurately represent those texts that are written using second stage simplifications. As an example, a web site about Chinese post cards (http://www.postcardxp.com/list.asp?unid=2144) has the following entry about a set of post cards published in 1986 that includes the second stage simplification for 罐 guàn “pot” in the titles of several of the post cards. The author of the web site is unable to represent this character, and is forced to describe it using its component parts.

Unlike the simplifications listed in Table 1 of the Second Stage Simplification Tables, which were widely used and are still widely recognized, the simplifications listed in Table 2 were not used in official publications such as the People's Daily (or in any printed books that I have been able to find) and most Chinese people are not familiar with them. However, there is still a need to encode these characters in order for historians of Chinese character simplification to represent the draft simplification tables in electronic format, and to discuss these abortive simplifications.
A number of the simplifications in Table 2 are based on cursive or vulgar character forms that are commonly found in printed and manuscript texts dating back to at least the Tang dynasty, such as Yuánkān Zájù Sānshízhòng 元刊雜劇三十種 and dūnhuáng biànwén jí 敦煌 變文集 (see Figs.12-15), and so encoding the Table 2 characters would also be of benefit to
Page 24 of 112JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3695 scholars working with old Chinese texts. Other vulgar simplifications found in texts such as these will be the subject of a future proposal.

The characters are listed in glyphwiki:
第二次汉字简化方案・修订草案 (draft)
第二次汉字简化方案・第一表 (Table 1)
第二次汉字简化方案・第二表 (Table 2)
Which comes in handy when you want to include some of them in a paper.


Grammar for 看來妳忘了發一個訊息。還是妳有用一些避忌的說話所以中國政府阻擋的 This message was not understood by a friend:

看來妳忘了發一個訊息。還是妳有用一些避忌的說話所以中國政府阻擋的。

The goal was to say this:

It looks like you forgot to send a message. Or else you used some taboo words blocked by the Chinese government.

1) Where is the Mandarin grammar wrong for this sentence?

2) Is the Cantonese version different?

It looks like you forgot to send a message. Or else you used some taboo words blocked by the Chinese government.
看來妳忘了發一個訊息。還是妳有用一些避忌的說話所以中國政府阻擋的。

There are too many different ways to phrase this text, the following is just one of them

Mandarin: 看來妳忘了發一個訊息。或者妳用了一些避忌的字句，所以被中國政府封殺了？
Cantonese: 睇來妳唔記得發一個訊息。 或者妳用咗一啲避忌嘅字句，所以被中國政府刪咗？

Basically, the only serious grammar mistake is using '的' instead of '了' for final particle.

'了' indicates 'complete action' , '阻擋了' (blocked) indicates the action of 'blocking' is completed.

'了' indicates 'change of situation' '阻擋了' (blocked) indicates your message's status changed from 'being allowed' to 'being blocked'

'的' as a final particle add affirmative tone at the end, Since you started the sentence with "Or else",  '中國政府阻擋的' is out of place here because  "Or else" implies it is just your guess. If the sentence was "用了避忌的說話, 中國政府(是會)阻擋(的)" then it would have no problem.

The other mistakes are mostly poor choice of word. For example, 避忌的(字句) is much better than 避忌的(說話) when it comes to 'texting'. But it doesn't mean using 避忌的(說話) is grammatically incorrect .


Differences between: 过来, 起来, 下来 I encountered this multiple choice question:

这件事情说__________简单，做__________难

Where among the choices there are: 过来，起来，下来。
I always thought that their meaning was the same, but in this case the right answer is 起来.
So what's the difference between them? What do they actually emphasize in this specific case and in more general sentences?

过来 means "come over/ come here", 坐过来 means "sit over here"

下来 means "come down/ get down here) 坐下来 means "sit down"

起来 if used by itself, means "get up/ stand up", also carries a sense of "direction." when used in a combo like
说起来 (when being talked about) 做起来 (when being worked on) it carries a meaning of "being brought up" or "being initiated." In this case, its usage is not necessarily indicative of "direction."

all three can be used by themselves or in a combo like the examples i give.


How do you translate the phrase 'complete sentence'? I can't find anything online. Would it be 全句子？
I'm also interested to know how to say 'sentence fragment'.

complete sentence

  完全句
  《懶蟲簡明英漢詞典》

or

  full sentence

  完全句
  《懶蟲簡明英漢詞典》

  完整句子
  《21世紀英漢漢英雙向詞典》

and

  sentence fragment

  句子片段
  《21世紀雙語科技詞典》

We usually use a shorter term for "complete sentence", like 全句 or 整句.


Should one say "习题解答与提示" or "习题解答或提示"？ If the appendix of a textbook consists of the solutions to some exercises and hints to other exercises, should it be named as "习题解答与提示"or"习题解答或提示"？

Edit:

The following is from 《群表示论》by Prof. 丘维声, who is a Chinese native speaker:

正确的说法是习题解答与提示，也可以用习题解答和提示。和 means and, 或means or.


In 你多吃点 and 多给他点时间吧, is 多 an adjective or an adverb? Usage of 多 is a little bit confusing. As I understand it's an adjective in the following example 两百多个学生, but in the below-mentioned examples is “多” an adjective or an adverb?

1）你多吃点

2）多给他点时间吧

"多" here functions just like "more" in English. It can be an adjective or adverb

  In "多吃点",  '多' (more) is an adverb for the verb '吃'(verb). In English, "多吃点水果"  means "eat fruit more"

~

  In "吃多点" , '多点' is an adjective for an omitted object. In English, "吃多点水果" means "eat more fruit"

~

  In "多给他点时间吧", '多' (more) is an adverb for the verb '给' (give). In English, "多给他点时间吧" means "give him time more"

~

  In "给他多点时间吧", '多点' (more) is an adjective for the noun '时间' (time). In English, "给他多点时间吧" means "give him more time"

多; 很多/ 多点; 多些 preceding a noun is an adjective. e.g. 多糖 (a lot of sugar), 很多糖 (a lot of sugar), 多点糖 (more sugar), 多些糖 (more sugar)
多 preceding a verb is an adverb. e.g. 多加糖 (add sugar more)
[verb + 多了] = [verb + often enough/ too much] ; '多了' is an adverb for the verb.  e.g. "看多了書" (read books often enough) ; "加多了糖" (added too much sugar)

  how about 少，for example in “少吃点” is 少 an adverb here? My dictionary says 少 is only a verb and an adjective.

少吃 = [少(adv) + 吃(v)]

少点吃 / 少吃点 = [少点(adv) + 吃 (v)]

Actually people say 多点吃 and 少点吃 more often than 多吃点 and 少吃点

Example:

少吃水果 = not often eat fruit (少 is adverb for 吃)

少点吃水果 = eat fruit less; 少吃点水果 = eat fruit less (少点 is adverb for 吃)

吃少点水果 = eat less fruit (少点 is adjective for 水果)


What's the difference between xuéxí 学习 and xué 学? I understand they both translate to meaning, "to learn, to study" but what is the purpose of this distinction?

There are still a lot of differences in between I think.

For most cases, when you want a verb meaning "to learn", either of them can be used. Only xuexi is having more syllables to make you sounds more formal and polite.
When used as a noun, xuexi is more frequently to be used to express "learning".
Also, xue has more meanings rather than "to learn" as a verb. It also means "to imitate", "to perform as"-e.g. shuoxuedouchang（说学逗唱）


What does "主体责任" mean? "主体责任" has been a hot phrase since Xi Jinping came into power in 2013, but with too many repetitions of it appearing in many publications, there have been few explanations of the true meaning found online or off line.

My understanding is that "主体" means an entity or a host that is expected to carry the reponsibility, but the other day I found in China Daily, the official media outlet of English language in China, a reporter translated the phrase as "major responsibility" where obviously "主体" became "大体" or "主要" and made me believe it was totally wrong.

What do you say?

I believe 主体 here means "subject" or "agent". The individual (main) body, be it a natural or a juridical person.

The descriptions of this principle that you can find on Baidu Baike stress the fact that responsibility must be carried by all party organizations（各级党组织）, that responsibility must be capillar （细化责任）and that it must trickle from the top down to all levels （以上率下，层层传导压力，级级落实责任）.

It makes sense in the anti-corruption campaign. It's not hard to see how corruption can be effectively fought only if everyone at all levels is accountable within their own jurisdiction （种好自己的“责任田”, i.e. they must sow their "responsibility field"）.

And this can be done if they all really bear their own load （真正把担子担起来）.

So given all this, it's not very easy to translate this concept into English, but I think we can agree that the one you mention appears inaccurate.

I would translate this as "agentive responsibility", or, more simple, "subjective responsibility".


What's the difference between 操练 and 训练? Which situation can I use 操练 in and which situation 训练? I read on Baidu that one is used on a basic level and the other one contains the meaning of "developing" the content of something.

操练 -  practice; drill; train
训练 - train; learn
操练 mostly refers to performing a set routine repeatedly and prolongedly
训练 is a more general term for 'to train'.  While  操练(drill) can be a part of one's 训练(training), it doesn't include elements such as learning, studying, or observing as 训练 does
You can 训练 yourself in chess, but you cannot 操练 your chess skill because it is not a set routine.
We usually say 操练 martial art set (e.g. perform a Tai Chi set) because it is a set routine. The more you repeat, the better you get at it


What is the origin of giving certain corners within houses own name? Thanks to another question on this forum i learned that the south-western corner of a house has its own name: 奥. I was very surprised of this notion and could not make any sense why there might be necessity for giving corners unique names.

Could you provide an ethymology to make the purpose of naming comprehensible?
What are further names for particular places in a house?

I do not know of names for other corners of the house, but the southwestern corner is considered traditionally as the privileged site suitable for worshipping deities.

  《禮·曲禮》 爲人子者，居不主奧。

"The child does not live in the southwestern corner." In other words, one should show deference to one's parents by yielding the southwestern corner.


What and where is the connection between 压岁钱 and the character 岁 that appears in it? During the Chinese New Year celebration, one of the various traditions is to give money to younger people in red envelopes. Usually they are given from elderly married couples to younger couples or single people, but it's also common for old people to give them to children.

These red envelopes are called in Chinese 紅包 and 红包 (hóng bāo), while the money is called 壓歲錢 and 压岁钱 (yā suì qián), both first in Traditional and then Simplified characters, respectively. The meaning of this name is literally "the money used to suppress or put down the evil spirit".

But I've met the 岁 character before and that's in the expression used to tell your age:

  我 ... 岁。= I'm ... years old.

And actually, looking up this character, the meaning is "year, years old, (measure word)".

Why there seems to be no relation with the meaning of the envelopes above? If I look up the expression "压岁钱" in the same dictionary, I get a different meaning from above, which is "money given to children as new year present".

Does that "year" relates to the meaning above? Where is the link, semantically speaking, between the character and the chinese name for the red envelopes?

"压岁" and "压祟" have the same pronunciation (yā suì). The meaning of "压祟" is exactly what you have mentioned here: "suppress or put down the evil spirit". "压岁钱" is actually a homonym of "压祟钱".  It's a usage passed down from ancient time.


Why 青椒牛 instead of 青椒牛肉 in this Chinese menu? See the attached Chinese menu. Why L4 is called 青椒牛 instead of 青椒牛肉? I think 牛 means the animal cow (or ox?) and 牛肉 means beef.

Similarly, why 芥蓝鸡 instead of 芥蓝鸡肉？

I am not sure how it sounds to Cantonese ears or Chinese-speaking population outside China, but in Mandarin spoken in mainland China, 青椒牛 is absolutely weird, and sounds like the cow is cooked in whole (uncut).

However this usage is extremely common in Chinese restaurants in the US. I heard it's similar in other English speaking countries. No idea why it evolved like that.

Aside from the improper omission of the meat form (肉/丝/片/etc.), the lack of cooking method (炒/烧/烩/etc.) also sounds off. In mainland China even in very casual spoken language, those words are included out of habit. It will actually take effort to omit them.


Could anyone give a proper English translation to "干货”？ Here "干货” means something useful, informative rather than "dehydrated goods" or "dry goods", which basically means some informative materials or knowledge... I've consulted this question from many of my English teachers yet neither of them were getting the point.

Here are some alternative answers (yet not the most suitable word/phrase) :

Like "real shit" (sounds rude)
Like " real stuff" (not an idiomatic
 expression?)
Some even recommends this word "bone" which is unique to drugs field( means high purity drug)

I still doubt about it.
Could someone give me a better translation?

"干货" means solid, useful, practical and concise information with no fluff.


Which is more common: 川普 or 特朗普? At first, I only knew about 特朗普 for representing the US President's name, since it follows Xinhua's transliteration scheme. However, the World Journal uses 川普 exclusively, even in its articles written in simplified characters. That makes sense for World Journal, considering that 川普 sounds like a Taiwanese transcription to me, but Google gives almost as many results for 川普总统 as for 特朗普总统, making me wonder: which is more immediately recognizable to Chinese speakers?

Would using one or the other sound particularly regional, or politically biased?

Haha, funny question. "特朗普" is the official transliteration, used most commonly in official media of China, such as CCTV（新闻联播）and People's Daily(人民日报), while "川普" is more often used in social media or among people's casual talking.

"川普" is transliterated based on the pronunciation of "Trump", which is reasonable. However, "特朗普" has been used as the transliteration for "Trump" for a long time. According to 《英语姓名翻译手册》（新华通讯社译名室，商务印书馆，2004年）, which is an authentic book for transliterating English name, Donald Trump should be transliterated as 唐纳德。特朗普. In mainland China, the official medias usually follow that rule, so they usually use "特朗普". Other media, such as VOA or Taiwanese media does not necessarily follow this rule. So, the use of "川普" is also correct.


Is verbal position used to indicate definiteness in modern Mandarin? I've taken up reading "Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar" that was printed back in 1981. The book has been a good read so far but I've noticed several instances where the language of that time seems to contrast with modern usage. For instance, the author at one point claimed that 您 was old-fashioned and "falling out of style" (back in 1981) and yet I'm more than familiar with the word today.
I bring this up because the author introduced the concept of definiteness and indefiniteness being determined by the position of the verb in a sentence. The example they gave was 人来了 vs 来了人了 where the first sentence implies "the (previously stated) person(s) have come" while the second implies "some (unknown) person(s) have come".
Another example was 我在买书了 vs 我把书买了 where the first implies "I am buying a (nonspecific) book" while the other implies "I bought the (previously talked about) book".
This is easy enough to remember and put into practice, the issue is that for as long as I've been learning Chinese I have never seen this function being used, or at the very least it has gone right over my head. Many beginner learning resources even go so far as to claim that definiteness/indefiniteness isn't even a concept in Chinese. Is this function still relevant in Modern usage?

In my (long) studies I've never come across a formal definition of "definiteness/indefiniteness" specifically used to describe a grammar rule of Mandarin.
However the phenomenon you are talking about happens in many languages, and can be explained as stressing a certain element of a sentence by means of syntax (i.e. word order).
By rearranging the order of the words, of course within the boundaries of grammar, you can achieve this effect of giving more prominence to some element instead of another.
This happens in other languages as well. For example Spanish is a pro-drop language, so when you do specify a pronoun you are putting extra stress on it:

me llamo Pedro (= my name is Pedro)
yo me llamo Pedro (emphasis on "me", it's me who's called Pedro, and not somebody else)

In these cases, further implications may exist, otherwise there would be no need to stress a normally unstressed element, right?.
At this point you should also consider that some syntactical constructions, which are widely used in Mandarin, have the specific purpose to stress some element of the sentence. Some of them are:

topic-comment, and not just in Chinese!
constructions with 把

Topic-comment
According to some linguistics theories, in the topic-comment structure the comment (or rheme) is the focus of the sentence. The term "focus" is technical and means the new, non-derivable information that is said about something (the topic).
Hence it follows that the topic is known, derivable information. So when you topicalize something, you imply that it is known, and that's why it can take the definite article in English:

人来了 (topic = 人 = known information; comment = 来了 = new information)
"the (previously stated) person(s) have come"

The other example 来了人了 doesn't topicalize 人, so it doesn't imply that 人 is known: "some person(s) have come".
Constructions with 把
It's easy to make sense of your given example if you consider that 书 in 买书 has a non-specific meaning. This frequently happens in Chinese with separable verbs, where the objects contribute meaning to the verb instead of representing an actual target of the action. E.g. 我想吃饭 I want to eat food. Those are some times called virtual or ostensive objects.
So in 我在买书了 the object 书 is non-specific, and in English you can use the plural "I'm buying books".
Objects that can be extracted with 把 need to meet certain requirements:

The direct object of a bǎ construction [...] is usually definite, meaning that it is specific and unique (as in phrases beginning with the equivalent of this, that, these, or those).

So the sentence 我把书买了 implies that 书 is known and definite, therefore it translates as in your example "I bought the (previously talked about) book".

In conclusion:

Is verbal position used to indicate definiteness in modern Mandarin?

No, not verbal position. It's the position of the element whose definiteness/indefiniteness shifts following different syntactical constructions.


In Mandarin Chinese, what is the correct pronunciation for three or more third tones in a row? 只有我想了解你
zhíyǒu wǒ xiǎng liáojiě nǐ
OR
Zhíyǒu wó xiǎng liáojiě nǐ

我很好
wǒ hén hǎo
OR
wó hén hǎo

我也很好
wó yě hén hǎo
OR
wó yé hén hǎo
OR
wǒ yé hén hǎo

我也很想你
wǒ yé hěn xiáng nǐ
OR
wǒ yé hén xiǎng nǐ
OR
wó yé hěn xiáng nǐ

我很想买水果
wó yě hén xiǎng mǎi shuíguǒ
OR
wó yé hén xiáng mǎi shuíguǒ
OR
Wǒ hén xiáng mǎi shuíguǒ

我也很想买水果
wó yě hén xiǎng mái shuí guǒ
OR
wó yě hén xiǎng mǎi shuí guǒ

等你好久
déng ní háo jiǔ
OR
děng ní háo jiǔ
OR
déng nǐ háo jiǔ

九九九九
jiújiǔjiújiǔ

只有我想了解你  Zhíyóu wó xiǎng liáojié nǐ

我很好 wǒ hén hǎo

我也很好 wó yě hén hǎo

我也很想你 wó yě hén xiáng nǐ

我很想买水果 wǒ hén xiáng mǎi shuíguǒ

我也很想买水果 wó yě hén xiáng mǎi shuí guǒ

等你好久 déng nǐ háo jiǔ

九九九九 jiújiújiújiǔ


What is the difference between 全部作品 and 完本? I began learning Mandarin so that I could read Chinese fantasy novels (I've read several translated ones already). I'm a little confused because on Qidian's website I see several tabs at the top, one says 全部作品 (Completed Works?) and another says 完本 (Completed Books?), am I understanding these correctly? What would be the difference between these two categories?

全部作品 means all works.
完本 means completed books.


What is the difference between 电视 and 电视上? In the following two sentences:

电视说今天很晴朗，不过下午下雨了。
电视上说今天的天气会很晴朗，今天一整天都很晴朗。

Why does the first sentence not use 上 but the second sentence does? Is there any difference between 电视 and 电视上?

I think the meaning is the same - i.e. both mean "The TV says..." or "According to the TV...".

Well, as a native speaker, I would say there is no rigid rule for the usage under consideration. Both sentences precisely express what you would like to express.

So yes, they are identical in meaning.


Order of adjective and noun I have a question about the order of adjective and noun in Chinese. In this phrase 生活奢侈 the order is noun+adjective. But in this phrase 奢侈品 the order of noun + adjective is reversed.

What is the difference between the two structures? There are lots of such examples, which I get confused with every time when I want to use them.

Thank you for your answer.

Placing adjective before the noun, like '奢侈品' is a normal grammar structure, you cannot go wrong with that

When you put an adjective after a noun, the noun is acting as the topic, and the adjective is acting as a comment.

他的生活奢侈

他的生活 (his life) is the topic

很奢侈 (is luxury) is the comment,

you can replace 'is luxury' with other adjective (comment), for example '艰难' --> "他的生活艰难" (his life is difficult)

Not all noun can be a topic, especially a single character noun like 品.

Not all adjective can be a comment

For example:

'这家公司的发展非常迅速' make sense;

'这家公司的发展非常海外' doesn't make sense,

although '海外'  is a legit adjective for '发展' as in '这家公司的海外发展'

Without clear context, 生活奢侈 can also be interpreted as a [verb + adverb] structure, with 生活 as a verb, and 奢侈 as an adverb. That's why I add a subject and possessive 的 to clarify '(他的)生活' is a noun


Why use 了 in saying I'm hungry? Why do you use 了 after 我饿？ I thought it was used to denote completion or the past tense of something, but isn't being hungry present tense?

Generally speaking, 了 following a verb indicates completion, while 了 at the end of a sentence or phrase indicates a change in state (and sometimes other things, 了 is very complicated).  A common use of this final 了 is to draw the attention of the listener to the fact that something is now the case (that wasn't previously).  In this case 我饿了 is saying: "I'm hungry now," and drawing the listeners attention to the new hunger.  Of course, when the verb is at the end of the sentence the use of 了 can be ambiguous.  Such an 了 could be used in either, or even both, of these ways, but usually context makes the intention clear.

More general information on 了 can be found here: http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Uses_of_%22le%22


Which one is correct? 给我打电话/打电话给我 can you help me which one is correct and which one is wrong?

你给我打个电话
你给我打电话
你给我电话
你打给我个电话
你打给我电话
你打电话给我

Thank you.

你给我打个电话 - good, colloquial
你给我打电话 - good, slightly more formal
你给我电话 - what, as a birthday present?
你打给我个电话 - weird
你打给我电话 - weird
你打电话给我 - OK (a little more emphasis on 打电话, seems like 给我 is almost an afterthought)


“FLAG” meaning in ‘bullet hell-style subtitles’ (弹幕)? Watching shows with 弹幕 (or bullet hell-style subtitles) the word ‘FLAG’ often shows up.

What does ‘FLAG’ mean?

It was initially adopted by computer programmers. In order to mark the state of a certain block of code, they commonly use a variable called "FLAG" to store the value of state. For example you could have FLAG = 1 to mean that the user is male, then the following code blocks will work on the premise that the user is a male. Likewise, you can have FLAG = 0 to mean the user is female, then there will be a different logic followed.

Then it's widely used in China(first in Japan) to indicate some character's line indicates that something will happen in the future, usually someone's death.

For example, when someone says "Don't worry, I'll be right back. I promise." Then usually he/she is going to die.

Another example, when a girl says "I'll never date someone like him." They usually end up with being couple.

People use "FLAG" as a ridicule towards the noticeable pattern of story that occurs over and over again across Movies/TV episodes/Novels and so on.


Is 帮忙 and 帮助 interchangeable? I looked up in the dictionary, 帮 means help, and 忙 means busy while 助 also means help, so is 帮忙 (help busy) and 帮助(help help) interchangeable? Or what is the subtle difference between them? Thanks!

帮忙 is more colloquial, it is intransitive or separable. 'A comes to help' translates into 'A来帮忙了' and 'A helps B' into 'A帮B的忙', not *'A帮忙B'.

帮助 is a transitive verb or a noun. 'A helps B' translates into 'A帮助B', the verb is not separated unlike 帮忙. 'With the help of A' translates into '在A的帮助下', usually not '在A的帮忙下'.

Another difference is that 帮忙 is always used for more concrete activities (related to its colloquial state). For instance, 'to help fight against infection' translates into '帮助对抗感染', never '帮忙对抗感染'. On the other hand, 'to help lift the box' translates into '帮忙抬箱子' more often.


Chinese views on Erhua I'm already well acquainted with erhua (儿化) in putonghua, essentially appending 儿 to the ends of words (or reading it when 儿 isn't written, as sometimes people do with 花 or 八点 etc). Many of these words are infact standard in putonghua, as in 这儿, and 花儿 and so on, and erhua's usage is seen mainly in Beijing. Southern speakers often have replacements for these, such as a simple 花 for 花儿, and 这里 for 这儿.

In northern dialects, this is sometimes taken further, to words such as 事儿, 板儿砖, and even 明儿 sometimes to replace 明天.

This leads me to ask specifically how accepted erhua is. As a key element of the Beijing dialect, it's often seen on TV, and although not used as much in formal broadcasts, it is heard in words such as 这儿, as mentioned before. How do most speakers perceive erhua? Is it viewed as just dialectal differences, and non-standard, or is it more to the extent of being slightly more prestigious than other dialects (though obviously not truly standard and formal putonghua)?

Are there any native speakers who can try explain their sentiments towards erhua, and the opinions they draw from a speaker who uses it more than average?

Disagree on FortCpp's answer.

Surely Beijing dialect is not putonghua, none dialect is considered as putonghua if you put it this way.

I'd say Beijing dialect is very close(if not the most) to putonghua.

Back to the question, erhua is part of the putonghua standard, no question about that. For instance, "小孩" sounds (really) strange without a '儿', in fact even if '儿' is not appear in the reference, you should pronounce it unless you're from Taiwan or something :)

I can't tell you the grammar rules but cases like above are not rare.

My opinion is, avoid using erhua in general and pay attention to those cases that must have it


Are the sentences 这个杯子有一点儿水 and 一点儿水在杯子里 correct? I want to say there is a little bit/some water in the cup.
Can I say either of these sentences to convey that message?

这个杯子有一点儿水。
一点儿水在杯子里。

这个杯子有一点儿水 (this cup has some water) sounds like 这个杯子 is the subject and it possesses some water
A better phrasing should be 这个杯子里有一点儿水 (inside this cup, there's some water)

~

一点儿水在杯子里 (some water inside the cup) lack a verb, thus make it an incomplete sentence
A better phrasing should be 有一点儿水在杯子里。(There is some water inside the cup)

这个杯子里有一点儿水 emphasizes the cup (pay attention to the cup, there's some water in it)

有一点儿水在杯子里 emphasizes the water (pay attention to the water, it is in a cup)

You can use either one


Why is 蜀 composed of net (网), packag(ed) (裹) and insect (虫)? 蜀 has three components:

罒 - 网
勹 - 裹
虫

How the kingdom of Shu become a wrapped bug in a net?

蜀漢領土主要在蜀地，故把它稱為「蜀國」。
蜀地最早是「古蜀國」。
開國之王名為「蠶叢」，他是位養蠶專家。
他為了養蠶事業到成都居住，因而建立了「古蜀國」。
這就是為什麼蜀漢之名會和蠶有關的原因。

The territory of 蜀漢 was mainly in 蜀地, so it was called 蜀國.
The first country in 蜀地 was 古蜀國.
The founder's name was 蠶叢, he was an expert in sericulture.
He moved to Chengdu for his sericulture, and thus established the 古蜀國.
This is why the name of 蜀漢 is related to silkworms.

Source: wikipedia


Round seal stamp on a teapot (Characters identified: 沈紅英制) This is stamped on the bottom of a yixing teapot. Can anyone translate what the name is please? Thank you.

沈 (right top)

紅 (right bottom)

英 (left top)

制 (left bottom)


也许 vs 或许 vs 可能 usage I checked the meaning for all 3 words and it appears that:
也许 = maybe, perhaps, probably /
或许 = maybe, perhaps, probably"/
可能 = possibly, possible, maybe, perhaps.
It seems to me that 也许 and 或许 have exactly the same meaning while 可能 looks a little different. I'm not sure if each of them are supposed to have a certain situation to be used. What situation do I use each word?

see e.g.bkrs: 可能 might (happen)
possible
probable
possibility
probability
maybe
perhaps #170

也许 perhaps; probably; maybe #676

或许 perhaps
maybe #2652

coclusion: 可能 unlike other 2 can be noun and includes ＂possible, possibility" ("literal" translation of 可能), can be used as adjective (see sample phrases with 可能的) 可能,也许 include "probably",或许 does not (lower degree of likelihood), also note frequency ranks with 可能 most frequent, much more at bkrs


Location of Certain Location words I have a couple of Chinese sentences that I have been struggling with. I know basic grammar order: Subject, Time, Place, Verb, Object but I am unsure how to construct sentences of this nature:
ex. I want to have practice outside
I want practice to be outside
I want to practice outside.
In Chinese, would all of these questions be phrased the same?

I want to have practice outside -  我想在外面進行練習

In this sentence, "have" is a verb "practice" is a noun.
"have practice" means "to engage in practice" which is "進行練習" in Chinese

  I want practice to be outside - 我想練習在外面進行

In this sentence "practice" is a noun object, "to be outside" implies " to be held outside",  which is "在外面進行" in Chinese

  I want to practice outside - 我想在外面練習

In this sentence "practice" is a verb, and "outside" is a  preposition & adverb, which is "在外面" in Chinese


我一個晚上開銷就不只三萬了. What's 了 doing? 我一個晚上開銷就不只三萬了. What's 了 doing?

It really depends on the conversation context. The difference is too subtle to describe to people from different cultures.

It is hard to use your sentence directly to build an example. Suppose a client is bargaining/discussing some expense or price with you.

When there is no "了", you are probably just stating the fact.

When there is a "了", it is likely your tone is dropping during talking, you could be rolling your eyes too. You are indicating the client is too ignorant about the real expense you need and his estimation is way too low.

Or you could say it with a "了" in a tone of something close to "撒娇", indicating the client should pay a bit more than what he offered. In this case, you could probably or will intentionally choose to use "啦" instead of "了".


How to translate a non-recreational but activism/protest "campout"? How to translate an activist campout (as in a protest site where people also camp)?

The full sentence I would like to translate (it would be great if you could help me out):

  The activists feared that the police would destroy their campout
  before the first anniversary of the inauguration of president 蔡英文 on
  May the 20th.

激進分子怕警詧在蔡英文五月二十日的總統就職一周年之前搗毀他們的露營抗議活動。


What languages have been approved by SARFT for use? An answer from another question linked this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou_Television_Cantonese_controversy which says:

  Due to Mandarin’s status as the official language, use of the country’s other languages in television as well as radio and film is rigorously restricted by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT).[6][7][8] Permission from national or local authorities is required for using a dialect as the primary programming language at radio and television stations.[7]

Is there a list of all approved languages for use by SARFT?

Personally, I don't think there is a list for this.

Local radio and TV stations are allowed to broadcast with dialect within Local ONLY.

For example, 广东卫视 is broadcasted in Mandarin and is available to every province in China. While, for example, 南方卫视 and 珠江频道 are broadcasted in Cantonese, which is ONLY available within Guangdong Province.

Generally speaking, Radio and TV station are in 2 categories, available to every province and available within a specific province. I believe every province has many stations for both type.

Also, dialect varies a lot even inside Guangdong Province. Taking "accent" into consideration, Cantonese in Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Maoming, Dongguan, Qingyuan sounds different. Not to mention Teochew dialect and Hakka Chinese, all inside Guangdong province. For Teochew dialect, the difference of Chaozhou and Shantou is more than notable.

That's why I believe, it might be not possible to list all approved languages.


Is 邏輯 a phono-semantic matching of the English word logic? Wiktionary has the following entry for the etymology of 邏輯:

  Phono-semantic matching of English logic.

However, the Chinese Wikipedia entry states the following:

  當代中文一般採取音譯方式，將其譯為邏輯。

Which seems to imply there isn't sort of semantic hint in the Chinese translation. Looking at the invidiual characters 邏 (who's meanings revolve around to patrol) and 輯 (to collect, to compile, etc.), I fail to see any semantic hints. Is the Chinese word 邏輯 actually a phono-semantic matching of the English word logic? If so, what is the semantic connection bewteen the two words?

No, it's a transliteration.

The Chinese term「邏輯」first appeared in a Chinese translation of John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive. The Chinese translation title is 《穆勒名學》 by 嚴復, and the Chinese word「邏輯」is directly explained there:

  案邏輯此翻名學。其名義始於希臘。為邏各斯一根之轉。邏各斯一名兼二義。在心之意。出口之詞。皆以此名。引而申之。則為論為學。故今日泰西諸學。其西名多以羅支結響。羅支即邏輯也。

To add, the only manner of any kind of semantic matching is「輯」(compile), which is the explanation of「邏各斯」turning into「邏輯」. From the same paragraph:

  ...故邏各斯名義最為奧衍。而本學之所以稱邏輯者。以如貝根言。是學為一切法之法。一切學之學。明其體之尊。為用之廣。則變邏各斯為邏輯以名之。

but this isn't a semantic matching of the Greek root, and more a semantic matching of the rather wide application of the suffix -ology.


Glyph origins of the character 微 How does this character meaning become "small/tiny"?
So many sources tell me that it's semantic 彳 + "phonetic" , but what exactly is ? I've never seen this character elsewhere before. Could this possibly like 德 and 得, where the original character was missing the 彳 part? However, I haven't found any answer that explains the  component, so was wondering if anyone can enlighten me, thanks.

《說文・彳部》

隱行也。从「彳」，「」聲。
「微」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*məj/), to travel [somewhere] under stealth. From semantic 「彳」 (to walk) and phonetic 「」 (/*məj/).

Strictly speaking, 「微」 is just a complexified character from 「」. Characters naturally become more complex over time for disambiguation purposes, as simpler characters tend to be used and reused for other senses or as rebus characters/phonetic loans, causing them to be overloaded with definitions and more easily subjected to shape distortions, and thus increasingly difficult to comprehend.
Since 「」 is the original character for the meaning small, slight, then in terms of glyph origins, 「微」 is built from semantic 「彳」 and doubly semantic and phonetic 「」 . 「彳」 is simply a semantic indicator appended on to 「微」 to extend the meaning small, slight to travelling under stealth.
So, all this begs the question - what exactly is 「」 supposed to be？

Glyph origins of 「」
商甲京都2146合集27996西周金史墻盤集成10175戰國・楚簡56.35九店楚簡篆人部說文解字楷
「」 is constructed from semantic 「髟」 (picture of a person with long hair) and semantic 「攵・攴」 (picture of a hand holding a hitting implement > to strike, to hit), inferring the meaning delicate, slight through the action of cutting off a full growth of hair into a more elegant and delicate state.
Shuōwén's

《說文・人部》

妙也。从「人」，从「攴」。「豈」省聲。
(/*məj/) [means] delicate. From semantic 「人」 (person), semantic 「攴」 (to strike), and reduced phonetic 「豈」 (/*C.qʰˤəjʔ/).

is probably a misunderstanding. 「豈」 may have originated from an alteration of 「壴」 (picture of a drum) into 「豈」 (beating of victory drums > triumphant music, now written as 「凱」), and Shuōwén has confused the top part of 「豈」 with the top-[left] part of 「髟」.

商甲甲2770合集27694西周金壴鼎集成1175春秋金王孫遺者鐘集成261戰國・楚簡性自命出49郭店楚簡戰國・楚簡1.011信陽竹書簡篆豈部說文解字西漢隸縱橫145馬王堆帛書三國・魏隸魏封孔羨碑　楷
For reference, shape derivation of 「豈」. Shapes 1-4 refer to 「壴」. Shape 5 is 「敳」, with the left-hand component as 「壴」 but the top-left part written as a rotated 「山」. This sets the scene for the confusion of 「豈」 and 「」 in Shuōwén. Forms 6-9 refer to 「豈」, which all inherit the (rotated) 「山」 shape.

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
李學勤《字源》
漢語多功能字庫
小學堂字形演變
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


How to translate "读书好 好读书 读好书"? A famous Chinese writer whose pen name is Bingxin once remarked, "读书好 好读书 读好书", which is used to encourage Chinese students to read books.

In this sentence, there are altogether 3 "好"s. The first and the third, both pronounced as "hǎo", are used as adj. to describe "reading" and "book" respectively. And the second one, pronouced as "hào", is used as a verb to persuade us to read.

Is there any good translation for this saying in English?

Thanks.

As other explained,"读书好"

reading is good

"好读书"

love reading

But "读好书” is ambiguious,which may mean "read good books",or "excellent at reading or at learning"


What rhyme groups had "light" labial initials (輕唇音) such as 非 in the Yunjing (韻鏡)? This page on "ChinaKnowledge" as well as Pulleyblank's Middle Chinese (published 1984, p.86) say that such rhymes were placed in grade 3 hekou (合口三等) in the standard rhyme tables. However certain rhyme groups like 缶/否 are kaikou (開口) in the Yunjing, even though Pulleyblank considers them to be an "f" sound (p.89).
Is there any logic to how they are split between kaikou/hekou?

The following answer is a translation and summary from Lin (2013:6-8). This also serves to supplement C.K.'s observation.

Rhymes placed in grade III include eight chongniu rhymes (重紐八韻), ten labiodental rhymes (輕唇十韻), and normal grade III rhymes (普通三等韻).

Openness is determined by the absence of the rounded prenuclear glide /u/ or /w/. The following is a table that summarises the openness (column 2) of each labiodental rhyme (column 1) reconstructed in five references (from left to right: Kalgren, Li Rong, Dong Tonghe, Baxter, Zhu Jianing). The fact that three out of ten labiodental rhymes were unanimously reconstructed as kaikou (東三, 陽, and 尤), and that two were either reconstructed as kaikou or hekou (鐘 and 虞), violates the traditional rule that 'grade III hekou is the phonological environment for the labiodentalisation of /p/ to [f]':

In Lin's words,

若是傳統說法中的合口三等是指開合口之分，勢必與韻鏡的分類不符。
If the traditional saying hekou sandeng indeed refers to openness (i.e. absence or presence of the rounded prenuclear glide /u/ or /w/), then it is bound to differ from Yunjing's classification scheme.

Note

/j/ is the necessary prenuclear glide to have the rhymes classified as grade III.
The 東三-rhyme is not hekou because /u/ is not prenuclear.

Lin further noticed alternative phonological rules were proposed for labiodentalisation in MC:

(Grade III hekou rule) /p/ → [f] / _ [j] [w] V
(Baxter 1992:47) /p/ → [f] / _ [j] [V, +back]
(Yang 2005:147) /p/ → [f] / _ [j] [V, +central, +back]

which certainly are more lenient. Baxter permits not only [w] but all back vowels (ranging from [u] to [ɑ]), whereas Yang even permits central vowels. Yang's rule is more flexible (Baxter did not use much central vowels except /ɨ/), but not without fault. Lin argued with Yang's rule, words of the 蒸-rhyme would also undergo labiodentalisation (presence of mid-central vowel /ə/, see below, from Wiktionary), although 蒸-rhyme is not any one of the eight known rhymes:

Zhengzhang Shangfang
Pan Wuyun
Shao Rongfen
Edwin Pulleyblank
Li Rong
Wang Li
Bernard Karlgren

蒸
/t͡ɕɨŋ/
/t͡ɕɨŋ/
/t͡ɕieŋ/
/ciŋ/
/t͡ɕiəŋ/
/t͡ɕĭəŋ/
/t͡ɕi̯əŋ/

Lin subsequently proposed the following phonological rule

/p/ → [f] / _ [j] [+rounded],

where [+rounded] means EITHER a rounded prenuclear glide (/u/ or /w/, or the hekou element) OR a rounded nucleus. Obviously the first part corresponds to the hekou sandeng rule. The second part accounts for any remaining inconsistencies. Sadly, there is one exception: the 陽-rhyme (neither /a/ or /ɑ/ are rounded). So to compensate for that,

                    [V, –front]
 /p/ → [f] / _ [j] {           }
                    [+rounded]

was proposed. I think this is a big improvement from the historical hekou sandeng rule.

References

林智凱（2013）〈中古漢語重紐、輕唇與普通三等三者交互關係〉。

Baxter W. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter; 1992.

楊劍橋（2005）《漢語音韻學講義》，復旦大學出版社。

Appendix: IPA vowels and their backness


What does "落地" in "政策落地" mean? Does it mean the policy is grounded,  getting nowhere, futile or scrapped?

And is it the same as 落地签证?

From this article
国家税务总局近日召开全国视频会议，部署贯彻落实国务院6项减税新政策，要求各级税务机关采取切实有效措施，确保减税政策落地见效。

Policies are decided at the top (by the law makers in the central government).

'落地' means 'to land' or 'to touch down'

'政策落地' means a Central government decided policy is passed down to the ground level (responsible agencies and local governments) for implementation

政策落地见效 means a policy is immediately effective upon implementation

And is it the same as 落地签证?

No, they are not the same
落地签证 means 'visa on arrival '; '落地' means 'arrival' here

落地签证是指申请人不直接从所在国家取得前往其他国家的签证，而是持护照和该国有关机关发给的入境许可证明等抵达该国口岸后，再签发签证，落地签证通常是单边的。


Connection between 甫 and 父? The following sentence can be found in the first chapter of《清江壮歌》by Ma Shitu:

而且他的经济状况比谁都好，他和他的妻子在一个叫清江中学的教会学校里教书，收入本来不坏，更不同的是他还有一个“吃教饭”的哥哥，在本城天主堂里当神甫，和外国那个主教很要好，自然属于“高等华人”一流，收入是很可观的。

Here 神父 is written as 神甫.
Liang'an says:

神甫
[简] 神父

Which kind of implies that 甫 is the traditional of 父 and that 父 is the simplified form of 甫. But, that cannot be right, can it?
Does 父 have some sort of a connection to 甫, and vice verse, or is this some sort of anomaly?

This article posits 神甫 is a slightly derogatory term, first used by Qing officials, to address religious Fathers in their official communications to the Emperor. The author supports their argument by a) that 神父 is etymologically orthodox and traceable to the Ming dynasty, and b) that 神甫 is not a loyal translation to 'Father' (despite 甫 potentially being a title for a respectable man), which, in Catholic tradition, is a cordial address to a Priest (Lat. Sarcedos, Chin. 司鐸).

I believe the above argument is not baseless. There are many occasions where historical translations to Western entities are far from decent. Of course, that has more to do with 19th century history.

大不列顛 Great Britain
煲顛茶, 砵甸乍 Pottinger, first Governor of Hong Kong
爹核士 Davis, second Governor of Hong Kong
麥當奴 MacDonnell, sixth Governor of Hong Kong

In summary, 神甫 is a historical translation that has been outcompeted by the far more understandable translation 神父. Translative differences do not render 甫 and 父 etymologically connected.


说服: shuìfú vs. shuōfú I've been trying to find some sort of indication as to the differences between these two pronunciations for 说服: shuìfú vs. shuōfú.

I used to always read it: shuōfú, until I was corrected by a mainlander, who told me it should be shuìfú.

The only info I found though says it's a Taiwan thing:

  4 Taiwan pr. [shuìfú] -CC-CEDICT

Other than that I'm lost...

In recent years, Mainland Chinese have officially adopted shuōfú across the board. If you only wish to be understood and/or conform to current official standards, a sufficient answer is: just use the shuōfú pronunciation. Everyone will understand what you mean regardless of whether they agree with it.

For a more academic answer: Strictly speaking, shuìfú is the correct pronunciation. This isn't a Taiwanese thing except in that it has been preserved in Taiwan (older mainlanders would have known it too).

The character 說 is an exemplary case of a multiple meaning character with multiple pronunciations. These meanings are not historically interchangeable. Focusing on the relevant definitions at hand:

shuō means "to explain, to tell".
shuì means "to persuade, to convince".

The meaning of 说服 is clearly derived from the latter usage. Therefore, it is correctly pronounced shuìfú. It is still listed as such in many dictionaries. Other examples of the shuì pronunciation being maintained for this usage are 說客, "a lobbyist; someone trying to sell an idea" and 遊說, "to lobby, to persuade."

Ultimately however, languages are living, changing things. It is quite alright to use shuōfú as the pronunciation even if some people would find it as being "wrong". They all understand what you mean anyway.

Note: There's a contention that shuōfú is the correct pronunciation. The argument is that shuì means to persuade, but that, supposedly, 说服 means to "persuade with reason". It is claimed that this means shuō, "to explain", fits the word's overall meaning better than shuì, "to persuade".

I don't find this convincing at all, but that's an alternative angle.


Why should I use 由 here and not 被? I could choose 由 or 被. Why should I choose 由? Are there any good reasons for this choice?

这件事 _______ 公司负责。My girlfriend immediately said 由， but she couldn't say why.

Considering the answers below about 被 only being used with the perfective, if I change my sentence thus, is 被 then ok?

这件事 _______ 公司负责了。

the problem may be that the A被B C and A由B C are superficially similar but grammatically completely different.  A由... seems like more a topic-comment structure for me, with A being the topic and "由B C" being the comment about the topic, not anything performed on the topic. 被 is conceptually linked to A - it is A having something done to it - whereas 由 is linked to B and C, and A is separate: again, a lot like topic/comment.

for example:

这个问题被他解决了. ： "this problem was solved by him."  straight up passive.
这个问题由他(来)解决 ：(as for) this problem, (it should be) him to solve it.

"这个问题由他解决了" completely fails the Google test, i.e. there's not a single usage example on the Internet, even though 被 is 100% ok.  This may be because the 由 construction is an example of a different kind of Chinese grammar structure, and therefore 由 is not like 叫/让/other stand-ins for 被.


Is 你今天早上怎麼樣? or 你這個早上怎麼樣? okay for asking "How are you this morning?" and Is "Ni jin tian zao shang zen me yang?（你今天早上怎麼樣？）" ok?

Can we also say, "Ni zhe ge zao shang zen me yang? （你這個早上怎麼樣？）" because we do say, "Ni zhe ge xing qi zen me yang? （你這個星期怎麼樣？）" for how are you this week..

没有这个问法，一般工作环境会问“早上好”，不会问“你早上怎么样？”

Chinese people do not say it like this; they always say 早上好 (zǎoshang hǎo) = "morning" or 你早上怎么样？(Nǐ zǎoshang zěnme yàng?) = "good morning".


How to say "can/can’t use" in Chinese? How can I say “my wechat is not working, I can only use alipay.”
Is this right?
我的微信坏了， 我只用支付宝。
I wanted to know what are the other ways to say can or can’t use?

我的微信用不了了，我只能用支付宝。
我的微信不能用了，我只能用支付宝。
我的微信没法用了，我只能用支付宝。
我的微信有问题，我只能用支付宝。
我的微信有点问题，我只能用支付宝。


How do I pronounce Xué (学)? I am currently learning Chinese but I've been struggling with perhaps a very easy sound to do.

How do I pronounce Xué (学)? I know that with "x", it's "sh" with the tip of your tongue on your front bottom teeth. However, managing the tones and the ué seems to be very hard.  Is it just shoo-e or shoo-ee?

By the way, I am not practicing with a native speaker, it's with Siri and voice recognition software. That's one thing I must definitely admit. Is that good practice to use Siri for pronunciation?

Perhaps I could 学 how to say it?

Xue can be broken down into three components:

X, ipa: ɕ, similar to the English ‘sh’ in sheep but with the tongue placed closer to the teeth.
u, ipa: y, not to be confused with ipa letter: u, similar to German: ü; or the u in French: tu
e, ipa: e, similar to the “e” in English: yes.

——

Tone: second tone in Mandarin, which 学 is, is a 35 on the tonal scale - meaning you need to start kind of high-pitched to begin with and then rise it even higher. It’s often compared to the English intonation of asking a question, with a rise at the end.

——

The biggest pitfalls for foreigners: most westerns end up pronouncing 学 more like 水 - I’m not totally sure why because the initials and finals are completely different. Try finding audio to imitate and only treat pinyin as a guide because it won’t match up with English in the way you might imagine it should.


What does 她是笨蛋的学生 mean? I and my Chinese friend are discussing about the meaning of "她是笨蛋的学生”
So, can u guys tell me which meaning is correct, or which meaning is popularly used: "She is a fool student", or "She is the student of a fool". I mean, the "笨蛋” refers to the teacher or the student?!
Thank you for concerning.

If the sentence is 她是笨蛋学生 or 她是笨学生, it would mean She is a fool student, but since there is a 的 in between, 笨蛋 is a noun that refers to a person, and not an adjective anymore. So She is the student of a fool makes better sense.


Why do Chinese writers have three different names? I've been reading about Chinese writers and apparently they have too many names! For example, in the article of Wikipedia about 黃遠庸 (Huang Yuanyong) there's first this name as the title of the article. Then appear the pen name 黃遠生, and after that it says that his given name is 黃為基, why is that? I understand the pen name but if there's a pen name and a given name, what's the other one? Thanks.

You probably know something about the intricacies of Chinese names prior to the downfall of the last dynasty, picking names at different stages of life was common among intellectuals.

In the case of Huang Yuanyong, check the Chinese language version of the Wiki article.

It reads:

  原名黄为基，字远庸，笔名远生

Thus, his original name was 为基, his 字 name was 远庸 and his pen name was 远生. In the pre-Republican era, it was common to pick a 字 name (or courtesy name in English). This name was most likely chosen by a teacher, and henceforth an educated person was to be referred to by his courtesy name, the given name was only used within the family. Since Huang Yuanyong was socialized in the late 19th century, there is nothing uncommon with him having three different names.

But having alternate names is not something restricted to China or Chinese writers. Many Western intellectuals, writers or revolutionaries are in the need of an alternate name at some point, some even used multiples (Lenin e.g. was known as Ulyanov, Ilyin, Karpov, Mueller or Frei, just to name a few.)
Although it is true that the Chinese name system is more elaborate, but until the modern ages it was common for Western scholars to Latinize (Linné used Linnæus in Latin) their names or pick a Latin name, this is somewhat similar to the Chinese courtesy name.