Origin of beautiful kingdom and hero kingdom Why in Mandarin chinese, USA is beautiful kingdom and England is hero kingdom?

Actually they all came from their pronunciation.

America: 美利坚 ("美国" for short)

England: 英格兰 ("英国" for short)


Why one-to-many mapping between IPA and Pinyin? I am referring to the Origin of zhuyin symbols table on Wikipedia. Under Rhymes and Medials the following 3 entries confuse me:

Zhuyin
IPA
Pinyin

ㄧ
i
i/y

ㄨ
u
u/w

ㄩ
y
ü/yu/u

Why are there multiple Pinyin symbols for the same IPA sound? Are there any general rules as to which one of these symbols should be preferred?

You can find the explanation in page for Pinyin on wikipedia:

Note on y and w
y and w are equivalent to the semivowel medials i, u, and ü (see below). They are spelled differently when there is no initial consonant in order to mark a new syllable: fanguan is fan-guan, while fangwan is fang-wan (and equivalent to fang-uan). With this convention, an apostrophe only needs to be used to mark an initial a, e, or o: Xi'an (two syllables: [ɕi.an]) vs. xian (one syllable: [ɕi̯ɛn]). In addition, y and w are added to fully vocalic i, u, and ü when these occur without an initial consonant, so that they are written yi, wu, and yu. Some Mandarin speakers do pronounce a [j] or [w] sound at the beginning of such words—that is, yi [i] or [ji], wu [u] or [wu], yu [y] or [ɥy],—so this is an intuitive convention. See below for a few finals which are abbreviated after a consonant plus w/u or y/i medial: wen → C+un, wei → C+ui, weng → C+ong, and you → C+iu.

Well, this note is so detailed, I really feel it difficult to add something… maybe it can be concluded as this:
When [i] and [u] sounds appear at the beginning of a Chinese character, they're written as y and w, in other cases they're written as i and u.


Is the Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou standardized? Is the Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou standardized, and if it is, is it different from Hong Kong and Macau's standard Cantonese? Do some characters have different standard readings in each region, much like how some characters have different standard Mandarin readings in Mainland China and Taiwan? The closest example I could find for Cantonese is the character 「米」 when meaning metre. Below is the explanation given on the Yue Chinese Wikipedia:

  米... 廣東地區讀mai1；香港讀mai5

If Cantonese in Guangzhou is indeed standardized, is there an authoritative source that decides on the standard reading of characters? I have found dictionaries published in Mainland China like 廣州話正音字典 and 廣州話方言詞典, but I don't have much insight on how close those dictionaries are to standardized Cantonese in Guangzhou, assuming that exists.

It doesn’t seem like there is an organisation for standardization of Cantonese in Mainland China. After all, this is in line with their policy of Mandarin-only education; people throughout the nation are not fluent in their native dialect, and can only speak Putonghua.
In contrast, there are governmental agencies in both Hong Kong and Macau dedicated to the standardization of Cantonese in those territories.

It is worth noting that the HK-Macau standards originate  from the pronunciations of downtown Guangzhou speakers. If a Hongkonger were to visit downtown Guangzhou, he would probably face no problems communicating with a local there.

Branching out of the provincial capital of Guangdong, though, there are other accents which are vastly different than that of mainstream media (i.e. HK-Macau-Guangzhou accent). For example, in Shunde, which is just beside Guangzhou, they pronounce their words such that learners of Cantonese might think they were purposely trying to mispronounce the words.

Taishan, which is also within the Pearl River Delta region, is also famous for the Siyi dialects which are related to Cantonese, but are mutually intelligible.
In HK-Guangzhou, you would say “ngo” for 我, yet in Taishanese it’s something like “ngoi”.

Of course, you also have pronunciations influenced by Teochew and Hakka, the other two indigenous dialects in the province, as you approach the edges of Guangdong.


Translation of "要" in "我去要出租车" "我去要出租车"

What is the meaning of "要" in this sentence?

I'm chinese and I don't quite understand you sentence. My guess is that it is supposed to be

  我去叫出租车 （I'm going to call a taxi）

Perhaps in some local tongue they use 要 and 叫 interchangeably in this occasion, but this is by no means standard.


How to say "this" in "This is my third time in Taiwan"? Several times I've told people that I'm Taiwan for the third time and everybody understood me just fine, but I'm not sure I'm saying it right.

這個是我的三次在臺灣

I know 次 is the word for "time" in this sense, and I know it's also a counter word for times.

So is my choice correct for "this"? I said 這個 with the generic counter word, but should I really say 這次 since I'm discussing times, or is just plain 這 best?

Or should I really express it in an entirely different way?

You should say something like:

  這是我第三次到臺灣來

  This is my third time coming to Taiwan

You do not say「這個」, because the measure word (in this situation) for travelling/trips is「次」(which you've already said) and not「個」.


How to use 指 when giving a definition? How is 指 used, what is it's role in definitions such as this (from Wikipedia):

  研究生是*指*获得学士学位后继续深造.

In my understanding, 指 (zhi3) means "refers to". Sometimes it is interchangeable with 表示 (biao3shi4) or 表达 (biao3da2), which mean "expresses". Just like in an English dictionary, you might see a word with a definition that says X refers to Y or X is used to express Y. These words are used in a basically parallel way.


Are independent and dependent clauses reversible? In English a phrase such as “Call me when you get home” can be reversed into “When you get home, call me.”

Is this also possible in Chinese?

I tried to answer the question myself, but I could only think of myself using the dependent clause first and never using it second in Chinese class.

Also, all the examples on AllSet Learning have the dependent clause in the beginning, but the site doesn’t specifically condemn the reverse.

Is it grammatically acceptable in Chinese?

It is not accepted in writing Chinese, however, you can say that in oral Chinese, like

  给我打电话吧，等你回家之后

The second part of the sentence is served as a complementary clarification and even though, it is not commonly used.

If you write it that way, it is not grammatically acceptable.


What is this radical called?  If you can't see it, it's the same radical on top of 篇.

What is it? What does it mean? I've been trying to search for it on Google, on dictionaries, and other places, but I can't find any information about it. It doesn't even have any content in the Unicode dictionary.

, as @songyuanyao expressed, is called 竹字头, 竹: bamboo.

篇, a quantifier, 一篇文章(an article), 一篇报道(a report), 一篇诗歌(a poem)

In ancient China, just as people of the other parts of the world did, used something instead of modern "paper" to write on, bamboo is frequently used as writing materials, it's cheap and easy to keep for a long time, people split bamboo into thin pieces, and join them together with lines, then engrave on those pieces and form a scroll, an unfolded scroll is 一篇, so that's why there is a "bamboo" on some characters like 篇.


Where was the heartland of the pre-historic Chinese branch of languages (or that of the entire language family)? About the Indo-European family of languages, a common hypothesis is that it originated in central Asia, somewhere north of the Caspian and/or Black Seas.
Do we have any idea where the Sino-Tibetan family of languages originated, or at least of the Chinese branch of this family?
I believe most of the oldest Chinese prehistoric remains are scattered along or around the valley of the Yellow River. Is that also where it is hypothesised that the oldest forms of the language originated, and/or the oldest place where its Sino-Tibetan ancestral speakers dwelled?

This wiki page, History of China, provides some "basic" knowledge:
The "earliest written record of Chinese" (aka oracle script) was found in bones (of ox, cow) and shells (of tortoise) in 安陽. It's about 商 dynasty (1600–1046 b.c.).
About the preceding one, 夏 dynasty (bc 2070 - 1600), there was one newest discovery, related to the myth "great flood", and 鯀 & 禹.
This megaflood occurred in 1922 ±28 b.c., in the place of 喇家, in today  Qinghai.
A relevant article: Rocks tell story of China's great flood.
have fun :)


Does 躲 mean hide for a long time while 藏 can also mean hide for a short while? I just want to confirm if my research on the usage is correct or not for 躲 and 藏.

Based on my research so far, 躲 means hide (people) while 藏 means hide (objects).  I'm unsure about the timing of the word because I heard that 躲 also means hide for a long time while 藏 can also mean hide for a short while.

Is that true?

You are partly correct!
躲 usually means hide (people), and 藏 means hide (object).
However, 躲 is basically like the active form of hide, and 藏 is the passive form of hide.
For example, 小白兔躲在草叢裏 means the bunny hid itself in the bush, while 小男孩把小白兔藏在草叢裏 means the bunny was hidden by the boy.
Hope this can help you!


How common is the character 唷 (pinyin: yō) in Mandarin? I have been searching for an official version of the Pinyin chart and I came across multiple variations of it. One of the charts I saw had the combination "yo". A quick search showed that one character it is used with is 唷 (yō).

The definition of 唷 is:

  (interjection expressing surprise) Oh!
  My!

My question is, why is "yo" omitted from some Pinyin charts? Is it a rare combination or is there any other reason? (Judging from the above definition, it seems like the hanzi is used frequently enough?)

Also, in this chart, yo is in the slot for "y+o" but in this article, it mentioned as a combination of i+o.

That is but one inconsistency. There are many more differences from one chart to the other (For example, some charts don't have "yun" but there are clearly hanzi that use it). Is there an official set of combinations? (I found some compilations of the combinations but I don't know if some initial-final combinations are in use now.)

P.S. I read an article about "er" being part of a group of four special vowels and about how erroneous it was to place it in the chart with other pinyin finals. Does anyone know more about this? I can't find the link for the article so I don't have enough information to create a new question.

Major dictionaries published in mainland China usually have the official Pinyin chart as appendix.

You can download the official pdf of the Pinyin system from the government site: http://www.moe.gov.cn/ewebeditor/uploadfile/2015/03/02/20150302165814246.pdf

You can also find it on wikisource: https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E6%B1%89%E8%AF%AD%E6%8B%BC%E9%9F%B3%E6%96%B9%E6%A1%88

You also need to have a basic understanding of Chinese phonology and the Pinyin system. For instance, when there is no initial, finals beginning with 'i' should be written as 'y', and finals beginning with 'ü' should be written as 'yu'. Hope this clears your questions about yo is in the slot for "y+o" but in this article, it mentioned as a combination of i+o and some charts don't have "yun" but there are clearly hanzi that use it.

In my personal experience, the character 唷 is not very commonly used. 哟 is perhaps more common.

On the whole, interjections are often exceptions from phonological rules. (Think of the English word 'hmm'.) In Chinese, the pronunciation of interjections are often fluid. If a sound combination is only used in interjections and no other character uses this sound combination, it could be considered not part of the normal phonology and thus is not included in the Pinyin chart.


Should old texts characters be modernized? When referring to old texts should their characters be modernized?

For example if I were to quote/use:

  㕥

Should 㕥 be “updated” to 以? Even if the text is written in traditional?

Perhaps another good example is:

  呌

vs. 叫?

Should the original texts be mainted? Or updated?

This seems more suitable for a meta question, but in any case I'm heavily against the idea of changing the original text.

Firstly, an advanced question in ancient literature should primarily be targeted towards seasoned experts in the language, with question exposure being a secondary concern, to get the best possible answer. Many obsolete variants reveal information about the text that wouldn't have been captured using the modern variant, including alternative semantic interpretations, geographical or era-specific usage (as many variants were created during eras of fragmentation) that may greatly aid in the interpretation of the text.

Secondly, StackExchange in general heavily favours a well-researched Q&A dialogue with emphasis on brevity, so if readers on the side cannot read a piece of text due to unfamiliar characters, they should take the opportunity to conduct their own research and learn something new, not to expect others to simplify the text for them (and in the end still not being able to contribute anything meaningful).

Lastly, there is no automatic detection and conversion for archaic variants to their modern forms, so this places undue weight on the question-asker.

The only time I think it is acceptable to change the variant is if it causes display problems on many computers due to encoding. However, even then it is better to provide an image of the character or describe it using ideographic description sequences.


What kind of pen/brush do 水笔 and 签名笔 refer to? I was casually browsing Chinese artist blog, and the artist states that he/she uses 圆珠笔 签名笔 and 水笔 as medium for art.

I know what a ballpoint pen is. However, I am not sure what kind of pen is 签名笔. Is it a fountain ink pen?

Additionally, I am very confuse about the term 水笔, since I thought it refers to watercolor. However, when I search pictures on internet, only pen pictures appear.

圆珠笔 simply refers to ball pens. No questions there regardless of the dialect or personal usage preference.

签名笔 could be referring to gel ink pen in common sense. But for artists I highly doubt that. A good possibility is technical pens. I am an architect myself and this is essential for anyone who wants a clean drawing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_pen

水笔 is definitely not water color. It's a formal term for pen.


Difference between 汉语 and 华文 A Singaporean friend of mine calls his Chinese: 华文. I didn't realise that this also meant Chinese.

What is the difference between 华文 and 汉语?

It should be 华语. May be it is a Singapore thing to use the term 华文.

华 or 华夏 is the origin of Chinese culture. While 汉 is one of the greatest and longest ruling dynasty in Chinese history. The words 华 and 汉 along with 唐 (another great dynasty) are commonly used as representative of "Chinese"

华语, 汉语 and 唐話 (Cantonese) all mean "Chinese spoken language" (中国语)
Both 汉文/ 汉字 and 唐字 (Cantonese) mean "Chinese written language" (中文/中国字)
Both 华人 and 唐人(Cantonese) mean "Chinese people" (中国人)


What's the difference between 蝦 and 鰕? I found there are two characters for "xia1" (ghra as in Middle Chinese), 蝦 and 鰕.

Could someone explain what the difference is?

You should use 蝦. As can be seen in zdic.net 鰕 used to mean shrimp, but is not used anymore in this meaning. In Japan it however is still a common character.

Using Google:

蝦 site:tw has about 7,060,000 results
鰕 site:tw has about 29,400 results

The latter is used in some exotic fish names.


How is my sentence? 我以为我没有工商卡，可是，我顺便找到了。 I wrote this message to a friend on WeChat, who previously helped me open a 工商银行 account:

  我以为我没有工商卡，可是，我顺便找到了。我说错了。
  I thought I had no ICBC bankcard, but, I stumbled upon one.  I said the wrong thing.

I was doing something else, and I found another bankcard from 工商银行 which I had long forgotten about, and realized I told him the wrong thing earlier.

I'm a bit uncomfortable with what I wrote:

I'm not sure if 工商卡 is valid; maybe I should have written 工商银行卡 but it's a bit long.  It's not a credit card, but just a simple bankcard, so I didn't want to use 信用卡.
This is my first attempt at using 顺便 in a sentence.  I think it's okay, but I'm not 100% sure.  I don't see it violating advice given here What is the difference between 随手 and 顺便？

I'm just after a critique of this snippet.

It sounds weird using 顺便 here. I think you should use 无意中 (by accident/undesignedly) instead, e.g. 我以为我没有工商卡，可是（or use 结果 instead to emphasize the opposite result）我无意中找出来一张。

Note that 顺便 is intentional. e.g. 今天我去见我导师，顺便去大学图书馆借本书。The action that going to the library by the way is still intentional, it's planned. But for this case, the result that finding out the card is unmeant, undesigned. As you said 我以为我没有工商卡, so you won't try to search the card intentionally.

PS: 工商卡 is valid, but we use 工行卡 or 工行的卡 more because 工商银行 is abbreviated to 工行 ususally. Similarly, you can say 招行/建行/中行/农行 etc.


Comparison of tools for converting traditional to simplified Chinese There are many free online tools that can convert Traditional Chinese characters to Simplified Chinese characters. However, most of them don't look at context to provide an accurate translation; they just use a table to convert each character one at a time.

It's my assumption that established, for-profit companies have invested more and can translate more accurately between Traditional and Simplified Chinese. I have access to the following tools and want to know if any is more accurate than the other:

OS X 10.10 (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH11036?locale=en_US)
Google Translate (https://translate.google.com)
Microsoft Word (still trying to figure out if it works on Mac, but I do have Office on Windows available if needed)

Is my assumption correct, or do these services just convert each character individually without accounting for differences? Are there other tools that are better?

Tools followed the following rules to convert different language with their database.

idiom. e.g.心想事成
famous people and things. e.g.乾隆
there are the same pronunciation of adjective. e.g.乾燥
one by one characters.

Traditional and simplified Chinese are special, they have the same pronunciation of characters.

But some words and expressions are different, and tools won't translate for that. e.g. Traditional:計程車 = Simplified:出租车or的士,but you won't get the result.

So followed the following rules.

famous people and things. e.g.乾隆 <-> 乾隆,周杰倫 <-> 周杰伦
there are the same pronunciation of adjective. e.g.乾燥 <-> 干燥
one by one characters.

The above are my experience, i am a programer and i am taiwanese.


What is this a mistranlation of? I ran across this pillow

the other day and thought that the expression was a little odd. According to this one girl on Instagram (a very reliable source, I know) it's a #mistranslation. This, along with the fact that if you Google the exact phrase there are a couple of Chinese web pages leads me to believe that "You are in my heart. Lonely but afraid." is a mistranslated Chinese expression. What is the correct and/or untranslated expression?

There is a Chinese idiom 心如鹿撞 that has " deer" and " heart" in the same phrase. It means "like a deer is ramming the heart"

We use this phrase to describe someone's heart is pounding due to excitement or fear.

For example:

When you are alone with someone you love in the dark. The anticipation and excitement would make your heart pounds (心如鹿撞)
When you are stopped in traffic by a police officer, with a dead body in your car trunk. You may try to act calm, but the anxiety and fear would make your heart pump like crazy(心如鹿撞)

As for the deer image and the phrase "you are in my heart" (implies a headline: "a deer is in my heart")--  It  should be followed by the subline: " My heart is pounding in excitement" instead of " lonely but afraid" (you don't have a dead body under your bed, do you?)


Does pronouncing every word accurately make you sound less like a native speaker? There are words that many natives Chinese speakers mispronounce. In speaking, if one always pronounces every word correctly (and I believe he/she should), does it make him/her less like a native speaker?

Consider the following example:

  她做完针灸(jiǔ)，又扎(zā)辫搽(chá)粉完后，因为担忧起自己酸痛的脖颈(gěng)，伛偻(yǔ lǚ)的身材和龟(jūn)裂的皮肤带来的创(chuāng)伤而缄(jiān)默。

I am not sure how many native speakers can pronounce the above paragraph completely correctly without referring to the pinyin. But if one Chinese learner does pronounce every character correctly, ironically does it make him/her less like a native speaker?

As a college student, I can easily pronounce every of them correctly. But as others point out, correctness on pronunciation doesn't mean nativeness, which represents itself more by word choice, tone, accent, fluency, etc. Another reason is, some of these "often misread" words are actually dialects prevailing in part of the land, but because of the standardization they are promoted to be the "correct" one, while people in other areas rarely use or refuse to use it. e.g.脖颈、掉色


How do Chinese speakers pronounce unknown characters? I'm wondering what do Chinese speakers do when they are reading aloud and encounter a character they don't know (sometimes it happens, isn't it?).

In phonetic languages, there is a possibility to read an unknown word correctly, but in the ideographic ones you have no idea on the pronunciation. Meaning is also hard to guess, because that unknown word is likely to be a very narrow term. E.g. it's difficult to guess what the bleak or anticlinorium are, even having the context.

So what is the most common way for native Chinese speakers to read aloud unknown words?

When encountering unknown characters, native speakers often refer to dictionaries, which have pinyin of the unknown character.

While it is hard to guess the exact pronunciation of unknown characters, there are a subset of Chinese characters, called phonogram(形声字), whose pronunciation is related to part of the character. For example, 蛛(spider) has the same pronunciation with 朱.


In which ways can I express "to make s.o. jump" ? I would like to know if there are different ways in Mandarin or Cantonese to express the causative, examplified by the help of the sentence "to make s.o. jump".

The causative action can be expressed in many ways, the most common one in everyday Mandarin Chinese is 让, which is used together with the verb that expresses the action.

Make X jump can be 让X跳 or 让X跳起来 depending on the context.

To further elaborate the causative:

In addition 使 and 叫 can also be used.

使 means to cause, to enable or to apply/use/employ, etc. and is often used in written language, e.g. 什么使你这样想呢? What makes you think this way?
叫 in itself means to call, to summon or to shout but can be used to express causative when someone was explicitly ordered to do something, e.g. 大夫叫他卧床一两天。The doctor ordered(/instructed) him to stay in bed for a day or two.

In some cases you can mutually replace 让, 使, 叫, in some cases not.  For example if you make someone jump by ordering him/her to jump it's 叫, because you instruct him/her verbally to do so. On the other hand if you are acting carelessly e.g. with a burning torch or a sharp knife and you cause the other person jump to avoid getting hurt, it cannot be 叫, because you are not instructing or calling on this person to do something.

Also, note that when you see these verbs, they not necessarily express causative, all of these characters have their own set of meanings, but can be used to express to make someone do something.

To learn more about this, I suggest you look into a proper grammar or text book or just look up more example sentences here and here.


Comparing 朝 vs. 向 vs. 往 In talking about physical/geographical directions, I'm pretty comfortable using 朝 and 向 and 往 for the meaning of "to" or "toward". But I would be hard put to describe to a Chinese language learner any differences in usage or meaning among these three words. Are there any important differences?

See the Chinese Grammar Wiki. The explanation is quite extensive with many examples.

Some relevant parts:

  向 and 往 can be placed after the verb, however it has to be used with
  an appropriate verb, Often used verbs are 开, 飞, 发, 运, 送, 寄, 带, 驶 etc.
  As you can see, this are words that at least imply some sort of
  motion. In addition, compared to 向, 往 is used more often with those
  verbs, because 往 expresses the destination while 向 merely expresses a
  direction, 朝 cannot be used this way.

  When the action that takes place is specified to a specific target,
  use 向 or 朝. 往 cannot be used this way. Also, when the verb is a
  concrete action, the use of 向 and 朝 are the same, and they can be
  interchanged.

  When the verb has an abstract meaning, you can only use 向, and you
  cannot use 朝.


How to say "post" as in "post something online"? I can't find a dictionary translation of the word "post". For example,

  Did you see what I posted on Facebook?

or

  Have you seen my post on my Moments (Wechat)?

Update:

What do they say in northern China? (Colloquially)

Colloquially people use 'PO' (mostly in Southern China), 发, 贴, 放, or any verb that has a similar meaning.
Formal translation would be 发布 or 发表.

Did you see what I posted on Facebook? 你看见我在Facebook上PO的东西了吗？
Where did you post it? On WeChat Moments. 你发在哪了？微信朋友圈。


What does 甘蝦 mean when used as an answer to 保重? (Taiwan) On Taiwanese Facebook page I read a conversation under a post from a hospital. A lot of people of course write 保重 (get well), and the poster answers 甘蝦 to all of them. When looking up this in a dictionary all I can understand is that it means "sweet shrimp" ...

So what does 甘蝦 mean?

It is a similar pronunciation of Hokkien 感謝/感谢, so the meaning is to thank.

The 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 shows that the pronunciation is kám-siā.

It is a style of humor, not a joke.
We use them a lot.

Another example is 蝦米/虾米.
It is the similar pronunciation of Hokkien 什麼/什么 (what).
This one has been spread to China already.


What is the meaning of 多米 in the music service? My friend often sends me links from the Duomi music service. Where does the name come from? 多米 seems to mean "a lot of rice" if I translate it directly.

My guess is that it comes from the musical scale DO-re-MI in English.  Googling didn’t turn up a standard way to transliterate this – someone used 豆, which may be closer to the English sound, but the more positive connotations of 多 might have led the person coining the name to opt for that instead.  Anyway, 豆米 sounds like some kind of Taiwanese dessert, not the right fit for a music website! :)


Translation/meaning of 叫阮的名 song by 巫啟賢 What is the meaning/translation  of the song lyrics. I grew up listening to this song and it brings me great memories. However, I do not know Hokkien. If you are willing to share or point me to a webpage which has translated the lyrics to English, that'd be great! Thank you.

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMmbIU8NqIU

Lyrics:

谁在叫阮的名 一句比一句痛

亲像在问阮甘会惊寒

不需要别人来讲 阮心内嘛知影

是你的声 是你的声

谁住在阮的梦 一住就一世人

尚惊日头会将咱拆散

虽然离开那呢远 阮犹原会知影

是你的影 是你的影

叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

谁在叫阮的名 一句比一句痛

亲像在问阮甘会惊寒

不需要别人来讲 阮心内嘛知影

是你的声 是你的声

谁住在阮的梦 一住就一世人

尚惊日头会将咱拆散

虽然离开那呢远 阮犹原会知影

是你的影 是你的影

叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

谁在叫阮的名 一句比一句痛

(Who calls our name. Calling one sentence is more painful than the former one.)

  亲像在问阮甘会惊寒

(Just like asking us whether we are cold.)

  不需要别人来讲 阮心内嘛知影

(There is no need for other people's words. We know in the bottom of our hearts.)

  是你的声 是你的声

(It is your voice. It is your voice.)

  谁住在阮的梦 一住就一世人

(Who lives in our dream. Once it lives, it lives for entire live.)

  尚惊日头会将咱拆散

(The most fearful is that sun will separate us apart.)

  虽然离开那呢远 阮犹原会知影

(Although the departure is far. We still can know.)

  是你的影 是你的影

(It is your appearance. It is your appearance.)

  叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

(Calling our name. We spend our entire life to listen carefully.)

  当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

(At the beginning of the time when I was a child, It is too late to let you know that you are our lives.)

  叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

(Calling our name. We need your company.)

  人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

(We want you to hold our hands to pass the road of our lives.)

  谁在叫阮的名 一句比一句痛

(Who calls our name. Calling one sentence is more painful than the former one.)

  亲像在问阮甘会惊寒

(Just like asking us whether we are cold.)

  不需要别人来讲 阮心内嘛知影

(There is no need for other people's words. We know in the bottom of our hearts.)

  是你的声 是你的声

(It is your voice. It is your voice.)

  谁住在阮的梦 一住就一世人

(Who lives in our dream. Once it lives, it lives for entire live.)

  尚惊日头会将咱拆散

(The most fearful is that sun will separate us apart.)

  虽然离开那呢远 阮犹原会知影

(Although the departure is far. We still can know.)

  是你的影 是你的影

(It is your appearance. It is your appearance.)

  叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

(Calling our name. We spend our entire life to listen carefully.)

  当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

(At the beginning of the time when I was a child, It is too late to let you know that you are our lives.)

  叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

(Calling our name. We need your company.)

  人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

(We want you to hold our hands to pass the road of our lives.)

  叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

(Calling our name. We spend our entire life to listen carefully.)

  当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

(At the beginning of the time when I was a child, It is too late to let you know that you are our lives.)

  叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

(Calling our name. We need your company.)

  人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

(We want you to hold our hands to pass the road of our lives.)

  叫阮的名 阮用一生斟酌听

(Calling our name. We spend our entire life to listen carefully.)

  当初细汉未赴乎你了解 你是阮的生命

(At the beginning of the time when I was a child, It is too late to let you know that you are our lives.)

  叫阮的名 阮需要你来作伴

(Calling our name. We need your company.)

  人生的路途阮爱你牵阮走

(We want you to hold our hands to pass the road of our lives.)


How is the pinyin 'iu' pronounced? How does one pronounce the 'iu' sound (as in liu4 = six)?

I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'.

But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [iu:] as in 'few'. (And from the pinyin, I suppose it would make more sense.)

Is a 'u' sound the proper way to pronounce it? Or is this merely a regional difference in pronunciation (where both are acceptable)?

The short version: I think English "go" is closer to the correct sound than English "few". If you want a non-scientific description which is reasonably accurate, I would use "low" (let's switch to the same consonant) with an added but not emphasised [i] between "l" and "ow".
The slightly longer version: Pinyin -iu is short for -iou, which means that if you stress the syllable and pronounce it very clearly, it rhymes with Pinyin you. For example, listen to the liu (select the third tone, it's longest and clearest) pronounced here.
However, note that the  diacritic (tone mark) in liù is placed on the u and not the i, which means that u is emphasised and i reduced. This can be written in several ways, but in Duanmu's The Phonology of Standard Chinese (2007), the broad transcription is [liəu] but in the narrow transcription, the [i] has been reduced to a superscript "j", so [lʲəu]. This reduction is fairly obvious if you listen to natural, connected speech. It's also common to further reduce the [əu]. If you listen to the same sources as above, but select the fourth tone for the same syllable liu, you will hear the difference.
If you're curious about other learner-related problems with Pinyin, such as other cases where one letter stands for many sounds (i is the most obvious example because the sounds are completely different), I've summarised the important ones here: A guide to Pinyin traps and pitfalls: Learn Mandarin pronunciation, which also contains some audio samples.


How can I say "grade on a curve"? The Future for Chinese/English Dictionaries mentioned that MDBG doesn't have "grading on a curve", and it seems that it's still rather hard to find a translation for this. A rather literal translation might be "按曲线评分". Here are some suggestions from around the web:

Google Translate: 曲线上的等级
Wikipedia: 拉curve、常模参照、拉曲线
Canvas Help: 评分曲线
Blackboard Help: 曲线成绩

What are the most usual terms for "grading on a curve" or "to curve" (i.e., to grade on a curve, usually with the effect of raising grades, possibly by a set number of points rather than to fit a predetermined distribution of grades), both the practice (noun) and the action (verb)?
I guess it's telling that Wikipedia named their article "拉curve" rather than something with only Chinese characters, and the article was created as late as September 2019, so perhaps there is no established term in Chinese?
If you're not familiar with grading on a curve, here is the description from Wikipedia:

In education, relative grading, marking on a curve (BE) or grading on a curve (AE, CE) (also referred to as curved grading, bell curving, or using grading curves) is a method of assigning grades to the students in a class in such a way as to obtain or approach a pre-specified distribution of these grades having a specific mean and derivation properties, such as a normal distribution (also called Gaussian distribution).1 The term "curve" refers to the bell curve, the graphical representation of the probability density of the normal distribution, but this method can be used to achieve any desired distribution of the grades – for example, a uniform distribution.
拉Curve1[3]（又称为常模参照[4]、拉曲线[5]）是一种教育界常用的评级方法，英式英语称为marking on a curve，美式英语称为grading on a curve ，又称为curved grading、bell curving、grading curves）是以预先设定的正态分布(即高斯分布)形式评核学生的分数或等级[6]。术语“Curve”是指以图表形式展示正态分布的概率密度的曲线。大学常用的评级方法GPA便是使用拉Curve来区分一级、二级及三级荣誉。而著名的香港中学会考(HKCEE)及香港高级程度会考(HKALE)便是采用拉Curve形式评分。

It is called 标准分. Its opposite is called 原始分.
标准分 is the modified score according to the distribution of the score in the class.
Its calculation method might be different from curved scores, but the logic is the same.
The problem is, in China, modified scores are rarely used. Original scores are used in almost all situations. So the word for the curved score is not wildly used.
标准分 was sort of an education experiment decades ago. Teachers tried but finally decided not to use it. So, people might not understand this word these days. I know this word because my parents who are in their 60s were educators at that time. But I myself never attended any school that uses 标准分 or any kind of modified scores.
And letters grades (优，良，中，差，及格，不及格) are usually only considered as additional information because original scores are almost always available. So usually grades are not very important but the original scores are. The original scores are usually out of 100, 120, or 150.


Which dictionaries reveal the commonly mistaken usage of a word (i.e. how NOT to use a word)? I encountered a very useful dictionary eight years ago, but have never been able to find a copy of it because I don't know what it's called. It not only gave examples in context of how to use the words, but also gave examples of how NOT to use the word (marked with an 【误】, if I remember correctly). Can anyone identify a dictionary that has this feature?

I recommend this《小學生的國語辭典》approved by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education for their primary school students. It contains the following features:

语文帮手 (or language assistant) to highlight certain words that require
particular attention. For example:

  「人才」有才能和德性的人。例: ...
  請注意：指才能和知質義時「人才」也可以寫成「人材」：但是有木料或原料的意思時「木材」和「藥材」不可以寫作「木才」、「藥才」。

小提醒 (or small reminders) for listing synonyms (相似詞), antonyms (相反詞)
and active terms (活用詞). For example:

  「井井有倏」形容倏理分明。例：他井井有倏，很受上司的器重。 相似詞：井然有序。相反詞：亂七八糟。

追本溯源 (or trace the origin) to explain the historical background that
give rise to the word. For example:

  「上當」的本義是指把物品典當給當鋪。據說從前有一个讀書人以經營當鋪為生，店裡的股東欺負他老實,紛紛把不值錢的物品拿來典當高價，沒多久，當鋪就關門大吉了。於是人們就把欺騙別人的行為,叫做「上當」。

Note that the dictionary is written in traditional Chinese (繁体字) and that it is availabe on Google Books.


Learning Chinese using traditional characters I believe in Taiwan people use traditional Chinese characters for writing whereas in China they use simplified characters. Assuming this information is correct I'd like to kindly request suggestions for good textbooks teaching Chinese using traditional characters. Thanks a lot for your help.

Learning the characters is mostly a matter of memorization. You will need to learn a lot of characters in the most efficient way possible. Textbooks are not good for this. Using a spaced repetition system is normally the best method. A free spaced repetition program is Anki (http://ankisrs.net). You can find "decks" of traditional characters within Anki to start learning.

A pay version of Anki that lets you write the characters stroke by stroke is Skritter. I personally like Skritter and have been using it for several years. I find writing out the character helps me to remember it.

To supplement the learning of characters you are going to want to get some form of grammar textbook. I like Ross's "Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar."


Wishing a happy 30th wedding anniversary I wish to make a short video wishing my girlfriends parents a happy 30th wedding anniversary. The originally come from Hong Kong and speak Cantonese. I haven't met them yet, and my girlfriend told me I would probably call them "uncle" and "aunt".

What I want to say is something along the lines:

"Dear uncle and aunt, congratulations on your wedding anniversary".

What I have so far is:

"Dear uncle and aunt,

结婚纪念日快乐"

I'm not Asian myself, so I would appreciate if you could help me make a sentence. I'm in doubt about the following:

Can I improve the sentence/is it respectful?
What is the best way to find out how it's pronounced in Cantonese?

Thank you very much.

EDIT: Here's some context: They know my name and I have sent them two postcards before.

uncle and aunt

well, address them as "uncle, auntie", if they understand english (ask your gf)

in cantonese, address them as 世伯．伯有

世伯 - gf's father

伯有 - gf's mother, originally, it should be 伯母. well, cantonese speaking people have many taboos, "伯母" sounds similar to "百無" (hundred + nothing / lack --> lack everything). so, it's common to say 伯有 (有 means have --> have everything)

the pronunciation is:

世伯
伯有

imo, your approach is too "direct". maybe, try to introduce yourself, then mentioned you "heard" from your girlfriend that, it's their wedding anniversary. so, you make this short video for congratulation.

i would suggest something like:

世伯　伯友 (or uncle, auntie)

你哋好 (~ how do you do)

我係阿 Sam (supposed "sam" is your name, ~ i'm sam)

聽 mary 講 (supposed "mary" is your gf's name, ~ i heard from mary that)

聽日係你地結婚30周年嘅紀念日 (~ tomorrow is your 30th wedding anniversaries)

喺呢度 (~ here, in the video)

祝你地結婚紀念日快樂 (~ wish you a happy wedding anniversary)

bye :)

check the above text with your girlfriend, get her approval :)

you may use the multi-function chinese character database to find out the cantonese pronunciation.

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/

if you're using mac os x, copy the text to textedit.app, the text-to-speech is quite good, you may learn from it. i guess that windows has similar function, which i don't have experience.

have fun, good luck la :)


What is the difference between 假如 and 例如? What's the difference between 假如 and 例如? As far as I know, their usage is the same.

Their usage are quite different.

假如 means "if" or "in case".

例如 means "such as" or "for example".


sentence structure when talking about weather Is it possible to say :明天晴天   or should I always use "shi" in this type of sentence "明天是晴天" ?
If both of them are right,is there any difference between them?

天晴 sunny (adj)

晴天 sunny day (n)

明天天晴 = (it will be) sunny tomorrow.

明天是個晴天 = Tomorrow is a sunny day.

If you wrote 明天晴天, it would be a noun (tomorrow) followed by another noun (sunny day). The verb 是 (is) and the classifier(個) are omitted.


How do Chinese people call each other? In China, most people have one of 100 most common surnames (老百姓). So it is common that people have the same surname in a classroom.

I wonder how Chinese people call each other in a case where there are many people, and people are in the same hierarchy such as in a classroom, where kinship terms don't work properly, I think.

I also learned that calling each other by given names are only allowed between closed acquaintances and good friends.

So how do Chinese people call each other if there is no appropriate kinship terms (e.g. in a classroom, or possibly in workplace where people are in the same hierarchy)?

If people are familiar with each other, they can call each other by full name, given name, nickname, etc ... There was once a new leader who came to my group and explicitly asked how we are calling each other now, and how we want to be called. The real situation in my group is that most of us call each other by a nickname (which is somehow derived from the proper name). The full name and given are also used.

If the two are not too familiar, they will use the full name. But the change from full name to given name or nick name can happen very quickly, maybe after only two or three conversations. One does not need permission to use the given name but should be careful with nicknames.

But remember, Chinese rarely call someone with only one character. So is someone's given name has only one character, then there will be nobody calling him by only his given name (however close they are). Everybody will call him with the full name (two characters) unless there is a nickname that they like more.

Surname only is rarely used, as it usually contains only one character. But if the surname does have two characters, it can be used to call some one.

Surname + suffix can be used to call a leader, professor, teacher, etc., with suffix being the appropriate title, or to call a customer, with suffix being 先生、女士、etc. (There should be more situations that this should be used.) Classmates or colleagues do not call each other in this way.

Note: I went to college in Beijing and now work in a company in Beijing. The way of calling each other may be very different in different areas and may be different in different companies (this is the reason why the new-coming leader is asking about this). And this only describes how people call each other when they are familiar with each other (being classmates or colleagues), and no one is superior to the other.


Km/liter or liter/100km in China? 公里/公升？ 公升/100公里？ In America we describe the fuel consumption of a car with miles/gallon. I know in some countries people use liters/100 km. Some countries use km/liter.

Which format do Chinese people use, L/100 km or km/L?

公里/公升？ 公升/100公里？

In China 升/百公里(L/100km) is used as the measurement of 油耗.

  油耗：俗称汽车在行驶完100公里的耗油量。
  耗油量参数是指汽车行驶百公里消耗的燃油量(以“升”「L」为计量单位)。

[ Oil consumption: Commonly known as the oil consumption for the car driving 100 kilometres.
The parameter of oil consumption is the consumed oil capacity for the car driving 100 kilometres (taking liter as the unit of measurement). ]


Translation: Street-Smarts/Street Smart? How to translate street smart into Mandarin?

Baidu gives:

  n.     城市生活方式、生存能力

but that's can't be right...

As in:
A street smart cop.

or

A cop with street-smarts.

Originally it means empirical wisdom gleaned from the streets.

市井聪明, 街市里积累的智慧

市井 [street]∶街市,
    [urban vulgar class]  指城市中流俗之人

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/849797.htm

聪明【英译】wise；sensitive clever；smart

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/95047/11119951.htm


Which is the most frequently used tone? The most difficult for me in learning Chinese is memorizing the correct tone.

I tried to find on web what the most frequently used tones are, but it seems to be hard to find.

I suppose if one tone is used 50 % of the time, I will just need to memorize the other ones. For instance tone 4 seems to be very frequently used, and I will just have to memorise perfectly tones 1, 2 and 3.

I did some searching for tone distribution chinese and found this post ("What is the distribution of tones in Mandarin Chinese?") on Quora.

One person who responded took a list of characters and extracted, with some programming, the tone(s) for each character. (Multiple pronunciations are permitted and counted separately.) The result he got was:

First tone:

24.2% (counting by characters)
26.9% (counting by appearance in words)

Second tone:

28.1% (counting by characters)
24.7% (counting by appearance in words)

Third tone:

16.3% (counting by characters)
18.3% (counting by appearance in words)

Fourth tone:

31.4% (counting by characters)
30.1% (counting by appearance in words)

However, I am not sure what exactly was counted as a "word".

More importantly, there is also the presence of a tone sandhi. This allows for a "neutral" tone (e.g. in 妈妈) and in a sequence of two repeated third tones, for the first third tone to shift to a second tone (e.g. in 你好). (There are also some more examples with the behaviour of specific characters.) As a result, working off of dictionary entries may not reflect actual frequencies of tones, and moreover, the specific tone used will depend on context.

In any case, this and my experiences with Chinese indicate that there's no one tone that comes up overwhelmingly frequently. However, there are some pointers in this question for tone memorisation, and I particularly like the idea here.


How to say "at the expensive/cost of"? I want to say the following:

  过了这几十年，中国的经济发展了很多，但是 ［at the expense of]中国的环境。

I'm not sure if the last part of the sentence is how I would say "at the expense of China's environment"; it was more of a literal translation.

Could someone please help me correctly translate this?

I disagree with trying to translate English idioms or sentence structures word for word into Chinese. I would suggest that something like this would capture your intended meaning in a more natural way:

这几十年来，中国的经济发展了很多，但却牺牲了自然环境。

This suggests that the environment was collateral damage. If you wanted to put more emphasis on the extent of environmental destruction as the source of growth:

这几十年来，中国牺牲了生态环境，换取经济的快速发展。


"你睡他那层不就得了吗" what does it mean? “不就得了” What does this sentence mean?
I understand all the characters, but cannot understand the sentence i saw in a tv series. 不就得了， how to translate this?

The most important part is that the speaker is impatient now, and want to suggest something simple to stop the conversation.

不: isn't it xxx?
就：imediately become
得: achieve, solve
了: finish indicator
XXX 不就得了 ：If XXX was done, isn't the problem solved?

(let me try another version) Isn't XXX good enough to solve the problem?
(Or simply) Why not just XXX
It would be exchangeable with 不如就XXX！
Example:
A: 我非常不想去这个聚会，里面有不想面对的人。I don't want to go to this party. There is someone I don't want to meet.
B: 不去不就得了。 Why not just not going there.
Or similarly
B: 不如就不去。


Is knowing how Chinese Characters are formed common knowledge? Are Chinese taught in school how Chinese characters are formed (mainly phono-semantic compounds) or do they just bruteforce remember them? At least I know Japanese people don't learn phonetic parts of Chinese characters in school.

This is a textbook excerpt from the first grade, isn't it cute?

六书 is taught in 6th to 9th grade in mainland China, so I think the answer is yes. Good teachers often tell you how the character is constructed so that you remember it more easily.

As for phono-semantic characters, you don't really need a teacher to tell you about that. When you learn the characters 中 and 钟, it's obvious that they are related. Next time you see a character like 种, you would expect it's pronunciation is similar. It's just too intuitive. You observe the rule and apply them, with or without a teacher's help.

I think it's a bit like verb tenses in English. You observe the basic rules, you apply them to new words, then it fails because you meet an irregular verb, then you'll have to remember it. As time passes you observe that even irregular verbs have some regularities, then you try to apply your observations to new words, but they also fail at times. Chinese is like that, but messier...


Is there a name for 2-character "in-between" words in which both characters are abbreviations for individual 2-character words? As I improve my vocabulary, I'm encountering a lot of "in-between words": they are 2-character words where both characters are both contractions of individual 2-character words.  I don't know if these words have a name.

Question: Is there a name for 2-character "in-between" words in which both characters are abbreviations for individual 2-character words?

To give an idea of what I'm referring to:

舒适 seems to combine 舒服 and 合适;
谢绝 seems to combine 感谢 and 拒绝;
互动 seems to combine 互相 and 活动;
短暂 seems to combine 短期 and 暂时;
节庆 seems to combine 节日 and 庆祝;
损害 seems to combine 损失 and 伤害.

I'm not sure if all these particular examples are exactly correct, but hopefully you get the overall idea.  (Please ensure answers actually answer the question, and not just comment on the examples.)

Two characters words are all compound words. There are different ways to coin compound words
One way to coin compound word is to combine two characters that share a similar meaning to make it specific
Most single character words contain multiple meanings thus make them too general for expressing a more specific meaning.
Example (adj + adj) :

沉 can mean 'sing' or 'heavy'
To make a specific term, we add one more character to it to clarify the meaning
没 also have the meaning of 'sink', That make '沉没'  specifically  mean 'sink'
重 also have the meaning of 'heavy' That make, '沉重' specifically  mean 'heavy'

Example (verb + verb) :

攻 means 'attack' but it also contains the meaning of: study; specialize in; work at
擊 mainly mean 'hit' but it also contains the meaning of: 'attack'
攻擊 is a specific term for 'attack'

~

Question: Is there a name for 2-character "in-between" words in which both characters are abbreviations for individual 2-character words?

攻擊 are not abbreviations for 攻打 and 打擊

攻擊,  攻打 and 打擊 are all compound words that happen to share one component (攻擊 and 攻打 share 攻; 攻打 and 打擊 share 打)

Example from this post 认识 vs 知道 based on glyph origins

見識: experience(v) = (see + know) *'to see to know'
見識: experience(n)= (see + knowledge) knowledge from what you had seen
學識: knowledge; acquirements (n) = (learn/study + know) knowledge from what you had studied
常識: common sense; general knowledge(n) = (common + knowledge) knowledge that is common

They are all compound words that share the 識 component
It doesn't mean 見識 are abbreviations of 眼見/看見 and 認識/知識
It doesn't mean 常識 are abbreviations of 平常/通常 and 認識/知識


Does this dictionary confuse "start at" with "startled at"? 我觉得是词典搞错了， 应该是 startle 才有”吃惊“的意思吧？

What you seem to be missing is that one of the meanings of the English word "start" is roughly synonymous with "startle" (in both its transitive and intransitive forms). From the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Definition of start
intransitive verb
1 a : to move suddenly and violently, spring: *started* angrily to his feet
b : to react with a sudden brief involuntary movement: *started* when a shot rang out
[...]

transitive verb
1 : to cause to leave a place of concealment, flush: *start* a rabbit

Accordingly there does not seem to be any mistake in this dictionary, nor is this really a question about the Chinese language.


Why is the Chinese word "girl" or "女" not showing up on pinyin The correct pinyin of girl in Nu, but when you type nu in none of the first searches are "Nu", or even if u type just "n" for that matter.
Why does it not appear, as it is a pretty common word.

Try 'nv'. It's actually 'nǚ' and since 'v' is not in mandarin pronunciation, it's quite reasonable to use 'v' in place.


Is 在瞬间 something like 'at some point'? The phrase 在瞬间 zài shùnjiān seems literally to mean 'in an instant'. But usage-wise, is it more like 'at some point'? Or am I off the mark?

I don't think 在瞬间 is used as often as 一瞬间， 瞬间，在那一瞬间，etc, which means at that very moment.

However, I can think of one situation where 在瞬间 can be perfectly used.

  那座桥在瞬间崩塌了。

This sentence means the bridge collapsed in no time. So yes, 在瞬间 means in an instant in this case.

If you can provide more context, I'll be more than happy to follow up.


Does 神的存在是一个不以人们的主观意志为转移的客观事实 use the 以...为 grammar construct? I read this sentence in the book 游子吟:

  神的存在是一个不以人们的主观意志为转移的客观事实

I'm unclear about what "以" and "为" are doing here. I Googled to see if "以...为" is a common construct; this page says that you can say "以 A 为 B", which means "use/take A as B".

Assuming this sentence is using the same construct, then A would be 人们的主观意志 ("man's subjective will") and B is "转移", right? However, the page I linked to seems to indicate that A and B must be nouns. I looked up "转移" and the main definitions are almost all verbs. Google Translate tells me that it can also mean "metastasis", but that's a medical term, so I'm not sure if that's the correct translation.

My current best attempt at a translation is:

  The existence of God is an objective fact, which we can't use man's subjective will to change.

Is this sentence using "以...为"? If so, am I correctly identifying A and B? And if so, does that mean B can also be a verb? Or is my understanding completely off?

I think “为” is misused here. It could be clearer if remove 为 or replace it with "而". The meaning is just what @AurusHuang provided.


What is the difference between 概念 and 观念？ I recently read on jukuu.com “  它使老的观念向新的观念转变。”   This sentence makes sense, but I'm trying to figure out whether it would be much different if I used a term like "概念“ instead of 观念. Is there a clear distinction between the two?

Cheers

@Stan's comment is precise enough. To add my own interpret by deconstructing the words,

念 primarily means idea with a slight connotation of motivation/intention.

概 means brief; summary; abstract, hence 概念 is the abstract of the idea => concept.

观 is literally view, so 观念 is the idea as you see it => opinion; view.


Is ䷊ a chinese character? Wiki refer of this character(here it's Chinese character)(you must see it in Chinese language)

Wiki refer of chinese_characters

These are Yijing Hexagram Symbols(4DC0— 4DFF).

In what degree can them be considered as Chinese characters? Or it's absolutely not.

䷀
䷁
䷂
䷃
䷄
䷅
䷆
䷇
䷈
䷉
䷊
䷋
䷌
䷍
䷎
䷏
䷐
䷑
䷒
䷓
䷔
䷕
䷖
䷗
䷘
䷙
䷚
䷛
䷜
䷝
䷞
䷟
䷠
䷡
䷢
䷣
䷤
䷥
䷦
䷧
䷨
䷩
䷪
䷫
䷬
䷭
䷮
䷯
䷰
䷱
䷲
䷳
䷴
䷵
䷶
䷷
䷸
䷹
䷺
䷻
䷼
䷽
䷾
䷿

Those are 六十四卦 symbols, which is extension of 八卦

They are not characters but symbols.

Each symbol has a corresponding Chinese character and representative meaning as the figures indicated

  For example, the symbol of the first 卦 is three solid lines. It is read as '乾' /quān/ and it represents '天'(heaven)

八卦

六十四卦


What does “5339 之（代） 5340 之（助）” mean in the lists of characters for the new HSK 2021? I have downloaded the last lists for new HSK, and there is somethig that i do not understand :
in upper levels HSK 7, 8, 9  the character 之 is presented like that : 5339 之（代） 5340 之（助）!
I do not see what is the link between 之 and the other characters between brackets
Anyone to help  ?

Possibly there is a distinction between a 代名詞 (pronoun) vs. 助詞 (particle). The 3rd person pronoun usage of 之 and ordinary relational connector 之 might be sufficiently different to be considered separate.
There might be a separate entry for 之 (動) for 動詞: the verb 'to go', also a meaning of 之.


Difference between 告白 and 表白 as verbs I don't understand the difference between the two, don't they both mean "to explain"? When would one be used over the other?

表白 is almost always used to someone (or a group of people), and it is usually feelings that are being explained. Most often it means "confessing your love or crush". So you can say "我向她表白" (I "explained" to her, which means I confessed my love to her) Without a romantic context, you can say "我一再表白，生怕别人误会" (I keep explaining, afraid of being misunderstood by people).
告白 has the same "express" meaning, but not as much "explain" as 表白. So the romantic example above can be exchanged with 告白, as in "我向她告白" (I express my love to her, which means the same thing), but the second example would not work with "告白".
In addition, 告白 can be used for public announcement, which you cannot use 表白 there. For example, "告白天下" means "announce to the world". This usage is a little dated but it is very much still understood.


Commonalities in Hong Kong place names I've been in Hong Kong long enough to notice some patterns appearing in the names of Hong Kong's places. Most of the places had 角 or 灣 in them.

For example:
角: 旺角, 大角嘴, 北角, 沙頭角

灣: 灣仔, 西灣河,  銅鑼灣, 荃灣

Is there a reason why 'corner' and 'bay' are used very commonly for place names in Hong Kong? I can guess for 'bay' because Hong Kong is a harbor with coasts, quarries and bays.

But for 角, why would so many places be named after corners?

Wikipedia has a page entitled Place names of Hong Kong, which mentions:

Kok (角) - point (of land), horn, angle

Point is also a common term in English place names.

A good example of this can be found on another Wiki page: Origins of names of cities and towns in Hong Kong. Here they have the example of 沙頭角:

City | Language Origins |  Meaning
Sha Tau Kok    | Chinese   | sandy head point

Another good example might be North Point (北角). As this ejinsight article examplains:

Many of Hong Kong’s geographical place names have been in use for more than 150 years. Some describe their specific locations. North Point is one of them.
North Point sits on the northernmost tip of Hong Kong Island, a major cross-harbor interchange on the MTR line.


What is the role of 清楚 in 一定要注意签订书面合同，核实清楚物业费、水费、...? What is the role of 清楚 in this sentence? Could they have written '核实得清楚‘ = 'verify clearly' or does ‘清楚‘ somehow work with '拖欠‘ = verify (the property) is clear of arrears.

I suppose it doesn't affect the meaning much either way. I just had a feeling it might not be a straightforward '核实（得）清楚‘。

The choices I see are:

核实清楚 verify clearly

清楚拖欠 be clear of arrears

  女：在签订二手房买卖合同时，一定要注意签订书面合同，核实清楚物业费、水费、煤气费‘电话费等与房屋有关的费用是否存在拖欠，在合同中要注明卖方迁出户口的期限，要注意保留好收据。

清楚 here is resultant complement for 核实 instead of adverbial, so the literal meaning is 'verify clear' (verify towards a clear result, think 'make clear') instead of 'verify clearly'.

If you have to insert 的/地/得, it should be 得 i.e. 核实得清楚, but that changes the sentence from imperative to declarative.

It's really just a figure of speech to emphasize 核实, as opposed to carry some actual meaning. The previous sentence '一定要注意...' is similar in that regard, by using 一定 to emphasize 注意.


How to interpret the explanation of '巧夺天工‘？ I had the phrase '巧夺天工‘ in my text, so I 百度 it. 百度 explains it thus:

专指人工的精巧胜过天然制成,形容技艺十分高超。, which is clear.

However, they say '巧夺天工‘ comes from

古代成语，“微妙在智，触类而长，玄通阴了，巧夺造化。” and that is more difficult for me to follow.

Subtle wisdom, ????, ????, timely seize good fortune.

Could you fill in the ???? please?

EDIT:
When a problem seems intractable, rearrange the problem. This 古代成语 is very cryptic and not easily amenable to translation. Could you tell me please, if my conversion of it to a more modern Chinese captures the meaning of the 古代成语?

微妙在智（的人），2. 触类而长，3. 玄通阴了，4. 巧夺造化

1.精神满腹的人，

通过研究一件事情，演绎出类似事情的工作方法，
从而了解大自然的神秘运作，
然后巧妙地控制自然（造化）。

触类而长,

  语出《易·系辞上》：“引而伸之，触类而长之，天下之能事毕矣。”
  意指掌握一类事物知识或规律，就能据此而增长同类事物知识。

Master the knowledge and regular patterns about one particular class of things, and then increase the knowledge about the same class of things.

Words whose meaning is similar：触类旁通, 举一反三, 问牛知马, 闻一知十

According 晋·郭璞《葬书》考及白话解, 玄通阴了 seems to be a typo, should be 玄通阴阳.

  微妙在智，触类而长，玄通阴阳，巧夺造化。

And 玄通

  1.谓与天相通。
  2.暗中相通。

阴阳,

  古代哲学概念。古代朴素的唯物主义思想家把矛盾运动中的万事万物概括为“阴”、“阳”两个对立的范畴,并以双方变化的原理来说明物质世界的运动

So 玄通阴阳 should mean connected, interlinked with the nature, i.e. grasp the laws of nature.


Is this book simplified or traditional? I'm learning Chinese and I would like to buy a book in simplified chinese.

I tried to look for "简体中文" but could not find it. Could you tell me if this is simplified?

http://www.huawenbookshop.com/1201443864.html

It is Simplified Chinese, as inferred by the text used on the cover.


What's the best way to say "Chinese speaker" in the sense of "a person who speaks Chinese"? What's the best way to say "Chinese speaker" in Chinese? There are the terms 母语者 and 非母语者; there are 华语学者 and 中国通 and 能说中文的人. None of these terms seems to encapsulate the simple "Chinese speaker," meaning "a person who speaks Chinese," in Chinese...

I think the challenge lies with how the English word "speaker" does not translate well to Chinese, in the context you describe.

From the dictionary, we can see that speaker in the sense of language ability simply translates to 說。I would argue that adding 會 or 能，thereby making it 他會說法語 or 他能說法語 , is giving more information than required. Perhaps depending on context, it would be necessary to respond this way, but a simple 他說法語 is a short and complete sentence on its own.

Also, I would like to point out that there are certain pockets of the world where "Chinese" refers to both Mandarin and Cantonese, and a follow up question to "Do you speak Chinese?", is, "Which one?"

In certain industries, multilingual employees will wear badges indicating what languages aside from standard assumed (Eg. English in North America, Japanese in Japan, etc.) can be used for conversation. Sometimes, instead of just the name of the language, you can see "精通" as well. While it should translate to proficient, that's often a generous description and should actually be taken to mean "conversational in". Truthfully, "通曉" would be a better description.

On that thought, "通" could be what you're looking for if you're looking to describe someone's ability on paper. Think of an online dating site. A possible description could be: 女，25-35歲，通國、粵、英語。

Going back to the problem of "speaker" not translating well to Chinese for a moment, notice that there isn't a single character to mean "person orating" or "person giving a speech". See the dictionary link above. In Chinese, you typically need three characters; 演說家、演講者、說話者, with the last one being awkward but proper in my opinion.


What is the use of "的" in "辞的职"? In 汉语口语速成: 基础篇 pp. 147, there's a sentence:

爱珍： 你学习汉语是为了工作?
左拉： 可以说是吧，不过，现在我失业了，来中国之前辞的职。

I understand that "辞职" means "to resign", but I don't understand why "的" is inserted between them. What's the use of "的" here?
I suspect that "辞职" is a separable verb. According to Wiktionary, "辞" means "to dismiss". "职" could be from the word "职业", meaning "profession".
If it is, then could "辞的职" here mean "辞我的职业"?

辞职: resign; quit the job;
辞： quit; take leave; resign; dismiss;
职（in 辞职）is short for 职位(not 职业)： position；
So, 辞职 can be interpreted as: quit your position or just resign.
辞职 is a 离合词，so it's separable. Phrases like 辞的职, 吃的饭, 说的话, and etc denote that you have done something at sometime or at some place and usually they are followed or preceded by a prepositional phrase describing time or position.
In your example,  来中国之前(before coming to China) is the time and 辞的职 is what you have done(quit your job). So, 来中国之前辞的职 is quit my job before coming to China.
More examples:

我在家里吃的饭 // I ate my meal at home.
这是我昨天在会议上讲的话 // This is what I said at the meeting yesterday.


What's the common Chinese term for a chest cold? I can find 支气管炎 for "bronchitis" but I wonder if that's a bit too technical or medical or whether it's common in day-to-day conversation.

In English "bronchitis" is a bit technical so more often people would say "chest cold".

In case it's not clear, this is the kind of cold/flu where you cough up phlegm but don't necessarily have a runny or blocked nose, which are the symptoms of a "head cold".

I can also find the term 胸闷, but I'm guessing that might be used for much more serious chest pains?

气管炎 (tracheitis) and 支气管炎 (bronchitis) are all common words in Chinese. These words are so often used in everyday jokes that they even sounds like everyday slangs.

气管炎 (tracheitis) is pronounced like 妻管严 (the wife controls strictly) in Chinese, so it is often used in everyday jokes for a man who has a bossy wife.


Original Chinese text to Lau Tzu's quotation I read this quotation when I was reading some English paper, I am really curious to know what is its original Chinese text:

  In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is acquired; in pursuit of wisdom, every day something is dropped. -- Lau Tzu

It's 为学日益，为道日损.

  为学日益，为道日损，损之又损，以至于无为，无为而无不为。取天下常以无事，及其有事，不足以取天下。

  ——老子《道德经》第四十八章


Did 李白 and 杜甫 popularize/standardize any 方言? Two of the most well known Chinese poets ABC says:

  poet, second in fame only to Li Bai

of Du Fu.

Did either 杜甫 or 李白 popularize or standardize any sort of 方言 through their works? (Certainly not on purpose.)

Or were they very 书面 anyway?

李白and杜甫 make the language of Shaanxi(陕西）popular.
They were the people of tang dynasty ,and capital of the tang dynasty is Chang'an where is in Xi'an of Shaanxi province now.So the language of Shaanxi is standard for everyone like the dialect of Beijing has effect on Chinese now.


What is this flute inscription? A saw this inscription on a flute. Can someone tell what does it is?
I'm really curious.
Thanks in advance.

The full text is:

高適《塞上聽吹笛》
雪淨胡天牧馬還
月明羌笛戍樓間
借問梅花何處落
風吹一夜滿關山

Please note that the other proposed answer in the comments, apart from rendering the text in Simplified Chinese, also incorrectly identified the character「戍」as「戌」.


Is  ever used in the Chinese language? And what does it mean? Here's 汉典's rendition of :

 according to 四川方言词语考释 dictionary means 板着(脸).
字海

【字海】
该字暂无解释！希望有识之士提供！ ("This character doesn't have an explanation yet! We hope someone who knows to add one!")

汉典

暂无解释，欢迎补充。("There is no definition for now, you're welcome to add one.")

Does Mandarin Ever Use This Character? If So, In What Context, With What Meaning?

I think the explanation is that Chinese is not only written but spoken, and a lot of characters, while used in idiomatic daily speech, don't really have a formal written counterpart. If you ask locals to actually write this character out, most likely they'll write a commonly used character with the same pronunciation. However, language experts who wrote the dictionary insist on assigning a formal written form to each character out there, and they recognize the fact that this character has a totally separate meaning than the commonly used surrogate character, thus they likely invented this new character just to represent this idiomatic sound. This is a common phenomenon if you browse through modern Chinese dictionaries.


提高 and degree complement How do you append degree complement to a 离合词 such as 提高？

I naively came up with 他提高得很快, but then I remembered for 离合词 words such as 打折， I had to construct somewhat differently such as 他们打了很多折，我忍不住就买。 (credits to Dan who made this clear for me)

I am guessing the same would apply for 提高？

Thanks.

提高 literally means "lift/raise sth. up". Its extended meaning is improve or make a progress.

  他提高得很快

In this sentence, you have used the extended meaning(improve) of 提高. The whole sentence can be translated to: He improved rapidly/very fast.

In my opinion, if you use its extended meaning, then it's not a 离合词 because you can't separate it. Well, it can be considered as a 离合词 when it denotes its literal meaning(lift up), because it is separable . For example, you can say 提得高.

PS. As the comment pointed out, 提得很高 is more common than 提得高 in practice.


What type of tree is 香榭? Original context: 礼物不需挑最贵 只要香榭的落叶

香榭 refers to 香榭丽舍大道, i.e. Champs Elysees of Paris.

礼物不需挑最贵 => Don't need to choose the most expensive present,
只要香榭的落叶 => just want the fallen leaves from (the trees at) Champs Elysees

BTW, even though fallen leaves are free, money is still required for the air ticket and hotel to go to Paris. (which should be what OP wants indeed)
And, you can buy 香榭的落叶 at 淘宝. (which shouldn't be what OP wants)
See 七夕快了，来自香榭丽舍的落叶居然成了告白神器.


What is the difference between 吃不消 and 受不了 to mean "I cannot bear"? I came across these two expressions "吃不消" and "受不了", both translated as "cannot stand / cannot bear".
My impression is that 吃不消 refers more to physical circumstances, like fatigue, tiredness, whereas 受不了 has a broader sense, so that for example one could also 受不了 an annoying person.
Is that right?
Any other hints as how and when to use these two expressions?
Many thanks!!

吃不消 literally means "too much to digest," so I'd use it for heavy workload, frequent annoyances, etc.
受不了 literally means "unbearable," so I'd use it for unsociable people, hostile environments, etc.
But that's just my preference; in practice they are quite interchangeable.


What other words than 奥 exist for places of reveration? 奥(ao4) denotes a place inside a house,where offerings to one's ancestors are put. It is located in the south western corner of the house.

Beside this term, are there further words like this?

四隅（four corners of a room）

宧（yí ／ ㄧˊ）：室內東北角（northeastern corner）

窔（yào ／ ㄧㄠˋ ）同“穾”：室內東南角（southeast corner）

奥（ào ／ ㄠˋ）：室內西南角（southwest corner）

屋漏（wū lòu ／ ㄨ ㄌㄡˋ）：室內西北角（northwest corner）


Is it considered as anadiplosis (顶真) when the same character repeats but means differently? In "顶真", one uses a word near the end of the clause and then repeats that word to begin the next clause. For example, 忽聞海上有仙山，山在虛無縹緲間.
What if the same character repeats but means differently in different clauses? Is it still considered as "顶真"？
For example:

旅行社刚刚开张，张三就去了印度，度过了一段美好的时光，光是恒河就去了好几次，次年又去了日本，本来是很好的经历，历时一年有余，余与他一路同行，行了我编不下去了。

Edit:
According to Wikipedia, (顶真) "是指上句的結尾與下句的開頭使用相同的字或詞，用以修飾兩句子的聲韻方法。需要注意的是，使用這個方式時，毋須限制上下句的字數或平仄，但上下句交接點一定要使用相同的字或詞"。
It seems to me that only the same character (or word) is required but not necessarily the same meaning.

頂真 is a rhetoric method to make sentences reading more smoothly or meaning more tightly.
The connected words should be the same meaning. Check the following examples:

將軍百戰死，壯士十年歸。歸來見天子，天子坐明堂: 歸->come back, 天子->emperor
江南可採蓮，蓮葉何田田: 蓮->lotus
我出了村就過了河，過了河就進了城: 過了河->across the river

But for your example like:

度 is part of India (印度) on the left and means "passing" on the right.
光 is part of "time" (時光) on the left and part of the adverb "just" (光是) on the right.

These above should not be counted as proper anadiplosis rhetoric method, maybe only 历 (past meaning in general).


Should 企 be pronunciated as ㄑㄧˋ or ㄑㄧˇ? It seems that different online dictionaries gave me different answers:

Is 企 a heteronym?

Yes and no.

If you check out Liang'an you'll see it mentions:

  qì

and

  [陸] qǐ

So basically what that tells us is: Mainland (i.e.: PRC) is qǐ, while Taiwan is qì.

It's a regional -or- topolectical thing, rather than a character with different pronunciations at different times.


"easily fooled" in Chinese(slang) 例如, 一个人无论如何也学不会1+1=2怎么计算的时候可以说: 那个人智商 (真是) 低的发指, 怎么教都教不会.

问题: 汉语中有类似的句子描述一个人很容易上当受骗吗? 句型: 这么简单的骗术你都信, 你 (真是) XXX.

XXX中不能有人身攻击, 必须切实到被描述者的真实情况. 在上面句子中"那个人智商 (真是) 低的发指, 怎么教都教不会"前半句"客观"的描述了后半句的起因, 而不是一句骂人的气话.

最后, 我知道这个问题不是很礼貌.

很蠢、很笨、笨笨的、呆呆的、没脑子、智商低、白痴、很傻、很呆、脑子不太灵光 etc etc

it depends on the context to decide which one to use...

I don't think 智商低的发指 is commonly used...发指 normally refers to someone/something very bad.


What does 德法兼修 mean? Another banner welcoming new students to Nankai University in the Law Building (I walk past these daily, so I'm hoping to practice reading them as I walk past each day):

I transcribe this as:

  励志勤学 德法兼修 祝新同学健康成长进步
  Lìzhìqínxué défǎjiānxiū zhù xīntóngxué jiànkāng chéngzhǎng jìnbù

I believe the last part 祝新同学健康成长进步 translates directly: "wish (祝) new students (新同学) health (健康), growth (成长) and progress (进步)".  The first part seems adequately translated using dict.cn; we have: 励志 = "pursue a goal with determination" and 勤学 = "study diligently".

I don't understand the middle part 德法兼修 (défǎjiānxiū).

德法 is listed as "defa", and Google Translate translates it to "Germany and France".
兼修 is listed as "minor in", and Google Translate translates it to "minor".

I got nothing; neither of these is meaningful.

(If it helps, I noticed it was also mentioned in a news article entitled 人文与社会科学学院举办“德法兼修，点赞青春”普法教育实践课暨玄武区法院庭审进校园活动.)

You need to understand every single character firstly,

德：道德（morality)
法：法制/法律（law）
兼：同时涉及/具有多方面（simultaneously/concurrently）
修：学习/培养（study）

So it could be literally translated as study and improve both morality and legal knowledge.


Using Dual-Character Verbs When Not Necessary I am having trouble determining whether using both characters in a dual-character verb is always necessary. I am unsure about intransitive vs transitive verbs and am trying to better understand the meaning of a direct object. I notice a ton of questions on this matter so I will refrain from repeating it.

However, my question is concerned with meaning. That is, is it better to err on the side of caution and simply use both characters in a dual-character verb? I find that it is more common for dual verbs (such as 成为，知道，开始，明白) to be compact i.e. removing one character from it changes the meaning entirely, e.g. 明白 vs 明. But with others, listed below, including both characters is not required (these are transitive verbs...?).

How is the meaning affected if the not-required character is actually included?

Examples:

我想吃饭炒面。

他们会说话德文。

你在学习英文。

你在阅读什么书？

Some two-character verbs or verbal phrases are constructed as verb-object phrases (seperable verbs), e.g. 吃饭 (eat a meal) and 说话 (speak words). As they already have an object, you usually cannot have another object afterwards.
The first two sentences are therefore ungrammatical.

*我想吃饭炒面。=> 我想吃炒面。
*他们会说话德文。=> 他们会说德文。

饭 and 话 are not only unnecessary, but putting them there is simply wrong (you wouldn't say "I want to eat a meal fried noodles" right?).
In the case of 学习 and 阅读, these two-character verbs are pleonasms to fit words into the Chinese phonology. Individually, 学 and 习 mean roughly the same thing (learn, study) as are 阅 and 读 (read). Even when combined, they are still transitive verbal phrases that can accept objects.
However, in contemporary Chinese, one of the character is usually preferred (depending on the context and regional dialect) when there is an object and we want to simplify it. In the case of 学习 and 阅读, 学 and 读 are overwhelmingly preferred in standard Mainland Mandarin for ordinary contexts. Compare: "How to study and learn" and "I have read and perused the many books" are all fine constructions in English. As with English, their meanings when used separately have subtle differences (that I can't explain fully in this answer) and the choice of which heavily depends on phonological contexts and language register (e.g. 阅 is more literary than 读).
So, the third and fourth sentences are grammatical and they can be also simplified.

你在学习英文。 = 你在学英文。
你在阅读什么书？ = 你在读什么书？

Using 习 here is possibly acceptable (especially for certain dialects) while using 阅 here is weird and borderline ungrammatical.
The simplified sentences have the same meanings and the subtle differences are insignificant and again dependent on the broader context.


Translate: 荒谬时代要吃得好玩到老经常想母猫 What's the meaning of this sentence?

荒谬时代要吃得好玩到老经常想母猫。

荒谬时代 means ridiculous age, i think.
好玩 means amusing, fun

But i couldn't understand the whole sentence.

Can anyone help?

It comes from the lyrics of "浅蓝大肥猫":

"你活在这样荒谬的时代里 人格通通不要
只要吃得好 玩到老 想母猫 死得早"

I'm not sure if it's proper to translate the last words.

你活在这样荒谬的时代里 = You live in such a ridiculous era;

人格通通不要 = Abandon all your personalities*;

只要吃得好 玩到老 = As long as I can eat well and play until old (or say enjoy my life);

*: Per @NS.X. 's advice, "人格" can be translate into personality and characteristic, and might be integrity in this context. Read more about "人格" at: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%BA%E6%A0%BC


How to politely ask “What do you really mean?” Every now and then in conversation it’s normal for us to have suspicions about the true intentions of a question, comment, proposal, etc., that someone says to us. Having some standard responses ready would be useful.
Of course they may not directly explain even then, so should the next response get less polite, or more?

There are many ways to say it. The 6 pairs below arranged from polite with respect --> polite --> demanding w/patience --> demanding w/impatience.
1a - 我不太瞭解您的意思, 可以請您解釋解釋嗎?
1b - 我不太瞭解您所說的, 可以請您解釋一下嗎?
2a - 我不太瞭解您的意思, 可以麻煩您解釋解釋嗎?
2b - 我不太瞭解您所說的, 可以麻煩您解釋一下嗎?
3a - 我不瞭解你的意思, 勞駕解釋解釋好嗎?
3b - 我不瞭解你所說的, 勞駕解釋一下好嗎?
4a - 我不瞭解你的意思, 解釋解釋好吧?
4b - 我不瞭解你所說的, 解釋一下好吧?
5a - 我不瞭解你的意思, 解釋解釋吧!
5b - 我不瞭解你所說的, 解釋一下吧!
6a - 我聽不懂你的意思, 解釋解釋.
6b - 我聽不懂你所說的, 解釋清楚一點.


Colloquial way to express the concept of "默写" Say you've read a poem by William Shakespeare. You liked it very much so you remembered it by heart. Now you can recite it, i.e., read it aloud from your memory, or, you can write it down accurately without checking up the source.

Is there an English word or phrase to describe the latter action? In Chinese we have a word called 默写 that does the job. It functions both as a verb and a noun. If I were to translate it into English, what is the colloquial way to express it?

I've asked this question in the English Learners forum but I didn't seem to get what I wanted. Someone suggested quote but it could be either speaking or writing. Maybe the idea of 默写 as a learning mechanism simply doesn't exist in the west?

I would translate it as "write from memory".

老師要學生把這首詩默寫一遍。

The teacher made the students write out the poem from memory.


How does one translate expressions like "PC Master Race" or "Ultrawide master race" into Chinese? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Master_Race
https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/

Surely a meme like this would find its way into eastern culture one way or the other.  I've only seen a reddit user with this attempt: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/27xix4/spreading_the_word_of_the_master_race_to_other/

According to wikipedia :

  the term is used by PC enthusiasts both to describe themselves as a
  group, as well as their belief in the superiority of the PC platform
  in comparison to consoles, often citing features like more advanced
  graphics, smoother framerates, free online play, backwards
  compatibility, modifications, upgradability, customization, lower
  cost-over-time, open standards, multitasking, and performance.

Here I have to mention two words that is related to this term in Chinese culture:

鄙视链 a chain of contempt,

优越感 superiority.

Naturally, PC Master Race means PC优等民族, Glorious PC Gaming Master Race can be directly translated to 高贵的PC玩家, which is often seen among Chinese gamers, and is less "racism". To Ultrawide master race you can say 高贵的超宽屏用户


How does 衣衫 compare to 衣服 in terms of meaning and flavour? I am reading a short story (set around 1976) by 魏微 (born in 1970 in Jiangsu, studied in Nanjing). The word 衣衫 repeatedly occurs. I searched the net and found references from 紅樓夢 and 唐詩, but the short story is among the easiest I have ever read, making but sparse use of 成語 and fancy vocabulary.

My dictionary defines 衣衫 as clothes. Is there a difference to 衣服？ Any regional flavour, literary flavour or era related flavour for which one may choose it?

I searched jukuu and it seems to be rare outside fixed expressions. 魏微 uses it quite casually:

  ⋯我母亲那时很喜欢我，为我做很多漂亮的衣衫⋯

Or:

  我穿着最好看的衣衫，倚在家门口的一棵老槐树上,⋯

In olden time, there might be difference between the two terms

「衣 」[ (2) [upper garment;jacket]
衣,所以蔽体者也。上曰衣,下曰裳。]

and

「衫」, [(1) 古代指无袖头的开衩上衣 [sleeveless jacket with vent in the sides of a jacket]. ]

In modern Chinese language, both 衣 and 衫 simply refers to 'clothes one wears on his upper body'

Together, 「衣衫 」is a compound word for the general term 'upper garment' much like 「刀劍 」(knife and sword) is a general term for 'weapons'

「服」as a noun, refers 'every article of clothing one wear on his person'. For example:  「軍服」(military uniform), 「制服」(uniform).

「服」is also a verb for 'to wear'

Together,「衣服」is a general term for 'clothes/clothing' just like 「刀斧」(knife and axe) is a general term for 'weapons'

  「衣服」 is much more common than 「衣衫」 in day-to-day words.

A related term is 「衣裳」(upper garment + lower garment), which is also a general term for 'clothing'


What comes after 不愁 is it negative or positive? So, I know that 不愁 means to "not worry about" but I'm trying to figure out its exact usage. In particular, I'm trying to figure out if the phrase after  不愁  is always negative?

For example, I know we can say 不愁 找不到工作

Could you also say 不愁找工作？Or does that not make sense ?

Is it 不愁没钱 or 不愁钱？

不愁 basically means "not worried", to answer your question, I think you are looking at it the wrong way.

First of all, I think the confusion is between the using of "不" and "没", you are thinking that by adding the word "不" or "没", the sentence becomes negative. But it all based on the context you are using it in. Lets compare the examples you provided:

不愁找不到工作 vs 不愁找工作

"不愁找不到工作(Not worried about not finding a job)"

"不愁找工作(Not worried about job searching/job hunthing)"

The two sentences may translate into different meanings, but it all comes down to the same general idea, that is "Not worried, I can find a job(or maybe I don't need a job)". And that is why the sentences basically means the same thing.

Similarly with

不愁没钱 vs 不愁钱

"不愁没钱(Not worried about not having money)"

"不愁钱(Not worried about money)"

The two sentences also have the same general idea "Not worried, I have money/I don't need money)", so they mean the same thing too.

So theres no negative or positive words that you need to follow with "不愁", but instead it all based on the context. For example, if you are paying for someone and they are reluctant for you to do so, you could say "啊呀，不愁钱(lets not worry about money)" instead of "啊呀，不愁没钱(lets not worry about not having money)" as it is abit more informal.

I know this all might seems confusing, but 加油，咱不愁，会越来越好.


Why are there different pronunciations of 复杂？ During a Chinese class, a student pronounced 复杂 as fu3za2, instead of the official pronunciation fu4za2. The Chinese teacher corrected the student but then mentioned many native speakers pronounce it as fu3za2 as well, particularly in the south or something like that.
Have any of you heard this different pronunciation and perhaps know the reasons behind why such a tonal difference exists? Is it, like the teacher said, just simply a case of south Chinese pronunciation? Or is it more complex than that?
多谢！

The reason is simply because it's 顺嘴(for better fluency/flow better).
It could be that we leverage it from old generations.  And then we have been corrected in school.
In practice, we know the correct pronunciation for it, but sometimes most of people still say fu3za2 occasionally because they already get used to it.
I don't think this only applies to the southern areas.  I also find it's been said by people from the north.


Is there any official way to translate Chinese names into English? Is there any official way to translate Chinese names into English?

Chinese is of course: surname + name, usually when translated into English why is the same formatting kept?

毛泽东 is usually written Mao Zedong

But is this not more like not translating?

Take Japanese name translation for instance a name like 黒澤明 (Chinese: 黑泽明/黑澤明) Wikipedia translates his name (English-style) as Akira Kurosawa (first name + last name) but the original japaneae is last name (黒澤) + name (明). I know a lot of other translates still translate Japnese style (surname+name) in English too, especially dictionaries and the like but it seems English-style translations of Japebese names is more prevalent.

I seldom see English-style translations of Chinese names - but why?

Wouldn't English-style translations of Chinese names be more natural to read in English, especially for those with no background in Sinetic languages?

Is there an official way to translate names, i.e.: order?

Since my comments were getting long, I will reproduce them here. This probably isn't a complete answer though.

It really depends. While names like Wen Jiabao are commonly kept in "Eastern" naming order, names used among personal interactions with "small fry" are sometimes used in the Western order, particularly in a Western context - for instance, in an international school in Asia, 张小明 would probably be referred to (in English, I mean) as Xiaoming Zhang (and probably without the tones and possibly incorrect pronunciation, if it's spoken, depending on the speaker).

But in other places (e.g. the BBC, Le Monde, official usage by places that already use Chinese (e.g. Hong Kong, China)) the Eastern order seems to be kept.

I'm not very familiar with translated novels and the such, but here's what I know:

Names translated from "Western" order are generally transliterated and kept in Western order.
With names translated from Chinese (or written in English but about China/Chinese), from the examples I looked at so far, Chinese naming order is kept. (I looked at: Red Scarf Girl; Lust, Caution; The Good Earth; and The Fat Years.) So at the very least, keeping Chinese names in Chinese order doesn't seem to be uncommon. (Does this feel as unnatural? It really depends. To me, even as a native English speaker, it feels more awkward to have the name order Westernised.)
Strangely enough, Westernisation of the order of Japanese names is a lot more common. For instance, even the BBC refers to 安倍晋三 as Shinzō Abe and not as Abe Shinzō, and (at the very least) a number of anime subtitles (for anime set in Japan) also seem to Westernise the name order. Meanwhile, Korean names seem to be more likely to be treated like Chinese names in terms of whether or not the name is Westernised.


Is the difference between and saying 有时 and 会偶尔 very big? Does one imply a much greater frequency? What about register? Is the difference between and saying 有时 and 会偶尔 very big, or is it in all cases quite close?

To me, 有时 and 偶尔 are interchangeable under ANY circumstances.

Depending on personal preference, feel free to pick either one when expressing once in a while.


The meaning of 了 before and after Object of Consecutive Actions I get confused about the meaning of 了 in the sentence describing consecutive actions.

Can you guys explain the difference of meaning in two examples?

我坐飞机去了上海。
我坐飞机去上海了。

and

我来他家吃了饭。
我来他家吃饭了。

谢谢你们.

Please study Placement of 了: difference between 吃飯了 and 吃了飯

"了" in "我坐飞机去了上海。" is a verb particle that indicates the verb 去 is a completed action

"了" in "我坐飞机去上海了"  is a final particle that 1. indicate the sentence has ended 2. indicates the situation has changed 3. soften the tone/ add emphasis


What is the meaning of 去想？Does it have to do with movement? In this sentence, I don't understand the meaning of 去想： 但是学生们看到快餐就会买。他们只知道快餐好吃，不去想这些食品是不健康的。

I have never seen it before (去想). Is it that when the students go to the cafeteria, they don't think? Or does the verb 去 have nothing to do with moving

It's a colloquial using.

"去想" is meaning "do thinking" or "think about"

但是学生们看到快餐就会买。他们只知道快餐好吃，不去想这些食品是不健康的。

Students will buy the fast food when they saw it, they only knows the fast food is good to eat, but they never thinking about that fast food is unhealthy.

It's not a really moving but a thinking move in brain. Similar => Do the "think".


Asking "which language do you speak?" on the phone I work at a medical call center. Many Asians will call in asking for a translator so we can schedule their appointments. Most of them will understand when I ask, "which language, Cantonese or Mandarin?" But I feel sometimes they did not understand what I'm saying. They will just say "Chinese". Is there a better way to ask which language they speak?

According to Wikipedia:Chinese language

  Chinese Listeni/tʃaɪˈniːz/ (汉语 / 漢語; Hànyǔ or 中文; Zhōngwén) is a group of related but in many cases mutually unintelligible language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family

So technically, Chinese is not one language but a group of them and asking "which language, Cantonese or Mandarin?" is correct.

But when people say "I speak Chinese", it really means "I can speak one of the languages of China" -- it could be Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese or other dialects.

So maybe a better way to ask is: "Do you speak any Chinese language?" And after they confirms, you clarify by asking: 国语吗？ or 普通话吗？ ("Is it Mandarin?") Most would say yes even if they speak more dialects.

I do not think asking where they are from or what dialect they speak is a good idea. Because you would get so many different answers that add more confusion.


Why is the use of 本人 appropriate in the contexts below My previous question revealed that the context for 本人 should be much more formal than I thought. Below is an example from last year’s 閱讀課：

Is this guy trying to impress his potential landlord with his mastery of formal language and ongoing PhD? In my native languages, informal language would be OK! I asked my teacher the same question last year and her opinion was, you didn’t need a formal context, as long as it was written. I suppose some deep mystery is hiding here, not easy to grasp for 老外. Perhaps I need to understand what “formal” means to Chinese.

Next, an example from the Internet, taken from here and a google plus profile:

Is this due to regional differences? Can Taiwanese natives please comment on whether this is natural to them?

A further example from the internet, found here, seems to start somewhat formally and then finish totally colloquially with 求計算機大神導致：

Perhaps 本人是⋯ is a special case? Because this platform seems full of it:

In all your cases, the writers are deliberately trying to sound formal.

In the first piece of article, the writer is asking to rent a house. It is quite common in China for this kind of article to use "formal" language.

And using formal languages can make people sound "serious". On "知乎", people use this kind of language to show that they are seriously seeking for an answer to their questions, but not just randomly poking around. For the colloquial "求計算機大神導致", "知乎" is an internet Q/A service, so it is quite common for this kind colloquial phrases to appear. (It might be kind of scary for an article made up of purely formal language to appear here.)

"本人" does not usually appear in (one-on-one) conversations. So it may be also rare in (one-on-one) text chat. But if one is sending a message to many people, he usually changes into a somewhat "formal" language, if he is indeed serious about the message.

In all the quotes in your question, there would not be any problem replacing "本人" with "我". The seriousness of the text is not carried by "本人" only, so there would not be too much difference.


What is the role of '之' in '為之' ? As in "未經許可而出口黃金就為之犯罪" In some instances, 為 and 是 is interchangeable:

"未經許可而出口黃金就為犯罪." ( exporting gold without permission would be committing a crime).

"未經許可而出口黃金就是犯罪." ( exporting gold without permission would be "committing a crime).

Since '為' means 'be' here, my question is: What role is '之' playing in '為之'. As in "未經許可而出口黃金就為之犯罪"

Is 之 a modal particle just for emphasis?
Is '為之' being a compound word for ' be equivalent to'?
"未經許可而出口黃金就為之犯罪" ( exporting gold without permission would be equivalent to/ qualified as committing a crime).
Is '之' functions as an objective pronoun.?
"未經許可而出口黃金就為之犯罪"
"exporting gold without permission, it would be committing a crime."
Or it should be '謂之' (be called as) , not '為之'?

We are talking about '為之' in the context of '那就是為之犯罪', not in that of 好自為之/偶一為之, when '為' means 'do' and '之' being an objective pronoun;  or 為之氣結, when '為' means 'for' and '之' being an objective pronoun

Odd example, knowing where it came from would help. It is definitely not classical Chinese. (就 is never an adverb in classical Chinese and who would write classical Chinese in this context?) It is also definitely not Mandarin. As the OP observes, it is frequent in Cantonese. Alas, my Cantonese is almost non-existent. But, looking up the phrase in the Cantonese Wikipedia, there are numerous examples which seem very similar:
相撲係日本傳統運動，由兩位肥獅大隻嘅人紮馬對打，推跌對方就為之贏
最後邊隊入得多啲就為之贏
手牌入面明暗牌同其他人捨牌(含加槓)或者本身嘅摸牌組成「五搭一對」就為之胡牌
進攻一方如果有三名球員出局嘅話，咁就為之完成一局（inning）
etc... So for sure it's not a careless mistake.

It seems to mean the same thing as 叫做 or the more literary form 稱之為. (Or perhaps it is more like 算是...?)

As for the grammatical structure, 為之 must be v-o. 為 is very unlikely to mean 'be' here, since 之 is never used as a 表語 (predicate of a copular sentence). Functionally, 之 is being used as in 稱之為; it is the object of a verb.

Summary: looks like a Cantonese way of defining technical terminology.


Is the symbol in the images a chinese letter? Is the symbol in the images a chinese letter, and if it is, what does it mean?

I saw this image on Walt Disney's tie in a picture of him.  It is not a Chinese character, rather the letters S, R and T, according to : http://www.quora.com/Saving-Mr-Banks-2013-film/What-is-the-logo-mark-on-Walt-Disneys-tie .


How is a speaker introduced at a Chinese mathematics conference? I'm aiming to give a mathematics presentation at a conference next month (第八届全国组合数学与图论大会; URL).  Assuming everything goes to plan, this will be my first conference talk in Chinese (a 15-minute contributed talk), and my first conference presentation in Chinese.  It may be a total disaster, but I feel I should try (and learn from my mistakes).

At conferences, before the speaker talks, the session chair introduces them and their talk.  Usually it takes the format:

  I'd like to welcome [speaker's name] from [speaker's university] who will be talking on [talk title].

I'm not sure if this style differs within China (at non-international Chinese-speaking conferences), and what they would ordinarily say.

Question: How is a speaker introduced at a Chinese mathematics conference?

I'm seeking an example of an ordinary introduction at a Chinese mathematics conference to familiarize myself with what to expect.  It might be similar to above, e.g., perhaps I can expect something like:

  欢迎来自南开大学的Rebecca Stones（中文叫李蓓），她将谈论＂枚举偏拉丁矩的四种方法＂．

However, I'm not sure if the format is the same.

At international conferences, sometimes a foreign speaker will repeat what the session chair has already said, e.g. beginning "My name is [speaker's name] and I'm from [speaker's university] and I will be talking on [talk title]."  It's a blooper, and I would like to avoid it.

Edit: To make sure this is clear: this question is about how the session chair would ordinarily introduce the speaker.  The session chair is not the speaker; the session chair introduces the speaker.  The question is not about how the speaker would introduce themself.  (My motivation is to react appropriately to how the session chair introduces me.)

欢迎来自南开大学的Rebecca Stones（中文叫李蓓），她将谈论＂枚举偏拉丁矩的四种方法＂．

It should be the same as other conference, I guess. Normally, the words 欢迎 somebody will be put at the last sentence. Or the session host will say "让我们欢迎" somebody, or "下面有请" somebody "上台". And if the speaker is someone that important but not all the audience know, the host will also introduce the speaker's title and achievement a little bit.

It's hard to predict other people's words, but let's try a simple:

  下面一位演讲者是来自南开大学的Rebecca Stones， 她的中文名是李蓓。她目前任教于南开大学计算机与控制工程学院，主要研究方向是xxx。曾经在xxx期刊发表过xxx论文。今天她将给大家介绍“枚举偏拉丁矩的四种方法”，让我们欢迎李蓓（有请李蓓/有请李蓓上台）。


How does ‘三神不挂二神’ come to mean 'unconcentrated' in this sentence? This is from a German Chinese forum:

她骂斥道：“好生点嘛！叫你做事，你就三神不挂二神。”

Source: 《饥饿的女儿》，作者：虹影，出版年1997，第一章。

English, ISBN 0-8021-1637-X 1999 : ‘Pay attention,’ she growled. ‘can’t you do anything right?’

What I'd like to know is what the phrase '三神不挂二神' relates to, how does it come to mean 'unconcentrated'? 神 here is 'mind'?

首先，这是一个方言用语（很可能是四川一带某地的方言），并不是汉语常用的规范用语，但用在这部小说里是正确的，反映出了人物所处的地域，正确地体现了人物的性格特征。

“三神不挂二神”，意思的确是“精神不集中，不安心，不专注”，神指的是“精神”，比如“心神不定”，“神智恍惚”等等。

其实“三神不挂二神”和汉语中的一个成语“三心二意”是相通的，可以将其视为一种方言变体。

“三神”是古汉语中的习用词，可有很多意思。“三”往往用于实指或虚指数量，如“三元”、“三军”、“再三”，等等。

而“三”和其他数目字又常常连用构词，比如“二”或“两”就常常用来搭配构成习语，如“三心二意”、“三长两短”、“三天打鱼两天晒网”等等，这里也是类似的用法，是某地的方言而已。

i.e.

First of all, this is a dialectal phrase (it's very likely that it is a dialect of the Sichuan province), and is anything but a common standard Chinese phrase, but used in this novel it is proper, it mirrors the area the characters live in, it properly reflects the characters' natural characteristics.

Indeed, the meaning of “三神不挂二神” is "not concentrated, with mind not set into what one is doing", 神 indicates the mind, as for example in "心神不定” (uncertain in mind)，“神智恍惚" (with an absent mind, distracted), and so on.

Indeed “三神不挂二神” is related with a Chinese 成语 (saying), “三心二意” (lit. three hearts and two thoughts, i.e. half-hearted, shilly-shallying), you can view it as a dialectal variant.

“三神” is a common phrase in Classical Chinese, and can have many meanings. “三” (3) is often used to really or figurately mean a quantity, as in “三元” (3 yuan)、“三军” (lit. three armies, i.e. lower upper and middle army)、“再三” (lit. again 3, i.e. over and over again), and so on.

And “三” is often linked with other number characters to form a compound word, e.g. “二” or “两” (2) is often used to pair up [with “三”] and constitute an idiom, as in “三心二意” (lit. three hearts and two thoughts, i.e. half-hearted, shilly-shallying), “三长两短” (lit. three long and 2 short, i.e. unexpected misfortune), “三天打鱼两天晒网” (three days catch fish, two days dry the net, i.e. not persevere in doing something, not do something to the end), and so on, here it is also a similar usage, it's a dialect of some place and that's all.