Help deconstructing parts of 點唱機 - 按年份後，當年的流行曲就出來了，一按即點 A Chinese family relative sent me this message (I am not Asian). I need some help deconstructing the message because at times the word sequence or implied idea is lost on me (even when I know most of the grammar rules). So, I have a series of related questions in this post that I hope will help me become a better student of Chinese language. Your patience is appreciated.

The original message

 點唱機 (Diǎn chàngjī)

按年份後，當年的流行曲就出來了，一按即點

àn niánfèn hòu, dāngnián de liúxíng qǔ jiù chūláile, yī àn jí diǎn

http://thenostalgiamachine.com/index.html

Google Translate is not that good but delivers the following:

 jukebox

By year after year of pop songs came out, a press that point

My attempt at deconstructing the message with questions (in yellow)

 點唱機 (Diǎn chàngjī) -

  Ok, I get this idea as an electric singing machine but what happens when an idea (like this one - 點唱機) can belong to more than one thing? At least to one who has not heard this word before, could there be other interpretations? When I look at the words I thought of radio (not quite right, has news and talk), music-box (not quite, doesn't sing), etc. Jukebox was at the far-end of my list.

按年份後，當年的流行曲就出來了，一按即點

àn niánfèn hòu, dāngnián de liúxíng qǔ jiù chūláile, yī àn jí diǎn

  àn niánfèn hòu, dāngnián  - not sure how this one means "By year after year", I see fèn hòu but I don't follow the thread completely. I read àn nián 按年 as something to be contrasted with dāngnián 當年. Although again with (按年), I'm a bit lost on the implicit meaning. What comes to my mind is two ideas of "pushing down + year." In this case, I'd appreciate some help on this meaning?

Finally, although I can see that 的流行曲就出來了 refers to something popular (流行) came out (出來了),

  But I don't quite understand the notion of songs here. Could someone identify what I may be missing?

EDIT:

  I can see that my problems center around my not understanding some of the words such as  點, with a context of to order or request... I still can't find the proper meaning in a dictionary or translation program. Just wondering if the meaning is related to another word that changes it's default meaning?

按 (verb: press) 年份 (noun: year) 後 (after)

當年 (noun: that year) 的 (possessive particle) 流行 (adjective: popular) 曲 (noun: song)* 就 (will) 出來 (verb: appear) 了 (end of action particle)

一 (adverb: upon) 按 (verb: press) 即 (adverb: immediately) 點 (verb: select)

* note: 流行曲 (流行歌曲) means "pop songs".

Regarding 點唱機, when you break it down the phrase becomes 點 (verb: order [as in ordering a drink at a bar]) 唱 (noun: music, song) 機 (noun: machine, device). From that, we can deduce it is a jukebox, since you normally can't order music on a radio or musicbox. It helps to know that radio is 收音機 and musicbox is 音樂盒, but unfortunately there's no shortcuts around that.

Note that 唱 is far more commonly a verb.


Why is "tuberculosis" 结核病 in Chinese? 结核病 (jiéhébìng)
CC-CEDICT: tuberculosis

I don't understand why tuberculosis is called this in Chinese.  Breaking this apart, we have:

结: knot / sturdy / bond / to tie / to bind / to check out (of a hotel)
核: pit / stone / nucleus / nuclear / to examine / to check / to verify
病: illness / CL: 場｜场 / disease / to fall ill / defect

So it's something like "knotty nucleus disease" in Chinese.  But looking this disease up on Wikipedia, we find:

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. ... The classic symptoms of active TB are a chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss.
Tuberculosis, Wikipedia

So I don't see a connection between the name 结核病 and the disease tuberculosis, despite there being a logical connection in other diseases, e.g. 狂犬病 = "mad dog disease" = "rabies".
Question: Why is "tuberculosis" 结核病 in Chinese?

For the same reason that it is called tuberculosis in English, from New Latin:

tuberculum + -osis

The term is a medical coinage of the 1830s (with the cognate first appearing in German medical publications). The English equivalent tubercle is a reference to the appearance of the lung tissue post mortem: white nodules, looking like tiny tubers, and with a pathological firmness.
This reference to nodules is the reason why 結核 was attached to this disease by the scientific community. The formation of such points in the lung tissue was adequately described by "the knotting of kernels". 結核 is also used in the field of geology for "nodule formation".
It must also be noted that the disease known both as 結核 and tuberculosis refers to various forms of infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, divided into pulmonary tuberculosis (肺結核) and extrapulmonary tuberculosis (肺外結核). In many of these, the tubercles are even more obvious, e.g. in scrofula (瘰) and osseous tuberculosis (骨結核).
Of course, throughout Eurasia there have been many other names for the various manifestations of tubercle bacillus infection throughout history. In Chinese, apart from 瘰, there are:

肺癆
癆病
癆瘵
癆症

There were other interpretations of the symptoms of tuberculosis from traditional Chinese medicine, such as 骨蒸. On the other hand, the 19th century British medical missionary Benjamin Hobson used 肺癆病 as a new coinage alongside the translation + transliteration 肺體都比迦力 in his 1858 Medical Vocabulary in English and Chinese.
When Chinese diplomat 薛福成 Xuē Fúchéng reported on Koch's tuberculin therapy in 1890, he used 癆症:

柏林醫生寇赫，新得療治癆症之法，系用金銹製成藥漿，可殺癆蟲，且能不使此蟲復生。
The Berlin Doctor Koch has newly found a method of curing consumption using metallic residue to produce a drug that can kill "consumption worms" and is able to stop these worms from regenerating.

The history of the term 結核 actually goes back to Meiji-era Japan, where there was an appetite for Western germ theory expressed through kanji-based neologisms, and importantly an association of "consumption" with Western literary romanticism. From there the modern terminology came to be imported to China in the 1890s, with the increased opportunities for Chinese students to study medicine in Japan. There is an article from the 《亞東時報》 Yadong Times, a joint Japanese-Chinese monthly journal, dated to 1899, where the Japanese medical scholar 岡本武次 Takeji Okamoto entitles an article:

記肺結核可懼之事

With the increased awareness of tuberculosis epidemics in Japan and China, alongside a desire for social reform and the impact of the 新文化運動 New Culture Movement, the term 結核 embedded itself into the national consciousness. However, 癆病 is used in 魯迅 Lu Xun's 1919 short story 《藥》, and as late as 1935 there is an advertisement for a Western medical treatment, "Kiazin", using 肺癆.


What does this writing mean on this jacket? I saw this jacket and was wondering what the characters above the logo mean?

They are the words 無政府. 無 means "without" or "absent of", while 政府 means "government". So literally, 無政府 means "without government". Note that this does not necessarily carry as strong of a connotation as "anarchy", although that is indeed often translated as 無政府狀態 (literally: "state of no government").


What semantic notions underlie 草 (grass) with 拈花惹草 (philandering)? How does grass semantically shift to involve womanizing? I know that women have been metaphorized as flowers, but not grass? Wiktionary. 拈花惹草的解释

lit. to pick the flowers and trample the grass (idiom), fig. to womanize, to frequent brothels, to sow one's wild oats

My research on Flower Symbolism as Female Sexual Metaphor by Andrea Frownfelter, Eastern Michigan University.
Erotic blooms: The sex appeal of flowers - BBC Culture

Between flowers and sex there has long been an enduring link. In the classical age, women (especially virgins) were compared to flowers, whether in Virgil’s agricultural Georgics or else in Sappho – who, in one fragment, makes an analogy between a woman, perhaps married, and “a hyacinth in the mountains that the shepherds trample with their feet.”

Titian's Sacred and Profane Love: The Feminine as Flower: Metaphor and Hermeneutics:

When the feminine is referred to and portrayed through the flower metaphor, it often means to reference the vulva as the primary sexual characteristic of the female and/or more broadly, to that creative force which rises from the vivifying power of the body.

L.P. Murashova, L.V. Pravikova. EROTIZATION AS THE BASIS OF FEMALE METAPHOR IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. DOI: 10.17223/24109266/4/3. p 30.

      Associations of women with flowers as metaphors of fertility are old
and are used in many languages. Flowers are used as both positive and negative
symbols of female sexuality. Instrumental and symbolic role of women
are projected on “universal” values of motherhood and femininity in form of
fetishised body parts of a woman. The association of woman with flower
evokes a vision of a defenseless beautiful creature in need of protection.
       Floristic terminology, bearing floral symbolism, often uses parallel analog
correlation between flowers or their parts and aspects of female sexual
anatomy, such as the bosom, womb, labia and vagina, and also nominates the
stages of women’s sexual and reproductive activity and sexual status and actions.
If we extrapolate this symbolism further, mankind is born from the
womb of a woman, which means that the sexual and reproductive organs of
women are the “essence” or “flower” of humanity. Puberty, female physiological
processes that happen in the body, first sexual experience, fertility, pregnancy
and motherhood are conceptualized through floristic terms: enclosed
buds, ripe blossoms. The lexeme “flowering” is sometimes used to describe a
particular period for a woman - in the phrase “menstrual flowering”.
“Rosebud” is a nomination of a beautiful blossoming young

The focus in 拈花惹草 is not 拈花 (touch flower), but 拈野花 (touch wildflower) and 惹草 (contact grass) actually mean (touch wild grass).
野花野草 (wildflower and  wild grass) is a collective noun for 'wild plants' (outside women) in contrast to 'homegrown plant' (your wife)


Where to find questions from the imperial exam? I have found various pages with questions from the last imperial exam in 1904. This one seems most practical.

Given the immense importance of the event, I hope that more records of (prior) exams should survive. How to find them? I am also interested in any surviving answers.

about the imperial examinaion (科舉制度), i recommend the book 釧影樓回憶錄 by 包天笑 (page 81-103). it talked about his experience (~1890) to attend the 縣試, 府試 and 院試 (the first three entry level exams) with details; very interesting :)

the first "entry" in another book 世載堂雜憶 by 劉禺生, is "清代之科舉", also a good read

about questions in the exam 縣考:

  大題者，於"四書"文中，兩章三章，或一節一句為題目，不得割裂

  小題者，於"四書"文中，任擇一句為題

  第一場試《論語》、《學》《庸》時文一篇，《孟子》文一篇，試帖詩一首

  第二場試時文一篇，五經文一篇，試帖詩一首

  第三場考八股文一篇，史論一篇，試帖一首

  第四場試雜作，律賦一篇，古近體詩數首，有加時文一篇者

  終場亦作時文起講，或作兩大比時文不等

about questions in 院考:

  試題為《論語》、《學》、《庸》題目八股文一，《孟子》題目八股文一，五言六韻試帖詩一首。

  翌日覆試，或作起講，或作八股文兩大比，限香一寸，並默寫正場起講

i'm sorry to provided these in chinese only, hope you can comprehend and get the info.

have fun :)


Translation of 立方固奇，而立论甚正 I want to translate 立方固奇，而立论甚正.
It is a metaphor used in a taoist context.
I think I caught the drift but I am seeking confirmation by a sinologist or a Chinese person.
In my opinion, a possible translation would be :

"Some things look odd, yet they work well".

(Translation of  立方固奇，而立论甚正: "Cubes may look odd, yet they are upright."...)
Thanks in advance for your input !

This is a criticism from 金以谋 to 陈士铎, both are doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.

立: propose; present

方: 药方, remedy

固: definitely

奇: peculiar

而: but

论: 理论 theory

甚: indeed

正: reasonable

The remedy he presented are definitely peculiar, yet his theories are reasonable deeply.


What is the Socio-linguistic Function of Mixing Pinyin and Characters Together By Adult Native Chinese Writers? Several linguistics-oriented scholars, most notably Dr Mair, have recently noted the growing trend in written Chinese discourse towards "digraphia" - the dual use of Pinyin and Chinese characters as sort of a protomorphic kanji+katakana-esque ensemble.

The obvious, and de-facto standard, explanation for this growing phenomenon is the difficulty of writing/remembering characters such as 喷嚏 relative to the simplicity of writing "pen ti".  However I am curious concerning phenomena such as the following (from the package of a present sent to someone around CNY):

Where "xin1 yi4" is the pinyin for 心意 - incredibly basic characters for which the "too difficult" explanation simply doesn't apply.

So what is going on here?  How is the Pinyin+Character combination perceived by native Chinese speakers?  Is the inclusion of pinyin a stab at some sort of additional sophistication somehow conveyed by the inclusion of roman letters? Is it an aesthetic effect (e.g.: it makes for an "interesting mix")?

How should 老外 interpret the "effect" of such combinations of Pinyin and characters?

The 训读 (this jargon comes from Japanese) phenomenon is rare in Chinese, but it does exist, e.g. 廿 may be pronounced as èr shí (二十), 圕 as tú shū guǎn (图书馆), 哩 as yīng lǐ (英里). Doesn't that happen in English? Many people pronounce "etc." as "and so on", "i.e." as "that is", "e.g." as "for example". Traditionally, the function of 训读 in Chinese is to make difficult characters easier to pronounce and understand, but pinyin is rarely used in this case.

Recently pinyin used for non-standard 训读 in Chinese becomes popular, especially on the Internet, possibly inspired by the Japanese ACG (animation, comic, game) culture. It often suggests the deep, hidden meaning behind the apparent Chinese characters. The example in your post, 回家(xīn yì), suggests "coming home is a present (心意) for your parents". You can also find some funny examples like "丧(gan)心(de)病(piao)狂(liang)" -- it ostensibly reads "frenzied, crazy" but in fact the writer shouts out "干得漂亮, good job!" in his mind -- the effect is comical.

Besides, the reason why pinyin is chosen for denoting the implication may be obvious:

It can be easily distinguished from the Chinese character, so it doesn't disturb Chinese people reading the Chinese characters.
To a Chinese eye, pinyin is "hidden" at the first glance, so it is suitable for expressing the "deep" meaning behind those characters.


Question with "ne (呢) to be responded with "呢"? I resumed my Chinese studies and got a native speaker to help me. She mentioned that to agree with a suggestion with "ne" (呢), I should respond with it and just changed the tone. I cannot find any grammar article describing that.
Q:我们一起吃饭呢？
A:我们一起吃饭呢.

我们一起吃饭呢？

This sentence is probably grammatical, but why would we ask ourselves the question? 呢 is usually used in a wh- question, such as what, when, where, etc. E. g.  你干什么呢？ 你什么时候去的呢？你在哪里找到他的呢？

我们一起吃饭呢。

This sentence is correct. It expresses we are currently eating. Somehow, this use of 呢 suggests the progressive tense. E. g. 我们看书呢 suggests 我们正在看书呢。
The rule probably makes sense in this scenario.

A: 你吃饭呢？B: 我吃饭呢。


What does this headline mean? 女子700万买下学位房学区调整致算盘落空.  I looked the words up individually using MDBG and also used Google Translate to get a general idea, but it still didn't make any sense.

"Woman's plan to buy 7 million-dollar-house in a school district fails"


In what contexts would I use 由? I know that 由 means through/via or from but I'm not sure exactly what contexts to use this in. For example the dictionary has this example sentence:

运输问题由他们解决。

I understand this but I would have used a sentence like these:

让他们解决运输的问题。

运输的问题是他们的责任。

I'm trying to get more familiar with when to use 由 and to incorporate it in my verbal interaction (otherwise I'll probably never use it and forget it). I realize the three sentences above are very close in meaning, but I'm not really sure how to understand when, where, and why I should use 由.

In your example '由' means 'by'. To give you more examples,

发动机是由蒸汽驱动的。
The engine is driven by steam.
这首歌是由歌手自己创作的。
The song is written by the singer himself.
小区里的足球场是由大家共同维护的。
The soccer field in the neighborhood is maintained by the community.


How should I understand "～长～短" phrase in English? I learned the phrase of "～长～短", and it means "～怎么样，～怎么样", though I feel it is difficult to understand it in English.
For example, the following sentences are examples of using "～长～短":

这两个老太太一见面，就张家长李家短地说起来没完。

大家对他总是张三长李四短的很有意见。

Here are what I tried, but feel either too clumsy or too verbose.

These two old ladies, once they meet each other, start to keep talking about how 张 family is going and how 李 family is going, and never stop to talk.

Everyone always has his/her opinion on how 张三 is and how 李四 is and speak it to him.

(By the way is 张三 and 李四 are names of people...?)
The second sentence is especially too clumsy and makes little sense in English.
So I'm quite confused now. How can I better understand the "～长～短" phrase and make the translation more natural, less verbose?

长 = good /strengths  ; 短 = bad/ shortcomings

"～长～短" = "～this～that"

张三李四 is similar to "any Tom, Dick or Harry"  in English, refers to any unspecific people's names. http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/38376/

张三长李四短 = "someone this, someone that" (gossiping)

张家长李家短 = "so and so family this, so and so family that" (gossiping)


Help with sentence construction 我本来只是抱着试一试的想法去参加比赛的， 没想到居然获得了冠军。 这不但让朋友感到吃惊而且让父母很高兴。

I found this sentence difficult to understand mostly because of 我本来只是抱着试一试的想法去参加比赛的 and don't know how to break it down.

我本来 I originally
只是 only?
抱着试一试的想法 hug and try at the same time? thoughts?
参加比赛的 attend the game

Obviously, I am in a mess and need some clearing up.

Thank you.

The interpretation of 我本來 and 衹是 are fine.

抱着 (literally to hug, but should be interpreted as to grasp onto)
試一試的想法 (a thought of just trying)
參加比賽的 (to participate in a competition)

  我本來衹是抱着試一試的想法去參加比賽的

  I originally participated in the competition holding on to the thought of just giving it a go


How is 儿化 represented in other romanization systems like Wade-Giles, Zhuyin Fuhao, etc.? I just realized that I have no idea how other romanization systems (besides pinyin) deal with 儿化 (er hua).

What would be the Wade-Giles or Zhuyin-Fuhao equivalent to 电影儿 (diànyǐngr)?

This is not a complete answer, but the Wade-Giles example chart on this Chinese-language Wikipedia entry includes "kêrh" as a transcription of the rhotacized "哥儿." I do not know the general rule.

The GR (Gwoyeu Romatzyh) transcription system, which was used officially in China from 1928-1958, has complex rules for 儿化 spellings. I can't find a complete chart online, but, again, Chinese Wikipedia has some details. GR uses "l" to represent rhotacization, but the precise rules for how the resulting work is spelled differ depending on the syllable final and tone.


What's the difference between 之间 and 中间? 之间 means between (no more than 2), so these are acceptable:

我和他之间
我们之间 (between us two)

Not acceptable:

学生们之间

中间 means among (more than 2), so this is acceptable:

学生们之间

And this isn't:

我和他之间

I'm trying to understand the difference between 之间 and 中间，is the above right? Moreover are 中间 and 中 the same（我们中（间））？

I think there's a couple more important distinctions.

中间 is used for when talking about the physical location being in the center/between.

ie. You would say:

  箱子的中间有个人。

之间 is used when abstract things are in the center/between. This applies to things like numbers.

ie. You would say:

  我们之间没有爱。

Here's a specific example of how the two words have a different meaning.

我们中间有障碍。 : There are (physical) obstacles between us.

我们之间有障碍。 : There are (mental) obstacles between us.


去出回 Where is it appropriate to use each So these three have always threw me through a loop

去 - Qù - Means to go to a place
出 - Chū - Means to go out
回 - Huí - Means to go back

The only case I know to not use 去 (Qù) as a way of going somewhere is when saying your going home at which point you use 回 (Huí)

How can I identify a situation where each version of 'to go' is correct to use?

I don't understand. It seems you answered your own question.

Some example usage:

去学校 (go to school)，去公司 (go to the office; 去上班 go to work)，去旅行 (go on a vacation)，去法国 (go to france)

出门 (leave the building)，出去 (go out)，出来 (come out)，出国 (leave the country)

回家 (go back home)，回去 (go back)，回国 (go home [from abroad])，回公司 (return to the office)，回学校 (go back to the school)


How can I translate 中國傳統社會屬父系社會，以男性繼承世系血脈 into English? The sentence is 「中國傳統社會屬父系社會，以男性繼承世系血脈」. Should it be translated into the sentence "the traditional Chinese society is patrilineal and adopts a male lineage system"?

中國傳統社會屬父系社會，
Chinese society, traditionally, was/is a patrimonial society,
以男性繼承世系血脈。
where the bloodline is passed down through the men.
Has anything changed?


What does this text mean? I work in an Irish speaking school. There are no Chinese people or people of Asian ethnicity in the school and there are no Chinese language classes or Asian culture clubs or anything like that. Today I walked into an empty classroom to find the following on the board. It seems to be traditional 極女戈? I can’t find the last character anywhere. What does this mean ? A name ? The phrase doesn’t show anything online. Maybe a google transliteration of an English name ??? Ji nu ge dou ?

I am Chinese. I carefully watched the characters you showed us. I have no idea what “极女戈” means. I take it as characters which were randomly wrote together. There is no meaning in it.


Conjunction to express extension (of area) "In Moscow and also in the whole Russia there are..." What conjunction could be used to express extension (of area):

  In Moscow and also in the whole Russia there are lots of folk festivals being held.

So I need construction for: "In A and also in the whole B ..."

  在莫斯科(而且?)在全部俄罗斯有很多民间节日.

莫斯科 ~ 俄罗斯

由莫斯科(以至)全俄罗斯 = From Moscow (to) the entire Russia
look at Moscow first, and then extend your view to look at the entire Russia

You cannot reverse the order and write "由全俄罗斯(以至)莫斯科" because 莫斯科 is already included in 全俄罗斯
songyuanyao wrote:

"在莫斯科(以及)全俄罗斯

It means "In Moscow (and also) the entire Russia" .
Mainly indicate things happen in Moscow. Mentioning of Russia as a supplementary information. You cannot reverse the order and write "在全俄罗斯(以及)莫斯科" because 莫斯科 is already included in 全俄罗斯
Usage difference between 以至 and 以及:

"From Boston, New York, Chicago 以至 the whole America" sounds natural. You are extending your view from one city to another and eventually extend to every city in the country

"In Boston, New York, Chicago 以及 the whole America" sound strange, It is easier just say "In the whole United States"


Where to find online and easy reading material in traditional Chinese I'm a native speaker who wants to learn to read chinese.  I know just enough that I can probably start reading very basic text and can look up each character as I go,  so I'm looking for easy beginner level short stories,  children's stories,  or any other beginning level text.  However, everything I find is simplified Chinese and I'm looking for traditional Chinese. Do you guys have any resources you can point me to that has text in traditional Chinese?

You can use the Google Advanced Search.
key words: 兒童故事
language: Chinese (Traditional)
region: Taiwan

Some examples:

兒童文化館
中文兒童故事
兒童故事
格林童話集
兒童睡前故事
兒童故事
安安免費教學網－國小國語
安安免費教學網－千篇文章共賞


Differentiating 着 (zhe/zháo) and 着/到 The character 着 has many readings, but I'm interested on 2 of them that have grammar usage: zhe and zháo.

As zhe, 着 is used to express a continuous state, as in 门开着 (the door is opened) and 他跑着步听音乐 (he listens to music while running).

As zháo, 着 is used as a resultative complement that indicated the success of an action (similar to that expressed by 到).

So here comes my first question:
1 - Does 着 have exactly the same meaning as 到 as a result complement?

  找到/找着 - 买到/买着 - 看到/看着 - 想到/想着 - 睡到/睡着 are all the same?

That being said, here comes the second question:
2 - How would I be completely sure if 着 would be read zhe or zháo? For example:

  她会想着妈妈。Ta hui xiang zhe/zhao mama (She will be thinking/come to think about her mother.)

1 - Does 着 have exactly the same meaning as 到 as a result complement?

到 as a result complement indicates the verb is accomplished

着 as a result complement also indicates the verb is accomplished

Example:

Both 找到 and 找着 means 'seek' (and found)

~

着 as a verb particle is  mostly used to indicate 'the continuation of an action or a state'

Example: 看到 = 'look '(and saw) ; 看着 = 'looking'

着 here is a verb particle that indicates 'continuous state,

Similarly: 想到 = 'think' (and remember or realize); '想着' = 'thinking'

~

着 as a verb particle can also means 'result in'

Example: 买到 = 'buy' (and bought) ; 买着 = 'buy'(and end up with)

着 here is a verb particle that indicates 'result in/ end up with'. As in '买着次貨' (buy and result in buying inferior goods)

~

  2 - How would I be completely sure if 着 would be read zhe or zháo?

着 read as /zhe5/ only when it is functioning as a verb particle that indicating the continuation of an action or a state

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1132/


What do you think about this introduction to answering Yes/No questions? I have found a lot of information about asking questions but very little about answering them.

I want to create a rule to help learners answer affirmative/negative questions in Chinese. Presently I ask them to identify the following in a sentence: copulas, modals, main verbs or solitary adjectives and then use them in one or two-word answers. My question is how would you answer the following questions in the simplest way:

李先生在吗？
他是你的朋友吗？
李先生很累吗？
你要这张卡片吗？
李先生有朋友吗？

First answer is yes, and next answer is no:

李先生在吗？
在/不在
他是你的朋友吗？
是/不是
李先生很累吗？
累(This is shortest, but in real life people wouldn't answer like that)/不累(This is native.)
你要这张卡片吗？
要/不要
李先生有朋友吗？
有/没有

And using the 嗯 to make no answer is not the right way, people don't speak like that.


Placement of Pinyin in relation to characters I recently wrote a short article discussing the use of Pinyin and Zhuyin. One of the sentences I wrote, without thinking too much about it, was that Pinyin is normally written below the characters (in contrast with Zhuyin, which is written vertically on the right). However, I had two native speakers look at the text and both wanted to correct "below" to "above". They said Pinyin is usually written above the characters.

After looking through a dozen beginner textbooks, it seems much more common to write Pinyin below the characters, at least in this context. This is also what I find most in electronic or online dictionaries (MDBG, Pleco). However, a Google image search for 拼音 gives more diverse results with Pinyin sometimes written above the characters, sometimes below. My guess is that it doesn't matter much, but I have two questions:

1) Is there a defined standard for where Pinyin should be placed?
2) If so, are there any arguments (scientific or otherwise) for that decision?

As far as a "defined standard", I believe there are no official rules for pinyin placement. Texts in Mainland China are likely to place pinyin above the characters, while texts for foreigners differ in their approach. Sometimes even a single text will have different standards; for example, the New Practical Chinese Reader sometimes places pinyin above and other times places it below.

If I were to argue for one approach or the other, I would reason as follows: if the pinyin is to come in a block (e.g., a full paragraph instead of a word-to-word matching) then I would put the Chinese characters first and the pinyin second, to force foreign language learners' exposure to Hanzi without pinyin, and have them try to get through the characters as best as they can without resorting to pronunciation help.

In the word-to-word matching that I think is your primary concern, I would argue for pinyin placed above the characters. The first reason is consistency with texts used by native speakers (though one might very well say consistency with native approaches is not in general best for foreign language learners). The second, more important reason is that the tone marks (more than most letters) may appear to foreign language learners as if they are part of the characters. Placing pinyin above characters allows the letters to serve as a sort of buffer between tone marks and Hanzi.

Nevertheless, I highly suspect that a longitudinal study on the difference between learning outcomes for foreign language learners whose texts had pinyin above and learners whose texts had pinyin below would show no statistical differences. If your intuition tells you otherwise, I encourage you to find a first-year Chinese teacher and see if you can institute such a study, as it would be very easy to carry out. More interesting, I think, would be to include an additional group for whom the text's lessons are first written solely in Chinese characters, with pinyin presented separately afterwards (as opposed to a word-to-word matching). I think it's possible that the latter approach would show small differences in learning outcomes between either of the former two groups (my guess is the block group would fare better; others might disagree) though I'm not convinced they'd be statistically significant either.


倔强 vs 固执 vs 顽固 usage The dictionary says that 倔强 = stubborn, 固执 = stubborn, 顽固 =obstinate, stubborn. I looked up some sample sentences and felt like 倔强 and 固执 are synonyms. So are 倔强 and 固执 synonyms or do they have some difference in actual usage? If they have some difference can you guys provide some situation to use 倔强 and 固执? Because I don't know how to differentiate them .  And btw does 顽固 mean obstinate only or can it also mean stubborn like 倔强 and 固执?

倔 = blunt 强 = strong
倔强 =  stubborn (resist with strong will, e.g. force, persuasion)

~

固 = fixed
执 = holding on
固执 = stubborn (fixated and holding on to it, e.g. opinion, believe)

~

顽 = tough
固 =  fixed
顽固 = stubborn  (stubbornly fixated , e.g. opinion, believe)

倔强, 固执 and 顽固 can all be a description of someone's stubborn personality.

倔强 emphasize on the strong-willed aspect of stubborn

固执 emphasize on the fixation aspect of stubborn

顽固 emphasize on the unyielding aspect of stubborn

You try to force or persuade your daughter to give up an unrealistic dream, but she stubbornly refuses. That is she being 倔强 (she is so strong-willed, she wouldn't yield to force or persuaded by reasons)
You try to convince an old man that he should not trust traditional Chinese medicine over modern western medicine, but he stubbornly holding on to the believe that traditional Chinese medicine works better than modern western medicine. That is he being 固执 or 顽固 (he is fixated on his believe and firmly holding on it)

固执 is a neutral term, we have a saying 擇善固执 (pick a good believe and hold firm), so when  we say someone being 固执 on a subject, we do not imply he is actually right or wrong

顽固 is mostly a derogatory term, when we say someone being 顽固 on a subject, we actually imply he is wrong


What is the difference between 涉及 and 涉及到 I'm trying to figure out the difference betwen 涉及and 涉及到. I know here are two examples of each

当今世界的很多问题都涉及到全球的共同利益 － Could I say 涉及?

Or
 她的演讲涉及了太多敏感的话题 －  Could I say 涉及到？

Yes and yes. They are pretty much interchangable. Your second example contains 涉及了, marking a completed action, while 到 in 涉及到 is a preposition (to): relating to. You could say 涉及到了 as well, given completion.


Are there word games in Chinese? Do Chinese characters make it a lot harder to create or play word games in Chinese than it is in English? I have seen a few Chinese crosswords, but it seems like they aren't as densely cross-linked as English ones usually are. (In the few that I've seen, Chinese ones seem to have more black squares.) I suspect this difficulty is why logic puzzles like Sudoku and Masyu that use symbols instead of words are popular in Japan.

I love the English word games you find in books like David Parlett's Penguin Book of Word Games, or on his web site. Do any similar resources exist for Chinese word games?

Well, not sure if this answers your question or not, but I've played a game before involving using idioms (aka 成语) where you have to carry on using the same sound (not including tone) from whatever 成语 the previous person said.

For example, if I started with 骑虎难下 (qi hu nan xia - something like stuck between a rock and a hard place) the next person might say 下里巴人 (xia li ba ren - like redneck) the following 仁者见仁 (ren zhe jian ren - different people have different opinions) and so on. It's pretty hard, but a great way to learn new 成语.


What are some ways that I can be self-deprecating about my Chinese speaking ability? I live in an area where there are many Chinese so I get plenty of opportunity to use my language skills including shopping, eating at restaurants and meeting new people.

The Chinese people I meet are always complimentary about my language skill although I think it is quite average.

What are some different ways I can express to people that I feel my skill level is not very good?

You can try the following sentences which demonstrate humility:

不好意思，我的中文水平尚浅，有待跟您多多学习。
Sorry, my Chinese language skill is still shallow, there is still a lot to learn from you.
我的中文只不过马马虎虎而已，请您多多包涵。
My Chinese is just so-so only, please bear with me.
我的中文说得不好，请别见怪。
I am not good at speaking Mandarin, hope you don't mind.

If someone is praising your language ability, you can express in the following manners immediately after the compliments:

哪里，哪里... (Nah, you think too highly of me...)
您过奖了。 (You flatter me.)


Why 了 is not used, and what is the meaning of 玩 in 上个星期天，我跟好朋友一起去林学院的农场玩? The sentence is:

  上个星期天，我跟好朋友一起去林学院的农场玩。

I wonder why the writer doesn't add 了 after the verb to indicate that this action took place in the past.
Also, what's the use of 玩 in that sentence? And why is it placed in the end of that sentence?

I try my best to expalain it with my fair English.

First, here we have two verbs “去”and “玩”. And there can be following cases for your sentense:

.....去.....玩。
In this case, both verbs are emphasized. That means, information described about these verbs are all important.
.....去了..... 玩。
In this case, with 了 after 去, the tone has slightly more emphasis on the verb related to 去.
.....去......玩了。
In this case, with 了 after 玩, the tone has slightly more emphasis on the verb related to 玩. (But this case is a bit not that natural in this sentense. Not that “fluent”.)

By the way, here 了 means already.


Another meaning of 同志 Is it true that 同志 has some different meaning? Like gay (as in homosexual) or something? I know that during the 20th century in China and communist Russia it was very common to call people 同志 (товарищ, comrade). So is it wrong to call someone 同志 in China nowadays?

Yes it is true. The official word for somebody who is gay is 同性恋者 (tóngxìngliànzhě), but in recent years 同志 (tóngzhì) is frequently used as slang for somebody who is gay.

From Baidu:

  1989年，香港人林奕华将自己筹划的首届同性恋电影节命名为《香港同志电影节》，这可能是这层意义的开端。（最晚是）从此开始，在中国大陆之外的中文地区，如台湾、香港、新加坡、马来西亚等，“同志”一词逐渐演变成对同性恋者的另一个称呼。用的时候并不是如“某某同志”这样作称谓用，而是“某某是一个同志”、“某某参加了一个同志团体”这样。这种用法起先在同性恋群体中使用，后来影响逐渐扩大，上述地区的社会各界都采纳了这个用法，例如台北市政府民政局就在《认识同志手册2001年版》中写道：“市长爱同志”。

The most relevant parts:

  1989年，香港人林奕华将自己筹划的首届同性恋电影节命名为《香港同志电影节》，这可能是这层意义的开端

In 1989, the Hongkonger 林奕华 named the first edition of his gay film festival "香港同志电影节"

  从此开始，在中国大陆之外的中文地区，如台湾、香港、新加坡、马来西亚等，“同志”一词逐渐演变成对同性恋者的另一个称呼。

From then on, in China and other Chinese speaking parts such as Taiwan, Hong kong, Singapore, Malaysia, “同志” gradually became the name for gays (and lesbians).

Further on the same page you can read:

  近年进入大陆后，由于绝大多数年轻人已经不再使用“同志”这个词汇，使得这层含义反而后来居上。

In recent years after the introduction in China most young people stopped to use the word “同志” due to its implicit meaning.

and

  尽管这一层新的含义在大陆地区也被越来越多的人所知晓并使用，不过中华人民共和国官方媒体和文件对这一外延含义基本不予采纳。

Despite its implicit meaning in China which is known and used my more and more people, the official Chinese media (in the mainland) and official documents don't accept this meaning.


How bad does a sentence with an inicial 了 sound here? There's a rule in Chinese that says that when you have two or more verbs in a sentence, you should put 了 in the last one. As in:

  他们请经理吃了饭。

How bad would it sound if you put 了 before 请?

  他们请了经理吃饭。

If it's not bad at all, what would be the differece between the two?

Thanks!

他们请经理吃了饭- subtle emphasize what they eat, but not necessarily.

他们请了经理吃饭- to emphasize who they buy dinner for

There's another possible way to say this:

他们请经理吃饭了- subtle emphasis on the thing happened, but not necessarily.

It really depends on how you say it, your tune can change the emphasis too. They all have the same meaning. The second one probably has stronger effect.

Please correct me if i'm wrong.


Can I use 我的上一辈子 when talking about an earlier part of my life which I almost don't recognize as mine anymore? Context: I posted a photo on WeChat of an event that happened a long long time ago to me. I was living a completely different life back then. Different country, job, I was much younger etc. It's surreal looking at the photo as it's just hard to believe that that was a period in my life.
Under the photo I left a caption 我的上一辈子. It is a kind of a simile or a metaphor, where I'm trying to express how surreal it is that that was once my life.
Anyway a Chinese friend got back to me and started explaining how it implies reincarnation and I should use a phrase more along the lines of "my younger years" or "an earlier part of my life".
But that is not what I was trying to express. I'm not trying to express "my past", I'm trying to express:

"although this really happened to me it is so hard to believe that, it's as if it were a faint memory of a past life".

To native and fluent Chinese speakers, would you understand what I meant by this caption or do you agree that it is flat out wrong?

in your situation, try the idiom “恍如隔世”.
http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000086679
some would write it as “仿如隔世”
here’s an example of it’s usage:
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/images/characters/20170222230555idoms.pdf
have fun :)


Is there a difference between 夂 and 夊? Looking at the list of Kangxi radicals over at Wikipedia, I just noticed something I haven't noticed before. Radical number 34 (夂) and 35 (夊) are virtually identical. I write these radicals in the exact same way and I've asked one native speaker who also says she writes them the same way. The example characters are 夆 and 夏.

Since I mostly use radicals to learn/teach mnemonics, I realise that the difference between these two is irrelevant. They mean (almost) the same thing and can therefore be used as one for mnemonic purposes.

However, I'm still curious about these two radicals. Is there a difference in how they are written? Is there a difference in meaning? And finally, how come that there are two very similar radicals which also has very similar meaning?

The difference between the two in writing should be clear from these drawings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_35 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_34 and the stroke animations from http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%8A
and http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%82

夂 is normally used at the top (for example 条條修脩务務夐) or the left (for example 处) of a character, and 夊 at the bottom (for example 愛夏复) or the right (for example 致, see http://zhongwen.com/d/173/d80.htm).

Originally both characters were quite different (see http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%8A
and http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%82), but nowadays there are typically both written as 夂 by most people and most fonts don't make the distinction anymore.


What is the Chinese term for a DGEN or Degen Gambler What is the Chinese term for a DGEN gambler or a Degen Gambler, this phrase is usually used not in a bad way by pro gamblers who considers themselves or others DGEN/Degen gamblers as they thrive and live on gambling.

How would this be translated into Chinese in a way that it does not mean Degenerate which is considered a very bad word in itself.

It's hard to gather a euphemism for Degen Gambler in Chinese. No best words/phrases I figure. 职业扑克玩家 (Professional Pokerist) is the best one I can get.

hope this help.


Why use "i" to represent 自然韵？ In teaching 汉语拼音，the biggest headache is how to explain the "i" after the 7 独立音节 should not be pronounced same way as in "bi" "pi" "mi" ... etc.  A very serious mistake in semiotics, i.e. one symbol stands for two different contents.  Sometimes I am so upset that I want to shout :which genius ivented this?"  It is not difficult to explain the concept of 独立音节 because I can always ask my students try to prolong the pronunciation of "zh", for example, here, you get what I called 自然韵。 But why use "i" for 自然韵？ Even "zh-" is better than "zhi".  The time I spent to teach this!!!

I think the premise of the question is problematic. Pinyin was not created to teach the sounds of Mandarin to second language learners, so the question of why it is in a certain way that happens to be problematic for second language learners does not have an answer.
For native speaker, there's no problem using "i" for three completely different sounds, because the syllables involved are in complementary distribution, meaning that they never overlap and you can always know which one it is from context. This is similar to how ü drops the diacritic after j/q/x, which is also a problem for second language learners, but not for native speakers.
Why? Because they learn to hear and speak the sounds before they learn to write them. The problem you describe is partly caused by the fact that students learn pronunciation from writing.
The  angle of approach shouldn't be "how is this letter pronounced", but rather "how is this sound written down". The problem you bring up can be avoided by focusing on the pronunciation first and then teaching how that pronunciation is written down.
Finally, if you teach the finals as units, things will become even easier. There's no good reason to focus on letters in Pinyin. What about a that is used to write maybe four different sounds? Or e?
There aren't that many finals, so teaching them as whole units is possible. I wrote more about this here if you're interested.


The slang meaning of "Seven/七" in Cantonese I have heard a few Hongkongers saying seven in a similar, likely identical, context. I assume they are addressing a person because when they say it, they make the L hand gesture. I could be wrong, but my intuition is that seven is a slang in Cantonese and means something like loser.

Did I guess it right? If not, what is the slang meaning of seven in Cantonese? Or is it just a random joke?

Thanks in advance!

It is a foul character, usually pronounced as "cat6".

The original character is "", which means "scrotum".  On the contrary, in modern slang uses, it refers to the penis in a flaccid state, and commonly written as "" or "柒".  The implied meaning is thus "useless", "stupid", etc.

Many people tweak the pronounciation from "cat6" to "cat1" (hence, "七"/"柒") to avoid speaking the foul character directly.  Other alternatives like "sat6" (實) are also used.


Etymologies and relationship between the characters 錘, 槌, 鎚, and 椎 Wiktionary lists 錘, 槌, 鎚, and 椎 to all have the meaning of "hammer", but I'm not sure if that was the original meaning for any of those characters, and they all (or at least some) appear to have different origins and developments from each other. For instance, 說文解字 has the definitions for the following three characters:

錘：八銖也。从金垂聲。
槌：關東謂之槌，關西謂之㭙。从木追聲。
椎：擊也。齊謂之終葵。从木隹聲。

None of these entries have hammer as a definition (although 椎 has the definition of "to strike"). 鎚 doesn't seem to be listed in 說文解字, so I'm assuming it was created later on.
How did all of these characters gain the meaning of "hammer", and how are these four characters related?

From my answer to this question If you can use Chinese nouns as verbs, or vice versa

Typically, a word was either coined for a noun or verb first, and then its meaning extended to other word type for convenience's sake.
For example, It is possible that when people invented drill, they called it '鑽' (n); later when they needed a word to describe the action of 'to drill' , it is very convenience to add the meaning to the existing noun and make '鑽' both noun and verb.
Or it is the other way around, people called the action of 'to burrow' as '鑽'(v); when 'drill' was invented, they just use the verb '鑽' to name it, because a drill 'burrow' into things.
So, when a noun is closely associated with an unique action (verb), it would be used as a verb eventually; similarly when a verb is closely associated with an object (noun), it would be used as a noun eventually

Either 椎 was coined as a verb for "to strike" and gained the meaning of the noun for "hammer" later; or 椎 was coined as a noun for "hammer" and was given the meaning of the verb "strike" later.  Because the main function of a hammer is 'to strike things'

It is most likely that 錘 original meant something else, and later became a variant of 椎 because they sounded alike

槌 is defined as hammer; mallet; gavel; pestle. It should be the original form of the character for 'hammer'  when hammer was made of wood

鎚 is not listed in the dictionary, it seems to be a modern variant of 槌 when metal hammer appeared


What is the difference between 矮 and 短 What is the difference between 矮 and 短. Both seem to mean "short," so how can they be differentiated?

矮 short (as opposed to 高 tall) vertically short
For example, a person, a building, a wall can be 高 or 矮.
短 short (as opposed to 長 long) horizontally short
For example, a street, a piece of string can be 長 or 短.
You may wonder, what about things like pants? When they are on someone's body, they are vertical. With articles of clothing, it's always 長 or 短, because the orientation is dependent on the person wearing them. On their own, the pants cannot stay "vertical" and therefore are not considered "vertical" objects.
長 or 短 is also used for abstract things, for instance, a long day, a short engagement, a short wait ... etc.
Are there exceptions? I can't think of any right now, but others may like to chime in. Hope this helps.


Why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese? Can someone explain why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese, instead of a language? It is also for any language exist in China, both land and Taiwan (Cantonese, Hunanese, Fujianese, Taiwanese, etc.).

AFAIK, dialect is differ from language. Just like in Indonesia: Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese is considered as a language, not a dialect. But, Javanese is called as a dialect when someone speak Indonesian language with Javanese accent.

But, for Cantonese (or any other languages listed above), although you speak Cantonese, Chinese will considered it as a dialect, not a language. You know that, Cantonese and Mandarin is 'completely' different each other.

From Wikipedia:

  There is no universally accepted criterion for distinguishing a
  language from a dialect.

My hunch is that in general Chinese politics favors unity, whereas European politics favors separation, thus speakers of Dutch and German would hate to think that they were speaking dialects of the same language. Conversely in general it is useful for the notion of Chinese unity, that there is only one "Chinese", although in fact there are many spoken languages within the peoples considered Chinese, that are considered separate languages.

Note that (accoring to WP) the distinction is so unclear that some linguists consider "Dialect" and "Language" to be synonyms, and that a dialect can also be a language. Thus "Hokkien is a language that is a dialect of Chinese" would not be an illogical statement.


What is this character: ⿲舌⿳十⿴囗⿱龹贝⿱一八乚? This is obviously a newly invented character designed by someone with a message. What the message is, or what the point of the character is completely escapes me though.

I believe it's IDS is: ⿲舌⿳十⿴囗⿱龹贝⿱一八乚

Any ideas?

It is a polysyllabic invented "character", part of the online language of Chinese netizens (网语). It is a graphical representation of what one could call a "modern idiom": 贵圈真乱, guì quān zhēn luàn, roughly meaning "Your social circle is a mess".

The phrase was popularised on BiliBili, although its roots apparently date back to the mid 2000s. Baidu has an entry on the term. The use of 贵 as a sarcastic honorific is very much in vogue in Chinese netspeak.

The "mess" referred to can cover all manner of 'disapproved' conduct, although the general tone is not necessarily vitriolic.


What does 跳马猴子 mean? The term literally indicates some kind of monkey jockey riding a racehorse.
I’m guessing it means “lunatic”.
I can’t find it in any dictionary. Any ideas?

It seems to be 东北方言 (northeast dialect)

  跳马猴子 - 顽皮淘气的孩子，多指男孩

and

  '跳马猴子'指不老实的人，特别是小孩儿。如'你一天跳马猴子似的疯跑， 也不知道写作业'。

It's usually used for naughty and active boys.


Purpose of duplicating measure words? I came across the following sentence in New Practical Chinese Reader 2, lesson 21, paraphrasing:

南方的花园

中国人常说： “上有天堂，下有苏杭。”意思是苏州和杭州这两个城市跟天堂一样美。它们都在中国的南方，是中国南方的“花园”。它们的美在哪儿呢？－－杭州的山水和苏州的园林。苏州的园林非常有名。那些园林是过去一些有钱人请人修建的。园林里边有山，有水，有花儿，真是*一幅幅*美丽的山水画。中国的园林跟西方的园林很不一样。中国的园林好像中国画，是用水和墨画的；西方的园林好像油画，是用油彩的。因为中国古典的园林常常是画家和诗人设计的，西方的园林是建筑师设计的，所以它们的美很不一样。

I learned that 幅 is a measure word for pictures and that some verbs can be duplicated, but I don't understand the implication in this context.

My Chinese friend says it can also be done for other measure words such as 一张张 but she couldn't explain why.

重叠量词 (repetitive classifiers) are used to indicate:

every, or;
one by one, or;
abundance.

  除了计量名量词外，不少量词可以重叠使用。例如：名量词：个个/件件/张张。动量词：次次/趟趟/回回。

  量词重叠还有一种形式是 “一XX” 如 “一个个” “一件件”
  “一趟趟”，这种形式表示的语法意义有和上面的重叠形式相同的，也有不同的。意义有三种：

  表示“每一”。基本同 “XX” 重叠式。小伙子们一个个身强力壮。
  表示“逐一”。表示此种意义的重叠形式作状语。我们要一件件仔细检查，不要漏掉。
  表示“多”。他一次次给我打电话。

Source http://www.china001.com/show_hdr.php?dname=6FA0G51&xpos=132

This is how I would interpret the particular sentence in your question,

  园林里边有山，有水，有花儿，真是一幅幅美丽的山水画。

Within the forest garden, there are hills, rivers and flowers; a picturesque view from every angle.


What is the common word used among programmers for a bug? What is the translation for a computer bug that is being commonly used in the programming environment?

Among Chinese users, especially programmers, it's common to informally use the English word "Bug". Often capitalised as "BUG".

See for example this blog post: 软件 Bug 引发的十次严重后果

See also: https://baike.baidu.com/item/bug/32708


How can I translate this correctly into English "今晚怎么意思" I have a group of friends who regularly meet to play soccer, someone asked on WeChat:

  今晚怎么意思

The reply given was the time that we start "7" (meaning 7pm).

I may be missing something very simple here, but I have never heard someone just ask 怎么意思.

So what is the correct way to translate this into English?

Based on the reply, I don't see how this means "what time are we starting tonight" or "what time are we meeting tonight" - which is the kind of question I would expect if it was in English.

I think your friend was asking how to arrange the evening, not literally ask the time to meet. 「今晚怎麼意思？」 means “Any plans tonight?" in English.


So when should I use 旅舍，旅社，宾馆，酒店, or 旅馆? I've heard or seen all of them in real life situations, some of them seem to be exclusively for hostels, others only for larger hotels, but some verification would be nice.

酒店 usually means restaurant only, but it refers to the hotel with restaurant advertised or the larger hotel too.

宾馆/旅馆/旅店 is hotel, same exactly meaning, including the hotel with restaurant. But you never call a restaurant only as 宾馆. And you don't call a very good hotel as 旅馆/旅店.

旅社/招待所 is often used by mid aged people in China, when they say 旅社 they meant those hotels that are nation sponsored (国营的) in the planned economics time. Mostly it is equivalent to 宾馆/旅馆, but 旅社 refers to the smaller cheap hotel on the street nowadays, 招待所 is still for the nation or organisation sponsored hotels.

旅舍 means the accommodation for travellers, mostly in country side, specifically  means the small and cheaper hotel. It refers the building rather than the function of the hotel.

YHA can be translated as 青年旅馆 or 青年旅舍, rarely with other names. Bagpacker's can be translated as 背包旅馆 or 背包旅舍, nobody calls it as 背包宾馆. Hilton hotel can be translated as 希尔顿酒店 or 希尔顿宾馆, nobody calls it 希尔顿旅馆. Novotel like business hotel can be translated as 商务旅馆, 商务酒店, 商务宾馆.


Given that 门店 (lit. "door shop") = "outlet", how do you say "door shop"? 门店 (méndiàn)
CC-CEDICT: (retail) store

(We might otherwise translate 门店 to "outlet".)
This raises the question as to what you would call a shop that sells doors, given that 门店 (which literally translates to 门 = "door" and 店 = "shop") has another meaning.  If I were to guess, I'd say 门店 also means "door shop" and the listener can deduce this from the context.  However, Baiduing "去门店买门" doesn't give much, so I'm not sure.
Question: Given that 门店 = "outlet", how do you say "door shop"?

門業公司 or 大門設計 if you are looking for a shop that sells just doors, perhaps designer doors. But most shops carry other items as well, so it is common practice to visit a 門窗公司, 裝修公司, 廚櫃公司, or 木業公司 for the wooden product, or a 五金行 for the metallic bits.


How can I get exposure to Mandarin usage and pronunciation? I have been taking Mandarin classes at university. Due to illness I have missed a lot and fallen way behind. Now I wish to continue learning on my own.

I find it very hard to remember the characters. Because I am a senior, is there any hope, or am I too old to learn and remember the characters? Are there resources that simplify this? These are the texts we were using:

Integrated Chinese Textbook Simplified Character
中文听说读写 (3rd Edition)
( Level 1, Part 1)
Integrated Chinese Workbook Simplified Character
中文听说读写
(3rd Edition)
(Level 1, Part 1)
Integrated Chinese Character Book
Simplified and Traditional Characters 中文听说读写 (3rd Edition) (Level 1, Part 1)

I lack the opportunity to interact with Mandarin-speaking individuals. What are good online resources for hearing Mandarin spoken, so that I can become more aware of how to speak and pronounce it correctly?

Thank you.

There is a really good podcast from Taiwan that I like. I think you can try listening to it if you want more "exposure" to the language:

青春愛消遣


What are the problems with my sentences? 她是一个从美国来的姑娘来中国训练中国的足球队。 (是。。的）
一发现她丢了她的题手包就连忙回饭店去，而在饭店里一直搜索总归放弃了。（连忙）
他第一次比赛的时候，虽然在培训他是足球队最好的运动员，但是他居然踢了一脚，没踢足球就不小心地摔倒去了。（居然）

4.作弊，偷了别同学的钱，跷课， 等等，他并不是一个很诚实的人。（并+bu/

5.已经两个星期了，如果作业还没做了你干脆别做吧。（干脆）

6.找房子的时候你总是不满意，不是价格就是风格。（不是。。。就是）

7.一老师告诉我们明天有一个考试大家就不约而同的抱怨了。（不约而同）

8.看他用叉子吃苹果让大家莫名其妙。（莫名其妙）

9.她的父母听到了她没及格了考试的时候不让她一个星期跟朋友们一起出去玩儿所以她费尽心机找办法偷偷的和她的男朋友见面。（费尽心机）

10.她的男朋友跟她分手了但没告诉她原因就让她感觉很困惑。（困惑）

11.那个星期每晚上没睡了五个小时多的觉，她不由得感觉筋疲力尽。（不由得）

Hello, I wrote all these sentences for homework and got a really low grade I was kinda upset about, and I really want to understand grammatically the reason these sentences all have errors. My teacher just circled a lot in red but doesn’t explain how to fix it or why its wrong. If you could help me understand maybe the grammatical structures I’m messing up that would be so helpful for me to improve.

Thanks!

You are asking 11 questions in one post. If I answer all of them, It will be a very long post. Therefore, I would only answer the first question here and please post other questions in individual posts.
"是" is the verb  "is"
One of the functions of "的" is as an possessive marker, adding it after a noun to indicate possessive.
Example: 中国 = China; 中国的 = "China's" or "of China"
Another function of "的" is as an adjective marker. Adding it after any phrase turn it into an adjective phrase
Example:  "从美国来" = "came from America" ;  从美国来的姑娘 = the girl who came from America

"她是一个从美国来的姑娘来中国训练中国的足球队。" is a run-on sentence
"她是一个从美国来的姑娘, 来中国训练中国的足球队"。("She is the girl who came from America, came to China to train China's football teams") is the proper form.

"她(是)一个从美国来(的)姑娘" is  a correct answer for the adjective marker function. But your answer didn't use [是 + noun + 的] as a [verb + noun + possessive marker] form. If it was the requirement that you must use this function, your answer would be wrong.
The correct answer should be "这(是)中国(的)足球队" = "This (is) China('s) football team"


Is 太君 a derogatory word? These days it seems popular that Chinese netizens call Japanese 太君. According to some posts on 百度知道, like this or this or this, although they explain the etymology and the meaning of the word, there is no mention regarding whether the word is derogatory or not.

While the word originally seems to have been used during the war, I want to ask its current usage, especially online (as it seems way more common to be used online as such).

So, does the word have a derogatory sense like 小日本 or 日本鬼子, or is the meaning itself neutral but simply often used in pejorative tone? Or something others? And is it also used in positive tone, like 霓虹人?

It was a good word. For example, in 红楼梦 sometimes they call 贾母 as 史老太君. It was used to refer some senior with respect.

But during the war, those traitors started to use this word to the Japanese to show their respect to the Japanese and nowadays Chinese people don't like it anymore. The netizens use this world in a self-sarcasm fashion.

It is like the Swastika, which was used a lot in Buhddalism and can be seen a lot in ancient Buhdda sculpture. It was a good sign and then the Nazis started to use it and now most people will only associate it with the Nazi and don't like it anymore.


What is the difference between 需 and 須? I am wondering what the difference between 需 and 須 is. They seem close enough while 需 slightly hints to me that it is an "optional" kind of want, while 須 is a "demanding" want. Is this correct and is there a better way to think of them? Thanks!

The answer to this question: What is the difference between 必须, 得, and 需要? already explained the difference between 需 and 須.

Basically:

需(need) apply to noun. For example: "必需品" (品 is a noun)

須(need to; must) apply to verb. For example: "須知人言可畏" (知 is a verb)

必需品: necessity; essential thing

人言可畏 criticisms should be feared; gossip is a fearful thing


Is it true that a word that consists of two adjective words has a neutral tone on the second word? Do the words, such as 冰凉冰凉, 雪白雪白, and 通红通红, each have a netural tone on the second word?

e.g. 漂漂亮亮 [piào piao lìang lìang]

I don't think so.

冰凉冰凉, 雪白雪白, and 通红通红 might or might not have neutral tones.

漂漂亮亮 often have neutral tones, but loot at 浑浑噩噩.

I think neutral tone is a phenomenon in speaking, words like 浑浑噩噩 that is not often used in speaking don't have neural tone.

Note, I did not say they have or they don't have,  it depends on your tone of voice. If people want to be clear or serious, they don't use neutral tone. If they want to be lazy or natural, they use neutral tone.

There are no strict rules.

If you want to use neutral tone, it will be the B in ABAB and AABB. Since neutral tone always on the last character of a word.


What does ...玩得转 mean? In an opinion piece about recent criticism towards China, Hu Xijin wrote:

再有就是特朗普公开针对中国撒弥天大谎，向中国推卸他们抗疫失败的责任，居然在美国能够玩得转。是什么把美国公众搞得这么好骗，一眼就能看穿的甩锅把戏却有声有色地一集一集表演着，在美国也太容易带节奏了。
刷新认知，美国的人命竟然这么“不值钱”, 胡锡进, 2020年04月30日

It means something like:

Next, we have Trump's public focus on China, saying a pack of lies, shifting to China their epidemic-response failed responsibility, unexpectedly in the USA ... 玩得转 (?).  What caused the USA public to be deceived?  One glimpse and you can see that this pass-the-buck trick is but one dazzling performance after another.  In the USA it's too easy to follow the rhythm.

I don't understand 玩得转, and there's other examples on YouDao, e.g.:

他不一定能在NBA玩得转。
Not sure he can play.
你看，各种黑客我都玩得转。
Because, you see, I do all the hacker stuff.

It might be some kind of Internet slang; there's other such terms in this article.  If I were to guess, I'd say it means "do the rounds", e.g., in English we might say "this meme is doing the rounds" meaning it is being popularized on the Internet.
Question: What does ...玩得转 mean?

In your example, "玩得转" means "Trump's method is widely accepted in the United States, so his plan was very successful ".

"玩转" often means "do sth. well" or "understand sth. well"

Example: How to take photographs well(如何玩转摄影)

Let you understand all things about Shanghai well with me(带你玩转上海)

And it is a Internet slang!


Is there a common idiom equivalent to "tomato tomahto" in mandarin? I'm being very nitpicky with a coworker (20s, first language is mandarin) and I'm trying to tease myself playfully by saying something along the lines of "tomato tomahto" in mandarin.
I'm sure there is a translation for "it's all the same" (my stale interpretation for "tomato tomahto"), but I was hoping for a more playful phrase. Something more comparable to the joke-iness of "tomato tomahto", originated from this song.

How about something like:

哎呀，渣渣辉，张家辉有什么区别嘛？

Not sure if everyone will get it but it's quite funny.


What's the difference between "现在几点" and "现在几点了” In the textbook, I saw both "现在几点？" and "现在几点了？"
I know they are both correct and "了" often indicates past tense, but what's the difference here?
I think it would be really good if I can look up the usage of "了". But I didn't find any good online dictionary.

了 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/460/
[2] [final particle] indicating change of situation

"现在是下午五點" = "It is 5:00 pm now."

"现在是下午五點(了)" = "It is 5:00pm now" (final particle 了 indicates 'the current time has reached 5:00pm'. Situation changed from 'not yet 5:00pm' to 'is 5:00pm' )

Similarly:

"现在几点？" = "What time is it now?"

"现在几点了？" = "What time is it now?" (final particle 了 indicates 'what time the current time has reached'. Situation changed from 'not yet the current time' to 'is the current time' )

The final particle 了 is mostly used to soften the tone of a sentence to make it less blunt. Also it formally indicates the sentence is 'completed' (that's why it is called 'final particle').


Learning the Chinese Language China is the thing at the moment. Everyone wants to learn Chinese language. Is it hard to be fluent in the Chinese language

I am afraid there is no universal answer to your question. Generally speaking becoming fluent in Chinese depends on how much time and effort do you plan to put into it. Obviously the more the better. I would say it might be easier if your native tongue is related to Chinese (for example if you know Japanese, you have a smooth start with reading and writing). Personally I spent a huge amount of time on mastering Chinese pronounciation, since mistaking the tones may lead to various misunderstandings.

Some say it may help if you have ever played an instrument or generally had some musical education background (cause then you had ear training and can at least hear the tones properly). Chinese syntax is believed to be not so hard to master, since it is pretty fixed (comparing to my native language Polish it really does seem fixed). There is no inflection, but you end up with hundreds of characters to memorize instead.

So is it hard? I would say yes. But it's also a lot of fun and satifaction if you manage to learn it well. I hope this answer gives you somewhat of an impression of what it might be like to learn Chinese.


Why is 狗屎运 a commendatory term? When we use 狗屎 (dog's excrement) to describe a thing, it is definitely negative. Sometimes it can also appear as a bad word.
Also, 踩到狗屎 is obviously a bad thing.
But, 狗屎运 (good fortune) is used positively.
What causes this difference?

狗屎运 is an accidental luck and some good things you don't expect suddenly come to you. It's fine to use it in informal situations, but it's still a vulgar term.  Sometimes, it can be taken in a funny way, but you should be cautious when you use it in a formal situation.


How should I translate 认知组成？ 他是这样陈述自己的见解的：“我们的思想，是连续不断的认知组成的演变过程。”

我们的思想，是连续不断的认知组成的演变过程。
Our thoughts are evolving(演变） 【in】 a never ending process of cognitive formation(认知组成）.

I'm not really sure what he means with ‘认知组成’, so it is hard for me to translate.

Maybe he means: The things which we are aware of, which we perceive, provoke/cause our thoughts. This process goes on and on.

I would take

  “我们的思想，是连续不断的认知组成的演变过程。”

and translate it, roughly, like:

Our thinking, is constituted [组成] by a constantly evolving cognitive [认知] process.

It's not “认知组成” as a set-phrase or even a connected phrase but just two separate words.

Your understanding:

  Our thoughts are evolving(演变） 【in】 a never ending process of cognitive formation(认知组成）.

absolutely works as well.


When to use [time of day]+饭 vs [time of day]+餐? I see both used seemingly interchangeably, what is curious to me is that the same person will sometimes use one over the other.

Example sentences: "我想吃晚饭" or "我在煮早餐"

Looking into the roots of the words I see that while both have the meaning of a meal, 饭 is associated with cooked rice while 餐 is associated with the action of eating.

When is one more appropriate?
Does using 饭 imply that the meal will contain rice?

Informally in daily life, we talk about eat meals by referring to 吃饭。 In a formal situation, i.e. hotel, meeting, we use 餐 mostly in writing.
饭's meaning is quite flexible. You can use 饭 to refer to a general meal. However if you talk about specifically what in the meal, 饭 should be used only for boiled rice.

我想吃午饭。 ---> A general meal

我今天午饭吃了米饭和汤。 ---> food you eat in a general meal

In Cantonese, they use 餐 referring to a general meal, 饭 for the boiled rice


How do I say "most of the time" in Mandarin? 大部分的时间？

大多数的时间？

Or some other phrase?

一般
Tuttle Learner's

1 generally speaking, ordinarily
每星期一上午我们一般都开会。
Měi Xīngqīyī shàngwǔ wǒmen yìbān dōu kāihuì.
We usually have a meeting every Monday morning.

Guifan defines this as:

3 形 占绝大多数的
学生们一般都很尊重老师。

占绝大多数的 can also include time here so there's no need to specifically emphasize 时间 unless you want/need to.
You can even opt for a 一般来说 if you're in the mood, which KEY defines as:

generally speaking, generally, by and large

and Guifan gives the following example sentence:

一般来说, 雨天他是不会来的

Which roughly translates to something like:

Usually, when it rains, he won't come.


Why does the object come first in the sentence 这本书我要再看一遍? I am quite confused by the sentence 这本书我要再看一遍. It seems to me like a sentence with a simple subject/verb/object structure, with no complicated time or place words. But why does the object (这本书) come first? Why is it not 我要再看一遍这本书?

Is there some rule describing this scenario?

Many languages have this type of sentence construction to put topic first. It is not unique in Chinese.

You can find it in English too. "This dress, I really want to buy". This dress is the topic of sentence. In Chinese 這本書，我要再看一遍。這本書 is the topic of the sentence.

This kind of construction is quite common in classic Chinese. In Mencius, "魚，我所欲也。熊掌，亦我所欲也。" 魚 and 熊掌 is the topic of a sentence.

In Japanese, putting topic with "は" construction is even more common.


Is there a gender neutral pronoun in mandarin? I am current a high school student and am taking mandarin at school. My teacher and I both identify as non-binary. After all the research I’ve done the closest thing I can find is 它, but from what I can tell that is really “it” and not used for people. I’d really like to find an alternative to 他 and 她.

Nowadays, it's common for authors use the English letters "TA" to avoid indicating a gender.  For example:

  TA是什么性格的人[src]
  Literal translation: They are what personality person?
  Translation: What is their personality?

Many more examples are found in Baidu News by searching for "TA".

See also: What would a non-binary tā （他／她） look like?


Writing Down Chinese Names In Correct Order Question: I am constructing a sport database; which has names of Chinese players. Names are stored in Romanized alphabetical spelling. A recent concern has come up regarding a "correct" order by which Chinese names are written down, not necessarily spoken. For examples:
Deng Wei vs. Wei Deng
Le Maosheng vs Maosheng Le.
Li Ping vs Ping Li
Linmei Feng vs. Feng Linmei
Jiang Huihua vs Huihua Jiang
Lu Xiaojun vs. Xiaojun Lu
Any hard rules to go by. The expectation is that at least +90% are in the correct order. Chinese players make up for 2% of the names in the database.

Chinese names are written (in Chinese) in the following order:
surname given name
In non-Chinese contexts, such as a database of mixed-nationality names, all names (Chinese or not) should follow the order given by the target language.
Taking one of the examples, Lu Xiaojun vs. Xiaojun Lu, the Chinese name order is Lu Xiaojun (surname, then given name), while an English name order would be Xiaojun Lu.

Note that, for three-syllable names like Lu Xiaojun, it is often easier to determine the words corresponding to the given name and surname. Two-syllable names (e.g. Li Ping vs Ping Li) are more difficult; we can make educated guesses (the surname in this case is probably more likely to be Li), but Chinese characters are necessary to confirm this.
If you expect that at least +90% of the names are in the correct order, you can make an inference for classifying the surname and given name words for the two-syllable names, based on the existing three-syllable names, but this is really just guesswork.


What is the 的 doing in 他很快就会回来的? I came across this simple sentence:

He will be back soon.
他很快就会回来的。

I understand that the 就 is expressing earliness, but what is the 的 doing here? In the textbook 新的中国 it doesn't say 的 is part of the 就 construction, or on the allgrammar wiki here https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Expressing_earliness_with_%22jiu%22

Is 的 turning the 会回来 into a sort of adjective? Since 会 is an adverb I expected it to be followed only be the verb 回 with the directional complement 来 without the 的. Any help would be appreciated.

As a native Chinese speaker, I seldom hear people say"他很快就会回来。"
Because without the word "的" it sounds weird and unnatural.
There is no meaning of “的” in the sentence.
I think “的" use in the ending of this sentence is just make the sentence better.


What does 大快人心 mean when used as a stand alone exclamation? I have seen the phrase 大快人心 used in sentences to mean everyone is happy/pleased/satisfied with something but I recently came across it being used as a stand alone exclamation. Would that translate to something like "Everyone is happy!" or "Everything is great!" ?

"大快人心" , whether in a sentence, or as a stand-alone expression, means the same thing. It has a more limited meaning than "everybody is happy or pleased". "大快人心" means that people are happy, or feel vindicated collectively, when a perceived injustice has been rectified.
For example, if your government changes a bad policy to one that everybody welcomes, people are happy and pleased, but it's NOT an occasion to say 大快人心. However, if the official, who had received tons of advice and warning against the bad policy, but who had used his power to insist on it now gets fired. Then people can say, 大快人心!


What is the meaning of '有机结合‘ here? The sentence before he said:

一般企业更多雇用的是员工的双手和双脚，而不是员工最有价值和创造力的部位--大脑。

I have this sentence:

面对这一业界难题，我们公司看到的不是两难，而是有机结合。
Next sentence:(this is from my fltrp text book, so I assume it is good 汉语）

我们在雇用员工双手的同时也雇用了员工的大脑，让员工不仅用手工作，而且用心用脑去工作。
How should I interpret '有机结合‘？

As you may already know, "结合" means combination. "有机" in this sentence means the combinations goes vary well.

"有机" is a vary interesting words, it always means the change is not physical one, but a chemical one. It means something new is created by the combination, not just put them together.


Can someone tell me what this means, please? Good day.
I would like to know what this character means. Can you help me translate it? Thank you very much.

“歓” (http://www.zdic.net/z/1c/zy/6B53.htm)

An ancient form of "歡", meaning happy and joy.

(never tattoo something you don't know .....)


What does 无妨 mean in 即别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨? In the following sentence:

  我们每个人都是世界公民，千万不应该有低碳生活与己无关的想法，即别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。

无妨 means "might as well", "there is no harm", or "no matter".

However, it then makes no sense, since the meaning would become something like the following:

  Every person is the world citizen, so should never have the idea that low-carbon life is irrelevant with yourself. That is, others make a low-carbon life while I make a high-carbon life is also no harm (无妨).

This does not make sense, as 无妨 seems to be positive connotation for the sentence 我自己过“高碳生活”, which is incompatible with the author's point of view, which proposes the low-carbon life.

So what is the meaning of 无妨 here? Is my understanding here correct in the first place?

What you post under Philipp's answer is correct, which I have upvoted it.

即 here indeed means 'that is'.

So 低碳生活与己无关的 想法:  the notion of excluding ourselves from the concept "low-carbon life";

即： that is (the notion[想法] is);

别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。: Since other people live a low-carbon life (already), it's ok/not a big deal for me to live a high-carbon life. (apparently this is a selfish notion, which the author is trying to persuade people not to have.)

无妨 means there is no harm. I interpret 无妨 here as ok/not a big deal according to the context.


Is there something about 是在 that is meaningful in 让任意的值是在一个上下文当中? I was reading this article when I came across this:

  让任意的值是在一个上下文当中. 现在的情况你可以想象一个可以把值放进去的盒子

Because of the English version, I know that this is saying:

  Let an arbitrary value be in a context. You can think of this as a box that you can put the value in.

However, I've never seen 是 and 在 together like this with 让 earlier in then sentence. I thought that 在 by itself would have been fine. Is there something about 是在 that is meaningful in this sentence?

The article in the first link is clearly machine-translated from the original version in the second link with some partials not even translated. A lot of the sentences are difficult to understand, if they make any sense at all. 让任意的值是在一个上下文当中 is just wrong in Chinese. One proper translation might be 把任意值放到上下文当中.


What is this “XX” 開 “#” “上/平/入/去” “XX” method for describing character pronunciation? Here is an incredibly horrible quality excerpt (read: screenshot) from 《四川邛崍油榨方言記》:

here's the highlights from 2 ər that I wanted to point out:

爾 止開三上紙日
兒 止開三平支日
而 止開三平之日
二 止開三去至日

and for contrast the highlights from 3 i

逼 曾開三入職幚
彼 止開三上紙幚
秕 止開三上旨幚
蔽 蟹開三去祭幚
箅 曾鼻子蟹開四去霽幚

The last two “XX” might be final + initial - 逼 for instance 職幚 final i plus initial b -- a backwards 反切 - a 切反, if you will. 反切 usually includes the correct tone with the final, which doesn't seem to be carried out here - 職 would be second-tone, here, if anything - and not first like the tone that is noted for 逼.
上/平/入/去 is, obviously, a tone marker - still not really seeing how the pre-fixed number fits in with it, though.
“X” + 開 I'm more lost on.
Does anyone know what this method is?
How does its components work?

these're codified verse, each character represent a "value" of particular "property", 廣韻 is the origin.

逼   曾開三入職幫

逼   the character looked up

曾   one of sixteen 韻攝

開   開口音 (開 for 開口音, or 合 for 合口音)

三   等第 (一, 二, 三 or 四)

入   entering tone, 聲調 tones (平, 上, 去 or 入)

職   this one is 韻目 (slightly different from 韻母 finals, there're 206 韻目 in 廣韻

幫   it's 聲母 initials

so, back to your question:

“X” + 開

it's [ 通 | 江 | 止 | 遇 | 蟹 | 臻 | 山 | 效 | 果 | 假 | 宕 | 梗 | 曾 | 流 | 深 | 咸 ] + [ 開口音 |合口音 ]

last, it's interesting that the book used traditional chinese script :)

info added.

ok, if you understand cantonese, literary chinese & traditional script, here it's:

韻攝

in the rhythm book 廣韻, there're 206 韻目, which was "assimilated" into 16 韻攝, that, ignoring initials, tones; similar finals were grouped together. i guessed it's easier to remember 16, instead of 206 :)

for example:

通攝, which included "東韻", "董韻", "送韻", "屋韻", "冬韻", "宋韻", "沃韻", "鍾韻", "腫韻", "用韻", "燭韻"; in cantonese (sydney lay scheme), these're:

通   tung1,  sound file

東   dung1,  sound file

董   dung2,  sound file

送   sung3,  sound file

屋   uk1,    sound file

冬   dung1,  sound file

宋   sung3,  sound file

沃   yuk1,   sound file

鍾   jung1,  sound file

腫   jung2,  sound file

用   yung6,  sound file

燭   juk1,   sound file

grep the idea now?

漢語多功能字庫, 鉅宋廣韻

等第

this one, it's roughly louder, loud, quiet, quieter (from 1 to 4). it's derived from 韻圖 (rhyme table).

the internet archive has a copy of 韻鏡, in page 100-101:

https://archive.org/details/02077186.cn

in bottom right, one can find

北
◯
逼
◯

in which, the 等第 of 北 is 一, while 等第 of 逼 is 三


四航奋进: This ship's name is translated as "Four Aircraft Endeavour", but is it? The name of the ship below is given as: 四航奋进

I've seen it previously*** translated as "Four Aircraft Endeavour", which seems peculiar, as it's not an aircraft.

The 四 I can understand: it has two pairs of two cranes, so four cranes in total. Are those the four endeavours? Isn't 航 boat? So I can see how the component syllables could conceivably form "Four Endeavours Boat" - but is that a valid translation? Are there implications, idioms, or subtexts in the name 四航奋进?

I'll also note that in English, some speakers get quite passionate about distinguishing between "boat", "ship" and "vessel", though I don't really understand the nuances, but if there are nuances in this name, I'd appreciate pointers to them

 source

***(note: subsequent to this post, the linked page at the top has updated the translated name to "Fourth Harbour Endeavour", thanks to the answers here)

This is a typical example of Chinese English. 「四航」is the company or institution who built the ship. It has nothing to do with the ship's structure. I read 「四」 in 「四航」 as fourth. There might or might not be 「一航」 or 「二航」. Here's the official website for 「四航」.  「四航」 is short for 「第四航务工程局」， it's a company mainly engaged in construction of a variety of infrastructures like ports, bridges, hydraulic works and etc. according to the about page. They call themselves Fourth Harbour Engineering in English.

"Four Aircraft Endeavour" is a confusing translation. Literally, 「四航」 is "Fourth Harbour" and「奋进」 is Endeavour in this context, although I'm not sure whether Endeavour is a good translation. I would probably translate 「奋进」 as striving forward but it doesn't sound like a name.


What are the normal forms of valediction (signing off letters and emails) in Chinese? For example, how do they normally sign off letters?  We normally use 'Yours Faithfully' or 'Your Sincerely' but we might not be so formal in emails and instead just 'Regards'.

What is standard practise in Chinese for both letters/emails?

謹上 or 敬上 is fairly common. Your own name precede this closing term, contrary to English.


婴儿、儿童、少年、成年 and other words related to age I'm looking for words to define grade levels from babies to adults.
According to what I've found on Baidu, the basic division is:

(童年)
婴儿 - 0 to 3 years old
幼儿 - 3 to 6 years old

(少年)
启蒙 - 7 to 10 years old
逆反 - 11 to 14 years old
成长 - 15 to 17 years old

成年 - 18+ years old

But according to the dictionary, 启蒙 and 逆反 mean "to initiate" and "rebellious behavior", which doesn't seem to relate to age at all.

Are there better words to add up to 级 to define these grades?

Thank you

chinese characters related to age, there're three main sources.

the first one is 論語, chapter 為政

子曰：「吾十有五而志于學，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳順，七十而從心所欲，不踰矩。

that

而立 - 30+

不惑 - 40+

知天命 - 50+

耳順 - 60+

the second one is 釋名, which was written in 漢 dynasty

in 卷三﹒釋長幼 (page 57-60):

"人始生曰嬰兒﹒胸前曰嬰"　嬰 - newborn, before breast (breastfeeding)

"兒始能行曰孺"　孺 - started to walk

"七年曰悼"　悼 - 7+

"毀齒曰齔"　齔 - losing baby teeth ( 9-12?)

"十五曰童"　童 - 15+

"二十曰弱"　弱 - 20+

"三十曰壯"　壯 - 30+

"四十曰強"　強 - 40+

"五十曰艾"　艾 - 50+

"六十曰耆"　耆 - 60+

"七十曰耄"　耄 - 70+

"八十曰耋"　耋 - 80+

"九十曰鮐背", "或曰黃耇", "或曰胡耇", "或曰凍梨", "或曰齯"　鮐背, 黃耇, 胡耇, 凍梨, 齯 - 90+

"百年曰期頤"　期頤 - 100+

the third one is 說文解字, also of 漢 dynasty, which was published earlier than 釋名. some explanations were different from 釋名, e.g. 耄 is 90+.

btw, talking about age, remember to consider "虛歲", or "虛齡"

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000111350

there're several more age related characters / words, have fun :)


Does /Ĩ/ *really* exist in Southwestern Mandarin? 成都话方言词典 (1987) lists a bunch of words under the IPA initial /Ĩ/.

Southwestern Mandarin doesn't seem to actually have this initial according to most other resources who put all the /Ĩ/ listed words under the initial /n/.

For example 成都话方言词典 lists 路 as /Ĩu/ (ignoring tones for now) whereas most other resources list it as /nu/. The /Ĩu/ IPA results in a 'pinyin' of lu while the /nu/ IPA gives a pinyin of nu.

I can't find anything to back up 成都话方言词典's usage of /Ĩ/, regardless, my real question is:

Does /Ĩ/ really exist in Southwestern Mandarin?

Yes they use /l/.
People from the Southwest sometimes can not distinguish /n/ and /l/ very well.
For example,  牛奶 [milk], in standard mandarin it should be [niu2 nai3]; however, people from the southwest usually say [liu12 lai4]; even if when they are trying to speak mandarin, they prounance like [liu2 lai3].


Questions with multi-syllable verbs, e.g. 你认识不认识他？ vs. 你认不认识他？ What would be the difference between 你认识不认识他？ and 你认不认识他？ Are they the translated with the same "Do you probably know him?

Basically they have the same meaning, but the former is a little more formal. And in spoken language the latter is often used because the former twists the tongue a little bit.


Is this pinyin alphabet used to spell in Chinese Sign Language? Otherwise, which one is used in Mainland China? Is this pinyin alphabet used to spell in Chinese Sign Language? Otherwise, which one is used in Mainland China?

This matches some intro materials I was shown in Changchun. I think it's the mainland standard. It's also repeated in a few places around the net if you baidu it.

I have to say though, the standardization of Chinese sign language is a work in progress, the signers I met in Changchun were an extremely heterogeneous bunch language-wise, it was amazing the sheer diversity of signs they would accept for common phrases. And pinyin was not exactly their favorite toolkit, it's much harder to remember if you're deaf. So your mileage on the ground may vary, good luck with this project, whatever it is!


一单字动词，表示给食物过冷水，是哪个字？ / a single-character word meaning to submerge food in cold water 北京话里有个单字动词，表示给食物（比如刚煮熟的面条、蔬菜等）过冷水。华北其他地区可能也说。请问这是哪个字？以前经常听人说，现在记不清了。

There is a single-character verb in Beijingese Mandarin, meaning to submerge food (like boiled noodles, vegetables, etc.) in cold water. It is possibly used in other parts of Northern China as well. May I know which word is this? I used to hear it a lot but forgot what it exactly was.

拔（pronunciation only. Not sure how to write.）。
e.g. 面条放冷水里拔一下

焯是过热水。


Hanzi Underline Rules? Hanzi has some underlining when dealing with foreign names, etc.

What are the rules regarding Hanzi underlining?

edit: Would I underline 中国 in a text that includes underlining?

This page and it's Chinese version might help: Proper name mark - Wikipedia

By the way, we do not use underline as a punctuation in modern simplified Chinese writing. But in a passage (maybe classical Chinese texts) where underline is used, 中国 should be underlined according to the rules.


How can 盼 refer to black and white? Analect 3.8 quotes from the Book of Songs, 碩人 - Shuo Ren which is Airs of Wei 57 in Waley's version.
『巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮，素以為絢兮。』
But the last 5 characters do not occur in the Book of Songs as we have it.
Confucius seems to read that quote as saying something about black and white in the woman's eyes or complexion.   And Waley translates the poem in the form we do still have, where he interprets  盼 in the phrase 巧笑倩兮。
美目盼兮。as somehow referring to black and white.
The Chinese Text Project website indeed finds a phrase in the Shuowen, and then in the Kangxi dictionary associating the character  盼  with 目黑白分明也。But I think that comes from interpretations of the Analects.  I do not see any examples of usage in the Pre-Han and Qin texts on that site, except for Analect 3.8, where  盼 seems to mean that.  Most often it means "hoping," and most often that is hoping for a son.  They do once give 之馬之目盼則為之馬盼 as meaning a horse's eyes, and the horse, are blind.
I know from experience that I may well be missing something on the Chinese Text Project website.  But what is the reason for thinking that 美目盼兮，素以為絢兮 means a woman's eyes are distinctly black and white?  It seems to me more natural to associate it with "longing" in, or for, the woman's eyes.

This is not a Waley phenomenon. The majority of English translators of Shih-ching (in the absence of 素以為絢兮) follow strictly the preachings of Shuowen Jiezi when interpreting 盼 in 美目盼兮, to varying extents of literality.

Translation

Legge 1871:95
How lovely her eyes, with the black and white so well-defined!

Legge 1876:104
With dark and lucid eyes, showed face beyond compare.

Jennings 1891:83
Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright!

Waley 1937:80
The lovely eyes so black and white.

Karlgren 1950:38
Her beautiful eyes are well-defined black and white.

Pound 1954:28
Clear white, gainst black iris.

Legge and Waley also translated III.8 of The Analects in the same manner. Some other translators of The Analects choose to interpret the quote (in the presence of 素以為絢兮) more liberally, but still do not use the more common verbal meaning 'to look' except Lau 1979. Note even in Lau's interpretation the much derived meaning 'to hope for' is not adopted.

Translation

Lyall 1909
Her lovely eyes, So clear and bright

Soothill 1910:191
Her bewitching eyes shew their colours so clear

Lau 1979
Her beautiful eyes glancing

My take on this matter is that 素以為絢兮 may be a Confucian (in the sense that the dialogue between Confucius and Tzu-hsia that follows it centres on not the quoted poem, but 絢 as a metaphor for 禮) annotation of the preceding verse 美目盼兮; or a piece of yishi (逸詩, lit. lost poem). If the former be the case, the contrast of colour between 素 and 絢 may also help justify interpreting 盼 as 'black and white well defined'. See more of  素以為絢 here. Another weaker (and potentially flawed) justification is that in order for the couplet 巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮 to have matching parts of speech, 盼 should be adjectival.

This article, however, unearths several annotations of the phrase of concern that provide a different explanation:

通志堂本《经典释文·毛诗音义》作“盻”，并注“敷苋反，白黑分也。徐又敷谏反，《韩诗》云‘黑色也’，《字林》云‘美目也’，匹间反，又匹苋反。”

阮刻《论语注疏》在原文下有小字注“马曰：‘倩，笑貌；盼，动目貌。”

Apparently, not every source listed above agrees with the Shuowen Jiezi school. Especially striking is the interpretation of Ma Rong, an Eastern Han scholar and a contemporary of Xu Shen. But this was not published until the Qing Dynasty in the Ruan ke annotation, which may weaken the credibility of the quote.


Difference between 借 and 贷 Both can either mean "to borrow" or "to lend". I know you can combine both of them "借贷" to mean "debit and credit". But what are the differences in usage and semantics between those two words. They both are so similar but I'm sure there are some differences between the two. For example, I know you say 借钱 but usually don't say 贷钱 (correct me if I'm wrong).
Any clarifications and explanations would be awesome! Thanks

We don't usually say 贷钱, but we do say 贷款 a lot, which is a more official way of saying 借钱. For example,

  If you borrow money from your friend, you 借钱 from your friend.

In this case it's more casual, and the amount of money is usually not too much.

  If you go to the bank for a loan, you 贷款 from the bank.

In this case it's more official, and the amount of money is usually a lot.

So in general, 借 and 贷 have very similar meaning, but can be used in different phrases for different context.


What is the correct way to say "-shaped"? How do you correctly say "sth-shaped", such as "heart-shaped" or "star-shaped"? Do you say 心状？星星状？

shape (n): 形狀

to shape (v): 塑造

shaped (adj): 形状的

you can omit 状 in  形状的

Example:

heart-shaped= 心形的

star-shaped = 星星形的


What is the difference between 锋利， 尖利， 锐利， 锋锐，尖锐？ All seem to mean sharp in both a literal and abstract way

锋= edge ; 利= sharp; 锋利= sharp (of edge)
Example:
刀锋锋利 blade edge is sharp

~

尖= pointy; 利= sharp; 尖利= pointy and sharp
Examples:
冰錐是尖利的 ice pick is pointy and sharp
尖利的工具 (pointy and sharp tool)

~

锐 = piercing; 利= sharp; 锐利 = piercingly sharp(of point)
Examples:
眼光锐利 have (piercingly) sharp eyes
锐利武器 piercingly sharp weapon

~

锋= edge; 锐 = piercing; 锋锐= piercingly sharp (of edge and point)
Example:
锋锐武器 piercingly sharp weapons

~

尖= pointy; 锐 = piercing; 尖锐= piercingly pointy
Example:
說話尖锐 speak in a (piercingly) pointy manner
尖锐的工具 piercingly pointy tool


Do all one-syllable words need to be followed by a 子 to make it colloquial? Do all one-syllable words need to be followed by a 子 to make it colloquial? For example, 椅 becomes 椅子, 锤 becomes 锤子, 尺 becomes 尺子 and etc.
I thought about this because I came across a picture dictionary for Chinese words and I saw most of the single syllable objects have a 子. But some of it doesn't have so do I need to add the 子 when speaking? A few example that I saw without the 子 are 据 and 铲. So should I add a 子 and make it 据子 and 铲子?

Modern Chinese loves disyllabic words, that's why often you find seemingly meaningless "affixes" added to characters to sound "nicer".

Prefixation:

老 (老虎),
小 (小李),
初 (初一)

Suffixation:

子 (椅子),
頭 (木頭)

are just a few that are commonly used. Other ways of turning monosyllabic words into disyllabic words includes:

Compounding: putting together 2 roots with lexical meaning in forming a new word. E.g. 菊 (Chrysanthemum) -> 菊花 (Chrysanthemum flower)
Reduplication: duplicating a character or multiple characters. E.g. 爸 (Dad) -> 爸爸 (Dad)

So when you speak, try to observe how others usually collocate words. However, it is totally acceptable to use monosyllabic words when surrounded by enough sounds to make sense of it. So if they are just words used on their own, others may not totally understand them without context, since there are many homonyms.

In your example, 鋸 (beware the tool "saw" has a 金 radical) and 鏟 may match up with 子 to form 鋸子, 鏟子. These are good on their own. Or by making them compounds with description: 電鋸 (electric saw = chainsaw) and 鐵鏟 (metal spade) is also fine.

I believe the reason disyllabic words are more commonly used is simply because speaking in monosyllabic words may not convey the meaning well enough even with tones, so people tries to collocate characters together for making conversations easier. Despite all this, using monosyllabic words aren't "wrong". They are just rarely used and may make a sentence seem weird if used inappropriately.


Essay "link" in chinese? In my school they teach a PEEL format for writing essays.

Point-论点

Evidendence-论据

Explanation-论证

Link-????

What is the "link" known as in Chinese?

Link
连接、联系
英语作文怎么写好内容丰富 百度知道

提问者采纳
英语作文有4点：PEEL【point、evidence、explain、link】就是要提出一个点、再找出几个例子、用几个段落解释这几个例子、每段落最后一句要可以连接到下一节的内容、这样就能写出一篇较好的英语作文了。【我们老师就是这样教的】

[XLS] Sheet1

论点、申论、举例、联系（PEEL）。

PEEL
Points/Topic Sentence
Elaboration/Examples
Link/Summary
段落主句
扩展／例子
联系主旨／段落总结


how to correctly translate 我想你 When I started learning Chinese I was taught that this term would mean I miss you

However have recently seen this been translated different ways into English.

1st

  I miss you

2nd

  I'm thinking of you

I know the main word here is 想 and I understand it can be used to indicate want, think, suppose, miss depended upon context but for this i'm lost and wanted to seek your guidance on how to interpret this statement 我想你

In this case, miss equals to 想(念)，思念 while think of equals to 想到，想起. So 'I miss you' is the right choice. 'I think of you' means '我想起了你'. But sometimes 'I am thinking of you' is translated into ‘我想着你’.

When one say '我想你(+Adverbial)' or ‘我在想你(+Adverbial)’ as a sentence alone, it means that I miss you or I'm missing you. And when one say '我想你+...', it generally means 'I think you +...'. For example, 我想你很适合这项工作 means I think that you are fit to this work. Another example, 我想你在这个夜里 means I miss you in this night.


"I didn't buy that" without 了 Is 了 ever/sometimes/never omitted for past subjunctive?  What if not subjunctive; i.e., positively something did happen.

wohok.com gives for 没 two example sentences

我没买这个
我没有买这个

and translates both as "I didn't buy this."  (Could argue this is not subjunctive, but I am familiar with languages where a negative is always subjunctive.

——————

Aside …

What is the difference between 没有+V. and 没+V.? answers that there is no practical difference between 没有 and 没, but a comment suggests subtle differences in meaning or connotation.  (Have to translate a lot of Chinese to figure out what it is saying!)

了 never appears in past negation.

By definition, one of 了 grammatical functions is to indicate completed action, and not past tense. Hence, if the action did not happen at all (没), it has also never been completed.

  他还没来 - He still didn't come (and not他还没来了）

A side note to that is that 了 would appear in present negation.

  他不来了 - He is not coming.


Various uses of the English "for" to indicate purpose The sentences below all use the word "for" to indicate purpose. I tried to think of a few sentences that may use "for" a little bit differently. Can you help me understand how to use "for" in Chinese?

How would you translate "do you have a microwave for guests to use?" Is it: “你有一个客人可以用的微波炉吗？” is there a better way to say that?

Also:
"This microwave is for guests use only."

"Is this gift for me?"

"That chair is not made for adults. It is only for kids."

There are many ways to say it.
你有给客人用的微波炉吗？
你有一台微波炉好给客人用吗？
你有给客人用的微波炉吗？

“Is this gift for me?"
这个礼物是给我的吗？
这是给我的礼物吗？

"That chair is not made for adults. It is only for kids."
这把椅子不是给成人制作的，只是给孩子的。


How to use 也好. Not meaning 'also good' My non-Mandarin colleagues have been using

  英文也好，中文也好

lately and I assumed from their context they meant both languages are equal in whatever comparison they were making.

When I looked it up I found it to mean "might as well, whether...or..."

How can I use 也好？
Is there more (or less) colloquial equivalents?
How is 也罢 different?

Both A也好, B也好 and A也罢, B也罢 construction mean "whether A or B". It is usually spoken to show indifference when faced with two options or when the choice really doesn't matter. The explanation from 汉典 says the following:

A也好, B也好

  表示不论这样还是那样都不是条件
  Example: 插秧也好，收割也好，都不要误了农时。

A也罢, B也罢

  表示不以所列举的情况为条件
  Example: 运砖也罢，整地也罢，保证超额完成任务。

When used together, people would normally associate 也好 to a positive choice or action and 也罢 to a negative one. For example:

你去也好，不去也罢，都与我无关。

Note that for this A也好, B也罢 construction, the sequence is always 也好 first followed by 也罢.


"niyao" meaning strong-armer? A comment on a New York Times article about violence towards doctors in China reads:

  The situation is explosive. In 2010 there were 17,234 cases of violence against medical personnel reported by CCTV. Hired thugs
  called "niyao" beat up or kill doctors for 100 yuan ($16 US) plus
  cab fare. China Daily says attacks increase 20% per year.

I could not find the characters for "niyao" anywhere or a definition of a "niyao" as a strong-armer. Can someone point me to a source?

I think it is mistyped. There is something called "医闹" (yinao), which inherently means affrays in hospitals made by some troublesome patients because of medical disputes.

However, the situation was, some patients hired some "agency" to make all the affrays for them. Before 2011, it was quite common, and those people get hired are called "职业医闹" (zhi ye yi nao). The payment is 100 Yuan per day.

In recent years, as most of the 职业医闹 get caught into prison, much fewer reports of that events are heard, but "医闹" still exists, though most of the events didn't cause very serious consequences. But recently, a patient killed a doctor in Zhejiang, which is an open book.


What is the difference between 课 and 班级? Is there any difference between 课 and 班级? As far as I know, both mean class in school. Some of example sentences I read are below:

这个班级上数学课的时候用计算机
他正在准备历史课的作业
这是一个高中的班级
他们正在上法语课
我的班级是在学习念英文
我想要教画画课

It might look like that the 课 means a class that represents any specific subject, while the 班级 means a class in general. First, is this true? And second, is there any difference aside from that?

I also want to know that, if you want to express "Let's go to the class!" in Mandarin, which one should I use? And if I use the wrong one, does it still make a reader get the meaning or does it carry completely different meanings?

班级 is a group of students who started school in the same year and participate in classes together, it's the students themselves.

课 is a unit of the curriculum, that is held by a teacher, professor and is attended by the students.


I cannot understand the subject exacly of this phrase (DL used in romanization) Wo shi 2002 nian nian de

(this above, I understand, is a date of birth)

Yinwei wo bu tai dong yingwen

Baoqian wo zhi kan de dong DL San ju

(A person showed for me with "DL" and never see this example into a romanization)

Wojia you yang gou

我是2002年生的 or 我是2002年来的

因为我不太懂英文

抱歉我只看得懂第三句

我家有养狗

Your second "nian" in the first sentence may be sheng (生，meaning born) or lai (来，meaning came)

I agree with songyuanyao that "DL" may very well be "di". "Di San ju" is "第三句" which means "the third sentence"