In ` 向谁说`, does `向` play the same role / have the same meaning as `对`? I've read an article and found this sentence 傷痛向誰說 where 說 is right after an object.
For example: 我对你说, due to 对, the word 说 needs to be right after the object 你.
Is it due to 向 that 說 needs to be right after 誰? e.g. [向 + object] + verb is a must?
And is 傷痛說向誰 wrong?

'誰' in "誰說傷痛?" is equal to the pronoun "who" in English.
誰 is the Subject, 說 is the Verb and 傷痛 is the Object. (It is an SVO sentence)
~
'誰' in "傷痛向誰說?" is part of a complement introduced by 向, so it can be translated as the pronoun "whom" in English.
The sentence follows the [topic + comment] structure: 傷痛 is the topic,  向誰說 is the comment:

Topic: 傷痛 = pain

Comment: 向誰說 = whom I should say to

The comment itself is an SVO sentence with the subject omitted
You can have a different comment, e.g. 傷痛(topic) + 我受不了 (comment)

In  向谁说, does 向 play the same role / have the same meaning as 对?

說傷痛 = say pain
[SVO] (向谁)说傷痛 = (to whom) I say pain?
[topic + comment] - 傷痛(向谁)说 = pain, I say (to whom)?
向 sounds more proactive and 对 sounds more interactive

And is 傷痛說向誰 wrong?

傷痛說向誰 is wrong. It is an SVO sentence, the object 傷痛 should not be placed before the verb 說


How do Chinese people correct their characters? While practicing writing of simple sentences, I realized that after missing I stroke, I was tempted to fix it the same way I'd do it in English - by thickening the strokes I'd like to keep. I know that Chinese people have a "shorthand" way of making notes. Given the multitude of characters, how do they correct mistakes in writing? Is there a standard way of, say, crossing out a character?

for example this picture，hope to help you:


What does this seal stamp say? (Characters identified: 石黑香香) My parents have bought some type of ceramic vessel (plate, pot, something like that), which has the following stamp on the bottom:

Armed with 米好 '-'’s answer on how to decipher seal script, I’ve done my best to identify these four characters (well, three, with one repetition), but I haven’t got very far. Sadly, my copy of Wenlin is version 3.4, which doesn’t have seal script support, so the Wenlin-based methods don’t work and I’m forced to work with my 简本 paper copy of 说文解字.

The top right character obviously looks like 區, but the lack of a bottom stroke seems suspicious to me. I can’t find any characters consisting of just 厂 or 广 and 品, though, so for now I’m inclined to believe it’s just an odd variant on 區.

The bottom right character has what looks like a turned-eye or net radical (罒), but with four ‘chambers’ instead of three. The lower part of the character looks a bit like a warped 貝, but with a weird extra pair of legs and a vertical line going through the main part; or like the top of 周 (in the modern form) with  two 人 stacked on top of each other instead of 口. But neither of those options seem to be anything that exists, as far as I can tell. It reminds me of 買 or 賈, but there’s too much going on for that to fit.

The top/bottom left character mostly just looks like a five-year-old tried to draw Shelob (so a bit like 禺, I guess?), or perhaps more relevantly a bit like a disfigured 番 or 商; but it’s clearly none of those. I’m struggling to figure out what the radical is supposed to be, though.

Can anyone help me get further with this?

Edited to add:
I just spoke to my dad who guesses that the pot is probably from between 1900 and 1920 – though, if the characters end up being very corrupted (as the comments would indicate that they might be), it’s possible that it’s simply a fake made by someone with very limited understanding of Chinese characters and seal script.

The characters in Standard Chinese writing are 石黑香香. This is the artist mark of a Japanese pottery maker named Ishiguro Kōkō (石黒香々).

See this page for more details on the mark and its variants.


As nouns, is there any difference between 变化 and 改变? Although their noun/verb differences have been covered in other posts, is there any specific difference between using them as nouns only?
For example, is there any difference between:

城市已经发生了很大的变化。

城市已经发生了很大的改变。

a. 城市已经发生了很大的变化。
b. 城市已经发生了很大的改变。

Comparing 变化 with 改变 in this context, 改变 connotes 城市 is being changed (say by people) from the past. Well, 变化 connotes that we see or identify some difference from what the city used to be. 改变 describes the action, change.


Translation of "无论如何, 你一定要平安" Does this mean "Anyway, you must be safe" or "Anyway, you are certainly safe"?

I think it is the former, but I am not sure.

无论如何 means "no matter what"

The verb 要 means "need to be" here in this sentence, because it is followed by an adjective 平安(safe).

一定要平安 means " need to be  safe for sure"

If the verb 要 is followed by a noun, for example 一定要一千美元, then 要 would simply mean "need" - "need $1000 for sure"

If the verb 要 is followed by another verb, then 要 would be a modal verb in the sentence, for example: "you need to kill him"


Do you use 有 if you speak about 头疼? 最近我常常会莫名其妙的头疼

I've encountered this sentence and I'm wondering why there's 会 used here. Would this sentence be correct without 会?
Would this sentence be correct? 我常常头疼
Would this sentence be correct? 我头疼
I'm asking because my first thought about speaking about headache would be to use 有. So would this sentence be correct? 我有头疼

I'm wondering why there's 会 used here.

会 in here mean always. I'm always getting headaches.

Would this sentence be correct? 我常常头疼

Yes, it is correct

Would this sentence be correct? 我头疼

Yes, it is correct

So would this sentence be correct? 我有头疼

Incorrect. You can't use 有 in this sentences. If you want to use it, the correct should be 我刚刚有头疼


What's the origin of 外子? When I was young, I read Traditional Chinese Reader's Digest. I noticed that the translation of husband is 外子. That's the first time I noticed this usage.

Anyone has any clue about why this is being used? Could it have come from another language? Or is it archaic usage?

外子 an archaic term, parallel to calling one's wife 内子. It was very common in Song dynasty（between 960 and 1279). Regarding its origins, the third volume of 《恒言录》 written by 钱大昕, a famous scholar in Qing dynasty（1636-1912), gives the following origin for 外子: "in Liang dynasty, a country during Southern and Northern Dynasties of China(420 - 589), the poet XuFei wrote a poem called “赠内诗" and his wife wrote a poem called "答外诗," and that's the origin of 外子 and 内子. By the way, 内子 and 外子 can only be used by a couple to refer to each other, meaning that you can call your husband 外子 or your wife 内子, but you never can call another women's husband 外子 or another man's wife 内子.  Lastly, what I want to say is that now we never say 外子 and 内子 in Chinese-speaking countries, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.


戴绿帽子 as based on a pun? Having come across the association of green hats with unfaithful spouses a few times, I tried to learn the original of this practice.

A few sources (e.g. here) mention that the origin of this phrase is a pun on the word for "cuckold", but I don't find any more specific reference. Only 乌龟/头巾 come up in Pleco as an alternate phrase and neither seem like puns.

Is this actually from pun-based origin

iTalki has an article that alludes to it:

  戴绿帽子（Wearing a green hat)

  If you are traveling in China, you might notice a curious thing – you will never find a Chinese man wearing a green hat. Let it be a warning to you: no matter how curious you are, you’d better not ask them why they don’t wear a green hat! The reason is, in Chinese culture, wearing green hat has a dark meaning: the one wearing it was cuckolded. And, be sure you don’t wear one yourself, either.

  The source is a story from the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang enacted a law, which required men who worked in the prostitution trade to wear green hats. Later, it became common to say about man whose wife had an affair, that she made her husband wear a green hat. It’s best to stay away from those green hats!

Liang'an (which is a free Pleco add-on) also talks about the origin:

  古代制度, 罪人及妓女必裹帶綠巾, 以示屈辱。後用以譏諷妻子有外遇, 不守婦道者, 而謔稱其夫為戴綠帽子。

Criminals and prostitutes had to wear green cloth as a type of humiliation in the past. Thus the wearing of a "green hat" came to represent a cheating wife.

The Nan Fang also states:

  Although the origin of the phrase remains unknown, there are a number of possible explanations. One theory suggests that the families of prostitutes were forced to wear green hats during the Yuan Dynasty. Another says that male brothel workers wore green hats during the Tang Dynasty. A third theory suggests that the Chinese word for “cuckold” sounds a lot like “wear a green hat”.

Like you mention though, I'm not seeing what similar sounding words there are that match.

I would imagine the Liang'an definition is quite authoritative, instead.


Did phonological systems (namely bopomofo) standardize Chinese phonemes? As far as I know, Zhuyin fuhao, or Bopomofo, is the first system of phonetic symbols devised to aid to write Chinese phonology.
That was in 1910, so we could say very recent in the history of Chinese.
So I wonder if the way in that the phonemes, or sounds if you will, were grouped and assigned a symbol did in any way standardize the phonemes that were in use by Chinese.

I want to be clear, what I mean is, I can imagine that may be two or more characters that had slightly different phonemes or sounds and/or tones, were standardized with a single bopomofo or later Pinyin to make things simpler. Did this happen?
Because before any attempt to make a phonetic writing system, I'm not sure if everybody knew that two different characters that were later rendered with the exact same bopomofo, were in fact the same sound, or slighltly different sounds.

I mean, before bopomofo, there wasn't a standard way or a common phonetic base language to refer to when stating that two characters were pronounced the same, for example, I guess in that time you had to say 气 sounds just like 七 (ignoring tones) and now you can refer to Pinyin and say both are rendered qi thus referring to a common base. (just imagine that this characters sounded a little different, may be one closer to zhi and the other closer to chi to illustrate my point)

I'm not sure if I was clear, if not, please ask and I'll try to explain better.

As far as I know, Bopomofo and other schemes were based on the pronunciation of Beijing dialect. That is, Bopomofo and pinyin are a representation of the phonological inventory of Mandarin as pronounced in Beijing. I don't believe that this involved standardising 'two or more characters that had slightly different phonemes or sounds and/or tones' with a single bopomofo (or later Pinyin) to 'make things simpler'.

Of course, the creation of Bopomofo and pinyin involved drawing distinctions that were not found in other dialects of Chinese (including other pronunciations of Mandarin). One example is the distinction that pinyin draws between 'sh' and 's', which is missing from many dialects, even northern dialects (modern-day Dongbei, for example). It is therefore also possible that the opposite case was true, i.e., some distinctions drawn in other dialects were not drawn in the pronunciation of Beijing, and therefore ignored in Bopomofo and pinyin. I'm not knowledgeable about non-Beijing phonological inventories and have no way of commenting on this, but it is conceivable that the choice of Beijing dialect as standard (rather than, say, Nanjing or other varieties) may have involved getting rid of certain phonological distinctions found in other varieties of Mandarin. This was not caused, however, by the adoption of Bopomofo, but by the choice of a particular variety as standard.

Pronunciation of individual words has also been manipulated quite extensively in pinyin usage in order to bring about standardisation (I'm not sure about Bopomofo). For example, 法国 'France' was originally pronounced fàguó; it has now been standardised as fǎguó. 往 was originally pronounced wàng; it is now standardised as wǎng. There are many other cases where pronunciations have been standardised, including the abolition of alternative readings. But this is quite a different matter from making changes to the phonological inventory of the language.

So I think the answer to your question must be that, no, neither Bopomofo nor pinyin involved simplifying Mandarin phonological distinctions (where Mandarin is defined as based on Beijing pronunciation) out of existence.


Is there a difference between 显得 and 看起来？ Recently, I've been reading a short story writting by 丁玲 and I noticed she often used the term "显得" where I would have said "看起来”。 I'm trying to figure out when I should be using 显得 vs. 看起来. It seems like 显得  is more formal, but are there any other distinctions? For example could I say
"我一看到他， 显得很开心 “
or
” 这个脱口秀显得很好笑“

Thanks for the help!

显得 sounds a little more formal than 看起来, but both are fine to use in spoken and written contexts.
Their meanings though, are not completely the same. Both words can be used to express to seem; to appear; to look. With this meaning they are interchangeable and the difference is mostly formality:

他显得很憔悴 / 他看起来很憔悴。He looks haggard.

But both words can be taken 'literally' - 显得 means (actively) present oneself as while 看起来 means (passively) be seen as. When used in this way, they are not interchangeable. E.g.

这个节目看起来很好笑。<-- 显得 would sound unnatural because people find the show funny, not the show presenting itself as 'funny'.
他故意显得很愤怒。 <-- 看起来 is acceptable but 显得 is much better because it is consistent with 故意. The sentence means 'he was trying to make a point by appearing angry'.


What do these two characters on cufflinks signify? (Characters identified: 福 and 壽/夀) I was given a pair of gold cufflinks by my grandfather who was in Shanghai 100 years ago. Each shows a Chinese character (Mandarin, I guess) and I would like to know what these mean. However I have searched with possible English words (left/right, prosperity/health, sun/moon, man/woman, east/west etc) and not seen anything similar in either simplified or traditional. I have tried via OCR (baidu.com and others) with no meaningful results (mostly none at all) even when rotated.

I appreciate that this site is not a free translation service but have asked on meta and understand that a concession may be allowed where reasonable effort has been made to obtain a translation independently. In addition to trying to guess the translation and working backwards, I have tried:

Uploading the images to Google Docs with the option Convert uploaded files to Google Docs format. This merely inserted the images as images. According to The OCR Software Blog:

  Just like with English Google OCR disappoints and is clumsy to use. It seems to be some kind of black magic if or if not the OCR conversion is triggered.

Each of OnlineOCR, NewOCR and i2 OCR. The first returned No recognized text ! for both orientations of both images. NewOCR offered no response and i2OCR showed just the uploaded images (and anyway clicking Translate , then Google returned: The page isn’t redirecting properly and This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies. I do have AdBlock Plus installed but since only to remove from sight the ad mentioned here (that was still appearing on Web Applications about a year after This appears to have been updated.) the settings are not strict (supposed to be only applicable to Stack Exchange but I admit I have seen a few sites asking me to disable AdBlock).
I tried the demo version of ABBYY Cloud OCR SDK but Chinese in any form isn’t available under Recognition languages. I did have ABBYY software but am reluctant to replace it after a change in hardware just for the sake of two characters.

A scan of the cufflinks is shown and the sketches I took in the hope they might aid identification and hence translation:

Please note that I would be very grateful for any of the following:

A technique for ‘solving’ such a problem without a human translator.
Advice of which way is ‘up’.
The name of the language.
Whether Simplified or Traditional.
Readable character versions (not images!).

So something other than translation would be very acceptable. I just don’t fancy wading through what I believe are some ~5,000 symbols trying to find matches!

A technique for ‘solving’ such a problem without a human translator

I pretend I did not know Chinese, I use 'Chinese hand writing input' on my iPad to mimic the brush strokes in the image you posted with my finger movement. I got a list of suggestions, Use your judgement to see which one is closest to the original image. Among all the suggestions,  '壽' and '福' are the closest.

Advice of which way is ‘up’

familiarize yourself with Radical https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/radicals.php you can tell which side is up generally.

The name of the language

Copy and paste whatever words into Google Translate and click 'detect language' button. It will tell you what language the words are in.

Whether Simplified or Traditional

Copy and paste '壽' and '福' into Google Translate and set target result as 'Simplified Chinese', you will get '寿' and '福'. Then you know '壽' is a traditional Chinese characters and '福' is used in both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Finally, check online dictionary to learn the meaning of the character

壽 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1686/
福 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1102/


Mandarin version of 冇屈得就屈 (Don't accuse me without evidence)? In Cantonese a common saying is 冇屈得就屈, which roughly translates to, "Don't accuse/frame me without evidence." (Literal: not able to frame then frame.)

It's used in contexts where A accuses B without much, or any, evidence.

What's the Mandarin version of this?

'冇屈得就屈; is short for '唔好屈得就屈' which means 'Don't frame me (accuse without evidence) just because you can'

Word to word transfers to Mandarin would be "別能冤枉就去冤枉" , However, in practice, '唔好屈得就屈' is  close to '不要隨便冤枉好人'  in Mandarin


Is there any character with radical 月 that has a meaning of 月 (not 肉)? Is there any character with radical 月 that has a meaning of 月 (not 肉)?

What I can find is 期，阴，and 胜，

@OmniBus "those modern fonts are terrible and distinct nothing"—you may despise modern fonts all you like, but when you pick up any calligraphy collection (書法字典) you will find abundant evidence that you'll have to extend your despisal to such names like 王羲之, 歐陽詢, 唐太宗 and so on, as they did not make those distinctions. Also, where the typographic distinction is today made between the different origins of the shape 月, it can be attributed to the influential Kangxi Dictionary of 1716; now, that very dictionary starts with an Imperial Preface which was penned by an eminent member of the Hanlin Academy and, as such, also has 'model character' (Modellcharakter). That writing style is a very orderly Regular script, is full of abbreviated and variant forms, and completely disregards the distinctions between the different origins of 月! This is a fact that most people conveniently gloss over.

I used to think myself that those fonts / writing styles that do distinguish between the different origins of what today is mostly indistinguishable from 月 are more 'correct'; however, i've since changed my mind. 俞佩琳 has argued extensively and convincingly in his 1989 book 《中文字序學》 that efforts to distinguish between the different origins of 月—which goes back to earlier forms of 月 itself and 肉, 舟, and 丹—have been made at several points in Chinese history (most notably the Tang and Qing dynasties), were misguided, and have failed. In modern times, the ROC Ministry of Education tries to promote a 'correct' form of writing along these lines.

The efforts were and are misguided because modern writing (Kaishu style) is not equal to ancient writing (Seal script and Clerical script); it has evolved and replaces many older forms with simpler equivalents. It is also misguided because the calligraphic means used to make the distinctions—using two horizontal strokes that connect to left and right, or else two short horizontal strokes with gaps on the right, or else two dots, or else a dot and and upward stroke—are not very obviously connected to the outlines of 月, 肉, 舟, and 丹, but arbitrarily chosen expedients. The differences are visually minuscule and hard to remember. In fact, the distinction seems to be objectively difficult; 俞佩琳 adduces many examples that clearly demonstrate that even the editors of the 《五經文字》—the first work that embarked on this particular strain of resurrecting correct forms modeled on Seal script—get it plain wrong in many cases! Clearly, if they can't do it, how could the average writer?

Maybe the reforms could have caught on if the reformers had decided to resurrect 肉, 舟, and 丹 to their full forms in characters like 前, for which we could write ⿱䒑—but then 䒑 is an abbreviation too! In this case, it stands in for 止, so we should really be writing ⿱止. But wait a moment, 刂 is really short for 刀, right, so the 'correct' way to write 前 is, indeed, ! Then again, at least the Small Seal form that is quoted in the Shuowen does not have a 刀; instead, it corresponds to 歬 (be it said that the Small Seal characters as we have them today may not be entirely the original ones, as we do not have an original copy of the work; also, the Shuowen, valuable as it is, contains many known erroneous Seal characters and wrong interpretations of correct forms). It's easy to see where this leads, namely more—many, many more—variant forms. But the pertinent point here is that those who insist on writing 前 with a double-dotted 月 have picked out a pet peeve, a 'perceived historical mistake' that they try to correct, leaving other, equally obvious developments untouched, with no clear reason why (in this case) 舟 should be restored but not 止. If i wanted to describe this with the most flattering terms, i'd call it hyper-correct.

And this is really the problem with trying to revive seal characters in modern writing forms: one may deplore that many useful distinctions in the old characters have been lost in modern script (Wieger's Chinese Characters is almost exclusively dedicated to this cause), but one the other hand, trying to do so would radically change thousands of Chinese characters as we know them today. Just to distinguish 月, 肉, 舟, and 丹 (and a few other components) is a rather arbitrary choice; in fact, many, many distinctions have been lost—or rather, at some point in history that predates the Qin dynasty's unification of the script, purposefully been thrown overboard when the Clerical script was developed. The entire program in the development of Clerical script (and, later, of Regular script) was to simplify Seal characters by simplifying single strokes and writing simpler outlines where possible (about Clerical script antedating Qin Small seal characters there's an interesting video in Chinese; this view is somewhat novel as the relevant bamboo and wood slips were only unearthed during the last century).

This, by the way, is how people came to write 人 as 亻 when occurring on the left hand side; before that was started, there was no such distinction. So when resurrecting old character forms, one should, once more, go all the way and stop distinguishing 人 and 亻!

It is interesting to see how the afore-mentioned ROC MOE also falls short in its efforts to promulgate a purportedly more 'correct' from of writing, as has been commented on the web:

國字標準字體嚴格區分在小篆中有區別的部件，但有些做法似乎並不一致而令人疑惑。例如「月」字旁與「肉」字旁在楷書中已經合流，都寫做「月」，而國字標準字體則是特別規定代表「肉」字的「月」要將中間兩橫寫成點與挑（見右圖），以示區別（這種做法也有討論空間）。然而，「朝」、「服」等字的「月」字旁其實也不是「月亮」的「月」，而是「舟」字，古代印刷體有將中間兩橫寫為兩點的，以便與「月」保持區別，但是國字標準字體卻完全不區分「舟」字旁與「月」字旁。

What sets apart the MOE 'standard' forms from other sources is the surprising fact that it only distinguishes 肉 and 月, but the 月-like component in 青 is still written with two horizontals; thus, the singular distinction they do make appears ever the more arbitrary, artificial, and hard to justify. Moreover, in both the Regular and Song typefaces, 月 is written with a slanting, not a straight initial stroke where it appears in the bottom part of a character (as in 青, 膏); checking this against classical samples of calligraphy shows this is wrong—月 should appear as ⺝ when in bottom position. Incidentally, ⺝ is also how 月 is written in both the preface and the main part of the Kangxi dictionary!

As an aside, the Song typeface that is depicted e.g. on http://www.edu.tw/files/site_content/M0001/sungti/as30.htm?open is incredibly ugly and should definitely not be used as an exemplar for what Chinese characters should look like. To be clear: the typeface is proportioned so poorly and its technical defects are so blatantly obvious that any book on the subject of Chinese typefaces, character forms or Chinese fonts should warn against its use.

To this one could add that as for 朋, both chineseetymology and zdic agree that the shape 月 here originated from something different altogether (and it's not 貝, although it still could depict cowrie shells on a string). Writing 朋 with the two-dotted form of 月 makes it look like 朋 was derived from ⿰舟舟, which is patently wrong according to this data.

What's even worse, when you research character origins, you often get conflicting views. For example, for 胜 the Shuowen says 从肉生聲; another source has 从力朕声 (with 朕 being traced back to ; note that关 is actually ⿱䒑大, from older ⿱火廾), and there is a variant  which the Kangxi Dictionary comments as 古文勝(胜)字, so according to which source you want to trust, you end up with 月 originating in either 肉 or 舟. Likewise, 朝 is variously explained as 从倝舟聲 and as 从日在草中从月. The pretty thought-out device of distinguishing four forms for what had once unambiguously become 月 in the Regular style of China's most renowned calligraphers is at the very least insufficient—many more forms are needed because (1) there are more than four sources for modern 月, and (2) some characters are analyzed differently by different authorities, so we need at least one more form to indicate all cases of doubt.


Does the convention to paraphrase a word in an article exist in Mandarin? In an article over 人民网:

据日本TBS电视台报道,这名女大学生就读于东京都内某大学4年级,涉嫌违反野生动物保护法被逮。泰国警察介绍，这名日本女大学生当天打算搭乘返回成田机场的航班，被机场工作人员发现在行李中藏匿了10只水獭。
被捕女大学生交代“水獭是在曼谷市场附近地摊购买，打算当特产送给朋友。自己是第一次来泰国旅行，并不清楚不能带水獭”。 由于这名日本女嫌疑人的护照是10月25日刚发行，泰国警方目前怀疑这是一起有组织的走私水獭案。

In the first paragraph, the author uses 被逮 while in the second paragraph, the author uses 被捕. I understand that both mean 逮捕 in a passive form.
However, why does the author write it differently between these two paragraphs? In English, it is generally considered a good writing style to paraphrase a word in later sentences, but does that kind of convention exist in Mandarin as well?
Otherwise, what is the reason the author uses different words to mean the same thing in an article?

被逮 could be considered as a short version of 被逮住， meaning 被抓住; be caught; For example, 我被老师逮（住）了， 我考试作弊被逮了(I was caught for cheating in the exam), 他被逮了个正着(meaning he was just caught while he was doing something bad).

However, 被逮 usually is not that formal as 被逮捕 or 被捕. It's not a good idea to use it in a serious/formal writing, like in a report.

Chinese writing does apply that convention OP mentioned, avoiding the same word being used multiple times.

So, if I were the writer for that article, I would put ... 涉嫌违反野生动物保护法被逮捕, ... 被捕女大学生交代...


"Subj + 打電話 + Obj" vs "Subj + 給 + Obj + 打電話" The dictionary entry of 打電話 that is given here says:

  Verb

  to make a telephone call

Therefore, I would expect to be able to use it like this:

    我 晚上 要 打電話 媽媽

However, I found the following example here:

    我 晚上 要 給 媽媽 打電話

Q: are both versions valid? are they both the same?

Should 打電話 be read as a single unit or broken down into 打 電話 ? Is this a relevant issue?

The dictionary entry of 打 that is given here lists:

  to send or call

  打電報 / 打电报  ―  dǎ diànbào  ―  to send a telegraph

  打電話 / 打电话  ―  dǎ diànhuà  ―  to call on the telephone

  打手機 / 打手机  ―  dǎ shǒujī  ―  to call on the cellphone

我 晚上 要 打电话 媽媽 : This is invalid.

In the phrase "打电话", "打" is the verb and "电话" is the object. And the "打" here is not a verb that can take two objects. So you must use: 我 晚上 要 給 媽媽 打電話


Expression “一...就...” - what if there is a sub-sentence? Example:   我回家以后就预习功课。
回答： 我一回家就预习功课。

This structure is quite easy. However, how would we apply the same “一...就...” structure if there is an extra 'sub-sentence' in the example (i.e. 这一课很容易).
What would be a grammatically correct answer then, to make it into a smooth whole?

Example: 这一课很容易，我看了一会儿就懂了。
回答： ...❓

Would 我一看这很容易的课就懂了。 be correct?
Would 我一看了这很容易的课就懂了。 be more correct?

Would 我一看这很容易的课就懂了。 be correct?

The sentence is grammatical, However, 这课我一看就懂 already indicated you think it is easy, adding "很容易的" make the sentence unnecessarily wordy.
You can add relative clauses in any part of the sentence as long as it makes sense:
这油画我一看就知是假的
这(标价三千万的)油画，我一看就知是假的
这油画(用的是二十世纪才有的油彩)，一看就知是假的
这油画，(身为画家的)我一看就知是假的 -


What kind of party is 黑灯舞? I heard that in the past, around the 1980s, people could be executed for this. But what does it consist of? Is there an english/american equivalent or something similar?

黑灯舞 sounds like the direct translation of 'Black Light Dance' a.k.a. 'U V Light Dance.' (dancing in darkness with U V Light on)

But according to this article  黑灯舞 refers to "dancing in a dancing hall under very dim light"
黑灯舞, in this case, should be translated as "(indecently) dance in the darkness" (darkness make it easier for people to have indecent physical contact)
I think many people nowadays would use 黑灯舞 as the modern term for 'Black Light Dance'


Is 我一分钟以前刚刚看到他 grammatically correct? I'm practicing with the words 以前 and 以后.
Using the word 以前, I came up with this sentence:

  我一分钟以前刚刚看到他！

My English intention was to make this sentence:

  I just saw him a minute ago!

I was told the format of using this word with time words was this:
time word + 以前 + following action
So to break up the sentence I made:
[我]一分钟 + 以前 + 刚刚看到他
I'm not sure if 刚刚 is actually separate from 以前.

Sure, but you'd better use 之前 in this case.


Understanding how to use 多 properly My grammar could be wrong, but it feels like in Cantonese you would typically say something like 食多啲 to mean eat more.

But this Mandarin grammar page says you should usually put 多 before the verb, not after:

  In English we like to say things like "eat more" and "drink more beer"
  and "I need to exercise more." Notice that in every one of these
  cases, the word "more" (equivalent to this use of 多) comes after the
  verb in English. In Chinese, it's more natural to put the 多 before the
  verb.

1) Is my Cantonese grammar wrong?

2) If not, does this mean Cantonese grammar and Mandarin grammar differ regarding 多?

Actually, 多(more) functions the same in both Cantonese and Mandarin

Example:

"Eat fish more often "= "多吃鱼" (Mandarin) = "多食鱼" (Cantonese)

~

The Cantonese term "多啲"(more) is equal to "多些"(more) in Mandarin. It can be placed before or after the verb.

For example:

(Mandarin)

多些吃鱼 = eat fish more often
吃多些鱼 = eat more fish

(Cantonese)

多啲食鱼 = eat fish more often
食多啲鱼 = eat more fish

(The real difference between Cantonese and Mandarin here are '食' vs.'吃' ; '多啲' vs. '多些')


What's the difference between "博物馆长" and "博物馆馆长"? I want to say "museum curator". "museum" is "博物馆", while "curator" is "馆长".
So it should be "博物馆馆长".

However I heard someone say "博物馆长", ignoring the repeated word.
Is that a correct term? What's the difference?

You may ignore the repeated characters only if the last character of the first word can be omitted conventionally without changing its meaning.

For example, 北京市市长 can be shortened as 北京市长, because 北京 can already carry the meaning of 北京市 in this context. The 省, 市, 县 suffix is usually omitted when the length of the place name has more than one characters.

So, you could not name 沙县县长 as 沙县长, because 沙 doesn't sufficiently carry the meaning of 沙县. This rule may be applied to the case you've mentioned. People may think 国防部长 is acceptable while 央行长 sounds strange.

Generally, if the first word (even short form) is made up of one character in the name part, like 央行 (the name part is 央, the role part is 行), and second word starts with 行, it is not correct to reduce two 行-s to one.

If the first word (even short form) is made up of at least two characters in name part, like 国防部 (the name part is 国防, the role part is 部), and second  word starts with 部, use one 部 or two are both acceptable. But finally, it is recommended using the full form, like 央行行长, 国防部部长, after all these are the exact right address.


Through which processes became words in classical Chinese that tautological? There are a lot of different words for many concepts in classical Chinese,
for instance for the personal pronouns. Due to which circumstances could this happen?

Synonyms arise when two different topolects or languages are mixed, perhaps as a result of warfare or a political union, but also because of technical innovation, cultural exchange and so on. This happens constantly in all languages.

As for pronouns in classical Chinese, they correspond to a highly hierarchical social order. You would often need to refer to yourself in third person to show respect and to be in line with the Confucian ideal of humility. Even the emperor could refer to himself as 寡人, third person for one of a few select.

Then again, if the emperor calls himself 朕 (I), then everyone below him would have to refer to the self using a lesser term, in hierchical order. 在下 is the one beneath the emperor, 我 is the worthless body, 奴才 is the slave, etc.


What's the difference between 停车 (tíngchē) and 泊车 (bóchē), which both seem to mean "park car"? I see these two road signs at Nankai University (Jinnan campus), Tianjin:

  请勿泊车 = qǐng wù bóchē

  禁止停车 = jìnzhǐ tíngchē

Both seem to mean "no parking" with:

请勿 meaning "please no ..." and 禁止 meaning "forbidden ...", and
泊车 meaning something like "anchor car" and 停车 meaning "stop car".

Question: What's the difference between 停车 (tíngchē) and 泊车 (bóchē), which both seem to mean "park car"?

请勿泊车 = No Parking

  No Parking mean you can stop the vehicle there, and you can load or
  unload people and goods, but you can't leave the vehicle unattended
  and go off.

禁止停车 = No Stopping

  No Stopping means no dropping people off or picking them up, and no
  loading/unloading. You're not supposed to be there unless you're
  moving.

The signs above the text should clarify - they are international signs and there is only a slight difference between the individual meanings of Stopping, Standing/Waiting, and Parking, anywhere in the world.

No Stopping signs are the strictest, and No Parking signs are the most lenient.


What does 原地踏步 mean in Cantonese? Heard this on TVB: 原地踏步. What does the phrase mean? There's nothing in the Cantonese dictionary for this phrase.

Actually, 原地踏步 is not a Cantonese phrase, it's just a Chinese phrase.

The literal meaning is marking time, and it's often used to describe a situation that one doesn't make progress or fall behind.

  班长命令战士们原地踏步.

The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.

  我要么原地踏步直到获得晋升（这看来得是几年以后的事了），要么改变现在正做的事情。

I could either tread water until I was promoted, which looked to be a few years away, or I could change what I was doing.


How to say: "I have been studying Chinese for 4 years." How can I most accurately say the simple sentence:

  I have been studying Chinese for 4 years.

This is a very simple phrase, and I am surprised at myself for not being confident in which one of the following is accurate:

  我已经学习中文四年了。

  我学习中文已经四年了。

  我已经学了四年的中文。

With regard to the first two, I am particularly confused about the placing of "已经," and whether it should be before or after the verb.  As for the third, it is a different sentence structure, is it incorrect?

Basically, all of your three sentences are correct, but different in emphasis.

The sentence 1 "我已经学习中文四年了" is the best match for "I have been studying Chinese for 4 years." In this sentence, you just tell the fact and try not to emphasize anything.

The sentence 2 "我学习中文已经四年了" emphasizes "四年了". Once you said sentence 2, you would probably want to say more on the result of your learning. Like, 我学习中文已经四年了, 我现在可以用中文进行简单的日常沟通了(I can make simple communications in my daily life in Chinese)...blah, blah

The sentence 3 "我已经学了四年的中文" emphasizes "学了四年". Once you said sentence 3 我已经学了四年的中文, you would probably want to say more on the negative side (different from sentence 2, where you say more on the positive side). Something like, 我已经学了四年的中文, 但我还是说不好(but I can't speak it well) or 但我还是什么都不会(but I still know nothing)。


Which dialect(s) to study before visiting Shenzhen? I'm looking at travelling to Shenzhen for a month. Which dialect(s) should I study? For speaking with factory managers, workers, and for day to day life?

Shenzhen is in mainland China, so you should study Mandarin. However, it is so close to Hong Kong, and there is a lot of business between Hong Kong and Shenzhen if you know a bit of Cantonese, it will suffice also.


Simplified-traditional conversion; character disambiguation I started out learning only the simplified versions of Chinese characters, so I now I am trying to learn the traditional variants as well. For this purpose I downloaded a list of the simplifications and studied it through Anki, which worked well for most one-to-one conversions.

What's difficult, however, is when a simplified character has more than one traditional equivalents, i.e. when it depends on which word the character is used in.
For instance, 签 has two traditional equivalents, 簽 and 籤. The Anki deck I am using does give some clues on how to use the traditional versions ("I. to sign one's name; label II. inscribed bamboo stick (used in divination, gambling, drawing lots etc") but it would still be nice to see the usage in actual Chinese words.

Do you know if anyone has compiled such a list already?

I'm a native speaker in Traditional Chinese.
I thought that the wiki link in the comment has already provided a good list to what you want.

However, i suggest you to actually find some examples in the usage of traditional chinese.
For example:

籤 (Please refer to your dictionary for the following vocabulary on your own)

竹籤 抽籤
Here 籤 is a long stick.

簽

簽名 簽署
Here 簽 has a meaning of signature.

Chinese is very different from English. English constructs all the vocabularies on the alphabets you have already known, while Chinese requires you to learn many characters. Then Chinese constructs them into some vocabularies.
It might seem a great consumption of time to remember so many different characters in simplified Chinese, not to mention how much time you might spend in traditional Chinese.
However, once you've understand a word, you can guess the meanings of other vocabularies using the same character for most of the time

Since you've already had some understandings in simplified Chinese, the best way to connect it to traditional Chinese is to memorize some traditional Chinese vocabularies instead of remembering the corresponding characters in simplified Chinese.
It should be easy for you to distinguish and recognize those words once you start memorize traditional Chinese.
Always remember that traditional Chinese is the way to understand a character's 部首 and 起源, in spite of the fact that simplified Chinese has less 筆畫.

Hope this will help you.

Finally, a fact of how Taiwanese children learn Chinese is searching every unknown characters in dictionary, writing some vocabularies of that character and memorize it.
Learning Chinese takes time for a native speaker, too. Haha


What would the meaning of '之前知道' be? And '之前知道了'? If someone said '我之前知道【proposition】' would this imply that they knew it before, but no longer do? How about '我之前知道了【proposition】'?

What about when the time is specific such as ‘昨天我知道【proposition】’? Would this imply that I no longer know the proposition?

Thanks in advance.

There seems to be a cultural difference in usage here. ‘之前知道’ means you learned this before and still know it. 'I knew' often means 'I've forgotten', unless qualified like below.

A：That girl married that boy.
A:这个女孩和那个男孩结婚了。

B could answer:
B：I know.
B:我知道的。
    or
B：I already know/knew that.
B：我之前就知道了。

A：Who did that girl marry?
A:她和谁结婚了？
B：I knew, but I can't remember now.
B:我知道是谁，但是我忘了。


Are Sinitic languages mutually comprehensible? According to this map, there are different Chinese "languages" (Sinitic languages) in the Chinese area.

Is my understanding correct that the "official" Chinese language is the Mandarin? In other words, if someone studies Chinese as a foreign language, is he taught the Chinese Mandarin?

Moreover, are the languages spoken by people living in non-Mandarin areas of the aforementioned map essentially the same of Mandarin, or are they very different?
In other words, if a foreigner learns Chinese (Mandarin) and goes to Hong Kong, or Shangai, or Taiwan, can he understand and speak with the locals, or not?

To try to make an analogy: in Europe there are different languages, like Italian, French, Spanish, etc. Even if they have something in common, an Italian can't speak with a French person, without proper previous study/training in French. In other words, Italian and French are different languages (even if with some "roots" in common), not just dialects. Is this the same for e.g. Chinese Mandarin and Chinese spoken in Hong Kong or Shangai or Taiwan?

Thanks for the clarifications.

Strictly speaking, the official spoken language in Chinese mainland is known as "Putonghua" (普通话) or "Modern Standard Chinese" (MSM, 现代标准汉语), while the official spoken language in Taiwan is called "Mandarin" (國語).

Both Putonghua and Taiwanese Mandarin are dialects of Pekingese (北京話). While there are differences among them, people who speak these three dialects can practically understand each other without difficulties. When no distinction is needed, English speakers often simply refer to all these three dialects as "Mandarin".

As you have pointed out, there are many other Sinitic languages apart from Mandarin. In practice, many of these languages are mutually unintelligible. So, yes, similar to your example of French vs Italian, Mandarin, Min, Hakka, Cantonese etc. are different spoken languages.

That said, since Putonghua is the official language in Chinese mainland and it is the teaching medium in schools, most Han Chinese people in Chinese mainland now speak Putonghua.

Ethnic minorities are also forced to learn Putonghua in schools. This policy has created some very serious tension between some ethnic minority groups and the Chinese government. But politics aside, many non-Han "Chinese" people do speak Mandarin nowadays as their first or second languages.

Foreigners tend to think that almost all people in China speak Mandarin, but in reality this is far from being true. If I remember correctly, according to official figures from the Chinese Ministry of Education, about ten to twenty years ago, only 58% of all "Chinese" people spoke Mandarin. The figure I read a few years ago was slightly lower than 70%, but I don't remember the precise number.

In Macau and Hong Kong, the majority populations are Cantonese speakers. Owing to close economic/cultural ties between these two cities and the Chinese mainland (and also Taiwan), many people in these two cities do understand Mandarin to various degrees. But there are also people who don't speak or comprehend Mandarin at all.

So, to answer your question, if a foreign learner of Mandarin goes to Shanghai and Taiwan, the chance that he can understand and speak with the locals is close to 100% (assuming that he speaks Mandarin well). But if he goes to Hong Kong, the chance that he can communicate well in Mandarin with the locals is significantly lower (I would say 50-50). Since the de facto official languages in Hong Kong are English and Cantonese, I would suggest him to speak English instead.

As for written languages, practically what Han Chinese people write are all dialects of each other, and is (IMHO) more appropriately called "官話" (also called "Mandarin" in English; now you see that there are many loaded meanings for the word "Mandarin"). While there are recognisable regional differences between the styles, vocabularies and grammars of these written dialects, such differences are not large enough to justify calling those dialects different "languages". Nevertheless, as in the case of English accents, the differences between dialects of written "Mandarin" are often large enough to alienate these dialects among themselves. For instance, suppose you ask an average Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong how he would classify his written language, and three choices are given: (a) 官話, (b) 國語 or (c) 普通話 (all these three terms can be called "Mandarin" in English). It is very unlikely that one would pick (c).


What does 暴走 mean in 这就是让卡罗琳听到，估计也会暴走? What does 暴走 mean? I tried searching and it said something about running away.
This is the full sentence:

这就是让卡罗琳听到，估计也会暴走。

暴走 (literally mean: "wildly run" )（动漫术语)

It is a Japanese anime/manga lingo that imported to Chinese. The Chinese equivalent of "暴走" is "失控" (out of control; lose control)

暴走 means "out of control" - (also, 'act violently' is implied. The obvious sign of someone is out of control is not following the common sense and/or act violently)

暴走族 (clan that run wildly) is a Japanese term for "bike gang", the Chinese equivalent of "暴走族" is "飛車黨"


What's the difference between 载体 and 媒介？ They both mean medium, so they are probably the same.  Are they?

The difference between "载体" and "媒介" in Chinese is equivalent to the difference between "Carrier" and "Medium" in English. So, you pretty much can figure this out immediately after I told you that, if your English is well enough.


How do you know when will the verb be paired with 对? For example:
我对父母很体贴（✓）
我很体贴我的父母（x）
我很关心我的父母（✓）
(The example is given by my teacher but i don't know the reason)
Hope you understand my question

体贴 (to be considerate) is intransitive, it cannot take a direct object. So you can be "considerate towards your parents" but you cannot "considerate your parents". In a similar vein, you can be "happy for someone" but you cannot "happy someone".
关心 (to be concerned about), on the other hand, is transitive. It can take a direct object.

Whether 体贴 can be considered intransitive appears to be a matter of debate. I'll start by saying that in Mandarin adjectives cannot take objects. This is made explicitly clear on the Chinese grammar wiki, hopefully I wont be forced to find additional sources to back this claim. It follows, then, that any instance of an adjectival verb is intransitive.
All that remains to be seen is whether 体贴 is an adjective or not. It is.

A sentence in the form 我很体贴 where 我 is the subject and 很体贴 is the predicate/verb phrase cannot have a direct object. joehua has linked to several examples of the contrary, sentences where 体贴 has been shown to take a direct object. Why this is, I don't know. Either the term is being misused or it has taken on a different meaning in those sentences. Take for example this page that joehua linked. It has the example sentence "他从小就知道体贴父母" which at face value invalidates everything I've just said. But if you type that exact sentence into Baidu's translator it will output "He has been considerate of his parents since he was a child", taking that English sentence and plugging it back into the translator will give the output "他从小就对父母很体贴". Evidently one is more correct than the other.

Yet even more proof


Character layout in calligraphy e.g. with respect to a quotation from Confucius I recently attended a brief introductory workshop about calligraphy at a Confucius Institute. The instructor, who also teaches at the local university and is both a calligrapher and painter from China, pointed out the calming, almost meditative effect of exercising the art form.

From the perspective of my own very limited experience I do agree. I liked both the Tang poetry that served as templates and the visual aesthetics of the resulting calligraphy (esp. the teacher's work). One thing that appeared to be typical was an approx. 5  x 5 matrix arrangements (one matrix, or two next to each other) of the Chinese characters in the poems.

Here's my question: if I tried some more calligraphy of my own (and I might, because of the enjoyable experience and because it would help this beginning student of Chinese to internalize the written characters) I would chose Confuicius' "At fifteen my heart was set on learning .." (吾十有五而志於學，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳順，七十而从心所欲，不逾矩。)

It's apparently not 5 x 5, but rather 8 + 4 + 5 + ..., it's not from a poem, and it's considerably older than Tang poetry, but is there still also a traditionally right way to present it on a single sheet of paper (e.g. in the context of calligraphy)? How would that appear?

It looks there are quite a bit of concepts in your question.

Tang poetry. Typical Tang poetry style is 5x4 or 7x4, with a bit more variations.
Layout of Chinese calligraphy. It's not necessarily 5x5. Don't be limited to that. Any size is okay. The typical layout is top to down, and right to left. For the layout of your mentioned Confucius, just write it as this layout with same characters in each column, without punctuations.
Best script for starter. The "calm" effect comes mostly from "Regular scripts", which is recommended for beginner, even for experienced ones.
Recommended process. I suggest you to copy 颜体（颜真卿）from the beginning, instead of writing your own. This is the most famous and respected Regular scripts. But I'm not a calligrapher. The teacher may has better and more specific recommendations.


Confused about 民国 dates on receipts I have been in Taiwan for about two weeks.  Some of my shopping receipts have 民国 dates, some have Gregorian, and some have both. What I find confusing is that when there is both, the day is not always the same on both. And I have at least two receipts with the same 民国 date but the Gregorian dates differ by two or more days.

民国 (Republic of China) era starts from 1912. Therefore, just add 1911 to the 民国 year number and you'll know the Gregorian year number. For example, 民国106年(ROC Year 106)=1911+106=2017 A.D.

Sometimes, 民国 is omitted for simplicity. To distinguish ROC year from Gregorian year, follow this rule:

If a year number is relatively small (no matter whether it's larger than 100), it's an ROC year number. (Therefore, 98年 (Year 98) is not Year 1998, it's Year 2009).

The above rule only applies to daily life, not for academic use. However, the date of the year should remain the same on both ROC date system and Gregorian date system. If you see differences, it must be produced by "magic" reasons rather than different date systems.


Beginner learning Cantonese: Start with reading/writing or with speaking? I'm starting to learn Cantonese and I'm not sure where to start. Is it best to start with learning to write/read or learning to speak?

(As a born Cantonese and not a professional linguist)

Cantonese is mostly spoken while the formal written form of Chinese is always 白話文/語體文 ("Written vernacular Chinese", what I managed to find on Wikipedia).

The written form of Cantonese is informal, and mostly used on Internet forum, text messages, modern subtitle, etc. In Hong Kong, the newspaper "Apple Daily" first used Cantonese in quotes in their articles, they were heavily criticized back then, but Cantonese in formal text is ever so slowly getting to appear in formal occasions.

You might notice there are many 口 radicals in Cantonese, they are mostly invented or borrowed characters as those didn't existed in the past and aren't used in other dialects. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/粵語字. Moreover, many of those aren't standardized because they weren't used in writing that much, like those on the Wikipedia page: 而家, 依家, 宜家, 伊家 means the same in Cantonese.

In Cantonese spoken regions, "Written vernacular Chinese" is always recognized and written Cantonese is not encouraged for formal texts. One can also read Cantonese from Written vernacular Chinese. So unless you know how to speak Cantonese, learning how to read it might not be your first priority. Therefore, for the best effects and usefulness, I suggest first learning how to speak it.

Written vernacular Chinese:

今天晚上我們要去哪兒吃飯呢？

Written Cantonese:

今晚我哋要去邊到食飯？


Do 自 and 起 work together here? This text is talking about the lights in 广州湛涌村。

由于如秋后，广州的日照时间缩短，自花苗上盆起，花农们就会利用电灯补光来延迟花期。

This bit confused me (I'm easily confused). Is it right that 自 ... 起 work together as 'from when' or 'starting from when' here?

自...起 since

自花苗上盆起
starting from when the seedlings are put in their pots

If this is right, you can clearly see the power of Chinese to express ideas in a very concise manner!

自...起 since

It is correct, "自???起" means "Since ???"

自 = from

起 = begin

"(自) ??? (起)" = "(begin from) ???" = "(Since)???"
e.g."自七月起禁止捕魚" (Ban on fishing since July)

Other common structures with 自:

"自(from) ??? 以來(thereafter)" = "since ???"
e.g. 自美國立國以來 (Since the founding of the United States thereafter)
"自 (from) ??? 以後/之後 (after)" = "since ???"
e.g. 自美國立國以後 (Since after the founding of the United States)


Chinese gibberish in a desktop program My company uses a service to observe several rooms in our office, and when I downloaded the program to allow me to observe these videos some of the text functions fine and some of the text appears as gibberish. Any idea why this is? What (if anything) can I do to fix this?

Context:

I live and work in China for a Chinese company. I speak and read Chinese decently well.
I can read and type Chinese on my computer just fine.
I run Windows 10.

Any idea why this is?

This is called Mojibake, or in Chinese, Luan Ma (乱码). This is most likely due to language code mismatch -- Each character in the computer is represented by a number, and your computer doesn't agree which number represent which Chinese character with the program.

Specifically, the Chinese program is probably in GB, while it is being opened as Unicode.

  What (if anything) can I do to fix this?

While it is an open question to identify language codes reliably in general, since we know it is GB, there are several options:

To do it for all programs, search "region" in control panel. Go to "Administrative - Language for non-Unicode programs" and change it to the Chinese region you're in.
If the problem persists (which means Windows failed to detect the program is not in Unicode), or you prefer to set language program-by-program (because this happens to many Japanese programs as well, hence the name Mojibake), you can use Locale Emulator.


Are 使用 and 施用 interchangable? In my on-going quest to understand the difference between initially indentical-looking words, I hereby bring you: 使用 vs. 施用! Both seem to mean 'to apply something' and it appears to be acceptable to both 使用化肥 and 施用化肥.
Maybe I have hit a genuine synonym this time?! If history is anything to go by, probably not, but it's a fun game, eh? :-)
Hashamyim

施用 = use; apply; implement (usually to a target)

使用 = use; operate (with or without target)

When someone "施用武力" or "施用毒氣"，  there are always specific targets the action is applied to

Example: 對示威者施用武力; 對村民施用毒氣 use force against demonstrators; use gas on the villagers (you can replace 施用 with 使用 in these two examples)

When someone "使用工具" or "使用武器" there may or may not be a specific target the action is apply to.

Example: 祇有小數動物會使用工具/武器 Only a few kinds of animal know how to use tools/weapons ( you cannot replace 使用 with 施用 in this example because there is no specific target the action is apply to)


Translating the word "feelings" for conversational use When I look for a dictionary translation of "feelings", I see two translations: 情怀 and 情面.

Which of these two would be better suited to translate the following sentence

  The woman rhetorically replied to her partner, "Are my feelings not important?"

or

  You should watch what you say as you may hurt the child's feelings.

I'm most concerned with how to translate the the word "feelings" that would be appropriate for conversational usage (as opposed to textbook or academic terminology).

The woman rhetorically replied to her partner, "Are my feelings not important?"

那女子质问她的同伴：“难道我的感受就不重要？”

You should watch what you say as you may hurt the child's feelings.

你说话可得注意了，可别伤了孩子的心。


How do we translate the Chinese slang “抠脚大汉” into English？ And are there any proper ways to translate the action “抠脚”?

Update:

Thanks for your comments and answers. Although there is an "引经据典的"answer, 我本来是想知道它的字面意思。

Also, I tried Google translation which regrad 抠脚 as 抠出芯片的引脚。

Forgive my poor English...

Baidu baike:
网络语言，抠脚大汉即字面意思为抠脚的男人。事实上网络用语解释为：指一些猥琐男人在网络上扮女生，引围观，然后看着聊天记录一边抠脚一边大笑。

抠脚 : to scratch ones legs

抠脚大汉 ：Internet creep


Chinese phrase for 'stripped of one's rank' In the movie, 'Wolf Warrior 2', the protagonist was stripped of his ranks before being sent to military jail.

How could the stripping of rank be described concisely in mandarin? I was thinking something along the lines of 扯官。

免职：removed from position;

降级: demoted;

免级: remove ranks (though not necessarily "stripped" of ranks)


What are the prefixes for animal genders? I know the male version when describing gender of an animal or pet is 公，but I have no clue with the female version.

To be simple, male/female: 公/母、雄/雌

  公鸡、母鸡；公狗、母狗; 公牛、母牛。
  雄鱼、雌鱼。


Chinese names for zeptoseconds and yoctoseconds While compiling a list of names for fractions of seconds which are in the International System of Units, I stumbled upon two curious fractions of seconds whose names I'm unable to locate anywhere, and I don't trust what Google Translator gives as it is highly likely to be wrong.
My question is pretty straightforward: which words are used in Mandarin Chinese to refer to zeptoseconds and yoctoseconds? You can check what they are in this list on Wikipedia.

Zeptoseconds = 仄普托秒 / 仄秒 / (Taiwan Guoyu: 介秒)

仄（仄普托）= zepto-

Yoctoseconds = 幺科托秒 / 幺秒 / (Taiwan Guoyu: 攸秒)

幺（幺科托） = yocto-

The shortened forms, i.e.: 仄秒 & 幺秒 are probably more accessible than their long forms.

You can check out this Metric SI Prefixes Table in Chinese for even more details. Heres a quick and dirty current screen grab for reference:


When to use 了 and 的? 了 is used after verb or sentence to indicate that something has been finished/done or something has changed.

的 is used in many cases, one of which is to indicate the speaker's modality of certainty.

他来了。 He has come. (O)  -> 了 needs to be used.

他来的。 (X) -> 的 should not be used.

他现在才来了（X) -> Now, 了 should not be used in this case.

他现在才来的。He has just come. (O) -> Now, 的 needs to be used in this case.

Apparently there is some rule that I am missing, which makes me quite confused about how exactly these 了 and 的 work.

It will be really nice if I can tell which one is an appropriate one when I write things in Mandarin.

Thanks in advance.

他（是）现在才来的 is a 是的 construction for emphasis. In this case, 是 is omitted. He has arrived just now, in this very moment!

Another example: 我是来看病的: I have come to have a health check (rather than just socialize).

他来了 just indicates he has arrived, without emphasis. 了 completes the statement.


How do I ecourage my spouse, in Mandarin, to fly free in her job, and assure here we are supporting her and welcoming her home My spouse just landed their dream job! They start next week and I am going to celebrate their first day.
Their dream is to be able to fly free, and high and to always be welcomed home in a warm and caring way. I want to express that, in addition to our unconditional support for them.
I have found several ways to congratulate them on a new job, including:
恭喜您获得这个工作
对你的新工作表示祝贺
祝您今后在工作岗位上大展鸿图！
But I really want to go beyond congratulating, in an authentic and meaningful way. Possibly referencing 瑤池金母, who represents "he protector/patron of "singing girls, dead women, novices, nuns, adepts and priestesses...women [who] stood outside the roles prescribed for women in the traditional Chinese family"" according to wikipedia.
Here is the best I've come up with, but I don't think it is very good. Would you please help me phrase my intentions?
加油！自由飞翔！
我们在这里为您服务，始终支持您并欢迎您回家！

Update:
恭喜你找到梦寐以求的工作。我真为你感到高兴/自豪。努力去做吧。我永远支持你。
Congratulations on getting your dream job. I feel happy/proud for you. Go for it. I will always support you.

I guess your spouse may have obtained a position (职位) / job (工作) as a crew member (机组成员), such as

pilot 机长)
co-pilot (副驾驶)
cabin manager / flight purser 客舱经理 / 乘务长
flight attendant 空中乘务员 (空乘 / 乘务员)

加油！自由飞翔！我们在这里为您服务，始终支持您并欢迎您回家！

It's grammatically correct, but people don't normally say that.
我们在这里为您服务 is equivalent to "we're here to help" which is used in customer service rather than family.
始终支持您 also sounds like an expression in customers service.
您 is used in clerk to supervisor, store to customer, student to teacher. No need to 您 between spouse. For other situations in the family, it depends on their family consensus/tacit understanding.
You can say:

恭喜你被录用！太好了，你的梦想成真了（your dream comes true）。我期待看到你在蓝天翱翔（áoxiáng）的样子。


Translation for "sorry" as in "I am sorry to hear that"? In English we can say "sorry" as an abbreviation for "I am sorry to hear that"/"I feel sorry for you" to express sympathy. Is there a Chinese word or phrase that bears the same meaning?

I know one can say 对不起 when the conversation goes into a "sorryful" topic, but it's a real apology for misspeaking.

Sorry has many meanings in English while 对不起 doesn't do that in Chinese. Most of the case, you can use 不好意思 - it'd be more easy-going and it's a little like "sorry" in English sometimes.

So for different context you need to say different words. Some examples for you:

不好意思 - It's very general and can fit many situations. I recommend use it when you're not very sure.

  不好意思，我不知道你们已经离婚了。I'm sorry that I didn't know about your divorce.

抱歉 - feel bad when you mention something that your listener don't want to hear

  抱歉，我刚知道你父亲去世的消息。I'm sorry I just knew that you father passed away.

难过 - feel sorrow about something (stronger emotional than the two above)

  听到这个消息，我很难过。I'm sorry to hear that.

伤心 - feel rather bad about the loss, especially someone loses his a family member. But it's a little formal than 难过. You can use it in a letter or e-mail

  得知你要离开这个城市，我真的很伤心 It's so sad to realize that you're leaving this city.

遗憾 - it's a little formal and official, I do not suggest use this in a daily conversation. Chinese people seldom say it.

  听说你不打算加入我们了，我感到很遗憾 It's a pity to know that you're never gonna join us.

惋惜 - the same like 遗憾, it's very formal and seldom used in daily conversations.

  关键时候没能坚持住，真令人惋惜 What a pity that you did not hold on at this crucial moment.

悲恸 - it's much more formal and official, for example when some "big brother" in the gov is dead the media will use this word to report

  毛泽东逝世后，举国上下沉浸在极其地悲恸之中无法自拔。 Every single person in this country has broken his heart after knowing Chairman Mao has passed away.


What is the function of 贴 in 四贴袋？ I can't figure out what 贴 is doing here:

中国革命先行者孙中山综合了西式服装与中式服装的特点，设计出了一种直翻领有袋盖的四贴袋男用套装，定名为中山装，此后几十年，中山装大为流行，成为中国男子喜欢的标准服装。

‘四贴袋‘ is 贴 a 量词 here?

贴 in 四贴袋 is not measure word but adjective, meaning pasted. It describes the appearance of the pocket is like it's pasted/patched on the suit.
When 贴袋 is used as noun, you can use any measure word that's applicable to a pocket. E.g.

这件衣服上有四个贴袋。

But in your example, 四贴袋 is noun-as-adjective (数词+名词短语做定语), in which situation there should not be measure words in between, and strictly speaking, 四 here is not nominal number four but tuple nomenclature quad. Some other examples:

三轮车 three-wheel(ed) vehicle
多功能全自动洗衣机 multi-function automatic washing machine
四贴袋男用套装 four/quad-patch pocket men's suit


How to say "To lose" as in to "lose a team member" I"m trying to figure out how to say to "lose" as in to lose a member of a team or (in my case) a member of a club. For example, how would you translate,
"this year my school's student council lost a couple of great representatives"

Would you use the term "输了几个很好的代表？”

"输了几个很好的代表？” means a council gambled with their great  representatives,then they lost.

"this year my school's student council lost a couple of great representatives"

今年，我们校学生会失去了几位出色的学生代表。

Most of the time,We can use 失去 for lost。but 失去 indicates some bad conditions. “What happend? politic conflicts or death”。

add an explanation.

今年，由于涉及到毕业，我们校学生会失去了几位出色的学生代表。

今年，由于毕业的关系，我们校学生会失去了几位出色的学生代表。

Edited:
After more consideration,
I think it is better to use either of the two。

失去 means something lost which you wish did not.If you were sorry for the reelection ,you could use 失去。


How to expess “nostalgia” in chinese？ So, I know that in general we can use something like 叙旧 to mean "reminisce (as if with old classmates). But how would we say something like "nostalgic" as in
这首歌让我很Nostalgic。

怀旧？
舍不得？

THanks for any help given!

If nostalgia means "longing for something past", the translation I can think of is:

  这首歌勾起了我的怀旧情绪


Why is "感恩" frequently used as a verb? In the last two years or so I began to see people frequently using 感恩 as verb meaning "thank (you)", such as "感恩大家" or "感恩领导".

But I thought "感恩" is a verb-noun phrase, meaning "thank (you for your) kindness", while "感谢" is the phrase for "thank (you)".

Is the use of "感恩" instead of "感谢" a newly emerged usage, or have the two always been interchangeable?

You are right that 感恩 is a verb-noun phrase. When another noun is appended (i.e. 感恩XX), it means that you are thanking (感) someone (XX) for their kindness (恩). Inversion is at play here. "感恩" carries a degree of formality and is rarely used in daily conversation. It will be awkward if someone uses "感恩" when not speaking publicly.To rate them in terms of formalities: 感恩 > 感谢 > 谢谢 > 多谢感恩 is used exclusively in formal context while 多谢 is only used casually. 感谢 and 谢谢 can be used at the user's discretion, though the former sounds more formal.


What is the translation for terms associated with "predatory lending"? Predatory lending is usually associated with 'loan-sharks' who trap a borrower into a circumstance where he will likely encounter difficulty in repayment. Usually, the borrower finds himself in a hole that continues to become 'deeper'.

Predatory lending is also associated with debt-bondage where the borrower's debt is sold to another party who will utilise the borrower's labour to repay the debt.

What is the translation for the following terms:

The concept of "predatory lending"
A person who practices predatory lending (the lender)
The person who is trapped by predatory lending
(the borrower)

see online dictionaries, iciba:predatory lending 掠夺性贷款 http://www.iciba.com/predatory%20lending find 2 examples sentences, predatory lender 掠夺性贷款人 victim of pred. lending 掠夺性贷款(的)受害人/者，for confirmation submit 掠夺性 to bkrs: 掠夺性贷款；高利贷 predatory credit practice

additional relevant vocabulary at https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%8E%A0%E5%A4%BA%E6%80%A7%E8%B4%B7%E6%AC%BE https://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/%E6%8E%A0%E5%A4%BA%E6%80%A7%E8%B4%B7%E6%AC%BE


Is it acceptable to omit 来 in 起来 as a direction complement? In the following sentence:

  在帐篷里，周海提议大家一起唱羌族民歌，渐渐地场面也活跃起来。周海还给他们讲羌族的文化和历史。孩子们渐渐建立起对他的信任。

I wonder why it is 起, not 起来 in the sentence above. In my understanding, the correct complement (direction complement) is 起来, but in this sentence it does not have 来.

So is it correct that this usage of 起 is direction complement as well? In that case, why is it 起, not 起来?

起

  （用在动词后，表示动词的趋向）:

  hold high the flag; raise the flag;

  举起旗子

  take up arms;

  拿起武器

As you can see, the verb should be followed by 起 when there is an object at the end, for example 拿起武器. When there's no object, 起来 should be used, e.g. 拿起来. Basically, you can consider 拿起 as a transitive and 拿起来 as an intransitive.

You can also use 把. It will be like 把...拿起来. e.g.  把武器拿起来.

So, 孩子们渐渐建立起对他的信任 can be paraphrased as 孩子们渐渐把对他的信任建立起来.


"Everywhere" as 到处都 or 到处都是 From this Mandarin Corner video:  https://youtu.be/2JttZXFJrNg?t=28

(Transcript provided on their website:)

  00:00:24,000 –> 00:00:28,000

  Dàjiē shàng hěnduō shù bèi guā dǎo le,

  大街上很多树被刮倒了，

  00:00:28,000 –> 00:00:31,700

  wàimian de lajī yě bèi chuī de dàochù dōu shì,

  外面的垃圾也被吹得到处都是，

  00:00:31,700 –> 00:00:34,166

  gēnběn méi bànfǎ chūmén,

  根本没办法出门，

I don't understand why "everywhere" can't be expressed as just 到处 there.  If I Google examples it looks like 到处都是 is an entire fixed phrase that means "everywhere", but if I look up 到处, 到处都, and 到处都是 they are defined as "everywhere".

到处是 can be used interchangeably as 到处都是 and they means something exist everywere.

For example, 菜园里到处都是蘑菇 means mushrooms are everywhere in the garden.

Sometimes, 都 gives significance to the sentence, it emphasis that this specific place is unique as it has a specific object everywhere.

For example, 海里到处是水! means Ocean has water(which is a fact about ocean)
whereas if you say: 家里到处都是水 meaning there is water everywhere at home. You see that it is uncommon.

是means to be. So if you wish to use another verb with everywhere, you should remove 是 and replace it with a verb that you want to use。

Example: 到处跳舞： Dance Everywhere.
到处逛： Wandering Everywhere。

Hope That help.


Difference between 讨厌, 恨, 怨恨, 忌恨, 恶, and 恼恨? Could you please tell me the difference and how each word is used?

讨厌：不喜欢，eg, 我讨厌夏天。我讨厌老鼠。

恨：范围太大了，有人多原因会产生恨，一种很激烈的对某人的负面情绪。

怨恨：重点是怨，因为怨气，一种强烈的多负面情绪，而恨某人

忌恨：重点是忌，因为嫉妒而心生恨意

恶：两种读音，è, 表示不好的，反义词是善。wù, 如厌恶，因为某种原因而讨厌某个人或物。

恼恨：重点在恼，因为恼怒而怨恨

I am not good at English，so I answer in Chinese.


Is the position of 都 in a sentence important？ (example inside) In this instance i'm  trying to communicate "every" or "each"

What do you usually do on weekends?

你週末通常都做什麼

Vs

你週末都通常做什麼

Is there a meaningful difference in the position in this sentence? or is it just plain grammatically incorrect?

thanks a lot.

In my opinion, 你週末通常都做什麼 is more natural.

你週末都通常做什麼 sounds ok, but not as natural as the first one.

There's no difference in meaning. I don't think there's a strong reason as to why the first one sounds more natural. It might be all about conventions.

Note that some might take this differently based on their conventions.

By the way, 都 here is used to emphasize, not to convey every or each.


What is the Chinese word for 'programmer'? I know that a couple of variation of "coding" or programming are 编程, or 写代码. How would I refer to that person who does the coding/programming? Is it 编程家? or is there a more colloquial way of saying it?

编程家 sounds weird. You can say:

程序员
程序猿 (for male)
程序媛 (for female)
编程人员
码农 (junior programmer without future, often used for self-mockery)
挨踢(IT)民工 (similar to 码农)


Differences between 饭，菜， 食 and 餐 What are the differences between 饭，菜， 食 and 餐？Basically all mean food. But I know they are sometimes used in different curcimstances.

What is then the most common word for food: 菜 or 食 ？

我吃过四川菜。Also here I am wondering, can I use anything else but 菜？

There are so many subtle differences and I don't think one can summarise these differences in a set of simple rules.

When referring to food in general, 食物 (edit: or 食品) can be used. Note that 食物 is a compound word, which literally means "something (物) to eat (食)". Examples: 食物安全 "food safety", 红十字会正为地震灾民分发食物 "Red Cross is now distributing food to the earthquake survivors". In modern Chinese, the character 食 in 食物 is not a standalone morpheme. It is standalone in classical Chinese, though, and this classical use of the word "食" still remains in a few terms (see "cuisine" below).
When referring to food prepared by an organisation (e.g. a restaurant or a school meal supplier), 食物 (edit: or 食品), 菜, 饭菜 or 饭餐 can be used. However, there are many exceptional cases that are hard to summarise. For instance, on one hand, even rice-based foods are provided by some McDonald's restaurants, one wouldn't use 饭菜 or 饭餐 as an umbrella term for the food offered by the franchise. On the other hand, even if a usual restaurant (fast food shops excluded) does not offer any rice (饭), one may still call its food 饭菜.
When referring to the food prepared by a specific person, it is more customary to use 菜 or 饭. The two words are usually interchangable, but 菜 is used more frequently. Examples: 他做的菜很美味 (the food he made was delicious), 她很会做饭 (she cooks very well).
When referring to catering, since not only food but also drinks are provided in catering services, unless you want to exclude drinks, 饮 (drinks) and 食/餐 (food) are used together to form the compound words 饮食 or 餐饮. The terms 食物, 饭菜 or 饭餐 can also be used, but 饮食 or 餐饮 are more customary and the word "catering" itself should be translated as 饮食 or 餐饮. Again, 食 or 餐 are not standalone morphemes here. Also, note the character orders: you must write 饮食 or 餐饮 but not 食饮 or 饮餐.
When referring to diet, use 饮食 (but not 餐饮). Again, since you not only eat but also drink, 饮 and 食 are not standalone but used together.
When referring to cuisine from a specific region, 菜 is definitely the most customary word for "food" (四川菜、日本菜、韩国菜 etc.). [Edit:] In many circumstances you may also say 菜式 in place of 菜, e.g. both 我喜欢法国菜 and 我喜欢法国菜式 mean "I like French cuisine" [end of edit]. 餐 is also valid when a Western country is mentioned (e.g. both 法国菜 and 法国餐 may refer to French cuisine), but seldom used if you refer to other countries or regions within a country (therefore, 四川菜, not 四川餐). At any rate, if you mean a specific dish, use 菜 (edit: or 菜式) instead of 餐, because 餐 implies a meal. Example: 左边这碟是法国菜, 右边这碟是意大利菜 "the dish on the left is French; the one on the right is Italian".
If you mean cuisine in general (with no specific cultures or cooking styles in mind), the word "cuisine" is 美食 (edit: or 菜式) in Chinese, literally meaning "fabulous food". Example: 我们提供世界各地美食 (edit: or 我们提供世界各地菜式) = "we offer cuisines from around the world".  (Here, the character 食 alone means "food", so the usage of 食 is partially classical Chinese. Yet we cannot say 我们提供世界各地食 with the character 美 omitted. So, unlike the case in classical Chinese, the character 食 here is still not a standalone morpheme.)
If you mean meals, use 饭 or 餐. There are various similarities and differences between the two.

When referring to breakfast, lunch or dinner, etc., both 饭 or 餐 can be used. E.g. 你吃了早饭没有？and 你吃了早餐没有？(Have you had your breakfast yet?) are perfectly fine questions.
餐 in some occasions is more formal. On a food menu, "breakfast" usually reads 早餐 but not 早饭. Both 餐桌 or 饭桌 mean "dining table", but "table manner" is 餐桌礼仪, not 饭桌礼仪. Also, if the character for "have/eat" and the character for "meal" are used adjacently, the verb to use depends on the character used. For 饭, use 吃饭 or (less frequently) 用饭; for 餐, use 用餐 but not 吃餐.
When the time of having meal is unspecified, it is customary to say 饭 instead of 餐. Example: 你吃了饭没有？("Have you had the meal yet?") One may ask 你用过餐没有？for the same purpose, but 用餐 is much more formal than 吃饭 (imagine a butler asking his master the question when the latter is back to his castle).
To say one is full, one may say 吃饱饭了 (or simply 吃饱了 or better, 饱了), but never 吃饱餐了.
For festival meals, in general the character 餐 is used. Example: 圣诞大餐 = Christmas dinner, 感恩节大餐 = Thanksgiving dinner. In a related note, the sacrament of Holy Communion is 圣餐 in Chinese.

Note that 餐 is also a quantifier for meals, so its use may sometimes confuse non-native speakers. E.g. in 这餐饭是圣诞大餐 (literally "this meal is Christmas dinner"), the first 餐 is a quantifier for the word 饭 (meal), while the second 餐 refers to a meal.


Use 我对你想说 or 我想说对你 to say: I want to talk/speak to you? It seems like when there is the word 对 in the sentence, you need to move noun/verb to the end of the sentence, but I am not sure. So here is my question. I want to say I want to talk/speak to you. Is it 我对你想说 or 我想说对你?

It should be 我想对你说

我想说 = I want to say

我想(对你)说 = I want to say (to you)

对 have to be placed before the object, and  [对 + object] have to be followed by a verb
想(want to) is the main verb, it is not moved to the end of the sentence
O Connor wrote:

Is it because of the word 对 that you need to move the second verb 说 to the end of the sentence?

Not necessarily the end of the sentence, but [对 + object] need to be followed by a verb

我说 = I say

我(对你)说 = I say (to you)

我现在(对你)(说)明天的计划 = I now say (to you) tomorrow's plan


How to interpret 重地上，轻地下？ I think this is an oblique reference to 孙子兵法，but in a modern context it just means:

'the government only cares about what is above ground, what is beneath the ground is unimportant'

女：海绵城市能解决城市内涝的窘况吗？

男：长期以来，城市建设中存在“重地上，轻地下”的偏向。遇到强降雨时，最常见的办法就是通过管道“快速排出”。而海绵城市突破“以排为主”的传统管理理念，以建筑、道路、绿地等为载体，通过多种生态技术，构建合理的城市雨水开发利用系统。

What does the speaker mean with “重地上，轻地下”?

To me, as a native speaker, my intuition is that it is not something from old Chinese. Not all those sentences or phrases that use very few words come from old Chinese.

In this case, they just want to briefly summarize the current preference on urban construtation that people focus more on things above the ground rather than below the ground.

Actually, it is quite common to say “重A，轻B” in formal situations. It is also very common that people summarize some key characteristics in a brief way, making it looks like old Chinese. You can find a lot of them in some political files or slogans, such as “兴国之要，兴国之魂，立国之本，立党之本”。


How to say “The crowd” as in a "Crowd in a concert" I'm interested to see if there is a specific translation for "Crowd" as in "crowd at a concert". To say "We entered the crowd at the concert" would it be 那一群人？ or 观众？ or is there a better way to express this？

Yes there is. For "crowd" in "the crowd in a concert" we say "聽眾"; for "crowd' in "the crowd in a ball game" we say "觀眾".


Colloquial translation of "preaching to the choir"? The phrase preaching to the choir is explained nicely in Wikitonary:

Verb
preach to the choir
(idiomatic) To speak as if to convince a person or group of something they already believe. quotations ▼
Usage notes
Often used to imply that a speaker is addressing the wrong audience or is deliberately addressing a compliant, non-challenging audience.

The first translation on YouDao translates it very literally:

给唱诗班传道

the second translation is completely wrong (你和唱诗班说吧) and the third is quite literal as well:

对唱诗班说教

While, seemingly, correct - the above translations could hardly express the nuances of addressing the wrong audience by trying to convince them of something they already believe in Chinese.
Any ideas for a good colloquial translation of "preaching to the choir"?

ed: 给和尚念经 -or- 念经给和尚听 are quite good alternatives!

I would say the Chinese 4 characters idom "班门弄斧" could be best for "preaching to the choir".

“班门弄斧" basically means "display one's slight skill before an expert." "班" here represents the best carpenter in China ancient history whose name is '鲁班', '弄斧' means display somebody's axe skill.

Another one comes into my mind  is '关公面前耍大刀', '关公' was a big hero in China ancient history who can do '大刀broadsorwd' very well, and if you show your sword skill before him, that's really not a right thing.


What does "現代修真" mean? 現代修真

Is a type/category of novel, but what does it mean in English?

  現代

Is basically modern, but what would

  修真

mean in this case?

If 修真 means "Cultivating True Virtue", it doesn't seem to fit too well, so what would the English translation be?

百度 has lots of books under 现代修真小说完本, they seem to be about immortals.

修真 seems to be a Taoist phrase, '道教中，学道修行，求得真我，去伪存真为“修真”。' I think you're pretty close with 'cultivating the truth / the true reality / the true self'。


Is 師奶 (see lai) strictly a Cantonese word? Is it a neutral word or does it have a negative connotation? I had heard a husband refer to his wife in Cantonese as 師奶 (pronounced "see lai"). The way he said it sounded like an insult but I was told it's not a bad word.

How would 師奶 be described in English? Is it a word that carries any negative connotations? Would certain women be offended if they are addressed as 師奶? Is it ever appropriate to call a woman 師奶? Is 師奶 unique to Cantonese? Is there an equivalent word in Mandarin?

The impression I get is it carries the same weight as the Japanese おばさん (obasan), which Japanese women do not like to be called. Obasan means a woman has passed her youth (青春 seishun) and is now a middle aged "aunty" who is no longer attractive to men. Is 師奶 similar or different to this?

I'm not sure if 師奶 is a slang. If it's not, let me know so I can remove the tag.

"師奶(师奶)" refer to a married woman, and is popular used in Southern China. Is is rarely used in Mandarin.

  師奶（「奶」字要讀高N音，同「拉」嘅音調一樣），太太嘅俗稱。主要係街坊之間用嚟打招呼嘅用詞。哩個詞語亦都可以用嚟取笑嗰啲唔多化粧，外表睇起上嚟土土地好似傳統家庭主婦咁嘅未婚女士，有所謂「師奶仔」嘅叫法。1

translate to Simplified Chinese "师奶（‘奶’字要读高N音，和‘拉’到音调一样），太太的俗称。主要是街坊邻居用来打招呼的词。也可以用来嘲笑不修边幅，看起来向像家庭主妇的未婚女士，这些未婚女士也会被叫做‘师奶仔’。"

translate to English "师奶，refer to 太太(太太 is not wife but married woman in here). It is often used among the neighbors. A makeup-free unmarried woman who looks like a housewife is mocked and called '师奶仔'. "

粤语维基百科


What is the difference between 缩减 and 削减？ 缩减: reduce; cut; run-down; decrement; economization; reduction; reducing; diminution; lessening; impansion:

削减: cut (down); reduce; slash; whittle down:

缩 = shrink; 缩减 = shrink / reduce
削 = cut; 削减 = cut / reduce

缩减預算 you can shrink the a budget to reduce it's size. (budget as a whole shrinks )
削减預算 you can cut the budget to reduce it's size (sum of money or items in the budget being cut away)

~

缩减開支 you can shrink expenditures to reduce it's amount (expenditures as a whole shrinks )
削减開支 you can cut the expenditures to reduce it's amount. (sum of money or items in the expenditures be cut away)

~

削减僱員 you can cut employees to reduce your company size. (individual employees being cut away)
缩减僱員 you cannot shrink employees  ;  you can only 缩减僱員人數 (shrink the number of employees)


Can I omit 之 in 之后/之前/之内? In Mandarin, if you want to express "three years after" or "after three years", 之 should be used such that it is 两年之后. This is also true of 之前 and 之内 (e.g. 第二次世界大战之前。, 我三天之内一定做得完。).

However, now I wonder if it is possible to omit 之, and write it as 两年后 or 第二次世界大战前. Is this grammatically correct? Or is it wrong but nonetheless used everywhere? (I know these phrases are often used but would like to know if it is correct.)

...前 and ...内 are the short version of 之前 and 之内 respectively.

They are completely interchangeable, ...前==之前， ...内==之内.
三天前==三天之前，三天内==三天之内，第二次世界大战前==第二次世界大战之前

...后==之后 is the same thing. 两年后==两年之后

The only difference is longer ones look more formal.


你是我的小呀小苹果儿 What is the purpose of the second 小? So I'm listening to this catchy song and the chorus goes 你是我的小呀小苹果儿. I'm wondering why the 小 is being said twice. Is that just something the artist is doing to play with the language in the song or would you actually say that 小 two times?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzHFD1sEqpE#t=100

It's the same as songs in English - repetition is for rhythm.

你是我的小呀小苹果儿

You're my little - little apple

Something like that.


What is the difference between 收了 and 收到了? What is the difference between 收了 and 收到了?
1. We say 我收了他的錢
2. But we don't say 我收了他的信, We say我收到他的信了

When do we use 收了 and 收到了?

我收到了他的信。/ 我收到他的信了。
  I have received his letter.

Here, 收到了 usually indicates that something I received that was sent by other people actively. I just get it passively.

  我收了他的钱。
  I took his money. /  I accepted his money.

Here, 收了 just means I get his money. But you cannot tell whether the money is given by him actively or the money is given by my demand/request.


What does 委屈你了 mean in this situation? Suppose your friend invites you to dinner. He prepares a dish that he knows is too spicy for you, but you're a good sport and try it anyway; it actually turns out to be quite tasty. He says 委屈你了.

"I have wronged you" and "Sorry to inconvenience you" both sound too dramatic in English. What would be a colloquially appropriate translation here?

I'm not sure if this is overly BrE but a common turn of phrase is:

  sorry to put you out

or

  sorry to have put you out

That would be a fairly close equivalent of 委屈你了.


How do I say "I've got all his albums"? When talking about my favorite singer, how do I say "I've got all his albums"?
I thought it was "他的光盘我都有" but I don't think it's correct because I can't find any results for that on Google.

光盘 = Disk =

So that's a huge no-no.

唱片 is more of a old fashion way of saying album. So I personally recommend 专辑.

So the result would be: 他的专辑我都有。or 我有他所有的专辑。


How does "the copula 惟" distinguish the meanings of negation for 非 v. 不? ABC Chinese–English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003).  I can't access the "slightly revised through July 2005" ed. p 253.

I understand copulas for English, but not for Chinese here. Anyways, let's focus on the negatory meanings of 非  and 不 Disregard their unique (like 5-7 for both entries above). 非 and 不 can both mean "not". So how do they differ?

Is 非 - Wiktionary correct? CUHK doesn't mention 惟. Wiktionary avouches that

非 (OC *pɯj) is the fusion of the negation particle 不 (OC *pɯ, *pɯʔ, *pɯ', “not”) and the copula 惟 (OC *ɢʷi, “to be”), attested in oracle bone inscriptions.

If so, please see this question's title.

The English word "not" encompasses various meanings and usages too. For example, the following "not" words can all be interpreted as being different:

Do not enter.
He is not going to the market.
Not now.
This apple is not red yet.

In Mandarin Chinese then, 不 is used in front of verbs, and thus is the first negative adverb people learn. In normal speech then, only the first two sentences may use "不 = not"; in formal language, the first may be substituted.
Where does 非 fit in then? The uses in modern Standard Chinese are given above in the cited dictionary. However, in Classical Chinese, its use was more obviously related to its etymological roots as given by Wiktionary above. One source is Pulleyblank's seminal grammar, which states point blank:

Fēi 非, the negative particle used with nouns, is an early contraction of 不唯 bù wéi [...]

and note what it says about 唯:

[...] not in the classical sense of 'only' but in the preclassical sense of a copula and noun marker.

Note 惟 and 唯 were orthographic variants during this period, performaing a role as the copula, which would "equate" two noun phrases. This is attested in the The Commentary of Zuo or 左傳 (Zuǒ zhuàn):

且要盟無質，神弗臨也，所臨唯信

In Classical Chinese, the difference between 不 as a negative and 非 as a negative becomes critical for intepretation. E.g. from the Analects:

信如君不君，臣不臣，父不父，子不子

The use of 非 would mean that the sentence reads "If indeed the ruler is not the ruler, the subject is not the subject" etc., as the end of each clause would be a noun. However, the use of 不 forces the end of each clause to be a verbal predicate, and so the reading is about "being X-like / acting as X".
Note 非 also has meaning as a 'true' verb in Classical Chinese, "to be wrong" / "to deny".
Of course, modern Standard Mandarin is different; the modern copula 是 takes the normal verbal negative adverb 不. But the use of 非 persists in important compounds, and thinking of it as closer to 不是 than 不 can be helpful for the learner.


How to improve speaking skills during "real" conversations I have a question regarding how to improve your speaking skills in a particular situation.

Here's my situation: my level of Chinese is somewhat advanced beginner to intermediate, I guess. I'm focusing a lot on reading improvement, by learning characters and grammar, for academic purposes. I live in Hong Kong currently, but most will know that it is not always ideal to practice your 普通话. I was too late to register for any classes, so I'm doing a lot of self-study right now.

I would like to enhance my speaking skills. There are plenty of students from the Mainland over here, and I know quite a few already. So I can find some partners as well, but I don't necessarily have a lot of time to do the classic language exchange every day.

One of my techniques is currently to meet somebody, to take lunch or dinner with him/her, so as to use my vocabulary and so on more actively.

My problem is however that I often feel lost during the conversations. I suddenly rely on the very basic vocabulary, while ignoring the new words I do know. And this disturbs me quite a lot, because I wish to have more interesting discussions than just the casual talk about school etc. (FYI, I guess I'm at around 1200 characters or something: that is, being able to recognise their meanings and possible write them without issues)

Does anyone have experience with this kind of situation? What could I do, to actively use more of the vocabulary I do know? To level up my conversation skills?

I'm aware that I've obviously did not master the new characters to the point where I can use/remember them easily. But will this simply go away with drilling exercises?
Should I "prepare" my conversations somehow, but designing some vocabulary list?

Any suggestions, constructive criticism is highly welcome. Any of your previous experiences with similar situations as well!

My apologies if this question has been asked elsewhere.

Ask me anything you need to know more about this problem.

启蒙, growing pains. We’ve all been through that phase and there really is no miracle solution. You can only carry on and practice as much as you can. Even stronger: if you want to get better, there really is just one way. It is all about about real life situations and encounters.

Here are some ideas:

useful words you know but forget to use (or new words or expressions you want to start using): make a small list and read them through right before the engagement. Use them once and their status immediately changes.
preparing the conversation is indeed useful. Which topic do you want to bring up or broaden?
putting to use past engagements. What was it you wanted to say but didn’t manage to? Which expressions did your partner use frequently and seem useful? Keep them in mind, even if you don’t understand them (fully).
during the practice: quickly write down the really crucial words you don’t understand. If your partner is patient, ask her or him to write it for you. If not; just scribble it down in pinyin and try to look them up afterwards.
Learning to deal with not understanding everything. Focus first on the general meaning of a proposition. Sometimes getting the bigger idea is an accomplishment in itself. It can also help to pinpoint expressions used within a certain story.
Also useful: getting an idea of the linguistic rhythm of your partner. Does she/he switches topics quickly? Sometimes people use a lot of words to convey only one idea.  This meta-information will help the interpretation process itself.

It is obvious that the more time you spent with native speakers, the more you will be able to learn and getting used to speaking Mandarin naturally . Doing something together, apart from sitting in front of each other and talk, will immediately bring up new chances in a natural way; Becoming real friends will also help you to get into their way of thinking and global linguistic environment. Oftentimes, speaking a foreign language is more a question of knowing how to present an idea, than just translating word by word, which wouldn’t work.

加油吧!


What is the difference of the meaning of 挂牌 in 挂牌督办 and 挂牌上市? 牌 is a sign or a board, 挂 is hanging, I understand that in a market where goods are to be sold, the seller would post a sign to tell potential buyers that here is the thing you want. But what is the sign of 督办 (supervision) posted? And where should the sign in this case posted? In the office? In a public square where everybody can see or on a LED screen of a train station?

There won't be a real sign hanged.

挂牌 originally means setting up a sign as you know. When use it in 挂牌督办, since only authority department can 督办, 挂牌 means the department show the case to public to urge other lower department which is in charge of the case.

The case under 挂牌督办 always has a deadline, so the lower department have to get it done in time, otherwise somebody would get things real bad.

As 挂牌上市, that is a totally different commercial definition, it means a company list their shares in stock market.


When can I use 起来 to say "to begin"? Once I thought that 起来 meant "to begin" but could be used only in situations when something is going up or taken up (just as characters say). But it's not true. There are:

笑起来,
藏起来,
吃起饭来,
others.

On the other hand, I wanted to say "I also started to learn English" and I said "我也学习英语起来", but I got corrected. So it made me realise that 起来 can't be used with all verbs probably. So when can I use it to say "to start"?
(Let's omit 看起来，听起来 because they don't mean "begin to look" or "begin to hear").

If there is an object, it should be inserted between 起来
我也学习英语起来 --> 我也学习起英语来

[(v) + (起来)] = [(start) + (v)]

e.g. "他忽然笑(起来)" -- "he suddenly start laughing"

~

[v + (起) + object + (来)] = [(start) + v + object]

e.g. "他学起英语来" -- "He started to learn English"

~

[(v) + (起来) + statement] = [(upon/ when) + (v) + statement]

e.g. "他笑起来很恐怖" - "He is scary when he laughs"


Is there an equivalent for the Cantonese phrase "M Goi" The Cantonese phrase "M Goi" has many meanings:

"Excuse me"
"Thanks" (casual)
"Hey"

Does it have a 普通话 equivalent? And how can I write it in pinyin? Is it even possible?

M Goi is written as 唔該 which in simplified is 唔该 or Wú gāi in pinyin.

The only thing I can think of that may be similar, although it definitely doesn't mean thanks is 劳驾 Láojià which you could use for "excuse me" or "hey" but not for thanks.


Prefix equivalents in English? Are there any equivalent or similar prefixes or nicknames for 阿 or 小 (added in front of a name in Chinese) in English?

I don't think there is a universal prefix equivalent to 小 or 阿. Certainly you can add 'Little', but that's not a prefix, but an adjective.

In the West, nicknames follow different patterns, mainly using the first syllable of the full name and adding an [i] (-ie, -y or similar):

E.g. John --> Johnnie, Andrew ---> Andy, Lisa ---> Lizzy, etc.

Other countries have similar fashions, adding -(e)tte [French], -chen, -le [German, with some regional differences], -ito,-ita [Spanish] -ka, -ška, -čka, -ek, (Czech and other Slavic with different spellings).

Some nicknames are completely different from the formal given name, e.g. Richard --> Dick.


Can 发火 and 着火 be used interchangeably? Both meanings are very similar in the dictionary, but 发火 also means to 'get angry' and 'to detonate'. Can they be used interchangeably and what is the difference between the two words?

发火 is usually used metaphorically for a person, meaning getting angry. For example, you can say to someone 别发火/don't get angry, 他又发火了/he is angry again.

着火 is usually used as its literal meaning for a real object. Xxx 着火 means xxx catching fire/be on fire. For example, 房子着火了/ the house caught fire.

Basically, they won't be used interchangeably. We don't say 他又着火了 or 房子发火了.


Fonts that compose Ideographic Description Characters into one character Are there any fonts that try to compose Unicode Ideographic Description Characters into one character? E.g., ⿰女子 would look like 好. I know the Wikipedia page says "rendering systems are not intended to automatically compose the pieces into a complete ideograph", but this could be helpful for scripts like Sawndip that aren't fully encoded in Unicode. Composing characters overlaid with ⿻ would probably be impossible, but it seems that it shouldn't be hard to at least try to compose characters that are put together just side-by-side with ⿰ ⿱ ⿲ ⿳, especially since something like this is already done for Old Hangul syllable blocks.

The question you are asking is basically, "how do I shape ideographic description sequences (IDS's)"? Text shaping is how the Arabic word خ‌ط ا‌ل‌ع‌ا‌ئ‌ل‌ة becomes خط العائلة.
It is technically possible. I am working on a proof-of-concept that can shape any IDS with a recursion depth of 2 or less. The recursion depth is needed due to limits of the number of glyphs possible in a SFNT-based font.
An SFNT-based font can contain 65535 glyphs. There are 26 presentation forms of a radical shaped in an IDS:

口_Plain.
⿰: 口_Left; 口_Right.
⿱: 口_Above; 口_Below.
⿲: 口_LeftOf3; 口_HMiddleOf3; 口_RightOf3.
⿳: 口_TopOf3; 口_VMiddleOf3; 口_BottomOf3.
⿴: 口_Surrounding; 口_Surrounded.
⿵: 口_SurroundingFromAbove; 口_SurroundedFromAbove.
⿶: 口_SurroundingFromBelow; 口_SurroundedFromBelow.
⿷: 口_SurroundingFromLeft; 口_SurroundedFromLeft.
⿸: 口_SurroundingFromUpperLeft; 口_SurroundedFromUpperLeft.
⿹: 口_SurroundingFromUpperRight; 口_SurroundedFromUpperRight.
⿺: 口_SurroundingFromLowerLeft; 口_SurroundedFromLowerLeft.
⿺: 口_OverlaidA; 口_OverlaidB.

If you take the 216 radicals and draw them in all 26 presentation forms, you have 5,616 glyphs. (You can prune the list some by remembering that not all radicals make sense in all presentation forms; for example, 辶 can never be Surrounding or Overlaid.)
You can then use contextual alternates (GSUB) and contextual substitution (GPOS) to begin shaping. Wherever possible, to reduce the number of needed glyphs, you want to merge where possible. So, to shape 務, you want to shape ⿰矛务, not ⿰⿹予丿⿱夂力; even if this means that you need more "radicals".
This is a broad overview; I am working on a proof of concept, and also font standards which would make things easier for font authors. I also wrote a paper on the subject for the Text Shaping Working Group:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NYKsNOjkOamIRdfMReZfxAhtOUMiHNm_TIidb0Daob4


How do I say that I'm Russian? I know that I should add rén (人) after a country. I found these two in the dictionary:

俄罗斯
俄国

Which one should I use? What would be the difference between them?

Thanks

The official Chinese translation for "Россия" (Russia) is 俄罗斯.

The full name of Russia is "Российская Федерация" (Russian Federation), and the official Chinese translation is 俄罗斯联邦.

From the year 1721 to 1917, the dynasty of Russia was called "Российская империя" (Russian Empire), and the official Chinese translation for that dynasty is 俄罗斯帝国, or 俄国 for short.

As a result, don't use 俄国 unless you really mean the Russian Empire from the year 1721 to 1917.

Russian = the person of Russia = 俄罗斯人

Therefore, "I am Russian" should be "我是俄罗斯人".