How to determine what 即 means in a sentence I was reading an advertisement that says:  '阿里云免费体验! 注册即获得高达300美元体验套餐! 立即开通阿里云全球服务!'

Would 即获得 mean 'immediately obtain?' 即 can mean so many different things, it's a bit confusing.

Many thanks,
Rachel

Dictionary gives 6 meanings:

  就是：知识～力量。
  当时或当地：～日。～刻。～席。～景。在～。～兴（xìng ）。
  就，便：黎明～起。
  假如，倘若：～使。～便（biàn ）。～或。～令。
  靠近：不～不离。
  到，开始从事：～位。

With translations and comments, comments in italics:

  is:

  知识即力量 = Knowledge is power.
  This usage of 即 is more formal and less often heard colloquially.

  this (time or place):

  即日 = today;
  即刻 = right now;
  即席 = with improvisation (lit. [in] this seat);
  即景 = the immediate (poetic) environment;
  在即 = soon;
  即兴 = with improvisation (lit. [by] that [time's] mood)

  then:

  黎明即起 = [as soon as] dawn [comes], then [you should] get up
  the example cited is actually Classical Chinese, so you would not hear this colloquially

  if:

  即使 = even if
  即便 = even if
  即或 = even if
  即令 = even if
  I don't even know the last two.

  come near:

  不即不离 = keep at a respectful distance (lit. neither approach nor leave)
  The example cited is a Buddhist term, and I have never heard of it.

  to start working at some position:

  即位 = to start working at some position
  即位 is idiomatic, I would say.

Finally, a list of the words that you would hear colloquially:

即日 = today;
即刻 = right now;
即席 = with improvisation (lit. [in] this seat);
即景 = the immediate (poetic) environment;
在即 = soon;
即兴 = with improvisation (lit. [by] that [time's] mood)
即使 = even if
即便 = even if
即位 = to start working at some position

(From meanings 2,4,6)


What does 约谈 mean as a penalty? In China's officialdom there is a penalty called 约谈, which roughly means an appointment between higher authorities and the official who is going to be held accountable for his misbehavior or wrongdoing.

But really what kind of penalty is that? Does the boss threaten the firing of his subordinates during the dated talk? Could anyone share his opinion?

约谈 is not a penalty, but it indicates or implies or leads to an subsequent penalty, like hold by authorities.

约谈 just means someone who are in a higher authority dated you to talk about some problems. In Chinese culture, it is not good, but not very serious.

It may lead to a subsequent penalty, if the higher authority think your problem is serious or you are not honest on your problem. Sometimes 约谈 is just a warning, it depends on what you talked to them. You can't tell them all and you can't tell nothing, you can't tell them the truth and you can't tell them a total lie, they will all result in a very bad situation. So how to talk in a 约谈 is an art :)

If you see an officer is 约谈 in a newspaper or official website then his political life is in danger, he may be charged by some of his misdoings soon. But if he is an entrepreneur then he is OK, he just need to adjust his entreprises to follow the government's will or cooperate with the government. Sometimes government authority 约谈 entreprises or entrepreneurs.


How are Chinese people taught Chinese Hanzi? I don't study Chinese at all, nor have any plans to, I just wanted wanted to ask a basic question on how Chinese people learn Hanzi. I study Japanese, so I study Kanji, which is the use of Chinese characters in Japanese writing, and I learn the readings by using the other scripts in Japanese, Hiragana and Katakana for the Kun and On readings respectively. For example I learned 人 as ひと、と、り for the Kun readings, and ニン、ジン for the On readings, now for Chinese, it's apparently just rén, in Pinyin, but are Chinese people taught Pinyin to learn readings, or do they learn by hearing them, then using other Hanzi's sounds to learn a new Hanzi with the same sound?
I know this isn't really a question about the Chinese language itself, it's more about how people learn it, but I thought I'd ask anyway because I couldn't find a clear answer online.

I can give a short answer to this question. I would say both. When I entered primary school and started to learn Hanzi systematically, Pinyin is the very first thing to learn, and we learn the sounds of Hanzi by checking their Pinyin. The following picture of a typical primary school 语文 textbook shows how this work:

But the other guess of yours is also right to some extent. In learning Hanzi in primary schools, we always do the 同音字练习, which is an exercise to match a Hanzi to another which has the same pronunciation, and that's helpful. Also, given that many Hanzi (especially their pronunciations) are not learned from the school at all, we learn them by simply hearing and repeating, as you also mentioned.


Is the traditional form of 复 always used in “翻天復地" and why? As asked,

Is the traditional form of 复 always used in “翻天復地" and why?

I assume it’s because the simplified form is one of those odd ones that isn’t a one to one mapping, so the traditional form is used for clarity?

If so, is there a rule about when the traditional character is preferred?

@johan is correct.  翻 and 覆 are the same in traditional and simplified.

What I was seeing is 飜, which is a variant that looks more complicated, so I assumed it was the traditional.

And  I was also looking at the wrong entry for 覆,   here, which shows that 覆 is only used as a variant of 复 or 復 when it means  “to reply to a letter” and not as used in the idiom.

Just a noob making noob mistakes, which I apologize for.  Thanks for taking the time to answer my question :)


Variants of 将在外，君命有所不受? There seems to be multiple versions of this idiom, with slightly different characters:

  Baidu: 将在外，君命有所不受

  汉典: 将在军，君命有所不受

And a big bunch of variants:

将在外，军令有所不受
将在外，军令有所不从
将在外，君令有所不受
将在外，军令有所不为
将在外，军令有所不授

There may be more that I have missed.

So in general, these variants are: 将在[外|军]，[君|军][命|令]有所不[受|从|为|授].

A few variants are documented too (sometimes attributed the same person!):

  春秋·齐·孙武《孙子兵法·变篇》：“城有所不攻，地有所不争，*君命*有所不受。”

  《史记·孙子吴起列传》：“ 孙子 曰：‘臣既已受命为将，将在*军*， *君命*有所不受。’遂斩队长二人以徇。”

  司马光·宋·《资治通鉴》：“五十七年（癸卯，前258）将在外，*君令*有所不受”

  亮曰：“彼本无战心，所以固请者，以示武于其众耳。将在*军*，君命有所不受，苟能制吾，岂千里而请战邪！”（晋书.帝纪第一）

  《史记·魏公子列传》：“ 侯生 曰：‘将在外，*主令*有所不受，以便国家。’”

Which ones are correct, which ones are incorrect?
For the variants that are correct, are there subtle differences in their meaning?

It should be 君令有所不受. The whole sentence 将在外，君令有所不受 means: (if) the general is far away (at the battlefield), he does not have to obey all emperor's orders. The deeper meaning is that the general should judge and act according to the real situations at the battlefield and thus doesn't need to obey all the orders.

将在军 means the same as 将在外. 军 there means at war as well. Hence 将在军 is also correct.

君命 is the same as 君令. Both 命 and 令 mean order/command there. Hence both 君命 and 君令 are correct. 军命 is not correct. It does not have the right meaning.

主令 means one's master's order, 主 means master. So it means the same as well.


What semantic field underlies 即? I can grasp how卩 (“to kneel”) relates to definitions 1-3 below. But how does 皀  + 卩 compound to mean definitions 4-14 that don't relate to food or kneeling and that all differ from each other? Definitions 5 and 7 are the ones that overlap at all!  I screenshot Yellowbridge.

即 - Wiktionary

Glyph origin
Ideogrammic compound (會意): 皀 (“ancient round-mouthed food vessel”) + 卩 (“to kneel”) – to come near to eat; to approach.
Definitions

† to come near to eat
† to approach; to come near; to be near
† to ascend; to go up; to assume office
† prompted by the occasion
† though; although
† if; assuming
† even if; even though
† then
† while
† as soon as
namely; that is; to be the same as; i.e.
† promptly; quickly; immediately; at once
† at present; today
A surname.

imo, yexxxxxxxxxx and wikxxxxxxx are suitable for beginner only. if you’re interested in etymology, use proper, and better tools; please.

multi-function chinese character database (漢語多功能字庫)

it’s maintained by the chinese university of hong kong

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=即

read the text in the middle, compare the character in oracle, bronze and seal script.

or, try the 小學堂 , of taiwan

http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=497

read the character in oracle script, make a mental image :)


Character 瞓: where did the pronunciations come from? The character 瞓 is a Cantonese character meaning "sleep". It is pronounced xùn in mandarin and fan3 in Cantonese. I was wondering how two so different pronunciations (I would expect xun to match syun or similar and fan to match fen or similar) came into being. I did some research. The Wiktionary has pronunciations mén, mèn, shuì for Mandarin and fan3 for Cantonese. mdbg.net has xùn on the main display, but opening the dictionary entry (clicking on the character) reveals shuì and fan3. Baike baidu has fèn, which finally matches the Cantonese. CantoDict, however, has kùn and fan3, and states the origin is 困, which in Cantonese means "sleepy", plus three other very different meanings, according to CantoDict, but is pronounced kwan3. So the Cantonese sound is definitely fan3, but the Mandarin sound? THe shuì pronunciation suggests a pronunciation loan induced by meaning. The other pronunciations seem totally unrelated. fèn matches the Cantonese sound, but the origin of the character is pronounced kùn, curiously matching the CantoDict Mandarin sound of this character. So:

How was it pronounced in older times (i.e. Middle Chinese)?
How did the pronunciations come into being?
Which is the correct Mandarin sound?
If there are more, how did they come into being? Were there semantic loans at any point?
Could xùn be a misspelling of kùn? It is given by baike in several instances, though.
Could mén, mèn be distortions of fèn?

Hope I was clear. My info on this character is very messy :).

Update

Wiktionary has since updated its pronunciations to fèn-fan3. The original mén/mèn/shuì were added by Rukhabot in an edit dated 22:30, 18 August 2012, and removed by Suzukaze-c's 05:30, 22 September 2015 revision. I wonder where that bot got those pronunciations…

How was it pronounced in older times (i.e. Middle Chinese)?

I haven't found a record of 瞓 in classical Chinese, but since 瞓 and 训 are both read as fan in Cantonese, I'll take 训 instead. It is read qhuns in reconstructed Old Chinese that is before the 1st century B.C.  In Middle Chinese it is pronounced as hyonh.

  How did the pronunciations come into being?

If you mean 瞓, it is obvious that it's created after 训 as a phono-semantic character or 形声字. the x in Mandarin xun comes from qh, then to hy, then to x. The f in Cantonese fan might have come into being along the qh -> hy -> h -> f route.

  Which is the correct Mandarin sound?

瞓 isn't a Mandarin word. The dictionaries say it's fèn and it comes from Hokkien or Cantonese. fèn is an approximation of the sound in the dialects.

  If there are more, how did they come into being? Were there semantic loans at any point?

If you mean more of "dialectic words" that don't exist in Mandarin such as 瞓, there are quite a few. They exist because there are no counterparts in Mandarin or rather classical Chinese, so people have to make new characters for these words. I don't think semantic loan happened here, but it does involve borrowing existing characters to make new ones.

  Could xùn be a misspelling of kùn?

It's not misspelling. See answers to question #1 and #2. k to x shift is possible. Similar is the case in western languages where the hard c (read k) shifts to a soft c which sounds similar to the Chinese x.

  Could mén, mèn be distortions of fèn?

Not impossible: m -> w -> v -> f, For example, in Chinese we have 没(m) 无(w) 否(f) all mean no. But regarding to your question, we need to know who uses the sound men and when it is used. In most online Chinese dictionaries 瞓 is pronounced as fèn, I didn't found any references to men.


How do I understand 能 in 请问几天能到? In the following dialogue:

  A: 小姐， 我想机一个包裹。
  B: 请问，寄到哪儿? 寄什么?
  .........

Then later A asks:

  请问几天能到?

What is 能 here, I cannot find the grammar.

In my books 能 is for permission, to be able to do something, ‘be possible’ also express possibility, in the sense of someone being able to do something on a particular occasion.

But in this case is a question for the future, how long does it take the packet to reach. Can you not use 会?If you use 能, what is the exact grammar point?

A: "小姐， 我想寄一个包裹。" (Miss, I want to mail a parcel)
B: "请问寄到哪儿? 寄什么?" (May I ask, where are you mailing it to? And what you are mailing?)
.......
A: "请问几天能到?" (may I ask, in how many days can it arrive?)

能 = can ; 到 = arrive

几天能到? =  can arrive in how many days?

会 = would/will

几天会到? = would/will arrive in how many days?


What is the meaning of 未体? Here is an example that came from a document talking about salary bonuses: 未体年假折现.

My best guess for 未体 would be "haven't done". So the example above would be translated to "discount for not taking annual leave".

I think that's a typo, it should be 未休， which not yet taken
未休年假折现： cash redeems for un-taken annual holiday


减/減 (Reduce/Subtract/Decrease/Diminish): What's it got to do with water? So here we have 冫+咸 (or 氵+咸) = 减(減).

减(減) means something along the lines of reduce/subtract/decrease/diminish or what have you.

What has water got to do with this though?

Logically one would imagine 冫 (water) + 咸 (salty) = a reducing of flavor, thus giving reduce/subtract/etc.

ShuoWen: (說文解字):

  損也從水咸聲

Chinese Etymology

  Phonetic Signific, of water 氵水 - can pour out of - decrease

So what's the deal?

What's going on here?

I think both "減" and "咸" exists in the ancient times, but for certain reasons scholars like to use "咸" in place of "減".

損也,從水,咸聲 == It has the same meaning as '損', water as glyph component, and the same pronunciation as '咸'.

In 管子·宙合, which was written before the early Han Dynasty, it says "左操五音，右執五味，懷繩與准鉤，多備規軸，減 溜大成，是唯時德之節。 .... 減，盡也。溜，發也。 ...."


不然 when it occurs at the beginning of a sentence 不然你逛那边的时候，我逛电子商品区.

I came across this but none of the dictionary meanings for 不然 seem to fit when it's at the beginning of a sentence. What's the meaning here as are this a common usage?

不然 means otherwise in a declarative sentence and alternatively; how about in an imperative sentence.
In spoken language it can begin a sentence to propose 'plan B', which implies a self-evident 'plan A' that is favorable to one party but not the other, and there is no need to talk about it so the speaker jumps to the alternative plan already.

不然你逛那边的时候，我逛电子商品区.
(Hidden context: ideally we should stick together but we couldn't for some obvious reason, like one person is not interested in the stuff the other person wants to shop, or both of us need to buy something but we're running out of time.) How about this, I am going to look around for the electronic products while you're shopping in that area.


Help understanding 有病不怕，只怕有病说没病，不肯让大夫治疗。 I'm reading a text on New Practical Chinese Reader 4 (讳疾忌医). 扁鹊 is trying to convince a king to treat his disease, but he doesn't listen, until it's too late. And there's this sentence:

  我该说的都说了。有病不怕，只怕有病说没病，不肯让大夫治疗。

I can understand most of it as:

  I said everything I had to say. (If you) are not afraid of having a disease, 只怕有病说没病, not willing to let the doctor treat it.

It's not making any sense at all.

Haven't read the story for more context, but I would read it like this:

我该说的都说了。
I've said all I can say.

有病不怕，
Don't worry if you get sick,

只怕有病说没病，
just worry if you get sick but pretend you are not sick,

不肯让大夫治疗。
(and therefore) you don't let the quack treat you.

Boom, shortly after, clogs popped!


吧 with the passive voice I'm curious if it's grammatically correct to make suggestions with passive verbs. Like "Let's get killed".

All I can think of is a suggestion with the causative verb "让我死吧".

Yes, it would be grammatically correct but wouldn't sound right.

However,

Using (ba) which is called a tone softener is used to add causality or make the language sound less severe; adding it on to a sentence such as 'Let's get killed' would sound funny, almost jokingly.

For example:

你看书吧。meaning: Read. To make this seem more polite, consider adding 请.

你看书。（！）Read(./!) normal severity

你现在看书！Read now! extreme severity


Standardisation of place names in Chinese I have asked a similar question about the standardisation of Chinese places names. A previous question talked about how governments are able to give the official place names (for example: 星加坡 vs 新加坡 and 漢城 vs 首爾).
My question now is that some places have Chinese names that are different depending on the regions where they are being used. For example, 悉尼 is being used in Hong Kong and in vast areas of the chinese world, except in Taiwan, where the form 雪利 is being used to refer to Sydney.
Furthermore, 琉球 is being used to refer to Okinawa instead of 沖繩, which is equivalent to its Japanese name. 琉球 Is the historical name of Okinawa, referring to the Ryukyu kingdom.
宿務 Vs 宿霧 for Cebu, Philippines.
My question is, why do these confusions exist? Didnt the governments of these cities advice the “correct name” to be used in the same manner Seoul and Singapore did?
Are there any more place names like this?

Different regions governed by different governments. Translations in Taiwan usually doesn't follow Chinese Mainland

Different regions have different dialects. A transliteration in Mandarin might sound completely different in Cantonese

We still don't have a complete Standardization of place names in the Chinese language.
If a foreign country declares its official Chinese transliteration, it will be the standard, If a foreign country doesn't declare its official Chinese transliteration, then it is up to the Chhinese regional governments to decide


Is there a tone sandhi for 2nd-tone-2nd-tone names? I stayed in Taiwan for a few months and made friends with Tiántián (恬恬, a second tone character repeated twice). However, I heard everyone say her name as Tiǎntián (third tone followed by second tone).

Was I hearing wrong the whole time? (I hope not.) Is there such a tone change from 2-2 to 3-2 for proper names? What about common 2nd-tone letters repeated twice?

I understand there's a variety of rules for 3rd tone combinations, such as 3 33 and 33 3, or 333, but never heard of a 2nd-tone, 2nd-tone tone change.

There is a 2nd tone-2nd tone change in spoken Chinese, but it's different from what you described. Y.R. Chao's fantastic A Grammar of Spoken Chinese (unfortunately long out of print in English, though an abridged version is available in Chinese) describes a phenomenon where 2nd-tone words in the middle of trisyllabic compounds change to 1st tone. San Duanmu's The Phonology of Standard Chinese confirms this fact, but the author notes, "My own sense is that T2 Sandhi is not a productive or required rule. Instead, it is likely to be conditioned by the speed of speech (Shih 2005) and frequency of the expression."

Here are the details of this sound change, as presented in Duanwu's book:

  In a trisyllabic expression, if (a) the first syllable is T1 or T2, (b) the middle syllable is T2, and (c) the final syllable is not weak, then the middle T2 can change to T1 in conversational speed.

(T1 and T2 stand for 1st and 2nd tone.)

I admit that I have never consciously "used" this rule myself while speaking Chinese, but, when I'm paying close attention, I do notice it arising in my speech and in the speech of others.

(There's no evidence in either of these books for the 2nd tone to 3rd tone change that you mentioned, so I assume that it's a unique nickname rather than a general rule.)

EDIT: I did a bit more reading in Duanwu, and was surprised to find that in Taiwan Chinese he notes widespread Tone 2 to Tone 3 shifts, but only on lexical boundaries. That still doesn't explain your situation, however.


Chinese art seals and signature? I was gifted this rather lovely silk painting back in the 1990s from a friend. It came with some Hokusai prints , thus this MAY be Japanese. In which case, please ignore me.
If however, it IS Chinese, I wondered if anyone could translate it for me?
Thank you so much! x

錦城畫苑 = Jincheng (gorgeous city) studio
松鶴 = Pine and crane (It is the title of the painting, 松鶴 represent longevity and elegance)
(長?)樂畫
長樂 is the author,  畫 means draw

城


Tones and Pinyin, Foreigners vs Natives Evidently, tones are a matter of concern for many learners of Chinese (see for example, this question on remembering tones).  While learners struggle to describe the properties of tones (is the 3rd tone really falling and rising?), natives as well as many that choose to immerse themselves in sound more so than writing and theory can effectively bypass thinking about tones altogether and go about their days speaking Chinese.

Native speakers: If put to the test, could you write out pinyin with tones?

Non-native speakers: As your Chinese learning has progressed, do you still intentionally analyze the tones of words you learn by speaking (e.g. remember 拼音 has two first tones)? Do you even think about things like tone sandhi (which you may have learned complicated rules for at some point in your studyfing)?

My impression is that (native) Chinese speakers have a grasp of rhyme (initials + finals, as is represented in bopomofo and pinyin spelling to a degree), but that explicit tonal knowledge is limited. This is reinforced through the current way most people write Chinese on the Internet, i.e. through pinyin input which does not require tones. Learners, on the other hand, are likely to be able to easily name the tones for many words they studied via pinyin with tones.

Does this impression capture some generalizations about knowledge of tones among different types of Chinese speakers?

Related question: Do native speakers learn about 4 tones in school or do they naturally pick them up without formal education?

Non-Native Speaker:

  As your Chinese learning has progressed, do you still intentionally analyze the tones of words you learn by speaking (e.g. remember 拼音 has two first tones)?

As my Chinese has progressed (now on HSK level 5), I have discovered that I still "analyze" tones of words by speaking to a certain degree, but at my level I am more concerned with if the word sounds right or wrong rather than analyzing. For example, if I am speaking Mandarin to a friend and I say, "I want to buy some handcrafted products" "我想买一些工艺品” (Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yīxiē gōngyìpǐn) BUT instead of "买"(mǎi-to buy) I accidentally say “卖” (mài-to sell), I will instantly have a weird feeling and notice that I said "to sell" instead of "to buy". In short, the higher level you become in Chinese the better you get at noticing if a word sounds correct or not and quickly correct yourself based on the "internalized" tones rather than analyzing everything you say.

  Do you even think about things like tone sandhi (which you may have learned complicated rules for at some point in your studying)?

I personally try not to overthink about things like tone sandhi (tone-change rules) because in the past it causes more harm to my spoken Chinese than it helps. Many of these tone sandhi rules can be solved by listening more to Chinese. The principle here is, the more I listen, the more I'll be able to notice mistakes in tones just because of how it sounds and then correct them. If you want to hear a professional Mandarin speaker talk about tones, then here is an interview from one of the most famous and fluent Chinese-speaking foreigners 大山 (Dashan) discussing Mandarin tones in English.
Here is a link
The Most Famous Foreigner in China


Why most cursive forms of two Chinese characters, "不" and "正", have a different shape that violates the stroke order? Tell me why most cursive forms of Chinese character, "不", is shaped like this:

Instead of this?:

Looks like four dots.
And another Chinese character, "正", shaped like this:

Instead of this?:

Why is this exists,
Tell me how is this exists?!

There might be a bit of misunderstanding about where cursive script comes from. Many cursive characters do not actually come from regular script, but are derived from Warring States era brush calligraphy and seal script shapes.

This here

cannot approximate the shape or follow the stroke order of
秦簡23.1睡虎地秦簡東漢隸嵩山太室闕
as the left part isn't as emphasised as this:

This here

cannot approximate the shape or follow the stroke order of
篆正部說文解字西漢隸孫臏37
銀雀山漢簡
nearly as well as this:


How do Chinese students write words whose characters they haven't learned? To clarify, I mean Chinese schoolchildren who may, for whatever reason, need to express a word that they haven't learned the character for, e.g., 餐 in 晚餐.

Would they use pinyin, like 晚cān, or substitute another character in, like 晚参?

If a person didn't know, or forgot how to write 餐 in  晚餐, he would not knowingly use a wrong word for substitute. The first thing he would do is to ask people who know.

If there's no one to ask, he would substitute 晚餐 with a synonym that he did know is correct. For example '晚飯'.

If he can't think of a synonym, he would use pinyin 'cān' inplace of the actual character '餐' and write '晚 (cān)'.

If he didn't even know the pinyin, then he would leave it blank with a question mark  like so: '晚(?)'

Sometimes, people knowingly use similar sounding words instead of the correct ones for humor effect. For example, '神馬' instead of '什麼' ; '魂淡' instead of '渾蛋'


What's this chinese symbol mean? What does this Chinese symbol mean?

不屈：不屈服(于强大的对手) – unyielding, unbending

When you don't surrender to a strong enemy/opponent, you are 不屈的. This word is often used to describe heroes/heroines in wars and battles.


Difference between 两 and 二? I know both mean "two," but what differentiates the two?

If there is a difference, when do I use 两 and when do I use 二?

according to 《现代汉语规范词典》：

  现代“二”和“两”的用法区别主要是：1.当作数字读或在数学中，用“二”不用“两”，如“一、二、三、四” “一加一等于二” “一元二次方程”。2.序数、小数、分数中用“二”不用“两”，如“第二” “二嫂” “零点二” “二分之一”。3.在一般量词前，个位数用“两”不用“二”，多位数中的个位数用“二”不用“两”，如“两个人” “两只” “两条” “两次” “一百五十二人” “十二次”。4.在传统的度量衡单位前“二” “两”都可用，只是在质量单位“两”前用“二”不用“两”，属于特例。如“二（两）亩地” “二（两）尺布” “二两酒（不说‘两两酒’）”。在我国法定计量单位和某些非法定计量单位前多用“两”，如“两吨” “两公里” “两（二）米”。5.在多位数中，百位、十位、个位用“二”，千位以上多用“两”，但首位以后的百、千、万前多用“二”，如“二百二十二” “两千元” “两亿人” “三万二千二百人”。㊁见“俩”。

translation:

Major different of "二" and "两" in contemporary Chinese: 1. As a number or in mathematics, uses "二" but not "两". 2. In ordinal, decimal numbers and fractional numbers, uses "二" but not "两". 3. When used with normal counter word, for single digit number, uses "两" but not "二". For multiple digit numbers, uses "二" but not "两" in the digit in units. 4. When used with Chinese traditional units of measurement, both of them can be used. An exception is when "两" is used as a unit, only "二" is used. When used with official and unofficial unit of measurement, "两" is often used. 5. For digits other then the digit of unit in multiple digit numbers, "两" is preferred.


What's the difference between 在 and 于 as a preposition? When I was writing a simple paragraph about 自我介绍, I wanted to say that "I was born in XXX."

I wasn't sure about how to say it and then looked for some examples of how to say it in Chinese and came across two characters :

"在" and "于"
(I just knew about 于, I had never paid attention to this character before).

Both can mean "in, on, at" and can be used as a preposition to indicate a location as well.

Now, what's the difference between two characters?

Will there be any difference if I say :

  我出生在XXX。

and

  我出生于XXX。

???

Thank you!

王得屹's answer is basically correct, 在 is used in colloquial sentences more and 于 is used in literary sentences more.

I would provide examples to illustrate the point more clearly:

"生(于)中国" = "出生(在)中国" (we don't say 生在中国 because 生 is more literary, 在 is more colloquial, mixing the two make it sound unnatural)

"逝(于)日本" = "(在)日本逝世" (we don't say 逝在日本 because 逝 is more literary, 在 is more colloquial, mixing the two make it sound unnatural; meanwhile, 死 and 在 in 死在日本 are both colloquial terms)

"生于中国" and "逝于日本" are more literary

"出生在中国" and "在日本逝世" / 死在日本 are more colloquial

unlike 逝, 逝世 is more suitable for colloquial sentences


What does 这鸡儿啥东西 mean? I saw this as a comment on a video and I would like to know the meaning of this expression.

Thank you for your time.

I guess the only really confusing part here is 鸡儿, the other parts are quite self-explanatory:

这 = this
啥 = what
东西 = thing

鸡儿 is a curse word from Southwest Mandarin.
Here's an entry from 《四川方言词典》

词语: 鸡儿
发音: ji1 er2
定义: (名) ①雏鸡。②<粗>男阴，骂人语，有的地方只有此义 ▷啊哟!你才香喃?比五香狗肉还香!只默到想巴结你么?哼，一条臭～! (山259)

It's essentially the same as 鸡巴 (cock) and is used almost in the exact same way.
Side-note: although the given pronunciation is ji1 er2 - you're more likely to hear it as a single syllable jier1 and even juer1 in some locales.
So 这鸡儿啥东西 basically means: wtf is this thing?


没有 as an answer. Cannot be 不?。 I have been studying a simple dialog that says:

A> 你家住在哪里? 还住在城里?
The answer was.
B> 没有。我们最近搬到郊外住了。

If A was asking about the present how can you answer with 没有.besides the question does not have the verb 有。

My answer would be, 我们不住在城里。我们最经搬到郊外。

Is the dialog correct?

A:你家住在哪里? 还住在城里?

Both 没有 and 不 denote negative, B is replying to latter part of the  question "还住在城里嗎?" B's reply would either be positive or negative. And he doesn't need to repeat A's question in his answer, so he could simply answer:

"不"(meaning 不是住在城里)

or

"没有" (meaning 没有住在城里)

"我们最近搬到郊外住了" is not a part of the answer but an additional explanation

Notice "还住在城里嗎?" is a question asking for confirmation of positive or negative, so you can simply reply with a negative "不/ 不是 /没有", or a positive "是"

However, if the question is specifically asking "是不是" or "有没有', you have to answer specifically with "是/ 不是" or "有/ 没有"

Example:

A: "有沒有工作?"

B: "有" (you cannot reply with "是")

B: "沒有" (you cannot reply with "不是")

~

A: "是不是你?"

B: "是" (you cannot reply with "有")

B: "不是" (you cannot reply with "沒有")

Also: reply with the verb used in the question

A: 去不去玩?

B: 去 (you cannot reply with "有去")

B: 不/ 不去 (you cannot reply with "沒/ 沒去")


Chinese Translation of these certificates (old hanja) There are a few Chinese characters on these certificates and I was wondering if someone can translate them for me please? I know the other ones are in Korean but I could not find a Korean person that could read the whole thing they could only read what's in Korean.

Note: Korean is not my native language.

A transcription in hangeul first:

  단증

  성명: ******

  위 사람은 본 도장 제"삼십"회 심사에서 초 단에 합격하였음으로 자이 본증을 수여함

  1972년 6월 ?일

  미국 당수도 무덕관 김도장

  최고 사범 김기황

Roughly translated, this reads:

  (Class?) Certificate

  Name: ****************

  This certifies that the above person was awarded a pass of first dan by examination at this dojang (dojo) in the [30]th class.

  June (?), 1972

  US Tang Soo Do School of Martial Virtue Kim-dojang

  Chief Instructor Kim Ki-hwang


Would an ancient chinese be able to understand today's language? In the movie "The Mummy: Tomb of the dragon emperor", an ancient chinese emperor is resurrected in 1946, and he wants to take over the world. The emperor in the film is the Dragon Emperor, or Qin Shi Huang, who lived 259 to 210 BC and founded the Qin dynasty.
He has a chinese henchman in 1946, and I was wondering, if those two could actually understand each other?
Is the chinese language constant enough, for a 250 BC person to understand a 1950s person?

I would argue that mutual intelligibility between Chinese speakers 2200 years apart would be essentially nothing, for the spoken language. I say 2200 years as the emperor in the film is the Dragon Emperor, or Qin Shi Huang, who lived 259 to 210 BC and founded the Qin dynasty.
To give you an idea, Old Chinese (~1250 BC to 25 AD) did not have tones (Old Chinese), while tones are as important as vowels to communicate meaning in Modern Chinese (Importance of Tones). Also, many of the modern varieties of Chinese are mutually unintelligible (Varieties of Chinese), and speakers 2200 years apart have to deal with both the language changes over time and the likelihood that they would not be speaking the same variety of Chinese. See this link for more information on sound changes overtime for Chinese. We also have not been able to properly reconstruct the sounds of Old Chinese, so even someone very educated in Old Chinese may not be able to understand a native speaker of Old Chinese without significant barriers.
Another interesting question is, if the spoken language could not be understood, what about the written language?
The biggest barrier along this route would be whether the person from 2200 years ago was even literate. If it is a randomly chosen person, they were probably not literate and thus there could be no written communication whatsoever.
The second barrier would be whether the modern person was literate. The literacy rate in China in 1949 was less than 20% (The Chinese Struggle for Literacy), so this may be a problem in and of itself.
If both the ancient person and the modern person were literate, I would agree with Tang Ho that written communication may be possible. I would also argue, though, that it would still be difficult and there may not be many modern people who would have the knowledge to be able to pull this off in the 1940s, unless they were highly educated. The first barrier would be the script. Chinese characters had various scripts in use over time, and they are very different from the modern script (see this example from Wikipedia). The Qin dynasty did have a standardized seal script (Seal Script) that is known today, but I have heard that Modern Chinese native speakers today have a hard time reading seal script (though a larger fraction of literate people may have been able to read seal script in the 1940s). So, unless the modern person from the 40s was both literate and educated well-enough to be able to read the seal script, they would have a hard time reading whatever the ancient person wrote. Other barriers include the very different grammar of Old Chinese to Modern Chinese, various variants of characters, and the changes in the meanings of characters over time. These are not insurmountable barriers, given sufficient education (and given what I believe was the knowledge level in the 1940s), but still difficult as a whole, I would say.
Granted, if the person encountered the Dragon Emperor because they were a high-level member of an archaeological dig/society that was seeking to revive the Emperor (as I think occurred in the movie), I could easily see that they would have sufficient education to figure out the writing of the Emperor. This is assuming that the Dragon Emperor was literate, which I presume would be the case for the Emperor of the Qin dynasty. Given enough time, and assuming that the Emperor was patient enough and willing to teach, a person from the "Revive the Dragon Emperor" society could maybe eventually figure out how to speak Old Chinese with the Emperor. I am not sure that this would be possible in the time frame shown in the movie, however.


Is swapping words within an idiom often done in chinese language? (example: "万绿丛中一点红" to "万红丛中一点绿") For example:

"万绿丛中一点红" : a single red among ten thousand of green/a single red flower in the midst of thick foliage

I've found some people wrote "万红丛中一点绿" (a single green among ten thousand of red).

Is swapping words like that often used in mandarin? Does it have any special purpose?
Do the two idioms I mentioned above act as metaphor? Would you mind explaining them to me?

Idioms are mostly elegant, memorable and meaningful phrases. Each character in an idiom has a part to play in depicting a vivid image or retold a historical story.

It is difficult to swap any character in an idiom without making it sound forced. The phrase "萬綠叢中一點紅" depicts an image of a single eye- catching red flower among a field of green grass, that seem natural enough.  On the other hand, the image of "萬紅叢中一點綠" just does not seem natural.

  Is swapping words within an idiom often done in chinese language?

The answer to your question is-- "rarely"

I can only come up with one decent example:

"鋤強扶弱" (beat down the powerful to support the helpless) is an idiom describes 'just and heroic deeds'. Quite a romantic notion. But this kind of hero in real life is very hard to find. In fact, you would see people bully the helpless to support the powerful more often. "鋤弱扶強" describe this behavior perfectly.

Edit: Another one that would work

直言不諱- speak honestly, not avoiding taboo subjects

諱不直言- avoid taboo subjects, not speaking honestly


Is 工作详细情况 similar to work experience? I´m working with Chinese resumes and I´ve found this expression

  工作详细情况"

I´d like to know if it could be translated as work experience. Is it the same thing? Could 工作详细情况 work as a work experience section label inside a resume or does it refer to the job responsibilities? Is it normal to come across 工作详细情况 in Chinese resumes as a Section Title?
Thanks!!!

工作详细情况 means work experience in detail.

For work experience, some people may just list their previous job titles only, like this:

2000年 － 2003年  在XX公司任人力部职员
2004年 － 2009年  在YY公司任人力部主任
2010年 － 至今    在ZZ公司任华北区总经理

This looks too simplified, so in you resume, it is sepecified as 工作 详细情况 , which means you will need to describe what you did and what you achieved in each job.


What is the meaning of the tone numbers shown in Wiktionary's Mandarin pronunciation? According to Wiktionary, the word 游泳 is pronounced as  /joʊ̯³⁵ jʊŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/. What exactly is the meaning of the numbers 214-21(4)? The first three numbers indicate the standard falling then rising pronunciation. What about 21(4)?

They represent tone height on a scale from 1-5, with one being the lowest and 5 the highest. Thus, a full third tone would be transcribed as 214 (starting quite low, falling, then rising up again), but since the final rise is optional, it's put in brackets. These are sometimes called Chao tone numerals, after 趙元任.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, each number is replaced by a short bar at a certain height, then several of these are joined into a line that shows tone contour. So, the full third tone would be ˨+˩+˦=˨˩˦. Since this is sometimes hard to both type and display (depends on font), numbers might be easier.

Read more about tone representation with these symbols/numbers here: Tone Letter (Wikipedia)


尚活 can still work without 着? Can this two hanzi alone "尚活" support the meaning "still alive" without this last one "着"?

And if yes, what does "着" add to the general sense?
I mean, what's the difference between "活着" and "活"? I've seen both used in similar situations, and I found this "尚活着" written poem without a real grammatic context, so I wandered if "活" alone can't stand the meaning "alive" in an abstract text.

see grammar,dictionaries,bkrs：活：to live
alive living （work workmanship）动
（生存; 有生命） live:
吃为了活，不要活为了吃。 Eat to live， but do not live to eat.
他们将永远活在我们心中。形
（在活的状态下） alive; living:
活老虎 a live tiger
活捉 capture alive
活字典 a walking dictionary

着 durative aspectual particle,动态（时态）助词，表示动作还在持续,

活着 I
[live] 度过生活
我只为科学而活着, 也只关心科学
II
(1) [alive; living]∶有生命; 非死状态
他站在死去的和活着的人们之间
(2) [surviving]∶仍然有生命, 仍然没死
我青年时期一个仍然活着的朋友
it might seem therefore that 尚活 could mean "still alive, living" cf. 尚病,年岁尚小,尚未死，but in fact 尚活 always seems to be followed by 着, web shows exceptions LOFALi爱尚活的微博_微博,尚活族


What does 收 mean in 他把何进部下的兵都收归己有? This is from near the  beginning of 三国演义 and I am already puzzled：

他把何进部下的兵都收归己有。 Maybe: He （收？) recaptured / imprisoned all the troops under 何进's command

归己有： returned them to his own command ??

收 is '收复‘ or '收监‘ or some other word？

收 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/687/
[3] [v] receive; accept; take

~

歸 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2343/
[3] belong to; rest with; be in charge

己= self
有= possession
收歸己有 = "take possession and make it belong to oneself"
There's a common phrase "收歸國有", which means "Take possession (of a company) and assign it to become State-owned " . Similarly "收歸己有" in your sentence would mean : ""Take possession (of an army) and assign it to become Self-owned "


names of planets in the solar system 星球 I am curious about the Chinese names of the planets in the solar system.
水星 for Mercury, 金星 for Venus, and so on. I wonder how these names were chosen? They have a bit of a resemblance to the days of week in Japanese,
水 for Wednesday, 金 for Friday, and so on, perhaps were traditionally linked to Roman gods. So Wednesday might related to the god Mercury, but is the god of water? How were these 'elements' chosen to be paired with the planets?

From this article

八大行星中水星，金星，地球，火星，土星，人類可以在地球上看到，在中國古代秦漢之間，占星術已經漸漸盛行，五大行星與神聯繫在一起。長沙馬王堆出土的帛書《五星占》，可稱作是距今所知最早的占星學著作，其中把五星與五方，五行，五帝等做了對應：

From Google Translate:

Among the eight planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn could be seen on the earth by ancient humans. Astrology became popular between the Qin and Han Dynasties in ancient China, and the five planets were connected with gods. The silk book "Five-Star Zodiac" unearthed at Mawangdui in Changsha can be regarded as the earliest known astrological work, in which the five stars correspond to the five directions, the five elements, and the five emperors.

東方木，其帝太昊，其丞句芒，其神上為歲星。(Wood corresponds to East)

西方金，其帝少昊，其丞蓐收，其神上為太白。(Metal corresponds to  West)

南方火，其帝炎帝，其丞朱明，其神上為熒惑。(Fire corresponds to South)

北方水，其帝顓頊，其丞玄冥，其神上為辰星。(Water corresponds to North)

中央土，其帝黃帝，其丞后土，其神上為填星 (Soil corresponds to Center)

Ancient Chinese observed the five planets and named them 金星, 木星, 水星, 火星, 土星 before they learned about the English names of those planets. We just keep using the existing Chinese names instead of translating the English name into Chinese.
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered in modern time, therefore we  translated them as 天王星, 海王星, and 冥王星 from English
If we translate Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn into Chinese, we might call them 愛神星，神王星，旅神星，戰神星 and 農神星


The characters I face in alipay 大家好，
I wanted to know what does what is the exact meaning of 专区  in 5G专区，I saw it in alipay, I search in dictionary but it does not have any sense to me, can someone explain when I should use 专区。
Thanks.

专 in 专区 refers to 专用 (dedicated).
'5G 专区' means "dedicated area for 5G LTE connection"
5G LTE is the latest upgrade for cell phones connection speed (10 times faster than 4G LTE)
Alipay is keeping up with the latest technology. Currently, only a few areas in the world are equipped to provide the 5G LTE connection


Is it correct to say the standard for written Chinese is Mandarin, regardless of dialect (e.g. Cantonese)? I've looked for this question on the site but can't seem to find it. I'm interested in learning Chinese, well, Cantonese specifically, and I want to focus on both the written and spoken components. But from what I've read, the standard for written Chinese is Mandarin, regardless of dialect.
Is this understanding correct? I.e., that a variety of dialects use written Mandarin as the standard for the written component of the language, but differ only in pronunciation and word preference?

It depends. To the best of my knowledge, the formal written form of Cantonese is pretty much identical to that used by Mandarin, excepting:

Differences in usage (e.g. 玉米 v.s. 粟米 for "corn")
Usage of traditional v.s. simplified characters, although this is only an issue in that Hong Kong / Macau, which are Cantonese-speaking use traditional characters, whereas Mainland China does not. (Taiwan uses some form of the traditional system as well). So there may be some discrepancy in learning materials.

However, sometimes people will write more "informal", "spoken" Cantonese that will not really be identical (and not just for vocabulary reasons) to written Mandarin. For example, there is a song from the McDull franchise titled as 落街冇錢買麵包 (approximately "going onto the street, [had] no money to buy bread"). 落 (instead of 下) is just a Cantonese usage difference, but 冇 instead of 沒有 is a more "informal" or "vernacular" usage that I have never seen in any explicitly formal context. Your mileage may vary as to whether this sort of thing counts as a "word preference" difference; I would not because this isn't like the case of having different words for "corn".

Similarly, and perhaps more explicitly, sometimes characters like 喺, 係 (e.g. in 我係香港人 instead of 我是香港人, but which can also be used to indicate assent in a way that doesn't really exist in Mandarin), or 唔 (e.g. 唔明白 instead of 不明白) are used informally: I have probably seen such usage on platforms such as Facebook before.

In these cases, the basic grammatical structure is still similar (in the sense that things like word order are still mostly the same, but I wouldn't call this only "pronunciation and word preference" differences, since this isn't just about words for object X being different in Cantonese and Mandarin.

So yes, the "standard" written form should be identical with the exception of pronunciation and word preference to that of Mandarin, but I would really hesitate to say the same thing of the "informal" written forms that can often be found in more informal venues, such as on the internet.


The order of currency name and its numerical value (i.e. 人民币五十元 vs 五十元人民币) I tried to search for a sample sentence at jukuu to understand the grammartical rule regarding which is ahead of the other, and got the following sentence.

去广州的票价是人民币九十一元。
他的债务共计为人民币五百元。

The order seems to be currency + value.
However, in another sentence I got the following sentence:

一美元价值8.2元人民币。

In this case, it is value + currency.
So now I wonder which is the correct way to express the currency and its numerical value. Is there any rule regarding this? And is it consistent among different currencies and in all magnitudes of units?

In '人民币九十一元',  '人民币' modifies '九十一元'- (91 dollar --> 91 dollars in RMB)

In '九十一元人民币', '九十一元' modifies '人民币'- (RMB --> 91 dollars of RMB)

They mean the same, and you can use either one.

In '一美元价值8.2元人民币。', '一(元)' modifies 美元 (USD --> 1 (dollar) of USD); '8.2元' modifies '人民币' (RMB --> 8.2 dollars of RMB)


What characters have been politically corrected before? In the article "Mysogyny as reflected in Chinese characters", Victor Mair wrote:

  In the early days of the PRC, the government changed some characters for the names of minority ethnic groups so that they no longer had "bug" (chóng 虫) or "dog" quǎn犭/ 犬) radicals in them because they were thought to be pejorative.  A makeover of the Chinese script that would remove the "woman" radical from derogatory characters would be even more radical, as it were.

Removal of radicals or components which seemed pejorative sounds quite similar to the Western style of, so-called, "political correction".

Which got me wondering which characters, in general (minority ethnic groups and everything else), have been "politically corrected" before?

I know the characters for Jewish people still contains the "dog" quǎn犭/犬 radical: 犹 in 犹太人. I guess PRC's PC movement would be to make Chinese minority groups feel better, but I have no way of proving that.

The question of Chinese minority nationalities' names is a bit more complex than that. Many of these minorities did not have a single, fixed name before they were catalogued in the 20th century. In fact, the definitive list of minorities was not fixed until the 70s. The Chinese writing system also underwent huge changes in the 20th century.

Thus, many minority names could be spelled in a variety of ways, or the characters for them were not part of the Chinese standard in the first place. Under these circumstances, it's not surprising that the government would choose to write the names of minority groups with characters that had positive connotations. I assume the groups themselves also preferred a positive name. The description

  the government changed some characters for the names of minority
  ethnic groups

is somewhat misleading.

That said, here are some examples:

苗 (Miao) could be spelled a number of ways, one of them being 猫
with the dog radical. Since this character already means "cat" and is then pronounced máo, reducing it to 苗, which means "young plant", is less confusing.

瑶 (Yao) used to be written as 猺, which also means "jackal". Again, changing the character is not only friendlier, but also less confusing.

羌 (Qiang) is a good example of a character that has always been written a variety of ways. One of them was 猐, again with the dog radical. I don't think it's too weird to choose a different spelling.

Also, many Chinese minorities were called 蛮 (barbarians) in Chinese historical sources. One example is the 布依 (Buyi), who were referred to as 仲蛮 (Zhongman) in Qing dynasty texts. In such cases, it's not so much that the characters were changed, and more that the government began to use the name by which members of that group referred to their own group.

Ideology may have also played a small part in the way that Chinese characters were simplified into 简体字 (Jianti zi). I've always suspected that some Chinese anti-monarchist took some joy from replacing the character 後 (behind, after, later) with 后 (queen).

The character 他 was used as a third-person pronoun for both genders well into the 19th century. I assume this was split into 她/他 to conform to European languages.

There is some movement in China to change the characters with negative meanings that have the "woman" radical. However, this is limited to a relatively small group, maybe comparable to the number of people who wish to use "xe" as a gender-neutral pronoun in English.


How widespread is the idiom 蘑菇? I have seen the word for mushroom [蘑菇, mógū] to be an action such as dilly dally.

Is this an inherent idiom in the written language apparent across a large spectrum of dialect, whereas the word mushroom connotes, from some reason such an action? Or is it local to spoken dialects of Manderin?

I heard it's being used especially by older people in northest region. For example, 别蘑菇了，老蘑菇什么.

It's a synonym of 磨蹭. Maybe, 蘑菇 sounds folksy.

You might find it's used in some old novels as well.


無神除神, There is no God but The God For a graphic design for a client I want to render the words "There is no God but the God" into Chinese in as few characters as possible.

It is of course a translation of the Islamic "La Ilaha Illallah" ("There is no God but the God") . And whereas Muslims say "万物非主，唯有真主", that's 8 characters long and a huge statement and not easy to fit in my clients design, so I came up with this instead:

  無神除神

Notes:

I chose 神 for "God" despite other names being more commonly used in Abrahamic Religions.

The Arabic word Ilah (root of Ilaha and Illallah in the phrase "La Ilaha Illallah") is a generic word for God in Arabic, hence my choice of 神 over other words like 主 or 帝 which are more specific and would be better translations of the Arabic word "Rabb" ("Lord") I'm my opinion.

I know from this question that 神 is also (if not commonly) used for the Abrahamic God. To quote the answer:

  "Christian prayers (esp the older translations) refer to god as 主 or 神 （I've seen hand-copied Christian prayers that use both）；but 神 also means "spirit" (if you think of "the holy spirit", it makes sense that 神 is used to refer to god). However, unlike 上帝, the character 神 alone doesn't unambiguously mean "god"."

While 神 "doesn't unambiguously mean "god"" I think, in the context of the phrase "無神除神" it is clear enough.

My reason for choosing 神 came from this site, where it is said (under Terminology):

  In Chinese language there is a terminological distinction between 神 shén, 帝 dì and 仙 xiān. Although the usage of the former two is sometimes blurred, it corresponds to the distinction in Western cultures between "god" and "deity", Latin genius (meaning a generative principle, "spirit") and deus or divus; dì, sometimes translated as "thearch", implies a manifested or incarnate "godly" power.

So is 無神除神 grammatical correct and good as a translation of the Arabic "La Ilaha Illallah" ("There is no God but the God") for the purpose of my small graphic design?

So is 無神除神 grammatical correct and good as a translation of the Arabic "La Ilaha Illallah" ("There is no God but the God")

No to both

"There is no God but the God" should be "There is no god but God"

The shortened form of "除了(真)神之外沒有神" should be  "除神沒神". But 除 also mean remove, so "除神沒神" could mean "remove God and there will be no God", Therefore, it is not a clear translation for "There is no god but God"

"神外無神" (Beside God, there's no god) is a better translation

"神外無神"  Short for "真神之外別無他神" (Beside the one true God, there's no other gods)

Seems like there is an existent translation '認主獨一' for  "La Ilaha Illallah" in mainland China.

Since it is for an original design, using an existent official translation actually remove the most important creative element -- the 'creative phrasing'

As a graphic designer myself, I would have two choices-- one is follow the existent translation, make it a simple 'font' creating project; another is treat it as an original design and 'create' a new phrase. I would choose option 2


Translation for a tattoo I'd like to make a tattoo with chinese symbols, and I want to double check if the words are correctly translated (I've used google translate). The words I want to translate are "lucky bastard", and the result received from google translate is "幸運混蛋". Is that the appropriate translation?

Despite the cynic fever on tattooing Chinese characters on one's body, let me try to help:

幸运混蛋（Simplified Chinese）
幸運混蛋（Traditional Chinese）

They are correct translation for Lucky Bastard. But when someone reads it, it sounds a bit weird.
Maybe you could consider this term:

混世魔王

It means a demon/monster king who disturbs the world.


Can someone logically explain why 在坐 is wrong and 坐着 is fine? This question keeps me awake at nights.
Please, don't suggest that I've made a mistake and mistook 在坐 for 在座. I know what 在座 is. I dont' care about it.
I need to know a logical reason why 在坐 is never used in chinese. If it were used, I would have translated it as taking a seat and 坐着 as being in a sitted state.
You know, just like other pairs work:

在穿 - dressing vs 穿着 - wearing
在摆 - arranging smth vs 摆着 - being in an arranged state ,
在睡 - falling asleep vs 睡着- sleeping
在挂 - hanging smth vs 挂着- being in a state of hanging

P.S. I've found a great site which allows one to search chinese text corpus for 在坐 occurances:
http://bcc.blcu.edu.cn/zh/search/1/%E5%9C%A8%E5%9D%90

[在 + v] = in the act of carrying out the action.  e.g. 在穿衣服 (putting on clothes)
[v + 着] = the actions is in a continuous state. e.g. 穿着衣服 (wearing clothes/ the clothes is being worn currently)
More examples:
警察在打人 - the police is in the act of beating up someone
警察打着人 sounds strange because unlike 穿着衣服 (wearing clothes) which can be easily in a continuous state, (you can keep wearing the clothes while doing other activities.) 打着人(beating people) means the beating is in a continuous state. Generally, the verb in [v + 着] is a non-action verb, for example, 看，聽，想，吃，坐 ，站. While action verbs like 打，跑， 射 do not work with 着 easily

I need to know a logical reason why 在坐 is never used in chinese. If it were used, I would have translated it as taking a seat and 坐着 as being in a sitted state

在坐 sounds strange because 坐 is a static verb. 在 requires an active verb. 穿 can work with 在 and 着 because 穿 can be a static or active verb
Note: [V + 着 + V]  is a different structure, meaning the two actions occur simultaneously, e.g. 警察笑着打人 (the police is beating up someone while laughing); 跑着射擊 (shooting while running)


How to estimate your score for an HSK practice exam? I'm preparing for my first HSK exam in October - probably level 1 - so I completed a practice exam. I know the number of correct answers, but I don't how to convert these into a score.

From what I've read, it's not a simple matter of dividing the number of correct answers by the total number of questions and then multiplying by the maximum score. Apparently the score is calculated by comparing with other students.

Where can I learn more about this? Is there at least some sort of heuristic, like: if you answer X percent correctly, you'll probably pass?

Brief Answer
To pass any level of the new HSK, you have to beat 74.75% of the total.
That is to say, for this case

I had 11/20 correct answers in the listening part and 19/20 in the reading part.

if 74.75% of the total had done worse than that (i.e. as the weights of listening and reading are 1:1, such many people had correctly answered less than 30 questions), you will pass the exam.
For "Is there at least some sort of heuristic, like: if you answer X percent correctly, you'll probably pass?", the answer is maybe. There may be some historical data that you can refer to. They serve as important references, but you cannot 100% trust them, if the HSK exam you take is specially more difficult or easier than former ones.
Why 74.75%?
From the official website of the HSK, we know
+------------------+--------------------+---------+
| HSK Score(Total) | HSK Score(Section) | Percent |
+------------------+--------------------+---------+
|              400 |                100 |      99 |
|              277 |                 69 |      90 |
|              250 |                 63 |      80 |
|              231 |                 58 |      70 |
|              215 |                 54 |      60 |
|              200 |                 50 |      50 |
|              185 |                 46 |      40 |
|              169 |                 42 |      30 |
|              150 |                 37 |      20 |
|              123 |                 31 |      10 |
+------------------+--------------------+---------+

And from its description:

A section score of HSK (Elementary-Intermediate) is a scale score with 50 as the score mean and 15 as the standard deviation, while the total score is a scale score with 200 as the score mean and 60 the standard deviation ... The right column indicates the percentage occupied by those whose scores are lower than the corresponding scores in the standard HSK reference group.

It is easy to verify via the table that a section score meets the normal distribution (with with 50 as the score mean and 15 as the standard deviation), so is the total score (with 200 as the score mean and 60 the standard deviation).
Besides, this page introduces a calculation method. In brief, it is

HSK=50+15×Z

Where Z can be considered as a Gaussian variate with 0 as the mean and 1 as the standard deviation, and then the HSK for a section is a N(50, 15^2) Gaussian variate. By observation, we can find that, there're some regular patterns for the setting of the total score. If an exam has 4 section, the setting for total score is a N(200, 60^2) variate. Consider these passing scores

HSK level 1-2: listening (100), reading (100). Total (200). Passing: total score >= 120.
HSK level 3-6: listening (100), reading (100), writing (100). Total (300). Passing: total score >= 180.

We can conclude that at level 1-2, the total score is a N(100,30^2) variate, and at level 3-6, N(150, 45^2). Thus we can see that in the standard Gaussian cumulative distribution function:

Φ[ (120-100)/30 ] = 0.7475
Φ[ (180-150)/45 ] = 0.7475

PS: it seems in the old HSK, the weights of listening, grammar, reading, and comprehensive sections are with this ratio 1:0.6:1:0.8. However if we try the weighting formula for the old HSK total score

HSK = [ (Z1+0.6×Z2+Z3+0.8×Z4) / 3.4 ] ×60 +200

where Z1,Z2,Z3,Z4 i.i.d. ~ N(50,15^2), the final HSK will be a N(200, 30.566^2) variate, which is a contradiction to another definition N(200, 60^2). Anyway, as the math model hasn't been rigorously stated, my answer considers N(200, 60^2) as the correct one because its CDF value examples are well listed.


How to say "small cat", when 小猫 is "kitten"? I would like advice on how to properly say phrases like
"little kitten", "small cat". While I can say "小猫", as I understand it that either means "kitten", or is ambiguous. And to me saying "小小猫" seems like it could be a little weird (And it also doesn't solve for "small cat")? How are such ambiguities resolved?

An answer that is able to cover not only my specific question about how to say both "small kitten"/"small cat", but also apply to phrases like "big flood" (Because as I understand it "flood" is constructed from "big" + "water", so it would express the same ambiguity), would be very much preferred.

Just break the word, for example: "瘦小的猫", "（很）小的猫", or use the word "体型": "体型很小/体型偏小的猫".


How to discuss preferences / ask which do you prefer in Mandarin How does one discuss preferences/ask what someone prefers out of a series of options?
Do you just list each option followed by 好不好？
Thanks

Basically, there are two methods.

List the options first and then ask "which do you prefer?" You have to use a proper verb according to the options.

中餐、西餐、日本料理，你喜歡吃哪一種？
登山、游泳、慢跑、快走，你愛做哪一種運動？

Reverse the order.

你喜歡吃蘋果、香蕉、橘子、西瓜，還是木瓜？
放假的時候，你喜歡看書、玩遊戲、聽音樂，還是睡覺？


Why doesn't the Chinese language have a one character word for "young"? There are one-character words for "old", "love," "book," and many more important concepts. Why is 青年 the way to say "young" and not a one-word character?

It does. 少 means young. See 少不更事

There are also 幼 for children and 老 for old( you already know).
孟子 said: 老吾老以及人之老,幼吾幼以及人之幼


Difference in meaning based on position of modal verb Here's a child's essay [1]:

今天是元宵节，妈妈说，在滨江公园有猜灯谜的活动。她还说，看花灯、猜灯谜、还有吃汤圆是元宵节的民俗。
晚上七点半，我和妈妈还有亲戚一起来到滨江公园，人真多，非常热闹！那里没有猜灯谜，我好失望。但是我们放了烟花，还放了孔明灯和河灯，真是太有趣了！
我觉得最有意思的是放孔明灯。我先在上面写了“希望我学习100分”，然后妈妈把蜡烛固定在孔明灯上，我用打火机点燃蜡烛，孔明灯全都鼓起来时，就松开手，它就慢慢地升向了天空。我真希望能梦想成真。

The very last sentence translates in my perception to:

I really hope that it is possible for my dreams to come true.

I would have probably transposed the sentence moving the 能, like so (better yet, drop the melancholic note by substituting it for the firmer 会):

我真希望梦想能成真
I really hope that my dreams can come true.

Is my line of thought correct for the translation? Are both translations accurate?
[1] https://zw.liuxue86.com/z/3628756.html

Both are accurate. 梦想成真 is a set phrase, so using 能 before it is acceptable. Note that if it is not a set phrase you need to put 能 before the verb 成真 here, but because it is a set phrase, it is usually perceived/interpreted as a whole.

You can also break it up and put 能 before 成真. Both are valid here.


In what cases should I use 条 for 猫? I learned that the measure word for 猫 is 只.
However, my friend said 条 is the correct measure word for 猫.
The conversation with the friend is the following:

X: 你有养猫吗？
I: 哈哈 这只不是我的，我韩国旅游时的我的房东的。
X: 我家有一条
I: 猫应该是只还是条？
X: 条

So she said clearly it should be 条, not 只.
But my Pleco only shows 只, while 网易有道词典 doesn't mention it.
Now I wonder in what cases 条 should be used instead of 只, and why 只 is not correct here.

Misusing quantifiers is a practice of rhetorics. Consider the examples of 一滩猫 and 一坨代码. 滩 gives a metaphor noting the liquidity of a cat, and 坨 implies that the code is badly programmed to look like shit.

In orthographic usages, 条 cannot quantify 猫. However, if you have a specific rhetorical purpose, you may quantify anything with any quantifier you prefer.

In this very particular case, when 条 is used to quantify 猫, it would seem that you are giving an explicit implication that the cat is pretty long or very thin; and note that context matters.


Are there more special numerals like 廿? In Hong Kong herbal tea shops, you will see a tea called "廿四味" (24 flavours)

(you will also hear "廿蚊" to mean "20 dollars" in small shops)

In this case 廿 (niàn or pán) has the meaning "20".

Are there any other chinese numerals that represent unusual numbers?

This is not only in Cantonese. People in several south provinces say these words. And most Chinese are familiar with 廿 (niàn or pán) and 卅, even though they don't usually say it.

卅 (sà) means 30
卌 (xì) means 40
皕 (bì) means 200


The word 射 vs the word 短 I have a thought that the following 2 words’ meaning is exchanged:
1) 射
2) 短

First of all, I am not saying I AM CORRECT or I want to make changes to these words, it is merely a discussion where I think this forum is about (‘to discuss the finer points of the Chinese Language’).  It's merely for fun and knowledge anyways and I want to know other's thought on it.

Here’s the argument:

(original):
射 -  shoot
短 -  short

(My thought):
射 - short. 身+寸 – body + inches, doesn’t that imply a body that’s only inches long, aka short?
短 - shoot. 矢+豆 – an arrow on a bean, kind of implying the action of shooting an arrow with accuracy?

I could be wrong by defining my arguement only destructing the word into parts and take their meaning, ignoring simplified Chinese / all other method of forming a word.  Any thought?

射 was originally written 䠶, that is a body and an arrow, giving the meaning shooting. But 身 is here a phonetic component, which just happens to also have a symbolic sense. 寸 is just how the original 矢 has been distorted in writing.

短 is actually an arrow 矢 shot into a 豆, which is not a bean but some sort of vessel. Why it means short is unknown, but we can note that another word for short, 矮, also contains 矢.


茶 - How to identify varieties of tea? I'm looking for vocabulary to help puzzle-out the kind of tea contained in various packages from the Chinese characters on their labels.

So far I recognize 茶(tea) and 叶(leaves).  (Apparently these are simplified-Chinese forms.)

On the label i have in front of me, I can't even tell where the variety is named (as opposed to brand name, promotional adjectives, etc.)
The biggest character, I assume, is just a stylized caligraphic 茶(tea):

The other main parts are near the top, in the middle below the big 茶(tea), and at the bottom:

I am not sure where to look even, and I don't have a way to find or enter characters for searching, so any help with tea-variety vocabulary or other hints would be appreciated.

铁观音　Tie Guanyin Tea / tat-kuan-yin Tea / Iron Buddha Tea
乌龙茶　Oolong Tea
黑茶　Dark Tea
红茶　Black Tea
龙井茶　Longjing Tea / Lungching Tea / Dragon Well Tea
君山银针　Junshan Silver Needle Tea
碧螺春　Biluochun Tea
牡丹绣球　Peony Jasmine Tea
黄山毛峰　Huangshan Maofeng Tea
岩茶　Rock Tea
冻顶乌龙　Dongding Oolong Tea
菊花茶　Chrysanthemum Tea
台湾阿里山乌龙　Taiwan Alishan Oolong Tea
大红袍　Dahongpao Tea (Wuyi Mountain Rock Tea)
普洱　Pu'er Tea
祁门红茶　Keemun Black Tea
茉莉花茶　Jasmine Tea
陈年普洱　Aged Pu'er Tea
立顿红茶　Lipton Black Tea
台湾冻顶乌龙　Taiwan Dongding Oolong Tea
绿茶　Green Tea
太平猴魁　Taiping Houkui Tea 　(A kind of Green Tea)
西湖龙井　Xihu Longjing Tea 　(A kind of Green Tea)
大白毫　White Milli-Silver Needle Tea
信阳毛尖　Xinyang Maojian Tea　 (A kind of Green Tea)

Source : http://www.dxmtea.com/captions.asp?id=585, and multiple others

So your package showed 铁观音 (Tie Guanyin Tea) 神品(Shen Pin, This is a brand maybe) 藏香 (Stock Flavored) 真空无氧包装(Vacuumed and oxygen-free packaging) 茶叶新鲜原味(Fresh and Original Flavor Tea).

铁观音 is a kind of Oolong Tea here, this package assumes you already knew it's a name of tea.


Does 2010年10-12 means October to December of 2010, or October 12th, 2010? I want to know whether 2010年10-12 indicates a range or an specific date.

In that case it would be saying 10th month through 12th month

See @Ming's comment about the specific date format.

There could be a case where the writer is using their own unique format, but that would depend on context


Scribal convention versus scribal error Brian van Norden's book Classical Chinese for Everyone says

  We have learned from ancient manuscripts discovered in excavated tombs
  that it was once extremely common for scribes to substitute
  homophonous characters for one another. (page xx)

I believe this was an accepted practice.  On the other hand, human reality tells us some of it was just by mistake.

Do experts today have any good idea how much of it was deliberate and accepted, versus how much was by mistake?   For example, there is good evidence that some European manuscripts were copied by scribes who really did not understand the material they were copying --  and those scribes made plain mistakes.  Do experts have a good idea how often that happened in China?

Have experts today identified systematic rules that ancient scribes might have followed, saying which homophone substitutions are acceptable or even preferable?

Experts know. Some homophone substitutions are very common and widely accepted and they have a name "通假字". If you want to understand Classical Chinese, you'll have to know these common 通假字s. And of course plain mistakes also exist. If you read enough, you'll know which are acceptable and which are just mistakes.


How do I refer to someone's family member who's relative age I am unsure of? Is there any way to refer to someones family member, lets say brother, who's relative age I am unaware of and consequently am unable to decisively call 弟弟 or 哥哥?

Is there some sort of rule, like assume they are older?

You could use the terms 兄弟 and 姐妹.

For example, lets say you know 小明 and 小華 are brothers but don't know who is older.  You could then say

  小明跟小華是兄弟


Pronunciation and characters for 打 110 Without Arabic numerals Memrise provides a phrase that sounds like da yoyo liang. Is yi becoming yo here, and if so under what circumstances would this change occur? Is it just a dialect issue or standard mandarin.

In characters, the phrase is

Dǎ yāo yāo líng
打幺幺零
Dial 1-1-0

「一」is not yāo; rather, a different word「幺」is used. See Pronunciation of 壹 / 一 in Mandarin for the use of yāo.


In 霸王别姬 is 霸 just a name? I have not seen the film or read the book， I can't judge.

Is this 霸 just a name, or does 霸王 really mean 'the tyrant king'？

It can be a general term, i.e. not a proper name, but it is/was often used to refer to a certain historic person called Xiang Yu. So 霸王 will not translate as "King Ba".

Chinese Wikipedia:

  霸王是指比一般王还强盛的君王，时常是文人雅士对项羽的尊称。

More references:

Baidu Baike:  霸王（汉语词语）

  霸王，古时指霸和王，也用来尊称霸主，特指西楚霸王项羽，或者比喻非常蛮横的人。

In addition Baidu Baike lists 12 entries in total for this word.


What is the underlying grammar pattern behind 同样是 in the textbook 高级汉语口语? I'm trying to do an exercise from a textbook; it's related to the grammar pattern 同样是…….  Unfortunately, the textbook does not give any grammar explanations, and instead gives a single example and assumes it's possible for the student to infer the general pattern:

4. 同样是……

同样是主食，南方人吃米，北方人吃面。

从小一起长大的同学，有的做了经理，有的成了教授，也有的做了售货员或者出租车司机。
手表的种类越来越多，有电子的，有机械的，有能当闹钟用的，还有能照相的。
教育孩子，……
上了年纪的老人，……
亚洲国家，……

高级汉语口语, Advanced Spoken Chinese, Peking University Press, p. 85.

The exercise is to modify the given sentences into so that they use the 同样是 grammar pattern.  However, I cannot infer the grammar pattern from the given example.  From the single example they give, I guess the grammar pattern is something like:

同样是 [topic], [description of group 1], [description of group 2].

This feels illogical to me, since 同样 means "same", whereas the groups and what they're doing are different.  Furthermore, I didn't find example sentences on Jukuu using this pattern, and I didn't find it on the Chinese Grammar Wiki.  If I were to blindly attempt this problem, to achieve this grammar pattern, I would change it to:

从小一起长大的同学，同样是事业，有的做了经理，有的成了教授，也有的做了售货员或者出租车司机。
手表的种类越来越多，同样是种类，有电子的，有机械的，有能当闹钟用的，还有能照相的。

But honestly, I'm just guessing, the grammar pattern seems unnecessary, and the second one feels wrong.
Question: What is the underlying grammar pattern behind 同样是 in the textbook 高级汉语口语?

To keep things simple, there are two things to note when using 同樣是⋯⋯:

The sentence pattern is for contrast. What that is same for the groups (≥2) is mentioned first, only to be followed by a transition.

What immediately follows 同樣是⋯⋯ can be the subject, the object, or the predicate, as long as it is common for the groups (to be contrasted).

同樣是主食，南方人吃米，北方人吃麵。
Despite both being staples, rice is eaten by Southerners, whereas noodles are eaten by Northerners.

This is a sentence that compares the kind of staple in Southern and Northern China. The common element is 'staple' and is fronted in the sentence. Also note how I had to convert the latter two sentences into passive, because unlike Chinese, the first clause in English has to refer to the subject by default.

Similarly,

同樣是從小一起長大的同學，有的做了經理，有的成了教授，也有的做了售貨員或者出租車司機。
Despite being classmates that grew up together, some became business managers, some became professors; some also became salespersons or cab drivers.

This emphasises how different the classmates have become in life despite growing up together. Here the subject (從小一起長大的同學) is fronted.

同樣是手錶，有的是電子的，有的是機械的，有的能當鬧鐘用，還有的能照相。
Despite all being watches, some are electronic, some are mechanical, some can be used as an alarm, some can even be used to take pictures.

Again this emphasises how different in kind watches can be. The subject is fronted. (It's convenient to look at 有的 as an adjective here.)

What is fronted can also be the predicate of the sentence, as in

同樣是教育孩子，有的人很開明，有的人卻只會打罵。
When it comes to teaching children, some take a liberal approach, but some only beat and scold their children.

This is a comparison between the approach to teaching children.


Using 有 in comparing actions I search for comparisons using 有 and this page says that. I have 2 questions.

1/ It is said that 有 comparison pattern is just used in questions, not statements. Is it true？If it is wrong, can I use 有 to make statements in the writing?

2/ I wonder if using 有 in comparing actions is the same as 比 comparison structure. Is those sentences correct？
她做饭比我做得好多了 = 她有我做饭做得好多了。

Thank you so much.

"她做饭有我做得那麼好嗎?"(Does she cook as good a I do?). It is not a just a comparison. It is also an 'indication of degree'

她做饭 = She cooks (topic)
有 = have
我做得那麼好嗎? (我做得那麼好 is a relative phrase that indicate degree)
The degree of 'as good as I doing it?'

You can say "她做饭有我做得那麼好"  or "她做饭没有我做得那麼好" as a statement.  (indication of degree)

她有我做饭做得好多了

It is not logical to state '有' (have the same level) and then state '好多了' (much better). It is either 'have the same level' or 'much better'. You can't state both.
It has to be:
[X 比 Y 好多了] = Compare to Y, X is much better
[X 有 Y 那麼好] = X is as good as Y


Poems about parents love and care for children I'm looking for poems about parents' love, concern, and caring of their children.

I'm aware of 孟郊《游子吟》:

  “慈母手中线,游子身上衣。临行密密缝,意恐迟迟归。谁言寸草心,报得三春晖?”

But that's heavy on the "repayment" aspect.

I'm looking for something that emphasizes the amount of effort, time, energy parents put into taking care of their children.

Something well known is preferable.

《送母回乡》
    ——李商隐
停车茫茫顾，困我成楚囚。
感伤从中起，悲泪哽在喉。
慈母方病重，欲将名医投。
车接今在急，天竟情不留！
母爱无所报，人生更何求！

Meaning:

When I stopped the carriage and looking around blankly,I felt like a prisoner because of the sadness I've gone through.My grief tear is like fishbone stuck in my throat.Now my mother is sick(lethally sick),so I'm taking her to visit the doctor.But on the way,the God(sky) took my mother's life mercilessly.I can't pay back for my mother's love,what else can I look forward to?


Why does Chinese sometimes put 儿 after verbs and nouns? I tend to see it a lot in text books and guides:
唱歌/唱歌儿
事/事儿
But it's always listed as optional, so what's the deal with it?

Adding the 儿 to the end of a word is known as 儿化 (er2hua4). Whether or not you use the 儿 really just comes down to regional accents/dialects, but the meaning of the word is unchanged. Generally speaking, northern mandarin dialects use the erhua more than southern ones; in some regions you'll almost never hear anyone use the erhua in speech.

There are some words where the added erhua changes the word's meaning, but these are usually regional/colloquial terms, such as 天儿, which means the same as 天气, not 天.


What is the difference between 本来 and 原来? I was learning in a Mandarin class and I was kind of stumped on the use of "本来" and "原来" when filling in the blanks in a sentence. Here's my attempt to these questions (taken from 汉语口语速成: 基础篇 pp. 91-92):

这儿____是个冰场，现在盖起了高楼。(My answer was "原来", the answer is can be both.)
回国的日子____定在下月二十号，可是因为没有买到机票，就改到二十七号了。(My answer was "本来", the answer is "本来".)
这盘虾炒得太咸了，虾_____的味道都没有了。(My answer was "本来", the answer is "原来")
我找了你半天，____你在这儿呀。(My answer was "原来", the answer is can be both.)

There's no problem with the sentence #2 and #3. I got it right on the second sentence. I got it wrong on the third sentence, since I just know that "原来" can be used as an adjective, and the speaker already realized that the taste of the food is not good, hence my mistake.
What makes me confused is the answer of #1 and #4, is it true that either "本来" or "原来" correct in sentence #1 and #4? I thought only one of them can fit.
From what I understand from Chinese Grammar Wiki and some Chinese movies, my thinking is this:

I'm using “本来” when something unexpectedly happened, and the speaker doesn't realize until it happens. But if the speaker accidentally find out or realize the situation has changed, I should use “原来”.

Is my thinking true? If not, then on which case should I use "本来" or "原来"?
UPDATE: Here's another example I got from a movie:

丁鐺："你們晚上沒演出啊?"
藍雲："沒有，最近演白天，你一個人來?"
丁鐺："是的，本來我要去百代試音的，但是我弄錯了日期，是明天。"

The speaker use "本来" here, can it be changed to "原来"?

In my opinion, 1,2,3 can be both. 4 should be filled with 原来.
原来 could be used when you don't know something and then you find it out all of sudden. For example, 原来是你啊！ 原来是你干的啊！
本来 can't be used for this sense.
Most of time they are  interchangeable.
In your update sentence, 本来 is preferable, and 原来 is not that good. But if you put 原来 in the middle (丁鐺："是的，我原来要去百代試音的，但是我弄錯了日期，是明天,) that will be ok. This might be because if you put 原来 at the beginning of an sentence, that sounds you have found something all of sudden, which you didn't know. But actually you want to convey the sense originally.
I guess the key might be they are interchangeable within a sentence, but not at the beginning of a sentence!

丁鐺："是的，本來我要去百代試音的，但是我弄錯了日期，是明天。

Update
I feel this dictionary definition are accurate:
本来

原来，原先。

杨朔《京城漫记》：“这地方在北京南城角，本来是京城有名的风景区。”
2 . 原有的。
本来面目。
3 .指人本有的心性。
黄人《〈小说林〉发刊词》：“心理之辟，尤在昧厥本来。”
4 .表示理该如此。
本来就该这么办

原来

1 . 当初；未经改变的。
周而复《上海的早晨》：“阿英给奶奶提醒，立即退了回来，把脸盆放在床上原来的地方接水。”
2 . 副词。表示发现从前不知道的情况。
魏巍《东方》：“郭祥勉强睁开眼睛，原来担架停在一面悬崖下。”

I think this should help you a lot if you can understand those definitions in Chinese.


Number two in chinese: 二 vs 两 I always knew, from my studies of Japanese, that the number two is 二 (èr). I am not sure about the actual etymology, but looking at the character, it's understandable why it represents the number "2".

Recently, I discovered that there is another character that represents the same number. That character is 两 (liăng).

According to my textbook:

二 is used when telling or writing a "meaningless" number, such as a telephone number, a zip code, etc;
两 is used together with nouns, such as in "two students" = 两个学生.

Is this correct in current Mandarin? If so, does this mean that 二个学生 is just plain wrong or that Chinese people would give me a weird look if I said it?

Are there other situations in which the use differs or is it interchangeable? I found a site, nciku.com, where there are notes about it, but it says what I already know more or less, so I am asking if there is something else.

Lastly, what's the etymology, if available, for 两?

Rather than saying that 两 is used with nouns, I would say that 两 is used with measure words. If you use any type of measure word with the number 2, use 两. For convenience, I've identified 3 types of measure words:

Standard measure words, e.g. 两个人、两本书、两棵树.
Numbers that are larger than 100, e.g. 两百, 两千三百六十二. 百, 千, and 万 can be seen as a sort of measure word.
Time, e.g. 下午两点. Again, 点 functions as a type of measure word here.

二 is used when counting without measure words, such as in telephone numbers, metro lines (二线), addresses, etc.

ordinal, e.g. 第二个, 二哥. when you want to say the second, you can only use 二, it is wrong to say that 第两个.


what does 上疾 mean in this sentence (她在网球场上疾如闪电。) I have the sentence 她在网球场上疾如闪电。I know that it means "she is as quick as lightning on the tennis court" What role does 上疾 have in the sentence it clearly doesn't mean, on disease!
Are there any general points for constructing similes/metaphors in Mandarin?
Thanks.

她在网球场上疾如闪电。She is fast as lightning on the tennis court.
上疾 here isn't a word; it's just 上 and 疾 happening to meet at the word boundary.
在……上 is the structure to mean "on" in this sentence.
疾如闪电 is a more literary way of saying 快得像闪电. "疾" has the archaic meaning of "fast; quick", which is rather unproductive in forming phrases and words nowadays, but you can still see it in phrases e.g. 疾如闪电, 迅疾 (a literary way of saying "fast, rapid"), 不疾不徐 (unhurried, unhurriedly; lit. not fast (and) not slow) or 眼疾手快 (agile; lit. quick eyes and quick hands).


最好还是问问老师吧？还是最好问问老师吧？ Which is correct? and Why is it? 这个问题，最好还是问问老师吧.

这个问题，还是最好问问老师吧.

It means "Sure enough, the best is that we ask teacher about this problem."

Which is correct? and Why?

Both of them go well?

There are few previous posts that addressed the adverb order. You can have a search and take a look.

For natives, we determine the order by intuition, which is formed by using/speaking the language for many years.

Back to your examples. Your first sentence, 这个问题，最好还是问问老师吧, is more natural and idiomatic. The second one, 这个问题，还是最好问问老师吧，is not that natural, but if you put it into practice, especially given that you aren't a native, it's still acceptable.

Anyhow, like other languages, we have more tolerance in colloquial speech than writing.


Why 偏 has a meaning of partial? For example, 偏導數 means partial derivative. But my intuition on this character is inclined and remote. How can I derive this meaning from the regular meaning of 偏?

From 説文解字 I got this

   (偏) 頗也。頗、頭偏也。引伸爲凡偏之偁。故以頗釋偏。二字雙聲。尙書。無偏無頗。絫言之也。周易翩翩。古文作偏偏。从人。扁聲。芳連切。十二部。

偏's core meaning is 'lean to the side' as in 偏右(lean right) or  偏左 (lean left)

That meaning extended to represent 'away from center' as in 偏僻 (remote/ isolated) and 偏遠 (remote / far away)

Notice: '偏遠地區' (remote area) is referring 'an area that is far away from the center of a country'. Even it is remote, that area is still 'a part of the whole country. Therefore, 偏 also obtained the meaning of 'a part of' (partial) by the virtue of opposing 全(whole)

The idiom "以偏概全" - "generalize the whole by examine only part of it" illustrated 偏 (partial/ incomplete) is the opposite of 全 (whole/complete)

The "away from center" meaning of 偏 further extended to mean "away from the main stream" , therefore  偏 also contains the meaning of 'non-standard' as in 偏方 (deviant prescription)


Looking for a legit place for Classical Chinese grammar rules Here is an example of my problem. I came across final particle 乎 in a classical text by 孟子. I know from a short description in a unreliable resource that it is similar to 呢, 吗 and 吧。

The thing is, I am looking for a more detailed description in a reliable resource that I can put in a list of contents for my university report.

Can any one point me to a reliable place to read about rules of Classical Chinese?

The best reference in English is probably Pulleyblank's Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. I don't think it is available in a digital version though, so you'll have to look up a print version.


Is it acceptable to say 我的名字是……? I only remember seeing 我的名字叫……

Would 我的名字是…… also be an acceptable choice?

If I don't know your name I may ask: 你的名字是什么？

So of course you could reply: 我的名字是恩瑞克。 or 我的名字叫恩瑞克。 或者 我叫恩瑞克。


What's the structure of this word / sentence? 搬进、走出、跑回 What's the structure of these words? 搬进、走出、跑回......

I think both 搬 and 进 can be verbs but when used together, it means 'move in'.

What's the relationship between the two characters in phrases like those?

For example, only 搬 is the verb in the sentence ‘我们搬进了一幢楼房’，but not ‘进’，what is the role of ‘进’ in the sentence?

Thank you!

The “进” part is called directional complement.

  Rather simply, as we do in English, you can add a directional word to the verb, to describe where the verb is going. The most common words to indicate a direction are:

  上, up and 下, down <== notice how they kind of look like arrows?
  进, in and 出, out
  过, to cross over
  起, up
  回 to come back.
  到 (to arrive) to

So, “搬进” is “move in/into”, “走出” is “walk out (of)”, “跑回” is “run back to”.


Condom poster: What should 爪 in ...因爪安全性行为感染艾滋病 actually be? And why is 经 in 预防艾滋病经性传播? Question:  What should 爪 in 天津市平均每周都有１名学生因爪安全性行为感染艾滋病 actually be?  And why is 经 in 预防艾滋病经性传播?
Why I ask: this poster has appeared in some campus bathrooms (in the women's ones, at least):

(large image)

Zooming in, the first part is:

I transcribe and translate this to:

天津市每发现１０例ＨＩＶ感染者
其中就有７例是通过男男同性性行为传播
天津市平均每周都有１名学生因爪安全性行为感染艾滋病
In Tianjin, in every 10 cases of discovered HIV infection
among these are 7 cases spread through male-male same-sex sexual activity
The Tianjin average, every week has 1 student, because of [爪 (?)] unsafe sex, is infected with aids

I don't think 爪 (=claw) is correct, but I couldn't find the correct character.  (My phone suggests , but it doesn't appear in dictionaries.)
And I transcribe and translate what the condom says:

预防艾滋病经性传播
从坚持正确使用安全套开始
To prevent aids [经 (?)] and sexually transmitted diseases
start with insisting on proper use of condoms

I'm not sure what 经 (YouDao, dict.cn) is doing here.  I don't see a relevant definition.  Is it yet another word for "and"?  Or maybe it means "and other", or "along with".

It is 不安全性行为 (unsafe sex) , not 爪安全性行为

经 means 'through'

性 means 'sex'

预防艾滋病(经)性传播 = prevent aids spread (through) sex

A more clear phrasing might help new learners understand better - 预防艾滋病经(由)性(愛/交)传播

经由 = 'through'

性愛 = 'love making'

性交 = 'sexual intercourse'


Proper letter writing etiquette I've recently been writing a lot of letters in Mandarin and I have several questions regarding the form.

Chinese has many salutations in letters. For the most part, is it okay just to use 亲爱? If not, what is most appropriate?
Are Chinese letter structures [eg. Name, Address, Date, Recipient, Body, Closing] much the same as English letters?
I usually end my letters:

孔世茂 [My Chinese Name]
上

Is this acceptable? What are some other endings for letters?
Thanks for your time!

I think those are generally fine for normal purposes, especially if you're emailing. Traditional etiquette has substantially declined with email use. 亲爱 is quite a bit more personal than the equivalent English "Dear xxx" though, so you could replace that with just a greeting, e.g. "王先生您好

But since you asked for "proper etiquette"... Here's a brief rundown of the main points for a proper Chinese letter. Though I've left out some less important sections, so for truly official purposes you'd want to consult a real style guide.

For obvious reasons hardly anyone writes to actual friends or family in such complicated manner, although government agencies / companies/ wedding invitations and other formal occasions still adhere to these styles.

稱謂: Addressing the Recipient

This section is similar to English letter writing. Use an appropriate title e.g. "President Huang" or "Ms Wong" or "Mother". Do not include names for elders in your immediate family.

提稱語: Inviting the Recipient to Read

You might think of this as sort of like "Dear " in English, except this comes after the recipient's name+title. Choose an appropriate one from below:

Parents/Grandparents: 尊鑒(common), 膝下(common), 膝前,
Teachers: 道鑒(common), 函丈, 壇席, 講座, 尊前,尊鑒, 賜鑒
Generic elders: 賜鑒(common), 尊前, 尊鑒, 鈞鑒, 尊右, 懿鑒(women only)
Fellow students: 硯右, 硯席, 文几, 文席
Generic equals: 大鑒(common), 惠鑒(common), 台鑒, 左右, 足下, 閣下, 雅鑒
Children/Nieces/Nephews: 知之, 知悉
Generic juniors: 鑒(common), 青鑒,青覽, 入目, 入覽, 收覽, 如見, 如晤, 如握, 如面, 收覽, 收閱, 收讀,  閱悉, 知悉, 見字
Military officers: 幕下, 麾下, 鈞鑒. 鈞座
Politicians: 勛鑒, 鈞鑒, 鈞座, 台座, 台鑒
Educators: 講座, 座右, 塵次. 有道, 著席, 撰席, 史席
Buddhist priests: 方丈, 道鑒, 有道
Taoists priests: 法鑒, 壇次
Generic/Christian priests/nuns: 道鑒
Married couple: 儷鑒
Mourning: 禮席, 禮鑒, 苫次, 矜鑒

And last but not the least:

Modern Age Catch All Replacement: : <--- yes, a colon

申悃語: Ending the Letter

You can either pick an appropriate one based on recipient, or based on the nature of your letter.

Reply letter: 耑肅敬覆, 耑此奉覆, 肅函奉覆, 耑此敬覆, 匆此布覆
Congratulatory letter: 敬申賀悃, 肅表賀忱, 用申賀意
Mourning letter: 恭陳唁意, 肅此上慰, 敬申哀悃
Thank-You letter: 肅誌謝忱, 敬此鳴謝, 耑鳴謝悃
Elders: 謹此, 肅此, 肅此上達, 敬此馳稟, 耑肅奉稟
Equals: 專此, 耑此, 特此, 草此, 耑此奉達, 匆此布臆, 特此奉聞, 草此奉達

Or:

Simplification: skip this section entirely.

問候語: Paying Respects

This follows the previous section immediately. You can pick one based on who the recipient is.

Parents/Grandparents: 敬請 | 福安, 叩請 | 金安
Teachers: 敬請 | 道安, 恭敬 | 教安, 恭請 | 誨安, 敬請 | 講安
Generic elders: 敬請 | 鈞安, 恭敬 | 崇安, ``敬頌 | 崇祺,恭請 | 禔安`
Equals: 敬請 | 大安, 順頌 | 台祺, 敬候 | 近祉, 順候 | 起居, 順頌 | 時綏
Juniors: 順問 | 近祺, 即問 | 近好, 順頌 | 日祉
Military: 敬請 | 戎安, 肅請 | 捷安, 肅頌 | 戎祺
Politicians: 敬請 | 鈞安',敬請 | 勛安,祇請 | 政安`
Educators/Academics: 即頌 | 文祺, 即頌 | 文綏, 敬請 | 學安
Writers: 敬請 |著安, 順請 | 撰安
Business: 敬請 | 籌安、順候 | 財安
Traveller: 敬請 | 旅安
Married Couple: 敬請 | 儷安
Someone ill: 恭請 | 痊安, 敬祝|  早痊, 敬請 | 愈安, 即請 | 衛安

Or choose one based on the season/time:

Spring: 敬請 | 春安, 順頌 | 春祉
Summer: 敬請 | 夏安, 此頌 | 暑綏
Autumn: 並候 | 秋綏, 即請 | 秋安
Winter: 敬請 | 冬安, 敬頌 | 冬綏
Morning: 即頌 | 晨安, 即請 | 早安
Noon: 此請 | 午安
Evening: 即頌 | 晚安
Generic good day: 即請 | 刻安, 順候 | 日祉, 即候 | 時祉

Or based on the purpose of the letter:

Wedding congratulation: 恭請 | 燕喜,恭賀 | 大喜, 恭請 | 喜安
Happy New Year: 恭賀 | 年禧, 恭賀 | 新禧, 即頌 | 歲禧
Mourning: 敬請 | 禮安, 順候 | 素履, 此候 | 孝履, 順問 | 苫次

Note that these are supposed to be broken int two lines; i.e.:

  bala bala bala bala。肅此上達。敬請

  福安

Also, notice how most of these reuses the same set of perhaps 3-4 phrases for the first half. For these the situation-specific content lies in the second half of the sentence. (the part that comes on a new line). Which means you can mix the first half a bit for variation if you wish.

署名: Sender's Name

Can be either personal name, or the family name plus personal name. This should be prefixed with your self-reference, in smaller font. The self-reference should complement with the title of the recipient you used in the first section; i.e. if you used Smith 吾師 to address the recipient, then here you'd say 受業 TrustedDeveloper. Other common ones are:

To grandparents: 孫, 孫女
To parents: 兒, 女
To teacher: 生
To friends: 弟, 妹

末啟詞: Finish

This goes directly after your name from the previous section; i.e. on the same line. It is analogous to saying "from " in English. Choose an appropriate one from below:

Parents/Grandparents: 敬稟, 叩稟, 拜稟, 肅稟, 謹稟, 叩上
Generic elders: 敬上, 謹上, 謹稟, 拜上、謹肅, 敬肅, 敬啟, 謹啟
Equals: 拜啟, 敬啟, 啟, 上, 白, 謹啟, 謹白, 手啟, 手上, 頓首, 上言, 拜言
Juniors: 字, 諭, 手諭, 手示, 手草, 草示

Alternatively, when the letter is a reply:

Reply: 復, 手復, 謹復, 肅復


Are radicals a relatively new invention for looking up dictionaries? According to this article, radicals were invented for looking up characters in a dictionary, and didn't exist until after the publication of the Shuōwén Jiězì [說文解字] (around 100 AD).

Is it true that radicals were introduced for this purpose, long after many characters already existed?

I think your phrasing may be ambiguous, so I'll answer in two ways. If you're asking if characters didn't have a radical and then one was added - thereby changing the character - for classification purpose, then of course the answer is no.

If the question is to know whether the "concept" of radical existed, then you can think of it this way: if people had a concept of radical in their mind prior to the Shuowen, then it had to be a way for them to classify those characters. Indeed, the people who could write did see the parts of a character, but a "radical" is a component that's considered more important/interesting: apart from classification, what role could it serve?

Therefore, the concept of radicals has to come with a desire to classify characters... of which the Shuowen is the first known example.


What is the difference between "吗 (mǎ)" and "么 (ma)"? Both seem to be question particles. What's the difference between them (in meaning & usage)?

They are different in tone side, for example when you ask some one if have dinner, you can use 你吃晚饭了吗? or 你吃晚饭了么? Both are OK, because it's not strong sense of doubt, just ask, not a question style.

But you can not use 么 in 你拿得出证据证明他的清白吗? In the sentence "你拿得出证据证明他的清白吗?" has a style of you have to give me the answer, and mostly you can not.

So, mostly, you can use 吗 and 么,but with the strong tone, especially rhetorical question you can just use 吗.


Ordering food from a menu in a restaurant How should I order food from a menu in a restaurant?

In English I'd usually say something like 'I'll have the beef' or 'one of these and two of those' while pointing.

In the past in China I have simply pointed and said 一个 or 这个, but I imagine that is not quite correct :)

Actually, it is correct when you point and say "这个", but Chinese speakers often use "一份" instead of "一个". The complete sentence may look like "我想要一份XXX" or “我要这个”.

Hope this may help you.


Could someone please translate this small writting for me? (Characters identified: 林盾) It's very difficult to make out and I don't know for sure if it's Chinese (at least it should be) or some other eastern language. Having it translated to english would really help me out since I need to know exactly what it says.

Having a hard time trying translate it via online means. Any help is appreciated. It's some writting from a dust respirator (like a gas mask) on the front. Ordered from a chinese webstore. The picture is low quality since i had to zoom it in a lot.

It says '林盾' - most likely a person's name where 林 (Lin, meaning 'forest') is the last name and 盾 (Dun, meaning 'shield') is the given name.


How can 蔫 be translated as "mischievous"? 《饥饿的女儿》虹影 著 ch. 2, sect. 4 has the following text:

在学校, 最蔫的男同学对我也没兴趣, is translated by Howard Goldblatt as: "even the most mischievous boys in class showed little or no interest in me".

How is this possible given the meaning of the adjective 蔫, e.g.: iciba: <形> (精神不振) listless; spiritless; droopy. In the present context it seems "mischievous"
in fact would make better sense than "listless".

Apparently it can mean something like "mischievous" in old Beijing dialect, ex 蔫坏:又称“蔫儿坏”，老北京方言，也称“蔫土匪”。意思是不声不响的动坏心思、做坏事，在别人面前却是一副正人君子的模样。通常形容那些背地里使坏的人。
Also see here for an explanation of 蔫 in a Tianjin dialectical context: 这个[“蔫溜儿”的]“蔫”，就是玩儿阴的，暗中进行。


How do you use 的 at the end of a sentence Like for school my teacher gave us an example 看足球赛的学生. And she wanted us to do that format. Such as the music I like or students who are doing homework at school So is it the thing the subject is doing 的 and then the subject.

看足球赛 is a complete sentence

Adding adjective marker "的" after a sentence or phrase turn it into an adjectival phrase.

Adjectival phrase describes the noun that follows.

[Simple phrase]: 看足球赛 = watch football match

[Adjectival phrase]: 看足球赛(的) = (those who) watch football matches

[Adjectival phrase with subject]: 看足球赛(的)学生 = (those/ the) students (who) watch football matches

Since 看足球赛的 is an adjective, you can follow the grammar structure of [subject + is + adjective] and write
"那些学生 是 看足球赛的" (those students are the ones who watch football matches)


How can I tell apart which two-syllable adjective forms "ABAB" to emphasize it? I'm now learning on emphasizing adjectives by the repetition (e.g. 你的脸红红的。).

However, some two-syllable words form ABAB and others AABB to emphasize the adjective. For example,

开开心心
好吃好吃
干干净净
便宜便宜
麻烦麻烦

Now I wonder whether it is possible to tell apart which word belongs to ABAB famility and which to AABB.

Is there any rule regarding this, if not rigorous? Or do I have to bother to memorizing these adjectives one by one?

My take is ABAB expresses dynamically (表示动态感) or extent in degrees, while AABB is for statically (表示静态感).

For example, 舒服舒服 vs 舒舒服服。

舒服舒服 is kinda like 'Wow, I feel great!', it might imply that you feel that way constantly. For instance, someone is giving you a massage， and you feel great and enjoy it so much, and you would probably say 舒服舒服 to indicate that you are comforted by the massage constantly. You could say 舒服舒服 in a cutie way to express funny as well.

Well, 舒舒服服 describes you are actually in the state of being comfortable (舒服). For instance, 我舒舒服服的躺在沙发上.

There are more examples: 高高兴兴 vs 高兴高兴, 干净干净 vs 干干净净, 漂亮漂亮 vs 漂漂亮亮.

However, not all words can be used as AABB, like 好吃. 好好吃吃 sounds wired, because 好好吃吃 doesn't sound a state of being something. Well, 好吃好吃 makes sense.

It's hard to define a rule that could summarize what kind of words can be used in this pattern. Practically, I think those formal or official words usually can not be used like this. For example, 伟大, 光荣, 勇敢. Maybe it's not good to ruin the integrity of those words? That's why you could not use them like that? I am not quite sure about it indeed. Those 'normal' or more colloquial words usually can work either in the form of AABB/ABAB or both.


In “我只喜歡你一個” what does the "一個" do? If I were to translate "I only like you" I'd say

  我只喜歡你

  Wǒ zhǐ xǐ huan nǐ

However I have seen the following

  我只喜歡你一個

  Wǒ zhǐ xǐ huan nǐ yī ge

Translated as

  I like you alone

What is the effect of adding the "一個"?

It is there for emphasis.

The two sentences have similar meanings, while the one with "一個" has more emphasis on that you are the ONLY one that I like. It can be used to transfer stronger emotion.


What's a good translation for 说法？ 在我们这边是有这种说法——混血儿会比较聪明。

I know several meanings for it.

官方说法, Official statement;

讨说法, seek explanation or justice.

今日说法, talk about law.

However, here 说法 means a kind of public opinion. Can it be translated to saying which convey the 说 part meaning?

Yup, in this context, the translation of saying or common saying would work.
Besides the several meanings you pointed out, 说法 also has another meaning that is commonly seen: wording or the way that something is said. An example is:

你刚刚说得有点太复杂，换一种说法意思可能清楚些。
The way you were explaining was a little too complicated, perhaps changing the wording might make it clearer.


What is the English translation of the artist and title of this artwork? (Characters identified: 吳山作) I would like to know who the artist is and what the title of the piece is.

The author is certainly 吳山，you can find similar works in this auction website.