Without using the help of Pinyin I was taught Chinese by my family and could do the memorizing of many words. The thing that had me worried is that while I could read without pinyin in some parts, I couldn't in others. If I was given a children's storybook, I would read it aloud, knowing each lashes of the word. If I was given a difficult adult book, I'm not able to easily read it without the pinyin on the top.
Is there a way to solve this problem?

TL;DR:

You need a bigger vocabulary to increase reading proficiency. Based on your comments, it sounds like you know a lot of vocabulary (perhaps orally), but you have trouble recognizing those characters in writing. So, instead of a bigger vocabulary, you need to increase your character recognition. Point #3 below + Anki will help you do that.
Pronunciation and vocabulary size are correlated, so having good pronunciation and knowing the pronunciation of the words is important.
I wrote a Python script that calculates word frequencies in
a given Chinese text that may be useful in pre-learning the vocabulary for a reading project. YMMV. Or, search online for a Chinese word frequency counter like this one.

Like L Parker mentioned in his comment, there are many reasons why you have difficulty reading a "difficult adult book". Is that adult book fiction or nonfiction? If it's nonfiction, does it contain a lot of jargon from a specific field? How familiar are you with the content?
In general, one popular area of research into reading comprehension is that of lexical coverage and lexical thresholds — i.e. what percentage of the vocabulary of a given text do you need to know in order to be able to comprehend it? Laufer (2013) seems like a relatively recent, short, and decent introduction to this problem:

"Most researchers agree that only when readers possess a critical mass of second language (L2) knowledge (lexical and grammatical) can general reading skills, such as distinguishing between main and peripheral information, ... operate most efficiently ... vocabulary knowledge is a good predictor of reading proficiency, if not the best" (Laufer, 2013, p. 868, emphasis my own).

In other words, vocabulary size is key. Laufer (2013) summarizes research which suggests a lexical threshold of 95% to 98% coverage as optimal, but there are many factors that would determine what threshold you'd need for your own situation.
Since you mention pinyin, here's a side note about pronunciation:
Learners with unstable pronunciation have trouble putting words into working memory (Ellis and Beaton, 1993  (PDF)), and Papagno, Valentine, & Baddeley (1991) showed that verbal working memory and vocabulary size are correlated. So, pronunciation is critical for vocabulary in the long term, and Chinese has the problem of not easily being able to derive pronunciation from the written form.
However, I don't have any citations about pinyin and reading in Chinese, but I imagine that learning the pronunciation of characters in context through ruby pinyin may not be recommended as a learning strategy, because you may find that you associate the sound and meaning more with the pinyin than with the character itself.
As an L2 learner of Chinese myself, I created a Python script to count all the Chinese words (not characters) in a text and sort them according to frequency. It also takes a stop list of words to remove the words you already know. It's not very flexible, but if you know how to run a Python script, it may be helpful to you. It helped me when I decided to read a translation of 1984.
There are probably also user-friendly online solutions you could put your text into, like this one I found with a Duckduckgo search.
Hope that helps!


还 vs 也 for expressing multiple actions Based on the structure:

S V O， 还/也 V O

When should I use 还 and when should I use 也?

A Chinese friend told me that 还 often sounds better than 也 in sentences where the two verbs are different, such as 我吃了炒饭，还喝了啤酒, and the reverse is true when the verbs are the same, such as in 我喜欢唱歌，也喜欢跳舞. He also said that 还 has a stronger emphatic sense of "not only, but also".

Are these assertions accurate in general? Are there any other key distinctions between 还 and 也 in this sentence structure?

I think what your Chinese friend said is pretty much right.

In my opinion, 还 denotes the sense of "further more" or "to a larger extension". Well, 也 connects the two things with the same level of importance, severity, priority and etc.

E.g. 我喜欢唱歌，也喜欢跳舞. can be simply paraphrased as 我喜欢唱歌和跳舞. 我喜欢唱歌，还喜欢跳舞. sounds like I like singing and moreover/furthermore I like dancing as well. Or Not only do I like singing, but also I like dancing. as your friend suggested.


Do many Taiwanese self identify as Mandarin speakers and if not, why? I was chatting with a Taiwanese student the other day and asked him what language they speak there. He just answered "Chinese" and didn't know about a dialect or variant of Mandarin. Even the words Mandarin or Cantonese didn't ring a bell. The answer I got was "Chinese, the same as in Beijing".

I'm curious to know if that's a widespread conception of the language in Taiwan or just him who skipped that part of the lesson at grade school :) If not from lack of knowledge, are there other cultural or political reasons why making the distinction is not encouraged there?

Mandarin originally refers to the official language of Qing

By the end of the last dynasty in 19th century, the government KMT released some standard of 国语(national language), which is based on the 官话(mandarin) of the Qing dynasty.
When KMT went to Taiwan, they took the standard there. On the other side, PRC made the standard 普通话(common language), which is based on the KMT's 国语.

So when you talk about the mandarin of Taiwan, it is 国语, in mainland, it is 普通话, however, 国语 and 普通话 are almost same, they are both based on mandarin of Qing and the dialect around Beijing.

Before I visited the English sites, I don't know mandarin too, I remember when I got the explaining from dictionaries, I was like wtf, 清朝官话? So what we speak is called the official language of Qing, fk me.  I don't like the word, it always reminds me of the Manchu barbarians.

edit:

Some rumors say mandarin is from 满大人(man da ren), some other proofs show that it is used before the Qing dynasty.

This is written by Matteo Ricci in the Ming dynasty in Latin, which means high-ranking official used by Portuguese.


Impact of order of bilingual dictionary entries, dictionary searching, and input method on Chinese learning I have a theory, that learners of Chinese, who user a bilingual dictionary with all the characters, and the pronunciations on the right, with equal pronunciations being consecutive, listed in order of first, second, third, fourth, and then fifth tone, can have a good tone looking things up and memorizing all the characters that have a given pronunciation.
But I confess there is a point, where this gets counter-intuitive. Instead, one wants a bilingual dictionary, with the characters listed by radical, and then the completely differing pinyin pronunciations on the right.
This way the learner learns to remember the character's make-up first, and then its pronunciation.
Since, at this point, the user has memorized all the possible character components that could take place, there shouldn't be a problem (no longer the problem novice users encounter where they find a new character funny looking, and become concerned with not being able to draw it).
But for this to work, the now no longer beginner but intermediate stage user, will want:

A dictionary which lists the Chinese characters and words composed from then in order, sorted by radicals.
Since we are looking for a software dictionary, a keyboard input method based not on ASCII, but on bopofomo or something similar, so that the user may enter AND CONCENTRATE FIRST, on each radical.

At this stage, the user should be able to associate the pronunciation with characters' and word's shape, (in one step), and not the other way round.
SUMMARY: With this technique, the user should be able to focus on a character's radical and non-radical composition sequence, and go through associating / learning all the different pronunciations, of all the characters which look the same.
It may be innovative to provide this list, in a software dictionary, just ordered by "SAME-LOOKINGNESS", independently of what is a considered a radical and what is not (since not every readable component of a character has been traditionally considered a radical).

In most modern dictionaries, there is a preface that allows you to search words up by radical, by directing you to the appropriate page. Most people use this section when they want to learn its pronunciation and/or its meaning.

Some old dictionaries like the Shuowen Jiezi or the Kangxi Dictionary (说文解字 and 康熙大词典 respectively) are all-radical dictionaries, which organize characters by radical.

In an online dictionary, there is a section dedicated to radicals, so it gets even more convenient.

One could also use Cangjie/Wubihua or similar to simulate this "radical-lookup".

Additionally, some dictionaries have a "first-5-stroke preface" that allows searching based on stroke order.

TL;DR: This has already been invented.


Does 海半仙 have an English translation? I'm seeing a few references to 海半仙 in articles I'm going over.

For instance: there is this note on Douban

  相传，同山镇上的酩酊山巅住着一位通晓天地玄机的酿酒仙人，叫海半仙。

There are references there to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, so I'm assuming there would be some sort of reference to this in English, but I'm not really finding anything.

The only thing I've remotely found is this sandbox on Wikipedia.

  Tongshanshao a kind of wine, also called shocks or sorghum wine.In the remote hometown of xi shi, there is a town called tongshan town, which is rich in sorghum. Sorghum rice has no longer been used as food for many years, so the common people there use it to make soju, and carry forward it into a characteristic. As a result, this kind of wine has a common name, called "tongshan shao".

Other than this I'm not really able to find anything about 同山镇 -or- 海半仙 -or- 翠屏 in English.

Any ideas?

In chinese,半仙==半+仙==half+fairy(generaly male)。Generally, 半仙 is a human but with some magical power, rather than a ghost, the 半 means a half, not a entire fairy（because He is still a human）.

The adjective 海 in 海半仙，most probally the place this 半仙 lives is close to （OR in） a sea or lake （waterside）. It can also be a family name of 半仙, but mostly is the place relating to water.

You may encounter 陈半仙，where 陈 mostly is a family name, because 陈 in China is a very popular family name, but 海 is not


How to add emphasis to sentences Last week a kid wrote on the office white board "Give me all your cheese now!" and I attempted a translation into Chinese (mostly to practice my handwriting). I wrote 马上给我你的奶酪。 I felt like this translation was lacking emphasis, but I didn't know how to properly add it. I know that 啊 / 呀 is often used in this way, but I'm not sure if it's the correct choice to use here or where to add it. How do I increase the emphasis of this sentence instead of making it deadpan?

Personally, I find Mandarin rather unsuitable for a sentence like this.

(Note that the sentence "gimme yo cheese!" sounds ridiculous in English.)

When I think about the formal nature of standardized Mandarin, I can't help but dream up a sentence like: 请把你的奶酪都给我吧

Of course, this sentence sounds pretty silly, and the 请……吧 pattern has an effect opposite of what you wanted. Ending a sentence with 啊 (or one of its similar sounding particles, e.g., 哎) would do the trick.

As suggested above: 交出你的奶酪啊！ is good.

That said, I think you'd end up with better results if you resorted to a dialect (just like "gimme" is not standardized English).

As a more aggressive alternative in Mandarin, you could try: 赶快把(所有的)奶酪都给老子交出来！

This basically sounds like you are robbing someone for their cheese, which would have had the humorous effect you intended (judging by your described context), but it'd be tough to imagine an appropriate real-life scenario in which to employ this vocabulary.

...Unless you were really trying to rob somebody: 把值钱的东西都给老子交出来啊！

Disclaimer: Don't steal! Don't rob! 构建和谐社会！


What is the purpose of 焉 in 「不近人情焉」? The full sentence is: 「肩吾问於连叔曰：“吾闻言於接舆，大而无当，往而不返，吾惊怖其言，犹河汉而无极也！大有迳庭，不近人情焉。”」

焉 means "where" or "at" (correct me if I'm wrong), so what does 焉 serve here?

Several Classical Chinese particles are of onomatopoetic origin, and have neither a fixed translation nor a fixed character representation.「焉」sometimes means where or at, but you'll have to rely on context to figure when this meaning applies.

Those meanings do not apply here.「焉」, in this context, is an end-of-phrase modal particle (句末語气詞).

  吾聞言於接輿，大而無當，往而不反。吾驚怖其言，猶河漢而無極也，大有逕庭，不近人情「焉」。

  I heard words from 接輿 which were extravagant but hollow, and irretrievable once uttered. His words frightened me;  (1) they were vast and boundless like the galaxy, polar opposite to reality, and worlds apart from the experiences of man (2)

Two options for translating「焉」in this passage. Place one of these in their respective numbered positions:

surely,
!

  For reference, a passage where where or at applies as a translation to「焉」:

    《左傳・隱公元年》：＂制，巖邑也，虢叔死「焉」。＂

    Commentary of Zuo, first ruling year of Duke Yin of Lu: " 制 , (name of a) strategically important city. 虢叔 passed away「here」."

Reference:

《王力古漢語字典》


How do you say "Thursday will be cloudy" in Chinese Is it just "星期四会阴天"?

Also if you say "Thursday will be cloudy" it translates to "星期四有风”, so do you also say "星期四会有热”？

"thursday will be cloudy" means "星期四（是）阴天" or "星期四（是）多云".

有风 means 'windy', not 'cloudy'.

We usually say "星期四（天气）（会）很热”, "星期四有风”, "星期四(是)晴天”， "星期四有雨”， "星期四（可能）（会）下雨” and etc.


What is the meaning of 练 in 冬练三九？ I see pretty pictures of plum blossom, 81 petals of the 九九消寒图，but I can't really figure out the meaning of 练 in:

‘冬练三九，夏练三伏‘ What does this 练 mean here? Maybe:

Winter has?? 3 very cold periods '九‘， summer has?? 3 very hot periods.

Any tips please?

Guifan

  冬练

  动 根据冬季气候特点进行体育锻炼, 以增强中枢神经系统的体温调节功能, 改善肌体抗寒能力, 增强体质。

Basically: winter exercises/training (based at improving thermal workings of the central nervous system, etc.)

Hanyu Da Cidian

  冬练三九，夏练三伏

  指不管严寒酷暑,坚持刻苦锻炼。三九,一年中最冷的时期。三伏,一年中最热的时期。

Sanjiu is the coldest part of the year - sanfu is the hottest part of the year. So: no matter how adverse weather conditions are one must persist in painstaking physical exercise.

Here's more examples from Hanyu Da Cidian:

  梁斌《烽烟图》
  这是练来的!我爸爸曾对我说过,叫我冬练三九,夏练三伏!

  新凤霞《童年纪事》
  学戏练功吃苦可真不少,冬练三九,夏练三伏。

  又《艺海博览》
  青年演员要做到拳不离手,曲不离口。冬练三九,夏练三伏。练出来没有用不上的。

Just to clarify the times of year:

A Chinese-English Dictoonary

  三九

  the third nine-day period after the winter solstice-the coldest days of winter

&&

  三伏

  the three fu-the three hottest periods of the year (i.e. 初伏 chūfú, 中伏 zhōngfú, and 末伏 mòfú; altogether 30 or 40 days)

&&

  出伏

  the first day of the first fu (falling in mid-July)

&&

  中伏

  the first day of the middle or second fu (falling in late July)

&&

  末伏

  the first day of the last or third fu (falling in early or mid August)


Simple poetry for beginners Can somebody suggest any traditional (possibly simple!) poetry for beginners, something that could be easily learnt by heart, just to help memorization of pronunciation and practicing?

Note that I'm not looking for learning resources that could be somehow "volatile", but for well-known classics in literature.

Maybe there are suitable poets studied by children at primary school...

Thanks!

http://www.3kid.net/ertong/tangshi-sanbaishou.htm
has many for you to choose from; here are some examples:

咏鹅

-骆宾王

鹅，鹅，鹅，
曲项向天歌。
白毛浮绿水，
红掌拨清波。

春晓

-孟浩然

春眠不觉晓，
处处闻啼鸟。
夜来风雨声，
花落知多少。

登鹳雀楼

-王之涣

白日依山尽，
黄河入海流。
欲穷千里目，
更上一层楼。


How to say “tastes bad” for inedibles? The standard phrase for tastes bad is 难吃. But plenty of stuff tastes bad without being edible. For instance toothpaste. I performed a google search for:

难吃的牙膏

finding no exact and just one near match.
So, how to express tastes bad, when the subject is not edible?

味道不好的牙膏 ？

苦口的牙膏 ？

Perhaps only for bitter pastes?

味道不好的牙膏 ？

Yes, 味道不好 or 味道很差  would do
味道不好 (doesn't taste good) e.g. 这漱口水味道不好，像消毒酒精一般的
味道很差 (taste awful) e.g. 这口香糖味道很差，像咳嗽药水一般的
这牙膏味道不好/很差，薄荷味太重
Also: 難以入口 (too awful to put in mouth)
Example:
嚼烟草对不吸烟的人来说是难以入口的
这有苦味的口香糖真是难以入口
这有重酒精味，难以入口的漱口水也拿出来卖？
imrek wrote:

X(的)味道很难受: X tastes bad

Yes, you can substitute 不好(not good) or 很差(very bad) with 很难受 (hard to take) in the first three examples I provided
Beside 漱口水，口香糖，牙膏， 嚼烟草 and 檳榔 , I can't think of anything else with a taste that you put in the mouth but not supposed to swallow it


Is this statement about the challenges of tracking down the Chinese equivalent of a name in Pinyin basically correct? In the Space Exploration SE question Is the Ceres-1 the first Chinese rocket that was given an official English name? I wrote the following as background.

Transliteration from Chinese Pinyin to English is ambiguous; many Chinese characters can have the same sound, and Pinyin without the tone "ambiguifies" by an additional factor of four per character (syllable) , so while one (not me!) might be able to guess what Gu Shen Xing might be, it's impossible to be certain. (4 x 4 x 4 = 64)
In other words, you can't type pinyin like "Gu Shen Xing" or "Gushenxing" into a search engine or translator and expect to find the correct Chinese. It might try to guess, but it's a one-to-many mapping.
In other words, having an additional English name using an alphabet instead of romanized equivalent is probably extremely helpful for a rocket looking for international customers.

This is based on personal experience and not scholarly knowledge nor certainty that a bilingual individual might have.
Question: Is this statement about the challenges of tracking down the Chinese equivalent of a name in Pinyin basically correct? Have I summarized the situation at least fairly correctly for a lay reader who is otherwise mostly unfamiliar with Chinese?

Yes and no.  The characters associated with context-free random toneless pinyin will sometimes impossible to infer with certainty.  However, the issue is more about identifying characters which match the pinyin, and not really about the possible tone combinations.  Thus, context gives a lot of information as to which characters are appropriate and which are not.
To illustrate, it's unproblematic to understand something like:

Ni jiao shenme mingzi?

despite there being 56 ways of ascribing tones (noting the existence of the neutral tone).  The mental process is basically "think of a common character which has this pinyin and fits the context", and often there's only one or two such characters.  But for names of people and things its harder to pinpoint.
In the case of Ceres (谷神星), I'd guess a Chinese person who is interested in astronomy will already know the characters (the same way a native English speaker who is interested in astronomy would know "Ceres", and your average Joe might not know what "Ceres" is).  Someone who had to guess the characters for "Gushenxing" (being aware it's in an astronomical context) would likely get 星 ("heavenly body") for "xing" correct, and may correctly recognize 谷神 from Chinese mythology.  However, they might also guess 古 ("ancient") or 姑 ("paternal aunt") for "gu" and 深 ("deep") for "shen".  So it's an overestimate to say there are 43 ways to guess the tones for "Gushenxing" as many of the random tone combinations are not plausible, but the characters are not inferable with certainty.  (And it's possible for Baidu to guess Gushenxing means 谷神星.)
Let's take the surname "Xu" as another example: from CC-CEDICT, there are multiple characters which are used as surnames with the toneless pinyin "Xu":
徐 徐 [Xu2] /surname Xu/
盱 盱 [Xu1] /surname Xu/
胥 胥 [Xu1] /surname Xu/
藇 藇 [Xu4] /surname Xu/
許 许 [Xu3] /surname Xu/
鄦 鄦 [Xu3] /surname Xu/vassal state during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-221 BC)/

Familiarity with Chinese lets us know it's most likely 徐 or 许, but both of these surnames are common, so it's not possible to be certain how to pronounce a surname written "Xu".
As an additional point, it's also not uncommon for Chinese people to have rare characters in their names, e.g. I couldn't add three of my co-authors names to my CV because the LaTeX font I used didn't contain these characters (璟 瑀 曌: I replace them with homophones (「景」「雨」「照」)).  So a Chinese person may not even recognize characters used in people's names: sometimes the character itself is not enough.


Can someone please help me translate this chop/seal/stamp? Back in 1994 my mother and I took a trip to Hong Kong to visit my grandfather, a US ex-pat, that lived there. She had this chop commissioned while we were visiting.
Unfortunately, I don't have any way to determine what she had asked to be engraved, as she had a stroke about 8 years ago and cannot remember the stamp. All I know is that it is soapstone and I thought it would be her name "Lynne" or her family name "Curran" or the combination "Lynne Curran".
When I searched for her name "Lynne", I found 琳恩. The first symbol, or part of it, 琳 恩 seems to be incorporated into the chop.
Thank you for any help that can be provided.

the character is 莉 (u+8389), sound file; it’s the transliteration of “lynne”.
“莉” originally means grass (艸); later used for white jasmine as in “茉莉”.
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=莉
imo, it’s quite good, for female name


What is the meaning of '脱产培训‘？ Is '脱产培训‘ the opposite of '在岗培训‘ that is to say ’off the job training' compared to 'on the job training'?

Not exactly.

Long answer:

According to 现代汉语规范词典 / The Standard Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese
Copyright © 2010, 2012 Oxford University Press and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing, Co., Ltd. and 牛津英汉汉英词典 / Oxford Chinese Dictionary
Copyright © 2010, 2013 Oxford University Press and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing Co., Ltd.

  脱产 tuōchǎn
  [动]脱离原来从事的直接生产岗位，担任非生产性工作或专门学习；也泛指脱离原来的工作岗位，担任其他工作或专门学习。
  基层干部大都不脱产 | 脱产进修

  脱产 tuōchǎn
  [动]
  be released from one’s regular work to take on other duties
  脱产进修
  go on block release
  脱产学习
  be given study leave

In real life, 脱产培训 could mean both quitting your job and take a training or suspending your work duties and take a training.

I assume off the job training means a training you take not as part of your job. And a on job training is a training as part of your job.

But for 脱产培训, if you quit your job and take a training, it certainly is an off-the-job training. But not all off-the-job trainings are 脱产培训 since you can have a job at day and take some personal training at night which should still be counted as off-the-job training even you have a regular work duty.

On the other hand, if your normal duties are suspended and be provided a training opportunity by your company, the training still counts as 脱产培训 but not off-the-job training. Because the training is part of your job, it is on-job-training.

A bit confusing. To sum up, 脱产 concerns more about whether or not your are released from production, i.e your primary duty, not whether or not it is related to your job or organisation.


Chinese Chengyu (Idiom): Refute somebody with his own argument Is there a Chinese Idiom for

"Refute somebody with his own argument"?

I thought this is not quite the same as "self-contradictory" 自相矛盾.

Thank you.

Maybe 以子之矛，攻子之盾 is the answer, I couldn't find another alternative.

Description on Baidu Baike


Chinese names for different types of radicals? According to the Wikipedia article Radical (Chinese characters), the Chinese name for radical is 部首 (bùshǒu; literally "section header"). The term appears to originate from the 2nd-century dictionary 說文解字 / Shuōwén Jiězì. Another term I've seen is 偏旁 (piānpáng), e.g. on Wikibooks.

However, what I'm mainly interested in are Chinese names for different categories of radicals (if such names are in use), i.e.

semantic components such as  氵for water and  亻for human being,
phonetic components,
components such as 丿, which are used as radicals in dictionaries (for lookup purposes) without having a meaning of their own.

I'm mainly interested in the Chinese term for the fist category, since that category is probably most helpful when learning Chinese characters.

(Please note that I'm not asking for names of individual radicals, since that has been covered in, e.g. Understandable names of the radicals or types of character composition.)

部首: Radical, used for indexing dictionaries (Shuowen radicals, Kangxi radicals, radicals in modern dictionaries, etc.).
聲符1: Phonetic component. Also called 音符, but 音符 may also mean ‘musical note’.
意符: Semantic component. The famous paleographer Qiu Xigui 裘锡圭2 divides 意符 into two subcategories3:

義符: meaning component (it is the meaning of the component that is relevant),
形符: pictographic component, form component (it is what the component depicts that is relevant).

偏旁: This term is quite vague, but probably the most frequent of them all, especially in informal speech. It may mean 部首 (especially a standing one, on the left- or right-hand side of a character), but it also may refer to any component or a part of a character, semantic or phonetic.
筆畫: Calligraphic stroke.

1. Instead of 聲符、義符、形符 you can also write/say 聲旁、義旁、形旁.

2. 裘锡圭《文字学概要》, English version: Qiu Xigui, Chinese Writing, translated by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman

3. The distinction (or lack thereof) between 意符, 義符 and 形符 is quite subtle and depends on the theory you subscribe to. This video contains a nice English explanation of the difference between meaning components and form components.


what is the difference between 现场 and 地点? Do both of them mean "location" or "site", or is there something that sets them apart? Thank you in advance!

地点 = location, while 现场 = being present at a location

地点 normally describes a precise location.

现场 describes the fact that some one is in a place. That place can be a precise location or an area.

For example

请告诉我地点。
Please tell me the location.

我在现场，请告诉我具体地点。
I am here, please tell me the exact location.


If there are ever "annotations" above or below Chinese characters In Latin scripts we have the letter a but also it "annotated" with an accent in this case: á. These accents/annotations/diacritics can be above or below the current Latin character. Other languages like Hindi/Devanagari have similar features.

I am wondering if Chinese has any of this sort of thing. I don't remember where I saw it but I remember some Japanese text had a small either Chinese or Japanese character next to (or I think it was above, in smaller font like a superscript, but directly centered above) the given character, which I think told a deeper meaning about the main character. I'm not sure exactly what it was but it was some sort of "annotation" that went above the main character in text.

So I'm wondering if for some Chinese character, there is some piece of information which could be attached to it either above or below, or some enhancing artifact like an accent or a tone or any particular thing. I know tones are marked with ^ and the like in Pinyin, but that's Latin script. I'm wondering specifically for Chinese characters.

No, the Chinese character itself doesn't have such annotation.
For Japanese, that happens on hiragana/katakana, like 'た' vs 'だ', but not in 'kanji'.

If two Chinese character happens to appear as if annotation applied, it's likely they are 2 different characters.


Can one radical contain another radical? For example, in https://ceritabahasa.co/2015/01/07/tabel-radikal-bushou-hanzi/

character 犬 quǎn means dog seems to contain character  大 which means big.

It seems to me that quan is just da with extra apostrophe or something.

What am I missing?

Radical for two and three also obviously contains radical for one. It's just radical one done three times, for example, for three.

To ask an analogous question about the shapes of the letters in the Latin alphabet:

  Does the letter "E" contain the the letter "F"?

  It seems that "E" is just "F" with an extra horizontal line on the bottom.

In terms of shapes in the modern script, it is trivially obvious that "E" contains the strokes of "F". What "E" does not contain is any functionality of "F"; the sound of "F" does not contribute anything to the sound of "E".

"E" containing the strokes of "F" does not explain any functional relation between "E" and "F", if there is any at all. Similarly,「犬」containing the strokes of「大」provides no explanation of the functional relationship between those two, and this is what you're missing.

  For reference, "E" and "F" are unrelated. From Wikipedia:

  The Latin letter 'E' differs little from its source, the Greek letter epsilon, 'Ε'. This in turn comes from the Semitic letter hê, which has been suggested to have started as a praying or calling human figure (hillul 'jubilation'), and was probably based on a similar Egyptian hieroglyph that indicated a different pronunciation. In Semitic, the letter represented /h/(and /e/ in foreign words); in Greek, hê became the letter epsilon, used to represent /e/. The various forms of the Old Italic script and the Latin alphabet followed this usage.

  The origin of 'F' is the Semitic letter vâv (or waw) that represented a sound like /v/ or /w/. Graphically it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club. It may have been based on a comparable Egyptian hieroglyph such as that which represented the word mace (transliterated as ḥ(dj)):

  The Phoenician form of the letter was adopted into Greek as a vowel, upsilon (which resembled its descendant 'Y' but was also the ancestor of the Roman letters 'U', 'V', and 'W'); and, with another form, as a consonant, digamma, which indicated the pronunciation /w/, as in Phoenician. Latin 'F,' despite being pronounced differently, is ultimately descended from digamma and closely resembles it in form.

「犬」and「大」are similarly unrelated, but you wouldn't be able to immediately know this without exploring a bit of history. Their shapes converged because of the way writing was stylised and streamlined.

「犬」was originally a picture of a dog.

商甲乙3853合集3521西周金員方鼎集成2695楚簡包2・6　篆說文解字　現代楷

「大」was originally a frontal view of an adult person, indicating the meaning adult > big, large. Choosing samples from roughly the same location and period in time, the comparable development looks like

商甲甲387合集22421西周金大保方鼎集成2158楚簡包2・2　篆說文解字　現代楷

Of course, there are modern shapes containing the strokes of「大」which really did contain「大」historically, such as「因」.

商甲餘15.3合集5651西周金蟎鼎集成2765戰・晉金陳侯因敦集成4649篆說文解字　現代楷

There are also things that originally contained「大」, but which is not recognisable in the modern script anymore, such as「達」, where「大」is squashed into a shape identical to「土」.

商甲存2011合集27745篆說文解字　現代楷

  「大」would have otherwise been more obvious using the oracle bone form:

  篆說文或體　現代楷


How would I say "What does X mean?" in mandarin? This would be useful to know if learners encounter a word they're unaware of (such as a slang/jargon word) that an outsider wouldn't know possibly off the bat.


Word list for computer UI and technical. (Simplified character, pinyin, English) My Chinese is very rusty, and I would like to learn to recognize more Chinese characters that appear in the GUI of operating systems, and popular apps.

For example:

取消 Qǔxiāo = Cancel
控制面板 Kòngzhì miànbǎn = Control Panel

I don't know if such a list would be manageable for learning and referring.

If I had to choose between learning Mainland China / Hong Kong / Taiwan versions, I would prioritize Mainland China.  Pinyin and audio pronunciation would be ideal.

Thank you all.

I have done some software translation and there are couple of ways you can go about learning UI-related language. The first thing is to start using applications (including your operating system) in Chinese. This would be the first step if you're serious about this, because otherwise it's hard to get a good grasp of the really common words

Note that words are used differently on the Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and so on. Even simple words like "save" or "paste" can be different, so it's not just a matter of simplified and traditional Chinese. Sometimes it even differs between applications.

There are two good resources you can use:

電腦名詞譯名 - This is a huge list of computer-related words. It's extremely useful since it includes both Taiwan and Mainland usage so you can compare and choose the appropriate terms. This list is REALLY big, by the way, by far the most comprehensive resources I've found.
有道 - This is an online dictionary that also has a lot of translated articles (parallel texts). This is very good if you want to know how dialogues in programs are written, including error messages and prompts of different kinds. Searching here will take you very far, but do make sure to check examples to make sure the answer you find really is the right one.

I'm not sure if this answer is too "advanced". If you're just looking for the 100 most common computer-related words, others have provided or will provide better answers. This is the best I can offer if you want to go beyond that, though.


Can anyone identify the characters on this seal? I saw this seal recently visiting a friend of mine who collects old paintings and calligraphy in Shanghai. I'm hoping that someone here knows what these characters are. Any help is greatly appreciated!

EDIT: Here is the full image, including the calligraphy.

the seal, my best guess is "敏之":

the left character is 㞢 (u+37a2), a variant of 之 (u+4e4b):

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

the right character had a left-right structure, the right component is 攴 (攵):

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

unfortunately, the left component is hard to recognise, so "敏" is my guess only.

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


Why does 千秋 mean a swing? Breaking down each word it means thousand autumns.

Why does this mean a playground swing?

Is this a local cantonese word or is it used in mandarin too?

in 唐 dynasty (618-907), there're records of 千秋:

the peom 樓前 by 王建

天寶年前勤政樓
每年三日作千秋
飛龍老馬曾教舞
聞著音聲總舉頭

another one is the 漢武帝後庭鞦韆賦 by 高無際, which stated:

況鞦韆者﹒千秋也﹒
漢武祈千秋之壽﹒
故後宮多鞦韆之樂

later, in 記纂淵海　卷八十九, by 潘自牧 (~1195) of 宋 dynasty (p33-34 of pdf file);

https://archive.org/details/06065623.cn

that the term "鞦韆" was elaborated. mr 潘 claimed that, according to mr 高:

鞦韆﹒漢武帝後庭之戲﹒
本云千秋﹒祝壽之詞也﹒
語訛轉為秋千﹒後人乃旁加革

briefly, it's 千秋  --> 秋千 --> 鞦韆

back to the original question, the game "swing" in cantonese is "千秋", which share the meaning "thousand autumn", a term for wishing for longevity.

lastly, i would say that it's one of the numerous evidences, that cantonese is highly correlated with middle chinese. or, one might say that cantonese preserve more / change less than other "dialects".

have fun :)


What is the cultural meaning of the practice 歃 when taking an oath ? I came across the character 歃 ,
namely in the sentence:

  葵丘之會諸侯，束牲、載書而不歃血

it is glossed as "to smear one's mouth with the blood of a victim to take an oath".

I have searched for further details on this custom, but I was limited to sites only in Chinese, which I do not understand well enough.

Could you explain the meaning of 歃 , when it was used, by whom, for which purpose, where did it come from, when did it extinguish, who could do this, what significance did it have, how was it performed, did the owner of the blood been killed etc. ?

The passage is punctuated slightly wrong, it should be 葵丘之會，諸侯束牲、載書而不歃血: At the assembly at Kuiqiu, the feudal lords bound the sacrifice and placed their written pledges on it, but did not make blood oaths (i.e. they did not kill animals as part of the ceremony of allegiance).

The assembly at Kuiqiu marked the ascendance of Qi Huan gong 齊桓公, the first of the five feudal leaders (五霸) of the Spring and Autumn period, and the decline of the Zhou royal house. It was a meeting convened by Qi, at that point the most powerful of the feudal states, to make an alliance between the major rulers of the time.

The expression sha xue is often used in the longer phrase 歃血為盟. An animal sacrifice was killed and its blood wiped on the lips. The written agreement was then placed on the sacrifice and the whole thing buried. This action was part of the regular ceremony of alliance between states, and was performed either by the leader of the state or his representative.  It could also occur between lesser figures, and different animals were supposedly used, depending on their status

The idea was that putting blood on the mouth solemnified the words of the treaty of alliance, and signified the punishment that would come on whoever broke the agreement (or at least that's one interpretation).

This passage is from Mengzi, who felt that Qi Huan gong's decision not to use blood in the ceremony of allegiance between the feudal lords was superior to later practice using blood, which involved the idea of divine retribution, and thus departed from the mutual trust that was essential for the allegiance.

On the other hand, according to Mengzi, Qi Huan gong, by convening the assembly, arrogated to himself a power that belonged to the Zhou royal house, and had therefore also offended against virtue.

Later note: There is an article that discusses the significance of these "covenant tablets" here


Etymology of 若 vis-a-vis 如果 I came across 若 from my lessons today, as in

  若天下雨，我就出发。

Being familiar with 如果, I immediately assumed 若 is just a short/abbreviated/spoken form of 如果.

However, I broached the idea to my Chinese colleagues and they immediately pointed out instead that 若 in practice is a bit more stodgy version of 如果 primarily used among "elite" or pretentious types (more "formal" was their wording).

Nevertheless, this left me wondering if perhaps there's some historical truth to my initial suspicion.

It's not likely that 若 is a contraction of 如果, because 若 came first by a thousand years or so.

Nor is it likely that 如果 is a splitting of 若, because 果 is real. Long before 如果 there was already 若果, and before 若果, 果 was already grammaticalized to mean "ultimately" ("bear fruit" -> "ultimately", see 果然, 果真).

So 若果 was a legitimate, intensified version of 若. As for how 若果 became 如果, we can speculate that it was an easy phonetic and etymological transition: 如果 [nja kojʔ] and 若果 [njak kojʔ] would have sounded almost identical even before the loss of stop finals post-MC, and 如 ("follow" -> "compares with/likens to") and 若 ("obey" -> "as if/if") are grammaticalized in similar, if subtly different ways.


What's the way to say "too/also/as well" in Taiwanese? I would like to learn to say "I love you too" in the Hokkien dialect, as my boyfriend's from Taiwan, and I would like to surprise him. But I can't find the way to say it online, and I've heard him pronounce it something like, "Wo ai lu." I think the Mandarin way is to say, "Wo ai ni," and "Wo ye ai ni," but I'm not sure. Can anyone answer me? I would like the characters, but also the romanization. And for this, as I wasn't clear before, I actually mean for the Hokkien, as it's no surprise to him I know kind of how to say the Mandarin. I'd like the romanization so I can say it to him. But I would also like to be able to write it, since we may take classes together, and we've been known to write notes to each other.

There are three words corresponding to Mandarin "也" in Taiwanese Hokkien.

也 iā
亦 i̍k
嘛 mā

I believe that in colloquial Hokkien, 也 is used exclusively in co-ordinated constructions, of the form "也 X 也 Y", which isn't what you want here. It is 嘛 that you're looking for.


Expressing the location: 哪里 or 哪儿? Which one of these expressions is the best one? Or are they both good, but for different situations?

For example:

  你住在哪里？ VS 你住在哪儿？ = Where do you live?
  Nĭ zhù zài nă lĭ? ——— Nĭ zhù zài năr?
  你在哪里工作？ VS 你在哪儿工作？ = Where do you work?
  Nĭ zài nă lĭ gōng zuò? — Nĭ zài năr gōng zuò ?

Considering that when writing, the second version was actually suggested as a whole (for the second example only), while the first wasn't, maybe the second one is the more correct, but I'd like some more elaboration by a native speaker.

When expressing locations, I don't think there is a difference between 哪儿 and 哪里. Both of them mean(to express locations),

where, (in, at)what place
(in, at)every place, everywhere

Your examples show the first meaning. I would like to write a sentence to show the second meaning.

  他在哪儿都很出色。
  他在哪里都很出色。

  He is outstanding everywhere.

However, 哪里 can mean something else.

Used in a sentence pattern called “反义疑问句"(sorry, I don't know the grammar jargon in English, but I could show you an example about it. Can someone tell me this jargon?) to emphasize your mood of doubt, that you don't believe it. Here, you could also use "哪". Example:

  他已经睡着了，哪里会知道我们说了什么？
  他已经睡着了，哪会知道我们说了什么？

  Meaning: He has been in sleep already. How could he know what we said. (I don't think he would know)

As an answer to the praises from others, to show your humbleness. For example, I find that you speak Chinese well, so I say:

  Alenanno, 你中文说得挺好的。

and you answer

  哪里，哪里。

Literally it means "where, where", actually means "No, I am not so good as you say. I still need improvements". We Chinese usually would answer in this way to show the humbleness.


Is the sentence "我知道它，但是我忘了“ unnatural? Would the sentence "我知道它，但是我忘了“ sound unnatural?
As in, 'I know it, but I've forgotten it' (I learnt it sometime ago, but have now forgotten it)

Both "我知道它，但是我忘了" and "我知道这个，但是我忘了" sounds unnatural to me. I have no idea what you are talking about until I saw the English explanation: I learnt it sometime ago, but have now forgotten it. To me, the most natural way to say this is to say it with details, like "我知道这个，但是我忘记具体的内容" (I knew this, but now I forgot all the details) or even "我记得我看到过这件事，但是其他的都忘记了" (I know I have seen this, but I cannot remember anything else about it).


What does 出人头地 mean? The idiom 出人头地 chūréntóudì means “stand out among one’s fellows”. How to mix the above four words and arrive at the above meaning?

出人頭地

比喻超越他人，獨露頭角 Metaphor to surpass others, to stand alone

解釋： 讓他高出一頭。語本宋．歐陽修〈與梅聖俞書〉：「讀軾書，不覺汗出。快哉，快哉！老夫當避路，放他出一頭地也。』」後指超越他人，獨露頭角

出 = 超出 (Exceed); 高出 (higher than)
人 = people/ others
頭 = head (refers to the length of one head -- used here as a measuring unit)
地 = ground
The origin of '出人頭地' was  a quote from a famous scholar 歐陽修: '(放他)出一頭地' = '(give way and let him) get one head length of ground ahead'
Long story short,  歐陽修 read a great article and remarked "This author is great, I should give way and let him get one head length of ground ahead of me (in future achievements)"
The modern usage of 出人頭地 is 'to become successful in society' in general


Question about third tone sandhi in two specific cases I know of the commonly cited rules for third tones, which are the following (copied from somewhere else, so excuse the grammatical errors):

"When word with the 3rd tone is used alone, or used at the end of the expression, it's pronounced as the original tone, i.e. the 3rd tone. e.g. 雪, 滑雪.

When two words with the 3rd tone are used together, the 1st one is pronounced as the 2nd tone. e.g. 老虎, 海岛.

When word with the 3rd tone is used before other words with the 1st/2nd/4th tone, it's pronounced as the 半三声 (only the first half of the 3rd tone, without the rising tone part). e.g. 卡车, 草莓.

When three words with the 3rd tone are used together;
If the first two words are closely linked, i.e. 2+1 construction, then the first two words are pronounced as the 2nd tone. e.g. 草稿纸, 古典美.
If the last two words are closely linked, i.e. 1+2 construction, then the 1st word is pronounced as 半三声, the 2nd word is pronounced as the 2nd tone. e.g. 米老鼠, 老领导."

What I'd like to know is:

A third tone should generally be pronounced as a full third tone whenever it is the last syllable in a word/expression. Is that true even when speaking quickly, meaning the final third tone of a word is quickly followed by a non-third tone? Or should it be a half third tone in that case?
What about the following examples of multiple third tones:
使馆里，大使馆里，地铁里?
or
米老鼠我不太喜欢？
These don't quite fit any of the categories above. How should the tones be altered (if at all)? Does anyone know the rules? None of my Chinese friends are certain so I hope someone here does.

Thanks a lot!

To the first question, I think 3rd tones are only full when its in the end of the sentences.

To the second question, I think it depends on how you do the segmentations. The last character in every parts will be 3rd tone while other are 2nd tones.

Let's say 米老鼠 would be segged as 米 / 老鼠, so the tones would be [3, 2, 3].

Some other examples: 剪指甲 would be segged as 剪 / 指甲, so the tones would be [3, 2, 3].

"我有好幾本火影忍者的漫畫" is a sentence, and the first nine characters are 3rd tones. It can be segged as 我有 / 好幾本 / 火影 / 忍者 , and the tone is

[2,3 / 2,2,3 / 2,3 / 2,3 ].

"展覽館小老鼠很口渴只好找井水洗水果 " is another sentence, and all the characters are 3rd tones. It can be segged as 展覽館 / 小 / 老鼠 / 很 / 口渴 / 只好 / 找 / 井水 / 洗 / 水果, and the tones is

[2,2,3 / 3 / 2,3 / 3 / 2,3 / 2,3 / 3 / 2,3 / 3 / 2,3]


What is a good form of address for a male friend who is too old to be 小, too young to be 老, and too humble to be called 大? I have a male "friend", last name 柯 (kē) who is over 30.  From ages 18-30 or so, he went by 小柯, but that seems less and less appropriate as he gets older.  Always going by his full name seems overly long and formal, he doesn't like "大", and he's not old enough for 老 (yet).

My "friend" was thinking about going by 阿柯 (ā kē) and having friends introduce him this way.  He thought the main benefit would be that people both younger and older could use this friendlier, less intimidating and formal means of address.  My "friend" isn't a native speaker, so he's not sure if there are negative connotations.

So would 阿 [LAST NAME] be the best form of address for these conditions or if not, what would a better one be?

[EDIT] I should have originally specified that he himself is looking for something to be called "around the office", that is, both by people senior and junior to him.  His boss calling him 老柯 or 柯哥 doesn't seem quite appropriate.  It does seem that 哥 is the most popular "among friends" answer.

if he is older than you are, then 柯兄 (柯老兄)
if he is younger, then 老弟 (柯老弟)
if he is of the same age, and his first name consists 2 chinese characters, then first name
if he is of the same age, and his first name consists 1 chinese character, then full name (calling someone by their full name is not rude if they are the same age or younger in China)

EDIT: I'm from Northern China and we don't use 阿X as often. that's more of a southern convention.

Note: if his first name is one character, then calling him by his first name sounds 肉麻。 It is actually worse if you are of the same gender. then that just sounds wrong! :P


Differences between 征, 伐, 讨, 侵, 袭? These characters all mean "to attack" or "to invade", but what are the differences between them? When should one be used and not the others?

it is hard to tell what they exactly mean without contexts, but i can give you a very general idea of these characters:

征 (zheng1) means 'wage war by travelling a long distance'. it is usually associated with a war with a very large scale in both space and time.

伐 (fa2) is just 'to wage war against', nothing more. in fact, among all five characters, only the original meaning of 伐 is directly related with war.

讨 (tao3), literally "to demand", means "to wage war demanding justice/punish the wrongdoers"

侵 (qin1) means “to invade" or "to encroach"

袭 (xi2) is usually associated with “sudden attack”.


How to translate 冲 in a phrase 道冲。 Is there any meaning of the character 冲 that allows to translate it as Vessel (or empty vessel)? The section four of 道德经 states: "道沖而用之或不盈" - 冲 is usually translated here as an empty vessel or emptiness of a vessel - but I am not sure what is the basis for such translation.

There is no original meaning of 沖 that means "vessel" or "pour into". "Pour against" as a later extension, maybe...

说文 is pretty clear that 沖 means to "surge up and shake extensively", i.e. to "gush" (of water).

There is also this phrase in pre-Han text: "盈而不沖". "Fill up but not gush".

Supposedly, there are two original versions of the passage in question:

帛書甲本：□□□□□□□盈也，潚呵始萬物之宗。銼其解其紛，和其□，同□□□□□或存，吾不知□子也，象帝之先。

帛書乙本：道沖而用之有弗盈也，潚呵似萬物之宗。銼其兌，解其芬，和其光，同其塵，湛呵似或存。吾不知其誰之子也，象帝之先。

Your quote is already a slightly edited paraphrase. If we are to stay faithful to what is literally written, we may translate:

道沖而用之有弗盈也，潚呵似萬物之宗 ... 湛呵似或存 = The Law gushes and administers whatever is not filled up, a deep reservoir as if the source of all things ... a flood as if something is alive.


Stative verbs in Chinese: only for adjectives? I've recently discovered that in Chinese, adjectives can function as verbs. An answer on this site stated that "all adjectives in Chinese can function as verbs".

This was obviously an interesting discovery for a Chinese learner like me, and I actually never noticed that this sentence lacks a verb, yet it's one of the first that we learn:

  我很好。

or another simple sentence like:

  他很高。

But both sentences show like the "verb function" is served by "很" and not "好" or "高". As far as I can tell, "很" is an adverb not an adjective. Same with this one. "Not" is an adverb, not an adjective. Yet we have the same phenomenon:

  他不高。

So am I missing something here? Am I being too strict about that "adjectives" or am I misjudging something?

By the way, I'll take advantage of this question to ask: are really all adjectives able to be stative verbs or are there exceptions?

As a native speaker, I have noticed such a phenomenon for many years, but I have never thought of the logic or reasons behind it. Perhaps we should not (or even could not) go too far on this topic.

This topic is academic, I believe. You would find many papers on this topic when you search on the internet (I use the key word: "汉语 形容词 谓语"). After reading some papers and thinking of how I would say in different cases, I think we'd better say "some adjectives could be used as the predicate in Chinese" and there are some fixed patterns where an adjective is used in this case. I would like to elaborate on this topic from several points.

1. Types of the Adjective
As Claw pointed out, there are two types of adjectives in Chinese (though, in academic world, there are some disputes on this. Someone holds that the adjectives (the term used now) in Chinese should be classified into two different parts of speech): "attributive" and "predicative". The difference between the two types is: "Can this adjective be modified with 很 (very)?"

2. Patterns for Attributive Adjectives
You could use the construction "[subject]是[attributive adj]的". In English, the verb "be (是 in Chinese)" is indispensable and it's called "Link Verb". In this case, the use of the adjective is similar with that in English.

3. Patterns for Predicative Adjectives
The problem becomes a little complicated now. I can come up with some patterns.

1. degree adverb (很,非常,十分,有些,有点,不) + adj.
This is the pattern your examples use. In this case, I agree that the meaning of "很" weakens a lot. It seems that "很" works like a "marker". Of course, you may use "非常" or "十分" to express "very" if you really want to.

In general, it sounds very wierd "我好" ("你好" is another story, since it has been a usage or one interjection word, I think), "他高" in Chinese, but I think in some cases they are acceptable.
a. In a question and in the reply to that question.

  Q: 他帅吗？ Is he handsome?
  A: 他帅。He is handsome

b. Used in two clauses to express parallel, comparsion or condition.

  他胖，我不胖。 He is fat, (while) I am not fat.
  你高兴，我就高兴。 (If) you are happy, I am happy.
  这篇小说精彩，那篇也精彩。 This novel is excellent and that one is excellent too.

c. 又+adj+又+adj,既+adj+且+adj
Such patterns is used to connect two parallel words.

  这个苹果又大又圆。 This apple is big and round.
  敌人既凶残且愚蠢。 THe enemies are cruel and stupid.

2. Main subject (abbr: MS) + Subject's Property or Part (abbr: SP) + adj
This pattern is used to decribe the property of something.
Note: English translations in the parentheses are more formal, I think.

  他形容*憔悴。 His appearance is emaciated. (He looks emaciated)

Here, MS=他,SP=形容 and 憔悴 is the adj.
*形容 is a noun here, which means "the appearance of, the look of [a man]". Dont' be confused with "形容 (to describe)" as in "形容词 (adjective)".

  他工作能力强。 His work ability is strong. (He is capable of doing the work)

Here, MS=他,SP=工作能力 and 强 is the adj.

  我浑身无力。 My all body is feeble (I am feeble all over, from head to foot)

Here, MS=我, SP=浑身 and 强 is the adj.

3.Subject+Adjective+"了"
This pattern is used to express that the subject has been "adj" or has become (turned) "adj".

  树叶红了 The leaves has turned red.
  她漂亮了 She has become beautiful (Implies: she was not beautiful in the past but she is beautiful now)

4. Why do we need "很" here?<
fefe thinks that this is related to the length of syllables, but I don't think so. Because even with a two-character adjective, we still could not use the consctruction "Subject+Adj" to form a sentence (except for the cases I listed above). You won't say "她漂亮", though "漂亮" has two characters. Instead, you would say

  她很漂亮 or 她非常漂亮 (note 非常 has two characters)

In classic Chinese, ”是" was seldom used as "to be" and an adjective could be used as a verb or predicate directly. I really don't know why "很" or such adverbs are needed, but that just happens in Chinese.

  春风又绿江南岸  from the poem of 《泊船瓜洲》 by 王安石
  绿: [adj]green. Here: to make something green

  亲贤臣，远小人，此先汉之所以兴隆也。 from 《出师表》 by 诸葛亮
  远:[adj] remote, far. Here: to keep oneself from, to be far away from

I just read 《史记·淮阴侯列传》 (the biography of 韩信) and I found some good examples with adjectives in classic Chinese.

  信亦知其意，怒，竟绝去。 In modern Chinese, I would say,

  韩信也知道她的用意，很生气，最终离开。 Hanxin also understood her intention, so he became angry [at her] and left at last.

  信数(shù)与萧何语，何奇之。

  韩信与萧何交谈几次后，萧何[对他的军事才能]感到惊奇 After several talks with Hanxin, Xiaohe got suprised [with Hanxin's military talent]

  见信死，且喜且怜之。

  [刘邦]看见韩信已死，又高兴又同情。 [Liubang] found Hanxin was dead; [he was] happy and sympathized


Chinese commentary about a Sun Tzu quotation Is this possible for you to transcript (and translate ?) this old chinese text :

http://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=19/23/5wnr.jpg

[url=http://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=19/23/5wnr.jpg][img]https://zupimages.net/up/19/23/5wnr.jpg[/img][/url]

That's commentaries about this Sun tzu "Art of War" quotation :
故用間有五：有鄉間，有內間，有反間，有死間，有生間。

A simple Google search for 'art of war':

  http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html

  The Art of War

  By Sun Tzu

  XIII. The Use of Spies

  Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.

故用間有五 - Hence there are five classes of spies

有鄉間 -  there are Local spies

有內間 - there are inward spies

有反間 - there are converted spies

有死間 - there are doomed spies

有生間 - there are surviving spies

You can read the explanation on the five kinds of spies on that web-page


"I got the feeling that..." How can I express that in Chinese?
Examples:

I got a feeling that your English is better than my Chinese.
I got a feeling that tonight is going to be a good night.
I got a bad feeling about this.
I got a feeling that they are going to turn down our proposal.

etc.

Thanks!

Usually Chinese people say 我觉得 or 我感觉, meaning "I feel":

我觉得你的英语比我的中文好。
我觉得今晚一定会很棒。
我感觉他们会否决我的提议。

Or you can use the structurally similar 我有一种感觉. It sounds more lyrical, and is less commonly seen:

我有一种感觉，那就是今晚一定会很棒。
我有一种感觉，如果我你逃课的话，老师发现会很生气的。

--

"I got a bad feeling about this" is a different thing. If the thing has not happened, then it's usually "我有一种不祥的预感" or "感觉不妙啊". Most Star Wars references could be translated this way.


Various ways of saying OK? I mean OK as in said in agreement with what someone has suggested.

  A: We should go to the park. B: OK.

If someone used the verb 不 verb structure I would think you should use the same verb in expressing agreeement but is this true for all cases, notably "好“？

  A: 我们去公园吧。 B: 好 or 行 or ？？

Here are loose translations:

好的 = alright!

好吧 = okay, fine... (Kind of like... going along with it)

好啊 = sure! (As Wendy said... a bit more of an upbeat tone)

好 = Okay.

行 = Sure. I guess that works

恩　= Colloquial form of grunting in agreement... kind of like a verbal nod of approval

可以/可以啊 = I can/Sure!

Or, if you agree with what someone said... You can repeat the verb, or similar verb (in this case replace 去 (go) with 走　(walk)):

A: 我们去公园吧！
B: 走啊！


Google Translate English to Chinese roman letters In this video guy says every Chinese character has a pronunciation that can be written in roman letters.

Is it possible to configure Google Translate so that when I type hi it translates to Ni hao?

No that does not seem to be possible. However, if you take a look at below the translation, it'll tell you the pinyin pronunciation:


How do you say 'serving' in Chinese as it relates to nutrition? How do you say "serving" in Chinese, as in 1 serving of vegetables or 3 servings of bread, as it relates to nutrition? If you could give an example sentence too then that would be great! Thanks so much.

If it is restaurant food or fast food, you can use either '份' or the corresponding count word (量词). For example, 每份套餐, 每份薯条, 每个汉堡, 每份红烧肉, etc.

If it is a snack or drink, we directly use the mass or volume for 'serving'. For example: 每 100 mL 可乐 (cola)，每 100 g 薯片, etc.

Below is an empty nutrition label (used as the standard format) published by Ministry of Health of P.R.C. (中国卫生部). See http://www.gov.cn/gzdt/2008-01/11/content_856260.htm. What you want is the title of the second column.


How would you write the years 1951 and 1964 in Chinese characters? I know how to write the normal way to write numbers in Chinese but I wanted to know how to write years can anyone help me out? I really like the idea of getting this tattoed on me and I would like to be correct before I go ahead and do so.

go to Google Translate
select translate English to Chinese
input "one nine five one, one nine six four" --> Result = "一九五一，一九六四"
input "year" --> Result = 年

1951 = 一九五一年

1964 = 一九六四年

You can omit 年 if you just want straight translation of 1951 and 1964


Is the opposite of 上床 下床 or 起床? I have always learnt that 'to get out of bed' is 起床, but a book of mine says that two elderly people 从来不下床. Is there a difference between the two or is it just a dialect thing?
Also, if you can say 下床, can you say 我上床 to mean 'I am going to bed'?

Alright, to me, 起床 means the end of sleep and getting up. 下床 means the opposite of being on the bed, as in your example, two elderly people 从来不下床 may mean that they have health problems so they have to be lying on the bed, but they may not be asleep when they are on the bed.

上床 can be used to refer to the action of going to bed, like 我一般晚上 11 点钟上床。(I usually go to bed at 11 pm.) Also 上床 is the common saying of having sex.


When to use 手 and when to use 家 for a type of musician or other specialist Is it true that 家("jia")denotes perhaps greater competence or prestige, while 手(“手”) is a slightly less professional specialist? How can one know when to use one rather than the other?
Examples:
乐手-yuè shǒu       instrumental performer
歌手-gē shǒu          singer
鼓手-gǔ shǒu          drummer
吉他手-jíta shǒu   guitarist
音乐家-yīnyuè jiā  musician
作曲家-zuòqǔ jiā   songwriter
钢琴- gāngqín jiā     pianist

钢琴家 is not just any pianist; s/he is a piano virtuoso. I would reserve this for someone who has a career in music, especially in performance; or someone who has attained a very high level in the art of piano playing. 家 can be translated loosely as "an expert in ..." So you definitely do not use it for yourself. 手, on the other hand, can be used more generally for someone who plays a musical instrument.


How do you say "tape it" as in, "taping a package"? Google translate says "tape" is 胶带, and "tape it" is 用胶带.

But to me, that's just saying "use tape".

Is there a verb for the act of taping something?

For example, how would you say "could you tape that package?"
or "can you tape that shut?"

To communicate the same generic sense as the English verb to tape, try 貼 (simplified: 贴), pinyin: tie1

Examples:

t: 可以幫我把它貼起來嗎?

s: 可以帮我把它贴起来吗?

e: Can you help me tape it up?

appropriate for situations such as sealing a package like a present for someone
"tape that shut"

t: 我貼好了

s: 我贴好了

e: I finished taping

for example after applying duct tape to repair a hole in an air duct, you can say this

Machine translation such as Google is still somewhat hit-and-miss, I'm sure you have come across translation fails that make you wonder Did they use Google Translate?. Better to use machine translation as a last resort when no native language speaker is available.


The word for "usually" in Mandarin In Mandarin, there are many words to express the meaning "usually" - 通常，平常，平日，素，率，素来，往往，常，etc... (actually there are way more, but I don't list all of them here).
There are too many to choose the correct word. How are all of them different and more importantly, how can I know which word fits the best for my specific purpose?
At least for me it feels that 通常 and 平常 are used more often, but I'm not sure.
For example, in these contexts:

Do you usually go to the cafe?
What do you usually do after work?
Do you usually come to Shanghai on your holiday?

In these cases, how can I know which one to use? Or are these more or less the same and which to choose does not affect that much?

Just like "usually, typically, normally and often" in English, "通常, 平日, 素来, 往往 and 常常" In Chinese have overlapping meanings but they all have subtle differences with each others.

"通常" = usually /typically (emphasizes on normalcy)
Example : "他通常不做好事" (usually, he doesn't do good things - not doing good things to him is normal)

~

"平日"= "in normal days/ normally"  (emphasizes on regularity)
Example : "他平日不做好事" (normally, he doesn't do good things  - it is a regular routine for him to not do the good things)

~

"素/ 素来" = "always" (emphasizes on constancy)
Example : "他素来不做好事" (always, he doesn't do good things- he has always been like that )

~

"往往" = "often" (implies 'ironically')
Example : "他往往不做好事" (often, he doesn't do good things- despite other's expectation )

~

"常/ 常常 " = often  (implies more often than not)
Example : "他常常不做好事" (often, he doesn't do good things- he is like that more often than not)


How to say, "Could you please move over?" (Cantonese and Mandarin) Assume Bob is sitting on the couch.

In Mandarin, how would Alice politely ask Bob to move over and make room for her?

Is this different for Cantonese?

There are a lot of ways to ask people to move aside to give room

Mandarin:

能請你坐開些嗎? (would you please sit aside a little?)

能請你騰一騰空位嗎? (would you please make some room for me?)

Cantonese:

唔該坐過啲 (please site aside a bit)

唔該坐開小小 (please sit aside a little)

In Cantonese, to ask people to move aside, we say 唔該借一借, or 唔該借歪, you can use these phrase in your example too


In this dialogue, why does 一米八几 mean "more than 180cm tall"? My HSK 2 textbook contains the following dialogue and translation:

  他多高
  How tall is he?
  一米八几
  He is more than 180 centimeters tall.

The second sentence is not explained in the book and I am struggling to understand it:

What is the purpose of 几 in this sentence?
Google Translate tells me it means "One meter eight" and a reverse translate gives me 一米八. Why is the book saying 1m 80cm instead of 1m 8cm?
Why does the book's translation include the word "more than"? Which character is providing the meaning of "more than" in this sentence? HanziCraft does not list this as one of the meanings of 几, for example.

一米八几 means 1.8 x meters, where x is usually between 1 and 9. So the person's height is between 1.81 meters and 1.89 meters.

Therefore for your first question, 几 stands for some number that the speaker can not provide an exact value.

For your second question, the translation by google is not quite correct.

And for your last question, the meaning a few is what is being used in this sentence.


Tips for pronunciating tone value "21"? Any tips for pronunciating tone value "21"?

It seems to be, fairly, common in Chinese topolects.

Kind of hard to get a grasp on the whole starting low and dropping lower thing, though.

Some have suggested treating like a neutral tone; others: treating it like English.

Any ideas?

It is possible to analyse English intonation with Chinese tonal contours, a favourite topic of mine that tends to upset a lot of people who believe their language is not tonal. This remains controversial, but not so much for those working in voice recognition technologies who actually look at the data.

In this response I refer to the surface phonetic tone in square brackets [] as is customary in IPA (which I assume you're referring to but not explicitly stated in your question), and the underlying phonemic tone number (as in 平上去入) like this //.

The tonal contour [21] would appear in this English sentence on the word "for":

"What are you looking for?"

Just isolate that word "for" and repeat it over and over and feel the [21] on it. To a certain extent, this would be considered either /3rd/ or neutral tone in Mandarin, although neutral can manifest at different heights.

In the same sentence, we can also make "you" a [21] tone also, but you'd need to change the overall intonation:

"What are you looking for?!"

I would say [21] gets spread over "are you".

Both Cantonese and the Hokkien (Southern Min) variety I speak have [21], which is called a third tone in Hokkien, and I believe a /4th/ tone in Cantonese, although I think it starts a bit higher.

As for the rest of the sentence, I would label "what" as mid-rising [34], getting stretched out over four syllables "what are you look", and [2] on "-ing".

What3 are3 you3 look4 -ing2 for21?
*What*53 are2 you1 look4 -ing2 for21?!

Another tough tone would be [11] and you may feel like you'll get that confused with the [21] above. So I'll try to help. You can find this appearing on "what" in the following English sentence if you apply extra stress to the first word and say the sentence like a response to somebody else and not in an exclamatory way:

That's what I'd like to do.

Actually the [11] contour maintains through "what I'd like" with a slight rise of [23] on "do". I would say the word "that's" has a high rising [45] contour. Practise this first in English and try to isolate the words exactly as you normally say them and try to isolate the tone you're using. This will help you map between what you can naturally do in English (although depends on the variety of English you speak) and how to produce the tones right in Chinese every time. Here's my analysis of that sentence:

That's45 what1 I'd1 like1 to1 do23.

An alternative intonation for comparison:

That's34 what3 I'd3 like3 to4 do53!

(I'd prefer to put those numbers into ruby text, but I don't think the HTML here supports it).

This [11] appears in the Sixian Hakka variant I speak on the /2nd/ tone and in /1st/ tone sandhi followed by /2nd/ tone. I believe it also appears in Cantonese /6th/ tone (non-入聲 if you don't count to /9/), although that tone may have some dipping perhaps more akin to the [21] you mentioned above, I'll have to check my sources.

Good luck with training them. It takes time and patience. The better you get at this tone training, the more luck you'll have with many more languages, whether tonal or not. You'll hear so much more that's going on that most people were never aware even existed.


Difference between "游泳" and "游水" I've been learning with a course, and one of the lessons said: 这个男人在游泳, but the same sentence with a dog was: 这只狗在游水.

I presume that both were doing the same thing: swimming. So, can I use 游泳 with animals and 游水 with persons? What is the difference between them?

Thanks!

游水 is mainly a colloquial Cantonese term  http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/1332/

  游水

  /jau4 seoi2 /  (jyutping)

  swim, swimming. Mand.: 游泳

  the entry of 游水 doesn't even include a Mandarin pinyin for it

Also logically, you can swim (游泳) in any liquid ; while 游水 specifically means swim in water, but even Cantonese ignore it, since it is very rare that someone swim in a liquid other than water


What is the difference between 中国歌, 中国之歌 and 中国的歌? When do we use each of the following cases? Is there even a difference between them?

中国歌 means "China song" or "Chinese song"; 中国 (China) is an adjectival noun-- the song is either about China or it is in the Chinese language.
中国之歌 means "song of China"; 之 is a (relative or true) possessive determiner-- The song is either about China or China actually possesses the song.
中国的歌 means "China's song"; 的 is a (true) possessive determiner-- China actually possesses the song.

Difference between true possessive and relative possessive:

之 in 将死之人 is a relative possessive determiner. 将死 is not a noun, therefore it can't possess the object 人. 之 only indicates 人 belong to the state of 将死.

If 中国 in 中国之歌 is the subject noun, then 之 would indicate the song belong to China--it is China's song.

If 中国 in 中国之歌 is an adjectival noun, then 之 would indicate the song is about China.


Saying 'doubled' in Chinese 一倍 vs 两倍 I stumbled upon these 2 sentences:

这个城市人口比十年前增加了一倍

这个城市人口比十年前增加了两倍

The city’s population has doubled from a decade ago

I though 倍 always multiplies the number standing in front of it, it seems like in case of 一

How come? Is there any logical explanation?

Technically, when you say "增加了n倍", "n倍" is describing the difference the two number. So the original x becomes x*(n+1), while the difference is n*x.

If you want to say that the latter number is just n times the former, then it is "增加到了(原来的)n倍"

However, in casual speech, people may not always respect this rule, which makes it confusing. Sometimes we have to make a confirmation to make sure we get the real number.


What is this character: ⿺见↷见 / ⿺見↷見? Yesterday, March 3rd '21, in advance of IRG Meeting No. 56, IRG posted document: IRGN2469, entitled CJK Unified Ideographs Extension H. One of the characters in the document grabbed my attention:

Or

⿺见↷见

BabelStone PUA also lists this character

But BabelStone's link to the original Tweet:

See @JUMANJIKYO (拾萬字鏡) on Twitter

Seems to link to ⿴囗回 instead of ⿺见↷见 or ⿺見↷見
Any ideas what this character is about?

Evidence provided by the UK shows:

《江西省信丰县地名志》(1987) page 378

⿺见↷见 = hidden

Now you see it...now you don't, I guess?


What does 都 mean when added to 主 here: 主都知道，主都不在乎 This is a quote from “黑暗森林”， I've never quite understood the 都 there. Also, I've opened the book and tried a quick search, it seems like the author switches between 主都 and 主, which is entirely out of my HSK1 undertsanding.

都 (dou1) means "all" here. It is a separate word with 主, and its meaning unrelated to 主.
主都知道：主 knows all.
主都不在乎：主 does not care about anything.


How do I self-answer "What does this say?" We get a lot of translation requests at Chinese.SE, and while we'd like to help, there's sometimes very little about the Chinese language in the question, and a lot about the procedure for obtaining plaintext from a photo.

Once we have the plaintext, we can simply input the plaintext into e.g. Google Translate or Yabla to get an approximate answer.

The aim of this post is to develop a self-help guide for use as a duplicate target.  Instead of closing these questions as "off-topic" and linking to an impractically long list of (mostly inapplicable) resources, it'd be better to close as a duplicate of this self-help guide.

Question: How do I self-answer "What does this say?"

Answers:

Input the text into optical character recognition (OCR) software.
What about handwriting?
It's also possible to input characters by drawing them by hand.
We can also search for a character by radical.
Searching modern characters by any of their constituent components.
Searching archaic character forms by any of their constituent components.
What are some commonly encountered Chinese characters?

Still don't know?  Ask on Chinese.SE but please show prior effort.  For example, I asked this question: What does 我们已经帮您踩过了 mean in this peculiarly translated escalator sticker? and you can see what happened.

For things like seals, stamps, calligraphy, etc., it's sometimes impossible to get a translation without asking someone who can read Chinese (and sometimes even native Chinese speakers struggle with this).

There are Internet communities which welcome these questions: like Reddit's /r/translator (and /r/ChineseLanguage has a pinned 翻译 Translation Thread!).

Handwriting

TL;DR: Handwriting is much harder than printed text.  The first step is to improve the image quality.  Afterwards we can input the text into OCR software.

This is on a door where I'm staying.

If we put it directly into Online OCR, it says:

  No recognized text !

The image quality is too poor.

Step 1: Improve the image quality.

We can open up Paint (actually I use Pinta) and go over the Chinese in black.

Method 1: change the brightness and contrast:

Method 2: select only the black text (e.g. GIMP has Tools/Selection Tools/By Color Select):

Step 2: Input into OCR software.

OCR software struggles with handwriting, so we may need to try a few times.  If we input the second image above into Online OCR, we obtain:

  请各位出入
  头好蓝色水门

It made two mistakes:

the original says 关好 (close) and not 头好 (meaningless);
the original says 木门 (timber door) and not 水门 (water gate).

So it's not perfect.

However, inputting the third image into EasyScreenOCR gives:

  请各位出入
  关好益包木门

It also made two errors:

the original says 蓝色 (blue) and not 益包 (meaningless).

Step 3: Compare the outputs; fix bugs.

We can compare these two transcriptions.  The writing is stuck on the inside of a blue wooden door, so...

关 (to close) makes sense and not 头 (head);
蓝色 (blue) makes sense;
木门 (timber door) makes sense.

So we can fix the bugs to obtain:

  请各位出入
  关好蓝色木门

(It may be useful here to search by radical to identify troublesome characters.)

Step 4: Translate.

Now we put this into Google Translate to give:

  Please come in and close the blue wooden door

Actually, it's not a very good translation (出入 means "come in and go out").  We can break this up a bit further using Yabla:

Thus it realistically means something like:

  Please, when coming in or going out, close the blue wooden door.


Terminology for Teacher Pension Form in Taiwan: "基数“ and ”大口“ Stack Exchange!

I'm currently busy translating an old union pension form for a Retired Taiwanese schoolteacher.

One of the fillable note sections in the pension lists the number "56" using checking characters (伍拾陆）, followed by the classifier "个基数“ （literally "Cardinal Digit").

Next in the note section is this phrase: "领取眷口数一大口。”

My current interpretation is that "Cardinal 56" is a stipulation in the union pension that allows a retired teacher to receive financial support for their single dependent.

Is this interpretation correct? Furthermore, what do the words "基数“ and "大口" usually refer to in Taiwanese financial language?

In the pension form, 基數 means the average monthly salary when he/she applied for retirement. So if the salary was 100 and his/her 個基數 is 56, then the total amount of pension would be 100*56=5600.

For the meaning of 大口, please refer to @thinwa 's interpretation. Just one minor correction, 大口 considers people aged 11 or over.


How is 古代汉语 defined? According to Hanyu Wailaici Cidian (Dictionary of Chinese Loanwords), bóshì (博士) with the modern sense "doctor" is derived from the Japanese hakushi, which in turn is of "Ancient Chinese" (古代汉语) origin. I'm aware that the Japanese have coined many terms to translate Western concepts, many of which are actually ancient Chinese terms that are assigned new meanings. But I'm puzzled with the concept of "Ancient Chinese". What kind of Chinese was that? Was it Old Chinese, or Middle Chinese as Wikipedia suggests? I doubt that a disyllabic word like 博士 was coined during the times of these languages, because I've read that they were highly monosyllabic. Also, Middle Chinese was only spoken around the 10th century and earlier, so what are later stages of Chinese called? Is it possible that the Japanese employed words like 博士 or 文化 from those stages?

古代汉语 is everything that is not 现代汉语. More precisely, we have 上古汉语 (Old Chinese: Oracle bones, Warring states, Qin; Classical Chinese: Spring and autumn, Han）, 中古汉语 (Middle Chinese: Tang, Song) and 近代汉语 (mostly late Qing).

博士 was coined in the Warring states period, according to zdic.net. Disyllabic words have always existed, although the ideal used to be monosyllabic word characters.


Proper translation for nib sugar, coarse sugar, decorating sugar Supposing that one can find everything on Tfaobao, I tried it but I didn't find this specific type of decorating sugar for baking.

笔尖糖 or 粗糖 don't bring me proper results. I guess I am not translating it right.

What a simple question.Nib sugar we called it 珍珠糖.Coarse sugar called 砂糖.And decorating sugar called 装饰用糖 or 烘焙装饰糖.


When is it right to use 是什么关系 rather than 有什么关系? 图中的男人跟男孩儿可能是什么关系？

When to use 是什么关系 or 有什么关系?

Will it be right to use the later in the above phrase?

是什么关系 = what is the relationship / connection

有什么关系 = have what relationship / connection

Both are grammatically correct, but in different context, "有什么关系" could mean " what does it matter" e.g. "他死了有什么关系?" = (what does it matter that he died)

A and B 是 XX 关系 =  the relationship between A and B is of XX
A and B 有 XX 关系 = A and B have the relationship of XX
Y 有什么关系 = what does Y matter
Y 没 关系 = Y doesn't matter
Y 没什么关系 = Y doesn't matter whatsoever

Example:

"A 和 B 是 父子的关系" (The relationship between A and B is of father and son)

"A 和 B 有 父子 关系" (A and B have the relationship of father and son)

"你输了有什么关系?" (What does it matters that you lost?)

"你输了没关系" (it doesn't matter that you lost)

"你输了没什么关系" (it doesn't matter whatsoever that you lost)


Why is 系 pronounced xì (not jì) in the idiom 解铃还须系铃人? With regards to the idiom:

解铃还须系铃人
jiě líng hái xū xì líng rén
CC-CEDICT: lit. whoever hung the bell on the tiger's neck must untie it (idiom) / fig. whoever started the trouble should end it

I'm wondering why 系 is pronounced xì and not jì in this idiom.  I'm accustomed to hearing jì when fastening things, e.g., 上车请系好安全带, so I would expect 系 to be jì when fastening the bell to the tiger's neck.  Moreover, the traditional characters 解鈴還須繫鈴人 uses 繫 which indicates it should be pronounced jì.
Question: Why is 系 pronounced xì (not jì) in the idiom 解铃还须系铃人?

You should know that, the pronunciation of 解铃还须系铃人 is a long lasting debate. If you want to take an exam in mainland China, you must remember the most updated pronunciation in the dictionary. Otherwise, you're free to choose the one you feel the most feasible. The closest meaning of xi and ji as a verb are shown below. Quoted 百度百科.

"系（jì）"是单义词，只有一个义项：打结、扣。运用范围很小，只用于“系鞋带”、“系围裙”、“系领带”、“系扣子”、系红领巾等词语中。

“系（xì）”是多义词，在《现代汉语词典》上有8个义项：
...
(7) 拴、绑、束缚：系马、系缚、不系之舟
...


What is the meaning of 气 in 贵族气？ They are remembering their 小学时候。

。。。，班里那个贵族气十足的男生，。。。

zdic.net has 气 5）人的精神状态 a person's spiritual state

maybe this 气 just means 'style, like' and so 'air, manner'?

...,班里那个贵族气十足的男生,... that male student with a totally noble air,...

Is this the same 气 as in 怪里怪气？

《汉语大词典》气 29

  作风 style

  习气 habits

贵族气 noble style

怪里怪气 strange/weird style

They all mean style.


How to separate the words in the phrase 博格瑞牌法兰希小金文奶酪 & match it to the word translation in english I'm trying to make a word to word correspondence of the following sentence from chinese to english:

博格瑞牌法兰希小金文奶酪

Borgri Franchi Small Cheese [Google Translate]

The translation from google translate didn't made much sense. What is "borgri" and "Franchi"?

I'm trying to do a word by word translation but I'm having difficulty of separating the chinese characters into "words" that make up that chinese sentence so that I later could match it with the corresponding translated word in the english translation. But I'm having difficulty finding the boundary of each word.

In google translate, I tried to separate a word by adding the next character and seeing how it would translate into english, but this proves difficult because each time I add or reduce the next character the meaning differs from the previous one and thus becomes inconsistent.

This sentence was an example of what I'm trying to translate. It's written in a cheese product with the brand Bongra*n Gerard (replace * with i) (often abbreviated as B.G. It's a brand from France).

The difficulty here is not just word parsing, but the localisation that the manufacturer has imposed. It's their product, so it's their rules.

  博格瑞牌法兰希小金文奶酪

Let's parse this by highlighting the main content words

  博格瑞牌法兰希小金文奶酪

Someone with some knowledge of cheese will recognise 金文奶酪 = Camembert (cheese). Some may even know that it can come in several sizes. That leaves the brand name and the product name.

  博格瑞 牌 法兰希 小金文奶酪

Those familiar with French geography in Chinese will see the art of translation in the product name: the Île-de-France in Chinese is called 法兰西岛 (although actually most local Chinese call it 巴黎大区 or 大巴黎区, which is not the official French definition of le Grand Paris).

A slight change of 西 to 希 for euphonic reasons, and you have the makings of a highly exportable product name.

The brand name has been shortened from its "assigned" Chinese version to something with three characters or less. This means that with 牌 it forms four characters, again producing that euphonic effect, so desired in marketing.


Writing critique request: Welcome to the world of DNA editing Continuing from parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6:

  欢迎来到现代的“DNA编辑的新世界”。原来我差不多是第一个DNA编辑的人，而且我爸是世界上领导的研究者之一，一起偷偷地进行研究。我小时候造成我减肥的那个注射器是这种新技术的一个例子。那时候这项技术刚开始研发了，所以当时是非常基础的。起初，多数人无法使用甚至连DNA编辑的存在也不知道。世界政府立即介入了，都希望成为唯一的国家能利用这项技术，在这个研究方向中建立占主导的地位。不过现在DNA编辑为普通人能简单地使用。

Please critique my writing. New words for me are in links. I'm at an "almost mastered HSK4" level. The narrative is from a person in the present (Zhou Ziwang 周子望) with an unusual past.

I've looked carefully and honestly don't believe there's any outright errors here.  So if they exist, they're something I'm blind to.
I'm terrible at 了ing, so something like 开始研发了 vs. 开始了研发 vs. 开始研发 is very hard for me.  So I just copy/paste them into Baidu, and copy something similar like 6G开始研发了[src].
My impression is that Chinese people say DNA using English letters and not the impractically long 脱氧核糖核酸.
I like 占 in 占主导的地位 since the idea is that governments want to establish dominance, and are even blocking other countries, so there's a bit of tension.

欢迎来到现代“DNA编辑”的新世界。原来我差不多是第一个接受DNA编辑的人，而且我爸是这个领域的领导研究者之一，他们一起偷偷地进行研究。小时候使我变瘦的药物是这种新技术的一项成果。那时候这项技术刚开始研发，所以还比较初级，多数人无缘使用甚至根本不知道存在DNA编辑。不久，各国政府就介入了这个领域，都希望成为能利用这项技术的唯一国家，在研究中占主导地位。不过现在，DNA编辑技术也能简单地为普通人所用了。

Comments：

引号用在“DNA编辑”上以第一次介绍这个科学名词就可以了。

上文“DNA编辑”是作名词用的，这里需要谓语“接受”

“这个领域”作定语限定范围。

“一起”这个词必须搭配复数行为主体，原句主语是我爸，他一个人是不能“一起”研究的，需要切换主语。

“造成”一般接不利、不希望看到的影响/后果，这里应该用中性的“使”。（题主所提供的链接之例句似乎已经表明了这一点。）

“减肥”是主观行动，“变瘦”才是减肥的实际结果。（这件事似乎之前提过唔？）

“注射器”只是注射药物的工具，“药物”才是他们研究的成果。

“例子”用词不当。应该用“成果”。

很遗憾“刚开始研发了”反而不能加“了”。（但“开始研发了”却可以。）

“基础”用词不当。应该用“初级”。从逻辑上看，后面马上接“普通人难以接触这项技术”的句子，这里用“罕见”似乎更加合理。

“无法”用词不当。只是因为能实施这种技术的机构一开始非常有限，大部分人没有机会使用，而不是这种技术对他们无效。所以应该用“无缘”。

本句“无法使用”宾语缺失，将“DNA编辑”挪到句尾，将“不知道存在”整体作为谓语，使“DNA编辑”成为两个谓语的共同宾语。

“立即”时间词用得不好。“立即”的前文，需要存在明确的时间点，才能确认“立即”到底是什么时候。改成“不久”模糊一下比较好。

“世界政府”在汉语中专指辖制世界的政府，依文意，这里说的是“各国政府”。

“介入”缺宾语。

现代汉语中，宾语可以前置，定语却不能随便后置。所以应该是“能利用这项技术的唯一国家”。

句式杂糅。“建立主导地位”或“占主导地位”只能择一。

最后一句句式不明。如果要用“为……所……”的被动式，两个字都不能缺。

添加“也”顺畅逻辑。


Chinese for "vote-up", "vote-down" and "vote to close" What are the correct Chinese words to use for the following:

Vote-up
Vote-down
Vote to close

I assume these will have been included in certain social platforms in China.

Usually you would use:

(投)赞成(票)   Vote-up

(投)反对(票)   Vote-down

投关闭票       Vote to close

However, when used on internet, especially sites like SE, probably the following is more suitable:

顶 - literally means bump  (Vote-up)

踩 - literally means tread  (Vote-down)

叉 - literally means X (cross), have the implication of closing.  (Vote to close)


What are some well-known "magic" terms, phrases, or incantations in Chinese? In English, for example, a common magic term is Abracadabra. Though the term itself may not stem from English, it is nevertheless a term most native English-speakers are aware of.

Are there similar incantations associated with magic, in Chinese?

about incantations / mantras / "咒", there's no confucian counterparts. meanwhile, there're numerous in taoism and buddhism. only those of taoism are native chinese, when relevant ones of buddhism are translations.

in taoism literatures, "急急如律令" and its deviations, are often used at the end of most mantras, that deities / daemons would follow the instructions of the speaker. here're 3 examples from 鬼谷子天髓靈文, 雲笈七籤 & 太平廣記:

in buddhism, the most common mantras are: 南無阿彌陀佛, or "喃嘸阿彌陀佛", that the speakers of this mantras "would" reborn in amitābha (阿彌陀佛)'s sukhavati (西方極樂世界) after death.

another one is 六字大明咒, "唵嘛呢叭咪吽", Om mani padme hum

this one is tibetan in origin, i would say this one is quite "popular" in taiwan & hong kong :)


What's the difference between 要 and 想 for "to want"? Is one more common (要 vs 想)? Are there different situations to use each?

Where I'm from, people usually say 想要. 想 is more for "to think", and 要 has a flavor of "to need/require", though it really all depends on the context. 想要 mixes the two meanings, kind of like "to want" has both "desire" and "necessity".

  我渴了，我想要喝水。

I am thirsty. I want/need to drink water.

  我要上這門課才能畢業。

I need to take this course to graduate.

  這道菜看起來好好吃，我想點這道菜。

This dish looks delicious. I want to order this dish.

  你想不想一起去北京？

Do you want to go to Beijing?


What is the most common way to say 'indecisive' in Mandarin? I have heard a range of different terms meaning 'indecisive' in Chinese - I'm not sure if they were in dialect, or there are several options for saying it in Mandarin, and so I'm curious to learn what expression native speakers use to say indecisive.

Can someone tell me what is the most common expression people use to say 'indecisive'? Is there one term that is more or less right than another?

I find two meanings of "indecisive" in the dictionary.

  To hover between different choices and can't make a decision in a short while.
  Not specified, undefined.

I think you are asking a word for the first meaning, and then the words are:

  犹豫不决
  优柔寡断
  没主见*
  徘徊不定
  犹豫

There are some other words related to this meaning, in different contexts. Besides, I think you are talking about "磨蹭" by "磨(it may mean the same in some dialects)" in your comment.  "磨蹭“ is different. It's used to say someone intends to do something in a very slow process, thought he is able to do better or faster. I know the English words "to loaf" and "to linger" for "磨蹭".

Edit: To tell the difference.

You can use "优柔寡断" and  “没主见" as an adjective to modify a man or his character, while other words can't be used in this case. You can use "徘徊不定","犹豫","踌躇"(also "优柔寡断" and  “没主见"),etc. when talking about something, and you need to remember some patterns to express such a meaning. Example sentences to help me explain:

  他的性格优柔寡断. He has an indecisive character.
  他是个没主见的人。 He is indecisive.
  他在提名谁做总经理的事上徘徊不定=他在提名谁做总经理的事上犹豫不决。 He is indecisive to nominate who as general mangager.
  我犹豫要不要接受他的邀请。I am indecisive to accept his invitation or not.
  别犹豫了！Don't be indecisive! (make your decision as soon as possible!)

没主见 more precisely means "not have one's own opinion, one's opinion is easily to be swayed by someone else.", while other words don't express the sense of "easily to be swayed".


Why did my Chinese teacher describe Donald Trump as 口吐莲花? In my regular Chinese class yesterday, I was discussing Donald Trump with my teacher, and she described him as 口吐莲花 (kǒutǔliánhuā).  As always I didn't fully understand the particulars of the conversation, but I believe she was referring to his eye-catching, provocative speech and behavior (and contrasting it with Biden's lack of theatrics).  I'm interested in what about Donald Trump in particular makes him 口吐莲花.
Question: Why did my Chinese teacher describe Donald Trump as 口吐莲花?
It's hard to look up this term, e.g., YouDao gives "vomit a lotus" and Google Translate gives "spit lotus" which don't capture the non-literal aspects of this term.

「莲花出淤泥而不染」，象征纯洁 (lotus flower came from mud but not stained by it. Symbolizing purity.)

Your teacher described him as 口吐莲花 in an ironic way,  mocking his foul mouth

Idiom 舌灿莲花: 譬喻说话的文采和美妙 ("the tongue sparks lotus flower" refers to having the literary talent to speak beautifully.)

Again, ironically, your teacher was mocking his lack of literary talent and his incoherent speeches


What is the relationship between vernacular and literary Chinese? I don't quite get the difference between and relationship of vernacular Chinese to literary Chinese.

I know that "literary Chinese" does not represents sounds, the way an alphabet does, so it is difficult to use it for anything that must be spoken, like a play or a movie script. Therefore, there are "vernacular Chinese" variants that are deliberately designed to be spoken. My understanding is that the current version of "Mandarin", the standard Beijing language, is such a vernacular variant that was adopted early in the 20th century.

Does this mean that the "Mandarin" currently used is completely different from the Mandarin used during the Qing dynasty prior to 1900?

If so, does this mean that students essentially have to learn two different languages: the current vernacular plus the older Qing Mandarin?

What about older texts, like say the language of the Palace Encyclopedias of the 16th and 17th centuries? Were these basically the same as Qing Mandarin or a different language altogether?

Finally, how does "Classical Chinese" tie into this? Are the Palace Encyclopedias consider classical Chinese?

What you call "literary Chinese" is actually classical Chinese, a rather static language that evolved 2500 years ago and has since been used as a model language in education, rituals and other rather fixed events.

Classical Chinese is therefore akin to Latin in Europe, actually covering approximately the same time span and the same usage.

You can pronounce classical Chinese the same way you pronounce contemporary spoken/written Chinese in any time, but it will differ from time to time since the spoken language changes continuously.

You will likely have no problems talking to Abe Lincoln in English, and perhaps also not conversing with Adam Smith or Isaac Newton, but might get into some problems understanding Shakespeare, and even more so Chaucer. The time you get to Beowulf, you are completely lost, not to mention the time of Britannia under Roman rule.

It is the same with Chinese. Qing Mandarin has some peculiar differences compared to contemporary Mandarin, like an additional tone and some now lost vowel varieties, but essentially it would be easy to converse with Qing people, all the way back to Cao Xueqin in the 1700s. Then it would become progressively harder, and you would eventually wind up in Middle Chinese and older varieties, which are incomprehensible to most modern ears. Actually, Cantonese is more akin to older Chinese, just like Swedish/Danish is more akin to Old English.

Students in China learn some classical Chinese, mainly poetry and some chengyu, and there is also a lot of classical expressions used in costume drama TV series covering imperial times. It is a heritage that is nurtured, but most people in China cannot (since the imperial education was abolished) actually understand more advanced classical Chinese, like ancient texts. Only specialists know how to decipher it.


Pronunciation of 谁/誰 What is the relation between the two pronunciations shéi and shuí of 谁?

Ross and Ma Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar seems not to mention shuí, while two different series of readers with pinyin and characters both use shuí excessively.

On line I find every possible answer: some say it is a matter of taste, some say it is regional, some say literary versus colloquial/

In the question Are the two pronunciations of 谁 (shéi / shuí) the result of regional differences? , moderator songyuan expresses an opinion that shéi might be more common in speech. Besides that moderator songyuan labels this "IMO," rather than as fact, it does not even say whether the pronunciation is regional or not.  And regionalism is not the only possible relation between the pronunciations.

Quote from “谁”字注音规范化探讨（现代语文(语言研究版), Modern Chinese, 2007年11期 ）

  摘要："谁"在现实生活中应用十分广泛,可就是这样一个常用字,人们有时读"shuí",有时读"shéi",即使同一个人,在相同的语言环境中,对"谁"的读音也是模棱两......

This is all what I can see without an account.

And it suggests that even the same person cannot form a fixed pattern as when to use "shui2" or "shei2".

Maybe the full article can provide more information.

As a native, I can say that I don't know either. So the two pronunciations might just be two possible pronunciations of the same character, both widely used, and mostly interchangeable.


Can someone explain the differences between these sentences? There are some sentences in Chinese which possess different meanings under different circumstances. Can someone explain the differences?

Example 1

  a) In winter says: 能穿多少穿多少
  b) In summer says: 能穿多少穿多少

Example 2

  Girlfriend tells her boyfriend:
  我到了,你快往地铁站走。
  如果你到了，我还没到，你就等着吧。
  如果我到了，你还没到，你就等着吧！

Example 1， in winter one says:能穿多少穿多少

Here the 多少 is one word and is the question word normally use to ask "how much". In Chinese you can also use these question to denote a certain undefined amount of something.

Some examples:

你想吃什么就吃什么 Here the 什么 does mean what, but something (an undefined amount of something). So 你想吃什么 becomes "you want to eat something" and "你想吃什么" "then eat something". If you bring both together it becomes: "eat what you want". In these grammar patters the question word is repeated and the second occurrence refers to the first occurrence, it refers to the unspecified amount mentioned in the first part.
你哪儿都去过: 哪儿 refers to a certain not specified place, and the 都 after it means all of these. So the sentence means "you have been everywhere". This grammar pattern is also explain on these pages: Expressing "all" with "shenme dou" and Expressing "everyone" with "shei"

In 能穿多少穿多少 we don't have 都 or 也 after 多少, so it is not "everything", but some amount of. The grammar pattern is similar to the 你想吃什么就吃什么 example.
So the sentence has 2 parts: 能穿多少 which means "the amount of cloths you can wear" and the 穿多少 means: "wear that amount of cloths". So together it means: "wear as many cloths your can".

Example 1， in summer one says:能穿多少穿多少

Although we have the same characters, we actually have different words. Here the 多 and the 少 refer to 2 different words. While pronouncing you really have to emphasize the 少.

Again there are two parts: 能穿多少 and 穿多少. You see 穿多少 as 穿多    少. The 穿多 means: "wear more cloths" and 少 means less, but refers to the complete part before it. So it means "less of wearing more". So the complete sentence becomes: "if you can avoid wearing less cloths, then wear less cloths".

Example2: GF telephone her BF:我到了,你快往地铁站走。如果你到了,我还没到,你就等着吧。如果我到了,你还没到,你就等着吧！

The first part of this sentence is pretty easy. For completeness I will translate it:
我到了,你快往地铁站走。如果你到了,我还没到,你就等着吧。： I (just) arrived, quickly come to the metro station. If I'm not there yet when you get there, just wait for me.

The second part 如果我到了,你还没到,你就等着吧！ is read with a different tone. The sentense is not complete and it is implied that that something will come if the person is not there. In English we would normally add ellipsis (…) after the 你就等着吧.
The implied meaning of 你就等着吧 is: "you are in for it, I'm going to kick your ass, you're going to be dead, ...", just wait for it and see). So the girl is giving a warning not to be late.


if ... then ... in Chinese without any special words I found the following example on this webpage:

  你 高兴，我 也 高兴。

  nǐ gāoxìng, wǒ yě gāoxìng.

  If you are happy then I am happy.

Somehow, the translation sounds weird to me, as I would rather translate it more literally with "You are happy, (and) I am also happy".

Q. Is this a common way to construct "if ... then ..."-kind of  sentences?

When I searched about this topic online, I was only able to find the following approaches and not the one I have doubts about:

如果 ⋯⋯ ，就 ⋯⋯
假如 + Statement + 就 + Result
假使 + Statement + 就 + Result

你 高兴，我 也 高兴。

I interpret it as "You are happy, and I am happy too." It means your happiness may not be necessarily relevant to mine, but they just happen simultaneously for some or no reason.

Think about this similar sentence: 你有苹果，我也有苹果. It means you have an apple and I have one too. It doesn't mean if you have an apple then I have an apple too. There isn't any correlation here.

"If you are happy then I am happy." is more like (如果)你高兴，我就高兴. 如果 in this case can be dropped.

But if you say 如果你有苹果，我就有苹果， it clearly address the conditional relationship. It means both of us share the same prerequisite for getting an apple. So, if you can get one, then no doubt I can get one too.

Hope this clear.


How to best translate "I got A's in 3 of my classes" what is some natural ways to say "I got A's in three of my classes" in mandarin? Thank you!

When this happened to me, I told my friend:

我有三门课得了A。

Or you can also say

我得了三门课的A。


Is there a distinction between 空港 (kōnggǎng) and 机场 (jīchǎng) which both mean airport? At Guangzhou airport recently, I noticed that 空港 (kōnggǎng = literally "air port") was being used to mean airport.  I'm familiar with 机场 (jīchǎng) being used for airport.

Question: Is there a distinction between 空港 (kōnggǎng) and 机场 (jīchǎng) which both mean airport?

空港 is Japanese; 机场 is Chinese.

Japanese learned Chinese characters from China in ancient times. They called those Chinese characters 'Kanji'. Most Chinese terms retained their original Chinese meaning in Japanese. But the Japanese also coined some unique terms with Kanji that are not being used in Chinese.

The 空港 sign you saw in China was reverse imported from Japanese.

  https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/漢語中的日語借詞

  和製漢語
  由於漢語也是因為19世紀時急迫需要翻譯西文，而大量從日本輸入新詞，大部分進入漢語的日語借詞都是日語中的「和製漢語」。舉凡「電話」、「幹部」、「藝術」、「否定」、「肯定」、「假設[2]」、「海拔」、「直接」、「警察」、「雜誌」、「防疫」、「法人」、「航空母艦」都是屬於和製漢語日語借詞。[3]。 要注意的是，並不是所有日語中的「和製漢語」都在現代漢語中通用，如「介錯」、「怪我」、「油斷」這類和製漢語詞都沒有進入漢語。

空港(airport) was in the group of 'Japan coined Chinese' that are not in Chinese vocabulary - until now.