Can 良好 be used as a closing remark? 良好 is translated as be good, or be well in one of my dictionaries. This is a common closing remark in spoken English. Can 良好 be used in the same context in Chinese.

i.e.

OK, Bye now...
Take care, be well.

Are there instances where it might be used in closing an email (or the end of a letter)?

If these context are not correct please illustrate a situation where it would be appropriate to use this phrase.

良好, 令人满意；好。should be translated as good or well without the "be," then it can be used anywhere good or well are used. I never heard it being used as a closing remark, but under some circumstances, such use is possible.

祝你的程序运行良好.--Wish your application runs well.

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/96755.htm


Understanding the structure, '又什么...' and '又没什么...' From what I know (correction would be appreciated), '又什么...' is often used in rhetorical questions, for example:

又什么麻烦 : what's troublesome about... (it's not troublesome)
又什么不满意 : What's there to feel unsatisfied about (there's nothing to feel unsatisfied about)

Then what about  '又没什么...'?

Does the '没' word make it have the opposite meaning?

又什么麻烦/ is a wrong expression. The correct one is 有什么麻烦, which could be either a rhetorical or a generic question. The normal expression is 又有什么... and in some cases  有 can be omitted, but you should be careful. In your example, 又有什么不满意 and 又有什么麻烦， 有 should not be omitted.

Well, in 又没(有)什么麻烦, 又 is more like the English word anyway in my opinion. So, 又没(有)什么麻烦 could be interpreted as there isn't any trouble, anyways.

Compare 又没有什么麻烦 and 又有什么麻烦. The latter is a rhetorical device as you said. The former is a normal negative sentence.  Both denote the same underlying meaning, but with a bit different tones, which are the same as the correspondent English sentences.

An interesting phrase I also want to add here is 又什么事，which is short for 又有什么事. In this context, 有 can be omitted. So, I suggest you add 有 all the time unless you know for sure it's right to drop it in your context.


Why always go up or down? We (me and my parents) always say: "上厕所", and: "上卧室", ect.
We (me and my parents) always say: "下厨房".

Personally my house has the kitchen at the top floor.

Why is that?

上 as a verb could mean "go to" (i.e. could be replaced with 去 without change in meanings) and "ascend/board" which could be understand as go up onto since the floor of vehicles are generally higher and require a upward movement. Anyway, in phrases such as 上卧室, 上 just means "go to". In 上厕所, 上 could mean "go to", but more often it contains the meaning of actually using the toilet. So it is possible for a person 去厕所 but not 上厕所, but most of the time such distinction wouldn't be made.

As for 下 as a verb, it means "go down to" physically or figuratively. In 下厨房, 下 contains a figurative meaning of "get down to the work", so if you are just getting something from the kitchen you wouldn't say 下厨房 and you could say 下厨房 for meaning of "go to the kitchen and cook".

上 and 下 are also used to distinct the start and end of certain activity, such as 上课、下课、上班、下班. In such scenarios, 上X could also be used for the time points during such activity.

Anyway, these two are pretty hard to master via a clear set of rules. You're just gonna have to get familiar with as many patterns as possible.


Hanzi pronunciation by radicals I got into learning Chinese recently and since I already speak Japanese I find myself in a weird spot of being fairly familiar with a writing system, yet barely being able to read more than 30 characters. As for Japanese character readings, I learnt them using radicals that indicate or hint a certain reading.
According to my Chinese friends, they too read Hanzi by radicals.
But since the readings differ largely, Japanese has more possible readings per character than Chinese and some characters are flat out different, I obviously can't apply the same system again.
Does anyone know of a book or a website that teaches the readings by radicals?
(Something like Heisig's Remembering the kanji 2)

It is possible in Chinese as well, and similar rules apply.

The big reason behind this is the liushu 六書, or the six methods by which all Chinese characters are created: pictogram (象形), simple ideogram (指事), compound ideogram (會意), rebus (假借), phonetic-semantic (形聲), and transformed cognate (轉注). The method of reading by radical is only applicable to the phonetical-semantical category. However:

pictograms and simple ideograms make up a small (although very frequently used) portion of Chinese characters due to the poverty of these two methods in conveying relatively complex ideas. Pictograms and simple ideograms are one-piece in their own, and have no phonetic and/or semantic radicals;
rebus and transformed cognate characters are rare, and their origins relatively obscure;
a good percentage of Chinese characters are compound ideograms (in Japanese kanji, virtually all kokuji are compound ideograms). However, radicals for compound ideograms usually carry no phonetic value.

Fortunately, the rest, or phonetic-semantic characters (形聲字), make up the vast majority (>70-80%) of Chinese characters. So, yes, you may read them by radicals (but very carefully). However, in Chinese, the onset (聲母) and tone of many 形聲字 have changed, so their onset and tone is often different from the onset and tone of their phonetic radical (聲旁). Let's take characters in the phonetic series 方 as an example:

方 "square": Standard Mandarin fāng, Standard Cantonese fong1, Japanese go'on hō (ホー), Japanese kan'on hō (ホー). Reconstructed Middle Chinese (according to Pan Wuyun 潘悟云) /*pʷiɐŋ/, reconstructed Old Chinese (according to Zhengzhang Shangfang 鄭張尚芳) /*paŋ/.
訪 "visit": Standard Mandarin fǎng, Standard Cantonese fong2, Japanese kan'on hō (ホー). Middle Chinese (Pan) /*pʰʷiɐŋH/, Old Chinese (Zhengzhang) /*pʰaŋs/.
旁 "side": Standard Mandarin páng, Standard Cantonese pong4, Japanese go'on bō (ボー), Japanese kan'on hō (ホー). Middle Chinese (Pan) /*bɑŋ/, Old Chinese (Zhengzhang) /*baːŋ/.

We see that reading by radical usually works in Japanese, but can be tricky to apply in Chinese. As a rule of thumb, use radicals to help remember the rime (韻母) part only. You still have to memorize the onset and tone. Moreover, since many of the onsets have already changed in the Old Chinese era, so really memorized the onsets when reading by radical.

Even with Japanese, reading by radical is not entirely bullet-proof. It can't help you distinguish go'on vs kan'on (which can be tricky), and it can't help you decide when to use on'yomi and when to use kun'yomi (also tricky).

PS: Standard Mandarin refers to Putonghua 普通話 and Kuo'yu 國語, which are both standard registers of Mandarin based on the dialect in and around Beijing. 普通話 is the standard in mainland China and 國語 is the standard in Taiwan: they are essentially the same language, with some disagreements on the pronunciation of a few words. Standard Cantonese is the de facto lingua franca in the Cantonese-speaking world, and is based on the Canton/Guangzhou dialect. Go'on 呉音 and kan'on 漢音 are both on'yomi/borrowed phonetic readings of Chinese characters, go'on being the earlier version.


What is the correct Chinese expression for "Only child"? I noticed lots of compound words using "只" for "only", but what is the correct way to say "only child" (a child with no brothers, nor sisters)?

The Chinese expression for 'only Child' can be '独生子女(only child)','独子(only son)','独女(only daughter)'，or some more ancient or literary words like '独苗(only child)','单丁(only son)',单根独苗(only child or only descendant).
Native Chinese speakers may have other expressions like,

他膝下仅有一女。（He has only one daughter.）
他是那老汉唯一的儿子。（He is the only son of that old man.）
他是三代单传。（He is the only one son for several generations in the family.）

I hope the above helps.


Most appropriate word for proxy/substitute/surrogate Please forgive my lack of knowledge of Chinese. I'm doing book research and am looking for the most appropriate word for 'proxy' in the sense of a substitute or surrogate. For the sake of clarity, let's say you wanted to kill someone, but wanted someone else to do it for you. (I'm not looking for the word for hitman or assassin; it needs the above connotations.)

替代 seems to be the closest I've found, but I want to avoid any confusion or the meaning being misconstrued!

proxy: 'the authority to represent someone else, especially in voting' is "代理" or "代理人" in Chinese

surrogate: 'a substitute, especially a person deputizing for another in a specific role or office' is also "代理" or "代理人" in Chinese

The baseball term "代打" (substitute batter) also obtained the meaning of 'substitute' (for any role)

  For the sake of clarity, let's say you wanted to kill someone, but wanted someone else to do it for you.

借刀殺人 is a common idiom for "arrange someone to kill for you". It literally means "borrow knife to kill" and the "borrowed knife" is someone other than yourself. He can be your willing agent, or an unwitting pawn

假手於人 is a common idiom for "make someone else to do your job"


Is there strong evidence that Classical Chinese was ever spoken? Classical Chinese (Wenyan) diverges sharply from modern varieties, as any student of classical texts will note whether foreign or native Chinese. Wenyan has a long written history, but is there evidence that it ever matched spoken forms of Chinese rather than minimalist meanings?

With some 8,000 characters in modern usage, even if you count the 22,000 or so in Unicode, this is only a fraction of any language's vocabulary, even older ones. Also, certain characters never being used alone in modern words, or even in Japanese, which modeled its character usage off wenyan, gives at least hints that, even if classical chinese loosely reflected spoken chinese, there has always been divergence between in and spoken Chinese. Furthermore, for such a large geographical area, there have been several dialects. Do any of these match wenyan? (Putonghua is modelled on Beijinghua and northern dialects, but even then there are slight divergences)

Is there any evidence to confirm or refute that wenyan ever truly matched (rather than simply being very close to) how Chinese was spoken in history?

I think doubts about Classical Chinese having ever been a medium of oral communication are quite appropriate. There are several things to consider:

One, the fact that the characters are relatively few is not so troublesome as they designate morphemes rather than words. Language has but a few sounds, a number of ways to combine those sounds phonotactically into clusters and rhimes, a fair number of morphemes made up from combinations of these, a wide field of words made up from morphemes, and an endless variety of sentences that consist of words and the syntactic constructs they enter into.

Also, there is a limit to how many distinct signs an individual can handle, so if you go and invent a script of whatever type, chances are that when someone puts you to the test, you will only be able to reproduce so many of them—hundreds maybe, thousands even, but likely not tens or hundreds of thousands distinct graphical signs. Therefore, observing that Classical Chinese uses less than ten thousand signs tells use more about the human mind in general than the Chinese language in particular.

Given that language (speech) is an innate capability of humans, but writing is a later, culturally acquired skill, we should also think it likely that people are ordinarily much better at the former than they are at the latter, meaning that if the plan of your script means to invent one distinct graphical sign for each morpheme (which is the case in Classical Chinese to a certain extent, as there may be up to roughly a thousand distinct pictorial signs), you'll likely end up with a repertoire that has less signs than your speech has morphemes.

Two, all scripts are defective when compared to the speech that they record. Whether you look at Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mayan writing, the Phoenician consonantal alphabet, or Arabic, you will always note that they leave out aspects of speech (e.g. vowels) that writers of the Latin alphabet take for granted. Writing in Latin letters also leaves out quite a few things like intonation, mood, facial expression and so on.

To me, it looks like the classical inscriptions of China, while born by speech, as it were, are condensed, concentrated notations that are reduced to the essential parts, a bit like a map will omit many details of the territory, or beacons in the sea only mark the essential points for navigation.

Third, it may be a misconception that two or three thousand years ago, anyone who expressed themselves using the medium now subsumed under the title of Classical Chinese spoke the same language. It is a misconception similar to thinking that today, someone who writes literary German, English or Arabic will also speak like that, and that all writers of one or the other of these literary forms of expressions will be able to converse without hindrance. To the contrary, many writers of German, Arabic, Greek or modern Chinese use that medium essentially like a more-or-less foreign language. We should not assume it was all that different in ancient China.

BTW there are (as of Unicode V8) around 80'000 distinct Chinese characters encoded in Unicode, with many thousands more known that remain unencoded. No-one in history ever knew or used all of these at any point in time, and no single dictionary collects all of them; rather, it is what many hundreds of millions of people have managed to come up over the course of thousands of years. When you look at the number of characters used to write particular pieces of literature, you will invariably find that classical and modern literature alike can make do with but a few thousand characters.


Usage of 一边 (doing things simultaneously)? Is this the correct way of saying "she is taking a bath while listening to music"?

  她一边洗澡，一边听音乐。

“一边。。。一边。。。” is a very useful structure. It can also be simplified as “边。。。边。。。”

For example, 他一边吃饭一边看书。她边走边唱。


说你胖 你还喘上了 来劲儿了 how does this translate in english in this context? I'm trying to figure out what the sentence in the title means in this context:

A gang of punks has just beaten a retarded guy and another guy, who saw what was going on, tries to stop them but he gets beaten too. The latter is part of another gang and few time after they decide to punish them attacking one of the members, so a guy of the second gang uses a brick to crack the head of one of the "bullies". Then the guys who took part to this expedition talk together about what just happened and here's what they say:

A: when'd you get to be such a thug? ( 你丫的手怎么这么黑呀 )
B: What do you mean? ( 怎么了 )
A: What you did with that brick... even I was was spooked. ( 那板砖拍得 连我都怕 )
B: It was dark. I couldn't see, otherwise I'd have really wasted him. ( 天太黑 看不清楚 要不然非废了丫子的 )
A: 说你胖 你还喘上了 来劲儿了 (?)

I think it's some sarcastic answer to make him notice how he's full of himself, but I can't really understand, I'd like to be able to translate it but I can't.

I think it's some sarcastic answer to make him notice how he's full of himself

Yes, that's basically what it means.

“说你胖 你还喘上了” literally means, "you start (pretending) to breathe heavily soon as you're said to be fat", it is an expression/slang used metaphorically to say someone's pretending to be (more of) something he/she is said to be (usually out of courtesy).

I personally found it as hilarious and offensive at the same time. An example,
A: "You know what, a friend of mine just said you look cute."
B: "Yeah, I actually hear that a lot."
A: "说你胖 你就喘"

Someone "来劲儿了" means someone is pumped. In the given context, I understand it as that B took A's words as an acknowledgement and got pumped.


What is the difference between 能 and 能够? I understand there is a difference between 可以, 能, and 会 in Mandarin. But is there any difference between 能 and 能够?

Also, is there any case where one word can be used but the other cannot?

At least I just got to know that 能够 cannot take a one-syllable verb (while 能 can). So it is not correct to say 她能够吃, but is there any other difference?

Both 能 and 能够 mean 'can/ able to'

Subtle difference:

能 mostly refer to 有能力 (capable/ able)
够 in 能够 carries the additional meaning of '足夠' (enough to)

Example:

"Three inch of water can (is capable of) drown a person" 三英寸的水能淹死一個人

"Three inch of water can (be enough to) drown a person" 三英寸的水能够淹死一個人

"one dollar can (is able to) buy one Doughnut" 一美元能買一個甜甜圈

"one million dollar can (be enough to) buy a persons principle" 一百萬美元能够買一個人的原則


How would you say 绵延不绝的小山 and 一望无际的田野 in English How would you say 绵延不绝的小山 and 一望无际的田野 in English?

Continuous mountains, and large and large fields?

Thanks!

You are pretty close. One thing to note is that 小山 is more accurately translated as "hill" and not "mountain."

Both of these contain what could be considered a 成语 (four-character idiom), and both idioms are very similar.

绵延不绝的小山 essentially translates as "endless hills" and 一望无际的田野 basically means "fields as far as the eye can see."

For more literal translations of the individual idioms, 绵延不绝 means "continuing and stretching without cease," whereas 一望无际 means "one look without end."


What's Jackie Chan's Character's Chinese Name (in Characters) in Rush Hour? In Rush Hour Jackie Chan's character is called Yan Naing Lee:

Rush Hour Wiki:Yan Naing Lee

  Chief Inspector Lee is one of two main protagonists of the Rush Hour series. He is a Chief Inspector with the Hong Kong Police Force (H.K.P.F). Lee appears in all three of the films. He is partnered with Detective James Carter, who at first doesn't get along with, but later befriends. Lee is portrayed by Jackie Chan.

He's often called Lee in the film, so most likely that means his surname is Lee or 李 (can't imagine it'd be anything else).

As for NAING, it seems to be a romanization of a Burmese name - if anything.

Chinese searches bring up names like:

  YAN NAING OO陈馨丰

where NAING would, assumably, be 馨, based on allignment. This, though, seems to be made-up Chinese name - rather than a translation or a transliteration - what have you.

The only other thing I can find with Naing (and even Yan together!) is this translation:

  博杨莱-德钦通盛(Bo Yan Naing-Tun Shein)

I'm not sure what this romanization system is either. If it was a true translation then that would make the characters name something like: 李杨莱.

Not finding much online - as the Chinese just refers to him as Officer Lee (李警官).

Any ideas?

————

Edit: saw 有道 also lists:

  n. (Naing)人名；(缅)乃；(柬)宁

Why would a movie character from HK have Burmese or Cambodian romanization in his name? Bizarre.

Jackie Chan's character only has one name, Lee.

Neither the script, original screenplay, credits, of all three movies give any other name for Lee.

"Yan Naing Lee" is a piece of Wikipedia vandalism that sadly hasn't been caught, until now. See this revision: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rush_Hour_(film_series)&diff=prev&oldid=598230485

And related Movies & TV question: https://movies.stackexchange.com/q/81411/11183


Is the 6-th stroke of 您 Pie or Dian? Consider the character 您

My dictionary says that the 6th stroke is 撇 whereas the 8th stroke is 点.

Is there a difference between how these strokes are written ?

I mean the short 撇 in 你 and the left falling 点 in 心.

They look identical to me.

I got my answer.

Both the left-falling dian and the short pie look identical when not using a brush.

Both are drawn from top to bottom.

The difference is where the sharp end and the rounded end are.

Dian: Start with a sharp end and draw down finishing with a rounded end. Like a drop of water.

Pie: Start by drawing a rounded end at the top and then work down finishing with a sharp end going down. Like the drop of water upside-down.


What's the tone on 河南话's 中 (as in: very good) What's the time on 河南话's 中 meaning very good?

It sounds like 3rd tone but I'm not sure.

I would say the 2nd tone. My wife is from there so I think she has the authority on that...


Is it possible for 已 to make a sentence into the future tense? According to my dictionary, 已 means already or/and afterwards.

However, for the translation of

  我已无法忘却。

,

  I've already been unable to forget (it).`

seems to be a little awkward.

I seems this one is right one:

  I won't be able to forget (it) afterwards. (I cannot forget (it) any more.)

, but is it right to understand the sentence as the future tense?

已 means 'already' (not 'afterward', which is '之後' or '以後' in Chinese ) You don't have to worry about what tense it is in, because it is an adverb.

Actually, you don't have to worry about what tense a verb is in, because Chinese do not use tense for verb, see this answer: How do you specify past tense for 是?

To use 已 in pass tense, you can write: "在三年前我已畢業" (I already graduated three years ago)
To use 已 in future tense, you can write: "明天走已太晚了" (leaving tomorrow will be too late already)

Since the sentence "我已无法忘却" doesn't provide any time reference, you can read it as in present tense by default --  "I can't forget it already"

If you really want to  put "我已无法忘却" in different tense, you have to put time reference in the context that associates with this sentence.


How widespread is the use of 妳? When addressing a female, do I have to use 妳 instead of 你?

How common is the usage of 妳?

Mainland China doesn't use 妳 anymore. 妳 is mostly used in Hong Kong and Taiwan where they still use Traditional Chinese.

As you mentioned in the question, 妳 is used to address a female person. In mainland China, people use 你 for both males and females.

Note: the right hand side of 你 or 妳 is 尔. In Traditional Chinese, 尔 is written as 爾. However, as far as I know, 你 and 妳 in Traditional Chinese are not written as 儞 not 嬭 but just 你 and 妳.


Is there a 成语 that means something like "Little dogs always bark the loudest"? What are some 成语 that mean something like "little dogs always bark the loudest", or "little dogs are mean"?

Here's some supplement to Kevman's answer.

色厉内荏："A bully is always a coward，" it literally means that looking tough outside but actually stuffed with straw.

外强中干："outwardly strong and inwardly weak。"


How to say "To end" when the verb is not a simple V + O I know that there are some basic ways to say " to end" with a common Verb + Object pair. (ex. 吃完饭。 开完会， 等） But， what if it is a verb like 培训？  Or if it is a noun form of 培训 ？

Would you say “培训完成以后？“ or is there a better way to say this?

Just put 完 at the end of the verb will do the job. Examples are as follows:

培训完之后，我们去吃饭吧！
锻炼完之后，我们去吃饭吧！
冥想完之后，我们去吃饭吧！
蹲起完之后，我们去吃饭吧！


How do I say "Have you spoken to A about B yet?" Quick question, how would I say "Have you spoken with your parents about me staying at your house yet?"

Could it simply be

我问一下，关于我在你们家住几天， 你跟你的家庭说了没 ？

or does 关于  sound too formal？

你跟父母說了我要在你家留宿的事沒有?

The question above should suffice.


What is a good English translation for "老乡"? In what contexts can 老乡 used? How do they translate to English?

An appropriate word would be countryman

  noun, plural countrymen.

 1. a native or inhabitant of one's own country.
 2. a native or inhabitant of a particular region.
 3. person who lives in the country.
 4. an unsophisticated person, as one who lives in or comes from a rural
    area; rustic.

Meaning from Baidu:

1、老乡的范围可大可小。比如在市里看到同一县的人，在省里看到同一市的人，在全国看到同一省的人，都可以算做老乡
2、以前解放军对百姓们的称呼。

Translated to English:

  The usage of this word is flexible. For example, it can be applied to those living within the same district of a city, the same city
  within a province, or the same province within the country.
  The PLA used to address the commoners this way.

Usage example:

无论是因为工作漂泊在外，还是因为求学进去在外，一句老乡拉近了你我彼此之间的距离。


How should I understand 延伸开来 within ……并且延伸开来，导致重大而长远的对抗? The following opinion piece considers a hypothetical scenario in which the USA and China's coronavirus death numbers were reversed:

总之，假如中国今天在一场全球共同灾难中成为应对最差、损失最大的那一个，美国和西方对中国的意识形态攻击一定会是海啸级的，并且延伸开来，导致重大而长远的对抗。
假如死亡30万人的是中国 会发生什么，2020年12月15日。

My translation: To sum up, supposing China today in the global common disaster became the one with the worst response and greatest losses, the USA and the west's ideological attack would be tsunami-grade, and extend [延伸开来 (??)], leading to great and long-reaching confrontation.

Question: How should I understand 延伸开来 in the above?
延伸 means "extend/spread" but 开来 is perhaps some kind of complement I'm unfamiliar with.

My try:
These ideological attacks will spread (out into other areas, e.g. trading, copy-right, human right, ..., etc), leading to  greater and long-term confrontations.
 "長遠" here mean long duration in time, not spatial.


How useful are the kanji in reading Chinese? Possible Duplicate:
  Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa?

I'm learning Japanese, and I'm going to learn all of the jouyou kanji, which is about 2000 characters. Of course, over time I'll learn many words made from them as compounds.

What I'm wondering about is how much overlap there is?

Once I reach a certain level of ability and can read Japanese very well, will I also be able to read Chinese at least a little?

I know I'll at the very least be able to pick out words here and there, but just how much? Are very many hanzi used the same way as their corresponding kanji? Are many compounds common to both languages?

Thanks!

Personally I found learning Chinese after Japanese a very positive experience. Indeed having a good knowledge of Kanji made a big difference and eased the learning of Hanzi. At first it took me a while to get used to simplified characters. Knowing radicals has helped me a great deal. Also I tend to use a lot of technology that was not available when I was learning Japanese. Particularly for reading a writing Chinese.


How do you write “hacker” in Chinese?… (where hacker doesn't have an evil connotation) How do you write "hacker" in Chinese?...
For purposes of this question, here is the definition in English:

Hacker /ˈhækər/ (noun)

One who likes to program.
One who utilizes technology to go beyond the limits inherent to the design of an application.

I'm not talking about only black-hat hackers (which is unfortunately the public perversion of the word "hacker" and has an evil connotation, in addition to usually referring incorrectly to mostly script kiddies and not true Black Hats anyways).
Instead I'm referring to the definition above, which may include the entire gambit Black-Grey-White, but is not limited to those subsets.
Thanks!

黑客 is the Chinese word for Hacker.

黑 can work as a verb meaning to hack.

客 is a suffix that means person here.

It does also include the different definitions you're looking for, almost practically the same as English.

黑客 on Wikipedia says:

  “黑客”一词最早是用来称呼研究如何盗用电话系统的人，这一类人士也被称作“飞客”（Phreak）。[3]
  在计算机软件方面，“黑客”是对于计算机及计算机网络内部系统运作特别感兴趣并且有深入理解能力的一种人。[4]
  在业余计算机DIY方面，“黑客”是指研究如何修改计算机相关产品的业余爱好者。从1970年代起，有很多这一类社区聚焦于硬件研究。
  在信息安全里，“黑客”指研究如何智取计算机安全系统的人员。他们利用公共通讯网路，如电话系统和互联网，在非正规的情况下登录对方系统，掌握操控系统之权力。

The wikipedia page also has translations of the different types of hats aswell:

  白帽黑客（White Hat）

  灰帽黑客（Grey Hat）

  黑帽黑客（Black Hat）

You might as well check out the entire page, I'm sure you'll find more information that would be helpful/useful for you.

‘Hack’ in words like lifehack often get translated more like 妙招 or 小技巧 or 小窍门.


Translation for sentence with important a grammar point: 没有。。。那么 This is the English sentence. I was wondering if the translation is correct. I have to use 没有。。。那么 in my sentence.
Chinese is not as difficult as people think。 Use：没有。。。那么
中文没有人们想那么难
Thank you very much.

I feel 中文没有人们想那么难 is grammatically incorrect because 想 is a verb, so we need to add a 的 afterwards.  However, 想 is also an imprecise word choice since it has connotations of "wanting" something.
I suggest the following:

中文没有人们想象的那么难。

I changed 想 (to think) to 想象 (to imagine), and you can check online it's commonly used this way.  Here, 人们想象的 refers to something along the lines of "what people imagine".
Related examples "in the wild":

我认为这没有人们想象的那么难。 (source)
I feel this is not as difficult as people imagine.
高校腐败没有人们想象的那么严重。  (source)
Corruption in university and colleges is not as serious as people imagine.
历史上的杜甫，没有人们想象的那么穷苦。  (source)
History's Du Fu [was] not as impoverished as people imagine.
事情远没有人们想象的那么简单。  (source)
[The] matter is rather not as simple as people imagine.


What's the meaning of "不见面也有不见面的好"? I really couldn't understand the meaning of this sentences.

见面 means to meet, to see
不见面 means not meet, not see.

不见面也有不见面的好。

But I really couldn't get what it is saying.

We can break this up into three parts

不见面 - to not meet
也有 - also has
不见面的好 -  the good aspect (or benefits) of not meeting

There's also benefits of not meeting (or not seeing (each other)).


What is considered to be the most difficult sound for native English speakers to pronounce? When I was first learning Chinese, I found the e4 - 饿 & ü3/ü4 - 女/绿 sounds to be the most problematic.

Has there been any research into this? If so, what sounds are generally the most problematic sounds for an initially monolingual English speaker to learn when studying Chinese?

Not sure about research

From experience the sounds that people have the most issues with are:

the "r" sound when used at the beginning of a word. Best examples are 热 (re) and 日 (ri).
differentiating between zh & j, sh & x, ch & q.
the ü sound as in 魚 fish (I think that is the one you mentioned).


Usage of word "sun": 太阳 (tài yáng) vs 日 (rì) What is the difference between 太阳 (tài yáng) and 日 (rì) for "sun"?
Are they used in different contexts or are they interchangeable?

I'd like to offer a slightly different perspective from the other answers, and suggest that the most important difference between the two is that 太陽 is a free word, whereas 日 is a bound morpheme, i.e. it cannot appear as an independent word.  Think of 太陽 as 'sun' and '日' as sol-.  Of course they are not word for word identical with the English forms, but the basic concept is, perhaps, somewhat similar.

I don't agree that 日 is more common as 'day' than as 'sun'; it is pretty much parallel with 月, which is both 'month' and 'moon', and it's really quite difficult to say which is more common.  The morphology of 'moon' is also somewhat similar to 'sun' in Chinese, except that 月 is free when it means 'month'. whereas when it means the celestial body, it is bound, and you need the form 月亮. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)

Historically, 日 was both sun and day. (天 was originally different from 日, consisting of two things: 一日and 一夜.) How 太陽 became the word for 'sun' is an interesting question. In a large number of dialects, especially in northern China, the word for sun is still 日頭. It seems that 日 kept its meaning as sun pretty much unchanged in these dialects.

太陽 seems to have been an astrological term for 'sun', with the moon identified as 太陰. Why did 太陽 win out and supplant 日 and all its variants, while 太陰 lost out completely? I'll award 5 *'s to the lexico-mane who can answer that one.


What does this woman say in Chinese? (From the new Daredevil tv show) I was watching the new Daredevil show and noticed this bit.  I was hoping somebody might be able to explain what the elderly lady is saying...Thanks.

Here is the clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJlop7mkvt4&feature=youtu.be

Here is a second clip of her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_pwIum-3o&feature=youtu.be

有些人的手，永遠是染著他人的鮮血，會冷的。

Some people's hands are always bathed* in the blood of others. They get cold.

  這些人，他是偷貨給自己的，還是把你們弄成大傻瓜？

Did these people steal the products for themselves, or did they turn you guys into idiots?

*染 = to dye, but, in the context 染著(someone's)鮮血, the more accurate translation would be bathed in the blood.

By the way, in my opinion, this woman's pronunciation is not accurate.


不要说话 vs 不说话 (vs 别说话) Currently on DuoLingo, and got this sentence:

我们看电影的时候请不要说话

which means:

Please don't talk when we watch movies.

My question: is the 要 strictly necessary here?
Google translate actually gives a slightly different translation of

我们看电影的时候请不说话

'要' in '不要' cannot be removed, because '不要' is a compound word that mean 'don't'(auxiliary verb) which is different from '不' (adv: not)

不要说话/ 别说话 = Don't talk (demand)
不说话 = 'not speak'
看电影的时候请(不要)说话 - Please (don't) talk when watching movies (O)
看电影的时候请(别)说话 - Please (don't) talk when watching movies (O)
看电影的时候请(不)说话 - Please (not) talk when watching movies (X)

他(不说话) = he (doesn't speak)


How is the "r" sound pronounced? One of the most trickiest sounds to pronounce correctly in Mandarin seems to be the "r" sound, as in 日本 (rì běn). It's not uncommon to hear people pronounce that like "urban."

I have been told it's not supposed to be pronounced like the English "r" like in "red" (alveolar approximant). Some say it's closer to the French "j" in "jour" (voiced palato-alveolar sibilant).

What is the correct way to pronounce the Chinese "r"?

I suggest you pronounce it like the "r" sound in "brrrrrrrr I'm cold" or "grrrrrrrr I'm angry".

So for Japan you could do it like "rrrrrrr ben".

Don't roll this "r" sound. This will get you about 80% accuracy. To get the rest you need to make the same voiced palato-alveolar sibilant, then you will be there.

Just want to add the palato-alveolar sibilant in the French "j" is made in a different part of the mouth to the Chinese "r". The "r" sound should be at the roof of the mouth.

Here is a great video on youtube to help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D6G0aqjtso


What is the English term for 「制度管治」? I've been searching on the internet but cannot find anything relevant. Should it be "governance by systems", "system governance" or something else? Thank you.

It could mean 制度的管治 or regulatory management.


What is the evidence that "Ospreys" are the birds in the first poem in the Shijing? Legge used "Ospreys" to name the first poem in the Shijing.  Karlgren often cites it that way, but his own translation leaves it as "ts'u - kiu  bird." (Book of Odes, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1950).
Apparently  Zheng Qiao (1104--1162) said the birds were Mallard Ducks, which makes sense though I have not seen the source. Zhu Xi agreed with this, see his commentary on the Shijing, paragraph 2 of this.
According to this, a somewhat obscure line of the Mao commentary was taken to mean the birds are some kind of hawk (like Ospreys), while Lu Ji 陸機 (261–303) believed the birds were Cormorants, while Guo Pu (郭璞; AD 276–324) believed they were fish hawks (such as Ospreys).

Have a look here
This interested me too a while back.
“分析风头鸊鷉的资料感觉，雎鸠是风头鸊鷉的可能性大些。”
关关雎鸠 should be 关关风头鸊鷉???


What does 的 mean in 随着学习的深入 (a verb modifies a verb via 的)? In the following sentence:

  学习汉语的人一般都会认为汉字“难认”和“难学”，其实，这主要是在开始学习的时候。随着学习的深入，难度会降低，“难学”甚至会转化为“易学”，这是因为汉字在音、形、义三个要素之间有着不少内在的联系。

深入 is a verb, and 学习 is also a verb or noun. So it is awkward 学习 modifies a verb here.

One possibility is that 的 is misspelled with 得 here and 深入 is used an an adjective (meaning "thorough" or "deepgoing"), but this text is formal and not something you see on the web (it is a textbook for Chinese learners).

So why is 的 used in such a way? What does it mean here, and is it grammatically correct? Or is it simply a typo with 得 (which sometimes happen among native Chinese speakers, though as I said, it is a textbook for language learners and should be checked before pubilshed)?

songyuanyao wrote:

  深入 is considered as a noun here

songyuanyao is right, 深入(advance) is a noun here

  随着(following) 学习的 (of study) 深入 (advance)

Notice 随着 (following) is the verb, advance is the object, and 学习的 is the adjectival phrase that describe 'advance'-- (advance of what? Advance of the study of course.)

'的' at the end of '学习的' turns the noun '学习' (study) into an adjectival phrase (of study)

Let me give another example of [noun + 的] = [of noun]:

战斗 : to battle (v); battle (n)

战斗的 = of battle

加劇: to intensify(v); intensification (n)

"战斗的加劇" = "intensification of battle"

Both 战斗 and 加劇 are noun here and 的 turns 战斗 to an adjectival phrase for 'intensification' (intensification of the battle)

In '战斗加劇', '战斗'(battle) is the object noun ; and 加劇 (intensify) is a verb

In '学习得深入', '学习' is a verb and  '得' is a 'degree adverbial particle' that turns the verb '深入' into an adverbial phrase for it (describe the degree of the verb 学习)

In '深入地学习', '地' turn the verb 深入 into an adverbial phrase for the verb 学习 (describe the manner of the verb 学习)


What is the correct pinyin for 哪儿? I've seen both Nǎ'er and Nǎr.

The first form looks more like a literal transcription of each character, while the second one  might be the way it's pronounced (assuming there is a difference)

I do understand pinyin is just a learning / transliteration tool; I'm more interested in the explanation of the cases where this conversion is applied and why.

儿 in this case indicates the application of 儿化 (er2hua4) or 'r-coloring' to the previous syllable.

To input 哪儿 using a typical Pinyin IME, you would have to type naer or na'er, because nar would be segmented na r, and the IME would then expect further input for a second Pinyin syllable beginning with r.

Outside of keyboard input, however, the correct Pinyin for 哪儿 is nǎr, because 儿 is not being used to represent a full syllable. Where it represents a full syllable, it would be represented as ér in Pinyin.


What is the difference between "我还没打算" and "我还没决定" In a question-response practice, the question is "你暑假要去旅游吗"? Why is the right response "我还没决定", not "我还没打算"?

In the narrow sense of a q&a practice, I would say that by saying ‘我还没打算’ you are not answering the question if you want／are going to travel (你暑假要去旅游吗), while 我还没决定 (I haven't made up my mind yet) is a very clean answer.

我还没打算 is like 'I didn't plan (the trip) yet'. Also, compare this answer to something like: '暑假我没有计划' (I have no plans for the summer holidays).

I hope this helps!


Unknown meaning of a carving on the back of a Buddha statue (Character identified: 朱) I hope someone could help me understand if this is something. Its on a Budddha statue I purchased.

It's 朱

In 篆文:

It is a common surname in Chinese, originally refers to inner red wood.

  說文解字注: 朱本木名。引伸假借爲純赤之字。糸部曰。絑、純赤也。是其本字也。

For variations you can find here : http://www.guoxuedashi.com/zixing/yanbian/4472tv/


the leaf always falls down on its root A friend of mine mentioned the Chinese saying that says that "the leaf always falls down on its root". I would like to know whether this refers to the text that in old age several people return to their country of origin, and would also like to know how to write this in Chinese.

Thanks.

"the leaf always falls down on its root"

落(fallen)

葉(leaves)

歸 (go back to)

根 (the root)

落葉歸根 means "fallen leaves always go back to the root"

It is a metaphor for "a person come back to his birth place to settle". It is considered a fulfilling event.

The thinking is a traditional one. Nowadays, the tie between a person and his birth place is nowhere as strong as in olden time.

Hong Kong is my birth place, but I am happy to settle in Toronto until the day I die.


Syntactic role of "我" in "我真是这个意思" 有一个”我真是这个意思“的句法的问题。那个句子的英文的翻译根据Wiktionary是”I mean it“. 在那个句子”我“是主语还是一个属格的主题？下面的三个句子A，B, C对吗？任何句子好像奇怪, 没有第一句的意思吗？
I have a question about the sentence structure of "我真是这个意思", translated as "I mean it" in this example from Wiktionary.
别笑！我真是这个意思！
Don't laugh! I mean it!

Is 我 the subject or a non-subject topic like a possessor? Are the following related sentences grammatical? Do any of them sound strange or have a different meaning from the example?
A) 真是这个意思。
B) 我的意思真是这个。
C) 我的真是这个意思。

I believe the grammatical structure of 我真是这个意思 is:

Subj: 我 - I
Adverb: 真 - really
Verb: 是 - to be
Object (Pronoun + Measure Word + Noun): 这个意思 - this idea

Which literally means I really am this idea. However, this use of the verb to be indeed sounds strange: the person I is not an idea!? But, we can understand it considering the 'illogical' sentences of the copula verb 是, in which 是 has a metaphorical meaning understood from the context. For more details see the answer I referenced, but we can understand the main idea with an example:

我是炒饭.

Which does not mean I am a fried rice (literal), but implies (e.g. in a restaurant) I am the one having the fried rice (metaphorical). The same occurs in the common expression:

这是什么意思?

Which does not mean This is what meaning? (literal), but implies What does this mean? (metaphorical). So coming back to our example:

我真是这个意思.

Which does not mean I really am this idea (literal), but implies I really mean this idea (metaphorical).


How to ask someone "Will you marry me" So, not to look to far ahead. (Okay, not to look to far ahead at all). I'm interested in how to say" Will You marry me" I've read "你愿意嫁给我吗？“    “和我结婚，好吗” and “嫁给我好吗？“ Is there a clear "best" way to say this?

All can be the best way under their particular circumstances.

你愿意嫁给我吗？ Very formal, ritualistic.

和我结婚，好吗？ 嫁给我好吗？ Bookish. People write that in letters.

嫁给我算了 This is what guys (who think they are not up to the standards) say to their long-time girl friends who are still waiting for Mr. Perfect. It's like saying, "I'm not perfect, but don't let prudence ruin the best things in life."


Are things ever dialect checked? I'm wondering if things (in general) are ever dialect checked?

哈尔滨啤酒 has a commercial where they go around singing the name 哈啤 over and over again but it sounds a lot like SB in Southwestern Mandarin. (They really should have checked that.)

I'm wondering if these public things (billboards, commercials, posters, etc.) are ever checked to make sure it doesn't have any dialectical problems?

No. Once your sentence exceeds seven words, it is guaranteed that you will offend a man in the street or a women on the roof. So we just give it up.

Like the homophones in the same dialect aren't enough to deal with...

But if you are to do business in Sichuan (or anywhere actually) it's your own lookout.


What language is this and what does it say? (Characters identified: 下角) This is stamped on the bottom of pieces of a tea set (cups, saucers, tea pot,etc) my father bought for his mother during WWII. I believe he purchased it in Shanghai prior to 1945.

Can someone please tell me what it says and in what language?

It's a seal with Chinese characters 下角.
As Tang Ho said, It could be a brand name/place name of origin/craftsman name etc.


When was 呌 replaced with 叫? I've seen a lot of books published near the end of the Qing dynasty where 叫 is usually always written 呌.

It does seem less common during the Republic of China era, but I'm not sure.

When was 呌 replaced with 叫?

You need to know about First Set of Variant Characters To Be Standardized:

  In October of 1955 the Ministry of Education and the Committee for the Reform held two important conferences in Beijing, the National Conference on Script Reform (Quanguo Wenzi Gaige Huiyi) and the Symposium on the Standardization of Modern Chinese (Xiandai Hanyu Guifanhua Xueshu Huiyi) , the first focusing on Chinese character simplification and second on the definition of Putonghua. The first meeting resulted in the passing of the Revised Draft of the Scheme for the Simplification of Chinese characters (Hanzi Jianhua Fang’an Xiuzheng Cao’an) as well as the Draft of the List of the First Set of Variant Characters to be Standardized (Di Yi Pi Yitzi Zhengli Biao Cao’an), both of which were given full propaganda support by the CCP, the government, the People’s Daily, etc.

The original looked something like this:

In Chinese it is now called 第一批异体字整理表 and is explained like this:

  《第一批异体字整理表》，是1955年中华人民共和国文化部和中国文字改革委员会发布的正体字选字表，原来有810组，淘汰异体字1,055个（但“妳”、“粇”二字分别出现两次），于1956年2月1日开始实施。

The list contains:

There you have it:

  叫［呌］

These regulations seem to have come into place on February 1st of 1956.


What phrases in Cantonese are thought to be colloquial but are actually used in Mandarin? I only learnt HK Cantonese from my mother, and did not have the environment to speak or use it otherwise.  She would tell me that certain Cantonese words are only spoken colloquially, but would not be expressed in written form.

For example:

食饭 is spoken and should be written as 吃饭
斟茶 is spoken and should be written as 倒茶
唔该 is spoken and should be written as 谢谢

However recently, I have encountered people from China using the phrase
 斟茶 in Mandarin, and I was told upon asking that this usage is normal.

So, I was wondering there are any other colloquial cantonese phrases that are actually used by the Mandarin speaking population.

Added 20180308: just heard 我对不住你 in a period China drama, which I would say 我对不起你 in Mandarin or  我對唔住你 in Cantonese.  What is used in China these days?

唔該 has two meanings:

"Please" as in 請 (e.g 唔該你幫我開門 -> 請你幫我開門 -> "Would you please open the door for me?")
"Thank you" as in 謝謝 (e.g 唔該晒 -> 謝謝 -> "Thanks so much!")

Other terms are colloquial in Cantonese I can think of off the top of my head:

發夢 is written as 做夢 (dreaming)
老闆/老板 (interchangeable, means boss/owner) is usually written as 上司 (boss) and/or 東主/店主 (owner, usually referring to small business owners), though 老闆/老板 is also in use in Mandarin/written Chinese
行街 is normally written as 逛街 (literally means walking on the streets, usually means shopping)
餸 is normally written as 菜 (means cooking ingredients/cooked dishes here, not vegetables) e.g. 買餸 is 買菜 in Mandarin (grocery shopping), 煮餸 is 做菜 (cooking), 隔夜餸 is 剩菜 (leftovers)
餐牌 (dining menu) is normally written as 菜單
Umbrella is called 遮 in Cantonese, but written as 傘
Jacket/coat is generally called 䄛 in Cantonese, but usually called 衣 in Mandarin

䄛/大䄛 is 大衣/外衣 (outer jacket/coat)
雨䄛 is 雨衣 (raincoat)
皮䄛 is 皮夾克 (leather jacket)

衫 means tops in Cantonese but also used as the general term for clothes, whereas 上衣 is normally used for tops in Mandarin, and the general term for clothes is 衣服
波 is in general written as 球 (e.g. 乒乓波 -> ping pong/table tennis)

In particular, most ball-type of sports use 球 in the name of the sport in Cantonese, such as 足球 (football/soccer) and 網球 (tennis), the act of playing them still use 波: 踢波 (play soccer, literally translates to "kick ball"), 打波 (play ball, the specific type is generally inferred in the context).  In Mandarin, these would normally be 踢球 and 打球.
日 is almost exclusively used in Cantonese when referring to "day", whereas in Mandarin/written Chinese 天 and 日 are used more interchangeably:

今日 (today) -> 今天
尋日 (yesterday) -> 昨天
聽日 (tomorrow) -> 明天
前日 (the day before yesterday) -> 前天
後日 (the day after tomorrow) -> 後天
大前日 (the day before the day before yesterday, i.e. three days ago) -> 大前天
大後日 (the day after the day after tomorrow, i.e. three days later) -> 大後天

There are also many newer terms and names (from the last 100 years or so) where the Cantonese name is phonetically adopted from a foreign language (normally English), or even left as English in Cantonese, but the Mandarin term is either adopted from meaning, adopted phonetically differently due to differences in pronunciations.  For example:

cab/taxi is 的士 in Cantonese, 出租車 (Mainland China) or 計程車 (Taiwan) in Mandarin
bus is 巴士 in Cantonese, 公車 in Mandarin
wrench is 士巴拿 (from British English "spanner") in Cantonese, 扳手 in Mandarin
tie (as in necktie) is usually called 呔 or 領呔 in Cantonese, 領帶 in Mandarin
tire/tyre (as in car tires) is called 呔 (yes, same as above) or 車呔 in Cantonese, 胎/車胎/輪胎 in Mandarin


早已 and 早就: what's the difference? To my understanding, both hold the meaning of "already happened long ago". What are the nuances though? Are they interchangeable?

Examples:

他早已打定主意了。 (He made up his mind long ago.)
他早就搬走了。 (He moved out long ago.)

Thanks

早已 and 早就 are different. They can be exchangeable in practice and may or may not have the same meaning. But their grammar structure are different.

Examples-1:

他搬走了.(He moved) (To answer what happened to him?)

他已经搬走了.(Since he moved, he is no longer here)

他早已经搬走了.(1) (Since he moved, he is no longer here. That happened long time ago.)

他早已搬走了.(same as 1)

Examples-2:

他搬走了.(He moved)

他早搬走了.(He moved)(That happened long time ago.)

他早就搬走了.(He moved)(I am sure that happened long time ago.) (How come you do not even know it ??? )

早已 has the basic meaning of 已经. The combination logic is the 早 is used to modify 已经.

早就 has the basic meaning of 早 as adverb to modify the verb 搬走. 就 is to emphasize and to be very sure about it.


Web Developer Vocabulary I'm looking for a list of vocabulary used for developer / programming terminology, with such terms as "Constructors", " Framework", "DI", "CMS" or other similar words.
I found some pages on the IT fields but the terms used are not technical enough (e.g "computer", "screen"...etc).
If someone knows where to find a nice list for development terms, please let me know.

"constructor": "构造函数"
"framework": "框架"
"dependency injection": "依赖注入"
"content management system": "内容管理系统"

Instead of looking for a word table, you can refer to textbooks that cover programming languages (such as C++ or Java) in Chinese.


If the simplified version of 態 is 态 is why isn't there one for 熊? I ask because I'm curious as to what's the reasoning behind simplification. It would look something like:

太

灬

態 to 态

态 is a "new" Phono-semantic compound character. 態 sounds tài, so a simple character 太 with the same pronunciation is chosen for the phonetic part. Then it becomes 态.

This character was simplified by the people who lived in places governed by the CCP during 1940s.

  Why not simplify 灬 to 一 for 熊, but for 魚

  Answer: 灬 came from 火 (fire) in the seal script. For 灬 under 熊, it has the meaning of fire. But for the character 魚:

  though the bottom is written like 火, it is not really 火. Duan Yucai's Annotation to Shuowen said:

    "非从火也 the semantic part is not 火 (fire)"

    "象形。魚尾與燕尾相佀。 (this character) is a pictogram character. The fishtail is just like the swallow tail."

  Thus, when simplifying 魚, they made 灬 (fishtail) as 一; while for 熊, they kept 灬.


有一點　can only be used for bad things, but how about 一點？ I've learned that 有一點 can only be used for negative things, such as 有一點累，　有一點不好吃　etc　but not 有一點漂亮，　有一點好。
But how about if I say only 一點？ Is that the same?
For example, are the following sentences valid?:

這個甜點只一點甜，不太甜的。
This dessert is only a little bit sweet, not too much.
這本書一點有意思，可是那本書真有意思！　你看看！
This book is a little interesting, but that one is really interesting! You should read it!

Generally, people try to soften a negative assessment, or if you’re shy, downplay the intensity of your response.
“The dish was too salty!” vs “The dish was a bit salty.”
“It’s too noisy, let’s get out of here!” vs “It’s a bit noisy in here, shall we go elsewhere?”
As you can see, no matter the language spoken, it’s not what you say but how you say it that matters.

“有一點” serves this purpose in colloquial Chinese. I can’t imagine this phrase would be used in a professional or formal Chinese setting. It’s meant to downplay the intensity of your response.

To answer your question, it’s not necessarily the case that this phrase is used to denote a negative connotation.

“還不錯” 、”還可以” are other phrases used to downplay intensity of response. These are used to denote “is ok”.
Example: 這本書還不錯，那本書很有意思！

I understand you were looking to highlight usage of “有一點”, but for your other example regarding desserts, I would favour something closer to:
這道點心不是很甜。
The tone is more assertive, appropriate for when you don’t care about offending the chef/dessert purchaser.


Definition order of adjectives of noun 黑小狗 means black puppy and 小黑狗 means small black dog, please correct me if I am wrong.

'黑小狗' = 'black small dog' (small in size)  or 'black puppy' (small in age)

小黑狗 = small black dog

Some breeds of dog can be held with one hand. They are 小狗 (small dogs) too, but it doesn't mean they are not adult dogs

To be specific, you can use '幼犬' (infant/small dog) for 'puppy'.


Why does 三明治 mean sandwich when 三 means 3, 明 means bright/clear, and 治 means to rule? I am a native English speaker who is learning Mandarin Chinese for the AP Chinese test next year. I stumbled on this "anomaly", and I would like your help. Thank you.

That 三明治 came from transcribing the English word Sandwich into Chinese. That is to say, it is meant to approximate the pronunciation of the English word. You aren't meant to interpret the individual characters literally.

As Stan points out, it is sometimes transcribed as 三文治 as well. Historically it has also been written as 三味治, but that's pretty much extinct.


Better translation for 春节联欢晚会 than New Year's Gala On the night of New Years Eve in China many people watch the annual New Year's Gala. This in Chinese is called 春节联欢晚会 in English this is translated as New Year's Gala.

So what exactly is a 联欢晚会? Can someone break it down and explain the parts. Google translates 联欢晚会 as "gala". But if you type "gala" in as the English it doesn't provide 联欢晚会 as the translation.

Meaning no offense, it sounds like you're overthinking this.

The point of translation is not necessarily to go word-for-word. The point is to express the idea in the way it would have been expressed had the original writer been a native speaker of English (in this case). "New Year's Gala" is perfectly acceptable for this.

You could (optionally) choose to use a synonym like "Extravaganza", "Show", "Variety Show", or whatever, but it really doesn't matter much.

Trusting Google translate as the basis to make decisions about translation or translation quality is also not generally a very good idea. It's much better to get in touch with someone who's an actual (professional) live translator, and in this case, a native speaker of English. (Yes, I'm all of those things.)


Was there ever a "Xijing?" Could it have been "Xi An?" "Beijing" means "northern capital," and "Nanjing" means "southern capital."

There is even a "Dongjing" or "eastern capital" that is WAY east of China. It's the city that the Japanese call "Tokyo."

Was there ever a "Xijing" or "western capital?" There is Chinese city called "Xi An" or "western peace" which may have been a capital of part of China at one time. Was this city, or any other city, Chinese or otherwise, ever referred to as "Xijing?" Put another way, did anyone ever name a western capital city Xijing just because of its relative importance to Beijing, Nangjing, and Dongjing?

I don't believe there is any city officially named 西京, but that name has been used to refer to at least several cities, including what is now 西安.


Writing critique request: Zhou Ziwang's father's explanation of how we reached a "DNA editing revolution" Continuing from parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7:

这样的技术变得普遍之后，我爸解释它的秘史。只是一些科学家研究的追求，那时候无法想象将来会导致现在的「DNA改造大革命」。因为最初基础研究进展缓慢，所以他们的期望很低。突然有一天我们收到重大的消息：一个无名的科学家发明了使用电脑创造蛋白质一个方法，就像分子的三维打印一样，TA发明了如何把电脑上的氨基酸序列自动地实现真实的蛋白质。当时，和那些科学家立即的预测一致，不久之后，发现了这项发明显然的使用：可编程的DNA，或者现在名为「DNA改造」。

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.  Her father was involved in "DNA editing" research, and now that it's everywhere he explains the backstory from his perspective.

After a lot of umming and ahing, I opted for the name DNA改造 which is modified from one of Tang Ho's suggestions: 基因改造.

Lots of new words this time.  It's often hard to choose the right one.  E.g. 名为, 称作, or 称为.

因为最初基础研究进展缓慢 ...

I'm not sure why, but this feels ugly, but it means "Because at first the basic research was proceeding slowly...".

当时，和那些科学家立即的预测一致，...

This is intended to mean "at that time, in accordance with the scientists predictions, ...".  (Not all scientists, just the few involved in the research.)  It's a bit clunky.

(I beg you not to point out the impossibility of all this.  It's just a story.)

At some point I'd like to collate these [after editing them] and post it on meta.

It is how I would write:

这样的技术变得普遍之后， --> 这技术普遍了之后，

我爸解释它的秘史。 --> 我爸說出了一段秘史。

只是一些科学家研究的追求，--> 这技术的誕生，原因只是一些科学家对科学研究的(狂热)追求

那时候无法想象将来会导致现在的「DNA改造大革命」。 --> 那时候，人们根本无法想象，这项研究将会导致现在的「DNA改造大革命」。

因为最初基础研究进展缓慢，所以他们的期望很低。--> 由于最初的基础研究进展缓慢，他们的期望都很低。

突然有一天我们收到重大的消息：--> 突然有一天，我们收到一个重大的消息：

一个无名的科学家发明了使用电脑创造蛋白质一个方法，--> 一位无名的科学家，发明了一个使用电脑创造蛋白质的方法，

就像分子的三维打印一样，TA发明了如何把电脑上的氨基酸序列自动地实现真实的蛋白质。--> 就像將分子，以三维打印機去打印一样，他发現了如何把电脑上的「氨基酸序列」自动地合成出真实蛋白质的方法。

当时，和那些科学家立即的预测一致，--> 和当时那些科学家的预测一致，

不久之后，发现了这项发明显然的使用： --> 不久之后，他們找到了这项发明的，最明显的使用法：

可编程的DNA，或者现在名为「DNA改造」。 --> 「可编程的 DNA」，即是现在(我们口中)的「DNA 改造」


Is there a Chinese variant of the expression "and the list goes on and on“ Is there a Chinese variant of the expression "and the list goes on and on" or something simillar to it?

There might be many expressions in different cases. The most common one should be:
等 or 等等： etc.; and so on
那里有很多气球，红色、橙色、绿色、蓝色、白色等等，各种颜色。


Are there any multi-syllabic words in Chinese without a glottal stop? Are there any words in Chinese of 2 more syllables where there isn't a glottal stop between the syllables such that each syllable is not pronounced clearly, that a final consonant and initial consonant could be analyzed as a consonant cluster?  I'm asking this question mostly in reference to Chinese languages descended from Middle Chinese, but wouldn't mind knowing about Min Chinese, or Chinese languages that diverged even earlier, like Waxiang.

I think this question should be "Are there any multi-syllabic words in Chinese with a glottal stop?"
In common speech, (almost) no words have an actual glottal stop in there, whereas the sound is the one identified by the IPA symbol /ʔ/ and defined as:

a type of consonantal sound [...] produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract [...].

Typical poly-syllable words aren't pronounced with such an airflow obstruction, because the sounds are distinct enough. This is the case of encounters of:

vowel+consonant (肌肉，主张)
consonant+consonant (晚饭，面条)
vowel or velar nasal (the ng sound /ŋ/) + semivowel (the approximants /w/), as in (储物，掌握), where, even if the sounds do blend to a certain degree, they are still distinct enough.

The only case where you do have an almost mandatory glottal stop /ʔ/ in speech is nasal (/ŋ/ or /n/) + vowel. Why? Because syllables with nasal initial in Mandarin are valid: nao, nan, nen etc.
In these cases the glottal stop is needed to properly signal to the listener which syllable we are pronouncing. This is also the reason why in pinyin it is used an apex (apostrophe) sign.
For example 晚安 in pinyin is wan'an and in IPA /wanʔan/, otherwise you could simply confuse it with wa+nan. That there's no common word with this very pinyin is irrelevant. Other fairly common examples are 感恩 gan'en (/kanʔen/) and 深奥 shen'ao (/ʃɜnʔaɔ/)
The vowel+vowel case (对岸，马鞍, 骄傲) doesn't require mandatory glottal stop (even though you definitely can add one) because the encounter of vowels can't be mistaken for a valid syllable, where nasal+vowel can.


What is 夜来香 in the song by Teresa Teng? Cross-post notice

Since it has been 25 days since I posted this on Quora, and all that happened was it was marked as needing editing (and perhaps also as needing to be in English), I chose to cross-post here.

Question

The question text on Quora

  On Chinese Wikipedia, “夜来香” is mapped to some 5 different plants (see source). Which of those four is Teresa Teng's song referring to?

The source comment

  Wikipedia link: 夜来香 (歌曲) - 维基百科，自由的百科全书

  Options therein given for Yelaixiang:

  Cestrum nocturnum (aka night-blooming jasmine, the one I suspect the song is referring to);
  葉香木 (what is that?) ;
  Polianthes tuberosa;
  Telosma cordata;
  Oenothera biennis.

  The song:https://youtu.be/t_-ljVn6oLI

So what plant is this Yèláixiāng? Is it the night-blooming jasmine (cestrum nocturnum), as I suspect, or one of the other 4? And what is 葉香木?

Update

The Japanese version of the song calls the Yelaixiang:

  夜来香白い花 | Yeraishan shiroi hana | Yelaixiang white flower

Of the above, number 4 is a yellow flower, and so is number 5. Baidu gives the following image for number 2:

So number 2 isn't even a flower. That leaves us with number 1 (Cestrum nocturnum aka night-blooming jasmine) and number 3 (Polianthes tuberosa).

the book 小山畫譜 has an entry "夜來香":

  藤本﹒植必用架蔓延環繞﹒葉長而末圓﹒花一叢百朶﹒五出﹒色綠微黄﹒蒂托管有柄﹒開亦下垂﹒日落則香氣襲人﹒六七月開

in the 5 wiki entries, only the centrum nocturnum (夜香木)  matched the above description ("花一叢百朶" "色綠微黄" "開亦下垂")

so, i would suggest option 1 (centrum nocturnal) as the answer.


What are the most accurate Chinese to English translation APIs? I want to convert Chinese sentences into English using a web API or open source web project. I want to automate this process so I think the best way is a web API. Most of the translators do not give accurate results. Can you please tell me what is the best web API or web project to do this translation?

As a native speaker and a programmer myself, I have not found any good translation engine that does a good job in English/Chinese translation. It sucks because most of the engines are more or less doing literal translation, while for Chinese, understanding the context is the important part of how to translate a sentence. Something needs AI to achieve that.


Help with some book titles 重生之妙手医心

  I don't get this because of "妙手医心."  What does it mean?  A wonderful hand and a doctor's heart?

大哥这种生物，少惹为

  What is "少惹为?"

魔天记

  Is it "devil's diary?"

妙手: magic hands is a metaphor for skilled person (painter, writer, doctor, etc). There is a phrase '妙手仁心' magic hands and kind heart which is used to praise good doctors. '妙手医心' means the same.

少惹为: you're missing a character, it should be 少惹为好 er 少惹为妙, meaning the less provocation the better. The whole sentence means better not provoke the boss.

魔天记: 魔 generally means devil, 天 means sky or heaven, 记 means diary or story. Without reading the book (suppose it is a book), the exact meaning of 魔天记 isn't clear even in Chinese.


Does 我喜欢你上课 mean "I like your class" or something like "I like it when you go to class"? YouDao.com (sourced from BigEar.cn) gives the example sentence:

  我喜欢你上课
  I like your class
  Wǒ xǐhuān nǐ shàngkè

I'm not confident this translation is accurate.

Ordinarily 我上课 means "I am attending class", so 你上课 should mean "you are attending class".  Therefore, 我喜欢你上课 should mean "I like it when you go to class" (or something similar like "I'd like for you to attend class" or "I'd like you to go to class" or "I like that you go to class").

Question: Does 我喜欢你上课 mean "I like your class" or something like "I like it when you go to class"?

我喜欢你上课

Most of time, it means 我喜欢你上的课 "I like you to teach the class， instead the class is taught by other teachers".

It rarely means "I like you to take the class".


Colloquial Equivalent of: Speedy Gonzales If people are very fast, or do things quickly, sometimes we will refer to such a person as Speedy Gonzales in English?

Are there similar references for people in Chinese?

Speedy Gonzales as a cartoon character is translated to 飞毛腿冈萨雷斯. Not many Chinese know this cartoon character, but 飞毛腿 as a noun can be used to describe people running very fast. It literally means flying hairy legs.

Less frequently seen but still recognizable, you can use 神行太保. It's a nickname for a 水浒 character who is known to be able to run very fast. It literally means miraculously walking prime minister. In fact his job is the messenger.


The difference between 皇帝 and 皇上 I'm reading a book in which the author used both 皇帝 and 皇上 to say 'The Emperor'. I'm a bit confused about why the author would use two words (that according to my knowledge have the same meaning) to refer to the same person in one story.
Could anyone please tell me the difference between them?

'皇帝' is a title for 'Emperor' (n)

'皇上' is an honorific (n), exclusively reserved for an emperor. It is like "Your Majesty" or "His Majesty" in English.

You address an emperor as '皇上/陛下/主上/聖上' (Your Majesty) when you are speaking to him
You refer an emperor in third person by his honorific '皇上/陛下/主上/聖上' (His Majesty) or by his title '皇帝' (Emperor)
You do not address an emperor by his title '皇帝' (Emperor) in front of him

The nickname '萬歲爺' (The great one who will live for ten thousand years) is also used to refer to the emperor in third person

literal meanings:

皇上 (emperor above); 陛下 (The one who stands at the bottom of the stairs to the throne); 主上 (master above); 聖上 (virtuous one above)

  '陛下' is the one still in use in modern Chinese language.  皇上, 主上 and 聖上 are all archaic terms. They can only be found in something like period dramas on T.V


How to specify the length of a short haircut in China? In the US you can specify the length of a short haircut by giving a number.  So a "Number 2 Haircut" means using the #2 guard on a clipper to cut the hair 1/4 inch long. A "Number 4 Haircut" will cut it 1/2 inch long; and so on.

I know that clippers are used the same way in China but the numbering system seems to be different--and of course in China they use metric. I and a short-haired friend have both gone in sort of blind about exactly how say what we want in Chinese. (Well, travel is an opportunity to try new things!)

But now I would like to know the right way to specify it. Suppose I want 1/2 inch, or more or less 1.5cm. What is the barber's terminology for this?

The site linked by @user3306356 has this list, which is true in the US also, but is humorously vague:

1号是光头

2号是1号长一点点的

3号也是

0号是可以发光的

NS要1号

I will say I'd been getting haircuts in the US for a long time before I knew this system existed here.  A grumpy woman barber who wants men to pay more attention to their hair told me to remember it.

nothing.

Actually there is not a term to describe the length of the haircut in China.

So, how to decide the length of the haircut? keep communicate with barber.

eg.

I: 'please cut my hair with 毛寸(is an adjective for style, not length)'

B: after a while 'Is it fine?'

I: 'shorter'

B: 'Okay, let me see'


Is it possible to combine 起来 and 住在？ I came across the following sentence:

这个房子住起来不舒服。
Zhège fángzi zhù qǐlái bu shūfú.
This house seems uncomfortable to live.

I think in this sentence, 起来 indicates an initial judgement, i.e. like in English the verb "seems".
Furthermore, in When to use 住在 and when to use just 住? it is argued both 住 and 住在 are quite similar. I was wondering if it is possible to rewrite the previous sentence (including also 起来) but using 住在 instead of 住.
I thought about the following possibilities:

住起在这个房子来不舒服。
住在起这个房子来不舒服。

Does any look good?

住起在 and 住在起 are both ungrammatical. It is either 住起来(upon living) or 住在(live in). You can write "住在这个房子讓我很不舒服" - " living in this house make me uncomfortable" But you cannot add 起来 to it

起来 = upon

[Verb + 起来] = [upon + verb] --  e.g. 住起来 (upon living)

[Verb + 起来 + adj = [seem/feel + adj + upon + verb] -- e.g. 住起来不舒服 (feel uncomfortable upon living in it)

他看起来很友好 = seem friendly, upon looking at him = he seems friendly when looking at him

你的头发闻起来很香 = seem to smell nice upon smelling your hair = your hair smells nice when smelling it

你的床摸起来很舒服 = feel comfortable upon touching your bed = your bed feel comfortable when touching it


Why do people say "吃飽了嗎" I have heard my Chinese-speaking friends asking each other 吃飽了嗎？ several times when they are done or almost done with their own meal. And I have wondered, "Why would they ask others such question? Would it not imply that they are rushing others to eat faster?" I feel that the question indicates impatience and can be rather offensive, especially to those with a slower pace. Nonetheless, I tend to believe that the question has other implications. As such, is it really intended to rush others to eat faster?

When asking a Chinese person "are you full" when eating a meal its like asking "are you enjoying your meal?" The host will be happy if he knows you are full.

But when someone says 你吃飽了嗎？ to you when not eating a meal. it means "Are you stupid?" or "Are you crazy?"


What does 再 mean if it's added after 后? I wanted to chat my friend with "Let's chat together when (after) you are home!".
First, I wrote this sentence :
"你回家后咱们一起聊聊吧～"
//
But then when I tried to check my sentence with translation tools (Google Translate and Naver), they added "再" after "后" and thus changing my sentence into this :
"你回家后(再)咱们一起聊聊吧～"
//
Okay, I don't know whether my own sentence is correct or not but... Is what the translation tools said is correct? Should I add 再? And if I should, what does 再 indicate here?

回家后咱们再一起聊聊吧

To me, there are 2 meanings.

 1. After you go to home, we continue this conversation.
 2. After you go to home, we do more conversation.


What was money worth during the Republic of China (1912 - 1949) era? I'm working on translating the following sentence:

  一年学费都要化千把，一套童子军服都要四五百

The book takes place during the Second Sino-Japanese War which is during the Republic of China era.

I would like to make the numbers more relevant for modern readers, but I'm struggling to figure out how much a thousand and four or five hundred is actually worth in today's currencies.

My searches keep bringing up info about Taiwanese money, and not Mainland Chinese money.

Any ideas?

According to Wikipedia, in 1941 20 Chinese yuan was equal to 1 United States dollar, so 1 Chinese yuan was equal to 0.05 US dollars at the time.

Using an inflation calculator for the US dollar, 1 Chinese yuan would be 0.87 US dollars in 2019. This would give the cost of the school fees to be 870 US dollars or 27,500 NTD, and the children's uniform to be 350–390 US dollars or about 11,000 – 12,000 NTD.


Are there any online resources for learning Chinese 4-character idioms I'm interested particularly in the 4-character idioms/chengyu's.

Some that I've learnt recently:

独一无二 - unique
由此可见 - this shows that
一般来说 - generally speaking

I've realised they come in really handy, but often they are difficult to understand when heard for the first time.

(As BertR pointed out, 独一无二 is a Chengyu; the other two are not.)

Unlike Chengyu, 4-character idioms don't have any significance over 3-character idioms, 5-character idioms or any other idioms, in any means other than the rhythm role it plays in the sentence. They're just valid combinations of words, you can totally replace parts or make your own, and there are millions of them. For example 由此可见 is literally from this (we) can see and we also say 由此可知, 由此可得, etc. Similarly, for 一般来说 we also say 一般来讲, 总的来说, etc.

If you want to look them up, there are some good websites mentioned in the other answers or Bing/Google translation (I personally find Bing translation more accurate). If you're looking for a list of them, I am almost sure there isn't one, as they can be created ad hoc during a conversation.


How to say "One of these" and three other mini phrases? I'm very glad I found this website. Just a few months ago I've started learning Mandarin Chinese by myself and right now I'm in Sichuan. I try applying my little knowledge in daily life, but it's not easy ...also of course because they don't speak "proper" Mandarin here, but their craaazy dialect instead ...I'm trying anyways :)
A few things I'd like to know but was not able to find in dictionaries / through Google:

Let's say there's a fruit vendor and I want to tell her/him that I'd like "one of these" ...so far I've said sth like "这个。。。一个“ - and felt completely stupid doing so. Please help me say it propberly!

Same situation, but I want a bigger/smaller fruit of what he/she's holding in their hand. sth like "a bigger/smaller one, please"

When at a shop, asking for a specific item - "Do you have...?"
Could I say 这里有。。。吗？ and/or does even the literal translation 你们有。。。吗？ make sense?

and finally: "I only speak a tiny bit Chinese."

No, it's not stupid at all. I think they can understand what you are saying.

If you want only one, you could say 这个来一个 ,  我要一个这个, or 给我称一个这个, pointing to the fruits you want to buy. And you could add 只要一个 to emphasize that you need only one.

If you want a smaller/bigger one, you could say 我想要个小/大一点的。 or 能换个小/大一点的吗？

这里有...吗？ or 你们有...吗？ are both okay.


Why is 丢的东西 placed in the middle of 孩子们丢的东西都找到了? I saw this sentence :

  孩子们丢的东西都找到了

Why is the object (丢的东西) placed between the subject and the verb here???

孩子们丢的东西都找到了

The object is "东西"
东西都(被)找到了 - things have all been found (被 omitted)
孩子们丢的 is an adjective phrase that describes the object

"things? what things?"

"Things that was lost by the kids" (孩子们丢的)

you can use 的 to turn any sentence into an adjective phrase

Example:

美国进口 - American import

美国进口的 - that is American imported

美国进口的牛肉 - beef that is American imported


Hanban/HSK Official Website Resources Download Does anybody know where to find the most recent HSK test materials, especially the vocabulary lists to download?

I have checked the official site, but the 资料下载 'button' doesn't work

UPDATE: Found it.

All the downloads (audio samples, .PDFs, vocab list) are on a different domain: http://www.chinesetest.cn

UPDATE2: Actually there used to be a PDF which contained the corresponding pinyins, not only the words/characters themselves. Does anybody know where could that file be found?

Scroll to the bottom for PDFs, latest tests, vocabulary lists and pretty much everything to do with HSK.
http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/exams.php

(this is in response to the below)

UPDATE2: Actually there used to be a PDF which contained the corresponding pinyins, not only the words/characters themselves. Does anybody know where could that file be found?


How are my 用词造句 ("use the word to make a sentence") sentences using 幸福 and 俩? In the HSK4上 Standard Course workbook, the first practice exam has this problem:

It's a 用词造句 ("use the word to make a sentence") problem.  I came up with these sentences:

  我妹妹十一月会结婚，太幸福了！
  My younger sister will get married in November, too happy!

  他们俩今天在商店一起买新衣服了。
  Those two bought new clothes at the shop today.

I just made this up off the top of my head when sitting the practice exam, and I'm not sure what to think about my answer.

I'm hoping for a critique of the sentences, and possibly some comments as to if this is the kind of thing the examiners are looking for along with some techniques for these types of questions.

Question: How are my sentences?

我妹妹十一月会结婚，太
  幸福了！

  他们俩今天在商店一起买新衣服了。

Basically, both of your sentences are ok grammatically. The first one can be improved if you replace 会 with 要.

  我妹妹十一月要结婚，太幸福了！

要 sounds more emotional than 会 in this context. 会 is a bit "objective", less sentimental.  In this sentence, you want to express the excitement(indicated by 太幸福了！), so 要 is fit better. It's like saying, 我妹妹要结婚了！ 太幸福了！！！


Difference between 别 and 不 I know that a typical way to negate a verb is to stick 不 in front of it. But I learned some phrases that use 别 instead: 别担心, 别客气 and so on, all of them in short polite fixed phrases. I know that I could change 别 into 不 in those phrases too.

So what's the difference between those words?

不 means "not" and 别 means "do not." One is a simple negation, and the other is a (negative) command.


Is "贪得无厌" the best choice for this sentence? This is the original text:

Drifters of this world are the collectors of forgotten knowledge, lost
technologies and broken histories. Our Drifter is haunted by an
insatiable illness, traveling further into the lands of Buried Time,
hoping to discover a way to quiet the vicious disease.

This is my translation, and I am unsure about the second sentence:

这个世界的流浪者寻找被遗忘的知能，丢失的科技，和破坏的历史。被贪得无厌的疾病困扰的流浪者不得不深入埋葬时间之地，但愿能从这个残忍的疾病找到平安。

I looked up "insatiable" on google translate and it gave me "永不满足", which I think means "impossible to satisfy" but I'm not sure if it fits. Based on my knowledge it sounds like something specific to eating food.
After digging around for some synonyms, I stumbled upon "贪得无厌" which google translate also says means "insatiable", which seems closer to "relentless greed", but I'm also not sure if this is the best choice.

贪得无厌 -and/or- 贪得无餍 can be found in almost any dictionary.
ABC defines it as:

be insatiably greedy

Oxford defines it as:

have an insatiable greed

So we can kind of see where Google Translate's insatiable came from.
MDBG has a rather unique translation too that you can consider:

avaricious and insatiable (idiom); greedy and never satisfied

Wiktionary

(idiomatic) greedy, avaricious

I'm not sure where your Chinese excerpt came from but it's not written particularly well to begin with.


position and meaning of 了 in "一...就" construction I'm a little bit confused how to translate these sentences:
1)今天我一下课就去看他 (is it "As soon as the class is over I'll come to see him"?)
我一下课就去看他了 ( "as soon as the class was over I came to see him?")
2)他一到中国就给我来了个电话("as soon as he came to China he gave me a phone call"?)
3)姐姐一毕业就参加工作了( "as soon as she graduated she started working"?)
姐姐一毕业就参加工作("as soon as she graduates she will start working"?)

can i say "我一吃了饭就出去了?

[一(X)就(Y)] is a very common sentence structure

(X) is the condition or requirement.  When this condition or requirement is met, then the following action or event (Y) would occur.

Depend on the context [一(X)就(Y)] functions as following:

[once (X) then / immediately (Y) ]

Example: [一(吃完飯)就(出去)] = [once I (finish dinner), then I would (go out )immediately]

吃完飯 is the condition / requirement that being met; 出去 is the following action that only occurs after the condition is met.

[Whenever (X) then / immediately (Y) ]

Example: [一(上課)就(睡覺)]= [ whenever I ( go to classes), I would immediately (fall to sleep)]

上課 is the condition/ requirement that being met; 睡覺 is the resulting action/event that always occur when the condition/ requirement is met.

  can i say "我一吃了饭就出去了?"

If by saying "一吃了", you meant 'once I finish eating', you can say "我一吃了饭就出去了". But it is better to say "我一吃完饭就出去了" (once I finish dinner, I would go out). Because "一吃了" in "我一吃了饭" can also be interpreted as "whenever I eaten dinner".

You didn't mean to say "I go out whenever I eaten dinner" I suppose?

As for your example sentences:

今天我一下课就去看他 - (下课=X; 去看他=Y ) "Once I finished classes for today, I went to see him immediately."
他一到中国就给我来了个电话- (到中国=X; 给我来了个电话=Y)" Once he arrived in China, he immediately gave me a phone call."
姐姐一毕业就参加工作了- (毕业=X; 参加工作=Y) " Once my sister graduated, she joined the work force immediately.)


Are there other examples of 一辆车 ("a car") vs. 车辆 ("vehicle") and 一匹马 ("a horse") vs. 马匹 ("horse")? 一辆车 (a car) vs. 车辆 (vehicle)
一匹马 (a horse) vs. 马匹 (horse)

In these examples, we take 车 and 马 and append their measure words to form new words: 车辆 and 马匹, respectively.  I'm wondering if there are other examples I'm unaware of, and if this word construct applies in other cases.
Question: Are there other examples of 一辆车 vs. 车辆 and 一匹马 vs. 马匹?

一匹马 --> 马匹
一疋布 --> 布疋
一只猪； 一只牛；一只狗 --> 猪只；牛只；狗只
一块石；一块铅；一块肉 --> 石块；铅块；肉块
一枝枪；一枝竹 --> 枪枝；竹枝
一锭银 --> 银锭
一层楼 --> 楼层
一堆沙 --> 沙堆
一式菜 --> 菜式
一朶花 --> 花朶
一本书 --> 书本
一间房 --> 房间
一件事 --> 事件
一群羊； 一群人 --> 羊群；人群
一张纸 --> 纸张
一局棋 --> 棋局
一滴水 --> 水滴
一條面 --> 面條
一粒米 --> 米粒
一段路；一段曲 --> 路段；曲段
一剂药 --> 药剂
一线光 --> 光线
Difference between the two: 'X 匹马' refers to 'X number of horses'; '马匹' refers to 'horses' in general
Notice: There are some exceptions:
For examples, 一封信 (a letter) is different from 信封 (envelope), while 一张纸 (a sheet of paper) and 纸张 (paper sheets) are both referring to the same thing. The classifier for 信封 is 个, as in 一个信封; the classifier for 纸张 is still 张, as in 一张纸张
生 in 一生人(a life) is not a classifier for 人(people). 生 itself is a classifier for 人生 (life), as in 一生人(生), 几生人(生)
Also, 一团饭 a (lump of rice) is different from 饭团 (rice ball) which is a specific term for a food item. The classifier for 饭团 is 个 as in 一个饭团


Does watching Chinese movies with English subtitles help in learning Mandarin? Does watching Chinese movies with English subtitles help a beginner level Mandarin student to learn and improve the language?

From my experience, I would say no. The translations for movie subtitles are usually too loose to be of much use.

However, if you watch a Chinese movie with Chinese subtitles, that definitely  helps. You can see exactly what they're saying, so you can test your hearing and work on your hanzi recognition at the same time.


What should I picture when I read 终端？ I have a text talking about a GPS system. 北斗卫星 导航 系统

北斗系统终端不仅可以为船只导航，还能通过其特有的短报文通信技术，报告船只位置和随航人员的情况。

Should I just picture a computer terminal when I read 终端? A screen where I can see information and enter commands? Or does 终端 refer to more?

“北斗系统終端” should be interpreted as any devices such chart plotter, fish finder, handheld gps, vhf radio with built-in gps, gps watch, epirb with gps, mob device with gps, camera with gps.

the list is much longer, with the satellite sms facilities.

if you think of computer terminal only, it’s, well, you’re landbuddy :)

have a look of marine products associated with gps, you’ll have the idea

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/sitesearch.aspx?keyword=gps&sitesearch=true

have fun :)


What's the meaning of 高冷? Could anyone tell me, what's the meaning of this word:
高冷?
Haven't found any translation in the dictionary or any explanations.

It's an internet slang, so you can't find it on a normal dictionary.

高 refers to 高高在上,高傲, which mean "to be arrogant", "to have an attitude of looking down upon someone"
冷 refers to 冷漠,冷冰冰, which mean "to be indifferent", "unconcern"

so 高冷 basically means a cold attitude.


How to say 公德心 in English? How to say 公德心 in English? I am not looking for explanation. I am looking for translation.
Similar words for 没有公德心 is selfish, thoughtless, disregard, and don't care about other people. But none of this relates to public and social order, and none of this is a virtue.
Is there a proper and popular word for it? Or in English there is just no such word?

公德心 mostly refers to 對公眾利益的尊重 (respect/ mindfulness for the public interest).
For example, not littering, not damage public property, not making noise in the early morning are all for the public interest
The public interest is also your interest -- you are a part of the public.


Job requirements for typing Chinese Many government positions in Taiwan have typing speed requirements.  In Taipei city job announcements I've found which mention this requirement, the minimum runs from 40-60 characters a minute. This is not that far from the US.  California's state government, for example, requires a minimum of 40 words/min.

Do government positions in mainland China have typing speed requirements? If so, what are they? Are inputting methods set, or can you choose your own? Are there official certificates and certification agencies or do have to take a test every time you apply. I haven't been able to find such job announcements so far, so if you have suggestions about finding these I would be especially interested.  If you know about Hong Kong or Singapore, I would be equally interested. Thanks!

Here are some things that I found:

http://www.bjshy.gov.cn/Item/64056.aspx:
Beijing Shunyi district in a job related to labor disputes: > 70 WPM.

http://ghj.fuzhou.gov.cn/ghjzwgk/rsxx/201504/t20150414_890668.htm
Fuzhou city/countryside planning: ~60 WPM

http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/SYrlzyhshbzb/fwyd/sykaoshi/zyhgjjgsydwgkzp/201401/W020140124568664734613.doc.
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security: > 90 WPM for Chinese, > 220 Letters/min for English

http://www.gzjd.gov.cn/jdwsjb/xxgk_phoneweb/xxgkml_phoneweb/tzgg_phoneweb/qt_tzgg_phoneweb/20141104/detail-273178.shtml
Guangzhou Liwan District Public Security Bureau:>50WPM

It seems in general 50 WPM is kinda the minimum. And most places want more. I didn't find any info about certification.


How should I understand 又拜 in this sentence about Bruce Lee? 后来，他又拜叶问为师，学习咏春拳。

This sentence is translated by the author as:

  Later, he learnt wing chun from a master of wing chun, Yip Man.

The middle part is interesting for me: 他又拜叶问为师. It is clear that 叶问 is a proper name, 为师 means "as master", "as teacher". But...

What is 又 doing here? Does it mean "again"? It doesn't make sense to me to put "again" here.
拜 means "to worship", but in English translation there's no "worship". And it'd be strange to use it. Is 拜 + person + 为 + role pattern a fixed expression? When should I use it and when I shouldn't? It sounds extremely official to me, but maybe it's only my European feeling. Could someone explain this expression thoroughly?

The sentence appears here in 1:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-D91bQCinE . In case the context isn't clear.

又 from collins

  (= 另外) another
  ⇒ 家里又买了一个书架。 (Jiā li yòu mǎile yī gè shūjià.) They bought another set of bookshelves for their home.
  ⇒ 老师又布置了几项作业。 (Lǎoshī yòu bùzhìle jǐ xiàng zuòyè.) The teacher set several more questions for homework.

又 is not "again" here.

拜师 is a set phrase, yabla gives its definition as: "to formally become an apprentice to a master".

You can put the Name of the name into the phrase, and it become 拜...为师.

The pattern you gave ("拜 + person + 为 + role") is mostly correct, but I currently cannot think of anything other than "师" that can take the "role" part. I think it is better to take the pattern as "拜 + person + 为师".

The activity of "拜师" is usually formal, and it usually involves some kind of ceremony. The phrase "拜师" is not that formal, it can be used casual speech.

Usually we don't have many chances to talk about it in everyday life. Nowadays, most people won't have a chance to be involved in such an activity during the whole life. Finding a teacher in school or finding a coach in a sport would not be called "拜师". In the areas of (Chinese traditional) art, martial art, etc, some people still "拜师", before the master (officially) teaches the apprentice.


Difference between 决策 and 决定 I'm trying to understand the difference between 决策 and 决定. It seems like 决策 is used more formally and in the case of business contexts more (e.g. 战略决策 - strategic decision)。 But, I wasn't sure if that was entirely rue.

For example, could I say 在京东所有重要的决策由刘强东拍板

or should I say 决定？

Thanks for your help!

决策is a noun and can only be used as a noun
for example 这是一个非常重要的决策。this is a very important decision.
决定 is a verb but also a noun
verb example 你要决定你想去哪。you need to decide where you want to go
noun example 这是老板的决定，不是我的。this is the boss's decision, not mine.
hope this helps.
P.S. I am Chinese.


Is my interpretation of "向右往后勾提。至甲势已背时" correct in the context of Tai Chi? I'm translating a two-person push hands sequence from a Yang-Style Taiji Quan manual.
In the description of the 62nd form, "Right Cloud Hands" (右云手)， there's a sentence that reads: "向右往后勾提。至甲势已背时。”
“甲” in this context translates to "Martial Artist #1", one of the participants in this two-person push hands form.  My current translation of this sentence reads as "Face to the right and shift back, drawing out the force from #1's back until none is left."
Does my translation of "勾提“ make sense in this context, and does my translation generally fit the principles of this Tai Chi form?

first of all

a two-person push hands sequence

the mentioned verse is of sparring (散手), not push hand (推手)

甲 is the left man, grey cloth; 乙 is the right one, white cloth

乙被掤・乘勢含胸拔背・向右轉腰坐腿・右手刁住甲右腕・向右往後勾提・至甲勢已背時・右手按甲右腕・同時左手按擊甲右肩

[乙’s ] right hand stick with 甲’s right wrist (右手刁住甲右腕)
towards 乙’s right and aft [向右往後], connected [hand and wrists] (勾), slightly upward (提); till (至) the moment that 甲’s posture (勢) shows his back (背)
the hidden message is: 乙’s wrist, arm moves according to the turning of waist and shifting centre of gravity (轉腰坐腿)

as "Face to the right and shift back, drawing out the force from #1's back until none is left."

Does my translation of "勾提“ make sense in this context

nice try  well, i’m sorry to say, no.
btw, here’s a wordpress page, you may find helpful info:
https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/taiji-two-person-sparring-set-taiji-san-shou-dui-da/
have fun :)


Is there an idiom that means to make big claims but have little evidence to support them? Is there an idiom that means to make big claims but have little evidence to support them?

Not sure If 言过其实 can fit. it means a statement surpassing the fact.

or 夸大其词？ it means represent beyond the bounds of truth; make an overstatement;


Is there any relation between the Cyrillic Ш (sha) and the Chinese 山 (shān)? Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but the Cyrillic Ш/ш (sha) looks like the Chinese 山 (shān) and have similarity in pronunciation.  Is there any actual relation between the two?

No. The Cyrillic script is based on the Greek script, and some other local scripts like Hebrew. The basis for sha is thought to be the Hebrew letter ש (shin).

ש

It's unlikely that shin is based on the Chinese character, either. It seems taken from the Phoenician alphabet, where the corresponding letter looks like a Latin W.
It's worth keeping in mind that at the time Cyrillic characters were invented, Russia did not yet control Siberia. So it was very far from China, and contact between China and the west was limited.

But maybe the Chinese character was influenced by these scripts?
It's not impossible, but the earliest versions of the Character look more like a triangle, so the simpler explanation is that it's just a picture of a mountain:

Considering the evidence, it seems unlikely that these characters are related.


How do I determine whether a Chinese verb is transitive and/or intransitive? I face this problem a lot.  I want to use a verb, e.g. 寻找 = "to search" (but it could be any other verb), and want to know if it's a transitive and/or intransitive verb in Chinese (i.e., whether or not it take an object); it could be either.  For 寻找 we might say:

  我在寻找你 (transitive)
  我在寻找 (intransitive)

And Baidu suggests they're both okay, and thus 寻找 is both transitive and intransitive.

But it seems like this should be possible to determine through a dictionary or in some other way, and not by constructing sentences ans searching for them in Baidu.

Question: How do I determine whether a Chinese verb is transitive and/or intransitive?

In English, it'll be in dictionaries, e.g., seek.  The same is not always true for Chinese, e.g., Bing, Baidu.

I am not a linguist so I cannot give you a definitive answer, but the concept of "transitive/intransitive" is not native to Chinese language.

I think most of the verbs you encounter can take an object.

Even adjectives used as verbs can take an object. There are 使动，意动，为动, that make them so.

-温暖人心的力量。（使动：使人心温暖）

-我就奇怪他怎么知道的。（意动：对他怎么知道的感到奇怪）

-他还郁闷挂科的事呢！（为动：为挂科的事郁闷。）

Whether there is a, nominal at least, object, is determined not only by the verb, but also by the whole sentence even the context.

And the absence of an object, however, doesn't imply that the verb is intransitive, either. It can be omitted.

E.g.

-你刚才在找什么？

-我在找我的笔记本。

-现在找到（笔记本）了吗？

-还没有找到（笔记本）。

You can see, 找 does take an object, but we do not need to mention it every time.

Another case is 隐含被动(implied passive), where nominal subject is actually the object of the verb.

-这台机器已经无法使用了。

-原作早已在大火中焚毁了。

-上次的作业还没有批改。

etc.

Finally, there are verbs that indeed take no object. You can distinguish them easily by the meanings of them: if some action semantically needs no target, it doesn't take objects.

-她狂野地奔跑在夐无人烟的草原上。

-因为错剪了导线，炸弹当场爆炸了。

If a verb can either take an object or not, it means differently in the two cases.

-雪花旋转飞舞，不肯落地。（swirl）

-他旋转瓶盖，开启了一瓶汽水。（unscrew）


Is 当做 and 看做 a synonym or not a synonym? Is 当做 and 看做 a synonym? I looked at a few sample sentences on bkrs dictionary. They seem to be used in similar situations. But just to be sure, what do you guys think? Do they have any difference in certain situations?

In traditional Chinese used in Taiwan, 當作 can be used when you use something or treat something as if it's something else. For example:

他把你當作奴隸在使喚。
He ordered you around as if you are slave.
他把球棒當作武器用。
He used a bat as a weapon.

Whereas 看作 can be used when you recognize something as something else.


What's the difference between 是不是 and 对不对？ Can you use both of these interchangeably? Is one more common than the other? I also haven't seen this pattern used with other verbs. Are there other verbs where this is commonly used as well?

We sometimes translate both 是 and 对 as "yes".  However, they're very distinct in meaning: 是 is a verb meaning "is", whereas 对 is an adjective meaning "correct".  (Putting aside how both 是 and 对 have multiple other meanings.)

她是你女朋友。
She is your girlfriend.
对，她是我女朋友。
Correct Yes, she is my girlfriend.

We translate 对 to "yes" in English because "correct" sounds overly formal.
We might instead reply using the verb 是:

是，她是我女朋友。
Yes, she is my girlfriend.

We don't really have an equivalent to this in English.  By repeating the verb 是, we affirm the previous statement is correct.  Otherwise we might say one of:

不对，她不是我女朋友。
Incorrect No, she is not my girlfriend.

不是，她不是我女朋友。
No, she is not my girlfriend.

We can use 是不是 and 对不对 as affirmative-negative questions:

你有儿子，是不是？
你有儿子，对不对？ [equivalent]
You have a son, right?
你是不是我妈？  [here we cannot use 对不对 instead]
Are you or are you not Are you my mother?
他的行为对不对？  [here we cannot use 是不是 instead]
Is his behavior correct or not correct correct?

And many verbs and adjectives can be used this way.

你吃不吃？
You eat or not eat Do you want to eat some?
你有没有手机？
Do you have or not have have a mobile phone?

天气好不好？
Is the weather good or not good good?
你的皮肤白不白？
Is your skin white or not white white?

Furthermore, these constructions are sometimes used outside of questions, e.g.:

我不知道他是不是结婚了。
I don't know if he is or not is is married.


Is the following sentence correct? I want to translate to Chinese this phrase: "Please, write on the parcel  "some-text" ".

Is this variant correct? 请在包裹外面上写下 "some-text".

Thank you.

We don't usually say“外面上”，instead，we will say “包裹外面” or just “包裹上”, and they have the same meaning here.


Can you 离开 a person? (as in physically separate from them?) I'm interested in the usage of the term 离开 as in " to leave". If, for example, I was traveling with another person on the underground (train) and I left them/we separated (to take different trains) would it be considered

我离开他？

Yes, but I probably would use 分开 in your example if I wanted to emphasise the fact that we separated (and that it was a mutual act). For instance:

我们在那个地铁站分开，因为他要去医院而我要去百货商店。
We separated at the train station, because he needed to go to the hospital, but I needed to go to the department store.

But saying 离开某人 can also work. For instance, when the separation is more "one-sided" (in terms of how it's described), it makes sense to use 离开. For example:

我离开我妈妈之后，我去了加拿大读研究生院。
After I left my mother, I went to Canada to attend graduate school.

At the very least, this usage makes sense to me as a semi-native speaker of Chinese. Notice that the connotations of 离开 and 分开 are somewhat different. Moreover, 分开 wouldn't be used with an object to state A left B - rather, it would be used to state A and B separated.
I could also use 离开 in the original setting as well, but mostly in situations similar to the one I described above. For instance:

在地铁站离开他之后，我去了百货商店。
我在那个地铁站离开我朋友，因为我要去厕所。

But 我离开他 (as a sentence in itself) sounds odd without any appropriate qualifications to the statement. Moreover, using 离开 to state something like 我在地铁站离开他，因为我们坐不同的地铁线 sounds odd to me (because the subordinate clause focuses on 我们）.


what's 奶酥 in english? A lot of translations suggest it's "butter biscuit, but that's not the correct thing I'm thinking about.

I'm referring to the filling in bread sold from bakeries that is flaky and sweet, sometimes with raisins in it.

does anyone know what the most accurate translation is?

To my best knowledge it's Chinese puff (pastry) or Sou (transliteration of 酥). These words are not super accurate translation though.


What's the term for bank microdeposit, small test deposits that one bank sends to another to verify the second account's information and ownership? "micro + deposit"  can be literally translated as 小額 + 存款, but this doesn't capture the meanings below.

How do I verify my bank with Microdeposits? – Wealthsimple help center

How do I verify my bank with Microdeposits?
When you opt to verify your bank with microdeposits, we'll send two deposits between 0.01 and 0.99 to your bank account. You should expect to see these in your bank account within 2-3 days after the date of the request.
To finish opening your account, please check to see that you have received the deposits and input both amounts on your Wealthsimple homepage. Once you've entered the correct amounts, your bank will be approved and any pending deposits from the bank account will be processed.

Verify bank account with test deposit - G Suite Admin Help

When you add a bank account to your Google billing account, we can’t debit payments from the account until we verify it’s yours. If your bank account has a billing address in the U.S. or a supported European country, Google makes a small test deposit into the account. Enter the same amount in your Google billing account so that we know that your account is valid and that you can access it.

What are microdeposits? | TransferWise Help Centre

What are microdeposits?
If you're making a transfer from the US, and you set up an ACH bank debit for your USD transfer, we need to verify that your bank account belongs to you. If we're unable to do this with your bank login details, we might be able to verify you with microdeposits.
This means we'll send two small amounts (between 0.01-0.99 USD) to your account, which will appear on your bank statement. It can take up to 2 business days for these to arrive.
As soon as you see them, you can enter them on your transfer page, and this will immediately verify your account. You can only do this on the website, not the app.

How does the micro-deposit (bank linking) process work? – Wealthfront Support

If your bank does not support electronic login verification, we have to verify the account information via a "micro deposit" process.
The micro-deposits are two small test deposits sent to your bank account to verify that we have the correct bank account information for you. The micro deposits usually arrive in 1-2 business days (you can see them in your bank account's transaction history).
You can then log back into Wealthfront and enter these amounts to set up your ACH relationship. To enter the amounts, simply go to your "settings" tab and look under "MY ACCOUNTS". See below for a screenshot of where to confirm the two deposits:

Interesting, the literal meaning of  'micro-deposit' (微額存款) doesn't explain the actual function of it in English or Chinese. I would say translate 'micro-deposit' literally as 微額存款 is acceptable. Since people who know what 'micro-deposit' is, would also understand what 微額存款 mean. And people who don't know what 'micro-deposit' is, would need an explanation for 微額存款 just like they would need an explanation for 'micro-deposit'
If the translator worry about Chinese speakers who never heard of 'micro-deposit' will not understand what 微存款 mean, he might as well describe it in the name and write "戶口認證用微額存款" (Micro-deposit for account verification)