What is the best translation for 会说? The Wenlin dictionary translates 会说 as "talker", but the meaning of talker in Harrap's dictionary is bad. Should 会说 be translated as "narrator"?

會 means be able to

說 means say,spaek

  C: 你會說普通話嗎? / 你會普通話嗎?
  E: Do you speak Mandarin?

talker is similar to 很會說(good at talk) or 很愛說(talktive)

narrator in Chinese is 旁白 or 說書人

Another case

Colloquially, we can say

  A: 你真是&@#^$#& (something dirty)

  A: you are fuxxxx....

  B: 哇,你真會說 (frivolous)

  B: wow, you are so mean.


How is 眷顾 used in spoken Chinese? I've encountered 眷顾 on several occasions but I am not sure how to distinguish it from 照顾 in terms of usage. I have seen an example sentence of 上帝眷顾我们的事业, so is 眷顾 usually used with God and deities?

眷
(1) family dependent
(2) care for, have tender feeling for, take interest in

~

顧
(2) [v] look after; attend to

~

眷顧
(divine) protection and care; to take care of

Both 眷顧 and 照顾 mean "to take care of/ to look after". But 眷 carries the meaning of 'family dependent' therefore 眷顧 also carries the meaning of " to take care of someone like family dependent" or " to protect and care for someone like family dependent"

You can 照顾 a garden, but you cannot 眷顧 it.

When you say you 照顾家人, that means you look after your family. ( with or without emotional attachment)

When you say you 眷顾家人, that means you love, protect and look after your family dependent.(with emotional attachment)

神的眷顾 = God's protection and care (All man are God's children)


What are the radical names? I noticed the kangxi radicals all have two ways that people refer to them.
For example: 氵 is sometimes called shuǐ, sometimes called 三点水. 饣 is sometimes called shí or 食字旁.

What are the correct names for the radicals as radicals?

there's lots of these on Wikibooks and in the other way at archchinese.com.

In my opinion, 三点水 and shui3 are all correct names for 氵, so for 饣.

Actually, 氵is also 水, just in another face.
You can know this by comparing Chinese Seal Character(小篆)
河:http://www.zdic.net/z/1c/zy/6CB3.htm
水:http://www.zdic.net/z/1c/zy/6C34.htm

三点水 is more formal, shui3 is most used in computer world.

Hope my explanation can help you understand this further.


What's "Mao Li" (Cantonese) in mandarin? I've read an article which says that "Mao Li" in cantonese means "fool" in English.

What is the mandarin equivalent of "Mao Li"?

MandarinTools does not seem to return any useful results for Cantonese look up of "Mao Li".

It is one of the obscene language in Hong Kong.
It can be write as 茂利/茂李 (mau6 lei2 in cantonese, Màolì in mandarin), sounds like an English word "mullion"
In Cantonese, we use the word to describe a man standing still like a pillar, later use to describe stupid person.

Reference from https://hk.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=7008062100602, I did a simple translation on the important parts

  是由20世紀初，英國人在香港教中國人建築而來。
  當時英式建築有好多大型窗戶和陽台，例如港督府，
  這些窗戶和陽台的主要支柱，英文叫mullion。
  當時的mullion全部都是使用很粗大的木柱，但只有立著的才叫mullion，
  橫的叫transom。當時香港人又不懂英文，聽見那些洋人指著一大根木桿猛叫[mullion] 漸漸就學著叫[茂利]，意思是一根根木棍或木柱，
  就像傻愣愣站著的人，後來變成用來形容一些愚鈍之人。


Where should 了 go: 你去了商店买什么衣服？ or 你去商店买什么衣服了？ I want to ask, "What clothes did you buy at the store?"
Which sentence is correct, or which sounds more correct.

你去了商店买什么衣服？
你去商店买什么衣服了？

Where should the 了 go?

了 following a 'verb' is a 'verb particle' that indicates the 'verb' as 'completed'

In "你去了商店买什么衣服？" (You went to the store to buy what kind of clothes)  '了' following the verb '去'(go), therefore, indicated '去' as a completed action (went/ have gone to)

In "你去商店买什么衣服了？" 了 is mostly treated as a final particle, therefore may not clearly indicate what action is completed

  "What clothes did you buy at the store?"

If you want to mark the verb '买' (buy) as a completed action, you need to put the verb particle 了 after it.

  "你去商店[买了]什么衣服？" = You went to the store and [bought] what?

You can even add a final particle 了 at the end to emphasize the sentence --  "你去商店[买了]什么衣服了？"


What does 己所不欲, 勿施于人 mean? I'm learning some of Confucius' sayings, and I've had trouble with this one: 己所不欲，勿施于人. I looked on a dictionary online, and it said both "do not do to others what you would not have them do to you" and "doing is better than saying". Which one is it?

I have a poor English expression level, so I can give you answers in Chinese:

“己所不欲，勿施于人”是指：自己不想要的东西，切勿强加给别人。孔子所强调的是，人应该宽恕待人，应提倡“恕”道，唯有如此才是仁的表现。“恕”道是“仁”的消极表现，而其积极表现便是“己欲立而立人，己欲达而达人”。孔子所阐释的仁以“爱人”为中心，而爱人这种行为当然就包括着宽恕待人这一方面。《论语》中提到：夫子之道，忠恕而已矣。
　　这句话所揭晓的是处理人际关系的重要原则。孔子所言是指人应当以对待自身的行为为参照物来对待他人。人应该有宽广的胸怀，待人处事之时切勿心胸狭窄，而应宽宏大量，宽恕待人。倘若自己所讨厌的事物，硬推给他人，不仅会破坏与他人的关系，也会将事情弄得僵持而不可收拾。人与人之间的交往确实应该坚持这种原则，这是尊重他人，平等待人的体现。人生在世除了关注自身的存在以外，还得关注他人的存在，人与人之间是平等的，切勿将己所不欲施于人。

For example, there is something annoying me, I should not shove it on my friend or other people, treat friends in the way treat myself....


How modern Chinese singing works if Chinese has tones Since Chinese is a tonal language, I'm wondering how this affects Chinese singing. Specifically wondering about the modern Chinese version of modern American pop music, which has relatively simple structure and chords. But if Chinese lyrics require tone changes, it seems that somehow this must be incorporated into the music and yet distinguished from simple tonal changes in the music itself. So wondering how this is handled.

For example, if the music tones go up, but the word is going up too, not sure what happens. That sort of stuff. Maybe it is easy to tell from the context, I am not sure which is the reason for the question.

Short answer: Simply speaking, remove all the original tones of each character and follow the tune of the music. Yes it is hard to recognize if you never read the lyrics before, even for native speakers.


What is the meaning of 相邻权？ I know nothing at all about the law, so I don't know how 相邻权 might be translated in English. ‘neighbours law' doesn't seem very jurisprudent! Any tips please?

近年知识产权案件逐年上升，案件类型也从单纯的著作权，商标权和专利权向其相邻权转变，案件涉及的领域也更加广泛。

After a few rereads, I come to the conlusion '向其相邻权‘ is not a law or a right, it just means '(and) to their related laws' Is that right? I'm a bit slow off the mark this morning!

著作权的"相邻权" is not 'related laws' but 'related rights'. Related laws is 相关的法律。It is not the same as 相邻权 of real estates. I think the Chinese term might be a bit hard to understand, because 相邻 means adjacency not related.

Chinese definition

著作权(知识产权)的相邻权或邻接权，是表演者、录音录像制作者和广播企业对其节目、录音录像制品所拥有的权利，这一权利主要通过1961年10月26日的《关于表演者、唱片制作者和广播组织的国际公约》(罗马公约)， 1971年10月29日的《保护唱片制作者防止唱片被擅自复制公约》(唱片公约) 以及1996年12月20日由世界知识产权组织制定的《表演和录音制品条约》进行调整。

English explanation

The purpose of related rights is to protect the legal interests of certain persons and legal entities who contribute to making works available to the public; or who produce subject matter which, while not qualifying as works under the copyright systems of all countries, contain sufficient creativity or technical and organizational skill to justify recognition of a copyright-like property right.

From http://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/intproperty/909/wipo_pub_909.pdf (Page 16)


What does 含饴弄孙 mean? What does 含饴弄孙 mean?

What's its origin, what sort of contexts is it usually used in and also how popular an idiom is it?

It does not seem to appear in any regular Chinese-English dictionary I've found, and the Chinese idiom guides seem pretty cryptic about this (to me anyway).

It is a popular idiom that describes the leisure life of elderly people.

含: keep something in mouth
饴: syrup / candy / suger
弄: play with
孙: grandson

So this idiom means to play with grandchildren with candy in mouth.

You can also check its Chinese explanations at 含饴弄孙:

hán yí nòng sūn

含饴弄孙

【近义】天伦之乐
【释义】含着糖逗小孙子玩。形容晚年生活的乐趣。
【出处】《后汉书·明德马皇后纪》：“吾但当含饴弄孙，不能复知政事。”
【用例】佳儿佳妇，吾将～，不复理家政矣。（清·淮阴百一居士《壶天录》）

The links in my answer point to an online Chinese English dictionary, which has usage examples that extracted from China Central Television (CCTV) news. You can see the most fresh examples of the words you are looking for.


Naming siblings with same sounding chinese characters I would like to name my baby daughter "嫣" which is written as "yān", per pinyin.

However my elder daughter's name is "彥" which is pronounced as "yàn".

Is it considered taboo to give my daughters the similarly pronounced name, though it is different in Chinese?

I never heard of such kind of "taboo". But if you are very sensitive with this for some reasons like you believe in things like 周易取名, you may search 周易取名 on Google or Baidu. I think most of the key/original information is in Chinese.

Anyway, I think 嫣 is a very good name for a girl while 彥 sounds like a boy's name.


Is it essential to highlight the use of a metaphor with 像...那样 or something to this effect? In the 标准教程HSK4上 book, chapter 6, 课文1, I felt 张远 was being annoying by asking a lot of questions about why 李进 didn't answer his phone.  So I wrote:

如果别人不想接电话，不用审问TA。

My teacher was surprised by my use of 审问 (interrogate).  It's the kind of thing I would say in English:

If someone doesn't want to answer their phone, you don't need to interrogate them.

My teacher seemed puzzled by 审问, and said 问 would be better.  But changing 审问 to 问 would change the meaning: you can ask, but don't ask so intensely that it feels like an interrogation.
I'm thinking she interprets 审问 literally, and it would be better to flag the use of this metaphor, perhaps with 像...那样.  Something like:

如果别人不想接电话，不用像一个审问那样问TA。

Question: Is it essential to highlight the use of a metaphor with 像...那样 or something to this effect?
I found some examples online:

男友像审问犯人一样问女友 (here)
我不喜欢,批评学生像审问犯人的那样的教育 (here)

如果别人不想接电话，不用像一个审问那样问他

一个审问 (an interrogation) is a noun, but your sentence suggests 审问 is a verb with the object "犯人" omitted

The problem of your sentence is 像(审问)犯人那样(问)他 is an incorrect form of shorten "审问"

The correct form is 如果别人不想接电话，不用像(审问)犯人那样(审)他 (if someone doesn't want to take your phone call, there's no need to interrogate him like interrogate a criminal suspect)

You can reduce "像(审问犯人)那样" to "像(审犯)那样" . 审犯 (interrogate criminal suspect) is a common Chinese term

You can even shorten the sentence further by removing "如果" and "像... 那样" and write: "别人不想接电话，也不用(审犯)般(审)他"

也 implies 如果; 般 means 那样


How and when to use 不见不错 vs. 不见不散? Could someone please explain me how and when to use these expressions? Is there any difference between the two of them? Is it something like "see you later/see you there/see you soon"?

不见不错 is gobbledigook. 不见不散 means that you will in fact agree to meet someone, that you are really committed to it.

See you later is 再见 or 回头见.


When handwriting 黄 (huáng; yellow) is it incorrect to have a disconnected 草 (cǎo; grass) radical on top? Question: When handwriting 黄 (huáng; yellow) is it incorrect to have a disconnected 草 (cǎo; grass) radical on top?

Specifically, this is what I have in mind:

Is the one on the left in the above image incorrect?

Neither the PRC form「黄」nor the ROC/HK form「黃」contains「艸・艹」. The top of the PRC form「黄」is written as「龷」.

商甲甲806合集32509商甲京津636　西周金耳尊集成6007

「黃」originally depicted a person「大」with a swollen chest/abdomen as a kind of deformity/sickness, indicating the meaning weak, feeble; a mouth「口」was added to the top later, emphasising the person sighing in distress. The word that「黃」originally represented is now written as「尪」.

The modern descendant shapes from the above are:

ROC/HK form:

東周・秦石鼓汧殹　今楷・臺標　今楷・港標
PRC form:

秦簡睡・秦34　東漢隸張遷碑　今楷・陸標

As can be seen, there was never a「艸・艹」component in the character.


What is the meaning and translation of my niece's name? My young niece, whose birthday is in principle coming up at the end of the month (Feb 29), is named 润润. When I look it up in Google Translate, it returns “wet”.  Other dictionaries show the same thing, even a guide that is specific to names.

Does this have some other meaning such as an idiom or context-specific usage, or is it a pretty sound, or what?

Also, how is it properly pronounced? I hear a short vowel sometimes like the word “in”, but also seems to sound very close to “run” more often.  Given that English is tone deaf, what at least is the best American English sound to use?

(They are in Kunming, Yunan. I don't know the differences between college Mandarin and local Yunaneese, but that's another question.)

Probably it is because it was a leap year (闰年). 闰 and 润 have same pronunciation, which is similar to English word 'ruin' (even the tone is the same) but shorter.
闰 means intercalation and 润 means moist, smooth literally and nurturing, nourishing/nourished prosperity and affluence figuratively. 润 is often a good word and commonly used in people and organization names.


What's the translation for Mammalian Two-Hybrid System to Chinese? is there anyone who can help me translate Mammalian Two-Hybrid System into Chinese? I'm not sure is it 哺乳动物双杂交系统? Any help would be appreciated!

According after reading your reference :

  Mammalian Two-Hybrid System

Original record is talking about "protein-protein interactions in mammalian cells". The protein is not living thing so it can't 雜交, 交合, 雜交 (these terms mean cross mating).

It seems below is better.

哺乳動物細胞雙混合系統


Why did people sometimes call Liu Bei "明将军"? Reading some historical texts on Liu Bei, the famous Three Kingdoms warlord, I was surprised to see that in more than one occasion, he is referred to as 明将军. What does this name mean, and where did it come from?

For example:

Zhuge Liang

  亮乃進曰：「明將軍當復有遠志，但結毦而已邪！」

Fa Zheng

  正旣宣旨，陰獻策於先主曰：「以明將軍之英才，乘劉牧之懦弱；張松，州之股肱，以響應於內；然後資益州之殷富，馮天府之險阻，以此成業，猶反掌也。」

I don't think Liu Bei ever had a formal title of "明将军". Instead, he had the title of "General of the Left" (左将军), bestowed by the Han emperor.

Is it simply an honorific? Was the title used on other people? Or is this another name for Liu Bei that I'm not aware of?

It's an honorific, meaning "illustrious" or "enlightened general", and as such is not specific to Liu Bei.
For example, in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Pei Song's annotations cite a passage where Huangfu Li (皇甫酈) addresses Li Jue (李傕) as 明將軍:

近董公之強，明將軍目所見...
In recent times, you yourself, illustrious general, saw with your own eyes how powerful Dong Zhuo was ...


Unknown Traditional Chinese characters on lacquered boards I'm a East Asian preparing to celebrate the Lunar New Year and have been given these pictures of lacquered boards from my father.

The first picture I suspect contains stylized Seal scripts. I cannot identify any of those 4. The second picture contains typical (semi) Cursive scripts, but I still don't have enough knowledge to identify those 2. The third picture is a weird one, I suspect it contains deformed Seal scripts, which makes it even harder. However, I would say that there are 4 characters in the third picture, the last one is impercept-ible, and the second one may be derived from 耑. To sum up, the only thing I'm sure about all of those 10 characters is that they're all Traditional Chinese.

Now I'm here to seek help. What are those characters?

By the way, Happy Lunar New Year guys!

Are the two characters on the left in the first photo stylized versions of 幸福, written vertically? Not sure about the 福, but the top left character sure looks like a stylized 幸?
As for the character on the top right, 龍, dragon?


What professions can be called 师傅? After reading this question, I remembered we can also call some of them 师傅. But I'm not sure which ones.

Any help?

Thank you.

Taxi / Bus driver

"师傅, 我要去天安门."

all the manual workers

  "师傅, 我想做一个木头大象"

"Mr.Carpenter, I wanna make a wooden elephant."

  "师傅, 你能搬动大象吗?."

"Mrs.Porter, Can you lift an elephant?"

  "师傅, 我要给我的大象烫个头发"

"Miss Barber, My elephant needs a perm"

Note: not used in high class barbershop

  "师傅, 我不是坏人"

"Mr. Entrance Guard, I am not bad."

In real life, there are some native Chinese call doctors, teachers 师傅, not much, but it really does, the doctors and teachers said they don't know if they should laugh or cry, embarrassing, since in practice, 师傅 are always applied to these professions that do not need to learn from in colleges.

Note
You call one 师父 who teach you some professional skills.


What is the etymology of the word nǚ (woman) and is it related to Proto-Uralic *niŋä (woman)? There are many Chinese etymology dictionaries available in English which focus on the origin of the characters.  I haven't been able to locate one on-line which provides information on the etymology of the word as spoken.  I.e., the origin of "nǚ" rather than the etymology of 女.   Thank you.

It is at best a coincidence. nǚ and niŋä are not even that close. There is only one common phoneme between the two words. If you count this as close, there will be thousands of words that are as close.
Also, today's pronunciations can't be used to compare, because pronunciations change over time. You can read the basics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Chinese and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Tibetan_languages. Basically most scholars agree that Chinese is related with languages like Tibetan and Burmese. There are also a very few scholars who support hypotheses like the "Sino-Caucasian" hypothesis, but these are viewed as doubtful and not widely accepted.


How does the Chinese translation of an English name get established? This isn't a question on how to choose a Chinese name equivalent, but how the one that most media and people use, gets used.

For example, if some unknown person out there who never had a Chinese name, say Rufus Gainey (some random name), solves the Middle East crisis or something to gain worldwide attention, how do the Chinese press/people establish a name?

Is it as simple as the first source who comes up with something and then others follow?

Basically, I'm just curious as to how the Chinese version of an English name becomes the standard and how people know.

First of all, I'm a native speaker. I know this well but my English is not as good as you. so I hope it would not bother you, thank you.
Basically, what Chinese people would do is just to translate the name by its pronunciation and use some similar sounded Chinese characters to write it down.

For example, "Rufus Gainey" will be translated to "鲁福斯 · 甘利"(Lu Fu Si | Gan li).

However, because there are a lot of Chinese characters which have the same pronunciation（ 鲁福斯 · 甘利, 鲁服斯 · 干立， 鲁服思 · 肝力... they sound the same), it is important to choose the "nice" characters.

"鲁服思 · 肝力" is not good because "肝力" means "liver power", weird！
“干立” is also bad because it means "standing there and do nothing".
"甘利" is quiet good because "甘" means "sweet" and "利" means "good".

And also there are some "conventional translations" here like Tom -> 汤姆, Jim -> 吉姆... Because they are quite common in English so there are common Chinese version of them.

There are also some interesting translation here.

Example 1: first name

Girls and boys tend to have different first names, right?
We all know that Tom is a boy name and Ann is a girl name. However, "Tracy" can be used both by a girl or boy. So:

Tracy McGrady: He is my favorite NBA star. We often translate his name as "特雷西"

However, if Tracy is a girl, I think "翠茜" is a good translation because this two characters are quite female-style.

Example 2: family name

Family names have no gender, right?

Marilyn Monroe -> 玛丽莲·梦露

Jim Monroe -> 吉姆·门罗

You can find here the same "Monroe" are translated to different characters. This is because 梦露 is quite girl-like name and it is quite good to represent the beauty and sexy of Marilyn Monroe. However I don't think a boy Jim will like this translation for him. So what I'm trying to say here is that some Chinese characters or word have strong genders so we can use them to translate the family name differently for boys and girls.

Example 3:

Irvin and Owen will both be translated to "欧文". The reason is that if you let my grandpa(he know nothing about English) tell the difference between these two names. He would say there is no difference. Because there is no pronunciation like "Irvin" in Chinese. So we treat it as "欧文".

BTW, Steve is 史蒂夫 in Chinese.


Can someone please translate what she has on her back? Hello so I ran into this tattoo and I love how it looks but I would hate to get something I don’t even know means just because it’s cute so I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to translate this for me please. I would also like the words “love,faith,courage” translated please, it would be great if you can help!

It says 主幸活, but this is not a phrase, just three Characters representing three concepts
主 short for "天主" (Lord in heaven) or simply "主" (The Lord), meaning God
幸 short for "幸福" (happiness)
活 short for "生活"(n) (living) or "活著"(adj) (alive)
The tattoo implies "believe in God and you will live a happy life"

I suspect she confused "生活"(living) with "生命" (life)
"God. Happiness. Life" make more sense than "God. Happiness. Living(n)"


How did three characters for _de_ emerge? I understand that there are three characters for de depending on the usage:

跑得快
快地跑
快的车

Would anyone know how it evolved into different characters when the purpose and pronunciation are similar?

The premise of the question is a bit backwards. It's not that de evolved into three different characters, it's that three different words evolved to have the same pronunciation in modern Mandarin Chinese.

Mandarin in particular, features unstressed syllables, which are commonly referred to as having a "neutral tone" rather than having one of the four main tones. Most of the Chinese languages are considered syllable-timed languages, including Mandarin, but it is less so compared to other Chinese varieties such as Cantonese, in which all syllables are stressed and have a tone. Syllable-timed languages typically allocate the same amount of time between all syllables in their speech rhythm. In contrast, stress-timed languages (such as English) allocate the same amount of time between stressed syllables. Mandarin seems to have some aspects of stress-timing in which neutral tone syllables are pronounced with shorter durations. As is typical with stress-timed languages, unstressed syllables often undergo vowel reduction, especially in fast speech.

This vowel reduction is one of the main contributors to how all of these words ended up being pronounced with a neutral de in Mandarin. As fefe mentioned in this comment, they are not necessarily pronounced the same in other dialects (for instance, 得、地、的 are respectively pronounced dāk, déi, and dīk in Cantonese). Here's how each of these characters came to be pronounced de in modern Mandarin:

得 - derived from its original meaning of "to attain". One of the features of Chinese is serial verb construction, in which multiple verbs can be stacked together. It is through serial verb construction that 得 evolved into its modern usage as a verb complement to indicate the degree to which an action was attained.

  跑得快 - "run and attain quickness" → "run quickly"

The pronunciation of this word in Middle Chinese (the Chinese of ca. 600 - 1000 AD from which most of the modern Chinese varieties evolved) had a -k ending, but the Mandarin dialects evolved to drop -k endings from all syllables, leading to its modern pronunciation of dé (for comparison, this word is pronounced dāk in modern Cantonese). When used as a verbal degree marker, it becomes unstressed, resulting in its neutral de pronunciation.

Also note that while the stressed dé and unstressed de appear to have the same pinyin spellings besides the tone, the vowel quality is different. Expressing this in IPA, the stressed dé is pronounced [tɤ] with a close-mid back unrounded vowel, while the vowel in the unstressed de has reduced to a schwa: [tə]
地 - the etymology of its use as an adverb marker is less clear, but this suggests that it's related to its original meaning of "place":

  Ōta (2003) proposes that it is a grammaticalization of etymology 1. The construction ADJ + 地 would have semantically developed as follows: "a ADJ place" → "in a ADJ place" → "in a ADJ manner".

The pronunciation of this word in Mandarin, dì, is very similar to its pronunciation in Middle Chinese. It also became unstressed when used as an adverb marker, and through vowel reduction, ended up being pronounced as de.
的 - the use of this as a genitive/possessive particle is actually unrelated to the original usage of 的 as a word meaning "target". It's most likely instead derived from 之, which is the genitive particle of Classical Chinese. While the pronunciation of 之 evolved to become zhī in modern Mandarin, it had also retained a second pronunciation that was closer to its original pronunciation in Old Chinese, dī.  The character 的 was later co-opted to represent this usage when it was pronounced as dī (historically 底 had also been used before modern written Chinese standardized on 的). Again, through destressing and vowel reduction, it also ended up being pronounced as de.

The previous answers here also provide more details about the evolution of the use of 的 as a genitive particle:

Michaelyus' answer to "Do 之 and 的 come from the same word?"
Betty's answer to "Why is 的 (de) sometimes pronounced “di” even though it is used as a possessive particle?"

As an aside, the use of 的 in its original meaning of "target" was also originally pronounced with a -k ending, which is why modern Cantonese pronounces this word as dīk, even though its modern borrowing for use as a genitive particle is not related to this original word and did not have a -k ending. Its use as a genitive particle is not a native use in Cantonese though, so Cantonese ended up applying the original dīk reading of 的 to its genitive meaning too.


Measure word and vocabulary for internet posts If I want to say "There are 100 Facebook posts" or "There are 100 Tweets", how do I do so?

From Pleco, I got:
帖子 = post (forum),
推特 = Twitter,
脸书 = Facebook.

So is it something like: "这是百个脸书(推特)帖子。" or "有一百个推特帖子。"? Or does one use the measure word for books or letters or something else entirely. I was unable to find any specific information on this.

What would a native Chinese speaker say? What feels natural for use with counting internet posts. Of course, an example other than Facebook or Twitter is acceptable as well depending on what common social media web services are used in China.

Generally, you will say for " There are 100 xxx posts" as "有 100 个 yyy 帖子"

eg facebook posts = 脸书帖子
eg nytimes forum posts = nytimes 论坛帖子 etc

when the messages generally look long, you can use "篇" as well, when the messages generally look short, you can use "条" as well.

when there is a special term for eg "tweets", you can use "推特帖子" or "推文"


How to translate "Muscle Memory" to chinese? I cannot find a perfect word to describe "记忆".
So any one can help me ?


Which of 不谢 and 不用谢 is correct? When I started to learn Mandarin, I learned on the Rosetta Stone program that it is 不谢 to say "you are welcome" in Mandarin.

However, when I met a Chinese girl in Shanghai, she said that 不谢 is never used and 不用谢 is the only correct word in Mandarin. She is from Nanjing, and we met at Shanghai for your information.

However, now I'm in Chongqing and the host of a room I rented via AirBnB used 不谢 to respond to my 谢谢. I don't know where he is from, for your information.

So now I'm confused. In Mandarin, which is the correct word to say "you are welcome"? Also, is there any difference between regions?

which is the correct word to say "you are welcome"?

Both 不谢 and 不用谢 are correct.

MDBG

不谢

  don't mention it / not at all

不用谢

  You're welcome / Don't mention it

Hell, I have had an old lady tell me: 不用谢谢 - but I wouldn't recommend using this one.

In the north you might hear 甭(béng)谢, 甭 being a contraction of 不 and 用.

You can also use 不客气

  you're welcome / don't mention it / impolite / rude / blunt


Why is 汉子 measured in 条? 汉子 (son/person of Han) was - in ancient China - a term used by various people north of China to refer to the Chinese, but over time has been used by the Chinese to refer to themselves, and by the Qing dynasty, was already being used as a complimentary term for a "true" or "heroic" man, as in the terms 好汉 and 男子汉. The term is used to embody various masculine ideals, such as:

好汉不提当年勇 (A hero is silent about his past glories)
好汉做事好汉当 (a true man has the courage to accept the consequences of his own actions)

However, 汉子 (and its related terms) seem to be classified using 条, which is unusual because normally when 条 is used on people, it is derogatory, for example 一条走狗 (traitorous dog) or 一条豺狼 (brutal jackal). And yet it is used for 汉子, which is supposed to be a compliment:

京剧《黑旋风李逵》第四场：“我看你是条汉子，为何不投奔 梁山 ？”
隋唐十八条好汉
二十年后又是一条好汉

So why use this particular measure word?

First, your are correct that 汉子 is more commonly being refer to as a man / manhood. And 条 is quantifier for refering things that are long, straight. So go figure =P.

However, 条 is not derogatory. We also use 条 for a life e.g. 一条人命, or a river 一条河, or loyalty 一条心. So it very much depends on the context.


Where does the word 完美 come from? I suspect it comes from "又做完了，又做得美丽," since that would make some sense. Is it something along these lines?

there's an earlier usage of "完美" in 唐 dynasty. in 漢文大藏經﹒毗尼作持續釋﹒卷五:

釋　若犯妄語。譬如大石破為二分終不可還合者。謂石大　完美　。四覩奇觀。比丘戒淨。人天欽仰。若犯妄語波羅夷法。不得還成比丘梵行。布薩羯磨不共眾僧。如石兩分。破壞本質。失眾敬瞻。棄置不盻故。

http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/mobile/index.php?index=X41n0730_005

so, i would suggest the etymology of "完美" is derived from "完整" + "美好"


Does "女朋友" work for older couples? I'm going to be visiting China next year, along with my father.  My parents are divorced, but my dad is now dating someone who will likely be coming with us.  They aren't married, so I'm not sure what word to use to introduce them.  If I say something like, "这位是我爸爸，和我爸爸的女朋友", would that cause confusion?  Is there another word for this, or would something like this be uncommon in China?

Using archaic phrases like 红颜知己 or 忘年之交 is a bad suggestion, these phrases come straight from dated Chinese movies. No modern human talk like this in real life. It is like saying " She is my father's fair lady" or " she is my dad's dear confidant." in English.

If they are very close, saying she is 女朋友 (girl friend) is perfectly fine in today's open minded society.

The safest option is to call her your dad's 朋友 (friend). or 好朋友 (good friend) if you are not sure they are officially a couple or not.


Is it OK to use 子 as a measure word my Wenlin dictionary describes 子 as also a measure word for bundles/hanks etc.
Can anyone confirm this ? by sample sentence ?

Classifier for 'bundles/hanks' is '束', as in '一束花' (a bundle of flower); '一束头发' (a hank of hair)

The only classifier using 子 is for 'chess/ Go piece' or 'chess/ Go move',

Example:

'讓你兩子棋' (give you two stones handicap)

"需要深入思考每一子棋" (need to think deep for each chess move).

'步' as  in "需要深入思考每一步棋" is more common that 子 when using as classifier for chess move

A prominent example for 子 as a classifier for chess/Go piece:

一子錯, 滿盆皆落索 - one piece (of chess) (placed) wrong, the entire game (situation) become untenable


When is “得” pronounced “de” and when is it pronounced “dei”? I have noticed that there are two different pronunciations of 得： - Usually it's pronounced "de". - in some situations it's pronounced "dei" as in:

老百姓想自强
那就得学习点别人先进的东西。

When is “得” pronounced “de” and when is it pronounced “dei”?

得
děi

Is a verb that means:

  need/must

Like:

  我们得走了
  We gotta go.

得
de

Is an auxiliary partial that modifies or qualifies a verb.

Like:

  说得好！
  Well said!


Did a king ask for a ball? How did 王 + 求 become 球? The character 球 means ball and is composed of

王 meaning king and
求 meaning demand.

Where does this composition come from? Did a king ask for a ball?

Nope. The radical was simplified from 玉 (jade), originally referring to a polished sphere of jade. 求 is the phonetic component.

For reference, Baxter's Old Chinese reconstruction has 求 *grju, and 球 *grju. In this particular case, 求 has remained a good phonetic for three millennia!

The sense of 'sounding stone made of jade' can be seen in the Kangxi dictionary: http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0732.gif


Translate 'suffered for your sanity' in precise chinese In the song 'Vincent', it sings:

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free

Conversely, 'suffer from your sanity' can translated as '难得糊涂',

How to translate it directly and elegantly?

'suffered for' = '因~而受苦'

'your' = '你的'

'sanity' = '理性'

insanity = 疯狂 (n). The opposite of '疯狂' is '理性' (rationality) or '清醒头脑'(sound mind)

  "suffered for your sanity"

"因你的理性而受苦" or "因你的清醒头脑而受苦"

  Yumi Tada wrote: make sense.but not like a song lyrics

You can give up some accuracy for style and wrote:

" And how you suffered for your sanity" -- "你何以因清醒而受罪"


How can I ask for extra ingredients in a dish? How can I ask for more of an ingredient in a dish? like add extra cheese, extra meat, etc. Not that it matters but I specifically want to know this for 手抓餅.

If the ingredient you asking for more is free, like condiments (salt, sugar, oil) or side greens (onion, pickle) you can say "多 ~ ":

  多盐，多糖，多油, 多洋葱，多泡菜

If the ingredient you asking for more will be charged money, like main topping (meat, seafood) or staple food (noodle, rice)  Then you can say "加 ~" :

Some western restaurant offer free bread.

  加鱼肉， 加牛肉， 加猪肉， 加面条， 加饭

Some restaurant have set price for extra ingredient and some don't, so you should ask how much it costs to have extra something.

To get a larger size dish, you can say 加大码, again, Some restaurant have set price for extra large size dishes and some don't, you have to ask for the the price.

I  often order 例半 (one and a half order) if there are a lot of people in the party. Since 例半 is one and a half order, I would expect it would be one and a half price.

Here are some examples of how you order extra

牛肉炒麵，多洋蔥 (beef stir fry boodle, more onion)
牛肉炒麵，加牛肉 (beef stir fry boodle, extra beef) - ask the price or state how much more money you want to pay for it e.g. "加十元牛肉" (add ten dollar beef)
牛肉炒麵，加大码 (beef stir fry boodle, large size) ask the price
牛肉炒麵，例半 (beef stir fry boodle, one and a half order) pay 50% more
馄饨面，加底 (wonton noodle soup, extra noodle) - 加底 means add only extra staple food when the dish is made up of main toppings on stable food base, For example 馄饨面 (wonton noodle soup)


How do I parse 宋耀如一家用过早餐? This sentence is from the 3-rd grade 语文 book I'm studying (the exact pages are here):

  一个星期天，宋耀如一家用过早餐，准备到一位朋友家去。

It says "One Sunday, [something], ready to go to a friends house."

Question: How do I parse 宋耀如一家用过早餐?

I think:

宋耀 is a man's name,
一家 go together to form "household",
I don't know what 如 is doing here (possible "like", as in "like a household"),
用过 = used (past tense),
早餐 = breakfast (but this seems mismatched with "used").

Or maybe 过早 = premature.  I'm totally lost here.

Sometimes, it helps to know the names and background of the people you're reading about. The appearance of the name 宋慶齡 in the text should instigate an immediate background check.

宋耀如 is 宋慶齡's father - his proper name is 宋嘉澍, and 宋耀如 is his courtesy name.

一個星期天，宋耀如一家用過早餐，準備到一位朋友家去。
One Sunday, the house (family) of 宋耀如 had breakfast and planned to go to a friend's house.

The friend should be primarily assumed to be that of 宋耀如, and by extension a family friend.

FYI: 用餐 is another way of saying 吃飯, if not a bit more old-fashioned.


How do you say "some people" in Chinese? Like, if I wanted to say "Some people think　I look like...." how would I say that?

Would it be: some 人觉得我长得像．．．．？

有人 is someone, some people, anyone.

  有人觉得我长得像


Translating the phrase "I can't confirm nor deny etc." If someone were to ask something about you, what would be the most common way of saying "I can't confirm nor deny that".
I tried looking it up and my conclusion is "不能确认也不能否认". I would like some confirmation on whether it's correct or not, or if there are any other, better translations.

Assuming you're not going for a word-for-word, literal translation I would suggest:
无可奉告
MDBG

(idiom) "no comment"

Wiktionary

to have nothing to say (in a diplomatic context); no comment

The superiority of a semantic translation over a 1:1 translation is the fact that you can get straight to the heart of the matter without confusing your audience with turns of phrases and terms that they may have never encountered before.

Of course, if you do need a literal translation:

我们既不能确认也不能否认, (2)

does work.
HKU Public Opinion gives an alternative translation:

無意肯定或否定

The UN, here, opts for:

不能肯定、也不能否定

but in the same document also translates it as:

既不证实也不否认


Is Regulated Verse Used In Modern-Language Poetry? According to The Infallible Wikipedia, most modern Chinese poetry (新诗) is metrically free and unrhymed, sometimes hard to distinguish from a short essay.

Are rhyme or tonal schemes along the lines of Regulated Verse ever used in poetry written in modern Mandarin, or is it relegated to Classical Chinese poetry?

Regulated verse is indeed used by some poetic societies in the New Culture Movement. Among them Crescent Moon Society is a prominent one.


What does it say on the stamp? I was requested by a friend to find out what this stamp is. Do you know what it says on the stamp?

After discussing it with my friends, the best result I can come up with now is

The characters beside the stamp characters are the corresponding ones that may be the candidates. Seal script samples are also given. Unfortunately, I cannot find a 100% convincing answer, because they can hardly form a meaningful phrase.

Character 1: 聞 or 查. Either is doubtful. If it's 查, it means the craftsman treat the vertical 丨 in 木 as two separate parts, then Character 5 will quite possibly be 木.
Character 2: 男. It's very doubtful because there're too many horizontals 一 in 田. I am almost sure it can't be 甲, because adding one important stroke  into 甲 is very unreasonable.
Character 3: 天 or 引. Either is possible.
Character 4: 下 or 爪. Either is very possible. Specially, if if Character 3 is 天 and this is 下, 天下(the world, land under heaven) is meaningful.
Character 5: 木 or 大. Either is doubtful.
Character 6: 子. Well, it's the most confirmed one.

What I should clarify is that I don't mean the candidate characters are just what I am listing. There may be some more acceptable ones. This Chinese Etymology website may be a helpful tool for you.
I agree with Xu's arguments partly:

The scripts are seal characters or bronze characters.

There may be extra squiggles adding to the characters.

A Character may be separated into two (seldom larger than two) parts and written as individual two characters. In the stamp, there may be one case: 李=木+子.

But the case of the zigzag reading order 1-2-4-3-5-6 is really seldom. I personally believe it's in this order: 1-2-3-4-5-6, or less possible, 1-3-5-2-4-6.
Jens's answer, 鳳 凰 祥 雲, are not so similar to the character shapes in the stamp (notice that there's no 凰 in seal scripts; in ancient Chinese, it will use an "interchangeable" character 皇 instead).
EDIT
Character 5 may be also 北.


What is the name of the university in this seal? I was able to read the second half (大學圖書), but not the actual name of the university.

The image is cropped from a book posted here.

It reads:

  早稻田
  大學
  圖書

A Japanese Waseda University collection.


How do you say 头大 in English? 英语太难了，学得我头大。

I just don't want to use "head exploding" which scares me.

頭大 figuratively means to be distressed/overwhelmed/worried. In English, the equivalent word is the figurative headache.

英語太難了，學得我頭大
English is too difficult; studying it is (too overwhelming) / (giving me a headache)


Difference between 现在几岁 and 今年几岁 Are these two expressions considered different? Because my birthday is at the end of the year, I always considered 今年几岁 to be age at the end of the year, whereas 现在 is age from the most recent previous birthday that you've celebrated. If someone asks 今年几岁, I'd explain that 今年 I'm x years old, but right now I'm x - 1 years old.

现在几岁 sounds really weird. People usually say 今年几岁 or just 几岁 to mean the age as of right now. Come to think of it, I think this might be because there's a different notation of age which increases every lunar new year.
Edit: as pointed out by the comments below, 现在几岁 doesn't sound really weird in general. It's definitely less common than 今年几岁, but maybe it sounding really weird to me is a dialect thing.


How can I get a list of all the characters containing the "flowing water" component that is in 益? Further to this question. According to "Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters" (which I have as a (paid-for) add-on in the Pleco app), in the character 益, the  component (top part of character, first 5 strokes) means "flowing water".
How can I get a list of all the characters (simplified and traditional) that contain the same  "flowing water" component?
Pleco provides this list for most components, but it doesn't do it for this particular component.
A subsidiary question: does this component have a name in 中文? How would it be referred to in 中文?

The top part of 「益」 is just a 「氺」 (水) rotated 90 degrees.
秦簡12.47睡虎地秦簡篆皿部說文解字東漢隸華山廟碑　楷
秦簡25.46睡虎地秦簡篆水部說文解字東漢隸郙閣頌　楷
This makes the top part of 「益」 just a variant of 「水」. Predictably, the character 「㳑」 is the variant with more standard components, although this character itself is not standard.

Normally, a search for a list like the one in the question would also incorporate everything containing 「水」, just like a search for everything containing 「水」 would normally include everything containing 「氵」.
If you only want characters containing an arbitrary component 「Ｘ」, in general, I would advise against going through an ideographic description sequence decomposition database like CHISE or Pleco's component search containing 「Ｘ」, at least not without some due diligence checking later. The results which turn up are very misleading if you're not careful. For example, the search for 「⿱䒑八」 in CHISE literally turns up everything which

contains regular script strokes which look like 「䒑」, an abbreviation for many things including 「艹」, on top of
a bunch of regular script strokes which look like 「八」

「水」, written sideways or not, does not contain 「䒑」 and/or 「八」. There are other  characters which contain the stroke sequence 「⿱䒑八」 like 「」, which is an abbreviation/corruption of 「檐」.

A cursory glance at some of the CHISE results shows that the number of encoded characters containing sideways 「水」 is quite limited. Apart from everything containing 「益」, that database lists

「」 (variant of 「滅」 where the 「水」 is shifted to the bottom and rotated sideways)

A few characters containing 「」 (variant of 「涉」 where the 「水」 is shifted below 「止」 and rotated sideways)

「」 (variant of 「瀕」)

「」


Difference in word order of these two adverbs: 再 又 My teacher brought this up and now I want to know:

When there are two verbs in a sentence (one's a helping verb) and you want to use 又 or 再, why is their placement different?

I got these example sentences from a native:

昨天下雨，今天下雨了，明天又會下雨。

今天會再來。

It seems like when you use 又, it goes before both verbs, helping verb & main verb (會 & 下）

But when you use 再, it goes between the helping verb & main verb, 會 & 來 (unless you really do want to modify the helping verb itself, but usually that's not what people mean).

So...why do these two words for "again" not go in the same place in a sentence, even though they're both adverbs?

Don't know why, but the difference makes intuitive sense to me...I think.

I am trying to give two differences between 再 and 又 for you.

Originally, 再 means 'second time', 又 means 'second time', or 'third time', or even more. But now, 再 sometimes also means repeatedly. In this sense, the two words,再，又, are replaceable.
再 emphasizes the two concepts (verbs/nouns) must be the same nature, while 又 is not limited.

The more important thing is to know some examples.

Usually, the 再 in the following examples can not be replaced by 又.

再見。          See you a second time, so it means 'see you', 'see you later', 'see you again', or 'Auf Wiedersehen' in German.
再會。          This sentence has the same meaning as 再見.
一而再，再而三   Do the same thing once, twice, and three times, so it means 'again and again.
再三            Do the same thing twice and three times, i.e. it means 'again and again' too.

The 又 in the following examples can not be replaced by 再.

[既...又...]  襄兒既聰明,又可愛。   Xianger is not only bright but also cute.
[又...又...]  又驚又喜；又快又好    Shocked and happy； fast and good
[又名]        中國，又名海内，諸夏。 China is also known as '海内' or '諸夏'.
              牛頓來了，又走了。    Newton came and then left.

For your question, 再會下雨 is indeed a wrong expression. Let me try to make is clear.

再會下雨 means "again 'could rain' ". But once today is coming, 'could rain' will become 'rain' or 'not rain'. So the same thing 'could rain' will not happen again tomorrow. On the other hand, 會再下雨 means 'could rain again'. There is no problem in this expression.

昨天下雨，今天下雨了，明天又會下雨.

In the above sentence, 又會下雨 is right, because 下雨 and 會下雨 can be joined by 又。

PS: Thanks for your interesting question. A piece of advice from me: I think you'd better learn from examples, it is helpful.


Can anyone read Seal Script? I'm completely stuck Is anyone able to give the modern character equivalents for these seals? I'm completely stumped on the top one, but got as far as "X 廾 東 X" on the bottom one.

There's also a 詩塘 at the top, and I don't even know what script it's in. I initially assumed it would be seal script, but then the version of "山" in it (below the 三) wasn't correct for seal script, so I thought it might be something else. I've attached the photo in case anyone knows what it is (or might even be able to translate it).

Thanks,
TK.

The characters in the following transcriptions are given at their original positions in the images. Please be aware of the directionality when reading these characters, which is generally from top to bottom, right to left.

  庭植, artist's self-styled pseudonym.

  Artist's real name. Three characters only:

  Right hand character is 「呉」 re-interpreted into a (non-standard?) seal script shape.「呉」is a variant of「吳」.
  Top left is 「東」.
  Bottom left is too hard to see, although the two seals are probably identical to

  in which case the character is 「槐」.

  Thanks to @水巷孑蠻 who found these seals here, which record the name of a Qing Dynasty artist 吳東槐.

  水青三冠徑

  中山成㬜（＝天，㬜＝晉）

  分外半古代

  白二落丠衣（丠＝丘）

  Note that I would consider this a non-standard way of writing「白」(bottom left-hand corner). This is equivalent to writing「自」and omitting one of the horizontal lines, but「白」and「自」are from completely different glyph origins.

  Calligrapher:

  伊

  索

  涭

  (uncertain; corrections welcome)

This is part of the Tang Dynasty poem by Li Bai, given below:

  唐・李白《登金陵鳳凰臺》

  鳳凰臺上鳳凰遊，

  鳳去臺空江自流。

  吳宮花草埋幽徑，

  晉代衣冠成古丘。

  三山半落青天外，

  二水中分白鷺洲。

  總爲浮雲能蔽日，

  長安不見使人愁。


Difference between 许多 and 很多 What's the difference between 许多 and 很多?
For example, in this sentence I found on Jukuu both terms are used:

After years of teaching, I have many memories to dwell on in idle moments.
过了许多年的教学生涯，我空闲时缅怀的往事很多。

Are both terms interchangeable? One is more formal than the other?

"很多" is not a word, but an adverb "很" and an adjective "多" combined to form a subordinate phrase. "很" as an adverb, is generally placed before an adjective to indicate a high degree of something. Therefore, "很多" has no particular significance. "很 + adjective" when used to modify the noun generally contains "的", such as:

很好的计划 (a very good plan)
很可爱的孩子 (very cute children)

But "很多", when used to modify the noun, is generally without "的". Such as:

很多人 (many people)
很多地方 (many places)
很多东西 (a lot of things)
很多城市 (many cities)

"许多" is a numeral (数词), meaning in great quantities. "很多" can be disassembled; "许多" cannot. The usage of "很多" is more flexible, and can serve as a predicative, attributive, or complementary component in a sentence. Such as:

南京路上人很多（谓语） On Nanjing Road, there are a lot of people
(predicate)
我去过很多地方（定语） I have been to many places (attributive)
有些人吃得很多，却不爱运动（补语） Some people eat a lot, but do not exercise
(complement)

"许多", as a numeral, can only be used as an attributive adjunct which generally modifies the noun. Such as:

许多优秀人才 (a lot of talented people)
中国的许多城市 (many cities in China)
那火山已经沉睡许多年 (that volcano has been laying dormant for many years)
许多消费者都不满意 (many consumers are not satisfied)
许多人在生活中离不开手机 (many people cannot live without their mobile phones)

The following statements are wrong when used with "许多":

  南京路上人许多（谓语）X 有些人吃得许多，却不爱运动（补语）X

In the dialogue, "很多" can be used alone, but not "许多". Such as:

  排队的人多吗？——很多。√ (Is there a lot of people at the queue? - A lot.
  √ ) 排队的人多吗？——许多。X

To answer your question, "许多" is more formal than "很多", and is used more often in writing, whereas "很多" is used often in speech. "许多" can be replaced by "很多", but usually not the other way round:

  过了许多（or 很多）年的教学生涯，我空闲时缅怀的往事很多。

Adapted from: “很多”与“许多” - 复旦大学国际文化交流学院


案: why is a bench also a case? Sorry about the cryptic title.
案 is a character that can mean "bench"/"desk" but it can also mean "(legal) case" or "file":

长形的桌子或架起来代替桌子用的长木板：～子。～板。书～。条～。拍～而起。

提出计划、方法和建议的文件或记录：档～。备～。议～。提～。方～。有～可查。～卷。～牍。

How does this one character come to mean two very different things? The radicals suggest that the original definition may have only been the "bench" one, and the second definition is only incidentally related - I guess people would look at legal cases on a bench or table, but it seems a bit of a stretch.

Your understanding seems to be correct. For example, in Liu Yuxi of Tang Dynasty's 《陋室铭》:

  无丝竹之乱耳，无案牍之劳形

Where 案 means the desk, and 牍 is a type of hard wood board or pad, on which you write articles. Put together, the bisyllabic word simply means cases, articles, or documents.


Why is there a village called "Cat Cat Bamboo" (猫猫箐)? I was scrolling through the map when I stumbled across a village called:

猫猫箐

Baidu Baike has an entry on the place but it doesn't talk about where they got their name from. It seems quite bizarre. Any ideas?

I found an answer while I was writing up the question & figured I might as well share it.

Sohu has an article entitled:

你以为昆明的路名都是瞎起的？

in which they have an explanation of the name:

猫猫箐：在西山龙门西南面的山里，因为曾有虎豹（俗称猫猫）出没得名。此外，在嵩明县阿子营乡东南部也有一个猫猫箐，因“从前箐里有野猫出没而得名。”

They claim that the area used to have tigers and leopards that would emerge from the bamboo groves on the mountains.
I'm not sure about the assertion that they used to have leopards, though. In South Western Mandarin 猫猫 can definitely be a jocular term for tigers.
《成都方言》 has the following example:

猫猫 maomao ①猫。成都童谣：“～你不走，乖乖瞌睡有；～你不来，乖乖瞌睡来；～你不咬，乖乖要睡了。”②趣称老虎：～跑到村子里来了。亦作“花猫猫”。


Why does the second sentence use 个? I read this sentence today :

  每天给自己的手机充电，
  也不要忘了给自己的口语充个电！

I wonder why the second sentence use 个 between 充 and 电 while the first one doesn’t.

Could anyone please explain it to me?

It’s vernacular language.

  Charge your phone every day, and don’t forget to also give your speaking [skills] a charge!

個 is a generic counter for an event or session in this case, and will commonly be heard in a casual spoken style.

You can get similar constructions e.g.

吃個飯 (have a meal)
旅個遊 (go on a travel)


Is "biang" a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese? One of the local specialty favourite dishes in Shaanxi province where I am now is Biángbiáng miàn.

Photo by hippietrail

The hanzi character for "biáng" is usually the focus of discusssions of this dish since it takes 58 strokes and is not supported by computers, including Unicode.

But I want to discuss the syllable "biang" in this question. To a beginner in Chinese like myself it seems to be composed of common initial "b", medial "i" and final "ang".

But the Wikipedia article informs me that the alternative names for the dish with more common characters are 彪彪面 (biāobiāo miàn) and 冰冰面 (bīngbīng miàn), which each use a different syllable in place of "biáng" as well as a different hanzi character.

So is this syllable not even possible? If not, which phonological rules does it break? Also if it's not "possible" how could it become popular as part of the name of a dish? Is it something to do with the dialect or accent spoken in Shaanxi?

So time for an update…
If you want to play by the books, biang is not a permissible syllable. If you are concerned with what comes out of a speaker’s mouth, syllables like nim (contraction of 你們) are even possible, although they are technically surface realizations of a phonology that does not allow such syllables.
The surprising fact is that iang as a rime for the labial initials (b, p, ph, m) did not even exist in Middle Chinese, so the omission of biang is nothing new. That isn’t to say it couldn’t develop in Mandarin, but there was nothing shaping the language in that direction. The only likely source would be a borrowing sort of like how fiao is a borrowing from Wu, which has its own interesting story.
Old Answer
I’ve made a chart here for my own understanding of Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology a while ago:
        a       ai      au      an      aŋ      e       ə       əi      əu      ən      əŋ      i       ia      iai     iau     ian     iaŋ     ie      iə      iəu     iən     iəŋ     io      iu      iuan    iuə     iun     iuəŋ    aɻ      o       u       ua      uai     uan     uaŋ     uə      uəi     uən     uəŋ     m       n       ŋ
        a       ai      ao      an      ang     ê       e       ei      ou      en      eng     yi      ya      yai     yao     yan     yang    yê      ye      you     yin     ying    yo      yu      yuan    yue     yun     yong    er      o       wu      wa      wai     wan     wang    wo      wei     wun     weng    m       n       ng
p       ba      bai     bao     ban     bang                    bei             ben     beng    bi                      biao    bian    biang           bie     biu     bin     bing                                                            bo      bu
pʰ      pa      pai     pao     pan     pang                    pei     pou     pen     peng    pi                      piao    pian                    pie     piu     pin     ping                                                            po      pu
m       ma      mai     mao     man     mang            me      mei     mou     men     meng    mi                      miao    mian                    mie     miu     min     ming                                                            mo      mu
f       fa                      fan     fang                    fei     fou     fen     feng                            fiao                                                                                fo      fu
t       da      dai     dao     dan     dang            de      dei     dou     den     deng    di                      diao    dian                    die     diu             ding                                                                    du                      duan            duo     dui     dun     dong
tʰ      ta      tai     tao     tan     tang            te              tou             teng    ti                      tiao    tian                    tie     tiu             ting                                                                    tu                      tuan            tuo     tui     tun     tong
n       na      nai     nao     nan     nang            ne      nei     nou     nen     neng    ni                      niao    nian    niang           nie     niu     nin     ning            nü              nüe                                     nu                      nuan            nuo                     nong
l       la      lai     lao     lan     lang            le      lei     lou             leng    li      lia             liao    lian    liang           lie     liu     lin     ling            lü              lüe                             lo      lu                      luan            luo             lun     long
ts      za      zai     zao     zan     zang            ze      zei     zou     zen     zeng    zi                                                                                zu                      zuan            zuo     zui     zun     zong
tsʰ     ca      cai     cao     can     cang            ce              cou     cen     ceng    ci                                                                                cu                      cuan            cuo     cui     cun     cong
s       sa      sai     sao     san     sang            se              sou     sen     seng    si                                                                                su                      suan            suo     sui     sun     song
tʂ      zha     zhai    zhao    zhan    zhang           zhe     zhei    zhou    zhen    zheng   zhi                                                                                zhu     zhua    zhuai   zhuan   zhuang  zhuo    zhui    zhun    zhong
tʂʰ     cha     chai    chao    chan    chang           che             chou    chen    cheng   chi                                                                                chu     chua    chuai   chuan   chuang  chuo    chui    chun    chong
ʂ       sha     shai    shao    shan    shang           she     shei    shou    shen    sheng   shi                                                                                shu     shua    shuai   shuan   shuang  shuo    shui    shun
ɻ                       rao     ran     rang            re              rou     ren     reng    ri                                                                                ru      rua             ruan            ruo     rui     run     rong
tɕ                                                                                ji      jia             jiao    jian    jiang           jie     jiu     jin     jing            ju      juan    jue     jun     jiong
tɕʰ                                                                                qi      qia             qiao    qian    qiang           qie     qiu     qin     qing            qu      quan    que     qun     qiong
ɕ                                                                                xi      xia             xiao    xian    xiang           xie     xiu     xin     xing            xu      xuan    xue     xun     xiong
k       ga      gai     gao     gan     gang            ge      gei     gou     gen     geng                                                                                gu      gua     guai    guan    guang   guo     gui     gun     gong
kʰ      ka      kai     kao     kan     kang            ke      kei     kou     ken     keng                                                                                ku      kua     kuai    kuan    kuang   kuo     kui     kun     kong
x       ha      hai     hao     han     hang            he      hei     hou     hen     heng                                                                                hu      hua     huai    huan    huang   huo     hui     hun     hong

The table contains every possible pinyin in Standard Mandarin Chinese sans tones. Columns are headed by the finals, and rows are headed by the initials. They are derived from the Standard Chinese phonology and Pinyin table pages on Wikipedia. A quick look at the table will reveal patterns in the phonology with a few oddities.
biang is certainly listed in the Pinyin table, but a quick search for any word with a pinyin of biang produces 0 results. And it makes sense: because the bilabial/labiodental series of initials (b-, p-, m-, f-) is excluded from combining with many finals (such as: -uan, -uo, -ui, -un, -ong). Have a look at the iaŋ column and you see that piang, miang, and fiang are missing; biang looks like it should not be there either.
Yes, there are oddities where a sound that looks like it should be there isn’t there (like bou, tei, and ten), but they can be easily explained as, “there weren’t any words that used that sound.” It’s what is called an “accidental gap,” and you can read more about it here: Phonotactics (âm pháp). It’s much more difficult to make a case for biang which exists in no dictionaries, is not in common usage, and is the sole proprietor of the Pinyin “biang.” Considering the facts, it’s my opinion that biang is illegal in Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology and was probably concocted for promotional purposes. What better way to stand out than to own a “rare” character, a “rare” sound, and an exclusive position in the Pinyin table?


Is there a list of simplified Chinese radicals? Is there a list of simplified Chinese radicals? The radical 159 车 consists of 7 strokes, in fact it is its traditional version 車 which includes 7 strokes ...

I think there's quite a few around.  My favorite is Search by Radical at chinese-tools.com.

Here's a screenshot:

(Stack Exchange version of the image.)


Is there a difference between 杀头 and 砍头？ I'm learning about 鲁迅 and the picture he
 saw of a man being decapitated.

My teacher would switch between 杀头 and 砍头  - is their a large difference between the two? is one more formal? Is there a difference in usage?

Sorry for being a bit morbid - but this is helpful!

砍头 is concrete. It invokes the image of hacking with an axe or sword. When it is done with a piano wire, this word is definitely not a good choice.

砍，读kǎn，用刀斧等猛剁，用力劈：～柴。～伐。 chop；chop at；hack；hew；shear. Like chopping wood with an axe.

source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/264052.htm?fr=aladdin

杀头 is generic and abstract. It does not invoke particular image.

杀, 使失去生命. To cause living thing to lose life.

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/282596/9727885.htm


Is “之” usually used as a possessive pronoun (attributive) in Classical Chinese? True or False Question:

In classical Chinese,
 “之” is usually used as a possessive pronoun (attributive), “其” is usually used as a subject, and “彼” is usually used as an object.

a.       True b. False

I think the statements about the “其” and “彼” are true. I'm not sure about the statement regarding “之”. I don't think "possessive pronoun" and "attributive" are equivalent. It's quite true that 之 can be used as a possessive marker (e.g.,美国之音).

Thank you for your help.

之 is a common way to say ‘him/her/it’ in classical Chinese.  It’s usually in the object position, not the subject one though:  殺之 ‘kills him’;   由之  ‘from it’.  The use like modern Chinese 的 is different.

其 is actually a possessive pronoun, as in 其妻  ‘his wife’.  More generally, it substitutes for ‘noun + 之’.

彼 can be used as a third-person pronoun in either subject or object position, but mainly it is a demonstrative (‘this’ or ‘that’).  There are other words that work the same way and appear as pronouns.

All of this is based on the section on pronouns in Edward Pulleyblank’s ‘Outline of Classical Chinese’, esp. pp 79-80.  You can find it on Google Books.


How serious is 折杀 today? Foreigners in China naturally get a lot of kind compliments or treatment.  Sometimes the compliment is merely kind, and a person could reply with 哪里 or 别客气, or 不好意思了.

But sometimes gesture is so overwhelming that you really want to say the person need not have done it -- but at the same time show that you appreciate it.  So I learned the phrase  折杀 which might be good for those times.

But when I look for it on-line I find a lot of sites explaining it and very few using it.  So I wonder if people do use it today.

Baidu calls it 民间用语：虚拟抬高别人生活状态的贬义用词。 I am not sure what they mean by 贬义.  It is really insulting?  Or is it just a little funny?

And I am not sure what they mean by 民间用语.  Does it just mean the phrase is colloquial?  Or does it mean the phrase is a bit quaint or old-fashioned?

折杀 is a folk saying. It is invoked as a humble response when receiving high compliments or a great gift that one considers himself not deserving of it.

In the olden time, Chinese believed one's fortune is tied to his deed and virtue, oversaw by the heaven. If you receive excessive reward in life that's not in an appropriate quantity or quality for your virtue, your fortune will balance things and make you suffer later in life.

Similarly being immoral will reduce your fortune. That's why people sometimes refer immoral deed as '折福事' (things that reduce your fortune )

折 is short for 折福 (reduce fortune)
杀 = 'greatly' (to the point of killing me)
折杀 means 'it will greatly reduce my fortune'

If you receive a high praise or great gift that you think you are not worthy of,  you can say '这真是折杀我了' (this really will reduce my fortune greatly) to show your modesty and humility.

As you suspected, this term is a bit old fashion. You can only hear people saying that in period dramas on T.V or movies nowadays.


What is the grammatical structure of: 我把你们带到茶馆来。 I was reading New Practical Chinese Reader Chpater 27 and stumbled upon the following sentence: 我把你们带到茶馆来。  While the meaning of the sentence is pretty clear, I have trouble understanding its underlying structure and hope someone can help me.

Thus far I figured out: You use 把 together with 带到 that something has been moved from one to place to another. In this case: The place of 你们 to 茶馆。

However, what is the idea behind 来 ？

Google translate provides the following translation for the two sentences:

我把你们带到茶馆来。I will bring you to the tea house.

我把你们带到茶馆。I will take you to the tea house.

Considering the context of these sentences however: The action all took place in the past. That's why I am a bit wary about Google Translate suggestion.

Can someone explain what the underlying structure of the sentence is - what can be deduced / what cannot be deduced?

Here unfortunately, 来 doesn't indicate completion. Instead, it indicates direction of an action.
我把你们带到茶馆来=我把你们带来茶馆（indicating that the speaker's location is (or was, depending on context) 茶馆）
Comparison:
我把你们带到茶馆去=我把你们带去茶馆（indicating that the speaker is not at 茶馆）


What is this 运行 in ...国内的汽车行业与汽车市场运行环境发生了前所未有的改变? 中国加入世界贸易组织后，国内的汽车行业与汽车市场运行环境发生了前所未有的改变。

Sometimes in colloquial English we say 'shift' to mean 'sell'. Is '运行环境‘ something like that?

运行环境 maybe 'sales environment' or ‘turnover' (交易额） ??

国内的汽车行业与汽车市场运行环境发生了前所未有的改变

This segment I would probably translate as "The domestic automobile industry and the operating environment of the automobile market underwent unprecedented changes."

国内的 domestic
汽车行业 automobile industry
与 and
汽车市场运行环境 operating environment of the automobile market
发生了 happened/underwent
前所未有的 unprecedented
改变 changes

Hope that helps!


Is a reduplicated verb necessary after "ba3"? In my textbook there's an exercise in which I must decide if a sentence is correct. There's this: 请把这些汉字练. In the answers they say it's incorrect because "lian4" should be reduplicated. Is it really a mistake? I always thought reduplicating a verb is optional, is a matter of what you really want to say (if you want to soften the sentence or not).

Quote from "Chinese an essential grammar":

  ......, a 把 construction must have an object of definite reference (shifted now to a pre-verbal position directly after 把); a complement of some kind after the verb to
  indicate the result achieved by the action of the verb, either intentionally
  or unintentionally, on the part of the subject. ......

Quote from "Chinese Grammar Wiki": Key Things to Keep in Mind When Using 把:

  把字句 are most often used to describe what happened to the object in some detail. The verb is not just "bare"; there's "more stuff" after it. Often the "stuff" is related to some kind of manipulation of the object.

The 把 structure just does not work with a bare verb. Reduplicating the verb also works, as it also adds some information (compliment) to the verb.


Does 伊 have any special meaning? I know it’s often used in old script and such, but there aren’t many other uses. I was always told that my Chinese name meant light/beautiful girl, but I haven’t found anything pointing to that specific definition.
I kind of get it with the radicals especially in 姜, but I don’t know much about 伊 or even Chinese culture. For all I know it’s like “John” or “Emma” and has a forgotten meaning, or none at all.
I’ve just started learning Mandarin, so I thought getting to know my name, 姜伊, would be cool :)

伊 was used as 3rd person reference in ancient written Chinese.
In the beginning, it is equivalent to 他. But later on when Western books are translated into Chinese, sometimes "he" and "she" are confusing. The translator 郭赞生 suggested in his translation of a grammar book《文法初阶》that "he" should be translated as 他 and "she" translated as 伊. This is also guidance for original writings. The most famous literature that adopted this idea is from 鲁迅.
But later on, 刘半农（some say 钱玄同) introduced the character 她 which is used now in modern Chinese. The advantage of 她 over 伊 is that Chinese spoken language do not have a different pronunciation for different genders, so it is better to have the same pronunciation for all three 他 / 她 / 它, even though they are written down as different characters.
As a result, even though 伊 is not used now, it is still female related.
Reference: http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2005-07-26/04596526559s.shtml?from=wap


Pronunciation of 一 in 一个 When I first learnt the numbers, I learnt 一 with the first tone yi1.

But now, during a Memrise lesson, they teach me that 一个 should be pronounced yi2 ge4 or yi2 ge5.

Is this correct and, if so, is there a reason for that pronunciation?

一 is pronounced in the first tone when it stands alone.
It is pronounced in the fourth tone when it precedes a first, second, or third tone. However, it is pronounced in the second tone when it precedes a fourth tone. 不 is a bit similar: It is also pronounced in the fourth tone when it precedes a first, second, or third tone. However, it is pronounced in the second tone when it precedes a fourth tone.

Some examples (from: http://web.mit.edu/jinzhang/www/pinyin/tones/index.html#1bu but I used simplified characters instead and corrected a tone which is incorrect on that website)

一万 (yíwàn)
(ten thousand)
一块 (yíkuài)
(one dollar)
一半 (yíbàn)
( a half)
不贵 (búguì)
(not expensive)
不对 (búduì)
(not correct)
不慢 (búmàn)
(not slow)
一天 (yìtiān)
(a day)
一生 (yìshēng)
(one's whole life)
不多 (bùduō)
(not many/much)
不吃 (bùchī)
(not eat)
一年 (yìnián)
(a year)
一群 (yìqún)
(a group of)
不难 (bùnán)
(not difficult)
不忙 (bùmáng)
(not busy)
一晚 (yìwǎn)
(one night)
一早 (yìzǎo)
(early in the morning)
不晚 (bùwǎn)
(not late)
不早 (bùzǎo)
(not early)

Since 个 has a fourth tone, the tone of 一 should become a second tone. Although in practice 个 is most often spoken as a neutral tone, the original tone is used for the tone sandhi.


Does the beta like character (as in 陳, 附 and many more) in Chinese have a special meaning? It probably doesn't. I tried searching but couldn't find one.
But would be great if it does! Would help me remember so many new words. I hope somebody has figured out a pedagogical role of that symbol.

This radical is called the 双耳旁 or 双二刀, due to it looking somewhat like an ear or the 刀 character. There are actually two radicals depending on whether it's placed to the left or right: 左耳刀 if on the left, 右耳刀 if on the right. The two radicals have different origins and different meanings.

http://baike.baidu.com/view/457766.htm

The left version is derived from the 阜 (fù) character, meaning "mound" or "abundant". Characters with this radical are often related to mountains, hills etc, such as 陵 (hill), 险 (steep), 陆 (terrestrial).

The right version is derived from the 邑 (yì) character, meaning "city". Characters with this radical are often related to cities or human settlements, such as 都 (capital), 郊 (suburb), 郡 (commandery).


How to translate "舔狗" to English? This is a popular word in China. I know 舔 means lick, 狗 means dog. But it seems that the meaning of 舔狗 is not to do with lick, there is a sentence says 舔狗不得好死, so I think it's a noun. And according another sentence 舔狗舔到最后一无所有, I think it can not be translated as licking dog. So how to translate it?

Baidu Baike defines 舔狗 as:

  “舔狗”，作为网络语的该词，其含义是指代那些无脑去奉承他人的人。通常有两种用法，一种是形容在感情生活中明知道对方不喜欢自己，还一再无底线的讨好对方。另外一种是形容毫无原则去阿谀奉承的人。

As for a translation words like:

kiss-ass
brown-noser

should work.


How to say: "the water is boiling" in Taiwanese Mandarin? When using an electric water cooker/boiler, how to translate the following:

  The water is boiling.

What would be arguably the most common way in Mandarin to say this in Taiwan?

"The water is boiling."

We say 水開了 in Taiwan. Nothing else.

我們都說「水開了」，好像沒有人用其他講法。


How does 一面向 break down in 她一面走着，一面向旁边张望着? This is from the children's book 七色花:

她一面走着，一面向旁边张望着，念着招牌上的字，...
As she walked, she looked sideways and read the words on the signboard ... [Google Translate]

I'm wondering how 一面向 breaks down.  I'm confused because there's multiple possibilities:

一面 (yī miàn) = "one side"
面向 (miàn xiàng) = "face" (in the sense of facing a certain direction)
向旁边 (xiàng pángbiān) = "sideways", or perhaps "to the side"

There also seems to be a grammar structure in play here: 一面[something],一面[something else].
Question: How does 一面向 break down in this snippet?

According to 现代汉语八百词, 一面……一面…… is used to indicate two or more actions are performed simultaneously. They are used before a verb. The first 一面 can sometimes be omitted.

Breaking it down from your sentence, you'll get:

她一面[Adv.] 走着[V]，一面[Adv.] 向旁边[Adv.] 张望着[V]

which means "As she walked, she looked sideways" (the same as you translated). Other examples:

  他们一面走，一面挥舞花环，一面欢呼。
  他（一面）用心地听着，一面记着笔记。

There's a side note, though. 一面……一面…… could also mean 一方面……一方面……, which means "on one side ..., on the other side ...". Usually 另 is added on the second 一面 on this construction, e.g:

  说明书土一面印的是中文，另一面印的是英文


（古文) Is ‘attract’ for 援 in 人所援也 acceptable? 許慎 writes for 媛：美女也。人所援也。

I am inclined to translate 人所援也 as ‘someone who attracts people’, but I might be mislead by English ‘attractive’. It sounds so modern. (Being a beginner with CC, I also wonder: did I get 所 right?)

許慎 himself defines 援 as 引也 (to pull). Kroll (A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese) has (I) (1) pull up, pull on (a) take in hand, take by hand; draw toward one; e.g. 援筆 take up the writing-brush (2) pull along, lead on, guide (a) cite, adduce (b) recommend; appoint (3) resort to .... (II) (1) aid, assist ... (p. 576).

媛=belle
人所援也= whom people pull close
非漢所望也 means : not what Han is hoping for
A faithful translation to the original text would be :

媛: 美女也, 人所援也
The word "belle" means: "a beautiful woman, whom people (men) want to pull close to himself."

"媛" is the topic, "美女也, 人所援也" is the comment. It is a common [topic + comment/opinion] sentence structure.
The word "所" in "美女也, 人所援也" functions as a pronoun (e.g. what; whom) for the object. Which the subject (人) (n) is acting on.
In this case, it is  "pull close"(援)(v)

The phrase 非漢所望也 also has an active voice, therefore : "not what Han is hoping for" is a pretty accurate translation to the original text.


Is 用一下 preferable to 用用 or 用一用? Our Chinese book contains this problem:

I'm interested in the first example.

  我不认识这个字，我想用你的词典。
  Wǒ bù rènshì zhège zì, wǒ xiǎng yòng nǐ de cídiǎn.

It translates to "I don't recognize this character.  I want to use your dictionary."  This is rude to say, so we're mean to use one of the structures above to soften it.

So the alternatives are

  我不认识这个字，我想用用你的词典。
  我不认识这个字，我想用一下你的词典。
  我不认识这个字，我想用一用你的词典。

My experience suggests that 用一下 (yòng yīxià) is preferable to 用一用 (yòng yī yòng) or 用用 (yòng yòng).  Intuitively, 用用 seems very strange to me.  However, the solution given by the teacher was 用用, although the others were considered possible.  So I want to clear this up.

Question: Is 用一下 preferable to 用用 or 用一用?

All of them are suitable for the sentence, the difference is very subtle.

“用一下” is kinda formal, you can use this word in almost any occasion, having conversation with your friends, your boss, it's all fine.

"用用" and “用一用” is a little bit casual than "用一下".

But just like I said, the difference is so subtle that most people won't really care about it, especially if you're a foreigner.


How do I say "earlier"? (头先 in Cantonese) Like "I played this game earlier."
I'm indicating a time about a few hours ago. 过去和以前seem like too long ago. I guess I could say 几个小时前but in Cantonese there's 头先 which is shorter and I want to convey the same meaning. Like when I'm talking to someone and referring to an experience we shared a short while ago like "你头先说的是对的”。

"头先" means just now; a moment ago in Cantonese. It is the counterpart of 剛才，剛剛 in Mandarin.

You can use 头先 if few hours is considered a short time in the situation.

If few hours is considered a long time in the situation, it is better to simply say: "几个钟头之前" (few hours ago)

  "你头先说的是对的”

It is "頭先你講得啱" or "頭先你講得冇錯" in Cantonese

The sentence in this context implies a very short time has passed--   within the length of a short conversation.


"One" (eg. one must) in Chinese? I'm trying to write a recipe in Chinese, in which I'd like to be able to say something along the lines of "first, one must..." (I know , since a recipe is more informal, I could probably use "you" and be fine, but I'd like to know "one" for future reference). I've tried putting various sentences into online translators (eg "one must wait in line", "one should be kind", etc.), and they either drop the subject completely or use "一个人“ as the subject. Is that correct? It sounds somewhat strange to me to either drop a subject in formal writing or just use 一个人, but I'm definitely not a native speaker. How would I express the idea of "one" as the subject of a sentence?

“one” can be translated as 一个人，but usually that translation is not literary enough I think. You can translate it as “顾客” （client ）in this situation.  If  this word is used in hospital，“病人” is though to be a better translation.  Therefore，the proper translation is related to the situation you are in.


你是第幾任總統/校長？How to translate this into English properly? 你是第幾任總統/校長？

I'm a Chinese. Like the title suggests, I struggle to translate this into English. I struggled to find a translation for "任". Please help.

It is a bit awkward isn't it? ‘You are the how many'th President?

I suggest a rewording to something like (my Chinese is not good): 有多少总统您前？ That can easily be translated as 'How many Presidents have there been before you?'


筛选 is the correct filter for 'search filter'? When searching for airline flights, for example, there may be an option to filter by ticket price, or filter by airline, or filter by flight duration.

I am looking for the Chinese translation of "filter" in this sense.

I am not sure if 筛选 is correct.

http://translate.google.com/#zh-CN/en/%E7%AD%9B%E9%80%89

It's a more sophisticated word than 过滤, which we usually use for filter.

过滤 mean filtering out unwanted substances, like filtering coffee.
筛选 is more for computer filtering.


"我们过去了" was he joking? One man and I were crossing a busy Beijing intersection and were almost across when tour buses cut us off from both sides and we stood between them as they passed.  He smiled at me and said "我们过去了!'  I took it as a joke "we're done for."  But later I wondered could he be reassuring me "we're (almost) across."

Can anyone here be sure about it?

Edit: fuller context.  I had tried to cross alone and was just giving up because of general heavy traffic.  He had seen me start and started himself.  When I saw him starting I joined him.  As the buses bore down on us I started smiling -- I thought they would not hit us but I really should not be there.  He spoke while we were pinned in place, not after the buses passed.  I may have missed hearing him say 不 in "过不去"but 不 is one of my better words and it was obvious we would soon make it.

My first thought, and my later second one, both involve 了 in the sense of what is about to become finished: either we are about to pass away (to use an  English idiom close to the Chinese), or our crossing is about to succeed.

I am not sure I heard right.  I am not sure what he meant.  But these are the things I do know.

Edit: Another consideration.  No one has mentioned this, but how likely is it that someone (a stranger, to be clear about it) would joke about being dead (过去了)?  That is what I thought he was doing at the time but maybe it is not plausible.

Probably more natural to be 「我们过去啦！」, which means "Let's go across [the intersection]!"

Reasoning:

啦 can be mistaken as 了 in this context, especially when the stress is on 过去 so that the 啦 is pronounced through quick.
Your friend was smiling, which may imply a positive mood, and the imperative with 啦 can serve as an appropriate expression here.


Geopolitical History of Simplified Chinese I've always been fascinated about the etymology of languages and believe that we are seeing a significant series of changes within chinese.

There are some fairly good technical references for the transition from traditional chinese to simplified, however I'm wondering if there are any good geopolitical and social references that are publicly available.

Specifically, I'm interested in knowing how the transition between the two forms has altered the use of common words or phrases.

This is a HUGE topic, which I think is impossible to thoroughly cover in one answer here.

As usual, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_chinese is a good start.

As for mainland, the simplification efforts and processes are inherently tied to the geopolitical history of the turmoils and revolutions in the first half of the 20th century and PRC, as language is the foundation of culture, which is arguably more true for Chinese than most other languages and cultures in the world. The simplification of Chinese characters symbolizes and exemplifies the goods and bads toward a "modern" China.

Now for the more specific question, I actually cannot think of an example of a word or phrase with very different literal meanings when written in simplified vs. traditional characters. After all it's just the written form that is simplified. However, traditional characters evoke a sense of historical and cultural heritage, so there can be some subtle perceived differences.


How "bad" is a Taiwanese accent on the mainland? If I learn to talk like my co-worker from Taipei, is that likely to make things difficult for me on the mainland (whether by impeding understanding or by arousing suspicions)?

I have no idea if and when I'll visit either China, but I've been considering it.

It is not "bad" at all.

People speak mandarin in Mainland China and Taiwan can understand each other without difficulty.

There are some word usages differences though, but usually it is not a problem.


Does 来 show fruit on a tree or ripening corn? I find two different explanations for 来， 1. it is a picture of fruit on a tree. 2. It represents ripening corn.

Either way It is a neat symbol for what is coming.

Which do you think is correct?

很有趣。
Very interesting.

我到今天才知道「來」有這個意思，而且是它的本義。
I didn't know that 來 has this meaning until today, and this is even its original meaning.

「來」的本義是「麥」，也就是「麥」的上半部。
The original meaning of 來 is "grain or corn", which is the upper part of 麥.

《說文解字》說：「來」的意思是「周所受瑞麥來麰也」。
《說文解字》 explains that 來 means 周所受瑞麥, 來麰也.

《說文解字注》解釋為：
《說文解字注》 interprets it as follows.

在周武王時代，天空降下「麥」，故稱之為「瑞麥」，而其名字叫「來牟」。
In the era of King Wu in 周 dynasty, the sky rained down 麥, so it's called the "lucky 麥". Its name was 來牟.

「來牟」原先只有「麥」的意思。
The original meaning of 來牟 is only 麥.

直到《廣雅》才說「來」是小麥，「牟」是大麥。
Until 《廣雅》, 來 was interpreted as "wheat", and 牟 as "barley".

《說文解字》接著說：「天所來也，故為行來之來。......凡來之屬，皆从來。」
《說文解字》 then explained that 天所來，故釋為行來之來。凡來之類，都用"來"。

《說文解字注》解釋：
「自天而降之麥，謂之『來麰』，亦單謂之『來』。因而，凡物之至者，皆謂之『來』。......皆引伸之義行，而本義廢矣！」
《說文解字注》 interprets these as follows.
The 麥 fallen from the sky is called 來麰, also simply called 來.
Thus, all things that come to us can be called "come".......
These are the cases that the extended meanings are used and the original ones are abolished!

注：此處，來＝麳＝䅘；牟＝麰＝；屬於假借字。
Note: Here, 來＝麳＝䅘；牟＝麰＝. These are phonetic loan characters.
Some users may not see . It's  .


Why does anger has something to do with spleen in both Chinese and English? The English word spleen has two meanings in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary,

an organ near the stomach which produces and cleans the body's
blood.
a feeling of anger and disagreement.

Interestingly, Chinese character 脾, apart from the meaning of an organ, can also mean a feeling of anger in the word 脾气. Is this a coincidence?

I checked 《漢語大詞典》 for 脾气, and found that when interpreted as anger, all the examples are from modern Chinese literatures:

  曹禺 《雷雨》第二幕： “哦， 太太怪可憐的， 為什麼老爺回來， 頭一次見太太就發這麼大的脾氣？”
  趙樹理 《張來興》：“以前聽說這位老師傅有脾氣， 只是聽說。”
  沙汀 《航線》： “那個買辦， 早被頑固的訴苦弄出脾氣來了。”

but when interpreted as disposition, there is examples from earlier literatures, like 《红楼梦》 from Qing dynasty.

  人的習性。 亦借指事物的特性。 ▶ 《紅樓夢》第八四回： “都像 寶丫頭 那樣心胸兒、脾氣兒， 真是百裏挑一的。”

No corresponding meaning for spleen in English. Does this count as evidence that the meaning anger of 脾气 may be borrowed English?

In American Heritage Dictionary, there is a meaning labeled as Obsolete that reads: This organ conceived as the seat of emotions or passions. And in 《漢語大詞典》, there is a meaning of 脾气 with examples from literatures dating back to before Christ:

  脾臟之氣. 《素問‧生氣通天論》： “是故味過於酸， 肝氣以津， 脾氣乃絕。”

This seems to has something to do with traditional Chinese medicine. Why does spleen is deemed to have something to do with emotion in both English and Chinese?

It is my speculation

  https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%84%BE/20358750

  中医解读:

  脾气的运动特点是主升举。

  脾为太阴湿土，又主运化水液，故喜燥恶湿。

Translation:

  Interpretation of Chinese medicine:

  The typical movement of the air in the spleen is upward rising

  Spleen is a cool, wet, water filtering organ. it likes dry and hot and dislikes wet and cool

Anger is also associate with 燥(dry) and hot . We say a person is easy to anger when his being 燥.

My assumption is: A person being angry because his 脾 is overly active causing 燥 (dryness) inside one's body and dryness cause anger

Related phrase:

發脾气 (being angry)
大脾气 (hot temper)
脾气好 (mild temper)
脾气差 (bad temper)


Can I rewrite 德里克.帕腓特有一个极端得空前绝后的假设 using 的 or 地 instead of 得？ I'm not too sure what this 得 is doing here. If I rewrite as in 2. or 3. is that a) correct and b) still the same meaning?

德里克.帕腓特有一个极端得空前绝后的假设，。。。。。
德里克.帕腓特有一个极端的,空前绝后的假设，。。。。。
德里克.帕腓特有一个极端地空前绝后的假设，。。。。。

Basically, I'm not sure what 空前绝后 is describing. Either 极端 or 假设， or both?

I would translate the phrase as: Derek Parfit presents the extreme（极端） and unprecedented（空前绝后） hypothesis that,

It is not good English to write 'extremely unprecedented'. Either something is unprecedented, or it is not.

For 极端得空前绝后的假设, 空前绝后 is describing 极端, to express the degree of 极端. And 极端 is describing 假设. So 极端得空前绝后的假设 could be parsed as 极端（得空前绝后）的假设, means (unprecedentedly) extreme hypothesis.

And when describing the degree of verb/adj, 得 should be used.

Note that in the 2nd sentence, if you change 得 to 的, the syntax is valid but the meaning changes; it becomes 极端的，空前绝后的假设, both 极端 and 空前绝后 describe 假设, means extreme and unprecedented hypothesis.

For the 3rd sentence, I'll say that using 地 is wrong syntax here.

Here're some references about the differences among 的, 地, 得:
「的、地、得」的用法有何区别？
“的、地、得”的用法


What is the difference between 东西 and 用品? What is the difference between 东西 and 用品? They both seem to have the meaning "stuff" in certain circumstances, but then 用品 is used in more formal situations, such as 医药用品 which I am assuming is not in the same register as if I were to say "Pharmaceutical Stuff"! I lean towards translating 医药用品 as "Pharmaceutical Products", but I am not convinced that 用品 is really the same as English "product".

用品 is used for articles that can be used, articles for use (Definitions is 2 dictionaries: 应用的物品 / 供使用的物品).

Some examples:

办公用品: Office supplies, office goods
日用品: articles for daily use
常用品: everyday implement; object of everyday use
床上用品: bedclothes; bedding
体育用品: sporting goods
教学用品: educational supplies, study material

东西 is just a thing.

You should contrast 用品 with 产品.
产品 is something that is produced/manufactured, hence a product (Definitions in 2 dictionaries: 生产出来的物品 / 劳动所创造的物质资料，包括生产资料和消费资料). The last dictionary says it's also used for consumer goods.

So for 用品 the emphasis is more on the usage, and for 产品 it is more on the production.


What situations would one use 祖父 as opposed to 爷爷? I'm also curious about 祖母 vs 奶奶 , 父亲 vs 爸爸 ， and other family words.

In the context of standard Mandarin, the main difference is that the former one listed in all your three groups are used in more formal situations while the latter ones are more colloquial.

Besides those you have mentioned, in colloquial Mandarin it is also common to use monosyllable words when talking with family members or referring to family members. Such as 爸，我回来了。and 我爸去年刚退休。Monosyllable words like 父 and 母, on the other hand, are usually used to form compound words like 父母, 生母, 养母.

There are other words that refer to family members that sounds old-fashioned and are used as the honorifics. For example, 令尊 is "your father" and 令堂 are "your father" and "your mother" with honorific tones, respectively. It is not suggested to use these unless you are sure that it is the appropriate situation to use them.


How to give a number describing a "kilometer per hour speed limit"? How can I talk about speed limits in Chinese?
For example, how would I say, "That road has a 50 mile-per-hour speed limit?

Firstly, for the example you provided, you may say 那条路限速50英里 then I will know it is 50 miles/hour

secondly, in China the default unit is kilometers per hour for speed limit, so if you want to say "that road has a 50 km/h speed limit" you can just say 那条路限速50


Different way of saying "throw rubbish" in Cantonese? Looking at the dictionary, I see that "throw rubbish" in Cantonese is "掉垃圾". However, in the past, I remember hearing something different for "throw rubbish": "wang垃圾".

I need some help:

What is the character used to represent "wang" in "wang垃圾"?
In what region is "wang垃圾" used? It certainly does not appear to be Guangzhou or Hong Kong Cantonese.

In Cantonese, we seldom say 扔(weng1)垃圾 as 扔 is more commonly used in wriiten Chinese. We either say 掉(deu6) 垃圾 or 抌(dam2)垃圾


My Chinese Character Writing is Sloppy Since learning Mandarin through Rosetta Stone, Youtube videos, and friends, I've begun to keep a journal of mandarin characters and phrases.

I first draw the character, along with the pinyin and english definition. However, I've noticed that compared with the characters on the computer, mine seem much more sloppy and pieced together.

Is this normal? I don't think I've ever seen anyone write in Mandarin or at least looked at it carefully, so I'm not sure if it's just me or if it's normal. I've never been taught any formal way to do it, so I've just been winging it thus far.

Note - it's not like I rush through it, even if I spend a painstakingly long time it just seems to come out badly.

How long have you been practicing? At first it's normal. If you could see my first drawn characters... they didn't look good.

But there are some simple rules to keep in mind to improve them.

Stroke Order: It's unavoidable. You can actually use any stroke order you want, no-one is really going to check (unless that's the exam) but it's certain that writing using the correct stroke order not only helps you to retain the character but it also helps you to write much faster, with more beautiful proportions and in an easier way.

See also Why is stroke order important when writing Chinese characters?
Characters are "square": This is actually a rule I learned while studying Japanese, but the same applies to Chinese, they're almost the same characters after all.

Characters occupy the space of a square. Note: They're not square, but using a square as a reference will help you to correctly balance their proportions. Check the image below:

 Source

Each character must fit inside of the continuous-lined squares. The dotted lines in the middle help you position the elements correctly (so you don't squeeze the character or strech it unnaturally).

Honestly I've seen them being used for Japanese only but that might be just me, they're almost the same characters after all.


Are begging and ball homonyms in spoken mandarin? Are 求 (beg) and 球 (ball) both written in pinyin as Qiú homonyms? I am trying to get the pronunciation for ball right. Are there authoritative homonym lists maintained somewhere?

Yes, they are both written in pinyin as 'Qiú'.
You can check 新華字典 for more details.
It is a trustable dictionary website.


What does 眉如點倉 mean? 眉如點倉

眉 - Eyebrow

如 - Like

點 - Dots

倉 - Granary/Sea/etc

So his eyebrows were like ...?

Not too sure what it really means.

点仓 is in Yunan province. It has 19 mountains.
Here is its wiki page 苍山 (大理)

眉如点仓 means the eyebrows are thick, dark, long -- imagine you look at mountains from distance.

I think not lots of mountains can be used to describe eyebrows. 眉如五台，眉如泰山 would look very weird :)


What exactly does this 人单合一的自主经营体 mean? 女：海尔已经为应对金融危机做好了哪些准备？
男：海尔应对金融危机的具体思路主要是三个方面：一是产品创新，要为用户提供解决问题的方案；二是商业模式创新，要实施零库存下的即需即供；三是机制创新，要建立人单合一的自主经营体。

I'm struggling a bit with this last one, can you please help?

机制创新，要建立人单合一的自主经营体 (营体=运营体系？ 单=单位？？）

Mechanism?? innovation, must set up 人单 united 的 independent business system

According to here, it should be 三是机制创新，要建立人单合一的自主经营体。.

机制创新 : innovation of mechanism/system
人 : staff/employee
单(订单) : order -> user needs
人单合一 : integrating order with personnel -> Every order is in the charge of one staff. Futher more integrating staff with user, make staff to achieve self-worth by creating value for users.
自主 : autonomous/independent/self-determination/self-leading
经营体 : operation unit
自主经营体 : (to make every staff one) independent operation unit

For whole sentence,
Thirdly, mechanism innovation, set up independent operation unit, which integrating order with personnel.

Reference: 人单合一双赢模式


What is the correct translation for the term 「網絡化」? What is the correct translation for the term 「網絡化」 as it appears in the following paragraph?

朋輩關係網絡化
青少年與朋輩的關係日趨網絡化。手機即時通訊程式、網上社交平台等成為時下青少年朋輩間流行的溝通工具，更是結識新朋友的主要途徑。

I tried to find a correct translation for the term, but failed, and could only come up with the following translation for the paragraph:

Peer relationships move online
The relationship between teenagers and their peers is becoming more and more online. Mobile instant messaging programs and online social networking platforms have become popular communication tools among teenagers and peers, and are also the main ways to meet new friends.

Does anyone have a better suggestion for the term 「網絡化」? Thank you.

I think you can happily use 'networking' or 'networked'.
Leave 'onlinification' to google. (Reminds me of californication)
朋輩關係網絡化
peer relationship networked
The networking of peer relationships
... 阿拉伯之春的网络化特性。
... the networked nature of the Arab Spring
我们正在变成一个网络化个体的社会，
we are becoming a society of networked individuals, ...
随着世界越来越走向数字化，网络化，
As the world moves more and more towards being digital, networked, ...


Why does 努力 which means "to make a great effort" sound so similar to 奴隸 which means "slave"? I find it interesting that these two are phonetically similar. Is there a historical background to this?

I am not an expert on morphemes and cognates. My two cents, that it is just coincidental. So are other words, such as 输血 and 数学，水饺 and 睡觉，事实 and 石狮. To make it a bit gross, 食 and 屎.


are there any free bilingual sources of chinese proverb? In reference to the thread Is this [Ivanka Trump] Chinese proverb real? —“Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it” and related news, I've created this question, and provided an simple answer; feel free to add to it, and comment :)

So, the question: are there any free bilingual sources of chinese proverbs?

the internet archive is your friend. unfortunately, it's blocked in "that area" :(

the first one: a handbook of the chinese language, by james summers, printed in 1863

in page 95 & page 97, there're several proverbs translated in english:

https://archive.org/stream/handbookofchines00summiala#page/95/mode/1up

https://archive.org/stream/handbookofchines00summiala#page/97/mode/1up

on page 393, the original text:

https://archive.org/stream/handbookofchines00summiala#page/n392/mode/1up

sample: 恭敬不如從命　⋯　"to feel reverence is not as good as to give obedience"

the next one: essays on the chinese language, by thomas watters, printed in 1889

page 493 - 496, there're chinese proverbs of Buddhist origin

https://archive.org/stream/essaysonchinesel00wattrich#page/492/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/essaysonchinesel00wattrich#page/494/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/essaysonchinesel00wattrich#page/496/mode/1up

sample: 與人方便與己方便　⋯　"do good to others and you do good to yourself"

last one is: an english and chinese dictionary, a "revised version" of william lobscheid's dictionary, printed in 1883, in tokio.

the appendix is the gem, from page 1227-1373. which has bilingual texts ranged from trimetrical classic (三字經), wisdom verses, merits, thousands of famous phrases and proverbs; and miscellaneous "common knowledges" of the days of yore. all in literary chinese and english.

samples:

有利必興．有害必除　⋯　"what is profitable must be put into action, what is injurious must be removed"

有緣千里能相會．無緣對面不相逢　⋯　"no distance can separate what heaven unites, or unite what heaven separates"

月明月明不可獨行．寔要獨行手提紅燈　⋯　"bright moon, bright moon, but don't walk alone; if you must walk alone, take a red lantern in your hand"

anyone who want a genuine "chinese proverb", have a read of these books, particularly the last one.

or, anyone who want to "fake" one, study these thoroughly.

do it better, please