What are the characters on this? (Character identified: 壽) What are the characters on this? One seems clearly to be 商, but I can't figure out the one that seems to be facing the other direction.

(larger image)

This is one of the decorative variants of「壽」.

In isolation it's a bit hard to recognise, as usually it's accompanied by a multitude of other variations in a collective art piece category known as「百壽圖」.


Is the phrase "slot machine" 老虎机 the same in different Chinese dialects? Just wondering whether the phrase 老虎机 (slot machine) sounds and is written the same in all Chinese dialects, such as:

Mandarin,
Wu Chinese,
Min Chinese,
Cantonese,
Jin Chinese,
Xiang  Chinese,
Hakka Chinese and
Gan Chinese.

Are there any slang phrases to say "slots", "slot machine", "one armed bandit"?

http://slotmachine77.com/chinese-slot-machine

Many thanks in advance.

It is written the same in basically every dialect of Chinese, but pronounced in a very wide variety of ways. It is called "tiger machine" because it, indeed, eats up your cash :P


Is my joke about my first talk at Nankai correct, understandable, and funny? I'm practicing my upcoming talk in Chinese, and I like to start talks with a light joke to appear friendly.  So I came up with this:

我第一次在南开学校作演讲，我用汉语讲第一句话，听众大声鼓掌以示回应。然后我说英语，但是听众听不懂，所以我讲完了时候，鼓掌比较小声。只是第一句话他们能听懂。希望我现在说的比较清楚。
The first time I gave a talk on the Nankai campus, I used Chinese for the first sentence, and the audience applauded loudly. Afterwards, I spoke English, but the audience didn't understand, so when I finished my talk, the applause was comparatively quiet.  They only understood the first sentence.  I hope my speaking now is clearer.

After this, I plan to go into the content of the talk.
Question: Is my joke about my first talk at Nankai correct, understandable, and funny?
Basically, I'm after some constructive criticism on this.  I'm not hugely fussed about it being the most optimal way to say this, but as long as it's not a semantic nor grammar disaster.  (There'll surely be plenty of other grammar mishaps when I get off-script.)
One thing I'm concerned about is if it's clear that the audience applauded directly after the first sentence (which I said in Chinese) before the remainder of the talk, which is an essential part of the joke.
I'm also not sure about 鼓掌比较小声 vs. 鼓掌声比较小.

I can see what you are trying to joke about.

我第一次在南开学校作演讲 is a bit ambiguous. Some might take this is your first time to deliver a speech. So, out of that confusion, you can say ahead like: 这是我第二次在南开大学做演讲。 记得我第一次在这里演讲时，...

So, here is a version I make for your reference:

  这是我第二次在南开大学做演讲。记得我第一次在这里演讲时，我用汉语讲第一句话来和大家打招呼，大家热烈鼓掌以示回应。接下来的演讲我一直用的是英语。可能是大家没怎么听懂，所以我讲完后，大家都没反应，似乎好像都不知道我已经讲完了！所以， 这一次我准备全程用中文来讲。 希望大家都可以听得明白。


Why does Pleco give so many pronunciations of 欸? Above is a screenshot of Pleco's "sentence" page for 欸 which displays 5 different pronunciations.  This puzzles me.

Question: Why does Pleco give so many pronunciations of 欸?

My impression is that 欸 is some kind of noise made to express surprise, so maybe it could have multiple pronunciations, but 5 is a lot.

Many single characters in Mandarin Chinese will alter their pronunciation based on the tones of the following, more meaningful characters/words.

For instance, 一 is pronounced yi1 (first tone), but when placed before a fourth tone character, its pronunciation changes to yi2 (second tone). These pronunciation changes help facilitate smooth tonal lines in the production of sentences. (Fun fact, if you ever take a class in harmony/melody and form, you'll start appreciating what "good" vocal lines are vs "bad" ones (in the traditional sense) and it lines up a lot with how tone-changes work in Mandarin).

This is essentially what is happening here, BUT in addition to this, the tone is an indication of the emotional aspect of the character 欸, which is merely a sound indicating some kind of latent emotion. Ei1 to call somebody, Ei2 to ask a question in surprise, Ei3 to indicate some kind of indignation, Ei4 to indicate some kind of affirmation. Essentially, this is the kind of tone that would help emphasize precisely how the speaker is feeling to the listener.


Making sense of '推魏大肚' 《锦城旧事》

  在这灌县城中得此三者之利的，当推魏大肚。

What does 推魏大肚 refer to?

当推:  should/ought to (应当) be/mention/select/elect/recommend (推举/首推, 指出, 是)
魏大肚：Nickname of someone whose family name is Wei (魏) and who has a beer belly (大肚).

当推魏大肚：should mention Big Belly Wei

More example:

论这村里最聪明的，当推王小二。

Talking about the smartest guy in the village, it must be Wang Xiao Er.

(People will all choose Wang Xiao Er as the answer to the question that who the smartest guy in the village is.)


What is the difference between 参观 and 游览 What is the difference between 参观 and 游览. I know they have a similar meaning but are distinct in some ways (i.e. you can 参观 some places and 游览 others)?

The main distinction is that 游览 implies a sense of "to leisurely journey":

the traditional meaning of 游览 is "to go sightseeing" by leisurely moving around while looking at scenery, famous sites, etc; e.g. 我昨天去游览西湖, "I went sightseeing around the West Lake yesterday."
a second meaning of 游览 is to specifically go on a trip to visit a place; e.g. 我要參團去游览故宮, "I am going to join a tour group to visit Palace Museum."
参观 on the other hand means to look at things at a specific place; e.g. 我想去參觀故宮, "I want to tour the Palace Museum."

The second meaning of 游览 may seem like it overlaps with 参观 somewhat. It does, but there's an important distinction in that 游览 implies a sense of journeying (i.e. as a part of a tour group), whereas 参观 doesn't imply that at all.

If you're going to a housewarming party, you wouldn't talk about going to 游览 their neighbour's new house. It is perfectly fine to talk about 参观 the house, however. In contrast, a tour group might advertise itself as "taking you to 游览 Hobbiton in New Zealand". Then once you've arrived, the tour guide might say "next we will 参观 Hobbiton".

If in doubt, use 参观.


How does 海报 became "a poster"? I was reading an article in some chinsese newspapare and saw a line

  因为偷了一张题写着政治标语的海报

Why the Hell Ocean + Official Report means "a poster"?

p.s. has it something to do with a postage stamp? You by a stamp, stick it on to an envelope of the letter and send it overseas. And those stamps always have some picture on them like a mini-poster?

P.p.s. Any idea why they called any "theatrical act" - ocean?

Baidu says:

海报这一名称，最早起源于上海。旧时，海报是用于戏剧、电影等演出或球赛等活动的招帖。上海的人通常把职业性的戏剧演出称为“海”，而把从事职业性戏剧的表演称为“下海”。作为剧目演出信息的具有宣传性的招徕顾客性的张贴物，也许是因为这个，人们便把它叫做“海报”。

Which means, if I summarise:
The word originated in Shanghai, where people referred to professional theatrical productions as "海". Hence "海报"


How should I reply to 吃完了 (chīwánle = "finished eating") after I've finished eating? When I go to the cafeteria for meals, when I finish eating and return my tray the cleaners often say 吃完了 (chīwánle = "finished eating").  I'm unsure how to reply, and say 对，吃完了 (duì, chīwánle = "correct, finished eating") or some variant.

Question: How should I reply to 吃完了 (chīwánle = "finished eating") after I've finished eating?

I'm unsure of why they're pointing out the fact that I ate my meal (what else would I do with it?).

You don't really have to give a formal reply.

Similar scenario: A Chinese arrives home and sits on his own sofa. His wife may see him and asks "回来了?". It's like "hi" in a specific context.

So next time you may just node and smile. Feeling awkward not to utter a word? "嗯" is enough.


What means 狂擺 in Cantonese? I don't understand these two characters in Miss Hong Kong 2020 contestant Rosanna Tse's IG post. At 18 she's youngest.  She's thanking Miss Friendship, Maisie Kwong, who's 24.
Here's my translation of line 4. I presume 颠咗 means 傻了 in Cantonese.
Remember this silly girl was in front you posing sillyly 狂擺.

上次影咗唔記得po添
...諗嘢諗嘢諗嘢諗嘢...
多謝Maisie揸機
[4.] 望住個傻妹係你面前顛咗咁狂擺pose
你影相好靚❣
記得呢日係第一次通宵，我地都仲係精神寶寶
多謝你成日陪我傾計❤❤❤
要繼續咁靚女喔

The Mandarin counterpart of 颠咗 is 瘋了
颠咗咁 = 瘋了地 (like crazy)
狂 (adv): madly; like crazy (repeatedly; rapidly; in an indulgent manner)
擺 (v): strike / make
姿勢 (n):  pose

颠咗咁狂擺 pose = rapidly striking poses like crazy

望住個傻妹係你面前颠咗咁狂擺 pose = watching the dumb girl rapidly striking poses like crazy

Other examples of 狂 as an adverb
喺日本狂食海鮮 - eat seafood like crazy (in an indulgent manner) in Japan
狂數對方十蛋 - score on the other team like crazy (repeatedly) for ten goals


What does the word "于" mean when it's used along with "不容'? Because of the word "于" here, I have a hard time understanding this sentence.

  这是天地不容于此的缘故.

In my attempt to understand it, I've searched for a few similar sentences to be compared. Unfortunately, the word "于" seems to have different meanings in each sentence (I might be wrong).

  专业出版许多移民因感到不容于社会而苦恼
  曲高和寡不容于世

I assume in these it means 'by'. (1. Professionals state that immigrants are vexed because they felt they're not accepted by the society? 2. Geniuses/highbrows aren't tolerated by the world?)

  白鸟哀婉，不容于天之澄碧，亦不容于海之幽蓝.

I feel the  "于" in this sentence is the most similar with the one in my original sentence, so I'm not sure about its meaning.

So, my questions are:

What does the "于" in my original sentence mean?
Is "于" necessary when I used "不容"?
Does the usage of "于" always turn the sentence into passive voices (the translations) as it does in example 1 and 2?

于 in your first sentence means 在。

Therefore, 不容于此 means would not be contained here, although this sentence seems weird without context.

于 is not necessary for 不容，for example, you could say

  这样的行为绝对不容姑息

And it means actions like this will never be allowed in any sense.

于 is neutral, you would also see

  我生于 1997 年

It simply means I was born in 1997 and has not emotional implication.


Does 拉丁裔的女人需要工作一年到十月的二十号为了赚百男人赚的钱在前的一年 make sense? I'm trying to write a piece about sexism, that specifically discusses the gender wage gap and how it's affected by race. The sentence I'm trying to say is

  Latina women have to work until Nov. 20 in order to earn what a white man would have earned in the year before.

I'm not sure if it makes sense though.

  拉丁裔的女人需要工作一年到十月的二十号为了赚百男人赚的钱在前的一年。

Does this sound natural? I've tried putting pieces of it into various translation devices, and it gets the right translation each time, so I'm pretty sure it means what I want it to, if a little clunky, but I don't know how to check it otherwise. Does it work well or sound weird?

"Latina women have to work until Nov. 20 in order to earn what a white man would have earned in the year before"

The sentence itself is kind of hard to follow. The biggest problem is it doesn't state "from what time" they have to work until Nov. 20. Therefore, the concept of "Latina women's 23 months income  = white men's 12 months income" isn't expressed very clear

The following sentence would state things more clearly

  "Latina women have to work until next year's Nov. 20,  to earn as much as a white male earned in this year"

Google Translate result: “拉丁女性必須工作到明年11月20日，才能獲得與(今年)白人男性相同的收入”

grammatically refined:  “拉丁女性必須工作到明年11月20日，才能獲得與白人男性相同的(今年)收入”

When Google Translate gives you a comprehensible translation, you know the original sentence is also comprehensible in general


What is 和 used for in 和西方人过圣诞节差不多，这是一个全家团聚的节日? I know how to use 和 to link one or more nouns or noun phrases, but in this sentence I don't understand what purpose does it serve at the beginning of the sentence?

  和西方人过圣诞节差不多，这是一个全家团聚的节日。

(This sentence is from a text about 春节)

Here the use of 和 and 差不多 is similar to the phrasing "Like how" in English.

"Like how Westerners celebrate Christmas, this [Chinese New Year] is a holiday when the entire family gets together."


张九龄《感遇》“奈何阻重深”句解／Translation of a sentence in one of Zhang Jiuling's poems 张九龄《感遇》之一首：

  江南有丹橘，经冬犹绿林。 岂伊地气暖？自有岁寒心。 可以荐嘉客，奈何阻重深。 运命惟所遇，循环不可寻。 徒言树桃李，此木岂无阴？

请问其中“奈何阻重深”一句怎么讲？“重”应读阳平还是去声？

此诗作者借歌颂丹橘以表自己遭排挤的愤懑心情，表达自己的坚贞不屈。“可以荐嘉客”句“荐”作“赠送”解。

“可以荐嘉客，奈何阻重深”。这句在说，这个水果是很给朋友们的一件很好的礼品，但无奈路途遥远，不方便。隐含着诗人当前所处的位置远离曾经工作和生活的地方而表现出一种悲伤的心情。“阻重深”，表示路途险阻，“重” chong 一般用在强制“很多的”的情况下，表示有很多的东西（通常都用在表示有困难）包围着我们，在这里强调很困难，比如“需要克服重重险阻，被围困的军队需要突破重重包围圈”。“奈何”表示口语中都是用“无奈”，表示没有办法或很难解决问题。

另外，在诗词和歌曲中，我们经常把一些并列式的词汇颠倒过来，比如“运命”平时都写成“命运”。


Is "girdling root" *really* 环根 in Chinese? Baidu translates girdling root as 环根.

Icibia quotes Baidu with the exact same entry.

Baidu images returns nothing resembling a girdling root upon 环根 search.

Baidu also returns very little about 环根 itself, mostly giving results about 环根芹[属].

Is "girdling root" really 环根 in Chinese?

To be short, yes.

環根 is the roots growing around the tree trunk, with time, both the roots and the trunk would grow thicker, to the point when they pressure each other, causing the tree to grow weak and even wither. Here (PDF download) is a study done by Associate Professor Chang Chin Yu from Department of Landscape Architecture, Tunghai University. Sorry it's in traditional Chinese cause I'm from Taiwan (plus Tunghai University is in Taiwan). I believe Google translate can do the traditional-to-simplified work for you ;)


How do Chinese people feel about the term 非中国人 to express non-Chinese people? I have found myself using the word 非中国人 to express what Chinese people would call 外国人 or 老外.
How do Chinese people feel about this word ?
Just to confirm I am using it with Chinese people.
Here are some examples of 非中国人 in place of 外国人 just to give you a feel for it in use.
住在北京的非中国人越来越多
会说中文的非中国人不是很少
你有非中国的朋友吗 ？

In my opinion, 非中国人 sounds more exclusive. 非 stresses 'are not' (they are not Chinese)
外国人 sounds more neutral. 外国 indicates 'where ones came from ( they are from outside of this country)'

非我族类(其心也异) is not a friendly phrase

外賓 is a welcoming term

To me, 非中国人 (non-Chinese) VS. 外国人 (foreigner) is like 非会员 (non-member) VS. 访客 (visitor/ guest)
老外 is an informal nickname for 外国人. Sounds casual and friendly.


What are the advantages / disadvantages for learning tones with Pinyin vs with Gwoyeu Romatzyh? "If you go after Mandarin, choose the somewhat uncommon GR over pinyin romanization if at all possible. It’s harder to learn at first, but I’ve never met a pinyin learner with tones even half as accurate as a decent GR user. Long story short, this is because tones are indicated by spelling in GR, not by diacritical marks above the syllables."
http://fourhourworkweek.com/2007/11/07/how-to-learn-but-not-master-any-language-in-1-hour-plus-a-favor/

"Chao claimed that, because GR embeds the tone of each syllable in its spelling,[5] it may help students to master Chinese tones. One study however, found the opposite to be true in a study of GR."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwoyeu_Romatzyh

In general, I think too much importance is ascribed to which transcription system is used. Students' ability to distinguish, pronounce and remember tones depends on many factors and the way the tones are written is just a very small part of it. Even if there was a difference between systems, it would probably drown in other factors.

The question of tonal spelling (i.e. including the tonal information in the spelling of the word rather than using diacritics) has actually been researched experimentally. Scott McGinnis (1997)[1] compared two classes taught with either Hanyu Pinyin or Gwoyeu Romatzyh. They were tested on reading tasks and the accuracy of their tonal production was assessed by native speakers. The study found that the Gwoyeu Romatzyh group actually performed worse than the Hanyu Pinyin group.

Personally, I think the problem is that tones are often treated as something extra, even optional. Not by all, but by far too many. Some teachers don't grade an answer as wrong if the tone is wrong (or left out) but the initial and final are correct, or they don't deduct as many points for tonal errors as they do for spelling errors. Students often ask "do we have to remember the tones too?" and at one point an intermediate student asked me if I was serious when I said that he had to learn all the tones (his tones were terrible and it turned out to be because he had just ignored them).

So, changing transcription system to Gwoyeu Romatzyh will not help. The little evidence we have suggests that it won't and there's nothing else that suggests that it will. Yes, it's good to treat tone as an integral part of a word, but you can achieve that by consistent and persistent teaching or learning methods instead. Therefore, using Pinyin is the best option since it's by far the most well-spread and accessible system.

Going off on a tangent, I do think that it's worthwhile for students to learn more than one transcription system after they have already learnt their first. I think that this is good because it breaks the strong grip of orthography. Seeing the same sound written with different letters or symbols may lead to new insights into that sound. I have no research to support this, but it was like that for me and I know many others who have had similar experiences when learning a second transcription system, regardless of which one it is.

[1]: McGinnis, S. (1997). Tonal spelling versus diacritics for teaching pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. The Modern Language Journal, 81(2), 228-236.


Is "和声细雨" ever an acceptable variant of "和声细语"? There is this ad, that looks a little something like this:

The full text says

  致忙碌的你
  在工作中总是对客户和声细雨
  却忘记了对父母说声
  谢 / 谢 / 你

和声细雨 seems totally wrong to me & I'm guessing it should probably be 和声细语. 和声细语 can be found in《现代汉语规范词典》&《多功能成语词典》- while 和声细雨 is not listed anywhere I know. It seems like quite a rookie mistake, though, for an advertisement agency to make. Is "和声细雨" ever an acceptable variant of "和声细语"?

The copy writer using "和声细雨" instead of  "和声细语" is an unforgivable mistake

The correct idiom with 细雨 at the end is  微風細雨

The correct idiom with 和風 at the beginning is '和風麗日' ( variant of  '風和日麗')

Many common idioms can be rephrase for artistic reason, but the characters in them cannot be changed

Example:

Standard: 風和日麗 (wind is gentle, sunshine is pleasant)-- variant: 和風麗日 (gentle wind, pleasant sunshine)

Standard: 窮山惡水 (hostile mountains, vicious water -- variant: 山窮水惡 (mountains is hostile; waters is vicious)

Standard: 鴻圖大志 (grand ambition, high goal)-- variant: 志大圖鴻 (goal is high, ambition is grand)


Poetic two-character words of the form: Verb + Natural Noun? I was looking for examples in Mandarin of poetic two-character words. What words have the following form...

  Verb + Noun

...where the noun is something that occurs in nature?

The first examples that spring to mind for me are 赏月 and 踏青.

Everything can be poetic, especially Chinese write all kinds of poems ...

Part I - Nature/Astronomy

Nature 自然

乘风 乘風 Ride the Wind
破浪 破浪 Break the Eave

拈花 拈花 Touching Flower

采花 採花 Picking Flower
扑蝶 撲蝶 Catching Butterfly

看海 看海 Watch | Look | Admire the Sea
听涛 聽濤 Listen to the Wave

落花 落花 Flower Dropping
流水 流水 Flowing Water
开花 開花 Blossom
结果 結果 Have Fruit

煮海 煮海 Boil the Sea
焚天 焚天 Burn the Sky

毀天 毀天 Destroy the Sky
灭地 滅地 Destroy the Ground/Earth(crust)

Astronomy 天象

追风 追風 Chasing the Wind
逐月 逐月 After the Moon
追星 追星 Chasing Star
逐日 逐日 After the Sun
摘星 摘星 Picking Star (as in Picking Flower)
采月 採月 Picking the Moon (as in Picking Flower)
奔月 奔月 Run to the Moon
赏月 賞月 Moon watching
观星 觀星 Star Gazing
观天 觀天 Sky Watching
登天 登天 Ascend to the Sky/Haven

Part II - Extra

Daily Live 日常生活

修桥 修橋 Fixing Bridge
补路 補路 Repair Road
杀人 殺人 Killing People
放火 放火 Burning Houses

杀人放火金腰带  殺人放火金腰帶
修桥补路无尸骸  修橋補路無屍骸

    Those who kill
        who burn
            Wear a golden belt

    Those who build
        who fix
            Have no remains (Die and body not found)

登顶 登頂 Ascend to Top(Mountain)
登极 登極 Ascend to Top(Thrown)
上台 上台 Get on Stage / Win a seat (Political)
落台 落台 Lost the seat/position (Political)
落幕 落幕 Closing/End (Performance/Situation)

画眉 畫眉 Put on make up (specific for eyebrow)
弄妆 弄妝 Put on make up
添妆 添壯 Put on make up

Yin Yan Elements 陰陽五行

溶金 溶金 Melting Metal
生木 生木 Growing Wood
納水 納水 Absorbing Water
炼火 煉火 Refining Fire
归土 歸土 Returning to Earth
化阴 化陰 Digesting negative energy

Animal 飛禽走獸

骑虎 騎虎 Riding Tiger
骑鹤 騎鹤 Riding Crane

Direction 方向

东进 東進 Enter/Move towards east
东来 東來 Come to the east (from west)
西去 西去 Go west
北上 北上 Go up north
南下 南下 Go down south
归西 歸西 Return west (also mean dying / death)

Time 時間

不长命 不長命 Don't live long
留千年 留千年 Remain for millennium

Part III - Bonus

When we say poem, or poetic, we offend associate the term with beautiful, romantic, relax, all the positive side of life.

However, a lot of famous Chinese poem has nothing to do with the above. They are good, excellent poem. Their wording are beautiful (詞藻幽美/華麗), but not the scene they describe. They present some dark reality in a poetic form. Following are two examples

Poem about deep disparity between the rich and the poor

朱門酒肉臭    朱门酒肉臭
路有凍死骨    路有冻死骨
 (唐 杜甫)     (唐 杜甫)

    朱門 朱門 Red Door / Red Gate. In the past, only the wealthy can paint their door in red
    酒肉 酒肉 Wine and meat / Food
    臭   臭   Giving out rotten smell

    路有 路有 On the road / On the side of the road / On the ground / On the floor
    冻死 凍死 Die from coldness / Freeze to death
    骨   骨   Bone / Dead Bodies

Rotten food at wealthy door
Frozen bodies on the floor
(by Du Fu, Tang Dynasty)

Poem about courage and wish, disappointment and helplessness of a General

怒髮衝冠 憑欄處            怒发冲冠 凭栏处
瀟瀟雨歇 抬望眼            潇潇雨歇 抬望眼
仰天長嘯 壯懷激烈          仰天长啸 壮怀激烈

三十功名 塵與土            三十功名 尘与土
八千里路 雲和月            八千里路 云和月
莫等閑 白了少年頭 空悲切    莫等闲 白了少年头 空悲切

靖康恥 猶未雪             靖康耻 犹未雪
臣子恨 何時滅             臣子恨 何时灭
駕長車 踏破賀蘭山缺        驾长车 踏破贺兰山缺

壯志飢餐 胡虜肉            壮志饥餐 胡虏肉
笑談渴飲 匈奴血            笑谈渴饮 匈奴血
待從頭 收拾舊山河 朝天闕    待从头 收十旧山河 朝天阙
  (宋 岳飛)                  (宋 岳飞)

There is an extremely good translation here. I cannot beat that.

PS1

Previously included, but removed after review (Thanks NS.X for pointing out)

朝花 朝花 Morning Flower | Blossoming in the Morning
夕拾 夕拾 Picking Flower in Evening

The two do not meet OP required Verb+Noun formation, not even in reverse order. (I have to read like 6 times to realize it >.< )

PS2

Tradition/Simplified Chinese Conversion Web Site


What is the word for "they/them"? I apologize for my rudimentary Chinese, but I am having trouble finding the translation for "them/they" in Chinese in regards to an entity (and gender neutral).

For example:
Does the store sell furniture? 这儿个商店卖家具吗？
No they don't; they only sell stationery.

How will translate "they" in this instance? 他们／她们／它们？

The translation of "they" depends on what it refers to.

Use "他们" if you are talking about a group of people.
Use "她们" if you are talking about a group of females. Note that if you are certain that they are a group of females you should always use "她们" instead of "他们".
In comparison, if there is at least one male in the group of people, or if you don't know about their gender, you should use "他们".
As for "祂" I have only seen it when Christian people refer to God. There's only one God so you don't want to say "祂们". For other gods, we usually use "他" or "她", depending on if that is a male god or a female god.
"牠" is for animals. However it is seldom seen in modern CHS (Chinese Simplified). Now we use "它" for animals too. It is considered a character in CHT (Chinese Traditional).
"它" is for objects, including animals.

For your example:

You should use "他们" in your example sentence instead of "他们" because actually you are talking about the people in the shop.

No, they only sell x. => 不，他们只卖 X。

Some other special cases you may want to know:

When we assimilate some object to a person (拟人, personification), we use the corresponding "他" or "她" instead of "它". Therefore you may also use "他们" or "她们" in this cases.
For pets, Chinese people don't think they are people - No they are never people. You should always use "它们" for your pets as you do for other animals. Exception happens if you are following point 6.


What tool allows a fast translation from Chinese that is both scaleable and exportable? I am currently limited and slowed down in my progress learning Chinese, that some times I read a text from my textbook and cannot identify a character, because I don't know its pronunciation. I don't know its pronunciation and thus can't look it up.
Now there are several ways to bypass that circumstance, however there is yet no neat or fast way to get to its pinyin and translation.
Ideally there were a tool as Google's translate for Android, that also simplified the identification process and made it exportable (as PDF).
Is there already a tool for that? Otherwise I would write a tool or later an application that translates any Chinese texts from images, documents etc. and automatically stores it as a PDF somewhere, either on a hard drive or uploads it to a cloud.

There are several ways to look up characters without knowing their pronunciation.

In printed dictionaries, you need to identify the character's radical (or at least one of the character's radical components), consult the dictionary's radical index (where characters with that radical will be ordered by number of strokes) and thus find the character's pronunciation. You can then look up the character in the normal way, i.e. by pinyin. (Some dictionaries also offer other ways to look up characters, but this example should be sufficient.)
Since this way of looking up characters is slow and frustrating (see e.g. Yes, it really can take a year to learn how to look up a Chinese character), there are digital alternatives:

Looking up the character through its radicals in a digital/online dictionary such as MDBG.
Looking up the character in an online dictionary that supports handwriting recognition (e.g. MDBG: click on the paintbrush button) or an app. There are several apps that support handwriting input. See for example Pleco, How to use Chinese handwriting recognition on the iPhone/iPad and Best Android apps for Chinese handwriting.
There are also apps that support character recognition based on optical character recognition (OCR).


What is the difference between 不 and 没? I know 不 is the negative prefix for a verb, such as 不是. However 没 is also a negative prefix, such as 没有, so what is the difference between 不 and 没?  Thanks!

不 is the negative prefix for a verb and adjective, here are some examples:
不对,not right;
不好，not good;
不错，not bad;
你想去购物吗?不去.Do you want to go shopping? No,I don't;

However 没 is focused on existence or ownership, for example:
没有，I don't have it.
从没发生过，This never happens before.
这里没有人, No one is here.
我没钱, I don't have money.

I hope you are clear now!


How to say "free yourself" in Mandarin"? I'm going to do a tattoo, so I'd like to know how to write "free yourself" in mandarin; I'd like to write it in mandarin, first because I'm a mandarin student, so I'll know how to read it and also because I don't want that everybody knows what's written.
As a mandarin student, I know that the word for "free" is 释放 and for "myself" is 自己, however I'd like to know if the sentence meaning is correct:

释放自己

I'm not a prisoner, so the meaning of this "free" is to live your life, enjoy it, and so on; I want the word "free" just like in Avicii's song "I could be the one". In a certain moment "free yourself" appears on the actress computer screen. The "free yourself" meaning that I want is the Avicii's song meaning, "free yourself, live your life, etc," and not "free yourself from a place because you're a prisoner, you're in jail..."
Peace XD

You can use 釋放自己, It's OK. Similar: 釋放自我, 解放自己(我), 開放自己(我), etc...
You could use 釋放 based on context.

Release from Prison, you can use 釋放. e.g. 他剛從牢裡釋放出來。

Release the Pressure, you can also use 釋放. The Pressure could be mentally or mechanically(like tire pressure) e.g. 他用大吃大喝釋放工作壓力. 這輪胎必須釋放一點過高的胎壓.

Release something, e.g 這公司有新的工作機會釋放出來了. (This company has released new job opportunities.)


What does this text bubble mean? i believe it's kanji i cannot for the life of me figure out what this means... been trying to find out through the yomiwa mobile app, looking up online, and trying to match this to some kanji for over an hour
halp

It's probably chinese 咪 which is an onomatopea for cat sounds (source).


Doesn't 被 mean "by"? I've always thought of 被 as "by." I understand the following phrase means "deducted 10 points" but I don't understand the structure.

  整整要被扣十分

It suggests the passive mode as "be done" in English. So "被" + verb = be done in English.

About the "by", just as English, when using the passive mode, not all the sentence has a "by" in it.

Example with "by":

active:

A lion ate the monkey.(狮子吃了那个猴子)

passive:

The monkey was eaten by a lion.(那个猴子*被*狮子吃了)

Example without "by":

He was killed,(他*被杀*了) but we don't know the murderer yet.

Here there is no "by" because we all know he was killed by someone we don't know yet. So no need to add "by the unknown murderer" here. Same as the Chinese version.


Is 令人 necessary in 最令人满意. vs 最满意 This came from a native speaker : 在广州生活最令人满意的是这一点.
But if I formed the sentence myself, it probably would not include 令人 as in  在广州生活最满意的是这一点.
Google translated both are the same.
So, would my sentence mean the same for native speakers?

在广州生活最满意的是这一点

Without 令人，we understand that the sentence omits 我.  在广州生活我最满意的是这一点.
With 令人，it generalizes that it can satisfy normal people, not just me.


Why is 儿 in different positions in "儿子" and "女儿"? 儿 [Er] child

  儿子 [Érzi] son
    女儿 [Nǚ'ér] daughter

So, why is 儿 in different positions in each word but they are both valid?

This is an interesting question, because it allows us to look at how words are formed in modern Chinese.

The Characters

Both 兒 and 子 meant "child" or "son" in ancient Chinese. 兒 was more specific, while 子 had a variety of other uses, like "master" (as in 孔子 - master Kong/Confucius). When 子 meant child, it was somewhat inclusive of female children, although it can also refer to males only, as in the sentence 无子,有女二人 [he had] no sons, but two daughters.

兒 can sometimes be used for "children" in general, as in the modern 兒童, but in ancient Chinese, it tended to be male-specific. The Qin dynasty proto-dictionary 倉頡篇 Cangjiepian gives the definition:
男曰儿,女曰婴 male [young children] are called 兒, female [ones] are called 嬰.
When 兒 refers to the child of someone, it means son.

女 means daughter, but has always also meant "woman" or "female (human)".

Forming Two-Syllable Words

As the pronunciation of the Chinese language changed over the centuries, many one-syllable words became homophones. In order to clarify which word they meant, people formed two-syllable words that were less likely to be confused. Three very common ways to do this are:

putting two words with very similar meaning together, as in 房屋 (house-house), 幫助 (help-help) or 美麗 (pretty-pretty)
adding a more general word that clarifies the type of thing being described:  偉大 (grand-big) or 月亮 (moon-light)
only for nouns, adding 子: 桌子 (table), 梨子 (pear) and 褲子 (pants) all mean the exact same thing with or without the 子

It’s easy to see how 兒子 follows all three of these rules. I suspect it was formed by the third rule, because the 子 is pronounced in the fifth / neutral tone, which suggests it does not carry the meaning of the word.

So why 女兒 instead of 女子? Firstly, 女子 can mean daughter or "female child". But it can also refer to "women" in general. So 女兒 is more specific.
And why not 兒女? The word "daughter" would not be formed this way, because 女 is more specific than 兒, which can be gender-neutral. Therefore, 兒女 reads as "sons and daughters", which is indeed what it means.


What do new Chinese speakers sound like to native Chinese speakers? Often when I hear Asians speaking English, it is quite easy to tell if it is their first or second language.
Their pronunciation of certain words and sounds such as the hard r's and hard and soft t's usually gives it away.
So, my question is, is that how we, foreign Mandarin speakers, sound to native Mandarin speakers?
I know that Chinese depends a lot on pronouncing the tones of every word correctly. Yet, when I speak Mandarin to my family, they still praise and understand me even though I know that I am getting certain tones wrong.
To clarify, do foreign Mandarin speakers sound as bad speaking Mandarin as foreign English speakers do speaking English?

Two things I want to say about tones.
1, Tones are not as important as they sound if the purpose is to get yourself understood.
You must have been told thousands of times that tones will affect the meaning of the words, and the example given is usually "ma1" (mom) and "ma3" (horse). However, most of the time, the meaning can be told from the context. Actually, I do have a Taiwanese friend referring to her mom as "wo3 de ma3", but we all know what she is talking about. I think that case is much more distinguishable than 四 vs 十 in some dialects. (not Cantonese level "dialect". I consider Cantonese as a different language. The dialect here is something like '河南话' which is not far from Mandarin. However, I was never able to tell 四 from 十 in '河南话'.)
2, Even if you get all the tones right, I will still be able to tell you are a foreigner
The key is the pitch (抑扬顿挫) of sentences, not the tones of characters. Some of my ABC friends speak Chinese very well, which is better than most second language learners. They sound to me like they are speaking perfect Chinese sentences in English pitches.
*, "Do foreign Mandarin speakers sound as bad speaking Mandarin as foreign English speakers do speaking English?"
If you consider it as 'bad', yes they do, but it is 'better' than most dialects sound to Mandarin speakers.
Well, I don't think it is bad as long as understandable.


Logic of the word 上午 (shànɡwǔ, morning) 上午 apparently means "morning". But I don't understand the logic of this word for two reasons:

1) Isn't the meaning of 午 "noon"?
2) With the words 早上 (early morning) and 晚上 (evening) then 上 is the second character, while in 上午 it is the second character, which always confuses me

What is the logic of the above observations?

Is there any "trick" to remember these words better?

Thanks!

上午, 下午 has the same logic as 上週, 下週. 上 is a prefix meaning previous, before, and 上午 means before noon.
If you must assign a meaning to 上 in 早上 and 晚上, I would interpret it to be a suffix meaning at, during, in, or within. 早上/晚上 means during or in the morning/evening.

用在名詞後。表示一定的處所或範圍。(Used after a noun, indicating a specific location or [within a specific] range.)

《孟子・梁惠王上》：＂王坐於堂上，有牽牛而過堂下者，王見之曰：＇牛何之？＇＂
《戰國策・秦策一》：＂人生世上，勢位富貴， 蓋可忽乎哉！＂
《醒世恒言・三孝廉讓產立高名》：＂有一人姓許名武，字長文，十五歲上，父母雙亡。＂
巴金　《探索集・懷念老舍同志》：＂在他們的心上、在他們的筆下，他至今仍然活着。＂


Difference: 小气 vs. 小器? Especially in the sense of stingy, miserly.

What's the difference between 小气 and 小器?

I remember being told that one is more "correct", than the other, but I can't quite recall which.

The search results I've seen are just people giving their own opinions rather than citations or anything of the like.

So, what's the deal?

Today they are interchangeable as long as they mean "miserly". 小器 predates 小氣

In The Analects, Chapter 3 (論語 ‧ 八佾) (4th-3rd century BC)

  子曰：管仲之器小哉。或曰：管仲儉乎

"Confucius says Guan Zhong is miserly, but someone asks if he is frugal?"

Does it make sense that 小器 means miserly? Yes and no because "miserly" and "frugal" are not identical. But 小器 also means narrow-minded or intolerant as if he has small "capacity to contain" (器) different opinions.

In Dream of the Red Chamber (18th century), Cao Xueqin used 小器 and 小氣, both meaning miserly.

In Chapter 40,

  不送些玩器來與你妹妹，這樣小器。

"You didn't give those toys to your sister. So miserly"

But in Chapter 67

  我又不是兩三歲的孩子，你也忒把人看得小氣了

"I'm not a child of 2-3 years old. You are mistaken that I'm miserly"

Does it make sense that 小氣 means miserly? Yes and no because 小氣 also means petty, narrow-minded and frivolous.

In 漢語大詞典, 小器 and 小氣 are synonyms. In 辭源 (1908), which focus on etymology and classical Chinese, only 小器 is listed as entry with the definition

  小器——吝嗇。同‘小氣’

小器, miserly, same as 小氣

In many modern dictionaries, 小器 is omitted.

In summary, today you can safely use either 小氣 or 小器 (miserly), either 氣度 or 器度 (tolerance). Only 小氣 (simplified: 气) is more modern. Thus, in modern colloquial 小氣鬼 (a scrooge), 氣 is used.


What does the phrase "其空有名头" mean? I've heard this phrase;

  其空有名头~

But I'm looking for some clarification as to what it means?
I've tried to break it down and parse it myself but I come up with something that seems quite unnatural.

If I had to guess, I think it could mean something like "in name only" ? Or "just as a formality".

其 is a possesive pronoun. The subject in the phrase is not mentioned.

空有= have only; 名头= title/name

空有名头 means "in name only" (either 'in a position that have no real power' or 'enjoy a reputation that is undeserved')

“其空有名头” = "his/her 'in name only'"

We need more context to decide which meaning we are talking about.

Are you sure it wasn't '空有其名?' because  '空有其名'(only has it's name/ in name only) is a common phrase along with '虛有其表' (only has it's appearance/ in appearance only)


The difference between : 日 vs 号 I was reading a conversation and came to these sentences :

爸爸 ：双十一是什么？
妈妈 ：就是11月11号的网上购物节，在网上买东西很便宜。

I was wondering why it's 号 instead of 日. I then checked it on the dictionary and found out that 号 can mean "the day of the month".
I have looked for an answer but not sure whether or not what I found is correct. It's said that 日 is more formal than 号 and that 号 is used when you speak casually.
Is that true? And is there any more difference between both words?
Thank you.

You are correct, 日 is more formal than 号。
When chatting with someone, you would normally use 号 instead of 日，in this case, saying 日 feels a little bit weird.
But when you are writing a document, you would want to use 日 unless you are writing a transcript of people chatting with each other.


Is there a shorten formed of the name for Polish złoty? The name for the Polish currency złoty is this in Chinese:

  波兰兹罗提

Most currencies also have abbreviations. The obviously inapplicable shortened form would be:

波罗

Possible contractions might include:

波兹
波提

I haven't been able to find any usage of either of those two though. Is there a shorten formed of the name for Polish złoty?

There is a universal shorten form for names.

The initial + kind.

兹币(兹罗提)

盖氏(比尔 盖茨)

赤国(赤道几内亚)

青刀(青龙偃月刀)

And the damned 蛇果(红地厘蛇果)


Which website/service can give good example sentences in Chinese? Often when learning new words, I want to see them in context. It helps my learning process, and understanding how to properly use new vocab makes it stick in my mind that much more.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for a site where I can enter a word, and it will give good example sentences based upon that word? Nciku seems to do it for some words, but it's not super complete, so I'd love some more suggestions.

I don't usually answer my own questions, but I was just having a chat with a friend of mine who reminded me about Jukuu which works pretty well for what I was looking for, and has a pretty good selection of words available.

Jukuu:


What is the translation of my guild’s name? I started playing a game and joined a Chinese guild (luckily there is a rough built in translator for chat).

Below pictured is my guild name

I attempted to get the correct characters which I think are 有妖气客栈.

I was told by, who I believe is an English/Chinese speaker in the guild that this translates to "Tavern of Hex". If this is true, does anyone know what this is or its reference?

From the characters that I have (有妖气客栈), I placed these in google translate and it gave me "Have a demon hotel".  Again, strange for only English speaker, but contradicts what I was told.

What is the correct translation and meaning of my guild’s name?

有妖气 is a reference to the comic 十万个冷笑话(100 thousand bad jokes), where 有妖气 is a running gag, literally translates to "there is evil spirit" or like Toosky said, "there is an aura of demons", 客栈 is "Tavern"

The name of the Tavern is called "有妖气", so the best translation is:

"There is evil spirit" Tavern

Correction: Based on the comment, "There is demon aura" is the more appropriate translation


What is the origin of 火黑暗? What is the origin of 火黑暗?

According to wikipedia it comes from the Zangshu, "Book of Burial", but no where in that book (or anywhere else) can I find this supposed phrase:

  "Qi vapors in the fire, and is lost in the darkness."

(Whereas it's very easy to find the origin of the phrase Feng shui 風水 in the Zangshu)

On the talk page there is the following question:

  Is this for real?

which reads:

  I can't find any references to this supposed system anywhere outside of Wikipedia. A google search for 火黑暗 reveals nothing to do with architecture, aesthetics, or feng shui. Of the sources given on this page I can't find the Von Erdberg (1936) online, but I did find a preview of Cai (2004) on Google Books, and searching this book for "火黑暗", "huoeheian", "fire and darkness" gives nothing either. The Chinese language wikipedia does not have an article on this subject either. Does anyone have any more info on where this concept comes from? --83.216.95.30 (talk) 00:56, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

There's no response.

This seems to be Field's translation, supposedly it was revised July 26, 2009, I'm not sure if anything got changed or not, but there seems to be nothing akin to the Wikipeida quote.


Could someone tell me what is 奶思 means? I found this pic on Weibo so I'd really want to know the meaning.

It probably means the English word nice(pronunciation).

This pic is very similar to those Chinese Internet meme pics. For example you may have also seen one with the word 因吹丝挺, which means interesting.

These meme pics are often ironic.


How to say "often" in an imperative sentence? (eg. "come back often baby") Can I just say 常常/经常....吧? Or should I use 多？

  常常回来吧 / 经常回来吧 / 多回来宝贝

Or is there a better way of phrasing this? I tried searching the internet but couldn't find anything that resolves my query. Thanks in advance!

It's right,but we often say"常常回来哦/经常回来哦/多回来哦宝贝"in oral Chinese.


How does 甘梅地瓜 mean sweet potato fries? I bought some 甘梅地瓜 (gān méi dì guā), or just 地瓜 (dì guā), and this is what I got:

They seem to be sweet potato fries.  I'm wondering how 甘梅地瓜 translates into "sweet potato fries"?

Google indicates that 地瓜 means "sweet potato", although I always thought that was 红薯 (hóngshǔ).  I'm not familiar with 甘梅, and Google translates it to "Gan Mei".

甘 = sweet

梅 = plum

地瓜 = sweet potato

From the photo, "Fried Sweet Potato with sweet plum powder"

Edit: Thanks for others' correction.... 地瓜 may also mean other types of potato or other taro, depending on the region.


What does 春德东更 mean and in what language? What does that phrase 春德东更 mean? I found the writing on a t-shirt (which you can see below). When I look up the phrase on Google and Google Translate, the results doesn't come up with any satisfying one.

And, is that in Chinese or Cantonese?

I'm Chinese, this phrase does not mean anything to me.


What is the Cantonese equivalent for 你怎么样？ Colloquial Cantonese phrases often differ significantly from Mandarin, so I would be nervous to use 你怎么样 pronounced in Cantonese.

Is there a greeting of identical (or nearly identical) meaning in Cantonese (ie, for closer acquaintances, implying "how are ya?" or "what's up?")?

Normally we use the verb "点"

你点啊？
Nei5 dim2 aa3?
leih dim a?
English: What's up? (less formal)
你点样啊？
Nei5 dim2 jeung5 aa3?
leih dim yeung a?
English: How are you doing? (more formal)
你近排点啊？
Nei5 gan6 paai4 dim2 aa3?
leih gan pai dim a?
English: How have you been doing?
你呢排点啊？
Nei5 ni1 paai4 dim2 aa3?
leih li pai dim a?
English: How've you been lately?


Oral Tradition: Chinese Folktales, Sayings, Ballads, Songs, Chants, Etc With the first translation and publication of the first edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales into English recently, I've been wondering a lot about Chinese and/or Sinological oral tradition.

The Wikipedia page doesn't have a lot of information in Chinese, and mostly just talks about Western stuff.

What sort of literature or other things have come about from the practice of oral tradition in China?

In the West the works attributed to Homer (Odyssey, Iliad) are particularly notable but what works are Sinologically well(or not)known historically or modernly?

You touched a sore spot, because there really isn't anything in Chinese that's comparable with Homer's work.
The reason, I think, is that in ancient China, history logging is a monopoly business. It's always in the hands of the royal families and their ministers. There might be great story tellers among the common folks, but the literate class just didn't bother to record them down. Or simply, maybe we just didn't have the luck, so no such great artist was born.
But obviously we did have an active oral tradition. Besides 诗经, 木兰辞 is one, 孔雀东南飞 is another, but there is nothing epic about them.
《山海经》 for example, recorded myths that trace back to prehistory. These are, however, just short stories.
《聊斋》 is literally folk stories told by men on the street, but again, they are just short stories, and nothing historically important.
《格萨尔王传》 is something.. oops, it doesn't belong to the Sinosphere. Similar are some some other epics produced by the minority cultural groups. Anyway, we conquered and ruled them, so they belong to us now. I've even read Korean folk tales when I was young.
Regarding to the oral tradition of the Han ethnicity, we have 评书, 快板, 大鼓, etc. These things are probably very ancient. Many of them are still pretty much alive. They all tell great poetic stories about the past. 三国演义 and 水浒 are probably of such origins, they are pretty epic to my standards, but not ancient enough to compare with Homer.
I have a deceased elder relative who was in the business of 说书. I used to follow him when I was little. Like Homer he was blind. His instrument was 三弦 and 惊堂木. When he visited a town or village, people would gather at small theaters or open places to hear him talk and sing about the past. Oh the good old days....

Update:
中国为什么没有史诗 by 朱光潜
Also from this interesting discussion:

Gilgamesh: I hunted monsters.
Rama: I killed the demon king to save my wife.
Gesar: Me too.
Achilles: I battled Troy and killed their general with a spear.
Beowulf: I killed dragons.
Siegfried: Me too!
后稷: I cultivated rice and beans....

Ignore those who say "Because Chinese culture is superior!". They are stupid.


Differences in "surprise" translations: 驚奇, 吃驚, 驚喜 This page lists multiple entries for surprise:

https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php

1) What's the difference among 驚奇, 吃驚, and 驚喜?

2) Are the meaning and uses the same for Cantonese?

驚奇 (v) - be amazed; be surprised.
Example: 對此事驚奇不已 (extremely amazed by this event)
驚奇 (adj) - amazing; surprising.
Example:有驚奇效果 (having amazing/surprising effect)

~

吃驚 (v) - frighteningly surprised; frightened; suffer/get a scare
Example: 一吃驚, 拔腿就跑 (once frightened, it ran)

~

驚喜 (n) - pleasant surprise
Example: 一個驚喜 (a pleasant surprise)

These terms are used in both Mandarin and Cantonese

"to surprise (v)" in Chinese is " 讓/使/令(某人)驚訝"


揠苗助长 or 拔苗助长 ? Which one is correct? A dictionary says both chengyus being equal in meaining. Is it so, or is there any difference between these two idioms?

Both of them are correct, they share the same meaning.

拔苗助长 is widely-used nowadays.

  揠苗助长

  基本解释：

  揠：拔。
  把苗拔起，以助其生长。比喻违反事物发展的客观规律，急于求成，反而把事情弄糟。

  词语分开解释：

  揠苗 : 1.见"揠苗助长"。
  助长 : 1.帮助生长;促使增长。

http://xh.5156edu.com/html5/60564.html


Still about the filler word 很, after 得 I just learned that an adverb or quality describing how a verb (action) is performed must be preceded by the filler word 得, which introduces an "expression of degree" ("well", "badly", "quickly", etc.).
But, while 得 occurs immediately after the main verb, it does not necessarily precede the descriptive quality directly. If the quality describing the first verb is conveyed by a descriptive verb (or adjective-verb), it seems that 很 must always precede the descriptive verb in simple affirmative sentences, provided that no additional emphasis of the quality is given. As such, if I understood correctly:
她说得好吗? - Does she speak well? (interrogative sentence, no 很)
她不说得好。- She does not speak well. (negative sentence, no 很)
她说得那么好。- She speaks so well. (no 很 here, since 那么 replaces it as the emphasis)
她说得很好。- She speaks well. (simple statement with minimal description, 很 required)

得-adverbs are a type of complement (補語). They

modify verbs or adjectives;
by definition follow the word to be modified; and
can be made out of various syntactical items (i.e., not necessarily a simple adjective like 好).

This website provides four examples (interrogative pronoun, adjectival phrase, verbal phrase, and topic-comment phrase respectively) to illustrate the third point:

休息得怎麼樣？（代詞）How are you resting?
做得挺好（形容詞性詞語）(You) did rather well.
凍得直哆嗦（動詞性詞語）(I was) so cold that I trembled.
高興得大家又唱又跳（主謂詞組）Everyone was so elated that they sang and danced.

Regarding negative sentences (your second example), the logic in Chinese is slightly different from that in English: 不 is treated somehow like an adverb that closely modifies the adjective when negating it. So it goes into the 得-phrase, not the other way round:

她說得不好。(lit. She speaks not well.)
*她不說得好。

While your third example is grammatical (i.e. you violated nothing regarding 得-constructions), it does not sound right (so this is not a problem of grammar but of word choice). Mostly because 那麼 does not exactly mean 'so' – a closer English approximate is the adverb 'that'.

i. 她說得不那麼好。 She doesn't speak that well.
ii. 她說得那麼好嗎？ Does she speak that well?
iii. 既然她說得那麼好，你就選她當司儀吧。 Since she speaks that well, why don't you choose her as the emcee?
iv. ?她說得那麼好。 ?She speaks that well.

Usually there is a hidden reference when we use 那麼. In i., she does not speak that well when compared to the standard you expect her to speak with. In ii., the asker is doubting if she really speaks that well, presumably after hearing what others say about her speaking. In iii., she speaks with such a standard that she qualifies to become an emcee. In iv., however, there is no suitable context to justify the use of 那麼.

Your observation on 很 in 得-phrases is alright. There is nothing to fault in your explanation for your fourth example.

Just a minor point: you may hear people exclaim 說得好！ ('Well said!') or have come across the phrase 俗話說得好 ('as the saying goes', lit. folk saying says it well). They usually don't include 很. There is generality in these sentences (so they are, in Zhu Dexi's terms, type I constructions, as per my second point here).


Trying to translate specific Data Science terms to Traditional Chinese I am translating a paragraph to Traditional Chinese about Data Science.
The subject is Decision Modeling which is translated in Google as:決策建模
The term I am having a problem with is: Quantitative Decision Science.
This term is translated as:定量決策科學
But, actually I am not sure if either of these terms are correct.
Can someone please advise me on this? Do the above Chinese terms make sense, or is there a more accurate way to translate these terms?

Quantitative Decision Science = 定量化决策科学

CUFE

最优化方法是运筹学（72学时）课程的延续，是一门定量化决策科学，它利用现代数学、计算机以及其它科学的成果建立模型，研究人类从事各种活动中处理事物的数量化规律，使有限的资源得到合理利用，以获得尽可能满意的经济效益和社会效益。
Optimization Method is the continue class of Operations Research. This is a quantitative decision science which builds models to study the quantitative law of people’s activities in order to make rational use of the limited resources and to obtain the approving economic and social efficiency based on modern mathematics, computer and other academic achievements.

School of Management Science and Engineering

运筹学是一门定量化决策科学，它利用现代数学、计算机以及其它科学的成果建立模型，研究人类从事各种活动中处理事物的数量化规律，使有限的资源得到合理利用，以获得尽可能满意的经济效益和社会效益。
Operations Research is a quantitative decision science which builds models to study the quantitative law of people’s activities in order to make rational use of the limited resources and to obtain the approving economic and social efficiency based on modern mathematics, computer and other academic achievements.


How to exclude an ingredient when ordering food? I know I can order food using phrases like 我(想)要／请给我一份...

But how would I exclude an ingredient, e.g. if I don't like garlic?

我要一份青椒肚片无大蒜。

我要一份青椒肚片不要大蒜。

我要一份青椒肚片没有大蒜。

Would any of those be correct?

Any of these sentences would be grammatically correct. However

我要一份青椒肚片不要(加)大蒜

would be a better and more common usage in my opinion.

It would be even better to include the character in the parenthesis,

加

which means "add" or "with" or "include".


Does Chinese have an equivalent to “Person A”? In English, sometimes we'll refer to a person whose name is unknown or undisclosed as "Person A" particularly in hypothetical scenarios. Does a similar thing exist in Chinese that doesn't make use of English letters?

You would say

  甲、乙、丙、丁……

which come from 天干, you could also say

  路人甲、路人乙、路人丙……

If you know the person's surname, you could also say

  李某、王某……

In case if you want the specify that person's occupation

  某市民、某员工、某政府工作人员……


Why is the HanYu Pinyin entry method for 亅 "jue3" instead of "jue2"? Why does the Windows 10 HanYu Pinyin entry method for the 亅 (hook radical) character require typing "jue3" (juĕ) instead of "jue2" (jué)?

The pronunciations at Wiktionary, Yabla, and 漢典 are "jué", so the discrepancy doesn't make any sense to me.

This character is not often used in China. As a Chinese person, I don't know the character until I searched it on the internet. The electric dictionary says it should be jue(3).  At last, I have to say I really didn't recognize the character. If we want to express the word "hook ", we would directly use 勾子 instead of jue (3). Hope I did help you.


When to use 这道 for "this kind" The answer at https://chinese.stackexchange.com/posts/9675/revisions offers "这道菜" to say "this kind of food".  This looks like a very useful phrase, which I had not seen before (and if I've heard it, it did not stick with me, but that could easily happen).  How widely can you use  这道 for "this kind"?  What kinds of things would it apply to?  Is it informal, slangy, quite formal?

this kind of food seems weird.

道 is the measure word for 菜 here, so 这道菜 just means this food/dish.


Simplification of 蘭（兰） I've always been curious about the process of simplifying 蘭 to 兰. I'm not really familiar with the simplification process, but this one is shocking to me. From what I've seen (I've studied only simplified characters), it's usually easy for me to recognize the similarities between traditional and simplified characters. But here, there appears to be no common basis at all.

Like a few other simplifications, 兰 is derived from the grass script for the traditional form. The first three strokes are derived from the 草字头 (the grass radical).

Various character forms can be seen on this site.


Does the meaning of 靓丽 change depending on how 靓 is pronounced？ I find for 靓丽：

liànglì
jìnglì

With the difference in pronunciation, is there a difference in meaning?

According to the 两岸 dictionary, the pronunciation for 靓丽 works like this:

【臺拼】jìnglì
【陸拼】liànglì

So this is mostly a Taiwan vs. Mainland pronunciation difference.
According to the Students Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese normally jìng means:

1 make up one’s face (woman), apply cosmetics, rouge.
a) prink, adorn, embellish, trim.
2 ⦿ 靜 jìng 1, quiet, still, tranquil, calm.

While according to KEY liàng means:

{dialect} attractive, good looking, pretty, handsome, beautiful

Longman's also notes:

〈粵〉
❶ 漂亮﹐好看：靚女／靚樣。
❷ 美味的：靚湯。

So it seems this Cantonese pronunciation has somewhat taken over on the mainland while not influencing Taiwan as much.


Can anyone help translate this signature / red seal Ive had this painting/print for years, i inherited it from my Uncle.
Ive always wanted to know what the red seal means and the translation of the text.
I would love to find out more about the artist

The text in the picture read from right to left (Chinese format), my answer below read from left to right in the English format
江邨烟云 - River village mist and cloud
戊寅 - The year (most likely 1938 or 1998)
秋 - Autumn
紹荋 - /Shào ér/ (name of the artist on the seal)
荋 - grassy (also a grass plant's name)
Edit:
dROOOze wrote: 紹英 rather than 紹荋
英 looks like this
荋 looks like this
Seems like dROOOze is right and 英 is a much more common name (for male or female)
The author's name is 紹英 - /Shào yīng/


How can I get a Cantonese keyboard on an iPhone? Like Pinyin, but I need something that can recognize Cantonese instead of Mandarin. The only Chinese keyboards recognize Mandarin.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/canton-guang-dong-pin-yin/id385519764?mt=8

or use stroke keyboard.

Or ask Siri. The Cantonese version of Siri can understand Cantonese.

Edit: Apple does not have such a keyboard and as you would know iOS does not allow custom keyboards. Anything suggested is a workaround.
Apple now allows custom keyboards in iOS 8.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cantonotes-jyutping-annotator/id354063453?mt=8
might also work for you.


For magazines or books, how much does "text volume" differ when comparing Chinese to English or German? For a magazine, I know from a personal source that English text, when translated properly from German, fills out two thirds of the space the German source text usually takes up.

Does anyone know how much "text volume" differs when comparing Chinese to English or German?
Either for magazines, or for books?

Maybe somebody has several books both in English and Chinese and can provide the page count?

Judging from my personal experience (I do translation for a living), the English and Chinese versions of a text have a word count ratio of about 2:3. That is, if the English version has 1000 words, the Chinese version will usually have about 1500 characters.

However, the Chinese version usually takes up less space. In Microsoft Word, with the same font size and style, the Chinese version is usually one third shorter than the English version. If the Chinese version has 10 pages, the English version will usually have 15 pages.

This may seem to be a paradox, but please note that Chinese texts are counted in characters, not words. Each Chinese character consumes the space of about two English letters, while an English word is five letters long on average.

Of course, these numbers vary every time, depending on what and how you translate. They are just very rough numbers to give you a general idea. :)


How to say 衬托 in English? The dictionary says is 'set off' or 'serve as a foil'.

But what I mean is the 写作手法 '衬托'， is there such word in English?

Thank you!

衬= to match; to complement
托= to lift; to support
衬托:(v) to complement and enhance ;(n) a complemental contrast
~

set off
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/set%20off
show up by contrast


What's this sentence 麻烦包两份上次的礼盒 mean? I've been googled and using translator what I found that 麻烦包两份上次的礼盒 means is "Please pack two copies of the last gift box". but I'm not satisfied so I searched that 麻烦 is similar with Qing = please, this sentence is about buying two pack bouquet. Can someone tell me the right translation? thank you

份(set/ suit/ ...) is a classifier for 礼盒 (gift box)
两份礼盒 = two sets of the gift box
麻烦 = to trouble (you) = Please
包 = pack
两份 = two sets of
上次的礼盒 = the gift box (I bought) last time

麻烦包两份上次的礼盒 = Please, pack me two sets of the gift box I bought last time

When you use 个 as the classifier for 礼盒, e.g. 两个礼盒, you are referring to the box itself
When you use 份 as the classifier for 礼盒, e.g. 两份礼盒, you are referring to all the items (the content) in the gift box, which need to be packed into one set

this sentence is about buying two packs of bouquets.

A bouquet is basically a collection of different flowers packed into one bundle or basket plus a card.
If you meant bouquet instead of gift box, you should write: "Please, give me two of those bouquets I bought last time".
礼盒 (gift box) and 花束 (bouquet) are two different things.


pronunciation: j/q/x/y + ün Here in the south (mainland) ün has a similar pronunciation to the English -ean as in 'wean' or even the -een in 'ween', though it seems like northerners pronounce it more like -uin in 'ruin'.

jün, qün, xün, yün like the chart above have completely different pronunciations from lun, dun, tun, kun, qun, hun, zhun, chun, shun, run, zun, cun, sun.

Northern pronunciation doesn't seem to differentiate very much between the two though - their pronunciations seem rather close.

Am I right in my theories?

Is there a reason for these differences?

Is one considered more standard than the other?!

First and foremost, I think it's very dangerous to try to approximate Mandarin sounds with parts of English words, partly because we all pronounce English slightly differently, and partly because some sounds just don't exist in English. There is no "ü" [y] in English, so trying to use English here will just trap students and never really allow them to learn the sound. It also makes answering your question impossible, because no matter which English words you choose, none of them will contain [y].

In order to straighten out pronunciation in the case of "j/q/x + u", we need to first look at basic spelling rules in Pinyin. There are two distinct vowel sounds in Mandarin, spelt "u" and "ü". They are very different, although they look similar, and are mispronounced by a large number of English native speakers. The first is a close back rounded vowel, the second is close front rounded vowel. Don't think of "ü" as being anywhere close to "u" because it isn't; these are two very different sounds in Mandarin.

The problem (for learners) is that the dots are only written when there is ambiguity, which is only the case for "lü" and "nü", because "lu" and "nu" also exist in Mandarin. In all other cases, the dots are left out, and we just write "u". This happens for all syllables starting with j/q/x, so "ju" is really "jü", "quan" is really "qüan" and "xue" is really "xüe". There are no "lün", "zhün" or "chüan" and any such pronunciation is definitely not standard.

So, to answer your question, the "u" after j/q/x (and in "yu", "yun) should be "ü" and is pronounced completely differently than a normal "u". In IPA, this sound is written [y] or perhaps more accurately as [ɥ] in glides.

The other sound, Pinyin "u" (the one that never had any dots to start with), is written in many different ways in IPA depending whom you're asking, but [u] and [ʊ] are the most common.

These two sounds never overlap (except after "n" and "l" as mentioned above), they are in what's called complementary distribution. This means that deviating pronunciation is less problematic than it might seem at first, because if you get these finals right (i.e. the following vowel sounds), you can get away with other pronunciation oddities, such as mixing zh/ch/sh with j/q/x (which is common), since the former can only be followed by "u" and the latter only by "ü", listeners will still know what you're trying to say even if you pronounce e.g. "zh" and "j" the same way.

While I'm at it, I should also mention that all "un" that aren't preceded by j/q/x are actually "uen", which makes the pronunciation even more distinct from "jun/qun/xun" (which is just [yn]). How pronounced that "e" is depends on the syllable, the tone and the speaker. It seems to be most prominent for third tones where it's very easy to hear and least prominent in fourth tones.

Regarding different dialects or regional accents, I'm afraid someone else will have to step in. What I have written above is the standard, but there might be places where people don't pronounce things like that. However, I've lived in Taiwan for many years and have spoken with lots of people from Beijing, and I have not observed the north/south difference you mention. Take this as a personal observation; I haven't done much research into locally accented Mandarin (except the Taiwanese variety, which isn't relevant here).


很有 pronounced rather like hěnyòu instead of hěnyǒu In an intermediate level class (B1 or B2 level perhaps / around HSK 5 or 6), several example sentences were used to illustrate some vocabulary. The teacher, a native speaker with fairly standard pronunciation as far as I can tell, was not concentrating on pronunciation or tones. I do not remember them exactly, but they all had a structure similar to:
这个人很有X
X could be 品味, or 才能, or 办法 or some other words.
In any case I was struck by hearing  很有 read in these sentences as if the 有 was like a fourth tone. Also I am pretty sure that 很 was quite low; nothing like the second tone that would be expected by consecutive third tones. Which surprised me a bit.
Using tone letter notation, 很有 sounded like this:

hen (꜐ or ꜑ / 2 or 1 ); short; rather like a neutral tone (轻声).
you (꜏꜑ / 31 or ꜎꜑ / 41); stressed perceptibly more than 很

I do not think I have seen anything describing this intonation/pronunciation. I would like to know if it has been described anywhere / if it is a commonly observed phenomenon. For 很, perhaps it could be a case of "Quasi-neutral tones in speech to contrast intonation." as mentioned in this answer? But for 有 sounding like a fourth tone, I never saw that described anywhere.
So my question is: what is going on with the intonation/tones for 很有 in this sort of sentence?

The obligate tone sandhi for consecutive third-tones are rendered as follows:

Phrase
Before
After

很有品味
3334
2234

很有才能
3322
2322

很有辦法
3343
2343

In particular, the 333 -> 223 change in 很有品味 is explained here.

Possible facultative tone sandhi in 很有 in quick speech include:

For all 很有XX examples: blurring of tones (quasi-neutral, as explained here; to avoid confusion, let us not use the dotted tone letters normally reserved for real neutral tones, and let the one-lettered pitches reflect their brevity) in the presence of stress on XX out of contextual need (as explained here).
For 很有品味: a blurry rising trend for consecutive de facto second-tones, as explained in the 葡萄牙 example here (perhaps something like ˦ ˥).
For 很有才能 and 很有辦法: a blurry dropping trend (perhaps something like ˧ ˩).

What you seem to be implying is that the teacher pronounced 很有, in quick speech, with a go-up-and-down pitch change, i.e. ˨ ˧˩. Now, is this possible? If you are absolutely sure there is no mishearing or mislabelling on your part, then I think the teacher did not conform to standardised Putonghua well (i.e., this is a mispronunciation on their part). However, I am not entirely sure about your labelling 有 with two tone letters – is it worth that many, especially when it is expected to be blurred over? After all, we are treading on very thin ice here – it is very hard to capture every nuance of facultative tone sandhi. Unless I hear the teacher's audio, or an audio from an online source (e.g. YouTube) that you believe is close enough to the teacher's, I cannot provide a definite answer.

Edit
Now that we have made clear this was normal-paced, I am starting to suspect this is similar to the case of 比較, where some people say it as (bǐ jiǎo ->) bí jiǎo instead of the conventional bǐ jiào (see here for more examples). The link contains examples of non-dictionary readings.
I also found evidence where 有 may be pronounced as yòu: see here. Its use is relatively limited, i.e., when acting as a loan word (通假) for 又 in classical Chinese*, or when denoting numerical remainders (e.g. 七十有七人), both of which are not the applicable to 很有. However, 教育部重編國語辭典修訂本 claims yòu and yǒu are interchangeable (I for one think this is rarely practised in real life). At any rate, the teacher's choice of pronunciation is not mainstream. I also believe this is caused more by the polyphony of 有 than facultative tone sandhi during quick speech.
* Also supported by 余培英（2012）《多音字學習手冊》。北京：商務。


殊: Why 歺(歹)+朱? How did it get to mean special (in a good way)? How did 殊, as in: 特殊、殊技、殊荣、殊勋、殊遇、殊遇 come to have it's meaning of special?

歺(歹)+朱 paint out a rather, more, grim meaning if anything...

說文解字:

  死也。从歺朱聲。漢令曰：“蠻夷長有罪，當殊之。”市朱切

How did 殊 get to mean special (in a good way)?

I haven't found any reference on it, so I come out with my own ideas.

Phonetic loan. In the beginning the ancestors created the character 殊, but the same sound also means "special" to them. The ancestors are as lazy as us, so instead of creating a new character, they borrowed the character 殊 to fill the blank. This is not as likely as my next speculation.

Amelioration, a form of semantic change in which a word's meaning is changed from bad to good:

Originally 殊 means to put to death, which is an extreme measure, hence very and overly.
殊 puts life to death, hence different.
If it gets to "very" and "different", there is no way to prevent it to mean special.

This, I think, is probably the case. For comparison, the English word dead could also mean very, completely, or exactly, all positive meanings.


What does 我正好是诗情勃发 mean in the Chinese translation of Roald Dahl's Matilda (p.2)? I went to a library the other day and found Roald Dahl's Matilda.  I started reading, and I found what I think might be a typo (but maybe not---Roald Dahl has a quirky writing style):

My transcription:

  如果那天我正好是诗情勃发，我还可能这么写：”虽说稀奇，却是事实，...

Here's my attempt at disassembling this:

  If [如果] that day [那天], I [我] just enough [正好] am [是] poem [诗] emotion [情] break out [勃发], I [我] still [还] can [可能] write this way [这么写]: "although [虽说] it's odd [稀奇], but [却] it is [是] a fact [事实], ...

I'm just wondering how to make sense of this, particularly the part in bold.

Question:  What does 我正好是诗情勃发 mean in the Chinese translation of Roald Dahl's Matilda (p.2)?

The original English (p. 4) of 如果那天我正好是诗情勃发 is:

  "Or if I were feeling lyrical that day."

Your breakdown is okay. 诗情 is a word of its own though, it is defined by ABC as:

  poetic sentiment

You might even make a case for 诗情勃发 as a single term.

Chinese translations of English works are notoriously bad in general and this translation doesn't seem any more natural.


What exactly does 就 mean in combination with other words? Recently I came across 铺就, today I have 造就。I tend to think of 就 as 'then'. Maybe that is wrong.

What did 就 originally mean? It seems to show a building and an injured hand??

There are other words with *就。
成就，将就，迁就，牵就 even 可就

How should I understand 就 in these combinations? What is its role?

就 has the meaning of 完成;成功 (accomplish) in 造就 (bring up / achievements) and 成就 (achieve;accomplish).

  (9) 完成;成功 [accomplish]

  (10) 又如:就亲(成就婚事,成亲);就名(成就功名)

When in 将就, 迁就 it means accommodate.

  (12) 迁就;将就 [accommodate oneself to; suit; fit; yield]

  (13) 又如:半推半就;牵就;就着(就便;顺便);就滑(随便;方便)

The original meaning of 就 is

  就，高也。从京从尤。尤，異於凡也。，籒文就。疾僦切 文二　重一

The left part 京 means high; tall, the right part 尤 means special; out of the common.


meaning of 想 as "to want" vs "to think/wonder" I am very confused by the character 想。

Consider this sentence I found in my studies:

我在想你今天会不会来.
wǒ zài xiǎng nǐ jīntiān huì bu huì lái.
I am wondering if you will come today.

1)  If I had to translate the English, I would say "want to know":

我想知道你今天会不会来.

Can you clarify what "想" means by itself? I thought it means "to want". It seems that both 想 and 想知道 express "I am wondering..." and am confused as to when to use which. (My understanding is that 想知道 translates literally to "want to know" and that seems the same as "wondering".)

2) I saw that 我想要 means "I want" (literally "I think need"). However there seems to be this construction 想[verb] (ie 我想去北京） that seems to mean "want to [verb]". In what situations would you say "想要" and not simply "想"? Is it wrong to think of 想 as "to want"?

The futility of thinking 想 can be fully understood in English.

I am very confused by the character 想。

This is unsurprising because:

想 has multiple distinct meanings: think, feel, miss, imagine, want, wonder, ...; maybe even opine, deduce, conceive, etc., in certain contexts.
Each of these English words have multiple distinct meanings (in English).
想 is ambiguous, and a given usage can often be reasonably translated to multiple distinct words in English.
Likewise, the English equivalents are ambiguous, and can often be reasonably translated to multiple distinct words in Chinese, some of which don't even involve 想, such as 考虑, 怀念, 觉得, 认为, 要求, 决定.

Thus together, if we translate 想 into English, you're looking at 20+ (word,meaning) pairs, only some of which are valid translations of 想 some of the time.  This is further greatly bloated when we include words in Chinese containing the hanzi 想, such as 想法, 想要, 理想, 想到, 想起, 想象, ...
I therefore recommend: forget the idea of getting a clear understanding of 想 directly via English.  You're wasting your time.
But how can I understand 想?

Can you clarify what "想" means by itself?

No.  And I contend that no-one can using English: the words in both Chinese and English are far too imprecise.  At most, you can say that 想 pertains to some thought process, i.e., something is going on in someone's brain.  If you go beyond this, any description of 想 in English is going to be wrong a non-trivial amount of the time (the translation is hugely context dependent).
Translation catalyst: first replace 想 with "something going on in some brain".
This is the method I use for understanding what 想 means in a given context.  We use "something going on in some brain" as a catalyst:

first, replace 想 with the deliberately vague "something going on in some brain",

then, once you understand what the rest of the sentence means, infer the most appropriate English word for "something going on in some brain" from the remainder of the sentence.

For example:

我在想你今天会不会来.
I am [something going on in my brain] if you will come today.
version 1: I am wondering if you will come today.
version 2: I am thinking about whether you will come today.
我想知道你今天会不会来.
I [something going on in my brain] to know if you will come today.
version 1: I want to know if you will come today.
version 2: I would like to know if you will come today.
version 3: I yearn to know if you will come today.

This captures the ambiguity: there are multiple correct translations, and one translation might be better than another depending on context.
What's the difference between 想 vs. 想要 vs. 要?
This might not be 100% accurate, but it works for me:

要 implies something is going to happen---there's no thinking (or just minimal thinking) involved.  [This is among other meanings for 要 which are not related to this topic.]

想要 implies a thought, desire, wish, intention, etc. (i.e., something going on in some brain) that something is going to happen.

想 implies it's purely in the mind (i.e., something going on in some brain), and you haven't (yet) taken steps to achieve it (or have taken minimal steps).

我要吃饺子。
version 1: I am going to eat dumplings.
version 2: I want to eat dumplings.

I'm asserting this (i.e., eating dumplings) is going to happen.  Omitting 想 indicates you're not really thinking about it any more (i.e., "something going on in some brain" is not true).
In English, you wouldn't ordinarily declare "I am going to eat dumplings" to a waiter: (a) it's a bit rude, and (b) it's confusing (the waiter might reply "good for you, but what can I get you today?").  I think it's for these kinds of English-language customs that 要 is translated to "want".

我想要吃饺子。
version 1: I intend to eat dumplings.
version 2: I would like to eat dumplings.
version 3: I want to eat dumplings.

Basically if I don't change my mind, I'm going to eat dumplings.  But it is possible I might change my mind.  Importantly, there's a mind involved ("something going on in some brain").
It means something like: I am thinking about and taking steps towards eating dumplings.

我想吃饺子。
version 1: I desire to eat dumplings.
version 2: I wish to eat dumplings.
version 3: I'm thinking of eating dumplings.
version 4: I want to eat dumplings.

Here, it's all "something going on in some brain".  Whether or not steps have been taken towards eating dumplings is unstated.  Ordinarily, you'd expect that no steps have been taken.


或: how did "region" become "either"? The character 或 is used today for the meanings "or", "either", "maybe", and "perhaps". Historically, it had the meaning of "region", and it is this meaning that characters like 國 and 域 derive from.

This original definition is reasonable given its composition; it has the dagger-axe radical (戈), and according to 說文解字, it signifies someone guarding territory:

  从囗从戈，以守一。一，地也。

Therefore, it's unclear how this character could get its modern meaning. How did this evolution take place?

without implying that the classical explanation is necessarily correct, worth noting that 康熙字典 thinks 或 was the original single character for 惑, before the latter character was introduced. Not hard to see how the grammatical usages of 或 could have evolved while it still also meant 惑. Or the other way around, the grammatical function could have been original, from which the meaning of 惑 is easily derived.


What is the pronunciation of 着重? According to Pleco:

zháo zhòng: emphasize; attach importance (v) / emphasis (n)
zhuó zhòng: stress; emphasize (v)

Both use 着重 as its characters. The first one lists a noun as well as a verb as its usage but the second one only lists a verb.

According to 网易有道词典, it only lists the latter.

Usually, if the pronunciation is different, the meaning is differen as well. For example, zháo means touch while zhe works as a particle, even though both are written as 着.

But in this case the meaning looks the same. So why do two forms exist and which one I should use?

Edit: I was born in H.K, I would accept the Hong Kong's standard

/zhuó zhòng/ is the standard reading of 着重

There's a 著 , 着.discussion on this subject here http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/read.php?14,139780

著 in 衣著 is pronounced /yī zhuó/

著 is used in place of 着 in Taiwan

In summary:

着= /zháo/

着重 = /zhuó zhòng/ (in this compound , 着 is read the same as 著 in 衣著)

著重 = /zhuó zhòng/ (only in Taiwan)

The editor at Pleco might had considered 着 and 著 the same character in this compound (accepted both Taiwan and mainland China's standard),  and listed both single character's pinyin.


Is there an abbreviation for the 黑海/地中海 combo? In Chinese, related region names are often abbreviated. For example, Sino-Japanese is known as 中日　and Sino-African is known as 中非.

Does anyone know whether there is a corresponding abbreviation for Ponto-Mediterranean (i.e., the Black Sea and the Mediterranean)?

This is carried forward from a conversation on Wiktionary. Since I've been out of China for quite some time, newer terms often elude me.

I've never heard such a combination for (黑海/地中海).

Such combinations can be made up when needed. 中日 is used more often when may not need further explanation. 中 can be also combination with the initial character for other country names to form such combinations (like 中美), as long as you let the reader/listener know which country you're referring to. The full name of country should be already given in previous part of the article.

Other combinations of place names are also possible (like 北上广 for 北京 上海 广州), but not always acceptable.

These kind combination appears more in news articles. Some find their way into daily use, but most of them only appear in news.

NOTE: For Chinese city/province name, the abbreviation is not always the first character, like (沪 for 上海).


How to express that someone is old? If I am talking about someone, and want to indicate that they are very old (not in a negative way, just stating a fact), how do I do that?

Something like this?
他是老人

'他是個老人' - 'he is an old man'

It is a plain statement. The classifier 個 should not be omitted because 老人 could be a noun or adjective. '他是老人' sounds like your sentence is incomplete. Using the classifier 個 indicates it is a noun and it is a complete sentence (not "他是老人... 恊會的主席" )

'他是個老人家' - 'he is an elderly'
'老人家' is more respectful term than just '老人'

Notice '他老人家' - (he the elder) is a respectful way to address someone senior in age, or high in status.)

'他是一名長者'- 'he is an elderly'

The classifier for '長者' (senior/ elderly) should be those that reserved for human only, like '一位' or '一名'.

'他是個上了年紀的人' - 'he is a man of advanced age'

A matter of fact statement


How to translate "de-"? I was reading this article in The Guardian recently when I came across this sentence:

  By the time I have finished typing, Chris could have lost a battle of wits with the A358, or de-invented trains.

I was wondering how de-invented trains would be translated into Chinese.

21st Century English-Chinese Dictionary gives the following for -de

  “非…”,“反…”：

  decreation
  非创造

  denormalization
  非标准化；非正常化

I really don't think any speaker of Chinese is going to understand 非创造, in general, let alone as decreation.

非发明 -or- 反发明 is certainly not going to be a good translation of de-invent(ed).

But I'm not sure how it would be expressed at all.

Any ideas?

This is one of those cases where the flexibility of English to simply invent words that are intelligible makes the translation job a lot harder. Thus, there's probably no good answer because it will be a case-by-case basis.

Because de- has a plethora of meanings, there will be a plethora of translations. For de- in the sense of "removal," like "de-caffinated," 去 will likely be used (去咖啡因). In the sense of separation or division，like delamination，you might see 分 (分层).
Because de- is a latin suffix, it shows up more frequently in scientific or technical words that might have their own way to be expressed in Chinese, such as de-emphasize = 淡化.


Translate Seal Characters to Mandarin? Picture #2 (Characters identified: 青鸞舞鏡) Here are more of the Seal Characters.  These are much more complex than the first ones I posted.  Any help is greatly appreciated in translating to classical/modern Chinese.  Thanks

as droooze indicated, the characters are “青鸞舞鏡“ ( read from top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left).

the 國語辭典 has the entry: 青鸞

the third explanation is:

  傳說青鸞喜歡對鏡起舞，故用以代稱鏡子。

so, i guess the seal is on frame of a mirror, is it?


What happens when you use the individual characters in 姓氏 and 名字? 姓氏 refers to surname, and 名字 refers to personal name.
But I’ve heard people using the separate characters to talk about surnames and personal names.
For example:

我的中文老师姓姚
林氏集团 (Lin’s Corporation, like one of those companies named after their founder)
她名叫小丽
字: I’m not too sure about this one, but I know 李白’s 字 is 太白

What is the difference between all these?

From my answer to this question What does this symbol mean? I explained 姓氏 It may be a good reference to your question

From my answer to this question Why is there such a difference between "first name" and "last name"? I explained 姓 and 名字

  In the past, most people in high society would have a 姓(family name), a 名 (given name) and a 字 (Courtesy name)

Example of using individual characters in 姓氏 and 名字:

他姓曹 = his last name is 曹
曹氏一族 = the clan of 曹 family
他姓曹，名操，字孟德 = his last name is 曹, first name is 操 and his courtesy name is 孟德


Is this the correct way to say "I practice Chinese with my friend"? Is "我习说中文一起我的朋友" the correct way to say "I practice speaking Chinese with my friend"?

Nope. The correct statement is: （我）跟我的朋友一起练习说汉语

This is because Chinese is an SVO language, and we have:

我 subject 1 (S1)
跟 conjunction (&)
我的朋友 subject 2 (S2)
一起 adverb (A)
练习 auxilliary verb (aux)
说 verb (V)
汉语 object (O)

Syntax: S1 & S2 A aux V O


Placement of adjectives with verbs? There is a line in a Chinese poem that reads like this: 我要高飞。 To be translated literally it means "I want to high fly" but carries the meaning "I want to fly high." I was wondering if it is usual to put the adjective (高) before the verb (飞), or if it is just this way for the sakes of the poem, and if so, in normal speak, does the adjective come after or as a complement, etc?

'高飞' means 'flying high', it is a common set phrase

in the idiom '遠走高飛' , '遠'(far) and '高' (high) are adverbs; while '走' (run) and '飛' (fly) are verbs

'高'(high/highly) in "我要高飞" is functioning as an adverb for the verb '飞' (fly)

other examples of 高 as an adverb in common phrases

步步(高陞)  - continuously (raising high)

價格(高企) - price (standing high)


Do you let go of some 的 when there are multiple? if there's an object belonging to an object belonging to an object, do you let go of most 的?
For example: "Our teacher's name?" You basically say "The name of the teacher of ours" like: 他们的老师的名字. Or do you let go of one of 的? Because whenever I try to google translate anything similar, it lets go of all the 的 except for the last one.
Thank you in advance.

It's more native to say

他们老师的名字
我爸爸的手表

Generally, when the expression is his/her/my/... + people's + a thing, we tend to only use the last 的
However, I think this usage is more often determined "case by case"


What characters belong together as words in ...连日来人气火爆...? If I knew what characters belong together, I think I can translate it adequately.

  据了解，这些特色餐馆连日来人气火爆，前来就餐的多数是结伴而来的年轻人.
  We understand that, day after day, many lively groups of young people come to dine.

Especially, I'm not sure about what belongs together in: 连日来人气火爆

This morning, a Chinese friend told me:

  连日来： for a few days
   来 works a bit like since/for
  人气火爆： a lot of people
  人气 works like 人们

据了解，这些特色餐馆连日来人气火爆，前来就餐的多数是结伴而来的年轻人
  I would break this sentence into this:
  据/了解，这些/特色/餐馆/连日来/人气/火爆，前来/就餐/的/多数/是/结伴而来/的/年轻人

In 连日来, "连日" means "few days", with a emphasis in succession; suffix "来", short form of "以来", can be translated as "for the period of".

In "人气火爆", "人气" actually means popularity instead of people; "火爆" literally means "fire and explosion", it was usually only used to describe a living thing, or the temper thereof, meaning he/she/it has a strong temper. Nowadays, "火爆" is adopted to describe popularity too, meaning very high popularity; and for this usage, an closely related term with the same meaning being "很火", literally "very fire".

However, take note that both "人气火爆" and "很火" are somewhat slangy terms, and I would not consider them as standard Chinese.  And "很火" is usually used in mainland China and other Mandarin speaking countries. In Hong Kong, where the main spoken language is Cantonese, "很火" is not used at all.


What does 麻烦你了 mean? I understand the meaning of 麻烦 as "troublesome" (ex. 麻烦你等一下), but am not sure what it means in this phrase.

I've heard that this can function as some sort of apology for troubling someone. Is that true?

The term 麻烦 can be a noun, an adjective or a verb

麻烦: (n) trouble; (adj) troublesome; (v)  to trouble / to bother / to inconvenience

  http://www.dictionary.com/browse/inconvenience

  *inconvenience

  verb (used with object), inconvenienced, inconveniencing.

As a verb, it has to be used with object

~

 *I understand the meaning of 麻烦 as "troublesome" (ex. 麻烦你等一下)*

No,  "麻烦你等一下" means "(I have to) inconvenience you to wait a minute"

A better English phrasing would be "sorry to inconvenience you, please wait a moment "

When you say 麻烦你, (inconvenience you), usually you would begin with a "sorry" .

Since 麻烦你 itself already contains an apologizing tone, the "sorry" can be omitted.

*What does 麻烦你了 means*

It means:

"Sorry to inconvenience you" (to ask someone to do something)

"Sorry to have inconvenienced you (to apologize for the inconvenience you caused)


Can anyone recommend Chinese names that mean "a rainfall of jade"? In my opinion, “a rainfall of jade” conjures up a pleasant imagery. The name I’m looking for is intended for a boy. Family name is 白. I was thinking of the name 雨琳 as it’s closer to the English comparative. But would these combination of characters be suitable for a given name for a boy?  People have told me 雨琳 is too feminine for a boy?  Is there any other similar combinations that exude a more masculine tone?

if the family name is 白, may i suggest, for rainfall:

霝(u+971d), which means "light rain, drops of rain". it has a heritage since oracle bone script, used for people's name at that period.

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000003720

another one is: 澍(u+6f8d), which means "timely rain; to rain, to moisten"

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000009123

for jade, roughly all characters belong to the 96 radical "玉" is jade related. i would suggest these four:

璐(u+7490), 瑾(u+747e), 琨(u+7428), or 琦(u+7426)

so some combinations of a boy's name:

霝璐, 霝瑾, 霝琨, 霝琦, or 澍璐, 澍瑾, 澍琨, 澍琦.

before making any decision, would you consider the baby's 生辰八字? in the past, it's one of the most important factor in choosing any name.

have fun :)


How similar are Hakka and Cantonese? I refer to this map (also shown below), which depicts that Yue and Hakka variants of Chinese are geographically very close to each other.

If we take Hong Kong for example, how similar would the language be to the Hakka spoken in the neighbouring parts of Guangdong? (see red circle below)

If we take Guangzhou to represent Cantonese and Meixian to represent Hakka we can get an idea.

Part one:

Isolated-word-intelligibility test

With Hakka as the speaker people from Guangzhou only understood 35% of isolated words.
With Guangzhou speakers Hakka listeners only understood 40% of isolated words.

Part two:

Sentence intelligibility test

Guangzhou speaker were only able to get Meixian listeners to understand 55% of spoken sentences.
Meixian speakers were only understood 12% of the time by Guangzhou listeners in spoken sentences.

The standard for mutual intelligibility works like this:

  If two languages are 80% intelligible (or more) with each other, then they are dialects of one language rather than two separate languages.

These two certainly don't meet the requirements.

It seems that Hakka speakers can understand more Cantonese than vice versa.

If you'd like to know more about the intelligibility tests you can check out this PDF here. Where section 3.1. Isolated-word-intelligibility test goes over table 2 and section 3.2. Sentence intelligibility test goes over table 3.


Western grammatical influence on vernacular Chinese in the 20th century I am currently reading a history book by P. Zarrow on the period between 1840 and 1949. When commenting the emergence of vernacular Chinese (pioneered f.e. by 胡適）he makes sparse comments about the views of the opponents of vernacular.

In particular, it struck me that the opponents supposedly said, the "vernacular" was almost as alien to the populace as Classical Chinese （文言文）. And as the reason for this they stated the influence of Western Grammar! Zarrow writes that, while speaking of 瞿秋白，though not explicitly stating that he said it.

Now, looking at what 胡適 advocated in a poem of his, it seems not to have been any difficult vernacular -such as 紅樓夢， on which he was a master- but pretty much modern mandarin

  都是平常情感。
  都是平常言語。
  偶然碰著個詩人。
  變幻出多少新奇詩句！

So, I wonder:

What strong western grammatical influence was there in the vernacular of this era? I searched hard and found only a few minor inventions (like 她它牠，妳), of which most have died out. Surely, this was not so hard for the people!
Where these really an obstacle, or was it rather the myriads of dialects, spoken since time immemorial?

Regarding to how early writers are influenced by western languages. The renowned poet and translator 余光中 has written quite a lot about it. Below are some examples he mentioned in his articles.

Deliberate plurals. Traditionally plurals are only used when absolutely necessary. In the following sentence the reader doesn't actually care whether it's one fly, a group of flies, or fly as a species. Therefore, it's better to leave it out.

  战士战死了的时候，苍蝇们所首先发现的是他的缺点和伤痕…… ——鲁迅《战士和苍蝇》

Deliberate plurals, and apparent western pronoun-phrase -- "your total extinction". A colloquial way to say it is 我诅咒你们全灭.

  大小一切的苍蝇们……我诅咒你的全灭。——周作人《苍蝇》

Yes we know you've been to Cambridge. We can totally tell. "不曾知道过" is an imitation of the English past participate "haven't known". "更大的愉快" is an imitation of the English comparative "greater happiness". In whole it looks like an awkward English sentence being translated to awkward Chinese. 我不知道什么比这更愉快 would be much better.

  我不曾知道过更大的愉快。——徐志摩《我所知道的康桥》

Typical stacked modifiers. Very unsinological I'd say. It's not even good English. With English you can use clauses to right-branch a sentence, with modifiers trailing behind, theoretically ad infinitum. With Chinese, all modifiers are supposed to put at the left side. If the modifiers gets overabundant, the sentence would be very hard to digest. Usually this kind of sentences should be completely restructured.

  我这本书只预备给一些“本身已离开了学校，或始终就无从接近学校，还认识
  些中国文字，置身于文学理论、文学批评以及说谎造谣消息所达不到的那种职务上，
  在那个社会里生活，而且极关心全个民族在空间与时间下所有的好处与坏处”的人
  去看。——沈从文《边城》

Another example of stacked modifiers.

  但我是更感动于那些无望的度着寂寂的光影，沉默的，在憔悴的朱唇边浮着微笑，属于过去时代的少女的。——何其芳《哀歌》

余光中 went on to say that some of the writers, including 鲁迅 and 胡适, are already excellent 文言文 writers, but when they write 白话文, they tend to lose themselves and incorporate western language features into their articles. 鲁迅 even did this deliberately because he thought the contemporary Chinese wasn't expressive enough and it had to be improved this way.

At first this was only a literary vernacular, but they do pierce into the spoken language. Modern mandarin is already a conglomerate because of the influence of early 白话文 and their authors. In late 1970s 余光中 even proposed to eradicate 恶性西化 in Chinese.


Is there any difference between 想, 觉得 and 以为? 想, 觉得，以为 all mean to think. But is there any subtle difference between the three or tense difference? When would you be more likely to use them in context?

以为 is mostly used for:

wrongly thought/believed

like: 我以为你死了！ I thought you were dead!

觉得 is closer to:

feel/think (of an opinion)

like: 你这样说，我觉得非常不靠谱 What you said is totally unreasonable.

想 is close to the English:

think

like: 我想这个案子肯定有猫腻。 There's something fishy about this case.

In Chinese the idea of English 'think' is hardly ever used - even in English it's mostly just a buffer or fluff; if anything 觉得 is the closest.


What does 东突之敌 mean here? I am reading the article  titled 沙场骁将浩气长存——沉痛悼念杨勇同志  in 人民日報, published on 1983/01/22. It describes the combat tactics of PRC general 楊勇, who had just passed away. A passage reads:

  第一旅在西关向城内进行主要攻击；第二旅在北关向城内实施助攻；第十九旅主力调郓城东关，随时准备歼灭东突之敌；各旅突破后，迅速向纵深穿插、割裂敌人而歼灭之。

The question is, what 东突之敌 means here. Today we see the character combination in connection to those who wish to establish an „East Turkestan“. I don’t think that is the meaning here. Here we are talking about a battle between GMD and KPC.

I would roughly translate:

  The first Brigade at Xiguang carried out the primary strike at the city centre.
  The second brigade at Beiguan executed the auxiliary strike at the city centre. The nineteenth brigade’s Main force tranfered to Dongguan at Yuncheng and prepared to annihilate the Dongtu enemy??? in due time...

In 突破 the 突 appears with the meaning of „dash forward, “break through”. Is 东突之敌 the enemy who had broken through in the east?

Even larger part of the text:

  我感到，杨勇同志之所以军政全优，指挥有方，能驾驭战场的千变万化，掌握战争的主动权，一个成功的经验，是他有刻苦顽强的钻研精神。在戎马倥偬的岁月里，他努力学习毛主席的军事思想，认真领会上级的意图。由于他较多地接触刘、邓首长，尤其善于把刘、邓首长的作战指挥思想，运用于自己指挥的战役战斗，所以在作战指挥中，形成了一种决心果断、指挥灵活、能攻善守、英勇顽强的战斗风格。在1947年7月的鲁西南战场上，我们将郓城之敌包围。敌人是国民党五十五师师部和两个旅。该敌善于阵地防守，在郓城四周布满了地堡群及暗堡射击孔。面对这样一个强劲敌人，杨勇同志根据刘、邓首长关于“攻城部队一定要选择敌防御薄弱、对我有利地段为主攻方向，集中兵力火力突破”的经验，当即命令第二十旅在南关向城内实施主要攻击；第一旅在西关向城内进行主要攻击；第二旅在北关向城内实施助攻；第十九旅主力调郓城东关，随时准备歼灭东突之敌；各旅突破后，迅速向纵深穿插、割裂敌人而歼灭之。一夜激战，全歼守敌五十五师师部及二十九、七十四两个整旅，共达15，000余人，受到了刘、邓首长的通令嘉奖。郓城战斗结束后，我第一纵队在杨勇同志指挥下，迅速组织了六营集战斗。六营集是个不大的村庄，挤满了1万多敌人。原计划以我纵队及第6纵队主力，从六营集南、北、西三路包围实施总攻击，一举全歼敌人。后来杨勇同志考虑到：若迫敌为困兽之计，其兵力火力集中，我付代价必大，莫如趁敌兵力拥挤混乱、企图突围之际，诱敌于野外歼灭之。这一打算，得到邓小平政委批准。六营集东南方有一块几平方公里的大洼地，杨勇同志决心用“围三阙一”的方法，网开一面，虚留生路，作为敌人的“逃路”。夜晚，为了给敌人以“安全”感，杨勇同志让驻守在这里的文工团、通信营、卫生所等纵队直属单位加强灯火管制。走投无路的敌人，发现这里尚存一线生机，就在深夜全部钻进了我们准备好了的“口袋阵”。战斗历时3日，歼敌两个相当军的整编师，创造了运动战的范例。

Yes, you interpretation is correct. 东 here means 从东方，突 means 突破，therefore 东突之敌 means 从东边突破（包围圈）的敌人。


What does this 我却为你万千感慨 mean? I do know the meaning of each word in the following sentence.
我却为你万千感慨

But I still cannot understand the meaning of the whole sentence. Google translates it as.
I feel so emotional for you

I doubt about it. The hard part for me to understand this sentence is because of the present of 却.
So what does the above sentence mean?

Google's translation isn't off too much.
却 is an adverb which is used more or less like "yet", "however" or "and yet" in English. I say "and yet" because I often see it used as a conjunction, in place of 反而.
For example:

这句话那么简单，却点燃了我 (= this sentence is so simple, and yet it set me on fire)

万千 means "a myriad", also in English used figuratively to elegantly express a large quantity.
感慨 means something like "full of sorrow". Mdgb says "rueful". Zdic defines it as 心生感触而发出慨叹. Which essentially is a feeling of such sorrow that you can't withhold sighs and moans. Also, given the proposed synonyms (感叹, 慨叹) it seems it's used in a verbal position. It's seems used like a stative verb.
So if you put it all together:

我 (I) 却 (however, yet) 为你 (for you) 万千 (myriad) 感慨 (rueful, feeling sorrowful)

It roughly means the subject's feelings are many and nuanced, but all of them related to sorrow and sadness.
A fluent translation (somewhat poetical) might be something like:

And yet for you I let out a multitude of sighs

or, taking 万千 less literarily, so many feelings that the subject is overwhelmed.

And yet for you I'm overwhelmed by sorrow


What is the correct tone for 压 in 高压电 (high voltage) and 低压电 (low voltage)? In the following signs, we have 高压电 (high voltage) and 低压电 (low voltage).  Chinese Converter gives the pinyin: gāo yā diàn and dī yā diàn (this has been wrong in the past).  However, Dict.cn and WrittenChinese.com assign 压 two possible tones: yā (first tone) or yà (fourth tone).  So I don't know which is correct.

Question: What is the correct tone for 压 in 高压电 and 低压电?

According to Chinese daily habits,Chinese prefer the first tone and in many formal situations,like CCTV, the hoster speaks the first tone.But if you want to speak the fourth tone,they can also understand your idea.So you don't care whether the correct tone is first tone  or not (if you're talking with Chinese ).But if you're preparing for exam,I think you should choose the first tone.