他（是）现在才来的 is a 是的 construction for emphasis. In this case, 是 is omitted. He has arrived just now, in this very moment!

Another example: 我是来看病的: I have come to have a health check (rather than just socialize).

他来了 just indicates he has arrived, without emphasis. 了 completes the statement.


What does 到 mean in 哪里可以买到正版的这本书? Does 买到 here serve as a verb-object word?

「到」(literally to arrive) is a verb complement to show whether an action has or can be completed (“arrived at the finished state”).

Since「到」is not actually necessary in this sentence to express the same meaning, it is easier to demonstrate the meaning of「到」with a complementary sentence:

  那裏買不到正版的這本書

  The proper version of this book can’t be bought there.

X「到」means the action X can be completed, X「不到」means it cannot be completed.


What does this tattoo say and where can I find the symbols online? (Characters identified: 寵命力)

The three characters from the picture look like "寵", "命" and "力“. The followings are the common usage of the words.

寵：(verb) Love, favor, spoil, dote; (noun) things or person that is loved/favored (eg. 新寵，寵物)

命：(verb) command, admonish, appoint (eg.命令); (noun) life, lifespan, fate (eg.命運)

力：(noun) Strength, ability, power; (adv) doing something with the best effort (eg.力爭上游）

The term "寵命力" does not look like anything meaningful to me.


it’s out of print. however, the hong kong public library has this book, i would suggest you find someone borrow one for copying or scanning, or, . . .
https://webcat.hkpl.gov.hk/lib/item?id=chamo:2334580&fromLocationLink=false&theme=WEB
have fun :)


Which meaning of 意见 in used in 他经常到客户不听取意见 and 如果有人愿意听取客户的意见?

Here it means suggestions.

From 新汉英大辞典:

意见 [yì jian]
1.
（看法或想法） idea; view; opinion; suggestion:
a clash of opinions;
意见冲突
make suggestions for revision;
提出修改意见
2.
（反对或不满意） objection; differing opinion; complaint:
I have a lot of complaints about her.
我对她很有意见。
If there is no objection, the agenda is adopted.
如果没有意见， 议程就通过了。

BTW: 客户不 should be 客户部.


How do you translate 养得汞儿性圆，等待他铅儿花现 in a text about 睡仙气功?

the verse quoted is, well, different from the original text, which is in 道藏輯要 三丰全集 玄要篇下：
蟄龍吟

睡神仙・睡神仙・石根高臥忘其年・三光沉淪性自圓・氣氣歸玄竅・息息任天然・莫散亂・須安恬・温養得汞性兒圓・等待他鉛花兒現・無走失・有防閑・眞火候・運中間・行七返・不艱難・煉九還・何嗟嘆・靜觀龍虎戰場戰・暗把陰陽顚倒顚・人言我是矇矓漢・我卻眠兮眠未眠・學就了眞臥禪・養成了眞胎元・臥龍一起便昇天・此蟄法・是誰傳・曲肱而枕自尼山・樂在其中無人諳・五龍飛躍出深潭・天將此法傳圖南・圖南一派儔能繼・邋遢道人張丰仙

in taoism, the lead (鉛) - mercury (汞), dragon (龍) - tiger (虎) are metaphor. depends on the alchemy (external or internal); and sects, these terms might be explained diversely.

Is this translation on the right track? I'm particularly not unsure whether “儿” in this phrase is supposed to be a diminutive suffix or not

on the right track? i believe not. “兒”, yes, a diminutive suffix.
try this page, in english, not too peculiar
https://deeptrancenow.com/exc_taoist_language.htm


In my opinion,

再 foresees the future, as  in 再见.
又 emphasis 'once more', as in "又可以爬山了"


I agree with you for most of them. I have some comments below:

(1) would sound more natural when adding a '过'. 我看过这本小说了。which is the same as (6).

(7), I did hear it was said by the folks from Taiwan.

(12) sounds ok to me.

Just one observation of mine. In the register of the mainland, we don't usually use 有 in this kind of sentences because it's kinda redundant. Like (10), 我有看过这本小说。== 我看过这本小说。 I've heard Taiwan folks typically used 有 in this kind of sentences.


正如我们之前(说)= Just as we (said) previously- 说 is a verb here

正如我们之前(所说)= Just as (the words) we (said ) previously

"我们所说" is short for "我们(所)说的話" = "the words (that) we said"

therefore, "我们所说(的話)" is a noun

When you say "正如我们之前(说)" you have to follow it with a quote of what was said

When you say "正如我们之前(所说)" you can follow it with a quote of what was said or omit it and presume it is known


Does this conversation/exchange of words make sense?

"你快乐吗?" sounds normal enough

"我常常是" sounds too 'English' . Native Chinese would reply: "我常常都很快乐"

"有意思" sounds normal enough, but it implies the answer is somewhat unexpected

The last line has the most problem:

  "你没有不对" means "you didn't do anything wrong"

For "you are not wrong" in this context, native Chinese would say: " 你说得对" or "你说得没错". Both mean "you are right"


What's the translation for Mammalian Two-Hybrid System to Chinese?

According after reading your reference :

  Mammalian Two-Hybrid System

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

It seems below is better.

哺乳動物細胞雙混合系統


Is a Preposition Needed in the Sentence: 我只认识一个人有新冠状病毒

Did you mean "relative pronoun" rather than "preposition"?
It's better this way:
我只认识一个有新冠状病毒的人


What is the style called where we draw characters without lifting the brush?

I would just call it 一笔画 (one stroke).
Because there are some famous arts are called in this way. Like:

一笔虎: write the character 虎 in one stroke.
一笔龙: write the character 龙 in one stroke.

And the Eulerian path is also called 一笔画问题 (the problem of how to draw a graph with one stroke)


Descriptive / generative grammar of Mandarin?

The best I know of is Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Comprehensive Grammars) by Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington.


No, they are not totally interchangeable, just have some meanings overlapped
you can 整理數據(sort out the data) but not 收拾數據 (tidy up the data)
you can 收拾殘局 (clean up after a messy situation) but not 整理殘局 (organize a messy situation)
Both 整理房間 and 收拾房間  mean 'put the room in order/ tidy up the room'
整理房間 might include some repair work but 收拾房間 doesn't


How to exclude an ingredient when ordering food?

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".


They're all questions.

1-洗没洗衣服 = Have you washed the clothes or not?

2-听没听音乐 = Have you listened to music or not?

3-复习没复习课文 = Have you revised the text or not?

All three sentences have the same structure. If you break the first one apart, you get this:

洗 = wash(ed)

没洗 = not wash(ed)

衣服 = clothes


Character: “Kei” For “To Go” (去) In Sichuanese

As Claw says, 去 is the historical character for it. This could come from 文白异读, that is, literary/colloquial readings. That would make sense, because colloquial readings are often either more innovative, or are a throwback.

Another option would be borrowing it from another variety, e.g. Cantonese keoi.


What should a beginner be looking for when selecting a movie in Chinese?

The important thing for understanding Chinese in spoken form is not how many characters you recognize (though this is the traditional measure of "how good" someone's Chinese is -- which makes no sense at all!). The acid test is how many words you know. Words are often composed of more than one character in written form, so the character/word correspondence isn't a good one in terms of "calculating" one's Chinese level.

Also, it's entirely possible to know thousands of characters and have very little ability to understand spoken Chinese. This is particularly true with students who have been taught using traditional drill-and-kill methods or popular textbooks that believe that the more vocabulary someone memorizes the better.

So in my mind, technically yes, it's kind of early if your level of spoken Mandarin is what I'm imagining (based on the "average" student at the 1,000 character level).

BUT — big "but" here — that's theoretically speaking.

You will benefit from any exposure to Chinese. You will benefit a LOT more if that exposure is comprehensible, because input has to be understood before the brain can deal with it and use it to enlarge the brain's model of the language. But even if the input is not 100% comprehensible, anything you can comprehend will help.

Don't ignore other factors either&nbwp;— if you enjoy watching movies or series, that's a good and motivating thing. Enjoy picking out what you can understand, even while you recognize that the time spent may not be as effective as getting 100% comprehensible input in Chinese in terms of actually expanding your Chinese. There are other benefits as well -- social (you can watch with others, and discuss the films or series with other people), general knowledge (keep an eye on the backgrounds, body language, and other non-linguistic features that are shown in the film).

For most learners, it's very difficult to get 100% comprehensible input, because most teachers do not teach this way, and don't worry about readers, textbooks or AV materials being 100% comprehensible. There's even a new textbook out that deliberately gives students materials that are way too hard with the rationale that "they'll pick up whatever they can". Given what we know about how people acquire languages, I feel that teachers in general and textbook publishers specifically owe students a lot more than that, but since that's what's available, go for it.

So the answer is, don't worry about which one you watch. It doesn't really matter! Pick something that looks interesting or intriguing to you, or is popular, or that people are talking about. Any native speaking video or series will be difficult at that level. Just don't expect too much. Relax, sit back and try not to look up every word. Use the grade school strategy of "skip until you see it three times", maybe.


Can anyone read Seal Script? I’m completely stuck

㥁(德)不在遠 (virtue is not far)
陽春煙景 (a warm spring and misty/foggy scenery, meaning beautiful scenery)

I don't believe these are artist names.


As you may already know, "结合" means combination. "有机" in this sentence means the combinations goes vary well.

"有机" is a vary interesting words, it always means the change is not physical one, but a chemical one. It means something new is created by the combination, not just put them together.


What is the difference between 后父 and 继父?

No difference. 后X is a dialect, informal, oral word, 继X is standard, formal words.
后父 is rare, usually, you will see 后爹, 后妈, 继父, 继母.


I agree with zyy that 什么时候 is definitely better in the sentence.
哪个时候 is like literally translated from "which moment", but in Chinese, we express as "what time" so you should use "什么时候" or "什么时间"


还 is a polyphone with two pronunciations: hai2 and huan2. Your examples are using the first one.
The idea behind 还 (hai2) in these words is still; yet.

还好 = yet good = fair
还可以 = still acceptable = fair

还 (hai2) has another meaning: in addition; else, as in 还有, 还要.
The meaning backto; return mentioned in the other answer belong to the pronunciation huan2, which IMHO has nothing to do with your examples.


Is 察颜观色 or 察言观色 the correct term to use?

Both are correct. According to http://www.zdic.net,

  察言观色

  察：详审。观察别人的说话或脸色。多指揣摸别人的心意。

察：详审(scrutinize)。言：言语(speech)。观：看(look)。色：脸上表现的神情(expression on face)。
So it means dive sb.'s thoughts from what he says and the expression on his face.

  察颜观色

  观察别人的脸色，以揣摩其心意。

Note it's a little different that here's only watching expression on sb.'s face, no listening the speech.

And 漫说“察言观色”与“察颜观色”,

  “察颜观色”与“察言观色”各有其特定的语境可用，而且都有较远的语源可查，更有权威工具书为据，现代文学中又有许多经典著作的用例佐证，当让这两个成语‚各司其职‛，为传承汉语精确性服务。


Heavily dependent on the context, I guess it means 说话人最可能**(和谁)**是什么关系？ (omitted some words). The 谁 should refer to someone (or something) mentioned right above. Check the context.


Does the idiom 高城深池 have a positive or negative connotation?

It is a neutral term. It describes a property of an object. Not commonly used in a metaphorical sense to describe a human characteristic
高城深池 is typically used to describe a defended city, base and of course, castle.
There are many idioms graphically describe objects with no metaphorical usage.
Example:
一望無際 (cannot see the edge) describe the view of a vast area - express: vastness
皮堅肉厚 (tough skin and thick muscle) literally describes a man or an animal with tough skin and thick muscle  - express: physically durable
水清山秀 (clear water and beautiful mountains) literally describes a place with clear water and beautiful mountains  - express: beautiful scenery
高城深池 literally describes a castle has high wall and deep moat - express: impenetrable defense


留 means 'maintain' ; 'keep'; 'grew (of hair or beard)'
波浪 means 'wave'
式 means 'style'
发 means 'hair'

波浪式= wavy style
留波浪式发(型) = has wavy hair (style)

It is common to identify someone by something unique in his or her appearance, like hair styles, clothes color, etc.  when we don't know his or her name


Official Pinyin of 《卜》 in 《卜姓》： "Bǒ", "Bo" or "Bǔ"?

This family name is very rare. I personally don't know anyone around me with this family name. The authoritative dictionary "新华字典" lists Bǔ as the correct pronunciation for the family name.

The pronunciation "Bo" (neutral tone) is only used in the word 萝卜, which is a plant (radish), and we even have 胡萝卜(carrot).


Can someone identify these marks on the bottom of a blue porcelain bowl? (Characters identified: 中王國 賈泊氏)

It's probably 中王国 贾泊氏.

And I did some search and found that this picture should come from some antique forums. However there's no canonical record for it. This piece of porcelain is probably modern made. On this site, a person said:

  It's "fake scholars will finally subjugate the nation".

(read left to right instead of right to left)

(假博士终亡国, which has the same pronunciation as the original words)


How to say "craving for something"? (Food Related)

嘴馋 should be the one. 馋 in this case means piggish or greedy for food, particularly in a situation that one is not really hungry, but just wants something to be in the mouth for chewing.


It indicates that the given name is unknown or intentionally hidden. 'A certain Chen/Liu', 'a Mr. Chen/Liu', 'a Ms. Chen/Liu', etc.

In the case of women 氏 can be used, or was used historically, when only her maiden family name was recorded, e.g. Mao Zedong's paternal grandmother is quoted in Wikipedia as 罗氏, which simply means 'née Luo'.


Difference between 'unfortunately'： 不幸 可惜 遗憾

可惜我的工作要保密: It express your willingnes can't be fulfilled because of irresistible or uncontrolable force, such as discipline,weather etc.

不幸我的工作要保密: 不幸 always relates to death, wounding or very bad things, its use is inappropriate in this context

遺憾我的工作要保密: It doesn't emphasize on your wilingness, but it express your sorrow on the consequnece it caused to other person. in this context, it depends on what may be caused by the confidentialily nature of your job

不幸的是，我的工作要保密: same as item 2


Explanation of character decomposition for 缺

「缺」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*Nə-[k]ʷʰˤet/, to damage/break vessels [pots, dishes, urns, etc.] > flawed, deficient, lacking) is comprised of semantic 「缶」 (clay jar) and phonetic 「夬」 (/*[k]ʷˤret-s/). That is, the phonetic component 「夬」 originally matched the pronunciation of 「缺」 much better, and this match occasionally survives in other characters like 「決」.
「夬」 itself now sounds much more like 「快」.

I don't understand what "夬叏" is

Confusing annotation by Hanziyuan #1: Randomly listing variant characters with absolutely no explanation.
「叏」 is the component-transcribed older form of 「夬」.
商甲前4.1.2合集21367戰國・楚簡2.260包山竹簡戰國・楚簡2.2望山竹簡秦簡18.158睡虎地秦簡西漢隸老子・甲43馬王堆帛書隸定
「叏」 originally depicted a hand 「又」 sporting a thumb ring (the archery accessory). The thumb was later emphasised as a vertical line and then detached to be part of the ring.
東漢隸易經熹平石經楷
Later on, the hand merged back with the emphasised thumb, but the middle finger of the hand became less emphasised and obscured, forming 「夬」.

what does "phonetic-foot-hand" mean

Confusing annotation by Hanziyuan #2: Attempting to list a meaning alongside a component whose purpose is phonetic, and also getting the meaning wrong through a misunderstanding of the decomposition.
Foot-hand is what Hanziyuan thinks the meaning of 「叏」 is, and phonetic indicates that 「叏」 is the phonetic component of 「缺」. The interpretation of 「叏」 as foot-hand comes from an incorrect decomposition of 「叏」 as 「夊」 (foot) and 「又」 (hand).

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂字形演變
郭沫若《甲骨文合集》


What is the translation 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


how would you translate 在我找到工作之前 ? What is the function of 在 here?

[.....] 之前 = before [.....]
[我找到工作] 之前 = before [I found a job]
~
在 [.....] 之前 = at before [.....]
[在 (我找到工作) 之前] = [at (the time) before (我找到工作) ]
在我找到工作之前 = At the time before I found a job


Correct/natural way to say "在我的咖啡可以加糖吗？"

It would be more natural to say 「請幫我的咖啡加點糖。」or more directly 「請幫我加點糖。」(if you're pointing at your coffee, it'll be more natural)。 If you say 「在我的咖啡可以加糖吗？」, it sounds like you're asking if it is suitable to add sugar to your coffee. As a native Chinese speaker, this is my advice.
e.g. Could you please add more salt to this dish? Thank you.
     幫我把這道菜加點鹽，謝謝。


What does peeling shrimps mean in Chinese?

Definitely agree with the above comment by Tang Ho.

The comic is written by a Taiwanese artist using the pen name Duncan. If you see him in the public, he always has a face mask of his comic book character on. In past interviews, duncan explains that when he's in public, he wants to observe human behaviors and draw about them.

This comic strip is about eating food that are tasty, but are tedious and time consuming. Shrimp shells take a long time to peel (about 10 secs, 30 if the shrimp is hot). We all love eating shrimp, but the peeling time, and the seafood smell on your hands just make it too tedious to eat.

Side note: An all you can eat BBQ shop called  燒肉屋, located in Kaohsiung Taiwan was famous for helping its customers peel the shrimp shell in front of their customers.


In which pitches do I pronounce several first tones in a sequence?

According to some researches there is a declination effect (pitch lowering) in Mandarin Chinese. Fundamental frequency (F0) of a speach is decreasing as a speach goes on, with greater downsteps of pitch at the beginning of phrase.

In sequence of first tones, e.g. "老王蒸冬瓜" (...zhēng dōngguā) the first syllable [zhēng] has higher pitch then the last one [guā] in native speakers' speach.

Here are some examples:

From "Declination in Mandarin" (Chilin Shih)Bell Labs – Lucent Technologies, 1997

This study shows overall lowering of pitch from start of the sentence to its ending. The sentence that was used (in some variations) is "老王蒸冬瓜" [Lǎo Wáng zhēng dōngguā] (so you can see here several first tones in a sequence)

There were four speakers: two females and two males, two from northern China and two from Taiwan). And all fourspeakers show a clear decline in tone 1 pitch values.

This figure shows F0 (tone 1) declination for different speakers (B, C, D) on different sentences (solid and dotted lines):

From "Downstep and Pitch Range of High-Low Tones in Chinese" (Maolin Wang and Wei Xiong)International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 2015

This study uses only sequences of HL tones (High and Low tones, only tone 1 and tone 3 used), the patterns are HLHL, HLHLHL, ... And the authors also come to the result that there is a prominent gradual lowering of H tones strongly resembling downstep throughout the utterances.

To answer your question

When you (or children in China) study Chinese, intonation is supposed to be perfect (but the world in not perfect). So you study "how it should be" (5555555* - tone 1 pitch level) and later it is turning to "speak as everybody does" (5443333...** - tone 1 pitch level)

* five-bar scale of pitches is used here, going from lowest (1), to highest (5)

** scale is not correct, just to show declination of the first tone!!! Five-bar scale is not enough to show correct declination, see pics for correct scale


Words that have confusing meanings in a diplomatic notice

华侨； Chinese people who live in other countries but are still citizens of China.

华人（广义）: people of Chinese blood

华人（狭义）：Chinese people who become citizens of other countries

(e.g.  美籍华人)


As a native Chinese speaker who is learning English, I have the same problem. And I don't think there is word in Chinese similar to overwhelming. The solution I came to is change the expression completely depending on the context. So here are my tries for the examples:

It was a bit overwhelming to say the least.

  再怎么说，这也有点太多/过分/严格了

  This translation really depends on what the subject is. If it is something too much, use 太多, if it is something too went too far use 过分, if it is some overwhelming requirement use 太严格.

The work seemed very overwhelming at first.

  一开始这个工作可能有点难以应付/这个工作可能压力很大。

The situation made me feel overwhelmed.

  这情况让我压力很大。

P.S:

Similar as overwhelming, I couldn't find the word in English for 过分 in sentence like 你太过分了!.

It means "you went too far!" or "you are way cross the line here!" but both of them seemed too civilised for the original tone since the Chinese one can be yelled out at a raging scolding tone and contains strong personal opinion but both the English version seem to be too fact based.


What is the difference between 一切， 都 and 全部？

一切 : all; everything; every; all sorts
全部 : entire; all; whole; total
所有 : all; whatever there is

~

'一切' describes everything that's known or unknown, without confine.
For example, "一切後果由我來負";  (All consequence will be handled by me).
You don't necessary know what exactly they are, there's no confine

~

'全部' describes everything that's known or in a confine
Examples:
人體裡的全部器官 (all the organs in human body)- You know what they are exactly; and it is in the confine of a human body
圖書館裡的全部書籍 (All the books in the library)- In the confine of the library

所有 is more general, it can replace either 一切 or 全部

所有後果由我來負 = 一切後果由我來負

人體裡的所有器官 = 人體裡的全部器官

圖書館裡的所有書籍 = 圖書館裡的全部書籍

都 is an adverb for [all; both; without exception]
Example:
圖書館裡的所有書籍都要盖章 - Every book in the library all needed to be stamped

一切 can be a noun for "Everything"
全部 can be a noun for "the whole thing/ the entire thing/ every parts"
所有 is strictly an adjective  when it means 'all/ every'.  But it carries other meanings too. (see link)


I get this answer from my Trusty translator. (Had to make her a coffee first!)

休：喜悦，吉利 happiness, luck

戚：忧愁悲哀 worry sadness

相关：related, connected

与共： have in common, we share

Edit: Found this link:

http://www.zybang.com/question/ea2bbea8fb9cc6cf808a4790c7900d44.html

From an old song: Life's joys and life's miseries walk hand in hand and keep each other company.

Think that translates it nicely!


Study abroad in Hong Kong, should I start learning traditional?

simplified characters widespread enough

They're not. Most, if not all, road signs, newspapers are in traditional Chinese, and English.

Web sites are in traditional, simplified Chinese and English.

I would recommend learning traditional Chinese, not for surviving in HK. It's the culture, the literature of yore are recorded in this script. If you need to study further, you need to know it.

By the way, if you know it, you may compare the difference between Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and "that area".

Lastly, learning Cantonese and Mandarin together, well, good luck lah :)


Differences between words that tell time: 时间 vs. 时候, and 点 vs. 小时

时间 and 时候 are both related to time, but their usage is a bit different.

时间 means the "physical time". For example 你在什么时间睡觉？ What time do you sleep?

时候 means "when". For example: 你什么时候睡觉？ When do you sleep?

点 and 小时 are used differently.
小时 is used when you actually calculate the time taken in terms of hour. For example, 我睡了一个小时。I slept for 1 hour.

点 is used to ask the precise time at the moment. For example, 现在几点了？ What time is it now?

In English, you don't ask "What hour is now", instead, you ask "What time is now". In mandarin, it's also the same. You don't ask "现在几小时了", instead you ask "现在几点了".

Hope this help :)


Why "体贴先生" is wrong? And why so many people use it?

体贴 can be a verb or an adjective. So which one is it in 体贴先生? It feels to be a verb so it's a verb + noun phrase. But no, the missing subject makes the phrase incomplete in meaning. Why is it not interpreted as an adjective? A 的 is missing in the middle.
Yes, 的 is not necessary in some cases, e.g. 漂亮小姐 is fine because 漂亮 can't be a verb. How the word is used mostly affects how people interpret, and unusual ones will be strange to native people.
In both of your example sentences 体贴 is used as a verb.


Usage of 了 (le)：

A. auxiliary word (助词)

A.1 used after verb or adj to indicate completion. This usage carries the same sense of "Perfect Tenses" in English.

  Example: 我已经问了老王 / 人老了，身体差了 / 头发白了 / 这双鞋太小了 / 他打开了窗子

A.2 used at the end of a sentence, or in the middle of sentence but right before a pause(usually a comma), to indicate current situation changed or new situation coming up.

  Example: 刮风了 / 下班了 / 开学了 / 天亮了 / 雨大了

B. modal word (语气词)

B.1 to indicate the mood of future certainty.

  Example: 明天又是星期六了 / 要过新年了

B.2 to indicate speeding up or stopping.

  Example: 快躲了! / 别吵了! / 闪开了!

B.3 to indicate interjection.

  Example: 好了! / 累死了! / 弄疼我了!

C. Language Sense (语感)

Each language has its own language sense. By language sense I mean something about language that you can feel if it is good or not. Language sense helps us to know the way how to speak a language in a smooth and natural way, as native speakers do.

For example, in Chinese, we can say:

  屋里有张桌子，桌子上有几本书。

But translated into English, it will become something like

  There is a table in the room, and on the table there are some books.

In this sentence, the 2nd "the" is needed. Why? Language sense. But in Chinese, there is no need of such article in front of the 2nd 桌子, and we all know that both the 1st and 2nd 桌子 refer to the same table.

Another example:

  After finishing his lunch, he started running out of the house, but tripped on the doorsill and broke his leg.

So why are the 2 "his's" needed? Language sense. Someone may argue that without the 2 "his's", we don't know whose lunch he ate, and whose leg he broke. True, but again why do we need those specifications in English? Language sense.

In Chinese we will say:

  吃过午饭后，他向屋外跑去，可却绊在门槛上摔断了腿。

See, here we don't say 吃过*他的*午饭, nor 摔断了*他的*腿, why? Language sense. If you say 吃过他的午饭后，他向屋外跑去，可却绊在门槛上摔断了他的腿, then it is not wrong, but it sounds very bad, as this is not the natural way native speakers speak.

Chinese is a contextual language, which means a lot info of sentences are hidden in the context. Chinese language also relies heavily on default info (缺省信息 or 默认信息). If no specific info expressed in sentences, then we just interpret them in the normal situation, by drawing info from the same sentence or from context.

So in some cases, need of 了 is just language sense. You need to get yourself used to it and familiar with it.


For talent in a specific area, the word 天份 is better choice than 天资, which can also means 'talent' but in a more general sense. When you say someone has 天份(talent), you need to specify in what subject the talent applies; When you say someone has 天资, it means that person has a nature ability to learn, doesn't matter what is the subject.

We don't measure 天份' with '多 and 少',  We measure '天资 or 天份' with '有 and 沒有' ; '高 and 低'

有天份; 沒有天份 (have talent/ talented; have no talent)
天份高: 天份低 (highly talented; low in talent/ not very talented)

  弹钢琴他有很多天资 should be written as "弹钢琴他很有天份" which is a [topic]+[comment] sentence structure with "弹钢琴" as the topic and " 他很有天份" as the comment.

For a more common [S+V+O] structure, the sentence should be written as " 他很有弹钢琴的天份"

  Is this correct usage of the word 天资?

Example of correct usage of the word 天资:

"他天资过人，學一年就能弹钢琴" - His talent is extraordinary, can play piano after only a year of learning.

"凭他的天资，考上多伦多大学不成问题" - With his talent, be admitted to the University of Toronto is not a problem.


Could someone translate text carved on my flute?

与史郎中钦听黄鹤楼上吹笛 李白
一为迁客去长沙，西望长安不见家。
黄鹤楼中吹玉笛，江城五月落梅花。

Translation is difficult for chinese poems, for charm will be lost for most times.
龙秦 is not the author, the author is 李白 the most famous poet wellknown as the poetic genius libai.
The meaning of this poem is:

Demoted to Changsha, look west to Changan but there is no home there. Hearing jade flute play in the Yellow Crane Tower, seeing plums fall at may in Jiangcheng（Wuhan）.


How did 鳥 end up a Kangxi radical but not 烏?

Radicals are not building blocks of characters, they're dictionary entry organisation headers. They're equivalent to the first letter in an English word. The radicals are chosen so that some characters are easily and obviously grouped under these headers, but some radicals are very arbitrary (see e.g. Radical 4 and the characters grouped under it).

The optimisation of a Chinese dictionary (at least the Kangxi dictionary) is concerned about how to organise 50,000 characters whilst choosing the number of appropriate dictionary headings (radicals) to split these 50,000 characters under.

In this light,「烏」is less suitable than「鳥」as a header, because many more characters are clearly grouped under「鳥」rather than「烏」. However, if one looks at Shuowen Jiezi, which has 540 radicals (as opposed to Kangxi's 214), one has more leeway in including radicals; indeed, Shuowen has「烏」as a radical.


What is the difference between Chinese simplified and Chinese traditional?

Simplified is used in mainland China. Traditional is used in other areas, like Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan, etc...
Simplified, no surprise, simplified some (not all) of the characters from traditional.
e.g.
What are some good movies recently?
最近有什麼好看的電影? (Traditional)
最近有什么好看的电影? (Simplified)
That is all, they have same pronunciation, grammar, vocabularies in standard Chinese.
Note: The 'standard' could be argued.
Edited: Some words (not too many) have different pronunciation, but I think that is a topic about dialect or oral Chinese, and has nothing to do with the simplified/traditional characters.


I think "appreciate" should be the right word.

I'd say the first meaning, "to be grateful or thankful for", of the word is not related. But 2nd and 4th meanings are good matches. See http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/appreciate for the meanings that I mentioned.

I am not sure if one can apply it to somebody. Correct me if I were wrong.


Glyph origins: are explanations in such dictionaries authoritative or just later vague interpretations?

You seem to think the studies are vague or just imaginary. They are not.

For example, 人 is the drawing of a man, 山 is the picture of a mountain. The relation is clear and you don't need to be very imaginative to draw the conclusions.

Same with ideograms in all ideographic languages, the relation of a symbol and its meaning is sometimes dead obvious. Do you call all these interpretations "vague" or "imaginary"?

  Where do such interpretations come from?

Traces of etymology on single characters are seen on earlier classical texts, but the major source is the dictionary 说文解字, which is written in East Han dynasty, 1300 years after the first oracle bones. Later studies are largely based on this dictionary.

  Are they based on older documented sources or are they later interpretations based on individual attempts of imagination and decomposition of a certain character?

Early documentation on the etymology of individual characters is scarce. There are individual attempts, probably a lot. The inventor of Chinese (if there is one) didn't leave any documents, so it's probably the only way to go.

Fortunately the Chinese writing system is largely ideographic, so the interpretations can't go very wrong. There is a set of general rules called 六书, it is a quite accurate description of the basic principles of creating Chinese characters.

The author of 说文解字 haven't seen a single oracle bone, but many of his interpretation can be verified by the later discovered oracle bones.

  Are they authoritative in the sense that these explanations are widely accepted or they vary among different sources?

Later scholars have found errors in 说文解字, but it's still largely a credible source.  The study of Chinese etymology is a mature subject. Competing theories on single characters do exist but rarely do you see it.


why was it considered acceptable to change 嘀嘀 to 滴滴?

This news (嘀嘀打车改名了! 正式更名为滴滴打车) has an explanation about it.

  更名是公司长远战略发展的需要，“滴滴”较“嘀嘀”更具有文化内涵及寓意。【滴】是水滴下落的清脆声，有着滴水成河的凝聚意义。

According to its official 微博, the name was changed for the needs of long-term strategic development, 滴滴 has more cultural connotation and moral than 嘀嘀. 滴 means the clear and melodious sound of water dropping, has the cohesion meaning of "many drops of water make a river".

This news (嘀嘀打车改名为“滴滴”) has another explanation about it.

  依据小桔科技官方的解读，更名为“滴滴打车”，一是取与象声词“嘀嘀”的谐音，二是取“滴水之恩当涌泉相报”之意。

According to the official story, the name was changed because (1) 滴滴 has the same pronunciation with the onomatopoeia 嘀嘀; (2) takes the meaning from 滴水之恩当涌泉相报 (drop the boon of the water, be to flow out spring to report mutually).

  业内分析认为，滴滴改名也是出于商标侵权避嫌考虑。

According to the industry analysis, the name was changed to avoid trademark infringement trouble.

(BTW: 滴滴打车 still had trademark infringement trouble even after changed the name. See 改了名字也侵权 滴滴打车再次成为被告.)

  What is the meaning of 嘀嘀 here

As the above statement mentioned, 嘀嘀 is 象声词(onomatopoeia), I guess it came from the voice of car horns.


The words for "boyfriend" and "male friend" - 男朋友，男性朋友，男的朋友

男朋友 mean both "boyfriend" and "male friend". Can 男性朋友 also mean "boyfriend" as well as "male friend"?

No, "男朋友" means 'boyfriend' exclusively. For both men and women.

A woman would refer to her male friends as "男性朋友" or "朋友"

A man would refer to his female friends as "女性朋友" or "朋友"

Most of the time men and women just use the unisex term  "朋友"

  Are 男性朋友 and 男的朋友 the synonym?

Yes

  If you have multiple "boyfriends" or "male friends", how do you express?

If you have multiple "boyfriends", they are all your "男朋友"

If you have multiple "male friends", they are all your "男性朋友" or "朋友"

  If a man uses "男朋友", does this mean he is a gay? Or does this always mean "male friend"? (and is there any other word to express "boyfriend for gay"?

If a man calls someone "男朋友", that means he is his 'same sex partner', and yes, they are gay.

  Are all the above the same in the case of 女朋友/女性朋友?

No,  women sometimes call their female friends "女朋友",  but usually just "朋友" ; Men never call their male friends "男朋友"

Women do not call their female friends as "女性朋友"

Men do not call their male friends "男朋友" or "男性朋友" , they just call them "朋友"

In summary

Men and women usually call their friends "朋友".
"男朋友" to a man (in a gay relationship) or a woman, means "boyfriend"
"女朋友" to a man, can only mean "girlfriend"
"女朋友" for a woman, can mean "girlfriend" (in a lesbian relationship) or "female friend" (in joking manner)


What is the difference between 刚刚 and 刚才 in Mandarin?

Both means the same, but which one sounds more natural depends on what the questioner uses.

if they ask:

你刚刚去哪了？

you answer with:

我刚刚回家了。

if they ask:

你刚才去哪了？

you answer with:

我刚才回家了。

Of course, it's not wrong to answer 刚刚 with 刚才, it's not that big of a deal, both works, just a matter of preference really.


How to convert from hanyu pinyin to IPA?

Personally I think the IPA given in the Wikipedia page for Pinyin is organized well and the symbols don't change like other pages I've seen, i.e.  the browser changes to other symbols ruining the IPA scheme.

Like it has been said, the IPA transcription might change in some words endings when you transcribe real speech, so you must be aware of that and know what the different symbols mean.


只要 indicates a sufficient condition, i.e. "只要A就B" means "A => B", "The fact A guarantees the fact B". 就 or 便 usually gives a sense that something is simpler than one expects, so such adverbs match with 只要.

只要你努力，你就会成功。
You will (simply) succeed as long as you work hard.

只有 indicates a necessary condition, i.e. "只有A才B" means "A <= B",
"Condition A is mandatory for B to be present". 方 or 才 usually gives a sense that something is more difficult than expected, or some scenario requires more conditions than expected to achieve, so these adverbs match with 只有.

你只有努力，才会成功。
You can only succeed if you work hard.

In other usages of 就 and 才, they play similar roles, i.e. giving optimistic/pessimistic senses.

我老公昨天三点就回来了。
It was only 3 p.m. that my husband came home yesterday. (I didn't expect him to come home so early, but he did).

我老公昨天九点才回来。
It was not until 9 p.m. that my husband came home yesterday. (I expected him to come home earlier, but he just kept me waiting).

In English it doesn't require an adverb to complete a sentence with a conditional clause; but in Chinese, without an appropriate adverb like 才 or 就, the sentence will sound incomplete. Since these words are required to form a sentense, your grammar book may suggest they are conjunctions/连词, but I think in fact they are adverbs/副词.
Among them, 才 and 就 are more common in everyday use, while 便 and 方 may sound too formal. Other possibilities are rare as far as I can think of. I would suggest that you only memorize these two patterns: "只要……就……" and "只有……才……", for these two appear in our primary school textbooks as well.


A hilarious passage.  My edition says 漢巴德牛排 (no comma), if that's correct it's some kind of beefsteak; in the wine list there's a 巴德, could be related, beef steak with a wine based sauce? The article suggests port for 巴德, why not bordeaux? All guesses on my part.

Some of the other dishes also look mangled: 澳洲翠鳥雞 the Australian kingfisher chicken surely should have a comma before chicken.

If you get a complete translation, please put it up here!


What does 聊斋志异 mean and what is its cultural significance?

According to Revised Chinese Dictionary of the Ministry of Education, ROC:

  聊齋為蒲松齡的書房，志異是說記錄一些怪異的事情，借鬼狐之事，抒發對現實政治、社會的不滿。

So 聊齋 (聊斋) is simply the name of Pu Songling's studio. 聊 could possibly mean "fun" or alternatively "to depend" or "to rely on". 齋 means a study (as in a room in which one pursues literary endeavours). 志異 (志异) simply means "records of strange happenings".


What is the function and/or meaning of the 2 '以‘ in this phrase?

以 means "with" here

[授人(give people)] [以  (with)] [鱼 (fish)] [不如 (not as good as)] [授人 (teach people)] [以  (with) ] [渔 (lessons of fishing)]

授 can mean "to give" or " to teach"
鱼 is noun for "fish"
渔 is verb for "to fish"

授人以鱼不如授人以渔 = " It is better to teach someone to fish than give someone fish. "


Are Chinese characters always in a perfect square shape, or are there fonts with rectangular characters?

From what I know all fonts put the character in a 'perfect' square.
Handwritten, Chinese/Japanese people do not put them in a perfet square of course.


That character doesn't have a specific meaning, because it almost always used in a sequence of characters which represents the sound (not the meaning) of the original texts, that is usually in Sanskrit language.

It is like you call Jack by "杰克". The two characters mimic the pronunciation of the name Jack.


Hanban/HSK Official Website Resources Download

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

(this is in response to the below)

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


Using xiànzài and zhèngzài in a single sentence

"现在", "正在", "在" all have the meaning of "now", but have slightly differences. "现在" is more like "nowadays", "正在" and "在" are equivalent to me, they are all like "-ing" in English. "现在我正在学汉语" sounds like "Nowadays I'm learning Chinese".  "我正在学汉语" means "I'm learning Chinese". "现在我学汉语" is weird, it's like "Nowadays I learn Chinese".  And you are right, as a Chinese, "正在" and "在" are equal to me if you want to use them to express "-ing".


Most often, we use the term "stream" -- as in "I am going to watch Sccc's stream playing Dota 2 online" -> "我要看Sccc在网上的Dota 2 直播"

Broadcast is a more formal term used when the contents are broadcast onto a television or radio.


Does 住 人 mean "people living in the area" or "real live people, as opposed to puppets and fictions"?

It would help if you provided the sentence in question.

Baidu (http://baike.baidu.com/view/1402096.htm) gives two definitions for 住人 as a noun, meaning either residents or, in the right construction, a group of people demarcated by the preceding description

ABC has 住人 as a separable verb meaning to "accommodate or put up people"

现代汉语词典 doesn't list 住人

And since 住 is a common complement, it could be that 人 is the object of V+住

It could also appear in 同住人, meaning husband and wife, and in 常住人口, meaning permanent residents


The first sentence is correct. You don't need a "得" in this sentence.

Here I want to show you a way to maintain your express correct and beautiful.

The key point you can check your gramma in an easy way is detecting the main branch of a sentence and then do some extensions.

For instance:

  The main branch of "Her treatment of the guests is very
  friendly." is "Her treatment is friendly.(她的招待是友好的。)".

After clarify the main branch of a sentence, you can now add the details into your sentence, it's always a best way.

The sentence now looks like:

  "Her treatment of the guests is very
  friendly.(她对客人的 招待是 很 友好的)"

At last, change and delete some words, which makes your expression more fluent and direct.

  "她对客人的 招待是 很 友好的" -> "她招待客人很友好"

Step by step, a correct and beautiful Chinese sentence is created by yourself.Is it interesting?

Hope my answer helps you.


How to translate the phrase "just because . . . it doesn't mean that..."?

This is a translation close enough for your purposes probably:
她有了男朋友不代表她上课不专心


Why the popular name for Pandas 熊猫 consists of its words in inverse order 猫熊?

Popular perspective : “猫熊”变“熊猫”

  抗日战争期间，在重庆举办了一次动物标本展览，正式对公众展出了“猫熊”这种动物的标本。当时人们写汉字的顺序还是从右到左，可是写“猫熊”时，却依了英文的书写顺序，从左到右了。结果，“猫熊”让观众念成了“熊猫”。这次展览，是熊猫首次在大众面前亮相，影响很大，“熊猫”之名也传播开了。

[ In 1940s, at an exhibition of panda specimen, the name of panda is written from left to right as 猫熊 in accordance with the English name. But at that time people were used to reading from right to left, so it was read as 熊猫, and became popular little by little. ]

Another perspective : 談“熊貓”和“貓熊”

  “熊貓”語源上可能還是出自“小熊貓”
  大熊貓太像熊了 (熊頭、熊身、短尾), 小熊貓太像貓了 (貓頭、窄身、長尾)。因此小熊貓應該稱“熊貓”, 大熊貓應該稱“貓熊”才是！而早期熊貓、貓熊的混淆, 其源頭可能就是在於小熊貓！

[ 熊猫 might come from (be confused with) 小熊猫 (lesser panda/red panda). ]


Are the characters for sleep and feel the same?

Chinese characters can have multiple meanings and multiple pronunciations. You figure out the intended pronunciation and meaning based on the context. In the context 睡觉 （Shuìjiào，"go to sleep"), the pronunciation is jiào and the meaning is "(a period of) sleep". In the context 感觉 （Gǎnjué， "feeling"), the pronunciation is jué and it contributes the meaning "feel".


What does 你吃了吗？mean?

「你吃了嗎？」
此句的原義是確認“吃的行為”。譬如：
「吃藥時間過了。你吃了嗎？」
「這個蛋糕很好吃。你吃了嗎？」
"Have you eaten?"
The original meaning of this sentence is to confirm the action of eating. For example,
"The time to take medicine has passed. Have you taken it?"
"This cake is very delicious. Did you eat it?"

不知道什麼時候開始，它變成「打招呼」用語。原因可能就像一般人推測的那樣：民以食為天。維持生命最重要的東西就是食物。
Nobody knows when it became a greeting. The reason may be something as most people speculate: hunger breeds discontentment. (Foodstuff is all-important to the people.) The most important thing to sustain life is food.

所以，這句話常見的意思大概就上面這兩種。
Therefore, the common meanings of this sentence are probably the two above.

What other slang words are there?

一、和「你吃了嗎？」同義的「打招呼」用語：
Ⅰ. The synonymous greetings of 你吃了嗎？:

　　吃了嗎？
　　吃飽了嗎？
　　吃飯了嗎？
　　吃過了嗎？

　　⒈ 可以不加「你」，因為這句話的主詞很明顯。
　　⒉ 「嗎」可以改用「沒（有）」。
　　⒊ 這些似乎不是俚語，只是一般用語。
　　⒈ We can leave out 你 because the subject of this sentence is obvious.
　　⒉ We can use 沒（有）instead of 嗎.
　　⒊ These do not seem to be slang, but common words.

二、 其他的「打招呼」用語：
Ⅱ. Other greetings:

除了「您好」、「嗨」、「哈囉」之類的以外，常見的還有以下這些。
In addition to 您好, 嗨, 哈囉 and the like, some common greetings are listed below.

　　⒈ 和時間相關的：
　　⒈ Time-related:

　　　　早！
　　　　早安！
　　　　早上好！
　　　　這麼早啊？
　　　　午安！
　　　　中午好！
　　　　下午好！
　　　　晚上好！
　　　　晚安！

　　　　「晚安」用在睡覺前，當然不算是見面的「打招呼」用語。
　　　　晚安 before bed is not a greeting phrase, of course, when we see somebody.

　　⒉ 和對方動作或外觀相關的：
　　⒉ Relating to their action or appearance:

　　　　˙ 早上（Morning）

　　　　　　˙ 對孩童（To children）

　　　　　　　　˙ 去學校啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ （去）上學啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going to school?

　　　　　　˙ 對上班族（To (office) workers）

　　　　　　　　˙ 去工作啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ （去）上班啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going to work?

　　　　　　˙ 對主婦（To housewives）

　　　　　　　　˙ 去市場啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going to the market?
　　　　　　　　˙ （去）買菜啊？
　　　　　　　　˙ Going food shopping?

　　　　˙ 回家時段 (Late afternoon)

　　　　　　˙ 放學了啊？
　　　　　　˙ Are classes over?
　　　　　　˙ Coming back from school?
　　　　　　˙ 下班了啊？
　　　　　　˙ Getting off work?
　　　　　　˙ 回來了啊？
　　　　　　˙ Coming back?
　　　　　　˙ 累不累啊？
　　　　　　˙ Tired?
　　　　　　˙ Are you tired?

　　　　˙ 晚餐後 (Evening)

　　　　　　˙ 去散步啊？
　　　　　　˙ Taking a walk?
　　　　　　˙ 去逛夜市啊？
　　　　　　˙ Going to the night market?

　　　　˙ 過年時 (Chinese New Year)

　　　　　　˙ 恭喜！恭喜！
　　　　　　˙ Gōng Xĭ! Gōng Xĭ!
　　　　　　˙ Congratulations!
　　　　　　˙ 去拜年啊？
　　　　　　˙ Going to pay New Year's call?

　　　　˙ 穿著運動服 (Wearing sportswear)

　　　　　　˙ （要）去運動啊？
　　　　　　˙ Going to exercise?

　　　　˙ 牽著狗 (Walking with a dog)

　　　　　　˙ 遛狗啊？
　　　　　　˙ Walking the dog?

　　　　諸如此類的，非常地多。
　　　　There are many greetings like these.

三、其他俚語：
Ⅲ. Other slang words:

　　這就太廣泛了，無法回答。
　　It's too broad to answer.

有兩句話必需特別說明。
Two sentences must be specified.

⒈ 你吃飽了嗎？

　　在台灣，這是很常聽到的一句話。也就是字面的意思引申為「打招呼」用語。
　　This is a very common sentence in Taiwan. That is, the literal meaning is extended to be a greeting.

　　但是在大陸，則暗示「很笨」的意思。從字面上看不出來有這個意思。我猜是因為這兩句的英文發音非常相似的緣故。
　　But, it implies "stupid" in mainland China. It does not show this meaning literally. I guess it is because the pronunciations of these two sentences in English are extremely similar.

　　你吃飽了嗎？Are you full?
　　你很愚蠢嗎？Are you fool?

　　所以在大陸不要隨便說這句話。
　　So, do not casually say this in mainland China.

⒉ 吃飽了嗎？

　　此句的發音接近韓文中一句很不雅用來罵人的話。
　　The pronunciation of this sentence is close to a very indecent Korean curse.

　　吃飽了嗎 chī bǎo le ma
　　○○○○ xi paer nao ma

　　所以，不要對韓國人說這句話。
　　Thus, do not say this to the Koreans.


主编

Grand Ricci

  Rédacteur en chef (d'un ouvrage collectif).

KEF

  1 rédacteur en chef, compilateur en chef
  2 éditer (une publication)

FLTRP

  rédacteur en chef

CFDICT

  1 rédacteur en chef
  2 diriger la rédaction

总编

CFDICT

  rédacteur en chef (de journal)

Also:

Wikipedia's page for 总编辑 mirrors to the french page for Rédacteur en chef. But the original Chinese page does also mention:

  总编辑，也称总编、主编

So it looks like the Chinese terms are quite interchangeable amongst themselves. 主编 also redirects to the page for 总编辑. I would try not to get too caught up in the semantics of the words.

This seems to be quite a complicated question actually. It's quite a hard one to translate properly and it depends on the context. You can see here for more info here. According to the article one way of translating these back into English is:

主编 = Managing editor
总编 = Executive editor

So 主编 might be something like Chef d'édition.


Can I rewrite 德里克.帕腓特有一个极端得空前绝后的假设 using 的 or 地 instead of 得？

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

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

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

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

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


每个人都...... Why the 都 is compulsory in the sentence.

都 is an adverb for 'All' ; 'without exception'

"每个人带着甜蜜的笑容。" is not grammatically wrong, However, having the adverb 都 before the verb 带着 (carry), add emphasis to the fact-  'All of them/ without exception'

'人人带着愉快的笑容' = 'everyone carry pleasant smile on their faces'
'人人(都)带着愉快的笑容' = 'everyone, (without exception), carry pleasant smile on their faces'

It would be easier to see the difference if you replace 每个人(each person) or 人人 (everyone) with a term that hasn't already indicated the meaning of 'all'

For example:

'外面的人们带着愉快的笑容' = 'the people outside, carry pleasant smile' (we don't know it is some of them or all of them)

'外面的人们都带着愉快的笑容 = the people outside, all carry pleasant smile' (now we know all of them are smiling)

Side note:

甜蜜的笑容 = 'sweet smile' , more suitable for describing smile of beautiful or cute girl


A Golden Rule for When Chinese Repeat a Word Twice X Twice? 热热闹闹

As a native Chinese speaker, I've never learned the AABB "grammar rule" from book. This means it's never considered as a kind of grammar rule at least in my student age.

But I don't agree with @gcd0318. There is difference between AB and AABB. In Chinese, repeating usually means emphasize the AB word, or to make the sentence sounds good to phonology.

e.g. 勤恳（diligent and conscientious） vs. 勤勤恳恳
Although they have the same mean, but use 勤勤恳恳 always make the audience feel that the speaker is highly applaud one's diligent and conscientious. Use 勤恳 doesn't have the strong emotional feeling.

Back to your example, 热热闹闹, it's the same as usage of 勤勤恳恳. It emphasize how  bustling it is.

And see this great answer for usage of repeating words in Chinese.


(盡)(是)(女)(身)，(後)(不復)(受)

(結束)(此)(女性)(身形)，(後世)(不再)(承受)

After finishing this female form, she will not take/receive it again in the future lifes.

(知道意思就好了，不要太在意細節。)


Why there is "不” in “太极不是未有天地之先有个浑成之物，是天地万物之理总名否？”

the text from 朱子語類 卷一 理氣上 has the structure: a is not b, [because] a is c; isn’t it?

  問﹒太極不是未有天地之先﹒有箇渾成之物﹒是天地萬物之理總名﹒否

it would be interpreted as:

[someone] asked (問): “tai chi (太極) is not (不是) [exist] before the universe (未有天地之先), as a (有箇) turbid (渾成) thing (之物),  [tai chi] is (是) the name (名) of the set (總) of principles (理) of everything (萬物) in the universe (天地); isn’t it (否)?

the logic of the second verse is:

thing-1 in the universe has the principle 1 (p1), thing-2 in the universe has the principle 2 (p2), . . . thing-n in the universe has the principle n (pn).

so, the set (mathematics) of these principles is the collection of each principle; a pantheism view.

back to the question, the quoted explanation of baidu is incorrect

have fun :)


Meaning of 漂漂亮亮地参加晚会

Your understanding is correct. This sentence is equivalent to

打扮得漂漂亮亮去参加晚会


I asked the author of the blog eastasiastudent.net about it and he told me it was probably a mistake. Given the comments from @fefe and @JasonSwift, my conclusion is that the author of the first link was trying to describe a real phenomenon in spoken Chinese (i.e. the phenomenon described in the accepted answer of the referenced SE question) but made a few mistakes in the description.


In 毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员，底薪一千八, why does 最开始 translate to "went to work"?

毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八
after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800

[在一家房地产公司] {做销售员} -> (went to) {work as sales staff} [at a real estate agency].


In the context "你是又被變種狂牛攻擊喔了喔？", it is basically just a metaphor for "are you out of your mind?", not that a mad cow really exists.


Is this translation English to Chinese translation correct or close?

An unprecedented (一个前所未有的)

look into  (探讨)

the food and culture of Iceland (冰岛的食品与文化)

from Iceland's premier chef and the owner of Reykjavik's Restaurant Dill (从冰岛顶级厨师兼雷克雅未克区的迪尔餐厅老板)

Chinese grammar:
从冰岛顶级厨师兼雷克雅未克区的迪尔餐厅老板(的角度), (去作)  一个前所未有的, (对)冰岛食品与文化的探讨
from Iceland's premier chef and the owner of Reykjavik's Restaurant Dill ('s point of view) (to take ) an unprecedented look into the food and culture of Iceland

'premier' is not a noun here, it is an adjective for "leading"
The guy is a leading chef and he is also a restaurant owner
史无前例 usually referring to ground breaking/ historic event. A look into the food and culture of Iceland doesn't seem to fit the requirement. If America elected a gay or female president, that would qualify as 史无前例


What is the purpose of 并 in 他虽然并不聪明， 可是很努力?

並/并 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/844/
[3] [adv] (used before a negative for emphasis) actually; definitely; really

~

他虽然不(not)聪明， 可是很努力。
他虽然并不(actually not)聪明， 可是很努力。

Other example of 并 as an adverb before a 'negative':
無(doesn't have) --> 并無 (actually doesn't have)
未(have not/ not yet)--> 并未 (actually have not/ actually not yet)
沒 (doesn't have/ did not)--> 并沒 (actually doesn't have/ actually did not)
並 in '並有'(also have) or '並已'(had also) means 'also' since  有 and 已 are not negative

'並' 不一定 等於 '並且' ('並' does not always equal 'and also')
'並' 并不一定 等於 '並且' ('並' actually does not always equal 'and also')


Are there northern dialects which still preserve velars before front vowels?

I'm not sure 北方话 here means mandarin (官话) languages or the Chinese languages in northern China.

If the former, most 桂柳官话, i.e. southwestern mandarins in Guangxi, meet your requirements.

If the latter, some dialects in Shandong preserve the pronunciation somehow between palatal and velar.

A CCP political figure 孙政才, who is from 山东荣成, speaks with an accent with this feature. BTW, he was beaten by Xi, sentenced to life imprisonment.

孙政才讲话


In ancient time Chinese people were creating new characters. Now they don't. Only new chemical elements create new character.

  What are the rules, what is not allowed, what is allowed?

六書造字原則 is one of the rules.

  Who is allowed to create one? How do you associate a sound with it too? Is it free to create your own?

As far as I know, empirer and his government was allowed to create. 武則天 created 曌 for her own name. There were government officers who controlled the writing system. They might work on characters.


Stop reading that article - it is totally wrong.

The issue is that 书 and 书本 are both plural and singular at the same time. Which one it is depends solely on the context. For example, it is plural in 我常常讀書: "I read books often". In contrast, it is singular in 把書放下: "Put down the book."

You can specify plurals, however. How that actually works is that 本 is a counter for books (书). For example, 一本书 meaning "one (volume of) book". Therefore, to get plurals, you can use @windrose's example of 几本书, meaning "several (volumes of) books".

It is essentially a coincidence that the counter for books can be appended to the character for books to make 书本. Do not assume you can do this with any noun.


As the others' answers and comments have pointed out, the most common written form of this phrase is 真的, even when it is used as an adverb. 真地 is rarely seen, and may even be considered "weird" or "incorrect".
Wiktionary lists 真的 (with this particular written form) as both an adverb and an adjective (真的 - Wiktionary), and doesn't have a page for 真地.
In 《现代汉语八百词》(Eight Hundred Words in Modern Chinese), editor-in-chief 吕叔湘(Lü Shuxiang), the entry of 真 is as follows:

...

c) 修饰动词、形容词以带‘的’为常。（我真的要走，不骗你 | 他真的不想去 | 你真的有意见？ | 事情真的很顺利 | 昨天来的真是老李吗？）
d) ‘真的’修饰全句，可用在主语前，后面有停顿。（真的，手术后恢复的比别人都快 | 真的，我们厂今年提前两个月完成了全年计划）

...

c) Usually with "的" when modifying verbs or adjectives. (I'm really going to go, no kidding | He really doesn't want to go | Do you seriously have an opinion on this? | things went really well | Was it really Li who came yesterday?)
d) "真的" can modify the whole sentence. It can be used before the subjective with a following pause. (Really, [dropped subjective] recovered faster than all the other people after the operation | I'm serious! Our factory accomplished our annual goal two weeks before the year ends this year)

The use of 真的 but not 真地 as an adverb is (almost) uncontroversial, but also, on the surface, a blatant outlier of the usual 得-的-地 distinction rules taught in schools. So try and consider this a convention that doesn't conform to these rules. musialmi's comment is right: it can be considered as a two-character adverb that happens to contain the character 的. 真地, on the other hand, is not used, or even if it used, it was probably because of hyper-correction influenced by 得-的-地.

[I'll digress a little in this paragraph and talk about another issue that musialmi brought forth in their comment. Probably not all people will agree with musialmi on 十分的. Words like 十分, 非常, 相当 are adverbs of degree; it is yet universally agreed upon whether it should be 的 or 地 when you want to add a de modifier after them. Both 非常地 and 非常的, for example, can be seen in literary works. In this case, if you don't want to be nitpicked by grammar police, sticking with 地 would be a safer approach, because "地 for adverbials" is agreed by mostly everyone (again, there are exceptions like 真的太可爱了). But more natural will be not putting a de modifier after an adverb of degree at all (十分地/的有趣 → 十分有趣), because words like 十分 or 相当 don't need one.]


Is there a 成语 that means something like "Little dogs always bark the loudest"?

Here's some supplement to Kevman's answer.

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

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


What does the sentence 该视频随即被上传至网络，转发量过万 translate to?

Considering the context of the article, I would translate this as:

  该....视频.................随即.........被上传....至....网络，......转发量...过万
  the video (was) immediately uploaded to the internet (and) the number of shares/retweets/reposts (is) over 10k

该 indeed means "the above-mentioned" but in most contexts you can just translate is as "the". In normal spoken conversation we'd say 这个/那个.

被 is a passive marker, indicating that the subject is the receiver of the verb rather than the do-er, i.e. the video did not "upload", rather it "was uploaded".

至 just means 到 (to). It's the formal character, common in news etc, but in normal conversation we would say 到.

The character 量 means "quantity" and can be added after a noun. For example "转发" is "forward/share/retweet" and "转发量" is "the number of forwards/shares/retweets".

过万 simply means "over 10000".


雷剧 is short for 雷人电视剧，which means this drama is just one of the worst,making you feel 'shocked'.
雷 also means thunder in Chinese.So 雨戏 and 风戏 actually mean nothing, the actress was just playing with language.


How does "migrating birds have lost the south" fit into this song?

well as you can see at 如果两个人的天堂, the lyric tell us that there are a couple, 像是温馨的墙  tell us that the man/girl feel that their love like just like a wall, 囚禁你的梦想 imprison the his girlfriend / her boyfriend dream, 幸福是否像是一扇铁窗 then he begin to think, is this happiness has become a barred window that imprison the dream, 候鸟失去了南方 just like group of bird need/want to migrate to south, but they can't.

It's a very interesting metaphore, bird are usually migrate to the south when north become cold, it is something they need to do. In this song the writer illustrate that dream is something that as important as bird need to migrate. But when we has somebody that we love, somehow that love is stronger than the dream that we need to pursue. So the writer say this love just like prison that imprison us from pursue our dream.

Hope that explain your question, this is a very good song, I heard it once years ago, and what a surprise i can hear it again when i open your question.


Difference between “当…时”, “…的时候”, and “当…的时候”?

"当(~~~)时” is the shortened form of  “当(~~~)的时候"

  "(~~~)时” is the shortened form of  “(~~~)的时候"

“当(~~~)时” = “当(~~~)的时候” = "At the time when (~~~)"

当 = at/ during
的时候 = the time when/ of

Example:

"当(没有其他选择)时" = "当(没有其他选择)的时候" = "At the time when (there's no other choice)"

you can replace '当' with '在' and write "在(没有其他选择)时"

"(~~~)时” = "(~~~)的时候” = "when(~~~)"

Example:

"(没有其他选择)时" = "(没有其他选择)的时候" = "when (there is no other choice)"


What's the Mandarin equivalent of 埋 in Cantonese?

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/946/

  埋

  /maai4 /  jyutping

  /mai2/ /man2/   pinyin

  [1] [v] bury; cover up; lay sth underground

  [2] [v] conceal; hide; lie low

  [3] [粵] [v] finish up; close out; settle (an account)

  [4] [粵] [v] move closer/nearer to; close in/up

  [5] [粵] [adv] closer together; nearer to

  [6] [粵] [adv] even; too; also; as well

In "記住帶埋手套", "埋" means "too"(see [6]) . In Mandarin, it is "也".
The sentence would become "記住也帶手套"
in "走之前要閂埋房門" , "埋" means "close in/up"(see [4]). In Mandarin, it is "上". The sentence would become "走之前要閂上房門"
"佢跟埋我哋一齊去", "埋" means "as well" (see [6]).  In Mandarin, it is "也". The sentence would become "他也跟我們一起去"

More examples:

When 埋 = finish up

Cantonese: 做埋啲功課先可以去玩。
Mandarin: 做完那些功課才可以去玩。

When 埋 = closer together

Cantonese: 你兩個企埋啲。
Mandarin: 你們兩個站近點。


What are some profanity words in classical Chinese?

As to classical Chinese in the strict sense I know no examples.  Going up to 8th century, The poem "To send far way" by Li Bai (701--762), also known as Li Po, contains two lines translated by David Hinton as

We made clouds and rain love our farewell,
Then nothing but autumn grasses remained.

I cannot find the Chinese on line.  The expression is often traced back further to a classical work "Gao Tang Fu/高唐賦" (for which my historical source is https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_Yu) and you can see the original at https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/高唐賦.  But that work only sets up a vague association between sex, clouds and rain.  The phrase  "clouds and rain/云雨" for sex seems to owe more to Du Fu's Tang Dynasty poem: " Wu Gorge and more clouds and rain the night," see http://baike.baidu.com/view/130025.htm

For whatever reason, the phrase "clouds and rain/云雨" has come to refer to sex.  It is not a verb.

For more, follow the advice of 倪阔乐 above.  I am afraid you will not find what you are looking for.


Yes, "亲爱的" does indeed has a slightly different connotation to the English "Dear". It is not used as liberally in Chinese letters and emails. "亲爱的" expresses a closer relationship than "Dear" does. The following are situations where you may or may not use it:

When is it definitely OK:
you writing to your spouse
you writing to your lover
you writing to your parent(s)
you writing to your colleagues
an organization writing to its customers or patrons
an institution writing to its students
When should I use my own judgement as to whether its appropriate:
male writing to a male friend
male writing to a female friend
female writing to a male friend
male student writing to a female teacher (depending on relative age)
male apprentice writing to a female mentor (depending on relative age)
you writing to complete strangers
When is it definitely NOT OK:
male writing to a female acquaintance
male writing to a female colleague
job seeker writing to the human resource department of a company
anyone writing to higher authority

In business letters (公函), salutations (修饰词) such as "亲爱的" are seldom used as it is quite informal and personal. Instead, "尊敬的" may be used if the letter is addressed to a higher authority. However it is often dropped, sufficing with just a title to address the person:

  XXX先生

  XXX经理

For informal letters, "亲爱的" is appropriate if it is used to express closeness in a relationship. It could be written by an organisation. However, on a personal level, care has to be taken to avoid misunderstandings especially when the addressee is from the opposite sex.


This question could be split into two types of terms: new expressions & old expressions.

I would rather split it into the following:

Textual usage in the classics & history, and later
Pre-Qin paleographic occurrences

While resources for the former are abundant (resources like 漢語大詞典 and later will give a good survey, even if not the earliest usage), resources for the latter are specialised and scarce. This is because literature of the former category are basically canonicalised, while texts in the latter category are still a fresh, hot area of research.
For a searchable database of the latter category,

For words, see 先秦甲骨金文簡牘詞彙庫.
For single characters,

The average user should look at 漢語多功能字庫 - this gives detailed paleographic explanations for each entry

If you have a  working knowledge of Pre-Qin script shapes, you can use 小學堂. Note that each entry in 小學堂字形演變 also links to a 漢語多功能字庫 entry if it exists.

小學堂字形演變 does not aim to give accurate glyph origin explanations. The character explanations given directly underneath the table are mainly from well-known or canonicalised books for reference purposes, and may or may not be the modern professional consensus.
The aim of 小學堂字形演變 entries is to provide a professional consensus on the historical forms of a character and related characters, presented in a table. For the actual explanations behind a character, please see the 相關索引 section underneath each entry for the references.

Worked example for words on 先秦甲骨金文簡牘詞彙庫: Earliest occurrence of the term 中國

Go to 先秦甲骨金文簡牘詞彙庫

Click on 詞彙檢索資料庫

Type 中國 in the box labelled 詞彙. Optional filters include (Leave blank to not apply any filter restrictions):

Part of speech (詞類)
Resource type:

Oracle bone script (甲骨文) and associated literature
Bronze inscriptions (金文) and associated literature
Bamboo and wooden slips (簡牘)

Click 查詢

Only one result comes up:

The citation (書籍 & 編號) is 殷周金文集成 6014.

嚴式 & 寬式 refer to strict and loose spelling: Since 國 did not exist originally, the word representing 中國 was originally written as 中或. Thus, 中或 is the strict spelling of the word as it appears in the inscription.

殷周金文集成 is hosted on 國學大師, and you can search record #6014 there:

Have fun deciphering! E.g. analysis of a short fragment:

隹（唯）珷（武）王旣（克）大邑商（則）【⿺⿹人彡】（筳）（告）【⿰于弓】（于）天曰余（其）宅（兹）（中）或（國・域） 自（之）【[⿰]】（乂）【⿸目十】（民）
For (唯) King Wǔ (武王) had already (旣) defeated (克) the Great (大) State (邑) of Shāng (商). He thus (則) conducted ritual divination (筳 > 筳篿) and prayed (告) to (于) Heaven (天), saying (曰):

I (余) shall (其) settle (宅) in these (兹) central (中) regions (或 > 國・域), and govern (乂) the people (民) from (自) here (之).


The general term in mainland China is 奶酪. 乳酪 is seen as well. 干酪 seems the standard term in Taiwan, where the phonetic translation 起司 is also seen. Hongkongese have a phonetic translation 芝士.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


复盘：

  To rearrange pieces according to the previous sequence when a board game is over in order to study the merits and faults of the game.

As metters said, replay seems good, or review or as it says: study the merits and faults of the game


泉州，簡稱泉或鯉，又稱刺桐城、清源、溫陵。
Although 清 can be transliterated as chin, it does not seem to be the reason.

Quanzhou, formerly known as Chinchew.
The Postal Map name of the city was (note: should be "is") "Chinchew", a variant of Chincheo, the Portuguese and Spanish transcription of Chiāng-chiu.
It is uncertain when or why British sailors first applied the name to Quanzhou. Variants include Kangiu, Chinchu, and Chincheu.

所以，Chinchew 是從葡萄牙語、西班牙語的 Chiāng-chiu 轉譯而來。


饮 is more of a classical term which mostly exists in established words and phrases:

As verb: 饮酒, 饮水思源，饮鸩止渴, 饮泣, 饮恨, etc.
As (part of) noun: 饮品, 饮料, 饮片, 饮具, 冷饮, 饮食, 饮用水, etc.

Use 喝 in everywhere else.

Usually you don't create words and phrases with 饮. I tried a few and they all sound funny:

饮可乐, 饮咖啡, 饮西北风, 饮汤 -- DON'T EVER USE THESE.


you should use a dispositive marker like 将

我将英文译成中文。 我将英文译成中文
汉语 refers to spoken Chinese; for written Chinese, use 中文

you can use preposition [由 ~ 成] or [从 ~ 成] (they both mean "from ~ to")

我将哈利波特由英文译成中文 or simply "我將哈利波特译成中文"
you can omit '由英文' because we all know Harry Potter is originally an English novel

翻译 is the standard term for both written translation(笔译) and spoken translation (口译) -- the terms you cited. In practice, no Chinese would use those terms.
Native Chinese would not replace 翻译/译 with either 笔译 or 口译 . We can tell it is a written translation or spoken one by looking into the context. If you say a book is translated into Chinese, you don't need to say it is written; When you say the translators in a meeting translate for the heads of state, we know they are translating orally.
Interpreter is called 传译員; to interpret someone's speech in real time is called 传译 or 即时传译


Is there a difference between 夂 and 夊, radicals 34 and 35 and 攵, Kangxi 66?

Yes. There is a difference.

There is a fine discussion elsewhere of Kangxi radicals 34 and 35, 夂 zhi3, "walk slowly" and 夊, sui1, "go."

It is incorrect to say that they are variants. They are modern descendants of different characters and their appearances today are far easier to confuse than they have ever been in the past. Whether "walk slowly" and "go" are similar or different in meaning is a matter only of opinion, and the plausibility of any arguments made would depend upon the contexts summoned.

The most common radical resembling these is Kangxi #66,攵 or 攴, both   pu1, "tap." Hanzi which need walking or going in their make-up are much more likely to use 彳, chi4, or 廴, yin3, I would have thought, but this is my uninformed opinion and I would love to see some of the good statistical work going around.

The "tap" radical, Kangxi 66, is different in both meaning and history from the two above, much as it resembles them in handwriting. It descends from 攴, pu1, and even in handwriting it should but doesn't differ from 34 and 35 in that its modern form is four brushstrokes, not their three. (Dian-heng-pie-na vs. Dian-wan-na, is it? The 永-based theory of the brush strokes would have it that they're all four strokes, but they obviously aren't.)

The differing ancestries of all three become clear in two different ways. Wikipedia and Wiktionary conveniently offer the Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese uses of all three and they are clearly distinct. Within the various Chinese orthographies and authorities, the similarities of handwriting are demolished by the utterly different Cangjie inputs.

Wikispaces, sadly, is gone now. It was closed down to a mere marker toward the end of 2018 after a brief but very fine run.

"Canjie" deserves a capital C in all these sources since it is an adjectival form that stems from a personal name. The eponymous 倉頡,    Cāngjié, was nominally the inventor of the Chinese characters. He is said to have done this in 2650 BCE but this date is clearly approximate, among other things because the date of Jesus of Nazareth's birth is not known exactly.


What are the characters on this image, and what do they translate to?

it is 隔岸觀火(隔岸观火).

It means (比喻见有危难不加援助而采取看热闹的态度）watch a fire from the other side [from the opposite bank] of the river -- look on at sb.'s trouble with indifference; adopt a “wait-and-see” attitude; look on (without sympathy); Praise the sea, but keep on land.; show utter unconcern; watch the fire from the other side of the river -- not interested in sb.'s success or failure. (from http://www.iciba.com/%E9%9A%94%E5%B2%B8%E8%A7%82%E7%81%AB)


How was Switzerland transliterated into Chinese?

Did 瑞 used to be pronounced suì in 官話?

It was pronounced far closer to suì than today’s ruì, and more than enough to warrant the use of 瑞 as a transcription for Switzerland or Sweden.

Excerpt from
元・周德清《中原音韻》,
detailing the phonology of 13th Century Central Plains speech, a.k.a.
Old Mandarin. The
characters 睡, 稅, 說, and 瑞 are pronounced identically. The expected
Mandarin reflex of 瑞 is shuì.

Excerpt from the Ming Dynasty publication 《洪武正韻》, which details the speech of Ming-era Mandarin. The dictionary gives the Fanqie of 瑞 as 殊偽切.

Whatever changed the pronunciation to r- must have happened relatively recently...


Similar as for words, tone sandhi also apply for 成语. So 一年四季 is pronounced as "yì nián sìjì", 一波三折 is pronounced as “yì bō sān zhé” and 一马当先 is pronounced as “yì mǎ dāng xiān”. 一触即发 however is pronounced “yí chù jí fā”.


I like to distinguish verbs of more than one character in two categories:

可分離 (You can separate the two parts and put a character in the middle)

不可分離 (Strictly forbidden to separate the two. They need to be together)

In the 可分離 category you will find:

動賓 (Verb + Object)
動詞 + 結果補語 (Verb + Result complement)

得到 is a verb with a 結果補語 (result complement).
For this kind of verb, the first character carry the main verb part. The second character is the result.
You can negate the result if the result is not achieved by adding 不. Or you can emphasize the success of the action or ask a question about whether it succeeded or not by adding 得.
Remember that this kind of verbs is special because you can always separate the two parts adding either "不" or "得" in the middle.

說出來 -> 說不出來， 說得出來
吃下 -> 吃不下，吃得下
撇清 -> 撇得清，撇不清
聽懂 -> 聽得懂，聽不懂
離開 -> 離得開，離不開
記住 -> 記得住，記不住

You can see that 到，出來，下，清，懂，開，住 are all results here.

得到 seems a bit special, because the verbal part is already "得". You can say 得不到，but 得得到 is strange!

我雖然努力學習，但好像還是得不到好成績

動賓 (Verb Object) is also interesting:

見面 -> 見個面
吃飯 -> 吃個飯

This time, you can separate them to add a measure word. And when you think about it, it makes sense: you can count the object part.

動賓 are special because the "object slot" after the verb is already busy. It means it's forbidden to add a second object immediately after.
「我想見面王先生」 is wrong.「面」already occupies the "object slot". So you can't add「王先生」since it's a second object.
Instead, you need to use another construction which separates the two objects:「 我想跟王先生見面」

我想吃飯麵糰 is also wrong for the same reason. Here, so as to make the "object slot" free for what you want, you can actually remove the「飯」part.
我想吃麵糰
This technique can also be used with 見面. You can make the "object slot" free by removing「面」. This will allow you to put your own object right after the verb.
我想見王先生

Think of the objects in the Verb Object category (面，飯) as a default object if you don't want to specify one. This allows the verb to still be a bigram so that it becomes a bit longer and easier to pronounce and to understand.

That explains why when we say 我想吃飯, it doesn't necessarily mean that we are going to eat rice. Rice was just the default object as we didn't specified our own. It only means "I want to eat."

「不是不是！我真的想要吃飯啊」

But it could also be that the object we want to select happens to be the default one! Then the sentence above could also mean "I want to eat rice".

不可分離 category

留學
參考
害怕
活該
住院
處理

You'll see that no matter what, the two characters need to be together for the verb to be complete. They can't be separated, because they are both part of the verb meaning. You can not put any 個，得 or 不 in the middle.


the book 小山畫譜 has an entry "夜來香":

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

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

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


Why was the rice component added to 气 to form 氣?

說文解字 has both references for 氣 and 气.

Put simply, 气 and 氣 comes from different origin and somehow merge together into one stream later.

In detail: 米 is not added to 气 to get 氣 in Tang Dynasty. Long time ago, 氣 appears in the form of Bronze inscription, though different meaning as 气. 氣 is originally designed to mean the "air generated from digesting food". While 气 is originally designed to mean the physical gas. In the reference of 氣, "饋客芻米也" means "氣 is a verb, showing the action of giving guest fodder (芻, chu2) and rice (米) as gift." 饋 (kui4) is "to give someone gift". 氣 with this meaning later becomes 餼 to clarify the action relating to food.

So nowadays, in Taiwan, 氣為餼之異體 (氣 is another non-standard variant of 餼). Also, according the 教育部異體字字典 气為氣之異體 (气 is another non-standard variant of 氣). In China mainland, 氣 is replaced by 气 as standard.


Chinese Poem And Seal Translation Needed

the text, with my best guess:

水殿亭¹亭荷 飛鳧浴³晚波 香

凮²吹不斷 時送采蓮歌　為

兆南五兄大人雅正之

丁酉冬月石泉何濂畫

¹the actual character is a variant (u+20158), i guess most os, app can't display it correctly. have a look of this page:

http://chardb.iis.sinica.edu.tw/char/28048

²凮 (u+51ee) is a variant of 風 (u+98a8)

³浴 is my guess only, might be wrong :(

edited, here's an variant adjusted, character "浴" assumed, interpretation of the poem:

  水殿亭亭荷

[near] a building at the shore (水殿), [growing] nobly and honestly (亭亭) [are] lotus flowers (荷)

  飛鳧浴晚波

wild ducks (飛鳧) are bathing (浴) in the evening (晚) ripple (波)

  香風吹不斷

[lotus] scented (香) breeze (風) is blowing (吹) non stop ((不斷)

  時送采蓮歌

occasionally (時), [the breeze] is carrying (送) [the sound of] the song of harvesting lotus root (采蓮歌)

[pending] for (為) fifth brother (五兄) who named "兆南"'s comment / criticism (雅正)

"大人" is a courteous title added to "兄"

"雅正" is a courteous term for "begging for other's comment" (懇求他人指正)

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000152166

"之" referred back to the painting and poem.

"丁酉" is one of the sexagenary cycle, for indicating year, it would be 2017-60i (i is any integer)

2017 - 0%, 1957, or earlier, are more likely.

"冬月" means eleventh month of lunar calendar

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000048678

now, the trickier part: 石泉何濂畫

"石泉" i would interpret as "石泉縣", a small county in 陝西

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/石泉县

cause, in the past, it's common to declare one's ancestral home (籍貫) before one's name. and, it's very unlikely that one would write his given name / courtesy name before his surname.

"何濂" is the author of the painting and poem, with "何" as surname, "濂" as given / courtesy name.

畫 means "draw / paint"

the seal is

石何
泉印

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

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

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

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

have fun :)


None. They are synonyms, although they also have separate different meanings.

稍等 = 稍候 = wait a minute.

等候 = 等 = 候, although 候 is rarely used as a single character with this meaning.


How to translate 债权 and 债权转让 into English?

the 國家教育研究院 (of taiwan, in traditional chinese) maintains a bilingual academic terms database.

http://terms.naer.edu.tw/download/

in 會計學, you may download the zipped excel file,

http://terms.naer.edu.tw/download/101/Term_101.zip/

that you may find:

債權移轉　subrogation
債權，求償，索賠　claim

have fun :)


@Stan's reference to NS.X's answer gives a good explanation. 是...的 construction doesn't necessarily imply past action. It's just for emphesis. It's easy to give some examples for this usage.

  I will never buy iPhone. I only use Android phone. 我是绝对不会买 iPhone 的。我只用 Android 手机。

NS.X's answer said that the 是 … 的 construction emphasises time, manner or place. In fact, it can also be used to emphasise the action(verb) itself. In 我是绝对不会买 iPhone 的, 的 emphesizes 不会买(won't buy). 是 can be left out here. (You can also say that the 的 emphesizes the whole sentence.)

With regard to没有人不喜欢自己的, the 的 is used here to emphasize on 不喜欢(doesn't like). Its full version is 没有人是不喜欢自己的. 是 is left out here.

Look at the fourth meaning item of 的 from Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, 6th Edition.

Figure 1. Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, 6th Edition, page 272

④用在陈述句的末尾，表示肯定的语气：这件事儿我知道~。
It can be translated as "Used at the end of a declarative sentence, indicating an affirmative tone: I do know this thing."


The character is「囍」, which means double happiness (2×「喜」). The script is cursive, so it may be a bit hard to recognise.

You can either read it as xǐ or shuāngxǐ (雙喜).

BTW, Pleco's handwriting recognition tool turns it up as the first result, even with messy handwriting.


Use of 还 in reference to "on top of that, also"

还 ( hái ㄏㄞˊ )

  (7) 更加 [even more]。
  (9) 不但(不仅,不光)…还… [not only ...... but also]。

In the economic sense, good ideas can increase productivity, and can also produce new innovations and inventions.
在经济方面，好的想法能提高生产力，而且还能产生创新和发明。

Similar words of 还能:

还可以
好的想法可以提高生产力，(而且)还可以产生创新和发明。

也可以、也能
好的想法可以提高生产力，(而且)也可以产生创新和发明。

更可以、更能
好的想法可以提高生产力，(而且)更可以产生创新和发明。

不但(不仅、不光、不只)能……，还能(也能、更能)……
好的想法不但能提高生产力，还能产生创新和发明。


What semantic notions underlie 頁 ('page') with '預' ('beforehand')?

「預」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*las/, ahead/beforehand) is comprised of semantic 「頁」 (head) and phonetic 「予」 (/*laʔ/).

The components of a character contribute hints to the character based on what the components meant and/or sounded like at the time of the character's first appearance. 「頁」 (/*leb/) did not originally mean page; that meaning is a phonetic loan from 「葉」 (/*leb/, leaf > flat sheet > page).
「頁」 (head) was originally a picture of a kneeling person 「卩」 drawn with an emphasised head 「」 (now written 「首」). The legs of the kneeling person 「卩」 was later replaced with the legs of  「人」.

商甲乙8780合集22217西周金卯簋蓋集成4327秦簡法律答問75睡虎地秦簡篆頁部說文解字今楷
Forms 1, 2, 4, 5 refer to 「頁」. Form 3 refers to 「項」.

When it is found in other characters, 「頁」 holds the meaning head (anatomy from the shoulders upwards) as a semantic hint. For example,

頭 head (+ phonetic 豆)

頸 neck (+ phonetic 巠)

領 neck > collar (+ phonetic 令)

題 head > main topic (+ phonetic 是)

額 forehead (+ phonetic 客)

頂 summit (+ phonetic 丁)


Idiom, common phrase crossword puzzle challenge

Done! I used simplified Chinese...
Don't be too cruel to me(from a Soviet song I just listened), I know most of members still didn't see this, so hide my answer for several hours if you want...


How to write "bei wu long" in Chinese and what is its origin?

I'm pretty sure that the " Bei Wu Long" is "摆乌龙". "乌龙" in Cantonese sounds like "own goal" in English. You know own goal is a big mistake, right？

It is a long story. According to this website, is is original from a folk tale in Canton. Once upon a time, there was a drought. People prayed to the "青龙"(Green Dragon) because it can bring rain. However, at last it was the "乌龙"( Black Dragon) who bring disaster that answered to them. The situation became worse.

Then in 1960s, journalist in Hongkong use "乌龙" to describe the "own goal" in soccer game because the "乌龙" sound similar in Cantonese to "own goal".


What are the differences between 效果 and 效应?

效果: result; effect

效应: effect

  1.虽然学校采取了一些措施，但是没有什么效果. 2.虽然学校采取了一些措施，但是没有什么效应.

Both 没有效果 and 没有效应 are correct if you want to say "no effect"

When you want to say "result" then you must say "效果"

Example:

"US tax reform has not achieved the expected results" = "美国税改并未达到预期的效果"

"US tax reform has not created the expected effect" = "美国税改并未产生预期的效应"

Since 效果 has meaning other than 'effect' We usually translate 'effect' as 效应

As user 3306356's answer stated:   'the butterfly effect' is translated as 蝴蝶效应 (the butterfly effect) instead of 蝴蝶效果(the butterfly effect/result)


One correction from the original sentence:

  喜欢她就主动一点儿， 机会是不 会 自己跑到你面前的。

It means: if you like her, you should be proactive / take initiatives, since chances wouldn't run for you automatically(implying she wouldn't call you first).

The sentence can be paraphrased as: 如果你喜欢她，你就主动一点儿， 机会是不会自己跑到你面前的。


What title did Qing China use for US presidents?

Formally, the Chinese title was President - that is, the English word President was transliterated into Chinese as 伯理璽天德. From the Treaty of Wanghia (望廈條約):

以上關涉太平、和好、貿易、海面各款條約，應候各大臣奏明大清大皇帝批准，大合眾國大伯理璽天德既得各國選舉國會長公會大臣議定允肯批准...
The present Treaty of peace, amity, and commerce, shall be ratified and approved by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by the August Sovereign of the Ta Tsing Empire...


What's the grammatical structure for "  like a " style simile in Chinese

This is indeed a complex matter. From the way you ask, I guess you're interested in the grammatical aspect, which is what this answer is focusing on.
Because Chinese language uses serial verb construction, the simile is expressed as a V-O (verb-object) clause with simile connective as verb and vehicle noun phrase as object.

[simile clause] = [connective verb][vehicle noun phrase][optional simile suffix]

Simile connectives include: 像, 好像, 好似, 如同, 仿佛, etc.
The suffix is an optional part to emphasize the analog. Words include: 一样, 一般, 似的, etc.
Choosing connective and suffix are highly contextual and idiomatic. I don't think there are simple rules. However, connective 像 and suffix 一样 are applicable in most cases. When in doubt, go with these two.
Because there is no ordering relationship between the original verb clause and the simile clause, they can be placed in either order:

[subject][original verb clause][simile clause]
[subject][simile clause][original verb clause]

A common realization with 像..一样 is:

[subject][verb clause]就像[vehicle noun]一样
[subject]像[vehicle noun]一样[verb clause]

Using your example,

The light flickered like a candle.

Can be translated into

灯光闪烁不定，就像烛火一样。
灯光像烛火一样闪烁不定。


Taiwanese brand of computers called 嘉馬電腦

Is 嘉馬電腦 a normal-sounding brand name to Chinese-speakers?

Yes, while I do not know this brand, it sounds like the kind of names a native would have made. You want your computer to run fast, like an auspicious horse, presumably.

  Is this a reasonable translation?

No, because it would be difficult to make out what is the original Chinese. For proper nouns, it is probably best to use a romanization (e.g. pinyin) along with original characters in Chinese.

I would translate it to "Jia Ma Computer (嘉馬電腦)", or if the meaning is important, "嘉馬電腦 (lit. The Auspicious Horse Computer)"


How did 炒 semantically shift to mean 'speculate' and 'perform badly (in a test or exam)'?

炒魷魚 is a Cantonese slang for 'fire' (from a job)

In olden time, many employees would live in the employer's place. When an employee was fired, He had to 執包袱 (roll up his belongings in a bundle to pack them) and leave.

炒魷魚 got the meaning of 'fired' because when you stir fry squid, they would roll up like a bundled package and that resembling the action of '執包袱' (pack up and leave) . Nowadays, we use 炒 (fire from job) as a shorthand for 炒魷魚

As for 炒 in 炒股票 (to speculate in stocks) and 炒樓 (to speculate in property). It is short for  炒買，炒賣

Meaning quickly acquire and quickly sell off stock or property to make a quick profit (different from normal investment) like making a quick stir fired dish. Since 炒 means 'to stir'  The act of 炒股票 and 炒樓 also imply 'stir up the market'

  (Hong Kong Cantonese) to perform badly (in a test or exam)

This meaning of '炒' came from another slang '炒車' (having a car accident) You can imagine cars being threw around in an accident like food being stirred in a wok. 炒 therefore, took on the meaning of 'to ruin' extended to --> perform badly (in a test or exam)


When is it necessary to use 来 to convey the meaning "in order to"

Simple rule: If you've got another verb after 他， translate 来 as to.

Of course, things are a bit more complex!

把杯子拿到这里来。(来 corresponds with hither)
把杯子拿到那里去。(来 corresponds with hence)
他用水来浇花。(来 corresponds with to)
他用铅笔来画画 (来 corresponds with to)
他明天来看你。(来 corresponds with ? He tomorrow to see you ?)
他马上来和我们一起吃饭。(来 corresponds with ? come? to?)

Nothing ever 'to' but it also 'come', just depends where you're standing!

You can't really use English to make sense of Chinese! Chinese makes sense!


How are 我们把那张画儿挂上去吧。and 我们挂上去那幅画吧。 different?

[1. 我们] [2. 挂] [3. 上去] [4. 那幅画] [5. 吧]
[1. subject] [2. verb] [3. directional (verb) complement] [4. object] [5. final particle]

The problem here is, in Chinese grammar, the object should be inserted between the 'verb' and the 'directional complement'
The following is the correct structure:

[1. 我们] [2. 挂] [3. 那幅画] [4. 上去] [5. 吧]
[1. subject] [2. verb] [3. object] [4. directional (verb) complement] [5. final particle]

~

why 我们挂上去那幅画吧。with 上去 is not acceptable, but, if I leave out the 去， 我们挂上那幅画吧。is acceptable. How are they different?

The reason why "我们挂上去那幅画吧" is not acceptable has been explained above.

"我们挂上那幅画吧" is not technically incorrect, but the meaning is ambitious. Since the indirect object is omitted, it could mean "我们(在身上)挂上那幅画吧" or "我们(在墙上)挂上那幅画吧"

In summary:

Both "我们把那张画儿挂上去吧" and "我们挂那幅画上去吧" are clear and correct

我们挂上去那幅画吧 is grammatically incorrect

我们挂上那幅画吧  is too ambitious, it needs an indirect object

我们挂那幅画吧 actually removed the ambiguity, because '挂上' is equally applicable for 'on person' and 'on the wall', while '挂' strongly implied  'to hang (on the wall)'

Example of [verb]+ [direct object] +[indirect object]

In " I give you a toy",  'you' is the indirect object, and 'toy' is the direct object
similarly, in "我们(在墙上)挂上那幅画吧", '那幅画' is the direct object, '墙'is the indirect object


哎呦，我的妈
āi yōu wǒ de mā

This is what you heard. It is similar to "oh my goodness" in English, which generally means that things are beyond expectation.

哎呦 = Oh
我的 = my
妈 literally means "mother", but it could indicate someone or something you respect


Why “外籍球员” is written as "外援" instead of "外员"？

外援 Is short for 外來援軍 (reinforcement from outside). It refers to players who came from outside of your organization

Although in practice, all the 外援 are 外籍球员, but in theory, a team can borrow a player from another local term for a period, and that player from other term can also be called 外援 (outside reinforcement)

My point is, 外 in 外援 doesn't refer to 外籍(foreign), it refers to 外來 (from outside); and 援 is not a short form of 援助 (assistance), but a short form of 援軍 (reinforcement)

As I stated before, since all the 外援 are 外籍球员, people can safely presume 外援 = 外籍球员

outside of team sport lingo, 外援 mostly refers to "Foreign aid", short for 對外援助 or 外來援助


你跑步跑得很快, grammarly correct and common.

你跑步很快 common but odd a little.

你跑得很快 grammarly correct and most common saying.


Asking Someone How Their Chinese Studies Are Going

It's correct. It sounds native enough.
"怎么样" in this sentence is used for asking how the things are. i.e. Are they good or bad? It's the same in "你过得怎么样" (literally "How are you getting along (these days)? ")
Your friend could answer "还行" ("not so bad") "很好" ("very well") or "不怎么顺利" ("not so well"), as a few examples.


Why is "這麼些" at the end of the sentence, "開會的人來了這麼些" ? Is it a quantity complement?

這麼些 can be directly translated to this many/much, 那麼些 is that many/much, and like it is in English, it doesn't necessarily mean "a lot":

A: How much pizza did you eat?
B: This much.
A: I can see why you are so slim.

If you do want to say "many", you want to use 這麼多 or 那麼多.
Back to the original sentence, of course they can be put to the front.
So many people have come to attend the meeting. should be translated to 這麼多人來開會了.
Much (A lot of) work has been done. should be translated to 很多工作已经做了.
By the way, if you use a a quantity complement in Chinese, it usually indicates that you have something else to say:

This meeting only attracts this many people. Is it organized by baboons? //会议只来了这么些人，组织会议的是狒狒吧？
That much work has been done. If you change the plan I'll eat you alive. //工作已经完成了那么多，你要是再改计划我就把你生剥了吃掉。

To sum up, "開會的人來了這麼些" and "工作已经做了那麼些" are not accurate translations. Your book is weird.


How did the word "ketchup" come into the English language?

As a ketchup lover, and a fan of Lea & Perrins Worcester Sauce, I can see the Chinese, fishy-brine, vinegar-based connection.

Have a look here. Especially 3、

One of these words may be the Daddy of the word ketchup: 茄汁”、“鮭汁”、“醢汁


What does '来' means when it is used to describe age?

Base on the two different answers from user6065 and steveLangsford, my conclusion is, "the dictionary definition of 来 really should be a '概数' (approximate number) synonym to '上下' or '左右'. Which mean 二十來岁 = 二十岁左右 (approximately twenty)

But in practice, most people see 来 as a synonym of 几 and eventually became accepted fact that "二十来岁" means "二十几岁 (twenty something)"


I think 倒页 means upside down pages. Check out this result from Baidu Image:

As you surmised, 脱页 refers to the pages falling out. Check out this result from Baidu Image:

Note that the translation should probably have loose pages instead of loosing pages.


In the context of a video lecture/vodcast/... how to translate "I would like to talk to you about ..."

I think the audience you would target is important.

To the people from mainland, I suggest putting this like "在這裡，我要和大家聊一下（關於）..." or "在這裡，我們要聊的話題是...". Using 我們 is a good choice because the audience may feel you were with them. 大家 and 聊 can pull you closer to your audience on the topic, as if you were chatting, instead of teaching. If you want to talk about 牛肉麵, you could say "在這裡，我要和大家聊的話題是'牛肉麵'" or "在這裡，我們要聊的話題是'牛肉麵'" .


What's the difference between 载体 and 媒介？

The difference between "载体" and "媒介" in Chinese is equivalent to the difference between "Carrier" and "Medium" in English. So, you pretty much can figure this out immediately after I told you that, if your English is well enough.


Evidence provided by the UK shows:

《江西省信丰县地名志》(1987) page 378

⿺见↷见 = hidden

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


My intuitive guess was it has something to do with 行会. So I looked it up and there it is:
from baidu baike
(although the entry is about 行会 and not 行, so everything would technically still be based on my original assumption, which isn't that bad of a guess from a native speaker's perspective):

  行会产生于隋唐。唐代工商业组织大都称“行”，源于街巷上的贩卖摊商，往往一条街上开设的都是同类的店铺，故称“行”，如“织锦行”、“金银行”等。到了宋代，行会组织更加发展。

So it turns out that during Sui/Tang dynasty, it often happened to occur that along a certain street, there were exclusively shops doing the same kind of business, and therefore the 行 (line).


胄 (由 + 月) means descendants, whereas 冑 (a different character, 由 + 冃) means helmet. Since they look similar, they got merged.

华胄 means either of Han lineage or of noble descent.

There is no word 华冑, which would mean Chinese helmet.


Is it incorrect to answer a 是不是 question with 对 or 不对?

阿里 took 丁波's question "她家离学校是不是不太远？" (Is her home not too far from school?) as a rhetorical question--  a statement await confirmation.

阿里 presumed 丁波 knew the girl's house was near by the school.  Therefore,  he replied "对"  to confirm 丁波's statement was correct.

If it was a real question that 丁波 did not know the answer, the reply of '是不是' should be either '是' or '不是'

Example:

"她家离学校是远还是不远？" (She wants to know is the girl's house far away from school or near by it)

Then the answer should be either "是很远" or "不是很远"

As for why 阿里 presumed 丁波 knew the girl's house was near by the school, it could be some indication in 丁波's earlier statement,

For example:

丁波: "She told me that she always go home for lunch, but the school lunch time is only one hour, is her house not far from school?"

From the details in the question, we know "is her house not far from school?" is a rhetorical question.

阿里 can then replies : "是"(yes), "她家离学校不是太远" or "对" (correct), "她家离学校不是太远."


A verb negated with 没 / 没有 cannot be suffixed with 了. Is this true?

TL;DR: Yes and no.  The most relevant grammar structures are:

没 + [verb] (with no 了), e.g. 我今天没吃饭 (I haven't eaten today);
[duration] + 没 + [verb] + 了, e.g., 我一天没吃饭了 (I didn't eat for one day);

along with:

没 + [noun] + 了, e.g., 我没有米饭了 (I don't have rice [anymore]);
不 + [verb] + 了, e.g., 我今天不吃饭了 (I won't eat today [anymore]).

These last two use the change-of-state 了.
(I'm a learner, so there may be exceptions I'm unaware of.  In writing this answer, I tried to cross-check as much as reasonably possible.)

1. Negating past actions
The most relevant grammar structure is the following.

Subj. + 没有 / 没 + Verb
Negation of past actions with "meiyou"

This should be thought of as the default:

我今天没吃早饭
I haven't eaten breakfast today

There's no semantic distinction between 没 and 没有 here: pick whichever is most suitable in the given context.
Adding in a change-of-state 了 here, if it isn't plain ungrammatical (i.e. no state is being changed), is probably going to sound weird.  This was emphasized in dan's answer.  As another data point, this Zhihu article (although not a reliable source for grammar) talks about how they feel 我还没吃饭了 (I still haven't eaten) is a regional dialect, with one author writing ...这个语法很奇怪 (this grammar is very strange).  However, this doesn't stop it being used: see Baidu "我还没吃饭了".  As an aside, we can use the modal particle 呢 here: 我还没吃饭呢.
2. Duration of inaction
Using 没...了 with a verb ordinarily (always?) implies we are using the construct:

Subj. + (已经 +) Duration + 没 + Verb + 了
Expressing duration of inaction

(I'll ignore 已经 for simplicity.)  In the running example, 今天 is not a duration.  So here's another example:

我超过二十个小时没吃东西了
I, [for] more than twenty hours, have not eaten anything

If we wanted to use this grammar structure with 今天, we could say:

我今天一天没吃饭了
Today, I haven't eaten all day

3. Change of state (noun)
If you're anything like me, there might be confusion with

没(有) + [Noun Phrase] + 了
Expressing "not anymore" with "le"

It's the change-of-state 了, for when we no longer have something.  For example:

2050年就没有巧克力了 (source)
in 2050, [there] will be no chocolate [future change of state]

4. Change of state (verb)
If we want to highlight a change of state for a verb, the appropriate grammar structure is:

Subj. + 不 + Verb + 了
Change of Situation in the Negative

In this case, there's some variety, such as:

我明天不吃饭了
I won't eat tomorrow [change of decision]
从今以后,我不吃肉了 (source)
From today on, I won't eat meat [current change of state]
我好几年不吃猪肉了 (source)
I, for many years, have not eaten pork [past change of state]

Above we have a change of state, but (for contrast) below we don't (so no 了):

回族不吃猪肉
Hui Muslims don't eat pork [no change of state]


Yes, `one day' can certainly be used to refer to events in the past as well.

A better translation of "One day, the boy went for a walk" could be "有一天, 那个男孩外出散步", or less literary, "那个男孩出门走路". "去了走路" is not grammatical, "去走路了" and "走路去了" are grammatical but do not fit in here.