How do I find the rules used to create the simplified version of the characters?

Before we try to answer the question proper, we need to first clarify that there are many 'simplified versions' of characters throughout the course of history, happening in many different times and under multiple context.

The natural development of a character form would usually be from a simple to more complex structure to differentiate nuances in meaning. There are also various cases in which complex character structure need to be simplified for practical reasons.

Changes in form also result from the transitional history of the Chinese Script from Oracle Bone 甲骨 through the Bronze Script 金文, Seal Script 小篆, Scribe Script 隸書 and Standard Script 楷書 used today. The most significant changes are from Seal to Scribe, so a lot of 'simplification' would be happening at that time.

There is also the independent Cursive Script tradition. There were two, to be precise - the 章草 Zhang1cao3 from the time of the Scribe Script to the 行草 Xing2cao3 which is conventional shorthand for the Standard Script [SS]. These have their own rules for simplification that is to be reckoned with for its own sake.

If what you meant by 'simplified form' were all of the above, you might have to read several phD theses to get all the answers. So, I naturally assumed you were basically concerned with the rationale for creating the corpus of simplified script during the Simplification Movement in PRC in the 1950s.

As you would find out from the answer below, many historical instances have been incorporated into the corpus. Making Simplified Chinese [SC] characters a conglomerate of different principles used in different context at different times, some as recent as the Simplification Movement itself.

The major corpus of the SC characters defined in the Commonly Used Table of Standardized Chinese Characters 《通用規範漢字表》 are actually historical forms of writing, known in Chinese as 傳承字 chuan2 cheng2 zi4 or "passed-down characters".

These come in two categories. One is a historically different way of writing the same word in Standard (block) Script or 楷書 kai3 shu1. We shall call them Standard Script Alt-Forms [SSA]. The other is Cursive Script [CS], adopted in block form as the Simplified Character.

Here's one interesting example for the former case:

於－于　[SSA]

While the two characters have different origins (於 is a bird and 于 is a musical instrument), in most of the early Chinese texts, 于 and 於 are found to be used interchangeably as a preposition with the sound of yu2.

This can be seen in the Zhuangzi, a Pre-Qin text:

  〈齊物論〉Qi2wu4lun4：是以聖人不由，而照之于天。

Translation:

  Therefore the Sage does not abide by (worldly dualistic principles) but rather sheds light into (worldly feuds) from (the perspective of) heaven.

The same book contains prepositional usage of 於, in another of its seven inner chapters:

  〈大宗師〉Da4zong1shi1：夫藏舟於壑，藏山於澤，謂之固矣。

Translation:

  If we were to hide a boat in the valleys, or a mountain in the marshes, it would have been secure enough.

Loan instances aside, the character 于 was actually more consistently used as preposition than 於, which was commonly used as an interjection ("Oh!"), with the sound of wu1.

There is textual evidence that 于 was preferred over 於 as preposition in very early Chinese texts (dating back to the Western Zhou dynasty):

  《詩·大雅·文王》：「文王在上、於昭于天。」

Translation:

  King Wen is on high;
  Oh! bright is he in heaven.

So the adoption of 于 as a simplified character was actually a return to an old form.

Traditional Chinese [TC] could use both interchangeably anyway (as evident from the Classical texts quoted above), so I highly suspect that 於 as the "standard" TC character for preposition was actually a ROC reaction to the Mainland "simplification" of 于. (That awaits further study to confirm.)

A lot of these pre-existing SSA characters are vulgar forms of a single character in history. Eg. 體－体、塵－尘、無－无、靈－灵 (asked above) .

Others are earlier forms of the same character, which often means the simplified character has a more pictographic quality: 采－採 (hand plucking fruit from a tree)、从－從 (one man following another)、网－網 (a net).

A significant number of SSAs come from loan forms: 后－後、里－裏/裡、余－餘. These are often sound loans which may or may not be related in meaning.

For example, 后 means Empress, while 後 is behind. The meanings are related because a good Empress should leave many offspring behind. 《禮．曲禮》：「天子有后。」〔疏〕后，後也，言其後于天子，亦以廣後胤也。

Many traditionalists would criticize these cases as a corruption of the original meaning of words.

As for the latter, 舊－旧 in question would be one of them.

舊－旧 [CS]

As can be seen in the calligraphy below:

The「日」is a shorthand for 「臼」 below, while「|」is an abbreviation of the shorthand for whatever else lies above the 「臼」.

It can be seen in this less cursive script that the「|」lies just to the left of the 「臼」.

Other cursive forms of the same character are:

Other examples of the CS class of simplification are: 車－车、杨－楊、專－专 etc. Most of these are highly recognized, legitimate forms of simplification, crafted by the literati. (As opposed to the vulgar form introduced above.)

Newly-Created Characters

The remaining (the real simplified characters) would be characters with arbitrarily simplified (or, some would say, corrupted) radicals, the 半記號字 Ban4ji4hao4zi4: 对－對、观－觀、鸡－鷄、 聂－聶、轰－轟、区－區、冈－岡.

Characters of abbreviated form, in which only the 'essential' radical(s) is(are) left behind: 开－開、关－關、医－醫、声－聲、時－时.

And characters simplified though the manipulation of its sound component. Many these are actually newly-created characters just for the sake of simplification.

We may swap one for another: 邻－鄰、艺－藝; or create entirely new-looking forms with little to no resemblance of one another: 惊－驚（京 and 敬 swap for sound, 忄 and 馬 for meaning; the traditional form has the specific meaning of startled steed）、护－護 (The 又 in 護 is also symbol for hand, which is swapped for 扌; 戶 is the new sound component that's been created).

Answer to the "How" Question:

For those of you who can read Chinese, a comprehensive account can be found here.

I also highly recommend the expert edition of the etymological dictionary developed by Outlier Linguistics.


Why is “的” not necessary when talking about someone's body parts?

In 这个女孩眼睛大,  这个女孩 (this girl) is the subject and 眼睛大 is an adjectival phrase for it. Meaning "[这个眼睛大的][女孩]" (this girl with big eyes)

In 这个女孩的眼睛大,  女孩的眼睛 (this girl's eyes) is the subject and 大 is an adjective for it. Meaning "[这个女孩的眼睛][很大]" (this girl's eyes are big)

Similar example:

[他][眼大] = [he] [is big-eyed]

[他的眼][大] = [his eyes] [are big]

[他][手快] = [he] [is fast-handed]

[他的手][快] = [his hands] [are fast]


Is this the seal of Empress Xiaogheghdan, birth Mother of Qianlong Emperor?

it's "重" X "精藏之寶"

the bottom right character is, not yet recognised.


Chinese speakers like 4-beat rythm better, so you should be using 喜不喜欢 most of the time.


Don't both 關心 and 在意 mean the same thing?

It should be "大家都很關心也很在意這件事"
When two different words have a shared definition, they can be used interchangeably in some context. See my answer to this question:  Are there any two chinese words which can be used interchangeably?

關 = relate; 心 = heart

關心 : to be concerned; to worry about; care about

~

在 = in/at/on; 意 = mind

在意 : take notice of; care about; take to heart

If they can be used interchangeably, then you can also use them concurrently, to make them reinforce each other as synonyms
Example:
"大家都很關心也很在意這件事" "Everyone cares about and take notice of this"
The subtle difference:

關心子女安危 (concern about the safety of one's children) expresses a more serious manner than  在意子女安危 (care about the safety one's of children)

我不在意浣熊在我後園出沒。 (I don't care about raccoons coming and going in my backyard.) expresses a more casual manner than 我不關心浣熊在我後園出沒。 (I am not concerned about raccoons coming and going in my backyard.)


Is 用人单位未依法为劳动者缴纳社会保险费的, from a Contract of Employment, ambiguous?

未 actually attaches to 缴纳. 依法 is an adverb here that also attaches to 缴纳, and mostly still an adverb in other places, meaning a certain interest, requirement or enforcement is specified in and/or supported by national law. It's related to but not "legal," which corresponds to 合法.

This whole sentence can be translated into the following:

  (When) The employer fails to pay social insurance for the employee, which is required by law.

Disclaimer: I have not been trained in law settings.


What is the difference between "面对" and "应对"?

To answer your question, "以。。。的太对(态度)来应对／面对 这个问题 ？". If you want to stress on the attitude (positive, negative, responsible, etc), you should use 面对. But if you want focus on the action strategy, then it's 应对.

以积极的态度来 应对 这个问题 -> to handle the issue with positive attitude (we should not wait here, it's not the end, let's do something!)

以积极的态度来 面对 这个问题 -> thinking of the issue with positive attitude (it's not so bad, we still have chance, let's more focus on the bright side)

面对 is usually used to describe a situation. Here 面 means "facing -> regarding to".

Meanwhile 应对 is more focus on taking action. 应 means 响应 (respond), 应付(deal with).

One example can be found here: http://jingyan.baidu.com/article/6b97984d9dadef1ca2b0bfe0.html

面对 危机我们该如何有效 应对

How should we respond effectively (regarding) to the crisis

You can find more similar cases by searching both words: http://bit.ly/1nRji4a


Middle Chinese starting from the Sui dynasty (with the Qièyùn, 切韻, published in 601 CE) actually documented its phonology. These are called rime tables, and break down each character pronunciation into groups by tone and by final. These were employed by scholars in both reciting and composing verse. Using the fanqie 反切 spelling would also have aided scholars in pronouncing characters.

However, the compiling of the Qieyun's pronunciations means that it is unlikely to have been one single system of pronunciation from the outset. It was a group of scholars, who appear to have come from both northern and southern dialect backgrounds, who helped compile the Qieyun. Hence some contest that, much like General Chinese would come to be, the Qieyun system was a diasystem across several dialects. Other see it as the general koine of Sui China as spoken among the educated elite across the nation.

Kroll seems to have employed the Baxter transcription of Early Middle Chinese as based on the Qieyun. The monograph that outlines this transcription comes from his "A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology". He does say that:

  The notation I introduce here is not intended as a reconstruction; rather it is a convenient transcription which adequately represents all the phonological distinctions of Middle Chinese while leaving controversial questions open.

The transcription system itself seems to be fairly pronounceable; whether I would distinguish it from several other finals is another question. That transcription above, trhjowngX is composed of the initial trh-, and the final -jowngX. The initial corresponds to a retroflex aspirate stop (not affricate). The final is an open final of the mixed third division in the Middle Chinese rising tone. I'd personally go for something like [ʈʰjowŋ˩˥] if I had to give some kind of idea of its 'original pronunciation'. But it's not something that is recommended!

The one used in Schuessler's work is the Karlgren-Li reconstruction, although with a different convention for notation of the tones, the glottal stop, the e, i and w medials, and a modification of the "strong palatal medial" in fourth division chongniu. The actual differences between the Baxter and the Karelgren-Li(-Schuessler) are significant, but are structurally similar, based as they are on the Qieyun.


寄 包裹去 上 海 怎 么寄 ？. 去。meaning

In your examples, take 去 as to.

She went 'to' the market ("to" do some shopping): 她上街("去"买东西)'去'了 is a complete translation for the sentence, but wordy with two 去, so just dismiss any.

寄包裹去上海怎么寄: How to deliver the package "to" Shanghai

回家去: go home or go "to" the living place (no "to" as "home" is an adv here)

信寄去了没有: Have you sent the letter "to" (somebody) yet?
信寄出去了没有: Have you sent the letter "off" yet?

带他去几个旅游景点: take him "to" some tourist spots

Well, English uses different verbs for direction of actions, while in Chinese we use the same verb.

带他去上海: take him "to" Shanghai
带他来上海: bring him "to" Shanghai

她买东西去了: she went shopping somewhere
她买东西来了: she bought sth and brought here


What is the difference between 别人 and 别的人?

There are, in fact, two different words written 别人.

The first is pronounced "biérén" and is a noun. It means "other person (other people)" (另外的人). An example of its use is a sentence like

  屋子里只有我和他，没有别人。 Only he and I are in the room, no one else.

The second is pronounced "biéren" (note the neutral tone on the second syllable) and is a personal pronoun. It is used to refer to people other than oneself or the person in question. Dan provides a good example (though I would have used 扔 instead of 丢 -- a native speaker will have to weigh in here); in "是别人丢的", 别人 is a pronoun.

As far as I know, 别的人 can be used in place of 别人 in both cases. Nevertheless, I think 别人 is more common in general, and for some reason I tend to think that 别的人 is more naturally a noun than it is a pronoun.


Why did the actor pronounce 程, "du" instead of "cheng"?

It's 前途 (qian tu) which has pretty much the same meaning as 前程. Probably a typo in the subtitle or the actor said it differently from the script, the director thought it was fine, but the subtitle comes from the script.


There is a very interesting phenomenon in Chinese, called 语音变调（tone sandhi).

Here are the rules. (Note: all the rules apply only characters in the same word/phrase)

Tone Rule #1: 3-3 to 2-3

When there are 2 third tones in a row in the same word/phrase, the first one becomes second tone. This rule is always followed automatically, even though it will not be reflected in the pinyin.

The reason of this tone sandhi, I personaly believe, is because 3rd tone needs a little bit more time to pronounce than any other tones, and if multiple 3rd tones roll in a row, a lot extra time will be needed if pronounce them all in 3rd tone, and that will break down the speech fluency. So in order to keep the speech speed nomal and speak natually and fluently, we drop the lowering part of the 3rd tone, and just keep the rising part, which makes it 2nd tone.

  Like 你好，很好，买米，好酒，土改，检举，冷水，and many more.

Note this rule doesn't apply if the two third-tone characters in a row are not in the same word.

  For example: 中午我出去吃饭。午 and 我 both are still 3rd tone in normal speed, and there will be a very short gap between 午 and 我. But when speak very fast, again 午 will become 2nd tone.

When 3 third tones in a row in the same word/phrase, both 1st and 2nd character will have 2nd tone.

  For example: 你好早啊。Tone pattern is: 2-2-3. This is a greeting used in the morning, used to the peope who arrive before you.

When 4 third tones in a row in the same word/phrase, the tone pattern is: 2-3-2-3. like 剿匪手本。

When 5 third tones in a row in the same word/phrase: 2-3-2-2-3. Like 剿匪手本好.

When 6 third tones in a row in the same word/phrase: 2-3-2-3-2-3. Like 剿匪手本挺好.

Tone Rule #2: 不

When the word 不 (bù) precedes a fourth tone, 不 changes to second tone (bú). This rule is always followed, automatically, even though it will not be reflected in the pinyin.

  Like 不对，不去，不错，不坏，and many more.

Tone Rule #3: 一

3.1 The character 一 (yī), meaning "one," is first tone when alone, or at the end of a word.

  Like 一，第一，始终如一。

3.2 It becomes second tone when followed by a fourth tone。

  Like 一个 (yí gè) 一次 (yí cì) 一寸(yí cùn) 一夜(yí yè)

But This rule is NOT always followed, for example, 一月一号(Jan 1), some people say yí yuè yí hào, but others say yī yuè yī hào.

3.3 It becomes fourth tone when followed by any other tone.

  Like 一斤(yì jīn) 一天(yì tiān) 一杯(yì bēi) 一般 (yì bān) 一些 (yì xiē) 一直 (yì zhí) 一条 (yì tiáo) 一起 (yì qǐ) 一点 (yì diǎn)

But This rule is NOT always followed, for example, (第)一期工程, it is (第)yī qī 工程, not (第)yì qī工程. Another example: 一条, when used in Mahjong for "one stick" tile, it should be pronounced as yī tiáo, not yì tiáo. Some people say 一鸡 (yī jī) for "one stick" tile.

3.4 It becomes a Neutral Tone when in the pattern of X一X.

  Like 听一听 (tīng yi tīng) 看一看 (kàn yi kàn) 走一走 (zǒu yi zǒu) 等一等 (děng yi děng)

The last but not least, DO NOT TRY TO REMEBMER ALL THESE RULES. You just need to listen to native speakers and imitate, until it becomes your natural speaking habit.


Methods/resources for improving formal/business Chinese?

You can actually work on doing this locally. I know a few of my Chinese friends who don't do business, but know every business owner in our local area and can get a decent seat at a restaurant even when people are lining up and these people aren't rich. They are just well networked.

You will need to attend local business events, not the crap your local council will put on, but the kind of stuff that business owners will attend like opening of new stores etc.

Research the different business and find out about the different stories.

Most importantly you will need to have high quality social skills, make others feel good about themselves and build up good guanxi. Which is what you are aiming to do overseas.

If you can do it at home, then you can do it over there.


Is there an authoritative reference for the stroke order of simplifed characters?

You can reference 《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》 published by the Ministry of Education of PRC, which includes the stroke order of over 7000 daily used simplified Chinese characters.

If you want to find some traditional Chinese stroke order resources, check this


I don't really know the answer, but have some hypotheses.

What you saw is actually part of a sentence such as "在大街上嗨" where 嗨 has the meaning of 啊 (an emotion particle).
It's actually Shanghainese. On Baidu somebody asked for the meaning of 吾雷给欧上嗨吾 (which is supposed to be Shanghainese) and somebody answered 我在学上海话 (I'm studying Shanghainese). So according to this 上嗨 refers to 上海 in Shanghainese. I didn't find any other websites supporting this claim. The answer also got the remark that if it would have this meaning 吾 should actually be 哎吾.
This forum is called "学嗨吾吖" which actually refers to 学海无涯 (no limits to what one still has to learn). In this example the tones are changed and 海 is changed into 嗨). This is something that often happens on the Internet (mostly done by young people and sometimes used to bypass the Great Firewall of China). Some famous examples: 和谐 => 河蟹, 什么 => 神马， 肏你妈 => 草泥马, 压力 => 鸭梨, 央视 => 央屎. So maybe the advertisement wanted to appeal to young people.


Among the handwriting styles 章草, 今草 and 狂草, 今草 is the most frequently used. However, compared with 今草, 行书 is even more popular.

That's because:

章草 is the rapid writing of 隶书. Currently, Chinese teachers don't teach 隶书 in primary schools for its old style. Only calligraphy amateurs and experts would learn 隶书 so as 章草.
今草 is based on 楷书 -- 楷书 is formally taught in primary schools -- but 今草 is seldom used by young people, as it's hard to recognize. (Well, I mean the rigorous 今草, but not squiggles at random.) 狂草 is an even faster handwriting of 今草, now I can just see that in calligraphy art works, doctors' prescriptions, and some old educated persons' handwritings.
行书(行楷) takes both the identifiability and the efficiency into account, so it's the most popular.

I don't know whether there's any statistical research work about the most frequently used handwriting style. Now less and less people need to write something by hand, as computers and the internet are occupying our life :( So a person with good handwriting is less seen now.

The most frequently used Chinese computer font should be 宋体, most characters in newspapers and official documents and books are printed in 宋体.

If you want to learn something about the most frequently used handwriting. You can search 行书字帖 in Google, and then you can find many. Because I am not sure about whether they are infringement of copyright, I don't leave any links here :)

By the way, I don't recommend using the computer font 华文行楷 as the handwriting model for practice. Because it's just designed for printing -- and personally, one of my friends, a professional graphic artist, says that font is making people feel visual fatigue.

EDIT

In fact, 章草 consists of seven types:

  原始型, 简章型, 标准型, 章今型, 今章型, 正章型, and 章篆型

The most typical 章草 is 标准型 (standard type, the name has suggested that). 急就章 by Song Ke in Ming Dynasty is one master work of 章草:

As you can find in some characters, some 隶书's styles -- like 燕尾 (swallow's tail) -- still persist. (Note: according to some references, the first character on the top-right is controversial. In the resource providing by Taiwan National Palace Museum, it's 賣; According to 急就篇, it is said to be 洞 or . In this picture, it should be .)

Master work of 今草: 冠军帖 by Zhang Zhi, in Han Dynasty. It's more fluent than 章草.

Master work of 狂草: 古诗四帖 by Zhang Xu, in Tang Dynasty.

Which says

  东明九芝盖，北烛五云车。飘飖入倒景，出没上烟霞。春泉下玉溜，青鸟向金华。汉帝看桃核，齐侯问棘花。应逐上元酒，同来访蔡家。

狂草 is the most casual-like works, and written at an as-fast-as-possible speed. Notice that, casual-like is not casual, it doesn't mean you can freely write something very fast and then call it 狂草 (though, we sometimes make fun to call that kind of handwriting "狂草", with quotation marks). In fact, one needs to learn much about 楷书, experience the laws and spirit of Chinese calligraphy, and then they can write good 狂草 works with a rigorous but casual attitude. It's not easy.
Master work of 行书: 兰亭集序 by Wang Xizhi, in Eastern Jin Dynasty.

This is the most famous Chinese calligraphy works ever. (Yes, I didn't say one of the most.) High school students in China are required to recite the paragraphs of 兰亭集序. This is also considered as a paragon for 行书 learners.


Chinese caligraphy character recognition (three characters only)

The banner is written from right to left (Chinese format)
豐 = abundant
澤 = blessing (gift)
寺 = temple
豐澤寺/ 丰泽寺 [fēng zé sì]: Temple of Abundant Blessing (gift)


Do Mandarin people use 補鑊 as slang to represent fence-mending or damage control?

補鑊
fence-mending; damage control; get a problem fixed
This term is used in Cantonese, not Mandarin/Standard written Chinese

補救 (remedy) can be used in both Mandarin and Cantonese
Example:
事發後才去補救已經太遅了 (Mandarin)
事發後先至去補救已經太遅啦 (Cantonese)
事發後先至去補鑊已經太遅啦 (Cantonese)
~
現在補救還來得及 (Mandarin)
而家補救仲趕得切 (Cantonese)
而家補鑊仲趕得切 (Cantonese)
補鑊 and 補救 are mostly interchangeable in Cantonese


I found two examples when I looked it up in Collins COBUILD:

Mr Sutherland may have the clout needed to push the two trading giants into a deal...

  萨瑟兰先生也许有能力促使两大贸易巨头达成协议。

The two firms wield enormous clout in financial markets.

  两家公司在金融市场有非常大的影响力。

Hope these examples help :)


For 錢應該花在刀口上, 錢 and 刀口 are so different things... why associate 錢 with 刀口?

Look here: http://www.zdic.net/c/0/3f/99108.htm

刀口 means the right spot 花 means spend

钱要花在刀口上 You should spend/use your money where it is most needed.


Why is proton called 质子 and charge called 电荷?

质 in Chinese mean inseparable (不可分割) such as 质数 （prime number）

Another explaination, 质：事物的根本特性.

https://www.zhihu.com/question/38322079


《說文解字》沒有「妖」這一條目。
There is not an entry of 妖 in the 《說文解字》.

《說文解字注》對「」的解釋有提到「俗省作妖」。
The interpretation of  in the 《說文解字注》 mentions 俗省作妖.

 [ yāo | ㄧㄠ ]

意思是，民間習慣上，將「」省略為「妖」。
也就是，「妖」的本字是「」。
It means that  is used to be simplified to 妖.
That is, the original form of 妖 is .

《說文解字》對「」的解釋如下：
《說文解字》 explains  as follows.

  ，巧也；一曰，女子笑皃。

皃 [ mào | ㄇㄠˋ ] 同「貌」。

所以，「」有兩個意思：一是「巧」，二是「女子笑的樣子」。
這應該也是「妖」的本義。
Therefore,  has two meanings: "skillful or clever" and "the appearance of a female smile".
This should also be the original meaning of 妖.

至於，「妖」會有「邪異」的意思，是來自「祅」字。
As for the "demon" meaning of 妖, it comes from 祅.

同樣的，「祅」的本字是「䄏」。
Similarly, the original word of 祅 is 䄏.

祅、䄏 [ yāo | ㄧㄠ ]

《說文解字》對「䄏」的解釋如下：
《說文解字》 explains 䄏 as follows.

  地反物爲䄏也。

「䄏」是地上反常的物種。
䄏 is the abnormal species on the ground.

《說文解字注》在解釋此句時有提到「經傳通作妖」。
The interpretation of this sentence in the 《說文解字注》 mentions 經傳通作妖.

《說文通訓定聲》說這是一種假借。
（妖、、祅、䄏都是形聲字。）
《說文通訓定聲》 explains that this is a loan.
(妖, , 祅 and 䄏 are the picto-phonetic characters.)

Conclusion:

「妖」的本義有兩個意思：一是「巧」，二是「女子笑的樣子」。
被「祅」假借，所以有「邪異」的意思。
 has two original meanings: "skillful or clever" and "the appearance of a female smile".
It is borrowed by 祅, thus it also means "the demon".

Is there a website to look up the evolution of characters?

I recommend 小學堂-字形演變 to look up the evolution of characters.

小學：研究文字字形、字義及字音的學問，包括文字學、聲韻學及訓詁學等。
小學 does not mean the primary or elementary school here. It means the study of the glyph, meaning and the pronunciation of the word, including philology, phonology and exegesis.

(Input the character in the 字形 field.)

For example, 中.


What is the correct way to write 'niu bi', and how did it get its meaning in Chinese?

niu bi = f**king awesome in English.
And niu in slang means awesome.

The usage is pretty same as in English.

For example:

A：我能一连吃10个汉堡.
   I can eat 10 burgers in a row.
B：牛啊！
   Awesome!

A: 你好牛，这么难得题目你也会做！
   You are so awesome. You can even do such difficult questions!
B: 谢谢。
   Thanks.

Additionally, regarding to 牛X or 牛叉.
It is common in online forums/tweets/blogs, but it is rare in conversations.
Reason is same as people write LOL online very often but seldom say L-O-L in conversations.

If you want to be polite, say 牛 instead of 牛X or 牛叉


How is non-standard Cantonese spoken by some mainland Chinese speakers different from "standard" pronunciation?

Edit: Sorry that I misunderstood the question.  I thought Maroon was talking about non-native Cantonese speakers.

Most native Mandarin speakers have trouble handling the rising (上聲) and departing tones (去聲) in Cantonese.  It is because Cantonese further differentiates them into high-rising (陰上), low-rising (陽上), high-level (陰去) and low-level (陽去).  (Please refer to http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%9B%E8%81%B2#.E7.8E.B0.E4.BB.A3.E6.96.B9.E8.A8.80.E5.A3.B0.E8.B0.83.E5.AF.B9.E7.85.A7 for the exact tone contours.)

They also have difficulties pronouncing checked tones (入聲) as they are also absent from Mandarin.  And, again, there are three levels of checked tones (陰入, 中入 and 陽入), making it even more difficult to manage.


Is there a variant of 溏 without the 口 component that's used in Taiwan?

焿 is a character on its own.

ZDic：http://www.zdic.net/z/1d/js/713F.htm

  gēng
  〔～子寮湾〕地名。在中国台湾省东北海岸。

Wiktionary: https://zh.wiktionary.org/zh-hans/%E7%84%BF

  “焿”是“羹”的异体字，为台湾本地自创的形声俗字。

羹 means '(thick) soup, broth'.


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

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

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


Is there a comprehensive list of 语气词 or 语气助词? Or a place I can research more about them?

Modern Chinese / Mandarin:

啊 a
噢 ao
哎 ai
唉 ai
吧 ba
呗 bei
哦 o
喔 o
哈 ha
嚯 huo
啦 la
嘞 lei
哩 li
啰 luo
咯 lo
喽 lou
咧 lie
吗 ma
嘛 ma
哪 na
呐 na
哇 wa
呦 you
哟 yo
唷 yo
吁 yu

Classic Chinese:

呔 dai
呵 he
乎 hu
兮 xi
矣 yi
也 ye (means: too, also, in modern Chinese)
哉 zai


或作譈懟，亦書作憞 means "also, it is identified to 譈 or 懟; and it can be written as 憞."
They are all archaic words and no longer used today. Neither orally nor literally.


How can I answer the question "你什么时候开始学中文的?"

'什么时候' = 'what time' = 'when'
You can answer with one of the following:

[Since the time of ]. E.g. "Started since 2016" (從 2016 年開始)

[from a length of time ago]. E.g. "Started from five years ago" (五年前开始)

Q: "你什么时候开始学中文的?"

A: "我是從2016年開始学中文的"/ "我是五年前开始学中文的" (long version)

A: "從2016年開始"/ "五年前开始" (short version)

A: "2016"/ "五年前" (shortest version, just state a year or a length of time ago)

More example of '什么时候' question:
Q: 你什么时候吃晚飯的?
A: 晚上七時 (a time) If the question is about what is the regular time you have dinner'
A: 三小時前 (a length of time ago) If the question is about what specific time you ate your dinner tonight


What part of speech is 到 (to) when used in 两只饿到眼绿的老鼠正在房梁上打架?

You are essentially correct. Here, 到 is a preposition that, depending on context, can represent "to," "(up) until," or "up to."

e.g. 到目前为止 : up until this moment

工作到天亮了 : work until the sky becomes light

从周一到周四 : From Monday to Thursday

In your particular example, there seems to be an implied “的程度" at the end of the descriptor which is omitted, i.e. one can write 两只饿到眼绿的程度的老鼠正在房染上打架, and in order to prevent a sentence from being clunky, this has been omitted since it's clear from context what is being said here.


Can somebody identify these characters? (Characters identified: 㸃㬹)

is 點 (point). It's just written in a special "font".

 is 㬹.

In 康熙字典, it is

   《集韻》《類篇》甾莖切，音爭。足跟筋也。
  又《集韻》側杏切。義同。

Which means 足跟筋也, i.e. tendon in the heel. It is pronounced as zhēng. Now it's seldom seen in Mandarin Chinese, but in spoken Cantonese, it's still widely and informally used (pronunciation zaang1). For example, 脚㬹(heel), 高㬹鞋(high-heeled shoes).


What is the Chinese equivalent of "time to [A]"?

I don't think there's a fixed expression to reliably translate "time to X".
According to the context, there's a few ways to go about it, that I can think of right now.
Broader actions
When X is broad in scope, and the "time" period you are talking about doesn't mean necessarily right now, you can use 时刻. It often translates to "the time to X":

this is the time to invest in renewable energy
这是投资可再生能源的时刻

Actionable right now
When X is an action narrower in scope, and "time to X" means that right now is the time to do it, you can use “X的时间到了”:

It's time to go eat something
去吃饭的时间到了

Suggestion
When X is something that you are suggesting to do, you can use “X了吧” (no "time" word necessary; modal 了 is enough):

it's time I go take a shower
我去洗澡了(吧)

it's time to leave this place
我们离开这里了吧


According to the Wikipedia article on bánh pía, which cites this source, pía comes from from the Teochew dialect (i.e., Chaozhouhua 潮州話):

  The Vietnamese name comes from the Theochew word for pastry, "pia"

While I wouldn't necessarily consider this source to be authoritative, I looked up the Teochew pronunciation of 餅 here, and it is indeed pĩã so the derivation is likely to be true.

I don't know the connection between the Vietnamese and Thai "pia", but it's likely they're related too. It would seem then that the Vietnamese and Thai names both end up literally meaning "pastry-pastry".


Is classifier/measure word required after demonstrative?

You should really have a measure word after a number or 'this' and 'that'. Therefore, 'zhe zhi mao' is the correct option.


她离开了三年了 vs. 她离开三年了 Is there any difference between the two?

她离开了三年了: She had been away for 3 years. (She could have been back now or could have not been back.).
她离开三年了: She has been away for 3 years (have not been back).

她离开了三年了 could be the abbreviated version of 她离开三年了 and is used to describe the same thing, and it could also be different.


Does 越来越多的中国人步入二次购车的行列 talk about second cars or second-hand cars?

In fact, ‘二次购车’ might not refer to '2 car families', it would be 'previously bought a car and are replacing it' as you said in most cases, but I'm sure that it is not 'second hand cars', since 'second hand cars' is translated as '二手车'.

In my opinion, this sentence may translate as 'More and more Chinese people are buying cars for the second time , the market is becoming more and more subdivided.'


Future perfect tense sentences in Chinese (eg. "Next month I will have been married 3 years"

You'll know when you get to Beijing 你到了北京就会知道的
You'll know when you get to Beijing 你到北京就会知道了

的 is not the right choice of final particle here.
Edit:
就会知道 = will then know
in 就会知道(的), '的' is a final particle that emphasizes the verb, stating it is in an existing state', that contradicts 就会(will then).  You can say "他是知道的" (he knows/ he knew) but not "他將是知道的 (he will knows/knew)
in 就会知道(了), '了' is a final particle that indicates completion of the verb. Meaning 知道了 indicates the verb 知道 will be 'completed'. Since '了' is an 'aspect marker' not a 'tense marker', it can be used in any tense.

Next month I'll have been married for 3 years 等到下个月我就结婚三整年了
Next month I'll have been married for 3 years 下个月我就结婚整整三年了

It is [整整 X year (X years no more no less)], not [整 X year]
Your English sentence didn't state 'wait until' so you shouldn't write '等到' In your Chinese translation

Next year I'll have been to Beijing (and left) 等到明年就去过北京的
Next year I'll have been to Beijing (and left) 明年我就会去过北京一趟了

From the context, we know you've never been in Beijing, therefore "去过北京(一趟)" can make it more clear that you mean 'go and leave Beijing (been in Beijing)'
But it is English-Chinese, Native Chinese would phrase it as "明年我会去北京一趟"  - "I will take a trip to Beijing next year (and leave)"

After I've gone to Beijing, I'll plan where to go next 我去了北京以后就打算后面去哪里
After I've gone to Beijing, I'll plan where to go next 去过北京之后我才再想下次要去哪里

You said: " After I've gone to Beijing" meaning " After you had been in Beijing and back" (去过北京之后)

(then) I'll plan where to go next

才 = "only then" (you won't make plan for the next destination until you finished visiting Beijing)
打算 means "intend to" But you already intended to go somewhere else after the Beijing trip, so you should either use 计划 (to plan) or simply use 想 (think about/plan)

I'll have finished by that time 那时候我已经做完了 (is the 了 right here even though I'm talking about the future?)
I'll have finished (my traveling plan) by that time 那时候我就完成了我的旅行计划了

'完成了' (completed) already indicate the action is completed, no need to add '已经' (have been already)
了 is an aspect marker that indicates 'completion of an action' it can be used in any tense.


Has Unicode included these Classical Chinese characters?

U+2208E
 U+26A73
 U+25E37
 U+24B79
 U+20C09
 U+22BBF
 U+269F4
 U+2272B
 U+24350
 U+220DB
 U+247D4
 U+23A52
 U+29D56
 U+2A1C7
 U+29B31
 U+24705
﨣 U+FA23
 U+25E9D
髟＋忿？(not found) ( U+29B64 U+29B6E  U+29B09)
 U+25E78

Most of them are in the block of "CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B".
﨣 is in the block of "CJK Compatibility Ideographs".

If you cannot see some Chinese characters above, I suggest installing the Hanazono font, 花園明朝體.


而在此前 means "Before this".

In this context, that means before this date (2017年11月15日) or before this rule became effective.

而 = 然而 (conjunction 連詞)
在 = at / on / in (preposition 前置介詞)
此 = this (this date / this rule became effective)
前 = before

This phrase can be expanded to:

  然而，在此之前


what are the different and usage between 已 and 己

These are two totally different words in Chinese. Be careful about the writing of them, then you will know the difference between them, just like the English words "pee" and "pea".


Yes, for example these characters are taken from a Chinese grammar textbook:

There are obviously others, but as you can see, it's possible to guess the pronunciation. In other cases, according to the radicals, you can understand if they refer to a certain "topic", for example, the third one in that list is the radical for "water", the last one is the radical for "fire", and so on.


Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa?

I think it would be easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese rather than vice-versa, because too many Chinese characters are used in Japanese. I would like to talk about this from three points.

Pronunciations

Usually, in Japanese, one character has 2 types of pronunciations, "音読 おんどく ondoku or 音読み おんよみ onyomi" and "訓読 くんどく kundoku or 訓読み くんよみ kunyomi". The 音読 (in Chinese, 音读) is similar to the pronunciation of the character in Chinese, because both modern Chinese and 音読 come from ancient Chinese (漢字を字音で読むこと。). 訓読 is the Japanese way of rendering the characters pronunciation, choosing the similar Japanese vocabulary in meaning to substitute (訓読は、漢字を、その意味にあたる日本語の読み方で読むこと。). This could be an advantage when you learn one of these two languages after you learnt one another.It can help you to remember the pronunciations.  But it could be an obstacle in some cases, since the pronunciations of characters in Chinese also changed in the long history.
Example: Character 人. In Japanese, its 音読 includes ニン nin (呉) as in 人間の歴史 にんげんのれきし　and　ジン jin (漢) as in 登場人物　とうじょうじんぶつ. These two variants, ニン and ジン, come from different times of ancient China; one of its 訓読 is ひと. In modern Mandarin, the pronunciation is "rén ㄖㄣˊ", however, I know in "吳語", the pronunciation is "nin", which proofs the ニン nin (呉). Anyway, this could also help you to remember the 音読. If you know "Nin" and "Jin" for "人", you may guess "nin" or "jin" for "仁" (actually, it's right!), because both "人" and "仁" have the similar sound in ancient/modern Chinese.

Writing Characters

Since Japanese uses a lot of Chinese Characters, it's an advantage for you to write down the characters if you have learnt one language. However, you still have to take care of some characters. Because both Japan and China conducted several reforms (i.e. simplification for better literacy, though in China some political motivation too, which is a controversial action) on traditional characters, and of course, they didn't negotiate with each other (though in fact, Chinese government did treat Japanese version as reference, e.g. 國 simplified to 国), so some characters are different after the simplification. One thing is for sure, simplified characters done in China is much more than those in Japan or Republic of Korea.
Example: Character "对" in simplified Chinese while "対" in Japanese, the traditional being "對".

Meanings of Characters

In most cases, the meanings of a character in Japanese and Chinese are the same or almost the same. This is a big advantage. However, Japanese generally keeps meanings of a  character in Classic Chinese, while in modern Chinese meanings of some characters have changed. In this case, the learner should pay extra attention to these characters, compared to a learner who doesn't know one another language, because his experience will lead him to a mistake.
Examples: Japanese verb "走る はしる hashiru", which means "to run". In modern Chinese, we use "走" to mean "to walk" and use "跑" to mean "to run", however, in classic Chinese, "走" really can mean "to run", as in 戰国策·楚策·江乙對荆宣王:
荊宣王問羣臣曰 吾聞北方之畏昭奚恤也 果誠何如 群臣莫對 江乙對曰 虎求百獸而食之 得狐 狐曰 子無敢食我也 天帝使我長百獸 今子食我 是逆天帝命也 子以我為不信 吾為子先行 子隨我後 觀百獸之見我而敢不走乎 虎以為然 故遂與之行 獸見之皆走 虎不知獸畏己而走也 以為畏狐也 今王之地方五千里 帶甲百萬 而專屬之昭奚恤 故北方之畏奚恤也 其實畏王之甲兵也 猶百獸之畏虎也
Compared with the advantages and disadvantages, I believe it could be easier to learn one language of these two after you have learnt one another.


重新振作 ↓

换了个人↓

走出阴影↓

获得新生

重生一般

脱胎换骨(chengyu)

浴火重生 (chengyu)

凤凰涅磐 (chengyu)

羽化登仙(metamorphosis from human being to heavenly being)


Why does this phrase use 似的 instead of 似地？

"似的" is a fixed term/word, there is no "似地", so no matter how/where you use it (eg. after a verb or noun), the expression is always "似的".

You can still see "似地" in many places nowadays is mainly due to historical reasons. However based on the latest version of the official Chinese dictionary, the correct usage is alwyas "似的". If you use website that based on the latest official dictionaries, you won't find any "似地". e.g. cidian.xpcha.com

Here are some detailed explanations. It is from 人民教育出版社 "People's Education Press(PEP)", the official publisher of the Chinese Dictionaries used in Mainland. The summary is in its last sentence: "无论什么情况，都不应将“似的”写作“似地”.", which means "No matter in what circumstance, you should only use “似的” rather than “似地”".

One more quoted paragraph for the comment below:

  虽然也有一些语法书、辞书，如黄伯荣、廖序东主编的《现代汉语》(甘肃人民教育出版社1983年版)、王自强编著的《现代汉语虚词用法小词典》(上海辞书出版社1984年版)等有“似的”组成短语作状语时可写作“似地”的说法，但一般的现代汉语词典特别是权威性词典，都不收录“似地”这种写法，这在实际上是以“似的”为规范词形，而弃置“似地”这一写法。


Translation help:: How to translate 我们经常会怎么说 into English?

假如我们现在碰到有个人，觉得他实在太不争气，实在太让我们失望，我们对他又爱、又恨、又急、
那么我们经常会怎么说？

I think here it means: "so then is that how we usually put it?", "so is that how it is usually said?"


獎牌 Medal

農工商部 Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce

製 make (made)

二等 2nd Class/Grade

農工商部是清朝政府於光緒三十二年（1906年）設立的中央機構。
"Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce" was the central government established by the Qing government in the thirty-second year during the Guangxu period (1906).

Price in the August 2013 Hong Kong Auction

農工商部製 二等 獎牌


How does 雲 + 朵 compound to mean 'your letter'?

In Chinese, 「朵」 is a measure word for both flowers and clouds; this measure word does not have an equivalent in English. 「朵」 is (for example) analogous to cup in cup of coffee; a phrase like 「五朵雲」 is translated idiomatically to English as five clouds, but broken down as

  five 「朵」 of clouds

just like

  five cups of coffee

「朵雲」 refers to the personal signature of a Tang Dynasty duke named 韋陟, son of 韋安石. It is said that when the duke signed off his letters, he wrote his personal name, 「陟」, with an elegant flourish that made it appear as if it was drawn as five clouds.

This signature was admired so much by the duke's contemporaries, that 「朵雲」 became a fancy dub, or an elevated or honorary way of saying, your letter; that is,

  your letter is so elegant and beautiful that it's as if it was signed off by 韋陟 himself, complete with the flourishing five-cloud signature.

See the 《漢語大詞典》 entry on 「朵雲」 and 「郇公五雲體」.


Poems about parents love and care for children

《送母回乡》
    ——李商隐
停车茫茫顾，困我成楚囚。
感伤从中起，悲泪哽在喉。
慈母方病重，欲将名医投。
车接今在急，天竟情不留！
母爱无所报，人生更何求！

Meaning:

When I stopped the carriage and looking around blankly,I felt like a prisoner because of the sadness I've gone through.My grief tear is like fishbone stuck in my throat.Now my mother is sick(lethally sick),so I'm taking her to visit the doctor.But on the way,the God(sky) took my mother's life mercilessly.I can't pay back for my mother's love,what else can I look forward to?


以 = as; using; taking.

差之毫厘，谬以千里 = to miss by a hair is as wrong as (to miss by a) thousand li, or more to the point: miss by a hair, but (still) be off a mile.


What does 给盯背过去 mean in 差点没把人家给盯背过去?

I think this means that you are staring at people in a rude way which makes them so uncomfortable that they might want to turn their back at you to avoid eye contact.

the "背" here is not a noun but a action which is performed by the person who is being stared at. Hope this will help.


Haha, that is an interesting question, I am going to try to list all the stereotypes I know.
First I will list some common ones regarding academic performance

学霸，very good student with hard working
学神，excellent student with little effort put in, also doing very well in nearly all other aspects you can think of, like sport clubs, video games and so on
学痞，academically excellent, little effort put in, difference with 学神 is, 学神 is more “仙” while 学痞 is more of an ordinary guy
学渣，not doing academically well because of no hard working
学酥，looking good when no exam is going on, will be found out to be 学渣 once exam comes, that is why they are called 酥，once being touched, they become “渣”
学屌，talented but not hard working students, performance varies with the effort they put in, but they do not care
学婊，always pretend to fail the tests but always end up with better grades than most of others, not a welcomed type

Then some regarding appearance

高富帅 or 高帅富，as the name suggests, tall, rich and handsome guy
白富美，again, as the name suggests, girl who is rich, beautiful and with fair skin
（男）屌丝，it is not a good word and is ONLY used for self reference, it means someone who is poor and ugly
女屌（丝），the female version of （男）屌丝，the rule is the same, ONLY self reference

And some others

宅男，guys who love comics and or video games, seldom appear publicly
宅女，female version of 宅男
逗逼/逗比，a funny guy, but use with care as it might sometimes be derogatory

I will keep this answer updated if I could think of any others.


推荐 = recommend (closer to push for)
建议 = suggest (closer to advice)
If you know the difference between 'recommend' and  'suggest' you should have no difficulty deciding when to use which.
推荐 applies to objects; 建议 applies to actions
Example:
推荐某人当顾问 (O)
建议某人当顾问 (X)
建议让某人当顾问 (O)
沒人推荐他 (O)
沒人建议他 (X)
沒人建议用他 (O)
孔明向刘备推荐联吳抗曹 (X)
孔明向刘备推荐联吳抗曹的策略 (O)
孔明向刘备建议联吳抗曹 (O)
孔明向刘备建议联吳抗曹的策略 (?) - 建议策略 clearly implies 建议(實行)策略, therefore omitting the verb 實行 is acceptable
孔明向刘备建议實行联吳抗曹的策略 (O)


Playing a game, a Chinese player says this: "德莱厄斯两兄弟" What does it mean?

I guess you are playing LOL, and then 德莱厄斯 is Darius ( the Hand of Noxus). So, “德莱厄斯两兄弟” means “Darius and his brother (Draven (the Glorious Executioner))”. So maybe your team or the other team summoned both Darius and Draven, and that bro commented on this. Have fun~


In these 2 sentences does 得 have the same function?

Is this 得 doing the same job in both sentences?

Yes. Both 得 are 'verb particle'

In both sentences, 得 are following a verb. It is a [verb particle] of the verb before it.

  '漂亮而迷人' is the 'result/ degree' of the action '把自己梳理'

  [把自己梳理] is the [verb phrase]; [得] is a [verb particle] (*used to express possibility or capability; to indicate the result or degree. Similar to English 'to' / 'to the point of' *)

  [漂亮而迷人] here is an [adjective phrase]. It is the[result/degree] of the verb phrase [把自己梳理].

~

  '生病' is the result/ degree of '忧郁'

  [忧郁] is the main verb; [得] is a [verb particle] (*used to express possibility or capability; to indicate the result or degree. Similar to English 'to' / 'to the point of' *)

  [生病] is the auxiliary verb. It is the [result/degree] caused by the main verb [忧郁].


To understand 撒娇, you need to understand 撒尿。撒尿 means peeing or urinating。note, 撒 is the ing part of peeing. the word, 尿， is pee part of peeing. so the word 撒 simply means giving out something very comfortably and naturally, just like what you feel when you pee. for example,.仙女撒花，means goddess giving out flowers.

娇 means loveliness, or cuteness. so 撒娇 means giving out your cuteness to someone very comfortably and naturally. in short, it can be translated to English with a single word, flirting. but there is a twist. a little girl can 撒娇 her daddy. In that case, flirting is not correct. you should just use showing cuteness instead.


You drive to a gas station to "加油".  We don't say "添油".

If you add some firewood to a campfire, we usually say "添柴".  If you say "加柴", if still makes good sense, but does not sound as natural as "添柴".

Otherwise, the character "添" is usually used with other characters, like "增添".

Although ""增添" and "增加" have the same meaning, they're not fully interchangeable.


If the rule of the game is all characters must be used, I guess I can play it like this:
"打扫这么大的客厅多累啊!" (cleaning such a big living room, how tiring!)

what is the issue with the original sentence?
打扫大客厅这么多累的啊

"打扫大客厅"(cleaning the main living room) is the topic, followed by the comment/opinion "多累啊"
'这么' and '的' are not needed


What is the meaning of 捅破 the serial of 寒夜? E.g. 被我们的学生捅破

捅破 comes from 捅破窗户纸 (poke the window paper). Try googling "捅破窗户纸".

In the past, Chinese used paper instead of glass on their windows until the technology of making glass is imported to China. Window paper can stop the wind, but is much more fragile than glass and can be easily poked. Window paper is not transparent. If you poke a hole on it, you can see the other side.

The two people loved each other, but they are too shy to tell each other. That's like there is a thin piece of paper hiding them from each other. Once it is poked, they can see each other. That is, they know how the other person feels.

捅破窗户纸 is also similar to "break the ice" in English.


What is the meaning of 声 in ...车市降价声已经是此起彼伏?

"声(Sound)" is metaphorical in this sentence, "车市降价(Automobile market price drop)" cannot actually produce a sound, so it implies that there are potential of market price drop, because we are hearing "此起彼伏(Wave after wave)" of the "sound" that automobile market price is going to drop.

Also to mention, "此起彼伏(Wave after wave)" usually describes something that produce waves/has up and downs, so "声" is required or it doesn't make sense.


Informal ways of beginning/ending an e-mail

In Chinese culture, politeness is never too much only except for between really intimate friends or lovers. Especially when getting along with an elderly person, it's a good idea to keep being formal and polite until you're completely certain that it's not necessary.
This link explains the conventions very well. To cite the essence of it,

2 ．问候语
　　第二行开头空两格写问候语。
　　运用礼貌语言，使收信人感到亲切，受到尊敬。
　　长者多问候身体，中年人多问候事业和家庭，青年人多问候爱情和学业，少年儿童多祝愿健康成长。
4 ．结尾
　　要根据收信人的身份，写表示祝愿的话，以示礼貌。
　　一般性的祝词“此致”“敬礼”，格式是另起一行空两格写“此致”，“敬礼”下一行顶格写。
　　给长者的信往往写“祝您健康长寿”，给朋友写“祝工作顺利”，给晚辈写“祝你学习进步”。

When in doubt, be as polite as possible. When I feel obligated by the culture, I would simply use formulaic 您好 as 问候语 and 此致敬礼 as 结尾.
Edit:
Adding translation for the citation with my editorial in parenthesis. The translation is done in a kinda verbatim way in order to preserve the sense of the culture, although it may sound unnatural in English.

2 . Greetings
Greetings should be placed on the second line ( the first line is a title) with an indentation of two spaces.
Use polite language to make the recipient feel warm and respected.
For elderly recipients, send regards to health; for middle-aged people, career and family; for a young person, love life (only appropriate if the sender is an elder to the recipient) and studying; for children, health and striving.
4 . Ending
To show politeness, use some blessing words based on who the recipient is (social status and relationship to the sender).
A general one is “此致”“敬礼” (usage similar to "best regards" in English, literal translation should be "hereby, salute"). The format convention is to put "此致" on a new line with an indentation of two spaces and "敬礼" on the next line without indentation.
People usually say "祝您健康长寿” (wish you health and longevity) to elderly people, "祝工作顺利" (wish you a successful career) to friends and "祝学习进步" (wish you good progress in studies) to the younger generation.


Chinese does not have relative pronouns. In the case of the sentence that you gave, it would probably be best translated using "因为" (because):

至少今天她都不想再见到聂离了, 因为她让聂离骗了她 or in English:

At least for today, she doesn't want to see Nieli again, because she let Nieli deceive her.

EDIT:

In Chinese, instead of using relative clauses, particles like 的 are used instead. For example:

The man, who learns Chinese, is here.

学汉语的人在这儿。

In the above case, we use the fact that the person learns Chinese to describe said person, instead of having a relative clause.


Which (if any) of these name ideas sound native? Which sound foreign?

None of them is good enough.

竭心 is weird.

竭 means to exhaust as in 尽心竭力.

BUT while you can say 尽力, you cannot say 竭心, because you cannot exhaust your heart, while 尽 means to do most/to do to the greatest extent, so uou can say 尽心.

居心 is originally constructed the same as 属意, “to place your heart/mind at”

it cannot stand alone to mean anything:

居心叵测（hard to know where one's heart is placed—— harbouring unfathomable motives）

汝居心正，吾知免矣（《三国志》）（You place your heart upright, (so) I know (I) do not (have to worry about you)—— You are a upright man, ...）

居心 do not mean a tranquil heart or mind Yabla is not always reliable.

When emphasized, 居心 is always a derogatory word:

其人有居心（The man is certainly placing his heart at something—— He is ill intended）

嘉鑫 a mediocre, common name.

酒神 a overly specific name of a foreign deity.

The three bold aspects should all be avoided in a Chinese name.

For example, the name 公明 is good, but no one of surname 赵 will use it as a name.（赵公明 is a deity）


How is Analects split up in English? Chapters? Verses?

Comparing with the Bible, I think Book/Chapter would be the most accurate.  Each 篇 revolves around one specific aspect of Confucius' ideas, and each 章 is a (mostly self-contained) event/story.

Unlike the Bible, in which the chapters/stories usually follow a chronological order within one book, there is little interdependence between chapters in 论语.  But I would argue that, if one is to extract Jesus's words from each chapter of Bible, one would probably get something of size comparable to a 章.  Therefore it is quite reasonable to make 篇/章 correspond to Book/Chapter.


Where can I find a Chinese corpus concordance?

Though it is much smaller than the corpus you linked to, JuKuu is an excellent resource for finding example sentences involving Chinese terms. Typing a Chinese word or phrase into the search bar usually yields enough sentences to get a good sense of a term's meaning and usage.


What does the phrase 豪华名贵 mean in Dave Wong's song "爱不起"?

"豪華名貴" roughly is luxury & precious goods & lifestyles

the theme of the song is a poor male like / love a rich female. so, there's the lyric "而能力上永遠付不起" (can't never pay); which accord with the song title.

"愛不起" is caused by "付不起" :(


Are idioms affected by tone changing rules?

Yes it should be pronounced as the 2nd tone because it's put before character with the 4th tone. The sandhi rule applies with idioms too.

The cases 一 should be pronounced as the 1st tone, i.e. shouldn't change the tone, are listed as the follows:

  单独念时。如：一，一、二、三
  用在一词或一句的末尾。如：统一祖国，唯一条件，单一成分，表里如一，不论三七二十一
  表示年、月、日。如：1911年1月1日，一二•九运动，九•一八事变
  表示序数。如：第一村，第一名，第一等，第一位

(1. when used alone; 2. when used at the end of the word or sentence; 3. when used in date; 4. when used as ordinal number with the meaning "first".)

  “一”在上述语境中，不管它后面跟的字是什么声调，“一”的读音都保持其原调阴平，不发生变调。特别要引起注意的是第四种语境，因为许多序数在表述时采用了省略“第”的格式，这时“一”字也应读原调。

(Under the above circumstances, no matter what the following character's tone is, 一 should keep its original tone (i.e. the 1st tone) and doesn't change.)

试析“一”声调的读法


Unable to find matching script for this artifact inscription

turn it upside down:

the middle one is 㞢 (u+37a2), which means “have, exist”
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=㞢
the lower one is 屮 (u+5c6e), which is the original of “草” (grass); in context, it means grass or wood
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=屮
the top one is not yet identified, most likely is a location related character.
have fun :)


差不多 literally means nearly, just about, or almost.

差不多先生 means the person pertains to the phrase 差不多 a lot, indicating his life style, loose, careless, etc.


Are both 我家 and 我的 okay in 下班以后我去你家或者你来[我家/我的]，都可以?

For this particular sentence, it is much more natural to use the first expression. The second one is grammatically correct but I have not seen this usage among native Chinese speaker/writer. Though it is to common say something like 你吃你的我吃我的 [Eat your (food) and I eat mine] in other context.


Why is 刻 used to mean ''a quarter of an hour''?

刻 means ''to carve'' but my dictionary also says it means ''to set a time limit''.

well, you need a better dictionary

in 國語辭典, the first explanation of the entry “刻”, as noun is:

  古代計時的名稱，一晝夜共分一百刻。今以十五分鐘為一刻。《周禮．夏官司馬．挈壺氏》：「縣壺」漢．鄭玄．注：「漏之箭晝夜共百刻，冬夏之間有長短焉，大史立成法，有四十八箭。」

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000004456

some chinese astronomy background:

in the past, time is divided into year, month, day, and hour (“辰” / “時“)

in 商 dynasty a day was divided into 8 periods, and evolved to 10 periods.

then, in 周 dynasty, a day was divided into 12 periods; afterward, in 漢 dynasty, people used 十二辰 (子，丑 . . 亥) to name these periods.

to know time unit shorter than a day, people relied on sundial (日晷) & water clock (漏壺)

the vertical ruler in the bottom bucket is called “箭”, that, marks are craved onto, to indicate 100 equal divisions. together, in one operation (24 hours), the ruler (箭) would flow upward continuously, one just read the mark on the ruler, one can know the approximately which hundredth of a day.

the history is, most dynasties in the past used 100 periods (刻) for 24 hours, which means 1 刻 is 14 minutes 24 seconds.

it’s till 1640s, the first emperor (順治) of 清 dynasty adopted jesuit ferdinand verbiest’s (南懷仁) recommendations; both the definitions & methods of chinese astronomy were changed / improved. one of these “improvements” is, one day (24 hours) is divided into 96 刻.

therefore,

1 day = 12 辰 / 大時 = 24 hours (小時)

1 辰 / 大時 is divided into “初” & “正”

24 hours = 96 刻 —-> 1 刻 = 15 minutes

such definition is valid since 1640s, and certain dynasties in the past.

info added.

for anyone who is interested in this topic, the internet archive has the complete collection of joseph needham’s book “science and civilisation in china”, a download of 12 files.

https://archive.org/details/ScienceAndCivilisationInChina/page/n4/mode/2up

the water clock (aka clepsydra) is in volume 3, page 379-399 of the pdf

https://archive.org/download/ScienceAndCivilisationInChina/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_3_Mathematics_and_the_Sciences_of_the_Heavens_and_the_Earth.pdf

not a leisure read, you’re reminded


我国与其他国家_____ 同时起步，在这一项目上有一定的实力。

让我来试试解释一下这道填空题，这几个选项“似乎，几乎，将近，曾经”主要用作修饰同时，如果我们不填任何选项，那么这句话也是完整的，是一个(因为...所以...)句型，

  因为我国与其他国家同时起步，所以在这一项目上有一定的实力。

几乎 - 表示差不多的意思。基本上来讲，'几乎同时'也就是'同时'的意思。所以下面这句话读起来没问题，

  因为我国与其他国家几乎同时起步，所以在这一项目上有一定的实力。

将近 - 表示快要的意思。'将近同时'离'同时'还有一段距离，还未赶上其他国家。所以下面这句话读起来不符合逻辑，还未赶上人家，怎么就有一定的实力了？

  因为我国与其他国家将近同时起步，所以在这一项目上有一定的实力。

似乎 - 表示看起来像的意思。'似乎同时'表示不肯定，所以下面这句话也是有问题的，不肯定是不是同时起步，怎么就有一定的实力了？

  因为我国与其他国家似乎同时起步，所以在这一项目上有一定的实力。

曾经 - 表示以前的意思。'以前同时'起步，也有可能没赶上，所以不一定有实力。下面这句话也是有问题的，

  因为我国与其他国家曾经同时起步，所以在这一项目上有一定的实力。

I will try to add English version later ...


This is one of those questions that a native speaker with a sound grammatical knowledge might be able to answer better, but from my point of view (as a native speaker with little grammatical knowledge), I think the best way to explain would be to show what the difference is to the listener.

As you may or may not know, the particle 是 is not always necessary from a grammatical perspective, especially when there is no ambiguity around the various components of the sentence, so grammatically both

你是怎么学习汉语的？AND 你怎么学习汉语？are fine.

If someone asked you 你是怎么学习汉语的？(i.e. you are not reading this sentence from a page of a book), then it is more likely that they are putting an emphasis on the process in which you have managed to learn/acquire the language.

However, 你怎么学习汉语？can mean one of two things:

How do you study Chinese? OR
How come you study Chinese? (as opposed to studying Japanese)

In fact, 你是怎么学习汉语的？can also have this second meaning, but this would fall into the category of a very awkward way of asking this question, which is more natural without the 是 if you want to imply this meaning.

The only way to be certain is to ascertain the exact context of the sentence/conversation (as is often the case with some Asian languages).

Example sentences:

有很多不同的语言, 你怎么学习汉语的？
There are many different languages, how come you study Chinese?

有很多不同的语言, 你是怎么学习汉语的？
Probably should be using 为什么 instead of 怎么 when accompanied by 是

你说的很流利, 你是怎么学习汉语的？
You speak fluently, how do you study Chinese?


sometimes it's the same but not all the time.

say, 道路 and 路途, here they mean the same thing, the way or road.

however, in the history of China, 道 has more meaning than it appears. as you know, Taoism begins with the discussion of 道. it means the essence of the universe.

another example is 道不同不相为谋, here 道 actually means the choice of life. 途 won't express the same meaning. say, 仕途 means the the life as a officer. if you feel the meaning of the word, you can feel that 道 is more likely to stress the choice made by person and 途 will emphasize the thing it is.

道 can mean morality too. this character is rich. we can discuss it all day long, but 途 won't be.


How to say when a university was established

创建于

建立于

创立于

创办于

are all acceptable, but for university I believe 创立于 is the most accurate one, the 立 here adds a subtle preeminence hint, and the 创 implies hard working.

In contrast, 创办于 does not have the "greatness" flavor, and 建立于 can be used for any institute in general.

I don't think there is an abbreviation that can convey the same implications.


Are there readings exclusive used only for people name?

So I wonder, are there readings exclusive for a name without any preceding usage (meaningless/not used in historical names)?

I think it is very unlikely to have a reading in a name with no meaning at all.

Take a look at the character 樂

The pinyin of 樂 in 快樂 (happy) is /le4/ ; in 音樂 (music) and surname, is /yue4/

Which mean when reading 樂 in a surname, it is different from the 樂 in 快樂, but is the same as the 樂 in 音樂.

As a surname 樂 also has a second pinyin /yao4/. (It means 'to love; be fond of; to delight in') 樂進 /yao4  jin4/ is an example.

Although the /yao4/ pinyin can only be seen in classical text nowadays. For example:'仁者樂山，智者樂水', we can't say 樂/yao4/ in 樂進 has no preceding usage.


What's the difference between 基建 and 基础设施? (Chinese words for "infrastructure")

基建 is the short version or abbreviation of 基础建设。


I disagree with the translation into English of this use of the subjunctive.

The structure
May + [SUBJECT] + [VERB in infinitive form] in English generally implies a type of volitive subjunctive in the Romance languages, where
the speaker has the authority to wish (or even to will) that something happen.

Here though, I would see the original language construction is as a potential subjunctive, which in English would have [SUBJECT] + may + [VERB in infinitive form], which would result in:

  The infinite may become starless

In this case, though could precede the subject and introduce the condition.

  Though the infinite may become starless

If there is a hint of any volitive or optative subjunctive however, we could replace though with the construction rather that before the subject, and keep the subjunctive:

  Rather that the infinite become starless

In Chinese, which lacks the distinction of indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods in its verbs, additional indicators of the grammatical mood are required. But they need not be attached to each verb that has the subjunctive in Spanish or to each occurrence of the word may in English.

If we establish that this is a potential subjunctive, then the use 可 as a monosyllabic verb before the main verb is an adequate literary device; depending on the rhythm, we may want use the diysllabic 可以 or 可能 which is a little more common in daily speech and thus a little less elevated.

  无穷苍昊可逝星

  无穷的穹苍里的星星可能消逝

I've translated the other vocabulary items differently depending on the style, and have translated become starless with an equivalent of lose stars or the stars disappear .

Using 虽 or 虽然 in the first clause can reinforce this sense of potentiality if necessary.

  虽无穷苍昊逝星 / 虽无尽天可逝星

  虽然无穷的穹苍里的星星可能消逝

But if we do want to add a sense of the emotional dependency, much as English can add Rather that instead of Though at the beginning before the subject, the disyllabic word 宁愿 can begin the sentence, or the similar 宁 (in an elevated classically-influenced style) or 宁可 (in more common speech) can precede the main verb; these are often followed by 也 with a negative verb or a verb of regret or non-volition in the volitional clause (like in Italian and Spanish, but different to English's main clause with than after a clause beginning rather that). Such mutually dependent clauses are often a characteristic of Chinese sentences.

  宁愿无穷苍逝星 / 无穷苍昊宁逝星 ...

  也惜你瞳乌死去 / 但愿你瞳也不亡

  宁愿无穷的穹苍里的星星消逝 / 无穷的穹苍里的星星宁可消逝 ...

  也愿你眼孔乌黑不至面对死亡 / 你眼中瞳仁的黑孔也不要死去

I hope that gives you a few more tools to use in your translation.


When should one use 报告 (bàogào) or 演讲 (yǎnjiǎng) when saying "to give a talk"?

报告 means "report"

演讲 means "speech"

It all depends on the content of your speech.

If you are reading a report to inform people about some facts, you should use  发表报告 (give a report)
If you are invited to educate people in the conference about some facts, then you can use  发表演讲 (give a speech/lecture)
If you are expressing your opinions in the conference,  then you should say  发表言论 (give my opinions/ comments)
In any case, 报告, 演讲 and 言论 are all spoken words, so all can be referred to  "talk" in English " e.g. "who listened to my talk in the conference?"


黑灯舞 sounds like the direct translation of 'Black Light Dance' a.k.a. 'U V Light Dance.' (dancing in darkness with U V Light on)

But according to this article  黑灯舞 refers to "dancing in a dancing hall under very dim light"
黑灯舞, in this case, should be translated as "(indecently) dance in the darkness" (darkness make it easier for people to have indecent physical contact)
I think many people nowadays would use 黑灯舞 as the modern term for 'Black Light Dance'


Literally, "it's all routine", which is now used online to mean "act according to scripts, not from heart". That is, you mindlessly follow what a book or someone else tells you to do, step by step, without any thinking from yourself.

I believe it originated from the routines to date girls. (I made this up) 1. get her out, 2. pick a restaurant that is quiet and posh, 3. "carelessly" drop something on the ground so you can touch her hand, etc, which eventually leads to get her to bed. So guys follow this routine mindlessly and girls recognise his behaviour "is all routine (to get me to bed)", not to start a serious relation.


了 in 我在这里两个星期了 / "I've been here for two weeks"

我在这里两个星期了

了 here denotes a completion. It could be rendered with the perfect tense in English. Staying here for two weeks is completed, namely I have been here for two weeks(already).


抽 從「手」，「由」聲，本義為引、拉。(the basic meaning is 'lead' ; 'pull')
拔 像用雙手拔取草木之形 (The original character looked like the form of pulling grass with both hand)

The basic meaning of 抽 is 'pull' (toward a direction)
The basic meaning of 拔 is to 'pluck' (拔草 pluck grass from the ground or 拔毛 pluck feather from a bird)
Since the motion of pull and pluck look similar, the two words are often used in similar way. You observation is correct, 拔 usually imply pull against resistance while 抽 doesn't imply anything in term of degree of resistance.
As you can see from your research, both character have other meanings that are not overlapped. The 'pull' meaning is overlapped but with subtle difference


Do 衣服 and 衣饰 carry different connotations or are they synonyms?

The former refers to clothes in general, while the latter refers to clothing ornaments/decorations (such as embroidery, patterns, etc).


What could be the meaning of 主治陳進陽草菅人命, 插管插到死, 腎臟料 and 人命?

草菅人命 (disregard for human life)

插管插到死 (cause death due to intubation)

腎臟科 (Division of Nephrology)

人命 (human life)

According to the website of the 台北榮總腎臟科, 陳進陽 is an attending physician (主治醫師) of the Division of Nephrology (腎臟科).

Someone claimed that the doctor, Jinn-Yang Chen (陳進陽), has caused death of a patient because of medical malpractice (intubation).


Translation Resources: Star/Constellation Names

中西星名对照表 on wikipedia has ~1000 star names and is good enough for common astrophiles.

I haven't read the book but it is said 《中西对照·恒星图表1950.0》 has more than 3000 star names, which might be the extremely comprehensive dictionary you're looking for.


It means "as ironic as you could imagine". It implies to the largest extent (as you could possibly imagine) .


说着 could be either a verb (said) or an adverb (while saying). But as I understand it these are pronounced differently.

In most cases 说着 reads 'zhe' and means while saying.

说着(zhao2) is a rare usage only in colloquial language in the Northern dialects, where 着 means hit the target, e.g. '被你说着了' means 'spot on'. The non-dialectal version is '被你说中了'.

Specific to your sentence,

  曾外祖母做了好饭好菜，说着甜言蜜语，

Without further context, it looks like an incomplete quote because 了 suggests the action of 'making food' was already done at the point soft words were said, the latter must be occurring at the same time with something else that's snipped out. One may naturally think the complete sentence would be like:

  曾外祖母做了好饭好菜，说着甜言蜜语，哄小曾孙子吃。

The soft words were said when great-grandmother was trying to get the child to eat. 着 suggests those actions were occurring in parallel, temporally, and from the semantics we are able to conclude the former is the method for the latter, logically.

Since we know where this sentence is quoted from, we can look at the real context:

  三天里她茶饭不思，精神恍惚，曾外祖母做了好饭好菜，说着甜言蜜语，我奶奶置之不理，宛若木人一样。

There is a time frame (三天), now it becomes clear that 着 suggests it's a repetitive action 'during' those three days as opposed to an one-off action. The whole sentence goes:

  In those three days, grandmother fell into a trance and had no desire to eat. Her mother made good foods and kept saying soft words to her, but she did not respond at all just like a wooden stick.


I feel like this question could elicit subjective and open-ended answers, but here goes anyway ...

In Beijing, one of the classes I had was a dedicated 汉字 (Hànzì, Chinese character) class. In it, we were learning the most common radicals, and some word examples that contain that radical. We learnt how, often, the meaning is conveyed by the radical and the other portion is often a pronunciation component. I found this to be enormously helpful; even without recognising some characters, I could sort of guess at their general meaning and, with the context of the sentence, understand what was going on.

Contrasting this to the general classes I attend at 孔子学院 (Kǒngzǐ Xuéyuàn, Confucius Institute) where they do not teach you any radicals, simply tell you to learn and remember the new words yourself, I notice most classmates struggling to remember "which little bit goes next to the bigger bit." I found my prior knowledge of some radicals helped me learn the characters quicker than my classmates, and my belief that they are of importance continues to allow me to learn previously-unknown-to-me radicals and characters faster as well.

They are important. They are necessary to learn. However, whether you specifically set out to learn them first, or if you gradually learn them and get a feel for them as you continue your education ... that part is up to you.

I, for one, would definitely recommend to keep them in mind, but not necessarily learn 214 common ones before learning any whole characters. I would probably learn a character, figure out what the radical stands for, see if there are other variants (like 心 xīn: heart radical has a couple of different forms) maybe look up a few other characters with that radical, then press on with the next character in your book. Rinse and repeat.

Note, there will be certain characters where the radical doesn't appear to provide any understanding of what the character means. That's just how it goes sometimes: you might think it's stupid and it should have [x] radical instead of the [y] radical that it has, but you could say the same of any language really: some bits are just nonsensical, and you just have to remember it but not necessarily understand it (the best lesson my calculus teacher ever taught me: "You don't have to understand it, you just have to know it." took me from a C to an A.)


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

See you later is 再见 or 回头见.


Is "你们好" (nǐmen hǎo) in actual use for greeting multiple people at once?

Yes it's in actual use.

But you need use it carefully, because "你们好" is always used when famous people meeting their fans, or teacher meet there students. If you are meeting elders or in honorific expression, you should use "您好" to each person, even if there are many people at the same time.


Is there a difference between 他这是 and 他就是?

I only use 這是在 when I actually see it. Like "他們這是在做什麼?". But for the similar "他們是在做什麼?" without the 這, you can use it regardless of the place or time of the object.

For 就是在, it just basically means "It IS" or "They ARE", when you emphasize the aux verb.


How do you describe the “growth／improvement” of “rights" (i.e. 权利）?

Google is your friend. Here are the number of results:

"权利的增加" 939,000
"权利的扩大" 539,000
"权利的提高" 333,000
"权利的发展" 91,900


How to say "a quarter past nine" in Chinese?

九点一刻 is 9:15 - but more often you'd just heard/use 九点十五分.

差一刻九点 is okay, but again more likely you'd just heard/use 八点四十五。


Different accents/dialects applicable to the pinyin "r" sound

There have been three major ways of transcribing Pinyin r-:

voiced retroflex fricative /ʐ/
voiced retroflex approximant /ɻ/
voiced postalveolar approximant /ɹ̠/

In English-language pronunciation manuals, the first is closer to English measure, the third is the English red across most accents (with the caveat that it is not labialised in Mandarin Chinese).

There are two reasons why the first one, as a fricative, has become deprecated:

Phonologically, it means that Pinyin sh- vs r- becomes Mandarin's one phonemic voicing contrast.
High friction leads to a "rather unnatural" pronunciation.

Hence, in the words of Třísková (2008):

  [ʐ] can be considered as a free variant

... but also:

  Lately there is [an opinion] that [ʐ], [ɻ] are free variants of the phoneme /r/ (we can [observe] a considerable variability of pronunciation).

So what is this variation then? An acoustic study from 王祥灿 (2013) concludes that:

  PTH 辅音r变体类型分布较为复杂，易受到具体语音环境的影响，当后接i,u,e高元音时，或音节声调为去声调时，或音素 r 位于双音节中时，多表现为擦音类型，其他情况下通音类型居多。

That is to say, use of the fricative / high-friction variant is more likely:

in Pinyin ri, ru, re
in falling tone (Pinyin fourth tone)
in bisyllables / bisyllabic compounds

I would clarify that last one by saying it's more likely directly after a consonant, e.g. higher friction in 当然 dāngrán than in 偶然 ǒurán.

Dialectal/regional differences are also found for Pinyin r-, but the approximant vs fricative difference is more contextual than regional.


Another couple of doozies: 許臣時一中之... and 敢不勉增淸烈。益播芳芬。

海量 is a pun; a man with the ability to accept others' opinions, and someone who can hold as much liquor as you can pour into him.
淸烈 also, 'purity of heart' and 'strong white (distilled?) liquor'
芳芬 also, 'fragrance = a great reputation' and fragrance = 'well fermented booze'


Is there a Chinese equivalent of the German "Mut zur Lücke"?

google told me "Mut zur Lücke" means "dare to venture into the unknown", and I can't find a Chinese phrase that have the same meaning xD. But there is a expression, 碰运气, which means to "push your luck". So in your example about the exam, you can say 碰一碰运气吧，这部分我不复习了(Let me push my luck and skip this part).

P.S. In Chinese, 人品 means moral qualities. Chinese people sort of believe in karma, where people with good qualities(人品好) will do good deeds, good deeds will be rewarded with good luck. So you can replace 碰运气 with 拼人品(the collocation can't be changed, 碰人品 and 拼运气 are not proper expressions). But this expression "拼人品" is informal and is only used among young people.


Learn Chinese Step 1: Sounds (Pinyins). How different is it to English sounds and are there any good tips to learn?

I found listening to music really helped when learning - artists from Taiwan and the south tend to sing more clearly in my opinion. perhaps you could start there.

Also, it is worth noting that in English we have around 8000 unique syllables, whereas in (mandarin) Chinese there are only around 400 (multiply this by 4 for the tones).


What does 让 mean in 我不但能够让外国人坐我的车，还能够让他包我的车?

Does 让 here mean, I can get them to take a ride in my taxi and also I
  can get them to hire my taxi (as in for several hours).

Yes, you are right. In this case, the taxi driver is boasting his ability to persuade foreigners to ride in his cab and to even hire it for exclusive use over a period of time.

According to 汉典, 让(ràng  ㄖㄤˋ) has the following meanings

　1. 不争，尽（jǐn）着旁人：～步。～位。谦～。 (yield, give up)

　2. 请：～茶。 (offer)

　3. 许，使：不～他来。 (make, get)

　4. 任凭：～他闹去。 (let, allow)

　5. 被：～雨淋了。 (indicates passive voice)

　6. 索取一定代价，把东西给人：出～。转（zhuǎn ）～。(trade)

　7. 闪避：～开。当仁不～。 (excuse)

　8. 责备，谴责：“二世使人～章邯”。

　9. 古同“攘”，侵夺。

From the context given, the taxi driver is certainly not boasting about offering a free ride to foreigners but his glib of tongue in getting (使, the third meaning) them to hire his service.


sometimes we use "死不了" in similar situations. For example:

1 别抽烟了，忍一忍，死不了。
2 不用担心，死不了。

Hope this can be of some help.


As others have explained, ě is currently used in certain nonstandard dialects. You might be interested to know that ě is the expected pronunciation based on the regular sound changes that connect Mandarin to the Middle Chinese pronunciations recorded in rhyming dictionaries. Compare these words:

我: Mand. wǒ, MC nga, rising tone,
   餓: Mand. è, MC nga, departing tone,
   蛾: Mand. é, MC nga, level tone,

which had the same initial and vowel but different tones. The pronunciation wǒ is not expected purely from the historical evidence of old dictionaries. I'm not certain where it came from, but it could have been influenced by words such as

吾: Mand. wú, MC ngu, level tone.

What I've written so far isn't enough to prove anything, but hopefully it provides more context. Another interesting question might be "Why is 我 pronounced wǒ?" It appears to be a slang usage that became standardized because of the political and economic power of the regions it's used in.


柠 is the Simplified Chinese version of 檸, the first character of 檸檬 (lemon). It is not used in Japanese.


Are Chinese native speakers more sensitive to tones or phonemes?

Yes. It is not unusual for native Chinese to have difficulties distinguishing between nasal vs non-nasal or alveolars vs retroflexed, but I have never met someone who has difficulties distinguishing between the 4 tones in Mandarin. Though I am learning Cantonese right now and for me, a native Mandarin-speaking Chinese the 6 tones of Cantonese is a little bit tricky. I can't answer if this is true with regards to all tone languages, just my observation. Hope it helps


How to rhyme (押韻) when translating poetry?

Actually, we use "rhyme book" that divides commonly used characters into different rhyme. There are two popular rhyme books nowadays: 平水韵 for ancient rhyme and 中华新韵 for modern rhyme. Here is a link to an electronic copy of 平水韵.
In the translation you post, there are four characters in each line. Because many Chinese characters express similar meanings, you could choose one character that rhyme with other lines. In your example, it is the character "旁" in the line “植於溪旁”.
Since ancient Chinese grammar is extremely flexible, you could almost always position that character in rhyme (旁) at the end of the sentence, and the sentence can still make sense with some rearrangements. For example, let's assume that 旁 does not rhyme with others but 溪 does, then we can rearrange the sentence into "植木傍溪", and then 溪 is at the end this time.
In sum, you can almost always translate a foreign literature into Chinese poetry due to the flexibility of the Chinese grammar and the flexible meaning of each ancient Chinese character.
By the way, the aesthetic elegance does not comes with the rhyme alone. You could also learn the 格律.


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

空有= have only; 名头= title/name

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

“其空有名头” = "his/her 'in name only'"

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

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


There is this song that I can't find the Pinyin lyrics to on Youtube

To find pinyin for the lyrics, just  input it in Google Translate
Example: At Google Translate: 多看一眼

多看一眼

Duō kàn yīyǎn

If you don't have the lyrics, search Google for 多看一眼 歌词 and you will get it here
鳳飛飛
多看一眼
作詞：莊奴/ 作曲：湯尼
青山高　綠水長　藍天白雲好風光
芳草綠　鮮花香　比不上可愛的好姑娘
眼睛大　明又亮　神情好像水蕩漾
身材美　健又壯　烏黑的頭髮飄肩上
你看她一眼　一輩子都在想
她看你一眼　一輩子不會忘
誰不愛　好姑娘　美麗溫柔又大方
你若是　真愛她　緊緊的跟在她身旁

Also, just search YouTube for 多看一眼 and I got this video with pinyin (but no tone)
凌震 and 尤金 are two singers who also sang this song but 鳳飛飛 was the original singer


Are HSK6 questions 51 through 60 (语病) so difficult that it's reasonable to just guess?

For native Chinese who read and write a lot, there are many obvious mistakes we can spot in one glance, but for learners, these questions are indeed extremely difficult.
Things that are easy to  spot:

保持年轻的 [之一秘诀] 是拥有健康的心态  --> 保持年轻的 [秘诀之一] 是拥有健康的心态

"XX 之一" is a common structure for "one of the XX "

~

春天来了，到处是呈现出一片生机勃勃的景象。 --> 春天来了，到处[是][呈现出]一片生机勃勃的景象。

是 is a verb, 呈现出 is also a verb. We only need one

The problem is not the difficulty. The problem is the long time it takes to go through the lengthy sentences.
Your teacher's suggestion was a practical one, for dealing with a time restrained test.
My suggestion is similar-- Answer the questions you know the answer first, leave the hard and long questions at the end.
Guess only at the last minute
Edit:
It took me 10 minutes to answer all ten questions. I guess non-native speakers would take three times as long. If a test has a time limit of two hours, and 200 questions, they would be spending  1/4 of their time to answer 1/20 of the questions.


Some disagreements with above.

Though '七曜' did exist in Chinese philosophy and literature from the very beginning, it is almost certain that the practice of using '七曜' to notate the seven days of a week came from the western world via India around the Tang Dynasty.

In spite of this, it was not until the dawn of the Chinese dynasties that Chinese people did really start to get accustomed to the idea of having in their life 'weeks' made up of seven days as Christianity began its spread in China, and finally with the foundation of the Chinese Republic 'weeks' became official in Chinese people's life. In China, people use numbers (星期一, 二, ...)to mark different days of a week except Sunday (星期日). It's now the Japanese practice to use '七曜' (金曜日, 火曜日, ...)to name different days.

Thus it's hardly noticeable in ancient Chinese language to use any terms related to the concept of 'week'. Most of the time, it suffices to state the year and the date.

There are two common systems of counting the days in ancient China. One is the Regnal Year (年号), according to different emperors, together with a cardinal number, e.g. 顺治二年. Sometimes the regnal year was so much used and the regnal names for the years became even much more famous than the actual names of the emperors so people directly use the regnal names for the emperors. In fact when people talk about emperors of Qing Dynasty 康熙，乾隆，顺治... they are actually using their regnal names for the years as a substitute of their long and tricky foreign names ('foreign' in regard to Han People).

Another system is 干支 (Ganzhi), which is the combination of ten heavenly stems '天干' (甲、乙、丙、丁、戊、己、庚、辛、壬、癸) and twelve earthly branches '地支' (子、丑、寅、卯、辰、巳、午、未、申、酉、戌、亥). This system is cyclic with a period of sixty years. This system is still in use today.

Next is the date. Lunar years were used in ancient Chinese (they are still used widely today). In every month there're thirty or twenty-nine days called by 初一, 初二...初十, 十一...十九, 二十, 廿一...廿九, 三十. It was also common to use the phase of the moon to state which day it is in a month (朔，望，晦).

Some examples：

永和九年(ninth year of Yonghe)，岁在癸丑(Ganzhi)，暮春之初 (at the beginning of the late spring). ——王羲之 Wangxizhi 《兰亭序》

壬戌之秋 (the autumn of Renxu (Ganzhi)), 七月既望 (the seventh month, the day after the day of the full moon). ——苏轼 Sushi 《赤壁赋》

About the hour of the day, it is absolutely ambiguous in ancient Chinese. Most of the time people just talked about the position of the sun or moon, whether it was morning or noon or afternoon and that was enough.

More precisely, people would use twelve Digan (地支), which I mentioned above, to divide a day into twelve intervals, which are called '时辰'.

Also people use '五更' to mark the five '时辰' of the night from seven
o'clock till five of the next morning, such as in the idiom '三更半夜' (around midnight).

So your sentence could be possibly translated as
每至休沐，吾犹日出而兴. (Every rest day, I still wake up as the sun rises).


What do these two characters on cufflinks signify? (Characters identified: 福 and 壽/夀)

A technique for ‘solving’ such a problem without a human translator

I pretend I did not know Chinese, I use 'Chinese hand writing input' on my iPad to mimic the brush strokes in the image you posted with my finger movement. I got a list of suggestions, Use your judgement to see which one is closest to the original image. Among all the suggestions,  '壽' and '福' are the closest.

Advice of which way is ‘up’

familiarize yourself with Radical https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/radicals.php you can tell which side is up generally.

The name of the language

Copy and paste whatever words into Google Translate and click 'detect language' button. It will tell you what language the words are in.

Whether Simplified or Traditional

Copy and paste '壽' and '福' into Google Translate and set target result as 'Simplified Chinese', you will get '寿' and '福'. Then you know '壽' is a traditional Chinese characters and '福' is used in both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Finally, check online dictionary to learn the meaning of the character

壽 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1686/
福 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1102/


You have to understand that every language is different.

In English, you ask for "What time is it now?" and you answer with "Time for you to get a watch.".

Now let's translate that to Mandarin, "现在几点了?" and you answer "现在是该你买表的时间了。"

???? What are you even on about ??????

In English, it's funny because you are asking for what time, and you answer with time for you

In Mandarin, there are several way to ask for time, the most common way is "几点了", the joke will be weird because you are asking for 几点了, and you answer with 时间, see how it doesn't make sense?

It would only be funny, if i ask "现在是什么时间？", which people rarely do, and i answer "该你买表的时间了".

So yea, unless people specifically ask for "什么时间" instead of "几点了", then you can answer with "买表的时间", which is still a

  lame but funny joke


I guess you just use them the same way as in English.
Look at e.g. this list:
Everything that uses 国际 translates as 'international'. Similarly in this list everything that is 世界 translates as 'world'.

A map that shows all the countries and their GDP (as a choropleth) would be:

  世界GDP分布图

In the case of a poverty average, I think you would rather use global poverty or 全球减贫 in Chinese.


What happened to the Old Chinese coda -p of 拉 in Cantonese?

The qu4 去  tone class in Middle Chinese is generally understood to derive from an OC suffix –s.  Sagart regards the whole class as deriving from this process (Roots of OC, p. 131). This results in word pairs of plain root and root + s that in Middle Chinese and later differ by tone.
If the –s is applied to a root that ends in a stop, it seems to efface that stop in later developments.  Sagart, citing Baxter, gives these examples (p. 54):

nei4 內  *nups > nwojH  ‘inside’, compare na4 納  *nup > nop  ‘to put in’
dui4 對  *tups > twojH  ‘to answer’, compare da2 答  *tup > top  ‘to respond’

In Cantonese, in both these cases, the final stop has been retained in the second (unsuffixed) word, but has disappeared in the first.  (In Mandarin you don’t see it anywhere, because all final stops are gone.)
The –s suffix seems to have had a variety of functions.  Often it seems to form exoactive or causative verbs – as well as Sagart, Schuessler discusses this at length in the introduction to his etymological dictionary.
Could the Cantonese form of 拉 be the reflex of a word with this suffix, which caused the final stop to be lost?


纟 derived from 糸, which is the silk. (looks very like)
Like many other simplified Chinese Characters, 纟comes from 草书, such as

訁 -> 讠
飠 -> 饣
糹 -> 纟
釒 -> 钅

most of the characters with 纟are related to textiles ( 纺织品 ) , such as
“丝”、“线”、“经”、“纬”、“绑”、“纹”、“纷”、“纱”、”“绞”
refer to: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BA%9F/8457525?fr=aladdin


Why 明 for tomorrow and next year but 下 for next month?

The first impression in people's mind on the term 明月 is 'bright moon' not 'next month'. I can understand, to avoid confusion, people would choose to say  "下一個月" or "下月" instead of "明月"

We do say "下一年" or "下年" along with "明年" for "next year"

As for saying 明天/ 明日 instead of 下天/ 下日:

明天 is specifically referring to "the day after today" = "tomorrow". There can be no day between 今天 and 明天.

Meanwhile, 下天/ 下日 sounds like you can fit some days in the middle, e.g. 下個下雨天. 下個元旦日.

In any case:

昨天|今天|明天

去年|今年|明年

上一年;上年|今年|下一年;下年

上一個月;上個月;上月|今個月|下一個月;下個月;下月

上週|本週|下週

上個星期;上星期|今個星期|下個星期;下星期

are all accepted terms by people.


What is the function of 好 in 你好厉害 and 我好无聊?

So, I dug out my Modern Chinese Practical Grammar Analysis 現代漢語適用語法分析（下冊) and it turns out that those expressions do not exist.
Under the section on "adverbs expressing degree", it lists 比較，相當，很，十分，非常，極爲，極其，最，...極了 ，太...了， 可... 了, 挺...的，真...啊，怪...的, 夠...的，特別，尤其，更，還，... but not 好...or 蠻 (simp: 蛮）
Except of course, that 好 very much exists, and is just another (colloquial) way of expressing degree in Chinese, just like 挺, which could be considered its northern dialect equivalent. The same answers apply here as in this question. Wherever you can use 很 you can technically use 好. This also means that sometimes it doesn't need to be translated in English:

你好厲害啊!/你好厉害啊！  You are (so) amazing!
這道題好難哦！/这道题好难哦！This question was pretty hard!
得到批准好不容易啊 I (really) struggled to get approval. (this one has
special constructions with 才, as you can see here

Note that the full expression is often "好 (something of which there is "a lot of") 啊/哦/呀" as in the examples above, which further indicates a more colloquial/intimate nature. In the two sentences below, I'd always pick 很 for the first one and 好 for the second one.

我很喜歡在中國旅游/我很喜欢在中国旅游。I very much enjoy travelling in China
我好喜歡你啊! /我好喜欢你啊！ I really like you

To wrap up, 好 seems to be just how southern Chinese languages/dialects, e.g. Cantonese, say 很. Chinese "dialects" are always felt as more intimate and less formal than the standard language. Teaching materials may avoid (southern) dialectal terms at all costs even while including stuff like "極了/极了“ which you won't see outside of some subtitle translation.
But most southerners speaking Mandarin casually (not even 塑料普通话）will say something like 好好吃啊！ (or 蠻好吃的!) rather than 很好吃！ Even northern Chinese have adopted 好 precisely for that informal or perhaps southern/soft/可愛 feel and will exclaim things like 我好餓啊!, even if they tend to use 很/挺 a lot more.
So feel free to use 好、很 、挺 as you see fit!


What does the phrase '我的妈来' mean when it is used to express shock or surprise?

I would say it could mean anything that could express surprise in English. eg, "Oh Mine" "Wow" etc. I don't think it means "WTF" and "Holy sht". it's just a surprise. it could be either bad thing or good thing that happens to someone. Usually, people would say "我的妈呀" or "妈呀" instead of "我的妈来" to express surprise.


好點兒了嗎 and 好些了嗎 can be used interchangeably. They are used to ask if something get better. Because 好點 and 好些 share the similar meaning so 好點兒了嗎 and 好些了嗎 can be used interchangeably. Both 好點 and 好些 are used to denote something get better. You can imagine them as if 好點 and 好些 are 變好一點 and 變好一些 respectively. And 一點 and 一些 are used to denote a little amount of quality.


What is the difference between 中国歌, 中国之歌 and 中国的歌?

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

Difference between true possessive and relative possessive:

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

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

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


錦城畫苑 = Jincheng (gorgeous city) studio
松鶴 = Pine and crane (It is the title of the painting, 松鶴 represent longevity and elegance)
(長?)樂畫
長樂 is the author,  畫 means draw

城


This is a simplified word, and it is a rare used word. Most people will recognize it only as 哆唻咪(doreme), but now it's replaced mostly by 哆来咪，or even 多来米.
And the word 口来, though it is said to be simplified version of 唻， in fact this may not be realy a word, it's never used, even can't be inputed by most Chinese IMEs.


对..不置一词 literally means to 'not place a word on...'.  As Pedroski suggested, it means to not making a comment (or even a word) about the incident.


In my (long) studies I've never come across a formal definition of "definiteness/indefiniteness" specifically used to describe a grammar rule of Mandarin.
However the phenomenon you are talking about happens in many languages, and can be explained as stressing a certain element of a sentence by means of syntax (i.e. word order).
By rearranging the order of the words, of course within the boundaries of grammar, you can achieve this effect of giving more prominence to some element instead of another.
This happens in other languages as well. For example Spanish is a pro-drop language, so when you do specify a pronoun you are putting extra stress on it:

me llamo Pedro (= my name is Pedro)
yo me llamo Pedro (emphasis on "me", it's me who's called Pedro, and not somebody else)

In these cases, further implications may exist, otherwise there would be no need to stress a normally unstressed element, right?.
At this point you should also consider that some syntactical constructions, which are widely used in Mandarin, have the specific purpose to stress some element of the sentence. Some of them are:

topic-comment, and not just in Chinese!
constructions with 把

Topic-comment
According to some linguistics theories, in the topic-comment structure the comment (or rheme) is the focus of the sentence. The term "focus" is technical and means the new, non-derivable information that is said about something (the topic).
Hence it follows that the topic is known, derivable information. So when you topicalize something, you imply that it is known, and that's why it can take the definite article in English:

人来了 (topic = 人 = known information; comment = 来了 = new information)
"the (previously stated) person(s) have come"

The other example 来了人了 doesn't topicalize 人, so it doesn't imply that 人 is known: "some person(s) have come".
Constructions with 把
It's easy to make sense of your given example if you consider that 书 in 买书 has a non-specific meaning. This frequently happens in Chinese with separable verbs, where the objects contribute meaning to the verb instead of representing an actual target of the action. E.g. 我想吃饭 I want to eat food. Those are some times called virtual or ostensive objects.
So in 我在买书了 the object 书 is non-specific, and in English you can use the plural "I'm buying books".
Objects that can be extracted with 把 need to meet certain requirements:

The direct object of a bǎ construction [...] is usually definite, meaning that it is specific and unique (as in phrases beginning with the equivalent of this, that, these, or those).

So the sentence 我把书买了 implies that 书 is known and definite, therefore it translates as in your example "I bought the (previously talked about) book".

In conclusion:

Is verbal position used to indicate definiteness in modern Mandarin?

No, not verbal position. It's the position of the element whose definiteness/indefiniteness shifts following different syntactical constructions.


From a practical learner's point of view, treating the checked "tones" as shorter, closed syllables that carry the same tone as as tones 1, 3, 6 (and 2 in changed tone) would be enough. In modern Cantonese of the Pearl River Delta, there appears to be little to no difference in pitch between the non-checked and checked.

In Taishanese, one of the checked tones matches to a different tone to standard Yuehai Cantonese. Also in some other non-Yue varieties, checked tones in tone sandhi behave very differently to non-checked tones, even if they have the same contour in isolation (e.g. Xiamen/Amoy Min Nan). So it is possible for checked syllables to have different patterns: it's just not a feature of standard Cantonese.


When do you use 唄 instead of 吧 to end a sentence?

Their meanings are somewhat different. In a few situations, they are interchangeable, but there are many others where you can only use one and not the other. The key difference is that 呗 is much more assertive, even rhetorical, whereas 吧 can be used to express doubt or uncertainty as well. For completeness I'll cover them all.

Definitions taken from zdic.net

呗

  (1) 表示事实或道理明显,很容易了解。如:你不会骑车就学呗

  (2) 表示勉强同意的语气。如:你一定要去,就去呗

吧

  (1) 用在句末,表示恳求、提议、请求、命令等语气 [(used at the end of a sentence) indicating entreaty, suggestion, command, etc.]。如:派六个人不够吧,我的意见派十个人;你说给大家听听吧!

  (2) 用在句末,表示同意、认可的语气 [indicating agreement or acknowledgment]。如:好吧,我一定去;就这样执行吧

  (3) 用在句末,表示疑问语气,带有揣度的意味 [indicating doubt]。如:他现在赞同了吧?你弄通了吧?

  (4) 用在句末,表示估量、推测语气 [indicating uncertainty]。如:他自己总该知道吧;老王会到这边来吧

  (5) 用在句中,表示停顿,带假设语气,并带有列举性质 [indicating a pause]。如:说吧,不好;不说吧,也不好

When expressing a foregone or obvious conclusion, you can only use 呗. Let's examine the example:

  你不会骑车就学*呗*

Here the speaker is saying that the solution, to learn how to ride a bike, is obvious, and doesn't need asking, as if the question was rhetorical. If you change the 呗 to a 吧, then the implication changes:

  你不会骑车就学*吧*

Here the solution of learning to ride a bike is more of a suggestion, and that other solutions may also be valid.
When expressing reluctant agreement, use 呗, although 吧 can also be used. Let's examine this:

  你一定要去,就去*呗*

Here the speaker is expressing reluctance that "you" have to go. The speaker could replace it with 吧:

  你一定要去,就去*吧*

But unless expressed elsewhere with tone or context, the tone of this sentence is ambiguous, and not necessarily reluctant.
When used as a suggestion or command, you can use either 吧 or 呗:

  你说给大家听听*吧*!

  你说给大家听听*呗*!

When expressing agreement or acknowledgement, you would use 吧. Sometimes you can use 呗 as well, but watch out for its more assertive tone:

  就这样执行*吧*

  就这样执行*呗*

When used to indicate doubt or uncertainty, you can only use 吧:

  你弄通了*吧*?

  老王会到这边来*吧*

There's another special use of 吧, as a pause in speech. In this manner, it is interchangeable with characters like 呢. 呗 doesn't have this usage.

  说*吧*,不好;不说*吧*,也不好