會 means be able to

說 means say,spaek

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

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

narrator in Chinese is 旁白 or 說書人

Another case

Colloquially, we can say

  A: 你真是&@#^$#& (something dirty)

  A: you are fuxxxx....

  B: 哇,你真會說 (frivolous)

  B: wow, you are so mean.


How would you write the years 1951 and 1964 in Chinese characters?

go to Google Translate
select translate English to Chinese
input "one nine five one, one nine six four" --> Result = "一九五一，一九六四"
input "year" --> Result = 年

1951 = 一九五一年

1964 = 一九六四年

You can omit 年 if you just want straight translation of 1951 and 1964


Are These Equivalent Grammatical Syntax?

Strictly, they are not all the same.
The second one sounds some more poetic in Chinese.
But in daily life, you will say the first one to express the meaning,"he lies on the grass quietly", the second one may make you seems sort of strange.


Is the position of 都 in a sentence important？ (example inside)

In my opinion, 你週末通常都做什麼 is more natural.

你週末都通常做什麼 sounds ok, but not as natural as the first one.

There's no difference in meaning. I don't think there's a strong reason as to why the first one sounds more natural. It might be all about conventions.

Note that some might take this differently based on their conventions.

By the way, 都 here is used to emphasize, not to convey every or each.


Depending on how 'in touch' with the language (in terms of understanding grammatical constructions and context clues) you may be considered fairly fluent with 80% or so character recognition

Think about your vocabulary in English.  If you pick up a book with many words you don't know, you may still be able to comprehend it based on the context of the words that you might not know.  Same applies for Chinese.

If you are interested in numbers and facts, here are the results of some studies:

Cumulative Character Frequency for the Top N Characters based on two studies (Huang 1994 and Da 2004)

Top 250 characters: 64.4% / 57.1%

Top 500 characters: 79.2 / 72.1%

Top 1000 characters: 91.1 / 86.2%

Top 1500 characters: 95.7 / 92.4%

Top 2000 characters: 97.9 / 95.6%

Top 3000 characters: 99.4 / 98.3%

The above table tells us that the top 1000 characters account for between 86% and 91% of the characters occurring in the real world. Assuming, with great hope, that there is a good correlation between the top 1000 characters found in these studies and the 1000 characters that most second year college students are supposed to master, we can conclude that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, while we wouldn't advocate studying characters solely based on their high frequency, we believe that studying such lists is a reasonable supplement to conventional study programs. Such lists also provide a sense of just where one is on the path to full Chinese literacy.

The results from the above studies have been used to generate two different sets of flashcards.

The Top 1000 Traditional Characters is based on C .H. Tsai's combined 1993–1994 data.
The Top 1000 Simplified Characters is based on Jun Da's combined classical and modern Chinese data, which has the advantage of being based on more recent data as well as more formal publications.

Source: http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/topchars.php


"sauce flavored" baijiu has a fermented bean sauce flavor.In my opinion,this flavor shares some similarity with soy sauce's flavor as the soy sauce is also made from fermented beans.However,the baijiu's fragrance is far more strong and abundant than soy sauce's.It's a mixture of various fragrance.
See more in What's "sauce flavored" baijiu?


跟 in "你的衣服跟我的衣服都便宜"。 and "你的房子跟我的房子都贵"。is not 'compare to' but 'also/and'

In face, 跟 doesn't contain meaning of 'compare to' .

You thought so because in [X 跟 Y 比] ("X compare to Y" ) structure '跟' is always paired with '比'

  你的衬衫比我的衬衫好看。- 比 = compare to

  你的手机比我的手机好用。- 比 = compare to

  [(item A) 比 (item B) + (adjective)] = [ (item A) compare to (item B) is (adjective)]

~

  你的衣服跟我的衣服都便宜。- 跟 = and

  你的房子跟我的房子都贵。- 跟 = and

  [(item A) 跟 (item B) + 都 + (adjective)] = [ (item A) and (item B) are both (adjective)]

~

  also notice on this site, examples where the adjective is at the end. There were none like that in the handouts. All were in these two formats.

But the adjective is at the end in this two formats too. 好看, 好用, 便宜 and 贵 are all adjective

~

Add 跟 in a comparisons structure instead of using 比 alone:

  (你的衬衫)跟(我的衬衫)比, (你的衬衫好看得多)

  take (item A) and (item B), and compare, + (opinion/ statement)

Another way to use 比 in a comparisons structure is  "compare to A, Y is (opinion/ statement)":

  [(比起)(我的衬衫), (你的衬衫)(好看得多)]

  [(compare to) (A), (B) (opinion/ statement)]


Chinese? Seal Need help with translating and more information on this scroll (Characters identified: 鄧紹新印）

It shows 鄧紹新印.
I guess it is someone's name.


Toponims of China limitrophing countries

I have heard that it is China's policy to choose names for foreign countries in accordance with the wishes of the foreign country, and they usually either transliterate or calque the country's endonym†. Insofar as English-speaking countries do this, the names will be similar. Insofar as they don't, they will diverge.

Let me address several examples to demonstrate that China sticks with endonyms of the modern state most of the time, rather than imposing a historical exonym:

Mongolia calls itself Монгол Улс (mongol uls). 蒙古 is both the historical and modern Chinese term for Mongolia, and (like "Mongolia" in English) it obviously comes from the endonym.
The Republic of Korea calls itself 한국 (hanguk), which is exactly cognate to 韩国. "Han" was a traditional name for some Korean states, but the ROK explicitly chose their name to make reference to that. It was not simply China deciding to attach one of their old names to the modern country arbitrarily. Japan calls the ROK 韩国 too--English is the weird language here (and is attaching a historical name arbitrarily)!
The DPRK calls itself 조선 (chosŏn), also cognate to 朝鲜. Again, this is a historical term for a Korean kingdom, and the DPRK intentionally chose to associate themselves with that name. Japan calls them 朝鮮 too (actually 北朝鮮, which pisses them off), and English is the weird case.
Laos calls itself ລາວ (lao), and the modern Chinese transliteration of that is 老挝 (not 辽国!). There were a variety of different transliterations that China used to use, and the current choice wasn't official until the 50's. The English is also a transliteration of the endonym.
Myanmar (no longer called Burma in English) calls itself မြန်မာ (myăma). 缅甸 is clearly derived in part from that endonym. I don't know where the 甸 comes from, but I think 缅甸 is a long-standing historical term.
Cambodia calls itself កម្ពុជា (kampuciə), and China transliterates that as 柬埔寨 (if you speak a southern dialect, the 柬 makes more sense for "kam"). The English is also a transliteration, although not particularly accurate. I assume that China doesn't call them 真腊 for the same reason that no one calls Germany "The Holy Roman Empire" or "Prussia"--真腊 was a state that ceased to exist over a thousand years ago, and the modern Cambodian state doesn't call themselves that.
India calls itself India in English and भारत (Bhārat) in Hindi. India has many other languages, but most of its endonyms are related to Bhārat, and a few are related to India (e.g., இந்தியா = Indhiya). China has called India many names over the years. Currently it uses 印度 (obviously related to India), which has been in use since at least when Xuanzang traveled there. Another historical name is 天竺, but guess what? That's a transliteration of the same thing, except via Persian (Hinduka). This is arguably a case where China is not closely following the current endonym, but it's definitely not borrowing the name from English.

Anyhow, I hope these examples drive home the point that modern Chinese names for foreign countries are mostly chosen based on that country's endonym. They don't necessarily follow historical terminology in Chinese, nor do they borrow much from "western" naming.

† I don't have any citation for this, but here's an example for a city: Seoul used to be called 汉城 but, at the request of the ROK government, is now called 首尔 (to better reflect the endonym).


What is the proper usage of 而已 in Chinese?

“而已” is always used at the end of a sentence and with words like “仅仅”,"只","不过". A similar word in Chinese is "罢了"(actually, this word comes from 满语). You use the structure "......(part A),不过......(part B)而已" to emphasize the expression that A is just limited within B. You could only use "不过", also, and "而已“ weakens your mood and sometimes expresses that you don't have help to (or don't take care of) B.

For example:

Your girlfriend and you are watching a magic performance. The magician is going to stab a sword into the assistant's body and your girlfriend gets scared. You would say:"别紧张，这不过是魔术表演而已。"(Don't worry, this is just a magic performance[so you don't have to get worried about it])
The famous writer in modern times, 鲁迅(lu3 xun4) has a novel collection called 《而已集》.In the preface, he wrote:"连‘杂感’也被‘放进了应该去的地方’时，我于是只有‘而已’而已" (while my "random thoughts“ are put into the place where it is supposed to go(meaning, he is not allowed to publicize his thoughts, criticisms), I could only say "而已")to show his helpless and sadness.

The equivalent for the structure "不过......而已" would be "only","just".


In proper use of the Chinese language, you're talking about the difference between the true comma 逗號 「，」 and the enumeration comma 頓號 「、」.

The difference between the two can be illustrated in a sentence from the Chinese Wikipedia article on 頓號:

  分隔同類的並列的事，通常是單字、詞語或短句，當中的停頓較逗號短。

  (Enumeration commas are) used when separating similar items consecutively, such as single characters, words, or short sentences/phrases, where the pause is shorter than that given by the True Comma.

The list begins with the word 單字, continues on with 詞語, then finishes with 短句, after which the true comma is used to create a pause between the previous part of the sentence and the next part.

Note: Very rarely will you see enumeration commas everywhere and true commas not used at all. In this case, you're most likely looking at a Japanese rendition of a Classical Chinese text, because in the Japanese language they use 「、」 for everything.


Correct/Polite way of asking "Can we speak in chinese?"

In eastern asian languages, hints are very important, thus, if you have already said "你会说汉语吗?", it has included an indication of "让我们说汉语吧" and the part you are asking for is actually an unnecessary part of the communication. You can just switch to your Chinese mode after that sentence as a notice.

It is the same case in English. When you say "Can we speak in Chinese?", obviously you are not inquiring if we really have the ability to say Chinese, rather, it is an indication including the sentence "Let's speak Chinese.", which you will not speak aloud.

But it is important you know the correct answer. “（咱们/我们）能用（普通话/汉语）说吗？”


对不起 is not wrong. According to the scenario, it's fine if you intent to use it for the meaning of I'm sorry (for bothering or disturbing).

You can also use 不好意思 or 打扰一下 instead, if you won't bother the random people much.


Yes, it is indeed a variant of 两. You can see it listed here in the Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants 《異體字字典》:

http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/word_attribute.rbt?educode=A00284

As for why they've chosen to write it this way, I'm not sure.


'皇帝' is a title for 'Emperor' (n)

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

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

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

literal meanings:

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

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


Can you apply 男子汉 and 女汉子 to non-Chinese?

男子汉 means a manly guy, a strong man, or a courageous fighter.

The grammar doesn't seem natural in Chinese. It actually originated in a foreign language and borrowed to Chinese. Here is some text about its origin:

据考证称呼成年男子为男子汉起源于汉武帝时代，众所周知自汉高祖刘邦白登被围后，西汉政权对北主的匈奴一直采取的和亲战略，因此匈奴人对汉人十分瞧不起，到武帝时期经过前几代皇帝的休养生息，西汉国力强盛，士卒训练有素，在汉武帝的命令下，西汉军队在卫青、霍去病两位将军的带领下，与北方的匈奴展开了激烈的战争，经过数次大战终于打败了强大的匈奴，当时的汉朝军队士兵战斗力强悍，在对战中经常以一敌二或敌三，死战不退，一扫有汉以来匈奴人对汉人的蔑视态度，因此从那时起匈奴人对汉朝士兵的称呼即为“汉儿”、“男儿汉”，此称呼后来传回中原，风靡一时，后来人们逐渐对成年男子即用男子汉称呼。

It can be used for people of any ethnicity in China (not just 汉族，but also 满族、蒙古族, etc). So foreigners can also use the word without any problem.


Trying to figure out what says here and what this artifact is

This appears to be the end piece of a folding fan. Maybe the rest of the fan is missing?

The characters should be read from right to left:
金澤 jin1ze2
櫻谷特製 ying1gu3 te4zhi4

金澤 is the Japanese city Kanazawa. 櫻谷 means "Cherry blossom gorge" and would be pronounced "Sakuraya" in Japanese. This is probably the name of a place or a company. 特製 means "special product of".

So presumably this is a special product of Sakuraya in Kanazawa. While the names appear to be Japanese, these words would mean exactly the same thing in Chinese.


A Chinese Poem About Weather, Crops...And Clipper Ships?

I think 时间的快船 is referring to something like the fast boat of time, and what ever before is what is the boat. This may be talking about the flow of time.


When you use 在 with a time, where does 在 go in the sentence?

In the introductory Chinese courses I've seen they've taught two basic sentence structures:

STPVO and TSPVO

S = Subject
T = Time
P = Place
V = Verb
O = Object

Your sentence sounds quite strange to me, and I think it's because you're putting the place in front instead of the time or subject. Either of these variations sound much better:

我上个星期在日本看朋友。(STPVO)

上个星期我在日本看朋友。(TSPVO)

I don't think it's technically wrong to put 日本 first, but in that case you're putting much more emphasis on the place, which doesn't seem to be reflected in your English sentence.

In any case, you're right that 在 should go in front of 日本.


链接, 连接, 连结, 联接, 联结 - lianjie - is it a joke and if not, what's the difference?

There is a story.

There is a Japanese cellphone game called “Princess Connect! Re:Dive” (プリンセスコネクト! Re:Dive). Before it was officially released in China, people are discussing which is the correct translation of the name, because in the context all these words have almost the same meaning "connected". But when it is released the official name 公主连结 is the least discussed, as if the company is trying to avoid people's expectation. Any way, folks are calling it 公主焊接(princess weld) now.

Beyond the story:

break the words:

链: originally means a chain, but now more refer to a internet link
连: physical connection (from distance)
联: abstract connection
接: connect by touching
结: knot

The words:

链接: link to, internet related word
连接: connect, more physically, but can infer abstract connect
连结: physically tie the knot, metaphor for spiritual connection.
联接: abstract connection between people
联结: a combination of 联接 and 连结, spiritually tie the knot, same as spiritual connection.

Usage:

链接 is almost always used under internet context
连接 can be physical or abstract, but usually not between people
连结, 联接 and 联结 are usually abstract, where 连结 and 联结 are mostly for people relationships.

In Chinese, verbs can be used as nouns. Here is the case.


What is the meaning of 要 in these sentences?

All three examples can be interpreted as a future auxiliary.

  他很忙，但是他「應該要」來參加我的生日晚會

  He is very busy, but he「should be」coming to my evening birthday party.

This「要」is used in the sense of will, going to, like 我明天要上學 (I will be going to school tomorrow). Similarly,

  要實現夢想不是一件容易的事

  To realise (one's) dreams is not an easy matter

  要把漢語學好不是一件容易的事

  To learn Chinese well is not an easy matter


First of all let me point out that in Chinese the term "stative verb" 状态动词 is commonly associated to what you call intensifier, on this website too, for example here.
In English though, stative verbs are verbs that describe a relatively unchanging state, so we can include your examples, as 喜欢，希望，etc.
As for your questions, this is how I interpret the whole thing:

Why does 喜歡 precede the location-phrase 在圖書館？ (why not 我們 在圖書館 喜歡讀書 )

Because what you like in this sentence is the entire thing of reading in the library. If you invert the order, 我們 「在圖書館」 喜歡讀書 then you say that in the library, we like reading (i.e. when we are not in the library we don't like reading anymore).
Same as in the other example:

她希望將來當工程師

She hopes to be an engineer in the future (someday), and not, 將來希望當工程師 in the future, she will hope to be an engineer.
The state described by the stative verb applies to what follows. If you move complements before it, it doesn't apply to them anymore.
And finally:

On the other hand, intensifiers are allowed to come before the stative verb:

because they work as adverbs here, and modify the intensity of the described state:

我超级喜欢 I extremely like
我很喜欢 I like a lot (very)
我不太喜欢 I don't like too much (not very much)
我非常不喜欢 I extremely dislike


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

  无丝竹之乱耳，无案牍之劳形

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


I've been learning Chinese for 12 years and I don't think I've seen 对 used in that way before. However, the「对不是」 could be a typo of 「绝对不是」 "certainly not". So, maybe it could be this:

  我们都不是美国人。
  None of us are American.

  我们绝对不是美国人。
  We're definitely not American.

Hope that helps.


This is probably a Japanese artefact. The characters are

緯齋（學）書

From a brief Google search, the only record which came up is from a Japanese website (http://www.ezimport.co.jp/product.php?id=t533042480) which no longer is active. The residual archive text in that link says

美しい円形の古銅印です。書鎮にもぴったり！！「緯斎学書」でしょうか。 語句も美しい。サイズ印面径56ミリ、高さ45ミリ。
This is a beautiful circular bronze seal, perfect for calligraphy. The writing says 「緯斎（齋）学（學）書」, doesn't it - beautiful words indeed. The seal's surface diameter is 56 mm, and height is 45 mm.

If your measurements match this, then you've found a residual internet comment talking about your aftefact.


Why Fiorentina is commonly translated as "佛罗伦萨" instead of "费奥伦庭那"？

Chinese 佛罗伦萨 fololunsa
Italian Firenze  [ˈfire̞nt̪s̠e̞]
English Florence /ˈflɒrəns/
Latin flōrentīna /fjo.renˈti.na/ etymology from flōrēns (“flowering”).

As above, 佛罗伦萨 is translate from English pronunciation.

Why not from Italian (翡冷翠,still in use today for some literary effect) or from Latin(费奥伦庭那 as you typed)?

  中国人谙英文者多,而习小语种者少,欧美许多非英语国家地名往往从英语转译,不是直接从该国语言译>来,例如慕尼黑由英文的转写(transliteration)munich而来,而非来自原名München[1]

详情请看翡冷翠 vs. 佛罗伦萨：译音及其原则, It's very long.

Why 亚特兰大 not 阿塔兰塔 ?

In fact, I think 鱫ai脦te兰lān踏tà is most close to English pronounciation. Completely transliterating results some weird words like 鱫脦兰踏. And for the perspective of specification, something like 英汉译音表 is a good choice.[2] . And the previous link is also helps a lot in this question.

Reference

http://www.cnki.com.cn/Article/CJFDTotal-YWJZ201002040.htm
(sorry you probably cannot download it)
picture comes from 世界人名翻译大辞典>附录二:译音表

notice, I am not professional.


How can I ask "which one is your favorite/do you like more"?

Just like in English:
Say "哪一个你最喜欢?/ 你最喜欢哪一个?" (which one you like the most) when you are choosing between three or more items
or
Say "哪一个你更喜欢?/ 你更喜欢哪一个" (which one you like better). when you are choosing between two items


How to pronounce three third tones in a row?

I know that for a sentence like 我买花 the two third tones become a second and a fourth tone, the pronunciation would be wó mài huā

According to the rule of the 3rd tone sandhi, to be more precise, the tones should be 2-(半三声)-1. Note that the tone of 买 should be 半三声, which means only the first half of the 3rd tone, without the rising tone part. If you pronounced it as the 4th tone, it'll become 我卖花.

Then for 我可以看~, the tones would be 半三声-2-半三声-4-~. 我可以 could be interpreted as 我+可以, and when three words with the 3rd tone are used together and with 1-2 construction rule #4.2 applies, the 1st word is pronounced as 半三声, the 2nd word is pronounced as the 2nd tone, so 我可 is pronounced as 半三声-2. And according to the rule #3, i.e. when word with the 3rd tone is used before other words with the 1st/2nd/4th tone, it's pronounced as the 半三声, so 以 is pronounced as 半三声 here.


What is the right spelling, 乌兹别克 or 乌孜别克?

1934年，盛世才召開新疆第二次民眾大會，確定烏孜別克族為正式族名，把國外的烏孜別克族依然寫作烏茲別克。
In 1934, 盛世才 held the second public meeting in Xinjiang, determining 乌孜别克 (wū zī bié kè) as the official ethnic name, and the foreign Uzbek still writing as 乌兹别克.

Therefore, 乌孜别克 usually refers to the race in China.
But, many people still use 乌兹别克 interchangeably, as shown in the government web page.

However, 乌兹别克 mostly refers to the foreign country or race. 乌孜别克 is seldom used in this case.

I think 孜 is more popular than 兹 in Xinjiang, and that's why 盛世才 chose it. For example,
seasoning : 孜然 (cumin)
festival : 肉孜节, 诺鲁孜节
place : 克孜尔千佛洞, 克孜尔尕哈, 柏孜克里克, 克孜尔魔鬼城, 克孜勒山, 克孜利亚, 克孜库尔干, 克孜勒苏, 牙通古孜
language : 柯尔克孜语

盛世才 (Shèng Shì-cái) (1897/1/8 - 1970/7/13)
1933年至1944年间新疆军事、政治首长，有“新疆王”之称。
Sheng ruled the Xinjiang province from 1933 to 1944, and had the name of "King of Xinjiang".


What would a non-binary tā （他／她） look like?

The best candidate for a non-binary TA is in fact 他. This is particularly obvious in the word 他們 (them), which definitely does not refer to a group of specifically males. 他 did not acquire the specific meaning he until well after 她 was invented, and 他 originally was a generic word meaning other (e.g. 他人 the other person).

她 did not actually exist before the new culture movement; its creation was from the direct influence from European languages. This is commonly seen in older popular novels like Dream of the Red Chamber, where 她 makes no appearances and it is incorrect to assume that 他 means he or him.

Note: In Taiwan, 他 is still sometimes used to refer to both he/him and she/her, although this practice is declining.


What is the Mandarin equivalent of Cantonese's 麻麻地 (so-so)?

麻麻地 (Cantonese)

  麻麻地 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/1503/

  so-so; not too good, not too bad; ho-hum; middling.

  Example: 佢嘅英文麻麻地 (his English is just so-so)

普通/ 普普通通

  普通 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/2782/

  ordinary; general; average; standard; common

  Example:他的英文程度算是普普通通 (his English level is considered average)

一般

  一般 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/1495/

  [1] ordinary; common; general

  Example:他的英文程度一般 (his English level is just average)

The term '麻麻' came from '馬馬虎虎'

  馬馬虎虎 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/41049/

  careless; casual; just passable; so-so

  Example: 他的英文只是馬馬虎虎的程度 (his English is only at a so-so level)


how to refer to beginning/middle/end in Mandarin?

By "the beginning/middle/end", commonly Chinese words 初，开头，开始 /中，中间 /末，末尾，结尾 are related to them.

the beginning  /      middle     /end of the week (was hot)
一周初，一周开始/ ? 一周中间(几天) /周末............In Chinese, there's not an commonly used expression for middle of a weekend. we don't say it much.
the beginning/middle/end of the book (was exciting)
书的开头      /中间  /末尾，结尾
the beginning/middle/end of the summer (is when students arrive)
夏初  /仲夏   /夏末.......... “仲夏” is relatively literary. We don't say “夏中” much, personally I've never seen it before.
the beginning/middle/end of the year (seemed promising)
年初      /年中   /年末，年尾，年终..........As “年中” and “年终” share the same pronunciation <niɑ̄n zhōng>, make it clear if you use them in daily oral expression.
the beginning/middle/end of the speech (was inaudible)
演讲开始   /中间  /末尾，结尾
the beginning/middle/end of the word ....
as above
the beginning/middle/end of the movie
as above
the beginning/middle           /end of the hour
一小时开头     /半小时(eg. 3:30) / ？  .......We don't directly say "end of an hour" much in Chinese, but this: when you wanna say end of an hour like 4:50, just say “快5点” or “接近5点” or “将近5点”

Hope above helps. BTW, it may not be the same as your teacher told you, while I speak Mandarin of mainland China, there's few tiny differences of the language between Mainland and Taiwan, but feel free.


So here's a wrap up of the comments above.

着 is a Simplified Chinese only† character, so you won't find it in Traditional Chinese dictionaries, unless they explicitly list them.

See e.g. 教育部重编国语辞典. (找不到, because there is not such character in Traditional Chinese) I assume that OP uses Traditional Chinese because of the 這 used in the example sentences.

† EDIT: *As @Stan pointed out above, 着 is used even outside of Mainland China, as a folk alternate form of 著, but it is not considered correct, at least in Taiwanese usage. However it is a proper form as 'zhe' in HK.

However, we have 着 in Simplified Chinese where it corresponds mostly to the 著 character that is found both in Traditional and Simplified Chinese. The subtle, yet important difference is that when 著 is distinctively read 'zhù', it is written in both variants as 著 and in this case it doesn't correspond to 着. So 著名 is 著名 even in Simplified Chinese. In other cases - with different readings, like, 站著 (Trad.) corresponds to 站着 (Simpl.)

My theory is that some Simplified Chinese users are not aware of this use case and assume a 100% Simplified-Traditional correspondence between the two characters or even automatic ('character-by-character') machine transliteration could have contributed to the wrong assumption that 著名 can be written as 着名.


出头 has three usages:

Its literal/narrow meaning is make public appearance. A synonym is the Chengyu 出头露面. Its extended meaning is stand out; show off.
It can be used as short for 出风头 which exclusively means show off.
It can be used as short for 出人头地 which means stand out among peers; become successful. For this meaning, 出人头地 sounds natural but 出头 sounds somewhat vengeful.

In your context, without having watched the movie, I think it is the third meaning 'become successful (in a vengeful tone)'.

打 can be its narrow meaning beat up, or generalized boxing; kong-fu, or metaphorical use one's abilities; struggle. Since it's a Bruce Lee movie I guess it's a mix of the 2nd and 3rd meanings.

So as a whole, 打出头 means Struggle and successfully avenge using kong-fu.

Side note: those words and meanings are not exclusive to Cantonese, they are the same in Mandarin, but the formality is different. In Mandarin those words are considered colloquial and in the past it might not be formal enough for a movie title. In the recent years however, movie titles have become less 'literary' and anything is accepted. Admittedly this is a controversial topic that native Cantonese speakers may disagree; I am only speaking from my own perspective as a native Mandarin speaker from Northern China.


How do you phrase XXX number of people have Internet addiction in Chinese?

A more formal form to say it:

幾千萬人有互聯網依存症 - 'ten of millions of people have Internet Addiction'

A more colloquial way to say it:

幾千萬人上網成癮 - 'ten of millions of people getting online so much it became an addiction to them'
or simply
幾千萬人有上網癮 - 'ten of millions of people have internet addiction'


Unknown meaning of a carving on the back of a Buddha statue (Character identified: 朱)

It's 朱

In 篆文:

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

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

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


It’s just a typo.

We have the, original, English for comparison:

  This energy-efficient mode of long-distance rail connectivity stands in sharp contrast to the carbon-intensive US interstate highway system created for motor vehicles in the 1950s and 1960s.

Along with the Chinese translation:

  这种节能高效的长距离连通模式，同上世纪五六十年代年代美国州际公路系统，形成了鲜明的对比。

The original text contains zero hints of duplication for 年代. It seems to just be a straight up mistake.

It is also clearly marked as a translation on the Chinese page:

  Translated by Congyi Shi

So we know it's not original text from the writer themselves.

The only real time you’d see double nouns is when talking to a baby or an infant:

(吃)饭饭
(喝)水水

I doubt the translators intent was to patronize a young one.


是否 roughly maps to whether in a yes-no interrogative sentence or clause.
For your sentence, you should use 不知道 or 不确定 instead of 没确定. 没确定 means haven't confirmed yet. Also 听得清 (could hear) is more polite than 听清了 (have heard). If the context allows, it is more natural to omit 我说的话.

I wasn't sure if you could hear me clearly.
我不确定你是否听得清(我说的话)。

General usage of 是否 is pretty straight-forward. You can check out Iciba for examples.


this seems relevant （http://exa-china.com/key-off--soak.html）:

  其中一个最极端的恶劣工况叫做“停车”或者“热浸”，这是指汽车在发动机很热的情况下很快停车，因为没有了冷却气流，发动机舱内的零件温度会升高。(1)

I think you are getting this sentence here (http://chinabidding.mofcom.gov.cn/govmain.jhtml?method=detail&channelId=205&docid=223065243):

  测定由于昼夜温度波动、停车期间热浸和城内运转所产生的污染物 (2)

The correct translation for the concept in (1) should be "hot soak": http://esa21.kennesaw.edu/activities/smog-cars/doe-veh-pollutants.pdf

Hopefully (2) is the correct context.  In general it would be good to include at least the entire parent sentence, so we can help you.


Mandarin equivalent of 轉行 (zyun3 hong4), which means to switch industries?

First: 《广州话-普通话》 indicates that 转行 is

  粤

Cantonese. This has probably changed since it was published but they also give the Mandarin equivalents:

  改行；转业

《广州话方言词典》 also gives the same two Mandarin equivalent words, in opposite order:

  转业；改行

改行 is probably the most colloquial option.


接受(accept) ≠ 接收(receive)

  接受 means agreeing to something

  接收 means getting something

I have made some amendments to the six sentences (in brackets) for clearer understanding of the meaning:

我接受(了)邀请。I accepted the invitation.
他将接受口试。He will be (accepting) an oral test.*
他拒绝接受治疗。 He refused (to accept) treatment.
我接收了邀请(函)。I received the invitation (letter).
部队未接收他。The military has yet to (receive) him.*
他接收了礼物。He received the gift.

接受 can be used in an abstract manner (邀请，口试，治疗) but 接收 has to be something physical (邀请函，他，礼物). Therefore, they can't be interchanged.

* These statements may sound unnatural to native English speakers. Gloss translation is provided to give the precise meaning of 接收 and 接受, and to avoid causing confusion to learners of the Chinese language.


How to tell Simplified and Traditional Chinese apart?

Some regular simplification rules:

釒(金)→钅: 針→针, 鈴→铃
飠(食)→饣: 飲→饮, 飯→饭
糹(糸)→纟: 紅→红, 絲→丝
訁(言)→讠: 計→计, 語→语

貝→贝: 貨→货, 貴→贵
見→见: 視→视, 現→现
頁→页: 項→项, 題→题
東→东: 陳→陈, 棟→栋
車→车: 軟→软, 輩→辈
門→门: 問→问, 閑→闲
烏→乌: 鎢→钨, 塢→坞
魚→鱼: 漁→渔, 魯→鲁
鳥→鸟: 鴨→鸭, 鷹→鹰
馬→马: 媽→妈, 騰→腾

There are also some simplified examples of complex components:

爿→丬: 壯→壮, 將→将
豐→丰: 灃→沣, 艷→艳
風→风: 瘋→疯, 諷→讽
長→长: 張→张, 帳→帐
堯→尧: 燒→烧, 饒→饶
䜌→亦: 戀→恋, 彎→弯
睪→: 澤→泽, 驛→驿
炏→艹: 營→营, 榮→荣
蘭→兰: 欄→栏, 爛→烂
羅→罗: 蘿→萝, 邏→逻
買→买: 買→买, 賣→卖
產→产: 鏟→铲, 滻→浐
齊→齐: 擠→挤, 濟→济
幾→几: 機→机, 譏→讥
柬→拣(the right part): 煉→炼, 練→练
盧→户: 廬(广+～)→庐(广+户), 驢(馬+～)→驴(马+户)
盧→卢: 鱸(魚+～)→鲈(鱼+卢), 顱(～+頁)→颅(卢+页)
戔→戋: 錢→钱, 棧→栈
咼→呙: 鍋→锅, 窩→窝
樂→乐: 爍→烁, 櫟→栎
豈→岂: 鎧→铠, 凱→凯
肅→肃: 蕭→萧, 嘯→啸

There are also many irrational simplifications, such as cursive writing, or homophonic substitution, and some characters are combined by these simplified components. If you see Chinese characters with a lot of these parts, you can be sure that this is traditional Chinese.


What does this announcer say after the words 改变？

No. He's not saying the word "帅哥". What he says is "改变，只需一颗俏比洗衣溶珠" as  @NS.X. comments.


They are different translations for the same word "database"

数据库 is used in Chinse mainland

whereas

資料庫 is used in Hongkong, Taiwan etc.

More examples could be found on Wikipedia.


The year number is always read digit by digit, so 2018年 is read as 二〇一八年.

118 should be read as 一百一十八 in Standard Mandarin Chinese according to the mathematics textbooks in primary school, but the non-standard 一百十八 is also common.

Similarly, the number 2018 (without 年) should be read as 二千零一十八 in Standard Mandarin Chinese.


Baidu Baike has character by character explanation:

塞：边界险要之处；
翁：老头：老人。
塞翁：边塞的老头儿。

The explanations of you found is correct, and "塞翁" means an old man living in a tactical border position.


An extremely rare same name used by two people

As you mentioned, the second occurrence of this name is from a novel, for instance the novelist Liange Yusheng 梁羽生 (1924－2009) was born in a traditional scholar family, thus gained very solid traditional Chinese education background. So I don't believe it is a coincident that the name of one of the 72 students of Confucious 孔子 is being used in his fictions. It is not rare in Chinese that novelist uses some names in history as their fiction character name.

And now let's look at the somehow "strange" or even "bad" name 澹台灭明. Again for instance the person 澹台灭明 in history was born around 500 B.C during the the "Chunqiu" 春秋 (770 B.C - 403 B.C) era, which can help us a lot understanding the name.

First the surname 澹台, it is actually a surname came from location, to be more precise the mountain 澹台山 (Mount Tan Tai). It is unclear whether he inherited the surname from his father or he might be the very origin of this surname because he lived in 澹台山 for a significant part of his life. But either way, name under location name (especially if person isn't from one of the few royal families) is quite a common practice during that era.

Now is the given name 灭明. First of all you probably won't see anyone name their children with this nowadays, or even in the past 1000 years in China. The most direct meaning of these two words can be "eliminate lights", thus it's very much like a curse. In fact the word 灭 (eliminate) itself is rarely used in names (fictions aside). Also notable that there's a dynasty in Chinese history 明 Ming (1368 A.D - 1644 A.D), and 灭明 basically can be meaning "eliminate the Ming dynasty". I am pretty sure you will get serious trouble if you named like that during the Ming's ruling era.

Interestingly, that's exactly what happened to the fiction character 澹台灭明 in Liang Yusheng's novels, who spent basically all his life trying to revenge the Ming dynasty. Reason Liang Yusheng pick this name is probably simple and straight forward, it is quite a badass name (i.e Thanos in avenger is translated to 灭霸 a.k.a lord of elimination) and pretty matching to the character.

Now let's get back to the 澹台灭明 in history. First of all unless there's some time traveling device that we don't know of, there's no way anyone in Chunqiu era would know there's a dynasty called 明 2000 years later. And I don't believe 澹台灭明's parents will give him this name just to curse their child to be blind or something. So what's the reason? Note that time when 澹台灭明 is born, it was still centuries before the 秦 Qin dynasty (221 B.C -207 B.C). Before 秦 Qin dynasty, the ancient China region has been split into handful small countries for centuries, and even though they are nominal vassal of the 周 Zhou dynasty, they are in fact independent, and have very different culture, using different currency, and have very different way of literate or speech. It was only after 秦 Qin brought down the 周 Zhou dynasty and re-unified the whole region, that currency and common writing letters became unified as one for Chinese. Also worth noting that even with unified letter, way of speaking those letter are still significantly different (and that's still happening even nowadays!).

With the historical reason mentioned above, combining with the relatively low literate rate during that era, a significant number of names during the the "Chunqiu" 春秋 era are in after-translate version in unified Chinese words/letter by pronunciation, which may mean very different things than it's origin. I believe 澹台灭明 is one of these cases.


Check out the list of classifiers on Wikipedia -- it notes that particular classifiers are Cantonese only, like zam6 for smells, bung6 for walls, gaan1 for stores, zoeng1 for chairs and so on.


I found a random file on my desktop, and I need to know what it says in English

It's mojibake.

Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojibake

In Chinese, the same phenomenon is called 乱码 (Simplified Chinese) / 亂碼 (Traditional Chinese) (pinyin: Luàn mǎ, meaning chaotic code), and can occur when computerised text is encoded in one Chinese character encoding but is displayed using the wrong encoding. When this occurs, it is often possible to fix the issue by switching the character encoding without loss of data. The situation is complicated because of the existence of several Chinese character encoding systems in use, the most common ones being: Unicode, Big5, and Guobiao (with several backward compatible versions), and the possibility of Chinese characters being encoded using Japanese encoding.


How do these characters represent the animals in the Chinese Zodiac?

Strictly speaking,「子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥」do not represent the Chinese zodiac, but the Earthly Branches. However, there is a one-to-one mapping between the zodiac and the branches.

  Which series came first?

Definitely the earthly branches, which was recorded on Shang Dynasty oracle bones - see, for example, 《甲骨文合集》37986.

There is no confirmation on how the twelve animals originated, but according to different opinions their first reference is either the Han Dynasty  Records of the Grand Historian or a Tang Dynasty Buddhist manuscript 《法苑珠林》.

  Is there any mapping to show how both sets of characters are related to each other?

The order which you've listed in the question is, in fact, their correspondence. To state explicitly:

子鼠
丑牛
寅虎
卯兔
辰龍
巳蛇
午馬
未羊
申猴
酉鷄
戌狗
亥豬

  Are the second string of characters based on Classical Chinese?

No. There are no confirmed origins of the 12 animals, but popular explanations say that they either come from old Chinese folk tales or Buddhist mythical animals.


hanzis used on their own, hanzis exclusively used in words

To understand this problem, you need to understand the linguistic concepts of 'bound' and 'free'.  To understand the concepts of bound and free, you have to understand the idea of a morpheme. A morpheme is an abstract linguistic unit that everyone knows how to use, but no one really knows how to define: 'dog' is an English morpheme; so is un-, or -ly.  Dog can be used in a wide variety of places in a sentence; un- and -ly cannot.  These two types of morphemes are thus called 'free' and 'bound'. Chinese morphology is similar to English in this basic sense. Of course there are important differences too. There are a number of books that discuss this, I recommend Jerry Norman's 1988 book, Chinese.

Here are two examples that illustrate the properties of bound and free in Chinese. First is the character 椅. This is a typical Chinese bound morpheme. Any Chinese-English dictionary will tell you it means 'chair'; what they usually don't tell you is that you can't just say 買一張椅. 椅 is bound; to use it as an independent word you have to at least use the compound form 椅子.  Note it does not require the suffix 子. It can be used in other compounds perfectly well without this, both on the right side: 躺椅, 藤椅, 電椅, and on the left side 椅墊, 椅背, 椅套.  This means 椅 is not like English affixes, such as un- and -ly.

Compare this with 床 'bed'. Unlike 椅, 床 is used by itself: 買一張床 is a perfectly good sentence. It can also be used in compounds: 吊床, 單人床, 床墊, 床頭, etc.  床 is free; it can be used as an independent word.

How do you know which characters (morphemes) are free and which are bound? This is what I think the OP really wants to know.  I don't completely agree that the difference between free and bound is a continuous spectrum. In different dialects, a morpheme may have a different status: a bound morpheme in dialect A may be a free morpheme in dialect B. A morpheme's status may also change; many morphemes that were free in early texts are now bound in modern Chinese.  But the Mandarin dialects are largely consistent in what is free and what is bound, so free and bound are well worth learning for a foreign student.

Absurdly, there is NO modern dictionary that marks characters (morphemes) as bound and free.  There WAS one which you might be able to find if you are near a large library: The Dictionary of Spoken Chinese, published by Yale University's Institute of Far Eastern Languages in 1966.  This was based on an earlier work by Chao Yuen-ren and several colleagues, compiled during WWII.  Although very old, for the common words that bother every student, it is a great resource for serious students.

I agree that sometimes the free-bound distinction can be tricky. Going back to the question, 爸 can be used by itself, but mostly as a vocative form (when you are talking to Dad); otherwise it can be odd: 他是我的爸 is odd for many people, 他是我的爸爸 is normal for everyone. The status of 爸 as a free morpheme is limited; you are best treating it as a bound form, except in talking to Dad.

白 is free, but only with the meaning of 'white'.  In the adverbial sense of 'without paying' or 'in vain', it is like all Chinese adverbs: bound.

把 bǎ has several meanings. As a structural particle it is bound, but a special kind of bound.

As a morpheme meaning 'handle' it is emphatically bound. Be careful, there are actually two morphemes meaning 'handle': bǎ, as in 把手, and bà as in 刀把. This is probably a historical change, there are some forms where there are two pronunciations: eg 把子 can be bǎzi, or it can be bàzi. I've heard both. What I haven't heard is 買一個把.  So for standard Mandarin, 把 is bound.


I've heard way worse when my mum and dad were arguing hahaha. I'm not sure if it is indeed what i think it is, but if it is, it's kinda cute and not that bad. Here is my guess:

Saying one person is like a rock when arguing is simply comparing that person to a rock, and why a rock you ask? Well, you can't win an argument with a rock, rock don't listen, rock don't change, rock never compromise because "it doesn't move". It's basically saying, "You are so stubborn!!".

Now why the term 臭 infront then? It's because if you just say ”你是一个石头“, it misses some "flavour" (See what i did there haha), your dad is just trying to show your mum who the boss is haha. Here is what I mean by that.

你是一个石头(You are a rock!!), flat, no emotions at all.

你是一个臭石头(You are a stinky rock!!), see how it portrays emotions better by simply adding the word "stinky"? It's just the way it sounds sometimes, as Chinese is a tonal language so the same sentence on paper might not mean the same when spoken

Again, this is my best guess, it could be a stronger word in different dialects.


Is it ok to say “发达的教育”或者“先进的教育”？


Tone Change: Why is 欢 (huan1) in 喜欢 (xi3huan0) pronounced with a neutral tone? Would you do that for all words ending in a first tone?

No. It does not always apply.

xi0 might be another way of writing the neutral tone. I haven't seen it before.

For 东西, dong1xi1 (east and west) and dong1xi(thing) have different meanings.

To make sure whether a word ends with a neutral tone, without hearing how natives are using it, you'll have to look it up in a dictionary.


It means that the usage of every word is in the person's control. Having an outstanding command of the language, the person knows where to conclude the article and how to put all of the inspirations in. In addition, the person also has a lot of ideas, making the person usually write a lot in a short period of time (also in good quality). As a native speaker, this is my interpretation.


I heard it's being used especially by older people in northest region. For example, 别蘑菇了，老蘑菇什么.

It's a synonym of 磨蹭. Maybe, 蘑菇 sounds folksy.

You might find it's used in some old novels as well.


Has 咖啡色 replaced 茶色 in everyday use for "brown", or can I use both?

Their colors are similar and close. Usually, 茶色 is short of 茶叶色(color of red tea) and used for glass. For example, 茶色玻璃.  Well, 咖啡色 is usually used for other objects. Like, 咖啡色皮夹克. But it's not wrong if replace one with the other in any case.


...什么颜色 or ...什么颜色的 may both be used. However, their constructed sentence have different analytical structures in the grammatical sense.

In your other question, you may have already seen an example of Chinese grammar, that some words are implied.

The two complete sentences are as follows:

你的眼睛是什麼顏色？ What color are your eyes? 什麼顏色 acts as a noun

你的眼睛是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？ What color(ed eyes) are your eyes? 什麼顏色 acts as an adjective

Here I analyze them using grammatical concepts.

Step 1:

/-Subject-\/-Predicate-\         <--- Step 1
  你的眼睛    是什麼顏色？

/-Subject-\/--Predicate---\      <--- Step 1
  你的眼睛  是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？

Step 2 & 3:

/--Subject--\/-Predicate-\            <--- Step 1
/-M-\   /-H-\/-P-\ /--O--\            <--- Step 2
  你  的 眼睛   是   什麼顏色？

/--Subject--\/-----Predicate------\   <--- Step 1
/-M-\   /-H-\/-P-\ /------O-------\   <--- Step 2
|   |   |   ||   | /--M--\    /-H-\   <--- Step 3
  你  的 眼睛   是   什麼顏色 的 (眼睛)？

M: Modifier
H: Head
P: Predicator
O: Object

Here we see a pattern: (Modifier)的(Head). Modifier is a fragment that describes the Head. For example:

(你)的(眼睛). Eyes -> whose eyes? -> your eyes
(什麼顏色)的(眼睛). Eyes -> how are the eyes? -> What colored eyes

As you can see, the two questions are asking for different answers.

你的眼睛是什麼顏色？asks for the color
你的眼睛是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？ asks for the eyes in what color

And so, the conversation should be as follows:

Q: 你的眼睛是什麼顏色？ What color are your eyes?
A: 黑色。 Black.

Q: 你的眼睛是什麼顏色的(眼睛)？ What color(ed eyes) are your eyes?
A: 黑色的(眼睛)。 Black color(ed eyes). 的 is necessary

Side note, you may also reverse the order of the question:

Q: 你的眼睛是什麼顏色? -> 你(的)眼睛的顏色是什麼? (We take out all but the last 的 in common situations, but the modifier behavior is still here.)
A: 黑色。

These two sentences are pretty much the same. Analytically, both are still asking for the color quality of "your eyes".


Difference between these two phrases for "Killing two birds with one stone": 一箭双雕 vs. 一石二鸟

As you mentioned, both 「一箭雙雕 」and 「一石二鳥」are equivalent  to the English idiom " kill two birds with one stone" . The difference is the scenario of the metaphor . You can say the two idioms are basically the same, but「一箭雙雕 」 is more decisive and forceful, while 「一石二鳥」 is more methodical and calculated.

「一箭雙雕 」(one arrow goes through two condors) describe two goals being achieved by one straight forward action-- that take great aim, skill and power.
「一石二鳥」( hit two birds with one stone) also describe one action achieves two goals, but the stone has to hit the first bird and then bounds to hit the second bird-- that take skill, planing and calculation.
「一箭雙雕」focus on the result: You can describe someone dating two sisters at the same time as  「一箭雙雕 」, but not 「一石二鳥」.
「一石二鳥」 focus on the method: People say " 「一石二鳥之計」( the trick that kill two birds with one stone) but not 「一箭雙雕之計」。
Another term similar to the two is 「一舉兩得」( take one action and get two benefits)


I'm currently walking (mostly) around Taiwan. When telling locals this, which of the many words for "walk" is the best to use?

"徒步環島" or "環島步行" is most appropriate for "walking around taiwan".

"環島" is around the island.

great activity, how many days you need? and where're you now?

have fun :)


How do you translate the phrase 'complete sentence'?

complete sentence

  完全句
  《懶蟲簡明英漢詞典》

or

  full sentence

  完全句
  《懶蟲簡明英漢詞典》

  完整句子
  《21世紀英漢漢英雙向詞典》

and

  sentence fragment

  句子片段
  《21世紀雙語科技詞典》

We usually use a shorter term for "complete sentence", like 全句 or 整句.


Meaning of 一挺 in 雪人大肚子一挺，他顽皮地说：“我就是冬天。”

This dictionary definition explains the use of 一:

表示猛然发出某种动作或突然出现某种情况
E.g. 往起一站 / 右手一挥 / 眼前一黑。

Basically, this use of 一 expresses the suddenness of an action either intentionally or unintentionally.


Why did my teacher mark down 一把 as a classifier for 手機?

To me, 部 is a formal classifier for 手机. 台 is usually used for a bigger machine, like computer & TV 一台电脑 & 一台电视.  一台手机 doesn't sound quite right to me.

一把手机 is not used in practice for whatever reason. I guess it might be because 我要买一把手机 could mean you want to buy a handful of 手机s, implying several 手机s, not just one.

Colloquially, sometimes I heard 一个手机 is being used. Like in the sentences: 我要买一个手机; 我想买个手机.

Well, 我要买一部手机 sounds more formal and it's not as casual as 我要买一个手机 or 我想买个手机 in our daily communications.

That's my observation from my neck of woods. Others from other regions may take this differently.


http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2546/

  犯

  [1] [v] offend; violate; go against

  [2] [v] invade; attack; encroach on

「犯險」go against danger

「犯天威」go against  the wrath of Heaven (emperor)

「冒險犯難」take risk and go against disaster

It is not in that dictionary, but I would suggest "go and face" is also a good interpretation of 「犯」in this sense.

The main point is: "to 「犯」something formidable"  is to actively go against it, facing it, so your interpretation of " to brave" is quite direct and accurate.

  I have assumed 「犯險 to be 「冒險。But none of my dictionaries contain it. When is 犯險 used? Does it differ from 冒險？

*「冒險」 and 「犯險」 are basically the same, differ only in degree of activeness. You can move forward to 「冒險」,  or you can 「冒險」 by not taking action; but you have to move forward to 「犯險」.

*「以身犯險/以身冒險」(personally go against danger/personally taking risk)is a common four characters phrase, it mentions 以身 (with one's own body) to emphasize the  seriousness of the stake.

  http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1428/

  冒

  [2] risk; brave; jeopardize


Boundary-shifting wordplay (or mishearing) in Chinese?

喜欢上 一个人

to get to like someone or to get to like being alone

  喜欢 上一个 人

to like the previous man/woman

  喜欢 上 一个人

to like to f-word someone


"Black Technology"

It is a role of Japanese light novels Full Metal Panic! .

  黑科技（Black Technology）——是指倾听者所拥有，但是非人类自力研发；凌驾于人类现有的科技之上的知识。

Black Technology is obtained from the Whispered who is another role of Full Metal Panic! . It is so knowledgeable that it overtops the existing technology of human being.

Nowadays, "黑科技" is often used to describe the companies which have unbelievable technology, such as Sony.


What is the best way to teach a child Mandarin?

It would be worthwhile for you to read over what people say in this question: Would it be bad to only speak to a child in a language in which you are not completely fluent?

It raises some interesting points.

The top answer from Javid Jamae provides the following points:

Spend as much time as you can around native speakers (family, friends, church, temple, cultural organizations, etc.)
Make a concerted effort to improve your language skills by learning vocabulary that is pertinent to common dialog you have with your children (focus on commands, household objects, animals, etc.)
Keep a notebook near you and every time you can't remember a word you want to use with your child, write it down. Go ahead and use the English (or other language) word so you can complete your thought with your child. Then, after you learn the Mandarin word, make sure you use it from them on.
Find a list of most commonly used conversational words in Mandarin and make sure you know the first 300-500.
Put your child in language classes as soon as they're old enough (5-6 yo).
Play "What is this?" with your child. Point to things and have your child tell you what they are. Using flashcards works well too. I'm sure you can buy Chinese flashcards online.
Get some Chinese-language kids TV shows and cartoons that you can play for you child when he gets a little older.
Make a commitment to your spouse that you will only speak Mandarin in front of your child. Struggle through it and you guys will notice that you're getting better.


Fast dictionary lookups while reading text

Try converting the document to HTML, load it in Firefox or Chrome and use PeraPera Chinese (for Firefox, for Chrome). I haven't used Word for a long time, but I do remember it has an option to quick review a .doc or .docx as HTML, or similar. If not, just export it as HTML, and you can use Perapera in your browser displaying the document.


美容：make oneself more beautiful
美容的食物：beauty foods, beauty-enhancing foods
I even found this:
营养美容:  nutritional cosmetology
关键是将有助于美容的食物放在手边”，他说。
He said, "The key is having beauty-enhancing foods at hand."
试试这些家庭常见食物的美容用途吧。
Try the beautifying effect of these common household foods.
浆果：不同种类的浆果如蓝莓，黑莓，树莓，小红莓以及草莓都是超赞的美容食物哦。
Berries: different kinds of berries such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cranberries, as well as strawberries are all super beauty foods.
协会有专家为你解答体育按摩、常见病的穴位按摩以及营养美容保健等各方面的问题。
Our association has an expert to answer questions on all kinds of problems relating to sports massage, acupuncture point massage for common illnesses as well as nutritional cosmetology, health care etcetera.


Does anyone knows a 'Leo' surname transliterated from the 劉/刘 characters?

The Wikipedia page for Liu says:

劉 / 刘 (/ljoʊ/ or /ljuː/;1 romanised as Liu, Lau, Leo, Ryu, Yoo, Lew, Lieu, Liou, Liw) is a Chinese surname. Liu as transcribed in English can represent several different surnames written in different Chinese characters.

As you can see the surname has been Romanized in many different ways, including: Leo. So, 刘 would be the simplified character writing for Leo while 劉 would be the traditional character writing for Leo.


Is the pinyin for 他撇了撇嘴 actually "tā piē le piězuǐ" (as given by Pleco)? And if so, why are the two 撇s pronounced differently?

撇 is pronounced as piē when it means 'to cast away' (as in 撇下兒女) or 'to scoop off' (as in 撇油). Note it is a verb in both cases.

撇 is pronounced as piě when it means 'left-downward stroke' (as a noun in 撇捺), 'to throw (horizontally)' (as in 撇磚頭), or 'to incline' (outwards, as in 八字腳向外撇). 撇嘴 literally means to incline the ends of the lips downwards, usually to express discontent; so it must be pronounced in the third tone.

I suspect Pleco detected the first 撇 as a verb, then jumped to the conclusion it should be pronounced in the first tone. It failed to realise 撇 here is a detached verb and is collocated with 嘴. After tone sandhi 撇了撇嘴 should be pronounced like 3023.

Reference: 余培英（2012）《多音字學習手冊》。北京：商務。


Is "空时间" a valid phrase in chinese? If not, why not?

你有没有空时间呢 doesn't sound right. Try these variants:

你有没有空?
你有没有时间?
你有没有空闲的时间？
你有没有空闲的时候?


Why is 的 needed in 二来是更深度的了解中国文化?

The author used "的" incorrectly.

Obviously should use"地".


How does word order affect the meaning of a sentence

I think different word orders put emphasis on different topics. 你昨天付了钱吗 is a normal sentence so I don't think there is a particular emphasis on anything.

昨天钱你付了吗, however, put the object in front, so it's emphasizing the object and the verb rather than the subject.

I think 昨天钱付了吗你 is the same as 昨天钱你付了吗, but using a 倒装 to, still, put an emphasis on the verb-object information.


Generally speaking, the two structures

我在ＬＶ
我Ｖ在Ｌ

where「Ｌ」is a location and「Ｖ」is a verb done at「Ｌ」are used for different purposes.

我Ｖ在Ｌ is normally used for stative verbs, that is, verbs which describe a state of being rather than an action. For example:

我藏在冰箱裏 (I'm hiding in the fridge)
我站在椅子上 (I'm standing on the chair)
我坐在沙發上 (I'm sitting on the couch)
我躺在牀上 (I'm lying in bed)
我活在世界上 (I'm living in this world)

我在ＬＶ can be used for other kinds of verbs, including stative verbs, so 我住在北京 and 我在北京住 are both acceptable.

  Dynamic verbs are not normally of the structure 我Ｖ在Ｌ, so e.g. expressing I'm eating at home as 我吃飯在家裏 is non-standard.


你是我的小呀小苹果儿 What is the purpose of the second 小?

It's the same as songs in English - repetition is for rhythm.

你是我的小呀小苹果儿

You're my little - little apple

Something like that.


What is the Chinese term for a DGEN or Degen Gambler

It's hard to gather a euphemism for Degen Gambler in Chinese. No best words/phrases I figure. 职业扑克玩家 (Professional Pokerist) is the best one I can get.

hope this help.


How should I understand 虱子多了不咬，债多了不愁 ("lice much stop biting, debt much ignored")?

虱子多了不咬，债多了不愁

Have been numb by large amount of animal that bites. And have owed too much, because people cannot pay back so people don't care about it.

It means people do not worry about somethings, because it seems too hard to solve or they have give up, so they don't care about it.


What does 'twitter/facebook Town Hall' mean in Chinese?

A town hall meeting is known as 市民大会 or 市政厅会议. It has to be noted that this concept originates from America and may not be well received in other countries depending on the political system.

A Facebook or a Twitter town hall meeting can be generally termed as 网上市民大会. An example sourced from this news article reads:

  中新社旧金山4月20日电(记者
  刘丹)20日下午，美国总统奥巴马在加州帕洛阿图市的脸书(Facebook)总部举行“分担责任共享繁荣”网上市民大会时表示，希望更多有智慧有雄心的人留在美国，不希望看到下一个英特尔这样的企业在中国或法国创业。


德 is phonetic transcription of Deutsche.

Similarly 法 in 法国 is phonetic transcription of France, not "the country of law".


In a word combined with two morpheme, can I use a adjective in front of the noun?

If they can write it in Revelations, must be ok.

启二二4 也要见他的面；他的名字必在他们的额上。

Rev . 22:4 And they will see His face, and His name will be on their forehead.

However, there is a meaning shift from 见面 'meet' and 见他的面 'see his face'. 2. below would not work, which is what you are suggesting, I think.

1。 我们明天和他见面。

2。*我们明天见和他面。


No, here the real pattern that you should focus on is “依[A]而[B]", which means "according to A, B is/does...",remember 依 means "according to, based on" here. So your example means:

The tastes are different, according to differen ingredients.
Or you would say, The tastes of different ingredients are different.

Another example:

单价依采购量而定。 The unit price is determined based on the purchase quantity.


Why is 劝ing so common -or- popular in Chinese?

At first it did mean exhorting or admonishing in classic Chinese, but gradually the meaning broadened. Now any advice of suggestion could be called 劝.

Your parents are having a fight? You 劝 them to stop.
A stranger smoking in public? You 劝 him to give up.
Your student can't form a proper sentence? You 劝 him to learn some grammar.

This is a process the linguists call semantic shift. Dog used to be a specific canine species, but gradually it becomes canine in general. Bird used to mean "young bird" then it becomes avian of all age.

Humans are fallible, whether as individuals or as a species.


虚 = empty

怀 = chest (metaphorically represents the storage place for beliefs and ideas in a man )

若 = like

谷 = valley ( a valley is vast and empty-- metaphor for one's mind not filled with preconceived notions )

  虚怀若谷 means: 'one's ability to accept (new idea or different opinion) is as vast as a valley.'

In short, a man who is 虚怀若谷, is a humble and open minded man


赶飞机 is ok. you can also say 赶火车(train) or 赶车(car/bus) or 赶地铁(subway)

赶上飞机 is also correct, but it's long and a little bit strange in speaking.

you can say 今天我事情很多，还要赶飞机


Depends on the situation, you might want to say:

  低收入职业的种类很多，从麦当劳员工到公交车司机不一而足。

You can substitute 不一而足 with 都是 or 应有尽有 or anything that helps to complete the sentence. Examples are abundant in @S.Rhee's link. Or you can somehow reverse it:

  从麦当劳员工到公交车司机，这些都属于低收入职业。

Funny thing is logically 麦当劳员工 and 公交车司机 don't represent a range. They aren't both end of a continuum, are they? So let's put it another way:

  低收入职业包括快餐店员工，公交车司机等很多类型。

If you do want to represent a range, you can do:

  低收入职业包括从快餐店员工到公交车司机的很多类型。

I feel less than comfortable about the last one. I can't tell why, maybe it's because the sentence is too fat and there is no punctuation..


adj

他與計算機一般，算術都很快。He is just like a computer and he calculates so quickly.

他 He

與 and

計算機 computer

一般 same、like (equal)

算數 calculate

都 both

很 so、very

快 fast quick

adv (X I am not sure. I have not heard)


Original Chinese version of the mango poem

This poem came from Page 6 of Renmin Ribao (Aug 10, 1968). The title was "金色的芒果" (Golden Mango) and the author was 鼓兵. The bold lines denote the cited part.

  金色的芒果

  鼓兵
  首都工农毛泽东思想宣传队的同志们，为了使全市工农兵都能迅速地看到毛主席送的芒果，特在清华园扎了一座彩台，将一颗芒果放在上面。几天来，首都工农兵群众，排着整齐的队伍，敲锣打鼓地来到清华园，瞻仰这颗芒果……
  　　金色的芒果啊，
  　　放在红色的彩台上，
  　　金色的芒果啊，
  　　闪耀着红太阳的光芒。
  　　千万支队伍在迎着芒果走来，
  　　千万支歌曲在对着芒果高唱。
  　　千万双眼睛在注视着芒果，
  　　千万颗红心在激烈地跳荡。
  　　见到那金色的芒果啊，
  　　就好象见到了伟大领袖毛主席；
  　　站在那金色的芒果面前啊，
  　　就好象站在毛主席身旁。
  　　一次又一次地摸着那金色的芒果啊，
  　　金色的芒果多么暖！
  　　一次又一次地闻着那金色的芒果啊，
  　　金色的芒果多么香！
  　　多少人手捧芒果眼望中南海，
  　　幸福的热泪簌簌淌；
  　　多少人面对芒果表决心，
  　　誓言滚滚震天响：
  　　“毛主席啊！
  　　我们永远跟着您干革命，
  　　海枯石烂心不变，
  　　任何困难无阻挡。”
  　　“毛主席啊！
  　　为了捍卫您的革命路线，
  　　我们刀山敢上；
  　　为了夺取无产阶级文化大革命的全面胜利，
  　　我们火海敢闯。”
  　　“毛主席啊！
  　　我们一定认真读您的书，
  　　活学活用您伟大的思想，
  　　我们一定贯彻您的指示，
  　　一丝一毫不走样。”
  　　…………
  　　金色的芒果啊！
  　　放在红色的彩台上。
  　　金色的芒果啊！
  　　闪耀着红太阳的光芒。


How to interpret the oracle poem (諸葛武侯乩文)?

in the year 1933, a taoist style planchette writing (扶乩) was done at 蓬瀛仙館, in hong kong; for the purpose of asking divine revelation.

the poem contained two parts, part i:

天數茫茫不可知．鸞台暫說各生知

世界干戈終爆發．鼠尾牛頭發現時

此次戰禍非小可．鳶飛魚躍也愁眉

天下生靈西復東．可憐遍地是哀鴻

刀填溝壑無人拾．血染山川滿地紅

天下重武不重文．那怪環球亂紛紛

人我太陽爭北土．美人東渡海波生

十四一心人發奮．水去西方啟戰爭

晉有出頭寧坐視．中央生草不堪耘

切齒仇讎今始復．堅固金城一旦傾

除非攜手馬先生．馬騰四海似蘇秦

遊說辯才世罕有．掉他三寸舌風生

得與聯軍說事因．東人首肯易調停

青天白日由西落．五色旗幟向東生

二蔣雙爭一蔣傷．兩陳相遇一陳亡

東土不知西土樂．五羊風雨見悲傷

水巷仍須是樂邦．諸生不用走忙忙

錢財散去猶小事．性命安全謝上蒼

今宵略說言和語．留與明宵說短長

it was published on the newspaper: 香港工商日報, 15th december 1939

here's part ii:

紅日落完白日落．五星燦爛文明國

中山傾頹草木殃．豺狼虎豹同一鑊

兩重火土甚光明．士農工商皆有作

木子楊花真武興．小小天罡何足論

強反弱兮弱反強．王氣金陵黯然盡

故都陜地聚英華．文物衣冠頭尚白

氣運南方出豪傑．克定中原謀統一

佳人絕色自西來．弄權竊國氣驕逸

狐兔成群功狗烹．倒亂君臣誰與匹

太陽沉去霧雲收．萬國低頭拜彌勒

治亂循環有定時．根樹生枝惟四七

老人星出現南方．紀念化為公正堂

西南獨立曇花現．飛虎潛龍勢莫當

聯軍東指成一氣．劍仙俠士有奇秘

水能剋火火無功．炮火飛機何處避

此是陰陽造化機．土意發明成絕技

稱雄東土日己終．物歸原主非奇事

此時國恥一齊消．四海昇平多吉兆

異術殺人不用刀．偃武修文日月高

三教聖人同住世．群魔妖怪豈能逃

可嘆草頭燒不盡．野外春風吹又生

宮門拔劍除奸佞．白頭變作赤頭人

田間再出華盛頓．造福人群是真命

此人原是紫微星．定國安民功德盛

執中守一正乾坤．巍巍蕩蕩希堯舜

百年世事不勝悲．誠恐諸君不及見

好脩功果待來生．將相公侯前世善

或是星辰下界來．或是神仙搖一變

或是前生因果大．當然轉世功名顯

山人復對諸生談．續上前文同一線

千年萬載事悠悠．縱使神仙難預算

略將一二說君知．酬答諸生還了願

山人告別返西川．來年再會諸生面

諸君各自顧前程．好向靈山勤修煉

indeed, there're files of this oracle poem on the internet, like:

if you compare part i, you can find that some characters are different.

my opinion: verses are in sequence in part i, predicting events of 1930s - 1940s

then, verses are not in sequence in part ii, at least the first half. predicting events from 1949 to 2033?

again, just my ideas, have fun :)


Indeed, 「靜」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*zleŋʔ/, calm/quiet) is a phonetic loan character, and both its components 「青」 (/*sʰleːŋ/) and 「爭」 (/*ʔsreːŋ/) are phonetic components.

Unfortunately, the inscription record is rather scarce and by itself may not actually represent the language that well. Based on the usage of 「靜」, the meaning calm/quiet may have been a semantic extension from the meaning pacify (/*zleŋʔ/, now written 「靖」)*. From Guǐ vessel of Máo Bān [毛班] (班簋,《殷周金文集成》4341):
*Note how 「靖」 actually has the same reconstructed sound as 「靜」, indicating that there is a strong possibility that they're the same word.

。。。。。。王令毛公㠯（以）邦（冢）君，土（徒），（馭），⿰⿱口十戈（戜）人伐東或（國、域）㾶（滑）戎。咸。王令吳白（伯）曰：“㠯乃（師）⿸口（左）比毛父。”王令呂白曰：“㠯乃（右）比毛父。”⿻夭遣（遣）令曰：”㠯乃族從父征。“⿰彳⿱止口（城）衛父身，三秂（年） 靜 東或，亾（無）不成⿱白尤（尤），天（畏 > 威），否（丕）⿱甶大（畀）屯（純）陟。。。。。。
...The King (King Mù of Zhōu) ordered Máo Bān to command the vassals and their infantry, chariots, and auxiliaries to attack the tribes of the eastern regions in armed rebellion. Thus it is so. The King ordered the Vassal of Wú: "Lead your troops in assistance of Elder General Máo (Máo Bān's father) from the left side." The King ordered the Vassal of Lǚ: "Lead your troops in assistance of Elder General Máo from the right side." Duke Chéng (虢城公遣) ordered Máo Bān: "Lead your clansmen to closely follow the expedition of Elder General Máo." Thus, I (Máo Bān, caster of this vessel) firmly guarded my father in this expedition. In three years, the eastern regions were pacified, and not once have I committed a military blunder. By the might and grace of Heaven, who has bestowed me these rewards, I have risen to this great position...

Since the usage speaks of military pacification, one might analyse 「靜」 (/*zleŋʔ/, to pacify) to be comprised of simultaneously semantic and phonetic 「爭」 (/*ʔsreːŋ/, to fight, contend) and phonetic 「青」 (/*sʰleːŋ/). Military pacification was later extended to mean peace, calm, quiet.

References:

中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》
季旭昇《說文新證》
劉翔・陳抗・陳初生・董琨　編　李學勤　審訂《商周古文字讀本》


The phrase you are looking for is "come/go down in the world", meaning to lose wealth or high social rank in one's past. It can be translated to Chinese as "家道中落".


Chinese Characters on table from thift store

Beautiful scene of a lotus pond.

荷塘: lotus pond.

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/1725417/7633674.htm

秀色: beautiful scene

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/203608/8935087.htm


The exact meaning of 就 as a linking word

The closest rendition of 就 into English is "and then" or "and straight away"; "then" can denote a temporal or a logical connection.
就 in sentences 1–4 can be read in the temporal sense, in sentences 1 and 5 in the logical sense. Sentence 6 is a little peculiar because the most natural translation would be "The pony could not even afford to take a sip of water before running way," but if you squint a bit, you could say that 就 here simply means one action is immediately followed by the other in time.
Here are several more examples of 就 as a logical connective:

要是我有錢就好了 "if only I were rich" (literally: if I have money, then it is good)
聽說她幸福快樂，我就安心了 "I am glad she is living happily ever after" (literally: I heard she lives happily, I am therefore relieved)
你睡一覺就舒服點了 "you will feel better after a night's sleep" (literally: you have one nap, then it will be a bit more comfortable); a temporal reading is also possible

The comma is optional in most cases; it is used for rhythm purposes when the second clause is too long. There are, however, are a few set phrases that do not use a comma, 撒腿就跑, 倒頭就睡, 見好就收, 一管就死, 一放就亂 being some of them. I am not sure if 束手就擒 falls under this category because 就 here could also mean "to reach (the state of being caught)."
The phrase "and later" would be closer to 然後, which has a stronger temporal sense.


Can "东西" refer to a person instead of thing?

don't use 東西 for a person, it is for angry only and negative assessment. 他也不是個什么好東西。(he is not a good man). when you translate such statement into Chinese, you can just make sure appending a '的' at end. In Chinese '的' following a verb can be used for 'what xxx (a pronoun) yyyy (a verb)'. so 我找到了梦寐以求的。


Name underlining (whole word or just part of it?)

For compound words, the whole word is the proper noun and should be marked as a whole.

Text full of underlining is proper but may look crowded, in which case there are typographical optimizations you can apply, such as increased line height and character padding, or use bold instead of underlining for the markup.


Q: 哪里有中国地图？

A1: 他那里有中国地图。
A2: 他那儿有中国地图。

Normally, "哪里" is for question, we could use "那里" to answer the location of something.

那里他有中国地图： Incorrect order for "那里" and "他", "他那里" is fine.

有-Usage rules in your case is pretty straight forward, it normally put in-front of the object that you are mention. But for some cases, you could let your sentence starts with 有, for example, 有个中国地图在他那里 (There is a Chinese map with him.)


What's the Eye of a Hurricane called in Chinese/Pinyin?

It's 风眼(feng1 yan3) or 台风眼(tai2 feng1 yan3), simply the word-by-word translation to the English word "Eye of (the) Hurricane/Typhoon".

You can see it on the wiki: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A2%A8%E7%9C%BC


From my answer to this question: "What is the purpose of verb reduplication?":

  phrases like 笑笑，看看，走走 or 吃吃 are verb reduplication, it serves to indicate the verb is in a slight degree or a casual manner

The fundamental meaning of the sentence is not change by the verb reduplication, but the tone of the sentence is changed by it:

等他回来的时候问他。- "ask him when he comes back" (level or blunt tone; in a assertive, commanding or requesting manner)
等他回来的时候问问他。-  "ask him when he comes back" (softer tone, less assertive, commanding or requesting)

Reduplicate the verb 问 here is like adding filler word like "try" or "let's" in  English sentences to make them sound less assertive. e.g. "(try) ask him when he comes back" ; " (let's) ask him when he comes back "


商甲京津4001合集32535隸定
「進」 was originally constructed from semantic 「隹」 (picture of a bird) and semantic 「止」 (picture of a foot > motion), indicating the flying motion of a bird, which infers the meaning forward, advance (birds cannot fly backwards). Later on, 「彳」 (left half of 「行」, picture of a road intersection > roads, movement, path) was added to form the equivalent semantic component 「辵・⻍」 (walking, motion).
西周金圜器集成10360戰國・楚簡・帛帛乙8.5長沙子彈庫東漢隸白石神君碑　楷

Note, 「辵」 is the full form of 「⻍」. As stated earlier, 「辵」 is made up from a merger between 「彳」 and 「止」, shown again via 「過」 below.
西周金過伯簋集成3907戰國・楚簡・帛語叢3 郭店楚簡秦簡效律9睡虎地秦簡東漢隸華山廟碑　楷

References:

何琳儀《戰國古文字典：戰國文字聲系》
小學堂
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


This is a result of the polysemy of the word 'course' in English. 課 and 軌 are fairly distinct characters in Cantonese.

If you intend 'course' to mean 'A series of lectures or lessons in a particular subject, leading to an examination or qualification.', you use 課 (see a.), NEVER 軌. Sometimes, even if you use 'course' directly in Cantonese, it's understandable (see b.).

a. 我將會上網課。I will attend online lessons.

b. 我嚟緊有個網上嘅course。I have an online course soon.

If you intend 'course' to mean 'The way in which something progresses or develops.', you may use 軌, but not always. This to me is not an accurate translation, because 軌 means more like 'track; trajectory; locus'.

二戰嘅始末/過程 the course of WWII
鐵路軌道 rail track


As other answers stated, 下去 can function as a directional/result word particle for 'down'  e.g. 吞下去; It can also function as a verb for 'go down' e.g. 我要下去
But when 下去 is functioning as an adverb for "continue". It must be placed after a verb. e.g. 等下去

I want to say:

我吃下去 = I continue eating.

To avoid confusion, you can write "我(繼續)吃下去" or simply "我繼續吃".
Another way to make "我吃下去 (I continue eating) not ambiguous is to add more context. For example, 我再吃下去也不會喜歡上這東西


What is the difference between 几月几号 and 几号?

There is nearly no difference between 今天几月几号？ and 今天几号？.
Usually for short and orally, we use 今天几号, instead of 今天几月几号. Because we usually know which month currentlly, and it's a present tense or on going tense.
If the date is the last days or the first days of the month, ask 今天几号 will not confuse.
For example.
(比如今天8月3号)
A: 今天几号？
B: 3号啦。
A: 啊！已经到8月份了啊。(时间)过的好快。
Another sample。
（比如今天7月30号）
A: 今天几号？
B: 30号啦。
A: 啊！快到8月了啊。(时间)过的好快。
But if you ask someboby 今天几月几号, then he may say "现在是几月份，你这都不知道吗？？？". He may means you have no sense of time(date).


Is 不要在厨房里留下任何废物 the correct way of saying "do not leave any waste in the kitchen"?

不要在廚房裡留下任何廢物

It is an acceptable translation of "do not leave any waste in the kitchen", you can use it just fine.

However, if you want to be a little more formal, you can write "please don't leave garbage in the kitchen" (請勿在厨房留下垃圾)

you don't need '裡' in '在廚房裡' ;  '在' alone in '在厨房' already covered the meaning of 'in'

you can remove '任何' in '任何垃圾' ;  just like 'dog' in 'no dog allowed' already meant 'all / any dog'

Shorter note get the point across better. Just like '不准泊車' is better than '各位先生女士，在任何時間內都千萬不要在這個地點停泊任何車輛，包括摩托車及電動輪椅' (you can google translate this sentence) -- No one would read it.


Uh...This sentence is not very polite.

Yes, you can use  the "yǔqí-bùrú"（与其-不如） structure when you use Chinese to state "A than B" at some time. But I think another similar structure is more widely used and maybe more correct for this sentence:"bǐqǐ-gèng"（比起-更）or "yǔqí-gèng"(与其-更).

English: I'd rather be a dick than a swallower

Chinese: "bǐqǐ" to be a swallower, I "gèng" would like to be a dick

It's ok to use verb + "者" for swallower, but since "dick" shows up after "swallower" in Chinese, you'd better describe "swallower" more clearly like "dick-swallow"+"者".

And since maybe you don't understand the culture difference between English and Chinese. I would like to give you another statements to help you translate this sentence better.

Compared with being a dick-swallower, I would rather to the one whose dick is swallowed by others.

or

Compared with being a man who swallow other's dick, I would rather to be a man who let others swallow his dick.


What was money worth during the Republic of China (1912 - 1949) era?

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

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


What does 企業 mean: property of the person or business company?

企 refers to an attempt or expectation, and 業 means "industry." So 企業 would best translate into "enterprise." That would refer to an "early stage" company that is trying to make a name for itself but is not fully established.


移民(v) immigrate; (n) immigrant

移居(v) migrate; move to ~ (to live)

移居中国= move to China (to live)

You just need to move to China to quality as 移居, even you don't become a citizen of China. Since it is very likely for someone 移居 to a country will later become an immigrant to that country, "移居" can also implies "to immigrate".

If you just move from Beijing to Shanghai, you are definitely not "移民"(immigrating) from Beijing to Shanghai; you are "移居" (migrate to) Shanghai from Beijing

移民中国 = immigrate to China - You are expecting to become a Chinese citizen
中国移民 =  Chinese immigrant
移居 is not a noun, therefore, there is no such thing as 中国移居


What is the function of 同 in 我哋使唔使同佢準備個生日蛋糕？

Depend on the context, "同" as a preposition, can mean "with" or "for"

"我哋使唔使[同]佢準備個生日蛋糕" -- Do we need to prepare a birthday cake [for] him

"我哋使唔使[同]佢(一齊)準備個生日蛋糕" -- Do we need to prepare a birthday cake [with] him (together)

"同" strongly implies "for" in your example sentence. Birthday boy usually doesn't prepare the cake himself
More examples:
"[同]我打電話叫警察" = "make a phone call to the police [for] me"  (You don't need two people to make one phone call)
"同我去釣魚" is ambiguous, it can mean "go fishing with me " or "go fishing for me". To eliminate the ambiguity, you can say "同我一齊去釣魚 (go fishing with me together) or "幫我去釣魚" (go fishing for me).
Again with the context: If it is a friend saying to you: "同我去釣魚好唔好?", it would clearly be an invitation to you to go fishing [with] him; If you are a slave and your master say to you:"快啲同我去釣魚!" , then it would clearly be an order to you to go fishing [for] him.
As you can see, when "同" means "for" you can replace it with "幫" (help/ for) e.g. "[幫]佢準備個生日蛋糕", "[幫]我打電話叫警察",


You do not always need 和 between adjectives.
You could use 宽敞明亮、舒服.
宽敞明亮 usually works together.

"现在大家坐上‘复兴号’，
Now (for) everyone sitting on the 'D train'

不仅更宽敞明亮舒服、速度更快，
it is not only bigger, brighter, more comfortable, faster,

在车上打电话的信号也更好了，
the phone signal in the train is also better,

这些都是能感受到的变化。”
these are all perceptible changes

丁荣军说，
Ding Rong Jun said

“我们正在研究怎么接入媒体，让视频也能到车上去。
We are researching how integrate media

让视频也能到车上去。
(and) also make video work on (the train).


What is the difference between 怀疑 and 疑惑?

怀疑 is a verb for 'to suspect'

Example: 我怀疑他杀了他儿子 (I suspect he killed his son)

  怀疑 is also a noun for suspicion (2.the state of mind or feeling of one who suspects)

Example: 这只是我的怀疑 (It is only my suspicion)

  疑惑 is an adjective for 'uncertain (2. not confident, assured, or free from hesitancy); puzzled'

Example: 你这话使我感到疑惑 (these words of yours make me feel uncertain)

  疑惑 is also a noun for ' doubt; uncertainty; puzzle'

Example: 有疑惑 (have doubt) ; 重重疑惑 (layers upon layers of uncertainty); 这个疑惑 (this puzzle)

  嫌疑 is noun for 'suspicion' (4.state of being suspected)

Example:他有杀了他儿子的嫌疑 (he is under the suspicion of killed his son)


Are there Chinese spoken language games? (like Ubbi Dubbi)

To my knowledge, I used to play a game called 成语接龙（
Idiom Solitaire， perhaps), which I think it may be similar to the spoken game that you just mentioned.
In the 成语接龙, you are required to say an idiom, and your frind have to say anthor idiom starting with a Chinese character whhose pronunciation is similar to the final Chinese character's pronunciation of your idiom.
Example:


How would you translate the line 我在寻人启事上看见我身份证办好 from the movie 地久天长

The 2nd last sentence in the photo saying that "你的身份证已经给你办理好，希望你早日回家." "We have applied the ID card for you and now it is ready. Hope you come back home soon." Looks like the ID card is what the kid wants. Parents are using it to attract him. Later on, he did come home, but just to pick it up. He says "我在寻人启事上看见我身份证办好." It is confusing if you see the sentence without context. This sentence missed several parts it should be:
我在寻人启事上看见我（的）身份证（已经）办好（了）


First of all, "There's stitches left behind (not removed) in my mouth, what should I do?" is a good translation.

Yes,漏 can modify other verbs. It means someone forgot to do something or some action has been missed.

Example:

A:"How you feel about the question 31 in the exam?"

B:"OMG, I didn't notice there was a question 31!"

A:"刚才考试第31题做的如何？"

B:"天啊！ 我漏做了!"


干 / 做 / 作 / 办/ 弄/ 搞 / what are the differences and how are they properly used in a sentence?

Each of the six characters 办 弄 做 搞 干 作 has more than one meaning and usage. And some are overlapping e.g. both 做 and 干 contains the meaning of 'to do'

你事情（ ）好了吗？（办 弄 做 搞 干 作 ）

The role of the verb in ( ) is to bond with the adverb 好 to form a [serial verb] that means [complete/ finish]
好 here as an adverb means 'completely; properly'

办好 - complete/ finish (through following a series of procedures)

弄好 - complete/ finish (through manipulating)

做好 - complete/ finish (through actions)

搞好 - same as 弄好 (but more colloquial)

干好 - same as 做好 (but more colloquisl)

作好 would mean 'finished creating/writing a story' It would be a simple [v + adv] phrase, not a serial verb like the other
As for the overlapping meaning of 'to do'
办大事 = do important things (through following a series of procedures)
做大事 = do important things (through actions)
干大事 same as 做大事 (but more colloquial)
We don't say 弄大事 (sound small) or 搞大事 (means making trouble) for this context

弄 in 弄晚餐 (make dinner) means 'make' not 'do'

搞 in 搞聚會 (organize party) means 'organize' not 'do'


Which proverb / expression is original? -- 爱及屋乌, 爱乌及屋, 爱屋及乌

http://www.zdic.net/c/1/3/5022.htm

  愛屋及烏
      因愛一個人連帶的也愛護停留在他屋上的烏鴉。語本尚書大傳．卷三．牧誓．大戰篇：「愛人者，兼其屋上之烏。」後比喻愛一個人也連帶的關愛與他有關的人或物。明．許自昌．水滸記．第八齣：「他們都是你舅舅的相識，你何無愛屋及烏情？」隋唐演義．第八十七回：「楊妃平日愛這雪衣女，雖是那鸚鵡可愛可喜，然亦因是安祿山所獻，有愛屋及烏之意。」亦作「屋上瞻烏」、「屋烏推愛」。

also: http://baike.baidu.com/view/10509.htm


Is 勺 really the phonetic component of 的?

Modern Chinese has underwent many pronunciation changes since characters were first invented and phonetic components often reflect words as they were pronounced in Old Chinese rather than modern Chinese.

The pronunciations of 的 and 勺 were much more similar in Old Chinese. This link explains:

  的 and 勺 had roughly similar pronunciations in Old Chinese; Baxter-Sagart reconstruct 的 as *t-lˤewk, compared with 勺 *m-t-qewk.

Note the that 的 character as originally used means "target" and is pronounced dì in Modern Mandarin. In modern times, it was borrowed to also represent the genitive particle de (this usage ultimately descends from 之; refer to this previous question for more information).

A few other modern Chinese languages still preserve the final -k in both of these words. For instance, Cantonese has the pronunciations dik (IPA: /tɪk/) and zoek (IPA: /t͡sœːk/) for 的 and 勺.


You can find an explanation here in Chinese.
Pasting verbatim (but let me know if you can't read/understand this):

“经济”一词的来历
　　“经济”这一词来源于希腊语，其意思为“管理一个家庭的人”。唯物主义代表色诺芬在他的《经济法》中将“家庭”及“管理”两词的结合理解为经济。严复曾将经济一词翻为“生计”。日本人将其正式翻为经济，后由孙中山先生从日将这一说法引入中国。
　　1、“经济”一词最初在《周易》一书中出现。“经”解释为“径”，即指阡陌（纵横的田地）。“济”字从水旁，解释为“渡”，即指渡水。
　　2、公元4世纪初东晋时代已正式使用“经济”一词。“经济”在中华传统文化中的本来意思都是“经世济民”、“经国济物”，也就是治国平天下之意。
　　3、古时有副对联：“文章西汉双司马，经济南阳一卧龙”，是夸奖司马迁的文章写得好，赞赏诸葛亮具有治理天下的卓越才能。这里面的经济就是经邦济世的意义。（因此有议论：“经济”这个词语在古代所代表的是知识分子的责任之一，而且是非常有深度、广度、高度的一个词语。能做到“经济”二字的人必须文能安邦兴业，武能御侮却敌。古代知识分子，特别是儒家学派的众人，会按照《大学》中“三纲八目”的要求去做学问、做人，而三纲八目最高的要求就是做到“治国平天下”，这个就是古代“经济”一词的最外向的表示。）
　　4、19世纪下半叶开始，一些日本学者在译英语Economy时，借用了古汉语“经济”一词，从而使它的含义发生根本变化，变成了专指社会物质生产活动的用词。辛亥革命后，在孙中山先生的建议下，逐渐统一沿用日本学者的译法，从而使“经济”一词以新词的面貌在中国流传至今。
　　5、古时人们对衣食住行、国家财政等方面的内容，是用什么词来表达呢？最初是用“食货”来表示。《汉书·食货志》对食货作了解释：“食”指农业生产；“货”指农家副业布帛的生产以及货币。此外，还出现了理财、富民、货殖等词。)


You could also call that... serendipitous!


What's the state of Chinese classical texts in the mainland after Simplified Chinese (and the Cultural Revolution)?

I would like to answer your questions one by one at first, but I decide to give you a comprehensive answer here. I'll take Buddhism for example. Daoism and Confucianism (NOT a religion) are similar.
Buddhism are still publishing books in Traditional Chinese (TC). In fact, you can find both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese (SC) versions of books existing in China. It is a widespread opinion that reading books in TC will be more beneficial than Simplified Chinese (SC), since TC is the script used back to the foundation of the two religions. Similarly, if someone believes Tibetan Buddhism, many lamas will require him to chant in Tibetan language. Such phenomenon is still common.
However, most experienced and renowned religious leaders (such as Master Jingkong and Dzongsar Rinpoche) are against such unnecessary restriction. Their opinions are: Since most Chinese now are taught SC, and religions should benefit as many people as possible, it's best to publish books and scriptures in SC, the most popular script in China. It should also be allowed to chant in Chinese language instead of Tibetan or Sanskrit, as it will make no difference except that Chinese people will find chanting much easier.
Traditional Chinese script is not taught in today's schools and universities in China, except for Chinese language major. However, it's not a big problem for the majority of Chinese to read TC due to the influence of Taiwan and Hong Kong(but most of them can't write it). For classical Chinese texts, they are still taught from primary school through high school, but they are all written in SC.
For Buddhism classics in Simplified Chinese, please visit:
http://www.fodian.net/index1.htm
This website cooperates with CBETA in Taiwan, which publishes corrected version of Buddhism classics.
You can leave a comment below if you have any remaining questions. Don't forget to give me an upvote or accept this answer if you find it useful.


What is the correct orientation of "ㄧ" in zhuyin fuhao?

Sorry for my misunderstanding of your question. Actually, because 注音符号 is abandoned in the mainland(it still remains in the dictionary), and is mainly popular in Taiwan, so I am not familiar with that system.

I searched 注音符号 on the Wikipedia, and I found the answer.

  依照中华民国教育部规定，注音符号的“ㄧ(yi)”在直写时要写成“—”、而横写时写成“丨”。台湾国语教育一般使用直写，故在台湾一般人并没学过“丨”，在横写时亦写成“—”。中国大陆由于废除中文直写，故字典等采用的注音符号字型，都固定造成“丨”的形状。下为瓶子两字的排列方法：

It says, the Ministry of Education of R.o.C specified that "|" was used when the characters were aligned horizontally, and "一" was used when the characters were aligned vertically. However, in the practice of education in Taiwan, usually only "一" is used and thus Taiwanese doesn't know the "|" form. In the mainland, only "|" is used.


Translation: "people with upright eyes will arrive"

Excerpt from 《汉书》卷二十六《天文志》：

　　哀帝建平元年正月丁未日出时，有著天白气，广如一匹布，长十余丈，西南行，讠雚如雷，西南行一刻而止，名曰天狗。传曰：“言之不从，则有犬祸诗妖。”到其四年正月、二月、三月，民相惊动，讠雚晔奔走，传行诏筹祠西王母，又曰“从目人当来。”十二月，白气出西南，从地上至天，出参下，贯天厕，广如一匹布，长十余丈，十余日去。占曰：“天子有阴病。”其三年十一月壬子，太皇太后诏曰：“皇帝宽仁孝顺，奉承圣绪，靡有解怠，而久病未廖。夙夜惟思，殆继体之君不宜改作。《春秋》大复古，其复甘泉泰畤、汾阴后土如故。”

从 == 纵 == upright. As for who 纵目人 really was or were, there are a few hypotheses.
蜀人
The most prominent reference of 纵目 is related to 蜀人. It's said that either their first emperor, or the people themselves, were in possess of 纵目:

有蜀侯蚕丛,其目纵,始称王。——晋 常璩 《阳国志·蜀志》
蜀之先称王者,有蚕丛、柏濩、鱼凫(蒲泽)、开明。是时人萌,椎髻左衽,不晓文字,未有礼乐” ——西汉 杨雄 《蜀王本纪》

Then strange bronze masks unearthed from 蜀 area, current 四川 province. And they do possess extraordinary eyes. First, they are slightly larger to the east Asian standard, second, they are eerily protruded like that of a crab or shrimp.

It's probably that 蜀 people, being in a different ethnicity group, did have somewhat different eye shapes, or they do strange makeups of tattoos around their eyes. But I don't think 汉书 is referring to 蜀人 here, because 蜀 was already part of Han dynasty.
道教神祗
Since 西王母 was mentioned, it is possible that it was a reference to some evil deity, who would come and wreak havoc among the people, or some good deity who serves 西王母, and would come and save the people from suffering. We cannot know for sure.
There is a Taoism deity called 杨戬, who is said to have 纵目:

二郎为蚕丛之后，故其目纵。——道书《灌江备考》

杨戬 belongs to the good side, and he is also said to be 西王母's nephew. These were later stories, we really don't know originally what it was.
Tales about 杨戬 was first prominent in 蜀 area, then spread all over the country. Late depictions of 杨戬 shows him with one extra eye placed vertically between eyebrows. Early references doesn't seem to mention anything specific about his eye.
不知道
I found the two theories utterly implausible. If you see a man with an extra vertical eye in the middle, you would immediately think "three eyes!" instead of "vertical eye!" If it's a rumor about an invasion you would call them by race. If it's about deities then they ought to have names instead of a nickname.
What I observe is an alien invasion. They might be scary monsters that look like this:


How many different types of adverbials exist in total?

In situations like this, it IS better to make it a full sentence than just combinations of whole bunch of adverbs.

In the examples OmniBus provide above, it will create some kind of "emphasize" feeling if you put so many comma in it. If the sub-sentence belong to the same flow of actions and logics, the comma could be omitted.

In addition, the example above would be better if the order is changed to

昨天，你在房子後用大頭棒打我的腳踝，打了好幾個小時，打得很愉快。

向 means "Toward", so 打向踝 means "Hit toward ankle". Even in English, it's "off". And, who's ankle!? Yourself's!?

了(Re) is some how complicated, it often used for stating that the action is an ongoing process and it's done deal! Deal with it!

好(Hao)幾個 is an often used phrase meaning "Many of, a lot of, whole bunch of".

So the whole sentence means "Yesterday, you bit my ankle with a bat behind the house, for many hours, and you enjoy it!".

But! The OP's sentence COULD be put into one single sentence. It would be

你昨天愉快地用大頭棒在房子后打了我的腳踝好幾個小時。

But, I have to ask, who is this perverted person!?!?!?


I noticed that there's a tendency to drop initial /ŋ/ in Wu (Shanghainese), but I always ascribed it to the proximity of the word to Mandarin:

我
Mandarin: wo3
Wu: (吾) ngu34
外
Mandarin: wai4
Wu: nga53

Whereas it is clearly voiced when it occurs in more language-specific words or single syllables (obviously):

硬
Mandarin: ying4
Wu: ngang53
五
Mandarin: wu3
Wu: ng34
鱼
Mandarin: yu2
Wu: ng34


How to say "To lose" as in to "lose a team member"

"输了几个很好的代表？” means a council gambled with their great  representatives,then they lost.

"this year my school's student council lost a couple of great representatives"

今年，我们校学生会失去了几位出色的学生代表。

Most of the time,We can use 失去 for lost。but 失去 indicates some bad conditions. “What happend? politic conflicts or death”。

add an explanation.

今年，由于涉及到毕业，我们校学生会失去了几位出色的学生代表。

今年，由于毕业的关系，我们校学生会失去了几位出色的学生代表。

Edited:
After more consideration,
I think it is better to use either of the two。

失去 means something lost which you wish did not.If you were sorry for the reelection ,you could use 失去。


What is the difference between 可是, 但是, 但, 而, 不过, and 然而?

可是, 但是 and  但 (但 is the shortened form of 但是) can all be translated as 'but'

Example: "You can drink, but you can't smoke"

"喝酒可以，可是不能抽煙" (可是 is more literary)
"喝酒可以，但是不能抽煙" / "喝酒可以，但不能抽煙"  (但是 and 但 are more colloquial)

  不过, and 然而 can both be translated as 'however' or 'but'

Example: "You can drink, however, you can't smoke"

"喝酒可以，不过不能抽煙" (不过 is more colloquial)
"喝酒可以，然而不能抽煙" (然而 is more literary)

  When '而' is acting as a short form  of '而且', it means 'and also'

Examples:

快而凖 = 快速而且準確 (fast and (also) accurate)
簡而清 = 簡潔而且清楚 (brief and (also) clear)

  而 functions as "but" or 'however' when it is in the following structures:

[能(A) 而 不能(B)] = [can (A) but can't (B)]
[可(A) 而 不可(B)] = [allowed to (A) but not allowed to (B)]

Examples:

[能喝酒 而 不能抽煙]

[可喝酒 而 不可抽煙]

  而 also functions as "but" or 'however' when it is in the following structure [(verb) (A) 而 (不 verb) (B)] = [(verb) (A) but (not verb) (B)]

Examples:

[擅攻 而 不擅守] (good at attack but not good at defend)

[愛酒 而 不愛煙] (like wine but not like cigarette)


"她做饭有我做得那麼好嗎?"(Does she cook as good a I do?). It is not a just a comparison. It is also an 'indication of degree'

她做饭 = She cooks (topic)
有 = have
我做得那麼好嗎? (我做得那麼好 is a relative phrase that indicate degree)
The degree of 'as good as I doing it?'

You can say "她做饭有我做得那麼好"  or "她做饭没有我做得那麼好" as a statement.  (indication of degree)

她有我做饭做得好多了

It is not logical to state '有' (have the same level) and then state '好多了' (much better). It is either 'have the same level' or 'much better'. You can't state both.
It has to be:
[X 比 Y 好多了] = Compare to Y, X is much better
[X 有 Y 那麼好] = X is as good as Y


What is the difference between 夸张 and 过分

夸张 (kuāzhāng) simply means Hyperbole, Exaggeration.

As in, your friend told a story that was too 夸张...

你朋友的故事太夸张了 - your friend's story is a bit exaggerated...

Or if someone is acting ridiculous, crazy, or flamboyant (in a funny way, not in a mean way), you could say they're acting 夸张.

过分 (guòfèn), as you can tell from the two characters 过 (overstep), 分 (portion, point)... that they've overstepped their points/ or overstepped their boundaries.

你朋友干吗打我？ 他太过分了。。。 - Why did your friend hit me? He went a bit overboard...

Something helpful for me...

When the translations of words are similar (in the case of 夸张 and 过分), it always helps to break the word into parts as I described above. That helps for two reasons:

It gets you familiar with the individual meanings of characters
Makes you more self-sufficient with learning the language as you can dissect each meaning when given ambiguous translations


The difference between 还 and 又 is that 又 expresses a feeling like "Again?".

For example, "I ate spaghetti yesterday and today I ate it again!" You can use "我昨天吃了意面，今天又吃了意面!"

In this sentence, 又 means that you want to emphasize that you ate it 'again'. Maybe you want to express that spaghetti is your favorite, or you want to express that you have nothing left in the refrigerator so you just have to eat it again. When you use 又, you always want to let the other person focus that the action is repeated.

But 还 just means "also". There is no special meaning here. In your example,  我买了香蕉、苹果还买了葡萄, you just want to say that you bought banana, apple and grape. There is no relationship between these three fruits and you don't have other meaning for 还.

More specific for your question, you cannot exchange 还 and 又 in your example.

昨天没考好，现在又撞伤了，真倒霉。

This sentence uses 又 because the fact that the person didn't do well in this exam is already bad news. What's more, he is injured now, which makes this person more unfortunate. You should find that both 没考好 and 撞伤 are negative things. In this sentence, bad things are repeated. We use 又 here because we want to emphasize how unlucky he is in this period of time. 又 deepens the level of unluckiness of this person.

他要买肉又要买鱼。
The speaker tries to emphasize that he needs to buy both meat and fish. You didn't specify the background of this sentence. But if he wants to do this buying, you should use 还 here. If he is not willing to buy these, 又 is more appropriate.

我买了香蕉、苹果还买了葡萄。
I just bought these three fruits. The speaker wants to state this fact and nothing else.

我们不但要努力学习，还要考得好。
For this sentence, the attitude is positive. We need to study hard and get perfect on exams and we really want to reach these goals. If you want to use 又 here, the background should be "our parents ask us to do these and we think these requirements are impossible to do". And you should replace 不但 with 既 because 既...又 is a word group.

All in all, the usage of 又 and 还 really depends on the background of specific sentence.


How do you use 的 at the end of a sentence

看足球赛 is a complete sentence

Adding adjective marker "的" after a sentence or phrase turn it into an adjectival phrase.

Adjectival phrase describes the noun that follows.

[Simple phrase]: 看足球赛 = watch football match

[Adjectival phrase]: 看足球赛(的) = (those who) watch football matches

[Adjectival phrase with subject]: 看足球赛(的)学生 = (those/ the) students (who) watch football matches

Since 看足球赛的 is an adjective, you can follow the grammar structure of [subject + is + adjective] and write
"那些学生 是 看足球赛的" (those students are the ones who watch football matches)


Is the traditional character for 雪 the same as itself?

These are 2 different fonts for the same character. There are many website to check that, see this post for an overview.

For example on chineseetymology.org and chinese-characters.org you can see that the simplified and traditional characters are identical (the former website explicitely writes: no simplification).

Having said this. Although they are considered to be the same character, people in different regions/countries have habits and the most common way to write something might be different and people might consider some variants as being wrong. This can be seen in the picture below (source zdic.net):


很 sometime may interchange with 太 . however,  很 mostly carry out and descriptive meaning. While 太 are mean to show something exaggerate

if you use   太....  了, it will add extra expressive complaining tones.
For example :

# 很 versus 太
my dog is [very big](for the breed) 我的狗[个子*很*大]
my dog is too big(for the house) 我的狗[个子*太*大]

# 太....  了
my dog is [just too big!] 我的狗[个子太大了!] or 我的狗[太大只了!]

The word  大,  carry a few meaning : larger OR greater OR older

When describe with living subject, you must put additional care , i.e. put an extra description.  Thus :

高大  : tall
肥大  : Fat and tall
强大  ：strong and powerful (more appropriate to use 强壮 for masculine）
年纪大 ：old

我的狗很大, 我的狗太大了 is a confusing term.  Is it older? taller? Stronger?

我的狗很高大 -> my dog is tall
我的狗长大了 -> my dog grow up (,at last)


Criteria of making an acceptable word/character in Chinese

There is a yearly contest in Japan for creating new kanji. Last year, the winner was a new character for "social distancing"

A clever play on the character 座, meaning "to sit", where the two 人 "people" are moved apart.
Some other interesting ones:

"Sign language", taking the character for "sound" 音 and replacing the 日 with 目, which means "eye".

Taking the character 会, which means "meeting" and replacing the bottom part with a Z, to mean "online meeting".
You can see all the entries and their meanings (in Japanese) on their website.


Addressing women as "小姐" in Northern China

Yes. It is an issue. But 姐 or 大姐 is not very appropriate sometimes.

You can use 姐 or 大姐 to call a lady who is elder than you. But they'd better be not very young.
To call a young lady, 美女 is popular now in cities, though maybe they are not really very beautiful.
If there is some context, like to call a waitress, just use 服务员 or other address expressing their jobs.
And at last, 女士, literal translation of lady, is always a choice.

Edited: It is an issue not because the meaning is used by everyone. But there are too many use cases, nobody wants to be misunderstood. Ironic, this is something like Gresham's Law.


Is 呆 just a casual description or a medically-related thing

呆  mean "dumb" or "stupefied".

"呆" in "这个孩子有一点儿呆" modifies a noun, therefore, it is an adjective for "dumb" or "silly"

"this child has a learning difficulty" means  "这个孩子有一点学习障碍" which is a medical term for such condition

Example of 呆 as "dumb": "呆子" (dumb person); "呆頭呆腦" (dumb looking)

Example of 呆 as "stupefied": 呆了一呆 (stupefied for a moment)


Yes, both are meant approximation, but 大概 is a gross estimation - the house is approximately 900 sf; 左右 implies a calculated estimation - the house is 900 sf plus or minus.
大概 also can be used to express perceived uncertainty - 大概不好吧. 大概快到了. It is used in both measurable and non-measurable matters/objects.
左右 is used on the measurable matters/objects, like area, volume, dollar, distance...etc.
They can be used together, 這房子的面積大概在九十平方米左右 - The house's floor area is approximately 90 square meter, plus or minus. Note, in here, 大概 can be replaced by "大約", which is another term for approximation.


Simplified/Traditional Chinese characters commonalities with Japanese Kanji

It's true to state that "traditional chinese characters are more similar to Japanese Kanji than simplified chinese."

In more example, you are going to find Japanese Kanji and traditional chinese characters are identical due to the fact that Japanese adopted Chinese Characters much earlier.
Chinese character simplification only started in 1956 (quite recent in comparison).

Japanese has also gone through a simplification process called "Shinjitai." And during the Japanese simplification, some characters went from identical to Traditional Chinese to identical to simplified Chinese. For example, 體   →体(tai). Please refer to this page for more example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjitai. So only after this, some Kanji resemble the simplified Chinese characters.


Is Regulated Verse Used In Modern-Language Poetry?

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


Why is 蜀 composed of net (网), packag(ed) (裹) and insect (虫)?

蜀漢領土主要在蜀地，故把它稱為「蜀國」。
蜀地最早是「古蜀國」。
開國之王名為「蠶叢」，他是位養蠶專家。
他為了養蠶事業到成都居住，因而建立了「古蜀國」。
這就是為什麼蜀漢之名會和蠶有關的原因。

The territory of 蜀漢 was mainly in 蜀地, so it was called 蜀國.
The first country in 蜀地 was 古蜀國.
The founder's name was 蠶叢, he was an expert in sericulture.
He moved to Chengdu for his sericulture, and thus established the 古蜀國.
This is why the name of 蜀漢 is related to silkworms.

Source: wikipedia


"The park is (for) playing" = 這公園(是用於)遊樂(的)
or 這公園是遊樂(用的)

~

"The park is great (for) playing" = 這公園是很適合(用於)遊樂(的)
or 這公園是很適合(於)遊樂(用的)

Other example:
"Handgun is (for) killing people" = "手槍是(用於)殺人(的)" or "手槍是殺人(用的)"
"Handgun is good (for) killing people" = "手槍是很適合(用於)殺人(的)" or "手槍是很適合(於)殺人(用的)"

用於 is a more literary term. The colloquial term is 用来