Is there a lot of value in learning to write Chinese characters?

You're right that most of the time, you use a computer or cell phone when "writing" Chinese characters. In fact, many Chinese will tell you that - beside their own name (used as a signature) - they almost never write any Chinese characters by hand.

Today, writing Chinese characters is more for memorization than for practical purposes. You might know a few characters and you might know how to type them in your computer, but the only way to really keep them in your mind, and being able to read them fluently, is to write them. It is however rather tedious so it works better if you have some interest in Chinese characters to begin with, otherwise it might get boring.

The best way might be to just try. Write a few characters every day and you might find yourself interested in all the subtleties of Chinese characters.

Edit: There's a related question about the relation between writing and memorizing on the Cognitive Sciences Stack Exchange - https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/68/63


「批烂斗臭」这个四字词语，除了「批评」强调什么？

「批烂斗臭」 就是(把某人)「批判」，(并与他)「斗争」而使他「又烂又臭」的意思。

「批斗」就是「批判斗争」 简化合拼而成的单一动词，用此一词就可表达两种有关连的行为。
「烂」指「腐烂」，用以形容名声 ，说某人的名声烂，就是说某人的名声极坏，像是东西腐烂了而崩溃一般。
「烂」除了指「腐烂」，也含有「破烂」之意，用以形容(某人或某势力)，遭受重击而破烂，亦即彻厎失败。
「臭」指「发臭」，用以形容名声，说某人的名声臭，就是说某人的名声极差，去到会令人像嗅到臭味而作呕一般的地步。
「烂臭」 就是 「腐烂」，「发臭」简化合拼而成的单一形容词，用此一词就可表达两种有关连的性质。

问题：「批烂斗臭」这个四字词语，除了「批评」强调什么？

「批烂斗臭」强调 「批判和斗争」，而「斗争」在此也是「打击」的代用詞，如你所想一般，是一个十分严厉的词句。
~
「批烂斗臭」是将「批斗」及「烂臭」结合而成的惯用語式句語， 类似的结合手法十分常见，例如：
斩杀 + 尽绝 --> 斩尽杀绝
明暗 + 争斗 --> 明争暗斗
强硬 + 攻打 --> 强攻硬打
注：本人在此只凭字面上的意义去解释这一个词句，对其政治含意不予置评。


Translate Name and Street address in China

When you say translate, you mean you want Pinyin?

Go here

Paste your Chinese in, get Pinyin!

Or you mean you want

City: cheng du shi State/Province/Region: si chuan sheng Country/Region: China

in Chinese characters??

成都市 四川省 中国

but write it the other way around for China: country, province, city, district, street address:

中国四川省成都市


The full version is 一个人说一句话. 句 is a measure word here. 一人说一句 follows a speaking cadence. It can also be briefed as 一人一句 colloquially when context is clear(we know the intended action is - 说). The purpose of this omission is to make it follow a kind of speaking pattern '一人' 说 '一句'. Another example is 一日一字(a character, a day) which is the title of a TV program in the long past.

We don't usually omit 个 in a full sentence especially in writing. E.g. 一个人的日子不好过. You would probably only see 一人的日子不好过 in a poet or lyrics.

It's interesting to know that 一 xxx 一 xxx is a pattern to express an idea briefly. E.g. 一人一个，一人一句，一人一本，一日一练，一天一根，etc.

Hope this could help.


How does CJK Decomposition compare to the Wikimedia Commons Chinese characters decomposition data?

I would say that the CJK Decomposition Data (your first link; henceforth CJKDD) is better of the two, for most purposes. Some time ago I used the character decomposition data from Wikimedia Commons, and there were quite a few popular characters with missing decompositions. Now I checked a few of these characters, and all of them had decompositions in CJKDD, so it seems more complete.

The Wikimedia database is better than before, but still lacks decompositions of some characters, such as 齒, 風 and 龠. Moreover, some decompositions are incorrect, e.g. 辰 is shown as a component of 脈. And in general, the Wikimedia database doesn't show components that aren't separate characters. CJKDD, conversely, contains all kinds of components, including the ones that don't have their own Unicode code points.

Wenlin with its Character Description Language (CDL) is another source of decomposition data that you may want to look at. Even CJKDD has inconsistent descriptions of some characters, and Wenlin seems a bit better in this regard. For example, even though  is present in the database, it is not shown as a component of 範 (範 is decomposed as 範:d(⺮,38298), which is in turn decomposed as 38298:a(車,㔾). In Wenlin, 範 is correctly decomposed into  and . Wenlin uses Unicode Private Use Areas for encoding components that aren't separate characters.

On the other hand, Wenlin has its peculiarities and, for example, decomposes 齒 into  and 凵. CJKDD splits 齒 into 止 and , which seems much more natural. In the result, Wenlin doesn't see  as a component of 齒. Similarly, 曲 a sub-sub-component of 曹 in CJKDD and Wikimedia, but not in Wenlin.

Another difference between the databases is that CJKDD decompositions are consistently graphical. For example, 條 is decomposed as 條:a(39752,条), which is in turn decomposed as 39752:wr(亻,㇑). In Wikimedia Commons, 條 is decomposed into 攸 and 木, which has more to do with the historical development of the character and its radical (which happens to be 木), but not with its modern form. Wenlin provides both the graphical decomposition (based on the CDL data), and the list of all the sub-components that may be associated with this character (in this case: 攸亻丨条夂木). Another example: because the CJKDD decompositions are purely graphical, the upper right part of 祭 is shown as 卩. Wenlin, more correctly, shows it as a graphical variant of 又.


Why is it necessary to "translate" songs to Mandarin that are written in Standard Chinese, but originally sung in Cantonese?

For your example, it is more like 2 different songs based on the same rhythm rather than translation, because the meaning of the lyrics are far from each other. And for the reasons we redo the lyrics in Mandarin:
a) Sometimes, the pronunciation of the original lyrics in Mandarin doesn't fit the rhythm.
b) Some of the expressions used in Cantonese are not commonly used in Mandarin, like in this example: "愿再可", "你共我" are not standard expressions in Mandarin.


What's the general word for '样‘ in '这样，那样’，‘小样’, ‘怎样', ‘好样的’?

样 means 模样 or 样子 (manner/way; appearance/ look)

这样 = this way/ like this

那样 = that way/ like that

怎样 = what way/ like what/ how

小样的 = small looking one (mock people for being small minded or undignified)

好样的 = good looking one (use in positive way to praise someone looking good by doing something or use in ironic way to mock someone looking bad by doing something)


Can someone help me recognize these characters? (Characters identified: 通臂猿拳)

通臂猿拳
Apparently it is a variant of saying 通臂拳, a kind of martial arts popular in the vicinity of Hebei. 通臂 (lit. through arm) refers to the fact that the qi or strength from the back of the practitioner can be delivered across the limbs.
This technique is also an imitation of the ape (猿), hence the name. The literature says the first traceable practitioner in history was Qi Xin 祁信 who lived in Hebei during the Qing Dynasty.
Reference


What is the difference between different words of "note" - 便条，笔记，备忘录?

便条 (note; scrip)  mostly refers to a 'short informal handwritten note' that is written in very short time to deliver a simple message- usually contains no more than a sentence or two, sometimes even just one word.

A note on the table that said: "Back at ten, dinner in the fridge. - Mom" is a typical 便条. A stranger handed you a piece of paper that said "RUN!" is also a 便条

笔记 (note; notes) as a noun can be short for '笔记本'(notebook). The most typical one is school notebooks where students write down summaries of lectures, main points of a lesson or any useful information that can help them study later.

Notes written on loose paper can also be called 笔记. For example, copy of written text on blackboard, notes took from a speech are all 笔记

The act of taking notes is 做笔记

备忘录 (memorandum; memo) mostly refers to a document that serves as a  'reminder'.  It can be personal or official; hand written or printed; in single sheet of paper or a whole book long.

  How can I use them properly? For example, if I create an article that takes note of programming tips in order to refer to sometimes in the future, which word fits the best?

That would be your 'personal notebook' (个人笔记)


山火 vs 野火 vs 丛林大火: Chinese for "bushfire"

These words are all straight-forward in Chinese:

山火 = mountain fire
野火 = fire in the fields
丛林大火 = jungle fire
Forest fire = 森林大火, or 林火
Forest fire on a mountain (explicit) = 山林大火

Note 丛林 means jungle/bush; Forest in general is translated into 森林; 野 in 野火 means 田野(field) rather than 狂野(out of control), but even many native speakers misunderstood.

So to answer your question,

山火 is not a generic word for out-of-control fire. It means mountain fire.
野火 means fire in the fields. It sounds a little less formal than the other words but still fine to use. News broadcaster may choose long form 田野大火 or 山野大火。
丛林大火 means jungle fire.
When you want to say 'fires in a forest on a mountain', any of the following is fine: 山火，林火，森林大火，山林大火。


Can someone explain 衣锦尚炯 character by character?

You probably mean 衣錦尚絅 here.
衣：to wear
锦：brocade (clothes)
尚：to add
絅：unlined outer garment, usually made from linen
Literally the phrase means "To wear brocade inside, and add linen overall robe outside"
The phrase was originally from 诗经 as in “碩人其頎，衣錦褧衣。” where 褧 is a interchangeable character to 絅. And 中庸 as in 詩曰：『衣錦尚絅，惡其文之著也。』
The phrase is a metaphor that real noble people would hide their virtues under humbleness.


Authoritative source for 一 changing to 4th tone before 1st, 2nd or 3rd

These tone changes, known as tone sandhi, are not indicated according to Hanyu Pinyin rules:

  11.1 Only the original tones are indicated; tone sandhi is not indicated.

This is why your Google search for "yìnián" would not necessarily yield more results, because it's still supposed to be written as "yīnián" even when it's pronounced "yìnián".

EDIT: Here's more information on tone sandhi from The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey by Yip Po-Ching, p. 27:

  ...tone sandhi may also happen by convention in a specific set of words in the lexicon when they are followed by words of different tones. This set includes numericals: yī 'one', qī 'seven', bā 'eight', and the negator bù 'not'. For example:

  yī on its own or not followed by other tones

  yī → yí when followed by a fourth tone

  yī → yì when followed by other tones

  qī/bā on their own or followed by tones other than a fourth

  qī/bā → qí/bá when followed by a fourth tone

  bù on its own or followed by tones other than a fourth

  bù → bú when followed by a fourth tone

  ...

  All these tone sandhi applications are actually more or less rule-governed and will not generally be reflected in the pinyin or phonetic notations of the disyllabic words or expressions in question.


Official Naming of the Characters (Hanzi) in Mandarin Chinese

Generally, there is no name for a single character in Chinese. Or you can say the name is the character itself, but then there are too many duplicates when you only have the reading.

To address a single character, there are often two ways, one is to describe how it is written, one is to put it into a word.

Take "博" as an example. You can say that it is the "bo2" with a "十" on the left, which is describing how the character is written. Or you can say it is the "bo2" in "博士"("博士的博"), which is putting it into a word.

For some characters, there are generally accepted ways to describe them. For example, "李" is often referred to as "木子李", and "张" is often referred to as "弓长张".


Coderzelf's point about the origin of 脑洞 is correct (At least 脑洞 comes from 脑补 is the most accepted view) , but his explanation for 脑补 isn't so accurate. Though sometimes 脑补 is used to express "figure out the actual meaning of something very implicit", more frequently, this phrase is used for deliberate delusions.

Another possible origin of 脑洞 is it comes from the phrase 脑子进水, which means… er … "out of one's mind", so 脑洞大开 is sometimes used to express that something is foolish, but notice that this is mainly joking, not ironic.

BTW, 脑洞, 脑补, etc. are all new phrases and their meaning isn't completely stable currently, So their meaning may changed in the future. (Does anyone have the newest edition of 《现代汉语词典》 at hand? Has it included these phrases? They are included in some internet encyclopedias though. ) Here's a reference for 脑洞:

http://zh.moegirl.org/%E8%84%91%E6%B4%9E

One thing I forgot to mention: Actually there's a tendency to use 脑洞大开 as a joking version of 异想天开. This isn't mentioned even in any internet encyclopedia, but it's true  as far as I can see.


Why does the usual Verb-Object order seem to have been broken here (很高兴为您服务)?

The usual Verb-Object order depends a lot on the verb used in the sentence.

I don't see any unusual word order here. 服务 is a verb that requires preposition  为 to be used before an object. This verb is put after indirect object afterwards.

我_I (Subject) 很_very 高兴_happy 为_to 你_you (Indirect Object) 服务_serve (Action).

Similar case:

我_I (Subject) 很_very 高兴_happy 跟_with 你_you (Indirect Object) 结婚_marry (Action)


How does 非机动车 (fēijīdòngchē) mean "bicycle"?

It doesn't only means bicycle.

"非机动车" is non-motorized vehicle, NMV, including tractors,human cargo vehicles, animal-drawn vehicles, etc., according to the explaination of "非机动车" in Baidu Baike.

So bicycle is only one sort of NMVs and is used to reprensent NMV on the sign because it's very common.


Firstly, What do you mean you say "女女女"? Just as a string like that, or is it 3 女 combined to form the character 姦 (Jiān) : fornicate/rape? Could you possibly share the expression you encountered?

Anyway,

新华字典 gives:

奻 (nuán) =

  争吵 (Zhēngchǎo): Quarrel

  or

  愚 (Yú): Ignorance

I'll need an answer to the first part (what is "女女女") before I can say if they're connected or not.


Why would the name of the 慈祐宮 temple in Taipei sometimes be written "Cinyou" instead of "Ciyou"?

Taiwanese minnan. /i/ changes to palatalized /ĩ/, and so ci becomes cin.


What is the best way to render 胸怀 in 据说鲁肃这个人胸怀文韬武略...?

'胸' is metaphor for "one's mind (brain)"
[胸怀 (verb) mind contains= possess]
[文韬武略 (object) theoretical and practical military knowledge]

据说鲁肃这个人胸怀文韬武略
It was said that this man, Lu Su, possessed great military knowledge

胸怀 in other context can also mean 'have ~ within one's heart/ mind'
Example:

胸怀大志 (possess great ambition/ have great ambition within one's heart/ mind )


Airplane status - boarding delayed check in?

过站登机 transit boarding
The original passengers are boarding now.
过站 is the same as 经停 or 过境.

正在值机 checking in


Am I interpreting this correctly? 凡物只所持，不外乎三种，神念、灵气、元血。只是，一旦错了。就不知会如何了。

凡物只所持，不外乎三种，神念、灵气、元血。只是，一旦错了。就不知会如何了。

In my opinion,i translate to 凡是万物若想要控置他们，不外乎三个，神圣意念，灵魂气息，元血。只是，其中一個一旦错了。就不知会如何了。

If all things want to control them, there are only three kinds of things to be controlled
: divine ideology, spiritual aura, and primordial blood. But (we) don't know what'd happen if a mistake(at least one of three concept is in incomprehension) occurs.

神念 means the mindset of the thing(or person,creature).

灵气 means the fourth dimension of the thing.

元血 is the medium to communicate to the third dimension of physical body.

reference by myself


What is the meaning of ...不断向产业链的高端提升是发展趋势的要求?

I think you are confused about 产业链的高端, is that right?

It may be translated as high level of supply chain.

I think he want to express that the companies should become the creator, not just the manufacturer.


"在" has at least two functions.

First "在" can be used to imply something is happening, for example, "我在学习(I am studying)", and in this case it comes before the verb. The verb doesn't have to be about physical movement.

Second you can use 在 as a preposition, implying the place where something happened/is happening/will be happening. For example, "我现在住在上海(I live in Shanghai now)". In this case it comes after the verb.

"睡觉在" is strange for a native Mandarin speaker. We would just say "睡在".
"我在想在树下面" is also weird. The correct translation for "I am thinking under tree" is "我在树下面想".


Is to embrace or think of spring an expression?

有女懷春、吉士誘之: A girl in love, enticing lucky men.

有女怀春 is actually a proverb. Embracing spring is thus a euphemism for being ready for love.


What are the characters for punctuation in older literature?

there're no punctuations in classical chinese. one must learn to chop the verse since childhood, before about 1911. such ability is called 句讀
http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000096985
briefly, people used pattern, particles and pronunciation to help to chop the verse, the provided text would be:

易之言曰．敬以直內．義以方外
誥之言曰．以義制事．以禮制心
故曰先聖後聖．其揆一也．今夫事興．人之相接也．不接於吾之耳目口體者．不可謂事也．何也
不接於吾之耳目口體．天下非無事也．而非吾之所得制．非吾之所得制．則大台內外．固有不論不諉者矣．則固非吾事矣．不發而之於視聽言動者．不可謂必也．何也
不發而之於視聽言動．吾亦非無必也．而無所施其制．無所制．則人生以上固有 . . .


Difference in MEANING (NOT structure) between 得 vs 地

Actually, yes. there are some differences.

for example , the differences between 他跑步跑得很快。 vs 他很快地跑步。
are exactly differences between "He runs fast!" vs "He is running fast".

他跑步跑得很快 emphasize quickly or fast while "他很快地跑步" emphasize the verb "run".
So. if no context, when you say "他跑步跑得很快", you probably are describing the man's speed, and when you say "他很快地跑步", you probably mean that he is running or he was running.

But this is not absolute.you could still say 他正在跑步,而且他跑步跑的很快. It's still correct.


What does 我就立刻知道他准是对儿媳干了偷鸡摸狗的勾当 mean? (from 活着, p.3)

我就立刻知道他准是对儿媳干了偷鸡摸狗的勾当.

准 means surely;definitely.

是 is used as an adverb:

  （重读， 表示坚决肯定， 含有“的确、实在”的意思）

E.g. 他是不知道 // He certainly doesn't know.

对 is a preposition, meaning to. E.g. 你对我做了什么 // What have you done to me.

干 means 做(do).

Over all, the sentence roughly means:

   I immediately knew he surely had done some stealthy, shady business to his daughter-in-law.

P.S. As you suspect, the sentence might invoke some sexual affairs.


Which dialect(s) to study before visiting Shenzhen?

Shenzhen is in mainland China, so you should study Mandarin. However, it is so close to Hong Kong, and there is a lot of business between Hong Kong and Shenzhen if you know a bit of Cantonese, it will suffice also.


为什么 “也” 发音为 "ye" 但是 “他”发音为"ta"？？？

Please refer to Old Chinese reconstructions when analysing phonetic components of characters.

他 - Baxter-Sagart OC: /*l̥ˤaj/ > MC: /tʰɑ/ > Mandarin Pinyin: tā

也 - Baxter-Sagart OC: /*lAjʔ/ > MC: /jiaX/ > Mandarin Pinyin: yě

  有部首旁的汉字的发音通常按照没有部首旁的字。

You should probably learn that 部首 is a dictionary indexing tool, and has nothing to do with the functions of character components.


How to say "I wouldn't go so far as to say..." in Mandarin

It is more natural to say

还没有……到……地步

For example, 挺好的，但还没有好到那个地步。
Or

it tastes fine, but I would not go so far as to say that it is delicious

can be

味道还行，但还没有好吃到十分美味的地步

Well, if you were in a more oral conversation, you would normally say

但也没有很/特别……
但也不是很/特别……

For example

I went to the national park, which was a good trip, but I would not go so far as to say that it is wonderful

could be

我去了国家公园，感觉还行，但也不是特别好玩


there's this theme for android i don't understand the characters, can you help me translate it? (the characters are on images bellow)

The big character on the first image is 魔 (demon) and the poem is  a statement from the perspective of 魔

~

  The big character on the second image is 道 (The Truth/ The Way) and the poem is a statement from the perspective of 道

In the philosophy sense 魔 and 道 are the opposite of each other:

道 represents 'enlightened mind' that extended to 'just, peaceful, kind, selfless and everything positive'
魔 represents 'fallen mind' that extended to 'unjust, violent, cruel, selfish and everything negative'

As for the two poems:

天地不仁何乞憐，我以我血染青天，魔前一扣三千年，回首凡塵不做仙

(The universe is unkind, what is the use of begging for mercy? I'd use my blood to paint the blue sky red; Three thousand years since I had submitted to the way of demon, looking back at the mortal world, I'd rather not being a god)

曾經滄海難為水，除卻巫山不是雲，萬花叢中懶回顧，半緣修道半緣君

(Experienced the vast ocean, it is hard to be a pool of still water; Experienced the grand cloud-sea on top of Wushan,  other clouds are no longer impressive;  In the middle of an endless flower field, I don't have the desire to look back; Either you can achieve all these or not, half depend on the study of Dao and half depend on yourself )


船过香港 in this context is short for (他乘的)船经过香港. It is not a common way to speak, (more literary than colloquial) but native speakers would have no problem understanding what it means
If you say 路过香港, we would not know you're on a boat and would presume you personally visited Hong Kong briefly
Similarly, we can understand 枪指众人 = 用枪指吓(向)众人; 车弃路旁 = 把汽车弃置在路旁


There is seldom a one-on-one word translation that will work in all contexts. "从来没有 | cónglái méiyǒu" or "从来没 | cónglái méi" works if you're talking about something that has never happened up to the present time.

我从来没学过中文. (Wǒ cónglái méi xuéguò Zhōngwén - I have never learned Chinese.)

If you want to talk about the future, as in "something will never happen", you need a different expression altogether.

他永远不会来. (Tā yǒngyuǎn bù huì lái - He will never come.)

So, my suggestion is, if you're looking for a word meaning, at least provide a context.


what is the difference between 现场 and 地点?

地点 = location, while 现场 = being present at a location

地点 normally describes a precise location.

现场 describes the fact that some one is in a place. That place can be a precise location or an area.

For example

请告诉我地点。
Please tell me the location.

我在现场，请告诉我具体地点。
I am here, please tell me the exact location.


From my answer to this question: Why is there such a difference between "first name" and "last name"?

"你姓什么?" - the noun '姓' here is acting like a verb (is family-named)
.......
We only use 名字 as a noun, therefore we need a verb '是'(is) or '叫'(called) when asking what is someone's name. e.g. "你的名字是什么" or "你的名字叫什么"

When you say "我姓李", the word "姓" is acting like a verb
"我[姓]李" = "I [am family-named] Lee"
When you say 我名字叫李小龍, 名字 cannot only be treated as a noun, not a verb, therefore you need to add a verb '是'(is) or '叫'(called)
From another related post: What happens when you use the individual characters in 姓氏 and 名字?*

For example:
曹操 Cao Cao
姓:曹 (is last-named: Cao)
名:操 (is first-named:Cao)
字:孟德 (is courtesy-named: Meng Deo)

When you use just 名 instead of 名字 , you can omit "叫" and treat "名" like a verb, and say  "我姓曹名操"  instead of "我姓曹, 名字叫操"
The reason for omitting "叫" is: "名" (is first-named) already acting as a verb, the verb "叫" (is called) is redundant


How does 真有你的 mean "you really are something"?

真 - really

有 - have

你的 - your/ yours

"真有你的" = "(you) really have your (object implied)"

The object can be 本事，本領，手段 or even 膽色 (ability, skill, means or even balls)
"真有你的" is a common phrase (exclamation) for expressing you are impressed by some's ability, skill, etc.
For example. It is almost impossible to find the first issue of Superman, yet someone managed to find it for you, in this instance, you can say  "真有你的，這麽罕見的絕版漫畫你也找得到" (To be able to find such a rare out-of-print comic, You really have yours (ability))"
Example 2: "真有你的，老闆的老闆你也敢約" (Dare to ask your boss's boss out on a date, you really have yours (balls))
Similar to 你真行 (You are great) which also doesn't say great in what aspect


How do you say "immersion" as in "full immersion language program"?

Although in a 洗禮(baptism), a person may be immersed in water for a brief moment, but the purpose of baptism is mostly for symbolizing purification or regeneration. For example: 經過戰火的洗禮 (After the baptism of war). It is not a very good translation for "immersion" in this case.

沉浸 is the correct translation for "immersion"

"Full immersion language program" in Chinese should be 全浸式語言課程

Another suggestion :

單語環境學習課程 (single language environment study course)


How do I resolve issues with my translation of a snippet about 观潮 (guāncháo = tide watching) from a 4-th grade Chinese book?

海塘大堤 is a particular type of levee. Not all levees are seawalls. See this and this.

横卧：It as a figurative use. The river is there like a person lying there. Something like that.

越往东越宽: There is no verb here. So no "moving".
往 is not a verb here. It is a preposition that means "towards".
This just describes the rive, which is wider in the eastward. "The more eastward the wider".

昂首东望: 望 is not "hope" here. It means "look". The phrase means: raising one's head and looking east.


每天早上她都要慢跑一个小时。

I disagree with Tang Ho's answer ["要 only indicates "needs to/ has to" here"].
要 in the sentence denotes the sense of 将要 (going to).  It doesn't necessarily mean 必须，必要(has to).
The sentence is just stating a fact that she would be running for an hour every morning.  It might look inconsistent or ungrammatical from English stand point.  But I can't think of a better way to explain it in English.
都 here is to emphasize she is always doing it.


There're no underlying logic on those pairs you've mention.  It's just a coincidence that the 2 words can be used in form of AB/BA where both AB and BA is a word.  Note that in the examples, AB and BA have different meaning while there are some example that has the same meaning, such as:

油漆 / 漆油 (paint)
色彩 / 彩色 (arguable as 色彩=color while 彩色=color(ful))

I believe there are similar situation in English such as breakout / outbreak or overlay / layover.  It'll be easier for you to just forget the AB/BA format and remember them as separate words.


A whole sentence would clarify the meaning. Do you have the sentence?

In my opinion, '多用心译' just means 'be careful when translating'. I can definitely empathize!

People say that the German President Heinrich Lübke once said to Queen Elizabeth II, "Equals goes it loose." They were at a horse race, he wanted to say, "It will start in a moment." but his English was not good and he translated from German literally.


What does 9月26日电9月26日 ("26 September electricity 26 September") mean?

The bolded text is the organization and time indicator and the second line, which is not bolded, is the real start of the main body. They are not connected.
9月26日电 means the message is sent on Sept 26th by 电报 "telegraphy". It is an old expression when telegraphy was the fastest method for sending messages. But as "Telegraphy" in general includes the internet, the expression is still in use.


剧本 and 脚本 are different.

剧本 is just like a novel, telling the actors and directors what the story is.

脚本 includes more detailed and technical information of every section or frame such as shot lengths, scene lens, mapping, background music and so on. When you get 脚本, you'll feel like watching an edited film. 脚本 are mostly for directors and camera operators during the film shooting and the film cutters in later period edit.

In animated movies, 剧本 and 脚本 are nearly the same. And mostly we use 脚本.

As Wang Dingwei mentioned， 脚本 means SCRIPT in computer programming. BASH, Python, Ruby,  Nuva are all scripting languages.


The characters are 御書㞢(之)寶, which means seal of imperial writing/literature. The characters are heavily stylised in a blockish/squarish aesthetic (方篆) seen on many imperial seals.

The explanation of the shape of「㞢」(之) is given here.
「寶」is easy enough to recognise for those familiar with regular script. The shape of the component「宀」is explained here.

御

  「御」was originally written as

  depicting a kneeling person「卩」using a pestle「午」, indicating the meaning to use/operate > to govern > imperial. Later,「彳」was added to the left and「止」was added to the bottom of「午」, leading on to the modern form「御」.

  These motion-related additions may have been semantically influenced by two other words also written as「御」at one stage but now written as「迓」(yà, to welcome; semantic「辶」which is a stylised combination of「彳」and「止」) and 「馭」(also yù, to drive a carriage).

  In the sample,

  「」has been modified into the shape of「走」
  「彳」has also been heavily modified from a style that looked like the left component of

  「御」is thus composed from

  「午」
  「卩」
  「彳」
  「止」

  午

  「午」originally depicted a pestle:

  The word representing this meaning is now written as「杵」. The top later became「入」:

  This leads on to the seal form

  Note the similarity of the top part to「土」. Straightening the stroke out, as required with the 方篆 style, leads onto the form seen in the sample.

  卩

  「卩」originally depicted a kneeling person, which directly leads on to the form seen in the sample:

  彳

  「彳」is reduced from「行」, which is a picture of an intersection:

  「彳」is subject to wild stylising, and the form in the sample is no different.

  止

  「止」was originally a simplified depiction of a foot:

  The word representing this meaning is now written「趾」. The change to seal script looks like

書

  「書」is comprised of

  「聿」, a semantic component;
  「者」, a phonetic component. In the modern form, this has been reduced to「曰」, but seal scripts and earlier still retain「者」, as with the sample posted in the question. The appearance of「者」in seals is briefly alluded to here.

  Note that the character is not「畫」.「畫」(originally to draw boundaries between fields > draw) definitely needs to contain「田」(fields) as a component, unless the character sample egregiously demonstrates corruption.

  「聿」originally depicted a hand「⺕」(variant of「又」) holding a brush:

  Merging the two together leads on to seal forms which look like


In 则无迟重之虞所谓顶头悬也, does 顶头悬 translate to "Incoming Danger"?

There is a detailed explanation of 顶头悬  here

就是要求习拳之人在打拳时，要将头部向上轻轻顶起，以使身姿挺拔，立身中正，意念集中，精神贯注。

it is required that the person practicing Tai Ji should gently lift his head upwards to make the posture straight, stand upright, focus on the mind, and concentrate.

顶头悬 describes "lift one's head" (make one's neck touch his collar, chin slightly pull inward)

顶 = top

头 = head

悬 = hang up / lift

顶头悬 can be called "lift head" or "straighten head ". It is the name of a 姿勢 (posture)

The idea is: when your head is straight, the rest of your body would also be in good form


I believe 主体 here means "subject" or "agent". The individual (main) body, be it a natural or a juridical person.

The descriptions of this principle that you can find on Baidu Baike stress the fact that responsibility must be carried by all party organizations（各级党组织）, that responsibility must be capillar （细化责任）and that it must trickle from the top down to all levels （以上率下，层层传导压力，级级落实责任）.

It makes sense in the anti-corruption campaign. It's not hard to see how corruption can be effectively fought only if everyone at all levels is accountable within their own jurisdiction （种好自己的“责任田”, i.e. they must sow their "responsibility field"）.

And this can be done if they all really bear their own load （真正把担子担起来）.

So given all this, it's not very easy to translate this concept into English, but I think we can agree that the one you mention appears inaccurate.

I would translate this as "agentive responsibility", or, more simple, "subjective responsibility".


One of the functions of 的 is being an adjectival marker that marks a phrase as an adjectival phrase
我们在中国认识  = We met in China
的 marks 在中国认识 as an adjectival phrase that describes 我們
[我們 (topic)] + [在中国认识的 (comment)] = [We] (are someones) [met in China]
你们在哪里认识的? just replaced 中国 with 哪里. 在哪里认识的 is still an adjectival phrase in an Interrogative sentence
Q: 你们(是)在哪里认识的?
A: 我们(是)在中国认识的


Which organization defines CJK Unified Ideographs?

On the Frequently Asked Questions page for Chinese and Japanese on Unicode there is a question that asks:

Q: Who is responsible for future CJK characters?

The answer reads:

A: The development and extension of the CJK characters is being done by the Ideographic Rapporteur Group (IRG), which includes official representatives of China, Hong Kong (SAR), Macao (SAR), Singapore, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, plus a representative from the Unicode consortium. For more information, see the IRG home page.
The IRG is very carefully cataloging, reviewing, and assessing CJK characters for inclusion into the standard. The only real limitation on the number of CJK characters in the standard is the ability of this group to process them, because the characters are increasingly obscure (no person knows more than a fraction of the set already encoded).

Each region has their own official representatives who helps in maintaining standards in connection with IRG.

Your titled also asks about unified standards. The same FAQ above has a separate question:

Q: What is the process for proposing new CJK unified ideographs?

which is answered:

A: Newly proposed CJK unified ideographs are first submitted to the IRG through national bodies or liaison organizations, and are then assembled into a new "IRG Working Set" that goes through several rounds of detailed review and scrutiny before being approved for standardization as a new CJK unified ideographs extension. Individuals who wish to propose the encoding of new CJK unified ideographs are encouraged to work with their respective country's national body.

The answer is more or less the same: regional organizations work with IRG on these issues.


what are common contractions in classical chinese?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraction_%28grammar%29#Chinese gives the following (just copied it in):

諸 = 之乎 (In some rarer cases 諸 can also be contraction for 有之乎. 諸 can be used on its own with the meaning of "all, the class of", as in 諸侯 "the feudal lords.")
焉 = 於之 (於之 is never used; only 焉.)
旃 = 之焉 (Rare.)
爰 = 于之 (Rare. The prepositions 於, 于, and 乎 are of different origin, but used interchangeably (except that 乎 can also be used as a final question particle).)
然 = 如之
云 = 曰之
弗 = 不之
勿 = 毋之 (弗 and 勿 were originally not contractions, but were reanalyzed as contractions in the Warring States period.)
耳 = 而已
盍 = 胡不 (胡 is a variant of 何.)
與 = 也乎 (Also written 歟.)
邪 = 也乎 (Also written 耶. Probably a dialectal variant of 與.)
夫 = 不乎 (夫 has many other meanings.)
奈何 = 若之何


What rhyme groups had "light" labial initials (輕唇音) such as 非 in the Yunjing (韻鏡)?

The following answer is a translation and summary from Lin (2013:6-8). This also serves to supplement C.K.'s observation.

Rhymes placed in grade III include eight chongniu rhymes (重紐八韻), ten labiodental rhymes (輕唇十韻), and normal grade III rhymes (普通三等韻).

Openness is determined by the absence of the rounded prenuclear glide /u/ or /w/. The following is a table that summarises the openness (column 2) of each labiodental rhyme (column 1) reconstructed in five references (from left to right: Kalgren, Li Rong, Dong Tonghe, Baxter, Zhu Jianing). The fact that three out of ten labiodental rhymes were unanimously reconstructed as kaikou (東三, 陽, and 尤), and that two were either reconstructed as kaikou or hekou (鐘 and 虞), violates the traditional rule that 'grade III hekou is the phonological environment for the labiodentalisation of /p/ to [f]':

In Lin's words,

若是傳統說法中的合口三等是指開合口之分，勢必與韻鏡的分類不符。
If the traditional saying hekou sandeng indeed refers to openness (i.e. absence or presence of the rounded prenuclear glide /u/ or /w/), then it is bound to differ from Yunjing's classification scheme.

Note

/j/ is the necessary prenuclear glide to have the rhymes classified as grade III.
The 東三-rhyme is not hekou because /u/ is not prenuclear.

Lin further noticed alternative phonological rules were proposed for labiodentalisation in MC:

(Grade III hekou rule) /p/ → [f] / _ [j] [w] V
(Baxter 1992:47) /p/ → [f] / _ [j] [V, +back]
(Yang 2005:147) /p/ → [f] / _ [j] [V, +central, +back]

which certainly are more lenient. Baxter permits not only [w] but all back vowels (ranging from [u] to [ɑ]), whereas Yang even permits central vowels. Yang's rule is more flexible (Baxter did not use much central vowels except /ɨ/), but not without fault. Lin argued with Yang's rule, words of the 蒸-rhyme would also undergo labiodentalisation (presence of mid-central vowel /ə/, see below, from Wiktionary), although 蒸-rhyme is not any one of the eight known rhymes:

Zhengzhang Shangfang
Pan Wuyun
Shao Rongfen
Edwin Pulleyblank
Li Rong
Wang Li
Bernard Karlgren

蒸
/t͡ɕɨŋ/
/t͡ɕɨŋ/
/t͡ɕieŋ/
/ciŋ/
/t͡ɕiəŋ/
/t͡ɕĭəŋ/
/t͡ɕi̯əŋ/

Lin subsequently proposed the following phonological rule

/p/ → [f] / _ [j] [+rounded],

where [+rounded] means EITHER a rounded prenuclear glide (/u/ or /w/, or the hekou element) OR a rounded nucleus. Obviously the first part corresponds to the hekou sandeng rule. The second part accounts for any remaining inconsistencies. Sadly, there is one exception: the 陽-rhyme (neither /a/ or /ɑ/ are rounded). So to compensate for that,

                    [V, –front]
 /p/ → [f] / _ [j] {           }
                    [+rounded]

was proposed. I think this is a big improvement from the historical hekou sandeng rule.

References

林智凱（2013）〈中古漢語重紐、輕唇與普通三等三者交互關係〉。

Baxter W. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter; 1992.

楊劍橋（2005）《漢語音韻學講義》，復旦大學出版社。

Appendix: IPA vowels and their backness


In pinyin, why is there an inconsistency between bo, po, suo, duo etc

It seems that Pinyin does this to conform to a former phonetic transcription system 注音符号, which drops u (ㄨ) before o (ㄛ) after b p m f.
注音符号 was originally designed to reflect some old (perhaps not even real) phonetic rules and symbols like uo (ㄨㄛ) uan (ㄨㄢ) were used. However, in most Chinese dialects there's no contrast between rounded and unrounded vowels after b p m f. So they decided to remove all u (ㄨ) and yu (ㄩ) after b p m f to simplify this system. [1] In fact (u)o is the only rounded vowel that can appear after b p m f. [2]

Another note: o (ㄛ) and e (ㄜ) are traditionally considered to be a rounded-unrounded pair, that's why 注音符号 deliberately chose similar symbols to represent them. In the Pinyin system, you will find “we” “o” are sometimes used interchangeably. e.g. weng = ong.
[1] 聲韻學：為何ㄅ、ㄆ、ㄇ、ㄈ不能與ㄨ的結合韻相拼？

民國10年（1921年）2月國語統一籌備會訂正、教育部公布之《教改國音字典》（商務印書館本）附〈修正《國音字典》之說明〉一文，云：
又如唇音各聲母與韻母拼合，原案根據韻書，有用開口呼之韻母者，有用合口呼之韻母者，如「剝」「駁」音「ㄅㄛ」，「撥」「鉢」音「ㄅㄨㄛ」；「煩」「繁」音「ㄈㄨㄢ」，「凡」「帆」音「ㄈㄢ」之類；編《字典》時，因唇音聲母本（巳）［已］合口，故遇原案中唇音與合口呼韻母拼合之字，除「ㄨ」韻以外一律改用開口呼韻母。

[2] 唇音字的开合

因此，唇音字没有开合口的对立。赵元任《中古汉语的语音区别》和李荣《切韵音系》中都主张中古汉语唇音字不分开合口。虽然原则上没有对立，但是在开合口分韵而且原来的主要元音是央、后元音的韵部中，唇音声母后有一个介音。
这和现代汉语普通话的情况非常类似。其他位置的声母都有有无介音[u]的对立，如“单”和“端”、“甘”和“关”、“三”和“酸”、“詹”和“砖”、“安”和“湾”，只有唇音原则上没有不分开合的对立。


How can I get exposure to Mandarin usage and pronunciation?

There is a really good podcast from Taiwan that I like. I think you can try listening to it if you want more "exposure" to the language:

青春愛消遣


Are the Cantonese word 係 and the Japanese word はい related?

The Japanese wiki page mentions that the claim is a "folk theory" that is "denied by academics".

An alternative etymology for Cantonese hai6 comes from 系/繫. I don't have this book, but apparently Jerry Norman suggests this in Chinese (1988). This word had a very early meaning of 'to be connected', was used as a copula in later texts, and the phonological evidence is certainly not lacking.

To summarize the wiki article, はい is thought to come from either 拝, a courteously used Sino-Japanese word, or a corruption of similar words such as "ai" and "ei". It is only attested from the Edo period onwards, which is very recent.

Considering the relative isolation of Japan in the past few centuries, the word would have had to travel from Japan into rural Chinese villages in the past 100 years or so. Even if this did happen, it would likely have been heavily documented by various sources. The Chinese-internal etymology is much simpler and I personally see no reason to believe the Japanese etymology without further evidence.


Cant find the characters to a phrase I heard growing up, "Gen Men", used as "totally" or "definitely"

You are probably looking for the word 根本 (gen1 ben3) which means "completely" in your context.


得很 (very) is for describing a high degree of the adjective. e.g. 鮮牛肉貴得很 - Fresh beef is very expensive
得多 (much more) is for describing a much higher degree of the adjective for one object in comparison to another object. e.g. 鮮牛肉比冰牛肉貴得多 - Fresh beef is much more expensive than frozen beef

If you mean 'very', then '多' in  '鮮牛肉貴得很多' is nonsensical. The sentence itself is wrong. It has to be '鮮牛肉貴得很'

If you mean 'much more', First, you need another item for comparison. And second '很' in  '鮮牛肉比冰牛肉貴得很多' would be redundant.

Either 鮮牛肉比冰牛肉貴[得多]  or 鮮牛肉比冰牛肉貴[很多] would be correct, but not 鮮牛肉比冰牛肉貴[得很多]
In your examples, It would be either 足球好玩得很 (football is very fun to play) or 足球比籃球好玩得多 (football is much more fun to play than basketball)


How do you write "Love Life" in mandarin?

If you intend the meaning of “life” in “love life” as the one in “get a life”, your phrase could be translated into 热爱生活.
If “life” means the opposite of death, it could be translated into 珍惜生命.


Understanding a line from a song: ‘沾染魔法的乖张气息 却又在爱里曲折’

总有一条蜿蜒在童话镇里七彩的河
there is always a 7-coloured river meandering through the town in fairy stories,

沾染魔法的乖张气息 （沾染: tainted 乖张：odd 气息：aura, air)
tainted with an odd magical aura,

却又在爱里曲折 (曲折: meander)
but somehow meandering in love,

川流不息扬起水花 ( 扬起: the dappled surface of turbulent wind-blown water)
flowing on and on, dappled and splashing,

又卷入一帘时光入水
drawn into the mists of time slip into the water

让所有很久很久以前
hope all of us (in this river of love) from long long ago

都走到幸福结局的时刻
are all headed for a happy ending someday.


What is the original of "Sold Out" by poet Mo Mo?

From a quick search, 默默 is the pen name for the poet 朱伟国 of the 撒娇派, a certain school of modern Chinese poetry:

Poetry International Archives
iFeng Culture

I wasn't able to find a list of his oeuvre though.


Enigma of 討厭. Why does it mean "to hate"?

厭(厌) is a phono-semantic character. The "dog" part only indicate its pronunciation.
In Old Chinese, this character means "fulfilled". Then its meaning changed to "become bored, dislike". So 討厭 literally means "ask for + being disliked".


What is the difference between 赶紧, 连忙 and 赶快?

赶紧 and 赶快 are more frequently used to command someone to do something.

  小明，赶紧过来吃饭！

  现在已经很晚了，同学们赶快回家吧！

连忙 tends to be used in describing people’s actions.

  长官一声令下，士兵们便连忙跑到操场集合。


What is the difference between '新型冠状病毒防控是当务之急。' and ' 防控新型冠状病毒是当务之急。'?

新型冠状病毒(adjectival noun) 防控(n)是当务之急(relative clause)

Novel Coronavirus prevention and control is an urgent priority

~

防控(v)新型冠状病毒(n)是当务之急(relative clause)

To prevent and control Novel Coronavirus is an urgent priority


Chinese dictionary or list of ABB adjectives?

I'm not aware of a list, but I can come up with a few off the top of my head:

ZH
EN

冷冰冰(的)
icy cold

黑黢黢(的)
pitch-dark

粘稠稠(的)
thick, sticky

香喷喷(的)
delicious, fragrant

亮晶晶(的)
glittering

软绵绵(的)
soft, cushy

孤零零(的)
all alone

慢悠悠(的)
slow, sluggish


Is there an idiom for a "lose-lose" situation?

For example,

1.两败俱伤

2.玉石俱焚

3.同归于尽

4.芝艾俱焚

5.鱼死网破

And I believe there are more.


What do Chinese people do if they forget how to write a character?

As a native Chinese speaker, I sometimes replace the forgotten phrase with another one which has same meaning. Sometimes I even rewrite the whole sentence to avoid writing some hard characters.

By the way, since there are a lot of Chinese characters has the same pronunciation (ex: 意義/異議). The input programs are also very error-prone to select correct characters. Some people will just use wrong characters with the similar pronunciation because they are too lazy to correct them. This is why you can see some common mistakes like 因該 instead of 應該.


What is the most commonly used way to say "thank you" in Chinese promotional and marketing materials?

谢谢,感谢,非常感谢,深深感谢 all work. Whether you should lend a more formal tone depends on what you're promoting/marketing, and who your target audience is. Trying to sell exclusive membership to a country club to rich retired people, for instance, will be very different from trying to sell computer games to teenagers. Generally speaking, the four-character phrases are more formal, and 谢谢 is the least formal among the four.


Do Southern Chinese speakers have any greater propensity towards using 啦 than Northern Chinese speakers?

So do southerners actually say 啦 with any greater frequency?

Yes. Cantonese people and their excessive usage of 啦 is already a widely known stereotype.

  I've never heard Singaporean Mandarin, but does that include a lot of 啦?

The standard dialect used in news broadcasters are quite similar to Mandarin in China. 啦' s usage in daily speech may vary, depending on your background.

  Is this a real thing where southerners take something that sounds equivalent in their native dialects and sprinkle it into their 普通话 or am I an odd one?

It's a real thing. Not just southerners, everyone in the world has a natural tendency to do so.

  Is it viable for me to add 啦 to the end of many sentences?

Excessive usage of 啦 in Mandarin is like excessive usage of "You know" in, you know, English, It's, you know, kinda annoying. While I applaud the usage of dialectical phrases in Mandarin, using 啦 excessively is only an indication that your Mandarin needs improvement.

  Would I sound extremely strange to say things like “我们去吃饭啦” or “你说啦”？

Not really strange because most people know too well how a southerner would speak. Still, it's better to use "我们去吃饭了", "我们去吃饭吧", and "你说呢".


Why is 很多 sometimes before the noun and sometimes after the noun?

社区的休闲活动很多 is a [topic]+[comment] sentence

[社区的休闲活动] is the [topic]

[很多] is the [comment]

[社区的休闲活动][很多] = Community recreational activities are plenty

"很多社区的休闲活动" = "Many community recreational activities" (it is an incomplete sentence)

政府資助很多社区的休闲活动 = The government subsidizes recreational activities in many communities

It is a [svo] sentence. The adjective '很多' (many) is directly placed before the noun phrase 区的休闲活动 to modify it.

More example:
公園(是)很大的 = Parks are big - [Topic: 公園 + comment: (是)很大的]
很大的公園 = A big park [SVO]
公園很大 = (this) park is big - [Topic: (this) 公園 + comment: 很大]


What is the rule for a series of third tones?

It might be subtle, the series of tones would be 2-半三声-2-3. (半三声 means only the first half of the 3rd tone, without the rising tone part.)

Firstly 我也想买 could be separated as 我(也(想买)), and according to the rule about the 3rd tone sandhi, rule #4.1 (for 也(想买)) and #2 (for 我(...)) match and then leads to 2-半三声-2-3.


Do time range constructions as "从～至" and "从～到" have a different meaning without 从?

[从 X 至 Y] = [from X to Y] (describes a continuous time)
[X 至 Y] = [ between X and Y] (describes a range of time)
Example:
"He visited me from Mondays to Saturday" means he visited me every day from Mondays to Saturday
"He visited me between Mondays and Saturday" means he visited me some days between Mondays and Saturday

五月底 (至) 六月初

(between) the end of May (and) the beginning of June

the end of May (to) the beginning of June -- [presume (从) is implied]

~

(从)五月底 (至) 六月初 = (from) the end of May (to) the beginning of
June

至 and 到 are interchangeable in this sentence
Since 五月底 至 六月初 can be interpreted as (从)五月底 (至) 六月初 with 从 omitted, it would be more precise to say "在五月底 和 六月初 之間" if you meant to say "between the end of May and the beginning of June"
One more example:
网上订的那东西，(在)五月至六月(之間)到达 (O) -[presume 在 and 之間 are omitted]
网上订的那东西， (从)五月至六月到达 (X) -[cannot presume 从 is omitted, an item cannot arrive every day]


Well, I might say this painter might not be very famous, since you didn't find his/her name on the Internet. His/her painting is drawn in 1990 in Maqu County, Southern Gansu Province, which is quite remote and poor.


How to express a hairdresser in Mandarin?

理发店 is more of a general term for hair salons. If it were for a girl, then we usually say 美发中心，美发院。


What is the difference between 写完 and 写得完 ?

写得完: possible to complete writing

  写完: complete writing

Beginners often learn 能+verb first, but in many cases, verb+得+complement sounds much more natural when they want to express can/be able to + verb.

I'm aware of some languages, e.g. Japanese and sometimes English, that don't always strictly distinguish these two kinds of expressions, but Chinese does. Always keep in mind that 写得完 is stative while 写完 is dynamic.


What does 无妨 mean in 即别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨?

What you post under Philipp's answer is correct, which I have upvoted it.

即 here indeed means 'that is'.

So 低碳生活与己无关的 想法:  the notion of excluding ourselves from the concept "low-carbon life";

即： that is (the notion[想法] is);

别人都过“低碳生活”，我自己过“高碳生活”也无妨。: Since other people live a low-carbon life (already), it's ok/not a big deal for me to live a high-carbon life. (apparently this is a selfish notion, which the author is trying to persuade people not to have.)

无妨 means there is no harm. I interpret 无妨 here as ok/not a big deal according to the context.


Can you still use "Number + MW + 多" when the Number can be more than one MW larger?

How could you express the case when your approximation can be more than one MW larger? In the example, it could be: We walked for more than two hours.

我们走了[至少]兩个小时。 = We walked for [at least] two hours
我们走了[超過]兩个小时。 = We walked for [over] two hours
我们走了[不止]兩个小时。= We walked for [more than] two hours
All three above can refer to the amount of time beyond one MW larger.

Can you still use “Number + MW + 多” when the Number can be more than one MW larger?

多 in "我们走了[超過/不止]兩个[多]小时 would be redundant, because "超(over) and "不止" (more than) already indicated it is more than two hours
"至少" in "我们走了至少兩个小时" also implied 'could be more'
Edit:
Dan wrote:

More than two hours but less than four hours could be roughly 两三个小时

It works only when it is between two and three hours. Doesn't work beyond three hours
我们走了兩三个小时 means "We walked two, three hours
(it also implies, not more than two hours by just a little; it has to be something between two and a half hours and three hours)


What is the function of the complement 下来 in 买下来?

下来 puts an emphasis on the fact that the action is completed.

雨停下来了。The rain (has) stopped. （It's over, it's not raining anymore).
我们把休假的地方决定下来了。We have decided where to go on holiday. (The decision is completed, it's done/settled)
他慌乱平静下来了。His frenzy calmed DOWN. (May be this is the closest example in English where we use the same directional complement. Once he calmed down, his frenzy was over, so this 'happening' got completed.

It's difficult to translate your example sentences in a way that points out the difference, since buying something is an action that is always completed (you either buy something or not).


Does 芋頭 have a different pronunciation in Taiwan Mandarin vs Mainland?

This is actually one example of a more general phenomenon. Mandarin, as spoken in Taiwan, uses weak stress (the neutral tone) much less often than Mandarin as spoken in northern areas. This is true not only of Taiwan speakers, but of other areas as well.  According to Jerry Norman's 1988 book, Chinese (p. 149):

  Weak stress (neutral tone) is an essential feature of the standard
  language, and of most northern dialects, but because its occurrence is
  lexically determined it is difficult for non-Peking speakers to
  master. Speakers of putonghua from many regions in South China,
  however, employ only a very small number of weakly stressed syllables,
  and these are chiefly limited to grammatical suffixes and particles.


What does 臉盆 "washbasin" mean when it's part of the names of dishes in Taiwan?

臉盆 still means washbasin here, it's just that this washbasin is a very large bowl used for food.

A tonne more noodles and a lot more soup.


How much did the Cultural Revolution change the Chinese language on the mainland?

From what I understand, there are indeed some new words created, or given a new meaning, during the years of cultural revolution. However, those words quickly lose their popularity soon after the arrest of "Gang of Four". Actually, as someone who is born many years after that period, I can hardly think of any word that is still used in the ordinary context, be it oral or written language. And even the Communist Party government tries to avoid using those words, due to the special meanings attached to them. So you can hardly see them apart from the history book, or people telling stories of that era.

However, there are a few exceptions in the recent years, notably the use of "篡党夺权" from the remarks by Liu Shiyu, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission during the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.[1][2] And there has been a rise in the use of "伟大领袖" in local newspapers as well.

For a comprehensive list of new words or words given a new meaning during the cultural revolution, I've found a paper from search engine here. But it's in Chinese, and it also requires purchasing to read further from page 1.

As to the difference between TW国语 and mainland普通话, they are completely irrelated to the cultural revolution.


what kind of gematria systems are there in chinese?

I know you can calculate Gematria on UTF8 (Hence Unicode and all the chars) using the Online Gimatria Calculator http://www.gematrix.org - it worked for me in Hebrew too: http://www.c2kb.com/gematria - Hope it was help full.


Different terms for 'family' and 'family member'

'家人' is a specific term for 'one's family'

For example: '我的家人在香港' (my family is in Hong Kong)

家人 can also refer to: 'individual(s) of one's family'. For example: '他是陳先生的家人' (He is Mr.Chan's family)

  '家庭成员' is a specific term for 'member(s) of a family'/ family member(s)

We do not say: " My family members are in Hong Kong." in English; therefore, we don't say: "我的家庭成员在香港." in Chinese neither.

Similarly, we do not say: "He is Mr. Chan's family member" in English; therefore, we don't say: "他是陳先生的家庭成员" in Chinese neither.

  We use the term '家庭成员' the same as 'family member(s) ' in English.

For example:

"Family members of the Chan family includes:  Mr. and Mrs. Chan and their two daughters" (陳家的家庭成員包括：陳先生及夫人及其兩個女兒)

If you say: "Mr. Chan's family, are his wife and two daughters" then the translation would be: "陳先生的家人是他的妻子和兩個女兒”"

If you say: " Mr. Chan's family include he himself, his wife and two daughters" then the translation would be: “陳先生的家庭包括他自己，他的妻子和兩個女兒”

  家庭 is a specific term for "Family"


Google translates 'emoji' as 表情符號, I think it is an acceptable translation.

The term Emoji originated from 絵文字 in Japanese. Since Japanese Kanji came from Chinese characters, 絵文字 can be reverse import back to Chinese. Which mean if you say 絵文字 in Chinese, people would know you are talking about emojis.

Emojis is different from 顏文字 , which you make faces with typed characters.

Examples of 顏文字:


Question about third tone sandhi in two specific cases

To the first question, I think 3rd tones are only full when its in the end of the sentences.

To the second question, I think it depends on how you do the segmentations. The last character in every parts will be 3rd tone while other are 2nd tones.

Let's say 米老鼠 would be segged as 米 / 老鼠, so the tones would be [3, 2, 3].

Some other examples: 剪指甲 would be segged as 剪 / 指甲, so the tones would be [3, 2, 3].

"我有好幾本火影忍者的漫畫" is a sentence, and the first nine characters are 3rd tones. It can be segged as 我有 / 好幾本 / 火影 / 忍者 , and the tone is

[2,3 / 2,2,3 / 2,3 / 2,3 ].

"展覽館小老鼠很口渴只好找井水洗水果 " is another sentence, and all the characters are 3rd tones. It can be segged as 展覽館 / 小 / 老鼠 / 很 / 口渴 / 只好 / 找 / 井水 / 洗 / 水果, and the tones is

[2,2,3 / 3 / 2,3 / 3 / 2,3 / 2,3 / 3 / 2,3 / 3 / 2,3]


Chinese sentence when only object is mentioned

Grammar books seem to split the 是……的 grammar construct into a whole bunch of cases (and here and here) using jargon like distinguishing words.  I prefer to simplify, and think about this grammar construct as meaning:

X 是 Y 的
X (noun phrase) has the property Y (adjective phrase)

It's perhaps linguistically imprecise, but all we're really doing is applying some kind of adjective (described by Y) to some kind of noun (given by X).
So:

这是真的。
This has the property of being true.
This is true.

那辆车是红色的。
That car has the property of being red.
That car is red.

这个消息是昨天发布的。
This news has the property of being released yesterday.
This news was released yesterday.

我们是2011年认识的。
We have the property of having met in 2011.
We met in 2011.

我是坐飞机来的。
I have the property of coming by plane.
I'm coming by plane.

And finally...

他的成绩一直是我们班最好的。
His grades always have the property of being the best in our class.
His grades are always the best in our class.


My Chinese Laoshi gave me a Chinese name "玉意" I don't know what it means

玉意, I assume you are female?
There was an actress of the same name in the 50s.
https://baike.baidu.com/item/容玉意
Maybe your Laoshi is a fan.
Anyway, 玉意 could be translated many ways depending on how 玉, (jadeite) is interpreted.
Besides being a semi-precious stone worn as jewellery it is revered by the Chinese, and in their culture jade symbolizes nobility, perfection, constancy, immortality, purity.
"The wise have likened jade to virtue. For them, its polish and brilliancy represent the whole of purity; its perfect compactness and extreme hardness represent the sureness of intelligence; its angles, which do not cut, although they seem sharp, represent justice; the pure and prolonged sound, which it gives forth when one strikes it, represents music" -- 礼记 -- "Book of Rites", (Zhou dynasty -- 1046 until 771 BC, (周; pinyin: Zhōu)
So Jade is more than a stone. Thus the meaning to be put to 玉 in your name would be nobility, perfection, constancy, immortality, purity. Take your pick.
Finally, 意 too could mean many things or meanings. But let's take the one which, to my mind, (no pun intended), is most suited to combine with 玉, and that is "thought"
So, 玉意 could mean "nobility, perfection, constancy, purity of thought"


I would take

  “我们的思想，是连续不断的认知组成的演变过程。”

and translate it, roughly, like:

Our thinking, is constituted [组成] by a constantly evolving cognitive [认知] process.

It's not “认知组成” as a set-phrase or even a connected phrase but just two separate words.

Your understanding:

  Our thoughts are evolving(演变） 【in】 a never ending process of cognitive formation(认知组成）.

absolutely works as well.


How come 驚 evolves to 惊 in mainland China

Brief Answer

The construction of 惊 follows the essence of the phono-semantic compound character. In folk culture, people who are not well-educated often invent characters in this way. Some of these characters became popular and then were included in the officially admitted simplified forms, and the others were eliminated. For example

  (admitted formal simplified forms) 竊 -> 窃, 響 -> 响, 癢 -> 痒, 憂 -> 忧, 認 -> 认

  (obsolete forms) 原 -> , 菜 -> , 灌 -> , 穩 -> , 酒 ->

You may have found some regular pattern, when such a character is invented, they tended to use the simplest character as the phonetic part. That is the reason for why not 憼 or  -- 京 is simpler and well-known.

For another question why 駭 as a synonym of 驚 was simplified just as 骇： though 駭 is a synonym of 驚, it is (and was) not often used by the under-educated people, so it wasn't invented by them and then simplified following another rule independently.
The history of the simplified 惊 is very interesting. My conclusion is:

  惊 as the simplified form of 驚, was invented between the end of Qing Dynasty and the first decades of the Republic of China (i.e. around the beginning of the 20th century), and formally seen in 手頭字第一期字彙. Interestingly, it happened to be the same as a variant form of 悢.

The relationship among 驚, 悢, and 惊 can be illustrated in the figure below (full size):

Textual Research

1. How and When did 惊 become the simplified form of 驚

Book 汉字字源: 当代新说文解字 by 窦文宇 and 窦勇 says

  篆文和繁体“驚”字由“敬”和“马”构成。“敬”字有让人听话的含义，整个字的意思是马不听话了，由此产生马毛了的含义。引申表示惊动、害怕、出人意料等。汉字简化时按近代产生的俗字形式简化。简体“惊”字是形声字，“心”字表意、“京”字表音。

    Seal character and modern traditional character 驚 is composed of 敬 and 马. "敬" has a meaning "let people be obedient", and the whole character means "a horse isn't obedient", then extends in meaning "a horse goes mad", and then "startle, scare, surprise, etc." The simplification follows the folk character form in modern times. The simplified 惊 is a phono-semantic compound character: 心 is the semantic part and 京 is the phonetic part.

And a better book -- which points out a good reference 手头字第一期字汇(手頭字第一期字彙) -- 简化字溯源 by 张书岩, 王铁昆, 李青梅 and 安宁 says

  【惊】“驚”的简化字。“惊”是近代群众创造的新形声字，最早见于1935年《手头字第一期字汇》。

    【惊】The simplified character of "驚". "惊" was created by the masses in modern times. It was first seen in 手头字第一期字汇(1935).

    Annotation: 手头字 is an old name for simplified characters, and 字汇 is a collection of characters.

The main points this book states, are

  1) 惊 as the simplified form of 驚 was created following the construction method of phono-semantic compound characters;

  2) 惊 as the simplified form of 驚 was first formally seen in 手頭字第一期字彙(1935).

This is the mainstream view (As already pointed out in @Phil's answer). But, are they reliable?

For Point 1), as I have analyzed in the "Brief Answer" above, 惊 can be constructed in that way, but it doesn't have to -- the character 惊 had appeared for a long time as a variant character of 悢. So there's possibility that 惊 was borrowed to be the simplified form of 驚 (such a case isn't rare, like 葉->叶). However, because 惊 wasn't simplified by just an individual, it's difficult to find out the original motivation. Anyway, I personally accept Point 1), so I said in the Brief Answer they happened to be the same.

For Point 2), it is possible for researchers to prove that, though still difficult, because proving "惊 had not been (once popularly) used as another form of 驚 before" needs much verification work. Personally, I also accept it, and I will demonstrate it in this logic:

  惊 was formally stated as a variant character of 悢 in authoritative dictionaries, and in the past, educated people were not so many, thus very probably they did follow the dictionaries well. That is to say, if the newer dictionaries inherited the fact "惊 is a variant character of 悢" well, 惊 was not so possible to be used as 驚 in that times. => So I just have checked some dictionaries from 說文解字(A.D. 100-121) to 康熙字典(A.D. 1716).

2. Inheritance Chain: 惊 as a Variant Character of 悢

We will see, after 集韻, "惊 as a Variant Character of 悢" was well kept in dictionaries. In these one thousand years, people would not use 惊 as the simplified character of 驚.

說文解字: there was no entry for 惊.
集韻 (钦定四库全书本集韵)

卷三-平声阳第十

  【惊】悲也。

    惊liáng, sad/sorrow.

卷八-去声漾第四十七

  【悢/惊/】博雅：悢悢，悲也。也或作惊、。

    悢/惊/liàng, 博雅:"悢悢", which means sad/sorrow. It can be also written as 惊 or .

類篇 (钦定四库全书本类篇卷三十-心部)

  【惊】呂張切，悲也。又力讓切。文一，重音一。

    惊, with consonant part of 呂 and vowel part of 張 (i.e. liáng), sad/sorrow. Also with consonant part of 力 and vowel part of 讓 (i.e. liàng). It has one character form and two pronunciations. Note that, 重(chóng)音 means polyphonic but not accent.

四聲篇海 (成化丁亥重刊改併五音類聚四聲篇海六-第十卷心母二十四-心部第四)

  【惊】呂張切，悲也。

    惊, with consonant part of 呂 and vowel part of 張 (i.e. liáng), sad/sorrow.

重訂直音篇 (卷二)

  悢，音亮，悲也。又音朗。惊、同上。

    悢, sounds 亮, and means sad/sorrow. Also sounds 朗. 惊 and  are the same. Note: this dictionary cited 陰祐's 餘文 for this character.

字彙 (五-卯集心部)

  【惊】呂張切，音良，悲也。又去聲，力仗切，義同。亦作悢。

    惊, with consonant part of 呂 and vowel part of 張, sounds 良, means sad/sorrow. Also in falling tone, with consonant part of 力 and vowel part of 仗, the same meaning. Also written as 悢.

正字通 (四-卯集心部)

  【惊】同悢。

    惊, the same as 悢.

康熙字典

  【惊】《集韻》呂張切，音良，悲也。又《集韻》力讓切，音諒，義同。或作悢、。

    惊. In 集韵, with consonant part of 呂 and vowel part of 張, sounds 良, and means sad/sorrow. Also in 集韵, with consonant part of 力 and vowel part of 讓, sounds 諒, the same meaning. Also written as 悢 or .

3. Modern Times: 惊 as the Simplified Character of 驚

I have checked some other resources for folk characters, like 敦煌俗字典(2005) by 黄征, but I couldn't find any clue showing 惊 was used as the simplified character of 驚 before 1900s.

Maybe you can find some text on ctext.org shows

  《黃帝內經·經脈》: 是動則病洒洒振寒，善呻，數欠，顏黑，病至則惡人與火，聞木聲則惕然而 惊 ，心欲動，獨閉戶塞牖而處。

  《通典·水利田》: 泉流灌 惊 ，所以育五穀也。

  《桃花扇·第六回阮學士懷怨進讒　楊知縣登樓報因》： 如此 惊 慌！」龍友說：「今日清議堂議事，阮圓海對著大眾，說你與左寧南侯有舊，常通私書，將為內應。

  《白圭志·第二回絕張宏廬山從學　遇菊英月下訂盟》： 歌罷琴息，庭瑞 惊 喜欲狂，暗思：「此必才女所作也。

  《廉吏傳·廉吏传》： ...其令长贪洁吏民良猾悉知其状郡内 惊 竦莫不震慑发兵击慈斩之贼既溃平...

However, after checking these classic works with their original scan versions, I just found those characters are 驚 but not 惊. Such mistakes may be made by the software conversion from simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese.

So, very probably the statement that "It was first seen in 手头字第一期字汇" in the book 简化字溯源 is true. Amazingly, it is very very difficult to find a clear copy of 手头字第一期字汇. Currently (before I post this answer :D), the best version one can directly find by Google would be this one:

Hmm, and after very tough search work, finally I found this piece of newspaper: 申報 Feb. 24, 1935. No. 22210. (Shun Pao). It is so valuable that I decide to upload the whole picture here (full size). Please ignore the advertisement on the newspaper.

The table in the middle is the full list of 手頭字第一期字彙. With an introductory article 手頭字之提倡:

  手頭字之提倡

  第一期手頭字共三百字  各界簽名發起者二百人

  　　中國文字、雖有種種優點、然筆劃過於繁多、而手寫體與印刷品又不一律、實爲民衆教育之一大阻力、近年全國有人主張减省漢字筆劃、以謀教學之便利、最近復由文化界人士、共同研究、已歷多時、頃始發表手頭字第一期字彙、各界人士簽名發起者二百人、各文化機關及刊物决定採用者已有十餘家、兹將推行手頭字緣起、及第一期字彙照錄如下、

  　　推行手頭字緣起

  　　我們往常有許多便當的字、手頭上大家都這麽寫、可是書本上並不這麽印、識一個字須得認兩種以上的形體、何等不便、現在我們主張把「手頭字」用到印刷上去、省掉讀書人設憶幾種字體的麻煩、使得文字比較容易識、容易寫、更能够普及到大衆、這種主張從　也有人提出過、可是他們没有實在做、所以没有甚麽影響、現在我們决定把「手頭字」鑄成銅模澆出鉛字來、拿來排印書本、先選出手頭常用的三百個字來作爲第一期推行的字彙、以後再逐漸加添、直到「手頭字」跟印刷體一樣爲止、希望開心文化的先生們、贊同我們的主張、並且儘量採用這個字彙、

  發起人丁淑靜·萬迪鶴萬家寶·小默·王人路·豐子愷·方光燾·巴金·王紀　·王獨清·王特夫·王國秀·王集從·王屏南·方景略·葉聖陶·朱自清·葉放·左胥之·白薇·葉龢士·朱少卿·朱文叔·任白戈·劉延陵·劉廷芳·劉良模·老舍·余之介·沈子丞·李公朴·吳文祺·沈西苓·沈體蘭·沈志遠·徐澤霖·李長之·米星　·艾思奇·沈兹九·沈起予·李南薌·李冠芳·陸高誼·吳朗西·吳組緗·吳研因·吳清友·蘇雪林·艾寒村·仿聯德·李貽燕·余楠秋·吳敬恒·吳廉銘·沈端先·李輝英·杜鋼百·艾蕪·辛樹幟·汪靜之·吳翰雲·劉薰宇·伯韓·汪馥泉·吳耀宗·邵力子·孟十還·周木齋·周予同·林漢達·林本僑·東平·金兆梓·金仲華·歐陽山·周伯棣·周伯勳·邵宗漢·羅叔和·阿英·邰爽秋·周越然·征農·金燄·胡仲持·胡風·洪深·姚紹華·姜琦·柳湜·范揚·胡愈之·郁達夫·夏丐尊·倪文宙·祝百英·奚如·祝佛朗·馬宗融·草明·唐弢·馬星野·孫俍工·孫師毅·高夢旦·馬國亮·馬國英·席滌塵·高鐵郎·徐蔚南·徐懋庸·郭一岑·章乃器·曹小端·陳子展·張天翼·曹禮吾·陶行知·張仲實·陸衣言·張肖梅·張良輔·陳君冶·陳克承·陳君涵·許幸之·郭沫若·曹亮·陳致道·郭挹清·陳望道·張夢麟·　彬龢·畢雲程·許傑·許達年·許欽文·曹聚仁·陳維姜·陳端志·陸德音·陳樟生·章錫琛·陸錫值·庶謙·張耀翔·黄石·顧君義·傅東華·馮和法·黄素封·舒新城·黄源·程演生·顧樹森·黑嬰·靳以·臧克家·楊青田·楊東蓴·路敏行·葛喬·葛綏成·楊潮·楊騷·楊霽雲·趙義凭·熊昌翼·趙家璧·蒯斯嚑·趙景深·管萃眞·蔡元培·潘公弼·潘式·樊仲雲·鄭君里·鄭伯奇·蔡希陶·魯彦·鄭振鐸·黎烈文·蔣徑三·鄧裕志·樂嗣炳·蔣弼·蔡慕暉·黎錦明·蔣鏡芙·盧冀野·穆藕初·謝六逸·鍾天心·謝扶雅·鍾韶琴·聶紺弩·魏猛克·潭友六·

Now we can find 驚->惊 is actually on the list. Interestingly, on Aug. 21, 1935, 第一批簡體字表 published by the Republic of China Government didn't include this simplified character:


Meaning of 祝愿 as wishing or congratulating

Who got in the group? You or I??

哇，祝愿碰运气，能碰上这个组啊

*I wish I can be lucky and end up in that group.

I hope that I will be lucky and end up in that group.

我希望我能有幸加入那个组。

Wow! You are lucky to end up in that group!

哇！你运气真好，加入到了那个组！

If you want to indicate the person's ability got him/her in that group:

You deserve to be in that group, you are very talented.

你非常有天赋，值得在那个组。

Congratulations! = 恭喜你！ 或者 祝贺您！


Classical Chinese question. 古文。 Meaning of 起予？

起 means "inspire", and 予 means "me". Literally: It's you, Shang (Zixia's given name), who inspired me.


X were said to do Y

can be translated to

  据说X想做Y

PS.

  The hijackers were said to demand the plane to fly to Iran

is equal to

  It is said that hijackers demanded the plane to fly to Iran.


There are way more synonyms in Chinese than listed. They are in most cases interchangeable depending on your desired degree of formality:

Explanation

如, 若
Originates from classical Chinese; formal. As in 如有垂詢 (should there be any enquiries)

假如, 倘如*
Can be either spoken or written.

假若, 倘若*
Fairly written.

假使, 倘使*
Fairly written.

如果, 若果
Can be either spoken or written.

要是, 若是
Contains the morpheme 'if' and the copula. Can mean 如果 or 如果是†.

～的話
Fairly spoken. Added immediately after the hypothetical statement.

假設
Meaning inclines to 'assuming that...' rather than 'if'.

* In general, 倘 is a written expression, more so than 假.
† If the original sentence already requires 是, e.g. 是我 (lit. is me), 是真的 (lit. is true), then 要是 means 如果是, as in 要是我 (if it were me), 要是真的 (if it were true). On the contrary, if the original sentence does not require 是, e.g. 你死了 (lit. you are dead), then 要是 means 如果, as in 要是你死了 (if you become dead).
Sometimes, for readability, it may be necessary to add coupling words 那, (那)就, or (那)便 before the result of the hypothetical statement:

如果你不服從上司，你便會被解僱。 lit. If you do not obey your boss, you will be fired.
假如時光可以倒流，那會多好！If only I could rewind time (, how great would that be)!

In English, 'if' can either mark a hypothetical statement, or a choice (as in 'whether'). Chinese however, makes a clear distinction between the two. That is to say, 是否 is not synonymous with 如果.

你看他是否睡著了？ See if (=whether) he is asleep.
如果他睡著了，別弄醒他。If he is asleep, don't wake him.


From http://www.baike.com/wiki/13%E8%96%AA

13薪 is a type of salary bonus scheme. The 13 comes from "13th month". The idea is that in the last month of the year (or after working for 12 months), the last monthly salary will be doubled, as if you receive the salary for a non-existent 13th month.

Sometimes it's calculated based on total employment, so if you have only been working for half a year, the 13薪 bonus is half of what it would be.

It's a scheme that helps retention, as employees who don't work for at least 12 months may not receive this bonus.


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

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

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

this sentence is about buying two packs of bouquets.

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


how do dialects deal with two seperate falling tones accents?

In essence, if I understand you correctly, you are asking for a standard for romanisation of tone diacritics. The straightforward answer of course is that each system has its own standard: Hanyu Pinyin for standard Mandarin is different to traditional Yale for Cantonese, which is different to Jyutping for Cantonese, which is the same as Sidney Lau for Cantonese.

With many learners whose first encounter with tone as a concept is with stnadard Mandarin Chinese through the orthography provided by Hanyu Pinyin, the diacritics are virtually featural; it is as if each diacritic was designed to represent the pitch of each tone as pronounced in the standard way. Neat, right?

This also works to an extent with Yale in Cantonese (including if you consider the high falling tone distinct from the high level tone, which is a minority in the 21st century). However, what to do with the low tones, which happen to be the same contours? Just add "h" after the vowel (or syllabic nasal consonant) and you're done! Not quite as featural as Hanyu Pinyin, but systematic enough.

However, Peh-oe-ji and its descendants are not very intuitive it comes to the representation of the tones in its orthography of Hokkien. If we look at the tones of Xiamen (Amoy) Hokkien, for which Peh-oe-ji was originally developed, through a strictly synchronic phonetic view, we get (in descending pitch order):
 - high level [including obstruent endings];
 - high falling;
 - (high) rising;
 - mid level;
 - low falling;
 - low with obstruent endings.

So we have two level and one kind-of level tones, one rising tone, and two falling tones. However, Peh-oe-ji was not developed with this view of the tone system; instead, it allocated the tones according to the historical four tone 平上去入 system of Middle Chinese, broken down by 阴阳 register, with 阴 going first then 阳. This is also technically the same view (let's call it the "historical" view) as the tone numbers for Cantonese in Yale and Jyutping.
The allocation of the diacritics seems fairly random, although an explanation from WH Medhurst's pioneering 1832 dicionary on (what would later be Malaysian) Hokkien can be found. Essentially, his tone marks are very subjective, introspective descriptions, and not directly related to pitch.


How do I express "I follow my GPS's instructions"?

How about:

  跟着导航走

Short, concise and simple.

跟着 = follow
导航 = gps
走 = go

You could even tell a lost taxi driver the same phrase to let them know to follow the gps.


What's this character that looks like 七 with a ～ in the middle? And what's its history?

The character  is recorded in the following titles:

《漢簡文字類編．甘部》
《中華字海．一部》

The paleographer 季旭昇 analyses it to be a 草書 variant of「甚」.

See the entry of 甚 from the Taiwan Ministry of Education's variants dictionary.

The earliest form of「甚」compounds「匕」(a ladle or spoon) with either「甘」or「口」:

  Note: the difference between「甘」and「口」in this context doesn't make a big
  difference, as「甘」(sweet) was originally「口」with a mark, representing a piece of food in a mouth:

  The meaning of sweet/good flavours is extracted from the idea of tasting the food.

The entire compound form of「甚」meant contentment, happiness, at peace, as a result of being satisfied from being fed.

Later on, decorative marks (飾筆)** were added on to the character, in the shape of「八」:

Since characters weren't standardised back then, sometimes「口」and「八」were switched around:

This last form is the direct ancestor of the modern form of「甚」.

  Note: The Shuowen Jiezi explanation of「甚」comes from the misinterpretation of 「八」and「匕」as merging into「匹」:

  「甚，尤安樂也。从甘，从匹耦也。」

Of course, the above doesn't explain the cursive form that appears in the question. My personal speculation is that  is a result of (1) character corruption (訛變) and (2) character simplification (簡化/省略).

(1) Corruption

  「匕」was commonly corrupted into「七」or「」very early on, as in the
  Eastern Han stele 《曹全碑》:

  What looks like「合七首藥神明膏」should be interpreted
  as「合匕首藥神明膏」(miraculous knife-wound-healing medicine),
  where「匕首」means dagger. Many modern forms have retained this
  corruption, such as in the character「化」, which was originally「⿰亻匕」.
  See, for example, the modern Chinese (left) form vs. the modern
  Japanese (right) form of 「化」:

(2) Simplification

  「口」was simply omitted from the final form in rapid 草書 writing.

Of course, take all this with a grain of salt; I haven't found a detailed academic commentary on the character , and welcome any corrections to this answer by anyone who has.

**The addition of decorative marks is one of the least-known, at least among general knowledge, of Chinese character components. One of the most common characters which was formed as a result of decorative marks is the character「魚」. Compare, for example, some of the earliest forms of the character:

A detailed drawing of a fish in oracle bone script:

Still quite detailed in the middle of the bronze inscription period:

Sometimes, not so detailed and more stylised:

Stylised with addition of decorative marks around the tail:

The shape of the bottom looked very similar to and was later merged with the shape of「火」, eventually turning into「灬」and causing the tail to be detached to the rest of the body. This latter form can be considered as the direct ancestor of the modern form of「魚」:

If these marks weren't added, we might see something like this today:


If it hangs (not responding to any input), you could say

  我的电脑死机了。

If the screen blacks out, you could say

  我的电脑黑屏了。

If it doesn't turn on, you could say

  我的电脑不亮了。

or

  我的电脑打不开了。

If it is completely broken and needs major repair, you could say

  我的电脑坏了。

or

  我的电脑完蛋了。

Note: All above are used in Mainland China. I know they're expressed differently in other Chinese-speaking regions (e.g. Taiwan) but I don't know what they should become.


In this context, 会计 refers to the person who is doing the accounting job, that is, accountant.

Most of time, 会计 just refers to accountant, as in: 她是个会计.

会计 can also refer to the job for accounting, as in 会计学，会计师，会计协会，etc.


What are other words worth learning that follow this pattern with 象?

The character 象 is a pictograph that depicts the image of an elephant. Its role in 像 and 橡 is as a phonetic component. It doesn't indicate  'size' or 'largest'.
像 (like; resemblance) and 橡(oak) have nothing to do with elephants. (象 means elephant is irrelevant, it is there for the sound)
Side note: 雕像 (statue) can be any size, some can be held in your hand


Sometimes, you can use 的 or not use 的 to describe things. For example: 她就是那個穿著墨綠色衣服的溫柔女生，總是為別人著想。 in English: She is that tender female dress in dark green who always care about others. In this example, 穿著墨綠色衣服 used to describe somethings after 的(女生). 墨綠色 used to describe something after 墨綠色(衣服). And 溫柔 used to describe something after 溫柔(女生).


Is there a term for the noisy bringing up of phlegm in preparation to spit?

You can use 咳 (ke) for the sound of clearing one's throat. It's the same character in 咳嗽, which is "cough". It is also the character used when people clear their throat to draw others attention to themselves. In this case, it is 咳咳.


What is the meaning of the character 打 in 打坐?

According to the 《佛光大辭典》,

打坐
指跏趺而坐 (to sit cross-legged)，使心入定 (to settle the mind)。
即指坐禪 (za-zen, to meditate)。
「打」，動作行為之意 (means to do or to act)。

According to the 《汉语大词典》,

打 (36)
谓从事某种工作 (to do some kind of work) 或做出某种行为 (to make some kind of behavior)。

Therefore, the 打 in 打坐 means "to do", and 打坐 is "to do the 靜坐" (to sit still with a peaceful mind).
Since the purpose of 打坐 is to settle the mind, it refers to meditation.
(dan chose 打(38) in the 《汉语大词典》.)


What is an appropriate translations of "That's so Raven!"?

I don't think this show is particularly popular in China.

A quick search on Baidu gave me results like 天才魔女 (genius girl with magic), 超能力黑少女 (raven girl with superhuman abilities), and the literal 如此瑞文.

If you are just translating the phrase "that's so _," it would be 这太 __ or 这也太 __.

For example,

  That's so cool!

  这太酷了吧！ or 这也太酷了吧！

If a name follows "so",

  That's so Josh!

  一看就是Josh做的！ or 典型的Josh作风！


What is the difference between 升, 陞 and 昇?

The answer to this one turned out to be fairly straightforward (assuming the website I found is accurate). The following is quoted from this website:

  升 ① 容積的法定單位（市升與之相同），1升等於1000毫升。
  ② 量糧食的器具，容量爲斗的十分之一。 ③ 向上，高起：升旗。 ④
  提高：升級。
  昇 同「升」③④。
  陞 同「升」④。 （《新華字典》第436頁左列「升」字）

  說明：「升」「昇」「陞」三字在「登」的意義上相通，以「升」為正體。「昇」本義為太陽上升，例如「旭日東昇」，用「旭日東升」也正確，需要注意的是，「歌舞昇平」似用「昇」更正式。在一些人名上，如淸代寫《長生殿》的洪昇，宋代發明活字印刷術的畢昇。「陞」，古代「升」的寫法，可用於當今書法。
  舉例： 昇──昇華，昇天，歌舞昇平，高昇。 升──毫升，升高，升堂，升班，直升機，回升，調升，提升。 陞──步步高陞，指日高陞。

So, in short, it's safe to use 升 in most cases (except in some names and fixed expressions).


How can I distinguish different yet similar sounds when listening?

This is a very good question, which I also run into while I was learning English.

My approach to this is to learn 最小的语言单位 (I defined it as a Minimum Language Unit, MLU). I invented that term here, lol. MLU is a minimum language unit that can express something in practice. For example, the single character 向 xiang 4 doesn't mean anything and it's only valid in the phrase like 方向. Put it in a sentence: 我找不到方向. Here I treat 我, 找不到，方向 as MLUs, because each denotes the minimum meaning of the language.

When you read/listen, try not to focus on each single character, but on MLUs, because a single character might be meaningless for comprehension.

This is also the way I do for English. For example, I'll catch you later, make sure you won't be ripped off, where I'll, catch you later, make sure, you won't be, ripped off are all considered as my MLUs. In this way, my reading level and my listening level are almost the same and they are much better than my writing. When I listen, I try to catch those MLUs instead of word for word. This also helps the speed for comprehension. When you hear something spoken out in your second language, usually you might have to take some time to digest internally. The shorter time you consume, the better listening you will have.

Another point, which is also very important, is the cadence. When you hear a native speaker speaks, he/she  always follows some kind of rhythm and along with some tone emphasis(I am not sure how to describe it correctly, but hopefully it'll be clear). You should learn to capture that cadence as well. It would take you some time, but it wouldn't be very hard I think.

I personally had been very successful with this approach. My foreign colleagues, who are American native speakers, feel that they are free to communicate with me and easy to get their thoughts come through when we discuss technical issues. They don't have to slow down when they talk to me. I hope this approach could help you as well!

Good luck!


I think you should probably look it up in a dictionary. Foreign learners won't remember, and native speakers can't make a list, native language is almost an instinct, we won't remember every usages.


This is a spelling mistake, and should be written as 「划來划去」.
In Traditional Chinese, 「划」 means to row, to paddle, e.g. 「划龍舟」 (to row a dragon boat). 「劃」 normally means to delimit, to partition 「劃分」 or sometimes to plan 「計劃」.

小蝌蚪看見小鴨子跟著媽媽在水裏划來划去
The wee tadpoles saw the ducklings following their mother in the water, paddling away.

References:

萌典
國語小字典
教育部國語辭典簡編本
粵語審音配詞字庫


As a slang, 牛 could be used for expressing awesome.

  在中国口语中的“牛”，已经被引申为一个形容词，意思为“厉害、有本事”，例如“你太牛了！”（标准：你太厉害了！）。这个词通常为褒义词，通常用于赞扬、形容某人很厉害，很有本事，很有胆量。也通常用于口语中的调侃。

So 很牛 means very awesome. 牛气 means arrogant ; self-important and also awesome.


What is the difference between 抗拒 and 抵御?

抗拒：1. 抵抗, resist; 2. 拒绝, refuse;

抵御：1. 抵挡, 抵抗, resist; 2. 抵御, 预防, protect from;

So, there is an overlap in meaning (sense 1) between these two words. For example, 无法抗拒==无法抵御; 抗拒诱惑==抵御诱惑;

Also, there is a different usage(sense 2) between the two. For example,  抗拒搜查 means you fight against police in order to resist their searching in your home;well,  抵御搜查 would mean that you hide your evidence to protect it to be found out by police; another example is 抵御疾病 means you could wear more to protect you from the disease like a cold; well, there is no direct way that you can fight with diseases, so 抗拒疾病 seems not to make any sense. You can't literally refuse the diseases when they come.


What is the difference between 网上 and 在线?

Specifically, although “网上” and “在线” can be both translated as "oline", “网上” actually means "on the internet", “在线” means "online".

Here are some examples

  我在网上找到了这篇文章。

It means, I found this article online.

  我的 QQ 是在线的。

This means, the status of my QQ is online.

Although they were both translated to "online", I bet you can see the difference there with actual examples.


Based on your comment:

  Technical dictionaries are dictionaries with terminology in the fields of technology and science, in which you can find names that you do not find in "classical dictionaries", because they are very technical.

I would highly recommend the 21st Century English-Chinese Dictionary

blurb from Amazon:

  The English-Chinese dictionary collects more than 70,000 entries. It includes over 10,000 new words. The phonetic is referred to the new edition from U.K. & U. S. Appendix includes the information of five countries: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia & New Zealand; the military ranks of U.K. & U.S.; international famous companies; chemical elements; punctuation; the usage of numeral, date & time; comparison of metric system & metrology of U.K. & U.S.

entry-wise I'm not sure why Amazon only mentions 70,000 entries as Pleco calls it:

  the 280,000-entry 21st Century English-Chinese Dictionary


According to Wiktionary:

柳州話 (Liuzhou Mandarin)
萍鄉話 (Pingxiang Gan)
南寧話 (Nanning Pinghua)
長沙話 (Changsha Xiang)
婁底話 (Loudi Xiang)

These topolects correspond to the areas highlighted in the light green circles above.


In 落实
落 = to implement
实 = actually / solidly

落实 (v): to (actually) implement; to (solidly) put into effect;

'咱们有计划，有落实'

'有计划' means 'have plans (which need to be implemented)'
'有落实' means 'have implementation'
We can interpret this sentence as :

"(first,) we'll have plans , (then) we'll have implementation (of these plans)."

using the verb 落实 (implement) as a noun: 'implementation'
or

"(first,) we'll have plans , (then) we'll have these plans/ implemented."

More example sentence:

到最后，这计划并没有落实 (At the end, this plan had not been implemented.)


How to display the "left hand" radical as Unicode text?

Just FYI, the top left part of「右」and the top left part of「左」have different origins. Also, neither of them have anything to do with「十」.

The top left part of「右」as a stand-alone character is now written as「又」. It was originally a picture of a right hand.

商甲後2.5.15合集24506秦簡睡・日甲36　今楷

The「口」in「右」was added later to distinguish between the meaning right hand (anatomy) and right side.

西周金夨令方彝集成9901秦簡睡・封21　今楷

The top left part of「左」, unsurprisingly, was originally a picture of a left hand. As a stand-alone character, it is now written as「」.

商甲粹950合集28882西周金三年師兌簋集成4318今楷

The「工」(picture of a tool) in「左」was added later to bring out the meaning of assistance, help, now written as「佐」.

西周金虢季子白盤集成10173篆說文解字　今楷

The top left component of「右」and「左」look very similar in the modern script, but the original components meant different things and had different pronunciations. For example,「又」, being the top left component of「右」, is also found at the top left part of both of the following characters, where it contributes both meaning and sound:

「有」(yǒu; picture of a hand「又」yòu holding a piece of meat「⺼・肉」> to have [something])
「友」(yǒu; picture of two right hands「又」yòu > friend)

References:

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》


What is the percentage of the population whose actual mother tongue is Mandarin?

The mother tongue would be the language that someone learned at home from their family members
There seems to only be stats for "speaker" amounts and not strictly native speakers.

Firstly, 'mother tongue' and 'native' are not the same.
My mother tongue is officially Mandarin Chinese, and I used to speak it a lot at home, but my native language is English, which is my strongest language. Well, depending on perspective, people like me might be considered as having two native languages.
If that is so, then everyone whose mother tongue is Mandarin Chinese must be a native speaker, which makes it a subset.
As people whose mother tongue is Mandarin Chinese (836 million) is a subset of people whose native language is Mandarin Chinese, (960 million) I think that it is safe to assume that the map provided by @Stan is an accurate depiction of the population whose actual mother tongue is Mandarin Chinese.
Given those numbers, the percentage would be 87%. However, we do know that while some people's official mother tongue is Mandarin Chinese, they may not pursue it, which makes this statistic inaccurate. So there might be around a 10% margin of error if we were to assume that only Chinese people in China pursue their mother tongue as native language.


What grammar pattern with 着 does this sentence follow?

奥林匹克运动的故乡[n.] 流传着[v.] 这样的几句话[n.]：...

I would break this sentence in three parts as above.

“流传” is the verb here, it means "spread" or "circulating", here it means "these sentences/story goes that..."  or "there's a saying ..."

“着” here means the second meaning you listed. It shows the continuity of the verb.

My translation of this sentence is: "In the hometown of Olympic sports, people say:..."
It shows the meaning but not a word-to-word translation.

Here's the explanation in Modern Chinese Dictionary《现代汉语词典》:

着·zhe

1 （助）表示动作的持续：他打～红旗在前面走｜他们正谈～话呢。

I'm a native Chinese, but it's my first time trying to explain modern Chinese to language learners. Let me know if I'm not clear enough. Hope it helps!


The meaning of 了 before and after Object of Consecutive Actions

Please study Placement of 了: difference between 吃飯了 and 吃了飯

"了" in "我坐飞机去了上海。" is a verb particle that indicates the verb 去 is a completed action

"了" in "我坐飞机去上海了"  is a final particle that 1. indicate the sentence has ended 2. indicates the situation has changed 3. soften the tone/ add emphasis


Did any pidgin terms survived in Chinese? (or any topolects?)

The link in OP is a very interesting read. Since there are several very long vocabulary lists, I just glanced through them really quickly, and I noticed in 《红毛番话》（拟名）抄本 at least one term that is still in use.
The term is 沙律, which means "salad". Though salad is usually called "沙拉" in Mandarin today, it is still called 沙律 in Cantonese as far as I know.
As this 抄本 has many food-related terms, it is quite possible that more of them survived today, but sadly I don't know Cantonese well enough to tell.


In Taiwanese, what can the erhwa be replaced with when it means something?

In my experience 儿 doesn't really perform the role you mention about changing a verb into a noun, it just reinforces that something is a noun when it's ambiguous. For example 画 is 'to paint' or a painting, so if you mean a painting you say 画儿 to be clear you don't mean 'to paint'. But 吃 doesn't mean food, it means 'to eat', so 吃儿 doesn't need to exist to distinguish the two.

In Beijing I've found that most of the words with extra 儿's at the end are nouns that sound like other words. Adding the 儿 reduces the ambiguity when speaking by reducing the entropy of the language. That being said, there are lots of exceptions, 玩儿， 那儿， 这儿 etc.


Part-of-speech problems about adjectives or adverbs preceding 地

Adjective is placed before noun and Adverb is placed before verb
So in your Context "高兴/地/说", since 说 is a verb, 高兴地 will be an adverb.
高兴 itself can be a noun, adjective or adverb depending on the context and any preposition character following it.
的 is used before nouns , e.g. 灿烂的笑容 charming smile, it served as a possessive particle too
地 is used before verbs , e.g. 用力地踢 kick it hardly, 仔细地观察 observe carefully
得 is used before adjectives, the words before 得 are usually verbs. e.g. 扫得很干净 Sweep very clean, 做得很好 nicely done
more examples:
通过仔细的观察，我们可以知道一个人的喜好 By observing carefully, we can know a person's preferences  (观察 is a noun here)
他仔细地观察，不错过任何蛛丝马迹 He observes carefully and does not miss any clues (观察 is a verb here)
需要观察得很仔细，才能够分辨出两者有何不同 Need to observe carefully to be able to tell the difference between the two
Note: in contemporary and unofficial writing nowadays, you may find out more people to use 的 instead of 地 or 得 in those specific situations. e.g. 做的好！/ 悄悄的离开了 / 悄悄的来到我身边 which are however grammatically inaccurate but somehow accepted by the public. If you google it, tons of people are actually using it with lots of examples that you can find it online and therefore it has become a norm nowadays.
more reference for 的/地/得 usage here


Adventure time (探險活寶) and other cartoons with mandarin dubs and subtitles

It might be hard to find the show with simplified Chinese - according to this wikipedia, the Beijing government banned Cartoon Network in 2000. Thus, the company might start to focus on Freedom China (ROC, currently in and known as Taiwan).
However, there should be some way to get simplified Chinese caption. If you're lucky enough, you should be able to grab some traditional Chinese subtitle and turn the traditional characters into simplified ones with handy tools on the Net. (OS: Some of the tools rely on Google Translate, so 95% of the result should be correct, while it sometimes mixes some characters.)
By the way, I didn't try it yet cuz I'm doing in the other ways around - I'm a Chinese Taiwanese, so I'm looking for cartoons with English caption.

If you're looking for some other Chinese cartoon, I will suggest you 《喜羊羊与灰太狼》（《喜羊羊與灰太狼》，xǐ yáng yáng yǔ huī tài láng，ㄒㄧˇ ㄧㄤˊ ㄧㄤˊ ㄩˇ ㄏㄨㄟˉ ㄊㄞˋ ㄌㄤˊ，Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf） and 《熊出没》 （《熊出沒》，xióng chū mò，ㄒㄩㄥˊ ㄔㄨˉ ㄇㄛˋ，Boonie Bears）. Though the former in 2005 and the letter in 2012 are made by a Mainland Chinese company, they are my childhood and almost everyone in my high school can still remember its theme song.


What does the classical construction X 何由 Y mean?

in classic Chinese, 何由 is the inverse form of 由何, and it should be in the inverse form ,however, you can understand it by understanding 由何.

何 what
由 [preposition] 1. from  2.because of  3.by(method, means,way)

so 由何 could mean, from what, because of what, by what. I guess, you would less commonly(Ok, at least I would) say,"By what, did you arrive at this conclusion?", instead, you would say,"how did you arrive at this conclusion?" ;furthermore, when you say "how did you arrive at this conclusion?", you would probably mean "It's impossible to arrive at this conclusion. I don't believe it", depending on the context. This also happens to 何由.
In your examples,I think 何由 means "how could".
By the way, I think this word is not rarely used in classic Chinese, I can give you another example from a poem 《茅屋为秋风所破歌》 by the great poet 杜甫, which was picked into the textbook when I was a student.

长夜沾湿何由彻  How could I bear the bad situation(the house is broken and it rains heavily) in the long night , until the dawn comes.


I'm back!
"君子不立危墙下" and "与虎谋皮" is a little difficult for me, and "有仇不报非君子".


购物助手(shopping helper) is the topic
一个可随意装卸的无线电脑工具。'a wireless computer tool (device) that can be mounted and dismounted at will.'  is the comment on the topic. It explains what 购物助手 is.

Since 购物助手 is a device, 装卸(mount/dismount) here refers to the mounting and dismounting of the unit itself--  nothing to do with data upload and download.

By the way:

'Data upload and download' in Chinese would be '数据(data)上传(up load)和下载(down load)'.
Not '数据(data)装上(load up)和卸下(unload)'


Is the official radical for 巨 “工” or “匚”?

Since radicals are dictionary headers, "what is the radical of X" is dependent on the dictionary you're looking at.
The most internationally-agreed-upon dictionary radicals for Chinese characters would be the Kangxi Dictionary, which lists it under 「工」. Thankfully, most dictionaries have sets of radicals which are derived from the Kangxi list, and most dictionaries are in agreement with Kangxi's classification.

My edition of Pleco doesn't list the radical as 「匚」.


What is the characters for qilou, the sidewalks in Taiwan?

wouldn't it be "騎樓"?

there's wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong_lau


Tones of Mandarin words in military drills

The essential part for military drills is to sound loud and vibrant. It is hard to sound loudly when the drill is given in tones rising and falling, so all the characters in drills are pronounced in a level tone, only with the pitch varying. So those of higher pitch will seem like the #1 tone, and those lower pitch will seem like the #3 tone as compared.

向右转 443 -> 331 “想有——专——” or 131 “香有——专——”

齐步走 243 -> 331 “起补——邹——” or 131 “七补——邹——”


Can 有 be used to form present perfect tense?

Yes, you can use 有 to form present perfect tense, consider the following examples:

In mainland, people usually don't use 有 (to me it sounds a bit childish and made me think of a little girl.) :

Michel: 你看过 "Pride and Prejudice" 没? Have you ever read ...

Emily: (我)看过。 I have read it.
In Hong Kong or Taiwan, looks like it's frequently used (I haven't been there but in quite a lot of TV series and variety shows the celebrities often use it, friends from there may correct me if I'm wrong)

Michel: "你有看(过) 'Pride and Prejudice' 没?"

Emily: "(我)有看(过)啊，很好看的。" (I have read it.)

Here you can see, since you have used 有, 过 becomes optional.

As for 有 and 过, in order to form a perfect tense you should at least use one, depends on which tone do you want to use from the previous examples.


無 - no
奇 - strange (thing)
不 - not
有 - exist
無奇不有 = no strange thing does not exist (nothing is too strange to exist)


How did lotus come to mean hold or carry?

Note that in today's Putonghua 荷 meaning "lotus" is hé (the 2nd tone) and meaning "carry" is hè (the 4th tone).

字源 (the image above) and a couple of other dictionaries say that the verb meaning "carry" was originally written as 何. Later 何 was borrowed to write the word meaning "what", so the written form of the verb meaning "carry" was changed into 荷 to avoid confusion.
So it is a chain of borrowing!


新华字典 only gives mí, meaning the temple of one's deceased father, an ancient word.

Also in some Christian texts, 祢 is used as a variant of 你 to address the god, I'm not sure but I think it's because the character 祢 happens to be 神 and 你 combined. In this case, of course, it's pronounced same as 你.

Neither meaning is widely used today. In fact, the most possible place where you may still see this charactor is 祢衡, name of a Chinese historical figure.


No, they are not interchangeable.

照片 is only the ones taken with a camera. 图片 can be any picture.


直捣黄龙
大快人心
臭名远播
急于(如)星火
自作多情
近朱者赤，近墨者黑
绝交
人谁无过
一劳永逸
老而不死
醉生梦死
挤兑(提)
置诸死地
留芳百世
意气风发
眼前一亮
万众一心
垂手可得
不可一世
拾人牙慧
仪表
青梅竹马
摄政

A. 遗臭万年
B. 醉翁之意
C. 绝处逢生
D. 垂帘听政
E. 远攻近交
F. 直播
G. 一发不可收拾
H. 能者多劳
I. 黄汤
J. 挤眉弄眼
K. 打牙骹
L. 急功近利
M. 一无可取
N. 诸葛亮
O. 仪器
P. 生老病死
Q. 万世师表
R. 大火
S. 人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青
T. 百年归西(老)
U. 舐犊情深
V. 恍如隔世
W. 蛛丝马迹


It can be used that way, but nobody does that. Most people use one 去. Either before or after is fine.


What was the idea behind simplification, given 行書 existed?

Simplified Chinese is much simpler than 行書, involving less strokes overall. Two reasons:

Many simplified characters were already derived from cursive forms (草書楷化). Examples include 書 → 书, 車 → 车, 興 → 兴. 草書 is much less strokes than 行書.
Simplification involved many different techniques, including removing entire radicals or portions of a character, like 習 → 习, or even reconstructing the character based on new radicals, like 響 → 响. Therefore there's many more ways to reduce strokes than relying on cursive forms alone.

So 行書 wasn't used because it's not simple enough. There was an attempt to go even simpler during the Cultural Revolution, but it failed due to being too radical.

YMMV of course; it's possible that 行書 is genuinely faster for you than Simplified, but on average less strokes = faster handwriting, and Simplified is generally faster to hand-write than 行書. See also: How much faster is it to write Simplified over Traditional?


What are some good resources for 相声 and 小品?

You can get these on Youtube by searching the actor/actress's name.

For instance, search "赵丽蓉" "巩汉林" will give you a lot of good 小品, and search for "马三立" for 相声 with Tianjin dialect. If you want 相声 with Beijing dialect, you can search "郭德纲".


What is the function of 是 in this sentence: 你是怎么学习英语的？

是的 constructs are for emphasizing.

你是怎么学习英语的？ = How did you learn English?

你是什么时候来的？ = When did you come here?

我是来看病的 = I have come to get a medical exam (as opposed to a social visit).


Differences in "surprise" translations: 驚奇, 吃驚, 驚喜

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

~

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

~

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

These terms are used in both Mandarin and Cantonese

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