If I understand your question correctly, the answer is no, Mandarin -en is not part of -eng, just like English "sin" is not part of "sing".
Even though "ng" is written with two letters in both Mandarin and English, there is only one sound: [ŋ]. That's the sound at the end of "sing" in English. Pinyin -n is close to the sound at the end of "sin" in English.
I suggest that you play around with these words in English a bit until you realise that "ng" is actually one sound, even if it's written with two letters. The situation is analogous to -n and -ng in Mandarin.
The vowel is the central vowel [ə] in both cases, which is the most common sound in human speech. It's the same as "a" or "the" in English (although it can vary by English dialect, of course).


What semantic notions underlie 駁 (to rebut) with 馬 (horses) and/or 爻 (I Ching's hexagrams)?

Two notes:

The original meaning of 「爻」 is criss-cross patterns, rather than I-Ching hexagrams;
「爻」 provides a phonetic hint to 「駁」.

「駁」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*pˤrawk/, patterend/variegated horse fur) is composed of semantic 「馬」 (horse) and phonetic 「爻」 (/*N-kˤraw/). 「爻」 (criss-cross patterns) simultaneously provides a meaning hint.

The semantic extension is as follows:

Variegated horse fur
Impure/mixed colours and patterns (looking like a jumbled mess)
To distinguish, rectify (e.g. in the process of sorting out a jumbled mess, correcting what is chaotic/wrong)
To rebut (e.g. to refute falsehoods, denounce wrongdoing)

References:

漢語多功能字庫
《漢語大詞典》


What greetings or sayings are there that are used during the new year, specific to the Year of the Snake?

You can search "蛇年祝福语" online, but most of the results are artificial and aren't as classy as the 龙 ones. If you look up for Chengyu's that contain 蛇, you'll see the majority of them are negative, due to snake's symbolic meaning in Chinese culture. Even novelists complained that it's very difficult to come up with greeting lines with 蛇.
The last link contains some examples of greeting phrases:

　　从新春祝词的角度，如“龙蛇飞舞”、“笔走龙蛇”、“灵蛇之珠”等寓意美好的成语也可一用。网友“felix77”还创作出了不少祝福语：“龙蛇共舞三春景、蛇舞九州处处新、蛇步锦程业辉煌、蛇游大泽燕游春、蛇含瑞气报年华 、蛇出山穴喜报春、蛇衔瑞草户迎春。”
　　如果实在是想不到跟蛇相关的吉祥话，还有网友剑走偏锋：“只要把蛇称作小龙，一切问题都迎刃而解……”不过，最简单的方法还是用一些万能格式，如“蛇年吉祥、蛇年大吉、金蛇献瑞”。还有网友想出“硬上弓”的法子：“祝新年蛇腾虎跃，蛇飞凤舞，蛇蛇生威，蛇到成功，蛇马精神……”

To explain a few:

龙蛇飞舞 (dragons and snakes are flying): Originally it's used to describe elegant and swift movement in calligraphy. When used as new year greetings, it's blessing the audience an elegant and swift conduct of life/career/business etc.

笔走龙蛇 (dragons and snakes are following one's writing brush): Original meaning is the same as above. Since 笔 (pen) is explicit in this one, it's more appropriate to use it against someone who indeed writes.

灵蛇之珠 (pearl of the snake): Invaluable treasure or unique talent.

蛇舞九州处处新: Snakes are dancing all over China, taking everything to a new start.

蛇步锦程业辉煌: Snakes are stepping towards to a bright future and making outstanding achievements.


How to say I want to leave colloquially?

我先走了 is a perfect way to say.
you can also say,我得(děi)走了; 我要走了;我得(děi)回家了;我还有点事,先走了; 好了,我得(děi)走了;不早了,我先走了;行,我先回去了;


Can 斋戒 vs. 禁食 which one is used for "Fasting for ramadan"

禁食 - Forbidden to eat or drink. i.e. fasting.
斋戒 - This word can have a different meaning according to different religions. For example:

Islam - no food or drinks at all
Christianity - no meat from warmblooded (i.e. fish / shrimps are allowed)
Chinese Buddhism - no meat / alcohol and certain types of vegetable

Therefore, it depends on the situation where you will use the words.


What does this text bubble mean? i believe it's kanji

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


When asking a Chinese person "are you full" when eating a meal its like asking "are you enjoying your meal?" The host will be happy if he knows you are full.

But when someone says 你吃飽了嗎？ to you when not eating a meal. it means "Are you stupid?" or "Are you crazy?"


麟 (lin2) literally means female unicorn-like animal, which is an auspicious mythical Chinese animal and is the product of Chinese dragon and cow. 麟 is actually a very good and meaningful Chinese name. It is not that complicated if we decompose the character:
麟 (lin2) is a typical Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 鹿 (lu4, meaning “deer”) + phonetic 粦 (lin2)

As for your question, 麟 was not simplified. Please note that not every traditional Chinese characters were simplified.

Quote from Wiki:
" Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. Some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the same pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to one single standardized character, usually the simplest amongst all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_characters


Words for 'escorting,' 'showing around': 带你出去 vs. 护送你出去 vs. 陪你去玩儿

带 has a sense of lead/host, A带B去 can be used in the situation where B doesn't know the place but A does, so A takes B there and shows him around.

陪 means accompany, it does not have the sense of lead/host. B陪A may be used in a situation where A may feel strange or uncomfortable with acting alone and wants somebody else to accompany him.

护送 means precisely escort, where 护 means 保护 (protect).


Resources For Learning Southwestern Mandarin (西南官话)

Michaelyus's answer to a similar question (link in the comments above) is still very useful.

A general resource that unfortunately may be hard to find now is the 現代方言音庫, a series published by the 上海教育出版社 in the mid 1990s.  This series consisted of a thin booklet titled XX音檔 (usu 100-150 pages) and a good quality cassette for each dialect. The series eventually covered 40 plus dialects, including 成都，貴陽，and 昆明, and the booklets were often written by well-known experts; for example, 成都話音檔 was written by the late 崔榮昌，who did much important work on 四川 dialects. In addition to characters, pronunciation is given in IPA, which I found very helpful.

One problem there may be in making a list of resources for 西南官話 is that it includes a large range of sometimes pretty different dialects.  For example, the varieties spoken in Hubei are sharply different to my ears from 成都 and 昆明.


How to separate the words in the phrase 博格瑞牌法兰希小金文奶酪 & match it to the word translation in english

The difficulty here is not just word parsing, but the localisation that the manufacturer has imposed. It's their product, so it's their rules.

  博格瑞牌法兰希小金文奶酪

Let's parse this by highlighting the main content words

  博格瑞牌法兰希小金文奶酪

Someone with some knowledge of cheese will recognise 金文奶酪 = Camembert (cheese). Some may even know that it can come in several sizes. That leaves the brand name and the product name.

  博格瑞 牌 法兰希 小金文奶酪

Those familiar with French geography in Chinese will see the art of translation in the product name: the Île-de-France in Chinese is called 法兰西岛 (although actually most local Chinese call it 巴黎大区 or 大巴黎区, which is not the official French definition of le Grand Paris).

A slight change of 西 to 希 for euphonic reasons, and you have the makings of a highly exportable product name.

The brand name has been shortened from its "assigned" Chinese version to something with three characters or less. This means that with 牌 it forms four characters, again producing that euphonic effect, so desired in marketing.


Does 躲 mean hide for a long time while 藏 can also mean hide for a short while?

You are partly correct!
躲 usually means hide (people), and 藏 means hide (object).
However, 躲 is basically like the active form of hide, and 藏 is the passive form of hide.
For example, 小白兔躲在草叢裏 means the bunny hid itself in the bush, while 小男孩把小白兔藏在草叢裏 means the bunny was hidden by the boy.
Hope this can help you!


Do you say "别担心” or ”不担心” for "don't worry"?

别担心 is equivalent to don't worry, but with a little twist. You can only use 别担心 when you are talking to someone and addressing him/her at that moment; While 你别担心啦 is correct, 我别担心，他别担心，他们别担心 are all incorrect because 别 here is a soft command word which means 不要. Of course, you can't command yourself or themselves to not do anything. You can only command the one that you are currently talking to, which is 你。你别要想我。

不担心 is easier; It simply means don't worry, there are no twist here. You can use it freely. So 我不担心，你不担心，他不担心 are all correct. 不 simply means No. No worry = don't worry.


飛機 - Aeroplane, short for 固定翼飛機 (fixed-wing flying machine)

航空器 - aircraft

飛行器 - both aircraft and spacecraft, i.e. all flying machines which travel through the atmosphere. Includes space rockets.

For reference, spacecraft is 航天器.

Answering the queries directly,

  Does 飛機 mean "airplane"? If no, what is "airplane" in Chinese?

Yes, 飛機 means airplane/aeroplane.

  Does 飛機 mean "aircraft"? If no, what is "aircraft" in Chinese?

Aircraft is 航空器.

  When someone says 飛機, do they mean "airplane", or do they mean "aircraft"?

They should mean aeroplane. If they mean aircraft, well, that's improper use of the language.


position and meaning of 了 in "一...就" construction

[一(X)就(Y)] is a very common sentence structure

(X) is the condition or requirement.  When this condition or requirement is met, then the following action or event (Y) would occur.

Depend on the context [一(X)就(Y)] functions as following:

[once (X) then / immediately (Y) ]

Example: [一(吃完飯)就(出去)] = [once I (finish dinner), then I would (go out )immediately]

吃完飯 is the condition / requirement that being met; 出去 is the following action that only occurs after the condition is met.

[Whenever (X) then / immediately (Y) ]

Example: [一(上課)就(睡覺)]= [ whenever I ( go to classes), I would immediately (fall to sleep)]

上課 is the condition/ requirement that being met; 睡覺 is the resulting action/event that always occur when the condition/ requirement is met.

  can i say "我一吃了饭就出去了?"

If by saying "一吃了", you meant 'once I finish eating', you can say "我一吃了饭就出去了". But it is better to say "我一吃完饭就出去了" (once I finish dinner, I would go out). Because "一吃了" in "我一吃了饭" can also be interpreted as "whenever I eaten dinner".

You didn't mean to say "I go out whenever I eaten dinner" I suppose?

As for your example sentences:

今天我一下课就去看他 - (下课=X; 去看他=Y ) "Once I finished classes for today, I went to see him immediately."
他一到中国就给我来了个电话- (到中国=X; 给我来了个电话=Y)" Once he arrived in China, he immediately gave me a phone call."
姐姐一毕业就参加工作了- (毕业=X; 参加工作=Y) " Once my sister graduated, she joined the work force immediately.)


What is the difference between a 民國 and a 共和国?

The term 'Republic' originated from Latin 'res'(entity, concern) and 'publicus'(of the people, public)

'民國' and '共和國' both means 'republic'

'民國' emphasize on the meaning of 'people' (民)
'共和國' emphasize on the meaning of 'public' (共)

China for most of its history, was an empire.  All the power belongs to the imperial court. The people(民) had no power at all, therefore 'republic' was  translated as '共和國', emphasized on the word '共'(public)- '共和'(public together)- '共和國'(nation of public together)

When Sun Yat Se and his party 國民黨 defeated the Qing Dynasty, ended the imperial rule, they chose to name the new China '中華民國'(Chinese republic/ republic of China) to emphasize China was no longer an 帝國 (empire).

Another reason to choose the name '中華民國' was the word '民' can also represent '民族' as in '中華民族'

Nowadays, most republic in the world are translated as '共和國' in Chinese, because not all republic is made up of mostly one single 民族 like China(中華民族) and Korea (大韓民族).


It is a modern slang for 买.
淘 comes from 淘宝网 (Taobao), a very popular Chinese online shopping site, similar to eBay or Amazon. Although its name does literally mean "searching for treasure website", where 淘 means "searching", 淘 has become a verb that first meant "to buy on Taobao", "to buy online", and then to mean "buy" in general. This is similar to how "google" has become a verb meaning "to search online".
Since it's new slang, you won't find dictionaries attesting to this usage, but if you search for "淘东西" you'll find plenty of examples, such as this:

想在55淘东西要睁大了慧眼喔~跟风需谨慎
(where 55 refers to 55bbs.com, a different shopping site to Taobao)

or this:

可以海淘东西到新西兰吗？
(where 海淘 means "to buy overseas")


Are there any fonts imitating the correct handwritten forms for Chinese students?

Since the closest thing to handwritten forms for Chinese-language regulation is in the 楷書 (regular script) style, here are my suggestions:

Hong Kong: Free-HK-Kai_4700 https://freehkfonts.opensource.hk/download/ (definitely open source)
ROC (Taiwan): TW-Kai-98 https://data.gov.tw/dataset/5961 (unsure if open source)

The ROC (Taiwan) regular script font (TW-Kai-98) is a government-mandated standard, so you can be sure of its ability to represent the ROC (Taiwan) standard. The Hong Kong one (Free-HK-Kai_4700) is an open-source modification from TW-Kai-98, and they have regulated 4700 characters so far (roughly the total number of characters taught in Hong Kong schools).

  EPSON has made a kyokasho font quite a while back which is free to download, but I haven't checked the license on its use. You can get the link at http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Japanese.html (CTRL+F epkyouka).

As an aside, it is not enough to use the fonts to get the correct character forms for each standard - you need to use the correct input method too. Using a Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) IME is not appropriate (in an official governmental standard sense) to publish documents adhering to Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong), or vice-versa, because the suggested characters (Unicode codepoints) that display may be different across the IMEs, although the chance of an actual discrepancy happening is very, very slim.


特色 is foremost a noun, and can be used to describe a specialty of some sorts, often associated with a region: 龙井茶是杭州西湖的特色。Note that 特殊 is rarely used this way.

But as most Chinese words, it can also take on other functions, such as: 西湖龙井茶的特色泡法。Here, 特殊 can also be used, as a stative verb or an adjective.

中国特色社会主义, or socialism with Chinese characteristics, is another example.

特别 is more of an adverb, as in 我喜欢音乐，特别是摇滚乐 or as in 我特别关注她的看法。


Is there a reason why 午 and 年 look so similar?

Yes, this is a coincidence. Generally, if the modern shape is confusing, you need to go back further in time to look at characters' original shapes and purposes to make sense of what's going on. Also, the meaning noon for 「午」 is a phonetic loan; that is, the shape 「午」 represented a word that sounded similar to an unrelated existing word meaning noon, and the shape has nothing to do with the meaning noon.
「年」 originally depicted a person 「人」 carrying grain plants 「禾」 on their back, indicating the meaning harvest period > year; check out Is the character 年 (or its etymology) related to the mythical beast in Chinese mythology? for the glyph origins of 「年」.

Glyph origins of 「午」

時期字體
字形
參考資料

商甲

餘1.1合集13475

商甲

後2.38.8合集34621

西周金

作冊䰧卣集成5432

西周金

縣妀簋集成4269

戰國・齊金

子禾子釜集成10374

篆

午部說文解字

西漢隸

秦射42武威漢簡

楷

「午」 originally depicted a large wooden pestle used to pound or de-husk grainy foods such as rice. The word that 「午」 originally represented is now written as 「杵」, formed by adding semantic 「木」 (wood), and 「午」 forms or formed parts of other characters such as 「舂」 (picture of two hands 「廾」 using a pestle 「午」 and mortar 「臼」 > to pound, grind) and 「御」 (originally a picture of a kneeling person 「卩」 operating a pestle 「午」).
As mentioned earlier, 「午」 is a phonetically borrowed character for the word noon, as pestle does not have anything to do with noon.

There is a peculiar pattern across several older characters: blobs on a vertical line tend to expand outwards into horizontal lines, and this is a simplistic description of what happened to the shape of 「午」 as well. You may check out the following glyph evolution tables for comparison:

壬
十
土

References:

漢語多功能字庫
小學堂字形演變
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》

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》


Is Pinyin recommended for Mandarin Chinese?

Hanyu pinyin (or pinyin) is the de facto standard for transliteration of Standard Chinese, especially for materials using simplified Chinese characters. In the last ten years, I have used or browsed textbooks, dictionaries and other learning materials; some of them were entirely in Chinese, others were for native speakers of English, German, French or Dutch. All of them used pinyin as their transliteration system.

I have also met learners who found pinyin non-intuitive, especially for the sounds represented by q, x, j and c. I have known people who devised their own transliteration system but abandoned it some time later.

If you don't want to use pinyin, you will have a hard time finding learning materials for simplified Chinese characters that use a different system; these materials are available but are typically at least thirty years old.


臀部，屁股和腚： When to use these and other words for buttocks?

Interesting question.

屁股: the most common way to say butt. Sometimes may be thought as rude or uneducated when using in public. If you are going to a doctor, this is the word to go.
臀部: (may be the only) elegant way of saying butt. The most formal way in written Chinese. When used in oral language in recent days, usually it's only used on woman, and sometimes people may think this word having sexual intimation.
腚: used in some Chinese accents.
尻: used in some Chinese accents and ancient literature.


How do Chinese speakers pronounce unknown characters?

When encountering unknown characters, native speakers often refer to dictionaries, which have pinyin of the unknown character.

While it is hard to guess the exact pronunciation of unknown characters, there are a subset of Chinese characters, called phonogram(形声字), whose pronunciation is related to part of the character. For example, 蛛(spider) has the same pronunciation with 朱.


How to translate "build server" (software terminology)

You can say:

build server: 编译服务器

to build: 编译（编译整个工程)

a build: 一个版本的编译，编译的一个版本

a code drop: 一个代码实现 （minor milestone）


他很慢地走: why there is 地 if the adjective is monosyllabic?

I can't use 地 after the adjective if the adjective is monosyllabic

This is not a grammatical rule. This is an idiomatic rule and mostly for prosody concerns.

All the following expressions are grammatically correct. Only some sounds more natural than the others:

他慢地走 <- sounds unnatural
他很慢地走 <- sounds fine but not idiomatic
他慢慢地走 <- sounds fine and idiomatic


What is the meaning of 一看 in 打开盒子一看，里面是一只小猫?

打开盒子看，里面是一只小猫 (open the box and look, it is a kitten inside)

看 here is a simple verb 'to see'

  打开盒子看看，里面是一只小猫 (open the box and briefly (or casually) look, it is a kitten inside)

看看 here is a reduplication of verb ; reduplication verb imply the verb is occurring in a brief time period, in a slight degree or in a casual manner.

  打开盒子看一看，里面是一只小猫 (open the box and looked once, it is a kitten inside)

看一看 (look one look = look one time = looked once) is  [verb + counting word + verb classifier]; the same structure can be applied to other verbs, e.g. 打一打 (hit one hit = hit one time = hit once); you can replace '一' with different counting words like '看幾看' (look few looks = look few times)

  打开盒子一看，里面是一只小猫 (open the box and quickly look, it is a kitten inside)

一看 here is [adverb (一) + verb (看)] ; '一' as an adverb means 'once, abruptly, quickly or briefly'

Example of '一' as an adverb:

他心中一怒 (not 他心中怒一怒) means "he abruptly get angry inside"

曹操一听大怒 (not 曹操听一听大怒) means "once Cao Cao heard it, he got very angry"

我一想不錯 (not 我想一想不錯) means "once I think about it, I know it is correct"

他终于能一展抱负 (not 他终于能展一展抱负) means "he finally can extend his ambition for once" or "he finally can extend his ambition abruptly"

他一改风格 (not 他改一改风格) means 'He abruptly changes style' or 'He changes style for once')


Is 微话题 an acceptable translation of “hashtag”?

「微話題」is literally microblog discussion topic, where「微」comes from「微博」(microblog). Note that Weibo is a proper noun also using these two characters, but before Weibo was invented「微博」was just a generic word meaning microblog.

Netizens put the discussion topic (話題) between two hashtags, much the same way the single twitter hashtag is used (possibly because Chinese doesn't use word spacings). In the sense that it is an announcement of a discussion topic on some board/forum/social media then translating it as hashtag is fine, but this translation may be confusing for people coming from the PRC if one uses it to point to "western" apps/media that are possibly banned or relatively unknown/unpopular in the PRC such as Twitter and Facebook.

See also the Baidu article 微话题.


What does 大快人心 mean when used as a stand alone exclamation?

"大快人心" , whether in a sentence, or as a stand-alone expression, means the same thing. It has a more limited meaning than "everybody is happy or pleased". "大快人心" means that people are happy, or feel vindicated collectively, when a perceived injustice has been rectified.
For example, if your government changes a bad policy to one that everybody welcomes, people are happy and pleased, but it's NOT an occasion to say 大快人心. However, if the official, who had received tons of advice and warning against the bad policy, but who had used his power to insist on it now gets fired. Then people can say, 大快人心!


How does 一面向 break down in 她一面走着，一面向旁边张望着?

According to 现代汉语八百词, 一面……一面…… is used to indicate two or more actions are performed simultaneously. They are used before a verb. The first 一面 can sometimes be omitted.

Breaking it down from your sentence, you'll get:

她一面[Adv.] 走着[V]，一面[Adv.] 向旁边[Adv.] 张望着[V]

which means "As she walked, she looked sideways" (the same as you translated). Other examples:

  他们一面走，一面挥舞花环，一面欢呼。
  他（一面）用心地听着，一面记着笔记。

There's a side note, though. 一面……一面…… could also mean 一方面……一方面……, which means "on one side ..., on the other side ...". Usually 另 is added on the second 一面 on this construction, e.g:

  说明书土一面印的是中文，另一面印的是英文


To name a few:
中国科学技术大学
中国人民大学
中国地质大学
中国农业大学
中国石油大学
etc.

In mainland China, most universties are public university. As a matter of fact, the introduction of private universities happened only a few years ago. So there's no need to add public or nation owned as part of the name.

Also when you name a university, usually you put its location first. e.g. 湖南大学，香港中文大学. This applies for foreign universities too. e.g. 加州州立大学 California State University, 亚利桑那州立大学 Arizona State University.

This is what it looks like now.

However, In the Republic of China, I mean ROC almost a century ago, not Taiwan, universities are divided into two groups: public and private. So, for easier separating them, you add 国立 at the beginning for public schools. They are funded by the ROC government and when ROC moved to Taiwan, the universities are moved too, with their names unchanged.

So what you are asking, is really, why people name the universities like this 100 years ago. I guess the reason, is because before that, the country was run by the Qing Dynasty and naturally the universities, if there were any, would be named like Imperial Technology University 帝国科技大学. 孙中山 wouldn't like this and want to emphasis that the universities are run by the republic government, not the empire. If you want your government sustainable, you start with education.

Fun fact, some universities in mainland China still has evidence of it's original 国立 name. For example


Is 々 commonly used and recognised by Chinese people?

It's not common in publications or daily writings nowadays, but all people can recognize it. It often appears in the calligraphies or on posters. The writing space of those media is precious.

And some teachers like to use it in class.

BTW, the Chinese prefer the right one, the cursive style, in their handwriting.

The source of it: cursive 仝, the variation of 同.


Translation of "we", pronoun in official company introduction material

My answer would be yes, you can use 我们 because it's the most formal way of saying 'we'.


请教一下『还』字（huan2、hai2 两者）的语源

「還」（huan2），从「辵」（辶），「睘」（瞏）聲。「回歸」、「復也」是「還」字的本意，古文也偶爾用「睘」字假借爲「復也」之意。現代普通話 hai2、 huan2 二者有分工作用，前者是表示副詞的讀法，但古文竝不出現這種用法，huan2、hai2 的上古、中古等先音混用在「復也」、副詞之意。Hai2 先音不現於反切記錄，可能是白讀。

「睘」部在「還」裏衹是聲符，「睘」从「目」，「袁」省聲，本意是「目驚視也」，跟「復也」的意思不同。「睘」字在古文多被爲「還」、「環」、「縣」、「煢」詞的假借字。

「還」也當過假借字。例：

「環」

散氏盤：「道以東一奉（封），還（環），以西一奉（封）。」
《馬王堆．五十二病方》第101行：「取井中泥，以還（環）封其傷。」

「懷」

《郭店簡．尊德義》簡25：「治民非還（懷）生而已也。」

Axel Schussler 認爲「還，復也」本从南亞語系，跟高棉語 raṅvā’na repayment; return; recompense 同源。「還」副詞意的詞源不明，可能在荀子之前就出現這種用法：

  《荀子．王霸》：「如是則禹舜還至，王業還起。」

當副詞，現在衹能釋「還」爲假借，有新證據之後文學家再可復考。


I think I see this:

會 會
敕 敕
地 押
神 百
助 煞
財 氣
通 罡
捷
令
罡

I am not certain on my choice of "會", it could be "金母", if it is a name of a deity or something.

In that case, it would be this:

金 金
母 母
敕 敕
地 押
神 百
助 煞
財 氣
通 罡
捷
令
罡


Is there a common way to translate ajhumma/ajumma into Chinese?

As one can understand from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajumma an ajumma (아줌마) is a respectful word for a married or aged married woman, or for any middle-aged or elderly woman, but not a granny, nor a young woman. It is an aunt.

An ajumma is often a housewife, restaurant worker. Ajumma can be used pejoratively.

In Chinese, 阿姨 would fit the description rather well. It is an aunt, or an elderly woman, family nurse or babysitter. Pejoratively, it means concubine.


In Cantonese, 先生 can be shortened to 生 when attached to a family name. It is used for adult male, all ages and is used orally, not written.


How would I translate the two morphemes 基腐 together?

I don't believe an established, succinct English translation exists yet. I would try to translate as 'BL & Fandom' or 'BL & Fans'.

For 基, I would prefer to use words like Boy Love/Yaoi over gay/homosexual to convey the romantic and fantasized view of male homosexual in 腐 culture. I also couldn't find any better translation for 腐女 than BL fans. Hence 基腐 can be shorted to 'BL & Fans'.


Should I use 为 instead of 是 to mean "is" on a date?

为 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/466/
[3] [v] be; is; be equivalent to

为 has many different meanings, "is" (是) is just one of them.
You can replace '为' with '是' if you are using it as 'is' in the context.

报名截止日期为2月17日。(literary)

报名截止日期是2月17日。(colloquial)

Also, is there any case that 为 must be used, not just because of "formal"?

You must use '为' instead of '是' when  '为' doesn't mean 'is' in the context.
For example:

'为' in "印刷术、火药、指南针、纸统称为四大发明" follows the verb 称(be called). '为' here is not equivalent to 'is' but 'as'.

You cannot say "印刷术、火药、指南针、纸[统称是]古代中国四大发明"

But you can say "印刷术、火药、指南针、纸, [为]古代中国四大发明" or "印刷术、火药、指南针、纸[是]古代中国四大发明"

because [印刷术、火药、指南针、纸] [is] [古代中国四大发明]
EDIT:
If it is a written announcement, no matter what the predicate is, you should use 为.
Posting '报名截止日期[是]2月17日' or '报名费用[是]成人二十元，老人和儿童半价' is considered bad vocabulary choice (using colloquial term when it should be literary)
If it is an oral conversation, no matter what the predicate is, you should use 是
Telling someone '报名截止日期[为]2月17日' or '报名费用[为]成人二十元，老人和儿童半价' is also considered bad vocabulary choice (using literary term when it should be colloquial)


The expression is somewhat similar to English scare the living daylights out of somebody, with many variations. A quick Google search shows

三魂[少/去/嚇飛]了二魂
三魂剩下半魂
三魂去二

and other similar constructions.

三魂 refers to the three hun in Chinese philosophy/folk religion or Daoist belief. The three hun make up a person's "essence" (soul, spirit) when they're alive, and go their separate paths after a person passes away:

One hun returns to the primordial universe from whence it came;
One hun faces judgement for the person's good and bad wordly deeds in hell;
One hun resides at a person's burial place or ancestral tablet, and is the hun that is passed on to a person's descendants.

If the three hun are somehow absent from the body when the body is still alive, then the body becomes a walking corpse (行尸走肉), so the expression 三魂去了兩魂半 means almost frightened to death.


What Chinese languages are spoken in South East Asia?

Page 2 of《泰国的西南官话》by 肖自辉 has this little little insert, which is quite nice:

Malaysia speaks: Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hakka.
Singapore speaks: Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Teochew and Hainanese
Indonesia speaks: Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese and Teochew.
Brunei speaks: Amoy and Hakka.
Philippines speaks: Hokkien and Cantonese.
Vietnam speaks: Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka, Southwestern Mandarin, Hokkien and Hainanese.
Laos speaks: Teochew and Southwestern Mandarin.
Cambodia speaks: Teochew.
Thailand speaks: Teochew, Hakka, Cantonese and Southwestern Mandarin.
Myanmar speaks: Southwestern Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese and Hakka.

It's not that surprising to see Cantonese and Min, along with its other branches, getting big representation. Southwestern Mandarin on the other hand is a bit of a shock.


Help deconstructing parts of 點唱機 - 按年份後，當年的流行曲就出來了，一按即點

按 (verb: press) 年份 (noun: year) 後 (after)

當年 (noun: that year) 的 (possessive particle) 流行 (adjective: popular) 曲 (noun: song)* 就 (will) 出來 (verb: appear) 了 (end of action particle)

一 (adverb: upon) 按 (verb: press) 即 (adverb: immediately) 點 (verb: select)

* note: 流行曲 (流行歌曲) means "pop songs".

Regarding 點唱機, when you break it down the phrase becomes 點 (verb: order [as in ordering a drink at a bar]) 唱 (noun: music, song) 機 (noun: machine, device). From that, we can deduce it is a jukebox, since you normally can't order music on a radio or musicbox. It helps to know that radio is 收音機 and musicbox is 音樂盒, but unfortunately there's no shortcuts around that.

Note that 唱 is far more commonly a verb.


Particle to express pride or accomplishment / 自豪感的助词

You could use 啦 with the exclamation mark at the end of a sentence.

For instance:

I just had a child!

  我有孩子啦！

or

  我的孩子出生啦！

I just bought a house!

  我买房子啦！


http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/266/

  滾 /gun3/

  [1] [v] roll; rotate; trundle

  [3] [v] piss off; get out; beat it

  滾 / 滚

Apparently, telling someone to "走开" (walk away) is not forceful enough. Your translator was suggesting you should tell them to "滚开 (roll away /piss off)" like an egg to express your displeasure.

In fact, there's actually a phrase "滚蛋" means exactly that.

滚 (roll) = 滚开(roll away)

I recommend against such a brunt language. To turn down the ladies of the night, you could simply say " 没兴趣"(not interested)/mei2 xing4 qu5/

  If you ask: "Why is 滚开 more forceful than 走开?" The answer is, it would be natural for people already on the ground or on their knees to roll away. Saying 滚开 implies you are in a dominating position.


I'm going to try and make this as clear and simple as I can:

实际：practical/actual(ality)
实际上："in fact,...."
很实际：very practical

现实：real/reality
现实生活中：in real life
成为现实：to be realized

确实：indeed/really
确实好：it really is good

实在：really/honestly/truly
实在对不起：truly sorry
这个人很实在：he's really down to earth

As far as remembering I would highly suggest you understand what each individual character means...most Chinese words are compounds (two words put together) - for instance if we look at 确实 we have: (确 certain + 实 substantial = verified to be true, indeed). This kind of understanding will give you a huge advantage to learning Chinese.


You can say 我做我想做的. Here I use 我想做的 to represent things that I want to do. Since I use I use 我做, I use 做 after 想。 If I want to say that I drink what I want. I would say 我喝我想喝的。 Here I use 我喝 so I use 喝 after 想 too.

If you want to simplify it, you can say 我做我想要的(I do what I want).


(A1)我学了六年法语了

The first 了 is an aspect marker, indicating completed action. the second 了 is final particle, indicating change of situation. It is not grammatically incorrect, but native Chinese would most likely skip using the final particle to avoid 了 appear in a short sentence twice.

  (A2)我学六年法语了

Without the aspect marker 了 to indicating completed action, 学六年法语 could be confusing... are you going to learn "six years of French?" or you going to learn " Sixth Year French?"

  (A3)我学了六年法语

This one fixes the problem (A2) has. A grammatically correct sentence

  (A4)我学六年法语

Just like (A2) is it "six years of French?" or " Sixth Year French?"

  (A5)我学了法语六年了

This one is similar to (A1) just the object 法语 and the relative phrase 六年 switched place. Again, the final particle can be omitted.

  (A6)我学法语六年了

Similar to (A3) with the object 法语 and the relative phrase 六年 switched place, also a grammatically correct sentence.

  (A7)我学了法语六年

Similar to (A5) with the final particle omitted, Which make it better structured sentence.

  (A8)我学法语六年

Without either the aspect marker 了 or the final particle 了, the sentence is unfinished.

(A3) , (A6) and (A7) are the three grammatically correct and well structured sentences on the list.
(A1) and (A5) are not grammatically wrong, just not sounding smooth with two 了 in the same sentence
(A2) and (A4) are not grammatically wrong, but a little bit ambiguous with 六年法语 could mean either "six years of French" or " Sixth Year French"
(A8) is unfinished sentence

  (B1)我学法语

I learn French

  (B2)我学了法语

I learned French

  (B3)我学法语了

if 了 is treated as a aspect marker, the sentence would mean "I have learned French"

if 了 is treated as a final particle, the sentence would mean "I've started learning French"

  (B4)我学了法语了

I learned French (already)- like in Group A,  final particle 了 could be omitted

*Group C are all incomplete sentences.


What is the name (in 普通话) of a card game known as "three card brag"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_card_brag

'brag' meaning exaggerate, pretend you have really good cards.

晓云说了是‘炸金华‘=
Xiaoyun said it is ‘炸金华‘


From Chinese Wiki:

  连读变调现象在四川话口语中十分常见，但各地略有差异，以成渝片为例，大致来说四川话中的变调可以分为4类。
  一是重叠词中的变调，一般而言如果组成该重叠词的字声调为阳平或去声，则第二个字变调为阴平（例词：爸爸[pa2pa1]、婆婆[pʰo2pʰo1]、舅舅[tɕiəu4tɕiəu1]、帕帕[pʰa4pʰa1]）；同时，如果组成该重叠词的字声调为上声，第二个字变调为阳平（例词：姐姐[tɕiai3tɕiai2]、板板[pan3pan2]）。
  二是儿尾及儿化词中的变调，如果儿尾名词为阳平，儿尾变调为阴平（例词：娃儿[ua2ɚ1]、瓢儿[pʰiau2ɚ1]）；如果儿化词的最后一个字为阳平，该字变调为阴平（例词：葡萄儿[pʰu2tʰɚ1]、麻雀儿[ma2tɕʰyɚ1]）。
  三是特定字的变调，如“去”、“头”、“面”、“上”等虚词在多数情况下都变读为阴平（例词：下去[sic][saŋ4tɕʰe1]、屋头[vu2tʰəu1]、外面[uai4mian1]、身上[sen1saŋ1]）。
  四是二字词及三字词的第二个字在很多情况下变读为阴平（例词：姑娘[ku2niaŋ1]、经佑[tɕin1iəu1]、院坝[yuən4pa1]、龙门阵[noŋ2mən1tsən4]、明年子[min2nʲian1tsɿ3]）。

That is:

  The phenomenon of tones sandhi in Sichuan colloquial speech is very common, but every place has its own little differences, taking the Chengdu and Chongqing region as an example, Sichuanese tone sandhi can be approximately divided into 4 categories.
  One is the sandhi of overlapping1 words, generally speaking if the tone of the characters making up the word is a Yang Ping or a Qu, then the second one becomes a Yin Ping (examples: 爸爸 [pa2pa1]、婆婆 [pʰo2pʰo1]、舅舅 [tɕiəu4tɕiəu1]、帕帕 [pʰa4pʰa1]); at the same time, if the tone of those characters is a Shang, the second one becomes a Yang Ping (examples: 姐姐 [tɕiai3tɕiai2]、板板 [pan3pan2])
  The second category is the sandhi of words ending with 儿 and "erhua", if a noun ending in 儿 has a Yang Ping, the 儿 changes to a Yin Ping (examples: 娃儿 [ua2ɚ1]、瓢儿 [pʰiau2ɚ1]); if a word with erhua ends with a Yang Ping, that syllable changes to a Yin Ping (examples: 葡萄儿 [pʰu2tʰɚ1]、麻雀儿 [ma2tɕʰyɚ1]).
  The third category is the sandhi of specific characters, like “去”、“头”、“面”、“上” and other function words, which in many circumstances change to a Yin Ping (examples: 上去 [saŋ4tɕʰe1]、屋头 [vu2tʰəu1]、外面 [uai4mian1]、身上 [sen1saŋ1]).
  The fourth category is the second syllable of 2-character and 3-character words, which under many circumstances changes to a Yin Ping (examples: 姑娘 [ku2niaŋ1]、经佑 [tɕin1iəu1]、院坝 [yuən4pa1]、龙门阵 [noŋ2mən1tsən4]、明年子 [min2nʲian1tsɿ3]).

1This means words made with two identical characters.


What does 的 mean in sentences like "我会死的"?

It's a particle like 呢 or 了 etc. Obviously 的 also has several other uses and it can sometimes be difficult to tell them apart especially if you have no context to the sentence.

The way it's used here is as a MODAL particle. Meaning that it alters the mood of the sentence. It makes the sentence feel like a a confident prediction.


Is it easier to learn Chinese or Spanish?

Chinese is actually not hard to learn. People "think" it is hard because they only know 'European language system', they don't understand how those symbol works so they think it is hard to learn.

Which Chinese are you trying to learn? Cantonese? Mandarin? Mandarin is use all over China and Cantonese is use in Hong Kong and South East China. Mandarin is easier to learn, but Cantonese is the origin language in China.


I agree with others who say you should work with a native speaker to help you with pronunciation. However, having a grammar book will be immensely helpful as well, since many native speakers are often unaware of their own language's grammar (many will often say "that's just how you say it" without knowing why; I've also heard native speakers assert that Cantonese doesn't have grammar).

For this, I recommend the series of books by Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews. Basic Cantonese and Intermediate Cantonese are very good in my opinion. They also have a more comprehensive reference that covers almost any question you may have about the intricacies of Cantonese grammar; it would be an excellent study companion.


In the sentence, 来 means "come". 来锻炼 means "come and do exercise"

So the question actually means: Do you come (here) and do exercise everyday?


Translating the word "feelings" for conversational use

The woman rhetorically replied to her partner, "Are my feelings not important?"

那女子质问她的同伴：“难道我的感受就不重要？”

You should watch what you say as you may hurt the child's feelings.

你说话可得注意了，可别伤了孩子的心。


Is there strong evidence that Classical Chinese was ever spoken?

I think doubts about Classical Chinese having ever been a medium of oral communication are quite appropriate. There are several things to consider:

One, the fact that the characters are relatively few is not so troublesome as they designate morphemes rather than words. Language has but a few sounds, a number of ways to combine those sounds phonotactically into clusters and rhimes, a fair number of morphemes made up from combinations of these, a wide field of words made up from morphemes, and an endless variety of sentences that consist of words and the syntactic constructs they enter into.

Also, there is a limit to how many distinct signs an individual can handle, so if you go and invent a script of whatever type, chances are that when someone puts you to the test, you will only be able to reproduce so many of them—hundreds maybe, thousands even, but likely not tens or hundreds of thousands distinct graphical signs. Therefore, observing that Classical Chinese uses less than ten thousand signs tells use more about the human mind in general than the Chinese language in particular.

Given that language (speech) is an innate capability of humans, but writing is a later, culturally acquired skill, we should also think it likely that people are ordinarily much better at the former than they are at the latter, meaning that if the plan of your script means to invent one distinct graphical sign for each morpheme (which is the case in Classical Chinese to a certain extent, as there may be up to roughly a thousand distinct pictorial signs), you'll likely end up with a repertoire that has less signs than your speech has morphemes.

Two, all scripts are defective when compared to the speech that they record. Whether you look at Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mayan writing, the Phoenician consonantal alphabet, or Arabic, you will always note that they leave out aspects of speech (e.g. vowels) that writers of the Latin alphabet take for granted. Writing in Latin letters also leaves out quite a few things like intonation, mood, facial expression and so on.

To me, it looks like the classical inscriptions of China, while born by speech, as it were, are condensed, concentrated notations that are reduced to the essential parts, a bit like a map will omit many details of the territory, or beacons in the sea only mark the essential points for navigation.

Third, it may be a misconception that two or three thousand years ago, anyone who expressed themselves using the medium now subsumed under the title of Classical Chinese spoke the same language. It is a misconception similar to thinking that today, someone who writes literary German, English or Arabic will also speak like that, and that all writers of one or the other of these literary forms of expressions will be able to converse without hindrance. To the contrary, many writers of German, Arabic, Greek or modern Chinese use that medium essentially like a more-or-less foreign language. We should not assume it was all that different in ancient China.

BTW there are (as of Unicode V8) around 80'000 distinct Chinese characters encoded in Unicode, with many thousands more known that remain unencoded. No-one in history ever knew or used all of these at any point in time, and no single dictionary collects all of them; rather, it is what many hundreds of millions of people have managed to come up over the course of thousands of years. When you look at the number of characters used to write particular pieces of literature, you will invariably find that classical and modern literature alike can make do with but a few thousand characters.


我一字一字地学习汉语 OR 我一个字一个字地学习汉语

Both are correct, but the second one sounds more natural to a native speaker.

个 is omitted only in some idiomatic phrases like 一字一句 or 一字排开(though here 一 doesn't mean the number, but the shape of the number).

In Chinese, it's more idiomatic to use a measure word between the number and the noun in most cases.


What’s the difference between 吃上饭 and 吃下饭?

Without context, you can only break down the phrase into word types and follow the grammar rule to interpret it literally

吃(verb: eat) + 上(verb particle: successfully/ able to)+ 饭(noun: meals)

吃上饭 = successfully/ able to eat meal = able to acquire and eat food

To check this structure is universal or not, replace the noun and see if it is still grammatical

吃上龙虾 = successfully/ able to eat lobster = able to acquireand and eat lobster

~

吃(verb: eat) + 下(verb particle: down) + 饭(noun: meal/ food)

吃下饭 = eat down a meal = ingest food

To check this structure is universal or not, replace the noun and see if it is still grammatical

吃下毒药 = eat down poison  = ingest poison

Longer sentences can illustrate the functions of the phrases better
1a. 他窮得快吃不上饭了 = He is so poor that he'll soon unable to acquire and eat food (= can't afford food)
1b. 有工作才吃得上饭 = You can acquire and eat food only when you have a job
2a. 他虛弱得吃不下饭了 = He is so weak that he can't eat down food (= can't ingest food)
2b. 他的病好了許多，已經吃得下饭了 = His body has recovered a lot, already able to ingest food
Studying the example, 吃上饭, and 吃下饭 mostly work with potential particles 得 or 不 (able/ unable) --> [吃(得)上饭], [吃(不)上饭]; [吃(得)下饭], [吃(不)下饭]


What does the `里` mean in `这些狗里有一只穿红色的毛衣`?

It means one of these dogs wears a red sweater. ...里 literally means in/among ..., and it is followed by 有一只, which means there is one. Hence the whole sentence translates literally as Among these dogs there is one wearing a red sweater.


The body (身) is only one inch (寸), which should mean "矮".

Here are some characters containing「寸」as a semantic component, directly as part of the immediate decomposition or secondarily as part of one of the decomposed components:

得導持尋付尊奪肘專耐

It should be clear that「寸」probably never means inch as part of other characters.「寸」is a depiction of a hand with a mark around the wrist area, and when it contributes meaning to a character, you should treat it as the same meaning as「手・扌」.

秦簡睡・秦51　今楷

  The mark around the wrist area is called「寸口」in the terminology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and indicates the location where the pulse is taken.「寸」was later used as a unit of length, but it should be clear that this is not its original meaning.

  Like most other character components, the stand-alone character「寸」developed a wildly different meaning from its role as a component in other characters.

  Other components with the same meaning function as「手・扌」include「又」(picture of a right hand),「」(picture of a left hand), and「爪・爫」(picture of a hand pointing downwards).

The「身」part of「射」is a graphical corruption, from a merger between「弓」(bow) and「矢」(arrow):

商甲乙1290合集974西周金靜簋集成4273東周・秦石鼓　秦朝簡睡・雜34　今楷

In the sequence above, Shape #1 is plainly a picture of a bow and arrow. Shape #2 adds a hand「又」, emphasising the action meaning in「射」. Shapes #3-4 show the corruption process of the bow and arrow into「身」. Shape #4 changes「又」into「寸」.

  A character with a similar structure to「射」is「發」(Zhengzhang OC: /*pad/, to shoot arrows > to emit > expand, develop).「發」is comprised of phonetic「癶」(OC: /*paːd/), semantic「弓」, and semantic「殳」(hand holding a striking weapon, emphasising an attacking action).

  Throwing (委) the arrow (矢), which should mean "射".

「矮」(Zhengzhang OC: /*qraːlʔ/, short stature) is comprised of semantic「矢」and phonetic「委」(/*qrolʔ/).

「矢」(arrow [shaft]) is being used as a length measurement here; you can view it as either the length of the arrow itself or a standardised distance for measuring archery prowess. In English, yard, feet, etc. were similar measures of length, taken from actual objects.

Compare some characters describing length or measurement: 短矩矬矱.
There are other characters that use「矢」for the meaning arrow rather than length, measurement.

The sound development is /*qraːlʔ/ > MC: /ʔˠɛX/, 烏蟹切 > Pinyin: ǎi.

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
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》


Explaining 烦百事生 in 雨下得人心烦百事生

You can not find 烦百事生. "雨下得人心烦百事生，看不到雨停的希望。" should be read as 雨下得//人心烦//百事生，看不到雨停的希望。 It means that the rain make me so upset(人心烦), everything goes wrong(百事生), I don't know when the unpleasant rain stop.(看不到雨停的希望)


recent studies called them components (部件). there're 1300+ basic component:

http://chardb.iis.sinica.edu.tw/system_intro.jsp


Any Chinese-English economics and business related vocab list online?

I think these are the somewhat basic terms and you probably will hear them quite often.

Listed in http://www.hxen.com/word/changyong/2009-01-04/65060.html
经济学词汇

A

accounting:会计

accounting cost :会计成本

accounting profit :会计利润

adverse selection :逆向选择

allocation 配置

allocation of resources :资源配置

allocative efficiency :配置效率

antitrust legislation :反托拉斯法

arc elasticity :弧弹性

Arrow's impossibility theorem :阿罗不可能定理

Assumption :假设

asymetric information :非对称性信息

average :平均

average cost :平均成本

average cost pricing :平均成本定价法

average fixed cost :平均固定成本

average product of capital :资本平均产量

average product of labour :劳动平均产量

average revenue :平均收益

average total cost :平均总成本

average variable cost :平均可变成本

B

barriers to entry :进入壁垒

base year :基年

bilateral monopoly :双边垄断

benefit :收益

black market :黑市

bliss point :极乐点

boundary point :边界点

break even point :收支相抵点

budget :预算

budget constraint :预算约束

budget line :预算线

budget set 预算集

C

capital :资本

capital stock :资本存量

capital output ratio :资本产出比率

capitalism :资本主义

cardinal utility theory :基数效用论

cartel :卡特尔

ceteris puribus assumption :“其他条件不变”的假设

ceteris puribus demand curve :其他因素不变的需求曲线

Chamberlin model :张伯伦模型

change in demand :需求变化

change in quantity demanded :需求量变化

change in quantity supplied :供给量变化

change in supply :供给变化

choice :选择

closed set :闭集

Coase theorem :科斯定理

Cobb—Douglas production function :柯布--道格拉斯生产函数

cobweb model :蛛网模型

collective bargaining :集体协议工资

collusion :合谋

command economy :指令经济

commodity :商品

commodity combination :商品组合

commodity market :商品市场

commodity space :商品空间

common property :公用财产

comparative static analysis :比较静态分析

compensated budget line :补偿预算线

compensated demand function :补偿需求函数

compensation principles :补偿原则

compensating variation in income :收入补偿变量

competition :竞争

competitive market :竞争性市场

complement goods :互补品

complete information :完全信息

completeness :完备性

condition for efficiency in exchange :交换的最优条件

condition for efficiency in production :生产的最优条件

concave :凹

concave function :凹函数

concave preference :凹偏好

consistence :一致性

constant cost industry :成本不变产业

constant returns to scale :规模报酬不变

constraints :约束

consumer :消费者

consumer behavior :消费者行为

consumer choice :消费者选择

consumer equilibrium :消费者均衡

consumer optimization :消费者优化

consumer preference :消费者偏好

consumer surplus :消费者剩余

consumer theory :消费者理论

consumption :消费

consumption bundle :消费束

consumption combination :消费组合

consumption possibility curve :消费可能曲线

consumption possibility frontier :消费可能性前沿

consumption set :消费集

consumption space :消费空间

continuity :连续性

continuous function :连续函数

contract curve :契约曲线

convex :凸

convex function :凸函数

convex preference :凸偏好

convex set :凸集

corporatlon :公司

cost :成本

cost benefit analysis :成本收益分

cost function :成本函数

cost minimization :成本极小化

Cournot equilihrium :古诺均衡

Cournot model :古诺模型

Cross—price elasticity :交叉价格弹性

D

dead—weights loss :重负损失

decreasing cost industry :成本递减产业

decreasing returns to scale :规模报酬递减

deduction :演绎法

demand :需求

demand curve :需求曲线

demand elasticity :需求弹性

demand function :需求函数

demand price :需求价格

demand schedule :需求表

depreciation :折旧

derivative :导数

derive demand :派生需求

difference equation :差分方程

differential equation :微分方程

differentiated good :差异商品

differentiated oligoply :差异寡头

diminishing marginal substitution :边际替代率递减

diminishing marginal return :收益递减

diminishing marginal utility :边际效用递减

direct approach :直接法

direct taxes :直接税

discounting :贴税、折扣

diseconomies of scale :规模不经济

disequilibrium :非均衡

distribution :分配

division of labour :劳动分工

distribution theory of marginal productivity :边际生产率分配论

duoupoly :双头垄断、双寡

duality :对偶

durable goods :耐用品

dynamic analysis :动态分析

dynamic models :动态模型

E

Economic agents :经济行为者

economic cost :经济成本

economic efficiency :经济效率

economic goods :经济物品

economic man :经济人

economic mode :经济模型

economic profit :经济利润

economic region of production :生产的经济区域

economic regulation :经济调节

economic rent :经济租金

exchange :交换

economics :经济学

exchange efficiency :交换效率

economy :经济

exchange contract curve :交换契约曲线

economy of scale :规模经济

Edgeworth box diagram :埃奇沃思图

exclusion :排斥性、排他性

Edgeworth contract curve :埃奇沃思契约线

Edgeworth model :埃奇沃思模型

efficiency :效率，效益

efficiency parameter :效率参数

elasticity :弹性

elasticity of substitution :替代弹性

endogenous variable :内生变量

endowment :禀赋

endowment of resources :资源禀赋

Engel curve :恩格尔曲线

entrepreneur :企业家

entrepreneurship :企业家才能

entry barriers :进入壁垒

entry/exit decision :进出决策

envolope curve :包络线

equilibrium :均衡

equilibrium condition :均衡条件

equilibrium price :均衡价格

equilibrium quantity :均衡产量

eqity :公平

equivalent variation in income :收入等价变量

excess—capacity theorem :过度生产能力定理

excess supply :过度供给

exchange :交换

exchange contract curve :交换契约曲线

exclusion :排斥性、排他性

exclusion principle :排他性原则

existence :存在性

existence of general equilibrium :总体均衡的存在性

exogenous variables :外生变量

expansion paths :扩展径

expectation :期望

expected utility :期望效用

expected value :期望值

expenditure :支出

explicit cost :显性成本

external benefit :外部收益

external cost :外部成本

external economy :外部经济

external diseconomy :外部不经济

externalities :外部性

F

Factor :要素

factor demand :要素需求

factor market :要素市场

factors of production :生产要素

factor substitution :要素替代

factor supply :要素供给

fallacy of composition :合成谬误

final goods :最终产品

firm :企业

firms’demand curve for labor :企业劳动需求曲线

firm supply curve :企业供给曲线

first-degree price discrimination :第一级价格歧视

first—order condition :一阶条件

fixed costs :固定成本

fixed input :固定投入

fixed proportions production function :固定比例的生产函数

flow :流量

fluctuation :波动

for whom to produce :为谁生产

free entry :自由进入

free goods :自由品，免费品

free mobility of resources :资源自由流动

free rider :搭便车，免费搭车

function :函数

future value :未来值

G

game theory :对策论、博弈论

general equilibrium :总体均衡

general goods :一般商品

Giffen goods :吉芬晶 收入补偿需求曲线

Giffen's Paradox :吉芬之谜

Gini coefficient :吉尼系数

goldenrule :黄金规则

goods :货物

government failure :政府失败

government regulation :政府调控

grand utility possibility curve :总效用可能曲线

grand utility possibility frontier :总效用可能前沿

H

heterogeneous product :异质产品

Hicks—kaldor welfare criterion :希克斯一卡尔多福利标准

homogeneity :齐次性

homogeneous demand function :齐次需求函数

homogeneous product :同质产品

homogeneous production function :齐次生产函数

horizontal summation :水平和

household :家庭

how to produce :如何生产

human capital :人力资本

hypothesis :假说

I

identity :恒等式

imperfect competion :不完全竞争

implicitcost :隐性成本

income :收入

income compensated demand curve :收入补偿需求曲线

income constraint :收入约束

income consumption curve :收入消费曲线

income distribution :收入分配

income effect :收入效应

income elasticity of demand :需求收入弹性

increasing cost industry :成本递增产业

increasing returns to scale :规模报酬递增

inefficiency :缺乏效率

index number :指数

indifference :无差异

indifference curve :无差异曲线

indifference map :无差异族

indifference relation :无差异关系

indifference set :无差异集

indirect approach :间接法

individual analysis :个量分析

individual demand curve :个人需求曲线

individual demand function :个人需求函数

induced variable :引致变量

induction :归纳法

industry :产业

industry equilibrium :产业均衡

industry supply curve :产业供给曲线

inelastic :缺乏弹性的

inferior goods :劣品

inflection point :拐点

information :信息

information cost :信息成本

initial condition :初始条件

initial endowment :初始禀赋

innovation :创新

input :投入

input—output :投入—产出

institution :制度

institutional economics :制度经济学

insurance :保险

intercept :截距

interest :利息

interest rate :利息率

intermediate goods :中间产品

internatization of externalities :外部性内部化

invention :发明

inverse demand function :逆需求函数

investment :投资

invisible hand :看不见的手

isocost line :等成本线，

isoprofit curve :等利润曲线

isoquant curve :等产量曲线

isoquant map :等产量族

K

kinded—demand curve :弯折的需求曲线

L

labour :劳动

labour demand :劳动需求

labour supply :劳动供给

labour theory of value :劳动价值论

labour unions :工会

laissez faire :自由放任

Lagrangian function :拉格朗日函数

Lagrangian multiplier :拉格朗乘数，

land :土地

law :法则

law of demand and supply :供需法

law of diminishing marginal utility :边际效用递减法则

law of diminishing marginal rate of substitution :边际替代率递减法则

law of diminishing marginal rate of technical substitution :边际技术替代率

law of increasing cost :成本递增法则

law of one price :单一价格法则

leader—follower model :领导者--跟随者模型

least—cost combination of inputs :最低成本的投入组合

leisure :闲暇

Leontief production function :列昂节夫生产函数

licenses :许可证

linear demand function :线性需求函数

linear homogeneity :线性齐次性

linear homogeneous production function :线性齐次生产函数

long run :长期

long run average cost :长期平均成本

long run equilibrium :长期均衡

long run industry supply curve :长期产业供给曲线

long run marginal cost :长期边际成本

long run total cost :长期总成本

Lorenz curve :洛伦兹曲线

loss minimization :损失极小化

1ump sum tax :一次性征税

luxury :奢侈品

M

macroeconomics :宏观经济学

marginal :边际的

marginal benefit :边际收益

marginal cost :边际成本

marginal cost pricing :边际成本定价

marginal cost of factor :边际要素成本

marginal physical productivity :实际实物生产率

marginal product :边际产量

marginal product of capital :资本的边际产量

marginal product of 1abour :劳动的边际产量

marginal productivity :边际生产率

marginal rate of substitution :边替代率

marginal rate of transformation 边际转换率

marginal returns :边际回报

marginal revenue :边际收益

marginal revenue product :边际收益产品

marginal revolution :边际革命

marginal social benefit :社会边际收益

marginal social cost :社会边际成本

marginal utility :边际效用

marginal value products :边际价值产品

market :市场

market clearance :市场结清，市场洗清

market demand :市场需求

market economy :市场经济

market equilibrium :市场均衡

market failure :市场失败

market mechanism :市场机制

market structure :市场结构

market separation :市场分割

market regulation :市场调节

market share :市场份额

markup pricing :加减定价法

Marshallian demand function :马歇尔需求函数

maximization :极大化

microeconomics :微观经济学

minimum wage :最低工资

misallocation of resources :资源误置

mixed economy :混合经济

model :模型

money :货币

monopolistic competition :垄断竞争

monopolistic exploitation :垄断剥削

monopoly :垄断，卖方垄断

monopoly equilibrium :垄断均衡

monopoly pricing :垄断定价

monopoly regulation :垄断调控

monopoly rents :垄断租金

monopsony :买方垄断

N

Nash equilibrium :纳什均衡

Natural monopoly :自然垄断

Natural resources :自然资源

Necessary condition :必要条件

necessities :必需品

net demand :净需求

nonconvex preference :非凸性偏好

nonconvexity :非凸性

nonexclusion :非排斥性

nonlinear pricing :非线性定价

nonrivalry :非对抗性

nonprice competition :非价格竞争

nonsatiation :非饱和性

non--zero—sum game :非零和对策

normal goods :正常品

normal profit :正常利润

normative economics :规范经济学

O

objective function :目标函数

oligopoly :寡头垄断

oligopoly market :寡头市场

oligopoly model :寡头模型

opportunity cost :机会成本

optimal choice :最佳选择

optimal consumption bundle :消费束

perfect elasticity :完全有弹性

optimal resource allocation :最佳资源配置

optimal scale :最佳规模

optimal solution :最优解

optimization :优化

ordering of optimization(social) preference :(社会)偏好排序

ordinal utility :序数效用

ordinary goods :一般品

output :产量、产出

output elasticity :产出弹性

output maximization 产出极大化

P

parameter :参数

Pareto criterion :帕累托标准

Pareto efficiency :帕累托效率

Pareto improvement :帕累托改进

Pareto optimality :帕累托优化

Pareto set :帕累托集

partial derivative :偏导数

partial equilibrium :局部均衡

patent :专利

pay off matrix :收益矩阵、支付矩阵

perceived demand curve :感觉到的需求曲线

perfect competition :完全竞争

perfect complement :完全互补品

perfect monopoly :完全垄断

perfect price discrimination :完全价格歧视

perfect substitution :完全替代品

perfect inelasticity :完全无弹性

perfectly elastic :完全有弹性

perfectly inelastic :完全无弹性

plant size :工厂规模

point elasticity :点弹性

post Hoc Fallacy :后此谬误

prediction :预测

preference :偏好

preference relation :偏好关系

present value :现值

price :价格

price adjustment model :价格调整模型

price ceiling :最高限价

price consumption curve :价格费曲线

price control :价格管制

price difference :价格差别

price discrimination :价格歧视

price elasticity of demand :需求价格弹性

price elasticity of supply :供给价格弹性

price floor :最低限价

price maker :价格制定者

price rigidity :价格刚性

price seeker :价格搜求者

price taker :价格接受者

price tax :从价税

private benefit :私人收益

principal—agent issues :委托--代理问题

private cost :私人成本

private goods :私人用品

private property :私人财产

producer equilibrium :生产者均衡

producer theory :生产者理论

product :产品

product transformation curve :产品转换曲线

product differentiation :产品差异

product group :产品集团

production :生产

production contract curve :生产契约曲线

production efficiency :生产效率

production function :生产函数

production possibility curve :生产可能性曲线

productivity :生产率

productivity of capital :资本生产率

productivity of labor :劳动生产率

profit :利润

profit function :利润函数

profit maximization :利润极大化

property rights :产权

property rights economics :产权经济学

proposition :定理

proportional demand curve :成比例的需求曲线

public benefits :公共收益

public choice :公共选择

public goods :公共商品

pure competition :纯粹竞争

rivalry :对抗性、竞争

pure exchange :纯交换

pure monopoly :纯粹垄断

Q

quantity—adjustment model :数量调整模型

quantity tax :从量税

quasi—rent :准租金

R

rate of product transformation :产品转换率

rationality :理性

reaction function :反应函数

regulation :调节，调控

relative price 相对价格

rent :租金

rent control :规模报酬

rent seeking :寻租

rent seeking economics :寻租经济学

resource :资源

resource allocation :资源配置

returns :报酬、回报

returns to scale :规模报酬

revealed preference :显示性偏好

revenue :收益

revenue curve :收益曲线

revenue function :收益函数

revenue maximization :收益极大化

ridge line :脊线

risk :风险

satiation :饱和，满足

saving :储蓄

scarcity :稀缺性

law of scarcity :稀缺法则

second—degree price discrimination :二级价格歧视

second derivative :--阶导数

second—order condition :二阶条件

service :劳务

set :集

shadow prices :影子价格

short—run :短期

short—run cost curve :短期成本曲线

short—run equilibrium :短期均衡

short—run supply curve :短期供给曲线

shut down decision :关闭决策

shortage 短缺

shut down point :关闭点

single price monopoly :单一定价垄断

slope :斜率

social benefit :社会收益

social cost :社会成本

social indifference curve :社会无差异曲线

social preference :社会偏好

social security :社会保障

social welfare function :社会福利函数

socialism :社会主义

solution :解

space :空间

stability :稳定性

stable equilibrium :稳定的均衡

Stackelberg model :斯塔克尔贝格模型

static analysis :静态分析

stock :存量

stock market :股票市场

strategy :策略

subsidy :津贴

substitutes :替代品

substitution effect :替代效应

substitution parameter :替代参数

sufficient condition :充分条件

supply :供给

supply curve :供给曲线

supply function :供给函数

supply schedule :供给表

Sweezy model :斯威齐模型

symmetry :对称性

symmetry of information :信息对称

T

tangency :相切

taste :兴致

technical efficiency :技术效率

technological constraints ；技术约束

technological progress :技术进步

technology :技术

third—degree price discrimination :第三级价格歧视

total cost :总成本

total effect :总效应

total expenditure :总支出

total fixed cost :总固定成本

total product :总产量

total revenue :总收益

total utility :总效用

total variable cost :总可变成本

traditional economy :传统经济

transitivity :传递性

transaction cost :交易费用

uncertainty :不确定性

uniqueness :唯一性

unit elasticity :单位弹性

unstable equilibrium :不稳定均衡

utility :效用

utility function :效用函数

utility index :效用指数

utility maximization :效用极大化

utility possibility curve :效用可能性曲线

utility possibility frontier :效用可能性前沿

V

value :价值

value judge :价值判断

value of marginal product :边际产量价值

variable cost :可变成本

variable input :可变投入

variables :变量

vector :向量

visible hand :看得见的手

vulgur economics :庸俗经济学

W

wage :工资

wage rate :工资率

Walras general equilibrium :瓦尔拉斯总体均衡

Walras's law :瓦尔拉斯法则

Wants :需要

Welfare criterion :福利标准

Welfare economics :福利经学

Welfare loss triangle :福利损失三角形

welfare maximization :福利极大化

Z

zero cost :零成本

zero elasticity :零弹性

zero homogeneity :零阶齐次性

zero economic profit :零利润


What's a mnemonic for remembering the characters in 建议 and 意见?

Just remember:
建立 - erect
议論 - theory
建议 (raise theories) --> to suggest (v) --> suggestion (n)
~
意 - mind
见 - see
意见 (mind see) --> idea ; opinion
Just associate the single characters in these compound words with other related compound words. In short, cross reference them
Also see 认识 vs 知道 based on glyph origins


That implies he physically gave birth. On the other hand the meaning is readily discernable, and in a casual environment people could understood it to be a small joke.

In any case, I've usually heard it phrased as something along the lines of 他的孩子剛出生 or 他老婆最近幫他生了兩個小孩.


“我牛起来” means “I’m gonna be better/successful/cool”
In this sentence, “牛” is short  for “牛逼” which is meaning of  “super cool”.
Why does “牛逼” mean “super cool”? You could find the answer in this video
https://youtu.be/teQPusK7YFU


Difference between Cantonese and Mandarin: using 係/是 to link noun with adjective?

我(高)是高 in Mandarin and 我(高就)係高 in Cantonese are both common phrases. They are always followed by a contrasting statement

Simply put, you have to follow "我是高" or "我係高" with a "but"

Example:

"我(高)是高, 但還沒高到可以打職業籃球" (I am tall, but not tall enough to play pro basketball)

Same goes to Cantonese: "我(高就)係高, 但仲未高到可以打職業籃球" (I am tall, but not tall enough to play pro basketball)

  Both "我是高, 因此可以打職業籃球" and "我係高, 高到可以打職業籃球" are grammatically incorrect because there are no contrasting statement.

One difference:

  "我高是高"(It is true that I am tall) is not usually reduced to "我是高" in Mandarin , even it is not technically wrong;  on the other hand, "我高就係高" is routinely shortened to "我係高" or even "我高" in Cantonese"


I couldn't think of any generally accepted expression in Chinese.

Usually, people would just exchange eyes or say something like
"原来是这样啊，我还没明白呢" in sarcasm. "I didn't get the joke at first place, THANK YOU!"

"为了解释清楚，你也是蛮拼的" in sarcasm as well, "You really try hard on explaining to us."


What exactly does 就 mean in combination with other words?

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

  (9) 完成;成功 [accomplish]

  (10) 又如:就亲(成就婚事,成亲);就名(成就功名)

When in 将就, 迁就 it means accommodate.

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

  (13) 又如:半推半就;牵就;就着(就便;顺便);就滑(随便;方便)

The original meaning of 就 is

  就，高也。从京从尤。尤，異於凡也。，籒文就。疾僦切 文二　重一

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


不要说话 vs 不说话 (vs 别说话)

'要' in '不要' cannot be removed, because '不要' is a compound word that mean 'don't'(auxiliary verb) which is different from '不' (adv: not)

不要说话/ 别说话 = Don't talk (demand)
不说话 = 'not speak'
看电影的时候请(不要)说话 - Please (don't) talk when watching movies (O)
看电影的时候请(别)说话 - Please (don't) talk when watching movies (O)
看电影的时候请(不)说话 - Please (not) talk when watching movies (X)

他(不说话) = he (doesn't speak)


Difference in word order of these two adverbs: 再 又

I am trying to give two differences between 再 and 又 for you.

Originally, 再 means 'second time', 又 means 'second time', or 'third time', or even more. But now, 再 sometimes also means repeatedly. In this sense, the two words,再，又, are replaceable.
再 emphasizes the two concepts (verbs/nouns) must be the same nature, while 又 is not limited.

The more important thing is to know some examples.

Usually, the 再 in the following examples can not be replaced by 又.

再見。          See you a second time, so it means 'see you', 'see you later', 'see you again', or 'Auf Wiedersehen' in German.
再會。          This sentence has the same meaning as 再見.
一而再，再而三   Do the same thing once, twice, and three times, so it means 'again and again.
再三            Do the same thing twice and three times, i.e. it means 'again and again' too.

The 又 in the following examples can not be replaced by 再.

[既...又...]  襄兒既聰明,又可愛。   Xianger is not only bright but also cute.
[又...又...]  又驚又喜；又快又好    Shocked and happy； fast and good
[又名]        中國，又名海内，諸夏。 China is also known as '海内' or '諸夏'.
              牛頓來了，又走了。    Newton came and then left.

For your question, 再會下雨 is indeed a wrong expression. Let me try to make is clear.

再會下雨 means "again 'could rain' ". But once today is coming, 'could rain' will become 'rain' or 'not rain'. So the same thing 'could rain' will not happen again tomorrow. On the other hand, 會再下雨 means 'could rain again'. There is no problem in this expression.

昨天下雨，今天下雨了，明天又會下雨.

In the above sentence, 又會下雨 is right, because 下雨 and 會下雨 can be joined by 又。

PS: Thanks for your interesting question. A piece of advice from me: I think you'd better learn from examples, it is helpful.


收 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/687/
[3] [v] receive; accept; take

~

歸 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2343/
[3] belong to; rest with; be in charge

己= self
有= possession
收歸己有 = "take possession and make it belong to oneself"
There's a common phrase "收歸國有", which means "Take possession (of a company) and assign it to become State-owned " . Similarly "收歸己有" in your sentence would mean : ""Take possession (of an army) and assign it to become Self-owned "


Can I use 我的腿累了 for "My legs are tired"?

我的腿累了 is not as good as 我的腿好累
The former one seems to suggest your leg tires on its own accord and sounds unnatural, where the latter one just states that the legs are tired (a condition). As a comparison, 我的手累了 is quite normal, where the hand seems to be a more active body part.

While other alternatives have subtle differences:

我的腿无力  = My legs are weak. (Maybe from hunger)
我跑不动 = I can't run (Maybe need to catch a breath / or guy is too fat)
我的腿很酸 = My legs are sore. (Maybe from sitting too long in a wrong posture)


Why is there such a difference between "first name" and "last name"?

你的姓是什么? is not a common way to ask someone's last name.

The more common way is :

"Title +贵姓?"
"你姓什么?" (the noun '姓' here is acting like a verb (is family-named)

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

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)

  You can call Cao Cao's 姓名, which is 曹操 (Cao Cao) and it is a formal address

  You can call Cao Cao's 姓 and 字, which is 曹孟德 (Cao Meng Deo) if you were close to him

In modern time, 名 and 字 are consolidated into 名字 for the meaning of 'name' . Few people, if any are using 字 nowadays

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"

Actually,  姓名 is almost interchangeable with 名字 in modern time

When someone ask "你的名字是什么?" It is more common to state your full name (全名) than just your given name

Example:

  If Cao Cao was here , and someone asked him : "你叫什么名字?"(what is your name called), the following answers would all be correct:

  "我名叫曹操" ( he is stating his 姓名, which is the most common way to answer)

  "我名叫曹孟德" (he wants you to address him by his courtesy name)

  (名 can be omitted in the two answers above)

  "我姓曹, 名操, 字孟德" (classical speech -- in this case, 姓, 名 and 字 all act like verb)


Question: What is an accurate translation of 自立自强?
I expect its precise meaning is simply the sum of its parts

Yes, it is simply the sum of its parts
自立 - hold oneself up = self-reliance
自强 - strengthen oneself = self-strengthen
If you are independent, you wouldn't need to beg for other's help
If you are strong, you wouldn't be afraid of other's hinder or assault
It fit perfectly into China's nationalistic ideal

自立自強 自立自强 [zi4 li4 zi4 qiang2] /to strive for self-improvement

To make oneself more self-reliant and stronger is to improve oneself


How can I tell apart which two-syllable adjective forms "ABAB" to emphasize it?

My take is ABAB expresses dynamically (表示动态感) or extent in degrees, while AABB is for statically (表示静态感).

For example, 舒服舒服 vs 舒舒服服。

舒服舒服 is kinda like 'Wow, I feel great!', it might imply that you feel that way constantly. For instance, someone is giving you a massage， and you feel great and enjoy it so much, and you would probably say 舒服舒服 to indicate that you are comforted by the massage constantly. You could say 舒服舒服 in a cutie way to express funny as well.

Well, 舒舒服服 describes you are actually in the state of being comfortable (舒服). For instance, 我舒舒服服的躺在沙发上.

There are more examples: 高高兴兴 vs 高兴高兴, 干净干净 vs 干干净净, 漂亮漂亮 vs 漂漂亮亮.

However, not all words can be used as AABB, like 好吃. 好好吃吃 sounds wired, because 好好吃吃 doesn't sound a state of being something. Well, 好吃好吃 makes sense.

It's hard to define a rule that could summarize what kind of words can be used in this pattern. Practically, I think those formal or official words usually can not be used like this. For example, 伟大, 光荣, 勇敢. Maybe it's not good to ruin the integrity of those words? That's why you could not use them like that? I am not quite sure about it indeed. Those 'normal' or more colloquial words usually can work either in the form of AABB/ABAB or both.


Some Simple Translation Sentences Involving Key Grammar Phrases: 是， 像， 过 ， Direction Phrases

祝你中秋节快乐！
My attempt:
1. The book I'm reading now is a birthday gift given by a friend Use 是

Yours: 我现在读的书是朋友送给我的生日礼物。
Mine: 我现在在看/读的小说是朋友给我的生日礼物。
2. The person who asked you to dance looked like my friend when he smiled. Use 像

Yours: 那个请你跳舞的人笑的时候看起来像我的朋友。
Mine: 那个邀请你跳舞的人笑起来的时侯好像我的朋友。
3. We've met before, but we've never spoke to each other. Use 过， 见面，说话，从来没

Yours: 我们之前见过面，但是我们从来没跟彼此说话。
Mine: 我们以前见过面，但是从来没和对方说过话。
4. The place I live is to the north of the student center. Use 的地方，在。。。的北边

Yours: 我住的地方在学生中心的北边。
Mine: 我住的地方在“学生中心”的北边。
5. The language lab is inside the building to the south of the computer center. Use 语言实验室，

Yours:
Mine: 语言实验室在“电脑中心”南边的那栋楼里面。


How does tone sandhi apply in people's names?

The rule that applies to sentences also applies to names, that is for a sentence of sequential 3rd tone characters,

(Optionally) Split it to phrases by functional groups.
For each group, every other character is read as 2nd tone while keeping the last character 3rd tone.

2.1. If a group has even number of characters, the tones become 2,3,...,2,3,2,3.
2.2. If a group has odd number of characters, the tones become 2,3,...2,3,X,2,3. If the group has exactly 3 characters, it becomes X,2,3. In standard Mandarin, X=2. In spoken language you'll probably hear both X=2 and X=3.

Examples:

马友友:

223: ma2 you2 you3 (standard as you'll hear in CCTV news).
323：ma3 you2 you3 (colloquial).

similarly, 往北走:

223: wang2 bei2 zou3 (standard).
323: wang3 bei2 zou3 (colloquial).

领导很满意:

2323...: ling2 dao3 hen2 man3 yi4.

往北走也挺好. Both of the following are correct:

223 223: wang2 bei2 zou3 ye2 ting2 hao3 (rule is applied to 2 word groups respectively).
232323: wang2 bei3 zou2 ye3 ting2 hao3 (rule is applied to the complete sequence).

请你老叟往北走. (This is a well-known line in TV/movie industry for tone sandhi practice, similar to 八百标兵奔北坡 for stop consonant practice.)

2323223: qing2 ni3 lao2 sou3 wang2 bei2 zou3.


I can't recall any Chinese expressions used in the same way as calling out with 'Surprise!' in English. I guess the reason might be that Chinese Culture doesn't make Chinese people as playful as English Culture making its people.

We say something different from 'surprise!' in similar cases:

I bring a gift to a friend, before showing him/her the gift, I say: 猜我给你带来了什么？or 看我给你带来了什么？ Then show the gift, and after seeing his/her facial surprise expression, I say: 没想到吧？or 喜欢吗？He or she may say: 真没想到。or 我很喜欢。or 我太惊讶了！
We plan to throw a party for a friend's birthday, and one person leads the friend to a room where everybody else is hiding. When they come in, all the hiding people jump out together and say: 生日快乐！
In a classmates reunion party, we decide to invite the old flame of one of our classmates. Once that classmate arrives, we say to him/her: 你看谁来了？Then the old flame comes in to give him/her a surprise.
At a performance audition, the judge is pleased with an actor's performance. The judge may say: 你的表演很不错，但是你知道，其他的表演者也非常优秀。我知道你非常热爱表演，所以不论今天你是否被录取，我希望你一直坚持下去，不要放弃。Now the actor probably thinks he will not be picked. Then the judge says: 恭喜你，你被录取了！The actor is definitely surprised.


Why is Mainland China referred to as "大陸" (大陸)?

It's due to the one-China policy (一中原則).

Both CPC (中國共產黨) and KMT (中國國民黨) think there is only one China.
Both refer their own places as countries, PRC and ROC, respectively.
Both treat the other side as an area or region, 台灣地區 and 大陸地區, respectively.
At the beginning, KMT called the other side as 淪陷區.
Because it is not a good term, KMT changed it to 大陸地區.
大陸 is a short form of 大陸地區.
Many people in HK also moved from 大陸 due to the civil war (國共內戰).
Therefore, these people tended to stand on KMT's side, and then used the KMT's term.

中國大陸，中文使用上常通稱 大陸或大陸地區 ，是對中華人民共和國的實際統治領土之稱呼，也是海峽兩岸關係的常見用語之一。 此詞的產生肇因於第二次國共內戰後 ，1949年中華人民共和國成立所導致的海峽兩岸政治分立。
English version


Are we allowed to omit 载 when it's clear what we download?

1) Are 下 and 载 separable? I mean, are they kind of "verb+object" word?

No, '下载' is a compound word verb, you need both characters for the specific meaning of 'to download'

  (向)下 = downward

  载 = to load onto

  下载 = to download (from upstream server to local storage device )

~

  (向)上 = upward

  上载 = to upload (from local storage device to upstream server)- It is also a compound word verb

~

  2) Can we omit "载"  if the thing we download is clear enough to the listener? For example, can I simply say : 下照片/下视频?

Yes, just like you can omit 'drink' in 'drink down' and write 'down a bottle of wine', presume the listener could reliably guess what the omitted word is.

We don't "吃下" (eat down) a bottle of wine, only "喝下" (drink down) a bottle of wine.

However, you should always use the whole word 下载 or 上载 to avoid confusion. Because without other context, 下照片 could be interpreted as '把照片下架' (take down the photo) and 上视频 could be interpreted as '把视频上架' (post the video)

  3) If no. 2 isn't the case, then is there any specific rules/conditions of when we are allowed to omit "载" and when we are not?

You can omit "载" or any character in a compound word if you think the listener could reliably guess what the omitted word is; You cannot omit it if you think the listener could not reliably guess what the omitted word is

  omit 下 and write 载照片 or 载视频 only create more confusion. ('载 upward' or '载 downward' ?)


正好 is not an adjective, the same as 'just right' is not an adjective.

正 shows a foot, stopping at a line or wall. = right, proper
好 shows a woman and a son. Apparently to indicate a good life. This was before the 21st century! Today, this may not be considered the only way to fulfillment!

just = "exactly, precisely, punctually, not more than"
good = "excellent, fine; valuable; desirable, favorable, beneficial; full, entire, complete, pleasing;"

这个饭正好
This dish is exactly fine/complete.
正好下雪
punctually favourable snow was falling
正好20人
exactly (the) desirable 20 people
我们正好一起去吧
we exactly (mutually) beneficial go together
我正好没有什么人主张
I precisely (the) desirable don't have anyone to make decisions for me

Of course, I would not translate the Chinese into English quite like this. I just want to indicate what is going on.

Both 正 and 好 have more than one interpretation, in English as well as in Chinese. So when you mix them, permutations of meaning arise. There is no "one size fits all".

What Dan said: 正好我们可以整理一下你的光盘。

或者： 我们正好可以同时整理你的光盘。


What is the textbook 发展汉语：高级口语（I) referring to about the etymology of 买单?

In short, 買單 comes from 埋單 because Cantonese 埋 (tone 4, 陽平, contour 21 or 11) sounds very similar to Mandarin 買 (tone 3, 上聲, contour 214) where the ending rise isn't sounded when followed by 單.
Here Cantonese 埋 means to "settle", "finish off", or "draw near". E.g. 埋數 (finish off the numbers / do accounting), 埋位 (settle in to a seat), 埋口 (heal up an open wound).
The below are from references in Wikipedia 埋單, mentioned by @水巷孑蠻. Translations mine.
Lau Tin Chi (劉天賜)
Wen Wei Po 2003-02-08, "俗語趣談：埋單" (archived version)

解釋：結賬、算賬，也有俗解成死亡、完結。現在內地、台灣等地方漸受香港語言影響，亦以「埋單」表示結賬。但用錯了字，以為是「買單」，殊不知「埋」字是廣府話的神髓。

Explanation: to pay a bill, to settle a bill [or score]; also popularly interpreted as [causing] death, finishing off. Nowadays in Mainland, Taiwan, etc., being gradually influenced by Hong Kong language [usage], "埋單" is also used to express paying of a bill. But the wrong word is used, it is thought to be "買單", and hardly known that "埋" is quintessence of Cantonese.

Dr Lam Kin Ping (林建平博士)
Archived version of CUHK 普通話速遞 No. 48, "衣食住行AA制"

「買單」源自「埋單」
上文提到「買單」，原為粵方言詞，寫作「埋單」。「埋」是收攏、靠攏的意思，埋單就是把消費的帳單收攏在一起最後結帳。粵語的「埋單」和普通話的「買單」讀音相合：「埋」（mai），粵語是個低平調（陽平），一般認為調值是21；「買」（mai），普通話單唸是個降升調，但在「買單」一詞中，則讀作半三聲，調值211，與粵語的低平調非常脗合。因此，「埋單」進入普通話後，多寫作「買單」。可以說，普通話的「買單」，借用了粵語的音，然後另起爐灶，造了「買單」這個新詞。

"買單" sourced from "埋單"
"買單" mentioned in the text above is originally a Cantonese phrase, written "埋單". "埋" has the meaning of gathering, drawing close; 埋單 is to gather in the bills of expenses together for a final paying of the bill. Cantonese "埋單" and Mandarin "買單" have matching pronunciations: "埋" (mai) in Cantonese has lower level tone (light level) [i.e. tone 4], commonly held to have tone value 21; "買" (mai) read alone in Mandarin has falling-rising tone, but in the phrase "買單", is read in half-third-tone, tone value 211, quite a match with Cantonese lower level tone. Thus, "埋單" after entering Mandarin [usage], is mostly written "買單". One may say, Mandarin's "買單" has borrowed the pronunciation in Cantonese, then set up its own shop, creating the new phrase "買單".


KEY has two definitions for 修炼:

practice asceticism
practice self-cultivation (esp. of a Taoist)

self-cultivation has a nice ring to it.
修真 on the other hand means:

{Taoism} cultivate true virtue

修炼 has quite a wide range of meanings one of which is the same as 修真: 修行.
修真 only really has one meaning.
Although it might be interchangeable in some cases, the context is really important here.


Where can I find recordings of old Chinese pronunciation?

I doubt it.  Baxter and Sagart themselves mention, in their recent book on Old Chinese, that the reconstruction is at least partly schematic: The symbols are meant to be phonemic, not phonetic.  Roughly speaking, that means that their main function is to trace the etymology of the spoken language, not to reflect how the sounds were actually realized.  In many cases, they know no more about a particular sound than that it was a consonant of some sort, or sometimes that it was a velar consonant, or a guttural consonant, or some kind of lower vowel, or whatever.  However, they have decided to use a convention that makes sense, that whenever a sound has so-and-so kind of reflex in the modern languages, or in Middle Chinese, then it will be represented with such-and-such a symbol in their Old Chinese transcription.

In reality, in most cases, the sound probably was something like what they transcribe, but not reliably so.  At one point, a few years ago, Baxter and Sagart produced a "simplified" version of their reconstruction, which filtered out some of the uncertainties and made various specific decisions about which sounds went where.  They decided in the end to scrap that version, because they felt it conveyed an unrealistic level of assuredness about the sounds of Old Chinese.

At any rate, even if one were to pick a particular realization of the phonemes of Old Chinese, it would probably take a lot of effort to learn to speak it fluently enough to read, say, Confucius, and no one is going to put in that much effort if there's a good chance a large percentage is just plain wrong.


What are the continents according to Chinese schemes?

Geographically, Chinese people say seven continents, as you listed above, except Oceania(大洋洲), which stands for Australasia and almost all small islands in Pacific ocean.


Is there online corpus for the Chinese language?

For a big-data Chinese corpus, have a look at this one:

  (Taiwan) Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese 台灣 中央研究院 中文詞知識庫小組 現代漢語平衡語料庫

A million-word level corpus
Contact: Miss Su-Chu Lin (林素朱), jess@hp.iis.sinica.edu.tw
Introduction in Chinese
Not sure if you can download it for free


Meaning of 图像 in this sentence: 图片可作为单独的图像

图片可作为单独的图像

I suppose you need to know something about digital photography to understand that sentence.

图片 = video frame

可作为单独的 = could be made into or saved as a single

图像 = image or photo.

So, the technical English equivalent would be "the video frame(s) could be made into or saved as a single photo image"

Here is an example instruction on how it's done:-

"To extract and save a single video frame as an image:

Do one of the following:

    While the video is playing, click the Pause button at the frame you want to save.
    On the progress slider, move the pointer to display the frame you want to save"

Now try and translate the above instructions into Chinese, whether modern or ancient?


In theory, 星期日 should be correct.

The concept of a week was introduced from the west, the name of days came from the Sun, the Moon and the stars. When they were introduced to China, only Sunday was preserved, the other days were renamed from 1 to 6, so they became 星期日 (Sun -> 日), 星期一 ... 星期六.

But in Chinese, 天 and 日 could be used for the meaning of day both. So the people started to say 星期天 instead of 星期日, and the original meaning (i.e. Sun) was lost, which would be a "misuse".

Nowadays 星期日 and 星期天 are both correct. Basically in a formal context, such as in news, 星期日 is used more than 星期天.

话说“星期日”与“星期天”


Puzzling negation in a beginner's grammar book

I understand everything they say. 他们说的我都懂。

I don't understand all they say. (I only understand some of what they say.)

他们说的我不都懂。or 他们说的我不是都懂。Here using 不 or 不是 makes no differences.

I don't understand anything they say.
他们说的我都不懂。

So 不都 means not all, ie maybe some, and 都不 means all not, ie none.


Equivalent phrase to "Bon Appetit"/"Enjoy (your food)"

Yup.

The typical phrase spoken when serving food is qǐng màn yòng (請慢用). It lliterally means "please eat slowly", but is better translated as "enjoy your meal", and serves the same function as the French bon appétit.


Can't discern how a set of clauses function

外交部发言人耿爽14日就两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害答记者问时……

It is not easy to understand a long sentence.
But, we can simplify it.

外交部发言人耿爽 (title + name) can be simplified as 他, he.

The date, 14日, is not important here, so we omit it for simplification.

两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害 is an event, so we use "the event", 该事件.

We use "the/his/her/their question", 其问, to represent 记者问.

The sentence then becomes

  他就该事件答其问时……

(Don't you think it is much easier to interpret it now?
I suggest you using this method next time, when you read a looooong sentence.)

  When he answered the question regarding the event, ......

As you mentioned, 就 means regarding, in regard to, with regard to, etc.

Can't we use to or for?
When he answered the question to the event, ......
When he answered the question for the event, ......

If we want to use another Chinese characters to replace 就, the most common one would be 对.

Consider the following two phrases/sentences.

就事论事。
对事不对人。

Here, 就 ＝ 对.

Because we are used to them, it is not good to swith them.
But, the meaning is the same, and we can accept it.

对事论事。
就事不就人。

  他 对 该事件答其问时……
  外交部发言人耿爽14日 对 两名中国公民在日本不幸遇害答记者问时……


How to thank someone for following you back on social media?

谢谢你关注我呀！！！

There's actually an article that kind of talks about this on zhihu, funnily enough. Their translation there is:

  thank you follow me --> 谢谢你关注我呀！！！

They also have a picture of automated thanks for following me in action:

On social media 关注 is always the term for follow.


Advice on Mandarin Chinese passive learning

I have a few tips:

If you own your house (or are on good terms with your landlord), I would recommend having a C-Band satellite antenna installed.  The satellite you connect to will depend on the part of the world you live in. In Australia I had a 1.8m dish installed, and I connect to ChinaSat 6-B. (The whole set up cost AUD$800) There are more than 60 free TV channels broadcast from that satellite (plus many radio stations).
Use shooter.cn to download subtitles.  Wherever possible I watch English language media with Chinese subtitles from this site.  It takes a bit of a knack to figure out which subtitles to download, there are a couple of different encoding systems and there are subtitles in simplified, traditional, and some with both English and Chinese. A lot of the time the subtitles are targeted at a specific torrent (i.e. the .sub file from this site has the same name as the most-seeded torrent)
Find a Chinese / Taiwanese music charts website. Copy the titles into YouTube, and start making a compilation of tracks that you like. I listen to my playlist often in the car, It is amazing how after a few repetitions of the same tracks, you start singing along with the chorus.
Save your local Chinese radio station as a preset on your car stereo.  Most major cities will have a Chinese language radio station.
Subscribe to the Chinese language podcast of your country's national broadcaster. Most major national broadcasters have a Chinese language podcast (National Public Radio, Deutsche Welle, Radio Canada International, SBS Australia, The BBC, &c.)

Of all of these I really recommend getting the satellite antenna. It's definately worth the money.


How do you say "some people" in Chinese?

有人 is someone, some people, anyone.

  有人觉得我长得像


A literal translation to "但要是" is fine here.

  I usually get up at six o'clock, but if I'm really tired, I sleep until eight.

  我一般六点起床，但要是很累，我会睡到八点。


Are the sentences 这个杯子有一点儿水 and 一点儿水在杯子里 correct?

这个杯子有一点儿水 (this cup has some water) sounds like 这个杯子 is the subject and it possesses some water
A better phrasing should be 这个杯子里有一点儿水 (inside this cup, there's some water)

~

一点儿水在杯子里 (some water inside the cup) lack a verb, thus make it an incomplete sentence
A better phrasing should be 有一点儿水在杯子里。(There is some water inside the cup)

这个杯子里有一点儿水 emphasizes the cup (pay attention to the cup, there's some water in it)

有一点儿水在杯子里 emphasizes the water (pay attention to the water, it is in a cup)

You can use either one


How does Wikipedia's simplified to traditional converter work?

The Mediawiki converter uses a combination of automatic information from the Unicode standard, SCIM tables, and other sources plus manual tweaks to build a set of translation tables.  When going from Traditional to Simplified, some characters have been condensed into one.  Translating back from Simplified to Traditional requires context that a computer is not likely to understand unless you implement a full translation engine, not just a text replacement engine. This is where the manual enhancements come into play.

Mediawiki has a build system which automatically combines the automatic and manual information into a PHP source file of translations between many different types of Chinese.  It appears to cover dialectical differences for mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. The information is then changed out with PHP's strtr() function which replaces all occurrences of items in a given array with matches in the supplied string, longest matches first.  This longest matching is the key when switching out characters because you have more context from the source to make a better replacement.

Source:
Code which uses mediawiki's conversion functions:
https://github.com/tszming/mediawiki-zhconverter/blob/master/mediawiki-zhconverter.inc.php

Build file to combine automatic conversion tables with manual tweaks:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/MW/browse/master/maintenance/language/zhtable/Makefile.py

Compiled translation tables (large file, 17k lines):
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/MW/browse/master/includes/ZhConversion.php

Conversion tool to load tables for different conversions (used by first source link)
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/MW/browse/master/languages/classes/LanguageZh.php


how does the immediate constituent analysis of the phrase/sentence 聊斋志异 look like?

聊斋志异 is the name of an ancient novel, which is a collection of nearly 500 mostly supernatural tales written by Pu Songling in Classical Chinese during the early Qing Dynasty.

Source: Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

聊 means chat, 斋 means room, and 聊斋 is the name of the author's study room/studio.

志 means record, 异 means strange things, 志异 means to record the strange things, so 聊斋志异 is a stories' collection about strange things recorded by the author at his study studio named 聊斋.

BTW: 聊斋志异 could be shortened as 聊斋.


Under which regional standard are you studying your characters? That'll be your answer.

  Note: 橫 is a 隸書 style, and no region really writes it like that. You'll see Japanese people write 戶 with a 橫 instead, and that's where the influence comes from.


How does the hook in 甩 negative 用's meaning?

What's the correct term for this "hook"?

“乚” is named “cjk stroke swag” (u+31df), as used in “己”, the third stroke.

https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31C0.pdf

in chinese, it’s described as “豎曲鉤”, by the 教育部 異體字字典.

< https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/word_attribute.rbt?quote_code=QTAyNjI4>

  The Cantonese reading is probably unrelated

such claiming is wrong. it’s a cantonese character (粵字)

in 廣東通志 卷五十一, page 30 mentioned:

  物之脫者曰甩・倫粒切・此粤字之隨俗撰出者也

https://archive.org/details/06041865.cn/page/n29/mode/1up

have fun :)


How do you say weekend in Chinese using the 星期 form?

How about 星期六、日？
Weekdays can be combined like 星期一、三、五. It might be an alternative to 周末?
Looking forward to other input from members.


How to translate the phrase 利而物利章 in context?

after reading other literary chinese texts, here's my approach :)

君道何如 - what is the principle(s) of sovereign

利而物利章 - this verse is very tricky, i would interpret it as "利而物利" + "章"

the first "利" is shortcut of "利民", beneficial to people

而 - and

物 --> 勿 - not

the second "利" is shortcut of "自利", beneficial to oneself

章 --> 彰 - 明顯 distinct, obvious

together, 君道何如﹒利而物利章 is roughly:

what is the principle(s) of sovereign (君道何如)? [he should make it] obvious (章) that [his acts are] beneficial to people (利), and (而), not to himself (物利)

ludi kun, in volume 1 of 呂氏春秋, chapter 4 "貴公", there's a verse

"利而勿利也", with a remark "務在利民，勿自利也"

https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/呂氏春秋/卷一#.E8.B2.B4.E5.85.AC

edited, info added.

it's very common in literatures of yore, 章 is used, in lieu of 彰. even in 呂氏春秋, there're several usages:

孟春紀﹒本生: "萬物章章"

http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/ben-sheng/zh?searchu=章&searchmode=showall#result

孟夏紀﹒誣徒: "學業之章明也"

http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/wu-tu/zh?searchu=章&searchmode=showall#result

審分覽﹒勿躬: "名號已章矣"

http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/wu-gong/zh?searchu=章&searchmode=showall#result

不苟論﹒博志: "名之章也"

http://ctext.org/lv-shi-chun-qiu/bo-zhi/zh?searchu=章&searchmode=showall#result

have fun :)


朱熹四書章句集注 「傳，謂受之於師。習，謂熟之於己。」

So 傳 means what you've received from your Master. James Legge's translation seems right.


How to say ‘run for office’ in Mandarin?

Both 竞选 and 参选 are common with slight difference in usage. For example:

你会不会参选？ (Will you "enter the election"?)
她会竞选连任。 (She will run for reelection.)

It's hard to pinpoint when one will be favoured over the other, but the examples above will seem weird if the other phrase is used. I think it's due to the literal translation of the phrase: 参选 means "enter the election" and 竞选 means "compete in an election". (or maybe it's just convention that dictates which one is favourable.)

If you want to specify what office one is running for, you can express it as "选 + name of office". For example:

她要选总统。 (She is running for president.)
他要选市长。 (He is running for mayor.)


不然 when it occurs at the beginning of a sentence

不然 means otherwise in a declarative sentence and alternatively; how about in an imperative sentence.
In spoken language it can begin a sentence to propose 'plan B', which implies a self-evident 'plan A' that is favorable to one party but not the other, and there is no need to talk about it so the speaker jumps to the alternative plan already.

不然你逛那边的时候，我逛电子商品区.
(Hidden context: ideally we should stick together but we couldn't for some obvious reason, like one person is not interested in the stuff the other person wants to shop, or both of us need to buy something but we're running out of time.) How about this, I am going to look around for the electronic products while you're shopping in that area.


the post card is a replication of a painting, which is in the palace museum (故宫博物院). imo, the quality is, unacceptable. here's a better image of the painting:

about the text, traditionally, one read from top to bottom, right to left. so, the rightest text are:

南刻京喬
宋畫口柯
諸之山急
公跡樓澗
皆為待唐
拜之風解
牀一觀元
下變六有
　洗如此
惲其卷景
壽勾筆因
平砍墨倣
　煥靈其
　然逸意
　神李
　明唐
　當
　使

it was written by the painter 惲壽平, as a "preface". the meaning of it, roughly is:

  喬柯急澗

tall and bent (喬) branch [of tree] (柯), torrential (急) stream (澗)

used as the subject of the painting.

  唐解元有此景因倣其意

"解元", "六如居士" were referred to 唐寅, a painter of ming dynasty.

mr 唐 (唐解元) had (有) this (此) scene (景, --> similar painting of 喬柯急澗), therefore (因) [ i ] simulate (倣) his (其) ideas (意)

  京口山樓待風．觀六如卷

in 京口 (a place name), on a tower / building (樓) in the hills (山); waiting for (待) wind (風) [--> to cool off], read (觀) mr 唐's (六如) scroll (卷)

  筆墨靈逸．李唐刻畫之跡．為之一變．洗其勾砍．煥然神明

the strokes (筆墨) were deft (靈), with leisure (逸). the trace (跡) of (之) stubborn (刻畫) of mr 李 (李唐, a painter of 宋 dynasty), changed significantly (為之一變). removed (洗) his (其) "strike out" (勾) [and] chop (砍); changed to (煥然) outstanding  & bright (神明)

  當使南宋諸公皆拜牀下

[which] should (當) make (使) painters (諸公) of the southern song dynasty (南宋), all (皆)  bow (拜) under (下) [his] stand (牀, a variant of 床, which should be interpret as 安放器物的架子, not bed).

  惲壽平

the painter's full name

then, the text on the left, was a poem written by the emperor 乾隆 :(

it was recorded in 御製詩三集　卷九十四, page 82:

https://archive.org/stream/06078952.cn#page/n81/mode/1up

即設澗喬
今使水柯
誰不籦嶰
識經籠壑
馬裁潄臨
融作趾急
才笛哀澗

well, poem should be interpret by oneself :)

have fun :)

anyone want to decipher the seals?


If you mean to say "To send the message, please first sign in", then “发送信息前请先登录” may sound more natural and clearer.


Why is China National Highway called "国道", instead of "国路"?

The common term is 国道 for national highway, which would be across the provinces or cities. another term is 高速 short for 高速公路， which is also highway across the provinces. The difference between 国道 and 高速 is the speed limit, speed limit on 高速 is typical 120km/hour, and 国道 typical 80 or 100km/hour. 国道 has traffic lights, while 高速 doesn't have it. You have to pay money for driving on 高速, while you won't pay money for 国道.

As for ‘why not 国路’, I don't have a good reason for it. It's just a convention I think.

Within the city, we call it "高架" or "高架桥"， for example, 沪闵高架 in Shanghai.


Yes, it is grammatically correct.

And it is very natural.

Breaking it apart (somehow) gives the "eight o'clock" part an emphasis. You can also say 昨天晚上我八点去超市了, if you want to emphasize on "八点".

Question words are sometimes automatically emphasized (as it is what the speaker cares about), so it is very natural to say: 昨天晚上你几点去超市了？


The answer is yes.

曾 is for paternal paternal ancestors, 曾外 for paternal maternal ancestors, 外曾 for maternal paternal ancestors, and 外曾外 for maternal maternal ancestors.


The simple answer is: yes.

For a language learning aspect, this way(remembering words) may be boring and result in giving up unless you learn for an important test/exam. If find this boring, try a textbook or an app that let you learn it like a first language.

Update:
The links below contains lists for frequently used Chinese word.

The official Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese(2500+1000), this is published in 1988 and discontinued in 2013, since it has only 2500 characters, it may be still useful(covers 99.48% characters in daily use):
http://hanyu.iciba.com/zt/3500.html

The official General Standard Chinese Characters(8105):
http://xh.5156edu.com/page/z6211m4474j19255.html

The official Commonly Used Hanja(1800), selected by South Korea:
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/e1e306649b6648d7c1c74636

The commonly used characters list for elementary school grade 1-6 students, selected by New Oriental, the largest education group in China:

from grade 1 to 6

http://xiaoxue.xdf.cn/ynj/201203/1159876.html

http://xiaoxue.xdf.cn/enj/201203/1159917.html

http://xiaoxue.xdf.cn/snj/201203/1159916.html

http://xiaoxue.xdf.cn/inj/201203/1159915.html

http://xiaoxue.xdf.cn/wnj/201203/1159914.html

http://xiaoxue.xdf.cn/lnj/201203/1159913.html