What good resources are available to assist first-time travellers to learn basic Chinese?

I would suggest a short intensive course in Chinese done through Comprehensible Input (that's a theoretical framework for language acquisition). You can also search for TPRS-based courses or teachers of Chinese -- that's the name of the language teaching method that uses this approach. Problem is, there aren't that many out there yet.

The problem with a phrasebook is that it's just that -- a book of phrases. It doesn't build the ability to understand or create with the language. Doing a CI-based course, even a very short one, will give your visitors a lot more flexibility with the language. I've had people go to China after 8-10 hours and get along quite comfortably (able to buy things, eat, talk about themselves, and so on.) They're not going to be UN interpreters the next day but this kind of preparation goes a lot farther than memorization.

Traditional lessons or textbooks also fall short for short-term classes because they are not really much different from a phrase book. The student focuses on one "pattern" or a dialogue for a couple of hours, and doesn't develop much ability to use the language within the time they would have to devote to Chinese study before their trip.

In the US, Albany Language Learning or Fluency Fast do this sort of course. These are both Western-student-oriented organizations in the US, and will focus on the highest-frequency words and structures in the language. Full disclosure: I work for Albany Language Learning. But if I knew more sources I'd point you to them. People just get a lot farther in a shorter time when preparing for travel in this way.


What are the correct characters for 直接用自己的bǎolǐng象却换掉了对方的这个c3马 describing Caruana's recent surprise chess move?

It is called "堡垒象".
Not bao3ling3, but bao3lei3.


What is "语气词"? Why does this question end with 嘛 instead of 吗?

Check out ABC's definition of 嘛:

  1 (used to persuade sb. to do sth.)

  来嘛, 不要太任性。
  Lái ma, bụ̀yào tài rènxìng.
  Come on, don't be so stubborn.

  2 (used to emphasize the obvious)

  是星期日嘛。办公室当然关了。
  Shì Xīngqīrì ma. Bàngōngshì dāngrán guān le.
  It's Sunday. Of course offices are closed.

So here 嘛, despite it's similar pronunciation, has very different usage to 吗. It is mostly used in persuasion or to emphasize something that is obvious.

Taking your sentence if it had been 吗 instead we would have something like:

你可以找到我吗？
Can you find me?

but your sentence: 你可以找到我嘛 works out to something more like:

See if you can find me!


Generation poems are specific to a particular male line of a family, rather than everyone sharing a surname.  Unless one of your ancestors along the male line decided to choose a generation poem, you won't have one - but that is quite normal!

More information in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_name#Generation_poem


《汉语大词典》气 29

  作风 style

  习气 habits

贵族气 noble style

怪里怪气 strange/weird style

They all mean style.


what are 词 whose whole word meaning is different from meaning of its components called?

They are compound words

Most characters have multiple meanings, in many cases an individual character in a compound word can also be a short form for another word

Example:

"天真" is combination of two adjectives

天 means 天然 (natural)
真 is short for 純真 (pure/ innocent)
"天真" = natural + innocent = naive

As for "馬上", it is a combination of a noun and a  preposition

"馬上" literally means "on the horse" . To get to the meaning of immediately, you have to use some extension of logic. When a rider mounted his horse, the departure is immediate, therefore,  "馬上" is used for the meaning of immediately.

There are many ways compound words are coined, you just have to memorize every individual compound word, like you would memorize every individual English word


What's the format of official "online" HSK tests?

I took the computer version HSK4 test.
Audio was only played once as standard for levels 4-6.
You get some small headphones which did cut out the exam room background noise a bit. (If all the levels are being held in the same room then there can be chatter as the lower level test finish earlier.)

Pros:

Don't have to write characters (this is probably only a pro for levels 4-6 because the testable characters in HSK3 are usually very simple, 米， 大， 小， etc.).
Can mark reading questions you're not sure on and quickly click back to them when you have some time at the end. (You might be able to do this on paper anyway.)
Also if you can't remember the pinyin for a character but you know what it means this can be frustrating. But you can cycle through all of your guesses to try and find it in the entry system.

Cons:

Reading font was not the one I was used to and took a little longer than normal (for all parts).
You can not skip ahead on the listening part and read all of the questions if you answer one quickly, you must wait. This is especially annoying for the two part audio questions, as you have to remember the whole audio snippet and wait for the second question to come.
The writing entry system for typed pinyin was not the one I was used to and would struggle to automatically generate words.
There is a character limit on the written test which is not mentioned on the mocks for written exercises.

Extra:

The test centre I was in had a technical failure and the tests wouldn't start. When they did start the audio had already played for the first 2 questions and wouldn't replay, which wasted time and stressed me out for the 3rd question etc. The staff said they couldn't do anything to adjust the marks or retest the questions because it's a centralised test.


Did the man lock up his 6-year old son at home overnight? (把6岁大的儿子一个人锁在家里整整一夜)

Your understanding of the sentence is correct. The man in the story did lock his six years old son alone at home for entire night so that he could help a woman.

The writing of that woman illustrated she is a self centered person. And the man was a horrible father.

Side note:

  Around 1997, I watched in the news in Hong Kong that there were two working parents who kept their two preschool age children locked in at home during their working hours, because they couldn't afford daycare. Unfortunately, a fire broke out in that apartment and the two kids couldn't escape  because the door was locked and were killed in the fire. The parents felt so guilty, they hanged themselves within few days.

That's why I feel so strongly about locking kids at home by themselves-- Nothing worth the risk!


Need help understanding: "人生要就不忍，不然就請你一忍到底。"

"要就(X )不然就(Y)"  means "either (X) otherwise/ or (Y)"
(X) and (Y) are the two options for you to choose.

"要就(X = 不忍)，不然就(Y = 請你一忍到底)"
"you either not restrain yourself (option X), otherwise please restrain to the very end (option Y)."

非凡之人做事(要就)不做, (一但) (要做) 就必要做到乾淨漂亮

Exceptional person (either) not act, (once)(decided to act) then  he must do it cleanly and beautifully
一但(once) is omitted
"一但要做" (once decided to act) presents a different option than the first one, therefore the meaning of "otherwise" is implied. The sentence could then be interpreted as "exceptional person either not act, otherwise, he must do it cleanly and beautifully"
The two options are "不做" (not do it) and "做到乾淨漂亮" (do it cleanly and beautifully)


You are right that 感恩 is a verb-noun phrase. When another noun is appended (i.e. 感恩XX), it means that you are thanking (感) someone (XX) for their kindness (恩). Inversion is at play here. "感恩" carries a degree of formality and is rarely used in daily conversation. It will be awkward if someone uses "感恩" when not speaking publicly.To rate them in terms of formalities: 感恩 > 感谢 > 谢谢 > 多谢感恩 is used exclusively in formal context while 多谢 is only used casually. 感谢 and 谢谢 can be used at the user's discretion, though the former sounds more formal.


「果實」matches the botanical definition of fruit, and「水果」refers to the colloquial usage. The Wikipedia article sums it up nicely:

  In common language usage (水果), "fruit" normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant that are sweet or sour, and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. On the other hand, in botanical usage (果實), "fruit" includes many structures that are not commonly called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes, and wheat grains.


Could someone please help explain to me what '收尸' means?

Like dan said, 收尸 is a verb, which means 'collecting (a) dead body'.

The example in question only makes sense if you knew who Pharod Wormhair is. Basically he is someone who makes money from dead bodies, and he has his collectors, who collect dead bodies for him. Here is an introduction of him if you want to know more.
Here 收尸人 is used to describe his collectors. The translation from 'collectors' to 收尸人 is only specific to this context, otherwise 'collector' doesn't directly translate to this.

Normally, the word 收尸 is used between people who are relatives/very close.
For example, we have A, whose only acquaintance in the world is B. Then B dies. Now we say, A has no one to collect their body.

Ask if you're still unsure about this word.


Is there a difference between 一共 and 总共?

could you say 一共 here instead of 总共?

Edit:
Yes you can, '总共两个房间和一张床' means "two rooms and one bed in total" room and bed are grouped as features in the house, therefore '一共两个房间和一张床' (altogether) is also correct"
However, it would be weird to say "一共一张床" because "一共" should apply to more than one item (which you add them up together)

总共 = in total
"我们这里总共有十个房间" = "we have ten rooms here in total"
"我们总共十个人" = "we have ten people in total"

~

一共 = altogether
"我们这里一共有十个房间" = "we have ten rooms here altogether "
"我们一共十个人" = "we have ten people altogether "

The only difference between 总共 and 一共 is 总共 can be used to describe a single item but 一共 cannot. We say "总共只有一人" , but not "一共只有一人"
Notice: you can say "一共一元" because a dollar is one hundred cents add up together.
"一共一元" means "合共一元" ($1 altogether)


This sentence (亲收获) does not make any sense.

The closest thing I can think of is "亲，收货", which means "Hey there, pick up your package."

Note that "亲" originally mean "darling", but among contemporary Chinese Internet users, it has very weak emotion and only means "hey there", especially on Taobao, an eBay-like website.


imo, yexxxxxxxxxx and wikxxxxxxx are suitable for beginner only. if you’re interested in etymology, use proper, and better tools; please.

multi-function chinese character database (漢語多功能字庫)

it’s maintained by the chinese university of hong kong

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

read the text in the middle, compare the character in oracle, bronze and seal script.

or, try the 小學堂 , of taiwan

http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=497

read the character in oracle script, make a mental image :)


How many 行书 semi-cursive handwriting variants

If you want to learn 行书 for practical, I can post some styles for you.

荆霄鹏

====

田英章

========

顾仲安

======

卢中南

========

任平

They are the most famous calligraphers modern times, the most populars are 顾仲安 and 田英章, my favourite is 顾仲安.

Here is more from 顾仲安.

楷书

行书

顾仲安 publish many 字帖, and there are video tutorials, groups on line.


additional information：＂汉语动词３８０例＂参加／参与 例 释 一、 参加 １. 这词运动会他参加了五个项目的比赛。动词＂参加＂的意思是加入某种组织或某种活动又例如：a。他要去参加下个星期在上海举行的学术会议。b。他参加了中国教育代表团，下个月去欧洲访问。c。关于这个城市的建设计划他参加过讨论。２。 是否组织旅行？你能参加点儿意见吗？＂参加＂在这儿的意思是对某事或某一问题提出意见。又例如：a。这个问题还得请大家多参加参加意见。b。我参加不了多少意见，还是听听大家的。＂参加＂表示这种意思的时候，可以重叠使用，但它通常不单独做谓语。二、参与１。 他曾参与过这个计划的讨论。动词＂参与＂的意思是进入到某事物的计划、讨论、处理等活动中去。又例如：a。跟你无关的事你别参与进去。b。我从没参与过他们的活动。＂参与＂跟＂参加＂在这儿意思是相同，可以相互替换，但＂参加＂的意思更广泛，＂参与＂不含加入某种组织的意思。

＂汉语同义词词典＂ 加入／参与／参加［同］动词。表示投身于其中。［异］［加入］ 着重于投身于某种组织，成为其中的成员。通用于口语和书面语。例：（１）当我发现了中国革命的正确道路时，我便加入了中国共产党。（朱德＜母亲的回忆＞）（２）我不久就加入了学生军。预备北伐！（田汉＜创作经验谈＞）（３）在县城里出售了茧后，他找着了他的战友，竟加入到战友的包工队里，一住就是两个月没有回来。（贸平凹＜鸡窝洼的人家＞）

［参与］ 又作＂参预＂。着重于投身于某种活动。用于书面语。文言语体。例：（１）在画栋雕梁的怀仁堂里，我参与一次代大会。（柯灵＜历史老人摊了牌＞）（２）左翼作家参预或亲历实际革命斗争，使创作面貌继续有所变化；。。。（严家谈＜＜中国现代各流派小说选＞前言）（３）家里人都看我不起，因为我是女的，又穷又小，大小事都不让我参预。（丁玲＜我怎样跟文学结下了＂缘分＂＞）（４）伯韩就这样在风雨中喘息，在喘息中写作。同时，所有的一切政治活动，他都参与其事。（张毕来＜悼念曹伯韩同志＞）

［参加］ 着重于投身于某种组织或某种活动。使用范围比＂加入＂、＂参与＂宽。通用于口语和书面语。例：（１）一九四四年，闻一多参加了中国民主同盟，担任了＜民主周刊＞的编委。（赵遐秋＜闻一多和他的＜最后一次的讲演＞）（２）我脱离了地方，带了一批同志，参加了大部队。（谌容＜永远是春天＞）（３）＂你到上海去找觉慧也好，横竖我们可以联络，你也可以问参加我们的工作，＂张惠如说。（巴金＜秋＞）（４）果然，回回两口参加了禾禾的婚礼，在鸡窝洼里落了个好名声。（贾平凹＜鸡窝洼的人家＞）（５）从这以后，赵满囤就参加了田间劳动。（马烽＜三年早知道＞）

［附］ ＂加入＂还表示加上；搀进去，如＂菜里边要加入少许糖＂。＂参加＂还表示提出，如＂请参加意见＂＞


well, you're reading a bad example of written vernacular chinese, trying to pretend it has a classical chinese origin, with invented details.

  天氣晴朗

it's an error. the possible choice of word is 清朗 or 澄朗; both means clear, crisp sky.

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000102154

about the starting time of evening, in ancient; it's 1900 hrs.

one night (一夜) is divided into 5 night-watches (五更); midnight is 三更,

戌時 (1900 - 2100 hrs) is 一更

子時 (2300 - 0100 hrs) is 三更, that's why we've "三更半夜"

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000144495


Why does the romanization Mahjong have a final H after ma?

Refer to Mahjong In The West

I think it is just a translation problem.

In the old times, romanisation in Chinese Language like Cantonese Romanisation is not really common, like in this case, Mahjong might be translated from the Wu Dialect or Northern Chinese Language, I'm not sure about that.

You might also refer to this The Mahjong Origin

I hope I did answer your question. :)


How to express "have fun!" or "enjoy!" in Chinese?

玩得开心 or 尽兴。 Seems that in Chinese, there's no equal saying of having fun.


What do 了 and 好 indicate in ...别人用了我们的赠品，觉得好...?

Does this sentence indicate something about completion of an action or something in the past?

'verb + 了' indicate the verb is completed, but it doesn't indicate any tense, It can be in the past or in the future.

Example:

昨天我(吃了)就睡 - I slept after I ate yesterday

現在我(吃了)又要去睡 - now I've eaten, I have to sleep again

明天我(吃了)還是要去睡 - I will still sleep after I've eaten tomorrow.

In all three sentences, 了 only indicate the action 吃 is completed.

  别人用了我们的赠品，觉得好

'If' is implied.

如果(if) 别人(people) 用了 (used) 我们的赠品 (our gifts)，觉得好 (consider it is good)

别人(people) 用了 (used) 我们的赠品 (our gifts)，如果(if they) 觉得好 (consider it is good)


Yes, 希 can refer to Greek, 希腊； or 希伯来 Hebrew; But I would be very carful in using it as it may causes confusion unless the context is very clear. For example, 他會説英德希三種語言。is confusing, definitely not Spanish (西 would be used).  But is it 希腊 or 希伯来？ For minor languages (in the sense of not many people use it), we tend to use the full name: 希伯来语，希腊语，意迪绪语，... etc.  Alas, this so happened in human history: "The last Mohigan"; the 莫歇语 (the only person who know it passed 10 years ago), especially the languages spoken without writting.


translating the word and picture from Chinese to english

喜欢
I am fond of you
（心脏）
(pulls on my heart strings)
就是
that is
想嫁给你的
want-to-marry-you
那种喜欢。
that kind of fondness.

(Romantic music tinkles in the background, advertisements for diamond rings appear. In the next scene, they are in Las Vegas. My advice: if she doesn't say 'I love you' directly, she probably doesn't. She is beating around the bush.)


How do the words 我主張制止不了就放任 piece together?

我 = I
主張 = propose; suggest; say
(如果;既然) 制止不了 = (if; since) it can't be stopped
就放任. = then/just let it be

我主張制止不了就放任 - I say if/ since it can't be stopped, just let it be


Why use 交货 in 我们可不可以把有些数量提前到三月交货？

Consider this part of your sentence with 交货 (t: 交貨) omitted, its spot represented by the ___ below, this would be what it looks like, loosely translated:

subject:           predicate:
... some amounts   be rescheduled earlier for March ___

There are some terms or concepts in language that, although are not verbs themselves, have a commonly associated course of action understood by everybody. Only in such cases, it is possible a further specific verb, course of action ___ can be omitted. However,

Amounts:

is not normally understood as some kind of verb or some kind of action, for which you can then associate with a schedule clause
in this case, with no further context, there is no single "obvious" course of action to relate to amounts. For example amounts if talking about some physical goods or material resource, depending on what kind of goods or material resource, can have associated actions such as extraction, refinement, disposal, audit, inventory (taking), and yes, also delivery. Without further context there is no evidence that "delivery" is the correct interpretation

Example, omit action:

subject:               predicate
... the belly dancer   be rescheduled earlier for 7PM ___

As in Can the belly dancer be rescheduled earlier for 7PM ?
it is commonly understood that a belly dancer belly dances, that is a commonly associated course of action understood by everybody
thus you do not need the additional ___ to clarify for 7PM belly dancing
you would normally only specify the ___ action clarification, if the belly dancer were to do something other than the expected belly dancing

However in your posted example, without further context, since amounts does not necessarily have a commonly associated course of action delivery, of course you need to clarify and specify which of the possible action of amounts you intend to reschedule.

Image credit: http://www.picgifs.com/graphics/belly-dancing/graphics-belly-dancing-471150-794732/


酷！= "Cool!", transliteration from English
酷毙了！= "Cool to die for" (was a popular phrase in the 90s)
牛！ = literally means bull, but here means "genius"; used to describe people only

  他数学太牛了！He's so good at math!

  这个杂技演员太牛了！The acrobat is so talented!

太棒了！= literally "Too great!", or "Fantastic!"

  爸妈下周带我们去海边。Mom and Dad will take us to the beach next week.

  太棒了！Awesome!

帅！= "Handsome!" ("帅翻了" is also a popular phrase used among teenage girls. I don't know how much adults understand/like this usage.)
帅呆了！(was a popular phrase in the 90s)

  周杰伦已经过气了，现在最火的是许嵩。你看了她新出的MV了吗？Jay Chou is passé. Xu Song is what everybody's been talking about lately. Have you seen the music video he just posted?

  一个字，帅！(Literally:) I can only use one word to describe it - handsome!

爽！= what you say when you are feeling refreshed and comfortable (after having some ice-creams on a hot summer day, taking public revenge on your long-time enemy
爽死了！
真好！= "Really/truly good!"
真不错！= literally "really not bad"; "Really good!"
厉害！= used to express admiration of someone's skill (If you want to use it in a sentence, remember to say "他很厉害/他特别厉害/他超级厉害"; "他厉害" is incorrect.)


Original phrase: You’ll earn less building rockets than you’ll earn selling eggs

It's 搞导弹的不如卖茶叶蛋的. It's usually used to describe 脑体倒挂, the special social phenomenon in 1980s and 1990s at Mainland China.

  脑体倒挂是指相同条件下脑力劳动者的报酬低于或等于体力劳动者取得的报酬数量。

[ 脑体倒挂 means under same condition, mental workers' income is less than blue-collar workers'. ]


You can use Demon City.

魔都 (used for 上海) came from the novel 魔都 written by 村松梢風 in 1924, and according to wikipedia, the novel's name is translated as Demon City.

Note that you don't have to translate 都 into capital, because it means big city too.

  ● 都
  　1. 大都市：～市。～会。通～大邑。


Is there a way to differentiate Kanji and Hanzi?

You can only differentiate Kanji and Hanzi by looking into the context. Most Japanese Kanji look exactly like Chinese Hanzi because they were copied from  Hanzi.

There are few unique Kanji that's coined by Japanese and not in use in Chinese. Those are called Kokuji. Kokuji are inspired by Hanzi, but not copied from, they can be easily identified as Japanese

Also, some Japanese characters are simplified different from the Mainland China's simplied Hanzi, but the non-simplified Kanji all look the same as traditional Chinese


Why can't 去 or 回来 be used with 在 or 正在 to become progressive

The answer is "habit".
Because we don't write or talk in that way.

For example, both 肥 and 胖 mean "fat".
We call a fat person as 胖子.
肥子 is not usual because we don't have the habit.

He is going to school.
We translate it into 他在去學校的途中.
We don't have the habit to say 他在去學校.

That fat guy is going to school.
那胖子在去學校的路上。
??? 那肥子在去學校。 ???

Besides 去 and 來, 返, 歸, 往 and 到 are also included.
These verbs are used together with something like "on the way (途中／路上)" to express the progressive tense.

回 is acceptable. For instance,
Q: "他有沒有回電話？" (Did he call back?)
A: "他正在回。" (He is calling back.)


Despite the cynic fever on tattooing Chinese characters on one's body, let me try to help:

幸运混蛋（Simplified Chinese）
幸運混蛋（Traditional Chinese）

They are correct translation for Lucky Bastard. But when someone reads it, it sounds a bit weird.
Maybe you could consider this term:

混世魔王

It means a demon/monster king who disturbs the world.


Still should be shan1 but probably they have some 翘舌音 problems, i.e. cant pronounce ch, sh, zh etc. A lot of Chinese variants don't have 翹舌音 so these pronunciations become problematic.

Count it as an accent.


Difference between 发愁，着急，担心，关心，操心，烦恼

发愁 - The things to worry are like huge fruits hanging on their stem. It burdens.

着急 - So worried to urge oneself to "do something!" (at all)

担心 - Concerned about something, say a friend's health. The heart feels like hanging in the air.

关心 - Generally care about something, may or may not to an extent of concerning. (Btw, I so agree with your definition for this one)

操心 - Devote oneself into something, put a lot of efforts or thinking's into, because one cares about it or is concerned about it. For example, a parent may be so worried about the child's study, that they take a lot of efforts to research which school is better, which teacher is better, which major is safer, etc.

烦恼 - It can be both a word or a noun, either "to worry about" or "worry". But the degree of worry can be a bit intense. 烦 means annoyance and 恼 means anger. They together lean more towards annoyance, or generally anything that's mentally disturbing or causes discomfort. Or as a verb, it means staying full of those annoying emotions.


Sort of.

The the generic 分润 just means "profit-sharing", which is also an easily understood, and similarly generic, English term. Alternatively, "a cut of the profit" would also be widely understood, but obviously that's not a single word.

You might also be able to use the English term "fee-splitting", if you're talking about sharing fees with a referrer for referring a client (typically, doctors or lawyers). In situations of a illegal connotation, the term "rake-off" could be used. Similarly, the term "kickback" could be used, but illegality/coercion tends to be implied with that as well.

If you insist on a single word, the generic profit sharing meaning has a word borrowed from French: tantième. I doubt it's a term with much currency in real life, however.


This is the best explanation I think.
 In this case, prep. 在 can't be omitted.

Updates:

In this case, you have to differentiate with the meaning, instead of grammar.

In Chinese, 一起 can mean

in the same place
at the same time or in company.
in all; altogether;

When it refers to in the same place, it has to be preceded by 在. While it refers to at the same time or in company, it will be used alone without 在. For example, 我们一起去的。When it refers to in all or altogether, it's just 一起, like 一共. For example, 这些商品一起多少钱？== 这些商品一共多少钱？


Examples of "bad" simplified characters/简体字?

for 形聲字, the simplification made severe, unrepairable damages to the chinese culture.

for example, the character 難(u+96e3); it's composed by the 172th radical 隹(u+96b9); and the component (u+26c29), that's a phonetic component, which was shared by numerous characters.

the 說文解字 stated: 難　鳥也﹒從鳥﹒堇聲

while 堇(u+5807) is a character since oracle script, ; later, it's derived to 堇(u+5807)

& (u+26c29)

back to the phonetic component 堇. in cantonese, 堇 is pronounced as gan2　sound file, which has the 韻母 (final) "an".

so, characters share this phonetic component 堇, guess how they pronounce?

難(u+96e3)　naan4　sound file

嘆(u+5606)　taan3　sound file

艱(u+8271)　gaan1　sound file

after thousands of years, the 韻母 (final) of these characters are changed slightly from "an" to "aan", isn't marvellous?

therefore, the simplified script of 难, 叹 & 艰 lose the phonetic component 堇; that no-one in modern time, or generations in the future would associate the correct pronunciation from the component of the simplified character.

c'est patrimoine culturel perdu ☠

lastly, i think that this question is excellent; i worried about the temporary "hold on" status of it. may i ask the rationale of this decision?


在 in front of the nouns like tomorrow or exact dates and time

Yes, you can put 在 in your examples. And...

Pay attention to words like today/tomorrow, you can only add 在 when the time goes as a noun rather an adverb.
希望就在明天
明天会更美好: do not put 在 before.

In particular, for the first example, 在 must be added, check the differences below.
早在八月...: since August.
早八月...: error.
（在）八月初...:  in early August.


You can just say 哎呀，太贵了！ to express the meaning.


What is the difference between 响，声，and 音

Tuttle

响〔響〕

  ADJECTIVE

  loud, noisy

  教室里在考试, 你们说话声音别这么响。

  Jiàoshì li zài kǎoshì, nǐmen shuōhuà shēngyīn bié zhème xiǎng.

  There's an examination in progress in the classroom. Don't talk so loudly.

声

  NOUN

  sound, noise, voice

  机器声太大, 我听不清你说什么。

  Jīqì shēng tài dà, wǒ tīng bu qīng nǐ shuō shénme.

  The noise from the machine is too loud; I can't hear what you're saying.

音

  NOUN

  sound

Oxford

  ① sound

  噪音

  noise


How to fill in the blanks in 两个队的分数_都很_近?

两个队的分数全都很接近

shall work. however, this will imply that each team has multiple scores (like score for goals, for shots, for passes, etc.) and all scores are close.


As you may know, "Organic" in your case is originally a chemical term and its noun-"Organ" means "a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function" from Wikipedia. Once the chemists incorrectly believed that "organic compound" could only be produced by lifes. I think this is how "organic" comes from "organ". I don't find the exact origin of the word "有机" in Chinese, but I believe it originates as "organic" originates in English, from chemistry.
机 originally means

主发谓之机。—《说文》The thing that controls shoot is called 机. 《说文》is an old dictionary.
trigger on a bow. A structure used to shoot the arrow.

Some other meanings extend from the original one.

critical part(point) in a system
organ.  organ is a critical part in the body
mechanical structure. The critical part that controls the movement of a machine.

In recent times, after Chinese came in touch with sciences from the west, some pioneering scientists translated the terms in sciences. In general, they translated them in a liberal way. I think this is why “有机" means "organic", as you have "organic" from "organ" in English.


Why this header of "世界日报" is written as "世界曰报"？

It's correctly written, but in a different font called 隶书 Clerical script. It's one of the archaic style of writing. In general Chinese characters in 隶书 look wider, which makes 日 looks like 曰 in regular fonts.


There are two things that need to be aware of here.

The Chinese word 是(shi) is NOT equivalent to English "is/am/are". The Chinese 是(shi) functions as a "=". So both sides of the equal sign should have the same nature. So "ni shi mang" doesn't make sense.
A Chinese adjective is also a verb! That is, "mang" is already "to be busy"; "pretty" is already "to be pretty". Literally "you are busy" is "ni mang". But "hen" should be added to balance the rhythm of the sentence, and it isn't necessary to mean "very". So, the right sentence is "ni hen mang".

Finally, if you want to emphasize "very busy", it can be "ni fei chang mang".


Some real life examples to help identify the differences:

In general, "做" is almost always a verb that has some real meanings. It is very close to English word "do" in its verb form and "make". E.g. "Do your job!" = "做好你的工作!", "do nothing"="什么也不做", "make love" = "做爱", "make some cakes" = "做些蛋糕", etc.

For the word "作", in my personal opinion for now, acts as a function word (虚词) more often than having some real meanings. E.g. "作为" = "as/act as", "装作" = "pretend as". In these examples, it is really close to "as".

One of the most common "real meaning" usages of "作" is "compose": "作曲" = "compose a music", "创作" = "compose/create/write".

Another very common exception of "作" is the word "作文". It is a noun means "essay" or generally the "writing assignments" for students. Without checking it up, I don't even know what exactly "作" in "作文" means.

All in all, "做" is much more widely used as it is really similar as English "make" and "do".


Chinese/English/Pinyin Books For Young Adult Readers

Kindle books in Chinese, and Clavis Sinica texts, already have pinyin and English available as electronic look-up.   Both formats have a good variety of things already available.

Furthermore, even a low-tech computer user like me can learn to make Kindle files, or Clavis Sinica files, from pretty much any Chinese text you find on-line.  So you can use this to read classic poets, or 20th century works now in the public domain like The True Story of Ah Q, or any number of things archived on various sites on line.

You can make such a book, or shorter article, out of pretty much any Chinese text on-line.  Note this kind of file conversion is legal when the text itself free to reproduce.  Pirated texts of works under copyright are another matter.


防 ~ defence

海 ~ sea

固 ~ strong

圉 ~ prison in ancient time

roughly, "nautical defence (防海) with a strong (固) fort (圉)"

another possible translation is:

the usage of (omitted) strong (固) fort (圉) in maritime (海) defence (防).

i guess it's a summering phrase in the article "防海固圉：論明代澎湖和臺灣兵防角色之差異性"

have fun :)


批判 is to criticize in a formal, comprehensive way. E.g. 对于传统文化我们要批判继承. (批评 isn't fit)

批评 is casual and specific. E.g. 老师总批评我上课不认真听课. (批判 isn't fit)

If those criticisms are casual, specific, and not that serious in your case, you should use 批评. I don't expect "how I'm praying, how I'm eating" deserves a comprehensive one. They might just criticize for your certain behavior and try to correct you. In this case, 批评(criticize)和指正(correct) are the words you could use.

If you find those criticisms annoying, you could use 指手画脚, 评头论足, and etc.

P.S. Colloquially, you can say for your situation: 现在我觉得伊斯兰规矩太多了，经常有人说我这不对那不对的。(烦死了！)


Why do the Taiwanese have such strange characters for names?

TL;DR
Because some "fortune tellers" would suggest these characters.

Lots of parents go ask fortune tellers for names before giving birth to their children.  Now young people in these generation seldom do that, but some of their parents(the children's parents) still ask them to do that.

And sometimes, for example, fortune tellers would suggest that there should be some "火(fire)" in the baby's name because that child will be too tender.

Not every Taiwanese believes in this, but some really do.


Reminisce doesn't have a "happy remembering" meaning, nor does it imply spending any time with anyone, friends or family or otherwise. Reminisce only means "to remember, talk, or write about the past (in an indulging way)". Thinking about "happy things in the past" as the question wanted is more like "to reminisce fondly".

The closest match in Chinese is 追憶 / 追忆, meaning "to remember past events". It is similar to 回憶, but 追憶 evokes a stronger, more emphatic feel, making it more similar to English's "to reminisce".

In contrast, 懷舊 / 怀旧 conveys a sense of cherishing the memories. Its means "yearning for the past", rather than recalling it, and implies rose-tinted glasses. Note that 懷舊 is also a noun, meaning "nostalgia".

Another suggestion that can't be used for reminisce is 懷緬, or more correctly 緬懷. It actually means "imagining the past (history, not memory)" or "cherishing the memory (typically, of someone who died)". For example, "Commemorating my late mother (緬懷天上的媽媽)". Rather inappropriate for translating reminisce.

What the question really asks for seems to be "to reminisce with friends and family". For this sense of the word, a good Chinese option is 敘舊 / 叙旧 - literally, "to talk about olden days". This word is strictly about reminiscing with people, and works well for situations such as "to reminisce with old friends at the high school reunion (在高中同學會與老友敘舊)". Note that 敘舊 can't be used for general thinking, remembering, or writing.


Is there a difference between "几点" (jǐdiǎn) and "什么时候" (shénmeshíhou)?

几点，as the 点 word implies, requires that your answer include a specific time, expressed in with reference to the clock, as in "five thirty pm" “ten minutes past six".

什么时候 is less specific, as 时候 means any time or period of time. Your answer can also be given just as if asked with 几点, but it can be anything else which bears sufficient information for answering your question, such as "tonight", "just now", "two hours later", "when my brother reaches home", "just before I sleep". Beyond the scope of 几点, 什么时候 extends beyond the limit of the day. Therefore, your answer can also be "two weeks ago", or "near the end of the year".

When asking questions, 什么时候 is a more flexible word, suitable for asking most questions, especially if your answer cannot be an exact time, e.g. "before I sleep" in the case that you don't sleep exactly the same time everyday. However, if you need the exact time, such as that of a meeting/event, 几点 would serve you better.


When should I use 地 with an adjective and when should I not use it with an adverb (and why do some adverbs require 地)?

一个劲儿地 is not a standard adverb, It is an adverbial phrase
一个劲儿 (constant effort) is a noun. Adding 地 make it an adverbial phrase 一个劲儿地 (with constant effort)
刻苦 is not only an adjective, it can also be an adverb or noun

Is it common to omit 地 on an adjective, even if the adjective works as an adverb?

強烈反對 could mean 'strong objection [強烈 (adj) 反對 (n)] or 'strongly object' [強烈 (adv ) 反對 (v)] .

強烈地反對 could only mean 'strongly object'. Without another context, you cannot omit 地 when you meant to use it as an adverb

You can only omit 地 when the context clearly indicated 強烈 is an adverb, not an adjective. For example, 他強烈地反對 (he strongly objects) can be reduced to 他強烈反對

猛烈攻擊 could mean 'fierce (adj) attack (n)' or 'fiercely (adv) attack (v)'

猛烈地攻擊 could only mean 'fiercely attack'. Without another context, you cannot omit 地 when you meant to use it as an adverb

You can only omit 地 when the context clearly indicated 猛烈 is an adverb, not an adjective. For example: '對他猛烈地攻擊' (fiercely attack him) can be reduced to '對他猛烈攻擊'

Does it depends on each adjective that it is OK to omit 地? In other words, you can omit 地 on some adjectives but cannot on others?

See the examples above. Notice, an adjective that is exclusively for nouns cannot be turned into an adverb by adding 地. For example 強大，細小，好，壞

Is it common to use 地 on adverbs as well? If that is the case, why do adverbs need 地 in the first place?

Adverb with 地 emphasizes 'the manner' of the action. For example '大力地打'

Adverb without 地 focus on the verb itself, with the adverb as an equal-weighted complement. For example '大力打'

Single character adverbs usually don't use 地. For example '痛打'，'狠批' (never '痛地打'，'狠地批')

Likewise does it depend on each adverb if it requires 地?

Yes, usually adverb for verb can be used with or without 地. (see example above).  Adverb for adjective does not need 地, E.g. 局部成功,  絶頂聰明 (never 局部地成功, 絶頂地聰明)


Where can I find audio recordings of every word?

For example, you can go to Forvo.com. (You can find the Chinese section at this address; on the right you see the top users that provided most audios.)

It's a huge database of words, characters, expressions in any language provided by users. The good thing is there's a lot of stuff, but the down-side is that although some users provided many audios (so you have a sort of consistency), you'll have to switch between different audios not recorded professionally, although they usually are not low quality.


What are common adverbs in classical Chinese?

'As far as i know, adverbs in classical chinese are put right in front of the verb',

As far as my knowledge, it's not the case. In classical lecture of Chinese, the position of adverb are very flexible. There is some pattern, but still, very flexible.

The trick in classical lecture: there are many order-reverse cases depending on such as what would be addressed more. It makes it hard to understand before you get used to it.


Is there any distinction between 二百 (èrbǎi) and 两百 (liǎng bǎi) which both mean "two hundred"?

This is more idiolectal. I personally use more 两百, which are also the preference of the most people I met within so many years.

However, in some context, it should be fixed. For example, we say someone is 二百五 which  means someone is an idiot. In this context, 二百五 sounds idiomatic.


How extensible is the tonal quality rule?

Like others have told you, you might be confused a little bit. First of all, while languages have words made of syllables, Chinese has characters where each character is a syllable. These syllables can be written using the Latin alphabet with some systems, Pinyin being the most common one. Syllables can have 5 different tones: high, rising, fall-rising, falling and neutral.

According to the syllable and the tone attached to it, you can have a different meaning (excluding the fact that many characters cannot stand alone).

If you write "mā", it doesn't necessarily mean "mother", since that Pinyin transcription can refer to different characters. For example, the characters below are all read as mā:

The one on the left-center is the Traditional form for 妈, which means "ma, mamma".

Not only that, the same character can have different readings, which means different meanings. But also in the same reading, we have different meanings! See the character 着 for example:

As you see, 着 has 5 different readings, but much more meanings, even for one single reading. I know this might scare you from learning Chinese, but once you start, you'll get used to it.


What's the difference between 看起来 and 看上去?

I am not a linguist, and thus can only give you my perspective as a native speaker.

Yes, they are quite similar. So I would only talk about their subtle differences here.

看起来： More often, 看起来 is used when you make a guess by FEELing but not necessarily really physically seeing.

e.g. Today you did not come to school because of a bad fever.
I may call you and say:"今天怎么没来上学啊？看起来你上病了啊！"
Note here that I did NOT see you at all before I make the guess that you are sick.

看上去： 看上去 is used usually when you express your feeling by really seeing something.

e.g. The moment I see my girlfriend in a beautiful dress. I may go like:"亲爱的，你今天看上去真漂亮！". Note here I can also use 看起来.

To summarize:

You may use 看起来 no matter you really see it or not, but when you see something, I recommend you 看上去. But Please note that it may largely depend on personal preferences.


Boris, try this one: http://www.zhongguosou.com/zonghe/cipintongji.aspx

The UI is in Chinese, you may have to figure out how to use it.  I tried it myself. It is not user friendly. But this is the only one I found so far.


I visited shanghai a few years ago and bought a necklace. Unfortunately, I don't remember what the necklace says. Can someone help me translate?

It is“想得美”,means "like your wish"or "don't be naive";)


Which is more common in Mandarin: 四處 or 周圍?

四處 is better than 周圍 in this case. However, I think you can consider 到處.

The house will have your books everywhere.
這房子將到處都有你的書。

From Google Translate:

  everywhere 副詞
      到處
      everywhere, throughout, in all places
      隨處
      everywhere, anywhere
      遍
      all over, everywhere
      隨地
      anywhere, everywhere
      普
      everywhere
      廣泛地
      abroad, diffusely, everywhere, large, at large, proverbially
      在在
      everywhere


"Weng" syllables rhyme with the fnal -ong

In the second paragraph, what does end refer to?

When I speak, I tends to do something like this /wʊ-ɤŋ/. I have never noticed this behavior before. For the word 老翁 (old man), if you say it either way: /lɑʊ.wʊŋ/, /lɑʊ.wəŋ/, /lɑʊ.wɤŋ/, /lɑʊ.wʊəŋ/, etc, they are all interpreted as the same word, thus "free variations". This depends on the individual accent.

I have never studied rhymes seriously before, so if your book says "weng" rhymes with "tong", then they must be using the /wʊŋ/ way of speaking. For example: 通風 (air circulation) may be pronounced as /tʊŋ.fʊŋ/ or /tʊŋ.fɤŋ/, but never as /tɤŋ.fɤŋ/. I personally say /tʊŋ.fɤŋ/.

As for your last quote, I don't understand how the free variation has complementary distribution.


Is it common to learn individual characters before two-characters words?

I can tell you about my experience, I typically follow a mixed approach learning at the same time multiple characters words and its individual components. I learn Chinese doing lessons following the HSK exam levels (currently I am doing the HSK level 3). In every lesson, they introduce new words given by the HSK level. The order in which the words are introduced correspond approximately to their usage frequency; I believe learning the most used words and grammar structures is the optimal way for learning to communicate in Chinese (note, for example, the top 500 characters are used the 79.2% / 72.1% of times).
So my main goal is learning the words in this order. However, I find very useful for multiple character words to look for the meaning of their individual characters. Some of them are very general and abstract and they are not helpful, but in other cases they have clear meanings and help you understand and remember the multiple character word, such as 飞机 (flying machine: plane), 照相机 (machine for taking pictures: camera), 头疼 (head hurts: headache), etc.
In conclusion, if your aim is to communicate in Chinese, I would suggest to focus on learning the most frequent words. However, to understand multiple character words, it can be useful to look for the meaning of each character and on the way, sometimes learn these.


我把作业写完了。 This is correct. I've finished my homework.

我正在写得完作业。→ 我正在写作业。I'm doing my homework.

我写着作业到完了。→ 我一直把作业写到完为止。I've been doing my homework until it was done.

着 isn't used as much as people think, contrary to what grammar texts might explain. It's used more in written Chinese than in spoken Chinese, but that's just my opinion. Other natives might disagree.

Hope that helps. :)


I'm a native Chinese speaker.

If you want a cup of coffee, it is okay to say:

  我要一杯咖啡

but actually, in most cases, you should say:

  我想要一杯咖啡

This is because "想要" is more polite, although "want" means both "想要" and "要" if we directly translate it.

Regarding your question, if you want to tell people that you really want something (or to do something), you should say it in a polite way. So you should say

  我很想要一杯咖啡

By the way, if you feel this complicated, you can simply forget the expression of "我要 + something", and just say "我想要 + something" everywhere.


Different consecutive (therefore) and causative (because) conjunctions

他很累，从而晚上9点就上床了。

从而 means "since then/after that" - '他很累' is not a specific event, therefore the sentence is not grammatical

既然他很累，就晚上9点就上床了。

wrong final particle, it should be "既然他很累，就晚上9点就上床吧!"

他晚上9点就上床了, 因而他很累。
He went to bed at just(就) nine O'clock, therefore (因而) he is very tired

Why would he went to bed as early as 9:00PM caused him to be tired?
Also, you don't need to use the pronoun 他 twice in the same sentence.
A better example:

"他每晚9点就上床, 因而从未看过十点播放的新闻。" -- "He goes to bed at 9 o'clock every night, so he has never seen the news broadcast at 10 o'clock."

因而 is an independent conjunction . As long as there's a clause stating a reason, you can use  因而 to connect it to the clause stating the result, For example: "他家中没有电视, 因而从未看过十点播放的新闻"


“The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”

The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.
  股市保持非理性的時間, 要比保持破產的時間長。

The first part is okay (although there is no Chinese word meaning "can" or "able to"), but in the second part 保持破產 = "maintain bankruptcy" = "remain bankrupt" is the opposite of what the quote says.  (Also, it might not be a Keynes quote.)

The grammar structure 比...长 is also not the closest possible match to the English, so I wouldn't use it (even though it's correct).

Anyway, let's see how it's translated online:

  市场保持非理性的时间可以长到令你破产。
  -- 凯恩斯
  克纳普，理性的股票投资, 2013；Google Books (screenshot)

The last part above 长到令你破产 is something like "extends until you go bankrupt".  I think 市场 = "market" is more general than 股市 = "stock market" (I believe shorthand for 股票市场); maybe 股市 is more precise.

  基本面保持非理性的时间可能会超过你能够保持清偿能力的时间。
  财富, 2009; Google Books

Here 超过 = "exceed" and 清偿能力 = "solvency" are suitable.  However, I feel the 可能 = "possibly" feels wrong (the quote does not say "possibly longer", just "longer").  Also, having both 能够 and 能力 seems excessive.  [I'm not sure what 基本面 is doing at the start here.]

  市场保持非理性状态的时间可能超过你保持清偿能力的时间。
  CReaders.net

Here 状态 is used to mean "state" (as in "a state of irrationality").  I don't think it's needed.

Combining these ideas, I suggest:

  股市能保持非理性的时间超过你保持清偿能力的时间。
  My direct translation: The stock market can maintain irrationality time exceeds your maintain solvency time.
  Google Translate: The stock market can remain irrational longer than you can maintain solvency.


做你能做的

or

做你可做的 sometimes means 'Do what you allowed'

and

做你力所能及的, Do what you are abled to


What does "GHTJK" stand for in this part of a Wiktionary: entry: "...composition ⿸丆卜(GHTJK) or ⿻丆"

They're one-letter abbreviations for different standards, because some characters appear differently in different standards. From https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Template:Han_char#Notes:

G = the PRC and Singapore standard (referring to Table of General Standard Chinese Characters 通用規範漢字表);
H = Hong Kong, referring to List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters 常用字字形表;
T = Taiwan, referring to Standard Form of National Characters 國字標準字體;
J = Japan, referring to Jōyō kanji 常用漢字;
K = South Korea, which I think refers to Basic Hanja for educational use 漢文敎育用基礎漢字
V = Vietnam (I'm not sure which standard this is referring to though)

The presence of a letter indicates that the given IDS is true for the corresponding standard; GHTJK means the given IDS is true for PRC & Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.


Ordering and grouping of Chinese characters

Because I do not know your competence in Chinese / Cantonese, here's some vague advice:

Maybe 2 lists. The first list of characters / words are grouped by function:

e.g. number (1, 2, 3 ...), location / direction (here, there, east, west).

Have a look at the Lonely Planet Cantonese phrasebook; you'll know what I mean.

http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/china/cantonese-phrasebook-7/

Then, another list is sorted by alphabet, just like a dictionary. Again, have a look at these free resources from the internet archive:

An English and Cantonese pocket-dictionary

Cantonese for beginners

English and Cantonese dictionary

The Cantonese made easy vocabulary

Just a reminder, these books are published in the 18-19th centuries, some terms are not politically correct nowadays.

Another source: the 國語辭典 from Taiwan is authoritative. You may download 3 Excel files, sort all volumes, then find a suitable way for yourself.

Have fun :)


make/become friends. 成为朋友，交朋友。 Since we were friends

"Since" can mean "既然" (as) or "自从" (from the time)

"Since we are friends" is not translated as "自从我们是朋友". It is translated as "既然我们是朋友" (as we are friends).

"Since the time we were friends" is translated as "自从我们是朋友那時候起"

Your teacher is correct, "自从我们(是)朋友" is problematic because the verb "是" (is) doesn't has the meaning of "become"

"Since we'd became friends" should be translated as "自从我们交上了朋友" or "自从我们成为了朋友" (Since the time we'd became friends)


The discussion on zdict basically explains that the Oracle bone script morphed (讹变) into its current form, but this transformation did not follow standard rules.
The original Oracle bone script shows a man riding a horse, which means "to ride" (i.e. what 骑 means today), but when small seal script was developed, the horse morphed into 可, which violates the usual practice of keeping the meanings the same. The character also acquired the meanings of "unusual" or "strange":

甲骨文“奇”字，人骑在马上，小篆“奇”字“马”讹变为“可”（“字源字形”栏目），本义跨坐、骑坐，“骑”本字，借为①特殊的、不常见的：奇怪、奇异、稀奇，②出人意料的、令人不测的：奇兵、奇计、出奇制胜，又借为：
◎ jī 单数、与“偶数”相对：奇数、奇偶、奇函数。


Instead of =  代替; 而不是

[use(A) instead of (B)] = [use (A) 代替/ substitute (B)]
or
[use(A) instead of (B)] = [use (A) 而不是/ but not (B)]
Example:
Use carrot instead of stick = 用利誘代替威逼; 用利誘而不是(用)威逼
Use John instead of Peter = 用約翰代替彼得; 用約翰而不是(用)彼得
kill John instead of Peter = 殺約翰而不是(殺)彼得

Cantonese:
用利誘而唔係(用)威逼
殺約翰而唔係(殺)彼得

~

"pay me in Canadian dollar instead of Hong kong dollar" in Cantonese
用加幣代替(用)港元付款(俾我); 用加幣而唔係(用)港元付款(俾我)
words in () are optional

You are correct, '不如' means 'better off'. It is different from "instead of". "用利誘(不如)用威逼" means "(better off) use stick than use carrot"


Best words in Chinese characterizing "cynical"?

犬儒
KEY defines it as:

cynic (esp. as Greek philosophical school)

and 汉语大词典 defines it as:

原指古 希腊 犬儒学派的哲学家。他们提出绝对的个人精神自由, 轻视一切社会虚套、习俗和文化规范, 过着禁欲的简陋生活, 被当时人讥为穷犬, 故称。后亦泛指具有这些特点的人。

Here’s an example of usage by 鲁迅 from Miscellaneous Thoughts

《小杂感》
蜜蜂的刺, 一用即丧失了它自己的生命；犬儒的刺, 一用则苟延了他自己的生命。

Which translates to something roughly like:
The sting of a bee, once used terminates his life; the sting of a cynic, on the other hand, is able to prolong his existence.
Eileen J. Cheng's translation:

Once a bee uses its sting, it loses its life immediately. Once a cynic uses his sting, he drags out his life momentarily.

If it is good enough for Mr. Lu Xun then it should be good enough for anyone.


Why is there a village called "Cat Cat Bamboo" (猫猫箐)?

I found an answer while I was writing up the question & figured I might as well share it.

Sohu has an article entitled:

你以为昆明的路名都是瞎起的？

in which they have an explanation of the name:

猫猫箐：在西山龙门西南面的山里，因为曾有虎豹（俗称猫猫）出没得名。此外，在嵩明县阿子营乡东南部也有一个猫猫箐，因“从前箐里有野猫出没而得名。”

They claim that the area used to have tigers and leopards that would emerge from the bamboo groves on the mountains.
I'm not sure about the assertion that they used to have leopards, though. In South Western Mandarin 猫猫 can definitely be a jocular term for tigers.
《成都方言》 has the following example:

猫猫 maomao ①猫。成都童谣：“～你不走，乖乖瞌睡有；～你不来，乖乖瞌睡来；～你不咬，乖乖要睡了。”②趣称老虎：～跑到村子里来了。亦作“花猫猫”。


Mainland China doesn't use 妳 anymore. 妳 is mostly used in Hong Kong and Taiwan where they still use Traditional Chinese.

As you mentioned in the question, 妳 is used to address a female person. In mainland China, people use 你 for both males and females.

Note: the right hand side of 你 or 妳 is 尔. In Traditional Chinese, 尔 is written as 爾. However, as far as I know, 你 and 妳 in Traditional Chinese are not written as 儞 not 嬭 but just 你 and 妳.


Should I use modal (语气) "了" in: 我去抽烟 vs. 我去抽烟了?

我去抽烟 is the standard way to express "I am going to have a cigarette". You don't need a "了" at all. Adding a "了" emphasizes the fact that you are about to do it RIGHT NOW. Sometimes, it implies that you are asking for others' opinions. For example, “如果没什么事，我去抽烟了.” （If you don't have anything else for me, I am going to have a cigarette now(outside).)


Does a dictionary exist that goes from full word -> abbreviation? Many only offer abbreviation -> full word

The baidu baike (http://baike.baidu.com/) often has the abbreviation listed under the main entry. 中华人民共和国国家发展和改革委员会, for example, has 国家发改委.  中华人民共和国国务院办公厅 lists both 国务院办公厅 and 国办.  And yes, 家用电器 points to 家电 as the simpler form, although it is somewhat hidden in the entry.


HSK6的第101题（缩写）请求反馈：富有爸爸和会花钱的儿子

我没有参加过这类考试, 且离开学校很久了, 所以我的建议未必适合你, 不过这是我的看法, 供参考.
题目要求不能有自己的观点
所以--儿子只有自由才能成功--这个观点应该删掉: , 这个句子的语法也有问题, 应该把"儿子"删掉, 只有自由才能成功, 否则会有父亲就不需要自由嘛这种感觉. 这个观点本身也有争议, 可能有人在监狱里关了一辈子, 但仍然成功了, 所以不能加上"只有".
下面是我改的

有钱的父亲担心他儿子乱花钱，常劝儿子该为自己负责，而不能总是靠爸爸的财富。有一天, 父亲告诉儿子他破产了。
这次儿子听了父亲的话，去了他父亲好友的公司，那个人是林先生。在林先生的训教下，儿子当上了总经理，娶了贤惠的妻子。
他老爸临终时脸上浮现了欣慰的样子，他留给儿子一封信, 告诉儿子他不是真的破产，而是用这种方法激励儿子.

下面我写的, 希望有帮助.

一个父亲是赚钱高手, 他总担心他的儿子花钱大手大脚，因此常常劝他. 儿子却听不进去. 直到有一天, 父亲告诉儿子他破产了. 儿子不得不自力更生.

父亲介绍儿子去了朋友--林先生的公司. 工作很辛苦, 不过儿子还是坚持了下来, 他当上了总经理, 还娶了一个贤惠的太太.

突然, 父亲病倒了. 儿子从父亲的律师那里知道, 父亲原来没有破产. 父亲的遗嘱里写到, 他的一半财产给林先生,条件是林先生要培养儿子成才, 另一半留给儿子.

儿子还收到父亲的一封信, 信里父亲告诉儿子, 他要用他全部家当换儿子成才.


How do I translate "舒服不如倒着，好吃不过饺子" in English?

As with most idioms, there's a couple ways to translate this non-literally.

If you want to go the old fashioned route, you can maybe quote from the Bible like:

  There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. (Ecclesiastes 2:24)

Or maybe the Spanish idiom:

  A full stomach makes a happy heart. (barriga llena, corazón contento)

You could of course modify those to be about dumpling specifically: i.e. A stomach full of dumplings makes a happy heart.

Or you can just try something from yourself:

  Life doesn't get better than relaxing in bed and eating delicious dumplings.


What is the meaning of "一把把" on "他更是一把把她的书包给枪了过去“？

The 一把把 here is made up of two different grammatical units:

The first 一把 is the classifier you mention. It is used to modify the action, and means something like "with one grab". It emphasizes that the action happened suddenly. Here are some examples from news websites:

  乘客 一把 拉开飞机安全门
  A passenger opened a plane's door with one grab.

  男子欲跳楼好友 一把 拉回去
  As a man wanted to jump off a building, his friend pulled him back with one grab

  走进人家客厅 一把 抢走手机
  Walking into someone's living room, [he] stole a cell phone with one grab

The second 把 is just the normal marker for the verb's object when it comes before the verb:

  他 把 书包抢了
  He stole the book bag

So 一把把 is not a grammatical unit here, it just happens that two parts of the sentence put two instances of the same word together:

  他 一把 抢了书包
  他 把 书包抢了


If I am to translate:

The cameras made her self-conscious about her weight:

拍照让他在意起自己的体重

Don't mention his acne, he's really self-conscious about it.

别提起他的暗疮，他很介意。

PS: I suppose you were right, we might not really have a definite word/phrase for its translation, but i'd say it is very close to 介意/在意


Rather than saying that 两 is used with nouns, I would say that 两 is used with measure words. If you use any type of measure word with the number 2, use 两. For convenience, I've identified 3 types of measure words:

Standard measure words, e.g. 两个人、两本书、两棵树.
Numbers that are larger than 100, e.g. 两百, 两千三百六十二. 百, 千, and 万 can be seen as a sort of measure word.
Time, e.g. 下午两点. Again, 点 functions as a type of measure word here.

二 is used when counting without measure words, such as in telephone numbers, metro lines (二线), addresses, etc.

ordinal, e.g. 第二个, 二哥. when you want to say the second, you can only use 二, it is wrong to say that 第两个.


Which radicals are used mostly just as phonetic?

This is an interesting question.

Before I say anything I should warn you that I am not a linguist and some of my terminology could be off. Just to share some of my insight as a native Chinese speaker and hopefully you will find it helpful.

I think there's some information lost in translation.

There're two related, similar but not interchangeable concepts called 偏旁(偏 means partial, 旁 means on the side) and 部首(literally means "section header"). However they are both translated as "radical".

While they are both components of Chinese characters, there are differences. From their literal meaning, you can loosely think 偏旁 as a partially-formed 部首 placing on one side of a character. With that in mind, 部首s are mostly used for classification purpose (as in a dictionary) and 偏旁 are mostly used when talking about character structure and composition (as in this question). But don't worry about that too much, since many native Chinese speakers couldn't tell the difference all the time either.

Take 阜 and 阝for example, you can see right away that 阝is a simplified version of 阜, hence it's a partial (偏) form of 阜. You can put it on the left side of a character, as in 阴, 阳. As well as on the right side, as in 邓, 都, 部 (though in this case, 阝is short for 邑 instead). In both situations, they have no contributions to the characters pronunciation.

Some other examples:

水 and 氵
心 and 忄
金 and 钅

To sum it up, 偏旁s almost never convey phonetic information, while 部首s (in the context of character composition, not for classification) sometimes do. 偏旁s almost always have something directly to do with characters meaning, while 部首s only sometimes and indirectly do. So it's not an exact science.


"封不觉 thought in mind."

Chinese language prefers that the heart thinks, not the brain thinks.


Is it possible to know what 都 means in "Subj + 都 + Predicate + 了"?

It expresses "already" with the structure: Subj. + 都 + Predicate + 了

Only '了' indicates 'completion of a verb' in this structure

'都' in [Subj. + 都 + Predicate + 了]  mean 'even'.  Try write a sentence in this structure without 了, and you wouldn't say 都 expresses "already".

Example:

"他(都)说 不知道" = "(even) he said he didn't know"
"他(都)说 不知道 (了)" = "He (has already) said he didn't know" or "(Even) he said he didn't know"

  It is used for "all" or "both" with the structure: Subj. + 都 + [Verb Phrase]

The 'all' and 'both' meanings can only apply with multiple objects

Example:

[A and B (都) + Verb Phrase] = [A and B (both) + Verb Phrase]
[subjects (都) + Verb Phrase] = [subjects (All) + Verb Phrase]

For a singular subject, 都 cannot expresses the meaning of 'all' or 'both' . It can only expresses 'Even' or 'too/ also' (Cantonese)


What does "了" do in the sentence "呆在家里， 这样你就能接电话了"?

Judging from this webpage, it's a translation from the English:

Stay home so you can answer the phone.
呆在家里，这样你就能接电话了。

In this context, they've added the change of state 了 to refer to a future change of state: it's being said to someone who will change from

State 1: not being at home and therefore not being able to answer the phone, to
State 2: being at home and therefore being able to answer the phone.

Dropping the 了 would be appropriate if there were no change of state involved (e.g., the person is already at home).


Is “之” usually used as a possessive pronoun (attributive) in Classical Chinese?

之 is a common way to say ‘him/her/it’ in classical Chinese.  It’s usually in the object position, not the subject one though:  殺之 ‘kills him’;   由之  ‘from it’.  The use like modern Chinese 的 is different.

其 is actually a possessive pronoun, as in 其妻  ‘his wife’.  More generally, it substitutes for ‘noun + 之’.

彼 can be used as a third-person pronoun in either subject or object position, but mainly it is a demonstrative (‘this’ or ‘that’).  There are other words that work the same way and appear as pronouns.

All of this is based on the section on pronouns in Edward Pulleyblank’s ‘Outline of Classical Chinese’, esp. pp 79-80.  You can find it on Google Books.


What's the difference between xuéxí 学习 and xué 学?

There are still a lot of differences in between I think.

For most cases, when you want a verb meaning "to learn", either of them can be used. Only xuexi is having more syllables to make you sounds more formal and polite.
When used as a noun, xuexi is more frequently to be used to express "learning".
Also, xue has more meanings rather than "to learn" as a verb. It also means "to imitate", "to perform as"-e.g. shuoxuedouchang（说学逗唱）


To express surprise with disappointment, if 卧槽 is vulgar, is 苦也 considered a decent alternative?

卧槽 (我操) is mostly used as an exclamation, It can be any phrase as long as it expresses the emotion the speaker intended to express. Like 'rage, surprise, displease' and so on.

Some examples:

可惡 (rage/ anger/ displease)

可怒也 (rage/ anger/ displease)

糟糕 (surprise, worry, fear)

不好; 不妙(surprise, worry)

管他 (dismissive/ self-abandon )

豈有此理 (anger, displease)

弊了 (surprise, worry, fear)

In your example, either 可怒也 or 可惡 would be a good choice

  ……只觉重门叠户之内，如处隐伏甲兵。李思永叫声可惡，流星锤舞得呼呼风响，把一扇门板打碎，…… (he was angry about being ambushed)

But other exclamations can be chosen too, depend on what emotion the author wanted the character to express

  苦也 express 'despair' or 'disparate', it does fit in the example too, but the emotion would be different from other exclamations I listed


我给打过电话，但没有打通。 The use of 过 (not experienced)

过 means: has done something
so 打过电话 means i have called him

in the mean time : 打了电话 means: i called him

the difference of the two chinese saying is: the first sentence is to emphasize that something is done by you, while "打了电话" or "打啦电话" is to telling a fact


How should I rewrite 我昨天卖了我的电脑给他 using 把 and 了?

把 is used to denote thing have been done something to.
To use 把.
First, find out what exactly is the thing have been done something to. In your example, 我昨天賣了我的電腦給他. The thing(我的電腦) had been done something(賣了) to.
Second, put the thing after 把. 把我的電腦
Third, try to refill the semantics you have lost. 把我的電腦 is not complete to express what original sentence(我昨天賣了我的電腦給他) means. 我把我的電腦 我昨天把我的電腦 我昨天把我的電腦賣了 我昨天把我的電腦賣給了他.


Are there more people in Russia/Ukraine learning Chinese language than other white dominated countries?

I can't comment on the Ukrainians because absolutely have no idea what their deal is...

Russia and China have shared a fairly close relationship over the years.
China even has a minority called: 俄罗斯族 (Russian Minority in China):
ABC Dictionary

Russian ethnic minority in China

A Chinese-English Dictionary

the Russian nationality, or the Russians, distributed over the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province

KEY, Oxford and CC-CEDICT dictionaries pretty much say the same thing(s).
Wikipedia has an article called History of Sino-Russian relations which says:

China and Russia have generally had good relations since 1991.

and links to Sino-Russian relations since 1991 which says:

Diplomatic relations between People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation dramatically improved after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Russian Federation in 1991. The two countries share a long land border which was demarcated in 1991, and they signed a Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation in 2001. On the eve of a 2013 state visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked that the two nations were forging a special relationship.1

Geography, residency and politics aside China has also taken many Russians songs and translated the lyrics and "covered" them in Chinese. Take 三套车 for instance - if you listen to it you can distinctly tell it's Russian (it has Russia written all over it!) but it's sung in Chinese!
There's that scene in 太阳照常升起 with the Russians and the Russian song too - sorry for the ambiguity but you just gotta see it yourself.
The point anyway is that -- Russia has made quite a big impact on the Chinese and China hasn't reject them like they have so many others (English abbreviations, like NBA, or words aren't even allowed in Chinese news).
So while there are quite a lot of Russians living in China, a lot have even grown up there - you can see from there relationship that they are quite "connected". So it doesn't seem like quite a stretch for Russians to learn Chinese.


I have found this word. Please refer to: Simplified -- Traditional

Simplified as [䦁] while Traditional as []

粵語：bong1, not "pong"
English Meaning: a broad hoe, a mattock


2) One of the two must be "Filter capacitor"(滤波电容), Look which one has a side that connects to "GND" well, the other side of it must be "VCC".

1) "crystal oscillator"(晶震) , in the middle of it is "GND".

3) Because it is "Analog output device"(模拟输出设备), it is very likely that the 4 corners are "VCC","GND","X","Y", Based on this, check with above to make sure.


安排 means arrange or arrangement, a verb or a noun. For example, 安排你们住下 means arrange your lodging.

计划 and 打算 are as you said.


What is the following label specification for M6?

热电偶
Thermocouple

型号：BEM 螺钉 / BEM 探针 / BEM 铁氟龙 / 铠装口
Model: BEM screw / BEM probe / BEM Teflon / Armored

分度号
Type (Temperature range)

螺纹：M6 / M6英制 / M8 / M10 / M12
Screw thread: ISO Metric 6 mm (the nominal outer diameter) / British Standard Whitworth

长度：1米
Length: 1 meter

测温范围
Working temperature range


What is 'hea' (in Cantonese conversations)?

the actual Cantonese words

well, some argued that it’s 歇 (u+6b47) in toishan “dialect” (台山話)
<https://jonathanovsky.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/再談「hea」字/>
we just use “hea” to write it, no han-chinese / cantonese character is accepted, as the “original”:

one of the urban myth in hong kong


Trump sounds like Trump. Many Chinese speakers whose English is not so hot will say 'ah' or 'oh' after English words, like: goodah, coldah.

This is the character for 啊 a, this is 哦 o. They are often added at the end of sentences for reasons of prosody.

You can say: 对 dui, meaning 'correct', but mostly you will hear 对阿 dui a 'correct'

Maybe he is making a (political) joke:
What's your name?
Trumpoh!


What is the Mandarin equivalent for the Shanghai term for dirty?

龌龊  wò chuò
Meanings:
(1) dirty；filthy
(2) mean,despicable

It's not Shanghai dialect only. It's used a lot in northern China as well.


問﹒普萬物﹒莫是以心周遍而無私﹒否

i would interpret it as :

[someone] asked (問): “[about] generalising (普) everything (萬物), can it be that (莫 —> 莫非) [the universal] is using (是以) [its] heart (心) to all over (周遍) and (而) without (無) prejudice (私); isn’t it (否)?

  How to understand this 莫 ?

back to your question, i would say it means “莫非“ (roughly “can it be that”). the asker wanted to ask, but without confidence that his statement is correct, so he inserted the “莫” before the verse “是以心周遍而無私﹒否”; as a safe guard.

clearly, you have fun in reading “朱子語類” :)


What does “大概” mean? Are there any words with the same meaning?

I think these other answers are more harmful than they are helpful and here's why: none of them have addressed how 大概 is applied in the real context of using the language. Anyone can look up a word in the dictionary and copy/paste the results here. OP's question is what does 大概 really mean (aka how is it used) and is there anything else like it?

大概 is generally used to mean "approximately", "more or less", or "something like that". Here's an example:

我大概明白你的意思。

What this sentence is saying is: "I don't understand what you're saying completely but I get the gist."

And another:

A：你打了多少个电话？ (How many phone calls did you make?)

B：大概50个。(Approximately 50.)

In terms of other words that capture a similar meaning, the closest approximation I can think of is 左右. Here's how this word could be applied to the example above:

B：50个左右。(50 or thereabouts.)

Here's another example of how using 大概 and 左右 are approximately the same but have a different connotation:

A：你的车买了多少钱？

B1: 大概三十万人民币。(Around 300,000RMB.)

B2: 三十万人民币左右。(300,000RMB more or less.)

In this example, 大概 implies the speaker is unclear or uncertain about the amount, or perhaps they don't remember. The use of 左右 implies a greater level of accuracy or certainty on the part of the speaker but they don't care to go into greater detail. The listener could press the speaker for more detail, in which case they would follow up with a more exact number if they were able.

The thing I rarely if ever hear 大概 used for is to express possibility. What this means is I don't think other words like 可能, 或许, and 也许 are similar in meaning. That said, I'm not a native speaker so I'm willing to allow for a number of use cases I'm not familiar with.


Useful resources for learning Taiwanese?

There is an American guy (I think) who teaches people how to speak Taiwanese on Youtube. He even teaches the native Taiwanese people how to speak 闽南语. You can see the videos here.

EDIT:
Looks like the playlist is dead. This is the guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJo2OHi6hgs


How could've 叻 originated from 頔, 犖, , when they share no etymons?

As stated in the comments by drOOOze, characters are not words themselves, but are representations of words or morphemes; thus the structure of 「叻」 likely has no relation to the etymology of the word /lɛːk̚⁵/ (Jyutping: lek1).
Most Sinitic topolects don't have a well-recorded written history, so sometimes it can be difficult to trace the origin of words. When the origin of a word can't be traced, people may choose to represent the word in writing by either creating a new character, or by borrowing an existing character for its sound. A common practice in Cantonese is to create a new character by taking an existing character which sounds similar to a word, and then adding semantic 「口」 to it to indicate that this new character represents some verncular word. This practice is why you have characters like 「嗰」, 「喺」, and 「啲」. In the case with lek1, meaning clever or capable, the character 「叻」 is often used to represent it, consisting of phonetic 「力」 (i.e. 「力」 sounds similar to lek1), and semantic 「口」. Also note that because written forms of modern Chinese languages outside of Standard Written Chinese are not standardized, so you may see the same word represented in a variety of ways.
Because the origin of the word lek1 is not clear, we can only theorize where the word came from until more convincing evidence is found. From the looks of the Wiktionary entry, all the theories suggest that lek1 came from a character that sounds like it (or sounds like the reading lek1 could be derived from that character's pronunciation); the theories are not suggesting, for instance, that the character 「叻」 is derived from characters like 「頔」 (because it isn't). Notice that the characters listed under the suggested theories share these common traits:

Their Middle Chinese reconstructions all have alveolar consonants as initials (/l-/ or /d-/).
Their Middle Chinese reconstructions all end in /-k/.
They all have meanings where clever or capable seem like possible semantic extensions.

As you can see, none of the above points relate to character structure. It is their sound and meaning which are important here.

As an aside, I'd like point out that if you want to accurately understand character structure as a way to help you learn characters, Yellowbridge does not seem like a reliable site for this. I'll point out a problem in one of the entries as an example:
In the first screenshot, 「由」 is broken down into 「丨」 and 「田」, but 「由」 functionally does not contain either of those. If you compare the evolutions of 「田」 and 「由」, you can clearly see that their origins are different, and the breakdown given in the screenshot is merely on a graphical level. Graphical breakdowns are not particularly helpful for learning, because they don't always inform you how the character hints at sound and/or meaning (i.e. connections to the spoken language).
If you would like an reliable source for character breakdowns, I'd suggest checking out Outlier's dictionary.


How do you say "Do you speak Chinese?" in Mandarin and Cantonese?

Mandarin

你会说汉语吗？ (Ni3 hui4 shuo1 han4 yu3 ma5)

Or polite form: 您会说汉语吗？(Nin2 hui4 shuo1 han4 yu3 ma5)

Of course, you can say 中文 (zhong1 wen2) instead of 汉语. That is not the big question here, but rather that you have to include 会, which underlines that you ask if the person you are speaking to, can speak Chinese or not. Only asking 你说汉语吗？ is not sufficient, it means "Do you use Chinese (in general)?, e.g. 你家里说中文吗？ Do you speak Chinese at home? (what is being asked is not the ability, but the fact if Chinese is spoken or not.)

Cantonese
你識唔識講中文啊? (Nei5/Lei5 sik1 m4 sik1 gong2 zung1 man4 aa3, I am using Jyutping here, but Yale is a similar transcription).

If you want to ask "Do you speak Chinese?" in Cantonese, you ask Chinese (中文), not Cantonese. I really don't understand why one would think Cantonese is not Chinese. So ask for 中文 not 廣東話. If you want to ask if someone specifically can speak Cantonese, then use 廣東話.

Notes:

(1) The Mandarin text uses simplified characters, as most Mandarin speakers use these, the Cantonese question uses the traditional ones, as most Cantonese speakers who are familiar with writing Cantonese are Hongkongers, who use traditional characters, but simplified characters are used by Cantonese native Mainland Chinese who can read and write Cantonese or at least have some experience with it.

(2) The Cantonese pronunciation is difficult to transcribe, there is a difference between Mainland Cantonese and Hong Kong Cantonese, e.g. 你 begins with 'l-' in "lazy speech", i.e. casual Hong Kong Cantonese, but 'n-' is a more formal, "proper" sound, especially used in the Mainland.

(3) The word "Chinese (language)" has many equivalents in (Mandarin) Chinese, all differ in some way.

汉语, the language of the Han
中文, the (written) language of the Chinese civilization
华语, Chinese as the language of Overseas Chinese, whether Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, or any other dialect, as contrasted to the non-Chinese languages, like English, Malay or Thai, etc.
中国话, less used, means "the (spoken) language of China".
国语, ("national language"), i.e. Mandarin Chinese, this expression is mostly used outside the PRC
普通话 ("general language"), also Mandarin Chinese (or sometimes called Standard Chinese), this word is used in the PRC, which promotes Mandarin Chinese and discourages speaking dialects in public.
官话 ("official language"), Mandarin Chinese, this word has historic connotations, the Ming and Qing-dynasties, under which the Northern dialects gained the status of official language of the administration and the "Mandarins".


the characters are:

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

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

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

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

very likely, it's an antique. try to contact sotheby, or christie :)


庸 means 酬谢 (reward) here.

  (10) 酬其功劳 [reward]
  (11) 又如:庸勋(酬劳有功的人)

And,

  6.酬其功劳。
  《书·益稷》：“明庶以功，车服以庸。”
  　孔颖达疏：“赐车服以旌别其人功能事用。”
  《左传·僖公二十四年》：“庸勳、亲亲、暱近、尊贤，德之大者也。”
  《孟子·尽心上》：“杀之而不怨，利之而不庸，民日迁善而不知为之者。”

So 利之而不庸 means benefit them (the civilians), and they won't reward (someone).


Words and phrases related magic(like in fantasy movies&MMO games)

Chinese languages are not English. They are completely different languages. You might not find word-to-word correspondence in sentence construction. Even if you do, it sounds unnatural or unnecessary tedious.

"To cast fire spell"/"Casting Light Spell"/"The witch casted a dark spell"(I want to see the usage of it with adjectives)

施火咒 / 施光咒 / 巫師施暗咒

"She put a curse him"

女子向男子施惡咒

"He cursed him with a spell"

男子向另一男子施惡咒

"She put a spell on me"

女子向我施咒

"She did lightning magic"

女子施電光法術

Actually there are many words and ways to say the same thing. The above is just an illustration. It depends on the context. Say, what kind of action to put or cast a spell. Other than 施, it can be be 放, 下, 落, 念 etc. Or the objective to put or cast a spell / curse. Say, 咒他落地獄 (lit. curse him to fall into the hell)


How to spot (if possible) if a final 了 is part of an omitted 要 in a 要...了 construction or simply a past information?

了 in "我去中国了" does not emphasize it is a past or future action in absent of context.  Consider the following:

我去年去中国了  - I went to China last year
我明年去中国了  - I will go to China next year

Both are legit and 了 changes depend on the content, althought a native speaker will say:

我去年去了中国  - I have been to China last year
我明年(要)去中国了 - I have to go to China next year


洗尘: why is a welcome banquet "washing dust"?

"洗尘"usually used with"接风"，like "接风洗尘"。

it's come from
明（Ming Dynasty）·凌蒙初(a scholar and offical)《二刻拍案惊奇》第26卷：“虽也送他两把俸金，几件人事，恰好侄儿也替他接风洗尘，只好直退。”（classical Chinese）。

When someone go far,we say "一路顺风"（I wish you a happy voyage），so when visitors come from afar we sad"接风",and after long travel with wind(顺风),there must be dust on visitors。
so we say "接风洗尘"。

送人走时通常说一路顺风，接人时正好就接着这一股风把人接到，所以叫接风！刮风必然会粘上满身的尘土，所以，接风的同时把客人身上的尘土洗掉。


Why use name of particular hairstyle 堕云髻 （low cloud bun？

The translator is being too clever. He forgot that there is no reason that Miss Bürstner would wear an ancient Chinese hairstyle. The word 堕云髻 is misused here.

It might be that the translator subconsciously wanted to show off his knowledge about hairstyles, which obviously have failed.

This translation is done by 曹庸, one of the best translators from the past generation. Translation is hard work. It shouldn't be surprising to see even the best translators make mistakes.


Is this a rare/variant character (combining 米 and 団), or not really a Chinese character?

糰 is 米 + 團. 團 simplified is 团. 团 has a variant character 団.

Thus 米 + 団 = 糰.

団 itself is a variant chacter of 糰.

On the other hand it could just be a clever way of writing 米團 = 米团 = rice ball.

Edit: It is written 御飯團 in all instances I can find regarding the ad. It is a private/funny simplification that has no formal recognition.


Are there any initial consonants/syllables in modern Chinese dialects which are incompatible with some tones?

Here's an example of this sort of phenomenon:

  Syllables that begin with unaspirated stops b, d, g, or affricates j, zh, z, and end in a nasal n or ng, as a rule don’t have second-tone forms.

Here's a more extensive explanation of how this came about


What’s the characters on this seal of the vase? (Characters identified: 景德鎮製)


What podcasts/movie/music is good to improve my listening?

One suggestion is to listen to some old stuff because too many slangs, especially Internet slangs in nowadays movies, TV shows and something else. Even senior native speakers in China cannot understand them.

I used to listen to 成语故事 when I was a kid. I believe you can find tons of them online.


In the book 汉语国际教育用词语声调组合及轻重音格式实用手册, p.241 (which is rumored to be the post-reform HSK replacement), 至少 is classified as a 副词 (adverb).  Furthermore, it's considered a 程度副词 (adverb of degree) in the book 现代华语概论.
In English, we might describe it as an adverbial since it can affect a whole phrase.


前后阕各三平韵，一韵到底

You are exactly right. This means both the first stanza (前阙 or 上阕) and the second stanza (后阙 or 下阙) has three rhymes, each of them a level tone, and the entire poem uses the exact same rhyming set.
I think the main confusion is that ci are not supposed to rhyme in their current dialects: while the poem you quoted (杨慎，《临江仙·滚滚长江东逝水》) is written in the Ming dynasty, most Ming (and Qing) scholars regard Song dynasty rhyming course as the one they should follow. So Yang Shen's rhyming syllables, 雄,空,红,风,逢,中, are all in Group I of the Cilin Zhengyun, which is a Qing dynasty conclusion of rhyming courses in ci, and therefore are considered to rhyme.
That is, characters belonging to the same rhyme group in the CZ are considered to rhyme in ci (from the Qing dynasty onwards), even if the modern pronunciation is different; and vice versa. For example: 风 rhymes with 东 (both in Group I) and not with 争, 蒸, 增 (all in group XI).
Also, tones. Level tones (平声) are not supposed to rhyme with unlevel tones (仄声), but when ci transitions into qu, this requirement becomes loosened. Nonetheless, in the older cipai, you don't even get the chance to rhyme level tones with unlevel ones, for the tone requirement for the cipai itself excludes this.
P.S. If you want to try your hand on writing ci but do not want to look through old rhyme books, then you are perfectly allowed to write in the 中华新韵.


Translation of 愿你出走多年，归来还是少年

Your transition is the literal meaning of the phrase.

It comes from the book 《愿你出走半生，归来仍是少年》

The actual meaning of it is no matter what happens to you and no matter how many places you have been, you should always keep a beginner's heart.


Typically one would "position" a product in the marketplace. If you are in the act of doing something (process is active now) then the phrase would be "positioning" [a/our/the] product in the marketplace. I would suggest you take a look at your proposed word choice in Jukuu.com. Plugging in the word for "position," yields the following usages:

"Positioning" on the other hand seems to give something closer to what you want. BTW - Here are some sample sentences, just to be sure (the website has many more).

1.  Their segregated positioning subtly and silently indicates that caution should be taken in their use.
它们相对分离的位置微妙而无声地提示着用户，即使用它们时应该小心。
-- 来源 -- About Face 3交互设计精髓 好评(14)  差评(0)

2.  In a fixed-head magnetic disk unit, a support and positioning element for a read / write head.
在固定磁头的磁盘机中,用于支撑和定位读/写磁头的部件。
-- 来源 -- 英汉 - 辞典例句  好评(17)  差评(5)

3.  global positioning system
环球定位系统,[港]全球定位系统
-- 来源 -- 英汉 - 翻译样例 - 行业 好评(10)  差评(0)

4.  The accurate positioning of an entity relative to a reference.
相对于参考基准把某个实体精确定位。


What is the difference between 演奏, 弹 and 奏?

演奏  (yǎn zòu)
to play a musical instrument in a performance

弹 (tan1)
to play sth by hand, sometimes roughly equivalent to "pluck"

弹钢琴 (tan1 gang1qin2)
to play the piano

弹琵琶 (tan1 pi2pa)
to play the pi2pa

拉 (la1)
to pull; to play an instrument, usually with a bow

拉二胡 (la1 er4hu2)
to play the er4hu2

拉小提琴 (la1 xiao3ti2qin2)
to play the violin

吹  (chui1)
to play sth by mouth

吹小号 (chui1 xiao3hao4)
to play the trumpet

Unrelated but funny:

吹牛 (chui1 niu2)
lit. "to blow the cow"; to brag/boast/talk big

奏乐
play music for the padshah in ancient times，but not now

奏 a team（ or one） play a musical instrument in a performance On formal occasions


I'm not quite sure what your question actually is. Do you want to know how:

to better teach Chinese tones? (cram specific tone recall quizzes)
to automate adding pinyin with diacritical marks to your text? (google, find e.g. annotator.jiang-long.com)
to use Ruby annotations in your typesetting environment? (which?)

If you use LaTeX, see e.g.: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/4448/tone-marks-above-chinese-characters-in-latex

You might also try combining Unicode characters with the program of your choice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_character

The easiest solution to getting the tone marks out of pinyin is to use Regular Expressions. I have written a Javascript bookmark for you, which works with annotator.jiang-long.com:

javascript:(function(){var e,es,i;es=document.getElementsByTagName("acronym");for(i=0;e=es[i];i++){e.innerHTML=e.innerHTML.replace(/\w*[āɑ̄ēīōūǖĀĒĪŌŪǕ]\w*/g,' ˉ ').replace(/\w*[áɑ́éíóúǘÁÉÍÓÚǗ]\w*/g,' ˊ ').replace(/\w*[ǎɑ̌ěǐǒǔǚǍĚǏǑǓǙ]\w*/g,' ˇ ').replace(/\w*[àɑ̀èìòùǜÀÈÌÒÙǛ]\w*/g,' ˋ ');}})();

And an advanced version using XPath which also takes care of toneless pinyin:

javascript:(function(){var i,t,ts,e,at;at=parseInt(prompt("Which row is the pinyin in?",1))-1;ts=document.querySelectorAll( 'table.textblock' );for(i=0;t=ts[i];i++){e=t.querySelectorAll('acronym')[at];e.innerHTML=e.innerHTML.replace(/\w*[āɑ̄ēīōūǖĀĒĪŌŪǕ]\w*/g,' ˉ ').replace(/\w*[áɑ́éíóúǘÁÉÍÓÚǗ]\w*/g,' ˊ ').replace(/\w*[ǎɑ̌ěǐǒǔǚǍĚǏǑǓǙ]\w*/g,' ˇ ').replace(/\w*[àɑ̀èìòùǜÀÈÌÒÙǛ]\w*/g,' ˋ ').replace(/[^ˉˊˇˋ ]+/g,' · ').replace(/ /g,'&nbsp;');}})();

Just create a new bookmark and past the Javascript as URL. It replaces any word containing an āíěòū etc. with the respective tone mark.
I picked annotator.jiang-long.com totally at random; you may need to adjust the code if you want it to work with your favorite annotator webservice.

Update: convert pinyin without tonemarks into dots


How appropriate is 现在是什么时间? for asking the time?

Both 现在是什么时间 and 现在几点了 mean the same.

现在几点了 is used in casual situations.

现在是什么时间 sounds that the speaker might think there would be something happening shortly or at certain time, so he/she wants to know the time. For example, 现在是什么时间？ 我们该上课了吧？

The effect is subtle. They can be used interchangeably.  But 什么时间 does sound the time seems more important.

P.S. 现在是什么时间？ can also mean What time is it for? E.g. A: 现在是什么时间？ B: 现在是午饭时间/早操时间/自习时间/etc.


Generic screen caps in Chinese is 截圖 / 截图. If you really want to specify it is from a movie, you can add "movies" in front, i.e. 電影截圖, or for videos in general 影片截圖 or 視訊截圖. Usually that is not very necessary.


Yes 吧 is used at the end of a question when you already assume the statement to be true.

吧
(modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise)

Whereas had you ended the question with ma (t: 嗎, s: 吗) then it is just a question, no assumption behind it, you are asking because you honestly have no clue.
References: http://cdict.net/?q=吧,嗎
As for the politeness level of 吧, while it is certainly non-formal, it is not inherently impolite.  Even in English, This is yours, right? is not necessarily offensive or impolite, probably depends on the situation. For example

positive: someone may have been looking for their misplaced coffee and would be delighted to hear you bring their coffee and say This is yours, right?
negative: On the other hand if I point to an unwanted piece of litter on the ground and say to you This is yours, right?, I'm accusing you of being a litterbug, so it is a slightly different story.

Recommendation
It's not particularly impolite, but if for some reason conveying that you assume something, will somehow come across as rudeness on your part, then instead of ba, use ma (t: 嗎, s: 吗)


It is correct. The rule of using adjectival noun in Chinese is the same as in English. You can take any standard noun and use it as an adjectival noun to modify a main noun as long as it make sense.
For example:
交通 (traffic) + 意外 (accident) = 交通意外 (traffic accident)
You don't need to use particles like 的 to link the two nouns

交通意外(traffic accident) is a single noun * with 交通 as the adjectival noun and 意外 as the main noun

交通的意外 (traffic's accident) is a phrase

Important:
Many Chinese nouns are made up of two noun characters that combined into one stand-alone word.
Example:
車 (Car) + 禍 (disaster) = 車禍 (car accident)
Since 車禍 (car accident) is a noun on its own, you cannot break them up and treat them as two individual nouns and write 車的禍 (cars' disaster)


How do you translate "share" in the context of social media

About - 關於

Latest recipe - 最新食譜

Read More - 更多

Share (In the context of Social Media) - 分享

Nutritional value - 營養價值

Search - 搜索


Here are some words which are all related to the idea you are trying to express with pinyin and approximate English glosses:

曼托爾 [Màntuō'ěr] "Mentor - the actual historical figure from whom the English word 'mentor' is derived" (proper name)
老師 [lǎoshī] "teacher" (generic, can be distant, but usually intimate)
師父 [shīfu] "tutor, master, teacher" (usually for something that is practiced)
師傅 [shīfu] "master worker" (usually manual labor)
良師 [liángshī] "good teacher" (rarely used in this sense outside the context of 良師益友 as far as I know)
顧問 [gùwèn] "consultant, adviser" (has the same feel as in English, a bit more distant)
導師 [dǎoshī] "tutor, mentor, teacher, supervisor" (can be both distant and intimate)
指導者 [zhǐdǎozhě] "coach, mentor, counselor" (distant)

On the whole, it doesn't seem that Chinese has a particular term which is a perfect, exact match to the English sense of "mentor". However, the one that feels most right to me is 導師 [dǎoshī], given that I have also seen used the related term 導生 [dǎoshēng] "mentee".

導 [dǎo] means "to guide" or "to lead" with related terms: 指導 [zhǐdǎo] "direction, guidance, supervision", 教導 [jiàodǎo] "teaching, guidance", and 領導 [lǐngdǎo] "leadership, leader".

Given how "mentor" and "mentorship" are used in English, especially in the business sense, 導師 seems the most appropriate. In which case, you could say, "我受他的指導" ["wǒ shòu tā de zhǐdǎo"] "I am receiving his mentorship". This would make it seem that 指導者 [zhǐdǎozhě] might be a better choice for "mentor"; however, 指導者 [zhǐdǎozhě] seems more distant than 導師 [dǎoshī], which feels more intimate.


Glyph origin of the character for frequency 频/頻 = steps + head?

频 is simplefield Chinese. 頻 is traditional Chinese.
步 means step and 页 means head in ancient Chinese.
频 is explained as "Nod your head for each step." literally. It extended meaning to "frequent" or "repeat". Imagining that you are frequenting/repeating noding your head for each step.


儿童乐园 is children's playground, not play equipment.

The general term referring to play equipment is 游乐设施 (uncountable) or 游乐设备(countable). If you are referring to specific equipment, there are specific names for them, such as:

跷跷板 - seesaw
滑梯 - slide
猴架 - monkey bars
沙池/坑 - sandpit

As for the translation of the two sentences, I would go with the following:

  我带孩子们到公园玩。大的喜欢踢球，最小的则喜欢使用游乐设施。
  我儿子的学校有两套游乐设备。(Google Translate)

To further distinguish both 设施 and 设备, quoting from 汉典:

设施

  为某种需要而建立的机构、系统、组织、建筑等

设备

  指成套的建筑或器材

So, if you are referring to the whole installation, use 设施; if you are referring to individual equipment, use 设备.


They are two names:

（汪）寅仙
張守（智）

They are the names of two (apparently) well-known Yíxīng ware artisans, who have jointly designed some pottery sets.
You can use Google image search to get an idea of their products.


Did the name "白俄罗斯" exist in Chinese before 1991?

the internet archive has the book 瀛環志畧, in volume 4, "白峩" was used to translate belarus:

https://archive.org/stream/02087085.cn#page/n43/mode/1up

this book was published in 1849.

the 峩 (u+5ce9) was a variant of 峨 (u+5ce8), both of them share the same pronunciation with the character 俄 (u+4fc4), that is used in modern days translation.

then, the internet archive has another book 海國圖志, in volume 54, "白峩羅斯" was used in lieu of belarus:

https://archive.org/stream/02087117.cn#page/n50/mode/1up

this book was published in 1843, maybe the first geographic / atlas type of book in imperial china.

btw, minsk was translated as "閔士其" :)

have fun :)


I am no grammar expert, but let me attempt an answer based on my level of attainment. I am sure others could do better.

This is one of the most commonly occurring and useful word in the Chinese language, just about behind 的 & 了。

The problem is, (just like 的 & 了), it is a preposition, and when used in combination it becomes a verb, a conjunction, an interrogative, (a sentence of inquiry that asks for a reply)

So it is in an actual sentence that its usages become apparent.

As a preposition it is "for"; 他的牺牲是为了什么?, (his sacrifice is for what?)

As a conjunction it is "because of"; 他为爱国以牺牲了生命, (Because of his love for country he sacrificed his life)

As a verb -- 成为 -- "become"; 他的牺牲将会成为传说, (His sacrifice would become a legend)

As an interrogative -- 为什么, "why", 他为什么牺牲自己的生命?, (why did he sacrifice his own life?)


Which is correct, "我对我的妈妈说很多话" or "我对我的妈妈说很多"?

First, in Chinese if you don't want to emphasize "我的，你的，他的"，we usually remove "我的”，我对我妈说....or 我对妈妈说 is more natural.

Secondly, it should be added a complement "了" after the verb "说" to indicate the action is finished. So it could be 我对妈妈说了很多话。or 我对妈妈说了很多。

Finally, 说了很多话 means that you speak a lot "sentence" to your mother, while 说了很多 means you talk a lot topics or opions with your mother.


Because it is a coupla.

  Confucius rhetorically asks: "Among territories (方) which are 60 to
  70, or (如) 50 to 60 li, where can you see (安見) one (者) that isn't a
  state (非邦也)?"

方六七十如五六十而非邦也 specifies a territory (方) which is about 60 to 70, or 50 to 60 li that hypothetically may not be a state (非邦也; not be is the function of the coupla). The idea is that such territories do not exist, because you cannot pick out any one (者) among the set of territories of these measurements which isn't a state.


How to improve speaking skills during "real" conversations

启蒙, growing pains. We’ve all been through that phase and there really is no miracle solution. You can only carry on and practice as much as you can. Even stronger: if you want to get better, there really is just one way. It is all about about real life situations and encounters.

Here are some ideas:

useful words you know but forget to use (or new words or expressions you want to start using): make a small list and read them through right before the engagement. Use them once and their status immediately changes.
preparing the conversation is indeed useful. Which topic do you want to bring up or broaden?
putting to use past engagements. What was it you wanted to say but didn’t manage to? Which expressions did your partner use frequently and seem useful? Keep them in mind, even if you don’t understand them (fully).
during the practice: quickly write down the really crucial words you don’t understand. If your partner is patient, ask her or him to write it for you. If not; just scribble it down in pinyin and try to look them up afterwards.
Learning to deal with not understanding everything. Focus first on the general meaning of a proposition. Sometimes getting the bigger idea is an accomplishment in itself. It can also help to pinpoint expressions used within a certain story.
Also useful: getting an idea of the linguistic rhythm of your partner. Does she/he switches topics quickly? Sometimes people use a lot of words to convey only one idea.  This meta-information will help the interpretation process itself.

It is obvious that the more time you spent with native speakers, the more you will be able to learn and getting used to speaking Mandarin naturally . Doing something together, apart from sitting in front of each other and talk, will immediately bring up new chances in a natural way; Becoming real friends will also help you to get into their way of thinking and global linguistic environment. Oftentimes, speaking a foreign language is more a question of knowing how to present an idea, than just translating word by word, which wouldn’t work.

加油吧!


Is this ad wrong? Or, is my understanding wrong (quite possible)

Both 至 and 到 mean to, but 至 is often used in written Chinese, so it's not a mistake, 周 and 週 are both correct in traditional Chinese, mean week, but we don't use 週 in Simple Chinese, even everyone can understand it


its by situations,

first, your translate is right when request some feedback
(e.g. 你們一人說一句, 給我點回應)
sometimes it means too much responses
(e.g. 你們一人說一句, 我怎麼聽得懂!)


"用光" always means use and exhaust something. It is inappropriate to use that verb in photography, no matter it is HK, Taiwan or China, nobody use that word for photography or film making.
Mandarin has a special jargon for taking flash/lighting adjustment .

打光  or   打光线  or 用闪光灯

In case of "make use of light". Without flash, mean make use of natural light for composition.

运用光线 / 运用光线构图

for metering

测光

In filming and photo shooting , when you run out of battery or memory storage/ film

用光电池 / 用光记忆卡/用光菲林

So you can see it is bad attempt to associate  用光 with the use/preparation of light.
Imagine the camera man told the director, "Too dim, need more light"

太暗了， 需要用光 <-- The director will ask what the cameraman need due to  (battery, film, data storage) exhaust/deplete/used up, or perhaps get a smack.
太暗了， 需要打光 <== this is something everyone understand clearly


How do form "You can borrow the book once [it's returned / C returns it]" in Chinese?

Interestingly, Chinese language don't use passive voice as explicitly as in English. Translating passive sentences to native Chinese has always been challenging.
One solution is to restore the omitted object, which means:

  I can lend the book to you once it is returned by C.
  只要C把书还给我，我就能借给你。

However, if the subject cannot be deduced from the context (like, if B doesn't know who borrowed his book), some techniques should be used to make a "passive-less" clause:

  (lit.) Once the book is returned, I can lend to you.
  只要书还回来，我就能借你。

Such passive-less sentences are difficult to compare with English, but they are common in Chinese language:

  砍了这棵树，路就能修成了。
  (lit.) Cut down the tree, and the road can complete.
  The road can be completed once the tree is cut down.

Note that "passive-less" means sentences without a passive "mark". In Modern Chinese, the passive mark is "被"(bei4).

P.S. I have found an article explaining the common form of translation from English to Chinese regarding passive sentences. Here are the synopsis:

Passive sentences in English have been widely used, far more than in Chinese. Therefore, their translations should vary depending on meanings:

Translate into "judgement" sentences using "是":

  手语是聋哑人使用的语言。
  Sign languages are (the languages that are) used by the deaf and dumb people.

Translate with active voice instead of passive voice. If subject is unable to identify, you may need to add some "logical" subjects like "有人"(lit. there are somebody) or "别人"(lit. others):

  要站着，等有人请你坐下才能坐下。
  (lit.)Need to stand, wait until someone invites you to sit can you sit down.
  Stand until you're invited to sit.

Translate into subject-less sentences, which are forbidden in English with a few exceptions, but quite common in Chinese:

  发现了错误就一定要改正。
  (lit.)(If)Discover errors, must correct (them).
  Errors must be corrected once discovered.

Translate into passive sentences, as what you're familiar with.


兵法 Art of War

用兵作戰的策略和方法。
strategies and methods of warfare.
兵書。
military books, which discuss the strategies and methods of warfare.

武術 Martial Arts

軍事技術。
military technology.
中國民族體育之一 (one of the Chinese traditional sports.)。
如：太極拳 (tài-ji-quán, shadow-boxing)、劍術 (fencing)、刀術 (broadsword play)、槍術 (spear play, joust)、棍術 (stick/cudgel play)。

兵法 is usually related to the country.
武術 is more personal.

Some user posted the following comment.

I found the following information on the Web.

《影響世界的中國元素--中國功夫》

《中华青少年成长必读集萃——万事由来》

《揭秘万物由来之谜》


In Mandarin 雞巴/Jībā/ is slang for 'penis', And it is often further nicknamed 雞雞/jī jī/ or 小雞雞/Xiǎo Jī Jī/

JJ is a shorthand for 雞雞/Jī Jī/

~

A possibility for Cantonese to also use jj for penis:

In Cantonese, we call children's (or small) penis 賓周
Since 周 sounded like 啫, we also call it 啫啫 or 啫啫仔
JJ sounded like 啫啫, therefore is used instead in some casual Cantonese publication, mostly entertainment news or gossip column.

As for adult (or big) penis, there are several different names for it.


種瓜得瓜，種豆得豆。
As one sows, so shall one reap.

依據佛法，我們前世都修了一些福，今生才能投胎做人。這些善行的果報會在一生當中不同的時段出現。年輕時期出現的這部分是要用來成長和受教育的。

On the basis of Buddhism, all of us have done some good deeds in our past lives so that we can be human beings in this life. The effects of these good deeds will show up in different periods during the lifetime. The part shown in youth is used for growth and education.

除了少數的特例以外，父母都會將孩子教養長大。這些教養的費用大多是孩子帶來的財。也就是說，父母為孩子花的錢大多是孩子帶來的財。這些是孩子前世行善的果報。

Besides a few exceptions, the parents will raise and educate the children. The upbringing expenses are mostly the wealth brought by the children. In other words, the money that parents spend for their children is mostly the wealth brought by the children. These are the children's fruits of karma due to their good deeds in the past lives.