Assuming I haven't missed any, the following are the 141 measure words (or classifiers) from the aforementioned book.  They're sorted according to frequency based on the LWC corpus.  The definitions are mostly from CC-CEDICT (truncated), the HSK3.0 level from the book (一①, 一②, 一③, 二, 三, or 附; and I include the word's index for reference), and the HSK2.0 level if relevant.  Collocations were sourced from Collocation Search (and should reflect the most common use of the given measure word) unless marked by an asterisk.

HSK3.0 measure words
个 (gè)

HSK3.0: 一① [2717]; HSK2.0: 1
/people or objects in general/
一个人   一个月   一个小时   一个字   一个孩子   一个星期   一个朋友   一个国家

只 (zhī)

HSK3.0: 一③ [10473]; HSK2.0: 3
/birds and certain animals, one of a pair, some utensils, vessels etc/
一只手   一只猫   一只狗   一只船   一只眼睛   一只脚   一只老虎

次 (cì)

HSK3.0: 一① [1317]; HSK2.0: 2
/enumerated events: time/
一次机会   一次车   一次会议   一次面   一次经历

种 (zhǒng)

HSK3.0: 一② [10656]; HSK2.0: 3
/types, kinds, sorts/
一种方式   一种人   一种感觉   一种动物   一种方法   一种习惯

家 (jiā)

HSK3.0: 一① [3857]; HSK2.0: 1
/families or businesses/
一家公司   一家人   一家企业   一家餐厅   一家店   一家商店

把 (bǎ)

HSK3.0: 一② [78]; HSK2.0: 3
/objects with handle/small objects: handful/
一把椅子   一把伞   一把雨伞   一把双刃剑   一把钥匙

两 (liǎng)

HSK3.0: 一② [5153]; HSK2.0: 2
/tael, unit of weight equal to 50 grams (modern)/
一两银子

点 (diǎn)

HSK3.0: 一① [1806]; HSK2.0: 1
/items/
一点菜   一点钱   一点东西   一点水   一点飞机

分 (fēn)

HSK3.0: 一① [2333]; HSK2.0: 3
/part or subdivision/fraction/one tenth (of certain units)/unit of length equivalent to 0.33 cm/minute (unit of time)/minute (angular measurement unit)/a point (in sports or games)/0.01 yuan (unit of money)/
一分钱   一分货   一分价钱   一分饱

元 (yuán)

HSK3.0: 一② [9989]; HSK2.0: 3
/currency unit (esp. Chinese yuan)/
一元钱   一元人民币   一元奖金   一元大奖

名 (míng)

HSK3.0: 一③ [5631]; HSK2.0: -
/people/
一名大学生   一名学生   一名妇女   一名志愿者   一名留学生

张 (zhāng)

HSK3.0: 一② [10254]; HSK2.0: 3
/flat objects, sheet/votes/
一张照片   一张桌子   一张票   一张地图   一张纸   一张床

回 (huí)

HSK3.0: 一② [3567]; HSK2.0: 1
/acts of a play/
一回事   一回事儿   一回好汉

行 (háng)

HSK3.0: 一③ [3204]; HSK2.0: 4
/row/line/
一行字

件 (jiàn)

HSK3.0: 一② [3989]; HSK2.0: 2
/events, things, clothes etc/
一件事   一件事情   一件衣服   一件衬衫   一件毛衣   一件礼物

双 (shuāng)

HSK3.0: 一② [7540]; HSK2.0: 3
/pair/
一双鞋   一双眼睛   一双筷子   一双皮鞋   一双人间   一双袜子   一双手   一双儿女

岁 (suì)

HSK3.0: 一① [7731]; HSK2.0: 1
/years (of age)/
一岁时   一岁时候

套 (tào)

HSK3.0: 一② [7865]; HSK2.0: 5
/sets, collections/
一套房子   一套公寓   一套西服   一套衣服   一套程序   一套沙发

句 (jù)

HSK3.0: 一② [4511]; HSK2.0: -
/phrases or lines of verse/
一句话   一句俗话   一句名言   一句诗   一句歌词

条 (tiáo)

HSK3.0: 一② [7982]; HSK2.0: 3
/long thin things (ribbon, river, road, trousers etc)/
一条路   一条腿   一条裤子   一条裙子   一条胡同   一条河   一条鱼   一条街   一条狗

场 (cháng)

HSK3.0: 一① [855]; HSK2.0: 4
/classifer for events and happenings/
一场灾难   一场病   一场京剧   一场招聘会   一场雨   一场电影   一场运动   一场雪   一场球   一场考试

头 (tóu)

HSK3.0: 一② [8108]; HSK2.0: -
/pigs or livestock/
一头牛   一头老牛   一头骆驼   一头驴   一头大象   一头毛驴   一头河马   一头水   一头黑熊

本 (běn)

HSK3.0: 一① [304]; HSK2.0: 1
/books, periodicals, files etc/
一本书   一本词典   一本杂志   一本小说   一本字典

位 (wèi)

HSK3.0: 一② [8434]; HSK2.0: 3
/people (honorific)/binary bits (e.g. 十六位 16-bit or 2 bytes)/
一位朋友   一位老人   一位老师   一位先生   一位姑娘

所 (suǒ)

HSK3.0: 一③ [7750]; HSK2.0: 5
/houses, small buildings, institutions etc/
一所大学   一所学校   一所小学   一所中学   一所医院   一所房子

首 (shǒu)

HSK3.0: 二 [7416]; HSK2.0: 5
/poems, songs etc/
一首诗   一首歌   一首词   一首歌曲   一首民歌   一首曲子   一首乐曲

号 (hào)

HSK3.0: 一① [3252]; HSK2.0: 1
/classifier used to indicate number of people/
一号嘉宾

份 (fèn)

HSK3.0: 一② [2377]; HSK2.0: 4
/gifts, newspaper, magazine, papers, reports, contracts etc/variant of 分[fen4]/
一份工作   一份报告   一份文件   一份礼物   一份遗嘱   一份报纸

段 (duàn)

HSK3.0: 一② [2009]; HSK2.0: 3
/stories, periods of time, lengths of thread etc/
一段时间   一段话   一段经历   一段路   一段故事   一段时期   一段历史   一段相声   一段长城   一段日子

片 (piàn)

HSK3.0: 一② [6092]; HSK2.0: 5
/slices, tablets, tract of land, area of water/CDs, movies, DVDs etc/used with numeral 一[yi1]: scenario, scene, feeling, atmosphere, sound etc/
一片叶子   一片土地   一片面包   一片空白   一片树林   一片笑声

度 (dù)

HSK3.0: 一② [1993]; HSK2.0: -
/events and occurrences/
一度电

部 (bù)

HSK3.0: 一③ [655]; HSK2.0: -
/works of literature, films, machines etc/
一部电影   一部小说   一部书   一部著作   一部作品   一部机器   一部电视剧

滴 (dī)

HSK3.0: 二 [1742]; HSK2.0: 5
/a drop/
一滴水   一滴眼泪   一滴泪   一滴泪珠

块 (kuài)

HSK3.0: 一① [4841]; HSK2.0: 1
/lump (of earth)/chunk/piece/pieces of cloth, cake, soap etc/(coll.) money and currency units/
一块钱   一块石头   一块糖   一块土地   一块人民币   一块饼干   一块地   一块手表   一块空地   一块蛋糕

些 (xiē)

HSK3.0: 二 [8946]; HSK2.0: 1
/classifier indicating a small amount or small number greater than 1: some, a few, several/
一些日子   一些东西   一些钱   一些药   一些水果   一些礼物

声 (shēng)

HSK3.0: 二 [7156]; HSK2.0: -
/sounds/
一声巨响

台 (tái)

HSK3.0: 一③ [7777]; HSK2.0: 4
/vehicles or machines/
一台电脑   一台电视   一台电视机   一台彩电   一台计算机   一台笔记本   一台拖拉机   一台洗衣机

包 (bāo)

HSK3.0: 一① [176]; HSK2.0: 3
/bundle/packet/
一包烟   一包东西   一包药   一包饼干

米 (mǐ)

HSK3.0: 一② [5557]; HSK2.0: 3
/meter (classifier)/
一米处   一米地方   一米速度

口 (kǒu)

HSK3.0: 一① [4787]; HSK2.0: 3
/things with mouths (people, domestic animals, cannons, wells etc)/bites or mouthfuls/
一口气   一口人   一口井   一口锅   一口家   一口水   一口钟   一口小锅   一口普通话   一口汉语

面 (miàn)

HSK3.0: 一③ [5585]; HSK2.0: -
/flat surfaces such as drums, mirrors, flags etc/
一面镜子   一面墙上   一面墙

秒 (miǎo)

HSK3.0: 二 [5609]; HSK2.0: 4
/second (unit of time)/
一秒钟

座 (zuò)

HSK3.0: 一② [11081]; HSK2.0: 4
/buildings, mountains and similar immovable objects/
一座城市   一座山   一座桥   一座大山   一座楼   一座城   一座山峰   一座古城   一座小山   一座建筑

颗 (kē)

HSK3.0: 二 [4700]; HSK2.0: 5
/small spheres, pearls, corn grains, teeth, hearts, satellites etc/
一颗心   一颗星星   一颗珍珠   一颗种子   一颗星   一颗牙齿   一颗杏子   一颗牙   一颗原子弹

篇 (piān)

HSK3.0: 一② [6089]; HSK2.0: 4
/written items: chapter, article/
一篇文章   一篇论文   一篇报道   一篇小说   一篇课文   一篇作文   一篇短文   一篇日记   一篇报告

班 (bān)

HSK3.0: 一② [123]; HSK2.0: 3
/groups/
一班飞机   一班火车 (*)

期 (qī)

HSK3.0: 一② [6213]; HSK2.0: -
/issues of a periodical, courses of study/
一期杂志   一期款子 (*)

集 (jí)

HSK3.0: 二 [3770]; HSK2.0: -
/sections of a TV series etc: episode/
一集电视剧 (*)

顶 (dǐng)

HSK3.0: 三 [1877]; HSK2.0: 5
/headwear, hats, veils etc/
一顶帽子   一顶毡帽

间 (jiān)

HSK3.0: 一① [3923]; HSK2.0: -
/rooms/
一间屋子   一间房子   一间房   一间卧室   一间正房   一间小屋   一间房间

则 (zé)

HSK3.0: 三 [10180]; HSK2.0: 5
/written items/
一则广告   一则故事

门 (mén)

HSK3.0: 一① [5519]; HSK2.0: 2
/large guns/lessons, subjects, branches of technology/
一门课   一门艺术   一门学问   一门手艺   一门学科   一门外语   一门功课   一门科学

群 (qún)

HSK3.0: 一③ [6661]; HSK2.0: 5
/group/crowd/flock, herd, pack etc/
一群人   一群孩子   一群羊   一群骆驼

道 (dào)

HSK3.0: 一② [1675]; HSK2.0: -
/long thin things (rivers, cracks etc), barriers (walls, doors etc), questions (in an exam etc), commands, courses in a meal, steps in a process/(old) circuit (administrative division)/
一道菜   一道题   一道难题   一道风景   一道命令   一道门

毛 (máo)

HSK3.0: 一② [5451]; HSK2.0: 4
/Chinese fractional monetary unit ( = 角[jiao3] , = one-tenth of a yuan or 10 fen 分[fen1])/
一毛钱

堆 (duī)

HSK3.0: 二 [2016]; HSK2.0: 5
/pile/heap/stack/
一堆人   一堆砖   一堆垃圾

顿 (dùn)

HSK3.0: 一② [2055]; HSK2.0: 5
/meals, beatings, scoldings etc: time, bout, spell, meal/
一顿饭   一顿晚饭   一顿饺子   一顿美餐

类 (lèi)

HSK3.0: 一③ [5004]; HSK2.0: -
/kind/type/class/category/
一类人   一类学生   一类东西   一类父亲   一类事情   一类国道   一类商品

枚 (méi)

HSK3.0: 三 [5484]; HSK2.0: 6
/coins, rings, badges, pearls, sporting medals, rockets, satellites etc/
一枚硬币   一枚奖章   一枚卫星 (*)

瓶 (píng)

HSK3.0: 一② [6168]; HSK2.0: -
/wine and liquids/
一瓶啤酒   一瓶水   一瓶饮料   一瓶可乐   一瓶酒   一瓶汽水儿   一瓶矿泉水   一瓶空气   一瓶红葡萄酒   一瓶酸奶

克 (kè)

HSK3.0: 一② [4732]; HSK2.0: 5
/gram/
一克水 (*)

支 (zhī)

HSK3.0: 一② [10463]; HSK2.0: 5
/rods such as pens and guns, for army divisions and for songs or compositions/
一支烟   一支箭   一支笔   一支曲子   一支玫瑰   一支卫队   一支钢笔   一支蜡烛   一支歌   一支喜烟

辆 (liàng)

HSK3.0: 一② [5165]; HSK2.0: 3
/vehicles/
一辆车   一辆自行车   一辆汽车   一辆出租车   一辆轿车

排 (pái)

HSK3.0: 一② [5961]; HSK2.0: -
/lines, rows etc/
一排书架   一排旗帜 (*)

斤 (jīn)

HSK3.0: 一② [4257]; HSK2.0: -
/(PRC) weight equal to 500 g/(Tw) weight equal to 600 g/(HK, Malaysia, Singapore) slightly over 604 g/
一斤钱   一斤香蕉   一斤肉   一斤苹果   一斤猪肉   一斤白酒

项 (xiàng)

HSK3.0: 一③ [8862]; HSK2.0: 5
/principles, items, clauses, tasks, research projects etc/
一项调查   一项指标   一项原则   一项工程   一项任务   一项内容   一项运动   一项国策   一项技术   一项结果

盘 (pán)

HSK3.0: 三 [5982]; HSK2.0: -
/food: dish, helping/to coil/coils of wire/games of chess/
一盘菜   一盘饺子   一盘棋   一盘豆腐

页 (yè)

HSK3.0: 一② [9455]; HSK2.0: 4
/page/leaf/
一页书   一页纸

餐 (cān)

HSK3.0: 二 [711]; HSK2.0: -
/meals/
一餐三明治   一餐饭菜 (*)

根 (gēn)

HSK3.0: 二 [2735]; HSK2.0: 5
/long slender objects, e.g. cigarettes, guitar strings/
一根柱子   一根竹竿   一根头发   一根小棍儿   一根绳子

轮 (lún)

HSK3.0: 二 [5362]; HSK2.0: -
/big round objects: disk, or recurring events: round, turn/
一轮满月   一轮明月 (*)

番 (fān)

HSK3.0: 二 [2186]; HSK2.0: 6
/occurrences (of an event, action or speech utterance)/iterations: times, -fold (as in twofold etc)/situations: kind, sort/
一番话   一番道歉   一番结婚纪念日 (*)

封 (fēng)

HSK3.0: 一② [2420]; HSK2.0: -
/sealed objects, esp. letters/
一封信   一封邮件   一封回信   一封电报   一封信件   一封情书

笔 (bǐ)

HSK3.0: 一② [353]; HSK2.0: -
/sums of money, deals/
一笔钱   一笔财富   一笔遗产   一笔收入   一笔资金

团 (tuán)

HSK3.0: 一③ [8175]; HSK2.0: 5
/a lump or a soft mass: wad (of paper), ball (of wool), cloud (of smoke)/
一团火

股 (gǔ)

HSK3.0: 二 [2904]; HSK2.0: -
/long winding things like ropes, rivers etc/smoke, smells etc: thread, puff, whiff/bands of people, gangs etc/sudden forceful actions/
一股力量   一股味儿   一股邪气   一股清香   一股浪潮   一股暖流

节 (jié)

HSK3.0: 一② [4182]; HSK2.0: 4
/segments, e.g. lessons, train wagons, biblical verses/
一节课   一节车厢

公里 (gōnglǐ)

HSK3.0: 一② [2797]; HSK2.0: 4
/kilometer/
一公里处   一公里长

届 (jiè)

HSK3.0: 二 [4244]; HSK2.0: 5
/events, meetings, elections, sporting fixtures, years (of graduation)/
一届运动会   一届任期

趟 (tàng)

HSK3.0: 二 [7840]; HSK2.0: 4
/times, round trips or rows/
一趟车   一趟家   一趟航班

阵 (zhèn)

HSK3.0: 二 [10370]; HSK2.0: 5
/events or states of short duration/
一阵清风   一阵炮火 (*)

样 (yàng)

HSK3.0: 二 [9390]; HSK2.0: -
/classifier: kind, type/
一样东西   一样菜   一样食品   一样花   一样点心

副 (fù)

HSK3.0: 二 [2520]; HSK2.0: 6
/pairs, sets of things & facial expressions/
一副对联   一副样子   一副眼镜   一副模样   一副墨镜   一副耳机   一副手套   一副象棋   一副春联

角 (jiǎo)

HSK3.0: 一② [4102]; HSK2.0: 3
/unit of money equal to 0.1 yuan, or 10 cents (a dime)/
一角钱

朵 (duǒ)

HSK3.0: 二 [2083]; HSK2.0: 5
/flowers, clouds etc/
一朵花   一朵红花   一朵浪花

架 (jià)

HSK3.0: 一③ [3899]; HSK2.0: -
/planes, large vehicles, radios etc/
一架飞机   一架机器

批 (pī)

HSK3.0: 二 [6052]; HSK2.0: 5
/batches, lots, military flights/
一批货   一批人   一批志愿者   一批知识分子   一批产品   一批留学生   一批货物

盒 (hé)

HSK3.0: 二 [3312]; HSK2.0: -
/small box/case/
一盒月饼   一盒蛋糕   一盒牛奶   一盒罐头   一盒录音带   一盒饼干   一盒茶叶

卷 (juàn)

HSK3.0: 二 [4545]; HSK2.0: 6
/small rolled things (wad of paper money, movie reel etc)/
一卷书

粒 (lì)

HSK3.0: 三 [5100]; HSK2.0: 6
/small round things (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc)/
一粒米   一粒纽扣   一粒药 (*)

桩 (zhuāng)

HSK3.0: 三 [10827]; HSK2.0: -
/items/
一桩事 (*)

码 (mǎ)

HSK3.0: 三 [5407]; HSK2.0: -
/length or distance (yard), happenings etc/
一码路 (*)

幅 (fú)

HSK3.0: 二 [2468]; HSK2.0: 5
/textiles or pictures/
一幅画   一幅图画   一幅画儿   一幅山水画   一幅字   一幅中国画   一幅作品   一幅油画   一幅地图   一幅肖像

箱 (xiāng)

HSK3.0: 二 [8832]; HSK2.0: -
/box/trunk/chest/
一箱啤酒   一箱垃圾   一箱橘子 (*)

棵 (kē)

HSK3.0: 二 [4699]; HSK2.0: 4
/trees, cabbages, plants etc/
一棵树   一棵大树   一棵草   一棵苹果树   一棵茶树   一棵白菜   一棵杨树   一棵树上   一棵花生病

壶 (hú)

HSK3.0: 二 [3417]; HSK2.0: 5
/bottled liquid/
一壶酒   一壶茶

厘米 (límǐ)

HSK3.0: 二 [5024]; HSK2.0: 5
/centimeter/
一厘米面积 (*)

局 (jú)

HSK3.0: 二 [4482]; HSK2.0: -
/games: match, set, round etc/
一局比赛 (*)

串 (chuàn)

HSK3.0: 二 [1248]; HSK2.0: 6
/things that are strung together, or in a bunch, or in a row: string of, bunch of, series of/
一串珍珠   一串钥匙 (*)

列 (liè)

HSK3.0: 二 [5182]; HSK2.0: -
/trains, motorcade, columns/
一列火车

栋 (dòng)

HSK3.0: 三 [1951]; HSK2.0: 6
/houses or buildings/
一栋楼   一栋房子   一栋楼上

户 (hù)

HSK3.0: 二 [3430]; HSK2.0: -
/a household/door/family/
一户人家   一户家庭   一户居民

缕 (lǚ)

HSK3.0: 三 [5343]; HSK2.0: -
/wisps (of smoke, mist or vapor), strands, locks (of hair)/
一缕头发   一缕烟   一缕云 (*)

盏 (zhǎn)

HSK3.0: 附 [10225]; HSK2.0: -
/lamps/
一盏灯

截 (jié)

HSK3.0: 三 [4211]; HSK2.0: -
/section/chunk/length/
一截绳子   一截粉笔 (*)

摊 (tān)

HSK3.0: 三 [7799]; HSK2.0: 6
/paste or think liquid/
一摊血   一摊泥 (*)

枝 (zhī)

HSK3.0: 二 [10477]; HSK2.0: 6
/sticks, rods, pencils etc/
一枝笔   一枝箭   一枝玫瑰

公斤 (gōngjīn)

HSK3.0: 一② [2793]; HSK2.0: 3
/kilogram (kg)/
一公斤咖啡   一公斤西红柿 (*)

胎 (tāi)

HSK3.0: 三 [7775]; HSK2.0: -
/litter/
一胎政策

束 (shù)

HSK3.0: 一③ [7500]; HSK2.0: 6
/bunches, bundles, beams of light etc/
一束鲜花   一束花   一束花儿

艘 (sōu)

HSK3.0: 三 [7682]; HSK2.0: 6
/ships/
一艘船

堂 (táng)

HSK3.0: 三 [7832]; HSK2.0: -
/classes, lectures etc/sets of furniture/
一堂课

立方 (lìfāng)

HSK3.0: 三 [5080]; HSK2.0: 6
/cube (math.)/
一立方公尺   一立方英里 (*)

尺 (chě)

HSK3.0: 二 [1041]; HSK2.0: -
/a Chinese foot/one-third of a meter/
一尺宽 (*)

伙 (huǒ)

HSK3.0: 二 [3659]; HSK2.0: -
/groups of people/
一伙人   一伙罪犯 (*)

匹 (pǐ)

HSK3.0: 二 [6073]; HSK2.0: 5
/horses, mules etc/
一匹马   一匹骏马   一匹千里马   一匹小马

平方米 (píngfāngmǐ)

HSK3.0: 二 [6137]; HSK2.0: -
/square meter/
一平方米玻璃 (*)

剂 (jì)

HSK3.0: 三 [3821]; HSK2.0: -
/dose (medicine)/
一剂药

毫升 (háoshēng)

HSK3.0: 二 [3219]; HSK2.0: -
/milliliter/
一毫升水   一毫升血 (*)

亩 (mǔ)

HSK3.0: 三 [5714]; HSK2.0: -
/fields/
一亩地   一亩良田 (*)

磅 (bàng)

HSK3.0: 附 [175]; HSK2.0: 6
/(loanword) pound/
一磅牛肉   一磅豌豆 (*)

宗 (zōng)

HSK3.0: 三 [10954]; HSK2.0: -
/batches, items, cases (medical or legal), reservoirs/
一宗寿司   一宗抢劫案 (*)

株 (zhū)

HSK3.0: 三 [10698]; HSK2.0: 6
/trees or plants/
一株树 (*)

担 (dàn)

HSK3.0: 三 [1595]; HSK2.0: -
/loads carried on a shoulder pole/
一担水   一担柴火 (*)

幢 (zhuàng)

HSK3.0: 三 [10845]; HSK2.0: 6
/buildings/
一幢楼   一幢房子

毫米 (háomǐ)

HSK3.0: 二 [3218]; HSK2.0: 6
/millimeter/
一毫米雨量 (*)

平方 (píngfāng)

HSK3.0: 二 [6136]; HSK2.0: 5
/square (as in square foot, square mile, square root)/
一平方毫米 (*)

立方米 (lìfāngmǐ)

HSK3.0: 三 [5081]; HSK2.0: -
/cubic meter (unit of volume)/
一立方米泥土 (*)

公顷 (gōngqǐng)

HSK3.0: 三 [2804]; HSK2.0: -
/hectare/
一公顷森林 (*)

千克 (qiānkè)

HSK3.0: 二 [6320]; HSK2.0: -
/kilogram/
一千克米   一千克黄油 (*)

捆 (kǔn)

HSK3.0: 三 [4881]; HSK2.0: -
/bundle/
一捆劈柴   一捆树枝 (*)

I left off some from the list that are different (but still labeled as 量 in the book):
下 (xià)

HSK3.0: 一② [8679]; HSK2.0: 1
/measure word to show the frequency of an action/

成 (chéng)

HSK3.0: 二 [954]; HSK2.0: -
/percent/

刻 (kè)

HSK3.0: 一② [4736]; HSK2.0: 3
/short time intervals/

遍 (biàn)

HSK3.0: 一② [421]; HSK2.0: 4
/actions: one time/

倍 (bèi)

HSK3.0: 二 [293]; HSK2.0: 4
/(two, three etc) -fold/

章 (zhāng)

HSK3.0: 二 [10259]; HSK2.0: -
/chapter/section/clause/movement (of symphony)/

人次 (réncì)

HSK3.0: 三 [6702]; HSK2.0: -
/number of people participating/

摄氏度 (Shèshìdù)

HSK3.0: 三 [7051]; HSK2.0: 6
/°C (degrees Celsius)/

马力 (mǎlì)

HSK3.0: 三 [5401]; HSK2.0: -
/horsepower/

丸 (wán)

HSK3.0: 三 [8286]; HSK2.0: 6
/ball/

The following arise in the HSK2.0 and/or HSK3.0 vocabularies, and are considered measure words in CC-CEDICT, but are not listed as measure words in the aforementioned book:

付 令 任 册 出 刀 剑 发 口子 听 和 响 喷 圈 堵 处 孔 季 层 席 床 扇 手 扎 折 抹 挂 挺 文 方 服 杆 杯 枪 标 档 棒 水 泡 注 火 环 画 眼 票 窝 管 纸 组 绞 缸 脚 记 贴 起 转 辈 进 通 造 领 骑


成员 means member in a generic sense.

It can refer to a member of any organization, like a team (e.g. 团队成员), a class (e.g. 班级成员), a party (e.g. 党派成员), a tribe (e.g. 部落成员), a crew (e.g. 机组成员), a committee (e.g. 委员会成员), the jury (e.g. 陪审团成员), etc.

It can be extended to mean an element/component/constituent of an object, for example in Computer Programming, a variable defined on a class is called 成员变量.

会员 also means member but with much narrower usage. It is used only when

The organization is a membership club, e.g. 俱乐部会员 -or-
The Chinese translation of the organization ends with 会, e.g. 国会会员.

Generally, 会员 can be replaced with 成员 but not the other way round. 俱乐部成员 sounds equally correct and natural as 俱乐部会员, but for member of the jury you can only say 陪审团成员 while 陪审团会员 is wrong and sounds funny.


有点儿深 is used to modified 这件衣服颜色, it is appropriate to put modifier after somethings you want to modified. For example 這個音樂非常好聽 you will not say  這個非常好聽音樂. So I use bracket parentheses to denote this structure as [Somethings] [description used to modified somethings]. There are tones of example you can find.


Transcribing native speakers using dictation tools - any suggestions to improve accuracy?

科大讯飞 makes the best Chinese dictation engine so far. The accuracy is far better than Siri according to reports. I've tried with their IME. If you speak clearly with a normal speed, the accuracy could reach 90% in many cases, but using it against fast conversations would surely be a frustration.


What is meaning of the sentence 「夫非盡人之子與」?

夫 is a particle that you can ignore in this sentence.

Here, 非 is a negation, in this case as part of a rhetorical question with 與: Is it not? (or, in this case: Are we not?)

盡 in this text means all.

Now, 人之子 belong together: sons of men.

Finally, 與 is a final particle marking a question, like 吗 in modern Chinese.

The translation of the sentence is: “Are we not all sons of men?”

This is a translation without context, of course. I’d have to read the rest of this Mengzi passage to give you a better one.


1) yes, it represent what is from the above!
But in formal writing, Like journals or school articles or official documents from the lawyers. we are not allow this kind of writing. But in private conversations, email or when professor write on the black board. People understand that this is used to denote the words in the sentence above it.
2) no


冲 is merged from two different characters, 沖 and 衝, notice that 衝 was merged to 沖 and then simplified to 冲 in simplified Chinese. It is very common that using a simple homophone Chinese character replace another complex one in classic Chinese among ordinary people, this is one of the Chinese simplifying rules. We can see the meanings of the characters 冲 or 沖 is about water, yes, it means water (verb), flush, etc. But 衝 is another verb, it means toward (for somebody or something) generally. e.g.: 衝向/冲向: run toward, 衝動/冲动: impulse, 衝着/冲着: for (something).

请别冲着我大喊大叫/請別衝著我大喊大叫:Please don't shout at me.
海潮冲着峭壁/海潮沖著峭壁:The tide is eroding (flushing) the cliff.
那幢房子冲着大海/那幢房子衝著大海:The house face to the sea.
其实我就是冲着她来的/其實我就是衝著她來的:Actually I'm coming for her.
是冲着美院油画系去的/是衝著美院油畫系去的:(Someone) is going for oil painting department of fine arts academy.

The second 冲 is corresponding to 沖 in traditional Chinese, the others are 衝.


The construction 得+V+且+V is a common observation in classical Chinese. In fact, consider another expression, 得饒人處且饒人 (meaning to be explained in point 4.).

We understand 過 generally as 'to pass'. But how should we understand 得⋯⋯且⋯⋯?
得 in classical Chinese can be a preceding modal verb that
expresses ability or possibility.
且 in classical Chinese is an adverb meaning 'for the time being; at least'. Usually it is used when the speaker faces an unwelcoming situation, but has to perform a certain action, perhaps unwillingly. Its modern Chinese equivalent is 姑且；暫且.
Combined, 得+V+且+V means 'whenever it is possible to v., v. for the time being'. Usually the action is something hard to achieve.

So, 得過且過 may mean something like 'whenever it is possible to muddle through / whenever it is passable, muddle through (for the time being)'. Which is rather an aimless way of living, isn't it? Gradually, it has evolved to become an adjectival phrase in modern Chinese, and means what you see in the dictionary entry.

Similarly, 得饒人處且饒人 means 'whenever it is possible to forgive others, forgive them (for the time being)'. It still retains its sentence-ness in modern Chinese, unlike 得過且過, where you can comment on someone as having an aimless attitude in life (得過且過的態度).


把 grammar and when it MUST be used, not when it CAN be used

The short answer is that the "ba" construction is required when a direct object representing a human or an animate item or a non-specific indefinite inanimate item is moved before the verb. Moving such an object before the verb is done for the purposes of topicalisation or adding focus to it.
For example:

He hit the ball.
他球打了
他把球打了

In the above 把 is optional, although having it makes it clearer. The optional nature of the 把 comes from 球; it is inanimate, so does not require 把.

He hit me.
*他我打了
他把我打了

Here, 把 is obligatory when 我 is put before the verb for emphasis. Why? Because it is animate (and because it is a pronoun).
Why you would have to put an object in front? It depends on the verb, and specifically: when certain verbs can take two objects or "arguments", only the indirect /positional one fits after the verb, and so the direct object must go before the verb in Mandarin. The most well-known one is 放, but others like 送 / 丢
/ 仍 also exist.

He puts the cake on the plate.
*他放蛋糕在盘子上
他把蛋糕放在盘子上

Notably however, this restriction is relaxed in dialectal Mandarin and in other Chinese topolects like Cantonese: it is not obligatory to use 将 (the Cantonese equivalent of 把) for verbs like 放:

He puts the cake on the plate
Cantonese only
佢將蛋糕放喺碟上
佢放蛋糕喺碟上


Are there any short prose or poetry works in classical or modern Chinese designed specifically to teach the names of the 64 hexagrams?

I found this link. It's mainly focused on methods to quickly memorize the meaning and pattern of 64 hexagrams. Hope it helps.


Why -ian instead of -ien and -üan instead of -üen?

Although Wade–Giles uses -ien, Zhuyin (1910) uses ㄧㄢ -ian, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1926) has -ian for the basic form of first tone, Latinxua Sin Wenz (1931) has -ian, and Yale romanization (1943) uses -yan. Likewise, pinyin's usage of -üan instead of -üen for [yɛn] has precedence in Wade–Giles (1892) -üan, Zhuyin ㄩㄢ -üan, Latinxua Sin Wenz yan, and Yale ywan.
Yale romanization in particular was supposed to be designed to be intuitive for English speakers to pronounce, which suggests that its yan and ywan were not pronounced [iɛn] and [yɛn] at the time, but rather [ian] and [yan].
Alternatively, these could be a holdover from Zhuyin. In Zhuyin, pinyin -ian is represented as ㄧㄢ -ian, and couldn't be represented as ㄧㄣ -ien, because that's used for pinyin -in.
Pinyin also draws inspiration from Zhuyin in other ways, such as the tone accent marks and the spelling of bopomofo (rather than *buopuomoufuo).
Perhaps Zhuyin could have created a dedicated -ên symbol, but overall, Zhuyin is somewhat minimalist in its inventory of finals. For example, it could have made sense to have dedicated letters for -in and -ing, rather than representing those sounds with -ien ㄧㄣ and -ieng ㄧㄥ. In fact, the character ㄣ -en is derived from 乚 yǐn, even though yin and en are different syllables.


How do I type in a Chinese character that I don't know how to pronounce?

With stroke method, you need to know the characters very well, which means you know how to write the character in correct order. It's hard for a non-native speaker in my opinion.

I would suggest you use the "Trackpad Handwriting" instead.

Well, well... I tried "Trackpad Handwriting" which provided by Mac, it's SO BADLY DESIGNED. I can't even believe it's product of Apple!

Thanks for @Ming 's reminder, Trackpad Handwriting has special setting to enable features like "two fingers tap clear". Then, the UE design might not that bad. But considering it's not default options, it's still bad! Not that bad, but bad!

Alternative:

Here are some online handwriting input method for Chinese, which are more effective and convenient than Trackpad Handwriting.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-input-tools/mclkkofklkfljcocdinagocijmpgbhab

http://hanzi.unihan.com.cn/Qpen

http://www.yibizi.com/html5/

If you are using Chrome, then the extension provided by Google may be the best choice for you.


到达 = arrive

境外 = abroad

经转局 =  processing/ transit center

到达境外经转局 = Arrived at processing center abroad (The package is currently in a  processing center in your country awaiting transit )


Why would Antimony (Sb) and Aluminum (Al) be confused?

Yes, they are chemically fairly similar in their natural state, as well as tin; all very light coloured metals, less dense than iron. China is still (as of 2017) the world's largest producer of antimony, accounting for over 75% of global annual production.

There is another dimension to this, which is that antimony has been known since antiquity, way before aluminium, in the West and in the East. However, in ancient China it was generally considered to be the same as tin. One of the largest antimony mines is Xikuangshan (錫礦山, lit. Tin Mine Mountain), in Lengshuijiang (冷水江), central Hunan, and was thought to have been discovered in 1521.

Antimony was given its modern Chinese name in the 1870s. Straying into speculation, I think that it would have been enough time for 銻 to have diffused into common use (and move away from 錫) in the southern topolects, maybe under the influence of this mine in Hunan. So I'd expect 銻 or something like it to be common words in Xiang, Sichuanese, Gan, maybe Hakka and Cantonese. Again, just a guess, but something to check!

It would be very difficult to trace the production and nomenclature of aluminium goods in the post-war of modern Chinese history, but not impossible if you were in the local community. You would have to ask the 单位 which was responsible for either manufacture or transport of such goods, or some HK vendors from that time.


It is definitely transliterated from Malay (it's noted on the zh Wikipedia as well).

Baba and Nyonya (pronounced /ɲoɲə/) are descendants of Hokkien Chinese who migrated to Malaysia centuries ago. They have come to refuse to be recognized as descendants of the Chinese and instead, identified themselves as British subjects (as per Bahasa Malay WP entry).

According to Wikipedia, the term baba is a religious honorific term that originated from Persian and entered Southeast Asian languages possibly through traders. It originally was used as an honorific for one's grandparents in Malay. Its meaning changed over time among the Baba-Nyonya to refer to all males of this particular ethnic group.

Nyonya is a loanword from Javanese that was likely borrowed from Portuguese don(h)a (compare Italian: donna; Spanish: doña) meaning lady (夫人). The term was used by the Malay people to refer to all "foreign" women including female peranakan. With the departure of European colonists, the meaning of the term slowly narrowed down to only peranakan women.

For further reading on the cultural aspect of this term: Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, From Angkor Wat to East Timor, Volume 1.


的确, 确实, 实在, and 真正: what's the difference?

A.的确   is a subjective and strong word to confirm. For your example in question, "没错，这本书____是我的", if you translate it into English, "Yes it is, actually this is my book ". Do you feel the mood is so strong? In another word, this book is mine, you never get a change to take it away, also "没错" is the key clue and makes this sentence much stronger. Eventually, the correct answer is "的确"！

B.实在
Among native Chinese, few people speak "实在" as the meaning of "truly" or "actually". They more like to use it as adj, not adv. For an example, "这个人很实在" means "This guy is very good and not selfish".For adv, "实在"+ adj. is much easier for understanding，such as "实在漂亮". Note:
"的确">"实在", if you don't know which word to use under different circumstance, try to use "的确" instead of "实在".

C.真正
There are only few specific phrase which you need to remember, "真正的男子汉","真正意义上的" . It is also not as often as used in daily life.

As a result, all the key is to consider the situation and environment when you speak, there are always several key points and clue that would be found.

PS: If you want to say "really" in your spoken-Chinese, it is easy to use "真" + any word you want.  "真香","真漂亮","真性感","这本书真是我的" :)


(From the view of the man), the 1st 杀牛的 means men born under the Ox sign killer, the 2nd one means (real) Ox killer.


中国人: usally it refers to people who have PRC nationality. In Mainland China, this may also refer to citizens of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
华人: Chinese (race) people with the nationality of another country.
华侨: 中国人 living abroad.
华裔: the decendants of 华人 or 华侨.


Meaning of "也是吼"? Is it slang/colloquialism?

It’s not a complete sentence. It’s something you’d say as a response in a conversation.

也是 means something like “indeed” in this scenario.

吼 is a word used at the end of sentences to express “emotion”. A close approximation would be “yeah...” in English.

Therefore, ”也是吼” means “yeah, right” or “yeah, indeed” when translated into English.


How do we answer to offensive phrases like 你 妈 bi?

It is not wise to reply to any offensive words. Keep the blame to himself. Don't get involved.


Why is the traditional character for 你 also 你 and not 儞 when the traditional character for 尔 is 爾?

in the book 類篇　卷二十二 (page 87 of the liked pdf), there was an entry:

伲儞你乃倚切汝也或作儞你你又乃里切文三重音一

that, 伲　儞　你 ・[these three characters are pronounced as] 乃倚切・[have the meaning of] 汝 (you)
the book “類篇” is edited between 1039-1066, in 宋 dynasty.
i would say that 儞 / 你 existed in the past, just not commonly used as 汝
have fun :)


how to translate this slogan '向前一小步，文明一大步' and the like in almost every public toilet in China

The quote from your title:

  '向前一小步，文明一大步。'

which literally translated to: "One small step forward, (is a) big step for civilization"

Is kind of a paraphrase of Neil Armstrong's "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" which translates, according to Wikiquote, to:

  '这是我个人的一小步，却是全人类的一大步。'

However, as mentioned above, this is a euphemistic way of asking people to get closer to the urinals in order to keep the floor dry and clean.


Tone 平仄 of the 5th character in a seven-character jueju 七絕

It is actually a big topic on the tone of Chinese poetry, even in different dynasties the rule is slightly different. I recommand you read Wang Li's (王力) book named 《诗词格律》, which has a systematic description on it.


I would say 益虫．　This is related to the compound 益害 (literally - beneficial and harmful), which means effect (positive or negative). For example, you can say 喝咖啡的益害　（the effects of drinking coffee).

Chinese has many similar antonymic compounds like this. Some examples include 高矮　(height of a person, or literally - tall and short), 长短 (length, or literally - long and short), 大小 (size, or literally - large and small), or 深浅 (depth, or literally - deep and shallow).


Definition

According to yabla, 'Io' is a valid pinyin.
Quoting yabla:

  咯
  luò

  to cough up

    咯
    lo

    (final particle similar to 了, indicating that sth is obvious)

  咯
  gē

  (phonetic)

Usage

Example Usage just for that middle one(from yabla):

哟呵呵呵我们回来咯回来了回来了

yohēhēāwǒmenhuílailohuílailehuílaile

English:
Ha ha ha ha! We are back. -You are back. You are back.

Sidenotes

A pinyin table from allsetlearning:

That proves to me that lo is a valid pinyin.


Are children's books a good starting place for beginners?

There is one main difference between children's books and adult foreign textbooks:

Adult foreign textbooks are designed to give foreigners the best chance to communicate in simple everyday circumstances.

Children's books start with the very basics and require longer to get to the same place, however they provide you a much more solid base and a far wider range of knowledge.

So it depends on your aims. But if you are in for the long haul: I started with foreign language books and after a year was handed a set of Chinese primary school books. This gave me a huge benefit when going to the next level.


Literal versus contextual translation of 斷腸

I think 斷腸 should be translated as "gut wrenching (pain/sadness)" but "heart broken" is also correct because 斷腸 and 碎心 basically have the same metaphorical meaning -- "extreme emotional pain"

斷腸 (gut wrenching): an intense sadness/ emotional pain like one's intestine is being twisted apart
心碎 (heart broken): an intense sadness/ emotional pain like one's heart is being broke to pieces

心碎 is more common than 斷腸 when it come to describe emotional pain because "心" also represent "emotion/mind", therefore,"心碎" expresses "emotional damage" in a more literally way, while 斷腸 is completely metaphorical

Another difference between 斷腸 and 心碎 is 斷腸 can be used as an adjective directly, for example: 斷腸人(heart broken one); 斷腸夢 (gut wrenching dream); 斷腸痛楚 (gut wrenching pain)

But we only say "碎心人" (heart broken one), not 心碎人


团结的社区

团结:

[local civil corps]∶唐宋时地方民兵丁壮组织。亦指该类组织的士兵
[harmony;friendship]∶和睦；友好；安定；团结
[unite;rally;close]∶联合起来以完成共同目标团结一致
[aggregate]∶指分散物聚拢成团;聚合 反义词：分裂

http://baike.baidu.com/subview/27127/5038298.htm


What's wrong with the four highlighted parts of this foreign-written Chinese passage about campus bells?

Google Translate suggests 筹集 (chóují; collect money) instead of 凑集 (còují).

凑集 means a 'group of people footing the bill together'

筹集 means 'raise funds'

  Here 前两班 is a bit confusing

From the context, '前两班' in "是前两班的同学修的" seems to refer to "previous two school years of the same class"   It should write " 是前两屆畢業的本班同学修的 (built by the graduated students of this class from the previous two school years)

  I don't know what's wrong with 茅亭 (máotíng) = pavilion.

'茅亭' is a pavilion with a thatch roof. There's nothing wrong with using '茅亭' here.

  I'm not sure what's wrong with "这些都表示" simply meaning "these both express".

'都' here means 'all'. The sentence "这些都表示" means "All these indicate"

  It looks like 具 is the wrong measure word for 钟 = bell.

摇铃 is small handheld or hanging bell
钟 (or 吊钟) is a bigger bell that you ring it by hitting it with a mallet.  usually sit on a table or hanging in a frame, but not handheld

Classifier for 钟 like this should be '口' as in "一口钟",


How to translate this conversation? 就是那种又泡又回吃的那种

哈哈，这是一个玩笑。原文应该是“暖被窝吧 暖被窝最有用就是那种又胖又会吃的那种”。


I am sure it is a typo

我有点过厌他 should be  我有点讨厌他 (I am a little bit disgusted with him/ I am kind of hating him)

讨厌 = disgusted with; hate

过厌 makes no sense

In traditional Chinese characters, you wouldn't confusing 過(过) with 討(讨) so easily


The Cantonese expression 輸打贏要 came from Mahjong lingo
'Play Mahjong' in Cantonese is "打麻雀(麻将)'

輸 means 'lose'

輸打 means 'continue to play when losing' (so when the game ends, he will have the chance to promise a gambling debt instead of paying the cash)

贏 means 'win'

贏要 means 'demand payment after every winning hand' (so when the game ends, he will get the cash and not a promise of repaying a gambling debt)

As a former Mahjong player, 輸打贏要 to me refers to the behavior of refusing to pay up after every losing hand when he was losing, insist on continuing to play, until he was winning, and then comes the 贏要 part -- Now he is demanding payment right after every hand.
In short -- Refuse to end the game when losing; eager to end the game when winning'; pick and choose the rules to obey when it benefits you
It is similar to the English expression 'Keep moving the goalposts';


Which one out of these two sentences is the most natural?

让我们... means let us... So, yes, it is a way to give suggestion. Of course you can use it but we do not use it as frequently as 我们一起去海滩吧！normally in verbal. Though they are both verbal ways, I will choose the first sentence. You can just think it omit 让.


What phrase do you use to express “don’t use sth”

Well, 用 can mean both "don’t need to" and "don't use" depending on context. E.g. 我不用 can mean 我不需要, I don't need it；我不用手机 can mean I don't use mobile phone.


What is the grammatical function of 當 and 自 in 爾男子，當自警 ?

If,

當 = should / must

自警 = self-discipline

What do you think their grammatical roles are?


iTalki has an article that alludes to it:

  戴绿帽子（Wearing a green hat)

  If you are traveling in China, you might notice a curious thing – you will never find a Chinese man wearing a green hat. Let it be a warning to you: no matter how curious you are, you’d better not ask them why they don’t wear a green hat! The reason is, in Chinese culture, wearing green hat has a dark meaning: the one wearing it was cuckolded. And, be sure you don’t wear one yourself, either.

  The source is a story from the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang enacted a law, which required men who worked in the prostitution trade to wear green hats. Later, it became common to say about man whose wife had an affair, that she made her husband wear a green hat. It’s best to stay away from those green hats!

Liang'an (which is a free Pleco add-on) also talks about the origin:

  古代制度, 罪人及妓女必裹帶綠巾, 以示屈辱。後用以譏諷妻子有外遇, 不守婦道者, 而謔稱其夫為戴綠帽子。

Criminals and prostitutes had to wear green cloth as a type of humiliation in the past. Thus the wearing of a "green hat" came to represent a cheating wife.

The Nan Fang also states:

  Although the origin of the phrase remains unknown, there are a number of possible explanations. One theory suggests that the families of prostitutes were forced to wear green hats during the Yuan Dynasty. Another says that male brothel workers wore green hats during the Tang Dynasty. A third theory suggests that the Chinese word for “cuckold” sounds a lot like “wear a green hat”.

Like you mention though, I'm not seeing what similar sounding words there are that match.

I would imagine the Liang'an definition is quite authoritative, instead.


What is the difference between 必须, 得, 必需, and 需要?

First let's clarify the definitions of 須 and 需
須： Adverb/verb, meaning should, must; 《必須，必定，須要》

你（必須）參加這次會議
You must participate in this meeting.

需: Compound, meaning need, require; example compounds: 《需要(require)，需求(demand)，必需(need)，急需(urgent need)》

植物生長（必需）陽光和雨露
Plants require sunlight and raindrops to grow

It is very easy to mix up 必須 and 必需, even for native speakers, as they have the same pronunciation (cantonese and mandarin) and very similar meanings. In english, both can be represented by "need". "You need to participate in this meeting" and "Plants need sunlight and raindrops to grow".
The easiest way to distinguish the two is to see whether it is a noun or a verb that comes after it. If it is a noun, use 必需， 需要; if it is a verb, use 必須.
得 is quite interesting because it can be used to replace both 必須 or 必需

有錯誤就得批評;做得好就得表揚
Wrong doing needs to be critiqued, good work needs to be complimented
這公工程得三個月才能完成
It takes 3 months to finish this construction

Note that 需要 can be used as a noun as "need(s)"


What do the stamp marks say on these three teapots?

惠　小（華）

宐（宜）（興）　煌

Suspected: （新）仁　座　座仁製
Confirmed: Ａ　Ｂ　ＢＡ製
I see:

Ｂ: 座（广 + 坐）
古文說文解字　今楷

Ａ: 仁


高兴 vs 快乐 vs 愉快 vs 幸福: what's the difference?

高兴 means glad, a temporary state of mind. E.g: I'm glad it's sunny today -- 今天是晴天, 我很高兴.

快乐 means happy, and I agree it's the only one in the list that can be used for festivals. E.g. 节日快乐 (happy holiday). 我很快乐 (I'm very happy -- in this case same as 高兴).

愉快 means pleasant. That's why you see it used with "weekend" -- have a pleasant weekend = 周末愉快. It's less common to say something like 我很愉快.

幸福, I agree, is a deeper kind of happiness for describing a long-lasting state of mind. I am 幸福 because I have my dream job, a lovely wife and two kids; I am 幸福 because I know my parents love me deeply; etc.

This is my two cents as a native Chinese speaker -- hopefully it helps!


What is the difference between 假如 and 例如?

Their usage are quite different.

假如 means "if" or "in case".

例如 means "such as" or "for example".


What's the origin of the proverbial phrase, "Sky falls/does not fall big pancakes"?

天上掉馅饼，means that free and delicious food like pies are falling from the sky. Or its negative form: 天上不会掉馅饼

Nowadays it usually means that people who are lazy are expecting something miracle but impossible will happen to them. For example:

  不好好工作就想升职，别做梦了，天上又不会掉馅饼。

This phrase came from a Chinese myth. After 嫦娥(the lady in the legend who swallowed the elixir stolen from her husband and flew to the moon) went to the moon, 后羿(the man in the legend who shot 9 suns out of 10 and saved the earth from the heat) was very sad and thought about her every day. When 嫦娥 found out his love, she wrote her love on a pie. Because she is on the moon, there came the phrase: 天上掉馅饼


A bit more context would be helpful, but you could be right, 这么 can be translated as 'so, this way, like that'

您打算这么干吗？
Did you mean to do that?
Did you mean to do it like that?
Do you intend to do this?
Are you going to do this?

你应该这么做.
This is how you do it.
That's what you should do.


What usage does 有 have in ~的有 (e.g. 偏向于data reseacher的有)

I am a native speaker and consider myself a "data" person.

From my perspective, he didn't end the sentence properly and his array of sentences could be changed a bit like below so it's easier to understand.

  从我的观察来看，不同企业对于data scientist这个title的定义其实是有分歧的。
      有偏向于data reseacher的，多见于大型IT企业。百度大脑的data scientist们多属于这一类型，他们搞的是比较前沿的深度学习，平常会读大量paper可能自己也会发文章。

The purpose of 有...的 is to illustrate his/her point using example(s).


Character Gaps On Comic Conversation : 5

Panel 1

你是指我會被吊起來，和被火烤嗎？: "Are you saying I will be strung up and roasted with fire?"

Missing character: 被, 起, 被

Panel 2

這些都是小事一樁: "Those are all no big deal."

Missing character: 樁

Panel 3

我會讓你到老死之前都不會遇到大波折: "I'll make sure you meet no major set backs until you die of old age."

Missing character: 讓, 死, 遇, 波

Wrong character: 回 -> 會|会

Panel 4

你是說你能夠知道一個人的命運： "Are you saying you can see someone's future?" (or more literally: "know a person's fate")

沒錯: "That's right!"

Missing character: 夠, 運

Panel 5

你一定想問我為什麼知道對不對: "You must be wondering why I know, right?" (or more literally, "wanting to ask")

嗯， 對: "Umm, yes."

Wrong character: 啊 -> 嗯


How to pronounce several consecutive '“三声” characters?

I thought about such questions before as well, it turns out in this case, you would just pronounce the way it flows better for you, for example

qíng nǐ géi lǐ xué zhǔ jiáng jiǎng yóng gǎn dē dá sǐ láo hú zhě
qǐng ní gěi (pause) lǐ xué zhǔ jiáng jiǎng yóng gǎn dē dá sǐ láo hú zhě

You can imagine you are trying to speak out a number whose value is

3.55555555555555555555555...

You would naturally alternate second and third tone.


How to reply to a recruiter ‘thanks for reaching out, I'd like to hear more’?

Perhaps better not to mix up 您 and 你. Stay with one of them.

First part is ok. "您好，谢谢您发给我的消息，

My suggestion for the second part is:

Could you please give me more details?
您是否能够给我更多的详细信息？


Does a Chinese character almost-always represent a word?

的 is foremost a particle, but also a word in its own right. As de, it can mean plus, as in 七个的六个一共十三. As dī, it can mean cab. As dì it can mean target.

吗 is in ma and má likewise mostly a particle, but in some instances an isolated character without meaning of its own. As mǎ in 吗啡, it means morphine.

There are a number of such isolated characters, such as 蝴, which can only be used in conjunction with 蝴蝶, 蝶 in itself meaning butterfly.

蝴 is thus not a word, since it cannot stand on its own and doesn't convey any useful information. One could still infer the meaning from its written form, but likely not from speech (perhaps a child trying to say hú but not completing with dié, then).

This is true for a handful of such isolated characters. For instance 蚂 can be part of 蚂蚁 mǎyǐ, 蚂螂 mālang and 蚂蚱 màzha, but is not a word in itself. The same is true of 螂 and 蚱, which can be combined in words but not carry individual meaning. 蚁 can stand alone, as the family of ant-like insects.

Particles, on the other hand, can mostly be regarded as words, as they carry linguistic meaning in their own right. 哦 and other interjections are of this nature.


It's Japanese.

接着剤製品営業部

glue - 接着剤

product - 製品

sales department - 営業部

東京都世田谷區玉川台 2 - 33

Tamagawadai (玉川台), Setagaya-ku (世田谷區) in Tokyo 東京都.

https://www.google.com.hk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%83%BD%E4%B8%96%E7%94%B0%E8%B0%B7%E5%8D%80%E7%8E%89%E5%B7%9D%E5%8F%B0+2+-+33&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=Z_8hWrnmCvOiX6vkr4gH

Osaka - 大阪

Nagoya - 名古屋

Sendai - 仙台

Hiroshima - 広(廣)島


1.can I say: 她吃饭得很多?

No, If you use 得 with separable verb, you have to either 1. Repeat the first part of the separable verb, e.g. 她吃饭吃得很多.(meaning she can eat a lot rice)  2. put 得 between the separable verb. e.g. "她吃得饭多" (meaning she ate a lot of rice or she eat rice very often)
"她饭吃得很多" has no separable verb (the only verb is 吃;  饭 is the object
More Example:

讀書，唱歌，喝酒 are all separable verbs
她讀得書多，所以不怕找不到工作 (得 is inserted between the verb and object part of 讀書)
她唱得歌多，聲音也變得好聽了 (得 is inserted between the verb and object part of 唱歌)
她喝得酒多，說話有點含糊 (得 is inserted between the verb and object part of 喝酒)

~

她書讀得多，所以不怕找不到工作 (no separable verb, 書 is the object, 讀 is the verb)
她歌唱得多，聲音也變得好聽了 (no separable verb, 歌 is the object, 唱 is the verb)
她酒喝得多，說話有點含糊 (no separable verb, 酒 is the object, 喝 is the verb)

~

2.are degree adverbs needed?

It is optional
Both 我今天起得早 (I woke up early today) and  我今天起得很早 (I woke up very early today) are legit sentences


Can you say "好久不看“ in written conversation?

I assume you want to use "read" because it's written conversation, but you want it to have the meaning of 好久不见, am I right? If it is so, then I think it would be better to say “好久没收到你的消息/来信” (It's been a while since your last message/letter) or “好久没联系你” (It's been a long time since we contacted each other).

“好久不看” is grammatical, but it seems to me that it would not be natural in the situation you described. Some certainly good use of “好久不看” would be (all the examples are courtesy of Google):

  好久不看球了 I haven't watched a match for a long time

  10几年前一直看动漫，好久不看现在该去哪里？ 10 years ago I used to watch anime all the time, it's been a long time since I watched it, where should I start?

  好久不看这样的电影了 I haven't seen a movie like this for a long time

And so on, so on. At first glance it seems like “好久不看” is often used as "it's been a long time since I watched/saw" rather than "read".


关系 has very little to do with language because it works more on a 礼尚往来-system, much like everything in China does.

If you want to "earn" some 关系 you must make people feel like they owe you.

The 礼 in 礼尚往来 originally stood for 礼节 - looking at it you might even think of 礼貌 or 礼仪 but most people today take this as 礼物.

If you want to earn 关系 then you really need to take the initiative and give some gifts, presents or even money.

If you want to keep 关系 you better make sure you "reciprocate" on every possible occasion, especially: birthdays, births, funerals, weddings, promotions, house warnings. Reciprocation means that whatever you were given before you better give something with greater or (in the absolute least) equal value (but something of equal value will probably be looked upon as somewhat disrespectful and perhaps as an indicator that you're not willing to 'sustain' this 关系 relationship).

(On a side note: this explains China's problem with corruption - too many people owe people favors...)

If someone invites you to dinner - you better invite them back, if someone gives you a "gift" you better give one back (at the appropriate time, of course) - unless you don't care about "keeping up" the relationship.

If you recieve some stuff you can say something like:
破费了！

When you give stuff you can say something like:
一点心意


三八

Comes from "March" (3, 三) "Eighth" (8, 八):

KEY:

  March Eighth (International Working Women's Day)

and then evolved into what it means today (stupid, foolish, batty, gossipy, bitchy). It has no relation to 二百五.

二百五

规范

  过去银子五百两为一封, 二百五十两为半封, 谐音“半疯”。借指带有傻气、做事鲁莽的人。

Basically 250 = 半封 which sounds like 半疯 or half-crazy.

二

百度知道

  “二”是河南一带的方言俚语，其来源是“二蛋”简称，“二蛋”的同义语有“二球”、“二杆子”、“二性（这里的“性”读轻声）”，意思均指某人鲁莽爱拼命，或指稍微冒犯即给对方以极不相称的极不必要的数十倍的攻击。一般人们通常会说，“这个人‘二’的很，别惹他”；“那家伙真‘二’，就说他一句掂砖头朝头上砸过去了”。
  河南方言形容这类行为的说法是“脑子一热，不顾一切”（用河南话念，很押韵合辙）。

  　　我再补充一点，三楼的第二点：“应该是做形容词用。 比如东北常说，你咋那么“二”呢！等等
  ”之意思正是“二蛋”之意，你咋那么“二”呢！是避讳不雅字眼，完整的应该说“你咋那么二蛋（或二球、二性、二杆子）呢！”也就是出傻气的意思。

  　　“二性”用来描述人时有时候也可重叠，作“二二性性”，如“那家伙二二性性的，别理他，别跟他一般见识。”

  　　“二”以及它的那些全称词组还有引申义，指某人说话缺乏考虑，口无遮拦，胡扯八道，或满嘴脏话（不分场合的讲脏话），此时有一个专门的词叫“二驣（音”teng，第三声），属于“专有名词”，专用来指说话。如：那家伙是个二驣，说话没边，云天雾地的（这个意思时还有个专门的比喻词叫“老鸹屁”）。再如：她真是个二驣，跟一帮男的说话屌啊屌的，不像个女的。

  　　2.　　2据说是原来人们称呼的250的简称。人们后来觉得叫人家250有些直接了当的辱骂，显得自己多么不文明，没素质，就简化成2了。

  　　二百五的来历

  　　二百五的来历日常生活中，人们常把傻瓜或说话不正经、办事不认真、处事随便、好出洋相的人叫做“二百五”。

  　　一说来源于战国故事。苏秦是战国时的一个说客，他身佩六国相印，一时很是威风，但也结下了很多仇人。后来，他终于在齐国被人杀了，齐王很恼怒，要为苏秦报仇。可一时拿不到凶手，于是，他想了一条计策，让人把苏泰的头从尸体上割下来，悬挂在城门上，旁边贴着一道榜文说：“苏秦是个内*，杀了他黄金千两，望来领赏。”榜文一贴出，就有四个人声称是自己杀了苏秦。齐王说：“这可不许冒充呀！”四个人又都咬定说自己干的。齐王说：“一千两黄金，你们四个人各分得多少？”四个齐声回答：“一人二百五。”齐王拍案大怒道：“来人，把这四个‘二百五’推出去斩了！”“二百五”一词就这样流传下来。

  　　还有另一种说法，与推牌九有点关系。

  　　原来，牌九（旧时一种赌具）中有“二板”（四个点）和“么五”（六个点）两张牌，这两张牌配在一起就是十个点，在推牌九这一赌博活动中，被称为“毙十”。它在牌九里是最小的点，谁都比它大，它什么牌也“吃”不了，所以人们就用“二板五”（二板和么五的简称）这个词来戏称什么事也做不好也管不了的人。时间久了，就把“二板五”叫成了“二百五”。在香港，习惯上又称为“二五仔”。

  　　a:东北方言，常用于形容人或事物愚笨，口语中拥有独特的语意。

  　　b:陕西方言，常用于形容一个人分不清场合，掂不来轻重，说话不过大脑，做事不想后果。如“二怂，二锤子”。例，那个人二得很！
  或形容自己听到惊人且不能理解的言论时的心理状况，如“我二了”。

  　　c:天津方言，贬意词。常用用于形容人愚笨，弱智的意思。现在多用于彼此取笑的意思（有很大的玩笑成分）。

tl;dr: or don't understand chinese:
1. came from topolect
2. shortening of 250


For the Simplified Chinese script, there is Chinese Open Wordnet which you can search online.

This is part of Open Multilingual Wordnet, which also links to a smaller project called Chinese WordNet which was produced in Taiwan in 2010 and uses the Traditional Chinese script.  That one also has a 2012 version called Chinese WordNet 2, but the license of Chinese WordNet 2 is much more restrictive than that of the original Chinese WordNet or Chinese Open Wordnet.  Chinese WordNet 2 is non-commercial use only and no redistribution without permission, which means others have not integrated it with their online query systems and such.  You can still download it if you don't mind doing a bit of programming to read out the data (I suggest use the "CWN DataBase" link and the output.sqlite file; if you want to process it as text do echo .dump|sqlite3 output.sqlite > output.txt on GNU/Linux).

However if you can convert your input to the Simplified Chinese script then you might as well just use Chinese Open Wordnet.


I don't know if my answer is absolutely right.
There is a famous book named Di-Zi-Gui (弟子规）from Confucianism（儒学）. You know, Confucianism was prevailing for a long time in China. As I know, Di-Zi-Gui is a book to teach children moral precepts and standards.

《弟子规》：“勿践阈，勿跛倚，勿箕踞，勿摇髀……”
The first one is 勿践阈
 勿 means 'don't 不能',践 means ‘踩’，阈 means ‘门槛’

However, I don't know if this is the earliest usage. From my memory, I was told by my grandparents that 门槛 means all the trouble and setback in our life，we better walking cross the trouble instead of stepping right onto (踩到）the trouble. So that is what we usually do in temples--不踩门槛，跨过门槛。
I hope this is helpful!


该 - How do you know when to use it? Nothing to do with 应该

该 is the formal equivalent of the word aforementioned or said:

  该公司 - the said company
  该法案 - the aforementioned legislation

It is usually found in text to refer back to something that was mentioned previously.

Informally, you can also use 那. Here is the meaning from 汉典:

  那，著重指出前面說過的人或事物：～地。～書。


"以何" was used in classical chinese roughly as "by (以) which / what (何)".

eg 禮記﹒問喪

  或問曰﹒杖者﹒以何為也

三國志﹒董昭傳

  問﹒禦以何術

though, it's not 100%, most of this usages were questions.

the verses "以何方便　而受道法　何因令獲　從佛經教" is from 正法華經　卷第七

http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/mobile/index.php?index=T09n0263_007

in which 方便 is upāya-mukha (方便門), since there're many ways to learn buddhism, "以何方便" in this context means by (以) which [one] (何)  of the ways (方便).

about the question mark, it depends on the version of translation. here's one that text are punctuated with dot only.


What these seals characters means? (Characters identified: 讀書志在聖賢 爲官心存君國)

I couldn't explain it in a short sentence, but I found this translation from a blog.
It seems that the blogger loves ancient Chinese literature.
He translate it to
In learning, aim at the sages; as an official, be loyal to sovereign and country.
Anyway it advocates abandoning your personal profit.


My Chinese Story, need correction, any suggestion?

We don't use too much period, only when you finish saying a short piece of contents. In general your Chinese is good, you know a lot Chinese words. (My English is not good enough, not sure you understand all of my saying)
我还是一个小孩子的时候住在美国。 我是在那儿出生的， 我爸爸妈妈几年后坐飞机来到美国， 他们买到了一个很大的公寓， 我在那家公寓长大， 附近有很多我的朋友。 我们在美国住五六年，然后，我们搬家到印度，由于很大堵车，环境污染，和人口密集，印度给我留下了不太好的印象，然而不知道什么时候开始，我喜欢印度和印度的文化。 印度和美国并不一样，他们之间有很多差异。 我十一岁以后，我们再搬家回美国。这次我根本不喜欢美国，当我终于适应印度的环境的时候我父母宣布了我们要回美国，原因是他们都有点儿不喜欢印度。 现在我们还住在美国华盛顿，我喜欢在这儿，但是我很想印度，有一天我一定要搬家去印度。


Should I use 就 in when translating "when you say it like that, I feel confused", e.g. ...我就感到困惑?

In short:

你这么说的时候，我就感到困惑.
Whenever you say it like that, I feel confused.

你这么说的时候，我(会)感到困惑.
When you say it like that, I feel confused.


What distinguishes 各位 (gèwèi) from 大家 (dàjiā)?

中文

“各位”和“大家”单独使用的时候基本没有区别。它们的主要区别在于“各位”可以接其他名词，而“大家”不能：

  各位家长、同学们
  大家家长、同学们

同时，“各位”可以用于宾格，但“大家”听起来不太对：

  以后怎么做就要看在座的各位了
  以后怎么做就要看在座的大家了

另外，在使用中，“各位”比较正式，常用于称呼及正式场合；而“大家”则显得比较随意，在日常中一般都使用“大家”。

还有一些习惯用法的不同：

  大家好！
  各位好！

English

"各位" and "大家" make little difference when used alone. Their primary difference is that "各位" can precede other nouns, whereas "大家" can't:

  各位家长、同学们
  大家家长、同学们 (Wrong)

Meanwhile, "各位" can be used as object, while "大家" sounds strange if used like that:

  以后怎么做就要看在座的各位了
  以后怎么做就要看在座的大家了

Besides, in practice, "各位" tends to be a little formal and is often used in serious appellations and formal scenarios, while "大家" tends to be more casual and is more prevalent in daily spoken Chinese.

There's also some difference in usual practice:

  大家好！
  各位好！ (We don't really call people like this even in formal scenarios, even if it's grammatically correct.)


Help translating "她只觉得眼前一花，就里看到一个一身锦衣的男子"

花 also means 'burr'

眼花 means 'have blurred vision'

她只觉得眼前一花 - She just felt a burr in front of her eyes

就看到一个一身锦衣的男子 - then she saw a man in brocade clothing

里 is a typo, it shouldn't be there

  I'm confused as why "觉得" is used instead of "看到".

We say "she 'felt' a burr in front of her eyes" instead of "she 'saw' a burr in front of her eyes" because using '看到 (saw)' in this sentence would mean she has actually seen something.

Using 'felt' a burr' in this sentence implies she may or may not had actually seen something. It could just be something wrong with her vision.(for example, she might has fainted a little or  her eyes were watering for a moment)

  The correct translation of "她只觉得眼前一花，就看到一个一身锦衣的男子" is
  "She just felt a burr in front of her eyes, then (she) saw a man in brocade clothing"


The figurative meaning  of 骑在~头上 (ride on top of someone) is not 'to bully ~' , It is 'to dominate/ to rule over' For example: "Mr.A graduated one year before you(have been your senior schoolmate for all your college life); entered the same company one year before you and has always been your boss." -- You can say Mr.A  一直骑在你的头上 (always ride on top of you) meaning he's always been your boss or having authority over you.

If one day, you got promoted to higher position than Mr.A, then you are in fact 反过来骑在他头上 ( turn around and ride on top of him)

One more example: "他一直被妻子骑在头上" (he has been ridden on top by his wife) meaning his wife is the head on the household over him.

As long as she always at the top of the family, no matter how well she treats him, the fact that she's riding on top of him remains.


I suggest just explaining the origin:

曾子曰：「吾日三省吾身：為人謀而不忠乎？與朋友交而不信乎？傳不習乎？」——《論語·學而》
The philosopher Zeng said, "I daily examine myself on three points: whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful; whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere; whether I may have not mastered and practiced the instructions of my teacher."
——"Xue Er" in The Analects (Confucianism). Translated in English by James Legge.

So, you can say something like

陈是耳东陈，省身是「(吾日)三省吾身」的「省身」。

I think Chinese should at least know the idiom 三省吾身(sān xǐng wú shēn), if not, it's an opportunity to teach them :)
PS for pedants: yes, yes, I know 陈 is not composed of 耳 and 东: 耳 should be 阜/. However in common saying, people just say so and everyone can understand!


In terms of historical usage, the word meaning likeness, couple (Zhengzhang: /*ŋoːʔ/) was first written as「禺」as a phonetic loan, then

Had「亻」added to it to differentiate this meaning from the other meanings written「禺」;
Had「耒」added to it to specifically indicate the meaning two people plowing fields.

My speculations: Since the word represented by「耦」is related to「偶」(in fact, identical, just written with a different glyph for a specialised circumstance), they became interchangeable to a very large degree.「耦」was even used for the word idol:

木耦
土耦
耦人

The current spelling would then be just dictated by educational committees, as historically they were the same word written with two different glyphs and frequently mixed up in usage.


Help with a better translation for 展示着它罕见和珍稀。

reveal= 展露/显露 (展示 means 'display')

rareness= 罕有性 or 罕有 (罕见 means 'rarely seen')

preciousness= 珍贵性 or 珍贵 (珍稀 means 'precious and rare' )

uniqueness= 独特性 or 独特

(you can omit 性)

reveals its rareness and preciousness
展露着它的罕有性和珍贵性
展露着它的罕有和珍贵

~ 'rareness'(罕有性) and 'preciousness'(珍贵性) are nouns

reveals its rare and precious nature.
展露着它罕有和珍贵的本质

~ 'rare'(罕有的) and 'precious'(珍贵的) are adjectives

shows its uniqueness.
显示它的独特性


上帝也哭泣, Cantonese version, is this bit of lyrics correct?

He pounced it correctly and match with lyrics.

Multiple pronunciation of 涌. "yung2"
http://ykyi.net/dict/index.php?char=涌

E.g. 暗涌


What is written in this Chinese painting? (Characters identified: 寧靜致遠)

The calligraphy writing 寧靜致遠 is a quote origin from an ancient scroll call 淮南子, under the page 主术训.

Here is the whole phrase :
是故非澹漠无以明志，非宁静无以致远。

The whole phrase is a philosophy, which will take pages to explain. I will try to summarize them.

是故非澹漠无以明志 one must be put aside your own crave and obsession to know your goals clearly.
非宁静无以致远 :  Without calmness,  one cannot achieve their long term goals


Symbolism Of A Verse From A Chinese Poem

闲 - idle
而 - therefore
生 - create/ grow
懒 - lazy
懒 - lazy
生 - grow /create
肉 - flesh/ meat

"闲而生懒，懒生肉" = "Idleness grows laziness, laziness
(makes you) grows flesh"

'grow flesh' is a polite way to say 'become fat'


What is the difference between 举行 and 举办?

An answer I found on Baidu Zhidao says this:

  二者的区别在字面上，“行”注重过程，“办”强调事情，进行（集会、比赛等）

The difference between the two words can be seen from the words themselves, “行” focuses on the process of events, while “办” emphases the thing things and the carrying out of such things themselves (meetings, competitions, etc).

The following all use "举行"

～会谈
～球赛
展览会在文化宫～。

Hold talks
to hold a sporting event
the exhibit will be held at the cultural palace

The following, here, would all use "举办"

～展览会
～学术讲座
～训练班

To hold an exhibition
The hold an academic speech
To hold a training class

So basically
行 = just doing it
办 = includes setting it up and doing it (edit: or organizing like you said in your original post)


Which period in Chinese history produced the most chengyu?

I'll answer based on the article provided by @Stan. From what I can tell, it is a transcription from a 1999 article that appeared in 《语文建设》, the raw data of which came from 汉语成语考释词典 by 刘洁修, 1989.

Period                           | Number | Percent
---------------------------------+--------+--------
春秋以前 Before Spring and Autumn |     88 |    1.21
春秋 Spring and Autumn           |    320 |    4.41
战国 Warring States              |    232 |    3.19
秦 Qin                           |      1 |    0.01
两汉 Han                         |    479 |    6.59
三国 Three Kingdoms              |     96 |    1.32
两晋 Jin                         |    198 |    2.73
南朝 Southern Dynasties          |    270 |    3.72
北朝 Northern Dynasties          |     71 |    0.98
隋 Sui                           |     16 |    0.22
唐 Tang                          |    711 |    9.79
五代 Five Dynasties              |     75 |    1.03
两宋 Song                        |   1251 |   17.22
金 Jin (Jurchen)                 |     36 |    0.50
元 Yuan                          |    401 |    5.52
明 Ming                          |    854 |   11.76
清 Qing                          |   1494 |   20.57
Modern/Unknown                   |    671 |    9.24

But these numbers aren't all directly comparable; some dynasties such as Qin only existed very briefly, others such as North/South dynasties co-existed. I've therefore combined some and produced a graph showing number of chengyu per year:

Caveats

For the number of years "before Qin", I started counting from the Zhou dynasty.
It's probably unfair to show the "Modern/Unknown" category as-is; strictly speaking, the source material only categorises up to Qing dynasty, but according to the source, "most" of those in this category are probably modern.

On determining the source of a chengyu

It's not easy determining the source of a chengyu, since like the rest of the language, it evolves and even changes meaning over time. The method used in these statistics is the first record of a chengyu in its modern form. This would necessarily bias the data towards more recent ages, even though those chengyu either had different forms earlier, or were modern chengyu based on older origins.

To use an example from the article, the chengyu 镜花水月 is recorded as appearing in Ming, however it had appearances earlier:

In Jin, there is the passage "如镜中像、水中月，见如有色，而无触等，则非色也"
In Tang/Song, there is "水月镜像"; at this stage it is not quite chengyu as its form has not yet stabilised

However, even in Ming, this chengyu had a different meaning to its modern meaning. Its modern meaning only appeared in Qing.

Therefore, the results may differ quite a lot depending on how you determine the origin of a chengyu.


其实也没什么 literally means "in fact, there is nothing".
其实 = in fact
也没 = not quite
什么 = something. ->也没什么 = "there's nothing"

The reason why Chinese is hard is because of its high flexibility. As the previous answer indicated, this phrase skipped something.

"(其实也)没什么" usually connects with "大不了的(a big deal)", "了不起的(amazing, extraordinary)", or other phrases/words with feelings (e.g.: "没什么好玩/吃的" = "There's (or that's) nothing fun/delicious at all"). The reason why this should be interpreted as "没什么了不起的/大不了的 (there's nothing extraordinary/big at all)" is because of the context.

讲一个我朋友的故事，他10多年前开这个车。没错，松花江小面。 Translation: "(I'm gonna) tell a story of my friend, he used to drive this car more than ten years ago. That's right, a van made by SongHuaJiang (manufacter)."

This van is currently almost obsolete, and this van is very cheap in China, and I would say it is one of the cheapest car in China. However, it is hard to own a car many years ago when people were not that rich, so it was a great honor to have a car at that time, even a car so cheap with a bad quality.

10多年前有个车还算不错了。可这个朋友有个癖好，就是喜欢去五星级酒店或者饭店品茶，吃个早点。 Translation: It is not bad to have a car more than 10 years ago. However, this friend had a fondness - always likes to go to 5-star hotels to have some tea and breakfast.

Therefore, this is a contrast - although his friend owned a car at that time, which is not easy at that time, this car is not a good car at all and he still go to 5-star hotels and eat breakfast (which indicates that this friend was showing off). Therefore, he would say that "It's not something extraordinary".


肚 is belly, 胃 is stomach. So:

啤酒肚: Beer belly.
肚子疼: Pain in the belly, could be the stomach, but may well be the appendage.
大肚婆: Slang for pregnant woman.
小肚子: The underbelly. Formal: 下腹 or 小腹.
肚脐: Belly button.
肚量大: Big-hearted. (Funny, but we also say 心胸宽广.)

When you read it as dǔ, it means the stomach of an animal: 猪肚, 牛肚, etc. Usually edible by Chinese standards. Sometimes you hear 肠子肚子 which means "stomach and intestines". A human stomach is NOT called 人肚.

Update，肚子疼 vs 胃疼：

病人：医生，我肚子疼。
医生：你肚子哪里疼？
病人：这里。（Points at the left）
医生：那应该是胃疼咯。

So 肚子疼 is the pain in the belly area, maybe it's the stomach, maybe not. 胃疼 is more specific, it is the stomach, no doubt about that. Also:

女雇员：老板，我肚子疼，今天请个假。
男老板：那你去医院看看吧。
女雇员：不用的，休息休息就好。

In this case 肚子疼 means "period pain", and the boss should say things like "好好喝水，多多休息" instead of advising her to go to the hospital.


切入点: starting point, point of view

突破口: point of breakthrough

For example:

我们将以工业排放为切入点, 以污染源头为突破口.

(We will take industrial emission as our starting point, the source of pollution as breakthrough.)

爆米花理论似乎是一个无聊的切入点.

The theory of popcorn might seem a boring view.


Is 你看看自己 correct for daily common speaking in Mandarin language?

Both are correct, and both have similar meaning. These two phrases could be used to blame on someone for something.
E.g.
你看看自己這副無精打采還病懨懨的樣子, 誰看了都討厭。
你看看你, 跟你說不要亂碰你還碰, 結果現在果然受傷了吧。


Though "鬥陣" and "做伙" roughly mean the same thing, there are subtle differences in between these two phrases.

As a native speaker, I would say "做伙" is more at "be a friend", whereas "鬥陣" is more at "together". This explains why they appear in the song interesting you.

Nevertheless,
in everyday speaking nearly nobody would deliberately differentiate one from another.


Considering 受 and 收 as the translation of the English verb "to receive" is confusing, as it really depends on how they are used (a lot of expressions use those two words). I think the difference is easier to see with examples.

受 seems to be used for immaterial things (such as feelings, influence, etc.) Its passive connotation really depends on the context or other words in the sentence/expression.

ex:

他很受欢迎。 - He is very popular.
他受到你的影响。- He is influenced by you. (which can be good or bad).

Even when the character 受 is used in words, it is for abstract things:
感受 (a feeling)

收 seems to be used for material things (a letter, a document, a SMS).
ex:

我收到你的短信。 - I received your SMS.
别忘记收垃圾。- Don't forget to collect the trash.

Same things here, when 收 is used in words, it describes material things:
收音机 - Radio (set). Literally the device receiving sounds.

I hope this answer your question.
I wish you pleasure and success in your studies!


Bigrams ending in third tone where first syllable is second tone vs. third tone

There have been conflicting claims on whether the second tone and the "raised third tone" are distinct, but according to Jerry Norman's 1988 book, Chinese, "Perceptual tests done by Dreher and Lee (1966) and Wang and Li (1967) established that native speakers are unable to make a consistent distinction between second tones and raised third tones" (147). So all 2-3 and 3-3 compounds are homophones; the only way to tell which is intended is by context.

[After new edit to question] The question is divided into two parts: 1) Do native speakers actually produce 2-3 and 3-3 pairs in an acoustically distinct way? 2) Can "native listeners" accurately distinguish  between 2-3 and 3-3 pairs when they hear them?

The studies Norman cites address the problem of the listener, i.e. they are perceptual studies.  I have Wang and Li (1967); I won't try to summarize it, but I think the subjects, the sample, the format of the experiment, and the statistical analysis are good. Wang and Li found that the accuracy with which native listeners distinguished 2-3 and 3-3 pairs "in neutral speech" ranged from 49.2 to 54.2 percent. In other words, they were wrong half the time. This is no better than guessing, so Norman says they are 'unable to distinguish consistently.'

This is the perceptual side, not the production side.  You also want to know if people actually "pronounce" the two differently.  I presume you mean that by using physical measurements we can come up with a consistent set of differences between the two members of each pair.  Wang and Li discuss and reject this idea:

  Does tone 3 become tone 2 when it occurs before another tone 3?
  Attempts to answer this question have been made by extensive
  measurements of spectrographic data on voice pitch. Such attemps have
  not yielded, and indeed cannot yield, any conclusive results. The
  nature of phonetic variations is such that we would expect to find a
  great deal of overlap in the physical measurements of the two types of
  tone sequences mentioned above.

Putting this in my own words, there is no principled way to decide which of the vast number of acoustic components produced by an individual utterance of a 2-3 and a 3-3 compound people might use to distinguish the two.  We can't look at the signal and pick out what part "means" something. This is a familar problem in linguistics, right? Perceptual tests avoid this problem and produce an objective answer, which is simply that people can't distinguish these pairs.

Let's put it another way. Imagine that native speakers actually produce 2-3 and 3-3 pairs that are "distinct." Distinct here means a physically measurable difference (pitch, loudness, duration, or some combination) that is used consistently in all such pairs, regardless of their otherwise different phonetic/phonemic structure, and can be detected using acoustic instrumentation and/or analysis.

Forget that we can't do this; suppose we can. Wang and Li have already shown that for some reason, native listeners are not able to detect this distinction at better than 50-50 accuracy.

I think this is at least a paradox, if not a contradiction: do languages have sounds or sound patterns that everyone uses, and are physically different in a consistent way between phonologically "minimal" pairs of different words, but that no one can distinguish? What does it mean for "distinct" words to be "undistinguishable"? Note we are not talking about "performance" issues here.

Wang and Li do consider the problem of making clear which pair you want to express: "It is obviously possible to distinguish the 3-3 sequences by employing various additional features, such as extra stress, pause, etc." This is why the phrase "neutral speech" is added in their description of their results.

Bonus answer: you seem to be asking why the dictionary lists the pronunciation of 百果 as bǎiguǒ instead of báiguǒ.  Most dictionaries give only the 'isolation' tones for single characters, even in compound words.  For example, the Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary says 'Tonal changes within compound words are not generally marked.'

There are several reasons not to mark tone sandhi in dictionaries. Convenience is an important one; changing compounds to use sandhi forms is more complicated than just leaving them alone.

Another reason is that the domain of sandhi rules often crosses word boundaries. Since sandhi occurs whether something is a word or not, a dictionary perhaps need not register such non-lexical changes.

By the same logic, the morpheme bái 'white' and the morpheme bǎi 'hundred' are phonologically distinct. Although they merge phonetically in some environments, that doesn't mean we should ignore the distinction between the two and give the 'surface' form in dictionary entries where sandhi rules may apply.


Who/what/when + V + 不好 meaning "could V any time/thing/one"

什么时候出现不好，偏偏在这个时候出现
Why not show up some other time, but this very moment.
他(她)喜欢谁不好，偏偏喜欢一个不懂得尊重她的男人
Why doesn't she choose/like someone else, but a man who doesn't respect her.
Key words in this structure ...不好, 偏偏...:

什么 is NOT a question word, but means any (other), so does 谁 in the 2nd example.
不好 means why not.
偏偏 means unexpectedly.

First, this type of sentences indicates a contrast condition, so "but", "in contrast", "unexpectedly" or even "ironically" can be added afterwards (as long as it is grammarly correct, if this is what you are pursuing).
And imho, this is also a very emotional sentence or subjective expression with a tone of grumbling or judging others behind. And 不好 sounds more like a rhetorical question  , like 吃苹果不好吗，偏偏要梨， so the first example sometimes also goes like "什么时候出现都好，偏偏在这个时候出现". Interesting?


Time periods relating to Chinese holidays (暑假, 寒假 etc.)

假 means 假期 vacation, it also have 病假 sick days, and 请假 request a vacation/day off.
寒假 暑假 is mainly for students and teachers.

For 暑假 it usually starts at late June, and ends at 1st Sep, it's about 2-3 months. For 寒假, it depends on the day of chinese new year, usually it starts 1 or 2 weeks before that, and last for 1 and a half months.


The accepted answer is simply wrong.

It is probably from a Chinese folk tale since it claims to be Chinese. I daresay I have read similar folktales, especially the swallow-the-bead-and-turn-into-a-dragon part, when I was a kid. I cannot figure out the exact one. But it is easy to search out folk stories with similar motifs.

e.g. https://book.douban.com/subject/11633147/

  一个叫阿宝的孩子拾到了一颗红色的宝珠，他把宝珠放进米缸，米缸里立刻盛满了白花花的大米；他把宝珠放进钱罐，钱罐里立刻填满金灿灿的钱币。阿宝用这颗宝珠帮助周围的邻居都过上了好日子。奇怪的是，自从阿宝捡到这颗宝珠后，天上就再也没有下过一滴雨，大地干涸、庄稼干枯，乡亲们愁眉不展。

  一天晚上，阿宝在梦中见到一条雨龙在空中喷雨，醒来后，他决定动身去寻找这条雨龙。一路上，阿宝帮助了巨蛇、梅花鹿、鲤鱼和苍鹰，每个动物朋友都赠送了他一样礼物，并警告他要当心一个叫红鬼的妖怪。随后，阿宝果然遇到了红鬼，并从红鬼口中知道了自己手中的珠子叫龙珠。为了保护龙珠，找到雨龙，阿宝果断决绝地吞下了珠子。最后，在动物朋友们赠送的礼物的帮助下，阿宝变成了一条会下雨的龙，把甘露洒向了人间。

沙县民间故事
This story lacks the part of the magical power of the dragon bead, but retains the part of swallowing the bead to become the dragon.

https://www.sohu.com/a/349852173_488223

This one is rather long, but the story is almost the same, which is easy to find if you can read Chinese.

A further question is whether this kind of folktale has a origin in Classical Chinese literature.

And I must say many Chinese folk tales have a style and sentiment that you won't find in classical Chinese literature. Not to say even China proper is a country that comprises several distinct territories, varied cultures, and peoples. It is always hard to say what is really "un-Chinese".


What's the actual difference between 文 and 语?

Yes, that is the main difference between 文 and 语. And you're right to say they refer more to written/spoken language rather than having that exclusive meaning - when someone talks about 中文, for example, they often mean the spoken language as well as just the written form, while 书面语 refers to literary words usually found in books. The other differences are explained by Fefe's post.

Here is a post (in Chinese) on Baidu Zhidao asking the same question, which comes to the same conclusion: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/86849931.html


Try to search harder. I only typed "generate pinyin ruby markup" in google and found this:

az

The same search string in DuckDuckGo yielded

Key


Chinese for "vote-up", "vote-down" and "vote to close"

Usually you would use:

(投)赞成(票)   Vote-up

(投)反对(票)   Vote-down

投关闭票       Vote to close

However, when used on internet, especially sites like SE, probably the following is more suitable:

顶 - literally means bump  (Vote-up)

踩 - literally means tread  (Vote-down)

叉 - literally means X (cross), have the implication of closing.  (Vote to close)


How do I type the lü for Character Romanization?

The OP is asking how to type characters, using a pinyin IME, when those characters have a ü in their pinyin spelling. For example, how do you type 绿=lü? This is different than asking how to actually type the letter ü. The answer is to type a v. To follow the example, change to the pinyin IME, type lv and select 绿.


举案齐眉 https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%BE%E6%A1%88%E9%BD%90%E7%9C%89
是指送饭时把托盘举得跟眉毛一样高。形容夫妻间互相敬重。
Describe the mutual respect between husband and wife

The act of 举案齐眉 indicates the married couple treating each other respectfully and pleasantly as treating a guest,
Another idiom 相敬如宾 (mutually respect each other like a guest) stated it even more clearly.
The literal translation of 举案齐眉 and 相敬如宾 are different, but the metaphorical meanings are the same, therefore, you can translate both idioms as: "mutually respect" (between husband and wife) or more descriptively: "having a harmonious relationship" (in marriage)
Example sentence:
夫妻倆三十年來举案齐眉，相敬如宾 (In the past 30 years, husband and wife show great respect to each other, having a harmonious relationship)
One of the problem in long marriage is losing respect between spouses. Taking the relationship for granted, they forgot their spouse is still an individual being who expectes to be treated politely and respectfully. You still need to say thank you to your wife when she put your dinner in front of you. you still need to respect your husband's opinion even it is an idiotic one and not laugh at him. Just like you wouldn't do that to an important guest (you can still disagree and debate with him politely)


In terms of degree of anger, 憤怒 is higher 生气.
In terms of context, 生气 is usually used in colloquial context, whereas 憤怒 is usually used in formal context.
Another term you may be interested in is 抓狂, which is a colloquial term with degree of anger higher than 憤怒
Here is an interesting joke that can hopefully help you understand better.
I have quoted below the key phrases that denote the difference (forgive the offensive language used):
生气

「X的，神經病。你去死好了！」
"F***ing psycho, go to hell!"

憤怒

「你欠扁是不是？妈的，要是再打来，给我试试看！」
"You want some beef? F***, I dare you call again!"

抓狂

「他妈的！去你老母！你娘卡好！」
"F*** your mom!" (three variations with the same meaning)


How do you ask "Will you see your child next Sunday" in Chinese using verb not verb structure?

the second has two verb. 會見and 不見(or maybe the sentence just ignore the conjunction.this is not formal)。
Here is correct grammar

你下个星期天见不见你的孩子

just take 会 away and the sentence will be perfect and have the same meaning as the former sentence.
or add conjunction

你下个星期天见或是不见你的孩子

And can these both sentences be equally written as 你下个星期天会见你的孩子吗?yes


Why can't I repeat the verb with degree complement in “昨晚我的朋友表达得很明确”?

Yes. 表达 isn't a VO, it can't be split like you're trying to split it.
No. 表 isn't used by itself as a verb like that.

Also you could just opt for something much simpler like: 已经说得很清楚, rather than the mouthful that your current sentence would become.


Why "我想了退这件新买的毛衣。” is wrong?

我想退了这件新买的毛衣。

Semantically, 我想 itself connotes a completion already because when you say it you already think about it.  So we don't need 了 after 想 for completion.  That's why the sentence in title is not correct.
退了 denotes I want the action 退 get done. "Done" is for completion, so we need a 了 after 退.
P. S.  I somehow agree with you Chinese language is easier to learn if you focus more on logic, convention and culture, especially for second language learners.  Chinese grammar is the hardest part of the language. Only few people truly master Chinese grammar. Second language learners can easily create a wrong/stilted sentence based on the grammar rules they learned.


The counterpart of “这是后话” in English should be " That is a story for another time." meaning some future events are related to the story, but not the focus of the current story arc. The author may or may not revisit it in later part of the story.


Where can I find Chinese language soft subtitles for domestic television programs?

Are you looking for subtitles like this?
You can try to link


What's this new Chinese character which looks like 座?

Technically it isn't a new Chinese character but a Japanese character.
Eileen Chow posted about this on Twitter saying:

Winner of 2020’s new kanji contest in Japan: the character 座 (seat), ingeniously redesigned as a neologism for “social distance.”
Note the two 人 (person) radicals in the original 座 are now positioned farther away from one another!

You can find a whole list of competition candidates on the official Sousaku Kanji website.

On her twitter thread Eileen Chow also shows off some other characters with explanations. Here's another interesting one for the times:

I like this one because it is a bilingual visual pun - a 76yo entrant transformed the bottom half of the character 会 (meeting) into a “Z” to make...you guessed it, “web conferencing via Zoom”.

Seeing as they are all 漢字 - they could be easily adoptable into Chinese.


Is there a website for generating xíngshū (semi-cursive script) from jiǎnhuàzì (simplified characters)?

You can try 第一字体网

Choose any 行书 fonts.

You can download the font too.


Is it possible for 已 to make a sentence into the future tense?

已 means 'already' (not 'afterward', which is '之後' or '以後' in Chinese ) You don't have to worry about what tense it is in, because it is an adverb.

Actually, you don't have to worry about what tense a verb is in, because Chinese do not use tense for verb, see this answer: How do you specify past tense for 是?

To use 已 in pass tense, you can write: "在三年前我已畢業" (I already graduated three years ago)
To use 已 in future tense, you can write: "明天走已太晚了" (leaving tomorrow will be too late already)

Since the sentence "我已无法忘却" doesn't provide any time reference, you can read it as in present tense by default --  "I can't forget it already"

If you really want to  put "我已无法忘却" in different tense, you have to put time reference in the context that associates with this sentence.


This phenomenon is called 懒音. And it can be very common in casual spoken language and it's really a personal habit varies for different people. In the case of 大家, the consonant of 家 is omitted for an easier pronunciation, since the vowel of 大 and 家 are both open vowel /a/, and /ʨ/ in the center is somewhat hard to articulate. Therefore, it becomes something like /ta a/.


How do you write “hacker” in Chinese?… (where hacker doesn't have an evil connotation)

黑客 is the Chinese word for Hacker.

黑 can work as a verb meaning to hack.

客 is a suffix that means person here.

It does also include the different definitions you're looking for, almost practically the same as English.

黑客 on Wikipedia says:

  “黑客”一词最早是用来称呼研究如何盗用电话系统的人，这一类人士也被称作“飞客”（Phreak）。[3]
  在计算机软件方面，“黑客”是对于计算机及计算机网络内部系统运作特别感兴趣并且有深入理解能力的一种人。[4]
  在业余计算机DIY方面，“黑客”是指研究如何修改计算机相关产品的业余爱好者。从1970年代起，有很多这一类社区聚焦于硬件研究。
  在信息安全里，“黑客”指研究如何智取计算机安全系统的人员。他们利用公共通讯网路，如电话系统和互联网，在非正规的情况下登录对方系统，掌握操控系统之权力。

The wikipedia page also has translations of the different types of hats aswell:

  白帽黑客（White Hat）

  灰帽黑客（Grey Hat）

  黑帽黑客（Black Hat）

You might as well check out the entire page, I'm sure you'll find more information that would be helpful/useful for you.

‘Hack’ in words like lifehack often get translated more like 妙招 or 小技巧 or 小窍门.


How should I deal with 产生 in this sentence?

求职者一定要先确认自己签订的劳动合同是否具备产生法律约束力的条件。Let us first simplify the latter half of the sentence.

求职者一定要先确认自己签订的劳动合同是否具备条件。What kind of 条件 does it 具备？产生法律约束力的条件 - the condition that leads to legally binding

If you literally translate "产生", it means produce. Which would make sense to extend its meaning to lead to. So if I am translating your sentence, I will do it this way:

Job seekers should definitely first check for themselves, whether or not the employment contract he is about to sign leads to the condition of legally binding.


"感", more objective, the feeling that surroundings impose on you. "冷感", "热感"
"觉", more subjective, the feeling from your heart (/mind/senses) about surroundings. "味觉", "视觉"
Yes, they are quite similar, and in some cases, they both mean "feel/feeling".
But in some other cases, you can find the difference by comparing "感到" and "觉得".
"我感到房子在摇动", I have a feeling that the house is shaking.
"我觉得房子在摇动", I think the house is shaking (maybe not, actually).
In fact, there are quite a lot of chinese words made of characters with similar meaning, like 奔跑/游泳/旋转/图画/增加. Two of the reasons I know:

it can avoid ambiguity with the same pronunciation (which reminds me of the different characters with same pronunciation in Japanese).
it improves the symmetry and fluency of a sentence, as most words in chinese are made of two characters.


There are some similar names.

餐桌旋转盘

旋转餐盘

转盘


If you are interested in writing AND having native speakers correct what you write, then you should definitely try out lang-8.com. The website allows you to do exactly that.

Technically it's not a (micro-)blogging platform, but if your goal is to improve your Chinese, that might be a reasonable compromise. And nobody will stop you from writing diary-like posts if you like.


There are two points that you should know:

In Chinese culture, 3 does not often  mean a exact quantity. That is, there may be 2,3,4 or many persons around you. There are many other phrases,for example, 狡兔三窟, 三思而后行,三番五次.
So this sentence means: We should keep modest to find out merit of the people around you and learn from them. There is a idiom in western culture, Stay hungry, Stay foolish, which has the same meaning.


What contributes to negative emotion / sentiment in this example?

The text seems to describe this pot:

I have to second Ringil's suggestion that your source considers such pots stupid, and so the source takes the text to be sarcastic.  It is a semantic issue rather than lexical or syntactic.


Names are still tricky. There was even a heated discussion recently about the correct pronunciation of a very famous person called 甄嬛.

Some characters are neither wrong nor right, e.g.: 茜 some people pronounce it xi1 other pronounce it qian4 ... it just depends on their parents

Haven't tired any of these but there's a bunch of different software that will do this:

中英文姓名批量转换器

韦氏港台拼音姓名批量转换器

etc etc

but any software will still need people to proofread it & maybe even confirm it with the people themselves...


What is the difference between 顾客 and 客户？

顾客 is a customer, a shopper, an end user.

客户 is a client, an intermediary purchaser.

They overlap somewhat, but these are the principal definitions.


催: to urge; to harry (someone to do something)
促使: to motivate; to cause; to prompt (someone to do something or something to happen)

'催' has to be with intention. e.g.  in "我催他快點出門" ( I urge/ hurry him to go out sooner). 'I' have the intention of 'urging him to go out sooner'
'促使' has to be with a cause. e.g. in "前蘇聯的威脅促使北約成立" (The threat of the former Soviet Union prompted the establishment of NATO) '前蘇聯的威脅' is the cause of 'the establishment of NATO'
Note 1: '我' is the subject that applies the verb 'to hurry', it is not the cause of '他快點出門'. the subject must have an intention to apply the verb 催
Note 2: there is no intention in '前蘇聯的威脅' to cause NATO to form.


That character is not「兴」(to rise > excited, happy), it is「头」(head).

「心头」(literally heart + head) means mind - the picture is saying that you use your mind to think/reason.


It is a polite way to make suggestions, e.g.

我建议你多运动。
I suggest you to do sports/exercises.

or

请你多指教。
Please give some guidance/opinion.

So I guess, a more proper translation of you example would be: 'You should contact other people about this issue.'


What do you call your father's twin brother?

How about 伯叔? That is an actual thing when you don't want to specify the age.

See here:
https://www.moedict.tw/%E4%BC%AF%E5%8F%94


It is "好好，你預知咗我條问题呀。" (Good, good, you've anticipated my question)

預知 /jyu6 zi1/:  anticipate, foresee

咗 = 了 (indicates the verb is completed)


What is the English translation for this picture

You typed it wrong.

It's 三戦呂布， means fight with 呂布 for three times.

It's a story also called as 三英戰呂布, comes from the famous historical novel named 三国演义(Romance of the Three Kingdoms).


Is it possible to shorten 你叫什么名字? to 你叫什么?

"你叫甚麼名字?" specifically asking someone's name, which mean you are treating the person you are asking as a human; "你叫甚麼" could mean "what is your name" but it can also mean "what are you called" ;the answer to "你叫甚麼?" could be "Peter" or "The Devil". And worse, "你叫甚麼?" can be literally interpreted as "what are you yelling about?" or "why are you yelling?"

If you think "你叫甚麼名字?" is too wordy, you can use "什稱呼?" (how may I address you?)

Example:

請問先生你叫什麼名字? (May I ask, Mister, what is your name called?) --> 先生什稱呼? (how may I address you, Mister)


The neutral tone doesn't have a fixed value; it's phonetic realization is largely determined by the preceding tone:

Also called fifth tone or zeroth tone (in Chinese 轻声 [輕聲] qīng shēng, literal meaning: "light tone"), neutral tone is sometimes thought of as a lack of tone. It is associated with weak syllables, and thus usually comes at the end of a word or phrase, and is pronounced in a light and short manner. The pitch of the neutral tone depends almost entirely on the tone of the preceding syllable. [...]
First ˥   ˨ 2 玻璃  bōli    glass   ˥.˨
Second ˧˥ ˧ 3 伯伯  bóbo    uncle   ˧˥.˧
Third ˨˩  ˦ 4 喇叭  lǎba    horn    ˨˩.˦
Fourth ˥˩ ˩ 1 兔子  tùzi    rabbit  ˥˩.˩


How do non-Mandarin speakers type Standard Chinese Writing System?

Yes, Hong Kong Chinese-literate people write and have knowledge of Standard Chinese ("Mandarin") when writing documents and homework, in Traditional Chinese (as the standard characters) of course.

  No, ancient Japanese didn't work this way. Japanese people used Classical Chinese as the official writing standard, and either spoke some dialect of Middle Chinese when reciting it or (more commonly) translated it into Japanese before recitation.

  Only Japanese Buddhist monks had a tradition of reciting Chinese Sutras (經) in On'yomi - the result is generally incomprehensible to both Chinese and Japanese people, as can be heard here.

The written language shared across all Chinese-using regions is called 現代標準漢語 (Modern Standard Chinese; MSC). In its written form, the grammar and vocabulary is heavily based on a refined topolect originating in the area around the Beijing Imperial Court, commonly known as "Mandarin".

MSC is different from and doesn't use colloquialisms from spoken Northern Speech (北方話), which, like all other Chinese topolects, has its own quirks. If slang-heavy colloquial 北方話 is written, other regions wouldn't be able to understand it! The refined, standardised nature of written MSC means that the vocabulary and grammar are very accessible to Chinese-literate people, regardless of mother tongue.

MSC replaced Classical Chinese (文言) since the May Fourth Movement. Whereas before, 文言 was pronounced in the mother tongue of the person reciting it, now MSC is pronounced in the mother tongue. In practice, only Hong Kong and Macao recite MSC passages using non-Mandarin in a school setting, as they are the only regions where non-Mandarin (Cantonese) is the de-facto vernacular.

The May Fourth Movement affected the whole of China; even though Hong Kong was a British Colony, the Mainland was the official source of Chinese-language education. Educational materials were free-flowing into Hong Kong until 1949 when the Communists kicked the Nationalists out and the British subsequently restricted movement into Hong Kong. Thus, educational written Chinese in Hong Kong schools was based on MSC written materials from Mainland China until 1949, after which Hong Kong had to come up with its own educational materials - which were and are still based on MSC.

Please see 香港百姓是從什麼時候開始習得官話白話文的書面表達能力的呢？ - 知乎 for a bit more history.


Is there a list of characters that have multiple sounds?

According to CC-CEDICT ( https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=cc-cedict ) out of the 10710 simplified characters they have listed there are 777 simplified characters with different pronunciations (I'm counting pronunciation with different tones as a different pronunciation).  You could bump it up a bit by also counting the ones that are described with alternate pronunciations in the definition instead of getting a separate row in the data output (i.e. some are described in the definitions of having an alternative Taiwanese pronunciation).:

啊、挨、唉、嗳、熬、把、吧、罢、伯、膀、背、呗、奔、绷、蚌、比、贲、萹、边、摽、别、浜、屏、剥、柏、薄、捭、簸、啵、卜、哺、钸、采、操、草、嚓、叉、差、杈、衩、孱、场、沉、噌、爯、称、裎、秤、尺、冲、处、揣、创、绰、刺、囱、瘥、答、打、歺、大、待、逮、疸、担、瘅、铛、挡、档、当、倒、帱、㝵、得、澄、的、镝、坻、底、氐、地、酊、钉、斗、都、读、肚、度、垛、阿、恶、诶、嗯、发、蕃、坊、菲、分、埄、缝、夫、佛、怫、払、拂、砩、芾、服、杆、干、杠、膏、搁、葛、盖、艮、更、供、枸、勾、毂、估、莞、冠、观、桄、过、蛤、哈、厂、汗、豻、夯、好、号、镐、呵、合、纥、閤、和、喝、荷、哏、桁、横、厷、哄、汞、吽、鹄、糊、哗、华、划、化、还、晃、虺、混、豁、几、给、纪、夹、嘏、贾、假、渐、监、閒、间、将、浆、剿、矫、徼、教、筊、偈、节、结、芥、藉、解、觧、价、尽、禁、丼、劲、炅、居、车、桔、锔、柜、据、句、锯、卷、圈、悁、嶡、脚、覐、觉、角、蹶、菌、隽、楷、槛、看、扛、峇、咳、颏、轲、可、磕、克、吭、倥、焢、爌、空、佝、楛、絓、会、窾、丱、卝、傀、匮、喇、剌、啦、灠、阆、唠、落、勒、累、擂、楞、樆、离、悝、蠡、豊、鬲、丽、哩、唎、歛、敛、倞、凉、踉、量、靓、撩、了、燎、咧、淋、令、馏、咯、隆、笼、搂、喽、碌、膔、蓼、陆、露、抡、论、络、啰、偻、捋、呒、呣、蚂、吗、么、埋、蔓、谩、茆、旄、坆、闷、氓、蒙、眯、糜、谜、靡、秘、眄、缪、忞、暋、摸、抹、没、磨、脉、貉、模、姥、牟、那、呐、哪、囝、难、馕、呢、袮、伲、泥、鸟、溺、恁、拧、宁、杻、拗、弄、呶、娜、哦、嚄、熰、沤、扒、杷、耙、钯、扳、番、湴、般、板、尨、胖、刨、炮、麃、跑、泡、喷、搒、裨、劈、匹、否、辟、扁、便、匾、片、猵、漂、莩、嘌、乀、撇、拚、苹、冯、泊、酦、陂、朴、掊、仆、脯、埔、堡、瀑、铺、缉、丌、奇、荠、跂、骑、檵、稽、岂、亟、妻、卡、浅、嵌、强、抢、镪、呛、跄、蹡、蕉、悄、翘、谯、茄、切、慊、趄、厪、廑、顷、亲、嬛、璚、仇、区、焌、渠、瞿、曲、弮、犮、炔、礐、阙、雀、儿、喏、厹、女、爇、撒、塞、散、潵、丧、缲、扫、臊、刹、嗄、帹、煞、色、掺、单、扇、禅、上、杓、芍、少、稍、奓、阇、舍、参、沈、甚、乘、晟、盛、什、拾、石、莳、适、掱、橾、丨、数、刷、衰、卛、率、泷、瞤、说、厶、伺、似、俟、厕、食、圱、尿、莎、沓、踏、苔、忕、啴、弹、澹、覃、汤、樘、倘、荡、趟、叨、绦、㲈、忒、弟、鬄、佃、钿、苕、调、挑、帖、町、铤、听、侗、峒、硐、同、通、斢、头、宊、吐、囤、褪、驮、媠、拓、凹、搲、哇、呙、歪、娩、万、王、崴、硙、亹、唯、委、媁、隗、喂、为、玟、免、揾、絻、涡、薶、喔、庑、芴、巂、腊、茜、裼、纚、系、咥、扢、郄、虾、吓、厦、纤、䕭、鲜、铣、见、夅、降、相、蛸、謏、校、肖、滊、猲、劦、挟、絜、颉、莘、镡、芯、行、省、兴、宿、臭、圩、欻、砉、畜、吅、旋、削、踅、丷、亽、卪、煆、哑、压、轧、阏、埏、剡、奄、傿、咽、燕、氜、飬、铫、疟、要、耶、掖、叶、荑、尾、迆、迤、仡、佚、艾、衣、谥、殷、洇、湮、唫、龈、窨、隐、饮、巆、应、唷、哟、涌、甬、佣、繇、於、菸、俞、畲、禺、予、与、吁、忬、蔚、语、雨、圜、媛、远、约、哕、楽、乐、趯、伝、芸、晕、熨、缊、载、咱、攒、脏、藏、咋、曾、缯、喳、扎、查、楂、皻、吒、炸、侧、翟、祭、呫、粘、鳣、崭、占、长、鞝、涨、嘲、朝、着、召、折、乇、乙、蜇、辙、褶、瑱、酖、怔、挣、正、症、氏、只、乿、擿、识、鉄、中、种、重、粥、轴、朮、竺、术、属、褚、拽、转、传、篹、奘、僮、幢、戆、獞、椎、追、缀、屯、棹、蝃、濯、蓔、仔、吱、呲、訾、子、综、熜、从、卒、崒、足、赚、钻、觜、俊、嘬、琢、撮、作、酢

If you don't count pronunciation with different tones as a different pronunciation but count only those with pronunciations with either a different initial and/or final then the list drops down to 490 characters:

伯、呗、蚌、贲、浜、剥、柏、薄、捭、卜、嚓、差、孱、噌、爯、称、尺、绰、囱、瘥、歺、大、疸、铛、帱、㝵、得、澄、的、坻、底、地、都、读、度、阿、蕃、埄、佛、怫、払、拂、砩、芾、盖、蛤、厂、豻、夯、镐、呵、合、纥、閤、哏、桁、厷、汞、吽、和、鹄、还、豁、给、嘏、贾、剿、偈、芥、藉、价、丼、劲、炅、居、车、桔、枸、柜、句、嶡、脚、覐、觉、角、隽、楷、槛、扛、峇、咳、克、吭、焢、爌、佝、楛、絓、会、窾、丱、卝、傀、匮、落、勒、樆、离、悝、豊、鬲、歛、倞、靓、了、咯、碌、膔、蓼、陆、露、络、偻、捋、呒、埋、么、坆、氓、糜、谜、秘、缪、抹、没、脉、貉、模、姥、牟、囝、哪、呢、袮、鸟、溺、恁、杻、拗、弄、呶、娜、那、哦、嚄、扒、杷、耙、钯、扳、番、湴、般、板、膀、尨、胖、刨、炮、麃、搒、裨、否、辟、扁、便、匾、猵、莩、乀、拚、屏、苹、冯、泊、酦、陂、朴、脯、埔、堡、瀑、缉、丌、奇、荠、跂、骑、檵、稽、岂、亟、卡、浅、嵌、将、强、蕉、茄、慊、趄、厪、廑、亲、嬛、璚、仇、区、焌、渠、瞿、圈、弮、犮、炔、礐、雀、儿、喏、厹、女、爇、潵、缲、塞、刹、嗄、帹、色、掺、单、禅、杓、芍、奓、阇、参、沈、乘、晟、盛、什、拾、石、适、掱、橾、丨、衰、卛、率、泷、瞤、说、数、厶、伺、似、俟、厕、食、圱、尿、莎、沓、忕、啴、弹、澹、覃、汤、樘、倘、荡、叨、绦、㲈、忒、弟、鬄、佃、钿、苕、调、町、铤、侗、峒、硐、斢、宊、囤、褪、驮、媠、拓、凹、呙、娩、莞、万、崴、硙、亹、隗、玟、忞、免、絻、涡、薶、喔、恶、芴、巂、腊、茜、裼、诶、纚、系、咥、扢、郄、虾、吓、厦、纤、䕭、铣、见、夅、降、蛸、謏、校、滊、猲、劦、挟、絜、颉、解、觧、莘、镡、行、省、宿、臭、圩、欻、砉、畜、吅、削、踅、丷、亽、卪、煆、轧、阏、埏、剡、氜、飬、铫、疟、咽、叶、荑、尾、仡、佚、艾、谥、殷、洇、湮、唫、龈、听、窨、巆、涌、甬、繇、於、菸、俞、畲、禺、吁、忬、蔚、圜、约、哕、楽、乐、趯、伝、芸、熨、咱、攒、藏、咋、曾、喳、扎、查、楂、皻、侧、翟、祭、呫、粘、鳣、崭、长、鞝、嘲、朝、召、折、乇、乙、辙、褶、着、瑱、酖、氏、乿、擿、识、鉄、重、粥、朮、竺、术、属、褚、拽、转、传、篹、奘、僮、幢、戆、獞、椎、追、缀、屯、棹、蝃、濯、蓔、仔、吱、呲、综、熜、从、卒、崒、足、赚、觜、俊、嘬、琢、撮、酢


How about:

"What's the hurry? Wanna get to your next life so soon?"

I think no matter what one does, some thing will be lost in translation because of the huge difference between Chinese and English in beliefs and world views. My aim is to retain some of the light-heartedness and, as much as possible, gloss over the unpleasantness of dying.


You need to understand every single character firstly,

德：道德（morality)
法：法制/法律（law）
兼：同时涉及/具有多方面（simultaneously/concurrently）
修：学习/培养（study）

So it could be literally translated as study and improve both morality and legal knowledge.


See my answer to this post Why no 的 in this sentence?

  的 1.(adjective suffix):

  的 2.(possessive):

"的" in  [姐姐给我买] [的] [衬衫] is an "adjective suffix"

"姐姐给我买的" (the one that my sister bought me) is an adjectival phrase that describes the noun "衬衫"

What shirt? The shirt that my sister bought for me

  Using the adjective suffix 的 can turn a very short phrase or a long sentence into an adjectival phrase

Example:

失敗 (fail)--> 失敗的人 (failed person/ the person who failed )

沒有工作，整天玩電腦遊戲 (have no job and play computer games all day) --> 沒有工作，整天玩電腦遊戲的人 (the person who has no job and plays computer games all day)


please help me translate this poem on my dizi into english

If it's "笛鸣天下曲, 箫声韵五孤", its translation should be:
The flute can play all the tunes in the world

all its voice sounds so lonely but fair

Because I do not know is the last Chinese Character "孤", so I only can translate it to "lonely" now.
Actually, "笛" and "箫" are two kind of flutes, but it seem both their English translation are "flute".


When can 叫 be used saying that someone is calling someone and when for asking a name?

Your intuition is correct. 叫 can be used in both ways (and even more). Here are the most frequent ones.

1) to call, to summon (using someone's voice). Verb is transitive:

  我爸爸妈妈叫我
  Mom and dad call me (they are calling my name)

2) stating one's name. Verb + proper noun or definition:

  你叫什么名字？我叫张三！
  What's your name? My name is John Doe!

3) to yell, to shout, or more specific verbs when referring to animals, e.g. to bark. This is a colloquial usage. Verb is intransitive:

  我狗在叫！
  My dog is barking

4) giving orders, asking to do something. Colloquial usage. Accepts a verb phrase:

  我的驾照过期了，我要叫他开车！
  My driver's license has expired. I'll ask him to drive!

Specifically, how to decide between the usage 1 and 2. It is often made clear by the context of the whole sentence, as customary with the Chinese language.
As a rule of thumb, you'll have 叫 (to call) when it is followed by a regular object phrase, and you'll have 叫 (asking names) when it is followed by a proper noun or generically by a definition.


What is the function of 便 here? And what does the sentence mean?

不猜便罢, 若猜便猜它个八九不离十

Yes, 便 here means 就. The whole sentence means 要么就不猜，要是猜的话就会猜个八九不离十. In English, it could be like: Either they don't guess it, or they do - and they'll probably get it right.


Is there a neutral way of saying "deliberately"?

'故意' implying someone intend to do some bad things. If you want to say someone intend to do things specially. You can use '特意'. This word do not imply any bad or good intention. It only emphasize 'specially'. But in most of case, Chinese love to use it in positive senarios, like me.

为了让学生听得明白，我们老师特意把语速放慢。
在下班的路上，他特意绕路去医院看望母亲。


Chinese phrases akin to “back to the grindstone”?

One analog I can think of is

  回去搬砖了

This is a funny way of describing your job as less paid while you still have to work very hard on that.


"Network" means 网状组织.

You can simply use only 网. For example,

television networks 电视网
a communications network 通讯网
a defense network 防卫网
an intelligence network 情报网
a network of railroads 铁路网
networks of arrows 箭头网; 箭号网


Is 金口难开 an idiom, and if so what would be a suitable CC-CEDICT definition?

金口難開
..... 後來，便有了「金口難開」這個成語，表示：嘴巴像金子一樣珍貴，不輕易張口用來說話；形容一個人沉默寡言、不愛說話。

Base on the story, 金口難開  originally describe "someone value his own words like gold, do not open his mouth to speak unless it is necessary" ; Now it is used to describe "someone being reticent; a man of few words"

金口 = golden mouth (valuable speech)

難開 = 難得打開 (rarely open)


Understanding different Chinese writing styles

Short answer to question one:
While you can still see them there, all of them are in use now, in different situations.

Short answer to question two:
In school, teachers give the one that they like, based on local policy or their textbook. Usually, one style is enough. 楷書 or 行書, neither is easy to learn, so different people work it around in their own style, a bit mixed of several styles, or new styles. Simple is good, when people write characters.

I'll edit this post with more detail if you want.


I would suggest asking separately: 你有多少个堂兄弟姐妹 and 你有多少个表兄弟姐妹,
because China is a patrilineal society traditionally, relatives of father's side are more closer naturally.

Of course, things are changing rapidly in China nowadays, this might not be true to every individual any more.