Which one is more commonly used in Chinese speaking communities: 年轻 or 年青?

Both 年轻 and 年青 mean "young".

However, 年青 refers to adolescents. It's about the people at this stage.

年轻 means young; it means people who are between the ages of 10-20. but 年轻 can also be used to compare the ages; For example, person A aged 50 is younger than person B, who is at the age of 60. Even though people who are 50 and 60 are not young, but in comparison, 50 is younger than 60. You can only use 年轻 in this case.

If someone looks young, you also use 年轻 instead of 年青.


How do I say that something is "negative"?

According to iCIBA:

If someone is a negative person, or has a negative attitude, then they are 消极 (xiāo jí), or  悲观 (bēi guān).

To say that a word has a negative connotation, you use 负面含义 (fùmiàn hányì), literally, "downside meaning".

Thanks to S.Rhee for pointing me to iCIBA, where I was able to find the answer to my own question.


Why does 中 come first in order when it is in the middle (i.e.: 中小、中前)?

For 中小学
It is a common practice in Chinese to put bigger things in front of smaller things.

In address, 北京市朝阳区, where 朝阳 is a part of 北京-
In dates: 壬申年正月初七日 or 一九九二年二月十日
In people: 全家老小 where 老 elders are in front of 小 children. 公司上下，where 上 means the executives and 下 means workers.
And here in schools: 大中小学

But the rule is not always true when 1, the number of items is small 2, you want to emphasize some of the items. For example, 中杯，大杯，超大杯, where the 超大杯 is extraordinary.
For 中前期
I want to say, it is a rather vague phrase to me. It can mean either 中期 and 前期 or the early part of 中期, which are different. These abbreviations often appear in time or location descriptions but are not recommended. You should either say 中期和前期 or 中期的前半 to reduce the confusion.


Why Have Modern *duilian*'s become 成语+3 Random Characters?

This observation is merely coincidental. The first 4 characters need not come from classical Chinese idiom (成語), and the remaining 3 are by no means random.
Couplet (Duilian) has specific rules. The linked article has a list of requirements and its etymology.
For example, the cliché duilian

天增歲月人添壽
春滿乾坤福滿門

"天增歲月" is not a recognized chengyu, but means "As heaven attains greater age"; "人添壽" is not random but has to relate to it, meaning "people enjoy longer years".
Moreover, a line of 7 characters is common but it is not a requirement.
For example, the famous (but modern (19th century)) couplet in Temple of Zhuge Liang in Chengdu

能攻心則反側自消從古知兵非好戰
不審勢即寬嚴皆誤後來治蜀要深思

also meet the requirement.


Is this dictionary Chinese, Japanese or both?

Definitely a English to Japanese Dictionary. You can think of it as a English to Japanese Dictionary (with 漢字 for kanji)

pivotal method -> 要法 has no meaning at all in chinese. But the japanese words ようほう gives it a much better meaning.

Other words such as 消除有害事物的成本 has meaning in Chinese, but looks translatable to japanese.


Early childhood Chinese language immersion accent exposure

I will go out on a limb and say yes, it is great to get exposure to different accents even if it is not standard so long as the child is told what the standard would be. (Awareness of the differences) The reason being that people you encounter are not always going to speak the standard pu tong hua exactly the same. So when you encounter somebody from the guangdong area for instance, you can adjust your listening to understand when a person says "si" it should be "shi". Oh really chinese has a certain rhythm to it as well. So if somebody asks you a question that is not in a set phrase you know, you can usually take a good guess at what you are being asked. (Not always but sometimes)

A related side note. Not everybody believes in the phonology acquisition cut-off age.

In Paul Pimsleur's book, How to learn a foreign language *(December 1980)*He defends the idea that Adults are better equip to learn a (second) language then kids are. And that adults can a achieve a flawless native accent. But the thing is you have to consistently work at it. So if you are talking and are misunderstood you have to immediately correct your pronunciation, and the only way to do that is to ask the person you talk to what you said wrong. And correcting the tones. Of course some people have more difficulty than others.


想要 + n: want to get/own something
想要 + verb: want to do


我爷爷的全身很疼，他不能去游泳: Is this sentence grammatically correct?

他对我说：“我爷爷的全身很疼，他不能去游泳”

的 in 我爷爷的 (My grandpa's) is a possessive marker, therefore follow it with a noun '全身' is  grammatically correct. But 的 can be omitted here

我爷爷的全身 = 我爷爷全身

Native Chinese would write "我爷爷全身[都]很疼" [所以]他不能去游泳” (My grandpa's whole body is [all] in pain, [therefore], he can't go swimming)


What is the difference between 折磨 and 煎熬?

折 - break

磨 - grind

折磨 - torture; torment; suffering

~

煎 - fry in oil or cook in water

熬 - slow cook with water

煎熬 - torture; torment; suffering

Both 折磨 and 煎熬 means 'torture'
折磨 emphasize the application of torture (apply force to cause pain). That's why we use 折磨 instead of 煎熬 for the verb 'to torture' e.g. 折磨他一晚 (torture him a whole night) not 煎熬他一晚
煎熬 emphasize the effect of torture (feel the pain of being boiled). 內心煎熬 (suffer inside) actually mean 內心受煎熬 (feel tortured inside)
Similarly, 內心折磨 (suffer inside) actually mean 內心受折磨 (feel tortured inside)

她折磨我✔ 她煎熬我✘ 我的内心很折磨✘ 我的内心很煎熬✔

她折磨我✔ - the verb 折磨 (to torture) is correctly placed between the subject and object

她煎熬我✘ - 煎熬 is not used as a verb for to 'torture'

我的内心很折磨✘  - 我的内心很受折磨✔ - 折磨 is an action while 受折磨 can be a feeling

我的内心很煎熬✔ - In this context, 煎熬 strongly imply 受煎熬 (a feeling)

我被受中文折磨✅

我被受中文煎熬✅

我備受中文煎熬 is correct because it is [備受(v)]~[煎熬(n)]
中文折磨我✔ (grammatically correct, but the subject 中文 and the verb don't quite match. How does 中文 折磨 someone?)
中文煎熬我✘

'被受' should be '備受' (receive)


How do you say Symbol in a literary sense?

basically 象征 has lots of meanings, in which you have mentioned two important.

象征 can be used as a verb, and means symbolize or signify. In this case, 象征 uses some concrete things to describe some abstract concepts. In 白色象征纯洁, 白色 is concrete, and 纯洁 is abstract. Another example can be "白鸽象征和平" (The white dove symbolizes peace).
象征 can also be used as a noun, and means symbol. For example, 青鸟是快乐的象征 (the bluebird is the symbol of happiness). And 作者用“白色”来做象征 usually doesn't appear individually. In common cases, the writer will firstly describe something, at last he will use that sentence. For example, 她的最大特点就是纯洁,而作者用“白色”来做象征. (And here 比喻 cannot be used.)

I don't know if I have answered your question...


What would the meaning of '之前知道' be? And '之前知道了'?

There seems to be a cultural difference in usage here. ‘之前知道’ means you learned this before and still know it. 'I knew' often means 'I've forgotten', unless qualified like below.

A：That girl married that boy.
A:这个女孩和那个男孩结婚了。

B could answer:
B：I know.
B:我知道的。
    or
B：I already know/knew that.
B：我之前就知道了。

A：Who did that girl marry?
A:她和谁结婚了？
B：I knew, but I can't remember now.
B:我知道是谁，但是我忘了。


Techniques for improving listening comprehension under background noise conditions

Try your best.

Similar to any language that being "localised", it took "origin" speaker time to adapt in order to understand different slang. E.g. A GB English speaker will have a hard time following Australian English, New Jersey slang, Mississipi slang.

If you watch series from PRC, it is mostly Beijing slang. If you don't understand most of the words speaking by some Chinese, then you probably hearing some sort of dialect, e.g. Shang-hai-hua, Guang-dong-hua ,etc.


Where should I put a neutral tone in 雪白雪白?

Not all words apply neutral tone.

雪白雪白: xuě-bái-xuě-bái

漂漂亮亮: piào piào liang liang

You see in 漂亮, 亮 is a neutral tone, while 白 is the second tone in 雪白.

Checking in dictionaries is a good way to make sure you apply neutral tone correctly.


What is the difference between 阻拦, 阻止, 阻挡, and 阻碍?

As a native speaker, I personally use them or hear people using them interchangeably. More specific distinctions are as following:

阻拦 means to intercept, which can be used to stop someone from doing something or stop something from happening.

阻止 means to stop ... from ..., which is usually used to stop someone from doing something.

阻挡 means to block, which is usually used when someone or something is physically blocking in the way.

阻碍 means to obstruct, which is usually used when a difficulty or obstacle is posing a 阻碍.


Translation of "we won't be able to see you"? 我们会不会看你？

As far as what you mean by see, the above answer is right in that context.  Do you mean meet at a certain time and place?  Do you mean at the moment?  Chinese requires a lot of specific information to be understood thoroughly..as you can probably ascertain, English is a relatively lazy language these days, as a matter of convention and every day speech.

As far as able, it is imho, most likely to be implying 能　or 可以　.

可以　means does one have permission.  (i.e. Can I see you? [Am I allowed to])
能 means physically capable or able.  (i.e. Can I see you? [Or is something preventing me..time, physical restraints, etc.)

We won't be able to see you:

我们不能看见你。　Means physically unable..which is not a quality or happening that is very likely.  This would more be used in another light, for example:
我们不能看见彩虹。　　This would imply that, perhaps, from your side of town you are unable to see the rainbow that someone on the other side of town could see.  Otherwise, it doesn't really make sense..because if every one cannot see that rainbow, then it does not really exist, does it?

我们不可以看见你..This is another poor choice of word (see), that is where the issue lies.  This implies that we are not allowed to see you physically..which makes for a weird scenario.  It also is somewhat open ended..it could mean a number of things.

You have to clarify what is meant by see, which is probably meet, and from there you can establish meet for what purpose.


How can I find a suitable-level Chinese class in Beijing?

To answer my own question, I'm currently taking the part-time 1-on-1 classes from the LTL Mandarin School: https://ltl-beijing.com/chinese-tutor-beijing/.

I was attracted to this because (a) I Googled it and most reviews were good, (b) the prices are clearly listed, and it's exactly what I paid (so no "tricks"---what it says is exactly what I paid), (c) the teacher comes to my office, which is incredibly convenient, and (d) I could start immediately (no waiting for semester dates, no enrollment process).

I've had maybe 7 lessons thus far (2 hours each).  My comments:

I'm relieved that I'm not the top student; my teacher has students with better Chinese than me.  She knows how to help me.
I currently write a diary in Chinese, which I feel is a good approach as I want to learn how to discuss topics related to me.  These are not always comfortable topics.  E.g. my last diary entry was about my recent visit to Iran, and the impact Trump's sanctions are having there.  It's something I would talk about normally.
My teacher seems to understand how I feel about Chinese textbooks: they are incredibly boring, with fake dialogues.  I want opinions and controversy, not "Mike picked up Li Wei from the airport"---I want something I would be interested in reading ordinarily.  That being said, I still need to understand Chinese grammar, where it might be unavoidably dry.
My teacher is friendly and nice.  The two hours seem to go very quickly!


What is the function of 已 in 好像她已出去好几天了。

Here 已 has the same meaning as 已经 and means already. When speaking one would normally use 已经, but in written documents 已 can be found.

I would translate 好像她已出去好几天了 as "It seems she's already been gone for some days".


Chinese is supposed to be SVO

Correct. More specifically, Chinese can be SVO or SV, plus additional components. Sometimes we omit the subject if it's obvious what the subject refers to.

"约会" means to date, so It's a verb I presume

"约会" can be a verb (go on a date/hang out) or a noun (a date). When using it as a noun, we need to use a classifier before it. "我/有/一个/约会"="I / have / a / date"
When using as a verb, the simplest way is "我/约会" SV, but it doesn't make sense at all because you can't go on a date alone. So the common usage is

我/和/她/约会
I / hang out / with / her

The only difference with the english version is Chinese tend to put 和她 (adverbial modifier, which only gives more details and is omittable in a sentence) before the verb. So it's still an SV structure.


Is there such a thing as a run-on-sentence in Chinese?

Actually, this is some quite advanced writing.
And no, there's no such a thing as run-on sentence in Chinese. At least not exactly as in English.
The structure used in this article is called 排比(parallelism, http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8E%92%E6%AF%94). Parallelism is "a balance within one or more sentences of similar phrases or clauses that have the same grammatical structure."
If you look carefully, you can identify multiple groups of phrases with similar pattern describing a common subjective/objective:

这个被推到风口浪尖的超级课程表团队基本都是出身草根的90后，没有

显赫的背景、
华丽的学历、
光鲜的职业履历，

白手起家硬生生从零开始做到成功拿下阿里的风险投资，不管

盈利多少、
用户多少、
融资多少，

能走得到这个阶段当属不易。

You should also consider it phonetically. This kind of structures are usually used in a speech or a debate. Because of those similar structures, when you say it out loud, you'll get nice rhythm, stronger/firmer tone and look more confident in your content in front of your listeners. It helps with getting your ideas across or intimidating your opponents.
People are always looking for patterns in stuff (even when it's not there). Just give it to them.


Why is there a special pronunciation of 论 just for 论语?

After a bit of research, I've come across a possible explanation.
According to this source from the 语言文字报 Journal of Language and Writing (not sure the English name is correct) it appears that the character 论 was archaically used with the meaning of to edit, to compile as in the  word 论纂 lun2 zuan3, same as 编撰 bian1 zhuan4. The reference given is the scholar Lu Xun who in his teaching materials for a class at Xiamen University, talked about the Analects:

﹝ 孔子 ﹞ 既卒 [...]， 门人又相与辑其言行而论纂之， 谓之《论语》
[After Confucius' death], the disciples revised each other's notes [of the master's teachings] and compiled a book, which they called "Edited words".

So if we take this for good, the 论 lún in 论语 is a legacy of the archaic 论纂 (to edit, to compile) as Confucius' disciples compiled his teachings into a volume that later became known as 论语, which literally means “edited words".


Chinese Dream is mostly a political slogan of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It's the Communist Party's official vision for China since the 18th National Congress.

  大家都在讨论中国梦，我以为，实现中华民族伟大复兴，就是中华民族近代以来最伟大的梦想

  Everybody is discussing the Chinese Dream. I believe that accomplishing the great revival of the Chinese race, is the greatest dream of the Chinese nation in recent times.

   -- President Xi Jinping, 29 November 2012

Secondly, Xi has outlined his plan of Chinese Dream to be:

Achieving a moderately prosperous society by 2021 (the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China's founding).
Achieving the dream of the Chinese nation's great revival by 2049 (the 100th anniversary of the People's Republic of China's founding), by putting in place the socialist utopia.

Lastly, the Communist Party subsequently issued a list of ways in which the Chinese Dream is supposed to differ from the American Dream. Conversely this establishes the definitions of the Chinese Dream to be:

Achieve national wealth - as opposed to private, personal wealth of American Dream
Achieve national success - as opposed to the individual success of American Dream
Limited to Chinese persons - as opposed to American Dream being for foreigners too
Harmonious joy of the group - as opposed to American individual liberty/happiness
Based on the depth of history - as opposed to American materialism of now
Focus on the power of the masses - as opposed to American individualism
For the sake of national glory - as opposed to American belief for individual prestige

I leave whether to believe any of their ideas for "Chinese Dream" up to you... You can read more about it on the wikipedia article.


「素」generically means basal, essential, intrinsic, primal. Hence you have vocabulary like

元素 (atom), the fundamental constituent of matter (well, the name was given before they discovered subatomic particles)
詞素 (morpheme), the fundamental constituent of words
要素 (essential factor)


What are the different parts of speech of 这么?

No, it's not always a pronoun. "这么/那么" can be an adverb, and you already gave the examples.
她这么漂亮！she is SO beautiful! （adverb）
今天这么热。Today is SO hot. (adverb)
这张桌子原来就这么放的。The desk was put in this way (pronoun)
有些人不是这么想。Some people doesn't think about it this way (pronoun)
他们必须这么说。They have to say that (pronoun)


How do you refer to multiple people with the same surname?

When I worked at Nankai, we had multiple 李老师s.  If there was ambiguity involved, the students would just say the teacher's full name then put 老师 at the end.  E.g. 李忠伟老师.


Does Chinese have an equivalent to “Person A”?

You would say

  甲、乙、丙、丁……

which come from 天干, you could also say

  路人甲、路人乙、路人丙……

If you know the person's surname, you could also say

  李某、王某……

In case if you want the specify that person's occupation

  某市民、某员工、某政府工作人员……


I have answered a very similar question before. Please refer to the following:

An unknown Traditional Chinese character on a decorative piece for Lunar New Year

As to the proper way to hang this, I have never seen this hung upside down, unlike the character "福", which is often hung upside down because of a play on the words "福到" (blessings arrive) and "福倒" (blessings upside down).


In Chinese grammar, duration goes after 'verb'. The placement of the object is flexible.

  [1. 你] [2. 学习] [3. 几年] [4. 汉语] [5. 了]

  [1. subject] [2. verb] [3. duration] [4. object] [5. final particle indicates completion]

~

  [1. 你] [2. 学习] [3. 汉语] [4. 几年] [5. 了]

  [1. subject] [2. verb] [3. object] [4. duration] [5. final particle indicates completion]

The difference between the two phrases is the placement of the object.

  After reading another thread here I though maybe there is a "hidden 的" and it could be 你学习了几年的汉语？?

The difference between "你学习几年汉语了？" and  "你学习了几年的汉语？" is:

"你学习几年汉语了？ emphasizes on the duration of the verb 学习

Take away the object and write "你学习几年了?" (how many years have you been studying?) and the sentence is still grammatically correct.

"你学习了几年的汉语？" emphasizes on the qualification of the object.

几年的 in 几年的汉语 qualifies the object 汉语;  take away the object and write: "你学习了几年的" (you have been studying for how many years of...?") would make the sentence incomplete.

As I stated before, the position of the object is flexible. You can even make it  a [topic] + [comment] sentence structure and write:

  "[汉语 (topic)] [你学习几年了 (comment)]

~

  Also could I place the 了 directly after the verb: 你学习了汉语几年？?

Yes, you can write [你学习了][汉语几年?] or [你学习了][几年汉语?]

The 了 after the verb is a particle indicates completion of the action, similar to [ed] in English

你学习 = you study

你学习了 = you studied

[verb (学习了)] follows by the [object (汉语)] is within the grammar rules.


As @50-3 has mentioned, the 难 is the simplification of the traditional character 難. Most Chinese characters are phono-semantic compounds (形声字), in which the radical hints at the meaning while the phonetic hints at the pronunciation. In the case of 難, the phonetic component is 堇 while the radical is 隹. In modern Chinese, the pronunciation of 堇 has diverged from 難, but their pronunciations in Old Chinese were presumably closer.

Why is the radical 隹, which typically refers to birds? This link gives the explanation: http://font.zenque.com/zidian/4796.html

  難，今单用简作难，读nán，本义指一种鸟。因其从“堇”（火焚人祭雨）取得声义，故借以表示①困难；艰难

難 originally referred to a type of bird, but because the pronunciations coincided, the character ended up being borrowed to also refer to hardship and difficulty.


此前，《时代》周刊和皮尤研究中心也分别做过类似国家形象的调查。

Previous to this (research), Time Magazine and Pew Research Center had each done similar national image surveys.

  结果均显示，中国的受欢迎程度排名中偏上，但都远远落后于日本的排名。

The results all showed, China's popularity is middle to upper, but ranks far behind Japan.


What are some well-known "magic" terms, phrases, or incantations in Chinese?

about incantations / mantras / "咒", there's no confucian counterparts. meanwhile, there're numerous in taoism and buddhism. only those of taoism are native chinese, when relevant ones of buddhism are translations.

in taoism literatures, "急急如律令" and its deviations, are often used at the end of most mantras, that deities / daemons would follow the instructions of the speaker. here're 3 examples from 鬼谷子天髓靈文, 雲笈七籤 & 太平廣記:

in buddhism, the most common mantras are: 南無阿彌陀佛, or "喃嘸阿彌陀佛", that the speakers of this mantras "would" reborn in amitābha (阿彌陀佛)'s sukhavati (西方極樂世界) after death.

another one is 六字大明咒, "唵嘛呢叭咪吽", Om mani padme hum

this one is tibetan in origin, i would say this one is quite "popular" in taiwan & hong kong :)


Help identifying characters on a memorial coin

I can only recognize two of them.
？砉
换？

砉 might be
换 definitely


When talking about English and Chinese, we will find that there are many English words stand for more than one meaning in Chinese, such as other(s) in Chinese. It means 其他 or 其它. Although they look like, they are quite different.
Chinese: 其他/其它
pinyin: qí tā
meaning: other(s)

Similarities of 其他 and 其它

1). Same pronunciation
Both 其它 and 其他 are pronounced qí tā.
2). Same meaning
Both of them mean “other” or “others”.
3). Same part or speech
Both of them are pronoun.

Difference between 其他 and 其它

其它 and 其他, generally speaking, are almost the same. They differenciate with each other in two aspects.
1). Indicate different objects
其他 can refer to any creatures, including human, animals and stuff without life, such as 其他学生(other students), 其他城市(other cities), 其他电脑(other computers). While 其它 can’t refer to human, for instance 其它动物(other animals), 其它桌子(other desks).
2). Appear at different time
In the beginning, there is only 其他 available. Gradually, 其它 was created out of the actual requirement. Hense, 其他 emerges before 其它.


What denomination does 穆斯满教依祥派 refer to?

There's a copy of the text here:

  南疆妇女开始揭下面纱

  第3版()
  专栏：

  南疆妇女开始揭下面纱

  今年二月间举行的南疆喀什噶尔（即疏附）市各族各界人民代表会议上，妇女代表们打破了几千年封建传统的桎梏，响亮地喊出第一声：“揭下面纱，婚姻自由”。现在很多妇女都已经揭下了过去不分冬夏都罩着的面纱，当地的封建统治者也已经不敢再骑马扬鞭，对她们实行鞭笞了。

  南疆的妇女，尤其是维吾尔族的妇女，多少年来一直在这一层面纱后过着牢狱一般的生活。她们没有婚姻、人身、教育的自由。在婚姻方面，这里盛行着早婚和多妻的陋习。十二岁的少女，还没有发育健全，便离家成婚。十四、五岁的女子，已是怀抱婴儿的母亲了。老夫少妻的现象也很普遍，许多五、六十岁的老年人，往往与十二岁的幼女成婚。一般富豪和特权者把妇女当作玩具，今日结婚，明日抛弃。

  喀什城内的大地主、穆斯满教依祥派阿訇苏皮禾加，利用他的特权和巫术，压迫和欺骗人民，尤其是百般地蹂躏妇女。喀什中学主任伊不拉英士尔逊说：“苏皮禾加的结婚和离婚，象开玩笑一样。他才三十岁，至少娶了一百五十个老婆。他娶老婆并不花钱，利用他禾加（圣裔）的地位，别人不敢违抗，就得把女子送去。他离了婚的女子，无人再敢娶。”挑水老头子买买提明说：“苏皮禾加娶老婆象喝凉水一样，隔三间二，不是听说他‘抓秧哥’（结婚），就是听说他‘洋度’（离婚）。曾遭苏皮禾加离弃的女子拜儿哥孜汉愤恨地叙述她的遭遇说：“一九四五年，苏皮禾加要娶我。我哥哥说：‘苏皮禾加娶女人如同到马市上骑别人的马一样，既不出钱，又不负责，结果是抛弃。’我也不想嫁。苏皮禾加就叫媒婆则那甫汉转告他的话说：‘我是圣人，她若不嫁我，我念咒把他（指女父）咒死；念穷，叫他发不了财。念的叫她跛了，瞎了，一辈子没有人要她。’我父亲害怕，就许了他。结婚后六个月，有一天他对我说：‘你的期满了，你请假吧，我准你的假，你回去吧。’我向他深深的鞠躬，同时说：‘谢谢禾加。’同他结婚的女子都是：他要娶，不敢不去；他要离，不得不走，还得谢他，不敢向别人说什么话。”

  妇女在婚后的生活更是痛苦和不自由的。奴尔尼沙汉与皮山县乡长艾买提伯克阿吉结婚后，她的丈夫时常将村里的女人招引到家中弹弦作乐，有时还留宿。次日得给他们烧洗澡水，稍有迟慢就是一耳光。还有最野蛮的是所谓“耀把什”，这就是婚前男方提出条件，不准妇女与十二岁以上的男子见面。苏皮禾加每天早起就将他的妻子们锁进黑屋子里，不让她们知道他的家庭里的事，也不让她们和外面的任何男子见面。除此以外，做妻子的还要伺候丈夫吃饭，等丈夫吃完后才能吃他的残汤剩饭。妻子不能跟丈夫并肩在街上走，总要跟在他后面几步。

  妇女既是这样受压迫，因此女子受教育的机会就很少。疏附县共有妇女十二万六千四百五十人，据本年初当地文化教育机关统计，受教育的情况是：中等学校仅有一百三十名女生，小学校也仅有三千九百三十八名女生，其余百分之九十七以上都是文盲。这是号称南疆文化中心的喀什的情形，其他各地情况就可想而知了。

  新疆解放后，广大的妇女同胞们开始走上了光明幸福的道路。新疆省人民政府最近发布的施政方针第四项中明确规定：“妇女与男子享有平等的权利，实行婚姻自由。”在中国共产党领导下，各族各界妇女组织了自己的民主妇女联合会，正为着妇女的权利而奋斗。
  （新华社）

I believe Ishan is the equivalent of 衣祥派.

History of Xinjiang: In the People’s Republic of China (1950s-1980s)

  Besides the majority Sunni Muslims in southern Xinjiang, there were various other sects, including Isma’ilis among the Tajiks in Tashkurgan, Shi’ites in Yarkand (Twelve Imam sect descendents of seventeenth-century Punjabi immigrants) and various Sufi orders. These orders were collectively known as Ishan, from a Persian word meaning ‘them’ and referring to the orders’ hereditary leaders, believed to be descendents of the orders’ founders and of the Prophet. (Chapter 3 discussed the introduction of these mystical orders into Xinjiang and the secular power achieved by the Naqshbandiyya in particular). Despite the wars and political upheavals from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, many ishan groups remained active during the first half of the twentieth century.

You'd think a guy who'd taken over one hundred and fifty wives by the age of thirty and was a massive landlord would be more well written about, but I can't seem to find much info on him.


丢

KEY

  6 {colloquial} (of a person, child, etc. that went missing) have disappeared, gotten lost

ex.:

我们的孩子丢了
发现孩子丢了，第一时间并不是去报警
公安刑侦局打拐办主任：孩子丢了要立刻报警
梦见孩子丢了，是什么意思？


How do you emphasize unformatted Chinese text?

Emphasis mark (underneath dots) is the Chinese counterpart of italics.

In printing, besides emphasis mark, fonts are used for distinguishing purposes. Bold (黑体) is also considered as a different font (rather than a variation of the same font).

In handwriting, people use straight underline and tilde underline.


What is the relation between 寨 (zhài, "stockade, stronghold, fort") and 塞 (sài, "place of strategic importance; pass; fortress")?

There doesn't seem to be much relation between「寨」and「塞」, although it takes some evidence to demonstrate why this is the case.

Firstly, the reason why many dictionaries say that「寨」is「塞」plus「木」is because「塞」is popularly but very likely mistakenly interpreted as the modern character for what was originally「賽」. The evolution of「賽」from oracle bone script to modern form is considered by some paleographers to be the following:

Basically, what appears as「工」in this character (and some others) is considered by several experts as a simplified form of「玉」, and sometimes was written as「玉」, while the two hands「廾」were sometimes removed in certain variants and「貝」was sometimes added as a semantic indicator. The character was a compound ideogram depicting the offering of objects to spirits inside a temple, and the primary meaning was to do with some kind of ritual, preserved in the ancient words「賽神」and「祭賽」.

As stated near the beginning, many important sources however say that the first two forms is the ancient form of「塞」(plug, fill in). For example:

  段玉裁注：“凡填塞字皆當作。”

(「」is the second form in the evolution sequence depicted above. With a bit of stroke joining and simplification, 「」becomes「」, which is the top part of「賽」and the other characters mentioned in this question.)

Note that these sources, although traditionally very well reputed, do not appear to provide any paleographic or lexical evidence for this assertion, and so cannot be trusted for this specific character. Despite this, many dictionaries will follow these sources and treat「」as the original character for「塞」, and subsequently interpret「寨」as「」(mistakenly thought as 塞) plus「木」.

Interpreting the primary meaning of「賽」as a religious ritual, it is then very likely that「寨」and「塞」merely use「」(賽) as a phonetic component.

「塞」uses「土」as a semantic component to indicate the meaning stuff, plug, fill in. This is an ancient definition that has survived very well intact to the present. Note that the synonym「填」uses the same semantic component.
「寨」is only one possible form of the word it represents, the other commonly seen one being「砦」.
The only time when the two characters have anything to do with each other is for the meaning fortification.

Further reading:

季旭昇《說文新證》
于省吾《甲骨文字釋林》
何琳儀《戰國古文字典》

Please note that this explanation is tentative, and there will undoubtedly be differing opinions on these characters. More evidence is required to make a more solid case.


Can 九十 = "ninety" also mean "nine or ten" (like how 三四 means "three or four")?

No, since 九十 already means exactly 'ninety', it cannot be use as an approximate figure for 'nine or ten'

'nine or ten years old' has to be written as "九至十岁"

You can say 十一二 (11 or t2) , 十三四 (13 or 14) or even 十五六七 (15 to 17) but not 九十 (9 or 10)


Could you please explain what these words mean and transcribe them in Chinese script?

The word 欢迎 means welcome and is typed as huan ying. This is a pretty basic word in Chinese so you can easily look it up even via a quick Google search.

In case you encounter a similar case down the road...

If you use macOS or iOS, you can add a handwritten Chinese keyboard, and write the character in the screen by handwriting it. Then tap on the correct character on the pop-up and search it via Google, or paste it on the dictionary (macOS has a default Chinese dictionary, for your information).

If you use iOS and download an app called Pleco (which is available in Android as well), you can use the handwritten feature and dictionary together via an In-App Purchase.


Why does 他没看书 use 没 and not 不 in this dialogue?

The opposite of "他没看书" (he did not/has not read books) is "他有看书" (he did/ has read books)- 没(has not) here replaces the adverb 有(has)- to indicate 'absent' of the action
The opposite of "他不看书" (he does not read) is "他看书" (he does read)- 不 here modifies the verb 看书 (read) into its negative form 不看书 (does not read) - to indicate 'refusal' of the action
Edit:

A: 喂你在做什么呢
B: 我在看书呢
A: 大卫也在看书吗
B: 他没看书。他在学做中国菜呢

Since A asked B "what are you doing" and B replied " I am reading" and then A asked "is David also reading book (implying 'now')?" we can conclude B's answer of what David is doing should be in the same tense as the answer on what B himself is doing, and that was 'present progressive'

The correct answer should be "他没(在)看书。他在学做中国菜呢"*

"他没看书" doesn't indicate specific tense (it can be past or present because 他没看书 only states the absent of the action), while 他没在看书 also only indicates a progressive/ continuous tense.
One thing I stated many times, Chinese verbs do not have tense, 没看 and 不看 do not indicate any tense, while 没有看 indicate 'perfect tense'; 没在看 indicates 'progressive tense'
The reason we know it is in present progressive tense, is we learned it in the context that A is asking B in present tense.
If B answered "他不看书"(he doesn't read - refusal of the action) then it would mean David never read book, and the sentence would be in present tense.


There isn't really a difference in the two if you are using it to mean "soon", except that 快要 is more formal than 快.
For example:

他快死了。
他快要死了。

Both mean:

He is dying soon.

快 is just a shorten form of 快要 when used in such context and it is quite commonly used in speech.


What are these two questions asking about? 云南石林的风景怎么样？ and 小李为什么想再去云南？

云南石林的风景怎么样？

How is the scenery in Shilin, Yunnan?

小李为什么想再去云南？

Why does Xiao Li want to go to Yunnan again?

Is this what you are asking?


Is it correct to say the standard for written Chinese is Mandarin, regardless of dialect (e.g. Cantonese)?

It depends. To the best of my knowledge, the formal written form of Cantonese is pretty much identical to that used by Mandarin, excepting:

Differences in usage (e.g. 玉米 v.s. 粟米 for "corn")
Usage of traditional v.s. simplified characters, although this is only an issue in that Hong Kong / Macau, which are Cantonese-speaking use traditional characters, whereas Mainland China does not. (Taiwan uses some form of the traditional system as well). So there may be some discrepancy in learning materials.

However, sometimes people will write more "informal", "spoken" Cantonese that will not really be identical (and not just for vocabulary reasons) to written Mandarin. For example, there is a song from the McDull franchise titled as 落街冇錢買麵包 (approximately "going onto the street, [had] no money to buy bread"). 落 (instead of 下) is just a Cantonese usage difference, but 冇 instead of 沒有 is a more "informal" or "vernacular" usage that I have never seen in any explicitly formal context. Your mileage may vary as to whether this sort of thing counts as a "word preference" difference; I would not because this isn't like the case of having different words for "corn".

Similarly, and perhaps more explicitly, sometimes characters like 喺, 係 (e.g. in 我係香港人 instead of 我是香港人, but which can also be used to indicate assent in a way that doesn't really exist in Mandarin), or 唔 (e.g. 唔明白 instead of 不明白) are used informally: I have probably seen such usage on platforms such as Facebook before.

In these cases, the basic grammatical structure is still similar (in the sense that things like word order are still mostly the same, but I wouldn't call this only "pronunciation and word preference" differences, since this isn't just about words for object X being different in Cantonese and Mandarin.

So yes, the "standard" written form should be identical with the exception of pronunciation and word preference to that of Mandarin, but I would really hesitate to say the same thing of the "informal" written forms that can often be found in more informal venues, such as on the internet.


What is the status of 什么来的 and 什么来着 in standard and colloquial Mandarin Chinese?

I agree with your friend. I think the correct version is "什么来着". You can find the word"来着",but you can't find the word"来的“ in the dictionary.
I think it's popular in northern area(such as 北京，天津，河北，辽宁). I have heard of "什么来着" on the TV and I can understand it, though I have never used "什么来着", either in mandarin or in my dialect.
(Not applicable)
Of course the dialect will influce the way you speak mandarin Chinese, both in pronunciation and words. Examples from one of my roommates when I was in the university, he came from 浙江 province(in south China), and his mother tongue is a subclass of 吴 dialect.He likes to use words below and confused me at the first time when I met him, though he speaks in mandarin(not very standard).

  纸头 paper  In mandarin, we use 纸 or 纸张
  烧饭 to cook In mandarin, we use 做饭
  A structure "不要太[an adj]". He means "very, quite [adj]", but in mandarin, it means "don't be so [adj]".

At last, I want to make a clarification that, when I searched "什么来着" as keyword with Google, on the first page, I saw 10 results, each of which contains the complete "什么来着";however,when I searched "什么来的”, I saw 11 results on the first page, only 4 of which contains the complete "什么来的“. Also, you could see "什么来的" as in "他是冲什么来的？(what does he come for?)”,but that's another story.


judging from the text i searched, the translation of "the rest is obvious" is quite good, at the same time, "beyond this what is there to discuss" is, appropriate.

  於彼微動﹒己先動之着手功夫﹒苟能於此嫻熟﹒則操縱在我不在彼﹒其餘又何論矣

in general, the "style" of mr 鄭's text, is mainly literary chinese, with occasional written vernacular chinese "toppings".

then, to decipher "其餘又何論矣"

其餘 - the rest of . . .

又何論 - 需 is omitted / assumed, so it's 又何需論

又 - and / further

何需 - need to

論 - discuss

矣 is a 虛字 ( chinese particles ), to indicate the end of a clause, in an affirmative manner.

so, put it together with the text:

(in 推手), if you're skillful in "彼微動﹒己先動", you're in charge, not your companion (則操縱在我不在彼)

the rest of this (you're skillful in 彼微動﹒己先動), is not needed to discuss further.

ps: i skip some steps in this explanation, either in literary chinese, or in 太極拳.

have fun :)

edited, in lieu of comment.

well, literary chinese is fuzzy. incorporate the context is important, and easier; to explain particular clause.

imo, the clause "其餘又何論矣" is not fine, it's not "pure" literary chinese. the introduction of "需" is "needed", for easier comprehension.

anyway, this interpretation is, based on my knowledge in literary chinese, and, 太極拳. others might understand the phase differently.


What is the meaning of the tone numbers shown in Wiktionary's Mandarin pronunciation?

They represent tone height on a scale from 1-5, with one being the lowest and 5 the highest. Thus, a full third tone would be transcribed as 214 (starting quite low, falling, then rising up again), but since the final rise is optional, it's put in brackets. These are sometimes called Chao tone numerals, after 趙元任.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, each number is replaced by a short bar at a certain height, then several of these are joined into a line that shows tone contour. So, the full third tone would be ˨+˩+˦=˨˩˦. Since this is sometimes hard to both type and display (depends on font), numbers might be easier.

Read more about tone representation with these symbols/numbers here: Tone Letter (Wikipedia)


Yes,好棋 means "a good move"; either in chess-style games or, by analogy, anything related to a contest of strategy (e.g. 普京毁了一步好棋, "Putin screwed up a (previous) good move".)

The phrase in question, 中国好棋, is a bit different. That originated from this poster,
where it is the title of a poem:

  对弈小神童，尚在长成中。游戏无规矩，打闹是常情。但凡说故事，必须中国赢。落子成定局，欢呼轻高音。中国我爱你，年少正青春。

The character 好 has two meanings:

adjective "good"
verb "to like"

The latter meaning is the one intended in the phrase ``. So the phrase is saying "China likes chess" (or Go or generic board games). This can be inferred from the context provided by the poem, the visual emphasis on the 好 character, and also because a subject (中国) precedes it and an object 棋 follows it.

The other possible meaning for the phrase is something along the lines of a "Chinese good move". That doesn't fit the poster's context (though you can interpret it as a pun), but the phrase can be used with that meaning too.
For instance, Chinese chess prodigy 侯逸凡 (Hou Yifan) has talked about the awakening Chinese dragon making a 中国好棋 on the chessboard of the world.

For reference, the poster:


Jean Pasqualini's book Prisonnier de Mao

I haven't found the point about learning from one's mistakes but this is the closest Mao quote I've found:

中国监狱制度的改革与发展

  “我们的监狱不是过去的监狱，我们的监狱其实是学校，也是工厂，或是农场。”

Which roughly equates to something like: Our prisons are not prisons of the past, our prisons are actually schools, they are factories, or farms.

Jean Pasqualini might have taken some liberties or licenses since this has to do with 劳改 (re-education through labor) with his translation, but I can't be sure yet.

Update: So, the wiki quote is listed as:

  Behr, 1987 p.283

Which is a reference from Edward Behr's 1987 book "The Last Emperor" - page 283, here is the excerpt in question:

  The difference lay in the overall approach of those in authority to all those accused of any kind of 'crime'. As Jean Pasqualini, author of Prisoner of Mao, a uniquely insightful analysis of the Chinese penitentiary system based on his own prison and labour camp experiences, put it: 'Prison is not prison, but a school for learning about one's mistakes.' Chinese prisons were places 'where the prisoners reform the prisoners'.

A translation of "The Last Emperor" (中国末代皇帝) was done by 黄群飞 (Huang Qunfei) and published in 1989, here is his translation of the above paragraph found on page 219 of the book:

  不同之点在于那些掌权者对那些被控犯有各种“罪行”的人的总的处理方法不同。《毛泽东的囚犯》一书的作者琼·帕斯加里尼，根据他自己蹲监狱和劳动集中营的经历，对中国的悔改制度作了与众不同的、独到的分析。他说：“监狱不是监狱，而是一所悔罪的学校”。中国的监狱是“囚犯改造囚犯的地方。”

Jean Pasqualini's quote is quite the resemblance of Mao's by saying:

  “监狱不是监狱，而是一所悔罪的学校”


So, I think I just wrap this up in a proper answer instead of some comments with links.

Basically, there are two major changes:

9 new characters were added to the  CJK Unified Ideographs block.
A new block called 'CJK Unified Ideographs Extension E' with 5762 ideographs was added to Unicode. You can find these here (.pdf file).

Characters from the first page of the file:

According to Wikipedia, in the early stages of the new standard version,
CJK-E was originally intended to include another 16,000+ characters not present in CJK-C. However, in May 2007 the Republic of China (Taiwan) withdrew 6,545 personal name usage characters deemed no longer in use,in May 2013 China withdrew 6 characters, and many others were later withdrawn or moved to CJK-F (projected), so the current version includes 5,762 new characters. CJK-E including 5,762 Han characters will be new in Unicode 8.0.

Here's a Wikipedia article that will document these, but most browsers fail to display the characters yet.

UPDATE: Hanazono supports CJK Ext. E. Download the font from here.


Most popular question and answer and forum sites in Chinese

Check out 知乎 - just type that into google along with any random Chinese word of your choice, to find a load of threads containing that word - it's a great way to practice reading.


I live in north, we only use 室友, when I see your question, I have to check dictionary for 同屋( I have never heard of it) to make sure I know it right, cuz we can not rely on the literary meanings, for example 家里那人 refer to husband or wife, not any other family members.

You would better avoid 同屋, because that is a slang, they always have other meanings in different areas. For example 同一个屋檐下 usually refer to neighbors, relations but not rootmates.


What is the difference between 依偎 and 偎傍？

依偎 implies a strong sentimental attachement, usually expressing love or affection. Mostly used between couples, lovers, child and parent.

偎傍 doesn't necessarily carry so much personal feelings, just meaning "stay side by side closely" and is seldom to use in informal/oral conversation. I think it's original from Chinese poems.


UPDATE with answers:

Q0: example of a sample compound sentence

o. 她跳舞, 我歌唱.

Q1: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese complex sentence here?

a. 那是**我遇见她的**房子. (adjectival clause)
b. 我知道**答案是什么**. (noun clause)

Q2: Could someone supply a sample Mandarin Chinese compound-complex sentence here?

x. 她跳舞, 我知道**_她跳的_是什么舞**.

(this is partly using o and b)

Q3: Have I missed any major Mandarin Chinese sentence types?

No, I think the three types (simple, compound, complex) are the major ones.
Again, compound-complex / complex-compound is just built on compound and complex.

(note: I am not able to make the characters bold or italic in the above sentences)

I will start with your Q3:

I think simple, compound, and complex are the three types. You can count compound-complex / complex-compound as a fourth, but it's really building on compound and complex.

I am inclined to believe that compound sentence and (some of) complex sentence (*) in English tend to be the same thing in Mandarin.

(*) Adverbial_clause

Compare this example:

I ate breakfast before I washed the dishes. (A)

to this one:

I ate breakfast, and I washed the dishes. (B)

The distinction between before (adverb) and and (conjunction) is not so big in Mandarin.

The noun clause and adjectival clause are a different story though.

For noun clause (and an answer to your Q1), if we consider this as complex:

I know who said that.

then we have this complex Mandarin sentence:

我知道是谁说的.

(Note that the addition of 是 and the omission of that, which changes the sentence structure quite a bit. Due to that, I don't know if the Chinese sentence should be counted as complex.)

Similarly, when you think of adjectival clause:

That is the house where I met her.

can be translated to:

那是我遇见她的房子.

Probably that is what makes you think that

the sentence types below apply to both English and Mandarin Chinese languages

As a side note,
I think the classification of simple, compound and complex is more or less based on English, like this one.


Does 我喜欢你上课 mean "I like your class" or something like "I like it when you go to class"?

我喜欢你上课

Most of time, it means 我喜欢你上的课 "I like you to teach the class， instead the class is taught by other teachers".

It rarely means "I like you to take the class".


On this page there is long explanation, but the summary that 濱 is more used when 濱 has the role of a noun (examples: 水~︱江~︱河~︱湖~︱海~), and 瀕 is more used when 瀕 has the role of a verb (examples: ~江︱~湖︱~海︱~绝︱~临︱~死︱~危︱~于, 东~大海).


的 (refer to definition 2 in this dictionary)

  代替所指的人或物：唱歌～。

我觉得奇怪的 here refers to things I feel weird.

So, 我觉得奇怪的是 could be interpreted as "things I feel weird are:" or "What I feel weird are:".


给我钱 = give me money (indefinite- some money; any money)
把钱给我  = give me the money (definite - the money, that money)
给我一些钱 = give me some money
把那笔钱交给我= give me that money
把 is a disposal marker that marks the object to be disposed of. It emphasizes the object and makes it definite


What is the meaning of 准新 in 由于二手车市场准新车越来越多...?

Yes, I think so. And it's just like someone who has just bought a new car and doesn't want keep it anymore, selling it on the secondhand market. Then the car he sold can be called “准新车”. “准” in Chinese always means nearly but not exactly. For instance, “准老婆” means your girlfriend and she is very likely to marry with you in the near future.


Your guess is correct. You can use it as the following examples:

start a new game - 开始新游戏

start to do something - 开始做某事

a good start - 一个好的开始


Are there satirical news sites in Chinese, like The Onion?

That kind of news is called “洋葱新闻” in Chinese. I don't think there is such kind of news sites, but you can find some account named by it on weibo.


Can someone please clarify the different sentence structures I can use "下去" in?

have a look of the 國語辭典, "下去" has 4 meanings:

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000105631

1　自上而下 - from top to bottom

2　用在動詞後﹒強調由上向下之意 - used after a verb, emphasise the action from top to bottom

3　用在動詞後﹒表示事情繼續進行 - used after a verb, showing the continuous state of the action

4　用在形容詞後﹒表示程度漸漸增加 - used after adjective, indicate the degree is increasing

in the example, "接下去说" is equal to "接著说", #3

then, "你這樣下去會累垮的" is also #3


How to say "hope you'll have a great day"?

The word "Great" has many meanings, both in English and Chinese. It seems that Google Translate picks "magnificent", "grand" as its translation in this case.

While "Hope you'll have a great day" is said time and time again in English conversation, it's less so in Chinese - but it does not mean people do not say it.

There are a few different ways to say it depending on the context.

When someone is having a day out, for example, visiting a place, going to a theme park, going shopping with friends and so on, you can say:

(Traditional/Simplified)
祝你(今天)玩得愉快/祝你(今天)玩得愉快 = Hope you'll have fun./Have fun!

"Today" is often omitted in speaking here as it's a "day out" that happens today.

When someone is organising an event, staging a gig, hosting a fair or similar stuff, you can say:

祝你今天順利/祝你今天顺利 = Hope it goes well today/Hope your gig goes well today.

"Today" is usually not omitted here in speaking as it emphasises the event is happening today.

When you say it to a business owner or someone running a shop, this can translate into:

祝你今天生意興隆/祝你今天生意兴隆 = Hope you'll have good business today.

Which according to Google Translate, it's "I wish you business is booming today."

I'm sure there are other occasions where you'd say "Hope you'll have a great day" and it is not the same Chinese expression. If anyone can think of any, please share with us :)


Have I parsed this correctly? 在这一重大的历史时点，和讯网对著名经济学家张维迎就改革的发展问题进行了一次非常深入的访谈。

在这一重大的历史时点，和讯网/对(著名经济学家)张维迎(就改革的发展问题)进行了(一次非常深入的)访谈。

the main structure is 和讯网对张维迎进行了访谈

So the correct translation that reflects this structure should be

At this important historical point, Hexun.com has conducted a very in-depth discussion (or interview) with the renowned economist ZHANG Weiyin on the question (or problem) of future directions of reform.


For the HSK, what do I need to know about characters which appear differently?

The Chinese characters are used not only in Chinese but also several other languages (such as Japanese). The written form of the same character may differ in these languages. And on a computer, these differences are usually controlled by fonts (as they use the same code point).

The second form in your original post is a Japanese version of 喝, which will be considered wrong if used in Chinese. You might be using a font designed for Japanese to display the character. Try change to a font that is designed for displaying Chinese (like SimSun), you will get the correct Chinese written form.


You have a few options. As @NS.X. pointed out 一直 is a good one, but you can also use

一向, e.g.我一向很懒。I have always been very lazy.

向来, e.g. 她向来就是个书呆子。 She has always been a bookworm.

从来 is more likely used together with 不 or 没 conveying negation, of course that is not necessary.

A conjecture of mine: 一直 is often used with a certain beginning in the speaker's mind, which is not always pointed out of course. 自从饭后我一直忙的很。Since dinner I have been very busy.


I would interpret "患难见真情" as: " true heart (friendship) shows itself in difficult time"

When life is good, everything is fine, you may have a lot of fair weather friends; only in difficult time, you can see whose friendship with you are real.

Similar phrases:

家贫出孝子, 国难见忠臣 (when family is poor, you can see who is a good son; when country is in peril, you can see who are loyal subjects)

路遥知马力, 日久见人心 (long road test the true strength of a horse; long time test the true heart of a person)


道明寺, 花澤類, and 藤堂靜

All Japanese names:

道明 (Michiaki) is family name, 寺(ji/ Tera) is first name

花澤 (Hanazawa) is family name, 類(Rui) is first name

類 sound strange in Chinese name, but it might have been Japanese 平假名 "るい" translated to 漢字. When a Japanese name contains 平假名 instead of Kanji, The Chinese translator would choose a Kanji with that pronunciation, and they usually have more than one choice.
Take るい (Rui) for example, it can be one of the following Kanji: 塁 涙 累 類 泪 壘 羸 縲 瘰 誄

累 and 泪 are female names; 壘 and 類 can be male names

藤堂(Todo) is family name, 靜 (Shizuka) is first name

  I think those are just the second syllables of the two-syllable given names.

If a Chinese name is made up of a one character last name and a two characters first name, you can use the entire first name or just the last character to address that person.

Example:

You can address "劉志雄" as "志雄"

It is not wrong to address "劉志雄" as "雄", but it is very informal. (use only to people who are very close to you)

In most cases, when addressing someone with his first name , we would add name prefix 阿，(as in 阿雄)


Most people probably wouldn't know (or have even ever seen) the character 夰, before, but anyway.

汉语大词典

  hào

  1 同“昊”。天。

  北周  卫元嵩 《元包经·太阴》

  雲浮于夰。

  李江 注

  夰, 天。

  按, 《广韵·上晧》

  夰, 《説文》：‘放也。’昊天字從此。

  2 气。

  北周  卫元嵩 《元包经·太阴》

  夰入于囦, 回浮于元。

  苏渊明 传

  夰入于囦, 天氣降也。

  李江 注

  夰, 氣。

So, for #1 夰 means the same as 昊 - namely "sky/heavens" & #2 gas/air


Sometimes you can, just like you can use pot to refer cannabis when you talk to other smokers, you have to make sure the listeners are 网络小说 addict, otherwise they would totally have no idea what you are talking about.

P.S.

I don't read 网络小说, but I know some US TV drama fans call drama 草, looks like all addict call their favorite 草. :)

P.S.
Here is a list translated from tieba

仙草：epic

粮草：good

干草：so so,

水草：bad

带毒干草：even bad

毒草：terrible, unreadable

穿肠毒草：Call doctor, need 仙草 to save life


着 is used to express that something is in the status of a verb, so it should not be progressive. For example "sitting" is 坐着.

Examples:

他光着脚，手指弯曲着，失去了往日的力量。
His leg bared(baring), fingers bent(bending), gone his former strength.

Counter-examples:
您做着什么？ This one is invalid

The verb "do" is progressive(this action is changing), so 着 is not used here.


In fact, you can call any women who has been married with "X太太"， it shows lots of respectation and manner. However, if you call your wife, usually we don't use X太太， it will make your wife unwell, just like a stranger.


I think you got the idea of 鐘 means clock and 頭 means beginning. It means the beginning of a 60 min cycle in the clock. So it turns to mean hours.


Learning resources for ZhengMa input method?

If you use Windows 7, there should be a text document within the Program Files that contains a comprehensive list of Chinese characters and their ZhengMa codes. On my computer it is found at C:\Program Files(x86)\Windows NT\TableTextService; it is called TableTextServiceSimplifiedZhengMa.txt

I don't know if this exists on other operating systems.
Hope it helps!


"I thought this would look good" in Chinese?

Edit: I overlooked the simplified Chinese tag. Now adding simplified chinese version back

I assume your sentence have a [hidden context]:

I thought it would look good [but it turns out to be awful]

In this case I would translate it as:
我以為那會好看(Trad.)/我以为那会好看(Simp.)

To divide it word by word then reverse translate:

(我)(以為)(那)(會)(好)(看)

(I)(thought)(that)(would)(good)(look)

Google translate suggested the translation 我認為這會好看(Trad.)/我认为这会好看(Simp.)

But if I reverse translate this back to Eng I would say it is:

(我)(認為)(這)(會)(好)(看)

(I)(think)(this)(would)(good)(look)

The difference between 认为 and 以为 is not focused on tense, but in tone and assertiveness.

认为 : think, with a sense of confidence in oneself (a.k.a. belief, assert)

以为 : wrongly thinks (a.k.a. thought)


I would say '有人緣' is used to describe a person, like '他很有人緣' means 'he always gets along well with others'.
'談得來 'is used to describe a relationship, usually used when 'two people' are getting along well, like '我和他很談得來'.
But you could still use '他和大家都很談得來' 'he gets along well with everybody'.


How can I improve the speed of my spoken Chinese?

The shape of your mouth and the muscles you need to speak effect the way that you speak another language. So you will naturally find yourself tripping over certain sounds or combinations of words.

The only way you can improve this is by practicing.

I have been casually teaching overseas students for over 10 years and the best way to do this is by doing two things: Read at a suitable level so you can read fast enough and read aloud so you are training your mouth and getting feedback via your ears.

I started by practicing with childrens' books, you will find your mouth starts to hurt after a short while of reading if you are doing it constantly. Practice daily then you will notice your speaking will also improve.

Songs are a good way to train with, however this is usually via memorisation so it may improve the speed of your spoken Chinese, but not your conversational Chinese, that is, it's not going to teach you to speak better. Because speaking in a conversation requires you to consider a response and to have the skill to present that response with the right vocabulary and grammar.


Why is 你们爱猫 translated to "you love cats" (and not e.g. "you all love cats")?

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/5/

  們:

  an adjunct to a pronoun or noun to indicate plurality

Pronoun:

你 (you) is a singular pronoun in Chinese, Adding 們 after it make it a plural pronoun- 你們(you)

我 (I / me) is a singular pronoun in Chinese. Adding 們 after it, makes it a plural pronoun- 我們 (we / us)

他 (he / him) is a singular pronoun in Chinese. Adding 們 after it, makes it a plural pronoun- 他們 (they / them)

Noun:

The adjunct 們 is mostly used with human pronouns (e.g. - 你們, 我們, 他們).  Although it can be used with a noun, it is restricted to nouns for human only.

For example:

戰士 warrior / 戰士(們) warrior(s)
學生 student / 學生(們) student(s)
工人 worker / 工人(們) worker(s)
人 person ; people / 人們 (people) * 人 can be either singular or plural

Using 們 with nouns is much less common and it can often be omitted,  because plurality can often be indicated by use of plural classifiers (e,g. - a group of; a class of) or plural adjective (e.g. - those; these).

們 is always used on people or other situations when you want to express personification.

If we write 一群學生 (a group of students) or 那些學生 (those students) we no longer need 們 to indicate plurality. We know it is not a single student.

Adding 們 and write 一群學生們 or 那些學生們 would be redundant.


甘 = sweet

梅 = plum

地瓜 = sweet potato

From the photo, "Fried Sweet Potato with sweet plum powder"

Edit: Thanks for others' correction.... 地瓜 may also mean other types of potato or other taro, depending on the region.


When I was in Jiangsu province (and later, Shanghai), I was interested in learning Shanghainese and other Wu dialects. Unfortunately, there aren't that many resources, and a lot of the ones that do exist are low quality (No IPA, crazy made up romanizations, pronunciations indicated with characters, etc.) Here are a few things I found and my thoughts on them (Disclaimer--I can't claim to have succeeded in learning Shanghainese):

Chinese Pod has a few lessons in Shanghainese. They have no romanization, they choose characters sometimes based on meaning and other times based on similarity of pronunciation (when read in Mandarin), and overall, it's really unsystematic. But they do have some great audio, and it's phrase-book kind of stuff, which is good for starting off learning a language.
M and MX is another podcast site aimed at foreigners in China, and they have some Shanghainese. Again, not systematic, but there's audio, and it's useful in a phrasebook sort of way.
The Annals of Wu is a Sinoglot spinoff blog (BTW, Sinoglot is an awesome blog for Chinese language learners, especially if you're into linguistics). It's updated infrequently, but if you want some linguistically accurate musings on Wu dialects, it's absolutely killer.
Wu-Chinese is a Chinese language site focused on the Wu dialects. Their dictionary (linked) is pretty excellent, and their resources explaining Wu phonology are decent, but the site in general is kind of a mess with lots of broken links and terrible navigation.
Jon from Sinosplice keeps a (long but infrequently updated) list of Shanghainese learning books and his opinions of them. Worth checking out. There are lots of great books, but many of them are impossible to find unless you're in China, and even then...
Dict.cn has Shanghainese content (with audio!). Unfortunately, the written forms are sort of a mashup of etymologically correct character choices and phonetic-via-Mandarin character choices.

Good luck!


都 is an adverb, so it should go before the verb.

  德国人今天都不工作。

.. means all Germans aren't working today.

(Time) Subject (or time can go here) (adverb) verb (object)

Time can go either before or after the subject.


What does this seal stamps on chinese painting mean?

芳草有情，夕陽無語，雁橫南浦，人倚西樓。

This sentence is a part of 宋詞 (a form of classical Chinese poetry
)《風流子·木葉亭皋下》 written by 張耒.

張耒（1054年－1114年），字文潛，號柯山，生於楚州淮陰（今江蘇淮安市），祖籍亳州譙縣（今安徽亳縣）。北宋詩人。

The whole article is shown below.

  木葉亭皋下，重陽近，又是搗衣秋。
  奈 愁入庾腸，老侵潘鬢，謾簪黃菊，花也應羞。
  楚天晚，白蘋煙盡處，紅蓼水邊頭。* 芳草有情，夕陽無語，雁橫南浦，人倚西樓。*

  玉容知安否？香箋共錦字，兩處悠悠。
  空恨碧雲離合，青鳥沉浮。向風前懊惱，芳心一點，寸眉兩葉，禁甚閑愁？
  情到不堪言處，分付東流。

This poem describes the feeling of yearning for his wife.

However, the maker of the seal has changed one word, i.e., 橫 to 飛。

雁橫南浦 --> 雁飛南浦

The meaning is the same.


It suggests the passive mode as "be done" in English. So "被" + verb = be done in English.

About the "by", just as English, when using the passive mode, not all the sentence has a "by" in it.

Example with "by":

active:

A lion ate the monkey.(狮子吃了那个猴子)

passive:

The monkey was eaten by a lion.(那个猴子*被*狮子吃了)

Example without "by":

He was killed,(他*被杀*了) but we don't know the murderer yet.

Here there is no "by" because we all know he was killed by someone we don't know yet. So no need to add "by the unknown murderer" here. Same as the Chinese version.


了 never appears in past negation.

By definition, one of 了 grammatical functions is to indicate completed action, and not past tense. Hence, if the action did not happen at all (没), it has also never been completed.

  他还没来 - He still didn't come (and not他还没来了）

A side note to that is that 了 would appear in present negation.

  他不来了 - He is not coming.


You may try Chinese Wiktionary and English Wiktionary, each has its own merits.
https://zh.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D%E5%AE%A2%E6%B0%94
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D%E5%AE%A2%E6%B0%A3#Chinese
When searching for the pronunciation of a specific dialect word (since it may not be listed in Wiktionary) you can try 现代汉语方言大词典 of 古音小镜:
http://www.guguolin.com/book_fangyandacidian.php
The standard dictionary of Mainland Mandarin, 现代汉语词典 has mobile Apps (Can I use 现代汉语词典 outside of the paper dictionary?). You can use it to check standard Mainland pronunciation. However it is not free to wield its full strength.
In fact, Mainland Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin differ little in pronunciation. The main pronunciation differences are in certain characters, for example the conjunction  和 hé/hàn. In your case, it is only that the tone sandhi is not marked in the dictionary that makes 不 of 不客气 seem to be bù in Mainland Mandarin. The actual pronunciation of 不客气 is bú kè qi (气 here is 5th tone according to 现代汉语词典, the 客气 entry). You can learn the tone sandhi rules, especially the 一不七八 rules here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology#Tone_sandhi.
The terminological differences are more evident. 中华语文知识库 is a dictionary compiled by experts from both Mainland China and Taiwan, aimed at collecting such differences in Chinese words. You can get access to it here : http://www.chinese-linguipedia.org/.


Meaning of 一样 in 你要像喜欢甜一样喜欢苦

你要像喜欢甜一样喜欢苦

  (1) What does 一样 means in this sentence?

"像 (X)一样" means "the same as (X) "  or "like (X)" in this sentence

你要喜欢苦 = You have to love bitter
你要[像喜欢甜一样]喜欢苦 = You have to love bitter [the same as you love sweet] /  You have to love bitter [like you love sweet]

[像喜欢甜一样] is an adverbial phrase that modify the verb phrase 喜欢苦

  2) Can I put VERBS following 一样?

My answer to (1) said you can,  because [像 X 一样 ] = [the same as X], and the following sentence can be a verb phrase or adjectival phrase E.g.  "像 Mary 一样去當護士了" or "像 Mary 一样漂亮"


Non-Native Speaker:

  As your Chinese learning has progressed, do you still intentionally analyze the tones of words you learn by speaking (e.g. remember 拼音 has two first tones)?

As my Chinese has progressed (now on HSK level 5), I have discovered that I still "analyze" tones of words by speaking to a certain degree, but at my level I am more concerned with if the word sounds right or wrong rather than analyzing. For example, if I am speaking Mandarin to a friend and I say, "I want to buy some handcrafted products" "我想买一些工艺品” (Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yīxiē gōngyìpǐn) BUT instead of "买"(mǎi-to buy) I accidentally say “卖” (mài-to sell), I will instantly have a weird feeling and notice that I said "to sell" instead of "to buy". In short, the higher level you become in Chinese the better you get at noticing if a word sounds correct or not and quickly correct yourself based on the "internalized" tones rather than analyzing everything you say.

  Do you even think about things like tone sandhi (which you may have learned complicated rules for at some point in your studying)?

I personally try not to overthink about things like tone sandhi (tone-change rules) because in the past it causes more harm to my spoken Chinese than it helps. Many of these tone sandhi rules can be solved by listening more to Chinese. The principle here is, the more I listen, the more I'll be able to notice mistakes in tones just because of how it sounds and then correct them. If you want to hear a professional Mandarin speaker talk about tones, then here is an interview from one of the most famous and fluent Chinese-speaking foreigners 大山 (Dashan) discussing Mandarin tones in English.
Here is a link
The Most Famous Foreigner in China


Meaning of 他是以朋友說這番話的

The sentence should be interpreted as 他是以一个...老朋友(的身份)说这番话的, means he said that as a ... old friend.

And from 一个在中国生活了将近六十年的老朋友 we can tell that 艾黎 has been lived in China for 60 years nearly.


It depends on your context. It could be 神 (deity), 老天爷 (Boss of Heaven), 上帝 (God), 主 (The Lord, used by Christians; other people just use 上帝). 真主(God of Islam), 佛祖(God of Buddhism, Sakyamuni specifically), 太上老君(Boss of Taoism)

Other neutral words
仙, 神仙


Saying 不是很多人 or 没有很多人 sounds clunky; how can I say "not many people" smoothly?

In fact IMO 不是很多人 and 没有很多人 both sound pretty natural to me, and I think they are the right translation of "not many people".

"绿腰带不是很多人喜欢佩戴的" sounds a bit odd but mainly that's because you would usually say "不是很多人喜欢佩戴绿腰带" or “喜欢佩戴绿腰带的人不多".

"似乎这里没有很多人会手语" sounds perfectly natural to me.


Questions about the Taiwanese mandarin accent

There actually is a course that distinguishes Taiwan Mandarin from Mainland Chinese Mandarin: Glossika has both split into different courses, much as European and Brazilian Portuguese are distinguished as standard in most courses.

One of the most salient basic phonological differences in standard Taiwan Mandarin 國語 vs standard PRC Mandarin 普通话 is ㄩㄥ vs yong. In Taiwan standard Mandarin it's yu- and -(e)ng, whilst in PRC standard Mandarin it's yi- plus -ong. However there's been some rapprochement happening between the two.

Another ㄥ related pronunciation issue relates to the quality of the vowel of after the labial consonants b-, p-, f-, m-: whereas PRC Mandarin uses a mid-back but relatively unrounded vowel [ɤ], whereas Taiwan Mandarin generally uses a slightly more closed but more rounded vowel [ʊ~u].

The Wikipedia article on Taiwanese Mandarin gives a quick run down. The merging of retroflex into alveolar is mentioned, as is the lack of erhua; additionally in Taiwanese Mandarin there is:

greater syllable-timed isochrony; syllables are regularly spaced, with much less difference between stressed and non-stressed syllables
as a corollary to the above, much less use of neutral tone

Then there are more basilectal forms of Taiwanese Mandarin, where the accent is strongly influenced by either Taiwanese Hokkien (Min Nan) or Taiwanese Hakka. This (the Hokkien version at least) is what is generally parodied as ㄉㄞˇ ㄨㄢ ㄍㄛˊ ㄧˇ (Dǎiwān góyǐ). You can see some of the phonological changes there: specific lexical interference from Hokkien on 臺, lack of certain glides, and the absence of the ㄩ phoneme (converting it consistently to ㄧ).


Why does Mandarin Chinese have a smaller inventory of unique syllables?

From San Duanmu, The Phonology of Standard Chinese:

While Middle Chinese (about AD 600) had over 3,000 syllables (including tonal
distinctions), modern Standard Chinese (SC) has just over 1,300. Thus, over a period of 1,500 years, Chinese lost more than half of its syllables. Moreover, the syllable inventory of modern Chinese continues to shrink. In addition, about 200 of the 1,300 syllables in SC are now rarely used. From a functional point of view, what is happening in Chinese is quite counter-intuitive and mysterious: why is it that the high homophone density has not prevented syllable loss in SC or at least slowed it down? I suggest that there are two parts to the answer. In the first place, most lexical ambiguities are clarified by context. For example,
although sun and son are homophones in English, there is hardly any context
in which they would cause ambiguity. Therefore, homophone density
rarely impedes how people speak. Secondly, paradoxically, high homophone
density may in fact speed up syllable loss. Studies on frequency effects show that frequent words are more likely to undergo reduction than infrequent words (Bybee 2001). Because Chinese has fewer syllables than
English, Chinese syllables are used more frequently, and so they are more
likely to undergo reduction and loss of contrasts.

On the other side, the reason why there are so many homophone words in Mandarin is that it is a monosyllabic morpheme language, which means that every syllable corresponds to a character with a meaning—a word. Other languages like Japanese, might have a smaller number of different syllables but also less homophone words, as they do not require each syllable to be a word.


Back to back tones for single character ˩˧ ˧˩?

The reversed tone letter is apparently one of the Modifier Tone Letters which do indeed indicate tone sandhi. I haven't yet come up with a pdf, but hazarding a guess, perhaps ˩˧ (low rising) is the recitation form and the reversed form is the sandhi form (low falling).


说天书/听天书 would be proper one in my opinion.

It means one talks about the book from the heaven and no one would actually understand it.

For example, 他讲的话， 我就像听天书一样。 我听物理课像听天书。 他在说天书。


Is there a list of medicinal plants and their translations in Mandarin?

You may try the Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database, which is maintained by the Hong Kong Baptist University.
It contains 420+ entries, each with name in traditional Chinese, English and Latin; description and usage.


Two characters words are all compound words. There are different ways to coin compound words
One way to coin compound word is to combine two characters that share a similar meaning to make it specific
Most single character words contain multiple meanings thus make them too general for expressing a more specific meaning.
Example (adj + adj) :

沉 can mean 'sing' or 'heavy'
To make a specific term, we add one more character to it to clarify the meaning
没 also have the meaning of 'sink', That make '沉没'  specifically  mean 'sink'
重 also have the meaning of 'heavy' That make, '沉重' specifically  mean 'heavy'

Example (verb + verb) :

攻 means 'attack' but it also contains the meaning of: study; specialize in; work at
擊 mainly mean 'hit' but it also contains the meaning of: 'attack'
攻擊 is a specific term for 'attack'

~

Question: Is there a name for 2-character "in-between" words in which both characters are abbreviations for individual 2-character words?

攻擊 are not abbreviations for 攻打 and 打擊

攻擊,  攻打 and 打擊 are all compound words that happen to share one component (攻擊 and 攻打 share 攻; 攻打 and 打擊 share 打)

Example from this post 认识 vs 知道 based on glyph origins

見識: experience(v) = (see + know) *'to see to know'
見識: experience(n)= (see + knowledge) knowledge from what you had seen
學識: knowledge; acquirements (n) = (learn/study + know) knowledge from what you had studied
常識: common sense; general knowledge(n) = (common + knowledge) knowledge that is common

They are all compound words that share the 識 component
It doesn't mean 見識 are abbreviations of 眼見/看見 and 認識/知識
It doesn't mean 常識 are abbreviations of 平常/通常 and 認識/知識


What is the translation for 淫之以色，啗之以利，養之以味，娛之以樂?

之 = third person pronoun (it/him/her)

以 = with or indicating an indirect object

Verb 之以 Noun = VERB him with NOUN

In context, 淫之以色，啗之以利，养之以味，娱之以乐 means (a very rough translation) "(sexually) seduce him with sexy (women), lure him with benefit, accustom him with delicious food and amuse him with (obscene) music". It is included in a strategy saying that if you want to destroy your enemy nation, you need to first deceive (as in making him unable to make right decisions) the king then attack the military for the betterment of people. The sentence is detailing (figuratively) how you deceive the leader of enemy nation.


Characters used to specify low/standard/medium/high quality/definition in video sharing websites

For streaming video, it is common to say:

低清 (under 480p = 480 horizontal lines)
標清 (DVD resolution: 480p/576p)
高清 (720p or above)

Downloadable videos are sometimes marked as "超高清", which may mean 1080p (or even 4K), or simply a high bitrate 720p encode having excellent quality.


Using "抱怨": I'm really skinny, but I'm not complaining

it is appropriate to use "抱怨" here. Your translation is also correct. But I think a better translation is "我真的很瘦，但我不是在抱怨" which more accurately reflect the tone of the English sentence.

(BTW that was from Google Translate)


恢复 usually means recovering from a state to the original state, almost always implies getting back to the normal and good state. It can be used abstract as well, such as people's mood or a certain feeling. Thus it is not necessary for describing physical things or conditions.

康复 is much more specific. It's always related to health since 康 can mean health in Chinese, meaning completely recovering from an illness. And it can be used to animals, but not plants(but if you are a writer and you're using personification, that's fine to use the word). Keep in mind that people don't really say 康复 from just a flu or a tooth pain which is not severe. People tend to use it more often on serious conditions like a surgery, especially that last long and require you to rest in bed. Although it makes perfect sense to say this word, it is pretty much in formal conversations or letters that I would be more likely to use it. When in a casual context that people know you're talking about the sickness, just say '好了' to mean 'recovered' and '好了吗？' to ask about if someone is recovered.


When to use "下一个" and when just "下一" to translate English "next"?

Noun phrases in many cases require classifiers (= measure words). 个 is the generic classifier, but you should use whichever classifier is appropriate. Note that 一 is usually elided from "下一个":

Next month = 下(一)个月
Next week = 下(一)个星期
The next book (e.g., imagine it's a series) = 下一本书
The next photo = 下一张照片

Some words are "their own measure word" in some sense. 天 is really the only one in this category that struck me as weird. The others are words that usually are measure words but occasionally stand on their own:

The next day = 下一天
The next (bus/train/subway) stop = 下一站
The next sheet = 下一张

One word I've encountered optionally takes a measure word: 小时. It's (normatively) correct to always use 个, but in some people's colloquial speech, it (like 天) acts "as its own measure word":

The next hour = 下个小时
Don't think I've heard "下小时", but I've definitely heard it sans-measure-word in other contexts, e.g., "还有三小时" (= Three hours to go!)


What do you term when swapping same characters [1] spawns and [2] doesn't spawn new meaning?

If you swap the two characters in a compound word, and the meaning changes, then it is just a different word that happens to use the same two characters, e.g. 中心 (center) and 心中 (in the heart) are two different words;
If you can swap the two characters in a compound word and the meaning remain the same, it indicates the compound word itself is made up of two characters that have the same or extremely similar meaning, e.g. 打擊 --> 擊打 (both 打 and 擊 contain the meaning of 'hit'); 拯救 -->救拯 (both 拯 and 救 contain the meaning of 'rescue'

擊打(v) is a (not commonly used) variant of 打擊(v)

救拯(v) is a (not commonly used) variant of 拯救(v)

識見(n) is a (not commonly used) variant of 見識(n)

見識(v) and 識見 (n) are two different words

澄清(v) and 清澄 (adj) are two different words

In olden time, people often use this kind of variant to showcase their literary knowledge and sound more classical. You have to know what compound words are made up of two characters that contain the same meaning to be able to do so. In modern time, you can often find them in song lyrics when the writer needs to make it rhythm


Is "girdling root" *really* 环根 in Chinese?

To be short, yes.

環根 is the roots growing around the tree trunk, with time, both the roots and the trunk would grow thicker, to the point when they pressure each other, causing the tree to grow weak and even wither. Here (PDF download) is a study done by Associate Professor Chang Chin Yu from Department of Landscape Architecture, Tunghai University. Sorry it's in traditional Chinese cause I'm from Taiwan (plus Tunghai University is in Taiwan). I believe Google translate can do the traditional-to-simplified work for you ;)


New Century E-C

fiduciary

  (of trust or trustee)

  受信托的；与受托人有关的

  They have a case against their directors for breach of fiduciary duty.

  他们掌握了足够的证据控告董事不履行信托责任。

negligence

  (civil wrong)

  过失(行为)；疏忽

  They tried to sue for negligence.

  他们试图就过失行为提起诉讼。

C&T Biz

negligence

  过失 guòshī

  negligence clause

  过失免责条款

  guòshī miǎnzé tiáokuǎn

  negligence liability insurance

  过失责任保险

  guòshī zérèn bǎoxiǎn

21st Century

negligence

  【法律】 过失的 [1300∼1350]


Chinese-Chinese dictionary definitions re-using characters from the word

带(lead) + 领(lead) = 带领: to lead

引(guide) + 导(guide) = 引导: " to guide"

领(lead)+ 导(guide) = 领导: "to lead and guide"

领导 contains the meanings of both  带领 and 引导, I don't see anything wrong with the definition using 带领 and 引导. Yes, both 带领 and 引导 repeated one character from 领导, but they are unique compound words on their own.

It is ok. as long as the dictionary doesn't use the exact compound word in the definition like 领导(v): 领导

It is unavoidable for many different compound words to have a common character among them, you have to look at the whole compound word instead of looking at the two characters individually

The examples below all contain '正' (correct, positive, straight, upright....) but each compound word containing '正' would have very different meaning to each others

正直 = honest
正確 = correct
正常 = normal

One more thing:

  领导(动)：带领并引导大家开展工作

The definition should just be: "带领并引导" (to lead and guide)

领导大家开展工作 would be a good example sentence


Converting @user3306356's comments into an answer here.

One possibility is 摎 | lau. This is reported by moedict and Minhakka as only 和/跟, but maybe it can be used (@user…) seems to think so) the way I asked for. He reported the following examples:

  工人用石鏨摎字刻在石碑頂。
  Kung-nyin yung shȧk-tshàm lau sìi khat tshoi shȧk-pi tang.
  工人用鑿石的工具把字刻在石碑上。
  Workers carve characters on steles with carving tools.

  今晡日下班以前，一定愛摎天光日開會个資料準備好勢。
  Kim-pu-nyit hà-pan yi-tshiên, yit-thin òi lau thien-kwong-nyit khoi-fù kài tsii-liàu cún-phì háu-shè.
  今天下班以前，一定要把明天開會的資料準備好。
  Before I stop working today, I will surely prepare the resources with which I'll attend a meeting tomorrow.

This use is confirmed by both the above-mentioned dictionaries for his "better bet" 將 | tsiong, which is used this way in Mandarin too.

I will ask confirmation from Hakka speakers on the Facebook group Hakka Verse about these usages.

Update

@user... commented on this answer with this, which has one of his example. Weird that the same dictionary giving this as an example for another word fails to mention the usage of lau in said example in the article about lau. Anyways, I guess that is confirmation of the usage. Hakka Verse hasn't responded yet.


The definitions of these two terms are quite different, clearly not interchangeable.
There is no difference between Cantonese and Mandarin for these terms

事件: event; occasion; happening

Example:
偷車事件 (car stealing occasion )
天安門事件 (Tiananmen Square event/ incident)
密室殺人事件 (the occasion/ happening of murder in a locked room )

事情: matter; affair; thing; business

Example:
事情就是這樣 (the  matters/ things are like this)
沒你的事情 (there are no business of yours)
這事情我管不了 (I can't deal with this affair)

事件 is something already completed
事情 can be something already happened or something that's on going.

Example:
事情到了這個地步 (things have got to this point)
我也不知事情再發展下去會什樣 (I don't know what will happen as the matter continue to develope)
You cannot say 事件到了這個地步 or 事件再發展下去, because a 事件 is something that had been completed.


How to express a date in Chinese (lunar) calendar?

You add "农历" (means old/lunar calendar) add the beginning, and the first month is called "正(zhēng)月". The last month is called "腊(là)月". Leap month (a whole month is added) is prefixed with "闰(rùn)". Other months are read just as in the calender used now. The 1st to the 10th day is prefixed with "初". Other date is read out just as you read out a number. "号" "日" or any other characters is never added after the date. When "正月" "初" is used, "农历" can be omitted.

  E.g.: The Spring Festival is on (农历)正月初一

  1.10 : (农历)正月初十

  8.15 : 农历八月十五

  For leap month: 闰四月初六

The last day of a year can be called "大年三十" or "年三十" (or sometimes simply "三十". This can be used no matter the month has 30 days or not). The first day of the year can be called "大年初一".

I'm not quite sure what will be used when a leap month is added after the first month. I would prefer "闰一月" instead of "闰正月", but not sure about the common practice. Also, it is unknown to me how to read the leap month added after the 12th month. It is rare, and the we don't often used the lunar calender now.


How to differentiate MacBook Air from MacBook Pro in Chinese?

It is okay to say Macbook Air in between Chinese, or you can say 苹果的Air电脑 or 苹果的Air系列电脑 if you must. More info:

It seems that mainland Chinese are adapting 电脑, but I want to point out both 電腦(traditional Chinese) and 计算机(simplified Chinese) means "computer". 電腦 is used everywhere while 计算机 is only for formal use in mainland China. (計算機/计算机 can mean "calculator" in other scenario, so 电子计算机/电脑 is used to differentiate.) (referecne)
Macintosh = 麦金塔电脑 or simply 麦金塔 in Mainland China. In HK, we called it Mac機. (reference) 苹果的电脑 only means computer from Apple.
Japanese have Katakana , but Chinese don't.
As you may know, in Chinese we say a laptop/notebook computer 筆記本電腦/笔记本电脑 but we do not translate the Air into 空
I don't know any nicknames for Macbook Air yet like iphone 爱疯 though.


What is the character with the greatest number of strokes?

1) 'biang'

Well, the first one that came to my mind is 'biang', as in 'biang biang mian' - which a quick Wikipedia search shows has 58 strokes. This is still in some use (and I've seen it in restaurants), if that means anything to you. It is not, however, found in dictionaries.

2) 'zhe'

Sadly however, biang doesn't have the most strokes (although I would argue it's the most complex) - Wikipedia has a page on complex characters as well, and according to them 'zhe' meaning verbosity was the most complex/has the most stroke orders - possibly the character you are referring to, as it is just 'long' times four:

3) 'zheng'

It also mentions 'zheng', another 64 stroke character meaning flourish, as being equally as complex:

The page on Wikipedia goes in to a lot more detail, so I suggest you check it out.

Hope this helps!


What is the difference between 走路, 行走, and 步行?

走路, 行走, and 步行 all mean 'walk'

走路 emphasizes the 'traveling a distance on foot' aspect. e.g. 走路去要十分鐘 (traveling on foot need 10 minutes)

行走 emphasizes the 'moving' aspect. e.g. 御前待衞可以在禁宮行走 (Royal guards could walk (move) around within the Forbidden City); 電動車充一次電祇能行走五十公里 (Electric vehicles can only run for (move) 50 kilometers on one charge)

步行 emphasizes 'the act of walking (use of legs/ by foot)' aspect. e.g. 病臥床上，不能步行 (sick on bed, can no longer walk)

If you walk a distance to a destination, you should use 走路 or 步行
If you are walking (moving around) in an area, you should use 行走
If you are doing the action of walking (a few steps attempt or a few miles travel) you should use 步行

More examples:

走路上京 (go to the capital on foot)

行走江湖 (traveling around the country)

步行健身 (walking for fitness)

You cannot say 行走上京，走路江湖， 步行江湖， 走路健身，行走健身

步行上京 (go to the capital by foot) is acceptable, but 上京 implies a long distance travel, it is better to use 走路 in this instance. Meanwhile 步行到街口 is better than 走路到街口


Simple answer:

Sinosplice

Tones In Chinese Songs

  I’ve been asked a number of times: if Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, what happens when you sing in Mandarin? Well, the answer is the melody takes over and the tones are ignored. Pretty simple.

A graphic representation of tones spoken vs. sung in Mandarin [also from Sinosplice]:

Sometimes, though I think, if you listen closely a lot of people are included to sing the tone even though they don't need to.


Is any simplified character also a traditional character?

There are plenty actually, mostly due to the merger of multiple traditional characters into one simplified character.  For example, the simplified character 后 maps to both traditional 后 (meaning 'queen') and 後 (meaning 'after' or 'behind').  Many of these mergers are listed in this Wikipedia article.


In English, we might say something quite similar:

  I can't think of who else [we] will have.

The context might be someone organizing a party.  (Note, the "we" here is grammatically required in English, but not part of the Chinese.)

So maybe it's easier to understand if it were broken down in the following way:

  我想不出还会有谁。
  I [我] can’t think [想不出] of who [谁] else [还] [we] will [会] have [有].
  I can't think of who else [we] will have.

And (depending on context) it might be more natural to translate it to something simple:

  I can’t think of anyone else.

There are other ways to translate "I can’t think of anyone else" into Chinese (e.g. 我想不出其他人), and which is appropriate depends on context.


打 in 打酱油 doesn't intrinsically mean "buy". In the last century, soy sauce was not sold in bottles as today. It was produced by the merchant himself, so you need to go to the shop and ladle it into your container from a big jar. 打 is for the action to lift liquid from a jar or well with long spoon / bucket etc. SO IT DOENSN'T MEAN “BUY” ELSEWHERE.


Does 神的存在是一个不以人们的主观意志为转移的客观事实 use the 以...为 grammar construct?

I think “为” is misused here. It could be clearer if remove 为 or replace it with "而". The meaning is just what @AurusHuang provided.


What's the difference between 一下子，一刹那，and 一时

一下子 = all of a sudden. e.g.  一下子不見了  gone all of a sudden
刹那 is a Buddhism term for a time unit. In one flick of a finger, 60 刹那 would pass
一刹那 = a very brief moment. e.g. 在一刹那間 (in the blink of an eye) = almost instantly
一时 = at the moment/ at the time. e.g. 一时找不到人选 (Can't find a candidate at the moment/ at the time)
一瞬間 (in the time of one glance), 一息間 (in the time of one breath) and 瞬息間 are the terms similar to 刹那間 (in the time of a 刹那). They can all be translated as "in the blink of an eye"


你知道我们为什么签京文旗下的嚎叫唱片吗

我们这个乐队叫隐藏

为什么叫这个名呢

我们以前什——任何人不知道我们

但是我们知道我们自己的能力在哪

那么我们本身——我们自己听音乐

我们自己什么音乐基础 什么音乐的意见都借鉴了

我们会作比较

别的东西跟我们的东西会作比较

我们会比出一个好坏

所以我们知道我们自己能力在哪儿

那 你知道你能力在哪儿以后 你有了信心以后

你就可以 完全地去 发展你自己的东西了

你不用顾忌太多

如果你 做一个音乐事儿 哎 我想有一万个人听我的音乐

那你这样你做不出来音乐

那你 如果你 第一你做音乐事儿

我*这音乐是我自己做的 我都不敢相信

在那个时候 那个就是艺术了


When should I use the 是...的 construction?

The answer is a modified citation of this awesome article: The 是 … 的 construction in Mandarin, credit of original article goes to Hugh Grigg (eastasiastudent.net). There are more links around this subject at the bottom of the original article.

That article and this answer are published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Note not everything with 是 and 的 is a '是 … 的 construction'. This answer speaks specifically to '是 … 的 construction' as that's what the question is about.

The 是 … 的 construction in Mandarin grammar is very useful to know. It’s used to emphasize a particular detail in a sentence.

The 是 … 的 construction picks out one of the following kinds of information:

time
manner
place

The structure is common and pretty easy to use and understand.

Forming a 是 … 的 sentence

是 is placed right before the piece of information you want to draw attention to, and 的 comes at the end of the sentence. Whatever comes immediately after 是 is emphasized. This is equivalent to saying “It was … that …” in English (although English often just uses tone of voice to emphasis).

Examples:

  她是昨天去的。Tā shì zuótiān qù de. It was yesterday that she went.

  我是跟我朋友出去的。Wǒ shì gēn wǒ péngyǒu chūqù de. It was my friends who I went out with.

  我是在北京学习中文的。Wǒ shì zài běijīng xuéxí zhōngwén de. It was in Beijing where I studied Chinese.

Emphasizing different parts of the sentence

是 can be placed at any one of three points in a sentence to draw attention to what comes after it. In the following sentence, for example,

  我上个星期五跟我女朋友在饭馆吃饭。Wǒ shàng gè xīngqíwǔ gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu zài fànguǎn chīfàn. Last Friday I ate dinner with my girlfriend in a restaurant.

Time, manner or place could be picked out with 是 … 的.

  我是上个星期五跟我女朋友在饭馆吃饭的。

  Wǒ shì shàng gè xīngqíwǔ gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu zài fànguǎn chīfàn de.

  It was last Friday that I ate dinner with my girlfriend in a restaurant.

  我上个星期五是跟我女朋友在饭馆吃饭的。

  Wǒ shàng gè xīngqí wǔ shì gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu zài fànguǎn chīfàn de.

  It was with my girlfriend that I ate dinner in a restaurant last Friday.

  我上个星期五跟我女朋友是在饭馆吃饭的。

  Wǒ shàng gè xīngqí wǔ gēn wǒ nǚ péngyǒu shì zài fànguǎn chīfàn de.

  It was in a restaurant that I ate dinner last Friday with my girlfriend.

Note how in English this involves rearranging all the elements of the sentence, but in Chinese their position is fixed. All that’s needed is to place 是 in front of the part to be emphasized, and 的 at the end of the sentence.

What you can emphasize with 是 … 的

Broadly speaking, the 是 … 的 construction emphasizes time, manner or place. This covers a lot of uses though. Here are some examples:

  我今天是开车上班的。
  Wǒ jīntiān shì kāichē shàngbān de.
  Today I came to work by car.

  我是用法文写这封信的。
  Wǒ shì yòng fǎwén xiě zhè fēng xìn de.
  I wrote this letter in French.

  他是在网上发现这个信息的。
  Tā shì zài wǎngshàng fāxiàn zhège xìnxī de.
  He found out this information online.

  那个故事是我爷爷告诉我的。
  Nàgè gùshì shì wǒ yéye gàosu wǒ de.
  It was my grandfather that told me that story.

  他是对我感兴趣的。
  Tā shì duì wǒ gǎn xìngqù de.
  He was interested in me.

You can draw attention to pretty much any information in the sentence using 是 … 的.

Forming questions with 是 … 的

You can also form questions with the 是 … 的 construction. This is done in the usual ways to form questions:

With 吗
With a question word
With verb / negative inversion

Examples:

  你那天是去伦敦的吗？
  Nǐ nèitiān shì qù lúndūn de ma?
  Did you go to London that day?

  他是给谁打电话的？
  Tā shì gěi shéi dǎ diànhuà de?
  Who was it that he phoned?

  我是不是五月出生的？
  Wǒ shì bù shì wǔ yuè chūshēng de?
  Was it in May that I was born?

Note that with the 吗 question, 吗 comes at the end of the sentence as usual, with 的 just before it (this is probably what you were expecting anyway).

The negative form of 是 … 的

是 … 的 is negated as you would expect, with 不. This is used to draw attention to the fact that something is not the case.

Examples:

  我们不是在巴黎认识的。
  Wǒmen búshì zài bālí rènshi de.
  It wasn’t in Paris that we met.

  我的钱包不是被他偷走的。
  Wǒ de qiánbāo búshì bèi tā tōu zǒu de.
  My wallet wasn’t stolen by him.

是 … 的 implies completion

Because 是 … 的 emphasizes the details around an action, there is an implication that the action has been completed (so that we can know the details). However, this is just an implication, and not the main function of this construction. 是 … 的 is used to draw attention to extra details of an action, not to indicate its completion. 了 should be used to mark completion.

Moving 的

Normally, 的 is placed at the end of the sentence in a 是 … 的 construction, and this is fine most of the time. However, it can also be placed before the object. The only time this is necessary is when the 是 … 的 construction would result in a sentence with another meaning to the one intended. For example:

  我是在网上卖衣服的。 Wǒ shì zài wǎngshàng mài yīfu de. I sell clothing online.

Rather than emphasizing that the clothes are sold online, this sentence ends up saying that the speaker is some sort of online clothing merchant. To avoid this misinterpretation, 的 can be placed before the object:

  我是在网上卖的衣服。 Wǒ shì zài wǎngshàng mài de yīfú. It was online that I sold
  the clothes.

Now the sentence has the intended meaning (that the speaker sold some clothes on Taobao or something). The sentence above about studying in Beijing is actually ambiguous for this reason:

  我是在北京学习中文的。 Wǒ shì zài běijīng xuéxí zhōngwén de. I studied Chinese in Beijing.

This could just as well be translated as “I am a Chinese learner in Beijing”, with no emphasis, in which case 的 functions as a particle that converts verb phrase (study Chinese) into attributive (Chinese studying (person)). To avoid this, 的 can be placed in front of the object:

  我是在北京学习的中文。 Wǒ shì zài běijīng xuéxí de zhōngwén. It was in Beijing
  that I studied Chinese.

Now the emphasis is clear.

This situation only comes up occasionally though, so most of the time it's fine to put 的 at the end of the sentence (although you often see it placed before the object anyway).

Omitting 是

One final thing to note is that sometimes 是 can actually be omitted and the structure is still valid. This can't happen all the time, though. If the subject is a demonstrative pronoun (这 or 那), you have to include 是. If the sentence is negative, you also need 是 (it would sound pretty strange without it). Otherwise, 是 can generally be omitted and the sentence is still valid.

If the sentence is complicated with many parts (e.g. time, manner and place) then 是 will need to be inserted to clarify what’s being emphasized.

Not everything with 是 and 的 is a 是 … 的 construction!

Remember that just because a sentence uses 是 and 的 doesn’t mean it’s emphasizing something. Far from it, in fact. 是 and 的 are a very common way to attach attributes to things. For example:

  这辆车是红色的。 Zhè liàng chē shì hóngsè de. This car is red.

The sentence above is not a 是 … 的 construction as described in this article. It's just a bog-standard descriptive sentence. The 是 … 的 construction emphasizes additional information about an action rather than just modifying things.

Summary

是 is placed before the part of the sentence you want to emphasize.
的 is nearly always placed at the end of the sentence. Sometimes it appears before the object.
All the usual question formations can be applied to 是 … 的 sentences.
是 … 的 is negated with 不.
是 … 的 implies completion of the action, but shouldn't be used to express this specifically.
是 can be omitted in some circumstances.


Can someone translate me this to english?

Probably the transliteration of a name like Micheala， Mikela
迈 mai
克 ke
拉 la

克拉 kela is the transliteration of carat, which for gold represents the purity of the gold. Maybe its the name of a store, or a joke "this is my gold bracelet".


As matter of fact, in my opinion, 不会下雨 is very good choice.

I tried to "directly" negate "要下雨了", but didn't find any way that is natural. The best I got is "不是要下雨了", which may be used to answer the question "是要下雨了吗？". It is simply a statement that "要下雨了" is not true, which may be "it won't rain", or "it is already raining heavily now", or something else.

Another way of saying it is "下不了雨", which means "it won't rain/it is not possible to rain".


Both "三更(gēng)半夜" and "深更(gēng)半夜" are correct. They are listed in most modern Chinese dictionaries. And "半夜三更" and "半夜深更" could also be used as there are no change in the meaning at all, although they may sound peculiar to some people, but they are totally correct to use. (Actually, in Chinese reverse such word constructions are widely used in many case to improve the variety of the text).

However, 三经半夜 is not valid or formal Chinese. 经 cannot be used to substitute 更 both in writing or in pronunciation in formal Chinese. However, it is widely used in speaking but it's widely believed to be a mispronunciation widely adopted. There are many similar cases that average Chinese use pronunciations which is not listed in dictionaries. You could say there is a gap between the speaking system and the writing system of Chinese. But those mismatches are normally minor and most of the time the meaning can be inferred from the context.

About 更

The essential meaning of the character is "Change"

It is also used as a time unit. In ancient China, a day is divided into 12 parts. Each part is called 时, thus it is equal to two hours. According to http://www.guoxue.com/?p=4025 in Han dynasty, there were five shifts during the night in the palace.

一更/头更：戌时　19:00 – 21:00
二更：亥时　21:00 – 23:00
三更：子时　23:00 – 01:00
四更：丑时　01:00 – 03:00
五更：寅时　03:00 – 05:00

So 更 actually means the change of shift originally.

Regarding the difference between 三更 and 深更, from the table above you can see 三更 is actually midnight. 深更 means deep in the night, so basically they are the same thing except 深更 could also be used to refer 四更 or 五更 literally. But when used in 成语 and in combination with 半夜, they don't mean the literal, exact time, they just mean late in the night or midnight in general. In the past, numbers in Chinese are often used figuratively rather than indicating the exact.


How do I say "did you see what happened?'

Your sentence along with others in answers are all correct.
The closest idiomatic one I can think of is 你刚才看到这里出什么事了(did you see what happen here just now). In practice, it can be shortened as: 这里出什么事了? or 出什么事了?.


企业: enterprise/corporation; business(only the organization, not the activity it engages in)

产业: industry; business(the activity but not the company/organization).

eg. 软件产业=software industry/business, 房地产(业)=real estate (business)

商业: commerce/commercial

eg. 商业(的)银行=commercial bank, 商业(的)软件=commercial software


What are the Hokkienese lyrics in the Wax Chattels song "Cede"?

The lyrics can be found as subtitles on the bottom of their music video for the song. It's a funny mix of Australian English spellings and traditional Chinese writings, so I've kept it as it is written in the video. I'm just not sure if the Chinese matches up 100% to the Hokkien because sometimes formal writing is used in places of colloquial readings.

Your
lies
are
not my life
your
censorship
isn't
ownership
我是誰呢
你不知道
胡作非為
你的宣傳
我的身份
我的事情
我的國旗
我的決定
Labour
camps
soft
power
hiding
history
your money reeks
我有尊嚴
我有本錢
我會成功
我會成功
我是誰呢
你不知道
胡作非為
你的宣傳
我的身份
我的事情
我的國旗
我的決定


How do you translate "could have been" sentences?

'could have been' basically means “本来可以” while 'would have been' means “本来会”. For example

He could have been there but there was an accident.
他本(来)可以到那里的，但是出了点意外。
He would have been a doctor if he wasn't hurt.
如果他没受伤，他本会成为一名医生。

Generally, hypotheses in Chinese include the character “本”, like “本来”, “本会”,“本能够”,“本应该”,“本可以”,“本可能”.
Well, there are several mistakes in Kevman's translation.

“妻子”

All his wife wanted was a peaceful life.

This should be

他的妻子只想要平静的生活。

'All his wife wanted' means “他的妻子只想要” rather than “他的妻子们”

“他们”

their lives could have been peaceful

This should be

他们本可以平静地生活着

'their' means “他们的”, because it refers to the man and his wife.
When it refers to people including male and female, it should be translated into “他们的”. Work the same for 'they', 'them' and 'themselves'.
The rest is just as Kevman said.
---------------divide-----------
For Kevman's translation is not shown, I will type the whole translation below.

All his wife wanted was a peaceful life. When he returned from the war, their lives could have been peaceful, but the government situation at that time prevented it.
他的妻子只希望过平静的生活。(但)在他从战场归来后，繁忙的政府公务没让他们过上本(来)该有的平静生活。

This translation is more natural but not formally same. That's why you see “本该有” rather than “本可以”。
One more thing, just as Jesse said, there is a precondition that if everything was like before.


Correct word to use for a suburban fence?

On the Hudong Baike page of 篱笆,

  又叫栅栏、护栏，用来保护院子的一种设施，一般都是由棍子、竹子、芦苇、灌木或者石头构成，在我国北方农村很常见。

That means, 篱笆 is a kind of facility to protect private yards, which is usually made of wood sticks, bambooes, reeds, shrubs or stones. It is common in rural areas in Northern China.

So 篱笆 should be the most correct word to describe a fence.

And 栏杆,

  栏杆是建筑物的楼、台、廊、梯等边沿处的围护构件，具有防护功能，兼起装饰作用。

So it's related to buildings (although it can be in other places, like a path in a mountain).

Google Translate translates 栏杆 into railing, not fence.

Update:

The measure word, well, maybe 一排篱笆 will work. But as a Chinese I can't remember any measure word that is special for 篱笆...