Difference between 那 vs 呢 and when to use it

哪:
1.
Question words. Ex:  Where is he?  他在哪兒？ , How do I know?、我哪兒知道？
2.
After the end of nasal rhyme. Same to 啊 . Ex: 天哪！  (天啊!)
3.
哪吒:A fairy in a Buddhist story. In the novel, there is a story that the broken bones return to the parents and appear as the parents. Or called 哪吒三太子.
呢:
1.Whispering. Metaphor the euphemistic voice. Ex: 細語呢喃
2.Auxiliary word.

2.1 Show the problem. Ex: What should I do? 我該怎麼辦呢?
2.2 Show confirm. Ex: It's still early! 時間還早得很呢！
2.3 The tone of the expression stops. Ex: Although your travel plan is very attractive, but! I don't want to go at all. 雖然你的計畫很吸引人，可是呢！我一點都不想去。

那:
1.Demonstrative pronouns. Ex: 那天、那本書
2.Tone words that express acceptance and transition. Ex: If you have something to do, then I will find someone to go. 如果你有事要忙，那我就找別人去


Is this Chinese? If so can you tell me what it says in english? Thank you

This is Chinese (and it's written in Simplified Chinese).

"苹果" means "apple"; and "帝国" means "Empire". The whole phrase could be translated as "The Apple Empire" or "The Empire of Apple" into English.


了 functions both as aspectual and modal particle, in the former case it occurs after the verb, in the latter at the end of the sentence. In images 1,3 the completed aspect of the action is referred to, in images 2,4 了 occurs at the end of the sentence to indicate a change（the emergence of a new situation, change in understanding, opinion,ideas, or action, express urging, advice or reminder (quotation from 外国人实用汉语语法)).
In fact in case of #2,4 it could occur twice： 我买了一本词典了，她买了药了 to indicate both aspect and change, but instead of using 了 twice (to indicate both aspect and mood (modal particle use)，it often
(usually, especially in the case of short sentences ?)
only occurs at the end of the sentence.


What kind of pen/brush do 水笔 and 签名笔 refer to?

圆珠笔 simply refers to ball pens. No questions there regardless of the dialect or personal usage preference.

签名笔 could be referring to gel ink pen in common sense. But for artists I highly doubt that. A good possibility is technical pens. I am an architect myself and this is essential for anyone who wants a clean drawing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_pen

水笔 is definitely not water color. It's a formal term for pen.


生、声、[省]、升、[胜]、圣、剩，[盛]、牲、绳、笙、甥、嵊、眚、乘、[昇]、晟、渑、㗂，呏，曻、泩、陞、鼪

  [省] as in 自省 (introspection) it is very meaningful as a name, but 省 can also mean province, may cause confusion

The following are very common single character names:

  [盛] as in 強盛 (powerful and prosperous)

  [胜] as in 胜利 (victory)

  [昇] as in 高昇 (rise high)

  升 and 陞 also mean rise, but as a name, 昇 is the most standard one

The following are questionable:

  牲 as in 牲口 (livestock) - very bad as a name

  剩 as in 剩余 (left-over; surplus; remaining) - not suitable as a name

  生 as in 生存(alive) 生命(life) - rare used in name because 生 is also a verb for give birth

  声 as in 声音(sound) - not very meaningful as a name

  圣 as in 神圣(holy) - too arrogant as a name

  甥 (nephew) - not suitable as a name

  乘 (ride)- not very meaningful as a name

  绳 (rope) - not common as a name

The following are obscure Chinese characters, not suitable as common names:

  嵊、晟、渑、㗂，呏，曻、泩、鼪


What measure word should I use when I have two nouns with different measure words?

In this case, a more correct way would be:

  你在动物园看了几只老虎和几匹马呀？

or

  你在动物园看了多少只老虎，多少匹马？

In colloquial speech, it might be ok to say:

  你在动物园看了多少个老虎和马呀？

or

  你在动物园看了几个老虎和马呀？


Usage of the word 欠 and 了 in 那我一分钱也不欠你的了

Sometimes it is hard to guess without looking at the full context.  However, one of the possibility of having 了 is to represent "I owed but no longer is".  "了" in many cases give a hint of something happens just now, which is different from the past.

e.g.

我不愛你了 vs 我不愛你

我不愛你了 actually means I used to love you, but now I don't love you anymore.
我不愛你 simply means I do not love you.

Similarly

我敢吃榴槤了 vs 我敢吃榴槤

我敢吃榴槤了 means I was not dare to eat durian but now I am.
我敢吃榴槤 simply means I am dare to eat durian.


What is the preferred relationship title for "my mother's mother's big brother's son"?

You can use '表舅', because he is your mother's '表哥'.

Basically I think there are three prefixes that you can add to relationship words: '亲' (directly/closely related, which is usually omitted), '堂', '表'. All your ancestors, siblings (that share at least father or mother with you), and descendant are '亲'. '堂' only refers to your father's brothers' children. In this way, your '堂' something should have the same family name with you (assuming all children using inherit their family names from their fathers). '表' is used for basically all other kins that have a common ancestor with you.


I had answered what is 干父母 here: How to translate "干妈","干爸/义父","干儿子/义子“?

  The concept of 乾媽 and 乾爹 in Chinese culture is almost the same as " godmother and godfather in Western countries

Since there are no equivalent terms of 干父母 in English, 'Godfather' and 'Godmother' would have to do.
As for '义父母', it is just another name for '养父母' (adoptive parents)

Strictly speaking, you should address your adoptive parents as 义父, 义母; But you can refer other people's adoptive parents as 'his 养父' or 'her 养母'.

In modern societies, adoptive parents enjoy the same status as actual parents. Most adopted children just address them as their parents, and only refer them as 义父母 or 养父母 to the third parties.

Step father and stepmother in Chinese are 继父/继母 or 后父/后母


How would I go about saying: "I am not at liberty to say" or "I am not at liberty to discuss"

“I am not at liberty to say” or “I am not at liberty to discuss”

(這個/ 這件事) 我不方便說 = (This/ on this topic,) I am not at liberty to talk

(這個/ 這件事) 我不方便討論 = (This/ on this topic,) I am not at liberty to discuss

'不方便' literally means 'not convenient'  (as an adverb, it means ‘cannot conveniently) - it implies 'cannot freely'. It is a polite way to refuse to make any comment


Is there a limited character set for European loanwords?

There're no such character set like Japanese katakana.
kana is a kind of phonography, but in Chinese only select similarly pronounced Hanzi(汉字) to transliterate loanword. Such as 沙发(sofa).

Of course there're some commonly used idiom for special English pronunciation.


What are the different words for "and" that can be used in a list and how do they differ?

used to connect words: 和; 與; 跟; 及; 以及;

和 can be used everywhere.
跟 is used in oral cases mostly.
與, 及, 以及 are used mostly in writing.

used to connect clauses or sentences: 並且; 而且


It just means: "for example" in English.


In 你把票放好, why is the complement 好 instead of 住?

Put your ticket away properly and don't lose it!

In order to interpret it properly, we should understand the English phrase "put away" correctly. I think this dictionary definition explains the sense of "put away" applied in this context well:

  If you put something away, you put it into the place where it is normally kept when it is not being used, for example, in a drawer.

In your context, "Put your ticket away properly" suggests that you should put your ticket in the place where you feel safe and comfortable to keep it. So, 放好 here makes more sense because it's indicating keep it properly. 拿住, however, denotes the sense holding it tightly preventing from dropping, which is a bit off from the context.

P.S. 住 in 抓住 denotes the sense of sustainability. 抓住 and 抓紧 are often interchangeable in most of contexts.


Should the second 你 in 你的身体会告诉你应该做什么 actually be 你你?

"你的身体会告诉你 (Your body will tell you) '你应该做什么' (what should you do)" is indeed grammatically correct. However, consider three '你' in one sentence, especially two '你' back to back just look weird.

A better writer would rephrase it to make reading easier, for example:  "你的身体会讓你知道 (your body will let you know) 你应该做什么 (what you should do)"

or

" '你应该做什么'(topic), 你的身体会告诉你(comment)"

Note:

"有人告诉你你很漂亮" (the first 你 is the object, the second 你 is the subject of the relative clause)

"父親告訴我我出生時的事" (the first 我 is the object, the second 我 is the subject of the relative clause)


「壹」or「一」is not pronounced yāo; this is an alternative word for the number one in certain circumstances, and is the most common spoken representation of one when talking about phone numbers.

The character for yāo is「幺」, which is the top part of the silk「糸」component. It originally represented a small amount of silk thread, extended to mean a small amount (cf. 幺麼 tiny/minute and 老幺 youngest child of a family), and further extended to be an alternative representation of the number one.


difference between two words for balance of account

余额 means credit balance, the amount of money remaining in your credit card account.

For 尾数, it usually means when you buy something which is not available yet, the shop may require you to pay some money first (deposit), when the goods available, you will need to pay the remaining amount of the price, that is 尾数.

So I think the 尾数 on your bill means the amount of money you not yet paid.


What is the most common word in use to describe 'DVD' and what is its measure word

I had always used guanng pan (光盘) with ge (个), however I am told that it would be better to use pan (盘) or zhang (张). DVD is commonly used as is die pian (碟片) with the measure word bu (部) or zhang (张).

According to my Chinese friend DVD is most commonly used.

You will also hear wu（五 or jiu（九）after DVD if you're in a shop to signify the type of DVD (DVD 5 or DVD 9).


Grammatically, "难道" is an indication of 反问句(a rhetorical negative question). The exact correspondence in English may differ depending on the context, but I will give some examples here:

  (难道)你不知道吗？
  > Don't you know it? (I thought that you knew it.)
  你(难道)不知道……吗？
  > Don't you know that ......
  (难道)你不明白吗？
  > Don't you understand?
  这难道不是真理吗？
  > Ain't that the truth?
  (难道)你今天不用上班吗？
  > Don't you have to work today?
  你不来吗？
  > Aren't you coming?

Personally, I believe it's sometimes better to put 难道 in the beginning, though most of the time, the order doesn't matter in spoken language.

Questioning with a negating particle 不(not) is a negative question itself. So basically they are the same in meaning.
The possible difference is: in the second question with 难道, the speaker believes more firmly that the listener should have known (the object), to the extent that he is/would be very surprised if the listener doesn't know anything. This may also be implied in the first sentence without 难道, again, depending on the context.


你不必下班后还忙着应酬，一身酒气回家，家人都睡了，我连句话也没人说。

  我连句话也没人说。

Means "I got nobody to talk with".


It is possible to analyse English intonation with Chinese tonal contours, a favourite topic of mine that tends to upset a lot of people who believe their language is not tonal. This remains controversial, but not so much for those working in voice recognition technologies who actually look at the data.

In this response I refer to the surface phonetic tone in square brackets [] as is customary in IPA (which I assume you're referring to but not explicitly stated in your question), and the underlying phonemic tone number (as in 平上去入) like this //.

The tonal contour [21] would appear in this English sentence on the word "for":

"What are you looking for?"

Just isolate that word "for" and repeat it over and over and feel the [21] on it. To a certain extent, this would be considered either /3rd/ or neutral tone in Mandarin, although neutral can manifest at different heights.

In the same sentence, we can also make "you" a [21] tone also, but you'd need to change the overall intonation:

"What are you looking for?!"

I would say [21] gets spread over "are you".

Both Cantonese and the Hokkien (Southern Min) variety I speak have [21], which is called a third tone in Hokkien, and I believe a /4th/ tone in Cantonese, although I think it starts a bit higher.

As for the rest of the sentence, I would label "what" as mid-rising [34], getting stretched out over four syllables "what are you look", and [2] on "-ing".

What3 are3 you3 look4 -ing2 for21?
*What*53 are2 you1 look4 -ing2 for21?!

Another tough tone would be [11] and you may feel like you'll get that confused with the [21] above. So I'll try to help. You can find this appearing on "what" in the following English sentence if you apply extra stress to the first word and say the sentence like a response to somebody else and not in an exclamatory way:

That's what I'd like to do.

Actually the [11] contour maintains through "what I'd like" with a slight rise of [23] on "do". I would say the word "that's" has a high rising [45] contour. Practise this first in English and try to isolate the words exactly as you normally say them and try to isolate the tone you're using. This will help you map between what you can naturally do in English (although depends on the variety of English you speak) and how to produce the tones right in Chinese every time. Here's my analysis of that sentence:

That's45 what1 I'd1 like1 to1 do23.

An alternative intonation for comparison:

That's34 what3 I'd3 like3 to4 do53!

(I'd prefer to put those numbers into ruby text, but I don't think the HTML here supports it).

This [11] appears in the Sixian Hakka variant I speak on the /2nd/ tone and in /1st/ tone sandhi followed by /2nd/ tone. I believe it also appears in Cantonese /6th/ tone (non-入聲 if you don't count to /9/), although that tone may have some dipping perhaps more akin to the [21] you mentioned above, I'll have to check my sources.

Good luck with training them. It takes time and patience. The better you get at this tone training, the more luck you'll have with many more languages, whether tonal or not. You'll hear so much more that's going on that most people were never aware even existed.


What is the difference between 情势, 局势, 形势, 情形, 情况 and 状况?

情势 (situation) = 情 (details) + 势 (formations /form)= the form and details

  you look at a situation as an object. The form of it tells you what kind of situation you are looking at.

  Example: 情势危急 (situation is critical) * the form and the details tells us the situation is critical

~

  局势 (situation) = 局面 (board surface)+ 势 (formations /form) = The formations on the board surface

  Metaphorizing a situation as a chess game. The formations of the chess pieces on the board tell us what is going on in the game (situation)

  Example: 局势危急 (situation is critical) * the formations on the chess board indicates the game(situation) is in a critical state

~

  形势(situation) = 形(shape) + 势(formations/ form) = shape and form

  a 'shape and form' description can apply to an actual object; or metaphorically, to a state of affairs.

  Example: 形势危急 (situation is critical) * the shape and form indicates the situation is in a critical state.

~

  情形 (situation) = 情(details)+ 形(shape)= shape and details

  shape and details forms a 'situation'.

  Example:看情形他不会来 (looks like he won't come)

  The thing that's being looked at is details of the situation, which indicate he won't come

~

  情况 (situation) = 情(details)+ 况(appearance) = appearance and details

  appearance and details = 'circumstance'(situation).

  Example:看情况决定 (make the decision depend on the situation)
  )

  see the appearance and situation then decide

~

  状况 (situation) = 状態(status) + 况 (appearance) = appearance and status

  'appearance and status' = 'condition' (situation).

  这状况不能持续 (this situation cannot be maintained)


Does pronouncing every word accurately make you sound less like a native speaker?

As a college student, I can easily pronounce every of them correctly. But as others point out, correctness on pronunciation doesn't mean nativeness, which represents itself more by word choice, tone, accent, fluency, etc. Another reason is, some of these "often misread" words are actually dialects prevailing in part of the land, but because of the standardization they are promoted to be the "correct" one, while people in other areas rarely use or refuse to use it. e.g.脖颈、掉色


In the videos, 精神小伙 (energetic young man) and 葬爱家族 (Clan of love burier) are the descriptions of the two rap artists who are doing a rap battle

精神小伙: 原指收拾的十分利落，看起来充满活力、很有精神的小伙子。现在几乎特指看起来很社会的土味小伙子 -- originally refers to a very neat looking and energetic young man. Now almost specifically refers to an earthy guy who looks very social

葬爱家族: 网络词语，葬爱家族是《劲舞团》中传出来的“网络组织”，好多玩家以杀马特造型示人，造型夸张，喜欢斗舞，并组成一个群体接纳另一个她(他)。现在大多指发型夸张，打扮狰狞且特立独行的反潮流的洗剪吹人士 (Nowadays, mostly refer to those who have exaggerated hairstyles and maverick anti-trend dresses)

Basically:

精神小伙 (Energetic young man) --> Earthy social young man

葬爱家族 (Clan of love burier) --> Anti-trend hair and fashion  style maverick


Glyph origin of 录. Is the original form 禄, 録, or 剥?

Is the original form 禄, 録, or 剥?

None of these - and I'm afraid that the chaziwang's description of glyph origins also doesn't look correct.
You have a minor interpretation issue in the question. The link actually says that 「彔」 is the original form of 「淥」 (to strain liquids), while it uses the character 「彔」 as a phonetic loan for 「祿」, not that 「彔」 becomes 「祿」.
The phonetic loan for 「祿」 explanation is plausible, while 「彔」 being the original form of 「淥」 is not supported in a graphical sense; oracle bones or Shāng bronzes did not have a component which is described as a bag that looked like the top of 「彔」.

時期字體
字形
參考資料

商甲

甲598合集28800

西周金

彔伯簋蓋集成4302

春秋金

□弔多父盤總8.4786

戰國・楚簡

28曾侯乙墓簡

戰國・楚簡

145反包山竹簡

戰國・楚璽印

214古璽彙編

Shape A

戰國・楚簡

魯穆公問7郭店楚簡

篆

彔部說文解字

楷

Shape B

東漢銅鏡銘文

吾作鏡

楷

「彔」 originally depicted a well-pulley with a container used for drawing water. The small dots around the bottom of the character represent drops of water, equivalent to 「氵」. The word that 「彔」 originally represented is now written as 「轆轤」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*roːɡ raː/). The meaning to carve wood for 「彔」 (/*b·roːɡ/) is a phonetic loan.

Later on, the well-pulley shape suffered egregious graphical corruption, eventually becoming the shape of 「彑」, while the drops of water turned into 「水・氺」.

References:

漢語多功能字庫
季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂字形演變
中國哲學書電子化計劃

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》

國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


My English is not good. This answer translated by Google Translate.

Nowadays these two words are mixed and there is no serious mistake. But here are some explanations.

趟

趟 is generally used for round trips in a specified time. Example:

  我今天去了兩趟超市。

  I went to the supermarket twice today

I went and came back twice. Now I'm home.

次

次 emphasizes number of travels and your experience from the trip. Example:

  我去過两次北京。

  I went to Beijing twice.

I just want to tell you that I have that trip.


Breaking a single line Chinese sentence into multiple lines for design purpose

In terms of grammar, Chinese also uses punctuation marks to delimit fragments and sentences, so a line break usually doesn't indicate a new sentence. The only hard rule is that most punctuation marks should not begin lines. Most word processing software should enforce this for you.
After this it's a stylistic question. It's true in Chinese, just as it is in English, that line breaks introduces a pause. It's an effect that poetry often takes advantage of. Usually it's bad to pause in the middle of a word, and since Chinese words are made up of one to many characters, you need someone that understands Chinese to identify the words and avoid breaking them. In your example sentence, they are:

用户 - 的 - 肌肤 - 变得 - 更 - 亮白

Line breaks emphasise the first word of a line, so maybe you want to do it to emphasise certain words. This emphasises the "becomes":

用户的肌肤
变得更亮白

This emphasises the "more"

用户的肌肤变得
更亮白

Or you can really overdo the line breaks and make it seem like shouting

用户的肌肤变得
更!
亮!
白!

But really, these are all design decisions, which don't occur in a vacuum. You need to go back to your client and ask what they would like. Maybe they value the shape of the text, even if it means breaking in the middle of a word. Maybe they don't want line breaks at all, even if the text must be resized. Maybe they just don't care.


Is 青少年自殺越來越嚴重這問題完全失控 grammatically correct?

[1/青少年] [2/自殺] [3/越來越] [4/嚴重] [5/這問題] [6/完全] [7/失控]。

[1/Young people] [2/commit suicide] [3/became more and more] [4/serious] [5/this problem] [6/completely] [7/out of control]。

The phrase "自殺越來越嚴重" (commit suicide become more and more serious)  itself is awkward, because commit suicide is a verb phrase; 嚴重 is an adjective. Adjective cannot modify verb.

The correct phrasing is:

[1/青少年][2/自殺][3/這問題][4/越來越][5/嚴重],[6/已經][7/完全失控]。

[1/Young people][2/commit suicide][3/this problem of][4/become more and more ][5/serious],[6/already][7/out of control]。

notice:

[1/Young people] [2/commit suicide] [3/this problem of]

"** problem**" is the head noun,  "young people suicide" is the relative clause. In English grammar, the head noun is placed in front of the relative clause like so: "This problem of young people commit suicide" but in Chinese grammar, the head noun is placed after the relative clause like so: "青少年自殺這問題"

已經 (already)ties " this problem of young people commit suicide" to the follow up statement " completely out of control" together.

if you don't add 已經. the sentence will be split in two.

青少年自殺這問題越來越嚴重. (這問題)完全失控。

-subject (這問題), is omitted, because it is stated in the previous related sentence.

A final grammatically correct edition would be:

"青少年自殺這問題越來越嚴重, 已經完全失控。

" This problem of young people commit suicide became more and more serious, already out of control."


What are some ways that I can be self-deprecating about my Chinese speaking ability?

You can try the following sentences which demonstrate humility:

不好意思，我的中文水平尚浅，有待跟您多多学习。
Sorry, my Chinese language skill is still shallow, there is still a lot to learn from you.
我的中文只不过马马虎虎而已，请您多多包涵。
My Chinese is just so-so only, please bear with me.
我的中文说得不好，请别见怪。
I am not good at speaking Mandarin, hope you don't mind.

If someone is praising your language ability, you can express in the following manners immediately after the compliments:

哪里，哪里... (Nah, you think too highly of me...)
您过奖了。 (You flatter me.)


What are the differences between 锻炼 and 运动 for "exercise", "work out", "train", etc?

运动 means "to exercise" or "to work out" . It is basically a method of strengthening one's muscles through body movements, to gain power and  or improve endurance in sport.  It can also just for keeping one's body healthy and fit.

锻炼 means "to train" or "to practice" . It refers to "improve skill and ability through training and practicing" It can apply to any thing that require skill and physical ability. For example, you can 锻炼 your language skill, chess playing skill or  your eye sight.  运动 is one of a methods for someone to 锻炼 his physical ability.

运动 as a verb can be used without object. e.g. "you need to exercise more" (你需要多运动)
锻炼 as a verb usually be used with object. e.g. "you need to train your hand eye coordination more (你需要多锻炼你的手眼协调)


Difference between 孩子 and 儿童 (and 孩童，少儿，...)

In most cases, they are not interchangeable. In my experience, "儿童" emphasizes on age, but "孩子" emphasizes on relationship.

When you are talking about a part of the population, "儿童" is more formal and can be used with other words to make phrases. Therefore, in the following occasions you only use "儿童":

儿童医院
儿童乐园
童工
适龄儿童

"孩子" is informal when you talk about that population and is seldom used with other words. The only case I can think about is "孩子们". You cannot say "孩子医院". HOWEVER, it is the most commonly used word to indicate relationship, i.e. "我的孩子" for "my child(ren)". You cannot say "我的儿童".

By the way, for people in their 50s, they can call all people younger than (approximately) 25 "孩子们", but someone at his age of 20 is definitely not "儿童". That's why I say "孩子" emphasizes on relationship.

From a translation perspective, "儿童" can be translated into "kid", "infant", "child"; "孩子" mostly means "child". The meanings and usage of these two words are not strictly corresponding to those English words so be careful.

"少儿" is "teen", and usually only refers to that group of people (i.e. "teens"). It is kind of different...


well, verism, do you want:

"name of a stand-alone project, concerned with creative writing"

"translated in a much wider, literary sense;
 the art of creative writing as a whole"

"writing well - giving literary form to ideas,
 refining structure, and creative flair"

in general, "creative writing" would be translated as "創意寫作", clearly, it's not creative enough

at this moment, i would suggest "創翰作坊" as the name of your project.

坊, or 作坊 is workshop; while "創作" is creation. "翰" has several meanings: brush pen, writing, . . .

so, may i ask the importance of a translation of "brush stroke order", and why you prefer cantonese? it's possible that a more "creative" term would be made, with more information.

info added.

so, this time maybe "揸筆創撰"

"揸" is take up with fingers, "筆" is pen; "揸筆" is a cantonese term for "holding a pen".

"創" is creat, a hint of creative,"撰" is "to write, or, talent".

there're characters for "write", i choose this one for "out of the box" feel; and, for the "balance" of the cantonese pronunciation.

have fun :)


Judging from the context you may have made a typo. It should be 饯行. 饯行 means to set up a feast to send away someone who is travelling to a place far away. 践行 on the other hand, means to practice, and should not be used here.


Tone of 竟 and 境 in Mandarin and Cantonese

As your linked table indicates, the Middle Chinese 陰上 tone generally corresponds to Cantonese tone 2 and Mandarin tone 3, so it is indeed curious that you see both words having tone 4 in Mandarin, which typically corresponds to Middle Chinese 去 tones or 陽上 tones where the syllable onset is an obstruent (全濁聲母).

Looking up the characters in the Kangxi Dictionary 《康熙字典》 appears to hint at a possible explanation:

  竟

  【廣韻】【韻會】【正韻】居慶切，音敬。窮也，終也。

  From the Guangyun, Yunhui, and Zhengyun: Initial of 居; final and tone of 慶; pronounced 敬. Means limit, final.

  【集韻】舉影切，音景。與境同，界也。

  From the Jiyun: Initial of 舉; final and tone of 影; pronounced 景. Means the same as 境, boundary.

  境

  【唐韻】【正韻】居影切。

  From the Tangyun and Zhengyun: Initial of 居; final and tone of 影.

  【集韻】【韻會】舉影切，音景。

  From the Jiyun and Yunhui: Initial of 舉; final and tone of 影; and pronounced 景.

  [BTW, if you're wondering what  is, it's a variant of 並.]

The entry for 境 indicates that it has a 上 tone (since 影 and 景 both have 上 tones), as expected; however, it also indicates that the pronunciation of 竟 in its primary meaning has a 去 tone (since 慶 and 敬 both have 去 tones).  Only when 竟 is used as a substitute for 境 is it pronounced with a 上 tone.

From this, we should expect that 竟 is pronounced ging3 in Cantonese and jing4 in Mandarin and that 境 is pronounced ging2 in Cantonese and jing3 in Mandarin; however, because 竟 can be used as a substitute for 境, perhaps their tones ended up getting mixed up, with Cantonese settling on ging2 and Mandarin settling on jing4 for both characters?  This is purely speculation on my part, but I haven't found any other sources that explain this.


二十分钟后 = "20 minutes later" or "after 20 minutes"

Example:

二十分钟后就到了 (will arrive 20 minutes later/ will arrive after 20 minutes)

二十分钟前 = "20 minutes earlier" or " 20 minutes before"

二十分钟內 = "in 20 minutes"


(Expanding my comment into an answer)

When discussing phonology of Chinese relative to English (or some other language), there are a couple important things to keep in mind:

Sounds (which we try to represent unambiguously with IPA notation) are not the same as letters. The letter "t" in American English can correspond to several different sounds. For example, the "t"s in each of the following words would all be written differently in IPA: "tea", "steam", "beat", and "butter". Perhaps you would consider the "t" in "tea" to be the prototypical "t" sound. How is it written in IPA? Not as [t]! It's actually [tʰ]!
IPA makes a 3-way distinction regarding voicing and aspiration. Some stops are truly voiced (in the sense of having vocal chords vibrating before the stop is even released). For instance [d]. There are unvoiced-unaspirated stops, where the vibration-start and the release are more-or-less simultaneous (e.g., [t]). And there are unvoiced-aspirated stops, where a puff of air comes out after the stop has been released and before the vibration of the vocal chords starts (e.g., [tʰ]).

Chinese, English, and French all make different two way distinctions in voicing/aspiration.

Chinese distinguishes [tʰ] and [t]. [d] is never produced but "sounds like" [t] to a Chinese listener.
French (and Japanese, for that matter) distinguishes [t] and [d]. [tʰ] is never produced but "sounds like" [t] to a French listener.
English distinguishes [tʰ] and [d]. [t] is never produced (in isolation at the front of a syllable, anyway), but (on its own), it "sounds like" [d]. However, for English speakers listening to someone who makes a [t/d] distinction (e.g., someone with a strong French accent), the [t] usually sounds like a [tʰ].

If you are unaware of the above, or you ignore it, it will be very confusing discussing the sounds in Chinese vs those in English. Here is my summary of how "z" and "c" sound, given the above:

Pinyin "z" is pronounced [ts] by Chinese speakers. If English is your native language, you are likely going to perceive it as sounding like [dz]. If you also pronounce it as [dz], that will probably "sound like" [ts] to Chinese listeners, so there won't be any miscommunication.
Pinyin "c" is pronounced [tsʰ] by Chinese speakers. If English is your native language, you will likely hear it as [tsʰ]. Note that the letters "ts" in English--for instance, in the word "tsar", assuming you attempt to pronounce the t in there--are pronounced [tsʰ]! "ts" is not pronounced [ts]!


How to ask "Can you still speak Chinese?" in Chinese Mandarin?

"你还能说中文吗?" = "Can you still speak English?" (have the ability/ able to to speak Chinese)
"你还可说中文吗?" =  "Can you still speak Chinese?" (allowed to speak Chinese)
"你还会说中文吗?" =  1. "Can you still speak Chinese?" (know how to speak Chinese) 2. "Would you still speak Chinese?" (willing to/ would speak Chinese)
Although 会 can mean 'know how to' or 'would', "你还会说中文吗?" is still the most native way to say "Can you still speak Chinese", and "你还能说中文吗?" is also grammatical


How can I translate "To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting"?

This sentence construction has roots in Common Law, and indeed some care should be taken when translating it in full. For example, one of the answers in the ELU link notes that these presents is a legal term for "this document".

As for the phrase itself, Chinese Wikipedia has a handy footnote about the phrase:

  这两句都有两个to而且合乎文法，关系代名词whom前面写to是老式文法，现代英文关系代名词一般直接接在all后面，to移至动词come后方，“To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting”即“To all whom these presents shall come to, Greeting”，come to意为‘涉及’，presents意为‘文件’，“To all whom these presents shall come to, Greeting”意为‘致本文件所涉及之诸位，各位好：’；‘致本文件相关各方，大家好：’

So you can translate using:

致本文件所涉及之诸位，各位好
or
致本文件相关各方，大家好


Does 好 mean "it's better to" or "in order to" in complex sentences? E.g. 今天天气不好，咱们好留在家

There are some errors about your sentences:

1)今天天气不好，咱们好留在家 could be: 今天天气不好，咱们最好留在家.

2)你要支持治病，好早一点恢复健康 could be: 你要配合治疗，好早一点恢复健康。 支持治病 sounds odd.


時期字體
字形
參考資料

西周金

虢季子白盤集成10173

春秋金

陳公叔父甗集成947

戰國・楚簡

4包山竹簡

戰國・楚簡

036信陽書簡

秦簡

24.28睡虎地秦簡

東漢隸

孔宙碑

楷

「是」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*[d]eʔ/) is comprised of phonetic 「止」 (/*tə/), which is the lower component. The earliest meaning of 「是」 was this, later extended to mean to be.
The upper component's functionality is unknown, and was later corrupted to look like 「旦」. Note that 「旦」 or 「早」 in the corresponding time periods do not form part of 「是」, and so are unrelated to 「是」.


The example you have quoted is fairly standard "translated text". You can tell it by the usage of attributive clauses, e.g. "...1994年南非结束白人少数统治后出生的...". In natual Chinese, there's no such kind of clauses and hence sentences are usually short. However in translation you have to be faithful to the original context, therefore many English grammar got awkwardly translated into Chinese. Since Chinese has been heavyly affected by huge amount of translated text in last decades, people started to get used to these awkward grammar. Still, it is recommended to avoid it. I recall there's a term coined for it, "translationese".


Is the pronoun 大家 (everybody) a subject only?

While 大家 means 'everyone', it refers to 'everyone' in a group of people that is implied in the sentence, or everyone in close proximity

佢哋唔鍾意大家

大家 in this case implies everyone within the group of '佢哋', which is essentially 'each other'. Also this sentence sounds perfectly natural, I hear this a lot when people are referring to couples who don't actually like each other

大家好

大家 here refers to everyone that you are speaking to, basically 'hey everyone'

大家都唔鍾意佢哋

There is an implicit subgroup '大家' where everyone in that group or everyone here dislikes 佢哋, 'everyone (here) dislikes them'

大家咁話啦

'You too', 'same'

大家 can definitely be used for 'each other', however it is not the only usage, and there is not a direct one to one translation for 大家 in english.

In other special cases, for 'each other' / 'one another' you could use:

'彼此'相愛

to love each other

'互相'鼓勵

to encourage each other

'自相'殘殺

to hurt and fight each other


What are the differences in usage and nuances between 现在，正在 and 还在？

现在: Now

A: 你现在在干什么？: What are you doing now?

正在: Currently

B: 我正在做作业。: I am doing homework.

正在is this sentence can be translated to doing something at this particular moment, in English you just add ing at the end for currently doing something, but in Chinese you don't have this, so you use 正在 to express doing something now. 我正在做...becomes "I am doing...", or 我正在读...becomes "I am reading..."

还在: Still

A: 你怎么还在做作业呀!: You are still doing homework?

还pronounced "hai" instead of "huan" in this sentence means still doing something.

还在看书：Still reading, 还在这里: Still here...

Also to mention, 还 can also be pronounced "huan", as in 还钱: Pay debt, 还给我: Give it back, it means to return something, but that's a different context itself.

I guess to make it clearer, sometimes you don't really need to add 现在 or 正在，you just say "你在干什么？What are you doing?", or "我在做作业。I am doing homework.", it sounds more friendly like when you are talking to a friend. 你现在在干什么？sounds more like when your boss or teacher would ask haha.


Use of written Chinese in spoken context

Hong Kong officially uses Standard Written Chinese as the written language, but in reality all shades of writing fall on the Saam kap dai spectrum, which combines Classical Chinese, Standard Written Chinese, and Written Cantonese into one piece of writing.

The relative proportions of those styles are changed depending on the tone the author wishes to set. Increased use of Classical expressions variously give off a literary/archaic/learned impression, increased use of Standard Written Chinese give off a proper/stiff/formal/serious impression, and increased use of Written Cantonese give off a casual/informal/relaxed impression. For example,

News items may largely use Standard Written Chinese but occasionally inject a few Cantonese expressions;
Gossip magazines will largely use Written Cantonese but occasionally inject expressions from Standard Written Chinese and/or Literary Chinese

Song lyrics are written first then sung exactly how they are written, not spoken on-the-fly, so it is probably worth looking at it from a saam kap dai spectrum point of view.


"学大汉，武立国"? Is it not "国立武汉大学"？

It is some kind of wordplay, using '回文句' and '拆句'

回文句 is a text you can read from both ends

拆句 is changing the word groupings in a sentence and read it in different way

From http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b8db2710102wvw6.html

Sample of 回文诗 (reversible poem):
Reading from one end:

园林杏叶落初秋，眨眼星悬半月勾
In the garden, apricot leaves fall in early autumn, in the blink of eyes, stars are hanging in the sky and the moon is half hooked.

Reading from the other end:

勾月半悬星眼眨，秋初落叶杏林园
Hooked moon hanging in the middle of the sky and the stars are blinking, in early autumn, there are falling leaves in the apricot garden.

Sample of 拆句 (words breaking):
下雨天留客，天留人不留。 (It rains because the heaven wants to keep the guest from leaving; However, the host doesn't want to keep the guest even the heaven does)
下雨天，留客天，留人不? 留! (Rainy day, a day to keep the guest from leaving, do you keep the guest here? Yes I do!)
"国立 武汉大学" (Wuhan University) read backward is "学大汉武立国" which doesn't make much sense if you read it as "学大 汉武立国" , but it make sense if you break it up the right way as "学大汉, 武立国" (Learning from the Great Han Dynasty and establish the nation with military might)
Simply put, you can read "国立武汉大学" backward and rearrange the characters grouping to make it mean something else -- for fun
Chinese poets are so clever with wordplay


What does this tattoo mean in English? (Character identified: 真)

As an adjective, it means something that is true, real, very.

For example,

真好!： Really good!

真的吗？ ：Is that true?

真理： The truth

真舒服： Very comfortable!

真实情况： The actual situation.

Here are some helpful link:
http://www.trainchinese.com/v2/wordDetails.php?rAp=0&wordId=3619
https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=%E7%9C%9F
http://dictionary.pinpinchinese.com/definitions/s/真-zhen


Wikipedia describes Jiangnan as:

Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (Chinese: 江南; pinyin: Jiāngnán; formerly romanized Kiang-nan, literally "South of the River" meaning "South of the Yangtze") is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta. The region encompasses the city of Shanghai, the southern part of Jiangsu Province, the southeastern part of Anhui Province, the northern part of Jiangxi Province and the northern part of Zhejiang Province. The most important cities in the area include Anqing, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Wenzhou, and Zhenjiang.


Can bù (不) change its pronunciation to bú?

The rule about sandhi of 不 is:

It's pronounced in the original tone (the 4th tone) when being used alone or at the end.

规律一:单念或末尾时念本调。
不、就不、毫不、决不、都不、无不、何不、我偏不

It's pronounced in the 2nd tone when being used before a 4th tone.

规律二：去声前念阳平。
不对、不算、不便、不怕、不必、不屑  不怕、不当、不定、不动、不利、不顺

It's pronounced in the 4th tone when being used before a tone other than the 4th tone.

规律三：非去声前念去声。
不听、不悲、不分、不蒙、不穿、不飞 不同、不曾、不行、 不纯、不回、不白  不美、不想、不好、不许、不准、不满

It's pronounced in the neutral tone when being used in the middle of words.

规律四：夹在词语中间变轻声。
想不开、起不来、行不行、大不了、对不起、大不大、谈不谈、拿不动、好不好、打不开


What is the difference between 不由得 and 不得不?

不得不 = no choice but

不由得 = can't help (e.g. myself)

Example:

不得不屈服 no choice but yield
不由得怀疑我的眼睛 can't help doubting my eyes
(不由得 can be replaced with 不由自主地 in this example)

  At least 不由得 and 由不得 are the synonym

Actually they are two different things

不由得 = can't help (e.g. myself); 由不得 = not up to (e.g. you)

Example:

不由得怀疑 = can't help suspecting (不由得 synonym 不禁)

由不得你作主 = it is not up to you to decide (由不得 synonym 不到)

由不得我选择 = it is not up to me to choose (由不得 synonym 不到)


How do you use the phrase 留宿 （liu2su4） （i.e. “To stay over at someone's house")

Yeah it's kind of formal and "old-fashioned".

Expressing 今天我打算在李雷家留宿 more naturally can be 今天我打算住李雷家 or 今晚我打算住李雷家.

今天 in this sentence implicitly means 今晚 (tonight).


Unusual looking characters at a temple in Hong Kong?

一生補處

故“一生補處”，乃階地不退轉，功德不斷增長至成佛道之意。
Therefore 'one life make up' means 'accumulate your good deed and merit in this stage (alive as a human) of existence, and eventually achieve enlightenment'


A more direct translation for "I [verb] [x] more than [y]"

There is a very direct translation.

If "more than" means higher degree/level of the [verb], then I [verb] [x] more than [y] can be translated to 我 [verb] [x] 甚于 [verb] [y].

I [verb] [x] more than [y]. 我 [verb] [x] 甚于 [verb] [y].
I love you more than my phone. 我 爱 你 甚于 爱 我的手机.

甚于 means "surpass, exceed", indicating the degree/level of the [verb].

If "more than" means a larger number/amount, then 甚于 should be replaced with 多于.

I play basketball more than football. 我 玩(打) 篮球 多于 玩(踢) 足球.

You may notice that the verb appeared twice in the Chinese translation. The second verb is there to avoid ambiguity. There is no case(grammar) in Chinese. A pronoun is always in the same form whether it's accusative case or nominative case. If you say

我爱你甚于他

then I don't know whether you mean

I love you more than he does. 我比他更爱你

or

I love you more than him. 我爱你甚于爱他.

If you are sure no ambiguity will be introduced, then you can leave out the second verb. As in

我爱你甚于我的手机.

There is only one reasonable interpretation, that is

I love you more than my phone.

No one will interpret it as

I love you more than my phone does. 我比我的手机更爱你.

In this case, the second verb can, but doesn't have to, be left out. It's always OK to specify the second verb.


得-adverbs are a type of complement (補語). They

modify verbs or adjectives;
by definition follow the word to be modified; and
can be made out of various syntactical items (i.e., not necessarily a simple adjective like 好).

This website provides four examples (interrogative pronoun, adjectival phrase, verbal phrase, and topic-comment phrase respectively) to illustrate the third point:

休息得怎麼樣？（代詞）How are you resting?
做得挺好（形容詞性詞語）(You) did rather well.
凍得直哆嗦（動詞性詞語）(I was) so cold that I trembled.
高興得大家又唱又跳（主謂詞組）Everyone was so elated that they sang and danced.

Regarding negative sentences (your second example), the logic in Chinese is slightly different from that in English: 不 is treated somehow like an adverb that closely modifies the adjective when negating it. So it goes into the 得-phrase, not the other way round:

她說得不好。(lit. She speaks not well.)
*她不說得好。

While your third example is grammatical (i.e. you violated nothing regarding 得-constructions), it does not sound right (so this is not a problem of grammar but of word choice). Mostly because 那麼 does not exactly mean 'so' – a closer English approximate is the adverb 'that'.

i. 她說得不那麼好。 She doesn't speak that well.
ii. 她說得那麼好嗎？ Does she speak that well?
iii. 既然她說得那麼好，你就選她當司儀吧。 Since she speaks that well, why don't you choose her as the emcee?
iv. ?她說得那麼好。 ?She speaks that well.

Usually there is a hidden reference when we use 那麼. In i., she does not speak that well when compared to the standard you expect her to speak with. In ii., the asker is doubting if she really speaks that well, presumably after hearing what others say about her speaking. In iii., she speaks with such a standard that she qualifies to become an emcee. In iv., however, there is no suitable context to justify the use of 那麼.

Your observation on 很 in 得-phrases is alright. There is nothing to fault in your explanation for your fourth example.

Just a minor point: you may hear people exclaim 說得好！ ('Well said!') or have come across the phrase 俗話說得好 ('as the saying goes', lit. folk saying says it well). They usually don't include 很. There is generality in these sentences (so they are, in Zhu Dexi's terms, type I constructions, as per my second point here).


When should I use "很" before an adjective?

Yes.It is common for "很" to be used before both monosyllabic and disyllabic adj. But when these types of adj./adv. are used, the front "是"are always omitted. For example，我很优秀（I am excelent）, 我的国家很强大（My country is powerful). This mechanism covers most  of the context. But you may use 我是很优秀，or 我的国家是很强大。It is not grammatically incorrect,but you will hold a tone of sarcasm (or at least a serious tone),so there's smaller chance to use this format .

When the speaker uses 我是很好,我是很优秀 or 我的国家是很强大。He/She wants to express the determined tone to the recipient,in which he/she consolidates his/her authority,or against others' questioning for the most of the cases. In other words,he/she is boasting or even be conceited about the advantages of his/her or his/her contry.


"本事" is ability or skill.
However, "没本事开门" does not literal mean that she "does not have the ability to open the door". Considering the context, it is more like she "does not have other abilities (social power, combat power?) to make her courageous enough to open the door" (for the aggressive visitor), i.e., she "dares not open the door".
Considering the phrase is often used in sentences like somebody "有本事" do something "呀": This sentence is an aggressive taunt or provocation, so a more relative English expression is "dare".
有本事你就打呀！ -- Hit me if you dare!


What is the difference between 敬仰 and 瞧得起

'敬仰' means 'respect and admire' ; 'look up to'.
If you say that you 敬仰 someone, you are humbling yourself.
'瞧得起‘  means 'consider worthy'
If you say you 瞧得起 someone, you are putting yourself in the position of judging that someone's worthiness (and in the position of granting favors to him or her) ;  you thanks someone for 瞧得起你 (consider you worthy) to show your humbleness.

因为他是你弟弟，当然他瞧得起你
... why '瞧得起’ is unfriendly, derogatory.

It is not unfriendly or derogatory, just improper in certain situations. It is perfectly acceptable to say: "your boss promotes you because he 瞧得起你". It is also fine to say: " A big movie star 瞧得起你 because he invited you to his party."
A younger brother is not in the position of judging his older brother's worthiness. Therefore, 瞧得起 is an improper term to be used in this instance.
Even for an older brother, it is still not right to say someone 瞧得起 his younger brother-- Brothers are expected to consider each others worthy by default.
Side notes:
敬仰 = 尊敬(respect)+ 仰慕(admire)
The opposite of 瞧得起 (consider worthy/ look favorably upon) is 瞧不起 (consider not worthy/ look down upon)


我想你因該看得懂我寫的中文

三聲無奈的意思是表示「喊了3次無奈」表示非常的無可奈何(3次並不是準確的數字只是代表很多,一個複數的概念)

參考資料：
http://yifertw.blogspot.tw/2010/10/blog-post_01.html

讀中文的詩歌呢，重點不是字義（字面上的意思）：重點在於意境（作者想傳達的感情）。

I think you should read and understand the Chinese I've written.

三聲無奈 means:

  I shouted "helpless" three times

and shows extreme helplessness (three times is also not a precise number, it's just to mean a lot, a plural concept).

I reference you to this resource:
http://yifertw.blogspot.tw/2010/10/blog-post_01.html

Reading Chinese songs, the focal point is not the meaning of the characters. The focal point is on the artistic conception (the feeling the author wanted to convey).


Is there a chart of all possible Chinese syllables using Hanzi?

我 should be 哦, in the -o group: o, bo, po, mo, fo, lo. It is conflated with the -uo group: wo, duo, tuo, nuo, luo, guo, kuo, huo, zhuo, chuo, shuo, ruo, zuo, cuo, suo.

The -i group is also missing: zhi, chi, shi, ri, zi, ci, si (different from yi, bi, pi etc.). Back to the drawing table. And don't neglect the tones.

Has it been done before? Yes:

  (source)

and

  (source)

and  etc.


negative of 将会 = 将不会 negative of 将。。。 = 将不。。。

  将在这里举行
  将不在这里举行

  将做详细说明 将不做详细说明


Why in the multiplication table, different characters such as 如，得，歸，中 are used?

九因歌 using synonyms words instead of using one character universally is to make it 押韻 rhyme better, easier for children to 'sing' to remember it better
如 = as same as
得 = get
中 = together
~
二五得一十 ( 2 X 5 get 10 )
二三如六 (2 X 3  is as same as 6)
四五中二十 (4 X 5 together is 20)

歸 = end up with
三三歸九 (3 X 3 end up with 9) is a variant of 三三如九. No other set of numbers is using 歸


What does 小时级发射 refer to in 该型火箭具有“一箭多星”发射能力、小时级发射等多项优点?

It means quick-reaction launch.
How I came to this conclusion:

The article you linked has some sort of quote from the rocket designer 彭昆雅, whose paragraph of explanation concludes with 大幅缩短了发射链条，提高发射效率和效益。So the purpose of the rocket is to "enormously reduce the launch chain and improve the launch efficiency and effectiveness". To improve the deployment time.

The Wikipedia page in Chinese about the Long March 11 states 长征十一号发射周期不超过72小时，最短发射时间在24小时以内

Switch to English, and after the first few sentences, which seem to echo your own translation, you see "It was designed with the ability to launch on short notice [...]".

Check the source that Wikipedia has quoted, and you read "The CZ-11 is developed [...] with the goal to provide a quick-reaction launch vehicle, which is easy to operate, cost-efficient to launch, can remain in storage for long period and reliably launch on short notice". There is consistency.

Another Wikipedia source, nasaspaceflight.com says "It’s goal goal is to provide an easy to operate quick-reaction launch vehicle".

Finally Google for "quick-reaction launch" (quoted) and you'll find some additional references from non-Chinese websites about rocket capabilities.


What is the correct way to say "-shaped"?

shape (n): 形狀

to shape (v): 塑造

shaped (adj): 形状的

you can omit 状 in  形状的

Example:

heart-shaped= 心形的

star-shaped = 星星形的


Oxford, CC-CEDICT, A Chinese-English dictionary all use the following idiom to define 掩耳盗铃:

(to) bury one's head in the sand

The Free Dictionary defines it as:

bury one's head in the sand and hide one's head in the sand; have one's head in the sand
Fig. to ignore or hide from obvious signs of danger. (Alludes to an ostrich, which is believed incorrectly to hide its head in a hole in the ground when it sees danger.) Stop burying your head in the sand. Look at the statistics on smoking and cancer.

Like-wise Oxford Pocket also has:

(to) bury one's head in the sand like an ostrich

It's not a perfect match, per se, but it's a pretty close English idiom.


What is the function of 了 in the sentence "她会杀了你的"?

A small class of verbs (including 杀，喝，吃，扔，忘) can take 了 as a resultative complement meaning 掉. These verbs can use 了 in places where it might otherwise sound odd. In this case, 杀了 is not expressing completed action; rather, it expresses the result of the verb.

Some other examples:

  我不会忘了。 I won't forget.
  把它吃了！ Eat it!
  他把旧的衣服都扔了。He threw out all the old clothes.

Grammatically, 了 here functions as an indication of the verb's result. In the last case, it simultaneously expresses completed action (and, I suppose, new situation.)

EDIT:

Here is a more complete lists of verbs which can use 了 in this way (from the very useful 《现代汉语八百词》):

忘、丢、关、喝、吃、咽、吞、泼、洒、扔、放、涂、抹、擦、碰、砸、摔、磕、撞、踩、伤、杀、宰、切、冲、卖、还、毁


How do natives pronounce the 2nd tone in regular conversation? (Pitch levels: 35, 33, or 434?)

A tone may, upon certain instances, take on a pitch different from its classic pitch. That is to say, while a pitch is absolute (in sound frequency), a tone is not.
中餐 may change from the classic zhōng˥ ˥ cān˥ ˥ to zhōng˥ ˥ cān˧ ˧ when 中 is intended to be stressed by the speaker (not necessarily in a question).
葡萄牙 may change from the classic Pú˧ ˥ táo˧ ˥ yá˧ ˥ to Pú˦ táo˥ yá˧ ˥ in rapid speech. The justification being, a sudden change in pitch requires too much effort. (I used only 1 pitch letter, not more, because they are supposed to be spoken quickly.)
叫他 may change from the classic jiào˥ ˩ tā˥ ˥ to jiào˥ ˩ ta꜌ (i.e., 他 becomes neutral; unaccentuated. In this example, the tone changes too) when the speaker wishes to be imperative with the verb.

Tone sandhi in Mandarin can be classified into facultative (自由音變) and obligate (不自由音變) (Zhang & Yang, 2007:6).* Obligate tone sandhi means it must be followed under all circumstances. The simplest example is obviously two neighbouring third-tones. More difficult examples include the application of neutral tones to distinguish polysemy (see the first point in this answer).

Facultative tone sandhi, however, is optional (that is to say, the classic pitch and the altered pitch coexist, while sharing the exact same meaning, only used in different contexts). The examples 中餐, 葡萄牙, and 叫他 all belong to this category. They are not as well studied, documented, and taught, so much so mastering them would require 'language intuition' (語感).

I actually find it difficult to comprehend how the second tone may take on the pitch ˧ ˧ or ˦ ˧ ˦. The answerer to the original question may a) be attempting to allocate a pitch for a second tone that is neutralised; or b) have thought of a context where facultative tone sandhi is applied. Either way, I cannot think of an example as of now.

Reference: Zhang Bennan & Yang Ruowei (2007). [普通話連讀音變]. Hong Kong: Commercial Press.
* There is no English translation in the reference, so I borrowed the jargons 'facultative' and 'obligate' that are used to classify anaerobes in biology. An obligate anaerobe can only survive in an environment without oxygen, but a facultative anaerobe can survive with or without it.


Common (and good) ways to ask for hand in marriage

I can't find a Chinese song named '今天你要嫁给我好吗'.

Is it "今天你要嫁給我" by 陶喆 ?

Considered about the sentence "今天你要嫁给我好吗", I think  "今天你要嫁给我吗" or "今天嫁给我好吗" are better. "你願意嫁給我嗎?"is smooth and clear too. However, adding "今天" is more pressing.

In fact, in the song '今天你要嫁給我', it used '今天嫁給我好嗎' as a question.


Spacing Guidelines for Modern Chinese Writing

No space is needed between characters.

A paragraph would start on a new line, usually with an indentation of two characters.

Space after punctuation is not required. The space you see is because the font tries to make punctuation to have the same width as a Chinese character.

In your first picture, the texts are article titles. There, to separate two phrases without using a punctuation, space is used. This usage usually do not appear in main article content.


It is a [topic + comment/ opinion] grammar structure

晚饭 (dinner) is a topic

妈妈做了面条给我们吃。(mother made noodle for us to eat)  is a comment

The comment here is a basic [Subject +V + object]

You can replace the topic, e.g. Change 晚饭 to 午餐 and write "午餐妈妈做了面条" = "(for) lunch, mom made noodle"
You can replace the comment, e.g. Change 面条 to 饺子 and "晚饭妈妈做了饺子" = "(for) dinner, mom made dumplings"

Similar example:

Topic: 工作 (works)

Comment: 很难找到 (very hard to find)

Topic + comment sentence: 工作很难找到 (works are very hard to find )
SVO sentence: 很难找到工作 (it is hard to find works)

Using [topic + comment sentence] emphasize the topic


How do you say "I quickly forgot..." (As in an emotion you were feeling)

If you forgot your hunger because of work or study, you can say 废寝忘食, which means you work/study too hard to eat/sleep.
PS: You can not say 废寝忘食 for a girl.

for this sentence "At the beginning of the date I was really hungry, but after talking with her for a couple of minutes I quickly forgot my hunger", you can say:
我刚见到她的时候还饿得很，但和她聊了几分钟之后很快就被我抛到脑后了。


How to say grandparents (as in the collective group) rather than the specific individual?

祖父母

  祖父母是指父亲的父母亲，又称“爷爷、嫲嫲”、“爷爷、奶奶”。母亲的父母称为外祖父母，在中国南方称为外公、外婆，在中国北方则称为姥姥（或姥娘）、姥爷。自己则分别是祖父母和外祖父母的孙儿或孙女、外孙或外孙女。

It also links to the English page for Grandparent.

National Grandparents Day is also translated as:

  祖父母节


How to tell when one word starts and another word ends?

Short of a lexicographic analysis, you can't. There is a little punctuation in Chinese, so you can split sentences into subgroups. But after that, there's no easy way to say where a word stops.

Even very common words like 的 (genitive marker, appears right after the possessor, eg 我的朋友: me, I; genitive; friend: my friend) cannot be relied on 100% to be always just that. 'Taxi' is written 的士, and in this case 的 would not be a single character delimiting two words, but the first character of a word.

And Chinese is not the only language that doesn't have spaces. You'll run into more problems like this.


Why is there 弄了 in the sentence 婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪弄了一双耳环?

I assume the object in your question is actually a snowman 雪人 not just 雪. So I think it should be "婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪人弄了一双耳环".

So we have in English: "Shen Shen found some leaves and made a pair of earrings for the snowman."

If you check the dictionary meaning of 弄 you will see it is quite similar to the English make. In the Chinese sentence you have 弄了 so that changes "make" into "made".

Without this, if the sentence was "婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪人一双耳环" the sentence would be: "Shen Shen found some leaves and gave them to the snowman." Now this could technically still be correct based on the context of what's going on, maybe it's a magical snowman who is getting earrings as a gift, but you should be able to see how removing 弄了 changes the meaning of the sentence completely.

"婶婶找来几片叶子，给雪人*弄了*一双耳环"

"Shen Shen found some leaves and made a pair of earrings for the snowman."


Is 当做 and 看做 a synonym or not a synonym?

In traditional Chinese used in Taiwan, 當作 can be used when you use something or treat something as if it's something else. For example:

他把你當作奴隸在使喚。
He ordered you around as if you are slave.
他把球棒當作武器用。
He used a bat as a weapon.

Whereas 看作 can be used when you recognize something as something else.


In mainland China, when people refer to 冰箱 or 电冰箱, it most likely means a fridge-freezer or a fridge/refrigerator. Freezer is formally referred to as 冰柜,冷柜, although it can also be orally referred to as 冰箱.

雪柜 is 冰箱 in Hong Kong.

To sum up:

冰箱，电冰箱，雪柜 -> fridge, refrigerator, fridge-freezer

冰箱，电冰箱，雪柜 -> freezer (oral)

冰柜，冷柜 -> freezer (formal)

冷藏箱， 冷藏包 -> ice storage, ice chest

(冰箱)冷藏室 -> fridge

(冰箱)冷冻室 -> freezer

冷冻机 -> refrigerating machine

A useful tip:

冷藏 something means refrigerate something.

冷冻 something means freeze something.

Although 冷冻机 violates the above rules but there is no such thing called 冷藏机.


How are dictionaries of ideograms sorted?

Wikipedia

The second system of dictionary organization is by recurring graphic
components or radicals. (...) As most
Chinese characters are semantic-phonetic ones (形聲字), the radical
method is usually effective, thus it continues to be widely used in
the present day. However, sometimes the radical of a character is not
obvious. To compensate this, a "Chart of Characters that Are Difficult
to Look up" (難檢字表), arranged by the number of strokes of the
characters, is usually provided.

Here is what a chart of radicals in a dictionary looks like

You can otherwise search a character by its pinyin if you know it.

See also: https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-look-up-Chinese-characters-in-a-Chinese-dictionary


What professions can be uncle & aunty-ized?

It is mostly for jobs that require wearing a uniform. The uniform provides a visual cue for children that these are special people who may be able to help them when needed. Note that 司机叔叔/司机阿姨 are for professional drivers, not any driver of a private car.


Difference between using 被 and the object in the topic position?

Let's answer the question by showcasing topic-comment, by defining 被 usage and then see if there is any overlap.
Re: topic-comment
Let's open with examples for topic-comment.

作业(我)做完了。 Done homework.

(你)饭吃完了吗？  Finishing eating (dinner)?

违法的事情(你)不要做。  Do not do illegal things.

这个信件，老板吩咐我亲手转交给你。 Boss instructed me to hand you this envelop in person.

The interesting thing about these sentences is that order reversal is possible for all four and the alternate ordering is probably just as likely in real life. See below.

(我)做完作业了。

(你)吃完饭了吗？

(你)不要做违法的事情。

老板吩咐我亲手转交这个信件给你。

In the alternate ordering, the sentences may put more emphasis on the earlier agent or action or descriptive quality in the sentence. (In example 4, the 2nd ordering highlights 亲手. Other examples are more obvious.) Nevertheless, re-ordered or not, they describe identical actions and are grammatical either way. Also, more alternative ordering may be possible.
Thus, one may find it efficient to identify topic and comment in these sentences and take advantage of the pattern that topic can either precede or follow comment. One may even define special topic-comment structure by this exact quality of having at least 2 possible grammatical ordering.
So, the examples above -- via virtue of allowing order reversal -- are indeed topic-comment.
That said, I really don't see an easy way to differentiate topic-comment sentences vs non topic-comment sentences. That calls into question whether topic-comment structure is truly universal. In any case, if your sentence contains a linking verb like 是. Order reversal probably cannot be done. Semantically, there is always topic and always comment. But you don't always have topic-comment structure.

Examples:
这辆车是他的。 This car is his.
平面三角形内角和为180度。Planar triangles' inner angles' sum is 180 degrees.
(Literal translation to show the Chinese structure.)

The reality does get more complicated than what is shown here. Not least because the linking verb may be omitted.
Definition of 被 structure
In the linking verb examples, you cannot use 被. So those are out of the picture.
In the topic-comment examples --- at least in my examples where the topic are noun phrase, you can always try inserting 被。A bunch of funny sentences are going to form. I want to use those strangeness to explore what 被 does.

作业被(我)做完了。

饭被(你)吃完了吗？

违法的事情不要被(你)做。

我被老板吩咐亲手转交这个信件给你。

If you have good familiarity with Chinese, you instantly recognize example 1)-3) are not sensible. Literally 100% never said. 4) is sensible but it does not have the same order as in topic-leading ordering.
So we have a conclusion: topic-comment reversal is not replicated by 被 related structure.
被 has a structure of its own and usages of its own. It is better considered as a helping word that in usage induces the following phrasal structure:
Noun phrase (optional) + 被 + noun (optional) +  verb phrase
and in meaning induces the connotations described by Li and Thompson. (All is well in their example except the word 气 is not used in a real way.)
被 signifies that the normal target of the verb phrase is not. A reflection happens. For example,

被人肉 got doxx'd
被自杀 got suicided (ie. murdered and displayed as seeming suicide)
我被辞职了 I got resigned (ie. I was fired but I totally had agency in the resigning.)

Note that the connotations here are in line with Li and Thompson's analysis.
The more flexible definition above is the more inclusive one. But for educational purpose, let's also do a more particular (limited) definition of 被:
Noun phrase (optional) + 被 + noun (optional) +  verb phrase
The leading noun phrase is the target of the verb phrase; the optional noun is only grammatical if it was the subject of the verb phrase otherwise.
If you use all components in "NP + 被 + noun + VP" such as in your example
热狗|被|男孩|吃了
no further order reversal is grammatical. (If you use 被 + VP only, there is nothing to reverse. But you can move this combo around freely and be gnarly with your sentences.) In other words, starting with a 被 sentence, there may not be corresponding topic-comment sentence.
Back to the earlier examples, why are they strange? They follow the same sentence structure as prescribed above and as 热狗被吃了, why are they strange while 热狗被吃了 is not strange? Those 被 examples 1-3 are not just not preferred. Their meaning appears to native-speakers self-contradictory and are never ever spoken.
Well, we really need more examples to tell here. But I have a theory for you to think about.
Without 被, the leading agent in example 1), the subject 作业 is already assumed to be passively performed by the 2nd agent. You can insert 被 in the sense that other sentences following this pattern can make sense. But semantically, this double passiveness is self-contradictory.
The same idea for 饭。 In other words, in Chinese, the words 作业, 饭, 事情 all have implicit passiveness when acted upon. 作业做 always means 作业 is the target of 做 regardless of ordering. (Topic prominence again.) Adding 被 contradicts with the inherent passiveness.
Note: 作业做 by itself is one of those things that cannot make sense with regular present tense. 作业做了 makes sense. 作业做 does not. When that happens, if you literally say 作业做, people give up on the presumed passiveness and try interpreting 作业 as the active agent or check for alternative meaning of 作业. Ofc in this case it still doesn't work.
What is the overlap between topic-comment and 被?
So far, we have not found any.
The only similarity between the two is that topic-comment structure allows for the reversal of topic and comment in a sentence, while 被 re-designates the target of a verb phrase, which in turn means that in order to produce an equivalent sentence, you need to reverse order.
Thus any similarity is coincidental.

Now we need to end with some necessary disclaimers:
One, topic-comment may not be a standalone, universal structure in Chinese. Sometimes order reversal is possible. Sometimes it is not. Sometimes multiple orderings are possible. In your example, 热狗男孩吃了 is potentially dubious by adopting a noun + noun + verb phrase structure for a verb that takes both subject and object. And I made a point about 是 sentences. Every sentence has a topic and comment. So it's difficult to differentiate what is a topic-comment structure vs what is not. I cannot conclude one way or the other whether topic-comment should be truly standalone and what its defining feature is without examining hundreds of more examples than this question. And we don't need to do that to make progress in discussing Chinese. Let's save that for the future and for over time.
Two, I used an "English way" to explain 被. But Englishness is ofc not the point. That is, I used phrasal structure conventions that are conventions in English and are successful in English. Phrasal structure is not a language-specific concept or tool. What I did is nevertheless not the convention in Chinese -- unless by coincidence that I am not aware of. What does that mean? It means just that: not convention; not consensus. But it may be useful and it may through coincidence become consensus when one is found and popularized.
Also curious along the same line, in English "helping word" really means "helping verb". Helping verbs are auxiliaries appear at the same places as verbs and potentially along side them. Is 被 a "helping preposition"?? That would be new.
Lastly, I believe the discussion above showcases the need for neutral examples. We use examples to support our theories. We also need examples to discover theories; and to validate theories. We need to support as well as validate. That's important. For that, we need lots of examples.
So if you have more examples that can showcase points included or not yet included in the discussion above. Please comment below.


What's the difference between ‘谁是你？’ and ‘你是谁？’?

‘谁是你？’= "who (which one) was you" - For example,  your friend looking at a picture in your high school yearbook, wondering which one in the photo was you at the age of sixteen.

To avoid confusion, it is better to say "哪一个是你" (which one was you) instead of  "谁是你?"

‘你是谁？’ = "who are you?" (if you know English, you understand what it means)

One more Example:

'在这张照片的二十人中, 谁(哪一个)是你?' - Among the twenty people in this photo, who (which one) was you?"

Better to use "哪一个" (which one) than "谁"(who) to make thing more clear.


What is the Correct Sense of 隔空喊话 in English?

According to the examples you provided:

Two parties seem to respond and talk to each other but actually not. They say something one after another which looks as if it's on topic, but in fact the things are attached to the same topic literally.
Express some opinion that can lead the consensus, or just talk to the public related to one party itself, without condisering the other and the two-party conversation.
Pretend to express something but actually not have that in mind, not sincere. Or 说空话.

I think it's not easy to find an accurate English counterpart. It's something like only seemingly talk to the other party but with some purpose (involved in other topics, or even be malicious) in mind.


Using this Cantonese particle to indicate past tense

晒 as a verb particle here indicate - 'All; completely'
Example: 走晒 (all left); 死晒 (all dead; completely dead); 冇晒 (all gone)
填好晒 =  finished filling it all
The phrase 貼好  (finished sticking on) indicated the verb is completed already
Add aspect marker 咗 after 貼好 and say "貼好(咗)" reinforce the 'completed' aspect. Make it sound more asserting.
You can add the final particle 啦 to 貼好 (finished sticking on), 貼咗 (already stuck on) and 貼好咗 (finished sticking on already)
The final particle (modal particle) 啦 serves to express different emotion depend on the context and tone
Example: 貼好(咗啦)

If you stretch the 啦 sound, it implies announcement

If you strengthen the 啦 sound, it implies anger

If you lower the 啦 sound, it implies annoyance

Notice: 貼好(咗) only indicates it is a 'completed verb'. It doesn't mean it is a 'verb in past tense' because Chinese doesn't use tenses.
In this context, adding the final particle 啦 does suggest the action was in the past. Otherwise, it wouldn't affect your mood


拉倒

In a mandarian Chinese, this really means "pull down". However the words are constructing a certain dialect's pronunciations, so you cannot split words from words to understand its meaning. In ShangHai dialect, this means "give up because of no choices or no other ways", "Have to do something narrowly"：

【e.g】既然你不肯给我东西，那就*拉倒*了。（=那就算了）
Since you won't lend me what I want, that's all for that.


The Standard Chinese term would be 哎呀 (āi yā).
However, you might notice others might pronounce it like ài ya. This is simply because no one exclaims in a “standardised” way.
Your interpretation of “Haiya” can also be attributed to the fact that the expression is merely a verbal exclamation which allows the speaker to convey some degree of negativity before starting on his main message. Hence, there isn’t a big difference when someone says “ai ya” and “hai ya”.
The term 哎呀 was probably invented to show that this expression existed throughout society, not the other way round.


I think, for Western ears, 怎么才能唱好歌 is ambiguous, whereas, for Chinese ears, it just means 'How can I sing well?'

Does it mean 'sing a good song', or 'sing well'? I asked a Chinese friend, she immediately said, "All songs are good."

You could write 怎么才能把歌唱（得）好。

Q1 Yes, fairly normal grammar
Q2 我怎么才能做好饭 How can I learn to / cook well / be a good cook.

For a specific dish: 我怎么才能做好[name of dish]

Q3 我唱歌唱得不好。 or 我不会唱歌。

Do you remember an old song, 'Killing me softly'? In that song, it says, "I heard he sang a good song." There is no sense in this that he only sings one song well.

It means 'He sings well.' 他唱歌唱得很好。

Similarly, 'She bakes a mean cake.' says: 'She bakes well.' not: her cake is somehow unpleasant.


How do 陷, 阱 appertain to their semantic component  (阝 as left radical)?

阜 are mounts of earth stacked on each other. Any character with semantic component 阜 (left ear) are usually related to earth, ground, and cliffs. Abundance of soil/earth is a borrowed meaning.
臽 literally was a trap. It's a man (人) dropping into a pit (a hole which looks sort of like a bowl/mortar 臼). Later on this character 臽 developed a different meaning by itself (it's an obsolete character now), and there were various semantics added to maintain the original meaning of 'trap', like 埳, and 陷. The cliff/mounds semantic version is the one used until today.
井 had various meanings, such as 'well', 'square fields' (which is what this character is based off), and 'pit'. A well is sort of an open hole placed in the middle of the square fields (丼).
Later on 井 was specifically used for well, while additional semantic components were added to clarify the 'pit' meaning in 阱 or 㘫. Currently trap is written as 陷阱, while 埳㘫 would be a variant form.
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E9%99%B7
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E9%98%B1


Both 你去了北京吗 and 你去北京了吗 are possible in practice, but they are used in different situations.

你去了北京吗 is used when you try to confirm the fact that someone really went to Beijing. Let's say you have two friends, Friend A and B. A told you that B has gone to Beijing last week. However, this information surprised you because you didn't expect B would go to Beijing for some reason. So, you might check with B with the question 你去了北京吗. The purpose is to confirm what A had said.

你去北京了吗 is used when you know someone has a plan to go to Beijing, but you don't know whether he has already been to or not. So you might ask him 你去北京了吗 to check if he has already been to Beijing.


Breaking a sentence into grammatical structures

的时候 is an interesting way to construct time markers in Chinese, it means "when (something happens...)".

In your example, the whole 6 characters in 你想走的时候 are part of the ...的时候 construct, which matches your first translation, i.e. Whenever you wish to go, just go. or Anytime you want to go, just go.

Well, the best resource to train your "parser" is just reading a lot, text books for the most part. And sometimes breaking up a sentence can be hard, that's normal, but the more experience you have, the better you will be at it.


When is "了" pronounced "le" and when is it pronounced "liao"?

Generally speaking:

if 了 is within a single content word, it should be produnced as "liao".
if 了 acts as an independent auxiliary word indicating a change of state or introducing a new situation (Verbs have no past tense in Chinese, therefore some auxiliary words would be used to indicate it), it should be produnced as "le".

In Chinese sentences, there are no blanks to separate the words. Therefore you must separate them in your mind.

In this sentence, we can separate words like this (just do separation, it is not a correct translation):

我 用 了  很多   年  才  了解      什么  是  武术。
I  used many years to understand  what is  KongFu.

Yeah, 了解 is a single content word (verb) meaning "understand" (we can't separate it into 了 and 解)


Can anyone help translate this signature / red seal

The text in the picture read from right to left (Chinese format), my answer below read from left to right in the English format
江邨烟云 - River village mist and cloud
戊寅 - The year (most likely 1938 or 1998)
秋 - Autumn
紹荋 - /Shào ér/ (name of the artist on the seal)
荋 - grassy (also a grass plant's name)
Edit:
dROOOze wrote: 紹英 rather than 紹荋
英 looks like this
荋 looks like this
Seems like dROOOze is right and 英 is a much more common name (for male or female)
The author's name is 紹英 - /Shào yīng/


How can I express "14 less than the result of 2 times y" in Chinese?


Categories in Chinese literature - Original terms

since your book is an introduction, i would suggest that the "four main categories" is 經﹒史﹒子﹒集; in sequence:

classics - 經

history - 史

masters - 子

collections of belle lettres - 集

the long explanation: in 漢 dynasty, texts were divided into 6 categories, according to the 七略 (~bc 5):

六藝略﹒諸子略﹒詩賦略﹒兵書略﹒數術略﹒方技略

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/七略

later, in 西晉 (265 - 316), 荀勖 changed the six categories to four, in sequence:

甲部 - 經書
乙部 - 子書 ( masters is the second category)
丙部 - 史書 ( history is the third category)
丁部 - 詩賦

afterward, in 東晉 (317 - 420), "~fourth century", 李充 rearranged the categories to

甲部 - 五經
乙部 - 史記 ( history is the second category)
丙部 - 諸子 ( masters is the third category)
丁部 - 詩賦

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/四部分類法

that, the sequence of 經﹒史﹒子﹒集 is unchanged, till today. next, imo, 詩賦 matched "belle lettres" more than 集, in the last category "collections of belle lettres"

you side note about the fourth category, you want to know the contents of it in which dynasty?

edited.

ok, the internet archive has the book 補晉書藝文志, which was compiled in 清 dynasty. in 卷四﹒丁部集錄 listed all texts / books / publications at that time (from ~p42 of pdf file). you may glimpse what was included in this "fourth category", in 晉 dynasty (265 - 420).

have fun :)

ps: just curious, may i ask, why you learn chinese literary, or it's history in english?


What usage do left tortoise shell brackets (〔) play in plays?

What you are reading is a play script.

It is one of the common ways to mark non-dialogue lines in the script with "〔" or "[" ahead of the line. So in this case it's not actually functioning as half bracket, but rather just a head mark.


the 國語辭典 listed: 貽笑大方 is derived from 見笑大方

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000093396

then 見笑大方 is derived from 莊子﹒秋水

http://ctext.org/zhuangzi/floods-of-autumn/zh

  吾長見笑於大方之家

it's a comment made by 河伯 (uncle river), when he reached the sea.

again, the 國語辭典 explained "大方之家" as "懂得大道理的人" (~ experts)

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000040658

and "大方" as "有名的大家"

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000040654

"方" is not a classifier in this usage. as i "google", some remarks of "方" in literatures of yore were "道" (tao, the proper way).


the meaning and translation of 悲亡 in a poem by Bei Dao

北岛 （中国当代诗人、香港中文大学教授）

He's relaxing, forgetting life's worries for a while.

过冬
Pass the winter

醒来：北方的松林——
(I'm) Awake: (to this) Northern Pine Forest
大地紧迫的鼓声
(I hear) Earth's urgent drumbeat,
树干中阳光的烈酒
Tree trunks in the sunshine intoxicate (me),
激荡黑暗之冰
surging dark and cold
而心与狼群对喊
and (my) heart howls back to the wolves

风偷走的是风  (not too sure about this)
(what) the wind steals is (just) wind
冬天因大雪的债务
the lack of winter snow
大于它的隐喻
is like a metaphor for
乡愁如亡国之君
a homesick forgotten country's ruler
寻找的是永远的迷失
the sought after is eternally lost

大海为生者悲亡
(the tide of) the ocean of life's sadness is away
星星轮流照亮爱情——
the stars take turn to light up love
谁是全景证人
who bears witness to the scene
引领号角的河流
lead the way loud river
果园的暴动
(to the) orchard of rebellion

听见了吗？我的爱人
can you hear? My lover
让我们手挽手老去
let us hand in hand forever go
和词语一起冬眠
with words together hibernate
重织的时光留下死结
reweave time, leave behind problems
或未完成的诗
or unfinished verse


Could you help me explain the meaning of "顺其自然"?

Well, I am a Chinese, so I think I can have a try.

"顺", means let it be, or just like the song from the movie Froze, let it go.

"其", means itself.

"自然", means what it means to be.

So, put it together, it means, just let it be what it should be, do not intervene. It usually used to comfort someone who just failed something.


As others have pointed out, 呢 is a sentence-final particle that nowadays mostly has an interrogative function, namely to form a question regarding a topic that has already been brought up.

The normal interrogative particle is 吗, as in 你是中国人吗？ Or more rhetorically using 吧: 你是中国人吧？ But if you first introduce your own nationality, the question would instead involve the particle 呢: 我是丹麦人，你呢？

If you read older literature like 红楼梦, you will also find 呢 as a sentence-final particle that is not interrogative, but rather emphatic. It may indicate softening or suggestion, like in the sentences 尤氏的母亲已先在这里呢 and 太太们都在楼上坐着呢，请奶奶就从这边上去罢。

Other such particles are 吧 (softening of statements) and 啊 (affirmation).

Then there is a whole range of exclamative particles and interjections used in spoken Chinese, such as 呗 (when stating something obvious or with authority), 嗯 (acknowlegding), 哦 (surprise), and 哇 (awe).

Functional particles that are essential to Chinese grammar include 着 (durative aspect particle for continuous action, 我穿着衣服 = I am getting dressed), 了 (completion, 我回来了 = I am back, or 我不抽烟了 = I am not smoking anymore), and 的 (possessive particle: 我的车子).

Particles are thus used to modify words and sentences. They are not words per se, but add structure to sentences.


Does Chinese have a gender-neutral term for "homemaker"?

持家者 = 主持家中事務的人

The homemaker = the person who does most of the housework in the family

In my opinion, it doesn't matter it is the wife or the husband or anyone else-- who ever does most of the cleaning and cooking is the homemaker of the family-- If both husband and wife share the housework evenly, they are both 持家者

持家有道 - (good at taking care of the household) is a praise for a good wife

The term 持家 literally means "maintain/ holding the household" which also mean all the responsibility within the household belong to that person including taking care the children.


Why is 来 used in "因为‘东西’一般不能用来表示人"?

The answer to the question  explained the function of 来 as a preposition (in order to; so that) that connect two related verb phrases, but here '用 ~ 来' can be simply explained as 'use ~ to'; (被)用来 as (be)used to

"(把)'东西'用来 表示人" = "(take) 'things' to be used to indicate human"

"用('东西')来 表示人" = "use ('things') to indicate human'"

“因为‘东西’一般不能用来表示人” = "because 'things' usually cannot be used to indicate human"

In the text you posted. 东西 (things) is the topic and 不能(被)用来表示人 (cannot be used to indicate human) is the comment


simple translation of simple text and question about 个 and 自己

This old rabbit/goat story is an allusion to North Korean politics， right?

1。他有见兔正给山羊来送白菜。

He saw the rabbit give the goat a cabbage.

2。我自己种的。只有自己种，才有吃不完的菜。

I planted them myself. If you grow your own veggies then you will always have enough to eat.

Edit 2。 '我自己种的‘ could be written '这棵白菜是我自己种的‘，Chinese likes to shorten sentences. I'm not paranoid, I know they do it just to confuse poor me!

我自己种 = I myself plant = I planted (them) myself.

自己 = self, myself, yourself, themselves, depending on context.

3。青菜萝卜吃个饱

I'm full up with chop-choi and carrots. (this must be Kim Jong Un, the 胖子)

吃个包 = eat a fill = eat until you are full


Four-character idioms that contain an allusive pair

“文过饰非”： 《论语·子张》：“小人之过也，必文。”《庄子·盗跖》：“辩足以饰非。”


What is the translation express (adjective meaning fast) in Chinese?

'Express courier service' in Chinese is

速遞服務  or 快遞服務

速遞/快遞 is shortened from '快速遞送/ 快速傳遞' (express delivery) . It can functions as an adjectival noun as in   速遞服務(express delivery service); 速遞文件(express delivery document)


What does having disposition of 护短 means?

护短 is said 3 times, because it is important.

It conveys something like, "Don't judge me, my friends or my family; Never blame me or criticize me; If I make a mistake, you must ignore it. Got it?"

(nod)

"OK, now you are my friend."


It sounds like a dialect of the Chinese language. I think she's singing "驕妹子，驕妹子驕", "細(小)妹子，細(小)妹子細(小)"，which can be translated literally to "proud girl, proud girl proud" "little girl, little girl little"


Isn't it ironic that 淡 uses 炎, duplication of 火, as its phonetic component?

The phonetic component can not be used to explain the meaning of characters. It is used for the guidance of pronunciation. There are a lot of characters with 炎(tan) as the phonetic component such as 氮，谈、痰、毯, etc. I think none of these is related to fire.


A quick Google search told me this:

商务印书馆 is the first modern publishing organization in China.

Your dictionary is probably published by 商务印书馆.


Usage of 就 after a noun and before a verb

This sentence is expressing in a colloquial way, and can be interpreted as:

  你一大早（起床）就出门赶飞机，现在很累吧。

So 起床（getting up）is omitted，就 means the later thing happens right after the former one.

Or:

  你（在）一大早就出门赶飞机，现在很累吧。

在 is omitted，就 at here means the mentioned thing happened at an earlier time（eg. 我们很早以前就认识）


Given that 门店 (lit. "door shop") = "outlet", how do you say "door shop"?

門業公司 or 大門設計 if you are looking for a shop that sells just doors, perhaps designer doors. But most shops carry other items as well, so it is common practice to visit a 門窗公司, 裝修公司, 廚櫃公司, or 木業公司 for the wooden product, or a 五金行 for the metallic bits.


What does // mean in Pleco's description of pronunciation?

//

Is pinyin notation for separable verbs and usually more specifically: verb-object phrases.

This is not just Pleco notation. Here's an except from the editorial notes of《四川方言词典》:

And the extracted text:

多音节条目按词连写。无论词或词组，凡中间可插入其他成分的，动宾结构用“=”隔开，动补结构用“//”隔开。如“胎包袱 tai1 = bao1 fu2”、“捡顺 jian3//sun4”.

Here's an example of an entry that uses “//” from inside the same book:

And its extracted text:

归顺
gui1//sun4
（动）收拾妥贴：房间里的床铺已叠整齐，桌上的杂物书籍全～，摆好。(现84·12·51)

《四川方言词典》uses "//" for verb-compliment constructions and "=" for V.O. constructions but these usages may have merged later.

I believe this notation has already been removed from Pleco though as it caused too much confusion for learners unfamiliar with this usage.


I think the problem is, you cannot expect to translate Chinese to English (or English to Chinese) literally, word-by-word. The way that a sentence is constructed is way too different in these languages that translate word-by-word would lead to all kinds of awkward situations.

In your first example,

  There is still 3 hours until the departure of the flight.

I would consider the following expressions in spoken language:

   飞机              还有  3个小时               起飞。
The flight | (is) | still 3 hours | (from) | departure.

To emphasize 3 hours:

   飞机       还有  3个小时        才         起飞。
the flight | still 3 hours | only until | take off.
 还有  3个小时      飞机           才         起飞。
still 3 hours | the flight | only until | take off.
==> The plane will only take off until 3 hours later.

Note that "until" is left out or changed by reordering those elements in your original sentence.

Or if you want to make it feel like an announcement (more formal), change the word to 距离(also means "until" in some situation) will be more suitable:

 距离             飞机起飞                  还有         3个小时。
Until | the departure of the flight | there is still | 3 hours.

As for the second example, it also requires some reordering and changes to wording:

  Then until you come here I should improve my speaking skills!

 那           你下次来之前，        我  应该            多    练习。
Then | before you come next time | I should | (do) | more practice.
==> Then I should practice more before you come next time.

However, it doesn't mean that you have to left out "until" every time. Consider this example:

The company was in chaos until he became the manager.

Including "until" here or not makes the meaning quite different:

直到他成为经理之前，公司一片混乱。
　　他成为经理之前，公司一片混乱。

You can infer from the first sentence that he is the key to the change of company. But the latter sentence could simply be a statement of fact, not necessarily credit him for the change.

So, the expression for "until" depends very much on the context IMO.


Normally, it is either:

你[看过]那部小说没有? = [Had] you [read] that novel?

or

你[看完]那部小说没有? = [Have] you [finished] reading that novel?

看(verb) + 过(verb particle) marking 'experiential' aspect = "had read"
看(verb) + 完(result complement) marking 'complete or finish' aspect = "finish reading"

  in "你看过完那部小说没有?" (had you read finish that novel?), '看过'(had read) already indicated you finished reading the book in the past, '完' is redundant here.

~

  in "你看完过那部小说没有？" (had you ever finish reading the novel?) '看完'(finish reading) already indicated you had finish reading it,  '过' is also redundant
  here. This implies  'you had tried to read that novel before, but had never been successful in finish it.'

This question only make sense if someone pick up a novel and only read half of it, then few weeks later pick it up again, read it from the start and stop at the middle again. Kind of weird, right?

~

A more sensible examples of [V] +[result complement]+ [过 (verb particle)]:

看见过 (had seen)

看(verb- to see)
见 (result complement- and successfully seen)
过 (verb particle) - marking 'experiential' aspect- had experienced

conclusion:

[Verb + 过] cannot be followed by '完'(redundant)

[Verb + 完 + 过] indicate "had finished (verb) before"


What is a polite or neutral way to ask for someone to step out of your way?

The most polite way is to use:

借过

  excuse me
  -ABC

If you want to sound politer you can add a 一下 on the end: 借过一下.

让 is not super polite, with or without a 一下 but you could still get away using it.

A simple 不好意思 would also suffice but is not as polite as 借过.


我刚到了 is perfectly understandable in oral communication. Your teacher probably thinks this is verbose because:

刚 = just

了 = already

我刚到了 = I just arrived already


What's the difference between shǐ yòng 使用 and yòng 用？

Actually they are almost the same just like in order to vs to have same effect.
But 用 can only be verb , can a little bit simplify the sentence .
使用 and 用 have same mean in below block

用水 用工具 用他的東西 用電腦
使用水 使用工具 使用他的東西 使用電腦
use water ,use tools, use his stuff , use computer

使用 has more way to use.

使用手冊 使用時間 使用地點
Operation Manual , usage time , Use location


How to say "it is actually something that does something"?

The usage of 是 is correct.

  是 ( shì ㄕˋ )
  〈动〉
  (5) 表示肯定判断之词 [be]

I think it is actually the idea that can really light up the future.
其实我觉得是主意点亮未来。
我觉得其实是主意点亮未来。
我觉得其实是主意才能真正点亮未来。

To emphasize it, you can add 应该. (contrast to 梦想)
其实我觉得应该是主意点亮未来。
我觉得其实应该是主意点亮未来。
我觉得其实应该是主意才能真正点亮未来。

You can also use 想法 or 点子 for 主意.


狩 is to hunt, and has nothing to with the season.

The aspiration to hunt in the south brought success.

Then we may ask why, and the answer is that the south is lighter in the winter than the north. So the season is indirectly the reason.


My go-to is usually 百度 Bai Du:

It means: but （not）；yet （not）；and；as well as；

Out of all of the examples there, I only found a couple where it precedes the verb:

我愿意为什么**而** [VERB: 牺牲] 呢？
What am I willing to sacrifice?

你原是为永恒**而** [VERB: 造]。
You were made to last forever.

而 here, as you can see from the translation, can mean "to" as an infinitive (precedes verb).

However, you'll most often see it used as a coordinator/conjunction...

革命是广泛**而**自发的。
The revolution is broad and spontaneous.

Definitely check out that Bai Du link above... You'll see 而 is also used a lot in conjunction with other words to actually mean many different things... Here's some more examples:

而。。。却 : And...Yet

这些话除了伤痛什么也不能带来 **而** 我们 **却** 乞求它。
Those words bring nothing but pain and yet we beg for it.

而。。。，是为了 : I did [x], so that [y]

而我看这些书，是为了让你不必再去看。
I read these books so that you don't have to.


Difference between Verb + 不了 and Verb + 不动

This dictionary definition of 了 could help:

了 /liǎo/

动词

跟“得”或“不”组合用在动词后面，表示可能或不可能

干得了 / 去得了 / 这病好不了。

So, according to dictionaries, 不了 means something is impossible to achieve.  E.g. 结束不了 (can't be over/finished)
不动 simply means to not move.
With all that above in mind, let's review your examples one by one:

我的腿受伤了，所以我走不了。// this is obvious that it denotes the sense of impossible to walk/leave.

我累得走不动 // the word 累(tired) suggests lack of energy, so 不动(can't move) make more sense.

这个书架我们两个抱不___ // in this case, if we put 动, it means you two can not make the bookshelf move.  If we use 了, then it will implies that it's impossible for you two to hold the bookshelf and maybe you need more people to help.  So, both are possible answers.

In fact, as you can see, 不了 and 不动 are quite different words.  They just occasionally came across in some examples like yours.
Hope this could help.


What musical instrument does "敫" refer to?

「敫」 does not have a solid basis for the meaning ancient musical instrument, but it looks like that meaning was derived from a transcription or translation error for a word which really did represent an ancient wind instrument. I'll present two interpretations as to where I think this translation originated from, and actually either interpretation arrives at the same conclusion.

First interpretation: this is a mistranslation of the Shuowen Jiezi definition.

《說文》：“敫，光景流也。从白，从放，讀若龠。”
「敫」: flowing sunlight. From semantic 「白」 and semantic 「放」. Read like 「龠」.

The ancient musical instrument definition is given at Unicode, and interprets the last sentence 讀若龠 as imparting both meaning and sound of 「龠」 (original character of 「籥」, as specified at the Wikipedia page as a kind of ancient flute), implying that 「敫」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*kleːwɢs/) is a rebus of 「龠」 (/*lowɢ/).
Actually, no such usage of 「敫」 as 「龠」 (籥) seems to be recorded in literature, so 讀若龠 should be interpreted as having a similar/same sound to 「龠」 rather than is a rebus of 「龠」. I would conclude that Unicode's English definition is wrong.

讀若Ｘ is a bit controversial in its interpretation, so there's probably more misunderstandings in some of Unicode's definitions.

For reference, Shuowen's definition of flowing sunlight is a phonetic loan, and its character analysis is incorrect. This definition probably refers to a word cognate to or the same as 「耀」 (/*lewɢs/) instead.
戰國・秦石刻詛楚文・淵湫　秦朝簡日書乙種36睡虎地秦簡西漢簡孫臏兵法銀雀山漢簡今楷
「敫」 is constructed from semantic 「皃」 (appearance, here representing something/someone else) and semantic 「攴・攵」 (to hit), indicating the meaning to strike/hit something or someone else. The bottom part of 「皃」 (儿・人) was later corrupted into 「方」.
「敫」 is the original character of 「撽」, and is a similar or the same word as 「敲」.

Second interpretation: 「敫」 was misidentified as 「㰾」 during data entry (they kind of look similar), which Unicode also gives a definition of

a kind of music instrument in ancient times

Thankfully, this definition has a more solid basis. From Zhengzitong:

《正字通》：“今樂器壎箎之屬有㰾子...”
Today (time of authorship of Zhengzitong), there are instruments of the type 「壎」 and 「箎」 (ancient wind instruments) called 「㰾子」...

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂


Writing-out numbers in mandarin till 19999 algorithm

Your algorithm have to handle 0 between first and last digits as well. Insert 零 for those cases.
For example,

10003 should be 一萬零三.
10301 should be 一萬零三百零一.
30028 should be 三萬零二十八.
41009 should be 四萬一千零九.


Basically anything that can be absorbed as nutrients, literally or figuratively. Yours are just a few examples, we can have more!
A plant may absorb the essence of the nature, or 吸收日月精华, and become a genie.
A political party may want to attract and invite the best people to join. Mao Zedong wanted more learned people in CCP, so he wrote 《大量吸收知识分子》. Now CCP is still trying to 吸收入党积极分子 in colleges, companies, and danweis.
Search 吸收 for book titles and you get plenty:

有吸收力的心灵 A spongy heart?
清末民初民間儒教對主流儒學的吸收與轉化 Absorption of mainstream Confucianism
早期天台学对唯识古学的吸收与抉择 Absorption of certain academic topic
三十天吸收三十年專業能力 Absorption of certain abilities
人力资源吸收与选拔 Absorption of human resources
技术吸收型对外贸易战略研究 Absorption of technology
中国吸收外资30年 Absorption of capital investment
知识的吸收与创造 Absorption of knowledge

A company may completely buy off another and it's called 吸收合并, in which case the company being bought is likely to be dissolved and will no longer function as an entity.
There is a criminal offense called "非法吸收公众存款罪". You illegally collect people's money and do your secret stuff.

I don't think I'm finished, but let's just stop for a while. Your two examples are not colloquial because, well, you wouldn't say these in English, would you:

I come to Taiwan to absorb knowledge.
I joined Facebook as a summer intern to absorb their knowledge.

Same reason, if it's personal, and if it's casual talk, the word absorb or 吸收 will sound too fancy. You usually say to learn or to study in such occasions.
Contrary to @Alex's opinion on 思想. 思想 can also be 吸收-ed. 吸收 is an active activity1. You would need to provide the specific topic for 吸收 though, as in 吸收儒家思想. On the other hand, I can't think of any example in which 信念 is 吸收-ed.
These are just my opinions. Have I mentioned that opinions can also be absorbed? 也许吸收了我和别人的意见以后，你会形成一个更完整的看法。
1. Sorry, running out of vocabs.


How to use 如 to make comparisons or analogies

It is more of a literary/formal expression; It's not really colloquial.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by making "fresh" analogies. If you mean "Can you make new formal/literary expressions when writing literature?"- the answer is yes. 如 is not bound to any fixed idioms/expressions. With that said, it helps to learn the root meaning of the word so you can use it how you want:

如 itself means "as","as if"

Take the following usage in a "fresh" expression:

天上的星星**如**无数只眼睛，在一眨一眨。
(Tiānshàng de xīngxīng rú wúshù zhī yǎnjīng, zài yī zhǎ yī zhǎ.)

The stars in the skies are **as if** there are countless blinking eyes.

And 如, as you know, is also used in several fixed word pairs:

如果: if
如何: how
如此：if (more formal)

Hope this helps.


Yes, they both refer to cicada.

Most people use 知了 in both oral and written forms in mainland China. People almost never use 蝉 when they speak.

The reason cicada is called 知了 is because they make the noises which sound like they are saying (zhī liǎo... zhī liǎo... zhī liǎo...). Therefore, 知了 is also used to describe the sound cicada makes.

I'm not sure if one is more archaic than the other. As the word 知了 was used in classic Chinese literature 《月令七十二候集解》, which was written by 吳澄 in 元 dynasty (AD 1271–1368)

  蜩，蟬之大而黑色者，蜣螂脫殼而成，雄者能鳴，雌者無聲，今俗稱知了是也。


Is "投个好胎" a proper set phrase/idiom? What does it mean?

投 (v); plunge into

胎 (n); pregnancy

"投胎" (plunge into pregnancy) is a compound word. It means "to reincarnate"

Olden time Chinese believed after people died and became ghosts, some of them were allowed to reincarnate and reborn into the living world

"投个胎" break up the compound word "投胎" and treating 投 as a verb; 胎 as a noun. When 胎 is a noun, we can add classifier '个' (a)  before it to indicate indefinite

Similar phrase: 投幾次胎 (to reincarnate a few times)

different from "投个胎" (to randomly reborn), we can have “投个好胎", which mean "to reborn into a good family"


Why does Montevideo has a specific translation in Taiwanese?

It is a fact that different countries and areas can have different translations or transliterations of a foreign word or name. It can only be resolved by the name's owner to give official translation or transliteration for other countries.

Take Google for example, Google itself decided it would be '谷歌' in Chinese. That makes it official and universal in all countries and areas that use Chinese as their written language.

Another example  is the name of a Canadian city, Montreal. It was transliterated as 蒙特利尔 in China but Cantonese transliterated it as 滿地可.  Since the early Chinese immigrants to Canada were mostly Cantonese, 滿地可 is the accepted name for Montreal among Chinese Canadian.

The Canadian government just transliterate Montreal as 蒙特利尔 in Mandarin and  滿地可 in Cantonese.


从来 is usually translated to "always, at all times, all along, from the past till the present". But it's usually used in the negative sense, which makes it more like "never".

No, it is '从不' or '从来不' that means 'never'

  it made me wonder if "since always" would be a better translation than "always", since 从来 has the sense "from the past till the present".

'since always/ from the beginning' and 'always' basically express the same meaning

'from the beginning' is the literal translation of '从来'

'since always/ forever' is the practical translation of '向来/一向'

'always' is the practical translation of '总是'

  So, my question is what do you think about the the following translations:

  I always buy oranges. 我总是买橙子。

  I buy oranges since forever. 我从来都买橙子。

  I always bought oranges (now I don't buy anymore). 我以前总是买橙子。

我(总是)买橙子

我(向来/一向) 都买橙子

我以前总是买橙子

  I have been searching for affirmative 从来 examples (which are very hard to find)

Here are some affirmative 从来 examples:

(从来)只有我欺負人

(从来)太陽就由東方升起 = 太陽(向来)就由東方升起

採訪部和編輯部(从来)都是各自獨立 (从来 can replace 向来/一向, but using 向来/一向 is more common in this context)

Edit:

  What would be the translation for 我从来都买橙子 then? How is it different from 我总是买橙子?

"我(从来)都买橙子" = " (from the beginning), I have been buying oranges"  meaning you have been buying oranges for a long long time, but again, "向来" or "一向" are better word choices.

"我(总是)买橙子" = "I (always) buy orange" (not apple, not pear, just orange)