Is "酷比" an actual used word in any Chinese-speaking location? (Including colloquial and slang)

There is no meaning for "酷比". I guess it could be just a transliteration of "cube", you see these two words are pronounced similarly.

While "酷" has the meaning of cool, "酷比" stands for cube, "魔方" means Rubik's Cube, all these words put together make an easy-to-remember and catchy brand name. Brand names don't always have a meaning, they just need to be cool and catchy.


It is a popular idiom that describes the leisure life of elderly people.

含: keep something in mouth
饴: syrup / candy / suger
弄: play with
孙: grandson

So this idiom means to play with grandchildren with candy in mouth.

You can also check its Chinese explanations at 含饴弄孙:

hán yí nòng sūn

含饴弄孙

【近义】天伦之乐
【释义】含着糖逗小孙子玩。形容晚年生活的乐趣。
【出处】《后汉书·明德马皇后纪》：“吾但当含饴弄孙，不能复知政事。”
【用例】佳儿佳妇，吾将～，不复理家政矣。（清·淮阴百一居士《壶天录》）

The links in my answer point to an online Chinese English dictionary, which has usage examples that extracted from China Central Television (CCTV) news. You can see the most fresh examples of the words you are looking for.


The concept of 'presumptuous' as in 'arrogantly making assumptions about the beliefs or preferences of another person without regard to the possibility of being wrong'.

The words that fit those descriptions would be 自以为是 (literally 'regard oneself as infallible') or 自作主张 (literally 'presumingly assert/decide'). 自以为是 would work perfectly for translating your paragraph. There is also a colloquial word with similar meaning 想当然 (literally 'assume sth. as a matter of course').

If you consider some similar but different concepts, you'll have more word choices. E.g. prejudice (偏见), stereotype (成见), ignorance (无知/愚昧), etc.


岛国 is used for Japan in most cases (especially on net), usually as a satirical usage (especially on net again). e.g.

  我们叫日本岛国叫韩国棒子，那外国人叫我们什么？

Why? I believe it's because among many geographical island countries, Japan is the nearest and biggest one, and having the most close relationship with China. Whether the relationship is good or bad, and how it changed and changes, Japan is the one China and Chinease most care about.

Here is a Japanese's introduction about this alias:

  中国人は確かに日本のことを「島国」と言ったりします。そして日本を「島国」と呼ぶときは、多くの場合において侮蔑的な意味合いを持ちます

中国人确实有时候将日本称为"岛国"。而且大多数时候带有侮辱的含义。
(Chinese people do call Japan as岛国sometimes, and contains insult meaning in most cases.)

Here're some other (more formal) names for Japan: 倭国, 东洋, 东瀛, 扶桑.


Why do 可不 and 可不是 by themselves imply agreement?

可不，可不是，可不是吗，可不就是吗，etc are colloquial phrases to agree what the other has just said.

I'm not quite sure of the exact underlying reason, but I echo your suspicion -  perhaps it's a rhetorical question like "Is it not?".

However, we should be cautious that sometimes it can mean negation too as in the OP's example: 这可不那么简单. In this case, we read as 这可/不那么简单. If you add 就 and 吗 in the sentence: 这可不就那么简单吗，it becomes a rhetorical question, meaning Isn't it that simple=it is that simple.

So, the way to determine (negative or positive) is based on the syntax and context. If 不 goes with 可，then it's positive. If 不 goes with the other part, then it's negative.


The use of 部 as a classifier in Mandarin

The answer is sometimes.

The reference to literature does not refer to physical books, but to works of literature. E.g.

  BBC评选21世纪最伟大的12部小说

  (The) twelve greatest 21st century novels chosen by the BBC

The case with 字典 and 詞典 is different, as it can refer to the "work" or to the "book".

  中国第一部字典—说文解字

  The first (character) dictionary in China, the Shuowen Jiezi

Note that poetry collection 詩集 can also be used in this way, although individual poems not so.

書 wouldn't go with 部 - it doesn't refer to a work.


When use 有 in comparison:

In positive way you can use 今天和昨天一样热(Today is as hot as yesterday) or 今天有昨天那么热 instead of 今天有昨天热.Because it's more normal expression.

In negative way you can use 他没(有)你(那么)细心 which will omit character 有 or 今天没(有)昨天(那么)热.

It's better to add 那么 in comparison to emphasize comparison.


A question about the structure in this sentence

In Chinese, 轉 (to rotate) is intransitive, whereas 圍住 (to surround) is transitive. Sentences b. and d. are in principle ungrammatical:

a. 地球在轉。
b. *地球轉太陽。
c. 我們圍住他。
d. *我們圍住。

Your hypothetical sentence therefore is doubly ungrammatical, because there is an object following an intransitive verb, and no object following a transitive verb.
Of course by 轉 we are referring to a spontaneous rotation by the object in question, not a rotation caused by an external force, because in that case it may also be transitive too:

e. 不要在上課時轉筆。Do not play with (lit. turn) your pen when having lessons.

There is not an external force that moves or rotates the Earth (at least in the linguistic sense); therefore 轉 here is intransitive.

Try think of 圍住太陽 as a phrase adverbial on 轉; i.e. literally, the Earth is rotating as it surrounds the Sun.


i think proactive and enthusiastic are pretty good translations. you typically use 積極 to describe such qualities in a younger person who's eager to learn or do something but still humble to listen to advice, so it's not used a lot to comment on older people, though you can also use it to describe someone who's new to a role and wants to do a good job. e.g. a newly elected president (who's never been a president before). maybe that's what you feel is missing from the english words?

same thing for the opposite adjective 消極, which also lends itself better to describe younger people IMHO.


Translation of "conscius" [sic] on stamp (Characters identified: 自覚的)

自觉的, just "self-conscious".

Note that, 覚 is seldom used today. It's an interchangeable character for 觉(simplified Chinese) or 覺(traditional Chinese), which means sense/feel.

PS: I think the one who made the stamp maybe didn't know Chinese. He or She might search conscius in an electronic dictionary and found the Chinese meaning 自觉的. However the translation can be greatly refined :)


如{[(入<鮑魚之肆>)久]而[不(聞<其臭>)]}。
It's like {[(having entered < a market of fish >) for long time] hence [can't (smell < its stink >)]}.

The root level is V-O '如...' (it's like ...), 如 is the verb.
Then 入鮑魚之肆久而不聞其臭 is Phrase-Conj-Phrase '...而...' (... hence ...), where 而 is the conjunction.
入鮑魚之肆久 is S-V, where 入鮑魚之肆 is 'V-O as Subject', 久 is the verb.
In 入鮑魚之肆, 入 is the verb (to enter), 鮑魚之肆 is noun phrase as the Object. 之 means 'of', 鮑魚之肆 means 'market of fishes'.


How to say "all the usual X" in Chinese?

If you want to emphasise the 'all' (and so you want to keep the 都/全):

The 'all' and 'the usual X' are normally treated separately [rather than both being stacked adjectives in English], and are usually structured as follows:

[一般的、普通的] [X] [都/全].

A casual glance might be misleading though, because 都/全 is acting as an adverb before the verb here, and so is generally followed directly by the verb. Hence you might have the subject of the verb being inserted before [都/全], depending on the sense of the sentence (especially when X is actually the object in the sentence).

[一般的、普通的] [X] [SUBJECT] [都/全] [VERB]

Otherwise, where "all the usual" is exactly the same as "the usual", the 全/都 is dropped, resulting in just the adjective coming before [X].


As a native speaker, I think in this case 交 and 找 is absolutely the same in this situation. :)

If you find it on dictionary, It may turns out that the verb 找 looks like more active than 交, but I am quite sure that in daily conversion or formal writing they have the same meaning in this phrase.


The regular script transcription looks like

朎
This is probably an art name

秵山
This is probably the artist's real name; also appears on the calligraphy as the last two characters

I cannot find any artists being referred to by these names.


No, this is not standard Pinyin, if this form of tone sandhi is written out. The author is simply trying to convey what it would look like if written out (instead of retranscribing it with Chao-style tone letters).

This type of sandhi ("Mandarin T2 Sandhi", for Tone 2 Sandhi), is mentioned only rarely, because it is a "prosodic-driven process", i.e. it happens because the syllable is not in a strong position in the overall 'rhythm and melody' ( = prosody) of the utterance.

However, T2 sandhi is not an ingrained feature of standard Mandarin or even any one dialect of Mandarin (unlike T3 sandhi), but a "variation", and one that is far from universal.


Dividing a year into 52 weeks was a new concept to Chinese people at the time. Since 星期(指七夕，就是牛郎织女鹊桥相会之日) a common term already existed in China,
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%98%9F%E6%9C%9F it was then used to express a "week".

中國古代有七曜这一詞
*The Japanese still use 七曜 for the name of their days in a week - (日曜日, 月曜日, 火曜日 水曜日, 木曜日, 金曜日 and 土曜日)

Meanwhile, there was another common Chinese term 周天 (a circle of) http://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%91%A8%E5%A4%A9/909115 therefore, 周 was also borrowed to describe  "a week"
As for practical usage,  周 and 星期 are interchangeable, but 周 is more formal and 星期 is more colloquial.
Also, the single syllable 周 doesn't take classifier, but 星期 does. We say 一星期 or 一個星期, but we only say 一周, not 一個周
both 周一 and 星期一 mean "Monday", as mentioned before, and they are interchangeable, only 周一 is more formal and 星期一 is more colloquial


了解 vs 明白 vs 知道 - what is the difference, and when should I use each one?

知道 means you just know something, you don't need to understand it.
了解, you understand it.
明白, you understand something, and have a clear idea of what it is about.

I think the order of them is: 知道<了解<=明白

for 了解, it can also means 'to investigate'. e.g 小白, 你去了解一下这事情怎么发生的.


Is the "shh" expression of silence used in Chinese?

Yes. Nearly all Chinese people understand the body language of putting a finger on your lips or saying "shhh." In addition, Chinese also often use 嘘 pronounced xū instead of "shhh" to hush others.


meaning of 想 as "to want" vs "to think/wonder"

The futility of thinking 想 can be fully understood in English.

I am very confused by the character 想。

This is unsurprising because:

想 has multiple distinct meanings: think, feel, miss, imagine, want, wonder, ...; maybe even opine, deduce, conceive, etc., in certain contexts.
Each of these English words have multiple distinct meanings (in English).
想 is ambiguous, and a given usage can often be reasonably translated to multiple distinct words in English.
Likewise, the English equivalents are ambiguous, and can often be reasonably translated to multiple distinct words in Chinese, some of which don't even involve 想, such as 考虑, 怀念, 觉得, 认为, 要求, 决定.

Thus together, if we translate 想 into English, you're looking at 20+ (word,meaning) pairs, only some of which are valid translations of 想 some of the time.  This is further greatly bloated when we include words in Chinese containing the hanzi 想, such as 想法, 想要, 理想, 想到, 想起, 想象, ...
I therefore recommend: forget the idea of getting a clear understanding of 想 directly via English.  You're wasting your time.
But how can I understand 想?

Can you clarify what "想" means by itself?

No.  And I contend that no-one can using English: the words in both Chinese and English are far too imprecise.  At most, you can say that 想 pertains to some thought process, i.e., something is going on in someone's brain.  If you go beyond this, any description of 想 in English is going to be wrong a non-trivial amount of the time (the translation is hugely context dependent).
Translation catalyst: first replace 想 with "something going on in some brain".
This is the method I use for understanding what 想 means in a given context.  We use "something going on in some brain" as a catalyst:

first, replace 想 with the deliberately vague "something going on in some brain",

then, once you understand what the rest of the sentence means, infer the most appropriate English word for "something going on in some brain" from the remainder of the sentence.

For example:

我在想你今天会不会来.
I am [something going on in my brain] if you will come today.
version 1: I am wondering if you will come today.
version 2: I am thinking about whether you will come today.
我想知道你今天会不会来.
I [something going on in my brain] to know if you will come today.
version 1: I want to know if you will come today.
version 2: I would like to know if you will come today.
version 3: I yearn to know if you will come today.

This captures the ambiguity: there are multiple correct translations, and one translation might be better than another depending on context.
What's the difference between 想 vs. 想要 vs. 要?
This might not be 100% accurate, but it works for me:

要 implies something is going to happen---there's no thinking (or just minimal thinking) involved.  [This is among other meanings for 要 which are not related to this topic.]

想要 implies a thought, desire, wish, intention, etc. (i.e., something going on in some brain) that something is going to happen.

想 implies it's purely in the mind (i.e., something going on in some brain), and you haven't (yet) taken steps to achieve it (or have taken minimal steps).

我要吃饺子。
version 1: I am going to eat dumplings.
version 2: I want to eat dumplings.

I'm asserting this (i.e., eating dumplings) is going to happen.  Omitting 想 indicates you're not really thinking about it any more (i.e., "something going on in some brain" is not true).
In English, you wouldn't ordinarily declare "I am going to eat dumplings" to a waiter: (a) it's a bit rude, and (b) it's confusing (the waiter might reply "good for you, but what can I get you today?").  I think it's for these kinds of English-language customs that 要 is translated to "want".

我想要吃饺子。
version 1: I intend to eat dumplings.
version 2: I would like to eat dumplings.
version 3: I want to eat dumplings.

Basically if I don't change my mind, I'm going to eat dumplings.  But it is possible I might change my mind.  Importantly, there's a mind involved ("something going on in some brain").
It means something like: I am thinking about and taking steps towards eating dumplings.

我想吃饺子。
version 1: I desire to eat dumplings.
version 2: I wish to eat dumplings.
version 3: I'm thinking of eating dumplings.
version 4: I want to eat dumplings.

Here, it's all "something going on in some brain".  Whether or not steps have been taken towards eating dumplings is unstated.  Ordinarily, you'd expect that no steps have been taken.


How can I translate this correctly into English "今晚怎么意思"

I think your friend was asking how to arrange the evening, not literally ask the time to meet. 「今晚怎麼意思？」 means “Any plans tonight?" in English.


What qualities does Hong Kong Mandarin have?

I am hardly an expert on this topic. I know basically nothing about Cantonese-influenced Mandarin per se, but I'll offer an answer of the variety that I think hippietrail is looking for. Hopefully other people will be like "I now understand what a good answer to this question is supposed to look like, and furthermore, I know more than that idiot Stumpy Joe Pete! I'll answer it!".
As I mentioned in an answer to a similar question, most southern Mandarin has the characteristic of merging zh ch sh into the z c s series (e.g., "zhi" pronounced as "zi"). Cantonese does this, so I expect HK Mandarin accents to do so.
In Cantonese (among the many many other differences in pronunciation) the g and k are preserved in places where, in Mandarin, they have been palatalized into j and q. For example, 北京 is pronounced "bak1 ging1". (Aside: this helps to explain the outdated Western spellings of "Beijing" as "Peking" and "Chongqing" as "Chungking"--the qs and js were originally velar! As for the p/b k/g thing... blame the Europeans.) Sometimes this shows through in people's Mandarin. For instance, some HK classmates of mine mistakenly guessed the pronunciation of 季节 as "gui4jie2" (instead of "ji4jie2").
It's not only ks and gs that became j and q. There were also fricatives and affricates that palatalized in similar circumstances (before [i]/[j]). See here and look for the /tɕ/ /tɕʰ/ /ɕ/ parts.
Possibly related to that: I once had a very young student with a rather hilarious Mandarin accent (I don't know if she was a Canto speaker). In at least some circumstances, zhi would become ji, chi would become qi, and shi would become xi. This culminated in her yelling about a spider:

老师，老师，有蜘蛛啊！
Standard: lao3shi1, lao3shi1, you3 zhi1zhu1 a!
Her: lao3xi1, lao3xi1, you3 ji1zhu1 a!

I say that it's possibly related, because in Cantonese, 师 = si1 and 蜘 = zi1 (where the i's are actual [i]s! Not like Mandarin!). By analogy to Cantonese words pronounced sik and zik, you would expect the Mandarin to be xi and ji. So, like I said, possibly related.


和这个白人女子, 在鸟不下蛋的地点. Hanging out in the middle of nowhere with this white girl

Does anyone know if this colloquial phrase "鸟不下蛋的地点" is always taken as "middle of nowhere"?

I think the answer is 'yes'. It's a figure of speech. It could be taken as a euphemism for "鸟不拉屎的地点", which is frequently used in informal speech.

Literally, 鸟不下蛋的地点 is the place where birds won't lay their eggs; 鸟不拉屎的地点 where birds won't defecate.


帶把槍 bring a gun.
切條魚 cut a fish.
吃碗麵 eat a bowl of noodles.
裝盒餅乾 pack a box of cookies.

Here measure words (better see them as classifiers) are 把, 條, 碗, 盒 where the number of one is usually omitted. If it's more than one, the number 2, 3, 4... would not be left unsaid or unwritten. (And interestingly 把, 條, 碗 imply singular and 盒 implies a group which might be plural.)

As for your questions in the comment however, when the classifiers are put at the beginning of a sentence, the number is always present even if it's singular. People don't leave classifiers at the start of a sentence without a numeral.

一盒餅乾在桌上 a box of cookies is on the table.
兩碗飯盛好了 two bowls of rice has been filled / prepared.
三條魚跳出水面 three fishes jumped out of the water.
四把槍在門口 four guns were at the gate.

Again even all of the above examples are singular. The number of "one" would always be described because the classifier is at the beginning.


Critique request for my monologue: 我下课以后常常去我的实习。 我以后我的实习我有课一遍。……

Hope this will help.

Correction

我下课以后常常去实习 （ i often go to intern-ship whenever the class is finish ).
实习以后我还有一堂课（After the inter-ship i still have a lesson).
我的最后一堂课有时会在六点钟结束，而其它天都会在八点钟结束。 (My last lesson will ended at 6 o'Clock sometimes,while others day will ended at 8 o'Clock) .
然后我就会开始做作业。（Then i will start to do my homework) .
每周至少有一天我都会有个Amnesty International会议. （At least one day a week i will have a meeting of Amnesty International.
这组/会议是由我和我男朋友举办/开始，它是关于人权。(This group/meeting is organized/started by me and my boyfriend, It's about human rights.
如果我有会议，我得回家作业我开始后。// im not sure what you're trying to express here ,perhaps you can translate it to English first and then i will help you to translate it back to Chinese/
奖学金的条件是必须拥有五个科目，所以我几乎每天都有课。(The requirements of scholarships is must have five subjects, therefore i almost have classes everyday.
周末，我也必须学习。 (Weekend, i have to learn also)
如果我有空闲的时间，我会尝试在星期五和朋友一起出去游玩及在星期日与妈妈一起共餐. (If i have free time, i will try to go out and play with friends on Friday, and having meals with mother on Sunday.
有时我担心我没时间。 (Sometimes I worry that I do not have time).
如实, 我很忙和不能等到休息。 // im not sure what you're trying to express here
但是, 我觉得这些机会是很庆幸的 。 （However, I feel that these opportunities are very fortunate)


Would you use 为 or 给 (or neither) as a dedication?

"致"is often used in the beginning of the letter.
"献给"is a more formal way of "给".


What is considered to be the most difficult sound for native English speakers to pronounce?

Not sure about research

From experience the sounds that people have the most issues with are:

the "r" sound when used at the beginning of a word. Best examples are 热 (re) and 日 (ri).
differentiating between zh & j, sh & x, ch & q.
the ü sound as in 魚 fish (I think that is the one you mentioned).


What's the common Chinese term for a chest cold?

气管炎 (tracheitis) and 支气管炎 (bronchitis) are all common words in Chinese. These words are so often used in everyday jokes that they even sounds like everyday slangs.

气管炎 (tracheitis) is pronounced like 妻管严 (the wife controls strictly) in Chinese, so it is often used in everyday jokes for a man who has a bossy wife.


How to express giving two people some privacy?

"Give them some privacy" = "給他們一點私人空間吧"

私人空間 means "private space", To give a person some private space means to leave him alone for a while.


What's "Mao Li" (Cantonese) in mandarin?

It is one of the obscene language in Hong Kong.
It can be write as 茂利/茂李 (mau6 lei2 in cantonese, Màolì in mandarin), sounds like an English word "mullion"
In Cantonese, we use the word to describe a man standing still like a pillar, later use to describe stupid person.

Reference from https://hk.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=7008062100602, I did a simple translation on the important parts

  是由20世紀初，英國人在香港教中國人建築而來。
  當時英式建築有好多大型窗戶和陽台，例如港督府，
  這些窗戶和陽台的主要支柱，英文叫mullion。
  當時的mullion全部都是使用很粗大的木柱，但只有立著的才叫mullion，
  橫的叫transom。當時香港人又不懂英文，聽見那些洋人指著一大根木桿猛叫[mullion] 漸漸就學著叫[茂利]，意思是一根根木棍或木柱，
  就像傻愣愣站著的人，後來變成用來形容一些愚鈍之人。


What is the difference between 差别, 分别, and 区别?

When they function as nouns to mean difference in the general sense, they are mostly interchangeable.

这两个东西的差别/分别/区别在于……
The difference between these two thingies lies in…

差别 seems to emphasize the difference itself, while 分别/区别 tend to indicate a desire to tell two different things apart (therefore the word "difference" in the title of your question should be translated into 区别). The above example sentence may have slightly different nuances depending on interpretation:

这两个东西的差别是……
What is different in one than in the other is…
这两个东西的区别是……
What distinguishes one from the other is…

BTW, although not in noun form, 差别对待/分别对待/区别对待 makes for an interesting comparison:

差别对待
to treat discriminatorily
分别对待
to treat separately
区别对待
to treat discriminatively (not necessarily with discrimination)


焗 as used in Cantonese means "to bake" in the most general sense of the word. The method of baking you quoted in your question appears to describe specifically to how the Hakka/Cantonese dish 鹽焗雞 ("salt-baked chicken") is prepared, rather than the meaning of 焗 in general, which is simply a method of cooking by surrounding heat. For instance, the word for "oven" in Cantonese is 焗爐. The word can also be used to describe baked cheese dishes for the simple reason that they are baked in an oven.

The character itself appears to be a relatively recent invention since it does not appear in dictionaries such as 《康熙字典》. It was invented by adding the 火 radical to the character 局, which shares the exact same pronunciation in Cantonese (guk6). As for the etymology of the word, I found several sources indicating that it historically should be written 焅, which does have an entry in 《康熙字典》 that cites definitions referring to dry or hot air:

  《說文》旱氣也。《廣韻》熱氣也。

In modern Cantonese usage, the word can be used similarly to refer to hot and stuffy air. The meaning "to bake" was probably a logical extension of this original meaning.

I found this post on a forum that quotes an entry in 《追本窮源：粵語詞彙趣談》 with more details:

  “焅”今通作“焗”，本義是“熱氣”，就是指酷熱的意思。“焅”解作烹調方法，在宋代的書籍已有記載。現在“焅”也解作烹調方法，有兩種含義：（１）利用蒸氣使密閉容器中的食物變熱。例如：“焅飯”；（２）密閉式的烘烤。例如：“焅番薯”、“鹽焅雞”、“芝士焅龍蝦”。其中“芝士焅龍蝦”是西菜。看來“焅”這種烹調法是宜中宜西的。

  由於“焅”的本義是“熱氣”，故引申為天氣悶熱，如說：“今日成攝氏三十八度，天氣好焅。”（“今天氣温接近攝氏三十八度，很悶熱。”）另外，空氣不流通，令人窒悶也可稱“焅”，如說：“間房冇開窗，焅死啦！”（“房間不開窗，悶死了！”）又“焅”有“強迫”、“被迫”的意思。例如：“佢唔鍾意食椰菜花，唔好焅佢食。（“他既然不喜歡吃椰菜花，就別強迫他吃了。”）“個股市係咁跌，焅住要斬倉。”（“股市指數不斷下滑，被迫要結算。”）“焅”在前句解作“強迫”，後句解作“被迫”。

For the benefit of the general audience, here's my own English translation of the entry:

  焅, now commonly written 焗, originally meant "hot air", referring to extreme heat. Its usage to describe a cooking method is attested by Song Dynasty records. 焅 as a cooking method now includes two meanings: (1) using steam in a sealed vessel to heat food, for example, "baked rice"; (2) sealed baking, for example, "baked sweet potato", "salt-baked chicken", "cheese-baked lobster". Of these, "cheese-baked lobster" is a Western dish. 焅 can be seen as appropriately describing both Chinese and Western cooking methods.

  From 焅's original meaning of hot air, its meaning is extended to hot and muggy weather, for instance: "Today will approach 38°C, the weather is very muggy (焅)." In addition, it can be used to describe the effect of air in a room that is stuffy and not well ventilated, for instance: "The room's windows haven't been opened; it's suffocating (焅死)!" Also, 焅 can mean "to compel" or "to be compelled", for instance: "He doesn't like cauliflower; don't compel (焅) him to eat it." "As the stock market continues to fall, I'll be forced (焅) to liquidate." 焅 in the former example was used to mean "compel", and in the latter used to mean "be compelled."


Other than 秘密，are there two-syllable words in Chinese where each syllable is a different character with the same pronunciation?

I've come across words like this a couple of times.
逝世 shìshì
致志 zhìzhì
世事 shìshì
Alliteration (双声) seems to be quite common in Putonghua, and this is an extreme form of alliteration.
It's interesting how all these examples use the fourth tone.
There are more words like this but they tend to be less commonly used or literary words (书面语). Eg: 幽忧 yōuyōu
Edit: Mou某 gave two other good examples: 屈曲 qūqū; 实时 shíshí. And these aren't fourth tone, which is nice.
Edit 2: 全权 quánquán (from Becky 李蓓 's comment)
Edit 3: 意义 yìyì; 意译 yìyì; 异议 yìyì (from Olle Linge's comment)


Usage: analogically simplified (类推简体) vs. original characters

The latest standard is 《通用规范汉字表》 (List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters) formally released in 2013. In practice, 226 analogically simplified characters are identified as 规范字 by the authority; other traditional characters that are not included in 通用规范汉字表 should not be analogically simplified and should keep their original forms.

Related information is quoted as follows:

What the standard says

  《通用规范汉字表》p. 9, 说明

  六、本表对社会上出现的在《简化字总表》和《现代汉语通用字表》之外的类推简化字进行了严格甄别，仅收录了符合本表收字原则且已在社会语言生活中广泛使用的“闫、(钅仑, U+2CB2D in CJK EXT-E)、(兆页, U+2B5AF in CJK EXT-C)”等226个简化字。

    This list has strictly examined and assessed the analogically simplified characters that apprear in society but are excluded in 《简化字总表》 (Complete List of Simplified Characters) or 《现代汉语通用字表》 (List of Commonly Used Modern Chinese Characters), and includes only 226 analogically simplified characters, such as 闫, (钅仑, U+2CB2D in CJK EXT-E), and (兆页, U+2B5AF in CJK EXT-C), which are consistent with the inclusion principle of the List and have been widely used in social life.

How the authority interprets the regulation for analogically simplified characters. It's a controversial topic in the academic circle (FYI, read these two articles 1 & 2), but the opinion in 《〈通用规范汉字表〉解读》 should be considered as the current practical standard – Keep the traditional characters unchanged if they are not in 通用规范汉字表.

  原征求意见稿说明中曾有“根据国务院1986年'今后对汉字的简化应持谨慎态度，使汉字的形体在一个时期内保持相对稳定'的指示精神，本字表以外的字，不再类推简化。”此字句于正式版中消失，即字表本身没有提及字表以外的汉字如何使用[11]。但是《〈通用规范汉字表〉解读》中提到，无限制的类推「实际上使汉字的总体系统繁化甚至混乱……违背了辞书存储汉字的历史真实性原则，拉大了汉字应用的古今差异和两岸差异」，并说明「……收录了少数已经被社会所习用，并符合《简化字总表》规定的类推简化字。今后表外字不再类推简化。」 [12]

    The explanation in the former draft for soliciting opinions once said "According to the instructions of the State Council in 1986 From now on further simplification of Chinese characters should be prudent. Let the forms of Chinese characters be relatively stable in a period., characters excluded from this list will not be analogically simplified." However, this sentence disappears in the formal version – It indicates the List itself does not mention how to use the characters that are not included within the List.[11] Yet, 《〈通用规范汉字表〉解读》 (Interpretation of the List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters) mentions, an unlimitedly analogical simplification "actually makes the whole system of Chinese characters complicated and even chaotic ... which violates 'the principle that dictionaries should reflect the historical genuineness of the usage of Chinese characters', and increases the divergences between ancient and modern Chinese and between Mainland and Taiwan", and further says "... (the List) now includes a few analogically simplified characters that are consistent with the principle of the List and have been widely used in social life. From now on, characters that are not included in the List will not be analogically simplified."

  [11] 《通用规范汉字表》以外的字应准许类推简化. 光明网《光明日报》. 2013-12-14.

  [12] 教育部语言文字信息管理司组 编，王宁 主编. 3.3 《通用规范汉字表》对待类推简化的态度. 《〈通用规范汉字表〉解读》. 商務印書館. ISBN 9787100100939 （中文（中国大陆））.

These 226 analogically simplified characters are

PS: The voices from the academia against "characters that are not included in the List should not be analogically simplified" are strong. In my opinion, both sides have got a point: For the positive side, it largely simplifies the Unicode encoding for Chinese characters and is very pragmatic – just consider the difficulty and trouble when people try to input rare Chinese characters on a computer (some analogically simplified characters don't even exist in Unicode!); For the opposing side, it does make some paragraphs extremely ugly when the simplified are mixed with the traditional – in the aesthetic and purist view point.


索尼 is Sony.
大法 is borrowed from Falungong's 法轮大法.

The inventor of this saying might want to gave people some ideas on how Sony's fans follow Sony's industrial design.

How about translate to Sony cult supremacy or Sony sect supremacy?


Is 熵 in any way part of the spoken language?

As a Chinese, I saw 熵 only in my Chemistry class. Don't use that in your daily life, or people get confused by what you say. If you are talking with a people with low education, he or she won't even know this word.


I'll assume you mean 帘 as in the simplified Chinese for 簾. In which case, strictly speaking:

帘 / 簾 is a cover for windows woven from bamboo slips (hence the traditional top radical) or fabric
帷 is curtains, in the sense of sides a tent woven from fabrics.

In practice, they both mean some sort of fabric material that obscures sight, and therefore usages have become mixed up. In this case, the 窗 in the word 窗帷 specifies its a window curtain, making it the same as 帘 / 簾.

Traditionally, 帘 is actually a different character from 簾. It meant "a banner (of an inn or tavern)", and was flown outside such establishments.

  《唐·鄭谷·旅寓洛南村舍》

  　村落清明近，秋千稚女誇。春陰妨柳絮，月黑見梨花。

  　白鳥窺魚網，青帘認酒家。幽棲雖自適，交友在京華。

Because 帘 also happens to be the simplified Chinese character for 簾, this difference is not noticeable in a majority of online resources anymore.

Historically, 簾 is what court officials use while 帷 is what common folks use. This is Ancient China historical.

  《禮緯》 天子外屛，諸侯內屛，大夫以簾，士以帷


How to say "Next time" in the past tense?

'下次' means in the future. '再次' is better here.


whole text translation and grammar point of 的and给

The 1st sentence really looks like consisting of 3 parts.

小白兔回到家里，The white bunny returned home,
种上了菜籽 grew vegetables
兔给白菜浇水 The bunny watered the plants.

给 in itself means to give, but in many cases, just as here, it is used as a "preposition" that marks the benefited person of an action. E.g.

我给你看看。 I show you/I let you have a look. ("I give you a look. ")
我给你带来了一本书。I brought you a book. ("I brought a book to give it to you.")

2nd sentence:

兔把山羊送的白菜拿回家里。To understand this sentence, you need to take it apart.

山羊送的白菜 means the cabbage that is/was presented by the goat as a present. It is a structure that has 4 parts:

(1) 山羊 the goat
(2) 送 to give (as a present) or to send
(3) 的 attribute particle
(4) 白菜 cabbage

The whole structure is constructed like this: WHO + ACTION + PARTICLE + OBJECT (affected by the action). E.g. 姐姐买的茶 the tea that was bought by elder sister.

拿回 is another thing you need to learn, it is a verb with directional complement, it means take and return (home). A verb is essentially complemented by another verb to show the direction of the movement/action.

There is really no point learning these particles and complements the hard way. Get a grammar reference and work yourself through the examples and the drills. It is a lot easier than trying to translate some easy looking sentence with a dictionary. It is too confusing the way you are trying to do this.

3rd sentence:

他天天不干活儿，饿了就吃山羊送的白菜，白菜很快就吃完了。

He idled his days away, when he was hungry, he just dined on the cabbage given to him by the goat, and soon the cabbage was all eaten up.

There was a wrong character in the 3rd sentence, I suppose it is 饿 not 饯.


Different nuances of words such as 进行, 实施, 执行, etc

Good question. In fact, you can hardly precisely distinguish them by only looking at their definitions. Some are even used to define each other in the dictionary. The best way is to remember some very common collocations containing them. This is actually how native Chinese speakers use these words. Usually they are used only in particular collocations.

进行

This is used to describe that something is currently happening, or is used as a transitive verb followed by formal activities.

  会议正在进行中 = The meeting is going on right now.

  进行科学实验 = conduct scientific experiment

实行，实施

This usually means that you already have a plan or a theory for something and now you need to implement it or carry it out. I think they are interchangeable in most cases.

  实施办法、方案、计划、政策

  实行道路管制 = traffic control (I can't find a verb in English)

行使

This is pretty much only used for legal rights.

  行使权力，行使职权

落实

This is similar to 实施. Literally it means you want your plan to REALLY happen. 落实 compared to 实施 is like "fulfill" compared to “implement, carry out". There is a phrase 落到实处，where 落到 literally means "to fall into (somewhere)" and 实处 means "a real, tangible place" (as opposed to "in vain"). Some examples:

  落实政策

落实 can also mean "determine" or "make sure", but that's another story.
执行

This refers to the actual action of 实施 something. Loosely speaking 执行 refers to a more concrete, specific action.

  我们打算明年实施这个政策，在具体的执行过程中遇到的问题要及时向我汇报 = We plan to carry out this policy the next year. During the execution phase if any problem comes up you need to keep me posted.

  执行任务、命令

You may want to know that:

This is not a comprehensive list.
By providing the list I am not saying that you have to stick to it or stick to existing collocations. But if there is already a collocation that fits what you have in mind, using it can minimize your chance of sounding unnatural.
To find more such collocations you can download a Chinese input method and turn on the collocation option.


i suspected it's "花碼"

https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/花碼

the unicode has these :)

1 - 〡 (u+3021)

2 - 〢 (u+3022)

3 - 〣 (u+3023)

4 - 〤 (u+3024)

5 - 〥 (u+3025)

6 - 〦 (u+3026)

7 - 〧 (u+3027)

8 - 〨 (u+3028)

9 - 〩 (u+3029)

for zero ( 0 ), just write anything like an "0" (u+0030) or "O" (u+004f), or "o" (u+006f)

these type of "number" is actively used in hong kong till recent decades.

some pages talked about it's usage:

https://zh-cn.facebook.com/tcsince1915/photos/a.1657230367749275/2146011468871160/?type=3&eid=ARB5I3SCgyyKt9eNdUmCHpbrVbKlbG6wAjwaAYlK3tJF3VbjrZteYQhdBIEjQc79qIQcHQOQMrx-G0z0&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDOTg8CJGB0m-KfLsD4V4t0tU_Dkm-CRGdo7aIL3c9ujZ0Z7PMaCQveHHDUD0OfIC2RRXCia1w39TXjMsJOSRaz8ArswIHmfgIzkFVB81LH52iYD_fk_evIxWof-Ao6HKvC-jd1BFRdudkl0q8oTVBtC41Aw47wngbfZXHLEEY9gqP3mtCdlE_G_c9Ivq33JCJ_IVNsSIEtvH73Kq4hUfQqPHgXVIXljzXeUX6YhHfsRFt9XzExpKjBjnkH0PCB2qu7gEIffNcNwqRPQdWD4JAfeiZzTbQSeGhscdj1Pmhl8_FiKF90c7QfPG-4YumkLbaBtj0wcSqO1Wudu0D2B8Rfrjnx&__tn__=EHH-R

https://www.hk01.com/熱爆話題/52311/紅van集體回憶-〤〥-花碼價錢牌-你知落車俾幾錢

https://lihkg.com/thread/328698/page/1

when i was young, studying in primary school, i needed to learn 0-9 in english, roman numerals, chinese numerals (大寫),   and 花碼,  at the same time :(


How is the 儿 ending pronounced outside Beijing?

In MOST cases... Outside of Beijing, in texts, I believe the 儿 is still pronounced. But you can be sure that in spoken Chinese, it will never be pronounced (unless some kids are trying to mock the access by over accentuating it).
I said in MOST cases because there are some words that have simply been adopted by non-Beijing'ers and will always be pronounced with a 儿, and would sound weird otherwise.
Examples: Some Beijing phrases may be somewhat disseminated outside Beijing:
抠门儿 kōumér – stingy, miserly (may be used even outside Beijing)

So whether you're from Beijing or not, you will always pronounce and write this word as 抠门儿 kōumér.
The closest I can come to describing this in American English is how we pronounce certain areas/things in the actual dialectical origin of that word. For example, we say "New Orleans" as someone from New Orleans would say it: "Norlins" even though we're not from New Orleans necessarily. If you say "New Orleans" and pronounce every syllable, it would sound weird to anyone... native or not to New Orleans.

EDIT: a better example is Louisville Kentucky. EVERYONE pronounces Louisville as "Louville".


Is there any proof that the Taishanese language is related to Gan? Is it from a linguistic perspective?

The Gan-Hakka hypothesis is most famously put forward by Sagart (2002), based on certain unique shared innovations in both Southern Gan varieties and Hakka:

屋下 as the usual word for "house", compared to Cantonese 屋企.
Use of 倈/孻 (beginning with /l/) as the usual word for "son".
Similar words for "here" and "there" between 梅縣 (Meixian) Hakka and 永修 (Yongxiu) Gan.
A word for "you" that begins with /h~x/, has a nucleus /e~ɛ~æ/, and ends in a nasal, instead of using those that are related to 爾 ~ 你.

However, one notices that these are primarily lexical in nature, plus these are restricted to various features of Gan quite far from Nanchang 南昌, the most studied variety. As far as I know, none of these "unique" shared innovations are common to 四邑 Siyi/Sze-yap/Seiyap varieties.
There are nonetheless plenty of 四邑 Siyi features that mean it is definitely very divergent from the other Yue varieties, as described on that blog post; this is acknowledged among those who do hold to classifying Siyi as part of Yue.
I would also cite the following tone merger:

the merger of Middle Chinese 陰平 (yīnpíng) and 陰去 (yīnqù) tones, which in Taishanese results in a mid-level tone (33).

However, this is very different to the Hakka pattern, where 陰上 and 陽上 merge with each other, and 陰去 陽去 merge with each other (although there is a good deal of 濁上歸去, as is true in Mandarin and Cantonese). Hence this is actually specific to specific parts of Siyi, and according to the seminal work on Taishanese phonology, Cheng (1973), it may be part of a proper tonal chain shift.
The way 濁上歸去 interacts with the above tone merger also creates effects which are very reminiscent of certain key defining features of Hakka, as well as a Southern Gan variety spoken in Nanxiong 南雄, Guangdong, for example in the pronunciations of 耳 and 兩.
The absence of vowel length in Siyi is an interesting one, as Siyi like all other Yue varieties underwent the 陰入聲 split, conditioned by the 內外轉 nèi-wài zhuǎn distinction of Middle Chinese. It is true that it does also manifest as vowel length as well as tone split in Yuehai/Guangfu Cantonese, whereas in Siyi Taishanese it only resulted in a tone split. But this is characteristic of a Yue variety; indeed, for some it is the defining characteristic, according to Huang (2009).
Siyi also has a 陽入聲 split as well. The condition for this 陽入聲 split was "unclear" in the 1973 study.
The consonant shifts, which are iconic traits of Siyi varieties for Cantonese speakers, are actually common to lots of varieties of Yue, Gan and Min. Though the blog post does identify a common cause for the /s/ > /ɬ/ shift, I'd want to see slightly more specific distribution maps first. Even for those who see Siyi / Ng-yap as being classified independently from all of Yue, Hakka and Gan (Orlandi (2019); also cf. Pinghua), the consonant shift is not diagnostic.
Also, one cannot ignore the considerable internal diversity of Siyi, summarised by Tan (2017). Its internal diversity, with very low mutual intelligibility across the counties comprising the Siyi region, just means that there is a lot more data now, and a lot more work to be done! Like much in the field of Sinitic linguistics, a lot of the classification done in the mid-late 20th century is being re-analysed in the 21st.


施用 = use; apply; implement (usually to a target)

使用 = use; operate (with or without target)

When someone "施用武力" or "施用毒氣"，  there are always specific targets the action is applied to

Example: 對示威者施用武力; 對村民施用毒氣 use force against demonstrators; use gas on the villagers (you can replace 施用 with 使用 in these two examples)

When someone "使用工具" or "使用武器" there may or may not be a specific target the action is apply to.

Example: 祇有小數動物會使用工具/武器 Only a few kinds of animal know how to use tools/weapons ( you cannot replace 使用 with 施用 in this example because there is no specific target the action is apply to)


meaning and function of 使 as in "不如小决使道，不如吾闻而药之也"

the origin is 左傳　襄公三十一年:

  鄭人游于鄉校，以論執政，然明謂子產曰，毀鄉校何如，子產曰，何為，夫人朝夕退而游焉，以議執政之善否，其所善者，吾則行之，其所惡者，吾則改之，是吾師也，若之何毀之，我聞忠善以損怨，不聞作威以防怨，豈不遽止，然猶防川，大決所犯，傷人必多，吾不克救也，不如小決，使道不如，吾聞而藥之也，然明曰，蔑也今而後知吾子之信可事也，小人實不才，若果行此，其鄭國實賴之，豈唯二三臣，仲尼聞是語也，曰，以是觀之，人謂子產不仁，吾不信也。

the punctuation of the above text is, imo, doubtful :(

anyway, the metaphor is:

people's animosity (民怨) is like water flow

a ruler can built a dam to store water, and stop the flow. but, over times, water would overflow, destroy the dam.

so, 子產's method to handle people's animosity is: don't stop it, let small amount of water flow daily; in which no water would collected large enough to destroy the dam.

  大決所犯．傷人必多．吾不克救也．不如小決使道．不如吾聞而藥之也

dam burst (大決) . . .

it would be better to (不如) [let] small amount of (小) [water] flow (決) [pass the dam], as (使) dredge (道 --> 疏導).

it would be better to (不如) [let] me (吾) hear (聞) [people's critic (以論執政) at the school (于鄉校)], and (而) [using such critics] as medicine (藥) to cure the governing (之).

depends on the style of writing, one might interpret "使" differently.

have fun :)


Can someone please translate this for me?

黄芪: the root of membranous milk vetch (Astragalus membranaceus)

刺五加: manyprickle (Acanthopanax senticosus)

山药: dioscorea [rhizome]; also called Chinese yam.

淫羊藿: epimedium

Need to see the instructions inside on how to take it.

Edit: says it also contains saponin and crude polysaccharide and it's not good for children.


大 or 小 before a classifier describes the size or amount of it
Example:
一堆 = a pile of; 一大堆 = a large pile of;  一小堆 = a small pile of
堆 is not a measurement unit but a description of a form. The adjective 大 or 小 roughly describes the object's size in this form
In the case of 一大亩, since 亩 is a measurement unit, there is no difference in size between 一亩田 and 一亩地; 這一亩 and 那一亩. The adjective '大' (big) is, therefore, a subjective description for emphasis (the speaker considers 一亩 is a big area)

一 (number)

大 (size/ amount)

亩 (classifier; measurement unit)

一亩田 = one mu of field (the speaker is stating the actual size of the field, which is 667 square meters)

一大亩田 = one big mu of field (the speaker consider 667 square meters is a big area)

Another classifier for 田 is 片, which is not a measurement unit:
一片田 = a field
一大片田 = a large field
(大 or 小 roughly describes the size of the classifier 片)


If Pinyin (or Other Romanization) can be Translated Back into Chinese Characters

I'm wondering if there is any way to write Chinese characters using the Latin alphabet (a-zA-Z) with/without accents of any sort, and then convert it into Chinese characters. Even if it is considered a bad idea for a new learner, I would still like to know if it is possible in any way.

Every Chinese character is associated with Unicode identification numbers. Not sure if this is what you are looking for. Nothing phonetic is available of this sort.

  But in speech, you don't have access to writing, so this either means you need to learn how to read Chinese in order to understand these words in speech, or you can understand them in speech without learning to read Chinese, because of context of some sort. If humans are able to tell how the sound of words translates into meaning, then I would wonder how we do that, because that would also answer the question.

These sorts of words are distinguished in the same way that we do in English for two/too/to. A kindergartner can use these three words just fine and distinguish them all without knowing they have different spellings.


这 vs 这里, 我家 vs 我的家 to translate ”this is my home"?

这里 (here) refers to the 'location of the home' (an address, a place)
这 (this) refers to the 'physical home' (a house, a cardboard box) 这 can also be short for 这里 (here) in this context

As for 我家 vs. 我的家, you can see my answer to this question: Why no 的 in this sentence?

  The possessive '的' after a subject is usually kept, if it is a 'true possessive'(something you actually own) For example: The possessive 的 in 我的車 cannot be omitted and make it "我車"

  On the other hand, if the '的' is a 'relative possessive'(something you don't actually own) can be omitted. For example: you can omit the '的' in '我的母亲' and write 我母亲.

  More example:

  The possessive 的 in 这是我的太太; 他是我的女儿; 你的国家; 你的公司 can be omitted. You can write 这是我太太; 他是我女儿; 你国家; 你公司 (if you actually own the country or the company, then the possessive 的 should be kept)

  我(的)妈妈的房子很高。 can be reduced to: 我妈妈的房子很高。

  我(的)牛(的)角很长。 cannot be reduced to: 我牛的角很长。 or 我的牛角很长。

  (you possess the cow and the cow possesses the horns, neither can be omitted.)

Basically your answer used "这里" (here) instead of  "这" (this) is not a literal translation of the English sentence "This is my home".

我家 can mean either "you live there and own the place" or "you live there but do not own the place (you could have rented it)
我的家 implies "you live there and own the place" or "you live there and you belongs to the family that own the place. In This case "我的家" implies "我(们)的家"

"这里是我的家" is not a wrong translation for "this is my home" if you are referring to a place you or your family owns but it can still be reduced to "这是我家"


What is the most appropriate English word to describe '面' in phrase like '看在A的面上, B...'

'看在A的面上, B...' is better be translated as " Out of respect to A, B..."

  Example: "看在你妈妈的面上，我就不为难你" - " Out of respect to your mother, I'll let you off the hook'

~

  As for '看在A的份上, B...', I would translate it as

  "For A's sake, B..."

  or

  "With consideration for A, B..."

  Examples:

  "看在你妈妈的份上，我就不为难你" - "For your mother's sake, I'll let you off the hook"

  or

  "看在你妈妈的份上，我就不为难你" - "With consideration for your mother, I'll let you off the hook"


What are some US Mandarin curriculum standards?

I am not familiar with AP Chinese curriculum but I would recommend go by China's HSK.

Reasons:

HSK is designed for non-native speakers and is administered by an agency of Ministry of Education.
If you adapted the HSK, you might lower your cost of authorisation. Even though I don't have the actual number, you could tell from the exam fees.
HSK is harder than AP Chinese. It's not easy to get 'A' in HSK.


As @user6065 suggested in the comment:

你坐在第四个右边 is weird in its word order.

By your context， I think you should say 你坐在右起第四个（座位） or 你的座位是从右数第四个.


Help checking the correct meaning of '遐想连篇'

中国的5000年悠久历史、
The Middle Kingdom's 5000 year long history,
丰富多样的风俗文化
rich and diverse customs and culture
以及无处不在的神秘感，
as well as its all-pervasive feeling of mystery,
让许多外国人心驰神往，
fascinates and infatuates many a foreigner,
遐想连篇。
causing endless flights of fancy and imagination.


「奇」 is not a person riding a horse - that is probably a learning mnemonic, meant to remind you of the word 「騎」. This character has received some attention in the question What is the glyph origin of '奇'?.
「怪」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*kruːds/, strange) is comprised of semantic 「心・忄」 (heart, mind) and phonetic 「圣」(/*kʰuːd/).

「圣」 (Mandarin Pinyin: kū, to dig) is comprised of semantic 「又」 (picture of a hand) and semantic 「土」 (picture of a lump of dirt).
「圣」 is rarely seen in the orthodox character system. However, you may see the identical shape 「圣」 in unorthodox systems representing completely different words or components, such as Simplified Chinese (where it is used as an abbreviation of 「聖」) and Japanese Shinjitai (where it is used as an abbreviation of 「巠」).
As usual, these abbreviations do not have anything to do with the language.

You shouldn't use 「奇」 by itself if you want to say strange; this is because 「奇」 forms the roots of several words which don't necessarily mean strange, but related yet different words like wonderful (奇妙), mysterious; magical (神奇), and rare (奇特).


In [人生][比之为][杠杆]

[人生] (life) is the main object.

[比] short for [比喻] (metaphorize). It is the verb.

[之] (it) functions as an objective pronoun. In this case, the object is '人生'

[为] (as being) is the auxiliary verb.

[杠杆] (lever) is the relative object, which is the 'metaphor' for ' '人生'

'之为' means 'it as being' here.
"把人生比之为杠杆" = "Take life and metaphorize it as being a lever."
*Depend on the object, '之' can represent any objective pronoun (that, him, her them, it)
More Example:
"把日本視之为敵人" = "Take Japan and see it as being an enemy"

*You can omit  the objective pronoun '之' in these sentence:
'把人生比为杠杆' ;  '把日本視为敵人'

~

*You can omit 'being' in these sentence:
'metaphorize life as a 'lever' ; 'see Japan as an enemy'


I don't think 在瞬间 is used as often as 一瞬间， 瞬间，在那一瞬间，etc, which means at that very moment.

However, I can think of one situation where 在瞬间 can be perfectly used.

  那座桥在瞬间崩塌了。

This sentence means the bridge collapsed in no time. So yes, 在瞬间 means in an instant in this case.

If you can provide more context, I'll be more than happy to follow up.


my guess:

the first seal is "臣景昭"

the second one is "x畫",

the last one,

ｅｃａ
ｆｄｂ

the picture shown top 3 (ｅ, ｃ, ａ) & half the lower 3 characters (ｆ, ｄ, ｂ).

ｅ: the left component is 人 (radical 9)

ａ: the left component is 止 (radical 77)

anyway, here's the enhanced picture:


The text is 我爱你 (simplified Chinese), meaning "I love you". The top of the chop is a symbol of sun-ray and the bottom seems like either cloud or sea wave ( it does look like the infinity symbol, but if that is the case, there should only be one)


poems/phrases/quotes/stories/allegories about “good news”


In your scenario, I would say "今天正好是你订婚一周年"

正好
Exactly, and you can also say 正正好好 'absolutely exactly'(don't know how to say it)

This is a common word which can be proved by

李同志依了好婆的话去做,果然,正正好好的到了头。(文匯月刊, 第 111-115 卷 第25页)

太晚了人家也要怪的,五分钟正正好好, (新华文摘 第 7-12 期 第86页)

正正好好戴在唐僧的脑袋上 (另眼看四大名著: 西遊記、水滸傳、三國演義、紅樓夢
作者：馬亞麗)


Yahtzee score card — what is the term for a “full house”

翻译参考:

UPPER SECTION 上半部
Aces 一点
Twos 二点
Threes 三点
Fours 四点
Fives 五点
Sixes 六点
TOTAL SCORE 总点数
BONUS 赠点
TOTAL 上半部小计

LOWER SECTION 下半部
3 of a kind 三同花/点
4 of a kind 四同花/点
Full House 葫芦
Small Straight 小(四)顺
Large Straight 大(五)顺
YAHTZEE "压死" 五同花/点
Chance 机会
YAHTZEE BONUS 压死赠点
TOTAL 下半部小计
TOTAL 上半部小计
GRAND TOTAL 总计


How to say the following phrase in Mandarin?

"I'd like to take a picture of me and my family, but there is no one around execpt those two foreigners. I will ask them."

我想找人帮我们拍一张全家福，但周围除了两个外国人就没有别人了。我去问问他们。


Is the mūdra "little tarzan" a real thing? what does it mean?

It's most likely a Taoism's 手訣 (I'd say that the word 手印 is reserved to Buddhism).
It probably comes from this book.

Apparently, there is a more famous 手訣 called 靈官訣, using by 王靈官, similar to 小泰山訣.
Bonus: this is how it works in practice.

Source:

http://www.izhct.com/xiushen/dao/11095.html
https://kknews.cc/culture/5ojavp3.html
https://kknews.cc/news/6pgk2lq.html


气 is vapor, and so 天气 is the vapor of heaven, that is weather. 气候 is climate by analogy, referring to a timespan, or 地气, referring to the vapors of earth.

But 气 is also breath, attitude, atmosphere and similar derived meanings. Poetically, 天气 could mean the influence of the heavens, although it is likely that 天气 was applied to such settings rather than being derived from religion.

樂記 (战国):

地氣上齊，天氣下降，陰陽相摩，天地相蕩，鼓之以雷霆，奮之以風雨，動之以四時，暖之以日月，而百化興焉。如此則樂者天地之和也。

The breath (or influence) of earth ascends on high, and that of heaven descends below. These in their repressive and expansive powers come into mutual contact, and heaven and earth act on each other. (The susceptibilities of nature) are roused by the thunder, excited by the wind and rain, moved by the four seasons, and warmed by the sun and moon; and all the processes of change and growth vigorously proceed. Thus it was that music was framed to indicate the harmonious action of heaven and earth.


What is the meaning and usage of 于之 and its contraction 焉 in classical Chinese?

My teacher told me that 焉 equals to 于(at) + 之(a kind of pronoun).

与 usually equals to "and".

But in 与君共饮, the 与 means do sth with sb or do sth together.

陈涉少时，尝与人佣耕： (work) for.

吾孰与徐公美： Compare with someone/sth else.

朝过夕改，君子与之： Agree with ...

I haven't all of the uses of 与 because these are common. It's not good for you to have a study about all the uses of one word though some of them are not common because they will confuse you.

I hope these will help you.


什么什么 can be used as a filler like "blabla". In Japanese the pedant is used (何). Good translations would be "and so on" or "blabla", imo.

Example, when trying to explain how "As soon as" works in Chinese:

  "他一什么什么，他就做什么什么。。。"

--> This is the generic version of the usage of "as soon as".

I would translate this with

  "As soon as he [...], he makes/does [...]"

whereas the [...] is filled by 什么什么 and in English this could be "blablabla":

  "As soon as he blablabla, he makes/does blablabla".

Source: My own experience as a non native speaker and my wife (who is a native speaker and whom I am going to ask today evening to confirm my answer)

EDIT: I asked her, she can confirm my answer. But there also is another usage of repeated 什么:
Your question refers to "那什么什么" - which is used as a substitution, in  case you forget a word during a conversation. So instead of saying the name of the thing you use "那什么什么".

Interestingly, a similar concept exists for persons/names. If you forgot a person's name or do not want to use the name the substitute "那谁" would be used.


Is there a difference between 你无意之中流露出来 and 你无意流露出来?

The first one is straightforward - it means showing one's intent unwittingly. The second one is a bit tricky to interpret. It does mean the same thing in the examples you quoted. However, "无意之中" and "无意" are not the same. For example, I can say "他无意上学" (he doesn't intend to go to school) but it is wrong to say that "他无意之中上学". Note that "他" makes no attempt to hide his intent here. "上学" (going to school) simply doesn't cross his mind.

Also, "之中" means "in the midst of doing someting". Grammatically, it's present continuous or past continuous.


部首 is typically (but not in all cases) used to illustrate a character's fundamental feature.
詈 means to curse, so it is related with 言(speak, remark, words etc.).


"Wealth Follows The Extension of Motorways" is an expression that's been attributed as a "Chinese saying".

I first heard it on this video

China’s Super Highway: MEGAPROJECTS (Part 6) by The Daily Conversation.

Starting at around ~2:30 the narrator says:

  It seems the whole country's embracing the Chinese saying lu tong cai tong - Wealth Follows The Extension of Motorways.

Almost the exact same quote can be found in this blogspot post:

  It seems the whole country is embracing the Chinese saying, “Lutong Caiton,” wealth follows the extension of motorways.

It all seems to be based of the saying 路通财通. Which with the current announcements and actual extensions & building of highways and superhighways certainly fits your 修路致富.

It doesn't seem to be a well known phrase yet in English, but the Daily Conversation has almost racked up 1.5 million views on their youtube video, so it might very well become a "Chinese saying" in English.


Cannot recognise a chinese chracter handwriting

Chinese handwriting and calligraphy tradition allow for huge variability in appearance of characters.

With these three characters, first two are easily identified as 右 and 同. (Though the writer smooshes together the strokes of the mouth 口 part and the result resembles cursive letter n, yet his strokes clearly follow the right order.) For comparison, here are possible appearances of these characters from the Compilation of Cursive Characters《草字彙》:

As for the third character, the right part quite clearly identifies as 匕, which got transformed into S-like or b-like stroke crossed by a checkmark-like stroke. According to the cursive character compilation《草字彙》, this transformation is a typical one for this radical:

That leaves us with only a few characters that have 匕 on the right, like 比 (compare)，北 (north)，此 (this)，化 (chemistry), as well as more rare characters like 牝 (female animal), 叱 (shout), 吡，妣，秕，舭。Only 此 seems to make sense with the preceding characters.

Moreover, I checked database of old cursive characters, and variants of 此 resemble what you have here most closely:

So, in conclusion, I think this is most likely 右同此.


It is called 隔音符號 (lit. symbol for sound segregation). When you group pinyin syllables by word, sometimes confusion may arise. With fángài, do you mean fán gài or fáng ài?

An apostrophe is needed before syllables that begin with a, o, or e to avoid confusion (because they have a silent initial, i.e. 零聲母). So if you write fángài, you only mean fán gài (there is no word for this), but if you write fáng'ài, you mean fáng ài 妨礙.

Other examples include: Xī'ān 西安 vs xiān 先, pí'ǎo 皮襖 vs the syllable piao.

Reference: 漢語拼音方案


Is 未長未短 grammatically correct (in classical Chinese)?

The short answer is yes, especially in written. It's kind of “文言文” so may hardly be seen in oral speaking.

  游览路线也依旧如故，未长未短

Here “未长未短” means "it is neither longer nor shorter than before", in other words, "its (the route's) length is not changed".

Let's read the whole sentence again and you will be clearer.

  但与大门前的“翻天覆地”相比，……，景观还是两年前的样子，没多没少，游览路线也依旧如故，未长未短

“未长未短” actually act the same role as “没多没少”, both of them means "things not changed". Conversely, “翻天覆地” means "things changed significantly".

  如意金箍棒复得, 未长未短

Great sentence if you want to say 金箍棒完好无损。


Is there a Chinese name for the initiality theorem?

There is currently no standard name for this theorem in Chinese.


Do people make puns out of the Earthly Branches in Chinese culture?

丑 can also mean clown

No, 丑 usually means ugly in Simplified Chinese. 小丑 means clown.

We usually don't say 丑年. We say 牛年.

I guess you could play with puns if you try to, but in a normal conversation people won't mix the meanings.


他读书很用功。

In this sentence, 用功 is actually used to describe 他, instead of the action 读书. The main sentence is 他很用功, where 读书 can be regarded as a subject clause, so you need an adjective. You can also say 他读书很用功的, but it is kinda informal.

  他很用功地读书。

As you said, 用功 is transformed from an adjective to an adverb, in this sentence, in order to modifier the verb.

I'm not familiar with how to analyze the grammar, if I'm wrong, feel free to point out.


捂: cover small things almost entirely by a hand or hands
遮: cover large things partially or entirely by things like a sheet or a piece of paper
盖: cover something entirely by things like a lid or a cap
捂住耳朵 is better than 遮住耳朵 or 盖住耳朵 obviously.The latter two are also acceptable and understandable.cover up a situation: 掩盖/遮盖/遮掩/隐藏事实/事情, 掩盖 is the most frequently used word.


Can anyone figure out if this tattoo means anything?

I'm going to 答非所问 for a quick second.

There used to be this font:

  "Natural Expressions"
  Chinese/Kanji & Egyptian Flash/Design Sheets

that offered:

  8 Chinese/Kanji & Egyptian Flash/Design Sheets
  Here are some wonderful Chinese/Kanji & Egyptian Flash Design Sheets which are very popular and a must for any modern tattoo parlor. This set of the 8 flash sheets contains 100's of different images/characters! Line drawings are not included/available with this set.

which included this English to Chinese/Kanji tattoo translation sheet:

all for this price of:

  U.S. $64.99

Hanzismatter also deciphered the tattoo writings like this:

But as they mention it's mostly all gibberish.


What are five most useful or common Chengyu phrases in the workplace?

a newbie

  菜鳥應該自認 才疏學淺 孤陋寡聞 有如 井底之蛙 所知有限
  對公司的文化習慣更是 一無所知 一竅不通
  縱然是 三頭六臂 神通廣大 學富五車 才高八斗
  也不可 恃才傲物 妄自尊大 目中無人 不可一世
  更不可 自命不凡 自以為是 夜郎自大 剛愎自用
  應當 虛懷若谷 謙卑自牧 移樽就教 不恥下問
  同事 循循善誘 諄諄教誨 善意提醒 好心指點
  自當 聚精會神 洗耳恭聽 聞一知十 舉一反三
  不可 漫不經心 馬耳東風 囫圇吞棗 不求甚解

  做事應 按部就班 有條不紊 兢兢業業 任勞任怨
  若是想 出奇制勝 標新立異 好高騖遠 眼高手低
  常落得 班門弄斧 不自量力 布鼓雷門 貽笑大方
  真是 關公面前耍大刀 孔夫子門前賣文章
  倘若是 敷衍塞責 文過飾非 避重就輕 好逸惡勞
  終究是 水落石出 自取其辱 因小失大 得不償失

才疏學淺 to have little talent and less learning
孤陋寡聞 ignorant and ill-informed
井底之蛙 a person with a very limited outlook and experience
一無所知 to know nothing at all
一竅不通 to be utterly ignorant of
三頭六臂 three heads and six arms; superhuman powers
神通廣大 to have great magic power
學富五車 of great erudition and scholarship
才高八斗 to have profound learning; of great talent
恃才傲物 to be inordinately proud of one's ability
妄自尊大 to be overweening; be too big for one's boots
目中無人 supercilious; to consider everyone beneath one's notice
不可一世 to be insufferably arrogant
自命不凡 to consider oneself no ordinary; self-glorification
自以為是 self-righteous; bumptious
夜郎自大 extremely arrogant
剛愎自用 headstrong; opinionated
虛懷若谷 to be very modest
謙卑自牧 to keep modest so as to cultivate one's moral character
移樽就教 (to take one's wine cup to another person's table to seek his advice) to go to somebody for advice
不恥下問 not to feel ashamed to ask and learn from one's subordinates
循循善誘 to teach with patience and skill
諄諄教誨 belecture; inculcate
聚精會神 to concentrate one's attention
洗耳恭聽 to listen with respectful attention
聞一知十 to infer the whole matter after hearing but one point
舉一反三 to draw inferences about other cases from one instance
漫不經心 heedless; unmindful; inattentive
馬耳東風 to go in one ear and out the other; to pay no attention to what one said
囫圇吞棗 (to swallow dates whole) to lap up information without digesting it
不求甚解 not to seek to understand things thoroughly
按部就班 to follow the prescribed order
有條不紊 systematically; methodically; in an orderly way
兢兢業業 cautious and conscientious
任勞任怨 to bear hardship without complaining
出奇制勝 to win victory through unexpected moves
標新立異 to do something unconventional or unorthodox
好高騖遠 to reach for what is beyond one's grasp
眼高手低 to have grandiose aims but puny abilities
班門弄斧 to display one's slight skill before an expert
不自量力 to go beyond one's depth
布鼓雷門 to take things to a place where they already abound; to make a fool of oneself by foolish display
貽笑大方 to make a laughingstock of oneself before experts
避重就輕 to avoid the important and dwell on the trivial
好逸惡勞 (love to go ease and hate to work hard) to despise labor and love ease
敷衍塞責 to perform one's duty in a perfunctory manner
文過飾非 to cover up one's mistakes
水落石出 the whole things come to obvious
自取其辱 to bring disgrace on one's own head; to ask for an insult
因小失大 to try to save a little only to lose a lot; to spoil the ship for a halfpennyworth of tar
得不償失 the gains do not make up for the losses; to be not worth the candle

(tag line)
關公面前耍大刀 being a snob in front of a true expert; to teach one's grandmother how to suck eggs
孔夫子門前賣文章 to show off in the presence of an expert


I don't suggest you summarise such rules. As a language learner, one of your goals is saying words clearly and accurately. In this way, receivers would completely understand it the first time you say sentences. Similar to New York and London, there are more outsiders living in Beijing than native speakers of Beijing dialect. Thus, Beijing dialect speakers tend to speak standard Putonghua.
If you want to learn swallow 吞音, your rate of speaking has to be as same as a native speaker. Otherwise, it sounds weird if you swallow phonemes when you speak slowly.
I don't think swallow rules are based on particular tones. All of them change to r not h.
After changing, it becomes 轻声/natural tone.
I think 非常, 多少, 还是, 老师, 派出所, 为什么, 不知道 and 但是 are often swallowed. Other words are rarely swallowed nowadays.

非常 fēicháng > fēirang (ráng is at least 2 times faster than cháng, “faster”)
多少 duōshǎo > duōrao (faster)
还是 háishì > háiri (faster)
小车 xiǎo chē (儿化 rather than 吞音）> 小车儿 xiǎo chēr
老师 lǎoshī > lǎori (faster)
派出所 pàichūsuǒ > pàirusuǒ (faster)
不知道 bù zhīdào > bù ridào (faster)
但是 dànshì > dànri


How to translate correct these two sentences?

刚来一会: (I)'ve only been here for a bit since (my) arrival
他刚到十分钟: It has only been 10 minutes since his arrival.
If 刚 combines with a verb, the action is already performed.


Maybe a comparison to English will help you remember:
我喜欢坐飞机去。(adverbial)
I like to travel by plane.
我喜欢坐飞机看风景。(still adverbial)
I like to watch scenery by plane.
However:
我喜欢坐飞机（，而不是坐火车）。(followed by nothing)
I like to take planes(, not trains).
I'm not sure if my explanation makes sense. Just for reference.


实在的人 = pragmatic person

可靠的人 = reliable/ dependable person

Your confusion might come from you thinking "One can rely on pragmatic people to do thing well". Thus make pragmatic people also be reliable people


The negative sentiment can be found in:
1.那个
2. "还上班啊"
This is an exclamation sentence. The speaker who said it was kind of shocked because the person he/she was talking to have to deal with a situation that was supposed not to happen which is working during the national day.


This is mostly just for clarity rather than anything else.

他游泳得很快 is not okay but 他游得很快 is okay. Without any context though who could understand a random 他游得很快? No one, really. Hence we get our doubling up: 他游泳游得很快。


If Chinese characters are ever used like numbers like in English

Here are some common choices

Use Arabic numerals

This is the most common way nowadays.

1) 第一点
2) 第二点
3) ……

Use numbers in Chinese

It's OK but why not use Arabic numerals?

一）第一点
二）第二点
三）……

And their 大写数字 form

壹）第一点
贰）第二点
叁）……

Use 天干 and 地支

They are quite rarely used today.

天干：甲(jiǎ)、乙(yǐ)、丙(bǐng)、丁(dīng)、戊(wù)、己(jǐ)、庚(gēng)、辛(xīn)、壬(rén)、癸(guǐ)
地支：子(zǐ)、丑(chǒu)、寅(yín)、卯(mǎo)、辰(chén)、巳(sì)、午(wǔ)、未(wèi)、申(shēn)、酉(yǒu)、戌(xū)、亥(hài)

Use them like this:

甲）第一点
乙）第二点
丙）……

and

子）第一点
丑）第二点
寅）第三点

Use Latin Letters

Use a ~ z would be acceptable some how. I would say they would appear more common than 天干/地支 system.

When try to write hex numbers, you should use 0-9A-F as they are in English. At least I don't know any other way to write it in Chinese.


The difference between 你不知道吗？/你知道吗？/不知道吗？/知道吗？

They mean similar. It depends how you use them and the tones you use.

Basically, 1 & 3 sound like you should know it. Well, 2 & 4 usually are generic questions for checking whether you know it.


Which one has the correct "lian", 炼功夫 or 练功夫?

According to Zhongwen Chinese Popup Dictionary, 炼 means "to refine, to smelt"; while 练 means "to practice, to train, to drill, to perfect (one's skills), exercise".

So obviously 练功夫 is more correct from a formal perspective, though both are possibly used informally.


Better translation for "Grateful for everything life has given me"

The second sentence is exactly what you are looking for.

The first sentence doesn't make any sense.


In the constitutional monarchy, 首相 is the the head of the cabinet, with the highest executive power.

首, in ancient Chinese, means the first or top. 相, short for 丞相, are the officials(usually with great power, just below the emperor) of the emperor. Therefore, 首相 is the top official of a central government.

In the republican state, there is no prime minister, and 总理 run the central government.

Countries have 首相: Japan, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium...

Countries have 总理: China, Germany, India...
Most countries have a 总理, while USA has neither a 总理 nor a 首相, it has a 国务卿(Secretary of State).
States with 总理 usually have a 总统(president) or a 主席(chairman).


Are these all correct ways of explaining I'm from Australia?

all correct except 我在澳大利亚生了, which means I gave birth in Australia


Can a character be simplified or traditional depending on the context it is used in?

To answer your question, we need to clearly understand how Traditional Chinese characters got simplified, which I bet 99.999999% of the whole Chinese population don't even know about.
This is a very big topic that I am not able to discuss about it in detail. So I will give a much simplified explanation.
Consider these 2 sets: Traditional Characters vs Simplified Characters
Of cause there is a mapping between the 2 sets. Most of the mapping (78%) is for "non-simplification at all", like 人 口 手 大 小 天 地 etc. Those characters are NOT simplified.
While the rest of the mapping (22%) is the "real simplification".
In the set of Simplified Characters, there are only 2235 "real simplified characters" in total.
Among the most used 3500 Chinese characters, there are only 1116 "real simplified characters", so the percentage is 32%, less than 1/3.
A medium-sized Chinese dictionary roughly covers 10 thousand "head charcters", among which there are 2235 "real simplified characters", so the percentage is 22%, less than 1/4.
Now we can see the real simplified characters are only a small portion of the whole Chinese charaters.
All the following discussion is on the "real simplification" part of the mapping.

Most people believe the Simplification was done at the character level, meaning one traditional character will be replaced by its simplified counterpart in all circumstances, which of cause is wrong.
Actually the Simplification was done at the sense level, so it means a traditional character will be replaced by a simplified version only for a certain senses, but for other senses of the same traditional character, it is not simplified.

For example 乾 (gān, qián)
(gān) when meaning "dry" in 河乾了 or "finish" in 乾杯 (and a lot other meanings), it is simplified to 干, so they will become 河干了 or 干杯.
(qián) But when meaning "sky" or "related to man", then it is NOT simplified. So even in an article in Simplified Chinese, you may see this phrase 乾坤 (meaning the sky and the earth). Another example is 乾隆, which is a name of an emperor in Qin dynasty.
Another example 瞭 (liǎo, liào)
(liǎo) when in 瞭解 meaning "come to understand", it is simplified as 了, so it becomes 了解.
(liào) but when in 瞭望 meaning "watch from a height or a distance", it is NOT simplified.

However there are quite some characters appear in both sets of Simplified Characters and Traditional Characters.

For example: 丑 (chǒu)
In the set of Traditional Characters, 丑 is used as the second of the twelve "Terrestrial Branches", and also used as a surname. So its counterpart in the set of Simplified Characters is still 丑 (ie not simplified).
醜 (chǒu) is a Traditional Character, meaning "ugly, hateful, disgraceful, scandalous, bad, dirty" etc. It is simplified as 丑.

Simplification was done in the following 8 ways:

Get rid of the whole "picture" of the character, and "redraw" it with its "main frame", like 龜  -> 龟 (tortoise, turtle)

Regularify a character's the simple cursive style, like 為 -> 为.

Use only a part of the character, like 聲 -> 声.

Replace a part of a character by a lot less strokes, like 漢 -> 汉.

Adopt a simple form from very old scripts (eg. oracle 甲骨文）, like 雲 -> 云.

Use a simple character in the same pronunciation family to replace a part of the character, like 燈 -> 灯 (replace 登 with 丁, as pronunciation of 丁 is very close to that of 燈).

Create new characters, like 響 -> 响, 滅 -> 灭 (响 and 灭 were created for the sake of simplification).

Use an existing simple character to replace a complicate character, like 幾 -> 几.

The "newly" created simple characters are less than 100.

Well, it is a separate topic regarding traditional characters used in proper names (or signs, symbols), or some careless writers mix-use simplified and traditional characters in their articles.
So back to your question, using of simplified/traditional characters is NOT based on the context. Ideally if an article is written in simplified Chinese, then it should only use simplified characters, vice versa, unless for some special purposes (like an article written in simplified Chinese talking about simplification of traditional characters).


Yes.

These phrases 『这顿饭我来请』『今天我请客』『我请』 very common in Mandarin.


you need to identify the prototype of radicals.for your example，the prototype of辶is走，the ptototype of 扌is手，草for艹，水for氵，冰for冫......，then you just type the prototype and find the radical.


How to refer to 'depression' in Chinese?

The common term would be 抑郁。
There is a type of mental disorder in that name, called major depressive disorder.
However, if you are not referring to the disease, you would say

我觉得有些沮丧
我觉得有点压抑


What do you call a 成语 made up of three words instead of four?

No surprise here, they are called 三字成语 (three-letter 成语).  However the words in your question are usually not considered 成语, they are 俗语.  三字成语 do exist, though, such as 破天荒, 莫须有, and 闭门羹.


Usually you say 1. 我钱包拉/丢/忘（在）出租车里了 or 2.我把钱包拉/丢/忘（在）出租车里了。

In 1, '我钱包' equals to '我的钱包'('My wallet') which is the subject and the verb is in passive but'被'is omitted. The grammatical expression could be 我钱包被拉/丢/忘（在）出租车里了，but no one would say out '被'here.

In 2, you use '把' as @wuyefeibao suggested and 我 is the subject, the verb being used in active voice.
In both cases, the preposition 在 may be omitted, indicating the urgent situation when you're anxious and depressed so you have no mood to speak out every function word.

Regarding your own translations 1. 丢了我钱包在出租车里 and 2. 留了我的钱包在出租车里 3. 忘了我的钱包在出租车里 are not target-like expressions. In translation 2, 留 is not the same as 忘，丢, implying you intentionally left the bag in the car (because you didn't want to carry it with you, or you wanted to give it a gift to the driver, lol?).


How does one express "On the way to or from school"? Is 上下班 okay?

One the way = 途中

On the way to school - 上学途中

On the way to work - 上班途中

On the way home - 回家途中

On the way home from school - 放学回家途中

On the way home from work - 下班回家途中

We say 上下班 because it is short for "上班, 下班"

We usually say  "上学, 放学" not "上学, 下学".

Although not the logical shortened form, people still use the term 上下学 instead of '上放学' because '上' matching '下' better than '上' matching '放'.

you can replace 下班 with 放工


What's Baidu doing with all these crazy characters everywhere?

That's a web development technique, the icon font

What you see is meaningless text. This is actually a web development technique. They are attempting the use a custom designed "font" to display icons instead of the weird characters. However, when the icon font failed to load, your browser then attempts to display the "text" with a fallback font, generally: "Arial", "Times New Roman", "PMingLiU", etc.

So instead of 梜, you should see an chevron to the right. That's because they filled the font with icons.

Here's an example of such font: Font Awesome

Can I use icon fonts to write a passage?

Icon fonts are only meant for graphical displays, not readable font. You cannot type a paragraph with the icon font, they would probably all be icons (for you to decipher ;) ).

Why did they use icon font, why not pictures?

That is because modern font is vector graphical. That means you can scale they up or down and they will not get pixelized. That is great for devices with high quality displays. Also, because loading a font means you can change its color and the pack will still be smaller than an image pack.


Do native speakers think about compound words as "东西"?

When I saw a tomato first in my life time, I was told its name was fanqie(番茄) by my mom or dad in the dialect. I was not able to recognize or write any character then. All I knew about the tomato was that it was a red, green, or yellow, and delicious vegetable and sounded fan qie. I thought it was another kind of 茄子(eggplant).

Later, after I went to school and learned to speak Putonghua and write characters, I got to know that fan qie is written as 番茄 and it has another name 西红柿. As my teacher explained, 番 refers to foreign. 番茄 is a kind of eggplant-like thing from a foreign land. The name makes sense. So does 西红柿, western land's red persimmon. But now when it comes to 西红柿 or 番茄, I don't think about what each character means. It's just a name of an object.

In some cases, I may not really care about each character's meaning from the very beginning. For example, 深圳. It's a city of Guangdong province. If 圳 alone is seen, I may not recognize it at all. Seldom can I see it elsewhere. It's always part of 深圳. So I don't know its meaning till now without referring to a dictionary, and I'm sure it won't take long before I totally forget it even if I look it up.

Another example is a transliterated word like 咖啡. I didn't figure out what 咖 or 啡 means until I learned the English word coffee. And all of a sudden, I got to know there are many such words in Chinese, like 坦克(tank), 沙发(sofa). A single character in such word has no specific meaning but just indicates the pronunciation. Of course there are some translated words that concern about both the meaning and pronounciation like 迷你(mini), 可口可乐(Coco Cola), 露华浓(Revlon) and etc, some of which are really beautiful and elegant master pieces of translation.

A third example is a word like 麒麟, kirin. I thought it was just a creature in myth, and didn't try to find out what 麒 or 麟 means until I watched an anime， the Twelve Kingdoms, in which there are kirins that can transform to humans. The female kirins are named X麟 and the male X麒, where X is a character that has similar pronounciation with the name of the kingdom the kirin belongs to. After some research I leaned that 麒 refers to a male kirin and 麟 a female kirin. So does 凤凰, phoenix, 凤 as male and 凰 as female. But in the word 龙凤, 凤 represents a girl or woman.

There are some characters in my dialect I have been expecting to find out how to write. Some have been clear, but the others have not. There is a dirty character that means the f word. It sounded exactly the same with 十(ten) in the dialect. Since it's a dirty word, I just didn't dare and felt embarrassed to ask my parents or teachers how to write it correctly. My little fellows and I just wrote it as 十. In the circumstances, we all knew it meant the f word. About one year ago, I happened to read someone's post and get to know the right character should be 入(go into, penetrate). A 20-year-old question was finally made clear. However some of the unclear may stay mysterious till my last day.

I believe every character in a compound word makes sense, indicating either the meaning or the pronounciation or both. Now I always tend to find out what each character means when I see a new word . And I would do the same to the old words, expecting to find some interesting stories. It helps to get a deeper understanding and also bring benefits especially when learning ancient Chinese.


Asking the Parents of Small Children to be Quiet in Public Areas

"希望您能多照顾一下您的孩子，他们经常吵闹，影响我们生活和休息。" (Please take good care of your kids, because they are so noisy and badly influenced our lives.)

Try not use "大叫" on your note, because that sounds like a bad comment on their kids, which may make them unhappy. Better use "我们" to show that you are a "general neighbor" like the others, instead of someone who cannot fall asleep due to your own reason (medical/phycological maybe, who knows). This politely tells them it is their fault, not yours.

Also, having both Chinese and English would also help, as is suggested in the comments you got.


Can Chinese people pronounce the tones correctly with a stuffed nose or soar throat?

I think I am able to pronounce words with correct tones when my nose is stuffed since the pronunciation doesn't really rely on nasal sound but rather the sudden change in pitch.


Yahtzee score card — sm and lg straight?

汉典 shows the following information.

  ● 顺

  （順）

  shùn 　ㄕㄨㄣˋ

  趋向同一个方向，与“逆”相对：～风。～水。～境。～水推舟。～风使舵。
  沿，循：～城街。～理成章。～藤摸瓜。
  依次往后：～序。～次。
  随，趁便：～便。～势。～手牵羊。
  整理：理～。～修（整理修治）。
  服从，不违背：～从。～应。孝～。温～。
  适合，不别扭：～适。～情。～眼。～差（chā）。
  姓。

  汉英互译

  ◎ 顺

  arrange　　　in sequence　　　in the same direction as　　　obey　　　put in order　　　suitable


I have been using Lingoes for a long time, and I also use GoldenDict on my android cellphone.

The beauty of GoldenDict is that it supports a lot dictionary formats, and lingoes format is one of them.

You can download 高级汉语大词典 here, and add it to the GoldenDict folder.

http://www.lingoes.cn/download/dict/ld2/Advanced%20Chinese%20Big%20Dictionary.ld2


Shi / Hen for adjective + noun when discussing facts or perceived facts

@user970696 emmm i ve checked all your comments and i guess you are somehow mislead by some strict rules. You may have perceived that 很 more or less conveys comparison. 石炭纪的蕨类植物很大(The Carboniferous ferns are huge in size)(They are considerably huge compared with plants today)   这部电话很白 you more or less emphasize its white color. Why do you say that? The reason may come from the feature of generalized kind. (There are few phones that are so white)or from context (-我这电话买了十年了-那这电话很白啊)(-I bought the phone ten years ago-Oh, it's still that white!(It should looks old after using for so long)) So 我家猫很黑 is not simply "my cat is black". Try to learn different implication of 很:

我养的柴犬很黑(Because Shiba Inu is usually ginger)(So the comparison is between my dog and common Shiba Inu)
我的猫很黑，但毛却发亮(My cat is black, but he has shiny fur)(the comparison is between my cat and common black but dull cat)
蚂蚁很小(Ants are small compared with many animals we often see)

If you just say ...很... without explicit or inexplict comparison, it's correct but just strange.


Is the construction 连A带B meaning "both A and B" a general construction or limited to fixed expressions?

Can it be used to link anything together, or is it only used in fixed
expressions?

Using [連 verb A 带 verb B] create mostly idiomatic phrases when the verbs are related e.g. 消打, 哄骗, 滚爬
连消带打, 连哄带骗 and 连滚带爬 are considered fixed expressions because they are commonly spoken in day-to-day speech.
But A and B in [连 noun A 带 noun B] can be anything related or not

In fixed expressions A and B are both verbs. Does it only work for verbs?

It can be nouns, e.g. 连人带马一起翻落山坡; 连店带货一起顶让给别人

I've found what appear to be examples of 连A带B带C to connect 3 things together. Does it work for as many things as you want?

The common structure is (连)A(带)B(与及/外加/再加上)C. e.g. 连人带马与及军旗一起翻落山坡; 连店带货再加上招牌一起顶让给别人; 連哄帶騙外加小許威迫

Does it add any emphasis or other flavor to A+B? Simultaneity? Intensity?

连A带B indicates 'also' or 'both'.

verb A and verb B happen at the same time or alternately.

noun A and noun B are both the objects

Emphasis is on 'about equal in importance'


Is there a reliable way to check if an idiom (成语) is widely used?

This is by no means scientific but its a fairly good metric to tell you how common a word is:

Search Engine Results Hits.

Let's take a well known idiom first and see what kind of numbers we get:

本末倒置

Google hits:

  3,030,000 results

Baidu hits:

  19,200,000个

Here's another one:

鸡飞狗跳

Google hits:

  23,900,000 results

Baidu hits:

  17,100,000个

So well known idioms would give us results in the millions and even in the tens of millions.

Now lets take a look at the word in question:

完事大吉

Google hits:

  110,000 results

Baidu hits:

  986,000个

Clearly it's not a widely used as the aforementioned idioms.

Next let's look at:

News Results Hits.

News is current and it can give us a closer look at what words are still in use and how they are used.

本末倒置

Google news:

  47,300 results

Baidu news:

  47,300 results

鸡飞狗跳

Google news:

  121,000 results

Baidu news:

  82,700篇

完事大吉

Google news:

  1,110 results

Baidu news:

  26,300篇

完事大吉 doesn't seem to be that common but there are plenty of news organizations that apply this term in their publications. Here are some excerpts from over the past few weeks:

  办理几个案件就完事大吉

  删除APP”就完事大吉了

  有了成绩就完事大吉了

Another thing to look at is 完事大吉 is basically a combination of two words you already know: 完事 (finish) and 大吉 (great fortune). It probably won't take a great effort to remember this idiom and who knows maybe you'll know it the next time you run across it.


When does 给 object come before a verb, and when does it come after?

In general:

  When 给 is placed before a verb, it means 'for'. And it has a 'demanding or asserted tone' to it.

给我打!= Beat (him) for me!

给他送 = give/ send (it) for him

给我证明 = prove (it) for me

  When 给 is placed after a verb, it means 'to'

送给她 = give/send (it) to her

证明给我看 = prove (it) to me


In Modern Chinese, 国 means a sovereign state, e.g. 中国, 英国, 美国, 德国, etc. In ancient times, 国 could also mean a non-sovereign state, e.g. 楚国, 齐国, 赵国, etc. Anyway, 国 emphasizes the government's control of a specific land.

As a result, 中国 can only refer to the sovereign state that is named China, while 中华 is more likely to refer to the ethnicity or nation that is named China.


If I want to emphasize it's my(singular) company, how to phrase My company in Chinese?

You can use the possessive marker 的 to denote relating to or possession of an object noun.
我的公司 = my company (you don't own it, just work for it, so  的 indicates 'relating', not 'possessing')
我的公司 = my company (if you own it, 的 indicates possessing' not 'relating')
This means either you own it or not, you still say 我的公司
~
我公司 can be the shortened form of 我的公司 (my company) or 我們的公司 (our company) That mean 我 before a noun without a possessive marker 的 can be singular or plural
You can omit the possessive marker 的 and say 我公司 when you don't directly possess it, only relatively possess it. e.g. 我的父親 (my father) can be reduced to 我父親 because you don't own your father; 我的房子 cannot be reduced to 我房子 because you do own your house.
Also, check Why there is no 的 after 你 in 你国家的医院好吗?


Why is 本人 inappropriate in an objective text?

本人 means 我, I in the formal circumstances, which is used to make a serious statement/declaration, such as in an allegation. For example, 本人郑重声明: 此事与本人没有任何关系！If you use this sense of 本人 in non formal settings, that would sound either pretentious or a bit joking. For example, 本人今天要去买东西 sounds pretentiously funny because 买东西 is really a very casual thing and people don't expect you to mess it up with such a formal word 本人, which add some taste of funny.
In casual speech, 本人 means in person, oneself. See these examples:

这照片是你本人吗？// are you the very person who is in the picture? Or is the person in the picture yourself?
你是Ludi本人吗？// are you Ludi himself?
你本人能(亲自)来吗？// could you come in person?

吾國 and 該日 are old fashioned and we don't usually use these words in modern Chinese, especially within the mainland China.


姐 vs 姊, etymology, and their English equivalences

「姐」 (Zhengzhang OC: /*ʔsjaːʔ/, mother > senior female > adult female, elder sister) is comprised of semantic 「女」 (female) and phonetic 「且」 (/*sʰjaːʔ/). Through its semantic extensions, 「姐」 has developed into many uses:

The meaning big sister is roughly equivalent to English big sis', more commonly used in colloquial spoken language;
The meaning mother is no longer found in Standard Mandarin, but is preserved in some other topolects;
All other meanings are from an extension of adult female. Your reading of 「小姐」 does not imply that 「姐」 means junior female, but rather the prefix 「小」 being used as a term of endearment. Please see the question At what age is it inappropriate to call people 小李, 小王, 小刘, etc.? And is it different for males and females? for an idea of how 「小」 works.

In contrast, 「姊」 (/*ʔsiʔ/, elder sister) is comprised of semantic 「女」 and phonetic 「」*. The meaning elder sister is frozen, and is the literary vocabulary used in writing the word for elder sister.

*「」 is inferred to be similar in sound to 「次」 (/*sn̥ʰis/) through readings of oracle bone inscriptions.


A Scroll which appears to be from 2004 signed 包德和

Who is the Calligraphy Writer?

You said it, it was signed by "包德和". logically thinking -- "包德和" must had written it.

The seal wrote: 長樂 (always/ forever happy)

The part of the scroll you posted wrote "鵬飛王五十壽辰"

鵬飛王 = Peng Fei Wang (may be a person's name, but can also be a brand name. 3rd January 2020 was Apple's 44th Birthday)
五十 = 50(th)
壽辰 = birthday


What are the characters in this seal script inscription on an ancestral altar? (Characters identified: 孝思維則)

as @drooze revealed, it's "孝思維則"
reading from right to left:
孝: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=孝
思: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=思
維: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=維
則: http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=則
the verse is original from 詩經　大雅　文王之什　下武:

成王之孚
下土之式
永言孝思
孝思維則

the ctext.org has a translation:

He secured the confidence due to a king,
And became a pattern of all below him.
Ever thinking how to be filial,
His filial mind was the model [which he supplied].

https://ctext.org/book-of-poetry/xia-wu


Are Chinese characters taught in school in Vietnam?

No. At school we only learn the meanings of basic Sino-Vietnamese syllables, not the Chinese logograms. For example we learned that tử means a child or die, but most people don't know that those are different characters (死, 子 and many more), and of course they don't know how those characters are written in Chinese.

As I know before the unification a few characters are actually taught in high school but they're not taught anymore. There are some proposals to introduce about 100 basic Chinese characters to the syllabus again but most people go against it.

You may want to read these

Do most Koreans and Vietnamese know the hanja/hán tự for their own names?

Do Vietnamese still use Hán tự (HanZi/ Hanja /Kanji) besides Quốc ngữ alphabet?


This is not a Waley phenomenon. The majority of English translators of Shih-ching (in the absence of 素以為絢兮) follow strictly the preachings of Shuowen Jiezi when interpreting 盼 in 美目盼兮, to varying extents of literality.

Translation

Legge 1871:95
How lovely her eyes, with the black and white so well-defined!

Legge 1876:104
With dark and lucid eyes, showed face beyond compare.

Jennings 1891:83
Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright!

Waley 1937:80
The lovely eyes so black and white.

Karlgren 1950:38
Her beautiful eyes are well-defined black and white.

Pound 1954:28
Clear white, gainst black iris.

Legge and Waley also translated III.8 of The Analects in the same manner. Some other translators of The Analects choose to interpret the quote (in the presence of 素以為絢兮) more liberally, but still do not use the more common verbal meaning 'to look' except Lau 1979. Note even in Lau's interpretation the much derived meaning 'to hope for' is not adopted.

Translation

Lyall 1909
Her lovely eyes, So clear and bright

Soothill 1910:191
Her bewitching eyes shew their colours so clear

Lau 1979
Her beautiful eyes glancing

My take on this matter is that 素以為絢兮 may be a Confucian (in the sense that the dialogue between Confucius and Tzu-hsia that follows it centres on not the quoted poem, but 絢 as a metaphor for 禮) annotation of the preceding verse 美目盼兮; or a piece of yishi (逸詩, lit. lost poem). If the former be the case, the contrast of colour between 素 and 絢 may also help justify interpreting 盼 as 'black and white well defined'. See more of  素以為絢 here. Another weaker (and potentially flawed) justification is that in order for the couplet 巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮 to have matching parts of speech, 盼 should be adjectival.

This article, however, unearths several annotations of the phrase of concern that provide a different explanation:

通志堂本《经典释文·毛诗音义》作“盻”，并注“敷苋反，白黑分也。徐又敷谏反，《韩诗》云‘黑色也’，《字林》云‘美目也’，匹间反，又匹苋反。”

阮刻《论语注疏》在原文下有小字注“马曰：‘倩，笑貌；盼，动目貌。”

Apparently, not every source listed above agrees with the Shuowen Jiezi school. Especially striking is the interpretation of Ma Rong, an Eastern Han scholar and a contemporary of Xu Shen. But this was not published until the Qing Dynasty in the Ruan ke annotation, which may weaken the credibility of the quote.


手机上 describes the act is observed by something from outside of the cellphone through the screen. I guess most of the humanity will do this way.

手机里, in contrast, suggests something is really inside the phone, e.g. in memory, storage etc.

So, 手机里的照片 "pictures (stored) on the phone" and 手机上的照片 "pictures (found) on the phone" may indicate the same thing. But if you'd say 我在手机里玩游戏, I must assume you're a relative of Siri.


If the simplified version of 態 is 态 is why isn't there one for 熊?

態 to 态

态 is a "new" Phono-semantic compound character. 態 sounds tài, so a simple character 太 with the same pronunciation is chosen for the phonetic part. Then it becomes 态.

This character was simplified by the people who lived in places governed by the CCP during 1940s.

  Why not simplify 灬 to 一 for 熊, but for 魚

  Answer: 灬 came from 火 (fire) in the seal script. For 灬 under 熊, it has the meaning of fire. But for the character 魚:

  though the bottom is written like 火, it is not really 火. Duan Yucai's Annotation to Shuowen said:

    "非从火也 the semantic part is not 火 (fire)"

    "象形。魚尾與燕尾相佀。 (this character) is a pictogram character. The fishtail is just like the swallow tail."

  Thus, when simplifying 魚, they made 灬 (fishtail) as 一; while for 熊, they kept 灬.


Which decomposition option of the Chinese character 天 tiān ‘sky’ is correct?

大 is just a person standing, see the old forms of 大 http://www.zdic.net/z/17/zy/5927.htm

Old forms of 人 show a person with his back bent, maybe working in the fields or praying or bowing.

儿 shows 2 legs, draw them together and you have 人。

If you put a line on 2 legs, 儿 you get 丌， which is a pedestal or some kind of small table, not 'heaven'.

More interesting is what the ancients thought of when they wrote 天。

Perhaps they thought 'the one, 一 that is above and bigger than mortals 大' which neatly uses the senses of big and person in 1 character.


健 in this word means to be good at, to be skilled at.

健忘 means to be good at forgetting > forgetful.


How do I determine whether a Chinese verb is transitive and/or intransitive?

I am not a linguist so I cannot give you a definitive answer, but the concept of "transitive/intransitive" is not native to Chinese language.

I think most of the verbs you encounter can take an object.

Even adjectives used as verbs can take an object. There are 使动，意动，为动, that make them so.

-温暖人心的力量。（使动：使人心温暖）

-我就奇怪他怎么知道的。（意动：对他怎么知道的感到奇怪）

-他还郁闷挂科的事呢！（为动：为挂科的事郁闷。）

Whether there is a, nominal at least, object, is determined not only by the verb, but also by the whole sentence even the context.

And the absence of an object, however, doesn't imply that the verb is intransitive, either. It can be omitted.

E.g.

-你刚才在找什么？

-我在找我的笔记本。

-现在找到（笔记本）了吗？

-还没有找到（笔记本）。

You can see, 找 does take an object, but we do not need to mention it every time.

Another case is 隐含被动(implied passive), where nominal subject is actually the object of the verb.

-这台机器已经无法使用了。

-原作早已在大火中焚毁了。

-上次的作业还没有批改。

etc.

Finally, there are verbs that indeed take no object. You can distinguish them easily by the meanings of them: if some action semantically needs no target, it doesn't take objects.

-她狂野地奔跑在夐无人烟的草原上。

-因为错剪了导线，炸弹当场爆炸了。

If a verb can either take an object or not, it means differently in the two cases.

-雪花旋转飞舞，不肯落地。（swirl）

-他旋转瓶盖，开启了一瓶汽水。（unscrew）


Is there a dictionary that includes word collocations (词语搭配)?

http://xh.5156edu.com/ provides the possibility to search for a single character and then getting the most common words with it.


Why does 項 signify both 'item' and 'neck'?

项 is originally means nape (back part of the neck), to distinguish from 颈 (front part of the neck). Later, 颈 became to mean neck in general.
Because 颈 is primarily for neck only, 项 later got borrowed into its other meanings.
Your neck holds up your head and supports it, thus the definition is then focused upon the head that is being held up by the neck.
Multiple heads became multiple individuals, and from there, the meaning evolved to become a classifier of items.


When I lived in Guangzhou I was told the expression came from Hong Kong and stood for "Algebraic Average".

That also doesn't sound like something a native English speaker would come up with, however I don't think that's a reason to discount it (or even the other suggestions) if it came from Hong Kong where non-native English speakers come up with all sorts of part-English phrases that sound awkward to us but still become popular, like "他真没有sense" to mean "he has no taste" being one I heard recently.

Then again I can't be sure if "Algebraic Average" is the true etymology either, just offering my two cents.


First off: this is a Sichuanese song.

Let's start with something you'll recognize:

  Q: 怎么办？
  A: 凉拌！

In Sichuanese this is called: 展嘴巴劲 or 扳嘴巴劲 or 展牙巴劲. That is relevant because this is a form of Sichuanese 展嘴巴劲. It goes a little something like this:

  A: 有事
  B: 和尚赶道士

It is something that is said when someone thinks that you are coming up with a pretext or an excuse to be busy rather that actually having anything to do.

There also seems to be quite a few variants on the phrase. Obviously from the question we have: 和尚撞了道士. A more common variant is 和尚赶道士. Online you can also find examples of: 和尚做道士 and 和尚撵道士.

There are a bunch of these in Sichuanese:

开腔嘛——开腔<枪>打死人
负责——负他妈的床坝箦
赔——我陪你坐
真的——煮的哟
看嘛<马>——看牛哦
不敢<赶>——过吆
好久<酒>——没得好菜
长——往土坝里长
结婚——脑壳昏
花——眼睛花
钱——夹火钳
等于是——二加二等于四
啥子——帕子，帕子搭到脸上
没关系——没川戏，没川戏看电影嘛


This is 般 (bān).

Note that its 部首 (radical) is 舟.


Does 一屁股坐下来 just mean 'sit down' or is there some other meaning in there?

The literal meaning of 一屁股坐下来 is "sit down with one move of one's butt". It is a description of a manner which implies "abruptly with no hesitation"

There are similar adverbial phrases:

一手 (with one move of one's hand)

一手搶過我手中的香煙 (with one move of his hand, he grabs the cigarette off my hand = he takes the cigarette off my hand with one move of his hand)

一腳 (with one move of one's foot)

一腳把球射入龍門 (with one strike of his foot, he kicked the ball into the goal = he kicks the ball into the goal with a single strike)

"一屁股坐下来" would mean "he sits down with one move of his butt ", therefore it can be described simply as "sit down abruptly (with no hesitation)"

"One move" implies "one(quick/sudden)move"


There is no colloquialisms equivalent of 请坐 in Chinese.

  Best I can think of are: 请入座, 请坐吧, 坐下吧, 入座 In ancient china, the
  emperor would say 赐坐