我吃了苹果。
我吃苹果了。

In practice, both sentences are applicable depending on the context. See these examples:

A: 你吃了什么东西？
B: 我吃了苹果。
A: 你吃什么了？
B: 我吃苹果了。


How do I say "Why not both" in Mandarin?

为什么不两者兼得? - this is more likely to appear in books or writing.

为什么不两样都做? - this sounds more natual.

If you choose to say the second one, you may want to change it a little bit by saying 为什么不两个地方都去？

But I would say 不如两个地方都去！as this sounds more energetic, simpler and positive.

Reference: Native speaker


Not a very satisfying answer but anyway:

說文解字

  喜也。从心夬聲。苦夬切

說文解字注

  喜也。引申之義爲疾速。俗字作駃。从心。夬聲。苦夬切。十五部。

Notice the 引申之義爲疾速 from above, happiness extended to mean fast.

I don't know exactly the mentality of 喜 -> 引申 -> 疾速 but apparently people did think they were related at one point in time.

Maybe it has to do with 俗字作駃

大汉语词典

  駃 kuài［1］快马。“参见駃马”。［2］同“快”。

Must have been some mix-up somewhere.


On a test report (SGS or similar), what does the following mean: 非会员水印

非: not
会员: member (especially paid member)
水印: watermark

It means what you read is generated from a service that will put a watermark on the result if the service is used unpaid.


不管是谁对你们动的手: I've been quite lost towards that end "动的手". Could anyone explain that for me?

动手 is a compound word made up of 动 (move/ start) and 手 (hand). Together as a single word, it means 'take action', and the most common extended meaning is 'start to attack'
Since 动 and 手 in 动手 can be broken down to [v] +[n], you can add possess marker 的 before the noun 手 to reclaim the noun status of 手. And a subject (in this case, 谁) before the verb 动 would possess the noun
Example
动手 - start to attack
谁动手 - who started to attack (v)
谁动的手 - the attack(n) that started(v) by whoever(n)
手 has become a noun for 'attack' in this instance
Similar example:
[唱(v): sing + 歌(n): song] = [唱歌(v): to sing]
我唱歌 = 我(n) + 唱歌(v)
我唱的歌 = the song that I sing
歌 in 唱歌 reclaims its noun status and means 'song'
More examples:
開車(v): to drive --> 他開的車 (車 is a noun here for 'car') - the car he drives
做飯(v): to cook --> 姊姊做的飯 (飯 is a noun here for 'meal') - the meal my sister cooked


我住宅在一座橋樑 的 附近。Does this sound idiomatic and natural, or stilted and artificial?

住宅、桥梁
这两个词语太书面化了。

The more natural way is to say:

我家附近有座桥。/我家边上有座桥。/我家在桥边。


众筹 --

众 means many people; crowd;

筹 means plan and prepare;

众筹 in the context means plan and gathering money from many people to buy a house.

‘凝聚人心’的意思是什么？ Bring the people's hearts together, so they can act as one unit and contribute together.

发起人initiator is trying to emphasize that more important thing than gathering money to buy a house is to bring the people's hearts together by doing so.


English translation of The Odes of Confucius (詩經)

Fun fact: Western translators are really good at distorting classic Chinese poems.

I've read through several translation of Chinese poems by various western translators, some of them are quite good actually, but some of the distortions are just baffling.  There was a U.S. poet who didn't know any Chinese, but used the literal translation of some poems, and used her poetic sense to rewrite them. There was another guy who didn't know Chinese but knew some Japanese, then he used a Japanese translations of the Chinese poems to do his translation. Oh you guys are really wonderful.

I've sifted through all 305 poems and couldn't find the first one. Either because it is made up, or because of some serious alternation of the original meaning. Boy this one is hard.

The second one has the original title of 静女(Quiet Girl) from section 国风·邶风(folk songs from 邶). This also took me some time because the meaning is also distorted to a great degree.

  静女

  静女其姝，俟我于城隅。爱而不见，搔首踟蹰。

  静女其娈，贻我彤管。彤管有炜，说怿女美。

  自牧归荑，洵美且异。匪女之为美，美人之贻。

Update: Just found the book you've mentioned here.  Read some of my old favorites. Now my eyes are bleeding.

Update again:

My word-to-word translation with grammar stripped. Now you should feel my pain.

Quite girl so beautiful,
let-wait me at city corner.
Loving(-her) but not seeing(-her),
(I) scratch head wander hesitantly.

Quiet girl so pretty,
Give me red flute.
Red flute have glow,
(I) Enjoy love its beauty.

(She) from meadow fetch-back reed(-flower),
Indeed beautiful and special.
(I'm happy) Not(-because) of it being beautiful,
(but It's) beautiful girl's present.

As you see, the original translation got quite a few things wrong.


Sometimes, it helps to know the names and background of the people you're reading about. The appearance of the name 宋慶齡 in the text should instigate an immediate background check.

宋耀如 is 宋慶齡's father - his proper name is 宋嘉澍, and 宋耀如 is his courtesy name.

一個星期天，宋耀如一家用過早餐，準備到一位朋友家去。
One Sunday, the house (family) of 宋耀如 had breakfast and planned to go to a friend's house.

The friend should be primarily assumed to be that of 宋耀如, and by extension a family friend.

FYI: 用餐 is another way of saying 吃飯, if not a bit more old-fashioned.


well, what I heard is another story, but I cannot confirm or verify it. “八(ba1)竿子打不着” MAYBE came from "爬(pa2)竿子打不着“，here 竿子 means ladder, and ”爬竿子打不着“ means "it's too high, you cannot hit it even with a ladder (when you climbed a ladder)". And since "pa" and "ba" sounds similar, it became "ba" in current version.


What does it say in gigantic characters on this building labelled "Treasure Trove of Royal Chinese Cuisine"? (Characters identified: 中華皇家御膳之寶)

Using an excessive number of clericalified variants (隸定字), I would say that the closest characters are

蕐皇家御膳*寶

In the Shuowen Jiezi lesser seal standard, the closest characters are

中家御膳*寶

*Actually, the older structure of 「善」 is 「」 (⿱羊言), and that is what the photo and Shuowen seal form both are

In a more modern orthography,

中華皇家御膳之寶
Treasure Trove (寶) of (之) Royal (皇家御) Chinese (中華) Cuisine (膳)

There is no character where the doorway is, so there are eight characters in total. The rest of this answer will focus on the more difficult to identify characters.

中
商甲甲398合集32500商金中且觶集成6213西周金七年趞曹鼎集成2783秦簡秦197睡虎地秦簡漢隸唐公房碑　今楷
「中」 depicts a military flag with flowing streamers. This was later extended to mean authority (中央), then centre, middle.
The streamers stopped being written as part of the character very early on, but sometimes they were added back in decorative scripts as horizontal lines protruding from 「中」 (, , etc.)

In contrast, 「乍」 looked incredibly different in early scripts.

華
西周金不栺方鼎集成2735秦簡編年紀34睡虎地秦簡東漢隸禮器碑　今楷
「華」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*qʷʰˤra/) originally depicted a flower, now written as 「花」. The petals of the flower would be stroke-transcribed as 「」 in regular script (e.g. in the clericalified Shuowen lesser seal variant 「」). The bottom of the stalk was drawn in the shape of 「于」, which doubled as a phonetic hint (/*ɢʷ(r)a/).
Semantic 「艸・艹」 (grass) was added on later (see second form above).
「華」 was also overwhelmingly used for the meaning flourishing > magnificent, splendid (/*N-qʷʰˤra/) very early on via semantic extension from flower. The character 「花」 was invented later to represent the original sense of 「華」.

之
You're basically looking at a branch evolution here:

Series A:
商甲鐵16.1合集11654春秋金秦公簋集成4315春秋金姑馮同集成424篆之部說文解字隸定

Series B:
商甲鐵16.1合集11654戰國・晉金兆域圖銅版集成10478戰國・楚簡12包山楚簡戰國・楚簡129包山楚簡秦簡法141睡虎地秦簡今楷

「之」 (/*tə/) originally depicted a foot 「止」 pointing away from an abstract place represented as a horizontal line 「一」, indicating the meaning to go. 「止」 (/*təʔ/) simultaneously hinted at the sound.

「之」 (to go) and 「止」 (foot) are cognate.
Foot is now written using the derivative 「趾」.

The shape 「」 is what you find as a character component in other characters, e.g. in 「寺」 or 「志」. Normally, it is further corrupted into 「土」 or 「士」 in the modern form.

「之」 is the stand-alone character.

寶
商金作父癸集成5360西周金父乙簋集成3862西周金鄭虢仲簋集成4025春秋金國差集成10361戰國・楚簡221包山楚簡今楷
「寶」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*pˤuʔ/, treasure/valuables) actually had about a million variants, mainly because Chinese characters weren't standardised back then and about 90% of bronzeware had the character 「寶」 inscribed somewhere. These variants do share about half their components with 「寶」, however.
The structure which survives today contains semantic 「宀」 (building), semantic 「玉」 (jade), semantic 「貝」 (cowrie shell > money), and doubly semantic and phonetic 「缶」 (/*p(r)uʔ/, jar). The whole character indicates valuables (玉, 貝, 缶) stored inside a building (宀). If you see two or three components out of 「宀」, 「玉」, 「貝」, 「缶」 in a character, you're very likely looking at 「寶」.
The non-standardisation back then affects not only the components' presence, but the location of the components. On a component-transcription basis, the forms displayed here (listed from left to right) are, using ideographic description sequences,

寶 (same structure as the modern form)
⿱宀⿰⿱玉貝缶
⿱宀⿰缶⿱玉貝
Same as 2.
Same as 1.

「王」 and 「玉」 had different histories, but converged in shape later. As a character component, the shape 「王」 almost always represents 「玉」 (e.g. 弄, 玻). The times where the shape 「王」 actually represents 「王」 is mostly on the right hand side or the bottom of the character (汪, 皇), and these characters are pretty rare.

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》

漢字源流
中國哲學書電子化計劃

宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》


Using 4B pencil, mark the whole box with solid black. (For me, 2B is not dark enough and 4B+ is too soft, green 中华牌铅笔 is the best.)

Sharp your pencil with a knife (don't use pencil sharpener) and make sure the pencil top can cover the whole box with a single stroke, this can save your time.

Prepare 2 or more pencil for the test and protect your pencil top, also prepare a good eraser.

Print out or buy sample answer sheet and do some practice.

Normally this sheet will give to you before the real test paper, immediately mark your personal information at this stage will save some time and double check your information is correct.

Here is a Chinese Version Guide


Mostly,上下 and 左右 have the same mean when you describe something.

When you describe something high or low(mostly abstract things,like level), you can use 左右,比如 他的水平很高，有十级左右了。Abstract things usually use 左右, like level, time(十分钟左右,how long is your own feel). And not say 十分钟上下.

When you describe something big or small,young or old(mostly you can tell by eyes) you can use 上下,比如，他看起来有十岁上下.But, you can also say, 他看起来十岁左右.

Usually, they are quite similar, just remember how people say and use in that way is ok.


伴  is a 形聲字 (Semantic-phonetic compound character)

The 亻 radical means 人 (person/ people) ; it is the semantic component of the character '伴' ( the word 'companion' is related to 'people')

半(bàn) is the phonetic component of the character 伴(bàn)

  Is it true that 伴 comes from the word, 半(half) and thus can be interpreted as (significant other person)?

No, you can have many companions, and a servant accompanies you is not your significant other


That dictionary is entirely a community effort - Wikipedia model. Anyone can add and edit any definition, but there are many moderators and reviewers. A community is at least in thousands, as this is the main source any Russian speaker learning Chinese goes for definitions to.

Again, BKRS is entirely as reliable a source of information as Wikipedia is, nor more nor less. Obviously there is no print edition for the same reason.


I assume you want ask number for dating purpose.

I don't think this is a Chinese language problem. The difficulty is not how to ask but when to ask.

"number" should be translated into "号" but not "数" here.

You may say "我能留一下你的手机号吗？"(May I take down your phone number?). However, the more popular way in China is to ask their to add your WeChat(http://www.wechat.com/en/).


Tense in Chinese is inferred from context, there are no grammatical constructs for it.

了 indicates completion, not past time per se.


Yes, the meaning you guessed is correct. Maybe it is best to translate  it as: Put the comma between slashes.


First, it is correct, yet not precise, it is supposed to be

  我什么时候能去中国？

Second and third, there is no question marker because "什么" already implied that this is a question, you would use "吗" when it is not obvious if the sentence is a question

  我能去中国吗？

Last, "能" corresponds to "able" in original expression. You use "会" for possibility, like

  他什么时候会去中国？

This means "when will he go to China?".


How To *Write* The Northeastern ‘ber lou’?

Was it this?????

十日九不见，入山见大虫

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2559827202
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/759607485


I would say:

知識是一種信念, 但信念不必是知識.

I thus translate it because of the following reasons.

1) A belief is something that is not tested or proved.

2) Knowledge in natural sciences is something that passes lots of tests. But, it is still to a certain extent a belief; for there is no way to be sure that knowledge in natural sciences will not be disputed by new evidence.

Therefore, knowledge can be viewed as the collection of tested beliefs.


The translation of "I never said she stole my money."

You want 7 stresses? Well, one could (though one doesn't really need to) insert a few words into your sentence:

I never said (that it's) she (who) stole my money.

And get:
我 从没 说过 是她 偷了 我 的钱。
Viola!  Seven parts to stress.  See them in action:

我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。那是我朋友宣称的！
I never said she stole my money. My friend alleged that!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。我发誓！
I never said she stole my money. I swear!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。我仅仅暗示了而已！
I never said she stole my money. I only hinted!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。是她们，不是她一个人！
I never said she stole my money. They stole it, not just by her!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。她骗了我的钱！
I never said she stole my money. She swindled my money!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。她偷了我的朋友的钱！
I never said she stole my money. She stole my friend's money!
我从没说过是她偷了我的钱。她偷了我的电影票，而不是我的钱！
I never said she stole my money. She stole my movie ticket instead of my money!

In essence, your translation

我/从来没/说过/她把/我的/钱/偷走了。

is correct, contains seven parts to stress and they would give the same meaning when stressed as the example above, though you slightly changed the word order.

We return to the original dialog:

A: She stole your money?
B: I never said she stole my money.

Positive responses to A's question are more or less like "Yes, she stole my money."  Negative responses are like "No, she didn't."  Vague answers could be like "Maybe."  However, with

I never said she stole my money.

B only stated that they never said it, but this is not an answer at all because B did not answer the question positively, negatively or even vaguely.  Different stresses each carry their vague additional meaning, which can only be supplanted from context, but they don't invalidate B's statement.
Furthermore, note that the analysis above is independent of your language choice! Aren't languages wonderful?


Placing adjective before the noun, like '奢侈品' is a normal grammar structure, you cannot go wrong with that

When you put an adjective after a noun, the noun is acting as the topic, and the adjective is acting as a comment.

他的生活奢侈

他的生活 (his life) is the topic

很奢侈 (is luxury) is the comment,

you can replace 'is luxury' with other adjective (comment), for example '艰难' --> "他的生活艰难" (his life is difficult)

Not all noun can be a topic, especially a single character noun like 品.

Not all adjective can be a comment

For example:

'这家公司的发展非常迅速' make sense;

'这家公司的发展非常海外' doesn't make sense,

although '海外'  is a legit adjective for '发展' as in '这家公司的海外发展'

Without clear context, 生活奢侈 can also be interpreted as a [verb + adverb] structure, with 生活 as a verb, and 奢侈 as an adverb. That's why I add a subject and possessive 的 to clarify '(他的)生活' is a noun


What does 最早将于 mean in 最早将于本周二提起联邦诉讼?

(TikTok)最早将于本周二提起联邦诉讼.
(TikTok) will file a federal lawsuit as early as this Tuesday.

"File a federal lawsuit" means "提起联邦诉讼", so "最早将于本周二" means "will... as early as this Tuesday".
结构是: will do sth. as early as...
will: 将.
as early as... : 最早于, 后加时间.
do sth. : 即要做的那件事, 在本文中指提起联邦诉讼.


Guifan

  冬练

  动 根据冬季气候特点进行体育锻炼, 以增强中枢神经系统的体温调节功能, 改善肌体抗寒能力, 增强体质。

Basically: winter exercises/training (based at improving thermal workings of the central nervous system, etc.)

Hanyu Da Cidian

  冬练三九，夏练三伏

  指不管严寒酷暑,坚持刻苦锻炼。三九,一年中最冷的时期。三伏,一年中最热的时期。

Sanjiu is the coldest part of the year - sanfu is the hottest part of the year. So: no matter how adverse weather conditions are one must persist in painstaking physical exercise.

Here's more examples from Hanyu Da Cidian:

  梁斌《烽烟图》
  这是练来的!我爸爸曾对我说过,叫我冬练三九,夏练三伏!

  新凤霞《童年纪事》
  学戏练功吃苦可真不少,冬练三九,夏练三伏。

  又《艺海博览》
  青年演员要做到拳不离手,曲不离口。冬练三九,夏练三伏。练出来没有用不上的。

Just to clarify the times of year:

A Chinese-English Dictoonary

  三九

  the third nine-day period after the winter solstice-the coldest days of winter

&&

  三伏

  the three fu-the three hottest periods of the year (i.e. 初伏 chūfú, 中伏 zhōngfú, and 末伏 mòfú; altogether 30 or 40 days)

&&

  出伏

  the first day of the first fu (falling in mid-July)

&&

  中伏

  the first day of the middle or second fu (falling in late July)

&&

  末伏

  the first day of the last or third fu (falling in early or mid August)


When using 是...的, what should I do when there is both a direct and an indirect object (e.g. 这样话是我告诉他的) or a separable verb (e.g. 这本书是我读书的)?

A 是 B C 的
“A 是 B C 的” is an emphasized version of "B C A".

A: object
B: subject
C: verb

The emphasis is on B, that subject B is responsible for action C. It very likely that action C is complete and has some visible effect. A can be omitted sometimes if not important.
It can usually be translated into "It is B that Ced A."
这饭是我做的.
It is I that cooked the meal. (not Tom, not Jerry.)

A: 这是谁干的?
A: WHO did this?
B: 是我干的。
B: It is I did it. (I take full responsibility.)

In your example, "这样话是我告诉他的", is correct in structure, but “这样” should be “这”
这话是我告诉他的。
It is I who told him so. (there are no other people that told him this)

"这本书是我读书的" is not correct. First. It should be "读" instead of "读书". Because if you put it back into original (not emphasized) order, it will be "我读书这本书", where "书" is repeated.
However, you cannot say "这本书是我读的" because the effect is not directly visible, and there is no point to emphasis.

A 是 B D C 的
"A 是 B D C 的" can be translated into "It is D that B Ced A"

A: object
B: subject
C: verb
D: adverb

"这本书是我最近读的" is a correct sentence. The decoration gives some additional information, so there is something to emphasize: the emphasis is on "最近". It can be translated as It is recently that I read the book. (not a long time ago)
"这话是我昨天告诉他的。
It is yesterday that I told him this information. (not today, not the day before yesterday.)


The use of 上 (shàng) "on/above/over" in Mandarin and English

I think you miss the point in your attempt to understand the use of 上 to represent on, above or over.

The Chinese language proves there is no need for more than one word to do this as the necessary information is provided entirely in the context of the conversation.

For example, I am thinking of sentences that may appear difficult:

"The bird was on his head", "The bird was over his head"

Which could both be translated in Chinese to something like:
“鸟在他头上”

Out of context you may try and guess whether it is right on his head or right above his head, however it could be either.

Here are some examples of how this could be expanded (taken from Google results):

  有一只鸟在他头上飞过 — extended, no contact, vertical

  A bird flew over his head.
  鸟在他头上做窝 — contact

  A bird built a nest on his head.
  鸟在他头上飞了几圈 — extended, no contact, vertical

  The bird circled above his head a few times.

I would be interested to find an example sentence in English that can not be easily understood in context in the Chinese with the same amount of information.


I got this from another forum, I find it useful:

  了和过的区别

  了和过都能用在动词后面。   了 有表示过去时，现在进行时，将来时的意思。   如：我去了一趟超市。（过去）   我睡觉了。（现在）
  我到了给你打电话。（将来）
  过 只表示过去发生的某些事情。不能表示现在时和将来时。
   如：我去过中国。

  了 和 过的用法是非常相似的，希望你能慢慢体会，多多练习。(ง •_•)ง,加油

My take on your sentences:

我们现在一起吃饭。
我明天要跟你去健身房了。
我已经吃了午饭。
我看电影了。
她穿了新的裙子。
我去了中文课了。（第二个‘了’是语气助词）
他会说中文了。
你真的买了两个新的电视吗？
他买了四本书。
你们回家吧。


Is pronunciation as important as it used to be?

My observation is that there is a trend in the internet that some people, especially the youths, intentionally alter the "Han Zi" expression of some frequently used words. It is a way they make fun of their text and want to be more attractive.

The reason is not because the tone in the language is less important or has any change. It is simply a technical issue. Most of the PinYin input systems in computers and smart phones do not request a tone input. Instead, the screen may display a list of homophones to choose. This provides a chance for the youths to play with different characters.

While most of the "experiments" are wrong, a few of them indeed makes sense. For example, "什么都是浮云" （什么金银财宝对于人生来讲，都是过眼烟云，不值一提）was changed to "神马都是浮云". It has an apparent meaning that the shape of a horse in the sky is actually cloud. But the readers still are able to connect it to its original meaning.


What exactly are the meaning/function of 的 and 了?

的 can be used to describe thing as follow [description]的[thing]. [description] is component used to describe thing. [thing] is component used to denote described thing. For example, 美麗的風景([description]的[thing], where [description] is 美麗, [thing] is 風景). Here [description] (美麗) is used to describe thing. [thing] (風景) is component used to denote described thing. 美麗的風景 means beautiful scenery.
的 can be used to denote affirmation or intensified tone as follow [component]的. [component] is component that people used to express what they think. For example, 事情不是這樣的([component] is 事情不是這樣). [component] (事情不是這樣) is used to express what people want to express. 的 is used to denote intensified tone. 事情不是這樣的 is used to tell people that thing is not what people think.
了 can be used to show that thing have happened as follow [description]了. [description] is used to describe something happened. For example, 我喝完了([description] is 我喝完). [description] (我喝完) is used to describe thing have happened. 我喝完了 means I have finished to drink something.


Mandarin equivalent of 返 in Cantonese? Is it 回?

As a verb particle, the Mandarin equivalent of 返 in Cantonese is indeed 回

俾返你一啲好處(C) = 給回你一點好處 (M) = give you back some benefit

Edit:

First, the term 還返 is uniquely Cantonese, "我要還返本書俾佢" in Mandarin would just be "我要还本书给他".
Second, 本 is a classifier without determiner or count word, it  is normal in Cantonese, but in Mandarin, you should not omit the determiner or count word; you should write "我要还(這)本书给他" or "我要还(一)本书给他"
Finally, you can omit the classifier along with the determiner and write "我要還書俾佢" / "我要还书给他


There is no contradiction. The formal Sino-Vietnamese readings of 辰 are thần [tʰən˨˩] and thìn [tʰin˨˩], which correspond nicely to the Middle Chinese [d͡ʑin] (Pulleyblank-Miyake), Old Chinese [djɨn] (Baxter). Compare 臣 with the same MC reading, also having Sino-Vietnamese thần. The Fifth Earthly Branch is called thìn (or thần) in Vietnamese.
However, the reading thì definitely exists. The confusion stems from the fact that it is a Nom reading, not some formal Sino-Vietnamese. Its type is either C2 (using a character to spell a local word with a similar sound): I believe that both thì 'time' and thì 'topic particle' are attested as 辰. thìn 'preserve' and thời 'time' are also occurring spelt 辰, and with the variety of Nom, it shouldn't be surprising.
Source: Tự Điển Chữ Nôm Dẫn Giải


Why is 因为 listed as an adverb in the dictionary?

All other dictionaries I checked do not list 因為 as an adverb, and I personally cannot use it as one. My guess is the source you quoted misprinted (副) adverb in that entry.
Besides 'conjunction', 'preposition' is the other usage  listed in Wiki,

owing to; due to; as a result of; because of

I can come up with examples with that:
因為 as preposition:

他因為貧窮而賣子女 (he sold his own children due to poverty)

他因為錢財糾紛而殺人 (he killed people because of money disputes)

因為 as conjunction:

sentence 1: 他賣了兒子給同鄉的富戶 (He sold his son to a wealthy family in the same town)

sentence 2: 他實在養不起十個孩子 (He really can't afford ten children)

with conjunction: 他賣了兒子給同鄉的富戶(是)因為他實在養不起十個孩子


If you want to track the trend of a word in real world, especially when this word may not be popular in a large area or on the Internet, you should do it yourself. Ask local residents living around, or these shop keepers who decided to use this word to find out the reason behind. Maybe looking up local newspaper also helps.

“恶犬” (fierce dog) is not a new word, I think it's mostly used around factories or private properties to warn irrelevant people to keep away. It’s seen in rural areas more often. I hardly saw it used by pet shops (and I think they should use "lovely dog" instead). Interesting if it can be confirmed as a new trend.


Is 我去广州见朋友 or 我去广州看朋友 better for saying "I go to Guangzhou to see a friend"?

In this case, I think 我去广州看朋友 is the suitable translation for "I go to Guangzhou to see a friend"? 我去广州看朋友 usually means you want to see your friend there to see how everything is going with him.

Well, 我去广州见朋友 sounds that you want to meet a friend in Guangzhou, usually for some purposes(like business, talking about something, etc.)


尽  http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2662/
[3] [v] try one's best; devote to

尽 in 尽责任 means 'try one's best to  fulfill'
'尽一份责任' means 'try (their) best to fulfill (their) share of duty'
More examples of 尽 (v):
尽一分努力 (devote all effort one can summon )
尽人事 (exhaust one's ability)
尽心尽力 (exhaust one's wit and strength)


What does 'chee' mean in the following quote?

I would guess that may have simply been chi4 "赤" (red), since 赤匪 (red bandit) was an derogatory term used by the KMT for the communists.


What does 饭圈类 ("rice-ring kind") indicate in 生产这些饭圈类产品?

Searching for 饭圈类 in Baidu, I stumbled upon a Baidu Zhidao artcle, which gives an explanation.  The second answer is simpler:

饭圈类似粉丝会，大家有共同喜欢的东西，组成了一个圈子。
[My translation:] 饭圈 is similar to "fan group" [粉丝会], everyone has something they commonly like, the group forms a social circle [圈子].

In particular, 饭 in this context does not mean "cooked rice", but is used because the English word "fan" is written in the same way as the (untoned) pinyin for 饭 (fàn).  Thus, 饭圈 is a "circle of fans".  And in the article about Trump, it refers to products produced for Trump's circle of fans (or Trump's supporters).


Semantic radical and dictionary header for 将

Before answering of which radical 将 should be, let me introduce some authoritative reference books.

For traditional Chinese: 康熙字典 (compiled in Qing Dynasty) and 說文解字 (compiled in Eastern Han Dynasty by Xu Shen). The online dictionary I highly recommend is 漢典.
For simplified Chinese: 新华字典. Its online version is 在线新华字典. However, I find the online version is not well edited to include all information of the print published version.

So, of which radical 将 should be?

康熙字典 lists 將 as 寸 radical.

  【寅集上】【寸字部】〔古文〕《廣韻》卽良切《集韻》《韻會》《正韻》資良切，音漿。《說文》本將帥字。一曰有漸之辭。《蘇林曰》將，甫始之辭。《易·繫辭》是以君子將有爲也，將有行也。

說文解字 lists 將 as 寸 radical.

  【卷三】【寸部】將 帥也。从寸，省聲。卽諒切。

新华字典(10th Ed.) lists 将 as 寸 radical or 丬 radical.

Thus, a very safe answer to this question is the radical of 将 is 寸. But there's another question: the ancient Chinese academic authorities thought the radical of 將 should be 寸, why now the new standard considers 丬? My personal answer to this one, is

  It is because the motivation of radicals is, to classify Chinese characters and then people can search them easily in a dictionary. 将 is a left-right structured character, so if having not learnt the etymology of 将, nowadays, very possibly one native Chinese would consider its radical is just 丬. In order to meet this language intuition, the government made such a standard to include 丬 as one radical candidate for 将.

For your second question: can one really say that 爿 is phonetic in 將? The answer is no. As said in 說文解字, the phonetic part of 将 is

  省聲

So it should be 酱 ( is the variant character of 酱, now is seldom seen), i.e., 爿+⺼. Maybe I should explain what "Y is X省声/省聲" means, it is a terminology used by Xu Shen, the ancient Chinese academic authority in Eastern Han Dynasty, to describe the phonetic part of Y is a simplified form of the character X. BTW, 爿 sounds pán in Mandarin Chinese.

For your third question: why would ⺼ + 寸 be considered the semantic part?

The definition of the phono-semantic compound character (see wiki) is

  a character with approximately the correct pronunciation (the phonetic element, similar to a phonetic complement) with one of a limited number of determinative characters which supplied an element of meaning (the semantic element, called a "radical", which centuries later would be used to organize characters in a dictionary).

So, the parts which supplied an element of meaning can be considered as the semantic parts in a phono-semantic compound character. However, the case of 将 is a little special. 爿(table), ⺼(meat), 寸(hand), they all supply meaning elements to form the final meaning. Thus, they should be all considered as semantic parts (and 爿+⺼, i.e. 酱, is either the semantic part or the phonetic part) -- that's the reason why 将 is not only a phono-semantic compound character but also an ideogrammatic compound character.

PS: I think you've asked a brilliant question :)

EDIT 1
As the terminology radical is a little ambiguous, all "radical"s I mention in this answer mean the section header of a Chinese dictionary.

EDIT 2
You may still wonder why the ancient Chinese authority thought the radical of 将 is 寸. Qing Dynasty's scholar, Duan Yucai's book 說文解字注 ("Notes on 說文解字") said

  將 [...] 从寸。必有法度而後可以主之先之。故從寸。

Which means "The radical of 將 is 寸. There must be laws first, and then [將] can rule people, and exceed people in status. Thus, the radical of 將 is 寸". Ah, I should also explain why 寸 is related to law: in 康熙字典.

  寸者，忖也，有法度可忖也。凡法度字皆从寸。

which means "寸, implies 忖(it sounds like 寸, and means deliberate), and then implies there are laws to be deliberated. Thus, all characters about laws are related to 寸". So, it's the reason.

EDIT 3 One may argue that, "WTF is the phonetic part 爿⺼?! It's not like a character at all. Writing 酱 for that is weird!" If you unluckily ran into such a question, just show the questioner a seal script of 酱 (generally, there are many kinds of seal scripts corresponding to one character we use today, this is only one of them):

Then it's perfectly composed only by 爿 and ⺼.


How to formally say : "I am yyy calling from xxx company, how can I help you ?"

Say 你好 (Hello) first

It sounds more formal to state what company you are from before stating your name. "我是 xxx 公司的客服 yyy" or "我是 xxx 公司的客服, 我的名字是 yyy"

Since you are speaking with the customer on the phone, "打过来的" or "给您打电话了" is redundant. Just like you wouldn't need to say "I am talking to you in person" if you are face to face with the customer.

Either 请问有什么可以帮助您 or 请问怎么能帮助您 is fine for "how may I help you?"

add final particle (呢) to soften tone, express keenness

Say "请问有什么我可以帮助您呢?"  instead of "请问有什么可以帮助您呢?" to stress 'it is I who will help you'

"你好, 我是 xxx 公司的客服, 我的名字是 yyy, 请问有什么我可以帮助您呢?"
or
"你好, 我是 xxx 公司的客服 yyy, 请问有什么我可以帮助您呢?"


跟:with (who)

跟朋友 with friends

跟家人 with family

在 : in (where)

在饭馆 in the restaurant

The order of 跟朋友 and 在飯館 is not important in Chinese.


How long a lack of practice does it usually take to forget the intricacies off the learnt Chinese?

As a native English speaker, I've found that after leaving China for four years now, my ability to remember tones has been negatively affected. Second, is remembering words. Weirdly enough, having not read much these past years, I never really lost an reading comprehension (though as before I may forget the meaning of a word and/or its pronunciation).

The best way to recover (other than returning to China and speaking with Chinese friends- obviously) is to watch/listen to movies and TV as this triggers those neglected neural connections, that you would be surprised to learn are quite resilient.


translations of praise and worship in Chinese

Everybody had to praise Stalin, all the time.
人们必须每天都称颂斯大林。

All Soviet people worship Stalin.
所有的苏维埃人民都崇拜斯大林。

如果有人不这么做，他们将立即送去古拉格！


連連 Trying to understand the double word (叠词 or 叠字) usage

When I saw these at first I thought of idioms. When double words are put together, is there always a special meaning? Are there any rules to using double words?

As a complementary to @user3306356 's answer,
there are some variations of 叠词 (I couldn't cover all of them, but I will list out some for your reference :) )

1. Verb

The syntax would be AA(n.), for example:

吃吃東西 : Eat something

畫畫圖畫 : Draw something

2. Adjective （BAA）

Usually in a form of (n.)aa or (adj.)aa

Let's consider 紅彤彤 and 白雪雪

紅 has the meaning of RED, however 彤 in 紅彤彤 refers to 丹砂 (a red-color ink), which decorates the adjective 紅(RED) itself.

For 白雪雪, 雪 means snow, which gives 白雪雪 a meaning of "Snowy white".

There are more than one way to describe a single colour in different context, such as 白茫茫,白皙晢,白花花,白蒼蒼,白皚皚 etc.

3. Adjective/Adverb （AA / AABB）

We can consider words in form of AA / AABB as 疊詞 as well,

For example, 重重疊疊 (Piles over piles) and 彎彎曲曲 (Curvy, in twist and turns)

4. Adjective/Adverb （ABAB / ABAC）

In Chinese language, we also consider the form ABAB and ABAC as 疊詞.

Such as 百發百中, 自由自在, however most of them are idioms. We often use double words to emphasize the story itself.

5. Onomatopoeia

Sometimes, 疊詞 are just used as onomatopoeia (word that phonetically imitates the sound itself)

潺潺, pronounced as 'san san', which imitates the sound of flowing water.
淙淙, reads 'cong cong' also refers to the sound of water

Extra

There is a famous poem《聲聲慢》by 李清照(Li Qingzhao), a poet from Song dynasty which starts with 14 words of 疊詞, is a masterpeice of double words.

  尋尋覓覓， 冷冷清清， 淒淒慘慘戚戚

Some people tried to translate the lines into English:

  尋尋覓覓， I seek in vain, I search in vain;

  冷冷清清， Chilled to the bone, all alone;

  淒淒慘慘戚戚。 In pain, in tears, unconsolable.

Finally, my answer

So, where does 好事連連 fall?

好事 means "Good things",

連連 means "Again and again" or simply "repeatedly"

It's in a (n.)AA format, which means literally "Good things happens repeatedly" (It's really a good fortune).


Beijing opera was not invented in the capital, but was largely imported from Anhui and other parts of the country, and then it evolved with further influences from other regions.

Certain pieces may therefore retain local accents, like Jiang-Huai (江淮官话) above, although the music itself makes it possible to just twist and distort the syllables.


This has been covered on nearly every Chinese learning platform and is one of the first problems learners encounter. Without being too mean I do have to ask, what amount of prior research have you done?

会 means you have the knowledge necessary to do something

能 means you have the ability to do something (nothing preventing you from doing it)

lastly 可以 means you have permission to do something.

They all translate as "can" in English. There's some overlap between them but for a better comparison refer to this:

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Comparing_%22hui,%22_%22neng,%22_%22keyi%22


How do you say "Welcome to English", as in welcome to English class?

If it is a title of a book, it can be translated as  "英語入門"

If it is a greeting from a teacher to his class, it means " 歡迎第一次學習英語。" = "Welcome to English learning for the first time."

Beside the above examples, the phrase " Welcome to English" doesn't provide enough context to be meaningful.


Because 一定想要 is hard to be present alone. 一定想要 typically exist with other things. For example, 他人不一定想要, 這樣發朋友圈的女生一定想要男人, 他們到不一定想要馬上定下來或進入婚姻, and tones of example can be found with google with "一定想要" on search bar. These example shows that people use 一定想要 with other things together. It is hard to found 一定想要 exist along. Therefore, your friend can do it in his question but not in your reply. Your friends question have 你 before 想要. while your reply only have 一定想要 exist alone. You can remove 一定 so that you can use 想要 too.


In the usage of the sentence “你们赶紧/快走吧”

Yes you can use both indiscriminately.

The only different between “赶紧” and “快” in the sentence above is the number of words.

赶紧 means you have to do it now
快 got other usage but one of them is same as 赶紧

In my opinion, if I have to use 快 in the above sentence it would be like I'm shouting 快走吧！！ shorten the number of sounds I have to pronounce.

Then I will use 赶紧 in the above sentence it would be like I'm talking gently 你们赶紧走吧


交了很多朋友

交 in 交朋友 is short for 結交 (form relationship). Therefore, 交了很多朋友 means 'you formed many relationships with people who now are your friends

认识了很多朋友

认识 means 'to know'.  认识了很多朋友 means 'got to know many people who now are your friends'
Comparing the two:
交了很多朋友 - formed relationships with many people --> became friends
认识了很多朋友 - got to know many people --> became friends
Therefore, they both mean 'made many friends'

結识 is the combination of 結交 and 认识

結识了很多朋友 - get to know and form relationship with many people --> became friends

Edit:
Puco4 wrote:

maybe it is also possible to say 做朋友?

做朋友' can mean 'befriend (+ object)' or 'being a friend to (+ object)'  e.g. 我想跟他做朋友 (I want to befriend him/ I want to become a befriend to him); 我和他做朋友已經十年了 (He and I have been friends for ten years)
You cannot say '我做了很多朋友' (I've been many friends). You have to say '我和很多人做了朋友' (I befriended many people) or (I've become friends to many people)


How to state unpleasantness in written form? let becomes make

让 (to make) implies "to force/ to order". If something has to be forced upon you, that something is most likely unpleasant to you

you can use:

强迫/ 迫: "to force" . e.g. 我父母迫我吃苹果 (my parent force me to eat apple/ my parent make me eat apple)
硬是要/ 硬要: "to force" . e.g. 我父母硬是要我吃苹果 (my parent force me to eat apple)

  我父母硬是要[让]我吃苹果 (my parent stubbornly/ forcefully [make] me eat apple)

  我父母硬是要[让]我吃苹果 would not be misinterpreted as "my parent stubbornly/ forcefully [let] me eat apple)

Side note: "係都要" is the Cantonese equivalent of "硬是要". e.g. "我父母係都要我食苹果"


Don't use "环比" alone, "比" means comparison in the sentence and needs a baseline.

stock prices jumped 5% month over month and 3% quarter over quarter

股价本月环比上涨5%，本季度环比上涨3% (comparison base on the current month/quarter)
or
股价每月上涨5%，每季度上涨3% (intend to describe a long period of time)
And some alternative sentences could go like this:
(unlikely to see both "month" and "quarter" in one sentence, but need a baseline for comparison anyway):

2021年3月，股价环比上涨5%。
2021年第一季度，股价环比上涨3%。

Edited:
"同比" means the same period of time, while "环比" means the last period of time.
Not suggested to define them as "year over year / month over month" when using alone.
So usually needs a time block in the same sentence to avoid ambiguous.


What does "&" (Ampersand) means in Chinese language?

maybe you want to check this: http://vancouverchinesegarden.com/calendar/iain-baxter/


Is "biang" a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese?

So time for an update…
If you want to play by the books, biang is not a permissible syllable. If you are concerned with what comes out of a speaker’s mouth, syllables like nim (contraction of 你們) are even possible, although they are technically surface realizations of a phonology that does not allow such syllables.
The surprising fact is that iang as a rime for the labial initials (b, p, ph, m) did not even exist in Middle Chinese, so the omission of biang is nothing new. That isn’t to say it couldn’t develop in Mandarin, but there was nothing shaping the language in that direction. The only likely source would be a borrowing sort of like how fiao is a borrowing from Wu, which has its own interesting story.
Old Answer
I’ve made a chart here for my own understanding of Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology a while ago:
        a       ai      au      an      aŋ      e       ə       əi      əu      ən      əŋ      i       ia      iai     iau     ian     iaŋ     ie      iə      iəu     iən     iəŋ     io      iu      iuan    iuə     iun     iuəŋ    aɻ      o       u       ua      uai     uan     uaŋ     uə      uəi     uən     uəŋ     m       n       ŋ
        a       ai      ao      an      ang     ê       e       ei      ou      en      eng     yi      ya      yai     yao     yan     yang    yê      ye      you     yin     ying    yo      yu      yuan    yue     yun     yong    er      o       wu      wa      wai     wan     wang    wo      wei     wun     weng    m       n       ng
p       ba      bai     bao     ban     bang                    bei             ben     beng    bi                      biao    bian    biang           bie     biu     bin     bing                                                            bo      bu
pʰ      pa      pai     pao     pan     pang                    pei     pou     pen     peng    pi                      piao    pian                    pie     piu     pin     ping                                                            po      pu
m       ma      mai     mao     man     mang            me      mei     mou     men     meng    mi                      miao    mian                    mie     miu     min     ming                                                            mo      mu
f       fa                      fan     fang                    fei     fou     fen     feng                            fiao                                                                                fo      fu
t       da      dai     dao     dan     dang            de      dei     dou     den     deng    di                      diao    dian                    die     diu             ding                                                                    du                      duan            duo     dui     dun     dong
tʰ      ta      tai     tao     tan     tang            te              tou             teng    ti                      tiao    tian                    tie     tiu             ting                                                                    tu                      tuan            tuo     tui     tun     tong
n       na      nai     nao     nan     nang            ne      nei     nou     nen     neng    ni                      niao    nian    niang           nie     niu     nin     ning            nü              nüe                                     nu                      nuan            nuo                     nong
l       la      lai     lao     lan     lang            le      lei     lou             leng    li      lia             liao    lian    liang           lie     liu     lin     ling            lü              lüe                             lo      lu                      luan            luo             lun     long
ts      za      zai     zao     zan     zang            ze      zei     zou     zen     zeng    zi                                                                                zu                      zuan            zuo     zui     zun     zong
tsʰ     ca      cai     cao     can     cang            ce              cou     cen     ceng    ci                                                                                cu                      cuan            cuo     cui     cun     cong
s       sa      sai     sao     san     sang            se              sou     sen     seng    si                                                                                su                      suan            suo     sui     sun     song
tʂ      zha     zhai    zhao    zhan    zhang           zhe     zhei    zhou    zhen    zheng   zhi                                                                                zhu     zhua    zhuai   zhuan   zhuang  zhuo    zhui    zhun    zhong
tʂʰ     cha     chai    chao    chan    chang           che             chou    chen    cheng   chi                                                                                chu     chua    chuai   chuan   chuang  chuo    chui    chun    chong
ʂ       sha     shai    shao    shan    shang           she     shei    shou    shen    sheng   shi                                                                                shu     shua    shuai   shuan   shuang  shuo    shui    shun
ɻ                       rao     ran     rang            re              rou     ren     reng    ri                                                                                ru      rua             ruan            ruo     rui     run     rong
tɕ                                                                                ji      jia             jiao    jian    jiang           jie     jiu     jin     jing            ju      juan    jue     jun     jiong
tɕʰ                                                                                qi      qia             qiao    qian    qiang           qie     qiu     qin     qing            qu      quan    que     qun     qiong
ɕ                                                                                xi      xia             xiao    xian    xiang           xie     xiu     xin     xing            xu      xuan    xue     xun     xiong
k       ga      gai     gao     gan     gang            ge      gei     gou     gen     geng                                                                                gu      gua     guai    guan    guang   guo     gui     gun     gong
kʰ      ka      kai     kao     kan     kang            ke      kei     kou     ken     keng                                                                                ku      kua     kuai    kuan    kuang   kuo     kui     kun     kong
x       ha      hai     hao     han     hang            he      hei     hou     hen     heng                                                                                hu      hua     huai    huan    huang   huo     hui     hun     hong

The table contains every possible pinyin in Standard Mandarin Chinese sans tones. Columns are headed by the finals, and rows are headed by the initials. They are derived from the Standard Chinese phonology and Pinyin table pages on Wikipedia. A quick look at the table will reveal patterns in the phonology with a few oddities.
biang is certainly listed in the Pinyin table, but a quick search for any word with a pinyin of biang produces 0 results. And it makes sense: because the bilabial/labiodental series of initials (b-, p-, m-, f-) is excluded from combining with many finals (such as: -uan, -uo, -ui, -un, -ong). Have a look at the iaŋ column and you see that piang, miang, and fiang are missing; biang looks like it should not be there either.
Yes, there are oddities where a sound that looks like it should be there isn’t there (like bou, tei, and ten), but they can be easily explained as, “there weren’t any words that used that sound.” It’s what is called an “accidental gap,” and you can read more about it here: Phonotactics (âm pháp). It’s much more difficult to make a case for biang which exists in no dictionaries, is not in common usage, and is the sole proprietor of the Pinyin “biang.” Considering the facts, it’s my opinion that biang is illegal in Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology and was probably concocted for promotional purposes. What better way to stand out than to own a “rare” character, a “rare” sound, and an exclusive position in the Pinyin table?


Does the Chinese language distinguish "doubt" and "suspicion"?

Yes, it does

Doubt is 疑问, which can be having question about anything, it is a neutral word.
and suspicion is 怀疑, usually means suspecting someone has done something wrong, which is usually negative.


In phonology, the "clean i" sound, IPA /i/, is called "close front unrounded vowel", which, in Chinese is called:

闭前不圆唇元音

The "dirty i" instead, as I learned it, should be the IPA /ɨ/, which is called "close central unrounded vowel", in Chinese:

闭央不圆唇元音

Those are the terms used in phonology, which are (more or less) scientifically validated.
For the "dirty i", the IPA /ɿ/ has also been used, especially by sinologists, to describe the -i sound with the retroflex initials "zh"/"ch"/"sh", but it's now considered obsolete:

Other characters have been added in for specific phonemes which do not possess a specific symbol in the IPA. Those studying modern Chinese phonology have used ⟨ɿ⟩ to represent the sound of -i in Pinyin hanzi which has been variously described as [ɨ], [ɹ̩], [z̩] or [ɯ].

As for colloquial terms, I'm not aware of any, because the pinyin syllables "zhi", "chi", "shi", "zi", "ci", "si", "ri" are said to be pronounced just as their respective initials (声母）“zh", "ch", "sh", "z", "c", "s", "r", except they are a little bit more loud and clear (响亮). Therefore the addition of the grapheme "i" after them is a romanization convention.
If you need to describe the term to someone who isn't familiar with phonology, or pinyin romanization, you can say it in your own words (or mine), but that's subjective. Example:

更响亮的舌面「衣」音 (衣 is simply used to represent the vowel sound)
A louder and clearer "i" sound, (pronounced with) the blade of the tongue (lateral sound).

更细弱的舌尖「衣」音
A thinner and weaker "i" sound, (pronounced with) the tip of the tongue (apical sound)


谁给你取的这个名字？ conveys where you got the name or who give you that name.

谁给你取了这个名字？ sounds like who have given you such a name, implying who have done that naming because that name might sound unusual, weird/ridiculous/etc.


Translation English->Chinese for computer words

Though you didn't do enough research... anyway it is just a simple question for me.
I guess you just set the system language to Chinese and it is solved.
Abort 中止
About 关于
Advanced 高级
Apply 应用
Back 返回
Bluetooth 蓝牙
Cancel 取消
Copy 复制
CPU CPU/中央处理单元
Cut 剪切
Delete 删除
Device 设备
Downgrade 降级
Format 样式
microSD microSD
Hardware 硬件
Internet 因特网/互联网
Next 下一项/次项
No 否
OK 是
Options 选项
Paste 粘贴
Play 播放
Processor 处理器
Server 服务器
Settings 设置
Size 尺寸
Software 软件
Sound 声音
Storage 存储
Upgrade 升级
Video 视频
Web 网络
Wi-Fi WIFI
Yes 是


敢于：there is no fear.
勇于:I have the subjective and do not afraid of failure.


Is the 有 in 你有想要买什么吗 some kind of auxiliary verb?

你有想要买什么吗. It sounds more like Taiwanese usage of 有 to my ear. I found they often put 有 between subject and verb. E.g. 我有去过；我有看过；where I often just say 我去过；我看过. In this case, I'll probably say  你想要买什么? or 你想要买什么(东西)吗?.


What languages have been approved by SARFT for use?

Personally, I don't think there is a list for this.

Local radio and TV stations are allowed to broadcast with dialect within Local ONLY.

For example, 广东卫视 is broadcasted in Mandarin and is available to every province in China. While, for example, 南方卫视 and 珠江频道 are broadcasted in Cantonese, which is ONLY available within Guangdong Province.

Generally speaking, Radio and TV station are in 2 categories, available to every province and available within a specific province. I believe every province has many stations for both type.

Also, dialect varies a lot even inside Guangdong Province. Taking "accent" into consideration, Cantonese in Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Maoming, Dongguan, Qingyuan sounds different. Not to mention Teochew dialect and Hakka Chinese, all inside Guangdong province. For Teochew dialect, the difference of Chaozhou and Shantou is more than notable.

That's why I believe, it might be not possible to list all approved languages.


日 in Jyutping (Cantonese pinyin) is  [jat6] which sounds similar to 'Ju' in "Jutland"

德 in Jyutping is  [dak1]  which sounds similar to 'tl'  in "Jutland"

and 兰 is the common transliteration in both Cantonese and Mandarin


Determining what the meaning of part of a character '益' is

Outlier gives the following definition:

FORM
益 depicts a bowl (皿) with water () flowing out of it, representing the original meaning “abundant, more than enough.”

With a reference to page 147 of:

裘錫圭，1991《文字學概要(再版)》，臺北市：萬卷樓，2006年2月再版8刷。

It then continues:

COMPONENTS

In 益,   “flowing water” is a form component.
皿
In 益, 皿 “bowl” is a form component.

Original forms looked something like:

It goes to show that the entire thing was originally the meaning part.


How to describe differences between Cantonese and Mandarin?

The analogy to Portuguese and Spanish is a good one. Just don't forget that the writing system is a bit like Latin. In the middle ages nobody spoke Latin but many people could read and write it. Written Chinese was the equivalent to written Latin. Now, people write in Modern Standard Mandarin, which is the same as the spoken language taught in the schools. It's like when they started teaching the Spanish children to write in Spanish instead of Latin.

Both dialects have similarities but they pronounce most words totally differently. In some cases, Cantonese uses different words for the same meanings. For example, (I'm told that) "we" is not "我们" but rather something like "我地". Cantonese speakers understand "我们" and if reading it aloud could chose to pronounce it as "我们", but "我地" is how normal speakers would say "we". This type of difference is fairly common.

Here is an example of an ad that only makes sense in Cantonese:

  去 緊 旅行，仲可以日日update，至勁係你.

Which would probably be written in Mandarin thus:

  旅行當中，還可以 每一天update，你最了不起.

Essentially, if you are trying to explain the differences to someone who is not really interested in it but is just asking to be polite, you could sum it up as "two different languages that use the same writing system". Different pronunciations, different vocabulary choices, different grammar, and even some different characters.


What does this seal stamp say? (Characters identified: 石黑香香)

The characters in Standard Chinese writing are 石黑香香. This is the artist mark of a Japanese pottery maker named Ishiguro Kōkō (石黒香々).

See this page for more details on the mark and its variants.


Let's begin with 什么都 meaning "everything"; see Expressing "everything" with "shenme dou" at the Chinese Grammar Wiki.  We can add a verb or an adjective afterwards:
什么都 + adjective

什么都美丽 (everything is beautiful)
什么都辣 (everything is spicy)
什么都简单 (everything is simple)

which we negate with 不:

什么都不美丽 (everything is not beautiful)
什么都不辣 (everything is not spicy)
什么都不简单 (everything is not simple)

This is the easy case.  See also the "Negating Adjectives" section of Standard negation with "bu".
什么都 + verb

什么都有 (to have everything)
什么都吃 (to eat everything)
什么都买 (to buy everything)

which we negate with 不 or 没 or 没有, which is where it gets tricky.
At this point, it's no longer about 什么都, but only about 没 vs. 不.  The most prominent Chinese.SE post about this is Why is 有 (yǒu) the only verb that requires 没 while other verbs can use 不?.  See also the Chinese Grammar Wiki's article Comparing "bu" and "mei".
The following is a common construction; how it's usually taught.  Given tsh's comment below, it looks like there are other constructions beyond this (which I'm unable to comment on).
什么都不 + verb vs. 什么都没 + verb
Indeed "没 + verb" often indicates a past non-event. From Negation of past actions with "meiyou":

Usually verbs can be negated with 不 (bù), but that construction is used for habitual or present actions. If the verb is about an action in the past, though, 没有 (méiyǒu) should be used.

So for example:

什么都没吃 = 什么都没有吃 (to not eat anything [in the past])
什么都不吃 (to not eat anything [present or future])
什么都没买 = 什么都没有买 (to not buy anything [in the past])
什么都不买 (to not buy anything [present or future])

Note that 没有 is an exception here, e.g. 明天什么都没有 (to not have anything tomorrow [future]) is okay.  I believe 什么都没是 is also incorrect (there's a mismatch between 没 and 是).
(Please note, I'm just a learner.  Hopefully if there's any misunderstandings on my part, someone can point them out to me in the comments.)


It's okay grammatically, but not very challenging.

粗俗書生私下心想，「石上書寫『實事求是』四字似是敘寫世上數億心上思想，實屬喜事!」


曲折的学习经历= step-by-step experiences of learning/(properly) gradual advancing in learning.

坎坷的学习经历= troublesome experiences of learning

Since 经历 is equivalent to experience's'   in English, it must be step-like. Thus we shall focus on the secondary meaning of the adjectives.


台 tái = term of address? Is this address?

When 台 means 'platform', you may see it in 月台 (train platform), 舞台 (stage), 電台 (radio station), 電視台 (TV station) etc.

When 台 is a unit, you may see it in 一台貨車 (a truck), 一台電腦 (a computer); it is a counter for bulky objects.

台 may also be an abbreviation for Taiwan, as in 台式 (Taiwanese style).

台 as a term of address (address here means speaking or writing to someone, not a location) is possible, although somewhat archaic / formal. In the past it is very common to attach ～鑒 after the addressee's name in letters. Depending on their status relative to yours, you choose the correct character before 鑒: e.g., 台鑒 for peers, 鈞鑒 for reverent people, and 雅鑒 for ladies. You also end the letter with salutations like 即候台安 or 順頌台祺, again depending on your status. Put simply, 台 is a general term of address for peers. If you're interested you may refer to this link to see an exhaustive list on the correct terms of address in various situations.


Is this a spoken contracted form of 現在【现在】？

This happens frequently in oral expressions. Yes, this is a "contraction" as you stated. The context is specific to everybody, so the speaker can shorten some words to express more information. Here the full word /xiànzài/ is shortened as something like /xià(n)ài/, where the sound /z/ and the nasal sound are in fact pronounced but in a very short period, and the recording seems like that the one just omitted /z/, /n/. You could try yourself by reading the word "现在" as quick as possible without altering the leading consonants [or, to be more exact, 声母] the tone and the vowels [韵母], and you might get the same result.


What is the difference between 怎么 and 如何？

Normally, 怎么 is more oral than 如何. 如何 can be read in much ancient literature, and it can also be used in formal documents, but that is too formal.

You may express "How about that?" saying:

  如何？

There is an idiom 如何是好, which expresses "What/How should I do?".


Distinguishing a verb from a substantive (执着)

Below is a compilation of Sanskrit, Chinese (Bodhiruci, 菩譯), Chinese (Śikshānanda, 實譯), and English (Suzuki), which I found in Bibliotheca Polyglotta:

ātmadṛṣṭivyāvartanakuśalānāṃ
能轉一切見、我見過
能捨一切我見執著
to keep themselves properly away from ego-centered notions

I then looked up the Digital Corpus of Sanskrit (DCS) to understand how it was originally phrased in Sanskrit. DCS gave the parsing of Sanskrit into: ātma (compound for ātman 'self'), dṛṣṭi (compound for dṛṣṭi 'seeing; notion'), vyāvartana (compound for vyāvartana 'turning away'), and kuśalānāṃ (genitive plural masculine for kuśala 'proper').
The only verb-like morpheme here is 'turning away', which corresponds to 轉 or 捨 in Chinese. That is to say, I believe 執著 is not a verb but a substantive, perhaps a unique feature of Śikshānanda but not Bodhiruci. That is also to say, this is more of a question on translation, rather than Chinese grammar.

Compared to the historical Chinese translations, Suzuki adheres to the meaning of kuśalānāṃ ('proper') better. As a whole, it means something like 'proper turning-away from self-notions' as a phrase genitive to the nominative phrase 'realisation of the great Yogins' (abhisamayo mahāyoginā, 修行者行) seen at the beginning (note: the genitive case can be used generically in Sanskrit; I think it expounds on what the realisation / understanding of the great Yogins are, see Dhammajoti 2012:4). I also looked up a modern translation by Tam Shek-wing [談錫永] (2005:20) that incorporated the translation 'proper' (正) much like Suzuki (Tam used 離 for 'turning away'):

楞伽主，如是即為大瑜伽行人之修行，能摧外道論，能破諸惡見，能正離我見執著，由是能以妙慧於內心起轉依。

Huang Baosheng [黃寶生] (2011:22) used 善於 ('good at') for 'proper' and 摒棄 for 'turning away' instead. Both are more idiomatic in modern Chinese:

楞伽王啊，這是大瑜伽行者的認識。他們摧毀外道論說，破除惡見，善於摒棄我見，善於以妙慧轉變識。

I feel like the notion of 'properness' was skipped (more like understood) in the Śikshānanda translation.

Huang also defined 我見 (ātmadṛṣṭi) in one of his footnotes:

「我見」（ātmadṛṣṭi）指執著某種固定不變的實體，如靈魂。其中的 ātman，一般指靈魂或自我。
(translation) Ātmadṛṣṭi refers to the fixation on a certain kind of constant body, such as the soul. Ātman in the compound normally refers to the soul or self.

With this in mind, I am confident 執著 in the Śikshānanda tradition is a substantive, or an in-text explanation to the more jargonistic 我見.

Edit

I found a modern Japanese translation (Tokiwa, 1994:10) which also supports the substantive and idiosyncratic nature (i.e. presence in only Śikshānanda) of 執著. I translate the phrase in bold below as 'people who excel in removing the view of themselves'.

ランカーの主よ、これは、優れた修行者たちの悟りの内容である。他の流言を打ち砕いた人達、悪い見解を打ち破った人達、自我の見解を除くことに優れた人々、微細なところまで知覚の根拠の転換を果たすことに優れた人々、勝者の子たち、大乗を行ずる人々の「悟り内容」である如来の自内証の境地に悟入するために、汝は修行すべきである。

References

Dhammajoti KL. Reading Buddhist Sanskrit Texts: An Elementary Grammatical Guide. Buddha-dharma Centre of Hong Kong; 2015.

談錫永（2005）《入楞伽經梵本新譯》。臺北：全佛文化。

黃寶生（2011）《梵漢對勘入楞伽經》。北京：中國社會科學出版社。

常盤義伸（1994）『「ランカーに入る」：梵文入楞伽経の全訳と研究』Part 1. 京都：花園大学国際禅学研究所.


How do you describe a vegetarian item? As in a vegetarian burrito?

In Mandarin, we use the prefix "素".

In Cantonese, we use the prefix "齋"

And the order is significant too:

"素墨西哥卷" implies that the original burrito contains meat and this one is a customized version for vegetarian.
"墨西哥素卷" implies that this vegetarian burrito is original Mexico food.

On the other hand, as wuyefeibao mentioned, you can add "的" in the phrase; and it is quite interesting in this case:

"墨西哥的素卷" == "墨西哥素卷"
"素的墨西哥卷" .... It can be both.  ^_^


For a general and literal translation, the answer is exactly what @Tang Ho had mentioned： 搅拌机

However, in regard to the specific type of model you referred, 打蛋器 Eggbeater may be a better translation with less ambiguity in daily life.

That is because, 搅拌机 is often interpreted as something like:

while by searching 打蛋器, the following content can be most likely found:


Translations from TCM (Traditional Chinese medicine)

There are plenty of places on the web where acupuncture points are mentioned in English like this: NeiGuan or Neiguan. In fact you can even do a plain Google search for "Neiguan" and there are plenty of results.

There are also some listings for Yiming but this doesn't seem to be as well known.

If you want to be precise I would add the Chinese next to it, like Neiguan (内关).

Looking at this chart provided by Wikipedia it shows how each of the points have a code, so it may also be more accurate to provide the code e.g. Neiguan-P6* and Yiming-EX-HN14*.
An example of this format can be seen here.

*Note: Please don't take my answer as a point of reference for the exact codes to be used for these points. I have seen Neiguan listed variously as PE6, PC6 and P6. I am not a doctor.

It is common for terms that have no English equivalent to use the romanisation of the Chinese without the tones. I suggest you try either using the romanisation along with some related terms e.g. "neiguan acupuncture" or use the Chinese and related English words e.g. "内关 acupuncture"


What is the top part of 姜 and why does it differ?

I'm also finding conflicting sources. For example according to the reference work Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary it's also 羊 + 女.

Similarly, still in the same work, 美 is 羊 + 大.

Often when characters are combined they are slightly changed to make the character more compact and I think that is what has happened here.

However when I look at the following online Classical Chinese dictionary they say that it is ⺷ + 女.
However if you look at the seal script of 羊 on the same site and compare it with the seal script of 姜 you'll clearly see the 羊. Also from the ⺷ page, one can  interpret  that the character ⺷ isn't that old. So it seems more likely that it indeed comes from 羊.

I could be wrong about this, but I think the average Chinese doesn't care about how the character is made up. Their way of learning them is to drill them (rote learning), not by trying to see how there are made-up.

EDIT: I have been doing some more searching and actually ⺷ is 羊, but in radical form. See for example unicodelookup.com.
So it doesn't exist as a separate character, but is used when it is used as a radical. Similarly as 手 is changed when used as a radical in 打.


I think this article answers your question..

Why is the panda called so?
The origin of the name panda is the Nepalese word 'nigalya ponya', which means 'eater of bamboo'. As used in the West, it was originally applied to the red panda, to which the giant panda was thought to be related.
Until its relation to the red panda was discovered in 1901, the giant panda was known as the mottled bear (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or partly-coloured bear. In Chinese, the giant panda is called the 'large bear cat'.
— Mayank Lavania, recd via e-mail

FYI, below is the red panda. I didn't know until now.

For people interested in the origin of 熊貓, check this blog entry.


Does Chinese have any structure similar with this Japanese term?

for classical chinese, it's a yes. one must read between the lines (actually, amongst characters), to grasp the meaning.

here's an example:

"三", "五", "二", "八" are the chinese the characters of 3, 5, 2, 8; but, putting them together, does not mean "3528", it depends on the context:

  三五二八佳年少﹒百萬千金買歌笑

"三五" here means 15 years old (3 x 5) = 15, while "二八" means 16 years old (2 x 8) = 16

  三五二八光如練﹒海上天涯人共見

"三五" here means full moon, the 15th day of lunar calendar, while "二八" means the moon of the 16th day of lunar calendar.

hope this answer helps :)


江 is mostly used in the South; 河 is mostly used in the North. There are exceptions,  such as 黑龙江, 浏阳河.
Scale. 江 is exclusively for mighty rivers; 河 can be used for both large and small rivers.
All foreign rivers are named with 河.
There is no fundamental differences between 河 and 江.
江 is used for rivers whose banks are steep cliffs; 河 is used for rivers with beaches.
In some classic text, 江 refers to Yangtze river; 河 refers to Yellow River; the other rivers are named with 水, e.g. 渭水

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/20655/8126542.htm#2


兆 was used in ancient China to represent trillion, it is no longer used in mainland China, but still used in Taiwan, it uniquely represents the mega prefix in the International System of Units currently. But in Taiwan, 一兆 means one trillion, while 兆赫兹 means MHz (megahertz). The largest number that can be expressed in a single Chinese character is 亿 in mainland China, to express larger numbers, use the phrases like 万亿 or 亿亿. Of course, there are also Chinese characters that represent numbers larger than 亿 (100 million), but such a large number is not used generally, and nobody use them, except the ancient literature. You may learn them here.


If I was fat, and now I'm not, which is better: 我长胖 or 我长胖了 or 我长了胖 or 我长了胖了?

Neither.

If you used to be x and you're not any more you'd just use a construct like:

  以前很x

like:

  (我)以前很胖

Of course, 很 doesn't necessarily mean really or very, but if you want to change it to 有点 that's cool too:

  (我)以前有点(儿)胖


Is 做 necessary in the sentence 我不打算做决定 (wǒ bù dǎsuàn zuò juédìng)?

决定 in 我不打算决定 is a verb (I don't plan to decide)

决定 in 我不打算做决定 is a noun (I don't plan to make decision)

'做决定' means 'make decision'

in 我不打算决定 the object is omitted, It emphasizes the verb 'to decide'
我不打算做决定 is a complete sentence. It put emphasis on the object 'decision'.


Both are correct. And I don't see much difference whether to put 了 after 在 or at the end of the sentence.

However, if I had to find a difference I'd say they stress on different parts of the sentence.

(1)  To stress the action

你刚刚干啥去了 = what were you doing just now

我刚刚把书包放在了教室的外面 = I was just putting my schoolbag outside the classroom

(2) To stress where the person put the bag

你的包呢 = where is your bag

我刚刚把书包放在教室的外面了 = I just put my bag outside the classroom

Still, the difference is hardly noticed.


Can native Chinese speakers distinguish tones in songs?

No.

In songs, most tones disappear. The syllables are sung along the melody of music. We only tell the tone because we can catch what the whole word or sentence is.

In songs, usually the melody should be written to convey the tones of syllables (or syllables chosen to match the melody). Mismatch of melody and lyrics can result in misunderstandings. However, in pop music, not much attention has been paid to this problem.

An interesting paper (that this blog post pointed me to) claims that in Cantonese pop songs, the melody more closely follows the tones, while in Mandarin songs, the tones just get obliterated.


My summary of 'and' in Chinese:

  "財富 (和) 聲望" = "wealth (and) prestige"

'和' denotes 'wealth' and 'prestige' are at the same level in term of emphasis (implies they come in together as a unit)

  "財富 (與) 聲望" = "wealth (and) prestige" / "wealth (and also) prestige"

'與' emphasize the first item 'wealth' slightly more than the second item 'prestige' (imply prestige comes after wealth)

  "財富 (及) 聲望" = "wealth (and) prestige"/ "wealth (and) prestige (in addition)"

'及' emphasizes the first item 'wealth' more heavily over the second item 'prestige' (implies prestige is an addition to 'wealth'

Notice the compound word '與及' (also/ in addition of)

~

  "你 (和) 我" = "you (and) I"

'和' indicates 'you' and 'I' are at the same level of emphasis

  "你 (與) 我" = "you (and) I" / you (and) me (also)"

'與' emphasizes the first item 'you' slightly more than the second item 'I' (implies thing effect you slight more than me)

  "你 (跟) 我" = "you (and) I" / "you (with) I "

'跟'  emphasizes the second item 'I' more than the first item 'you' (implies 'you' following 'I'. e.g. "你跟我一起工作" = "you work with me together")

  You can omit '和' just like you can omit 'and' in English sometimes

"財富聲望" = 'wealth, prestige' (as a single unit)

"你我" = "you and I" = "we" (it is a classical style of speech)

  也 means 'also' or 'too', as in "我也是中國人" (I am Chinese too/ I am also Chinese),  "我也去 (I would also go/ I would go too )

In Cantonese '同' is equal to '和'


Any difference between 发蒙 and 上学 for children?

发蒙 is not used constantly in Chinese anymore.

上学 means receive education in a general way.

if you want to say education at an early age, maybe "启蒙教育" fits better.


Talking skylarks?? Where are we??
I think you can understand this 一 as 'once' or 'as soon as'
听百灵鸟这么一说，她明白了。
As soon as she heard the skylark speak, she understood.
Once she heard the skylark speak, she understood.
You can also not translate it: Hearing the skylark speak thus, she understood.
Or, to borrow Tang Ho's example:
二人向来不睦，一见面就打架。
Those two are always at odds, as soon as they see each other, they start fighting.


Is 我认为保护环境将为子孙后代保证未来 correct? Does it make sense?

Yes, it's right. But, it's much better to say, 我认为保护环境就是保护子孙后代的未来.


Is 真的  really an intensifier?
我真的不知道(O)... 我真的很不知道 (X)
真的 (really) is an adverb for adjective that doesn't describe 'degree' but 'trueness'.

~

我很强 (O)... 我强 (X)
"很强" can be translated as "strong" or "very strong" in English
"很厲害" can be translated as  "awesome" or "very awesome" in English
"他的聲音真的很厲害" should be translated as "His voice is really awesome"
If you translate it as "His voice is really very amazing" that would sound odd in English.
If the sentence was "他的聲音很厲害" then you can translate it as "His voice is very amazing" or "His voice is amazing"

~

Is it okay to use multiple degree-intensifiers in a sentence?

One intensifier at a time
他非常强壮 (O)
他極之强壮 (O)
他非常極之强壮 (x)
他非常强壮，極之聪明  (O)


Where can I find a list of existing Chinese surnames?

This Wiki page listed around 1,000 surnames. Origins and history of some of the surnames were provided as well.

Here is another list I find with 3257 surnames.


What are some good Chinese short books/novels for beginners?

Here's one starting point:
我的第一本日记：二年级的美羊羊

I think it's part of a series of similar books called "我的第一本日记".
It's a schoolgirl's diary but not a real diary, I think an adult actually wrote it. It's got pinyin printed above the 汉字.

I read it myself; didn't understand everything but I still found it to be a rewarding read. Makes a nice change from all the boring textbook material. It's probably suitable for Chinese kids 8 years old or upwards.

I admit this one is probably more for intermediate students than beginners, but perhaps there are others in this series that are easier.


Just so you have another interpretation. As far as I read the sentence, 看得开 means "letting go" and 看不开 means "clinging on". Another hard point in this sentence is the structure "... 是好 ...也...". The original structure should be "...也好...也罢" which can be construed as "either... or..." or "for better for worse". Here 好 does not mean good. It just mean "if it is so". So the first sentence means that "either you let it go, or cling on it, you will get through". So what the sentence actually means is this:

许多事情，看得开是好；看不开，终归也要熬过去。别以为看不开就不会过去
A lot of things in this world will of course fade away if you let it go; yet even if you simply cling on it, you will still get through. Don't you ever think that it will never end as long as you cling on.

My translation is very crude, mainly because I can't convey the same tone as it is in Chinese. This sentence have a really Taoist tone that for better for worse, things will run on it's own course. It doesn't matter how you think of it. The only difference is that if you cling on it, you need to endure more (熬).


If we're only talking about the English word second, then 秒钟 and 秒 don't really have any difference.

Perhaps you could think of 秒 as sec, as in give me sec or I'll be there in a sec & 秒钟 as second.

If we check out MDBG's definition of 秒 we can see that it also includes other things beside a measurement for time, like:

  arc second (angular measurement unit)

and

  (coll.) instantly

Otherwise for general purposes: 秒钟 is just the lengthened form of 秒 & 秒 is just the shortened form of 秒钟.


As @deutschZuid mentioned in his comment, the component in 乘 that you mention is technically not its radical. The "radical" refers specifically to which component the character is classified under in dictionaries, which in this case is 丿.

But anyway, to answer your question, the 丬 component in 妆 and 装 and the component that looks like that in 乘 have different stroke orders because they were originally derived from different components in the first place, even though they may look similar here.

In the case of 妆 and 装, their 丬 radical comes from 爿, in which the vertical bar comes last in the stroke order. In the case of 乘, the component that looks like 丬 is actually from 北, in which the vertical bar comes first.

[As an aside, the derivation of 乘 is actually even more complicated. It actually was originally 椉, which ended up getting simplified into 禾 + 北 = 乘.]


This one puzzled me for quite some time. My high school ESL teacher used to say "So much for today" when she finished a class, then I always took it literally and thought to my self "Yeah, you really taught so much today. I see." Then one day I saw from somewhere that it means "Today's class is over." Now it looks like it's not the proper usage, is it?
Then I googled and I found Japanese teachers say "So much for today" as well. So much for the proper usage of "so much for".

It's difficult to get it right for east Asians because there is no equivalent in Chinese or Japanese. You will need workarounds.

so much for eating here today. 今天在这里吃不成了。
so much for the good weather. 好天气泡汤了。/好天气就到此为止了。

No, no, no. These translations doesn't work at all. You can do the Chinese with a disgruntled or sarcastic voice if you say it. On paper it's just plain dull.
English, you win again.


Is there a distinction between 我们决定早动身 and 我们决定早些出发 which mean "we decided on an early start"?

Both 出发 and 动身 means "depart/ move out"

出发 literally means 'launch out' . It is more colloquial
动身 literally means 'move oneself' . It is more literary

  动身 emphasizes on the action of 'moving oneself from his current location' (imply starting a journey to a destination)

Example:

动身去北京 (depart for the journey to Beijing)

  出发 emphasizes on the action of 'moving out' .  You can 出发 to a journey or 出发 to fulfill a mission

Example:

出发去北京 (depart for the journey to Beijing)
出发去打仗 (off to fight a war)
出发去打猎 (off to hunting)

  We don't say '动身去打仗' or '动身去打猎'

~

  我们决定早动身 and 我们决定早些出发 which mean “we decided on an early start”?

Both mean "we decided to depart early."  The difference between 动身 and 出发 is stated above.

If you meant "off to a hunting trip", "off to fight a battle" or " depart for a sight seeing tour" , you can only use '出发'. If you meant "depart for a journey",  then either would be suitable.


Where can I find a collection of samples of Mandarin spoken words, annotated with pinyin and tones?

Some websites or apps you may need:

https://www.chineasy.com/ All you need. Looks like the best one.

https://www.chinesecharacterart.com/ No audio is a shortcoming

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hanzi-oracle/id736544977?mt=8
IOS app, not test.
Hope it's helpful


稀罕 and 稀奇 are not the same thing.

The verb 稀罕 means "to value"; using it as a negative therefore express disdain. The translation given of "I don't care about your money" is quite spot on. I assume you aren't asking for a "better" translation for this.

The adjective 稀奇 means "rare", "unusual". It is not grammatically proper in Standard Chinese to use 稀奇 as a verb in the ay you did in the question, nor does it carry a connotation of disdain by itself. I'm not sure why your dictionary translated it as "be of importance" but that is clearly wrong.

  稀奇

  解釋: 稀少、奇特。熊貓長相稀奇，常令看過的人留下難忘的印象。

   -- 教育部國語辭典簡編本

Note that certain dialects (notably Sichuan but perhaps also others) do use 稀奇 as a verb. In this case the intended meaning of 稀奇 becomes "to cherish". It is however a decidedly non-standard usage.


Mnemonics for 汉字: examples and resources

I can only remember other things about the structure of characters.

When someone get name of others, if the surname is Zhang, he may ask 弓长张 or 立早章?

And the most confusing riddle, I think,

一个不出头，两个不出头，三个不出头，不是不出头，就是不出头. (打一字)

When I first know the riddle, I was like, wtf, it doesn't even make sense, what does 不出头 mean? And the most confusing part 不是不出头, 就是不出头.

And when I had got the answer, it became my favorite 汉字 riddle instantly.


Resources for learning classical Chinese

These two books have been recommended from another site (I haven't read these myself):

An Introduction to Literary Chinese: Revised Edition (Harvard East Asian Monographs) by Michael Anthony Fuller (2004)

A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese (Harvard East Asian Monographs) by Paul F. Rouzer (2007)

Aside from learning yourself, another option is to find a Chinese person who did well in this subject to teach you or do language exchange.


How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?

In the (very) old days, there was a system called 反切 (in English) where two characters were used, one for initial, one for the rhyme (vowel[s] + final), followed by 切 to indicate it was a phonetic notation. For instance, 東 could be represented as 德紅切.
Edit #2
I thought I should insert an example from the canon of Chinese dictionaries, 康熙字典. Here's page 1 -- might as well start at the beginning...

I highlighted the two definitions for 一: 於悉 for 唐韻 and 韻會, 益悉 for 集韻 and 正韻. Which is interesting, as these won't match the modern pronunciation in most dialects (strangely enough 於悉切 works perfectly in Hakka for 一 but that's probably more likely an accident...).


Tua pei & Tua mm 大伯 & 大伯母
di chek &  di chim  二叔 & 二婶 (二叔母)
Saa chek & Saa chim 三叔 & 三婶 (三叔母)
Bay chek & Bay chim 小叔 & 小婶 (小叔母)

Tua ku & Tua kim  大舅 & 大舅母
Di ku & Di kim    二舅 & 二舅母
Saa ku & Saa kim  三舅 & 三舅母
Bay ku & Bay kim  小舅 & 小舅母

You probably can see the pattern now

In chinese, if the uncle is the brother who is elder than your father, you need to call him 伯伯(pei in hokkien), if younger than your father is called 叔叔（ chek in hokkien).

for mother's brother side, there is no such difference like this

For father's sisters(regardless elder or younger than father), we call 姑姑

eldest sister & husband 大姑 & 大姑丈
2nd sis & husband 二姑 & 二姑丈
3rd sis & husband 三姑 & 三姑丈
youngest sis & husband 小姑 & 小姑丈

For mother's sisters(regardless elder or younger than father), we call 姨姨

eldest sister & husband 大姨 & 大姨丈
2nd sis & husband 二姨 & 二姨丈
3rd sis & husband 三姨 & 三姨丈
youngest sis & husband 小姨 & 小姨丈


How would I say "What does X mean?" in mandarin?


the top seal is “張爰㞢印”, you may compare the small seal character:
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=張
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=爰
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=㞢
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=印
roughly, it means the seal of “張爰”
the bottom one is “大千”
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=大
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=千
張大千, a famous artist in the last century
the top five bigger characters are :番女掣厖啚 (last character, actually is a variant not yet have a unicode code point)

https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/word_attribute.rbt?quote_code=QTAwNzM5LTAwMQ
the following characters are:
甲x嘉平月蜀郡張爰大千父
“嘉平月” is the last month of the chinese calendar, roughly mid-december to mid-february
“蜀郡” is sichuan
“張爰大千父” is name of the author
甲x, well it must be the one of the sexagenary cycle. unfortunately i can’t recognise the x at this moment


which one is a better translation and seems natural in Chinese?

If you mean a button that appears on a screen, it is better to say "点击（click）..."

  现在，让我们点击“Commit”。

I would rather omit "键" or "按钮" in the above sentence.

按钮 normally refers to actual buttons that you can press by hand，such as the on/off button on your TV or computer.

键 can be used when you talk about keyboards, remote control and so on.

If you are talking about an actual button, your first translation appears to be the most natural one.


Why is 土著人 used for Aboriginal people in Australia?

Here are some definitions for "土著":

<现代汉语词典>(商务印书馆,1992年):"世代居住本地的人."
<辞源>(商务印书馆,2004年):(1)"世代定居于一地";(2)"后也称世代居住在本地的人为土著".
<辞海>(上海古籍出版社,1999年):(1)"古代游牧民族定居某地后,不再迁徙的称为‘土著";(2)"后指世居本地的人".

In classical Chinese, "土", when used as an adjective, means "local" or "original" (source):

<形>本地的；当地的。《柳敬亭传》：“且五方～音，乡俗好尚习见习闻。”

"著" has the meaning of "resident" or "stay" (source):

<动>居于；处在。

So basically, "土著" means the original residents of some area. It does not have negative connotations. We use this word in daily conversations when referring to aboriginal people. However, in written articles, people may sometimes use "原住民" alternatively.


Why do so many people pronounce "馄饨" as hún dùn?

Because native speakers don't actually know the tone without being taught it.

Northern Mandarin pronounces it as húntun ~ húndun, with the second syllable having the light tone (轻声). The morpheme 饨 is not used anywhere else, so it only appears in native speech without a tone.

It's not rare for native speakers to reinterpret this syllable as "originally having the 4th tone" because of the acoustic similarity when pronouncing it with the light tone (there's a slight phonetic fall particularly as it follows a 2nd tone syllable). So when they try to shake off the light tone accent which is associated with being regional vernacular, they arrive at húndùn.

Note: Pronouncing t as d is unusual. It may be a sporadic change. The only other word I can think of, where the initial (声母) may be lenited in a light tone, is 糊涂 hútu ~ húdu. Many people do "correct" the pronunciation incorrectly to húdù, but this problem here is less severe because, unlike 饨, 涂 is widely used elsewhere with the known pronunciation of tú. Hence when speakers (especially literate ones) try to enunciate it, they arrive at hútú correctly.


How does 雅's 2021 meanings appertain to 隹?

雅 and 鸦 are most likely the same in olden times with 雅 being the variant form for 鸦 meaning crow. It's current meanings are probably borrowed when 鸦 became the standard character for crow, and all the current meanings for 雅 no longer have anything to do with birds.
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E9%9B%85


Why is the Cangjie code for 海 inconsistent?

There are many rules for the Cangjie input method.
The one you don't understand thoroughly is the rule of omission.

  Omission in enclosed forms: when part of the character to be decomposed and the form is an enclosed form, only the shape of the enclosure is decomposed; the enclosed forms are omitted

Take a look 倉頡輸入法/取碼原則

  2 省略大原則
  2 The rule of omission

  2-2 包含省略：
  2-2 Omission in enclosed forms:

  尾碼被「外框」字根包住，且「外框」尚未被取完時，以「外框」的尾碼取代之。
  When the last code is enclosed by the frame radical and the codes of the frame are not completely taken yet, it is replaced by the last code of the frame.

The left and right ends of the "亠" protrude outward, therefore it is counted in the frame.


Bù kèqi or Bú kèqi: In PinYin, do I write the fourth or second tone with 不客气?

That depends on why you are writing it. The standard, normal way of writing it is to disregard the changed tone and write the original tone, i.e.  bù kèqi. The same goes for tone changes of 一 (yī). Not showing the tone change is not a problem in this context, because the rules governing how to change the tones are quite simple. Since most Pinyin is written for native speakers, there's no need to include something which is obvious to the reader.
However, if your goal is to highlight this tone change, such as when teaching someone the language (someone for whom the tone changes are not obvious), it can sometimes make sense to write the actual tone for 不 and 一, so bú kèqi in your case, and yí yàng for 一样 or yì qǐ for 一起.
The third tone is (almost) always written as a third tone, though, as it would otherwise be impossible to know if a second tone is actually a second tone or a third tone that has changed. The only place where níhǎo would be acceptable for 你好 is in a discussion about third tone changes.
The problem of lost information does not apply to 不 and 一, so in teaching materials, changing the tone is usually a good idea (nothing lost; something gained). So, which one you choose depends on why you are writing it: If it's to teach someone pronunciation, then change the tones; if it's for something else, then leave the original tone!


Yeah you've pretty much got it.

请问 is just a good, polite, way of giving the other person a heads up that you want to get some information out of them.

It's not necessarily demanding to drop the 请问, it all depends on your tone of voice.

If you're looking for more demanding way just drop the 在哪里 altogether and add a 呢 on the end while being overbearing. 呢 can also be fine by itself but again, it mostly depends on your tone of voice.


In case it's Cantonese (which looks like it):

Ho Ling - 何玲 / 可玲 (I should add that there are actually multiple words that can be fit into these phonetic)

Cheung - 張 / 蔣


Comparing forms of humble self reference

If you want to use 謙稱 with accuracy, you'll have to learn how to use 尊稱 too! You can't have the yin with the yang. Learning all this is a big job, with not much payoff, except a reputation for nice writing.

If you're determined to try, be wary of all internet stuff; I found one sort of okay thing from Hong Kong's Civil Service Bureau here

There are also books on 應用文 in Taiwan; these focus on various types of 'applied writing': letters, invitations, minutes, notices, etc. They include a lot you probably don't want to mess with.  There are a few old handbooks of letter writing I've seen around, look for titles like '尺牘大全'. I know of ONE book in English: "Business and correspondence Chinese : an introduction", by Liang, Haft, and Mulder. Good luck on finding it. There is also a technical study by 曹湘洪: 当代汉语私人书信称谓, 起始及结束语社会语言学硏究 alas, for sociolinguists, not epistolarians.

Generally, most modern writing that tries to use 謙稱/尊稱 winds up sounding like an American actor in a British costume period piece. If you just want to have fun, go ahead, just be aware you might wind up sounding even funnier than you want to.

I also feel that in this case, Wikipedia is not a reliable source. The article on Chinese Honorifics mushes together generic terms with highly specific terms, all taken from dynasties randomly scattered across Chinese history, throws up etymologies without any sources, and ends by explaining that to use 老子, meaning "I, your dad" is a way of "referring to oneself as superior"; hence, "when used towards a person less well known or on formal occasions, both terms are considered to be incredibly rude." Yep, Chinese are pretty subtle people...


What does 上 mean in the lyrics 红领巾迎着太阳 阳光洒在海面上?

在 。。。 上 = 'in' or 'on' or 'to' or 'upon' maybe more possibilities.

在历史上 'in history'
在桌子上 'on the table'
在某种程度上 'in a way, to an extent'

红领巾迎着太阳
Young Pioneers welcome the sun,
阳光洒在海面上
sunlight spills upon the sea,

(我更好去喝点茶， me, I'd rather drink some tea)


Need help understanding grammar in short text

in sentence one shouldn't the bolded 嘲笑 have a 着 following it as he is going to say something after it?

[verb 1] + 着 + [verb 2] means [verb 1] and [verb 2] happen at the same time continuously (verb 2 while verb 1).
[verb 1] + [verb 2] means both actions happen one immediately after the other or simultaneously, but not in a continuous state
Examples:
跳着大喊 (yell while jumping)
跳起来大喊 (jump up and yell)

why it doesn't say maybe "智叟听到后，感觉很惭愧" or something like that.

感觉很惭愧 = feel very ashamed (惭愧 here is an adjective for 'ashamed')

惭愧不已 = be ashamed greatly (惭愧 here is a verb for 'be ashamed')

不已 (can't stop) is an adverb function the same as 'very' or 'greatly'.

You can use 十分 or  不已 as the adverb for a verb, but not at the same time, saying 十分惭愧不已  is like saying "be very ashamed greatly" in English


How is【的、得、地】pronunced when talking about the difference in usages of 的·地·得?

I think I misunderstood what the original poster meant, here is an update.

In distinguishing 的地得 in Mandarin, you would say

  dē dì dé

In Mandarin, in practice, they all have the same pronunciation de in first tone. They are used differently though, 地 is used after 状语 and before 动词，like 高兴地说，得 is used after 动词，like 跳得高，and 的 is used for other cases.

Indeed, it is nice to distinguish those in order not to cause ambiguity. For example

  看得出来，你家的地得好好地打扫了。

There is a good article in zhihu which people could look at.

There is one more point I would like to make, in some of the articles you referred to, it is claimed that people should stick to their dialects instead of trying to learn the obscure Mandarin. I disagree with this point.

I come from Shaanxi province and we do have out dialect, but I grew up speaking Mandarin with my parents and classmates, because the people in our area come from different parts of China and speak different dialects. What dialects do you require people to learn? I assume not a single dialect could persuade everyone to study it. In this case, we of could Mandarin!

Some people were saying, I do not want to learn to speak another language! I would like to stick to my own language! Well, first, dialects are called dialects because they are not language, they are dialects! Second, you have the right to stick to your own dialect, but it would eventually prevent you from communicating with people from other parts of China who speak Mandarin in order to communicate!

So, please learn Mandarin first and then, if you have the kind of interest and time, learn other dialects.

Language is first a tool for communication, then a culture, so are dialects.


发生了什么事 VS 发生什么事了

There isn't essential difference between them. They mean the same and are interchangeable.


上调 is the most common equivalent. In your description you are using the wrong character (凋, the radical is different).

EDIT: to add credibility to my answer and provide some examples, I have added some use cases.

Some usages in abstracts:

--

School of Life Sciences, Peking University:

上调巨噬细胞的一些信号分子

"upregulating some signaling molecules of macrophages" (text at the end of the article)

Chinese Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology:

骨形态发生蛋白2通过Smad途径上调Osterix的表达

"Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 Upregulates Osterix Expression Through Smad Pathway"

Same source:

BPH-1通过分泌PGE2上调前列腺间质细胞ERRα的表达

"Prostaglandin E2 Mediates the Upregulation of ERRα Expression with BPH-1 Condition Media in Prostatic Stromal Cells "
(You can find many other use cases in this journal.)

Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University (Medical Science Edition):

IL-21上调IL-17的表达在Graves病中的意义

"Significance of IL-17 upregulation by IL-21 in patients with Graves disease"

调 is the keyword that denotes regulation, thus:

regulatory mechanism is 调控机制 (see Chinese abstract on the linked page) in this context.

下调 (downregulation) denotes the opposite of 上调 (upregulation).

It also comes as 调节 which is to regulate in a general sense (whether up or down, not specified), used in the context of biochemistry.


Which characters belong together in 区分开来？

区分 is the verb, to differentiate.

开 is a resultant complementary, apart.

来 is another resultant complementary, henceforth.

开来 commonly appear together in phrases similar to this one, but they do not form a word. (There is a word 开来 as in 继往开来 which is different).

The affinity of characters is (((区分)开)来) where only 区分 is a word.


see grammar, Difference between location nouns and place/position nouns, 方位词 vs 处所词

additionally 汉语语法基础，第一章 词法 第一节 名词 ２。４附：方位词 方位词是具有助词性质的名词。从意义方面说，它具有一定的意义-----表示方位；但从语法方面说，它的用途又和一般的名词不同。方位词一般不单独用，有的甚至根本不能自由运用，总是附在名词后边，或者同别的方位词结合成一个表示时间或处所的名词。鉴于这种情况，把方位词列入名词，但是又不等同看待算作名词的附类。
常用的方位词有以下这些：

东 西 南 北 上 下 左 右 里 前 后 边 面 头 外 中 间 内

这些单纯的方位词还可以同＂以＂或者＂之＂构成合成的方位词。如：

以上 以下 以东 以西 以外 以内 之中 之间 之内 之上 之下 之外

方位词的用途主要有两个：１。同别的成分结合在一起，构成表示时间或处所的名词。如：东边 南面 域北 京西 床边 门外  内里 午后 外头 左右 上下 中间
这里要注意方位词在由它构成的名词里边所处的位置。比较：外国---国外  北城---城北 ＂外国＂指我们国家以外的＂国家＂，是一般的明词；＂国外＂指我们国家以外的空间，是表示处所的明词。两者是不同的。
２。附在别的词或者词组后边，构成表示时间或者处所的方位结构。如：
教室之外 长江以南 五个月之中 八个人以上
由方位词构成的名词或者方位结构既然是表示处所或者时间的，它们的用途也就同表示处所或者时间的名词一样，不需要再加以说明了。这里要补充说明的是，所有的名词和方位结构都不能直接作补语，必须先同介词组成介词结构，然后再由介词结构充当补语。如：酒杯要摆在桌子上，但算盘却要收在抽屉里，或者最好是在肚子里。（鲁迅，病后杂谈）

there happen to be certain differences between usages of different nouns of locality which simply have to be learned, e.g. NP +上、下、前、后、里、内、外、中、间 exist，while 东、西、南、北、左、右 cannot be used the same way, also depending on whether referring to space or time or sequence order  前、后 are used differently, similarly instead of 下, 底下 can be used more generally in the sense of "under", e.g. 棹子底下,新阅览室底下, also note compounds with 以,之


Writing in all caps in on line chat or forums is akin to shouting in everyone's ears in real life. It is quite annoying.

Typing capital alphabets in odd positions in a word emphasize a higher volume or higher tone for its reading. For example "aZn" = aSIan and it is even more annoying than all caps.

It is considered rude, cheeky and juvenile behavior to type like that: "hEy bRO!"

  how does one render the effect of the alternating capitals and lower cases?

You can imagine using bigger font size or bolder font style for a selected few characters in an otherwise simple phrase, would create this "volume up/ raising tone" effect.

As for using different alphabets to replace the actual one, like "prYde" instead of "Pride". You can do the same in Chinese by using a sound alike character to replace the correct one just for the fun of it.  For example:  "神馬？" instead of "什麼？"; "魂淡" instead of "混蛋" .


How should I understand the absence of conjunctions in 流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎、不足为怪?

流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎、不足为怪。

There are punctuation issues in this sentence. A way to modify it is:

流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情、歌词贴近生活、通俗易懂、易于传唱、受到欢迎不足为怪。

We can also replace 顿号（、） with 逗号（，）：

流行音乐歌唱的大都是男女爱情，歌词贴近生活，通俗易懂，易于传唱，受到欢迎不足为怪。

The sentence should be read as:

[流行音乐] /歌唱的/大都是/男女爱情，歌词贴近生活，通俗易懂，易于传唱，受到欢迎不足为怪。

It's topic + comment structure. The topic is [流行音乐]. The comments: [歌唱的大都是男女爱情], [歌词贴近生活], [通俗易懂], [易于传唱], [受到欢迎不足为怪].
There is no need for conjunctions here. The comments are paralleled by commas. I guess your issue is not conjunction per se, but parsing.(Correct me if I'm wrong.)
For translation, you can separate into a few sentences. @fefe already presented one. You might come out with a better one considering you are an English speaker.
Edit:
This might help you further:

[流行音乐]歌唱的大都是男女爱情;

[流行音乐]歌词贴近生活;

[流行音乐]通俗易懂;

[流行音乐]易于传唱;

[流行音乐]受到欢迎不足为怪。

P. S.  There is a trick in the first part, [流行音乐]歌唱的大都是男女爱情.  It's very easy to parse it as 流行音乐歌/唱的/大都是/男女爱情. So, you would take [流行音乐歌] as the topic.  But actually, the topic should be 流行音乐 and 歌唱 as a whole is a single word to mean sing. It would be more obvious to write [流行音乐][歌唱的内容]大都是男女爱情.  I saw other answers took [流行音乐歌] as the topic as well, so I think it deserves to point it out.


Does English have a word for 师兄/师弟/师姐/师妹？

I don't think there is a translation into standard English.
In some regional dialects (India, Singapore, maybe some other places) you hear people using the words "junior" and "senior", which roughly mean "person who goes/went to the same school of a lower/higher year".  E.g. "she is my senior".
In very informal situations you can use the Japanese loanwords senpai and kohai which have the same meaning.
"Classmate" is not a good translation as it doesn't have the junior/senior connotation.
junior/senior/senpai/kohai are probably the closest direct translations.


A Chinese Poetic About Understanding the Universe

My traslation:
I shocked我傻楞着
And don't know it is you不知说的是你
So to understand the universe那么要读懂这宇宙
I just need to understand one's eyes就只须读懂一个人的眼睛
What are these eyes like?该是什么样的眼睛
This poem is really hard to understand. Can you show us the context?


What is the most complex simplifed character?

龖 (dá) from lol.wen's answer has 32 strokes, but I can better that by a bit ;)

齉 (nàng) has 36 strokes, and my favourite dictionary, YellowBridge, defines it as:

  stoppage of the nose; to speak with a nasal twang; to snuffle (as in nose with a cold); snuffling

I should however add that, like 龖, this character is the same in both simplified and traditional script.

Some other ones that appear in Jun Da's character frequency list, taken from a corpus of modern Chinese, include 鱄 (Zhuān, 22 strokes), 襽 (lán, 23 strokes), and 鑪 (lú, 24 strokes).


How should I acknowledge Chinese Stack Exchange in my story?

If I write it in Traditional Chinese I will write that 我感謝網路論壇 Chinese Stack Exchange (chinese.stackexchange.com)，協助我完成一些句子。


Can anyone explain what this symbol means?

食 - Direct translation is “food.” (Aka 食物)
In context (on a food bowl) can mean “eat.” (食用)


Which measure word should I use with 角色？

"类" is used for describing a type (a class) of 角色.
"个" is used for referring to a particular 角色.


就

means emphasize,can translate as "just", for example, "我就是不想去"(I just don't want to go!), used mostly.
means under some condition, once, for example ,"我一吃海鲜就想吐"(I will get a sick once I eat seafood.), used frequencely.
means relying on or with, for example, "就着菜吃饭"(Eating rice with a dish.)
means successful ,like "一蹴而就"(Success at once.), rarely used.

That's all I understood for experience.