There are three confusing words in Chinese: "的", "地", and "得".

For "的", it is usually used to describe the words following it. The structure is adj. + 的 + noun, for example, 勤劳的妈妈.

For "地", it is usually used to describe the action following it. The structure is adv. + 地 + verb, for example, 积极地回答问题. So 很快地吃 is correct. In a whole sentence, it might be 他正在很快地吃苹果.

For "得", it is usually used to describe the action before itself. The structure is verb + 得 + adv., for example, 回答得很好, or 吃得很快.


不修边幅
贫无立锥
三公
电光石火
齐心协力
自私自利
四海一家
水火不容
治标不治本
人参果
太平天国
逐鹿中原
欲速不达
天高地厚
重要
打气
弥勒
相得益彰
惊慌
此一时彼一时
悭吝
在所难免
打狗也要看主人面
自尽
污言秽语
方便
得道多助
法律
呼风唤雨

A. 不三不四
B. 打草惊蛇
C. 平心静气
D. 在商言商
E. 修身齐家治国平天下
F. 语法
G. 无一幸免
H. 不毛之地
I. 电力
J. 厚此薄彼
K. 自便
L. 反光
M. 舍本逐末
N. 一网打尽
O. 望风
P. 纵火
Q. 星火燎原
R. 要风得风，要雨得雨
S. 无地自容
T. 欲盖弥彰
U. 公主
V. 多余
W. 参差不齐
X. 缘悭一面
Y. 毛利
Please note I'm using simplified Chinese and the characters in the original crosswords are in traditional Chinese. But they should be compatible.


How did 子, meaning "child", become a noun suffix?

It's called a diminutive suffix, about which you can read these entries:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminutive

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diminutives_by_language


What is the difference between 满足 and 满意?

满 = to fulfill; to satisfy
意 = mind; intend; desire; idea
满意 = be satisfied (of a desire); happy with

Example:
希望我們的服務能使你感到满意 = Hope our service can make you feel satisfied  (happy/ satisfied in your mind)
我們已經給你最好的服務，還不满意? = We have given you the best service and you are still not satisfied? (unhappy/ not satisfied in your mind)
我們已經給你最好的服務，還不满足? = We have given you the best service and you are still not satisfied? (still want more)
~

足 = enough
满足 = 1. to satisfy (a need) 2.  be satisfied  (of one's need)

Example:
每小時十五美元的工資無法满足生活需求 = A wage of fifteen dollars per hour cannot satisfy/ meet the cost of living
非法民工有七美元一小時的工資就很满足了 = Illegal migrant workers are satisfied/ content with a salary of seven dollars an hour (a need is satisfied/ don't feel needing more)
非法民工有七美元一小時的工資就很满意了 = Illegal migrant workers are satisfied /happy with a salary of seven dollars an hour (a desire is satisfied/fulfilled)


How salient is the graphic similarity of 戲, 謔, 虐 to readers?

In short, 虐 and 戲 are related to the character 虍/虎 in different ways, the former ideographically, the latter phonologically. According to Shuowen, 虐 in 謔 is but a phonogram.1 Shijing equating 善戲 with 謔 despite their derivational differences may thus well be a literary deliberation, which leads to Shuowen defining 謔 as 戲.1
虐 is a compound ideograph comprising 虎 (tiger) and 人 (man). Shuowen duly explains its origin as a tiger injuring a man with its claws. 2 虎 itself is a simple pictogram of a tiger.
戲, however, is a phono-semantogram. It comprises the phonogram 䖒 and the semantogram 戈, originally meaning 'secondary forces of an army'.3 䖒 is a type of ancient pottery that comprises the phonogram 虍 and the semantogram 豆.4 虍 is an abbreviated form of 虎.5
(Regarding how 戲 evolves to mean 'play; jest', there is debate. Perhaps it also means 'wrestle; fistfight' which then esoterically evolves to its current meaning. Perhaps there is loaning between 戲 and 嬉, but Jao Tsung-I argues 嬉 in the oracle bone script is a separate entity from 'play'. By Confucian times 戲 already possesses its current meaning.)
Consider a third character, 獻. Originally meaning 'a sacrifice dog', it comprises the phonogram 鬳 and semantogram 犬. 6 鬳 is a type of vessel that comprises the phonogram 虍 and the semantogram 鬲. 7
Oracle bone script of 虍:
Oracle bone script of 虎:
In fact, 虍 is a Kangxi radical. A cursory read at the characters sorted under 虍 convinces me that many of them are phono-semantograms that share the same phonogram 虍/虎. A notable exception is 虞, originally indicating a hypothetical tiger-esque beast, now meaning danger (a derived meaning). Obviously  虍/虎 now becomes the semantogram, and 吳 the phonogram. 8
Shuowen entries cited:
1. 謔：戲也。从言，虐聲。《詩》曰：善戲謔兮。
2. 虐：殘也。从虍，虎足反爪人也。
3. 戲：三軍之偏也。一曰：兵也。从戈，䖒聲。
4. 䖒：古陶器也。从豆，虍聲。
5. 虍：虎文也。象形。凡虍之屬皆从虍。
6. 獻：宗廟犬，名羹獻，犬肥者以獻之。从犬，鬳聲。
7. 鬳：鬲屬。从鬲，虍聲。
8. 虞：騶虞也。白虎，黑文，尾長於身，仁獸，食自死之肉。从虍，吳聲。

Edit

The etymological 'connection' between 戲, 謔, and 虐 does not matter much to the modern reader.

Above, I posited that the apparent connection between these three characters, if any, is at most coincidental, given 虍 acts as an ideogram in 虐 (tiger), but a phonogram in 謔 and 戲. The sole purpose for 虍 to exist in the latter case is to provide pronunciation, not meaning.

Many modern readers use the convenient (but often erroneous) strategy 有邊讀邊 (lit. to read one side of the character) when encountering a difficult character. 謔 I believe is no different; in fact the pronunciations of 謔 and 虐 are indistinguishable in Cantonese. However, that does not hinder the average reader from realising there exists a difference in meaning between them. Let us assume one does not know the character 銅 for 'bronze'; should they know how to read 同, they still will not jump to the conclusion that 銅 must share a semantic similarity with 同 for 'same'.

Hence my emphatic refutation of your statement; 謔 and 虐 should be seen as characters different in meaning. Of course there are a limited subset of characters where their phonogram is also their second semantogram (e.g. 坪), but I do not think 謔 is the case, nor does Shuowen.

Despite the marked difference in etymology between 謔 and 虐, I do concur with you that their immediate juxtaposition in the verse is intended to be appreciated, out of character similarity or pronunciational similarity. It just so happens that semantically the verse makes sense as well - a joke (戲謔) is good if it is not too far or 'cruel' (虐). This to me is, in a sense, a word play, or a literary tactic to attract the attention of the reader.

As a hypothesis, I do think 戲 and 謔 have evolved to be 連綿詞 despite their very different origins, so in that sense one may consider them 'connected'. No native speaker will, however, appreciate their graphical similarity (especially so if in simplified characters, sadly) - they each have their own meanings with which the phonogram 虍 does not associate; even if one does not realise 虍 serves such a function, it will still be conveniently ignored because it does not help in understanding the characters, let alone an ancient verse. That is to say, it has an almost fossil-like existence.

If by salient you mean overt, then yes, a reasonably educated reader will notice they share 虍, but that is a useless finding to most; if you mean noteworthy, then no, it is not, for reasons stated in points 3 and 6, and for the fact that this is a false proposition itself - there is no noteworthy etymological similarity between the three characters. Even if there were, the connection is very, very abstruse.


About the "乔" part of "George[dʒɔ:dʒ]", you can find some material in the 译音表(the Form of Ttransliteration). Besides, "奇" should be instead of "治" following the form.

However, "约定俗成(the convention)" is one of the important rules of 《英文人名翻译准则》. Everybody often use "乔治" refer to "George", so that "乔治" is agreed upon gradually. Anyway, I don't know why did the first person call "George" "乔治".

Download 英语姓名译名手册(商务印书馆 第四版).pdf


Any Phrases About Trees Growing From Peoples Graves?

I just find 成语, and they're not very good meaning

  墓木已拱\墓木拱矣  [mù mù yǐ gǒng]  【发音】mù mù yǐ gǒng
  【解释】坟墓上的树木已有两手合抱那么粗了。意思是你快要死了。这是骂人的话。后指人死了很久。
  【出处】《左传·僖公三十二年》：“尔何知？中寿，尔墓之木拱亦。”


Is there a difference between 風景 and 風光？

「風」 in 「風景」 and 「風光」 carries the meaning of :

'Style': as in 「和風」 (Japanese style) and 「作風」(style of behavior)
'air; atmosphere' - (something that creates moods and evokes feelings)

「景」 in 「風景」 carries the meaning of  'scene/ sight' -- the picture you see in your eyes, as in 「奇景」(strange sight)，「場景」(scene in a play)

  The term 「風景」 (sight/ scenery) specifically refers to 'the sight of a landscape or a natural scenery'  as in 「看風景」(watching the natural scenery )

「光」in 「風光」refers to 'light', which is needed to enable people to see -- in another word: 'sight'.

  The term「風光」 generally refers to 'sight/ scene /scenery'

For example:「異國風光」(sights and scenes of foreign country) ;「園林風光」(sights and scenes of garden and forest)

Of course it includes 'landscape or a natural setting' For example:
「西湖風光」. Therefore 「風光」and「風景」are interchangeable in this sense. (You can write 「西湖風景」instead of 「西湖風光」)

Unlike 「風景」, 「風光」can also be used metaphorically.

「風光大葬」(scenic funeral = impressive, dignified funeral)
「風光了幾十年」( have been a sight to behold for decades = have been awesome for decades)


To take a step back, a more complete exchange between the cashier and the customer could look something like this:

Customer: 這包餅乾多少錢？

Cashier: 這包餅乾8元。

Customer: 好，這裡10元。

Cashier: 謝謝，收你10元，找你2元。

Cashier takes $10 and gives back $2 in change.

找錢 means to give change, specifically, change owed given the difference in amount tendered and amount owing.


see e.g.bkrs: 可能 might (happen)
possible
probable
possibility
probability
maybe
perhaps #170

也许 perhaps; probably; maybe #676

或许 perhaps
maybe #2652

coclusion: 可能 unlike other 2 can be noun and includes ＂possible, possibility" ("literal" translation of 可能), can be used as adjective (see sample phrases with 可能的) 可能,也许 include "probably",或许 does not (lower degree of likelihood), also note frequency ranks with 可能 most frequent, much more at bkrs


Can someone translate "capital stacks" to Chinese?

I found it in a bilingual ppt on real estate finance. It shows capital stack means 资本结构, but as I know, English financial terms are often translated to different Chinese terms by different people, so this may be not the only one correct.

source: 中美房地产开发和金融比较/Real Estate Development and Finance in China and U.S.
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/cf8b56313968011ca30091b8.html, page 62,63.


What's the difference between 番茄 and 西红柿?

They both mean tomato,

In mainland China, 西红柿 is used more often while in Taiwan 番茄 is more used.


It usually means a female who is older than 30（I mean not a girl or a young woman） and married.


When did the meaning of shi 是 shift from »this« (此) to being a copula (»be«)?

A quote from the 2017 paper "Some New Insight into the Historical Source of the Chinese Copula Shì/*deʔ 是 ":

  Wang (1937) claims that there was no genuine copula in the Chinese language until the emergence of the copula shì / *deʔ 是 around the 5th century — a dating he later modified to the 1st century (Wang 1958) — evolving from the demonstrative shì.

That is the general consensus, and this idea has been established for the best part of 80 years.

However, there is the statement that:

  [S]ome later studies, especially those based on excavated materials (Qiu 1979; Tang 1991), argue that the copular use of shì starts from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE).

Li and Thompson (1977) is the classic source for citing this well-trodden pathway cross-linguistically:

  TOPIC - COMMENT > SUBJECT - PREDICATE

  [NP1] - [DEM] [NP2] > [NP1 COPULA NP2]

The 2017 paper quoted says that 是 was always somewhat atypical as a demonstrative, always having had anaphoric reference.


Many Chinese words have both a 1-character and 2-character form

For example:

  eat = 吃 = 吃饭

  study = 学 ＝ 学习

  lion = 狮 ＝ 狮子

  coal = 煤 = 煤炭

Their usage is constrained by grammar and prosody

For example:

  Ungrammatical: 我喜欢吃

  Grammatical: 我喜欢吃饭

  Bad prosody ("sounds weird"): 我在学

  Good prosody: 我在学习

Sometimes the 2-character form is an expansion of the 1-character word

Dummy object for a verb (allows a transitive verb to be used intransitively):

吃(饭) <-- Grammatically 饭 is the object, but as a whole it means "eat", not "eat rice". The object is a "dummy" object.
跑(步)
说(话)

Two characters meaning something similar (you can pick the form that works best for prosodic reasons):

学(习)
煤(炭)

One of the characters is a "dummy" word that means almost nothing (for making nouns into 2-character words for prosodic reasons mostly):

本(子), 狮(子), 棒(子), ... almost anything ending in 子
(老)虎
盖(儿) ...almost anything ending with 儿
木(头)

Sometimes the 1-character form is a shortening of the 2-character word

The word was originally a mono-morpheme polysyllabic word:

蝴蝶 (you'll sometimes see "蝶" used to stand in for "butterfly" in compounds)

Prosodic considerations in Chinese

I've alluded briefly to "prosodic considerations" in Chinese. But how are you supposed to know when to use the 2-character vs the 1-character version of a word?

Sometimes grammar chooses for you:

我要吃饭 (intransitive) vs 我要吃冰淇淋 (transitive)

When you're making compound nouns, it's usually the one-character form from each word (or even further reduction)

北京大学 -> 北大
高速铁路 -> 高铁

The following assertions are supported empirically, but they are not absolute

[N N] is almost never 1+2:

1+1 鸡蛋
2+1 商业区
2+2 人民广场

[V O] is almost never 2+1

1+1 请客
1+2 丢面子
2+2 学习经济

There are exceptions to every rule!

我喜欢你 (喜欢 is basically always 2-characters, regardless of the object)

To address your question, let's look at 学习. 学 means learn; 习 means practice. As noted above, this is a case of expansion where both characters mean something similar. 学 and 学习 are identical in meaning, but one may be chosen over the other for prosodic reasons.

（论语）: 学而时习之，不亦说乎？ Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned?


线上: online
引: attract guests
流: customer flow
线上引流: attract customer online with various strategy to increase customer flow


无论如何 means "no matter what"

The verb 要 means "need to be" here in this sentence, because it is followed by an adjective 平安(safe).

一定要平安 means " need to be  safe for sure"

If the verb 要 is followed by a noun, for example 一定要一千美元, then 要 would simply mean "need" - "need $1000 for sure"

If the verb 要 is followed by another verb, then 要 would be a modal verb in the sentence, for example: "you need to kill him"


No; in this context 的 is acting as a possessive, e.g. "我的心" means "my heart", and "郭高林的心" means "Guo Gaolin's heart".

他们 means "they" or "them", so it makes no sense to possess this.

The phrase 郭高林他们 means something like "Guo Gaolin et al." or "Guo Gaolin and co." Note no possessives.

Instead, if you want to use 的 you would have to transform the phrase into a possessive, for example 郭高林的小组 (Guo Gaolin's group) or 郭高林的团伙 (Guo Gaolin's team).


How should I reply to 吃完了 (chīwánle = "finished eating") after I've finished eating?

You don't really have to give a formal reply.

Similar scenario: A Chinese arrives home and sits on his own sofa. His wife may see him and asks "回来了?". It's like "hi" in a specific context.

So next time you may just node and smile. Feeling awkward not to utter a word? "嗯" is enough.


Confused with the use of 的 with respect to '住在上海旁边的一个小村子里’

"住(live)在(in)上海(Shanghai)旁边(beside)的(indicates attributive)一个(a)小(small)村子(village)里(used together with 在 to mean in)" can be translated as 'live in a small villiage beside Shanghai.'

的 is used between an attribute and the head noun it modifies. That is, an attribute must be followed immediately by a 的 in order to modify a noun.

The question lies in the different word orders between English and Chinese.
In English, the word indicating the location of A is usually placed after A, together with a preposition such as in/at/beside and so on. While in Chinese, the word indicating the location of A is usually placed in the attributive position (before A), followed immediately by a 的. So "a church in Washington" is translated as "在(in) 华盛顿(Washington)  的  一所(a)  教堂(church)" or just "华盛顿的一所教堂", "a church beside Washington" is translated as "华盛顿(Washington) 旁边(beside) 的 一所(a) 教堂(church)"

As for "住在上海旁边的一个小村子里", 住 means live, "在...里" means in, "上海(Shanghai) 旁边(beside) 的 一个(a) 小(small) 村子(village)" means "a small village beside Shanghai".

上海旁边(beside Shanghai) as a whole is used as attribute to modify 一个小村子.


Can I make statements with structure like "我这个“老外”这么喜欢看京剧"?

You can. And people can understand what you me. When I read from left to right 我妹妹，一個漂亮的女孩 I can understand 一個漂亮的女孩 is used to describe 我妹妹 since the context and only ， between them.

I think if you want to make it more clear, you can use 是個 or 是一個 to substitute 一個 because it help to link them together. 是 is used to denote things that is other things. So A is B in traditional Chinese is A是B. So you use 是 or 是一個 can help to link 我妹妹 with 漂亮的女孩 and 他爸爸 with 一個老師 together.


What is the relationship between vernacular and literary Chinese?

What you call "literary Chinese" is actually classical Chinese, a rather static language that evolved 2500 years ago and has since been used as a model language in education, rituals and other rather fixed events.

Classical Chinese is therefore akin to Latin in Europe, actually covering approximately the same time span and the same usage.

You can pronounce classical Chinese the same way you pronounce contemporary spoken/written Chinese in any time, but it will differ from time to time since the spoken language changes continuously.

You will likely have no problems talking to Abe Lincoln in English, and perhaps also not conversing with Adam Smith or Isaac Newton, but might get into some problems understanding Shakespeare, and even more so Chaucer. The time you get to Beowulf, you are completely lost, not to mention the time of Britannia under Roman rule.

It is the same with Chinese. Qing Mandarin has some peculiar differences compared to contemporary Mandarin, like an additional tone and some now lost vowel varieties, but essentially it would be easy to converse with Qing people, all the way back to Cao Xueqin in the 1700s. Then it would become progressively harder, and you would eventually wind up in Middle Chinese and older varieties, which are incomprehensible to most modern ears. Actually, Cantonese is more akin to older Chinese, just like Swedish/Danish is more akin to Old English.

Students in China learn some classical Chinese, mainly poetry and some chengyu, and there is also a lot of classical expressions used in costume drama TV series covering imperial times. It is a heritage that is nurtured, but most people in China cannot (since the imperial education was abolished) actually understand more advanced classical Chinese, like ancient texts. Only specialists know how to decipher it.


and 難 glyph origins. Did 难/難 used to be a bird?

I'm going to give a simple answer first - I'm sure better more complete answers will come to follow.
Outlier

FORM
難 nán (also nàn) is composed of 堇 jiān and 隹 “bird,” which hints at the original meaning “type of bird.” 堇 gives the sound.
COMPONENTS
堇
In 難 nán (also nàn), 堇 jiān is a sound component, though this is not obvious in modern Mandarin.
隹
In 難, 隹 “bird” is a meaning component, hinting at the original meaning “type of bird.”
MEANINGS
nán
1 (orig.) name of a type of bird
2 ○ difficult
3 → trouble; adversity
nàn
1 (orig.) name of a type of bird
2 ○ difficult
3 → disaster; catastrophe

There's also a variant character:  (⿰鳥, if it doesn't display with you) which quite explicitly shows it's avian connection.
Outlier's reference comes from p. 307 & 308 of 季旭昇's《說文新證》- this is where we will see the connection between the variant  and 難:

Here the ○ icon in Outlier's definition is an indicator of a phonetic loan. So, basically it is just a:

character that is "borrowed" to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme

and this is confirmed by《說文新證》's:

假借

explanation.

隹 replaces ---> 鳥

堇 was seemingly always there giving the character its sound

"⿰x" being replaced by "⿰又x" is a separate question but it's not totally uncommon, think: 艱 → 艰.


What common words in MSM actually come from taboo?

One of the more common one in Cantonese is substitute 空 with 吉.

'空' sounded like '凶', to avoid saying 空屋 (凶屋) , people would call an available house '吉屋' instead. As in "吉屋招租"

吉 is also used as a verb for 'leave blank' . For example: "唔識嘅題目就吉咗佢" instead of "唔識嘅題目就空咗佢"

Also:

  https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%81%BF%E8%AE%B3

  改字法：遇到要避諱的字時使用其他別字代替。例如：

  2 避漢高祖劉邦諱，“相邦”改“相國” (I only knew, in ancient time,  there's an government official title 相國 . Never heard of 相邦)

  6 避漢昭帝劉弗陵諱，否定詞“弗”改“不” (不 replaced 弗. Now, no one use 弗 anymore )

  20 孔子之名丘曾經是金朝的聖人諱，所以有些丘姓人士改为邱姓。( All because of 孔子's first name was 丘, now we have the 邱 family name co-exist with the 丘 family name )

  21 避明太祖朱元璋諱，「元年」改為「始年」、「原年」，「元來」改為「原來」。(I didn't even know the term 元來 existed)


Help me translate stamps on bowls and paintings? (Ancient Chinese, Japanese & Cantonese)

For #4, rotate it clockwise 90 degree, in the centre, the text are:
“大明宣德年製”, roughly “made in the 5th reign of the Ming dynasty” (AD 1426-1435)
For #5, rotate anti-clockwise about 45 degree, in the middle is a big character “福” (good fortune, happiness); which is surrounded by a pattern of “二龍戲珠” (two dragons [Chinese style, not Jurassic] play/strive for pearl)
If #4 & #5 are photo of the same bowl, I guess it’s a valuable curiosity.
Try contact Christie’s, or Sotheby’s Hong Kong office, they’ve experts to identify it.
For #3:
I suspected the calligraphy is “梅 x 秀色”, but I'm not 100% sure.
Have fun :)


民国 (Republic of China) era starts from 1912. Therefore, just add 1911 to the 民国 year number and you'll know the Gregorian year number. For example, 民国106年(ROC Year 106)=1911+106=2017 A.D.

Sometimes, 民国 is omitted for simplicity. To distinguish ROC year from Gregorian year, follow this rule:

If a year number is relatively small (no matter whether it's larger than 100), it's an ROC year number. (Therefore, 98年 (Year 98) is not Year 1998, it's Year 2009).

The above rule only applies to daily life, not for academic use. However, the date of the year should remain the same on both ROC date system and Gregorian date system. If you see differences, it must be produced by "magic" reasons rather than different date systems.


Why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese?

From Wikipedia:

  There is no universally accepted criterion for distinguishing a
  language from a dialect.

My hunch is that in general Chinese politics favors unity, whereas European politics favors separation, thus speakers of Dutch and German would hate to think that they were speaking dialects of the same language. Conversely in general it is useful for the notion of Chinese unity, that there is only one "Chinese", although in fact there are many spoken languages within the peoples considered Chinese, that are considered separate languages.

Note that (accoring to WP) the distinction is so unclear that some linguists consider "Dialect" and "Language" to be synonyms, and that a dialect can also be a language. Thus "Hokkien is a language that is a dialect of Chinese" would not be an illogical statement.


What's the difference between 浪费 and 白费？

The crux is in the 白.
浪费 is similar to squander.
Here’s a good example from Oxford:

浪费自然资源
squander natural resources

To understand 白 I think it’s best to look at 白白 check out A Chinese-English Dictionary’s definition:

in vain; to no purpose; for nothing

here are two sample sentences they give:

白白丢掉一次机会
báibái diūdiào yīcì jīhuì
let a chance slip through one’s fingers; miss an opportunity

不要让时光白白过去。
Bùyào ràng shíguāng báibái guòqu.
Don’t let time slip aimlessly by.

So here we’ve got words like slip, miss, aimlessly and that is really what 白费 is made up of: slip/miss and squander - giving us: to do something in vain, to do something to no avail.
Here are two more examples from AC-ED:

白费力气
báifèi lìqi
waste of energy; all for nothing; plough the sand

白费心思
báifèi xīnsi
bother one’s head for nothing


I think 服务员 is just a little bit old, formal and sometimes serious way of calling waiters/waitresses from some people's prospective nowadays. But I don't think it is offensive if you use it, especially if you're a foreigner. I also use it several years ago and even now.

Alternative way maybe 服务生(mostly for male). I guess it's the way from Hong Kong or Taiwan but accepted in mainland. This sounds more modern in some cases.

朋友 is not widely used by local in such cases. Maybe because you're a foreigner, they would like to show more friendly. I think they can call you 先生（Mister）/女士（Mrs.）/小姐（Miss）. However, if this is the cafe/bar's feature or tradition or something like industry rule (though I don't know such rule), then it's OK.

Instead, you can just call waiters (even not only waiters, but any other male you don't know)  as 帅哥、小哥、小哥哥（if he is young）； 兄弟、哥们；叔叔、伯伯、大叔(if he is elder)；大爷（very old）...
The same, call any female you don't know as 美女、小姐姐、小姑娘（if young）;姐姐、姐们儿；大姐、大嫂、阿姨（if elder）; 大妈（very old）...

小哥哥、小姐姐 are just the popular saying recently, we don't even use them maybe 2 years ago. Things are always changing, you know.

Finally, it's simple and proper to say 你好 in order to get the waiter's attention.


Technically, 层 is the measure word  and 楼 is the noun being measured. They compliment each other and are not grammatically interchangeable, but the sentences you've heard are results from idiomatic omissions. There are two common situations:
1 . When we put 层 and 楼 together and an ordinal number before them, they form a noun phrase meaning the N-th floor:

第三层楼 The third floor

This usage can be shortened into 第三层, 三层 or 三楼 (but not 第三楼). (第)三层 is fine for both formal and informal situations, while 三楼 sounds colloquial, otherwise they are completely interchangeable:

我家住在第三层楼 = 我家住在三层 = 我家住在三楼 = I live on the third floor (of a building).
酒吧在大厦的第三层楼 = 酒吧在大厦三层 = 酒吧在大厦三楼 = The bar is located on the third floor of the plaza.

2 . When we put 层 and 楼 together and a cardinal number before them, they form a noun phrase meaning N stories and just like in English, this noun phrase is usually further composed into an adjective:

三层楼 Three stories (of a building)
三层楼高 Three-story high

Usages like this can be shortened into 三层, but not 三楼. E.g.

这个酒吧有三层楼 = 这个酒吧有三层 = This bar has three stories (is a three-story building).
这个酒吧有三楼 = There is a 'third-floor' in this bar. This sentence is valid but sounds very contextual, like an answer to questions such as 'I thought it's two-story high. Is there a 3rd floor?'

Examples for 三层高 (adj. phrase):

一栋三层楼高的建筑 = 一栋三层高的建筑 = A building that is three-story high.
On the other hand, 一栋三楼高的建筑 sounds unnatural.

If the subject of the sentence is literally '楼', then it must not be repeated. E.g. replacing '酒吧' and '建筑' with '楼' in above examples:

这栋楼有三层 = This building has three stories. (这栋楼有三层楼 sounds awkward.)
一栋三层高的楼 = A building that is three-story high. (一栋三层楼高的楼 sounds unnecessarily repetitive.)

Back to your question,
Could I say something like "酒吧的第一层？“
Yes. It means 'the first floor of the bar (which sounds like a multi-story building or occupies more than one floors in a building)'.


The fundamental sentence is 他煮湯 (he cooks soup). The subject is 他 and the object is 湯, or the thing that is cooked.

You may consider 第一次 (the first time) and 為我 (for me) as adverbial phrases. They describe how the soup was cooked by Father.

為+sb, 替+sb, and 幫+sb indicate the action is done on behalf of someone. They behave like 給+sb. E.g.:

我為你打掃了房間 I cleaned the room for you.
他替我做功課 He does homework for me.
我幫她買了雞蛋 I bought eggs for her.


迫不及待 - cannot wait anymore
开始倒计 - begin counting down (which means the thing you are waiting for will start soon)


十余年 means more than ten years but less than twenty years.

Oxford Chinese-English Dictionary
余 (2)
C. 数
over

20余人
  twenty-odd people

有百余人。
  There are over a hundred people.

Modern Chinese Dictionary
余 (2)
(5) [数] 表示整数之外的零头，相当于“多”。
二十余人

So basically, when 余 follows a number, it often indicates the remainder over the smallest unit (个、十、百、千、万...) of the round number it follows.
Examples:

十余 = 1十+余
the round number is 十(10)
∵ the unit of the round number is 十(10^1)
∴ 余 < 十(10)
∴ 10 < 十余 < 20

两百余 = 2百+余
the round number is 2百(200)
∵ the unit of the round number is 百(10^2)
∴ 余 < 百(10^2)
∴ 200 < 两百余 < 300

P.S:
The construction pattern: XXX (专注/引领) YYY ZZZ(余) 年 is a common usage among slogans and promotional materials. XXX is often the name of a company, YYY is the industry or business the company is in and zzz is the time it has been doing the business. This is generally to show that the company has a long history in the business and has a lot of experiences.
Example:

IBM专注商业计算200年


I am a native Chinese speaker. We say "住这样的房子" or "住在这样的房子里". These two are both correct, and they mean the same thing.

"住在这样的房子" sounds wrong to me."住这样的房子里" may be correct but sounds weird.

As you may have already known, the time "以前" or "现在" do not affect the form of the verb.

Hope this helps!


You probably mean qing1 cai4 (青菜). It is used for green vegetables in general, but is also used for Chinese cabbage.

现代汉语规范词典 has this to say:
1.
名
一般指小白菜或油菜。
2.
名
泛指蔬菜。

小白菜 is typically translated as Chinese cabbage or bak choy in dictionaries and also used like this in  many places in China, in other places people often mean baby bak choy when they use 小白菜.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cabbage#Commercial_variants_of_Chinensis has this to say:

Baby Pak choi, Shanghai Pak choi, or mei quin choi (Chinese: 上海白菜; pinyin: Shànghǎi báicài; Japanese: 青梗菜, chingensai) refers to greener varieties where the varioles are also green. It is simply a less-mature version that could develop into the white-stemmed variety with more time to grow before being harvested. In Shanghai and other eastern China provinces, it is simply called qīngcài (青菜; literally blue/green vegetable) or qīngjiāngcài (青江菜; literally "blue/green river vegetable").


「倒」 (Mandarin: dǎo, dào; to collapse/fall over, upside-down/inverted) is comprised of semantic 「人・亻」 (person, "person falling over") and phonetic 「到」 (dào).


could someone tell me if we can refer to a document with 他

他 for a person, or more specifically, a male person
她 for a female person
牠 for an animal
它 for an inanimate object
祂 for a deity
A document is inanimate, so 它 is the appropriate pronoun to use. Having said that, it is not always necessary to translate the "it" in an English sentence. If you'd give us the context, we may be able to provide a better answer than a simple "A in Chinese equals B in English".


No such saying as '挽钱'. It's not even a word.

'换钱' means exchanging money.

When you are going to withdraw money from an ATM, a Chinese usually says '取(qu3)钱'.


Does anyone recognize the characters written on this home shrine?

This is what I got: 万古XXX永存，千秋XX振乾坤。 A picture with higher resolution would be helpful for a complete answer.


This is the same as 弹琴敬酒 为你祝寿, which means something like "playing the qin and drinking wine, to celebrate a loyal friend's birthday". Note that playing the qin is considered a very high-class and cultured activity in ancient China, as well as being one of the four main skills any learned person must acquire---“琴棋书画”, i.e. playing the qin, playing qi (Chinese chess), calligraphy, and painting. So the phrase 琴酒相寿 has a certain poetic or picturesque feeling to it beyond the meaning of the words themselves.


Experts know. Some homophone substitutions are very common and widely accepted and they have a name "通假字". If you want to understand Classical Chinese, you'll have to know these common 通假字s. And of course plain mistakes also exist. If you read enough, you'll know which are acceptable and which are just mistakes.


Meaning of "~~" at the end of a sentence

Non-Standard Usage

Is this an informal exclamation or an emphasis mark?

No, it's neither an exclamation nor an emphasis. It's used for

[Informal] Showing a casual, lively mood. This is the situation of your example sentence. In fact, you can put this symbol freely if you are not so serious, and the number of waves is not strict.

  事实上～只要你不需要很严肃，你可以随意地使用这个符号～～～而且数量也是随意的～～

  [In fact ~ you can put this symbol freely if you are not so serious ~~~ and the number of waves is not strict ~~]

[Not in standard, but considered formal] Illustrating the continuation of the voice (suggesting the cadence of the voice). Usually, it is used in the double wave form taking place of two characters, i.e. ～～, and is written vertically middle of a line. For example,

  喂～～ [Hey~~]

Though this usage isn't listed in the official standard, interestingly, in the famous primary school's text, Lu Xun's 《从百草园到三味书屋》, there is a sentence:

  铁如意，指挥倜傥，一座皆惊呢～～；金叵罗，颠倒淋漓噫，千杯未醉嗬～～

And in some other essays and novels

  大男孩的胳膊给老妇人抱住，不能取那翡翠簪儿，“哇～～”突然哭起来了。（叶圣陶《夜》）

  “咳～～开～～啦！”桩家揭开盒子盖，也是汗流满面的唱。（鲁迅《阿Q正传》）

You can call it 象声号 (《标点符号使用手册》 has included this usage). So, as many famous writers use ～～ in their works, considering it informal may be controversial.
[Not in standard, but undoubtedly formal] Standing for the mentioned character in a dictionary (seen in most authoritative dictionaries, like 新华字典). In some reference, it is called 代替号(replacement symbol). This should be a formal usage, but I don't know why the standard hasn't included it.

  省 shěng  ㄕㄥˇ

  地方行政区域：～份。～会。

Standard Usage

The standard usage of this punctuation is a connective, called 浪纹(wave symbol). See the standard 《中华人民共和国国家标准标点符号用法》.

  4.13 连接号

  4.13.1 连接号的形式为“－”，占一个字的位置，连接号还有另外三种形式，即长横“－－”（占两个字的位置）、半字线“-”（占半个字的位置）和 浪纹 “～”（占一个字的位置）。

For example

  亩产1000公斤～1500公斤 [from 1000 kilograms to 1500 kilograms]

EDIT1: definition of "formal" and the very informal usage

Thanks for @fefe's comment. To make it more clear, let me clarify the definition of formal in this answer here.

The word formal in this answer means grammatically formal in punctuation, but NOT suggesting wording or phrasing formal.

In the non-standard usage,

Case 3: It's the de facto standard in Chinese dictionaries. Personally I cannot imagine saying "this punctuation in dictionaries is informal" :)
Case 2: the punctuation "illustrates" the continuation of the voice, so that is to say, you were writing some voice in your works. Such a sentence is usually in a colloquial circumstance, so to this extent, the whole sentence is "informal". However, it's related to the wording and phrasing, but not the punctuation itself. So I said the punctuation is still grammatically formal.

Now let's go further ~~ I think this topic would be related and interesting ~~

On the Internet, people aren't so aware of the grammar. Or, we can even say, the netizens are creating new grammar, though there's a debate resulting in the rule that you should not use the Internet grammar in your Chinese examinations. In fact, there is a much more informal usage of ~, which is so informal that I consider even not to list it in the non-standard usage list. It is widely used in emoticons in China and Japan. For example

  ~~~^_^~~~ [laughing to tears. ~ stands for tears.]

  (～ o ～)~zZ [sleeping. ~ stands for closed eyes and the snore.]

  ~\ (≧▽≦) /~ [hooray! ~ may stand for something waving in the hands.]

EDIT2: brief history of the establishment of punctuation standard

History of the official standard of modern punctuation in mainland China.

  1919 Some renowned scholars (馬裕藻, 朱希祖, 錢玄同, 劉復, 周作人, and 胡適) submitted a proposal for promulgating the modern punctuation standard (《請頒行新式標點符號議案》).

  1920 The ministry of Education of the Northern Warlords government promulgated Order for Adopting Modern Punctuation (《通令采用新式标点符号文》). It is the first standard for modern punctuation published in the form of law.

  1951 The General Administration of Press of the PRC government promulgated Usage of Punctuation (《标点符号用法》).

  1990 As the punctuation had changed a lot in the past forty years, Press and Publication Administration promulgated the revised version of Usage of Punctuation.

  1995 State Bureau of Technical Supervision promulgated the National Standard for the Usage of Punctuation (《中华人民共和国国家标准标点符号用法》 GB/T 15834-1995). On June 1st, 1996, this standard was executed. It is the standard we are using today.

Punctuation and language are changing gradually all the time. I personally believe there will be some day that some of the informal usage of ~ will become formal standard ~~

EDIT3: "Which tilde should I use?"

The wiki page of "tilde" points out there are many kinds of tildes. Because your browser may not correctly render all the characters on that page. I illustrate the table as a picture here (open it in a new page to see full size):

So, according to the standard (providing the size and the position of the 浪纹), in formal text, you should use unicode U+FF5E, i.e., ～. In informal usage, a simple tilde on the keyboard U+007E, i.e. ~, is just OK.


Must Japanese people's name be mapped to equivalent Chinese characters?

Yes, if a Japanese name can be written in kanji, it is customary to read these kanji in its Chinese character pinyin, the Japanese pronunciation play no part.

The Japanese pronunciation of "田中" is "Tanaka",  But 田中 in Mandarin is read as / tian2 zhong1/ using Mandarin Pinyin and    /tin4 zung1/ in Cantonese using Cantonese Jyuping

If you are a Japanese named 田中 (Tanaka), your Chinese name should always be 田中 (tin4 zung1) also. Picking a different Chinese name, for example 田 (tin4) so your name can sound more Chinese, is considered insulting to your heritage.

Some Japanese first names do not have fixed corresponding Kanji, for example  あかね (Akane).  In this case, we have to choose among all the Kanji that is pronounced  あかね,  and 茜 is the most common one.


味道不好的牙膏 ？

Yes, 味道不好 or 味道很差  would do
味道不好 (doesn't taste good) e.g. 这漱口水味道不好，像消毒酒精一般的
味道很差 (taste awful) e.g. 这口香糖味道很差，像咳嗽药水一般的
这牙膏味道不好/很差，薄荷味太重
Also: 難以入口 (too awful to put in mouth)
Example:
嚼烟草对不吸烟的人来说是难以入口的
这有苦味的口香糖真是难以入口
这有重酒精味，难以入口的漱口水也拿出来卖？
imrek wrote:

X(的)味道很难受: X tastes bad

Yes, you can substitute 不好(not good) or 很差(very bad) with 很难受 (hard to take) in the first three examples I provided
Beside 漱口水，口香糖，牙膏， 嚼烟草 and 檳榔 , I can't think of anything else with a taste that you put in the mouth but not supposed to swallow it


Is the difference between and saying 有时 and 会偶尔 very big?

To me, 有时 and 偶尔 are interchangeable under ANY circumstances.

Depending on personal preference, feel free to pick either one when expressing once in a while.


It depends on what you mean by "Cantonese". The practical definition is Yuehai Yue, from Guangzhou down to Hong Kong and Macau.

Any dictionary will be limited. From a purely practical point of view, the scope of the lexicographer's project must be in some way worth the resource put in. Hence dictionaries limit their scope quite significantly.

In practice for Cantonese then, most dictionaries [as pointed out above] specify not 廣東話 but specifically 廣州話 - the bias towards the Yuehai 粵海 region is made explicitly.

The Dominance of the Yuehai Prestige Dialect

This is (in essence) one of the definitions of a prestige dialect, and the Cantonese as spoken in Guangzhou 廣州 has always been the leading example of the Yue 粵語 branch of Chinese. The fact that people originating from Guangdong 廣東 and Guangxi 廣西 provinces were already using the speech of Guangzhou 廣州 as their lingua franca gave it a prestige (the province was divided into two in the late Song dynasty). This meant in the early Repulican period, a Teochew 潮州話 speaker, a Hakka 客家話 speaker and possibly a Hmong speaker would have used 廣州話 as their lingua franca, even if they were doing business in Nanning 南寧 in Guangxi. Across the Sinosphere of SE Asia, the older term 廣府話 became standard across both Yue and Min speakers.

The rising prestige of Hong Kong 香港 through the 20th century only reinforced the trend of Yuehai dominance. The Yue-speaking diaspora throughout the world had already adopted the speech of Guangzhou 廣州話 by the mid 20th century (the largest Yue-speaking group that didn't do so was the Taishan [Toisan/Hoisan] 台山 group in California), and with a greater influx from HK into the diaspora, the strength of the Yuehai group of Cantonese increased within the Cantonese community overseas, even as Mandarin made strong inroads in Cantonese speaking territories.

On the other Yue varieties

Hence, any interest in the other Yue varieties would be documented, not by mainstream dictionaries, but fairly specialised linguist's dictionaries and papers. The dialect of Bobai 博白, Guangxi Province, is well known for having one of the largest tone inventories in the world.

The divergence and diversity with Yue should not be underestimated. The perception as just a "rougher version" (lit.: 鄉音 village sound) of (Guangzhou / Yuehai) Cantonese is broadly untrue. Everything from tones, sound system, [synchronic] sound changes, even some grammatical constructions as well as vocbulary can be different. Hence you are right to say that a lot of words would not be found in a mainstream Cantonese dictionary. But we would need a few more dictionaries to made before this can be quantified.

One of the most salient and well documented examples is Toisanese, which maintains the Middle Chinese distinction between alveolar and palatal/retroflex sibilants, but recasts it as a /ɬ/ vs /s/ distinction, and has a toneme for making the plural pronouns (我 /ŋɔɪ˧/ for "I" to 哦 /ŋɔɪ˨˩/ for "we").

In the 現代漢語方言大詞典, only two Yue varieties are represented: Guangzhou (of course) and Dongguan. Wiktionary has some support for Toisanese.


Does 到了现在我才清楚了解当时的情况 imply that the situation is completely clear, or just that it's clearer than before?

"到了现在我才清楚了解当时的情况" means "the situation is completely clear for me now"

For "Now I understand more clearly about the situation back then" It should be "到了现在我才(更)清楚了解当时的情况"

It implies you had some understanding back then, but now this understanding is more clear.

I did not read your English translation. My editing is totally based on the impression I got from your Chinese writing.


Does 刚开始工作的时候... mean "when starting work" (each day) or "when entering the workforce"?

刚开始工作的时候，什么最重要？

I'd interpret it as when entering the workforce, which  is the second meaning you listed.

When someone says 刚开始工作的时候, I'd assume he meant when entering the workforce.  If they try to convey when starting work each workday, I'd expect something like: 每天早上开始工作的时候; 每天开始工作的时候; 每天开始工作时; 每天工作开始时.

One could bend that rule/convention sometimes, but it's not hard to figure out what they really mean in a given context anyway.


How would I say "I will get laughed at"?

"我會被人笑" - "I will get laughed at "

"我會被人笑話" - "I will be joked at"

“我會被人取笑” - "I will be made fun of"

“我會被人耻笑” - "I will be ridiculed"

Edit:

Add '嘲笑' (to ridicule)(as TXV  suggested) and 譏笑 ( to sneer at; to mock; to ridicule)

“我會被人嘲笑” - "I will be ridiculed"

“我會被人譏笑” - "I will be ridiculed"


How did three characters for _de_ emerge?

The premise of the question is a bit backwards. It's not that de evolved into three different characters, it's that three different words evolved to have the same pronunciation in modern Mandarin Chinese.

Mandarin in particular, features unstressed syllables, which are commonly referred to as having a "neutral tone" rather than having one of the four main tones. Most of the Chinese languages are considered syllable-timed languages, including Mandarin, but it is less so compared to other Chinese varieties such as Cantonese, in which all syllables are stressed and have a tone. Syllable-timed languages typically allocate the same amount of time between all syllables in their speech rhythm. In contrast, stress-timed languages (such as English) allocate the same amount of time between stressed syllables. Mandarin seems to have some aspects of stress-timing in which neutral tone syllables are pronounced with shorter durations. As is typical with stress-timed languages, unstressed syllables often undergo vowel reduction, especially in fast speech.

This vowel reduction is one of the main contributors to how all of these words ended up being pronounced with a neutral de in Mandarin. As fefe mentioned in this comment, they are not necessarily pronounced the same in other dialects (for instance, 得、地、的 are respectively pronounced dāk, déi, and dīk in Cantonese). Here's how each of these characters came to be pronounced de in modern Mandarin:

得 - derived from its original meaning of "to attain". One of the features of Chinese is serial verb construction, in which multiple verbs can be stacked together. It is through serial verb construction that 得 evolved into its modern usage as a verb complement to indicate the degree to which an action was attained.

  跑得快 - "run and attain quickness" → "run quickly"

The pronunciation of this word in Middle Chinese (the Chinese of ca. 600 - 1000 AD from which most of the modern Chinese varieties evolved) had a -k ending, but the Mandarin dialects evolved to drop -k endings from all syllables, leading to its modern pronunciation of dé (for comparison, this word is pronounced dāk in modern Cantonese). When used as a verbal degree marker, it becomes unstressed, resulting in its neutral de pronunciation.

Also note that while the stressed dé and unstressed de appear to have the same pinyin spellings besides the tone, the vowel quality is different. Expressing this in IPA, the stressed dé is pronounced [tɤ] with a close-mid back unrounded vowel, while the vowel in the unstressed de has reduced to a schwa: [tə]
地 - the etymology of its use as an adverb marker is less clear, but this suggests that it's related to its original meaning of "place":

  Ōta (2003) proposes that it is a grammaticalization of etymology 1. The construction ADJ + 地 would have semantically developed as follows: "a ADJ place" → "in a ADJ place" → "in a ADJ manner".

The pronunciation of this word in Mandarin, dì, is very similar to its pronunciation in Middle Chinese. It also became unstressed when used as an adverb marker, and through vowel reduction, ended up being pronounced as de.
的 - the use of this as a genitive/possessive particle is actually unrelated to the original usage of 的 as a word meaning "target". It's most likely instead derived from 之, which is the genitive particle of Classical Chinese. While the pronunciation of 之 evolved to become zhī in modern Mandarin, it had also retained a second pronunciation that was closer to its original pronunciation in Old Chinese, dī.  The character 的 was later co-opted to represent this usage when it was pronounced as dī (historically 底 had also been used before modern written Chinese standardized on 的). Again, through destressing and vowel reduction, it also ended up being pronounced as de.

The previous answers here also provide more details about the evolution of the use of 的 as a genitive particle:

Michaelyus' answer to "Do 之 and 的 come from the same word?"
Betty's answer to "Why is 的 (de) sometimes pronounced “di” even though it is used as a possessive particle?"

As an aside, the use of 的 in its original meaning of "target" was also originally pronounced with a -k ending, which is why modern Cantonese pronounces this word as dīk, even though its modern borrowing for use as a genitive particle is not related to this original word and did not have a -k ending. Its use as a genitive particle is not a native use in Cantonese though, so Cantonese ended up applying the original dīk reading of 的 to its genitive meaning too.


因为父母不用花钱给很多小孩，他们可以花多一点钱给少的孩子

The ideal sentence:

因为家中孩子不多，父母可以花多一点钱在各个孩子身上 (Because there are few children in the family, parents can spend more money on each child)

If I must minimally edit the original sentence:

因为父母不用花钱在很多小孩身上，他们可以花多一点钱在各个孩子身上 (Because parents don’t have to spend money on many children, they can spend more money on each child)

花钱给小孩 (spend money to the children) is incorrect. It is 花钱在小孩身上 or 在小孩身上花钱 (spend money on the children)

"spend more money on fewer children"

花較多的钱在少些孩子身上


Looking up seal characters is not as hopeless as other answers seem to indicate, even though it is considerably harder than looking up modern characters. In any case, the lookup needs to consist of identifying which component of the seal character is the radical and finding the character in the corresponding section. Identification of the radical needs to be done by trial and error, as there are no fixed rules that an be applied when you don't know the character in the first place.

Let us start with the slowest, traditional method and see how it can be made faster using electronic dictionaries:

Use a paper edition of 說文解字 Shuōwén Jiězì that contains a seal radical index. Note that most modern editions of Shuōwén have seal script headwords, but their indices use modern characters.
Use an online list of seal radicals to find out the number of the radical, and find the character in the corresponding section of Shuōwén Jiězì. The radical numbers are equivalent to Shuōwén section numbers (this is where the name 部首 “section headers” comes from).
Use Wenlin and choose List -> D. Shuowen Seal Radicals. This will give you a list of 540 seal radicals, and clicking on any of them will give you all the seal characters listed under this radical. This is much faster than looking up the character in Shuōwén, especially when you are not sure which component is the radical (部首). Note that Wenlin lists are based on a Qīng Dynasty commentary on Shuōwén, 說文解字·注, not the original, Hàn-era 說文解字.
The problem with the original Shuōwén radical list is that it is arranged semantically, in a way that is not helpful for somebody who doesn't know the radicals by heart. Therefore, I made two other indices that can be opened in Wenlin and used in the same way as above:

the list of Shuōwén seal radicals ordered by approximate stroke count, and
the list of Shuōwén seal radicals ordered by their token frequency in Classical Chinese texts (based on Jun Da's Classical Chinese Character Frequency List).

The former list begins with radicals that are the simplest graphically, and the latter one presents the most frequent radicals first, which makes it much easier to find the radical you're looking for.


Why does Cantonese sound vaguely British?

Mandarin has a strong R sound like American English “car”. But Cantonese doesn’t have an R sound.
The Cantonese vowel eoi sounds very similar to British English long O. But neither Mandarin Chinese nor American English have this vowel sound.
Many British English dialects use glottal stops in place of final T, just as Cantonese has glottal stop consonants K, T, P.
Along with the many English loanwords more likely based on British pronunciation, these phonetic features may make Cantonese feel “vaguely British,” at least more than Mandarin...


Is there a way to distinguish "vegetarian" from "vegan" in Chinese?

Wikipedia distinguishes them like this:

  维根主义（英语：Veganism）

and

  素食主义（英语：vegetarianism）

维根 here is a transliterated loanword from English.

Wikipedia also offers the translation:

  纯素主义

for veganism.

Although these words, may, work in their written forms - you might generally not be understood using these words colloquially, because nobody really talks like this. Better alternatives would be:

不吃肉 = vegetarianism
不吃动物(产)品 = veganism


What is the difference between 形成, 构成, 组成, 养成?

You can look up a dictionary first, as they are quite different, except for 组成 and 构成. Compared with 组成, 构成 sometimes emphasize the interaction between constituents, but they are very similar in most cases.


The use of 地 after multiple, related nouns (e.g. “鸡”，“猫”，“狗”地)

跟着她“鸡”，“猫”，“狗”地念起来。

“鸡”，“猫”，“狗”地 here works as an adverbial phrase modifying the verb 念.

“鸡”，“猫”，“狗” are basic noun words learnt by a beginner. Imagine the scene her 丈夫 following her reading these basic childish words, and you would get the idea of “鸡”，“猫”，“狗”地.

Another point is that they don't put 鸡，猫，狗地， but “鸡”，“猫”，“狗”地, because the quotation marks indicate those words are said by someone. For example, 他说： “我今天会来。” The quotation mark is used to quote what one has said.


I would say this is actually a feature of Beijing mandarin. Vowel unstressing occurs when the syllable is 轻声 tone.
In the pronunciation of "model pronouncers" like news commentators, this phenomenon, along with even 轻声, is minimized.


难得的一颗歪脖子灯杆站在了窗前: which translation is correct and is 了 needed?

B is correct.
Right, it's same.

Adding 了 makes sentence more natural, I don't why but
it would be very odd without it.

歪脖子 is a common word describing a long thing, tree more often.
a lamp pole is 歪脖子,that is definitely 难得的.

And there is a typo , 棵 instead of 颗.

Answer the comment:

脖子 represents the form of object. It must have a long part.
It is very common to add 了 after 在, and other verbs, 留在了, 排在了, 放在了, 打在了...

了 express 'past or perfect' tense.

他站在窗前.

他站在了窗前.

Both is correct. But for your sentence, it would be odd without 了. So there is still some difference.


Choosing a Chinese name based on John the Apostle

You have done a lot of research, and picking a name is entirely your personal choice, there are no right or wrong answer to it, just good or bad choices. Bad choice means something that sounds offensive or taboo, e.g. 徐定富 means '徐 + certain to get rich'  but it sounds the same as 除定褲 (drop the trousers first) in Cantonese. Your four choices have no problem like that.

約翰 and 若望 are common transliterations of John. If you don't want your name to be too common-place and text-book, you can change to other similar-sounding characters

安約翰 --> 安逸瀚
安若望 --> 安若翰
~

安約安 sounds quite strange, almost like a tongue twist

~

安曜輪 is unique and sounds native, but 倫 is much more common and meaningful in names than 輪, so 安曜倫 would be a good choice.


This is indeed a fun practice!
The first one is a little strange because 就 can't be used in the beginning of the sentence in this way. Get rid of 就 and it's fine.
The second one is correct (with a different emphasis).


The max number of characters that map to a single pronunciation

The Phonology of Standard Chinese by San Duanmu (端木三) has a list of the 15 most common syllables, followed by the number of different characters pronounced that way, not including tones.
yi (106)，ji (93), yu (90),
fu (73),
zhi (72),
li (71),
qi (66),
yuan (64),
xi (64),
jian (61),
shi (58),
wu (55),
wei (53),
ju (51), pi (51）
Tones distribution should be roughly even for the most part  although the book does say that yi4 represents 63 different words.


Excuse me, Can I post your photo on facebook in mandarin

Normally, when you ask for permission, you can just ask it straight in a question form. In your case, you wanted to ask "Can I post your photo on Facebook?" would become "我可以在Facebook上发布你的照片吗？"

To be polite and show humbleness, adding a simple 請問 (may I ask) is enough -- "請問我可以在Facebook上发布你的照片吗？" (may I ask, if I can post your photo on Facebook?)

To show more humbleness, add 不好意思 or 对不起 is appropriate. You are apologizing for intruding that person's space and taking up that person's time; for even request that person to pay attention to your request.
"不好意思 請問 我可以在Facebook上发布你的照片吗？" (excuse me, may I ask, if I can post your photo on Facebook?)


Proper translation of the word "confidence"

The main difference between the two is that the subject of 自信 is fixed - self. That is, "self-confidence" is a more direct translation of 自信. If you can fit "self-confidence" in your English sentence, you can fit 自信 in your Chinese sentence the same way.


The one for the PRC (mainland China, HK, Macao) is the 汉语水平考试, abbreviated to HSK, directed at non-native speakers (including overseas Chinese heritage learners as well as foreign students and workers). The test is administered by Hanban, part of the Minstry of Education of the PRC.

The equivalent for the ROC (Taiwan and its territories) is the 華語文能力測驗, abbreviated to TOCFL. It is also used as a qualifying credential for the Taiwan scholarship, applying for universities and job specifications. It is administered by the SP-TOP, under the direction of the Ministry of Education of the ROC

There is also a 职业汉语能力测试 (ZHC) for native speakers in mainland China, which is under the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and reserved for those PRC citizens who want to go into certain fields e.g. journalism, judiciary, translation.

The proficiency test for PRC citizens hoping to work in broadcasting, education or the government is the 普通话水平测试, with its very clear emphasis on Standard Mandarin as strictly defined by the latest standard.

There is also a HK-specific English and Mandarin proficiency test for teachers there: 教師語文能力評核 (LPAT).

These are all Mandarin tests under their respective standard of Mandarin; I have not heard of such a government (as opposed to a university or medical) test for Hokkien, Hakka, or even Cantonese.


How can complement of degree apply at: 他喝酒喝得睡着了。 弟弟高兴得跳了起来。

Refering to Chinese dictionary,when "得" is used after a verb or an adjective word, the complement can not only discribe the degree,but also mean the result.\

得（de）：用在动词或形容词后面，连接表示结果或程度的补语。————《现代汉语词典》 （第六版）

(Used behind a verb or an adjective word, connect to the complement that shows the result or degree._____from.Morden Chinese Dictionary 6th edition)
Some example:
"我跑得喘不过气。" ==>"I run out of breath."
"Out of breath" is the result of "run".


When/where are chopsticks referred to as 箸子

箸 is used frequently in literatures of yore.

禮記﹒曲禮上　"飯黍毋以箸"

http://ctext.org/liji/qu-li-i/zh?searchu=箸&searchmode=showall#result

numerous times in 史記

eg 史記﹒宋微子世家　"紂始為象箸﹒箕子嘆曰﹒彼為象箸"

http://ctext.org/shiji/song-wei-zi-shi-jia/zh?searchu=箸&searchmode=showall#result

later, in 菽園雜記 of 明 dynasty, it recorded the rationale of people called it 筷子

"民間俗諱﹒各處有之﹒而吳中為甚﹒如舟行諱住﹒諱翻﹒以箸為快兒"

https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/菽園雜記/卷01


Why does 哆啦A梦 use an alphabet instead of an equivalent Chinese character?

Why is the use of Chinese characters and letters mixed in the rare translation of Doraemon? This is a set of katakana and hiragana shuffling from the original text.

So, why is the original name of the original text half of the katakana (ドラ) half of the hiragana (えもん)? According to Fang Kuangyang's second book, "Encyclopedic Encyclopedia (Supervisor/ Fujiko Fujio)", Volume 1, page 107, the names of the original Doraemon were all written in katakana (ドラエモン), but they were finished in the factory. When the robot was registered, Doraemon finished writing the first part of the name and couldn't remember how to write the katakana in the latter part (it really was a bad product (-_-;)) and had to write hiragana.

Hey. So Doraemon's name is half a half of a pseudonym and half a pseudonym. The translation of the Chinese version of "Dream A Dream" uses half a half Chinese characters, which actually reflects this setting very faithfully.


无聊 (meaningless; uninteresting; listless)

闷 (bored; boring)

When using 无聊 to describe an event, your opinion on this event is 'it is meaningless' (therefore boring)

When using 闷 to describe an event, your opinion on this event is 'it is boring' (It just describes how you feel, no mention of the reason)

When using 无聊 to describe a person, your opinion on this  person is 'he is uninteresting' (therefore boring)

When using 闷 to describe a person, your opinion on this person is 'he is boring' (It just describes how you feel, no mention of the reason)

When using 无聊 to describe your feeling, you mean you feel listless, nothing interest you (therefore bored)

When using 闷  to describe your feeling, your mean you feel bored (It just describes how you feel, no mention of the reason)

(for event) 无聊 = boring (because it is meaningless in your opinion)
(for event) 闷 = boring (for whatever reason, may be the event is too long, may be things keep repeating and nothing new happen)
(for person) 无聊 = boring (because the person is uninteresting in your opinion)
(for person) 闷 = boring (for whatever reason, may be that person's topics for conversion do not interest you, maybe that person doesn't like to talk at all.)
(for feeling) 无聊 = bored (because you are not interested in anything at the moment)
(for feeling) 闷 = bored (for whatever reason, may be you are at something interesting for too long and the fun wore off, may be you are unable to do the thing that does interest you)

Example sentence:

  别再做这种无聊事了 (Stop doing meaningless things like this)

you cannot replace 无聊 with 闷 because 闷 doesn't contain the meaning of 'meaningless'

  這人很无聊，一天到晚说人事非 (this guy is very uninteresting, he just gossiping about people all day long)

you cannot replace 无聊 with 闷 because 闷 doesn't contain the meaning of 'uninteresting'

  一个人去看戏我会很闷 (I would feel bored if I go to see a movies alone )

you cannot replace 闷 with 无聊 because 无聊 contains the meaning of 'listless' but you do interested in watching movies


I remember when I first saw things like 小小的我， 年轻的他 it seemed strange. In English you can say:

poor little me

but normally, in English, we need a relative clause to describe Paul 'Paul, who ... '.

Paul put the message in a bottle as a boy. Now he is 63.

现年63岁的保罗对那一天记忆犹新。
Paul, who is now 63, remembers that day well.


表白 is almost always used to someone (or a group of people), and it is usually feelings that are being explained. Most often it means "confessing your love or crush". So you can say "我向她表白" (I "explained" to her, which means I confessed my love to her) Without a romantic context, you can say "我一再表白，生怕别人误会" (I keep explaining, afraid of being misunderstood by people).
告白 has the same "express" meaning, but not as much "explain" as 表白. So the romantic example above can be exchanged with 告白, as in "我向她告白" (I express my love to her, which means the same thing), but the second example would not work with "告白".
In addition, 告白 can be used for public announcement, which you cannot use 表白 there. For example, "告白天下" means "announce to the world". This usage is a little dated but it is very much still understood.


What's the best translation to 「要看两千年的中国，去西安；要看一千年的中国，去北京；要看一百年的中国，去上海；要看十年的中国，去深圳」？

要看两千年的中国，去西安；
Wanna taste the flavour of China 2000 years ago? Go to Xi An!
要看一千年的中国，去北京；
Wanna taste the flavour of China 1000 years ago? Go to Beijing!
要看一百年的中国，去上海；
Wanna taste the flavour of China 100 years ago? Go to Shanghai!
要看十年的中国，去深圳
Wanna taste the flavour of China 10 years ago? Go to Shen Zhen!

The Chinese is not native, I would say. Is it a back translation from some English language tourist stuff?

Shanghai is rockin' and rollin', has not stopped at 100 years ago!


For video games terminology, what is the proper translation for "range"

In gaming field, (of) long range is commonly translated into 远程 or 远距离, and ranged attacked is 远程攻击. You can use 射程 when you want to express the notion of range.
By the way, 主力 is not the right word for strength. If you use 主力 here, it means primary (attack method). To say strength you may want to use 强项 or 优势.
So I would translate this way:

"The great strength of Annie comes from the long range of her fire ball."
安妮最大的优势是她远距离的火球。


What are a few alternative ways to say "to expect"?

不可预知的情况 not can predict situation = an unexpected situation
出乎意料的形势 unexpected circumstance
不意外 not unexpected
意外 unexpected
竟然 unexpected

’那个打过来的电话是意料之外的。‘ 或者 ‘没想到那个电话会打过来。’
That phone call was unexpected.

会议比我预料中的难很多。
The meeting was much more difficult than I expected.


邀明月 means "invite the bright moon"

李白 felt lonely drinking by himself, so he invited the moon to drink with him (the moon was not a person, but there was no one else, so let's count it as one.)

对影 means "facing (his own) shadow"

Well, in his drunken state, his own shadow looked like another man raising a cup with him.

成三人 ( The moon, I myself, and my shadow became three people)

"Let all three of us, the moon, I myself, and my shadow drink together!"

  举杯邀明月，对影成三人

"I raise my cup and invite the moon to drink with me. Along with my shadow, we become three drinking friends "  (describing how alone he felt that he had to drink with imaginary friends)

  Within context, this describes the state of a beautiful woman, nearing thirty and still single. You can say, "Yun Piaoliao still remained single".

The narrative was comparing her situation to the one of 李白 when he wrote that poem - " utterly alone with no companion"

  云氏庭院的花前柳下，依然是举杯邀明月，对影成三人。

"In the Yun family courtyard, in front the flowers and under the willow tree, she was still alone,  just like in the poem: "Raise the cup and invite the moon, along with my shadow, it makes a party of three."


Tricky Chinese Poetry Verse About Hotels And Celebrations

The part "在走之前迎春日为由的索菲亚酒店" has some grammar mistakes. What is the title of this poem and where was it published?


Why does 兴奋 (excitement) not mean what I think it means?

The major reason is that 兴奋 is generally used of people, and most commonly in the phrase 令人兴奋 lìng rén xīngfèn. It can also be used of other biological entities in a scientific context, closer to English excitation  (and the original derivation of the English word excited).

The original sentence has 足球的兴奋, which sounds odd because of 足球 not being a "person" of any kind. Not strictly incorrect, but definitely odd enough to merit correction.

Another possible, but more minor, reason is that 兴奋 is strongly associated with the word for "doping" (兴奋剂 xīngfènjì, literally "stimulant/excitatory chemical") in the sports context. Perceived in a very negative light of course.

乐趣 is a lot more appropriate for this: it is not necessarily as "childish" as the English word "fun", and can include the feeling of "excitement".


When should I use "了" in “把”字句 and where should it be placed?

Compare these sentences:

  我把课本放在桌子上。
  他把病人送到医院。
  我把课本放在桌子上了。
  他把病人送到了医院。

Sentence 1 and 2 don't indicate the tense and tell whether those events happen in the present, past or future. Sentence 3 and 4 clearly indicate those events happened in the past because they have 了.

Practically, you could put 了 after verb. If you see a prepositional phrase in the end, you can attach 了 at the end of the prepositional phrase or sentence.

For example,

  我把课本放在桌子上了。 在桌子上 is a prep phrase, so you attach 了 at the end. The same thing for 姐姐把照片存在电脑里了。 我把我的新书丢在公共汽车上了.
  他把病人送到了医院。in this case, it doesn't have any prep phrase in the end, so you can put 了 after the verb 送到. In 小明把礼物送给了妈妈。送给 is the verb, so
  you can put 了 after it.


Is there any website of where I can look up the origins of a Chinese character?

Yes, almost certainly a duplicate question.

But you raise an interesting question: why does 讀 have 賣 (mai4) on its right hand side?

In actual fact, the right hand side is a character pronounced yu4 (which looks similar to 竇 but which I cannot find in my IME) which was simplified to 賣 in the clerical script. Why does yu4 not sound much like du2? Well, according to Baxter's reconstruction of Old Chinese, they did: 讀 (*lôk), 賣 (*luk).


What's the function/meaning of 就不要 in 过去的事情就不要说了?

过去的事情就不要说了 means it's not necessary to mention those things in the past. Or it's not deserve to mention the things in the past. It implies that just let it go because it is just meaningless/helpless to the current situation.

就 here is kinda like the word just. So, 就不要 here is kinda like just don't because there is no use.

You should comprehend 就不要 as 就 and 不要 in this case. 不要 is like "don't" in an imperative sentence. For example, 不要说话: don't speak! 就不要说话了 is kind of suggestion, meaning just don't say anything.

Another point is 过去的事情就不要说了 can be paraphrased as 就不要说过去的事情了. By pulling 过去的事情 ahead, it's like saying: things passed, so just don't mention it.


挑战 is more verb than noun in Chinese. So 你准备好挑战了吗 sounds like "are you ready to challenge others?" If you want to enforce 挑战 to be a noun, you can add a verb before it, also to indicate the direction, saying 你准备好 接受 挑战了吗


Update, I think I misunderstood, the question is about the word "China" in English while I was talking about the word "China" in Chinese.

This is a question which has no exact answer to. The most popular answer is, it comes from the pronunciation of "秦" in English, which is "chin". Other answers think it may come from how Indians call Chinese, which is "chini". There are many other answers and each has its own explanation. It you are interested, please check out 百度百科。

I will answer this question to the best of my knowledge, in Chinese, 抛砖引玉，如有不到的地方，还请见谅。

Since this is a complicated subject and it would be hard to give explanation of 中华 in English, this answer will be in Chinese.

题注所言“秦”或“汉”皆是封地之名，如“汉”，就是由水流之声而得名的。而“中华”，则与前两者不同，“中”的意思是中央，也即中央之地，而“华”的意思是美好。是汉初河南因文化美好、社会昌平而得名的，后来成为整个中华王朝的名称。

而“汉”，则成为了中华民族的名称，“唐”，另一个繁盛的中华王朝，则成为了海外华人称呼自身聚居地的名词，即唐人街。

中国历史上，不少统一王朝的名称都来源于之前藩王的封地名称，如“汉”来自于刘邦的封地，“唐”来源于李渊的封地等。

中国历史上还有一些类似的王朝名称后来被引作它用的例子，如，相传，农历是夏朝时发明的，所以，农历曾经也叫夏历，还有，商朝人善做生意，所以做生意的人叫做商人等等。


In daily casual conversations in Mandarin are silent initials often ommitted or spoken?

Pinyin is just a guide and cannot be taken literally. Most initials should be taken fairly straightforwardly though.

Y on the other hand shouldn’t.

If you look at the ipa for 意:

  /i⁵¹/

there is only an: i.

Y basically equals i.

Next look at the ipa for 因:

  /in⁵⁵/

Again y basically equals i.

So, yi is easily said that the y is silent but if you take something where the final doesn’t start with i like 羊/阳/洋 ipa becomes:

  /i̯ɑŋ³⁵/

It still maintains this i sounding initial.


大棚 could be:

Commonly short for 蔬菜大棚, a warm house for growing vegetation, usually very large.

sometimes, a tent-like structure, not fully enclosed, often used as a mobile kitchen and dining area.

帐篷 is more of a closed tent which has a roof and has cloth walls all around it. It's built for people to sleep in. Campers and refugees may reside in 帐篷s.

大帐篷

小帐篷


Are these chinese characters understandable?

It is plain as day that the two characters in both version of the logo are 烏黑 (pitch-black)in native Chinese's eyes.

The top stroke of 烏 doesn't need to touch the frame, but you can't remove it if you want the character to remain legit.

Invert the color can make it stand out more

You have the option of reducing the four dots at the bottom of both 烏 and 黑 to one straight stroke. That make it more abstract looking. (native Chinese would take a second to recognize the characters, but they will recognize them no doubt)

(I was a graphic designer too, I suggest you try different fonts to get different feel. Your current design is basically a seal. I am sure you have more different concepts)


I would say the meaning is the same.

'从 ... 到 ...' is a phrase to describe a range, while '不等' means 'diverging'. Putting '不等' at the end will to some extent emphasize the meaning of 'diverging within a range' and you can take it as an echo for the phrase which makes the sentence more complete and sounds better.


作为学生，我们每日坐在教室里学习，但即使这样，“劳动”离我们也并不遥远。

Colloquially, your sentence is ok.  However it's not a good writing.  即使 is usually used when the condition is opposite to the fact.  E. g.  即使他在，我也会这么说。(it implies he is actually not here) If he is truly there, we would say: 虽然他在场，但我还是这么说了。
So your sentence can be improved like this:

作为学生，虽然我们每日坐在教室里学习，但“劳动”离我们并不遥远。

Compare this two sentences:

即使我付出了真心，他也不在乎。// imply I didn't 付出了真心.

虽然我付出了真心，但他也不在乎。// imply I did 付出了真心.

Hope this could help.


Relating to your first sentence: 韦斯莱家却充满了神奇和意外。厨房壁炉架上的那面镜子就把哈利吓了一跳。

This 就 is the 12th meaning of 就 as an adverb in 《现代汉语词典》:

  表示事实正是如此：那就是他的家 ㄧ这人就是他哥哥ㄧ幼儿园就在这个胡同里。

It's meaning  12e in 《现代汉语规范词典》

  表示事实如此。 这儿就是我的家 | 车站就前面。

It expresses that the facts or the situation are really like this.
It can be seen as an illustration of or a proof for the previous sentence.

Relating to your second sentence: 到了下星期三，韦斯莱夫人一大早就把他们叫醒了

This pattern of 就 is explained here: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/1906/540
I'm not going to copy the answer I gave there :-)


Is there an "official" translation of Malcom X's You can't hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree"?

Such sayings have their culture background and only Malcom X himself could tell whether a translation is right or not.

"背祖忘宗" or "數典忘祖" may carry a similar meaning but does not have the same context.  Not to say creative translations like "惱根怎可不惱樹, 厭鄉也該厭自己".


Why must 到 be chosen in the following sentence?

"飞机票买得到吗"  means "Do I have any chance to get the ticket?" (usually ask when you are not very sure whether if there is any ticket left)

"飞机票买得了吗"  means "Can I AFFORD a ticket?" or "Is ticket for sale?" (this sentence is correct in grammar but it is meaningless to ask such a question)


質: when to pronounce in 2nd tone or 4th (Mandarin)?

You should always pronounce the 4th tone in the standard mandarin.

Sometimes, I heard people wrongly pronounced the 2nd tone in the words of 质量，质地, which is probably acceptable to a native ear. But again that's wrong pronunciation.

But if you pronounce the 2nd tone for 质疑，品质, it's really bad (at least to me).

An interesting observation, in a online dictionary, I search for 质地， and it's marked the 4th tone for simplified and 2th tone for traditional one.  So, I doubt this could be regional thing as fefe suggested in his/her answer.


How can I use 有点 or 一点 to add "a little" to a verb?

If asked

  你会说汉语吗？

On the positive side, you can say:

  会一点。

or

  我会一点。

or

  我会说一点。

or

  我会说一点汉语。

They are the same meaning.

On the negative side, you can say:

  (我)一点也不会。

These mean you know nothing.


You need a complementary sentence to understand this better.

Let’s say “Daniel is very fierce.”

  丹尼尔很凶。

With the context that Daniel is fierce, you can then compare Mary’s temperament using the grammatical structure you have shown.

相比起来则 comprises 相比起来 + 则.

相比起来 means “when you compare (Mary and Daniel)”

则 is a word which performs the function of “then, thus, therefore”.

You can then read the sentence as “Compared to Daniel, Mary is much milder.”


Divination through reading patterns from animal bones (scapulimancy) was a widespread ancient human practice. A sub-type of this, pyro-scapulimancy, in which the bones are heated/burned to induce cracks (the patterns) was practiced in Bronze Age China, commonly with turtle shells.
After preparation, the shell would have a hole bored into it and a heated rod inserted in order to crack the shell through thermal expansion. The divination would be read from the pattern of cracks, and the prognostication engraved on the shell fragments.

Source: Sources of Shang history: the oracle-bone inscriptions of Bronze Age China


What's the tone on 河南话's 中 (as in: very good)

I would say the 2nd tone. My wife is from there so I think she has the authority on that...


It means something disappeared as if it had flown away, and that something probably doesn't have wings.

It originally means words because words spread across the world without wings. Now it just means something disappearing into thin air.


Why isn't the Vietnam War called e.g. 抗美战争 ("Resistance War Against America") like in Vietnamese?

Here I come!

The formal name of 抗日战争 is War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, that involved Chinese themselves, so we(Chinese) have to resist(抗) them(日).

However we are not imediatelly involved in 越南战争, which is an affair of another country, so we would not to use 抗美战争 which literally seems like who resist American are Chinese rather than Vietnamese, because, I conjecture, generally if we see a noun which lacks a subject, we may suggest the missing subject is ourselves.


How to translate "If everything goes as planned..."

If everything goes as planned.
 如果一切按计划进行.

In daily conversation, we use "如果一切顺利" more often.

(假若 is more often used in written language and is quite formal.)


What is the difference between 挣扎 and 奋斗?

奋斗：to make a great effort to achieve something, usually striving to be successful. It's a positive word, because you have a target to achieve.

挣扎：try to struggle (to get free), usually we say someone is trapped by something bad, and try to struggle from it. It's much more passive feeling, because you have to struggle in order to escape from something bad to you.

See these expressions:

我们要迎难而上，努力奋斗，争取获得技术突破。

你们已经被包围了，赶快投降，不要做无谓的挣扎。


I think you are talking about 令牌 and 诏书.

令牌 is something like badge. It doesn't have any order on it, but just used to identify the person who carry it.

诏书 is orders written on paper, bamboo or something else.


What is the function of "一" in the sentence 要上山，只有这一条路?

要上山，只有这一条路。
To go up the mountain, there is only this 1 road.

Here, 一 is the number 1.  一条路 = "one road" (wherein 条 is a measure word).  So we could change it to any other number, e.g.:

要上山，只有这六条路。
To go up the mountain, there are only these 6 roads.

Replacing 这一条路 with 这条路 above is fine: with the number omitted, the default quantity is 1.
In 人的一生中, the 一 is part of the word:

一生 (yīshēng)
CC-CEDICT: all one's life / throughout one's life

If we delete the 一 from the word 一生, we'd obtain 生 which is a completely different word.  So we can't delete the 一 here.
More generally:

There are a bunch of words and idioms containing the character 一 (e.g. 一生, 一起, 一样, 一叶障目): by deleting the 一 from within a word, we'll almost always end up with nonsense.

There are a number of grammar structures that also use 一, such as 一……就…….  Occasionally it's okay to omit the 一, such as how 一边……一边…… is sometimes written 边……边…….  However, I'd guess for most grammar structures involving 一, it won't be okay to omit the 一.

It's often okay to omit the 一 before a measure word: 她是一个孩子 = 她是个孩子 but I don't think it's always okay to omit it: I wouldn't start a sentence with a measure word (e.g. I wouldn't write 一匹马在吃草 as just 匹马在吃草), and omitting it in 一个人 might result in confusion with the word 个人.


The usage of 的 at the end of the sentence

To perform the meaning in the given context below sentences would be useful:

  1.我衣服洗得很干净   (100% perfect correct, native chinese , popular sentence )

  2.我衣服洗得很干净 (的)/(滴)/(啦)/(哟)/(呐)/(呀)  etc...
  ( only to emphasize, no additional meaning. )

  3.我洗(过)(的)衣服很干净  (native, perfect,popular )

  4.我的衣服洗得很干净 (native,perfect,popular, 4 is the full sentence of 1)

  5.我洗衣服/很干净的  ( olny a bit weird but most ppl understand)

  6.我洗衣服(的过程)是很干净的 (native,perfect,popular, 6 is improvement of 5)

if you only want a shortcut, following the most popular way native speaker says will be more useful than researching on Chinese grammars stuff.


'In this context，someone wants a promotion and someone needs to 意思意思 his superior；'

fawn(v.):

Old English fægnian "rejoice, be glad, exult, applaud," from fægen "glad" (see fain); used in Middle English to refer to expressions of delight, especially a dog wagging its tail (early 13c.), hence "court favor, grovel, act slavishly" (early 14c.). Related: Fawned; fawning.

你要讨好老板， 就是你得‘fawn'. 'fawn upon someone'

'grovelling' also has this meaning and 'curry favour with someone'.

fawn:
to seek notice or favor by servile demeanor:

  The courtiers fawned over the king.

I found this: https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1446521891194685020.html


Is there a Chinese-Chinese dictionary api or database available that I can use in my own app?

I think you might get this kind of database from some publication press if you are lucky, but it seems to be not an easy way.

Also, I didn't find any database or flat text with Open Source License from the Internet.

But here is a website which is quite clean and neat. http://www.zdic.net/

I tried to look up a single Chinese character(字), and the request link seems quite tidy. I tried 好 and it showed http://www.zdic.net/z/17/js/597D.htm ,where 597D is exactly the UTF-8 code of 好. So you may use this as a breaking point to implement your dictionary function.

Also, if your app is for commercial purpose, please don't forget reading the license of this website before using it ;)

Have fun coding!


How does one express frequency in Chinese?

How do you express “how many times” and “how often” in Chinese? How many times asks for a precise answer to frequency, numerically supported. “How often” can be answered vaguely.

'how many times?' is '多少次?' or '几次?'
'how often' is '有多經常?'

  How does one express “how long”? This can be answered in either way.

'how long' is ' 多久'

  1.你多久去游泳? How long do you swim?

你游泳游多久? How long do you swim?

*'你游泳' is the topic

*'游多久' is the comment

  2.你每周多少次去游泳? How often a week do you go swimming?

你每周有多經常去游泳? How often a week do you swim?

*多少次? means 'how many times?'

*多經常? means 'how often?'

  3.你每周去游几次泳? How many times a week do you go swimming?

This one is grammatically correct. You can replace '几次?' with '多少次?'

  4.你每天去游泳吗? Do you go swimming every day?

This one is grammatically correct. You can omit 去 and write '你每天游泳吗?' (do you swim everyday?) or you can replace '去' with '都' and write  '你每天都游泳吗?'

  5.你每天去多久游泳? How long do you swim everyday?

你每天游泳游多久? How long do you swim everyday?

  6.你每个小时休息几次? How many times a hour do you take a break?

This one is grammatically correct. You can omit the classifier 个 and just write '你每小时休息几次?'

  7.你每个小时多少分钟休息？How many minutes an hour do you rest?

你每个小时休息多少分钟？How many minutes an hour do you rest?

  8.你每个小时休息多长时间. How often an hour do you rest?

你每小时有多經常休息?. How often an hour do you rest?

*Again, 'How often' is '有多經常';  '多长时间' is 'how long (of time)?'

  9.你多久休息. How long do you rest?

你休息多久? How long do you rest?

  10.我一小时休息三次。 I rest three times an hour.

This one is grammatically correct.

user6065 wrote:

complements of duration (frequency) follow verbs

That's the reason in Chinese:

'一小时多久(how long)休息(rest)' is incorrect.
'一小时休息(rest for)多久(how long)' is correct.
'一小时三次(three times)休息(rest)' is incorrect.
'一小时休息(rest)三次(three times)' is correct.

user6065 wrote:

(adverbials precede verbs)

That's the reason in Chinese:

'經常(often)休息(rest)' is correct.
'休息(rest)經常(often)' is incorrect.


What semantic notions underlie 人 (person) and 僅 (solely)?

Outlier

1 (orig.) ability, talent
2 ○ only

Here the ○ icon is an indicator of a phonetic loan. So, basically it is just a:

character that is "borrowed" to write another homophonous or near-homophonous morpheme


只有 can mean 'only/ just/ merely' in the first example

  水深也'只有'十二米 = "The water depth is only/ just/ merely 12M"

  '也' before '只有' is a modal word that put emphasis on the 'not substantial' aspect in the term 'only/ just/ merely', if '只有' means 'only', '也只有' would mean 'just only'

  只(only) is an adverb for the verb 有 (has)  '十二米' here

~

  只有 can only mean 'only' in the second example, because there is a "才有" (can then have) in the second part of the sentence.

  '只有'通过学者的社区考验过的思想，才有活力 = "Only through scholars' socially experimented thinking, can then have life (be alive).."

  '才有' in the second part indicates the statement in the first part is a requirement'

  只有 (only) is an adverb for the verb 通过 (thought) here


In how many ways can we say "go straight ahead"?

一直走 / 往前走 / 一直往前走 / 一直向前走

Q1) From the above which are the most commonly used and in which contexts?

一直走 = keep walking

往前走 = walk straight

一直往前走 = keep walking straight

一直向前走 = keep walking straight

Any of the above is understandable if your context is to help people with direction. Note that 一直走 / 往前走 are a bit short and lack a bit of politeness.

Q2) how many other ways can we get the same meaning (even replacing 走 by other verb)?

直走

向前走

In case of car, replace 走 by 开 (short hand for 开车 [Driving]）

一直开

往前开

一直往前开

一直向前开

In case of bicycle, replace 走 by 骑 （short hand for 骑车）

一直骑

往前骑

一直往前骑

一直向前骑


Is e.g. 我与的朋友在二月份去中国 a colloquial way to say "I'm going to China with my friends in Feburary"?

First, 的 is not needed and doesn't make sense. Omit it altogether (or make it 我的朋友).
Second, 在 is to express what is happening right now. It is close to "is doing ~" in English (e.g. 我在看书。). If you talk about what will happen in the future, 要 should be the word for it. So replace 在 with 要.

So, the one answer should be:

  我二月份要与朋友去中国。


What's the meaning of 厨 in internet slang?

厨二病
Japanese
Etymology
Derived by replacing the 中 (chū, “middle [school]”) with 厨 (chū, “freak; nerd”).
厨二病 (hiragana ちゅうにびょう, rōmaji chūnibyō)
Alternative spelling of 中二病

This usage of 厨 here came from Japanese 'ちゅう' (kanji: 厨 ). Which means "freak or nerd"
"XX 厨" = "XX nerd"  or "XX freak". Anime and manga fans would be familiar with this term
Other Japanese terms imported to Chinese via manga (mostly circulated among manga readers in written form)

醬(ちゃん).

"XX 醬" = "XX 小妹妹" (Dear little XX)

宅(taku)  came from Otaku (a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills..)

"XX 宅" = "XX obsessed" e.g. "軍事宅" means "a person obsessed with military"


Identifying mark (Characters identified: 胡窯)

The characters are 「胡窯」, a maker's mark for Japanese arita ware. Google search 胡窯 to get more information and image hits.


What is the difference between 賺錢 and 掙錢？

I'd like to make a supplement based upon previous answers:

Usually, 挣钱 and 赚钱 are exactly the same. But in some special cases, 挣钱 could reflect a scenario of hard working, since making money is not easy, while 赚钱 could mean that making money is easy, compared with 挣钱.

Here, the verb 挣 sounds like you have to make great effort to, you can see the verb 挣扎, which means struggle. The verb 赚 means making a profit, it can also be used as an adjective.

So we have the following phrases: 努力挣钱，working hard to make money (though 努力赚钱 is also possible) and 躺着赚钱, making money while lying on the bed.


这种将静态的美术作品以动态方式呈现出来的艺术形式，增添了作品的生命力。

将 here means 把. One possible rewiting without 将:

  这种以动态方式来呈现静态美术作品的艺术形式，增添了作品的生命力。

Your two 'b's are okay.


How do I translate the definition of the mathematical term "Latinity" into Chinese?

定义：图G的拉丁度lambda(G) = d，
d是使与G同构的d维PLH图存在的最小值。


What are the most usual Chinese terms for permanent markers vs. whiteboard markers

As others have mentioned, when you are using borrowed words you can sometimes get stuck with misunderstandings especially if you go to a market or book store to buy this item rather than going to a stationary or art store.

My suggestion is to take a glossy piece of cardboard and then ask for a 马克笔 (mǎkè bǐ).

If you are provided with what appears to be a whiteboard marker I would politely test it on the cardboard and if it is a white board marker I would say 我要擦不掉的那种. I think this should get you what you are after.

我要擦不掉的那种 (wǒ yào cā bú diào de nà zhǒng) = "I want the kind that cannot be wiped off"

我要 = I want

擦不掉 = cannot be wiped off

的那种 = the kind

This might also help if they show you a thin marker pen:

我要粗一点的 (wǒ yào cū yīdiǎn de) = I want a thicker one


As you had said, 所 is not redundant. But to me, "有帮助" and "有所帮助" doesn't have that much differences, especially when you are in an oral conversation with Chinese people.

As for your explanation for "有所謂", the translation for "这件案子有所谓" is "This case matters." You are correct. But I don't think that it has the meaning of "has something that it says". Yes, "謂 = 說". However, the literal meaning of this is not strong when you say "有所谓". When hearing about "有所谓", please just take it as "matters", and just forget about its literal meaning.


You can safely prounouce '车' as [che1] in all idioms above in mainland China. Actually if you don't do it, someone might get confused since it seems we only pronounce it as [ju1] when refering the name of a Chinese Chess piece.


One could always argue that if you find it annoying to copy/paste , you're using it too much, and should clean up your vocabulary :-)
It all depends on the platform you're using. I'm on a Mac (laptop) and Android (phone/tablet). On my Mac, I have customized an old Jyutping IME by Dominic Yu, based on the LSHK table. I added  (and many other things) to the IME. You can get it here.
On my Android, I use MultiLing, which is good in most cases, but its fuzzy logic makes it very hard to input single-syllable words that are not common (at least in their idea of common). I usually resort, for such characters, to trying first pinyin, then Japanese, or, if everything fails, hand-writing.
EDIT
On MultiLing, typing diunei gives 屌你, which is the fastest way I found to type 屌 – if 你 isn't needed just erase it.


Translating the phrase "I can't confirm nor deny etc."

Assuming you're not going for a word-for-word, literal translation I would suggest:
无可奉告
MDBG

(idiom) "no comment"

Wiktionary

to have nothing to say (in a diplomatic context); no comment

The superiority of a semantic translation over a 1:1 translation is the fact that you can get straight to the heart of the matter without confusing your audience with turns of phrases and terms that they may have never encountered before.

Of course, if you do need a literal translation:

我们既不能确认也不能否认, (2)

does work.
HKU Public Opinion gives an alternative translation:

無意肯定或否定

The UN, here, opts for:

不能肯定、也不能否定

but in the same document also translates it as:

既不证实也不否认


Questions about the meaning and position of 一下

Question 1. Does the 一下 mean how many the speaker smacked her/his child, only one time in this case, or act as an adverb like 'a little bit'?

It means only once here.
Note that 一下 might mean a little bit too, depends on the context.

附於動詞後面，有略微的意思。如：「想一下」、「看一下」。亦作「一下子」。

=> Attached after the verb, means a little. (Note: In some instances, depends on the context. --end note)
The other two common meaning of 一下 is in a short while and suddenly.

(1) [in a short while]∶表示短暂的时间
灯一下又亮了
(2) [in one go;at a single stroke;all of a sudden]∶突然间
天一下阴了下来

then

Question 2. would there be any difference if I change the place of 一下 as follows?
你去问一下老师 → 你去问老师一下
打孩子一下 → 打一下孩子

No, there're no difference. In both cases 一下 acts as an adverb modifying the verb, the position won't change the basic meaning. (Except that the object will be emphasized if it's placed at the front.)


What character might "lia" [Ĩia⁵³] meaning "lick" be?

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/8365/
laai2
lick/lap with tongue
This character is used in Cantonese, not Mandarin/Standard written Chinese.

 someone's 鞋 = "to lick someone's boot" = brown-nosing


Yes, 整理 is appropriate, usually we say 整理床铺.


一张音乐 is short for 一张音乐专辑 (a music album) or 一张音乐CD （a music CD), etc., in which cases the noun at the end of the expression is flat (LP disc, CD) and can take 张 as classifier.
一曲音乐 is a 'tuneful' of music or a 'melody-ful' of music, is also translated as 'a piece of music', I am just guessing but this could mean a piece of music which consists of at least one melody or theme, i.e. a length enough to unfold the melody or theme, or maybe longer.
一段音乐 is a piece of music, whatever that means in English or Chinese, usually a complete piece or a complete section of a larger opus.

@S.Rhee mentioned 场 which is a classifier for concerts if it is used in connection with music, e.g. 一场音乐会.


How old is the "你吃飽了嗎" greeting in Chinese?

The quick answer to your question is: " No one knows exactly when."

As far as I know, asking someone: " 你吃了飯沒？"(Mandarin) or 你食咗飯未呀？" (Cantonese) is a very typical way to start a conversation nowadays.

It must be a very long time ago. My speculation is: "It started as far back as human communities first formed."

In ancient time, when living was difficult for most, having a reliable food source, able to feed regularly was a major achievement. That fact alone qualified someone's life as a fine one.

It is not hard to imagine, in ancient time, when someone saw his neighbor, the first words out of his mouth would be: "你好嗎?"(how are you) to indicate he was friendly (not a threat) to him. Then followed up with asking how was his life by saying " 你吃了飯沒?" (have you eaten dinner yet?). Since having meals was the most important thing for everyone, you wanted to make sure the other person had already eaten, before engaging him in any activity or conversation.

If the answer was " yes", then you knew his life was fine, and free to engage in activities or conversation with you.

If the answer was no, then it was a chance to invite him to have dinner with you, because it could show off your wealth and generosity. (see? I have food to spare!)

Also, gathering around the fire to have a meal together was an important form of socializing back in those days. If you were not really close to that person, you would just excuse yourself and leave him alone (so he can find food for himself).

We still do the same today. Eating dinner together, is still a major form of socializing.

By the way, the exact wording might be distinct from region to region, and it might have changed many times as time passed.


我们 can be used both formally and colloquially across all Chinese speaking regions, while 咱们 appears more in spoken language and more in Northern China.
我们 may or may not include the listener, depending on the context, while 咱们 almost always includes the listener.
Although 咱们 includes both parties, there can be a strong or even exclusive focus on one party, either the speaker (e.g. 瞧咱们的 = "we'll show you how it's done") or the listener (e.g. 咱们不怕 = "let us not be afraid"). This type of usage is very common in Northern China but can be quite unfamiliar/unnatural to other Chinese speaking regions.

References:

[1] http://www.chiculture.net/0615/html/d16/0615d16.html

[2] http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~pth/pth_passage01.php?passage=99


I'm not sure if this is overly BrE but a common turn of phrase is:

  sorry to put you out

or

  sorry to have put you out

That would be a fairly close equivalent of 委屈你了.


A good price to offer - Chinese Numerical Significance

Anything with 8 or double 8 is best. 68 is or 28 may also be considered favourably. Avoid the use of anything with a 4 as this is associated with the same phonetic sound as death...

I think that covers them all.


Are there any online resources for learning Chinese 4-character idioms

(As BertR pointed out, 独一无二 is a Chengyu; the other two are not.)

Unlike Chengyu, 4-character idioms don't have any significance over 3-character idioms, 5-character idioms or any other idioms, in any means other than the rhythm role it plays in the sentence. They're just valid combinations of words, you can totally replace parts or make your own, and there are millions of them. For example 由此可见 is literally from this (we) can see and we also say 由此可知, 由此可得, etc. Similarly, for 一般来说 we also say 一般来讲, 总的来说, etc.

If you want to look them up, there are some good websites mentioned in the other answers or Bing/Google translation (I personally find Bing translation more accurate). If you're looking for a list of them, I am almost sure there isn't one, as they can be created ad hoc during a conversation.


What is the meaning and origin of the word/phrase 奥利给?

奥利给's translation is "awesome"，“给力”
The detailed meaning:
No matter what difficulties we encounter, don't be afraid. Face it with a smile. The best way to eliminate fear is to face fear. Perseverance is victory! Come on, 奥利给！
Origin:
有网友将这些口头禅汇集剪辑成了一首舞曲作品，魔性洗脑走红网络。后来经过一系列恶趣味短视频，被大多数人引申为其他意思。（baike (百科)).com
"Some netizens edited these catchphrases into a piece of dance music, and magic brainwashing became popular on the Internet. Later, after a series of short videos, it was extended to other meanings by most people."
Baidu translate
That's all I could find


What's the difference between 咁 (gam3) and 噉 (gam2)?

If you happen to be familiar with Mandarin or Standard Written Chinese, the Cantonese character 咁 (gam3) corresponds to 這麼 or 那麼 and 噉 (gam2) corresponds to 這樣 or 那樣.  As jogloran mentioned, 咁 is a prefix modifier whereas 噉 is postfix or a standalone pronoun.

You'll often see 咁 written where gam2 is intended, which is likely the reason why 咁 appears in your first example instead of 噉.  This is due to the fact that written Cantonese is not standardized, so some people are not necessarily aware of which character to use.  For consistency sake though, I always use 咁 for gam3 and 噉 for gam2.


What's the difference between 记录 and 纪录, both pronounced jìlù, and both meaning "record"?

Both 记录 and 纪录 can be a noun for "record" or a verb for "to record"

  紀 has the meaning of "historical record"; "epoch; period; age"

纪录(n) is more often used for "record" (of historical fact).  e.g. 目前男子一百米短跑世界[紀錄]为 9.58 秒; 多倫多最低氣溫[紀錄]是 −33 °C
纪录(v) is more often used for "to record" (historical item). e.g. "资治通鉴[纪录]了由公元前 403年 至 公元 959年的 1362 年歴史"
记录(n) is appropriate term for any information that's being recorded e.g. 查看通话[记录]
记录(v) applies to recorded information in general. e.g. 打卡机的功能是[记录]員工的上下班時間


What language is this and what does it say? (Characters identified: 下角)

It's a seal with Chinese characters 下角.
As Tang Ho said, It could be a brand name/place name of origin/craftsman name etc.