How do you say "I know that I don't know"?

我意识到我不知道. I realize that I don't know.

我知道我不了解情况. I know I don't know the situation.


Is the word order in 我也在英國 and 你是很快速 and 你不真的在咖啡廳 correct?

First sentence is good. For the second, "快速" is more commonly used as a adverb not an adjective, so you can say "这辆车可以快速地移动" but usually not "这辆车很快速". Also I would omit the "是". So instead of "你是很快速" I would say "你很快".
As for the last one "你不是真的在咖啡厅" would sound more natural.


Does anyone out there have an old textbook about learning Moiyen Hakka?

There is a book entitled Dialect  and  Folkways  Handbook  in  Meizhou (梅州方言民俗图典) that you can purchase but it is probably more like a dictionary than anything else.

Resources for, specifically, Moiyen (梅州) Hakka are going to be far more scarce than for a broader topic like the Hakka language in general.

Searching for Meixian (梅縣) Hakka would even greatly increase the number of results you get.

现代汉语方言音库・梅县话音档
梅县客家方言志
梅县方言词典


I think you need 'witness' = ‘见证’

朝鲜战争见证了美国与中国之间的战斗。


"操" means "fuck".

It's usage in Chinese is close to fuck in English.

ps:As a Chinese I can understand him , at hometown you rarely have any chance to say those bad language whenever and wherever you want in public because everyone knows what you are saying.


The reason is that 天, 日, 周, 年 are themselves counter words / classifiers (so they don't need an extra one), while 星期, 礼拜, 月 are not classifiers and therefore require a classifier, which happen to be 个 for the all of them.

Note that although 月 is listed with the ones that require a classifier, it's quite frequent to hear 每月 as well (which I believe makes sense since we already have a classifier for day, week and year).


What is the meaning of 立体 in 立体还原一个地区地生态多样性？

'In a multifaceted manner' seems like a good choice. In '立体还原', '还原' is a verb 'restore'  ; that makes '立体' an adverb

'立体还原'  can be translated as:  'restore in a multidimensional manner' or
'restore in a multifaceted manner' (having many aspects or phases)


How do I say “my favourite person” in Cantonese?

"My favourite person" = "我最喜愛嘅人" /ngo5 zeoi3 hei2 oi3 ge3 jan4/

"My favourite toy" = "我最喜愛嘅玩具"

"My favourite movies star" = "我最喜愛嘅明星"

"My favourite hobby" = "我最喜愛嘅嚐好"

"My favourite son" = "我最喜愛嘅仔/ 我最寵愛嘅仔"

You can use either 喜愛 or 寵愛 if you have authority over the subject (human only).

Example: 女兒 (daughter), 部下(subordinate), 妃嬪 (concubine), 學生 (pupil)...

You can say: "我最喜愛嘅玩具" but not: "我最寵愛嘅玩具"


What is the difference in use between 以及 and 还有

I think the primary difference is formality.

以及 sounds formal. It is rarely used in spoken language but acceptable, okay in casual writing and common in formal writing.

还有 sounds very colloquial. It's fine in casual writing but should be avoided in formal writing.

It's not true to say 以及 only connects phrases. A quick search will give you many good counter-examples. However when it comes to connecting phrases, 以及 does a better job than the other choices. That's exactly where people would use it in colloquial language - connecting short words with 以及 sounds too formal but connecting long words or phrases sounds okay.


what's the better translation of "you're out"?

If you mean someone is having an unsuccessful finish for the round, the word is 出局. You're out = 你出局了。


Tang Ho's answer is correct, but the grammar on the English side is a bit incorrect.
While the literal translation is "This temple actually is not my family operated", the more proper translation would be "This temple isn't actually operated by my family". Phrasing in Chinese is somewhat different from phrasing in English.


Seal marks on a little pot (Characters identified: 吳祥君)

祥
　　　吳
君

Teapot maker called 吳祥君, born in 1966 in Yixing. You can Google image search this name to get more images of teapots.


What is this character? How to identify it?

The character is the Shuowen seal form of「克」.

「克」was originally a compound of「由」(a helmet, top part of「冑」) and a reduced form of「皮」(an animal being skinned for its hide, with the action being represented by the hand「又」;「又」is not present in the original forms of「克」):

Illustrative purposes only; this may not be strictly how the character changed over the years.

Compare:


When is it appropriate to address someone as 老板 [laoban]?

Laoban is often used in daily speaking language.

People working in shop or restaurant often use this to address their customer to show some "respect" or to make you feel good. Like in the car washing shop, they often call you "Boss".

The beginning uses the word was from late 80's, start from the south part of China, maybe GuangDong.

If you are working in a high-tech or similar place normally don't directly use this word to call your boss. But it's absolute normal use it when chatting with your colleague.

For University, graduate school students often use laoban to address their director teacher.

Normally in daily life, you can use laoban to call anyone is in the manager place. Like you can call your partner laoban.


Where to find animation for character 阝?

This animation is on wikimedia commons:

There is also another one here on kanshudo but it's not a gif.


What is the difference between qi3 and qi3 lai2?

Verb + Directional Complement

The direction verb immediately following the verb and indicating the direction of the action, is called the direction complement.

If the object is a thing, it can be placed as:

  他**带**了一份合同**回来** (Tā dài le yí fèn hétóng huílái)

or

  他**带回**一份合同**来** (Tā dài huí yí fèn hétóng lái)

[Source: 当代中文 (Dāngdài Zhōngwén) Book 2, 2nd Edition, 2006]

You can Google directional complement to find more information as well as quizzes, so you can learn more about it and test yourself.

P.S. if you are teaching beginners, with pinyin only, this sentence construct is beyond them.

EDIT: sorry I realise I only answered via inference. To be clear, the reason why we don't say it your second way: because grammar, that's why. An arbitrary set of rules that all (read: most) people agree upon :)


Is it normal to not use abbreviation for titles in Mainland China?

习总/習總 we say all the time (as someone pointed out, using this expression means a president of a company whose last name is Xi, not Xi Jinping). Similarly, you can say last name + 总, and it is acceptable for referring to a person or when calling them by name like "吴总，你好！“ (Hello, Mr Wu!) To your question, although it would not be weird if you don't use this abbreviation, it is very commonly used and saying "总裁/總裁" in full sounds too formal in most situations.
任队/任隊 some people do say, but most people would not abbreviate it. It is the kind of thing that policemen or firemen would call their superior. You don't have to use this abbreviation at all in mainland.
郎教 for Lang Ping specifically we do use that abbreviation for her sometimes, but we don't abbreviate for coaches in general. It is not a common usage. You shouldn't use this abbreviation in most circumstances.
王官 and 张状/張狀 we do not say at all. The first one is just an abbreviation that Mandarin speakers would not use. The second one is pure Cantonese. "状/狀" or "大状/大狀" are Cantonese words. In Mandarin, we would just say "张律师/張律師". It is also worth mentioning that the concepts of solicitors (律师/律師) and barristers (大律师/大律師) are not in the Mainland legal system, because we are not a common law jurisdiction.


When do you need the 的 at the end of sentences? E.g. 你是从哪里听到这个消息的？

They are almost the same meanings:
你从哪里听到这个消息？
你从哪里听到的这个消息？
你从哪里听到这个消息的？
你是从哪里听到的这个消息？
你是从哪里听到这个消息的？


单元素集合 is the correct and exact word for singleton set in Chinese, confirmed by a Chinese friend of my who is a mathematician.

There is a Baidu encyclopaedia entry for 单元素集合, where it is defined as "由唯一一个元素组成的集合", i.e. a set containing a single element, followed by an example {0}.


How to ask in Chinese: What do you want to come to talk to me about?

O'Connor sounds Irish: maybe you only speak Gaelic?
Perhaps you mean:
What do you want to speak to me about?
你想跟我说什么？
你想跟我聊什么？


What is the meaning of the passage ”天下失道，而後仁義生焉……“?

民爭不分 doesn't mean 'people unified strive', it means 'people fight each other and not fulfill their duty
民爭 = 人民互相爭奪/人民互相爭執 (People fighting each other/ People quarrel with each other)
不分 = 不安分/ 不守本分 (not stay within one's bounds)
My understanding of this passage is when the social moral decay, individual benevolence will show itself -- it is not noticeable before because when everyone was moral, being moral was nothing special.
The following statements followed the same logic. When all people were decent, individual kindness was just a norm


No, of course. Here's a summary about the kinds of cases where 个 is inappropriate.

sth slender. e.g. 一根绳子, 一条蛇, 一条路; 一线光明, 一绺头发, 一丝细雨.

sth thin. e.g. 一张纸, 一面红旗, 一幅画.

sth solid in certain kinds of shapes. e.g. 一块砖, 一团面, 一坨泥.

sth amorphous. e.g. 一杯水, 一壶油, 一斤米, 一碗沙子.

sth forming part of a greater whole. e.g. 一层楼, 一重山, 一级台阶, 一节甘蔗, 一段木头, 一截电线.

sth where the measure words come from verbs or nouns and can't be replaced by 个 without risk of changing their meaning. e.g. 一捆柴, 一把米, 一撮毛, 一抱草, 一包糖, 一任县长, 一束花,
一串糖葫芦, 一堵墙, 一服药, 一堆土, 一封信, 一滴水, 一朵花, 一本书, 一篇文章, 一瓣花瓣.

And note that even if 个 could be used instead, the meaning might be different. e.g. 一位老先生 (respectful) vs 一个老先生 (not necessarily rude, but not respectful).

At last, this might be an opinion issue; I agree that they're understandable in daily conversion; the listener will try to supply the appropriate measure word. But IMO the abuse of 个 as measure word is not acceptable for Chinese learner, especially who want to master natural Chinese.


Is it true that a word that consists of two adjective words has a neutral tone on the second word?

I don't think so.

冰凉冰凉, 雪白雪白, and 通红通红 might or might not have neutral tones.

漂漂亮亮 often have neutral tones, but loot at 浑浑噩噩.

I think neutral tone is a phenomenon in speaking, words like 浑浑噩噩 that is not often used in speaking don't have neural tone.

Note, I did not say they have or they don't have,  it depends on your tone of voice. If people want to be clear or serious, they don't use neutral tone. If they want to be lazy or natural, they use neutral tone.

There are no strict rules.

If you want to use neutral tone, it will be the B in ABAB and AABB. Since neutral tone always on the last character of a word.


If you take an English sentence like:

There are people who believe the earth is flat.

We can see a similar phenomenon to that in Chinese. The phrasing of there are tells us that it is not everybody who believes the earth is flat but that some people hold this conviction.
Likewise, 有的 plays a similar role. You already know that 有 expresses something akin to, "have" or "has." If you treat 有的 like "there are" from the example sentence above it is easy to see how the language works similarly to English.


What derogatory terms are there for Chinese people?

支那
bkrs:

phonetic transcription of China (Japanese: Shina), colonial term, generally considered discriminatory
trad./Budd. China (now derogatory)

It is used for example by Japanese occupiers in《劫中劫》:

支那人 derog. Chinese


Large List/DB of (Mandarin) Chinese Geographical Names and Entitites (for NER)

After some research into this I found this website: http://docs.bosonnlp.com/ner.html. If you set up an account on their website, you can use their NER functionality (because you need an API Token. I tried their Python example

import json
import requests

NER_URL = 'http://api.bosonnlp.com/ner/analysis'

s = ['对于该小孩是不是郑尚金的孩子，目前已做亲子鉴定，结果还没出来，'
     '纪检部门仍在调查之中。成都商报记者 姚永忠']
data = json.dumps(s)
headers = {'X-Token': 'YOUR_API_TOKEN'}
resp = requests.post(NER_URL, headers=headers, data=data)

for item in resp.json():
    for entity in item['entity']:
        print(''.join(item['word'][entity[0]:entity[1]]), entity[2])

And got back:

郑尚金 person_name
成都商报 product_name
姚永忠 person_name

However, it seems they have a 500 daily request limit.

Doing some more research, they seem to have a publicly available list of names they use for their text comparison (The link is under 命名实体数据). That might be what you're looking for.


Quote from “谁”字注音规范化探讨（现代语文(语言研究版), Modern Chinese, 2007年11期 ）

  摘要："谁"在现实生活中应用十分广泛,可就是这样一个常用字,人们有时读"shuí",有时读"shéi",即使同一个人,在相同的语言环境中,对"谁"的读音也是模棱两......

This is all what I can see without an account.

And it suggests that even the same person cannot form a fixed pattern as when to use "shui2" or "shei2".

Maybe the full article can provide more information.

As a native, I can say that I don't know either. So the two pronunciations might just be two possible pronunciations of the same character, both widely used, and mostly interchangeable.


The common polite terms for 「死了」(died):

過身 (passed away)
去世 (left this world)
逝世 (departed from this world)
仙逝 (departed to the spiritual world)
走了 (had gone)

Example sentences:

他過身了
他已經去世了
曹操在 220 AD 逝世
我祖父早已仙逝
我父母都走了

走咗(走了) is the most popular one among Cantonese speakers  because of the vagueness ( as if the dead person was just gone for a trip)

  What is the polite way to say a grandparent has passed away?

"祖父過身了"

  could you provide the jyutping?

90% of the time Cantonese would use the two below:

我祖父過咗身 ngo5 zou2 fu6 gwo3 zo2 san1

我祖父走咗嘞 ngo5 zou2 fu6 zau2 zo2 lak6


'老了以后再去考虑吧' this sentence has apectual or modal 了?

老 can be a verb for "to age/ to get old"

了 in 老了 is an aspect marker that indicates the verb/ action is completed, therefore , 老了 means "aged/ gotten old "

  [老了以后]再去考虑吧] --> [after you've gotten old], then think about it

Examples of 老 as a verb:

我老了 = I am getting old
看似老了幾年 = seem like aged a few years

Note: 了 only indicate completion of a verb, it doesn't indicate tense.


Can 适合 ("to suit") be used as an intransitive verb?

Don't mind it. Youdao is an online dictionary aiming at helping Chinese learn English. When it lists 'v.i. fit' as a translation for 适合, it means that 'fit' is an intransitive verb (though not always the case).


Does reading books with pronunciation written above the characters develop one's skills?

I'm asking about answers based on scientific research or your
  experience.

I choose experience to answer.

In Taiwan, Students of lower grades of elementary school have a subject called 國語(in English: an official language used by our country).

In Taiwan, people use Zhuyin to denote pronunciation. So textbook of 國語 have article written in Traditional Chinese and Zhuyin on the right side of characters. You can see it if you google to search image with 小學國語課本 in search bar. Some of the pictures show that there are Zhuyin on the right side of characters.

After we grew, we became higher grade students of elementary school. The Zhuyin part were not be given.


Since you just ask for tone pattern rule, the tone pattern of couplet also matches with the poetry. So I use tone pattern of middle Chinese for reference:

This is an ideal situation:

  国破山河在，
  仄仄平平仄

  城春草木深。
   平平仄仄平

But sometimes it's hard to match a pair of word in level (平) tones and oblique (仄) tones, so when it comes to normal couplet case, we just require the tone of last characters must match the tones.

  上联：雄黄酒    平平仄

  下联：牡丹烟    仄平平


Is 中文亲属名称 the correct translation for "Family member names in Chinese"(i.e. as in regard to one's family tree)?

In Chinese, understanding the context is the important part. Family Members can means direct family members which means 亲属 or 家属, or including all the relatives (亲戚 or 家眷), but since you are referring to the context of family tree, 家族成员 should be used.


What is the difference between 吾 and 我 in 文言文？

The first thing to point out is that「吾」(Baxter-Sagart: /*ŋˤa/) and「我」(Baxter-Sagart: /*ŋˤajʔ/) are cognate. They mean exactly the same thing, and were interchangeable to a very large degree; as the comment pointed out, the use of one over the other is due to either personal preference, emulation of ancient texts, or to avoid repetition.

Specifically in the pre-Qin era, there was some difference in their usage that eventually disappeared by Middle Chinese.「吾」could not be used in the pre-Qin era as an object after a verb. Quote from Zhuangzi:

  《莊子・齊物論》子綦曰：「偃，不亦善乎而問之也！今者吾喪我，汝知之乎？」

  子綦 said: "偃, it is very good that you asked this question! I had just lost myself now, but how should you know the answer?"

「吾喪我」could not be written as「我喪吾」in this era.


How to say “The crowd” as in a "Crowd in a concert"

Yes there is. For "crowd" in "the crowd in a concert" we say "聽眾"; for "crowd' in "the crowd in a ball game" we say "觀眾".


Is this a Chinese symbol? Cufflinks that belonged to my uncle

Nope, it's just five squares, which there's no character for in Chinese.


When 的 is used for possession or 's, it is often omitted in speaking when it's the subject of a sentence.
For example:

她(的)家很漂亮/她(的)家很漂亮 = Her house/home is beautiful.
你(的)電腦很慢/你(的)电脑很慢 = Your computer is really slow.
他(的)新車很貴/他(的)新车很贵 = His new car is quite expensive.

But 的 is usually kept when it's the object of a sentence.

我喜歡他的車/我喜欢他的车 = I like his car.

But then, again as in any language, there is always exceptions :(

For example:
我去過他(的)家/我去过他(的)家 = I've been to his house.

And because of this omission, interesting sentences like this one can come up occasionally in daily conversation:

他媽的洋裝很高雅/他妈的洋装很高雅 = His mother's dress is very elegant.

If you say this out loud, most Chinese people would pick up "他媽的" (damn, sh*t, bloody, f*cking depending on context) and think you are cursing for a split second before you finish the sentence. While this is not a serious problem in casual conversation, one way to avoid this awkward confusion is to explicitly say "他媽媽的".

  Added simplified Chinese after the original examples in Traditional Chinese as requested.


I think  the structure {verb + 的 + verb} connotes that people do things without any constrains or scruple. It describes a disordered situation.

Compared to

  老师不在的时候，同学们玩的玩，闹的闹。// completely disordered there.

玩的玩 implied that if one wants to play, they just play (without any constrains or scruple).

In your sentence, 因为商纣王已失尽人心, therefore people just did whatever they thought right to them,  逃的逃、降的降，起义的起义(fled if one felt like flee, surrender if one felt like surrender, ...) The army was disordered or uncontrolled.

Stretch a bit: 逃的逃 -> 想逃的人逃了

P.S. the structure {verb + 的 + verb} is usually used to express a feeling and the feeling can be negative ones such as annoyed, sad, angry, etc or positive ones such as happy, joy, exciting, etc.

Those examples above are negative. Here is a positive one:

  操场上，同学们跳绳的跳绳，做操的做操，踢毽子的踢毽子，好开心啊！

Basically, the structure {verb + 的 + verb} is used to describe a situation and how you feel that situation. If you want to express a generic situation, you can just use other structure like 有的...有的, 有些...有些, etc.


How to interpret the explanation of '巧夺天工‘？

触类而长,

  语出《易·系辞上》：“引而伸之，触类而长之，天下之能事毕矣。”
  意指掌握一类事物知识或规律，就能据此而增长同类事物知识。

Master the knowledge and regular patterns about one particular class of things, and then increase the knowledge about the same class of things.

Words whose meaning is similar：触类旁通, 举一反三, 问牛知马, 闻一知十

According 晋·郭璞《葬书》考及白话解, 玄通阴了 seems to be a typo, should be 玄通阴阳.

  微妙在智，触类而长，玄通阴阳，巧夺造化。

And 玄通

  1.谓与天相通。
  2.暗中相通。

阴阳,

  古代哲学概念。古代朴素的唯物主义思想家把矛盾运动中的万事万物概括为“阴”、“阳”两个对立的范畴,并以双方变化的原理来说明物质世界的运动

So 玄通阴阳 should mean connected, interlinked with the nature, i.e. grasp the laws of nature.


The word 博 is usually used with another word 得(or 取).

The meaning of 博 here is also the same as 得, which means get, or more precisely to get.

When you translate it into English, I'd use to attract instead.

So the whole sentence could be To attract more eyeballs.


The meaning of a Chinese inscription found under a little sculpture

A Chinese seal usually follows the format of XX之印 “The Seal of XX” or XX制印 “The was made by XX” (where XX is a name). This seal follows the latter format.

The top part probably is the name of the seal maker and the upper part of the top-right character is 林. The bottom two characters are most likely to be "制印", meaning "made the seal". Will complete this answer after finding out/confirming all the characters on this seal.

Seal carving dictionary:

http://www.internationalscientific.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E8%BB%8A&submitButton1=Etymology


Reference: 'hou' in Sichuanese meaning 'to eat'

I don't have a reference handy. But as other commenters have stated, it's probably a regional form the word that means "to drink" in Mandarin and is written 喝. Words for "to eat" and "to drink" tend to cross over a certain amount between those exact senses.

As for the sound that reminds you of hou, the open final -e in Mandarin is a rather rare sound in Chinese — it's a diphthong whose phonetics are roughly [ɯɘ] or [ɯə] in Standard Mandarin — and regional equivalents are typically forms of [o].

This meaning "to consume [food]" is a fairly recent association for the character 喝 — with the modern pronunciation hè, it's attested in the meanings "to frighten" and "to berate", and is seen in those meanings in old texts. There's another reading yè for meanings connected with choking or sounds of choking, but these uses are only found in pre-modern writing.

Though neither the word nor the character is likely to be related to hè 嚇 'to frighten" or hē 訶 "to berate".

We still use 喝 in the pronunciation hè to mean "to cry out", as in yāohe 吆喝 "to shout one's wares (said of peddlers)" and hècǎi 喝彩 "to cheer (as at a sports event)". The character is attested in this sense by the Sòng.


What characters are on this ceramic jar?

It should be 福壽康寧 (fú shòu kāng níng; simplified: 福寿康宁).

福
康
壽
寧

I'm pretty certain about the first 3; 寧 is the only one that is hard to tell, but based on context, it should be 寧.

EDIT: And this is what it means: good fortune, long life, health and peace


A counterexample: in the Min Dong topolects, there is a similar distribution for the numeral "one", viz 一 and 蜀 (in Fuzhou, pronounced ék /ɛiʔ²⁴/ and siŏh /suoʔ⁵/ respectively). This is actually replicated across the other Min topolects (Min Nan has it vs chi̍t), although they are usually written with the same 一, especially in the Taiwan Ministry of Education standard for Taiwanese Hokkien. This comes from a well-known split between colloquial and literary pronunciations. For numbers above 10 however (11, 12, 21...) the literary pronunciations are generally used, even in counting before measure words.

Concentrating on the 二 vs 两 distinction: this seems to have emerged from Classical Chinese of the late Zhou, where it already had the meanings of "both/pair" (see the Analects), as well as starting to be a measure word for a chariot (see Mencius and the 詩經 Classic of Poetry). This is before most measure words have come into existence. Its use as a "tael" (measure of weight) is also ancient, but probably from a different derivation of the word (Min topolects have a separate pronunciation for this word).

So where did these two very different "twos" come from? "Pair" as a separate word to "two" is well-attested in many languages. But language change can bring such words together and cause them to change role. Here, it was likely the development of the measure word system through the Qin & Han dynasties to the Song dynasty, where numerical 二 came into a system (associated with nouns) that 两 (as pair) was already associating with. Hence in this case, 两 was already in the role and won out, whereas other numerals (including 12, 22 etc. with 二) took on the "measure word" role for the first time.


What is the difference between 租, 租用, 租出, and 租赁, all meaning "to rent"?

Does it matter if you are the person who rents or the person is renting

Yes, there are differences. The main verb is always 租, with different meaning based on different directional complements:

租出去 = to rent out, to lease

You use this term when the subject is the one who lends something for a fee. Example:

我想把我的房子租出去 I want to rent my house (to somebody else)

租下来 = to take out a rent

You use this term when the subject is the one who borrows something for a fee. Example:

这套房子离你公司很近，还是赶快租下来吧 This house is very close to your workplace, let's rent it now (let's take it)

Other words you mention:

租赁 = (to) rent, (to) lease —— dictionaries list this as a verb similar to 租用 (to take on lease) and 出租 (to give on lease), though in practice, it's often used in noun phrases such as 租赁合同 lease contract, 租赁条件 lease conditions, etc.

租用 = to rent —— with the result complement 用，rent and use，I think this is more common in Taiwan


What distinguishes 教师 (jiàoshī) and 老师 (lǎoshī) which both mean "teacher"?

Seems like it's a common question. 现代汉语规范词典 has a note, about it, on it's entry for 老师:

  注意 跟“教师”“教员”不同。“老师”可以接受表示人的名词或人称代词的限定, 如“小王的老师”“她的老师”; “教师”“教员”不能这样用。“老师”是称谓词, 适用范围宽泛, 还可用来称呼其他行业的某些专业人员; “教师”“教员”是职业名称, 仅指担任教学工作的专职人员。

老师 can be a noun or personal pronoun, as in “小王的老师” (Wang's teacher) or “她的老师” (Her teacher) - “教师” and “教员” cannot be used this way.

老师 can also be used, with a broad scope, as a title and can be used to call professionals in different capacities - “教师” and “教员” are professional designations that only refer to school teaching personnel.

-

On a side note: this reminded of people from 重庆 - you'll often here 重庆 people refer to each other as 老师 as a simple term of respect - it's their equivalent to sir/ma'am.

-

Formal terms like Teacher's Day use the word 教师 - 教师节.


How to say "obscene": translate 下流 or 輕佻?

'Obscene' is not 下流(no class/ bad taste) or 輕佻 (frivolous)

One definition of obscene is 不堪入目 , it is used to describe perverted, immoral act or behavior

For example: Taking a child from his mother and claim it is all for enforcing the law (which is not true) is an obscene (不堪入耳- too perverted and immoral to the ears) argument

Another definition of obscene is 淫褻 or 不雅 (also means 'unsightly'), it is used to describe extreme sexually suggestive content or display

I would describe the skirt 不雅, 不堪入目 or 淫褻 if I was judgmental, but I rather call it 大膽 (bold) or 開放 (open)

暴露 (revealing) is also a fitting description of that skirt

Edit: from all the answers: "下流, 輕佻, 不堪入目, 大膽, 開放, 淫褻, 變態, 不三不四, 有伤风化" are all 'subjective opinions' (you can't say any of them is wrong, but you can disagree with all of them)

Only 暴露 is  an 'objective description' (it is a correct statement based on fact. You can't argue with fact, that skirt does expose a lot of skin)


What's the meaning of lai2 in this sentence?

It is a common structure

[用 (object) 来 (verb)] = [use (object) to (Verb)]
[用 (这种方式) 来 (赞扬京剧演员)] = [use (this method) to (praise) Peking Opera actors]
方式 is the object; 赞扬 is the verb; 京剧演员 is the indirect object

Example:
[用(水) 来 (灭)火] = [use (water) to (put out) fire]
水 is the object; 灭 is the verb; 火 is the indirect object
"用这种方式赞扬京剧演员"  and "用水灭火" mean the same as "用这种方式来赞扬京剧演员"  and "用水来灭火". The difference is adding 来 strengthen the connection between the noun phrase and the verb phrase.
The connection between noun and verb in "use water put out fire" is not as strong as "use water to put out fire"
More example:
"用枪杀敌" (use gun kill enemy)  might be broken into two unrelated phrases if you say it like "用枪， 杀敌" (use gun, kill enemy). While "用枪来杀敌" (use gun to kill enemy) cannot be broken into two unrelated phrase no matter how you say it


折杀 is a folk saying. It is invoked as a humble response when receiving high compliments or a great gift that one considers himself not deserving of it.

In the olden time, Chinese believed one's fortune is tied to his deed and virtue, oversaw by the heaven. If you receive excessive reward in life that's not in an appropriate quantity or quality for your virtue, your fortune will balance things and make you suffer later in life.

Similarly being immoral will reduce your fortune. That's why people sometimes refer immoral deed as '折福事' (things that reduce your fortune )

折 is short for 折福 (reduce fortune)
杀 = 'greatly' (to the point of killing me)
折杀 means 'it will greatly reduce my fortune'

If you receive a high praise or great gift that you think you are not worthy of,  you can say '这真是折杀我了' (this really will reduce my fortune greatly) to show your modesty and humility.

As you suspected, this term is a bit old fashion. You can only hear people saying that in period dramas on T.V or movies nowadays.


List of all verbs that accept location complements?

The page clearly stated: "These are verbs that imply movement or location. Technically, the structure is called a location complement"

The answer to your question is: "Any verb that imply movement or location can use '在' as a location complement

There are too many to count.

For example:

跳 (jump) - you can jump on somewhere. E.g "他的貓跳在我身上" (His cat jumps on to my body)
掉 (drop) - you can drop something on somewhere. E.g "我把鑰匙掉在街上" (I dropped my keys in the street)
放 (put) - you can put something on somewhere. E.g "約翰把書放在桌子上" (John put the book on the table)
丟失 (lost)- you can lost something on somewhere. E.g "我把鑰匙丟失在街上" (I lost my keys in the street)
放置 (place)- you can place something on somewhere. E.g "約翰把書放置在桌子上" (John places the book on the table)

  For instance, would 跳舞 qualify as an exception? How about 游泳?

跳舞 and 游泳 do not qualified as exceptions. No location complement is needed for these two words. Dance or swim is not a single movement that  apply to a location. You can't dance, swim, sing or talk yourself (or an object) to a location.

Edit:

Crashalot wrote:

  why is jump on somewhere an exception, but dance is not? 跳舞 even uses 跳 as part of the word. in the same way you can jump on somewhere, you can dance on somewhere (e.g., dance on street, dance on grass)

Adding the  location complement '在' after  a verb,  is to indicate the action is a movement that put the subject or object on a location, which mean the action is associated with a location.

跳舞 only describes the action of 'dance'. It is not a movement to put object on a location.(you know that because 跳舞 doesn't even take object)

On the other hand, verbs like  '放置' (place) and 丟失 (lost) are movements that put object on a location-- when you 'place' something, there's always a location where you place it; When you 'lost' something, there is always a location where you lost it.

You can use 跳舞 on its own with no object, but you must use '放置' with object.

Verbs like 跳舞, 工作 and 游泳 do not take object, therefore cannot be an exception from the 'location before verb' rule.

If you want to add the information of where the verb takes place, you have to do it the regular way  by adding a relative phrase. For example:  " 他在大廳裡跳舞" (he dances in the hall) but not "他跳舞在大廳裡"; "他在銀行工作"(he works in a bank) but not "他工作在銀行"


Can "City of students" be translated to "Da xue sheng cheng shi"?

For the first part, Wang Dingwei is right.

For the second sentence, guoqi(国旗) refers to the national flag. The city flag should be translated to "shiqi"(市旗). I think "shiqi de yanse shi huise he huangse"(市旗的颜色是灰色和黄色) should be right.


Is "和声细雨" ever an acceptable variant of "和声细语"?

The copy writer using "和声细雨" instead of  "和声细语" is an unforgivable mistake

The correct idiom with 细雨 at the end is  微風細雨

The correct idiom with 和風 at the beginning is '和風麗日' ( variant of  '風和日麗')

Many common idioms can be rephrase for artistic reason, but the characters in them cannot be changed

Example:

Standard: 風和日麗 (wind is gentle, sunshine is pleasant)-- variant: 和風麗日 (gentle wind, pleasant sunshine)

Standard: 窮山惡水 (hostile mountains, vicious water -- variant: 山窮水惡 (mountains is hostile; waters is vicious)

Standard: 鴻圖大志 (grand ambition, high goal)-- variant: 志大圖鴻 (goal is high, ambition is grand)


Which of 法国, 法兰西, and 法兰斯 is the most common word for France?

For your question, as a native Chinese speaker, I use 法國。

(For illustration purposes, I have below pronunciations in Mandarin for your references. P: Pinyin, I: IPA)

There seems to be some categories of way we name countries:

Sound and meaning transcription.

e.g. 新西蘭 (New Zealand)

新 means new
西蘭 is the sound transcription

美利堅合衆國 (USA)

美利堅 is the sound transcription of America
合衆國 corresponds to the meaning of "United States".

Sound transcription

e.g. 紐西蘭 (New Zealand)
意大利 (Italy)
澳大利亞 (Australia)
俄羅斯 (Russia), but the sound transcription may have come from the Mongolian transcription, but there isn't concrete proof, since similar transcriptions may have existed > 650 years.

Shortened transcription (1 character + 國)

e.g. 美國 (USA)

Sometimes, we may name some countries with more than one way using rules above.

法國、俄國、英國、美國. These short forms are the most commonly used names for the countries: France, Russia, UK, USA. This may only work if the country's name can be represented with only 1 Chinese character (since Chinese love disyllabic words more than monosyllabic words). Otherwise, we would use rules below.

From personal experience, we don't usually say the full form of names if a short form is commonly used, perhaps except for 俄羅斯 (Russia).

Here are some we don't extract the first character + 國. For example, 意大利 (Italy), 新加坡/星加坡 (Singapore). Singapore may be called 星洲/星島 (Singapore Island). 澳大利亞 may be shortened to 澳洲 (Australia Island). If the sound transcription of the name is already 2 syllables, then we never shorten it.

I have no conclusive answer for the reason of the pattern though.

Pronunciations:

新西蘭 (P: xin1xi1lan2 I: /ɕɪn55.ɕi55.lan35/)
美利堅 (P: mei3li4jian1 I: /meɪ21.li51.tɕjɛn55/)
合衆國 (P: he2zhong4guo2 I: /xɤ35.ʈʂʊŋ51.kuɔ35/)
紐西蘭 (P: niu3xi1lan2 I: /njoʊ21.ɕi55.lan35/)
意大利 (P: yi4da4li4 I: /i51.ta51.li51/)
澳大利亞 (P: ao4da4li4ya4 I: /ɑʊ51.ta51.li51.ja51/)
俄羅斯 (P: e2luo2si1 I: /ɤ35.luɔ35.sɯ55/)
星加坡 (P: xing1jia1po1 I: /ɕɪŋ55.tɕja55.pʰɔ55/)
澳洲 (P: ao4zhou1 I: /ɑʊ51.ʈʂoʊ55/)


Help Recognizing Characters on a Vase (Characters Identified: 錦山)

It seems to be the name for a mountain... 錦 means bright and 山 means mountain.
A search on the internet also tells me that 錦山 is a name for different places. Places like a county in South Korea or administrative districts in certain towns in China.


How do I translate the words “player” and “team” into Mandarin?

Your thinking is correct!
班 is always 班级 (bānjí) — usually it means "class"

团队 (tuánduì) — you might consider the word as "group"

组别 (zǔbié) — also means "group", but it doesn't always have many people in the group

球队 (qiúduì) — sports team involving a ball, it's only used in ball games, like 足球队 (football team), 篮球队 (basketball team)…


Different terms for money throughout history

泉     战国
邓通   汉
货泉   汉
白水真人 汉
阿堵物 南北朝
孔方兄 晋
青蚨 -
上清童子 唐
没奈何 宋
不动尊
袁大头 民国
大团结 1949之后
毛爷爷 当代

ref here


Is 做事 just Taiwanese, or does it have a different flavour than 工作？

I think you are right - "做事" is probably only used in some areas of China, especially some southern areas where ancient Chinese has an influence, and not as commonly as "工作" in this sense. I would say it is more colloquial than the latter, too - for example, I think an interviewer will more likely to ask "你之前在哪里工作？" than "你之前在哪里做事？"


着 is a strong termination mark for an adverbial clause.

  他坐着吃饭 = 他 / 坐着 / 看书

  他笑着回答 = 他 / 笑着 / 回答

  他哭着跑开 = 他 / 哭着 / 跑开

着 here terminate the whole adverbial clauses.

  你哭着 you crying + 你对我说 you say to me = 你哭着对我说 you say to me in tears

One can easily separate out 哭着 because it's a whole.

Back to your original question, 着 has to be at the end of the clause, and hence 在沙发上坐着 (not 坐着在沙发上). It will be understood as

  他 / 在沙发上坐着 / 看报纸。

However, the sentence is also grammatically correct if you add a comma after 着. It will sound like there are two predicates rather than one (modified by an adverbial clause).

  他坐着，在沙发上看报纸。

  He is sitting, and reading newspapers on the sofa.

In general, anything that belongs to an adverbial clause should go before 着.

One exception though is when the verb is transitive.

  孩子 / 抱着妈妈 / 哭了起来。 Hugging his mother, the child started to cry.

In this case, the object can be put after 着.


In most cases, they're interchangable and both mean personal computer.

计算机 could be used for wider range. Such as,

大型计算机 (large (-scale) computer; maxicomputer)
中型计算机 (medium-size computer; midcomputer)
小型计算机 (minicomputer; small-size computer)
微型计算机 (microcomputer)


How do I type 了 with m17n tonepy in ubuntu?


How to ask for "free-range eggs" in Chinese?

It is literally correct, but no one would use it, except Mr. Shakespeare.

土鸡蛋 or 笨鸡蛋 is the one.

And the universal is 家养的, e.g. 家养的鸡蛋, 家养的鸭子, 家养的鹅...

In my hometown, people also say 溜达鸡, 溜达 means stroll.


Why the surname 유 (Yoo) is translated as 刘 instead of 余 or 于？

I don't think it is translated as much as it is that every Korean family actually has their own Hanja.

According to Wikipedia's List of South Korean surnames by prevalence

  유

can be one of four Chinese characters:

  柳, 劉, 兪, 庾

Most Koreans have Hanja names & they would certainly know which their surname is.

If you check out Wikipedia's Appendix:Korean surnames you can see that

  여

is the Southern Korean equivalent of

  余

while

  우

equates to

  于, 禹


In ancient China, makers of calendars tried to relate rotation of stars or star constellations with mythological deities. In fact, Chinese calendar doesn't carry the concept of week.

European names for "week days" are represented by Greek/Roman mythological deities. European creating the "week" concept from there.

Chinese scholar use 星期 to represent week when China adapt the universal international calendar, which means the day/period of the constellation/star deity complete their "duty roster". Only Sunday 星期日/天 follow the Roman/Greek, which may be due to influence of European missionary.

  1905年，清朝学部的袁嘉谷筹建编译图书局，后任该局首任局长，编写官定各种教材，设立了一个新机构统一规范教科书中的术语，把七日一周制定为中国自己的“星期”。

  In 1905, Qing Dynasty education officer Yuan-Jia-Gu establish translation and library division for the education department to standardised technical jargon. This is when Chinese use 星期 to represent the week.

On the other hand, Japanese is using the Roman/Greek deity to represent days, as in Europe. Japan is using 曜 that carry similar meaning as constellation/star.

Note : Johann Adam Schall von Bell(May 1, 1592 – August 15, 1666) is helping Qing dynasty perfecting the Chinese calendar.  Chinese has stronger cultural interaction with Europe than many can imagine.

(update) for those curious about Japan week days

星期一：月曜日 Monday, Máni, avatar of moon
星期二：火曜日 Tuesday , The god Tiw, identified with Mars
星期三：水曜日 Wednesday, Germanic god Woden, avatar of Mercury
星期四：木曜日 Thursday, Thor's (Jupiter's) day
星期五：金曜日 Friday, goddess Frigg, Roman goddess Venus
星期六：土曜日 Saturday, Roman god Saturn
星期日：日曜日 Sunday,   Sól, avatar of Sun


The point is when 分 is used as the unit(单位) of money, it means cent, i.e. one hundredth of 元 (the basic monetary unit of China).

  价值等于某货币单位百分之一的单位 [cent]

So 总价,以分为单位 means total price in cents.


Yes, similar to 江山易改，本性难移.
It refers to someone who cannot change their bad habits, like dog cannot change their behaviour to eat shit.

For example, you can say a thief commit a thievery again and again, then you can say: 這小偷老是偷東西，真是狗改不了吃屎。

It is used more often in a colloquial language, and less severe than 江山易改，本性难移. When someone uses 江山易改，本性难移 to another person, it is often with the emotion that they have been let down massively, and may even be angry/disappointed with the person. Whereas 狗改不了吃屎 often may just be complaining, but don't really care if they change or not.


情节 is a common typo here. It should be 情结. It means complex.

In short, 自豪情节 refers to emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around pride.

Other common usage of the word 情结 include:

恋母情结/恋父情结

Oedipus complex. The complex that surrounds the child's desire to have a sexual relationship with the parent of the sex that adheres to their sexual orientation (mother or father)

处女情结/处男情结

The complex that surrounds the desire of dating a virgin, i.e. being the one to take his/her virginity.


「虚有其表」这个成语可以用來形容好看，但内容全错的报告吗？

有其表 可以描述 寫得很好看，很漂亮 。

虛 和 內容都錯 有一點點差距，但是基本上還是可以用。因為 內容都錯 要用 錯 來形容，但是 錯有其表 並不是常用的成語。所以，退而求其次，用 虛 也無不可。 空有其表 倒還聽過。

其他類似的詞還有下面這些，但不一定是成語，也有些許差距，提供參考。

空大老脬（ㄎㄨㄥ　ㄉㄚˋ　ㄌㄠˇ　ㄆㄠ／kōng dà lǎo pāo）：表面雖強大，而實則虛浮萎弱。

空心湯糰（ㄎㄨㄥ　ㄒㄧㄣ　ㄊㄤ　ㄊㄨㄢˊ／kōng xīn tāng tuán）
空心湯圓（ㄎㄨㄥ　ㄒㄧㄣ　ㄊㄤ　ㄩㄢˊ／kōng xīn tāng yuán）
空心蘿蔔（ㄎㄨㄥ　ㄒㄧㄣ　ㄌㄨㄛˊ　ㄅㄛ˙／kōng xīn luó bo）
空心架子（ㄎㄨㄥ　ㄒㄧㄣ　ㄐㄧㄚˋ　ㄗ˙／kōng xīn jià zi）
這四詞都比喻徒有虛名，而無實在利益。

一紙空文（ㄧ　ㄓˇ　ㄎㄨㄥ　ㄨㄣˊ／yī zhǐ kōng wén）：徒具文字而無實際效用的文書。

以上來自 http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/

另外，和 很好看，很漂亮，可內容都錯 有點相關的詞還有：徒具形式、徒具外表、華而不實、花瓶。

@Tang Ho 的 金玉其外，敗絮其中 倒很貼切。


Why does anger has something to do with spleen in both Chinese and English?

It is my speculation

  https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%84%BE/20358750

  中医解读:

  脾气的运动特点是主升举。

  脾为太阴湿土，又主运化水液，故喜燥恶湿。

Translation:

  Interpretation of Chinese medicine:

  The typical movement of the air in the spleen is upward rising

  Spleen is a cool, wet, water filtering organ. it likes dry and hot and dislikes wet and cool

Anger is also associate with 燥(dry) and hot . We say a person is easy to anger when his being 燥.

My assumption is: A person being angry because his 脾 is overly active causing 燥 (dryness) inside one's body and dryness cause anger

Related phrase:

發脾气 (being angry)
大脾气 (hot temper)
脾气好 (mild temper)
脾气差 (bad temper)


Is it gan3 ding3 she is saying in this sentence? Audio clip

那我们就 赶紧 去这个博物馆吧！ （Nà wǒmen gǎnjǐn qù zhège bówùguǎn ba） - We should quickly go to the museum now.

赶 gǎn：to catch up; to overtake; to hurry; to rush; to drive away

紧 jǐn：tight; strict; close at hand; near; urgent; tense; hard up; short of money; to tighten

赶紧：hurriedly; without delay


Is there a way to respond to 你做什么工作？starting with 我做...？

Because 医生 is what you are, not what you do.

You can respond with 我教英语, 我卖面包, 我开出租车, if you want.

In most cases, 我是XX sounds more natural if your job has a simple and direct name, such as 医生, 教师, 司机, 厨师, etc. The other pattern is more likely to be used when you want to specifically describe what you do.


啦 is not truly a question ending. Actually 了 is.
 E.g. 你刚才去哪了？ Where did you go just now?
 However Chinese people do like to use 啦 instead of 了 to ask questions. Maybe it sounds cuter? So the example becomes
 你刚才去哪啦？It's just a verbal use.

In question sentences, 嘛 can be used to substitute 什么 as a question ending. E.g. 你在干嘛？What are you doing now? instead of 你在干什么？I cannot think of any question else that ends with 嘛.

 BTW these two characters are also widely used for acting cute...
E.g. 好了啦！ 干嘛啦！common in girlish talks.


Where can the phrase 给点面子 be used? I was wondering if it has a cultural element that I’m missing

给点面子 and Cut me some slack are very similar.
But I think 给点面子 is slightly more harsh, and implies that the person isn't being respectful enough. that vs. cut me some lack, which is a plea for others to go easy on you. it doesn't assume any wrong doing on the part of audience.


开一个生日会 explanation as to why 开 is used here?

开会 (“to host/attend a meeting”) is an example of a separable verb—we can add content between the two characters. The 开 relates to the “hosting” whereas the 会 relates to the “meeting”, and the in-between content modifies the 会.
For example, we might say:

他在开一个会。  (“He is hosting a meeting.”)
我们周五开一个三个小时的会。  (“On Fridays, we host a 3-hour meeting.”)

In the given example, instead of a 会(“meeting”), it’s a 生日会 (“birthday party”), but the same idea applies.

开一个生日会 (“to host a birthday party”)
爸爸开儿子的生日会。 (“The father hosted his son’s birthday party.)

Alternatively, we can think of 开 itself as an independent verb.


Sentence construction for “whether or not”

呢就 is not a single term. They are two word particles attach to different part of the sentence

The sentence construction of ”係唔係老公老婆呢就唔知啦！"is as follow:

[係唔係老公老婆][呢], [就][唔知啦！]

[about] [are (they) husband and wife?], [just]  [(we) don't know！]

In this context:

XXX呢 = about XXX

就YYY = just YYY

Other example:

人呢(about man), 就係生嘅 (is just alive - therefore flexible)

規矩呢(about rule), 就係死嘅 (is just not alive - therefore rigid)

租金呢(about rent), 就一人一半 (would just be half and half between us)

You can do without the particles in the sentences. That make them more direct and also more blunt:

"係唔係老公老婆?" "唔知!"

"人係生嘅, 規矩係死嘅" (it is a very common Cantonese expression)

"租金一人一半"


不 = not
得 = able to
了 = end --> be contained

不得了 (can't be contained): desperately serious; disastrous; extremely; exceedingly

Example:
乱堆的木材一着火就不得了 = Once the messily piled up timber caught fire, it (can't be contained) will be disastrous
他的快球这么强，再学会曲线球 就不得了 = His fastball is so strong if he learned curveball he will be (can't be contained) unstoppable

以后还得了? (in the future, how can he still be contained?) is a rhetorical question. It actually means 以后会不得了 (he can't be contained in the future). In other words, 'he will be extremely (outstanding/ extraordinary/ unstoppable) in the future'

Rhetorical question: "How can he still be stoppable (containable) in the future?"

Actual statement: "He will be unstoppable (uncontainable) in the future"

I would translate '以后还得了?' as "How extraordinary will he be in the future?".  Meaning:  "he will be great in the future"


Writing in Chinese - What rules are there for handwriting vs printed

黑体 is the font you are using and talking about, it is usually set as default Simplified Chinese font, but 楷体 or 楷书 is the font that more similar to the handwriting Chinese, if you want to learn handwriting from printing Chinese, you'd better download this font, you may need some books that teach you how to write every stroke and their order, every Chinese kid learn this before trying to write the first character.

The little feet are always there, you should write like this, it is part of this character not just "serifs" for beauty. The two feet are different in the bottom, the left foot is a longer 竖（the straight line）, the right foot is called 竖钩, you must write a little angle to left after the straight line, if the angle is to right it will be called 竖提, the last stroke is the bottom bar(横), connect the left straight line（竖）and the line with angle（竖钩）with the little bar(横), importantly, don't start from the end of the left line(竖), leave a little foot there.

The curve in 了字好 is also important, you may see the curve in 楷体 font.

If you want to learn more about strokes I suggest you read this in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_(CJKV_character)


There are only a few phrases made up from 回事:

怎么(一)回事: what the matter with ..., why ..., what is the reason for ..., what happened

这回事: The matter you just mentioned (E.g 没这回事。 There was no such thing)

一回事: The same. (E.g. A和B是一回事。 A and B are the same (matter).)

In the above situations, "件" cannot be used.


What is the difference between 麵粉 and 麪粉?

「麪」is a variant type of「麵」（「麪」is a more standard form in the old ages, and both are simplified to「面」now）and the meaing between them is not quite different.


I wouldn't have believed you unless I checked it myself, but it appears these are both interchangeable with one source claiming:

http://www.askbennychinese.com/questions/detail/3713

  In fact, in the south of China, people says “yīn wèi”, while in the
  north people say “yīn wéi”. The only difference lies in the
  pronunciation. Basically, they are exactly the same.

My wife and most of my friends are from the South which is maybe why I have always heard it as yīn wèi.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%9B%A0%E4%B8%BA says:

  因为 (simplified, Pinyin yīnwèi or yīnwéi, traditional 因為)


Browser Add-ons
General

Add Pinyin - Chinese Zero to Hero Reader (Chrome)

Chinese Tutor (Chrome: Flashcards, Speaking, Dictionary, Extension) is a flashcard extension.

Flixlingo (Chrome).

Language Learning with Netflix (Chrome).

Language Learning with YouTube (Chrome).

New Tong Wen Tang (Chrome; Firefox) converts between simplified and traditional Chinese.

Hanzisize (Chrome) enlarges Chinese text.

Popup dictionaries

Akkadu (Firefox)
Perapera Chinese (Firefox)
Frill (Safari)
GlotDojo (Chrome) with Chinese premium
Inkah (Chrome; Firefox)
LiuChan Chinese Popup Dictionary (Chrome; Firefox)
Popover Chinese (Safari)
Zhongwen: The Popular Chinese Learning Tool (Chrome; Firefox)
Zhongzhong: An improved Chinese Dictionary (Chrome)


Can I express the numbers at more than one decimal point using 成?

Well, you could say 五成五 for 0.55 or 55%. 99% could be 九成九.

For example, 九成九的人会参加这会议, meaning 99% of people will attend the meeting.

Usually, people won't put that accurate. They may just say 大约五成, meaning 50% or so. But 几成几 is a normal expression.


Homonyms in the context of humor or satire

Homophones are often used humorously in Chinese. Some examples:

Many jokes use the topic of people confusing similar-sounding phrases:

  把一个卖糖葫芦的被揍了，到警察局，警察问理发师：“你为什么揍卖糖葫芦的？”理发师说：“我在屋里烫头发，他在外面喊‘烫糊喽’！”
  A man selling candy fruit (Tanghulu) was beaten up. At the police office,
  the police officer asked the haidresser: "Why did you beat up the
  candy fruit seller?" The hairdresser answered: "I was in my shop
  applying perms (烫头发)， and he stood outside yelling 'he burned [my
  hair] to a paste!' (tang hu lou)!"

There are also more satirical uses of word substitution and homophones. For example, in mainland Chinese online communication, it's common to refer to China's government as the 天朝 (heavenly court), to mockingly compare it to the imperial court of times past. There are many examples of this type.

An example that may be unique to Chinese is the 同音文章 (One syllable article), where a short story is composed only of characters that are pronounced as the same syllable (but not necessarily the same tone). These are often humorous, just because the form constraints enforce absurd content. From a famous example:

  石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。
  The "Stone-house poetry master" from family Shi liked lions
  and swore to eat ten lions [...]

There are many other examples from many different types of Chinese humor. In conclusion: Yes, both homophones and words with multiple meanings are used in Chinese humor, both in satire and vulgar humor.


Why does Hong Kong use a different spoken and written language?

Hong Kong using Standard Written Chinese instead of Written Cantonese because  Standard Written Chinese (SWC) is the national standard. Most non-Cantonese speakers might not understand Written Cantonese
Some example:

English: "I hate him very much"
Standard Written Chinese: "我很討厭他"
Written Cantonese: "我好憎佢"

~

English: "who ate my apple?"
Standard Written Chinese: "誰吃了我的萍果?"
Written Cantonese: "邊個食咗我個萍果?"

I think Mandarin speaker would have hard time understanding the meaning of '邊個'
Actually, some less formal publications like comic and gossip column do allow  the use of written Cantonese
As for eliminate the use of Written Cantonese, it is a unreasonable suggestion. Spoken and written Cantonese are important parts of our heritage. They will not be abandoned as long as there are still Cantonese alive


How do names translate between Mandarin and Cantonese?

Firstly I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that there are always multiple ways to say a Chinese name because the pronunciation depends on the dialect being spoken.

Yup.

  If a Cantonese-only speaker mentions the name of a Mandarin-only speaker, do they say their name using Mandarin pronunciation or Cantonese pronunciation? What about if the speaker is talking about a very famous person?

The language of the name would, theoretically, be the same as the language being spoken. If the conversation was in Cantonese the name would be read in Cantonese; if the discussion was in Mandarin the name would, likewise, be read in Mandarin. (Although there are catches to this.)

  If two speakers are both fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin, and code switch with each other in both languages, do they use both pronunciations of each others' names? Would they pick one pronunciation and go with that all the time? Maybe use the pronunciation that the other introduced themselves with?

Personal names are seldom spoken between people. A common nickname would be more likely and unless it was in front of others who only spoke one of the languages that they speak it would likely be set in whichever language they are more comfortable in.

So, obviously there are going to be some exceptions.

Nick Cheung has become a joke because he can't pronounce his own name properly in Mandarin. In this commercial he, infamously, calls himself 渣渣辉 instead of 张家辉.

There was once an anecdote that talked about someone interpreting from Cantonese to Mandarin. The translator came across the name 印度 (India) and mistranslated it as something close to 阴道 (vagina) because dou in Cantonese often becomes dao in Mandarin - but in this case it should have been du.

Names and titles are somewhat ingrained in peoples brains and it is quite hard to switch between the different languages. You might hear people speaking Mandarin and reverting back to their own dialects when they're at a loss.


How do you know when will the verb be paired with 对?

体贴 (to be considerate) is intransitive, it cannot take a direct object. So you can be "considerate towards your parents" but you cannot "considerate your parents". In a similar vein, you can be "happy for someone" but you cannot "happy someone".
关心 (to be concerned about), on the other hand, is transitive. It can take a direct object.

Whether 体贴 can be considered intransitive appears to be a matter of debate. I'll start by saying that in Mandarin adjectives cannot take objects. This is made explicitly clear on the Chinese grammar wiki, hopefully I wont be forced to find additional sources to back this claim. It follows, then, that any instance of an adjectival verb is intransitive.
All that remains to be seen is whether 体贴 is an adjective or not. It is.

A sentence in the form 我很体贴 where 我 is the subject and 很体贴 is the predicate/verb phrase cannot have a direct object. joehua has linked to several examples of the contrary, sentences where 体贴 has been shown to take a direct object. Why this is, I don't know. Either the term is being misused or it has taken on a different meaning in those sentences. Take for example this page that joehua linked. It has the example sentence "他从小就知道体贴父母" which at face value invalidates everything I've just said. But if you type that exact sentence into Baidu's translator it will output "He has been considerate of his parents since he was a child", taking that English sentence and plugging it back into the translator will give the output "他从小就对父母很体贴". Evidently one is more correct than the other.

Yet even more proof


Help me rephrase: 相比看到子女长大成家，没有其他可以更让他们感觉放心的了

consider: 沒有比兒女長大成家，更讓父母安心。

have fun :)


http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/2546/

  犯

  /faan6/ /faan6*2 / ( jyutping)

  / fan4 /  (pinyin)

  [1] [v] offend; violate; go against

  [2] [v] invade; attack; encroach on

  [3] [n] criminal; convict; culprit

  [4] [v] suffer recurrence of (illness, bad habit, etc)

In the context of :

「犯頭暈」，「犯作嘔」，「犯肚痛」「犯口癢」and 「犯儍」,「犯」means " suffer recurrence of "(see [4])

「犯頭暈」= "suffer recurrence of fainting"
「犯作嘔」= "suffer recurrence of vomiting "
「犯肚痛」= " suffer recurrence of stomachache"
「犯口癢」= " suffer recurrence of open my big mouth."
「犯儍」 = " suffer recurrence of stupidity."

The word "often " describe an event happens frequently, but not regularly; while "recurrence" means something happens repeatedly, regularly. Therefore, The answer to your question is: "No" - 「 犯」doesn't mean " often",  it means: " repeatedly suffering"

*「犯暈」is short for 「犯頭暈」

  Can I just translate 犯 as often?

You could translate 犯 as "repeatedly suffer"

"I repeatedly suffer fainting every time they ask me to make a speech or take an interview."

  英雄犯大错误。

It simply means :" The hero made (committed) a big mistake."


if by 无用 you mean useless and by one word you mean one character then I would recommend:

废 it has a lot of meanings but specifically here it contains the meaning:

  waste; useless; disused; superfluous in ²fèizhǐ -ABC


If I extrapolate what you are doing, it actually becomes "unnatural" to me, because the subordinate clause is inserted in front of the noun that is being modified, but after the original verb. Your examples can be translated like the following:

I know a person.
我認識某個人

I know a person who has a dog.
我認識某位有養狗的人

I know a person who has a dog which barks at a cat.
我認識某位養有會對貓吠的狗的人

I know a person who has a dog which barks at a cat which lives in a house.
我認識某位養有會對那隻住在屋裡的貓吠的狗的人

I briefly add/tweak some charaters so that it makes more sense to me.... I'll leave it up to you to see if you can just "get the idea". :)

If I "naturally" say these, it'll probably not be all subornate clause but shorter SVO phrases:

I know a person
我認識某個人

I know a person who has a dog
我認識某個人，有養狗

I know a person who has a dog which barks at a cat
我認識某個人，養的狗會對貓吠

I know a person who has a dog which barks at a cat which lives in a house
我認識某個人，那人養的狗會對貓吠，那貓還住在房子裡


I will come again after a few months:
"I" "a few months" "after" "again come."


Does 「你的中文是在哪里学的？」mean "How did you study Chinese?" or "Where did you study Chinese?"

中国人：你的中文是在哪里学的？
我：在北京语言大学学的。

Without other context, this dialogue indicates a normal conversation sequence. '在哪里' just means 'where'.
In some context, 你的中文是在哪里学的？ could be used as a rhetorical question.  The underlying meaning is 你的中文是在哪里学的？ (怎么这么差！)  In English, it could be something like from where have you learned such awful Chinese? In this case, they may not want you to answer it literally. And I guess you don't want to answer it at all.
Out of that specific context, 你的中文是在哪里学的？ is just a normal sentence and your answer is a proper one.
To me, 在哪里(where) doesn't mean 怎么(how) in any case. And your Chinese friend might say it out of certain context, in which you should use 怎么 other than 在哪里，otherwise he is plain wrong.
Edit:
Context is the key here.  你的中文是在哪里学的？could also imply someone's Chinese is very good and they want to know where they have learnt it.  But standing alone, we can't make any assumption about the context.  We should take it literally instead, unless OP can provide more context for analysis.


I will explain this in another view point :-) And I think it's better to put my conclusion first:

  恋爱的预感 or just 恋之预感 is a perfect translation in Chinese.

Now, let's consider this interesting question:

Why is it said to be untranslatable in English?

  Koi No Yokan (Japanese): Koi No Yokan is a truly beautiful concept. It can defined the sense can have upon first meeting another person that the two of them are going to fall in love. In other words, it is the knowledge one has that he/she is going to fall in love with another person. This differs from the idea “love at first sight” in that it does not imply that the feeling of love exists, rather it refers to the knowledge that a future love is inevitable.

I think the essentials of the concept of 恋の予感 are

It should be a subjective sense, or, intuitive knowledge, about the future. So the word or phrase for 予感 should be neutral -- it implies neither good future nor bad future.
It should precisely describe the delicate situation that you know the love happens in the future but not at present.
Furthermore, in both Japanese and Chinese, 恋 is not equal to 愛. In Japanese, 恋 is

  特定の異性に強くひかれること。また、切ないまでに深く思いを寄せること。恋愛。

Which means a thing that one is attracted by another special person of the opposite sex, and thinking of him/her very deeply. And in Chinese, it is

  慕也。

Which means feeling attached to, or being reluctant to part. So, the meaning of 恋 can be considered the same in Japanese and Chinese. Intuitively speaking, 恋 is an immature kind of love, green but beautiful. For example, 恋人(こいびと) is not lover (愛人) but rather boy/girl friend (see goo辞書). It reflects one aspect of the eastern culture: being veiled to the emotion of love.

Thus, for Chinese, there isn't any culture barrier in the meanings of 恋 or 予感, besides, 恋爱的预感/恋之预感 makes sense in Chinese. So I said, 恋爱的预感/恋之预感 is a perfect translation.

For English, I found one translation on Weblio英語表現辞典:

  presentiment of a romance

This would be better than "premonition of love" because it takes Point 3 into consideration. But still, I find presentiment/premonition is often associated to unpleasant future. Maybe sixth sense is a better phrase, though it's informal.

EDIT

I check through the Roget's International Thesaurus for premonition, and find these entries:

premonition, presentiment; hunch, feeling in one's bones ... [generally implying something unpleasant, or being informal]
foreboding, apprehension, misgiving ... [implying something bad]
omen, portent, augury, symptom ... [they are not subjective sense]
harbinger, forerunner, precursor, herald ... [not subjective sense either]
ominousness, portentousness, portent ... [something bad]
inauspiciousness, unpropitiousness, unfavorableness ... [something bad]
auspiciousness, propitiousness, favorableness ... [something good]

It seems difficult to find a neutral and subjective and formal word to state 予感/预感 :(


How to ask for response and closing statement in a letter in cantonese and in traditional chinese?

an informal one:

  Please, don't forget to reply back my postcard and letter

拜託．唔好唔記得回信

  I'm looking forward to get soon news from you

我想早啲收到你嘅消息

  Best regards, wish you good luck

祝安康

about a formal version, well, it's tricky. because, there're "canned" terms for correspondences in chinese, and these terms are in literary chinese.

if you google "尺牘用語", there're numerous pages. briefly, you must know who has superiority, you, or the receiver; then choose the appropriate opening &  ending.

即覆為盼 - hope for your immediate reply

敬請臺安 - for equal status, roughly "wish you calm"

personally, i "write" colloquial cantonese, mixed with english words in email with my friends. these literary chinese terms are simply, "overkill" in context of cantonese.

edited, if the receiver is more important, only use the two below, previous suggestions are not appropriate.

祈請示覆 ~ pray for your reply

祈 kei4　請 ching2　示 si6　覆 fuk1

敬請鈞安 ~ wish you calm

敬 ging3　請 ching2　鈞 gwan1　安 on1

you may click the word to play the sound file :)

the dilemma is, these terms are not colloquial cantonese. i doubt that people would understand, and guess the correct characters when they hear your saying.

c'est la vie, the written chinese is different from the spoken chinese.

anyway, don't misuse "canned" terms for equal, or lower status; it's extremely rude.

last, you may use the 漢語多功能字庫 for learning cantonese pronunciation:

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/

or, if you're using mac os x, the text to speech function is quite good, have a try :)


When to use [time of day]+饭 vs [time of day]+餐?

Informally in daily life, we talk about eat meals by referring to 吃饭。 In a formal situation, i.e. hotel, meeting, we use 餐 mostly in writing.
饭's meaning is quite flexible. You can use 饭 to refer to a general meal. However if you talk about specifically what in the meal, 饭 should be used only for boiled rice.

我想吃午饭。 ---> A general meal

我今天午饭吃了米饭和汤。 ---> food you eat in a general meal

In Cantonese, they use 餐 referring to a general meal, 饭 for the boiled rice


In short, 想 means "think (of)" when followed by noun phrases or clauses, and "want to" when followed by verb phrases, while 喜欢 simply means "like / be fond of" in all cases.

Some details:

When followed by nouns/pronouns,

想 means "think of / consider" or "miss", for example:

  我在想你 = I am missing you; 我在想这个问题 = I am considering this question.

喜欢 means "like", for example:

  我喜欢你 = I like you

When followed by verb phrases,

想 means "want to (do)", for example:

  我想吃鱼 = I want to eat fish

喜欢 means "like to (do)" or "like (doing)", expressing non-momentary preference, hence not "would like to (do)", for example:

  我喜欢吃鱼 = I like eating fish

When followed by clauses,

想 means "think (that)", for example:

  我想他不会来了 = I think (that) he won't come.

Two relevant notes here:

a. When 想要 is followed by clauses, it doesn't mean "think (that)", but "want A to do", where A is the subject of the following clause, for example:

  我想要他唱 = I want him to sing.

BTW, a few native speakers may feel that 想要 in this usage is interchangeable with 想.

b. When 不想（要), in which "要" can be omitted, is followed by clauses, it doesn't mean "not think (that)", but "not want A to do", where A is the subject of the following clause, for example:

  我不想（要）你来 = I do not want you to come.

喜欢 means "like it that", for example:

  我喜欢你这样做 = I like it that you do it this way


This sentence has no subject. In Chinese, it's sometimes acceptable to leave out the subject if it's obvious from the context (some sentences are better analysed without using the concept of subject altogether, but that's a bit out of topic). So, in this case, it's difficult to translate directly to English since the English version would need a subject. In this case, I would say it's very likely that the subject is "我“ simply because "我好像找到了" makes more sense than other alternatives.


How do 用不起 / 用得起 and 吃不起 / 吃得起 mean (un)affordable?

In China, we more of use this as a fixed phrase for (cannot) afford. For example, we would use 吃不起 or 用不起 or 买不起 to show that we cannot afford to eat/use/buy something. The simple logic is this:
-得起 means that you can afford to do an action
-不起 means that you cannot afford to do an action
This is probably a fixed phrase you need to memorize.
P.S. When we use -得起 or -不起, we do not necessarily mean afford in the monetary context. For example, we can say 我承担不起这个后果 to mean "I cannot bear (承担) this consequence (后果)".


Textual Examples of Honorifics used (contemporary/historical）

Give me some honorifics that you wanna know about. I can give you some daily life examples.
For example, the most simple honorific in Chinese is 您, which means you. You can use it to anyone to whom you want to show respect. Usually it's to strangers, somebody older than you or someone at higher position than you (in a professional environment).


MDBG:吐槽

(slang) to roast
to ridicule

I'd also opt for to make fun of sth/sb.


A Chinese-language joke where near-identical sentences have different meanings: how do I translate this and find the humor?

I am a native Chinese speaker. Let me explain for you.

The humor: Every two sentences look the same but having totally different meanings.

  1、冬天：能穿多少穿多少；夏天：能穿多少穿多少。

Translate: Winter: Put on as much clothing as you can. Summer: Put on as fewer clothing as you can.

Explain: In the Winter sentence, 多少 is interpreted together, means "the quantity of the things that you have". In the sentence, it is exaggerated, and translate to "as much as you can". In the Summer sentence, 多少 should be interpreted separately as: 多 is an adjective "much", and 少 "a few", 多 is an adjective for 少, so 多少 means "very few".

  2、剩女产生的原因有两个，一是谁都看不上，二是谁都看不上

Background: 剩女 is a noun, means old girls (often older than 30) who are still single/unmarried. This is a slightly offensive word. 看上 means "falls in love with", 看不上 means "not falls in love with".

Translate: There are two reasons for being a 剩女: first, (she does) not fall for anybody; second, nobody falls for her.

Explain: The first sentence the "She" is an omission. For the second sentence, there is no omission, so 谁 is the body who is doing 看不上, and hence translates to "nobody falls for her".

  3、女孩给男朋友打电话：如果你到了，我还没到，你就等着吧；如果我到了，你还没到，你就等着吧。

Background: Most Chinese girlfriends are spoiled, and would demand much more from their boyfriends. And most Chinese take it for granted.

Translate: A girl gives her boyfriend a phone call: If you arrive, and I'm not there, you wait for me. If I arrive, and you're not there, you are going to wait for my punishment.

Explain: In Chinese, 等着 is a special word. In some occasions (depends on the context), 等着 translates to "give somebody a lesson". If someone is angry, he would say: 你给我等着. This means "I gonna get some helps and come back to punish you, you'd better stay here and do not go away."

  4、单身的原因：原来是喜欢一个人，现在是喜欢一个人。

Yours is perfect.

  中国足球和中国乒乓球，一是谁都赢不了，二是谁都赢不了。

Your translation and understanding are both perfect.


How to politely ask “What do you really mean?”

There are many ways to say it. The 6 pairs below arranged from polite with respect --> polite --> demanding w/patience --> demanding w/impatience.
1a - 我不太瞭解您的意思, 可以請您解釋解釋嗎?
1b - 我不太瞭解您所說的, 可以請您解釋一下嗎?
2a - 我不太瞭解您的意思, 可以麻煩您解釋解釋嗎?
2b - 我不太瞭解您所說的, 可以麻煩您解釋一下嗎?
3a - 我不瞭解你的意思, 勞駕解釋解釋好嗎?
3b - 我不瞭解你所說的, 勞駕解釋一下好嗎?
4a - 我不瞭解你的意思, 解釋解釋好吧?
4b - 我不瞭解你所說的, 解釋一下好吧?
5a - 我不瞭解你的意思, 解釋解釋吧!
5b - 我不瞭解你所說的, 解釋一下吧!
6a - 我聽不懂你的意思, 解釋解釋.
6b - 我聽不懂你所說的, 解釋清楚一點.


Special meanings applied to numbers 0 - 10

There is a Wikipedia article dedicated to this, Numbers in Chinese culture; it states that numbers are divided in two categories, lucky and unlucky numbers.

Lucky Numbers:

二, the number 2: There is a saying that states "Good things come in pairs", for this reason many things in China seem to be "presented" in pairs of two, since this is considered a positive number;
三, the number 3: It's considered lucky because it's similar to the character for "birth", 生.
五, the number 5: This number is associated with the Five Elements (Earth, Water, Wind, Fire and Metal) and also with the Emperor of China; the Tianamen Gate has five arches;
六, the number 6: The number six pronounced as liù, is similar to the character 流 (liú) which means "to flow". This is considered lucky in business. Side-note: I've read elsewhere that objects with this number or with the string with three 6 in a row are considered very lucky, and people will try to buy such things (such as phone numbers). It's stated in this page, "Deciphering The Meaning Of Chinese Numbers";
七, the number 7: It's a lucky number for relationships.
八, the number 8: It sounds similar to the word for "prosper" or "wealth" 發 (fā), short for "發財".
九, the number 9: This number, like 五, was historically associated with the Emperor of China. As it's stated in that article, "before the establishment of the imperial examinations officials were organized in the nine-rank system, the nine bestowments were rewards the Emperor made for officials of extraordinary capacity and loyalty, while the nine familial exterminations was one of the harshest punishments the Emperor sentenced; the Emperor's robes often had nine dragons, and Chinese mythology held that the dragon has nine children."

Unlucky Numbers:

四, the number 4: As you said, this number is associated with death, 死 (sǐ). This happens in Japanese as well, by the way, both 四 and 死, can be read as "shi". Following the same logic for the number 6, objects/things with this number are avoided, such as floors... A similar attitude in westerner countries which miss the 13th floor, for example.

Some numbers that were considered as lucky, can be considered unlucky too:

五, the number 5: It's also associated to the character 無 (wú) "not". If associated with something bad, it can become positive, such as in the number 54, because it means "not + death". 528, instead might mean "no easy fortune for me".
六, the number 6: "Six in Cantonese which has a similar pronunciation to that of "lok6" (落, meaning, to drop, fall, or decline)"
七, the number 7: As stated in the article this number "is considered spiritist or ghostly". However, since the 7th day of the month, in the Chinese lunar calendar, is Valentine's Day, this number is not usually associated with bad luck.

I tried to summarize most of the content here, but check the page for more info and other meanings of complex numbers.


‘集合’ refers to set when it comes to math.

‘集合’ refers to a collection/bunch of when it comes to your sentence, which means a bounch of features.


How to say "head" and "tails" when flipping a coin?

Chinese use 正反 more than US people use obverse/reverse.

Other words are  花/字, but the side is controversial.

The side of 中华人民共和国 is 正面, but many many people think 1元 is 正面, this would be more confused if you use 字/花. Which side is 字, is it 正面?

China bank realized this problem, the new coin:

Now 中国人民银行and 1 元 are on the same side, that is 正面, in this case 字 is 正面, 花 is 反面.

In some dialect, people use 字/背.


I guess the reason why it is put in this way, as through a search, you will find that 沙溢、胡可 are the parents and 安吉、小鱼儿 are the children in the family.

As far as I know, the "correct" form is A、B、C与D. But it may not the only acceptable way, especially when you can divide the words into groups. Like in this one, parents and children. The four words are not equivalent now, and "与" is used between groups but not between the words.


Character layout in calligraphy e.g. with respect to a quotation from Confucius

It looks there are quite a bit of concepts in your question.

Tang poetry. Typical Tang poetry style is 5x4 or 7x4, with a bit more variations.
Layout of Chinese calligraphy. It's not necessarily 5x5. Don't be limited to that. Any size is okay. The typical layout is top to down, and right to left. For the layout of your mentioned Confucius, just write it as this layout with same characters in each column, without punctuations.
Best script for starter. The "calm" effect comes mostly from "Regular scripts", which is recommended for beginner, even for experienced ones.
Recommended process. I suggest you to copy 颜体（颜真卿）from the beginning, instead of writing your own. This is the most famous and respected Regular scripts. But I'm not a calligrapher. The teacher may has better and more specific recommendations.


「美秒」is not a word. It also doesn't make any sense.

In this context, 美妙 means "awesomeness", "wonderfulness". Noun or adjective isn't that important in Chinese as long as it makes sense.

  天下許多事，你都可以盡性地去嚮往，嚮往給你帶來的無窮美妙其實已經足夠了。

"There are a lot of things that you can long for in this world. The unlimited wonderfulness you get when dreaming about it is actually already enough. "

  這美妙，就是在於它不真實的一面，一旦實現，便要大打折扣。

"This wonderfulness comes from the fact that it is not real. Once you reached the goal of having the things you longed for, that feeling will get discounted (will no longer be this wonderful)."

These sentences sound like they are from a novel. The full text I found

  人生在世，有許多解不開的結，也有許多莫須有的煩惱。因為天下許多事情，你都可以盡情地去嚮往，嚮往給你帶來的無窮美妙，其實已經足夠了。不要為嚮往的沒有實現而遺憾，實現了也許更遺憾！

  人世間有許多事情，只有一直嚮往著才是最美好的。這美妙就是在於他有不真實的一面，一旦實現便要大打折扣。如果真的讓他實現了，最好只有一天，一夜，一會兒，或是短短的一瞬間，真的不能再長了。

have some deep meaning. Feels like it's something that young girls like to read in a coffee shop. It's basically saying you don't need to reach your goal to be happy. The journey is often more enjoyable than the short moment of you reaching the goal.

PS: Some people are saying this is not a good text and I don't see why. This style of writing is quite common in novels.


Yes. This is exactly what 追剧 mean.
No.
No.

We may call actions in last two question as 煲剧 or 补番 .

EDIT:

There is a funny name 坑 (means 'hole') for the series that have many seasons to watch. When we start watching it, we call it 开坑 (start a hole), and the process we watch from the S01E01 to the latest episode, we call it 填坑 (filling the hole).
That a funny saying we are using.


造反有理　革命無罪: What are the standard English translations of this?

right to rebel! right to revolution!

or

Rebellion justified, Revolution legitimated!


Is there an alphabetic system in the Chinese language?

The official way to write Chinese uses Chinese characters, which is not an alphabetical system.
There have been various phonetic systems developed to either write or transcribe Chinese. Some of these systems are alphabets. To emphasise, these phonetic systems are not official ways of writing Chinese.
The official way of writing, using characters, does not use word spacing. When using a phonetic script, word spacing is commonly adopted; see Spacing Guidelines for Modern Chinese Writing.

Example phonetic systems:

Writing Chinese

Pe̍h-ōe-jī, a Roman alphabet for Minnan;
Dungan Cyrillic, a Cyrillic alphabet for a the Dungan language, a dialect of Central Plains Mandarin;
Xiao'erjing, a Perso-Arabic-based abugida for Mandarin.

Transcribing Chinese

Hanyu Pinyin, a Roman alphabet for Mandarin;
Yale Romanisation for Cantonese;
Bopomofo, a semi-syllabary for Mandarin.


Perhaps those etymologies are not quite correct.
The, current, definition in the new Outliers dictionary gives the following explanation:

FORM
Ancient form:

半 was originally composed of 八 “to divide; cut into two parts” and 斗 “measuring spoon,” indicating the original meaning “a spoon used to serve alcohol with a capacity of half a 斗 (dǒu).”

They give the following reference:

杜忠誥，2002《說文篆文訛形釋例》，台北市：文史哲出版社，2009年2月初版修訂。
p. 191-195

Then under Meanings they continue:

1 (orig.) a spoon used to serve alcohol with a capacity of half a 斗 (dǒu)
2 → half

I guess a 半 is almost like a half-pint - if we’re to put it in modern terms westerners could understand.
——
edit: I would imagine 伴 is comprised of 亻/人 [a meaning component] and 半 [a sound component].


Is the halfwidth ideographic comma (､) (U+FF64) ever used in Chinese punctuation?

Mainstream pinyin input methods mainly use full-width '、' character.  And under most formal situations, full-width '、' is required to keep consistency with other full-width punctuation markers (for example: '。', '，', '！').


I just purchased this painting and I need some information

漢光閣顧洛阜鑑藏中國古代書畵章
Stamp of authenticity of John M. Crawford's collection of old Chinese art

乾隆鑑賞
Qianlong likes this

嘉慶御覽㞢寶
Certified as seen by Jiaqing

三希堂精鑑璽
Refined seal of the library of the Qing Emperors

南北東西只有相隨無別離
No parting ways, only companionship, on any road

敵國㞢富
As wealthy as an empire


How do you say 'dates back to' in Mandarin?

'Dates back to' is usually translated into '追溯到', which literally means 'trace back to'.
When used in a sentence, people usually add 可以 (can/may) or 要 (have to) before 追溯到, for example:

这个城堡要追溯到罗马时代。
(The history of) this castle dates back to Roman times.
这个家族的历史可以追溯到十七世纪。This family can trace its history back to the 17th century.


(In this context )There is none available .= 沒了 = 沒貨 = 沒提供

Is the seat available ? No,it is not available. = 座位有人。 = 有人。

I'm not available at the moment = 我現在沒空。

The book is available from the bookshops.= 這本書可以從書店買到


What is the difference between 保持, 维持 and 维护?

保 = maintain; guarantee; 持 = hold ; [保持 = to maintain; to keep ]
维 = maintain; safeguard; 持 = hold ; [维持 = to maintain; to keep ; to safeguard]
维 = maintain; safeguard; 护 = protect; [维护 = to protect]

When it means "maintain" or "keep" 保持 and 维持 are interchangeable

Example:

保持良好治安 = 维持良好治安 (maintain good level of public order)

保持平衡 = 维持平衡 (maintain balance)

  I know you can say 维持治安, but not ie. 保持治安

It is because 治安 only means "level of public order" It can be good or bad. "保持治安" (maintain level of public order) doesn't specify what level of public order is being maintained; while "维持" has the meaning of "to safeguard" therefore "维持治安" (to safeguard level of public order) strongly implies   the level of public order is being safeguarded is high -- We safeguard the level of public order only when it is high.

As my examples indicated, if the level of public order is specifically stated, e.g. "良好" (good) then you can use either 保持 or 维持

Also indicated in my example, 维护  means "to protect"  "维护治安" doesn't need to specify what level of public order is being protected --  We protect the level of public order only when it is high.


骰 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/3676/

  dice

  jyuping: /sik1/ ; /tau4 /

  Pinyin: /tou2 /

  Jyutping tau4 is literary reading ; sik1 is colloquial. The latter one is much more common in usage.

As you can see, 骰 in Mandarin has only one reading (tou2)

In Cantonese,  the literary (tou2) and colloquial reading (sik1) of 骰 are different.

色(color) and 骰(dice) are just homographs that share the same reading /sik1/

I have never heard any Cantonese read 骰 as /tau4/ in my life.


Wikipedia has a page entitled Place names of Hong Kong, which mentions:

Kok (角) - point (of land), horn, angle

Point is also a common term in English place names.

A good example of this can be found on another Wiki page: Origins of names of cities and towns in Hong Kong. Here they have the example of 沙頭角:

City | Language Origins |  Meaning
Sha Tau Kok    | Chinese   | sandy head point

Another good example might be North Point (北角). As this ejinsight article examplains:

Many of Hong Kong’s geographical place names have been in use for more than 150 years. Some describe their specific locations. North Point is one of them.
North Point sits on the northernmost tip of Hong Kong Island, a major cross-harbor interchange on the MTR line.


连...都... and 连...也... are interchangeable as a structure. In fact, in the structure 连...都..., 都, as an adverb, means 也!

In your case, the sentence could be rephrased as

  他什么都吃，连狗肉 也 吃。 我们连一次 都 没见过。

However, in the first sentence, 他什么都吃, 都 can not be replaced by 也. Here, 都 means 'all'.


I don't think there is a 'clear' translation because of the culture difference behind it. Chinese people don't take a gap year until very recently and the few who do are still considered rebel by many. It hasn't become that popular yet to have a well-known terminology. In some circles it's just called gap year, gap年 or 间隔年.
间隔年 is probably the best option for now, but you may still want to define or explain it to the audience beforehand. This translation has actually made its entry on Baidu Baike and appeared in a book title 迟到的间隔年.
You can see how some people still refer to the concept as 'gap year' in discussions like this, which suggests the Chinese term hasn't got its full popularity yet.
As for the verb ('take'), I think the best context-free translation is 体验 (to experience). Depending on the context you can also use 开始 (to start) or 要 (to have). E.g.

He decided to take a gap year after graduation. 他决定毕业后体验间隔年 (formal) or 他决定要个间隔年 (colloquial).
His friends took a gap year right after graduation, but he didn't. 他的朋友们一毕业就开始了间隔年，但是他没有。


Would "mutual acquaintance" in Mandarin be 共同朋友 or 相識朋友?

Chinese denotes the concept("mutual acquaintance") differently. These are the idiomatic sentences in mandarin:

  我们两个都认识他 // both of us have an acquaintance with him. Or he is a mutual acquaintance of ours.

  张三和李四都和我相识 // both 张三 and 李四 have an acquaintance with me.

  张三和李四都认识王五 // both 张三 and 李四 have an acquaintance with 王五.

However, when it comes to the term "mutual friend", you can put 共同的朋友. For example,

  张三是我们共同的朋友 // 张三 is a mutual friend of ours.


'城隍' is an officer title in the after-world
'城' stand for '城牆'(city wall); '隍' means 'moat'. '城隍爺' means 'officer of city wall and moat'. Therefore, '城隍庙' should be translated as 'Temple of the civic deity'
But I prefer transliterate '城隍' as'Cheng Huang' and '城隍庙' as 'Cheng Huang Temple'
Edit:

civic:
relating to a city or town, especially its administration; municipal
synonyms: municipal, city, town, urban, metropolitan

~

deity:
noun: deity; plural noun: deities
a god or goddess (in a polytheistic religion)

So, I guess "Town god's Temple" is also a correct translation for '城隍庙'. However, Town god sounded more like a description of 土地公 (local god)


When making j, x, and q consonant sounds, where in the mouth does the sound get created?

I think you're doing it right. The alveo-palatal part of sound (which j/x/q have in common) should be created by the gap between the middle of your tongue and the roof of your mouth, and that's exactly what 'alveo-palatal' means. The difference among j/x/q though, aspiration and frication, are controlled by other part of the mouth, but I don't think that's the core of your question.

There is one thing to note though, that you described the tip of your tongue as against your teeth. Your link says 'the tip of the tongue rests behind the lower front teeth' which I think is a very accurate description of the right way. It might be just different phrasing but if your tongue is tightly sticking to your lower front teeth or even exerting, then you're doing it wrong and the result may sound like lisping due to too little/too much air flowing from the sides of your tongue.


Is the Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou standardized?

It doesn’t seem like there is an organisation for standardization of Cantonese in Mainland China. After all, this is in line with their policy of Mandarin-only education; people throughout the nation are not fluent in their native dialect, and can only speak Putonghua.
In contrast, there are governmental agencies in both Hong Kong and Macau dedicated to the standardization of Cantonese in those territories.

It is worth noting that the HK-Macau standards originate  from the pronunciations of downtown Guangzhou speakers. If a Hongkonger were to visit downtown Guangzhou, he would probably face no problems communicating with a local there.

Branching out of the provincial capital of Guangdong, though, there are other accents which are vastly different than that of mainstream media (i.e. HK-Macau-Guangzhou accent). For example, in Shunde, which is just beside Guangzhou, they pronounce their words such that learners of Cantonese might think they were purposely trying to mispronounce the words.

Taishan, which is also within the Pearl River Delta region, is also famous for the Siyi dialects which are related to Cantonese, but are mutually intelligible.
In HK-Guangzhou, you would say “ngo” for 我, yet in Taishanese it’s something like “ngoi”.

Of course, you also have pronunciations influenced by Teochew and Hakka, the other two indigenous dialects in the province, as you approach the edges of Guangdong.


Which marital verbs are used for same-sex marriages?

I have a Chinese magazine article about the prime minister of Iceland from about 3 years ago and the title is 冰岛女总理娶同性女友. Based on that, perhaps 娶 for anyone (male or female) marrying a woman and 嫁给 for anyone marrying a man.


How do you say "rock a baby to sleep" in Chinese?

Tentative answer: 搖
The question is not very clear to me. It seems that the request is for a word which unambiguously indicates that the mother is holding the baby in her arms and rocking it.  I don't think there is such a word in Chinese.  My first choice for the action of rocking a baby would be 搖, but like English 'rock' this is ambiguous as to how the rocking is done. Here are English and Chinese examples:

媽媽輕輕地搖著寶寶。
The mother gently rocked her baby.

In both the English and Chinese examples, the baby could be in the mother's arms, or in a cradle. I think the only way to clarify this in Chinese is to add a descriptive phrase. One possibility is to add the word 抱; this is the standard word for holding something in one's arms. If you use this, you will need to think a bit about how babies are held.  If you have the baby in front with its head resting against your chest, this is called 抱在懷裡. If you hold the baby with its head resting on your shoulder and one arm under its bottom, this is probably just 抱, so for example:

媽媽抱著寶寶輕輕地搖著.  The mother gently rocked her baby, (its head resting on her shoulder)
媽媽把抱寶寶抱在懷裡輕輕地搖著.  The mother cradled the baby in her arms, gently rocking it.

If you are trying to fit words to a song, try verb reduplication. 抱啊抱, 搖啊搖, etc. This how people actually talk to babies when they are trying to get them to sleep, or anyway this is how I did it.
A caution for interpreting
One thing to be careful about: English 'rock' refers to a semi-circular motion; Chinese 搖 is not limited to this, and sometimes just means 'to shake'. However, in English, to shake a baby is usually taken as crossing a very dangerous line, and might even be taken to mean that one is unfit to care for a child. If you ever interpret in a court case involving something like this, be careful!! You cannot take the word 搖 to automatically mean 'shake vigorously'!  You must explain to the court participants how the Chinese works and specifically ask in Chinese how the child was held and what degree of force was used; do not unfairly prejudice the judge or jury against the Chinese speaker.
My own feeling is that Chinese takes as conventional the sense that 搖 is appropriate for the baby.  Sometimes inexperienced children do it with too much enthusiasm, and the usual correction is 搖輕一點!


You can search for "御龙在天" in the major Android application market, such as Huawei application market, Xiaomi application market, 360 mobile assistant, tappap, etc.


甚 = extent

至 = to

甚至 = to the extent of (literal meaning)

(甚至)殺人(也)做得出來 = (to the extent that) he will do killing (too) = (even) killing (too) he would do

The extended meaning of "even" in 甚至 is implied from the implied 也(too) in the [甚至 ... 也] structure
Note: the literal meaning of 甚至 (to the extent of) is as commonly used as "even". e.g. 甚至不吃不喝 (to the extent of not eating or drinking)


How are abbreviations determined in Chinese?

In whatever way that makes it convenient. There are probably endless different techniques used if one bothers looking for examples.

The situation is analogous to acronyms in Western languages. If you read that wiki article you'll find a huge list of examples and techniques used. Sometimes it's taking the first letters of words (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Or the first few letters (Geheime Staatspolizei). Sometimes even numbers are used (K9, 3M). Sometimes it's whatever the creators think is cool (GNU).

Back to your examples:

  中华人民共和国人力资源和社会保障部

The 中华人民共和国 is highly redundant, so remove.

  人力资源和社会保障部

This is actually 4 words, 人力资源, 社会保障, 部. Words like 和 are redundant so remove. Take the first character of each word and voila:

  人社部

With 非典型肺炎, it's a bit unusual. There are two words here, but the 非 modifies 典型 so you can't remove it without changing its meaning. So the best you can do using common techniques is "非典肺". From there it's easy to simply drop the 肺.


How to differentiate moods, characters, temperaments, etc?

Those terms can be divided into two groups:
First group, temporary, like mood: 心境, 心情. Those two are close to each other. 心情 is more temporary, can be changed in a second. 心境 is more stable and broad, but it can still be changed by big event.
For example, if you say:

I am happy today. This is a kind of 心情.
I am happy the whole month. This is a kind of 心境.

Obviously, if you are happy in a month, you are happy almost everyday in that month, so most of the time 心情 reflects 心境. But it is not always true, you can have an unhappy day in a happy month.
Second group, stable, like character: 脾气, 性格, 性情. Those three are very close to each other, the difference is very subtitle.
Well, I left 心思 (ideas, thoughts), because it's totally different from the above. I also left 气性, 心性, 性气, 心气, because they are rarely used nowadays.


How to do line breaks when mixing in Simplified Chinese characters and non-Chinese characters?

It is not acceptable to break up 100 to 1 00 in any language
line break between 一百 is acceptable, but from a graphic designer's standpoint, it doesn't look professional
breaking up non-digit/non-Chinese characters. Such as "Steam" with a line break is also unacceptable


I gather that 中文 is maybe more like "written Chinese," and 汉语 is "spoken Chinese."

This is correct as you would expect, however there are subtle nuances caused by the different spoken Chinese languages and issues of cultural identity, and that Mandarin is often considered the standard spoken Chinese language.

Before I digress here are some examples where you'd use one or the other:

Chinese subtitles = 中文字幕. When referring to only the written language, use 中文. Note that for practical reasons, you may need to disambiguate further: 简体字幕 or 繁体字幕.
Chinese dictionary = 汉语字典. For dictionaries, use 汉语 because they often relate to the entire language, both spoken and written, for example including pronunciation. To keep with convention though, all dictionaries use "汉语", even if they don't deal with the spoken form, for example an English-Chinese dictionary would be called a 英汉词典.
I can speak Chinese = 我会说中文/汉语. Here the two terms are interchangeable, if you are referring to Mandarin, which is confusing at first. This is because of the status of Mandarin as the standard Chinese spoken language. Sometimes you want to be more specific by referring to the specific Chinese language, e.g. 我会说普通话 or 我会说广东话. (I'm not sure here, but in situations where a spoken Chinese language other than Mandarin is standard, 中文 also means that language. For example in Hong Kong saying 我会说中文 could mean "I can speak Cantonese", especially if you were contrasting it with a non-Chinese language)
I can write Chinese = 我会写中文. It would be improper in this case to use "汉语". You can also say "I can write Chinese characters" though, by unambiguously saying 我会写汉字.

Here's some background information:

There is "one" Chinese written language, and "many" Chinese spoken languages

The reason I've used scare quotes is that the answer varies depending on how strict you are or what your political/ideological views are. The Wikipedia article explains all, but here are the basics:

Linguistically, there are many Chinese spoken languages as they are mutually unintelligible. This is different from most other languages, where dialects are intelligible, but what's translated as Chinese "dialects" or 方言 can range from easily understood (between 北京话 and 东北话) to completely unintelligible (e.g. 客家話).
Despite this, many Chinese prefer to treat the different spoken languages as "dialects" of one language. This is due to a shared cultural identity; China experienced prolonged unified rule, in other words, many Chinese are historically accustomed to speaking mutually unintelligible languages but still being part of the same national identity. Do note that this is a politically charged topic though.
There are two scripts used for written Chinese, Simplified and Traditional (简体 and 繁体). Some Chinese "dialects" even have their own unique characters (e.g. 冇 and 係) and grammars which are considered informal or archaic and you don't often encounter them in formal written contexts. For practical reasons though, you can consider there to be only one written Chinese language. This is also a controversial topic though, which I would rather only acknowledge without exploring further.


Google's translation isn't off too much.
却 is an adverb which is used more or less like "yet", "however" or "and yet" in English. I say "and yet" because I often see it used as a conjunction, in place of 反而.
For example:

这句话那么简单，却点燃了我 (= this sentence is so simple, and yet it set me on fire)

万千 means "a myriad", also in English used figuratively to elegantly express a large quantity.
感慨 means something like "full of sorrow". Mdgb says "rueful". Zdic defines it as 心生感触而发出慨叹. Which essentially is a feeling of such sorrow that you can't withhold sighs and moans. Also, given the proposed synonyms (感叹, 慨叹) it seems it's used in a verbal position. It's seems used like a stative verb.
So if you put it all together:

我 (I) 却 (however, yet) 为你 (for you) 万千 (myriad) 感慨 (rueful, feeling sorrowful)

It roughly means the subject's feelings are many and nuanced, but all of them related to sorrow and sadness.
A fluent translation (somewhat poetical) might be something like:

And yet for you I let out a multitude of sighs

or, taking 万千 less literarily, so many feelings that the subject is overwhelmed.

And yet for you I'm overwhelmed by sorrow


Does Chinese distinguish in/on/to the south?

Well to distinguish the south-side of London (within) and south of London (outside):
在伦敦的南部/南方/南区/城南 The south-part/side/district/ of London.
Note: 城南 is specifically the south side of a city. 在伦敦的城南。
在伦敦的南边/南面 South of London. Outside of London.
I feel 南边/南面 could be used to mean either inside or outside depending on the context.


Why is the Internet saying 雪花飘飘 北风萧萧 all of a sudden? Is this the Chinese equivalent of Rickrolling?

Ah, the latest offering from the (latter-day) Meme Renaissance.
There is the "historical" context, which is outlined very well on KnowYourMeme. To quote:

Prior to January 20th, 2020, Kuaishou user zaq13520000789 posted a video of himself rotating in the snow while singing Chinese song "Yi Jian Mei" ("Spray of Plum Blossoms").

It was then incorporated into the "This Collab Needs to Happen in 2020" trend, and made its way onto YouTube.
The rise in popularity in May 2020 came with its edited version on Tik-Tok as well as Instagram and Twitter; on Tik-Tok it is paired with Deep Fried visuals. The distinctive physical appearance of Zhang Aiqin has also aided with its popularity.
As for the meaning, it falls in line with the "deep-fried conversation", referring to clichéd conversations (and meme formats). This video / reply is generally used (at the moment - June 2020!) on these platforms to dismiss a conversation or provide a humorously irrelevant response.


牛车水 literally means

牛车 - oxcart
水   - water

i.e. 牛车（运）水, oxcart (carrying) water.

  牛车水（Chinatown）是新加坡的唐人街，名字的由来也反映了当年华人的一段历史。当时来南洋生活在这里的华人没有自来水用，于是用牛车运水，每天这里都是一辆辆的运水牛车，也算得上是车水马龙的壮观景象了。久而久之人们就称这里为牛车水了。

There's no tap water in the past, it was general to transport water by oxcart in chinatown, as time passes chinatown began to be called as 牛车水.


Confusion between "planet" and "star" in Cantonese?

we may assumed the listener know what the utterance means, according to the context.

another approach is to pronounce 恆星 as
hang1　sing1

meanwhile, deliberately pronounce 行星 as haang4　sing1

this one is what i learned in primary school, a long time ago.

actually, in cantonese, we pronounce 行 as haang4 in 行街, 行船.


Why are sites like youku and baidu so slow overseas?

The great firewall being between you and the servers doesn't help, but the main reason is that they only have servers in China, not a distributed content network (CDN) like most of the sites you might regularly access (Google, Youtube, Facebook etc) so that the distance between you and the nearest server is quite great.

You should also be aware that they are progressively locking down content on these sites from overseas - they don't want people accessing illegal content from abroad - so long term they aren't your best bet for getting learning material

Check out sites like CNTV - it seems to load fairly quickly for me at least, and they are actively promoting it to international users as part of the 'soft power' aspect of growing China.


What's the difference between 开放 (kāi fàng) and 开门 (kāi mén) which both mean "open"?

开门 = open the door

开放 = open to public

开放 means if something is open to public and 开门 means if the DOOR is open, this is the key difference.

For example:

公园开放了吗？Park's open to public yet?

公园开门了吗？Park's open yet?

The first sentence will only be used if the park isn't officially open yet and you won't use it to check park's opening time everyday.

Example when you can use 开放 and not 开门:

经济开放。Open economy.

Obviously you can't use 经济开门 which means Economy open the door


Do I drink (喝) or eat (吃) a soup in Chinese?

The idiomatic way to say 'try it' in Chinese is 尝一下，尝尝，尝一尝.

You can also say 你吃一口(试试/尝尝) and 你喝一口(试试/尝尝) for eating and drinking respectively.

Your version 你喝喝看 is good too. But 你吃吃看 is not suitable for drinkings and soups. This is different from English.