Regional pronunciations of standard Mandarin

I can't think of any tables I've seen, but I can share some of the patterns I've encountered:

zh ch sh merge with z c s (or distinguished at random):

Almost everywhere in the south, at least among most speakers

n merges with l (conditioned on following vowel):

Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Nanjing, ...

h merges with f (conditioned on following vowel):

Some Sichuan?, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing

final n merges with final ng

Jiangsu, Shanghai

r merges with l

Jiangxi? I've met several people like this, and 2 were from Jiangxi.

Something about mixing up j q x versus the z c s and the g k:

Guangdong, HK


How to say that you were accepted/rejected from a college in Mandarin?

reject: 拒绝, 驳回, 否决, 否认

Harvard rejected me.
哈佛拒绝了我。
哈佛大学拒绝了我的申请。

accept: 接受, 答应, 采纳, 采用, 接纳, 录取

Harvard accepted me.
哈佛录取了我。
哈佛录取我了。
哈佛大学接受了我的申请。


Is "光轮" for "Nimbus" as in "Nimbus 2000 broomstick" just a transliteration?

光轮 is not a transliteration, it is a translation

Halo (religious iconography)
A halo (from Greek ἅλως, halōs;1 also known as a nimbus, aureole

The round thing behind Buddha's head on that page is a 光轮 or 光环


Structure of 當為汝說無為法及無為道跡.

There is only one section in this sentence as follows.
當為汝說「無為法」及「無為道跡」。

（我）應當為你們說明「無為法」及「無為道跡」。

(I) should explain to you the 無為法 and 無為道跡.
or
(I) should show you the 無為法 and 無為道跡.

無為法（Asaṃskṛta dharma; Unconditioned dharma）：
離因緣造作之法。是無貪、瞋、癡、煩惱的境界。
Anything not subject to the principle of cause and effect (因果法), nor law of dependent origination (緣起法). It is the state or realm without any greed, anger, ignorance and affliction.

無為道跡 (The path to 無為法)：
八聖道 (The eightfold noble path) or 八正道 (The eight right or correct ways)
(1) right view 正見
(2) right thought 正思惟
(3) right speech 正語
(4) right action 正業
(5) right livelihood 正命
(6) right effort 正精進
(7) right remembrance or mindfulness 正念
(8) right concentration or meditation 正定


The first character looks a bit different. Is this just a different font, or is it a different character?

Unicode treats them with the same codepoint (U+6DF1), so it's the same character according to digital standards.

The difference in appearance is usually due to fonts, which adhere to different standards across the regions which use Chinese characters.

Mainland Chinese standards use a「八」shape, while other regions usually use a「儿」shape. If you're seeing「儿」then your fonts are not designed according to the Mainland Chinese standard.

  We now have super-families of fonts like Noto CJK which accommodate for both differences in orthography (character variations) and (minor) differences in regional shapes, so you can get (for example) a text which has Simplified Chinese but with the non-Simplified characters as Korean shapes.

  The exact font you're using to display those characters is Noto Sans CJK JP.

  Minor differences exist in all standards; your browser thinks the text language is Japanese, or defaults it to Japanese.

If you're learning Chinese characters not specifically from Mainland China, write it with「儿」.

  For reference, that component was originally「穴」, which depicts a cave dwelling (窯洞). The two strokes under「宀」was an abstract depiction of ventilation passages or air currents.

  楚簡新甲3.83

  The structure of「深」has changed like the following over the years:

  西周金・隸定乖伯歸夆簋「罙」集成4331楚簡上(1)・孔・2　秦簡睡・雜15　現代楷

  As can be seen,「八」or「儿」is just an approximation of a shape, and neither character actually features as a component in「深」. Shuowen's description

    「穴」，土室也。从「宀」，「八」聲。

    「穴」(Baxter-Sagart Old Chinese: /*[ɢ]ʷˤi[t]/), earthen dwelling; from semantic「宀」(building) and phonetic「八」(/*pˤret/).

  is very likely to be incorrect.

  References:

  季旭昇《說文新證》
  李學勤《字源》
  小學堂
  國學大師


It could be, but 黑白无常 can not be eliminated obviously, they will reform.

Or, the two 勾魂鬼 just work for 黑白无常, since many people die at same times, 黑白无常 need employees.


Punctuation - 書名號 in writing a title and chapter of a documentation

GB/T 15834-2011, Section 4.14.3.2 seems to be more relevant than the section cowboy referenced since it explicitly mentions chapters in addition to volumes:

标示书名与篇（章、卷）名之间的分界。
示例： 《淮南子·本经训》

In other words, a middle dot should be used between the title and chapter. As others have noted, the Taiwanese reference describes the middle dot character but is using an ideographic full stop AKA period character which is not semantically equivalent to a middle dot.
There is no full-width middle dot character in Unicode and you're expected to achieve that effect using fonts and glyph selection tools such as CSS' relatively new font-variant-east-asian property. That's easier said than done though since you first need to find a font that provides a full-width middle dot glyph and the only one I know of is Adobe Ming Std.
Also, if you have a chapter/section number, one example I've seen of that kind of labeling is at http://www.certifiedchinesetranslation.com/openaccess/rdfconcepts-tc.html#section-Literals where a section title is labeled in the form of "第4節Early Uniform Normalization". Of course, you can use 章 in lieu of 節 for both chapters and sections.


周末 zhōu mò : The weekend
周初 zhōu chū : The beginning of a week

Note:

In general, 周末 refers to Saturday and/or Sunday clearly, while 周初 is a little ambiguous. 初 means "the beginning", and 周初 could refer to Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday. You could say “星期三左右" to mean "days around Wednesday". ”左右"(zuǒ  yòu) means "approximate,around, about".
You could say “月末(=月底),年末(=年底=岁末),周末,期末(qī mò,= the last few days of a semester in school)",but don't say "期底" or "周底" or"岁底". That sounds wierd.


"我认为" is good, it's equal to "I think", which means you deducted it from your knowledge.

You can also use "据我所知" witch equals to "As I know".

"我认为中国是世界第二大的国家", or "据我所知，中国是世界第二大的国家".


What dialect could this be? (Southern China)

I guess it's Teochew (潮汕话 / 潮州话), a southern language in Guangdong and Taiwan. There're actually many Teochew people living in HK. HKers call them Chiuchow people (潮州人).

You can ask the local friends to know more about them and their language. :)


The a versions are acceptable I'm told. 2 needed no changes.

虽然我会说一口流利的法语，但是我想说一口流利的汉语。(illogical 虽然。。。但是。。。)
1a. 我已经会说一口流利的法语，我希望我的汉语能像我的法语一样流利。
我的职业是律师。
律师的责任很大，因为他必须解决严重得实情。然后压力大。
3a. 作为律师，我的压力很大，责任很重，因为律师总得解决严重的事情。
可是在巴黎 律师逐渐增加。 因此招聘越来越少。
4a. 在巴黎律师的数量越来越多，因此工作机会越来越少。


What is the difference in pronunciation between saying "jin" and "jing"?

Studies have shown that if you grow up in a language environment where speakers do not distinguish between two sounds, your brain will lose the ability to easily perceive the difference between them. A notable example of this phenomenon is the inability for most Japanese speakers to distinguish between r and l.

Jiangsu is an area where the Wu Chinese dialects are traditionally spoken. The Wu dialects, on the whole, do not distinguish between final nasal consonants such as n and ng. In many cases, they are allophonic, with the consonant that is actually produced being determined by the vowel that precedes it. This is likely the reason why you currently don't perceive the difference between jin and jing, because the two syllables have the same vowel when spoken according to the standard. However, it is possible to train yourself to perceive them as separate sounds.

Being able to produce both the n and ng sounds is the first step in helping you recognize the difference between them. It may be helpful for you to think of the relationship between the n and ng sounds as being similar to the relationship between the t and k sounds.

The n sound is an alveolar nasal and the t sound is an alveolar stop, which mean that they are both produced with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, which is where your teeth meet your gums.
The ng sound is a velar nasal and the k sound is a velar stop. They are both produced with the tongue touching the velum, which is located near the back of the roof of your mouth.

Alveolar sounds require that your top and bottom teeth be touching; therefore, when you say jin, you should end with your top and bottom teeth touching and the tip of your tongue should be against your gum ridge. However, velar sounds are produced with a slightly open mouth, so in order to pronounce jing, try to end the syllable with your mouth slightly open; your top and bottom teeth should not be touching and the back of your tongue should be against the back of the roof of your mouth.

Once you've practice being able to pronounce the two distinctly, keep repeating it to yourself and you should be able to start training your brain to notice the difference when you hear it in speech.


Is there an Old Chinese dictionary which shows clearly the usage of a word?

古漢語既常以單字爲詞，容個人推薦 《王力古漢語字典》。

我也很贊成@水巷孑蠻的建議，應該用繁體讀古文。不但有簡繁轉換一對多的一個問題，古文裏假借與通假字甚多，分析古文的時侯字與詞的聲、調、韻等十分重要。簡體新造字用的聲部多數都不符合古漢語的聲韻。

例：《王力古漢語字典》「語」字詞條：


酿 means lead to/result in in that sentence.

As the original meaning of 酿 is "the process of making wine", the sentence

  A + 酿(成) + B

is a metaphor for "A leads to B (in a gradual/long-term process)", 喻事情积渐而成.

Issue of the causality

Personally, I think the sentence

  苹果 iPhone 5 酿致命意外。 Apple iPhone 5 leads to a fatal accident.

is not rigorous enough. Though it is acceptable, and one may complete the sentence in mind as

  苹果 iPhone 5 (的设计缺陷) 酿致命意外。 (The design flaw of) Apple iPhone 5 leads to a fatal accident.

So, a more logical sample sentence would be

  疏忽酿大错。 Carelessness leads to serious blunders.


猴山 is the metaphor for his interest group, his friends are treated as monkeys, his group are treated as a mountain.


title: 松龄鹤寿, pine's age and crane's life. seal: 长寿, long life。There is not any artist information.


Use 個 if the correct measure word is unknown

You should learn those measure word one by one because most of native speakers don't use "個" for every nouns. But sometimes if you forget or don't know the word you should use, most people still know what you're referring to with the word "個" in most case.

Why I said in most case? Here's an example: (Actually, it's a joke.)

The foreigners usually have a big trouble if they should use "個" and "子". "個" is a measure word(量詞) when you have no idea which word you should use while "子" is something we add after a thing for better reading, like "桌子", "椅子".

So, one day. Tom walked into a watch store and ask for a new watch: "老闆，我想要買一個錶子。"(Lao ban, wo xiang yao mai yi ge biao zi).


An unknown, calligraphic Traditional Chinese character (Character identified: 常)

What you posted is 常 (pinyin: chang2).

It means always or often, and with New Year decorations, can appear in combination for example in well-wishing phrases about happiness, fortunes, health, etc.

Recognition might be difficult because this is not the regular script typically seen in print text, but is instead written in semi-cursive script, also known as running script (pinyin: xing2 shu, t: 行書, s: 行书, Vietnamese: Hành thư)

The bottom part of 常 is composed of 口 (mouth, pinyin: kou3) and 巾 (pinyin: jin), and normally these shapes are clearly discernible when looking at the regular script version
but in your posted example it is condensed: the box-like 口 is reduced to a mere triangle and merged with the 巾
the top half's strokes are still recognizable though, not drastically altered compared to regular script
it shows condensed strokes typical of cursive script, yet has not been completely condensed, so it should be semi-cursive not cursive

Another example, listed as semi-cursive:

(source: supfree.net)

notice the similar condensed shapes and strokes at the bottom

Source: http://shufa.supfree.net/raky.asp?zi=%B3%A3

As for the Simplified vs. Traditional aspect, not every Traditional Chinese character has been changed to make Simplified Chinese, for example: character for the number one 一 (pinyin: yi). 常 is also an example of a character that the authors of Simplified Chinese did not simplify, so under Simplified Chinese it remains unchanged from Traditional Chinese.

Hope this helped,

Happy Lunar New Year!


方便: a "skillful means" of translating upāya or not?

The meaning of 方便 (In the viewpoint of Buddhism)

明代《三藏法數》
方便
方即方法，便即便宜，猶善巧也。

or

清末民初《丁福保 佛學大辭典》
方便
方者方法，便者便用，便用契於一切眾生之機之方法也。又方為方正之理，便為巧妙之言辭。對種種之機，用方正之理與巧妙之言也，又方者眾生之方域，便者教化之便法，應諸機之方域，而用適化之便法，謂之方便。

The above content is translated in 《Soothill-Hodous Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms》 as follows.

方便 upāya
Convenient to the place, or situation, suited to the condition, opportune, appropriate; but 方 is interpreted as 方法 method, mode, plan, and 便 as 便用 convenient for use, i. e. a convenient or expedient method; also 方 as 方正 and 便 as 巧妙, which implies strategically correct.
……
The meaning is-- teaching according to the capacity of the hearer, by any suitable method, including that of device or stratagem, but expedience beneficial to the recipient is understood.

Who came first?
One argument is shown below.
“方便”一詞的來源，你知道嗎？
第二段第一行 The first line of the second paragraph:

“方便”源於佛經。它的本義指佛普渡眾生時所採用的各種方法、手段。

"方便" is derived from Buddhist sutras. Its original meaning refers to the various methods and means used during the Buddha's salvation.
最後一段第一行 The first line of the last paragraph:

施行方法、手段、見機行事，其目的、結果就是與人便利，使人舒適。所以“方便”又引伸有便利、舒適、適宜之義。

The purpose and the result of the method, the means and the action are to give convenience to people or to make people comfortable. Therefore, 方便 is extended to convenient, comfortable or appropriate.


How and when is 做 used as the verb "to be"?

"做" has a meaning of "充当，担任" (serves as, work as) (from 现代汉语词典 Modern Chinese Dictionary). It is different from "是" (to be).

The nuance of English and Chinese here is a little different. In Chinese, we don't say "I don't want to be [a slave]" (我不愿是[奴隶]). It is always "I don't want to serve as (become, etc.) a slave" (我不愿做(成为)奴隶).


What is the evidence that "Ospreys" are the birds in the first poem in the Shijing?

Have a look here
This interested me too a while back.
“分析风头鸊鷉的资料感觉，雎鸠是风头鸊鷉的可能性大些。”
关关雎鸠 should be 关关风头鸊鷉???


How correct and how widespread is the usage of writing pinyin "ü" as "yu"?

It's a workaround, and I would recommend that it be treated as such.

The official romanisation of Chinese has an international standard, currently (as of mid-2019) ISO 7098:2015. This does mandate the use of pinyin ü where required.

However, the article refers to a PRC national standard, GB/T 28039-2011, for "acceptable" (not correct) romanisation in international fields (it gives international sports tournaments as an example). Toneless pinyin, how to do double-barrelled surnames, and how to deal with a lack of ü are all covered. For the latter, it specifically states under section 6:

  根据技术处理的特殊需要，必要的场合 (如公民护照、对外文件和书刊等)

This was extended by the website above, but with a rule to transliterate 略 lüè and 虐 nüè not to lyue and nyue respectively, but to as lue and nue (as doing so does not introduce any ambiguity anyway).

Why ü as yu? That's the most sensible option for the sound represented in IPA by /y/, if you exclude all other diacritics:

The "ü" sound in Hanyu Pinyin is the same sound as "yu". 女, with "ü", rhymes with 语, with "yu".
Tongyong Pinyin, official in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008, uses "yu" consistently instead of "ü".
The Jyutping romanisation for Cantonese (which also has the /y/ vowel frequently) uses "yu" consistently too.

In what circumstances would one see this then? Passports and other "inherently international" official ones seem to the main target, where known technical issues exist. I personally would consider this workaround to be less correct than the use of ü (as per international standards), but if you are writing an article with a specific company, they may be using that online source as a sort of "house style".

In the wild, of course, the most common is in practice "v".


Placement of object with adverbial phrase

1) is natural. 2) sound unnatural without context. In certain contexts, 2) can be used.

1) is an example of a topic-prominent sentence.

"这件事" is the topic. Everything that follows the topic describes it. i.e. "你做得越快越好". When there is a topic, you can usually translate it literally to English in the form of "As for [topic], [things following the topic]". So here, 这件事你做得越快越好。 can be translated as "As for this thing, the faster you do it, the better".

Other examples of topic-prominent sentences include

  我头疼。

  lit. As for me, head hurts. (This is different from 我的头疼 where 我的头 is the subject and 疼 is the verb. In 我头疼, 头 is technically the subject)

  笔借我一下。

  lit. As for the pen, lend it to me.

I will probably use 2) where I want to emphasize that you should really do it ASAP. That's why I tell you to do it fast first, then the thing that you need to do, just to be clear.

  Would "你做这件事" and "你做事情" be more natural?

你做这件事 sounds like I am telling you to do this thing, instead of some other things. 你做事情 sounds unnatural.

3) is another topic prominent sentence, it translates to:

  As for this thing, you do it.

I would say that 3) puts more emphasis on "you" while 4) puts more emphasis on "this thing".


It is true that this word originally comes from 《晋书·夏侯湛传》：“方将保重啬神，独善其身。”
But we use it in situation of farewell. 珍重 is heavier than 保重。 珍重包含了珍惜cherish.

保 是保住，保持，守 。 keep， reserve probably.

重 has two tones:

zhòng 是分量较大，与“轻”相反。 large amount or heavy. opposite with light. 很重，举重。
chóng means again. doubled. 重复，重播。

In the phrase 保重 is zhòng. In my appoint: strong power. strength.

Does it make sense? (Reference.)


CCTV News: 海外观察：英国华人抗疫进行时: please correct my transcription

Sorry I couldn't add comments to existing answers, while being pretty good, there are some small mistakes within the existing answer, so I'll post the entire transcript below, feel free to ask me any questions in the comment:

英国有近八十万的华侨华人群体，也是全球重要的留学目的地，有二十二万的中国留学生。疫情之下，在英华人的生活状况怎么样，华商的经营又受到了哪些冲击，来看欧洲时报英国负责人李强的观察。

疫情的确给在英的华人带来了方方面面的影响。有些华人表示，他们受到了歧视；英国中小学关闭、大学停课呢，使得很多留学生打乱了学习计划；餐饮业和旅游业，都是在英华人的支柱产业，也是受本次疫情影响最大的行业。疫情的持续蔓延也必将使得很多的华人的收入大打折扣。以伦敦的唐人街为例，这是最近的景象，只有华人超市还在正常经营，大量的餐厅已经停业，少数的餐厅呢还在提供外卖服务，但是整个街区非常的冷清。伦敦的唐人街位于市中心非常核心的位置，平时的人流量非常的大。这是朋友拍摄的两个月前伦敦的唐人街的景象，和今天的冷清形成了鲜明的对比。

面对疫情，特别是在早期，在英华人比英国民众有着更清晰的认识，我们很早就戴上了口罩。面对英国政府出台的全民居家隔离政策，在英的华人群体也更自觉地响应和支持。不仅如此，英国的华人还积极地向英国医疗机构捐款捐物。

面对疫情，在英的华人群体涌现出了很多值得敬佩的身影。在英的中医师们，自发地组织了“英国中医志愿抗疫行动”，为大家提供远程义诊，并为大家寄送抗疫中药；在英华人成立了志愿者组织，为有困难的侨胞和留学生朋友提供帮助。这是我今天在朋友圈看到的，一位十三岁的华人小留学生，选择在超市给老人的特定购物时段，在超市门口免费为英国的老人发放口罩。

病毒是可怕的，但是我相信只要大家保持乐观、共同努力，一定可以取得这场抗疫战争的胜利。

Edit: suggested edit trimmed down some punctuations, dropped several "呢" from the reporter's sentences, making the paragraph smoother to read, gratefully accepted :)


What is the Chinese translation for "endure and move on"?

It's often better to provide the whole English sentence for translation. As divergent as the two language can go, a phrase-to-phrase translation is often less than pragmatic.

What I can get is "忍受悲伤, 继续前行". But as Stan said, if you move on, you usually put away your sorrows, or 抛却悲伤 instead.

There is a phrase from classical Chinese, "隐忍以行". It is an exact structural match to your phrase. However, it implies endurance for a greater cause than love.


When I hear the name 胜天, the first thing that comes to my mind is the idiom "人定胜天"

人的智慧和力量可以战胜自然 (Human wisdom and strength can overcome nature)

The name 胜天 implies optimism and confidence
~
楚 is a common family name, it means:

clear; neat; in good order

name of a state in the Eastern Zhou period (770-256 BC)

a name for the region of Hubei and Hunan

To describe your name, you can say: 我的名字是楚胜天。楚国的楚，胜利的胜，天空的天。(any common two characters compound word would do)


Are we allowed to omit 在 in 在…里，在…内 structure?

In my experience(correct me if there's any exception), the structure '在...里'(as well as '在...前', '在...后', '在...上', '在...下' etc), when followed by '的' and then a noun, serving as an adj, is allowed to omit 在.
Examples: 房子里的人，公园里的树，信里的字.
And when it's after a verb as an adv, you can't omit 在.
Examples: 站在房子里，种在公园里，写在信里.
btw, I don't think the first sentence is correctly parsed:

Two thirds of Californians live within 15 miles of the coast.
三分之二的加利福尼亚人居住在离海岸15英里以内的地区。

15英里以内 -> no more than 15 miles
离海岸15英里以内 -> no more than 15 miles from the coast
离海岸15英里以内的地区 -> areas that are no more than 15 miles from the coast
居住在离海岸15英里以内的地区 -> live in areas that are no more than 15 miles from the coast
there's no '在...内' structure in this sentence at all.


The calligraphy seems identify two namings(both should be male names): 張果(right column), 朱自然(left column)
But I didn't found any related information or related about Zen for these namings from Google.


What is the exact meaning of '能虐到我的只有没钱'?

虐 means "torture"

In combat game lingo 完虐 (complete torture) means "defeat someone in a completely dominating fashion that it is not even a fight but a one sided torture"

The usage of 完虐 has extended outside of gaming field. It can be used in any field of competition, or simply describe " dominating"

能虐到我的 - the thing that can defeat me like a one sided torture

只有没钱 - is only poverty

He is not afraid of anything, but afraid of being poor very much


Formatted as a code block
(With U+3000 IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE)

　　殺　　輸肝剖膽　禮　　　　隔
群龍無首　打　　　　賢　赤　　牆
策　赦　　贏　席捲天下　子虛烏有
群　　波　要塞　土　士　之　　耳
力挽狂瀾　　翁　重　　賞心樂事
　　　萬無一失　來者不善　　業
魔高一丈　　馬　　　　罰　　線
　　　　馬　焉　　　作惡多端
梅花樁　首　知足常樂　　行
開　　似是而非　　而　　不脛而走
二郎神　瞻　福　　忘恩負義　　馬
度　乎　　　　　　返　荊　煮　看
　　其　胸無點墨　　　請　豆腐花
黔驢技窮　妄　　非戰之罪　燃
　　　兵刀之災　　死　　　萁
　　　黷　災　　　沙塵滾滾　　楓
勝之不武　　十里洋場　　開枝散葉

Down (numbers)

 1. 群策群力 People use their collective wisdom and abilities to work together
 2. 梅開二度 (something good) Happens twice
 3. 殺無赦 Give no quarter
 4. 神乎其技 Awesome skill
 5. 波瀾萬丈 Miles of waves
 6. 窮兵黷武 Overly militaristic; Wantonly engage in military ventures
 7. 馬首是瞻 Follow the leader's direction
 8. 輸打贏要  Bad sportsmanship (Cantonese expression)
 9. 無妄之災 Unexpected disaster (with no fault of one's own)
 10. 塞翁失馬焉知非福 Misfortune may turn out to be a blessing in disguise
 11. 捲土重來 Return strongly (in high profile)
 12. 樂而忘返 Too happy and forgets the time to go
 13. 戰死沙場 Fight and die on the battlefield
 14. 敬賢下士 禮賢下士 (Someone in a high position) Can treat talented people with respect and courtesy
 15. 賞善罰惡 Reward the good, punish the bad
 16. 負荊請罪 Admit mistakes to the other party, ask for punishment and forgiveness
 17. 赤子之心 A heart as kind and pure as a child's
 18. 多行不義 Have done many bad things
 19. 滾開 Get lost!
 20. 煮豆燃萁 Brother harming brother
 21. 事業線 Palm reading: 'Career line'
 22. 隔牆有耳 Someone could be listening
 23. 走馬看花 Looking at things roughly without seeing the details
 24. 楓葉 A national symbol of Canada

Across (letters)

 A. 輸肝剖膽 OR 輸肝瀝膽 Metaphor for being loyal to each other (Similar to 肝瞻相照)
 B. 群龍無首 Leaderless
 C. 席捲天下 Conquer and unify the world
 D. 子虛烏有 False things; fictional
 E. 要塞 Fortress
 F. 力挽狂瀾 To try hard to save a desperate crisis; Overcome impossible odds
 G. 賞心樂事 Pleasant activity
 H. 萬無一失 Will never fail; totally secure
 I. 來者不善 The visitor is not the friendly type
 J. 魔高一丈 The evil is always a step ahead ('道高一尺'下句)
 K. 作惡多端 Have done many evil deeds
 L. 梅花樁 See picture
 M. 知足常樂 People do not desire much would always be happy
 N. 似是而非 Seems right on the surface, but isn't
 O. 不脛而走 Metaphor for the news spread quickly without promotion
 P. 二郎神 楊戩
 Q. 忘恩負義 Ungrateful
 R. 胸無點墨 Have no literary knowledge
 S. 豆腐花 The other name for Tofu brain (mostly in the Southen China regions)
 T. 黔驢技窮 Metaphor for people who used up all his tricks, and have nothing left
 U. 非戰之罪 A famous quote from 項羽 after he lost his final battle, basically saying it was the heaven decided he would lose, not the fault of him fighting this war.
 V. 兵禍之慘 兵刀之災 War disaster
 W. 沙塵滾滾 heavy dust rolling
 X. 勝之不武 It is unfair and undesirable to win against an overmatched opponent.
 Y. 十里洋場 Referred to the Shanghai French concession area in the olden time.
 Z. 開枝散葉 Idiom: (of trees) be luxuriant, be flourishing; (fig.) To have a lot of offsprings


What is the difference between 他, 它, and 她

Disclaimer: I am a native speaker, but I am neither a professional linguist, nor have I received any sufficient grammar training beyond high school Chinese, so please take a grain of salt.

“他” would be “he” in English， “她” would be “she” and “它” would be “it". We use it exactly like that in English.

a mnemonic device: the left component of "她” is “女字旁”， which is an indication that the word is related to female.


Which translation is best for 'quid pro quo'?

"quid pro quo " means "a favor or advantage granted or expected in return of something". A literal translation would be 对等交换 (equal exchange)

There are some Chinese idioms similar to it

有來有往 (things go both way)

投桃报李 (repay favor with favor)

礼尚往来 (repay in kind)

  There should always be a quid pro quo. 总是应该有个 ? ? ?

总是应该有个"对等交换" (literal)

总是应该有个"礼尚往来" (idiomatic)


Dull (adjective) as in 'a dull knife' is 钝 in Mandarin. There is not a two-character version for it.
Dull (vt.) as in 'dull the knife' is 使..变钝, literally 'make .. become dull'.
Example of 钝 (adjective):

It's impossible to cut a pineapple with such a dull knife.
用一把这么钝的刀子切菠萝是不可能的。

To translate your sentence, which is also an example of 使..变钝:

Using the knife on these types of surfaces will dull the knife.
在这些类型的表面上用刀会使刀变钝。

Related words:

(Knife or blade) sharp (adjective): 快 or 锋利.

快 must be used in the same sentence as the noun (刀), otherwise it doesn't mean 'sharp'. 锋利 can be used standalone.

Sharpen the knife (V+O): 磨刀.

An example using all these words:

刀子用多了会变钝，磨一磨就又变快了。
Knife becomes dull after some use. Burnish it and it will be sharp again.


When I try to differentiate similar words, I always try to inspect the character inside to dig the nuances out.

结果: The process that plants bear fruits. It is natural.

成果: Involved your works.

成绩: Involved your works, and the result can be measured subjectively, usually can be compared with others.

果实: fruits. The specific things that represent the result.

成就: Achievements, honorable.

成功: success in general, honorable is not necessary.

  When to use 成功的果实?

Let's say I got the championship of the world cup, I am holding the cup and celebrating.

My coach talks to me: 享受你的成功果实吧.

Here 果实 means the cup.

胜利的果实

And then FIFA say that our team violate rules, the championship title would be taken back. I could say 我们的胜利果实被夺走了.

Here 果实 means the title.

Usually, you will see 胜利果实, 成功果实 is not common.

Finally, I will use all the words in one context.

我们成功了, 我们的最好成绩是世界杯冠军, 这是一个伟大的成就. 科学训练成果非凡, 场下努力付出, 场上自然收获了不起的果实.


What the online community thinks

From Baidu 百科:

  准确读音 xià zài

  　　“下载”这个词，规范读音按照现代汉语词典、现代汉语规范词典等权威字典的标注应为“xià zài”。随着电脑的普及，这个词使用的频率越来越高，但可惜的是绝大多数人一开口就是从网上“xià zǎi”，就连播音员、主持人也读“xià zǎi”，如央视的晚间新闻在播送“网络侵权BT下载”时就读成“xià zǎi”。可以说电台、电视台的播音员、节目主持人对“xià zǎi”这个错误的读音起了推波助澜的作用。就目前的趋势来看，要推广“下载”的正确读音已非常困难，已经习非成是了。这些现象给人一种感觉，好像电台、电视台的播音员、节目主持人的发音很随意，因为这些错误的读音许多是在同一个播音员或主持人嘴里反复发出的，而这些错误的读音又严重影响了普通话规范语音的推广普及。这是当前语言文字规范化工作中不容忽视的一个问题。

It says: According to the Modern Chinese Dictionary and other authoritative sources, the accurate pronunciation should be "xià zài". But due to the proliferation of computers and rise in the usage frequency of this term, the great majority of the people when they speak, pronounce it as “xià zǎi”. This includes radio and tv hosts, and even a newscaster from CCTV. This mispronunciation has a rippling effect that from current trend seems difficult to reverse and has already become a norm. The phenomenon seems to give one the impression that the these professionals are very lax in their pronunciation. However, the mistake, in most occasions, originated from one host or one presenter, repeated over a number of times. These mispronunciations have seriously impeded the popularisation and standardization of Mandarin as the universal dialect, and is a problem that should not be ignored.

The above is further corroborated with answers to the same question here.

What a research shows

There is an interesting research paper on this “下载”的读音和释义 (http://202.194.40.31:8080/ec2006/C234/res/7/res/201010241009%5B29477%5D.pdf).

To summarize:

The two most authoritative dictionaries give different
interpretations of the same term:

  下载 xià zài: 从互联网或其他计算机上获取信息并装入到某台计算机或其他电子装置上 (跟 “上传” 相对)。

  《现代汉语词典》(第 5 版)

  下载  xià zǎi: 将互联网或其他电子计算机上的信息资料复制到本台计算机上 (跟 “上载” 相对)。

  《现代汉语规范词典》
  According to research [see table], most of the dictionaries indicate
  the pronunciation as "xià zài", however this is inconclusive since
  many of the minor dictionaries take reference from the more
  authoritative sources such as《现代汉语词典》and《新华词典》.
  According to a classroom survey of about 500, 68% respondents
  indicated that they pronounce the term as "xià zǎi" while 32%
  pronounce as "xià zài".
  An online poll was also conducted with a clear majority of 94%
  pronouncing the term as "xià zǎi" out of 225 respondents.
  "记载" and "装载" are the two most closely associated terms with "下载".
  The word "载" is derived from "车" and "装载" precedes "记载" which is
  derived from "containing" in a metaphorical sense.

  The above are some points put forth by the author, I left out part of his argument and conclusion which I find subjective and highly debatable.

Justifications

The use of "xià zǎi" can be justified to be derived from the term "记载" (jì zǎi) since "下载" or download refers to receiving a copy of the original file on the local system. The action of copying can be taken to mean recording or "记载" although it is not so obvious to some.

The use of "xià zài" can be justified by the single word "载" (zài) which means transporting. Downloading is a process of transmitting (or transporting) electronic data from the remote system to the local system.

The verdict

Inconclusive. Use whichever pronunciation that you feel can get the other party understand you.


生活 is life as in "family life/private life/sex life/working life".
生命 is life as in "Cats are supposed to have nine lives/He lost his life in an accident"


Both is correct. Yay!

Think "I'm ABLE to code." and "I HAVE THE ABILITY of coding."


过来 means "come over/ come here", 坐过来 means "sit over here"

下来 means "come down/ get down here) 坐下来 means "sit down"

起来 if used by itself, means "get up/ stand up", also carries a sense of "direction." when used in a combo like
说起来 (when being talked about) 做起来 (when being worked on) it carries a meaning of "being brought up" or "being initiated." In this case, its usage is not necessarily indicative of "direction."

all three can be used by themselves or in a combo like the examples i give.


Mandarin: difference between 還好 and 還可以?

'還好' here is short for '還(算)好' - 'still (considered) fine/ good'
'還可以' here is short for '還(算)可以' - 'still (considered) acceptable/ okay'
If someone asked you "How is your college life?" you can reply: "還好" or '還可以' (life in college for me is fine / life in college for me is okay). The two terms are interchangeable in this sense
If someone told you: "The cost of replacing the door is $500" and you replied: "還可以". That meant you considered this charge is fair and within the limit of your acceptability; If you replied: "還好".  Then it would mean you're feeling lucky that it is only $500.
"還好" carries a tone of 'feeling lucky' ('still fine' means 'not bad yet'.  "還可以" doesn't carry this tone.)

還好 is more negative than 還可以.

'Negative' only in the case of the alternates. If it is not "還好" (still fine) then it is 'already bad'; If it is not "還可以" (still okay) then it is 'already unacceptable'.

I have to mention '還好' is short for '還(算)好' and '還可以' is short for '還(算)可以' here in your question,  because '還好' in different context could mean "luckily" and '還可以' in different context could mean " can also"
For Example:
1. 還好你沒有去上班，有人把辦公室燒了。 (fortunately you didn't go to work-- Someone set the office in fire.)
2. 不僅是日本，去韓國也還可以。(Not only Japan, you can also go to South Korea.)


What's the difference between 主任 and 主管?

When "主管" is used as a noun, it is usually a title for a position in a private company, who is in charge of a department, e.g., "人事部门主管".  It is a very general word, sometimes informal.  But if there are "主管" and "主任" in the same company, then often "主管" is of higher position, but not necessarily. I seldom see in the press that "主管" is used as a noun to describe an government officer or nation-owner company because  basically they often have more formal titles, which can be "主任" when he or she is the leader of a "中心" or "办公室", and for department X=科/处/局/厅/部/乡/镇/县/区/市/省 is "X长", basically, e.g, "信息化与网络中心主任", "劳动局局长".  It is safe to say "政府各部门主管" （leaders of departments of the government）, but in mainland it is often as "政府各部门领导同志".  However, it may be used as a verb to describe a government officer, e.g., "陈副市长主管教育。"（Vice Mayer Chen is in charge of educational affairs.）

I believe "主任" is seldom used as a verb.  It is mainly used as a noun, which is title of the chief officer of "中心" or "办公室", sometimes "委员会".

The interesting part is, "主任" is not necessarily a leader, but only a high-end professional.  "王主任" can often mean an experienced doctor (Physician, surgeon , dentist ...)

So 主管 and 主任, who is more powerful?  In a private company, "主管" can be in a higher position, but it varies with companies.  But when the 主任 is of government or who works for government, his or her position varies a lot.  He or she can be "街道办主任", who is an officer of not-that-high position, in charge of several blocks, or "中央网络安全和信息化委员会主任", who is, well, President Xi Jinping.


As a pronoun 本 has two meanings, here’s oxfords definitions and example sentences

 PRONOUN
1 自己方面的 one's own
本单位
one's own department
本校
our school
▶ 本地, 本国, 本人
2 这 this
本案被告
defendant in this case
本合同
the present contract
本星期

In the second meaning you can see it means the same as 这 - so to answer question number one: yeah pretty much any noun can come after it but this is markedly more formal than 这 or 这个 - might sound very 官腔 if you were to use it in casual speech.
To answer question number two, when should we normally use 本 as a pronoun there are quite a few instances:
本周 if you’re a Starbucks guy this is a big one - this is their terminology for brewed coffee as opposed to espresso based drinks. If you’re preparing public speaking addresses 本周 is okay for this week as well but a bit stuffy for my liking.
本人 is good for addressing others personally like:

你本人怎么想呢？

本地 is another common one used often in conversation.


It means "Certificate of Handsome Guy" or "Handsome Guy Certificate".


Not exactly.

Long answer:

According to 现代汉语规范词典 / The Standard Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese
Copyright © 2010, 2012 Oxford University Press and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing, Co., Ltd. and 牛津英汉汉英词典 / Oxford Chinese Dictionary
Copyright © 2010, 2013 Oxford University Press and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing Co., Ltd.

  脱产 tuōchǎn
  [动]脱离原来从事的直接生产岗位，担任非生产性工作或专门学习；也泛指脱离原来的工作岗位，担任其他工作或专门学习。
  基层干部大都不脱产 | 脱产进修

  脱产 tuōchǎn
  [动]
  be released from one’s regular work to take on other duties
  脱产进修
  go on block release
  脱产学习
  be given study leave

In real life, 脱产培训 could mean both quitting your job and take a training or suspending your work duties and take a training.

I assume off the job training means a training you take not as part of your job. And a on job training is a training as part of your job.

But for 脱产培训, if you quit your job and take a training, it certainly is an off-the-job training. But not all off-the-job trainings are 脱产培训 since you can have a job at day and take some personal training at night which should still be counted as off-the-job training even you have a regular work duty.

On the other hand, if your normal duties are suspended and be provided a training opportunity by your company, the training still counts as 脱产培训 but not off-the-job training. Because the training is part of your job, it is on-job-training.

A bit confusing. To sum up, 脱产 concerns more about whether or not your are released from production, i.e your primary duty, not whether or not it is related to your job or organisation.


给 is the most common one and the equivalent to give in modern Chinese.

And we do not use the single character 施. It is usually in words like 施舍， 施予 etc.
Don't know where you see it meaning "waving banner" or "to spread". It just means normal to give in some words. However, this character have several means other than "give", which can be only identified by the word or context.

Also 予 is not used alone. "a looming shuttle" ??? I've no idea about this. Common words including 予: ～以 赐～ 赋～ 给～ . Note: sometimes its meaning is an abstraction of "give", and can be translated as "grant".

Last one, 赏, when it is a verb, the most precise translation maybe award, meaning grant someone his/her reward, and usually given by his/her superiors. For example, giving some gold to a war hero from his monarch.


The right hand side is not 「」, it is the standard Taiwanese and Korean shape of 「及」. Maybe you're accustomed to seeing one of the other locale shapes.


The connotation of 学堂 is more than "an old expression of school", but "an old-style school in ancient China". A typical 学堂 only has one room and one teacher and few students (compared with a modern school). Just imagine the place where Confucius taught his followers.

学校:

学堂:


Difference between 余 and 多; the use of 岁 and 年

Both are fine but there is a subtle difference.

百余年 is rather formal and literary, and sounds like something from transcript of a documentary / speech / piece of writing. You would rarely say 百余年 in daily conversations.

一百多年 can also be used in writing but people also use it in colloquial situations.


Does "Ni zai nar? Ni zuo shenme?" correctly express "Where are you? What are you doing?"

We usually don't say "你做什么(ni zuo shen me)". We only say it when we are shocked, like when you just meet a man trying to robber you, you'll say that to him.

If you're asking someone what are you doing, you should use "你在做什么(ni zai zuo shen me)".


你认为做什么事的时候时间过得最快: Could some explain the meaning of this sentence

Is this sentence easier to understand now?
你认为：做什么事的时候，时间过得最快？
时间过得最快 => Time passes the fastest. This is relatively easy to parse, I reckon.
The first part of the sentence is trickier. "X的时候" means "when X". At first glance X seems like it might be the whole 你认为做什么 clause or only 做什么. But 认为 is used to talk about one's opinion, so 你认为做什么 as a standalone clause doesn't make sense. That means "做什么事的时候" ("when doing what thing") is correct; and the question is "What is it that when you do it time flies the fastest?"
An answer to this question would be 我认为玩电脑的时候时间过得最快 (I think time flies the fastest when (I'm) playing computer games).


What does the character in this Naruto poster mean?

This is not Chinese, it's Japanese(絆). The meaning of the character in very different in the two languages now.

The meaning of the symbol is already shown in the picture : bonds (between friends, family members, etc.)


Depend on the context, 好 and/or 完 can be used.

好 is more oral friendly as there is no emphasize of any difference between the speaker and the listener. In some cases, using 好 may show a closer relation between the parties of conversation than 完.

On the other hand, 完 is more formal. It is a better parallel to "finish" comparing to 好 as the latter has broader usage. Be weary while using 完 as it is often used when the parties involved in conversion are not equal.

For instance, 完 is used when your boss speaks to you, your teacher speaks to you, your group leader speaks to you, etc. 好 on the other hand, tend to be used when your friend speaks to you, your partner speaks to you, etc.


1st picture:
咱们可以把地下室改为变成(not sure)
体操室，乒乓球室，玩跑跑
跳跳的(not sure)
We can alter the to basement to a gymnastics room, a table tennis room, to play and jump there.
A.
地下室的那些大件，我们无法把
弄出地下室。是否可以在南宁生 (not sure) 网上
发布消息，有婴幼儿大件物品免费 (later inserted word) 送出，
自己负责搬运。
地下室的那些大件，我们无法弄出地下室。是否可以在 ？？？ 网上发布消息，有婴幼儿大件物品免费送出，自己负责搬运。
We can't get the big items in the basement out. Should we post a message on the ??? website, that we have some free big infant items, but need to move it by self.
清理后：①体操②乒乓球
Left (after cleaning): 1. gymnastics 2. ping pong (table tennis)
B.
娱乐室的一侧衣帽间存放了两张
床垫和铁床执架，基本已满。
娱乐室的一侧衣帽间存放了两张床垫和铁床架，基本已满。
There are two mattresses and iron bed frames stored in one side of the recreation room, almost full.
①另一侧的物品是否打算捐出？
Should the items on the other side intended to be donated?
②睡房的三张海执绵垫捐出吧，床垫
已经够多了。睡房衣帽间打算整理一下，放衣物。
睡房的三张海绵垫捐出吧，床垫已经够多了。衣帽间打算整理一下，放衣物。
There are enough mattresses, we can donate three sponge mats in the bedroom. The cloakroom is going to be sorted to store clothes.
执: about to write 垫 and then deleted.
2nd picture:
用外卖饭盒的铁线做个 (not sure for it's blocked) 挂勾 (should be 挂钩 here)
Make a hook with the iron wire (means the handle here) of the takeaway box.
周三晚餐 (written as 歺 here)：
Dinner for Wednesday:
1.煎荷包蛋，三只fried poached egg, of three.
2.滚牛肉丸，10粒rolled beef balls, of ten.
3.蚝油炒西兰花，青豆粒fried broccoli with oyster sauce, and green beans.
4.煮饭cook rice.


Parsing and understanding 吃 in 对不断变化的模式无法继续追加观察，而吃了经由茧利在纳贾库普身体中...?

The text you posted is extended from a simple sentence

  " Subject (omitted) 吃了 (took) 电气刺激 (an electric shock)

  from the simple sentence above, additional relative clauses are added to give more information:

  "对不断变化的模式无法继续追加观察" stating the cause of the subject took an electric shock, was the subject couldn't track and observe the continually changing mode (of an object, which is also omitted)

  "经由茧利在纳贾库普身体中设置的装置产生的" is a adjectival clause for the noun "电气刺激". It describes the origin of the electric shock (which was generated by the device that 茧利 implanted in 纳贾库普's body)

  '吃' in '吃了' doesn't mean 'to eat' , it means 'took' as in  'took a left hook' (吃了一记左钩拳)

[实际上，] "In fact" (opening proclamation)

[subject] (omitted)

[对不断变化的模式无法继续追加观察，] (relative clause, stating the cause)

[而] "Therefore"

[吃了] " took"

[经由茧利在纳贾库普身体中设置的装置产生的] (relative clause, adds details information on the following noun

[电气刺激。] electric shock (noun)

[吃了电气刺激。] "took an electric shock" (result)


矮 short (as opposed to 高 tall) vertically short
For example, a person, a building, a wall can be 高 or 矮.
短 short (as opposed to 長 long) horizontally short
For example, a street, a piece of string can be 長 or 短.
You may wonder, what about things like pants? When they are on someone's body, they are vertical. With articles of clothing, it's always 長 or 短, because the orientation is dependent on the person wearing them. On their own, the pants cannot stay "vertical" and therefore are not considered "vertical" objects.
長 or 短 is also used for abstract things, for instance, a long day, a short engagement, a short wait ... etc.
Are there exceptions? I can't think of any right now, but others may like to chime in. Hope this helps.


Do native Chinese people view traditional singing as beautiful, such
  as the high pitched opera songs?

It's beautiful, not it's hard to be popular. The young generation is not favoring opera songs, but they might love the songs that perform opera songs in a modern/popular way.

  Do they think some American/European music like Italian opera or
  others sound strange, while Americans/Europeans think it sounds
  beautiful? If so, what would be an example?

Not strange if the ACG use opera as BGM. And the fan of opera/classical song is not large. Most of the people love listening to these songs(mostly edited to 5,6 minutes version) from radio, but they might not go to a theater to listen to hour-long opera. Although the number of the audience is increasing, but it's still too small to call a mainstream culture.

Claims: 26-year-old Native Chinese, Now living in America.


Can someone tell me what this these symbols mean?

turn the first picture anti-clockwise 90 degree, the six characters are:
“大清嘉慶年製”
roughly “made during the 5th emperor of 清 dynasty” (1796-1820)


I suggest that you shouldn't do this.
Chinese characters cannot be faithfully constructed backwards from a tone+syllable combination -- the mapping only goes one way (and even then, sometimes characters have multiple pronunciations).
For example, as you know, 馬 is generally pronounced ma3.
However, ma3 could also reference the characters 碼 (number), or 獁 (mammoth). Without context, you do not know to which I am referring if I simply write ma3.
As you amass a vocabulary, you will start to notice patterns that will give you an intuition for which character is meant by the English pinyin, with or without tone markings.
The following two Pinyin sentences are equally comprehensible to someone with a beginning Mandarin level, as the context far dominates tone markings:

ni shi bu shi wo de pengyou
ni3 shi4 bu2 shi4 wo3 de5 peng2you5

The reader would assume:

你是不是我的朋友

Eventually, soon, you will not find it useful to use tone markings when typing Pinyin. Because it is a hassle to type, and any IME worth its salt will give you the contextually correct characters. This is probably the reason such converters don't exist.
I suggest you focus your efforts instead on learning more vocabulary and reading as much as possible. The false answers from your Pinyin IME suggestion will become obviously incorrect in your eyes.


What 'nostril's hair move' have to do with fear? (嚇到鼻哥窿都冇肉)

Wayne Cheah wrote:

You are so struck with fear that your whole body trembles right to the nostril hairs, with the heavy breathing and all? Perhaps with less emphasis on personal male grooming in the old days, nostril hairs were allowed to grow much longer than now, and you could even see someone's nostril hairs tremble in fear?

Good thinking. If you have a full beard that covers your entire lower face,  most of the beard would shake when you are tumbling due to fear, but the bread under your nostril is closer to the root and tighter to your skin, therefore won't tumble and move like the rest of the bread. However, when you are extremely scared, your breathing will become heavy and the air you exhale would move that part of the bread that normally wouldn't move.
Similar logic behind 怒得吹鬚睩眼 (So angry that your bread is being blown to move and your eyes grow big)


Is there an idiomatic way to express being overwhelmed by vocabulary?

无从说起：
指事情太繁杂，要说的话很多，但不知道该从哪里说起。
Things are too complicated and there are many things to say, but don’t know where to start.
一言难尽：形容事情曲折复杂，不是一句话能说清楚的。
Describe things tortuous and complex, a sentence cannot make it clear.


Could anyone give a proper English translation to "干货”？

"干货" means solid, useful, practical and concise information with no fluff.


Are there concrete rules of conversion between "homophone" English and Chinese proper names?

Yes and no. It's a very broad subject as there are many different varieties of spoken Chinese, there are different methods of transliteration, and the rules themselves have been in flux at various times in history.

I'll just address your examples, but realise that there are many more cases and rules not covered.

  Australia : 澳大利亚 ( Àodàlìyǎ )

This name originated during a time when English -> Chinese transliteration was in its infancy and no hard rules existed. People just picked whatever characters sounded close and easy. For Australia in particular, the transliteration probably came from European missionaries, who preferred using phonetics rather than the usual Chinese preference for using single character + type, you know like 英国 or 欧洲. There's more details here: http://www.qinshuroads.org/Chinese_Australia/Oz_Name_dj.htm

  John : 约翰 ( Yuēhàn )

Again, missionaries most likely. "John" is pronounced "Yohann" or "Yohanna" in many languages.

  Singapore : 新加坡 ( Xīnjiāpō )

A bit more complex. Singapore is originally a Sanskrit name, so you're comparing two different transliterations. It's why its name resembles many Indian city names. By luck they are still similar, but it's not always the case as we'll see later...

  Hong Kong : 香港 ( Xiānggǎng )

These are not terribly similar, but that's because the English name is derived from Cantonese instead, which is pronounced Heong Gong.

  Peter : 彼得 ( Bǐdé )

Missionaries.

  Japan : 日本 ( Rìběn )

This is one of my favourites. They are the same name. Basically Portuguese got the name from Wu Chinese, for some reason, as Cipan. Meanwhile, the Dutch got the name but via Southern China, as Yatpun, which they wrote down as Ja-Pun because J sounds like Y in Dutch. Of course, neither of these routes involved Mandarin, which has its own somewhat different pronunciation.

  America : 美国 ( Měiguó )

Another interesting case. This name was settled on after a very long period of evolution, over a time where basically the Chinese had no idea how to properly transliterate European names. Note that the proper, full name for United States of America is 美利坚合众国, and 美国 is an abbreviation. But if you thought there were too many names for America, wait 'till you see how the Chinese tried to translate "President". The concept of a paramount leader that is periodically overthrown by non-nobles was really baffling. There were variants from "big leader", to complete phonetics (pu-rui-si-deng-te), to weird hybrids "伯里玺天地" (hey there, snuck in 玺 and 天地, both implying Emperor). Sinologist Jonathan Spence explores this subject in more detail.

All your examples are either complex cases or historical examples where no rules existed. That's different now, to prevent every new foreign word producing dozens of Chinese translations. Here are some related questions:

Why do Chinese translations of English names sound very inaccurate?
How do we know what characters correspond to Chinese names?
How does foreign word transliteration work in the context of Cantonese vs Mandarin?


專心 is a state of mind, roughly "concentrate, focus one's attention"

集中 is "gather or bring together", roughly "summon, muster"


How does 一个， 一位，一名 change the meaning of a sentence?

In English, an article such as "a", "an", "the" is essential element before a countable noun. In Chinese it is optional.

Comparing "He is a teacher" with "他是老師". 他/He implies there is one person. "a" is redundant.

In "他是一位老師" and "他是一名老師",  "一位" and "一名" is a kind of respect to a teacher. 位 means position and rank. 名 means famed.  In the old days, Chinese showed their high respect to teachers.

"一個" is a common measuring word. Saying "他是一個老師" is like treating a teacher as a common object or a common person.

In practical, 一 is redundant and people often say "他是位老師" and "他是名老師". So do "他是個老師".

In Classical Chinese, we can writing "他是一老師" if we emphasize it it "one".


I would say that 照相 is a noun, and should be interpreted as the action to take a picture: 我們去照相 （We go to take pictures.）In this context, you can use 拍照 in lieu of 照相。And it can be separated as a verb and a noun: 我拍了几张照 or 我照了几张相。
To summarize:

照片 = (noun) photo
照相、拍照 = (noun) the action to take pictures
我照了几张相、我拍了几张照

照、拍 = (verb) to take a picture
相、照 = (noun) photo

Furthermore, when the context is clear enough (i.e. talking about taking pictures), you can use independently 照/拍 as a verb:

你照/拍了嗎？ = 你拍照/照相了嗎？

Beware that 照/拍 alone have different meanings, that's why the context should be clear enough to use them alone.


When should I exchange nouns to pronouns?Is there a obvious rule in it?

There is no rules, but Chinese is also try to avoid duplication

父亲今年65岁了,他以前是一名律师。他的爱好是旅行，所以他经常去旅行. is totally OK.

Sometimes you can't, then try to avoid continuous duplication.

父亲今年65岁了,他以前是一名律师。父亲的爱好是旅行，所以他经常去旅行.

Author prefer synonym to eliminate duplication.

父亲今年65岁了,他以前是一名律师。老爷子的爱好是旅行，所以他老人家经常去旅行.


How would you say 绵延不绝的小山 and 一望无际的田野 in English

You are pretty close. One thing to note is that 小山 is more accurately translated as "hill" and not "mountain."

Both of these contain what could be considered a 成语 (four-character idiom), and both idioms are very similar.

绵延不绝的小山 essentially translates as "endless hills" and 一望无际的田野 basically means "fields as far as the eye can see."

For more literal translations of the individual idioms, 绵延不绝 means "continuing and stretching without cease," whereas 一望无际 means "one look without end."


Yes [够 + adj] = [adj +enough]. It works for all adjectives

Is it good enough? -> 这够好吗？

Is he strong enough? -> 他够强吗？

Is the horse fast enough? -> 这匹马够快吗？

My tea isn't sweet enough. -> 我的茶不够甜

Also:

  [够 + noun] = [enough + noun]

够钱吗?  -> Is it enough money?

够人了  -> there are enough people

  [verb + 够 ] = [verb + enough]

打够了吗? -> hit (object) enough?

这痛苦我受够了 -> I've had enough of this pain


it seems you can also say： 我帮我（的）室友搬进来了。or 我帮她搬（一些）东西近来了。
have been looking for grammatical rules requiring 把-sentence as proposed below and only found the following: 外国人实用汉语语法，５０２页：the 把-sentence must be used when the verbal predicate takes a compound directional complement and an object of place. For example: 老师把新同学带进教室来了。 大夫把那个病人送回家去了。 我们把这几件东西搬上楼去吧。（however in present case object of place seems to be missing，进宿舍楼来 would have object of place）。There also is the following which may be relevant：实用现代汉语语法（２００１年北京）７４７页：１。当谓语动词有两个宾语，一个是表示事物的名词，另一个表示经过动作后事物所在的处所时，事物名词要与介词＂把＂结合放在谓语动词前，表示处所的词语放在谓语动词后，谓语动词与处所词之间还要用一个结果补语或趋向补语。例如：（１）他们把鸡蛋放在桌子上就走了。（２）他把照片递到我面前叫我看。（３）西门豹又叫人把三老扔进了河里。。。。（again， above there is no表示处所的词语）.另一方面＂在线词典＂一共有５０个为＂搬进来＂提供的例句，而其中有以下三个似乎证实用＂把＂字句是必要的，尽管没有表示处所的宾语：
椅子在花园里,请把它搬进来，请问，要把箱子搬进来吗？，不知道是否可以让孩子们帮我把箱子搬进来.It would seem that if ＊搬东西进来  is changed to 搬进东西来 then it might become acceptable according to Representation of Chinese Grammar with Diagrams 图示汉语语法（ISBN ９７８－７－５６１９－２７９５－３）１１８页 动词 既带复合趋向补语，也带宾语例如：脱下一件衣服来，拿出一个本子来 （当然＊把一件衣服脱下来 及 ＊把一个本子拿出来 很可能违背了 ＂把＂子后面的介引成分应当是说话双方已知的，确有所指的，这个规则。


One the left, it is Zhejiang Province.  The county is Chun'an (淳安).

One the right, it is also Zhejiang Province. The county / town has no yet deducible. It is probably Wei (威) something.


Where can I find a Chinese common phrase database?

The Ministry of Education in Taiwan provides some statistics.

  表一：字頻總表
  Table 1: Character frequency

  表二：詞頻總表
  Table 2: Phrase frequency

  表三：本字彙部首出現情形說明表：依二一四部首序排列
  Table 3: Radicals, sorted by radical

  表四：本字彙部首出現情形說明表：依部首使用頻次高低序排列
  Table 4: Radicals, sorted by frequency

  表 五：本字彙表筆畫出現情形說明表：依筆畫多寡序排列
  Table 5: Strokes, sorted by the number of strokes

  表 六：本字彙表筆畫出現情形說明表：依各筆畫使用高低序排列
  Table 6: Strokes, sorted by frequency

  表 七：本字彙表音節統計表
  Table 7: Syllable statistics

  表 八：本字彙表聲母符號出現情形說明表
  Table 8: Consonant statistics

  表 九：本字彙表韻母符號出現情形說明表
  Table 9: Vowel statistics

  表 十：本字彙表聲調符號出現情形說明表
  Table 10: Tone statistics

  表十一：本字彙表聲、韻出現頻次次比對表：依出現頻次高低序排列
  Table 11: Consonants vs. vowels, sorted by frequency

  表十二：本字彙表聲母符號發聲方法出現頻次統計表
  Table 12: Pronunciation methods of the consonants

  表十三：本字彙表韻母符號發音方法出現頻次統計表
  Table 13: Pronunciation methods of the vowels

  表十四：本字彙表構詞率統計表：依詞頭出現頻次排列
  Table 14: The first character of a phrase, sorted by frequency

  表十五：本字彙表構詞率統計表：依詞尾出現頻次排列
  Table 15: The last word of a phrase, sorted by frequency

  表十六：本字彙表構詞率統計表：依總構詞率排列
  Table 16: The word frequency in a phrase

  表十七： 本字彙表與《常用國字標準字體表》比對表： 字頻表與常用字表共有之字
  Table 17: Characters shown in both Table 1 and the Common Character Table

  表十八：本字彙表與《常用國字標準字體表》比對表： 字頻表與常用字表未共有之字
  Table 18: Characters shown in Table 1, but not in the Common Character Table

  表十九：本字彙表與《常用國字標準字體表》比對表： 常用字表收字未見於本字彙表之字
  Table 19: Characters shown in the Common Character Table, but not in Table 1

What you are looking for is the Table 2.
You can download it by clicking the 下載 link.
It is a self-extracting .exe file.

There are 64326 phrases in the table, which are sorted by frequency in descending order.
For your convenience, I copy the first thousand phrases and convert them to the simplified Chinese.

These statistics were made by MOE in Taiwan long time ago, therefore
they are in traditional Chinese of course;
the encoding may be in BIG5;
the symbols of pronunciation are bopomofo, ㄅㄆㄇㄈ;
there are no recent phrases, especially the slang;
some phrases are different from those in Mainland; and
the syntax of the htm files is different.

If you want to read the Web pages,
save the pages first;
open with a text editor;
find the first "width";
remove the "%" in the values;
save the file; and
open with a Web browser.

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The MOE also had the statistics for the textbooks of the primary schools in Mainland.


I would translate 算不上 to be "cannot count as", so in your context, it would mean "you can't count today as a beautiful day as there is an exam".


Chinese Seal on silk painting - what does it mean?

The Title is 江南春曉 pronounced Jiang Nan Chun Xiao

江 mean river, most used for Changjiang River in China: Asia longest and the world third longest river
南 mean south or southern
春 mean spring
曉 mean morning or dawn

So 江南春曉 mean A Spring Morning in Southern China

The script beside the title is 己亥永秋逸之

己亥 is a kind of Chinese calendar to name the year, it cycle every 60 years, so it can mean 1059，1119，1179，1239，1299，1359，1419，1479，1539，1599，1659，1719，1779，1839，1899，1959，2019, if the painting is created in Qing dynasty (AD 1644–1911) it can mean any of the following year 1659，1719，1779，1839，1899  Click for More info

永 mean forever
秋 mean autumn
永秋 I am not sure but it can be the name of the painter.

逸之 is like Best Regards in English letter.

For the seal it contain two characters, on the left side it has 山 which mean mountain, I can't identify the character on the right.


翻（了）n番 is common phrase, meaning 2^n. For example, 翻一番 = 2, 翻两番 = 4， ....

But the interesting phrase is 翻n倍. Some would take 翻n倍 = 翻n番, and some would take 翻n倍 = 1*n, and some take 翻n倍 = 1*(n+1). For example, 50翻3倍 could be 150, 400 or 200. This is really a moot point. Personally, I would take 翻n倍 = 1*(n+1) and 50翻3倍 would be 200.


「御」 originally meant to operate or manage/control, then extended to mean the adjective imperial.

  The meaning to drive a carriage is specifically held by the character 「馭」; when 「御」 is used for this meaning, it is a rebus of 「馭」.

商甲菁1.1合集6057隸定

「御」 (to operate/manage) originally depicted a kneeling person 「卩」 using (operating) a pestle 「午」.

  Pestle is now written as the derivative character 「杵」.

Later on, two verb-like markers were added:

「彳」 (half of the character 「行」, picture of a road intersection > roads, travelling)

商甲前2.18.6合集8189隸定
「止」 (picture of a foot > walking). This leads on to the modern form 「御」.

西周金頌鼎集成2829秦簡秦115睡虎地秦簡今楷

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂
國學大師

郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


How to say "Please, go in front of me" when standing in a queue?

In this situation, I would say "您先请", which works fine.

"您先请" means 'after you', which is very polite.

If you really want to say 'Please, go in front of me' in Chinese, you could say "请走在我前面吧". However, this sounds a little bit strange. Note that you stand in a queue, you don't go in a queue. So "请站在我前面吧" is better.


The former 之 is equivalent to 的, but more often used than 的 when followed by a single character that would otherwise be expressed in a two-character word. In this case, it is followed by 处, which means “place” 地方 and by extension “aspect” 特征. Thus, the first part of the sentence means word-by-word "People who cannot realize their dreams are the same in one aspect(characteristic)," or more in more appropriate English "Those who fail to realize their dreams have one thing in common,"

The latter 之 has a different meaning, as is common in classical Chinese (文言). It is the third person pronoun in the objective case, meaning that it should only be used in place of 他/她/它 when the thing in question is the object of the sentence, much like "him" instead of "he" in English. Therefore, 为之付出 means to "pay effort for it".

More examples of 之 as a third person objective pronoun

授之以渔 (classical) "Teach them with fishing" = "Teach them the art of fishing."
将之磨碎 “grind it into chunks/powder/etc", equivalent to 把它磨碎， note that 将 is always used instead of 把 before 之.
有过则改之 (proverb) "Have a fault, then change it" = "If you made a fault, mend it".
投我以桃，报之以李 (proverb) "Give me with peaches, return them with plums" = "They give me peaches, I return them the favor with plums."


What grammar makes 同 品 項 第 2 仵 6折 mean "Buy one, get the second at 60% of base price"?

I am pretty sure that you have the second to last character wrong. It makes much more sense as 件 (item).  Also, 折 should be read as zhé in this context.  The character has a large number of meanings, but in this context it means discount (and the single digit numbers preceding it count by 10%; this is a common idiomatic construction for expressing discounts).  Finally, 第 signifies that the following number is to be read as an ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd, ...)

So, a very literal translation of 同品项第２件６折 would be:
same product, second item, discounted to 60%


医好了, to me, is more often used in old times, that's why it's totally ok to say that in HongKong, considering HK is still using traditional Chinese. In modern Chinese, 治好了 is more natural, but in some formal occasion we can use 医 and 治 together as one verb, i.e. 医治

examples:

张医生医好了无数病人。(it's ok, but less used in daily communication, I would use it in a composition, or in HK maybe? I don't know since I didn't go there)

张医生医治了无数病人。(sounds formal, I would use it in a report)

张医生治好了无数病人。(sounds more familiar and nature, I use it in my daily life)


What is the difference between 激动 and 冲动?

i would translate 激動 to "intensely emotional", where the emotion can be any sort of emotion, positive or negative (e.g. sorrow, anger, happiness). so it's very useful word because it can mean many things (despair, rage, ecstatic). and 衝動 means recklessness or impulsiveness driven by strong emotions, again any kind of emotion will do. typically the type of emotion is implied or from context.

when describing a person, 激動 is more of a mental state, where as 衝動 implies the person is physically getting ready for action (larger and more violent actions).

激動 examples： 他激動到哭出來。他激動到說不出話來。 (he is so emotional he starts to cry. he is so emotional he couldn't speak.) i used these examples intentionally to demonstrate that even though crying is an action, it's not big enough of an action so you can't use 衝動。

衝動 examples: 他一時衝動，把車窗打破。他衝動的跑去找上司理論。(he became reckless and broke the car window. he recklessly went to argue with the boss.) here the person is driven by the emotion (rage, displeasure or whatever) to do something reckless or impulsive.

衝動 can also be used to describe an action, where as 激動 only works on people.
eg. 衝動的舉動，衝動的行為 (reckless actions).

so to answer your question, the first sentence implies the person should calm down in order to think clearly (or not have a mental break down), and the second sentence means the person should calm down and not do what he is about to do.

another usage you might find useful: 我這樣做會不會太衝動？ (would it be reckless if i did this?) for asking people's opinion when you feel like you're about to do something you might regret.


Is there a rule that tells what characters can be omitted?

This is an interesting question. As other commenters have noted, the answer may depend on convention (e.g., "回家") or grammar (possession vs. adverbial modification). It also may depend on the rules for Chinese prosody, which is what I will focus on here.

Tang Dynasty poetry was based on disyllabic (grouped into two syllables), trochaic (grouped into pairs having the form STRESSED unstressed, or, as I'll write it below, Xx) rhythms. Modern Chinese speech follows this basic pattern. Generally, Chinese utterances start with a stressed syllable (though a single unstressed introductory syllable may be used) and follow an alternating stressed/unstressed pattern. (One or two unstressed syllables may be used between stressed syllables, but having two adjacent stressed syllables is rare.)

Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington's Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar gives the following example:

  我想再买一杯酒.
  I'd like to buy another glass of wine.

This can be analyzed as 我想 // 再买 // 一杯 // 酒, with stress pattern Xx // Xx // Xx // X.

If the speaker wanted to add the word 去, the rhythm is disturbed:

  我想再去买一杯酒.

The most natural option is to parse this as 我想 // 再去 // 买 // 一杯 // 酒, but this is rhythmically unsatisfactory, since it leads to a stress pattern of  Xx // Xx // X // Xx // X. Both 再 and 买 should be stressed if the sentence is to maintain its emphasis on "buy" and "another", but this is not possible within the trochaic rhythm.

The solution is to delete the syllable 一 and say,

  我想再去买杯酒.

This pairs up nicely into stressed/unstressed trochees: 我想 // 再去 // 买杯 // 酒; Xx // Xx // Xx // X.

Chinese speakers naturally add and delete words like 的 or 一 to fit the basic stressed/unstressed rhythm. The subject is complicated, and I'm not sure how well its completely understood. The difficulty for language speakers who aren't attuned to rhythmic variations is that it seems like the deletions are random, when in fact they're often manifestations of underlying rhythmical rules.


Firstly, set a specific learning goal. For example, you want to learn daily Chinese or Business Chinese.

Secondly, choose the correct learning materials according to your learning goals.

Thirdly, you need to learn some Chinese pinyin first, because pinyin is the basic of learning Chinese. Once you master Chinese pinyin, you can learn how to speak Chinese easier.


Is 晚 a verb or an adjective in the sentence 我 晚了一 个半小?

晚 in "我晚了一个半小时" is an adjective.

"我(是)晚了一个半小时" = "I (am) late for one and half hour"

The verb 'be' (是) is omitted in Chinese

The verb 'be' cannot be omitted in English. "I was late for one and half hour" cannot be reduced to "I late for one and half hour".

In "我去晚了一个半小时", '去' is a verb and '晚' is an adverb


Is there a distinction between 怎样 (zěnyàng) and 怎么样 (zěnmeyàng)?

They are completely interchangeable.

I would probably say their effects are a very little bit different, (which people indeed wouldn't care most of time).

怎样做 vs 怎么样做， the longer version(the latter) sounds like it might engage a bit more procedures or processes than the shorter version(the former).

Again, that's just an effect, which couldn't be even a matter in practice.


I think there is no wrong in your sentence.

You could also said like:

"我買了他的自行車" = "I bought his bicycle."

PS: 被 is not all negative, it should be "passive".(passively?)


How to say, "Did you hold your cellphone close to your face?" in Cantonese?

I suppose that you mean "Were you holding your phone to your ear?" Then you can say "你 lik 住部手机来打啊？" I don't know the character for "lik", which means "to hold".


Chinese Grammar Wiki classifies the use of 就 into A2, B1, B2, and C1 levels (from easiest to hardest). Begin with the easiest level (就 as 'then', i.e. your 8th entry) – I believe this is its commonest use. Do not bother with harder uses of 就 (e.g. your 21st/22nd entry, which is labelled level B2 on the site) for the time being.

Sometimes you need to learn 就 as part of a word to make sense. E.g.: 就算 (your 11th entry), 就近 (your 13th entry). Sometimes, as part of a sentence construction, e.g., 一～就～ (your 7th entry).


How is 果岭 a loanword from the English "green" (i.e.: putting green)?

Like you said in the comment, something like 格林 indeed would have been a better phonetic approximation. But the translation (even by sound) should also consider its meaning if possible. 岭 means hill or mountain in Chinese. And since a golf course resembles a hill for having ups and downs, 岭 would be more approriate to describe such an area. However I think 果 is purely phonetic.


What does this structure (有 … 才有 …) mean?

They both mean the first part is the necessary (under many situations, also sufficient) condition of the second part.

有A才有B means only if A exists, then B exists. Here 有 has real meaning.

只有A才B means only if A then B. Here 有 does not have its real meaning, but is part of the conjunction.

Example:

有国才有家 (Only if the nation exists, does family exist)

只有有国，才会有家 (same meaning, grammatically correct, but rarely seen)

只有国，才有家 (wrong)


"你丑不丑都没关系" is good and sounds native. You could say "你丑不丑都无所谓" as well.


It is not an idiom, but a typical 順口溜 (Jingle)

表面(on the surface)

風光(look good)* short from 好風光(good scenery)- something look good in people's eyes)

內裏(inside)

陰乾(slowly dry up in dry dark place)

It means 'someone seems well off in the public's eyes, but in reality, is flat broke.'


in literatures of yore, the term "殺人如*" has several variations.

in 陳拾遺集卷九

  殺人如麻﹒血流成澤

in 太白詩　白馬篇

  殺人如剪草

in 建炎以來繫年要錄　卷四

  殺人如刈麻﹒臭聞數百里

i would make a mental image of "殺人如麻" as "killing people like mowing hemps". such metaphor would be:

sickle - the sword, knife

mowing - killing (people) without considerations, massively

when mowing hemps, or grasses, no one spend time to examine particular grass, appreciate it's beauty; or consider the rationale of mowing.

hemps - life is worthless, without value

well, in mowing, one would consider cutting / clearing as many hemps / grasses as possible, with minimum efforts.


Can I communicate without changing tones?

I've been also curious about this and I think this could easily be a research topic. Chinese people often happen to understand me even when my tones are flat, and I highlight that they understand me a lot less when my tones are wrong.
Of course this depends a lot on the context, and on the sentence. In a known context and with basic (high frequency) words tones are not that important (I would agree with @NS.X, 80/90%). The speech could sound weird to Chinese people but they can understand. Take also into account that they are used to a wide variety of accents from all China.
But, the grammar and the set phrase is better to be perfect.

If conditions are not so particular, tones are important as grammar and words, so recognition percentage could easily fall below 50% of the sentences.

I want to add that:

Sometimes I noticed for some words Chinese people have difficulty to remember which tone it is. For them is natural to put that tone on that sentence.
When they wisper, or better, when they speak crying (you can see sometimes in the movies) tones almost disappear.

About your study I can say tones are really important, you have to study them and try to learn, but I also say you that I memorized most of them just hearing and using them. You will end up repeating a sentence in your head and saying "Ok, wo is third tone".


How does 哇 affect the meaning of 大河向东流哇?

哇, in this case interchangeable with 啊 or 呀, does not change the meaning but can affect the intonation and atmosphere.

The way you pronounce will totally change how your utterance is perceived.

For example, with a powerful sound (as in the song). It provides a background of the rest of the song. Since the song is about history/hero/war etc. It has a sense of the flow of time and history. In Chinese, river are often used as a symbol of time and history.

On the other hand, with a soft, emotional tone like a sigh (of course the rhythm of the whole sentence should be adjusted accordingly, e.g. slower), it could be perceived as full of regret and sorrow.


How to say: "at three different sides of the room "

the teacher places three students at three different sides of the room：

老师让三个学生分别站在房间三面墙前。


Thanks for an intro to a great piece by Im Jae (sp? 林悌‧愁城誌). Do you know of any English or Chinese studies or translations of his work?

I found it pretty difficult writing, a pastiche of the 尚書, packed full of metaphors and puns on drinking. For the passage you are working on, it always helps to look at the larger context, especially where the author is using a lot of parallelism in his grammar:

只緣禮法之矛盾。久作江湖之漫浪。
It's because of (my) flaunting of Manners and Codes,
That I've long been a roamer of River and Lake

何圖不我遐棄。迺曰命爾專征
That you would accept me, how was that my intent?
And now you would have me command your attack!


You can also use 好 to emphasize many:

  我有好几个朋友 Wǒ yǒu hǎojǐ gè péngyǒu - I have lots of friends

  好多人来看我 Hǎoduō rén lái kàn wǒ - Many people came to see me

In this case the 好 is strongly emphasized.

好几个 = Lots

好多 = Very many

To suggest some or a few:

  我有几个朋友来看我 Wǒ yǒu jǐ gè péngyǒu lái kàn wǒ - I have some friends coming to see me

  有一些同学跟我一起去看电影 Yǒu yīxiē tóngxué gēn wǒ yīqǐ qù kàn diànyǐng - Some of my classmates will go with me to watch a movie

几个 = Some

一些 = A few

To emphasize singularity:

  我只有一个朋友 Wǒ zhǐyǒu yīgè péngyǒu - I only have one friend

  你是唯一来看我的人 Nǐ shì wéi yī lái kàn wǒ de rén  - You are the only person to come
  and see me

只有 = Only have

唯一的 = The only one


遍 means allover;everywhere here. 遍搜 means search allover/everywhere. Basically it has the same meaning with 搜遍, but with the 遍 being put ahead OP wanted to emphasize the degree of how many bloggers he checked.
多名 is not the abbreviation of 很多有名, but just 很多名, i.e. many. 名 is just the measure word of the people, i.e. 博主.
盆友 is a net slang, means 朋友.


How would you translate The Martian's: "I'm going to science the s*** out of this"?

科学 could indeed function as a static verb, but it is not recognized as a regular verb. Neither was 和谐, until it became a fad using it to criticize mainland politics (as in 他被和谐了). As in English, you could formally make most nouns verbs, but it only works if people understand the logic behind the transformation.

As for 科学, you could probably use the 化 suffix to accomplish what you want: 要科学化这个该死的问题想个办法。


意大利文化 // 真的是 // 没有最好 // 只有更好的
  Italian culture really doesn't have the best (thing), only better (things).

The 《没有最好，只有更好的》 is the quality linked to by the copula 是。

With some more thought you could surely find a more fluent translation.

Anyway, it's an elegant way of saying that Italian fine arts and cultural heritages are so many (common, widespread) that you can't just single out THE best one, but they all rival each other.


Which is correct: 已经毕业了两年大学 or 已经大学毕业了两年?

The verb phrase is "大学毕业"

Following the rule of verb particle 了 must be placed after a verb or verb phrase, the following are both correct

[已经][大学毕业][了][两年] (了 is a verb particle )

[大学毕业][已经][两年][了] (了 can be a verb particle or a final particle)

Since 大学毕业 is [n + v] not [v + n], you cannot insert the verb particle 了 between verb and noun. e.g. 读完大学 --> 读完了大学.

We can say 吃饭  but not 毕业大学 because 吃 is a transitive verb (take object), but 毕业 is an intransitive verb (doesn't take object)

毕业大学 is not grammatical, therefore 毕业了大学 is also not grammatical.


What is the difference between 还是 and 还?

OP already listed their different definitions. They don't seem to be interchangeable at all.
The meaning of 'still' may be the only one where either word-choices can be used in the same sentence, but there's still some subtle differences between them:

Fact 1 + 还 + Fact 2 describes the facts without emphasizing any.
Fact 1 + 还是 + Fact 2  emphasizes the seriousness of Fact 1: despite Fact 1, Fact 2 still occurs .

Examples:

水浸眼眉了他还不逃命.
His eyebrows are flooded and he won't run away.

Describes a situation without emphasizing any part: Fact 1. 水浸眼眉了 and Fact 2. 他还不逃命.

水浸眼眉了他还是不逃命.
His eyebrows are flooded, he still won't run for his life.

Emphasizes the seriousness of 水浸眼眉: despite 水浸眼眉了, 他还是不逃命.

天黑了还不回家.
Not going home when it gets dark.

Describes a situation without emphasizing any part: Fact 1. 天黑了 and Fact 2. 还不回家.

天黑了还是不回家.
Still not going home after dark.

Emphasizes the importance of 天黑了: despite 天黑了, he still 不回家.


First off "zhe teng" can not be considered a translation of 折腾, and certainly not the official translation - it is simply just the pronunciation.
A translation of 折腾 really depends on the context, and since you didn't provide any context then you can consider the following definitions and sample sentences and see which fits best:
A Chinese-English Dictionary

INFORMAL
1 turn from side to side; toss about
他折腾了好几个钟头才睡着。
Tā zhēteng le hǎojǐ ge zhōngtóu cái shuìzháo.
He tossed about in bed for hours before he got to sleep.
2 do sth. over and over again
徒工把旧机器拆了又安, 安了又拆, 折腾了好多回。
Túgōng bǎ jiù jīqì chāi le yòu ān, ān le yòu chāi, zhēteng le hǎoduō huí.
The young apprentice again and again took the old machine apart and then put it together.
3 cause physical or mental suffering; get sb. down
牙疼真折腾人。
Yá téng zhēn zhēteng rén.
A toothache can get you down.
4 spend freely; squander
没多久他就把那份家产折腾光了。
Méi duōjiǔ tā jiù bǎ nà fèn jiāchǎn zhēteng guāng le.
It didn't take him long to squander away his family fortune.


how do you say in 文言 "I became an eunuch because of the sex and drugs and tang-poems, not because i love the king and his rotten offspring"?

余入宫为奴，盖因唐诗酒色。今上昏庸，诸子腐败，皆不足爱也。

@倪阔乐's answer looks like a machine translation of the original English text. Ancient Chinese people don't talk like that.

"情" is emotion, not sex.

"腐產" as rotten offspring? Not even close.


What is the origin of the character "糬" seeminly only used in "麻糬" to translate a Japanese word which doesn't use either character?

Japanese is known to coin its own unique kanji: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/kokuji/

働 = ｲ (person) + 動 (move) = "work"

込 = 辶 (road) + 入 (enter) = "crowded"

鰯 = 弱 (weak) + 魚 (fish) = "sardine"

However, 麻糬 (mochi) already had a kanji 「餅」, so we can eliminate the possibility of 糬 being an unique kanji of Japanese origin.

It is found in 汊語字典，新華字典 and 說文解字  without any definition;   康熙字典 doesn't even has this entry，so we can eliminate the possibility of 糬 being an archaic Chinese character, and must be a recent creation.

「糬」 is clearly a 形聲字  with 「米」being the substantial component and「署」being the phonic component, Consider the historical tie between Japan and Taiwan, 糬 is most likely a Taiwanese coined character.

Imagine the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule, and the locals saw mochi for the first time. We can presume not everyone on the island knew Japanese, therefore people had to borrow phonetically similar Chinese characters to describe it in writing, and decided 麻 and 署 were the two characters sounded like mochi the most. Since it is a food product made of rice, the 米 radical was added to 署 soon after, and that's how the term 「麻糬」 was coined.

Edit: remove 丼 as an example of Japanese unique Kanji

*One more speculation on when mochi was first introduced to China: Cantonese has a similar food called 糯米糍，if  Mochi was first introduced to Canton, I am sure Cantonese people of the time would had called it 東洋米糍,  or 米糍, since it was not made of 糯米


Is there a formal way to describe three word color adjectives?

They are called 叠词(Reduplication). Many 叠词 work as adjectives or adverbs, but you may well see them in other places. There are many forms of 叠词, yours is just one of them:

ABB: 绿油油, 红彤彤, 美滋滋(Not a color)
AAB: 飘飘然, 呱呱叫
ABA: 越来越, 看一看
AABB: 白白净净, 欢欢喜喜
AABC: 鼎鼎大名, 苦苦相逼
ABAB: 考虑考虑, 研究研究
ABAC: 美轮美奂, 载歌载舞

There may be other forms but I can't think of them by now.
So for ABB and color only, there are no specific terms, but you can describe it as ABB结构的描述颜色的叠词.


From 《孟子·公孙丑下》:

  孟子去齐。充虞路问曰：「夫子若有不豫色然。前日虞闻诸夫子曰： 『君子不怨天，不尤人。』」 曰：「彼一时，此一时也。五百年必有王者兴，其间必有名世者。由周而来，七百有馀岁矣。以其数则过矣；以其时考之，则可矣。夫天未欲平治天下也；如欲平治天下，当今之世，舍我其谁也？ 吾何为不豫哉！」

Mengzi was a very boastful person. I think the prophecy (actually more of a theory) 五百年必有王者兴 was something he made up to elevate himself to the savior (the One) of his time. He further talked about this prophesy of the 500 year cycle in 《孟子·尽心下》:

  由尧舜至于汤，五百有余岁，若禹、皋陶，则见而知之。若汤，则闻而知之。由汤至于文王，五百有余岁，若伊尹、 莱朱，则见而知之；若文王，则闻而知之。由文王至于孔子，五百有余岁，若太公望、散宜生，则见而知之；若孔子，则闻而知之。由孔子而来至于今，百有余岁，去圣人之世若此其未远也。近圣人之居若此其甚也，然而无有乎尔，则亦无有乎尔！

Mengzi listed the following nine sage emperors (圣王): Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen Wang, Wu Wang, Zhou Gong, Kongzi (素王) and Mengzi himself (舍我其谁).

  What is entailed in the idea of a golden age that would be inaugurated by an emperor who responds to the cosmic order by enacting the proper rituals and cultivating his personality?

I don't know the exact source(s) it is referring to, but again in 《孟子·滕文公下》:

  天下之生久矣，一治一乱。

The idea of 一治一乱 is simple: a period of peace and prosperity follows (and predates) a period of war and chaos. Whenever a new dynasty is established, the new ruler would employ theories such as 五德终始说 to claim his righteousness to reign.

Bear in mind that China had just experienced a period of war in Jingdi's (the father of Wudi) time and was constantly under threat from neighboring forces, so whatever Wudi did, the prophesy was used to solidify his power. The use of the prophesy, however, was not limited to the rulers. Sima Qian employed the 500 year theory to express his ambition in his autobiography 《太史公自序》:

  先人有言：「自周公卒 五百岁 而有孔子。孔子卒后至于今 五百岁，有能绍明世，正易传，继春秋，本诗书礼乐之际？」意在斯乎！意在斯乎！小子何敢让焉。

Notice his tone of voice was basically the same as that of Mengzi: in the present age, 500 years after Confucius (or Wen Wang before him), who else other than the Grand Historian is capable of producing something big and everlasting?

We can see the profound influence the 500 year theory had on later Chinese intellectuals in poems such as

  梅花重压帽檐偏，曳杖行歌意欲仙。後 五百年 君记取，断无人似放翁颠。

by the Song poet Lu You, or

  满眼天机转化钧，天工人巧日争新。预支 五百年 新意，到了千年又觉陈。

by the Qing poet Zhao Yi.


The first sentence means All of us are not students and the second one Not all of us are students (thus some of us may have occupations other than students).

都不是 (all not) is full negation and 不都是 (not all) is partial negation.


What does 合痕类的个数 (hé hén lèi de gè shù) mean in this mathematics article?

I am absolutely not a mathematician, but here is my stab:

isotropic: "having the same properties in all directions,"

In your case, a regular matrix, your example showing the vertical and horizontal elements to be the same.

合痕：isotropy
合痕类：isotropic
合痕类的个数： isotropic elements / individual elements
矩阵: matrix

本文继续讨论n=4的情形，
This document goes on to discuss n=4 matrices
给出了(4,k,1)-拉丁阵，(4,2),(4,3)-和
showing (4,k,1) - Latin matrices, (4,2), (4,3)- and
(4,4)-拉丁阵及它们的合痕类的个数。
4 by 4 Latin matrices and their isotropic elements


I think it should be 轻快  instead of 轻发
轻快自然 (lively and natural) make more sense than 轻发自然 (come out lightly and nature)
Beside, '轻发' could mean  '轻举妄动' (act rashly)

轻发则多败
轻发：轻举妄动

I suspect the author thought '轻发'(lightly come out) and '轻快'(lively) mean the same


What was this online dictionary's name with ancient traditional and simplified characters and glyph origins?

On http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en you can see how a character evolved, the simplified and traditional characters. For example for 目.

Another similar website is http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx . Their result for 目.

Zdict is completely in Chinese: http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE7Zdic9BZdicAE.htm

Here is another website in Chinese (that only supports transitional characters): http://alphads10-2.hkbu.edu.hk/~lcprichi/

As Aristide mentioned http://www.yellowbridge.com has similar functionality.

Another one is http://chinese-characters.org/

Although it doesn't show how the characters evolved, I also like http://zhongwen.com


What does this mean? Colloquial interviews

It is in Cantonese
40歲未呀？ =　(Are you) 40 years old yet? = (你今年) 有40歲了嗎？
點止呀！ = how could (I am) only (40) = (我) 怎么可能只有 (40岁)？
三個嫲嫲⋯⋯ = (I am ) three (grandchildren's) grandma... = (我已經是) 三個 (孫子的) 奶奶了


Logic behind the strokes of complex characters

Chinese characters can be broken up into a number of categories, only one of which are pictograms like you described.

象形字, or pictograms, are simple characters like 日, 山, 口 that are visual
representations of the words that they mean.
指事字, or simple ideograms, are simple characters like 上 and 下 which are visual representations of more abstract concepts, like up or down.
会意字, or compound ideograms, are characters that are combined of multiple parts that represent more abstract meanings, like 休 (person + tree = rest)
假借字, or rebus characters, are characters that had their meanings significantly changed since Classical Chinese and are now used for completely different meanings. Many of these characters were originally pictograms or simple ideograms, but now have different meanings. Examples are 自 which used to mean "nose" but now means "self" and 北 which used to mean "back" but now means "north."
形声字, or phono-semantic compounds, are the most numerous types of characters in modern Chinese. These characters are comprised of two sections - phonetic and semantic. The character you asked about, 吃, is an example. 口 is the semantic section - it tells that the character's meaning has something to do with the mouth. 乞 is the phonetic part - pronounced qi3, it means "to beg" and is used as a rough guide to the pronunciation of the character. These guides aren't 100% accurate, as the characters often predate phonetic changes in the language.

Hopefully this answers your question - eventually, as you delve into further study, you'll learn about radicals and other deconstructions of Chinese characters which will hopefully demystify the system more for you.

You can read more about the classification of Chinese characters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters here.


'Context' stands for the 'environment' / 'background' that an object or event lives in.

  It could be translated differently depending on context.
  它可以依照语境来作具体翻译.

..

  在这上下文，这个生词不可以这样用。
  / 在当前上下文，这个生词不可以像这样用。

Remarks: In modern Chinese '这' rarely appears alone instead of '这儿' '这里' '这样' '此'.

..

  You've taken it entirely out of context.
  你完全脱离了背景范畴. / 你过于断章取义了. /你过于片面了.

..

  Can you give provide some context?
  可以提供一些相关背景吗?


How do you say "She was generous with her time"?

She was generous with her time.

If you translate this phrase literally, it would be "對(花)時間她是慷慨的" (She was generous with her time). But we Chinese usually do not use the term '慷慨(generous) ' to describe the manner of spending time. We usually use  '慷慨' to describe the manner of disbursing money.

Translate the phrase like this clearly shows it's a straight translation of an English sentence. In this instance, it is better to use the verb phrase '不計較(do not care) ' instead of the adjective '慷慨'

  她不計較花時間 (she did not care spending her time)

Depend on context, you can also interpret the phrase in different ways:

If she's always this way:

  "她對付出時間這一方面十分慷慨"

  (In regard of disbursing her time, she is very generous)

If you are referring how she acted in one instance:

  "她慷慨地付出她的時間"
  (She generously disbursed her time)

  "她不吝惜撥出自己的時間"
  (she was not stingy about allocating her time)


The general principle is from top to bottom, from right to left, but the format can be very flexible. For a four-character seal, there are 6 ways to arrange the characters (see picture). Seal calligraphers normally pick the arrangement that is most aesthetically pleasing, depending on how the character is written & number of strokes per character, etc. The only exception I'm aware of is for 4-character seal, the 2nd format in the picture breaks the right-left rule but that particular one has a particular name called 回文布排 ie "anti-clockwise" that is for 4-character seal only.

picture taken from http://www.shufazidian.com/shuji/article.php?acid=21&arid=41


According to this context, 说着说着 is correct to me. 昨天晚上我们在一起聊天，说着说着忽然停电了。 The hint is 聊天, so either 聊着聊着 or 说着说着 makes sense in the context.

...着...着 means 'while (doing) ...'.


Character for "□" 西南官话 kuai³¹: "～着走, 两脚尖向内地走"

There could be two answers to this question.

1.拐 can pronounced as kuai in some dialects. For example, in Lufeng dialect, it's pronounced as kuai3.

2.擓(pronounced as kuai3 in Mandarin, Unicode:U+64D3).

This character has three meanings:

First, in some dialects it means scratch, such as ShanDong dialect and Mandarin of Jianghuai.

Second, in others dialects it means carrying on arm, it's used as a synonym for 挎(kua2). In this sense, it can be interpreted as an adjective. To describe the posture that deliberately lift legs in walking.

Third, it means ladle out.

When we use the second meaning, it could be written in the common sayings(一～一～).

Sorry for my terrible English. Hope my answer is helpful.


Are there any Chinese phrases that have embarrassing meanings if their tones are mispronounced?

These below are not exactly embarassing, but nonetheless funny words that have different meanings when pronounced with different tones.

看書 (read book) kàn shū / 砍樹 (chuck wood) kǎn shù
湯水 (soup) tāng shuǐ / 糖水 (syrup/sweet soup) táng shuǐ
號碼 (number) hào mǎ / 好嗎 (okay?) hǎo ma
大人 (adult) dàrén / 打人 (beat somebody) dǎ rén
火車 (train) huǒchē / 貨車 (truck) huòchē
好帥 (handsome) hǎo shuài / 好衰 (mean) hǎo shuāi
美麗 (beautiful) měilì / 沒理 (unreasonable) méilǐ
妻子 (wife) qīzi / 棋子 (chest piece) qízi
梨子蛋糕 (pear cake) lí zi dàn gāo / 李子蛋糕 (plum cake) lĭ zi dàn gāo / 栗子蛋糕 (chestnut cake) lì zi dàn gāo
搭便車 (hitchhiking) dā biàn chē / 大便車 (stool vehicle) dà biàn chē / 打扁車 (flatten a car) dă biăn chē
杯子 (cup) bēi zi / 被子 (quilt) bèi zi
禿子 (bald guy) tū zi / 兔子 (rabbit) tù zĭ
消化 (digest) xiāo huà / 笑話 (joke) xiào hua
珠子 (bead) zhū zi / 柱子 (pillar) zhù zi
進攻 (attack) jìn gōng / 進貢 (tribute) jìn gòng
歌星 (singer) gē xīng / 個性 (personality) gè xìng
獅子 (lion) shī zi / 柿子 (persimmon)shì zi
大官 (high official) dà guān / 大罐 (big can or pot) dà guàn
司機 (chauffeur) sī jī / 四季 (four seasons) sì jì
相思 (lovesick) xiāng sī / 相似 (similar) xiāng sì
通信 (send letters) tōng xìn / 痛心 (broken-hearted) tòng xīn
包紙 (wrap) bāo zhĭ / 報紙 (newspaper) bào zhĭ
推銷 (sell) tuī xiāo / 退燒 (reduce fever) tuì shāo
搬家 (move home) bān jiā / 半價 (half price) bàn jià
兵士 (soldier) bīng shì / 病逝 (die with illness) bìng shì
徒弟 (apprentice) tú dì / 土地 (land) tŭ dì
留條 (leave a note) liú tiáo / 柳條 (wicker/willow) liŭ tiáo
研習 (learn) yán xí / 演習 (rehearsal/drill) yăn xí
涼台 (veranda) liáng tái / 兩台 (two sets) liăng tái
零錢 (change money) líng qián / 領錢 (receive money) lĭng qián
圖畫 (picture) tú huà / 土話 (dialect) tŭ huà
竹蓆 (bamboo mat) zhú xí / 主席 (chairman) zhŭ xí
完了 (finished) wán le / 晚了 (late) wăn le
毒氣 (poisonous gas) dú qì / 賭氣 (pique) dŭ qì
飛機 (aircraft) fēi jī / 肥雞 (fat chicken) féi jī / 匪機 (bandit plane) fěi jī
支援 (support) zhī yuán / 職員 (staff) zhí yuán / 只願 (only desire) zhĭ yuàn / 志願 (volunteer) zhì yuàn

A few more on the web:

http://www.hellouk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=90874

http://susanfat.mysinablog.com/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=4444909


phrase request: complexity of interpersonal relationships

A common phrase for 'complex' is 錯綜複雜
It can be used to describe:

Relational complexity

Example: 人際關係錯綜複雜 (interpersonal relationships are complex)
Example: 兩人的關係錯綜複雜 (the relationship between the two men are complicated)

Logical complexity

Example: 案情錯綜複雜 (the case is complicated)

Physical complexity

Example: 江南河道錯綜複雜 (Jiangnan's River system is complicated)

Another common phrase for 'complex' is '千絲萬縷' (tangled/complicated)

Example: 兩人的關係千絲萬縷 (the relationship between the two men are complicatedly tangled)

One more phrase related to the question: '人心隔肚皮 '
It means everyone has their own agenda. No one really knows exactly what other people are thinking.
Chinese sayings like '满肚密圈', '心知肚明' suggested people keep their intentions and plans in their '肚' (belly) which is always inside a person and hidden from views.


Language Learning Software That Teaches Mechanics (Not Phrases)

If you want all of those mechanics of the language, aren't you just looking for a standard Spanish textbook?

Any textbook for the languages you mentioned should cover the pronunciation rules, conjugation, common verbs with irregulars, etc. And it probably is accompanied by audio, as well.  Seems just as good as any software for presenting that information.

Here are some free packages that have text and audio, and will probably cover all of the mechanics you mention:
http://fsi-language-courses.org/


Start with basic characters. Complex characters are consisting of the basic ones.
I found it it very helpful to learn the Japanese kanji kentei level 10 characters first (without reading/pronunciation of course)
Repeat drawing them and stick to the stroke order. 90% of the success is practise. I do not mean one time 2hr practise , but consistent practise over months and years. Every week two or three times is much more efficient, after all you are learning in the long term.
Make up your own mnemonics (using the basic characters)
I like to draw the characters in a rather high quality notebook instead of using scrape paper because I can see the progress and how the book becomes full, fills me with pride. A good occasion imo is while watching a movie.


How to translate the following grammar-pattern: 让/叫 N+V —— N还/ 就真 V (呀)

As for tones, it is rénjia, as in "people", "somebody".

If talking about a family, it is more stressed: rénjiā.


What's the correct interpretation for 我只和他打篮球？

It has obscure meanings, and we should relate the sentence with specific occasion to understand it.
For example, in this sentence: "我只和他打篮球, 我不和别人打篮球".  It can be translated into "I play basketball only with him, but no one else".
But in another example: "我只和他打篮球, 我不和他打羽毛球". It can be understood as: I only play basketball with him, and I don't play badminton with him.
Besides, How we segment and stress the the words, or punctuation can also influence our understanding of the sentence. If we stress on 他, which is  我只和(他) 打篮球, then it is "I play basketball only with HIM". and if we stress on 打篮球, then it is "I only PLAY BASKETBALL with him"


Is this usage of 不 before a noun acceptable?

It's just a wordplay, in the original edition, the name of the university is 南不开大学 which is derived from 南开大学 that is famous university in China.

Some people add a "不" in the name of their favouries for fun or to show their likes or respects.

I have met these nickname in social website:

李不白(if you google 李不白 you can see his poems, this guy must be a big fan of 李白, no comments for his poems XD)

令狐不冲(令狐冲)

张小忌(张无忌, sometimes they use 小)

东门吹雪(西门吹雪)


It depends on the OS you're in. On answers.microsoft.com I searched chinese and you can see the solutions for each OS from Microsoft.

Just for completeness, let me add also a quick guide for the Mac OS X. You do the following:

Go to System Preferences (you can reach it in the menu by clicking on the apple symbol on the top-left side);
Click on "Language and Text" or something similar, it has a flag icon;
Click on the "Input source" tab;
Scroll down until you see "Chinese - Simplified" or "Chinese - Traditional";
Select the input type you desire;
You can select the language input by clicking on the Flag on the top bar, near the time and the battery level.

Now open a document. If you selected the "pinyin input" type, which is the most used (sometimes the only one available) and the easiest one, then you can type the "alphabetical" version of the characters, which is called pinyin, indeed.

For example, if you wanna write "你好", type "nihao". A menu will "open". To select one of the choices, click on the number that corresponds to the expression you wish to write and voilà. Below you'll see the menu I was talking about:

By clicking one, I choose to write the two characters that correspond to "nihao" which mean "hello".

On the Mac it is also possible to draw using the trackpad or an external graphic tablet:

This was done like the video showed in the Apple support page.