不…不… is more likely a language structure. There are 不能不，不想不，不好不 as well，they all mean have to do sth. and all of them are emphasizing that I originally not mean to do but under the circumstance I must do.

  我不得不离开我的家乡去打拼。
  （I have to leave my hometown to make a living)

  不能不说他的作品非常好。
  （We have to say his work is fantastic)

  谁做生意不想不赚钱？
  （Anyone who is a businessman doesn't want to make money?)

  他是我的老师，我不好不答应他.
  （As he is my teacher，it seemed not so well to refuse him）

必须，adverb.
（1）It's reasonable for you have to do sth.

  学习～刻苦钻研（(I/We) must study hard)

(2)Stress the imperative mood.

  明天你～来（You must come here tomorrow)

应该 is a auxiliary verb.
(1)take for granted.

  ~爱护公共财产。
  (We should protect public property.)

（2）estimate sth. must be...

  今天出门早，～不会迟到。
  Leaving home so early today, I won't be late.

只好，adverb. have no choice but.

  我等了他半天他还没回来，～留个条子就走了。
  （Waited for him for such a long time, I had no choice but to leave a note and then walk away）

Some parts maybe confusing to understand, this is a common issue for starter. The more usage you know about a word or phrase, the easier for you to know about the whole system and how it works.


Written Japanese and Chinese speakers' understanding

With some exceptions (discussed below), Japanese kanji is mostly intelligible to people who can read Traditional and Simplified Chinese. One helpful contributing factor is the compositionality of many Chinese/Sino-Japanese expressions, which you could intuit the meaning of by identifying what the individual characters mean. A person who is unaware of a specific Japanese usage might still be able to guess the meaning this way. At the text level, context also helps.
The banner text in all three orthographies as follows:
Japanese: 自由民主党青年局 女性局主催 総裁選挙 公開討論会
Traditional Chinese: 自由民主黨青年局 女性局主催 總裁選舉 公開討論會
Simplified Chinese: 自由民主党青年局 女性局主催 总裁选举 公开讨论会
Simplified Chinese reduces some characters further than Japanese, but there's still broad agreement.
In the banner text, the only phrase that might be unfamiliar to Chinese readers is 主催, which is somewhat archaic. However, context and compositionality should allow a reader to infer the meaning.
So a Chinese reader would understand the text, word by word, as the following, resorting to compositionality if the phrase is unfamiliar:
[free/liberty] [democracy] [political party] [youth] [bureau] [female] [bureau]
[main/to be in charge + to urge] [chairperson/president/CEO] [election] [open to public] [discussion] [meeting/association].
From there, most would guess that it says something like 'Liberal Democratic Party Youth Bureau / Women's Bureau sponsoring Chairperson Election Open Forum'.
The modern equivalent of 主催 is 主辦/主办. 女性局 is more likely to be phrased as something like 婦女局/妇女局. Aside from those two differences, it's fairly idiomatic Chinese.
The exceptions listed in the beginning usually involve phrases that have gone through significant semantic drift in either language, some wasei-kango, and ateji. These include some very common words, so being unfamiliar with them could lead to serious misunderstanding. Examples include 勉強 ('study' in Japanese, 'reluctant/to do with difficulty/to force someone to do something' in Chinese), 私 ('I' in Japanese, 'self/private' in Chinese), 大丈夫 ('alright' in Japanese, 'real man' in Chinese), and so on.
However, these are also unlikely to occur in kanji-only environment outside of 伪中国语. Thanks to pop culture, some Chinese readers with no knowledge of Japanese may still be aware of the more common false friends. 大丈夫 and 大変 (大變/大变), for instance, are occasionally used with the Japanese meanings in Internet slang.


how to type the degree sign (°) using Chinese IME on iOS/(mac)OS?

i "fixed" my input method as "unicode hex input" on my macbook, so, to type celsius symbol, just press "option" + "2" + "1" + "0" + "3"; the ℃ would appear immediately :)

imo, it's convenience; provided you know the code point.


without delay 即刻﹐馬上

將食物烹調十分鐘後即刻上桌。

我一收到他們的傳真﹐就馬上回信。

very soon before or after something 立即﹐立刻

那個嬰兒剛出生就立刻被別人領養了。

very near to something  緊靠著

他就住在緊靠我們家樓上的那個公寓。

immediately involved/concerned/affected etc -very closely involved etc in a particular situation 直接

這個決定將通知所有直接相關人員。


The distinction was present early on. In Classical Chinese, this is「此」, still used in Modern Chinese, while that is「彼」, which is not really used anymore except fossilised in some words.

《詩・唐風・綢繆》：「今夕何夕，見此良人！」
《易・小過》：「公弋取彼在穴。」


Is it possible to get novels written in Chinese and English on the same page to download?

I think the moderator hit the nail on the head here by pointing out that we want to help you to be able to find what you are looking for, which often comes down to having the right keywords, i found that 漢英對照 works rather well

All of Jane Eyre (which is public domain) complete with English MP3's co.mes up along with others when searching google for the following search terms: 漢英對照小說 在線.

I'd be curious to hear more about what you are looking to do with the back-to-back texts.  If it is to read through and learn to read in Chinese, by using the English to refer to, I would do so sparingly as the books you're most likely to find in this format are English texts translated into Chinese, so translations, not real Chinese" and they'll be devoid of many culturally relevant common expressions such as 你吃了嗎?

Depending on your level, and what you are aiming to accomplish, I would suggest you may also consider parallel texts, i.e texts on the same topic, but not translations of each other (they really stressed this in interpreting school).  This will keep things in context for you and allow you do develop a more organic language base that will be more naturally and with more pizzazz.  For an interpreter, reading parallel texts allows them to focus on complete ideas rather than words.

There are actually many more advantages on parallel readings versus translations, perhaps for a later discussion.

Best of luck!


These are just nicknames.
There are no evidence about where these names come from, as I can see.
I found some explanations but I can't make sure they're true.

It is called 天竺鼠 because Indian businessmen brought them into China.
It is called 荷蘭豬 because it looks like a pig and its barking sounds like pigs' barking.
It is called 荷蘭豬 because it was eat by Dutch before.
It is called 豚鼠 because it is 鼠...

And user58955 also provided some explanations. I don't think any of them is true... Just don't be too serious with these nicknames...


Translation: Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss

見人之得，如己之得；見人之失，如己之失。

Original text is here:

http://book.bfnn.org/books/0477.htm


重叠量词 (repetitive classifiers) are used to indicate:

every, or;
one by one, or;
abundance.

  除了计量名量词外，不少量词可以重叠使用。例如：名量词：个个/件件/张张。动量词：次次/趟趟/回回。

  量词重叠还有一种形式是 “一XX” 如 “一个个” “一件件”
  “一趟趟”，这种形式表示的语法意义有和上面的重叠形式相同的，也有不同的。意义有三种：

  表示“每一”。基本同 “XX” 重叠式。小伙子们一个个身强力壮。
  表示“逐一”。表示此种意义的重叠形式作状语。我们要一件件仔细检查，不要漏掉。
  表示“多”。他一次次给我打电话。

Source http://www.china001.com/show_hdr.php?dname=6FA0G51&xpos=132

This is how I would interpret the particular sentence in your question,

  园林里边有山，有水，有花儿，真是一幅幅美丽的山水画。

Within the forest garden, there are hills, rivers and flowers; a picturesque view from every angle.


How to pronounce English words in Chinese

There are two directions you mentioned:

transliteration or romanisation using Wade-Giles (Tao for 道) or Pinyin (Dao for 道) to write/spell/pronounce chinese characters/words (see Taoism VS Daoism). This facilitates the usage of Chinese words in English language (e.g. Beijing).
loan words or using English words in Chinese language

You are asking for the latter.

How to choose characters?

For the selection of matching chinese characters  there is always the trade-off between phonetic (sound) as well as semantic (meaning) similarity.

Some are just resembling phonetic:
For example 打的 (dadi) means (to go by) taxi. It's colloquial although there are "original" chinese idioms for that, e.g. 出租车 (chuzuche) meaning taxi (or rental-car in Taiwanese).

Difficult to reflect both, sound and meaning:
Especially foreign businesses are smartly applying creativity to give there brands recognizable chinese names (easy to associate and remember).

That effort leads for example to IKEA translated to 宜家 (yijia) literally proper-home, or Cola to 可乐 (kele) literally amusing/entertaining.

Localised Foreign Brand Names

Since you are asking especially for the "translation" of brand names, there are further aspects for selecting the right characters/words:

cultural fit
socioeconomic and psychological associations
historical and traditional reflections

Above factors are essential for designing brands, not only for translating their names.

The difficulty in selecting a suitable chinese brand name may even include visual (stylish) aspects: aesthetic and beauty of the characters, since they should appeal visually to the target audience:

  The translation from English brand to Chinese brand involves issues of “translating a name from a letters -and- phonemes-based phonographic language (i.e. English) to a visual-character-based logographic language (i.e. Chinese)”  (Schmitt & Zhang, 2012, p.656).

Refer to examples where the name was selected to incorporate such aspects, although neither matching phonetically nor semantically:

Poison (a luxury fragrance) was retranslated to 百爱神 (Bai Ai Shen), which means everyone will love it. So that people would like to purchase it, rather than they would if it has a negative connotation like its original name and meaning.

Further Reading

Branding in China is covered by many Studies and Research Papers, published at Universities by sinologists and economists alike:

Shi, H. (2017). Translation Strategies from Target Culture Perspective: An Analysis of English and Chinese Brands Names.  International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 5 (1), 15-22.
Berende, B. (2012) : What’s in a Name?  A study on the success factors of brand naming in China. Master Thesis, Jönköping International Business School


You need a subject before the disposal marker "把" and 昨天 is not a subject

If you add a subject in your sentence and write 昨天他把我吃得站不起来 (yesterday, he ate me to the point of I couldn't stand up) The verb (eat) would not match the result (I couldn't stand up)

What would make sense, is something like: "昨天他把我打得站不起来" (yesterday, he beat me to the point of I couldn't stand up)
The correct usage of [(subject) + (把) + (object) + (verb)  + (result /degree complement) + (result/ degree)]:

"昨天他把我煮的飯吃得乾乾淨淨"
昨天 (time reference phrase)
他(subject)
把(disposal marker)
我煮的飯 (object)
吃得 (verb + result/ degree complement)
乾乾淨淨 (result/ degree)

The correct sentences without using 把:
昨天我吃得站不起来了
昨天那頓飯讓我吃得站不起来了


It just means that some widgets or accessories for pencil. "附近" and "配套件" make a general reference. More time they won't be indicate what certain things they are. So don't think too much.


People usually say 山羊 when they mean a goat.

--- I don't think so.

Goat or Sheep, just only depends on the context or the environment!

Actually, the scene of language is as follows:

When a sheep comes, what the brain of a Chinese-speaking people presents/thinks about is: "羊 is coming."

When a goat comes, what the brain of a Chinese-speaking people presents/thinks about is ALSO: "羊 is coming."

That is to say, when a concept about any sheep or goat or any sheep-like or goat-like or any Caprinae-form animal comes into the brain of a Chinese-speaking people, he or she always thinks about "羊" only, usually without differentiation like a English-speaking people does.

Only if the Chinese-speaking people is need to differentiate sheep or goat in his or her concept, he or she says “绵羊” or “山羊”.

Similarly, in the area which people mainly eat pork (the flesh of a pig or hog), they usually refer to the pork as a single word “肉”. If the word “肉” leads to some ambiguity, they could say “猪肉” for  the pork and say “羊肉” for the mutton (or flesh of goat). Furthermore, in the area which people usually only eat mutton (the flesh of sheep), they could say “山羊肉” to indicate the flesh of goat.

You would meet a phrase “鸡鸭鱼肉”, these four words all indicate the flesh as food. Under this phrase,“鸡”means chicken, “鸭” means duck, “鱼” means fish, “肉” means pork mainly or means any flesh of a mammal such as beef, mutton.

Please NEVER forget this truth: The meaning of a word only should be presented from the context or the environment!

Additionally, similarly, when a English-speaking people says "a cousin", that could puzzle a Chinese-speaking listener, the latter wonders what the "a cousin" exactly indicates: a 堂兄 or 堂弟 or 表兄 or 表弟 or 堂姐 or 堂妹 or 表兄 or 表妹? The fact about this conflict is: the English-speaking people usually do not differentiate those consanguinities, but the Chinese-speaking people care for that.


"fighter jet" is something originally from an ad that was popular many years ago:

波导手机，手机中的战斗机

The ad aims to emphasize the extent to which their cell phones are more superior than others (fighter jets are much faster than normal jets). It had repeated many times for a long period, so many people got to know it very well. Since then, "fighter jet" is also used in other cases, such as the case you mentioned "备胎中的战斗机". Here it means "the best spare-tire among all the spare-tires".


很 is NOT similar to 真.
很 is used before adj or adv to form a compounded adj or adv phrase, 很 is at the phrase level (inner level). But 真 modifies the whole predicate (ourter level).
We can say:

中国的风景不错。
中国的风景很不错。 很 modifies 不错.
中国的风景真(的)不错. 真 modifies the whole predicate (不错).
中国的风景真(的)很不错. 真 modifies the whole predicate (很不错).

But we can't say:

(NO)中国的风景很真不错. It is wrong because 真 can't be used at the inner level.

We can say:

中国的风景不错。
中国的风景都不错。 都 modifies 不错. inner level.
中国的风景真(的)都不错. 真 modifies the whole predicate (都不错).

But we can't say:

(NO)中国的风景都真不错. It is wrong because 真 can't be used at the inner level.

Please Note: sometimes 真 is also used at the inner level.

他跳得真高. 真 modifies 高.
他真跳得高. 真 modifies the whole predicate (跳得高).
他跳得很高. 很 modifies 高.
他真跳得很高. 真 modifies the whole predicate (跳得很高).

I guess, when only 真 appears, it can be at inner level or outer level. But if there are 2 or more modifiers, then 真 should be at outer level.
Another way to explain this:
很, 都 and 真 work in different aspects.
很 describes to "what extent" the following adj or adv imply. 很 corresponds to "very", or "very much".
都 describes the scope the following adj or adv imply. 都 corresponds to "both", or "all".
真 emphasizes the following adj or adv.  都 corresponds to "really".
So the order of them is: 真, 都, 很.

中国的风景不错.
中国的风景很不错.
中国的风景都不错.
中国的风景都很不错.

中国的风景真不错.
中国的风景真很不错.
中国的风景真都不错.
中国的风景真都很不错.


as far as i search (ctext.org, 維基文庫 &
四庫全書薈要), the character "古" is missed in the question, which make great difference in translation. the relevant text ought to be:

驃騎將軍為人少言不泄﹒有氣敢任﹒天子嘗欲教之孫吳兵法﹒對曰﹒顧方略何如耳﹒不至學古兵法

therefore, i would suggest in clause 顧方略何如耳:

顧　考慮　considering
方　方法 --> 戰術　military tactics
略　策略 --> 戰略　military strategy
何如　如何　how to
耳 is a 虛字, served the purpose of ending a clause; and helping 句讀
靈活運用　to deploy flexibly

so, 顧方略何如耳 is roughly:

considering (顧) how to (何如) deploy military tactics (方) & strategy (略) flexibly (deploy and flexibly are inserted for easier comprehension)

in clause 不至學古兵法:

不至　不至於 or 不必　no need
學　學習　to learn
古　古代    ancient
兵法　the art of war / warfare

so, 不至學古兵法 is roughly:

there's no need (不至) to learn (學) the ancient (古) art of war (兵法)

the rationale of my attempted translation is:

at the time of 霍去病 (140 bc – 117 bc), 孫吳兵法 (5th century bc) is a few hundred years old. most likely, general 霍 had ideas that society, technology and enemy are changed, that, ancient books about the art of war were outdated. further he had talent in war, that, learning from these ancient rules of war is unnecessary for him.


Both are correct for past tense. They have the same meaning, with subtle difference on the point of emphasis.

"我去了商店" lays emphasis on the action "went to the shop", while "我去商店了" lays emphasis on the destination of the action, i.e. "the shop".

So it'll be more natural to use "我去了商店" as the answer to the question asking "what did you do" (你做什么去了), and use "我去商店了" as the answer to the question asking "where did you go" (你去哪儿了). (Note that they are just more targeted and straightforward to the answer, using another one as the answer is fine too.)


Is the pronunciation of a heteronym in a given name indeterminable unless we ask the person personally?

We don't actually know how to pronounce it.
Usually based on the meaning of the word on the bright side. But, in this case, both the meanings of  ㄕㄢˋand ㄔㄢˊare very good. So, how to pronounce it is up to you.


How do I say “he loves his mother more than his wife”?

他比妻子更爱他的母亲  (he compare to his wife, he loves his mother more) means "he loves his mother more than his wife does" and it is not what the English sentence means.
他爱他的母亲胜过爱他的妻子 is correct but wordy, you can reduce it to 他爱(他的)母亲胜过爱(他的)妻子 --> 他爱母亲胜过爱妻子

Replace 胜过 (better than) with 多过 (more than) --> 他爱母亲多过爱妻子


Is there an equivalent of "alpha, beta..." for enumeration of software in Chinese?

China software company use:
1, 2, 3...
I, II, III...
alpha, beta
内测版, 公测版
I am a developer.


This Beijing Tourism page has an English article about the 9 nine-day periods:

Nines of Winter in China
People in China talk about winter coming in nine periods and each period is 9 days long, which begins from the Winter Solstice. After 9 nine-day periods the weather becomes warmer and spring will be on its way.
The 3rd nine-day period is called ‘Sanjiu’ in Chinese, which refers to the 19th-27th days after the day of the Winter Solstice. There is an old saying in China that goes, "The days of the Sanjiu period are the coldest days."
There is a famous folk song about the Nines of Winter (called ‘Shujiu’) recording changes in the weather:
1st nine days, 2nd nine days, don’t take hands out of your pockets;
3rd nine days, 4th nine days, you can walk on ice;
5th nine days, 6th nine days, willows at the river’s edge start to sprout;
7th nine days, ice dissolves and water flows in the river;
8th nine days, wild geese fly back to northern areas;
9th nine days and the following days, farm cattle start to work in the field.


I did some research. Here is what I found:

1) 樂 first meant music instruments, pronounced 'ngok'（逆角切）. In Japanese, it is がく［楽］(gaku).

2) The meaning happy '悦/樂' first had the same pronunciation 樂 as in 音樂. This was probably the case in 战国 (周朝)，because according to《爾雅·釋詁》(written after BC 476), 悦: 樂也。

3) In 唐韵 （written in 732 AD, 樂 meaning happy is pronounced 'lok' (盧各切). So the pronunciation changed between 周 and 唐, which is a long time (~1000 years). To cut the time shorter, we can look at Japanese, which borrowed a lot of Chinese characters between the 3rd - 5th century. In Japanese, ［楽］meaning happy is pronounced らく [raku]. So we know the 'lok' sound formed before 500 AD.

The timeframes map into the distinction between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. Old Chinese 上古汉语 was used until the 3rd century and Middle Chinese 中古汉语 starts from the 3rd century.

Using this terminology, we can say this distinction is in Middle Chinese but not Old Chinese.

Furthermore, Old Chinese is considered to be very regular -- characters with the same component sound the same, and one character has only one pronunciation.

Now I guess the problem is solved. It seems that mathematical abstractions can help in reasoning and discovery! :)

PS. there could be a small difference in Old Chinese that led to larger difference in Middle Chinese. Old Chinese had double consonants. Later, double consonants are systematically dropped, and some words had consonant A and some with B. According to 韵典网 (ytenx.org/dciangx/dzih/%E6%A8%82)，樂's Old Chinese pronunciation was /ŋraːwɢs/, or transliterated as "ngrawgs". It had double consonants ŋ and r, so some words became ŋok, some became lok (r and l are the same), and some became ŋaw. The two meanings music and happy might had slight differences in Old Chinese.


How do Chinese judge the right sound quality (softness, awkwardness, respectfulness (面子), negativity)

Here I try to give some guidelines, not hard rules for sure.

Wrong Word Order

When you are not sure in what order to put elements in a sentence, stick to this:

Attributive + Subject + Time Adverbial + Place Adverbial + Manner Adverbial + Verb + Complements + Attributive + Objective.

For example: 新来的/那个/同学/昨天/在图书馆/高兴地/借/到了/那本/很有名的/小说。

新来的 － Attributive
那个 － Attributive
同学 － Subject
昨天 － Time Adverbial
在图书馆 － Place Adverbial
高兴地 － Manner Adverbial
借 － Verb
到了 － Result Complement
那本 － Attributive
很有名的 － Attributive
小说 － Object

If you change the order of them, it is likely to make it sound awkward.

Incompleteness

Don't say 他在床上躺, instead say 他在床上躺着. 躺着 has the sense of completeness over just 躺.

Wrong Usage

Don't say 我病, instead say 我(生)病了.

Don't say 我很病, instead say 我病得(很)厉害.

Missing the 2nd part of a phrase pattern

There are a lot phrase patterns in Chinese made of paired words, like 一...就, 不是...而是, 即使...也. Sometimes the stuff going into between may be very long, so don't forget the 2nd part of those patterns.

So don't say the following sentences:

我一听到这个令人振奋的消息来了。 (Should say: 我 一 听到这个令人振奋的消息 就 来了)

迟到的人不是他我。 (Should say: 迟到的人 不是 他 而是 我)

即使明天下雨我去。(Should say: 即使 明天下雨我 也 去)

Wrong Tones

In one episode of 非诚勿扰, a Korean girl was asked by the host that where, if ever, on her body she got plastic surgery. She wanted to say 秘密 (secret) but she said 咪咪(a slang for breasts) which made the audience burst out laughing.


How do I say that a program (coding) "Works!"

我的代码终于可以了 is close to My code is ok now, you can say something more clearly like 我的代码终于可以

运行
工作
跑（起来）

了！


Can anyone explain time nouns and adverbs of time to me?

the "today" in "Today is Wednesday." is a noun……
but I get what did you mean.
“最近”can only be an adverb, it's basically the same as "recently"
"上个月"can both be a noun and an adv. i.e.
noun, 上个月是十一月 last month was November.
adv, 我上个月去了上海 I visited Shanghai last month.
"昨天"is same as “上个月”.


Proper grammar: 生活 中 不是 缺少 美 ，而是 缺少 发现的?

Basically, you can't omit 美 and 眼睛, because they are the essential parts for understanding. Without them, the sentence becomes ungrammatical and incomprehensible. Original sentence is saying: we are not short of things with beauty, but the eye that can discover them.


The most used Chinese dialect on the Web?

On the web, standard Chinese is widely used. Simplified Chinese is used by Mainland china; Traditional Chinese is used more frequently in places like Taiwan. But the two speak the same way, so it doesn't matter.

Another trend is that more and more sentences are created by young guys on the internet, and the sentences are widely spreading on the web, so that only young people often browsing Chinese language internet can know what it means. And these sentences often make old people confused.


Where to find questions from the imperial exam?

about the imperial examinaion (科舉制度), i recommend the book 釧影樓回憶錄 by 包天笑 (page 81-103). it talked about his experience (~1890) to attend the 縣試, 府試 and 院試 (the first three entry level exams) with details; very interesting :)

the first "entry" in another book 世載堂雜憶 by 劉禺生, is "清代之科舉", also a good read

about questions in the exam 縣考:

  大題者，於"四書"文中，兩章三章，或一節一句為題目，不得割裂

  小題者，於"四書"文中，任擇一句為題

  第一場試《論語》、《學》《庸》時文一篇，《孟子》文一篇，試帖詩一首

  第二場試時文一篇，五經文一篇，試帖詩一首

  第三場考八股文一篇，史論一篇，試帖一首

  第四場試雜作，律賦一篇，古近體詩數首，有加時文一篇者

  終場亦作時文起講，或作兩大比時文不等

about questions in 院考:

  試題為《論語》、《學》、《庸》題目八股文一，《孟子》題目八股文一，五言六韻試帖詩一首。

  翌日覆試，或作起講，或作八股文兩大比，限香一寸，並默寫正場起講

i'm sorry to provided these in chinese only, hope you can comprehend and get the info.

have fun :)


游水 is mainly a colloquial Cantonese term  http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/1332/

  游水

  /jau4 seoi2 /  (jyutping)

  swim, swimming. Mand.: 游泳

  the entry of 游水 doesn't even include a Mandarin pinyin for it

Also logically, you can swim (游泳) in any liquid ; while 游水 specifically means swim in water, but even Cantonese ignore it, since it is very rare that someone swim in a liquid other than water


Meaning of 的 in 在蓝天白云的 衬托下，阳光的照射下

衬托 = set off (by contrast)
在蓝天白云的衬托下，= under the blue sky and white cloud's contrast
阳光的照射下. = under the sunshine.
An object here is omitted

A complete sentence:
[红衣少女] 在蓝天白云的衬托下，阳光的照射下，[看上去有如女神般美丽]
[The girl in red] under the blue sky and white cloud's contrast, under the sunlight, [looks as beautiful as a goddess]

~

What does 的 mean in this sentence?

的 is a possess marker. 蓝天白云 is a noun phrase, and it possesses the noun 衬托 (contrast)
在蓝天白云[的]衬托 = Blue sky and white cloud['s] contrast = the contrast of blue sky and white clouds (in the back ground)
If 衬托 is used as a verb, the sentence would become 被蓝天白云衬托著 (set off by blue sky and white cloud)


文盲 (illiterate) can be a noun on its own, no need to add 的人

  illiterate

  an illiterate person (noun)

"我们四个人(之中)没有一个" = "no one (among) the four of us"

"会说西班牙语"=  "can speak Spanish"

  "感觉这像个文盲一样。" = "Felt like an illiterate"

  There are many problems with this sentence, Since the subject is not mentioned, it can either be "all four of us" or "I".

If the subject was "all four of us" then the singular "一个文盲" (an illiterate) would have to be changed to "一群文盲" (a group of illiterates)
If the subject was "I", it should not be omitted because people would get confused  by "我们四个" (we four) at the beginning.
"我感觉像个文盲一样" (I felt like an illiterate) lacks an object after the verb, therefore we should add

(1) "自己" (myself) as the object to clarify "I myself" is the object that I felt like an illiterate -- The sentence would then become "我感觉自己像个文盲一样"

(2) "我们" (we) as the object to clarify "we four" is the object that I felt like a group of illiterates-- The sentence would then become "我感觉我们像群文盲一样"

We can replace 感觉(feel) with 觉得(feel), because  感觉 can also be a noun, but 觉得 is clearly a verb

The sentence should then become "我觉得自己像个文盲一样" (I felt I was like an illiterate) or "我觉得我们像群文盲一样" (I felt we were like a group of illiterates)


I would highly recommend  the “汉语教程“ or Hsk标准教程“.
Or just go to google and look for : " hsk sample paper /hsk mock test". You will find plenty of pages that provide previous exam papers with the vocabulary list attached to them. I assume that you are preparing for the hsk3, which the vocab requirement is 600 words right? If I am right, and you prefer to follow textbooks then go for the 汉语教程第一上 and 汉语教程第一下 or simply check out the hsk标准教程3. Those books were published by the Beijing language and culture University press. You can check out their website to get the book that I've listed above.

  http://www.blcup.com/en


How should this painting's title, signature and yin (chop) be correctly translated?

The title is 海棠珍禽 - Begonia and rare bird. It's one of the common themes for classical Chinese painting, which I believe is what this title is for.

The first two characters are Malus spectabilis, however, when Chinese say 海棠 especially in art works, we actually mean 秋海棠 - Begonia grandis, which is an herb instead of a tree.

The last two characters are literally 'rare bird'. They are sometimes extended to refer to any rare animal, but in the context of a painting it is referring to a bird.

The signature looks like 子兰作 to me, meaning the Zi or Hao of the artist is 子兰. (If you're not sure what Zi or Hao is, think Zi as a secondary given name and Hao as a stage name.)

Can't see the seal clear enough, best guess is 吴兰之印, indicating the full name of the artist is either 吴兰 or 吴兰之. Since we know the artist's Zi is 子兰, the name ending with 兰 (i.e. 吴兰) is actually more likely than the other.


Uncommon (Unorthodox?!) Pinyin: What are these?

I think I know one.

扥
dèn

This means "pull with a little brutal force".


Which online resources (preferably open source / cc) does contain info on which Chinese verbs is separable?

The Pleco app contains this information. It was actually confusing me for a while, but the //'s in the pinyin indicate verb separability. Pleco includes some free dictionaries, but it also allows you to download others for a price. I'm not sure if the verb-separation indications are tied to any particular dictionary.


Intonation and stress for Chinese pronunciation

(I'm a native Chinese user.)
Any language has its own pattern of intonation and stress variations over a single sentence or many sentences - this is not exclusive to Chinese. Think about English for example (or any other language you know). I don't think such intonation and stress variations (except for the tones of each Chinese character) should be learned by learning the rules that these variations satisfy (in various contexts), because I think it is incredibly unnatural and inefficient for people to remember these rules, and that these rules are in fact very difficult for people to follow. I think it is [very misleading] to suggest to anyone that they learn these variations through remembering and following such rules, unless the person somehow doesn't have the resources which would allow them to listen to properly spoken Chinese.
My suggestion is, ignore these rules and simply listen to native users (who speak Chinese well - not all of them do in fact) speak and imitate them. The way you learn such intonation and stress variations in Chinese should not be different in any notable way from how you learn such variations in any other language, e.g. English.


Is '我还需要多加练习' okay as a dance video caption?

我还需要多练习 (I still need to practice more) already expressed what you wanted to say, but the statement seem plain, and in a matter of fact tone.

我还需要多加练习 (I still need to increase practice more) .  emphasize the keenness in your intention.

'加' in '我需要多加' (+ verb without object), just like your caption, is short for '增加' (increase)

If there was an object, then '加' would be short for '施加'  or '加以' (apply to), for example,  对你的孩子多加管教 (apply more discipline to your child)

  is 我还需要多加练习 a natural way of saying this or would I need change it?

It is very natural, nothing wrong at all.


I think it is mistyped. There is something called "医闹" (yinao), which inherently means affrays in hospitals made by some troublesome patients because of medical disputes.

However, the situation was, some patients hired some "agency" to make all the affrays for them. Before 2011, it was quite common, and those people get hired are called "职业医闹" (zhi ye yi nao). The payment is 100 Yuan per day.

In recent years, as most of the 职业医闹 get caught into prison, much fewer reports of that events are heard, but "医闹" still exists, though most of the events didn't cause very serious consequences. But recently, a patient killed a doctor in Zhejiang, which is an open book.


How is 堪 different from other auxiliary verbs?

堪
(1) endure; sustain; bear; stand
(2) may; can; capable of; fit for

'堪' in '对身体的危害堪比心脏病发作' is definition #(2)
'堪' usually combine with a single character verb like '称' or '作', as in '堪称'(may be called as/ fit to be called as) or '堪作' (may be/fit to be)

[堪 + single character verb] are more classical and literary terms

For two characters verbs like  '作为' , it is more common to use '足以'(enough to), as in '足以作为'(capable of being/ enough to be ) instead of  '堪作为'
('堪称为' is an exception, it is as common as '足以称为')

[足以 + two character verbs] are more modern and colloquial terms


一本萬利 in Traditional characters (as in your image) or 一本万利 in Simplified Chinese, the writing goes from top right to bottom left.

The expression means "small capital, huge gain/profit".


Why does the radical for water and ice often look so weird

As others have commented, it is just another font. I would say just ignore it and as a learner, stick to the standard one for now, which is like three short strokes on the left. It would make more sense if we look into the origin of water character in Chinese: 水 (shui3). The pictographic form for 水 (shui3) looks like a river flow, which gradually evolved into the three strokes as the radical form for water character in Chinese: 水 (shui3).


I am native Cantonese speaker. 劲爆 comes from Cantonese.

劲 means strong/unyielding/tough/power. Similar to 厉害 in Mandarin.
爆 is a adverb, originally means "explosion", but here it means "very extremely", other example: 潮爆, 爽爆.


Does the single character 神 refer to "God" (the unique God, such as in e.g. Christianity) or just "god" or "deity"?

It depends on your religion.

Traditionally,「神」is just a supernatural being, applied to anything from mountain gods to river gods to the sky god.

Ancient China only ever had a "Highest God"「上帝」, not a "Unique God" like Christianity/Islam/Judaism.「上帝」was never said to do things like create the universe. If you're looking for special vocabulary for a "Unique God" in the Chinese language, you won't find one, because that is not really a Chinese concept (nor a concept in most other ancient languages, which were all polytheistic, if hierarchical).

All Chinese-origin words that you see which purportedly refers to the "Unique God" are strictly a repurposement of existing Chinese vocabulary by Christians (or whatever other religion). Specifically,

「神」and「上帝」are used by Protestant Christians in an attempt to connect Christianity to some form of native Chinese belief. Specifically,「上帝」is explicitly used to connect the Christian's God to the Ancient Chinese Shangdi.
「上帝」is avoided by Catholic Christians, who overwhelmingly uses the term「天主」. Apparently, this is due to the exact same reason as Protestant Christians but in reverse: a previous pope wanted to explicitly avoid the Christian's God with Chinese Shangdi, because Shangdi was just part of a polytheistic religion.

Ironically and rather unfortunately for Catholics,「天主」was the name of an ancient non-unique deity in the State of Qi, and was only one deity among eight.

In casual language,「神」is a kind of slang meaning amazing or awesome, in the same manner that god is used as a word for someone who is really good at something.

  「你打球好神！簡直比NBA球星還厲害！」

  Your [basket]ball play is amazing! Even better than NBA stars!

Unless someone explicitly states that they meant the Christians' God, I would rather think that the tattoos of「神」mean god as in "I'm a God/I'm awesome", etc.


What is so problematic about the homophones 预订 and 预定 when negotiating contracts?

Usually, 预订 followed by a noun (object);  预定 followed by a verb (action). It is not difficult to tell the two apart.
Example:
预定明天出發 - scheduled to leave tomorrow
预订一打玫瑰 - place an order for a dozen roses
However, let's say you tell a supplier that "想向你們预订 X number of Y" (want to order X number of Y from you), and they agreed and said, "會预定提供 X number of Y 給你" (will schedule to provide X number of Y for you). If they can't deliver on the agreed date, they can argue: 'to schedule to' is the same as 'to prepare to'. It never was a firm order.

预订明天交貨 = ordered (goods), deliver tomorrow (a firm order)

预定明天交貨 = scheduled to deliver tomorrow (not a firm order)

预订 is an official contract. You are expected to pay for the goods and they are expected to deliver the goods
预定 is a 'promise to reserve', that's why we say 向餐館预定一张桌子 (Reserve a table from a restaurant) and say 向傢具店预订一张桌子 (pre-order a table from a furniture store)


The answer to this question: What is the difference between 必须, 得, and 需要? already explained the difference between 需 and 須.

Basically:

需(need) apply to noun. For example: "必需品" (品 is a noun)

須(need to; must) apply to verb. For example: "須知人言可畏" (知 is a verb)

必需品: necessity; essential thing

人言可畏 criticisms should be feared; gossip is a fearful thing


How Does One Pronounce/Define the *Chinese* Character

I believe that  is a mistake in transcription for 觥 (gong1) because they could look very similar in cursive script. 觥 means drinking vessel and 觥船 means a big drinking vessel, see, e.g., http://www.zdic.net/c/5/f0/248556.htm .


Frequency of hanzi by use in Chinese words

You would need to do some database manipulation. First extract a bigram frequency list (http://lingua.mtsu.edu/chinese-computing/) or a more general word frequency list (as provided by Wenlin, for example), and then decompose the individual morphemes to obtain the most used characters for words.


Is 桌上战争游戏 the term used for "Tabletop Wargaming / Miniwargaming"?

At least on the Chinese Wikipedia article about Warhammer 4000, 桌上战棋游戏 is used.


Is it legitimate to write 男 merging the two vertical strokes?

The simple answer is 'wrong'. 男 is 田 + 力.

It might be ok for daily writing, but it would be wrong for any type of exams.


What is 剋 doing in the Cantonese translation of the movie title “Widows”?

剋 and 黑 are pronounced the same in Cantonese

剋·寡婦 is a wordplay of a common term 黑寡婦 (Black widow: 1. A woman who murders her husband(s) 2. a kind of spider) And as the title implied, it is about a widow who has 剋夫命 (Be accused of bringing bad luck that cause her husband to die)

Chinese rarely translate foreign movies titles word for word. More often than not, the Chinese writer would totally ignore the original title, and make a new one in Chinese to attract Chinese viewers.

Some good example:

Meet the Fockers --> 非常外父智擒霍老爺 (sounds funny)

Wedding Crashers --> 冒牌伴郎智擒姊妹團 (sounds funny)

Mackenna's Gold --> 神龍猛虎闖金關 (sounds heroic)

Sound of Music --> 仙樂飄處處聞 (sounds poetic)

The Longest Day --> 碧血長天 (sounds epic)

The Greatest Show On Earth --> 馬戲千秋 (sounds epic)


What's the meaning of the first part of: 他爱怎么想就怎么想，我才不在乎呢

This would be best translated into:
He thinks however he wants to think, I don't care.

This sentence structure is often used with 什么.

如：你想吃什么就吃什么。

Word by word: You want to eat whatever, just eat whatever.

...which really means: Eat whatever you want.

This structure can work with any normal question pronoun

(哪里/哪儿，什么，怎么，谁，什么时候，为什么。。。）.

(wherever, whatever, however, whoever, whenever, for whatever...)

Here, 就 is pretty much equivalent to 'just', as in 'just do it'. It's not absolutely required here, but it's used very often.

You could write this type of sentence in Chinese more similarly to English:
你就吃你想吃的 (You just eat what you want to eat).

I think a native speaker would more inclined to use the xxxx什么就xxxx什么 structure, however.

See if you can wrap your head around this:

你们想去哪里玩就去哪里玩，反正我都不去了。


"过得舒服" is "生活 过得舒服" omitted the topic "生活"(life) or  "过生活"(living life)
得 in 过得舒服 is a 'degree/result verb particle' that indicate the degree or result of the verb 过

"过生活 过(得) 舒服" = live life (to the point of) being comfortable
"过生活" can be omitted if it is clearly implied in the context
or you can just remove the first 过 and use 生活 as the topic directly and write "生活 过(得) 舒服"

More example:

"看电影 看(得) 高興" = watch movies (to the degree of) being happy
"看电影" can be omitted if it is clearly implied in the context


書全經聖 - 1881 Chinese bible (what is the 2nd character?)

Does it look like this?

This is the way how it was written in 康熙字典. And the radical of 全 is 入.

  一作仝。会意。篆文从入,从王(玉)。盖谓交纳的玉完整无缺。本义:纯色玉


What does "中" as an independent verb means?

中 = to win:
中獎 = win a prize
中頭獎 = win the first prize
中大獎 = win the grand prize
中安慰獎 = win the consolation prize
中二奬 = win the second prize
中彩票 = win lottery
中頭獎彩票 = win the lottery jackpot
中二獎彩票 = win the second prize lottery
獎 in 中獎 is always referring to prize by chance; Not to be confused with 得獎/獲獎 (win award) which the prize or award is always on merit
中 = to take/ be hit by:
中槍 = 1. take/ hit by a gunshot; 2. take (hit by) a (long) spear trust
中彈 = take/ hit by a bullet strike
中刀 = take/ hit by a knife strike
中劍 = take/ hit by a sword strike
中錘 = take/ hit by a hammer strike
中拳 = take/ hit by a (fist) punch
中腿 = take/ hit by a (leg) kick
take/ hit by any object above cause harm, therefore, 中 can also be understood as 'to suffer'
Example in longer sentence:
今期彩票誰中? - who won the lottery this time?
旗艦中了三枚魚雷下沈 - The flagship took (was hit by) three torpedoes and sunk
Notice:
As an adjective or a noun 中 is pronounced as /zhong1/ in Mandarin and /zung1/ in Cantonese
As a verb, 中 is pronounced as /zhong4/ in Mandarin and /zung4/ in Cantonese


The three wors are all nouns.

礼仪 What someone's behavior or words gives others a very good expression.for example ,the man is a gentleman

example 礼仪之邦

之：的

邦：国家（country）

礼仪之邦 ：The people in the country are all gentlemen.（indluding women and children）
惯例 the activity has already been done in this way for many years,and others' also in this way.

惯例 mostly is used to describle activity,not behavior.
规矩 规矩 mostly is used to describle someone's words and behavior.

for example,don't make noise in public place.

规矩 describles most people's behaviors should be done like this, not gentleman.


我个心 does not make sense. I guess you're confusing 个 with 嘅.

我嘅广东话讲得好唔好 => 我的广东话说得好不好

—————————————————————————

个(quantifier) pattern：number + 个 + noun

examples：一个人，六个核桃

when used without a number it normally just mean one：

我有个朋友 => 我有一个朋友

—————————————————————————

的(particle) pattern：noun/pronoun + 的 + noun

examples: 我的心，我喜欢的人，聪明的孩子


It all comes to how Russian names (and maybe names in Slavic languages in general?) often end with 斯基(-sky) for males and 娃(-va) for females in their Chinese translations. For example:

Tchaikovsky 柴可夫斯基
Sharapova 莎拉波娃

and I'm sure you can find other similar names, either that of real-life persons or fictional characters.

And so it becomes a somewhat well-known wordplay/pun that there are only two types of people in Russia - 司机 (drivers) since it's a homophone of 斯基, both pronounce as sījī (si1 ji1), and 小孩 (kids) since it's basically what 娃 means in Chinese. And when you put it that way, it's kind of funny, so people remember this joke.

Now back to the original question, 怎么不是司机不是娃呢, it means: How could someone neither be a -sky nor a -va? But of course, if translated this way, the humor in it is lost.

By the way, I imagine playing jokes with other people's name can be disrespectful in the eye of some people/culture. However, it's unlikely the speaker had any bad intention. If you find this rude or if it makes you uncomfortable, you should respectfully tell the speaker to stop making this kind of joke, and tell them how you feel. We can all be careless sometimes when interacting with a person from a different cultural background. I'm sure any respectable person will be more careful upon your request (or, at the very least, you will see the kind of person they are).

If you are not a Russian or you don't mind though, feel free to ignore this section.


Does "免费" mean "free" in terms of price?

"免费" is "free" in terms of price.

"免" means "exempt"; "费" means "costs" or "fees". "Exempt from costs" = "free".

"自由" is "free" as in freedom/liberty.


Is 了 optional when a time word is present?

I think Chinese textbooks should start their 了 sections with this:

了 is not about time.
了 is not about tense.
Goto 1.

You are only concerned with 了 as an the aspect marker, aka completed action 了, or perfect aspect 了, so:

"昨天去商店" and "昨天去了商店" are both valid verb phrases. The second one explicitly states that the action was completed, whereas the first one does not.

As other posters have mentioned, "我昨天去商店" isn't wrong, but it is incomplete as a sentence because it leaves that verb phrase hanging. It feels like "Yesterday I went to the shop and..." in English. It needs to carry on with more information, e.g. "我昨天去商店的时候发现鸡蛋都卖完了".

"我昨天去了商店" is a complete sentence.

It might be easiest to look at examples to get a better sense of this:

我们昨天卖了十个。 -> "We sold ten yesterday."

到了红绿灯，往左拐。 -> "When you get to the traffic lights, turn left."

你买了东西以后可以去银行取点现金吗？ -> "After you've bought the things could you go to the bank and get some cash out?" (notice this in the future, the action hasn't happened yet, but still uses 了)

My point is that 了 is not about tense or time. It's about whether an action is complete in the time frame we're talking about.

I think that this is the sort of issue that can't be resolved by reading textbooks or explanations online. It's got to be done through long-term exposure and practice, in my view.


What is the difference between 钱 and 金钱 (and 款)?

In terms of usage here are the common use for those words.

金钱 = Usually represent wealth in writing.

時間就是金錢 (time is money)
我的金錢 (my wealth)

钱 = Money
Most common form of money

多少钱 (how much)

款 usually means fund (in terms of money)

for example:
(款)
信用卡还款 -- credit card transferring (funds)
退款- refund

钱 is more informal than the other two. (In general if there is a single character form and a two character form, the two character form is more formal.)

款 is also used in 贷款, which means loan. Generally 款 does not imply money that you have so much as simply money that you are using. 款 can in some situations have a negative connotation while 钱 is neutral.


Translation Gaps On Comic Conversation : 1

Well this is written in traditional so...

FT:過年真清閒
JT:过年真清闲
ENG: New year's is very idle/leisurely/quiet

FT:今年一定是好事連連
JT:今年一定是好事连连
ENG: This year will definitely be filled with one good thing after another

Nothing too regional...

You didn't miss anything else.


What does 必死的决心 mean? Must-die determination?

必死 = certain death

决心 = determination

必死的决心 means "A determination so strong that you prepare to meet certain death to carry it out"

It is a 誇張詞 (exaggeration phrase).

Similar to "誓死" (swearing on one's own life)

You can omit "的" and say "必死决心"


Opening a Mahjong business. Does 熬云 sound like a business name? Have no idea what a normal Chinese business name sounds like

To me as a native speaker, there is a negative feeling about 熬. It means getting through(or endure) bad things(etc. pain, poor, sickness).
see 熬's meaning here

So maybe 熬 is just not the best choice. But considering your ID as "A O", you may like this "ao" sound very much. So my recommendation is to use 鏖 instead.(see 鏖's meaning here). It basically meaning a really long battle. As Mahjong is a really long battle on the table. Hope this helps.


Wubihua / Traditional Chinese / Open-source index

What do you want to use it for? Mostly it is used as an input method, which is probably why only four digits are included. If you need the order of all strokes, changing your search phrase to something like "stroke order" might help. Here are some links I have found:

http://stroke-order.learningweb.moe.edu.tw/

http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-stroke-order.php?searchChinese=1&zi=%E5%9C%8B

Edit: I've found this:

https://code.google.com/p/ibus-t9/issues/detail?id=3

Very inclusive! Download that attachment. I bet that is exactly what you are looking for. :)


Your confusion came from only thinking 多 as "how" as in:

多少? (how many?)
多快？(how fast?)
多久？ (how long?) * time

However, 多 can, and mostly means "many/much" as in:

多日 (many days)
多人 (many people)
多時 (much time)

In 過不了多久, you don't see a question mark, which mean it is not a question, and 多 here means " much" and 久 means " long time"

The structure of this phrase is:
要不了(would not take) 多(much) 久(long time)

多 here function as "very"


Old post, but those answers make the language hobbyist in me cry, so...
Are you willing to pay for the privilege? If you are, I recommend Complete Cantonese from Teach Yourself, Basic Cantonese from Routledge, Colloquial Cantonese, and if you want something fun to start with then the Berlitz Cantonese phrasebook with CD. And a heads up, you want something fun to start with.

Basic and Colloquial don't have Chinese characters but the Berlitz phrasebook does, Teach Yourself can escalate a tad too quickly for my taste but it's pretty comprehensive, so between them there's enough overlap and different strengths to give you a reasonable course.

Berlitz into Basic into Colloquial into Teach Yourself would be the easiest order in my opinion, though Berlitz into TY could work. I started with TY and wouldn't recommend it unless you felt like a challenge, though you'll likely progress a little slower even if you do. Each chapter introduces vocabulary, the next chapter uses it, and they stop translating into English after a few chapters; hence why the other books go first.

You could also go Berlitz into Basic/TY, or Berlitz into Basic, into Colloquial/TY, as using TY along with Colloquial would be much nicer and you'll have a reasonable foundation to build on. It will still be challenging, just not 'lead weights strapped to the ankles while swimming over the Mariana Trench' challenging.

You obviously don't need to buy them all at once, so it shouldn't cost too much in money up front. Just time.


Why isn't 四 four lines? (the origin of 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九)

This is an interesting topic; it touches one of the core idea of the Chinese language.

The Chinese language and all its dialects have not been designed by one inventor at one specific day. Instead, they were created and evolved at different regions through thousands of years at least.

Evidences (see below) showed that some of the Chinese characters from four to ten (四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九) evolves as the type of 轉注 (轉注者，建類一首，同意相受。考、老是也。) or 假借 (假借者，本無其字，依聲託事。令、長是也。) instead of 象形 (象形者，畫成其物，隨體詰詘。日、月是也。); and one and ten (一, 十) evolves as the type of 指事 (指事者，視而可識，察而見意。上、下是也。) or 會意 (會意者，比類合宜，以見指撝。武、信是也。) instead of 象形. Any reference, say, 《鐵雲藏龜》by 清 劉鶚 in 1903 (清光緒二十九年), or the one below, can only act as possible explanations at their intellectual best.

Reference

《說文解字》by 漢 許慎.
《鐵雲藏龜》by 清 劉鶚 in 1903 (清 光緒二十九年).
《白魚解字》by 流沙河 in 2014, ISBN 9787514317329.

One Possible Explanation

一: one bar. May mean the whole, the universe. Reference.
二: two bars. May mean the positive and negative. The upper may refer to the heaven, the lower the earth. Reference.
三: three bars. The upper may refer to the heaven, the lower the earth, and the middle the human. Reference.
四: First |||| (four bars), then combines with 二 to avoid ambiguity: , like being mistaken to be two ||. Reference.
五: First a 二 with X in between: . The two bars are sky and earth, the X being the intersection between them, to mean all positive number greater than four. Reference.
六: ￼, a house with four sides plus roof and ground giving six. Reference.
七: Designed originally to be 十 (meaning all number greater than six) with a twist on the bottom: . Reference.
八: Opposite bracket-like curve  meaning "divide", used to be greatest number. See 八卦.  Reference.
九: Designed originally to be a right arm () reaching for something. Nine bears a meaning of great, the number of categories for many things. Reference.
十: | (a rope overhung) combines with a knot on it: . Using ten to mean "all" may be because of the fact that we have ten fingers. Reference.

Another possible explanation

At first, people may invent those most frequently used: one, two, and three, as put by 老子 in 「道德經」: 道立于一, 一生二, 二生三, 三生萬物. ("The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three;
Three produced All things." translated by James Legge )


How to translate “这帮丫头片子，也不知道都便宜哪帮孙子了”?

'chicks' is a kind of unflattering nickname for 'girls', not a very accurate translation of '丫头片子' - '(immature, innocent, naive) young woman/ girl'.  However, in this context, the main character does sexualize them, Thus, both 'chicks' and 'young women/ girls' are a suitable translation
Personally, I would translate as follow:

这帮丫头片子 - These girls,/ This flock of chicks,

也不知道都便宜哪帮孙子了”. Who knows what bad boys are getting into their panties /  Who knows what bad boys are getting lucky with them

孙子 (grandkid) here is a 謔稱 (unflattering nickname) for men who are not mature or refine enough to be called upstanding
孙子 is seemingly a short form of 龟孙子 (unworthy rascals)-- a slang in Mandarin


Why do people say 慢点儿阿("man dianer a") when you leave their shop?

慢走 is a polite thing to say usually used for someone who is leaving, has two implicit meaning:

I don't want you to leave, so please leave slowly, so I can stay a little longer with you.
Don't hurry, take care.

慢点儿 has the same meaning, but not as formal as 慢走, and sounds more affable.


I am sure all three terms can be found in dictionaries, but some of the definitions might overlap and cause new learners confusion, I think it is better to just list their main difference in my answer:

交流 = interact / exchange

交際 = socialize

溝通 = communicate

Examples:

文化交流 (cultural exchange) ; 互相交流 ( interact with each other)
交際應酬 ( socialize and partying) ；與上流社會交際 (socialize with the upper class )
無法溝通 (unable to communicate); 以眼神溝通 ( communicate with looks in the eyes)


Which word processors and websites support vertical writing of Chinese?


I think it could be close to the fact to say "曾经(once)“ is used in the past tense, while "已经(already)" is used in the perfect(past, present, or future, it doesn't matter) tense, that's why ”了" is often used with it..
So when you are using the present perfect tense or future perfect tense, only 已经 can be used. For example(where 曾经 can't be used):

明年他就已经结婚5年了。 He will have been married for 5 years next year. Future Perfect Tense
他现在已经是这个公司的CEO了。 He has been the CEO of this company now. Present Perfect Tense

How about the past(past perfect) tense?
As you may have learned in English. the past perfect tense implies that the fact the sentence is talking about is related to or affect the status quo, and the past tense just states a fact. That's true to "已经“ and "曾经". ALso, 曾经 could implies that the fact doesn't last till now(see my answer to a related question "What's the role of 曾经 in this sentence?") .For your examples:

他曾经在北京学过两年汉语。 State the fact that he studied Chinese in Beijing for 2 years and implies he is not studing Chinese in Beijing now.
他已经在北京学过两年汉语。Emphasize the fact that his experience in studing Chinese. This fact will affect the status quo, depending on the context.For example, when a company wants to hire a man who can speak Chinese and you go to the interview, you would prefer to say"我已经在北京学过两年汉语". Here, you want the listener to understand that you can speak Chinese well.

Some other examples.

两年前他曾经是副经理。 He was(used to be) the deputy manager two years ago. Here, the sentence implies he is not the deputy manager now. So what's his title now? The speaker doesn't have any idea about this. The speaker just stated a fact.
两年前他已经是副经理了。 He had been the deputy manager two years ago Here, the sentence implies that he may get promoted now(perhaps he is the general manager now,in this case, you want to say he is talented), or he is still the deputy manger(in this case, you may want to say he should get promoted). All the implications depend on the context.

Let me show a conversation here. A policeman is investigating a case, and he is looking for a witness. He finds you and asks you some quesstions. You say,

You: 那天晚上我曾经在这儿看到他。 I saw him(the suspect) here on that night.
The policeman: 是吗？不过已经有人给我们报告过了。 Really? But someone else has informed us of this.(he is disappointed that you can't say something new).
You: 他曾经欠了A(the victim)一大笔钱，不过最近他好像突然有钱了。 He once owed a big sum of money to A, but it seems that he is rich now.
The policeman: 我们还不知道这个，我想我已经能确定他的作案动机了。We don't know this. Now I can say I have confirmed his motive to kill A


You can review the vocabulary differences here:

HSK2 vs HSK3

This article also describes what a HSK 3 level should be able to achieve.


How do you ask "Who is your dad" in Chinese?

Both of 谁是你的爸爸 and 你的爸爸是谁 are accepted. Note that when the two words put in the former place written as 谁是, while put them in the latter place written as 是谁. As long as you don't write it as 是谁你的爸爸 or 你的爸爸谁是 there will be no problem for you to use both of 谁是你的爸爸 and 你的爸爸是谁.


Does 令人惊讶 require that someone actually be surprised?

No. Just like "surprising", it is used to describe unexpected or unusual things/facts, which may have a potential to make someone surprised.


Original translation is very unclear.  The original Enligsh style should not be directly translated into Chinese.
"Own" might be translated to 购入/购置.  And "a lot" should be translated to 其他豪华物资/资产 I guess?

I guess this is an advertisement?

It should be (sentences reordered and more advertisement-like) "住惯了公寓，想拥有属于自己的梦幻别墅？只需要您拥有护照，即可在菲律宾购入豪华别墅以及更多菲律宾资产".


"Woman's plan to buy 7 million-dollar-house in a school district fails"


What word should be used to describe anyone who is counter-revolutionary, that is, one who opposes a revolution?

I suppose to understand the meaning of   “反革命” ,you have to know how’s this word came out .

After OCT 1st 1949,the People Republic of China was founded,leading by Communist Party of China(CPC),and base on the situation,the civil war between CPC and Kuomintang (a major political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan) isn’t ended ,that means China still needs  revolution to unify the whole country and  CPC as legal party,anyone against CPC or revolution must be illegal

反革命 isn’t only mean to oppose revolutionary,this , but more like describe the people who betrayed the CPC and distub the way of unity China ,which means illegal at all.


Is Chinese writing pictorial, ideographic - or neither?

Is there is an accurate, brief characterisation of the language?

Considering it had developed over such a long period of time, it would be a trade-off between these two. The shortest, yet acceptable answer I can give is:

Written Chinese characters started with both pictorial and ideographic ones, but has grown more complex over history: Sometimes two characters that had the same sound would get confused and become the same character. Sometimes new characters are made combining the sound from one and meaning of another. Loanwords from sounds also exist throughout history. But the sounds also changed throughout history.


好羡慕拍照的人，有这么漂亮的人可以拍: who is 的人?

The latter half of your sentence belongs to the structure subject + 有 + object + transitive verb, where the subject 拍照的人 is hidden. To understand why they are arranged like so, consider a simpler example below.

When we rearrange 我吃東西 ('I eat something'), which bears the orthodox subject + verb + object structure, into 我有東西吃 ('I have something to eat'), the sentence gravitates towards the object 東西 (i.e. food). The purpose of saying 我有東西吃 is that there is food to eat, not eating itself.

Similarly, 拍照的人/有/人/可以拍 (for simplicity, remove the adjectival phrase 這麼漂亮的) is 拍照的人/可以拍/人 rearranged (lit. ‘people who take pictures=the photographer can take someone’s picture’). 有人可以拍 emphasises on the fact that there does exist someone that a photographer (the hidden subject) can take pictures of, not the action itself.

In 我有東西吃, we may guess by emphasising on the food, the speaker might have been hungry for a long while. In 拍照的人有人可以拍, we may guess, by the emphasis on (the beauty) of photographic models, the reason of the speaker's envy. The point being, common sense does help in parsing sentences correctly.

Google translation thinks a noun (有人) placed before a verb (可以拍, lit. can take) must make it the doer of the verb, following the logic in SVO structure. That is not the case, because the structure is rearranged.


I start with 2. It's the literal meaning of 喝茶. 喝 = drink, 茶 = tea, so "have some tea" is a perfect translation of 喝茶.

To explain 1, you should think it as an interpersonal communication. In some cases, 喝茶 means "sit down and have some drink", usually after a guest visit. In this case, 茶 does not necessarily be 茶 and may be any drink. It's usually when people have something to talk or discuss that the host serves some drink first.

The 3rd one as recognized by 神秘德里克, is an internet slang. When one talks about something politically-sensitive (like the Tiananmen Square Massacre) in mainland China, local police would ask them to “来警察局喝点茶” (come to the police office and talk seriously), which then boils down to the above paragraph (serve drink before discussion).


Using Dual-Character Verbs When Not Necessary

Some two-character verbs or verbal phrases are constructed as verb-object phrases (seperable verbs), e.g. 吃饭 (eat a meal) and 说话 (speak words). As they already have an object, you usually cannot have another object afterwards.
The first two sentences are therefore ungrammatical.

*我想吃饭炒面。=> 我想吃炒面。
*他们会说话德文。=> 他们会说德文。

饭 and 话 are not only unnecessary, but putting them there is simply wrong (you wouldn't say "I want to eat a meal fried noodles" right?).
In the case of 学习 and 阅读, these two-character verbs are pleonasms to fit words into the Chinese phonology. Individually, 学 and 习 mean roughly the same thing (learn, study) as are 阅 and 读 (read). Even when combined, they are still transitive verbal phrases that can accept objects.
However, in contemporary Chinese, one of the character is usually preferred (depending on the context and regional dialect) when there is an object and we want to simplify it. In the case of 学习 and 阅读, 学 and 读 are overwhelmingly preferred in standard Mainland Mandarin for ordinary contexts. Compare: "How to study and learn" and "I have read and perused the many books" are all fine constructions in English. As with English, their meanings when used separately have subtle differences (that I can't explain fully in this answer) and the choice of which heavily depends on phonological contexts and language register (e.g. 阅 is more literary than 读).
So, the third and fourth sentences are grammatical and they can be also simplified.

你在学习英文。 = 你在学英文。
你在阅读什么书？ = 你在读什么书？

Using 习 here is possibly acceptable (especially for certain dialects) while using 阅 here is weird and borderline ungrammatical.
The simplified sentences have the same meanings and the subtle differences are insignificant and again dependent on the broader context.


I am afraid there's no transliteration in Chinese for "sticker". In Chinese, especially in Shanghainese, there are many transliterations for English words. For example, "司迪克" for “stick（walking stick）”，“斯博灵” for “spring lock”，“水门汀” for “cement”，“拉三” for “lass”，etc.

As for "sticker", if you have ever heard any Chinese says,it is just an occasionally borrowed word from English. That means if you write "give me a sticker" in Chinese, it would be "给我一张sticker". There's no Formal Chinese transliteration of it.

In Chinese, we use such words like "贴纸"，"粘纸", or "不干胶标签" for "sticker".


連結 and 連接 are basically the same when it comes to the meaning of 'connect/ link'.
The only difference is 結 is specifically refer to as 'bonded connection' while the connection in 接 can be a firm bond or an unbonded contact.
Also, 連結 can be a noun or a verb, but 連接 is used as a verb only

連 - link; connect

結 - to tie; to bond

連結 = link (n); to link; to connect (v)

~

連 - link; connect

接 - connect; touch

連接 = too connect; to link

Example:
連接兩條電綫 can mean put two wires together to complete an electrical circuit or bond two electric wires together, while 連結兩條電綫 can only mean the two wires are bonded


Asking Chinese mother-in-law to learn pinyin?

If your mother-in-law confuses n and l, it's unlikely that knowing pinyin would be enough for her distinguish those words like in standard Chinese. Just because she knows what an n or l is doesn't mean that she'll know which words are supposed to begin with what consonant. If you want her to distinguish n/l in her speech (not sure from your question whether you are), you're not just teaching her pinyin; you'd have to teach her the pinyin of all the n/l words, and then have her speak it that way.

For instance, my parents merge s/sh, z/zh, c/ch, and n/ng. They know pinyin, and they know they confuse those sounds, but they don't necessarily know how those words are supposed to be spelled.  Plus, I've told my mom that 弄 (nòng) should not be pronounced lòng, but she does it anyway, even though she distinguishes n/l in almost all other circumstances. Old habits die hard.

For an another analogy, let's say you are a speaker of American English and have a British friend who can't understand it when all those pesky Americans who keep pronouncing "caught" like "cot". Would you really know whether "not", "naught", or "nought" is the one with the /ɑː/ or the /ɔː/?

If you want to understand her better, I'd recommend just getting used to the n/l merger or whatever idiosyncratic pronunciation your mother-in-law uses. When she says n, consider if it could've been an l word, and vice versa. Have her write out the characters on a piece of paper instead of in the air. Perhaps even just have her dictate into Google Translate or Bing Translator.

As for how she can understand you better, consider pulling out your phone and using an IME instead of writing out the pinyin. Even if she learns pinyin, it's probably going to be a lot slower for her to read it than hanzi. When I was first learning hangeul, it took me a few months to get comfortable enough to not mix up some letters. Something with haphazardly designed letters like Latin, and something with quirky spelling conventions like pinyin, are probably going to be pretty hard to read for an elderly person. With regional dialects, she might be getting the tones or other phonemes of the word wrong too, so she might have trouble decoding what you wrote.

Also, maybe ask your wife why she thinks her mother has trouble understanding you. Are you subtly mispronouncing the words somehow (maybe in terms of tone), or does your mother only understand a certain nonstandard pronunciation?


what is the verbatim (word for word if possible) translation of the phrase 揚子法言?

揚子 is simply the author's name (originally 揚雄, 子 being a respectful address form analogous to 孔子/孔丘, Confucius).

法言: 言 means speech or word or writings. 法 is a central concept of Confucianism. According to 《爾雅·釋詁》: 法，常也。 It derives from classical ceremonial practices and pertains to social norms and moral philosophy (a bit similar to the Hindu concept of dharma, which is translated as 法 in Chinese). The work itself is thus a disputation on Confucian philosophy.


《懶蟲簡明英漢詞典》

  go Dutch
  verb
  各人付自己的帳

Usually, we simply say 各付各的 or 各出各的 in both TC and SC.

Others:
    各付各的帳
    各付一半帳
    各付一半賬
    各付帳
    各人付自己的帳
    各人自付錢
    各人自己付錢
    各自付錢
    各自付帳
    各自負擔自己費用

According to the legend of the Anglo-Dutch scramble for colonies and competition for the international trade market, because of the frequent conflict and dislike of the two countries, such usage appeared in English, contrary to the "generous" image of an English gentleman.


砲響: were there cannons in ancient China?

Brewitt-Taylor's English translation of San-guo yanyi calls it a "bomb." This was a kind of "signal bomb" 號砲 or 信砲. The earliest real historical record of these seems to have been the Yuan dyansty, as Song Yuanyao's comment notes. Joseph Needham's volume on "The Gunpowder Epic" has a brief mention of the use of these, for instance in the Mongol attack on Yangzhou in 1276. I think it is safe to say that Luo's description of battles where these are employed is simply anachronistic.


What is the meaning of 赶上 in ...完全是赶上了好时代?

"In time for" is the right interpretation in this context. 好时代(an era when living was great) is like a party. It has a beginning and an end. People who died before it or born after it missed out. "她赶上了好时代" means she was born at the right time, during a great era.

赶上 means " (rushed in or hurriedly arrive) just in time."


TM (also written TMD) is short for 他/她媽的, literally ('his/her mother's'), equivalent to English motherf*****g.

See the Wiktionary entry for more details.


Why are 端母 and 知母 considered as distinct initials in Early Middle Chinese even though they share same 上字's such as 都 or 丁, while 幫母 and 非母 are not?

As we know that 知母 did not exist in Old Chinese. It was later derived from 端母 in Middle Chinese.
The milage that a word differentiating 知母 from 端母 varied in Middle Chinese. Some changed to 知母 in Early Middle Chinese but some did not. And 樁 finally went to 知母.
Due to the vastness of the ancient empires, we must beware that Early Middle Chinese was not a single language but a collection of close related languages at that time. For example, the spoken language in 金陵 was somehow different from that of 長安. The capitals of empires changed during the long period of Early Middle Chinese. 知母 might appear in one place but not in another place.
陳澧 tried to reconstruct 切韻 from 廣韻. He only followed that 樁 is 都江切 in 廣韻. Here 都 is 端母 and so 樁 is 端母 in 切韻. It is up to the correctness of 廣韻.
But after 廣韻, another rime book 集韻 changed it 株江切 and it is 知母.
By the time of 廣韻, 三十六字母, the 36 initials, including 非母. But some centuries earlier, a copy written in 敦煌 was only 三十字母, the 30 initials, indicating that 非母 did not exist at the time. Thus the distinction between 幫母 and 非母 did not exist in Early Middle Chinese.
While 切韻 was vanished long ago, there is a revised version of 切韻 namely 刊謬補缺切韻 which has a few surviving copies nowadays. This helps to verify the correctness on the works of 陳澧.


How did the abbreviations 520 and 521 arise?

Yeah, I'm with you on this one, the connection is very hard to hear.
Ninchanese wrote a blog post about it that mentions [emphasis my own]:

How did 5.20 come to equal a Chinese love word that says I love you?
Talking about this special event, you may wonder why it occurs on this day and not another one in Chinese. The answer is quite simple. It’s all about the sounds. When you write May 20th in numbers, it’s written 5.20. When you pronounce the numbers 5. 2. 0 in Chinese, 五二零 wǔ èr líng, they sound very close to the words 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ. See? They don’t sound exactly the same, but they sound quite similar, and that’s enough! The Chinese love plays on homophonic words and numbers with hidden meanings.
520 originally started as a slang word used by the Chinese online as a shortcut to say I love you in Chinese, like ILY in English. It then came to be associated with the date May 20th (5.20), which therefore became a very romantic day!

They even admit that it doesn't sound totally the same. It, seems, to makes more sense that 20 sounds like 爱你, rather than 2 = 爱 and 0 = 你 - a lot of things said together quickly are easily confused with other things.


Why is "quotient" translated as 「商」 in mathematics?

商甲河687合集24225

「商」 (to measure > calculate, approximate, discuss > (1) quotient, (2) commerce) was originally comprised of 「辛」 (picture of a chisel or torture weapon > hardship, difficulty) and 「丙」 (picture of a workshop table), indicating trade professions involving measurement (e.g. of raw materials and dimensions). This is one of the earliest and most literal meanings of the word 「商量」.

「口」 was later added as a proper noun mark, referring to the name of the Shang Dynasty.

商金商婦甗集成867戰國・楚金曾侯乙鐘集成290秦簡日甲145睡虎地秦簡今楷

  Compare the similar addition of 「口」 (or its derivatives 「甘」 and 「曰」) in the characters 「周」 (Zhou Dynasty), 「曹」 (State of Cao), 「曾」 (State of Zeng), etc.

To measure was later extended to mean approximation or calculation, and then specialised to mean quotient, derived from its use as a kind of jargon in rod calculus.

  See a rod calculus tutorial on computing the square root of 234567. The top row in this calculation layout is called 「商」.

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》


According to the question, you should only need to describe the radical (found in this case as the left hand component) 糸, not 氏.

The word 部首 is literally translated as section header, and strictly refers to the header under which the character is grouped in dictionaries. Each character has only one 部首, just like each English word has only one first letter under which they are found in dictionaries.

If your teacher also asks you to describe 氏, then that should be done in a separate question; if they think that 氏 is a 部首 in the character 紙, then they are unequivocally wrong. 紙 is a semantophonetic (形聲) compound character under the traditional liushu scheme of classifying characters. You can only refer to 氏 as a 聲部 (sound component) in 紙, not a 部首.

最早"紙"是什麽意思 (punctuation added) is asking you to find out what 紙 meant in its first appearance in historical literature. This may be trying to get you to appreciate that many characters have changed meaning over the course of history.


Why is 比率 in 一家名为 RATIO 比率的店面备受关注?

In this context, 比率 is just a translation of "RATIO" written immediately after the name. It does not contribute any other meaning to the sentence.


Does the beta like character (as in 陳, 附 and many more) in Chinese have a special meaning?

This radical is called the 双耳旁 or 双二刀, due to it looking somewhat like an ear or the 刀 character. There are actually two radicals depending on whether it's placed to the left or right: 左耳刀 if on the left, 右耳刀 if on the right. The two radicals have different origins and different meanings.

http://baike.baidu.com/view/457766.htm

The left version is derived from the 阜 (fù) character, meaning "mound" or "abundant". Characters with this radical are often related to mountains, hills etc, such as 陵 (hill), 险 (steep), 陆 (terrestrial).

The right version is derived from the 邑 (yì) character, meaning "city". Characters with this radical are often related to cities or human settlements, such as 都 (capital), 郊 (suburb), 郡 (commandery).


Query about tone and stress in Mandarin foreign transcriptions/loanwords

I don't agree that "Mainland Mandarin" is a stress-timed language. Where did you get the "general agreement"? In addition, I think that Mandarin is Mandarin. The difference between "Mainland Mandarin" and "Taiwan Mandarin" is smaller than British English and US English.

Back to your question. Even the words/names are translated from other stress-timed language, one reads them character by character in a steady pace (so called syllable-timed). 布拉德・皮特 reads as 布/拉/德・/皮/特, not 布/拉德・/皮特 or something else. But since many educated Chinese know English very well, they may mix English words in directly when they speak. Nowadays, when one use a standard way to say, for example, 布拉德・皮特, it sounds OK but a bit out of fashion. So people, especially young people prefer to use Brad Pitt instead of 布拉德・皮特. Here the words are already English, not Mandarin or Chinese any more. 朋友 reads as 朋/友. Both characters take the same time to pronounce.

Don't trust websites, such as this. In the comment you already see it's full of mistakes.


Included or Not Included As In "以後" "以來", etc

In ancient Chinese, 以上 and 以下 are inclusive without a doubt. Why? Just because everyone use them in the same way and exceptions are few to none. Example:

三品以下用金宝，二品以上用玉宝。（元史•选举志三）
七月，定进马迁赏格，每甲马一匹或二匹以上，迁赏有差。（金史•列传
第五十七）

In modern Chinese, they are supposed to inherit the ancient usage, however sometimes people try to be accurate by adding explanatory words which actually diluted the original meaning. For example the following forms are quite common in modern Chinese:

目前，浙江省县及县以下考生占全省考生总数的 68%。
设立公司应有三个以上（含）发起人。

In law space, the usage is still clearly defined to be inclusive. Example:

本法所称以上、以下、以内，包括本数。（1997 年 3 月 14 日修订《中华
人民共和国刑法》第九十九条）

This reference has a lot of examples to demonstrate the ancient and modern usages. (The author considered modern new usages wrong.)


How do you use "which" as a relative pronoun?

I am a native Chinese and Linguistic major graduate student, I guess my answer is suitable:

每周末我们位于Campbell农贸市场前面的商店里都会提供一个舒适的茶座。

Or:
每个周末,我们位于Campbell农贸市场前面的商店都会提供一个舒适的茶座。

Either is Ok and I prefer the later one.


大日如來

Mahāvaircana, the Buddha who is the central teacher and object of veneration in Vajrayāna Buddhism (密宗).

"The Great Sun Buddha, is the transcendent and cosmocratic apotheosis of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni (釋迦牟尼).
Under the earlier designation Vairocana ("the luminous one"), he represents Buddhism's most profound speculation on the emptiness and interpenetration of all elements in the universe (dharmadhātu, 法界).
As Mahāvairocana he is concretely envisaged as the all-encompassing lord of the cosmos and is the object of worship for a form of Tantric Buddhism (密宗) that spread from India to Sumatra, China, Japan, and Tibet."
(Encyclopedia of Religion, Orzech)

Originally the name referred to the light of the sun, but later on took on connotations of the buddha as fundamental principle of the universe.

He is one of the five buddhas 五佛 depicted in the maṇḍalas of the vajradhātu (金剛界) and garbhadhātu (胎藏界).

The name is transcribed into Chinese as 摩訶毗盧遮那 and 毗盧遮那佛, and is translated variously as 最高顯廣眼藏, 遍照王如來, 光明遍照, 大日遍照, 遍一切處, 遍照尊.

Source: 《 English-Chinese-English Dictionary of Buddhist Terms 》

大日如來

梵名 Mahāvairocana 。為密教供奉之本尊與最上根本佛。音譯作摩訶毗盧遮那。又作毗盧遮那佛、最高顯廣眼藏、遍照王如來、光明遍照、大日遍照、遍一切處、遍照尊。

其名有三義，即：
(一)除暗遍明義，謂如來智慧日光遍一切處，作大照明，無有內外、晝夜之別。
(二)眾務成辦義，謂如來日光遍照法界，能平等開發無量眾生之善根，乃至成就世、出世間種種殊勝事業。
(三)光無生滅義，謂佛心之日雖為無明所覆障，而無所減；究竟如法實相三昧圓明，而無所增。
以如此諸種原因，故世間之日不可為喻，但取其少分相似處，故加以‘大’字。

大日如來係密宗將宇宙實相佛格化之根本佛，亦為一切諸佛菩薩所出之本原及所歸之果體；其身口意業遍虛空，演說如來之三密門金剛一乘甚深教。《大日經疏》卷一謂，大日如來分本地法身與加持受用身兩種，其中，本地法身指如來之自證極位，加持受用身指說法之教主；彼以平等之身口意秘密加持為所入之門（即以身平等之密印、語平等之真言、心平等之妙觀為方便），故知加持受用之身即是毗盧遮那遍一切身，此二身畢竟無二無別。故密宗以大日如來為最高之佛格與根本總德。以其與諸法遍在，故密號遍照金剛。

又因大日如來為金、胎兩部曼荼羅之主尊，故非常被重視，其智德以金剛界大日如來表示之，其理德則以胎藏界大日如來表示；理、智雖然二分，實際亦不相離。金剛界大日為金剛界九會中，除理趣會以外之中尊，位於五佛中央，現菩薩形，身呈白色，戴五智寶冠，結智拳印，結跏趺坐於七獅子座，此即智法身。胎藏界大日則為位於中台八葉院中央之理法身，亦現菩薩形，身呈黃金色，頭戴五佛寶冠，結法界定印，坐於八葉蓮華台上。

Source: 《佛光大辭典》

如來 Tathāgata (तथागत), 多陀阿伽陀.

Tathāgata (怛他揭多) defined as he who comes as do all other Buddhas; or as he who took the 真如 zhenru or absolute way of cause and effect, and attained to perfect wisdom; or as the absolute come; one of the highest titles of a Buddha.

It is the Buddha in his nirmāṇakāya (निर्माणकाय), i. e. his 'transformation' or corporeal manifestation descended on earth. The two kinds of Tathāgata are (1) 在纏 the Tathāgata in bonds, i. e. limited and subject to the delusions and sufferings of life, and (2) 出纏 unlimited and free from them.

There are numerous sutras and śāstras bearing this title of 如來 (rulai).

Source: 《 Soothill-Hodous Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms 》


At the very least, you need to provide a clearer image. Even a higher resolution one would do. I can't see much from this:

ＸＸ
Ｘ天
家浧
Ｘ國


Politeness in referring to a recent death

TL;DR

The most general euphemism for "die" in Chinese is

  去世

  Literally means "leave the world". Similar to the English expression "pass on/away".

It would be polite enough to address anyone's death and is commonly used in speaking and writing. So if you don't know which word is the best, just use this one – in only a few cases would it sound unsuitable (even though it won't sound impolite), e.g.

When using euphemism is absurd. For example, it's weird to say

(Awful!) 这个专门杀男孩的杀手终于去世了。
(Awful!) Finally, the serial killer who aims at boys has passed away.

As you wouldn't say that in English, don't try it in Chinese.
When addressing children's death. Chinese consider 去世 is too solemn for children, and in formal writing we use 夭折. In conversations, personally I might (I hope there's no chance for me) say 离开了我们 (has left us).

A Longer List

General (for grown-ups)

  (leave the world; leave forever) 去世/过世/离世/谢世/辞世/与世长辞 / [长逝/永逝]
  (sleep forever; rest in peace; say farewell forever) 安息/永眠/长眠/永别

For children and youths

  夭折/夭亡/早逝 / [殤/兰摧玉折]

For young girls

  香消玉殒/倩女离魂

For the great

  逝世/辞世/与世长辞/ [星陨]

For martyrs

  牺牲/就义/殉道/殉国/殉难/殉职/壮烈/舍身 [成仁/以身许国/舍生取义/马革裹尸]

For those who die for illness

  病故/病逝

For ancient emperors

  驾崩/ [大薨/山陵崩/登遐/晏驾]

For Buddhist monks

  圆寂/坐化/涅槃 [示寂/示灭/入灭/灭度/示灭]

For those who die for accidents

  遇难/罹难/丧身

For those who normally die at an old age

  寿终/寿终正寝

For old masters (these phrases are Taoism related)

  驾鹤西去/仙去/仙游/ [登仙/物化/羽化/遁化/迂化/迂神/隐化/解驾]

Note:

Brackets [ ] denote expressions that would be too formal to be used in conversations.
This list is far from and is not supposed to be perfect (as expressions are too many). Feel free to improve it :)


https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%89%8D%E6%96%B9%E9%AB%98%E8%83%BD

前方高能一般认为最早出自《机动战士高达》系列。指宇宙舰队在太空行军过程中为了安全，会时刻对前方的宇宙空间进行能量侦测。若有高能量反应，则及时规避。
而在各ACGN弹幕网的视频弹幕中经常会出现“前方高能”之类的弹幕，则是预示接下来会出现激烈的内容或画面。

It is apparently a Japanese phrase commonly seen in Japanese anime.

"Front high-energy" is generally considered the earliest from the "Mobile Suit Gundam" series. Refers to the space battle ships (or mobile suits) travel in space, for safety reason, will always sweep for high energy reactions. If detected a high energy reaction, The pilot can decide to take evasive action or prepare to engage enemy.
In the videos from ACGN network.  The message  "前方高能" (High energy reaction detected in front) would often appear on screen. Whenever it does, the two enemies are in a collision course, intense battle will begin shortly.

Nowadays, they also use this phrase to announce upcoming exciting sequence of all kinds, not just for battle


What semantic notions underlie 草 (grass) with 拈花惹草 (philandering)?

The focus in 拈花惹草 is not 拈花 (touch flower), but 拈野花 (touch wildflower) and 惹草 (contact grass) actually mean (touch wild grass).
野花野草 (wildflower and  wild grass) is a collective noun for 'wild plants' (outside women) in contrast to 'homegrown plant' (your wife)


Is there any difference in pinyin between bia and ba in pronunciation?

They are different.
ba sounds the same as British "Bar."

bia sounds the same as the last syllable of "Libya."

biaji biaji 的, used to describe the smacking sound of loud eating, e.g. like ducks eating. There is no written character for this word.

有人吃东西为什么嘴老biaji 那么响，让人听着好不舒服. Why do some people always smack their mouths while eating? It makes me very uncomfortable.

Source: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/27551978.html

Note: Spoken Chinese is much richer than written Chinese. Due to the un-alphabetical nature of the Chinese writing system, it is very difficult to absorb these vivid spoken Chinese words into mainstream writing.


At what rate can native speakers of Mandarin Chinese read?

300-500CPM. This data is from a Chinese search engine.


What does 牛逼 mean? Can anyone define it?

This word has a very vulgar origin. It literally means cow's sex organ. Paradoxically, I hear it spoken more often among professionals like doctors and professors among themselves. Professional women swear more, and thus speak of it more often.

牛逼

Thriving and formidable. 哈佛是所很 ~ 的大学. Harvard is a thriving and formidable university.
Arrogant, insolent. 没有人敢在那里 ~.  No one dare to be insolent in there.

牛, cow

逼, 屄, female sex organ.

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/54728.htm


What kinds of things can be described as 丰富多彩 (richly colorful), and how do I describe them?

丰富多彩 is a combination of "丰富" (rich) and "多姿多彩" (colorful)

丰富 is mainly used for describing something with rich substance or contents;  多姿多彩 is mainly used for describing something "colorful: entertaining; enjoyable"

Things that you can describe as 丰富多彩 (rich and colorful) including:

文笔，画功，剧情，生活，节目，故事 (Writing, drawing, plot, life, show, story) -- All these terms involve substance and enjoyment

文笔丰富多彩 (rich and colorful writing) - your writings is rich in substance and have a lot of flair

画功丰富多彩 (rich and colorful drawing) - your drawings have a lot of contents and vibrant

剧情丰富多彩 (rich and colorful movies plot)- the plot of the movies is full of substance and entertaining

To be honest, I rather say 剧情丰富,多姿多彩 to make  the whole sentence idiomatic

丰富 (rich) can be used literally (abundant) or figuratively (rich)

多姿多彩 (colorful) is mostly used figuratively


What is the pattern for 'instead of x, y...'

反而 is mostly used when something is contrary to expectations.
An example: Suppose it is predicted that there would be no wind, but there is a lot of wind, and after a while it starts to blow even harder you can say:

风不但没停，反而越刮越大了
    the wind not only hasn't stopped, but blowing harder and harder

而且 is used to give some extra information and is typically translated as "*and also; besides; and what's more; but also".

You can use "而不是". For example:

我们需要的是能力强的职工，而不是吃干饭的
    What we need are people with great capabilities, instead of those who live off others.

You can also use 与其..., 不如... which is translated as rather than ... , you'd better ....
An example:
    与其少买，不如不买
        I'd rather not buy anything at all than buy just a few.

Often Chinese wouldn't use a conjunction at all. For example (these 2 examples come from Nciku)

中国人不习惯用刀叉，更喜欢用筷子
    Chinese people prefer to use chopsticks instead of a knife and fork.

我想上场，不想在余下的比赛中做替补。
    I want to play instead of spend the rest of the match on this bench.


Does cursive script have any order logic?

If you're not too concerned about aesthetics, and more about functional cursive balancing your own writing speed and other people's reading comprehension, just build upon regular script stroke orders.

「鬱」, written in 7 strokes;「飛」, written in 3 strokes;「龜」, written in 2 strokes.

You have to re-order some regular script stroke orders, focusing on the following:

Abbreviate dense part of characters with a generic scribble which can capture the outline. The detail and exact shape of highly dense portions of characters does not impede reading comprehension.
Think carefully about where the next part of the character starts, and try to reorder the strokes to minimise pen movement.

I suggest using a semi-cursive to cursive style rather than a fully cursive style, like the example of「龜」above. If other people and standard handwriting recognition programs can read your writing, then you're doing something right.

Semi-cursive works okay for Pleco handwriting (「鬱」and「飛」). Full cursive does not (「龜」), but Apple's handwriting recognition does a fairly good job.


Difference between 诚实 and 老实 (and possibly 天真)

诚实 is honest with no further implication.

老实 is honest and possibly easy to trick.

天真 is more like innocent or even naive.


Can you help translate my Korean name (Kim Hee-Joon) into a Mandarin/Traditional name?

I don't know Korean but I found a K-pop star named Moon Hee-joon who's official translation is 文熙俊. So, your name's translation is probably 金熙俊。


Does 丢 mean "discard" as well as "throw" and "lose"?

丟主要有兩個意思：

(1)扔、拋棄(throw)。如：「丟球」、「丟垃圾」。

(2)遺失、失去(lose)。如：「丟臉」、「丟飯碗」。


聽吾所說心中所以

"所以" is reason (#4 definition in the below link).
http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=Z00000145637
roughly, i would interpret this verse as:
please listen to (聽) what i say (吾所說)
the reason (所以) in my heart (心中)
edited, in lieu of long comment.
the context is set, in 雜阿含經卷第二十三 [0168b13]
http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/ko/T02n0099_023

時﹒諸臣白王言﹒何故於此布施供養皆悉勝前﹒王曰﹒聽吾所說心中所以

at that time (時), statesmen asked the king (諸臣白王言) "why (何故 ) donate (布施供養) more than before (皆悉勝前)?". the king replied (王曰) . . .
so, "所以" in this context should be interpret as reason. :)

therefore, listen with your heart to what I say

in english, this verse is ok. but, "聽吾所說心中所以" can't be. in literary chinese, such english verse would be:
故﹒汝當諦聽吾言
汝當諦聽 --> listen with your heart
吾言 --> what I say
故, 遂  --> as conjunction "therefore"
edited again, in lieu of comment.
well, one need to read from preceding paragraphs:

[0167c25]　時﹒王生大歡喜﹒捨十萬兩珍寶﹒供養其塔﹒而說偈言 . . .
[0168a08]　時﹒王捨十萬兩珍寶﹒供養此塔﹒以偈讚曰 . . .
[0168a19]　時﹒王捨十萬兩珍寶﹒供養是塔﹒以偈讚曰 . . .
[0168a22] 　. . . 王曰：『以一錢供養。』. . .

then, for 阿難塔 [0168b04] :

[0168b13]　王即捨百億兩珍寶﹒而供養其塔。

十萬兩 is $100,000, while 百億兩 is $10,000,000,000; see the difference?
immediately next, is the sentence of our interest:

時﹒諸臣白王言﹒何故於此布施供養皆悉勝前

at that time (時), statesmen asked the king (諸臣白王言) :  "why (何故 ) donate (布施供養) to this one (於此) more than before (皆悉勝前)?".
the king donated difference amount of money to various stupas (塔), ranged from 一錢 to 百億兩 ($10,000,000,000). those statesmen (諸臣) wanted to know why the king donate 百億兩 to 阿難塔 (the stupa of Ānanda), which was significantly more than other donations.
in english, "donate + to" is grammatically correct; so, "於此", is roughly "to this one".

王曰﹒聽吾所說心中所以

the king replied (王曰) : "please listen to (聽) what i say (吾所說), the reason (所以) in my heart (心中)"
the scenario is, statesmen asked why, the king replied, revealing the reason in his heart (mind).
about the suggested "literally translation":

"king say: 'listen i that which speaks heart in reason'"

unfortunately, based on my experience, i would say nope. such suggestion is ignoring the context; and, well, un-literary-chinese, maybe un-chinese interpretation.
have fun :)


Why are the two 才s used in 很多小朋友以为长大了以后才能自由自在。他们不知道，他们才是最自由自在的?

才 is ability, talent when used as a noun.

In your examples, however, it's used as adverb. The first 才 in 很多小朋友以为长大了以后才能自由自在 is used as the sense 1 below and the second 才 in 他们不知道，他们才是最自由自在的 is the sense 2 below.

  表示只有在某种条件下，或由于某种原因、目的，然后怎么样。
  由于抢救及时，这批图书才保存了下来。
  强调确定的语气。多与语助词“呢”连用。


How does 受 work in this context (on the first article)?

The main parts of the sentence is 三文鱼(subject) 是(verb) 寿司种类(object).很受中国人欢迎的 and 中国很受欢迎的 are the modifier of 寿司种类.

To me, the first sentence is better, because in the second sentence it repeats 中国 twice. 在中国，三文鱼是中国很受欢迎的寿司种类. It could be better to remove the second 中国. 在中国，三文鱼是很受欢迎的寿司种类.

受 is short for 受到， meaning 'to get or getting'.

The phrase 很受中国人欢迎的 means 'getting warmly welcomed by Chinese people'.

As a whole, 三文鱼寿司是很受中国人欢迎的寿司种类 can be translated to Salmon sushi is the type which is warmly beloved/welcomed by Chinese people.

The subject for 受 is 寿司种类. In fact, it's a passive voice here. That 寿司种类
is 受到中国人欢迎. This is the same as "寿司种类被中国人欢迎". Somehow, 受到 here is the nice way to express “被” I think.


On average, how literate in Mandarin are overseas Chinese?

For any non-mandarin speaker that doesn't understand the Mandarin culture, this is a common confusion.

This is the unique characteristic of Mandarin language: in Chinese culture, people tend to communicate through the Chinese writing, instead of speaking. The "Pu-tong-Hua 普通话"(China) or "华语“（Taiwan）is indeed a modern language that evolves from Beijing dialect with a history of no more than 200 years. While the official speech used by bureaucrats is called "官话”. But intellectuals are still communicating with each other using the Glyph.

Because China enters imperialism era way ahead of Europe (at least 1000 years), there is little need for "nationalism", i.e. to promote a single language nationwide.  Nevertheless, the nationalism process is on the way. It is no different than many countries that teach "national language" together with localized dialect. This takes time.

In fact, many countries still maintain localized dialect. However, phonetic language cannot retain the same literacy level of Chinese glyph, thus localized dialects are still confusing for other languages.   Nevertheless, localized regional terms still appear in various Chinese dialects that enter the language.

(update)
There is a book call  说文解字(shuo wen jie zhi) (written around year 100-121), which selects a number of words that user by various region.

The online zdic 汉典 contains reference to some localized dialect, under the section 音韵方言


Is there an abbreviation for the 黑海/地中海 combo?

I've never heard such a combination for (黑海/地中海).

Such combinations can be made up when needed. 中日 is used more often when may not need further explanation. 中 can be also combination with the initial character for other country names to form such combinations (like 中美), as long as you let the reader/listener know which country you're referring to. The full name of country should be already given in previous part of the article.

Other combinations of place names are also possible (like 北上广 for 北京 上海 广州), but not always acceptable.

These kind combination appears more in news articles. Some find their way into daily use, but most of them only appear in news.

NOTE: For Chinese city/province name, the abbreviation is not always the first character, like (沪 for 上海).


Can someone help translate 不枉 lyrics to English?

不枉 Not wasted

水滔滔 天蒼蒼 vast water endless sky

一借東風頃刻燒光 everything burn in an instance once the East wind arrives

樹靜雲淡也是虛罔 trees still (no wind), clouds thin (no storm), is all an illusion (of peace)

挽起弓箭為著射穿怯慌 raise bow and arrow to shot through (break) my fear

對酒當歌醉飲星光 in front of wine and songs, drunk under the starry night

相看一刻哪需多講 No need for words, just a moment of eye contact said it all

讓情義竭盡釋放 Let our friendship and affection be boldly and completely  shown

在那盡頭地方 Even at the time and place we end

活著是 生不辜負厚望 'living' is to not disappoint great hope that's intrusted upon yourself

又或是 死得轟烈跌盪 or die heroically and honorably

用沉著對付兇悍 use calmness to deal with fierce (attack)

用血肉成就絕地的曙光 use our bodies to bring first light of dawn (hope)fore in deadly ground (hopeless situation)

患難是 一起經歷碰撞 'brotherhood (in arms)' is to endure fight and conflict together

在烽火中受仰望 be looked upon in battle

淚流 被遍地花葬 dropped tears buried by fallen flower (depict an open sky battle field in the wild)

身再傷不枉 Not matter how hurt my body becomes, it is not wasted


Here "乃" means "be". This sentence means "This area is for old posts, and these posts are read-only."

Next time, if you find "此乃" these two characters together or a noun+乃 together, "乃" properly means "be". For example:

  此乃我的书.
   This is my book.

  意识乃是大脑的一种自然属性。
   Consciousness is an emergent property of the brain.


Usually when you use 把 you are using passive mode. That was not needed here. You're basically saying "at the restaurant, the rice was consumed by me." It is understandable, but it is also rather awkward.

I would have to say all three of your alternate versions have the same problem.

a) I, at the restaurant, 3 bowls of rice were consumed

b) I, at the restaurant, 3 bowls of rice were fully consumed

c) I, at the restaurant, 3 dinners were consumed.

It would be far more natural to use active vice:

d) 我在飯店裏吃了三碗飯

e) no need to say 吃完了, it is implied

f) I would have said 我去過那家飯店三次了 without specifying dinner. But that's just me.


How do I tell the difference between "ing" and "in"?

The difference between "in" and "ing" is in the ending sound. Say "in", hold it for a second or two, and feel the position of your tongue. Your tongue should be in the front, touching the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth. Then say "ing", and do the same. Your tongue should be at the back of your mouth. Try to hear the difference in sound when you do this exercise. Differentiating the sound will come with practice. Hope this helps.


Tips: 博学网 has a function called 指定位置搜索, which is very useful for the word puzzle.


有時我唔開心會喊，之後我就心情好啲。

You think there is something wrong with this sentence because 我嘅心情 (my mood) is a noun; 好啲 (better) is an adjective. A verb is seemingly missing in this sentence
It would be easier to rewrite the sentence as '有時我唔開心會喊，之後我嘅心情就會好啲。' (Sometimes I cry when I am unhappy. Afterward, my mood would become better) or '有時我唔開心會喊，之後我就會開心番' (Sometimes I cry when I am unhappy. Afterward, I would become happy again)
However, if you must use 之後我就, you have to treat 心情好啲 as a verb phrase
Example:
'有時我唔開心會喊，之後我就(會變得)心情好啲。' --> Sometimes I cry when I am unhappy. Afterward, I (would become) in a better mood