Why is the character 中 listed as a 嵌套结构 (nested structure) and not a 单一结构 (single component)?

The word 'radical' is usually translated from 偏旁 or 部首. But 偏旁 and 部首 are a bit different. People long ago called the left part of a character 偏 and the right part 旁. But later till now 偏旁 refer to components of characters. Some of the components that indicate semantic meanings are called 形旁(semantic radical). Xu Shen(?AD58-?147), the author of the book Shuo Wen Jie Zi(《说文解字》), classified the characters that have the same semantic radical into one category(部). This radical is always placed at the first in the list, so it's called 部首(literally 'category head'). 部首 is always 偏旁 but 偏旁 is not always 部首. According to Xu Shen's classifications, 中 is in the category of 丨 and 丨 is the radical component of 中.

As to the single-component structure and the nested-component structure, it's another classification. There have been several different principles to define if a character is a single-component or not. Single component structure character is translated from 独体字 and nested component structure character 合体字.

According to the theory of 'the six categories of Chinese characters' or 'Chinese character classification'(六书), the ideographic(指事) and pictographs(象形) are single components, the compound ideographs(会意) and phono-semantic compounds(形声) are nested. 中 is an ideographic character so it's a single component structure character.

As the character style developed from 小篆 to 隶书, and further to 楷书 widely used today, the shapes changed. The traditional classification was a bit out of date. Su Peicheng(1935-), a modern Chinese linguist, defined 263 single component characters according to the defination made by the Chinese encyclopedic dictionary Ci Hai(《辞海》, literally diction ocean, edited from 1915 to 1928 and first published in 1936）. 中 is included in the category of single-component structure characters.

In 1997, State Language Commission of PRC published a standard on the Chinese character set, which defines 280 single component structure characters, with 中 included, 丨 excluded.


哦？”谈晋倏忽之间勾了下嘴角，“金主让你做什么就做什么，是这个意思吗？”

倏忽之间: suddenly

For 勾了下嘴角 you could perhaps write: 轻蔑 or 冷笑

谈晋倏忽之间勾了下嘴角，
Tan Jin suddenly snarled,

“金主让你做什么就做什么，是这个意思吗？
"If the boss wants you to do then do it, is that what you mean?"

You could replace 倏忽之间勾了下嘴角 with either: 冷笑道 or 轻蔑地说道

谈晋冷笑道， : Tan Jin, with a sarcastic smile, said,
谈晋轻蔑地说道，Tan Jin disdainfully spoke,


Does Chinese have a saying about Cantonese people eating almost anything?

The saying I heard was: 「有四隻腳嘅除咗檯，有對翼嘅除咗飛機，廣東人都會食。」

It is quite wordy and very likely a direct translation from English.

There's however, an elegant saying about Chinese wide range of food choice. It is 「背脊向天人所食」(if something's back is facing the sky, it is for people to eat)
That includes almost every living creature.


What is the difference between 专家 and 达人?

专家 is the formal word for 'expert'.

达人 (literally 'achieved person') is first borrowed by Taiwanese from Japanese in no more than 30 years ago and gradually become known to mainland China. Some say the Japanese usage was derived from ancient Chinese, but I don't know if there is a definitive etymology for that. Anyways, it is not a formal word in Chinese (yet) and mostly used in entertainment topics.

Reference: http://baike.baidu.com/view/2453.htm


ABC dictionary defines 要有 as

V.
need; require

giving the example:

开箱子要有钥匙。
Kāi xiāngzi yàoyǒu yàoshi.
One needs the key to open the suitcase.

必需 you can think of as essential, indispensable or necessary.

Your translation:
人必需要有自己的追求， 'a person needs must have a pursuit'
while not wrong - could probably be better thought of as definitely necessary instead.


How you know multiple characters are one concept

Modern Chinese prefer words rather than characters. The former way you translate a Chinese sentence is probably more suitable for ancient Chinese (known as 文言文).

It is not a big problem for a native Chinese speaker to naturally divide those characters into words, however for beginners, it can be hard. But guess what, dividing Chinese characters into chunks is a well-known research direction remaining unsolved in natural language processing and machine translation.

So the answer to your question is: The more combinations you know, the more accurately you can divide. You can hover your cursor on the words in Google Translate, and Google will tell you its (guessed) division scheme.


乐 here means 喜欢, like, enjoy

群 means group

乐群 means enjoy group-living, willing to go well with others, and that kind of idea.


green: I need the spoiler
red: I am not sure


There are these input plugins for OSX (There is one for Jyutping and one for Yale). I have never used them myself.


Why does 你可以再用一点遮瑕的东西 use 东西?

Why not use 东西？Well, in English you also would probably not say, 'apply the foundation creme thingy.' 'apply the foundation creme' suffices. The writer knew it was a liquid,液.

"再用一点遮瑕的东西。" The writer is not sure what exactly this is: creme, powder, liquid, emulsion, so he/she said 'thingy, 东西'

Concealing blemishes is a science. What is best is a quandry:

  BLEMISH-HIDING TIP #3: PICK YOUR FLESH-TONED CONCEALER WISELY

  When it comes to disguising imperfections such as blemishes on your
  face, a creamy concealer is always a good idea. A powder can actually
  give your skin a cakey look and draw more attention to the thing you
  wanted to hide in the first place. No thanks! After applying your
  color correcting or highlighting concealer, try the L’Oréal Paris
  Infallible Total Cover Concealing and Contour Kit, which comes with
  four flesh-toned shades. Apply the closest match to your skin tone
  with your makeup blender so that you can cover your pimple from angles
  that you wouldn’t be able to reach with your finger. And don’t rub the
  concealer on—be gentle by lightly dabbing and rolling the makeup
  blender over your skin.

首先，我们要涂粉底液。
First of all, we have to apply the foundation creme.

如果你的黑眼圈很严重，你可以再用一点遮瑕的东西。
If you have very dark rings under your eyes,

你可以再用一点遮瑕的东西。
you can use a little blemish mask to cover them up.

Actually, I think the blemish mask should come first! It's hard to look beeootiiful!


I'm surprised this hasn't been covered before here, I'm sure there must be a link somewhere that I was unable to find.
This is the V + 了 + V structure.

#Grammar 2. 动词的重叠 Reduplication of Verbs (II): V了V
Some verbs can be reduplicated in the form V了V structure to indicate that

the action takes only a short amount of time and/or
the action is done only for a limited amount of times
the action has already been done

The V了V structure is usually used for narration.
☑ See also 动词的重叠 Reduplication of Verbs (I): VV and V一V.
For the V了V structure , the verbs are duplicated in the following ways:
单音节词 (Dānyínjí Cí ▸ One-character Verb)

听 - 听了听
想 - 想了想
笑 - 笑了笑

双音节词 (Shuāngyínjí Cí ▸ Two-character Verb)

介绍 - 介绍了介绍
练习 - 练习了练习
休息 - 休息了休息

离合词 (Líhé Cí ▸ Two-character Detachable Compound Verbs)

唱歌 - 唱了唱歌
散步 - 散了散步
游泳 - 游了游泳

Below are example sentences to study Reduplication of Verbs - V了V:
Yéye xiào le xiào, duì wǒ shuō: “Wǒ xiāngxìn nǐ!”
爷爷笑了笑，对我说：“我相信你！”
Grandpa smiled “really quick”, (and) said to me , “I trust you!”
Yè Jīnglǐ tīng le tīng wǒmen de jièshào, méiyǒu shuō bù, yě méiyǒu shuō hǎo.
叶经理听了听我们的介绍，没有说不，也没有说好。
Manager Ye listened to our introduction “really quick”, (they did) not say no, (did) not say yes either.
Nǎinai zuò zài yǐzi shang xiūixi le xiūxi.
奶奶坐在椅子上休息了休息。
Grandma sat on (the) chair (and) rested "really quick".
Wǒ yǐqián chéngjì bù hǎo, jīnnián nǔ le nǔlì, kǎo de búcuò.
我以前成绩不好，今年努了努力，考得不错。
Before my score (was) not good, this year (I) worked hard “for a little bit”, (I) took (the) test not bad.


How does 高出一大截 break apart in 交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番，残次品率高出一大截?

Base on the context, the sentence should be interpreted as

残次品率 = Defective rate

高出 = higher than

一大截 = by a great distance (by a great degree)

残次品率高出一大截 = The defective rate (in American made goods) (will be) higher than (the defective rate in China-made goods) by a great degree
截 refer to measurement of 'length' --> 'distance' --> 'degree'
The comparison between American made goods and China-made goods also apply to 交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番
(美国制造的商品与中国制造的商品相比:)交货时间延长好几倍，单价翻几番  = (American made goods compare to China-made goods:) The delivery time will be extended several times and the unit price will be doubled a few times


'说不好' is a variant of '说不定' (can't state with certainty= may be)

'比起' means 'compare to'

'也' in this context means 'even'

"说不好比起 C 也" = "May be even(?) compare to C"
It is an incomplete sentence, we don't know what quality is being compared between B and C
The following would be a complete sentence:

"[说不好]比起 C 也好不了多少" - "[May] not even [be] any better  compare to C"
好不了多少= not even any better


How does 巨 resemble a hand (彐) holding a carpenter's square (工)?

The forms you're looking at are actually the ancestors of「矩」.「巨」was formed by cutting off the person.

The analysis starts from this form

西周金伯矩盉蓋集成9412

which depicts a person「大」holding a tool「工」.

  Carpenter's square is much too specific, and I would think that it is an over-interpretation.

Exaggerate the person's hand to emphasise that the tool was held:

西周金伯矩卣集成5228
Swap out「大」with the similar-meaning「夫」(man), and permanently detach part of the hand onto the tool:

西周金裘衛盉集成9456

The left hand side of the above character should now heavily resemble「巨」, which is created from omitting「大」or「夫」.

秦簡睡・語5　篆工部說文解字今楷

  「夫」was later semantically corrupted into「矢」(arrow > length, measurement), forming「矩」.

  東漢隸桐柏廟碑　今楷

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
小學堂
國學大師

中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》


How is 我简直不敢相信！ translated as "I can't believe it!"

我簡直不敢相信 translates literally to I simply don’t dare to believe [it]. You can translate this to English using I can’t believe it!, with an exclamation mark at the end to capture the mood. You say this when something outrageous or ridiculous has happened.

我不能相信 sounds like I’m unable to believe [it], and doesn’t really capture the same mood. You may say this if you’re refusing to believe something, maybe because of lack of evidence.


What is 给 doing in 你给宠坏了 and 一个人给丢在家里 (Matilda 玛蒂尔达, p.7)?

「給」here is a colloquial, alternative way of expressing the same meaning as「被」. It is non-standard in Standard Chinese.


What does 别间 in 别间大学的男生都土里土气的 mean?

别 means "not this", in other words, it means "other"
间 is a quantifier for 大学
You need to add a quantifier between 别 and 大学 because you need a quantifier when you count an object
You can also use
别的大学, 别所大学
to express similar meaning


Are there any online dictionaries that supply IPA transcriptions for Mandarin?

You are unlikely to find such a resource. For languages that already have an unambiguous standard notation for pronunciation (which pinyin is), it's uncommon to find dictionaries that indicate pronunciation in IPA. Heck, it's even hard to find dictionaries with IPA for languages with incredibly complex orthography/pronunciation mappings!

Instead, as the comments on your question suggest, you should find a resource that provides pinyin to IPA mappings, and then you can mechanically derive IPA from pinyin if you so desire.


糟蹋比浪费的语气更强烈。人们觉得很珍贵的物品被损坏或不被爱惜的使用了，通常是用糟蹋，而不会用浪费来形容。粮食可被浪费，可被糟蹋；人才可能被糟蹋，无法被浪费。

浪费：较为便宜的物品被损坏或不被爱惜的使用了，说话者觉得可惜但不心痛，会使用浪费这个词。
糟蹋：很贵重的物品被损坏或不被爱惜的使用了，说话者有心痛的情绪，才会使用糟蹋这个词。

糟蹋 has a stronger tone than 浪费. When people feel a valuable object is being damaged or is not being used with care, one would usually use 糟蹋, and not 浪费. 粮食 can be 浪费 or 糟蹋; 人才 could be 糟蹋, but is unable to be 浪费.

浪费: use when a relatively inexpensive object is being damaged or used without care, when the speaker feels it's a waste but not in a painful way.
糟蹋: use when a very valuable object is being damaged or used without care, or when the speaker feels pained.


How does word order work in "作业 他 一点 都 没 做 ？"?

This is the classic "topic-comment" structure in Chinese sentences. Bring the object of the verb to the beginning of the sentence for focus and emphasis, then comment on it.

作业他一点都没做。

Homework (topic) - he didn't do one bit (comment).

He didn't do one bit of homework.

法語我一句都不會講。

French (topic) - I don't know how to say even one sentence (comment).

I don't speak French at all.

And this structure is not limited to negative sentences either.

芒果蛋糕我最喜歡，巧克力蛋糕沒那麽喜歡。

Mango cake (topic) - I like it the best (comment). Chocolate cake (topic) - I don't like as much (comment).

Mango cake is my favourite, and I like chocolate cake less.

漢語我已經學了三年，還是一句都不會講。

Chinese (topic) - I have learned for three years, still even a single sentence I cannot speak (comment).

I have learned Chinese for three years now, but I still cannot speak a single sentence.


Why does 鱼 come before 做 in this sentence?

There is the "topic-comment structure" in Chinese:

  In a topic-comment sentence, the usual word order is rearranged a bit, in order to emphasize a certain part of a sentence. The part that is to be emphasized becomes the topic and moves to the beginning of the sentence, with the comment on the topic coming after the topic has been stated.

So here the topic is "这个鱼", which is the object of the verb. And the subject (who cooked the fish) is just omitted from the sentence.


You are correct, 日 is more formal than 号。
When chatting with someone, you would normally use 号 instead of 日，in this case, saying 日 feels a little bit weird.
But when you are writing a document, you would want to use 日 unless you are writing a transcript of people chatting with each other.


Why need subject? It's a imperative. "有时间“ just modifies the sentence as a condition. Comparing with some English sentences:

Well, I'm going. Call me later.
Well, I'm going. Don't forget closing the door.

You don't need subject as well.

For you second question,

would it be possible to say: 如果有时间 , 到我家去.

It's rare to say like that. Firstly "如果” is unnecessary for short condition. Secondly saying that would sound very formal. The whole sentence itself is not formal. Actually it's not an invitation at all. It just express willing of friendship.

For real invitation, normally he will ask for your availability at first. For example, 下个星期有空吗？到我家去喝茶/吃饭


阿: when is it pronunced 'a' when is it pronunced 'e'?

Yes, there are rules - it is not irregular at all.

The two different pronunciations of 阿 actually reflect different usages. The original Old Chinese pronunciation of ē is for using the character as a verb or noun, which is what the character 阿 originally meant. In contrast, the later pronunciation of ā emerged as a particle with completely different meanings.

Unfortunately most people have became unfamiliar with the older usage, so that the ē form is usually only seen in set phrases (成語).

阿 ē

verb, meaning:

to pander to
to (unjustly) side with (someone in a dispute)

noun (archaic), meaning:

a hill
a (geographical) twist/turn
a building

A surname

阿 ā

prefix for names or familial titles, originally meaningless but can carry connotations of:

familiarity
endearment

particle (archaic, superseded by 啊) indicating:

surprise
doubt

As the above shows, the two different pronunciations do not overlap in their usage.


「斥」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*tʰAk/) was originally a character formed by modifying 「宅」 (/*m-tˤak/, dwelling). The modern meaning either originated as a phonetic loan or semantic extension (expand one's dwelling > expand territory > to expel (enemies) > to reprimand > to blame).

時期字體
字形
參考資料

商甲

乙2256合集14206

西周金

尊集成6014

戰國・晉古幣

81古幣文編

戰國・楚簡

190包山楚簡

戰國・楚簡

109望山楚簡1

秦簡

8.11睡虎地秦簡

東漢隸

陰魯峻碑

楷

First, an internal sequence of developments in 「宅」 caused 「宀」 to sometimes be corrupted into 「厂」 or 「广」, forming 「厇」 or 「㡯」, respectively.

Next, the inside was phonetically corrupted into 「屰」 (/*ŋrak/).

Further corruptions caused the shape to morph into something that looked identical to 「厈」, then eventually changing into 「斥」.

References:

季旭昇《說文新證》
漢語多功能字庫
小學堂字形演變
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》


What are the criteria used on dictionaries to decide word classes?

Before 2004, there's no word classes labels in Chinese dictionary. In 2004, 《现代汉语规范词典》add in this label, and in 2005,《现代汉语词典》add in this label.
But it really confused Chinese people because the conception of word classes comes from English, Chinese language do not have a strict gamma system from the start. You can refer to this Zhihu post for more detailed information: Zhihu Post (In Chinese)


Why is 的 used in 你是哪一天出生的 and 我们什么时候开始的 and 前天你什么时候来的这里?

的 at the end of sentences can be seen in really a lot of cases. Here are just two cases I can think of at the moment:

case 1. 你(是)哪一天出生的？

This question asks about an event which happened in the past. Note it often comes with 是.
If we omit both 是 and 的, it will become 你哪一天出生？This sounds a little weird, because generally the new version means an event to happen in the future, but in the context people understand this is asking about an event in the past.
Compare:

A. 他(是)哪天来的？- asking about an event in the past.
B. 他哪天来？- asking about an event to happen in the future.

Another example:

他在20年前出生。

There isn't 是 or 的, but people understand it without a problem and this is used a lot. It's also very common to see 他(是)(在)20年前出生的。

case 2. 树叶是绿的。 - The leaves are green.

This sentence describes the current status, or the general case.
Generally people don't say 树叶绿 as a standalone sentence, because it is incomplete. However this fragment can be used in poems or nursery rhymes(儿歌，童谣), for example:

黄瓜绿，番茄红，辣椒秧上挂灯笼。

If people say 树叶绿了, this means "the leaves turned green" or "the leaves have turned green".
Note: in Chinese, there are a lot phrasal patterns, like 在 ... 以后, 从 ... 中, 虽然 ... 但是, 不是 ... 而是, and a lot others.
是...的 is one of the most used phrasal patterns. Its structure is

Subject + 是...的 (是 sometimes can be omitted)

This structure can be used to give general descriptions, or to describe events which happened in the past, or to express possibility of something to happen in the future.
Examples:
他(是)前天来的。- describe past event
我(是)坐车来的。- describe past event
我们(是)一起来的。- describe past event
我(是)喝着草原的羊奶长大的。- describe past event
我的一个朋友是被他的女友杀害的。- describe past event. 是 not omitted before 被
我(是)不会弃我的目标的。- express willingness
我看，他(是)不会来的。- express possibility of future event

Although we can sometimes omit 是 from the 是...的 pattern, but we don't ommit 的。We can say, 树叶是绿色的。But we can't say 树叶是绿色。 Because 绿色 is the name of the color (green), and 树叶 is not a type of color. Just like in English, we say "the leaves are green", where green is an adj. But we don't say "the leaves are green color", while we can say "the leaves are of green color". Here the word "of" servers a very similar function as 的 in 树叶是绿色的。
The 是-omitted variation is used in poems a lot. In the following examples, 是 is omitted:
树叶绿绿的。
她的脸红红的。
时间的脚步轻轻的，走过了我的窗前，也走过了我的心田；走过了我的留恋，走过了我的思念。


Why does 節 mean both "festival" and "to save, to control"?

Simply because it can be used both as noun and verb. As a noun, it can mean "festival". As a verb, it can mean "to save, to control". You have to remember it in the context for every single word can have dozens of meaning according to the context.

Oh. Thanks to comments, now I add some explanations for WHY

From left to right, from ancient time to the present, it shows how "节" derives.
The rightest one is mostly  used in Chinese mainland and “節” is mostly used in Taiwan.

Its original meaning is something made by bamboo and used as a bowl and a instrument sometimes.

Moreover, you can figure out how its meanings expand from the original one from the pic below.

// The circle is the original one.

I guess you guys can understand those words in the pic so I don't translate them.

The website is here : http://www.vividict.com/WordInfo.aspx?id=2654

====================== sth awful below ===================================

================== are you sure you want to take a look ? ======================

Here is some meanings of “节” from Chinese Dict.

〈名〉

（1） 形声。从竹，即声。本义：竹节。

（2） 同本义。泛指草木枝干间坚实结节的部分。
节，竹约也。——《说文》
苞笋抽节。——左思《吴都赋》
譬如破竹，数节之后，皆迎刃而解。——《晋书·杜预传》
其于木也，为坚多节。——《易·说卦》

（3） 又如：节根（草木的节与根）；节旄（竹节上所缀牦牛尾饰物）；节粉（竹节旁附着的白色粉末）；节槎（树木上歧出的节）；节次（依次，陆续；或程序，规程）。

........

FORGET ABOUT IT

As a Chinese I can not recall all of it either. A lot of sentences above are from ancient Chinese. It is even OK for some Chinese to not understand those sentences. Just remind that learn words from context. XD

// Hope I don't scare you.

// Thank you guys who edited my answer and made it more readable.


乃, also means 就, which means "about to" in your sentence.

You arrived just a moment ago, and about to go just like that?


How to say, someone is less (adj) than someone else?

没有 + 那么 + what you want to compare

• He is less cool than I

他 没有 我 那么 酷

• I'm not that cool

我没有那么酷

• I'm not as cool as him

我没有他那么酷


In the Outlier entry there is a link to a gloss explaining the term:

Sound Loan is when a character gets borrowed to represent a word for its sound, rather than its form.
Ex. The form 我 wǒ which today means "I; me" was originally a picture of a type of weapon that consisted of a handle and a blade with saw-like teeth. The name of the weapon sounded similar to the word for "I; me," so it was borrowed to represent that word. Eventually, the meaning "I; me" took over completely and the form 我 was no longer used to represent the name of the weapon.
Ex. The form 其 that now represents the word qí "his/her/its" originally depicted a basket. That word meaning "basket" is now written 箕 jī.

In Outlier you will often see the ○ icon in the meaning trees to indicate a phonetic loan. Which are generally defined as a:

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

So, yes, your assumption was correct - “to seek, request” originally existed as qiú without a specific character associated with it. The character「求」was then later borrowed as the readings matched.


What does it mean to end a sentence in 没?

"你找到你爸爸了没"

It's short for "你找到你爸爸了没有?" or "你找到你爸爸了还是没有找到?". The complete sentence should be "do you find your father, or not?". "没" here is similar as "or not" in English.

BTW. The "你" before "爸爸" is redundant in Chinese. "你找到爸爸了没" is correct. It is impacted by translation from western language. Even many Chinese make this kind of mistake too.


I don't understand. It seems you answered your own question.

Some example usage:

去学校 (go to school)，去公司 (go to the office; 去上班 go to work)，去旅行 (go on a vacation)，去法国 (go to france)

出门 (leave the building)，出去 (go out)，出来 (come out)，出国 (leave the country)

回家 (go back home)，回去 (go back)，回国 (go home [from abroad])，回公司 (return to the office)，回学校 (go back to the school)


What's the difference between 开 and 举办 when used for the meaning "to hold an event"?

开 has other meanings beside; 'to hold' (events)
举办 is a specific term for 'hosting' and 'organizing'. If an organization 举办 something, you expect it to be well organized.
开 is less formal than举办. E.g. 在我家开派对 is less formal than 在我家举办派对.
在我家开派对 can mean you casually call a few friends over to your house. Not much preparation is required

We say 开班会, not 举办班会 because 班会 is a regular event, no additional organizing is needed

We say 举办学生会选举, not 开学生会选举 because 学生会选举 is a formal event that needed to be organized

In short, 开 (to hold) is more general and casual; 举办 (to hold) is more specific and formal (officially hold and organize)
开 itself carries the meaning of 'hold', it doesn't need to be short for anything
Depend on the context, 开 can be short for:

开办 (open and operate/ open and run) e.g. 开(办)学校

召开 (call for and open) e.g. (召)开会议


How would we more accurately translate 那胸前凸起的完美弧度 (published translation: "perfect curve of the convex in front of her chest")?

那修长的睫毛，
Those slender eyelashes,
那水润的眼眸，
those doe-like eyes,
那高挺的琼鼻，
that exquisite straight nose
那粉嫩的小嘴，
those tender pink lips,
那胸前凸起的完美弧度，
the perfect curve of her ample bosom,
再加上如雪一般的白皙肌肤，
also her snow-white skin,
真的是美到让人砰砰心跳，
really amount to beauty which makes my heart pound,
说其是仙子下凡也不为过。
it is not an overstatement to say, she really resembles an immortal descended to our world.

也不为过: not too much to say, not an overstatement

Must be a lady-boy from Bankok!


What is proper way to WRITE "knock-knock"?

Here're some of them, listed from light sound to heavy:

笃笃
咚咚
嘭嘭/砰砰
咣咣 (usually used with 砸门)


There is a Chinese idiom 心如鹿撞 that has " deer" and " heart" in the same phrase. It means "like a deer is ramming the heart"

We use this phrase to describe someone's heart is pounding due to excitement or fear.

For example:

When you are alone with someone you love in the dark. The anticipation and excitement would make your heart pounds (心如鹿撞)
When you are stopped in traffic by a police officer, with a dead body in your car trunk. You may try to act calm, but the anxiety and fear would make your heart pump like crazy(心如鹿撞)

As for the deer image and the phrase "you are in my heart" (implies a headline: "a deer is in my heart")--  It  should be followed by the subline: " My heart is pounding in excitement" instead of " lonely but afraid" (you don't have a dead body under your bed, do you?)


Is there an official stroke order for each character?

There isn't an official stroke order for each character, but only a subset of all characters used, and official stroke order exists solely for the purpose of educating schoolchildren.

Japanese stroke order is actually not as fixed as Chinese, and the only reason it feels that Japanese stroke order is more fixed is because Japanese textbooks or dictionaries include stroke order guidelines.

In Japan, dictionary making is actually a competitive business and dictionary content is not regulated by the government. The current reality in Japan can be summarised by the following MEXT quote:

  漢字の筆順は、原則として一般に通用している常識的なものによっており、行書で筆順が異なる字については、適切な説明を加えていること

  -- 義務教育諸学校教科用図書検定基準

That is, Japan no longer prescribes official stroke orders for kanji, and lets textbook or dictionary editors decide for themselves, only recommending that they use something that's widely recognised by society. Official stroke order in Japan was actually only in existence from 1958 to 1977 for the Kyōiku_kanji.
Chinese stroke order is less centralised, because there are multiple language standardisation bodies for the Chinese language; the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong independently decide the characters taught to schoolchildren and their corresponding stroke orders. Their official stroke orders don't come packaged with dictionaries given that

Common use characters in Chinese double that in Japan.
The purpose of stroke order is only as a guideline to write characters, not a set of rules.

To address your points,

The following are the official stroke order resources for Chinese language education:

ROC (Taiwan)
Hong Kong
PRC (Mainland China)

There's something called the traditional stroke order, for which all Chinese stroke orders and Japanese stroke orders have diverged slightly from. Traditional stroke order was largely decided based on analysis of the pieces of famous calligraphers, noting that Chinese calligraphy is written from top to bottom, right to left. Chinese standards, at the turn of the century, decided to change some of the stroke orders to make horizontal writing with a pen easier. Japan went another route and tried to optimise stroke order for semi-cursive script.
左 and 右 having different stroke orders are based on their differentiation in  seal script and earlier:

They were originally pictures of left and right hands, respectively, and the first stroke draws the span of the hand while the second stroke draws the arm. Writing both with the same stroke order tends to encourage mistakes in character proportions, and I personally wouldn't recommend it even though some Chinese standard prescribes this.

Notice that the relative length of the slanting and horizontal strokes are different between 左 and 右, a legacy of each of the strokes representing different parts of the hand in 左 compared to 右; using the same stroke order for both encourages sloppy writing.

In rapid or cursive writing, the only way you can tell which one is 左 or 右 is because of their different stroke orders. You're either going to be limiting your own writing speed, or getting in alot of trouble if you get into the habit of speed-writing them the same way...

Finally, you should remember that stroke order is not an end-goal unto itself, but rather something that makes cursive script more recognisable. If you do not plan on writing kanji in the way a fluent person writes in cursive, but stick to regular script instead, then stroke order is not as important to get the message across. However, if you wish to achieve writing speed and fluency, there is a narrow range of acceptable stroke orders which should come naturally to you in time, noting that cursive script often takes shortcuts by joining or omitting strokes so that it is very difficult to actually prescribe a solid stroke order for every character (because different people will take different shortcuts).


If you look at Google hits, you can see a clear distinction:

日落

  About 42,700,000 results

日没

  About 13,500,000 results

I've never heard 日没 in real life, you might hear it more in Japanese.


What does the word 绑架 mean in these contexts? (not "kidnap")

Here 绑架 means "force sb. into doing sth.".

  道德绑架

force (your) moral beliefs on others

  审美绑架

force (your) aesthetic beliefs on others

  被绑架

being forced to others' belief.


What is the equivalent in Chinese for the phrase "get laid"?

The only term I could think of is "上床”, which literally means "on the bed". It is used as a metaphor for "get laid" or sex.


“他演讲得很精彩”, is this sentence grammatically correct?

他演讲得很精彩 sounds unnatural because we mainly use 演讲 as a noun
for 'speech'. It is also possible to use it as a verb for 'to make a speech' in some context, e.g. 明天要上台演讲 (have to go on stage to make a speech tomorrow)

Use 演讲 as a noun and say "他的演讲很精彩" is the most natural way to phrase it.

If you must use 演讲 as a verb, it is more natural to say 他演讲讲得很精彩 or simply "(這次演讲 - implied topic)他讲得很精彩"

In most cases, the verb 演讲 can be reduced to just 讲

Example:
明天要上台演讲黑暗物質的理論 --> 明天要上台讲黑暗物質的理論 (when you speak on a stage, it is giving a lecture/ speech)


Why are many Chinese characters almost symmetrical but not exactly symmetrical?

This basically comes down to the vagaries of most CJK fonts being based on calligraphic scripts.

In Chinese calligraphy, characters are constructed out of individual strokes; these are written with a brush or pen in one continuous motion.

The most common script type, regular script, was designed to be written with a brush. Certain techniques should be used when writing in this style, which gives it its distinctive, slightly-asymmetric look:

  …clearly emerging from the womb of early period semi-cursive script. If one were to write the tidily written variety of early period semi-cursive script in a more dignified fashion and were to use consistently the pause technique (dùn 頓, used to reinforce the beginning or ending of a stroke) when ending horizontal strokes, a practice which already appears in early period semi-cursive script, and further were to make use of right-falling strokes with thick feet, the result would be a style of calligraphy like that in the "Xuān shì biǎo".

This script was so influential that virtually all modern scripts and types are based on it. Even if there are types that are designed for computers like East Asian Gothic typeface, some asymmetric properties are preserved, like the "J hook" (钩) feature:

But if you look at earlier scripts, like seal script, you can find more symmetry, because the pictograms they were based on were based on symmetric things:

As an example, the character 西 could look like this in the earliest, oracle bone script:


来自XYZ的问候！ {0}您的验证码是 {1}。
这是您的 XYZ 账户链接, 点击此链接确认您的邮箱。

No problem remaining


[边 (verb A) 边 (verb B)] is the shortened form of  [一边 (verb A) 一边(verb B)].

Both mean (verb A) and (verb B) are being carried out concurrently.

If (verb A) and (verb B) are single words or very short verb phrases, it is better to use [边 ~ 边~]. For example: "边走边吃" (short and direct)

If (verb A) and (verb B) are long verb phrases, then using [一边~ 一边~] is better. For example "一边工作謀生, 一边照顧他生病的父母"

(Add a comma to break a long sentence in half for easier reading)

"边工作謀生边照顧他生病的父母" is grammatically acceptable, but it make the sentence too long and doesn't emphasize the two verb phrases individually like using 一边 does.


What's the reason behind the sudden influx of the English word "word" in Chinese slang?

word 天 is chinese slang for 我的天.

With an increasing English skill level of Chinese speakers, Chinglish or rather the Chinese counter part of Chinglish is becoming more and more common.

Names are often translated using English sounds with Chinese chracters. Ex: Stanford University = 斯坦福大學
Some store names are starting to use English sounds with Chinese characters
Bread Ice / 不賴的冰 http://sunyat.pixnet.net/blog/post/63815917-%E9%AB%98%E9%9B%84-bread-ice%E4%B8%8D%E8%B3%B4%E7%9A%84%E5%86%B0-%7C-%E5%8F%A4%E6%97%A9%E5%86%B0%2B%E5%B8%95%E5%B0%BC%E5%B0%BC%EF%BC%8C%E7%9C%9F%E7%9A%84
But these words are not limited to only English. Some even use the local dialect (Taiwanese) and convert it to Standard Chinese. 阿兜仔 is taiwanese slang for forienger (specifically white foriengers) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5WUtW0Dvik

I think overall it's just people becoming more and more creative with how they use slang.


@DrunkenMaster's comment is right you will meet many accents of Mandarin. But there is a literally official standard of pronunciation in the PRC, tested by the 普通话水平测试. Set levels of performance are required for school teachers, local tv announcers, national tv announcers and so on. This is probably the most widely understood single accent -- even if no one in China speaks it perfectly!

This explains why the charts in Ringil's answer to When is a 方言 a language and not a dialect show people all across China understand Beijing dialect better than any other except for their own regional dialect -- and in many cases understand it significantly better than their own regional dialect.  The Beijing accent is closest to the official one that everyone on China hears on TV.

I know no good source for official phonetic information related to the  普通话水平测.  But I take it you still want some good reliable, single source, to take as your speech standard while you learn.  Anyway that is what I want, as I think it is important to aim for good mastery of one accent as base, and other local ones if you like on the side or later.  That one should be the most widely understood accent (and the best received in business and academic circles if that matters to you).

After trying many different sources, digital and print, I suggest Yen-Hwei Lin The Sounds of Chinese.  It gives very careful and clear explanations, and recorded examples.  It does discuss variants of many phonemes.  But obviously no book is exhaustive on those.  And anyway at this point, to learn one reasonably authoritative accent for your own speech, go with the dominant version Lin gives for each phoneme.

I will not repeat what Lin says about hěn, and yuán, but refer you to that book's full account.


How strict is pronoun gender applied in writing

If I refer to a group of people of both genders. would "their"be 他们的， does the male form take precedence here?

Yup.

If I refer to a group of females, is 他们的 acceptable or does it have to be 她们的 ？

Both are acceptable but if you really wanted to be specific then 她们的 would be better.

If I refer to a group of animals, should it always be 它们的 ？

Maybe  牠 would be more appropriate.

there are a few different 'ta's depending on what you want to say -- even one for 'gods' or deities


What's the difference between 兵器 and 武器?

兵 (military)
兵器 (tool for military) = weapons; weaponry

~

武 (force)
武器 (tool for force) = weapons; arms

Both 兵器 and 武器 means weapons. The difference is 兵器 is more specifically referring to weapon for warfare, while 武器 is a more general term for all weapons

冷兵器 (cold weapons) that are commonly used by soldiers like 刀、劍、長槍、弓箭 、狼牙棒 (Knife, sword, lance, bow and arrow, mace) can all be called 兵器 or 武器.

現代兵器 (modern weapons) like 衝鋒槍、坦克、導彈 (sub-machine gun, tank, guided missile) are all 兵器/ 武器 too

On the other hand, anything that can be used for attack can be qualified as 武器. For example, 剪刀、石塊、摺椅、菜刀 (scissors, stones, folding chairs, kitchen knives) can all be 武器, but no one would call them 兵器 because those items were not commonly used in war

The term 武器 can be used metaphorically, for example: 用言語作为武器 (use words as weapon), but we don't use 兵器 this way
Something that can be called 兵器 can also be called 武器; something that can be used as 武器 but isn't commonly used in war cannot be called 兵器


Is there a difference between "这里 的 天气跟 我 老家 一样", and "这里 的 天气跟 我 老家 的 一样"

Well actually not so big difference as we could use either of them in daily conversation. Maybe in your writing it would be better to use the latter but we usually save characters in chat as long as it's understandable by others.
Ps: You can even omit the first "的" to make the sentence shorter.


While similar, they aren't interchangeable. According to the dictionary,

接受:
to accept; to take; to embrace; to adopt; to bow to
Examples:
他已經接受了我們的邀請。He has accepted our invitation.
山姆因為窮只得接受這份工作。Sam had to take the job because he was broke.

得到:
to obtain; to receive; to acquire; to derive; to earn; to get; to gain
Examples:
他們從政府那裡得到一筆貸款。They obtained a loan from the government.
她應該得到此榮譽。She is worthy to receive such honor.

接受 is passive, such as when you accept gifts or accept a situation. 得到 is for when you actively seek out or ask, and as a result, you received.

Hope this helps!


要用两条腿走路

Metaphorically, it means we should be developing with two aspects and only focusing on one could not go very far. This sentence is used when the developing can be identified as two key aspects. And it won't be used if there are many aspects, because one only has two legs. For example,  我们要用两条腿走路，生产和质量都要做好，...


Can we omit the 吗 at the end of a 难道 rhetorical question?

Yes, definitely you can. However, in some situations, with 吗 it sounds more natural and less rude. And sometimes, with 吗 it might sound less criticizing, such as your first example 今天是我的生日，难道你不知道吗?


From 神農氏

中國傳統醫學對癌症的描述. 癌，系由古代巖、岩、嵒等字轉化而來。因癌瘤之形如岩石，累累堅硬，高突不平，故取其音義而名。

In Chinese traditional medicine, cancer is described as like rock (岩), so it is pronounced as [yan2].
From Wiktionary,

In Mandarin, this character used to be pronounced identically as 岩 (yán). Its pronunciation was changed to ái in December 1962 to avoid the homophony between 癌 (“cancer”) and 炎 (yán, “inflammation”) (compare 肺炎 (fèiyán, “pneumonia”) and 肺癌 (fèi'ái, “lung cancer”)). The new pronunciation ái stems from dialectal pronunciations of 岩 (“rock; cliff”) /ŋai/, influenced by 崖 (yá, yái, “cliff”).

More info in Traditional Chinese

癌，在不同的地方有不同的讀音。在廣州話地區，它的粵音讀如“岩”，取“喦”之讀音；在內地，它的普通話讀如“皚”(ai)，即“埃”的第二聲；在台灣，它的國語讀音即讀如“岩”(yán)。
為甚麼“癌”字的讀音會有這些差異呢? “癌”字的最早注音，見於《中華大字典》：“癌讀若嵒。”一九一五年版的《辭源》，也注為“讀如喦”。喦，即岩的異體字。粵音據此一直至今都讀如“岩”。國語也曾一度據此讀如“岩”音。一九二一年，由民國政府的“國語統一籌備會”(魯迅也是該會會員)所訂正的《校改國音字典》，依然將“癌”的國音訂為“碞”。“碞”也是“岩”的異體字。直至今日，台灣也是按照這種讀音，沒有改變。
那麼，內地的普通話為甚麼又要把“癌”字改讀為“皚”音呢? 它又是甚麼時候改讀此音的呢? 原來，內地一直到一九六一年，都是把“癌”讀如“岩”的。當年, 新華字典大修，編者考慮到普通話中的“癌症”和“炎症”讀音完全一樣，容易造成混淆，故參考某些方言的“岩”字讀如“崖”音，於是便推薦“癌”讀“皚”音。一九六二年修訂的直排本《新華字典》，便將“癌”的國音注為ái，並用括號說明“舊讀yán”。一九六五年和一九七三年兩次印行的《現代漢語詞典》試用本，也都把“癌”字的注音改成“ái，(舊讀yán)”。
當時採用的這種注音方式，有兩個用意：一是表示ái，這個音不是印錯了，而是有意推荐的跟舊讀不同的音；二是表明，如果你不贊同ái的音，也可以讀舊音yán(岩)。
林語堂主編的台灣一九七二年版《當代漢英詞典》，一方面堅持“癌”的舊讀yán，另一方面則注明有人主張讀ái，用來跟“炎症”的“炎”區別。態度十分客觀。
到了一九八五年十二月，國家語言文字工作委員會、國家教育委員會、廣播電視部聯合頒佈了《普通話異讀詞審音表》，進一步取消了“癌”字的舊讀yán，統讀為ái。
至於粵音，由於“癌”與“炎”的讀音不同，不會混淆，所以毋需改讀，仍照舊讀如“岩”。


I'm not an linguist so here's only my personal opinion.
According to a modern classification described in Wikipedia, words for a short answer should belong to interjections in English. Note that interjections in English are further divided into primary and secondary interjections, with the former serve only as interjections (e.g. "Yes", "Hoorah!"), and the latter may be consist of one or more words that serve as another part of speech in other contexts (e.g. "No", "Bloody hell!"). The same criteria is also valid for Chinese ("哎呀!""呜呜呜……"vs. "我的天!""不!").
The definition of interjection in Chinese is: "Interjections are words that express various emotions. They have no grammatical connections to the context. " Therefore, all the words or phrases you listed as 应答用语 are undoubtedly interjections.


What is this exclamation and how is it written?

Edit:

It could be

哎也也 /Āi yě yě/ ('Ouch!/ Oh no!' exclamation)

真 /Zhēn/  (really)

糟糕 /Zāogāo/  (it is bad/ not good)

啦 /la/ (final particle)

哎也也, 真糟糕啦! (Oh no! It is really bad!)


I do not agree with S.Rhee. It seems like here it is a name of a book or some TOEIC test preparation reference. Thus, the better translation in English would be:

Essential for TOEIC


Does 再见 imply you will meet again, as the literal meaning suggests?

Yes 再 = again; 见= see; 再见 = (see again) goodbye

  荆轲正在和朋友们说再见。“风很大啊水很冷，勇敢的人去了，永不再回！” Which literally says, "He was saying "see you again".

In this third person narrative, the narrator translated the classical term '告别'(announce departure = say goodbye) to a modern term '说再见'

It is not too big a problem, because even 荆轲 really said 再见了 instead of 别了, that just meant he didn't want to state the obvious and pretended it was a normal goodbye

永不(never) + 再回 (return again) = 永不再回 (never return again)

  Does 再见 work for “goodbye forever”?

No, if you say 再见 to someone, it means you are expecting to see that person again. Although you can always pretend it is not a final goodbye and say 再见 like it is a normal goodbye.

To say 'goodbye forever' you have to state it clearly, like: "我们永远不会再见了" (we will never meet again)
You can also use '永别了' (apart forever = goodbye forever)

'永别' means '永远分别' (forever apart)


我给他打败了 usually means 我被他打败了， namely I was defeated by him. And 我给他骗了 follows the same pattern.

我给他送走了 doesn't sound quite right in my opinion. It should be 我把他送走了, meaning I sent him away.


When the conjunction 就 means "just" or "then", it doesn't go before noun

玛丽 is a noun

The sentence should be

听了我的话，玛丽很快(就)不哭了。 --> Mary quickly (just) stop crying

or

听了我的话，玛丽(就)很快不哭了 --> Mary (then) quickly stop crying

Edition:

Notice: When 就 means "ONLY", it does go before noun

Example: 他们都哭了，(就)玛丽不哭 --> They all cried, (only) Mary didn't


I think it's 伸手不打笑脸人 or 举手不打笑脸人.

意思是当你举起手要打有错的对方时，对方已经在向你赔着笑脸认错了，这时候你就不忍心，也不好意思再去打人家了。
谓不欺侮老实善良的人。或谓要宽恕已知理亏而以礼待人的人。也说“举手不打笑脸人”。


I'm getting a package and I'm trying to find out what this phrase mean

到达北京市国际邮件交换站: Arrive at Beijing international mail processing center.


Chinese Speaking Gps Tracker For My Dog, please help to translate

The first video is quite clear: she says,

  3874成功
  3874 succeeded

The second video is harder to decipher. It’s not Chinese; after listening a few times, I believe she says,

  Number not set.

Not sure if that tells you very much, but that appears to be the extent of it.


Is this sentence correct ? 我不知道会发我们的什么照片,所以就选择这个

I don't know to post which photo of us, so I chose this one

"我不知道（应该）发我们的哪(一)张照片，所以我选(择)了这(一)张"
Use 应该 instead of 会 when the person can decide what to do himself/herself.
Use 张 instead of 个 when referring to paper stuff.
which means 哪一(个/张/..） while what means 什么.
一 can be omitted in Chinese if no ambiguity.
Some examples:
I don't know what to do. 我不知道应该做什么.
I don't know what will happen. 我不知道会发生什么.
I don't know which to choose. 我不知道(应该)选哪一个.
一 张 纸/照片
一 个 东西/箱子
For accurate translation:
post: "发布", post online; "邮寄", post by mail


What is the purpose of 一切信息 in this sentence?

You are right, it is not written carefully, 信息 can NOT 发生，the sentese would read better if written as

各种各样的声音能够使我们了解来自身体内部和外部世界发生的一切 or
各种各样的声音能够使我们了解来自身体内部和外部世界发生的一切事情 or
各种各样的声音能够使我们了解来自身体内部和外部世界发生的一切事情的相关信息


What's the difference between 保育院 and 孤儿院?

孤儿院 sounds more straightforward to me while 保育院 seems a more considerate name. 孤儿院 is much more frequent in casual talk, at least just for me, it's not common to use 保育院 in my dialect. I think the recent usage of 保育院 might be a protection of children. I didn't look up in a dictionary or any other reference. Literally, 孤儿院 implies the children have lost their parents, which in reality that might not be the case. 保育院 doesn't have that implication. Chances are the children still have their parents, but for some reason, the custodies are taken over.

Anyway, I'll vote for 保育院, that's definitely a better name. It's safer to use 保育院, especially in formal situations.


Is "白皮书" a good translation of "open letter"?

No, as stated in your post : 公开信 is a perfectly common 1-to-1 translation for "open letter."; while "white paper" is a specific term for a type of government-issued document or business to business document, and it is always translated as 白皮书 in Chinese
The function of 白皮书 is different from 公开信. Translating 'open letter' as '白皮书' is a mistake.


How to translate 'grade school 風紀/風紀員' into English?

It's called "prefect".

not "perfect" of course :-)


What are the rules in Chinese for adjective order when multiple adjectives describe a noun

There are a few general points on the order:

words with two or more characters should be further away than single character words
phrases/words ending in 的 should be further from those without
the type/class/make/category of the described noun should be right next to it

For example:

漂亮的 (adjective pretty) 新 (adjective new) 丝绸 (dress' type silk) 晚 (dress' style evening) 礼服 (noun dress)
新的 (adjective new) 漂亮 (adjective pretty) 丝绸 (dress' type silk) 晚 (dress' style evening) 礼服 (noun dress)
丝绸的 (adjective silken) 漂亮 (adjective pretty) 新(see note) (adjective new) 礼服 (noun dress)
丝绸的 (adjective silken) 漂亮 (adjective pretty) 晚 (dress' style evening) 礼服 (noun dress)

Note: Avoid putting two single character words next to each other.

Note Two: Actually, avoid squeezing so many adjectives into a sentence in the first place.

The question's example of 又新又漂亮 is an entirely different situation. That's because it is using the syntax 又 X 又 Y.


It is 待岗, where 待 means wait and 岗 means job opportunity.


Segmentation of Pinyin syllables with diacritics

zhon would cover this I believe

Example:

        pinyin_a_re.findall('Yǒurén diūshīle yī bǎ fǔzi, zěnme zhǎo yě méiyǒu zhǎodào.')
    ['Yǒu', 'rén', ' ', 'diū', 'shī', 'le', ' ', 'yī', ' ', 'bǎ', ' ', 'fǔ', 'zi', ',', ' ', 'zěn', 'me', ' ', 'zhǎo', ' ', 'yě', ' ', 'méi', 'yǒu', ' ', 'zhǎo', 'dào', '.']


It is less common, but you will find semicolons used every once in while in Chinese text. The way of using it in Chinese is similar to English, where a comma is not enough but a period is too divisive.

A good example is 开心，就开怀大笑；伤心，就掩脸痛哭。
A comma in between 大笑 and 伤心 would be odd, and a period would fail to show  that the two phrases are related.

The semicolons work for the excerpt from Press-Ganging Able-Bodied Men, because it separates the three steps of how the person would 替你办事. An alternative would be to write out 第一、第二、第三, but then it would be less concise and fluid.


What does '眼观鼻鼻观心' represent? Obedience or an attempt to be invisible?

眼观鼻 (eyes looking at the nose) = 'look down'

鼻观心  (nose pointing at the chest) = 'lower one's head'

眼观鼻鼻观心 = 'look down and lower head'

It is a graphic description of a posture

This posture can be used to express many things, like humbleness, submissiveness, relaxation and concentration

The two most common activities that require someone to 眼观鼻鼻观心 are praying and meditation .

'眼观鼻鼻观心地冥想' = 'look down, lower one's head and meditate' (require relaxation)

'眼观鼻鼻观心地祈福' = 'look down, lower one's head and pray for blessing' (require humbleness and concentration)


爱不释手 is idiom in Chinese. You cannot split and use it. In most time, we use it as adjective or adverb to describe that you love something very much.

Common Usage:

爱不释手的{Object}
他对他的{Object}爱不释手
{Object}让我爱不释手

Sorry ,I miss the etymology:

南朝·梁·萧统《陶渊明集序》：“余爱嗜其文，不能释手。”


My translation would be something like "With your knowledge" with the understanding that "your" refers to somebody of a higher status, usually either due to them being royalty or them being immensely respected and of a good moral character (or both!).

To explain, 与 means "with" or "and," a meaning that has not changed much since ancient times. You see it a lot in formal writing, and even in some jargon (e.g. 与门 refers to the AND gate of a logical circuit). In this particular context, it is clear that it probably means "with" as it appears to be a preposition more than a conjunction.

In classical Chinese (文言文), one typically finds the usage of 君 to mean roughly the same as 您 i.e. a polite, honorific pronoun to address somebody of a higher status.

From 有道词典：

  封建时代指帝王、诸侯等，引申为人的尊称，相当于“您”。道德品行良好的人也可称君子。

which, roughly translated, means that during feudal times, 君 referred to kings, princes etc, and others would use it to respectfully address them, equivalent to today's 您. The word 君子 can also be used to refer to somebody with high moral standards and good character.

知 refers to knowledge. You may be familiar with the term 知道 in modern Chinese which means "to know."


Mandarin Chinese Most Frequent 1000 First Names (中国最常用的1000个名字)

I don't think there's an official account for the top 1000 most used first names. But here is an interesting statistic I've found.

In this image, it says the top 10 most used first names are:

英(ying)，华(hua)，玉(yu)，秀(xiu)，文(wen)，明(ming)，兰(lan)，金(jin)，国(guo)，春(chun).

I think its pretty accurate tbh.


I have an online tool that does more or less what you want (and more).  It is based on the Unihan database, and links to it.

Here is an example with xiang1.

It is a bit clunky -- I wrote it a long time ago, and there's a few design bugs.


Mandarin version of 冇屈得就屈 (Don't accuse me without evidence)?

'冇屈得就屈; is short for '唔好屈得就屈' which means 'Don't frame me (accuse without evidence) just because you can'

Word to word transfers to Mandarin would be "別能冤枉就去冤枉" , However, in practice, '唔好屈得就屈' is  close to '不要隨便冤枉好人'  in Mandarin


Are there rules about the differences between pinyin spelling and pronunciation?

The pronunciations of finals do not change when used after different finals, with perhaps only one exception: 'i'. It has three variations: 'zi ci si', 'zhi chi shi ri', and all others.

NOTE: Not many Chinese know the differences, but you can compare:

English pinyin
 Lee     li
 she     shi    (the two consonants are also different)
 see     si

The three english /ee/ in the above word are the same, but the three Chinese i are all different.

However, the spellings of the finals do change when used after different initials. The details can be found in 汉语拼音方案 (the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet), which is the official standard for Chinese pinyin.

For the example mentioned by the OP, 'ü' will be written as 'u' after 'j' 'q' and 'x'. ('u' will never be used after 'j' 'q' or 'x')

NOTE2: I don't know whether the full detail of the scheme is appropriate for beginners. There are two links in Chinese: 汉典 BaiduBaike


Alternative notations for Cantonese tones

Common romanization systems for Cantonese are Jyutping, Cantonese Pinyin, and Yale.

In both Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin, tones are represented with numbers.

In Yale, tones are either indicated with tone marks coupled with -h, or with numbers:

1   high-flat   55  sī  sīn     sīk
1   high-fall.  53  sì  sìn
2   mid-rising  35  sí  sín
3   mid-flat    33  si  sin     sik
4   mid-falling 21  sìh sìhn
5   low-rising  13  síh síhn
6   low-flat    22  sih sihn    sihk


What is the correct style/format when including Chinese translations in academic articles?

If I'm writing a scholarly article I normally put the Chinese first (Pinyin italicized and before characters) like this:

  Many songs were written to praise the Chinese Communist Party and the zǔguó 祖国 ‘Motherland’.

The reason is that for a linguistically inclined and Chinese-reading audience I'd give primacy to Chinese term. But if it's intended for ordinary readers, I'd make the English the primary focus, this way:

  Many songs were written to praise the Chinese Communist Party and the ‘Motherland’ (zǔguó 祖国).


Difference between 讨厌, 恨, 怨恨, 忌恨, 恶, and 恼恨?

讨厌：不喜欢，eg, 我讨厌夏天。我讨厌老鼠。

恨：范围太大了，有人多原因会产生恨，一种很激烈的对某人的负面情绪。

怨恨：重点是怨，因为怨气，一种强烈的多负面情绪，而恨某人

忌恨：重点是忌，因为嫉妒而心生恨意

恶：两种读音，è, 表示不好的，反义词是善。wù, 如厌恶，因为某种原因而讨厌某个人或物。

恼恨：重点在恼，因为恼怒而怨恨

I am not good at English，so I answer in Chinese.


In fact 一边。。。一边。。。 means doing two things at the same time, like 我一边学习一边听音乐 means I listen to the music while studying.

Here, you can say 我去中国既旅行又学习汉语。

既。。又。。 is an appropriate phrase to express that.


The word you are looking for is 勿:

  請勿靠近車門 cing2 mat6 kaau3 gan6 ce1 mun4 (Jyutping romanization)

The usage of 請勿 ("Please don't") is considered formal or literary in Cantonese, so it's not typically heard in common speech, but you'll often see it on signs or in public announcements.

EDIT: Just wanted to also add that your deduction of the Mandarin is exactly correct.


Is there any font encoding the second stage of simplification?

I understand from the author of that proposal that these characters will be in Unicode when CJK Extension G is adopted sometime next year.  In the meantime, they are available in his font Babelstone Han PUA.


随便 can 'do as one wishes'

'freely' would be a suitable translation in this context
不能随便阅读别人的小说 - cannot freely read other people's novels


我觉得你说的是真的

'我' (I) is the 'subject'

'觉得' (think) is the 'verb'

'你说的(话)' (the words you said) is the 'object'

'是' (is/was) is 'auxiliary verb'

'真的' (true) adjective

'你说的' is shortened from '你说的话', which is the object

  I think the words you said were true.


今天 is both the right answer for speaking and writing in modern society.

今日 is more in drama of old time story.


Are Chinese and Japanese characters decomposed the same way?

Almost all Japanese characters (in my experience >99%) are exist in Chinese. Few are changed a little, like 宮 and 宫. As a Chinese, I have no difficulty in recognizing Japanese characters.

Some of Chinese characters is simplified in simplified Chinese, but remain unchanged in Japanese, like 車 and 车.

There are some rare Japanese characters which doesn't has corresponding Chinese character.　But they are still formed by components used in other characters.


The sentence '爸爸让我学开车' is too short to be certain which meaning of 让 should be assigned here.

'我恳求了很多次爸爸才让我学开车.' - 'I pleaded with my father many times  before he allowed me to learn to drive.' (让 = allow/let)
'父亲认为驾驶是一种有用的技能，因此他让我学开车.' - 'Father thinks driving is a useful skill, so he lets me learn to drive.' (让 = let/ allow/ ask/ make)

Consider learning to drive cost money, and often require permission from the parent, "LET" is the most likely meaning of '让' here.
*ongusbongus' answer suggested  '让' means 'ask to'. But in reality, '要' is the more common word for the meaning of 'ask to' compare to '让'.
Even '叫' carrying the meaning of 'ask to' better than '让'


What are the Chinese characters for the American English word "Dishonored"?

The game is called

耻辱 on the mainland.
羞辱 also on the mainland
冤罪杀机 in HK & TW

Some of the details might not be 100% accurate as it looks like Wikipedia is giving contradictory information.

Dishonored 2:

耻辱2 (Mainland)
羞辱2 (Mainland)
冤罪杀机 (HK & TW)


When "to be" should be used? When omitted?

是 in the first context is only used to say:

Noun1 是 Noun2

You never say 我是很好, because 好 isn't a noun. You can say

我是美国人
他是男孩子
我是李红

because all those relate one noun to another. In the case of 我25岁了, 25 years old isn't a noun, it's a state, and so we don't use 是.
For a simple summary, 是 only relates 2 nouns to each other. If it's not a noun, don't use 是.
You can find more info and examples here, which I find is a good site for beginners to learn chinese, and gives lots of examples to help you understand.


How does 飄 + 然 compound to mean 'floating in the air'?

飄's  radical is 風 (wind), and 風 is created by the movent of air
然 is a word particle that indicates "like" (in the manner of)
飄然 = like floating (in the air)


Are chinese historical dramas appropriate for learning Mandarin?

You can just learn the pronunciation in historical drama.
There are no doubt that the language you learn from historical drama must be out-dated language.Such as “盘缠” means money, but we all use “钱” now.
If you want learn language from TV play, i think you can watch urban drama instead of historical dram.


I would say you should be careful of using 我想念你 or 我想你 , especially to a opposite gender. Usually, we say 我想念你 or 我想你 jokingly to avoid the confusion, except saying it to your 'real honey'.

But if you put 我们都很想（念）你， meaning you are missed among all of our friends, that would get you out of the confusion.


In Taiwan "外帶" is used. It usually means to order something to-go. The difference between the two is mostly location. If you were in China, you might say the latter.


You should use 蝦. As can be seen in zdic.net 鰕 used to mean shrimp, but is not used anymore in this meaning. In Japan it however is still a common character.

Using Google:

蝦 site:tw has about 7,060,000 results
鰕 site:tw has about 29,400 results

The latter is used in some exotic fish names.


How to correctly translate 为达目的不择手段 in English?

Generally speaking, I encourage you to check out the meaning in Chinese when you encounter 成语. It took me a while to finally get to know that it is hard to understand what a given 成语 means in English but is clear enough once I read the explanation in Chinese (this holds true of any words but especially so in the case of 成语, which is closely related to the culture).
Back to the topic, 不择手段 means:

指为达到某种目的，什么样的手段都可以使出来。

In English, the word means:

In order to achieve a goal, a person uses whatever he or she could (including anything considered immoral or dishonest by others).

Don't try to understand it by an English dictionary as the listed meaning is quite awkward and hard to grasp. For example, in the case of 不择手段:

unscrupulously

by fair means or foul

These explanations sound less redundant, but seems to me the loss of original meaning.


What does 是 mean in 因为比读书有趣味的事情实在是太多了?

Actually, I think 实在是 hangs together. Your 是 I would interpret as 'those are'.

1因为     2比          3读书     4有趣味的事情 5实在 6是          7太多了。
1because 2compared to 3read-books 4have-fun-things  5really     6those are  7very many

You could rewrite this:

因为有很多事情实在是比读书有趣多了。or 因为有很多事情比读书有趣多了。

在我的心目中，
To my mind,
一个好的作家是长生不死的，
a good author is immortal,
他的肉体当然也和常人一样，
his body, of course, is the same as normal people's,
迟早要化为泥土，
sooner or later, it will become dust,
但他的精神却会因为他的作品的流传而永垂不朽。
but his spirit, because his works are circulated, will not be forgotten and will be immortal.
在今天这种人人都想致富的社会里，
In today's world full of people seeking only wealth,
说这样的话显然是不合时宜
saying such words is evidently unfashionable,
因为比读书有趣味的事情实在是太多了。
because compared to reading books there are many other things which are more fun.


How important are tones in comparison with vowels or consonants in Mandarin?

Mispronunciation of tones sounds "more wrong", probably not because it is more wrong, but rather more random and so, harder to determine what the speaker means to say. Mispronunciation of sounds tends to be systematic, e.g. consistently mispronouncing "zh" as "z", etc. This is called an accent.
Every language that we know of has consonant and vowel sounds. When one tries to learn a foreign language with unfamiliar sounds, one may substitute, thus resulting in an accent. Most people can understand someone who speaks with an accent because as I said above, it is a systematic substitution of one sound for another.

Tones, however, presents quite a different problem for learners whose native language does not have tones. The mistakes are likely more random, and so, harder for the hearer to decipher what the intended tone is. And because of this, it sounds "more wrong".

Having said this, however, for learners whose native language has tones, for instance, a Cantonese speaker learning Mandarin, or the other way around, then the mistake will again likely be more systematic.

A person who is learning Chinese should really think of the consonant/vowel/tone as a packaged deal. All components are essential to pronouncing a word correctly.

Happy learning!


掩耳盗铃
公报私仇
投机取巧
无情鸡
志同道合
巧夺天工
受恩不报
撮合
城门失火
水至清则无鱼
风烛残年
凄风冷雨
居高临下
摇风摆柳
乌灯黑火
自高自大
兴风作浪
一山更比一山高
行将就木
孤独终老
黑白分明
道不同，不相为谋
不分青红皂白

A. 众志成城
B. 横行霸道
C. 另谋高就
D. 盗亦有道
E. 火借风势
F. 大兴土木
G. 投降
H. 风雨飘摇
I. 丞相
J. 巧合
K. 风平浪静
L. 巧取豪夺
M. 残忍
N. 天不假年
O. 一枝独秀
P. 义工
Q. 佛山
R. 水涨船高
S. 老而不
T. 私相授受
U. 天下乌鸦一般黑
V. 不平则鸣
W. 知情不报
X. 月黑风高
Y. 如鱼得水
Z. 不明不白


氆氇（pǔlu 〖藏pulu〗）是藏族人民手工生产的一种毛织品，可以做衣服、床毯等，举行仪礼时也作为礼物赠人。

I don't think native speakers would say this word. "get them of" simply means 弄掉它们.


What is the difference between 穿 and 穿上?

穿 and 穿上 are usually like English 'wear' and 'put on'.  The sentence 我正在穿上毛衣 means 'I am putting on a/the/my sweater'; I think this is quite unambiguous.  The sentence 我正在穿毛衣 is a little bit odd (to me), but can be interpreted as 'I am wearing a sweater'.

穿上 is an action, which has a beginning, middle, and end. 穿 is often a state, if you like, with no beginning or end.  Not always of course: for example, in imperative sentences like 趕快穿衣服! "Hurry up and get dressed!" the 'hurry up' makes the non-stative meaning clear. You don't HAVE to use 穿上 to mean 'put on' then, but it helps make the action/state distinction explicit.

脫 'to remove (clothing)' is unambiguously an action to begin with, so it doesn't need a resultative ending to disambiguate it.  脫下 is possible of course; to me it emphasizes both completion (clothes no longer on me) and a more detailed process. One example: I might use 脫 for removing shoes, 脫下 for a suit (jacket and pants).


凭, 按, 根据, 依据, 依照, and 按照 how to use these words correctly?

There are actually two ways to answer your question. I'm not sure which would be more helpful to you:

1) an etymological answer: why are these particular words being used in this particular way;

2) a grammatical answer: what syntactic differences exist between the words; what different kinds of sentences are they used in.

For me, I often find the etymological answer is more useful, in that I get more of a sense of what the speaker is thinking. Grammar often does not help that much in illuminating what someone is thinking, though it is essential for using the word correctly yourself.

I'll try the etymological approach here, and look at what 按, 照, 依, 憑, 根, and 據 are doing here.

按 = to press with the finger; imagine the judge running a finger down a list of rules.
依 = to lean on; to rely on something to hold you in a set position.
照 = to illuminate; in fact, this is a key word: you could take it to mean 'according to' all by itself, with modifications indicated by what's in front: 依照,  按照 are variations of 照; they both rely on light to some degree

憑 seems to be 'rely on' in a mental sense; it is closer to 靠 in meaning than 依. Of all the words here, 憑 is the furthest removed from the central meaning of 'according to'.

根 means root; in a more fig. or adverbial sense, it means to take something as a base, what something is built on
據 is another key word; it originally meant to support oneself with a staff. Light is not necessary for this. If one's staff is touching the ground (rooted, 根據) one knows one has a solid basis for action. One can also lean on one's staff 依據, and avoid slipping.

So basically there are two ideas here:
照 is to follow something that illuminates one's way.  This is often realized as following someone's rules, methods, or example.
據 is to have a fixed point that allows one to act without mishap. This often suggests the idea of a basis for one's actions or beliefs

These two basic ideas can be modified by appropriate forms. 依 works with both 照 and 據; on the other hand 按 doesn't work with 據 (why press on a staff with one finger?) and 根 doesn't work with 照 (what is the basis of a lamp?)

This is what I see as the semantics involved; for grammar, the comment under your answer has perhaps more useful guidance.


对峙 means "confrontation; stand-off" (be locked in a confrontation or face-off, with neither side attacking or retreating)

It is a metaphor that means "two sides standing still like two mountains facing each other; neither one would back down nor could they advance."

  So I am wondering how do native Chinese speakers use this word

Some example:

两军对峙多日 - the two armies stood-off with each other for days (对峙 as a verb)

两军的对峙已经持续多日 - The stand-off between the two armies has been going on for several days (对峙 as a noun)

示威者与警方对峙 - the demonstrators stand-off with the police (对峙 as a verb)

示威者与警方的对峙最后以暴力结束 - the stand-off between the demonstrators and the police ended in violence. (对峙 as a noun)


What is wrong with how I wrote 你也不会呢 in 20年来，没有人相信我。你也不会呢？

20年来，没有人相信我。你也不信吗？
Two changes:

"会" - "信"
"会" is normally used for something that happens later.
Compare these two:

20年来，没有人相信我，你也不会！(No one believes, you won't either)
20年来，没有人相信我，你也不信！(No one believes, you don't/didn't either)

Second one is better, as the son said "这不可能" in the previous answer.
And keep the same verb for better coherency.

"呢" - "吗"
"呢" is normally used in a special interrogative sentence (特殊疑问句).
"吗" is used in a closed-ended question (一般疑问句), or a rhetorical question (反问句).
As mom is not waiting for the his response, I suggest having a rhetorical question here.

To check if a rhetorical question is correct, just remove the sentence-final particle (吗)
and replace the question mark with a exclamatory mark ("?" - "!").

Edited to add a "你也不会" example.
母：“20年来，没有人相信我，你也不会（相信）。”
子：“是什么，告诉我。”
母：“你没有老爸。”
子：“这不可能！”

When she hasn't told her son, it is ok to use "你也不会", but better to say "你也不会相信".


Sports verbs 打 and 踢: which one is suitable for martial arts?

Generally speaking, when it comes to sports, Chinese constructs the actions using a verb-object composition. 打 and 踢 are certainly not the only verbs that can be used.

To answer the question in your title, the correct verb to use for Martial Arts is 打 if the Martial Arts in question has a "fist" in the title (e.g. 打太极拳) or 练 (e.g. 练武术). Very often the two are interchangeable, though that may sometimes sound awkward (but nevertheless, remain correct). I would veer toward using 练 as the verb for Martial Arts because it means to "practice" the martial art, which is something that everybody does no matter what the point of the martial art is.

To list your other sports:
hockey 打曲棍球

polo 打马球

skiing 滑雪

snowboarding 滑雪板

surfing 冲浪

sailing 帆船

swimming 游泳

triathlon 跑（铁人）三项

running 跑步

climbing 爬山 or 攀岩


Actually we only use the name ( the second ones in your question) which describes the shape of the radical. It's how teachers call these radicals in classroom.
Many radicals,  like 丶, are not treated as charterers. Although they may have a pronunciation, most Chinese don't know that.
Even for these radicals which happen to be characters, we still incline to use the name referring to the radical, rather than its own pronunciation. It would sound ridiculous when you describe the strokes of a character, say 王 this way: 三个一，一竖. Instead, native speakers would say: 三横一竖.


你一個人到這裡嗎 is mostly correct. The complete version is 你是一个人到这里来的吗
A native way of saying so is 你是自己来这里的吗？A more northern version of it is 你是自个ge3（儿）来这（儿）的吗？
你到這裡一個人嗎 Is not correct.


Irregular syllables in Mandarin—how does 二 ("èr") exist?

there are word have the same pronounciation with 二 like 儿 而 耳 尔.and there are more vowel-consonant constuctions like 昂 肮 盎 pronoinced ang .there are even more vowel-vowel constructions like 奥 凹 袄 pronouced ao and 爱 矮 挨 pronounced ai.it is nothing about ealier and I dont know the reason neither.but I hear some experts said the ancient chonese language is far more difference sounded like now


What is the grammatical outline of 你英语说得很好

This is very common in Chinese/Mandarin: Re-/Pre- position the object.
1: to emphasize object while subject is omitted (understood).  I call this fake subject: 北京到了。 Beijing can not "arrive".  "We" arrive at Beijing.
2: subject unknown:  前面来了一辆车。Car doesn't "come", somebody drives it to come.  There is alternative: 有人开了一辆车从前面来了。 which is not as neat as first one. "shorter and to the point" is always the trend of languages.
3: subject unknown but unique to Chinese (not polite to use "someone" as the implication is small potato): "得" complement 这个鱼烧得不错。vs 有人烧这个鱼烧得不错。 Chef or some housewife is not just "有人".
4: similar with "得" complement but subject known (like 1, emphasizing object): 他说汉语说得很好。 vs 他汉语说得很好。 not just neat，you even save repeating the verb.
5 subject known or unknown, the object is a long and complicated phrase:  昨天我刚从上海买回来的新书今天早上在学校弄丢了。 alternative: use "被“ but not as neat and also subject must be known.
6 the most special one is that I want to emphasize both the subject and the object at the same time and it's not "得" complement:  original: 今天早上在学校他弄丢了我昨天刚从上海买回来的新书。 --> weird: 今天早上在学校他我昨天刚从上海买回来的新书弄丢了。 Ah, the wisdom of Chinese: solution "把”  今天早上在学校他把我昨天刚从上海买回来的新书弄丢了。 Perfect:  It's "he" and it's "my new book", both emphasized in equal way.
As I like to believe: language is "alive".  It evolves and mutates daily.  Grammar must do the same to follow, but looks like it will never catch up.  Why must find grammatical explanation for all the expressions used and understood?


There are differences in meaning between 明白 and 懂, but they are somewhat subtle. Several Chinese-language websites record Chinese speakers asking the same question, so the difference is certainly not obvious. Nevertheless, the long and short of it is that, for practical purposes, they are interchangeable: people use 懂 and 明白 to mean "I understand" in many daily circumstances without considering any deeper implications of their meaning. When they do intend to draw distinctions between the words, as in the last example below, they will so explicitly.

This baidu question asks for the differences between 明白， 理解， 了解， 知道， and 懂. The consensus among the respondents is that 懂 represents a deeper level of understanding than 明白 does, even to the extent that 懂 can indicate a spiritual or essential understanding.

This soso question adds another perspective: 懂 does not need to involve communication. (Again, it can refer to deep, almost spiritual understanding. For example, you would hear songs like "不懂爱" but not "不明白爱") 明白 necessarily involves someone understanding something that someone else has communicated to them. I hadn't seen this rule formulated before, but it matches my experience of using and hearing these words.

This article is intriguingly entitled “越来越明白却越来越不懂” ["I '明白' more and more, but '懂' less and less"]. There's a sense in this article, as there is in the other sources above, that to 懂 something is to understand the principles behind it.

Finally, this English-language article on 懂, 明白, and 了解 dispenses with the first two words quite quickly. It supports my first point above that, in daily life, these two words are more or less interchangeable and don't imply any deep level of comprehension.


Why are traditional and simplified different in such small manner?

Kanji is the Japanese word for 漢字 (Chinese character). It is "hanzi" in Chinese. And only hanzi has tranditional and simplified forms. Kanji is also simplified, but kanji has only one official form in Japan.

Chinese Simplified is the official writing system in mainland China, Chinese Traditional is the official writing system in Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan. Mainland China also use Chinese Traditional in some special situation, for example, in calligraphy, in trademarks.

Not all traditional Chinese characters are simplified, so some simplified Chinese characters are identical to their traditional counterparts, for example, 更(simplified) and 更 (traditional).
Some are slightly different, for example, 强(simplified) and 強(traditional).
Some are very different, for example, 龙(simplified) and 龍(traditional).

As I just said, traditional Chinese characters are still used in mainland China for calligraphy. That's because many traditional Chinese characters look more balanced in structure than their simplified form.
Here is some example:

Simplified    Traditional
汉            漢
龙            龍
华            華
灵            靈
广            廣
书            書

So if you want to use Chinese characters for tattoo, I would suggest traditional Chinese characters, because they are more balanced in structure and more good-looking.

Coincidentally, the simplified version of the "愈挫愈勇" suggested by @bfrguci is identical to their traditional counterparts.

@sazarando suggests grass script for tattoo. I'd like to remind you that Chinese characters written in grass script is hard to recognize even for native speakers of Chinese language, so I personally don't think it a good choice.  I suggest you choose from clerical script, regular script, semi-cursive script. All these three scripts are widely used for handwritten Chinese characters, both simplified and traditional, in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. But just as @sazarando said, avoid fonts for print if you could.

@greglow give a an article comparing traditional and simplified Chinese. I skimmed through this article and found some of its arguments very controversial and misleading. I'll explain what I mean in detail.

1, "The traditional Chinese, most of them are hieroglyphic. It conveys more significant than simplified Chinese." This is incorrect. You can refer to Chinese character classification in Wikipedia. Chinese characters are roughly classified into six categories based on the rules they are formed, that is, pictographs, simple ideograph, compound ideographs, phono-semantic compounds, rebus, transformed cognates. There is no accurate number, but it's estimated that about 90% of Chinese characters, traditional or simplified, are phono-semantic compounds. Pictographs, or hieroglyphic, comprise only 4% of all Chinese characters. That's because pictograph is only suitable for concrete things, for example, sun (日), moon (月), eye (目), mountain (山), rain (雨), elephant (象) and so on. It's hard to depict abstract concepts using only pictographs, in which case the other five formation rules come into play.

2, The article gave some examples to demonstrate that "traditional Chinese character conveys more significant than simplified Chinese". But the examples it used are not very persuasive. It claimed 愛 (traditional) is better than 爱(simplified, means love) because 愛 (traditional) has a 心(heart) as its component so it conveys the meaning that we love with heart. But I can also argue that 爱(simplified) is better because it has a 友 (friend) in the mid of the word, so it convey a broader feeling of love than 愛 (traditional). I can even give some other examples in favor of simplified Chinese. I argue that 党 (simplified, means party as in Democratic Party) is better than 黨 (traditional), because 党 contains a 兄(brother) while 黨 a 黑 (black), so 党 conveys that our Party love its members as brothers and no dirty(black) politics. It's obvious that this kind of arguments is too far-fetched, and it just remind me of something like astrology.

3, "After characters simplified, lots of Chinese people cannot read the ancient classical literature." This is incorrect. In fact, an average literate people in mainland China can read both simplified and traditional Chinese characters without any difficulty, because traditional Chinese characters are still very common in everyday lives. In mainland China, traditional Chinese characters are not banned. Instead, they are allowed to be used for some special situations. According to 《中华人民共和国国家通用语言文字法(Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language)》, Chinese government, educational organizations, public service organizations, public TV and broadcasting should use standard(simplified) Chinese characters. And according to Article 17, there are six situations in which traditional Chinese characters can be used publicly and lawfully:

第十七条　本章有关规定中，有下列情形的，可以保留或使用繁体字、异体字：
Article 17: traditional Chinese characters and other variant Chinese characters can be preserved or used in the following situations:
(一)文物古迹；
(1) cultural relics and historical sites
(二)姓氏中的异体字；
(2) in family name
(三)书法、篆刻等艺术作品；
(3) art works, such as calligraphy and seal carving
(四)题词和招牌的手书字；
(4) handwritten characters used in dedication and signboard
(五)出版、教学、研究中需要使用的；
(5) if there is necessity to use traditional Chinese characters for publishing, teaching, researching.
(六)经国务院有关部门批准的特殊情况。
(6) some other special situations approved by relevant department of State Council of the People's Republic of China.

At the same time, almost all official dictionary of Chinese characters give both simplified and traditional form of a character. Usually the the traditional form of a character is placed in a pair of parentheses immediately after the simplified form. Here is an example from 《新华字典，第11版 (Xinhua Dictionary, 11th Edition (Chinese Edition)》
, the best-selling and most widely used Chinese dictionary in China.

You can see that both 爱(simplified) and 愛 (traditional) are given out, and the traditional form 愛 is placed in parentheses immediately after the simplified form 爱.

Some examples:

An inscription in traditional Chinese at Mount Tai. 五嶽獨尊 (simplified version: 五岳独尊) and 昂頭天外 (simplified version: 昂头天外). An average literate person in mainland China can read it without any difficulty.

Maybe the most famous calligraphy work in China, Lantingji Xu(simplified Chinese: 兰亭集序; traditional Chinese: 蘭亭集序). It's written in semi-cursive script. Again, an average literate person in mainland China can read it without any difficulty.

The four red characters in the upper-left corner is the name of Xinhua Daily written in traditional Chinese characters. 新華日報(simplified version: 新华日报)

A grandpa exercising his calligraphy at some park in mainland China. This is  a kind of outdoor recreation popular among the elderly (thought mainly male) in mainland China. He is writing traditional Chinese characters.


Is 白加黑 ("white add black") slang for 感冒药 ("cold medicine")?

白加黑

It is not so much a slang but a general term for cold medicine. When a brand is so popular, people would use it to describe the product itself, like 公仔麵 (instant noodle)  and 花奶 (evaporated milk) in Hong Kong

白加黑:

公仔麵:

花奶


Yes, 坏 is usually bad/broken, and 问 is ask. However, if boys want to play tricks on girls, for example, boys ask the girls 'have you ever heard some strange noises from your parents' room?'

In this scenario, we can say the boy 坏坏地问道：“ have you ever heard some strange noises from your parents' room？”


Character Gaps On Comic Conversation : 3

四十分钟后会被火烤 (it) will be roasted (by fire) in forty minutes

没有半个人在 there's not even half-a-person here!

咚卡咚 onomatopoeia (maybe like 'den den den' or whatever)

the only correction I would make is on your 好可怕！ (Awful!) I would translate this as how scary! instead...


What is a good English translation for "老乡"?

An appropriate word would be countryman

  noun, plural countrymen.

 1. a native or inhabitant of one's own country.
 2. a native or inhabitant of a particular region.
 3. person who lives in the country.
 4. an unsophisticated person, as one who lives in or comes from a rural
    area; rustic.

Meaning from Baidu:

1、老乡的范围可大可小。比如在市里看到同一县的人，在省里看到同一市的人，在全国看到同一省的人，都可以算做老乡
2、以前解放军对百姓们的称呼。

Translated to English:

  The usage of this word is flexible. For example, it can be applied to those living within the same district of a city, the same city
  within a province, or the same province within the country.
  The PLA used to address the commoners this way.

Usage example:

无论是因为工作漂泊在外，还是因为求学进去在外，一句老乡拉近了你我彼此之间的距离。


a single package of a prescription of Chinese Medicine is called 一服（FU）， because you would normally boil the whole package in a pot and drink the produced liquid at once. so one of 服's meaning is taking medicine for both western and chinese medicines.  The units of each ingredient in the prescription normally are tael(两) and mace(钱）。

For western medicine, we use 片(pian) for pill, 粒(li) for capsule，and 支（zhi) for bottled liquids, 袋（dai) for pouch, and 板（ban) for foiled pills

this link is about ancient Chinese weighing metrics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement


It is not. "扔" here means something like "discard" or "abandon". They are now suffering from a (terrible) traffic jam, not a faulty engine, so they don't need to push the car anyway.

It means that the people got so impatient that that left the car where they were and walked away.


Both festivals revolve around the spring equinox. 清明节 falls 15 days after the spring equinox, whereas Easter falls on the first sunday after the first fullmoon after the spring equinox.

Christianity here just superimposed their own myth (the carpenter on the cross) onto the existing Jewish passover, and the Jews in turn just superimposed their myth (the exodus from Egypt) onto then existing premosaic traditions in West Asia.

清明节 is also a redevelopment of 寒食节, although these festivals are more original than any of the Easter traditions. In Taiwan, 清明节 has unfortunately been politicized to commemorate the death of the nationalist dictator 蒋介石.

Let’s just say that both festivals celebrate the coming of spring, that is the essence of it.


Meaning of 一人付一半 in 车费我们俩一人付一半，怎么样？

一人 can be thought of as 'per person' or 'each person'.

This grammatical construction is extremely common in Chinese. I think it's called topical construction (correct me if I am wrong here). Essentially, you have the topic of the sentence (bus/taxi fare) at the start, followed by the subject, verb and the rest of the object.

So let's break it down:

Topic: 车费 (bus/taxi fare - need more context to determine the exact
nature)
Subject: 我们俩 (We [two])
Verb: 付 (to pay)
Object: 一半(车费) (half [of the fare])
Adverbial: 一(个)人 (each person, per person - alternative wording: 每(个)人)

Possible translations:

We split the fare by paying half of it each.
We both pay half the fare.
Each of us pays for half the fare.

I missed the last bit of your question the first time around. The measure word 个 is omitted. It means the same whether it's in there or not (in this case). However, 一人 in this sense is also used in some set phrases (such as 一人做事一人当 - one is responsible for one's own actions), and in those cases, you cannot use 一个人 in its stead. Fivesheep's answer has enough examples to give you a good idea how often it's used.


When speaking, how would one say "cannot study"? E.g. 不能学习 or 学习不了 or 无法学习

All of your answers are right. the difference is, on mainland Chinese, 无法学习 is the most formal one, as in scientific reports; 不能学习 is what we say if we are writing dairy/novels. 学习不了 is the most informal one, usually used when talking to friends, etc.

Note I used mainland Chinese, because I don’t know how they say it in HK/TW/Macau.


No, neither 了解 nor 理解 fit the bill. Can't really think of a good substitute.
完整讲解视频请至官网收看。
complete lecture video please to official website watch
Please go to the/our official website to watch the complete video.


In your example '由' means 'by'. To give you more examples,

发动机是由蒸汽驱动的。
The engine is driven by steam.
这首歌是由歌手自己创作的。
The song is written by the singer himself.
小区里的足球场是由大家共同维护的。
The soccer field in the neighborhood is maintained by the community.


What rules are there for combining characters in couplets? (对联)

The general rule is simple, you just need to make sure the type of characters in same position be the same. But in good couplets characters need to be filtered carefully to make it poetic.

for instance:

明月

清风

“明” and “清” here are all adjectives, “月” and “风” are all nouns，so this couplets have a correct format. Also the characters are beautiful, too. They together create a scene of lonely night.

see this example:

海阔凭鱼跃

天高任鸟飞

海-sea， 天-sky; 阔-board，高-high;

凭 and 任 here are all acts as verb, means let someone do something freely. But
do what? do 跃-jump and 飞-fly

So in English:

| sea | is board | allows | fish | jump |

| sky | is high  | lets   | birds| fly  |

and it implies the world is large allow me do something great!

another interesting one, hope you like it :) :

海水朝朝朝朝朝朝朝落

浮云长长长长长长长消

I know you want to cruse now, but actually it is pretty neat!

Lets decompose it. This couplets is written by ancient people, and they were allowed to write wrong words! Which is knew as 通假字. you can use character with same pronunciation to replace another one. Not sure why, maybe that time it is hard to learn every characters? Anyway, here 朝 actually has two pronunciation and three meanings, holy crab!

朝(chao2) replace 潮(chao2), means tide.
朝(zhao1) just means day, and you can think it as 天.
朝(zhao1) means daytime.

Also 长 here has several meanings:

长(zhang2) replace 张(zhang2), means rise
长（chang2）replace 常(chang2), means often
长(chang2) replace 常(chang2), means long period.
// yes, the meaning of 长 didn't be used! I guess it just because 长 is simpler.

But even when know the meaning of characters, we still don't know which one means what. What should we suppose to do??

We can separate the sentence in to pieces:

海水朝 朝朝朝 朝朝朝落

浮云长 长长长 长长长消

read as:

hai2  shui3  chao2  zhao1  zhao1  chao2  zhao1  chao2  zhao1  luo4

fu2   yun2   zhang3 chang2 chang2 zhang3 chang2 zhang3 chang2 xiao1

and then replace them with original characters:

海水潮 朝朝朝 朝潮朝落

浮云涨 常常涨 常涨常消

And now the meaning is much easier to grab.
PS: there are tons of other way to separate, but I just make one example here.

海-sea.

水-water --> 海水-sea.
//just for simplicity. 海 here suppose to be an adjective to describe a lot.

潮-tide. here used as verb means high-tide.

朝-daytime

朝-day

潮-tide, also used as verb

朝-day, here means everyday.

潮-tide, used as verb again.

朝-day, means everyday.

落-down, here used as means low-tide.

浮-flowing.

云-cloud --> 浮云-could

涨-rise， here means spreading

常-long period

常-often

涨-rise, means spreading here

常-often

涨-rise， means spreading here

常-often

消-disappear.

So translate in English is:

| sea | rise tide | everyday | daytime | rise tide | everyday | rise | everyday |fall

| cloud | spread | in long period | often | spread | often | spread | often | disappear

In human language is:

Sea tides up, tides up daytime everyday. tides up everyday, tides down every day.

cloud spread, spread quite often all the time. spread often, disappear often.


In the novel 猫城记, why does 老舍 use 的 (instead of 地) for adverbs?

Actually, you're right, this is a history question rather a grammar one.
Chinese people do NOT differentiate "的得地" intentionally before the 1960s (or even 1980s).
Here is a blog I found “的地得”的历史——《得的篇》（上）, saying 老舍 mended his "的地得" in his new publications after 1956.

1956年，教育部颁布了一个叫《暂拟汉语教学语法系统》的文件
里面规定：“结构助词包括: 的、地、得、所。它们是定语、状语、补语的标志……”
...
一个证据是，上面用“马马虎虎的铺好”的老舍先生，在1956年以后出版的作品修正了对的地得的用法。

Another one I found is "的地" could be the same from “的地得”并未通用, suggesting that "的地" could be written as "的" at that time.

1984年人民教育出版社中学语文室编印的《中学教学语法系统提要(试用)》提倡“的、地”合写为“的”

So why "老舍 use 的"?

猫城记 was published in 1933, when "的得地" are not clearly defined at that time.
Even if the book was re-edited and republished, "的、地" could be the same.

Well, those links are not official resources, but that could be "八九不离十".
In my opinion, do not bother grammar mistakes for those classic publications anyway.
Just like people don't learn English grammar by reading Shakespear.


What's the difference between 受到 and 产生 when used with 影响, 兴趣, etc

受到影响 = to be influenced

受到A的影响 = to be influenced by A

产生影响 = to have an influence

对A产生影响 = to have an influence on A

受到兴趣: no such expression

产生兴趣 = to become interested

对A产生兴趣 = to become interested in A


This is more of a question about semantic fields in English than in Chinese.
From zdic.net

原指机器的构造和工作原理。生物学和医学通过类比借用此词，指生物机体结构组成部分的相互关系，以及其间发生的各种变化过程的物理、化学性质和相互关系。现已广泛应用于自然现象和社会现象，指其内部组织和运行变化的规律。
Originally referred to the structure and operational principles of machines. (The fields of) biology and medicine borrowed this word by analogy to refer to the inter-relationships between the structural components of living organisms, as well as to the various physical and chemical processes therein. It has now been extended in use to natural and social phenomena alike, referring to their laws of internal organisation and operational variation.

I believe that in more recent uses of bureaucratic Chinese, it has extended further to certain social "structures" that perform some kind of operation, something that can be created and implemented at will. This context is rarely one where the English word mechanism is used. Rather, the English language generally prefers to use the word procedure.

中国驻俄罗斯大使馆闻讯后立即启动应急机制。
On learning what had happened, the Chinese Embassy in Russia immediately set up emergency response procedures.


What does 灒油 mean if no oil spatters or scatters?

灒

spatter, splash
to scatter

When a chef stir-frying a dish, he would pour wine into the wok at the end to add aroma to the food. This action is never slow and gentle but always a quick sprinkle/ pour (灑/澆).
You would see flames in the wok if the temperature of the wok is very high. We call that 鑊氣 in Cantonese
When you pour liquid in a quick motion, the liquid would scatters on the surface it was poured onto, Therefore 灒 is used for 'to pour (in a quick motion)" as its extended meaning
Also, when boiling oil is poured on food, it sizzle and spatter
Another word we use for 'to pour' in Cantonese is 淋 which can be a gentle or quick-motion pour


An Idiom puzzle should looks like this

1.continuously non-stop like river

2.one column supports the sky

3.full of natural resources

4.forever young

5.gain without working for it

6.extremely trendy

一. a column that withstands strong river flow

二. having a skill

三. mature age

四. the end of time

五. needs from time to time

Answer below:

~

~

~

~

1.川流不息 (continuously non-stop like river)

2.一柱擎天 (one column supports the sky)

3.地大物博 (full of natural resources)

4.長春不老 (forever young)

5.不勞而獲 (gain without working for it)

6.盛極一時 (extremely trendy)

一.中流砥柱 (a column that withstands strong river flow )

二.一技之長 (having a skill)

三.春秋鼎盛 (mature age)

四.天荒地老 (the end of time)

五.不時之需 (needs from time to time)


The Taiwanese accent: are pairs "种，总", "四，是", "忘，万" pronounced EXACTLY the same?

The key to this question is which accent of Taiwan you're talking about. There is a large difference between Standard Taiwan Mandarin (標準台灣國語) and the various accents commonly found across Taiwan.
There certainly are accents where there is absolutely no distinction between ㄕ (sh) vs ㄙ (s), ㄓ (zh) vs ㄗ (z), ㄔ (ch) vs ㄘ (c), ㄖ (r) vs ㄌ (l). The latter of each pair is the only phonetic realisation, and because of the loss of the distinction, indeed one must rely on context. This is actually the most widespread geographically across Taiwan, and is characteristic of casual speech in less urbanised areas, as reported by this 2019 study. See this interview from the early 2010s, as well as this TEDx talk from 2019.
There are also accents where there is no distinction, but the resultant merger lies between the two versions. Sometimes it is a consistent postalveolar [ʃ] / [tʃ] / [tʃʰ] (although ㄖ (r) remains merged into ㄌ (l), in these accents). But more often not than not, it varies between completely alveolar [s] and completely postalveolar [ʃ] or alveolo-palatal [ɕ], with rounded vowels and front vowels leading to more palatalisation (e.g. one 2012 study compared sa, sha, su, shu across Beijing and Taiwan listeners). This last realisation generally does not lead to merger with the "true" palatal series (Pinyin x-, j- y-) because the vowels that follow are different.
Then you have the accents where the distinction is maintained, even if it is "softened" to an postalveolar vs alveolar distinction. This is the one that is most associated with formal media, e.g. news reports, and is the one that is standardised by the Ministry of Education of the Republic. Thus, as Zhuyin Fuhao was designed for this standard, there is no variation in the Zhuyin, although it can be used to describe variation. See this commentary of some Taiwan-based celebrities, selected for the 標準ness of their Mandarin.
Finally, there are those with inconsistent or non-standard distributions of the alveolar vs postalveolar distinction. This is characteristic of the Taipei-centric urban Taiwanese accent, and is perhaps the most confusing for learners of Mandarin. See this TEDx talk for an example (compare 事情 and 世界 across the talk).
The loss or reduction of the retroflex vs alveolar distinction is widespread and indeed strongly associated with the whole of Taiwan, as well as being common in most of the southern provinces of China as well as Singapore and Malaysia. However, the merger of final -n vs -ng (usually into a general nasalisation of the vowel) is more strongly stigmatised. There are further aspects to accents that are considered even less standard, e.g. the fronting of the ㄭ central+null vowel, phonemically /ɨ/, realised as [u~ɯ~y], and non-standard aspiration.
As a summary, please see this short debate, where:

The news anchor and the reporter speak in a standard Taiwan accent that distinguishes postalveolar sh- from alveolar s-; it retains many features that are characteristic of standard Taiwan Mandarin.
The first man is of a Taiwanese Hokkien-speaking background, and has a typical ㄉㄞˇ ㄨㄢ ㄍㄛˊ ㄧˇ  (Dǎiwān góyǐ) accent. This includes the lack of -n and -ng distinction, limited use of ü /y/ (being replaced by i /i/) and the Pinyin "central i" /ɨ/ being fronted. He also mixes plenty of actual Taiwanese Hokkien into what he says.
The second man is of a 外省人 (post-1949 "mainlander") family background and speaks with a fairly general pre-2000 Taiwanese accent. There is no retroflex distinction, but there is the -n vs -ng distinction. On the other hand, his Taiwanese Hokkien makes a tonal error which causes ripples of suppressed laughter.


What's the difference between Classical Chinese and Modern Chinese?

The following is an excerpt from wikipedia, Classical Chinese Grammar:

  Grammar

  Further information: Classical Chinese lexicon

  Classical Chinese is distinguished from written vernacular Chinese in
  its style, which appears extremely concise and compact to modern
  Chinese speakers, and to some extent in the use of different lexical
  items (vocabulary).[citation needed] An essay in Classical Chinese,
  for example, might use half as many Chinese characters as in
  vernacular Chinese to relate the same content.

  In terms of conciseness and compactness, Classical Chinese rarely uses
  words composed of two Chinese characters; nearly all words are of one
  syllable only. This stands directly in contrast with modern Chinese
  dialects, in which two-syllable words are extremely common. This
  phenomenon exists, in part, because polysyllabic words evolved in
  Chinese to disambiguate homophones that result from sound changes.
  Similarly, Chinese has acquired many polysyllabic words in order to
  disambiguate monosyllabic words that sounded different in earlier
  forms of Chinese but identical in one region or another during later
  periods. Because Classical Chinese is based on the literary examples
  of ancient Chinese literature, it has almost none of the two-syllable
  words present in modern Chinese languages.

  Pronouns

  Classical Chinese has more pronouns compared to the modern vernacular.
  In particular, whereas Mandarin has one general character to refer to
  the first-person pronoun ("I"/"me"), Literary Chinese has several,
  many of which are used as part of honorific language (see Chinese
  honorifics), and several of which have different grammatical uses
  (first-person collective, first-person possessive, etc.).[citation
  needed]

  Syntax

  In syntax, Classical Chinese is always ready to drop subjects, verbs,
  objects, etc. when their meaning is understood (pragmatically
  inferable). Also, words are not restrictively categorized into parts
  of speech: nouns used as verbs, adjectives used as nouns, and so on.
  There is no copula in Classical Chinese, "是" (pinyin: shì) is a copula
  in modern Chinese but in old Chinese it was originally a near
  demonstrative ("this"); the modern Chinese for "this" is "這" (pinyin:
  zhè).

  Word order

  The Classical Chinese word order is often the reverse of Mandarin; for
  example, Mandarin 饒恕 (pinyin: ráoshù, "forgive") is Classical 恕饒
  (Classical Chinese: ŋjew hnjas).1 [2]


拜拜 is not casualness and/or childishness,it is a more friendly way to express goodbye ,and majority use between people who have good relation,or see somebody for the first time and build a friendship each other.
So does it in Taiwan I think:)


Change- and unchange-of-state 了: During which time in a person's life is it correct for them to say 我三岁了 (I am 3 years old)?

Correct for "change".

Usually say 我三岁了 on the birthday of three. That's the day of change.
When four years old, remove 了 as past not change.
On the birthday of four, we usually say 我三岁，明天我四岁了, as there is no change for the first part.
Any other cases for "change" during the year of 3? Yes. When someone asks the little cute toddler that "r u 2 years old", the cute will reply nooooo, 我三岁了 proudly, to indicate the "change".


What is the etymology of the word nǚ (woman) and is it related to Proto-Uralic *niŋä (woman)?

It is at best a coincidence. nǚ and niŋä are not even that close. There is only one common phoneme between the two words. If you count this as close, there will be thousands of words that are as close.
Also, today's pronunciations can't be used to compare, because pronunciations change over time. You can read the basics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Chinese and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Tibetan_languages. Basically most scholars agree that Chinese is related with languages like Tibetan and Burmese. There are also a very few scholars who support hypotheses like the "Sino-Caucasian" hypothesis, but these are viewed as doubtful and not widely accepted.


well, the emperor 乾隆 was a collector, he used four characters "神", "妙", "能" & "逸" to categorise artworks (calligraphy, or painting).

and then, he used his seal to chop on the artwork :(


What's a good word for "creepy" in Chinese?

In your context, you may want to say the move 令人不舒服 or 令人不自在 (makes people feel uncomfortable).


1) 一心向学, means single-mindedly study. Here, 向 means 'towards', or 'head for', or 'point to'. 学 is a noun here, means 'study'. The phrase is a Chinese Idiom (成语), and the usage is kind of classic Chinese (文言), a little different and simplified from the modern usage.

2) 向有礼貌的人学习礼仪. 向 somebody 学习 something, means learn something from somebody. 向 means 'towards' here too. The meaning is like, turn to somebody, and you learn something (from him).

Sorry for my poor English and I wish I made that clear.