What's the difference between classifiers and measure words?

Yes, there is a slight difference (although it appears there's no complete consensus on this).
A classifier, in linguistics (not just in Mandarin), is a word or morpheme used to express that a countable noun belongs to a semantic class. Here "semantic class" means a category of referents with some common traits; if we think about how classifiers work in Chinese, this is easy to understand.
For example, the classifier 条 is used for long, narrow and flexible objects. So when we say:

一条鱼

we are implying that the fish belongs to a class of things that, more or less, share the same properties: long, narrow and flexible. That is the semantic class, and that's why the classifier is called classifier.
Therefore, by using a different classifier, we offer a different classification of that object. When we say:

一群鱼

we are conveying that fish belongs to the category, or class, of things that go in "groups" (in "schools" actually!!!).
Now, English does have measure words: these are mostly nouns with their own meaning that work as units of measurement for mass nouns, which are not countable. They come in the form a something of <noun>. Let's consider the word water. In English we can't count it ("one water", "two waters"). So when we need to quantify a certain amount of water, we have to use a word that describes a precise unit of measurement, for example:

a drop of water
a liter of water
an ocean of water

This definition of measure words works in Chinese too. The difference being that in Chinese there are classifiers proper and measure words. So what's actually the difference?

Classifiers are not standalone words, they don't have meaning on their own; and as in English, they still can't accompany mass nouns (consider 两个水 vs 两升水)

Measure words are words with a precise meaning, which can also work as units of measurement; and they can accompany mass nouns.

Her and Hsieh, On the Semantic Distinction between Classifiers and
Measure Words in Chinese propose also the following definitions, based on tests to appraise whether a certain counter word is a classifier or a measure word:

Classifiers classify or categorize nouns by highlighting some salient or inherent properties of the noun and thus contribute no additional meaning.
Measure words, on the other hand, play a substantive role in denoting the quantity of the entity named by the noun.

So, saying 一条鱼 does not add new information to what we already know about a fish. A fish is inherently a long and flexible object (mostly; an inflated puffer fish maybe is not "long"). Hence, 条 is a classifier proper. Whereas saying 一箱鱼 does add new information, we are saying that the fish comes in crates, where fish, in itself, doesn't inherently come in crates. Hence, in this example 箱 is a measure word.
In conclusion, classifiers proper stress the existence of an essential feature of the counted noun, whereas measure words stress a transient, not inherent (accidental) numerical feature.


what's the difference between 羡慕 and 妒忌？

羡慕 is a good kind of envy.

"You have a happy marriage. I'm really envy at you and I hope you can be happy forever" This is 羡慕.

妒忌 is a bad kind of jealousy.

"You have a happy marriage. You don't deserve it! I should be happier than you!" This is 妒忌.


I have been learning traditional characters but my professors don't accept it. What do I do?

Young man drop everything to follow his heart.

Others drop his personal to do his responsibility.

Few do both.


The generic way to refer to the highest ruler of any country/region is「君主」, corresponding to monarch.

If we talk about an English translation, specifically avoiding how these terms are used in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, then「國王」is used to translate the English equivalent of king and「皇帝」is used to translate emperor, which are strictly gender neutral. Their specifically female equivalents are「女王」and「女皇」, respectively, for regnants (non-consorts), and「王后」and「皇后」for consorts.

Margrethe II,「丹麥女王」 (Queen Regnant of Denmark)
Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein,「德國皇后」(Empress Consort of the German Empire)
Napoléon Bonaparte,「法國皇帝」(Emperor of the French)
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud,「沙特阿拉伯國王」(King of Saudi Arabia)

  Equivalent titles for territories historically surrounding and interacting with China, like Khagan and Raja, have their own Chinese transcriptions (可汗, 羅闍).

In Chinese-language influenced regions, the situation is different, and whether a person holds the titles「王」or「皇」is more complicated.

「皇」as a monarchial title was invented by Qin Shihuang, "the First Emperor of China". The「君主」of the previous Zhou Dynasty (and earlier) held the title「王」. Note that the Zhou Dynasty themselves invented another term for highest ruler, called「天子」(son of heaven), which wasn't shared by the predecessing Shang Dynasty. The timeline for the "highest ruler of China" title is something like:

Shang Dynasty:「后」>「王」(Yes,「后」was a title originally used by Shang Kings. The meaning queen (consort) arose later.)
Zhou Dynasty:「王」,「天子」
Qin Dynasty and beyond:「皇」,「天子」
Occasionally for non-Han rulers of China, in addition to their Chinese titles:「可汗」

The context for inventing「皇」was the Qin's wars of unification, where the de-facto rulers of the smaller Warring States all declared themselves to be「王」.「皇」was thus invented to be an overlord title. From Qin unification onwards, any "leader" of "a small state" within China, or in contact with China and admitting themselves into the Sinocentric system, would likely be called a「王」(おう, 왕, vương). In Sinocentric-style vocabulary, they are granted the title of「王」by the Chinese Emperor (封王).

Liu An (劉安),「淮南王」(Prince of Huainan)
Five Kings of Wa,「倭の五王」; see also King of Na gold seal
Sejong the Great (世宗大王),「朝鮮國王」(King of Joseon)

For China,「皇」corresponds to the Chinese Emperor; for Korea, Japan, and Vietnam,「皇」corresponds to their respective「君主」as soon as they are removed from the Sinocentric system.

Naruhito (德仁),「日本天皇」(Emperor of Japan)
Sunjong (純宗　隆熙帝),「大韓帝國皇帝」(Emperor of the Korean Empire)
Lê Lợi (黎利),「大越皇帝」(Emperor of Đại Việt)
To remain within the Sinocentric system, but simultaneously call themselves「皇」, the monarchs would style themselves「王」only when they deal with China in diplomatic missions. Korean Kings were the only ones which styled themselves「王」and dealt with China as「王」; both Japanese and Vietnamese monarchs styled themselves as「皇」in their own regions.


As Becky stated 性质 = property. It is unrelated to personality

性格 = personality
个 in 个性 means individual, therefore, 个性 implies 个人性格 (individual personality)


How "Noun + Adj + Adj + 的" (reduplication of adjectives) is grammatically equivalent to "Noun + (Adv of degree) + Adj"?

How “Noun + Adj + Adj + 的” (reduplication of adjectives) is grammatically equivalent to “Noun + (Adv of degree) + Adj”?

[Noun + Adj X2 + 的] = [Noun + degree adv + adj]

Both are 'topic-comment' sentence

[Adj X2 + 的] functions the same as [degree adv + adj] in this case (a noun at the beginning but no noun at the end)


How should you start a letter in Chinese?

"尊敬的": to your boss or leader (the person who has power and you are not familiar with)

"亲爱的": to your mother or lover, etc.

"敬爱的": the person who teach you, guide you, and also care about you or love you. (tutor, teacher, mentor, etc.)


By context. Originally there were no gender specific pronouns, but 他 was used for he, she and it.

Western languages influenced Chinese in this regard, although Chinese have earlier also had a rather complex system of honorific pronouns (like 朕).

A feminist discussion in the Western world of today concerns the default usage of "he" and related prnouns (and similar in other languages), which is said to "discriminate" women. But essentially, "he" is just the neutral pronoun, just like 他, whereas "she" and 她 are later linguistic extensions to denote sex or gender.

In essence, the Chinese have managed to describe gender/sexus by context since ancient times, without resorting to auxiliary pronouns.

In practice, you could say 她那个女人, or 美丽的她 and similar construtcs to emphasize sex.


Please show me example sentences with 如、若、像、似

Tl;dr: As an individual word in modern Chinese, they behave differently (point 1). Example sentences are discussed in point 2. Point 3 discusses their use as part of compound words or idioms.

Limiting our discussion to similes (如 and 若 can also mean 'if'; this sense is not discussed below), 像 seems to be most frequently used alone in modern Chinese (spoken and written). 如 and 似 come in second, and may appear independently in more literary contexts. 若, given its classical nature, seems to only work when as part of idioms but never alone.

Consider the following:

a. 他像一個小孩。 He is like a child.
b. 記憶像鐵軌一樣長。 Memories are as endless as the railway tracks.

It is permissible to replace 像 in the above examples with 如 or 似, but not 若. 如 or 似, however, give a more literary (somewhat old-fashioned) nuance, and must be used with caution.
Sentence a. is 'simple', where the simile forms the predicate itself (italicised). But in sentence b., the core part of the predicate (italicised) is something else (i.e. 長, long).
In that case, you may consider adding a preceding adjective/adverb (定語) before the predicate besides 像/如/似. Usual choices include 一樣, (一)般, 似的 (adjective; precedes noun only, so this is the only option that does not apply in sentence b.), and 似地 (adverb; precedes verb or adjective). Coupling like these is also possible in the simple case (e.g. sentence a.), albeit somewhat redundant.

像, 如, 似, and 若 (especially the latter three) can appear in modern Chinese as part of compound words and/or idioms.

Compounds
Idioms

像
好像
三分像人，七分像鬼

如
如同、就如、彷如、有如
如泣如訴

似
似是
驕陽似火、似水流年

若

若隱若現

Note how the idioms usually are similes themselves. They have respectable etymologies and words within should not be easily replaced. E.g., it is wrong to say *驕陽像火.


Yes, you interpretation is correct. 东 here means 从东方，突 means 突破，therefore 东突之敌 means 从东边突破（包围圈）的敌人。


Can you help translate the scroll seal (Characters identified: 神龍圖 嘯天)

神龍圖 must be the title of the scroll which means 'paint of the sacred dragon'.
And 嘯天 must be the signature of the artist for the red stamp is also 嘯天, which is simply the name of the artist. Translating it by the word, it could be 'roar towards the sky'.


Does this placement of 已經 alter the meaning?

I think the rule is not correct. It should be fine to say

  我沒來上課三天了。

Comparing to 我三天沒來上課了。, the meaning is same but the former puts more emphasis on the duration, i.e. 三天.

Then about the last 2 sentences, 已经 doesn't change the meaning; it's used for emphasizing the duration further.


I am happy for you (on your behalf): difference between 為你開心 and 當妳開心？

In Cantonese, 戥你開心 is the most common way to say "happy for you" (not 當)

戥 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/8501/
(1). for (a person) | [華] 替, 為

As this entry stated, the counterpart in Mandarin is 替 or 為, as in 替你開心, 為你開心. All mean "happy for you"
Side note:
戥's meaning as a verb is 'to counter balance'.
Two unbalanced load of goods at two side of a 擔挑 is hard to carry . So you have to "戥均" (to make balance by counter balance  one side )
That's how '戥' acquired the meaning of "for (a person)"

A counter balance is something 'for' something else.

戥 someone happy is happy 'for' someone else

替 (in your stead)-->替你開心 (Happy in your stead= happy for you)
為 (because of) --> 為你開心 (happy because of you are in certain situation, e.g. 'graduating')


爸爸去哪儿? sounds more like 爸爸(我们)(要)去哪儿? or 爸爸(你)(要)去哪儿?, while 爸爸去哪儿了 sounds like 'where has dad gone'.


I am a native Chinese speaker.  This sentence is not ambiguous to me at all.  Here the "怎么" clearly means "how" to me.

But if you switch "要" and "怎么"，then the sentence will be like:

我们怎么要去机场？

Here "怎么" means "why".  This sentence sounds to me like that you have a guest coming by train but your boss asks you to go to the airport to pick him up.

Hope this helps.


那就一样来一个吧 is a shortened sentence. In day to day speech, it is a common practice to omit some elements that are presumed to be understood or strongly implied.
You can understand the sentence as "那就(每)一样(种类)(都給我)(各)来一个吧 " --> "Then bring me one each from each kind"

"每一样" (each kind ) refers to 辣子鸡丁 and 糖醋鱼 which are the two kinds of dishes mentioned in the previous sentence, therefore, no need to repeat them in the next sentence. If three kinds of dishes were mentioned, then 每一样 (each kind) would refer to all three

"給我来一个XX" = "bring me a XX"

A detailed sentence would be: "那就給我辣子鸡丁和糖醋鱼各一个吧" (Then give me spicy chicken and sweet and sour fish one dish each)
Similarly:
"那就每样給我来两个吧" would mean "Then give me spicy chicken and sweet and sour fish two dishes each"
Note: Shorten 那就(每一样)来一个吧  to 那就(每样)来一个吧 is more clear than 那就(一样)来一个吧 because '一样' might be interpreted as "the same"
The above answer is based on Standaed Written Chinese (SWC)


Does describing a woman as 帅 (shuài; handsome) imply she is mannish?

帅 can also mean cool.

Even when referring to men it doesn’t necessarily equate 100% to handsome because it could also mean cool as well based on the context.

Phrases like: 太帅了 also mean cool not handsome.

Most likely when used with a woman it just means she’s pretty cool.

If people were going to be mean and say a girl looked like a man they’d probably say something like 男人婆.


Does 你家孩子真多 follow the topic-comment pattern?

It’s a topic-comment structure, but exactly what the topic is is open to interpretation.

It might be “你家”.  In that case a rough English version would be:

  Your home – how many children there are here!

Or it could be “你家孩子” meaning:

  The children in your home – there are so many of them!

Which one to choose depends on context.  If you heard this spoken, there might be intonational clues, e.g. a pause after the topic.


What does this writing mean on this jacket?

They are the words 無政府. 無 means "without" or "absent of", while 政府 means "government". So literally, 無政府 means "without government". Note that this does not necessarily carry as strong of a connotation as "anarchy", although that is indeed often translated as 無政府狀態 (literally: "state of no government").


Is this a proverb: "Food comes first for the people"?

Here's the prargraph from the book:

“Food comes first for the people,” says an ancient Chinese proverb, and foodie culture has blossomed in China as hedonism has grown less stigmatized. The average Chinese citizen spent more money on food in 2015 than at any time in the past, and food TV shows such as A Bite of China have soaring ratings. Nearly two-thirds of Chinese mobile-phone users consistently photograph their food before eating, then share these photos through food-oriented apps and social media; fluency in food culture is deemed a mark of sophistication. The China Cuisine Association has asked UNESCO to place the country’s cuisine on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Demand for premium and organic foods keeps increasing. Recent research has found that people who eat spicy food all the time live substantially longer; though the exact causality is unclear, the study has been warmly received. Torrents of fabulous new restaurants have opened for wealthy Chinese and Westerners; in Shanghai alone, five recently made the list of Asia’s Best Restaurants.

Obviously referring to this real proverb:
民以食为天
It is a very well-known, common proverb or idiom; verbatim search on Google, alone, gives:

1,120,000 results

and Baidu gives:

12,000,000 results

ABC defines it as:

The masses regard food as their prime want.

and CC-CEDICT defines it as:

Food is the God of the people. (idiom); People view food as the primary need.
Food first, ethical niceties second

There's a whole question about it over here:
What does 民以食为天 mean?
@Huang's answer is also a good source for more information:
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/630/4136

ABC Proverbs also has the following:
国以民为本；民以食为天。

Lit  A country depends on [its] people as [its] base, [just as] the people depend on food [to survive].

Other examples of this usage:
english4tw's artle:  Hsinchu City God Temple, where food comes first for the people/新竹城隍廟:民以食為天

There is a saying in the Chinese-speaking community, "Food comes first for the people";
華人社會常說，民以食為天;

labbrand's article China’s Digital Powered Foodie Revolution

Through the best of times and the worst of times, food is always on the mind of Chinese people. As a famous Chinese proverb goes, “Food comes first for the people” (民以食为天). Today, Chinese people’s relationship to food and food products is changing. Every week new trends and behaviors emerge that present new challenges but also new opportunities for brands in the F&B industry. In this article, we look at how digital channels have changed the way modern Chinese consumers purchase and use food products along with how food has become one of the most important elements of contemporary Chinese pop culture.


Why “相同意思的词” is called “同义词” instead of “同意词”？

同义词 = 相同 定义(definition) 的词

aka words with same definition.

As for why 同意词 isn't used, I cannot find any authoritative source, however I believe it's mainly to avoid conflict with the word 同意 (v. agree, n. agreement).


偏: (6) [adv] wilfully; deliberately; persistently
不信 = don't believe
邪: (2) disaster; misfortune (caused by evil spirits)

我偏不信邪
I, despite everything, do not believe there are supernatural coincidences
I insist, I do not believe there are supernatural coincidences

For example: You lost seven coin tosses in a row by choosing head, and for the eighth time, you still insist on choosing head, because having tail win eight times in a row is not scientific, the only way it could happen is there's some evil spirits power at work. And you don't believe there are evil spirits.
Well, if I lost seven coin tosses in a row, the most logical explanation I can think of is -- the other guy is cheating.


How to say "Don't count on me" in Cantonese?

In your situation, the most colloquial and natural expression that I can think of is "我嚟得就嚟” （If I can come, I will.) The speaker is not committing, nor is s/he ruling out coming.

Another expression closer to "don't count on me/ don't rely on me (to do something, not necessarily joining the speaker for lunch)" is "唔好旨意嗮我。”


Chinese words with non-Chinese letters / characters?

There are lots of them, here's what I can recall:

T恤衫，T-shirt

X光片，X ray image

卡拉OK，karaoke

K线图，Candlestick chart

A型血，Blood Type A

P图(v.)，Photoshop an image

维生素C，Vitamin C

O型腿，Blount's diseas

TCP协议，Transmission Control Protocol

RSS源，RSS feed

UI设计，User Interface design

All of the words are widely used, most of them combine the English letter and Chinese so the word is easier to understand. Basically everyone knows the 26 English letters, so only the words are translated to keep things simple.


https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-course-learn-mandarin-grade-1-set-3-vol-2-p-20401/
对外汉语本科系列教材
一年級教材
汉语教程
第三冊
下
Chinese Course - Learn Mandarin Grade 1 Set 3 Vol 2)

第九十一课 Lesson 91
一、课文: 妻子的秘密


Is there a difference between 杀头 and 砍头？

砍头 is concrete. It invokes the image of hacking with an axe or sword. When it is done with a piano wire, this word is definitely not a good choice.

砍，读kǎn，用刀斧等猛剁，用力劈：～柴。～伐。 chop；chop at；hack；hew；shear. Like chopping wood with an axe.

source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/264052.htm?fr=aladdin

杀头 is generic and abstract. It does not invoke particular image.

杀, 使失去生命. To cause living thing to lose life.

Source: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/282596/9727885.htm


Backwards translation: “It was you who taught me that peaceful protests are futile.”?

It was you who - 是妳
taught me - 教我
peaceful protests - 和平示威
are futile - 是沒用的
Here is the Chinese version of that article

"It was you who taught me that peaceful protests are futile"
"是妳教(識)我和平示威是沒用(的)"

I cannot presume it wasn't originally in English because Hong Kong is an international city, a lot of protest slogans are written in English for foreign news media's view.
It is an open secret among Chinese that arguing with the CCP government is useless. The protesters have better chance at pulling support from the international community, and the international community would in turn apply pressure to the CCP.


What exactly is an ancient Tang dynasty 壺?

doesn’t a google images search of “故宮” + “館藏” + “唐代” + “壺“ suit your need?

it would be something like these:

ok, these three are “執壺” (a 壺 with handle & spout)

update:

the photo provided in the update, is an “imitation” (仿), made in 20th century. imo, it’s “un-han-chinese”, and is more suitable to be classified as “container” (罐).

  want to know the full range of what a 壺 encompasses in the Tang era

well. “壺” is a category name, like “cat”, “cake”.

so, listing all cat breeds, or all different types of cakes, is an enormous task.

have fun :)


但是, 可是 and 不过 - how to know which one to use?

Check out this page: 3 ways to say 'but' in Chinese - difference between 不过 bù guò - 可是 kě shì - 但是 dàn shì.

That page says that:

不过 is softer.
可是 is usually associated with something unfortunate.
但是 is more formal and stronger.


What is Alex and John Dent-Young's translation of this passage of the Water Margin?

You Could find the book preview here The Broken Seals - Part One of The Marshes of Mount Liang

I am sure the passage you want is there. But it is hard for me find the exact page for you since I am a Chinese.


I don't think you should omit it. It's something like Big Consumption Team/Division in the research department. It denotes the Team "I" work in, whereas 消费类行业 denotes the target industries "I" work on/am in charge of.

Thus, the sentence should be,

  I am in charge of 6 consumer industries of the Big Consumption Team in the research department of this company.


What traditions do people follow when naming a second child in Chinese?

First I'll state that you can use whatever Chinese names you want; unlike western names which often have standard names from the bible for example, theoretically you can use any combination of the thousands of Chinese characters to form a name.

This means that there are so many choices that it's hard to decide on the name, so most parents use some convention or system to help them pick names. Nowadays the traditional naming systems have long fallen out of favour, so there's nothing stopping you from using any convention, system, or no system for the names.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_given_name

Same character for siblings

A common convention, as you noted, is using the same character in the same position for two-character names. The repeated character is usually in the first position.

Splitting words

Another common convention is to name siblings by splitting a word or idiom. An example would be naming the first child 健 and the second child 康. You could combine this convention with the same character convention.

Generation names

A tradition that has largely fallen out of practice since Republic times is the use of generation names - every sibling in the same generation would contain a certain character, and the characters would often form a generational poem. For example, Mao Zedong's family had the following poem, and he was the 14th generation: "立显荣朝士，文方运际祥。祖恩贻泽远，世代永承昌". Note that Mao Zedong himself broke with this system in naming his children.

Birth order in courtesy names

Another tradition that has also become archaic together with courtesy names is the use of special characters to denote birth order within the same generation. These are bó (伯) for the first, zhòng (仲) for the second, shū (叔) for the third, and jì (季) typically for the youngest. For example, Confucius's courtesy name was Zhòngní (仲尼), meaning he was the second son.

I believe that the generation names and birth order names are the only proper naming systems, which influenced the conventions used today. For example, the use of generation names would give the appearance of using the same character for all siblings, but the repeated character is not arbitrary. These naming conventions are also used with daughters, when traditionally these systems were only used for sons. In other words, these conventions are not followed strictly at all, so you can use any convention or system you like. Unless you're superstitious that is, in which case you could try a literomancer.


What grammatical elements are contained in the sentence 你不听不就得了?

The components are:

你不听: "you don't listen", of course.
不就 ... (吗): colloquial element, "isn't just that...?", "nothing other than..."
(analyzed into 就 + rhetorical question)
得了: colloquial element, "fine with it", "enough"

Put all together:

  你不听不就得了(吗)
  lit. You don't listen to him, then isn't it just fine?
  "Why don't you just ignore him!" or "Is there any problem with ignoring him?"


What is the significance of 女娲补天 beyond its literal meaning "Nüwa mends the sky"?

Beside the literal meaning, 女媧補天 can be cited as an example of "ultimate benevolence and heroic feat"
Currently, no human feat can be compared to 女媧補天, which is second only to 盤古開天 (creation of heaven and earth) and greater than even 大禹治水
The following would be a fitting comparison if it happened:

古有女媧補天，今有 (insert someone's name) 阻止全球暖化
In ancient time, Goddess Nüwa mended the sky ; In the present, we have (insert someone's name) stops the global warming


What situations would one use 祖父 as opposed to 爷爷?

In the context of standard Mandarin, the main difference is that the former one listed in all your three groups are used in more formal situations while the latter ones are more colloquial.

Besides those you have mentioned, in colloquial Mandarin it is also common to use monosyllable words when talking with family members or referring to family members. Such as 爸，我回来了。and 我爸去年刚退休。Monosyllable words like 父 and 母, on the other hand, are usually used to form compound words like 父母, 生母, 养母.

There are other words that refer to family members that sounds old-fashioned and are used as the honorifics. For example, 令尊 is "your father" and 令堂 are "your father" and "your mother" with honorific tones, respectively. It is not suggested to use these unless you are sure that it is the appropriate situation to use them.


What does 一样 mean in "适度的睡眠时间与合理饮食，积极运动一样"?

适度的睡眠时间与合理饮食、积极运动一样

适度的睡眠时间 is the same as '合理饮食 and 积极运动'


Chinese characters for "bu da jie" meaning unrelated

不搭界 (bùdājiè in Mandarin) is a common informal expression in Wu dialects (which include Shanghainese and the Suzhou dialect). Its literal meaning, as indicated in the comments, refers to 'not having a common boundary'. In current usage, it refers to two matters, objects or people having no shared connection or relationship.

An example, of two people quarrelling:

  A: 阿拉从此浑身不搭界！
  B: 随便侬！

  A: We don't have anything to do with each other from now on! (lit: We from now on are unrelated all over the body)
  B: Whatever! (Lit: “Do as you wish”)


多功能成语词典 explains:

解释 速:邀请｡指未经邀请而突然自己来的客人｡

and also gives the note:

提示 “速"不要解释成“速度"或“迅速"｡

A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese also notes that 速 has the meanings

2 lead to, induce to; beckon toward; invite.

汉语大词典 also notes this meaning, with many examples

5 召, 请。
《诗·小雅·伐木》
既有肥羜, 以速諸父。
郑玄 笺
速, 召也。
《文选·张衡〈思玄赋〉》
速燭龍令執炬兮, 過 鍾山 而中休。
旧注
速, 徵也。
清 顾禄 《清嘉录·冬至大如年》
是夜, 人家更速燕飲, 謂之節酒。
杨树达 《〈凌虚岛〉小说序》
近者得君札, 速余序君書。

It’s not that 速 came to mean invite - but rather that it meant this as early as I Ching, which came out roughly 1100 BC - over three thousand years ago:

《周易·需》:“有不速之客三人来｡"


How to learn pronunciation effectively with help of books?

I would consider it practically impossible to learn how to pronounce words correctly in Chinese without audio.  There's many obstacles:

The initial x of 需 (xū) doesn't seem to have an equivalent sound in English.  (Have you heard news reporters try to pronounce 习近平 (Xí Jìnpíng)?)
The final u in 出 (chū) and 去 (qù) are pronounced differently (compare their bopomofo), despite being represented by the same letter.
The difference between e.g. 上 (shàng) and 向 (xiàng) is very subtle, likewise for nasal vs. non-nasal finals, e.g. 京 (jīng) vs. 津 (jīn).
There's also tone sandhi, where the tone changes in words，e.g. your example 你好 may be written as two third tones (nǐ hǎo) but this changes to one second tone and one third tone (ní hǎo) when its pronounced.

It may be possible to benefit from knowledge of bopomofo.  However, it's like trying to fight with one arm tied behind your back.  It's vastly easier to simply listen to the sound on some video (or the book's accompanying CD); there's zillions of them available free online.


[About + adjective phrase]= [有关 + adjective phrase + 的] or [关于 + adjective phrase + 的]

'My teacher taught us (knowledge) about Chinese'
我老师教我们有关中文的 (知识)
'Chinese'(中文) is a part of the adjective phrase '中文的'
The object '知识'(knowledge) can be omitted in English, but cannot be omitted in Chinese.
有关 can also be omitted: 我老师教我们中文的 (知识)

~

‘My friend was telling me (things) about Chinese'
我朋友告诉我有关中国人的(事情)
'Chinese'(中国人) is a part of the adjective phrase '中国人的'
The object '事情'(things) can be omitted in English, but cannot be omitted in Chinese.
有关 can be omitted: 我朋友告诉我中国人的(事情)

~

'You're not intelligent enough to talk about complex Chinese grammar'
你还没聪明到能够谈论有关复杂的中文语法的(程度)
'复杂的中文语法' (complex Chinese grammar) is a part of the adjective phrase '复杂的中文语法的'
The object '程度'(level) can be omitted in English, but cannot be omitted in Chinese.
有关 can be omitted :你还没聪明到能够谈论复杂的中文语法的(程度)

~

'The novel is (a novel) about dragons'
'这小说是关于龙的(小说)'
'龙'(dragons) is a part of the adjective phrase '龙的'
Since the object 'novel'(小说) is the same as the subject, it can be omitted in both English and Chinese.
有关 can not be  omitted here -- because 龙 is a noun that can be either part of the adjective phrase or the subject. '这小说是龙的(小说)' could mean 'it is a novel about dragons' or 'dragons own this novel'


The typo aside, there are a few grammatical issues with your sentence.

(Mis)use of the 尽管...可是... construction. This conjunctional
construction, like in English (even though/notwithstanding),
indicates a condition/status, preceded by 尽管 and a second condition
that indicates a contrast to the first, usually indicated by
adverbs like 却, 但还是, 也要, and very rarely, 可是. In your example, the
second condition seems to be a complementary/favourable condition to
the first or simply a statement, rather than a contrast.
The phrase 我一巧也开始喜欢它 makes no sense at all. My guess is that you
are simply trying to tell people that '一巧' (whoever that is) also
started to love the album. 开始喜欢 is grammatically sound in Mandarin
(assuming this is the flavour of Chinese you are learning), but it
does sound a little awkward to my ears. A better way to express this
would be 渐渐地喜欢上. I am not certain what you are trying to describe with 我一巧, but if you insist on using this structure, then might I suggest 我的一巧. 我的一巧 (my 一巧) is used to indicate a very intimate relationship between you and 一巧, to the extent of a romantic relationship. I can only assume that 一巧 is male, because you used the pronoun (他) in the second sentence (even though it sounds more female than male).
Lastly, this should really be split into two sentences

Here is my attempt at reconstructing the sentence and my take on its meaning:

  我很喜欢这张唱片，就连我的一巧也渐渐地在喜欢上它。 想到以后可以跟一巧一起听音乐，我决定把这张唱片给他。

  I really love this album; even my yiqiao is beginning to like it. Realizing that I can listen to music together with yiqiao from now on, I decide to give this album to him.


What is the original Chinese text to "liquid jade"?

It should be '玉液'. But it often used together with another word '琼浆'.

琼浆玉液 is often used to describe extremely delicious things to drink, like wine or tea...


即 = assume

使 =  make it

即使 = assumedly make it (literal meaning)

[即使 ... 也] =  [assumedly make it .... still ]

Apply the logic in the following sentence:

有錢不賣 = have money, not sell

有錢(也)不賣 = have money  (still) not sell -- 也 is implied

(即使)有錢也不賣 - (assumedly make it that) you have money, I still won't sell --  即使 is implied

即使有錢也不賣 = even you have money. I still won't sell it to you

"即使" literally means "assumedly make it".  The practical meaning of 即使 (even), is extended from the [即使... 也] structure

Similarly:
就算 = just count as (literal meaning) --> 就算有錢也不賣 (just count it as you have money, I still won't sell it to you) = (even you have money, I still won't sell it to you)
縱使 = allow to make it (literal meaning) --> 縱使有錢也不賣 (allow to make it  that you have money, I still won't sell it to you) = (even you have money, I still won't sell it to you)


Critique request: three 筹备 sentences: 有的人的筹备很不合理 and 北京花了很长时间做筹备工作 and 不需要筹备任何配料

All of your sentences sound weird.

Barring other grammatical errors, 筹备 is used to describe “collate resources to prepare for an event”.

  日本政府已经花了好几年的时间来筹备今年的东京奥运会。

The Japanese Government has spent a few years preparing for the Tokyo Olympics this year.

Your first and third sentences don’t sound right because they don’t refer to an “event” per se, and you should state clearly that the Beijing government was preparing for the New Year celebrations in the second sentence.


This idiom comes from the famous book of 《论语》, a book recording the Confucius and his disciples' words. Here is the source:

《论语·卫灵公》：“子曰：‘当仁，不让于师’。”

Explanations:

卫灵公 is the name of a chapter of that book.
In that chapter, you can read this sentence(the 36th) "子曰：‘当仁，不让于师’。“ The Confucius said:" when [you are] facing 仁(see note), you should not be modest to decline to do it,even if your teacher is next to you.(Don't leave it to the teacher. Just do it yourself!)."

note: 仁 is the core values in Confucius's thoughts. Here I suggest you simply understand as "justice, morality,universal love", since it's hard to explain, especially in a short paragraph.
Today, we use this idiom to say:

when facing something that deserves you doing or undertaking because it conforms to our good values or will benefit someone else, don't be shy to say no.Just do it!

Example dialogue based on some a real dialogue :D :

Ciaocibai: Huang,我在Meta上提名你来做管理员了。Huang, I nominated you as moderator on Meta.
Huang: 谢谢你的好意，不过我担心我做不好，因为我还不熟悉StackExchange的制度和管理员工具。Thanks for your kindness, but I am afraid that I can't be a good moderator,because I am not familiar with the discipline of StackExchange and the moderator tools
Ciaocibai: Huang, 我觉得你应当“当仁不让”. Huang, I think you should not be too shy to be a moderator. Show yourself!

In your case, the owner of that webpage wants to say"the banks are good, and I am glad to list them here and share with you. ".


this kind of food seems weird.

道 is the measure word for 菜 here, so 这道菜 just means this food/dish.


Is "保守" considered derogatory in Chinese?

From the stand point of innovative and liberal thinkers, 保守思想 (conservative thinking) does carry a negative connotation of inability to adapt

For example: 思想保守的人不願譲子女與外國人通婚 (conservative thinking people do not want their children to marry foreigners) . Since most people nowadays do not mind international marriage, the ones who oppose it had became the minority.

You can say 保守思想(conservative thinking) is polite words for 陳舊思想(old thinking) or 落伍思想 (outdated thinking)

But 保守 as an adjective or adverb on it's own is neutral

For example: 保守估計 (conservative estimate); 保守作風 (conservative style); 保守(地)估計 (conservatively estimate)

  How about in a positive way?

You can replace 保守 with 穩建 (cautious) which implies "careful" and "steady" or 慬慎 (cautious)

Example: 作風穩建; 立場慬慎


Why does 减弱 (lit. "reduce weak") mean "to weaken"?

肥 in 减肥 is a noun; 弱 in 减弱 is an adjective
减肥 = 减(少)肥(胖) = reduce obesity
减弱 = 减(低)(變)弱  decrease and weaken
Example:
"颱風减弱" = "颱風(威力)减(低)(變)弱" = "Typhoon (power) decreases and weakens"
The power decreased and the typhoon became weaker


What is the function of 了 in the sentence 我最怕去西单了?

In a phrase with this construct:

  可/太/最 + [adjective/adverb/stative verb] + 了

了 serves as a modal article (rather than tense particle) to express emphasis and is optional.

Reference: http://cdmd.cnki.com.cn/Article/CDMD-10475-1012379314.htm


What is the origin of giving certain corners within houses own name?

I do not know of names for other corners of the house, but the southwestern corner is considered traditionally as the privileged site suitable for worshipping deities.

  《禮·曲禮》 爲人子者，居不主奧。

"The child does not live in the southwestern corner." In other words, one should show deference to one's parents by yielding the southwestern corner.


In what instances can use you use 干嘛 over 干吗 (and vice versa)?

Different sources seem to have to different opinions.

Most websites (for example http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/84845451.html and http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/219005473.html) say that the 吗 in 干吗 has a neutral tone and "干吗" has the same meaning as 干不干 (or 做不做）. For example: 咱们干吗？ (will we do it?)

According to these websites 干嘛 on the other hand means "干什么", asking why are are doing (with mostly a negative meaning). This 嘛 has second tone. An example: 你干嘛呢？ (what are you doing?)

If you however check dictionaries, you get a different answer.
Of course if 吗 "干吗" as a neutral tone, it still has the meaning of 干不干. But according to these the dictionaries in the other meaning it should also be written 干吗. But with this meaning he pinyin of 干吗 is gànmá, so the ma has a second tone here. The only dictionary that has 干嘛 is MDGB, but that not a reliable one (it's one made by the Internet community and it contains many errors).

For example 现代汉语词典 has

  干吗: gànmá 干什么：您干吗说这些话？ㄧ你问这件事干吗？

您干吗说这些话？ can be translated as "Why are you saying this?" and 你问这件事干吗？ as "Why are you asking this"?

现代汉语规范词典 writes

  干吗 [gànmá]
  1. 代 [口] 做什么 你早干吗了，现在才说
  2. 代 为什么 你干吗不早说？

你早干吗了，现在才说 can be translated as "What where you busy doing before that you only say it now" and "你干吗不早说？" as "Why didn't you say before".

现代汉语规范词典 also adds 不宜写作"干嘛". In other words, you can't write it as 干嘛.

This being said, especially on the Internet you more often see 干嘛 than 干吗 and I guess in the future both will be probably become accepted forms.


What are some ways I can learn Chinese characters effectively?

I'll assume that you want to learn vocabulary (written character form, pinyin pronunciation, and translated meaning).

I'll start off with a little about how I learned (just passed HSK 3 after 9 months of study from zero background). First I completed some smartphone apps (ChineseSkill, Hello Chinese, and Chinese InFlow), then I studied the review and flashcards provided with those apps. I then progressed to composing my own sentences usually using Google Translate along with Pleco dictionary. Then I started using Anki flashcards. I also made my own Excel spreadsheets for random quizzes and handwriting templates.

Here are some tips that have helped me:

1) In the initial stages go slow and try to learn a few characters and basic sentences like 我是男人。

2) Try to figure out tricks to help you remember the characters. For me 是 looks like the word "BE", so I instantly memorized it with no problems. I learned 我 by thinking of the saying "woe is me". I learned 写 by thinking it looks like the letter "E" for french "écrire" I always thought in my head "écrivez". I also invent my own little names for the characters/radicals 京 is "beijing man" because it looks like a little guy with a hat and mustache. 听 at first looked to me like a person hitting a hammer on an anvil or someone hitting a tuning fork, so it was natural for "hear/listen". 近 looked like a person trying to avoid a cat with it's tail raised (who like's seeing a cat's but, really?!?!!? ;) "too close for comfort", so it means "near". Of course, some of this is inconsistent and silly, but it was a fun way to remember things.

3) Also learning the decomposed radicals can be helpful. 要 is "western women" who are indoctrinated into materialistic culture and always "want" things. Some of this is meant to be funny, but it has worked for me. 好 is "woman and child is good" as in a woman who gives you a son is a good thing (yes, very sexist, but it is what it is and helps to remember). Sometimes I just remember the radicals like 照 is sun+knife+box+heat which I think of as taking a photo and cutting the film and developing it in a "hot" chemical solvent. I know the "box" is really mouth, but "box" is quicker for me to remember. Invent your own little mnemonics. Of course, ultimately it might be wise to learn the actual true radicals and their meanings, but initially I think anything that helps you remember is good.

4) Learn at least a few characters by handwriting with the correct stroke order. I think this is what really pushed me over the edge in terms of my understanding of the characters, what they mean, and why they are composed the way they are. I can write all 600 HSK 3 words by hand, and probably 100 other words. Make sure to get the stroke order correct!

5) Practice writing your own sentences, I use google translate and the standard android pinyin keyboard. It will help you recall the vocabulary better.

6) I have neglected tones and speaking, so I am bad at that. I can understand listening pretty well. But I am also a musician, so learning and remembering the tones is sort of easy if I try, but I have just neglected it. You would probably be advised well to concentrate on learning the tones as you go along and not do what I have done by neglecting them. I have perfect tone identification by hearing, probably due to my musical training.

7) I have also neglected grammar. However, I can quickly read HSK sentences and know what they mean just by seeing the vocabulary involved.

8) Use Pleco, Anki, or other flashcard systems.
      - show character and test your recall of the pinyin and meaning
      - show pinyin and meaning, test your writing the character
      - play sound and test your recall of pinyin, character, and meaning.
   Do at least 100 flashcards a day for a year. Don't cheat yourself,
   make sure you are honestly recalling things.

9) Practice speaking (I use Google Translate, Pleco, and ChineseSkill/HelloChinese). I speak a sentence or word into the app until it understands it. That helps to practices getting the tones correct.

10) Use MDGB for other flashcards/quizzes/dictionary. Look up character stroke/radical decompositions. You don't have to memorize these, but they are helpful with gaining an overall understanding of the language.

Once you build up a few hundred words of vocabulary it continually gets easier learning new words as they use many of the same characters, strokes, and radicals. It becomes easier to guess rough meanings and pronunciations. Grammar is more difficult as there are some many specific grammatical forms, but getting down the basics of grammar in terms of sentence/phrase order will enable you to compose sentences that a native speaker can understand even if not totally correct. Use AlleSetLearning website for awesome grammar lessons.

Sorry for such a long post, but these are some things that helped me starting from scratch. Hope you find it helpful.


以 here works like 'with', not 'cause'.

In your examples, these '以' can't be replaced with '而', but can be ommited.


零售 - Why is the character for "zero" used in the Chinese word for retail?

零 means "a part (fraction,fragment) of something" here. Some examples for this meaning:

  零钱 small change such as RMB1, 2 or 5 (depending on how much you are talking);  It also has another meaning.
  I.e,you buy something at a total price of 8.3,and you give one note of 100 to the cashier, so the cashier needs to return you 91.7. in Chinese,we also call that 91.7 零钱(here,零 refers to fragment) . Usually,the cashier may ask you"您有零钱(here,零 refers to small amount)吗？" Here,he hopes that you have notes with a small face value.In this case, it would be 10 so that he doesn't need to return you too many notes.

  零件 part (in a machine) as a "part" is a part of a component in a machine.

Why is “零售” used?

Well, 售 means "to sell". We have another word opposite to "零售"; it's “批发 (wholesale)”. "批" means "a batch", "a package", and "发" means "to distribute, to sell".

The wholesalers (批发商) will buy a lot ("a lot" refers to 批 here)of goods from the manufacturers and sell them to different retailers(零售商). The retailers sell goods to end customers and generally a customer would only buy small amount (a small fraction, this is why we use 零 here) of the goods. You won't buy 10 soaps at a time, will you?


words where it is important to distinguish between the neutral tone and the citation tone

Zhang and Yang (2007:84-89) describe several instances where pronunciations in the neutral tone and the citation tone of a word may coexist:

When contrasting polysemy (辨義). Usually, the neutral tone marks informality or figurative speech.

東西 dōng xi means 'thing; item', but dōng xī means literally the East and West (the cardinal points, or more broadly speaking, the Orient and the Occident).

買賣 mǎi mai means informally 'a transaction', but mǎi mài means 'the collective act of buying and selling'.

When contrasting 'parts of speech' (詞性, lit. the nature of the word). These words are semantically similar (or related). In general, the citation tone is regained when a noun becomes a verb, an intransitive verb becomes transitive, or when the word becomes part of a compound word (e.g., a compound noun, or an idiom). That is to say, the citation tone is needed for complex, derived instances.

差使 chāi shi as a noun means 'an errand runner', but chāi shǐ as a verb means 'to assign (sb. sth.)'.
避諱 (the verb 'to taboo') pronounced bì hui is intransitive, but transitive when pronounced bì huǐ, as in 有所避諱 (having something to apply a taboo on), 避諱名字 (to taboo a name).
利害 (the noun/adjective 'profits and losses') pronounced lì hai is a stand-alone word, but is a constituent of compound words like 利害關係 ('an interest', here the meaning inclines to 利, see 偏義複詞) when pronounced lì hài.

When contrasting formality. These words are semantically identical. The neutral tone is used frequently in colloquial settings.

聰明 (the adjective 'clever'): cōng ming (colloquial) vs cōng míng (formal).
打扮 (the noun 'manner of dressing'): dǎ ban (colloquial noun) vs dǎ bàn (formal noun; or the verb 'to dress up' by rule 2.).

As a result of dialectal differences. In mainland Chinese, some words must be pronounced in neutral tones. In Taiwanese Chinese, however, neutral tones are scarce.

Certain suffixes ～子, ～頭, ～巴 etc.
Directional complements ～上, ～下, ～去 etc.
Particles ～的, ～着, ～一～ etc.

Quasi-neutral tones are permissible in speech to contrast intonation. These words have weakened tones in the face of other stressed components in a sentence. However, they are not documented neutral tones in authoritative exhaustive lists.

家中光景很是慘淡。(hěn shì > hěn shi): in the presence of the stressed adverb 很 indicating the severe extent of poverty, 是 should be read lightly.
你就在此地，不要走動。(zài > zai): in the presence of the stressed adverb 就 indicating the immovability of the listener, 在 should be read lightly.
還說呢，快開始吧。(hái > hai, kuài > kuai): in the presence of the stressed verbs 說 and 開始, indicating the speaker's impatience, adverbs 還 and 快 should be read lightly.

Reference: Zhang Bennan & Yang Ruowei (2007). [普通話連讀音變]. Hong Kong: Commercial Press.


醡醬麵 and 炸醬麵

炸醬麵 can work as it means "noodles with fried sauce"

醡醬麵 is "noodles with extracted sauce (e.g. extracting oil)"

炸 fried (火 fire radical + phonetic 乍 zhà)
醡 extract (酉 container + 窄 narrow; from 穴 hole and 乍) Archaic character for 榨 (tool for extraction process. 木 wood used to refer to tools in this case)
醬 sauce
麵 noodles

Alternatively, 酢醬麵 is also used. The Koreans have used this but it's now written 炸醬麵. I guess the difference is 醡 is a much older usage which is now replaced with 炸 in modern times. Taiwan tends to retain older usage.


This is 文学家 is a "big" term. You call Shakespeare and Mark Twain 文学家, because not only did they create literary works or treatises, they also made deep influences in language and literature. You use 文学家 because you want to emphasize the latter part. This word is reserved to the well achieved.

By comparison, 作家 is a more common term. In fact, anyone with any literary work published could call himself a 作家.

This is why you get 2.5M hits for 文学家, versus 65M for 作家 in google.

Example of usage:

Discussing our favorite authors: 作家.
Talking about Shakespeare's literary achievements: 文学家.
Talking about one of Shakespeare's work: 作家 or 诗人.
Talking about George R. R. Martin: 作家. Sorry George, you might want to wait until you're dead.

So people do use 文学家 normally, but not in the sense that it is an ubiquitous term.


树 more often means tree in modern language, while 木 usually means wood, as in 木板 (plank) or 木材 (timber).

An olive tree is 橄榄树, while a birch is 桦木. Most trees are 树, though.


Where can I find a decent Seal Script font?

http://web.hku.hk/~jwilam/chinese/font.htm

There's two:

bnucdp.ttf
ebas927.ttf (link broken; try https://www.moedict.tw/fonts/truetype/cns11643/)

Note that 說文 records many variants, so the default one that appears when you type Chinese may not be the "orthodox variant" that you're looking for (I know from experience because I've used these fonts before). If you're good at reading seal script, you should open the font with a character map to get the unicode directly to type the variant you want.

Also, many characters that we use today may not have existed as a seal script character. They may have used another character for the same word, or the word just didn't exist back then. You can't do anything in this case except construct your own seal script character for those.

These problems I've mentioned might be the same problem you're having with your existing set of 9 fonts, and you may have these two fonts already.


Can I use 完 after any verb to indicate the completion of activities?

Yeah totally.
KEY

finish (the action of the preceding verb)

Tuttle Learners

finish, end
电影什么时候完？
Diànyǐng shénme shíhou wán?
When will the movie end?
吃完
chīwán
finish eating, eat up
我吃完饭就去开会。
Wǒ chīwán fàn jiù qù kāihuì.
I'm going to a meeting as soon as I finish my meal.
看完
kànwán
finish reading/watching
我昨天看完电视已经十二点了。
Wǒ zuótiān kànwán diànshì yǐjīng shí'èr diǎn le.
It was already twelve o'clock when I finished watching TV last night.
做完
zuòwán
finish doing
你什么时候可以做完作业？
Nǐ shénme shíhou kěyǐ zuòwán zuòyè?
When can you finish your homework?
用完
yòngwán
use up
我的钱用完了, 我要到银行去取钱。
Wǒ de qián yòngwán le, wǒ yào dào yínháng qu qǔ qián.
I've used up my money. I'll go to the bank to get some cash.

Just add it to the end of any verb.


How Should I Pronounce the Character 說 In This Lyric?

Take a look at this video. This lady tried to use the pronunciation que to rhyme with other e or e endings. It's a lyric by 柳永. The second paragraph goes like this:

多情自古伤离别，更那堪，冷落清秋节！
今宵酒醒何处？杨柳岸，晓风残月。
此去经年，应是良辰好（或“美”）景虚设。
便纵有千种风情，更与何人说！

Note that it's not exactly "古音". She just sang in Mandarin and borrowed the 说 sound from somewhere else. I don't know where she borrowed it, but it's a bit strange. The rhyme seems to be working in modern 吴语, 粤语 and some other vernaculars, but none of them uses a plosive consonant. IMO if we read in Mandarin and try to rhyme, it's probably best to read it as xue4.

Anyway, mandarin sucks when you try to read classical poems. We can use workarounds for vowels. As for the tones, there is nothing we could do..

词林正韵 is a good starter's book for rhymes in classical poems. It tells you what rhymes with what, but it doesn't tell you how they pronounce.


In an article talking about Chinese cuisine, what does 辉煌 describe in 以至辉煌至今?

辉:

(n) brightness; splendour; radiance

(v) to shine

煌:  splendid; brilliant; sparkling

辉煌 means ' to shine brilliantly'

Most of the time, 辉煌 is used as a compound, acting as an adjective for: "splendid; glorious; brilliant".

  什么事情，事物是‘辉煌的‘？这里‘辉煌’的形容词描述了什么？

'辉煌' is an adjective when it is placed before a noun. For example: 'brilliant battle record' (辉煌战绩).

  '中国饮食辉煌至今' -
  "Chinese cuisine is still shining brilliantly till today"

In this context, 辉煌 is either acting as a verb phrase: 'shine brilliantly'. In which, 辉 is acting as a verb: 'to shine';

Or the sentence just omitted the verb: 'still be' (仍是)

'中国饮食(仍是)辉煌至今' -- 'Chinese cuisine (is still) glorious till today"

look at 'splendid battle record' (辉煌战绩) again,  辉煌 is clearly an adjective because it is placed before the noun 战绩.

However, in '战绩辉煌', 辉煌 could also be treated as a verb phrase (battle record shines brilliantly) with 战绩 as the subject.

Or 辉煌 is still an adjective, with the verb omitted in the phrase:  '战绩(非常)辉煌'--  'battle record (is very) splendid'

  为‘辉煌’

If you want to say: 'for glory', 辉煌 is not the word, because it is not a noun.

'For glory' in Chinese is '为荣耀'


From "Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar" (Routledge):

一对夫妇 "a married couple"
一对枕头 "a pair of pillows"
一对耳环 "a pair of ear-rings"
一双手 "a pair of hands"
一双眼睛 "a pair of eyes"
两双鞋 "two pairs of shoes"
三双袜子 "three pairs of socks"
The difference between 对 and 双 seems to be that the former emphasizes complementarity while the latter indicates functioning together.

(Anecdotally, it's been my experience that, due to influence from Cantonese, 对 is much more common in the south even when 双 would be "correct.")


Does the chengyu 话不投机 (huà bù tóu jī) mean "uncongenial speech"?

話不投機 means you don't share similar interesting or thoughts to chat with people or people don't like what you talk about, think it is not interesting.

Regardless the sentences of example you give is true or not, I just consider the semantic since I am not psychological professional.

发现话不投机，好好聊天才是捷径 show that people have the property of 话不投机 so on the latter part of sentence it encourage people to 好好聊天.

话不投机比不相爱更可怕 shows that 话不投机 is more horror then 不相爱.

许多话不投机 shows that the couple have a lot of different belief.

话不投机半句多 shows that you feel that 半句 is enough if the chat is 话不投机(you feel 半句 is a large amount since it is undesirable).

.


Your sentence is fine. 我不知道你为什么不常回我信息. However, your English translation doesn't match with your Chinese sentence.

  I don't know why you take so long to text me back.

我不知道你为什么不常回我信息. means I don't know why you don't text me back usually.

The neat way to say "why you don't text me back usually":

你怎么总不回我信息呢？
你怎么老不回我信息呢？
你为啥经常不回我信息？
你为啥总不回我信息？

The way to say "I don't know why you take so long to text me back":

你为什么信息回得这么慢！
the one like Pedroski suggested: 我想不通为什么你回复我的信息要这么久！


Is it overly formal to say 南开大学 (Nánkāi Dàxué) "Nankai University" instead of its abbreviation 南大 to people at 南开大学?

Unlike 中华人民共和国, the name of “南开大学” does not carry that level of formalness. It is alright to use it in conversation.

And the short form of "南开大学" is usually "南开", at least that is the one I always heard. You can use "南开" to make it more casual. This is what we often use to refer to "南开大学" in conversation.

(The wikipedia page of 南开大学 has such a note:

  《南开大学章程》中明确：南开大学的简称为“南开”。在民国时期，南开大学曾简称“南大”。目前，在天津等地区南开大学仍时常被简称为“南大”。

)

And by the way, in casual talk, I would use "老师" instead of "教师"


There is no plural form for the non-human Chinese nouns. 树 can be singular or plural. 树木 is a general term for trees (any tree; all trees)
To indicate tree  in the plural form, you need to add plural counting words like 'two, few, some', or a plural pronoun like 'these, those'
一棵樹 - a tree
那棵樹 - that tree
幾棵樹 - a few trees
那些樹 - those trees
樹木 is a general term for trees. It refers to all trees in general. e.g. 樹木的歷史大概有 4.2億年 - The history of trees is about 420 million years
Similarly:
一隻野獸 - a wild animal
那隻野獸 - that animal
那些野獸 - those animals
幾隻野獸 - a few wild animals
野獸 - wild animals in general

I see trees - 我看到樹/ 我看到樹木
I see the trees - 我看到那些樹 / 我看到那些樹木
I see the big red trees - 我看到那些大紅樹
I see many trees - 我看見很多樹/ 我看見很多樹木
I see both trees - 兩棵樹我都看到了

There is no plural form for the non-human Chinese nouns, but for a human noun, you can add 們, as in 人們，醫生們，士兵們 (people, doctors, soldiers)


The examples you gave are all grammatically correct, but they are slightly different in meaning.

  Beijing zai nār/nali?

This sentence is asking where is Beijing, the person who will be answering the question will tell you the location of Beijing. If I were to answer the question, I will tell you Beijing is physically in Hebei province, in the east part of China.

  Beijing zai na guo?

This question is asking which country is Beijing in, and will be answered by justing telling you Beijing is in China.

  Beijing shi nar/nali?

This is a little different with the previous two, it is not only, or, exactly asking the physical location of Beijing, it is asking about Beijing itself. I will answer as the following, Beijing is the captical city of China, its population is 13 millon and it is in the east part of China and so on.


Splitting the character 安, we get 宀 + 女.

In oracle bone script, 宀 stands for house, and 女 means bride. The whole caracter means "bride in new house" (i.e. marriage).

In traditional Chinese culture, marrying a girl is a huge settlement in a man's life, so 安 means 安定 (settled), 安心 (relieved).

Reference is in full Chinese (so it's a bit hard for learners to read).


What are the common phrases in sports when you win the score?

Either saying 加油 or 加油加油 in a faster speed is a way to express the encouragement to oneself or the others. Also 哈（hà）, 耶（ye, Enligh word Yeah）, 呵（hè） can express the excitement when you win the score.

Actually, "chu" and "fa" are just sound and no specific Chinese characters for the meaning you want.


Why is the American TV Drama "Friends" translated into 《老友记》?

The title "Friends/ 老友記" is most likely translated by Hong Kong Cantonese

老友 means 'old friend'
記 means 'brand'

老友/ 老友記  is a colloquial Cantonese term that means "old friends" or "good friends"

老友 can also be used as an adjective for "friendly" For example, "無端端同佢咁老友?" (Be so friendly with him for no reason?)

  Using 記 to form a nickname is very common in Hong Kong Cantonese,

The nickname for "香港廉政公署" (Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption) is "廉記" (the 'incorrupt' brand)

The nickname for "有組織罪案及三合會調查科" (Organized Crime and Triad Bureau) is "O 記" ( the 'O' brand)

If a person is named  "陳家強", his common nickname could be "小強" or "老陳" in Mandarin and "強記"  or "阿陳" in Hong Kong Cantonese

"Friends" is a comedy, and the colloquial term 老友記 carries an informal (casual ; relax) tone, which fits the series very well; On the other hand, the literal term "朋友們" sounds too formal,

Interpret 老友記  as "journal of good friends' would sound too formal for a sitcom


In addition to 微, 微小, 极小/極小, you can also consider 渺小, 細小, 微型, 迷你. There are too many words/idioms for tiny, but these are the more common ones I can think of that are applicable in your context. Below is the explanation of each:

微

In the context you intend to use it in, 微 seems to be colloquial, e.g. 微翅膀, 微触角. Note that you should not say 微的翅膀 or 微的触角; it would not make much sense.

微小

This is smaller than 微 and 小, and is probably the most commonly used word for tiny.

極小

This translates to extremely small or minimal. It either implies that the object is one of the smallest among the likes or simply emphasizes/exaggerates the tiny aspect of the object.

渺小

This is tiny as well, but it can also imply the insignificance of the object. For example, 渺小的翅膀 can mean the trivial wings. Be careful with the possible connotations of this word.

細小

This is tiny and thin, which is probably a good word for antennas, i.e. 細小的触角.

微型

This literally translates to tiny form/mode/model/version. As such, it is usually used when there is at least one larger version to compare with, e.g. 微型翅膀(the tiny wings) and 巨型翅膀 (the huge wings).

迷你

This is a load word from English, as you may have realized – mini. It is almost always used in a colloquial context.


I admit that I have never used 'Integrated Chinese', so I do not know how useful it is. However, FSI Chinese is IMHO outdated. If it has not been updated in the last 10 years, I would not rely on it. I know it's public domain, free and it comes with plenty of audio material, etc. but it was made ages ago, and language & society has changed in China so much. I used a German text book back a few years ago to learn Chinese, which was originally published in the early/mid 90's and fellow Chinese students used to laugh about some of the expressions, because they are not used anymore. Occasionally you can use FSI's audio material to practice your hearing comprehension, but if you have something more up-to-date, use the latter one.

If the material in 'Integrated Chinese' is divided into fair amount of lessons, that you can cover within a few days (assuming you learn 1 or 2 hour every day), that's just fine, stick with the curriculum of the book, explore any supplementary material in the back of the book, if there is any (e.g. list of words, characters, table of radicals or pinyin syllables), to make the most out of it.

It's a good way actually to begin with the pinyin syllables and to learn what sounds the initials (b-, q-, t- etc.) and finals (-eng, -iang, ou, etc.) represent. As you write, you are already familiar with the pronunciation basics, so it shouldn't be an issue for you.

The next thing I would do is to start with a lesson in the text book and first take a look at all the items in the vocabulary list, make sure you understand them, you do not immediately need to learn them by heart, after having read the reader and done the exercises you will have no problem with them, most text books come with a number of exercises that will reinforce the lesson's core vocabulary and will also repeat the vocab of past lessons.  Occasionally, as you make progress and cover new lessons, you can brush up the vocabulary and grammar structures of earlier lessons, it is always a good idea to repeat, because the more you encounter with things, the more familiar you are with them.

Practicing speaking would require someone to have conversations with, so find someone who has the time to do this. If you don't have, you can still find a way to exercises yourself, though it's a bit boring. I used Audacity   to practice my pronunciation skills. I would load and mp3 file that came with my text book and select a few syllables of speech (you can see waves of the audio visualized in Audacity) and listen to them again and again, trying to make my pronunciation and intonation exactly like the speaker. I used to record myself and listen to it, to check how authentic (or actually bad) my Chinese sounded. It wasn't really exciting but I discovered many of the phonetic aspects of Chinese this way. In case if you have someone to chat with you in Chinese and can help you build experience, you don't need Audacity, it's just an idea for those who really have to learn on their own.

As for listening, reading and writing, actually if your text book is good enough, you don't really have to make thoughts about them, just work on the curriculum and do all the exercises. If your vocabulary is still not that comprehensive, it is hard to find audio material other than text book audio, because most of the radio plays, TV shows, movies require you to have at least intermediary level to be able to follow the dialogs. Actually learning materials commercially available are quite good and plenty these days, so if you have time and money you could invest in some other material than your text book. As soon as your vocab gets better, you could starting hunting for some real life audio, I used a course designed for Chinese people who wish to improve their Putonhua. Actually you can just search for 普通话 as a keyword and you will find plenty of audio to listen to.  Baidu's audio search is not so user-friendly and I doubt that everything uploaded here is public domain, but as long as you download it for personally use only, you don't need to make thoughts about copyright law. To this Putonghua course you will find the texts on several sites online. I need to search through my old bookmarks in order to find a link to post here.

Another interesting resource I used to practice hearing was a Taiwanese radio (教育之声） show about Chinese literature/culture, their pronunciation is a bit odd to me, but it's still OK.

I need to warn you to only start listening to these when you already have the core vocabulary, otherwise it's just a waste of time.

Writing: buy plenty of paper and good lead pencils to practice. The best paper is that has some lines on it to provide you some orientation, you can buy and print paper specially designed for exercising writing Chinese characters (boxes with diagonals or just boxes without diagonals) that Chinese school children also use to write their home assignments. If you can buy these, use them. If they are not available, use any kind of paper. Do not try to use pens, especially ball point pens, since many of those require you to push them onto the surface of the paper in order to mark the paper with ink. That's not particularly helpful for someone to who is about to learn the basic strokes (撇，横, etc.) to get these look beautifully, these will require you to have something that doesn't need to be pushed that hard, a soft graphite pencil, ideally.

If you can buy character practicing sheets (which come with characters pre-printed in light gray), buy them, they are very useful. Just make sure you know the stroke order. That's quite important. Your textbook should cover this, hopefully.


I have checked a few random news sites from HK and Taiwan, here are some examples of defining the font or font-family property:

  font-family: PMingLiu, mingliu, "細明體_HKSCS-ExtB", "Ming(for
  ISO10646)ExtB", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

  font: 18px/1.7 "Microsoft
  YaHei", "Verdana", "Arial", "PMingLiU", "sans-serif";

  font: 15px/24px Simsun;

  font-family: "宋体";

  font-family: "Microsoft YaHei","微软雅黑","黑体","宋体";

  font: 12px/1 Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,"宋体",sans-serif;

  font-family: "Microsoft yahei";

A couple of notes:

As you can see, most sites (at least news sites) rely on system fonts. The key here is that the visitors of these websites come from HK or Taiwan, etc. and the web designer can "safely" assume that the visitor will have support for at least one of the fonts (installed on their system). If not, Chinese language OS-s (whether Windows, OSX or Linux) will typically have at least one font that supports CJK glyphs, so their browser has a fallback font in case none of the listed font-family values can be mapped to a system font. On Linux, even if your system is not in Chinese, you most likely have a fallback font that support CJK characters, on my Ubuntu in Firefox it's Droid Sans Fallback that the browser uses, as my computer currently has almost no CJK fonts installed.
If you plan to design a website that uses Chinese text, you should prefer sans-serif fonts over serif fonts, as the latter ones do not look nice when the font-size is small. Most Chinese websites actually do so.
If you are planning to use English (Latin character text) and Chinese, make sure that you put the English (Latin character) font to the front of you font stack, otherwise you will end up with those fonts not displaying at all. The reason is that most Chinese fonts have support for Latin characters, but those Latin glyphs usually do not look very nice. So if you want your English text to be set in Roboto and your Chinese in PMingLiu use:

font-family: Roboto, PMingLiu;
Here is an article in English on this topic, it is worth at least skimming, to see if there is something you could use.
There are some Chinese web fonts (similar to Google Fonts), but this is still experimental and not so wide spread.
To be on the safe side, define a variety of fonts in your stack, with listing the ones you prefer before the other ones. You shouldn't be afraid of listing 6-7 different fonts, your CSS line is just a few bytes, so this will not bloat your code by modern standards. Also, you can see from the above examples that some font names are typed out in Chinese, which might trick you, if the font is saved under a pinyin name, so you can type out both the Chinese and the pinyin spelled name as separate declarations to be fully covered, e.g. font-family: ..., "黑体", "HeiTi", ...

If a font cannot be found, your browser will just move on to the next one in the stack, it's not gonna break.

UPDATE:

You should never use Windows fonts only, not everyone is on a Windows computer, infact most people now browse the internet on a smartphone or tablet, which are typically running an OS other than Windows. These devices are unlikely to have Windows fonts installed (mostly because of copyright issues). Android devices usually have Droid Sans Fallback to display Chinese characters.
You can not just assume that "OS takes care for everything". Probably you have a preference for a certain font, which makes your site look good, but that is not necessarily the font your browser will pick by default. There are many odd looking Chinese fonts that you want to avoid, so look around on a few websites, use the Developer Tools module of your browser and check what fonts are being used, how font stacks are defined.

Example: Viewing what fonts are used for a certain piece of text in Firefox (Rules tab):

... and what fonts actually display (in my case I don't have any of those fonts installed; Fonts tab):

You can also check a number of websites about what Chinese fonts are installed by default on certain operating system, e.g. OSX, Windows and Android.


What's the difference between 星期X and 周X?

You have 3 methods when talking about the seven days of the week.

星期[X]

礼拜[X]

周[X]

Here, "X" represents "一，二，三,四，五，六" for "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday". For case 1 and 2, X could be "日" or "天" for Sunday,for case 3, X should be "日" for Sunday.
What' the difference?
Well, I think the 星期 and 周 are common to see, while 礼拜 is less but still common(I think it's the personal or regional perference. Thanks for fefe's suggestion). 礼拜 originates from Christianity, and in ordinary life, each type is accepatble.
Why did I use "周三" in that example?
Because I used "本周二" in that example, then why I used "本周二"? When you want to express "this Tuesday", you could say

本周二
这个星期二
这周星期二
本周星期二

Each of them is interchangeable. You see, "本周二" is the shortest form, so I used that. When you are talking about the days for a specific week, I think 周 is more common(please note that 周 means week).


Why are the lists of Kangxi radicals different everywhere?

There are exactly (no exceptions) 214 Kangxi radicals:

Any misunderstanding to the number of these probably comes from a confusion to what radicals actually are. Remember that radicals are dictionary headers (部首), used to group characters or words in a dictionary. The Kangxi radicals are similarly used to group entries in the Kangxi dictionary, not any other dictionary (unless the maker of another dictionary consciously chooses to use the exact same radical set as the Kangxi radicals). This means that

If a smaller dictionary chooses not to list some of the more obscure characters that are found in larger/more comprehensive dictionaries, then the dictionary may well not have the full set of Kangxi radicals.
The Kangxi dictionary is a Traditional Chinese dictionary, and Simplified Chinese dictionaries will not use the same radicals as the Kangxi radicals (although their entries may be based off the Kangxi dictionary).
Radicals (Kangxi or not) are completely arbitrary. For many characters, they have very little to do with the meaning or sound of the character. It is completely valid for a new dictionary publisher to make up their own radical system to group characters.

To answer your queries directly:

  Whether there are 17-stroke characters or not

There are incredibly obscure characters which exist in larger dictionaries but are not in common use. Smaller dictionaries for common use may not include these entries - but in any case this has nothing to do with the Kangxi radicals.

  one of the lists regard "老" as a radical on its own, and another treats it as a combination of two different radicals

Two notes here:

Each character has only one radical, just like each English word has only one first letter for which it is grouped under a dictionary
If a dictionary lists「老」under another radical other than「老」itself, they are definitely not using the Kangxi radical system. Here's the page from the Kangxi dictionary itself listing「老」:

  Also, I'm sorry if this question is a bit silly, but does the Kanji in Japanese have anything to do with the Kangxi in Chinese?

No, it doesn't. Kangxi refers to the Kangxi Emperor, the one who mandated the compilation of the Kangxi dictionary. In Japanese, Kangxi is called kōseki, while kanji is the Japanese name for Hanzi/Chinese characters.


Should 屋 and 居 use radical 户 instead of 尸?

Is this discrepancy above due to a calligraphical mistake or lazyness, namely, leaving off that one tick, made a long time ago?

TL;DR: I don't think so, because (1) 尸 used as the pictographic radical with the meaning house in 屋 was explicitly mentioned in 说文解字 long before, (2) the original meanings of 尸 and 户 used as radicals are not exactly the same (house vs single door).
1. About 尸 (and 屋)
尸 used as the pictograph in 屋 was explicitly mentioned in 说文解字:

居也。从尸。尸，所主也。一曰尸，象屋形。(尸 looks like house.)
会意。从尸,从至。尸,与房屋有关,“至”表示来到。人来到这里居住之意。

This article summarized three usages of 尸 when used as radical.
(italics is translation from me)

A.从原意而来，代表人的躯体。(Derived from the original meaning, represents body of human.)
会意字有：
屍：死去的躯体，就是尸体。屍和尸古来就一直通用。
尿：躯体排出的水分。
屎：米经过躯体排出来的东西。
屄：躯干上的洞。
尾：躯干后面的毛。
等等。

形声字有：
尻，屌，屈，屑，屙，屁
属（声旁是蜀，不是禹），
届（声旁是凷，不是由），含义是到达，比如届时，无远弗届等等。
展，屠，
尼：原意为靠近，后来用昵字代替了本意。至于尼姑的尼，则是梵语比丘尼（bhikṣunī）的音译缩略。
居：原意为蹲下。后来用踞字代替了本意。
等等。

B. 从履字来的，表示各种鞋子的字。履不是人体的部位，但是是服装，所以和尸的原意仍然有关联。(Derived from 履, used to represent various kinds of shoes. 履 is not the part of body, but the clothing, it's still relevant to the original meaning of 尸.)
这类字有：
屐：木鞋
屝：泛指鞋
屜：鞋子里垫的草。
屟（屧）：鞋子的木底
屣：鞋子
屦：麻鞋
等等

C.第三类的尸本意不是躯体，而是指房屋。其形状像一面墙壁和屋顶。(The meaning of the 3rd kind of 尸 is not body, but the house. Its shape looks like a wall and the roof.)
这类字有：
屋，
层（層）：原意指楼（重屋），引申为重，重复。
屏：原意指影壁墙。

2. About 户 (and 房)
户 means single leaf door originally, note it's not exactly the same but relevant to house.

象形。甲骨文字形,象门(門)字的一半。汉字部首之一。从“户”的多与门户有关。本义:单扇门

Here's a picture from the book "字源谈趣" explaining the difference between 门 and 户, especially their ancient form (left-most one).

Now we could understand the original meaning of 房, i.e. 正室左右的住室 (wing room/side room (with single door))

上古边室皆用单扇门(即“户”),庙门大门才用双扇门,故“房”从“户”。本义:正室左右的住室

Additional information about 居
居 seems to be the different case with 屋.

象形。金文字形,是“踞”的本字,象人曲胫蹲踞形。本义:蹲着

居 is the original character of 踞, means squat. Then it was used for other meanings, 踞 was created for the using of the meaning squat. So the usage of 尸 in 居 should be the 1st case shown as before.


Polite noun to refer to a colleague who is departing a company?

离职员工 or 离职同事 is what we will use when referring to a leaving colleague, but this is very official and so only used when the audience is the general public.

Usually we only call their names and say they are leaving.

Ex: 志明不在这里工作了。


才vs 先: When to use each one in Mandarin?

才 and 先 are both very common words in Mandarin. Like you said, 先 means first in Cantonese, but it is the same in Mandarin.

先 means first or previous in time(or order), or means earlier than ..., or means in advance, or means before ..., the opposite word is 后(means later).
examples: 早先,先前 both mean previously(or in the past). 先人 means ancestor

她比我们先到了那里——She got there before us.
才 has two kinds of character.

When it's used as noun it means
ability or talent or gift. (example:你真有才——you really have talent! 多才多艺——be gifted in many ways.)

When it's used as adv, it
means just now (example:刚才——just now, 才开始——just start),

or means
things happen or finish so late (example:你怎么才来——Why are you so late!,
他昨天才走——He doesn't leave until yesterday).

or means short in
number (example:你才十八岁——you are only 18 years old!)

or means only
...when (example: Only when you try hard, you can get good
results——努力才有好结果),

or mean emphasize (example: I'm not buying what you
said at all——我才不信你说的呢)

this is all I know, hope it helps


It really depends on the context. In literature, all above examples could make perfect sense with the right setting (where the character is from, what situation the speaker finds himself in, even a specific piece of information the author is trying to send, etc). There still are rules but you can really play with it if you’re writing a creative piece.

However, in everyday use, it gets tricky (People of different socioeconomic status talk differently; a language changes in most subtle ways over time).

The first three examples are perfectly fine, and

“该 (more natural to the question ‘该不该？’)”,
“应该。（more natural to the question ‘应不应该？’）”
“必须（more natural to the question ‘必须吗？【note that ‘必不必须’ isn’t common】’）”

aren’t necessarily wrong either, though they do sound a bit odd to my ear.

I would use “（他）应该去。/（他）必须去。/（他）该去。” instead. The subject could hide itself but the verb should not, in this case. But again, this is not a final conclusion, and you may find yourself in different situations where the usage of all three of them is acceptable.

As to the ultra tricky “得”，I also find “（他）得去” more natural. However, because “得” feels so northern, I have no problem picturing an old-fashioned northerner using the word alone as an answer, when the speaker really wants to stress it.

I hope this is helpful, and I strongly suggest you look up words/phrases in dictionaries or classic literature (or a reliable grammar book, the state news broadcasting, things like that). The Internet while providing good examples of slangs could be misleading as it’s filled with grammar mistakes. And please do not trust all tv shows...


Why do Chinese "extend" the last word when speaking?

This kind of case is usually occurs on these occasions:

When you are standing at top of the mountain, you feel very exciting, and shout out with prolonging the each word(like niiiiiii haooooooo maaaaaaa) or just the last word(like ni hao maaaaaaa). Mum, so exciting! :p
It usually occurs in young people, especially the female. Some cute girls will often prolong the word in front of her boyfriend. 你好吗~~~(ni hao maaaa), 想我吗~~~(xiang wo maaaaaaa), etc. This is often described as 嗲(dia3) in Chinese. When chatting via Internet, ~/'/. characters will often used as the word prolonged.
Sometimes, wife will do like this in front of her husband. Just like the case No.2. :)

And for your last question: you did not misunderstand. :)


你呢 translates to "how about you" and is usually followed by question mark not exclamation mark. 呢 is used as a way to express question.

Google translate sometimes does funny things. Cross check with other sources before trusting it.

If someone says 周末愉快! to you, reply to them with 周末愉快! is a safe bet. Or you can say Thank You.

Followup:

If the example conversation actually happened, it could be that when A says 周末愉快 and B interprets it as a question for how was/will be for your weekends. So B response with a nod and asking A about his/hers. Though even under this circumstance it still seems pretty strange. We don't usually speak in this manner.


Difference between 月 and 月份 for the noun "A month"

Both 重要的月份 and 重要的一個月 works fine for translating "an important month". But 重要的月 minus the unit of measurement (份/一個) sounds more like you're speaking of the Moon.

The difference between 月 and 月份 is that the latter is specifying a month of the year, while the former is more ambiguous: it could refer to the moon, or a month's time. Thus 月份 could be used standalone but you would normally prefix 一個 to 月, as you did.

It is perfectly okay to say 斋月是伊斯兰最重要的一个月.

I suspect the reason your friend corrected you was because the topic was Ramadan.

Traditionally (in some parts), 九月 means September in the Gregorian calendar, while 九月份 refers to the ninth month of the traditional lunisolar Han Calendar. By extension, he might have felt the ninth month of the Islamic Hijri Calendar (which is what Ramadan is) should also be a 月份.

This isn't a matter of grammar, but rather a customary usage.


How would you translate 细腻 into English?

细腻 in acting means delicacy and attention to details, also implying sensibility and emotional subtlety.

  演员的表情细腻入微。The actor performed with great delicacy and sensibility.


表达, to express
他表达了他的爱意。to express something, used for expressions
表现, verb: to show, to perform. noun: behavior
verb 他表现出了他的才华。he has shown his talents.
noun 他的表现不是很好。 his behavior is not very good.
表示 means ...
这表示他喜欢你。this means that he likes you.
显示 to display or show.
手机能显示图片。phones can display/show pictures.
hope this helps.


It's reallys cited from 《庄子》,but not from the chapter of 《逍遥游》. It's from the chapter of 《秋水》. The orginal words for your citation are:

  是故大知观于远近，故小而不寡，大而不多，知量无穷。

  是故大知觀於遠近，故小而不寡，大而不多，知量無窮。


It's 1, you might feel awkward or unfamiliar because:

When we take the meaning as 1,
we seldom says that someone teach others "教訓".

A more often way to use this meaning is to learn by someone itself.

Ex: 我從上次的失敗吸取教訓了，下次不會再犯同樣的錯。

I'v learned my mistake from last failure, and I won't make it again.


How to say I studied for 3 months (not continuous)

"下个暑假我学了三个月汉语" has two problems.
First, "下个暑假" is next summer, not last. If it's next summer, "了" , as a resultative verb suffix, should not be there, since the action cannot have been completed yet. The correct time is "上个暑假" or better still, "去年夏天". since you never indicated that it's during the summer vacation, so I would simply say "夏天", summer.
Second, "我学了三个月汉语" tells me you learned Chinese for three months. And most people would understand it to be a continuous three months, unless you specify that it's off and on, just like you would in an English sentence. I would add an adverb of manner "斷續" before the verb to indicate it is off and on.
去年夏天我斷續学了三个月汉语。
If you want to add an adverb of place, then it will come before the verb.
去年夏天我在上海斷續学了三个月汉语。


What's the difference between 我住在 and 還活著?

They are two different things;

我住在 = "I live in/ at" - e.g.  我住在香港 (I live in Hong Kong)

還活著 = "still alive" - e.g. 我還活著 (I am still alive)


How would I say Dominican Republic in Chinese?

First of all, let's confirm the translation. If you look for "Dominican Republic" on Wikipedia, and then choose the chinese page, the result is:

  多米尼加共和国
  Duō mǐ ní jiā gòng hé guó

So, yes, it's the right translation. If you don't like Wikipedia as the only source, this is confirmed by the YouDao and CEDICT dictionaries.

I tried searching for "多米尼加" only (in both of those named above) and the result is simply "Dominica". Note that "Dominican Republic" and "Dominica" refer to two different countries, so since I think the same ambiguity is present in Chinese, you should keep the whole expression in order to be understood unambiguously.


I asked my Chinese friend a question in Chinese, but she doesn't understand

Just sounds odd to natives, 你不想念中国和在中国的朋友吗 is the common expression.
Add 念 to distinguish it from 想(think) and 想(miss).
You don't need 里 after a place name.
But this is still not normally said by the Chinese. The typical question is 你不想念你的家乡/祖国吗? 家乡/祖国 includes friends and other things.


How Do I Write "At [descriptor], ..." in Chinese?

The Chinese way to say "At x pages, y."

1a. "x pages  就 y 而言"
Example: 一百頁就小說而言真是很短" (one hundred pages for a novel is really short)
2a. "就 y 而言, x pages"
Example: 就小說而言, 一百頁真是很短" (for a novel, one hundred pages is really short)

or

1b. "x pages 以/ 對 y 來說, "
2b. "以/ 對 y 來說, x pages"

1a, 1b are more literary
2a, 2b are more colloquial


Chinese Grammar Info provides an excellent write up on the three distinct de particles. See the site for the full article.

The main points are:

(的) de as the possessor or causing the possessive function:

  我的书

  wǒ de shū

  my book

  这是你的书。

  Zhè shì nǐ de shū.

  This is your book.

(地) de/di as the ly suffix

  慢慢地

  mànmande

  slowly

  他很快地吃饭。

  Tā hěn kuài de chīfàn.

  He eats quickly.

(得) de as a potential complement

  做得到

  zuò de dào

  can do

  我只有戴眼镜的话才看得清楚。

  Wǒ zhǐyǒu dài yǎnjìng dehuà cái kàn de qīngchu.

  I can only see clearly if I wear my glasses.

UPDATES (per request in comments):

More on 得. The article further states that this version of de relates to two types of complements: potential complements (which indicate that the attached verb has potential to have the action happen) and degree complements (speaks to the degree/amount that a potential verb may happen).

Potential complement

  听得懂

  tīng de dǒng

  can understand (from listening)

(and conversely)

  听不懂

  tīng bu dǒng

  can’t understand (from listening)

Degree Complement

Note the basic structure where the verb is followed by a description that includes the degree complements; very well, badly, very tall.

(basic structure)

  [verb] 得 [description]

(a few more samples)

  你说得非常好。

  Nǐ shuō de fēicháng hǎo.

  You said it very well.

  他做得不好。

  Tā zuò dé bu hǎo.

  He did it badly.

  她长得很高。

  Tā zhǎng de hěn gāo.

  She has grown very tall.

Beyond it's use as a particle, the article states:

  得 as dé When 得 is pronounced dé in second tone, it’s a verb meaning
  “to get” or “to acquire”.

  得 as děi When 得 is pronounced děi in third tone, it’s a modal verb
  meaning “must” or “have to”.


What's the difference between “问一下”，“查询”， “询问”？

Would it be appropriate to say any of the following?
我想查询您…

This usage is wrong. 查询 should be followed by the object being asked for, not the person who is being asked. The correct usages are

我想查询[sth]。
我想向[sb]查询[sth]。

Example:

我想（向您）查询从北京到上海的机票价格。

我想询问您…

This one is correct. 询问 can be used in three ways:

我想询问[sth]
我想询问[sb][sth]
我想向[sb]询问[sth]

Example:

我想询问从北京到上海的机票价格。
我想询问您从北京到上海的机票价格。
我想向您询问从北京到上海的机票价格。

Both of them are formal but never too formal to use in daily conversations; I use them from time to time when talking to a service personnel, especially when over the phone.


别开生面 is actually an idiom which means "to break a new path" or "break fresh ground". In this case, 别 is just part of the idiom.


How did 东西 come to mean "something" in the expression "吃东西"?

This is a good question about etymology of Chinese word. Most native speakers are not interested in etymology as they can speak out of habit while non-native speakers are more curious on how the sense of words evolves. Back to your question, there are nice articles on both Wikipedia and Baidu Baike that explains the etymology of "东西". Since there are acutally quite a few explanations for this one, so I cannot translate them all here. But I can help you if you have trouble to understand particular sentences.


一草一木 is an idiom, originating from Book of the later Han:

《後漢書・應劭傳》：「春一草枯則為災，秋一木華亦為異。」
In spring, a single blade of grass that withers heralds disaster; in autumn, a single tree that flourishes is unnatural.
That is, every small detail or single thing out of place suggests unnatural occurrences.

This was later shortened to 一草一木, meaning every small/single thing.

我是一無所有，吃穿用度，一草一木，皆是和他們家的姑娘一樣...
I have nothing at all; everything I use - what I'm eating or wearing, every single thing - are the same as the girls of that family...


帅哥/美女 to get attention of someone who isn't handsome/beautiful

It is just flattering talk. Most people like being flattered.

Personally, I think this kind of talk only suitable for actual handsome people or people with ordinary faces.

If a person is truly ugly, calling him "handsome" might sound like you are mocking him.

A similar example :

You can call anyone "kind Sir" either he is really kind or just a regular folk who doesn't break the law. However, if you call an amoral person who rips babies away from their mother  "kind Sir" , you are clearly mocking him.


How would you translate "grit" (personality trait) to Chinese?

毅力 (n)
perserverance; willpower
He has grit = 他有毅力

~

堅毅 (adj)
be strong-willed and perseverant
He is very gritty = 他很堅毅

~

堅毅 (n)
strong will and perserverance
This grittiness = 這份堅毅

Example sentence:

推行革命要有毅力 - Carrying out the revolution requires perseverance (grit)

堅毅的人能衝出困境，走向高峯 - perseverant (gritty) people can break out of  predicament and get to the top

成功全憑民眾的一股毅力/成功全憑民眾的一份堅毅 - Success depends on the perseverance (grittiness) of the people


What is the best way to ask a Chinese person to give / leave feedback

您好，请对我们的服务提出宝贵建议，谢谢！

您好，请问您对我们的服务有什么意见或建议吗？

您好，请问您对我们的服务满意吗？

您好，请问我们的菜合您的胃口吗？


"以" in "敗義以求生， 豈荀巨伯所行邪"

in "敗義[以]求生， 豈荀巨伯所行邪",  '以' functions as  "to" in English
commit immoral act [to] survive, isn't something I (荀巨伯) would do
it makes no sense to interpret  it as "commit immoral act with attempt of surviving"

~

in "志士仁人 無求生[以]害仁", '以' functions as "with" or "by" in English
principled and kind person, would not try to survive with immoral act
principled and kind person, would not try to survive by committing immoral act
it makes no sense to interpret  it as "trying to survive to commit immoral act"


Some words look like English, but they are Chinese

What is the real meaning of PK?

Yes, PK is a kind of Chinglish (Chinese English).

  日常生活中，PK的常见含义有：

  对决，对抗；
  击败，淘汰；
  泛指两件对等事物的比较，对比。

(PK's common meanings include: 1. confrontation/battle; 2. knock out; 3. comparison).

  这个词较初起源于MUD游戏中的Player Killer（PKer，指游戏中专门杀害其他玩家的人），后衍生出Player Killing（指随便杀人之意），引申为“玩家对战”。

(The word stemmed from "Player Killer" in MUD, then derived as "Player Killing", extended in meaning of battle between Players (Player VS Player).)

  还有一种说法称，PK起源于足球里的罚点球，即Penalty
  Kick的缩写，引意为一对一单挑，只有一方能赢。但这一起源的认可度不及网络游戏起源说。

(Another version is that PK stemmed from "Penalty Kick" in soccer game, extended to meaning of one-on-one challenge.)


Difference between location nouns and place/position nouns, 方位词 vs 处所词

方位次 are directions and positions with respect to something and include

relative directions

up/down - 上/下
left/right - 左/右
front/back - 前/后
in/out - 里/外

cardinal directions

north/south - 北/南
east/west - 东/西

which can prefix words like face, side, and corner to produce further position nouns.

处所词 are both places and proper nouns such as 上海.

They can be placed into 到。。。去 with nothing else and be grammatically correct such as 到上海去 and 到美国去, whereas general nouns, like 桌子, are not 处所词 as the sentence 到桌子去 is grammatically incorrect, although if 桌子那儿 is used instead of 桌子, this can be used as a place noun.

At least that is my general understanding of user6065's comment

  实用汉语语法＂４。３。２ 处所词 lg. place word。处所词的语法特点是：能做＂在＂＂到＂的宾语，能放在＂到。。。去＂的格式中。例如：在上海，到上海去。一般名词不能放在＂到。。。去＂的格式中。不能说＂到桌子去＂，＂到老张去＂，除非加上＂那儿＂使之成为处所短语，如＂到桌子那儿去＂，到老张那儿去＂。 所有的地名都是处所词，如：美国、亚洲、北京、天安门、颐和园，等等。＂邮局、宿舍、图书馆＂等既是名词，又是处所词。 ４。３。４ 方位词 noun of locality。方位词的语法特点基本上跟处所词相同。汉语共有１４个单音方位词：上、下、前、后、里、外、内、中、左、右、东、西、南、北。单音方位词加上＂边、面、头＂组成合成方位词。如：上边、后头、外边、左面、东头。所谓方位，既指空间，又指时间。＂屋前＂、＂屋后＂的＂前＂、＂后＂指处所，＂饭前＂、＂饭后＂的＂前＂、＂后＂指时间。名词加单方位词可以构成处所短语或时间短语。方位词不受数量短语的修饰，但是并不绝对排斥副词的修饰。例如：＂太前＂、＂太后＂；＂最前＂、＂最后＂。这中特点接近于形容词。单音方位词是一种黏着词，单用的能力很差；合成方位词比单音方位词要自由得多

  user6065

but my Chinese isn't good enough to be sure that I understood the comment correctly.


Why is 保证 in 价格还可以，就是不知道质量有没有保证?

价格还可以，就是不知道质量有没有保证。

I think 质量有没有保证 in the context checks on two aspects:

quality. (whether the quality is good or not)
guarantee. (E.g. one-year, two-year, etc.)

It would probably be clearer to write: 价格还可以，就是不知道质量怎么样，有没有质保。


In this context  讲 is short for 讲究 which means to pay particular attention to; to be particular about.
So you can also say 讲究礼貌 and 讲究卫生.


How do I specifically find handwriting advice videos on TikTok 斗音?

search for 臧老师教你写好字, it's an account of a primary school teacher, he posted lots of videos teaching 6~7 years old students to write Chinese characters.

How to find more this type videos? Search for the keywords 教写字, and you'll find more related videos and accounts (eg. The account 熊猫教写字-1年级 in the figure below is really good. Do remember to click the button 查看全部用户 to find more accounts and follow them)


How do you write, "one who does good" in Classical Chinese?

PRACTICE: Put the following into literary Chinese:

One who does good leads the heart (away) from disaster.

My answer is: 君子修心遠禍
君子(good person) 修心(educates oneself) 離禍 (to get away from
disaster)
You can replace 君子 with 善者; 遠禍 with 避禍  or 離禍


How is this character written: “一点一横长，二字下来口字方，两边丝绕绕，中间马大王，你也长，我也长，心字底，月字旁，打把金钩挂衣裳。”

You must mean this:

,

this word simulates many things which I can't tell you guys in English


"他(問/求/向)我借钱，但我没借给他" would make more sense,

'管' has many meanings and it is a shorthand for many terms including  管理(to manage) ,  监管 (to supervise),  管制 (to restrict),  掌管 (to control) and 包管(guarantee) etc..

In '他管我借钱，但我没借给他' the most logical meaning for '管' is 'to manage' which implies 'to count on' or 'to rely on'

  管 = to manage --> put responsibility on --> counting on --> depend/ rely on

So the translation of '他管我借钱，但我没借给他' should be "He was counting on me to lend him money, but I didn't lend him any"

other example of 管 as different shorthand:

在這處住我管你一日三餐 = 在這處住我(包)管你一日三餐 (you live here and I'll guarantee you three meals a day)

香煙的銷售管得很嚴 = 香煙的銷售(监)管得很嚴 (The sales of cigarettes is supervised very strictly)

我管你去死 = 我(哪)管(得)你去死 (I don't care if you die)


Paifang inscription on a gate at the Yellow Crane Tower (Characters identified: 江山入画)

That would be 江山入画. If you search for Yellow Crane and 江山入画, you will find a bunch of results confirming, for example this one.


㗎喇 is a combination of multiple Cantonese sentence final particles (SFPs):

㗎 gaa3 is a contraction of 嘅呀 ge3 aa3.

嘅 ge3 is directly equivalent to Mandarin's 的 de in meaning and usage.
呀 aa3 is used in Cantonese to soften the tone of a sentence. I don't believe Mandarin has a direct standardized equivalent to it, but some Mandarin speakers do use it in a similar manner.

喇 laa3 is directly equivalent to Mandarin's SFP 了 le. Both of these words are actually cognate to one another, ultimately having been descended from 來 (note that this only applies to Mandarin's sentence-final 了; its post-verb 了 le actually is descended from 了 liǎo). Mandarin chose 了 to represent this word; written Cantonese isn't very standardized, so people have variously represented it using the characters 喇, 嚹, or 啦.

Given this, the Mandarin equivalent could be 的了 de le. While I noted there was no direct standard Mandarin equivalent for Cantonese's 呀, some speakers do use it. In Mandarin though, it would be attached after 了 rather than after 的; like Cantonese, it gets contracted as well, changing 了 le to 啦 la; the final result would be 的啦 de la, as @Stan mentioned in his comment.


Is it 說 /说 / shuō or 講 / 讲 / jiǎng for "to speak a language"?

The two are interchangeable in this particular context.

The two has different usage in other contexts.

E.g.:

讲 can mean to say in 讲话, to explain in 讲解, to bargain in 讲价.
说 can mean to persuade in 劝说, and it can be a noun in 学说(theory).

The choice of syllables for your situation I would say is based on statistical usage of each. In certain areas 说 is more naturally used because it's used more by the community. And the same is true for 讲.


As @Stan said, 檢索 is usually used with database(資料庫) or library catalog(圖書目錄).

You must have some reference (a catalog, or a list...etc) to be able to 檢索. It's not only formal but more restricted. Whereas 找 can be used very widely.

For example one would say "在資料庫裡檢索資料", "在圖書目錄裡檢索資料", and "在網路上找資料", "在圖書館裡找資料", ...etc.

So you can search (or find) (找) for information  in any suitable places (or under certain conditions). But you would look up (檢索) for information only in restricted places like database.


how “from” and “since” meanings originated for 自

Understand 自 originally a nose symbol

When someone identifies himself, one of the most common gestures is pointing at his own face, and the most protruding part of the face is the nose, therefore, pointing at one's own nose represents 'oneself' (自己).
自 in the sense has the same meaning as 本 (origin, source). Your action came from yourself, your voice came from yourself, You see things from your point of view, therefore the extended meaning of 'from' was added to the character '自'


In general they're about the same. They are actually used to define each other in some dictionaries. Colloquial usages might differ, but in most cases you can safely use 肯 in place of 願意, especially when spoken.

There is a little difference though. While both words mean agreement/acceptance, with 肯 its acceptance regardless of whether you are happy/willing. In contrast 願意 indicates that its what you want, i.e. there is no unwillingness. So for instance, when exchanging marriage vows, we say 我願意 and not 我肯. The latter would carry an undertone of reluctance.


Why is 挺 used in the following sentence?

太 is usually a compound with 了. So if 太 was the correct answer it would be: ___精神了。

好 would work in dialect/topolect in place of 很 - but is incorrect in MSM.

多么 is just weird. maybe it work work with 啊 like ___精神啊 - but now were moving away from MSM again.

挺 is pretty much interchangeable with 很

Spiritual is not the correct translation here for 精神.
MDBG defines it as:

精神
jīngshen
vigor / vitality / drive / spiritual

红光满面，挺精神的。
glowing with health - looking full of vigor (energetic/lively/spirited)


What does 一起 imply about a romantic relationship?

在一起 (be together) is a subtle way to say "做情侶" (be lovers/ a couple)

be boyfriend and girlfriend, common law partners or husband and wife

just like 喜歡 (like) is a more subtle way to say 愛 (love)

Most Chinese are quite reserved, words like 做情侶 (be lovers) or 愛(love) are rarely used directly


Can 將 (or 将) only be used for events/actions that will take place in the near future?

According to Xinhua dictionary, it means the near future.
快要：将要。将至。将来。即将。

E.g. "The winter is coming." is translated to "凛冬将至" is Chinese.

But I think 将来 is simply used for future action.
E.g. 我将来要成为一个科学家.


Pronunciation/tones for hug (擁抱): yong1 bao4 or yong3 bao4?

Liang'an (兩岸) gives the Taiwanese Mandarin (國語) pronunciation as:

  yǒngbào

yong3 bao4

while noting the mainland Mandarin (普通话) pronunciation as being:

  yōngbào

yong1 bao4

Unless you're planning on speaking Taiwanese Mandarin, I'd stick with yōng yong1.


The earliest reference i can make is a chapter "Nei Ze" in a book "Liji" (See http://ctext.org/liji/nei-ze). The word "sitting the month" has been replaced by "the month of confinement", "坐月子" by "月辰".


It's called (鼠标)悬停 in mainland China.

Please use your mouse to hover over the attribute icon
请将鼠标悬停在属性图标上。

If you search this phrase on the internet you'll see more examples how it's used, e.g.

鼠标悬停效果是网页制作的常用特效之一。
'Mouse over' is one of the most used special effect in web design.

You should note that many Computer related words are translated very differently in mainland China ('zh-cn' in locale terms) and other Chinese speaking regions, especially in Taiwan where there is a complete different set of words. You may want to update your question to clarify your user locale. If it's different from 'zh-cn' you may want to wait for another answer.