How to write and structure a modern professional follow-up email like a native Chinese speaker?

主题：YYY分部ABC职位申请之跟进

  尊敬的XXX，

  您好！

  望您安度时艰，身体无恙！

  此函意在跟进本人近日申请伦敦分部职位一事。本人已经由ZZZ渠道递交对ABC职位之申请，以担忧贵方尚未收到之故，随函再附本人履历及求职信。效力于贵司之心愿迫切，所以确认再三，还望海涵！

  如有疑问，请与本人联系。感谢拨冗垂阅，敬盼回音！

  此致，

  祝好！

  署名

I don't think it is just about one or two phrase substitutes, but the cultural differences behind writings... We tend to use more literary and concise expressions in mail, and we have a system of 敬语/谦词/雅言...

e.g.

安(safely)度(go through)时(recent/present)艰(tough situations)

无恙(without any illness)

此函(this letter)

意在(aiming at)

跟进...一事(follow up the thing that)

经由(via)

渠道(channel/means)

递交(submit)

以...之故(for the reason that…)

海涵(forgive me for [anything, here it means that I impatiently send another letter to check for my application (In Chinese culture, ask repeatedly for the same thing is rude)])

拨冗(kindly spend the time [for my business])

垂阅(read [my letter])

敬盼(sincerely look forward to)

回音(reply)

These expressions I list are "advanced" forms of what we would use in oral language, which we are supposed to use in a proper letter.

And

I'm very keen on joining YYY and I'm more than happy to discuss how I can be an asset to the team.

seems irrelevent in a follow-up letter (at least in Chinese cultural), so I rephrase it and append it to the previous paragraph, making it a cause explaining why I follow up the application business.


What is the difference between 小路，小道？I normally use 小路, as in 从小路走。

小路 is a narrow alley or footpath off the main streets. It is usually located in a congested urban area. (崎嶇小路)
小道 and 小径 both are narrow pathways in the wild. 小径 was the product of people's foot traffics in an undeveloped area. At the ancient time in the grassy wild, people had to follow and walk over the footprints left by the people before him to maintain direction to the destination. Or, in a remote rural area, a 小径 was formed by farmers walking through it daily from home to the farmland, and to the adjacent neighbors, stores, etc. 小径 is usually not wide enough for mobile traffic. (羊腸小径)
小道 can be a widened 小径 between villages in the rural areas, or a pathway constructed purposely for the commercial and military uses. For the latter, it was usually located in the wooded mountain terrain, and/or along the edge of rough/rugged maintains adjacent to the cliff. In general, 小道 is wider and longer than 小径 and is characterized with difficulty and danger in both construction and use. (截道)
Finally, I shall address that, modern speaking usually does not distinguish the difference between 小路 and 小道, they are interchangeable. However, 小径 shall be reserved for the rural or urban narrow pathways that allow for foot traffic only.


The Internet is full of them, starting from https://www.confuciusinstitute.manchester.ac.uk/study/testing/hsk/hsk-learning-resources/


I did (Something) as much as I would in (X amount of time)

You own answer is almost correct. I'd add one character to make sound more natural:
今天我笑得比正常的一个礼拜**还**多


Why is there both 另外 and 别 in the sentence 你还是另外找别人吧, and why does 另外 come before 找?

It's a very hamfisted example of what the book is trying to illustrate -- that 另外 and 另 can both be used to modify a verb, but that 另 is restricted to modify only monosyllabic verbs.

To answer the first part of your question: 另外/另 before 找 because it is specifically modifying the verb 找 using 另外/另 (note that you cannot use 另 for non-monosyllabic words according to the book).

The second part of your question involves the meaning of 别, which here, I believe you should take into account that 别 attaches to 人， so that you have 别人 as one word meaning "another person" (or more specifically "a person that is not already been mentioned")

In that case, 另外 is modifying 找, emphasizing that it is an additional and different task to be done, whereas 别人 mentions another person. I feel like it means something along the lines of "you should rather (do the additional task of) finding another person"


Short answer:
Just for the convenience of writing, it has nothing relationship with "Thief".

Detailed explaination:
Keep in mind: Some word in Chinese is just a pronounciation, it has no official word.
So, in your case, how did 贼 come to mean: extremely:
The answer is: for the convenience of writing.
Originally, people would say this orally:

这部电影zéi好看
我们家乡冬天zéi冷
那个人zéi有钱

When putting these word to paper, people would write the zéi with the commonly used character 贼.
also another examples:

我们那嘎达贼冷.
我们那疙瘩贼冷

here, 嘎达 = 疙瘩 , they don't have the meaning, just have the same pronunciation with the 东北方言. (north-Eastern Chinese dialect)  .
also:

bo leng gai, means 膝盖. (knee)

我昨天打球受伤了, 波棱盖疼
我昨天打球受伤了, 拨了盖疼

ga3 ji1 wo1: means 腋下 (underarm)

天气热, 我嘎鸡窝有点痒
天气热, 我鸽子窝有点痒
天气热, 我嘎子窝有点痒

nen4:  means very

你咋嫩好看呢?
你咋恁好看呢?

for more information, see also this.


Translating the idiom "thinking outside the box"

I think 天马行空 is the one.

天马行空 tiānmǎ-xíngkōng
[be powerful and unstrained like a heavenly steed soaring across the skies]
天神之马来往疾行于空中。比喻思想行为无拘无束。亦形容文笔超逸流畅

but use it carefully,天马行空 does not always commendatory

The imagination of child has no limits like the god horse flying in the heaven , details all show the creative ideas
孩子的想象力如天马行空，且细节处均见独特之创意。
But the former mayor then delivered a meandering speech that left the audience dispirited
但是前市长讲话却天马行空,让听众失望之极。


try the 國語辭典, 國語辭典簡編本, or 國語小字典; depends on your level.
http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cbdic/search.htm
http://dict.concised.moe.edu.tw/jbdic/search.htm
http://dict.mini.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/gdic/gsweb.cgi?o=ddictionary
these are authoritative and free :)
for stroke order, try this one:
https://stroke-order.learningweb.moe.edu.tw/home.do
welcome onboard


善于 = good at (general)
擅长 = skilled in/ good at (specific)

Example:
善于交際 - good at socializing (O)
擅长交際 - skilled in socializing (O)
~
善于打网球 - good at playing tennis (O)
擅长打网球 - skilled in playing tennis (O)
~
善于反手削球 - good at backhand slice (X) (too specific)
擅长反手削球 - skilled in backhand slice (a specific tennis technique) (O)
A more detailed example:

他擅长用斧頭在米粒上刻字 - He is good at lettering on rice grains with an axe
This skill is too specific to use 善于
善于用斧頭 or 善于刻字 would be fine.


What words are used to express the sincerity when texting your friends in festival period, such as the Spring Festival?

I received (and sent) several of these messages. I copied down some phrases to use later:

祝您事业兴旺！ = May your career be prosperous!
祝您福寿绵长！ = I wish you a long & happy life!
祝您龙年大吉！ = I wish you a very lucky Dragon Year!
祝您万事如意！ = May everything be exactly as you wish it to be!

From what I can tell, Chinese often string many different phrases together with commas, so you might get something like:
祝您龙年快乐，事业兴旺，福寿绵长，万事如意！


Why did my teacher say 判断 is wrong in 她意识到朋友判断她 ("she's aware that her friends judge her") and what's a better choice of word?

The idiom 评头论足 is a normal phrase for this setting and has a negative connotation as well.  E. g.  他总是对别人评头论足。


Your understanding is mostly right
“A 到 B 了” means "become so A that have got into the condition of B"

A: adj, but used as a verb, which means "become A"
B: a condition

"只能吃土" is a 状态 (condition) so it is the same as "只能吃土的状态"。
"到~" means "getting into" a 状态.
"了" means finished. There might be no "了", depending on the tense.
Correct example:

我很穷，（已经）穷到只能吃土了
我很穷，（已经）穷到只能吃土的状态了
赌博会让你 穷到只能吃土
赌博会让你 穷到只能吃土的状态

Is it in fact a structure to create such sentences?

Yes

只能吃土的状态了 - I don't even know if I should treat it as a sentence or as a noun. So: what should come after 到?

As discussed above. 只能吃土的状态 is a 状态 which is a noun. 了 is following 到 indicating the tense.

Is this sentence correct? 累到不会走路的状态

Correct, but not a complete sentence. Missing subject and tense indicator.

Is this sentence correct? 累到不会走路

Correct. Same as above

What's the difference between 穷到只能吃土的状态了 and 穷得只能吃土?

In 穷到只能吃土的状态, 穷 is an adj. but used as a verb, followed by the extent of this verb.
In 穷得只能吃土, 穷 is just an adj. followed by an adverb.
Both are correct and mean the same.


Why the name 中元节 for hungry ghost festival?

Baidu:

中元节  ...而被称为“中元节”，则是源于东汉后道教的说法。道教有“三元说”，“天官上元赐福，地官中元赦罪，水官下元解厄，“中元”之名由此而来...

三元说 ...正月十五日为上元节，七月十五日为中元节，十月十五日为下元节...

地官中元赦罪 = Underworld officer grants amnesty on 15th July
Ghosts in hell are basically prisoners in jail, on 15th July every year, they are allowed to leave the underworld and visit their family in the world of the living
Other names for 中元节 are 七月半、七月十四、祭祖节、盂兰盆节、地官节 are all based on this story
It is called 鬼节 because it is a festival for the ghosts, not hungry ghosts (饿鬼). 饿鬼 were the most sinful people before they died, and they are never allowed to leave the hungry ghost hell


Can someone please translate this for me? I’ve had a piece of metal with this written on it for years but have no idea what it says!

The text that you’ve copied off the metal is「信義」, which means (good) faith, as in the phrase acting in good faith. Translating the characters individually, it is「信」(belief) and「義」(morality, principles).


the character 馬 existed in oracle bone script, there're numerous versions of it. then, the info quoted has some errors.

let's start:

first, rotate left 90°

now, you've a side view of a horse: head at the left, tail pointing right, 3 strokes upward represent the mane, the circles are horseshoe, the line (leg) connected it to the body.

it emphasised the big eye of a horse, the mane on its' back, and the "hairy" of a horsetail.

considering it's created several thousand years ago, with the "writing tech" of bones & stone knife, forgive the abstractness :)

have fun :)


This is not an answer but some references that might be helpful and are too long for the comments section.

This is clearly a phenomenon because the first note written on 灸 in《规范》says:

注意 ㊀不读jiū。

But, without much of an explanation it is hard to see why they mention it other than the obvious idea that it often gets mispronounced this way.

As for southern dialects《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》has the following entry:

灸
tɕiəu⁵⁵

The tone is noted as:

⁵⁵

Which is clearly 阴平, the same as jiu1.

Looking through the tones on: 灸 | Wiktionary we also have:
A high flat tone:

Hakka = /ki̯u⁵⁵/

and a middle flat tone:

Cantonese = /kɐu̯³³/


Is it incorrect to write 少 with a hooked first stroke, like 小?

Incorrect is a relative term.

On the whole, I'm going to say no, it's not incorrect, and it's easier to learn the character if you write it with a hook, because the glyph origin of「少」was「小」compounded with「丿」, and「小」is never written without the hook.


還活著 is correct in meaning

But in most cases 仍(然)活著 is a better translation


What is the grammar pattern in "藏语呢我是略知一二"？

It is a [topic + comment] sentence
Topic: '藏语呢' -- 'about the Tibetan language'
Comment: '我是略知一二(的)' -- 'I am slightly familiar with'
我是略知一二(的) is a relative phrase that gives a description/ comment on the topic/ object 藏语
SVO: '我對藏语略知一二' -- ''I am slightly familiar with the Tibetan language'
More example:

SVO: 我是不会再去这间餐厅的

T/P: 这间餐厅 我是不会再去的

in "我 是 (XXX) 的", (XXX) describes "我"

SVO: 我不会再去这间餐厅了

T/P: 这间餐厅 我不会再去了

"了" is a final particle


“管你是[surname] + [name]还是[same surname] + [different name]”

"我管你张三还是李四" literally means "I care you are John, Dick or Harry". And the actual meaning is "我(不)管你张三还是李四" meaning "I (don't) care you are John, Dick or Harry"

Using the opposite term "管" (care) instead of the actual term "不管" (don't care) is a sarcastic way of making a statement.

  What common variants on this phrase exist where the surname stays the same?

It is not a set phrase, you can substitute any names/nouns to indicate "I don't care who you are". For example: "我(不)管你是皇帝还是王八", "我(不)管你成龍还是成蟲"

When someone said he is the emperor but you don't care, you can say "我管你皇帝还是王八"
When Jackie Chan demands you to do something because he is Jackie Chan, and you don't want to do it, and don't care it is Jackie who demanded it,  you can say "我管你成龍还是成蟲"

One more: "我管你特朗普还是特朗通，你是个混蛋" roughly translated as "I don't care you are Donald Trump or Donald Dumb, you are an asshole"


When do you use 知道 vs 認識 when discussing when you know someone or some thing?

Normally we use 认识 when we say: I know this person.
And we use 知道 when we say: I know this place.
知道 vs 认识:

About "people":

知道: Emphasis unilateral;
认识: Emphasis bilateral.

知道 can always be used about knowledge or information.

You can check this Hanbridge Chinese video about how to differentiate the 知道 and 认识.


congratulation
“婷” & “婧” are both 女部英韻, so, the third one, i would suggest:
婛 (u+5a5b)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=婛
娙 (u+5a19)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=娙
婈 (u+5a48)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=婈
姈 (u+59c8)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=姈
娉 (u+5a09)
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=娉
have fun :)


What does this mean 什么时候我也会看到你们受这份罪的，你们两个?

[什么时候] - Some day
[我也会] - I too will
[看到] - see
[你们受] - you suffer
[这份罪的]- this pain/ suffering
罪 in 受罪 doesn't mean "crime". It is referring to "pain/ suffering" and 受罪(suffer - like being punished) is a synonym of 受苦 (suffer- pain)
[你们两个] - the two of you (The speaker add this as a declaimer to make sure his target take notice how serious he is)

"什么时候我也会看到你们受这份罪的,你们两个!"
"Some day, I will see you suffer this pain too, the two of you"

Similar example: "You will pay for this! All of you will pay!" (你們會為此付出代價! 你們所有人都會付出代價!)


How do I pronounce romanised Chinese names which lack tone marks?

As a native speaker, this is what I do in such a case:

If my listener is not Chinese, does not know Chinese, or I am speaking in an event that doesn't require my listener(s) to know Chinese - I pronounce it in whatever tone I feel comfortable. Sometimes I mimic the listeners' pronunciation. (However, if I can guess the tones, I may tend to guess, because that makes me comfortable.)
If my listener is Chinese, I usually guess the tones, and add that I am not sure if the tones I used are correct.

Chinese people will understand that you cannot make the tones perfectly correct - when you are only given the Pinyin without tone marks - because there's missing information.

Here is my idea about your options:

Using neutral tone is creative :-) I have never heard anyone do that. It will make the pronunciation funny.
I believe this would be okay if both you and your audience are English speakers, corresponding to my first point above.
This is corresponding to my second point above. Guessing the tones require knowledge about common names and naming conventions. This is possible, but may not be accurate for all names. This would be the best you can do. In most cases, last names are easier because there are only tens of frequently used last names.

A few examples for guessing last names: Zhang (first tone: 张, 章), Li (third tone: 李), Liu (second tone, 刘）, Wang (second tone, 王 - but it might be first tone, 汪, which is less frequent).

First names are harder. For common names it is still possible, like Ming (second tone, 明), Hao (forth tone, 浩 or 昊). Names like Jinping would be difficult but I would guess it to be 金平 if it is not the president's name, because 金 is more common than 近.


不好意思 has two meanings which are quite similar but applied differently. Quoting from 汉典 (English translation mine):

  ①表示碍于情面而只能怎样或不便怎样。(to indicate a face-saving compromise)

This is usually used as a form of acknowledgement and indirect acceptance of another person's kindness or generosity when none is expected. The person saying it usually has little choice, either because he is in desperate need for help or it would make the situation embarrassing if he refuses the generosity.

  ②害羞；难为情。(feel shy or embarrassed about the situation)

This is used in situations where one would feel embarrassed for troubling someone else. The level of embarrassment can be quite abysmal though, especially when spoken in sarcasm or when used for very minor things like asking for directions.

  Does 了 occur here only in response to a kindness, and not in
  describing a bad thing?

To answer your question, 了, does not determine the meaning of 不好意思. The reason why you may think so is due to the way you apply the first meaning of 不好意思 at the end of a sentence. Some examples to demonstrate why this is not necessarily the case:

真不好意思，又让您破费了。(without 了 ①)
不好意思，厕所在哪里？(asking for directions ②)
她被夸得不好意思了。(counter example ②)
不好意思了大家，我已经上岸了，你们继续摸石头吧。(counter example with sarcasm ②)


I think your translation is mostly accurate. But I don't think 有 means "partly" directly. In Chinese, 有 usually means "there is/are". So a more "verbatim" translation would be

..., although there are merits in keeping the ancient tradition,...

with the following correspondence

虽=although

有=there are

功=merits

在于=in

怀古=keeping…

As for 思理, you may know that 思 means "think, thought", and 理 means "reason". So 思理朗然 means

with clear thinking and reasoning

or

the thinking and reasoning must be clear


地, the radical is 土.

It is made up of two parts, 土 and 也.

It is 形声字（Phono-semantic compound characters）, which means it is made up of two parts, one shows it meaning, the other shows its sound. According to 说文解字 tab in zdic, 也 is the sound part, though 也 and 地 sound very differently now:

  元气初分，輕清陽爲天，重濁陰爲地。萬物所陳也。从土也聲。墬，籒文地从■。徒内切〖注〗埊、■、嶳、埅，亦古文地。

■ is a character that cannot be displayed here. Please check the site of zdic

球 is also a 形声字. The 王 part (which is the radical) carries the meaning, which was originally 玉 (jade), and the 求 part carries the sound.


Any “fai” (zy: ㄈㄞ) pronunciation record in Mandarin?

Not in standard Mandarin, no.

But there are regions in the South where Mandarin phonetics are not rendered standardly, and Standard hu- (also sometimes ku-) tends to be pronounced f-. In Western Fújiàn I often heard huàidàn 壞蛋 'bad person, asshole, etc.' pronounced as though the Pinyin were fàitàn. But I wouldn't count on using that to write "WiFi".

An example of regional f- for Mandarin k- appears in New York's Chinatown, where Forsyth Street is translated Kēxījiē 科西街, because the community was completely Cantonese-speaking at one time. You can see it on the street signs.


How does foreign word transliteration work in the context of Cantonese vs Mandarin?

You're right, most foreign words are transliterated differently in Mandarin and in Cantonese. Sometimes there are even different standards in different Mandarin speaking regions. It's an interesting idea to use characters that have similar pronunciations in both dialects to unify the transliteration but it's not what has already happened.

A few examples of different transliteration in Mandarin and Cantonese:

Beckham: 贝克汉(姆) (Mandarin: Bèikèhàn[mú]), 碧咸 (Cantonese: Bīkhàahm)
Hollywood: 好莱坞 (Mandarin: Hǎoláiwù), 荷里活 (Cantonese: Hòhléihwuht)
Titanic: 泰坦尼克 (Mandarin: Tàitǎnníkè), 铁达尼 (Cantonese: Titdaahtnèih)

The standards used by mainland China to transliterate English names into Mandarin can be found here:

英语姓名译名手册 (rules)
常见英美姓名音译表 (list)

I was unable to find a good reference for its Cantonese counterpart though.

Related reading:

Transcription into Chinese characters (wikipedia)
两岸四地外国专名翻译异同趣谈


How many of the definitions in dictionaries generally are really used?

Wiktionary seems pretty good about marking their definitions.

Take the character 士 for example.

Entries 1-4 are marked with the footnote:

  Obsolete sense in Modern Standard Chinese - may be preserved in fossilised compounds and expressions or other varieties of Chinese.

Entry 5-7 are marked:

  (historical)

Entry 8 has no markings.
Entry 9 is marked both with an:

  (honorific)

tag, and the same footnote from entries 1-4.

Entry 10 is marked:

  (Chinese chess).

Entry 11 also shares the footnote from the first four.
Entry 12 is mark-free.

That basically only leaves entries 8 and 12, as possible meanings in Modern Standard Mandarin. While, entry 12 is, itself, a surname - just leaving entry number eight as the only meaning you need to really remember. Other compounds and expressions with the character can just be treated as single entities without needing to worry about a specific characters meaning.


How to say: "the water is boiling" in Taiwanese Mandarin?

"The water is boiling."

We say 水開了 in Taiwan. Nothing else.

我們都說「水開了」，好像沒有人用其他講法。


I think the 报 here is referring to registering/signing up/apply as in 报名.

A: Have you registered/signed up for X class yet?
B: Yes, I have (registered/signed up).
甲: 你 X(课/班) 报名了吗？
乙: 嗯 我报了。


How can I put the understandability of classical Chinese and modern Chinese into scale?

in short, it's middle english.

a long explanation, in general, roughly:

i would define classical chinese as "text from bc770 to bc221 (春秋 - 先秦),  afterward, it's literary chinese. there're big differences between this two, mainly, the grammar, style, vocabulary & underlying assumption.

for classical chinese text, thought modern average people know most of the characters and words, they would have great difficulty to understand an article without help. if you ask them to write in the same style. it's no.

it's like asking a land buddy to read the bowditch

for literary chinese text, modern average people would have difficulty to understand the articles, they may guess the meaning of words, clauses. if they've help (dictionaries, mentors), they could grasp the meaning roughly. i guess there're very few people can write literary chinese now.

it's like asking a high school children to read university level textbook.

next, types of articles has huge differences in the comprehension.

poems, correspondences and novels are easier to understand; while religious, medical, astronomical related materials are, very very tough.

have fun :)


天珩字库

【字海(叶典)】软件下载 has a file called:

天珩全字库V2.0.2(TH-Tshyn) (direct link) its description reads:

  目前字符数量最全的字体支持包，其中汉字部分支持大约12万汉字，主要设计为大陆风格，扩展EF主要为日本风格。另外本字库有Unicode10.0以内的几乎所有字符，包括表情符号(黑白色)。

It contains almost all characters in Unicode 10!

When installed you will be able to display all Ext. F characters, have a look at a sample:


How to stylized back-to-back or consecutive western-style quote marks?

Chinese quotation mark is called 引号 「」 『』

  “.......” =「......。」

~

  單引号 (single quotation mark) 「」

  Use 單引号 for quote「........。」

~

  雙引号 (double quotation mark) 『』

  Use 雙引号 for quote within quote...『....「...」....。』

~

  An end quote mark followed by an opening quote mark with no spaces in between.

  Is this correct?

There have to be space between back to back quote, Chinese quotation mark is automatically stylized with spaces.

《明珠缘》第三十七回：『体乾醉了，应星却未吃酒，兼之少年精壮，隔席把张体乾轻轻一把提过来，丢翻在地，拳打脚踢。「丢翻」意为打翻或摔倒在地等，可能源于武林。』

If you use English quotation mark for quotes, you have to put space between back to back quotes as if it was Chinese quotation mark .

《明珠缘》第三十七回："体乾醉了，应星却未吃酒，兼之少年精壮，隔席把张体乾轻轻一把提过来，丢翻在地，拳打脚‌踢。" " '丢翻' 意为打翻或摔倒在地等，可能源于武林。"


有一點　can only be used for bad things, but how about 一點？

Generally, people try to soften a negative assessment, or if you’re shy, downplay the intensity of your response.
“The dish was too salty!” vs “The dish was a bit salty.”
“It’s too noisy, let’s get out of here!” vs “It’s a bit noisy in here, shall we go elsewhere?”
As you can see, no matter the language spoken, it’s not what you say but how you say it that matters.

“有一點” serves this purpose in colloquial Chinese. I can’t imagine this phrase would be used in a professional or formal Chinese setting. It’s meant to downplay the intensity of your response.

To answer your question, it’s not necessarily the case that this phrase is used to denote a negative connotation.

“還不錯” 、”還可以” are other phrases used to downplay intensity of response. These are used to denote “is ok”.
Example: 這本書還不錯，那本書很有意思！

I understand you were looking to highlight usage of “有一點”, but for your other example regarding desserts, I would favour something closer to:
這道點心不是很甜。
The tone is more assertive, appropriate for when you don’t care about offending the chef/dessert purchaser.


了 as "perfect" aspect vs 了 as "actual" aspect theory

Answering your new edited question.  Your first reference, "Aspect in Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus-based Study" by Richard Xiao,Tony McEnery, indeed gives a novel fine-grained analysis of perfective particles in Mandarin.  But it is their own theory and so far as i can see more people cite it than expand on it. A list of 186 works citing it is given at https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&hl=en&cites=14017749010703840750&as_sdt=5

The issue here is grammaticalization.  If we want to say 了 has a purely grammatical role in the sentence 我吃了 then we obviously cannot just say that role is as a perfect aspect marker.  The word clearly does more than indicate perfect aspect.  So we must define some much more specific subdivision of perfect aspect like "actuality aspect."  But other grammarians prefer not to subdivide aspect that way, and rather say 了 has a lexical or pragmatic role in addition to its grammar.  There is a vast literature on this, and references in Michaelyus answer are one good way into it.


Words referring to the shape of Chinese characters

金-shaped

金字塔 Pyramid (Because the shape of a pyramid looks like 金)

田-shaped

田字格 grids with the arrangement like 田

工-shaped

工字梁 I-beam
工字柱 I-column

米-shaped

米字旗 the national flag of UK

之-shaped

之江 another name of Qiantang River, because its course looks like the shape of 之

井-shaped

井形格床 two-way grillage
井号 hash sign

人-shaped

人字队 in V formation (for example for birds)
人字鞋 flip-flops (the sandals)

一-shaped

一字队 in line formation (for example for birds)

丁-shaped

丁字路口 T-junction

十-shaped

十字路口 crossroads; intersection

八-shaped

八字脚 splayed feet(normally when a man walks, the two soles are approximately parallel; however, someone would splay his feet when walking, so the two soles looks like a trumpet, the 八 shape)
八字眉 eyebrow arranged in the shape like 八(imagine the eyebrow of the Angry Birds)

国字脸, means a face looks like square
日-shaped

马走日 knight (in both Chess and Xiangqi) goes L, that is, two steps in one direction plus one additional step perpendicularly. In Xiangqi where pieces go along lines instead of squares, the starting and stopping position of a 马 (knight) forms a 日.

大-shaped

大字形躺在床上 lying in bed with arms and legs open (that person must be very tired)

品-shaped

品字结构的汉字 other Chinese characters whose structure is similar to 品, with three identical parts arranged in a triangle. e.g. 晶， 众， 鑫， 森 ...
品字形布局 a triangular arrangement. This may refer to anything, like three buildings, three wells and so on.

弓-shaped

弓着身子 hump his/her back

卐 or 卍-shaped

卐字旗 the flag of the Nazi Party

回-shaped

回字形建筑 a building with a large courtyard in the center.

川 shaped

川字腹肌 six-pack abs


KEY defines:
十面
as:
(on) all sides, (from) all sides

Also from a Baidu Zhidao question:
十面指的东,南,西,北，东北，东南，西北，西南,上，下

Ten sides: east, south, west, north, north-east, south-east, north-west, south-west, above, below


忠美聖愛仁義利義好哀恕: How do I segment this proverb into separate words?

I would attempt to break it up as follows:
忠美圣  爱  仁义  利义  好哀恕

And from there we have something like:
The honest and virtuous sage loves benevolence, righteousness, morality, and justice [and here is where I am somewhat uncertain because of the many possible readings of 好] and readily sympathizes with and forgives others.


How many characters do Chinese pupils know at different ages?

Children usually go to grade 1 at the age of 6 or 7 in China.

According to "全日制义务教育语文课程标准", the character number that children should learn is:

Grade 1 to Grade 2: can read 1600 characters, and write 800 characters;

Grade 3 to Grade 4: can read 2500 characters, and write 2000 characters;

Grade 5 to Grade 6: can read 3000 characters, and write 2500 characters;

Grade 7 to Grade 9: can read 3500 characters, and write 3000 characters.


What does 早待不住了 mean in 要在往常，我一定早待不住了……?

要是 signifies a hypothetical construction. 往常 does not only mean ‘as usual’ (which only corresponds to 常, as in 通常, 正常, 常規); 往 here specifies the past, as in 往日, 往事, 往昔. Together they mean ‘normally in the past’.

早 is an adverb meaning ‘already’. Think of that as saying, something happened well in the past (early in the timeline).

他早(就)離開了。 He left already.

待 is a verb meaning ‘to stay’. 不住 is an add-on to it, literally meaning ‘not to a still’. Figuratively, 待不住 means you can’t contain yourself, or you’ve got itchy feet. Perhaps you're excited or anxious about something.

The whole sentence means ‘I’ in the past would’ve not been able to control myself in coming up with the many racing thoughts in my head (unsolved cases, scientific breakthroughs, lottery etc.). My mind is so irritable that these thoughts would have occurred very easily and very soon (hence the use of 早). But now my mind is completely at peace, so they are nowhere to be found.


Yes there are Hakka varieties that have palatalised 佢 and other former velars in front of front vowels, specifically in various Hakka varieties of Jiangxi and Hunan (寧龍片, 于信片/雩桂片 and 銅鼓片/銅桂片).
Without context, it is rather difficult to determine the tone category of the phonetic "51". But I shall assume it is a 陽平 tone.
A list of pronunciations for 渠 in a greater range of Hakka varieties can be found at zdic.net (where it also specifies that it is equivalent to Modern Standard Mandarin 他 for some varieties). I could not however find /tɕi51/ on the list, although there are several /tɕi24/ (陰平 tone, characteristic of 銅桂片).


Which is a better translation for the sentence "Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real." which will be used as a slogan?

I would prefer this one

  让我们一起创造一个网站，让遥感和摄影测量成为现实。大家一起按commit按钮。

but slightly change to

  我们一起来创造一个网站。一个可以让遥感和摄影测量成为现实的网站。大家一起按commit按钮。

This would suit better with your english version.


謙虛好學 means be modest and loves learning. 虛心求教 means be modest and appeals others to teach. To verified this you can search 謙虛 in dictionary owned by Ministry of education in Taiwan. It shows the description 虛心謙讓不自滿。(modest). In the dictionary 好學 described as 喜歡學習。(love learning). In the dictionary 虛心 described as 謙退容物，心不自滿。(modest). In the dictionary 求教 described as 懇請他人指教。(appeal others to teach).

Use quotation marks you can find tons of example on google for example: "謙虛好學" and "虛心求教" google search engine do show you that how much data it found. If there are so many people use this way it is more reliable. You can determine the reliability of usages.


伴 - accompany
配 - complement
XX 伴 YY means XX and YY are served together as a single dish. 蘋果批伴雲呢拿汁 means 蘋果批 and 雲呢拿汁 are to be eaten together
XX 配 YY (or more) means XX and YY (or more) are served together as a single set. 咖喱燒雞配印度薄餅及印度飯 has three items, 咖喱燒雞 is the main dish and 印度薄餅 and 印度飯 are the side dishes in the set.
The additional item  that is 配 to the main dish is considered a side dish
You can have 咖喱燒雞 配 土豆湯 或 雜菜湯, but you cannot have 咖喱燒雞 伴 土豆湯 或 雜菜湯 because they are not considered a single dish.


What is the meaning behind 川皇, which is some kind of slang for "Donald Trump"?

Chinese people use *皇 to describe the dominant person in some areas, 詹皇(LeBron James), but this kind of name can either be adoring or irony, each individual would interpret it subjectively.

So you would see that both supporters and haters all use 川皇.


How to solve the final round of 2020 China National Linguistics Olympiad?

(This is a work in progress)

This question is a test of the ability to apply linguistics and Chinese character principles to solve the matching puzzle. I will assume the following, in order of most to least certain:

Four-character phrase patterns are religiously adhered to, due to a desire to keep textual rhythm;
The principles of Tangut character structure is roughly the same as Chinese character structure (mainly semantic and phonetic components);
"Simple concepts" are represented by "Basic characters". This is the character/writing system equivalent of the idea of a Swadesh List.

Now, I'll present how I would solve the puzzle.

(7) and (12)
As four-character rhythms are the most important factor, I'll start off by matching the four-character correspondences between Tangut and Chinese.

Each one of these corresponds to one of

其徐如林
不動如山

The matching character in the Tangut fragment is the second character, which therefore corresponds to 「如」. If the second Tangut character corresponds to 「如」 while Chinese 「如」 is the third character, this implies that the Tangut's equivalent of 「如」 works in the opposite direction to the Chinese 「如」.

As an analogy, Chinese 「的」 or 「之」 works in the opposite direction of English of.

There is a reduplicated character in (7), while there is no such reduplication in either of the Chinese equivalents. This means that the Tangut reduplication corresponds to the use of a filler character in the Chinese to keep the four-character rhythm, and the only filler character in use in the Chinese phrases is 「其」. (7) therefore corresponds to 「其徐如林」, with the reduplication meaning something like 「徐」 - consider the Tangut reduplication to be something like 「慢慢」.
Thus,

 - (7) means 其徐如林
 - (12) means 不動如山

and

 - The first character in (7) has a semantic field of (many) plants, trees;
 - The first character in (12) has a semantic field of mountain.

(22)

If the first character in (12) has a semantic field of mountain and the only other phrase containing a character with a semantic field of mountain is 「峰」 (mountain peak) in 「峰雲」, then

 (22) matches to 「峰雲」.

and

 The second character in (22) is the Tangut equivalent of 「雲」.

Determination of the Tangut equivalent of 「氵」 (semantic component meaning water)

This is the character for cloud, and we can see that the left hand side component occurs in the following phrases:

「雲」 roughly has the following semantic fields:

Sky, weather, sun
Water

The Chinese phrases which may correspond to sky, weather, sun are:

白露
(maybe) 龍神
峰雲

The Chinese phrases which may correspond to water are:

唾液
魚
白露
峰雲
泥土
水門

so we can deduce that

 probably means water rather than sky, sun, weather.


Indefinite article vs numeral: use of "一" (yī)

I think ice cream is probably not the best example to demonstrate this, since it comes in many forms and some are counted as one ice cream (e.g. those that are attached to a stick), others as some ice cream (those that come in a huge platic box and you need to create portions and serve them to your family members). So I'll use a different example, something that is fully countable, 毛衣 (sweater or pullover).

If you want to say that you would like to buy a sweater, in Chinese you have three options.

我想买毛衣。No classifier/measure word, no number, just the bare noun. In this case the number of the sweaters is fully indefinite.
我想买件毛衣。No number, only the measure word + noun. Here 一 is dropped for the sake of brevity, but tacitly you always mean one item. This is the best way to use if you would like to say "a sweater".
我想买一件毛衣。Number + measure word + noun. This corresponds the best to "one sweater".


Can I use 现代汉语词典 outside of the paper dictionary?

You can buy it as an in-app purchase in the Pleco app. It costs 19.99 USD at the moment. For Android devices and also for iPhone /iPad. Reference: http://www.pleco.com/products/pleco-for-iphone-ipad/pricing-bundles/ in the section "Individual Add-ons /dictionaries ". If you install Pleco for free with just the 现代汉语词典 as an extra it should just cost 19.99 USD.


Macau Cantonese, any differences from HK?

A quick browse on Google Scholar yields a few results. Macau Cantonese appears to be intermediate between Zhongshan Cantonese and Hong Kong Cantonese.

There is only one rising tone derived from Middle Chinese 上聲, which is pronounced closer to the lower one of Guangzhou and Hong Kong Cantonese. This brings it closer to Zhongshan Cantonese.
However, this high rising tone re-appears in changed tone even in the Macau version of Cantonese, so the number of contrastive tones remains 6.
There is no longer the distinction between the high falling and high level tones, much like Hong Kong Cantonese but different from Guangzhou Cantonese.
Similar to across the Yuehai region, /l/ is replacing /n/ as an initial.
There is the loss of the w-glide after k- and g- and before -o-, like Hong Kong, although that is meant to have started very early. It is already complete in Zhongshan-Shiyi.
This paper (in Chinese) points to a difference in the long monophthongs between Macau, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. But there's little indication of how the non-cardinal vowels are different betwee the three.

There is meant to be a few sentence-final particles which are particularly well-used in Macau:

The sentence-final particle mo4 is stated as being "rarely attested in Hong Kong Cantonese..." but "fairly common in Macau Cantonese, especially among older speakers", and is described as a less intense version of 咩 me1.
I can't access this 2013 paper, but it seems to deal specifically with Macau Cantonese's particles.

Finally this 2010 review summarises research on Macao's evolving linguistic situation. It does mention something about the slight influence of Portuguese in loanwords, and the difference in the way English loanwords are employed in Macao vs HK media.


The name "Bashi Channel" comes from a kind of sweetcane wine only produced in Batanes. The wine local name in Itbayaten is "Bashi". European sailors had drunk with Bashi during staying in Batanes, and when they passed the channel, wind and current were so strong, just like drinking bashi. So they called the channel Bashi Channel.
Otto's interview with an Ivatan on 2014.05.09
Zhihu


点 or 一点 means some or a bit.

Just like we often use 很 (very) before adjectives and 些 (some) before nouns, we often need 点 just to make the sentence grammatical.

If you omit 点 saying 玩得开心, it sounds like a declarative sentence, rather than an imperative one.

Similarly, we say

快点 hurry up
小心点 be careful
慢点 take it easy

点 somehow functions like a sentence final particle like 吧, 了, etc. It is just used in certain types of sentences.


I am a Taiwanese, this song is really famous when I was a child. :)

In here 算什么 is a phrase to disparage something. The complete usage of 算什么 is 算是什么.
(算=>算是)

算是 can represent is (a member of) something.(but not so sure or you're telling someone who may not know this.) in English.

For example,

不要這樣捉弄他，這算是一種霸凌 => Don't make fun of him like that, it could be a kind of bully.

A: 王八蛋算是一種髒話嗎? => Is dickhead a swear?
B: 當然算! => Of course, it is!

As I said before, this phrase is going to disparage someone. The main idea of disparaging came from "什么"

Generally, 什么 can treat as "What". But 什么 also have a negative meaning when you use 什么 to describe a person, which represents nothing. So never use 什么 to a person.(Unless he/she is a d-word in above example.)

Example for negative meaning of 什么,

你以為你算什麼東西? => Who do you thing you are?
(English is more rational when blaming someone, at least calling that one as a human. In Chinese, they don't even treat you as a human kind)

Since 林志玲 and 侯佩岑 are beautiful. And MC Hotdog wants to emphasis that how he loves 台妹, so he says that all he loves is 台妹 despite there comes a real beauty.

So, all this sentence(对我来说，林志玲算什么) is saying is To me, 林志玲 is nothing.(compare with 台妹)


How widely used are 印章 compared to signatures?

Organizations often use 印章 while signatures are used personally.
If you are representing an organization, 印章 usually are required, but signature is acceptable for a person representing himself.
Example:
A bank is providing a loan to me, on the contract there will be bank employee's signature, bank's 印章 and my signature, this is acceptable.
Of course, if you have a personal 印章, you can use it with your signature, that's fine.
PS: This is in mainland China, not sure the what the situation is in Taiwan


Why did my Chinese teacher describe Donald Trump as 口吐莲花?

「莲花出淤泥而不染」，象征纯洁 (lotus flower came from mud but not stained by it. Symbolizing purity.)

Your teacher described him as 口吐莲花 in an ironic way,  mocking his foul mouth

Idiom 舌灿莲花: 譬喻说话的文采和美妙 ("the tongue sparks lotus flower" refers to having the literary talent to speak beautifully.)

Again, ironically, your teacher was mocking his lack of literary talent and his incoherent speeches


What is the 'correct' way to pronunce 人?

The place of articulation varies connsiderably from the approximant /ɹ/ sound of the English phonem usually transcribed as /r/. Eng. RP (received pronunciation) is a true retroflex /r/ (like Slavonic pron.) and is also a distinct from what I would here as the initial in 人, or 日 for example. I've lived in several areas and have been exposed to a number of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. With Chinese pron. I tend to think of what is the most widely understood, rather than correct or incorrect.
"Similar to s in pleasure in English, but with a retroflex articulation. Otherwise, some speakers pronounce it as an English R, but lips are unrounded."
Denti-alveolar and retroflex series
"The retroflex consonants (like those of Polish) are actually apical rather than subapical, and so are considered by some authors not to be truly retroflex; they may be more accurately called post-alveolar.[2][3] Some speakers not from Beijing may lack the retroflexes in their native dialects, and may thus replace them with dentals.[1]:26"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology
This is true in my experience.


'走'(to walk) is the verb

'到'(arrive/ to) in '走到'(to walk to) is the resultative verb particle

Resultative verb particle completes the verb action. in this case- you walk to/ you walk and arrive.

'得'(able to) in '走得到' is the potential particle

There are only two potential particles. They are 得(can) and 不(cannot). You are either potentially can or cannot walk there.

'吗' in '走得到吗？' is the final interrogative particle (indicates the phrase is a question)

  "走得到吗？" means "can (I) walk to (that place)?"


精益求精, how to properly interpret this classical Chinese chengyu?

精 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/565/
[4] [adj] skilled; versed; proficient

~

益 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1217/
[1] [v] increase; add to; augment [2] in a higher degree; to a greater extent; more

~

求 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/883/
[2] seek

~

精益求精 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/7244/
(idiom) to constantly improve oneself

Can someone please better explain the arrangement XY求X?

It is an idiom, not a sentence. Idioms do not have to follow normal grammar rules. You just have to look at each character within an idiom to construct a coherent meaning in your mind. In the case of 精益求精, it offers:
精 "proficient" (adj)
益 "in a higher degree" (adverb phrase) +  求 "seek" (V)
精 "proficient" (adj)
(and it does not constitute a sentence. )

"proficient in a higher degree seeking proficient"

~
You have to decode the meaning with logical deduction and get:

"(someone already) proficient (still) seeking proficiency in a higher degree"

But most of the time, it is best to learn the story of the idiom and memorize the meaning behind it.


Is it ok to use colour character in name (not surname character)?

Color character can be used in names. But be careful, a bad combination will ruin everything. I try to make up some.

葉紅 is better than 葉紅魚. It evokes imagination of leaves turning red in the fall.

(It turned out that it's better if the name matches the surname.)

黃 itself is a surname, so I ve heard of few people's names with it.  I propose a name with it, however, for I like it very much.

懷黃 黃 means gold seal, a tally of official position. 佩紫懷黃是也。懷, hold. So 懷黃 means hold the gold seal, equivalent of take official position.

（懷 itself is a rare surname）

紫 is always a noble color. The uniforms of high rank officers in many dynasties are of 紫. 有言事金紫也。

You may think “佩紫” in “佩紫懷黃” is good （though here 紫 doesn't refer to the color of the uniform）, but it is  phonetically poor to many ears.

紓紫 has a close meaning as in 綰黃紓紫 and sounds good as well.

Unfortunately 綠 is usually the color of low rank officer's uniforms. But if we give good interpretation, it can also means a lot.

沈綠（chen3 lv4）

note：

沈 is not a surname here. For example, 方沈綠 is the full name.

沈 is a variant of 沉, but 沈 looks more poshԅ(¯ㅂ¯ԅ).

Interpretation:

沈綠：dark green. A comfortable, modest color.

Homonymic to 承（cheng3）綠，and 綠 is 籙's original character. So we can interpret it as 承籙.

圖籙，帝王承天命之書也。承籙 is one of the most ambitious, exaggerate words★.

Then 沈綠 is a superficially modest but actually exaggerate name. And if you explain all things to others you will receive awes for the cultural depth (and pretentiousness (don't care this part, COOL is more important than anything eles!))

There are many other colors, such as 朱/紅/緋/彤/丹/赭/茜/絳/栗/橘/翠/緗/蒼/青/皂/杏/漆/皓/黛/玄/ ……………………

As you may perceive, the examples I give are all about bureaucratic ambition but this is just one of the many topics of a name. So you are totally free of coming up with names of different styles with color characters in.

PS. My most self-content name that I propose is 李 嶔彧 (´▽｀)ノ♪

EDIT:

The poem 紅紅白白花臨水，碧碧黃黃麥際天 suddenly comes to my mind. And I think 際黃（Bordered by wheat fields） is a good choice. （Better with a surname of fourth tone, e.g. 宋際黃）


Your sentence translates as:

But we cannot generalize the standpoint of this author.

It is most often used together with 不能 or 不可 (i.e. in negative sentences, observe the 不 in both cases) or even as a noun, e.g. 这样的一概而论: Such generalization/This kind of generalization.


The "bot" as a software program could be translated just like the physical robots as "機器人" (literal meaning is "machine"+"person") in the Mandarin Chinese; or it would also be called more specifically as "機器人程序" or "機器人程式" ("robot"+"program").

But, in the spoken Chinese, people may just borrow the original English word "bot" instead of using any localized translations mentioned above.

Some educational or academic sources would suggest some complex terms but they are rarely being used in the actual conversations or texts.


Difference between zhongshu and zaishu and zhishu?

植树, 栽树

These terms are written words and sound very formal.

种树

This term can be used in both formal and colloquial ways. 种树节 would sound too colloquial, and is not proper for a special day's name.
For 栽秧 and 植树/种树, instead of 植秧, these are just idiomatic set phrases. There's no need to delve into the difference.


Is it true that a word 航空母舰 (lit. "an aircraft carrier") can be used as an euphemism or a joke for a "woman with big breasts" or "plump woman"?

No, there shouldn't be such relation. I can guess where you might see this weird relation between aircraft carriers and women with large breasts. This connection often appears in warship personification animations/drawings/games, among which the Japanese game KanColle (舰队Collection) is probably the most famous one around the world.

The reason behind is that authors of animes/drawings often relate the tonnage of a warship (not only aircraft carriers, but also battleships and sometimes even heavy cruisers) to their breast sizes. In a warship personification game, if an aircraft carrier character is designed/drawn with flat breasts, she will probably become a popular topic among players for a long time. For example, among games developed in China, the Saratoga aircraft carrier in the game Azur Lane (碧蓝航线) and Hood battlecruiser in the game Warship Girls (战舰少女) are those who break the breast-tonnage rule.

As a summary, please do NOT try to use this word to describe anyone in real life. Among warship games players, they might understand what you are referring to. But for most people outside this group, they probably get confused, or even worse, treat this as impolite or offensive. We can make fun of game characters in some cases, but never of a true person.


Chinese Verse: Is "Broaden One's Horizons" a Translation That Makes Sense?

You have: 如再宽阔些便可知千里阵云怎么写了
This is similar to yours, (maybe yours is a reference??):
念去去⑦，千里烟波，暮霭沉沉楚天阔⑧。
Memories wander, 10000 leagues of mist covered water, (here) dense evening mists (but in) Chu skies are clear
⑦去去：重复“去”字，表示行程遥远。
⑧“暮霭”句：傍晚的云雾笼罩着南天，
muai phrase: evening mists shroud the southern sky,
深厚广阔，
deep and wide,
不知尽头。
seemingly boundless.
暮霭（ǎi）：
muai:
傍晚的云雾。沈沈：即“沉沉”，
evening mists deep deep: namely "(lie) heavy",
深厚的样子。楚天：指南方楚地的天空。
appearing profound.
楚天：指南方楚地的天空。
Chu sky: refers to the clear skies of the Southern Chu Province


Which of these words for "to carry" are actually used?

扛kang2 not 1

the most commonly used is 带 (to carry, to bring, to take)
Sorry, I don't bring the document with me today.
抱歉，我今天没带这个文件。
Yesterday I forgot to take my homework to school.
昨天我忘把作业带到学校了。
He always carries an ipad to the meeting.
他总是带ipad去开会。
No one is allowed to carry a gun in this country
在这个国家，任何人不能携带枪支。
Mice carry diseases.
老鼠携带疾病。


What is the correct Chinese expression for "Only child"?

The Chinese expression for 'only Child' can be '独生子女(only child)','独子(only son)','独女(only daughter)'，or some more ancient or literary words like '独苗(only child)','单丁(only son)',单根独苗(only child or only descendant).
Native Chinese speakers may have other expressions like,

他膝下仅有一女。（He has only one daughter.）
他是那老汉唯一的儿子。（He is the only son of that old man.）
他是三代单传。（He is the only one son for several generations in the family.）

I hope the above helps.


Literally, It means strings broken so that the sound of 古箏(or 古琴) stopped.

素絃聲斷 comes from a poem. 素絃聲斷 means "It's no longer possible to hear that the beautiful lady plays 古箏(or 古琴) for me again."

倚危亭。恨如芳草，萋萋剗盡還生。念柳外青驄別後，水邊紅袂分時，愴然暗驚。
無端天與娉婷。夜月一簾幽夢，春風十里柔情。怎奈向、歡娛漸隨流水，素弦聲斷，翠綃香減，那堪片片飛花弄晚，蒙蒙殘雨籠晴。正銷凝。黃鸝又啼數聲。

when you see ancient Chinese dramas, the strings breaks when someone plays 古箏(or 古琴)...It's a sign that something BAD will happen.


What is the equivalent in English for 喷子？

troll

One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument

by Alien Entity September 22, 2002

Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=troll


What pronunciation is '骑‘ in 千里走单骑’的‘骑’是什么的骑？qi 或者 ji?

《普通话异读词审音表》规定，“骑”在现代汉语中“统读”qí。

According to the 《The Authorized Table of Mandarin Words with Variant Pronunciations》，the word “骑”  is always pronounced with qí in modern Chinese.

A famous and popular Chinese professor, 易中天 (Zhongtian Yi), who is famous for his lectures of 三国演义, pronounced "骑" in "千里走单骑" as qí. You may also search "千里走单骑" on youtube, and you may find that in many videos, it is pronounced as qí. For example, 0:38 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzLT9blEYdc


As a native speaker, I certainly never encounter anyone from any part of the mainland who uses "便" in colloquial language frequently, if ever. I'd say "便" is basically a written equivalent of "就".


What's the meaning of this sentences with 丛, 纷纷扬扬 and 飘来飘去?

丛 just means "thicket". What did your dictionary say?

纷纷扬扬 is a fixed expression meaning "fluttering (of leaves)" exactly as the rest of the sentence describes. A good dictionary should include fixed expressions like this. The first part 纷纷 does mean "in succession", but it's not usually useful to try to break down fixed expressions to understand the literal meaning.

在空中 is in the air, yes.

X来X去 means "X back and forth". E.g. 走来走去

飘 means float or flutter. Have you tried looking things up on https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary ?


"Spiritual needs" is a typical word-to-word translation that is common in texts translated from Chinese but does not fit in the English context. You may consider other words such as "psychological" or "mental".

Similarly, for "物质需要", I think "physical needs" is better than "material needs".


What is the function of 而 and 為咗 in 我哋為咗決定去邊度度蜜月而閙交 in Cantonese?

[為咗 A 而 B] = [ to B for A]. It is a two parts function word for  "for "

[(為咗) cause (而) verb]  =  [verb (for) cause]

Example :

"(為咗)钱(而)工作" =  "work (for) money"

  [我哋(為咗)決定去邊度度蜜月(而)閙交] =  [we (to) quarrel (for) deciding where to go to have honeymoon]

In English, we have to omit "to" before the verb if there's a subject in the sentence , e.g. "to work for money" -->  "I work for money". but we don't omit "而" in "我為咗钱而工作" in Chinese, because [為咗 cause 而 verb] is a set structure.


迎春（学名：Jasminum nudiflorum），又称金腰带，香港俗称串串金，是木犀科素馨属的植物。早春先于叶子开放出黄色鲜艳的小花(bright yellow flowers)，给人们带来春意，所以花名曰迎春。

Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) is a slender, deciduous shrub native to China. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental and is reportedly naturalized in France and in scattered locations in the United States.

Let's inspect the structure of the phrases.

蛋黄的迎春花
粉红的桃花
白色的玉兰花
紫色的丁香花

These are appositives.
They have the same pattern, color + flower name.

The author uses two words (+ 的) to describe a color.
Thus, 蛋黄色 is simplified to 蛋黄, and 粉红色 to 粉红.

蛋黄(色)的花 egg yellow flowers


This guy gdfsljz made a post in the zdic forums I think it quite enlightening 丼 ［汉字资料］:

  粤方言中，此字则解释为粤语中dump的正字。贵州苗族中，有格丼（bong）一地，是苗语中圣地的意思。由于丼字是冷僻字，为了便于宣传，当地政府已将其改为格凸。字典解释[编辑本段]辞海：其一念 jǐng/ㄐㄧㄥˇ，即井字的古字；其二念 dǎn/ㄉㄢˇ，即东西投到井里的声音。语源由来辞典（日本）：丼とは、食物を盛る茶碗より厚手で深い陶制の钵。どんぶり钵。また、どんぶり钵に入れた料理。（大意为：盖饭、比盛食物的碗更深的陶制钵。 丼钵，丼另外放进丼钵的菜。）字源考究[编辑本段]中文丼字来源篆体，因华北平原土厚井深，站在井口俯视，黑洞幽邃，唯见天光投影，圆圆一点。若无这个亮点，那就是没水的涸井，丼了。 日文里，丼字是来源江戸时代，说「悭贪屋（けんどんや）」是一家充满着单份的饮食东西的店，这里使用的钵叫做「悭贪振り钵（けんどんぶりばち）」，于是就把这种钵简称为され「どんぶり钵」（比盛食物的碗更深的陶制钵）。悭贪指吝啬，贪得无厌的的这种意思，所以在「悭贪屋（けんどんや）」吃「どんぶり钵」，可以引申指那些为人又吝啬又欲望深的家伙。日文字典中同样解释说：汉字「丼」是「井」的本字，字面意思为向深井中投入物体时产生的拟音词，日文中采用「丼」作为どんぶり的中文写发更进一步表示了「大碗钵」（的深）。丼与井[编辑本段]《说文解字注》第五篇下的「丼」字小篆，中间有一点，显示《说文》认为「丼」 为井字的初形。《说文》对  的解释为 ：「八家为一  ，象构韩形。…古者伯益初作井 。」， 并认为中间那一点  「象罋」。然而，在李孝定(1965)编纂的《甲骨文字集释》内 ，甲骨文皆作「井」，中间没有一点。在已知的卜辞中，此字皆用于「井方」、「帚井」等处，都没有用来指涉水井。至于周代的金文，根据周法高(1982)编纂的《金文诂林》与 《金文诂林补》，就区分为「井」与「丼」两形。井字在很多地方可以通假作「刑」或 「型」，也用来作为地名或人名。「井」和「丼」两字截然有别，但都找不到一种用法是指涉「水井」的。根据全广镇(1989) 《两周金文通假字研究》（页205 ）与吴其昌(1991) 《金文世族谱》（卷二页五至六、卷一页十八至十九），中间有一点的「丼」，皆与姜姓之奠 (郑)    氏有关 ，例如  壶之「丼公」、  鼎之「丼叔」。中间无一点的井字，与「邢」字相通 ，受封者是周公之后，为姬姓 ，例如麦鼎之「井侯」。虽然在甲骨文卜辞与钟鼎铭文中，都找不到作为水井之用的井字，但是《说文》也确指「丼」字是「井」字的初形。我们还不知道 ，究竟是在周代分化为二字，或是水井的「丼」在甲骨文里本来中间就有一点 ，只是因没有用在地名或人名上，所以才未在卜辞中留下记录。如果是后者，那有可能「井」字的原义就是「效法」或「规范」 ，并由此引申出「阱」、「刑」、「型」等字。 丼字如果是从井字衍申而来，本来或许是写作「丼」，从水从井。此字见于甲骨文，但不见于《说文》，在后来的《集韵》与《玉篇》中，此字解作「小水」，或假借作「阱」。可能是再由「丼」简化作「丼」，中间那一点并非如《说文》所说的是「象罋」。这只是个猜想，目前还没有直接的证据来证实或否证。 日本盖饭的来历[编辑本段]曼谷王朝自1728年在湄南河东岸另辟新都建朝至今，湄南河曼谷西岸一段就被统称为吞武里（Thonburi ）地区，就像上海的浦东一样。曼谷王朝之前，泰国处于有着中国血统的郑王（King Taksin）统治下的吞武里王国时代。据说那个时候，吞武里王国出口了很多瓷器到日本。盛盖浇饭用的盖碗往往来自吞武里王国，所以日本人就把盖碗饭叫成了Thonburi饭。由于日语人发音常常T、D不分的缘故，Thonburi 在日本人口中成了Donburi，后来又简称为Don了

As it comes from Japanese, the Japanese meaning of the character was, seemingly, originally to do with food.

Quite a messy history, really.


Is there a Chinese saying similar to “Once two men share a woman, they’re brothers.”

I believe it is a Cantonese term.

Traditionally, a man would call the husband of his wife's older sister 襟兄; and that 襟兄 would in term referring the man as 襟弟. They were 襟兄弟 (lapels brothers) or 老襟 (fellow lapels) to each other.

襟兄弟 originally describe the relationship of two men married a pair of sisters. Somehow, people began to use this term to refer to the relationship of different men married the same woman in different time.

To avoid confusion and being joked at, people stopped calling each other 襟兄 or 襟弟 and started calling each other 姊夫 (older sister's husband) or 妹夫 (younger sister's husband) instead.

Outsiders in occasions would still refer them as 襟兄弟, with the understanding of the term also has a second meaning that is derogatory.

Nowadays, calling the men who have sexual relationship, (married or not) with the same woman in different time (or worse, at the same time) as 襟兄弟 (lapels brothers) or 老襟 (fellow lapels) had became the main definition, while the original definition of describing the relationship between two brothers-in-law had became secondary.

a Chinese reference

a Cantonese reference

  There's also a term 同靴 (in a same boot) or 靴兄弟 (boot brothers)
  refers to men who have sex with a same prostitute
  https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/62611723.html

  旧时称同嫖一妓者。《官场现形记》第三二回：“幸喜他平日，也常到 钓鱼巷 走走，与 余荩臣 有同靴之谊。”

  同靴之谊 means "relationship between fellow prostitute clients".  It also means "relationship between two men who have sex with a same woman" nowadays.


Which fonts show the stroke order of all characters?

No fonts do, just sites with pictures or animations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:-bw.png#file

Instructions: Past the address in your browser bar, then write a character between "File:" and "-bw", like this "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:你-bw.png#file". It will show you the character's stroke order, not animated, but very clear.
http://www.visualmandarin.com/tools/dictionary/

This shows the stroke order but not the stroke direction.


In this context, difference should be translated as 差額 or simply 差.

  四和六的差額為二

But if I have the freedom to not translate difference as noun but verb, I would simply say

  四和六相差二


srs deck testing intonations/pronunciations of words with multiple characters

The website

https://www.archchinese.com/mandarin_chinese_tone_drill.html

was useful for me for learning to recognize the tones. You can practice your listening skills doing the following exercise. You have to press Play and you will hear a word (you can repeat as many times you want) and you have to choose which tone you heard. Then, it will show in the bottom if you were right or wrong and the actual word you heard. I think if you create an account you can also use it for multiple syllable words. I believe after some days of practicing, your skills for recognizing the tones will improve quickly.


Can someone translate what is written in this photo please?

Those are traditional characters
愛 (ài) Love
尊敬 (zūnjìng) Respect, honour, esteem
忠誠 (zhōngchéng)  Loyal, faithful


My take to this is different.

'桌玛' in Tibetan is like 'goddess'.

We can seize the meaning of '天嫁' from this two lines, 那是天上的桌玛, 骑着白驹要远嫁. It means the goddess from haven will go to a marriage （on the earth）faraway from her home(haven) by riding a white horse.

So, '天嫁' means the marriage of the goddess from the heaven. It seems that she suffered lots of hardship from there according to the song.


給 6

  用於動詞前，表示加強「被動」或「處置」等語氣。

在這裡是「加強處置的語氣」。
沒有「給」，也可以，但是語氣較弱。

Used before a verb, to enhance the "passive" or "to deal with" and other tones.

It is the tone of "to deal with" here (in your example).
It is OK without 給, but the tone is weaker.


It should be 君令有所不受. The whole sentence 将在外，君令有所不受 means: (if) the general is far away (at the battlefield), he does not have to obey all emperor's orders. The deeper meaning is that the general should judge and act according to the real situations at the battlefield and thus doesn't need to obey all the orders.

将在军 means the same as 将在外. 军 there means at war as well. Hence 将在军 is also correct.

君命 is the same as 君令. Both 命 and 令 mean order/command there. Hence both 君命 and 君令 are correct. 军命 is not correct. It does not have the right meaning.

主令 means one's master's order, 主 means master. So it means the same as well.


I think those are generally fine for normal purposes, especially if you're emailing. Traditional etiquette has substantially declined with email use. 亲爱 is quite a bit more personal than the equivalent English "Dear xxx" though, so you could replace that with just a greeting, e.g. "王先生您好

But since you asked for "proper etiquette"... Here's a brief rundown of the main points for a proper Chinese letter. Though I've left out some less important sections, so for truly official purposes you'd want to consult a real style guide.

For obvious reasons hardly anyone writes to actual friends or family in such complicated manner, although government agencies / companies/ wedding invitations and other formal occasions still adhere to these styles.

稱謂: Addressing the Recipient

This section is similar to English letter writing. Use an appropriate title e.g. "President Huang" or "Ms Wong" or "Mother". Do not include names for elders in your immediate family.

提稱語: Inviting the Recipient to Read

You might think of this as sort of like "Dear " in English, except this comes after the recipient's name+title. Choose an appropriate one from below:

Parents/Grandparents: 尊鑒(common), 膝下(common), 膝前,
Teachers: 道鑒(common), 函丈, 壇席, 講座, 尊前,尊鑒, 賜鑒
Generic elders: 賜鑒(common), 尊前, 尊鑒, 鈞鑒, 尊右, 懿鑒(women only)
Fellow students: 硯右, 硯席, 文几, 文席
Generic equals: 大鑒(common), 惠鑒(common), 台鑒, 左右, 足下, 閣下, 雅鑒
Children/Nieces/Nephews: 知之, 知悉
Generic juniors: 鑒(common), 青鑒,青覽, 入目, 入覽, 收覽, 如見, 如晤, 如握, 如面, 收覽, 收閱, 收讀,  閱悉, 知悉, 見字
Military officers: 幕下, 麾下, 鈞鑒. 鈞座
Politicians: 勛鑒, 鈞鑒, 鈞座, 台座, 台鑒
Educators: 講座, 座右, 塵次. 有道, 著席, 撰席, 史席
Buddhist priests: 方丈, 道鑒, 有道
Taoists priests: 法鑒, 壇次
Generic/Christian priests/nuns: 道鑒
Married couple: 儷鑒
Mourning: 禮席, 禮鑒, 苫次, 矜鑒

And last but not the least:

Modern Age Catch All Replacement: : <--- yes, a colon

申悃語: Ending the Letter

You can either pick an appropriate one based on recipient, or based on the nature of your letter.

Reply letter: 耑肅敬覆, 耑此奉覆, 肅函奉覆, 耑此敬覆, 匆此布覆
Congratulatory letter: 敬申賀悃, 肅表賀忱, 用申賀意
Mourning letter: 恭陳唁意, 肅此上慰, 敬申哀悃
Thank-You letter: 肅誌謝忱, 敬此鳴謝, 耑鳴謝悃
Elders: 謹此, 肅此, 肅此上達, 敬此馳稟, 耑肅奉稟
Equals: 專此, 耑此, 特此, 草此, 耑此奉達, 匆此布臆, 特此奉聞, 草此奉達

Or:

Simplification: skip this section entirely.

問候語: Paying Respects

This follows the previous section immediately. You can pick one based on who the recipient is.

Parents/Grandparents: 敬請 | 福安, 叩請 | 金安
Teachers: 敬請 | 道安, 恭敬 | 教安, 恭請 | 誨安, 敬請 | 講安
Generic elders: 敬請 | 鈞安, 恭敬 | 崇安, ``敬頌 | 崇祺,恭請 | 禔安`
Equals: 敬請 | 大安, 順頌 | 台祺, 敬候 | 近祉, 順候 | 起居, 順頌 | 時綏
Juniors: 順問 | 近祺, 即問 | 近好, 順頌 | 日祉
Military: 敬請 | 戎安, 肅請 | 捷安, 肅頌 | 戎祺
Politicians: 敬請 | 鈞安',敬請 | 勛安,祇請 | 政安`
Educators/Academics: 即頌 | 文祺, 即頌 | 文綏, 敬請 | 學安
Writers: 敬請 |著安, 順請 | 撰安
Business: 敬請 | 籌安、順候 | 財安
Traveller: 敬請 | 旅安
Married Couple: 敬請 | 儷安
Someone ill: 恭請 | 痊安, 敬祝|  早痊, 敬請 | 愈安, 即請 | 衛安

Or choose one based on the season/time:

Spring: 敬請 | 春安, 順頌 | 春祉
Summer: 敬請 | 夏安, 此頌 | 暑綏
Autumn: 並候 | 秋綏, 即請 | 秋安
Winter: 敬請 | 冬安, 敬頌 | 冬綏
Morning: 即頌 | 晨安, 即請 | 早安
Noon: 此請 | 午安
Evening: 即頌 | 晚安
Generic good day: 即請 | 刻安, 順候 | 日祉, 即候 | 時祉

Or based on the purpose of the letter:

Wedding congratulation: 恭請 | 燕喜,恭賀 | 大喜, 恭請 | 喜安
Happy New Year: 恭賀 | 年禧, 恭賀 | 新禧, 即頌 | 歲禧
Mourning: 敬請 | 禮安, 順候 | 素履, 此候 | 孝履, 順問 | 苫次

Note that these are supposed to be broken int two lines; i.e.:

  bala bala bala bala。肅此上達。敬請

  福安

Also, notice how most of these reuses the same set of perhaps 3-4 phrases for the first half. For these the situation-specific content lies in the second half of the sentence. (the part that comes on a new line). Which means you can mix the first half a bit for variation if you wish.

署名: Sender's Name

Can be either personal name, or the family name plus personal name. This should be prefixed with your self-reference, in smaller font. The self-reference should complement with the title of the recipient you used in the first section; i.e. if you used Smith 吾師 to address the recipient, then here you'd say 受業 TrustedDeveloper. Other common ones are:

To grandparents: 孫, 孫女
To parents: 兒, 女
To teacher: 生
To friends: 弟, 妹

末啟詞: Finish

This goes directly after your name from the previous section; i.e. on the same line. It is analogous to saying "from " in English. Choose an appropriate one from below:

Parents/Grandparents: 敬稟, 叩稟, 拜稟, 肅稟, 謹稟, 叩上
Generic elders: 敬上, 謹上, 謹稟, 拜上、謹肅, 敬肅, 敬啟, 謹啟
Equals: 拜啟, 敬啟, 啟, 上, 白, 謹啟, 謹白, 手啟, 手上, 頓首, 上言, 拜言
Juniors: 字, 諭, 手諭, 手示, 手草, 草示

Alternatively, when the letter is a reply:

Reply: 復, 手復, 謹復, 肅復


I stated in my comment that I don't think study the etymology help you understand a character as much as cross reference the roles of a character in different compound words.

For 認
[1] recognise; identify; make out
[2] admit; acknowledge; agree; accept
[3] enter into a certain relationship with
[4] offer/undertake to do sth

~

For 識
[1] [v] know; recognize; discern
[2] [n] knowledge; opinion; view

~

For 認識 = to know, to recognize.
The logic behind it came from the meaning 'to recognize' in 認 and "to know" in 識. You recognize something, to know it

Similarly:
見識: experience(v) = (see + know)
*'to see to know'
見識: experience(n)= (see + knowledge)
knowledge from what you had seen
學識: knowledge; acquirements (n) = (learn/study + know)
knowledge from what you had studied
常識: common sense; general knowledge(n) = (common + knowledge)
knowledge that is common
Back to 認識, you know 識 is a knowledge you gain by '認' and from all the meanings 認 contained, only "recognise / identify" make sense, thus we know 認識 means "knowledge gained by identify something" or " to identify something to know it."
As for 知道 (to know about something)

知
[1] [v] know; understand; be aware of
[2] [n] knowledge; learning
[3] [v] to inform; notify; tell

~

道
[7] [v] think; suppose; wonder

~

知道: to know about something

you 知 (know; understand; be aware of) and 道 (think) - "you know and think of/suppose something as~"
From the information above, we can discern the difference between 認識 and 知道 :

認識 = 1.(v) to recognize to know  2.(v)know (someone/ something you recognize/ identified before)
you have to meet someone, or come across something to recognize and know him or it.
知道= to know (be aware of someone/something)
You don't have to meet a person to know him, you can know or be aware of someone by reading about him or heard of him.


I think it's better translated as neural response than literally 'bodily reaction' since the neural system controls the reaction of the body.

I'm not a neurologist, but I do have that feeling that if I had a quarrel with someone, I would need some time to restore my spirits, In that period, my reaction to outside circumstance slows down a lot, I'm distressed, distracted and thus can't focus, perhaps some nervous substances not working as usual?

You can imagine that if you quarrel with you GF, even someone throw something at you you wouldn't care that much or you couldn't even feel that.


Why do some Chinese characters for animals not use the radical 犭?

Some Chinese characters are pictographs. For instance 牛 and 羊 come from pictographs of animals.

By contrast, many other Chinese characters are composites of a "meaning part" and a "sound part". 狗, 猪, 猴 have as meaning part an alteration of 犬 "dog" and sound parts 句 (compare 够), 者 （compare 煮, 著, 诸), 候 respectively. 鸡 has meaning part 鸟 “bird”. The left hand side, 又, is an elision of the sound part 奚 (pronounced xi1).

There is no rule that all characters must have both a sound part and a meaning part. Many besides 牛 and 羊 do not.

However some characters originated in a way similar to your suggestions. For instance 萬 is from a pictograph of a scorpion. At some point a scribe added the common meaning part 虫 "bug", yielding the character 蠆 "scorpion". This was probably more as a disambiguation than out of any desire that all bugs have 虫 in their character for the sake of consistency.


Does 慢一点 mean "be careful" even in a general context?

I don't think that 慢一点 is the same as 小心一点.

I am from Manchuria, and as far as I know, sometimes when people are gonna leave each other, a person may say 慢走 or 慢点走 as an expression for "Goodbye". Maybe a personal bias, I don't think 慢走 is frequently used.

I also agree with you that, doing things slowly may not always help.


How do you say "preferences" as opposed to "demands"?

When asking for preference, you can use 愿意 to indicate what you are willing/prefer to do, or ask what he is willing/prefers to do. You can also use 想 to ask/indicate what he/you wish(es) or is thinking of (doing/wanting).

E.g., 你愿意租什么样的公寓(呀)? 我愿意找个有两层的公寓. (What kind of apartment/flat would you like to rent? I would like to find a two-story apartment/flat.)

You can use 必须 indicate what you must have or have happen.

E.g., 那桌子必须是红色的. (That table must be red.) / 你必须把他带回来. (You must bring him back.) / 那公寓必须有一个浴缸. (That apartment/flat mush have a bathtub.)

If you want to indicate that an alternative something also good/fine, but not would not be your top choice, you can use 也好, 也可以, or 也行.

E.g., 我喜欢(吃)香草(味的)冰淇淋, 不过草莓(味的)也行. (I like [to eat] vanilla [flavored] ice cream, but strawberry [flavored] is fine as well/also good.)


Google 粵詩.
This article (PDF Download from Cantonese Association) in 趣味詩文 gives a few examples.


窮則獨善其身﹒達則兼善天下

the original verse should use the character "善", which is from 孟子　盡心上

the verse "窮則獨善其身﹒達則兼濟天下", using the character "濟" is a deviation.

the earliest one i found, is from the letter "與元九書", written by 白樂天, which was in 白氏長慶集　卷四十五.

  古人云﹒窮則獨善其身﹒達則兼濟天下﹒僕雖不肖﹒常師此語﹒大丈夫所守者道﹒所待者時﹒

  時之來也﹒為雲龍﹒為風鵬﹒勃然突然﹒陳力以出﹒

  時之不來也﹒為霧豹﹒為冥鴻﹒寂兮寥兮﹒奉身而退

  進退出處﹒何往而不自得哉﹒

  故僕志在兼濟﹒行在獨善﹒奉而始終之則為道﹒言而發明之則為詩﹒謂之諷諭詩﹒兼濟之志也﹒謂之閒適詩﹒獨善之義也﹒故覽僕詩﹒知僕之道焉

first of all, it's not talking about charity. then, such claim, implying it's confucianism; is falseness.

intepreting "達" as rich, "濟" as "help the needy", "relieve" is, imo, imaginative, and severely derived from orthodox.

fortunately, the character "兼" is correctly interpreted.

edited.

let's examine the version of mr 白.

a manly man (大丈夫) behave (所守) according to the proper way (道), wait (所待) for [his] times (時).

when his times do not come (時之不來也), it's 窮; then (則), he make good (善 ) himself (其身) alone (獨)

when his times comes (時之來也), it's 達; which means he become high official, then (則), his governing accords to the proper way, brings goodness (濟) to all people in the nations (天下)

兼 (both), is used, because, in such state "達", he do goodness to himself, and, to others peoples.

imo, though the character "善" was replaced by "濟", mr 白's usage was similar to mr 孟's, without great difference.

classical text were interpreted, remarked through out history; so, it's better to use these remarks to understand the classical text.

that's culture heritage.

now, my rant, related to the comments:

1　he know the orthodox meaning, and ask for a government post from the communist.

2　he does not know the orthodox meaning, use current usage of character meanings, mislead other by implying it's confucianism.

it's no virtue, or cheating :(

last, a metaphor:

"dog", "green", "hot" & "house" are words taught in kindergarten, everyone know the meaning.

now, a "rich" man claims that "greenhouse" is a house with green color, "hotdog" is a dog that is hot.

how do you response?


What does 我正好是诗情勃发 mean in the Chinese translation of Roald Dahl's Matilda (p.2)?

The original English (p. 4) of 如果那天我正好是诗情勃发 is:

  "Or if I were feeling lyrical that day."

Your breakdown is okay. 诗情 is a word of its own though, it is defined by ABC as:

  poetic sentiment

You might even make a case for 诗情勃发 as a single term.

Chinese translations of English works are notoriously bad in general and this translation doesn't seem any more natural.


What is the first attested use of 美國/美国 in the sense of 'America' in Chinese?

There were more than 10 names for USA in history.

亚墨利加国, after 1776;
花旗国, after 1784;
咪唎坚国, after 1784;
咩哩干国, after 1820;
亚美利加兼合国, after 1833;
弥利坚国，即育奈士迭国, after 1836;
美理哥国, 美理哥合省国, 美理哥兼摄邦国, 1838;
亚美利格合省国, 1844;
亚美理驾会邦国, 1844;
亚美理驾合众国, 1844；
米利坚合众国, 1848;
大亚美理驾合众国, 1858;
大美联邦, 1861;
大美国, 1901;
美利坚合众国(美国), after 1902;
美利坚合众国, determined in 1913;

Reference: “美利坚合众国”译名的由来


How to translate the famous saying "路漫漫其修远兮，吾将上下而求索" in Li Sao?

The Wiki link you provided had the following reference:

  Stephen Owen (1996). An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (New York: W.W. Norton): 162–75.

Page 169 of the book contains the following section:

  I bade sun-driver Xi-he, to pause in her pace,
  to stand off from Yan-zi and not to draw night.
  On and on stretched my road, long it was and far,
  I would go high and go low in this search that I made

Here 路曼曼其修远兮，吾将上下而求索 matches up with:

  On and on stretched my road, long it was and far,
  I would go high and go low in this search that I made

That at least makes one published translation, that you can use. According to the Translations into Western languages on the Wikipedia page, this is, also, the most recent translation.

Other translations include:

James Legge's:

  The way was long, and distant far was my goal; I would ascend and descend, pursuing my search.

David Hawkes':

  Long, long had been my road and far, far was the journey; I would go up and down to seek my heart's desire.

Yang Hsien-yi's:

  The way was long, and wrapped in gloom did seem, As I urged on to seek my vanished dream.

and Monica Eileen Mclellan Zikpi's

  The road long, long, such vast distance —— I will go above and below in pursuit

David Hawkes' translation is also cited in Pleco's PLC dictionary:

  路漫漫其修远兮, 吾将上下而求索。(屈原《离骚》)
  lù mànmàn qí xiū yuǎn xī, wú jiāng shàng-xià ér qiú suǒ.
  Long, long had been my road and far, far was the journey; | I would go up and down to seek my heart’s desire.


Chinese dictionaries index the entries by Radical (部首) and Strokes (筆劃)
The character 人 is also it's radical. It is listed first in the 亻radical section

人

Radical: 亻 (#9)

Stroke count: 2

The radical of the character 仁 is 亻 and it has four strokes, therefore, it is listed after 人 in the 亻 radical section because 仁 has two strokes more than 人

仁

Radical: 亻 (#9)

Stroke count: 4

The radical of 靈 is 雨 which has a stroke count of 8, therefore, it is listed far down after 亻 on the radical list
The character 靈 itself has 24 strokes and would be listed far down in the 雨 radical section

靈

Radical: 雨 (#173)

Stroke count: 24

It is not as efficient as The Alphabetical indexing system but it is what we have. The major problem of the radical-stroke count system is the users need to know the radical of the character he is looking for. If you don't know it, you can't even start to search.
Even when you knew the radical and started your search in the correct section, you still need to spend some time looking up the character from a long list of characters that are arranged by ascending stroke counts order
If you can memorize all the radical numbers e.g. 亻(#9); 雨 (#173). You can find a character as quickly as using an English dictionary to search for an English word


How to use "whether" in Chinese - do you need to say 如果？

No, you can't use 如果 here. You got the right syntax in there though. What you want is just 我问他有沒有见过马克 - "I asked him whether he has met Mark". Or, since you used 认识 for your translation in the question, 我问他认不认识马克 - "I asked him whether he knows Mark"

There's no single "whether" in Chinese; you have to create the appropriate term based on the situation. One way to do this is using the structure "(verb) 不 (same verb)". For example, repeating 有 to form 有沒有, meaning "whether (subject) has". When the verb is composed of two characters, such as 認識, normally only the first character is used before 不, hence 認不認識 for "whether (subject) knows".

Alternatively, another way of saying "whether is to use "是否 (verb)". For example, using this format, "I asked him whether he has met Mark" becomes 我问他是否见过马克. Similarly, "whether (subject) has" becomes 是否有, and "whether (subject) knows" is 是否認識. Saying "whether" in this style is somewhat more restricted to written forms of communication, but remains quite current.


比较你们国家和中国对颜色、数字的看法: How can I compare two country's opinions on "colors" and "numbers"?

for colour, compare people’s perception of the colour white, black & red.

eg. in the context of funeral, chinese were/are in white colour (traditionally were, i’m not sure the situation in “that area” now; at least, in macau, taiwan & hong kong, we follow this custom); while in australia, people wear black costume.

the ceremony of marriage, bridal gowns are in white (in australia), while it’s equivalent in chinese, these’re in red colour.

again, the colour of red, chinese would perceive it as “happiness”; well, in australia (actually in most cultures), red implied danger.

if you dare, you may quote the sample of pedestrian lights, the “red man” means stop, don’t cross, universally.

about number:

again, in occidental cultres, the number of seven (7) and thirteen (13) have special meaning.

such as friday 13th, it’s considered an unlucky day in western superstition.

however, in chinese view, to know a day is “unlucky” or not, most people need to consult the “folk almanac” (通勝). (it’s an extremely complicated calculation of yin yang & five elements; beyond average knowledge of laymen.)

just a reminder: in communist’s point of view, suitable for / incompatible (宜忌)or choosing a date (擇日) is superstitious. beware, don’t talk too much :)

for the number of seven (7), find it yourself :)

have fun :)


'高飞' means 'flying high', it is a common set phrase

in the idiom '遠走高飛' , '遠'(far) and '高' (high) are adverbs; while '走' (run) and '飛' (fly) are verbs

'高'(high/highly) in "我要高飞" is functioning as an adverb for the verb '飞' (fly)

other examples of 高 as an adverb in common phrases

步步(高陞)  - continuously (raising high)

價格(高企) - price (standing high)


What's the difference between "现在几点" and "现在几点了”

了 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/460/
[2] [final particle] indicating change of situation

"现在是下午五點" = "It is 5:00 pm now."

"现在是下午五點(了)" = "It is 5:00pm now" (final particle 了 indicates 'the current time has reached 5:00pm'. Situation changed from 'not yet 5:00pm' to 'is 5:00pm' )

Similarly:

"现在几点？" = "What time is it now?"

"现在几点了？" = "What time is it now?" (final particle 了 indicates 'what time the current time has reached'. Situation changed from 'not yet the current time' to 'is the current time' )

The final particle 了 is mostly used to soften the tone of a sentence to make it less blunt. Also it formally indicates the sentence is 'completed' (that's why it is called 'final particle').


Learning Traditional first with the goal of learning both

This is a difficult questions, since most people are quite religious about this topic. For some reason they prefer one over the other and say this one is the best one to learn first.

Learning Chinese characters takes a huge effort and most need many years for that, however once you know one set learning the other one is relatively easy.

  Wiki says that the Jianhuazi zong biao lists 350 individually
  simplified characters, 132 generalisable simplified characters and 14
  simplified radicals. All other simplifications are simply variation of
  the latter two simplifications (thousands of them, but applied in a
  standard and predictable way), or standardising on a more simple
  variant in place of a more complex variant of the same character.

  This means that there are 500 characters that are significantly
  different between the two sets, and the rest appear to me to be easy
  (e.g. 説 = 说, 錢 = 钱, etc.)

  So the extra effort one needs to invest into learning traditional
  characters after knowing the simplified set (or the other way around)
  amounts to learning about 500 characters. Since one should aspire to
  knowing about 3000 as some sort of arbitrary standard of literacy,
  this doesn't strike me as a huge deal.

Source: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/14713-learning-hanzi-the-eternal-dilemma-of-simple-or-traditional/page_st_20_p_150151&#entry150151

Also take a look on this page: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/25651-learning-traditional-characters-after-studying-simplified-for-4-years/#entry214033

The 10 hours mentioned on the last page is a bit optimistic, but it is certainly quite manageable once you already know that many characters.

Also more or less all educated Chinese from the mainland can read traditional characters, and more or less all educated Chinese from Hongkong and Taiwanese people can read simplified characters. Not because they explicitly learned them, but due to exposure for example as subtitles from movies, songs or the internet. Once you have reached a certain level it's not that difficult.

What to choose first depends on your personal situation. I would first study what you think you will encounter most. For example if you often plan to go to Taiwan or Hongkong or especially want to view Taiwanese or Hongkong soap operas or movies (while learning Chinese most people are better at reading than listening, so the subtitles are of huge help) or have friends from Taiwan or Hongkong, start with traditional characters. If you on the other hand think you'll more often encounter simplified characters, choose simplified characters.


For this kind of thing you can check out 91dict.com.
The subtitle group 人人影视字幕组 have complied a dictionary from their subtitle translations.
For instance if you look up squire under 基本释义 we get:

n. 乡绅；侍从；大地主；地方法官
vt. 随侍；护卫
n. (Squire)人名；(英)斯夸尔

and under 场景例句 there are example sentences from Game of Thrones including:

来自《冰与火之歌：权力的游戏 第4季 第3集》
There has never lived a more loyal squire.
世上从无你这般忠心的侍从

and

He was a squire until a few months ago.
他之前一直是侍从 数月前才受封

Seems like they really like 侍从 for squire.

For page they give:

男侍者


What does the lettering on my shirt mean? (Characters identified: 花樣年華)

That shirt might be the souvenir for the movie "花样年华".  Its English name is "In the Mood for Love", according to Baidu.


In the scenario that a third party witnessed an insult of others two, or someone try to lighthearted fight back a insult, maybe "雷死了"（lei2 si3 le) in Chinese can fit in. "雷" means Thunder.  "雷死了" means someone think it's somewhat funny unbelievable and be shocked.

A longer version is "雷得外焦里嫩" (Lei2 De Wai4 Jiao1 Li3 Nen4), which means someone got attached by thunder and lightning, and he got BURNed outside, but inside is still tender (think case of  overfired BBQ...) Maybe a picture can help to explain this situation better (found on internet)


Meaning of these signs (Characters identified: 宁静)

The word is 宁静 [níngjìng]:

  ①安定 (calm)；安宁 (tranquil)：宁静四海｜地方宁静。
  ②安静 (quiet)；平静 (peaceful)：心情宁静｜宁静的灯光｜宁静的月夜。


What is the meaning of "对着／对上／对不上" in this pattern "Subj. + 对着／对上／对不上"？

槍口對著人 means that let muzzle of the gun face a person. Here, 對著, means face a particular things. It is apply on 對著鏡子笑 too. So you face a mirror and laugh.

對不上 means fail to match correctly. In examples you provide, the two accounting cannot match correctly. Let me introduce other example, you can say 這兩片拼圖對不上. In this example, it show that two pieces of jigsaws failed to match.

If they can match correctly, you can say 這兩本帳對得上 or 這兩片拼圖對得上. It substitute 不 with 得. So the negative meaning is removed.


Why is the Chinese word "girl" or "女" not showing up on pinyin

Try 'nv'. It's actually 'nǚ' and since 'v' is not in mandarin pronunciation, it's quite reasonable to use 'v' in place.


For my information, 妖 is related to ...uhm temptress? Which means an alluring woman who seduces or exploits men OR a woman considered sexually attractive by men. Often being used on female. Normally 妖 is able to control someone's (male's) mind.

While

怪 means something is really peculiar or weird.

妖物 or 妖怪 was born from a temptress and a peculiar thing, it does have its own mind or negative thoughts and extraordinary abilities. Hence, we called them monster, goblin, devil and so on，while spirit is just a force or energy which does not have a physical or virtual body and cannot do anything (don't confuse with ghost).

Should it not be a combination of spirit and monster?
Answer: Well, it's so so. People may say yes, while people may say no.

Spirit is meant by 靈魂 / 幽靈 (meaning approached to "ghost").

Well, a combination of spirit and monster, I can't actually explain in full in English. But you can watch this movie: See Here

to know more about the spirit and monster hybrid.

A combination of spirit and monster, something like a spirit (more like ghost) conquers a monster's body which the monster's body does not have mind / thoughts.

Hope I did answer your question.


辞职: resign; quit the job;
辞： quit; take leave; resign; dismiss;
职（in 辞职）is short for 职位(not 职业)： position；
So, 辞职 can be interpreted as: quit your position or just resign.
辞职 is a 离合词，so it's separable. Phrases like 辞的职, 吃的饭, 说的话, and etc denote that you have done something at sometime or at some place and usually they are followed or preceded by a prepositional phrase describing time or position.
In your example,  来中国之前(before coming to China) is the time and 辞的职 is what you have done(quit your job). So, 来中国之前辞的职 is quit my job before coming to China.
More examples:

我在家里吃的饭 // I ate my meal at home.
这是我昨天在会议上讲的话 // This is what I said at the meeting yesterday.


What's the difference between 战略 and 策略？

战略
  1.指导战争全局的计划和策略。对战术而言。 （战术: tactic）
  洪深《戏剧导演的初步知识》：“兵书上说得好：战略与战术乃二个全异之行动。战术是关于战斗诸种行动之指导法，战略乃连系配合各种战斗之谓。战略为作战之根源，即创意定计；战术乃实行战略所要求之手段。”
  2.有关战争全局的。
  由战略防御转入战略进攻。
  3.比喻在一定历史时期指导全局的方略。
  邓小平《高级干部要带头发扬党的优良传统》：“我们一定要认识到，认真选好接班人，这是一个战略问题。”

  战略，是一种从全局考虑谋划实现全局目标的规划，战术只为实现战略的手段之一。实现战略胜利，往往有时候要牺牲部分利益，去获得战略胜利。战略是一种长远的规划，是远大的目标，往往规划战略、制定战略、用于实现战略的目标的时间是比较长的。
  争一时之长短，用战术就可以达到！如果是“争一世之雌雄”，就需要从全局出发去规划，这就是战略！

战略 and 策略 may not be directly mapping to English as strategy and tactic. But for sure, 战略 is something that think bigger, long term, comprehensive and high level one. From Chinese to English, the mapping English word for 战略 is strategy. But from English to Chinese, the word for strategy can be 战略 or 策略. It depends.
Why is 策略 here for Pricing Strategy? I think this is because 战略 is more comprehensive, globally, something bigger than only pricing. It may consider all the aspects the corporation should care about. Sometimes, 战略 could be more abstract than 策略. Pricing is just one aspect, specific and detail topic here. If you search 经营策略 in that site, you will find many words about 经营战略. Because 企业经营（running business） is more strategy and bigger topic than pricing.

And another thing is that 战略 is now widely used in many competitive context, not only about military and war.


Statement:
  我妹妹来美国。= My sister is coming to the States.
  Wǒ mèimei lái Mĕiguó.

  Yes/No Question:
  你妹妹来美国吗？ = Is your sister coming to the States?
  Nĭ mèimei lái Mĕiguó ma?

Under this circumstances, both 来/不来 and 是/不是 are acceptable and can be understood with no difficulties. However, I have to disagree with your key to the exercise because 来/不来 is much more commonly used by native speaker. Chinese usually use the main verb in the questions to answer them.

I can understand the confusion. It is probably caused by the fact that "是/不是" means the same thing for "yes/no", "is/is not", "are/ are not" and "am/ am not". Let me use a few example to illustrate my point:

你妹妹来美国吗？ Is your sister coming to the States?
The way Chinese commonly do is: 来。It means: Yes.

The full answer is: 是的，她来。Which, in English, should be:  Yes, she is. Here "is" refers to "is coming", where the main verb is"来".

你妹妹是美国人吗? Is your sister American?
The correct way in Chinese is: 是的。Also means Yes.

However, this time, the main verb is "is". So the full answer is "是的，她是的。"meaning, "Yes, she is." See we have two "是" here, meaning differently (yes and is) in English. This is where you need to use "是/不是”。


Are [ɚ] and [ər] interchangeable for (儿化) er-hua?

They should be the same. It is just differences in notation. [ər] is commonly used by Sinologists, while [ɚ] is actual IPA.

In the Beijing dialect (and standard Mandarin), 包儿 should be pronounced as something like [paʊɻ] (probably written by Sinologists as [paur]). It looks like you're looking at something like Sichuanese, where 包儿 is pronounced as [pɚ].

Take a look at the Wikipedia article on erhua for more details.


What is the meaning of 会 in 你们太会了 and the sentence's connotation?

会 denotes the sense of good at; skillful;etc..  In Chinese grammar, 会 is a verb here.
the celebrity is saying: 你们太会玩了 or 你们太会搞了.  In English, it could be something like you guys are good at making this.
Apparently, there is a verb implied in 你们太会了. The listeners would understand the action based on the context.  In your case, it could be 玩, 搞, etc.


On the talk page there is the following question:

  Is this for real?

which reads:

  I can't find any references to this supposed system anywhere outside of Wikipedia. A google search for 火黑暗 reveals nothing to do with architecture, aesthetics, or feng shui. Of the sources given on this page I can't find the Von Erdberg (1936) online, but I did find a preview of Cai (2004) on Google Books, and searching this book for "火黑暗", "huoeheian", "fire and darkness" gives nothing either. The Chinese language wikipedia does not have an article on this subject either. Does anyone have any more info on where this concept comes from? --83.216.95.30 (talk) 00:56, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

There's no response.

This seems to be Field's translation, supposedly it was revised July 26, 2009, I'm not sure if anything got changed or not, but there seems to be nothing akin to the Wikipeida quote.


Can people carry on a conversation with each side speaking a different form of Chinese, like in some movies?

People can carry on a conversation speaking whatever language they are comfortable with, if they can understand each other's language. This happens ALL the time in immigrant families all over the world. A typical situation is: Parents move from country A to country B, and are native speakers of A but have a good understanding of B. Their children, growing up in country B, acquire B with native fluency and understand A as their home language. In these families, parents and children carry on conversations in two different languages pretty much all the time. I don't see anything unrealistic about it.


What is the English equivalent of 拜托, and what is it's proper usage in Chinese?

The literal meaning is 'to respectfully ask someone to do something', and sometimes it's used in that way. But often, even though it's used as a verb, 拜托你xxx can just be translated as 'please can you do xxx for me'. It's not as common as 'please' in English though, so it sounds more formal / polite.

You can also use it semi-sarcastically to show your exasperation with someone - nciku.com gives 拜托你闭嘴 (please just shut up) and 拜托你少管闲事 (I'll thank you to mind your own business).

As well as being a verb, you can use it on its own or at the end of a sentence. As above, this is either a polite phrase like "I'm begging you for your assistance" or a sarcastic phrase meaning "oh for God's sake" depending on context.


Case one:

的 is optional, you can say 他字写得很好，歌唱得很好，琴也彈得很好

很 is also optional, you can simply say 他字写得好，歌唱得好，琴也彈得好

Case two:

的, and 是 are all optional, you can simply say 他字写得好，因為他比別人練得更勤力。

or, you can  say  他的字写這麼好，是因為他比別人練得更勤力。

You find 他的字写得很好，是因為比別人勤勞練字的關係。awkward, because the better adverb in this context is not 很(very) but 這麼 (this)

他字写得(這麼)好  ... = His penmanship is this good because... (這麼好 make the sentence sounds incomplete, therefore, point to the need of a cause)
他字写得(很)好是因為... = His penmanship is very good because... (很好 make the sentence sounds completed, therefore, doesn't point to the need of a cause as much)


「道友」該釋爲「養道之友」，英語＂cultivate＂可翻譯成中文「養育」。

「道友」= "Fellows (友) who cultivate the way (養道)".

＂Cultivator＂也可翻譯成「耕田機」，因爲「耕田」在英文也可以叫＂cultivate＂，圖像由此意。


一片空地 and 一片草原 - what's the difference/relation

“一片草原” - obviously there must be grass growing there;

“一片空地” - just open space/ground without any building or trees, so you can put something there or build something there, or even play baseball there.


What role does 的 play in the sentence 我不明白你刚说的第一句话?

A completely parallel English version of the Chinese would be:

I didn't (or don't) understand the first word (or sentence) that you just said.

的 is functionally equivalent here to 'that':

the first word (or sentence) | that | you just said.
你刚说 | 的 | 第一句话

Notice that the order of the clause is reversed in Chinese and English.  This is because Chinese treats "the first word" as the head of the phrase, and puts it where all heads in Chinese phrases go: on the right side.  It treats 你刚说 as if it were modifying the head, and puts it where all modifiers (attributives) go in Chinese phrases: on the left side.

Notice that this is exactly parallel to how adjective - noun phrases are treated in Chinese:

the red | _ | pen
紅色 | 的 | 筆

So Chinese treats this kind of adjectival phrase in the same way that it treats relative clauses. This is very logical, since in both phrases the descriptive part and the head part get the exact same treatment.

English, on the other hand, is weirdly inconsistent, putting head first in relative clauses and head last in adjectival phrases, where it doesn't even bother to mark which is which.

In both these cases in Chinese the 的 is required. To omit it will confuse people and even if they can figure out what you mean, they will feel you have said something very odd.


Is it common for zh/j, ch/q, and sh/x to be merged?

As you probably know it is very common to mix up zh、ch、sh and z、c、s.

Here they say that in many dialects zh、ch、sh can't be distinguished from j、q、x.
But they don't mention which dialects.

On this page somebody says that Cantonese people can't distinguish the 3 groups of consonants in j,q,x,zh,ch,sh,z,c,s

On the same page they also write that the consonants jqx are pronounced as /zi/,/ci/,/si/ in Nanijng.

In the Chaoyang dialect there also seem to be such mix-ups. But not for all words. For example x、sh are read as j、q、zh、ch, for example in 喜(～鹊)、跹(翩～起舞)、械(机～化)、摔(～跟头)、尚(和～)、殊(特～)、匙(钥～)、始(开～)

j、q、x and z、c、s are often mixed-up. For example in: 俗(风～)、宿(～舍、住～)、狙(～击)、沮(～丧)、咀(～嚼)、俊(长得～)、峻(险～)、竣(～工)、骏(～马)、(～包)等。


How to say a negative number in Mandarin?

Negative numbers are simply read 负xxx, for example:

-5 负五
-1234.5 负一千二百三十四点五
(-3) x 5 = -15 负三乘以五等于负十五
2^(-3) 二的负三次方

When applied to certain domain, there might be domain specific way to read it. For example for temperature, it's more common to read it as 零下 (literally 'below zero'):

-10°C 零下十（摄氏）度

Reading as 负十度 is also correct, just less common.
Reference:
人教版小学四年级数学 第七单元 生活中的负数


Yes, 哥们 means "men" or "buddies"  But you can still call a single person '你们哥们' (you men). Which refers him as  "one of the men/ men like you". You are not technically addressing him, but addressing his group

For example, saying to a person: "You men are useless" suggest "you being one of them is also useless"

"你也是我的哥们儿了" means "you too are (one of) my buddies now"

If you have more than one older sister, you can refer them as 我家的姐们 (my older sisters).

Or you can refer a single female as 姐们 (one of the women/ women like her) similar to 哥们

You cannot say 我家的妈们 or 爸们 because you only have one mother and one father.

爷们 (males/men) can be used the same way as 哥们. As in  "你们爷们" (you men)


What is the difference between 大学的二年级学生 and 大学二年级的学生?

The 的 in the two sentences have different functions

[大学的] + [二年级学生] --> [of the university] + [the second-year students] = "the second-year students of the university" (的 here is a possessive marker that indicates the university possess the second-year students)

[大学二年级的] + [学生]--> [of the second-year class in the university] + [students] = "the students of the second-year class in the university" (的 here is an adjective marker that marks 'the second-year class' as an adjectival phrase that describes the students. It can be reduced to '大学二年级学生' because unlike the possessive 的, the adjectival 的 is often omitted

Example sentence:
我們大学的二年级学生有一半是外國人 (Half of the second-year students in our university are foreigners)
小張是一名大学二年级(的)学生 (Xiao Zhang is a second-year university student)


俗话说的好 vs 俗话说

俗话说: As the proverb express.

俗话说的好 means what the proverb says is exactly right or exactly fitting the circumstance/setting in the following statement.

From grammar point of view, the form should be 俗话说得好. The structure is verb + 得 + extent/result complement.

Some pedants would argue 俗话说 的 好 is a wrong expression. It looks that it's a common mistake by misplace 得 with 的. Personally, I wouldn't care about it since it's been widely used after all.


The origin of 勾 and 股 in The Pythagorean Theorem 勾股定理

in ancient china, the right angle triangle is named "勾股形".

the 國語辭典 has this entry: 勾股, explained as

  我國古代稱直角三角形為「勾股形」。其直角旁的短邊稱為「勾」，長邊稱為「股」，對著直角的邊稱為「弦」。

the short side near the right angle is called "勾", the longer side near the right angle is called "股"; and the side opposite the right angle is called "弦".

people used something like "勾股", "勾股之法" to describe the equation a²+b²=c²; nowadays, a hybrid naming is used "勾股" (the ancient chinese name) + "定理" (translation of theorem).

btw, the character 句 (u+53e5) and 勾 (u+52fe) mutually borrowed in ancient time.


Never think of parts of speech when learning Chinese, since Chinese has such concept no earlier than Tang dynasty, which is very short history comparing with Chinese. In fact Chinese parts of speech also have nothing to do with their functions in sentence. Noun could be predicate, verb could be objective, even prep. could be subjective, which is totally different with western languages.


How can you discern which meaning of 怎么 as an interrogative should be used in a sentence?

Ermm, you posted " that my weather app predicted the today's weather terribly in Shanghai, "

Which I presume to mean: "Today's weather in Shanghai will be terrible."

That is the context: The weather.

There is no reason for your friend to then ask how you got to Shanghai, that lacks coherence. Her or his comment:

怎么又到上海了。 means: 'How come we are getting bad weather in Shanghai again!'

怎么How又again到to上海Shanghai了。


How do you say "cookies", in the sense of website cookies?

We also say "Cookie(s)" actually, because in Chinese "Cookies" is "存储在用户本地终端上的数据" which is an explanation rather than a word, and it's too long.


What does 亮黄灯了 mean in 我承认，应该是运动量过大，身体亮黄灯了?

This probably refers to the orange light (黄灯) in a set of traffic lights.

Essentially when the orange light lights up, it's time to slow down and stop. In this case, it refers to your body switching to the "orange light" (muscle cramps, short of breath and etc...), which is a sign for you to slow down and take a break from excessive exercising.


How should a professor address a woman student?

I think called her full name or just 同学 is okay.


Can 当作 ever be used with a direct object behind it?

No you cannot do that.

Please always use 把 or 被.

把: take

被: be taken as

别把我当作外人:
Don't take me as an outsider

我被当做了外人:
I'm taken as an outsider


Why is (是) shi4 dropped in this sentence："我很好"?

Simply put, adjectives in Chinese can function as verbs.

More specifically, they can form predicates without the use of a copula verb such as 是. For this reason, adjectives in Chinese are sometimes considered to be a class of verbs called "stative verbs".

You can refer to the answers of this previous question for more details: Stative verbs in Chinese: only for adjectives?


What is the colloquial/comman usage of '棒'

According to this answer which have over 600 people voted to agree

木棒的“棒”，乃是强盛的木
'棒' (rod) is 'strong hard wood'
你说一个人“棒势”，那么就是说他屌大
When you say someone "rob form" , it means he has "huge penis"

棒 means 'baton / rod',  which is 'stiff and hard'
The term “好棒" was originally a slang for 'excellent, great, wonderful' -- meaning something is as great as a 'good hard rod' (hard rod is a metaphor for stiff penis)