份, 个, 本, 两: How do they function in these sentences?

As others have mentioned, these are measure words (also known as classifiers*). To give a basis of comparison, in English measure words generally occur for uncountable nouns. For instance, because "bread" is uncountable, you cannot say "*three breads"; you must say "three loaves of bread" or "three slices of bread" ("loaves" and "slices" are the measure words in these examples).

In Chinese, all nouns are considered uncountable, and thus must have a measure word. Many nouns have a particular measure word associated with them (e.g., vehicles are typically measured by 辆; objects with a stick-like shape by 支; objects with handles by 把, etc.), and you simply have to remember which measure word is typically used with which noun. In many cases, the generic measure word 个 is acceptable.

Some measure words themselves can be treated as nouns, in which case they can have their own measure word too when you use them this way. For instance, "three bowls of rice" would be 三碗饭, but when you use 碗 as a noun, you would say 三个碗 which refers to "three bowls (of nothing in particular)". If you simply said 三碗, it would imply a measure of a noun that was already understood in context (for instance, of rice if the conversation was already about rice).

* Some make a distinction between the terms "measure word" and "classifier", but many people use them interchangeably. See the linked Wiki articles for more details.


The problem is not whether Chinese allows two question words in one sentence, it's that 什么 has multiple meanings.
It can variously mean any, anything, whatever. In the example "你有什么安排吗", 什么 means "any", as in "Do you have any plans?"
This is a very similar question to "do you have plans?", which is what "你有安排吗" is.
By contrast, in the question "你有什么安排?", 什么 is asking what, as in "What plans do you have?"
Here's some examples of when 什么 doesn't mean "what":

只要认真学,什么都能学会 (as long as you study hard, you can learn anything)
他什么也不怕 (he's not afraid of anything)
他们到处放火，把什么都抢得精光。 (they set fires everywhere, and looted everything)


imo, the other answer is significantly "inventive" :)

, as @tang ho indicated, the correct reading should be "蠶種改濟之章".

and, these're kanji, japanese related (it's 繭印紙 蚕種印紙)

here's relevant pic & link:

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/j511816810?lang=en

i would suggest the op ask again in japanese stack exchange.

https://japanese.stackexchange.com

have fun :)


In this dialogue, why does 一米八几 mean "more than 180cm tall"?

一米八几 means 1.8 x meters, where x is usually between 1 and 9. So the person's height is between 1.81 meters and 1.89 meters.

Therefore for your first question, 几 stands for some number that the speaker can not provide an exact value.

For your second question, the translation by google is not quite correct.

And for your last question, the meaning a few is what is being used in this sentence.


It's an interjection, which means its translation relies very much on the context it's in.

In general, it's an exclamation of disbelief or disagreement on what follows the phrase.

Examples:

你真是的， 怎么没穿鞋就跑出来了？ (Come on! You ran out without any shoes on?)

你也真是的，　这么早就把我吵醒了.　(Seriously? Waking me up this early?)

真是的,　他到现在还没来.　(He's not here yet. Hopeless!)


中国 - China
有的 - some
地方 -  places
都 - already

(As an adverb, 都 has many meanings, including: [all; both; without exception; even; already; also; too] In this context  "already" is the most logical choice)

下雪 - snowing
了 (final particle - indicates sentence ends, emphasize the verb, soften tone)

  "中国有的地方都下雪了"  =  "Some places in China are already snowing"

It would be less confusing if we use "有些"  instead of "有的". They both mean "some". But "有的" in some context could means "owned" or "have". For example: 我有的是钱 (what I have plenty of, is money); 中国有的是人民 (What China has plenty of, is people)

To make it even more clear, you can replace "都"  with  "已经" (already)

  "中国有些地方已经下雪了"


What does 来 mean in 他想一切办法来验证这个理论 and 我们设了个陷阱来抓狐狸?

Using "lai" to connect two verb phrases

  The word 来 (lái) can be used to connect two verb phrases, relating the actions to each other. It can be translated as "in order to" or "so that," and it can help in explaining reasoning.


Looking for official specification of Putonghua in English

普通话测试 儿化音: this link shows you a collection of erhua vocabulary useful for Putonghua test.

普通话常见儿化字认3: this link allows you to know what these erhua sound like


How is pronunciation discussed in Chinese?

Nowadays schoolchildren are taught Pinyin pretty thoroughly first, so they know how to correctly pronounce Pinyin. Then when learning new words, all they have to do is learn the Pinyin. A lot of primary/elementary textbooks will have annotations like this:

Here's a typical Chinese primary school blackboard:

Here's a Taiwanese equivalent of this sort of annotation, usually used on difficult characters:

While we're at it, here's a Japanese equivalent:


Best way to translate "apply my knowledge to solve real world problems"

I think it can be translated as 学以致用.
学以致用 or 學以致用 is a Chinese idiom which means to study something in order to apply it. It probably comes from 《论语 子张》.
The original text is

百工居肆以成其事，君子学以致其道

by English

Workers toil and moil in the workshops to complete their job, while men of honor seek Tao by learning.

As for your sentence I want to apply my knowledge to solve real world problems, I can provide several translations for you to select from.

我想学以致用
我希望能（够）学以致用
我心怀学以致用的信念（梦想\理想）


被 (bèi) vs. 叫 (jiào) vs. 让 (ràng): regional difference? formality difference?

Good question.

Although I am a native chinese speaker, it is difficult for me to answer your
questions.

Generally, when talking about formality difference, 被 is more formal than the other two, 叫 and 让. However, it is still very often for us to use 被 in some oral conversation. But I don't know which one among these three is more northern or more southern. I live in the north part of China and personally, I use 让 more often.

About the difference among these three, I think one important point is that 叫 and 让 are more often used when you know who or what is the objective. Just as the examples you give above, we would often say: 我的自行车被偷走了 but rarely say 我的自行车叫小偷偷走了 nor 我的自行车让小偷偷走了, because actually we do not know who is the thief. But when we want to express that some specific person borrows my bike, we would say: 我的自行车让Mike借走了. All in all, there are only slight differences among them in terms of meaning and you can try to use any one in daily life.

One more word is that you can also use 给 to express similar meaning, such as 我的自行车给小偷偷走了.


How do you say: "I have known her since we were both 2 years old"?

"I have known her since we were both 2 years old."

I would translate this as simply:

  我们两岁就认识的  "We were just 2 when we got to know each other"

Sometimes the tricky part of translation is that different languages communicate the same information using different structures, or a structure that is natural in one language is very weird in the other.

The word "since" can only be translated as 自从 in certain contexts. In sentences like this, it is more natural to switch around the word order and use 就. Here's another example:

  I've been here since 3 o'clock! Where are you?!
  我三点就到这里了！你在哪里啊？！

Hope that helps.


How does 雜's 2021 meanings appertain to its semantic component 衣?

杂/雜 originally refers to assortment of colors, referring to clothes that are multi-colored. You could think of it as multiple cloths of different colors sewn together to create a multi-colored garment. Its meaning is closely related to 集 as well. From there, the definition evolved to mean 'mixed' and 'miscellaneous'.
集 is doubling up both being the phonetic as well as semantic component for 雜.
集 refers to a gathering/assembly of birds (originally 3 birds 雦). A tree is where birds often gather.
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E6%9D%82
https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E9%9B%86


What is the difference btween 看样子 and 看起来

From the comment by @user6065

Similarities and differences of '看来', '看起来' and '看样子'

Similarities:

They are all conjunctions, used to make judgements or predictions based on a specific situation.
They could be used at the beginning of a sentence.
They are interchangeable sometimes
Examples:

天一下子阴了，看来(看起来/看样子)要下大雨了。

It is cloudy all of a sudden, looks like it is about to rain.

赵娜老打哈欠，看来(看起来/看样子)昨天晚上没睡好。

Zhao Na keeps yawning, looks like she didn't sleep well last night.

雨下个不停，看起来(看来/看样子)我们这几天去不成海边了。

It is still raining, looks like we can't go to the seaside in a few days.

看起来(看来/看样子)，这条马路到年底也修不好。

Looks like this road won't get fixed by the end of year.

杰克笑嘻嘻得走过来，看样子(看来/看起来)他今天心情不错。

Jack is coming with smile on his face, looks like he is feeling good today.

王经理一直没出声，看样子(看来/看起来)他对这个计划并不满意。

Mr.Wang didn't say anything, it looks like he is not satisfied with this plan.

Differences:

"看来" is to represent the inference by analysis (little bit). While "看起来" and "看样子" represent the inference more obviously, such as the inference easily made according to appearance.
"看来" is only used before Subject most of the time. While "看起来" and "看样子" could be used before or after Subject.
"看来" could be used in these structures: "从...看来", "在...看来", "由此看来", "照我看来", which refer to get the inference via different perspectives. "看起来" and "看样子" cannot be used in these structures.
Examples:

他看起来(看样子)像个40多岁的中年人，哪像个20多岁的小伙子？

He looks like around 40 years old. How could he look like a 20-year-old guy?

这些花看起来(看样子)像是真的一样，其实是假的。

These flowers looks like authentic, but they are artificial.

他看样子(看起来)很老实，其实狡猾得要命。

He looks like honest, but he is cunning.

这些菜看样子(看起来)就很好吃，我今天要多吃几碗饭。

These dishes looks tasty. I would like to have more today.


How to translate "knitting" and "weaving" into Mandarin?

According to the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, the Chinese word 编织 can mean "weave; knit; plait; braid".  ABC is saying it's a general word that can mean all of these things.  If you want to distinguish between these things then you might need a different word instead.

If you look up "weaving" on Wikipedia and press Languages / Chinese, it takes you to a Chinese article called 梭织.  ("Knitting" takes you to 编织.)  Although in general it is wise to be a bit careful when using Wikipedia (check the sources etc), I would be very surprised if an article title (especially for a long-established article like "weaving") would not have been corrected if it were wrong.  梭织 is not in the ABC but 梭=shuttle in textiles (compare 梭子) and 织 can mean to weave or to knit (compare 组织=organize) so it looks very plausible that 梭织 specifically means weaving with a shuttle.

ABC also says the word 针织 (from the question) means to knit but not to weave; the first character 针 means needle.

So simply put 针织 for knit, 梭织 for weave, and 编织 as a catch-all term that could mean either.


Looking for very common dialect words that have no Standard Mandarin Chinese hanzi characters

It is probably not the languages/dialects that don't have a corresponding Chinese character, but rather regional slang. The A菜 you see is actually 萵仔菜, or ue-á-tshài in Hokkien. That became became e-á-tshài which led it to be transcribed back into Chinese as A仔菜 and eventually A菜.

There is actually a word for Q, but I am not aware of how to type that out on a computer. So have a picture of it instead:  (EDIT: This has apparently made it into Unicode as U+296A8, "")

Owing to the dominance of Standard Chinese, characters not in common use in that language tend not to make it into a common computer encoding. So in a sense, the dialectal words indeed do not have a corresponding standard Chinese character. On the other hand, that's more of an issue with the way Chinese works on computers.

In any case, this phenomenon tends to happen in cases where Sinitic languages/dialect retain words from Old Chinese rather than the more fashionable new words that have taken over in Standard Mandarin. A couple more examples from Hokkien:

 gâu, meaning "good at, skilled at, prone to"
 lān, meaning "male genitalia"
 in, meaning "them, her/his"
 tsi̍p, meaning "a taste, to treat to a casual meal"
 peh, meaning "to climb"

There are likely hundreds if not thousands of such characters in common use. There might not be a list per se, but such characters can be found in dictionaries that caters to a specific language/dialect.

EDIT: I have a massive blindspot for Taiwanese loanwords.

Due to being under Japanese rule for five decades at a time of rapid change, Taiwanese had a rather unique opportunity at absorbing Japanese terms. Now, I don't know if we can say such words have no Chinese characters per se. Some of them came with kanji characters already. And naturally, they all have Mandarin equivalents, including some which are transcribed into Chinese from the same ultimate (Western) source. Examples:

Aspirin: a33 sir55 phi55 lin51 - Chinese 阿斯匹林, Japanese アスピリン (asupirin)
Clear-cut: at3 sa55 lih3 - Chinese 阿莎力, Japanese あっさり (assari)
Miso: mi55 sooh3 - Chinese 味噌, Japanese 味噌 (miso)
Tempura: thian35 pu55 lah3 - Chinese 甜不辣, Japanese 天麩羅 (tempura)

With Aspirin, both Chinese and Japanese (and hence Taiwanese) loaned the same word by transcribing its sound. The word for "clear-cut", on the other hand, it is a Japanese word that has been adopted in Chinese by transcribing its pronunciation - same as for Taiwanese.

Tempura and Miso are both Japanese words that had kanji. But whereas Chinese adopted Miso, it transcribed Tempura in other Chinese characters. And in both cases, Taiwanese follows the Japanese pronunciation.

Whether or not one considers them to be Taiwanese words without Chinese characters might be a matter of personal opinion. Compare and contrast with the following Taiwanese terms, which don't have such relationships to their equivalents in Chinese characters:

Apron: e33 pu55 long51 - Chinese 圍裙, from エプロン
Butter: ba55 tah3 - Chinese 奶油, from バタ－
Bra: bu33 la51 jia11 - Chinese 胸罩, from ブラジャ－
Condom: sak5 khuh3 - Chinese 保險套 from サック
Gasolin: 29 ga33 soo55 lin51 - Chinese 汽油, from ガソリン
Ice Cream: ai55 sirh3 khu33 lin51 mu11 - Chinese 冰淇淋, from アイスクリ－ム
Bread: phang51 - Chinese 麵包, from パン
Stainless Steel: sir33 ten55 le51 su11 - Chinese 不鏽鋼, from ステンレス

It's possible that this is mirrored in some other dialects/languages. Hong Kong Cantonese comes to mind.

EDIT2:

After some more research I've learnt of a few Taiwanese words where the proper Chinese character was unknown or disputed or perhaps non-existent. This, combined with long term marginalisation of Taiwanese, resulted in some chaos in terms of how some words were written.

As I suspected in the comments, however any words that didn't have a character have been matched with one nonetheless. And in 2009 the government made an effort to standardise the writing system. In some cases, supposedly new characters were created; but so far I haven't found truly new ones.

In any case, here are some words that apparently had no universally agreed upon correct character (prior to 2009, at least:

bē/buē: officially 袂, was/is written as , 未
gâu: officially , was/is written as 賢, 爻
buaih: officially 勿愛 squished together, was/is written as 無愛, 覅
suí: officially 媠, was/is written as 美, 水
tsia̍h: officially 食, was/is written as 噍, 吃
phah: officially 拍, was/is written as 打, 扑
beh/bueh: officially 欲, was/is written as 要, 卜
kah: officially 佮, was/is written as 及, 甲, 合
m̄: officially 毋, was/is written as 不, 呣, 唔
tshù: officially 厝, was/is written as 茨、戍


I am confused by how time is discussed in Chinese,

下一次/下次 (next time)

Imagine the present time is the beginning of a list. When you go further down the list, the further into the future you will be at.

上一次/上次 (last time)

Imagine you are currently in the middle of a list. When you look up the order on the list, the further you go up, the further you got back in the past.

之後/以後/後 (after)

Imagine the present time is on the first page of a book, the more you turn the pages, the further you will get to the future - in the back of the book.

For Example: " 第二次世界大戰後 " (after WWII) .

"第二次世界大戰" was the reference point of a time line (it is on the first page). Every thing that followed (future),  are all in the back of the book.

之前/以前/前 (before)

'前' here doesn't mean 'forward'. It means 'previous'. As in '前男友' (ex-boyfriend), '前政府' (previous government). Therefore. '以前' means 'from the previous' = 'before'.

*前(in front/forward) can also mean 'future'. Imagine the present time is a line you stand on.  '向前看' (look in front) is the future. See similar terms like:

'前途' (road in front = future ahead)
'前景' (scene in front = future prospect)


Why are there duplicates in the following words 游游泳, 化化妆, 散散步, ..., etc?

Reduplication of a verb

'with AA Pattern' indicates the action occur in a slight degree, brief time period or casual manner

Examples:

看- to look; 看看- to look briefly

走- to walk; 走走- to walk briefly

敲- to knock; 敲敲- to knock slightly

嘗- to taste; 嘗嘗- to slightly taste

Another form of Reduplication 'with A一A Pattern' indicates the action occur in a single instance, slight degree, brief time period or casual manner

Examples:

看- to look; 看一看- take a look/ to look briefly

走- to walk; 走一走- take a walk/ to walk briefly

敲- to knock; 敲一敲- knock once/ to knock slightly

嘗- to taste; 嘗一嘗- taste once/ to slightly taste

For verbs that are made up of a two characters like  游泳, 散步, you only need to reduplicate the first character.

游泳- to swim; 游游泳- to swim casually (or briefly)

散步- to take a walk; 散散步- to talk a walk casually (or briefly)


Is there a kanji tattoo meaning e.g. "live your life" or "love your life" or "be yourself"?

自爱 (love; respect oneself)

爱生命 (love life)

我是我 (I am myself)


What to reply to "祝你好运" (I wish you good luck)?

“祝你好运” means “Good luck!”
“谢谢”Just be appropriate.


See the Chinese Grammar Wiki. The explanation is quite extensive with many examples.

Some relevant parts:

  向 and 往 can be placed after the verb, however it has to be used with
  an appropriate verb, Often used verbs are 开, 飞, 发, 运, 送, 寄, 带, 驶 etc.
  As you can see, this are words that at least imply some sort of
  motion. In addition, compared to 向, 往 is used more often with those
  verbs, because 往 expresses the destination while 向 merely expresses a
  direction, 朝 cannot be used this way.

  When the action that takes place is specified to a specific target,
  use 向 or 朝. 往 cannot be used this way. Also, when the verb is a
  concrete action, the use of 向 and 朝 are the same, and they can be
  interchanged.

  When the verb has an abstract meaning, you can only use 向, and you
  cannot use 朝.


Are there differences between 朋友 and 我朋友 in modern Chinese?

In common context, the are literally the same.

But you can say the latter one shows 5% percent more friendship.

Since in Chinese we often omit some obvious verbs, we can get the following equation:

我朋友的 = 是我朋友的 ~ 是朋友的

Technically they are different just like:

tell the difference between :

Q: where do you get this chair?
A: it's from my friend  /  from friend

People may argue about their difference.
But As a Chinese, I would like to consider 我朋友的 and 是朋友的 the same thing under common context.


This is an exclamatory sentence. (It lakes exclamation mark 循环吧！代码 )

It means "代码，循环吧！"

It seems like that:

滚蛋吧！肿瘤君

翻滚吧！阿信


Does 跟 and 和 sounds the same meaning in this case?

Both '跟' and '和' contain the meaning of 'and/ with'

Therefore, both "我今天跟妈妈去买菜" and "我今天和妈妈去买菜" can be interpreted as "My mother and I go to buy food ingredients today"

But '跟' also contains the meaning of "follow"

Therefore, "我今天跟妈妈去买菜" can be interpreted as "I follow my mother to go to buy food ingredients today"
the problem is writing '我今天' makes  '我' the subject, and '跟妈妈去买菜' the verb phrase; instead of '我跟妈妈' being the subject and '去买菜' being the verb

If you want to avoid the confusion, you should write "我跟妈妈今天去买菜" or "我和妈妈今天去买菜"(I and my mother go to buy food ingredients today)

'我跟妈妈' (I and my mother) -  would clearly be the subject

in '我今天跟妈妈去买菜',  '我' would be the subject, and  '跟妈妈去买菜' could mean 'follow my mother...' or 'with my mother...'

if you wrote '我今天和妈妈去买菜', even the subject is still '我' but '今天和妈妈去买菜' can only mean "go to buy food ingredients with my mother today"


Yes，using capital letters is adopted in China journals now.
I sometime use this comma style, like my name "Chen, Kui Fu".The word Chen before the comma is my surname, and what follows the comma is my give name, "Kui Fu". I think this style is very efficient in publishing papers


How should I say "I feel very good/I'm very fine" in response to 你好吗?

There is "我非常好" I'm extremely well, or I'm extremely good.

There is also "我非常开心" I'm extremely happy.

Maybe if you want to aim for something a little more subtle you could try "我很开心" I'm very happy.

If you are mentioning that you are this "good" you will likely be asked for an explanation!


Looking for a translation of '舒适性‘ and '安全性'?

安全性

safety; safeness -ABC
safety, security -KEY

I would just translate both as safety and comfort.
I guess you want to try and translate the 性 as accurately as possible but if you look at the definitions above they don't get super "-ized" or "-ness"-y.


What character can "□" [fei3] meaning 呕吐 be?

I'm thinking it could be a word similar to 淝 in Cantonese.

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/8979/

  淝
  fe4 fei4 jyutping
  fei2 pinyin
  [粵] fe4 - Cantonese only
  [1] [v] spray/sprinkle (water)
  [2] [v] shoot; gun down
  [粵] fei4 [國] fei2
  [n] name of a river in Anhui province, famous in Chinese history for Battle of Fei River (AD 383)

Examples of usage:
淝到周圍都係
淝啲成身濕


Simplified Chinese font easily readable, suitable for documents and OK for commercial use?

You may want to try WenQuanYi bitmap fonts.

http://wenq.org/en/


2000年那年，姚明获得了成功。√
2000那年，姚明获得了成功。×


Interesting, but this is a coincidence.

Baby comes from a reduplicated Proto-Germanic root *bō-, which is cognate to English boy, appended with a diminutive suffix -y.

寶貝 comes from the meaning rare/precious seashells; this usage is attested at least since the Han dynasty. As a term of endearment, this started appearing as early as in the novel Dream of the Red Chamber, written in the 18th century.


What does this artwork say? (Characters identified: 湖岩)

In Chinese, 湖岩 means seaside cliff.  湖岩 also seems to be the name of a Nobel-esque award for ethnic Koreans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho-Am_Prize


I wouldn't call 嗨 onomatopoeic, since it doesn't seem to be imitating any particular sound.

According to the Ministry of Education's 國語辭典, 嗨 is an interjection that expresses discouragement, regret, surprise, etc. It is sometimes written as 咳, (in this sense also read hai, not ke).

This use goes back to Yuan dynasty drama.  It can also be used in chanting sort of expressions such as 嗨唷, which is what everyone was yelling when I was on the tug-of-war team.  Acc. to 國語辭典, this use can also be found in Yuan dynasty plays.

Unlike some dictionaries, 國語辭典 does specifically mention the use of 嗨 as 音譯 for English Hi.  This use must be quite modern.  Acc. to the Oxford English Dictionary, the use of 'hi' as 'a word of greeting' (=hello) is primarily North American in origin, apparently late 19th cent. I wouldn't be surprised if 嗨 = Hi, was a post WW2 innovation in Chinese.


Why can't I use 我的 in Classical Chinese?

Why can't 心 be modified with a adjective in Classical Chinese?

Of course it can. In your case, 明吾心、明吾之心、明我心、明我之心 are all correct.

"的" is not common in classical texts, you can use "之" instead or just omit it.


KEY

PHR
"the Four (Evil) Trends" (current term introduced by President Xi Jinping in 2013, used by the PRC government to criticize the harmful practices of xíngshì zhǔyì 形式主義/形式主义 "formalism", guānliáo zhǔyì 官僚主義/官僚主义 "bureaucracy", xiǎnglè zhǔyì 享樂主義/享乐主义 "hedonism" and shēmí 奢靡 "extravagance")


Why don't people use 專名號 to avoid ambiguity?

Proper name marks have largely fallen into disuse. That is because typesetting is difficult (as evidenced by your question) and that the text marked is usually understood by context.

我們有時看見一些書籍、文章中，已不使用專名號。這是因為印刷時比較困難，在約定俗成的情況下，現在已多不使用，並非錯誤所致。(古今標點趣聞)

Your concern for clarity is valid. But using proper name marks may cause further confusion in the case of eponyms. A Golgi apparatus does not carry any material attribute of its discoverer. Logically, it is just an organelle that just so happens to be discovered by Golgi. We all have Golgi apparatuses – what does Golgi (the person) have to do materially with our Golgi apparatuses? That is also probably why certain eponyms are no longer capitalised in English: e.g., abelian, newtonian, quixotic etc. Therefore, if you indiscriminately underline 高爾基, it may appear to some people that you are implying the apparatus belongs to Golgi (linguistically, attributive instead of genitive), much like 高爾基的帽子 (Golgi's hat).

I believe using parentheses also achieves clarity and is much more convenient (and commonplace) than using proper name marks.

大多數真核細胞有高爾基體（Golgi apparatus）。
范德華力（van der Waals force）是一種電性引力，但它比化學鍵或共價鍵弱得多。

I however agree that proper name marks may be useful in the context of classical Chinese, especially when annotating names of people and states. We may not have enough historical knowledge to parse the sentence correctly. For example, you need to be very familiar with the given name of Confucius (丘) to parse the following without the help of proper name marks:

孔子曰：「大道之行也，與三代之英，丘未之逮也，而有志焉。」《禮記》


It's pronounced

deng2deng3

as in the typical tonal sandhi of two consecutive 3rd tones, like 老板 (lao2ban3).
However I wouldn't outright exclude your first suggestion deng2deng0, as it might be pronounced like that in fast speech, or in the middle of a sentence.


Grammatically, 次 is a verbal classifier (a classifier proper), which expresses how many times the action indicated by the verb occurs. The origin of your confusion comes because classifiers are not used in English but they are natural in Chinese.
Classifiers (verbal or nominal) must come with a numeral phrase. In this sense, the numeral 一 (one) might be interpreted here having more a grammatical function than a semantic function (i.e., it doesn't carry enough meaning to be translated in the target language). Indeed, it is possible to omit the entire numeral phrase 一次 and just say 明年夏天我打算去, provided the place is clear from the context.
As an example, the sentence 我昨天买了一本书 presents a slight ambiguity, right? It could be "Yesterday I bought a book" ("one" has grammatical function, translated as indefinite article) or "Yesterday I bought one book" ("one" has semantic function, translated as "one"). Though without further context, you should favor the former, because of what I said above.
Finally, whereas the number "one" may or may not be semantically relevant, any other numeral is likely to be so.
As always, check the context:

老朱呢？我来叫他一声 = Where's Lao Zhu at? Let me call him ("one" is grammatical)
我叫了他两声，他还不听 = I called him twice, he still doesn't listen ("two" is semantic)
那本书我不太记得，我只看了一遍 = I don't quite remember that book, I only read it once ("one" is semantic)
请你来帮我一下忙 = please give me a hand ("one" is grammatical)
我被他骂了一堆 = He scolded me badly (literally, a pile) (verbal measure word (!), "one" is grammatical)


Is my joke about my first talk at Nankai correct, understandable, and funny?

I can see what you are trying to joke about.

我第一次在南开学校作演讲 is a bit ambiguous. Some might take this is your first time to deliver a speech. So, out of that confusion, you can say ahead like: 这是我第二次在南开大学做演讲。 记得我第一次在这里演讲时，...

So, here is a version I make for your reference:

  这是我第二次在南开大学做演讲。记得我第一次在这里演讲时，我用汉语讲第一句话来和大家打招呼，大家热烈鼓掌以示回应。接下来的演讲我一直用的是英语。可能是大家没怎么听懂，所以我讲完后，大家都没反应，似乎好像都不知道我已经讲完了！所以， 这一次我准备全程用中文来讲。 希望大家都可以听得明白。


Is there a grammar rule for using 的 in this snippet 但是有意思的是?

Both your translations are definitely correct (if you think about it but the interesting thing and but what's interesting mean the same thing). As you pointed out, something is omitted here: in this case it's the word 事情 thing, the thing. This happens because it's implicitly inferred.

The sentence 但是有意思的事情是 is grammatically correct too and it means the exactly same thing. In this case we made 事情 explicit.

You already know that 的 introduces the modifier which precedes the noun that it's modifying. If you make 事情 implicit, you have to leave 的 in the sentence to indicate that the element that comes before represents a modifier, and the thing that is modified can be omitted.

Consider this sentence:

  我的自行车比你的新。
  My bike is newer than yours.

Let's analyse it:

  我的自行车 (Modifier + Subject) + 比 (preposition) + 你的 (Modifier) + 新 (Predicate)

In this example, after 你, there is a 的 that modifies something implicit. The word 自行车 is explicit the first time (after 我), but it's omitted the second time (after 你) because both the speaker and the audience know they are talking about bikes. Thus, you omit 自行车 the second time but keep 的 to signify that the element that comes before is a modifier.

P.S. Although it could sound redundant, it is perfectly OK to say 我的自行车比你的自行车新.


What do the character components in 旅 and 派 represent?

though part of the right component of the character "旅" & "派" look similar, they've different origin.

旅 (u+65c5) is a character since oracle bone script, that it's composed by 㫃 (u+3ac3), plus 2 人 (u+4eba)

旅 (u+65c5) in oracle bone script:

㫃 (u+3ac3) in oracle bone script:

人 in oracle bone script:

then, the character 派 (u+6d3e), according to 說文解字 is 水 (u+6c34) +  (u+200a2), in which  is the mirror writing of  the character 永 (u+6c38).

永 (u+6c38) in oracle bone script:

flip it horizontally, you've  (u+200a2):

so, about your question:

what does that bottom left character component
in these two characters represent?

㫃 (u+3ac3) roughly is a flying flag. while 水 (u+6c34) is water.

What about the top right part of 旅?

the character 旅 (u+65c5) should be "chopped" into 㫃 + 人, if not, you'd be confused.

to look up all the characters in Chinese that have
one of these two non-radical components in them

the components of chinese characters ranged from 1600+ to 3000+, depends on who did the research, including simplified chinese, oracle bone script, bronze script, small seal script or not.

though i don't have a smartphone yet, it's in doubt that any apps in android, or ios would satisfy your need.

lastly, i would recommend multi-function chinese character database to you, which is "with archaic script forms, etymologies, english-chinese lookup, & word-formations phonologically disambiguated according to the cantonese dialect"

have fun :)


只要功夫深，铁杵磨成针 is good, and also:

坚持不懈
锲而不舍
水滴石穿
百炼成钢
熟能生巧
精卫填海
卧薪尝胆
有志竟成


Asking "what are your dreams for the future"

The term 'dream' can be a metaphor for 'goal, hope, or desire' in English. It is the same in Chinese. Therefore, translate 'What are your dreams?' as “你的梦想是什么？” is perfectly appropriate.
梦想 = dream and hope


Are there any Mandarin dialects with three tones?

Lanyin Mandarin

特征
兰银官话古入声清音声母和次浊声母字今读去声，全浊声母今读阳平。其中永登、皋兰、古浪、天祝四个地点平声不分阴阳，只有平声、上声、去声三个调；其余地点阳平与上声同调，只有阴平、上声、去声三个调。

Ürümqi Mandarin (Included in the above Lanyin topolect)

乌鲁木齐话有3个单字调：
阴平 ˦˦ 44
阳平 ˥˩ 51
去声 ˨˩˧ 213

The following might not strictly be Mandarin, but are interesting nonetheless.
Tianshui Topolect (Gansu)

There are only 3 citation tones in Tianshui dialect.

Xunhua Topolect (Qinghai):

循化话有3个单字调，湟中话有2个单字调。

(The Huangzhong topolect only has two tones.)
Nanjiang Topolect

兰银官话北疆片、中原官话南疆片基本上都是3个单字调，但调类不同。


You can install ibus and ibus-pinyin (there's also google pinyin but I personally prefer ibus-pinyin) or scim. Scim is more the historical software, but ibus is definitely better.

You will probably have to restart (!), but then there's about no configuration: at most, you learn the shortcuts to switch between input methods.


Literally 能 (néng) talks about capability, whereas 可能 (kěnéng) talks about possibility.

Often 能 is used where "capability" takes on a practical sense (not necessarily about being physically able to do something).  Typically, 可能 is used when deciding if something is a suitable thing to do.

We do the same thing in English: I can swim (capability) vs. I can swim in Summer (possibility).

能 and 不能

  我能游泳。
  Wǒ néng yóuyǒng.
  I am capable of swimming.

This literally implies I am physically capable of swimming.  It doesn't express whether or not I want to go swimming, if I'm allowed to go swimming, and if swimming is a suitable activity (although some of this will be clear from context).

A example where 能 describes a literal capability is:

  罗根不是他的真名,并且还不能游泳。  (source)
  Luōgēn bùshì tā de zhēnmíng, bìngqiě hái bùnéng yóuyǒng.
  Logan is not his real name, and he cannot swim.

An example where 能 describes a practical capability is:

  戴隐形眼镜能游泳吗？  (source)
  Dài yǐnxíng yǎnjìng néng yóuyǒng ma?
  [If someone] wears contact lenses, can they go swimming?

Of course, wearing contact lenses has no effect on one's ability to swim.

可能 and 不可能

  你可能游泳。
  Nǐ kěnéng yóuyǒng.
  You could possibly go swimming.

This indicates the possibility of going swimming; the person we're saying this to may or may not be able to swim.  An actual example is:

  你可能游泳或者骑自行车 (source)
  Nǐ kěnéng yóuyǒng huòzhě qí zìxíngchē
  You could go swimming or ride a bike

Another example is:

  春节期间的水温比较低，我觉得不可能游泳。 (source)
  Chūnjié qíjiān de shuǐwēn bǐjiào dī, wǒ juédé bù kěnéng yóuyǒng
  During Spring Festival, the water temperature is comparatively low, I feel it is not possible to go swimming.

In this example, we could change 不可能游泳 to 不能游泳 to talk about a practical impossibility.

Note: I'm a Chinese learner too.  I tried to ensure this is correct, but please let me know if I've made a mistake I'm unaware of.


That is called 行书字典, here is
http://tool.wikichina.com/shufa/

书法字典 always show brush writings, but it works for pen writing too, the character forms are not change too much except the simplification.

For example, I searched 书法, this is the part of the results.

Nowadays, most people write 书 as similar to the first one(wrote by 颜真卿).

I would write like this on paper. So the dictionary works for pen writings.


How are Chinese people taught Chinese Hanzi?

I can give a short answer to this question. I would say both. When I entered primary school and started to learn Hanzi systematically, Pinyin is the very first thing to learn, and we learn the sounds of Hanzi by checking their Pinyin. The following picture of a typical primary school 语文 textbook shows how this work:

But the other guess of yours is also right to some extent. In learning Hanzi in primary schools, we always do the 同音字练习, which is an exercise to match a Hanzi to another which has the same pronunciation, and that's helpful. Also, given that many Hanzi (especially their pronunciations) are not learned from the school at all, we learn them by simply hearing and repeating, as you also mentioned.


What does 甘蝦 mean when used as an answer to 保重? (Taiwan)

It is a similar pronunciation of Hokkien 感謝/感谢, so the meaning is to thank.

The 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 shows that the pronunciation is kám-siā.

It is a style of humor, not a joke.
We use them a lot.

Another example is 蝦米/虾米.
It is the similar pronunciation of Hokkien 什麼/什么 (what).
This one has been spread to China already.


自...起 since

It is correct, "自???起" means "Since ???"

自 = from

起 = begin

"(自) ??? (起)" = "(begin from) ???" = "(Since)???"
e.g."自七月起禁止捕魚" (Ban on fishing since July)

Other common structures with 自:

"自(from) ??? 以來(thereafter)" = "since ???"
e.g. 自美國立國以來 (Since the founding of the United States thereafter)
"自 (from) ??? 以後/之後 (after)" = "since ???"
e.g. 自美國立國以後 (Since after the founding of the United States)


Both 得 and 到 can act as [degree/ result complement]
Example:
冷(得)讓我無法多愛一天 = 冷(到)讓我無法多愛一天 = cold (to the degree of) I can't love one more day
我唱(得)她心醉 = 我唱(到)她心醉 = I sing (to the degree of) she is enchanted
However, 到 has another function for meaning 'continuously until', which mean 我唱(到)她心醉 can also mean "I sing until she is enchanted" To illustrate this function better, look at the following example:
牛肉煮(到)全熟

Beef to be cooked (to the degree of) well done

you cook the beef to the degree of well done, emphasize the degree of the verb

beef to be cooked (until) well done

you continuously cook the beef until it is well done, emphasize the 'continuously until the result is reached'  aspect of the verb
If you replace 到 with 得, you will not have the #2 interpretation


Why is 'The apple is 3 yuan' written '苹果三块' and not '苹果是三块'

Both acceptable:
'苹果三块' (apple, three yuans) --> short for:  '苹果(的价格是)三块（一个/一磅)'
'苹果是三块 (Apple is three yuans) --> short: for '苹果(的价格)是三块（一个/一磅)'
Both mean 'the price of the apple is three yuans (each/ a pound)
苹果是三块 is kind of wordy for a length reduced sentence, therefore, 苹果三块 is the preferred way to shorten 苹果的价格是三块一个 or 苹果賣三块一个
No one would interpret 苹果是三块 as 苹果 can be used as a currency for three yuans


ABC calls this a 连词, which they explain like this:

Conjunction
Liáncí 连词
A conjunction is a word that joins phrases or sentences together to form a larger sentence or chunk of thought. Some examples include érqiě 'furthermore', suīrán 'although', suǒyǐ 'therefore', jiù 'then' and yàoburán 'otherwise'.

here's ABC's relative entry for 来:

CONJ.(in order) to
唱个歌儿来凑热闹
chàng ge gēr lái còu rènao
sing a song to liven things

Here's some other examples from the A Chinese English Dictionary:

7 (used between a verbal expression and a verb or between two verbal expressions) in order to
大家想办法来解决。
Dàjiā xiǎng bànfǎ lái jiějué.
Let's think of a way to solve the problem.
我们得尽一切力量来完成计划。
Wǒmen děi jìn yīqiè lìliang lái wánchéng jìhuà.
We must do all we can to implement the plan.
你又能用什么理由来说服他呢？
Nǐ yòu néng yòng shénme lǐyóu lái shuōfú tā ne？
And what arguments can you use to convince him?


How to determine if a personal name is feminine or masculine?

There are no general rules. Here are some rough guidelines:

Some characters are used almost exclusively for one gender. For example, almost any character containing 女 will generally only be found in women's names.
This is particularly true for names like 娟娟, where the 女 radical is part of the meaning. Common characters like 安 or 好 can appear in male names just as easily, despite the fact that they have the 女 radical.

Names that reference flowers, precious stones or beauty, as well as "cute" names are more likely to be women's names. Names that sound grandiose or political are more likely to be men's names. Some characters that strongly point towards a feminine name are 玲 (líng, a word relating to jewelry), 瑩 (yíng, a precious stone), 蓉 (róng, hibiscus flower), as well as 彤 (tóng, red), 美, 麗, 佳, and 艷, all of which mean "beautiful". Conversely, some male-specific characters are 宇 (yú, space), 勇 (brave), 昊 (hào, vast) as well as 囯, 大, 東 and 平.

Once you get used to hearing Chinese men's and women's names, you will become better at guessing which is which. Some sounds and combinations of sounds are more common in one than the other, although that would be too complex to list here.

However, in Chinese there are no formal rules about names, and any family can name their child whatever they like, even if the name does not match the child's gender. So there is no definitive way to identify a person's gender from their name -- not even for Chinese people themselves.


Well this is a bit of a wild guess - but we don't really have much to work with do we now...

for the first part of your friends name you can take a look here:
曾 and click the audio button next to [zēng]
(this most likely is the correct pronunciation for the first part of your friends name)

Yang is most likely a second-tone (again best guess)
so you can have a look here:
阳 and click the audio button next to [yáng]

This is the best I can do you for.


“坏” is a very general word meaning something "useless", but what makes the thing "坏了" has many reasons, and “破了” is one of them, so when something's state is “破了”, you can also say something is “坏了”；However “破” means something is broken or has cracks. So when you describe something that is useless because of inner reasons such as quality, but it still looks nice in its aspect, “破了” is no longer used.

Try to compare the two sentences：

1）这热水袋破了（The warm-water bag is broken, maybe is of cracks by falling down onto the ground）.

2）这热水袋坏了（The phone is useless, maybe it doesn't keep warm anymore but NOT of cracks）.


In Chinese grammar, words as 什么 are commonly known as interrogative substitutes, they substitute the word that should be found in the answer.
Therefore, they have inherent interrogative semantics, and don't require interrogative particles at the end of the sentence.
For example:

你在吃什么？What are you eating?
我在吃麻婆豆腐 I'm eating "mapo" tofu.

As you can see, the interrogative substitute and the noun phrase that answers the question are in the same place, and there's no 吗。
When you do place an interrogative particle at the end of the sentence, the interrogative substitute plays the role of an indefinite pronoun. We can summarize this in the following table:

什么，什么东西 -- what? -- anything -- (thing)
哪里，什么地方 -- where？-- anywhere -- (place)
谁，什么人 -- who? -- anyone -- (person)

A couple examples more:

你包里有什么东西？What's in your bag?
你包里有什么东西吗？Is there anything in your bag?

这个周末你准备去什么地方？Where do you plan to go this weekend?
这个周末你准备去什么地方吗? Do you plan to go anywhere this weekend?

谁认识他？Who knows him?
谁认识他吗？Does anyone know him?

So your sentence:

你有什么事吗 (interrogative + particle = indefinite) do you have anything? (= is there something wrong?)

你有什么事 (interrogative) what do you have? (= what's the matter)

At the end of the day, in this particular example both sentences can actually be translated as "what's the matter", since in Chinese 有事 has an idiomatic meaning, but in general:
interrogative substitute + 吗 = indefinite pronoun.


Native Chinese speaker here.

No, we do not have many specific animal locomotion words in Chinese. You can very well say they 'walk'.
But, when we want to sound learned or create variation, we do have more descriptive vocabularies for movements. These words are applicable to the movements of animals, human, as well as objects sometimes. I can give you some examples.

dash - 冲 (横冲直撞 can describe a wild person or animal running around frantically);

measured steps - 踱着方步 or 踱步 (can be used to describe the canter of a horse);

cat walk - 猫步;

横行 - it is the walk a proud person or a crab;

limping- 跛足而行，跛行;

潜行 - moving stealthily under water or in the dark;

滑行 - gliding on land or in the air;

扑 - jump of a tiger, lion, etc. (any predator)

三步并作两步，连滚带爬，上蹿下跳 are more complicated modes of movement.


How does the order of noun modifiers affect emphasis

I can't see any particular emphasis from the different syntax. I prefer 1. , it seems somehow 'correcter'. The typical spoken answer in English would only be a sentence fragment, according to grammar.

The Royal Order of Adjectives does not pertain in Chinese, I fear. In Chinese we can write 'the wear/wearing glasses person = 那个戴眼镜的人', which is not an option in English. (不好：the very tall wearing glasses one)

谁是你的爸？
Who is your Dad?
1.【那个】【戴眼镜的】【很高的】人。
1E. (My Dad is) the one wearing glasses, very tall.
1.1E (My Dad is) the very tall one, wearing glasses.

谁是你的爸？
Who is your Dad?
2.【很高的】【戴眼镜的】【那个】人。
2E. Very tall, wearing glasses, that one (is my Dad).


尊重 means respect; show due regard.

尊敬 means 尊重和敬仰 - respect and admire and is focusing on the 'admire' part.

In Chinese culture, people should 尊重 peers and younger generations; 尊敬 teachers and elder people.

As for the law, the most common word is 遵守 which means to observe; to obey; to follow (rules). You can also say 尊重 and there's the classical difference of 'respect vs. obedience'.


How to pronounce the Mandarin third tone

In isolation, any third-tone character should indeed properly be pronounced falling, then rising.  In the five-level scale that is common in specifying tones for tonal languages, the typical characterization of the third tone is 2-1-4; that is, the end of the tone contour is higher than the start (though not as high as the first tone or the end of the second tone).

In conjunction with other characters in an utterance, however (as opposed to, say, a list of third-tone characters), the contour is truncated and it is, more or less, simply 2-1.  Being the only tone with a "bent" shape to it, as it were, it takes longer to say, and the natural rhythm of the speech simply doesn't permit enough time to draw it out to its completion.  I suppose in principle, it would be possible to speed it up so that the entire 2-1-4 contour could fit into the same "space" as a first, second, or fourth-tone character, but in practice, that doesn't happen.  (For that matter, it may be that a character undergoing tone sandhi was originally just the "other half" of the tone contour—the 1-4 half, that is.  It should be noted that the second tone is usually specified as 3-5, or sometimes 2-5.)

See pp. 45-46 in Robert Ramsay's The Languages of China and pp. 147-48 in Jerry Norman's Chinese for more details.  (I'm afraid I'm an old fuddy-duddy who reads books as well as on-line materials, and this is what I have.  Maybe you can find excerpts in Google Books.)

Norman's book, incidentally, includes a second case of tone sandhi that is not often described.  He writes, in the closing of the aforementioned passage:

  In addition to the cases of tone sandhi mentioned in conjunction with
  the third tone above, one other minor case should be mentioned.  In a
  three-syllable combination, if the second syllable is a second tone
  (either an original second tone or a raised third) and the first
  syllable is either a first or second tone, the middle syllable changes
  to a first tone in rapid speech...: [聯合國] liánhéguó "United Nations"
  is pronounced liánhēguó, and [他買馬] tā mǎi mǎ "he buys a horse" becomes
  tā māi mǎ.  [The characters in brackets are my addition.]

I don't know if this is universal amongst Mandarin speakers, but when I read this, I was mildly surprised to find that I actually observe it in my own speech.  It might be interesting to see how broadly this rule is observed.


Colloquial way to express the concept of "默写"

I would translate it as "write from memory".

老師要學生把這首詩默寫一遍。

The teacher made the students write out the poem from memory.


下来 is a result complement for the verb 写
把它写(下来) = write it (down)
把它写 is an incomplete sentence because the verb 写 doesn't sound complete
把它写在纸上 (write it on paper) would be a complete sentence
Please read result complement at Chinese Grammar Wiki


I think it's an old pronunciation. I remembered this pronunciation appeared in a classic poem composed approximately in Tang dynasty.

珠泪纷纷湿绮罗，少年公子负恩多。当初姊妹分明道，莫把真心过于他。仔细思量着，淡薄只闻不好么？

The note says the correct pronunciation is "tuo", which rhymes with "罗","多" and "么". According to the poem's pattern,"他" should rhyme here.
In modern usage, I don't sound "tuo" in any case. "ta" is the only correct pronunciation. In order to rhyme, I'll read some characters with old pronunciations when reading classic poems.
Such a phenomenon is called "古音异读" (lit. special ancient pronunciation), however, while the languages is evolving as time flies, some special pronunciations have been ignored by the public, and thus get lost.
Some other examples for "古音异读". The fomer pronunciation is "modern pronunciation", and the latter is the "special ancient pronunciation".

可汗 kě hàn vs kè hán
莫顿 mào dùn vs mò dú
斜 xié vs xiá
汤汤 tāngtāng vs shāngshāng
骑 qí vs jì

Sometimes I'm still confused when reading these characters. A typical one is "骑", when I learned it in a famous verse "一骑红尘妃子笑", I was taught the correct pronunciation was "jì" which means "a rider on a horse"; however, now in the dictionary, the pronunciation for this meaning is also qí.


More commonly known as 機能性飲料, these kinds of "fad" drinks are sold to convey a kind of health benefit, commonly advertised as increasing organ (heart, pancreas, eyes, ...) function. Think herbal or vitamin drinks.


If the sentence was "港珠澳大桥高架三地", we can understand "高架" means "rise high"

Imagine the bridge was like a dragon, and this dragon flying high above the sea through three territories

港珠澳大桥飞架三地 would mean "the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge rises high above the sea like dragon fly through three territories"

飞架 would mean "rises high and extends far"

飞架三地 would mean "rises high and extends across three territories"

Or

simply "fly across" -- describe the bridge as a metaphorical dragon


How to translate “when there’s a gold rush, sell pickaxes and shovels"?

There's an article on Zhihu with the title:
淘金先富卖铲人
The paper talks about the exact phenomenon that you mention above.

Xueqiu also ran an article mentioning this adage:

有句俗话叫“淘金先富卖铲人”，出自这样的典故：当初美国西部出现淘金热时，真正能在山沟里淘到黄金的人不多，倒是向淘金者出售铲子、牛仔裤等装备器材的商家更容易发财。

It is the exact phrase that you are looking for. It isn't widely known, though, and may take the correct context to make it well understood depending on your audience.

Some other variants:

宁做卖铲人勿做挖金人

“卖铲人”

挖金子不如卖铲子

xx如同淘金客，xx人如同卖铲人 (e.g.: 游人如同淘金客，卖耙人如同卖铲人)

淘金潮里的卖铲人

淘金热中的“卖铲人”

It is quite interesting that "卖铲人" has become a sort of a phrase in and of itself to talk about those people who make money off of other people's pursuits.


Officially, it is "Mesocricetus auratus" (Golden hamster) (source1 source2). It belong to "仓鼠科", and it should a kind of "鼠类" in Chinese.

However, as not everybody is a biologist, and as the name for it is "金丝*熊*", it may not be treated as mouse in everyday life.

Another reason is that "鼠" does not carry a good meaning in Chinese. It is often related to "stealing" or something alike. So it may be avoided to name a kind pet animal. (However, we do have "仓鼠" for pets.)

btw: To be honest, I've never seen a real "金丝熊".


It is called 标准分. Its opposite is called 原始分.
标准分 is the modified score according to the distribution of the score in the class.
Its calculation method might be different from curved scores, but the logic is the same.
The problem is, in China, modified scores are rarely used. Original scores are used in almost all situations. So the word for the curved score is not wildly used.
标准分 was sort of an education experiment decades ago. Teachers tried but finally decided not to use it. So, people might not understand this word these days. I know this word because my parents who are in their 60s were educators at that time. But I myself never attended any school that uses 标准分 or any kind of modified scores.
And letters grades (优，良，中，差，及格，不及格) are usually only considered as additional information because original scores are almost always available. So usually grades are not very important but the original scores are. The original scores are usually out of 100, 120, or 150.


First of all, 堂 and 表 are now mainly used in formal language, such as a kinship notarial certificate. We rarely use those terms in oral speech.
The completely male-side cousins are called 堂房, abbreviated to 堂. Other cousins are called 中表, abbreviated to 表.
Father is male and father's brother is male - 堂
Father's sister is female - 表
Mother is female - 表

Father's brother's son, older than ego - 堂兄
Father's brother's son, younger than ego - 堂弟
Father's brother's daughter, older than ego - 堂姐
Father brother's daughter, younger than ego - 堂妹

Father's sister's son, older than ego - 表兄
Father's sister's son, younger than ego - 表弟
Father's sister's daughter, older than ego - 表姐
Father sister's daughter, younger than ego - 表妹

Mother's sibling's son, older than ego - 表兄
Mother's sibling's son, younger than ego - 表弟
Mother's sibling's daughter, older than ego - 表姐
Mother's sibling's daughter, younger than ego - 表妹


What are written name conventions in labels?

It would hang on the door to celebrate the name of the new baby. It could also hang on the wall; it's more of a decoration than an indicator

The key word is 'decoration'. You can consider it a hand crafted art. The shape of the sign should be fun and artistic (e.g. you can make it shaped like panda, star, duckling, bunny or anything you consider meaningful ). It can also be colorful. The same goes to the font you use.

Horizontal or vertical are both fine, the characters don't even have to be the same size or line up straight, but the label itself should has little thickness to make it feel substantial

Use just the baby's first name would make it more casual and relax. Using full name would make it more formal.


Do 和 and 及 refer to two different kinds of "ands?"

Both “和” and “及” are conjunctions for connecting two words or phrases.

和 [hé] : To connect nouns, verbs or phrases, not necessarily expressing a relationship and often informally. E.g. 汽车和现金 (car and cash),
蓝宝石和翡翠 (sapphire and jade).
及 [jí] : Mostly used in writing to connect nouns, with greater emphasis on the items preceding it. E.g. “囧”字的读音、意思及其常用表现手法

Example of combined usage adapted from Google's policy:

  我们的目标是不断超越，为您提供一流的服务和易于使用的安全及隐私权工具。

Note the order and how “和” is used to join the larger phrases together.

See also:
Difference between 与，和 and 跟?

There are a lot characters meaning "and": 和/及/与/而/又/并/同/亦/且/兼/跟"

  面包 和 黄油 bread and butter
       一个女人﹑ 两个男人 及 三个孩子 one woman, two men and three children
      《儿子 与 情人》 Sons and Lovers
      缓慢 而 仔细地 slowly and carefully
      能读 又 能写 able to read and write
      他为她感到难过， 并 试图使她振作起来。 He was sorry for her and tried to cheer her up.
      你 同 他一起去。You and he go together.
      他生 亦 穷来死 亦 穷。He was born poor and died poor.
      一个优雅 且 和蔼的女人 a graceful and gentle woman
      他担任教练 兼 队长。He doubled as coach and captain of the team.
      你 跟 他一块儿来。You and he come togther.

It is very hard to give specific rules on how to use them. You need to read a lot Chinese text to build up your language sense on those characters. But one rule seems holding the water all the time: if there are mutliple level things in the same sentence to be joined by "and", then you will need to use different characters.


足矣 means (lucky) enough.

So the whole sentence means:

knowing a person who understand you (soul mate? I think) in one's life is enough.

Implicit meaning: many people won't have even one soul mate all his/her life. When you have one, you are lucky enough. So please appreciate it and don't ask for more.


What is the difference between 回答 and 答复?

The two terms are very similar. The difference is how the terms are constructed:  答复 is more like "to reply" (v) or "a reply" (n); while 回答 is more like "to answer" (v) or "an answer" (n)

  答(answer/ reply) 复(reply/return)

  答复 = 'answer with a reply' or 'return with an answer'  (to someone's question or request)

  or simply "reply" /answer

~

  回(return)答 (answer/ reply)

  回答 = return with an answer/reply (to someone's question or request)

  or simply "answer" / "reply"

~

  回(return) 复 (reply)

  回复 = return with an reply (to someone's question or request)

  or simply "reply"


Why can objects be placed at the beginning of the sentence?

It's called topic-comment structure and it's ubiquitous in Chinese. It's one of its distinctive grammatical traits.
What is called topic, or theme, is the focus of the sentence and is extracted at the beginning of the sentence, regardless of its grammatical function. This last remark is especially important. The topic isn't necessarily also the grammatical subject of the sentence.
What is called comment, is  usually what contains the predicate and provides the additional information about the topic that you want to convey. In wikipedia's words "it's what is being said about the topic".
When the topic is a complex structure, it's often separated from the rest by a comma in writing, and by a brief pause in speech. In writing the comma may disappear for simple topics. But you can add it again to test this:

证件，带了吗？

证件 is the topic, and the grammatical object of the sentence. The two are not mutually exclusive.
（你）带了吗 is the comment, and the grammatical predicate. The actual subject 你 is omitted, as it's understood from the context (supposedly this sentence is being addressed at you).

Other examples where the topic is the object (with and without comma):

饭吃了吗 = Have you eaten already?
别人的中文名字，你一定要记住啊 = Make sure to remember other people's Chinese names!


Depending on context, 暧昧[pronounced as ài mèi] can take on a few meanings. The following is quoted from Baidu with some explanations in English:

（态度、用意）含糊；不明白。(attitude or intent is unclear or incomprehensible)
（行为）不光明；不可告人。(behavior is dishonorable or secretive, like having an illicit affair)
男女或同性肉体关系还处于想象段。(at the non-physical stage of a relationship, that is, in between friendship and intimate relationship)
男女或同性关系还未发展到恋人关系，但是行为举止和恋人关系差不多。(same as 3)

暧昧 is usually used to describe a kind of ambiguous relationship that is neither here nor there. It is not necessarily a negative word.


Is this sentence grammatically correct? 中国的建设开始的时候，人人是不以为过环境污染的。

When construction began in China, people didn't think about pollution.

当工业在中国兴起时，人们并没有想到污染的问题。


馧（yun1）means aroma.
馚馧(fen1 yun1) has the similar meaning.


What is the difference between 连续， 陆续， 接连， and 一连？

As all four words have very similar meanings, here's an attempt to explain the slight differences:

连续 emphasize on the consecutive-ness - there're no breaks in between.
陆续 emphasize on counting - in a sense of 'keep it coming'.
接连 emphasize on succession / connection.  'one after the other' fits here.
一连 is the same as 连续 but in a sense of shorter range in terms of usage.


Can anyone recommend Chinese names that mean "a rainfall of jade"?

if the family name is 白, may i suggest, for rainfall:

霝(u+971d), which means "light rain, drops of rain". it has a heritage since oracle bone script, used for people's name at that period.

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000003720

another one is: 澍(u+6f8d), which means "timely rain; to rain, to moisten"

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000009123

for jade, roughly all characters belong to the 96 radical "玉" is jade related. i would suggest these four:

璐(u+7490), 瑾(u+747e), 琨(u+7428), or 琦(u+7426)

so some combinations of a boy's name:

霝璐, 霝瑾, 霝琨, 霝琦, or 澍璐, 澍瑾, 澍琨, 澍琦.

before making any decision, would you consider the baby's 生辰八字? in the past, it's one of the most important factor in choosing any name.

have fun :)


How should one translate "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝" into English?

Both "年年有今日" and "歲歲有今朝" have the meaning of "May you have today's glory forever."

Usually it's wished upon people on their birthdays. The contextual meaning is "Although you are getting older as years pass by, I wish that you'll always have today's glory. And let today's good memory always be with you."

It is not used by a particular group. Other similar expressions include "祝你青春永驻", which means "may you have your youth forever".


What's the correct word division of this sentence?

The sentence describes a two parts action.

"农夫过去一看" means "the farmer went over and took a look"

农夫 the farmer

过去 went over

一看 took a look

过 is a verb for "go over"  e.g. 过美国 (go over to The United States)
去 is the directional verb particle that indicates which direction the subject is going over
"过去美国" (go over to The United States) is different from "过来美国" (come over to The United States); it is "农夫过去一看" (the farmer goes over and take a look), not "农夫过来一看" (the farmer comes over and take a look)

一看 is a more literary style of saying 看看 or 看一看
Note:
过去 (v): go over
过去 (n): past


“大势一去水东流” seemingly means "大势一去 就如長江水东流" (when defeat becomes inevitable, it is like the water of Yangtze River flow East, --It can't be turned back)
Using "River water run East" metaphorically for the meaning of  "irreversible situation" is very common in Chinese poetry, the following are some examples:

《念奴娇 赤壁怀古》宋·苏轼："大江东去  ....." (The water of Yangtze River flow East and won't return...)

~

《臨江仙》楊慎:
"滚滚长江东逝水...." (The water of the rolling Yangtze River disappear to the East...)

~

《虞美人》 南唐后主李煜:
"....一江春水向東流" (....The water of a river flow East in Spring)

“事其所以观其所由， came from 论语 “视其所以，观其所由，察其所安，人焉廋哉！"

大势一去  is referring to the idiom 大势已去 宋·朱熹《朱子谏类》卷五十一：“.... 莫是大势已去。”

The phrase 水东流 appeared in the first line of 满江红·"汉水东流...."

The '戏'(opera) that 古老夫子 '唱'(sung) was a mix and match from different sources -- an original creation from the author of 《普提山下》陈果卿


How to say "Because it was predicted that the typhoon would pass over PLACE-X on DATE-Y"?

Because it was predicted that the typhoon would pass over PLACE-X on DATE-Y
因為預計颱風會在 Y月Y日 吹襲 X市

Do you really need '因為'(because) in this sentence? If you use 'because' to start a sentence, you have to use '所以' (therefore) to end the sentence
"因為預計颱風會在 Y月Y日 吹襲 X市" is an incomplete sentence
"預計颱風會在 Y月Y日 吹襲 X市" is a complete sentence
When describe a 颱風 hitting a place, we use the term '吹襲'


This sentence has an abbreviated 的 in 是誰打電話過來的呢. 是～的 is a very common construction that you must remember; it is used for emphasis. In your sentence, you would like to emphasise who called. Basically, 誰打電話過來 (who called) is the question without any emphasis.

打～過來 should be seen together, not 電話過來. For details please see my explanation on the auxiliary verb 來 here. In general, 來 may (1) indicate an observed movement caused by the main verb (打) towards the speaker; or (2) the start (or in a more abstract sense, consequence) of the action caused by the main verb. Here, it emphasises someone called as if the call approached the speaker. A more semantically accurate translation of 打～過來 is 'to call here'.

Your statement on 呢 is irrelevant in this situation. While 嗎 is a question particle for yes/no questions, 呢 is a question particle for 5W1H words, in this case 'who'. Therefore,

是誰打電話過來的嗎（✖）
是誰打電話過來的呢（✓）
Who is it that called?

是他打電話過來的呢（✖）
是他打電話過來的嗎（✓）
Is it he who called?


Using those characters only/with out adding, replacing, or removing is my sentence structure and grammar correct?

一）我请你和我想一起听音乐。 incorrect - (it is either 请你和我一起听音乐 or 我想和你一起听音乐, )

二）我和我的好朋友昨天晚上去图书馆看书。 correct

三）哪里哪里，我写字写得很慢。 correct

四）我的妈妈常常说别看电影。 correct

五）白安觉得他来念书念得不错。 incorrect - (it should be "白安觉得他念书念得不错"

'他来'念书' implies a 'suggestion' ; '念书念得不错' is a 'statement', the two don't mix )

六）他没听录音可是有课文预习。incorrect - (it should be 他没听录音可是有预习课文, [没听] is a verb, if it is followed by "可是有 but have" then the following must be another verb [预习], not a noun [课文预习])


Neither. 没有梦也没有希望 is the correct form for nor/neither.

和 in 没有梦和X means "having no dreams" and "another full statement" (X).

或 in 没有梦或X means "having no dreams" or "another full statement" (X)


Since the container(bottle) of it is like a stick. We use 支 to describe all the stick-like things.

Maybe I should post a pic here to help you understand what I'm talking about:


They're really confused, and often changes meaning according to the context. Here're my opinions:

总统 is the most clear one here, as you said, means the president of a country.

董事长 means chairman of the board.

总裁 (president), according to my experience, usually used for the CEO of a large company, which has a number of subsidiaries. BTW, 总经理 is often used for CEO too, but usually for a small or one-tier company.

总监 is used for a chief officer of certain field, such as 技术总监 (CTO).

主任, and 主管, means director, usually used for the people who are primarily responsible for an organization or department. Such as 财务主管 (financial executive), 教务主任 (dean of students).

领导 is a generic salutation for your superior, immediate or non immediate.

老板 (boss) is a generic salutation too, usually used for the top of your company, such as 总经理 (CEO).


How do I parse 天津图书馆园区馆 (tiān jīn tú shū guǎn yuán qū guǎn)?

Yes this is confusing. If you search it you'll find the (complete) name should be 天津图书馆海河教育园区图书馆.

(天津)海河教育园区 (Tianjin Haihe Education Park) is used for specifying the location of the branch library here. Note that 园区 is usually used as a term, which means "集中发展某种事业的地区" (key development area for some kind of enterprise).

I guess that the name 天津图书馆海河教育园区图书馆 is just too long to write on the road sign so it's shorted.

At last to answer your question directly the sentence should be parsed as

天津 = Tianjin, the city you live in.
图书馆 = library
(海河教育)园区 = (Haihe education) park
馆 = branch library


What is the cultural meaning of the practice 歃 when taking an oath ?

The passage is punctuated slightly wrong, it should be 葵丘之會，諸侯束牲、載書而不歃血: At the assembly at Kuiqiu, the feudal lords bound the sacrifice and placed their written pledges on it, but did not make blood oaths (i.e. they did not kill animals as part of the ceremony of allegiance).

The assembly at Kuiqiu marked the ascendance of Qi Huan gong 齊桓公, the first of the five feudal leaders (五霸) of the Spring and Autumn period, and the decline of the Zhou royal house. It was a meeting convened by Qi, at that point the most powerful of the feudal states, to make an alliance between the major rulers of the time.

The expression sha xue is often used in the longer phrase 歃血為盟. An animal sacrifice was killed and its blood wiped on the lips. The written agreement was then placed on the sacrifice and the whole thing buried. This action was part of the regular ceremony of alliance between states, and was performed either by the leader of the state or his representative.  It could also occur between lesser figures, and different animals were supposedly used, depending on their status

The idea was that putting blood on the mouth solemnified the words of the treaty of alliance, and signified the punishment that would come on whoever broke the agreement (or at least that's one interpretation).

This passage is from Mengzi, who felt that Qi Huan gong's decision not to use blood in the ceremony of allegiance between the feudal lords was superior to later practice using blood, which involved the idea of divine retribution, and thus departed from the mutual trust that was essential for the allegiance.

On the other hand, according to Mengzi, Qi Huan gong, by convening the assembly, arrogated to himself a power that belonged to the Zhou royal house, and had therefore also offended against virtue.

Later note: There is an article that discusses the significance of these "covenant tablets" here


so be it

  used for saying that you accept a situation in which something has
  been decided or is necessary, although you are not happy about it

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/so-be-it


Could you say what is postposition in chinese and why it's different from preposition

I think you are making a fundamental mistake. Your conscious or otherwise presumption is, Western Grammar is correct and it must therefore apply, without reservation, to Chinese. Words are placed in categories such as 'preposition', but words refuse to remain in their categories. This is true in Chinese and English.

And dear old Aunty Wiki blathers on about it, as if she knows by divine right.

What about 前？Is 前 a preposition? Well, that just depends on how it is used and who is translating.

会议向前提了。
meeting to front/forward carried
The meeting has been brought forward.

我只读了前几行。
I only read 了 first/front few lines
I only read the first few lines.

他走前把门关上了。
he go before 把 door close up
He closed the door behind him.

前不久
before not long
not long ago

就在圣诞节前
just in Christmas before
just before Christmas

在后的, 将要在前。在前的, 将要在后。
So the last will be first, and the first will be last. (Matthew 20:16)


What does 'duang' mean in 'online Chinese'?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/duang-how-jackie-chan-helped-780040

Citation, with explanation of the word in bold:

  Think that your hair is looking particularly good today? In Chinese
  popular culture, it's looking "duang."

  A Chinese phrase that came out of nowhere, "duang" has taken the
  Internet by storm, even though many don't really know its origins.

  We do know where "duang" started though. It was Hong Kong action star
  Jackie Chan, who in 2004 was featured in a shampoo infomercial, where
  he spread his hands and described how his sleek dark locks would
  simply "duang" after a scrub with Bawang organic shampoo. A useful
  way of translating the word is as "boing," in the sense of "bouncy and
  vibrant," or even "ta-da!"

  A parody video making fun of the old commercial recently hit the web,
  making the word a social media trend. It's been widely interpreted as
  "cool," and the word resurfaced again recently after Chan posted it on
  his Weibo page. It has become to Chinese slang what Kim Kardashian's
  rear end is to U.S. popular culture. It's breaking the Internet as
  Chinese pop stars are called "duang pretty" and the like.

  Although it's a long way from featuring in a dictionary, it's been
  used millions of times on the Chinese social network Weibo and has
  been looked up 1.5 million times on China's biggest search engine,
  Baidu.

  In case you're "duang confused," you just need to know that
  "everyone's "duang-ing" and it's great" or "This is so duang hot" are
  the kinds of comments you see on the Weibo social network these days.

  There have also been numerous mash-up videos, and apparently during
  the visit of Britain's Prince William to China last week, he was
  greeted by some people saying "duang, duang," because the English
  gentry look is seen as cool in China.


Well, I agree that @NS.X said.

First, it should be "妈了个巴子", not "妈个巴子".

Second, it is much worse than "他妈的".

Actually, if you are angry with something, you can say "他妈的", to express your dissatisfied emotion. But please do not use it to a person. However, please do not use "妈了个巴子" even if for a thing, since it is too coarse.

Anyway, it is not good to say these kind of word in China. Others may look down on you.


I am come from Taiwan.
我來自台灣
In traditional,If the clerk want to check your request that you want to replace!
They always said:"請問你要把"A"換成"B"嗎?"
傳統上,如果店員要確認你換貨的需求.他們會說:"請問你要把"A"換成"B"嗎?"

Do you want to exchange this for that?
(你想要把這個東西和那個東西(交換/取代)嗎?)
你要换这个东西 "X" 那个吗？
參考答案:
你要换这个东西 "成為" 那个吗？


Generally speaking, 了 following a verb indicates completion, while 了 at the end of a sentence or phrase indicates a change in state (and sometimes other things, 了 is very complicated).  A common use of this final 了 is to draw the attention of the listener to the fact that something is now the case (that wasn't previously).  In this case 我饿了 is saying: "I'm hungry now," and drawing the listeners attention to the new hunger.  Of course, when the verb is at the end of the sentence the use of 了 can be ambiguous.  Such an 了 could be used in either, or even both, of these ways, but usually context makes the intention clear.

More general information on 了 can be found here: http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Uses_of_%22le%22


Should the object always be placed after the verb, and is a target and an object the same thing?

As a native Chinese citizen & Chinese speaker, I can confirm that that placement is wrong, or at least partially.

警察那天不停地在警察局对他审问了几个小时 sounds quite weird. This sounds like:

  The police repeatedly "interrogated him in the office" for several hours.

...which errorneously overemphasized the place.

My version (that makes sense):

  警察那天在警察局不停地对他审问了几个小时。

Usually, places and locations should come before manners. If they come after manners, the only case in which it makes sense is when you want to emphasize the place. Generally, whatever closer to the verb is more "important". Compare:

他高兴地在教室里跳了起来。(Emphasizing place)
他在教室里高兴地跳了起来。(Emphasizine manner)


木木 is there anything linked to a Chinese superstition with this double character?

Thank you for your thoughts.
Well turns out it wasn't some Chinese superstition; it was sort of her own; this is how she explained it finally:
"There is a superstition in China. People want to know his own destiny and what his life is. For example, some are fire, some are water, and some are wood. This is based on his birth date. People who look at their destiny are called  Fortune teller, the fortune teller said that my life is short of wood, so I thought of a name called wood wood, this is superstition This is a kind of superstition in China, similar to a belief In other words, my name is Mumu, which is helpful for my good luck


簡易六書原則

形聲:

在中國文字中，形聲字的比例最多，「形聲」就是形符和聲符的配合，「形符」表示字的類別；「聲符」則表示字的字音

Both 帳 and 賬 are 形聲字 (Pictophonetic characters)

貝 indicates the character is related to 'money/finance'. It is the semantic component of the character 賬

巾 indicates the character is related to 'tent/cloth'. It is the semantic component of the character 帳

長 is the phonetic component of both 帳 and 賬

張 is a 會意形聲字. [弓 = bow --> bow extends + phonetic 長]

Wang_xiao_ming posted:

按：此字本為帳幕之義，後亦用為錢項計簿之義，此義或从貝作「賬」。清．翟灝《通俗編．貨財》云：「幃幄曰帳，而計簿亦曰帳者，運籌必在幃幄中也。今市井或造賬字用之，諸字書中皆未見。

It said 帳 originally meant 'tents', acquired the meaning of "accounting" later because "運籌必在幃幄中也" meaning: "to calculate war strategy, one must be in a tent" (in the army, close to the battlefield)
Since accounting involves money, the 巾 radical was replaced by the 貝 radical.  The meaning of 'account --> (debt)' in '帳' thereafter, was transferred to '賬'.
'今市井或造賬字用之，諸字書中皆未見' However, at the beginning, 賬 was considered a made-up word by the general public, not listed in any reference book.


Using 反切 to determine readings of characters in modern varieties of Chinese

Sound shift, although an important factor, is not the primary reason that Fanqie doesn't fully work for determining the sound of characters in modern varieties of Chinese. In actuality, Fanqie never fully worked for any variety of Chinese, modern or ancient. This is because the phonology recorded in rime dictionaries wasn't for any particular language, but at the very outset was a compromise between Northern and Southern varieties - that is, Middle Chinese was itself artificial, never being a natural language.

　　昔開皇初，有儀同劉臻等八人，同詣法言門宿。夜永酒闌，論及音韻，以今聲調既自有別，諸家取捨亦復不同。吳楚則時傷輕淺，燕趙則多傷重濁；秦隴則去聲為入，梁益則平聲似去。又支、脂、魚、虞共為一韻；先、仙、尤、侯俱論是切。欲廣文路，自可清濁皆通，若賞知音，即須輕重有異。
　　呂靜《韻集》、夏侯該《韻略》、陽休之《韻略》、周思言《音韻》、李季節《音譜》、杜臺卿《韻略》等各有乖互。江東取韻，與河北復殊，因論南北是非，古今通塞，欲更捃選精切，除削疏緩；蕭顏多所決定。魏著作謂法言曰：「向來論難，疑處悉盡，何不隨口記之。我輩數人，定則定矣。」法言即燭下握筆，略記綱紀，博問英辯，殆得精華。
　　於是更涉餘學，兼從薄宦，十數年閒，不遑修集。今返初服，私訓弟子，凡有文藻，即須明聲韻。屏居山野，交遊阻絕，疑惑之所，質問無從。亡者則生死路殊，空懷可作之歎。存者則貴賤禮隔，以報絕交之旨。遂取諸家音韻、古今字書，以前所記者，定為《切韻》五卷。剖析豪氂，分別黍累，何煩泣玉，未得縣金，藏之名山。昔怪馬遷之言大，持以蓋醬，今歎楊雄之口吃。非是小子專輒，乃述群賢遺意，寧敢施行人世，直欲不出戶庭。于時歲次辛酉，大隋仁壽元年。
—— 陸法言《切韻・序》

Some time ago, during the first year of the 開皇 era, I was host to 劉臻 and seven other ministers (蕭該, 顏之推, 盧思道, 李若, 辛德源, 薛道衡, and 魏彥淵). After an evening of joyous drinking and feasting, the discussion turned to the subject of phonology.
The sounds of previous eras and the other geographical regions are different, and the subject had different schools of discipline: the 吳楚 (southern) topolects were light and gentle; the 燕趙 (northern) topolects were heavy and thick; the 秦隴 topolects (now around Shaanxi and Gansu) read the departing tone as the checked tone; the 梁益 topolects (now around Sichuan) read the level tone as the departing tone. Some schools treat「支」and「脂」,「魚」and「虞」with the same rhyme; some treat「先」and「仙」,「尤」and「侯」with the same initial. If one wished to indulge in a wide variety of literature, then one can personally interchange light and heavy sounds; however, if one wished to understand phonology, then one must clearly differentiate them.
The subject matter given in 呂靜《韻集》, 夏侯該《韻略》, 陽休之《韻略》, 周思言《音韻》, 李季節《音譜》, 杜臺卿《韻略》 and others were all different to the point of being contradictory. The phonology of 江東 (Jiangnan) is completely different to that of 河北 (northern regions). Thus, we discussed differences between the northern and southern topolects and between past and present, leading on to the choice of a precise and refined phonology standard, freed from clumsy and inelegant representations of sound, with many of the choices made by 蕭該 and 顏之推. 魏彥淵 later wrote to me: "That was a challenging discussion, but the most difficult of problems have been solved. Why don't you record the results of our conference? We'll treat the points that we have agreed upon as the established rules [of phonology]." Holding a brush under the candlelight, I proceeded to summarise the phonological rules decided, the studious questions asked, and their incisive responses of that evening, attempting to capture their quintessence.
Over the next ten to twenty years, the knowledge established that evening underwent ceaseless additions from knowledgeable scholars and officials. Today, I've regressed to my roots, and have taken on students; as long as they compose works, they must understand the rules of phonology. I'm living among the mountains; ceasing to travel on far journeys for academic pursuits, the questions that I harbour have no place to be discussed. As for the old friends and colleagues of mine: those who have long since passed away, I impossibly wish for their resurrection; and those who are still alive have gone down different paths in their lives, and I wish to sever ties with them. From the phonological studies taken from the different schools and literature on the subject matter from the past to present, the body of knowledge amassed is composed into the five volumes of Qieyun. Minute differences are stressed and fine details are emphasised, whilst not being obstinate and conceited [in its opinions]. It is truly an illustrious composition, worthy as a treasured legacy for many generations. I previously criticised Sima Qian for the veneration of his own work, but now I'm fond of teasing those who gaze on, open-mouthed in awe [at such grand creations]. However, I don't dare to presume the work's propensity towards widespread popularity, and only wish  for it to be used within the households.
Preface to Qieyun, by 陸法言
辛酉 year, 仁壽 era of the Sui Dynasty


From this article

八大行星中水星，金星，地球，火星，土星，人類可以在地球上看到，在中國古代秦漢之間，占星術已經漸漸盛行，五大行星與神聯繫在一起。長沙馬王堆出土的帛書《五星占》，可稱作是距今所知最早的占星學著作，其中把五星與五方，五行，五帝等做了對應：

From Google Translate:

Among the eight planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn could be seen on the earth by ancient humans. Astrology became popular between the Qin and Han Dynasties in ancient China, and the five planets were connected with gods. The silk book "Five-Star Zodiac" unearthed at Mawangdui in Changsha can be regarded as the earliest known astrological work, in which the five stars correspond to the five directions, the five elements, and the five emperors.

東方木，其帝太昊，其丞句芒，其神上為歲星。(Wood corresponds to East)

西方金，其帝少昊，其丞蓐收，其神上為太白。(Metal corresponds to  West)

南方火，其帝炎帝，其丞朱明，其神上為熒惑。(Fire corresponds to South)

北方水，其帝顓頊，其丞玄冥，其神上為辰星。(Water corresponds to North)

中央土，其帝黃帝，其丞后土，其神上為填星 (Soil corresponds to Center)

Ancient Chinese observed the five planets and named them 金星, 木星, 水星, 火星, 土星 before they learned about the English names of those planets. We just keep using the existing Chinese names instead of translating the English name into Chinese.
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered in modern time, therefore we  translated them as 天王星, 海王星, and 冥王星 from English
If we translate Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn into Chinese, we might call them 愛神星，神王星，旅神星，戰神星 and 農神星


Online, is there any equivalent to the Japanese web slang of ending a sentence with "w" or in English using "lol" just to indicate good-nature/humor?

The best i can think of is 233.

  It is originated from Chinese popular forum side 猫扑, the 233 is the number of emoji. Then it started to get viral to other forum side, people often lengthen the 3 behind the 233. The longer the 3, the funnier it gets to.

No.233 emoji is a dog having the face expression of >_< , see below picture:

You would have something like this:

233333333333333333333333333333333


When should you use 尽管 (jǐnguǎn) instead of 虽然 (suīrán)?

Let me translate an answer I saw on a Chinese website.

  这两个关联词语的使用是有差别的.词典中的注释很明了,"尽管"表达的是让步转折,即说话者已经认识到一种客观存在,这种客观存在应导致某一种结果；但他依然坚持自己认为正确的另一种结果。可谓坚持己见，态度坚定，大有死了的鸭子嘴硬不肯悔改之意。“虽然”是客观陈述，“尽管”是主观表达。
  如：虽然天冷路滑，学员们还是按时到达了；尽管天冷路滑，你们也要按时到达。

尽管 and 虽然 are somewhat different. "尽管" implies personal opinion (similar to "although"?), indicating that the speaker understands that the situation usually leads to result A, but insists on result B nevertheless. "虽然", however, does not carry this connotation because it goes with 但是 and can be treated as "but". "虽然" merely states a fact.

For example,

  虽然天冷路滑，学员们还是按时到达了。
  It was cold outside, but the students arrived on time.

  尽管天冷路滑，你们也要按时到达。
  Although it is cold outside, you should arrive on time.

As a native speaker, I think 虽然 and 尽管 are interchangeable in the first example, while 尽管 is the best way to put it in the second sentence. Thus, when you are expressing strong personal opinion, 尽管 is a better choice.
尽管 is also more formal. People hardly use 尽管 in colloquial language. (Probably we omit 虽然 as well, as 但是 will do in most situations.)
尽管 has an additional meaning, which Terry explained quite clearly in his post.


How do I refer to someone's family member who's relative age I am unsure of?

You could use the terms 兄弟 and 姐妹.

For example, lets say you know 小明 and 小華 are brothers but don't know who is older.  You could then say

  小明跟小華是兄弟


Unclear expression in Pimsleur 3 "here is a small gift"

The character before 意思 should be 小. Notice that 小 has a connotation of size that 少 lacks; 少 is an indication of quantity. Moreover, 小意思 readily appears in dictionaries; 少意思 does not.

Otherwise, the overall construction (一点儿小意思) makes sense to me, and does appear in some online results. For example, Zdic.net gives:

  这是俺们家乡特产,你一定要收下,只是一点小意思

There is no 儿 affixed to the 点, but to the best of my knowledge, this discrepancy is not important.


Well, I can tell it's been widely used in the northern areas. And you would hear it in TV shows. Of course, it's an oral term.

It's not used to substitute for 吗. It's been used when you can not recall something from your mind, and then you ask out while you are still trying to think it out. For example, 几号来着？ means you can't recall 几号, and then you ask while you are still trying to think it out. In this case, you are expecting someone could remind you while you're thinking. 几号来着？ is kind of like saying "那是几号了？"


尽 (jìn) = "completely"
信 (xìn) = "believe in"
书 (shū) = "book"
不如 (bùrú) = "better off"
无 (wú) = "without"
书 (shū) = "book"
"尽信书不如无书" mean "It is better to have no book at all than blindly believe in everything in the books"

Prejudice is worse than ignorance; wrong information is worse than no information
prejudice: preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
ignorance: lack of knowledge or information

The phrase is not telling you not to read. It is telling you to also think for yourself when you read.


What is the grammatical function of 到 in 这些的确是铁匠会用到的老式钉子 ?

用到 = 用得到 where 到 is resultant compliment for the verb 用. 到 here means 'occurred; reached; accomplished' in the sense that without it, it sounds like 'attempted'.
With some other verbs, the differentiation is more prominent, e.g.

抓老鼠 (try to) catch a mouse.
抓到老鼠 (manage to) catch a mouse.

When it comes to 用 the difference is mostly in certainty level but very trivial:

这些的确是铁匠会用的老式钉子
These are true old fashioned clinch nails that a blacksmith might use.
这些的确是铁匠会用到的老式钉子
These are true old fashioned clinch nails that a blacksmith would use.

Side note, 用到 could also mean 'use (...) towards' where 到 is a preposition meaning 'towards; for', as in 把时间用到最重要的事情上. It's unrelated to this question though.


If you use the adjectival '的', then it has to be '当我回家的时候' (at the time I come home) - 时候(time/ moment) is a noun

If you don't use the adjectival '的' then you can write '当我回家时' (when I come home) - 时 (when) is an adverb

当我回家的时候 = at the time I come home

当我回家时 = when I come home

当我正在回家的时候 = during the time I was coming home

当我正在回家时 = when I was coming home


First, it's composed as 功亏一篑 where

  篑 = container basket in construction

..

  功亏一篑 =  Lack of a basketful to build the mount. / Lack of the final straw to break the camel's back (:


How to say 'what's the difference between' in Cantonese?

what's the difference between X and Y

Cantonese:

"(X) 同 (Y) 有乜嘢唔同" [(X) tung4 (Y) jau5 me1 je5 m4 tung4]
"(X) 同 (Y) 有乜嘢分別" [(X) tung4 (Y) jau5 me1 je5 fan1 bit6]

Mandarin:

"(X) 跟 (Y) 有甚麼不同" [(X) gen1 (Y) you3 shen2 me5 bu4 tong2]
"(X) 跟 (Y) 有甚麼分別" [(X) gen1 (Y) you3 shen2 me5 fen1 bie2]


Difference between 关 and 管 in the context of caring?

While all three can be translated as "I don't care" from time to time, there are still subtle differences.

"我不关心" typically means "I am less/no interested in something". For example, "我不关心政治" ("I don't care about politics").

"我不管" is typically used in the case where you insist on something despite the constraints and/or the potential consequence. You acknowledge the presence of the constraints/consequences, but you care less about them. For example, "我不管老闆怎麼想，我下週就是要請假" ("I don't care how my boss thinks. I will take vacation next week.").

You can also reguard “我不管” as “No matter what happens, I must do something……”. And this is usually used in some senarios that is bad or not very good for you, and you have something mood of 破罐子破摔 (Bad as it is). So this is something in the extreme situation.

Please see this dialog：

妈妈：天冷了，别出去了。

我：我想看外婆，外婆病着呢。

妈妈：那你打一个电话问候一声吧。再说你这几天自己也不舒服呢。

我：不管了，外婆病重得很，我一定要去看！

For the 2nd meaning：我不管Something（This means I'm not reponsible for something, it has nothing to do with me.）

"我不在乎" is similar to "我不管", but in the cases you care far less about the constraints and/or the potential consequence. For example, "我不在乎花多少錢, 請醫好我兒子" ("I don't care how much it costs. Please save my son."). This is much less in mood, compared with 我不管, a neutral word used to mean that you are trying your best to do something with any possible solution.

For the 2nd meaning：我不在乎 sometimes also means “我不介意，不关心某事” (This usually means something happening doesn't effect on me seriously or in faulty).

You can understand this in the senario：

爸爸：你为何政治考试不及格？

学生：反正政治是副科，无所谓的，我不在乎。(I don't care about whether I could pass the exam of politics or not because the lesson isn't a major one for me, and on the other hand, it cannot make me repeat my course again).


Is there any difference between 制定, 制订 and 拟定?

制订 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/5836/

制定 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/5830/

拟定 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/20601/

  制 [1] [v] establish; institute; set up

  订 [2] revise; edit; amend; make corrections

  制订 means 'to work out; to formulate'

  Example: 'The law makers 制订 a bill'

  The bill is formulated (also edit, amend before finalize )

~

  制 [1] [v] establish; institute; set up

  定 [2] [v] decide; fix; set; settle

  制定 means 'to draw up; to formulate'

  Example: 'The law makers 制定 a bill'

  The bill is formulated and set'

~

  拟  [1] intend; plan; decide
  [2] draft; draw up; design

  定 [2] [v] decide; fix; set; settle

  拟定 means 'to draft; plan'

  Example: 'The law makers 拟定 a bill'

  The bill is drafted, planed


How to say "at the start of the year" in this context?

'伊始' is mostly used in literal form, a classical counterpart of a common phrase '開始'(begin)

[伊始] 开端;开始。伊,助词,无实义
[伊始] 'start; begin.  [伊] auxiliary word, no real meaning

"At the start of the year," should be translated as:

"在年初"(at the start of the year)

"今年初"(at the start of this year).

"今年開始的时候" is grammatically correct but, too wordy for day-to-day speech.

"今年伊始", or do you need to say, "今年伊始的时候?"

"今年伊始" = "at the start of this year"
"今年伊始的时候" = at the time this year begun"
You can use either.


What semantic notions underlie 妥 (suitable') with 爫 (爪 or claw) and 女?

There are 3 views:

1.At first, it means reassuring a woman with hands, so it also means be stable.-Li Xiaoding

2.At first, it means hold down the woman to let her sit down with a hand, so it also means be stable.("爫" means a hand.)-Xu Zhongshu, Liu Xinglong

3.At first, it means grab a woman by a hand, so it also means capture.("爫" means a hand.)-Wu Qichang, Yu Xingwu, Xu Zaiguo

  甲金文从爪（倒手）从「女」，象以手安抚女子之形，引申有安义（李孝定）。 《集韵》：「妥，安也。 或作绥。 」一说「妥」象以手按抑妇女使之坐下，引伸有安定之义（徐中舒、刘兴隆）。 一说「妥」象以手擒拿、抓取女子之形。 本义是俘掠，后作「绥」。 《书. 武成》，肆予东征，绥厥士女。 」师·马报簋：「孚士女羊牛。 」（吴其昌、于省吾、徐在国）。 「妥」与「孚」（「俘」的初文）的造字原理相同。 吴其昌认为甲骨文「男曰孚，女曰妥。 」

  ——汉语多功能字库，香港中文大学

("妥" in Western Zhou dynasty)


I checked the video at 35", it's 这不, not 是不. I don't think there is 是不 to start sentences with.
Basically, you can understand 这不 as a shortened version of 这不是嘛(isn't it [so]) which is rhetorical and means 是这样的(it is [so]).
In speaking, I think its function is just something to get listeners attention by marking the start of a point or narration. I don't know any expression in English that is quite the same as 这不. But I think there are some possible flexible translations:

这不, 一下车我们就直奔XXX
So, we went straight to XXX after getting off our cars.

Here it can be translated to ‘so‘, or 'that's why' (like they did in the subtitle of the video) because the content before that was saying the city had a long history, considering which so they went to the museum first. However, 这不 doesn't really indicate causality in general, it's just a casual piece of word to connect sentences which can be interpreted in many ways. Some times it would be better translated as 'now' or 'here'. Examples:

A: 他怎么还没到?
Where is he (literal: Why hasn't he arrived?)
B: 他这不来了么
(Now/look) Here he comes.

P.S:
I don't think it's standard Mandarine, it feels more a northern (Beijing/Hebei at least) dialect to me. The whole video is narrated in such style to be more approachable, I guess.


Can "秀气" be used to describe objects that aren't people?

秀气
基本解释:

样子清秀 (elegant appearance)

言谈文雅,举止优美 (elegant demeanor)

(器物）小巧灵便 (elegant, exquisite object)

灵秀之气 (elegant feel)；秀美(elegant)。小巧而清秀 (delicate)

(1) and (2) definition are mostly used to describe people
(3) definition said it can be used to describe 器物 (object)
Example:
秀气的刺繡  (delicate embroidery)
秀气的雕塑  (delicate sculpture)
(4) definition said it describes something that emit delicate, elegant or graceful feel
Example:
秀氣的山水 = 山明水秀 (exquisite landscape)
秀气的文章 (elegantly written article)
寫得一手秀氣的字 (able to write elegant hand written words)


What does it mean to be scratched or scraped?

淺藍(light blue)不(don't)戰爭(war)會(will)被瓜分(be divided)的

Translated it means: Light blue will be divided if it does not "war".

However, 戰爭 means war, whereas 戰鬥 is the word to fight. Based on the context it would seem like a typo here. So the corrected sentence would be 淺藍不戰鬥會被瓜分的.

  綠(green)國(country)刮分(divide)結束(finish/end)

Translated it means: Green is now divided.

I don't think theres this word 刮分. It's likely another typo since they both have the same pinyin guā. It should be the one above, 瓜分(divide).

  再(again)來(come)是(is)淺藍(light blue)

Translated it means: Next would be light blue.

再來是(literally, coming again is) when used together means "next up is". You can think if it as you are playing a series of chess games, the game master would say "再來是[Insert name here]" to announce that the person is coming up next.

再來是(next up is) is implying that something is happening and something else is next. Based on the context of the conversation, you can imply that what they are saying as:

"Green is now divided, light blue is next."


Poetic two-character words of the form: Verb + Natural Noun?

Everything can be poetic, especially Chinese write all kinds of poems ...

Part I - Nature/Astronomy

Nature 自然

乘风 乘風 Ride the Wind
破浪 破浪 Break the Eave

拈花 拈花 Touching Flower

采花 採花 Picking Flower
扑蝶 撲蝶 Catching Butterfly

看海 看海 Watch | Look | Admire the Sea
听涛 聽濤 Listen to the Wave

落花 落花 Flower Dropping
流水 流水 Flowing Water
开花 開花 Blossom
结果 結果 Have Fruit

煮海 煮海 Boil the Sea
焚天 焚天 Burn the Sky

毀天 毀天 Destroy the Sky
灭地 滅地 Destroy the Ground/Earth(crust)

Astronomy 天象

追风 追風 Chasing the Wind
逐月 逐月 After the Moon
追星 追星 Chasing Star
逐日 逐日 After the Sun
摘星 摘星 Picking Star (as in Picking Flower)
采月 採月 Picking the Moon (as in Picking Flower)
奔月 奔月 Run to the Moon
赏月 賞月 Moon watching
观星 觀星 Star Gazing
观天 觀天 Sky Watching
登天 登天 Ascend to the Sky/Haven

Part II - Extra

Daily Live 日常生活

修桥 修橋 Fixing Bridge
补路 補路 Repair Road
杀人 殺人 Killing People
放火 放火 Burning Houses

杀人放火金腰带  殺人放火金腰帶
修桥补路无尸骸  修橋補路無屍骸

    Those who kill
        who burn
            Wear a golden belt

    Those who build
        who fix
            Have no remains (Die and body not found)

登顶 登頂 Ascend to Top(Mountain)
登极 登極 Ascend to Top(Thrown)
上台 上台 Get on Stage / Win a seat (Political)
落台 落台 Lost the seat/position (Political)
落幕 落幕 Closing/End (Performance/Situation)

画眉 畫眉 Put on make up (specific for eyebrow)
弄妆 弄妝 Put on make up
添妆 添壯 Put on make up

Yin Yan Elements 陰陽五行

溶金 溶金 Melting Metal
生木 生木 Growing Wood
納水 納水 Absorbing Water
炼火 煉火 Refining Fire
归土 歸土 Returning to Earth
化阴 化陰 Digesting negative energy

Animal 飛禽走獸

骑虎 騎虎 Riding Tiger
骑鹤 騎鹤 Riding Crane

Direction 方向

东进 東進 Enter/Move towards east
东来 東來 Come to the east (from west)
西去 西去 Go west
北上 北上 Go up north
南下 南下 Go down south
归西 歸西 Return west (also mean dying / death)

Time 時間

不长命 不長命 Don't live long
留千年 留千年 Remain for millennium

Part III - Bonus

When we say poem, or poetic, we offend associate the term with beautiful, romantic, relax, all the positive side of life.

However, a lot of famous Chinese poem has nothing to do with the above. They are good, excellent poem. Their wording are beautiful (詞藻幽美/華麗), but not the scene they describe. They present some dark reality in a poetic form. Following are two examples

Poem about deep disparity between the rich and the poor

朱門酒肉臭    朱门酒肉臭
路有凍死骨    路有冻死骨
 (唐 杜甫)     (唐 杜甫)

    朱門 朱門 Red Door / Red Gate. In the past, only the wealthy can paint their door in red
    酒肉 酒肉 Wine and meat / Food
    臭   臭   Giving out rotten smell

    路有 路有 On the road / On the side of the road / On the ground / On the floor
    冻死 凍死 Die from coldness / Freeze to death
    骨   骨   Bone / Dead Bodies

Rotten food at wealthy door
Frozen bodies on the floor
(by Du Fu, Tang Dynasty)

Poem about courage and wish, disappointment and helplessness of a General

怒髮衝冠 憑欄處            怒发冲冠 凭栏处
瀟瀟雨歇 抬望眼            潇潇雨歇 抬望眼
仰天長嘯 壯懷激烈          仰天长啸 壮怀激烈

三十功名 塵與土            三十功名 尘与土
八千里路 雲和月            八千里路 云和月
莫等閑 白了少年頭 空悲切    莫等闲 白了少年头 空悲切

靖康恥 猶未雪             靖康耻 犹未雪
臣子恨 何時滅             臣子恨 何时灭
駕長車 踏破賀蘭山缺        驾长车 踏破贺兰山缺

壯志飢餐 胡虜肉            壮志饥餐 胡虏肉
笑談渴飲 匈奴血            笑谈渴饮 匈奴血
待從頭 收拾舊山河 朝天闕    待从头 收十旧山河 朝天阙
  (宋 岳飛)                  (宋 岳飞)

There is an extremely good translation here. I cannot beat that.

PS1

Previously included, but removed after review (Thanks NS.X for pointing out)

朝花 朝花 Morning Flower | Blossoming in the Morning
夕拾 夕拾 Picking Flower in Evening

The two do not meet OP required Verb+Noun formation, not even in reverse order. (I have to read like 6 times to realize it >.< )

PS2

Tradition/Simplified Chinese Conversion Web Site


Chinese given names with 3 or more characters?

Traditionally, naming is mostly based on family tree. But in recent years, we are given more freedom to name our children. From people I know with 3+ given names, I understand that there are several considerations from their parents.

  1) Literal translation from original names in their ethnic groups other than
  ethnic Han.

I've seen people with 4 or even 6 characters in their given name.

  2) Add mother's surname in it.

I have some friends whose name structure look like father's surname + mother's surname + 2 characters. This is not the traditional way like adding husband's name before wife's whole name, it's more based on some casual reasons like "It means I'm the love of my dad and mom", or "It sounds good".

  3) Surname happens to be the initial character of a 4-character
  phrase/idiom.

One of my friend told me her grandpa loves an idiom so much and the initial character happens to be her surname, so she got her name as it is right now.


Standard tone for 面 (mian4 or mian5) when used in words like 后面, 前面, 对面?

Sorry I can't tell the strict grammar rule (about the tone of 面 when used for the meaning of "side, aspect") as a native Chinese. I tried some research, but can't find any uniform and convincing explanation about it. So I tried to summarize it by myself as follows:

light tone only:

  上面, 下面

For 上面 and 下面, without special context, when pronounced with the 4th tone 面 tends to be considered as noodle.
4th tone only:

  对面

For 对面, 面 can't be pronounced with the light tone, it's just weird.
both light tone and 4th tone:

  前面, 后面, 里面, 外面, 左面, 右面

In these cases 面 is pronounced by light tone more commonly.