Translation Gaps On Comic Conversation : 2

那可不一定

lit. That [is] probably not absolute.

means, That may be not true / the case.

三十分钟后，大雄会被吊起来

means, After 30 minutes, Nobita will be hung.


what are some dictionaries about vocabulary of classical chinese?

I would really recommend you focus mainly on Chinese-Chinese resources if you want to learn Classical Chinese, since it minimizes the distortion of the concepts and you'll learn a lot more Mandarin Chinese simply by exposure and seeing connections between classical characters and modern phrases.

As Mr. Su notes, I've found the most useful Classical Chinese resources to be the 康熙字典 for individual characters, and the 辭源 for two-character+ phrases/allusions.  These two sources have done a lot of pre-selection against the definitions in other classical dictionaries, such as 說文解字, so save you a lot of time.  To ease the burden of looking things up in 康熙字典, I strongly recommend the "康熙字典Pro" iPad app (which I use daily - can one say "手不釋iPad"?):

you can use handwriting interface to input characters with non-obvious radicals
you can tap on unfamiliar characters in the definition (which is going to happen a lot!), pivot to their definitions, and then backtrack instantly to the parent definition
it includes pinyin pronunciations so you don't have to guess (as in paper versions) at the modern pronunciation from 反切

You're going to want every advantage you can get when tackling with this stuff, so don't shy away from new technology: if some enterprising Chinese company wants to make an iPad version of 辭源 I'd imagine there's a market for that, as well.

At present the only Chinese-English dictionary somewhat useful for Classical work is Mathews' Chinese-English dictionary.  However it is seriously out of date and I remember it contains many innacuracies.  The as-yet unpublished "A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese" (http://www.amazon.com/Students-Dictionary-Classical-Medieval-Handbook/dp/9004284117/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418329348&sr=8-1&keywords=9789004284111) may be worth your consideration: given the pedigree of the authors I would expect it to be much more dependable from the philological and formal linguistic perspectives.  I'm not sure it makes sense to organize a dictionary for a non-spoken language like Classical Chinese according to anything other than radical and stroke, though - why organize according to Pinyin that's only meaningful for modern Mandarin Chinese?


Mnemonic or technique to remember 咅 ,部, 陪

A good way to remember a character is to learn the compound words and phrases it is a part of. It is easier to find a building if you remember multiple landmarks around it instead of just remember how the building itself looks.
Example:
部: 部隊 (troops)，部分(parts)，部門(departments)，部署(deployment)
陪: 陪伴 (accompany)，陪審團 (jury)
賠: 賠償(compensation)，賠率 (odds)
倍: 加倍 (double)，倍增 (double)
剖: 解剖 (dissect)，剖析 (analyze)
咅 is an obscure character, rarely used in day-to-day life.


Did 謠's phonetic component (䍃) semantically shift it away from 言?

Did the phonetic component 䍃 spawn, or have anything to do with, the semantic narrowing from 言 to 謠?

"䍃" is a common 声旁, 谣 is a pictophonetic character (形声字), its   pronunciation is from 䍃, 摇, 遥, 鹞 are pictophonetic characters from 䍃 too.

If not, what beget 謠's songful (#1, 2 below) and defamatory (#3) meanings that are more specific than 言?

What's 歌谣? Some words with tunes. What's 谣言? Fabricated words without facts. What's 言? Words. 言 is the meaningful part of pictophonetic character 谣.

For example, consider 謠言. Couldn't 謠言 have been originally compounded as 言謠?

"谣" is the "adjective" of "言". What type of words"言"? Uncertain or suspicious words. If it's 言谣, "言" and "谣" should be parallel.

Actually, I can't understand your exactly question because in fact, your question can be clearer.


The difference is exactly as the definitions say. 香皂 is "scented soaps", while 肥皂 is just generic "soaps". That is the only difference. 香皂 is abbreviated from 香肥皂, meaning soap with added scents.

You can use either for washing face, body, hand, or clothes, but normally people use 洗衣粉/精 for the latter.


I guess this should mean the inspection was successful and your package is directly(直)  (re)packaged(封)

According to http://community.ebay.cn/thread-1200132963-1-1.html (this is the most helpful page I have found)
A translation is "departure from outward office of exchange". A Chinese explanation is "这表示包裹己经顺利的通过海关检查,重新打包好,交给航空公司,等待航班飞走", it means "this indicates the package passed the inspection by custom and had been repackaged, sent to airline and waiting the plane to fly"


Adding punctuation might help.

抱着“誓死不从，他就拿我没办法”的信念，我只有拼命挣扎，但是我错了。

拿...没办法, literally 'take ... with no solution', is an idiomatic way to say 'could do nothing about ...'.

誓死不从，他就拿我没办法 = (If I am) determined to resist to the end of my life, he could do nothing (to make me yield).

抱着...的信念 = with the idea/belief/conviction that ...

So the whole sentence goes

  With the idea that he couldn't do anything as long as I am determined to resist, I struggled hard with every string pulled, but I was wrong.


The difference is the occasion they were used.
“至多”is a formal expression.while“顶多”an oral expression.“最多”is something between them which can be used in different place，but not too formal or oral at the same time.


Help understanding "Hen ngai cang hiau chut-theu" by Zhang Shaolin

来负担系好愁 = to burden oneself is very worrisome

  Is my reading of 早晨由暗做杉几十穷 correct?

It is not Mandarin or Cantonese,  I am not sure if your pinyin is correct or not, but sound like O.K to me.

当= 典当 (to pawn); 借= to borrow. The two verbs together means "to pawn and borrow"

[周时][爱][当][借][靠老朋友]= Often pawn, borrow and rely on (support from) old friends

Edit:

MickG wrote:

  Would I then be right in translating «完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁» as «All my family, older and younger [people], is a big tree, and burdening myself [with it] is very worrysome»?

完家大细 = the entire family (old and young) ; 一大楸 = a big bundle  来负担系好愁 = it is very worrisome to burden myself (with all of them)

"完家大细一大楸 来负担系好愁" means " the entire family old and young, is a big bundle, to burden (myself with it) is very worrisome"


in 唐 dynasty (618-907), there're records of 千秋:

the peom 樓前 by 王建

天寶年前勤政樓
每年三日作千秋
飛龍老馬曾教舞
聞著音聲總舉頭

another one is the 漢武帝後庭鞦韆賦 by 高無際, which stated:

況鞦韆者﹒千秋也﹒
漢武祈千秋之壽﹒
故後宮多鞦韆之樂

later, in 記纂淵海　卷八十九, by 潘自牧 (~1195) of 宋 dynasty (p33-34 of pdf file);

https://archive.org/details/06065623.cn

that the term "鞦韆" was elaborated. mr 潘 claimed that, according to mr 高:

鞦韆﹒漢武帝後庭之戲﹒
本云千秋﹒祝壽之詞也﹒
語訛轉為秋千﹒後人乃旁加革

briefly, it's 千秋  --> 秋千 --> 鞦韆

back to the original question, the game "swing" in cantonese is "千秋", which share the meaning "thousand autumn", a term for wishing for longevity.

lastly, i would say that it's one of the numerous evidences, that cantonese is highly correlated with middle chinese. or, one might say that cantonese preserve more / change less than other "dialects".

have fun :)


One of the meanings of 白 is, roughly "in vain":

  没有成就的，没有效果的：～忙。～说

I think it's easier to imagine how white/plain become "without effect" than it is to imagine how it became "nonsense".

P.S. 白话 means "plain speech" = vernacular, as far as i know.


Is it possible to quip "My package went to Nanjing, but I'm in Beijing; that's the complete opposite Jing"?

In speech, you can say: 我人在'北'京，快递却发到了'南'京.

It would add some joking effect when you put a bit emphasis on 北 and 南.

You don't have to say they are opposite literally. Your audience would seize that from your tone, which is the whole point of the joke.


How to transliterate and pronounce English letters in Chinese?

For the transliteration of each letter into Mandarin Chinese, just follow the list below, written in pinyin with Chinese characters where possible. Some pinyin combinations may not exist in Mandarin at all though, so I will give approximate IPA or English transliterations.

A : ei 诶 /ei/ A
B : bi 比 /pi/
C*: xi 西 /ɕi/ or /si/ || "sei" /sei/ say
D*: di 弟 /ti/ || dei /tei/
E : yi 一 /ji/
F : "e-fu" /efu/ where the "u" is often only pronounced lightly producing a pronunciation of approximately /ef/ as pronounced in English. Note that the "fu" is most often pronounced with the neutral(zeroth/fifth/light) tone
G : ji 计/鸡 /t͡si/ similar to Z
H : ei-chi /eit͡sʰɨ/ where the "ɨ" is often only pronounced lightly producing a pronunciation of approximately /eit͡sʰ/ "age" as pronounced in English
I : ai 哀 /ai/ I
J : "zhei" /t͡sei/
K : "kei" /kʰei/ K
L : /el/ L note that this letter is most often pronounced with the second(rising) tone
M : em /em/ M
N : en 恩 /ən/
O : ou 欧 /oʊ/
P*: pi 批 /pʰi/ || pei 胚 /pʰei/ pay
Q : "ki-ou" /kʰiou/
R : /aɻ/ R note that this letter is most often pronounced with the second(rising) tone
S : "e-si" /esɨ/ where the "i" is often only pronounced lightly producing a pronunciation of approximately /es/ "as" as pronounced in English
T*: ti 梯 /tʰi/ || "tei" /tʰei/
U : you 优 /joʊ/ yo
V : wei 微 /wei/ way
W : da-bo-liu 大播柳 /tapuo'lioʊ/ I do not know how to describe the tone for this.
X : "eg-si" /eksɨ/ where the "i" is often only pronounced lightly producing a pronunciation of approximately /eks/ "ax" as pronounced in English
Y : wai 歪 /wai/
Z : ji 计/鸡 /t͡si/ similar to G

Except where noted, the tone is either the first(high) tone or the fourth(falling) tone.

Indeed many words are transliterated from a small set of Chinese characters. However, there is not rule for transliterating any word and thus all those you have seen are just a convention which can be learned by experience, i.e. you'll just have to read more of those words in order to guess a more probably (and never exactly) correct transliteration of a word. Here's a tip: technical fields aside, most transliterations choose more "pleasant" sounding characters, e.g. 德 "virtue"(positive) over 得 "obtain"(neutral) and 布 "cloth"(neutral) over 不 "no"(negative) and 怖 "terror"(negative).


What is the difference between 试验 and 实验?

实验 is used for operations and activities done to test a scientific theory or hypothesis. An example: 经过反复实验，证明这一结论是正确的

试验 is used to inspect the function or effect of some physical thing (something that already exists). It's typically done in some lab.
Some examples:

新农药要经过反复试验才能推广
试验新机器
新办法试验后推广


there's no such word in English, and it's old word only show on traditional novel

神 god, 功 maybe you may seem as kind of Konfu(功夫)

in old novel, a very mighty Konfu only few people can master it, maybe you can name it as XX神功

just a kidding, if someone is good at cheating, maybe he will tell you "I'll show you my "cheating"神功 on tomorrow exam"

or for Thor, you can name his skill as hammer神功 or lightning神功


When did "妳" become the second person singular feminine pronoun?

Short answer: Before modern times, ‘妳' already existed, but it was pronounced nǎi, and was a somewhat rare variant of 奶, which primarily means milk and by extension breasts, grandmother. Starting in the early 1900s, reformers in China used the same character as a female version of the second person pronoun 你, as it replaces the 人 (person, man) on the left side of 你 with a 女 (woman).

From Wikipedia:

Following the iconoclastic May Fourth Movement in 1919, and to accommodate the translation of Western literature, written vernacular Chinese developed separate pronouns for gender-differentiated speech, and to address animals, deities, and inanimate objects. In the second person, they are nǐ (祢 "you, a deity"), nǐ (你 "you, a male"), and nǐ (妳 "you, a female")... these distinctions are only made in Taiwanese Mandarin; in simplified Chinese, tā (它) is the only third-person non-human form and nǐ (你) is the only second person form. The third person distinction between "he" (他) and "she" (她) remain in use in all forms of written standard Mandarin.


What does the word "于" mean when it's used along with "不容'?

于 in your first sentence means 在。

Therefore, 不容于此 means would not be contained here, although this sentence seems weird without context.

于 is not necessary for 不容，for example, you could say

  这样的行为绝对不容姑息

And it means actions like this will never be allowed in any sense.

于 is neutral, you would also see

  我生于 1997 年

It simply means I was born in 1997 and has not emotional implication.


Is Putonghua Mandarin Chinese or is it standard Mandarin Chinese?

TL;DR - linguistically Mandarin is equivalent to 官话, but be careful when using the concept with Chinese people. 北方话 is more widely understood, but even then... caveats abound. "Standard Chinese" is equivalent to the standards embodied by 普通话／国语／华语, and "Standard Mandarin" is an alternative name for this in the West, but this term has no cognate or calque in the Sinosphere (note that non-Chinese Eastern persepectives are different again).

There are several issues here:

language vs 语言 vs dialect vs 方言 / topolect
Mandarin vs Standard Mandarin vs 普通话／国语／华语 vs 官话 vs 北方话
approach to speech varieties: labelling by social construct (Mandarin, 官话 and 普通话／国语) vs by locality (北方话) vs by classification through linguistic features (also "Mandarin", but also "Yue" 粤语).

I would recommend doing some research into each of these separately, and to see how popular perceptions are in China and outside, and how linguistic research uses terms carefully to describe each of these aspects. A good bit of research into the history of Standard Chinese would be of use to you.

The level of linguistic knowledge required by someone working in northeastern Fujian to know that the topolect of Fuqing 福清话 and that of Fuzhou 福州话 are closely related won't require that person to be aware that this is classified into the Min Dong 闽东话 family. Similarly with the situation in the north; a Northeasterner 东北人 from Shenyang 沈阳 might have had to adopt speech patterns and listening skills to work in Jinan 济南, Shandong, but knowledge that these two are separate branches of sensu stricto "Mandarin" 官话 would not be necessary. That person would acknowledge that both were 北方话, though.

These linguistic branches are "not really a thing" in the popular culture of China, whereas "Standard Mandarin" is in the (intellectual) life of the West, as it is taught as such in Western classes of standard Chinese. It is similar to the 字 vs 词 issue: these labels do not map to the same linguistic reality as letter vs word.


The usage 我们的会议延长了两个小时 is correct. When you want to say something was extended by [the extra time period], you use 延长(了)[time period]. If you want to say till what time something will be extended to, you use 延长到[time/date] or 延长至[time/date].

因运动员旧伤复发需要及时治疗，球赛将延长一个小时。
Due to the athlete's suffering from an old injury that requires timely treatment, the match will be extended by one hour.

Correction: boarding time is postponed rather than extended. Notice the Chinese word for postpone is 延后 not 延长.

飞机误点了，登机时间将延后至下午三点。
The plane is late: the boarding time will be postponed to 3pm.


更生 means on its own to revitalize, or to revive. In this context, 自力更生 idiomatically means "revitalize through our own efforts".

An example of its usage is in the communist saying "独立自主、自力更生". iCiba translates this as "build socialism independently and with the initiative in our own hands and through self-reliance" (which I find awkward, but it gets the point across). Ultimately, 更生 states that you're revitalizing something, in this case a country.


Difference between j, q, x sounds and z, c, s sounds?

most of the time you don't need to distinguish them. JQX are always followed by i or ü, which never happens with ZCS. In fact, in many dialects, JQX are pronounced as ZCS. People will understand you with 0 confusion or information loss.

On the other hand, if you do wish to improve your pronunciation, try this:

ZCS are articulated between your teeth and gum. English J and Sh are pronounced more back. JQX are even more back, but before palatal consonants like y in "yes" or German ch in "China", which is why they're called alveolo-palatal.

Just try to feel the continuous spectrum, it'll be hard to step on the exact point where JQX are pronounced, but it's definitely reachable. With sufficient training you'll surely remember that location.


How do I say "earlier"? (头先 in Cantonese)

"头先" means just now; a moment ago in Cantonese. It is the counterpart of 剛才，剛剛 in Mandarin.

You can use 头先 if few hours is considered a short time in the situation.

If few hours is considered a long time in the situation, it is better to simply say: "几个钟头之前" (few hours ago)

  "你头先说的是对的”

It is "頭先你講得啱" or "頭先你講得冇錯" in Cantonese

The sentence in this context implies a very short time has passed--   within the length of a short conversation.


One.

Characters can be made up of -or- contain lots of "radicals" but there will only be one that is the actual radical.

For instance the character 落 has both 艹 and 氵as components but it's radical is only one: 艹.

Characters can also have simplified & traditional radicals.

For example: 卡 has a simplified radical of: 丨 and a traditional radical: 卜 - where 丨 is obviously not a simplification of 卜. The aforementioned 落 on the other hand also has simplified and traditional radicals 艹 & 艸 --- where 艹 is just a straight up simplification of 艸.


Seeking the equivalent in English for "厚脸皮"

The term is "thick-skinned"

  http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/thick-skinned

  Someone who is thick-skinned does not appear to be easily hurt by criticism:

"Thick-skinned" synonym

  http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/thick-skinned

  callous : insensitive; indifferent

"Thick-skinned" is the best translation for "厚脸皮". Both can be neutral or  derogatory

Note: '厚顏無恥' (brazen) - 'Thick-skinned and shameless' is definitely derogatory


Theory 1: A coffin is made of three long and two short pieces of wood. And a coffin means death, dangerous.

You also can find some clues in the wikipedia article about "使用筷子禁忌".

Theory 2: Taoist forecasts through burning incenses. It is the most dangerous condition that there are three long incense sticks and two short incense sticks after burning five incence sticks in some time.

Theory 3: In ancient times, a master swordmaker called Ouyezi (欧冶子) made five sharp swords. Three of them were long, the others were short. And an assassin used the one called "鱼肠剑" among the five swords to kill the ennemy King. So "三长两短" refers to coming across a dangerous accident.


It's quite common in chinese. The English equivalent of this phrase should be "thanks to you/your..".
托 means because of, a variant of this phrase can be 托您洪福, 托您的洪福..


体会 connotes that how you feel, what you learn from your experience. In Chinese, 体会有体验和领会的意思. It can be interpreted differently based on the context.

Take one of your sentences as an example.

  请你谈一点个人体会好吗; Can you talk a bit about your takeaways (from there)?


It's easy to get tangled up between languages and end up confused. Teech was probably in a hurry and a bit confused.

My tip: take your original language and simplify it as much as you can, then translate. If that doesn't do it, paraphrase, then translate.

态度: attitude towards someone or something

相反，孔琳其实并不在乎，她不能决定别人的性别，但是她可以决定自己的态度。


When should we use proper name mark and how to type it?

First of all, proper name marks is a part of archaic Chinese. It's no longer used in modern Chinese. In modern Chinese, only book name, music name, movie names, and etc. will be marked with special punctuation, such as 《新约全书》. You can type it by switch to most Chinese input method and use '<' and '>' key on the keyboard.

As for using proper name marks, usually you can just use an underline or a double underline. Doing it in Word is pretty straight forward. In StackExchange could be complicated, you have to use HTML code, such as <u>测试<\u>. For double underline, it's even more complicated, see here .


'黑小狗' = 'black small dog' (small in size)  or 'black puppy' (small in age)

小黑狗 = small black dog

Some breeds of dog can be held with one hand. They are 小狗 (small dogs) too, but it doesn't mean they are not adult dogs

To be specific, you can use '幼犬' (infant/small dog) for 'puppy'.


You cannot say 一个年, but you can say 一个年头

The difference between 年 and 年头 had been explained here  Understanding 年頭 in context

Yes, 年 itself can be a classifier  '一年时间' and '两年工夫' are both valid


Interesting question.
There are some dictionaries （e.g. this and this) that list this character:

  呣 m2 or m4

as being an onomatopoeic word used to express a humming sound one makes when thinking. And yes, that would be an "m" sound with 2nd or 4th tone. I recall having seen other sources listing also 呒 m2, even though this is also used some times as a contraction of 没有。

I believe the key point is that western languages regard onomatopoeias as "naive" words that kids use, because they resemble sounds and are easy to learn. Whereas sounds in Chinese are often represented with dedicated uncommon characters or even words, e.g. 潇潇 （xiao1xiao1, pattering of light rain), and therefore confined to the written language. Personally, I've never seen any of those in colloquial writings.
When people text me over Wechat that they have to think, they just write 我想一想 or something on the line.


不 means "not" and 别 means "do not." One is a simple negation, and the other is a (negative) command.


来 vs 去 usage for the speakers movement towards a place

Depends where you are now. If you're not in Paris now, you'd have to 去 to get there, but if you are in Paris now, you can talk about when you 来'd or how often you 来. A lot like 'go' and 'come'.


Well, not sure if this answers your question or not, but I've played a game before involving using idioms (aka 成语) where you have to carry on using the same sound (not including tone) from whatever 成语 the previous person said.

For example, if I started with 骑虎难下 (qi hu nan xia - something like stuck between a rock and a hard place) the next person might say 下里巴人 (xia li ba ren - like redneck) the following 仁者见仁 (ren zhe jian ren - different people have different opinions) and so on. It's pretty hard, but a great way to learn new 成语.


Here's my two cents.

Out of those four choices you provided us, I'd say that conversing meaningfully about a film (or a book or a painting) and conducting business strictly in Chinese are very close to fluency.

Also, being fluent in a language does not pinpoint at a clear-cut level. You can be "just" fluent and be fluent like a native speaker. There's usually a difference between the two. Moreover, different native speakers elicit different levels of fluency. Compare a five year-old child with a novelist. Both are fluent, but one of them has a greater command of the language and a greater ability to convey his ideas with clarity and succinctness.

In the end, it all comes down to what you're happy with and what your aspirations are. When things start clicking in real-time, you are almost there. But, even after you reach fluency, you may still have a long path to go.

Finally, your mother language plays an important role in how fast you can become fluent and continue to make progress after you have reached that level. I'm not talking about Chinese here, but about any language in general.


Let me try to answer your question, though I am not a professional in Chinese language.

Seems you are talking about the so-called radical-phonetic characters, and you are asking a way to spot them among tons of Chinese characters. I have a trick here for you, since I always use it when I, as a Chinese, don't know the character.

First of all, you need to be able to know which one is the radical part, normally either on the left side or on the top, e.g. 沐. The radical part here is the "three drops of water". So that you know, aha this has something to do with water.

Then, the most important, you must be able to pronounce the phonetic part. E.g. 沐's phonetic part is 木, and it is pronounced as "MU".

At last, the rule of thumb is, you just pronounce using the phonetic part! No matter what. 90% you will pronounce it right (maybe the tones need some adjust). If you are wrong, there will be people correcting you, and then you remember next time. :D

Simple, right?

Examples are as follows: 尧 is pronounced [yao 2]. It is the name of an ancient legendary king. But when you see 烧[shao 1], 浇[jiao 1], 饶[rao 2], they don't pronounce as [yao 2], BUT you may discover that they share the common vow. Another example is: 提[ti 2], the right part is 是[shi 4], which has totally a different sound.


How to translate "(surname)老板“ in English

You don't translate that. Just say Mr Zhang.

Such obsequiousness is more a Chinese thing.

I call strangers on the street 老板 or 师傅.

在中国， 你真正的老板是你的女朋友！（别忘了！）


Could someone translate this poster for me?

the picture is part of a bigger poster of 狗神樂隊 (a rock & roll band) in shanghai, their web site is here:

https://goushen.bandcamp.com/album/-

the three big black character is "不易滚". two small red characters in the "seal" is "狗" (dog) and an inverted "神" (god).

滚 (u+6eda) is a variant character of 滾 (u+6efe)

rock & roll in chinese is 搖滾樂.

need more elaboration?


What is the difference between 变成、变化、变得、改变、转变?

I think I really need more context to tell the differences. Sometimes they are  interchangeable.
变成 -> Become / Turn into
五年过去了，我从一个学生变成了一名老师 - I was a student. After 5 years I am a teacher now.
变化 -> Difference / Change (mostly used as noun)
五年过去了，这里还是没有什么变化 - After 5 years there's nothing changed.
变得 -> It's like 变成 but it should be used before a adjective/adverb.
五年过去了，我变得越来越谨慎了 - After 5 years I'm getting more and more careful
改变 -> Change (verb/noun)
她想改变自己的生活 - She wants to change her life (she wants to have a new lifestyle)
转变 -> Seldom used. Sometimes A more formal version of 改变
专家建议毕业生们转变就业观念 - Experts advice graduates to change their thoughts on getting a job.


How to deal with elasticity/flexibility in HSK vocabulary?

One of the difficulties for learners is becoming familiar with when to use the short and when to use the long form. In most cases, at least for beginner/intermediate levels, my impression is the rule “use the long form, not the short form” is generally a good heuristic. I think most students learn this by experience.

Let’s take a basic, concrete example: 学/学习.

Using the ABC English-Chinese Dictionary as reference we have the following for 学:

  Verb:

  1: study; learn;

  学文化 xue2wen2hua4 learn to read and write

  2: imitate;mimic

  Bound form:

  1: learning; knowledge in 学问

  2: subject of study; branch of learning in 学科

  3: school; college in 学校,大学

It probably would indeed be better if the above entry were completed by adding “Long form: 学习” to the “Verb: 1 Study…” section. But generally students are taught the long form, 学习, first and so learn the short form at the same time. So I don’t think it’s a critical issue for people learning the language, but perhaps it would be helpful for some students to have some explanation.

The only other usage I can think  of (I’m about B1/B2 level) for the short form is

学到老，学不了 / 活到老，学到老。

It’s not a vital thing to be able to say… But still, it’s good to be able to understand it.

So, my take on this is that it’s an interesting notion for linguists, but not a vital concept that has to be explained to all students of the language.


Third tone sandhi: when (if ever) does 3 3 become 3 0 instead of 2 3?

"bao3 bao0" is actually not a third tone sandhi here.

It is because the tone of second bao3 got neutralized.

Usually a second character of a two-character word would get neutralized, I would say it is a accent thing that depends on people from different places of China.


How to say: "This advice/guideline was distributed via (newspaper X、Y and news agency Z)"?

'Guideline for  natural disasters' could be translated to 自然灾害的防護準則.

via: 通過

distributed: 傳播

So, as a whole: 自然灾害的防護準則 通過 xyz 來 傳播 。


方 has the meaning of 'side'

警察 can be the collective noun for the entire police force or a singular noun for one policeman.

警方 means '警察方面' (the police side). It can only be a collective noun.

More example:

中國 (China) - 中方 (the Chinese side/ The Chinese government)

日本 (Japan) - 日方 (The Japanese side/ The Japanese government)

中日雙方同意 (Both China's and Japan's government agree)

  In "警方以涉嫌遗弃遗体罪再次逮捕该犯罪嫌疑人。"  '警方' refers to 'the police (department)'


Why can a Chinese person have a nickname as 啊+surname?

Not 啊, is 阿.

阿 + surname, or 阿 + given name can be a nickname. You can only attach one character to 阿.

e.g.  李白 ->  阿李, 阿白

e.g. 周树人 ->  阿周, 阿树, 阿人.  no 阿树人.

阿 + last given name used more.


How do you cut different things in Chinese?

Cut things with a sickle (鎌刀) or in a motion similar to using a sickle is 割 (cut)

Example: 割草，割辫，割头，割尾巴 (cut grass, cut braid, cut head, cut tail)

  Cut things with scissors (剪刀) or cut things with a scissoring motion is 剪(cut)

Example: 剪头发，剪草，剪布，剪指甲 (cut hair, cut grass, cut cloth, cut finger nail)

  Cut things with a knife (刀), especially Kitchen knife (廚刀) or a motion similar to using a Kitchen knife is 切 (cut)

Example: 切菜，切饼，切水果，切肉 (Cut vegetables, cut cake, cut fruit, cut meat)

  Cut things with an axe or other cutting tool using similar motion as using an axe is 砍 (cut; hack)

Example: 砍头，砍木，砍柴，砍蔗 (cut head, cut wood, cut firewood, cut sugar cane)

  斩 (cut; hack) is similar to 砍 but mostly with a knife or other bladed weapons more slender than an axe

Example: 斩頭，斩木，斩柴，斩蔗 (cut head, cut wood, cut firewood, cut sugar cane)

Both 砍 and 斩 contains the meaning of 劈 (hack)

  刮 is 'to scratch' or 'to shave'

Example:刮骨，刮须，刮皮，刮毛 (Bone scraping, shaving bread, skin scraping, shaving body hair)

To determine which character to use, just think of what tool or what motion you use to cut the object, for example: a basketball. How do you cut a basketball in half? Certainly not by 砍 (to hack) or 割 (to slice). The correct tool is 鋸(saw) and the motion is called "to saw" (鋸) as in 鋸开(saw open) 鋸断 (saw apart)

  if there's one more character worth being added here, let me know!

削 (削皮刀- peeling knight; 削掉- to slice/ peel off)

闸 (闸刀- chopper switch; 闸断- to chop apart)

 (刀- box cutter; 开 - to slice open/ to cut open)

剃 (剃刀- shaving blade; 剃掉 - to shave off)


求解释: "我有问题" 和 "我有个问题" 中英 | Chinese & English

It's actually very common to say “我有问题”, and indeed it would cause ambiguity without contexts.

I think it's because 问题 could be both "question" and "problem". The ambiguity can only be cleared within the context.

Although ambiguous usage should be avoided when it's likely to create confusion (actually, eliminating ambiguity in sentences is a vey common practice on language classes in China, but it's not a very strict grammar requirement), this kind of situation is very common in Chinese because the language is an Analytic Language which depends heavily on contexts where English depends more on the inflection of words and grammar.

This reminds me another similar situation when I was learning English. I thought "I'm hot" in English technically could mean "I feel hot", but it seems that to avoid ambiguity, most people probably would say "it's hot" or "I feel hot".


谁让 expresses weak causality with a mood. Depending on the context and the tone, the mood can be humor, banter, sarcastic, helplessness, complaining or something else. Accordingly the translation can be "since", "after all", "only because", "God knows why", etc.

In your example, it seems the speaker is just grumbling or expressing helplessness in a cool mood. I would use "after all" in this one.

  I have to listen to you. You're my boss, after all.


"以 V 之" as a post-nominal modifier in Classical Chinese

in classical chinese, the structure “以” + one character + “之” could be interpreted in multiple ways.
in the analects (論語), chapter 為政:

子曰・詩三百・一言以蔽之曰・思無邪

confucius said (子曰): “the book of odes” (詩三百), in one verse, (一言) for (以) summarising (蔽) it (之) ; [which] is (曰): think (思) without (無) depravation (邪)
that, “it” referred back to “the book of odes”
https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=1119
again in the analects (論語), chapter 里仁:

子曰・. . . ・好仁者・無以尚之

confucius said (子曰): “. . ., those who (者) preferred (好) virtue (仁), nothing (無) could be (以) appended to (尚) [his/her goodness] (之)
i would interpret like this, others might disagree :)
https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=1173#s10020221
in the book “稽神錄”, volume 3:

. . . 頃之・其女病・即生釘棺中・流之於江・至金山・有漁人見而異之・引之至岸・開視之・見女子猶活・因取置漁舍中・多得鰻鯬魚以食之・久之病愈・遂為漁人之妻・至今尚無恙

many times (多), catching (得) eels (鰻鯬魚) for (以) feeding (食 —> 餵食) her (之)
or, repeatedly (多), using (得) eels (鰻鯬魚) to (以) feed (食 —> 餵食) her (之)
in which, her (之) is referred to the sick girl (女病) whom is put into a coffin alive (生釘棺中), dropped into the river (流之於江), and saved by the fisherman.
treat “食” as “eat” in the above verses is, incorrect.

have fun :)


What is the difference between the different words for street: 街，路 etc?

街 = street

过街 - cross the street

逛大街 - to go window shopping/to have a stroll

路 = road

走错路 -or- 走弯路 take the wrong path (both literally and figuratively)

走投无路 - to be at an impasse/to have no way out/to be at a dead end (again both lit. and fig.)

街 is more like a literal street, while 路 is equivalent to road but it can also be used figuratively for paths/directions in life, etc.


他喜欢跟她在一起.

Grammatically, we understand it as 他/喜欢/[跟她][在一起].
他: Subject(主语)
喜欢: Predicate(谓语)
跟她在一起: Object(宾语)
跟她 is a prepositional phrase modifying the verbal phrase 在一起.
Semantically, the sentence means he likes being together with her.
跟她: with her
在一起: being together
他喜欢: he likes


When you want to express possessive relations concerning family members or relatives, you don't need 的.

我妈妈，你爸爸，她男朋友，我们家老大, etc.

I have done some searches with different expressions with and without 的, and I see that this rule is not applied consistently.

EDIT: There are ambiguous cases, e.g. 你们孩子 could mean "You children" or "Your children" (with plural you in both cases, of course). In such cases 你们的孩子 would make it clear what the speaker means.


Is 几号 really used as a slang for heroin?
Yes.
百度百科｜海洛因（吗啡类毒品总称）

海洛因，系列吗啡类毒品总称，是以吗啡生物碱作为合成起点得到的半合成毒品，俗称几号、白粉、白面。

Here is a link to the Change Log Entry for this word in CC-CEDICT. It was submitted with the following evidence:

海洛因，系列吗啡类毒品总称，是以吗啡生物碱作为合成起点得到的半合成毒品，俗称几号、白粉、白面。
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B5%B7%E6%B4%9B%E5%9B%A0/544824
(slang) heroin (powerful and addictive drug)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%B9%BE%E8%99%9F

CC-CEDICT has a fairly strict vetting process. Entries are first submitted usually with a certain amount of proof of usage, references, etc. Afterwards there is a review process where editors will go over the submission - sometimes requesting additional evidence - or adding documentation that they themselves have come across while attempting to process the entry.
Of course mistakes can happen, but you'd be hard-pressed to find recent outright errors in CC-CEDICT.

Apparently 几号 comes from the fact that there is:

海洛因1号、海洛因2号、海洛因3号、海洛因4号

Different levels of purity in heroin.


"以来" - Chinese dictionary says noun. "Since" in English dictionary says preposition, conjunction. Distinction?

There has been an argument for this topic.

In this article, the author stated that "以来" is a "方位词". Which can be seen in reference 5 and 12, it is also refered to as "动态助词".

"方位词" is a type of noun in Chinese, which represents the location (of space / time).

"动态助词" is a type of Chinese particle, you can read it from the link.

Now let's get back to the disagreement. "以来" is defined as a "方位词" in《现代汉语八百词》by 吕叔湘 while is is again defined as a "动态助词" in《现代汉语虚词词典》by 侯学超.

However, "动态助词" also gets its formal definition in《现代汉语八百词》. So if you ask me, I prefer to believe it is a "方位词", which is noun.

As for the different part of speech of the word "since" appearing in English, I guess it is because that "since" is translated as "自……以来", not just "以来". "自……以来" IS a preposition.


The translation for 'minority' is straightforward: 少數派. Note: not 小數派 (少 refers to little in quantity, 小 refers to little in (physical) size). To be concise, you may say 少數.

For 'vocal', 敢言的 or 直言不諱的 (see here) are translations that give it a fairly positive light. Tang Ho's answer 積極的 is neutral, somewhat positive.

發聲的 is a literal translation but understandable (I for one think it is understandable, given that you're not translating the term alone but with a wider context). A neutral alternative, albeit slightly weak, is to say 不沈默的少數 which makes deliberate reference to its antonym 'silent majority' (沈默的大多數). I also found a third neutral translation, 說話大聲的少數族群, in a book on journalism published in Taiwan1, where vocal minority is contrasted to the disadvantaged minority. Finally, I find the neutral translation 喊叫的少數 made by the Taiwanese politician James Soong in one of his works2 the most idiomatic of them all.

If you want to be outright negative (considering the fact that vocal minority can be euphemistic), you may consider the idiomatic saying 一小撮人的意見 (lit. the opinion of a handful of people), but this is not a direct translation and is quite dismissive. A Japanese political publication3 gave the translation うるさい少数派 (a possible Chinese translation: 嘈吵的少數 'noisy minority') which I think is best in delivering the negative nuance.

1 何日生（2007）《建構式新聞》。台灣：五南，頁175。
2 宋楚瑜（1978）《美國政治與民意：兼論中美關係》。台灣：黎明文化，頁51。
3 信田智人（1996）『官邸の権力』筑摩書房 pp. 230


Are there any readability measurement tools for Chinese?

I'm not sure if this is what you are after:

http://pub.mtholyoke.edu/journal/lrc/entry/chinese_readability_analysis


What does 泉 mean in 道具泉, in the context of a handbill?

Obviously it was referring to the host 關灝泉 Kwan Ho Chuen（香港中文大學哲學系博士生）

In Hong Kong, people often nickname someone by his job. For example. 李先生 is a 經紀, people who mainly know him as a 經紀 might nickname him 經紀李

More examples:

張家強 is a 豆腐店店主，people who order tofu from him might nickname him 豆腐強

黃國興 is a 律師， people might nickname him 律師黃

In the video the guy asked 關灝泉 to hand him the placard, jokingly called him 道具泉 because he was responsible for the prop (jokingly referred him as 名字中有個泉字的道具部員工- An employee of the props department with a word 泉 in his name)

It is a casual way to nickname people. For someone with high status, it is considered disrespectful to nickname him this way. You should never call 黃律師 as 律師黃 in his present.


我的个娘？ Does this really just mean 'my mother!' and why?

Yes, you are right. 我的个娘 is just like oh my God. Chinese people don't curse their Gods, but do with their mothers, for example, 干你娘，草你妈，while these two phrases mean xxx your mother, but they also can be used to empathize the following sentence. For example, 干你奶奶的，他真有钱。xxx your grandmother, he is very rich. Obviously, the speaker doesn't necessary want to xxx your grandmother. What he want to expect is that person is super-duper rich!!! Nothing to do with grandma or xxx here. You can think 我的个娘 as "damn it". This is not really regional because other region has the same phrase like that but in other words. For example, in GuangDong and HongKong, people use 你老母，different words, same meaning. Lastly, as a foreigner, you should just use OMG because your mother is not Chinese. It makes no sense to use 你的个娘 for exclamation!!


What is Chinese for CFD (Contract for Difference)?

差价合约（Ccontract For Difference,CFD）

  差价合约是一种比较新兴的金融衍生工具，目前只在7个国家的证券交易所交易。投资者以某一个商品的价格进行买卖，而不涉及该商品实体的交易。差价合约的商品，理论上可以是所有有浮动价格的东西，包括有各国指数，外汇，期货，股票，贵重金属以及其他商品。

股指差价合约(Contract for Difference)
差價合約- 维基百科，自由的百科全书


头 not only means 'head'.It also means 'the first order',also means 'leader' , 'the first class','the beginning'etc. Because(actually my guess) in Chinese culture, head is the first and important part of the human body.

You can also say"头三个人"，which means, the first three people.
Another example is '头排'，which means 'the first row'. Here '一' is missing because generally '头'and '一' refers to the same meaning.
You can replace '头'by'第'sometimes. e.p. you can say either '头一次遇到' or '第一次遇到'.
BUT! '头三个人' and '第三个人' have different meanings. '第三个人' means the third person.


Express"with each other" or "amongst themselve"

"My co-workers use English when they talk amongst themselves".
我的同事们之间用英语聊天儿。


Please help me understand this use of 去做

去 means 'go'. It can function as a verb particle that denotes the initiation of a verb. Similar to 'go' in 'go kill people' in English
More examples:
我當教師 = I being a teacher
我去當教師 = I go and (begin to) be a teacher
因窮而犯法 = break the law because you are poor
因窮而去犯法 = go and (start to) break the law because you are poor

很多时候，我们不得不做一些自己不愿意做 = We often do something we don't want to do

很多时候，我们不得不(去)做一些自己不愿意做 = We often (go/ start) doing something we don't want to do

A simpler example:
殺人 = kill people
去殺人 = go kill people (initiate the action 'kill')


How to say “grammatical case” in Chinese?

It is just 格, while the Wikipedia page also lists 语义格 as a possibility.

格语法 is not acceptable, as it would mean a grammar of some kind, but not "case".

"case ending" might be 格词尾.


That's simply a weird sentence.

In fact your simplified sentence 有什么事我该做吗 （是and的 removed) is much more concise and fits better the desired way of speaking Chinese. The only problem is that conventionally attributive clause should precede the noun in Chinese.

So 有什么我该做的事吗 is more native (的here is just a connection word between clause and noun). Furthermore 事 (thing) doesn't mean any meaningful thing here, you can essentially just omit it and say 有什么我该做的吗？.

Maybe you have seen, the complication of 是 and 的 arises because you want to keep the same word order as in English (attributive clause after the noun).

In fact, an even more native way is to try to never use clause in Chinese.

  我该做些什么

it looks similar to "What should I do?" but adding 些 implies "something" and makes it mean the exact same thing as "is there anything I should do?".


What does 软文 and 小号 mean in internet slang?

On the Internet, 軟文 means an article intended as advertisement but disguised as ordinary posts. 小號 means the auxiliary accounts, referring to the usual practice of cyber forum participants maintaining multiple accounts so that his or her posts can be bumped up or appeared as if well received.


Edit:
According to 現代漢語八百詞 (p.630), 有 (which means “possess”) is a verb that can follow a monosyllabic verb to form a tightly-bound term. In linguistic terms, it is called a serial verb compound.
桌上有一卷书 (there is a book on the table)
桌上摆有一卷书 (there is a book placed on the table) - 摆 explains how the book is situated on the table -- it laid/ sits there
More example:
庭中有几棵树 (There are several trees in the courtyard)
庭中种有几棵树 (There are several trees planted in the courtyard) - 種 explains how the trees are situated in the courtyard -- they grow there
車上有四人 (There are four people in the car)
車上坐有四人 (There are four people sitting in the car)
屋中有一百袋大米 (There are a hundred bags of rice in the house)
屋中堆有一百袋大米 (There are a hundred bags of rice piled up in the house)
手中有一把七尺長刀 (Have a seven-foot-long knife in hand)
手中持有一把七尺長刀 (Have a seven-foot-long knife holding in hand)
Different verbs can work with 有 in the above sentences. e.g. 庭中横放有几棵树, 车上躺有四人, 屋中藏有一百袋大米; 手中握有一把七尺长刀


This sentence is quite oral,
虽然我觉得他是想象不出来的就是了 == 虽然我觉得他想象不出来
That is:

  Though, I think he can't imagine (it)

As for Though, I think it is unimaginable for him, you should say:

  虽然我觉得这对他来说是不可想象的

And Though, I think I can't imagine him (like that/doing that etc) should be:

  虽然我觉得我无法想象他（是那样的/做了那件事）


You can omit the "吗", but:

In writing, you need a question mark.

In speech, a rising intonation must be used.


How to translate 'Market Access' into Chinese?

"MARKET ACCESS" means "市场准入" in Chinese.

eg.
However, a loosening of market access rules is expected to occur in the coming years.
然而, 在未来几年里,市场准入规则预计将不断放宽.


Vibrant, as in:

  adj. Pulsing or throbbing with energy or activity: the vibrant streets of a big city.

https://www.wordnik.com/words/vibrant

In urban planning, the idea of having vibrant streets, neighborhoods, communities can often be seen as a goal to work towards:

  Vibrant Markets & Streets

http://www.inclusivecities.org/policy-planning/vibrant-markets-streets/

If you are in the market for associative housing such as Condo developments, look at the area amenities section in the sales brochure. You may notice the use of vibrant to describe the street, neighborhood or the community development in order to make you feel attracted to buy there.


Why in China do they use k instead of m for the slope of a line?

I suspect that it originated from one of the Germanic languages, where the "hard c" sound in English is represented with "k" and thus "coefficient" or "constant" would begin with a "k". I tested the hypothesis with a translator and, indeed, the terms in modern German are "Koeffizient" and "Konstante".
So why would the Chinese mathematicians borrow from German/Swedish/Danish mathematicians? It might have to do with the fact that many of the leading mathematicians in the 18th-20th century were German-speaking, e.g. Euler who lived in Germany and who in fact was the first to use "a,b,c" to denote constants and "x,y,z" to denote unknowns; Leibniz, who invented much of modern calculus; Gauss, who contributed significantly to almost every field in mathematics; and other big names such as Riemann and Cantor.
Since the Chinese academics were just opening up to the advances in mathematics at the time, it made sense that they would borrow the notation from the leading scholars of the time.
What makes me more curious is why the Americans use m for slope, which don't seem to have any linguistic explanation. I did some brief reading and this page seems to have the best (non-)answer:

"J. Miller has undertaken a detailed study of the origin of the symbol m to denote slope. The consensus seems to be that it is not known why the letter m was chosen. One high school algebra textbook says the reason for m is unknown, but remarks that it is interesting that the French word for "to climb" is "monter." However, there is no evidence to make any such connection. In fact, Descartes, who was French, did not use m (Miller). Eves (1972) suggests "it just happened." "

Edit: Actually, that might be wrong. I found this page which listed the common notation for slopes in many countries (based on letters from his readers). Excerpt:

In the US, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Mexico, Portugal and Philippines the notation is:     y = mx + b
In the UK, Germany, and former British colonies    y = mx + c
In Azerbaijan, China, Finland, Russia and Ukraine:     y = kx + b
In Sweden:     y = kx + m
In Slovenia:   y = kx + n

So the Germans today in fact use "m" like the Americans and the British. It's certainly possible that they used "k" in the 19th century and shifted to the more prevalent English usage later on. But based on the data above, it seems more likely that the Chinese usage came from Russia. There could be a historical explanation for this - the Chinese Communist Party adopted Soviet science education as the basis of their curriculum after the "liberation".
To test this "Soviet origin" hypothesis, I looked at the usage in the Nationalist-ruled province of Taiwan. And voila! The Kuomintang curriculum uses m (see here, page 8). This is evidence that the use of k was probably not prevalent in China before 1949.
So, the conclusion: The use of "k" was probably adopted from the Russians. There is in fact an analogue of k in the Cyrillic alphabet, which looks extremely similar to the Latin k. And if you put "Constant" or "Coefficient" in a Russian translator, you'll see that they do in fact use this letter. So I stand by my theory that linguistically it comes from "Constant" or "Coefficient", but I'd say the historical origin was Russian, not German.


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

You might try the 漢語多功能字庫, with traditional Chinese, English interface.

On the top right corner, you can choose the scheme: IPA (number) & IPA(letter).

Have fun. :)


Dictionary for Vietnamese to Chinese characters

Wiktionary lists the vietnamese pronunciations for every chinese character they have info on (at the bottom of every page under the "Vietnamese" heading).

Other than that, the Nom Foundation database is good for converting vietnamese words to chu nom by sound, though you'll need to know enough characters to know what you're picking, which you also gave reference to yourself. It's a good resource, but limiting if you're trying to input into a computer.

Not all Chu nom are in unicode, though, so finding them can be challenging. The Nom foundation gets around it by using images, and is probably your best resource, but isn't as detailed on things such as meaning and usage (for which wiktionary has an advantage).


How to translate "minister for loneliness"

I think you're right:

“孤独大臣”

SoHu

  你是否也是一只孤独的"旅行青蛙"｜英国设部级孤独大臣的社会责任启示

and

  为解决这一问题，最近英国政府史无前例地创设了“孤独大臣”（Minister for Loneliness）这一部长级职位，由体育大臣特蕾西·克劳奇兼任。

百家号

  英国人太寂寞？政府任命“孤独大臣”，帮民众解决孤独寂寞冷

and

  这个职位，就叫做“孤独大臣”(Minister for Loneliness)。

If you wanted to get cope with into the title probably something like

抗孤大臣
抗寂大臣
抗寞大臣

would be more appropriate.


Tips to remember the pronunciation of these words: 旅，斿，施，旋，族?

Well, I suppose the only useful tip is practice :)
But if a little imagination may help, perhaps I can say a little about 施.
Now, I am sure you noticed these five words have the same "left-portion" and the "upper-right portion" in the way they are written.
So take a look at what's left over if we take those portions out.
You will see a 也. You may think of 也是，couple this 也 to a 是, which pronounces as SHI!
Then you might be able to remind yourself 施 is pronounced as SHI!
HAHA! :p Anyway don't worry, practice more, then you'll be fine.


Depend on the context, [(noun) + 呢] could mean "how about (noun)?" or "where is (noun)"
"你" is a noun and "你爸爸和妈妈" is a noun phrase. Both can be turned into a shortened question by adding the final particle "呢". Therefore,  saying "你爸爸和妈妈呢?" to ask "how about your father and mother?" or "where are your father and mother?" is no difference from saying "你呢?" for "how about you?" in grammar structure (The question can't be "where are you", since I am talking to you, I know you are here with me)

呢 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/1029/
[1][final particle] used mostly to make a shortened question by repeating only some element of a previous question

Example:

為什麼祇有你來了? 你爸爸和妈妈呢? (Why only you come here? Where is your father and mother?)

說什麼無親無故? 你爸爸和妈妈呢? (What are you talking about having no family or friends? How about your father and mother?)

怎會沒人幫他? 你呢? (How could no one helping him? How about you?)

怎會沒人幫他? 你爸爸和妈妈呢? (How could no one helping him? How about your father and mother?)

Actually, [(noun) + 呢] could be a shortened question by omitting the actual question, presuming people would understand what is being asked.
Example:
大家都同意了, 你呢? (Everyone agrees, how about you?) is the shortened form of "大家都同意了, 你呢? 你同不同意?" (Everyone agrees. How about you? Do you agree?)
Since 同意了 is mentioned in the sentence, we can presume asking 你呢? is asking 你(同不同意)?


What is the difference between 发货，出货 and 交货？

出货: produce goods

发货: ship goods

交货: deliver goods


Let the "foot" meaning of 足 be A, the "plenty, enough" meaning be B. Will discuss about this topic in the following two sections.
Different Root
First, 現代漢語規範詞典 第二版 ("Modern Chinese Standard Dictionary" 2nd Edition) suggests that meaning A and meaning B come from different origin, though they share the same character currently.
Figure 1. Meanings of 足 in 現代漢語規範詞典 第二版, page 1758.

It places the "foot" meaning as 足 entry with a superscript 1, 足1, the "enough" meaning with superscript 2, 足2.
Figure 2. Explanation of the superscript.

The English translation of the above description can be:"Those whose form or pronunciation are the same but no relation between their meaning, basically will be in given different entries, with superscripts on their upper right corner. For example, '耳1' and '耳2', '安1', '安2' and '安3' "
Chances are their ancient version characters bear the similar form and later merged together. Seven known variants (i.e. 異體字) of 足 are found here.
Figure 3. The variants of 足.

The hint is given by this blog:
「另有充足、足夠、滿足等的意義。《現漢規範》認為充足等意義的“足”和下肢意義的“足”没有意義上的聯繫，只是形同而已。換句話說，“足”的充足意義並不是下肢意義的引伸。」which in English can be:"足 has another meaning: plenty of, enough, satisfied. 現代漢語規範詞典 treats this meaning as independent from the foot meaning, except that they happen to be the same in form. In other words, the 'enough' meaning does not stem from the 'foot' meaning." (Source)
Ancient Sound
Among many opinions, even the ancient sound is believed to be something similar to modern ju4 instead of zu2, which is also backed by 說文解字: 卽玉切, roughly ji + yu = ju.
Figure 4. The Scan of 說文解字 段玉裁注本 足部 足.

and 王力古漢語字典 (Wang Li's Classical Chinese Dictionary (page 1350), (王力 is the name of a late renowned Chinese linguist, who advocated a categorized set of meanings for each Chinese characters in the dictionary, and suggested students to learn classical Chinese with the knowledge of Chinese history.) In the following three-piece scan of explanation, the "foot" meaning is put at first, next the "enough" meaning, third the "qualified" meaning. We can see that the "enough" meaning appears in some really ancient work 「詩經」, dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC.
Figures 5-7. The Scans of Explanation for 足 in page 1350, 王力古漢語字典.


What's the difference between 圣人 and 神人 in ancient daoism?

Let's look at some references to the two to see the difference. Here's an early reference from Zhuangzi, Chapter 1, 内篇：

  至人无己，神人无功，圣人无名。

Or in translation:

  The perfect man is without self, the holy man is without achievement, the sage is without name.

To quote from Baidu:

  早期道教经典《太平经》就将神仙分为六等：一为神人...五为圣人，。并称：“神人主天...圣人主治百姓。”

To paraphrase:

  The early Daoist text Taiping Jing classifies various beings into 6 classes: First is the holy man...5th the sage. The holy man holds up the heavens...the sage holds up the common people.

It's a difference in scope and the initial state of being. The 神人 is a being who is born perfect. They don't need to achieve anything to reach the Dao. The 圣人 is someone who worked to achieve the Dao. They are a person who can help others.


Yes you can. This is 100% correct.

他们是我在大学最熟的人
他们是我在大学最亲的人
他们是我在大学最爱的人
他们是我在大学最恨的人
他们是我在大学最怕的人


How to write 7th month, 2nd day of year 4714 in lunar calendar?

think carefully before you "tattoo".

4th august 2016 in lunar calendar is: 丙申歲七月初二

the 4714 is based on "黃帝紀元", a dubious "calendar system"; which used 2698 bc as the starting.

as i remembered, i never read any info about it in literatures of yore.

according to the wiki, it was created in 1903. how authentic, and acceptable is in doubt.

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/黄帝纪元

if you insist, the above mentioned date in this style is:

黃帝紀元四千七百一十四年七月初二


What's the Least Awkward Way To Say "I am Not A Native Chinese Speaker" In Chinese?


What is the original Mandarin translation for this proverb: "The wise man and the tortoise travel but never leave their home."

“The wise man and the tortoise travel but never leave their home

There's no such proverb in Chinese.
The only one remotely similar to this 'proverb' in Chinese is 秀才不出門，能知天下事 (A talented person can know the world without going out)
I suspect whoever coined this 'proverb', heard it somewhere that there's a Chinese idiom expressing "a wise man doesn't need to leave home" and tried to be creative, made up a proverb comparing a wise man to a tortoise because both of them don't need to leave home.
The author missed the fact that it is 'a wise man doesn't need to leave home', not 'like a tortoise, a wise man doesn't leave his home'. A tortoise doesn't leave his home because he is carrying it at all times. The author didn't care a wise man doesn't carry his home with him, as long as they both don't leave home, they are comparable in his mind.
Another possible source of that 'proverb' maybe the Chinese idiom 運籌帷幄， 決勝千里 (strategizing in one's tent can win battles thousands of miles away). Which describes a wise commander who doesn't need to go outside to win a war.


Is 起 too formal to use in day to day writing？

To answer directly towards your questions,

Is 起 significantly more formal?

No, it is not. It is commonly used in spoken language, casual writings and formal writings.

Could I use it in day to day writing? (Say a diary?)

Yes, and it sounds perfectly natural.

”从明天起， 我会做一个幸福的人“ － what is the difference between this and say "从明天开始？“.

As the other answer suggested, 从明天起 means 'from ... onward; ever since ...' which is making a statement, a bold prediction or an oath for a future result. E.g.

  从明天起我就再也不抽烟了。After today I will never smoke anymore.

从明天开始 means 'starting from tomorrow', which is most commonly used when you're telling an execution plan. E.g.

  从明天开始我每天少抽一根烟，直到戒掉为止。Starting tomorrow, I'll be using one less cigarette every day until I completely quit.

In practice the difference is very subtle and people use them interchangeably. In situations where the difference really matters, people tend to use more elaborated and explicit way to disambiguate them.


How to say "in front of everyone" in Chinese

formal one: 众目睽睽之下
normal one: 在大家面前 / 在大家都在的时候 (If you know the guys around you, else: ) 在这么多人面前 / 在这么多人在的时候

The sentence: 我不想在大家都在的时候说这种话(If you know the guys around you, else: ) 我不想在这么多人面前说这种话


已 — 已经
  易 — 容易

You can look up these word in a dictionary.

  Like 开 (for water) how can I know it's 烧开...I don't know that a dictionary will tell me that

开 is called a resultative complement (结果补语). Unfortunately, there is no easy way to know them.

Most adjectives can be used as resultative complements. e.g. you can say 水开了 and 烧水, so you say 水烧开了, too.

But most resultative complements are not adjectives. You have to learn them as collocations. e.g.

  看见/看到
  听见/听到
  but 闻到 and 想到. 闻见 and 想见 are relatively rare
  找到/找着

You may have to ask the teacher or use Google to find out which one is more common. e.g.

If you search "看不*东西" (including the quotation marks) in Google, you can only find 看不见, 看不清 and 看不到.

Technically, 到 in 看不到 is a potential complement (可能补语). But in most cases, resultative complements are the same as potential complements. The main difference is that you put 得 or 不 between the verb and the complement. This trick can help you eliminate many false positives.


Meaning 2 is right.
It is a rhetorical question to express negation.


Is there a more colloquial way of saying “vegan” than “纯素食者”?

in cantonese, you may say 食全齋, sound files:  食
 全
 齋

or, colloquially, say 吃全素, in mandarin.


Does 开他的玩笑 mean "he" plays or is played?

'他的' in '开他的玩笑' is not the subject, it is an  'adjectival phrase'

开玩笑 = to joke

他的 = (对)他的 = toward/ about him

'对他的' (toward/ about him) is the adjectival phrase for '玩笑' (joke). It describes what kind of joke it is - 'a joke toward/ about him'

'开玩笑' (to joke) is a single verb treated as one word, but in this structure, 玩笑 (joke) is isolated out and treated like a noun, therefore (对)他的 could be applied to it.

Similarly:

回家 (go home) is a single verb

in '回[溫暖的]家' , '家' is isolated out as a noun and '溫暖的' (warm) is the adjective for '家'(home)


What is the part without the radical called?

On wiki, this part is defined as "phonetic". I am not familiar with these jargons in English, but I thinks this one is acceptable.

In your case,"艮"(gèn or gěn) is really a character.

Edit: Add Chinese names for this part

We call these characters “形声字”(in modern Chinese, many characters can be classified into this type). 形 means "form", referring to the radical, 声 means "sound", so I think "phonetic" is acceptable to call that part.

In Chinese, we call the "radical" 形旁 and the "phonetic" 声旁. Here, 旁(pang2) means a part.


the word "menu" in the context of gaming

菜单 in Mainland China, 选单 in HK/Taiwan are the standard translations for menu in Computer Software, no matter it's in a game, a line-of-business application or a utility.

Main menu is translated into 主菜单 in Mainland China and 主选单 in HK/Taiwan.

And you're right about 选项 is referring to options or settings menu, which is usually a sub item in the main menu.

Searching Google for '游戏主菜单' or '游戏主选单' you'll get plenty of examples.


Is there a good resource for Mandarin or Cantonese terms for motorsports and motorsports news?

赛车网：https://cn.motorsport.com/
虎扑社区 - F1赛车场：https://bbs.hupu.com/f1
赛道时光：http://circday.com/
SRFC模拟赛车网：http://bbs.srfc.com.cn/


This might help you to understand it better.
我已经(把)什么都学会了.
And 我已经什么都学会了 just omits 把.
Another example: 我把这本书读完了. Colloquially, you can say 我这本书读完了.
More: 我把话说完了/我话说完了。
But the omission doesn't always work well.  E. g.  我把这件事给忘了.  It doesn't sound right to say 我这件事给忘了.  In this case, we do need 把 and can't be omitted.
So be cautious of this omission in practice.


What does 要不不留学要留学就要留出个性 mean?

要不 / 不留学 / 要留学就要留出个性

"otherwise / don't study abroad / if you study abroad you should do it with personality"

or more idiomatically:

"if you're going to study abroad you should do it with personality, or not at all"

Note that 要...就要... is a common grammar pattern.


剩一点儿都没地方搁　How is the sentence composed of?

"搁" is a verb for "to place; to put"

剩一点儿(食物)都没地方搁

剩一点儿 = left a little bit
(吃)剩一点儿(食物)= left a little bit (of food)
(吃)剩一点儿(食物)都 = even left a little bit (of food)

"(吃)剩一点儿(食物)都没地方搁" = "Even left a little bit (of food), there's no place to put it" or "There is no place to put even a little bit of leftover" (rephrase in common English grammar)
The verb "吃" (eat) and the object "饭 or 食物" (food) are omitted because "剩" implied "吃剩"  and the object for "吃剩" (left over) is clearly food

~

Why is "都没地方" in front of "搁"?

"没地方"(no place to) is the relative/adverbial phrase for  "搁 " (to place). It gives more details on the simple sentence: "搁(食物)"


Same radical/character with different pronunciation

I think the test you did, typing in both pronunciation with your input method to see if you could generate the correct glyph reveals what you need to know. In short, there are different ways to refer to different elements (e.g. radicals) of Chinese characters.

From my experience, there haven't really been any times where I would have to name a radical by its individual name (and I don't imagine most Chinese people would know these, except for maybe some very common ones). Usually I've encountered people choosing to referring to the part of a character (“语” 的左边) or simply drawing the radical on their hand, phone, etc. It would be interesting to find out if people on this site with more formal Chinese education from a Chinese speaking country are familiar with terms for radicals and such. I would guess most people that use Chinese writing frequently don't think too much about them, though.

A parallel in English to discussing radicals might be something like talking about what a "descender" is. (Google: In typography, a descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of a font.) While certainly some people with some design experience will be familiar with this term, most people just intuitively know what this thing is and work around it, by leaving room at the bottom of a piece of paper for descenders when space gets short, for example.


Character Gaps On Comic Conversation : 4

Title

哆啦A夢 is just a transcription of ドラえもん|Doraemon, there's no meaning to it.

Panel 1

是我: "It's me."

嚇了你一跳吧?: "Did I scare you?" (or more literally "I must have scared you, right?")

Missed characters are: 嚇, 跳

Panel 2

你是誰? 從哪裡來的?: your translations are fine here.

想幹什麼: "What do you want (to do)?"

Missed characters are: 幹

Panel 3

為... 為什麽會從這裡跑出來... "H-How did you come out of here..."

一次問我這麼多叫我怎麽回答?: "How do you expect me to answer so many questions in one go?"

Missed characters are: 跑, 次, 麽

Panel 4

算了! 總而言之, 我是來救你脫離苦海的: "Never mind (all that), basically I'm here to save you from your suffering."

Missed characters are: 算, 總, 救, 脫, 離, 海


Chinese Poem Verses About Weapons, Advice, and Israel?

The "迷" looks more like an interchangeable character of "谜" here according to the context. So I personally see the sentence better translates into "Human and gods, like winds, like enigmas".


What does 我们已经帮您踩过了 mean in this peculiarly translated escalator sticker?

Please allow me to give you some background about this sticker.
On July 26th, 2015, one piece of plate, where the sticker is sitting, on an escalator turned over leaving a young women dead in Hubei China. This accident caused public in China worried about the safety of escalators, stepping onto a plate of an escalator may not safe.

Shortly after that, these stickers came out, stating that "We had already stepped onto this area", which indicate to the public, the escalator is safe.

Similar pictures can be found here: http://www.xdwy2001.com/a/kantianxia/2015/1229/5062.html


What does 我看 do in the sentence 我看我吃不了这么大一条鱼?

From Collins, you can find this:

  (= 认为) think (pt, pp thought)
  ⇒ 看成 (kànchéng) consider
  ⇒ 你看这事儿怎么办？ (Nǐ kàn zhèshìr zěnme bàn?) What do you think we should do about this?

The structure of the second example is the same as your sentence.

It is a common usage of "看". But perhaps only used after "我", "你", "你们", "您". But not after "他", a name, a noun, etc.

Edit:
The comment reminds that when used in "怎么看", it can be used with "他" or others, like in "这事他怎么看" (How does he think of this)


距, 离 and 距离, these three can be replaced with each other and would Not change the meaning.
But 距 is slightly more formal, but only slightly. In speaking, 离 and 距离 is used more commonly.

However, they are used when expressing distances, doesn’t matter whether vertical or horizontal, you can use either of these three words


What is the story or reason of how 龙 came from 龍?

TL;DR

Long Answer

From the oracle script to the seal script, character 龍 evolved from simple to complex. The seal script was already very similar to 龍.

However later, variants (there were too many!)  and 尨 appeared:

  Dictionary 集韻 (1037 AD)

    古作[...](帝+尨).

    The ancient forms for 龍 are [...] (帝+尨) [...].

  Dictionary 金石文字辨異 (1810 AD)

    尨: 隋龍藏寺碑

    尨: appeared in the inscription of Longzang Temple (Sui Dynasty, 581–618 AD).

And after the establishment of the PRC, 尨 was further simplified to 龙.


In this sentence:

前源 = original source/source ahead

so it translates to ...originated from...

前源 in 望梅止渴 doesn't necessarily mean spring ahead, because 源 in 望梅止渴 is 水源(water source). So 前源 in 望梅止渴 means 前面的水源(water source ahead), where source is the definition of 源.

It could be anything, for example Japanese Kanji的前源是Chinese Hanzi.


Your idea is correct, at least most Chinese people agree with this.

But in this case, 辵 is acturally combined of 彳 and 止.

彳 means "walk slowly" or "the step with left foot".
止 means "stop" or "halt".
辵 means "walk one moment and stop the next“.

While 彡 means "plume", obviously having no connection with 辵.

By the way, only 止 is frequently used in daily life; 彳 may occur in some poetry; 辵 and 彡 is never used (unless you are studying the articals or books from thousand years ago).

Reference:

辵：http://www.zdic.net/z/25/js/8FB5.htm (Chinese)

Sorry, due to my low reputation, I am only ably to post 1 link. You may find explnation for other characters on that website.


The standard way of stating this would be: 十英镑五十便士. Of course, as you might have suspected, there are other informal/colloquial ways of saying it. Here are some that I personally would not find odd:

十镑五/十块五
十块五毛 (based on the fact the pound/penny uses the same decimalized system as renminbi)
十点五(英)镑
十磅半/十块半

If anyone has any other suggestions, don't hesitate to leave a comment.


如果你不介意 : appropriate translation from English?

I've spent some time in both Taiwan and the Mainland. From my experience, I've heard:

在乎 zai4 hu
在意 zai4 yi4
管 guan3 - More Mainland style... "我不管!"
无所谓 wu2 suo3 wei4 - A really popular phrase to show that you don't really care/mind
随便 sui3 bian4 - kind of like "eh, whatever... I don't care".. Also quite popular

But I've also heard 介意

And if you're looking for that native, colloquial flavor, you can throw in 的话 at the end of 如果, which is just an extension of "if".

如果你不在乎的话,我要去做什么什么...

And what do you mean by "Is there a more common way to prefix such a question?"?


Phone provider Plenti -> Router write 汥湴槿

Unicode in hexadecimal:

  汥 6C65
  湴 6E74
  槿 69FF

Then, look up the ASCII chart:

Write them down:

  6C: l
  65: e
  6E: n
  74: t
  69: i

Now, We get "lenti". Don't ask why "P" is missing or why it's displayed like that. Maybe it's just a bug.


How to translate “路人缘” or “观众缘” in English

Edit:

  After reading my take on the comments, I have convinced myself that 观众缘 means audience appeal

人缘(n) = popularity

路人缘 = general appeal /popularity among common folks

观众缘 = audience appeal / popularity among viewers/ audience

有人缘 = popular

有观众缘 = popular among viewers/ audience

~

Since there's a lively discussion in the comments section arguing about the definition of 人缘, 观众缘, I would give my two cents here.

缘 is something like a 'fated connection',  The chance of any two people in different parts of the world would meet is extremely tiny, but somehow people from different part of the world do meet. We called this connection between them  有缘.

when we say someone 有人缘, we are saying this person seemingly fated to connect with many many people, in other words, he is popular among people. People seemingly draw to him by fate.

有观众缘 just replace 人缘 with 观众缘, meaning audience seemingly draw to that person with no apparent reason.

We would not say a super star 有观众缘, because he is so good that people love him for his talent, but we often say a new artist or second string performer 有观众缘-- the audience just like him, as if fate decided so

May be the reason for some audience to like a performer is actually his looks, personality or demeanor. It all seems mysterious to the other audience who can't see anything attractive about the same performer


Short answer: yes.

I think we should at least distinguish two types of complements.

For the first type, it is very difficult to insert anything else between the complement and the verb. One way to think of them is to view them as the inflection of verbs.

✔说得出话 verb + de + complement + object
✔也说得出话 adverb + verb + de + complement + object
✘说也得出话 verb + adverb + de + complement + object
✘说得也出话 verb + de + adverb + complement + object
✘说得出也话 verb + de + complement + adverb + object
✔说得出话也(说不清楚)verb + de + complement + object + adverb

On the other hand, the complement introduced by 得 has more freedom. We can make up the following grammatical, though by no means usual, sentence:

✔他 长得 丑得 看得我 吓得 紧张得 说不出话 来

When I interpret this sentence, I tend to think of 得 as a kind of postposition, or a conjunction. For example, I parse the long sentence as:

他长得很丑。丑得看起来吓人。我吓得很紧张。紧张得说不出话来。

In this way, you can flatten the sentence so that you will not need much short-term memory to be able to understand it. I do not consider the second 得 as inner, rather, I think it is outer, or at least parallel, because the part following 得 sounds more like the main clause. For example, interrogatives and exclamations are allowed after 得.

✔他 长得 好不好看? interrogative
✔他 长得 真好看! exclamation

It can be demonstrated that adverbs that are normally attached to subjects can be inserted after 得:

✔她 长得也 很漂亮，穿得也 很漂亮

In deed, the above verb + 得 structure resembles nouns and verb phrases:

✔她 读书 很好 verb + adjective
✘她的读书 很好 dushu is not a noun
✔她 长得 很漂亮 verb + de + adjective
✔她(的)长相 很漂亮 noun + adjective

And I do not find it particular unnatural to coordinate these phrases of different classes:

✔她 长得 和 穿着 都 很好 [verb+de] and [noun]

I think this somehow explains the reason even native speakers do not feel much difference between the following sentences:

✔他 说得 是什么
✔他 说的 是什么
✔他 说的 什么
✔他 (是)怎么 说的


What is the meaning of 放 fàng in this idiom?

'To put; to place' and 'to release' are not entirely antonymous. The original logic in the character 放 is that you release something from your hand such that it is placed on a receptacle.

It can be literal, as in 他放下錢便走了 ('He left after putting down some money'); or figurative, as in 別放在心上.

To be precise, you are advised 'not to put something on your heart'. Let us hypothesise and say 她的死 (her death) is the object, as in 'don't take her death to heart'. We can say 別放她的死在心上, but it sounds better if we use the 把-construction, as in 別把她的死放在心上. The object is thus usually fronted in the sentence, which may be a source of your confusion.


You have done so many (trash) things
"你干的事" "他干的事" has irony meaning.
it means "awful things you have done" ,"Do bad things behind your back" not just "things" or "work".
"你瞧瞧你干的好事" look what you have done.(blame)


香榭 refers to 香榭丽舍大道, i.e. Champs Elysees of Paris.

礼物不需挑最贵 => Don't need to choose the most expensive present,
只要香榭的落叶 => just want the fallen leaves from (the trees at) Champs Elysees

BTW, even though fallen leaves are free, money is still required for the air ticket and hotel to go to Paris. (which should be what OP wants indeed)
And, you can buy 香榭的落叶 at 淘宝. (which shouldn't be what OP wants)
See 七夕快了，来自香榭丽舍的落叶居然成了告白神器.


Is Classical Chinese the shortest language?

it depends on the topic; style of writing, and translation.

[for alphabetic language, one word might contain numerous characters, while for ideographic language, one word = one character]

when classical chinese is longer

"traduttore, traditore" (to translate is to betray) - 迻譯即背叛　⋯　2 vs 5 words

nautical terms, such as cutter, ketch, schooner; in which, one can grep its meaning and form an mental image directly.

in classical chinese, the word is longer

cutter - 雙頭帆小船　⋯　1 vs 5 words

ketch - 高前桅雙桅帆船　⋯　1 vs 7 words

schooner - 高後桅雙桅帆船　⋯　1 vs 7 words

or, buddhism terms, such as:

अनुत्तरा सम्यक् सम्बोधि (anuttarā samyak sambodhi)
- 阿耨多羅三藐三菩提　⋯　3 vs 9 words

bhūtânityatā - 諸行無常　⋯　1 vs 4 words

bhūtânātmatā - 諸法無我　⋯　1 vs 4 words

śāntaṃnirvâṇam - 涅槃寂靜　⋯　1 vs 4 words

http://cbeta.kepan.org/sahant/7

http://cbeta.kepan.org/sahant/37

when classical chinese is shorter

well, chinese poem should be the shortest, amongst any languages.

taoism related text is, also. e.g. in 周易參同契:

金伐木榮．三五與一

cutting down by metal, the wood prosperous; three, five and one. (frankly, i don't think this book is "translatable"; i just give a word-to-word translation here, omitting background knowledges, assumptions; and implications)

https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&file=99940&page=59

now, 8 classical chinese word vs 11 english words.

  when a lengthy document or a book is translated into different languages, will the classical Chinese be the shortest translation

imo, again, it depends on the topic; style of writing, and translation.

have fun :)


Take a picture of me/for me (which preposition better translates)?

'给..照相' means 'take a picture of ..', so your sentence means 'can you take a picture of me'.

The verbatim translation for 'do [something] for [someone]' is '为..做..', but in your scenario (asking stranger for help), it is more common to say '帮..做..' (help [someone] do [something]), so 'can you take a picture of her for me' would be '你能帮我给她照相吗？'


What does the woman know when she says 后来才知道 (hòulái cái zhīdào)?

what the woman know afterwards is he locked his six-year-old son in the house for a whole night, just for taking her father to the hospital. Beacuase it is dangerous that locked a child in the house about a whole night, so the woman was  thoroughly touched.


Where can I find Codecademy for Written Chinese?

To memorize characters and pronunciation you can use Memrise, which will help you to learn by repeating words you've missed during the previous learning session.

However, you won't learn any grammar or usage, just words. So it is not a complete solution, but a good help to expand your vocabulary.

It is not as feature complete as Codeacademy but I don't think that what you are looking for exists (yet).

If I were you, I would keep an eye on Duolinguo, which does not yet provide Mandarin but should in the future.


When are "《" and " 》" and other brackets used?

“《》” is used exclusively around names of books or articles.  When referring to a book name inside a “《》”, use “〈〉” (in a way similar to the use of ' and ").


上 denotes this sense:

  （用在动词后， 表示动作的结果）(Used after a verb to indicate its result)  E.g. 穿上外衣; 考上大学

我没帮上忙 means (the result is that) I have been being helpless.. It's not a word for word translation though.


No, it's not a typo, surely there is a kind of plant called 短肠蕨, the latin name of which is Allantodia.

Details can be found at: http://www.eflora.cn/sp/Allantodia


What is the meaning of the phrase 俫气更有仙气?

I suppose it's a typo and should be 侠气更有仙气.

侠气 (chivalrous / heroic spirit)

  侠气 xiáqì
  [chivalrous] 豪侠的气概

仙气 (unworldly temperament)

  仙氣 xiān qì    ㄒㄧㄢ ㄑㄧˋ
  靈秀脫俗的氣質。

Then the sentence could be translated as "besides chivalrous like 林青霞, (she) also has unworldly temperament".


Does Chinese require more context to avoid ambiguities than English?

TL;DR I would say so, yes.
One type of ambiguity is given by the isolating nature of the language (i.e. absence of inflection) combined with a high frequency of homophones.
Which means if you hear me saying bei1 ju4, am I talking about a tragedy 悲剧 or glassware 杯具？This requires context to disambiguate.
You might think: "well that's easy to disambiguate". Okay, what about you hear me saying: 我的 ji4 yi4 很差! Is it 记忆 (memory) or 技艺 (skill)?!
As you can see, this ambiguity exists in speech only. In writing, you readily identify what I'm talking about by just looking at the actual characters.

Another type of ambiguity is given by the lack of verb tenses, which makes it harder to figure out if someone is talking about a past, present or future event. This usually requires time indicators (那时候，今天，明天，去年，当时), particles or auxiliaries (过，了，将，要), or a larger frame of reference, e.g. a previous sentence.
But it's possible to argue, and it's a valid argument in my opinion, that this kind of ambiguity practically exists only when you compare Chinese to a language with different grammatical features, and not in absolute. As your proficiency level increases, you simply get used to how the language flows.
And at that point the comparison with English is maybe a little moot: the two languages are just 不一样。

Edit:
As an additional note, English itself doesn't lack weird ambiguities, apparently known as garden-path sentences


Is there a comprehensive list of vocabulary differences between 台湾国语 and 大陆普通话？

Here's a list of books from Taiwan on this topic:

兩岸現代漢語常用詞典
普通話vs.國語--兩岸對話一本就通
最新兩岸用詞差異對照手冊
最新兩岸用語速查1600
兩岸常用詞語對照手冊：兩岸交流即時通
兩岸詞語即時通
兩岸用語快譯通


Lowest pixel resolution needed to support Chinese?

8x8: Lowest necessary resolution for Chinese characters

As far as I know, the recognizable lowest resolution for Chinese characters, is about 8x8 pixels. The following paragraphs are rendered by the Special SimSun font's smallest 8x8 bitmap glyphs (Note: "Before Revision" is rendered by the Windows Vista's default simsun.ttc; "After Revision" shows how Special Simsun improves the quality). I believe native speakers are able to read these 8x8 resolution characters within the context, though a few are difficult to be recognized individually.

  "The Special SimSun font is revised based on simsun.ttc and mingliu.ttc contained in Windows Vista: First, it replaces ugly bitmap glyphs of Windows Vista's simsun.ttc with those of Windows XP's, and adds a few other bitmap glyphs; Second, it completes the bitmap glyphs in CJK EXT A (6852 characters), and supports the GB18030 character set (27533 characters) – especially, some low-resolution bitmap glyphs are included so that characters can be rendered in the bitmap way under 6pt–21pt for 96dpi; Finally, all bitmap glyphs are revised one by one, so the rendering quality is improved." — By the author of this font

It would be remiss of me not to mention the 7x7 resolution font: 超宋体 (Super Song) made by 夏夏@bbs.themex.net. However, this font is simplified Chinese only, and we can imagine it will be even more difficult to read than 8x8 resolution characters, so my conclusion for OP's question is "about 8x8".

12x12 would be moderate

The following paragraphs are rendered by the 方正像素12 font with its 12x12 resolution glyphs. Almost every character can be recognized without context. Of course, compared with the 16x16 resolution, it has to lose strokes even for many simplified characters; however, yes, native speakers may feel relaxed to read them now.


I believe this usage of 让座者 is very inaccurate. It is referring to the people who lets you past.

However I couldn't think of a clear and succinct phrase for the same meaning. None of 让位, 让路, etc. sounds right. If rewrite the phrase I would simply go with 其他观众.

  通过其他观众时要与之正面相对，……


Is "佳能" the standard translation for "canon" in a religious sense?

No. 佳能 is only used for the translation for Canon the brand/company name.

There are more than one translation for canon in religious sense based on its different meanings. The standard translation for Pali Canon is 巴利文大藏经 (Wikipedia).

If you are interested in the translations for other meanings, you can find them in a dictionary. Another way to find out is on the Wikipedia disambiguate page for 'canon', choose the term you're interested in, and click on 中文 on the left to see the Chinese version.


Chengyu (or idiom) is a cultural thing.

"Getting banned" is an administrative(political) thing.

Another thing is that your quoted message is not accurate. The original order was from 《关于规范广播电视节目用语推广普及普通话的通知》（广发【2013】96号）, which was to clarify the usage in broadcasting programmes for popularizing Putonghua.

Now why? Because Putonghua has an official standard, the official channels should keep their standard.


How to say "the fourth floor of that building"?

the fourth floor of that building

It can be written in traditional Chinese 那棟建築物的(of that building)四樓(the fourth floor). Add 那棟建築物的 before 四樓 can describe that the 四樓 you said is from that building.


It means 'numerous/several facts about Fuku Noodle'.

The slang N has an algebraic etymology which denotes an unspecified but large number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, ..., N). Apparently this emerged in the early eighties (see more here).
件 is the counter for 事 ('a thing; a matter', here its meaning is fairly abstract and dummy-like, meaning whatever that is about Fuku noodle). In fact it is common to add
counters after N: N樣嘢 ('many things'), N次 ('many times'),
N年前 ('many years ago') etc.
Of course, we don't expect countlessly many facts in a short video. Using N is often exaggeration.


他在睡觉 is to state the fact he is sleeping, which may not necessarily imply anything.

他在睡觉呢 adds a tone in the sentence, which often invokes some implications such as he is sleeping so he can't answer you now, he is supposed to do something else while he's still sleeping, and etc.  The implications are various based on the real context.

Sometimes, 呢 is just to add a bit emphasis without any implications.他在睡觉呢 might just mean he is sleeping(underlying meaning: we should not bother him).

Overall, context is essential for analyzing the underlying meaning or implications of the speakers.


No.
「」 has no usage examples as the reading rèn (Bopomofo: ㄖㄣˋ). Note that many ancient dictionaries make definitions up out of thin air, which is why quotes from character usage in literature is so important.

At least one dictionary author, smelling something fishy was going on, said

《字彙補》
...疑「」字之譌

Suspected to be a corruption of 「」 (rěn).

So it might come from 「」 with a horizontal line added to the bottom.

Further reading
See the reference given by Wiktionary: Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A03215-002


Can the dialectical final "ue" be written in pinyin "ue"?

Hanyu Pinyin is generally used for Standard Chinese. If you want to represent /uɛ/ in something consistent with Hanyu Pinyin, you could use uê. The Wikipedia article was using Sichuanese Pinyin, which may not be compatible with Hanyu Pinyin.


In which Chinese topolect might 門 be transcribed as ?

I'd say it is a local Hongkong final consonant drift n->m, as 10300 Googool results for 屯门 (Tuenmun / Tuenmum) would indicate:

http://church.oursweb.net/church.php?pkey=816478 (Tuen Mum alliance church)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CektDpGGXWQ (Light rail at Tuen Mum ferry pier)

https://zh-tw.facebook.com/ourinteriorsltd/photos/a.122323427797946.13546.122300641133558/122323507797938/ (Marina Garden, Tuen Mum)

http://johnblog.phychembio.com/?tag=tuen-mum屯門 (Tuen Mum(屯門) | John Chan Photography)

http://hkims.org/activities_Calendar.html (屯門共修 7 - 9pm Tuen Mum Group Sitting)

Sorry to say I do not speak Cantonese, but such drifts in consonants/wovels are not unheard of. Across East Asia, there is a certain mux between l/r, and Beijing vernacular has a spectacular w->v drift that is similar.


This appears to be file sharing jargon.

熟肉 means the video has Chinese subtitles. This is in contrast to 生肉 (raw meat), which means the video has no Chinese subtitles, that it is in its original format. I guess the meanings allude to the fact that meat is usually consumed cooked, and that if it is raw (has no subtitles), it cannot be consumed easily. Why use this specific analogy I have no idea; jargon can often have strange origins.

Likewise, for jargon it is hard to find good references for them. There is a blog post here which defines the term in a footnote:

https://catalyst.uw.edu/gopost/conversation/swelland/334740

And a Baidu Zhidao (similar to Yahoo Answers) question here:

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/203271518.html


Can you explain the differences between the following sentences?

They're puns.

1: Winter: wear as much as possible, summer: wear as little as possible.
多少 means "how much", but could be read as 多+x "how very x", with x here being 少 （little).
2: 看不上 is ambiguous. She won't give anybody a thought. or Nobody gives her a thought.
3: "... then you just keep waiting." vs. "... then you can wait for your punishment."
4: 喜欢一个人 can mean "to like a person", can also mean "to like to be alone" (a verb like 生活 is implied, 一个人 is an adverb here).
5: 喜欢上 can be read as "started to like" vs. "would like to fuck" with 上 being read differently.
6: 睡过了: "he overslept" vs. "has slept (with her) before".


What should I call a capacitive touchscreen stylus in Standard Chinese?

In Taiwan it's called a 電容式觸控筆; maybe if you tell them you need i-phone 專用的觸控筆 they might get the idea.


Chinese grammar wiki has a page for the "每 + measure word + noun + 都" structure to express "every".

Sometimes when the noun is also a measure word (like your example, 每天都), the "measure word" part does not show up in the structure.

And it is to emphasize the "every".


As Stan said 余 is archaic and only found in literature. As in

余既为此志。——明· 归有光《项脊轩志》

我 is what modern-day Chinese use as the first-person pronoun.

我喜欢吃苹果。

I asked some Chinese friends and they only recognized 余 as a surname or meaning surplus or extra.


How would you say: "This is my family photo taken two years ago of my younger brother's 10th birthday party."

我认为这样就可以了

这张全家福是两年前在我弟弟十岁生日聚会时拍的。


Is my translation of "I think Disney has a big influence on people's expectations of love" accurate?

Yes, 人 would be sufficient to indicate "people in general" in this sentence. 老百姓, though not necessarily derogatory, gives the reader an impression that you're implying there exists some other non-general population group that are not affected/affected differently by Disney.

Next, 期待 and and 期望 are both fine for 愛情, but I would say the former is better, because all results from google gives 對愛情的期待 even when I searched 對愛情的期望. 要求 sounds too aggressive in my opinion, and we generally do not use 希望 for non-humans.

Generally we say "Noun 對 Noun 的期待/期望/要求", so the object should be 人對愛情的期待. However, this causes two 對's to appear, which sounds odd. So my advice would be to replace 人 with 人們, and replace the second 對 with 對於 to ease the effect of multiple 對's.

Finally the 的 before 影響 is optional, and since we already have a 的 in the object, we should omit the second.

The final sentence would be 我觉得迪士尼对人们对于爱情的期望影响很大


What does 的 mean in 随着学习的深入 (a verb modifies a verb via 的)?

songyuanyao wrote:

  深入 is considered as a noun here

songyuanyao is right, 深入(advance) is a noun here

  随着(following) 学习的 (of study) 深入 (advance)

Notice 随着 (following) is the verb, advance is the object, and 学习的 is the adjectival phrase that describe 'advance'-- (advance of what? Advance of the study of course.)

'的' at the end of '学习的' turns the noun '学习' (study) into an adjectival phrase (of study)

Let me give another example of [noun + 的] = [of noun]:

战斗 : to battle (v); battle (n)

战斗的 = of battle

加劇: to intensify(v); intensification (n)

"战斗的加劇" = "intensification of battle"

Both 战斗 and 加劇 are noun here and 的 turns 战斗 to an adjectival phrase for 'intensification' (intensification of the battle)

In '战斗加劇', '战斗'(battle) is the object noun ; and 加劇 (intensify) is a verb

In '学习得深入', '学习' is a verb and  '得' is a 'degree adverbial particle' that turns the verb '深入' into an adverbial phrase for it (describe the degree of the verb 学习)

In '深入地学习', '地' turn the verb 深入 into an adverbial phrase for the verb 学习 (describe the manner of the verb 学习)


Usually we just say 说错了 if we found we made a mistake in a talk or statement. 说差了 is not a common usage for 'I made a mistake' regarding to what you said. I wonder if you actually want to discuss about 说岔了 instead of 说差了. 说岔了 usually means 'misunderstanding on either the topic or the opinion caused by confusing words/expression/context'. For example, when a group of friends are discussing about 吃醋 in a context to compare which vinegar is the best; you jumped in and told them that your girl friend likes 吃醋 (be envy of other girls you know). They may told you that 你说岔了!


replica = 仿制品.
 fake = 赝品

赝品 used to refer to replica that is very hard to identify whether it is authentic or not. As the language evolved, it refers to those with low qualities.

So in Chinese, there is no direct mapping. Usually, you can add other adjectives to express the subtle meaning, like hello_harry suggested, 高仿, which is equal to 高级仿制品.

赝品 also limited to those replica that trying to make the same as original and sell for profit. While 仿制品 don't have good or bad in the purpose, for example, 仿制品 can be made for museum, it can also be a different size.

In your case, it seems you want to buy a  高级赝品 of furniture.


How would one say: "You should be ashamed of yourself." in Mandarin and Cantonese?

Mandarin:

你应该为自己感到羞耻 we still say it in general and it is much mild comparing to 你真不要脸

Cantonese:

In Cantonese we would say 你应该感到羞耻 but it is more formal, in slang/daily i usually say 我系你我會搵窿捐

Reference: I am a native speaker for both


Classical Chinese grammar help: 蓋將自其變者而觀之，則天地曾不能以一瞬

First, I'm very surprised that a foreigner is even reading the classical article 前赤壁賦.

For your question, I think the answer is related to omission,  a common grammatical phenomenon in classical Chinese.

Here, 以 doesn't mean "to stop". When it means to stop, 以 is just an alias of 已 (another common phenomenon, called 通假, where characters with similar pronunciations or shapes are used  interchangeably) , which means to stop. If 以 really means to stop here, what  is the role of 一瞬?

To stop a moment doesn't make sense.  From the context, the author 苏轼 wants to express that "the universe is always changing. Changes never stop".  If it means to stop within a moment,  the meaning sounds weird: "the universe CAN'T STOP within a moment". So does  it takes some time for the universe to stop?

I think the sentence omits the complement: 则天地曾不能以一瞬 观之/度 (duo 2nd tone, to consider, to think of)之. Then the universe can't be even  observed / considered in (the unit of) one moment, since it changes so fast. Even in one moment (very short period), it has changed a lot, and you can notice no details or nothing meaningful.

Why is there such an omission? Well, the pattern of this article is 赋, and it requires the writer to use a lot of 对仗 ( coupling sentences. Two groups of sentences written in the similar pattern. For example, same numbers of characters, similar sentence structure).  You can notice a lot of coupling sentences in this article, can't you? The next sentence is coupled with the sentence in the questions, so the number of characters is restricted here. Also, the verb in the complement repeats 观之 in the previous clause.

PS: I'm not a linguist, so please correct me if I use incorrect terms in the answer. I'll appreciate that.


Seems the answer did not help much, here is mine - it is about predicative and attributive.

My phone is new. The adjective describes the subject, this is the predicative.
My new phone. The adjective is attributive, it is linked to the noun.

If it is predicative, do not use "to be" (shì).

SIDE NOTE: I am a beginner myself and I often see the example "Sky is blue" translated as "Tiānkōng shì lánsè de (天空是蓝色的)". I have no idea why it can be like this as it clearly is predicative.


What's a suitable CC-EDICT definition for 各司其职?

In Modern Chinese Dictionary 7ed (《现代汉语词典》第七版）

各司其职【gèsī-qízhí】
各自管好、做好自己的本职工作（司：执掌，主管）。
也说各尽其职、各司其事。

I would put it as

各司其職 各司其职 [ge4 si1 qi2 zhi2] /manages and performs one's own job respectively/

Hope my answer helps.


What is wrong with this sentence and why? 我们八点上课，老师八点半才到了。

了  indicates the verb is 'completed'

我们八点上课，老师八点半才到。 would be a correct  sentence

才 in 八点半才 indicated 'reaching 8:30' is a requirement for the action 'arrive' to apply, therefore, 到 is not a definitely completed action here. That is why the verb particle 了 that indicates the verb is 'completed' is not applicable when it is following 才 in a sentence.

我们八点上课，老师七点半 就到了 would also be a correct sentence, because 就 indicates 'already' therefore the verb particle 了 that indicates the verb is 'completed' is applicable

Notice:

才 functions differently in different context

Example:

八点半(才) = (only when it is) 8:30 ; 八点半(才)到 = arrive (only when it is) 8:30
(才) 八点半 = it is (just) 8:30; (才)八点半就到 = It is (just) 8:30, he already arrived; (才)八点半就到(了) = It is (just) 8:30, he (had) arrived already

In Example 1. 'when it is 8:30' is a requirement for 'arrive' to happen. Therefore, you cannot add '了' to indicate the verb is completed


What is the most common way to say 'indecisive' in Mandarin?

I find two meanings of "indecisive" in the dictionary.

  To hover between different choices and can't make a decision in a short while.
  Not specified, undefined.

I think you are asking a word for the first meaning, and then the words are:

  犹豫不决
  优柔寡断
  没主见*
  徘徊不定
  犹豫

There are some other words related to this meaning, in different contexts. Besides, I think you are talking about "磨蹭" by "磨(it may mean the same in some dialects)" in your comment.  "磨蹭“ is different. It's used to say someone intends to do something in a very slow process, thought he is able to do better or faster. I know the English words "to loaf" and "to linger" for "磨蹭".

Edit: To tell the difference.

You can use "优柔寡断" and  “没主见" as an adjective to modify a man or his character, while other words can't be used in this case. You can use "徘徊不定","犹豫","踌躇"(also "优柔寡断" and  “没主见"),etc. when talking about something, and you need to remember some patterns to express such a meaning. Example sentences to help me explain:

  他的性格优柔寡断. He has an indecisive character.
  他是个没主见的人。 He is indecisive.
  他在提名谁做总经理的事上徘徊不定=他在提名谁做总经理的事上犹豫不决。 He is indecisive to nominate who as general mangager.
  我犹豫要不要接受他的邀请。I am indecisive to accept his invitation or not.
  别犹豫了！Don't be indecisive! (make your decision as soon as possible!)

没主见 more precisely means "not have one's own opinion, one's opinion is easily to be swayed by someone else.", while other words don't express the sense of "easily to be swayed".


说文解字：更易也。从辵虒聲。

Actually, 遞=辵+虒, it's a pictophonetic character which original meaning is "to alternate".

The meaning radical(形旁) 辵 carries the basic meaning "to walk one moment and stop the next".

The sound radical(声旁) 虒 only indicates the pronunciation of 遞(dì).


然后（企业）可以有针对性 地 给员工补充“能量”。

As you may have known, in Chinese adding double quotation mark to word indicates it(the word) means something beyond its literal meaning.

能量's literal meaning is energy.
In your case, 能量 means the skills or abilities that employees need.

然后（企业）可以有针对性 地 给员工补充“能量”。

Literal Meaning: Afterwards company can refill(补充) the energy(能量) for employees accordingly(有针对性地).

Employees are not machines so they don't actually need to refill energy to perform better. They need more skills or abilities. The way to give someone skills or abilities is to train them.

So the actual meaning of the sentence is： Afterwards/Then company can give training (补充“能量”) to its employees accordingly.

I hope this answer helps.


Answered in simplified Chinese. And agree with tsh.


小伙子 is young guy. It's a generic term to address a young man.

大兄弟 is used in north, which sounds pretty folksy. It's used to address a man and is said by some older people. Sometimes, we make a joke to address a guy as 大兄弟.


Is it possible to use 璟 for a boy's given name?

璟:ｊǐｎｇ【形】玉的光彩 (The brilliance of jade)
玉 is a neutral name, suitable for male or female. I don't see any reason 璟 would not be.
From 起名网

二、带璟字的男孩名字

(璟超)(璟竑)(璟麟)(璟然)(璟贤)(璟钰)

(璟朝)(璟鸿)(璟凌)(璟荣)(璟显)(璟煜)

........ 中略 ........

(彬璟)(贯璟)(君璟)(群璟)(夏璟)(余璟)


Is the phrase order in this sentence correct?

It is not odd.

项目 is the subject of 起源 (and cannot be used an object), but the object of 推广 (and probably cannot be used as subject).

We can say 项目推广, but this is used as noun phrase which means the "the promotion of the event". It is like a short form of 项目的推广, where 推广 is a noun.

"现代五项这个项目最早在哪个国家推广的？" This may be treated as implicit passive voice, "现代五项这个项目最早在哪个国家（被）推广的？"


Number 2 is correct.
Number 1 translates as This restaurant food is delicious. (Does not make sense)
Number 2 translates as The food in this restaurant is delicious. (Should be what you are looking for)


提高 literally means "lift/raise sth. up". Its extended meaning is improve or make a progress.

  他提高得很快

In this sentence, you have used the extended meaning(improve) of 提高. The whole sentence can be translated to: He improved rapidly/very fast.

In my opinion, if you use its extended meaning, then it's not a 离合词 because you can't separate it. Well, it can be considered as a 离合词 when it denotes its literal meaning(lift up), because it is separable . For example, you can say 提得高.

PS. As the comment pointed out, 提得很高 is more common than 提得高 in practice.