What is the difference between 依然 and 仍然?

依然 and 仍然 both can be used as adverb to mean "still". And when used this way, they are interchangable in most cases. You can say "虽然生病，他依然去上学了" or "虽然生病，他仍然去上学了". Both are appropriate.

However 依然 can also be used as a verb, such as "noun + 依然" (most likely in some idioms or phrases). e.g 旧态依然, 风采依然. You cannot use 仍然 in these situations. But anyway, such kind of usage is rarely heard in daily talks.

In addition you'll find 依然 in some classic poems. But I haven't seen any occurence of 仍然 in poetry before 20th century.


When 马 is used as the left component (e.g. in 骑), does the 一 héng stroke change to ㇀ tí?

According to 《通用规范汉字表》("General Standard Chinese Character Table"), "左部件或左上部件末笔为横的，应该变形为提"(The end stroke of the left part or the upper left part is horizontal character stroke(横), it should be changed upwards character stroke(提)). "骑" meets this condition. "马" is its lest part, the last stroke is horizontal character stroke. Other examples: 蛩, 柴, 鹭, 盐, 瞽.
Also, 左右都有其他构字单位的部件，因处在相对左侧的位置，其末笔为横的，也应变为提(if there are components of other character-forming units on the left and right, due to it's on the relatively left side, the last stroke is horizontal character stroke, so they should also be changed upwards character stroke, such as "鸿, 潋, 鼓, 街, 御"


This expression means 'to make life difficult for', 'to make it unpleasant for' or 'to pick on', just giving a few possible translations from the top of my head. Therefore your interpretation is correct. I am not sure what you mean by 'Is there a particular emphasis in this?' Emphasis in what?

As for your second question - yes, it can be used either reflexively or transitively (on another person). There is nothing that stops you from doing that.

Does the meaning change in reference to an action done to oneself?. No it doesn't. You have correctly observed that 何苦呢 (why torturing yourself over this?) means the same as 为什么跟自己过不去呢 (why making it difficult for yourself?).

As for your examples,

别提他妈妈的身体，你想跟他过不去吗？ - It's ok, but needs more context to make more
sense.
别跟我提那件事，否则跟我过不去。 - Missing a subject. Better served with:
别跟我提那件事，否则*你就是*跟我过不去。
你天天喝醉，为什么跟自己过不去呢？- It's ok, but would sound more natural by adding the adverb 都 between 天天 and 喝醉.  I assume the subject is using alcohol to
forget his/her troubles. If not, then more context is required.

Just a side note, variations of this include 和。。。过不去 and 同。。。过不去.


A good web font size for Chinese characters

Among others, Chinese Wikipedia has a font of 15px, Yahoo News has a font of 18 px, and the font of Sina News is also 18 px.


There is such text in the 凡例 section in 《现代汉语词典》：

书面上有时儿化有时不儿化，口语里必须儿化的词，自成条目，如【今儿】、【小孩儿】。书面上一般不儿化，但是口语里一般儿化的，在释义前面加‘（~儿）’，如【米粒】条。……

The text shows how 儿化 is shown in the entries and explanation. The words with 儿化 are mainly divided into two groups: 1. Words that are sometimes written with 儿 and sometimes not, but are always pronounced with 儿化 2. Words that are usually not written with 儿, but are usually pronounced with 儿化.
It shows that there are words that would not be written with 儿化, but would be pronounced with 儿化. Each word has its own tendency as whether it would be written with 儿.
(Note: all 儿 in the quoted text showing 儿化 are in small font in 《现代汉语词典》.)


I am trying to translate the seal on a vase. please help (Characters identified: 蔣松林印)

The seal says

蔣松林印
Seal of 蔣松林

So the craftsperson's name is 蔣松林 (Mandarin: Jiǎng Sōnglín).


"我被他当做(了)自己的儿子。" 干爹 gāndiē or 教父 jiàofù?

It is common to say "godfather" when referring to an elder man who is influential to someone's life and treated as the person's father, but in a non-Christian country like China, simply translating "godfather" to 教父(literally "religious father") is quite improper, if the person ("他" in the sentence) is not from a Christian country or is not a Christian believer. If this is the situation in the context, the elder person ("我") can only be the younger person's ("他") "干爹" instead of "教父".


Is there a difference between 復習 and 複習?

Short answer: The correct form is 複習. The following details the history regarding the two characters to explain why.

While 複 and 復 are pronounced exactly the same in modern Mandarin Chinese with the exact same tones (fù) and are both written as 复 in Simplified Chinese, they originally had different pronunciations.

複 was pronounced with an unvoiced initial consonant in Middle Chinese (ca. 600), /pjuk/, while
復 had a voiced initial consonant, /bjuk/. Because both words ended with the final consonant /k/, they belonged to a class of words having a checked tone (入聲) in Middle Chinese.

A few pronunciation shifts happened during the transition to Late Middle Chinese (ca. 1000):

Bilabial consonants /p/ and /b/ followed by the glide consonant /j/ became labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/.
A distinction in voicing of initial consonants lead to a phonemic split in Middle Chinese tone categories. Each tone category was split into "upper" 陰 and "lower" 陽 registers, with words having unvoiced initials in the former and those with voiced initials in the latter.
Later on, the voicing distinction ends up disappearing†, resulting in /f/ and /v/ merging into /f/, but the aforementioned tonal distinction remained.

By the end of Late Middle Chinese, this resulted in 複 having a pronunciation of /fuk/ with a 陰入 tone and 復 having a pronunciation of /fuk/ with a 陽入 tone. In fact, because modern Cantonese retains all the tones of Late Middle Chinese, it maintains this same distinction between these two words; compare 複 fuk1 vs. 復 fuk6.

The transition from Late Middle Chinese to modern Mandarin underwent a few more sound changes, the most significant of which was the loss of the final consonants that denoted checked tone words (such as the final /k/). Because of this, the checked tone as a category was completely lost, and many of its words ended up being redistributed into the other tones in an unpredictable manner. In modern Mandarin, both of these characters ended up with the Mandarin fourth tone, resulting in their modern pronunciation, fù.

The correct word should be 複習, and its evidenced by the way the word is pronounced in Cantonese, fuk1 zaap6. In fact if you instead say fuk6 zaap6 in Cantonese, you'd actually be referring to a different word, 復雜.

As for why their meanings are so similar, the ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese actually lists them under the same etymon. Old Chinese used to be more derivational, with affixes resulting in slight differences in meaning. In this case 複 is reconstructed with an Old Chinese pronunciation of *pruk while 復 is reconstructed with the *m- prefix: *mpruk. This prefix is believed to have originally indicated a causative or volitional meaning (複 'repeat' vs. 復 'cause to repeat', see Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction, pp. 54-5).

Although this process is no longer productive in modern Chinese, it often surfaces in pairs of words that have similar meanings but different tones or initial consonants. This previous Chinese StackExchange answer gives another example. In many cases, many of these words may have merged back together and ended up with the same pronunciation as is the case with 複 and 復 in modern Mandarin.

To summarize:

複 OC *pruk > EMC pjuk > LMC fuk > Mand. fù
復 OC *mpruk (*m- + 複) > EMC bjuk > LMC vuk > Mand. fù

If you're interested in reading more about how modern Chinese pronunciations developed, take a look at the Historical Chinese Phonology Wikipedia page.

† As an aside, the voicing distinction actually remains in the modern Wu varieties of Chinese (of which Shanghainese is one). I'm not very familiar with Wu Chinese, but I believe the pronunciation of 複 and 復 ends up being something like /foʔ/ and /voʔ/, respectively, in many of those dialects.


What does 缀 mean in 浆果密密地缀在灌木丛中 (from "Fog Magic" 穿越魔雾)?

浆果密密地缀在灌木丛中

缀(zhuì) here means 点缀, to decorate or to interperse.
Compare to this example below:

embellish a dress with lace and ribbons; // 用花边和丝带点缀衣装.


发生了什么事？

事 refers to 事情(affair, matter, thing, etc). 什么事情 is specific - what thing. 发生了什么 is generic.  They can be interchangeable in most of context, in which we take  发生了什么 as the shorthand for 发生了什么事.

However, 发生了什么 could also be shorthand for 发生了什么现象，发生了什么反应，发生了什么变化，etc.

E.g. 这两种物质混在一起会发生什么？== 这两种物质混在一起会发生什么现象/变化？

In the case above, 这两种物质混在一起会发生什么事 is not something 这两种物质混在一起会发生什么 is trying to convey.


How do I parse 真的发展成男女朋友玩的来聊的开那还是要过个一年半载才能确定的 into English?

许多妹子都觉得刚失恋去找别的男人不太好，
Many girls think looking for a new man just after breaking up is not a good idea,
其实无所谓啦，
actually, it doesn't matter
真的发展成男女朋友[玩得来聊得开]那还是要过个一年半载才能确定的，
to really become girlfriend and boyfriend, [have fun and chat openly], that will take about a year before you have a rapport,
先随便聊聊么，
first just chat,
认识认识，
get to know each other,
没到考试的时候也可以在生活里多个出勤率，
it's not exam time yet, you can also concentrate more on your life,
哪里跌倒就从哪里爬起来，
get up from where you have fallen down,
越是被男人甩了越用自己的趣味和大方去和其他男人聊聊，
the more you are rejected the more you should use your personality and magnanimity to talk with other men
对自己恢复（男女关系方面的）信心也没啥坏处。
this will help you recover your confidence (in male female relationships) and won't do you any harm.

Reader's Digest philosophy??


What are the common words for "clean" and "dirty", "tidy" and "untidy"?

I agree with @Tang Ho's answer but I'd like to add something here.

Orally, people tend to skip the word "的" and may use "好" instead of "真".

1. Your room is so clean! 你房间好干净啊。
2. Your room is so dirty! 你房间好脏啊。
3. Your room is so tidy! 你房间好整洁啊。
4. Your room is so untidy! 你房间好乱啊。

Note that I added a modal word "啊" at the end of each sentence. This is because there is a slight difference between "好" and "真".

"好" is a milder tone and the speaker is trying to address their feeling about the cleanness or tidiness of your room. If the speaker uses "真", the speaker emphasises more on the fact that the room is dirty.

And "脏" is the most common way to say dirty.


How do I say "did you watch the football?"

"你看足球比赛吗？" = "do you watch football match?"
"你看了足球比赛吗？" = "have you watched the football match? " (看 is the verb, 了 is the verb particle indicates 'completion of an action-- 足球比赛 is the object that was being watched)
"你看足球比赛了吗？" put the object '足球比赛' between '看' and its verb particle '了'. that make '看足球比赛' a verb phrase

If you want to ask if someone watched the football match, #2 and #3 are both acceptable.


同调 pronounces as: tóng diào, see reference.

(1) [same tone]∶音调相同

(2) [person with same common purpose or taste]∶比喻志趣或主张相同的人


Is 拿 only used to take "thing" and not "person"?

I cannot imagine a situation where "拿" would take a human object. Daniel has already explained the etymology of the character, however "拿" not only takes physical objects, but can also be used metaphorically such as in the phrase "拿主意" (to brainstorm), which literally translated means "to grab ideas".
I'd also like to point out that the main reason "拿" would not fit into that sentence is because it cannot be used in the same way "take" would be used in english. It should only be used in a picking-up-and-holding kind of way.

Example sentences that cannot take (heh) "拿"

I will take the car to work. (you aren't picking up the car)
I will take a break. (can't really pick up a "break", either)

As a general rule of thumb, anything too big to pick up shouldn't use 拿.

A.N.
To use the word "拿" in that sentence would actually be quite comical. Since "拿" also means "with" as in "to use", it would actually mean "Tomorrow night I will use you to eat dinner". In fact, in the above situation, even if the object was not human, you shouldn't use "拿" at all.
Even if you wished to say: "I will take my purse to dinner", opt for something like "帶", which means "to bring". Otherwise people people might misunderstand it as you are literally using your purse to eat your food.


Normally  the 'relative phrase that indicates location (在+ location)' is always placed before the verb

Example:

他在北京旅遊 cannot be changed to 他旅遊在北京

他在北京探親 cannot be changed to 他探親在北京

他在北京被捕 cannot be changed to 他被捕在北京

  Why is 他出生在北京 and 他在北京出生 both correct?

You can treat the sentence as [topic + comment] structure

['他出生' (his birth)]  is the topic ['在北京' (was in Beijing)] is the comment

In other words, "他出生在北京" is short form of "他的出生 是在北京"

or you can treat it as simple [S+V+O] structure

['他' is the subject] ['在北京' is the relative phrase] ['出生' is the verb] (no object)


Use of 成 / 乘 number quantifiers in Cantonese

成: one tenth; 10 per cent
乘: multiply; multiplication

一成熟：rare (10% cooked) 三成熟：medium rare (30% cooked) 五成熟：medium (50% cooked) 七成熟：medium well (70% cooked) 全熟：Well done (100% cooked)
It is always "(X)成"  for "(X)/10"
一成 = 1/10
三成 = 3/10
五成 = 5/10
七成 = 7/10
十成 = 10/10
十二成 = 12/10 (overdrive)


Can I use 兼 for more than two positions?

No, grammatically speaking, you cannot use any conjunction between more than two elements.

CEO兼CTO兼CFO  (✘)
CEO、CTO兼CFO  (✔)
CEO和CTO和CFO  (✘)
CEO、CTO和CFO  (✔)

I believe it's the same in English, instead of saying Alice and Bob and Charlie, you would say Alice, Bob and Charlie, right?

Another suggestion: you can use the word 兼任. E.g.

我是个创始者，但是由于我的公司因没钱而不能雇佣，现在我兼任CEO、CTO和CFO。


Why is 饰界 used to mean "hinges" in a 1908 book?

It means "hinge" in old Chengdu dialect.
The source is the same the one I mentioned in the other post, a 2006 research thesis from Waseda University Graduate School of Letters:
成都方言の文法研究 A study of Chengdu dialect grammar
The third file "Honbun-4423.pdf" from this download page is the paper I'm referring to.
Same as in the other post, in Appendix 4 you can see the following footnote in Japanese:

括弧内の文は現代成都方言の言い方である
The statements between brackets are in the modern Chengdu dialect

The at page 236 you can find an exact match of your example number 13 you posted here.

13． 門靠着飾界轉 （門靠倒飾界轉）
Men2 kao4 dzo2 si4 jien4 dzuan3

Between brackets, the modern version.


Yes, you're right. The phenomenon of 豆腐 dòufu is the result of tone sandhi (连续变调 liánxù biàndiào). IME does not support tone sandhi, so you're unable to search for it as a neutral tone. The only accepted tone entry for 腐 is 3rd tone fǔ.


I am Chinese. I carefully watched the characters you showed us. I have no idea what “极女戈” means. I take it as characters which were randomly wrote together. There is no meaning in it.


This 吃 means to take.

Example 1: Chess game 西洋棋

  你吃我的騎士，我就吃你的王后。
  If you take (attack) my knight, I will take (attack) your queen.

Example 2: Go game 圍棋

  諒你不敢你吃我那一子，否則我就吃你整片地。
  I dare you to take (capture) that stone, otherwise I will take (capture) your whole piece of stones.

Example 3: Business competition 商業競爭

  你應該不敢吃下我的公司，不然我會讓你吃官司，讓你破產。
  You should not dare to take (occupy) my company, or I will sue you and make you bankrupt.

Example 4: underworld 黑道

  黑吃黑
  double cross; stealing from thieves; dog eats dog

Therefore, we can treat 我 in 你不敢吃我 as a pronoun.
It means my stuff, 我的某樣東西.
The real object of this sentence is the stuff, 某樣東西.

Check your context, and you should be able to find the real object, which is not 我 (me).

You dare not take my stuff.

Another possibility is to bully, 欺壓 or 欺負.

你不敢吃我。
你不敢欺負我。
I dare you to bully me.


I need help with the translation of 长和能力

You've asked something "more appropriate taking into account the context?".

Taking consideration that this being coming from a resume, I hold that this "长和能力" is very likely to be missing a character that would have formed a word with "长". It is likely to be “长处” （"merit", "strength" or "advantage; lit. where it's long), making the whole “长处和能力” (Strength and Abilities), which would make sense for a resume section title.

The bad news is that this person misspelled in his resume and you might now like it; but the good news is, I will tell you that “长处” is a very tacit euphemism for a body part.


What does 一不留神 mean ...还写了不少东西，一不留神写了不少军报头条?

留神 means "pay attention"

一不留神 means " not paying attention for just an instance"

In the sentence,  "一不留神" implies " before I notice it"

  一不留神写了不少军报头条

"Before I noticed it, I had already written many lead articles in Military News"

You could use "Before I noticed it" or "Before I knew it"


There are two things to be cleared:

To say a language is tenseless means it does not have a grammatical category of tense (e.g. word morphology, auxiliary verbs and tense particles in English). Chinese sentences do refer to time but by using lexical words such as adverbs and verbs, with a combination of aspect, mood and other language elements.
The examples in your question are not complete sentences. They are sentence fragments, such as clauses and phrases, that may or may not contain time references. When they are used in a complete sentence, in most of the cases, a time reference will exist in one form or another.

  我吃完饭 sounds tenseless

That's true, because it is a sentence fragment without any time reference. To make a complete sentence with it there are two options:

Add 了 particle:

  我吃完饭了。I am done eating (now).

了 is a complicated matter and doesn't indicate tense by itself. But in this sentence, 完 (complete; done) and 了 (state change marker) together form a verb+完+[object]+了 phrase, which is a clear signal for present perfect tense.

Use this phrase as a adverbial clause:

  我吃完饭，就去写作业。I'll do my homework after I'm done eating.

The lack of time reference in either clause (吃完饭, 去写作业) suggests neither has happened yet, so it's a statement of plan, which maps to simple present tense in English.

The ambiguity though, is we couldn't tell if the speaker has already started eating, but the same can be said for the English version.

Now back to the subject of the question, how to make a tenseless sentence? Strictly speaking, given how grammatical tense is defined (see #1 in at the beginning of this answer), all Chinese sentences are tenseless and the language is a tenseless language.

I think what you really want to know is 'what are some common sentences with ambiguous time reference'. After some thought, I couldn't think of any real sentences in their actual contexts like that. I couldn't think of any sentence or even clause that has ambiguous time reference while its English counterpart doesn't, either.

For example, the clauses 我吃完饭 and 我吃饭 sound 'tenseless', the same can be said for 'I finish eating' and 'I eat'. Grammatically they are simple present tense, but as sentences they don't make any sense.

So if you want to create sentences with ambiguous time reference, simply omit any verbs, adverbs or other language elements that refer to time, but they sound either incomplete or unnatural.


What is the meaning of the Taihang Mountains (太行山)?

太行山名字的来历

太，有极大至高的意思，行，应该就是行列的意思，联系起来，就是极大的一行。再看太行山的形势，基本是南北走向，绵延千里，分割西部黄土高原和东部华北平原，真是极大地一行列。古人命名为太行，名副其实。

太 has the meaning of 'extreme; ultimate; grand'; 行 here should be interpreted as 行列 (row). 太行 means 'grand row'. Look at the shape of the 太行山, it is basically from North to South, a thousands-mile long row,  that divided the Loess Plateau in the west and the North China Plain in the east. The ancients named it 太行 was a fitting choice

Base on the description from this article 太行山 can be translated as 'Grand Row Mountains'
From the same page:

对太行山的限定《括地志》载：“太行数千里，始于怀而终于幽，为天下之脊。”

"太行", is thousands of miles long. Starts from 怀州 (Huizhou), ends at 幽州(Youzhou). It is the spine of the world

'The spine of the world' would be an extremely long row


Is it okay to say 我下一下 when e.g. getting off a bus?

I think it's ("60%" OK, "40%" wired ) to say "我下一下" to driver when you are getting off from a bus. Chinese people know what you mean, but few people would say like this.

In most cases, people would say "您好，我想下车".  it's quit nature.

your examples of "我坐一下", "我百度一下",  that's very OK, here "一下" means "try once"


Does the word 透露 ("leak") only refer to something undesirable?

Question: Does 透露 only refer to something undesirable?

No, the things that got 透露 (revealed) are undisclosed information, Both 'reveal' and 'information' are neutral term
The correct term for 'to leak out (dark secret)' is '洩露 (黑暗的秘密)', Using 透露 would be too neutral
Similarly, we say 洩露醜聞 (leak out scandal), not 透露醜聞 (reveal scandal)
If you look at the following sentence "美國總統在談話中透露/洩露出他發動戰爭的意向" (The President of the United States revealed his intention to wage war in his conversation), you can see even '發動戰爭的意向' is not always negative because you can use either 透露 or 洩露
Meanwhile, 洩露 cannot be replaced by 透露 in "美國總統在談話中洩露了他貪污的秘密" (The President of the United States revealed/ give away the secert of his corruption in his conversation)


How to translate that a financial asset has "priced in" an event or news?

Can't think of a catchy phrase, and am bereft of financial knowledge. Maybe this might help a bit:
The asset price anticipates upcoming financial market events.
这个资产价格已经预示了金融市场即将发生的改变。


N 多 个 = over N:
Pleco has a bunch of sample sentences:
If you type 多个 open the entry then click SENTS you’ll get something like this:

Which features sentences like:

一百多个人
yībǎi duō ge rén
more than 100 people

and

他们有保留曲目二十多个。
They have a repertoire of over 20 songs.

So 500多个 can be 501 - 599, basically.


What examples highlight the difference between 感情 (gǎnqíng) and 情感 (qínggǎn), meaning "emotion" [noun]?

I think 感情 usually means the emotion between you and someone or something. For example:
我和他是十多年的老朋友了，我们的感情很深。
你和她有感情吗？
我对祖国有着深厚的感情。

While 情感 is a broader concept.
悲伤、仇恨、惋惜多种情感交织在一起，让她的心情久久不能平静。


First of all, 高 doesn't only mean high or tall. 高 also figuratively means good, smart, superior and so on. E.g. 高招 (smart move), 高人 (a person who has very good idea).
so, 高人一等，literally means 比别人高一个等级，which figuratively means better than/superior to other people.
It can be used both positive and negative ways. When you describe quality, strategy, and so on, it is usually positive. Positive usage examples:
我们部队的战略高人一等。
他们公司的产品质量高人一等。

When used directly on a person, it is usually negative. If you say a person considering himself as "高人一等"， you don't like him because you think he is arrogant and always see below others. Please note that, the general idea is that you should NOT 高人一等, so if you say "我觉得他高人一等"，that is not a praise, that is the same as "I feel he is arrogant and not friendly".
Negative usage examples:
那个人目中无人，总是觉得自己高人一等。
大家都是普通人，没有谁高人一等。


Where in Sichuan is 虾 pronunced ha1 (xa⁵⁵)?

It does not exist any more in Chengdu dialect (my mother's tongue), but I think if you regard Chongqing dialect as a part of Sichuanese, there must be somewhere.

The only usage of 'ha' in Chengdu dialect is in 蛤蟆 but it is ha2, and it does not seem to be a native word in Sichuanese but imported from Standard Chinese. We traditionally use 赖克宝 instead.

The dialects in some place in Chongqing sometimes pronounce 解决 as gai3 jio2. And I believe that this is because they mostly keep the original dialect inherited from Hubei/Hunan dialect. So 虾 must be pronounced as ha1 there.


How does 唔 + 通 compound to mean the rhetorical question of "is it possible that"?

通 means nothing is blocking and we can go through it. It applies to thinking as well. Such as 諗得通, 講得通, 睇得通 meaning there is no longer blockages in thinking and everything piece of a puzzle is solved and we know the answer and the reason.
唔通 is the opposite. There are some blockages in thinking and the puzzle is remained unsolved.
Using negation to ask a question is nothing uncommon. It is just like "Isn't it that ... ?" in English. It is the same for 唔通.
When one asks with "唔通", he is in a situation with some evidences and he realizes something but not so sure.
個天突然間黑晒。唔通會落大雨？ The sky turns dark suddenly. Could it be heavy rain soon?
Or he meets a ridiculous situation and he thinks of a ridiculous reason and ask in rhetoric tone.
佢殺咗人都無事。唔通依度無王法嘅？ He killed a man but he got no penalty. Isn't it that law doesn't exist here?
Both involves of reasoning with an answer. That is 通.


Where to find all/most variants of a glyth?

i would use 教育部異體字字典:

http://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/home.do

it's authoritative, and most comprehensive.

eg 御 (u+5fa1), it listed 37 variants :)

http://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/word_attribute.rbt?quote_code=QTAxMjk1

have fun :)


How to distinguish the difference between the pronunciation of different erhuayin?

I agree with TaraWordoor. You shouldn't be able to differentiate /er/ from /nr/ because when the sound /n/ is "erhua"-ed, you don't pronounce /n/ at all. So if you want to say 人儿, you're actually pronouncing /rer/. (BTW, these sounds are not in international phonetic alphabet. They're basically pinyin.) However, you should be able to hear the difference between /er/(/nr/) and /ngr/ because /ngr/ has a nasal sound at the end.

As you said, after you move to southern China, it's not a problem any more. It is mainly because "the southerners" (with all due respect) don't have 儿化音, and they don't have the difference between /n/ and /ng/ either. However, if you watch sit-coms about people from the north, it should be pretty easy to tell. I can't agree with some of the responses that standard Mandarin doesn't have 儿化音. Mandarin, as a partially artificial language, uses Beijing accent as a standard and northern accent in general as a base. So by definition, Mandarin should have 儿化音. The reason why you don't hear them often in the news is because 儿化音 is more colloquial and less formal. When you say something like 可爱的人儿, you're basically saying "cutie pie"; but when you say 可爱的人, you're saying "lovely person". Not just the meaning changes, the connotation changes as well.


How to say "One of these" and three other mini phrases?

No, it's not stupid at all. I think they can understand what you are saying.

If you want only one, you could say 这个来一个 ,  我要一个这个, or 给我称一个这个, pointing to the fruits you want to buy. And you could add 只要一个 to emphasize that you need only one.

If you want a smaller/bigger one, you could say 我想要个小/大一点的。 or 能换个小/大一点的吗？

这里有...吗？ or 你们有...吗？ are both okay.


What is the title of this Ming era picture dictionary?


Well, in Taiwan, "咬人猫" is the local name of  urtica thunbergiana (蕁麻).

It's a poisonous plant.

The moral is: don't rely on google translate solely :)


一下 is a little (time.) This makes it mostly after a verb. I believe the two most common uses are:

等一下 (děng yíxià) Wait a bit
休息一下 (xiūxi yíxià) Rest a little while

It is also used as a numeral classifier after a verb, indicating an attempt or act:

看一下 (kàn yíxià) have a look
试一下 (shì yíxià) have a try

一点（儿） is a little (quantity.) Some common uses are:

我会说一点儿。 (Wǒ huì shuō yìdiǎnr.) I can speak a little bit.
快（一）点儿！(Kuài diǎnr!) Hurry up (a bit!)

It also gets used before a negative expression (or after 这么 or 那么,) meaning "(not) even a little bit"

一点儿也不方便。 (Yìdiǎnr yě bù fāngbiàn.) Not even a little bit convenient.
这事我就知道那么一点儿。 (Zhè shì wǒ jiù zhīdao nàme yìdiǎnr.) That's all I know about it.

Contrast this to 有（一）点（儿） which is a little (degree.) Examples:

我有点儿累。 (Wǒ yǒudiǎnr lèi.) I'm a bit tired.
第十一课有点儿难 (Dì shí yī kè yǒudiǎnr nán.) Lesson 11 is a bit difficult.


口是心非 歌词 : “怕是怕” What does "x Shi x" mean?

To answer your questions:

a) what does x 是 x mean? Here the verb1 + 是 + verb1 is a common pattern used to emphasize the verb or to build up to the next part of the sentence.

b) what does it mean in this context? In this context it can be translated to "(what I am) afraid/scared is being afraid/scared of these pain/suffering without a reason/cause"

c) what are other similar examples using this structure? You can basically use this pattern on any verb, such as

Example 1

A: 气什么? What are you angry about?

B: 气是气在你的无知! Angry, I am angry about your naivety/ignorance!

Example 2

A: 等什么? What are you waiting for?

B: 等是等你准备好! Waiting is waiting for you to get ready!


What do the Symbols ◒ and ◓ Signify In Old Chinese Poetry Books?

Seems to be 清浊音, with ◒、◓ representing 次清、次浊. There are no tones in old Chinese, so it can't be 平／仄, but the way the tones emerged can well be heavily related to the voice of the consonant.


生辰 can mean either "birthday"(the day one's birth) or 生日+时辰 (birthday + birth time) as in the phrase 生辰八字.

Usually, 生辰 just means birthday, but it's more literary. You can probably only see it's used in a book. For example, 而这一日子恰逢其80岁生辰. Normally, people just use 生日 in spoken, but you can say 生辰 when you try to be more literary.

生天 isn't a correct word for birthday. 生天 in old Chinese is the same as 升天, which means go to heaven.


What is the function of 的 in the sentence below?

Between an adjective and a noun, you can add a 的 if you like.

美麗的姑娘 beautiful girl
好玩的游戲 entertaining game
複雜的語法 complicated grammar

Adding the 的 is the norm if the adjective has two characters. But it's possible to leave it out:

黑暗森林 dark forest
意外事故 unexpected accident
美好時光 happy time

Why did the poet use 的 here? Some possibilities:
- 以太 is an unusual word, putting a 的 before it makes the sentence easier to understand.
- The poet may have liked the flow of the sentence better with 的.
- Using 的 here is more normal than not using it.


Which is the more polite way to ask for permission: 能 or 可以?

For the 'asking for permission' function, 能 is similar to 'can' and  可以/可否 is similar to 'may' in English.

Strictly speaking, 'may' is the proper word to use and is considered more polite and formal, for example "May I ask you a question" but in casual day to day speech, more and more people think replacing 'may' with 'can' and say "can I ask you a question?" is acceptable. I would still suggest you use 'may' (可以/可否) instead of 'can' (能)

Cantonese do not use 能 or 能够 when ask for permission. We say "可以" as in "我可以問你一個問題嗎？" which is a polite way to ask. To be more polite, we would say "我可唔可以問你一個問題？"

In Mandarin, "我可不可以問你一個問題?" (more colloquial)  or "我可否問你一個問題?" (more literary) are the more polite form compare to "我能問你一個問題嗎？"


Yeah on page 835 the prose is introduced by the following paragraph:

  Newspaper,  as  a  brand-new  and  popular  form  of  mass  media,  sprang  up  vigorously  around  the  1898  Reform,  which  exerted  a  powerful  impact  on  the  changing  prose  style.  Liang  Qichao  was  a  representative  figure  in  advocating  this  kind  of  “journalistic  style,”  also  called  the  “new  prose  style.”  At  first,  he  served  as  the  chief  commentator  of  the  Current  Affairs  Gazette,  the  most  influential  newspaper  at  the  time,  giving  publicity  to  his  ideas  on  the  Reform.  During  his  exile in Japan, he continued to write articles for the Pure Talk Gazette and  the  New  People’s  Series,  discussing  political  affairs  and  disseminating  knowledge  of  Western  scholarship  and  culture.  Articles  of  this  kind  still  fell  under  the  range  of  classical  language,  but  they  already  contained  more  elements  of  the  vernacular.  In  his  Introduction  to  the  Academic  Research  of  the  Qing  Dynasty,  Liang  pointed  out  the  special  features  of  such  writings,  saying  that  they  “tried  their  best  to  be  plain  and  smooth,  sometimes  incorporating  slang,  rhyme,  and  syntax  of  foreign  languages,  running  free  and  uninhibited.  .  .  .  These  writings  were  neatly  organized,  often  emotional  between  the  lines;  they  held  a  charm  of  their  own  to  the  reader.”  While  writings  of  the  “new  prose  style”  were  primarily  propaganda  rather  than  literature  in  nature,  at  the time they completely broke free from the restrictions of traditional classical  prose,  and  helped  to  accelerate  the  birth  of  the  new  type  of  prose. Some of such writings also displayed much of literary grace. In the  following  we  shall  cite,  as  an  example,  the  closure  of  “On  China  in  Youth”:

Apparently it is Liang  Qichao's “On  China  in  Youth.”

I believe the original (梁启超《中国少年说》) may look something like this, but I'm not totally sure:

  红日初升，其道大光；
  河出伏流，一泻汪洋；
  潜龙腾渊，鳞爪飞扬；
  乳虎啸谷，百兽震惶；
  鹰隼试翼，风尘吸张；
  奇花初胎，矞矞皇皇；
  干将发硎，有作其芒；
  天戴其苍，地履其黄；
  纵有千古，横有八荒；
  前途似海，来日方长。
  美哉，我少年中国，与天不老！
  壮哉，我中国少年，与国无疆！


How did the hedgehog come to mean gather?

彙

2: 類; 4: 聚合

If 彙 in 辭彙 means '類' (type), the explanation would be: 辭彙 = word types
If 彙 in 辭彙 means '聚合' (gather), the explanation would be: 辭彙 = gathering of words

辭彙: 一種語言裡所有語詞和固定詞組等的總稱。除一般語詞外，還包括古語、方言、外來語詞及各科術語。 (A general term for all words and fixed phrases in a language. In addition to general words, it also includes archaic words, dialects, foreign words and terms of various subjects.)

My theory on how the meaning of 'gather' was extended from hedgehog:
When someone got shot by many arrows, it is commonly described as 被射成刺蝟一般 (be shot to look like a hedgehog). Similar to pin cushion gathering pins
We can compare a pin cushion to an empty field and compare the pins as words and particles. A language is like a pin cushion gathered many 'pins' -- like quills gathering on a hedgehog's back
Since '匯' and '彙' sound the same and both contain the meaning of 'gather',  辭匯 had become an accepted variant of 辭彙 in modern Chinese.


How to learn the correct pronunciation of words with "sh" and "s"?

I think the easiest way to handle these two pronunciations is to know the difference in position of the tongue when pronouncing them. The pictures below show the correct positions.
Let's start with the easy one, "s", as in 思, 死, 四. It is the same as the ending sound of "s", or the beginning of a word with "s" be the first letter. The sound is produced with air through the gap of the teeth while the tip of the tongue touches the lower tooth.
The lips are open.
"sh", as in 師, 時, 使, 是, is the more difficult one, it is difficult to even the native speakers, whom, similar to the English, there is no such sound in their's dialogues.
However, luckily, the method to make that sound pronounced correctly is similar to the letter "r", that is the tongue needs to be curled up with the tip of the tongue close to, or barely touches, the upper plate of the mouth. Unlike "r", there is the air that flows out from between the tongue and the upper plate to make the sound. The lips remain open as well. (Note, do not over curl the tongue as in "r", you can keep the tongue slightly tilt up let the tip get close to the front upper plate.)
Once you know the difference, it is quite easy to distinguish the two.
]1


What does 自个 mean: "since a" or "onself"

自个儿 zìgěr
pronoun colloquial
oneself, by oneself
不要只顾自个儿。Don’t just think about yourself.

自个儿 is the a colloquial way to say 自己. On top of my head, I couldn't see any example where they are not interchangeable. The only difference between them perhaps is just that 自己 can be used in formal context while 自个儿 is rather colloquial.
Literally the word is composed with "self" "one" (儿 is just there to mimic the colloquial adjustment of pronunciation). So it's simply means self and one which could be understood as oneself, by oneself, oneself's etc. depending on the context.
It's can be used as a pronoun alone like the example given above.
More than often it would follow another noun part, subject or object and etc, to stress that it's object carry out the action alone. This can also make the reference more clear since 自个儿 itself only means oneself buy doesn't specify who the one is.
For example:
你自个儿 means "you and oneself", which in turn means "yourself".
So when you encountered 自个儿, just keep in mind it means that the object it refers to is finishing the sentence by itself and add appropriate adverb (by adding alone, by oneself) or change the pronoun (you->yourself) that fits other parts in your translation.


Does 宝 have its own history separate from 寶?

As Stan hinted at, 宝 is a Japanese Shinjitai character. It is also a simplified Chinese character, but that's coincidental.

Perhaps this fact isn't so well known, but PRC aren't the only ones that performed simplification to Chinese characters - it is merely the most well known and widespread. Japan attempted their own simplification process, but theirs was less extensive and less radical.

Therefore, to the uninitiated, it may seem that Japanese Kanji is identical to Traditional Chinese. But there are simplified forms that are not as simple as PRC's Simplified Chinese, e.g.

  廣: (Shinjitai: 広), (Simplifed Chinese: 广)

And those that have been simplified differently, e.g.:

  圓 (Shinjitai: 円), (Simplified Chinese: 圆)

And forms that happen to be the same; 宝 is an example but so are 台 and 国.

Although the two simplification systems happened independently, may simplified characters are based on cursive forms so it's no surprise that there are many characters that are the same between the two systems.


I don't know exactly what do you mean by "meaningless", but the sentence would definitely sound weird without “很”. (I wouldn't really use the word "meaningless", because basically every character in Chinese comes with a certain "meaning", no?)

“的” is necessary in this constellation with “会”.

她肯定很高兴。
She is for sure very happy.

or

她肯定会很高兴的。
She would for sure be very happy.

I'd say the first sentence is less common compared to the latter.


A commission is a group appointed by the government to accomplish a certain task. The commission can cease to exist when the task is completed (e.g., the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the events surrounding 9/11). Or the commission can be ongoing indefinitely (e.g., the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees Wall Street).

In government, committee is a group of people who meet to make a certain decision or to gather information and produce documents. Committees, too, can be short-lived or long-term.

A committee can also be a commission, and vice-versa. Because the term "commission" is more specific than "committee," a group of people that fit both descriptions would usually call themselves a commission. For example, when a crisis affects a city or state, the mayor or governor will usually appoint a commission to gather information, make decisions/recommendations, and accomplish certain other tasks.

Sources:

https://painintheenglish.com/case/3801

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-commission-committee-and-council


Chinese characters signature? Yixing (Characters identified: 吴亮屏)

it's 吴亮屏.

if you do a search online, this is kinda famous kind of 紫砂壶 click

however, the stamp looks different from what I see online, so not sure if it's real.


http://zhs.glyphwiki.org/wiki/Group:sim-ch_n5100
Here, download the font, cover 100% Ext-G


How to translate "leach" (as in "toxic chemicals leach into ground water")?

If you look at what Chinese website say about fracking, you can see for example:

PetroChina:

  报告认为，水力压裂可能出现的危险在于在压裂过程中可能出现液体溢出，压裂直接渗透到地下水资源中以及对废水的不当处理和排放等方面。

So CNPC uses 渗透 to say that the chemicals get into the ground water.

As for your other example regarding PVC:

  　　生物污染主要是由于管材氧渗透和透光使管内的水介质滋生细菌；化学性污染主要来自于管道接触材料的渗透。

Again they use 渗透 to indicate how the chemicals/bacterial get into the water.

Note: As the comments note, some other ways you  might say this could include 渗入 and 进入.


It's quite easy to distinguish.

First is the conclusion:

"相比" in Chinese equals to "compare with" in English.It's usually a common verb.

"比" in Chinese equals to "more than" or "xxxer than" in English.It's usually a comparative form.

Their usages are quite different.

For example:

  you can use "比" like "我比你高。(I'm taller than you.)" and "相比" like
  "农村的文化生活无法与大城市相比。(The cultural life in the country cannot compare with
  that of a large city.)".

Hope my answer helps you.


Can anyone identify the characters on this seal?

the seal, my best guess is "敏之":

the left character is 㞢 (u+37a2), a variant of 之 (u+4e4b):

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=㞢

the right character had a left-right structure, the right component is 攴 (攵):

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=攴

unfortunately, the left component is hard to recognise, so "敏" is my guess only.

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=敏


How to type chinese using an English keyboard?

try to use "Sougou pinyin for Windows(exe)",

for Linux use "Sougou pinyin for 32bit Linux(deb)"

or "Sougou pinyin for 64bit Linux(deb)"

or "Sougou pinyin for Mac OS(dmg)"

or "Sougou pinyin for Android (apk)"


It's an internet slang, so you can't find it on a normal dictionary.

高 refers to 高高在上,高傲, which mean "to be arrogant", "to have an attitude of looking down upon someone"
冷 refers to 冷漠,冷冰冰, which mean "to be indifferent", "unconcern"

so 高冷 basically means a cold attitude.


You are always a child in mother's eyes,So ... childish is acceptable .

You can also use it to your close friend :

亲爱的苏：

亲爱的阳：


Could you please confirm or provide a better translation for this?

Do you have to act so surprised that I've finally made it?

You have finally become successful. You tell someone. This person is surprised.

Within the context, I don't think Chinese would need the last part 'that I've finally made it'

你有必要表现得这么惊讶吗？
Do you have to act so surprised?

But if you really want the last part, try putting it first:

我最终的成功真的让你这么惊讶吗？
That I've finally made it really surprises you that much?

Edit: with the vpn on, I could see your picture.

你们俩看到我这个体育渣自己跑上来吓傻了。
You two, seeing me, a physical wreck, run up here on my own, I bet that scared you silly!


Existential sentences that used to be but are no longer

I'd suggest you adding some time information in the front to emphasis the fact it is in the "past" as that is definitely unambiguous.

以前 有兩個不好的部份...
之前 有兩個不好的部份...

Alternatively, these ones can also be used. They means "originally", which implies "in the past, and now changed"

原本 有兩個不好的部份...
原來 有兩個不好的部份...


In Classical Chinese, 见 describes the action that you get visual information. It implies the result, but has no duration. 见 is more like to see, 看 is more like to look (at).

In modern Chinese, you probably will not use 见 as a verb. Instead, you say 看见, which consists of a verb 看 and a particle 见. In Classical Chinese, we say 不见, but in modern Chinese, we say 看不见 (cannot see) or 没看见 (did not see) depending on the context. 见 serves as the result complement of 看 here.

The 看 in 看书 and 看电影 does not mean to perceive with the eyes. You'd better take them as collocations.

见 can be used as a verb when it means to see/meet someone, or to see something unusual and widen one's knowledge. For example, 见客人, 见世面, etc.

见面 (to meet) literally means to see someone's face. 见识 literally means to see and then to know something. But I think dictionaries will simply list them as compound verbs, because you cannot guess their idiomatic meanings from their literal meanings.

In short, 看 and 见 either have different grammatical functions (verb vs particle), or have totally different meanings.


This is quite typical of language in mainland-Chinese public service announcement type signs, which tend to be quite "cutesy" in tone. Stuff like personifying inanimate objects (such as flowers) and writing it from the object's point of view fits with this tone.
The literal meaning is:

don't hurt me for [the sake of] your beauty

Which I suppose is hinting that the reason you might trample the grass is to take an attractive selfie/photo.
Edit: From the photo you attached, it's more likely referring to the flowers than the grass (in other words, don't harm the flowers by picking them).


清淡 (qing dan) usage: any food, or from a diet?

It's written as 清淡 and used in different contexts.

For light colors, smells
For light (non-greasy, non-oily) food
Business running slow or slacking
In arts for a simple style


This is a very common tone sandhi pattern in Mandarin. When two "rising" tone (上聲), i.e. tone 3 in Standard Mandarin, characters follow each other in a word, the first character is changed into "light rising" (陽平), i.e. tone two.

So, 商場裏 is pronounced shang1 chang2 li3. However, (2) is a bit contendable, since this sentence should be broken down into 用電腦/很快. Some people would say yong4 dian4 nao3 hen3 kuai4, and some would go with yong4 dian4 nao2 hen3 kuai4. I find myself using the latter most of the time, but either way should be comprehensible.

No, native Mandarin speakers don't usually recognize the difference between half-3 and full-3. I find myself pronouncing words with half-3 most of the time, but sometimes full-3, without myself recognizing it at the time.


How to say "until when do you stay here?" correctly?

Better ideas of what you want to convey include:

待到什么时候 - when will (you) stay till
待几天 - stay for how long
待多少天 - stay for how long

A couple of notes:

几 - is only a number 0-9, not above ten.
几天 - is then thusly less than ten days, technically. Also, this doesn't work like 几号？ if you want to ask which or what day it would be 哪一天？.

Only use this if you know that you've got your numbers right.

多少 - on the other hand contains most all numbers, it's a safer bet.

Your sentence (那你到几天在这边吗？) is missing a verb, specifically 待 -or- 呆 - the "stay" you wanted to translate from your English sentence. 待到 would be better - here 到 indicates completion of 待.

places usually come near the beginning of sentences - 在这边 should come after 你.

Also another more direct way to ask:

什么时候走？


How would one accurately translate "万事大吉"?

This is an expression wishing the listener good luck. Any equivalent English expression will do: "Best of luck in all your endeavors", "May your every endeavor prosper", etc. The use of the character 万 (wàn, meaning "10,000"), here just means "many" or "all".


Is it a pun intended here in the lyrics?

Personally, I do not see a pun here. The lyrics does not contain the meaning of "make love".

It just means when we loved each other, we were at that place.


时间之光 is the long version of 时光.

时间之光 ＝ 时光 ＝ 韶光 ＝ 光阴 ＝ time

光 ＝ 时 ＝ time

《重编国语辞典》[名]4

  时间。如：“光阴”、“时光”。
  唐．李白〈前有一樽酒行〉二首之一：“青轩桃李能几何？流光欺人忽蹉跎。”

 国学大师 - 光 〈名〉(8)

  光阴,时光 [time]
  始屏忧以愉思,乐兹情于寸光。——南朝宋· 鲍照《观漏赋》

They all have the same meaning, the time.

穿过时间之光 is just a writing technique.
It is the same as 随着时间, with time.

We can also interpret as follows.

The light won't stop.

穿过时间之光 is similar to 经过时间的流逝 or 随着时间的流逝, as time goes by.


Should old texts characters be modernized?

This seems more suitable for a meta question, but in any case I'm heavily against the idea of changing the original text.

Firstly, an advanced question in ancient literature should primarily be targeted towards seasoned experts in the language, with question exposure being a secondary concern, to get the best possible answer. Many obsolete variants reveal information about the text that wouldn't have been captured using the modern variant, including alternative semantic interpretations, geographical or era-specific usage (as many variants were created during eras of fragmentation) that may greatly aid in the interpretation of the text.

Secondly, StackExchange in general heavily favours a well-researched Q&A dialogue with emphasis on brevity, so if readers on the side cannot read a piece of text due to unfamiliar characters, they should take the opportunity to conduct their own research and learn something new, not to expect others to simplify the text for them (and in the end still not being able to contribute anything meaningful).

Lastly, there is no automatic detection and conversion for archaic variants to their modern forms, so this places undue weight on the question-asker.

The only time I think it is acceptable to change the variant is if it causes display problems on many computers due to encoding. However, even then it is better to provide an image of the character or describe it using ideographic description sequences.


You'll never be able to map one to one English to Chinese, but some things are expressed in a very similar manner in both languages, simply because that is convenient and efficient, I believe.

Relative clauses in Chinese don't follow the English pattern though.

That is the dog [that bit me].
这是那条[咬我的]狗。(Just stick the relative clause content in front of the noun)

I don't know why we moved.
我不晓得我们为什么搬家。
I don't know how that machine works.
我不知道那台机器怎么运作。
I know where she lives.
我不知道她住在哪里。
I don't know what she does for a living.
我不知道她靠什么生活。
I don't know who she married.
我不知道她和谁结的婚。


When 本 is used with an identity (person, company) it is exclusively referring to the first-person, and  这 is mostly referring to the third-person (some people do refer to oneself in the third-person)

Example:
这个人 (this person - the third-person)
这位法官 = this judge (the third-person)
这間公司 = this company (the third-person)
本人 = this person (the first-person) -->  this person (I myself)
本官 = this judge (the first-person) -->  this judge, (I myself)
本公司 = this company (the first-person) --> this company (our company)
Notice:
[本 + identity] is not always a "humbling word" for example 本大少爺 means 'This young master (I)'

本 means 'this/ current' when it is used with time. The difference between [这个星期六，今個世紀 ，今年] and [本週六，本世紀，本年度] is the former is more colloquial and the latter is more literary

'本地' is a compound word meaning 'local/ domestic' (adj) e.g. '本地品牌' or  'this land'; 本土 is a compound word meaning 'native' e.g. 本土品牌 or 'mainland' e.g. 日本本土


What are the mandarin words for these Chinese altars?

Generally, you can call all of them as 神位 which means place of god.

If you are referring to the facilities offering the places,

  Altar that hanging on wall (I suppose this is altar for sky god):

龛 as @user3306356 mentioned, means small box used as altar. you describe them as  神龛，佛龛 ..

  2.Earth deity altar (usually put on ground level):

personally , 龛 is also suitable for this , thought they are of different size.

  3.Table altar:

供桌 a table for offering sacrifices.


You're correct that 历史 is too splendid a word for an ordinary office building. Besides, you cannot put it together with 几年 without humor, because the question word 几 usually stands for a small, namely one digit number. (几十年 or 几百年 is acceptable.)
(EDIT: It's a universal fact in Mandarin that you should use 多少 for asking a truly indeterminate number of anything.)

"How old is this building?" would be:

  这楼有多久了？
  这楼盖了有（多久／多少年）了？ (How / How many years) old is this building since it's been built?

(EDIT #2-1: 有多少年 doesn't seem as much approvable as 有多久. In fact, none of them exactly mean "how old (a thing) is". The former is "how many years it has", and the latter, "how much time lapse it has". Using the former alone has a risk to meet with "How many years of what?" kind of response, depending on the context. At least, I prefer this to that, and moreover prefer the second example to the first.)

But I can also imagine I'd ask:

  这楼多少年盖的？ In what year was this building built? (See better solution in 杨以轩's answer)
  这楼什么时候盖的？ When was this building built?

(EDIT #2-2: Here you can see that I ran into another difficulty since Chinese doesn't really have a casual question word exactly equivalent to "what year". In this sense, 杨以轩's choice is far better than mine, and what is more, he seems to be a realtor.)


Difference in meaning based on position of modal verb

Both are accurate. 梦想成真 is a set phrase, so using 能 before it is acceptable. Note that if it is not a set phrase you need to put 能 before the verb 成真 here, but because it is a set phrase, it is usually perceived/interpreted as a whole.

You can also break it up and put 能 before 成真. Both are valid here.


Essentially it's form of concession, either through a counterargument or the acquiesence of a mutually agreed upon opinion.

There are different ways to express concession in Chinese. Here are some possible translations that I can think of based on your examples. This is far from exhaustive and some of them might be preferred over others depending on the situation and context:

Bro A: 兄弟, 你为啥没要那工作? 有这么多的员工津贴!
Bro B: 是啊，但这种工资水平还不够贴补我汽油费用的.
Bro A: 嗯，　有道理．

Bill: 你真不该喝这么多，　太伤肝脏了.
Jill: 你不也每天吸一包烟吗？
Bill: (你)说得对.

Here are some others: 合乎情理，　说得通,　说得过去，　(我)认了.

In the first example, Bro A has taken into account the additional information supplied by Bro B and has modified his previous conclusion. In this case, he's cooperating with Bro B so any reply that states 'your reasoning is sound' is suitable. This includes 有道理, 合乎情理, 说得通, 说得过去 and possibly 可能是吧 (which shows more doubts than the previous examples).

In the second example, Bill makes concession, due to his argument being countered by Jill. In this case, he's not cooperating with Jill, but acknowledging Jill's point/his defeat. So 说得对 is probably the best answer out of the list. 好吧 is appropriate, but it only serves as a precursor to what follows. One possible reply is 好吧, 我认输了. This particular reply is probably more appropriate after a long-winded argument with a lot of toing and froing.


Subject + predicate as topic and prepositional phrases

Your subject of the sentence could be anything, as long as you make it clear to the listeners what it is.
After breaking down these sentences, you could see that Mandarin and English just have the order of their SUBJECT and subject description reversed.
Mandarin Structure
(Short description to describe the subject/event) + (SUBJECT/EVENT) + (Outcome of the event)
English Structure
(SUBJECT/EVENT) + (Short description to describe the subject/event) + (Outcome of the event)

长时间 + 看电脑 + 对眼睛不好。 Looking at a computer + for a long time + is bad for the eyes.
在罗马待的 + 一个星期 + 给我留下了很深的印象。 The week + stayed in Rome + gave me
deep impression.
三年的 + 汉语学习 + 使我能和中国人流利地交流。 Learning Mandarin + for three
years + made me able to communicate with Chinese fluently.

In general, as long as you don't make the first part too long -> (Short description to describe the subject/event), then people will be able to understand the (SUBJECT/EVENT) you're trying to tell..but even the example below would work:

三年內每天一百下伏地挺身,一百下仰臥起坐,一百下深蹲,十公里跑步的 + 這種健身方式 + 讓他最後變成了禿頭。
The workout routine of 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and 10km running for
three years eventually made him bald.

Just create more sentences of your own to practice, then you'll get the idea.


Can I get a clue as to the meaning of this spam?

high-quality forgeries 1 : 1 (meaning 100% scale; exact copy) production of original University of Nebraska,(issued at) Lincoln branch campus,UNL certificate and diploma|Q603012914 representing US (academic) transcripts|degree diplomas|graduation diplomas, counterfeit record of education |message network authentication + embassy authentication, education department authentication University of Nebraska Lincoln


Chinese TV shows with northern Chinese accents

Update history:

OCT27 2015: Write down the 1,2,3 parts

OCT28 2015: add the 4th part

OCT28 2015: add explanation to @tofu_bacon

NOV01 2015: Note which is TV.

explanation to @tofu_bacon

Shalom, my content is not just categorize them. I want to divide them more orderly. To answer your question more clearly, I add some romance/ city TV series and also I will note them with EMPHASIS to you.

I think the northern Chinese accents is a large range because in Northern China, there are many different accents. And the standard pronunciation (Pu tong hua) is also based on northern Chinese accents.

I will introduce these  types and the movies or TV with them:

1.Northwest Chinese:

Xinjiang Accent:

《无人区》 - Movie -   (It's a chinese road movie in which you can hear different type accents in Xinjiang and Qinghai, not only the Uygur language)

Shaanxi Accent:

《关中匪事》 - TV series -   (Especially the theme song of this TV, is created by a famous Shaanxi composer )

《武林外传》 - TV series -  http://www.iqiyi.com/a_19rrk2hct9.html (The lead role woman: Tong is an actually Shaanxi Accents)

《平凡的世界》 - TV series -    (in this TV, you may listen another type Shaanxi accent, because Shaanxi province have three geographical conditions so it has three different life style and accent, this TV from a famous book in China written by a north Shaanxi Author: Luyao)

2.Beijing Accents:

Beijing accent does not means the Putonghua, for many authentic Beijing director or screenwriter, they like to design some roles with pure Beijing accent instead of Putonghua.

《大宅门》 - TV series -  http://www.iqiyi.com/a_19rrk57msh.html (This TV adapted from a real story of a Family of Chinese Medicine, the actors nearly all use Beijing accent. What's more, the time in this TV is the end of Qing dynasty and the begin of the Republic of China so it show many conflicts and cultures in China, also have some Beijing opera decorated the atmosphere. I recommend this TV.)

《贫嘴张大民的幸福生活》 - TV series -  (This TV show the daily life of Beijing in 1990s, my parents really love this TV because its their great youth time)

《北京爱情故事》 - TV series -  (This is a love story in Beijing about some people, not only use Beijing accent, but also some other accent popular nowadays. It's a good TV to know the life and love for Beijing young people. link: http://www.iqiyi.com/v_19rrh59e04.html )

3.Northeast Accents:

At least four areas use this accent: Liaoning province, Jiling privince, Heilongjiang province and some cities in Inner Mongolia. Among these areas, people in Liaoning province use the Northeast accents more. Many outstanding actors, singers, and performers from this there.

《东北一家人》 - TV series -   (This is a situation comedy called A family in northeast China and first broadcast in 2001. It's really funny. And you can see many famous stars in this TV when they are young)

《乡村爱情》 - TV series -  (I will not give the links here because they have too many seasons. This TV directed by Zhao Benshan, a famous comedy actor and also is a heritage of 'Er ren zhuan' Show in China. This TV show the rural Life in northeast China)

Comedy Sketches acted by Zhao Benshan  all show the usage and pronunciation of Northeast accents. I just give a link here and you can search him in several video site. He nearly attended each Chinese New Year Gala, and he is honored as The king of comedy in China.

4.Tianjin Accents:

There is a city, Tianjin, close to Beijing, who has good development in economy, education, view sight, and traditional culture.

《杨光的快乐生活》 - TV series -  This is a life comedy. Two main actors are father and son and their relationship in this TV is also father and son. They use Tianjin accent in this TV and show the life in Tianjin city.

Another interesting thing I will recommend from Tianjin is 相声

相声 (Chinese Crosstalk comedy, Xiangsheng)  nowadays have many different factions, they usually divided by the area. The Tianjin Xiangsheng is the most famous one. This is a folk art. Some radio have this program http://qingting.fm/livechat/channels/1175, you can have a try but it may be difficult.

I will update here.

My expression in English may lead to confusion of you, I should say sorry. If you find out the wrong use of language, please point out and I will learn that.Thanks.


"I will," "I can," "I will (probably)" A fundamental problem with 會

yes, fx, 他会来吗？是的，他会来。
yes,it depends on the context.
we use extra word to express the confidence, fx.'一定'，‘必然’。


Can I omit certain words if it is understood what I am talking about?

First, in English word omission is quite common, especially in short conversations and answers:

  – Is he an engineer?
  – Yes / Yes, he is / Yes, he is an engineer (too redundant).

In Chinese, however, word omission is even more common, as you've suggested. With my living experiences in mainland China (native Chinese), I can tell that both the full versions and the shortened versions are right, while shorter versions are more common in oral Chinese.

Example:

  – 你最近过得好不好？
  – ((我最近)过得)好。

Another notice: In Chinese, when asking about feelings, people don't respond with "I feel / I don't feel", but the actual feeling instead. So your last example should have been

  "你感觉开心吗" "(感觉)不开心"

People very rarely reply with 感觉 without the actual feelings.


You have to remember, unlike in English, we do not have past tense for verbs in Chinese grammar. Both "is" and "was" is written as "是" in Chinese.

"是" in "她是好老师" could be "is" or "was". We really don't care which, because it is presumed readers can find out the sentence is in past or present tense by looking into the context.

For example:

"她以前是个好老师"(she was a good teacher before)
"她曾经是个好老师" (she was a good teacher once)
"她三年前是个好老师"(she was a good teacher three years ago)

All three example sentences above clearly indicated the verb "是" is in past tense.

If no time reference is found in the context, then all verbs are in present tense by default.

When you are reading a historical novel, even most individual sentences in it didn't have time reference, you should still know it is in past tense; If you are reading an instructional manual, you know the text is written in present tense entirely.

  The answer to "How do you specify past tense for 是 " should be "there's no need"


Pinyin capitalization when sentence starts with a number

This may be hard to answer definitively. (It might be documented in the ISO 7098:2015, but it's behind a paywall.)

In any case, it would be natural to transliterate a sentence beginning:

  23万人...

as

  25 wàn rén...

We certainly know sentences start with capital letters:

  6.3.1 句子开头的字母大写。例如：
  - Chūntiān láile.（春天来了。）
  - Wǒ ài wǒ de jiāxiāng.（我爱我的家乡。）

  中华人民共和国国家标准，汉语拼音正词法基本规则，2012。
  (Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography, 2012.  Source.)

In the given example, the sentence starts with 2 (not 万).

It also seems reasonable to believe that pinyin follows English capitalization, like it does for other forms of capitalization (start of a sentence, people's names, etc.).

Some related observations...

It is possible to use Arabic numerals in pinyin, the above document contains this example:

  635 fēnjī（635分机）
  (extension 635)

along with examples where the pinyin corresponds to what is pronounced:

  èr fēn zhī yī（二分之一）
  èr líng líng bā nián（二〇〇八年）

I didn't find a definitive example where a numeral in Chinese was transliterated to its pronunciation in pinyin.

And there's also examples of place names where Chinese characters are converted to numbers in pinyin:

  二马路 (2 Mǎlù)
  三环路 (3 Huánlù)
  中国地名汉语拼音字母拼写规则（汉语地名部分），1984。
  (China Place Name Hanyu Pinyin Letter Spelling Rules (Hanyu Place Name Part), 1984.  Source.)


In Dao De Jing, 常 should be translated as "eternal" or as "common"?

This article suggests that the original text was 道可道，非恒道. That is, 恒 not 常 (meaning 永恒 = eternal, unchanging).

This  dictionary definition for 常 also includes the meaning "长久，经久不变" (and gives the example 常量, with an alternate form 恒量).


Should I call her 小老婆 or 小老太? Is it rude to call her 小？

Don't use either of the two expressions to address ladies. 小老婆 means concubine. As for 老太, ladies' reactions towards that expression vary. Some ladies may feel insulted and others complimented. 小老太 is rather strange to me, although it might be used by areas I'm not native to.

How come flowery-auntie-mother suddenly became a young girl??? Strange!!

Do not use 花姑娘 either. It is almost only portrayed as an expression used by Japanese invaders to refer to girls they wanted to insult.

what is the difference between 小姐子 and 大妹子？ Who is older?

I don't think the expression 小姐子 exists. 大妹子 is quite similar to "sister" used by black females to talk to or about each other.

So old-old lady suddenly become your wife??

It does not happen suddenly. 老婆 used to have meanings of both old ladies and one's wife but now the latter prevails.

Does 老太婆 mean wife or old lady?

Both. But it is offensive to call an old lady 老太婆 if you two are not close.

So, just call her 婆婆 or 奶奶. I have not seen an old friendly Chinese lady who does not like these two titles.


It will come with more exposure. Watch movies/shows, listen to music, talk with people via voice-chat or in person.

One of the ways I trained myself to recognize the tones is to listen to the same tone, but with different sounds.

For example:
biao1 shen1 zhong1 ying1 then he2 ma2 qie2 liu2 etc.

I found this was really helpful when trying to become more familiar with how each of them sound. I also used this when I started practicing the actually production of words.

Don't give up! Eventually it'll come with exposure and time.


Would 反駁 be the Mandarin equivalent to 駁嘴?

駁嘴 means 'to talk back' (reply defiantly or insolently),  usually against someone has authority over you (like parent, teacher, boss)
Example of 駁嘴:

Father: "Son, you must have a good education to get a good job"
Son: "Oh, yeah? How about Bill Gates? He didn't finish college"

反驳 means  'to rebut' or 'to refute' . You are trying to prove that someone's statement is wrong or to expose the falsity stated by someone
Example of 反驳:

A: "Give the corporations a huge tax cut will create a lot of jobs"
B: " No, it will not! The corporations will just buy back their stock to make more money for themselves. You can check the history, it happened many times"
A: " To stop bad guys with guns you have to have good guys with guns"
B: " No, having more guns in people's hands doesn't solve the gun violence problem. Almost no Japanese have guns and gun related death in Japan last year was three"

*駁嘴 in Cantonese is same as 顶嘴 in Mandarin


How did 葉 (leaf as in vegetation) become 叶 when it was simplified?

At the beginning, I want to say that I am a native speaker and love Chinese, but I am not on a research level. It is welcomed that anyone can make comments and supply more info to my answer.
Introduction
First, Wikipedia (see the link provided by Krazer) is good start to get some background knowledge why we have simplified characters. After the found of the new China (People's Republic of China, P.R.C), the country was out of turmoils and wars and the government decided to simplify the characters (note that before P.R.C, there were some proposals and pratices on simplification). I think one main reason was to allow more people to get well educated, since simplified characters were easier to learn. However, the government didn't make a long-term preparation and thus some characters were not simplified in a "logic" or "scientific" way.
Main Text
“叶” is a typical example of a character that was not simplified "properly". So how did characters get simplified? As far as I know, unfortunately, the government didn't issue any official document to explain this. I searched this topic on the internet and I found some useful info, one of them is a blog, which I think has logic and acceptable explanations.
I will explain more with my own knowledge:

古 (the original characters):  One example is "从" and "從". In 《说文》(a famous old dictionary),"从" is explained to be the orignal form of “從". "从" means "to follow" and it's intuitive (one 人 – person – follows another) so "从" is selected.

俗 (the informal characters). In ancient times, few people got well educated and of course, characters were developing too, so there were some "informal" characters, which were popular among not-well-educated people. Two examples are "泪" and "淚". In 《字彙》(a dictionary written in Ming Dynasty), "泪" is explained as the informal form of "淚". "泪" is intuitive, because the left part refers to water, "目" means the eye, and "泪" means tears. It's "reasonable" to use “泪" as the simplified form.

异体字 (characters with the same sound and meaning, but different shape). Example: "凶" and "兇". Both have the same pinyin (xiōng) and same meaning (danger), so "凶" is selected because it has less strokes. Also, "凶" is intuitive: isn't it like a man dropped in a trap?

闲置的旧字 (characters used under very rare conditions; they won't appear in most cases). This is how "叶" is simplified. Actually, even now, "叶" has another pronunciation and meaning, if you consult it in a dictionary (higher-level) and this is actually the original “叶” in classic chinese. It's "叶 (xié)" as in the word "叶韵" (yùn), which means that some characters have similar or the same vowel so the pronunciations of them sound harmonious ( when rhyming). You can find this phenomenon in classic poems and modern lyrics.
However, this meaning is very very rarely used and we would say “押(yā)韵" rather than “叶韵" nowadays. 叶 (xié) sounds similar with 葉 (yè) — remember this happened in ancient times —, so some not-well-educated people used 叶 instead of 葉 by mistake, and this mistake was "admitted" in simplification. Another example is "听" and "聽"(tīng) which means "to hear". "听" (yīn) means "laugh" as in "听然" in Classic Chinese originally, but this meaning is generally expressed by other words like "哂" or "莞尔" in classic Chinese, so this character is borrowed to express "聽" because of similar sound, even "to hear" has nothing to do with the radical "口" in "听".

草书楷化 (simplification from Cao to Kai). This will explain how "单" and "严" came out. "草书" is a hand-writing font. Have you heard of Chinese Calligraphy? 草(草率) implies that characters are written very casually, so characters are difficult to read but fast to write.楷(kăi, paragon）书 is another font in formal writing. This principle is used to simplify a character so that the shape looks like its shape in 草书. Below are some pictures to show.

Characters are 单, 书, 为, 学, 严, 专 in traditional form, from left to right and the traditional forms are: 單, 書, 為, 學, 嚴, 專. (Remember that 草书 has several schools so the shapes vary somehow. Examples below are based on the font of 黎凡草书 installed on my PC):

同音字 (characters with the same pronunciation). Select a character with the same pronunciation to replace a complex one. Example: "后" and "後". "后" is really a character used in Classic Chinese, meaning “the queen" or "the formal wife of the emperor", and “後" means "to be after something, some time point". "后" is selected as the simplified version of "後" and thus has the meaning "after". This also brings problems: when people want to use traditonal characters in some cases, they may use wrong characters. E.g. the year of 2009 was roughly the year of “己丑" in Chinese Lunar Calendar (known as "Sexagenary cycle").
During the spring festival of that year, I found "己醜年" in a website. I understood the site stuff wanted to express the year in a classic way, but they were absolutely wrong. "醜" means “ugly, not beautiful” and was simplified into “丑“. "丑" is really a character used in classic Chinese as an element of the Sexagenary cycle.After the simplificaion, “丑" got two meanings, that's right in simplified chinese. However, you can only write "己丑" in traditional form, and "醜" is incorrect.

Ok, there are some other cases, but I think it's enough now, because this answer is not written as research paper. It's time consuming because I have to consult some characters in 《康熙字典》(a very prestigious dictionary written under the order of the emperor ”康熙" in Qing Dynasty).
At last, I want to say that language is not like Math or Physics, and it's hard to find "proof" or "theory" for some phenomena. Perhaps I can't explain why we speak that way, however, it's the way we speak. Take it easy.
Hope this helps.


Grammar structure of "你看，Sally 穿上传统服后有多漂亮“

你看 is a proclamation
Sally is the only subject in "Sally 穿上传统服后(她)有多漂亮." The pronoun '她'(she - referring to Sally)  is omitted. You don't need to repeat the subject in the single sentence

"你看, Sally 穿上传统服后有多漂亮"
Look! How pretty Sally looks after (she) put on a traditional dress.

if 后 is removed, the sentence would become "你看, Sally 穿上传统服有多漂亮"

Look! How pretty Sally looks (when she) puts on a traditional dress.


There are some Mandarin Chinese Pinyin sequences which consistently start with a vowel. As mentioned in the comments, these have a Pinyin representation which starts with y or w:

義, Pinyin yì, IPA /i⁵¹/ (starts off with /i/, the close front unrounded vowel)
完, Pinyin wán, IPA /u̯a̠n³⁵/ (starts off with a dipthong containing /u/, the close back rounded vowel)

The others which many people think start with a vowel but don't really except in certain (albeit extremely common) circumstances start off with a Pinyin letter a, e, or o. Pronounced in isolation or after the end of a pause, these do not start off with a vowel, but a glottal stop, which is a consonant that requires you to block airflow through the glottis.

For example, consciously take caution of the difference in how you pronounce 餓 in the following:

餓 (in isolation)
我餓了

In (1), 餓 must start with the glottal stop consonant (take notice of what you're doing in your chest area when pronouncing this), while not ordinarily in (2), although you can use a glottal stop there sometimes for emphasis.

Without this consonant, you cannot pronounce sequences like 諤諤 or 阿娥 properly (although these sequences aren't common at all). An English example would be the word uh-oh!, which must have the glottal stop at the beginning of the second syllable, else it would sound incomprehensible.


How does one best translate 老在 into english

老在 is not a word. It's an adverb followed by a preposition.

老 means always or constantly.

在 is just a preposition, here it would be 'on' to go with 班上(the class)

So it's: This kid always create troubles on the class.


This is not exactly a dictionary, but if you have individual words you need to find the meaning of quickly, you may want to try this:

http://translate.reference.com/

I have used Chinese-English, and occasionally other languages as well. As with many digital translation devices, the result isn't always ideal, but you can probably use this as an additional reference.

A word of caution: it does not do idioms well.


Min Nan expressions: spelling, meaning and pronunciation?

This site will be the reference for the whole answer.

That site suggests 格微微 | keh-bui-bui: seems I guessed the "bui" correctly. Maybe the "keh" is some kind of suffix to "bak-tshiu"? Actually, that site seems to suggest writing "keh" as 激, glossed as 裝作, "pretend". Given the gloss, I suggest 假 would be better, so "假微微 | ké bui-bui". The site glosses the whole sentence as 因為自己癡心貪愛，眼睛只微微張開，沒有認出情郎的真面目, or "Because of one's infatuation and passionate love, only open one's eyes a little, and not recognize the loved one's true colors".
That site just gave me what is probably the correct character for "lam": 湳 | làm… but "mud"? What would "mud" be doing here? Maybe this is in fact not the right character… Well it glosses the expression as 涕泗橫流, "to weep uncontrollably". Maybe I should spell it 泗湳垂 | sì-làm suî, literally "mucus-mud drip". Tone of "sì" uncertain, copied that of 四. Yep, that's the characters the site suggests.
Too bad the site doesn't have that part…
三聲無奈哭悲哀：「三聲無奈」，再三喊無可奈何，這種時候，我是不會只喊三聲。 I don't get this. Does 三聲 mean 再三 or 喊三聲? According to this, it 旧指军中用以传令的金鼓、笳、铎之声 (used to indicate the sounds of the gold drum, whistle, and bell used in the army to transmit orders". I suppose that, if all three sounded, the order was "complete" (cfr. 三声既全, with the three sounds it's already complete), so in the song it might mean "completely". Asked a follow-up.
「專望」為「特別期望」, so 專望 means 特別期望, i.e. "especially hope". So I was about right there.
The site glosses the whole sentence as 一心想嫁給情郎，如同花朵只仰望你來採, but doesn't gloss tshái separately. That big gloss means "wholeheartedly wishes to marry her loved one, like a flower just looking up to you so you pluck it". So tshái is literally "pluck", and the flower to pluck is the singer. So the whole sentence should translate roughly to "[I] have blossomed, and hope you will pluck [me]".

Also, the metaphor of her being compared to a flower is in the last line too: "A beautiful flower has become a pining plant", meaning she, the beautiful blossoming flower of verse 2, has turned to a sad plant full of lovesickness.


nóo vs. ló

These two are both for literary pronunciation. Since 白頭偕老(白头偕老) is a traditional Chinese idiomatic expression (成語 Chengyu), we tend to pronounce it in the literary way.

The difference between these two might be in the sub-dialect aspect. I'd pronounce it as pe̍h-thâu-kai-ló since it's easier for me to pronounce. But I reckon that pe̍h-thiô-kai-nóo is considered more sophisticated and authentic generally.

láu vs. lāu

These are indeed two common pronunciations for 老. But I humbly argue that these two are not very likely to be used in this particular context 白頭偕老(白头偕老) (at least in my neighborhood).

I have recorded a clip saying pe̍h-thâu-kai-ló, so you can cross-check with the CD that you mentioned above. Go to pe̍h-thâu-kai-ló if you don't mind my Donald Duck voice.

Hokkien has many sub-dialects, so sometimes people (like myself) might need to be more open-minded about "what is the right way to say a certain word?".

Note and reference:

My parents are from the northern part and the middle part of Taiwan. They use Hokkien(Min Nan) as their first spoken language.
The singer in the music video is from southern part of Taiwan.
I use Mandarin as my first spoken language.


In this case, what the American said was more a 風涼話 (the game was already over)

風涼話
sarcasm; cynical remarks (made after the fact)

As for trash talk:

trash talk
disparaging, taunting, or boastful comments especially between opponents trying to intimidate each other

It is similar to 吹牛皮 (boasting), 耍貧嘴 (babble with cynical words)  or 耍毒舌 (taunting with mean and provocative words)
牙斬斬 ; 狗噏 in Cantonese:

More importantly, the purpose of 'to trash talk' is 'to trash your adversary'
The most accurate translation of 'trash talking' should be: "自我吹擂，貶損對方 " (boast oneself and disparage the other)

A O wrote:

what would be an equivalent translation of "not even close", in a joking, trash-talking context?

It would be '差遠了'


What is the proper order to list the noun and adjective when using 的

There's a couple things getting mixed up here.
Firstly, 你说的太快了 shouldn't use 的 but rather 得 so it would be written:

你说得太快了

(Although it seems that most people online cannot write this correctly either.)
Verbs can only be qualified by: 得.

的 can modify verbs into nouns.

说的 - the things said

画的 - the thing drawn (i.e.: the picture)

写的 - the thing written

etc.
This is why 的 is wrong in the example you give because 说的 refers to the content of what was said and not how it was spoken.

我要手机的最便宜 is basically nonsensical and almost equates to something like:

I want phone's most cheap

whatever that means.

Most Chinese sentences are SVO (subject + verb + object) and here the A (attributive) modifies the object so it becomes SVAO.

Written Chinese has a page talking about attributives with the 的 particle:

Between the attributive and the subject and object, is the ‘的’ particle. 的 is the mark of an attributive, although the ‘的’ particle is not used for some attributives.
Examples of attributives with the 的 particle
（美好）的时光总是过得很快。 ( (měi hǎo) de shí guāng zǒng shì guò de hěn kuài.) Good times always go by quickly. (Time flies when you’re having fun)
（桌子上）的花开了。( (zhuō zi shàng) de huā kāi le) The flowers on the table blossomed.
An example of attributives (without 的)
他喜欢上了（那个）（红头发）女孩。(tā xǐ huan shàng le (nèi gè) (hóng tóu fa) nǚ hái.) He is falling in love with that red haired girl.


What is 那种带有 doing in 我喜欢喝农民那种带有苦味的茶水?

我喜欢喝茶水 = I like to drink tea
我喜欢喝 [农民那种]茶水 = I like to drink [the farmers type] tea
"农民那种" is a relative phrase of "茶水" that provide information about the tea
What type of tea is it? It is the famers type
我喜欢喝 [农民那种] [带有苦味的] 茶水 = I like to drink [the farmers type], [which is bitter tasting] tea
"带有苦味的" is the relative phrase of "农民那种" that provide explanation on the famer's type
What is famers type? It is the type that with bitter taste

If you add a comma between relative phrases, the sentence would be easier to comprehend -- "我喜欢喝农民那种, 带有苦味的茶水"
If you remove "农民那种" and write "我喜欢喝带有苦味的茶水", "带有苦味的" would become relative/adjective phrase of 茶水

You can even add relative phrases for 带有苦味 and write "我喜欢喝农民那种, 带有苦味, 但尚未到藥味程度 的茶水"
How bitter is it? Not to the point of medicine like

"带有" (with/ contains) literally means "carry with"


To make a subtle threat in Chinese is the same as in English-- just imply a threat without actually using threatening words.

One frequently used method is  反話 (irony)

For Example:

"終有一天，我會雙倍地償還你的恩典" (There will be a day, I doubly repay your grace)

This so call 恩典 might mean 'a stab to my back' , and the payback might mean 'a bullet to your head', but it is just an implied threat, The court cannot use these words as evidence against me if some horrible thing happen to you later.


Question with "ne (呢) to be responded with "呢"?

我们一起吃饭呢？

This sentence is probably grammatical, but why would we ask ourselves the question? 呢 is usually used in a wh- question, such as what, when, where, etc. E. g.  你干什么呢？ 你什么时候去的呢？你在哪里找到他的呢？

我们一起吃饭呢。

This sentence is correct. It expresses we are currently eating. Somehow, this use of 呢 suggests the progressive tense. E. g. 我们看书呢 suggests 我们正在看书呢。
The rule probably makes sense in this scenario.

A: 你吃饭呢？B: 我吃饭呢。


Purpose of 就...了 in 这套房子下午就没有阳光了吧？

You can see component in your sentence 下午就没有阳光了(There has been no sunlight on afternoon) as [particular situation]就[other situation]. It denote [other situation] occurred after [particular situation]. In this component [particular situation] is 下午 and [other situation] is 没有阳光了. So 没有阳光了 occurred after 下午 has begun.

You can see component in your sentence 没有阳光了(There has been no sunlight) as [situation]了. It denote [situation] has happened. In this component [situation] is 没有阳光 so 没有阳光 has happened.


Why were some letters like Q, X, C, chosen for Pinyin which confuse non-Chinese speakers?

Pinyin, like other written systems, is an arbitrary system, and the corresponding sounds were expressly decided. It seems it was based on preexisting systems: Gwoyeu Romatzyh of 1928, Latinxua Sin Wenz of 1931, and the diacritic markings from Zhuyin (also known as Bopomofo).

But the same problem you highlight in your question happens when learning any other language. For example, I'm Italian and when learning English I had to learn that:

"th" can have different pronunciations, that vs thick;
"ou" has several pronunciations according to the word: though, foul, through;
"c" is not just "tch" or "k" sound but also "s": center;
etc...

With Spanish, other sounds, such as "j" in joven, or with french, with "ç" in "ça va?", etc.

So why pinyin with Chinese should be different? A certain system has been decided, all that is left to do is for you to learn that system and learn to distinguish the sounds described in Pinyin from those in your language.

I think the "confusion" is for anyone that decides to learn Chinese (and therefore, Pinyin) regardless of your mother tongue (if not from asian countries): some sounds correspond to a certain language, others to another language and so on, so everyone has some advantage. The sounds that really differ are a few, and you have the same chance of finding them when learning other languages too.


Standards: Japanese - Chinese Name Translations

1. Kanji with Chinese character counterpart

Wikipedia (ref 1) implies this is the majority case:

  Japanese names are usually written in kanji, which are characters usually Chinese in origin but Japanese in pronunciation.

When translating these names, the kanji characters are directly converted to their Chinese counterparts. It's not always 1:1 though, like both 沢(kanji) and 澤(kanji) map to 泽(Chinese character).

2. Kanji without Chinese character counterpart

Wikipedia (ref 1):

  Sometimes, a Japanese name includes kokuji. These kanji resemble Chinese characters but originate in Japan and do not have Chinese pronunciations. For example, the word komu (込) has no Chinese reading. When words like this are encountered, usually the rule of "有邊讀邊，沒邊讀中間" ("read the side if any, read the middle part if there is no side") applies. Therefore "込" is read as "rù" which is derived from 入.

This paragraph implies these kokuji are not translated, instead, Chinese pronunciations are 'invented' for reading.

On the other hand, the Zhihu Q/A (ref 3) suggests

  如果出现了中文没有对应汉字的情况，会基于汉字意思或者字形接近的原则来补一个汉字。例如：冴羽りょう，就有寒羽良的翻译。因为さえ这个词也有寒冷的意思。但，如果按照严格的翻译规则，应该翻译成讶羽獠。

In practice we see all different methods being used even in formal occasions (like broadcast and newspaper). No single rule is strictly followed.

3. Hiragana and katakana in names

From real life cases we know this is the place with the most flexibility. One thing I'm sure is the hiragana or katakana have to be translated into Chinese characters, but methods may span 'best guess' kanji conversion, direct paraphrasing, contextual paraphrasing, transliteration (rare), etc.

As mentioned in ref 3, when it comes to ACG (Anime, Comics and Games) or any fictitious names, it's free translation. Examples:

  音译
  例如：アラレ　→　阿拉蕾（原词为放在拉面里面的小号膨化颗粒）
  按读音填补汉字
  例如：ナルト　→　鸣人（原词为拉面上面放的鱼饼，常画有粉红色的螺旋图案）
  意译
  例如：ピッコロ　→　短笛（就是乐器短笛的意思）
  根据人物角色特点进行的完全颠覆式翻译
  例如：野比のび太　→　康夫（原文翻译，用填补汉字的方式应为野比延太或野比伸太）

For real person's names I believe 'best guess' kanji conversion is the most common method, with which there is still a lot of flexibility (or say lack of standard) like you said in your question.

E.g. '沢尻 エリカ' (Japanese actress) does not have kanji for her given name and used to be translated as '泽尻 绘里香' as 'best guess kanji'. Later the actress herself picked '泽尻 英龙华' (which has the same pronunciation) as the 'official' kanji name (reference here).

BTW, for Yoshi in your question, I believe the most common 'best guess' kanji is 吉.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji
http://www.zhihu.com/question/20423517


Here's an image shows the evolution of 賣/卖.

Pay attention to the picture (B), it appeared at the Qin dynasty, and take the 買/买 as its phonogram part, so 賣/卖 has the same pronunciation with 買/买, and take the word 出(out) at the top of the word, which means sell out sth to get money. And at Han dynasty, 出 became 士 (picture (C)), and then at Tang dynasty's cursive script(picture (E)), it was simplified as 卖 further, and at last 卖 is adopted as the simplified Chinese word of 賣.

Hope it can help you to remember the difference between 买 and 卖.

Source: [字源谈趣] Author: 陈政


sentence structure: location of object after action applied to it

1 and 2 are correct, but 2 is weird.
You can find a nice explanation here.

The grammatical role of 在桌子上 is sightly different though.
In:

  他把书放在桌子上。

The phrase 在桌子上 is a result complement. The verb 在 acts as a result of 放：the result of 放 "putting" the book is that it now 在 "stays" on the table.
Now the result verb must occur right after the main verb, therefore the object of the action gets pulled in front of it by 把， thus achieving a SOV structure.

In example 2:

  他在桌子上放书。

The phrase 在桌子上 acts as a location complement, and therefore locates the action 放。The sentence is weird because it's not clear if being on the table is the result of the action or where the action is taking place.

Examples 3 and 4 are not grammatical.

So to answer your question, anticipation of the object with Subj. + 把 + Obj. + Verb Phrase. happens mainly in two cases:

when the main verb is followed by a result verb or a result complement

  你把苹果吃掉吧。 Eat the apple. (result is 掉 = object has disappeared)
  你把钱包拿出来。Take out the purse. (result is the purse comes out)

when the main verb is ditransitive (direct and indirect object)

  我准备把这件礼物 (direct obj.) 给 他 (indirect obj.) I'm going to give this present to him


Mandarin equivalent of 同 when the meaning is "for, on behalf of"

1) Would 和, 跟, or 给 be the right Mandarin substitute in this case?

给 in Mandarin can replace 同 in Cantonese when 同 (for me) denotes it is an order or demand

"你(同)我企喺度!"  = "你(給)我站著！" = "stand there (for me)!" (an order)

"你(同)我企喺度" = "你(和)我站著" means "you (and) I stand there"

"你(同)我企喺度"= "你(跟)我站著" means "you (with) I stand there"

'跟/ 替' in Mandarin can replace '同' in Cantonese when '同'  means 'to, for or on behalf of'

Example:

Mandarin: "你跟我解釋一下" = "explain it to me!"

Mandarin: "你替我解釋一下" = "explain it for me!"

Cantonese: "你同我解釋一下" = "explain it to/for me!"

  2) What's the right substitute for 你同我畀錢! ("You pay for me!")

See examples above:

你同我畀錢 ("you pay for me") = "你替我付錢"

  If you meant "you pay!"(an order)  then you should use '給' and wrote  "你给我付錢!"


1, 听看 does not make sense as a word in mandarin, where did this come from?

2, 听见，听到 does not have semantic differences. people will use them interchangeably. follow your heart.


”变成“ vs “变成为” 有什么不同？

"变成为" is kind of redundant. It is the same as "变成".

Here the "stem" of verb is "变", while "成" and "为" are two "suffixes" that have similar meaning.

"改造" and "改造为" are totally different. "改造" means to change something. "改造为" means to change into (become) something.


It is not 'all adjectives in Chinese are verbs' but 'many adjectives in Chinese can also function as verbs' and most of the time you need a correct verb particle
Examples:
黑马 - Black horse (O)
天黑了 - The sky has darkened (O)
把墙黑了 -  to darken the wall (X) - the correct verb is 涂黑(to paint black) or 弄黑 (to make black)
瘦狗 - thin dog (O)
這狗瘦了 - This dog has thinned down (O)
瘦自己 - to thin oneself down (X) - the correct verb is 弄瘦 (to make thin)
強人 - strong person (O)
這人強了 - this man has grown strong (O)
強這攻势 - strengthen this attack (X) - the correct verb is 加強 (to strengthen)
攻势弱 - the attack is weak  (O)
攻势弱下來了 - the attack has weakened down (O)
弱他们的攻势 - to weaken their attack (X) - the correct verb is 減弱 (to weaken)

那个公共汽车很红 sounds right?

红(red) here is still an adjective for the noun 公共汽车 (this bus is very red)

红 (short for 火红 = popular and trendy) could function as a verb with an appropriate verb particle

Example:
那种公共汽车最近红了起來 = Recently, that kind of bus has become popular and trendy


How do I translate, "by pretending that something is real?"

通过假装...是真的的方式

By pretending the dinner is real, Peter and his friends forgot about hunger.
通过假装晚餐是真的的方式， 潘和他的朋友们忘掉了饥饿。

Or you can take a little liberty:

通过假装用晚餐的方式， 潘和他的朋友们忘掉了饥饿。


腰 or 腰子 is slang for kidney. In traditional Chinese medicine theory, kidney is responsible for producing and storing sperms. Thus 腰不好 becomes a slang implying weakness in bed.

It takes a cheeky friend to twist 腰不好 towards sex; In a lot of situations saying 腰不好 is fine. If you are unsure, it is always OK to say 腰疼 or 腰痛.


楼主： OP

沙发: first answerer

二楼: second answerer

三楼: third answerer

在这个部分,我们邀请每个人用英语来回答和沟通. Here we have ‘thread' as 部分


The Strong sentence is my revision for yours.

1.这幅画被我做了。 这幅画是我画的

2.我弟弟越来越高一点。 我弟弟越来越高

3.我只要喝茶,不要喝啤酒。 我只想喝茶,不想喝啤酒

4.我们比学习的内容不太一样 。 我们学习的内容不太一样

5.我最好朋友比我考试得好。the position of 得 is always after the verb or not? 我最好朋友考试考得比我好 Ans:Yes

6.桌子上有一本想你像买一样的书,你去看一下吧。 桌子上有一本像你想买的一样书,你去看一下吧。

7.一年比一年学中文更难一点。 中文一年比一年难学

8.一分钟以后要下雨了,别忘带伞。 一分钟以后就要下雨了,别忘带伞。same as一分钟以后要下雨了,别忘了带伞。

9.老师说我现在不会去洗手间。 老师说我现在不能去洗手间。

10.我们都会骑自行车,连骑自行吃也妈妈会。 我们都会骑自行车,连妈妈也会骑自行车。


What is the Chinese term for "StackOverflow"？

Stack Overflow == 堆栈溢出

堆栈 == stack

溢出 == overflow

This is a very technical term. Only people who work in programming and other related fields would be able to understand this.


It means someone is not happy about things that are going on, it can be a disapprove to the decision other people made, anger about people's comment, behavior.
黑 in this phrase describes a negative mood in one's face, as if someone is so mad at something, his/her heart begin beating faster, his/her face turns into a dark color than usual. Similarly you may see红着脸(flushed with fever or success or pride)， 绿着脸(bad stock market or unhappiness)，青着脸(angry or discontent about something). Other than color, there are also 板着脸，绷着脸，拉着脸，蒙着脸 etc.


How can I say "I have translation background" in Chinese?

"背景" in Chinese can also be used to refer to people's background. Therefore it is okay to say "我有翻译背景". "经历" is also fine but it is "experience" in English. If you think your "background" means "experience" exactly, it is fine.

In universities we often say "你有计算机（专业）背景吗？" ("Do you have background in Computer Science?") If you have a degree in Computer Science then you definitely do. However, we probably don't think a degree in Computer Science counts as experience.


How does a body with no arms mean finished? 了子

（東漢）許慎《說文解字》

  了，尦也。从子，無臂。象形。凡「了」之屬，皆从「了」。盧鳥切。

（清）段玉裁《說文解字注》

    了，尦也。

了 means 尦 [ ㄌㄧㄠˋ | liào ].

      尦，行，脛相交也。

「尦」的意思是，行走時，小腿相互交叉。
尦 means the shanks cross each other while walking.
Sometimes female models walk in this way.

      牛行，腳相交爲尦。

牛在行走的時候，後腳相互交叉稱為「尦」。
尦 means the rear shanks cross each other when an ox is walking.

      凡物二股或一股結糾紾縳不直伸者，曰「了戾」。

一個物品的一股或兩股糾結不直的樣子，稱為「了戾」。
了戾 means one or two strands of a matter are twined, bound and not straight.

紾 [ ㄓㄣˇ | zhěn ]：扭轉；拗折。 to twist; to bend.
縳 [ ㄓㄨㄢˋ | zhuàn ]：捲；束。 to wrap; to roll up; to bind; to tie up.
戾 [ ㄌㄧˋ | lì ]：這裡是「彎曲」的意思。crooked; curved.

    从子，無臂。

（清）徐灝《說文解字注箋》

      「从子，無臂」謂無左右曲筆。此釋字形，非謂人有是形也。

There is not the left-right stroke, which represents two arms, of 子. It interprets the shape of the character, not of the baby.

    象形。

      象其足「了戾」之形。

描繪兩腳糾結的樣子。
It depicts the twined and bound shape of two feet.

    凡「了」之屬，皆从「了」。

凡是「了」這一類的字，都由「了」衍生而來。
The characters of 了 class are derived from 了.
For example, 、孒、孑、孓.

《說文解字注箋》也提到：

    凡「收束」謂之「結」，故曰：「了結」。《廣雅》曰：「了，訖也。」

凡是「收合束縛」都稱為「結」，所以有「了結」一詞。《廣雅》解釋：「了」是「訖」的意思。
Everything related to "collect and bind" is called 結.
That is why we have the term, 了結.
《廣雅》 interprets 了 as "finish, end, stop, complete, etc.".

由以上的資料可知，「了」的本義是「尦」；而「尦」的意思是，行走時，小腿相互交叉。
這兩腳糾結的形狀，類似「收束」的樣子，因而被歸為「結」，由此才延伸出「了結」一詞。
而「結」有「終」、「止」、「成」之義，所以，「了」便有「結束、停止、完成」的意思。
From the above information, we can see that the original meaning of 了 is 尦.
And, 尦 means that the legs cross each other when walking.
The tangled shape of the two feet is similar to the appearance of 收束.
It is thus classified as 結, and then extended to the word, 了結.
Furthermore, 結 also means 終, 止 or 成, so 了 may mean "ended, stoped or complete".

簡單講，「了」的原義是「走路時兩腳交叉」，而「結束、完成」是它的延伸義。
In short, the original meaning of 了 is "to cross the legs when walking", and "finished or complete" is its extended meaning.

可能是我的搜尋能力太差，這是我找到「了」和「結束」有關係的唯一古文。
Due to my poor search skills, this is the only classical article I found, which connects 了 to 結束.

至於現代人所編的解釋，有下面這些資料：
The following information is made by the modern people.

《汉字字源》

《字源》

《说文解字今释》

《汉字字源－当代新说文解字》

依我個人的觀點，如果不是依據古文而來的解釋，其可信度較低。
In my opinion, the credibility is lower if it is not explained based on the classical text.


In which dialect of Mandarin can I see or hear 乳酪?

Your Taiwanese friend said 奶酪 is more popular than 乳酪 in Taiwan, then it is probably true.
When I say '芝士' is the term Hong Kong Chinese most commonly use to describe 'cheese' you should believe me too.
I would say 乳酪 is more popular in written Chinese, because I rarely see  奶酪  appear in any text. On the other hand, I had came across the term 乳酪 many many times in menu, cook book, label etc.


What is the difference between 們 and 们 for marking plurals?

我们 and 我們 are same, except 们 is simplified character, and 們 is traditional character.

See this for more details: Simplified Chinese characters


夫唯弗居，是以不去 What"s the meaning of the first 4 characters?

Nannuo gave a nice explanation. But there are some of the details I don't agree with.

It seems 夫 is 发语词 to me. Normally one doesn't relate it to anything.

夫唯弗居 => 唯弗居 =>  Only contributing without taking credit.

以 means "because of". 是以 = 以是 = because of it/this/the reason/something.

去 = leave （vanish is also good.)

是以不去 => 以是不去 => Because of the reason above, it (the credit of your contribution) never go away.


What is the difference between 毕竟, 究竟, 到底, 终究, and 总归?

The only real answer to this is reading a stack of Chinese texts and picking it up by osmosis. It's a gut-feel thing. But there are at least two cheats you can use to build intuition fast. Check out the raw frequency on google ngram viewer (to look at all your terms at once, make sure you're typing English commas as separators not Chinese ones). Two interesting things there: 终究 and 终归 are dramatically rarer than the other three, so they're probably formal or jargon-y. Worth avoiding unless you have extra special motivation. Also 到底 spikes massively from the 60's to the 80's. Sometimes google ngrams spike for no reason at all, or butterflies-flapping-their-wings-in-brazil reasons, but also, things that spike like that over that time period are often anti-pretentious earthy language of the 老百姓. （See also 革命，前进， and the spectacular crash in the frequency of 之... these can't all be brazil butterflies, right?)
A better way is to check out usage-in-context, ichacha.net has a good collection of these, there are plenty of other good sources. From their example lists you can see things like the way 究竟 appears very often in rhetorical questions, where 毕竟 is much more associated with statements.
"You're my mistress, not my wife" feels very different from "However did you get here without a car?", although they're both sort of in the "after all" zone, the first is much more typical of 毕竟 and the second is much more typical of 究竟. Check out the full lists on ichacha and see for yourself!


We all know that 大 means big. It can be used on things like 大香蕉（big banana). 大 can also be used to verb. When used to verb it means this action is really big. So 大 + verb means doing something really hard or doing something in a high profile or doing something very much(like thank you very much )

So here 熊乃瑾 was trying so hard to "秀香肩美背" in a high profile.

Similar examples:

大展宏图， 大赦天下, 大快人心


Why is Cristiano Ronaldo known as “C罗” in Chinese?

C for Cristiano
罗 for 罗纳尔多 (Ronaldo)

Apparently before him:

Ronaldo (罗纳尔多) (Luís Nazário de Lima) was known as 大罗
Ronaldinho (罗纳尔迪尼奥) was called 小罗

So, with big (大) and little (小) already taken, the first letter of his first name was given to him instead.

As for 朗 vs. 罗:

It seems that 朗 is Cantonese (Hong Kong, Macao) while 罗 is Mandarin (Mainland, Singapore, Taiwan).


The answer to 你在做飯嗎？is still 是 or 不是 . To answer 有 or 沒有, the question should be 你有做飯嗎？
Example:

You see your friend washing vegetable, and ask 你在做飯嗎？ (are you cooking dinner?) and his answer could be 是 (yes) or 不是 (no)

A wife came home and saw her husband eating pizza, so she asked 你有做飯嗎？(have you cooked dinner?) the answer could be 有 (I have) or 沒有 (I have not)

If the question is 你做飯嗎? (are you cooking (now)?/do you cook (regularly)? ) then you can answer according to the context.
If you mean 'I am not cooking now' then you would say '不是' (no)
If you mean 'I don't cook = 'I haven't been cooking regularly' then you can answer '沒有' (I have not)


Is there a difference between 教训 and 论点 ？

教训  [Lesson;Moral]：指从错误或挫折中得到的经验,

lessons learned from past failures and mistakes. It emphasizes the empirical aspect of the origin.
Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/777967.htm

论点 [argument; proposition] 论述中的确定性意见及论证意见的理由。

It does not have to be empirical. It can be anything straight off the dome.
Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/562734.htm


How can I say the phrase “go places” in Chinese?

Cambridge Dictionary: Go places: to be likely to be successful in the future:

It is "有好前途/ 有前途 " (have a great future) in Chinese
Example:
如果你想有好前途，你需要跟随我 - If you want to go places (have a great future), you need to follow me
這傢伙終有一天會有好前途 - This guy will go places (have a great future) someday
You can also use 前途光明 (have a bright future)