刑
根据说文解字，刑的左边在古代还真是个"井"，

井，法也。

注意此处的"井"并不是水井（well），而是"整齐、有秩序"
井

整齐，有秩序：～然。～～有条。

再查井的说文解字，会发现有

(丼)八家爲一丼

可能是古代比较早期的一种管理制度，看着像九宫格，中间空地不住人，看起来整整齐齐的样子。


How you say... I feel good after finally getting closure

I got 恍然大悟/善始善终/松了口气/释然/如释重负/大彻大悟/冰释前嫌/释然放怀，无复蔕芥/尘埃落定 etc. in mind. But they don't mean the same.


Have a look at http://zh.wiktionary.org/zh-hant/%E5%9C%8B%E5%AE%B6, which explains lots of traditional meanings of 国家.

The basic meaning is related to 古代諸侯的封地稱國，大夫的封地稱家. In the classical age of China, there were vassal states and the land of a vassal was called 国. There were also officials titled 大夫 who were given land as well, and a 大夫's land is called 家. Later 国家 was used to mean 国 in some situations (for rhythmic reasons, I suppose). The meaning also got extended to mean the court, or the emperor, or the capital. None of these was  today's concept of 国家.

When Chinese and Japanese were finally exposed to the Western world in 19th century, they had to create new words or re-use old words to translate the concepts and notions which were not existed in their traditional culture. Eventually 国家 was picked to be the translation of the modern concept of a state.


Looking for chinese R/C car remote instructions translated

I'll just translate from @user6065's transcript:
２.４G 遥控器使用说明  首次使用需对码，本产品有记忆功能，以后换电池无须再对码 （１）长按＂M＂键３秒以上，直到第一颗LED闪烁 （２）打开车身电源，第一颗LED变为长亮，对码成功 （３）遥控器10秒钟无操作自动待机按任意键唤醒 （４）按键说明：△前进▽后退◁左转▷右转S调速P刹车 按"S"键设定车速，前进时１颗灯为低速，２颗灯为中速，３颗灯为高速，倒车时仅有中速一个档位  按"P"键保持刹车状态，指示灯全闪，再次按刹车键解除刹车

Translation:
2.4G Remote Control Instructions
You need to pair it the first time you use it, the product has a memory function, it is not necessary to pair it again even if the batteries are changed
(1) Press and hold the "M" key for at least 3 seconds, until the first LED lights up.
(2) Open the car battery compartment, if the first LED is lit up the pairing was successful
(3) If the remote control is not used for 10 seconds it will go into standby mode, press any key to wake
(4) △ = Forwards, ▽ = Reverse, ◁ = Left, ▷ = Right, "S" = Change speed, "P" = Brake
Press "S" key to set speed, the first light is low speed, the second light is medium speed, and the third light is high speed; there is only medium speed when reversing
Press "P" key to maintain braking, when braking all lights will be lit, press "P" key again to release brake

Hope this helps!


How to say lived vs. have been living somewhere?

I would say, as a Chinese, that Chinese language doesn't express tenses as explicitly and clearly as English does in most cases. Your translation of the first sentence(我在北京住了六个月) can be taken in both ways, in which case we figure out the tense by context. Past tense would be a better guess, though.

To remove uncertainties, you can say:

我在北京住过六个月。I lived in Beijing for six months.

我在北京住了六个月了。I have been living in Beijing for six months.

Or for added clarity:

我曾在北京住过六个月。I once lived in Beijing for six months.

我已经在北京住了六个月了。I have been living in Beijing for six months already.


(1) What is the meaning of 这么说 in this conversation?

'这么'  means 'so/ this way/ like this'

'这么说' means 'saying so' = "according to so" (with this reason) in this context.

You can simply use 'accordingly' , 'consequently', 'therefore' or 'so' instead

E.g. "So, after she got married, she stopped working"

  (2) In addition, does 这么说 have any other meanings? Can you give me some examples?

这么说 literally means "say /said /saying so" and you can use it literally. e.g. "他这么说" (he said so); 人們是這麼說的 (people are saying so)


Is this a typical Chinese way of saying 'lack of strength'?

Both expressions (the one you quoted and the one you wrote) are perfectly fine in Chinese.

薄弱 vs 'lack of' is a typical difference between language/culture mindsets. You can replace 薄弱 with 缺乏/缺失, which also sounds natural, but implies 'completely missing' to Chinese listeners. 薄弱 is the Chinese way to say 'somewhat/partially lack of'.


Translation of "Thank you for your attention"

This question was also asked on italki in 2011. A native speaker of Chinese (from Taiwan) pointed out that (with my editorial corrections and added emphasis):

  At the end of a presentation, we say "Thank you for your attention!" for the end. But in Chinese we say, "Thanks for your time" / "感謝諸位的時間". The Chinese are a polite people. (It means that that we did NOT point out that you paid attention to my speech, so we only say, "Thank you for for your time". FYR)

The suggested expression in simplified Chinese characters is then 感谢诸位的时间 (gǎnxiè zhūweìde shíjian̄).


Trying to translate specific Data Science terms to Traditional Chinese

Quantitative Decision Science = 定量化决策科学

CUFE

最优化方法是运筹学（72学时）课程的延续，是一门定量化决策科学，它利用现代数学、计算机以及其它科学的成果建立模型，研究人类从事各种活动中处理事物的数量化规律，使有限的资源得到合理利用，以获得尽可能满意的经济效益和社会效益。
Optimization Method is the continue class of Operations Research. This is a quantitative decision science which builds models to study the quantitative law of people’s activities in order to make rational use of the limited resources and to obtain the approving economic and social efficiency based on modern mathematics, computer and other academic achievements.

School of Management Science and Engineering

运筹学是一门定量化决策科学，它利用现代数学、计算机以及其它科学的成果建立模型，研究人类从事各种活动中处理事物的数量化规律，使有限的资源得到合理利用，以获得尽可能满意的经济效益和社会效益。
Operations Research is a quantitative decision science which builds models to study the quantitative law of people’s activities in order to make rational use of the limited resources and to obtain the approving economic and social efficiency based on modern mathematics, computer and other academic achievements.


For the character/word 煎, which of the English words "braise", "pan fry", "sauté" are the best way to think of it?

The best fit would be "pan fry" or "sear" - cooking with a small amount of fat, typically in a shallow pan. 煎 goes with such foods as steak, fish filet, pancake, eggs (sunny-side-up or over-easy, not scrambled) ...

FYI, saute or stir-fry is "炒" and braise is usually rendered "紅燒" in menus and recipes.


How to express "Now, ..." in Chinese (the usage of "now" to draw attention to a particular statement)?

Now, you found out that the store B sells the same item in $8. But it is located in 8 miles away.

I am not a native English speaker, but I don't quite agree that now here means draw attention to a particular statement or point in a narrative. In my opinion, it means this sense in this context:

ADV You say "Now" to introduce something which contrasts with what you have just said. 然而
Now, if it was me, I'd want to do more than just change the locks.
然而，如果是我，我要做的远不只是换换锁。

I think there should be an implicit but in your English sentence. So, you could interpret that now as 可是现在, 然而现在，or just simply as 然而，可是.


分不清

I think that's the mix of 分别 and 看不清楚 that you're looking for.


Origin of beautiful kingdom and hero kingdom

Actually they all came from their pronunciation.

America: 美利坚 ("美国" for short)

England: 英格兰 ("英国" for short)


What is the difference between yǐqián (以前) and zhīqián (之前)?

As a native Chinese speaker, I agree with what you found in the book. Two words are almost identical except that Zhiqian is more literary. But, on a second thought, it seems that  zhiqian is similar to "earlier" while yiqian is similar to "used to". For example:

我以前抽烟,但我现在不抽了. "I used to smoke, but I quit now."
我之前刚抽了一支烟. "I just smoked one cigarette earlier."

In its meaning of of "used to", 以前 can be used to start a sentence, while 之前 cannot:

以前我们上学得反复背诵乘法表. "At school, we used to do a lot of multiplication-table drills."
× 之前 我们上学得反复背诵乘法表.

以前：
1. 在时间上，比现在，或某一时间（或某一事件）早的时期。如： 三岁以前，我只能喝牛奶。
2. 泛指从前，以往。如：我以前抽烟，但我现在不抽了。

之前：
1. 表示在某个时间或处所的前面。如： 他在满17岁之前发表了第一篇小说。
2. 在事情发生的先后次序方面，指一事先于另一事发生。如：吃饭之前要洗手。

一般说来，“之前”所指的时间事件或处所，与所参照的时间事件或处所相隔不远。“以前”就比较宽泛。如：“吃饭之前要洗手”意思是说，洗手后很快吃饭。但“吃饭以前要洗手”则没有强调洗手后很快吃饭。早晨洗了手后，吃晚饭之前不洗手，也算是“吃饭以前洗手了”。
另外，“之前”要出现在某事某时某处之后，因为“之前”中的“之”指代前面出现的某事某时某处。所以“之前”用在句子开头是错的，因为前面没有所指的东西。


与 here serves as a noun conjunction (you could replace it with 和), and links 世界 and 我 forming a composite subject. Its proper translation however depends on the verb that follows, which is 为.
为 oftentimes can be rendered just as "to be". It is after all a copular verb, especially in this sentence, therefore：

就算 / (世界 / 与 / 我) / (为 / 敌)

Even if it's me against the world

However, you should also consider that 与 can work as a preposition, thus it relates to the following 我 more strongly than "pure" conjunctions, so it's also acceptable to parse it as:
世界 / 与我
For this reason I would tend to give more prominence to 世界 semantically, therefore I think the best translation is:

Even if the world's against me


Wikipedia:

世界博览会（英语：Universal Exposition, World's Fair），又称国际博览会及万国博览会，简称世博会、世博、万博，是一个具国际规模的集会。参展者向世界各国展示当代的文化、科技和产业上正面影响各种生活范畴的成果。

Basically just full term vs. 简称.
世界博览会 get's shortened to 世博会, 世博
万国博览会 get's shortened to 万博
here's some quick data from baidu: (baidu hits, you know...like g-hits)

世博会: 百度为您找到相关结果约94,100,000个
世界博览会: 百度为您找到相关结果约41,300,000个
万博: 百度为您找到相关结果约68,900,000个 (but seems to have a lot of different meanings)
万国博览会: 百度为您找到相关结果约2,710,000个
国际博览会: 百度为您找到相关结果约51,800,000个

世博会 is obviously your best bet. (that's what everyone was calling it when it was in Shanghai...09(?))
Going around saying 世纪博览会 instead of 世博会 would be like someone going around saying the World Wrestling Entertainment instead of WWE or National Football League instead of NFL...


"Q: Are there large discrepancies between what Chinese consider to be words?"

No. It is very clear what is a word and what not. A word can consist of one or more characters. Thus, a single character can be either a word by itself or is part of a polysyllabic word. Like in every other existing language, a word does officially either exist or not.

Q: Do even native Chinese generally split characters into words (词), or is the
concept of words something we have forced into Chinese because it makes
sense in western languages?

You can split a word into a character, but not a character into a word. If your question is, if Chinese was influenced by western languages to have polysyllabic words then the answer is "no". The reason why they do, is because there is not enough monosyllabic words to accurately describe every possible meaning. Nowadays words often consist of two or three characters (or even more).

As an example:
While “书馆” can be a "teashop with performance by story tellers", "private school (in former times)" , or also "library (of classic texts)" it is clear that “图书馆” is a "library". Obviously, the more characters, the more accurate the word.

Q: Is a 词 different from a word in any sense?

“词” means word and can, as mentionned above, consist of one character or more.

Q: Do Chinese people generally agree upon how a sentence should be
segmented into its compounds?

Yes. As mentionned above, there is clear grammar rules on how to construct a sentence. Nevertheless, people might have a different sense of choosing words to express their meanings. The result will be one less and one more beautiful sentence. But if a linguist checks both sentences, either of them can be grammatically correct or not.


Use of Preposition or Verb with telling time

Use the verb "是" to tell 'what time it is'
e.g. 现在是九点 (it is nine O'clock)

~

Use the preposition "在" to tell 'at what time'
e.g. 在九点鐘 (at nine O'clock)

'at' in "I will meet with the principal at 4 o'clock." is "在" in Chinese
我會(I will) 在(at) 四點鐘(four o'clock) 會見 (meet) 校長 (the principal)”
preposition [at] + [time] = [在] + [時間]
At four o'clock = 在四點鐘
On Sunday = 在星期天
At the first of July  = 在七月一號
In 2020 = 在二零二零年
You can use 於 (more literary) instead of 在 (more colloquial)


了 at the end of a sentence is (most often) a modal particle that indicates change of state.

In your example sentence:

  ... 走五分钟就到了

it marks the change of state that occurs when, after walking for five minutes (original state, walking), you arrive at your destination (change of state, arrived).

This use of 了 is common in:

expressions involving time, because the passing of time often involves state changes: 我等了一个小时的车了, "I waited (original state) the bus one hour (change of state, not waiting anymore)"
commands, as they imply a change of state as soon as the command is executed: 你闭嘴了, "Shut up!" (talking, original state, to not talking, change)
'going to' forms with 要～了 or 快～了, as they imply an imminent change in the future: 今天要下雨了 "It's going to rain, today" (not raining, original state, to raining, change)

You can also find a nice explanation of different flavors of 了 here.


完 is a verb complement, while 好 is a completion suffix. They are not identical, and  cannot be used interchangeably.

Trivially, 看好 means either look after (kānhǎo), or looking forward to something better (kànhǎo). Here it would be unwise to use 好 as a completion marker, so we always use 看完.

Likewise, 学好 means learn well rather than finish learning (do you ever finish learning, or is it a continuous process throughout life?). 读完 would be more appropriate here.

完 is a more unambiguous particle for expressing completion, while 好 is much more versatile. 完 is also more formal, while 好 is more common in vernacular speech.


Difference?? : 聊，聊天，聊聊，聊聊天，聊一聊，闲聊

All of the words you have chosed have similar meaning to each other and in most cases can be used interchangeably. But I guess you knew that, because that's why you're asking.

All of the differences are very subtle, and the most notable ones are the differences in formality. There are also slight differences in the linguistics of usage, but I'm not familiar with much of that. Also, note that on the face of it, 聊 itself and its extensions are generally more informal compared to words like 谈 or 讨论. Its direct English translation is "to chat", and I think that that definition carries the notion of informality over quite nicely. Below, I'll discuss formality in levels, from 1 (most formal) to 3 (least formal).

Formality Level 1:

聊 is the most general form; when you wish to chat with someone on no particular topic (or one you don't wish to disclose) you can say something like "我现在跟你去聊。" Compared to the other versions and extensions, this is generally more terse and laconic than the others, and thus more formal. It shares the same formality as 闲聊, although this one is used more when one wants to emphasize that it's a friendly and informal discussion with the addition of the 闲 in the beginning.

Formality Level 2:

聊天 takes the spot for an intermediate formality. It is slightly more informal than 聊 or 闲聊, but also more formal that the remaining few. This phrase, like 闲聊, emphasizes the "chatting" quality of your discussion. With its addition of 天, it references the weather, and links it to the fact that most people talk about the weather in a situation where you want to "catch-up" with someone. However, you don't have to talk of the weather when you use this phrase. Most of the time, both 聊 and 闲聊 can be interchangeable with it.

Formality Level 3

The remaining 聊聊, 聊聊天, and 聊一聊 are the least formal, and are common colloquialisms. We see it a lot in the Chinese language, but typically when one repeats a single-character verb like 聊 to 聊聊 or 说 to 说说 it shows informality, almost like talking to children (one very good example of this can be seen in the names of Chinese children; a lot of the time, children have nicknames that repeat a single-character, such as 茜茜, which is associated with a juvenile tone). 聊一聊 is also regarded in the same manner, used in sentences such as "我现在跟你去聊一聊！". However, out of all of the words, 聊聊天 is probably used the least, because the same informal effect can be accomplished with 聊聊 or 聊一聊, and there is already a 聊天 that is already popular in the mainstream.

Keep in mind that these are very subtle differences. My knowledge on this topic is merely from my own experience speaking Chinese in mainland China and Taiwan. If you are interested in even more linguistic subtleties or social conventions, consider talking to a Chinese language expert at your local university, or even looking into it yourself. That stuff is out of my scope.


(Someone)做(something)做得较出色 is perfect Chinese.
较出色 can be translated into relatively outstanding

I think Chinese tend to be modest when compliment someone related to them. So it is common to hear the boss praises his subordinate 做得较出色 or a mother praises her son 做得较出色 in front of a third party.

It is perfectly fine if you remove the "较" which as user3306356 pointed out "It's more formal (较 vs. 比较). 较 means relatively or comparatively".

P.S. if you hear 较出色, someone/something probably is pretty outstanding.


Note that 啥子树子招啥虫 emphasizes more on similarity of couples of marriage.

龙生龙，凤生凤，老鼠儿子会打洞。

Dragon's son must be a dragon, phoenix's son must be a phoenix, and that of a mouse must can dig holes.

Meaning:

A great man teaches out great sons, a noble man cultivates noble sons. Normal people have only normal posterities.

Sometimes we neglect the second half of the phrase, i.e. just 龙生龙，凤生凤.


How do Chinese people correct their characters?

for example this picture，hope to help you:


How are ambiguous “brother” and “sister” typically translated into Chinese?

I translate professionally, and teach translation as well, and I have no comfortable solution.  It is one of those cross-cultural conundrums that cannot be resolved satisfactorily with even a short equivalent, as family ranking is so precise to the Chinese, but if I must, then here's my squirm-my-way-through solution:

"Brother" and "sister" are not so bad, because at least one can translate them into Chinese as 哥哥/弟弟, 姐姐/妹妹, and hope to get away with it.  Not ideal, but doable, if clunky.

The really impossible ones are the other relatives: 2 hoops to go through for uncle / aunt (paternal side or maternal? older or younger than parent?); even more hoops to go through for cousins (male or female? paternal side or maternal? older or younger than speaker or reference person?).

What I do, if the context allows such vagueness in the Chinese and I have no way of verifying further details for the "uncle/aunt/cousin", is to go for "亲戚 qīnqi / relative" (or 亲人).  (Or turn the job down...)


Is it ok to use 他 as a gender neutral personal pronoun (instead of 她) when the subject is known to be female?

First of all, there is only 他 in ancient Chinese. The invention of the font 她 comes from the influence of foreign languages in 1900s.

And there is no word in ancient Chinese contains the usage of IT as a gender neutral personal pronoun. Consulting foreign languages we borrow 它 as IT. 它 is actually the ancient word of 他. 它 means "other" in common use.

Therefore, when you use 他/她/它, try to think about it in your language and that's all clearly.

But someone uses 他 instead of 她 online, that's because they type too quickly to select the word...


Tips for pronouncing X vs SH in Mandarin?

'x' is an alveolo-palatal fricative, while 'sh' is a retroflex fricative.

For retroflex 'sh', the tip of the tongue is curled up toward the roof of the mouth while the tongue body is low.
Mandarin 'sh' could be similar to Russian 'ш'.  Start with this wikipedia image of a retroflex stop, but make a slight space for air to pass above the tongue:

For alveolo-palatal 'x', the blade of the tongue approximates the palate while the tongue tip is low.  Mandarin 'x' could be similar to Portuguese or Catalan 'x'.  It can help to press the tongue tip against the lower teeth when learning to pronounce 'x'---this doesn't change the sound, it just keeps your tongue tip out of the way:

More details: Chinese phonology on wikipedia


I don't know about this phrase very much, does it mean "drive somebody crazy"? If so, I think this one is ok:

  逼疯了
  bī fēng le


Is this the correct way to say "I practice Chinese with my friend"?

Nope. The correct statement is: （我）跟我的朋友一起练习说汉语

This is because Chinese is an SVO language, and we have:

我 subject 1 (S1)
跟 conjunction (&)
我的朋友 subject 2 (S2)
一起 adverb (A)
练习 auxilliary verb (aux)
说 verb (V)
汉语 object (O)

Syntax: S1 & S2 A aux V O


When light, heat, or other rays reflect off a surface or when a
  surface reflects them, they are sent back FROM the surface and do not
  pass through it.

“Light reflects off mirror.” means 光线从镜子反射出来/过来/回来/开来. "Off" denotes the sense of 'from' in this case.

Compared to this sentence:

  The sun reflected off the snow-covered mountains. // 阳光从被雪覆盖的山峦反射回来。

As a sidenote, from English perspective, maybe it's better to put:

  Light reflects off mirrors. Or, Light reflects off the/that mirror.

But I am not a native English speaker. It's all opinion-based. Hope some English native speakers can correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks!


Can someone translate these Seal Characters to Mandarin? (Characters identified: 五世)

The characters are 五世 (Five generations?)


As a native speaker, they seem no difference to me.
You can simply use them interchangeably when you want to say "xxx not at all".
e.g.

我一点都不记得。
我一点也不记得。
I don't remember at all.


Is there any difference between 想, 觉得 and 以为?

以为 is mostly used for:

wrongly thought/believed

like: 我以为你死了！ I thought you were dead!

觉得 is closer to:

feel/think (of an opinion)

like: 你这样说，我觉得非常不靠谱 What you said is totally unreasonable.

想 is close to the English:

think

like: 我想这个案子肯定有猫腻。 There's something fishy about this case.

In Chinese the idea of English 'think' is hardly ever used - even in English it's mostly just a buffer or fluff; if anything 觉得 is the closest.


Combining sentences: use of conjunctions, omission of subject and verb

Chinese, the language, itself doesn't ALWAYS use conjunctions together to link different kinds of splitted words, phrases……ect together. However, sometimes what we should notice is that we Chinese prefer other ways instead of using conjunctions, the common ways are:

1) Using punctuations to link short words together to describe things:

小王，25岁，上海人，喜欢吃零食。

Notice that we usually shorten the splitted words by the commas liking them together.

If words of the same type (used as nones, adjectives……ect), and if they are of small unit in a sentence itself, maybe “顿号” is a good choice:

我喜欢看书、写作、旅游。(I like reading, writing and travelling.)

In this situation, we don't need to use "and", compared with this, the English prefer using "and" in front of the last parallel splitted word.

2) Most cases "and" functions to link sentences together in English or western languages in syntax, however in Chinese we don't do that, we still use punctuations like commas, this means Chinese language perfers "showing meaning" to "pure syntax" itself：

Eg: You are a student, and I'm also a student.
你是学生，我也是。

Notice in English we must add "and" here to link the parallel sentences together in a normal syntax, but in Chinese we CANNOT add "和", A comma is ENOUGH here.

3) For some fixed characters, we don't use any punctuations but just write them one by one:

我喜欢吃喝玩乐（We don't prefer saying：We love 吃、喝、玩、乐，because "吃喝玩乐" is a fixed pharse. Others such as "爸爸妈妈"、“上上下下”……. In English we have to use commas+"and" to link them to meet the right syntax.）

4）In some special pharses like "both……and……", if we use nagative, this means "half negative":

Both you and me don't like sports （= Either you or me like sports.）

However in Chinese we are of "fully negative" in meaning:

你和我不喜欢体育。(= Neither you or I like sports.)

5）We prefer make nones or shortened phrases "adjectivable" to modify a none directly.

E.g: She is a 25-year-old girl, from ShangHai and like singing.

In Chinese, we usually say:

她是一个25岁，来自上海且喜欢歌唱的女孩子。(translated in English, this should be something like "She is a 25-year-old,singing-like girl from ShangHai" or through the adjective clause like "She is a 25-year-old girl from ShangHai, who likes singing.).

6）In some “成语” (idoms or pharses), we also have conjunctions or meanings:

宁缺毋滥 (We prefer lacking if nothing meets).
三思而行（Decision after a deep thought）


The Microsoft official website has those information.

https://support.office.com/zh-cn/excel

Click 常用函数 to show the list of popular Excel functions.


Handwritten script on two scroll paintings

Seal decipherment

I think this actually might be a character, which is 「夒」.

Glyph evolution of 「夒」:
商甲甲2336合集35269商甲甲2043合集24963春秋・秦金秦子簋故宮05.6三國・魏隸魏上尊號奏秦漢魏晉篆今楷

張ＸＸ印 (Other characters are too faded out)

追摹古人出新意

干（城）

（志）⿱龸子（學）茟（筆）印


Only the first one is correct (聲調輪廓), as a jargon used in linguistics. The second one is a (bad) word-for-word translation of tone (音調) + contour (曲綫).


Translation of seal script text (Poem identified: 元・譚處端《西江月・作伴修行未是》)

This is an incomplete text of the poem 《西江月・作伴修行未是》 by Yuan Dynasty poet 譚處端, produced verbatim from the image, detailed below:

The text is split into columns from right to left as on the image, with pauses inserted at「//」. Characters inside parentheses（）indicate the modern equivalent.

⿰亻（作）伴修行未是 // （飄飄）

物外行持 // 孤雲野鶴

任東㢴（西）// 何有些兒礙

滯 // 淡飯（尋）他兩頓 // 清

The rest of the poem is:
清淨淨無爲 //
寂寥瀟洒最相宜 //
別有一般滋味

My translation (roughly paraphrased):

元・譚處端《西江月・作伴修行未是》
作伴修行未是，飄飄物外行持。
The accompanying disciples' self-cultivating journey is incomplete, walking along the turbulent spiritual passages;
孤雲野鶴任東西。
following the path of mysterious, recluse sages.
何有些兒礙滯。
What is there to stop their journey?
淡飯尋他兩頓，清清淨淨無爲。
Finding scarce meals, plain, simple, and natural,
寂寥瀟洒最相宜。
the balance of tranquillity and aloofness
別有一般滋味。
has a sweetness of its own.


How to learn how to pronounce and remember names of Chinese students?

How can I learn how to pronounce names of Chinese students?

Short of learning Chinese? Avery suggested learning how to read pinyin. However, this ignores the problem that there are sounds in Chinese that do not exist in English. For instance, following some consonants, pinyin "u" is pronounced like the German "ü". Pinyin "sh" and "x" are both pronounced differently from English "sh". Oh yeah, and every syllable has a tone. So, are you prepared to learn all of that and more? If so, then Avery's answer is spot on. Go learn pinyin.

I suspect your question was more along the lines "As an English speaker in an English-speaking classroom, how can I pronounce Chinese students' names in an acceptable way?"

If that's the case, then here's my advice:

Ask the student how they would like you to say their name. This is just a basic respect thing. Of course, there are a couple caveats:

Presumably you'd like to have an idea of how to pronounce their name before you ask them.
Some students (especially the stereotypical asian students) will not correct you even if you ask them to. In high school, a substitute teacher asked one of my friends--whose name is "Jie Luo"--if his name was pronounced "J.Lo". He mumbled "Yeah sure", and it was only because some other students corrected the teacher that he wasn't known as "J.Lo" for the whole week.

Learn to recognize pinyin syllables and come up with English approximations to them. I'd especially focus on the syllables where the pinyin spelling is not suggestive of the English approximation. For instance:

The "j", "q", "x", "c", and "zh" initials
The "ang", "e", "en", "eng", "ui", "un", and "iu" finals
The syllables "zi", "ci", "si" and "zhi", "chi", "shi"

How can I better recall names of Chinese students? e.g., get acquainted with common names, build some semantic knowledge around Chinese names.

For Chinese surnames, I'd familiarize yourself with the top few names in this list, as well as their various romanizations. For instance, the names "Zhang" and "Chang" are both transliterations of the surname "张" (one in pinyin, one in the wade-giles system formerly used in Taiwan). For given names, you're pretty well out of luck. There aren't very many "common" given names. Many people's given names are unique.


which one is correct and why "我看书看很长时间” or "我很长时间看书”

"看书“ is detachable word， that means we need to put temporal words(such as 很长时间）into the middle of "看书”。Detachable word can be collocated with many kinds of word or phrase and the collocation with quantitative phrase is one of the most common occurrences。
So the correct answer is "我看了很长时间书" or "我看书看了很长时间”。

If you still don't understand this grammar point, I recommond you to buy one or two good Chinese grammar book, this articel tells you the best Chinese grammar book.http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/article/chinese-learning-tips/best-chinese-grammar-book/


Does this article claim that Australian citizens of Chinese ethnicity are seeking asylum in China to flee COVID-19? (大多数华裔恐怕只是把中国当成了一处避难所而已)

Yes. This article claims that Australian citizens of Chinese ethnicity are seeking asylum in China to flee COVID-19 and yet they failed.

很大程度上 in this sentence means "in a considerable degree". So 很大程度上是因为 can be translated as "this is largely because ... "
只是 …… 而已 means "it's just ... ".
恐怕 is an adverb in this sentence which indicates very likely speculation that means "perhaps" and "maybe", not a verb meaning "afraid" or "fear".

Here are some more examples of 恐怕 as an adverb.

  天恐怕要下雨了

  It looks like it’s going to rain.

  他的英语恐怕是说得最好的了。

  He probably speaks the best English.


Grammatically, the completion is not only for verbs but also for adjectives.  In your example 快了, 快 is an adj. Another example might be easier to understand.  苹果红了,  apples turned red.  苹果熟了 is a similar example.
Here is the dictionary definition about this usage of 了.

了 / le /
助词
1
（用在动词或形容词后， 表示动作或变化已经完成）:
read twice;
读了两遍
Apples got red.

苹果红了。

And the official 新华字典 has the similar definition:

了

助词

放在动词或形容词后，表示动作变化已经完成: 买~一本书 | 水位低~一米。


What does 别把这天的彩虹, 放在明天的天空 mean?

别把这天的彩虹放在明天的天空

Don't take today's rainbow and put it on tomorrow's sky.

It should mean something like:

If you are happy now, it doesn't mean you will still be happy in the future.
If things are good now, it doesn't mean they will still be in the future.

Or simply:
Things change.


Read 串 then 串儿, a bit like 麻辣烫 on sticks!


给 is one of these verbs that can also be a preposition (which is quite confusing when you are not used to it). When there is no other verb near to it, it means to give.
Some examples:

给我勇气: give me courage
把钥匙给我: give me the key
叔叔给他一支笔: uncle gave/gives him a pen
杭州给我的印象很好: Literally: Hangzhou gave me a good impression, a better sentence: I was impressed by Hangzhou
我们给敌人一个沉重的打击: We gave the enemy a serious blow

Together with another verb it often becomes a preposition (with implicit meaning of giving something to somebody). Some examples:

我给妻子做早餐: I made breakfast for my wife (= I gave my wife breakfast)
给他看看照片: Let him see the photos
留给他: leave it to him
递给我: pass it to me
送给他: to give him (as a present)
他给我们当翻译: he will be our translator
有事给我打电话: if there is a problem, give me a phone call

There are some other verbs (I already used them in the examples meaning to give). For example

送 (typically used when you give a present)
递 (to hand over)
提供 (to give, to provide + opportunity，surprise，shock，job)

These can be used together with 给in two ways: 送给他礼物 or 给他送礼物, but you can also say 送他礼物.

For your apple example, often depending on the context an extra verb will be added, but you can also say it without. So you can say:

我 给 朋友苹果 (in many contexts this sentence will sound as it is not finished).
我 送给 朋友苹果
我 给 朋友 送 苹果
我 递给 朋友苹果
我 给 朋友 递 苹果
...


If you are backward you will take a beating

I think, "落后就要挨打" is the best answer.

This was first said by Stalin, in 1931, but it has been widely cited in PRC. Deng Xiaoping also quoted.


How to say "this?" interjection in chinese?

Yes, 什么？ 这个？ is correct.

You could also say something like:

你说的是这个？ (are you talking about this?) to clarify that what they're talking about is in fact the candy.


According to David Prager Branner (林德威) in A Guide to Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tonal Spelling of Chinese it is just an ad hoc rule:

  The name of the city of Rome and words derived from it are to be spelled "Roma", even though they are pronounced (and ought to be spelled) Luomaa. Hence the name of this system of Romanization is spelled Romatzyh, not *Luomaatzyh.

Yuen Ren Chao was a great linguist, and in my opinion a great man.  But developing a romanization single handed is too much for anyone.  Apparently, on this point he felt an attachment to  Rome and its cognates.


另當別論 : 另, 別 superfluous? What does 當 add?

另 (adv) 當 (v) 別 (adj) 論 (n)
另當別論 =  treat separately as a different issue = (it is an exception)
Example:
雖然只有工作人員可以進入後台，但有VIP通行證的客人另當別論 - Although only staff can enter the backstage, people with a VIP pass is an exception


Why is 把 in 我去洗把脸 (wǒ qù xǐ bǎ liǎn) = I'm going to wash my face?

把 is used as 量词 (measure word) here.

三、“把”还可以表示动作的次数和量。大部分用于手的动作，如：拉、帮、推、拽、搭、抓等，后面都可以用“把”，用法跟“次”“下”“回”相近。
可是，在现代汉语中，表示动作的量的意义有所扩展，这些动作与手关系不大。
如：表现一把、玩一把、练一把等，时下最流行的一个词就是“过把瘾”。

It's usually used in spoken language, has similar meaning with 次/下. So 洗把脸 is similar to 洗一次脸/洗一下脸, but sounds more vivid and direct.


Why does 十全十美 mean complete and beautiful?

Perhaps you were misled by the 美, thinking, naturally, it has something to do with a thing of beauty / being beautiful and so on. Not quite so as explained below.

First, "十", 10, here acts as a qualifier on 全 to indicate a 10 on a whole, (全), scale of 10.

In other words to describe a desired state of "perfection", "completeness", "flawless", i.e. 10 upon 10.

Like 他在每件事上都追求十全十美的结果 -- He seeks perfect results in all matters.

The 美, like "beautiful" in English usage has meanings beyond beautiful in looks; like 美妙, (wonderful), 美味, (delicious) So the 美 in 十全十美 indicates an absolutely positive, "beautiful", conclusion to whatever matters undertaken.


How to translate game difficulty level terminology: "noob level", "mature level", "mad level"

Noob level - 菜鸟级别
Mature level - 成熟级别
Mad level - 疯狂级别

You might want to wait for some other answers as people here are creative~


This is only a pronunciation variation in spoken Chinese. Most untrained Chinese people may not even notice the difference between them.

There is no difference between the two variations in your examples.

It's like asking what is the difference between "I'm going to do ..." and "I'm gonna do ...".

Note: There are word that would carry different meaning using neutral tone or not. E.g, 东西 means "east and west" when pronounced as "dōngxī" (without neutral tone), and means "thing" when pronounced as "dōngxi" (with neutral tone).
In a dictionary, a word that must be pronounced with a neutral tone will be explicitly noted with a neutral tone.


I cannot think of any epenthesis (增音) examples in Mandarin, but it exists in some dialects of Chinese. Here are some examples in Beijing dialect, from this webpage: 教育部语言文字应用研究所 - 普通话语音和北京语音的界限.

1) 增加声母：

  这儿 “儿” er-her
  女儿 nǚ'er-nǚher （或变为nǚhuor）

2) 增加韵尾：

  把水倒净 “把” bǎ-bǎi
  闭上嘴 “闭” bì-bìn
  枳棘 “棘” ji-jin
  八下里（各方面） “下”xià-xiàn
  告诉 “诉” su-song

3) 增加介音：

  一般儿大（同样大） “般” bān-biān
  动撼（动） “撼” han-huan（或更变hun）
  凑合 “合” he-huo

I think the third case is close to what you are looking for (though it's a dialect but not Mandarin), where additional segments are inserted between initials and finals.

Relevant experiences

I've met many people who will possibly do a similar thing due to they find it hard to pronounce some particular words in a standard way. However, even they know they are inserting syllables, some of them still think that they are speaking Mandarin rather than a dialect. But who can tell? I have no idea how to clearly draw the line.


Where can I find more cartoon videos like BBC's Muzzy for a young child to learn Mandarin?

I think you mean Muzzy? I've never seen that show, but I do have a 5 year old and I regularly let him watch videos from CCTV's official video site which has full length episodes of things like Thomas and Friends in Chinese Mandarin.

My recommendation is to show your child 小小智慧树 link to video page here. This is a popular children's TV show in China and is educational, directed at younger children and has quite simple dialogue. Each episode also has a simple song and poem which my son found easy to sing along with.

On the video page you will notice their are videos marked 《小小智慧树》 followed by a date e.g. 20120928. These are the full length episodes.

I find showing my son these shows are much more valuable than having him stare blankly at cartoons as they encourage participation via dance, song and activities.


Translating song lyrics: SHE Starlight 2 verses

Missing or omitted:

Line 1: "也許是你笑的弧度和我(的)很像 "

**the possessive marker 的 is omitted,

我= I /  我的 (with object)= my / 我的 (without object)= mine

Line 2: "(我們)才會背靠著背一起等天光"

** The subject pronoun "我們"(us) is omitted,
In Chinese, we omit pronoun whenever possible.

Break down:

[1.也許是] [2. 你笑的弧度] [3. 和我(的)很像]

[1.may be it is because] [2. the curvature of your (mouth) (when you) smile] [3.is very similar to mine ]

** they simile like each other, imply their personalities are similar too.

[4.(我們) 才會] [5.背靠著背] [6.一起] [7.等天光]

[4. that made us] [ 5.back pressing against each others back] [6.together] [7.waiting for dawn]

** It is a graphic description of a couple sit closely together in darkness and just let time pass. (supposedly a romantic scene.)


辯論 means to debate.
吵架 means to quarrel.

They both mean to argue, but 辯論 is more about presenting logical arguments in a cool, calm and collected manner in an attempt to derive a conclusion from an intellectual problem, while 吵架 is a chaotic and emotional argument with people getting upset.


Is it possible that "那裏是吾家" was intended to be "哪裏是吾家?"?

My take from the context of the overall lyrics is that 那 is correct.

The starting line sets the basic premise for the song 足跡遍天下, (an itinerant traveler, not a sojourner)

Then you have 始終找不到吾家, (still unable to find my or rather a home for himself; the operative word here is 始終; he didn't have a home, he was searching for one)

Finally, 啊！萬千燈火透廣廈, 啊！那裏是吾家, (Ah!, the bright lights of HK?; Ah!, that's my home) The clue here is the joyful 啊! It is indicative that he has at long last, after all the wanderings, searching and longing found or "adopted" HK as his home or rather, poignantly in such cases, his final resting place.

Perhaps the idea that it may have been intended to be 哪 came about because the first part of the song does indicate asking for "where" But the ending of the song finally resolves the hitherto ambiguous issue by saying, 啊！萬千燈火透廣廈, 啊！那裏是吾家, (Ah!, where the bright lights are, that's my home)

Finally, listen to him sing. There isn't any rising inquisitive tone when vocalizing 那 which would be the case if it is actually a question, a 哪.


thrust as in hip thrust is often translated as:

  冲刺

Hip thrust for instance can be translated as 臀部冲刺. A movement that is pretty similar to the “humping the air”.

Dog humping their owners can be translated as 爬. Which might be more appropriate for the guy at the club.


Help me please to identify this Chinese plant/dish?

It's difficult to translate names of Chinese dishes into English, because of the huge differences between Chinese and Western cuisine.

The dish featured on the page is called:

凉拌贡菜 (liangban gongcai),
character by character:

凉 cold
拌 to toss (salad)
贡 to tribute
菜 dish

So it's basically a salad that is served cold.

The main ingredient is known as 贡菜 (gong cai) in Chinese, which is sometimes also written as 'gong choi' or 'yamakurage' (Japanese name).

If I am wrong, do correct me.

EDIT: There are some nice photos out there on the dish (gongcai salad) and on the cultivation of gongcai, as well.


Need an API to convert Pinyin to Simplified Chinese characters

Based on Google  transliteration API:
https://www.google.com/intl/en/inputtools/services/features/transliteration.html

You can use http request "https://www.google.com/inputtools/request?ime=pinyin&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&app=translate&num=10&text=wozaixuezhongwen" to convert text "wozaixuezhongwen" to "我在学中文" (I am learning Chinese)

so you can use any language (Python, JavaScript, Java, ...) to send the http request and read the response, and build you own application flexibility.


What's the difference between 词典, 辞典, and 字典?

字典 means dictionary of characters. A common 汉字字典 should contain ~8000 entries for each Chinese character. In each character entry, it's often to see example words or short phrases using that character. So, it's common to see a 汉字字典 is used as a 汉语词典.

词典 means dictionary of words. So, each entry of a 汉语词典 is a word. Generally 汉语词典 is sorted in alphabetic order in Chinese characters, so it's common to see a 汉语词典 is used as a 汉字字典.

So, in China, there's not too much difference between 汉字字典 and 汉语词典. But the book of 汉语词典 is mostly thicker then 汉字字典.

辞典 means dictionary of phrases. Generally, 辞 may refer to some famous, well known phrases said by some dead guys or famous man. Well, like I've said it's not too much differences between 词典 and 辞典, but a book of 汉语辞典 is mostly thicker then a 汉语词典. You can also expect that a 汉语大辞典 is thicker then a 汉语辞典.

In English, it will be something like:

English 字典： (26 entries)

A    This is the first letter.
B    This is the second letter.
...
Z    This is the last letter.

English 词典:

A        Indefinite article. Also the first letter. e.g. a cat.
Apple    A kind of fruit. Green or red.
Cat      A white animal. two ears, four legs.
...

English 辞典:

Rain cats and dogs: A very big rain. Its rain drop is as big as cat or dog.

(Most 汉语辞典s include words and characters entries as well.)


What about the orthography of 苹 (like in 苹果)? It seems consensus is missing

From a Unicode perspective it is the same character. Depending on the font and the environment you are using it may look different. Take for instance a look at the code charts of Unicode 12:

As can be seen above the Chinese and Japanese tend to write the same character slightly differently.

If you check what font and language that is used on Duolingo, you will probably find a Japanese version.


Is there an proverb or saying in English for '叶公好龙'?

葉公好龍 http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/3/11/2/n404356.htm
從這個故事演變的成語“葉公好龍”常用來比喻人說一套，做一套，口是心非

In English, it is similar to " talk the talk, but not walk the walk' meaning someone's words doesn't match his action' (說一套，做一套)


How to say something is "an acquired taste" in Chinese?

The English expression acquired taste refers to the nature of the taste being perhaps unpleasant on first taste, while one becomes habituated to like it through exposure, hence the acquiring. I would prefer a rendition such as:

可能需要慢慢地适应。
要慢慢来才会欣赏。

An idiom can be appropriate as a pithy reply:

一回生，二回熟。


How to form a relative clause with a 是 in it?

Unlike in English, in Chinese, an attributive clause is not long in general. Instead, we prefer to a subject-detail stucture over the sentence-attributive cluase structure.

In your case, if you insist on an attributive, you can say

  我选的是考试（形式）是谈话的课程
  What I take is classes whose tests (forms) are conversations".

This is correct, however, more naturally, I would say:

  我选的课程，其(它的)考试形式是谈话。
  The classes I take, whose (their) test forms are conversations.

Here, you first propose a topic/subject - 我选的课程, and then you start explaining its details. This is how Chinese language organizes the sentence structure.

Notes:

I think the verb "take" in your case means "to choose/pick/select/participate in". The verb "采取" (to adopt/use/take) generally precedes nouns like 方法(method)，措施(measure),方案(plan).
I think "考试形式(test forms)" sounds more natural.
pay attention to the word "其"，it's a formal word used like "which/whose" as in an attributive clause in English. You can use it as a pronoun in the cluase to avoid mentioning the subject repeatly.


不客气 is a polite way of acknowledging someone's compliment or thanks. Although it literally translates to "don't be polite", once you consider some equivalent phrases, it's meaning becomes clear.

Equivalents in Chinese:

不用谢 - (no need to thank [me])
别客气

Equivalents in English:

You're too kind
Don't mention it
Not at all


When a sentence ends with '来了', is it the aspectual or modal particle 了?

“来” is an action. So it is aspectual. It indicates the action has ended.

“来” is not a situation. Although a situation that "I am here" can be inferred from the fact that the action of coming (来) has ended. So it is not an indication of new situation.

You can say "我在了", in which the "了" is modal. "在" here indicates a (new) situation.


How do I say "Have you spoken to A about B yet?"

你跟父母說了我要在你家留宿的事沒有?

The question above should suffice.


It's the IPA diacritic for the nasal release from a stopped consonant:
Quoting right from that Wikipedia page:

That is, the /d/ is released directly into the /n/: [ˈsʌdⁿn̩].

Where [ˈsʌdⁿn̩] is the IPA transcription of the English word "sudden", where the blocked air flow from the articulation of /d/ is released through the nose (you should feel it vibrating in your pharynx).
For those who don't have the font installed, I believe the character in the OP is:


尝 basically means to taste something.

尝一尝 = to have a taste of something

Usually it is used quite literally, i.e.: to do with flavors and tastes of edibles.

Here is an example sentence from New Century E-C:

  很多人出于习惯往食物里加盐, 都不先尝一尝。
  Many people add salt to their food out of habit, without even tasting it first.

You can find a bunch of examples from TV show subtitles here:

  Yeah? Take a taste.
  尝一尝

  you can taste it
  你可以尝一尝

etc.

试 on the other hand means try.

试一试 = to have a try at something

Here is an example sentence from New Century E-C:

  这有点儿不靠谱, 但我想我会试一试。
  It's a bit far-fetched but I thought I would give it a shot.


What are the normal forms of valediction (signing off letters and emails) in Chinese?

謹上 or 敬上 is fairly common. Your own name precede this closing term, contrary to English.


It's been a week since the middle exam is over

What do you mean by "middle exam"? If you mean the second of three, then I'd say 第二个考试以后已经过了一个星期的时间


Not pressing the "save" button has nothing to do with your test results, because everything you wrote is auto-saved the moment you finish the test. I actually passed the same test without pressing that with a score of 196... so feel comfortable!


First, you should write hanzi "横平竖直" and "有棱有角".
Second, you can correct the structure of the word "心". Usually, we don't handwrite it like that.

Third, you can zoom out the word "翼".
Hope these are useful to you.


Look up 宅男，宅女， that will point you in the right direction.

我是足不出户的半宅体?
I'm a never-goes-out kind of half a nerd.


摔: stress on the power, usually for human and animal stumbled, or things thrown by people.

落: a process, usually slow

掉: lost control, stress on the difference from the original position and new position,

So a plane landing successfully could be 落下 from sky, if the plane get some troubles and fall down, that could be 掉下 from sky.

A famous quote 天上掉下个林妹妹 from 红楼梦, 林妹妹 is a girl in case you don't know 红楼梦, she was a immortal live in heaven.

What if 天上落下个林妹妹, then 林妹妹 might use some magic to land on the earth. That is a common scene in a fantasy novel.

What if 天上摔下个林妹妹, a funny scene, imagine she walks on the heaven, then stumbled then hit the ground by head...

But 天上掉下个林妹妹, weird and unbelievable things happened, a beautiful girl fall from heaven and stand just in front of you.


How to wish people good health, etc during Chinese New Year 揮春 | 春貼 | 門聯、春仔

This is an incredibly broad question; books can be written on the subject. Because of this and I'm not an expert Chinese language user either, I'll only answer using broad generalisations (and exceptions will apply to everything I write here).

The contents

These are the words and phrases commonly used during Chinese New Year:

General well-wishes: as an important holiday, universal well-wishing themes can be used. Happiness (如意吉祥), prosperity (財源廣進), health (身壯力健), luck and success (心想事成) are all acceptable.
Chinese-specific wishes: as the festival is deeply intertwined with Chinese culture, culture-specific well-wishes are also good. Themes that are characteristic of Chinese culture include longevity (壽), harmony/serenity (四季平安) and national/cultural well-wishing (國泰民安).
CNY-specific wishes: CNY is known in Chinese as the "spring festival", so you can use the theme of spring/renewal (萬象更新); CNY is a time of family reunion so there's the theme of family/reunion (家和万事兴); according to traditional Chinese culture, everyone ages together during CNY (as opposed to the Western practice of individual birthdays), so age or birth related themes are sometimes seen; Zodiac-related phrases are also popular, for example this year is the year of the horse, so phrases with a horse (or a homonym) have been popular (马上有钱).

The forms

Chinese culture loves symmetry so the most common forms are power-of-two length phrases (4 characters, 2 characters, 8 characters). Couplets are also symmetrical in that the two lines mirror each other. Odd-numbered phrases are rare. Here are the most common forms:

Single character: by far the most common is 福 (happiness), and sometimes placed upside-down in order to invoke the phrase ‘福’倒了 / 福到了 (the ‘福’ is upside-down / happiness has arrived). Other commonly used single characters include 春 and 壽.
Four characters: four is a great number for symmetry so you see this form a lot, especially in chengyu. However, many 4-character 揮春 are not chengyu but simply phrases that are CNY-related.
Couplets: these days, couplets are most commonly used as 揮春. Basically, 春贴 are couplets that use CNY-themed phrases. There's a number of rules they have to follow which I won't cover in this answer, but the basic form is two symmetrical lines plus an optional 横批 that summarises; the 横批 is typically 4 characters.

So what should I use?

Although there are few hard and fast rules to follow, if you have to ask then you should avoid coming up with your own! It's somewhat like poetry, creative but it takes a high level of language proficiency to make good ones yourself. Here's my suggestions:

Use the most common, general phrases. These also tend to be the mass-produced ones. It may seem boring but most people do it anyway so you're in good company. I mean things like the single 福 or 恭喜發財, the ones that are never inappropriate. It's not a love letter, you don't need to impress anyone with your creativity.
Tailor to the recipient. As all well-wishing goes, personal touch almost always trumps all else. Health/longevity (长命富贵) for the elderly, profit/prosperity (生意兴隆) for entrepreneurs, growth (快高长大) for small children and so on. This is a great way to be creative, but just be careful you understand the phrases and don't commit faux pas (like 早生贵子 for unmarried/bachelors).
Find experts for bespoke phrases. Normally this is overkill, but if the occasion is very special (like a wedding, or business opening) and you have to use original phrases, get an expert. Even most native Chinese speakers find this difficult to do, or at least do it well.


Can 使劲 only be used for physical effort?

使 = utilize/ apply
劲 = force / power
'使劲' as a verb means 'apply force' ; as an adverb, it means  'forcefully';  Since 'forcefully' is an adverb that modifies action verbs,  it is mainly be used for describing physical effort.
For example: 使劲打(forcefully hit), 使劲拉(forcefully pull)

how does its usage differ from 尽量?

使劲 is an adverb for 'forcefully'

尽量 is an adverb for 'to the greatest extent / as far as possible'.

For example: '尽量不让人知道' (go to the greatest extent not letting people know)

'使劲' and '尽量' are not very similar in meaning

May be you were thinking of '尽力' (with all of one's strength) which can be used to describe physical effort, similar to '使劲' .
For example: '尽力打' (hit with all your might),  '尽力拉' (pull with full strength)
In this sense, '使劲' and '尽力' are very similar.
But 尽力 can also be used metaphorically for 'do one's best' or 'try one's best'
For example: '尽力忍笑' (do one's best not to laugh)

Finally, '用力' (用= utilize/ use) (力 = force/strength) is synonym to '使劲'
出力 (出 = output /use) (力 = force/strength) is also a synonym


书法学习是一件怡养身心的事，可以给人带来无穷的乐趣。
Studying calligraphy can nurture/nourish both body and mind, and can bring endless pleasure.

頤養/颐养 and 怡养 are both valid words, but their meanings are slightly different.
颐养：
Wiktionary defines 颐养 as

(literary) to maintain one's health; to keep fit

And 《现代汉语词典》（第七版）defines it as

〈书〉保养：颐养天年。 | (literary) to maintain (one's health). e.g. 颐养天年

怡养：
Neither Wiktionary nor 《现代汉语词典》includes this word, but it does exist. According to this page, it emerged as far back as 200 AD. It means:

和乐。

《文选·嵇康＜琴赋＞》：“若和平者听之，则怡养悦悆，淑穆玄真。” 李善 注引《广雅》：“养，乐也。”

犹保养，休养。

南朝 梁 何逊 《入西塞示南府同僚》诗：“情游乃落魄，得性随怡养。”《旧唐书·丘和传》：“ 和时年已衰老，乃拜稷州刺史，以是本乡，令自怡养。” 宋 林逋 《山阁偶书》诗：“餘生多病期怡养，聊此栖迟一避喧。”

犹陶冶。

茅盾 《官舱里》：“‘哦，丝竹是能够怡养性子的。极好，极好！’老先生也郑重地赞叹着。”

which is probably where you find your explanation, or where it comes from.
But please note that the chance that you see the word used to mean the first sense listed ("和乐") in modern days, even in written form, is infinitesimal. It's a very archaic usage; the author of the prose containing the example sentence was 嵇康, who lived in 三国时期 (the era of Three Kingdoms). As you can see, the expression already required a footnote to explain it in Tang Dynasty, when 李善 lived.
In its second sense, it's the same as 颐养.
Its third sense is the sense that's used in your example: 陶冶, meaning "to cultivate; to train; to mould someone's character" (Wiktionary). The example sentence came from a modern writer.

From my own experience, both words, 怡养 and 颐养, are still somewhat common in written Chinese, but less used colloquially. Both words are literary and very unproductive when forming phrases, especially 颐养, which you'll almost only encounter in the words 頤養天年/颐养天年 and 頤養精神/颐养精神, or some variants of the latter, unless the author's writing style calls for it.
Also, some four-character phrases are in the form of 怡/颐A养B. e.g. 怡情养性, 颐神养性(variants 颐神养气, 颐神养寿). Some of them can sometimes be seen in the form of 颐养AB, e.g. 颐养神性, but less often.


What's the Chinese Converse of English "Engrish"?

I don't think there's a sweeping term for that and I don't think the word Engrish is actually a term either.

But here is something might humour you.

伦敦音: London accent. It's actually from a 相声(Chinese Stand-up comedy) piece. Basically means the way of English speaker trying to say Chinese but can not get the rhyme and all the tones right. And to add humour effect, both 伦 and 敦 are pronounced in flat tone.


it’s time to try the 異體字字典, maintained by the ministry of education, taiwan
https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/home.do
the second character is explained as:

1.表皮剝落、破損。見《玉篇．皮部》。

2.皮壞。見《集韻．入聲．沒韻》。

https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/word_attribute.rbt?quote_code=QzA4MTQ2
have fun :)


Decipher particular short cursive inscription (is it really 习近平's signature?)

That's 習近平 (Xi Jinping)'s signature. Just written in Traditional Chinese characters.

EDIT:

This is Xi's signature on his dissertation (Doctor of Laws):


Where is the right place of the 的 in this sentence

我的西班牙语只学了半年 or 我只学了半年的西班牙语

我的= my (the 的 after 我 denote possessive)

半年的 = half year of (the 的 after 半年 is an adjectival suffix that turn 半年 into a relative phrase of 学~西班牙语 )


http://www.zdic.net/z/1d/sw/70CF.htm

  孝鳥也。象形

  乌 was a pictograph of a crow (烏鴉) . Since crow is black, the character 乌 was sometimes used as an adjective for 'dark' , 'black', or a verb for 'to blacken'  in classical text.

~

  火所熏之色也

  黑 was a pictograph that depicted  'object being burned by fire' . It was used to represent the color 'black'.  This meaning remain unchanged today.

In modern Chinese, 黑 is the primary word for 'black'(noun or adjective); 乌 is used for 'black' or 'dark'  only in some set phrases , idioms and names

Examples:

烏煙瘴氣- black smoke and miasma

烏雲 - dark cloud

烏衣 - classical version of 黑衣 (black clothes)


What is the meaning of 元亨利贞 in the I-Ching?

As with many ancient texts, this line can not only have different meanings, but also there have been different reasons for people to interpret it differently throughout history. Therefore, it is probably not helpful to say one translation is "correct" and another is "incorrect" but rather just understand that there have been multiple variations of understandings of this line throughout the past.
I did find this paper by 杨 平 Yang Ping from Zhejiang Foreign Language University  that discusses different ways this line can be interpreted in Chinese, as well as translations that have been used in the past. In the beginning, the author talks a bit about how the use of punctuation could alter the meaning of this phrase significantly, but then they go on to explain more explicitly different ways this line could be understood.
This author suggests that there are three major ways this phrase has been understood by Chinese scholars and English translations have also followed these three major lines of thinking for understanding by emphasizing divination, morals, or philosophy.
Divination Translation
Those that emphasize divination say that since the ZhouYi is mostly used for divination, the word "zhen" refers to the character that denotes oracle bone readings and offerings and translate it accordingly. English translations like this include

Redmond: "Qian Heaven（The Creative）begins with an offering； beneficial to divine."
Shaughnessy: who translated "元亨" as original receipt and "利贞" as beneficial to divine
Rutt "Supreme offering. Divination Favourable."

Moral Translation
Around the Spring and Autumn period, people became more interested in moral ethics and philosophy and these four characters became the basis for what is known as the "four virtues." The earliest evidence of a moral interpretation like this is in the Zuo Zhuan. Examples that use this interpretation include:

Legge "Khien （represents）what is great and originating， penetrating， advantageous， correct and firm"
Wilhelm "The creative works sublime success/furthering through perseverance"
*Lynn "Fundamentality， prevalence， fitness and constancy"
*Lee
"What is great and originating，” “What is penetrating，” “What is advantageous，” “What is correct and firm."

Philosophic Translation
A more modern scholar, Cheng Zhongying has argued that this is not just a book of divination, but rather a book of Chinese philosophy promoting a way of life. As such, he has translated these four characters as "creation，prospering，facilitating，preserving." This adaptation has also been accepted into English translations in the following:

Minford "Supreme Fortune.Profitable.Steadfast"  in one place, and "Supreme Fortune.Sacrifice Received.Profitable Augury" later in the book.


Why is it possible to replace 都 with 也 in 什么都没有?

什麼都 can be used in both positive and negative statements while 什麼也 is usually used in negative statements. So, instead of focusing on the usage of 也 here, 什麼都 and 什麼也 can be regarded as phrases which are sometimes used interchangeably.

For example:

  我們以為什麼都知道，而實際上什麼也不知道。/ 我们以为什么都知道，而实际上什么也不知道。

One possible translation:

  We thought we knew/know everything but, in fact, we knew/know nothing at all.

So, it's ok to say (although the above example would read better):

  我們以為什麼都知道，而實際上*什麼都*不知道。/ 我们以为什么都知道，而实际上*什么都*不知道。

but odd to say:

  我們以為*什麼也*知道，而實際上什麼也不知道。/ 我们以为*什么也*知道，而实际上什么也不知道。


You'd better refer to these links:
https://www.zhihu.com/question/20010669/answer/26173785
https://www.zhihu.com/question/22107477/answer/20311667
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%AC%BB#Etymology
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%A7%B6%A0#Chinese

The word {congee} was first denoted by  (here 毓 denotes its pronunciation and 䰜 stands for cooking utensils) and later the character developed into 鬻(鬻≠粥+鬲，鬻=米+䰜). Finally it was simplified to 粥.

Both 粥 and 鬻 could be used to denote the word {sell}. As dROOOze pointed out,
this use is nothing but a phonetic loan for .  stills exists as a phonetic complement in many characters like 續贖讀櫝 (its glyph form becomes resembling 賣mài but they are etymologically unrelated).

As the history developed the usage of 鬻 to mean {sell} was fixed and 粥 became only used to mean {congee}.

The use of 鬻 to mean {sell} is seen as traditional Chinese today and hence only appears in idiomatic uses.

Examples in ancient Chinese:
楚人有鬻楯與矛者。 There was a person in Chu state who was selling shields and lances.
我世世為洴澼絖，不過數金；今一朝而鬻技百金，請與之。We have been bleaching cocoon-silk for generations, and have only gained a little money. Now in one morning (=at once, immediately) we can sell [to this man] our art (the way to make a salve which kept the hands from getting chapped) for a hundred ounces - let me give (sell the art) to him(=let him have it).


Where can I find a list of (acceptable) 连读 words?

Some have been crystallized in the spelling:
- 别 < 不要 (when used as a negative imperative)
- 甭 < 不用 (it's even explicit in the character!)
- 啦 < 了啊
- 这/那 as zhei/nei < 这一/那一 (zhe yi / na yi)
There are probably others, plus all the Classical Chinese ones mentioned by Tang Ho.

When it comes to ones that have not been represented in writing:
- A very common one I can think of is 多少钱, in which 多少 easily becomes "duo'ao" (or more likely, "dwao").
- 这样子 is also commonly pronounced as "zhiangzi".
- 不要 is often "b'yao", which has a character 嫑 biao2 which I've absolutely never seen used

Some characters also suggest that the following contractions exist, although they seem to be dialectal and I've never seen/heard them used:
- 嘦 < 只要 jiao4
- 覅 < 勿要 fiao4
- 孬 < 不要 nao1


What is the true pinyin pronunciation for this radical?

The glyph「丨」is called gǔn as a dictionary radical, and appears in most dictionaries including the Kangxi Dictionary, Xinhua Zidian, and Xiandai Hanyu Cidian. It is a homograph of the character stroke shù, which just means vertical (line), but this name is not the proper one used when referring to the radical.

The pronunciation of「丨」can be verified in e.g. the Kangxi Dictionary:

  「丨」, Jiyun: Fanqie initial gǔ and rime běn.

Characters which are grouped under「丨」commonly are done so because they couldn't be easily grouped under something else. The vast majority of these characters have a vertical stroke as a prominent feature in the character, and this is about all that they share.

The following are the only commonly used characters which are grouped under「丨」:

个, 丫, 中, 丰, 串, 临

As @dan mentioned, many people wouldn't understand what exactly this radical is (myself included, before I looked this up), because in general, radicals are not an intrinsic feature of Chinese characters. The most meaningful radicals also happen to be useful phonetic or semantic indicators, but not all radicals are, and there are a few "leftover" radicals that were created for the sake of grouping characters which can't be grouped under other radicals, such as「丨」,「丶」(zhǔ) and「丿」(piě).

To reiterate, these radicals are just shapes, and don't really mean or sound like anything to do with the characters that are grouped under them.


I can give you a real life scenario that illustrates this.
Some ten (?) years ago, the government of a certain place tried to pass a law that might infringe on citizens' right. When a high level government official was asked whether more discussions and consultation with the general public was necessary, she said something like this: (sorry I don't remember the exact wording, but it was to the effect) "Do you think taxi-drivers and cleaning ladies will have any interest or contribution to this?" Now if that is not condescension, I don't know what is. Needless to say, there was a huge outrage.


What is the character missing in 「好吃jing」?

I would suggest 「好吃精」 (Mandarin Pinyin: hàochī jīng), where 「精」 is short for something like 「妖精」 (demon). 「好吃精」 then means glutton demon.
See also https://baike.baidu.com/item/好吃鬼, where 「好吃精」 is listed as a synonym.


幺 is used formally in the PRC, as in 幺女, 幺妹, 幺三五, meaning "one" or "youngest".

Therefore, it is part of the simplified script, but it was never simplified to begin with. It is a standard character. 说文 says: 小也。通俗文曰。不長曰幺。細小曰麼。許無麼字。象子初生之形。子初生，甚小也。俗謂一爲幺。亦謂晚生子爲幺。皆謂其小也。於堯切。二部。凡幺之屬皆从幺。

康熙字典 also describes this character, and adds at the very end: 俗作么

么 is therefore an 异体字 that seems to have been normalized within the traditional script, at least as it is used in Taiwan and other locations. It is also used in China, though, as in 么妹. 么 in China is of course the interrogative particles "me" or "ma" in its own right.

It is 么麼 in traditional, but 幺麽 (or even 幺么) in simplified.

This is gonna bake your noodle further: note how the traditional 么 is part of the simplified 麽, whereas the simplified 幺 is part of the traditional 麼.


How do we reconcile the different definitions for 弊端 in the HSK Standard Course 6上 ("disadvantage" etc.) and CC-CEDICT ("malpractice" etc.)?

I suggest we have a look at some Chinese dictionaries.
现代汉语规范词典 (GF) has this:
弊端
bìduān
名 由于制度上或工作中的漏洞而引发的有害的事情
管理不严酿成弊端。

I don't find this particularly helpful. Whereas 现代汉语大词典 (XHD) has this:
弊端
bì duān
1 弊病产生的原因。如：消除弊端。
2 弊病。如：种种弊端, 不胜枚举。

My TL;DR translation is: "that which causes 弊病; 弊病" (omitting the sample sentences which again aren't so helpful here). So this definition is based around 弊病. From this we can fairly safely say that 弊病 and 弊端 have similar meanings and are near-synonyms (近义词). It turns out that CC-CEDICT has this for 弊病:
弊病
bìbìng
1 malady
2 evil
3 malpractice
4 drawback
5 disadvantage

And so we have both meanings: drawback/disadvantage, and malpractice.
My conclusion is that here we have some 弊端/shortcomings in both the HSK 6 definitions and in CC-CEDICT.
It seems that 弊端 is poorly translated in general. The only Western dictionary I have on my Pleco that has both of these meanings is CC-CFDICT (Chinese to French).
Edit (2021-03-27): The CC-CEDICT definition has been updated. The new definition is simply: "systemic problem (sometimes refers specifically to corrupt practices)". The CC-CEDICT  editor gave some interesting analysis in the change log for the updated CC-CEDICT definition, and commented: "
I think our current definition was probably adequate for the way 弊端 was used 50 or 60 years ago, but the meaning has evidently become broader over recent decades, and dictionaries haven't kept up with the change."


What difference(s) does it make to use the citation tone instead of the neutral tone, for the tail character in these words?

The difference would be the degree of correctness. Certain words must have no citation. Certain words must have.  And certain words are in between.

If you come to China, you will hear correct version and wrong version as well based on what province, what city you are. The reason is 1/ oral language is free style. 2/ dialect influence.

Based on what you give, I'll give you a reference to what Beijing people are speaking:

  队伍, 成分4, 身分4, 才力4, 亮堂, 好处4, 种子, 妥当4, 爽快4, 痛快4, 记性, 出息4, 佩服, 分析1, 哈欠,
  寒毛2*, 活泼1, 鼻涕4, 道理3, 滑稽, 考究4, 讲究4, 打算4, 正经3*, 裁缝, 得罪4, 意识 (and also意识
  形态4), 熟识2, 见识2, 体谅4, 兴趣4, [东/西/南/前/后/那/上/下/头/里/外/左/右]边1, 知道4, 父亲1 and
  困难4.

Only number - it's ok to have that citation
With * - It must have the citation

Take 正经 for example, I would never ignore the citation on the tail. I won't understand it if the tail is not in 3rd tone. The 3rd citation tone must apply here. It means "serious, gentleman, not-fooling-around".

Take 成分 for example, it's ok if you give no tone to the tail but even you say you give no tone, there is still a bit of 4th tone, just not quite as strong as normal. So does all the so-called neutral tone at tail like "好吧，吃了，没了，呆着"


The, new, Outliers dictionary provides some insight as to how 寫 became 写:

FORM
写 is shorthand for 寫. The top part, 冖, is a common abbreviation for 宀. The bottom part is a shorthand abbreviation for 舄 (see the diagram below for how that works).

which is referenced from:

邵源、邵冠勇，2010《簡化漢字解說》，济南：齐鲁书社 2010年12月第一版。

It also continues:

COMPONENTS
冖
In 写, 冖 is an empty component. It was originally 宀 “building,” a meaning component, hinting at the original meaning “to move something from one location to another.”

The simplified version is just simply old shorthand that was in turn made into a Chinese simplified character.


Greeting in an Email Autoresponse: 您好， 亲爱的 or something else?

The simplest and safest way:

您好，

If your email auto response included name(from email or etc):

Franjo Tušek，
             您好，


Interesting question. Why change tone?

English is called a stress-timed language. In English, we often shift the stress to change from verb to noun as in:

v. produce, n. produce, v. refuse, n. refuse

I wonder if this is also generally true for Chinese? It is worth looking into.

"My understanding for the pronunciation of 將 is 4th tone for verb " you may be a little confused there.

jiāng has a lot of possibilities. Here are some.

快要：～要。～至。～来。即～。
带领，扶助：～雏。扶～。～军。
拿，持：～心比心。
把：～门关好。

jiàng does not have so many, but, for simple cases, it is nominal in nature.

　1. 军衔的一级，在校以上，泛指高级军官：～领。

　2. 统率，指挥：～百万之众。

This link has so many uses for 将 you could get dizzy! There is no clear distinction verb/noun -- jiāng/jiàng

btw is Vibius Vibidius Zosimus really your name?


只 is equivalent to "only", a small amount. You would use it to say something like "I have only five bucks", "he's only two years old".

才 is used if you have to have a minimum amount. Examples: "you must be this tall (or taller) to ride", "you have to wait three minutes (or longer)".


襨 U+8968

國語發音: dù  ㄉㄨˋ

The first entry in 原典出處:

  《金陵秋·第四章鄂變》：  計革人既潛漢口，而武昌中襨伏必多。

襨伏 means 埋伏. Thus, I guess 襨 means something related to 埋 (bury, secrete, conceal)。


We (professional translators) generally check accepted sources such as official government publications from the government involved. We may take versions in a language that is not the native or strongest language for that country with a grain of salt, but often we have to accept them even if they sound bad. Remember that a translation being "official" has nothing to do with it being accurate!  Many official English translations of Chinese-language speeches or documents are really poor English, but we use the awkward sounding English formulations because they are the official version.

There are usually commonly-used formulaic utterances in Chinese (for example) that are accepted as having a particular meaning in English for diplomatic purposes. Again, that would be determined by referring to the small circle of official translators at high levels, or reference to published bilingual editions of speeches that come from official sources. Just because Johnny No-name says the word should be translated "X" and not "Y" doesn't make his version official (and, as has been said, just because the official version says "Y" and not "X" doesn't make that correct.)

Things get more interesting when you are interpreting in a court situation. At that time, there tends to be a lot of he-said, she-said going on as both sides challenge the exact wording chosen by the interpreter or translator whose work is being dissected. Of course both sides simply want their point of view to prevail. The fact is that language is not simple, and there's generally no absolute correct answer for what is the "correct" way to say something in another language unless the original statement is unbelievably simple. Even when it is, if a witness (or a government official!) wants to be non-responsive, the interpreter is left looking silly as he accurately interprets the response. I was in a court case once in a local court where the witness was asked how long the leash on a dog was (it was a dog attack case) and the witness actually answered "The leash was red." That's not an accuracy issue per se, but often if the audience doesn't understand the second language, it seems like it is a problem with the interpreter's accuracy.


As a small research project, we can combine a few of those lists and then expand the result in collaboration. This then becomes the definitive list of ABB colors.

红扑扑, 红彤彤, 红通通, 红艳艳, 红通通, 红赤赤, 红光光, 红灿灿, 红殷殷
绿油油, 绿莹莹, 绿生生, 绿茸茸, 绿汪汪, 绿茵茵, 绿森森
白皑皑, 白花花, 白茫茫, 白蒙蒙, 白生生, 白嫩嫩
灰沉沉, 灰溜溜, 灰蒙蒙
黑沉沉, 黑洞洞, 黑糊糊, 黑茫茫, 黑蒙蒙, 黑黢黢, 黑黝黝, 黑压压, 黑漆漆, 黑生生
乌溜溜
青幽幽
碧澄澄
黄灿灿, 黄澄澄, 黄乎乎
金灿灿, 金煌煌, 金闪闪, 金亮亮, 金晃晃
蓝晶晶, 蓝盈盈, 蓝幽幽, 蓝湛湛, 蓝隐隐, 蓝莹莹, 蓝汪汪
紫乌乌, 紫莹莹, 紫茵茵, 紫盈盈, 紫通通, 紫微微, 紫灿灿, 紫葳葳
粉扑扑, 粉嘟嘟

My small contribution:

绿葱葱
红呼呼, 红润润
灰渌渌, 灰塌塌
碧油油
蓝瓦瓦


What is an “exoactive” Chinese character?

These terms were devised in the late 20th century analysis of Classical Japanese, originally, for the difference between -(さ)す (glossed as externally instigated) and -(ら)る (glossed as internally instigated). This exoactive vs endoactive reflects 18th century Japanese use of 他動詞 vs 自動詞 (tadoushi vs jidoushi).
In more traditional Western-orientated linguistic parlance, this is equivalent to transitive vs intransitive; in Modern Japanese, this is how it is presented to students. E.g. 散る (ちる) chiru vs 散らす (ちらす) chirasu. However, there are pairs even in Modern Japanese which definitely do not fit this description, e.g.

部屋を出る (へやをでる)
heya (w)o deru
to go out of / leave the room

... where there is an explicit object, but the verb is endoactive (with る), yet transitive. Contrast this with:

結果を出す (けっかをだす)
kekka (w)o dasu
to yield / come out with results

... where there is an explicit object, the verb is still transitive, but exoactive (with す). There is also a school that calls them causative vs inchoative pairs.
However, on application to Chinese, endoactive vs exoactive was used for directional transitive verbs, e.g.:

"buy" 買 mǎi vs "sell" 賣 mài
"buy grain" 糴 dí vs "sell grain" 糶 tì
"hear/smell" 聞 wén vs "ask" 問 wèn

... and a wide range of pairs that fit a similar semantic alternation. This regular(ish) association of exoactive = Middle Chinese 去聲 (departing tone) implies some sort of regular morphology in Old Chinese, which is believed to be a final *-s suffix, which later (in the Han?) became *-h and ended up in departing tone.
Schuessler expands on this endoactive/exoactive distinction with the endopassive/exopassive one, as well as providing a simplex (neither -active nor -passive) version, and associates them with different proposed derivational phonology by their outcomes in Middle Chinese. Some of the above examples were reallocated.
This tonal difference is what accounts for 取 vs 娶, which in Middle Chinese have rising and departing tones. This distinction is preserved in (colloquial) Min but lost in Mandarin and (most of) Cantonese. However, if "take" is the endoactive (internally motivated) direction, then how is "to take as a wife" an exoactive (externally motivated) one? That's the semantic leap that Schuessler has to make, and provides an explanation for:

However, the key was apparently the person as indir. object.


Since I don't have enough reputation to comment

It's not only in Chinese culture, it's called "baby brain" http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/expert-answers/baby-brain/faq-20057896


Is the expression 学识渊博 usually used in a pejorative sense?

No. It's usually used as a commendatory term. But it can be also used in a pejorative sense (the rule is called 褒義貶用).

PS: This is not used in a conversation, or it's an irony.


How to write "Some more prominent figures who have led the protests are ..."

“領導這次抗議活動的傑出知名人物還有：”

還有 implies 'besides' to interpret 'some more';

prominent figures: 傑出(知名)人物; I think putting 知名 here is ok, because prominent figures are often well-known persons. You can remove it based on your considerations.

who have led the protests: 領導這次抗議活動的


How does 设A是..., 若A的..., 则称A是... work for mathematical definitions?

「設」is short for 假設 (Suppose that...)

「若」means if

「則稱」, literally then (it is) called, should just be taken as then.

設A是一個m×s矩陣，若A的任一行是集{1,...,n}的一個s-排列，任一列是集{1,...,n}的一個m-排列，則稱A是一個m×s拉丁矩。
「Suppose that」A is an m by s matrix.「If」every row of A is an s-permutation of {1, ..., n} and every column is an m-permutation of {1, ..., n},「then」A is an m by s Latin rectangle.


心中是一片火海 - My heart is an ocean of fire
无法容下世间之爱 - It cannot contain (accept) any love in the world
但愿无声 自有人在 - Just wish (when I am) voiceless, there is always someone there (to accompany me or speak for me)
但愿无能 自有人在 - Just wish (when I am) powerless, there is always someone there (to accompany me or to help me)
The problem with the phrase '自有人在' (there is naturally/ always someone there) is it doesn't state what that person is supposed to do. I have to presume that someone is there to accompany me or actually be there to help me
Typical usage of '自有':
你不爱我自有人爱我 (you don’t love me, naturally there is someone else who would love me) = Even if you didn’t love me, there is always someone who would love me
Common expression: 山人自有妙計 = I naturally (always) have a good plan


What would be an english translation for "手中法訣"?

First of all, what you are saying doesn't even exists in Chinese.
Chinese magic emphasis ritual and 心法口诀. It never specifically mention any gesture. Let alone a combination of multiple gestures.
So your translation is determined by what magic system you use.
If your system is based on naruto. I think you already got the answer.
If your system is based on western magic. The I think "spell" is the word you are looking for.


小姐 and similar terms before the cultural revolution

Basically I think you are right, but it's a pretty complicated story. There is more than one use of 小姐, including title, term of address, and general noun. I think most of the discussion, including your comments, has been about the general noun, so I'll limit myself to that.

Historically, 小姐 could indeed mean 娼妓、歌女. This use goes back to at least the Song dynasty, according to the 教育部國語辭典  I have no idea if this use still exists. If it does, I'm willing to bet it's very limited.

As you say, 小姐 can also be a rich family's daughter. This goes back at least to the Ming dynasty (教育部國語辭典 again). It is still very common, I'm sure.

This obviously can have some negative connotations. I don't know how long ago this started, but it's not recent; for example, in 茅盾's 1926 novel  幻灭, there is this sentence:

她和王、赵二女士本是一月二日就到了汉口的。那时，她自觉满身是勇气，满眼是希望。她准备洗去娇养的小姐习惯，投身最革命的工作。

So here 女士 is the general noun, 小姐 is little miss rich, and 娇养 is of course not good. I'm sure 小姐 here is not a prostitute!!

You prefer 姑娘 as a general noun for a young woman, yes? But 姑娘 does not appear in 茅盾's book. Instead he uses 女士. My father-in-law was like you; he used 姑娘, and he was from 山東. It may be a northern thing.

A note about Taiwan, which other people seemed uncertain about. In Taiwan, 小姐 is the standard form of address to a woman, young or even middle-aged, when you don't know her name.  You talk to the waitress, the bank teller, the woman who answers the phone, anyone who you don't know her name or status, and this is the word; it is the female equivalent of 先生 in ordinary conversation. It is the only polite general noun I know of.

You said 美女 doesn't work for you. Same thing in Taiwan: 美女 is a beautiful woman; a looker, a knockout.  If you call a woman 美女, you'd better know her pretty well.


Why does 努力 which means "to make a great effort" sound so similar to 奴隸 which means "slave"?

I am not an expert on morphemes and cognates. My two cents, that it is just coincidental. So are other words, such as 输血 and 数学，水饺 and 睡觉，事实 and 石狮. To make it a bit gross, 食 and 屎.


Handwriting: 青兹
Seal: 兹

青 has a lot of meanings. For example, blue, young, east, or grass.

兹, 玆 and 茲 are variants.
兹 may mean black or dirty.
茲 means this, now or year.


The base is located in the 朱日和, which is a town in Inner Mongolia, it means 'courage' in mongolian language.

This town includes 15 villages, the training base is built from a 1950s armored troops training base.

So I don't think they give a new "fancy" name to that town.


How to correctly use "多" to say "more than"?

In my opinion, all the measure words, including 年，小时，and etc, work the same way. Let's take 年 for example.

多年 should be used only after numbers x10, like 10, 20, 30, .... For
example, 十多年：teens; 20多年：twenties; 30多年：thirties; ... ...
90多年：nineties(90-99); Thus, you can't say 9多年，11多年，...
年多 can be used after any positive integer numbers like,
1,2,3,...,100,...; 年多 connotes a bit more than, usually less than
1 year. For example, 4年 > 3年多 > 3年.

The same thing for other measure words. Both 五十元多 and 五十多元 are correct, but mean differently. "十个小时多=from 10 to 11 (10.3 / 10.8...) or 十多个小时=from 10 to 20 hours" is correct too. But expressions like 55多小时 and 55多元 are incorrect.

As for the specific question "How do I say "more than two beds" then?", you can use 多于, 不止 or 比...多. More: 多; than: 比 or 于, so more than: 比...多, or 多于; For example, there are more than two beds in my home: 我家的床多于两张; 我家的床比两张多; 我家的床不止两张;


"再说" is more like a spoken language, and in spoken language, "再说" does not really mean "moreover", "besides", etc, and it means "I will consider that later (and usually it is a polite way to say no or refuse)".

If you would like to use words to express "moreover", and something like this, better to use "另外"，"其次",etc.


No. As you can see in the dictionary, 尤 must be used with another word, or other words, to form a phrase that means something. For example, it has the meaning of "particular" when used in the phrase "對計算機尤感興趣歐". However, in the phrase "尤物", its meaning changed to "rare", "exceptional".
其, depending on the use, can be translated as "its", "such", "that". Similar to 尤, it must be used with other words to be meaningful. As shown in the dictionary, it means "especially" when in the phrase "尤其重要", and means "particular" in "尤其是綠茶".
Thus, the following phrases are false:

尤重要

其重要

尤是綠茶

其是綠茶


It was "陪跑" = "also-run" (to accompany the one who will win in a competition,  with little chance of winning herself)
It came from a Chinese saying 陪太子讀書 (to accompany the prince in studying) meaning 'you are just there to take part, not expecting to win - your role is to make the prince (winner) look good'
The question: "Besides yourself, which contestant do you consider come here to be your also-ran?". The host wanted to ask if she considers herself should win, who will be the runners-up? but "陪跑" might not be a very accurate term to describe the runners-up. If someone ends up being the runner-up, she did have a chance of winning

also-ran: a contestant that does not win

The comment was "佢明唔明咩意思?" (does she understand what it means?) When saying 明唔明/ming4 m4 ming4/ too quickly the /m4/ sound might merge with the beginning of the second /ming4/ and the phrase would sound like /ming(mm)ing(4)/


In this context it means "to watch/guard the place", "to look after the place".

1997年，他到东莞打工，在一家木材厂给人看场子，在那里，他学会了汉族的生活方式，和朋友一起打台球，到歌厅唱歌。
In 1997, he went to work in Dongguan as a "watcher" for a timber factory. There, he learned about the the Han lifestyle, played pool with friends and sang in karaoke bars.

I'm translating a bit freely here, but that's the geist. 给人看场子 means "to watch/guard the place for someone else", but it conveys the idea of informal work.
The subject of the sentence wasn't a formal security guard, or supervisor. He was "helping someone look after the place", "making sure things ran smoothly".

Bonus: Baidu Baike has also a page about this term, meaning essentially "bouncer", or even "henchman" for club and bar owners. However it doesn't look like this page is written very professionally, so it's probably a very colloquial, extended meaning, or possibly underworld lingo. I would take it with a grain of salt.


Is there any way to detect dialect automatically?

I can think of a few ways for this to work, each could have varying degrees of difficulty in implementation.

Word Choice

As @Marko mentioned in comments, Cantonese usually has a very different choice of word for common expressions. For example:

點(trad.)/点(simp.) in Cantonese vs. 怎 in Mandarin
邊/边 vs. 哪
係/系 vs. 是
唔 vs. 不
嘅 vs. 的
喺 vs. 在
咁 vs. 这么

sentence-final particles:

咯 (Cantonese only)
咩 (Cantonese only)
啫 (Cantonese only)
㗎 (Cantonese only)
吗 (Mandarin only)

This will be easier to implement if the subtitle is an exact transcription of what's being said (I say this because sometimes they are not, instead, they are in written/more-Mandarin form). Frequency analysis of the appearance of these syllables could also be possible, I guess? Note: they work better on casual conversations than formal speeches or readings of written material.

This Wiktionary category page could be a gem if you decide to use this approach, but not every entry in this category is Cantonese-specific.

Tones

I'm thinking of a pitch analysis. And Cantonese has more tones - 9 in total - than their Mandarin counterpart - 5. If you can devise a way to count the total tones used in the audio, or to match each syllable to a tone and see which model fits best, it could be possible to tell the two apart.

Other phonetic features

Other distinctions exist, to name a few:

儿化(Erhua) in Mandarin (actually I'd not call them standard Mandarin, but northern Chinese dialect)
the -p, -t, -k, -m sound in Cantonese

However, I'm not sure if/how you can detect them automatically.


What are the most common Mandarin words for each pinyin syllable?

After a bit of searching I could not find a proper resource to answer this question, so I started compiling compiled a comprehensive list by hand.
Since you say that the most common character for each initial+final+tone combination is enough for you, the answer is rather easy: we can cross-reference the pinyin and tone combinations with a list of character frequency in Chinese.
Character frequency source: hanzicraft.com
How to read this table:

Each row comes in the form <pinyin syllable> <1st tone char> <2nd tone char> <3rd tone char> <4th tone char> <neuter tone char, if applicable>

If a particular pinyin syllable and tone combination has no corresponding character, I add a note in place of the character. Other bracketed comments refer to the preceding character.

note that some of these characters are not common relative to the others, but are the most common for a particular pinyin+tone combination. Again, the source is the character frequency table. For example, the most common character for weng3 appears to be 蓊 but I bet you're not going to find it any time soon in your studies. Nevertheless, it's the most common one for that pronunciation, so I still list it for completeness.

some characters have alternate pronunciations, e.g. 差别的「差」and 差评的「差」. The frequency list is based on the total frequency of the character, regardless of the pronunciation. So the most common character for cha1 is 差别的「差」 or something else (插、叉、etc.)? I try to disambiguate based on my personal knowledge of the language. Feel free to correct me.

an argument can be made that a character's frequency is absolute, therefore a character like「差」should appear both for cha1 and cha4.

in the title of your question, you ask for words. A word is a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing. Since Chinese is an isolating language, words often overlap with characters. Furthermore, a combination of pinyin+tone applies to a character. So this is a list of characters. Some of them may also be words, some may be not.

Pinyin
阴平
阳平
上声
去声
轻声

a
阿
啊
啊
啊

ba
八
拔
把
爸
吧

pa
趴
爬
(no pa3)
怕

ma
妈
麻
马
骂
吗

fa
发
罚
法
发 (hair)

da
答
达
打
大

ta
他
(no ta2)
塔
踏

na
那 (surname)
拿
哪
那

la
拉
旯
喇
辣

ga
旮
嘎
尕
尬

ka
咖
(no ka2)
卡
(no ka4)

ha
哈
蛤
哈 (same as 1)
(no ha4)

zha
扎
炸 (to fry)
眨
炸 (to explode)

cha
插
查
叉
差

sha
杀
啥
傻
厦

za
匝
杂
咋
(no za4)

ca
擦
(no ca2)
礤
(no ca4)

sa
撒
(no sa2)
撒 (same as 1)
萨

ai
埃
癌
矮
爱

bai
掰
白
百
败

pai
拍
排
(no pai3)
派

mai
(no mai1)
埋
买
卖

dai
呆
(no dai2)
逮
代

tai
胎
台
(no tai3)
太

nai
(no nai1)
(no nai2)
乃
耐

lai
(no lai1)
来
(no lai3)
赖

gai
该
(no gai2)
改
概

kai
开
(no kai2)
凯
忾

hai
咳
还
海
害

zhai
摘
宅
窄
债

chai
差
柴
茝
虿

shai
筛
(no shai2)
色
晒

zai
灾
(no zai2)
宰
在  (to stay)

cai
猜
才
采
菜

sai
塞
(no sai2)
(no sai3)
赛

an
安
啽
俺 (topolect)
案

ban
般
(no ban2)
版
办

pan
番
盘
(no pan3)
判

man
颟
蛮
满
慢

fan
翻
凡
反
范

dan
单
(no dan2)
胆
但

tan
贪
谈
坦
探

nan
囡
难
腩
难 (disaster)

lan
(no lan1)
兰
览
烂

gan
干 (dry)
(no gan2)
感
干 (to do)

kan
刊
(no kan2)
砍
看

han
酣
含
喊
汉

zhan
粘
(no zhan2)
展
战

chan
搀
缠
产
颤

shan
山
(no shan2)
闪
善

ran
(no ran1)
然
染
(no ran4)

zan
簪
咱
攒
暂

can
参
残
惨
灿

san
三
(no san2)
散
散

ang
肮
昂
(no ang3)
盎

bang
帮
(no bang2)
膀
棒

pang
膀 (or 乓)
旁
耪
胖

mang
牤
忙
莽
(no mang4)

fang
方
房
访
放

dang
当
(no dang2)
党
当

tang
汤
唐
躺
趟

nang
囔
囊
馕
齉

lang
啷
郎
朗
浪

gang
刚
(no gang2)
港
杠

kang
康
扛
(no kang3)
抗

hang
夯
行
(no hang3)
沆

zhang
张
(no zhang2)
长
帐

chang
昌
长
场
唱

shang
商
(no shang2)
赏
上

rang
(no rang1)
瓤
嚷
让

zang
脏
(no zang2)
驵
藏

cang
苍
藏
(no cang3)
(no cang4)

sang
桑
(no sang2)
嗓
丧

ao
凹
熬
袄
奥

bao
包
薄
保
报

pao
抛
袍
跑
炮

mao
猫
毛
卯
冒

dao
刀
(no dao2)
导
到

tao
涛
逃
讨
套

nao
孬
挠
脑
闹

lao
捞
劳
老
酪

gao
高
(no gao2)
搞
告

kao
尻
(no kao2)
考
靠

hao
蒿
毫
好
号

zhao
招
着
找
照

chao
超
朝
吵
(no chao4)

shao
烧
勺
少 (few)
少 (young)

rao
(no rao1)
饶
扰
绕

zao
遭
凿
早
造

cao
操
曹
草
操

sao
骚
(no sao2)
扫 (to sweep)
扫 (broom)

e
婀
额
恶
饿

me
(no me1)
(no me2)
(no me3)
(no me4)
么

de
嘚
德
(no de3)
(no de4)
的

te
(no te1)
(no te2)
(no te3)
特

ne
(no ne1)
(no ne2)
(no ne3)
讷
呢

le
(no le1)
(no le2)
(no le3)
乐
了 (particle)

ge
哥
革
葛
个

ke
科
咳
可
克

he
喝
和
(no he3)
赫

zhe
遮
哲
者
这

che
车
(no che2)
扯
彻

she
奢
蛇
舍
社

re
(no re1)
(no re2)
惹
热

ze
(no ze1)
则
(no ze3)
仄

ce
(no ce1)
(no ce2)
(no ce3)
策

se
(no se1)
(no se2)
(no se3)
色

ei
诶
诶
诶
诶

bei
悲
(no bei2)
北
被

pei
胚
培
(no pei3)
配

mei
(no mei1）
没
美
妹

fei
非
肥
菲
费

dei
(no dei1)
(no dei2)
得
(no dei4)

nei
(no nei1)
(no nei2)
(nei3 dubious)
内

lei
勒
雷
累
类

gei
(gei1 dubious)
(no gei2)
给
(no gei4)

kei
剋
(no kei2)
(no kei3)
(no kei4)

hei
黑
(no hei2)
(no hei3)
(no hei4)

shei
(no shei1)
谁
(no shei3)
(no shei4)

zei
(no zei1)
贼
(no zei3)
(no zei4)

en
恩
(no en2)
(no en3)
嗯

ben
奔
(no ben2)
本
笨

pen
喷
盆
(no pen3)
喷

men
闷 (stuffy)
门
(no men3)
闷 (depressed)
们

fen
分 (divide)
坟
粉
分 (part)

den
(no den1)
(no den2)
(no den3)
扽

nen
(no nen1)
(no nen2)
(no nen3)
嫩

gen
根
哏
艮
亘

ken
(no ken1)
(no ken2)
肯
裉

hen
(no hen1)
痕
很
恨

zhen
真
(no zhen2)
诊
阵

chen
琛
陈
碜
趁

shen
身
什
审
慎

ren
(no ren1)
人
忍
任

zen
(no zen1)
(no zen2)
怎
谮

cen
㟥
岑
(no cen3)
(no cen4)

sen
森
(no sen2)
(no sen3)
(no sen4)

eng
鞥
(no eng2)
(no eng3)
(no eng4)

beng
崩
甭
(not in the first 9000)
蹦

peng
烹
朋
捧
碰

meng
蒙
蒙
猛
梦

feng
风
冯
讽
奉

deng
登
(no deng2)
等
邓

teng
(no teng1)
腾
(no teng3)
(no teng4)

neng
(no neng1)
能
(no neng3)
(no neng4)

leng
(no leng1)
棱
冷
愣

geng
更 (to change)
(no geng2)
耿
更 (more)

keng
坑
(no keng2)
(no keng3)
(no keng4)

heng
哼
横 (across)
(no heng3)
横 (perverse)

zheng
争
(no zheng2)
整
正

cheng
称
成
逞
秤

sheng
生
绳
省
胜

reng
扔
仍
(no reng3)
芿

zeng
增
鄫
(no zeng3)
赠

ceng
噌
曾
(no ceng3)
蹭

seng
僧
(no seng2)
(no seng3)
(no seng4)

er
(no er1)
而
尔
二

yi
一 (one)
疑
以
意

bi
逼
鼻
比
必

pi
批
皮
匹
辟

mi
眯
迷
米
密

di
低
敌
底
第

ti
梯
提
体
替

ni
妮
尼
你
逆

li
(no li1)
离
里
力

ji
机
及
己
计

qi
期
其
起
气

xi
西
习
喜
系

zhi
之
直
指
制

chi
吃
持
尺
赤

shi
师
时
使
是 (to be)

ri
(no ri1)
(no ri2)
(no ri3)
日

zi
资
（zi2 not in first 9000)
子
自

ci
疵
词
此
次

si
斯
(no si2)
死
四

ya
压
牙
雅
亚

bia
吧 (dubious)
(no bia2)
(no bia3)
(no bia4)

dia
(no dia1)
(no dia2)
嗲
(no dia4)

lia
(no lia1)
(no lia2)
俩
(no lia4)

jia
家
夹
假
价

qia
掐
(no qia2)
卡
恰

xia
瞎
侠
(no xia3)
下

yan
烟
言
眼
验

bian
边
(no bian2)
扁
变

pian
片 (sheet)
便 (cheap)
谝
片 (slice)

mian
(no mian1)
棉
免
面

dian
颠
(no dian2)
点
电

tian
天
田
舔
瑱

nian
拈
年
捻
念

lian
(no lian1)
联
脸
练

jian
间
(no jian2)
简
见

qian
千
前
浅
欠

xian
先
闲
显
现

yang
央
阳
养
样

niang
(no niang1)
娘
(no niang3)
酿

liang
(no liang1)
良
两
量

jiang
将
(no jiang2)
讲
降

qiang
枪
强
抢
呛

xiang
相
详
想
向

yao
要 (require)
摇
咬
要 (want)

biao
标
嫑
表
鳔

piao
飘
朴
漂
票

miao
喵
描
秒
妙

diao
雕
(no diao2)
(diao3 dubious)
掉

tiao
挑 (choose)
条
挑 (provoke)
跳

niao
(no niao1)
(no niao2)
鸟
尿

liao
撩
疗
了
料

jiao
教
矫 (jiao2)
角
叫

qiao
悄
桥
巧
翘

xiao
消
淆
小
笑

ye
耶
爷
也
业

bie
憋
别 (other)
瘪
别 (as in 别扭)

pie
瞥
(no pie2)
撇
(no pie4)

mie
咩
(no mie2)
(no mie3)
灭

die
跌
叠
(no die3)
(no die4)

tie
贴
(no tie2)
铁
餮

nie
捏
苶
(no nie3)
涅

lie
咧
(no lie2)
咧
列

jie
接
结
解
界

qie
切
茄
且
切

xie
些
协
写
谢

yin
因
银
引
印

bin
宾
(no bin2)
(no bin3)
鬓

pin
拼
贫
品
聘

min
(no min1)
民
敏
(no min4)

nin
(no nin1)
您
(no nin3)
(no nin4)

lin
拎
林
凛
赁

jin
金
(no jin2)
尽
进

qin
亲
秦
寝
沁

xin
心
镡
伈
信

ying
应
营
影
应

bing
兵
(no bing2)
饼
并

ping
乒
平
(no ping3)
(no ping4)

ming
(no ming1)
明
酩
命

ding
丁
(no ding2)
顶
定

ting
听
停
艇
听(tw.)

ning
(no ning1)
宁
拧
宁

ling
昤
灵
领
令

jing
经
(no jing2)
警
境

qing
清
情
请
庆

xing
兴
行
醒
性

yo
哟
(no yo2)
(no yo3)
(no yo4)

yong
拥
喁
永
用

jiong
扃
(no jiong2)
炯
(no jiong4)

qiong
銎
穷
(no qiong3)
(no qiong4)

xiong
兄
雄
(no xiong3)
诇

you
优
由
有
又

miu
(no miu1)
(no miu2)
(no miu3)
谬

diu
丢
(no diu2)
(no diu3)
(no diu4)

niu
妞
牛
纽
拗

liu
溜
流
柳
六

jiu
究
(no jiu2)
九
就

qiu
秋
求
糗
(no qiu4)

xiu
修
(no xiu2)
朽
秀

o
噢
哦
嚄
哦 (same as 2)

bo
波
伯
簸
(bo4 dubious)

po
坡
婆
叵
破

mo
摸
模
抹
莫

fo
(no fo1)
佛
(no fo3)
(no fo4)

lo
(no lo1)
(no lo2)
(no lo3)
(no lo4)
咯

weng
翁
(no weng2)
蓊
瓮

dong
东
(no dong2)
懂
动

tong
通
同
统
痛

nong
(no nong1)
农
(no nong3)
弄

long
隆 (sound of drums)
龙
笼
弄 (alley)

gong
公
(no gong2)
巩
共

kong
空
(no kong2)
恐
控

hong
轰
红
哄
哄

zhong
中
(no zhong2)
种
重

chong
充
重
宠
冲

rong
(no rong1)
容
冗
(no rong4)

zong
宗
(no zong2)
总
纵

cong
匆
从
(no cong3)
(no cong4)

song
松
怂 (colloq.)
耸
送

ou
欧
(no ou2)
偶
沤

pou
剖
掊
掊
(no pou4)

mou
哞
谋
某
(no mou4)

fou
(no fou1)
(no fou2)
否
(no fou4)

dou
都
(no dou2)
斗
豆

tou
偷
头
钭
透

nou
(no nou1)
(no nou2)
(no nou3)
耨

lou
搂
楼
搂
漏

gou
沟
(no gou2)
狗
构

kou
抠
(no kou2)
口
扣

hou
齁
侯
吼
后

zhou
周
轴
肘
宙

chou
抽
仇
丑
臭

shou
收
熟
手
受

rou
(no rou1)
柔
(no rou3)
肉

zou
邹
(no zou2)
走
奏

cou
(no cou1)
(no cou2)
(no cou3)
凑

sou
艘
(no sou2)
叟
嗽

wu
屋
无
五
物

bu
哺
醭
补
不 (no)

pu
扑
葡
普
铺

mu
(no mu1)
模
母
目

fu
夫
服
府
复

du
都
独
赌
度

tu
突
图
土
吐

nu
(no nu1)
奴
努
怒

lu
撸
卢
鲁
路

gu
姑
(no gu2)
古
故

ku
哭
(no ku2)
苦
库

hu
乎
胡
虎
护

zhu
朱
逐
主
住

chu
出
除
处
处

shu
书
熟
属
数

ru
(no ru1)
如
乳
入

zu
租
足
组
(no zu4)

cu
粗
徂
皻
促

su
苏
俗
(no su3)
诉

wa
挖
娃
瓦
袜

gua
瓜
(no gua2)
寡
挂

kua
夸
(no kua2)
垮
跨

hua
花
华
(no hua3)
话

zhua
抓
(no zhua2)
爪
(no zhua4)

chua
欻
(no chua2)
(no chua3)
(no chua4)

shua
刷
(no shua2)
耍
刷

wai
歪
(no wai2)
歪
外

guai
乖
(no guai2)
拐
怪

kuai
(no kuai1)
(no kuai2)
蒯
快

huai
(no huai1)
怀
(no huai3)
坏

zhuai
拽
(no zhuai2)
跩
拽

chuai
揣
膗
揣 (same as 1)
踹

shuai
衰
(no shuai2)
甩
帅

wan
湾
完
晚
万

duan
端
(no duan2)
短
断

tuan
湍
团
疃
彖

nuan
(no nuan1)
(no nuan2)
暖
(no nuan4)

luan
(no luan1)
峦
卵
乱

guan
关
(no guan2)
管
惯

kuan
宽
(no kuan2)
款
(no kuan4)

huan
欢
环
缓
换

zhuan
专
(no zhuan2)
转
赚

chuan
穿
传
喘
串

shuan
栓
(no shuan2)
(no shuan3)
涮

ruan
(no ruan1)
(not in first 9000)
软
(no ruan4)

zuan
钻
(no zuan2)
纂
钻

cuan
蹿
攒
(no cuan3)
窜

suan
酸
(no suan2)
(not in first 9000)
算

wang
汪
王
往
望

guang
光
(no guang2)
广
逛

kuang
匡
狂
夼
况

huang
荒
黄
晃
晃

zhuang
装
(no zhuang2)
奘
状

chuang
窗
床
闯
创

shuang
双
(no shuang2)
爽
(no shuang4)

yue
约
(no yue2)
哕
月

nüe
(no nüe1)
(no nüe2)
(no nüe3)
虐

lüe
(no lüe1)
(no lüe2)
(no lüe3)
略

jue
撅
决
蹶
(no jue4)

que
缺
瘸
(no que3)
却

xue
薛
学
雪
血

wei
威
为
委
位

dui
堆
(no dui2)
㨃
对

tui
推
颓
腿
退

gui
规
(no gui2)
鬼
贵

kui
亏
魁
傀
愧

hui
挥
回
毁
会

zhui
追
(no zhui2)
(no zhui3)
坠

chui
吹
垂
(no chui3)
(no chui4)

shui
(no shui1)
谁
水
税

rui
(no rui1)
蕤
蕊
瑞

zui
(not in the first 9000)
(no zui2)
嘴
最

cui
催
(no cui2)
璀
粹

sui
虽
随
髓
岁

wen
温
文
稳
问

dun
吨
(no dun2)
盹
顿

tun
吞
囤
氽
褪

nun
(no nun1)
黁
(no nun3)
(no nun4)

lun
抡
伦
(no lun3)
论

gun
(no gun1)
(no gun2)
滚
棍

kun
昆
(no kun2)
捆
困

hun
婚
混
(no hun3)
混

zhun
屯
(no zhun2)
准
(no zhun4)

chun
春
纯
蠢
(no chun4)

shun
(no shun1)
(no shun2)
吮
顺

run
(no run1)
犉
(no run3)
润

zun
尊
(no zun2)
噂
(zun4 dubious)

cun
村
存
忖
寸

sun
孙
(no sun2)
损
(no sun4)

wo
窝
(no wo2)
我
握

duo
多
夺
朵
堕

tuo
托
驼
妥
拓

nuo
(no nuo1)
挪
㛂
诺

luo
啰
罗
裸
落

guo
郭
国
果
过

kuo
(no kuo1)
(no kuo2)
(no kuo3)
扩

huo
豁
活
火
或

zhuo
桌
着
(no zhuo3)
(no zhuo4)

chuo
戳
（no chuo2)
(no chuo3)
绰

shuo
说
（no shuo2)
(no shuo3)
硕

ruo
(no ruo1)
挼
(no ruo3)
若

zuo
作 (troublesome)
昨
左
作

cuo
搓
痤
脞
错

suo
缩
(no suo2)
所
(no suo4)

yu
迂
于
与
育

nü
(no nü1)
(no nü2)
女
衄

lü
(no lü1)
驴
旅
律

ju
居
局
举
据

qu
区
渠
取
去

xu
需
徐
许
续

yuan
渊
原
远
院

juan
捐
(no juan2)
卷
卷

quan
圈
全
犬
券

xuan
宣
玄
选
炫

yun
晕
云
允
运

jun
军
(no jun2)
(no jun3)
俊

qun
逡
群
(no qun3)
(no qun4)

xun
勋
寻
(no xun3)
训


What are the prefixes for animal genders?

To be simple, male/female: 公/母、雄/雌

  公鸡、母鸡；公狗、母狗; 公牛、母牛。
  雄鱼、雌鱼。


'for' in your sentence functions more like 'about' than 'with'.

F=ma

for 'm' the mass and (for) 'a' the acceleration = about 'm', it refers to mass; about 'a', it refers to 'the acceleration'

至于'm', 指的是质量, 至于'a', 指的是加速度 --> 'm', 指的是质量, 'a' 指的是加速度 (omit 至于 in this sentence make it sound more natural in Chinese)

If you want to use 'with' instead, your sentence would become

F=ma

with 'm' (as) the mass and with 'a' (as) the acceleration

以'm'(为)质量, 以'a'(为)加速度

I think the sentence below is easier to translate

F=ma

'm' represents the mass and 'a' represents the acceleration

'm' 代表质量，'a' 代表加速度


Translation into English of “交通银行”, “交通大学” and “交通职业技术学院”

For the universities, only

上海交通大学 (Shanghai Jiaotong Univ)

西安交通大学 (Xi'an Jiaotong Univ)

北京交通大学 (Beijing Jiaotong Univ)

西南交通大学 (Southwest Jiaotong Univ, in Sichuan)

国立交通大学 (National Chiao Tung University, in Taiwan)

use pinyin for 交通 because of historical reasons. They all originated from one university, the old 交通大学, where 交通 here comes from an old literature and doesn't simply mean transportation.

Other "交通" universities will use the English translation, either transportation or communication.


How to say "when their ears stopped ringing"?

"Ears ringing" translated into Chinese is "耳嗚"

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%80%B3%E9%B8%A3
係指外在環境沒發出聲音卻聽見聲音的一種狀況 (hearing sound when there is no external source of such sound)
最常見的原因是因噪音型聽力損失 (most common cause of this impairment of  hearing ability is loud noise )

“when their ears stopped ringing” could be translated as "等他们的耳嗚停止时"
But "耳嗚" is quite a formal (medical) and literary term. The more colloquial term for "ear ringing" is "耳中嗡嗡作响" therefore,   your sentence could be translated as "等他们耳中的嗡嗡响声停下來时" (when the buzzing sound in their ears stopped)


What's this "O<" (capital O and subscript less-than sign) Sinological IPA transcription?

I think that [ʊ] is associated with "latter part" of the vowel (diphthong) trascribed as -ou or -iu in pinyin.

  What does [ʊ] have to do with O

[ʊ] is usually used to represent a sound like the vowel in "good" or "hood"
 (American English). This sound is also used to describe the second part of the diphthong in words like "so" and "bow", something like [soʊ] and [boʊ], respectively.

O<5 and iO<5 correspond to -ou and -i(o)u in pinyin, I think. By this sort of analysis, as the [ʊ] comes together with an [o] in like in the English example above, it looks like it got abbreviated with a weird symbol.

While I think that this is probably just be a typographical error as pointed out in the comments, it is important to remember that even a phonetic transcription system like IPA is a practical tool, not an airtight system for describing speech sounds. Relatively narrow IPA transcriptions might describe two languages as having an [a] vowel, for example, but the actual sounds realized in these languages (or even saying the same word in different contexts) necessarily will differ, as sound is not digital. What is essential with any transcripiton system is to capture meaningful contrasts, which pinyin seems to do an adequate job at.