Can I use 现代汉语词典 outside of the paper dictionary? 现代汉语词典 seems to be the de facto standard for Chinese dictionaries. Some users here use it as well. But it seems only possible for the paper version.

But I might miss something. Is it possible to use it outside of its paper version, such as online or app? I searched for it on the App Store, but seems that there are too many results and I don't know which is the correct one (actually all of them don't seem to be official ones...). Also I really hate it if I purchase an app but later found some words are missing.

Or is it only available on the paper-version?

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

You can also try Baidu's online dictionary:
http://dict.baidu.com


Can I say 爸, or do I have to say 爸爸? I will find that 爸 (bà) is father if I look it up in a dictionary, but I've never heard anyone say that or 媽, only 爸爸 and 媽媽.

But can I still say just 爸?

Sure, there are many different ways to mean "father" in Chinese:

父亲：a formal and polite word, not usual for daily use

令尊：a very polite word to replace "your father"

家父: equals to “my father” when you are talking with someone else (more polite)

泰山 or 岳丈: a very polite way to call your wife's father，while "岳父" is more common

公公: your husband's father

爸爸 = 爸 = 老爹: just like "dad"

可以用单独的"爸"或者"妈"，只是"爸爸"和"妈妈"用得比较多一些


What's the difference between 遇到 and 碰到? Both 遇到 and 碰到 can be translated to "come across/run into" in those sentences:

  遇到大学同学了。

  碰到大学同学了。

What's the difference between 遇到 and 碰到?

I like to think of 碰到 as the equivalent of the English "bumped into"

And 遇到 as the English "came across" or "encountered".

The later being more formal and first being more oral in both the English and Chinese.

In this case, they have the same meaning！

 遇到大学同学了。

 碰到大学同学了。


Where can I find a digital copy of 黄继忠's translation of 论语? I'm looking for a digital copy of Chichung Huang (黄继忠)'s translation of The Analects of Confucius (论语).
Amazon's blurb mentions what they believe are the advantages of the translation:

Far more literal than any English version still in circulation, this brilliant new rendition of The Analects helps the reader not only to acquire and accurate and lucid understanding of the original text, but also to appreciate the imagery, imagery, parallelism, and concision of its classical style. The translator Chichung Huang, a Chinese scholar born in a family of Confucian teachers and schooled in one of the last village Confucian schools in South China, brings to this treasure of world literature a sure voice that captures the power and subtleties of the original. Vivid, simple, and eminently readable, this illuminating work makes the golden teachings of the sage of the East readily available to anyone in search of them.

Where can I find a digital copy? There aren't any on sale on Amazon. Any djvu, pdf, etc. would be a big help. Ideas?

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-6253.1998.tb00513.x
Please have a try with this link. It seems that we can download the pdf by logging in with an institutional account.


What does the notation 【方】 mean in a Chinese dictionary? In a dictionary entry reading…

saggy adj.【方】下垂的；垂曲的；中陷的。

…, what does the notation 【方】 mean?
(Other examples of this notation that I understand include “【美俗】” (American slang), “【解剖】” (anatomy), and “【數學】” (mathematics).)
I’d prefer source material in an answer.

【方】

Is short for 方言.
方言 is defined by mdbg as:

topolect / dialect

Why saggy is considered topolectical or dialectical, though, is beyond me.

This notation “方” is not short for “方言”.

“方” in “方言、前方” means region.

It's “方正(方方正正)”, which means honesty or integrity.


What tool allows a fast translation from Chinese that is both scaleable and exportable? I am currently limited and slowed down in my progress learning Chinese, that some times I read a text from my textbook and cannot identify a character, because I don't know its pronunciation. I don't know its pronunciation and thus can't look it up.
Now there are several ways to bypass that circumstance, however there is yet no neat or fast way to get to its pinyin and translation.
Ideally there were a tool as Google's translate for Android, that also simplified the identification process and made it exportable (as PDF).
Is there already a tool for that? Otherwise I would write a tool or later an application that translates any Chinese texts from images, documents etc. and automatically stores it as a PDF somewhere, either on a hard drive or uploads it to a cloud.

There are several ways to look up characters without knowing their pronunciation.

In printed dictionaries, you need to identify the character's radical (or at least one of the character's radical components), consult the dictionary's radical index (where characters with that radical will be ordered by number of strokes) and thus find the character's pronunciation. You can then look up the character in the normal way, i.e. by pinyin. (Some dictionaries also offer other ways to look up characters, but this example should be sufficient.)
Since this way of looking up characters is slow and frustrating (see e.g. Yes, it really can take a year to learn how to look up a Chinese character), there are digital alternatives:

Looking up the character through its radicals in a digital/online dictionary such as MDBG.
Looking up the character in an online dictionary that supports handwriting recognition (e.g. MDBG: click on the paintbrush button) or an app. There are several apps that support handwriting input. See for example Pleco, How to use Chinese handwriting recognition on the iPhone/iPad and Best Android apps for Chinese handwriting.
There are also apps that support character recognition based on optical character recognition (OCR).

1.use "www.baidu.com", just search one single character
2.download "有道翻译"(you dao fan yi)


What's the difference in pronunciation between "yo" and "you" in pinyin? I have no idea, for example, of what the difference in pronunciation between 唷 when pronounced with the first tone and 优.
If there's no difference, why are they written differently in pinyin?

There is a difference.

唷 (Toneless IPA: /jɔ/) rhymes with 波. The rhyme is the open-mid back rounded vowel, and is the ough in American English thought.
優 (/joʊ̯/) rhymes with 秋. The rhyme is the diphthong oʊ̯, and almost the same as ow in American English low.

唷 is an exclamation, commonly accompanied by !!!!. This means a rising, stretched out tone.

It's like "high"  and "Hi!!!"


How to say "the fish's home is the water" I was wondering if the following sentence and translation match up with each other:

鱼的家是水。

The fish's home is the water。

The sentence seems quite crude to me even though the point might get across. Does the sentence sound juvenile or awkward to a Chinese speaker? And is "家“ understood to be home, or can it be mixed up with family?

yes, 鱼的家是水。is juvenile and awkward,

but still need associate specific context，

it's ok if in story of children，or just express thought，

in Chinese will say fish live in water

Just for your reference
鱼在水中生活
鱼生活在水中
鱼的家在水里
鱼水情


What is this 会 doing in 当初为什么会转行呢？ I can't see what 会 is doing in this sentence. Maybe nothing, could it just be omitted??

  当初为什么会转行呢

Which I would translate as: 'Back then, why did you change your profession?'

会 here simply means "would"

"当初为什转行呢？" =  "Why did you change job back then?"

"当初为什么会转行呢？" = "Why would you change job back then?"

more example:

"你為何同意？" = "Why do you agree?"

"你為何會同意？" = "Why would you agree?"

Yes, you can omit it, However "would" in the sentence does emphasize an inquisitive tone. Imply "you should not had."

“会”，it can mean "meeting". For example, "我在开会”  I'm having a meeting.
it can also mean "a modal particles". for example, "你怎么会转行呢?" why did you change your profession?  "你怎么转行呢？"why did you change you profession? the later sentences be lack of euphemism tone!


Which do I use: 喜欢不喜欢 or 喜不喜欢? I know that 喜不喜欢 and 喜欢不喜欢 have the same meaning, but in a sentence, which would look more appealing or make more sense in the sentence? In other words, which one is grammatically correct?

Chinese speakers like 4-beat rythm better, so you should be using 喜不喜欢 most of the time.

Google Translate helped me with this answer.

Like the comment above, 喜不喜欢 and  喜欢不喜欢 are the exact same. For example:

Literally Translated into English:

"Do you like beer?"    <========== Can be translated with both.

你喜不喜欢啤酒? Do you like beer?
你喜欢不喜欢啤酒? Did you like beer?

For some reason the second one was inputting "did you like beer?",but that's how Google is.


What are these "riddle jokes"? In Chinese there are these jokes which are delivered as a small riddle followed by the answer. They are often used humorously, with the answer used as an insult. Here are some examples:

哑巴吃黄莲/有苦说不出
狗拿耗子/多管闲事
打灯笼捡粪/找死(屎)

Do they have a proper name? Where did they come from? Is there any regionality with these, or are they encountered across all Chinese languages?

歇后语
KEY

≪xiehouyu≫, witty folk simile (popular witty or humorous simile consisting of two parts, of which the second is the "punch line" and is often left unsaid because the listener is assumed to be familiar with it)

We have this in English as well:
•Make like a banana—and split
•Make like a tree—and leave
(Although I'm not sure what we call these in English)
A Chinese-English Dictionary

a two-part allegorical saying, of which the first part, always stated, is descriptive, while the second part, sometimes unstated, carries the message, e.g. 泥菩萨过河-自身难保 like a clay idol fording a river-hardly able to save oneself (let alone anyone else)

The Chinese Wikipedia entry for xiehouyu has a 粤语常见歇后语 and 客家话歇后语 sections - so while some xiehouyu certainly are regional - and every topolect has them -  the ones in dictionaries or that are "well known" will be understandable everywhere.

it's kind of metaphor, but short and well-known. Sometime it's may pointing a issue by referring a similar situation of metaphor. or sometime it used for just emphasizing the point


Is the Cantonese diminutive (粒) the same as the Mandarin (子)? Is the Cantonese diminutive (粒) as in 鸡粒炒饭 the same as the Mandarin (子)? Is that the right character to use?

UPDATE: Sorry for the mistake, I really did mean 粒, not 里.

No.

“鸡粒” is common Chinese, means "diced chicken", “粒” means diced small cubes of meat.

“鸡子” is Cantonese, means the kidney, a viscera of chicken.

Actually different things. But “鸡粒”, “鸡籽”, and “鸡子” may all mean the egg of chicken in loosely.

the meanings of those two are the same in the only single word,but we'd like to use the specific one in some established by usage phrases.


Please help me understand this use of 去做 I came across this sentence in my HSK course:

但是很多时候，我们不得不去做一些自己不愿意做，甚至是非常不喜欢的工作

Can someone please help me understand what is the function of that "去"?
I think the sentence can also work without that "去" so if it is there it must definitely have a function.
Many thanks in advance!!!!!

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

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

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

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

It's absolutely ok to remove the ‘去’. The meaning won't change at all.
去 may put a little emphysis in the sentence (because it makes the sentence longer), but it's largely redundant anyway.


Which one is correct? 他们是我的老师们/他们是我的老师 家好
请问一下，这些句子哪个对，哪个不对 ?
Which one is correct and which one is wrong?

他们是我的老师们 (两个以上的老师)

他们是我的老师 (两个以上的老师)

他们是我老师们 (两个以上的老师)

他们是我老师 (两个以上的老师)

他们是我的朋友们 (两个以上的老师)

他们是我的朋友 (两个以上的老师)

他们是我朋友们 (两个以上的老师)

他们是我朋友 (两个以上的老师)

Thank you !

These four are all authentic expression while the first one is the best choice if you are introducing your teachers to someone.
他们是我的老师
他们是我老师
他们是我的朋友
他们是我朋友

1.老师 or 朋友
Both are acceptable. But it's usually more natural to call your teachers 老师 instead of 朋友 because it sounds more polite and formal.
2.我的老师 or 我的老师们
It's more natural in the Chinese language to say 他们是我的老师 instead of 老师们 even though "teachers" make more sense than "teacher" when understanding the sentence in the way of English grammar. It's hard for me to provide a reason for that.
3.我的老师 or 我老师
我 and 我的 both mean "my". The omission of 的 makes it more colloquial. It's common to hear people say 我... to a friend. But again I guess 我的老师 would suits better because it sound more formal.

2 4 6 8 are right.
1 3 5 7 are a little bit weird.


The connection of multiple adjectives In the following sentence:

  “现在大家坐上‘复兴号’，不仅更宽敞明亮舒服、速度更快，在车上打电话的信号也更好了，这些都是能感受到的变化。” 丁荣军说，“我们正在研究怎么接入媒体，让视频也能到车上去。”

The relevant part means:

  Not only it is more spacious, lighter, and more comfortable, and faster, but the signal of the phone is also better. All of them are the changes you can sense.

Usually, the adjectives are concatenated with a conjunction, such as 和 or 并. But in this case the adjectives are not concatenated with any conjunction, and it is in the form of "ABC", not "A、B和C".

Why does it use no conjunction, and how can I know in which situations it is required to use a conjunction to concatenate adjectives.

Also, does the meaning get different if I add 和 in this case?

You do not always need 和 between adjectives.
You could use 宽敞明亮、舒服.
宽敞明亮 usually works together.

"现在大家坐上‘复兴号’，
Now (for) everyone sitting on the 'D train'

不仅更宽敞明亮舒服、速度更快，
it is not only bigger, brighter, more comfortable, faster,

在车上打电话的信号也更好了，
the phone signal in the train is also better,

这些都是能感受到的变化。”
these are all perceptible changes

丁荣军说，
Ding Rong Jun said

“我们正在研究怎么接入媒体，让视频也能到车上去。
We are researching how integrate media

让视频也能到车上去。
(and) also make video work on (the train).

... 不仅更宽敞明亮舒服、速度更快，...

I take this as a punctuation issue. I would punctuate it like:

  ... 不仅更宽敞 、 明亮 、 舒服 , 速度更快，...

Better add the conjunction 而且 between the two clauses, like:

  ... 不仅更宽敞、（更）明亮、（更）舒服, 而且速度更快，...


Why does Chinese lack some level of abstraction in some idioms? (e.g. 兄弟姐妹) Example: in Chinese, you can't* speak of siblings in a general term, and in turn you have to enumerate all 4 combinations of sex and age: 兄弟姐妹 ( older brother, younger brother, older sister, younger sister )

Can you name other examples like this, and do anyone have any clues or explanations about why is this?

I think it might be in part due to Chinese being a very old language and carrying some aspects of more primitive ways of speech from long ago, but it's just speculation.

* as far as I know

Your question is a bit hard to answer because you can't say a word doesn't exist just because it's a combination of several related characters. This is how most words are made in Chinese. It would be like saying that you can't speak of psychology in a general term in English because you have to describe what it is every time (psychology = psyche + logia (study)).

Basically, 兄弟姐妹 is not really an enumeration, it's a word, just like 同学 is not a description but also a word. How these words are composed is mostly incidental (although it's often relatively logical and consistent).

To go back to your question, other examples of "enumeration-based" words I can think of are 夫妇 (couple), 父母 (parents)

The word 'siblings' in English is a modern (1903) revival of an ancient term for relatives and kinsmen by an anthropologist. English didn't have a single word for 'brothers and sisters' before that. So it's hard to fault Chinese on this one.


please help me translate this poem on my dizi into english picture shows chinese writing on my dizi

If it's "笛鸣天下曲, 箫声韵五孤", its translation should be:
The flute can play all the tunes in the world

all its voice sounds so lonely but fair

Because I do not know is the last Chinese Character "孤", so I only can translate it to "lonely" now.
Actually, "笛" and "箫" are two kind of flutes, but it seem both their English translation are "flute".

笛鸣天下曲箫声
this is a bit wired, i can't find its source.
the first character is dizi;
笛鸣 means the dizi is is crying or cries
天下 means the world, metaphorically
曲箫 is not a word. imo, 曲 is a noun, means absolute music, without lyrics, 箫 is a noun, instrument.
声 is sound.
This sentence is a poem-liked, very confusing, though, it maybe means nothing.It is likely someone love classic literature but really suck at it, as consquence, wrote a bad sentence, looks great at first but in fact something bad.
I saw I was downvoted, that I want to say more.
There are many people who are really suck at classic Chinese love writing sentences meant nothing but look classic and greatful. We had lots of discussion already.
https://www.zhihu.com/question/27426102


Why "校车来了“， not "校车来着" and "校车正来"? My question is as the title. The sentence "school bus is coming" is translated as "校车来了". I understand this translation because "了" here indicates a new situation. But why are "校车来着" or "校车正来" WRONG?

[Edited to discuss 正, 在, and 著]
There is a discussion of 在 and 著 in Li and Thompson's 1981 book Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. They don't have much to say about 正. My own feeling is that this is usually used with either 在 and 著; it seldom, if ever, appears by itself. Sentences such as 他正吃飯 are simply odd. I am not a native speaker, so I'm ready to be corrected on this.

Both 在 and 著 are durative markers, but they still differ in meaning. L&T's examples of the difference include:
他在穿皮鞋: He is putting on leather shoes
他穿著皮鞋: He is wearing leather shoes
Their explanation for the difference here is that 在 is used with persistent actions (actions that have some duration), while 著 is used with actions that result in a persistent state. 穿 can have either of these interpretations, so both sentences are good, but each has a different meaning. Again, I think 他正穿皮鞋 is just odd here, better to say 他正在穿皮鞋, or 他正穿著皮鞋. In neither case does this actually change the meaning, it simply emphasizes the durative nature of the action or result.

In the case of 來, I think the Chinese logic is that "come" is not a persistent action. Instead, it is what Quirk et al (1981) call a transitional action. Other examples they give are:
The train is arriving at the station
It looks like he is scoring a goal
According to Quirk, transitional actions do not have a durative meaning, and so for these cases English progressive has an anticipatory meaning, i.e. a period leading up to the transition. For these cases, Chinese doesn't use either 著 or 在 (since there is no persistent action or state). Instead it uses forms such as 快...了:
She is dying 她快死了.
She is coming 她快來了.

Since these are not durative sentences, many languages do not use progressive forms here. In this case it is English that is exceptional, rather than Chinese.

In this example, I translate 了 as "already". So using 了， this is good news when the bus has already left its origin（last station) and is coming ( even if I don't see it yet).


What is the correct word order for words 跑步 and 轻快? What is the correct word order for words 跑步 and 轻快?

跑步轻快
跑步的轻快 (seems like this version is extremely incorrect, also because of wrong character de usage)
轻快的跑步

I see no issue with 轻快的跑步 when you consider 跑步 (as a whole) a noun word.

If you take 跑步 as a verb, then 轻快地跑步 is ok.

For example,

  轻快的跑步能让我们的身心得以放松。 // used as a noun.

  我们在操场上轻快地跑步。 // used as a verb

In fact, I'd rather say 跑步 is used as a noun more often than a verb. For example, 跑步是一项很好的运动.

The single character 跑 is often used when serves as a verb, instead of 跑步. For example, 他跑得很快。We wouldn't say 他跑步得很快. This is because we take 跑步 as a noun usually.

So, 轻快的跑步 does make some sense in some circumstances.

跑步轻快 is a possible usage too, because 跑步轻快 could be considered to be the short version of 跑步跑得轻快.

However, 跑步的轻快 is not valid in any case, because 轻快 is adj or adv. You could say 跑步跑得轻快， but 跑步得轻快 is wrong because (as mentioned above) 跑步 is often used as a noun word.


What does 着急 mean in 我们不能太着急 in the context of exam-oriented education (应试教育) versus all-round education (素质教育)? This text is talking about 应试教育 versus 素质教育。In this sentence the last phrase is a bit unclear.

  应该说已经推动了应试教育向素质教育的转变，但是这个转变非常艰难，是一个痛苦的漫长的过程，我们不能太着急。

Dictionaries say ‘着急’ means 'worry, feel anxious'

我们不能太着急。I'd like to translate this as 'we shouldn't expect quick results' or 'we shouldn't fret'. Does that catch the Chinese meaning??

I suggest: "We shouldn't rush the process" since it's a long and painful process you're talking about.

XXX, 是一个痛苦的漫长的过程，我们不能太着急

"XXX is a struggling and long-time procedure, we shouldn't hurry"

but how it sounds I prefer this:

"XXX is a struggling and long-time procedure, we need to be patient"


脚底抹油－开溜 translate into English Can someone help me to translate 脚底抹油－开溜 because when I'm using google translate the sentence is so weird.

If something bad happened, you can 脚底抹油 (put oil on the sole of foot) , and then 开溜 (start to slip away quickly).

In short, it means expeditious retreat.

BTW: Here's another statement as 脚底抹油 - 溜之大吉, which has a similar meaning.

It means run away quickly as if there is oil on the sole of your foot


Technical English-Chinese Dictionary Do anyone know if it exists a professional English-Chinese and Chinese-English Technical Dictionary?

Based on your comment:

  Technical dictionaries are dictionaries with terminology in the fields of technology and science, in which you can find names that you do not find in "classical dictionaries", because they are very technical.

I would highly recommend the 21st Century English-Chinese Dictionary

blurb from Amazon:

  The English-Chinese dictionary collects more than 70,000 entries. It includes over 10,000 new words. The phonetic is referred to the new edition from U.K. & U. S. Appendix includes the information of five countries: United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia & New Zealand; the military ranks of U.K. & U.S.; international famous companies; chemical elements; punctuation; the usage of numeral, date & time; comparison of metric system & metrology of U.K. & U.S.

entry-wise I'm not sure why Amazon only mentions 70,000 entries as Pleco calls it:

  the 280,000-entry 21st Century English-Chinese Dictionary

For software terminology, the practical usages are in the translation memory in software translation management services.


What does 暴走 mean in 这就是让卡罗琳听到，估计也会暴走? What does 暴走 mean? I tried searching and it said something about running away.
This is the full sentence:

这就是让卡罗琳听到，估计也会暴走。

暴走 (literally mean: "wildly run" )（动漫术语)

It is a Japanese anime/manga lingo that imported to Chinese. The Chinese equivalent of "暴走" is "失控" (out of control; lose control)

暴走 means "out of control" - (also, 'act violently' is implied. The obvious sign of someone is out of control is not following the common sense and/or act violently)

暴走族 (clan that run wildly) is a Japanese term for "bike gang", the Chinese equivalent of "暴走族" is "飛車黨"

In Chinese, 暴走=暴+走，暴means blastly,ballistically。So 暴走 means walk blastly （still walk rather run）。This expression is not so popular in formal Chinese, only the case of 暴走族，meaning a group of people exercising by walking very fastly.
Your sentence:这就是让卡罗琳听到，估计也会暴走, is not popular in formal Chinese

3.You might be reading the book 特工酷女神. The language used by the author should be avoided in formal Chinese. I suggest you to throw this book into rabbish.


Why 了 is not used, and what is the meaning of 玩 in 上个星期天，我跟好朋友一起去林学院的农场玩? The sentence is:

  上个星期天，我跟好朋友一起去林学院的农场玩。

I wonder why the writer doesn't add 了 after the verb to indicate that this action took place in the past.
Also, what's the use of 玩 in that sentence? And why is it placed in the end of that sentence?

I try my best to expalain it with my fair English.

First, here we have two verbs “去”and “玩”. And there can be following cases for your sentense:

.....去.....玩。
In this case, both verbs are emphasized. That means, information described about these verbs are all important.
.....去了..... 玩。
In this case, with 了 after 去, the tone has slightly more emphasis on the verb related to 去.
.....去......玩了。
In this case, with 了 after 玩, the tone has slightly more emphasis on the verb related to 玩. (But this case is a bit not that natural in this sentense. Not that “fluent”.)

By the way, here 了 means already.

You use 了 to indicate that a situation is real. That is took place in this world or will take it in this world.

Is it possible that the context of the sentence:
"上个星期天，我跟好朋友一起去林学院的农场玩"
has something to do with describing a dream or a desire (something not real)?


Old Mandarin vs. Mandarin Chinese? How intelligible is Old Mandarin to the speakers of Mandarin Chinese?
If an Old Mandarin Chinese speaker heard a Mandarin Chinese speaker or vice versa, how fluent would the communication be?

I believe the situation is more or less the same in all languages, that the language drifts across generations. Whereas you could easily communicate with Isaac Newton, it would be a little more difficult to do with Shakespeare, and more so with Chaucer. When you get to Richard Lionheart and earlier (say, the times of Beowulf), you can just forget any meaningful exchange of ideas.

As for Mandarin, you could speak perfectly well with late Qing people, although they would still retain tones that are now forgotten. Going back to Cao Xueqin's time (1700s), you would still be able to discern most of the vernacular used, just like you can read 红楼梦 without too much trouble. But you would get progressively lost talking to Su Dongpo and Princess Wencheng of Tang, they would speak a completely different language.

The thing with Chinese, though, is that you could still exchange ideas in writing with these people.

This topic is interesting.
Assuming you are referring to Classic Chinese (文言文) as Old Mandarin.
We must be astonished with the intelligence of a person 'speaking' Classic Chinese.

And to my humble (sincere) opinion (wish), Classic Chinese has always been written instead of spoken. (:

This is actually easy as when we look at the literal spelling of the two words in Chinese itself:

  文言文 (Classical Chinese) = Written language;
  白话文 (Modern Chinese) = Spoken language.


How to correctly order the words 张先生 男朋友 卖 妹妹 书 那个人 的 是 的? This is a question from an exercise book that I'm currently working through, to rearrange the given words into the correct order. I believe the format is along the lines of "The person who was [doing a thing] is [a specific person]", but I'm not sure because I'm not too familiar with this construct.

The words are:

  张先生 男朋友 卖 妹妹 书 那个人 的 是 的

I believe the correct order should be:

  卖书的那个人是张先生妹妹的男朋友

Is this correct?

EDIT

So far two submissions, but no confirmation. Any native speakers like to weigh in?

I agree with your answer - it makes sense and reads well. I'm a native speaker, btw.

Although 张先生是卖书那个人的妹妹的男朋友 works too, I still prefer your order :)

张先生是卖妹妹的男朋友书的那个人。
Mr. Zhang is that man who sells books to his sister's boyfriend.

Alrhough “张先生是卖给妹妹的男朋友书的那个人“ (note the character 给) would seem to fit Chinese grammar better.


How should one translate "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝" into English? On my birthday a friend wished me "祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝". I can understand each of the individual words in this phrase, but the overall meaning is somewhat less clear to me (although I have some ideas about what it might mean). Searching around the web reveals many different translations into English, all with different nuances. :)

How would one translate this phrase into English, in such a way as to accurately preserve the meaning of the original idiom? Are there particular contexts in which one would use the expression? Is it used by (or for) people of a particular age group? Lastly, are there any other Chinese expressions that use a similar pattern?

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

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

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

祝你年年有今日，歲歲有今朝。
May you stay forever young.

(

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young

May you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young

May you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung

and may you stay forever young

)


What's a good word for "creepy" in Chinese? I realize that the English word "creepy" is a slang with many different meanings. I'm referring to the way someone might describe unwanted sexual advances. For example,

That guy over there staring at me is kinda creepy.

I'm not trying to shame anyone, I simply teach a social swing dance class (in Chinese), and I'm trying to show what moves to avoid so as not to "creep out" your partner.  This goes for both men and women.
For example:

Don't slide your hand all over your partner's arm, it feels a little creepy.
When you spin a girl, make sure to let go at the right time and don't drag your hand around around her waist because it's creepy.

I've asked around, but all I got was "猥琐" and "恶心", which sound so serious to me.  The English word is a little more euphemistic.  Is there a more lighthearted way to say "creepy" in Chinese?

In your context, you may want to say the move 令人不舒服 or 令人不自在 (makes people feel uncomfortable).

adj. creepy: Meaning "having a creeping feeling in the flesh". Would you really dance with such a one?

The words 流氓 and 色狼 spring to mind, but may be too harsh for your situation. I think the Chinese would not behave improperly.


Is the sentence 他原来什么都不知道 grammatically correct? "他原来什么都不知道"

Shouldn't it be 他原来什么都没(有)知道 to show that we're talking about the past tense here?

Strictly speaking, the adverb 没 does not negate events that happened in the past, rather it is used to express negative completed actions. When we say completed we mean that the action indicated by the predicate it's finished, it doesn't necessarily mean that is a past tense. 没 is the negative counterpart of 了 (when it is the aspectual particle).

Both 了 and 没 should only be used if the predicate in your sentence expresses a true action, in other words, if the verb does something to an object, acts directly upon it or changes it in some way. The predicate 知道 (to know) doesn't indicate an action, because the object of your knowledge doesn't undergo or suffer any change at all. In these situations should use 不 instead.

Of course, if you use 不 you should express the time through some adverb, if you want to keep the notion of past tense in your sentence. The word 原来 can be used as an adverb (originally) or as an adjective (original, initial) and it describes an original condition. If the meaning you had in mind was "At first he didn't know anything", then your translation (他原来什么都不知道) is perfectly fine. However if you wanted to say "He didn't know anything before." (which is a little bit different from the previous one), you should consider using the adverb 以前. So, the sentence

  他以前什么都不知道。

is correct too. It certainly indicates a past tense and you don't put 没 because of the nature of the predicate. But, again, it depends on the interpretations.

First thing first. Chinese doesn't have any grammar.

Thus 他原来什么都不知道 and 他原来什么都没(有)知道 are both correct.

But in Chinese, there is something called "用词", or word choice. So to show past tense here, you can use

他原来以前什么都不知道; 以前 means past.
他原来现在什么都没有知道；现在 means now.
他原来未来什么都不知道; 未来 means future.
他原来什么都不知道; simply means that he didn't know, doesn't know and will not know.


Pronounce ellipsis 《●●● ●●●》 in Mandarin When I'm reading ellipses in English out loud I usually say et cetera or and so on. What should I say in Mandarin? 等等?

等等 is the official and only globally recognized way to read ellipsis in Chinese, unlike in English there are more than one (et cetera, and so on, and so forth, etc.)

In casual occasions you can also say 等 for short. In formal speeches like news broadcast it's always 等等. (Note I am talking about the pronunciation of ellipsis; I am not saying single 等 or other alternatives are grammatically incorrect or cannot be used in formal conversations.)

I think the ...... should never be explicitly pronounced when you read an paragraph, unless it uses 等等 directly rather than ......

When you read this, just ignore the punctuation.


Looking for a translation of '舒适性‘ and '安全性'? 该品牌汽车以优良的舒适性和安全性赢得了众多车主的喜爱。

This brand of automobile uses first rate *comfortness and *safetyness to win many car owner's favour.

安全性

safety; safeness -ABC
safety, security -KEY

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

Not very good if left out 性 ,性 means property here.安全性 and 舒适性 refer to the "safe and comfortable property" of the car.It's more proper to use these words in this circumstance.

Here,the structure is
该品牌汽车以
(优良的舒适性和安全性)(noun)
赢得了众多车主的喜爱。

If you use 优良的安全和舒适 as the noun part here,it is a bit strange.


How to best translate "I got A's in 3 of my classes" what is some natural ways to say "I got A's in three of my classes" in mandarin? Thank you!

When this happened to me, I told my friend:

我有三门课得了A。

Or you can also say

我得了三门课的A。

(Assume A is the top score)
I got A's in three of my classes.
我取得了三个班当中的最高分。
(You are good, I never got an A!!)


Is there a difference between 有趣 and 有意思? They seem to mean the same thing, but I've seen 有意思 quite a few times in my books, and never 有趣. When is 有趣 used and why (especially in comparison with 有意思)?

有趣 - fun
有意思 - interesting

To break the vocabulary literally, we have 有/趣 and 有/意思. The word 有 carries the meaning similar to "there is something" or "it has something". 趣 can be interpreted as "fun". 意思 can be translated to "meaning".

So, these two vocabularies can be broken down literally as:

X有趣 - there is fun in X / X is fun
X有意思 - X is interesting

有趣 means it is something makes your happy.
有意思 means it is something meaningful.

Actually, it is quite depending on the whole sentence or even the paragraph.


What does the `里` mean in `这些狗里有一只穿红色的毛衣`? In the following sentence:

这些狗里有一只穿红色的毛衣

What does the 里 mean? I think the sentence means something like The dogs wear red sweaters. But why does it require 里 there and what meaning does it add?

I'm learning about simplified mandarin language, but would like to know if it differs from the traditional in how it is used.

It means one of these dogs wears a red sweater. ...里 literally means in/among ..., and it is followed by 有一只, which means there is one. Hence the whole sentence translates literally as Among these dogs there is one wearing a red sweater.

Split the sentence as below to make better understanding

这些狗里 有一只 穿红色的毛衣.

But usually it would be more likely like below in speaking:

(在)这些狗里(面) 有一只 穿红色的毛衣


In classical Chinese, does 從 always imply the follower is lower in rank? When 從 in Classical Chinese means "to follow", literally as in "John followed Peter to the park," does the subject (the follower) necessarily refer to someone who is lower in rank than whoever the object (the followed) refers to?
Do you know of any examples where this use of 從 does not require a subject that refers to someone lower in rank?
I'd appreciate your help.

in the book “殷周金文集成”, the entry 04030,
my best understanding of 从 in the 5th column:
engaged in (从) the commanding (司) [of] the royal court (王家), outside and inside (外內)
the structure of “从司” is similar to “從事”, or “從政”; that “从” means “engaged in, enter, become”. it does not have the meaning of “follow” here.

edited. if 從 (u+5f9e) is allowed, in lieu of 从 (u+4ece); then, in the book of rites (禮記), the chapter 曾子問 has the text:

孔子曰・大宰・大宗・從大祝而告於禰

in the same book, the chapter 曲禮下:

天子建天官・先六大・曰大宰・大宗・大史・大祝・大士・大卜・典司六典

roughly, it means:

Confucius said, 'The Grand minister and the Grand master of the ancestral temple will follow the Grand officer of prayer, and announce the fact before the spirit tablet (of the deceased ruler)

that, the grand minister (大宰), the grand master of the ancestral temple (大宗) were the no 1 & no 2 in 周 dynasty
the grand  officer of prayer (大祝) is the no 4
so, under specified circumstance, the no1 & no2 official would follow (從) a lower ranking official (the no4) to a particular place.
https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=59684
https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=9558

edited again.

Are there any cases where the object of 從 did not display such superiority or any superiority altogether?

well, in the book 莊子, chapter 德充符:

魯有兀者王駘，從之遊者，與仲尼相若

roughly, it means:

In Lu there was a Wang Tai who had lost both his feet; while his disciples who followed and went about with him, were as numerous as those of confucius.

that, in ancient time, disabled persons were treated as inferior. in this case, mr 王’s disciples were numerous, that, we ought to assume that most, if not all of them are able-bodied.
so, the “從” in here does not infer superiority.
https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=2748
another case is in the same book, chapter 達生:

孔子觀於呂梁，縣水三十仞，流沫四十里，黿鼉魚龞之所不能游也。見一丈夫游之，以為有苦而欲死也，使弟子並流而拯之。數百步而出，被髮行歌而游於塘下。孔子從而問焉

roughly, it means:

Confucius was looking at the cataract near the gorge of Lu, which fell a height of 240 cubits, and the spray of which floated a distance of forty li (producing a turbulence) in which no tortoise, gavial, fish, or turtle could play. He saw, however, an old man swimming about in it, as if he had sustained some great calamity, and wished to end his life. Confucius made his disciples hasten along the stream to rescue the man; and by the time they had gone several hundred paces, he was walking along singing, with his hair dishevelled, and enjoying himself at the foot of the embankment. Confucius followed and asked him

i think this example is clear, that the “從” doesn’t not display any superiority.
have fun :)
https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=2847#s10042177

In modern chinese, It's rare to use 從 as a verb to represent "follow someone to a place".
So if you mean "John followed Peter to the park", you can use 跟著 隨著. John 跟著/隨著 Peter
to the park.
從 has several extended meanings which comes from FOLLOW (phyically to logically).
e.g.
隨從 - entourage
服從 聽從 順從 - obey, comply with...
從軍 - Join the Military, 從政 - engage in politics, 從事 - engaged in, work as, do (你從事的工作是甚麼？)
從2020年 - since 2020, 從現在開始 - from now on.
Here for more information about 從，All explaintions are userful and very commonly used in daily conversation.


Why is 喂 used over 你好 when answering the phone? The use of 拜拜 over 再见 at the end of a phone conversation is obvious as you haven't seen them so how could you see them again but I don't understand why 喂 is used as a greeting when answering the phone.

It also seems the other dialect in Chinese use a different greeting for phone calls as compared to face to face interaction eg. Cantonese 喂 wái | Hakka 噯 oi

So my question is why was a different greeting needed for answering the phone?

Most languages use an alternate greeting for telephone calls; the English "hello", although originating from before the telephone, was popularised by it, so much so that it has become a common greeting outside the telephone:

hello
1883, alt. of hallo (1840), itself an alt. of holla, hollo, a shout to attract attention, first recorded 1588. Perhaps from holla! "stop, cease." Popularity as a greeting coincides with use of the telephone, where it won out over Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion, ahoy. Central telephone exchange operators
were known as hello-girls (1889).

So the mandarin 喂 is not an exception, only that unlike "hello", people do not use it outside telephone calls.
The reason for telephone greetings is that it was a medium where reception may be bad and you are unsure who you are talking to. Thus a short greeting meant to solicit response (i.e. "can you hear me") is used.

Saying 喂 is like saying "Hi..." when you answer a phone in Chinese. The following are some common phrases that can used to answer a phone.
喂，你好。 wéi, nǐ hǎo.
Hello.
小王在吗? xiǎo wánɡ zài mɑ?
Can I speak to Xiao Wang?
对不起，你打错了。 duì bù qǐ, nǐ dǎ cuò le.
Sorry, you made a wrong call.

And this is a good place to know more simple Chinese phrases in different life situations.

http://www.ichineselearning.com/easy-chinese/phrases.html


How to say "make money"? I'm trying to say "the Song Dynasty used this invention to make paper money". So far I've got "宋朝用了这个发明做纸钱“。 The "make money" part is messing with me- I know "做钱“ can mean to print counterfeit money, and I'm not trying to express that. I also know the word "赚钱”, but I know that's to earn money in a job, not to print it. And does the word "纸钱“ effectively express the idea of paper money, like bills, or does it just sound strange?

Also, the simplest word would be best! :)

My research:

I've plugged "make money" into various online translators, and either gotten "赚钱" or "做钱", hence the question.
For "paper money", I've gotten "纸币" and "纸钱“, neither of which I'm totally sure of.

生产纸币: to manufacture paper money/ to produce paper money
制造纸币: to make paper money / to produce paper money
发行纸币: to issue paper money
印制纸币: to print paper money

米凯乐 wrote: 宋朝用了这个发明做纸钱
It should be 宋朝用这个发明来制造纸币 (来= to)- Song Dynasty used this invention to make paper money
'做' means 'being', it should be '制造'(make)

Note the difference between 制造 and 制作 Difference between 製作 and 製造?

赚钱
I am chinese。我的答案比较准确，你们可以看一下。


What is the character `bia` in `bia响`? In this video 方清平《春节记事》单口相声笑侃春节趣闻轶事 there's a short part of a sentence at around ~4:46 where the speaker says:

  往地一摔 bia响了

The subtitles themselves leave out bia and just go for:

  往地一摔 响了

I went through 北京话词典 but it just goes from:

避屈 bìqū

to

边边儿沿沿儿 biānbiānryán yánr

In other dialects I've seen bia written: 扁、瘪 and .

I've seen 嘌 noted as "pia" it might be an option with the confusion of b/p.

Any ideas?

Here are two characters that have the pronunciation bia:

拼音bia4
㈠邑名。
㈡姓。

㈠bia4,上下相付。

zdic has a question that reads:

从小有个朋友问我“bia”拼出来的汉字怎么写，我当时真懵了，不会啊！时间过去20年了，突然回想起这个拼音，有会写的么，请告知，谢谢了

the last comment says:

8楼14楼是权威说法。

Number eight reads:

pia、bia、diang，其实就是pa、ba、dang的变读。
方法是在声母与韵母间插入“i ” 。
例子太多了，就不列举了。

and number fourteen says:

多以“吧”字代之。如吧叽，吧嗒。吧读bia.

《哈尔滨方言词典》p. 110

Simply lists all bia:

□

but the same words from the zdic thread are written as:

吧叽

and

吧嗒

Seemingly making 吧 an acceptable candidate.

《北京方言词典》陈刚 商务印书馆 1985 p.17 confirms this assumption:

The joke was about throwing firecracker

The term "噼里啪啦" is used to mimic sound of a string of firecrackers explodes

  https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%99%BC%E9%87%8C%E5%95%AA%E5%95%A6/1623777

  例句:

  过年了，外面鞭炮声噼里啪啦响个不停

You might had heard "啪" (Pā) there  (he was making a sound effect of  a single firecracker explodes, Therefore, he didn't say "噼里啪啦" but just "啪")

  "往地一摔, '啪' (一声地), 响了"

Another character 嘭 (Pēng) can also be used for mimicking the sound of firecracker.

Or there's no character at all. Anyway, it is just a noise that has no meaning on it's own


Can a character be simplified or traditional depending on the context it is used in? Are there any characters that are considered simplified in some contexts (where there would be a corresponding traditional character), and traditional in other contexts?

To answer your question, we need to clearly understand how Traditional Chinese characters got simplified, which I bet 99.999999% of the whole Chinese population don't even know about.
This is a very big topic that I am not able to discuss about it in detail. So I will give a much simplified explanation.
Consider these 2 sets: Traditional Characters vs Simplified Characters
Of cause there is a mapping between the 2 sets. Most of the mapping (78%) is for "non-simplification at all", like 人 口 手 大 小 天 地 etc. Those characters are NOT simplified.
While the rest of the mapping (22%) is the "real simplification".
In the set of Simplified Characters, there are only 2235 "real simplified characters" in total.
Among the most used 3500 Chinese characters, there are only 1116 "real simplified characters", so the percentage is 32%, less than 1/3.
A medium-sized Chinese dictionary roughly covers 10 thousand "head charcters", among which there are 2235 "real simplified characters", so the percentage is 22%, less than 1/4.
Now we can see the real simplified characters are only a small portion of the whole Chinese charaters.
All the following discussion is on the "real simplification" part of the mapping.

Most people believe the Simplification was done at the character level, meaning one traditional character will be replaced by its simplified counterpart in all circumstances, which of cause is wrong.
Actually the Simplification was done at the sense level, so it means a traditional character will be replaced by a simplified version only for a certain senses, but for other senses of the same traditional character, it is not simplified.

For example 乾 (gān, qián)
(gān) when meaning "dry" in 河乾了 or "finish" in 乾杯 (and a lot other meanings), it is simplified to 干, so they will become 河干了 or 干杯.
(qián) But when meaning "sky" or "related to man", then it is NOT simplified. So even in an article in Simplified Chinese, you may see this phrase 乾坤 (meaning the sky and the earth). Another example is 乾隆, which is a name of an emperor in Qin dynasty.
Another example 瞭 (liǎo, liào)
(liǎo) when in 瞭解 meaning "come to understand", it is simplified as 了, so it becomes 了解.
(liào) but when in 瞭望 meaning "watch from a height or a distance", it is NOT simplified.

However there are quite some characters appear in both sets of Simplified Characters and Traditional Characters.

For example: 丑 (chǒu)
In the set of Traditional Characters, 丑 is used as the second of the twelve "Terrestrial Branches", and also used as a surname. So its counterpart in the set of Simplified Characters is still 丑 (ie not simplified).
醜 (chǒu) is a Traditional Character, meaning "ugly, hateful, disgraceful, scandalous, bad, dirty" etc. It is simplified as 丑.

Simplification was done in the following 8 ways:

Get rid of the whole "picture" of the character, and "redraw" it with its "main frame", like 龜  -> 龟 (tortoise, turtle)

Regularify a character's the simple cursive style, like 為 -> 为.

Use only a part of the character, like 聲 -> 声.

Replace a part of a character by a lot less strokes, like 漢 -> 汉.

Adopt a simple form from very old scripts (eg. oracle 甲骨文）, like 雲 -> 云.

Use a simple character in the same pronunciation family to replace a part of the character, like 燈 -> 灯 (replace 登 with 丁, as pronunciation of 丁 is very close to that of 燈).

Create new characters, like 響 -> 响, 滅 -> 灭 (响 and 灭 were created for the sake of simplification).

Use an existing simple character to replace a complicate character, like 幾 -> 几.

The "newly" created simple characters are less than 100.

Well, it is a separate topic regarding traditional characters used in proper names (or signs, symbols), or some careless writers mix-use simplified and traditional characters in their articles.
So back to your question, using of simplified/traditional characters is NOT based on the context. Ideally if an article is written in simplified Chinese, then it should only use simplified characters, vice versa, unless for some special purposes (like an article written in simplified Chinese talking about simplification of traditional characters).

Anyone an idea where to get the mapping from? I'm talking traditional -> simplified

I have found this utftable.txt from this page:
CodePlex
but it does not seem to be perfect and the author does not tell where the file is coming from.

also where do the numbers come from? e.g.: 2235 real simplified characters in total (quote from above)


How to translate "passionate"? How do I translate the "passionate"? Synonyms would be hot, romantic, fiery, and so forth.

The two of them are passionate lovers
They are very passionate in bed
She gave him a passionate kiss

I've come across 热情 and 多情，but I'm not entirely sure if those are correct.

热情：enthusiastic, warm
多情：affectionate, loving
热情 is fine, but 热恋 (fiery love) is better for your sentences. An alternative is 激情 which literally means passionate with a sense of excitement.

The two of them are passionate lovers. 他们是热恋中的情人。
They are very passionate in bed. 他们在床上充满激情。
She gave him a passionate kiss. 她给了他一个热情的吻。

From iciba: 马勒也因为其轰轰烈烈的婚外情而出名。

轰轰烈烈的婚外情 passionate extra-marital affairs


When do I use the state complement? Recently I have been confused about when I am to use the state complement. For example, if I want to say "In general I read the messages quickly", which sentence should I write?

我一般很快地看留言
我一般看留言看得很快

Maybe both are right? But somehow the two sentences don't sound the same to me.

In chinese the basic syntactic structure is:

  主语, Subject + (状语, Adverb) + 动词, Verb + (补语, Complements)

So, from this structure we can see that the adverb comes before the verb and the complement slot follows the verb.

Whatever precedes the verb modifies its meaning. So, since the adverb comes before the predicate, it behaves like a determinant. 很快(地) in your first sentence adds more information to the main action, 看.

On the other hand, whatever follows the verb represents the results of the predicate, it completes the meaning of the verb and that's why this place is reserved for complements. The degree complement, or 程度补语, it's a very special complement that specifies the qualities of the action. You could think about it as picture of the predicate.

Thus, both your sentences are correct from a grammatical point of view. They also mean the exactly same thing. The difference between the two consist in the focus.
In the first sentence the predicate (看) is the most important element. In the second instead the degree of the action (得很快) receives the focus.

  我一般很快地看留言。
  In general I read messages. How do I read them? Quickly.

  我一般看留言看得很快。
  In general I read messages and my action has the result to be quick.

both are fine. they are expressing the same thing


documentation/references: 全 being pronunced `qian` in Southwestern Mandarin I'd always had this hunch! The bus recording was supposed to be 安全 but why did it sound like 安前.
Then I got affirmation from 《成都方言》

刘前进
此词源于《刘全进瓜》的古典故事，即与瓜傻同义，便指傻瓜。又由于地域读音关系，“前”与“全”不分，此词又为“刘全进”。歇后语：“～——瓜！”

Specifically: “前”与“全”不分.
This, though, is the only evidence or documentation/reference I have come across talking about this phenomenon.
What other references or documentation exist talking about “前”与“全”不分 or 全 being pronounced qian in Southwestern Mandarin, or more specifically Sichuanese/Chengduese?

I am working in Chengdu. But I don't think they don't really 前/全 不分, they can easily speak 全 though maybe sounds a little different on tone with 普通话. Maybe the pure ancient 四川话 has the difference as you talked. But nowadays, it's not so obvious. Maybe caused by the develop and immigrants from other place, the 四川话 also changed day after day. 所以，如果如今的四川话和过去的不太像了，你也不必感到奇怪。


How to say "The general consensus is" or "In general, most people consider" The exact sentence I'd like to translate is

  The general consensus is that most people consider Southerners to be friendly

or

  One stereotype that Southerners have is that they are friendly.

I know you can use "总的来说“ to mean "Generally speaking", or "In general", but I really want to convey the stereotype aspect.

The general consensus is that most people consider Southerners to be friendly

人们普遍认为南方人很友好。

use 刻板印象 (stereotypes).

我们有南方人都很友善的刻板印象/我們有南方人都很友善的刻板印象. ( We have the stereotype that... )


Are 你美好的未来 and 你的美好未来 and 你迷人的眼神 and 你的迷人眼神 all correct? You can say 你 的 美好 未来 = Your bright future.
And you can say 你 迷人 的 眼神 = Your charming eyes
Is 你 美好 的 未来 also correct?
Is 你 的 迷人 眼神 also correct?

"你美好的未来" and "你的美好未来" are reducted differently from the same sentences "你的美好的未来" (wordy)

你的美好的未来 (wordy)

你美好的未来 -- omitted 的 from 你的 (emphasize 美好的)

你的美好未来 -- omitted 的 from 美好的(emphasize 你的)

~

你的迷人的眼神 (wordy)

你迷人的眼神 -- omitted 的 from 你的 (emphasize 迷人的)

你的迷人眼神 -- omitted 的 from 迷人的 (emphasize 你的)

Please read Why there is no 的 after 你 in 你国家的医院好吗?
and When does an adjective require 的 to describe a noun?

Yes, but I think "你 美好 的 未来" and "你 迷人 的 眼神" are focusing on "美好" and "迷人" more, and vaguely, "你 的 美好 未来" and "你 的 迷人 眼神" are focusing on "你的" more.


Why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese? Can someone explain why Cantonese is considered as a dialect of Chinese, instead of a language? It is also for any language exist in China, both land and Taiwan (Cantonese, Hunanese, Fujianese, Taiwanese, etc.).

AFAIK, dialect is differ from language. Just like in Indonesia: Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese is considered as a language, not a dialect. But, Javanese is called as a dialect when someone speak Indonesian language with Javanese accent.

But, for Cantonese (or any other languages listed above), although you speak Cantonese, Chinese will considered it as a dialect, not a language. You know that, Cantonese and Mandarin is 'completely' different each other.

From Wikipedia:

  There is no universally accepted criterion for distinguishing a
  language from a dialect.

My hunch is that in general Chinese politics favors unity, whereas European politics favors separation, thus speakers of Dutch and German would hate to think that they were speaking dialects of the same language. Conversely in general it is useful for the notion of Chinese unity, that there is only one "Chinese", although in fact there are many spoken languages within the peoples considered Chinese, that are considered separate languages.

Note that (accoring to WP) the distinction is so unclear that some linguists consider "Dialect" and "Language" to be synonyms, and that a dialect can also be a language. Thus "Hokkien is a language that is a dialect of Chinese" would not be an illogical statement.

It is dialect indeed. Most usage of the cantonese is similar to mandarin. If a mandarin speaker watch a Cantonese channel for sometimes, he can grasp most of the detail.Like me I watch football match on UUSEE and I can understand most contents of the commentator mean. And I have not turned to any Cantonese classes before.


Chinese Collage Pictures made with paper, bamboo & Feathers (Characters identified: 松楓 沈陽) We have a set of 3 collages bought from Hong Kongaround the 1970’s.  Do you know who the artist is please?

Just so that there's no confusion about the character shape in the seal, which is 「陽」 and not 「揚」. See the third shape below:

商甲前5.42.5合集14855西周金農卣集成5424西周金虢季子白盤集成10173秦簡法57睡虎地秦簡今楷

The left-hand-side component of the character is 「阜・阝」 rather than 「手・扌」. There is a fair amount of fading around the middle of the character.

In general, the name of the artist is written in the seal.
In the photos you took, the font of the seal is 小篆(Small Seal Script /Xiao Zhuan, an archaic form of Chinese calligraphy). Since it was a little blurred, I'm not 100% sure but I think its 沈扬, not 沈阳.
I tried to google this person's name, but unfortunately, I didn't find any useful information about this person/artist.
In my opinion, there are two possibilities: maybe he/she is a well-known artist and since it's a picture you bought 50 years ago. It's hard to figure out who he/she is.
Or, as 水巷孑蠻 said, its just a picture from “product line“, even the seal may be not true.
But this is still a beautiful picture with memories, isn't it?


What does 形势大好 in this situation mean I'm reading a letter that Ba Jin wrote in the 80s to a group of students, and there are a few places in the letter that he uses what appears to be a phrase '形势大好' that meant something specific to the context of the times.  Here's a usage of it in context:

  我常常想，我们生活在其中的社会有时会是十分古怪，叫人难以理解。人们喜欢说，形势大
  好，我也这样说过。这种说法不是没有道理，我也有自己的经验：根据我耳闻目睹，舍身救
  人、一心为公的英雄事迹和一人有难、八方支援的好人好事，每天都在远近发生。

I think the literal translation "excellent situation" is missing something.  So is there a better way of understanding it?

漢典
shows that 形势 means [situation; circumstance; condition; state of affairs]
在其周围环境中所处的情形；或在一定时间内，各种情形的相对的或综合的境况。

According to the context,
the author was talking about
社会形势大好
because there were many 好人好事 everyday.

Thus, I think 形势 means 气氛 here.

The social atmosphere is very good.

here 形势大好 mains 社会风气非常好，people live happily and harmony


What is the difference between 发货，出货 and 交货？ What is the difference between 发货, 出货, and 交货?

出货: produce goods

发货: ship goods

交货: deliver goods


Intonation and stress for Chinese pronunciation The new book 汉语国际教育用词语声调组合及轻重音格式实用手册 ("A Practical Manual of Tone Patterns and Formats of Stressed and Unstressed Syllables in Mandarin Words for the Application of Teaching Chinese to the Speakers of Other Languages") apparently discusses this, according to this answer by Becky:

学习汉语语音只把音节（声母、韵母和声调）发准是不够的，在语流交际中，按照汉语声调连读模式和轻重音格式发出的音才是地道的发音，才有标准汉语的味道。
To learn Chinese phonetics, it is not enough to pronounce the syllables (consonants, vowels, and tones) correctly. In language-flow (?) communication, authentic pronunciation with the flavor of standard Chinese requires following the pattern of Chinese intonation and stress.

This is the first time that I've heard any attention given to intonation and stress in Chinese. What guidelines are there on proper intonation and stress? Of course, the neutral tone is often less stressed or shorter. Aside from that, Wikipedia's Standard Chinese phonology article doesn't seem to say anything definitive. Wikipedia's Intonation article says:

In the Beijing dialect, they are intentionally distinguished for the average speaker as follows, using a pitch scale from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest):

Declarative sentences go from pitch level 3 to 5 and then down to 2 and 1.
A-not-A questions go from 6 to 9 to 2 to 1.
Yes–no ma questions go from 6 to 9 to 4 to 5.
Unmarked questions go from 6 to 9 to 4 to 6.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of intonation pattern Wikipedia has in mind here – audio examples might be helpful. Besides that, what other intonation patterns are good to know?

(I'm a native Chinese user.)
Any language has its own pattern of intonation and stress variations over a single sentence or many sentences - this is not exclusive to Chinese. Think about English for example (or any other language you know). I don't think such intonation and stress variations (except for the tones of each Chinese character) should be learned by learning the rules that these variations satisfy (in various contexts), because I think it is incredibly unnatural and inefficient for people to remember these rules, and that these rules are in fact very difficult for people to follow. I think it is [very misleading] to suggest to anyone that they learn these variations through remembering and following such rules, unless the person somehow doesn't have the resources which would allow them to listen to properly spoken Chinese.
My suggestion is, ignore these rules and simply listen to native users (who speak Chinese well - not all of them do in fact) speak and imitate them. The way you learn such intonation and stress variations in Chinese should not be different in any notable way from how you learn such variations in any other language, e.g. English.

May I offer my personal thoughts?  Comparing to English, both as foreign languages, one has to spend 7 times of time to reach the same level of English.  Under such circumstance, isn't it to use your time economically and effectively to reach the fundamental purpose of learning a foreign language:  to communicate with other people.
Alas, I am not the first teacher, and won't be the last one, who can not speak Mandarin with perfect/standard pronunciation and intonation, very often even with accent.  I am not shameful at all because 1. I don't intend to work for CCTV, 2. I don't want to teach phonetics anywhere, and 3. I teach Chinese/Mandarin as a "language" not as a "Academic Course".  I would prefer my students use the same amount of time to learn 100 sentences with accent, as long as people can understand, rather than 10 sentences with perfect pronunciation and intonation because they have to spend time to practice again and again.
The most popular areas using Mandarin outside China are: Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand ... etc, ALL with different accents.  Chinese tourists are very happy to visit these areas, simply because they can communicate with local Chinese ethnics.
Just for your consideration, possibly not exactly the answer you are looking for.  My apology.


How do I say "Love is irreversible"? Long time ago I asked to a close friend how to say "love is irreversible" and she taught me it was some like ai shi bu ke ni de.

Then by using google translate I got to this:

愛是不可逆轉的

And I can recognize the character ai which is love. But the rest well I'm a bit lost. Can someone help me to better understand if what my friend told me was right or what the system google uses is more "accurate"?

An answer which would help me the most is one which includes a reason why those characters should appear in that order and what does it mean when used together.

Transcription in Chinese characters
"ai shi bu ke ni de" is 愛是不可逆的.

Grammar
Both are grammatically correctly and literally correct. In textbook grammar, it is a pattern of subject + "是" (verb to be) + an adjective (a phrase ended with 的).

龜是硬的。 Tortoise is hard.
鬼是恐佈的。 Ghost is terrific.

不可逆的 and 不可逆轉的 are phrases ended with 的. Actually they are negation of 可逆的 and 可逆轉的 correspondingly.
可 is commonly used in translation of -(a)ble in English.
In more advanced usage, 是 and 的 are optional. We could write 愛不可逆 and 愛不可逆轉 as well.

Usage
"不可逆的" is accurate translation of irreversible. But Chinese readers may not get its meaning. Or they may conceive that love is something that cannot be resisted or disobeyed.
While 愛是不可逆轉的 is grammatically and literally correct for translating "love is irreversible", it is not so comprehensible for Chinese readers.
逆轉 usually describes that a situation is reversed, from good to bad, or from bad to good. If one is in love, it is 愛. If one is no longer in love, it is 不愛. 愛 could change to 不愛. 逆轉 is problematic when it describes 愛.
You make a nice elaboration in your comment. "'Love' or the emotion is something that when given by somebody is difficult to take it back or to reverse that decision once taken."
In search for better translation, your comment reminds me a line "愛是可發不可收" in the lyrics from a Cantonese song 愛在深秋, sung by Alan Tam (譚詠麟), written by lyrist Andrew Lam (林敏聰). 可發 is "able to give" and 不可收 "unable to take it back". But it is poetic and somehow ambiguous.
There are some more idiomatic phrases like 覆水難收. 覆水難收 literally means "Spilt water can't be gathered up". We use it to describe "What is done can't be undone". But I would hesitate to write 愛是覆水難收.  It looks like that "love is put to the end and is not recoverable"
Chinese would use "split water" to describe something that unable to get back. It would be more understandable to write 愛如潑水不可收, literally "love is like split water and one cannot take it back.
Alternatively, we can write 愛過無法磨滅. (Once) loved, (there is) no way to remove (the fact, its trace, its memory).

There are many words to describe "irreversible". But "love is irreversible" has implicit meaning and it is very difficult to translate it directly without misleading.

I always liked that line from a song: 'Love is a danger of a different kind.'

How about for 'irreversible': 破釜沉舟 'break the cauldrons and sink the boats', no retreat, no way back.

爱就是破釜沉舟的道路
Love is an irreversible path.


How did the compound 莫 + 非 semantically shift to mean "can it be/is it possible + that"? ABC Chinese–English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003), p 628. I can't access the "slightly revised through July 2005" ed. 莫非 - Wiktionary
appears correct.

Am I correct that 莫 here means 3 below?

none; nothing; not anything

(literary or dialectal Mandarin, dialectal Cantonese, Gan, Hakka, Min Dong) do not; don't; must not

particle indicating a rhetorical question

A surname.

I don't know which meaning fits 非?

not be; is not; not
(logic) NOT
wrong; incorrect
to reproach; to blame
(colloquial) Used to insist on something. to have got to; to simply must

Still I don't understand how these two characters compound to signify "can it be that"?  We're combining merely two characters that signify negation.

Don't we need more characters to signify the modal verb 'can', eg "possibility in either a dynamic, deontic, or epistemic sense"? Something feels missing!

Both 莫 and 非 denote the sense of not.  The combination 莫非(a double negative) is a set phrase to mean 难道. It's often used to initiate a rhetorical question.
E. g.  莫非你不知道？ / 难道你不知道? // Don't you know it?

watch anime?
莫非 -> "MA SA KA"(まさか)in Japanese...
Hope this will give you both the meaning and context for your understanding.


Phrase "to make your bed" in Chinese? How do you say to "make your bed"? I've tried with Google translate but I don't believe it (zuo4 seems very wrong). Also searched this place but seems nobody asked this question yet.

is zhengli (整理) in any way appropirate?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, 整理 is appropriate, usually we say 整理床铺.

“铺床”is  used  the  most.

sorry  but  I have never heard “理床”

"整理床铺” is ok and is more formal


How to learn the correct pronunciation of words with "sh" and "s"? I've been "speaking" Chinese my entire life, and I can hear, understand, and reproduce the different sounds. I've just never paid much attention to it. It hasn't occurred to me much until recently when I type in Chinese that I often put "ch" instead of "c" or vice versa. I'm now starting to worry that my pronunciation isn't as understandable as I thought it to be. So is there a way to relearn the correct pronunciation of all these characters? For the more obviously different words like 四 and 十, I will subconsciously make the difference, but for other more complex words, not so much.
Thanks in advance!

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

From my point of view, “sh” is more likely to be pronounced as “sh” in “shine”.
And “s” is more like “s” in “select”.
In fact, even native speakers don’t always pronounce them correctly, some dialects don’t even consider them different.
So you may not worry too much about that, if you speak mandarin a lot, I don’t think your pronunciation could be possibly bad.


All this for the low price of I want to list several features of a product and then at the end I want to finish with:

all this just for the minimum price or all this for the minimum price

My best attempt was 获得这一切只需要最低的价格.

Which is kind of similar to something like:

all this for just $29.99

or

all this for only $29.99

or equally

all this just for the minimum price of $29.99

I use the term 'minimum price' in my sentence because it makes sense in it's context.

I'd be interested in the Chinese version of the first sentence most importantly, but versions of all the others would be interesting as well.

I guess the title for this could also be all this for just/just for..

EDIT: If all this just for the minimum price seems weird then simply add the price on the end all this just for the minimum price of $2.99.

获得这一切只需要最低的价格 sounds very unnatural. you can simply say 只要$29.99 or 只需$29.99) which contains the meaning of minimum price without mentioning it. To be clear about "all this", I think you can use 以上(all above) or 以下 (all below) or 全部(all)

If your Chinese version referring to Chinese currency, the dollar sign is ¥.

Today we have a special discount: all 5 products for only 5 yuan.
今天我们有促销活动：五件商品只需要五元。

Don't much like this English: all this for the minimum price so I wouldn't translate it.

But this is translateable:

all this for just $29.99
所有的这些只要二十九点九九美元


"Immediately" 立即, 即時, 立刻, 馬上 etc I'm trying to find a suitable translation for the word immediately. The dictionary has all of these words (I limited it to 4 in the title but there are over 10 results from what I can see).

Could someone list the top 3 most commonly used ways to express the idea "immediately" and describe the differences between each?

without delay 即刻﹐馬上

將食物烹調十分鐘後即刻上桌。

我一收到他們的傳真﹐就馬上回信。

very soon before or after something 立即﹐立刻

那個嬰兒剛出生就立刻被別人領養了。

very near to something  緊靠著

他就住在緊靠我們家樓上的那個公寓。

immediately involved/concerned/affected etc -very closely involved etc in a particular situation 直接

這個決定將通知所有直接相關人員。

立即 立刻 are similar and common for your answer. They are focus on something should be done as soon as possible.

即時 is subtlely different than these above. In most case, this word is used for something just happen in the very seconds ago. For example 即時新聞 (latest news).

馬上 is same as 立即 立刻 but a oral word.


What is the Chinese equivalent of English idiom "As if!"? The English idiom "as if!" is used to express the speakers rejection that something is possible:

  A: "In a few years I'll be driving a Ferrari."
  B: "As if you'll ever have a Ferrari!"

Here, B, does not believe it is possible that A will ever own the car.

Someone suggested 废话? What is the best equivalent?

The closest answer I can think of is "才怪".

A: "In a few years I'll be driving a Ferrari."
B: "As if you'll ever have a Ferrari!"

A: 过几年我就能够驾法拉利了。
B: 你能驾法拉利才怪!

怪 means incredible in English 惊异，感到奇怪

才 means having the ability (能力：～能。口～。这人很有～干)

This phrase 才怪 is evolved from the longer phrase "才奇怪" and the usage of which only becomes popular in recent times. If you are interested, you can read up this article which describes at length the historical development of the phrase.

Quoting from the article,

才怪逐渐演变出了一种新的意义：表否定。“否定”的意义是与“奇怪”义有紧密联系的，觉得某事奇怪，主观上本身就有不赞成之意。只有主观上认为与自己看法不相同才会觉得奇怪，出乎意料。所以，我们认为“才怪”现代常用表否定的意义是从“才奇怪”演化而来。

Translated to English:

才怪 slowly evolves to mean an expression of disagreement. The words "disagreement" and "incredible" are closely related. To think that something is incredible implies that the person does not agree that it will happen. Only when a person disagree with something would he find it strange or out of the norm. Therefore, we believe that the contemporary meaning of 才怪 is an expression of disagreement and evolves from the longer phrase 才奇怪.

In my own words, 才怪 has the same exact meaning as "as if it would happen".

Usage example:

A: I'm not going to smoke again, I promise.
我绝不会再抽烟了，我向你保证。
B: As if this is going to be your last cigarette.
这会是你的最后一根烟才怪！

A.过两年我就能开法拉利了。

B.好像法拉利是你家造的一样。

好像...一样，好像...似的；between them and “as if” have same means.


How do say toilet paper in Chinese? Was validating some Google translations and came upon this question:

rolling papers:
1. 廁所用紙
2. 捲菸紙

How do say toilet paper in Chinese? The more technical term for the commonly used toilet paper is 抽取式衛生紙, what about the Western toilet paper rolls?

In Hong Kong "Toilet paper" is simply called 廁紙.

Before the modern toilet paper,  people were using 草紙(rough straw paper) for toilet paper.

As for a roll of toilet paper , it is still called " 廁紙 " ( with classifier if needed. For example  一卷廁紙 ) and the more technical term would be 卷裝廁紙

For tissues in a box, we call it 紙巾 (with classifier if needed. For example 一盒紙巾)and the more technical term would be 盒裝紙巾

*衛生紙 is another name for 廁紙 or 紙巾.

usually, in my family,we just say "卷筒纸" or "手纸".


How did 黃 (yellow) come to mean "pornographic"? In my dictionary it defines

黃 (Huáng)
- yellow
- pornographic
- to fall through
- surname Huang or Hwang

Imperial China and the robes of the emperor are commonly associated with the colour yellow.

We also have

黃河 - Huánghé   - the yellow river
黃山 - Huángshān - the yellow mountain
黃帝 - Huángdì   - the legendary Yellow Emperor

So how did the colour yellow come to be associated with pornography?

黃色電影 - Huángsè diànyǐng - pornographic movie
黃色書刊 - Huángsè shūkān   - pornographic book

According to this article, there are four possible explanations as to why yellow colour is associated with pornography. Below is a slightly modified translation of the article based on further references from the internet:

Orpiment (雌黃). Orpiment is a toxic orange-yellow mineral that is used as a
pigment by ancient people. Due to poor bleaching technology, paper
produced in the olden days was slightly yellow. When words on a
paper need to be corrected, orpiment can be used to smear onto the
written words, creating a layer of slightly opaque yellow close to
the paper's colour, enabling a rewrite. Soon, people describe
uttering nonsense as "信口雌黃". Subsequently, the yellow colour of
orpiment and its toxicity is later extended to mean poisoning of the
mind.
The Yellow Union. In 1887, in a city in France, a factory owner tried to prevent his
workers from going on strike by bribing the Yellow Union. The
workers discovered the betrayal and angrily smashed the windows of
the union clubhouse. The union then used yellow paper backings as a
replacement for the windows. Since then, the workers labelled these
union people as "见不得人的黃色工会”, meaning a union that cannot face the
public, similar to pornography.
The Yellow Book. In 1894, a British magazine
named "The Yellow Book", gathered in a group of conservative collection of authors
to produce quarterly literary periodicals that are thought to be scurrilous in content. Later, a
prestigious Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, was arrested on
homosexuality charges. At the time of his arrest, Oscar was
seen holding a yellow book (which turns out to be a French novel). People misidentified the material to be The Yellow Book and associated it with his personality. The next day people demonstrated in front of the publisher, and a furry of media reports soon cemented an association between yellow paperbacks and homosexual content.
The Yellow Kid. The end of the 19th century New
York, New York World and New York Journal competed for readers
intensely, posting vulgar comics content to which "The Yellow Kid"
is one of them and is the origin for the term "yellow journalism".
Since then, the colour yellow is associated with erotic and vulgar
things.

Traditionally, yellow is a respectful color in China. It represents nobility and wealthiness. It is the color of the skin of Chinese, the color of the mother river of China. 1934， yellow was decided as the city color of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.

The negative meaning was brought in from the Commies. They are against Chinese culture. The "People's Republic of China" was originated from "Soviet Republic of China".

More details in Chinese:

http://duping.net/XHC/show.php?bbs=11&post=1195031

http://www.21ccom.net/articles/sxwh/shsc/article_2011111949053.html


What's the best translation to 「要看两千年的中国，去西安；要看一千年的中国，去北京；要看一百年的中国，去上海；要看十年的中国，去深圳」？ What's the best translation to 「要看两千年的中国，去西安；要看一千年的中国，去北京；要看一百年的中国，去上海；要看十年的中国，去深圳」？

My version is

  To find two thousand years of China, go to Xi'an; To find one thousand years of China, go to Beijing; To find one hundred year of China, go to Shanghai; To find ten years of China, go to Shenzhen.

My second version is

  To have a taste of two thousand years of China, visit Xi'an; One thousand years of China, Beijing; One hundred years of China, Shanghai; And ten years of China, Shenzhen.

Can someone make a better translation?

要看两千年的中国，去西安；
Wanna taste the flavour of China 2000 years ago? Go to Xi An!
要看一千年的中国，去北京；
Wanna taste the flavour of China 1000 years ago? Go to Beijing!
要看一百年的中国，去上海；
Wanna taste the flavour of China 100 years ago? Go to Shanghai!
要看十年的中国，去深圳
Wanna taste the flavour of China 10 years ago? Go to Shen Zhen!

The Chinese is not native, I would say. Is it a back translation from some English language tourist stuff?

Shanghai is rockin' and rollin', has not stopped at 100 years ago!

Answering my own question, with the best version among all submissions, "To have a taste of two thousand years of China, visit Xi'an; One thousand years of China, Beijing; One hundred years of China, Shanghai; And ten years of China, Shenzhen."


What does 还真别说 mean? Some commented about a joke,

  还真别说，这个笑话有点意思。

The translator gives

  Don't mention it

I don't think it's right.

说 is the key to understanding. Here it means to judge, deny, or disapprove (especially quickly). 还真别说 translated character by character is "just really don't judge too soon". As a whole it means "(contrary to what I expected,) I just realize that...", or "admittedly".

it is kinda like indeed, i think?
my understanding is that:

  you just read/heard sth
  your first thought was: what is that bullsh*t/i dont agree with that/etc
  a few seconds later: i kinda like it


What kind of words can be followed by the character 感？ For example:

正义感
使命感
厚重感

But some sound weird to me, as 意义感.
Is there a rule?

For illustration purpose, I compiled a list of words ending by 感 fetched from moedict.
Here is a words-list with English explanation.
傷感: sad, emotional, sentimental, pathos
動感: sense of movement (often in a static work of art), dynamic, vivid, lifelike
反感: to be disgusted with, to dislike, bad reaction, antipathy
口感: taste, texture (of food), how food feels in the mouth
同感: (have the) same feeling, similar impression, common feeling
善感: sensitive, emotional
喜感: comicality, comical, (Buddhism) joy
多愁善感: melancholy and moody (idiom); depressed personality
好感: good opinion, favorable impression
安全感: sense of security
幽默感: sense of humor
快感: pleasure, thrill, delight, joy, pleasurable sensation, a high
性冷感: frigidity (lack of libido)
性感: sex appeal, eroticism, sexuality, sexy
情感: feeling, emotion, to move (emotionally)
惡感: malice, ill will
感: to feel, to move, to touch, to affect, feeling, emotion, (suffix) sense of
手感: the feel (of sth touched with the hand), (textiles) handle
敏感: sensitive, susceptible
無力感: feeling of powerlessness, sense of helplessness
痛感: to feel deeply, acute suffering
第六感: sixth sense (i.e. intuition, premonition, telepathy etc)
罪惡感: feeling of guilt
美感: sense of beauty, aesthetic perception
肉感: sexiness, sexy, sensuality, sensual, voluptuous
臨場感: the feeling of actually being there
觀感: one's impressions, observations
語感: a feel for language, instinctive understanding
讀後感: impression of a book, opinion expressed in a book review
責任感: sense of responsibility
質感: realism (in art), sense of reality, texture, tactile quality
遙感: remote sensing
雜感: random thoughts (a literary genre)
靈感: inspiration, insight, a burst of creativity in scientific or artistic endeavor
預感: to have a premonition, premonition
骨感: bony, skinny

The following words-list with Chinese definition is rather complete compared to the previous one (it contains words having no English translation).
交感：互相感應。
交感：性交。《初刻拍案驚奇．卷一七》：「此後恍恍惚惚，合眼就夢見吳氏來與他交感。」《二刻拍案驚奇．卷三○》：「遂欣然留與同宿，交感之際，一如人道。」也作「交會」。
今昔之感：從眼前的現狀回憶過去的情境。多表示對世事的感慨。
使命感：對某種重大責任，有應該擔負的自覺。
偶感：突然的感發。
傷感：有所感觸而悲傷。
優越感：心理上自覺超過他人。
動感：形容人活潑熱烈、魅力十足。
反感：反對或不滿的情緒。
口感：享用食物時的感覺。
可感：令人感動。
可感：感動。
同感：相同的感受或感想。
善感：容易引發感觸。
喜感：人在舉手投足之間，深具喜劇效果。
壓迫感：個人因外在因素的影響，產生的一種緊繃、不舒暢、侷促等的心理感受。
外感：受外來刺激而起的感動。
外感：中醫上指風寒暑溼自外侵入的病。
多愁善感：形容人感情脆弱，易憂愁傷感。
好感：對人對事有滿意或喜歡的感覺。
安全感：安全無虞的感覺。
幽默感：善於運用機智的言語或手法應對問題的能力。
律動感：有節奏變化的感覺。
快感：愉快或舒服的感覺。
性冷感：女子缺乏性慾的反常現象。
性冷感：性交時女子毫無樂趣的身心反應狀態。
性感：富有性的誘惑力。
悲傷感：文學、美術作品或臺上表演所描述的狀況，在讀者或觀眾心理上產生的憐憫、同情和悲傷。
悲感：心情悲傷。
情感：內心有所觸發，而產生喜、怒、哀、樂等的心理反應。
惡感：不好的感覺。
感：震撼。
感：接觸、引起。
感：覺得。
感：互相影響、應和。
感：傷嘆。
感：對別人所給的好處表示謝意。
感：受到外來刺激所引起的情緒反應。
感：某種自我認知的看法或想法。
慚感：感激。
應感：文藝創作過程中因外物而產生靈感的現象。
應感：特指天人感應。
應物斯感：因應外在的事物而有所感悟。
懷感：懷念感恩。
懷感：唐代一位高僧的法號。專修淨土法門，通釋關於往生淨土的疑難。對唐代淨土宗的發展，貢獻很大。著有《釋淨土群疑論》七卷。
成就感：付出努力後獲得成果的滿足感。
手感：用手觸摸時的感覺。
敏感：一種神經上的病態，對外界情況容易引起迅速而強烈的反應。
敏感：泛指心理、生理上超乎尋常程度的感受與反應。
敏感：尖銳的、容易引起是非的。
機感：佛教用語。早期的佛教徒認為眾生有善根之機，能感知佛意。
正義感：好善嫉惡，有維護正義、主持公理的心思與熱情。
民族優越感：以自己的民族為最優秀，將其他民族視為較低劣的心態。
無力感：心裡的願望，因受阻礙或能力才幹不能全然發揮，所產生的挫折感。
疏離感：因社會變遷與都市工業化的影響，使人在面對生活環境時，失去其原有的和諧與親密關係，終而形成現代人面對其生活周遭環境時，自覺無意義感、無能為力感、社會孤立感、自我分離感等複雜心態，稱為「疏離感」。
病識感：精神病患對自己所罹患的病症有自我察覺的意識。
痛感：深刻的感覺到。
百感：各種感想。比喻感受很多。
空間感：影片創作者根據透視原理，運用各種手法，如照明、光學、物體的不同顏色等，造成光影明暗、色彩的差別和對比，使其在平面的銀幕上獲得立體、縱深的感覺。
立體感：具有深度、方向的逼真感覺。
第六感：眼、耳、鼻、舌、身等五身器官感覺以外的特殊敏感，是一種直覺或靈感，具神祕色彩。
罪惡感：個人在實際行為上或想像中，因有違家庭、宗教或社會規範，引發內在良心譴責而感到愧疚難安的一種主觀意識經驗。
美感：對美的感覺與體認。
肉感：肉體所引發的刺激或感覺。
臨場感：如同在現場的感覺。
臨感：臨別的愁緒。
自卑感：個人對自己所具備的條件、言行等感到不滿的心理感受。通常由幼年時期逐漸形成，為人類的普遍現象。
自感：自己感覺。
自感：電路上的電流隨時間變化，而在本身產生感應電壓的現象。
至感：極其感激，常為書信用語。
至感：至誠的感通。
觀感：觀察人或事物後所得感想。
語感：對於語言文字之心理上的反應。如對「田園」一語，詩人所感在其閒適的情趣，而園藝家所感則在其實際的效用。
讀後感：看完文章或書本內容後的內心感受。
責任感：擔負責任的心理認識。
質感：對物品質地的感覺，如粗糙、細滑、柔軟、堅硬等。
遙感：近年新開發的探測技術，對遠距離的事物進行偵測或產生感應。參見「遙感探測」條。
量感：繪畫與雕塑製作中，使人在視覺上有輕重、厚薄、多少等感覺。如泥土的沉穩感、棉花的輕柔感等。
銘感：感激不忘。
雜感：即興而成的片段感想。
雜感：零星細碎，沒有條理、沒有組織的感想。
靈感：靈驗有感應。
靈感：思考活動中，忽然出現且超越平時思考層面的想法。
音感：對音色、音高等音樂現象的辨識能力。
預感：預料事情要發生的感覺。如：「我有不祥的預感，他可能會出事。」也作「豫感」。
風樹之感：比喻父母亡故，兒女不得奉養的悲傷。參見「風木含悲」條。
骨感：形容極為消瘦。

For those who are interested in the way to generate these lists, here is the bash script.
English words-list:
curl 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/g0v/moedict-data/master/dict-revised.json' | jq '.[] | select(.title | match("^.*感$")) | {title: .title, def: .heteronyms | .[0].definitions | .[0].def} | .title ' > results.txt

cat results.txt |
while read -r a ; do
    curl "https://www.moedict.tw/a/$(echo $a | tr -d '\"').json" |
    jq '.translation.English as $en | {title: .t, en: $en | join(", ")} | [.title, .en] | join(": ")' | tr -d '`~\"' >> results-en.txt
done

Chinese words-list:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/g0v/moedict-data/master/dict-revised.json | jq '.[] | select(.title | match("^.*感$")) | {title: .title, def: .heteronyms | .[0].definitions | .[].def} | [.title, .def] | join("：")' | tr -d "\"" > results-zh.txt

There's no rule for this  XX感.
Just consider XX感 as a noun.


Etymology of 若 vis-a-vis 如果 I came across 若 from my lessons today, as in

  若天下雨，我就出发。

Being familiar with 如果, I immediately assumed 若 is just a short/abbreviated/spoken form of 如果.

However, I broached the idea to my Chinese colleagues and they immediately pointed out instead that 若 in practice is a bit more stodgy version of 如果 primarily used among "elite" or pretentious types (more "formal" was their wording).

Nevertheless, this left me wondering if perhaps there's some historical truth to my initial suspicion.

It's not likely that 若 is a contraction of 如果, because 若 came first by a thousand years or so.

Nor is it likely that 如果 is a splitting of 若, because 果 is real. Long before 如果 there was already 若果, and before 若果, 果 was already grammaticalized to mean "ultimately" ("bear fruit" -> "ultimately", see 果然, 果真).

So 若果 was a legitimate, intensified version of 若. As for how 若果 became 如果, we can speculate that it was an easy phonetic and etymological transition: 如果 [nja kojʔ] and 若果 [njak kojʔ] would have sounded almost identical even before the loss of stop finals post-MC, and 如 ("follow" -> "compares with/likens to") and 若 ("obey" -> "as if/if") are grammaticalized in similar, if subtly different ways.

As a Chinese, I would like to say that there are big difference between 若 and 如果.
若 comes from traditional Chinese  in the history, and it represents IF. After we have been in moderntime, we use 如果 as an oral communication way.
And it is not welcomed to use 若 in daily life, as you said that is has a meaning of ELITE, which means I KNOW MORE THAN YOU.
PS. In fact not everyone can do well in tradition Chinese, because it is difficult for we Chinese as well. Of course, if you are in a formal occasion, it is ok.


Why is 德国 the “virtue country”? Here is what I think and how it is named: In Google translate it says it means "virtue country".

My guess is probably wrong but here it is:

China is an alliy of America, and America boosted up the nuke technology and sped up the surrender of the Japanese by Germany. Is it correct, if it is not truth, then how come it was named the virtuous country?

德 is phonetic transcription of Deutsche.

Similarly 法 in 法国 is phonetic transcription of France, not "the country of law".

德国 virtuous country
法国 justice country
英国 heroic country
美国 beauty country
俄国 tilt country
泰国 peaceful country
韩国 wall country
中国 middle county


What does "&" (Ampersand) means in Chinese language? While visiting Dr. Sun Yat-sun Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver, B.C. I noticed the sign "&" (Ampersand) is posted everywhere. The tour guide said that "&" means money in Chinese, it is the most important sign in Chinese language. I never heard about that before, is it true?

maybe you want to check this: http://vancouverchinesegarden.com/calendar/iain-baxter/

Traditional Chinese money is "￥". （Your PC's input mode to Chinese, and then press "Shift" and then input "4"）。


Is it correct to say “在手机”？ Would it be correct to use the phrase "在手机”/“在手机上” etc. to express that I am doing something on my phone? For example, could I say

  我听音乐在我的手机上。

Or can 在 only be used for my actual physical location? If so, how would I express this sort of thing? (Phrases like "on the internet", "on my computer", "on my phone", etc.)

Your sample sentence should be "我在我的手机上听音乐" as ChineseHulu.com said.And you actually SHOULD not omit the word "上" in this sentence,or it would be a little bit weird to native Chinese people.

"在...上" is a preposition phrase.It can be used on representational target like:
在操场上 -- on playground
在沙发上 -- on sofa

And it can be used on abstract target like
在手机上 -- on cell phone
在电脑上 -- on computer
在网络上 -- on internet

Usually we Chinese won't omit "上" if we use this phrase on abstract target or express specific position relation.So these sentence should not omit this word:
我正在手机上玩游戏 -- I'm playing game on cell phone.
我想在电脑上看电影 -- I wanna watch movie on computer.
我通常在网络上聊天 -- I usually chat on internet.
男孩在沙发上跳着 -- The boy is jumping on the sofa.

But if we use this phrase to express the location where something happened,not focusing on the position relation.We can omit this word:
男孩们在操场上玩 or 男孩们在操场玩 are all ok.(Boys are playing on the playground.)

And if you wanna express something happened on the specific location but it's a large area.You MUST omit the word "上" and the phrase thus turn into another single word preposition phrase "在...".
我在上海工作 -- I'm working in Shanghai.
我在苏州旅游 -- I'm traveling in SuZhou.

Apologize for my English.Hope you will get it all... :D

不对， 你可能想说的是我用手机听歌，但是在手机上，会感觉到不自然


Why do people say 慢点儿阿("man dianer a") when you leave their shop? When you leave a shop, you often hear the shopkeeper saying something like "man dianer a", which sounds like 慢点儿阿 (something parents say to their kids to get them to walk more slowly [even if they never listen]).

It's quite possible I'm mishearing what they're saying.  It really is an everyday thing to say, and I've heard it in lots of different and unrelated shops.

慢走 is a polite thing to say usually used for someone who is leaving, has two implicit meaning:

I don't want you to leave, so please leave slowly, so I can stay a little longer with you.
Don't hurry, take care.

慢点儿 has the same meaning, but not as formal as 慢走, and sounds more affable.

It's also some kind of subtle joke, since when counting the money paid for the goods at the counter, the shopkeeper may realize that the customer is getting away having paid less than what was expected, so in that case it would be said say something like: "Slowly! Slow! Where are you going?" (even if the situation was the opposite). It is also a way to get eh customer to take a second look at the merchandise and therefore to gain an additional opportunity to make an extra last-minute sale. This kind of tongue-in cheek humour is tipical in bargain-intensive environments where prices are not fixed but negotiated, and shops cluttered with shelves.


How to parse 没得 + Verb constructions I've heard phrases of the form 没得V, where V is a verb. Sometimes, the 没得 appears to function like 没, e.g.,

  我没得选: I don't have a choice.

Sometimes, it appears to function like a softer, colloquial form of 不得 (i.e., as something like "needn't"), e.g.,

  往事，是没得介意的: Don't worry about it, it's water under the bridge.

I also think I've heard it to mean something like "can't", e.g.,

  周六咱俩打羽毛球，好不？: Let's play badminton on Saturday, ok?
  不行，周末没得打。: No, we can't play on weekends. (I.e., the court is not available, maybe?)

I have three questions:

What is the grammatical structure of these 没得V phrases? Is 得 acting like a full verb with V as its object? Is V a complement of some sort?
Is 得 properly pronounced as full second tone (dé) here? (I assume so.)
What are the most common uses of this structure? With what verbs does it most commonly appear?

I think you've got the idea what this phrase means. In terms of the grammatical structure, you can think about "没法" or “没办法” analogous to "没得". They have similar meanings except that “没法” or “没办法” are more formal than "没得". 得 is mostly acting like a full verb with V (you can interpret 得 as the same meaning as the 得 in 得到), though it's also sensible to consider it as a compliment.
Suggestion: Don't bother with this grammatical structure. "没得" is mostly used in informal speaking.
Yes, it's pronounced as second full tone here, as you said, PROPERLY. However, it's not strictly followed. It depends on the context and your emotions, like, some people may pronounce as first full tone when they say the sentence quickly.
The most common uses for this structure are 没得＋比 \ 没得＋看 \ 没得＋选 \ 没得＋用 \ 没得＋上 \ 没得 ＋ 玩. But actually, the structure is pretty flexible, feel free to change!

Hope it would help!

I asked a native speaker and they said there is no such thing as 没得.

I don't think I've ever seen it in a textbook.

Where did you hear/see this?


"醡" and "炸" in "醡醬麵" and "炸醬麵" I've just noticed that the English Wikipedia gives these spellings for "Zhajiangmian":

Simplified Chinese    炸酱面
Traditional Chinese   醡醬麵

Whereas the English Wiktionary gives these:

炸酱面 (simplified, Pinyin zhájiàngmiàn, traditional 炸醬麵)

I'm in Taipei and have a menu from a restaurant at the local night market. The spelling on the menu is "醡醬麵" as in Wikipedia.

Now Wiktionary does not list "炸" and "醡" as the simplified and traditional variants of the same characters!

So what's going on here? Is one a Taiwanese spelling rather than a simplified vs traditional spelling? Are the two any kind of variants of each other or is it just a quirk of this single word? Are they fully interchangeable? Also is this related to the two pinyin spellings with the differing tones on the first syllable?

醡醬麵 and 炸醬麵

炸醬麵 can work as it means "noodles with fried sauce"

醡醬麵 is "noodles with extracted sauce (e.g. extracting oil)"

炸 fried (火 fire radical + phonetic 乍 zhà)
醡 extract (酉 container + 窄 narrow; from 穴 hole and 乍) Archaic character for 榨 (tool for extraction process. 木 wood used to refer to tools in this case)
醬 sauce
麵 noodles

Alternatively, 酢醬麵 is also used. The Koreans have used this but it's now written 炸醬麵. I guess the difference is 醡 is a much older usage which is now replaced with 炸 in modern times. Taiwan tends to retain older usage.

It's just a difference of simplified vs tradtional.

Hong Kong and Taiwan tends to stick to tradtional, whereas mainland China uses simplified.

Think it is just Wikitionary lacking an entry for it.


个 ge usage plus 每 mei Anybody can explain me the reason why:
-we don't say 每个年 but 每年? and, on the contrary,
we must say 每个月 and not 每月?
-Is there somethig to do with the fact that sometimes we must use 全 (全身)instead of 整个 while we must say 整个身体 and don't 全身体?
Thanks (Húli)
PS/Afterwards I have introduced some changes on my previous post in order to clarify it.

The reason is that 天, 日, 周, 年 are themselves counter words / classifiers (so they don't need an extra one), while 星期, 礼拜, 月 are not classifiers and therefore require a classifier, which happen to be 个 for the all of them.

Note that although 月 is listed with the ones that require a classifier, it's quite frequent to hear 每月 as well (which I believe makes sense since we already have a classifier for day, week and year).

I'm Chinese, I never say 每个年, but i do say 每月 sometimes (for abbrev).

and I never say '整个身' or ‘全身体', I do say 全身(describe physical) or 整个身子(describe physical) or 整个人(describe mental more)

for example:

全身湿透了(wet through)，整个身子都受伤了(injured everywhere)，整个人都不好了(not feeling well).

correct：一天(one day, whole day, depends on context)，每天(everyday)，一日(one day)，每日(everyday)，一个晴天(a sunny day)，一个星期天(a Sunday)，一星期天(the whole Sunday, '一' means 'whole' in this case),一星期(the whole week),一年（whole
 year），一个闰年

wrong: 一个天，每个天，一个日，每个日，一个年（maybe correct in some case），一晴天（this one could be correct in some rare case）

some case: 纸上写着一个年(字)。
我们不知道失去了母亲的他这一个年是怎么过的。

rare case: “我当时就纳闷了，这一晴天，他打着伞干嘛” this maybe happens in Chinese crosstalk (xiangsheng) or talk show.

As a native speaker, I don't suggest you to memorize those things as rules. because there are toooooo much. Even though you use the wrong one, you are still correct from the perspective of descriptive grammar, as long as we can understand what are you talking about.


What is the origin of 甩锅 ("to pass the buck")? I've been hearing 甩锅 (shuǎiguō) used to describe how US president Trump often blames others (currently the WHO).  It means "to shift the blame" or "to pass the buck".  I'm interested in its etymology.

Baidu Baike and Baidu Zhidao both say it comes from a 局 (?) in the game League of Legends called 甩锅局.  I don't play this game so I don't really understand.

Question: What is the origin of 甩锅?

甩锅 means throw the pan literally. Before that we have a slang 背锅 / 背黑锅, means take the blame for others / be made a scapegoat; 锅 / 黑锅 connotes blame. Then 甩锅 is used for the meaning of throw one's blame to others, i.e. 推卸责任 (buck-passing).

Also see 背锅的由来.

When you play a game,your team lose,then you say it's not my fault,teammates are shit.it's ''甩锅''
In one word：it's not my fault,Others are responsible


Are there any dictionaries that show the relative frequency of 多音字? Some characters have multiple pronunciations (多音字), but often some pronunciations are much more common. For example, 吗 is almost always used as a question particle pronounced ma, but occasionally it is pronounced mǎ (as in 吗啡 [morphine]) or má (in the phrase 干吗).

Most dictionaries will show the different pronunciations and their corresponding definitions, but there is no way to tell which ones are the most frequent. Are there any sources that show the relative frequency of 多音字?

As far as I know, there is one dictionary for this: 《现代汉语频率词典》，1986，北京语言学院出版社.

However, this dictionary is a little old and difficult to find. What's more, some of the readings are outdated, because 《普通话异读词审音表》 was published after the dictionary gathered the data.

The Unihan database contains the kHanyuPinlu field which is from 《现代汉语频率词典》. For example:

和:

kHanyuPinlu     hé(9513) huo(38) he(24) hè(9)

乐

kHanyuPinlu     lè(283) yuè(54)

http://dict.youdao.com/search?q=%E5%90%97&keyfrom=dict.index

http://zidian.911cha.com/duoyinzi.html

Paste your word to search.

Bu the way, in Chinese, if a Tone #3 is followed by a Tong #3, you should pronounce the Tone #3 as Tone #2.

For example:

洗脸(xi3 lian3) actually sounds like (xi2 lian3)

我想 (wo3 xiang3) sounds like (wo2 xiang3)

走马上任 (zou3 ma3 shang4 ren4) sounds like (zou2 ma3 shang4 ren4)

I said "sounds like", which means you still have to write the tone in it's original way during the test.


Implied erhua in writing? I often see, what I refer to as, implied erhua written in shop names, advertisements, on menus, etc. Take the following for instance:

嗝屁

You'd rarely ever hear gé pì read without erhuaization. So the idea is that, although 儿 is not written, it is certainly implied.

Technically it would be considered to be written incorrectly, as the example above should be written 嗝儿屁. But is this some kind of phenomenon that I'm half aware of?

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

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

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

嗝屁 is an informal word. You don't expect a strict structure in informal usages.